Discovered in Remembrance

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day, in the month of November 1918 - ninety years ago this year - there was a strange kind of quiet over the trenches and battlefields of the Great War. It was the quiet of peace, the official end of a madness that had consumed men and women the world over in what they thought had been the War To End All Wars.

Of course it wasn't, and while we shall remember them at 11am on the 11th of the 11th, we are also now remembering the men and women who died in the Second World War, and in all the countless wars and political non-wars since.

The lads were born just after the end of the Second World War, and they grew up in a time when most people hoped to be able to live out their lives in peace. It wasn't to be. Fanon and canon has Bodie involved in wars in the Congo, Angola, the Middle East and Northern Ireland. Doyle was a policeman, but he talks of the Yom Kippur War, which lasted a mere twenty days but killed over ten thousand people, and of course the Cold War whose death toll will probably always be unknowable.

Bodie, Doyle, Cowley and all the other CI5 agents are deeply immersed in that Cold War, and others. Lithium Doll made a video years ago that's a salient reminder of how the CI5 world works - Fields of Marigold. If you don't already know it, then I totally recommend you wander over to Circuit via the link and download it to watch. Pros doesn't pretend that those dying as their "duty" die more romantically than the rest of us. Charlie may or may not survive being shot in the left lung, Jack is shot in the stomach, and Tony Miller dies ingloriously - just as those who really died "for their duty".

We thought we might remember them all, this year, with a Discovered in Remembrance challenge.

Between now and 11am lad's time (GMT) on the Sunday that falls after the 11th November (Sunday 16th November) we invite you to post your fic, your artwork, your vids and thoughts to commemorate both the CI5 agents who fall in the line of duty, and the millions of people around the world who have been killed by war. If you would like a specific prompt then please comment below - or if you're simply inspired by your own thoughts, or by empty_mirrors' banner and think you might like to join in, it'd be nice if you'd comment to let us know - but not compulsory!

Comments

[foreverfoxcat.livejournal.com]

What a nice thought. I'm intrigued by this one. I don't know if I can come up with anything by the deadline, but I'd like to give it a go. Could I have a prompt to try, please?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Of course you may! *g*

Sombre the night is:
And, though we have our lives, we know
What sinister threat lurks there.

From "Returning, We Hear The Larks" (http://website.lineone.net/~nusquam/thelarks.htm) by Isaac Rosenberg

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

If I contribute, it'll be something teeny-tiny, but I'd like to, so give us a prompt. I think this is a terrific idea for a challenge, btw. I'm constantly impressed by how the pair of you keep this going with something a little diffrent each time.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Teeny-tiny is just fine, chuck! And thank you!

Smoking a Woodbine, darning dirty socks,
Reading the Sunday papers - I saw a fox
And mentioned it in the note I scribbled home; -
And we talked of girls and dropping bombs on Rome,

From "All Day It Has Rained" (http://website.lineone.net/~nusquam/alldayit.htm) by Alun Lewis

[przed.livejournal.com]

I absolutely want to try to do this challenge. (Though the way my life is these days, it will prove, well, challenging.) Anyway, sling me a prompt and I'll see what happens.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Sometimes the fun is in the trying... *g*

Twenty years ago
My generation learned
To be afraid of mud.

From "Mud" (http://website.lineone.net/~nusquam/mud.htm) by Richard Church

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Could I have a prompt please, oh lovely co-mod? *g*

[empty-mirrors.livejournal.com]

Hope this tickles the muse, me dear.


The first to climb the parapet
With the "cricket balls" in either hand;
The first to vanish in the smoke
Of God-forsaken No Man's Land;
First at the wire and soonest through,
First at those red-mouthed hounds of hell,
The Maxims, and the first to fall, --
They do their bit and do it well.

From "The Cricketers of Flanders" (http://website.lineone.net/~nusquam/cricketr.htm) by James Norman Hall

[erushi.livejournal.com]

Shall probably regret this, as I have a WWII-setting fic due on the 15th as well and a double-dosage of war due one day after the another might just make me one depressed bunny... but prompt please? *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, don't be too sad... That said:

I shall know him by his face,
By his godlike front and grace;
I shall hold him for a space
All my own!

From "What the Bullet Sang" (http://website.lineone.net/~nusquam/bullet.htm) by Bret Harte

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Really impressed with this post - the design and the sentiments behind it - well done. And thank you for remembering and for reminding people who might have forgotten that they should remember, if you see what I mean...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, very glad you like the idea of it... I was a little worried that people might think it's too serious, but then I can think we can be serious and light-hearted when we want to be, and should be too... As you say, it's easy to forget some of the things that we really should remember. In theory, it was "our" boys who shot Jean Charles de Menezes after all, and that's really just a different "kind" of war... (and I don't particularly mean "on terrorism"...)

[angel-ci5.livejournal.com]

I'd like to echo shooting2kill's comments, this is fantastic idea for a challenge, and the banner is brilliant.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I'm so late catching up this week - but thank you! All credit to empty_mirrors! *vbg*

[solosundance.livejournal.com]

what a brilliant idea for a challenge, hats off to you and may I have a promptette please?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ah, don't you love that the brilliant empty_mirrors is back? *g*

Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young.

From "Here Dead We Lie" () by A.E. Houseman

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I love this challenge--it's right up my alley. But there's no possible way I can participate, even taking into account Pago Pago. (Unless we could do a whole time travel thing....) I might do this later, though, and attribute it to you, if you don't mind. Dang it. I'd really like to go with this one....

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

You can do this any time, mate, and post anywhere, of course! You can even have a prompt to play with if you like... *g*

[ausmac.livejournal.com]

Would anyone know of a list anywhere of all the CI5 agents killed during the series?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Offhand, not online, no... Professional Insight lists agents by episode and mentions if they're killed, and if you'd caught me yesterday I might have had time to go through it for you, but I'm a bit desperate today, and probably for most of the next fortnight - ack! You might get a better response by posting to ask at Safehouse, or CI5hq though... More people to see the question!

[ausmac.livejournal.com]

Its ok, someone very kindly emailed me a list.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh good - it's the sort of thing that would be fab to have online, if the kind person felt so inclined... *g*

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I might try. No prompt, thanks.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

So sorry - belated replies, but yeay! Shall look forward to reading! *g*

[magenta-blue.livejournal.com]

What a lovely idea for a challenge, and a great post and banner to introduce it. Can I have a prompt please? *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh no! Ohononononono! You must kick me hard if I don't give you a timely prompt - I'm so sorry, I didn't see this somehow... *hangs head in mortification*

If it's not too late:

I ask no honours on the field,
That other men have won as brave as he -
I only pray that God may shield
My son, and bring him safely back to me!

From "My Son" by Ada Tyrrell

[magenta-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh no worries *g* I was having a play with an idea anyway, and that prompt does seem to fit marvellously - thanks! Although I seem to have just vicously edited most of what I was playing with and am now left with a sorry stump of a story *looks at it sadly* Hm. Will persevere!

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping to actually contribute something this time... *g*

I don't think I need a prompt though, I have a plot bunny forming as we speak!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh jolly good - shall look forward to seeing what comes! *g*

[asymphototropic.livejournal.com]

Outstanding banner, very contemplative and rich in spirit.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It is wonderful, isn't it? empty_mirrors is a very talented woman... *g*