Ink Blossoms
Chapter Two: Enlistment
Hitch's fingers curl around the edge of her jacket, pulling it on. Smoothing out the rough fabric, she glances around the room at the other recruits, who are in varying stages of gearing up for the first time. Some have hardly managed to pull on their belts, others are fully dressed and chatting animatedly with each other. She can hear small snippets of conversations ringing throughout the room:
"God, Mikasa, I don't need help!"
"I think the Military Police are the way to go."
"Oh, yeah, definitely. The Scouting Legion is full of crazy bastards."
"Where did you get that potato?"
She sighs, her lips forming into a small pout. These people all seemed incredibly annoying.
The door to the large room swing open, hitting the wall with a loud slam. Some recruits calmly look up while other jump or yelp in surprise. (Hitch is proud to say she calmly looked up when the door opened, thank you very much.)
"Recruits," the man says, his voice deep and echoing off of the stone walls, "five minutes until you're expected outside. Don't bother coming if you can't properly gear up."
The door closes with as loud of a slam as before, and there's a moment of calm before what the man said properly registers in everyone's minds. Suddenly, the room if frantic; belts, jackets, and boots are flying everywhere. Hitch notices a few others are heading for the door already, so she opts to follow them, rather than stay in the pit of the madness.
She nearly groans when she steps outside. It had been cool inside, but outside the sun was scorching hot against the sandy landscape.
Slowly, recruits trickle outside, forming a large group on front of a small, wooden stage. There are multiple soldiers on the stage, some chatting while others stare intently at the group forming below them. The soldier from the Scouting Legion was giving her the creeps. His piercing blue eyes were digging into the crowd. What did he want, anyway? Hitch had a feeling that most of these people wouldn't survive training. Why bother trying to recruit now?
She watches as a man she doesn't recognize takes center stage, but he's wearing a long jacket with two swords crossed: the symbol for the trainee branch of the military. He clears his throat loudly, demanding the attention of everyone in the area.
"Trainees," he says loudly. It takes a moment, but soon all of them realize that they should solute. Hitch feels and odd rush fly through her body as she slams her right hand over her heart in a fist. She couldn't place why she felt it, but there was no denying the sudden excitement coursing through her veins. Training wouldn't be great, but being in the Military Police will be.
The man nods, and everyone drops their solute. She can feel a sticky sweat forming on her skin and she shifts uncomfortably. She doesn't want to deal with feeling disgusting all day.
Once again, she glances around, taking in the people around her. There's a boy with captivating green eyes not far from her, although the look on his face borders on terrifying. The girl next to him… was wearing a scarf? In the middle of summer? In this heat?
Glancing to her other side, a freckled boy stands nearby, very obviously concentrating on whatever this man has to say. Oh right, she thinks, I'm supposed to be paying attention.
And for a moment, she nearly does, but the boy standing beside freckles catches her eye. From the side, she can make out that he has brown eyes with blonde hair sticking out in every direction. His undercut is darker though. Noticeably darker. There's no way that's natural. Her eyes linger on him a few seconds longer, trying to decide where she's seen him before, or if she ever has at all. He looks oddly familiar, but she feels like she would have a much clearer memory of his hair.
She turns her attention back to the man talking at them on the stage, trying to shake whatever feeling this is. She tunes back into the man's speech, which must be coming to a close given the information he's spouting, "As you know, there are three branches of the military that you can join once you graduate from training. Please keep in mind that most of you will not survive training, however, and many of you will drop out or die," he pauses, and Hitch has a feeling it's for dramatic effect, but it definitely seems to send shivers down some people's spins, "If you live, you can join the Wall Garrison, who keep and eye and do repairs on the walls, the Scouting Legion, who go outside the walls to learn more about the titans, or the Military Police, where you will serve the king. Please remember only those who graduate within the top ten of your class will be able to join the Military Police. You will now hear from the head of each military branch. After, you will have dinner and then you will be assigned your training station. Stations will be posted outside of the main building in alphabetical order."
Hitch shifts on the uncomfortable bench, pulling herself closer to the table and piling some food on her plate. It didn't look great but it also didn't look totally horrendous, so she took a decent amount.
"Hey," the boy from earlier greeted as he sat across from her, along with freckles beside him.
"Hi," she says, almost hesitantly, watching him pile food onto his plate.
"I'm Jean, and this is Marco," he jerks a thumb at freckles.
"It's nice to meet you!" freckles, or Marco, beams, "What's your name?"
"Hitch," she states.
"Weird name," Jean replies, stuffing some of the unnamable food into his mouth.
"Jean!" Marco hisses, elbowing the boy. He then continues to scoop food onto his plate and directs his attention back towards Hitch. "So, which branch do you want to go into?"
"Military Police."
"Oh! Me too! Why?" Marco looks kind of like a puppy and Hitch wonders if he'll even make it through training.
"Safety inside the walls," she shrugs.
"Me too," Jean pipes up from his food. He nudges Marco, "This one wants to serve the king."
Hitch raises her eyebrows at freckles, but his sheepish smile is so genuine she can't help but think he actually wants to serve the king. Swallowing her food, she asks, "Where are you guys from?"
"I'm from Jinae," Marco smiles fondly.
"Trost," Jean says.
"I'm from Krolva, so I'm not far from you," she nods to Jean.
He opens his mouth to speak, but isn't given the chance when a commotion breaks out at the table beside them. The chatter in the room dies down as everyone looks to see what's happening. A girl with reddish brown hair pulled into a loose ponytail is holding a basket of bread over her head, her other hand pushing a bald boy away. "Listen," the girl says, "I'm starving and you can't steal from a girl."
After another minute or two of struggle, the room grows bored of the argument and chatter fills the room once again, the two still fighting over the bread. Hitch doesn't bother to rejoin the boy's idle conversation. Instead, she quickly finishes her food and heads outside to see where's she been placed for training.
We don't actually know Hitch's hometown, so I picked a random town within Wall Rose.