[Luceti] [1st • Written] (backdated to the 12th ok)

[reviling]

[part 1 - arrival]

[ in the world he comes from, knowledge of what exists beyond the three walls that both confine and protect humanity is limited, even forbidden. Though he's ventured beyond the outermost wall - something that only the Survey Corps is capable of doing, and always with sacrifices - Levi knows humanity has only seen an immeasurable fraction of what it once had. He cannot begin to fathom what the rest of the world could be like outside of their short ventures beyond the walls.

So when he awakens in this place, it doesn't occur to him that it could be a different world entirely.

Although the wings are unsettling. Those are new. And itchy as hell. ]

The fuck...


[ in a world where people can transform into titans taller than the monstrous walls that keep them caged, the sudden appearance of wings somehow doesn't seem that terribly far fetched, even if he has no idea how or why, or - more importantly - whom.]


[Part 2 - recon: Written/Action]

[ It's been several hours now, and all of the information he's gathered so far is confusing at best and disturbing at worst. Knowledge of the outside world had been limited, but knowledge of other worlds? Unheard of. He's still trying to wrap is head around it.

After checking for the gear (nowhere to be found, much to his irritation, and thankfully he hadn't had to go far for his uniform), he finds a bench and takes out the journal-like device and studies it thoughtfully. The technology is foreign, and somehow it seems exceedingly fragile - though there is a space to write, and that's all he needs at the moment to help organize his thoughts.

So the following appears, in meticulous, elegant penmanship that he'd only learned a few years ago:]

• No reports or knowledge so far of Titans among general populace
  
• No walls - a 'dome' keeps people in by someone/something called the 'Malnosso'
  
• Inhabitants appear to be from diverse locations
  
• Human experiments...need more information about these damn wings
  
• Captors supposedly provide unlimited food, clothing, shelter. Pretty fucking convenient way to keep people placated.
  
• Currently no 3DMG found; other weapons readily available
  
• Technology much more advanced than anything found within the walls ("Electricity?")
  
• Rumors of a war with a group called the 'Third Party' that seeks to exterminate all living within the dome - motivation unknown
  
• ...animals can talk...fucking creepy; might be useful
  
• Require more information about location, threats, etc. Where the fuck am I and how do I get home.
  

[ooc: intro for Levi! Feel free to respond via journal (he's unfamiliar with technology so expect a WTF reaction for the first few replies), or find him wandering around town.
ALSO: Threads with the AOT cast will very likely contain spoilers for events that happen in the manga after the anime!]

Comments

[video...I guess...ahaha]

[reviling]

[it's a pretty spectacular display for him, that's for sure. Probably no one else who knows him could say that they are able to get a reaction out of him like that even if they were to try. So: congratulations, Ikki.

He's still turning the journal over and around as it talks, but then he rights it and blinks back in a more subtle version of bewilderment.]

You can see me? What the hell are you? How did you get in there?

[video]

[breezing]

[ She earns an imaginary gold star for her casual not-efforts.

That question, at least, gets an equal look of bewilderment. ]

Um, yeah? What do you mean - [ Wait. Waaaaaait a second.

Okay, no, she thinks she kind of gets what's going on here. ]

I'm Ikki, I'm an airbender, and I'm not in anything. You look like a picture in a book on my end, too. I'm actually in Luceti right now, near our house - the house where I live with my family, although recently lots of them have been going home so it's kinda empty. This is just one of the ways you can talk to people with journals! There's, um, voice, writing...and then this. Video.

We didn't have videos this clear at home, either. They were more stoppy and less colorful.

[reviling]

[he squints at her figure dubiously. If he follows her correctly, she's an actual person, in another location, and this is some sort of communication device.

For once in his life he actually wishes Hanji was around to figure this out, because he sure as hell had no clue where even to begin with the damn thing.

He'll have to puzzle it out later; perhaps make Jean show him out it works. For now, though, back to business:]

This kind of thing doesn't exist inside the walls.

[or outside of it, as far as he knows, but saying 'my world' is just too strange at this point.]

So, kid, you can make the wind blow? Pretty convenient.

[breezing]

If you want, I can teach you about the different functions. But I'm not good at locking things to people. You could always ask Shikamaru about that...I think he's pretty good at it? He runs the convenience store. They have a slushie machine.

[ The last part has nothing to do with anything, really. ]

And yep! I can also fly if I use my glider, and do...well, lots of airbending stuff. I'm still in training, though; Grandpa's a master airbender. You can tell 'cause he has his mastery tattoos - those are blue arrows. I'm not near getting those at all, yet.

[ Unfortunately. ]

Hey, what did you mean by "inside the walls"?

[reviling]

[eeeeeeeeyebrow arch.] Slushie?

[he's mentally filing all of this information away for later. She's still a novice, but there's clearly more experienced and older practitioners around. The ability to manipulate wind could be a useful asset, if these people proved trustworthy enough to be allies. A man with blue arrow tattoos - Levi will definitely be on the lookout for him.]

How long does it take to become a master?

[there's a slight pause before he answers that last question.]

Where I'm from, what's left of humanity is confined to live within three walls.

[breezing]

Like mushed up ice with syrup that makes it taste good!

[ What a way to sell that. ]

It depends on how long! Grandpa made mastery really young. You have to either create a new form or master all the old forms. Either one gets you your tattoos. I haven't done either of those things.

[ Though she's working on the mastering forms part! And hey, the Avatar himself is training her. Although he also spoils her, so it evens out.

Humanity in three walls... ]

Oh, I see. We don't do that where I come from. I used to live on an island temple.

[reviling]

[yeeeeeeeeeeah he'll take her word for it.]

How many forms are there?

[he finds he's getting genuinely curious about this, despite himself.]

It's not by choice.

An island...surrounded by water? [yeah there's not any of those inside the walls, either, and he's never come across one outside of them.]

[breezing]

Over a hundred. Lots and lots! We don't have any of the scrolls here, but since grandpa knows them all, it's fine.

[ If she were alone, she has...no idea how she'd learn them. Actually. ]

Yes! It's just off the coast of the mainland. We lived there with the air acolytes - those are people who aren't airbenders, but who live by their beliefs and stuff. We're the same nation. The harbor water is kinda cold though.

[reviling]

Sounds like a lucky break for you, kid.

[all stuff he's not familiar with, but he's good at sorting useful information from useless information.

Levi's tried many times to imagine a wider world. Even having been beyond the walls, it's hard to really realize that there's not another one looming somewhere in the distance to distort the horizon. Oceans and islands are foreign concepts, and concepts only in his mind.]

[breezing]

Yeah! I never got to meet him back home, so it's really, really, really super lucky I got to meet him here!!

[ You know, if she didn't call him grandpa or mention he was a master, people might actually expect to see teenaged Aang when they keep an eye out for this mysterious grandfather. No one ever expects that, and she does nothing to help that. ]

Or wait, did you mean about the island...?

[reviling]

[That might be useful, considering Levi's picturing some wizened old man who can still hold his own in a fight - something akin to that old kook, Pixis, but with blue arrows on his face. He'll definitely be surprised when he comes across who Ikki's grandfather really is.]

Your grandfather.

[there's a slight pause, and then he remembers something.]

Hey kid - didn't you say earlier you've been here for a year?

[breezing]

Yeah, I did! This July it'll be two years.

[ ...That's...hm, she actually usually tries not to think about that. Grandpa and Katara are here, sure. But her parents and her siblings aren't. Her aunt and uncles aren't here, either. It's been over a year since she saw any of them.

When she thinks about it, she gets homesick.

So she tries not to think about it. ]

Why d'you ask?

[reviling]

[this time he masks his surprise in a slow blink. Two years.

He can't afford that. At all. None of them can.]

What happens at home when you're gone for two years?

[breezing]

Nothing. No one'll ever even know you were gone. Like...my grandpa and Katara and everyone but Bolin and Asami are from a long time before I am, but their being here was never something that happened at home.

[ She's not sure how it works, she just knows it is A Thing. ]

Sometimes people go home for a while, and then come back remembering more things from home. But while they were at home, they forget Luceti entirely.

[reviling]

I suppose that's better than the alternative.

[a small boon, if there was one about being here. It eases his fears about the problems he'd been pulled away from slightly, but not by much.]

[breezing]

Yep!! It'd be really, really bad otherwise. A lot of people here were in the middle of really important stuff back home.

I was just visiting my GranGran with my family, but...they'd probably be super worried if they knew I wasn't there.

[ To say the least. ]

Anyway, is there anything else I can help with? Let's see, the list...the Malnosso are someones, the wings are important and if you remove 'em you'll die - and yeah, you'll come back in a week but usually when you die there's a penalty thingie that means you lose something and I don't think anyone should really die anyway 'cause why would you? The war's not a rumour, and sometimes there are drafts. We got invaded a little while back and they put us all in an illusion but everyone broke out and things went back to normal-ish after a little while.

[reviling]

Fucking annoying...

[he mutters this under his breath about the wings, but there's some things in all of that he wants to know more about.]

What's so important about these damn wings, anyway? Are they even good for anything?

[because as far as he can tell: no, they really aren't, other than getting in the way.]

Drafts, huh? What about volunteers?

[breezing]

[ She's clearly considering the question about wings the second he says it, but...Ikki's thoughts end with a shrug. No help here. ]

Dunno! They're just something that happens. I think maybe you need them to survive in this world or something, 'cause everyone here has 'em, even in other enclosures.

And I dunno about volunteers, but I think so. I know the missions are done with volunteers...I'm not really allowed to go on those, so I only know what people tell me when they get back. And the one time I got drafted my family beat up the drones so I wouldn't have to go, so I don't know a whole lot about those either.

I mean, I know what they are, but no one really tells me a lot about what goes on on them, and I try not to ask 'cause usually they're doing...stuff.

[ That they don't want to talk about. Like, uh, killing people and things? ]

[reviling]

"Stuff."

[he looks at her image in the journal more closely now. She's definitely just a kid, but probably not much younger than a lot of the recruits when they start their military training. Still, she's got a lot of spunk mixed in with all of that young innocence. It's no surprise that her family's taken risks to keep her away from the war.]

How old are you, anyway?

[breezing]

Stuff they don't want to tell me about 'cause they think it'll upset me or 'cause it'll upset them.

[ As candid as ever, Ikki. ]

I'm eight!! I'll be nine in August.

[reviling]

[And she's pragmatic. So many points in your favor, Ikki.]

[Eight. Had she been born in his world, in a few years she could begin to train to fight man eating titans. It's funny how large the gap can seem, but how small it is in reality. Levi idly wonders at what age her family might allow her to fight the very things they've been trying to protect her from up to this point.]

Pretty smart, for a kid.

[breezing]

Thanks!! I do pretty okay at school, when it's open and not shut down 'cause of experiments or something. Or breaks. Hey, you could probably learn stuff there, too. I mean, with the spirits at least. Did anyone mention those?? Everyone here can pretty much learn to use spirit magic if you start talking to them...it takes a while to hear them, though.

[ And she, of course, has only spoken to one. ]

I can hear the wind spirit, but that's it. Grandpa and Katara can hear more of them, and so can a lot of other people I know. That's one of our classes at school, though.

[reviling]

[oh, that's definitely new information (seeing as he hasn't dug through that text yet). He frowns a bit (more), and starts to think that he should just go and find this girl at some point instead of talking to her through a book.]

Talking to spirits? Sounds creepy.

[school, here? Somehow it seems like an odd thing to have in a place like this. But that's not important to his interests at this point.]

How does it work?

[breezing]

Really? I guess I don't think so 'cause airbenders are supposed to be spiritual, even though Jinora's always been the most spiritual. Though she's not here...and Grandpa's the bridge between the spirit world and our world, back home. He's the Avatar, though.

[ Also she's eight and magic is awesome. ]

Basically you have to go and listen for them in the places they like to hang out. Nala's probably easiest, and she can be heard anywhere according to Sifu Raine. She's the healing spirit, so if you learn from her, you can learn to heal things. I want to learn to talk to her sometime so I can help out more...but for me?

Kipinn's easiest I guess 'cause I understand wind. He's best heard near mountains. Grandpa takes me flying on Appa sometimes, so we went near there the first time I heard him. I'm not usually allowed out that far by myself, so it's always with other people.

[ Not that she complains. Luceti proper is more or less safe, but there's bears and stuff out in the wild, and admittedly it's a reasonable house rule not to go wandering off on her own without a guardian. ]

I can do some wind magic with his stuff, although it's kinda...less powerful than airbending, so.

[reviling]

Some people inside the walls believe in ghosts, but there's no real proof they exist.

[he's dubious, but has enough on his plate worrying about the living rather than the dead. Magic isn't really something that makes sense to him, given that a lot of that lore had been lost when humanity had been confined inside the walls. People turning into titans is currently inexplicable, but so far appears to still be somehow biological in nature. Unexplained things in the world often ended up having some kind of explanation that was surprisingly more simplistic than they might seem.

But still, if magic is anything like what she can do with the air, it could be useful to learn how to do - especially if they're going to be stuck here for a while.]

Hey, what was your name again?