victory_road | [video] [action for new bark town]

[!!!! MIKASA. THAT WAS MIKASA ON THE LITTLE SCREEN THING!! He knows good and well that Mikasa probably won't be able to figure out how the machine works without some coaching. It is not easy, and completely different than anything they have in their own world. So he won't rely on that! Instead, he'll go a bit more old school.

He rips a few pages out of a journal he keeps in his backpack and quickly pens a letter with instructions and a quick run-down of what was actually going on here. He folds it up and gives it to Hildegard, and she holds it gently in her beak]

Fly back to New Bark Town and find the girl with the black hair and the red scarf, ok? Give this to her! We'll meet you back there as soon as we can!

[HE HAS TO TELL ARMIN.

Meanwhile, Hildegard, given her mission, takes to the skies and flies as fast as she can. Which is very fast! Skarmory are known for their speed in the air. It's not long at all before she arrives in town. She slows down and lowers her cruising altitude, scouting for the girl that her chick had sent her to find. She spots her, and glides in for a landing nearby.

Eren had done what he could to make it obvious that she was a friend, not a foe. He had outfitted her with a scarf in the same forest green as the Survey Corps cloak, and the letter in her mouth said in bold letters "MIKASA", with a crudely drawn Wings of Freedom emblem. Hildegard approaches Mikasa and tilts her head. Letter for you!]

[ Eren, Eren, Eren... Technically speaking Mikasa is that prodigy, who does everything as if she has known how to do this forever as long as it doesn't require social skills or showing feelings.

But well, she is also having one of those moments where she needs to cool her head after waking up somewhere without him around, so boy, she doesn't even give a fuck about trying this social networking thing. She just wants to go back home to get back to him and everyone else. Why this?

. . . Except then there's the metal bird and Mikasa looks surprised to see her. Not because she looks like Armored Titan's relative or something, but because she is wearing that color and the handwriting there is...]

Eren... [ How does this girl even breathe between all this rambling, who knows. ]

[ Anyway! Since the bird really is clearly not a foe, she is slowly approaching her too to meet midway. Why send a bird and not say something? She swallows. Well, at least it's clear that he is here, that's the most important news of the day. Actually, maybe this way is a lot better than trying to not lose it in front of him as there have certainly been some very emotional twists in a really short amount of time today... Another reason why she is not up for networking with strangers. Well, she might be after this for reasons, so good job, Eren.

Mikasa reaches out for that letter slowly as if it might disappear or break if she grabbed it as fast as she could. She pets the bird. ]

Thank you. ...Let's get you two something to eat later.

[ And Growlithe is walking to the bird to say hello as soon as Mikasa starts opening the letter and then reading it. Hello new friends!! Her tail is waggning like crazy, now when her trainer finally seems to be in a better mood. ]

So, do I just have to wait until I see Eren?

[ Face to face that is. Not that she doesn't like the letter, she loves the letter but -- sigh. Maybe she could try to run to him / them. ]

Edited 2016-11-07 04:35 (UTC)

[Hildegard trills happily when she is pet and nuzzles Mikasa's hand. This is a friend of her chick! So, she is also her friend. And look! Another little fire dog! Hello little fire dog! She tilts her head to one side, then the other, looking at her with both eyes. She makes a quiet "wark" noise. Hello!

As for seeing Eren,... well, it takes about half an hour, but Eren finally DOES call on the pokégear, and his smiling face can be seen on the screen. He's hiking as he talks, carrying a large pack on his back]

Mikasa!! Mikasa, can you hear me?

[ And while Mikasa isn't very good at making friends or even good at the part of meeting new people or animals, who become friends later? This one is from Eren and someone she knows introducing new friends to her seems to always be a good way to go... So she is going to at least try getting along with the bird. The nuzzling is cute. Growlithe barks, happy and excited for new friend!! ...and then she's trying to climb and jump up on her back. Why? Just because she is curious.]

[Her eyes go wide in surprise as soon as she sees Eren there. Get out of the tiny box!! She really hopes it would work like that... Her fingers fidget a little offscreen on her side as she almost -- and only almost -- touches the screen with them. No, that would be too weird. It's not like she can reach him from here!! But seeing him smile there like that is amazing. ]

Eren!! ...Eren, I can hear you. Even better, I can see you. Eren, you seem to be fine. Good, that's great.

[Hearing and seeing him is the best thing ever after everything back home and her sudden arrival here. And he is on his way to her... she's also on her way to him by now.]

Umm, thank you for the letter, Eren.

[You know who loves social media? Jean loves social media. It helps that his starter Pokemon is both electric and impatient, and taught him most of what he knows about the communicator--he still hasn't figured out that it has an on/off switch--but Jean is also pretty sociable, and he took to the new technology reasonably quickly. It helps that his approach to life and new things is to play around with them until they work.]

[Regardless, he knows that girl! That's Mikasa! It would be impossible for him to not recognize her, considering how much time he spent staring at her over the last three years, and he carefully crafts a message.]

Hi, Mikasa. It's Jean.

[He's smiling, trying to look as friendly as possible, even though the sight of her makes him sad on some level. Another best friend arrived; another best friend that isn't his best friend.]

Don't worry about whatever it is that's got your communicator. That's a Pokemon, and it's yours.

This world is a safe place, so nothing is going to attack you.

[ Mikasa might at least like if not love this thing later once she gets more used to it, who knows. She's already liking the fact that she gets to see friends from home on this tiny screen -- though she'd rather see them face to face and this is still weird as hell. ]

[ It's actually good to see him too. If this world really is a lot safer than back home, then she'd rather have them all here. ...Also since he is saying something to her, does that mean she accidentally put that thing to the network? Well, it got Eren and others' attention so it's... good. ]

Hi, Jean.

[ Awwww. But now he can eventually become close friends with Mikasa while they are here. ]

The dex said she's a Growlithe, so.... A tiny orange puppy with black stripes on its fur.

[ ... who looks happier offscreen now when her trainer's mood is clearly getting better.

Safe? Sorry, that's -- complicated and hard to believe about any place even in a different world after everything, that she has been through. ]

So, no Titans?

Oh, one of the puppies. Bertolt has one of those too.

[Good, now maybe the puppies can play with each other and stop bothering the other Pokemon with their playful antics. ~~Thought Jean without a trace of irony, despite having the shittiest, most disruptive Pokemon ever under his care.~~]

No titans. No walls either. We're, uh... we're pretty free here.

[Almost frighteningly so.]

You're in New Bark Town, right?

[Siiiiigh... time for another hike back. Maybe they should just stay there permanently.]

... Why did I get the same as him?

[ Mikasa, that's rude?? But it's... a good question in the boat's opinion if these creatures describe their trainer somehow and she tries to think if she's anything like Bert. No luck. But well, anything is better than same starter with the midget, who is not even here. ]

So not completely free anyway.

[ or are they? All this freedom is going to feel weird for a while though. .... What's that sigh for?]

It's not like you have to come get me here with them if you don't want to.

[ That answers his question at least. ]

I don't know. [Unhelpful shrug.] There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason to it. Most people are pretty surprised when they see what mine is.

[Loud crackling in the background.]

Uh, that's him. You'll meet him later.

[Blitz suddenly leering up into the screen might freak her out. As it is, he's trying to, and Jean keeps having to push hi down with his free arm. If this goes on much longer, Jean is going to get shocked.]

No, it's not that. Besides, as soon as your post went up, Eren and Armin started packing. We'll come get you. It's just that my Pokemon is going to be a royal pain in the ass the entire walk down.

[Excuse you, sir? EXCUSE YOU? This kind of talk cannot stand, and there's another loud crackle and Jean suddenly jumps like something stung him.]

See? He's already pissed.

Ohh so it's entirely random.

[ She raises a brow at everything else, including the background noise. Jean, you are a true gentleman even though there aren't many things that honestly can even freak her out at this point.]

. . . And I started moving as soon as I heard that they are here. [ She's going to go insane before she meets them though. So not used to being alone after that day. ] Keeping him in the ball isn't an option?

[ She looks at her puppy like she better not slow Mikasa down or cause her trouble on the way. And then Jean jumps on the screen, Mikasa frowns a little.]

If he wants to be on the screen that much, you could just let him.

[Or well, sure, that happened because of his words about traveling with his starter. But still.]

[See? See?! The lady wants to see him, and Jean gets abruptly shoved to the side as Blitz pushes his round, red and white face into the communicator so he can see. Hopefully Mikasa enjoys the sight of a Voltorb filling the screen, and the sound of Jean sighing in the background.]

There he is. This is Blitz. Blitz, Mikasa. Mikasa, my Pokemon Blitz.

[Snake smiled at the inquisitive Growlithe becoming interesting with the girl's gear. Must be new. They were always keen to play with their new trainers once they arrived at New Bark. DD was the same. Snake's Poochyena was licking his feet, hands and sniffing everything once he arrived.]

They do that. You're a newbie, huh? Welcome to New Bark. Nice Growlithe. I've got one of those too.

[ New girl with a very excited puppy! ...It's kind of a miracle that she's not starting with a Poochyena considering it's like Eren in pokemon form. Also apparently she is more interested in talking with people on this after she knows that people from home are here. ]

So this might happen again, great. Thanks, I guess. [ this is at least much, much better than the first time when she was kidnapped! ] ...So, how fast is she going to learn some fire type moves?

[ She's suddenly more interested in training the puppy. Because wow, if she is not getting her weapons back, then she better make sure that she trains these creatures well. ]

She'll learn fire type moves pretty quickly. Mine learnt Ember at around level 10.

[The joy of training up Pokémon to unleash their potential.]

If you train them up and give them berries they seem to learn faster. That's what mine did anyway.

Then she'll better work hard to get there fast...

[ Puppy is so doomed, but she'll like it. ]

... So they're not normal berries?

They're berries only Pokémon can eat. Humans can't eat them because they're not designed for us.

[Also, what else would Pokémon eat?]

[By now, Armin knows Mikasa is here, courtesy of Eren barrelling into him, babbling excitably, something about New Bark and Hildegard and letters. It had actually taken Armin a little while to understand what was going on, but when he did? Mikasa!! Aww, fuck yeah, this world was definitely the best. Except, crud, that also means Mikasa is on her own, in New Bark Town. Obviously Armin knows this world is safe, but would Mikasa realise it as well? Enough to calm down?

He kinda wishes he had been able to see the letter Eren had sent though. He knows Eren means well, but who knows how well he had even been able to explain their predicament and how to use the pokegear while in a rush?

He could also send a letter, but Amadeus is not as quick, and communicating like that would get unwieldy very fast. Especially if they have to do it for the two weeks it will take them to travel down there -- or maybe just a week if they can get Mikasa to travel down and meet them half way.]

Mikasa? Mikasa, it's Armin.

[He really hopes Mikasa hasn't completely turned off the device. Or lost it somewhere. He's also already rustling up everybody else, so they can get ready to travel back to New Bark Town. Mikasa is there, they are absolutely going to travel back, he will hear no complaints.]

[ !!! More familiar people from home and this one means that her whole family is here. How long have they been here without her around? Who knows, she needs to get another question out before that. ]

Armin! [ Oh look, she is back on screen and ... trying to hide all the feelings ever including worry and relief. ]

Armin, is Eren okay? He sent me the bird with the letter but he said nothing on screen...

[ Because of course that makes her mind jump into weird conclusions of why he is not talking to her on video. Did he get into a fight? Is he in jail? Sick in bed? Does he need bed rest after a serious fight?? Please just tell her that he is okay!! ...Because really, why wouldn't her mind jump into worry mode after that? ]

[Armin isn't really trying to hide how happy he is to see her. From his point of view it has been a good two months since he last saw her and now they are finally all together.]

Eren is fine! He's packing up our tent. [He gives her what he hopes she'll take as a reassuring smile.] We're coming to meet you. It'll take us a while though. We are almost two weeks out from the town where you are right now.

Edited 2016-11-07 16:53 (UTC)

[ She's glad to see him so happy! Too bad she's not the type to show her feelings but... It is amazing to see him too.

And she believes Armin whene he says that Eren is fine. ]

Good. [ understatement of the century when it is the best news today!! ] ...Two weeks is way too long... [ it sounds like forever when she is used to having them around all the time. ] I'm not going to just stay here and do nothing, I can meet you guys halfway.

[ Or something. Somewhere along the way anyway. . . . Except, wait. ]

Can that bird fly me there?

Edited 2016-11-07 21:10 (UTC)

I'm afraid not. She hasn't learned to do that yet.

[Maybe if they hadn't been such losers at getting the first gym badge, they could've flown her. But alas, they losers.]

But you shouldn't have much trouble coming up to meet us. The road is very easy to follow and there should be a map in the pack they gave you.

Edited 2016-11-07 22:29 (UTC)

[ She probably should question that a lot, but considering what kind of a world they come from... Well, she might question very little about anything. Typical. ]

So she can fly on her own, but she can't fly me there...

[ The bird almost sounds like a young horse, that isn't trained for anyone riding it yet. ]

Eh, it's not trouble at all. If it wasn't a two week travel, I'd say stay where you are... [ but she really doesn't want to wait any longer than she has to before she can see them face to face. ]

It'll be good for us to travel a bit again. [He laughs for a moment.] Honestly, we've been getting kind of lazy here.

[Sleeping in until nine?! No drills?! Eating as much as they want??!! It's a wonder they aren't all round barrels by now.]

Eren sent a letter, didn't he? How much did he explain?

[ Mikasa listens to that laugh. It's so good but so confusing to hear considering when she's from and how everything is different here. Or maybe not everything... ]

I'm not going to get lazy just because we are here. [Hopefully her pokemon will be ready for Insane Training - Ackerman Style!] ...But I guess it's good, that you're not in the other side of the world. [or worse so no, she's not complaining.]

[She shows the paper(s) to the screen. Yes, Eren sent this to her. Small thing to the world but one of the most precious things ever to this girl. Mikasa holds them so that Armin can't read them though. He probably will get to read them later but not right now.]

Welcome. Weird animals with special powers. No titans. We can eat whatever as much as we want -- I guess he means after I get somewhere with more food than what I have in my bag. Telling me how to use the gear. And saying you'll meet up with me as soon as you can.

[ And so on, basics stuff. Not with the same words as she just used but if Eren isn't very good with letters, Mikasa isn't that with words. ]

That's more than I expected.

[Thank you, Armin. You are a good best friend.]

If anything is unclear, I'll try to explain it more. But first, I have to ask. What is the very last thing you remember from back home?

He could have just explained it all to me in a video.

[ but the way she is holding that letter says so much about how this is going to be one of her most important things ever. ]

. . . [ What? ] Rushing to the forest of giant trees when I heard Eren getting in trouble there and trying to find him there... and then it became quiet.

[ So serious by the end of that. But... Silence from Eren is never good unless he is sleeping near his best friends. ]

He probably thought you would freak out if a little box started talking to you all of a sudden.

[Knowing Mikasa, she might have assumed a tiny Eren was trapped inside of the gear and she would've broken it trying to get him out.

He hmms softly at her words, mentally slotting her time point into the mental time line he is keeping. All right, so she is from a later point than Eren, but still earlier than Jean, Bertolt and him.]

There is a reason I asked. I know this is going to be very hard to understand or believe, but people come here from different moments. The last thing you remember might not be the last thing someone else remembers.

[Definitely isn't the last thing some of them remember.]

Edited 2016-11-11 10:46 (UTC)

... I guess he is smart sometimes.

[ The weird box would possibly be in pieces on the ground if Eren hadn't had time to explain everything. Or at least she really would have freaked out especially if she hadn't read anything about it before.

Mikasa's reaction to this new information is... not much of a reaction at all as she frowns and that is pretty much it on the outside. How much do they know? How much does Eren know? How carefully should she choose her next words??]

Okay... [ She says it as if this might happen every day. ] ...Do you remember more or less than I do?

[Thankfully, Armin wasn't expecting her to have a big reaction to things. If Eren overreacts to things, then Mikasa definitely under-reacts. But between the two of them, it maybe sort of balances out? Sort of.

He knows, at least, that it is not an indicator of her being uninterested in the subject. Well, usually.]

A little more, but not that much. You know a bit more than Eren, me and Jean know a bit more than either of you, and Bertolt knows a tiny bit more than all of us, but we are all within a few days of each other.

[ They balance each other for sure but they also have Armin there to be somewhere in the middle when it comes to reaction style.

Oh but this is about Eren so she is extremely interested this time.]

... Did we get Eren out of there?

[ She sounds worried as hell, but manages to keep all of it away from her face somehow. Not that she needs to hide it from Armin, but she always keeps her poker face in public. Well almost always anyway. ]

[He was expecting that. Of course Mikasa would want to know about Eren first and foremost.]

Yes. He's going to be all right, Mikasa.

[Physically, at least.]

[She is so relieved to hear those words, that she doesn't even hide all of it from her face. And it makes her calm down a lot even if that's not obvious on the outside but to anyone, who knows her....]

Good. [ understatement of the millennium but that's all she is going to ask about home. ] ...How are you?

[ Right now. Here. It's not like she only cares about Eren, though Armin is the only other person who gets that question from her at this point. ]

[Luckily Armin knows her well enough to see the relief.]

I'm good. [His voice gets a little more excited.] This place... it takes a lot of getting used to, but it's a very interesting place. It's completely unlike home.

[And, you know, considering back home is pretty shit, that makes this place almost like a paradise.]

_{[He'd heard the ruckus in their little camp, but being just on the edge of it walking around he didn't know what it was exactly about until he opened his gear. Bertolt knows he shouldn't be, but he can't help but feel disappointed in the revelation.

Still, the least he can do is try to look happy when he finally hits the button to respond, right?]}

Mikasa, um... Hi.

[ Oh, one more from home. And one more to the pile of people, who Mikasa doesn't really know how to talk to... but that's everyone else besides Eren and Armin most of the time. She should probably try to get better at that while they are all here.

If the observant girl notices anything about how much he is trying to hide something else behind that face, she is not letting it show.]

Hey. ...So, are there even more of us here?

[ Who is going to be the next one to unexpectedly show up on her screen ]

_{[It's certainly no help that Bertolt often let Reiner do a majority of the talking for him, too. It's hard trying to talk to the others because of it sometimes. Armin, well... Armin at least knows how he is.

Bertolt's brows furrow for a moment, thinking, and tilts his head up a bit as if it'd let him see over Mikasa's shoulder through the device.]}

It's just me, Jean, Armin, and Eren. ...Reiner isn't there, is he? Or Annie...?

_{[Annie may have kept her distance from everyone, but Bertolt can always feign concern and thought towards a former cadet, right?]}

[ Why is he asking about Annie? Well it's not suspicious at this point... ]

No and no, I haven't seen anyone else here.

[ Not anyone else from home at least when here means New Bark. ]

_{[Totally not suspicious! Nope, not at all!]}

Oh. ...Sorry, I, um... I thought I'd ask. Eren showed up a little bit after I did, so... You know. _{[He was hoping!]}

Has, uh... Has anyone told you what's going on yet?

[ No one suspects anything and everyone can still be friends, isn't that great? ]

It's fine. [She is calm as ever.] ...When did you two show up?

[How much trouble has Eren been getting into? Who knows, Annie could be here without anyone even knowing about her if she was avoiding the gear even more than Mikasa.]

Mm, Eren explained a lot after she [turning her device to show a fierce puppy] made me post that video. [ Puppy looks so proud now! She helped her trainer to find friends!! ]

Over a month ago now, I think. It's been long enough for the weather to start getting a little cooler, but I couldn't say when exactly in the year compared to home.

_{[Though Bertolt knows by this world's standards, Armin has had a birthday and his own is coming up soon. It's more than a little unsettling to think about, all things considered.

His brows furrow a little as the camera shifts, then he can't help the small smile that sneaks onto his face at just what it is he's seeing.]}

--I have one just like that!

[ Her heart sinks somewhere as soon as she hears the first sentence. Over a month?? Well it's them so they deal with it a lot better than she would or as she imagines that she would...]

That sounds like a really long time... Ehh, it's fine besides time is weird here. Looks like I missed Armin's birthday too.

[ If she wanted to feel even worse about things that she has zero control over. Well at least her fire puppy is going to do her best to help with the cold.

Said puppy is still on the screen, looking curiously at the screen and barking at it twice. Mikasa may be noticing how this is easier than people seeing her face. ]

Is she going to learn anything useful?

[ Puppy looks almost offended because wow, rude, she's the most amazing puppy ever??]

_{[Nobody tell her how he spent the better half of the first month fretting over whether or not Reiner was okay back home. He still worries, but it's... gotten better. To a point.]}

I'm... not the best at making people feel better, but you could think of this as a belated present for him? He's missed you, so this is good for him.

_{[Though useful... Bertolt makes a thoughtful sound, then pats at his leg off-screen to call his own Growlithe over. He doesn't waste any time in climbing into Bertolt's lap and leaning against his chest, but his attention quickly shifts from his trainer to the 'gear and the nearly identical puppy inside of it.

What is he supposed to do????? This is another dog!]}

I, ah... I'd say useful depends on your definition of it. I wouldn't trade mine for anything else if that helps? But that might just be me. He's been... I suppose it sounds a little weird, but he's been really supportive and especially helpful around camp. We don't have to carry tinder around to start a fire anymore because of him.

[video] [action for new bark town]

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