MW3 Spoilers!

MW3 Spoilers!

When Soap dies Ghost lifts the dog tags from his body with more care than he's taken to do anything. They're looped around his neck beside his own. There's no need for them to stay with Johnny's body, there are people to identify him. The people who love him are the ones to file the paperwork. Lieutenant Simon Riley is supposed to sign the death certificate. He never does.

The metal of Soap's feels unnaturally colder than his own, the weight heavier. His body knows he wears two pairs. His mind knows the addition of the second ripped something crucial from his already fractured soul.

When Ghost dies he does so alone. His team isn't there to collect his remains, they aren't there to give him a small but never the less sad funeral, they aren't even there to file the paperwork. They didn't abandon him, he ran away. It's not that they don't love him, it's that they knew he needed the space.

When the men come to collect his body, to record the death, to make him just another number sacrificed in the endless war for peace they find two identities wrapped around his neck. Names pressed to his chest like the locket of a lover.

RILEY SIMON, J. 2073357 O POS ATHEIST MACTAVISH JOHN, J. 2073521 O NEG CATHOLIC

They thought there must have been some sort of mistake, a mix-up in the paperwork somewhere because there was an unknown soldier in the field wearing the identities of two men who had died years ago. Simon Riley, from what they could find went MIA after his team was betrayed well over a decade ago and was declared KIA years later when they couldn't recover him. John MacTavish's tag was newer, shinier than the other, but supposedly he'd been shot years ago. That's what they could find anyway.

No one could account for the body rotting away in the morgue unidentified and unnamed. No one knew him apparently, not even the team he was with.

Laswell finds out a month later, she'd been keeping silent tabs on him until he disappeared. She calls Price as soon as she knows, holding back tears the same way she did with Soap. "He has a grave," she says quietly. They visit with Gaz the day after.

Price laughs when he sees the gravestone. Then he cries.

The other two join him.

They stare at the engraving. Something that should have could have been real if only things had worked out differently. If they'd been a little faster, prepared a little bit more, if Price had let Soap pull that trigger all those years ago. But even though it didn't everything still led to this moment, the three of them at this grave the same way they would've been if things had changed back then. The hilarity of it was heartbreaking.

They'd combined them for the records. Created an identity for a soldier that never existed to mark the resting place of one who died carrying two dead men with him.

In death, Ghost is content, for the first time ever, with the identity his name provides him with.

Simon J. MacTavish Soldier, Lover

Price is the last to leave. He does so with a smile and another glace at the stone, "congrats boys," he says to no one in particular, "wish I could've been there to see it."

Every single fic update there is an author trying frantically to find the right balance between a nonchalant aside of "leave a comment if you enjoyed =)" and clinging desperately to the coat tails of a random stranger, dragging along behind them on the street wailing "Please, please! I have to know what you thought! I'm desperate to talk to people about this! Ask me about the alliterative repetition! Ask me about the symbolism!"

I’m convinced there’s nothing worse than reading a book you’ve read before and genuinely enjoyed for a class. Like I’ve read this book before and liked it but now I was supposed to finish it last week and I’m not even halfway done and I’ve never hated a book more in my life

My COD roman empire without fail is watches. I feel like I'm the only person who cares so much about everyone's watches but I don't care, I spend too much time thinking about it. It's one of those character design things that I love. Let me explain

Gaz is the only character we see that wears his watch with the face on the inside of his left wrist. The watch on the left means that he is right-handed. Wearing a watch on the inside of the wrist is relatively common for military personnel because it keeps the watch face from hitting the sun so there's no glint, and it allows you to see the time while holding a gun so it's not shocking that he chooses to wear his like this. Gaz is the only character we see do this though, which is particularly interesting in a team such as the 141 who often deals with counterterrorism and places themselves in low-profile situations. In the game we also never see Gaz covering the position of a sniper, he's always the one in the field. Out of the four of them it would make the most sense for Gaz to be someone who wears his watch on the outside since he is able to move his hands relatively freely in the field so he could easily turn his wrist if he wanted the time, but he doesn't. He makes the choice to wear his watch on the inside.

Price and Soap both wear theirs on the outside of their left wrists. Again, right-handed. Soap follows the same logic as my argument about why Gaz could wear his watch on the outside but he also has the added bonus of doing demolitions work. When working on explosives it's more likely that Soap would be looking at the back of his hands than the palms which would place his watch face in his view. Out of everyone, Soap's watch placement actually makes the most sense.

Again, following the same logic as Gaz but opposite this time because Price is more often than not providing cover as a sniper, which would make the most sense for him to wear his watch on the inside, but, again, he doesn't. Also as the team's captain of all people, he should know the time at all times so that he is able to coordinate things with his team but he has to flip his wrist (taking his hand off his gun) to know the time.

Ghost, I think is the most interesting because he actually wears his watch on the outside of his right wrist. Based on just the position of it I would say that he's left-handed but nothing else about him presents that way. His pistol is holstered on his right leg and when we see him holding one he carries it in his right hand. When he has a larger gun he also holds it right-handed (that is right hand on the trigger) he doesn't present as someone who is left-handed. It's possible that he is ambidextrous and simply shoots as a right-handed person would but we don't get any more evidence of that. Ghost's watch placement actually makes the least sense when you consider that he's usually a sniper, because while Price has to rotate his wrist to see the time there's no way that Ghost can tell time as a sniper because there's no way he's taking his right hand off the trigger to turn his wrist to tell the time. So either he's switching his shooting hand which doesn't make any sense or he simply cannot tell time which also doesn't make sense. There is possibly a backstory reason for why he wears his watch like that but if there is I don't know it and I would really like to because it genuinely bothers me so much.

Farah doesn't wear a watch at all which you would think- similar to Price- as a leader, it would be important for her to know the time but it's not a case of inconvenience she literally has no way of telling the time unless she has some sort of pocket watch or something on her person. She would have to ask someone else, likely Alex (who does wear a watch, outside of the left wrist in case you're wondering because of course I had to check) for the time if she wanted to know.

As far as I am aware we don't see Laswell wearing a watch. It could be that she doesn't wear one or just that we don't see it because almost every time we see her we either don't see her wrist because of the camera shot or she's wearing something that covers her wrist. I can't imagine that someone like Laswell wouldn't know the time at any given moment of the day so I'm just going to assume that she has one and we can't see it. I'm also going to assume that she would wear it on the outside of her left wrist as I believe that she's right handed based on the way we see her pick things up and how she carries her gun. I'm saying likely the outside as well because we often see Laswell on a computer or working on some paperwork which would place the back of her hand upward (same argument I made with Soap) so it would make more sense for her watch to face outside. Laswell is also the most civilian of all of them so she is more likely to follow civilian customs like wearing your watch on the outside.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk please ask me to talk about it more because I will

Are you frustrated you can't leave second kudos on AO3? or third kudos? or whatever-who's-counting kudos?

Well, have I got the html for you!

Plop any of these in a comment (by copy&pasting the code) to make an author's day and show your appreciation!

Second kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/tHMjbb6/second-kudos.png" alt="second kudos">

Third kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/52bggQH/third-kudos.png" alt="third kudos">

nth kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/6y7qGtC/nth-kudos.png" alt="nth kudos">

yet another kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/wKtcj0s/yet-another-kudos.png" alt="yet another kudos">

It will look something like this (and will be transparent with white outline on dark backgrounds):

Feel free to spread and use these as much as you like! (and if you have ideas for other variations, let me know ✌️)