Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan or any of the characters except my OC
Chapter 4: Tour Around Headquaters
Get rest when you can do it - AOT Wings of Freedom
After I had just finished my bath, I dried myself off with a towel. Then I got dressed up in my new clothes, a blue cardigan, a skirt, black tights, and a pair of small brown boots. Once I tied my hair back in its pigtails, I met with Petra in the hallway just outside the washroom.
"Did you enjoy your bath, Marianne?" She asked.
"Yes ma'am, I'm all cleaned up now. And thank you for these new clothes, they're really comfy." I said.
"Hehe, you're welcome, I'm glad you like them." Petra smiled. "Well, are you ready to begin the tour?"
"Yup, I sure am."
Petra took my hand and the two of us walked down the hallway as she began to show me around the Scout Headquarters. The first room she showed me was the mess hall.
"This is the mess hall, where all the scouts come to eat or hang out." Petra said.
As I looked around the room, I saw lots of soldiers sitting at the wooden tables. Some were eating food while others were reading books and playing board games. As Petra and I walked through the area, some of the soldiers greeted us and Petra introduced me to them. I was feeling a little shy though, so I just waved hello to them.
Next, Petra showed me the barracks. Those were the rooms filled with bunk beds where the scouts would sleep. There were two separate sections, one for the males and one for the females.
After that, we continued on down the hallways until we ran into someone. A tall man with blond hair, and there were two other soldiers walking beside him. I watched as Petra greeted him and...did a very strange gesture.
"Good afternoon, Commander."
The tall man spoke to us.
"Ah Petra, and this must be Marianne. She has made a full recovery I presume?"
"Yes sir, I'm showing her around Headquarters now." Petra turned to face me. "Marianne, this is Erwin Smith, Commander of the Scout Regiment."
"Ah! Uh, hello to you sir." I greeted him politely.
Erwin knelt down to my level and held out his hand toward me, offering a handshake.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Marianne." He smiled as we shook hands.
"Yes sir, thank you so much for letting me stay here." I replied.
"It's the least we could do for you. Levi told me much about you so I already know what you've been through." Erwin stood up. "I've informed everyone of your presence, so don't worry. We'll do everything in our power to keep you safe from those bandits."
"Okay," I said.
"Since Petra is giving you a tour, would you like to visit my office?"
I looked up at Petra who nodded her head at me before I looked at Erwin.
"Sure," I nodded.
We followed Erwin up a flight of stairs and then we came to his office. Wow, the room looked really neat. His desk stood in front of a window with curtains hanging down the sides, and there were two bookshelves on each side of the room. We didn't stay long though because there were other areas of the Headquarters to see. Before we left, Erwin spoke to us.
"If you ever have a problem, you can talk to me or any of my soldiers. I'm sure living in a military base surrounded by soldiers is new and scary to you at the moment, but we will do what we can to make sure you feel comfortable here."
"Yes sir, thank you." I replied.
As we walked down the hallway some more, I was curious about...what she did earlier, so I decided to ask her about it.
"Hey, Petra?"
Petra looked at me, "Hm, yes Marianne?"
"Umm, what was that thing you did in front of Erwin...that gesture?"
"Oh you mean this?"
We stopped walking and Petra showed it to me. She made her hands into fists. Then she brought one hand up to her chest, the other one behind her back.
"This is our soldiers' salute. It's our way of giving respect to our superiors." Petra explained.
"Like this?" I did the salute just the way Petra showed me.
"That's right, you're a quick study." Petra nodded. "The salute represents the resolve to work hard and give it your all, to put your heart and soul into it."
Wow, that sounds really important. I'll have to remember that.
Continuing on with the tour, Petra showed me more rooms, including the kitchen, the meeting room, and a research lab. The lab seemed messy inside, the table was covered with stacked books and scattered papers. A woman spotted us and immediately ran towards us. She wore glasses and her hair was tied in a messy ponytail. She seemed very eager to meet me.
Fool on the Wall - AOT Wings of Freedom
"So then, you're Marianne." The woman smiled at me.
"Uh...hi," I nervously greeted her.
"You might want to be careful around this one. She's very...eccentric." Petra whispered to me.
The strange woman didn't seem to hear what Petra said and introduced herself.
"My name is Hange Zoe, and I'm a Section Commander for the Scouts. Now what brings you here?"
"Nothing really, just giving Marianne a tour so she can find her way around this place. We won't be here long." Petra replied.
"Aww you're leaving so soon? Darn, I was hoping I could sit down with her and we could get to know each other." Hange replied gloomily before looking at me. "I could tell you so many stories about our expeditions and how I plan to capture a titan one day. Oh well, maybe next time."
My eyes widened at what Hange just said. She wants to...capture a titan? No way!
"Seriously, you're still trying for that?" Petra shook her head. "Hange, you do know that the commander won't allow it, right? Besides, capturing a titan is impossible. Just give it up already."
"Never," Hange said triumphantly. "I will never give up on that! I'm telling you capturing a titan would be a benefit for humanity. Besides, I would just love to get my hands on one of those babies."
Hange started laughing, which kind of creeped me out, while Petra rolled her eyes.
"Umm what's this about capturing a titan?" I asked.
"Never mind that. Come on Marianne, let's get going." Petra said.
We both started to leave until Hange stopped us.
"Hold up, before you go there's something I want to give you, Marianne." Hange said as she went to fetch something. After a few minutes of looking, she came up to me and knelt down to my level, holding two journals in her hands.
"Here, I have these two notebooks just for you. One you can use to write about your daily life and what goes on around you, and one you can use to draw pictures. Consider this a special welcoming present from yours truly."
"Oh, thank you Hange." I replied happily as she gave me the notebooks.
"Wow, that's actually really nice of you." Petra smiled.
"Now Marianne, these journals will become important to you someday, so be sure that you use them." Hange told me.
"Right," I nodded.
Discipline Area - AOT 2
After visiting more rooms, the next area Petra showed me had many horses behind the stalls. I noticed a few soldiers taking care of their horses, some were feeding them and others were petting them.
"This is our stable, where we tend to the horses." Petra said as we walked through the stable. "The Scout Regiment activities outside the walls are mostly done on horseback. So we have to care for our horses and make sure they're healthy."
Soon, we stopped at one particular stall where she introduced me to her horse. She placed a step stool in front of the stall and said that I could pet her horse. I was a little nervous though and I took a few steps back.
"Don't worry, she's a very friendly horse, she won't bite." Petra smiled.
Hearing that gave me a little confidence. I stood up on the stool and slowly reached my hand towards the horse's snout, and then she licked my hand.
"That tickles," I giggled as I petted her.
"Here Marianne," Petra took out something and handed it to me. "I grabbed this apple out of the kitchen, would you like to feed it to her?"
"Sure," I nodded.
"Okay, hold your hand out flat like this."
I held my hand flat the way Petra showed me as she gave the apple to me. Then I held the fruit in front of Petra's horse. The creature chomped it down and let out a light neigh.
"Wow, your horse seems really happy now." I said.
"She sure does, doesn't she?" Petra giggled.
After visiting the stable, we came to a forest not far from HQ. Hold on, what are we doing out here in the forest? Didn't Eld say that the forest was dangerous? I asked Petra why we were out in the forest, and she told me to take a look around and guess where we were. So that's what I did, I looked around and saw a bunch of tall, flat, wooden...uh people? And they all had patches on the back of their necks and their legs. Then I saw two soldiers coming down, some long hooks retracting back into the equipment they were wearing. Also they were carrying broken swords. The two soldiers noticed our presence and walked towards us.
"Hey, Petra. What are you doing out here, and who's this?" The female solider asked.
"This is Marianne," Petra introduced me to them. "I'm showing her around HQ."
"Oh, so that's the child you and the squad rescued." The woman then smiled at me. 'Well I'm glad to see that you're okay now. I'm Nanaba, by the way, and this is Gelgar."
"Nice to meet ya." Gelgar said.
That's when it suddenly hit me.
"I get it now! This must be the training grounds!" I exclaimed.
"You got that right, kid." Gelgar replied.
"Those wooden stands you see are titan dummies. We use them as a means to train to fight the titans." Nanaba explained.
"My father told me a bit about the scouts once, saying that you fight titans outside the walls." I said. "You guys must have to train a lot, don't you?"
"Well, practicing with the titan dummies is one thing, fighting real titans though, that's another story."
"Ugh, those giant freaks are a real pain in the neck." Gelgar groaned. "They may be slow, but even when we're using our ODM gear, they can still grab us and chew us up. And the abnormals, don't even get me started on them."
I took a few steps back and trembled in fear.
"I think you might have scared her, Gelgar." Petra said as tried to comfort me.
Nanaba glared at Gelgar, crossing her arms, before she knelt down and spoke to me.
"Hey, try not to let it get to you, okay? From what Commander Erwin told us, I understand you're going through some tough times right now. But you're in a safe place now, Marianne. So just make yourself at home, and we're here for you if you need us."
I just nodded silently. I was still scared and was also a bit sad now. When Gelgar brought up the titans eating us, it reminded me of losing my parents back in Shiganshina District. I was glad that the soldiers were here to help and take care of me but...I still missed my parents.
Nanaba and Petra stood up.
"Say Petra, how many places does Marianne have left to visit?" Nanaba asked.
"Umm...I think I've just about shown her everything around Headquarters." Petra replied. "All that's left now is to find a place where she'll sleep."
"What about the bar? You haven't shown her the bar yet have you?" Gelgar smirked before Nanaba elbowed him. "Ow...hey speaking of which, I'm parched. I'm gonna go get a drink."
"Gelgar!" Nanaba called out to him, but he had already walked off. She sighed before turning to face me.
"You take care, Marianne. We'll see you later."
After Nanaba left I asked Petra a question as we were heading back inside HQ.
"What's a bar?"
Petra looked uneasy.
"Uh...w-well umm...It's...it's a place where we have...adult beverages. But never mind that, let's go see if we can find a place for you to sleep."
She seemed hesitant about explaining to me about the bar. Was I not supposed to know about it or something? Oh well, I just shrugged it off.
How do you Like Living Inside - AOT 2
When we got back inside, we saw Levi at the bottom of the stairs and I got excited. I wasn't sure why, but for some reason I was really happy to see him again. We walked up to him and he was the first to speak.
"So Petra, I take it that you're done touring around?"
"Yes Captain, I've shown her every area and I've even introduced her to some of our comrades." Petra responded.
Levi then noticed something in my hands.
"What is that, Marianne?"
"Oh...these?" I showed him the notebooks I had been carrying with during the tour. "Hange gave me these notebooks and told me to use them because they'll become important to me someday. This one is for writing, and this one is for drawing."
"I see, well follow me. There's a spare room on the upper floor."
So we followed Levi up the stairs and we soon came to the spare room. When he opened the door for me, I gasped. It wasn't very big, but it looked very clean. The bed stood in the back right corner of the room. In the front right corner there were drawers where my clothes would be kept. A desk stood in the left corner near the doorway. There was also a window where the sunlight was shining in. I ran inside, setting the journals down on the desk, and looked around, smiling and laughing. I was really excited about this room.
"This will be your sleeping quarters," Levi said. "I cleaned this place up while Petra was giving you the tour. Took a long time to clear out every speck of dust."
"What do you think, Marianne?" Petra asked.
I ran up to them before I responded excitedly.
"I love it, this room is perfect! Thank you so much, Levy!"
"Levy?" Petra seemed confused.
"It's Levi," he glared. "Anyway, you're allowed to think of this place as your home, but know that you'll be under my watch from now on. Starting tomorrow you will be completing whatever tasks I assign you."
That's right, I will be doing chores the next day. That's okay though, at least I got to tour around Headquarters with Petra for a while, and that was fun. I'm ready now for whatever he wants me to do.
"You remember the salute I taught you?" Petra asked.
Oh yeah, the soldiers' salute. The resolve to work hard, to give it your all, and to put your heart and soul into it. So I stood before Levi and saluted.
"I'm ready for work sir! I promise, I will do what I can to help out around the base! You rescued me when I was passed out! I've been allowed to live here, and you gave me this room! In return, whatever assignment you have for me, I'll do it without question! I'll work really hard for you sir, cross my heart and hope to die!"
Levi was slightly surprised at my determination and enthusiasm.
"You seem quite fired up, Marianne." He was silent for moment until he continued. "Very well, I'll acknowledge your determination. Feel free to wander around and explore Headquarters for the remainder of the day. I expect much from you tomorrow."
"Yes sir!" I replied eagerly.
With that, Levi left the room while Petra spoke to me.
"Wow, you haven't been here for very long, but I think you've actually managed to impress Captain Levi already."
"Really, you think he's impressed?" I asked.
"Yes, I think he saw how eager and willing you were to work for him." Petra's expression turned somewhat serious. "I should tell you though, he can be quite harsh sometimes, especially when it comes to cleaning. So make sure you listen to him and do what he says, okay?"
"I'll do my best."
"I'm sure you will."
After Petra left, I decided to use one of my journals and write down everything that's happened to me so far. I sat down at my desk, opened a journal which revealed a pen inside, and started writing.
Music stops
Journal Log
A week ago I was kidnapped by some mean bandits that wanted to sell me to the Underground Market. Luckily, I managed to escape from them. Later, I woke up at the Scout Regiment Headquarters, where I was surrounded by soldiers named Petra, Oruo, Gunther, and Eld, they were members of the "Special Operation Squad." They explained to me that they found me passed out in the field and they brought me to the infirmary. Apparently I was unconscious for 4 days, but I only had some minor injuries and I made a full recovery after just a few more days worth of rest.
Once I was healed, Levi (I think he's the Captain of the squad) helped me with my bath, and then Petra gave me a tour of HQ so I would know where everything was and wouldn't get lost trying to find my way around. I met a lot soldiers here, including Erwin, the Commander of the Regiment who was letting me stay here, and Hange, the Section Commander who gave me this journal.
After the tour, I was given my very own room. Then Levi explained to me that I would be doing work around HQ starting tomorrow. I'm eager to help him with whatever he needs. At the same time though, I'm also a little nervous because Petra told me that Levi is harsh about cleaning. I guess I just got to do my best. Hopefully I don't disappoint him. For now, I'll just take the rest of the day to explore HQ while I still can.
Hey guys, hope you're all enjoying this story so far. I think I'm happy with how this chapter came out, but I do apologize if this chapter was a little fast paced, and if any of the characters were out of character here.
Until next time.