epidemiology | PLAYER PLOT ★ STORM THE CASTLE

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PLAYER PLOT ★ STORM THE CASTLE

THE CASTLE ( NOV 7 )

Our resident warrior princess, Kidagakash Nedakh, has formulated a plan to investigate the castle and speak with the royals. (The OOC plotting post can be found here.) Now, it's time to put it into action.

The castle itself is huge. From the outside, you can see a beautiful garden, a pond, and a statue commemorating Odette. You can also see several guards, some more invested in their job than others. A few are stony-faced, menacing men with looks that could kill. A couple just look like they'd appreciate a pretty girl or interesting guy to liven up their boring day.

On the inside, all the halls look different, yet the same — different pieces of art, different wall fixtures, but everything else is identical. There's many portraits of the king and his late wife on the walls, sparkling chandeliers, and servants scurrying around. Odette's pale, smiling face and cascading blonde locks look somewhat familiar, but that might just be because of all the statues of her likeness around the city.

The castle has pretty much every room you'd expect a castle to have. A library, a wine cellar, a dining hall, etc. Within them, characters can expect to find various things of interest — there are many books, fancy stationery, even some valuable coins if you look hard enough. There's also many letters to be found detailing the situation in Chantes; of course, there's also plenty of letters on far less official business. Some of them have quite steamy imagery.

There are plenty of servants milling about inside the castle and out in the gardens. In the dining hall and their chambers are several of Chantes' most important nobles. And then, of course, there's you.

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It's good to see you again, Eren.

[Julius waves to Eren politely. It's nice to be around some familiar faces. ]

I worked with the military for many years. However, I resigned recently so I no longer hold the rank of captain. [Who is even surprised to see military soldiers here? They're everywhere.]

Why don't you take a seat somewhere? [They'll be chatting for a bit. Both of them can sit down comfortably for once instead of being locked up inside of a loud jail cell.]

[Not as "everywhere" as he'd expected, to be honest. ALASTAIR's recruited a surprisingly large civilian contingent, in his opinion. Makes him wonder who's calling the shots, what their criteria are for the people they snatch up. If there's any rhyme or reason to it at all.

Eren takes Julius up on the invitation and takes a chair at his table. The inn is warmly lit and loud with chatter instead of shouting and Eren's not bruised or bloody on the knuckles or seething at people who are still picking fights—definitely a different atmosphere to the first time they'd met. Less tense, more productive. More conducive to getting a little distracted before getting to the reason they're here.]

You resigned?

[Looks kind of young for making Captain, even from his skewed perspective. Even younger for resigning, and you don't make Captain and then wash out for petty reasons. So he can't help but ask—]

Why?

[Julius honestly didn't expect Eren to ask that question. He's stunned into silence for a moment then he replies while frowning.]

One of my friends died in front of me. He was about your age.

[Eren appears to be a teenager at least. Outward appearances can always be deceiving though. ]

I didn't want anyone else to suffer the same way so I left. After that I helped the military do some research.

[Julius doesn't mind talking about this. Eren's always been cooperative and he's relatively kind. He deserves to hear an honest answer.]

[Julius goes quiet, and it occurs to Eren a little late that this might have been a pretty personal question to ask. But Julius is free to answer it or not however he sees fit, so he doesn't rush to retract it, or even look all that chagrined by the silence.

And the answer he gets...is still something of a mystery to him. Eren's mouth presses thin before he opens it again.]

You thought leaving would stop people from dying? [It's incisive, though not aggressive. (Maybe there's something in the sentiment he can understand, regret for making the wrong decisions or guilt for surviving because others give their lives for his.) But he cannot fathom letting that go to waste. His jaw locks, but he pursues it. He's got to be missing something, because it doesn't add up.]

How can you stop anything if you're not there to do anything about it?

[Had his comrade died because of something Julius did? (Or was it something to do with the research?)]

[Eren's question's only a normal one. The situation was a little complicated. Julius isn't sure where to start with this mess. He knows he has a habit of never speaking up when it counts. Maybe Eren can see that Julius is struggling to say something, even though it's clear that he wants to. ]

The military created some artificial soldiers. We used them to fight our battles, Eren.

I didn't have to physically be there on scene myself. [Julius wonders what Eren's thinking about all of this. The existence of an artificial soldier might have been okay in the year 2071, but Eren comes from a different time and place.]

Sorry if I said anything you didn't want to hear. [They started talking about people dying man. Julius would feel bad if he made Eren slightly uncomfortable.]

[He listens critically, and Julius does try to make himself understood. But there's definitely some major culture gap at work, here.]

Artificial?

[It's clear he's having trouble wrapping his head around the idea at all. Using some construct to fight your battles for you. The closest thing he has to compare it to is Pixis's lie about Eren's shifting being the result of military testing. But even then, Eren's still a soldier, he still needed to be present to use it, to risk his own life on the battlefield. (And the military testing had, of course, been a lie.)

Death, however, is a much more familiar topic. It's never a pleasant one, but it's part of being a soldier, and Eren's never needed or wanted to be treated with kid gloves. His brow furrows in a different sort of confusion at the apology. It's not like Julius is the one who started all this.]

You don't have to apologize. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to hear it.

Alright then.

[There's no need for him to apologize, Eren's right. Julius folds his arms together and keeps a relatively stern expression during everything. He goes off and answers Eren's question.]

With the use of my world's advanced technology creating an artificial soldier was possible for us. They were faulty in some ways though. Sometimes they malfunctioned it was problematic.

[Too problematic. It's always better to just use a real soldier over an artificial one. Julius had to learn that the hard way. ]

What are your thoughts on this? [He'd like to hear Eren's opinion!!]

[There are times when he really feels his ignorance as to the workings of other worlds, and this is one of them. Honestly—]

I don't understand how a soldier can be artificial.

[Soldiers are people, by definition. A thing created for war without a will of its own would be—what? A weapon? Does it fight on its own, or do they control it from far away? Is it alive? It's hard to give a real opinion with the limited understanding that he has. But for what it's worth, he leans against the rough wood of the table and gives Julius a serious answer with what he's got.]

It seems cowardly.

[Blunt, maybe a little unkind. But Julius asked.]

When you enlist, you give up your heart for humanity. [At least, that's how it is where he's from. The set to his shoulders squares a bit when he says it.] If you've got the power to fight, it's your responsibility as a soldier to use it to the best of your ability.

[That isn't to say that he'd discount any advances made in methods. The 3DMG was developed that way. Squad Leader Hange tries to understand the titans better in order to better defeat them.]

You can't win a battle at a disadvantage if you're not willing to take risks or develop new techniques for fighting it. I enlisted to protect humanity and to free them from the walls. I can't imagine turning my back on that just because it would keep me safer.

[Even if there was some artificial construct that could take his place. Sitting back and waiting for the battle to be won doesn't sit right with him.]

[Julius can respect Eren's determination and strong will to fight. "Enlisting to protect humanity" though, Julius wonders what motivates Eren as a soldier. Eren's willing to accept risks as part of his duty, but that's not something Julius can do easily.]

I have a lot to learn from you it seems. [It's only the truth. Eren's kind of young to be a soldier and that didn't really matter too much to Julius. He sees some insight in Eren's words even though they're blunt.]

Thanks for answering my question, Eren. [Julius sounds grateful too. Then he bows down politely to show some respect.]

[After basically calling Julius—who would outrank him by far, if that mattered at all here—and his comrades cowards, he doesn't expect a response like that one. It's never been in Eren's nature to hold his tongue, so he's no stranger to being met with scorn, resistance, laughter. Instead, Julius thanks him, bows his head, acknowledges his point of view and claims to learn from it. The severe set to his shoulders slacks a little. He can't claim to understand Julius's choices, or why he'd made them. But Julius hears him out, so he does try.]

What are you fighting?

[Back in his own world, in the war he'd stepped away from.]

[Rankings don't really matter all that much here. Julius will give respect where it's due though. Eren definitely deserves it. ]

I fought against violent gods. They devour everything by nature and kill humans. [He pauses for a second.] You're a soldier too.

You must know what it's like to fight a battle you might not win. How long have you been in active duty for?

[This is just Julius being curious. Eren seems to be a skilled fighter so Julius wants to know for reference.]

[Woah, hold up there. Something Julius said seems to hit a nerve, because Eren sits up at attention all of a sudden. It's not quite right—titans don't devour everything, they just devour humans—but the sound and the scale of it (A battle you very seriously might not win) strikes a chord. Rather than actually answer Julius's question right off the bat, he gets a little sidetracked.]

Devour— [Mostly because of that.] What d'you mean gods? Are they giants? Titans?

[He has to ask. No one he's mentioned them to has any concept the of the titans. But he's not naive enough to think they couldn't exist elsewhere.]

[Julius is a little surprised at Eren's reaction.]

The Gods I know are formidable beings. The only way to fully kill one is to extract its core. [Otherwise they just keep coming back like an annoying mosquito.]

Some of them aren't exactly large. [He tries to relax a bit before speaking up more.]

I don't know what to make of these titans you mentioned. Perhaps you could provide me with more detail. [It's hard for Julius to answer that question when he doesn't have a good idea of what a titan is to begin with. ]

[It's easier to compare things to something that's been a constant your whole life...which might be why it's easy to find similarities in what Julius is describing. It's not like he'd be disappointed to be wrong—he wouldn't wish something as terrible as the titans on any other world of people. But he had to ask, and Julius's gods seem to be terrible in their own right. (It's not like he isn't interested in the similarities and differences inherent in the worlds they come from, as a rule. They're supposed to meet up here to discuss the castle storming, but they can take a couple minutes to compare notes. It'll gnaw at him for ages if he doesn't.)

His expression narrows and his posture stays sharp. This time he actually answers Julius's questions.]

They're giants. [Again, because that part is important. He says "giants" with the inflection of someone talking about a particularly disgusting insect.] Most of them get as big as fifteen meters tall, but there's at least one that's over fifty. All they do is hunt down and devour humans. They can't be killed unless you take out their weakness.

["Extract its core," cut out its nape. Close enough to make you wonder. Maybe there really could be some insight they could gain from each other about their respective enemies. It sure as hell couldn't hurt to try. And, since he skipped it last time—]

I enlisted three years ago to fight them.

[Over fifty meters? That large? Julius can't imagine something so big. He narrows his eyes slightly as if he's deep in serious thought.]

Our enemies have too much in common. It could be a coincidence, but I highly doubt that. There must be some kind of connection between our adversaries.

We should discuss this topic again soon, Eren. I want to find the truth behind everything.

[He's pretty sure that Eren wants to know what's up too. Though, they are getting a little side tracked here. Julius doesn't mind that too much. ]

[That's a sentiment he can definitely get behind. It goes without saying that he's curious about Julius's enemy, too.]

Yeah. [There are more and more people milling around from the castle crashing crew, maybe it's not the time or the place. But he has no problem seeking Julius out sometime later for a followup.]

We don't know very much about them. The titans. Anything that can help us wipe them out is worth investigating. That's what the Survey Corps has been risking their lives for all this time.

[So anything they can learn from each other is worth looking into. And vice versa, for Julius's gods, though that goes unsaid. Cultural exchange at its finest.]

Getting to the bottom of it could help us put a stop to it for good.

[The titans sounds more mysterious now.]

Right. You've been fighting them for a while. It must be difficult to defeat a titan. [Humans seem so small in comparison and yet Eren can still fight against them fearlessly.]

If I may ask how exactly do you strike its weakness? I don't know if it's possible to bind their legs in order to restrict their movement.
[It's a plausible strategy to him, though he wonders how Eren normally defeats titans.]

[Mysterious as hell, it's true. Hard to get a read on something when killing it comes at great peril, when they vanish into thin air afterward, when they're too dangerous to capture alive most of the time. Julius has been answering his questions, so he returns the favor to the best of his ability.

He shakes his head. Trapping them can help, yeah. But it's labor intensive, hard to set up, unreliable.]

There's too many of them to rely on something like that. Not unless you're trying to capture one alive.

[And even then, their track record is pretty shit. He raises a hand to tap at the base of his neck, right at the nape.]

Their weakness is high up, and really small. You need to cut it out in one strike, so we use equipment that lets us maneuver in the air.

[And then there's Eren's ace in the hole. But that's not exactly standard.]

Binding them isn't an option I suppose. Kill them swiftly or face consequences...right?

[You guys must have really high death rates. This is no laughing matter! Julius expression darkens and he pieces all of the information together. He's still having a hard time stomaching the idea of titans running around killing humans, even if it is a concept he understands. It's never easy to deal with things like death and people being eaten.]

You fought bravely on the battlefield. For that you have earned my respect.

[He's just being honest now.]

[Their casualty rates are atrocious, you don't even want to know, Julius. It's a bit of praise he's not expecting—most people are quick to call the Corps foolish or suicidal for daring to face off against those kinds of odds. It doesn't go unappreciated.]

Yeah. Thanks.

[At least an operation like this one ought to be a walk in the park in comparison. It's all the time they have for that, though. As the inn fills up a little more with potential castle crashers, they need to get to business. He stands, but offers Julius a hand to shake before he leaves.]

Good luck. [With your half of the mission. If he remembers right, Julius is on infiltration.] We'll keep 'em off your backs.

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PLAYER PLOT ★ STORM THE CASTLE

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