Penny Ross (deployed) wrote in rooms, @ 2015-07-04 15:57:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !marvel comics, *narrative, penny ross |
Narrative: Penny Ross
Who: Penny Ross
Where: Washington, DC, in a big white tent near the Federal Courthouse
When: The 4th of July, Ass Early in the Morning (Eastern Standard Time)
What: Debriefing
Penny hadn't seen so many pissed off soldiers since the day her entire unit got Stop-Lossed and informed they weren't getting cost of living increases at the same time. The day the memos burned the burgers.
Today was the day no member of the reserves liked. No one liked when their weekends fell on holidays, some holidays were worse than others, hte 4th of July was usually hit or miss. Most of the time it was sitting on base watching fireworks, running drills, watching some pre-recorded message from the Commander in Chief, and the mess hall grilling out.
But sometimes....
Sometimes, without any warning at all, the United States Army informed you that the reserves unit you were in (or sometimes just your name just came up on some death lottery because you fucked someone's sister or brother or pissed someone off in the records office), was going to participate in the Washington DC Independence Day Parade. You had no recourse. So there they were crammed into row after row of white tents trying not to drip sweat while the sun come up and the swamp coolers blew musty air everywhere.
Penny had a medical excuse, she shouldn't really be marching down Constitution Avenue in sensible one-and-a-half inch slip resistant black heels for any length of time with her swollen toe. But if she used her medical excuse now, she couldn't use it later to get out of a weekend when she actually had no other option. Had it been a normal weekend, and her entire unit hadn't lost the death lottery, she'd have gotten on light duty, filed paperwork for three days, clocked in, clocked out, checked the boxes, gone home. Now - now she was standing in front of a mirror brushing donut crumbs off her ASU and measuring finger widths between ribbons and lapels.
Long blonde hair tied in a neat bun above the nape of her neck, her uniform crisp and only a the skirt was a little tighter than she remembered it being. Not so bad that she'd split a seam (so long as she didn't sit), but it was noticeable. She'd pick a person and blame it on them later. Her jacket buttoned just fine thank the Lord and Heavens above - apparently she just got an ass and no tits when she ate too much bacon.
Everyone around her was grumbling about why they needed to show up before sunrise if the parade didn't start until the middle of the damn day. And why was it 90 degrees at 5 in the morning anyhow? She smiled as she straightened her hat. She was still standing in her stockinged feet, not quite ready for the shoes. She'd wait until the last possible moment. They lined up at 9 AM for a pre-inspection, she'd put them on then. Then off they'd come before whatever high powered official was going to inspect them all with the guard commander. She supposed she ought to wear them for the official inspection too.
They started marching at 11:15. Those shoes would not hit her feet again until 11:13. She wasn't too worried about the marching. It wouldn't feel great, but she'd have an end goal. Marching toward something. She'd been through plenty worse, and even though she didn't know a single person here like she knew her unit from home, she was still listening and joining in on the shit talking because trading battle stories and measuring dicks was real real easy.
So she took her handful of advil, drank a ton of water, barked orders at her subordinates, kept those shoes off, made inappropriate gestures with a maple bar just for shits and giggles. Ate two more donuts (she'd start her diet on Monday), and reminded everyone that the Army would feed them well once they got their asses back on base that afternoon.
She thought about home very little, she tried to, but every time she did she remembered that home wasn't generally allowed to come with her on these weekends even when she'd been home. It was too much to handle at once, it was a separation she had to make more than once. A separation that got her into trouble a time or two, but it was one that she deemed necessary. She still bought into being the best she could be, and that meant giving her everything to whatever it was she was doing. And right now that meant army life. She'd call home when she could, check in with Cris. Use her phone time wisely and other than that focus on the weekend.
Sure right now she was a commissioned officer in the medical corps about to march in a damn parade with the entire reserve unit. The staff in her unit were making jokes about being there to pick up drum majors with heat stroke. Penny was straightening ties of those who deserved, and hollering at those who needed hollering at. And some she just let set figuring the guard commander would have more to say than she would during their pre-inspection. But her head was in the game. And it needed to stay there.
She used to say these weekends cleared her head, but they never did. They recharged her batteries a little, and maybe this one would be no different. She'd only had a couple since being back here while getting situated, and what not. So even though she was still getting used to everyone, changing jobs in the army wasn't like it was everywhere else. Everyone knew what they were supposed to do and who told them to do what. The repetition, the schedule, the trust, it was nice. Comfortable. Took time to build of course, but they were trained to run like a well oiled machine no matter who was driving it. They just had to work on reading each other, and they did that as best they could getting to know each other.
So no, nothing really ever cleared her head. She didn't even know if she knew what that really felt like at all. It was just 72 hours to fill it up with something new. And while most of the guys around her were cheering up as the morning wore on, some were still bothered about missing the day with their families. She was just glad to be with all of them, she didn't know them. Not well. This wasn't the same as it was before hotels and doors and all the problems that went with it. But it was close. It was, at the very least, camaraderie on a real basic level, and she had been missing it.