eachdraidh | video, both courts.

Getting to higher points is definitely needed against the infected. At least I'm pretty sure those fuckers can't climb.

[Then she shrugs.]

Yeah, seems like it. I'm sure there's people here that are better at fixing shit than me. I'm still learning.

[ Eren blinks dumbly, a beat passing before he asks, curious in that surprised kind of way—because that wasn't a response he was expecting to hear— ]

The 'infected'? I haven't heard anything like that before.

[ We'll get back to your mechanic capabilities in a sec here, because what... ]

Uh. Yeah. It's something from my world. Since we're all from "alternate universes" or something. [She waves her arms as she says the phrase. Clearly, it's super mystical and cool that they end up here and it needs to be emphasized.]

They're infected with this fungus. And once you get infected, you stop... being human. It fucks with your brain and makes you just want to kill and attack everything in your way. There's millions of them out there. All over the world.

[ Whoa. Okay. For as casually as she explains this, it's heavy stuff to hear, the gravity of such a situation understandable only by, sadly, being able to somewhat relate. Somewhat, because as far as Eren is aware, the monsters of his own world don't come from some sort of freaky fungus turning people in such a way—but they're all fucking over and try to kill everyone. ]

From a sickness. [ It's how he understands it, anyway. ] That's... [ ... ] Awful.

A fungus.

[She corrects him quietly. Her teachers always reminded her of that in school. It wasn't a sickness. It was a parasite taking over someone's mind and body.

Then she shrugs.]

It is shitty. But it's all I know cuz I was born after everything happened. And there are some cool things too. Once you get out of the military zone. Cool trees. Deer. Fireflies. Nature is still pretty fucking cool.

[ Okay, a fungus. Not that it made much of a difference to him; the details didn't matter. What did matter is how shitty the circumstances sounded. Are. Still, his interest piques, in that morbidly curious way. ]

What—you never saw trees often? [ Eren knows very little about the outside world, but at least they had nature. ] I thought you could find all that anywhere.

Nah. Not in the zones. People cut most of them down for firewood once the electricity went out.

[She shrugs. It's just a thing that happened when everyone was desperate.]

There were some but they were kinda dinky. Nothing like you see outside.

[ He keeps hearing about electricity, lately; Eren only has a vague idea of what it is—some kind of power source, if he's remembering correctly—but he's beginning to wonder more and more about it.

The thought is quickly set aside for the time being, however, when a particular word catches his attention: ] ... 'Outside'. [ And she lived in... zones? Cripes, everything about this is just way too familiar. ] Wait a sec—are you saying everyone lives in closed off areas because of those infected people?

Yeah.

Well, everyone who made it into the zones. Some people refused or tried to escape. ...But it's not easy. I mean shit, it's hard enough to live in the zones.

[The zones were bad but there are parts of the outside that are worse. It was miserable but most people didn't have to worry about being hunted by bandits looking for sport.]

[ Eventually, he winds up shaking his head—not in disagreement, but in knowing that that there's someone else and an entire other world out there that has to deal with this sort of bullshit, too. ]

No, I get you. [ Life within the walls used to be better, in comparison. Now it's a rough struggle for everyone. ] I know what it's like.

...Really?

Most people around here just seem to feel sorry for me. I mean, it is shitty but, that's life man.[She kinda squints at him. Like he's not from her world but maybe something similar?] Are you stuck in a zone or something like it?

[ Her attitude about it reminds him of a lot of people back home—that 'welp, it's just the way things are' response to it all. Maybe he can't really blame her. He was born and that's what life was, too—living in a civilization forced to cage themselves up because the only other option was to die.

He doesn't talk about it much; there's not really a reason to, and it's all a shitty story nobody would understand too well, anyway. But from the sounds of it, she would. ]

We don't call them zones, but it wouldn't be wrong to. Everyone's stuck living behind walled in areas. Anyone who leaves the human territories is likely to die.

[She exhales slowly through her nose. Part of her is happy to have someone who finally, fuckin finally, gets it. Part of her feels like shit for feeling happy about that because the idea that anyone else has to live like that is pretty sobering.]

It's pretty shitty, huh?

So. What do you do? Did you leave?

[He seems like someone who might.]

[ He absolutely is, if he could. Unfortunately, he isn't excluded from that "likely to die". ]

Yeah, really shitty. [ No disagreements there, for sure. ] I'm in the military. [ Says the guy who's only a year older than Ellie. ] We're all fighting so we won't have to live behind the walls anymore.

Heh. Where I'm from, the military is what's keeping us in the walls. I wish they were actually trying to do shit.

[Though, her military school had been trying. Just... not the right kind of trying.]

I think they were, back when it all started. But now they're just clinging to power. Scaring people int listening to them.

[ It's funny how some things don't change no matter what universe you've landed in. The system isn't too much better where Eren's from; it's terribly flawed, a point one of his fellow trainees had quite literally punched into his head a few years ago. (Briefly, he also thinks how horribly depressing it is to know he's learned a lot from someone who ended up betraying him and everyone else in the end, but it's another thought set aside for another time.) Yet despite its flaws—the worst of them he isn't privy to—he can at least say he's a part of them that is fighting. That his commander has humanity's best interests in mind, as well as their futures. ]

Well— [ Eren falters slightly, when Ellie's response makes him realize his own explanation was a bit too simple. ] Not everyone is interested in fighting, and there's a lot of people who think our branch is wasting money and lives. [ He's been hearing the complaints even before he enlisted, back when he was just a kid who idolized the Survey Corps for what they do. ] But there's still a lot of us who are trying, too.

That's what matters. Trying and not just lying down and giving up. Endure and survive, and fight for it.

[The military where she was from pretty much had stripped the optimism out of everyone. Not that she really blamed them. The situation was pretty bleak, especially if they knew of the world before the infection. There didn't seem to be any hope of containing or reversing it. Well, nothing aside from what Marlene believed they could find in Ellie herself.]

That's right.

[ It's refreshing words to hear right after she spoke about how their circumstances were just how life is. He's grown too used to hearing them as a sign of resignation, like there wasn't any hope and it will always be as bleak as it's been. There's no denying the truths of life—it just doesn't mean it has to stay true. ]

It's why I enlisted. People can't just let themselves be holed up for the rest of their lives. There's a whole world out there that should belong to us.

And it's amazing. The outside world. I mean, sometimes it's shitty and scary to the point where I've almost crapped my pants but there's so much cool stuff to see. That people in the zones are missing.

[She tilts her head thoughtfully. There was never any notion in her head in her life that she ought to feel sorry for herself and the state of the world. As she said before, it was all she knew. That was her world. But now, her world was so much bigger and she could never imagine going back. Maybe that was why people like Joel did feel a sadness for the state of the world as it was. It used to be so much more open.]

It's a long fucking road ahead. For us anyway. But it'll be worth it. It has to.

[ Eren's somber disposition lightens up when she mentions how the world beyond is—a terrifying but amazing place. And he knows that feeling, now, which came to him only a couple of weeks prior when Reynard had taken them all across the world and tossed them right into the raging sea. At the time, he was truly afraid—but once everyone had gotten to safety and the storm passed, the endless, vast waters was a sight to behold.

And here she is, saying the same, and probably about other things, too. The conversation feels a lot like the days when Armin and he would pool themselves over the one book they had with page after page after page of words that told of the world they knew nothing about. It's nostalgic. ]

I've never been to the outside world—being here is the first time I've ever left the walls. But if it's anything like this, then it's something I want everyone to be able to see. It really will be worth it.

It will be. It has to be.

[For a second, she thinks about asking what's keeping him in the walls. It must be something nasty like the infected but definitely not the same. He understood the frustration of being trapped due to some threat outside but the idea of an infection didn't seem to register. What could be as bad as infected? It was a morbid curiosity, she had to admit.

But she holds her tongue and instead heads for the more productive route.]

I'm Ellie, by the way.

[ Yeah, absolutely.

But that's all said and done for the two kids with big dreams. A nice little conversation, he has to admit, because the only other person he ever dreamed this big with isn't here—Eren doesn't expect he ever will be—and there's something a little depressing about being this awed over everything around you on your own, when everyone else seems to have a handy grip on it already. A certain solidarity that makes a person feel less alone.

The conversation steers into something more casual; he's okay with this, too. ] Oh, right. My name's Eren.

Eren.

[It's not a name she's ever heard before. Then again, this place is full of names she's never heard. It's kind of fun. Like being in a video game.]

So. Now that we bonded over shit circumstances. You gotta show me how your gear works once you get it fixed. Can't leave me hanging.

[ "Bonding" was a sappier way of phrasing it than Eren might have—though they... have, he guesses, though he's more likely to claim empathizing. Well—no matter. It's all the same when you got down to it.

In the end, Eren lets out a mild snort, as if he isn't sure he could fully agree to that right off the bat. ]

I could show what it is, but using it usually means I'd be fighting against something.

We're in some weird fairy land in a war. Eventually, we're gonna come across a fucking cyclops or a dragon or a sea monster or some shit like that. I'm sure we'll be able to make it work.

[VERY MATTER OF FACT. Like she's pretty sure that shit is gonna down and then she's gonna see some sweet maneuvering. It's just a matter of time.]

video, both courts.

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