[center] [hr] [h1][color=cadetblue] John "Grit" Crane [/color][/h1] [hr] 


[hider="Space Truckin'" by Deep Purple][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHOrpFeXUao[/youtube][/hider] [/center] 

[hr] 


Grit wasn't one to get nauseous much. After spending his formative years running 40-yard dashes across hundred degree football fields and bouncing up and down mercilessly on the wheel wells of short busses, he had grown accustomed to uncomfortable situations. Being launched into space, however, was absolutely nothing like anything he had experienced before. It was all a rush like he'd never felt before, a litany of hard jerks, sudden stops, and accelerations so rough he could nearly feel his skin cartoonishly stretch back against his seat. 

When the ship finally came to a stop in the docking bay of the Promise, Grit laid his head back on his seat and took three quick deep breaths. People (school workers, he assumed) bustled past through the aisle and began to unbuckle the new students from their restraints. For a good ten minutes, Grit laid there still with his eyes closed and his head back against the seat rest. He thought about home back on Earth, of a nice house in a nice little town in northern Oklahoma where his family was probably sitting right now around the fireplace, wondering if they'd ever see their son again. He thought of the fridge in the kitchen of that house, and the piece of gold-foil paper stuck to the fridge that read the words: 

[i] "Dear Mr. John Crane, 

Congratulations, You have been selected by the University of Texas Athletic Committee to be awarded a full athletic scholarship for football..." [/i]

When the room stopped spinning, Grit shook his head roughly and opened his eyes to the shiny silver roof of the ship. He noticed quickly a large, dark shadow being cast over him from the aisle. He turned his head towards the aisle to see the smiling face of the largest man he had ever seen in his life. He was massive, at least seven feet tall, with bulging muscles unlike anything Grit had seen before and a red beard that looked like a lion's mane. The giant man smiled down at him with a grin full of large flat teeth. 

"How you holding up there, friend?" the giant man said. His voice boomed through the cabin. "I promise you the ride up here will not be the most uncomfortable part of your stay." Grit stared up as the giant bent down and unbuckled him. "You look like someone who's never seen a guy this big before," the man said. 

"Can't say I have," Grit replied, getting out of the seat. "Thank you kindly for helping me out of that contraption." The large man extended a hand to Grit, and they shook. Grit could feel that the man was trying to crush his hand, but it wasn't doing much to him. 

"You have a strong grip there, friend." the man said. "Name's Titus MacArthur! I'm a Third-year here at the Promise!" 

"John Crane," Grit replied. "But most fellas call me Grit." They locked eyes tensely for a few moments and then Titus nodded for Grit to follow him. They walked up the main aisle of the spaceship towards the door, crowds parting around them to accommodate the size of the beastly Titus. Grit noticed that Titus' head was bowed as he walked so it wouldn't scrape against the roof of the shuttle. They stopped at the shuttle doors and Titus stood aside. 

"You have good legs on you for someone who just got blasted into outer space," Titus said. 

"Not much tends to keep me down, brother," Grit replied. Then he shrugged and turned to look out the door. 

"It's a time-honored school tradition for new students to take their first steps onto the Promise under their own weight, but I can see you won't have much trouble with that." Titus replied. Grit stepped out of the doors of the shuttle into the massive hangar. Titus followed close behind him as he followed arrows on the ground to the hub where the other students were. The ship was nothing like he had ever seen before. Back home the largest buildings he ever saw were in Tulsa, and this was one big step up from multi-story office buildings that he gazed up at in wonder. 

"It's a sight to behold your first time, ain't it?" Titus said. He clapped a big hand onto Grit's shoulder. Grit was speechless. "Ah, you'll get tired of it in a few years kiddo. Now I've gotta go help some other fresh meat off the shuttle. Cafeteria's running low after all! Hahaha!" His laugh boomed across the raucous crowd, but no one else found the joke particularly funny. 

"Sure I'll see you around, pardner," Grit said to him. They shook hands once more (Titus once again failed to crush Grit's hand) and Titus walked back off towards the spaceship. Grit looked around, shocked by the sheer number of people mixed with the size of the silver halls around him. In that moment, how far away he really was sunk in deep.