#ootwf

Grasshopper mice are barely affected by the Arizona bark scorpion’s incredibly painful venom.

[First] - [Previous] - [Next_]

If there was something Trainee hated more than chores, it was training.

Which, considering his name, was probably a little more than ironic. But hey, it was boring. Trainee hated being bored. When he first arrived, he’d spent quite a bit of time running away from his senseis in order to avoid training— and to avoid them in general.

But hey, Trainee had been five years old who’d come from a pretty scary Before, so it was natural for him to be pretty wary of the people he now considered his family.

Trainee had grown out of the “run away from everyone who approached him” attitude, but he hadn’t quiiite grown out of the “run away and hide from everyone who approached him because they’d try to bring him over to the training dojo” attitude.

“Trainee,” a tired voice sighed outside Trainee’s door. “Trainee, open the door.”

“No!” Trainee snapped, burrowing deeper in his blankets while keeping a firm watch on the barricaded door, which had multiple locks and his every heavy dresser pushed up against it for good measure.

“Trainee, you have to train if you want to move up in rank…”

“I’m plenty high in rank,” Trainee pouted. He was tempted to stick his tongue out, but since the Foot couldn’t see him, the act was pretty pointless. And members of the Foot didn’t do anything that was pointless.

“Recruit’s there already, she’s waiting for you,” the Foot tried again, using the common knowledge that the young kappa had a soft spot for the only other kid in the clan.

“Jokes on you, if Recruit wanted me to come, she’d’ve climbed into my room through the vents if necessary!” This time, Trainee did stick out his tongue with a “nyhh” sound to make it clear he did that. The Foot gave another tired sigh.

“If you come out… I’ll talk to the boss about getting you some ice cream as a treat.”

Trainee perked up at the offer, but it wasn’t quite enough.

“…And pizza,” the Foot added.

The very next second, the dresser was moved and the door was opened and Trainee stood in front of the Foot soldier in full training gear.

“Hawaiian?” Trainee confirmed before he stepped out of the room, and with a confirming nod, his face burst into a grin so bright it could rival the sun. He immediately bolted down the hallway towards the dojo, confusing each Foot he passed greatly because not one of them had ever seen Trainee so excited for training.

“I promised him pizza,” the foot soldier explained.

“And ice cream!” Trainer added, his voice distant down the hallway towards

“And ice cream,” the foot soldier agreed.

Another soldier snorted. “Good luck with that,” they said. The foot soldier just sighed.

Meanwhile, Trainee finally arrived at the dojo… only to regret each and every choice he had ever made in his life when he saw what awaited him there.

Mats were spread against the floor, with their senseis sitting on two of them and Recruit sitting on a third, legs crossed, eyes squeezed shut in focus. Candles were lit and the room was dimmed, gentle aromas wafted throughout. All of this could mean only one thing.

Meditation.

Trainee desperately wanted to bolt and hide again, but he’d made a commitment! There were prizes on the line!

*Do it for the pizza* Trainee told himself as he walked over and sat on the final mat.

“How nice of you to finally join us,” Lieutenant said sarcastically. Trainer just pouted.

“I was promised pizza. And ice cream.”

Lieutenant raised an eyebrow, then burst out laughing. “Why haven’t we thought of that before now?” He asked Brute,

“Who offered it to you?” Brute questioned, clearly in agreement.

“I think he’s called Fist?” Trainee shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Fist, huh?” Brute hummed, already running a mental list of soldiers they had.

It was common for members of the Foot to drop their name from Before and replace it with an adjective or title. Like Brute, Trainee, Recruit, and Lieutenant. Especially if the member joined young.

Their identities from Before did not matter, only who they were Now.

“Fist!” Lieutenant exclaimed suddenly with a snap of his fingers. “That’s right, he came from our branch in Europe. Good soldier.”

“Ah, right,” Brute agreed. The two started talking about him, and Trainee noticed that Recruit had cracked an eye open.

“Are we going to ever start training?” She muttered, frustrated.

“Sooner we’re done, sooner we get pizza and ice cream,” Trainee agreed.

“Ice cream?!” Recruit straightened up, a fire bursting to life in her eyes. “I will meditate so fast and so hard that I will have EARNED that ice cream!! HEY! Senseis! Are we meditating or WHAT?!”

That got their attention. Lieutenant turned back to the impatient children and cleared his throat. “Right, of course, sorry. Trainee, get into position— Straighten up a little, good, just like that. You should be comfortable, but not so much that you end up falling asleep. Now, close your eyes, take deep breaths, and focus on clearing your mind…”

Meditation lasted for hours. Trainee never liked it. His mind was always racing, always moving and changing and asking to clear it was like asking water to stop being wet.

…

“I’m bored,” Trainee announced. He couldn’t take it anymore.

Lieutenant popped an eye open and observed him. Then he glanced at the clock and sighed. “Ok, fine.”

“REALLY?” Recruit jumped to her feet, fists to the sky. “I was VICTORIOUS! I lasted LONGER than you and now we shall celebrate with ICE CREAM and PIZZA!”

“Ice cream!!” Trainee shouted in mutual excitement, his headache from the scented candles and whatever else they lit during meditations fading away now.

“Yes, yes, you have earned those treats,” Lieutenant promised. “Go ahead to the mess hall, Fist should have ordered the pizza and had it delivered by now.”

Trainee beamed up at his senseis, and Brute gave him a pat on the head before Recruit grabbed his arm and pulled him ahead. Pizza and ice cream were rare treats, because of how unhealthy they were. So the few times they were allowed junk food, they took advantage of it!

And maybe they started a food fight while enjoying their treats. It wasn’t as though they hadn’t done it before (and they made sure not to spill a single drop of their ice cream, or leave behind a single crumb of their pizza.)

Or

Isn’t this such a cheerful song? 😇

[First] - [Next]

“According to our readings, there are more pieces in these locations—”

“SENSEIII!”

Foot Lieutenant only had that brief warning before he was tackled from two separate directions by their two youngest recruits. A small girl with black hair in spiky pigtails and a gap-toothed smile, and a smaller turtle yokai with red stripes over his eyes, who had apparently teamed up in order to knock Lieutenant off balance.

And it worked, because it sent Lieutenant to the ground and left Brute standing over him, not even attempting to hold back his laughter.

“Not a word,” Lieutenant snarled, trying (and failing) to stand up against the weight of two children nuzzling up against him. “Recruit. Trainee. I thought you were running drills?”

“We finished!” Recruit proudly declared. “We pulverized our previous record and emerged victorious!”

“And you promised to play with us when we were done!” Trainee agreed. “We’re done! So now it’s play time!”

“Did you really?” Lieutenant asked in shock. “Was it done properly?”

“Uh-huh!” Trainee beamed. “Dave watched us!”

“Dave?” Lieutenant looked over at Brute, who appeared to be just as bewildered as he was. “We don’t have a Dave in our ranks.”

“I call him Dave!” Trainee declared proudly. “He wouldn’t tell us what to call him so I call him Dave!”

“It makes him cringe!” Recruit agreed. “It is quite entertaining!”

Lieutenant couldn’t keep that treacherous smile off of his face. They were just children, expendable soldiers, and yet…

“In that case, go ahead and check with Dave to see if they’ve performed the drills properly,” Lieutenant ordered Brute, finally managing to pull himself up to his feet. The two children still clung to him, their arms wrapped around his neck and giggling at the ride Lieutenant was providing them. He wrapped his arms around both children in order to take the pressure off his neck and make them more secure.

“On it,” Brute agreed. He too was smiling fondly as he ran off towards the dojo. Once he was out of sight, Lieutenant turned his attention back to the two children in his arms.

“Why Dave?” He asked, mostly directed to the kappa, but leaving it open for Recruit to answer as well.

“No real reason!” Trainee said cheerfully. “It was just the first name that popped into my head!”

That, of course, was a lie, but Lieutenant had no way of knowing that. There was no way he could know that whenever Trainee thought about potential names, three names that had nothing to do with “Dave” were his first thought. But because Trainee had never told anyone, not even Recruit, his statement was taken for the truth and it only made that fond smile grow.

“It’s a totally ridiculous name,” Lieutenant joked casually. This just made Recruit snort.

“You think that’s ridiculous, you should meet Bob.”

Or

[First_] - [Next]

“Recruit! Recruit, where’d you go?”

Trainee wandered around the base, calling out her name, checking under every crevice and in every shadow. Recruit was nowhere to be found.

“Please, Recruit?” Trainee tried again. “I’m really, really sorry. Two reallys! That’s a big deal!”

“…Why’s it a big deal?”

Trainee jumped at the sudden voice behind him, and he whirled around to see Recruit standing there. His face burst into a grin and he ran to hug her. “Recruit!” He cried cheerfully. She blinked, but didn’t move to avoid the hug, and she wrapped her arms around him as well.

“Why’s two reallys a big deal?” Recruit repeated her question, pulling back slightly to look at him. Trainee had to blink a few times to orient himself on that. It just… felt natural. Like the whole world agreed.

His family was his whole world.

Recruit was his family.

So why didn’t she agree?

“Because one really means something’s important,” Trainee eventually managed to say. “So two reallys means something’s doubly important!”

Recruit seemed to consider that, before she matched Trainee’s grin and engulfed him in another hug. “Ok, that makes sense! So you’re really, really sorry?”

“Really really sorry!” Trainee agreed.

“And you’ll do anything to make it up to me?”

“YES! …Wait no—”

“Too late!” Recruit declared, using her current grip on Trainee to raise him above her head like a battering ram. “You agreed to do anything!”

“But your chores are so booooring!!” Trainee moaned.

“That’s why I’m giving them to you as punishment!”

“Nooooooo!”

Still, even despite his protests, Trainee and Recruit kept up their laughter and smiles throughout the day.

Or

A series of ✨cute✨ little snippets of life inside the Foot Clan, where Leo and everyone got separated! Leo, who has been given the title “Trainee” is best friends with Casey, who we all know is titled Recruit.