victory_road | Video; 001

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Video; 001

[When the video feed first starts, it seems like it is filming nothing at all. Just a forest clearing a little after dark. Might this be an accidental recording of some sorts? Ah, no! It does seem to be focusing on something. To be exact, it seems to be focusing on an odd little pokemon, shyly poking it's... head? out of one of the bushes, before scurrying forward to start eating from a small pile of pokemon food left there.]

I hope I am not disturbing anyone this late.

[Armin doesn't pop into view, and his voice is soft, just above a whisper. It looks like he doesn't want to scare the shy little creature.]

Could anyone tell me what pokemon this is? I think my gear might be malfunctioning. [He hopes it isn't though, he wouldn't know how to fix it.] I won't show me any information when I try to scan it. I've not seen one of these on this route before. Is it a rare type?

[He's very curious to say the least.]

Thank you for your time.

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[Woah, woah, woah, forget about this strange new pokemon for a moment, apparently there is more exploring to do in the world.]

Do you know how many more regions there are out there? Is there any way to visit them?

At least three, and no. To reach Kalos, we had to travel by airsh-plane, and those rarely approach Johto or Kanto at all.

[Armin frowns a little.]

What is an... airsh-plane?

Airships and airplanes are vehicles that travel through the skies, resembling sailing ships and closed cylinders with wings respectively. They're much faster than any train or Pokémon, by far.

[Closed cylinders with wings? Armin is definitely imagining a tube with bird wings. He just doesn't have the frame of reference for these kind of conversations.]

Are they like rockets?

[He has been told about rockets and that you can travel to space with them!]

Rockets...? As in the group?

[Sadly, Cecil has not been told about rockets. Team Rocket, yes, but not rockets.]

They are massive enough to transport crowds and cago, and also very expensive to build. Though I suppose that's the case for all vehicles, flying or not.

Someone told me about them. Apparently with a rocket, you can visit space.

[Isn't that a cool concept? Who even knew you could do things like that.]

We don't really have anything like this where I am from. We mostly travel using horses.

Is that so? The Lunar Whale does that as well, though its unique status surely makes it less practical than one of those rockets.

[But what practicality, when faced with healing pods and a mecha-chocobo?]

My world also favors animals for transportation, though we have other options for longer distances and overseas journeys. Horses are the animals that resemble Ponyta, are they not?

Yes, though they don't have burning manes.

[Well, not unless something has going very very wrong.]

I haven't interacted with any ponyta yet, so I couldn't tell you how much their general demeanour matches that of horses, but they certainly look similar.

[Though Armin has a question of his own.]

What's a Lunar Whale? I don't think I'm familiar with that animal.

[Unless it is something they have back home as well, just under a different name.]

My, horses certainly are popular. You're not the first person to mention their existence or widespread use. It seems worlds that depend on chocobos are the minority after all.

[It's because of the smell, isn't it.]

It's no animal, but a ship. A spaceship, to be precise; one that can travel through both space and air, built with technology far beyond that of humans.

I've never heard of chocobos, but then much of our world is unexplored.

[Who knows, maybe wild flocks of chocobo roam outside of the walls. Whatever a chocobo is.

Still, the Lunar Whale sounds intriguing.]

That must be an amazing sight. But if its technology is beyond that of humans, who built it?

Unexplored? Have you no ships sturdy enough to explore beyond your continent? Unless mountain ranges are blocking you?

[Goodness knows travelling from Mist to Kaipo is a pain, now that the path is buried beneath rocks.]

Lunarians did. Their technology is so advanced that the moon that serves as their home is also one of their creations.

We are not allowed to go out beyond the walls. One hundred years ago, humanity was never driven to extinction by the titans. As long as we stay inside the walls we are safe, but the outside world is overrun with titans.

[He pauses for a beat.]

Or, at least, that is the story we are told.

[And he is starting to have his doubts. It was something put out by the government, after all. And they had already proven untrustworthy in his eyes.]

Titans?

[From that alarming story, this is the word that grabs his attention the most.]

The only Titan I know would never threaten humanity... and no wall could ever stop him, either. Are those Titans predators, a former war enemy?

Honestly, we don't really know what they are. There's still so much about them that is unclear. We don't really know where they came from, or how they survive as they do.

What we do know is that they seem to exist for the single-minded purpose of eating humans, though it is not really understood why they do this. They don't have digestive organs. They seem to have some type of rudimentary stomach, but all they do is vomit up the humans they have eaten when they become too full. They don't seem to need to eat us for nourishment, and yet they do.

Maybe if we understood them better, we could deal with them more easily...

They eat humans exclusively, even though they cannot properly digest them?

[He's fought plenty of man-eating monsters, but the rest...]

That makes no sense. Hunting a prey reduces their energy reserve, espcially one as large and likely to fight back or run as a human. If they cannot regain their strength from eating people, should they not starve over time? Or at the least be greatly weakened? Considering they possess stomachs, they obviously cannot be mechanical in nature, and they sound too much like animals to have a plant-like nutrition...

That is what logic dictates.

[Too bad logic had never seemed to govern the titans.]

They actually do seem to gain some nourishment from the light of the sun, but it's-- it seems to differ between each individual titan. One of our squad leaders performed some experiments. One of the titans we captured went docile very quickly after it was cut off from the sunlight, while the other one remained active for several hours even in complete darkness.

There has never been any record of any titan reacting to any living creatures except humans. They leave our horses completely alone. It's just humans that inspire these reactions.

[He pauses. No. No, that wasn't entire true. There was one titan that had responded differently, one that had specifically targeted their horses. One that had killed rather than devoured.]

No, that's not entirely true. There was one. I saw it just before I came here. It acted... very unlike the other titans.

A being that subsists on sunlight, but otherwise acts as a predator?

[That makes no sense. Yet it is surely true.]

The difference in darkness autonomy could be due to each titan's personal strength and endurance, perhaps even health. Though a difference so great is strange...

...Unlike in what manner? Was it friendly, neutral, likely to attack animals?

It was intelligent.

The best way I can explain it is that the titans don't aim to kill us. We die when they eat us, but our death is not their main goal. But this titan... I never saw it eat anyone. Each of its actions was specifically aimed to kill us. And it did not kill indiscriminately. There was a specific person it was searching for. She even let me live after seeing my face.

[A small slip up at the end there. Armin hadn't shared his suspicions about who the Female Titan was with anyone yet, but it was something he kept turning over and over in his head.]

['She'? Well, it makes sense that a living creature would have a sex, but the thought of those things breeding...]

I imagine it's not due to a particularly fine palate, a certain pickiness about her meals, or even a respect for life forms uninvolved with her goals. Still, that does sound quite different from the others you've described.

No. I think...

[Might as well go all in, right? No reason to keep this part of his theories quiet.]

I think she was controlled by a human. Or rather, a human taking the form of a titan.

A human taking...? Your world has shapeshifters? Human shapeshifters?

[That's... intriguing, but equally alarming.]

So it seems. I don't think anyone thought it was possible until Eren turned into a titan at Trost. But now that we know it is a possibility, it seems foolish to deny what is right in front of us.

[That is to say, the idea that their enemy isn't regular titans, but instead humans who have the power to become titans. It has, at once, made the enemy all the more dangerous in Armin's eyes. Humans can plan, after all.]

You seem familiar with shapeshifters. Is that something you have in your world as well?

I suppose any world might have them. How could we even tell, until they decide to show their power...?

[For a moment he wonders if some of the locals secretly have the powers of a Ditto, but he squashes that thought quickly.]

Certain powerful monsters and Eidolons have the power to take a human form, though it can be seen through by those who are attuned to power and magic. However, it is not a common ability.

Eidolons? How do they differ from humans?

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paladinlost - 2016-11-23 03:21 (UTC) - Expand

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schachmeister - 2016-11-25 22:19 (UTC) - Expand

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