Azur Lane: Tides of Fate

Chapter 1 - Circumstantial Conditioning

6 Months Later

June 6th - 11:20 AM

Honolulu, Hawaii

Clear blue oceans, sandy beaches, exotic scenery, the island paradise had it all. How can anyone be miserable in such a place?

This questions reflected the uncanny scene as a young man of twenty-four, Asher Barbosa, was leaning forward over the toilet of his hotel room. Fits of gagging and vomiting echoed in the small room as he forcefully evicted the liquor he downed no more than five minutes earlier. Much to his embarrassment this was the reaction of his seventh time drinking in his entire life. The first time results being a mirror of his current condition.

Until recently the young man never had an interest in drinking alcohol, rather he distained  it because he once quoted saying "they all smell like vinegar to me". But times have changed and not for the best to cause the one who thought no liquors would ever touch his lips to consider otherwise leading to his current greeting with the porcelain throne.

Three years have passed since he was discharged from the military or rather to be blunt his short term stay with the army. The reasons for his sudden dismissal was...to say the least was less than optimal or to put it in his own words: "fucking bullshit". Since then the young man had isolated himself upon returning back to his hometown of Redlands, California and stuck to only a close circle of friends, perhaps out of fear of what others would think if they heard why he was discharged and from a sense of failure hanged over him.

But this week was different and as much as he hated the idea that he accepted the invitation he knew he couldn't avoid those that were willing to reach to him after years of rejecting their previous invites.

It all happened around a month earlier when his old college roommate and friend Kevin Alvarez called him with plans to go to Hawaii for a week with some other people they both knew in their bachelor years at Cal State Catalina. Initially the young man in question wanted to decline the offer, but when Kevin mentioned that Asher hasn't been much of himself since his return from the army and was honestly concerned about his friend it was clear that he couldn't run away any longer. It took enough convincing on Kevin's part but the end result was the present moment, the young man was now in Hawaii and was to meet up at a local restaurant later that evening.

However the mere idea of meeting people he hasn't seen in person for more than four years was nerve wrenching and it didn't take long that his first impulse was to purchase a small four pack of some locally produce beer from the market just below his hotel room and drink all of them in the room. Asher knew this was a stupid idea in the back of his mind after his last experience drinking a few months after coming back from the army but another part of him just wanted to numb the senses to not feel the guilt that weighed his mind.

Fear? Low confidence? Whatever it was he hated the feeling but it felt like a part of his identity now since that time and he couldn't easily shake it off. After another bout of bile and alcohol left his system the young man flushed the contents away before positioning himself in front of the sink and mirror to rinse his mouth. A quick swish and gargle before spiting, he took a moment to look at his reflection. Messy dark brown hair complimented some of the worn expression of his face including his dreary equally dark brown eyes, he wasn't what one would consider handsome but he also wasn't average.

Regardless of definition he wasn't the most confident in his looks but it didn't much matter to the man who hasn't been lucky in the dating world either. He tried asking girls out before but most declined on grounds of friendship or wanted to keep things the way they were, that alone might have impacted his own views about his own appeal. Nevertheless he knew at the moment he looked like hammered shit from his failed bingeing.