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[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.]
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.]
(⬅️)
[ 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.
[ 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.
[ 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
ERASE ALL MESSAGES TO EREN
(⬅️)
[ 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. ]
[ 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. ]
Edited 2021-01-13 00:40 (UTC)
(⬅️)
[ 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.
[ 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.
Edited 2021-01-13 01:08 (UTC)
(⬅️)
[ 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. ]
[ 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. ]
Edited 2021-01-13 01:24 (UTC)
( 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. )
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. )
[Ah. Not unexpected given the going trend. He finds himself staring at the message for long seconds before his gaze angles up, across the street, onto Sunset Bakery.
Itachi taps his nail on the device’s thin screen, an uncharacteristically restless gesture. Then he replies:]
You’ll lose the messages you may want to keep. Are they that unimportant to you?
Itachi taps his nail on the device’s thin screen, an uncharacteristically restless gesture. Then he replies:]
You’ll lose the messages you may want to keep. Are they that unimportant to you?
[Mikasa wasn't so sure about this. Was she going to have to spend all day here, waiting when he might not find her? But it wasn't as though she had better things to do. She didn't have a job and other than the messages about syncing(ignored for now), she'd not be asked to do anything. ]
right
[Can you feel the faith?
But with that Mikasa waited. Standing between the fruit and vegetable stalls. It was somewhat awkward, trying to find a spot that wasn't in the way of nearby shoppers but was still visable but...
She couldn't do anything about that. So she stood and waited. Wearing a familiar, beaten up straw hat and a not-so-familiar red shirt and white blouse with matching red embroidery. Fancy, but it was the simplest clothing she'd been able to find.
Oh, her longer black hair also had a matching red ribbon holding it up. ]
right
[Can you feel the faith?
But with that Mikasa waited. Standing between the fruit and vegetable stalls. It was somewhat awkward, trying to find a spot that wasn't in the way of nearby shoppers but was still visable but...
She couldn't do anything about that. So she stood and waited. Wearing a familiar, beaten up straw hat and a not-so-familiar red shirt and white blouse with matching red embroidery. Fancy, but it was the simplest clothing she'd been able to find.
Oh, her longer black hair also had a matching red ribbon holding it up. ]
[ oh my god these spam messages are so— gauche. and it’s almost difficult to keep these on read when they don’t stop. plenty of pauses and some asking later, a young man of eighteen, just bordering his next year makes it to the front of a sunset bakery. when he types, he hardly does it with his thumbs; he’s using a stiff index finger to poke at every letter he needs, occasionally clicking his tongue when he types at the wrong one, but doesn’t give up in locating the backspace to try again. ]
I HAVE WHAT I NEED
[ there, even if it took ten whole minutes. now he can look up to get a better view at the awning, adjusting his fedora to give him visual space. he certainly looks like eren— sans any draconic features. his face seems just a touch softer, his hair at chin length rather than to his shoulders, and . . . well. he’s zoning out right then and there. that, or he’s taking his time with his observations. ]
I HAVE WHAT I NEED
[ there, even if it took ten whole minutes. now he can look up to get a better view at the awning, adjusting his fedora to give him visual space. he certainly looks like eren— sans any draconic features. his face seems just a touch softer, his hair at chin length rather than to his shoulders, and . . . well. he’s zoning out right then and there. that, or he’s taking his time with his observations. ]
Edited 2021-01-13 12:22 (UTC)
[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.}
{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.}
(⬅️)
[ ❗️❗️ 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. ]
[ ❗️❗️ 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. ]
[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.
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.
[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?
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?
Edited (that sure was a baby tag before) 2021-01-13 22:10 (UTC)
[When Eren appears in his peripheral, the certainty becomes concrete even as those physical differences make themselves apparent. This is the same young man he knew in Aefenglom—with some stark changes. Of course, that is to be expected, removed from the hallmarks of a Monster in the setting of another world (as Stiles had returned to normal in Penance). The age, too, sticks out. He resembles the glimpse of the boy in memory Itachi first witnessed far more than the dragon he eventually came to know.
The division of two decisions, avoidance or confrontation, is easier this time. Perhaps he already made up his mind when he sent the message.
Itachi rises from the bench and crosses the street, subtle and near-silent as he appears at Eren’s shoulder, where... he stands without saying anything, and for a moment they both look like zoned-out weirdos. Then:]
Eren. I didn’t expect you would come.
The division of two decisions, avoidance or confrontation, is easier this time. Perhaps he already made up his mind when he sent the message.
Itachi rises from the bench and crosses the street, subtle and near-silent as he appears at Eren’s shoulder, where... he stands without saying anything, and for a moment they both look like zoned-out weirdos. Then:]
Eren. I didn’t expect you would come.
[ eren’s eyes are wide in trying to decipher what armin is going on about— usually he’s the one talking nonsense or disjointed phrases with only half meaning in his thoughts kept to himself and accidentally made verbal, not the other way around. a memory too, maybe? or was he simply shocked? lodged in his jugular notch and just poking out from the collar of his button down tie sits a ruby gem— one that faintly, with their contact, would blink to glow and pull down eren’s nasty temperature on the spot. there was something there, like a shock, a buzz, but eren’s hand had let go of his friend’s before he can consider anything else for much longer; sorting out any meaning of what was “over” was the priority, and eren digs for the last thing he remembers: ]
. . . The party? [ it was the only linear event to him that made any sense. it was the last time eren had seen him, even if he was hanging back as a wallflower. he gives both a nod and a roll of his shoulder that, coupled, went along the lines of “yes” and “i guess so”. ] I fell asleep. [ . . . ] I think we all did.
[ had armin changed his clothes, then? eren can’t help but to observe, eyes traveling down and back up, from armin’s shoes to his sea blue eyes. ]
. . . The party? [ it was the only linear event to him that made any sense. it was the last time eren had seen him, even if he was hanging back as a wallflower. he gives both a nod and a roll of his shoulder that, coupled, went along the lines of “yes” and “i guess so”. ] I fell asleep. [ . . . ] I think we all did.
[ had armin changed his clothes, then? eren can’t help but to observe, eyes traveling down and back up, from armin’s shoes to his sea blue eyes. ]
[ how many fruit & vegetable stalls were there? a lot. it wasn’t all that specific directions, but he’d look. he’ll ask for directions. he’ll get sort of lost but then back on track (it wasn’t as if he could hear tone in message, haha, if he did he wouldn’t still be capsing). some wrong turns and run ins with actual stone-people later (who eren couldn’t exactly pinpoint a feeling on— most of them were as distrusting of his presence as he was of theirs, but suddenly they’re all acting nice? what do they want from them—), he catches in his sights mikasa waiting absently. well, the first thing he noticed was the hat.
he too, was wearing the fedora that matched his suit from the last moments they were home and fell asleep in one another. he’d sort of— left it at that. it wasn’t as if there was any way back, especially when that dreaded forum was supposed to be held the next day (he didn’t have a good feeling and his expectations were at an all time low, barely hanging by a strand just waiting to snap). time has suspended, but it does little to ease the tension hidden within in. the urgency, perhaps.
anyway— the red in her hair is something eren hardly ever saw her dawning, if he’d ever actually seen her dawn it. preparing himself to face her took a few moments from afar; he’d inhale, exhale, close his eyes, focus, then approach. the back of his hand wafts through the held ponytail in a gentle swish once he was close enough, announcing his arrival as bluntly as he always did. ]
What’s this?
[ more like “where’d you get this?” but, wording. ]
he too, was wearing the fedora that matched his suit from the last moments they were home and fell asleep in one another. he’d sort of— left it at that. it wasn’t as if there was any way back, especially when that dreaded forum was supposed to be held the next day (he didn’t have a good feeling and his expectations were at an all time low, barely hanging by a strand just waiting to snap). time has suspended, but it does little to ease the tension hidden within in. the urgency, perhaps.
anyway— the red in her hair is something eren hardly ever saw her dawning, if he’d ever actually seen her dawn it. preparing himself to face her took a few moments from afar; he’d inhale, exhale, close his eyes, focus, then approach. the back of his hand wafts through the held ponytail in a gentle swish once he was close enough, announcing his arrival as bluntly as he always did. ]
What’s this?
[ more like “where’d you get this?” but, wording. ]
[ if try #1 didn’t get a desirable (?) reaction, try #2 did. so, what, he’s stupid now because he doesn’t know what things are? it’s what this guy is making things out as. from flat to miffed, eren’s eyes narrow just as much as his patience thins— that was less a joke and more an offense, and even more offensive that someone would find token in the mockery of ignorance. he hates that bullshit more than ever. ]
Not all of us are wiseasses, [ not in the sense that ethan was smart, but deliberately indecent for . . . whatever reason? he can’t find a reason, and that makes it all the less tolerable. eren taps the frame of the other’s device with pointedness, just about turning away, ] but thanks for the enlightenment.
[ knowing he doesn’t need to waste his time on one who won’t take him seriously, this young man turns heel to make his way out of the store. he’s outtie! ]
Not all of us are wiseasses, [ not in the sense that ethan was smart, but deliberately indecent for . . . whatever reason? he can’t find a reason, and that makes it all the less tolerable. eren taps the frame of the other’s device with pointedness, just about turning away, ] but thanks for the enlightenment.
[ knowing he doesn’t need to waste his time on one who won’t take him seriously, this young man turns heel to make his way out of the store. he’s outtie! ]
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