Weight
It wasn't uncommon for the Commander to give gifts to the T-Dolls under his care. Though sometimes he had a tendency to go a bit overboard on the gift-giving.
"Commander this is... very kind of you but I personally will have to decline your gift. The rest of my squad can eat it without me"
Such as now, as Negev had to decline a full sized strawberry cheesecake he'd gone out and bought for her and the rest of her squad.
"Eh? Why's that? I thought you loved these, especially the strawberries on them?" Negev twitched, clamping down on her urges and turning away with her arms crossed and her nose turned up.
"W-well... that is true but... I have my reasons for not wanting to accept your gift today"
Here the gears within the Commander's mind began to churn. All the time spent with women in his life, which didn't amount to much before he ended up here now that he thought about it, and the knowledge he'd acquired over that time on womanly issues, which also technically wasn't a lot, finally paying off. Like a light bulb had appeared over his head he snapped his finger in realization.
"Oh! Is it because your afraid of getting fa-"
Unfortunately, his limited knowledge of womanly issues did not include the Golden Rule of never questioning a woman's weight. Of which he learned as he was punched with enough force to be sent through a wall and embedded into the break room wall where Kalina was having tea with Type-100.
Indignant, Negev picked up the cakebox and stomped into her squad's dormitory, muttering about "Stupid, dense, insensitive Commander's".
Despite her earlier protests, she ended up eating half the cake anyway, much to her own dismay and her squad's entertainment. And the Commander had to be removed from the wall by M2-Browning.
Drawing
"Commander?" A little voice called out to him from the floor. The Commander jumped in his seat, startled, before remembering who the voice belonged to and looking down. On the floor, sitting on top of her pet Dinergate "Dinner" was Sop II Jr.
"Oh hey there Jr, what're you doing here?" He picked her up and placed her on his desk, pushing aside some of his paperwork and allowing Dinner to jump on his table as well. Jr reached over to Dinner, opening a compartment in his side that neither he nor the Commander knew about before then, an pulled out a roll of paper. She unfurled it and turned it around to show its contents to him.
It was a crudely made drawing made with crayons and marker pens of, what he assumed to be, M4 and himself with Jr in between them in a field of flowers with Dinner happily rolling in a pile of leaves. It was something at the level a child would make. But nonetheless the meaning and intent behind it was something that nearly moved the Commander to tears.
"Is this supposed to be us?" Jr responded with an energetic nod. She pointed to the red bodied stick figure with a hat and a strange face.
"Papa!" She pointed to the other stick figure with the brown hair and a green streak through it. "Mama!" she pointed to the box with a red eye and legs rolling in a pile of green... things. "Dinner!" Then she turned around, arms spread out, and with a smile on her face. "Family!" Dinner barked in agreement, wagging his little mechanical tail piece in joy. The Commander sniffed, wiping a tear away (somehow) through his mask and picking up Jr to hug her, patting her head happily.
"This is... its adorable Jr! Have you showed it to M4 yet?" Her response was a shake of the head. Mind set he got out of his seat and began walking to the door. "Let's go show her then! Today's another slow day so they aren't on patrol or a mission. I think they should be in the cafeteria right now!" He practically kicked his door open as he walked out, Dinner following closely at his heels. "My Paperwork can wait a few hours. We need to show them what you made here!"
Later the Commander was scolded by G36 and Kalina for ignoring his paperwork to go to the Cafeteria and brag about "His Daughter's masterpiece" to M4, the rest of AR-Team and everyone that would listen. He did however have a copy of Jr's drawing framed on his desk. The original was proudly placed on the door of AR-Team's refrigerator.
Meeting
Today was an odd day. The Commander had been called away, alongside his senior Commanders, to accompany Mr. Kryuger himself for some sort of conference with the Russian military's own higher ups. Something about possible cooperation in future operations in the places near their Area's of Responsibility. To him, when he was standing at attention in that room, the officers on the Russian side rubbed him wrong. Like very second he spent there they were staring daggers at him and his fellow Commanders. Now that the meeting was over they still had some time before they left so he took the time to find somewhere to calm his nerves and think with a drink. So here he was, staring out an open window at the bustling city below, an open soda can in his hand.
"So... your that Gryffin Commander with the mask huh?" The Commander turned to his left, seeing a tall man with white hair wearing a military uniform walking up to him.
"Well... I don't remember many other Commander's in my batch who wear gasmasks all the time. So I suppose yes, I am that Gryffin Commander with the mask. And you are?" The man came to a stop next to him and looked him up and down, searching for something. He didn't seem to find it and shrugged, turning to the window as well.
"Captain Yegor Arkatiyevich Beretev. KCCO... I've heard of you..." He gave the Commander a sideways glance before looking back out the window. "How... closely... you associate yourself with those T-Dolls under your command... as well as how protective you can be of them" He gave him a flat stare this time and the Commander inwardly thought back to that time that he broke that one asshole's arm when he tried to hurt M200. He shrugged, taking a sip of his drink and not noticing the surprised look on Yegor's face as he did so.
"Yes, I'm protective of them. What of it?" He was already getting a bad feeling from Yegor, a premonition of some sort that he couldn't understand. Yegor shook his head, his face set into a blank, serious stare.
"You do know that they are not human yes?" He crossed his arms, a little annoyed that despite the mask on the Commander's face he could tell that he was being given an annoyed look. "Don't try to fool yourself into thinking that they are. They are but tools, made to be used and disposed of in order to insure the survival of humanity after the devastation brought by the 3rd world war" He finished with a glare that seemed to be an attempt to intimidate him. The Commander just shook his head, taking another sip of his drink.
"Do you know how many times I've heard that spiel now? Granted they were from less intimidating and powerful men than you, but that doesn't make it any less annoying to hear" He adjusted his hat and turned to the slightly taller man with a resolute look on his face behind the mask. "They may not be human, true, but after seeing them in action. Living with them, bonding with them. Hearing them laugh and cry, watching them as they go by their daily lives. They act so close to being human that don't you think its inhumane not to think of them as such?" Yegor's face remained stoic, but he made no move to interrupt him, so he continued. "And even then, its true that fundamentally they aren't Human. Their made of steel and wiring instead of flesh and nerves. But they are People, and their my People. Yegor. To treat them as anything but my equals is something that doesn't sit right with me or my morals" He remained stoic, expression unchanging. The Commander heaved a sigh and swished his drink in his hand, staring into the liquid inside before looking back up at Yegor. "I can tell that no matter what I say you won't change your stance on T-Dolls. So let's simply agree to disagree and hopefully we never meet again yes?" Yegor gave him a stiff nod and he nodded back, downing what was left of his drink. The Commander pulled out his phone when he felt it buzzing, seeing that it was Gentiane texting him to tell him that it was time to leave. He tossed his now empty can into a nearby trashbin as Yegor unfolded his arms.
"I see that it is about time for you to leave. Good luck to you then, Commander of Gryffin" Yegor turned around and began to walk away, only to be stopped as the Commander called out to him.
"Wait, one last thing before I leave... Your a family man too, aren't you?" He motioned to Yegor's hand, which had a ring as well. He stiffened, almost feeling threatened until the Commander took off one of his gloves, revealing that he had a ring on one of his fingers too. "Mine may not be the same as yours but..." He traced the edges of the ring on his finger and Yegor paused, he had done something similar on multiple occasions. "You can understand how it feels then, to have something like this worth fighting for. Something you'd give your life for to see it remain safe..." He pulled his glove back on, standing up straight. "So I hope that at the least you understand that if it comes down to it, if you ever do anything to actively harm the girls under my care I can and will retaliate. And there will be nothing stopping me from doing so" His tone got lower towards the end, the lights seeming to darken around them. Yegor could feel a cold sweat break out but kept his expression straight. "Not men, not monsters. No weapons, no armor. Not even your entire army crashing down on me will stop me. I will find you. And I will put a bullet in the back of your head as you crawl away with your guts hanging out of your stomach once I eviscerate you" The lights flickered, some even going out, and Yegor could almost feel the temperature drop a few degrees before everything returned to normal. The lights worked fine, the temperature went back to normal and the crippling pressure on him was gone. Although he could still faintly feel like a metaphorical bullet hole was on the back of his head.
The Commander turned to his phone again, seeing that Gentiane had sent several angry texts asking where he was. He sighed, looking at Yegor one last time.
"I hope that I got my message across clearly Captain." Yegor nodded stiffly, unconsciously holding in a breath. The Commander, satisfied with that, nodded back and turned around. The only sound in the hallway as Yegor stood there was the sound of the Commander's boots clicking as he walked away and the low electric hum of the lights above. He could barely hear them though, over the hammering of his heart in his chest. He'd only felt such fear in his heart in his days as a fresh recruit, bullets and artillery fire whizzing overhead as his CO barked orders at him and his comrades. He shook his head, staring in the direction the Commander had left in.
'That one... he's definitely one to watch out for...'
Yegor can get fucked with a 12.7x108mm round fired from an anti-materiel rifle to the back of the skull. Fuck that guy.
