victory_road | video; action for Goldenrod

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video; action for Goldenrod

[Hello Jhoto. Here's a surprise video from Shiro's very own Haunter. Who has absconded with his 'gear and grins cheerfully into the screen. It leans back, holding up a party hat with the words "HAPPY ANNIVERSARY" scrawled on the side.]

[And then it turns, waggling the camera a little to show off its trainer, doing his best to avoid the heat by hunkering down in the shade of a big tree with his Aggron. Who's chewing on some bit of metal like a dog with a bone.]

[It swoops down, and drops the hat on Shiro's head, cackling.]

Hey-! Haunter-! [There's a brief flash of him snatching it off his head.] ... are you serious? No.

No speech. We're not celebrating -- it's just a day.

[WHAT A GRUMP. And then the feed ends.]

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[That sounds familiar enough that it even has Armin nodding very faintly. Why do things always have to be so complicated?]

When I first got here, I was anxious to leave as quickly as possible.

Edited 2017-08-13 11:03 (UTC)

And now?

[He can sympathize. He... had needed to leave. Wanted to leave. And then time just slipped away, trying to adapt and work with the punches the new world was throwing.]

I love this world. It's beautiful. I can go wherever I want to go, see whatever I want to see. There's so many things I want to see and discover here. So many pokemon I want to meet...

I know going home is not a choice. I know how I feel about this place doesn't actually influence my odds of staying or going. But if we were given a choice, I'm not sure if I'd be able to make the right one anymore.

[The right choice being go home, fight and sacrifice himself as a soldier is meant to do.]

Armin...

[Hooo boy way to hit the nail on the head, buddy.]

For your sake, I hope you do get to stay here. I didn't know you before this, but even I can see it's been good for you. I... wouldn't want you to lose that.

[But they both have a duty, don't they. If there's a choice to make--]

I don't know what I'd choose, either.

[And part of him hates that.]

[If only both of them could be a little more selfish. It'd probably do them good.

In a strange way, Armin even envies the selfish way Jean can say he wants to stay here forever and mean it. It is selfish, it is probably not the right choice to make, but Armin gets it. Nobody really wants to go back to the battles they have to fight.]

I don't want to lose it either, but... I am a soldier, after all. Though I had selfish reasons to do so, I did pledge my life to humanity's advancement.

[They're sort of alike in that respect, aren't they? They both have bigger, more important priorities than what either of them want. There are things at stake bigger than what two people want out of life. Aren't there?]

[He glances down, reaching out to dig his fingers into his Aggron's thick skin again -- for scratches.]

And someone has to be there to defend the universe.

[If they don't fight... no one has a chance.]

Ever wonder sometimes why we can't just be normal?

[When the other thing in the balance is humanity's survival or the entire universe, your own dream seem very small. Of course Armin doesn't want to give up on his dream, but he couldn't justify putting it before everything else.]

I don't like to think of myself as abnormal.

[Armin has met truly amazing people, people will skills and abilities far beyond what a normal person should have. People like captain Levi or Mikasa who make strength their weapon. People like Eren who can do things no other person has ever been able to do. He doesn't exactly feel like he ranks among people like that.]

I think people can have very different ways of looking at things but still be normal.

[Possibly he's thinking a simple off-handed comment a bit too serious. He does those sort of things.]

Well... fair point.

[It is. He hadn't thought of it that way. "Normal" to him anymore just... tended to mean people who hadn't gotten abducted by robot lions.]

[Or... aliens, but that's a whole separate issue.]

[People who get to go through life without it being ripped up and altered. Who didn't have to worry about the things his team has to.]

I guess either way, it's a selfish thing to wonder.

I suppose, though I think wondering about things like that is pretty normal as well.

[How many times hadn't he thought about running away from his bullies as a kid? How often hadn't he doubted whether he'd be able to make it through military training at all as he saw countless of people, many of which far more skilled than him give up or die. He wasn't Mikasa or Eren who always seemed to lack any doubts about the direction of their lives, who could move ahead so unfalteringly. They hadn't broken down at Trost, not in the way he had.]

As long as you can do what needs to be done, it is fine to have doubts or wish things were different. Though it's probably better not to focus on them.

[What a dreadfully serious child he is. But then, the world he came from had taken any innocence away a long time ago.]

Edited 2017-08-17 22:23 (UTC)

[He's quiet for a while. Letting that sink in and process. It sounds similar to what he's said to others, before. That it's all right to want things here, to want to be here -- that it isn't selfish, that want.]

[So why doesn't it apply to himself?]

... You sound like me.

[But that comes out a little more sad than he intended it to. He's very much aware, more than anyone on this world, of the things he'd run into, the things he'd lived through. Barely.]

[Then again, maybe Haunter knows. And maybe that's why it's trying for levity.]

Maybe... we'll spring for lunch, if you guys ever end up in the same place we do.

[Maybe it's okay to celebrate, just a little.]

I'd like that. Though if it is your anniversary, we should be the ones paying, not you.

[You can't pay for your own party, that is silly.]

[Yes he can. Watch him.]

All right, all right...

But we'll pay you back. When it's your turn.

You know, I hadn't actually thought about it, but next month, I'll have been here a year too. At the beginning of September.

...

Guess we've got to meet up by then, huh?

It would be nice. Though right now we're still on the road to Fuchsia City. Most of the cities in Kanto seem pretty close together, but Fuchsia is way down in the south so it's going to take us a while.

[He doesn't mind. Unlike what some people might have claimed, he isn't allergic to physical exercise and he does love travelling and seeing new sights.]

Maybe by then, I'll have something that can fly me out there.

[LITTLE DO YOU KNOW, SHIRO... you're getting a skarmory.]

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