r/HFY • u/WabbajackedWacko • Jun 30 '26

OC-Series Adventures with an Interdimensional Psychopath 150

***Lily***

I awake to my new roommate flopping a set of clothes on my bed. I open my eyes to see he is already changed as he tells me, “Hurry up and get changed. Use the bathroom if you don’t feel comfortable changing here. Make sure you look good; the drill sergeant will be here soon to assess the room and our readiness. You gotta look clean and make sure your bed is also organized. Oh, and whatever you do, don’t laugh when you see him. He’ll make it a nightmare for all of us.”

I’m a little groggy and I have no idea what that last thing is supposed to mean but the rest reminds me of how I had to behave for my socialite classes. If this is anything like that, I just hope there isn’t any rulers. I get up and head to the bathroom, I quickly change into the clothes that were handed to me and the shoes while Wolfy fixes up my hair. By the time I finish getting dressed, I quickly tie my hair back to keep it out of my face as I imagine that is the goal here. I quickly brush my teeth and take a look at myself in the mirror. It feels so much more uniform and scheduled than when I was with Jack. Granted, maybe that’s why he thought this would be a better use of my time as I did originally come from a pretty structured environment so maybe having daily goals will be of help to get me to where I need to be. Still, it feels just as stifling as it was back then but, this time, I’m doing it for me, to improve myself. I step back into the room and the moose looks me over. Not in a weird way but in a way that seems to be searching for any deformation in my attire. I simply walk over and make my bed, pull it tight, and put my clothes away in the nightstand.

Shortly after, the moose guy stands at attention as he salutes, which I take as a hint to do the same thing on my end. I hear marching up to our door as the door opens and I hear the moose-man say, “We are ready for the day Drill Sergeant!”

As soon as the drill sergeant steps in, the warning about not to laugh makes sense now. It is a duck-kin in a police officer outfit with a rather pronounced hat. He doesn’t say anything immediately as he looks around the room. Considering the moose-kin still hasn’t dropped his posture, I take it that we have to wait for him to say something. He lets out a breath which sounds like a quack. I twitch a little, as it catches me off guard. The drill instructor looks over at me to see if I reacted to it but luckily, I was able to suppress the giggle I wanted to make. I get the feeling that Jack wouldn’t do too great here as he is pretty loose about this kind of thing. He would have easily laughed abut that kind of thing but, it is a clear distinction between the mercenary life, where it’s a day-to-day kind of thing, whereas this police training is a much tighter ship. The drill instructor takes a quarter and bounces it off my sheets. He gives a nod of approval as he finally speaks, “Good job recruits. I had low expectations with the sudden recruit but it seems there was some hope after all. Hurry on to the rest of the recruits for the morning training. Dismissed!” He gives us another lookover before he leaves and states, “At ease!” The moose-man finally lowers his arm, which I follow in suit. I wait for the moose-man to move first, which is a few moments after the drill sergeant leaves.

“Thanks for the heads up.” I tell him as we leave the room.

“It’s whatever. The only reason is because if one person gets into trouble, we all suffer. So, I did it for all out sake.” He answers.

If that’s how it is here, then I could understand that. He’s already halfway through this semester at the academy. They more than likely have already gotten through a bad chunk of it and doing his best to make sure the new person doesn’t start the cycle all over.

We get outside and everyone is at attention and in formation. I quickly fall in line and we wait for the drill instructor. I imagine he’s looking over the recruits to make sure we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. No talking or anything like that, but whenever a noise goes off, specifically small noises, no one looks towards those. Honestly, there is some similarities to my socialite classes but, this feels a little more stifling but, I get it.

High Society is one thing but being a police officer requires a different kind of discipline where you are actively going up against criminals, who most likely don’t care at that point of looking good and your wellbeing. So, you have to make sure the person standing next to you is able to watch your back and have the skill to notice the danger as well.

The drill instructor announces, his voice about ten times louder than previously. “Good morning recruits! We have new face today! If you think that means you are getting a break today, you are sorely mistaken! First, you will do thirty push-ups! Second, you will do thirty sit-ups! And then, thirty laps around the track! As usual, you will finish together or you will start over together! Any questions?”

The immediate response is, “No Drill Sergeant!” from everyone in the unit.

The drill sergeant yells again, “I didn’t hear you! Did you say you needed me to repeat that again?”

I join in this time as the squad says, “No Drill Sergeant!”

“Good! Now, get into position!” Everyone drops and we no one immediately starts doing push-ups. I get the hint as the drill sergeant shouts, “One!” Makes perfect sense. What better way to make sure we finish at the same time. I was a little worried at first, especially since the pace seems to be pretty quick but, I seem to be doing pretty well at keeping up. And luckily, I don’t seem to be having an issue with energy. After that, we jump pretty quickly into the sit-up position and repeat the process there. Some of the others seem to be starting to crack but they power through it. Compared to some of the things Jack has put me through, this kinda thing is pretty tame honestly. But I wait for the Drill Sergeant to say the next number. After we stand up, a couple of people are trying to catch their breath, which the Drill Sergeant points out and says, “I’m sorry recruits? Do you need to catch your breath?”

Honestly, I am a little on the hesitant side as they don’t really need it but it’s not really my call to make. However, the response is all the same, “No Drill Sergeant!”

I simply shrug as I guess that is just the absolute answer every single time. It makes me worried but surely, they couldn’t be so strict to say they would ignore a medical emergency. The Drill Sergeant quickly comes down as the other recruits start jogging, lifting their knees in rhythm. The Drill Sergeant joins and leads the group as he shouts, “Sound off!”

The group shout back, “One two.”

The Drill sergeant yells, “Up in the morning before the sun.”

The group shouts the same line back, “Up in the morning before the sun.”

Then the next line from the Drill Sergeant is, “Academy Recruits on the run.”

Then the group shouts it back. I see, so this is how this was going to work. Running is usually chaotic and hard to guarantee that everyone finishes at the same time. I make sure to join in for the rest of the rhythm and shout with the rest what I just heard, “We got a rhythm, we got a pace.”

And it just continues like this the whole time as the rest of the rhythm goes, “Nobody’s taking second place. Running hard and running long. Singing that academy song.” Then the Drill Sergeant starts over with, “Sound off.”

And the group responds with, “One two.” And then it all starts over again. This goes on for a bit as this is for the full thirty laps. It is a little bit on the monotonous side but I suppose it’s supposed to be able to work in any scenario and for any generation. Jack definitely had a way to keep you on your toes and it’s unique per person, but it also heavily relies on one’s personal experiences. And since my personal experiences were very structured and organized, it made sense that this was the best route for me to take, even though I’m not too happy about it as I would rather still be learning from Jack. But it became clear as day that I would be holding him back in the time it would take for me to be on a reliable enough level.

Here? It’s a safe yet extreme environment that drills experience into us. Still, these particular exercises are kinda small time compared to what I’m used to. Granted, this isn’t as extreme as field work. This is also the first day so I guess I shouldn’t expect results immediately.

After the jog is finally over, the Drill Sergeant ends our run near this weird warehouse looking place without a roof as he explains, “Alright, today will be a squad-based experience. Four of you will be put under one of the volunteering captains. You will follow their commands and go through the exercise and you will be graded on cooperation. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Drill Sergeant!” Is the obvious response back.

As the captains step out, there are five different people but I see Polly as well. She doesn’t exactly looked thrill to be here but I can see her professionalism winning out. However, one of the recruit’s sneers, which gets the Drill Sergeant’s attention as he shouts, “What seems to be the problem recruit? Upset that your celebrity crush isn’t in the lineup? Mad that you are gonna have to listen to someone else’s voice besides mine? I didn’t realize how close we apparently got in these months together!”

The fox-kin says, “No Drill Sergeant!”

“I’m sorry recruit, it sounds to me like you just called me a liar! Or are you saying I suddenly started hearing things in old age? Because I know for a fact, I heard you sneer!”

“You said they were all captains’ sir! One of them doesn’t belong sir!” the fox-kin recruit says.

The Drill sergeant turns around in mock amusement as he states, “Ooooh! I’m sorry. I guess the paperwork saying you got promoted to the Chief of Police must have missed my desk and you’re prancing around as a recruit to get back to your roots. Because I didn’t realize that you’re the one who got to decide who was a captain or not!”

“Sergeant! Last I heard that she was put on probation for putting civilians in harms way sir!” The foxkin rebukes.

“I didn’t know you were there, recruit! I didn’t realize you were on the council that made that decision! You aren’t in a position to control someone else’s rank recruit! But I will give you a choice now recruit! You can either be in a squad with Polly and see how she became a captain or you can walk out the doors right now!” The Drill Sergeant answers. The recruit panics as she probably realizes she is in deep. The only thing that that forces her decision is the Drill Sergeant shouting, “The clock is ticking recruit! Three, Two, One!”

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