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.
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."
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.
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.
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."
"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.
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."
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."
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.
"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."
"I don't like anyone, so that's not exactly a good point," he mutters, meeting her face for a moment but too paranoid about the titans to look away for long. "But if you're worried about me blabbing, you can rest easy. Spilling your secrets is definitely fucking with you." Which, as discussed earlier, is forbidden. If not by the letter of the rule, most certainly the spirit.
Hange bites her tongue, considering it for a moment.
She's felt freer sharing some things since her death, and Bill's graduation. She has full confidence in her ex-inmate being able to help solve some of these problems. So...
"I sure hope you're telling the truth... after all, I don't want to be lumbering around here, eating people alive..."
"We didn't know, for a long time. That was another thing we learned."
Hange shifts her gaze back to Sawney and Bean. If they were people, there's little evidence of anything left of them now.
"The humanoid forms... the fixation on eating humans above all other forms of life... I had my suspicions, but no proof. And how it happens is still confusing. The legend passed to me is that long ago, a human came into contact with a being known as 'the source of all life', and thereby became the first titan shifter. A human who consumed titan serum, purified from titan shifter's blood, becomes a pure blooded titan - mindless, like these. A pureblood titan becomes a titan shifter from devouring the spinal cord and cord blood of a titan shifter."
He gives them another long look, trying to imagine them as people, as what they were, but all he sees are the strange proportions and odd expressions. "Okay, okay. Yeah, that's clear as mud."
For a moment, he tries to spread it out in his mind. "So what's a shifter? And you said these were smaller? What causes that? The variations in size?"
"No idea. And a titan shifter is a human... with a titan form. Spill their blood, and the body closes around them. The human shape is held in the nape, like the pit in the peach. It was with the power of the shifters that my people held their empire for two thousand years, and why we're despised today."
"So the whole world knew but your whole - people. And then no one told you and threw you behind walls. And just hoped that you'd all kill each other or die out?"
3DMG users do not go around swords out. The blades actually detach from the hilts, and the hilts are what gets carried; Hange swings her arms back and forth.
"And there's more. More and more. My world is a mess, and it's full of problems, and just when you slice down one problem, like killing a hydra, two more grow to replace it. I have two deals under my belt, and with those I hope I will avert the worst. But there's almost innumerable injustices I could choose to correct..."
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 10:39 pm (UTC)Give me... half an hour. I assume you know where the Enclosure is.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 10:43 pm (UTC)--
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.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 10:52 pm (UTC)"We'll see the captured ones first... the little guys."
no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 10:55 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 11:12 pm (UTC)"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..."
no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 11:31 pm (UTC)"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?"
no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 11:35 pm (UTC)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."
no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 11:50 pm (UTC)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?"
no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 11:53 pm (UTC)"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."
no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 11:57 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-04 12:02 am (UTC)"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."
no subject
Date: 2021-08-04 12:07 am (UTC)"And the titans? Where did they come from?"
no subject
Date: 2021-08-04 01:39 am (UTC)"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."
no subject
Date: 2021-08-04 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-04 03:03 am (UTC)"This is an important secret, you know. Especially to tell to an inmate, who I don't know if I can trust, who doesn't even like me..."
no subject
Date: 2021-08-04 11:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-05 10:45 pm (UTC)She's felt freer sharing some things since her death, and Bill's graduation. She has full confidence in her ex-inmate being able to help solve some of these problems. So...
"I sure hope you're telling the truth... after all, I don't want to be lumbering around here, eating people alive..."
no subject
Date: 2021-08-05 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-05 10:53 pm (UTC)Hange shifts her gaze back to Sawney and Bean. If they were people, there's little evidence of anything left of them now.
"The humanoid forms... the fixation on eating humans above all other forms of life... I had my suspicions, but no proof. And how it happens is still confusing. The legend passed to me is that long ago, a human came into contact with a being known as 'the source of all life', and thereby became the first titan shifter. A human who consumed titan serum, purified from titan shifter's blood, becomes a pure blooded titan - mindless, like these. A pureblood titan becomes a titan shifter from devouring the spinal cord and cord blood of a titan shifter."
no subject
Date: 2021-08-05 11:00 pm (UTC)He gives them another long look, trying to imagine them as people, as what they were, but all he sees are the strange proportions and odd expressions. "Okay, okay. Yeah, that's clear as mud."
For a moment, he tries to spread it out in his mind. "So what's a shifter? And you said these were smaller? What causes that? The variations in size?"
no subject
Date: 2021-08-05 11:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-05 11:10 pm (UTC)He raises a brow. "Or am I completely off base?"
no subject
Date: 2021-08-05 11:16 pm (UTC)3DMG users do not go around swords out. The blades actually detach from the hilts, and the hilts are what gets carried; Hange swings her arms back and forth.
"And there's more. More and more. My world is a mess, and it's full of problems, and just when you slice down one problem, like killing a hydra, two more grow to replace it. I have two deals under my belt, and with those I hope I will avert the worst. But there's almost innumerable injustices I could choose to correct..."
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