bertall | Iɴʙᴏx ✉ Vɪᴄᴛᴏʀʏ Rᴏᴀᴅ

I know. I'm sorry, for what it's worth.

_{[He was stupid, and Bertolt still was when it came to certain things.]}

It's sort of how you'd imagine other contests. Performing in front of people, all that stuff. But uh

He's been good, Annie. Really good.
We've been sharing tents and rooms more or less since I got here. It's almost like how things were back in the barracks, only it's... better? I've had to cope without Reiner, but with Jean it's been easier. I can more or less be myself around him and it's nice. Really, really nice.

[ ... Okay, this is reminding her of half the conversations she heard going around in the barracks, in every city, in basically all human civilization, and it's such a tonal turn around and... weird relief that she won't even taunt herself for drowning in what amounts to gossip.

Processing time is helpful, and... no, she doesn't really get this, but she knows she also has a longstanding irritable friction with Jean whenever he opened his mouth, and she knows time as with all things changes people.

It's more Bertolt she ends up shaking her head over, patting Lute's head absently as he sighs and shifts to lay his massive, horned face in her lap. ]

Does Jean feel the same way, or did you just let me into your one-sided romantic affection knowledge circle? I haven't gained any sudden skills in this arena, Bertolt, so I'm hoping this won't devolve into asking for advice beyond the obvious.

[ Starting with you're dancing around disaster and ending with but unfortunately, I understand. Hearts are fickle enough creatures, and none of them really hated anyone in the 104th. Circumstances had simply dictated that those were some of the lives they ended up taking; known faces amoung so many others.

Just... be... careful there, Bertolt. ]

_{[Her words don't fully register for a few moments, but when they do he makes a low, agonized sound deep in the back of his throat that gets a concerned trill from his Comfey. Is that-- No, he's fine, but boy are his ears turning pink. That poor little Comfey hasn't seen that before.

Is he getting sick? Better send out another wave of some nice flower smells!]}

Not you too.
It's not like that|
Someone already|
it's not

_{[Annie, no.]}

Oh my god does it really sound like that?

[ Bertolt, yes??? She breathes out in a sigh, not so concerned about it really, Lute benefiting from her one handed typing with a contented rumbling of his own. It's kind of nice. Not a purr, but it reminds her of one. ]

It does. It's not my business either way, but the way you were talking about him, that's not generally how people talk about their friends. If I were making educated guesses about you, that Jean was an interest point would be one of them.

I don't have any idea what Jean thinks, or what "someone already" means when you wrote it, or who else has already commented on this. It's just what things read like from here.

[ Which is literally coming from someone who just showed up, but who has known him for years, even in the more divorced capacity of their time in the Walls versus the constant training of their childhood.

Also, it's slightly more fun to bluntly exclaim at Bertolt over what a mess his emotions are over things intrinsically linked to life over the devastation of having died, and living with that memory in a final, consuming way. ]

Edited 2018-09-23 07:15 (UTC)

I've talked about Reiner like that!

_{[Except given his track record, there was something there with him too. There was definitely something there during those strange, funky weekends when the other man showed up in this world.

That's... certainly not helping his case, especially given the rumors that may have even floated around behind their backs.]}

There's nothing going on! It's just|
We're just friends!
There's no way that he'd|

We're just|

oh my god there's nothing going on i swear

[ ... ]

This is supposed to be normal, isn't it? People agonising over love lives. Didn't we leave this behind at fourteen?

[ Annie says this while showing Lute the gear. Lute has no opinion, so he huffs a breath and closes his eyes, and Annie rolls hers in turn. Okay, so at fourteen she was discussing her lack of seduction skills as a detriment to potentially getting a man involved with the royal family to marry her, but that was neither here nor there. That was espionage in a long game. ]

And you never caught feelings for Reiner, of course.

[ Spare her. For all Bertolt was also randomly supportive of some of her more offhand remarks (thanks for the power of your belief, Bertolt? she guesses? you're the only one who thinks she could seduce anyone???), he and Reiner had their own back and forth she'd been aware of and... unconcerned with. ]

Ask. Don't claim you know what's inside his head or heart so well that "there's no way he'd" is a logical assessment instead of an irrational one. You know what else surprised everyone? Jean joining the Scouting Corps. If he really would never, get your heart broken so you can work on patching it up again. Don't waste your time on maybes and assumptions and what if's.

I|

_{[She's got him there. He does still have feelings for Reiner but there's no point in dwelling on them, is there? There's no guarantee that he'll see him again. Bertolt worries at his lower lip for a few moments and he nearly pouts at the gear, but he shakes his head (and jostles MJ nestled in his hair at the same time) to clear that thought.}

He originally wanted to join the Military Police, remember?

_{[That had changed after Trost, but Bertolt chooses to not dwell on that by shifting it back to the rest of it.]}

But it's not that easy. I've had it broken twice already, once by Reiner and another by a girl I met here and I'm not too keen on going back to Blackthorn yet. It's too quiet up there, and I don't want things to get

weird.

_{[Weirder than hiding in Jean's bed with one of his blankets wrapped around him like it'll protect him? Quite possibly.]}

I'm not even sure what's going on myself. People just assume it's|
Like that.
I don't know what it is.

_{[The woes of being child soldiers - they never had a chance to figure out how feelings and emotions really worked, so now that Bertolt actually has that chance? They've all kicked into overdrive and left him fumbling through it all on his own.]}

I'm aware, Bertolt. That's why the surprise was when he didn't end up choosing them after all.

If he's so good these days, he won't hold something he doesn't feel against you. Probably. You know him better than I do.

Anyway, I already said what it sounds like, and you're already ignoring any advice I have, so just tell me about your contests instead.

It's complicated, Annie.

_{[If he weren't so blind to how feelings like this worked, it'd be something he'd be considering - just going for something always seemed like a good idea rather than dwelling on it, but this was... Different. This was something he wanted to be careful with.

He's read too many romance books from the Pokemart.]}

There's not really a lot to say about them, only it's sort of... I'm not sure, a way to show off your Pokemon and their abilities. It's like a big talent show.

... I take it back. Let's keep taking about your "complicated" love life, that's at least mildly enlightening.

On an unrelated thought... since we took care to never be close during our time training with the 104th, I'll be sure to stay away and not generally complicate other aspects of your life.

Armin wants to talk. I don't want you being involved with any conclusions he may draw. Whatever follows from that, I'll let you know, but you don't need him turning his attention toward you. Not here. Not for this.

[ In her own way, it's protecting him, but especially so now. Which bringing this up is... after everything else, a different reassurance. A shitty one, but a pointed one regardless. ]

How is it enlightening?

But... You also don't have to stay away-stay away. There's no reason why we can't meet up here and there, you know? It's a big world and sometimes we might bump into each other. You're right that we weren't exactly close back on Paradis but we were still 'classmates'.

_{[It was natural for even strangers to talk a few times while they were in the same class, after all. It was part of blending in.]}

As for talking with him, are you sure? I mean... How much do you think he knows? Considering we all seem to be from different points in time and all. I know he doesn't know that I'm the Colossal otherwise I don't think he'd be so amicable towards me in general, but I'm... I'm worried.

Even we can fall into living like we aren't just tools.

I'm not concerned about no contact, just initial contact. I don't know how much Armin knows, but he's a shitty liar, so you really should know if he was aware of anything with you. As it is, I want to have that conversation to make a judgement call on what he's expecting. If Jean and Sasha know nothing, I'll treat them no differently than before. He's the one I won't predict until I know what his priorities are here.

Like I said, after that conversation, I'll get back in touch. We can figure things out from there, but the way I deal with Jean and Sasha should be the way I appear to deal with you, too.

It's easy to do here, honestly. It's not so bad though.

Let me know what happens with it - what he knows and what he doesn't, things like that. I've been keeping my distance since I came back for my own sanity, since I think... It'd be suspicious if I had a breakdown around him out of nowhere. That's part of the reason why I've been staying with Jean too, because I know if something like that did happen I could rely on him.

Plus, well, just between us? I'd really like you to visit so you can try the things Jean and I have been making in the shop. I think you'd like a lot of it.

[ Bertolt... some things she's already said, so she doesn't say them again. Instead: ]

Bribing me with food?

[ Donuts. That's the thing she really would love to get to try again. ]

Edited 2018-09-24 00:58 (UTC)

Maybe. Is it working?

Not as well as if I were Sasha, but yes.

You won't be disappointed, I promise. Jean makes a really good latte with cinnamon and whipped cream and I've got a big book full of recipes I haven't even tried yet.

You're really enjoying yourself, aren't you?

I am, yeah. I never thought I'd get the chance to do what normal people get to do.

_{[Birthdays are also a nice touch - he wasn't big on celebrating them back home, but here? No one would judge him if he wanted to sit in and read, or get an entire cake all for himself.

Cake was always a bonus.]}

You wouldn't have without this place.

Ah, right, before I forget. I'm not finding any information on dietary requirements for pokemon with these starting materials, only some of what they may eat, and nothing about what they can't. Is there anything I should watch out for?

[ Like overfeeding with horses leading to increased colic and death. ]

It differs from Pokemon to Pokemon, but I've found that they all seem to be able to eat the same types of food that they sell in stores and even some of what we can normally eat. They all seem to enjoy the berries listed in the guide that you should have, and um... Let me think.

There's some that will eat things you wouldn't expect normal animals to eat - some enjoy electricity over regular food, and I've got a couple that eat rocks and minerals. Jean and I also have a few that eat garbage of all things too, but it makes things a little easier around the shop - mine has to eat outside though because she's a little on the large side and has an... odor. Like anything they can have their own likes and dislikes too. For example I have one that will go out of her way to pick out every single pecan out of a bag of trail mix and only eat those, and one of my Arcanine refuses to go anywhere near lemons while his daughter inhales them.

If you ever have one that eats metal, be
careful
especially if it happens to be an Aron.

_{[And just to... sort of prove his point, he attaches an old video snippet of an overturned dump truck and said teeny tiny Aron tearing through the underside of the chassis and, well, eating it.]}

This happened about a year ago and I still get weird looks when I go to that town. Thankfully he doesn't do this sort of stuff anymore, but his species is known for eating railroad tracks and bridges.

[ Moving pictures are a fascinatingly informative medium. That tiny, oddly bone-white pokemon is absurd as the perpetrator of truck destruction, and she can't help how her eyebrows climb higher when she watches. ]

In one evolution, or all of them? Assuming he evolves.

All of them, usually. He outgrew the truck-eating phase thankfully, but he still enjoys scrap metal when we find it. I let him eat the smaller truck one of my other Pokemon destroyed during the contest.

_{[The next picture takes a little more time to find, but this time it's of the Aron-turned-Aggron in all of his shiny-colored glory. He's big, imposing, and his armor is nearly gold in the sunlight as he sits back on his haunches with part of a jeep's bumper held firmly in his claws]}

I'll let him go around in junkyards with the town's permission, but he's pretty content with eating whatever we've got. Leftovers, special meals, junk, rocks, things like that. He's not too picky these days which works out great for everyone.

The weird thing though is despite how big some of them can get, they don't seem to need to eat a lot.

What do you mean?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

2/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject