Okay guys, I just got one thing to say. Life has kind of been stagnant lately. I'm still working, still working out, all that good stuff. But it feels like I'm kind of going through the motions.

If I'm honest, I'm gonna try and keep writing this. But dudes, I'm getting a little too old to be writing an OC/SI story. And I can't help but feel that a lot of us write in characters based on ourselves out of a sense of not being fulfilled in their day to day lives. After all, why else would you make a character whose pretty much the idealized version of yourself?

You may not even have a bad life, but think of this as how you felt as a kid or even as an adult and you would imagine these crazy situations where you're the hero of your own story. Except in this case, its more of an escape versus motivation.

Do I still enjoy writing this story? Of course I do, do I enjoy fanfiction? Of course I do. But honestly, in a way I think that by losing yourself in fanfiction, or anime, or literally anything relating to any fandom. You could possibly lose track of whats important in life.

AGAIN, I'm not saying you can't enjoy those fandoms, but you should never let your life revolve around it. Too often I found myself thinking 'Oh boy, can't wait to see the reviews on this chapter.'

I'm 27 years old, and my biggest rush in my life was getting reviews on a SI fanfic? Yeah its always fun, but holy shit, it made me realize I needed a life outside of this.

So if it takes me longer to update, its because I need to find something else to do with my life that doesn't revolve around me throwing a self insert in who has a big tiddy waifu.

"Well, here we are." Winter said as they had arrived just in time for the opening round of the festival to start.

"Why did we arrive so early again?" Jem wasn't sure why they switched up the time table from the original storyline.

"The general thinks having us here earlier could help us check for any suspicious activity, after all while we have taken countermeasures to try and repel the oncoming invasion, its best not to leave any stone unturned in case there was a mole who leaked our plans." Winter said as Jem shrugged.

"Thats besides the point, you seem a little anxious." Winter said as she noticed Jem was fiddling with his fingers.

"Well, to be honest, I kind of feel like a dick for leaving Nala behind, I know we did it because shit will get dangerous, but it just feels weird being separated from her for this long." He said as Winter smiled at him.

Jem had adjusted to his new role as a father rather well. While she didn't approve of his letting Nala handle a gun, she couldn't deny that he honestly did care for her. She also cared for Nala, but she wasn't nearly as close as Jem was to her. Then again, she didn't have much of a choice after Nala asked if Winter was going to be her new mom. At that point, she was in this family for the long haul. She couldn't crush the lion Faunus's dreams like that. It would be an unforgivable sin.

"I can understand that, I'm not exactly fond of it myself. But you did leave her with babysitters. So we're going to be fine." Winter said as she suddenly cringed.

"Whats the matter?" Jem asked as Winter rubbed the back of her neck.

"Well...couldn't you have picked anyone else?" Winter was a bit nervous about his choice of babysitter.

"What? What could be wrong?" He asked.

"Well its just-"

Meanwhile back in Mantle

"GET UP THAT BLOODY TREE!" Reggie yelled at some Mantle militiamen.

While he was taking a break from training Atlesian soldiers, he was also training some of Jem's minutemen. While Jem had done a good job at teaching them the basics, he had entrusted his grandfather to teach them more sophisticated fireteam methods. And he was all too happy to help.

"But I'll be a brown job until I die, with ten years to go in the RLI." A radio played as he saw a man fall from the rope onto the ground.

But if there was one thing Reggie wasn't expecting. It was having to babysit his newly adopted granddaughter. Who he couldn't help but be amazed at considering she had a lion tail. He smiled at that. The lion was a symbol that was near and dear to his heart. He could remember seeing the very few planes of the Rhodesian Air force with their proud lion and tusk emblem. It wasn't something he had a lot of experience in. During his time in fireforce, he was focused more on killing the enemy rather than the type of air craft he was flying in. And then when he went to the Selous Scouts he was far too busy to even think about flying.

"Grandpa, is that guy okay?" Nala asked as he waved it off.

"Don't worry about him little one, he'll be fine." If Jem's group wanted to prove themselves worthy, then they had to go through some tough training.

Jem had told him about his thoughts on the militia.

"Grandpa, you of all people know I believe in a force comprised of the people. However, you and I both know that if a real conflict was to ever break out, then a lot of civilian forces would be wiped out due to their low levels of physical fitness and lack of understanding how urban warfare and battle drills work. I can get them physically fit, but you're the best one I know who could train them how to handle themselves if shit hit the fan."

They both agreed on that. You could have some of the best equipment there was. But if you were fat, and you weren't trained. All you were was a giant loot crate. So Reggie not having anything else to do after his time with the Atlesian military was all too happy to train some of Jem's friends up. Not just because he was sadistic. But also because for the first time in a long time, he had felt ALIVE.

Ironwood had taken the liberty to have his aura unlocked. Usually the general would not take such a high risk. But considering how much more effective his troop movements and lethality had grown ever since Reggie had upped their training regimen, he did it as a favor to him. At first Reggie felt a warm rush through his body when his aura had been unlocked. And he was worried that was all he would feel.

At least until he started to walk away and he realized it didn't hurt his joints to move around. Reggie was old, but his body felt like he was back in his mid thirties to early 40s again. To test himself, he even went on a run with his weapon. And he had never felt so alive as he did then. Unfortunately it did nothing to get rid of the wrinkles on his face, but he didn't care as long as he could move around like he was a younger man.

That being said. He never saw himself as training a small force such as this. It was weird. In a way he almost felt like he was fueling a counterinsurgency movement right now. Jem had assured him that this group was inspired by his own nation's continental army. But at the same time Reggie couldn't help but feel weary due to his own experiences with Zanu PF when it came to guerilla groups.

He knew Jem would never allow it to become that. But you couldn't blame the man for being paranoid.

"Excuse me Sir, but Jem requested we use these targets for target practice." A random man showed the latest print out targets.

Reggie smiled as he noticed they were cut outs of various communists from Earth's history.

Josef Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, Che Guevara, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Jem had really gone the extra mile to get cut outs of them all.

Maybe Reggie had nothing to worry about after all.

Back with Jem

"Well, either way, I can't wait to see everybody again. Did you get me a good seat for the tournmanet?" Jem asked as Winter handed him a ticket.

"I don't understand why you want to be within in the crowd. Wouldn't you rather be in the observation box with me and the general?" Winter asked as for some reason Jem wanted to be intermixed in the crowd.

"Well, part of it is because I want to keep an eye on Emerald, lets face it, she's going to try that trick on Yang again, so if someone were to 'accidentally' spill their beer on her, she would break her concentration, and that would help break her concentration on her illusion to trick Yang." Jem said as it sounded good in theory.

"But Yang knows what she's going go try and do, you don't really think she would fall for it a second time would you?" Winter knew his theory sounded good, but it was completely unnecessary considering their knowledge of the feature.

"Most likely, but honestly I just want to spill a beer on her." He said as Winter made the 'Ah' face.

"Why didn't you just say that?"

"Well, because you would have told me that I was being a dick for no reason." Jem defended himself as Winter deadpanned.

"Jem, Emerald is part of a group that wants to destroy the world, even with her redemption arc, you are well within your rights to be a 'dick' to her." She said as Jem smiled.

"Say no more!" He was going to fuck with Emerald so much.

"Wait where are you going?" She asked as he was already taking off.

"Well, you already got me the seats for that, I'm gonna go ahead and prepare for the festival! And trust me! I have got plenty of ways to piss Emerald off!"

Winter wasn't sure if she should be afraid of that or not. On one hand she was letting an unsupervised Jem loose onto the streets of Vale. But on the other hand, he couldn't get into much trouble here. He was far away from his militia. And if anything she would have to worry about him drinking too much and starting fights with other fight fans in the stadium. While that certainly was not a desirable outcome, it was better than him possibly leading a revolution in the streets. She breathed out a sigh of annoyance. She loved the guy but somehow he had the devils luck when it came to outrageous situations.

But he was her lucky charm. As crazy as it sounded, life had gotten better for Winter on base ever since he moved in with her. And it wasn't just because Ironwood had went ahead and listed Jem and Nala as dependants. Which Jem was living the life of a Dependa and he loved it!

Flashback

"Yeah dudes, all I pretty much do is work out, eat, drink, and do whatever I want all day while Winter's at work." Jem said to some of the gate guards who looked at him like he was a god.

"Bro, you literally have all the benefits of being in the military without any of the drawbacks." Never had two soldiers been so jealous of a dependa.

He didn't have to work. He did what he wanted all day. And his wife was hot? That was the holy trinity.

The two gate guards could only dream of being trophy husbands.

Back with Winter

"I really wish the General didn't have to list us as married though." Winter didn't quite feel comfortable with that.

It wasn't that she was against marriage. No, far from it. She just didn't like the idea of that BIG of a commitment with a man she hadn't even been dating for a year. She kenw that people went at their own pace. Some couples got married after only a few months, and some only after so many years. But she was not going to be some damsel who married a man within a year of dating him.

She liked Jem, she really did. But she wouldn't go so far as to say "Love" yet. She saw the relationship going far. She really did, but that didn't mean they could rush it.

Alright guys, so to put it simply, I did meet a Male Dependa, and this guy was fucking awesome. He was living the dream, he worked from home trading stocks while his wife was a Captain in some kind of BS desk job. He worked out and trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu all day. And his wife DOTED on him. Like seriously, she had a chill job and she would still spoil him.

That guy had such a care free life. We were all jealous.

Now I would never want to be a house husband because I would get bored. But damn, I would seriously consider it.