Disclaimer: I don't own G.I. Joe or Murphy's Laws...
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A Greenshirt's Guide To G.I. Joe Life
By J.T. Magnus, Turbo
Part Eleven: Billets
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Hello. I'm the embodiment of conflict and death. 'Where's your scythe'... If you only knew how often I've heard that one. Let's set one thing straight: The Grim Reaper is actually a delivery person, taking the souls of the dead to the afterlife. I'm the chooser, the one who decides who, when, where and why.
And as strange as it may sound, I want a piece of the pie. The pie chart of profits, that is. The Furies have comics based on them, or at least a girl taken in by them... The Grim Reaper has his own TV show for crying out loud... The Spirit of Vengence does bike stunt shows, and even though I don't know where the embodiment of Life is, even Cupid's human disguise is famous in the high school archery circles!
Where does all that leave me? Here. Wishing something would happen so I could decapitate someone... All because I pulled a Dread Pirate Roberts...
What? Can't I enjoy the classics?
In a way, I'm a lot like the Valkyries, I like to look into the faces of the ones I'm handing off to Grim. In a way, that's where I made my mistake. I'm not like Life or Vengence, always taking on human partners, I mean, I'm the Spirit of Conflict, life and death, right and wrong, desire and duty, I can't exactly do the partner thing since I'm supposed to be as neutral as possible.
I was there that night to decide whether or not it was a young man's time... By all rights, it should've been, but there was something about him - he wasn't afraid to die, he was willing to die if he had to, more than that, he was READY to die... but there was still a part of him that wanted to live.
I've existed since time immemorial, yet I had never seen such conflict:
He wanted to escape his past, but at the same time he was using it to drive him onward.
He had came from a background of privilege and rank, yet he never wanted anything he couldn't achieve on his own, although he knew that background had gotten him where he was.
There was a deep-rooted belief in true love, honor, justice and right and wrong, even though he had lost one of the things he used as a guide.
A desire to fight for the side of light existed, but there was a darkness in his soul that tempted him.
He was almost an embodiment of conflict himself. It... interested me, because not only was he in conflict himself, he surrounded himself with conflict. I suppose that's why I did what I did. Unknown to the youth I bonded with him, I gave him my power so that I might learn more about him.
What bothers me about it all is that he'd good with it, almost too stinkin' good with it. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was meant to have it.
But he wasn't...
Was he?
Nah...
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Murphy's Law of Warfare: The perfect officer for the job will transfer in the day after that billet is filled by someone else.
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Author's Notes: I'm on a strange streak lately, it seems... Not my usual Guide fare, I know, but it came to mind. What can I say? I have an interesting outlook on things.