Grant Hyral
@AmbraSnowy Mountains
Grant glared at Olivia as she backlashed his witty words with quotations of her own. She was one to try and challenge anytime Grant began to make some form of confidence; well, she challenged it in a friendly way. A grin slipped onto his face as he spent the last few seconds clean of snow. A projectile hurled towards him, quicker than he could react for once, and placed itself onto his face. Taken back by the impact, and because Olivia had accidentally thrown some snow with a small amount of ice in it, he slipped over and sunk into the thick snow he stood in. The coldness swept over him like a rippled wave at any of Sina's glorious fountains. It was painful, where the impact had struck him. His face had gone red from where it struck, slap-band in the middle of his left eye. The pain was aggravating, but he didn't care mostly. It was Olivia, the two were very close, surely she'd not have tried to do so on purpose.
He laid in the snow for a while, shivering away, before he sat up upon hearing the calls of others. Grant brought himself up, clutching the sides of his withering arms. A sensation of death was slowly, but surely, counter-acting against any signs of life within his body. The cheery smile he had began to drop slightly; nothing seemed to be fun anymore. Everyone had already departed, by the looks of it, for the warmth of the bonfire, whilst Grant was still stood behind, with a bruising face emerging. And from there, that was where Grant began to think...Negatively...
He'd accounted the past few months of the training sessions. Apart from Grant being heavily involved in the lessons they'd taken, he felt...Distant. Grant had never been the one to talk, or be approached and talked to. Sure, he wasn't a full-on social outcast to the team, but his communication was limited, and usually left to small-talk. Yet, even though Grant accepted this as his fate, he hated it. Grant loathed behind left aside, and was sure that his own actions were the main influence for his outcasting. Everything he did, it only affected himself. There was a lust for change, an ability to become one with the people around him, but the only person he'd managed to maintain more than small-talk with was Gabriel. Gabriel and Grant's relationship had become stronger, hopefully developing closer to a brotherhood-like connection. But as for anyone else, he was just an empty space in the story being filled. The only times he'd talked to Mora was when someone else brought her into his own conversation. Lauren barely uttered words to him. Olivia, though still one of Grant's greater friends, had the advantage of talking to everyone, which he felt was leaving him behind slightly. Sano had never directly spoken to Grant. Jade had only had a few conversations with him, but the two were awkward in talking to one another after Grant revealed his identity to her. Tanner and Reese were also a few names to put forward to those he didn't speak to. And as for the rest, they followed the trend.
A heavy and dark mumble seeped from his iced and bruised lips. Maybe it was the fact he was hit with ice that he was thinking so negatively. It was either that, or it was a revelation. Grant was only a small-part to the big story that everyone else was living. And from that, he wished Mateo was here to give him comfort...Or that Luca were still alive.
Before he made his way to the bonfire, where a few laughs and conversations could be heard, he made headway for the cabin, where he rummaged around for a couple of minutes. By talking some black chalk from the soldier's note pads, and by taking a small amount of paper left lying around inside, Grant finally made his way back outside.
Glorious in its size, the Bonfire lit up a warm sensation in his mind, but he still felt at unease from the thoughts scavenging the happiness in his mind. Everything had been going downhill since he first joined the Cadets. It was only a matter of time before he'd wither and die trying to be something, not only in the Military, but in life. He looked around, seeing Olivia closely sitting by Reese, forcing him to take a heavy sigh to himself. Upon seeing the groups of people, he spied the nearest gap in seating areas. It would be better, as he thought, to remain quiet as per usual. There's no point in making it awkward for anyone else.
As his backside finally rested somewhere that wasn't in the snow after being pelted in the face, Grant whipped out the paper and black chalk and began to sketch to himself. Every now and then, his head would pop up, to look around from his perspective. The sketch wasn't amazing, as you'd expect from Grant, but he was making quite the performance. His sketch was beginning to take shape after a while, clearly being a view from his perspective of the fire and seating around him, the fire being a central focus of swirls and twists. And to the surprise of everyone else, after being indulged in his own creation, he began to sing, in a comedic and improvised way, quietly. The tone being moderately smooth, yet low to match his voice.
"Oh, there's a place I know,
Where a tall man sits in snow,
Around the loving warmth of the fire.
With Schulz up his arse,
He begged `How long will it last?`
As he longed ahead for unachievable desires.
`I'm freezing my bloody arse off,
Can I just get some food to scoff?`
He wondered how long this will last.
Oh, there's a place I know,
Where a tall man sits in snow.
I wonder if he will ever last."
Mateo Julius
Unknown Location A group of men and women stood around one another, listening to a bearded man bark orders out. Amongst them, finally back in uniform, stood the Lance Corporal himself, Mateo. The room was filled with heated debates over formation changes and other directional desires for the next and upcoming expedition. It was all the usual from the NCO team of the localised Squads to debate topics like this. Mateo, being an NCO and commanding officer of Squad 19, had to attend as per usual, but his opinion on the matters were rarely discussed. There was a reputation for everyone, and Mateo was viewed as someone who'd make mistakes. It was always linked back to the 'Rhynestelf' incident, where everything had gone wrong in the past.
Despite this, they knew he was a skilled soldier, a talented individual with a compassion for his own soldiers, but even with that in mind the he was sometimes looked down upon. But Mateo was used to it, it was all part of the package of being reinstated in the Survey Corps. With the tensions humanity were facing, what other outcome would there be? Either way, it didn't hinder his service to humanity, as his promotion had stated.
The meeting was planning out Expeditions for at least the next 4 years. It was quite the step to take, but Mateo felt that the planning ahead would be a good call. That is if they were able to actually survive that long. It had been a few years since Shiganshina fell, and they were still trying to make their gains in taking it back. The world was not on their side, but either way, the Scouting Legion kept their wits about them and powered onwards. They fought for their families. Mateo fought for Grant, and the redemption of Luca.
