Thomas Erhart and Joseph Dumoulin
A collab by Sketcher and Roran
As the days morphed into weeks that seamlessly streamed past his consciousness he fell back into the old training rythmn. Thanks to his two years experience though, he shone at every simple excercise the instructors threw at him, and his confidence as a soldier kept growing. His duty of protecting his family was over. Now he would look farther, and protect all of mankind. Despite the instructors trying to break his confidence, any challenge thrown at him was overcome, if not at first, it was eventually, and he earned the jealousy aswell as admiration of the other trainees. And he didn't mind that at all.
It was about a month into the training program when he met Joseph Dumoulin, during the hand-to-hand combat training. Thomas, having grown up beating people up, having had this entire training session before and gratefully used it in practice already, was looking forwards to defeating this young man in front of him. He didn't look out of shape, not that anyone still looked out of shape right now, but this guy looked as if he was taking the training as serious as Thomas himself.
"Hi, my name's Thomas." He said, awaiting the guy to charge him with the knife.
Joseph was paired up with the one guy who had passed him in 3DMG, as he had remarked. He was holding the wooden knife lightly as he faced the trainee introducing himself as "Thomas". "Pleasure," he simply said, looking at his opponent with menacing eyes. He wasn't really annoyed by Thomas himself and nor was he trying to be rude. He was mostly bothered by the fact that this guy might just be able to throw him on the ground. "Joseph Dumoulin," the boy introduced himself before spinning the wooden knife in his palm quickly and gripping it once more, lunging at his opponent with the knife close to his own stomach and his other hand put forward.
Thomas snak a little bit throuh his knees as the other person attacked, and noticed that the other guy was doing the smart thing. If you were attacking an unarmed person with a knife you had to do so furiously and so that he would have little chance to grab your knife. As Joseph's hand went for his collar he grabbed it with his right hand and redirected it to pass over his own shoulder while he stepped diagonally forwards himself, using his left foot as a sweeping branch to knock his opponent on his face.
Seeing the hand pass towards his collar, Joseph quickly reached his free hand to push the hand away but before he knew it, the boy found himself on the ground. Feeling some pain radiating from his face, Joseph continued to clutch the knife, looking more irritated than before.
Offering his hand to the guy on the ground who now wore a nigh venomous look on his face, he burst into laughter. "Hey, I've done this before. Keep up the good work!" He encouraged the younger kid and got him up his feet again.
Joseph took the hand and got up. "What do you mean you've done this before?" he asked curiously. While they had done this training a few times during the passing weeks, putting himself aside from the others, it was like Thomas was suggesting that he had more experience with the exercise itself. Joseph turned the knife in his hand, grabbing it by the wooden blade and holding the handle out towards Thomas.
Suddenly he cursed his large mouth and shrugged. "I grew up in a ... rough place." He replied, trying not to sound as if he had murdered a criminal gang leader, and several of his thugs, not even three months ago, using the same skills he was using now. He accepted the dagger and took some distance, ready to attack. "Anyways, my turn to be the starving orphan trying to kill you for food."
Yes. Joseph was a good kid.
He could brightly remember how annoying the climbing courses were as he felt his fingernail bend under the weight of his body, as he blindly searched for a place to support his right foot with. Oof, there it was. Continuing up the cliff, keeping in mind the 'three out of four' principle, he dared glancing below him, where the rest of his group of trainees was way behind. Except Joseph ofcourse, slowly catching up to him now he paused. "That damn brat." He mused, and started climbing up again. Always three support points and one arm or leg looking for a new support. Repeating the principle as he climbed in his head as a sort of mantra, he reached the top.
Carefully climbing up with the rope tied around his waist and up to the top of the rock cliff. He kept his eyes on Thomas and he stopped moving for the few moments they locked eyes. He went on to climb quicker, getting some cuts on his legs from grinding on to the rocks while doing so, still careful not to fall.
The team excercises were one of his favorite parts. He had always been the leader of his gang of brothers and sisters, and leading this bunch of trainees, all younger than him, made him think of the good old days in the streets of Trost. It only helped that due to his skill, however much cheated, unbeknownst to the other recruits, gave him a natural air of competence that the others gladly followed.
He grinned in an almost mean fashion as he swirled around the trees fluently as ever, ignoring the occasional branch whipping into his face, as he sped ahead of the other recruits in the obstacle parcour. Swinging around a thick tree he found himself encountered with a large and treaturously hard cushion quickly moving his way, which he managed to avoid smoothly by reeling out his wire and lowering altitude. Glancing behind him he saw the first movements of the trainees catching up as he dawdled, when one of the instructors cut his wire. spinning in the air at a high speed he managed to land his second hook and regain control over his flight in the nick of time, and continued the last few dozens of meters towards the exit, proudly awaiting the other trainees as he gave the instrutor an accomplished look. He'd probably regret that.
For Joseph, trees were tricky. He was used to long buildings and small streets to navigate. Though this wasn't that different, he could still feel the difference of speed between the two areas. There were some rare titan dummies hidden behind the trees that would spin around just as the area came into the trainees' sights. He noticed a familiar figure in the distance. What the... He clenched his teeth and made two quick sharp turns around two paralleled trees, around the tree Thomas was on, looking at him, bewildered. Seeing how he was waiting, Joseph decided to stick to the tree, resting his back against it.
Ofcourse, then there were the courses. He switched between an attitude of 'know-it-all' and utter and complete disinterest as he attended class after class, all of which he had done already. He knew everything about how to fight titans, how to maintain and repair his 3DMG, what history there was of mankind, how to operate cannons... Depending on the subject and teacher, he either slept or answered nearly every question he posed, much to the annoyance of some teachers and pupils alike.
teaing from the rather nice stew that was served in the cafetaria in the evening he jgnored most of the ruckus going on around him as the trainees arrived to get their own plate of food and make an awful lot of teenage squabling for a supposedly disciplined regiment of soldiers. He had as usually arrived first, and found himself alone on his table, with others filling up fast.
