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⬅️TDM

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[anbu]

[At some point in the week after their abrupt, violent arrival in the world of Cardinal Gems, Eren will receive a strange, cryptic text message from an unknown user.]

un: itachi
Summer Way, on the corner of Whale Street, the vendor "Sunset Bakery" is selling 🍡. There is a 50% reduction in price for those who are Gembonded.

[Spam mail, perhaps? No, just Itachi being a weirdo about how to approach someone who may or - more likely - may not remember him.]

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[ another one of these? oh, what a bother! but what are those . . . skewered buns? 50% off? he supposes he could grab some for his flatmates. to itachi’s luck, he’s nearby enough to start asking for directions. what he isn’t lucky for is eren’s ineloquent spongegaring at technology. ]

ERASE ALL MESSAGES TO EREN

FOR MIKASA

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(⬅️)

WHICH ONE
THERES MORE THAN ONE

oh god they're so dumb

[stopfen]

its just called farmers market
in emerald

near the places selling fruit

FOR ALEX

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(⬅️)

[ that wasn’t a far off guess, maybe his friends would’ve thought the same thing if he didn’t just look outright distant all the time. taking the bottle cap back into his hand and squeezing his fingers around it to avoid anymore escapes, he sips— one or two gulps. ]

Not yet. [ . . . that’s not good conversation. eren sighs to himself, aware of that, before he holds the bottle cap up in an attempt to show that he wasn’t not interested. just a little awkward in how to proceed. if it felt that way with the people he’s lived with his whole life, outsiders felt like skipping steps up a stairs. ] Thanks.

[sing_for_me]

[ Not a man of many words, though it didn’t bother her. Was something bothering him—- Other than being dumped into some unknown world? Maybe it was his youthful appearance, but Alex felt the urge to try and do something for him.

She takes a seat beside him, looking down at her tray for a moment before sliding it a bit closer towards him. ]

I might’ve taken too much...Would you like to share?

FOR ARMIN

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(⬅️)

[ they were all . . . disoriented, maybe, it wasn’t out of line for eren yet. as he approached and closed his distance, nothing had seemed odd enough for him to take much notice of. if they were still on their trip (for eren, a one-way) he probably would’ve been too busy roving into the sea of his own distress. he might still be close to that edge, very close, especially when . . . how would he be able to accomplish anything if he didn’t? eren speaks to him with a nod, something about it casual if not a touch relieved, despite the reservation eren has dawned over the years from loud mouth to quiet. ]

Yeah, [ he tries to keep the soft escalation in his breathing under control, only visible through the soft up and down of his suit and tie as he held out his hand. ] can you stand?

[ something was wrong, after all. ]

[contusive]

( Armin's gaze falls to the proffered hand. for a moment, he remains motionless.

then, a slowness verging on mechanical, Armin accepts, rising to his feet once more. Eren's skin blazes hot; the sensation, not unfamiliar for any titan shifter. (is that it, then? is Eren fresh from the Founding Titan's nape?) (that isn't right. Eren is in a suit. his hair is short. is this place real?) Armin begins to return to himself. his gaze meets Eren. )

Eren. Is it over?

( beneath the fit of Armin's button front, low on his sternum, a sapphire has taken residence. )

FOR BOLORMAA

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(⬅️)

ITS A FRUIT
EGG IS JUST A NAME

Re: FOR BOLORMAA

[tutelary_goddess]

names are weird .

FOR ETHAN

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(⬅️)

[ ethan is lucky that eren doesn’t know what inflection means, though he does realize that he’s being stretched . . . for whatever reason. just. a blank stare is all he can muster for the first few moments after, eyes darting between the little screen ethan seems to be using in between. he could play along, but. eh. he’s just no fun at the moment ethan, i apologize. he points, then. ]

This thing.

[syntech]

[No fun is its own kind of fun, to be honest. Ethan hums faintly, tapping his fingers in his side. After a moment, he relents somewhat, though there's... A high]

{What about it? I'm just typing the words into my HUD, they're read out afterward. It's pretty simple technology, in the end, even the phones they gave us can do something like this.}

FOR LAUGHING BEAUTY

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(⬅️)

[ what a. question. to be honest . . . was there a problem? not really, beyond being a complete stranger. he’s reached to hold historia’s hand plenty of times out of the blue, but that was historia. there was little comparison when it came to a woman on the street. was this part of that “synchrony”? ]

And if I do?

[ mind, that is, but at least he doesn’t exactly . . . outright reject. it’s more a way of testing the waters. ]

[fuckinghysterical]

[While it was a reaction she was almost anticipating, LB frowns regardless, reaching a hand up to awkwardly rub at her scalp.]

If you don't want to, I can ask someone else, eheheh! I just wanted to see if it'll make these damned messages stop popping up for a while...

[Ah, right on cue, the ding from her communicator can be heard. Glancing away for a moment to confirm yet another passive-aggressive reminder was on her screen to engage in synchrony. She hold it up to the stranger.]

Have you been getting these too?

FOR LAPIS

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(⬅️)

[ ❗️❗️ it calls for investigation. ]

No one’s said anything about it until now. [ everyone just— does what they’ve seen earlier. why be afraid of speaking up? what gain was there with silence? ] It has to do with us being here— we shouldn’t either.

[ there’s something urging about this human’s eyes. yearning. he wants to go home more than ever because he needs to. if he could just learn everything he can, then— ]

Can you say more?

[ he can understand from her body language prior (and now) that it’s a difficult topic to unravel. but if she opened up about it at least slightly now— it meant the gem was willing. ]

[oceanthief]

[if they pretended it never happened, it would simply go away. that was what they'd hoped for with all they'd left on earth - and even what Lapis had hoped when she'd dragged them down to the depths of the ocean. down there in the blackness...if they stayed long enough, maybe Jasper would forget the sun.]

Of course it does. She's not a god, she's-

[Eren has her expression. she knows it because that was the image she'd seen reflected back in the ocean tower, glassy eyes unable to disguise the burning need to return that blazed within. she'd nearly cracked a planet in two with her efforts to escape the suffocating atmosphere of her prison - and for what? there had been no one left to care.

humans were too young to understand, she thinks. stories like that...they weren't worth the pain of pursuing.]

They said our worlds were frozen, right? I think something's wrong with that.

[she can't smash her palm down on the raw wound just yet, but she can gradually build her way up to it like this. hurtful as it was, it helped the gem to gather her own thoughts as well.]

Malachite shouldn't be here if I am.

FOR STILES

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(⬅️)

[ therapy might’ve prevented the rumbling.............

but, he, hm. that was a confusing bit that eren hardly had the chance to process every word. like, he knew what they were individually? together, even if he was supposed to understand, felt like gibberish. better not ask for a repeat or he might lose a vein to popping.

the offer seems friendly and well-intentioned enough— eren finds himself slowly following after that appears more like hovering a step or two closer to the observation deck’s wide, panoramic window with first: an uncertain stare at the curling vines, second: his brows knotting with pointed commentary as he does lightly scoff, let’s talk is this armin— ]

I don’t even know who you are.

[ talking it out to a stranger: a hard no, if intimate friends never heard a peep out of his problems, but it might mean something that he’s still hanging around instead of bailing. ]

[mensrea]

[ Of course you don’t, he thinks bitterly, reminded of all the other familiar faces of old friends who no longer recognized him. Because my luck is just that shitty. But maybe, in this particular scenario, it's for the best. While their last encounter in Aefenglom hadn’t ended violently, it had felt like an inevitable close to their friendship. This could be his chance to restart things with a better understanding of who Eren is – if he wants to, naturally. Stiles still isn’t sure. ]

You can call me Stiles, [ he says mildly, ignoring the vines that are currently following Eren like mischievous snakes looking for an opportunity to cause mayhem. ] Wow, amazing, now you know who I am!

[ He shrugs. ]

I could bitch instead, if you want. Just make sure you nod at all the appropriate times so I know you haven’t dozed off on me.

FOR HISTORIA

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( ⬅️)

WE CAN BOTH MAKE THE EFFORT
IM NEAR A PLACE CALLED LUCKY STAR GAMING
WHAT ABOUT YOU ?

[selffound]

I think I'm near you!
I'm just outside a place called CineMystic.
I'm looking to see if there's a map on this device...

FOR ARMIN (FT MIKASA LATER)

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un: JAEGER.EREN
ARMIN
DID YOU FIGURE OUT HOW TO OPEN THE DOORS HERE

[contusive]

USERNAME: Arlert, Armin
Eren, what are you talking about?

FOR KAEDE

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( ⬅️ )

[ first of all i can believe they have their gem in the same place and roughly the same size, this is fate. second: her reaction, at the very least, gets eren to relax more in that she didn't care, which, thank god— the gems around here would flock to him in a heartbeat and he's lucky he hasn't been caught. right before he decides to bring his slowed steps toward the open store, he regards her with a sideways glance. ]

What're you standing there for?

[long_live_the_queen]

[spiderman pointing meme.jpg]

[Kaede had heard, distantly, something about gemstones; it seemed reasonably important, given one was attached to her body. But she only remembered bits and pieces--and the people who wanted to elaborate most enthusiastically were wearing labcoats. It took her powers dinking pathetically off those diamond armored soldiers nearby for her to get the idea it was useless, and Kaede used up most of her energy to stalk away afterwards.

Her eyes were still sunken and heavy lidded, but her gaze still smoldered bright underneath the fatigue.]

I'm looking.

[For what? The uninteresting corner of the window display or an excuse, 50/50.

Slowly, finally, the diclonius pushed herself away from the glass. She wobbled a little--but she was standing now, all by herself. See, perfectly fine and normal person here.]