Cupid took slow but steady steps onto the harbour of Yotsuba Island. Marine warships were docked right next to worn out merchant ships, and the town was bursting with energy from the stoic Marines and the bustling townspeople. Cupid wanted to reinvent himself in West Blue, leaving behind his past as a Skypeian and a Revolutionary. The Revolutionary Army was flawed and corrupt, at least from Cupid’s personal experience, but he did not want to give up on the validity of government and authority quite yet. Surely the World Government, and by extension the Marines, would not be so corrupt. While on the ferry headed from North Blue, Cupid decided to give joining the Marines a try. He wasn’t quite sure that they would be accepting of a Skypeian like him, but it was definitely worth a try.

Regardless of his resolve, Cupid still felt nervous about the whole ordeal. Negative thoughts raced into Cupid’s mind, “What if the Marines know about my past as a Revolutionary? Or what if the Rubeck police put a hit on me? God, I’m totally going to regret, right?” Trying to calm himself down, Cupid took deep breathes and exhaled slowly. He laid his worries to a rest and walked towards entrance of the massive Marine base. He told himself “It’s too late now, you CAN’T turn back now Eros, it’s too late”, before placing himself directly in front of the person manning the main gate. Cupid shouted out to the Marine “Hello, my name is Eros Manolakos, and I would like to enlist in the Marines! Sir?"

The Marine sitting inside the booth lazily glanced at Cupid before getting up from his chair. As the man stood up, he readjusted himself while telling Cupid “Don’t shout, it’s still too early in the morning for this crap. If I wanted to get shouted at, I would’ve stayed at home with my wife. Anyway, I’m going to get some paperwork for you to fill out, and then I’ll direct you to the induction centre on the base”. The man looked through the drawers, before handing Cupid an envelope filled with documents that Cupid had to fill out and sign, along with a ball point pen with the Marine insignia painted over the cap. The man yawned before pointing in the other direction and telling Cupid “There’s a bench over there, you’ll want to sit down, there’s a lot of stuff to fill out”. Cupid heeded his command and went over the bench, holding the envelope of documents close to his body, in case the wind blew past by.

Cupid placed himself on the bench, before putting the envelope on it as well. He brought out the first document inside the document, which asked for basic information like name, country of origin, age, and etc. With pen in hand, Cupid went to town with the documents, filling them out at an incredibly fast pace. After roughly half an hour of filling out paperwork, Cupid placed all of the papers back into the envelope and went back to the booth. The lazy Marine was taking a nap, so Cupid steadily stood next to the man, in the empty line, not wishing to wake him up.

After about another half an hour of waiting, the Marine finally woke up in time for his lunch break. “Oh, you’re finished already? Well, it’s time for my break now, so you’re going to have to wait a bit longer.” Cupid was feeling slightly upset by how long the man was making him wait, but he internalizes his feelings and went back to the bench. The Marine left the post and nobody else came over to take over. A few other Marines walked into the base while Cupid wanted, they all had their own keys, but they paid no heed to Cupid. There was little for Cupid to do but sit and wait on the bench..

An hour later, the Marine finally returned to his post and called Cupid over, waking the former Revolutionary up from his reverie about being a heroic Marine, saving innocent civilians from pirates and the Revolutionary Army alike. Cupid dashed over to the booth and placed the envelope back on the counter, while the other man filled out a form for Cupid. He looked on excitedly as the form was being filled out and signed, while the marine grumbled under his breath about the ink running out. Nonetheless, the marine gave Cupid a document for him to hold onto, and gave him directions to the induction centre on base. The man told Cupid as he exited the booth and headed towards the gate “Okay, so you have to head over to the big black building on the right. I’ll open the gate for you, good luck!"

Cupid walked on the concrete path towards the induction centre, a large black plain-looking building located on the edge of the horizon. The base was immensely large, and Cupid realized that there were multiple gates into the base. He realized that he could have just gone to the other gate instead of waiting for the Marine to wake up from his nap and come back from his lunch break. Nonetheless, Cupid marched forward towards the intimidating building, with his letter to his chest. After a while, Cupid arrived at his destination, and he saw a group of Marine recruits, with their day clothes, arrive at the building. Cupid awkwardly shuffled into the crowd and entered into the building along with the rest of the recruits.

After a rigorous physical and fitness examination, Cupid was assigned a regular Marine uniform and told to report at another building within the hour, for basic training. Thinking back on the experience, Cupid was a bit surprised nobody mentioned his wings, he thought it would elicit some kind of reaction, but nobody really cared. Unfortunately, Cupid’s requests for something to eat were ignored, so there was not much for Cupid to do but march towards the training centre. Once he got there, the officials had all of the recruits line up for target practice. Cupid was easily the best shot, having been a marksman in the Revolutionary Army, and they decided to let Cupid “graduate” early. Cupid quickly realized that the Marines were not very well trained, but he decided to accept it as a fact of life.