mrballisticsdummy

mrballisticsdummy

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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."

From:

mrballisticsdummy

He cuts her a quick look. "That's because most people are idiots. So - what's the answer?" he presses.

From:

14thcommander

She stares back, gaze steady like a candle flame in a still room.

"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..."

From:

mrballisticsdummy

"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.

From:

14thcommander

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..."

From:

mrballisticsdummy

"They're people?" he says softly, glancing quickly between her and the titans. "How?"

From:

14thcommander

"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."

From:

mrballisticsdummy

"Huh."

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?"

From:

14thcommander

"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."

From:

mrballisticsdummy

"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?"

He raises a brow. "Or am I completely off base?"

From:

14thcommander

"It's more or less like that."

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..."

From:

mrballisticsdummy

"So you're hoping for a third?"

He steps back. "Well, might want to try an easier case next month," he says, eyeing her warily because the talk of deals and such goes back to wardening and the Barge and everything else he had conveniently been able to forget about.

From:

14thcommander

Hange waves a hand, still holding her loose hilt.

"You want to walk around? We're in a hero town. Or we can go see wild ones... in the woods..."

From:

mrballisticsdummy

"Walk around is just fine. I think I've seen what I need to of them." Because now that he knows what they are, he's not sure seeing them wild, seeing them loose, is going to do much else for him.

"Since you're not willing to cut your losses just yet..." He steps close, willing to follow. "So what do you know about me?"

From:

14thcommander

"These are just little guys." A hint of levity. "Are you suuuuuure? You don't want to see a ten-meter? Fifteen-meter? Or the tactical gear...?"

She'll lead the way out of their little enclosure, though.

In a hero town, the walls are especially close, visible from just about every point except where the wooden buildings around might stand tall enough to shield them from the sight. The outer wall of the town has a clear horseshoe shape, and curves sharply back around to meet with the main wall, with its less extreme curve.

"Not a lot, anyway. I don't have your file, and I didn't get a lot of personal details."

More emotion than logic, Warren said, but she won't pass that on.

From:

mrballisticsdummy

"Yeah, I don't really get excited about things that were human once but now kind of aren't," he tells her softly, a far cry from the biting sarcasm or complaints from before. It's a genuine sort of aversion. Lovelace had been an exception, but he knew her first.

"And if you know his story, then you know mine. Mostly. Not much more a file is going to tell you."

He keeps his eyes up, still feeling small beneath the walls, but at least he knows what to expect this time.

"You know...enticing me with tactical gear seems like cheating..."

From:

14thcommander

She won't push that part. Hange might not look it, but she is patient.

"Is that what you call using the tactical advantages at your disposal?"

From:

mrballisticsdummy

He pretends to think about it for a moment.

"No," he eventually decides. "It's still what I call cheating."

From:

14thcommander

Hange laughs.

"Call me a cheater then! Any kind of place you're interested in seeing?"

From:

mrballisticsdummy

"What? How's that my choice?" he laughs. "Like I said, your field trip. Not mine. Unless we're going to blow shit up, I have no preferences."

From:

14thcommander

"Would you like to learn the tactical gear? That was the next thing I was going to ask you."

From:

mrballisticsdummy

And that gets a bit more interest.

A lot more interest. Even if it is cheating.

"Yeah. That would be alright."

His tone is more eager than his words might imply.