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No. 152
Noob Pyro #4: Recruit Training
Tuesday. I'm pretty sure that at least two of my teammates actually hate me. It's not just that they're not doing the touchy-feely thing; I mean, I understand that maybe that's not for everyone - after all, I'm still getting used to it myself. I mean, I actually think they don't like me. I don't know why! I haven't done anything to them!
Engineer, for one. I noticed he doesn't really participate in a lot of our team activities - he hasn't come up to movie night with us, or to watch Three's Company, or anything. I know engineers usually need extra pyroing, so tonight when Medic made banana pudding I brought a dish down to his workroom.
"Go away, boy, I'm busy," he said.
I told him I understood but I thought maybe he'd like some of the banana pudding and maybe some company, you know?
"I've gotten along without a pyro this long, ain't I?"
Well, what do you say to that? All I could do was slink away. I felt really bad about it, even though I did leave him the banana pudding - I haven't been back down to see if he ate it and take the dish up, because I don't want him to think I'm bothering him and get mad at me worse. Medic says Engineer's just touchy (well, he used a different word, but I'm not going to repeat it here) and I shouldn't take it personally, but I can't help it. I mean, I'm a Pyro. I'm supposed to be, you know, pyroing. And I can't even Pyro properly, so not being able to pyro right either - that just makes it worse.
I think not being able to Pyro well is why Soldier doesn't like me, either. He's really - sort of gung-ho, you know? He takes it seriously. He wants everybody to do their best, and he has pretty high standards for himself and everybody else. I know I don't live up to them. So it's no wonder that he doesn't like me. He always seems really angry whenever he talks to me or anything, so I try to stay out of his way so I don't annoy him, too.
Gosh, I hope I get better at this someday, and soon. I don't like disappointing everybody.
Thursday. Now I KNOW Soldier hates me. I don't even think I have words to describe the way he looked at me today. It was just an awful day all around - first of all, I let Medic get backstabbed again. I do that way too often. I'm a terrible defense Pyro. But I'm even worse at offense! While Medic was in respawn I decided to give offense a try - after all, that's what we're SUPPOSED to be for, you know? - and I ended up getting lost and turned around and walking in circles in the RED base again, just like the last seventeen times I've gone over there without anybody to guide me. This time it was Soldier who found me, and I was so relieved to see a "friendly" face that I didn't even think to spy-check him. He called me a worthless maggot. And even though you can only see the bottom half of his face, I could TELL he was giving me the world's dirtiest look. I wanted to fall through the floor and die right then and there. I'm never going to be good enough to belong here.
Saturday. This afternoon Soldier came up and started shouting at me.
"DO YOU HAVE AN AIR BURST ON YOUR WEAPON, SIR?"
Nobody's ever called me "sir" before, except the tech support lady when I called to get my cell phone set up before I came out here. I nodded my answer to his question - I didn't take the advanced classes to learn backburner tech - and mumbled something about the "sir" really not being necessary, Mr. Soldier, thanks.
"YOU NEED MORE PRACTICE WITH IT! I HAVE NEVER OBSERVED IT IN ACTION! READY YOUR WEAPON AND MEET ME AT THE REAR!"
Well, he was right. I hardly ever use it. And, I mean, I'm not going to disobey a direct order, especially when it's shouted at me like that. If I didn't do it he might get REALLY angry, and I might DIE. I'm not saying I think he'd kill me - he might, I mean, but - it's just, you know. I'm a walking disappointment. I ought to do as much as I can to be less disappointing, right?
So I went up and got my flamethrower and made sure it was fueled up and went out to the backyard. Soldier was waiting for me. He'd drawn a line in the dirt and was standing behind it.
"ROCKET TENNIS, PRIVATE!"
I guess "Private" is better than "sir." I mean, it's awfully military, but - he's a Soldier, right? But I didn't know what was going on - I'd never heard of "rocket tennis" before - and I guess he picked up on my obvious cluelessness (I'm ALWAYS obviously clueless, because I'm AWFUL).
"I DEPLOY ROCKETS IN YOUR DIRECTION! YOU REFLECT THEM BACK TO ME!"
Well, we'd sort of trained at that back at school, only we were using a pitching machine. I figured I could do it. I reflected the first few off to the sides of him on purpose, because I didn't want to actually HIT him. What if I hurt him? He's my teammate! I can't go blowing him up! Somehow I never worried about MYSELF - none of them hit ME...
... okay, I'll confess, they didn't ALL go to the side ON PURPOSE. I'm not THAT good at it. But I really was trying not to hit him! They just... didn't always go exactly as far off to the exact side as I was aiming for.
Anyway, he didn't think much of my methods, I guess.
"COME ON, PRIVATE TWINKLETOES! DON'T GO EASY ON ME!"
There was at least half a ton of challenge in the way he said that, and I guess it sort of ticked me off a little, because I actually got mad at him for it - I was only trying to be NICE! - and the next one he fired at me, I bounced right back into his chest.
As soon as I'd hit my secondary trigger and saw where it was headed, I felt AWFUL, but to my surprise, instead of blowing him up, it just bounced off and hit the ground.
"DUMMY ROUNDS, PRIVATE!"
He grinned at me, a flash of white under the shadow of his helmet, and I couldn't help but grin back, even if he couldn't see me. I hadn't even thought of that! I should've, really; I mean, it's the only thing that makes sense in retrospect, but at the time, you know - ?
Anyway, we ended up playing rocket tennis for the whole evening, right up until the lights came on in the yard and we got called in for dinner. It was a lot of fun!
Monday. I DID GOOD TODAY! I really really did!
I woke up this morning thinking "Today will be the day." Checked to see if I needed to shave and looked at myself in the mirror: "Self, I need to prove to Soldier that his rocket tennis really helped. I need to get out there and do the absolute best I can."
And it worked!
I actually caught a Spy before the Spy got Medic, and a little while later their Pyro started trying to flare-gun snipe me and I remembered my rocket practice and bounced it back and it actually hit him right in the face! And Soldier saw it and shouted "OUTSTANDING SHOT, PRIVATE!" And then I was so busy being proud of myself that I got blown up, but that was ok, because I managed to catch their Scout on fire basically as soon as I got out of respawn. I was on a roll! I did really really well! And Soldier was proud of me! This is my best day ever!!!
Tuesday. I did ok today but not as good as yesterday. I need to remember to give myself a pep talk every morning, because I guess that helped. Still, I'm improving, that's something, right?
Only I think Soldier's disappointed in me again. He didn't say anything though.
Friday. Well, the rest of the week didn't go as well as Monday did, but it was better than last week was. Still, I felt like maybe I disappointed Soldier by not keeping up my performance. A few times this week he popped his head into the showers while I was in there and shouted at me to keep practicing and do some push-ups - and every day it was more push-ups, too, it started at twenty and yesterday I ended up doing a full hundred - or trying to, anyway, I got tired at 76 and gave up because he wasn't watching anyway, only I felt bad so I did the other 24 after dinner.
Anyway, I was afraid he was disappointed in me, and I figured he'd be coming in to give me even more push-ups anyway, so I waited around in the showers without taking my gear off so I could talk to him. Or have him yell at me while I stood there trying to keep my back straight at attention for him, anyway, which is how I figured it would go.
And I was right, at first. There was a lot of hollering about things. I don't remember it word for word, but I think it went a lot like this:
"PRIVATE, YOU NEED TO MAINTAIN YOUR PERFORMANCE! IF YOU GIVE THE ENEMY AN INCH, THEY'LL TAKE YOUR BLOOD! ALL YOUR BLOOD! AND THAT IS BAD, BECAUSE YOU NEED YOUR BLOOD! WITHOUT YOUR BLOOD, WHAT ARE YOU? A VAMPIRE! AND THEN YOU'LL NEED TO DRINK MORE BLOOD TO GET IT BACK! AND IT IS HIGHLY PREFERABLE TO DRINK THINGS OTHER THAN BLOOD! BLOOD TASTES BAD! NOT AS BAD AS MRE LASAGNE, BUT BAD! DO YOU WANT TO HAVE BLOOD FOR DINNER, PRIVATE?"
At this point, I managed a "SIR NO SIR."
"NO! AND DO YOU KNOW WHY?"
"BECAUSE YOU SAID IT TASTES BAD, SIR!"
"RIGHT! AND WHAT TASTES BETTER THAN BLOOD?"
"ICE CREAM, SIR?"
"NO! WAFFLES!"
"W-waffles, sir?"
"WAFFLES! HAVE YOU EVER HAD A WAFFLE, PRIVATE?"
"Sir yes sir?"
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
"SIR YES SIR!"
"GOOD! NOW, HAVE YOU SHOWERED, PRIVATE?"
"NOT YET, SIR!"
"WHY NOT? CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS, AND GODLINESS IS NEXT TO WAFFLES! NOW TAKE OFF THAT UNIFORM AND GET IN THE SHOWER, PRIVATE!'
"SIR YES SIR!"
Which is how I ended up in the shower with Soldier standing there at strict attention eyeing me from under his helmet. Oddly, I didn't feel half as uncomfortable as I had when Scout was doing basically the same thing. I mean, it was kind of embarrassing, but at the same time, it was Soldier, and I figured he was - well, I won't say SAFE, because this is Soldier we're talking about, after all, but - I didn't mind it that much, for whatever reason.
Although I wasn't sure whether I still didn't mind it when, after I turned the water off, I turned around to discover that he was now about six inches from me.
"DROP!"
"Dr-- " I cut myself off and put on the shouty voice he liked. "AND GIVE YOU TWO HUNDRED, SIR?"
Luckily he caught that I was joking, and gave me the grin. "NOT YET, PRIVATE!"
I dropped.
So then I was lying on the floor with my hands in push-up position by my shoulders and the water drying on my back, which was pretty chilly, especially with the tiles underneath me, and even craning my neck I couldn't see any further than Soldier's knees because of the placement of my mask's lenses, and that was when I got my first inkling of what was in store for me. I mean, I knew we were a touchy-feely group, and Soldier'd never tried anything, but I guess it was inevitable that he would eventually, and - another oddly enough - I didn't mind. I was kind of looking forward to it. I mean, he does everything with so much CONFIDENCE and so much FORCE, which in retrospect should've been kind of intimidating because I still feel kind of sore - but I'm getting ahead of myself.
The thing that surprises me most in retrospect is that he actually brought lube.
Then again, I guess Sun Tzu would have said that a soldier has to be prepared for everything.
I don't - I mean, sure, this is just my diary, and maybe later I'll want to read it back over or something, because, you know, I don't know, we don't have good internet access and it's not like I have a subscription to porno or anything and I'm not exactly going to go ask Sniper or whoever if he has any I can borrow, and I'm rambling, anyway, I don't really like going into details, and why am I rambling like this at myself? Oh well, this is in pen, I can't erase it, we'll let the paragraph stand.
I've never had anything up that particular passage. I've always kind of thought of that as an Exit Only type of thing. But it's not like I'm completely naive, I know some people are really into that, and I'm not, like, a bigot or anything, but - anyway, I wasn't sure whether it was going to feel good or hurt, and it kind of did both, if that makes any sense. Like when you eat a really hot chili or something and it tastes good but it burns? That's probably the worst analogy for anal sex anyone has ever written.
I'm going to skip the parts that are making me turn really red to try to write, ok? Future Me, you'll remember. I don't need to tell you that part.
Anyway, that's when it started getting weird.
He was kneeling behind me with his fingers up in there - there was some shouting of "SPREAD 'EM, PRIVATE" in between - and I was trying to decide if I wanted to move back against him or if that would get him shouting at me again, and I heard a zipper and decided to hold still for a minute.
He was not as big as Heavy. Thank God for small favors.
You don't have to have a lot of experience dealing with other people's cocks to know when one of them is pressed up against your ass. And that is when he started shouting again.
"I DON'T KNOW BUT I BEEN TOLD - "
And /thrust/.
"ARMY COTS CAN GET REAL COLD!"
"Holy fuck, Soldier!"
"THAT'S NOT PART OF THE CADENCE, PRIVATE! REPEAT! I DON'T KNOW BUT I BEEN TOLD!"
I tried to shout with gritted teeth, which didn't work very well, so I had to ungrit them. "ARMY COTS CAN GET REAL COLD!"
"SOUND OFF!"
I didn't know what the proper response was. He was keeping time with his shouting, pushing into me and pulling out, and he stopped all the way in, filling me up. "THIS IS WHERE YOU SAY ONE TWO, PRIVATE!"
"ONE TWO!" That got him moving again, and this time he hit this spot that made me open my eyes really wide. No wonder people like this!
"SOUND OFF!"
I guessed at the right answer, to keep him going, make him try to hit that spot again. "THREE FOUR!"
"SOUND OFF!"
"FIVE SIX?" He stopped again. Goddammit!
"ONE TWO AGAIN, PRIVATE!"
"SIR YES SIR! ONE TWO! KEEP GOING!"
"SOUND OFF!"
"THREE FOUR!"
"I DON"T KNOW BUT I BEEN TOLD - "
"ARMY COTS CAN GET REAL COLD!"
"SOUND OFF!"
"ONE TWO!"
"SOUND OFF!"
"THREE FOUR!"
"SOUND OFF!"
"ONE TWO!"
And so we continued, at a steady, forceful pace, and he hit that spot on every other stroke, right in military time, and my eyes were rolling back in my head, shouting out replies to his cadence in order without actually listening to what he was shouting at me, because my attention was sort of off at that point, and I was wishing he'd speed up or something, because this pace was good but I felt like it could be better, and I was just hoping that he wasn't changing the cadence as he went along because for God's sake I didn't want him to stop again, he'd better just be repeating by rote, because that's all I was doing, and I was being ground against the tiles on every single stroke, and while I wouldn't normally consider humping the floor in the shower to be my idea of a good time, with Soldier pounding into me and everything it was really getting out of hand, and suddenly he was shouting something different, and I barely heard him at all, but I caught it just in time:
"BRING IT DOWN!"
"OH GOD SIR I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE ANSWER IS!"
And he pumped into me twice as hard and hit that spot again and I felt like I was going to die right there on the floor of the shower and get caught naked in respawn more embarrassed than I'd ever been in my life, and he just repeated himself, "BRING IT DOWN!"
And somewhere in the back of my mind I vaguely remembered something and I shouted back "SOUND OFF ONE TWO... THREE FO--unnh JESUS - "
"THAT'S NOT A NUMBER, PRIVATE!" he shouted over me, but I was REALLY not paying attention anymore, no matter how much that would make him shout, because I was somewhere behind my eyelids that was full of fireworks, and he was still going up there, shouting "ONE TWO - THREEFOUR!" And on the last syllable another of those really hard thrusts and heat filling me up and it was the strangest feeling in the world but I loved it and I loved Soldier and I loved everything and it was SO. FUCKING. GOOD.
And then eventually I realized that I was lying in a puddle of bodily fluid on the floor of the shower and Soldier was already standing up and pulling his pants back on, and I wasn't even embarrassed about it.
I mean, I was already in the shower, you know? Talk about easy cleanup.
So I stood up and tried to pull myself to attention and gave him a salute because it felt like that would be something he'd appreciate, and he gave me that grin again and returned the salute. "HOO-AH! YOU ARE THE BEST TROOP I HAVE HAD TO TRAIN IN MY ENTIRE CAREER, PRIVATE!"
And then he marched out, and I took a second shower and tried to make myself stop grinning.
And then I went up to my room and sat very carefully on the bed to write this out.
I think maybe I like him.
In fact, I'm pretty sure I do.
Oh geez, I hope my girlfriend doesn't find out.
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