Memoirs of the Lost Loser

If at First You Don't Succeed...

This is not how you imagined it to be.

This is not how you imagined it to be.

This is not how you imagined it to be!

You didn't become 2D. You're still flesh and bones. You ran your hands over the grass. Familiar. Not two-dimensional. You looked around you— greens, and green and the wall! The infamous 'Break-it-Bertholdt' fifty-meter wall! And houses! Ohh— Attack on Titan houses! Totally normal! What the hell, such a let down! Linen-roofed kiosks and dirty, unpaved roads like the 1800s!

Look, tons of horse shit!

My gosh. You're really here.

Then it hit you: you're not in your world anymore. No signal, no electricity, no decent apartment, no job, and no friends. Just famine, epidemic (probably) in an unknown territory, and titans! The first thing to do now was to look for a place to stay. You don't even have their currency and what currency do they use anyway? Dollars? Euro? Peso? Plain gold coin? Do they even use silver? Bronze? Will these jewelry you brought with you help?

Oh, so shit scooper could a job here. You clicked your tongue.

You changed your clothes to a long skirt and shirt in earthy tones to blend in. Your thoughts raced about the things you have to explore. Going outside the walls is a no-go for now. You covered your luggage with a dirty cloth. Heck, if your gigantic electric blue and gray bag stuck like a sore thumb, you'll be sent to the torture chamber of the military police this very afternoon. You don't want them confiscating your stuff, do you?

But wait— what year is it now?

You looked around. Paradis is still enclosed by walls. Eren has not rampaged yet. It could be is post-breach of Wall Maria or...

pre-breach.

Your breaths came uneven. You hurried down to civilization with dread almost consuming you. If anytime soon, Bertholdt's kicking the wall, you have to hurry. You need to go to a safe place, but where is a safe place? Underground? You need citizenship to be able to crawl back up. Does that take too long? Should you just lay low in the outskirts and wish the titans won't come? Maybe climb the wall or a tree?

Who are you kidding? If it is the pre-breach, they're going to evacuate to wall Rose and you need to go with them. Climbing a low-ass tree with your physical condition and a huge bag no less is suicide. Your best bet is to ask the year, and plan from there.

Your heart was beating faster and you've never felt this alive.

***

Uniformed men patrolled the dry, dusty, unpaved road of Shiganshina district which implied that conclusion given how close the wall is and how cramped the buildings are. Could be other city-towns, but how could you be wrong if Hannes is drinking his brunch a few meters away? You saw the staples in every farmer's market but only stale. Apples, oranges, wild berries, carrots, potatoes... rare meat stalls here and there. There was no stall for sea creatures, and you understood why.

But Hannes— oh Hannes. He's that guy you see anywhere in your world, you don't even need to try. You know, that type that are sunken on the face, premature aging, high cheek bones? Except that back in your world, they wear a standard V-neck shirt they got from Old Navy cargo pants and brown leather belt, while Hannes wears a brown crop jacket and walks with metal tanks attached to his thighs. Drunk runs as his middle name in this windy summer day, you observed him closer, thinking about the way he'll die over Dina's titan form.

He was like a stand-in father to Eren. 

So if Hannes is still a drunkard at this time of day... the answer's there. Another question was how much time do you have in your hands? You approached a vegetable seller, definitely not Hannes— as he's still part of the police after all, and like an automated reply, her cheerful welcome took you by surprise.