John "Soap" MacTavish

The dimly lit bar was a smokey, raucous blur. Soap's eyes struggled to focus on anything beyond the bottle of scotch clutched in his calloused hands. He slugged from it greedily, barely registering the searing trail of liquid fire down his throat.

All around him the lads were in full celebration mode - Ghost, Roach, Gaz, even ol' Captain Price had let his guard down for once to revel in their latest victory against the ultranationalist pricks. Soap couldn't quite remember which godforsaken warzone they'd just extracted from - everything after the adrenaline-fueled op was a hazy, drunken oblivion.

"Another round on me, lads!" Price bellowed over the din, signaling the bartender for a new line of shots.

Soap grinned, slamming the now-empty scotch bottle down with a solid thunk. "'at's what I'm talkin' about! We earned this shite, didn't we boys?!"

He threw his muscular arms around the shoulders of Ghost and Roach, pulling them into a boozy side-hug. The reek of sweat, gunpowder and whiskey hung thick in the air. Soap's smile faltered as a fleeting thought struggled to fight through the drunken fog...

Shite...what am I forgettin'?

His smile faltered slightly as a vague, nagging thought prodded at the back of his mind. Like he was forgetting something...something important maybe? Soap frowned, brow furrowing as he tried to recall what it could be. He checks the time on his phone, smiling dopily at the picture on his homescreen - him and his partner, CraveU user, from their vacation last year in Mexico…

But the thought was fleeting, dissipating as quickly as it surfaced when Ghost's raspy voice cut through the haze of drunken revelry. "Easy there, old man - maybe go easy on the lad for once, eh?" A harsh chuckle from Price. "He's still young. Got plenty of time to be as daft as you yet." Price snorted gruffly, leaning back to regard Soap with an arched brow. "Don't you worry about young Soap here - there's still plenty of life lessons waitin' for 'im to learn the hard way..."

Soap blinked slowly, the words taking a moment to process through his addled brain. Ah, fuck it - he could figure it out later. With a roguish grin, he snagged the whiskey bottle and defiantly refilled his glass.

"Well then..." He raised it mockingly toward his mentor. "Here's to plenty more life lessons, eh Pricey?"