Okay, so as you all know, I got a new job recently, so not as much time to write. I wake up at 0500 to work out until 0630, take my dog out for a walk, make breakfast, leave for work at 820, start at 9 finish at 1730, and get back home around 18, and then its dinner time followed by some writing time/hobby time. So my schedule is pretty busy.
But I got some good news, APD called me back, and they've decided to look past the whole background check with the CID investigation someone in my unit was involved in, so I could apply abck if I wanted to.
However, after some thinking, what I'm going to do is I'm going to stay in Illinois a year, save up my money for the move to Alaska, and then apply for the Alaska State Troopers in the Wildlife trooper division. Simply because I believe that is a division I would enjoy working for a lot more. Working in the wilderness and protecting natural resources is just something that appeals to me.
Even if I don't end up getting in, I'm still going to find another job I can do up there and move up there.
But as of right now, I got a decent job, I got health insurance, I have more money now then I've had in a long time, life is good,
Jem
Jem was currently riding horses with Nala and Winter. The others were there too, but it would appear the only ones who were doing well were Ruby and Yang.
"YEEE HAW!" Ruby said as Yang galloped right beside her.
Jem didn't quite understand it, but he assumed it had something to do with them being more out in the rural part of Remnant, so maybe they were used to being around horses. But then again, he wasn't going to think too much of it. Weiss was doing okay, but that might have been because she was going slow and just admiring how cute her horse was. Jaune and Pyrrha were nowhere to be seen as Jaune got motion sickness from the horse, and Pyrrha didn't want him to feel left out. Nora was walking the horse like a dog. No surprise there. And Ren was...
Ren and Blake were sitting down having tea together, apparently Blake did not like horses. He didn't understand why, last he checked he didn't think Cats were afraid of horses. But again he decided not to think too much on it.
"Since when do you own horses?" Winter asked as Jem sighed.
"I don't, my cousin owns horses, these are his." He said as he could have sworn he explained this already.
"You know, for a guy who lives in a motorhome, seems like your family is pretty well off." Winter still wasn't sure why he chose to live in a motorhome.
"To be fair, I would be living in my parents house, but as I said, they already turned my old room into Nala's room, and even so, I don't mind the motorhome right now, its cheap, its warm, its all I need for just me, eventually when I build my cabin in the woods, that will be all I need." He said as they crossed a creek.
"You don't want anything more?" She asked as everyone seemed to have big dreams of owning mansions and supercars.
"Not really, as long as I have enough space for me, my future family, and all the stuff I want, then thats all I need, don't need a $200,000 house if its just me, that would just be a waste of money." He said as Winter growing up in a rich family still had trouble understanding people from a lower social class.
"What about a nice car?" She asked as Jem shrugged.
"Not really appealing to me, My pickup truck works great, its paid off, and more importantly, if I want to live in the woods away from a big city, where the hell am I going to drive an expensive car?" He said as it just wouldn't be practical.
"Then what do you want?"
"Simple, I'm not going to waste money on expensive cars or houses that only rich people can afford, what I'm going to spend it on is experiences." He said as Ruby and Yang sped by.
"Race you to that lake over there!" Ruby said as Yang was struggling to catch up.
"HEY!" Yang was kind of pouty.
"Well...as I was saying, I notice a problem people have these days is they're constantly lamenting the fact that they can't afford all the things their parents did, and rather than work with what they got, they spend all their time complaining about it. In my case, I don't see WHY I need to afford the same lifestyle my parents had, when I was in the army, I had one single cramped barracks room with a shared common area and bathroom and I realized, hey this isn't bad at all. Sure it was cramped, but it really put into perspective you don't need a big place to live in. Hell, there are so many options out there its not even funny, and all the money I save living in something smaller and more simpler, is more money I can spend on experiences." He paused for a second to crack his neck.
"People get so caught up in the social media scene telling them that they need this and they need that, and basically it creates a cycle of you never have enough and you'll never be satisfied until you get every single expensive thing there is, and thats no way to live." He said as Winter could see where he was coming from but still was confused.
"But don't some people have a point where things are too expensive to afford?"
"Of course some people have a point, but the issue is they get so self absorbed into their own misery and being blackpilled into thinking the world sucks, that eventually they do nothing but develop a 'Woe is me' attitude, me personally I have a very 'Life just got harder? Fuck it, I'm no bitch, bring it on."
"That seems weird." She said as he shrugged.
"Trust me, its a better way to live life, being taught to accept what you can't change, but change the things you can, and learn to adjust to the modern world in a way you can do what you want, thats how you get ahead. For me, I don't want a lot, just enough to live my life in peace." He said as he stopped to scratch an itch on his leg.
"And what about everyone else?" She asked.
"I'm only responsible for me, and the people close to me in my community, what other people do is up to them, if they want to live a life moping and crying on facebook, thats their choice, its a bad choice, but its their choice, if they want to take charge of their life and find all the loopholes, thats their choice too, I'm not saying everyone has to live like me, but I also don't have to live like them." He said as that was all he had to say.
"Don't you wish life was easier?"
"Not really, then it would be boring, whats the point of living if everything is easy?" He said as that was his philosophy for everything.
Life threw your curveballs sometimes, but as his dad always used to say 'You got 24 hours to bitch, moan, cry, get drunk, whatever, but when those 24 hours are up, time for you to quit being a bitch and get shit done.'
"AH!" Jem looked back to see Nora got tackled by her horse.
And said horse was currently licking her face like a dog. Big ass tongue and all completely covering Nora in slobber.
"AH! OKAY OKAY!" She laughed as she tried to push the horse off of her.
Normally she would be strong enough that it wasn't a problem, but she was laughing so much that her body was weaker from the giggles. So naturally she was defenseless to push the horse off of her.
"See, now that is adorable." Jem said as he took a photo of it.
Winter rode up beside him as Nora was giggling and looked at him.
"Wait..." She said as she noticed something.
"...Why aren't you wearing a shirt?" She asked as Jem looked at himself.
"Oh yeah, well, I saw this picture of Vladimir Putin riding a horse shirtless, and honestly it looked cool, so figured I would do one better." He said as Winter just facepalmed.
"How can you say something intelligent one second, and then the next act like a meathead?" She asked as Jem laughed and answered her.
"Simple, you can be intelligent and like pastimes of intellectuals while still enjoying physical activities, anyone who claims you either have to be an intellectual or a jock is an absolute idiot who will never reach their full potential." She saw him shiver in disgust.
"You look...uncomfortable."
"Oh, its nothing, just remembering how I acted back in high school temporarily, I had that 'Jocks are bad, nerds are good attitude.'" He fake gagged at the memory of that.
"...Okay I don't get it."
"Look, in my personal experience, if you're one of those who constantly believes that kind of stuff, you're going to be miserable, its important to develop your brain and wisdom, HOWEVER, it also means nothing if you're a total weakling." Winter finally understood what he was talking about.
"A society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools." She said as Jem beamed at that.
"See? You've been going through my book collection." He said as he was happy she was enjoying his mini library.
"I have been, and I'm still surprised you can read." She said in a joking manner.
"Hey, I may look like a dumb hillbilly, but I got a good brain, I just don't use it all the time." He said as he never felt the need to show off constantly.
"Fair enough, but can you blame me for being surprised? You don't exactly look like a scholar." She said as he shrugged his shoulders again.
"Again, you got a point, but like I said, I like myself the way I am, so I ain't going to act like some prim and proper intellectual pussy who doesn't lift." He said as Winter rolled her eyes.
"Annnd here we go back to square one."
"It is what it is."
Back on Remnant
Ironwood had finally procurred enough dust to plan the rescue mission for Team RWBY, JNPR and of course Winter. He himself would not be going as some business with the counsel had come up, and he was required to attend. Same with Ozpin, both would be attending, leaving the rescue mission to another group. Goodwitch was going to retrieve RWBY and JNPR. As for Winter...well...
"Sir, we're ready to go whenever." Clover said as him and his team were ready for everything.
"Of course, now I don't think I need clarify just how dangerous this mission is for you." Ironwood said as he paced back and forth.
"Well considering the footage you showed us, it didn't look too pleasant." Elm said as they weren't too pleased with what they saw.
And considering all the death and destruction they saw was just in Chicago, it didn't give them high hopes for the rest of the world. So General Ironwood was warning them to be on their guard.
"On top of that, we don't have any footage of Miss Schnee's wherabouts, we can only assume that as of right now she found a place to hunker down, but keep in mind it is also possible that she could have been compromised by an enemy." Ironwood knew it sounded silly that she could possibly be held prisoner, but he was being cautious.
"Got any intel for us?" Clover asked as Ironwood nodded.
"There is...one slight problem..." He said as he sighed.
"While we have still been able to monitor Miss Schnee's aura levels, we also noticed that sometimes it will drop for some reason, obviously because she expended some, but thats not the issue." The ace ops didn't know why that seemed so bad.
"While your aura will recover, it appears to recover slower than normal, based on observations from monitoring Miss Schnee's aura, it would be best not to expend your aura as we don't know how long it would take for you to recover, on top of that, in this world, you would be considered Super human as they don't have the ability to harness aura." He said as everyone found that crazy.
"Could that be the reason that aura doesn't recover as fast?" Harriet asked as a world without Aura could be hard to adjust to.
"Possibly, the point is be cautious." Ironwood said as they all did one final equipment check.
"How will we find her?" Ironwood passed them a scroll.
"That scroll should lead you right to her, it acts as a homing beacon, just listen to it, and you'll be fine." He said as he didn't expect this mission would be a problem for them.
"Anything else?" Vine asked.
"Just be careful, and above all try to blend in, these people of earth seem skittish, if they see someone like you guys, they might freak...especially you..." He pointed to Marrow.
"Huh? Why-" Marrow suddenly looked back at his table.
"As far as we know, this world doesn't have Faunus...that being said.
"WE WILL SPAY AND WE WILL NEUTER! UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT!" Ironwood showed footage from what they assumed was from a propaganda film. (1)
Featuring a menacing man in black armor killing what appeared to be a sentient dog person.
Marrow felt his tail go in between his legs as he saw that, it may have been a cartoon, but it was still a bit worrying.
"The point is we don't know how they will react to seeing a Faunus, so try to keep it hidden." Marrow nodded.
Ironwood admitted he found the idea very silly, until later examination showed there was a subset of human society on earth called 'Furries' And frankly, while he was one to treat everyone equally...based on what he had seen of the furry community, he could kind of understand why that one cartoon was made, either way, as silly and stupid as it sounded, it didn't hurt for Marrow to hide his tail while they were on Earth.
The Ace ops left as Ironwood sat down at his desk.
And pulled out a whiskey flask.
"Sometimes I feel like my life is a fucking cartoon." He said as he took a long sip.
Back on Earth
"Where are we going?" Ruby asked as they were all in a big ass rental van Jem had got.
"Well, I figured we would all go on a trip to a cabin we rented in Wisconsin." Jem said as he figured they all needed a vacation.
"Will it fit all of us?" Weiss asked as she wasn't sure.
"Oh yeah, you would be surprised the size some of the cabins on Airbnb are." He said as he made sure to get a decent place.
"Yay!" Nala said as she was sitting next to Winter.
But wait, if Winter was in the back seat with everyone else, then who was sitting in the passenger seat?
"RUFF! RUFF!" Zeus barked as him and Kirby the cat were riding in the front passenger seat.
"How come the dog gets to ride shotgun?" Winter wanted to sit up next to Jem, but for some reason he chose the dog.
"He called it first." Jem said.
"He can't call shotgun!"
"Yeah he can, he barked, so he called it." Winter groaned in frustration.
Jem had chosen a DOG over her.
She wasn't mad about it! She didn't want to sit next to him anyway!
Jerk.
(1) Flashgitz Sonic gets cucked
Actually this may surprise you, but I recently found out a friend I went to high school with is a furry now. Not only that but in his house he has a glass display case full of bad dragon dildos that he proudly displays.
Look, Heres the thing, I don't give a fuck if you have kinks, but for FUCKS sake, thats not something you put on display in your living room, that goes in the shame drawer.
You don't just leave your dildos out in the open next to your action figures so anyone could grab one.
Needless to say, I don't talk to that friend anymore. Not because hes a furry, but because he actually stopped talking to me because I wouldn't lend him money.