mrballisticsdummy

mrballisticsdummy

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From:

14thcommander

Approaching you specifically, or the job in general?

From:

mrballisticsdummy

Me specifically. You don't want to work with me.

From:

14thcommander

I don't know that yet.

Believe it or not, Warren didn't tell me that much. He wanted to abnegate from interfering between us in case of a pairing. I found that fair.

From:

mrballisticsdummy

Fair enough. But it would save you a lot of time if you'd just listen to me about it. But first thing's first - we're not talking about Warren.

I fucking hate all of his so-called friends here. The last one that tried to play that angle with me found himself sans hands.

So! I thought we were settling on an activity since I'm apparently not stimulated enough for your liking.

Edited Date: 2021-08-03 10:22 pm (UTC)

From:

14thcommander

[A muffled cough, actually a muffled giggle. I fucking hate all of his so-called friends. Hange is one of those, but she won't take it personally.]

Okaaaay. [Brightly:] I can show you a titan!

From:

mrballisticsdummy

[He knows very well. He just doesn't want to hear it.

But - ]

Titan?

From:

14thcommander

They're enormous humanoids from my world that relentlessly devour other humans... ranging from three to around sixty meters tall... insentient beings that subsist off of photosynthesizing...

From:

14thcommander

So, you wanna see?

From:

mrballisticsdummy

...yeah, actually.

From:

14thcommander

Yeah! In the wild or restrained? Or we can do both!

From:

mrballisticsdummy

Hey, this is your field trip, Ms. Frizzle. I'm just along for the ride.

From:

14thcommander

Then we'll do both!

Give me... half an hour. I assume you know where the Enclosure is.

From:

mrballisticsdummy

Yup.

--

He's there in half an hour, jeans and a sweatshirt with the hood back. He's not particularly nervous about meeting her in person; there's plenty to be distracted by. He's not exactly pleased that he got sucked in so quickly by her call to adventure, but it's something to do and there's only so much tinkering he can accomplish before his eyes start to cross.

So he waits, also trying not to seem too excited about seeing something new.

From:

14thcommander

Hange turns up on time. She could be messy about that even with a military background, but she does make an effort for her inmates. In person she is lanky, androgynous, with an eyepatch covering her left eye and hair pulled up in a messy, floppy ponytail, and she is in uniform and wearing the tactical gear, which is basically indescribable. To the untrained eye it's a mess of straps and swords and hilts and boxy scabbards and gas tanks all connected.

"We'll see the captured ones first... the little guys."

From:

mrballisticsdummy

Fascinating.

He takes her in with a trained eye, though that doesn't do much except tell him that it's a uniform. Of what? He has no idea.

But apparently she means business.

"Can't wait. So what? These things are in your world? What's their story?" he asks, shoving his hands in his pockets. He'll follow after her.

From:

14thcommander

Hange leads the way, pausing to key in their destination. She does it quickly. Hange visits home in the Enclosure regularly.

"Eh... one hundred years ago, titans drove my people into the walls. You'll see them. Relentless foes of humanity, who regenerate swiftly from wounds... the nape is the weak point but only the nape. Slice off their head, and it'll regenerate within a minute and a half, usually."

Going deeper into the Enclosure spits them out in... a small-ish area, made smaller by makeshift walls erected around. These walls look like canvas stretched over wooden frames. They wouldn't stop a loose titan, but they keep rubberneckers off.

Sawney and Bean are about as restrained as it's possible to get, collared in multiple ropes attached to frames surrounding them, literally pounded full of enormous nails, in places nailed to the ground. They are hot, hotter than humans, and as Jacobi gets closer, the heat increases and Sawney and Bean shift to eye approaching potential prey. Their faces are disproportioned but recognizably humanoid, and draw naturally into smiles, like a baby seeing someone it likes. They don't have nipples. They don't have genitals. There's a smell to them, a hot, wet, and sulfurous smell.

Hange shadows Jacobi.

"Don't get too close..."

Edited Date: 2021-08-03 11:16 pm (UTC)

From:

mrballisticsdummy

He doesn't know what he was expecting, but it isn't that. He stares, pretty openly, eyes wide as he takes them in. He doesn't shy away from their gaze, doesn't seem to be afraid of them, but he does heed her words and stays back, not getting too close to them.

"What the fuck, Hange?" is really all he can think of to say at the moment. It takes half a second and he's back in his normal headspace, chuckling softly.

"What are you doing with them in here?"

From:

14thcommander

"These two are samples!"

She circles around, keeping Jacobi on her right so he remains in her peripheral vision. Usually her expression seems to want to smile, even when Hange is not smiling - now it drifts into neutrality.

"I am, or I was, a titan researcher.. for most of my life. We understood so little of them for so long. We knew so little for so long. Every sample we captured could add to our baseline knowledge about titans."

She points between them.

"This is Sawney, and this is Bean. Two smaller specimens. It's really too much of a risk to bring in a larger one... we're within the walls now."

From:

mrballisticsdummy

"Huh. You named them." He looks up, a little unnerved by them now. They're too humanoid for his liking and he has a sudden taste of metal in his mouth.

The mention, again, of these being the smaller ones has him intrigued and, hands still in his pockets, he walks around, adjusting his stance slightly in case he needs to bolt.

"You were? You don't plan on doing this again?"

From:

14thcommander

Hange pivots, plants her feet, folds her arms behind her back - very military stance. She's angled so she can easily look between the Titans and her temporary inmate.

"We defeated them, Jacobi. We eradicated the titans outside the walls. I helped. Design of anti-titan weaponry was a large part of my job... unfortunately, killing the titans didn't make us safe. It turns out we were on an island, the world outside was full of people, and they wanted us to stay right where we were... or crawl into our graves and just die."

Edited Date: 2021-08-03 11:53 pm (UTC)

From:

mrballisticsdummy

"Well, how was I supposed to know your world was some fucked up zoo?" he mutters. "So - how did you end up on the world's most unfortunate island?"

He turns, taking in the walls but never once turning his back on the creatures. As much as he wants to. As much as they make his teeth clench.

From:

14thcommander

The walls loom large overhead. Distant, but large - sixty meters tall. There's a palpable weight to their plaster-white anonimity.

"You weren't! Which is why I'm explaining. My world has changed drastically, even in my life. We rode outside of the walls on horseback, while the rest of the world was developing planes and cars and trains. I first saw the sea when I was thirty-two. We were hated because we were empire-builders who held much of the world in thrall, and we were on that island because at last one of our leaders felt remorse for the shadow we'd cast on the world, and he withdrew us - part of us - onto the island called Paradis, and into the three walls, Maria, Rose, and Sina, locked away so the world no longer needed to fear the Eldian people."

From:

mrballisticsdummy

He's never been one to worry about feeling small before. But he feels miniscule in their presence. Trapped. It's not a good feeling. He'd rather face the titans.

"And the titans? Where did they come from?"

From:

14thcommander

Hange hums.

"You know, you're one of the few to ask me that... a question that weighed very much in my mind, and in the mind of every scout. It's interesting how few people here really demonstrate curiosity like that."