[center][h2][color=9e0b0f]Emil Burton[/color][/h2][/center][center]Northern Mountains Training Area[/center][center]Interacting with: Olivia [@Ambra], Tanner [@Aquanthe], Reese [@Solace], Gabriel [@LordVoldemort], Connor [@SheriffLlama][/center]
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Six months. Six months of non-stop training. Six months of sweat and pain that Emil never wanted to give in the first place. But for some reason he was still here, still trying to finish it. He wasn't sure why, he had a few ideas sure, maybe he was trying to prove to the officials that had sentenced him to this path that he was better than them. Worth more than they could ever have imagined. Maybe he was just trying to stick it out for those around him, he'd made good friends with a few of the cadets, Gabriel he even had known briefly during his time with the groups of orphans in Shiganshina although Gabriel had to remind Emil about that as Emil hadn't been very talkative when Gabriel was with them. Olivia had helped him the most, unlike the rest of the cadets Emil wasn't as fortunate in his circumstances, sure the orphanage taught them how to read and write, but it was a short teaching phase and after it was over there wasn't anymore help for the kids there. They were just expected to be able to read and write from then on.

Emil hadn't caught on during his short instruction at the orphanage and it had shown all his life. He had struggled to read simple words that children half his age could manage without batting an eye, and when it came to the in class learning that the cadets had went through in Titan Physiology and the parts that had to do with the gear itself had sent Emil's mind spinning. The words were too large, too complex for him to understand. For many of them he had never even heard the phrases spoken before, and it showed in his marks. He scored at the bottom of the class of cadets for the first few weeks of their in class instruction. Until Olivia seemed to notice, she helped him with his reading and writing skills, going over all the things that Emil didn't understand, couldn't piece together, or just simply had no clue where to begin. With her help Emil managed to rise from the very bottom of the class to somewhere around higher end of the bottom quarter of the class, and he was grateful for it.

But none of that seemed to really make up for the stupid shit they were going through now. [color=9e0b0f][i]'Hike through the snow in the mountains.'[/i][/color] he thought to himself bitterly as he trudged through the snow, his short stature hadn't helped and he had struggled for the first hour of the hike. That is until he noticed that the giant, Gabriel, was practically plowing him a path to walk in. Like a puppy following a path it's owner made through the snow, Emil had stuck behind Gabriel, walking the same path as the larger cadet and likely having the easiest time of the smaller cadets in his group.

His head cast down, following the path that Gabriel was unknowingly making for him, Emil simply struggled through the hike in silence watching the boots of the taller cadet in front of him as they slipped in and out of his view. He raised his head slightly as he heard Olivia calling to him, with a sigh he answered reluctantly to his nickname, [color=9e0b0f]"Yeah yeah I'm doing just fucking great."[/color] he grumbled in response. Not shortly after he cast his head back down to the snow did Connor pass him on the side, leaving him with the same parting words that Emil had left him during their run on the first day of training. Emil simply laughed at the comment as Connor made his way past him.

A few more minutes passed, and Emil was beginnning to figure that they couldn't be much farther now. They'd been at the hike for so long it only made sense that they were close. If they weren't close then it would probably spell disaster for more than a handful of the cadets that couldn't hack such an intense hike. As he thought about it he looked ahead of him, counting the group again, [color=9e0b0f]"Good six."[/color] he said to himself as he cast his head back at the ground to follow Gabriel's path, [i][color=9e0b0f]'Six?... SIX?'[/color][/i] he looked back up at the group and shouted ahead to get everyone's attention, [color=9e0b0f]"WE ARE MISSING SOMEONE!"[/color] he called with all his strength over the howling winds of the blizzard.