After recovering enough to move and fight sufficiently without help the first thing the man did was pack his bags. He was going to put himself to use, as far away from Damien as he could while still keeping family access. "Virgil, where are you goink?" His mother ran out, trying to check his bandages. He shoved her off with a grunt.
He pointed towards where the sun was rising over Castle Heterodyne in the distance, hand shaking slightly. She stepped back. "De army?" He nodded. She put a hand on his shoulder. "Son, that's suicide." He put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes, raising one eyebrow as if to ask if she didn't know he knew that. Virgil clicked his teeth and made a 'tch' sound. It was common knowledge that anyone who joined the Heterodyne army didn't leave willingly. They only came out in caskets or were made to retire.
His sisters, having heard their mom chasing him (never a good sign) came out to listen in. "Okay well… try not to kill anyone from our town." She asked. He shrugged, not willing to make any promises. Even his body language was angrily silent. "No one from our farm?" He shrugged again, thinking about Damien. "Okay well no one you like." This time there was a nod.
She sighed. This meant Evelynn, as the most mature sister, would get the farm. But he was a hard-headed boy and there was no way she was going to get anything better out of him. Well, at least he was doing something productive and going to work for the Heterodynes. From the window of the house his cousin glared out. No one had said anything too him, and he hadn't said anything about the incident.
He narrowed his eyes before adjusting his improvised chicken feed knapsack and marching out the gates.
About three hours of walking later he made his way to the recruiting table in front of the castle's side entrance. Well, less than a recruiting table than they were dragging in all the young men who had committed sneer-worthy crimes that needed straightening out and having anyone who came willingly sign a form. The young man flinched as someone was carried, raving, by.
"So, hyu vant to enter de army?" The jaeger sitting at the table, marking off names, looked up at him from beneath the bill of her hat. He nodded quickly. "Hyu like killink things?" He nodded again. She raised her eyebrow and frowned. "Hyu mute or something?"
He nodded again. "Goot." She stood. "Somevun who von't talk back. Just follow everyvun else in."
He entered the walls of Castle Heterodyne, looking around slightly nervously. But he bit his lip and trudged on, trying not to think about the traps set all down the hall. He figured they wouldn't let it take out too many new recruits. After only a few moments of walking towards the light, head down, he made it to the courtyard where they would be divided up by specialty by the generals.
He got shifted into a small division of beginning mechanics, a far corner by the labs. That didn't mean, however, that he was safe from the gruel of training and the enjoyment of killing. Iscariot Heterodyne wasn't going to allow anyone in his army to not taste blood at least ten times.
"Hey, I know dis guy." One of the monsters, a green one with wavy purple hair that had been put in charge of his training for the day, said. "He's de guy who iz alvays electrifying de fences at dot chicken farm." This made Virgil grin sheepishly under the hungry gazes of several Jaegers. He didn't know much about them, and didn't exactly want to at the moment...
A human colored one that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere patted him on the back heavily, making him jump slightly. "Scares easier den hy thought." Oh no, they were going to eat him alive. "But… promising."
"Yah, if he ken keep us out of dere most of de time, he might just have a chance." The first replied. He snatched his hand and shook it hard. "De names Dimo." He took a deep, relieved breath. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad- "Now all of hyu drop und give me vun hundred push ops." Several of the men in his group groaned. Most were quite heavy set, used to intellectual challenges rather than physical labor, and dropped into the grass with loud thumps. He thanked God for years of exercise cushioned around the hobby he had chosen to further.
He finished several minutes later alongside the best of his team, long before the rest. "Form needs work." Dimo muttered to the four who had finished. "Bit its de first day. Hyu four, I vant hyu to clean de barns. De rest, vun hundred more."
There was a collective groan from the slow folks. Two of Virgil's new partners begrudgingly trudged away, followed by the two who were aware that you had to start low. "Und vatch out for de horzes! Dey bite!" The other Jaeger warned. Dimo jammed an elbow into his gut, telling him to shut up and stop ruining the fun.
That night, with only a handful of hours until dawn, he was finally led to his new quarters and allowed to move in. "I expect to see hyu lot in four hours, at first light." Dimo oriented the four into a bedroom and shut the door. "So rest op."
Virgil tossed his knapsack onto a cot and collapsed. He was completely worn out, without another ounce of physical or mental strength left in him. But the second day was always worse. He managed to sit up again as the others, whom he had yet to get the names of and didn't really plan on getting to know, began to snore. He rubbed his arms down with olive oil his mother had insisted on him taking to loosen them up, removing the sweat-stained bandages he no longer had to wear. This was going to be a long week, but he wasn't going to let himself be threatened or scared.
The mechanic slipped a silver flask out from its hiding place in a wad of shirts. He tipped his head back and swallowed a few times, welcoming the sleep aid into his body for the next few hours. He flopped over, burying his face into the flat pillow, wormed his shoes off thoughtlessly, and fell into a dreamless sleep.
The next day a different Jaeger, this one nearly all hair, met them. All four of the people were sore, bleary eyed, and incredibly disagreeable. "Listen op maggots!" He commanded, hurriedly walking them to the library. "Today hyu iz gonna show exactly how good hyu are vit machines. In de field ve lose a lot of clenks. But materials iz expensive and hard to steal, so hyu haff to be ready to maintain dem twenty-four…" He scratched his head thoughtfully. "Seffen! Now ken any of hyu read?"
Virgil and one other raised their hands. The Jaeger clicked his tongue, impressed with two out of four. "Hokay. Hyu guyz iz promoted. Start readink de blueprints for de kestle and all de clenks." He pointed to a towering pile of scribbled designs by old Heterodynes. "De rest ken figure it out on they're own."
He began to sift through the imposing collection as the others left, picking out the ground travel and weaponry stuff he knew, and a few airships he should probably study. The other man seemed to favor water craft. As they sat down and began to scan the prints, familiarizing themselves with war machines galore, Virgil's companion looked up. "What's your name?"
He took a pencil and scribbled on the corner of a loose paper, showing it to him. "Virgil? Okay. Dis is your chance to change it if hyu want. I'm Kaff." He shook his head, propping up his knee-length boots on the table. "Okay. Well Virgil, hyu must alvays remember- you'll never get anywhere in this army unless hyu have a nize hat."
He blinked. Sure, the jaegers were obsessed with their hats, but did you earn more respect for having a nice one? "That's right. I know, it's weird, but something about the Jaegerbrau makes them love hats more than life itself." Virgil nodded. "I mean, look at General Osk. I that guy lost his hat… I don't know what he would do." He chuckled silently before going back to reading.
Hours later he felt brain dead, and the day wasn't even half over. They had only just really fully woken up, having been provided a supply of coffee by a maid. They were nearly through the stack, only a few designs left, but Virgil had stopped learning anything from them at least an hour ago. He just hoped something had been absorbed while he mentally napped.
"Alright, time to join de others for lunch." The jaeger came in again. At the mention of food both their stomachs growled. "Hope hyu guys picked up someting from dese, because hyu is goink on hyu first raid next veek." Virgil swallowed, looking at the Kaff. He smirked, mouthing 'Good chance to get a hat'.
The made their way back to the courtyard, where almost two hundred tables were set up in close proximity with each other. Jaegermonsters streamed in from the doors, over the walls, from the roof. There were also plenty of humans and other creatures of varying size and ferocity, but there were just so many Jaegers, and this wasn't even all of them.
He took a seat by Kaff and what appeared to be the other mechanics, spanning ten tables. They all doubled as soldiers, and most were quite experienced. Almost all had hats in exception of the new guys, despite only about thirty of them being Jaegers. He whistled softly. Some of these were quite impressive.
There wasn't much intelligent talk to be heard anywhere and that was just fine. Many were horsing around, playing games with knives. This appeared to be the regular pastime as most had at least one scar on the back of their hands or missing fingers. It was apparently hilarious. The entire atmosphere, really, was of disregard for the everyday problems of literally everyone else in the world.
To his surprise General Goomblast, recognizable because of, well, everything about him, was sitting among the other mechanics. "Vell lookit dot!" Alexi grinned widely. "Ve gots new recruits. Hyu know, I vas originally in de mechanic's division." He told the group of newbies, who had crowded at one table together for safety.
Goomblast began to relate to them tales of hundreds of years ago when a mechanic had to make all his own parts, and how he made his ocular implants himself whilst going blind after an incident concerning acid turtles.
Virgil smiled. This general was downright sociable, so maybe they weren't all that terrifying. As they ate from the countless meats found on every table (and a handful of vegetables that few indulged in.) they all recounted stories. Virgil simply listened in, nodding or grinning and clapping when one was especially funny. He even got a piece of paper and had Kaff read his story of the giant eel that had taken refuge in his room for two weeks.
After a bit the general produced a teapot and tin box from beneath his coat. "Tea?" He distributed it across the table with delicate, fuzzy hands. As they drank politely as they could, he handed each one of his famous tea cakes from the box. "Hy haff had five hundred years to perfect dis recipe." Several picked them up timidly. "Mind de bogs." He warned just as Virgil took his first bite. And so the mechanic found his first love.