Eren "problem child" Jaeger (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
counterattacked) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
epidemiology2015-10-21 02:34 am
counterattacked) wrote in epidemiology2015-10-21 02:34 am
[closed.]
CHARACTERS: Eren and Hawkeye
DATE: Backdated a bit, sometime not too long after Hawkeye's post.
WARNINGS: nothing comes to mind. Anime bullshit, I guess.
SUMMARY: making good on an offer. general getting acquainted.
[It's still dark. After days. It ought to be impossible, but it is. And they're not much closer to finding out why.
He's already feeling restless about it. Has been since they landed in town.
So there's nothing quite like feeling a little bit productive, for once, no matter how small a gesture it might be. After settling on a time and a place, Eren waits for Hawkeye by the nearest edge of the forest so she can get the information she needs from him.
It's small, but it's worth doing. ALASTAIR deploys them like troops but doesn't much treat them that way, otherwise. They expect them to follow orders despite snatching them out of their own homes and their own wars. To work together as comrades despite being utter strangers from dozens of different worlds. They leave them to their own devices for days on end. It doesn't make a lot of sense from a military perspective. But then, maybe ALASTAIR isn't actually military at all. And they haven't heard a word from them since they were dropped off, here.
So they'll have to figure this out themselves, if they plan on getting anything done. Organize and mobilize and make the best use of the power they have here. The point is, he'd promised Hawkeye a demonstration—turns out 3DMG is a lot harder to describe over text to someone without context. He hadn't ever had to do that before. The darkness poses a bit of a problem, but Eren's never one to give up easy. And it's something they're going to have to deal with, here, for better or for worse. So he waits, a bright point of light by the woodlands, his scavenged lantern sitting on his knees as he frowns up at the trees from his perch on an old fence marking the far edge of town.]
DATE: Backdated a bit, sometime not too long after Hawkeye's post.
WARNINGS: nothing comes to mind. Anime bullshit, I guess.
SUMMARY: making good on an offer. general getting acquainted.
[It's still dark. After days. It ought to be impossible, but it is. And they're not much closer to finding out why.
He's already feeling restless about it. Has been since they landed in town.
So there's nothing quite like feeling a little bit productive, for once, no matter how small a gesture it might be. After settling on a time and a place, Eren waits for Hawkeye by the nearest edge of the forest so she can get the information she needs from him.
It's small, but it's worth doing. ALASTAIR deploys them like troops but doesn't much treat them that way, otherwise. They expect them to follow orders despite snatching them out of their own homes and their own wars. To work together as comrades despite being utter strangers from dozens of different worlds. They leave them to their own devices for days on end. It doesn't make a lot of sense from a military perspective. But then, maybe ALASTAIR isn't actually military at all. And they haven't heard a word from them since they were dropped off, here.
So they'll have to figure this out themselves, if they plan on getting anything done. Organize and mobilize and make the best use of the power they have here. The point is, he'd promised Hawkeye a demonstration—turns out 3DMG is a lot harder to describe over text to someone without context. He hadn't ever had to do that before. The darkness poses a bit of a problem, but Eren's never one to give up easy. And it's something they're going to have to deal with, here, for better or for worse. So he waits, a bright point of light by the woodlands, his scavenged lantern sitting on his knees as he frowns up at the trees from his perch on an old fence marking the far edge of town.]
waddles in a week late with starbucks
At least it's not early morning (or whatever passes for morning now) when she navigates away from the central hub of the city and towards the woodlands, where Eren had graciously agreed to perform a short demonstration. In contrast to his stationary light, hers sways gently back and forth, stilling a few seconds after she does several feet away.]
Hello, Eren. I hope this wasn't too difficult to set up.
[Everything's much more difficult than it ought to be now, without the presence of the sun. Still, she manages a small smile of greeting for him.]
I hope you brought me coffee at least
They're adjusting, though. Eren hops off the fence when he spots Hawkeye coming and claps his free hand over his heart briefly in a loose reflexive salute. (Hawkeye isn't his superior officer exactly, but she'd introduced herself as an officer in her own right on the network, and it seems like better form to respect that, if not necessarily with the same stubborn loyalty he holds to his own. ...At least until she gives him a reason not to.) Dropping it down—]
Not really. It's pretty basic stuff. [Unlike most of the time he'd spent with Hawkeye at the festival, there's a mechanism strapped to the belts crisscrossing his uniform, a pair of boxy sheathes visible at his sides.] Hang on—
[To be honest, he hasn't done much of anything, yet, save for scout out a likely looking place and set up a makeshift firepit in front of it. With Riza here, he lights a spinter of wood off his lantern and tosses it into the kindling so it can spark up and build into a proper fire. Not much, but it ought to cast some more light on the nearby trees than the lanterns will.]
i sure didn't....
Her gaze shifts away from the fire and towards the new getup he's now sporting on his body. All completely unfamiliar, and looking quite elaborate given that they seem to amount to nothing more than a few belts and boxes. With a gesture towards it all:]
This is all that makes up the maneuver gear?
[She'd been expecting something a little bulkier, though fewer materials would make for greater ease of movement.]
ah, falls asleep on then
This is it. It's built to be lightweight. You'll move slower if something's weighing you down.
[And that can be the difference between being titan food or not. He raps his knuckles against one of the sheaths at his side. He'd mentioned to her that it was a weapon, but not what the business end might look like.]
You keep extra blades in here. Everything else is part of the mechanism.
[Which is still pretty compact. A few wires, something that might be a pair of fans, canisters bolted to the sheathes for the air.]
bundles you up and carts you away
She approaches closer for a better view and crouches down for a quick inspection, mentally recording the different pieces neatly woven together. The maneuver gear isn't something she'd ever be able to reproduce, not by a long shot, but it's handy to have a general reference in the back of her mind.
Speaking of mechanisms...she pushes herself back upright and glances at the trees starting to litter the landscape around them.]
What's the mechanism for propelling yourself into the air?
zzzz
Eren's got enough of a working knowledge of the gear to repair and maintain it, but he's hardly an engineer, either. The best way to answer her question is to do what they came here for.]
Watch.
[He elaborates by reaching up under his jacket to retrieve a pair of triggers, looking up into the newly-illuminated boughs of the nearby trees for a likely anchor. Apparently coming to a decision, he takes a few steps away from Hawkeye before hammering down on the triggers. A sharp snap of noise cuts through the quiet as the grappling hooks fire, followed by a zipline sound of cable spooling and hissing air. And then he's airborne, swinging upward into the limbs of a gnarled old tree to land on a low-hanging branch. It's a modest maneuver—testing the limits of what he can accomplish in the dim light. The impact still spooks an owl out of the canopy, sends something small and furry chittering and diving away from the movement.]
no subject
She can only imagine the years of effort and practice he must have put into learning how to use the equipment. How young he must have been when he started, considering his age now.
As the woodland creature skitters away, Riza steps closer, head tilting upward towards Eren.]
I assume the gear works best when you have tall structures to latch onto?
no subject
It's useless without something to anchor to. We use horses to move over open ground, but if you get cornered out there you're in for it.
[Unless you're good enough to use a titan itself as an anchor to slay it. Which many in the Corps are, but that's because they've survived long enough to gain the skill in the first place. Your run of the mill cadet or member of the Garrisson would probably be fucked.]
Places like this are best. [He knocks his knuckles against the rough bark of the tree. The woods aren't dense enough here that the trees would be more of a hindrance than a help.] Or the city, where the buildings are high enough.
[Most of the ones back home are. (Good thing, since it would have made defending Trost a lot harder if they weren't.) This place doesn't seem too different.]
no subject
It's truly amazing how differently technology can evolve to deal with different threats. No doubt the people in Central would be absolutely amazed by the wealth of information collected in their ragtag group.
But back to the titans, for now.]
Does being atop buildings and on trees put you on the same level as the titans?
[She's still trying to wrap her head around this mysterious enemy.]
no subject
Most titans are classed anywhere from three to fifteen meters. You'd be a sitting duck on the ground.
["Most," because there's one very big 60 meter exception to that rule. He doesn't see the need to get into the nitty gritty right now. Her interest is novel—most people tend to try not to think too hard about the titans if they can help it. Squad Leader Hange would love to talk someone's ear off about the ins and outs of their enemy. But Eren's always been more focused on one thing in particular.]
They only have one weakness. It's pretty high up. Anything else just regenerates almost immediately.
[Not that it matters, here. But it does explain a lot about why they fight the way they do, if that's what she wants to know.]
no subject
She snaps to attention at that one word, eyes widening and lifting up immediately until they're fixed firm on Eren's face. Bad enough they're several times the size of any ordinary man, but regeneration?]
"Regenerates"? You mean they're immortal?
[Maybe it's a jump, and maybe too much of one given the should-be impossibilities she's seen thus far, but her limited knowledge from home is the rock she's clung to here so far, for fear of becoming adrift in a sea of overwhelming knowledge and new possibilities. As far as she's aware, only homunculi are able to regenerate, and they're only able to do so with the gift of immortality.]
no subject
No one really knows very much about them. [That's why the Survey Corps exists in the first place. They know more now than ever, but the existence of the shifters is complicating things as much as it provides its own answers. Still, a little more helpfully—]
Even after a hundred years, they're not dying out on their own. But they can be still be killed, as long as you hit their weakness. Anything else they'll just heal right back in seconds. You need to know what you're doing.
no subject
There's also no telling who or what might be out there, watching and listening and waiting.
So she reels her wants back in, content for the moment with this new bit of information. There's plenty of it, all enough to cause concern, strains of it evident in her voice as she speaks.]
A hundred years? That's a long time to fight.
[She takes in his posture again, and the youthful cast to his face despite the hard lines already present.]
no subject
Here, he really seems to sober, again. He follows Hawkeye's eyes out into the forest, if not her cautious train of thought. His mouth presses into a thin line before opening again. His shoulders set square.]
Most of it wasn't spent fighting at all. [This is where he really starts to get vehement again. It's a cause that's clearly close to his heart.] The only way we could survive was by hiding behind walls. It doesn't make us any better than cattle in a pen.
[Livestock waiting for the slaughter. Even the sturdiest wall won't hold forever. His distaste for it is clear in his voice and written into the lines of his face, the set of his jaw. Despite being trapped, people had, eventually, felt safe, gotten complacent. Until they once again lost ground, took heavy losses. Came very near to extinction. A hundred years is too long. "Very near to extinction" is too close. They'll do whatever it takes.]
No matter how long it takes to change that, it's worth it. We're not powerless anymore.
[They have information, intelligence, weapons developed to take every advantage they can, strategies developed through painstaking and costly trial and error. (They have hope. They have whatever it is his father is hiding away in Shiganshina. And they have him, for better or for worse, whatever risk or asset he might provide. Or, they did, until ALASTAIR took him away.)]
no subject
Riza, however, has been blessed (?) with the presence of one Edward Elric in her life and takes Eren's shounen speech in stride, attention never wavering from his person as she listens. The undercurrents to his voice are familiar even if the story isn't; they've both got long ways to go before their stories end.]
You're making progress now. [Even if it's just coming to that realization.] That's what matters.
[There's a certain air of finality to her voice. Enough of these burdens, time to move on. There's merit in stopping and remembering mistakes of the past, but only to a certain point. Anything more and it becomes a hindrance and a burden rather than motivation.
The original purpose of their meeting has come and gone, Eren having very impressively displayed his skills with the maneuver gear, but Riza finds herself loath to call it a day right away. Her 'work' for ALASTAIR is at something of a standstill and she can only tour so much of the city before she starts retracing her footsteps. Despite the chill in the air, the weather isn't too bad with not much of a breeze and the skies clear. It wouldn't hurt to stay outside too much longer.
But first:]
I'm afraid I'm not nearly tall enough to continue the conversation like this. If you wouldn't mind coming back down...?
[Before she breaks her neck craning up at him.]
no subject
Anyway. He hops the rest of the way down from his perch to wander over to the edge of the flickering fire. To be honest, he's not in much of a hurry, either. The city is already starting to feel small, after enough empty days, and in the absence of a strict military schedule, he's got a lot of unanticipated time on his hands. He tucks the triggers in his hands back into the holsters under his jacket.]
Is that all you need?
[For her pet project, her information gathering initiative. She's probably got a better picture of the crew now than anyone.]
pretends they're nearing some sort of mealtime
She turns partway, split between Eren and the faint lights of the city behind them. It'd be easy enough to wrap this up and go their separate ways again. Instead, she tilts her head at him, gaze curious.]
Have you eaten yet?
no one can prove you wrong
And lets be real, this thread's been exponsitiony enough without getting into that can of worms right now.
The question comes from left field. It's curious, not overtly naggy, so he just raises his brows and looks up at the sky for a second or so before shaking his head.]
Not in hours. It's hard to keep track of time like this.
[It could be noon or midnight or anywhere in between. It reminds him a little of the days he'd spent locked up under the courthouse, with no indication of the passing of time except for the changing of the guard.]
i can't believe you
Back home, she'd rarely acquiesced to social gatherings like drinks after work or large dinners for the sheer sake of getting together. Half the 'dates' she'd attended had been undercover jobs anyway, the colonel calling her up at the last minute - and on her days off too, that asshole - and heavily implying his plans with 'Elizabeth' in just a few short minutes. But back home, her schedule hadn't allowed for such things anyway. Here, she had more time than she knew what to do with and none of her usual activities to fill that time.
It seems harmless enough to take a break every now and then. And they are all comrades, even if only temporarily. It can't hurt to try and maintain some general sense of camaraderie.]
Our bodies usually keep pretty good track of things like hunger and thirst. [Her own stomach gives a short - but loud - rumble, as if to concur with her statement. Not particularly ladylike, but there's no embarrassment present in her smile.] There's a pretty good diner not far from here, if you'd like some food.
[Also no, it's not a date, please.]
you have like, negative higher ground here, don't even start!!!
He's not the type who's prone jumping to those conclusions, don't worry. (She'd be way more likely to earn a senpai crush by shooting someone asshole's kneecaps out in front of him than by taking him out to dinner, anyway.)
Eren is a teenaged boy, though, which means he's always hungry. He's probably lucky to have Levi and Mikasa here to count on, and he's never been great at making friends, but that doesn't mean he doesn't rely on camaraderie as much as any other soldier.]
Yeah. [He looks back over toward the lights of the town, then back at Riza.] Sure. Lemmie put this out.
[There's a rotting old bucket on the ground by his discarded lantern, full of fresh dirt from digging the makeshift fire pit. He stoops to pick it up and empties it over the flickering fire to smother the flames.]
but i still get the last word in here!! x(
She waits until Eren's finished and stepping away from the lightly smoking ground before turning on her heel and heading towards town herself.]
Let's go.