"adjusting to new life hasn't been easy for y/c, what if the hardest thing y/c has came across with adjusting so far?"

(i finally got around to doing this)

If someone asked him to make a list of what was difficult for him right now, he could probably write an entire book of what things he was comfortable with and one thing that he was not. Washington had been through quite a bit in just a couple of days, and everything seemed to continue to escalate. It was more than he was willing to handle in his current situation but again, he wasn't given a choice of what he really wanted to do either. He was stuck in his current body, although in his mind he believed it to be entirely temporary. He wasn't going to stay like this forever, he didn't care what planet he was on, he didn't care what other Freelancers were going to come along, he was going to find a way out and there was no one that was going to stop him. Washington was still trying to adapt to the life of an animal altogether. What his body needed in order to work fine in this type of environment, how much he needed to eat, how much he needed to drink. He had to take every small factor into consideration. The Freelancer didn't have a chance to rest and figure out what he was later as he needed to figure it out now before he ran out of time and something else came out. Soon he was going to have to start figuring out how to train again.

Something that he hadn't done in a good while, and was definitely out of practice. In his current body there were plenty of ways he could defend himself, but with his bulky body and used to fighting on two legs that were easier said than done. Right now he was still struggling with the effects of starvation. Something that had only happened a couple days ago when he refused to eat raw meat. He couldn't stomach the thought of him, a human, eating raw meat like he was some kind of animal. He wouldn't stoop to that level, and he almost completely refused to do so. Although he knew that if he wasn't offered a different option, he would probably just force it down his throat no matter how bad it tasted. It had only been Impera that had really come in to help him with the idea of dried meat. A recognizable form of food that he was actually accustomed to eating when he was a human. There was never an abundance of it on the Mother of Invention, but it was still at least something to snack on when he wanted to. The Freelancer wasn't completely physically healthy just yet. He refused to think about getting a checkup from whatever medic that they had around here. Not ready to trust the likes of them yet. It was because of the damned medics from where he was from that had done this to him.

Luckily, he was able to get at least three hours of sleep recently. An extra hour than what he was used to, and he managed to get a couple things done as well. Everyone seemed to slowly start to get along, and less stressful situations were certainly better for him in his current condition. He was going to have to build up his tolerance though because he would only be able to fool others for so long by saying that he was fine and there was nothing to worry about. Although he did recently figure out that Carolina had lost her AI's just like he did. He knew that Episolon was different, but he felt like that she was probably going through exactly what he was going through. Which concerned him, but he knew that bothering her right now wouldn't be the right choice of actions. Freelancers didn't approach each other when it came into concern whether they were feeling okay. After everything, Washington was less likely to approach a fellow teammate and see what was going on with them. As the rookie, he would have done it in a heartbeat because he didn't know better. Right now though, the armored smilodon was sitting underneath a tree a small distance away from the Observatory. He had gotten his schedule back in order, meaning that right now the sun was getting close to going down. The lights that were on his suits already powered on like they usually were so it was easy to see where he was in in the low light.

He had turned on the flashlight that was integrated into his armor around his chin, making it easier for him to read the book that he was indeed reading. The one thing that he couldn't get over was that they were on Earth. There were, of course, didn't explanations as to how they had gone back in time, and if they were even in their universe, but Washington refused to believe them and needed a logical answer. But the technology that they had here was limited. He was trying to catch up on the current human history and what was going on right now. He was sitting in silence occasionally flipping through the page. His helmet like usual hiding his facial features. He would probably read through the entire textbook all the way through, considering how late he stayed up. He usually stayed up till around 0100 hours, which was visible on the bottom left of his helmet on the side so that he constantly had a clock with him. And he would get up at 0400 hours to start his morning run, again leaving himself a small amount of sleep. The Freelancer knew no one else had memorized his schedule and he planned on keeping it that way. Taking one of his paws, he turned the page, forcing his eyes to stay open. He was focusing on at least gaining some knowledge so that he wouldn't be alone with his thoughts. "speech"

Washington didn't get around all that much. He wasn't the type that would simply just start rushing into battle thinking that he was going to win without any sort of information. The Freelancer needed to know what he was going up against, and from there he would come up with a strategy on how to win. If he knew that he was going to lose, then he wasn't dumb enough to keep fighting. Maybe in self-defense to give him time to run away but from there he would run away so that he could fight another day. A tactic that he had done when he joined the UNSC military before joining Project Freelancer entirely. Either way, that just meant that he wasn't about to go outside of the outpost if there were bound to be massive creatures like the dog cat chicken that had recently decided that he was going to stay with the group. If there was something that was around the size of a scorpion tank, that meant that he didn't want to have anything to do with that. He hadn't tried to do anything but cardio training since he had arrived here. Meaning that if he was going to get into a fight he was most likely going to use. After all, York had said that he was the worst fighter out of Alpha team. Which was understandable, since he was much better with actually shooting people instead of actually grappling them to the ground. He was much better at fighting at long range, but it seemed here that he was at a disadvantage because there would be no way he could even carry the likes of a gun.

So, he was stuck with hoping that his armor would end up taking the brunt of the damage that would come toward him. The only fight that he had managed to get in though was with Carolina, and she had been the one to take him down. The leopard seemed to almost do it too easily despite the size difference between the two fo them. And he even had armor. This meant Washington wasn't about to start going out with dangerous creatures that could potentially take his head off. He would prefer to stay alive while he was trying to figure out how to be human again. That was the goal anyway and they were slowly making progress. They knew what planet they were on and also the year that it was. They also knew that humans lived on this planet, but there was a chance that it wasn't the same planet that was in their universe. He was from around 2525, a couple years after the Great War on Earth itself. There would be no way that he and Carolina could manage to wait that long. They weren't gods. They were going to die of old age before they could get there. What Washington really wanted to do was to go toward any human cities that were around and gather as much technology as he could. He was damn tired about reading the dumb textbooks that he had right now. The armored smilodon usually absorbed information fairly well, so reading books wasn't hard for him to do. It was just that it didn't answer his specific questions.

He wondered if he could somehow wire something that would give them internet, which would allow him to search for what he was looking for. Probably not possible, but it was better than anything. Although Agent York would be better for a task like that as he had never been amazing when it came to tech like that. Hotwiring a car was easy and driving vehicles too. But trying to hook up a place with internet that obviously wasn't even near a city? That was a tall order even for him. Because he had his own schedule, it meant that he was allowed to avoid a lot of social interaction with others. In his mind, he wasn't here to make friends. If anything he was using them for their resources and the knowledge that they possessed because they could help him in the long run. If they really started causing problems for Washington and Carolina, he probably would try to kill them he could. He wasn't innocent after all. He was a murderer. The armored smilodon flipped the page to the textbook, adjusting his helmet slightly so that he could get the flashlight to shine better on the damn thing. It was around that moment that Washington began to hear movement coming toward him. Considering that it wasn't running at him in top speed he figured that whatever was coming toward him wasn't going to try and kill him. He also expected it to either be Imperia or even Carolina.

The Freelancer didn't look up because of this, and it was only when he heard an unfamiliar voice that he raised his head. It was a type of feline, he didn't know which one because he didn't know everything about animals still. His visor hid any facial expression that he had, but he didn't seem to be all that upset about being interrupted while he was reading. Gordon. A normal name in the Freelancers ears. "Agent Washington." The soldier would introduce himself. He didn't say that it was nice to meet her, just because he wasn't sure what to think of the female. She seemed nervous, but anyone could be nervous as a means to trick someone. His paranoia always getting the better of him, but half the time it actually saved his life. At the question of what he was reading, Washington turned the page that he had been on, tilting his head slightly as he thought about how to explain what he was reading. "It's a history textbook that I requested someone get for me. I'm reading through some of the recent historical events and the technology that is around in the current year that we are in 2018. Since I need a refresher on whatever is going on with humans right now." Washington would explain calmly, not knowing if Gordon would know what he was saying or not and if it even made any sort of sense. "speech"

He didn't know how humans acted in this timeline. Could he even call it a timeline? He wasn't exactly sure but he was going to stick with that so he wouldn't get confused on what to really end up calling it. Washington didn't know that humans here were still hunters and still could be considered a threat toward those that were indeed animals. Not much that Washington could do with that because he wasn't here to change or make anyone's life better either. Washington was selfish in the factor that he was here only for himself and no one else. He knew that he was basically willing to sacrifice anything just to get back to the world that he once knew of. Which would probably require him getting a piece of alien technology which sounds impossible at the moment. Besides, even if he were able to acquire something like that he probably wouldn't be able to use it with the technology that the humans currently have. Which was far beyond what he was used to dealing with on the MOI.

He was used to holograms, having touchpads that did whatever they asked him to, or AI's that made calculations during the middle of battle. Here, there was no such thing and it was certainly making their lives harder and harder. At least the Observatory had power, and that would make it easier for them to run their gear if they needed to. Although the battery pack in his suit seemed to be working just fine without really having to charge it. This wasn't the case though because the smilodon had electricity elementals that he didn't know about. The one thing that allowed the lights that were on his body to actually light themselves up when they touched his body. An electrical current constantly running through his body. Washington thought there was a battery pack on his back, which if he were to look more carefully and actually open it find out that there was no battery pack that had ever been there.

The last thing he needed right now was more confusion than he was already dealing with on a daily basis. The smilodon just wanted everything to be simplified and logical, but logic didn't seem to have anything to do with this Earth. He was still going to call it Earth because it obviously was, but it wasn't THEIR Earth. Their Earth was War-torn and there would be evidence of said War across the entire planet. Washington had been there when Gordon was freed from the human trap, but in his mind soldiers would have gotten over an injury quite quickly. He didn't fear the humans that were around because they were humans. They were what he used to be and he would be able to figure out how they would think. The large male heard the fear in the other's voice, causing him to raise his head and look at the feline.

She definitely didn't like the concept of humans, but that wasn't his problem it was hers. Maybe he should be more considerate of someone's feelings, but a lot had changed about how his mind worked. "Because I and several others are trying to go back to being humans. We don't want to stay animals forever." The Freelancer would say calmly. Would that scare Gordon that he had been something that she feared? Probably. He wasn't the type of offer some sort of comfort when someone was in distress. She was a civilian in his eyes, and what he wanted shouldn't even bring up any type of fear because it had nothing to do with her. After all the last place he would be once he got back to being human was to stay on Earth. He would go where the Director was and where he was needed, nothing more nothing less. "speech"

Almost nothing about places like these scared him. He wasn't even remotely scared of what the humans were capable of on this Earth. Something around his size wasn't exactly the easiest to take down, and as long as they didn't shoot through his visor or the gaps in his armor he wouldn't have to worry about anything. Washington had no reason to try to pretend like he cared about something or that it even bothered him. He was just certain of one thing, and that thing was that he didn't belong here. It was obvious about the way that he acted around others and the way others acted toward him. He obviously didn't belong and probably would never belong either. Washington didn't care if others thought it was strange that he wanted to get back to being human because they didn't know what it was like being human. He wanted to have fingers again. He wanted to be able to walk on four legs. He wanted to hold a damned rifle again. Washington didn't want to go exactly back to what everything used to be. Carolina was doing the same, although she was maybe a little bit more abrasive about the subject than he was. Although few were allowed to approach the female in the first place without her getting pissed off that they did something. It would just take time. Washington didn't even bother to look up at Gordon hearing the way her voice trembled. Again not offering any sort of support toward her. "Well let's say you turned human. You would want to return back to the life you were given, correct? The same goes for me. I don't belong here and I don't fit in. Turning into an animal wasn't exactly on my bucket list."

Would that help Gordon understand? Probably not. It didn't seem like he would need to when a familiar voice did fill his ears and he raised his head to look at Church as he made his way over. Compared to Church, Washington had small lights around his helmet while the other's lights remained dark. He agreed with what Church said, but he wasn't going to say it out loud for the simulation trooper to hear. Washington didn't like being an animal, hence why he never took his armor on because it reminded him that he was human. This was only temporary. He sure as hell hoped it was only temporary. The Freelancer's gaze watched as the border collie padded over toward him to look over his shoulder. Washington didn't mind of course. Washington listened to what Church had to say, and let a huff escape his jaws, although he wasn't annoyed with what Church had to say. "If I couldn't read with it, I wouldn't be wearing it. And you get used to reading big words when that's all you're used to seeing." The Freelancer would state with a small shrug of his shoulders. His gaze was back onto the book, wondering if Church wanted something else, or was waiting for an order to give to him. Washington didn't seem too adamant of ordering the simulation soldier around at the moment. Which was certainly different. With the male this close, the scar from his implant was starting to itch. He ignored it, and it would eventually blossom into a burning sensation. He continued to ignore it as he flipped to the next page. He was over halfway through the textbook."speech"

Everything that happened on the MOI played back in his memory over and over again. Compared to his former teammates that were constantly fighting one another, Washington was left alone in a room that was meant for those that had just gotten out of surgery. Which had certainly been what happened, and he slept a maximum of four days. Washington had been out of the loop for a while and once he woke up there was finally someone next to his bed, although he couldn't remember when the thing that had been in his neck had actually been removed. The soldier asked what was happening the past couple of days, and the Twins told him that they were canceling the rest of the operations. And that there had been something that happened with Agent Texas, something about her trying to take Wyoming's AI at some point. That was something that didn't really sound right because he didn't know Agent Texas would do something like that. Maybe he didn't know her as much as he thought he did. And around this times the alarms blared in the room stating that there was someone that had invaded the ship that they were on, and North said that it had been Agent Texas. Having just come out of surgery, Washington wasn't really sure what he was doing. He had all of his armor on the recovery table, which wasn't all that surprising since he almost always had his armor on even after operations. The armor helps to keep everything against his body in case he acquired a severe injury.

It was during this time that the Twins ended up leaving the room, trying to figure out what they were going to do about Agent Texas. Washington wasn't allowed to move from the spot, because even if he could there was no way he would be capable of standing up at this time either. He went in and out of consciousness as he hallucinated memories that weren't his own, and it was only when the ship started to shake that Washington became more aware of his surroundings. All the realizations came flooding in at once, nearly making him keel over and vomit off the side of the bed at that everything had been a lie. The memories that had been shared with him holding the truth that they were not the good guys. Instead, they were the bad guys that everyone was trying to stop. The shaking of the ship didn't stop, and more alarms blared followed with directions on where to go to remain safe. He had managed to get himself up onto his feet and make his way toward the nearest window, and it was around here that he realized that they were actually crashing. In the middle of space. He didn't really have all that much time to react as he got as far away from the window as possible, listening to the creaking of metal and the screams of Freelancer personal screaming as they tried to save their own life or were killed by Agent Texas. Or whoever was siding with her too. Washington was able to hold onto the counter when the ship did crash, and he was thrown across the room like he didn't weigh anything.

When he had woken up, it was obvious it had just been minutes after the crash had happened. He took mental note of his condition, noticing that there was a distinct pain in his chest. He could barely operate on what was real and what was his mind playing tricks on him. Finally, he heard the ship start to rattle again, and for a split second as he watched as fire and debris came toward him at an astounding speed that he couldn't avoid. He had tried to brace himself, but when he finally woke up, he was just in the Ascendant's and no longer on the ship that he had once called home at the end. He remembered the moment that everything was destroyed, and when he first woke up he didn't know what he was going to do in such a strange world. Even if both Church and Washington seemed to be around each other constantly didn't mean that they enjoyed each other's company. Washington knew that Church didn't like him because he was a Freelancer. And Washington didn't like Church because the other refused orders and was a simple simulation soldier for the program. After speaking to Church and when Gordon started speaking again, the smilodon raised his head to look toward her again. So it seemed like she understood why they wanted to go back, and he hoped that wouldn't change her opinion on those that were trying to become humans again.

He knew that Roy was a former human, but he hadn't seen the other work to try and find his way back. Had the Colonel given up? Possibly. "That means you know why we want to get back so badly." Washington would reassure the female in a calmer voice, one that wasn't completely devoid of emotion this time. The other had more questions to ask, which was perfectly fine with Washington. The Freelancer would rather have other's realize something rather than just assume and make situations worse than they already were. Washington seemed thoughtful for a moment at her question, even raising one of his large paws to scratch the side of his helmet. "Well, it's different how all of us got here. Church and Caboose got here separate from us, although it dealt with some sort of explosion. I and Carolina arrived here once our ship exploded, probably causing some chain reaction to what was carried on board. But that's all I know about how we've gotten here, the rest is beyond the current information I have at the moment." Washington stated calmly this time as he explained. The simulation troopers were completely separate from what had happened to the Freelancers. He hadn't asked church specifically what had happened to him and Caboose, just that the two had been in some sort of explosion. "speech"