I'm gonna preface this with the kind of individual Marshal is. The thing with Marshal is that he isn't a bad dude, but because of that, along with deciding to GTFO from home literally a little after his 18th birthday, he was naïve. He let himself get fucked over by a lot of people and thought it was normal because he didn't grow up having normal friends. His dad was an ex military piece of shit and his mom was always working to support him and his two special needs family members. Marshal spent a lot of time reading, but that doesn't prepare you for the challenges of the real world. No one tells you how you're supposed to react to making five dollars an hour cleaning cars and coming out with 20 dollars after a work week(Marshal was fired from that job because he'd developed a drinking problem from the anxiety he'd developed working there, and he became disillusioned from the auto industry as a whole).
That's not why we're here though. Many of the friends that Marshal had developed browsing forums as a child and a teenager had all moved on, either in the military, university, or the trades. This left Marshal alone, unsure of how to communicate with people, and essentially relying on /k/, Reddit, and Discord to communicate with others. Reddit sure as shit didn't want him and /k/ and Discord were the closest things he had to communication with others.
He had a brief stint as a Twitch streamer, but he stopped as he felt himself too emotionally unstable for something of that nature. A little after this, a troon tried to groom him and attempted to convince Marshal that he was just a "girl in a boy's body".
Marshal might be an idiot, but he's a stubborn idiot at that. Marshal might be the most mental person I know, but he knew full well that despite his self-loathing, his frustration at his own perceived inadequacies, that he liked being a dude. There was no reason for him to be a girl, and he felt it strange that the conversation was even had. This would happen again as Marshal found himself in an /r9/k/ Discord where the sink pissing crossdressing admin tried to tell him the same thing, and thought he'd be a "cute trap". Around this time, Marshal actually ended up being in a steady relationship, but it wouldn't work out. Because of this relationship, he was kicked out of said /r9/k/ Discord. Unsure of how to be accepted, he used to tell tall, embellished tales about his exploits(and admitted later on that he only did it for acceptance and that he was mostly manic during these episodes, primarily a byproduct of being raised in a rich part of New York).
Later on, he'd end up in an incident where a range accident happened, and Marshal's "friends" from /k/ tried to pin the accidental shooting on him(He wasn't holding a firearm at the time). The individual in question took a round and almost bled to death. Marshal, being who he was, and having family who were medical did everything by the book. Asked said /k/ommando if they needed help. They replied yes, and his sociopathic excuses for friends laughed at him as he had tears down his eyes and was stuffing a wound with gauze. In one of the few moments where he actually stood up for himself at the hospital later, Marshal explained to the nurse what had happened, what he had done, and his honesty kept the local police from investigating the matter(the others had inconsistent stories). He'd develop a drinking problem from remembering how it felt to stuff the wound.
I met him a little after this incident, and he was messed up as he almost watched one of his friends (a troon) nearly blow their brains out while he was on his way to the bathroom at a party with some other /k/ people. His opinions on a lot of things changed, especially after the Christchurch shooting when he was laughed at in a discord for suggesting that "maybe the people going to the mosque didn't deserve to get killed visiting their place of worship".
He'd become more jaded after this, feeling even more disconnected from the world around him. I got him into writing, a thing I do because my ass is retarded, hates money, and likes paying artists for graphic novel shit. He cleaned up his social media presence and went to ground as he felt that he couldn't trust anyone.
This is where I came in. Some time after, I knocked on Marshal's door and found him alone with his .45 and crying. He'd felt that he didn't fit in anywhere, and I convinced him to go to an ER and get help. He was scared of losing his gun rights, and I didn't blame him. I had him reach out to a friend of his who had done a few tours in OEF and struggled with his demons after he got back who convinced him to seek the help he needed(Remember that thing about Marshal being stubborn?).
After a few days of me checking on him(bringing him his favorite food from hole in the wall Chinese joints) while we talked shop about the 442nd, Marshal said he was happy I'd been there. By that point, most of his online "friends" had basically fucked off, and only a trusted few(OEF bro and funnily enough, the son of the hole in the wall Chinese restaurant owner) had taken the time to really go in and check on him.
It was a slow track, but Marshal slowly got his life together. I still check on him, and last I checked he was trying to travel the world to understand history more. His next country of note to visit is SK and the DMZ. I hope he's able to find peace with himself.
