IC Inbox [Victory Road]

[angewiesen]

Please leave any mail for Jean here, whether of the electronic or physical variety! He'll get back to you ASAP!

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Deliver on April 7th

[schachmeister]

[Wherever Jean might be on his badge journey, on April seventh, he's going to have a little visit from Armin's Wingull. She's carrying a small, light package and a letter.

Inside of the package (which has been neatly wrapped) are two TMs: Earthquake and Steel Wing. The letter reads:]

Jean,

Happy birthday.

I know it might feel weird to you to have your birthday now (I don't think you told me exactly what date it was when you was last in our world) but regardless, I don't think we should let it pass by. I figured, seeing as you are working on getting your badges, a little gift to help with that would do best. Plus, this way there is nothing extra for you to carry as you travel.

Of course, you are free to teach these moves to whichever one of your pokemon you want, but I got them with your Gyarados and Pidgeot in mind. Especially for your Gyarados, a move like Earthquake will be really valuable. Other trainers are inevitably going to try and use electric pokemon against any water type you use, and with a move like Earthquake, you can actually target them really well.

Hope today treats you well and good luck on your next badge fight.

Regards,
Armin

text; backdated

[shiro2hero]

[Almost right after this thread ends... Any awkwardness about the situation with Jean and his memories doesn't matter right now. Getting the word out does.]

Jean - Armin's Lapras are gone. Someone attacked him and stole them. He's okay, but I'm going out there to help search the beach.

All we know so far is it was a group, they had a boat, and they took all of the Lapras.

[angewiesen]

[Awkwardness? What awkwardness? This is serious business time.]

Copy. What's your position? I don't have the badge to Fly yet, but I've activated a few warp pads.

[Isn't it nice that it's hard to convey emotion over text?]

[shiro2hero]

[It's super great texting has no emotion whatsoever.]

I'm leaving Celedon in Kanto. Where are you? I have an extra flyer you can borrow.

Probably back-dated some to be closer to Valentine, Time is fake.

[schachmeister]

[Armin has been trying to keep it to himself as much as possible, but truth is, ever since Valentine he's been troubled. Not related to Angel or anything they did! No, that part has been fantastic. Rather, it is due to the messages he had received.

Or one of them in particular, to be exact.

So far he had just been turning it over in his head, studying the text on the card over and over again. Another betrayal then? He had hoped after Annie, Bertolt and Reiner, he would've been better at spotting it, but then again, Bertolt had been able to fool him while they had been in this world too, hadn't he? Perhaps, for all that he is supposed to be the one that notices these sorts of small details to help everybody else, he's just no good at it.

And the problem is, who can he even talk to this about? Normally, this is the sort of thing you discuss with your friends, but who of them can he trust? Clearly, he can't tell. But no, there are a few people who must be safe, right? Who simply couldn't have done it based on logistics, rather than Armin's trust in them, which clearly wasn't always placed well.

In the end, he had been able to come up with Jean, Shiro and Angel as people who he was certain couldn't have been involved in this. Shiro is away, unfortunately, and this is not a conversation he wants to have with him over the gear. Angel is training, though he will certainly talk to her later, which leaves Jean.]

Jean, are you busy?

[Armin pokes his head into Jean's bedroom, clutching the offending card in one hand, his expression drawn and somewhat tense.]

mercy isn't real, justice is an illusion

[angewiesen]

[Technically, Jean was never what he would consider 'busy' these days. Even when he was out on the trail, that was just occupied. Not busy. But he knew what Armin meant. Especially when he had his serious face on.]

No, I'm not. [He was only screwing around on his Gear. He could tell they were about to have a conversation, so he turned it off.] What's up?

[Jean immediately took note of the card in his hand. He'd gotten a couple of them himself, and he recognized the style of it. Personally, he didn't learn anything from them he didn't already know-- he could even tell who sent what-- so he assumed he was about to hear about a relationship problem.]

[schachmeister]

[Considering the last time Armin cornered Jean to have an important conversation, the conclusion that it must be some sort of relationship problem is understandable. Also wrong, but understandable.

Unless 'someone is betraying me' falls under the umbrella of relationship problems these days.

Armin hesitates for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to say this. In the end, he just settles for stepping into the room, pulling the door shut behind him, and holding out the card to Jean.]

Read this.

8/13

[brokencode]

[Even on the road, Angel has made a habit of waking early, heading out to a clearing, and getting some training in. Sure, there's plenty of fights to get into with the Pokemon along the way, but it's still nice to share a few moments with her team! Besides, she can use the private time to get dressed and prepare for her day, as well. No need to worry about making her traveling companions uncomfortable.

This is all to say that it's not at all surprising that Angel isn't immediately available come morning time. And it's certainly not strange for her to come ambling into whatever clearing they've claimed as a campsite. What is strange, however, is the almost... stiff way she moves. While Angel under the best of circumstances could be meek, and tried not to take up too much space, her movements have certainly never seemed this jerky or unsteady -- at least not of late.

Nor has she ever been quite so... forward.]

Jean. Your hair is a mess. Come here and let me fix it.

[angewiesen]

Mmn?

[Jean normally took care of all the work of making and breaking up camp, and was currently cooking something for breakfast. He'd made a bed of broken up bits of sausage and fried some some potatoes in the excess oil, then poured some eggs to scramble all over the top of that. He was the kind of guy that was good with a handful of whatever was easiest (usually dried), but Sasha was not, so he cooked!]

[Everything was simmering away nicely on its own, so Jean was able to stand up and leave the food alone for a second. The behavior, so far, wasn't so egregious that Jean thought it was weird. She fussed over appearances a little sometimes.]

What? [He leaned over... a lot, so his hair could be in easy reach.] Is there a leaf in it or something?

[brokencode]

It's all over the place.

[Normally, Angel might comment on how he makes such a show of bending over. Surely he could have just... squatted down and made things less embarrassing. But Angel says nothing. Her eyes have a distant look in them, even as she focuses on his hair and begins smoothing it over to one side or the other. Part down the middle and everything.]

You should take better care of yourself. You're such a handsome man, but you wouldn't know it from all of this!

[She reaches down to rub at a dirt smudge that may or may not be on his forehead. She could just be proving a point, who knows.]

about mid september

[wrappedwarm]

mister jean
armin says he knows you from the milatary
he says eren dragged us there
and your a friend

thank you for being their friend

[Because they didn't have many.]

[angewiesen]

[Okay, Jean really isn't that kind of guy, but there's something heartwarming about her message.]

You don't have to thank me.
I am because I want to be.

[wrappedwarm]

[You know those big, deep questions that no one wants to answer? Mikasa had one of those. One that none of the people she'd asked had known the answer to.

...Or they'd taken one look at the girl and decided not to. So she thought of the people she knew and eventually came to the one honest enough to be Eren. So she opened up her gear and started recording.

Looking the camera dead in the 'eye'.]

Why can ghost pokemon come from eggs?

[angewiesen]

...You mean, because the Pokedex has stuff in it that talks about how they used to be dead kids, or whatever?

[The comparison to Eren is apt, but she'd do best not to mention it.]

» audio

[lordofthefries]

[Sasha doesn't wait for Jean to say hello or ask who's calling. Why bother with pleasantries when the slightly panicked voice on the other end should be more than familiar.]

Jean, you still know a lot about dating right?

[You know, details about her concern would help, but this is Sasha. Where's the fun in life without possibly loaded questions?]

Re: » audio

[angewiesen]

Uhhh...

[Wait. Does he want to admit that he doesn't, or does he want to maintain his reputation? Since she didn't give any warning, he was a bit blindsided, and needed a second to think.]

Yeah, sure I do. What's up?

12/18 - Text (For now at least)

[brokencode]

Jean Kirstein, this is your reminder that the holiday is exactly one week from today. That means you have one week to make it back to the island so that I can give you your gifts and make sure that you are celebrating and taking care of yourself properly 0:)

... Unless you are already there, in which case I will be back from Saffron soon enough and look forward to seeing you!

Otherwise, be sure to pack nice clothes and be on your best behavior as there will be more than one child present!

[angewiesen]

I'm already there.

I'd recommend you stay at Armin's Gym for awhile though. This place has the plague.

Backdated to after Sasha contacted Armin about *that* subject.

[schachmeister]

Jean! I think I owe you a congratulations.

And you owe me a drink.

[angewiesen]

Okay. What are we celebrating?

[Because Jean honestly had no idea of what Sasha had been up to.]

Action - idek, Armin's place? Somewhere they both would be?

[wrappedwarm]

[This past month hadn't been a good time for Mikasa. Yachi had been a close friend. Then being trapped on a clifftop by an angry bird while everyone else was out.

She'd stayed inside since. Just to make sure another bird didn't grab her. Even if the issues had been resolved, she wanted some peace.

She did not get any peace. Because at some point a small creature had snuck into to the house, maybe it'd followed behind someone or it had just squeezed through a window. Mikasa was happily oblivious to the pokemon creeping through the halls and it's giggles. The small creaks of wood as it wandered. It's face a mirror image of Mikasa's, hair hanging limply as it looked for a target.

Zoura, it's ten months too early for creepy ghost children.]

Armin's place works!

[angewiesen]

[Jean drank coffee during all hours of the day, because he honestly never slept well and needed the caffeine. So it wasn't weird for him to have a mug on hand basically whenever.]

[This made him the perfect target for jumpscares, as he always had something hot and staining to spill all over himself.]

» NSFW prom shenanigans

[lordofthefries]

[With most of the Prom events over, the lack of exciting distractions leaves Sasha alone with her thoughts. It's certainly not the first time her and Jean have shared a bed together, but it seems much more dire of a situation now that they are an Official Couple. Now back in their hotel room, she sits on the edge of the bed, still clad in her dress and shoes, and stares at the wall instead of Jean because it makes it so much easier to say the next few words out loud before she talks herself out of them:]

Do you want to do it?

[Something about being painfully blunt seems helpful right now. Does she want to have sex with him? Sasha can't say she's not curious; she has seen Jean naked before and felt that warmth budding in her belly. After all, she's still a red-blooded human with hormones. But the idea of how to deal with those feelings in a seductive manner is still lost to her, a result of her being used to shoving them down and ignoring them all this time.]

[angewiesen]

[Jean is sitting on the other side of the bed, peeling off his boots and shedding his overcoat while Sasha drills a hole in the wall with her eyes. And it's for the best, because even he needs a moment after hearing that.]

[He was expecting that, eventually, the subject would be broached, but-- well, maybe he was an idiot to think it would have been brought up more delicately. This was Sasha we're talking about. The only time she ever stepped lightly was when she was stalking something she meant to kill.]

Uh... [He clears his throat.] Well, saying no would be a lie. But I can wait if you're not sure.

text (un: falcogrice)

[grice]

Hi, Mister Jean! Do you have a second?