Well Good Luck Godling…
Tooku made michibikarete
Meian no michi wo buchikowasu made
Yo Guess who's back Everybody get down
Guess who's back
Hey step up step up!
...I throw my phone across the room for the audacity of the alarm to go off on a Mond… Nah, it has to be Sunday… I'm way too tired for it to be a Monday. After a long internal debate on what day it is, I get off my bed and walk across my small barracks room to pick up the phone and see my old animated picture of Goku going ultra instinct as the background. I look at the time and date, 0520 and it is indeed a Monday. I look around my room with the shelves and desks littered with survival books, RPG video games, and manga. I quickly change into some basketball shorts and a t-shirt.
Sigh. "Damn, I don't have time to shave," I say and open the camera on the phone, then switch it to the forward-facing camera. Looking back at me was a mildly good-looking caucasian guy with brown eyes, black hair cut to a mid fade, and a slight stubble. "Nah, they won't notice," I say as I head out the door.
I head outside, and it's raining. I make for the lounge in the middle of all four buildings. "There is a special place in hell for whoever thought it was a good idea to separate the barracks rooms from the lounge," sigh "at least they put an awning over the smoke pit." Entering the small building, the lounge, I check the time 0525, "barely on time but still the first one here," I grumble, soaking wet from the rain.
It takes a few minutes for everyone to trickle in; first is Sgt. Lee, a skinny and tall ginger woman who looks too thin for her height "Lance Cpl. Solomon Cain first one here, as always. That's what I like about you, don't worry pt will be a bit longer, but hey got to get everyone to put out and get stronger, ya know," Sgt. Lee says to which I reply, "Sgt. isn't Tex running pt, and I hope you're not relying on morning pt to keep you fit."
Flustered Sgt. Lee says, "I know morning pt is about unit cohesion and all that, but I don't think Tex puts up a good enough challenge."
As the rest of the Marines enter the room, Tex, a short but well-built guy with brown hair and green eyes, says, "Alright, due to rain, we have to change it up a bit so that we will do an abb workout with a two-minute twenty-two-second plank at the end. The workout will be thirty reps of Russian twists, v-ups, leg lifts, bicycle kicks, mountain climbers, and cross-body steam engines. We'll do six rounds and see the time. If we finish before 0600 we'll add more...that doesn't mean gaff off, put in, or I'll extend the time."
After the pt, Tex and I sit in the smoke pit to smoke and talk. "I know it was a bit improvised, but what did you think of pt?" Texas asked. I reply, "Good, a bit lighter than usual, but I worked up a sweat..sucks we did two extra rounds, but hey, win some, you lose some." Tex looks off though fully and says, "Yeah, I'll throw in some more exercises to even it out next time… Everything good with your mom and sister?"
I sigh. "No, but I've fixed what I can and got to see my niece, who is adorable, by the way." I pull out my phone and show him a photo of my niece having a bowl on her head, mom laughing while trying to take the bowl from her while laying on the couch next to her, and my Bichon Frise puppy named Ein staring at them in confusion.
"That's adorable, and I'm guessing you'll need a ride." Tex says to which I respond, "Ye on both accounts." Checking the time 0615.
"I'm going take a shower and get ready for the day, leaving a 0700, right?" I ask. "I'll think about it," Tex says back.
After I shave, shower, and get dressed in my service charlie uniform and head out at 0655. After twenty minutes of waiting, I call Tex, "Thanks, man you woke me up. I slept right through my alarm," Tex says immediately. I reply, "It's cool, get dressed quickly, so we're not late."
After a short drive in his truck to work and seeing the parking lot full. "Well, looks like your sleepy ass is sending us to the overflow realm Jimbo ''l say sarcastically. Tex chuckles and says, "You can get a ride from your sass next time if you like, use those good old lambofeeties."
"Nah, my Lambo's don't come with a roof and air conditioning," I say as he parks his truck. "Then quit yo bitchin," Tex says.
"We're Marines forced to work a desk job. I reserve the right bitch" I say in response. "At least you aren't in graphics. I swear I'm on the twentieth redesign for a door placard." Tex says as we walk towards the main parking lot. "Yeah, when they said they were sending me here, I didn't expect it to be such a boring duty station… I miss Oki, and the only thing I liked about Oki was the anime-themed arcades." I say as we cross the parking lot to the Pentagon.
After getting through security, I head to the office, sit down at my desk and open my computer. I plug in my headphones to listen to music and decide to listen to the RWBY soundtrack and do after-effects tutorials on designing animated graphics of my favorite anime characters and reorganizing my desktop for the billionth time pass time.
After lunch, my Buddy Ban, a tall and skinny guy with a swimmer's build and brown hair and brown eyes, asks, "Hey, I heard a rumor that you told a Colonel to fuck off in your old unit. I mean, I don't know if it's true but, It'd be cooler if you did." I look at him and say, "It's true-ish. I did it tactfully. During my last deployment, the CO wanted a photo in the cockpit of an F-35, but the cockpit is classified as secret, which I don't get cause you can find pictures of it online but classified nonetheless. So I tell him I can't take the photo, but he says it's cool the Admiral gave the okay, to which I reply that's all well and good Sir, but a Navy Admiral doesn't decide Marine Corps SOP, and I'm not willing to risk brig time for a photo."
Ban stares at me for a second and smiles. "Not as cool as I hoped, but cool points nonetheless," I respond with, "Yeah, the long story is less fun than the short one."
"You got plans for after work," Ban asks. "Gym, eat, sleep, and whatever anime I happen to watch in between," I say back. "I'm telling you to watch Jujitsu Kaisen, and if you liked Demon Slayer, you'd love it."
After a few hours of another slow day, we pack up and head out for the day. After going through security with Tex, we head out to the overflow parking lot.
As we walk to the truck, Tex trips and falls infront of the busses path, I rush to grab himl and throw him out of the way of an oncoming bus. 'Fuck' is all I think as I leap forward and hip throw him to the sidewalk as the bus bares down on me. All I have time to consider is, 'This is such utter bullshit.'
I wake up, and all around me was darkness, not in a sense I couldn't see, but as if everything around me is made of darkness. Grass made up of darkness that came up to my knees going on into the endless horizon with sparse trees made out of the same dotting the landscape.
Suddenly a hole made of a brilliant white light started to grow in the grass in front of me as the hole increases, the light that pours out starts to change colors, resembling a small Aurora Borealis. Then, the chaotic colors begin to form faces and images until I watch my first memories play out before me, but from a constant wide high angle.
Tsk "No no no, if you want this to be impactful, you have to get closer. High angles looking down is for sad scenes to make the subject seem weak only to getting closer to show emotions, and lower angles facing up are for happy or empowering for the opposite reason, that the just apart of the basics." Sigh. "Becoming a videographer really has ruined me. I can't even enjoy my life flashing before my eyes. WAIT… is this shitty video really going to be twenty-two years long!"
After I watch for a little longer and it seems so. 'This leaves me with three options watch the crappy movie that has been taken of my life, wander the planes for however long, or jump in the hole and see what happens,' I think to myself and look around at the dark world around me.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr
A force of hatred and danger hits me, and I look to my left, and in the grass, I see endless pairs of malevolent red eyes... courage is one of my virtues, but stupidity isn't... in the hole it is.