wipesfaith | 03 [action/written] backdated to MONDAY 1/27

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03 [action/written] backdated to MONDAY 1/27

[When Jean wakes up on Monday, it is with the heavy sense that something is missing. (Isn't it strange, how lacking can weigh more than having?) The skipped days - going to bed on Friday night and waking up to Monday morning - aren't what hits him first; these, he won't notice until he open his journal to send a message that won't be read by its intended recipient for a while.

The bed on the other side of the room is empty.

He's the only one in their apartment. This doesn't fall too far outside the normal rhythm of the day, but it drags him back to a few months ago when things were knocked off balance and disappearing was Marco's favorite hobby. So he sends that message, raises an eyebrow at the date, and gets ready for the day while he waits for a response.

It doesn't come.]

[Action]

[In the morning, he scours the village, walking the length of every road and checking inside every public building. He tries not to think about the last time he'd walked through still streets unable to remember with any certainty when he'd last seen his friend.]

Marco? [Cupping a hand around his mouth.] Marco!

[At some point, he dimly realizes that school started a while ago, but that doesn't mean shit to him right now. Two options have long since sunk into his brain: Marco has either been kidnapped for experimentation, or he has gone home to hit a dead end. Still, through wanting to prolong the inevitable, through wanting to feel effective in some way, he doesn't drop his search. He takes it out of the village, winding through the woods on horseback.

When he finally returns, with nothing to show for his efforts but exhaustion, a tightened knot of anxiety in his stomach, and questions, evening has settled in. He opens his journal - still no response - and starts asking.]

[Written]

Does anybody know of any missing persons cases that happened over the weekend?

Is there anyone who can remember anything that happened between Friday night and this morning?

[Then, because he doesn't know how to lock messages to specific individuals, he adds:]

Commander Smith, Captain Levi. I need to speak with you. If you're in your quarters, I can come up shortly.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[His eyebrows furrow at the wide discrepancy.] That's weird...I thought...

[Checking over the sprawling equations he'd written out - everything is long-hand when you don't even know what a calculator is - but everything seems to add up. A frustrated sigh, but he shrugs it off.]

Must have messed up somewhere. Still, that's an even crazier amount of land. It's hard to imagine.

[Ginia looks over his math, carefully working her way though his equations. It takes going over his math a few times before she sees what the problem is.]

The world is round, not flat.

Huh? [This is news to him.] You mean like a ball?

[Ginia nods.]

Just like a ball that's slowly rotating around the sun. While one side of the world is day, the other side is night.

Oh... [More new information... It makes him feel like he really doesn't know much at all, but that's how he feels at school here more often than not too.]

I wonder if the world is that big back home too...if there's another side where it's night while we're having day. [Heh.] I never used to think about stuff like this.

[Since Ginia has the laptop again, she opens up wordpad and types out her next words. ]

I don't think most people think outside of the world immediately around them, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I grew up in a large city, traveled occasionally to neighboring cities for vacations or shows, so I've lived in an area much larger from where you're from, but my life was still focused on this tiny area. The dance studio, the theaters, my family's bar, that was my world and the people in it.

I guess... [But then there are people like Armin, who has always been curious about the world beyond the walls. While he, not too long ago, had barely thought more than a meter beyond himself.]

Can I see the map again?

[Ginia minimizes wordpad and opens up the map again, handing the laptop back to Jean so he can study the map as much as he wants.]

[He pores over the map in silence for a while, stumbling over unfamiliar pronunciations of countries, cities, and oceans in his head. The map doesn't give any indication of geographical features like mountains or deserts, so he wonders where those are. After a few minutes, he points at a spot - the United States.]

This is where you're from, right?

[Ginia nods and takes the laptop back to pull up a map of the US. It's much more detailed than the previous map, showing elevation, lakes and rivers, and major roadways.

She points at Davenport, Massachusetts, a (imaginary) city southwest of Boston.]

I was born in Davenport.

[He looks to where she points, studying the area around it. So many towns crammed into one place... His eyes drop to the key, and he should really stop being surprised at this point but his eyebrows jump up a bit anyway.]

There are really cities with more than a million people living there? [But it makes sense, with greater access to resources.] The place I'm from was one of the biggest cities in the walls, but we had nowhere near that many people.

Several million in some cases. New York City has around 8.5 million living there. Yet some states, like Wyoming, have only 600,000 living in the entire state.

[Only 600,000 she says, which is probably still more than the population within the walls.]

Woah... [Still studying the map, trailing from city to city, trying to imagine that many people.]

Is it a good place to live, Davenport? Or the United States on the whole?

[Ginia laces her hands together as she thinks on the question. She's traveled around the world enough to know there's no such thing as a perfect place. Every country had its problems, largely stemming from the fact humans, for better or worse, were humans. And even comparing the history of her world against other Earths, it didn't seem like any version had the answer to everything.]

I can't really speak for the US on a whole since it's so large. Everywhere has its pros and cons.

Davenport had its problems. Organized crime was a problem and the police force was corrupt so they were prone to look the other way. The place was a hot bed for hunters though.

Doesn't sound too different from the interior wall, from what I've heard. [And to think he used to be so eager to wedge himself into the center of the corruption, as long as his life was guaranteed.]

Hunters?

Bounty hunters. People that take on jobs for money, anything from tracking down someone that's skipped bail, chasing down serial killers, to smuggling goods, and assassinations.

[Ginia lapses into thoughtful silence. Erwin knows she's a bounty hunter, though she didn't expand on her role as it was easy enough to work off his assumptions. And it'd be easy enough never say anything, let Jean continue to assume she was a soldier or something of the sort. Lying is easy, lying is a part of life.]

I was a hunter.

[As she likes to believe, but she knows no one ever leaves the field, not until they're dead. And since she's still living now...]

Edited 2014-02-10 19:41 (UTC)

[Was. A curious divergence from is. He was a soldier in his world, but he still considers himself one while he's here. Apparently, she doesn't feel the same way.]

...So anything that anyone would be willing to pay for. [A job that could mean a lot of different things - the ambiguity makes him uneasy. As a soldier, he follows orders, but he ultimately fights for himself. He fights because he chose to, because there is something he wants to believe in.]

[A single nod. There were always people willing to pay for something and always people willing to get paid.]

The richest people were safe inside gated communities or hiring bodyguards. For everyone else, it all came down to how much money you had for protection or who was in the area.

The regular hunters in Davenport, the ones from the area or the ones who stuck around, they took care of people, tried to keep things safe since it was the right thing to do.

[Her expression is level and composed, but there is a very faint hint of a smile. Even before she joined their ranks, Davenport hunters were always good to her family. Maybe it was because Hatter had taken a liking to him, and Hatter's word was practically law in Davenport. Or maybe it because they ran a nice bar and her father was quick to welcome anyone who came through the doors without judging.]

Edited 2014-02-11 06:41 (UTC)

The more loaded you are with money, the safer you'll be...and everyone else has to hope for the best. Sounds about right. [Not "right", anything but "right", but that's how it is.]

Were you with the hunters that looked after the townspeople?

I was, up until I retired.

You seem kinda young to be retired. No offense.

None taken, though I'm old for a hunter.

[Hunters weren't known for having long lives, though she knew a few in their forties and fifties. The ones that old usually shifted into a support position or didn't have anything else to do.]

But I decided to get out when I could.

No penalty for that? [He guesses the edicts soldiers are bound to might not apply.]

Not when you work for yourself.

[It would be different if she was an actual soldier. Soldiers going AWOL was frowned upon in all branches. But you were your own boss, the only thing you had to worry about was how you cut your ties or how you disappeared.

It was easy the first time, leaving peacefully with her intentions clear, ties intact.

Faking her death and disappearing two years later, now that was a bit harder.]

Something you have to know about me is I'm not a soldier. I think very differently, I fight very differently. But if we're in a fight together, I have your back. That I can assure you.

[A different set of rules. A different machine - no, a different beast, because it's damn impossible to shed every last layer of selfishness in order to be a machine.

But she isn't defined only be her preoccupation as a hunter any more than he's defined only by his role as a soldier. In the end, he nods.]

I don't doubt that. And I'll do my best to watch your back too, when the time comes.