headhooligan: (09C . . .)

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 02:51 am (UTC)(link)

[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.]

headhooligan: (09C . . .)

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 03:28 am (UTC)(link)

[Pain. Pain. Pain. That’s it. There’s barely room for coherent thought. It hurts to move hurts to breathe and it leaves her making aborted, strained noises with each every uneven inhale, exhale, inhale again.]

[He’s… talking to her. She registers that. She registers his hold, his tone, if not the specifics of what he’s saying or the motions he’s making. The impact doesn’t connect yet. Without thinking she tries to obey his command, some instinct reacting while her conscious brain flounders; it’s a sorry effort, but hell if she doesn’t try.]

[Despite all tension her hands go limp when grabbed, as if it’s a cue to finally give in, and they drop like lead when he lets go. Her head spins. With the pressure on her abdomen she sucks in sharply, teeth shut like cement, shuts her eyes.]

[It’s a miracle she doesn’t scream, if only because she doesn’t have the air. But she grabs out. One hand closes on something with a vicegrip. It’s flesh. (It’s Eren.) She’d cry if she had the breath. Tears flow anyway.]

headhooligan: (09C . . .)

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 03:54 am (UTC)(link)

[“Fight.”

[That gets through, and, much more faintly, the rest.]

[“Fight.”]

[She’s forced herself to do so much already. What’s a little more.]

[Aubrey focuses her eyes on Eren’s grim determination, and, still grabbing at his arm, his wrist, wherever she’s landed… she feels for his pulse, and makes herself keep breathing.]

headhooligan: (09C . . .)

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 04:29 am (UTC)(link)

[She’s still strained. But it’s got less to do with shock and more the sheer gravity of pain—which, as she breathes, unevenly but surely, starts to ebb. Still so, so much… but awareness falls, in pieces, back into place.]

[She’s here. Eren is here. Ba— That, that thing, it’s gone now. Eren is here. Aubrey is alive. Eren is here, Eren is talking to her, Eren—]

[Eren?]

[God, she’s so tired. This is the death-hallucination, right? Eren Jaeger, talking to her quietly, calmly? “You’ll be alright”? Ever so slightly, Aubrey’s eyes narrow, as they have so many times before, at him. But she can’t deny that steady thrum of his heartbeat, under her still-desperately-clinging fingers.]

[He… laughs?]

H—[nope nope nope ow ow no still hurts, still hurts like a bitch, never mind whatever bitter sound might’ve resembled a laugh. Aubrey’s hand on his wrist tightens, loosens, clenches again as that fresh wave of hell punishes her hubris—but even that, gradually, returns to baseline.]

[She really did try, though.]

headhooligan: (09C . . .)

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 04:55 am (UTC)(link)

[Hah… trust. Imagine.]

[Imagine being stuck with Eren Jaeger at the end of the world.]

[Despite everything, when Eren’s expression also settles, back to his baseline distance, it… it’s disappointing. Maybe Aubrey really is seeing things, just a bit. Of course he’d never be warm.]

[But. Right. Focus.]

[Aubrey manages a small nod.] Y… yeah…? [And that, in breaths. Her teeth aren’t clenched anymore, though she suspects they will be shortly.... She doesn’t let go of his wrist.]

Edited (misphrasing) 2023-09-21 05:09 (UTC)
headhooligan: (06B tired.)

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 05:44 am (UTC)(link)

[Eren’s lucky that she doesn’t have the energy to question it. He wants her to do what, now? Play pretend really, really hard? God, what is this day…]

[But Aubrey… shuts her eyes, and plays pretend, really, really hard.]

[It’s not a specific room she pictures, but a couple distinct visuals come to mind anyway. The first: a yellow-green living room, flowers lining the windowsills; no bed, but there’s a couch, and maybe some sleeping bags and a pillow fort set up around it. And… hm, no, that’s bittersweet now. Maybe more bitter. Moving on

[The other: bigger bedroom, and an even bigger pillow fort. That memory’s sad in its own way, but less… complicated, somehow. Brighter. The sun streams in, someone’s humming softly, and life is good.

[Seems she hasn’t shut out the ache of nostalgia just yet.]

[It might not affect the result of whatever Eren’s doing much, and bandages have barely factored in. But it’s nice, for the moment, to remember.]

headhooligan: (06B tired.)

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 06:19 am (UTC)(link)

[Reap what you’ve asked, Eren. He’s lucky, again, that Aubrey isn’t privy to his own memories, even more fragile.]

[In fact, she keeps her eyes closed even as the scene shifts. Is that the dream? Is this? Does it matter? The more she dwells on it, the more she wants to go back, and that threatens to hurt more than the physical wound. It’ll spill if she’s not careful.]

[Fortunately the sound of the bag, followed promptly by Eren’s voice again, has Aubrey looking around again, bleary.] Wh… wha—? [And then a fresh sting.]

[She groans, this time; an objective upgrade from earlier, and she breathes through it, but still.] G-god… you weren’t… kidding....

[Self-consciousness starts to gnaw at her—for not letting go, of all things, never mind the wound. But… Aubrey doesn’t want to let go yet.]

headhooligan: (06B tired.)

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 06:34 am (UTC)(link)

[Alright. Fine. Aubrey’s hand drops, finally, though it’s with less enthusiasm than she’d normally muster. Her grip feels really cold, now.]

[She glares at him, somewhat, but obeys anyway. Like hell if he’s gonna catch her whining about something simple as that. But again, Aubrey tries too much too fast, and although she does haul herself up it sends another bolt through her abdomen, and on instinct she grabs at it. Which also hurts, so she lets go of that, too, and it’s…]

[Well. It’s embarrassing.]

[Her gaze travels down to nothing in particular, resting on the medicine bag as she tries to catch her breath again.] What… was that…?

[There’s a lot of things that could be about.]

headhooligan: (00B talking.)

you know how it is

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 06:45 am (UTC)(link)

[She doesn’t notice his hands until they’ve left. At his comment Aubrey manages an exhaled wheeze that kind of resembles a laugh. Which, surprise surprise, also hurts… good thing she doesn’t do that often.]

Genius. [There’s more of a sentence, before that, but it’s marginally safer to cut to the chase. Easier, really. She makes a nod at his hands.] That. [It’s a start.]

headhooligan: (06B tired.)

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)

[The connection does not fully register to Aubrey (transformation of what, the thing or…? Her eyes on his hands is more incidental than anything), but it’s not like she hasn’t noticed his ritual un/clenching. So she nods.]

headhooligan: (09C . . .)

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 08:02 pm (UTC)(link)

[Self-injury.]

[Aubrey saw a lot, sees the blood dried on his hands (whose?), but that detail stands out like the red streaks down his eyes. Maybe they’ve faded by now. She hasn’t met his eyes since sitting up.]

Why. [That’s all, really.]

headhooligan: (09C . . .)

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 09:49 pm (UTC)(link)

[A retort rises and dies in her throat.]

[His voice, as expected—not gentle. His hands, the wrapping—]

Why.

[More insistent. She doesn’t move.]

headhooligan: (09C . . .)

[personal profile] headhooligan 2023-09-21 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)

[It’s a long silence.]

[Aubrey wants to be somewhere else. The bandaging, adjusting, binds her here.]

[She doesn’t respond. Just breathing. Eren’s. Hers.]

[“I don’t know.”

[What a joke.]

Does that scare you?

[She doesn’t look at him, either.]

Edited (rephrased the question) 2023-09-21 22:26 (UTC)

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