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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Good, because I'm not!

[Much badass, very strong. Jean is not a sensitive, artistic soul in the slightest!]

[He softens a little at Armin's compliment, though, and turns back to the Pokemon, offering the nervous one another candy.]

Thanks. I, uh... I used to draw a lot. Before the cadets and the Corps.

[It's not exactly like Shadis considered art class a valuable pursuit.]

[Right, right. Armin won't ever imply Jean has icky stuff like feelings ever again.

Armin brushes his fingers over the drawing. He wonders if he could get Jean to redraw all those Unown drawings he did. They are fictional, sure, but Jean could make them look so much better.]

I'm really surprised. You never mentioned liking to draw.

[And Jean had boasted about a lot of things during their time in the training corps. Every single thing he mastered slightly quicker than the rest of them had always been great cause for boasting and muscling himself into the spotlight. It is somewhat surprising that Jean had never boasted about this.]

Do you... draw at all anymore?

[How dare you, Armin. How very dare.]

[Jean shrugs, and Lila runs over to his hand, rubbing up underneath it like a cat. She knows when something is not quite right with her human, yes she does!]

Not really. It's not like paper and pencils and shit are cheap, you know?

[Not at home, they're not. Here, though, they're a dime a dozen. That just sounds like an excuse.]

I suppose you are right.

[It absolutely sounds like an excuse, even to Armin's ears, but perhaps if Jean hadn't naturally fallen back into drawing with all the supplies available to him here, part of him didn't want to draw anymore?]

I wish I could draw like this.

It's not hard.

[This is a very weird experience; has Jean actually found something where he's better than Armin? He gestures for the book back.]

I mean, it's just shapes and stuff, and how they fit together.

[Jean has lots of things he is better at than Armin! Like running. And carrying things. And going through growth-spurts. And the gear. Though perhaps, in Jean's mind, that is just some zooming around too.

Armin hands over his journal though.]

It's not that easy for everybody.

[As far as Jean is concerned, using the gear really is just zooming around. He's a very kinesthetic learner, and as long as a task is something he can do physically, he'll pick it up pretty fast. He learned the gear really quickly for that exact reason, and was trying flips and loops before anyone else in their class.]

You just need to practice.

[Jean flips the book open to the page he'd been on before, and holds it so Armin can see.]

Like, say I'm drawing the new one, right? Its body is two lengths of its head, so I should draw the head first and the body second. [He starts sketching, which attracts the attention of the Pokemon. Lila climbs up onto his shoulder to get a better look.]

He drew us! Both of us!

[She sounds so pleased. Look what her human can do, new friend!]

[Physical learning is the thing Armin is terrible at. Give him a text, a book, and he'll be able to regurgitate the facts and concepts within hours, but something like the gear he had never been able to fully master, not in the way Jean had. It surprised him sometimes, that the instructors hadn't targeted him with the harshest, most dangerous stunts during training, but then again, perhaps they had just assumed he'd break his own neck or drop out before too long anyway.

Armin watches Jean with interest. Jean makes it look so easy.]

I can never really get the proportions right.

Like I said, it's all about finding the shapes and how they relate to each other.

[Which is really not all that helpful, Jean, when Armin has just said that he can't do proportions very easily. Jean is getting lost in the drawing, though, using the side of the pencil lead to shade in what's underneath the Pikachu cape, and the strange little Pokemon drifts closer. It ends up almost touching Jean's knee so it can peer down at the notebook.]

Look, see? It's you.

[Jean tilts the journal so the Pokemon can see.]

[Armin is good at finding the way things relate to each other, but that is only for facts and figures. Not for shapes. And even if he could see the relation, getting it out on paper is definitely not something he is capable of. At least, not like Jean is.

Honestly, Armin is starting to realise that he doesn't really know Jean all that well. He knows one side of Jean, the one he showed so readily during their training days but he doesn't know all that much about the things he kept hidden and about the person he was before joining the training corps.]

Did your mother teach you? Or is this something you learned on your own as a kid?

[They all know Jean has a mom, at least. He's one of those that gets semi-frequent letters from home. It must be nice to have that.]

Edited 2016-11-06 10:44 (UTC)

[In all fairness, no one besides his best friend ever really tried to get to know Jean. No one else saw anything of worth beneath the bluster and took the time to peel back all the layers to get to Jean's center.]

Nah, I taught myself. My mom can't draw a stick figure.

[The strange little Pokemon looks over the journal for a few moments, then paws at Jean's pocket again, looking for more candy. Everyone's a critic. Jean finds another piece and gives it to it, and it doesn't retreat, staying near his hip while it eats.]

She taught me how to cook, though.

[Which is something Jean definitely wouldn't have been able to teach himself. He was completely hopeless in the kitchen until his mother corralled him and taught him a few things.]

[Jean intimidated Armin too much to get to know him during their training days. He was just very loud.

Armin rests his arms across his knees, watching the strange little pokemon --it looks a little more comfortable with them-- before glancing back at Jean.]

That must have been nice.

[You know. Having a mom and stuff.]

[Armin should know by now that the greatest softies often lurk behind the loudest bluster. That's certainly true in Jean's case.]

Yeah, she's a great lady.

[Said offhand, as he concentrates on his drawing. Empathy is not one of Jean's finer points, although he's been working on it, and he doesn't catch what goes unsaid by Armin.]

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