Okay, so I have only watched about three episodes of the new RWBY volume, but I haven't been watching as much simply because I've been busy, I've been applying for multiple part time jobs around the area so I can save up more money for the move to Alaska. The APD also is reviewing my application, so thats good. I also have a plan for the home gym I'm building up there when I get my new place I'll be able to work all my muscle groups no problem. Especially since from what I'm tracking, gyms are still closed there.

Also getting my Wisconsin hunting license currently so that I can go hunting up there with my brother.

Also making a bit of extra money right now, haven't found a part time job yet, but I'm still finding ways to make extra money. During covid times, you have to find a way to stay busy, or you will go insane.

JEM

"Any word back from the police department?" Winter asked as Jem had been worried about his application.

"Well, I sent in all the paperwork I needed, they're reviewing it now, but I mean come on, a bachelors degree and military experience? That should look good." He said as he admitted he was worrying a little.

"Depends on how many other applicants they got, but then again, if they see you're used to dealing with stressful situations, it can only look good on your part." Winter tried to offer some form of comfort.

"Don't get me wrong, I got backup plans just in case, but at the same time, anyone can tell you it sucks when you make a big plan and it doesn't go the way you want. But thats life." He said as they got back to watching Jurassic world.

"Why do you keep rewatching this scene?" She asked as Jem kept rewinding back to the gentle giants petting zoo.

"This is the best scene in the movie." He said as he gushed over all the baby dinosaurs.

"...Why?"

"You're joking right? Baby dinosaurs! At a petting zoo!"

"...It's meant for children."

"I don't care, I would deck a kid to get a chance to give an Apatosaurus a hug!" He said remembering that neck hug scene.

"I have to agree with Mr. Jem, I think anyone would want to hug a dinosaur." Nala said chipping in as she would kill for the chance to ride a triceratops.

"Its for children."

"To quote a great man, 'Theres no point to being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.' Even though he stopped watching Doctor Who a long time ago, he still loved Tom Baker.

Winter decided to just let it go, if there was one thing she had learned in the past week or two. It was that if she had both Nala and Jem sharing the same opinion then chances are that she wasn't going to win. It was unfortunate but it was the truth. Seriously those two got along magically, granted she would admit that she also liked the girl, she seemed to be bonding with Jem at a far quicker pace then everyone else. Course that may have had something to do with the fact that Jem was not only the first one that she met, but also the fact that he had given her free steak. It was probably the only time in history someone promised something akin to free candy and it had actually turned out okay. But the thing that surprised her the most was just how Mature Jem could be at times. Granted when he was playing with Nala, he could be silly because she was still a kid, and she needed the chance to be a kid. But at the same time, he could also go back to being a normal person. Well, granted that was usually after he had done something to annoy her because she had lectured him on something that he found stupid. But that was besides the point.

"Come on Winter, you mean to tell me if you had a baby dinosaur you wouldn't pet it?" Jem asked again pointing to the kid hugging the Apatosaurus.

"...They're a bit too scaley for my tastes." Winter didn't feel comfortable around reptiles.

"...Wait, are you afraid of scales?" Jem was confused.

"No!" She said as she didn't know how to explain it.

"Wait a minute..." He think he caught onto it.

"You're afraid of snakes aren't you?" He asked as she went silent.

"Wait seriously? Why snakes?" He asked as that was not what he was expecting at all.

"Thats personal." She said as she gave Jem the Tsundere glare.

"Oh...oh this is going to be one of those days." He said as he figured this was going to be one of those moments where he would have to slowly break down Winter's emotional walls to find out.

Winter just let out a huff and she finally took the remote out of Jem's hands and made him stop rewinding the same petting zoo scene over and over again. She honestly enjoyed the rest of the movie, she didn't see why Jem didn't like watching past this point.

"NOOOOO!" Nala said as she saw the Pterodactyl trying to kidnap the baby triceratops.

"...Ooohhhhhh." Winter saw both Jem and Nala get worried over the fate of the baby triceratops.

No wonder Jem liked the petting zoo scene so much, it helped him forget that scene.

"It's okay Nala, I checked the wiki, apparently the triceratops was too heavy for him to lift, and he ended up dropping him, and he ran off and survived." He said as Nala sniffled.

"Is that wiki accurate?"

"I mean, even if its not it makes sense, he was struggling to get him in the air, and besides I like to think all the baby dinosaurs survived...I have a soft spot for them."

"Jem, they're not real."

"I don't care its depressing to think about, like the people who leave a cage full of kittens on the side of the road." He said as Winter again rolled her eyes.

Odd that a man who would often tell humans 'fuck their feelings' would have a soft spot for animals. Then again, she did also remember that Jem also treated his dog like his son sometimes. But she was certain that was a normal thing with men and their dogs. Like not too long ago Jem took her to the dog park with him and Zeus, and him and all the other dog people gushed over each others dogs. It was kind of scary. It was almost like dealing with a cult, if the cult admired cuddliness and fluffiness instead of poison kool aid.

"So are we going to do anything else today?" Winter asked as she felt the need to go out and do something.

"Well to be fair, its still early in the day, so we got all day to do things." He said as she thought of things.

"Look, we've been cooped up for too long in here, how about we go for a walk in the park?" She said as she needed to stretch her legs.

"Sounds like fun to me!" Nala said her tail wagging at the idea of being able to go out in nature again.

"Sure, works for me." Jem said as he went to go get changed out of his excruciatingly short gym shorts.

Huh that was new, for once Jem and her wanted to do the same thing. Granted it was a bit weird having Nala come with them. But then again, she shrugged, it wasn't like she wanted to be with Jem alone. She dealt with that enough before Nala showed up. Then again, sometimes she could find he could be very pleasant company if the two of them weren't butting heads over something ridiculous.

Course Jem said she needed to learn to loosen up a bit.

Either way, this was not the time to get into that.

At the park

"Huh, theres surprisingly a lot more here than I thought." Winter said as this was a lot bigger than she was expecting.

"The one you're thinking of with barely anything is the Belvidere park, this is Rock Cut." He said as this one was a bit more exciting than the other one.

Nala was enjoying herself as she took the time to explore every rock and every tree. Barely anyone came to parks mostly due to some of them still having fear of a certain virus. But Jem didn't care, just meant he could enjoy the peace and quiet of it all. Just enjoy the sunlight, the nature all around him, and above all else, get away from the hustle and bustle of busy town streets. He couldn't say busy city streets since he didn't live in the city, but either way still sucked to hear cars all over the place.

"Nala seems to be enjoying herself." Winter said as Nala was up ahead of the two as they were walking together.

"Well what do you expect, she probably never had time to do this as a kid, she was living on her own before she came here, so its good to see her kick back and relax." He said with a smile as he did like that little fact.

Not that Nala was on her own, but the fact that for the first time in her life she had the freedom to do what she wanted to do. And to that he would give a big ol shout of 'MURICA!' But in all reality, it was amazing seeing the transformation Nala had over the past few weeks of being here. Before she would wake up the same time as Jem because she would think she needed to get up early to get ready for work. And Jem would always make sure to put her back to bed because it wasn't healthy for a girl of her age to be losing sleep. And after he came back from his morning workout, she would be well rested and he would cook breakfast for all of them. Her eyes seemed bright and full of energy ever since she had been here. Like her body and soul were healing from all the extra rest and the release of stress.

Nala did still do some chores around the house. While Jem didn't want her working like an adult, it didn't mean he wanted her to just laze about. So they made a deal that she would just do some simple chores for his parents while he was at work. She happily got to them because even though it was still a bummer it would cut into her play time. After what she just went through back on Menagerie, it was a godsend. Literally, she would never complain about life again. While she didn't hate menagarie, being an orphan on the island was tough. And she was fortunate she got blasted here of all places. Jem told her it could have been worse.

He said something about being blasted to Wahammer 40k, but she didn't pay attention to that. Something about an emperor? And something about filthy xenos? She didn't know, she tried to read some of the lore Jem had laying about, but he wouldn't let her.

"You're really good with her you know?" Winter pointed out.

"Yeah, I mean its not hard to get along with kids, assuming they have a humble mindset, if they have a very spoiled mindset, its hard to get along with them, but Nalas a good kid." He said as he saw Nala looking at some of the fish in the lake.

He laughed a bit as he saw her tail wagging at seeing a big ol catfish.

"Aren't you a little concerned someone will see her tail?"

"Why? She's a kid? They'll just assume its a costume accessor hanging from a belt and that shes a big fan of anime." Jem said as Winter pointed something out.

"What if we run into those uhm...furries you talk about?" At this Jem's eyes went dark.

"If they touch her I will personally see to it they don't do it again." He said as Winter looked at him.

"Well, its not like you-" Suddenly she noticed something.

"Wait, do you have your conceal carry on you?" She asked as she noticed something was off.

While most normal people wouldn't see it, Winter had been specially trained to see weapons from a distance.

"Well yeah? I also have my knife on me." He just kept it in his pocket.

"Huh why?"

"Because this is America."

"...Should have known you would say that."

Winter just learned to let it go. She was certain based on the amount of guns this guy had that he was going to use that excuse for everything.

Course, she also learned that he also loved collecting replica weapons when he could. Ruby had actually geeked out with him over old swords. Granted, he did have a few weapons that were originals, but mostly from shops that had no idea what they were selling. He remembered one time he actually found a cavalry officers saber from the civil war, but the guy selling it assumed it was a replica from trueswords or some other site like that. Jem ended up getting it for twenty bucks, and while he would have kept it. The resale value did give him a pretty penny.

"So, while shes off prancing about, anything you want to talk about?" He asked as Winter thought about it.

"Well actually I am curious about one thing." She wanted to ask him for awhile.

"Well, back home, being in the Atlesian army is a great thing, and I couldn't imagine wanting to leave, so I'm trying to think about why you would want to leave your army?" She asked as she couldn't understand why.

"Well honestly? Theres a few reason, none because I hated it, but there are a few reasons." He said as he figured this was going to take a while.

"The big one was that I was getting bored, I mean, I signed on because I wanted to fight, but by the time I got out of basic, not only were deployments becoming more rare, but I got sent to a unit that hadn't deployed in a long time." He stated as that was the main reason.

"And well, there comes a time when it gets boring, you see I got told at least five times we were going on a deployment, and the first two times that happened, training kicked up and we were all excited because we were actually training for a reason." And then his smile went away.

"Only to later find out it was a false alarm, then eventually when shit started happening in the world, we all just had the 'Eh, it will fizzle out in a week or so' And I knew that for a fact, because all my civilian friends would be freaking out thinking we were going to war, and all of us in the military are sitting around like 'Huh, nobody told us?'" He said with a bit of a chuckle.

"So honestly part of it was just being burnt out from training and it not paying off." He said as Winter couldn't really understand that.

Then again, they were constantly fighting Grimm, so she supposed she wouldn't understand.

"Another reason was because of how easy it would be for someone to ruin your life if they wanted to." He said as she got confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, during my time in, I didn't get in trouble, kept my nose clean, but I did have friends who did get themselves into a little bit of trouble. And these were guys who were star soldiers before, squared away, but one little incident can ruin a career, even if its something that may seem miniscule. I don't even mean stuff against the UCMJ, I mean like little stupid shit." He said as he had lost count of how many times he had seen friends of his get screwed over.

"Didn't anyone try to help them?"

"Oh yeah, but sadly sometimes bullshit happens, both of them are going to get out with a honorable, but these were guys who wanted to be lifers before, but because of some little bullshit that got them in a lot of trouble, it killed their enthusiasm."

"What ended up killing your enthusiasm?"

"Well, if I'm honest? I did try to reenlist, and my retention NCO really pissed me off, because I made it clear the terms I would reenlist under, and everytime I went back there and he said he had a great deal for me, the deals just got worse and worse. At one point he wanted me to reenlist for a $1000 dollar bonus, and I would be going to Fort Polk, so fuck that." He said as he still hated that place.

"But if they did have the terms you asked for, would you have reenlisted?"

"Probably, if I'm honest theres a lot of stuff I miss about the army, even though I complain about it a lot." He said as even though he had his fair share of complaints, he found himself missing it.

"Such as?"

"Well, one thing is I missed my friends, you get so used to seeing all the same guys everyday, and then all of a sudden you're eight hours away, and you got no one to talk to, all your friends from back home won't make the effort to see you even when you try to make plans, and its honestly really lonely at first because it feels like you lost all your friends." That was probably the most unpleasant part of being back home was adjusting to that.

"What else?" Winter could understand where he was coming from there.

After all, she made friends through her officer candidate school, but all of them went to different garrisons, granted it was still in Atlas, so they could still see each other if they wanted, but obviously Jem was much farther away from them.

"Well, as with everyone, whether they leave a job or retire, you feel like you lost a sense of purpose and you go nuts from having nothing to do." He said as he remembered he was still stuck in his old routines and couldn't get rid of them.

Even if he wanted to sleep in, he was so used to getting up early and working out that it had bled over into his civilian life.

"I don't understand." Winter wasn't sure what he meant.

"Well lets put it this way, it took me maybe about three days before I started applying for jobs simply because I was bored as shit." He sighed as he remembered how that felt.

"Again it goes back to routine, you get so set into a routine, that your brain tries to compensate for it, and basically you get bored no matter how many hobbies you may have, and eventually you think 'Well shit, if I'm going to do something, I should get a job that way at least I'm getting paid.' Hence why I'm glad I started working again soon after getting out, otherwise I would have gone insane from lack of work."

"And hey, so far its working out for me. Granted the world went nuts for a bit. But my life is still going well, simply because I found a way to occupy my mind, focusing on getting my own shit squared away really helped me adjust. If you just stay at home all day letting yourself wallow in boredom, self pity, all that bad stuff, then your life is going to suck because you're not doing anything productive that helps you get ahead." He knew he felt like shit when he was just sitting like a bump on a log not doing anything.

"Most people would find not having to work a relief."

"I can't do that, even when I wasn't working, I found something I could do that would make my life better in someway, whether it was increasing my workout time and intensity or reading a book or even going on youtube and trying to learn a new skill, you have to do something, not just because its good for you, but also because humans weren't made to just stay in a room doing nothing getting fat and lazy."

"I get the feeling you watch a lot of motivational speeches when you wake up in the morning." Winter joked as Jem just smiled.

"I do actually. Granted I usually have them playing through my earbuds, but still it works. It helps you get into that mindset for the day, its why I try not to listen to any kind of sad boy music anymore, because the music you listen to can affect your mood, and the last thing I want to do is put myself down in the dumps with some depressing music." He said as Winter was just making a joke, but turns out she was right on the money.

"You're weird, you know that?"

"I know, but hey, you seem to like it." He said as a joke as Winter blushed.

"What? I would ne-" Jem saw her get defensive.

"Wow relax, I mean you seem to enjoy talking to me more when I say stuff like this, instead of acting like my usual self." He said with a laugh.

"Oh...right..." She said as she realized she just looked foolish.

"What did you think I meant?"

"Nothing!"