persistence (Patreon)

More of.. this. Trenton encountering the future love of his life for the first time. I imagine that she is kind of this feisty journalist type in her youth. I know... a bit of a tired trope to some, I'm sure, but one I enjoy for this era. I feel like I'm cheating a bit with the definition of NSFW for this one BUT there is some blatant nudity here and I do find this pic to be oddly hot. more of Kody's great, great grandpa here... being a big naked idiot.

I have this mental image, for some reason, of Trenton and his comrades being naked outdoors a lot during their deployment/service. This is only reinforced by the fact that I picture them spending a lot of that time in these very hot, humid areas where they're glad to shed some clothes and jump into some water, or something. There's also the issue of washing/drying your clothes... gotta hang it out to dry, leading to prolonged periods of nakedness among your friends. In which case, none of them are bothered by it... they're all guys, they're used to it. That kind of almost jock mentality.

This pic speaks for itself, really, but just had this image of Trenton being on guard at their camp even when he's wearing just his boxers or even less. His future wife comes barging through demanding an audience with a higher up. Trenton is not the best when it comes to the ladies, especially the more dominating they are. He's a gentleman, he isn't rude or has any toxic masculinity traits particularly when it comes to the battle of the sexes, so to speak, but he's very accustomed to being around other guys and sometimes women are a bit of an obstacle course for him mentally/socially. Since his father passed when he was young, he was primarily raised by his own struggling mother and the other influences in his life were primarily what little friends he made on the streets, where he mostly got into fights daily. While he loved his mom dearly, he had difficulty expressing that love properly, due to the internalized angst of his father's death and just in general how quickly he had to grow up emotionally given his environment (not to mention the times).

I'm having difficulty explaining how this effects his communicative skills with ladies but I think it makes sense ultimately. Basically... if they're assertive, he wilts a bit. He becomes unsure of his actions, he stutters slightly and he struggles to feel 'natural'. If they're more passive or just "neutral" he's more himself. He had no idea this one would go on to be his wife at the time... I suppose she found his stumbling adorable. I think to some these tropes are a little eye-roll-y but, it was a hundred years ago and gender/sex was an extremely different beast socially... Trenton already breaks some molds anyway for his time, considering his closeted bisexuality... whether he's fully aware of it or not, it's there. The love he feels for some of his friends runs deeper than he can comprehend.