bertall | Iɴʙᴏx ✉ Vɪᴄᴛᴏʀʏ Rᴏᴀᴅ

I'm choosing to be flattered instead of bothered by the fact Armin was in such a rush to "talk" with me that he was apparently more ready to die one day outside Cherrygrove than he was prepared to overnight out in the woods.

[ Also known as, things went weird. ]

He what|

_{[Ready to die outside of Cherrygrove? What in tarnation.]}

Annie, what did he do? What happened? Is everything okay?

Edited (I KEEP FORGETTING) 2018-09-25 03:43 (UTC)

He trekked out there without his pokemon, per my request, after calling me a killer. The ready to die is my assumption.

Armin didn't do anything outside of grow a few inches since I last saw him. I confirmed some of what he believed I'd done, mentioned Marley, the Eldians, and that Titans are humans. It was great. We got attacked by a Hoothoot.

Who does that--? That's not|
Even if we are, who says something like that when wanting to talk in person?

_{[Armin, aren't you supposed to be the smart one? Armin, no.]}

Wait.

Wait wait wait
What. You told him about Marley?

Armin shouts that I'm being tortured to you and cajoled me into following him into a trap by appealing to my minuscule sense of being good to or for anyone. Did he at any point tell you he also wanted to talk? My bet is he did. He's not exactly good at this, just better than Eren is.

Yes, I did. Where do you think they're heading back home, Bertolt? What is the point of lying about the bullshit none of us can change from here? You, Reiner, and Marcel won't be part of it. If nothing else, it'll keep him focused on using me for information, and he's going to have a hell of a time getting anything useful from now on.

How good do you think his hand to hand skills are these days?

[ Trick question: they were always shit. ]

He hasn't! Not about anything like this, just|
He never talked to me about you. The last time I brought you up, he was acting weird

I don't want to think about where they're going either! If they go there, then|

_{[My dad will know, is what he wants to say. Reiner will know what happens, he wants to say. There's so much he wants to say, but Bertolt can't bring himself to. Gods, it's going to be bad back home.

Bertolt catches the concerned glance coming from his Aggron frozen mid-dig at a soft patch of dirt near where the train car is parked, and he pinches the bridge of his nose. He's fine, buddy. He's fine.]}

I don't know. _{[Focus on this. Focus on the easy, non-terrifying part.]} Probably bad? He's been spending most of his time down on the Sevii Islands.

_{[So, maybe even worse than before.]}

He probably didn't want to make everyone worry until he could confirm. Armin's from before I was "captured."

[ She pauses, rubbing the bridge of her nose and allowing Lute to lean against her hip. Her response comes after that. ]

It's not saying anything would happen quickly. Just that I'd be surprised if they didn't at least try getting intelligence from the mainland, once they'd dealt with getting to the sea. It's not impossible that between Eren and Armin they could do it. As for what would come next, I don't know. Us being sent in like we were to gather information was a gamble Marley made, and we failed. Marley probably won't be sending anyone else right away, not if Zeke was there and you were working with him. When that failed, too, they had to pull back. Zeke's too valuable to be gone long term. Marley's wars can't afford it. Eren's not going anywhere, as far as they'll see it.

[ Reiner went home. They didn't. It's unfair, and there's nothing that will change that. ]

I'm not familiar with the area, but that's what I thought. Right now I have information he wants. At this rate that's not going to change, unless someone wakes up knowing more than you do, or someone shows up from later than you remember. Armin has some weird idea about truces that he can keep thinking he's responsible for making in the meantime. Neither of us will be talking about "the truth" with any of the three of you here. He's going to have to meet me on my terms if he wants to learn anything else. Which he will. He does not have anything I want. I have everything he does.

[ As far as information about the world he lives within back home, and that shitty landscape is hellish no matter where it's viewed. She's in the stronger bargaining position, and she knows it. ]

When has Eren ever listened to anyone? He's always rushed into things, usually without thinking. It's an admirable trait in some cases but he's too reckless for anyone to control. Once he sets his mind on something there's no stopping him.

_{[Expecting Eren to sit on his hands and wait may as well be asking for a miracle. They all knew Eren during training and how crazy he could get. Some of them have witnessed it first hand out in the field on top of that.]}

I|
This scares me, Annie. He knew to use you against me somehow, and I|
What if he figures things out himself? What if he confronts you about it? Just
i don't

What exactly are you planning on telling him, Annie?

He'll have to learn some version of control at some point. Or I hope he does, for everyone else's sake. Marley won't be ready for him either way.

[ He'll never sit on his hands, but he may well work toward an end goal based on still getting to follow what he believed in. ]

"Somehow." Considering how the Titan shifters showed up at once, it wasn't much of a guess that there might be some camaraderie between us. If there hadn't been, he'd have switched tactics. He takes gambles. With you and Reiner flushed out, that was one more.

As for what I'll tell him, if anything, I don't know. Pizza, baseball, some version of history wiped out behind the walls.

That scares me, too.

_{[Marley as a whole needs to be taken down a few pegs, but he's not worried about them. What he worries about most is the people left behind. People like his father, Reiner and Annie's families, the neighbors down the street, and even that one guard who had been strangely soft on certain people in Liberio.]}

There's things I'm worried about him piecing together. I wasn't|

excited

like everyone else was about the ocean.

[ All the people who will die even if not directly because of Eren, in far too great a likelihood.

She wants to see her father again before that happens. In a cruel, uncaring world, it's all she wants. ]

How did you respond?

I didn't have much of one, really. I was dreading the ferry ride more than anything when the travel plans shifted to going to the Sevii Islands.

Seasickness, remember?

_{[Thankfully they've got medicine for it here, but he hasn't found one that works yet.]}

Fear of the unknown and dread of crossing it is still real. Even if you'd been born and raised in Paradis, it doesn't mean you'd naturally share their enthusiasm. You can be a worrier.

Edited 2018-09-26 01:19 (UTC)

Haven't I always been one?

Yes.

Someone has to be, at least.

_{[If he doesn't worry, who will?]}

What did you tell him about Marley?

So why would it surprise any of them that you worried, like you do?

That Marley is a country where all the off-island Eldians live, and that they're in control of the Warriors, "like me." That meant mentioning what Eldians were, and that Titans were formerly human.

You can still be excited and worried at the same time. Blackthorn made me feel like that - it still does, sometimes.

_{[His initial worry had been about Blackthorn not living up to his expectations, but he was pleasantly surprised when it surpassed them. There's more than one reason why he's been renting out that cabin in the mountains!]}

What are you going to do if he asks about the Armored and Colossal Titans? I wouldn't be surprised if he figured out that "they" all came from the same place seeing as how "they" wanted to take humanity out.

You can feel both those things and still not react as more excited than anything else. Look, I'm not interested in arguing this, because I wasn't there when you saw the sea with everyone else here. You're the one who needs to figure that one out. If your peace here is so fragile you think the first conclusion he'll jump to is, 'it was Bertolt!' because of something like that, I don't know what you want me to say.

I'll figure that out when it comes up, but it's very likely I won't need to "do" anything.

Edited 2018-09-28 16:04 (UTC)

Iɴʙᴏx ✉ Vɪᴄᴛᴏʀʏ Rᴏᴀᴅ

text - 20.09.2018, evening

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