PSL / MEME CONTINUATION

[thecoordinate]

Comments

[thecoordinate]

((ooc: continued from here))

[By way of answer, he simply sends this.

[Safe enough to assume he's joking now. And avoiding the question.]

[nohero]

[ Joking and avoiding the question. H M M . . . ]

Something so terrible it made your skin boil, huh? I see.

[ Joking in turn—but also not letting it go. ]

[thecoordinate]

Don't you ever just give in to rage, Reiner? Feels kinda good.

[nohero]

[ What a question. ]

Sometimes. That usually ends in me screaming, not throwing things.

[headhooligan]

(ooc: “Continued” from… (oh god there’s so much) here, not really here but linking while we’re at it, here, here, and most recently here. Yeah!!!)

[What in god’s name was in that drink.]

Hey, Eren? Don’t freak out [always a promising start] but can we talk about something?

It's like if a thread tracker were a tag /lh

[thecoordinate]

Huh?

[Cocking a brow at that.]

Why would I freak out? Is something wrong?

[headhooligan]

No. But, yeah, but. [Come on, Aubrey, you thought about this a little bit beforehand…]

Where do you see yourself in four years? [Yes. Phrase it like a job interview question. A+]

[thecoordinate]

[The question stops Eren dead in his tracks. He looks at her like he's confused, but...it's a cautious look too.

[He really doesn't like this question...]

Why...are you asking me something like that?

stargazing for @nohero

[thecoordinate]

[They always end up like this.

[It started by accident. They were still young then. Eren's life, reaching boiling point after boiling point - and then, him, sleeping only to dream, to wake up here, in this place, with Him.

[Him. Always Him.

[A lot has changed since then. The term "boiling point" has lost all its meaning; now, the world is at the point of total annihilation - or, at least, it will be soon.

[There's a rot in Eren Jaeger; a loneliness that few can understand. He's turned away from everyone. He's created a path which no one can follow. His body aches for rest; his soul too. And no one knows.

[Seeing the other man is a complex emotion. It's what little Eren still feels at all. They should, by all logic, hate each other; they do, in some ways - or, at least, Eren does. How couldn't he? Reiner is, after all, his enemy. And there's no enemy more similar - no singular other person that could possibly come close to understanding the weight that Eren carries.

[Reiner aches too. Perhaps that's what makes all the difference.]

[He doesn't greet him when he sees him. Just presses his nose into blonde hair, one hand coming up to grip the back of the other man's head.

[That's what this place is for. God, but there has to be some escape. This is escape.]

tfln for @badcandy

[thecoordinate]

((ooc: continued from here.))

Skov really lost. I guess he's a pretty simple guy, though. Didn't really seem to care.

😤 We can play again as soon as you're ready to lose.
(Like Tuesday maybe.)

[badcandy]

skov
and i cant stress this enough
was just happy to be there

tuesday it is >:)

[thecoordinate]

Nothing wrong with that, I guess, but it's the competition for me. Aren't you the same way?

There's no point if you don't win. Except to improve so you can win later, I guess.

[badcandy]

sometimes
most of the time

other times tho im just here for a good time
dont take shit too serious

gen texting for @badcandy

[thecoordinate]

((ooc: continued from here))

How do you manage that? The knife decal and everything.

[badcandy]

[ Lucia-face emoji. ]

i kno a guy

[thecoordinate]

Some guy.

Next time you crash, have him pull me a car out of thin air too.

[badcandy]

ill put in a good word lmao

what would u want
car-wise

[headhooligan]

(ooc: secrets meme but make it a PSL. Since Our Last Thread-Tracker Tag: world’s most intense round of word association, limbo-Denny’s with Armin, and (wholly unrelatedly) shipping shenanigans. The Range)

I still want to believe the world is good, and that people can be saved. …But I’m not sure. That means I failed him. Selfishly, I don’t want to face that, even if it means giving up on everything else.

[If she can’t find Eren… he can come to her.]

Maybe I’m kidding myself.

[If only that made the confession less true.]

…And I’m terrified.

[thecoordinate]

Giving up?

[Eren's cold voice comes from behind her.

[It's an all-too-familiar sentiment. He wonders if that's intentional; if this is Aubrey, needling at him again, trying to get a reaction, testing the waters to see exactly where he stands. That, or they're reflecting each other once again. What was it he said before? That Aubrey understands him more than she wants to admit. It seems now that that's true.

[Interesting...]

You're throwing stones in glass houses.

[headhooligan]

[Jesus, she was supposed to be the one laying the bait, not getting jumpscared.]

Hah. [Aubrey tries to play it off like she didn’t just whirl to face him like a startled animal, much as it’s made her forget whatever greeting she wanted to kick this off with.] That wasn’t a stone. I’m just being honest.

[thecoordinate]

"Terrified" is a strong word.

Of what?

:3c

[headhooligan]

[There’s no way out of this, is there?]

[Eren’s been close. Just because Aubrey’s admitted he shadows her (she shadows him?) in more ways than she cared to admit doesn’t mean she’s not still, still, still thoroughly sick of it. She’ll get over it, get over herself all over again… but at the first chance she gets, she dips out of his sight without second thought.]

[It takes her somewhere dark—literally. Twisting corridors snake into the abyss, air heavy with fetid promise. Feels like the kind of place even kids on Aubrey’s street are warned not to touch—you get hurt back here, no one’s helping. It’s your fault for turning this way in the first place.

[Aubrey’s fine with that. More than she should be.]

[A shape, wood and crooked, juts out of the debris; she grabs it without second thought. If Eren’s friends can appear here, maybe her emotional support weapon “friends” can, too.

[Something grabs back.]

[There’s a shriek. Aubrey yanks the wood loose; shadow spews forth, like blood gushing from a wound. She swings; it gets caught in the torso, tangled in quicksand, and it’s all she can do to yank back but it’s too late for her. The stranger—and it is a humanoid, at least in shape, details rendered void—stands, as if she didn’t touch it at all, as if its entrails aren’t spilling all over the floor.]

“Aubrey… I—”

[She runs.]

[Or at least tries. He rises before her and shoves. She scrambles back. She wants to drown. Flailing the would-be bat back is absolutely useless; he throws it away, wood echoing hollow as it rolls, and he kicks her as she cowers. It leaves her breathless, arm curled instinctively around her stomach, tight, before she can register why.]

[Is it one figure now? Multiple? Whatever light crept in here is blocked as he seems to rise, or maybe Aubrey’s hallucinating, she doesn’t have the sense to care. Since when was the ground so stained…]

Fuck you. [They’re choked, spit words. But she can’t just ignore him again.] I’m sorry.

[He doesn’t have eyes. Aubrey forces herself to glare up where they would be anyway, and braces herself for his retribution.]

[thecoordinate]

[Eren's been keeping Aubrey close. To the extent which he can, he has eyes on her, even when they aren't directly interacting. Something about this universe wants them in close proximity, and given all that Aubrey knows, and the possibility that it could impact his goal somehow, Eren is fine with that. She can be irritated all she wants; he's just as irritated that he can't let her out of his sight.

[But he does let her out of his sight. One minute she's there, and gone the next. Nothing unusual in a place like this, but something...feels unusual about it.

[Eren's been studying intention - how you can will yourself to create reality in this place. When he was first learning how to transform into the Attack Titan, he had to learn that intention - reaching toward a concrete goal - was key. This is what he practices now, an attempt to bend the reality around him.

[Find. Aubrey.

[After some time, he does. The world around him goes dark, as if he's been transported underground. The situation is immediately dire.

[His eyes find Aubrey like a shark smelling blood - it's an instant connection. Finding her is, in fact, such a distinct thing, that he notices the giant shadow creature second.]

Aubrey. [It isn't so much a shout - there's no real desperation or fear. His voice is very firm, very certain - loud enough to be jarring, but that's it.]

Get back.

[That's all the warning she gets. Eren learned a long time ago what biding your time leads to.

[He lifts his right hand and bites down, quick and sharp. Blood blooms from the wound instantly, pouring over his hand and dripping onto the floor. Not a half second later, and white hot electricity, like miniature lightning, is crackling over his hand and down his arm.

[The transformation is an explosion of steam. He's not close enough to Aubrey that it should burn her, but she will feel extreme heat bearing down in her direction (even if she has, as instructed, moved away).

[When the steam clears, Eren remains. He lets out a sickening screech, unlike anything that could even begin to be misconstrued as human. He doesn't stop to observe whether the shadow has reacted - he simply plunges forward.

[Very few things are a match for Eren Jaeger at this point in his life; however, this is an enemy he's never experienced. A more careful person would wait, rescue and run, try to learn more.

[Not Eren. Using the Warhammer Titan's power, he hardens both fists into rock harder than diamond and buries them in the shadow's body. The creature hisses and oozes, wraps around Eren's arm, tries to travel. It takes more effort than he'd like to break free - he has to rip his arms out of the creature with nearly his full strength; doing so, however, leaves explosions of black ooze where his fists had been. It's a strategy he'll repeat over and over, shrieking wildly the entire time. Then come the teeth - Eren, biting down and ripping, tearing, throwing black ooze on every surface until the room is nigh indistinguishable from the shadow itself.

[Eren's shrieks are echoed back at him, an octave lower, and infinitely more pained - the creature, moaning and crying as Eren tears it apart. He doesn't stop until there's nothing more than a black puddle on the floor.

[Aubrey.

[The process of leaving Eren's tighten isn't a pretty one. From the nape of the beast's neck, Eren bursts out, the titan's flesh still encasing his arms and legs; just like with the shadow, he uses his strength to tear himself free (with decidedly less effort, albeit). He leaps onto the ground a moment later, searching for Aubrey. Deep red lines trail from his eyes to his cheeks.

[As soon as he spots her, he's crouched by her side, silent, evaluating her condition. Is she alive? Will she be for long?]

Talk to me. Now.

[headhooligan]

[Incidentally, Eren’s sharkhunt isn’t wholly metaphorical—the stained ground is quite literal, and it’s not ooze. The creature “kicked” her pretty sharp.]

[Aubrey hears the warning; there’s barely time to act on it, but she just manages to dive and duck before the heatwave hits. She thought her death hallucinations might be a little more… not like monster fights on morning cartoons. It’s hard to register what’s going on, hard to recognize what she’s looking at, hard to breathe.]

[But she’d recognize Eren anywhere, by now—at least in human form, even with those lines. She thinks it’s blood.]

[Aubrey is on the ground, kneeling, hunched; one arm is still clutched around her gut like her life depends on it, and she hasn’t noticed but it’s still spilling red. The other is just barely supporting her, just so she doesn’t drop facefirst. She’s shaking uncontrollably, a wild, animal look in her eyes.]

W-Wh—[at the, she wants to say, and stabbing pain kicks in, making her breaths heavy, gritted, and she falls forward.]

[thecoordinate]

[Eren reaches out to catch her before her face can hit the floor. The touch is uncharacteristically gentle. There's a practical reason, of course. He now knows that she has an open, bleeding wound, and on the abdomen no less. He needs to handle her carefully, or the bleeding will get worse, and fast.]

Aubrey. [His voice isn't loud, but it's firm, commanding attention. There's not an ounce of agitation to it, however. He's deadly calm, and more mild than Aubrey's probably ever seen him. Too bad she's not really in a state to appreciate that right now.]

Listen to me. I'm going to lie you on your back. Bend your knees and keep your feet flat on the floor.

[And he does this, gently lifting lifting her in such a way that he can ease her onto her back.]

Bend your knees, Aubrey. You can do it.

[If she's not able to get her legs up on her own, he'll move them himself - again, gentle. Next, he removes his coat, then his shirt. He moves her hands away from the wound, lifts her shirt up so the laceration is clear. He balls up his shirt and presses it against the wound with one hand, using the other to cover Aubrey's with his jacket, to keep her from going into shock.]

I'm going to apply pressure. It's going to hurt.

Stay calm. You'll be alright.

[Just as if he were talking to Conny, or Sasha, or any one of his comrades in the Survey Corps. It's a state that he shifts into without even thinking.

[There comes the slow, firm pressure on Aubrey's abdomen. He waits for the inevitable reaction.]