equivalences | CONSIGNMENT: IC INBOX

[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?]

[ UH EREN THAT'S HIGHLY CONCERNING

Ed is awfully curious about those chimera, but not quite curious enough to go check them out himself. He has things that he needs to do when his contract ends. He can't jump directly into danger for random, arbitrary reasons. Maybe he'll come across them one day, maybe they'll give him some new insight on the possibilities for alchemy on this planet, but currently, those answers are not important enough for him to seek out himself.

Ed stares at Eren, as the other boy becomes oddly contemplative. It doesn't sound like a topic very relevant to him, so he can't imagine why he would slip into a more serious mood like that. Then again, there's a lot about Eren - about the friends he's made here - that he doesn't know, and he does want to know. He's even more surprised when Eren raises his head again.

What a loaded question. There's a long, drawn-out exhale. Well, it's not exactly a secret since Eren could always read up on it on the file. ]

Ever wonder how I lost this? [ Pulling down his sleeve, Ed reveals his metallic hand. He doesn't actually know if Eren has seen it yet or not, but if he hasn't, here's something new? ]

[SURE IS, ISN'T IT.

Look, if his dad hadn't fucked off to who knows where maybe he wouldn't have to wonder if "chimera" and "shifter" are different words for similar things. He doesn't know how or why he'd suddenly(?) gained his shifting ability. No matter what it means for his humanity, he can't entirely regret having the power to fight, now that it's been given to him. (Willingly or otherwise.) But it's still something he'd definitely want answers about. Maybe Grisha is an alchemist, we just don't know.

Ajna is a cold planet. Most of the time people are bundled up against it. So no, he hasn't had a chance to get a good look at Ed's automail, and it takes him a second to react to the apparent abrupt change in topic. He frowns impatiently, but he plays along. Especially once he gets a real look at what Ed is showing him. Amputations are plenty common when your greatest enemy is the maneating type. (If you're lucky enough to survive a titan bite, the odds are you won't be lucky enough to survive it whole.) But prosthetics any more advanced than a wooden leg or something are a very new concept. So it takes a while to sink in that the arm Ed is showing him isn't just armored, it's mechanical.]

Your hand?

[Eren's curious, but he's not particularly nosy. He doesn't skim people's files unless he has a reason to. Hearing about their worlds and their lives firsthand is a different story, especially when it's new, or interesting, or—on the flip side—strangely familiar. If he hadn't wondered before—]

CONSIGNMENT: IC INBOX

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