equivalences | CONSIGNMENT: IC INBOX

[After hearing some odd rumors about alchemy from Armin and some offers to help from elsewhere—]

FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org

You're good at fixing things, right?

FROM: elric.edward@cdc.org

I'd say, yeah. But I'm no good with the technology here, if that's what you want fixed.

[Yeah, he feels you there, bro. Don't worry.]

FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org

Nothing like that. One of my boots got torn up during the Sector R mission.

["Torn up," meaning "cut off, along with the leg that was inside it." Details.]

FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org

I've got another set but I'd rather try and fix it up.

[Resources here are easier to come by, in some ways. Harder in others. But the shingekis are a frugal sort compared to most. It's a hard habit to break.]

[ WHOA THERE EREN ]

FROM: elric.edward@cdc.org

Oh, that'll be pretty easy. You want to bring it over?

[LOOK, THESE THINGS JUST HAPPEN...you know how it is...

But wow, that was a lot easier than he thought it would be. You're a bro, Edward.]

FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org

Yeah, thanks. Is there anything you're gonna need?

[ He does know how it is .... A little too well. ]

FROM: elric.edward@cdc.org

Not really.

FROM: elric.edward@cdc.org

Oh, how badly was it torn?

[Uh.]

FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org

Pretty bad. Some of it's missing.

[They'd salvaged most of it, but. Well.]

FROM: elric.edward@cdc.org

That's fine. I could probably thin the sides to make up for it.

FROM: elric.edward@cdc.org

Just what happened over there?

Edited (wow that icon was 2 intense + AND HE ALREADY SAID IT WAS FROM THE MISSION I'M DUMB) 2014-07-30 09:45 (UTC)

[He has no idea what that means. But he'll find out.]

FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org

I can fill you in. [But preferably in person. It's a long story, 200 character texts won't cut it.] You free now?

[ Ed will show Eren himself. He can do this shit in seconds. ]

FROM: elric.edward@cdc.org

Yeah, I'm free. I'll be in Rover 001 if you need me.

FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org

on my way.

[And true to his word, there's a rapping at Ed's rover door not too long after that. He's got his cloak around his shoulders and the battered remnants of his boot with him for Ed to take a crack at. (It's less torn up than it is cut in half, but that's a thing they can address...in a bit...)]

[ Okay, that is beyond torn. It's pretty much cut in half ... While that's pretty easy to fix, Ed's wondering just how the hell??? ]

It's chopped in two ... [ Holding the boot, Ed continues to stare at it. Then, he stares at Eren. ]

Hey, you weren't wearing this when this happened, right?

[Ed, do you really want to know the answer to that... Hanging in the doorway of the rover, he shifts, mouth thinning out. It's not exactly a Big Secret, but it's tough to explain, and he's still used to a certain level of stigma over his abilities, so he doesn't volunteer an explanation immediately. First things first:]

Can you fix it or not?

[It's not a "no." (It's not a "yes," either.) It's also super rude considering Ed is doing him a favor, whoops.]

[ Rude, Eren. There's a signal for Eren to enter the rover, because it's kind of awkward for him to be hanging at the doorway (and he's letting the draft in!!). ]

Yeah, it should be no problem. [ But Ed is still going to ask because he's nosy sometimes. ]

So, gonna tell me what happened here? How did it get so beaten up?

Edited (he already said that ) 2014-08-01 08:07 (UTC)

[He shoulders through into the rover, closing the hatch behind him and cutting off the cold air. Shrugging out of his cloak, he finds an out-of-the-way place to sit so Ed can do...whatever it is he's gonna do.]

We were attacked. [Obviously. He raps his knuckles against the surface of his seat before continuing.] They asked for people to head out exploring, but it turns out they were taking us up there to build something, too. That's why it took so long.

[He couldn't exactly tell you exactly what the thing was, except that it was big and complicated and made lots of noise. Armin would be a better bet on that front.]

Most of the time it was pretty quiet. We were on defense, but it was just wolves and stuff. As soon as they got the thing together we got swarmed with monsters.

[It's almost a shame he doesn't know the word "chimera." Because that's what they looked like. (The traditional sort of chimera, anyway.) At the time, it felt a lot like the lockdown, when they'd been overwhelmed with harpies outside, when so many recruits had died. He'd gone into this to stretch his legs, he'd stayed because he didn't want to see (Armin) any more of his comrades die. It doesn't quite explain how his boot got cut off—it's a clean slice through the leather, for the most part, the sort of thing that comes from a sharp blade, not a bite—but he's getting there.]

[ His mind goes to 'transmitter', but that's likely because he was once asked to build a thing like that in the past. Ed is kind of wondering why there was any need to conceal the fact that they were building something from the volunteers, but perhaps that was some impromptu thing. ]

Monsters? [ There's a blink at that. Well, it's true that it's uncharted territory. He's just never really heard anyone describe the creatures on AJNA as 'monsters', oddly enough. Were these new species? ] Do you mean like the Shai?

[ All this while, Ed is multitasking. He places the torn boot on the floor, clapping his hands and laying his hands on it. There's a light blue glow, and both parts of the boot seem to rejoin perfectly. As good as new!

He had noticed that that looks more like a clean slice than anything a monster could inflict. Plus, Eren didn't exactly answer his question about whether he was wearing the boot (but the fact that he still has a leg attached to him must mean that he wasn't).

[It hadn't exactly been a secret. They'd been filled in at the briefing, but he hadn't realized exactly what was going on until after he'd volunteered. He's not really the type to back out of something once he's committed to it.

And Eren's a lot of things, and Very Biased is one of them. "Monster" is a word reserved for things that have properly earned it. Murderers, titans, the Matriarch Scourges from the lockdown. The chimeras had been similar enough in behavior. He exhales sharply and casts about for a better way to describe them.]

Not the shai. They looked more like animals, but they had way too many heads. Even the tail—

[But he cuts himself off, when Ed gets to work. Momentum stuttering to a sudden stop, eyes going wide at the flash of light. Because woah hold up.]

[ Ed, too entirely used to this, just picks up the boot and tosses it at Eren. Don't get hit by your own boot. ] Here! Try it out.

[ It's barely noticeable, but the sides are a little thinner now. He had stretched them out to replace any missing pieces. It should be fine, but he could have messed up the size, who knows? It's still good to try it before he leaves. ]

Too many heads ...? [ Why is he getting a weird vibe from this ... ] Could you tell me more about these creatures?

[It's a close call, but his reflexes have to be good to do what he does. He jerks upright, catching the boot from midair before it can whack him in the face. And then he frowns deeply at it for a few seconds while addressing Ed's concerns. Because it looks as close to good-as-new as it did before Armin had sawed through it the other day.]

Three of 'em. [Heads... That's too many. That's not counting the tail, by the way.] They all looked different. It had a snake for a tail.

[It was weird!! More importantly:]

How'd you do that?

[ Yup. That pretty much confirms it. Textbook chimera. Ed lets out a groan, slumping a little forward. ]

They either belong to this planet or there's some idiot around here getting really busy. [ It's probably the former. Anyway, Ed just moves on from there, not caring to explain what's on his mind. ]

Huh ...? [ That's right. This might be the first time Eren has seen his alchemy. ] It's simple alchemy. I broke your boot down and reconstructed it. You might find it a little thinner though.

Alchemy?

[Broke it down and reconstructed it. He echoes the term as he studies the uninterrupted new leather, but there's a puzzled pause and a focused furrow in his brow that says he doesn't quite get it. Then again, there's a ton of shit here that looks impossible to him. Half the CDC tech shouldn't exist, from where he's sitting. More than half. So he brushes past it for now to circle back to the matter of the chimeras, looking back up at Ed.]

Where else would they come from?

[If they don't belong on this planet... Then again, the harpies had seemed to appear from nowhere, too.]

Alchemy. [ Ed answers, bringing the topic right back to where Eren had dropped it. ]

In my world, that thing you described would be something called a chimera -- a being created when you combine other living creatures using alchemy. I've seen quite a few chimera so far. I was travelling with two of them before enlisting here, actually.

[Combining living creatures. It's a tough thing to imagine, but he's getting used to rolling with these things. Sort of.]

You traveled with those things?

[That's something he has an easier time imagining, and then questioning. The chimera they met weren't really the most charming examples.]

All they tried to do was kill us.

Well -- [ He can sort of understand why that might be hard to believe, if blood-thirsty beasts are the only 'chimera' Eren knows about. ]

I should probably mention that they had human in them. Or they were human, just fused with some other animal. Comes in handy, actually.

I'm kind of wondering where those things you saw had come from, now.

[He sort of...stops. Stares in a baldly obvious way when Ed clarifies what he means by traveling with chimera. And he answers his wondering in an absent way while the implications sink in—]

They're still out there. We didn't kill all of them. They ran away.

[—but he can't shake the sense of creeping familiarity. They were human but now they're partly something else and it was something that was done to them. It's not hard to follow that thought ("comes in handy," huh? How?) back to the hazy and headachey memory of being restrained, struggling, while his father readies a syringe of something—

Suddenly it's not quite as hard to imagine combining two creatures at all. He's just found the right thing to compare it to. He's dropped his eyes down to his hands, furrowed his brow and studied the tips of his fingers for a few long seconds. Raising his head again, in a way that's suddenly serious, urgent, but somehow a little more subdued—]

What does it do? That alchemy, to someone who's human. When you do that to them, what does it mean?

[Just what makes a human "chimera" different from a human?]

(no subject)

equivalences - 2014-08-28 14:31 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

counterattacked - 2014-08-28 23:41 (UTC) - Expand

CONSIGNMENT: IC INBOX

Later Day 29

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

U OK CAPS....

im ok ....................

gently pats your shoulder

action!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)