Do you ever recall, just like, those tiny moments, the insignificant moments in every possible way, yet despite that you find them cemented into your memory. You might not be able to recall what your second cousin looks like, yet you can remember the excitement you felt thirteen years ago when you picked up a dollar on the side of the road. There had to be something to that, an underlying theme or idea which turned fate in one way or another. Something to draw everything together, to force all the little pieces into place. The world is too big and too perfect to just be the result of something random. Just as when you throw a rock it will always fall, perhaps this world was always going to happen, that we would always make these choices. Gravity controlling our fate like it was a piece of string, or the writing on a piece of paper. Can we ever truly be free from gravity? Would we even survive if we were. Anarchy, a complete collapse of rules, of logic and any sense. That's what the Marine's were to, Landru a force holding the world together for better or worse. They were gravity. You might not like it, hell, you would probably even hate it, but that's the way it had to be. Just as the rock had to fall, the Marine's had to exist to make it fall. Without them, their would be nothing but space dust.

Rolling back on his heels, he couldn't help but take a sharp intake of breath, letting the salty sea air hit him fully. Today was a new day, a day full of possibilities and chances, the kind of day that could take you anywhere in life, kicking and screaming along the way. He had caved in, it was inevitable that he would have, but this was him finally admitting it. He had money in storage, but it was in a Marine bank. Can't get to your cash without being a working Marine or officially retiring. The pension payout was insane, but they really had you locked by the balls until that day came. It was a good system, he could see why they did it. Tempt in the young early then force them to stay till it's all said and done. Even better that the casualty rate for serving with the Marine's was so high, everyone who died with their money still stored away went right into the Marine's budget. Of course, some was skimmed off of the top for certain individual's pockets, but that was just the way you had to live if you wanted a sense of law. There would always be criminals in the world, but he would rather take the ones who would take a bit of money for themselves while doing the right thing than those who would rape and kill based on their mere whims. It wasn't great, but it was at least good.

That was the system he had to live by, the system which would have him in their mitts till the day he finally croaked it. To say it was pleasant would be a complete lie, but at least it wasn't horrible, which, when considering how things could be, was pretty gosh darn good. It sure as hell beat anything else that was being offered by the world, to oppose would be to praise chaos, something that would be completely illogical. If ever there was a system that needed everyone to comply, it was the one that existed as a whole to help benefit the lives of others. Living in chaos wasn't living at all, one moment you could be perfectly fine, the next you're a speck in a million, a life trodden on by war, one who is the victim of thievery. Living your life on the whims of others just because you refuse to join to the greater good, it wasn't something that he could ever find himself agreeing with. Laws existed for a reason, be it morally sound or not, justice must be followed out on, thus is gravity. Without a force to keep us in place we're just animals, crawling over one another just to get to the top of our tiny little pile, never caring to think about what would happen if the world was unified, never caring about the promise of tomorrow, of a world that continues to exist in harmony.

So, that was why he found himself here, in the line in a rather formal looking building. They really threw out the red carpet, you know? Nice little banners and cloths down the wall, formal insignia everywhere. Everything in its neat little place. He didn't mean to poke fun at the situation or the formality behind it, it was simply a nervous reaction, perfectly natural. It had been far too long since he had stepped anywhere close to an official Marine building. Yet, here he was after all of those years, after all the time he had spent dreading having to continue or contribute to something that required actual effort. He had been a coward in the past, he had failed when the call had come. That wasn't the kind of person he would allow himself to be. Not anymore. There was no time left for fear or regrets, all he could do was try his best to follow justice, the law of gravity. Soon he would achieve his dream and he could leave the whole situation behind, moving onto something much more impressive. If gravity is the force which binds us all into the world, compressing us in a way so that we're maintained in working order, to a precise and uniformed world to the letter, then to defy gravity would be to achieve heaven. This was Landru's dream, to ascend past the slop of the world, to move through the strings that bind creation on a specific path.

To call out and say, beyond it all in triumph. 'I exist, I matter and I have an opinion, god damn it.' Till then, the law must be filled, the book must be written in and gravity must continue to flow with the passage of time. So here he was, one small creature in a very big world. He was wearing a suit for once, the fresh fabric feeling like a small slice of heaven on his washed skin. He had almost forgotten what it felt like, to be free of the corruption of the world, to come out truly new, like a baby. A black blazer over a white cotton shirt, with the cuff lings, of course he wasn't some common slouch here. His black shoes shone in the light, allowing himself to view his own reflection as he stared down at his shoes, embarrassment and fear keeping his head bowed. His old skin sagged, dripping down his jaw. He had always had saggy skin, but it had never been like this. These days he looked in the mirror and saw another ten years added on, it was no way for a man to live. As if while he slept another man took up the proverbial shoes of his life, but instead of walking a day they ran a year. He was getting very old, and he could feel every minute of it. Blood and memories were all that ran through him at this point, the spark of life hidden away.

Words couldn't do it justice. Well, maybe they could, for a smarter man it was possible. But for him, he couldn't really describe it, as if he felt drained, his life ebbing away from him in pieces. One day you're waking up to learn more about the world, the next you wake up to find out what's breaking on your body. "Next, please." Came the call from in front, a nice little lady with tits that looked as if they belonged to a girl twice her size. It wasn't a bad view, but for whatever reason he couldn't find himself into it at the moment. Perhaps that was an effect of the aging also. Instead, his mind wandered to when he was just a fresh young child, the first time he was taken out of the laboratory by the Marines, the way everything was completely fresh and new. Opening his eyes to the light and seeing nothing but waves crashing down on all directions, the salty spray washing over him, greeting him into the new world. It was something that he longed for with a passion. He had seen it all at this point, walked every mountain, so to speak. The world had nothing left new to offer him. Even travel, his last great passion was beginning to sink down in how much he could enjoy it, with each journey simple being a memory of the last. It wasn't exactly the kind of thing he wanted to linger.

The rush of air going through your body, collecting under your clothes and pulling them back as if you were the flag on the ship, a complete annhilation of what he had expected the world to be. The roof, the roof was so high up he couldn't even see it and the lights were so bright he couldn't look at it for very long at all. The first night, looking up at the night sky and becoming so entranced by the stars and the stories they told, keeping everyone around him up for hours as he asked what every little piece of reality was. At first they laughed, when he was asking simple questions. 'What's grass?' was always a classic, certain to bring the whole area to tears. He could still recall the shaky explanation he had been given about what the moon was, that it was the sun if it had been turned off, that it's what was under our own sun. Of course, science evolved, the times evolved, we shifted beyond and learned more. The first ten years of his life had been nothing but discovery, as if he was a freshly born child with the mind of an adult. Completely captured in the story and the magic of it all, like it was something out of a fairy tale. The kind that you would whisper to your child as they were slowly drifting off to sleep, granting them the spark to imagine, all night long.

"Next, please." Again, how long had passed? He felt like he was walking through a day dream, the air was just right for it. Hot, but not hot enough to make you sweat, dry but not dry enough to hurt your skin. The perfect kind of situation that hangs in your memory, a tiny specific moment, the kind you could remember for the rest of your life. Nothing important, just standing in a line waiting for your number to be the next one that they decide to call up to confess your sins. Yet, it would stick, he was certain of that, it would stick like glue to the back of his brain, a thought that he could rely on till the day he died. That was another thing about aging, something that was probably the most terrifying of all. It wouldn't be his body that failed him first, it would be his brain. To lose his thoughts, the thing that make him up completely, the only thing he would need to continue to exist, to have them slowly drain from his being over the course of years while some young girl who hated their job treated you like some kind of animal. Maybe you would be at that point, if you couldn't recall your past, that was basically the closest you could get to being an animal, the furthest you could get from being a human being. The whole concept was completely horrifying, to the point where death would be preferred.