also maybe you can post under a spoiler tag so people won't get too sad okay
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 5:46 pm
It was supposed to be titans. She had prepared herself for that inevitability - as much as anyone could prepare for dying. For Preacher, she simply did a lot of not thinking about it. If it came, it would come. But, it was supposed to be titans. And it was supposed to be her.
----
Of course, he had made her promise. Begged her in written words to keep living; in cold, dead words of ink where she couldn't argue back. Preacher kept the letter pressed against her chest as she rode out on mission after mission. There were some promises that were made to be broken.
----
Even Shakuntala had visited, though all the soft-spoken girl talked about was horses. Axel hated horses, Preacher thought angrily. Why was the stupid girl talking about horses when Axel had hated them? But Tala had left, confused, after Preacher had shattered a glass with her bare hand.
----
She dreamed sometimes, never the happy dreams. No, she dreamed of doctors and of counting his ribs as they appeared one by one. Preacher had grown up in the slums; she knew what starvation looked like. Why wouldn't he just wake up and eat? Henrik even brought pies, as though the food they'd shared before would wake him. When she dreamed, Preacher always woke up gasping, the scent of blueberries in her nostrils.
----
Grumbling, she dragged a chair over to the counter. Of course, the one spice she needed for cooking was out of reach. Her hands stretched out, touching air. Who had put it up there anyway? She was so short with stubby arms and there was no one else who could- With shaking hands, Preacher finally snatched the jar of tarragon. She didn't feel hungry anymore.
The Semblance of Unity
Predestined Victim
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radish
Scamp
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Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 6:10 pm
First one was from a hypothetical death scene featuring Tala and Adal by yours truly and my not-friend. It was supposed to become canon, but plans changed when I decided the latter would live. The mentioned Laney was Adal's sorta-adopted sister that she took in after saving the girl from traffickers.
"No, no... No no no no no. Adal... A-Adal, e-everything's gonna b-be all right... Adal, I-I'm gonna move you, okay? You're g-gonna be fine, okay?" Shakuntala wrapped her arms about the nineteen year old's back and waist and gently nudged her from the rubble.
"S-Shakuntala..." the grey-haired female groaned, her voice slurring as her consciousness swept in and out. When she was moved by the survey corp soldier, she bit her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood as a scream in agony rumbled in her throat. She reflexively clutched her fingers onto Shakuntala's bicep hard enough to make her stop. "D-don't... I... S-Shakuntala..."
"W-what is it, Adal? What is it? I'm listening..."
Adalwolfa swallowed thickly. "Sha... Tala, I-I think... this is the... e-" She raised a hand to the blurry image of her friend, but suddenly coughed violently and a mouthful of blood splattered down her chin.
"No! Adal, d-don't say that! Stay... Stay with me!" She grabbed her fallen companion's hand and held it tightly. "You're going to make it through this! You're going to live!"
"L-Lan... ey..." With her other hand, Adalwolfa slowly reached into the opening of her shirt.
Upon touching a fingertip to the chain around her neck, she twined her fingers about it and yanked. The chain snapped and, with a tremble, she offered it to Shakuntala. The copper-skinned girl blinked her watered-over eyes to it and clasped it within her hand. Staring down at it, she noticed it the pendent to be a sizable teardrop shaped sapphire.
"I will, Adal..." Shakuntala hugged the necklace to her bosom. "I will..."
The only reply to her was silence. Shakuntala's eyes snapped open and she searched her friend's face frantically, but the only expression cast her way was the soulless stare of her passed friend. Emotion overcame the twenty year old. With a careful hand, she shut her eyes as tears streamed down her cheeks, and she pressed her forehead to Adalwolfa's.
"I will p-protect her, Adal," Shakuntala promised, "with my... life."
Second is kind of the aftermath. No death scene, though. Not-friend helped a bit, but I did most of it.
Laney hummed softly to herself as she plaited the yarn hair of her doll. When there was a knock on the door, her eyes snapped to it, and a smile overcame her features.
Running to it, she clasped a hand on the knob and tugged it open. "Welcome home, Adal!" she chirped in glee, but her expression fell when it was not the familiar face of her grey-haired friend, but another belonging to a skittish looking copper-skinned woman.
Laney took steps back from the door until her back hit the side of the bed. "Who are you?" she suddenly spat defensively. "You're not Adal! Where's Adal?"
Shakuntala kneaded her hands together. "Ah-" she croaked. This must be Laney... She took a step into the room and closed the door behind her. Thinning her lips to a nervous smile, she said, "Hi, Laney... I-I'm Shakuntala, Adalwolfa's f-friend..."
Laney's fists balled. "I don't believe you!" she shouted. "Adal never mentioned you... Who are you!?"
Shakuntala scratched the back of her head. She was never good with children and her lack of experience was proven with her discourse when talking to the eight year old. Her first and only attempt to get through to Laney was to earn her trust and that, she believed, could be bought with the pendent Adalwolfa gave her when she passed. Reaching into her uniform's breast pocket, she withdrew the sapphire, and held it out to the blonde. The girl's awed expression immediately told her it was recognized.
"Adal... g-gave me this," Shakuntala informed her. "I b-believe it's hers, yes?"
Laney took a step from the bed to get a better look at the piece of jewelery. "That is Adal's..." the girl muttered in wonderment. "How'd... How'd you get it? She never even let me touch it..."
"She g-gave it to me... as a gift," Shakuntala replied, blinking back tears. "To, um, t-to give to you..."
Laney tilted her head and clasped to hands onto the necklace. Staring it at questionably, she raised her head to the copper-skinned woman. "Why?" she queried.
"Ah... W-we should sit down..." Shakuntala replied. "It's, um, t-there's a lot to say..."
Laney blinked, but shrugged her shoulders and did as she was told. Clambering up onto the bed, she sat on the edge after and hugged her doll to her chest as she watched Shakuntala take a seat next to her. The woman began to wring her hands again before staring down at Laney's toy.
As if trying to ease the pressure of the news about to be revealed, Shakuntala pointed to it and asked, "Does she... have a name?"
Laney looked to her doll. "Yea, her name's Shirley," she smiled. "Adal made her for me. She said that when she's not here, Shirley will watch over me until she comes back." Her smile dropped to a concerned frown again. "Hey... Where is Adal, anyway? Isn't she supposed to be back?"
Shakuntala internally rebuked herself when her attempt came to no avail. Laney was quick on the uptake, it seemed. "I... Oh, goodness," she began. Taking a deep breath, she restarted with, "L-Laney, you know, Adal's job in the military comes with... r-risks, right?"
"Yea..."
"And that people get hurt and p-possibly killed?"
"Uh-huh..."
"Well, Adal... S-she..."
Laney stared up at Shakuntala for a lengthy moment before she broke her gaze and cast it off to the floor. "A-Are you saying..." the blonde mumbled. She began to shake her head. "No, no, you're lying... Adal's strong... She didn't... She didn't..." Suddenly, the girl dropped off the bed and ran behind it. "You're lying! Adal's not dead!"
"Laney, p-please understand-"
"Liar!"
Whenever Shakuntala tried to open her mouth to calm the girl, Laney shouted about how much of a liar she was, shutting her up. Soon, she began to lose her patience with the girl, and bellowed in frustration, "Laney, she died! I... I was there!"
Laney's lips clamped shut as she watched a tremble overcome Shakuntala. "I held her as she bled, r-right in my hands..." the woman murmured, staring down into her palms. "I-I watched the life slip from her body, Laney, w-with my own eyes. S-She gave me her necklace before she passed and made me promise to protect you. That's why I'm here... T-to fulfill that promise. I'd l-like you to come with me, Laney."
"But I... I don't want to go with you," Laney rejected. "I want to stay here."
Shakuntala pursed her lips. "I understand how you f-feel, Laney. I do. But I already informed the o-wwner of Adal's passing... He gave me t-three days to clear out her things so he can rent the room. I don't... I d-don't mind giving you time to make up your choice, but by Thursday, y-you're going to have to leave. I'll... I'll return then, okay?"
The copper-skinned woman turned on her heel and began to leave. Laney's eyes widened at her departure and she suddenly shouted, "Wait!"
Stopping, Shakuntala listened as Laney said, "If... I-if I can't stay here, I-I'll have to go to an orphanage or return to my aunt, right? I... I don't want that either. I'll... I'll go with you."
Shakuntala gave her a small smile. Offering her hand, she beckoned, "All right... Let's go, Laney."
Tentatively, the blonde approached the soldier and touched her fingers to her's. Clasping her brown fingers upon a delicate white, Shakuntala left with the girl hand in hand.
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:23 pm
A knock came at the door, but the teenage girl didn't move from her spot. "Hey, Lenore! Open up, it's me!" Lenore slowly looked up at the sound of the manager's voice. "Go away." The girl croaked, her voice pathetic even to her own ears. Her eyes were puffy and red - she'd cried all night, again, just like every other night since the incident. 'The incident', she thought gloomily. Is that what it was to people?
Zinnia Hayes was dead, and the world just kept on moving. As if it didn't even matter. It wasn't fair, the girl thought. She should have died, not Zin. Not the girl who'd brought so many smiles to her face. Not her first friend. Not Zin. Her.
Another knock. "Lenore. She's not coming back, alright?" The fifteen year old's eyes widened in fury, and she leapt to her feet, screaming. "Go away! I don't want you here! This is our place! Ours! Not yours! Get out!!" There was silence, then, "Alright." Lenore heard the sound of retreating footsteps and fell back against the wall, sliding down. As she hit the floor, the tears began to flow, renewed. "Zin..."
"A... are you okay, Lenore...?" Shakuntala asked. Lenore gave her a small smile. "Yeah. Everything is okay now." The older girl smiled back before turning her attention to their commander. Lenore stared directly at the commander, but she wasn't listening to a word they said. Everything is okay, she thought. I'll be able to fix one half of my mistake now. She smiled softly, despite what she was about to do.
She'd done it. She'd gotten away from the other members of her party. Now all she needed was to find a titan. That should be easy enough. And sure enough, there was one now, lumbering towards her. Lenore dropped to the ground and stripped off her gear as the titan slowed to a stop. It leaned down, and tears began to flow again as the titan reached its hand out and grabbed her. A smile crept across her lips as the titan lowered her to its own. "Thank you." She murmured, and the titan swallowed her whole.
Qixel
Adorable Trickster
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Renekai
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Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 9:15 pm
“Ah… Shhhhhhhit,” the blue-haired seventeen-year-old swore as she propelled herself forward on her 3D maneuver gear. The thundering stomps of a running titan grew louder and louder, and much too close for comfort. What was supposed to be a simple recon mission for the fresh Survey Corps recruits had gone horribly, horribly wrong.
“Dammit!” Zin shouted, firing her hook into the next tree and using up her dangerously dwindling pressurized gas supply. “Lenore, we can’t lose it!” She glanced at her best friend; only a few trees separated their escape routes. “We're going to have to take it out!”
Lenore, two years Zin’s junior and quiet as usual, only changed direction to propel herself higher into the canopy. She landed lightly on a huge branch and nodded to Zin as she did the same. Zin had time to shout, “Where are the others?!” before the titan chasing them burst through the tree she was standing on, sending her flying.
Any part of her brain that had remained calm enough to formulate a plan was immediately replaced by blind panic. She couldn’t tell which way was up or down; all she could see was an impossibly large expansion of flesh. She opened her mouth to scream, when something solid hit her and she changed direction in mid-air.
“Lenore!” she gasped; the younger trainee had just saved her life. They landed in another tree further away, but the titan was right on their tails again. Free from Lenore’s embrace, Zin fired her hook into the next tree and leaped off the branch. She pushed the trigger to release her gas, and heard an ominous sputtering sound. “s**t—I’m out—” she panted. Her heart leapt as she tried in vain to reach solid ground—or rather, tree branch—but it was already out of reach and she was swinging out of control toward the next tree. She turned her head and braced herself, and—
SLAM!
She felt the wind leave her moments before the side of her head cracked against the trunk of the tree and she blacked out. She must have been out for only a few seconds, for she was still hanging when she opened her eyes, and she saw Lenore swinging over the titan’s head. “Lenore,” she tried to call, but her voice wasn’t working properly. She coughed out a globule of blood; she must have broken a few ribs. She tried to pull herself up, and the pain that shot through her confirmed her suspicion. She coughed again, and her vision went blurry and dark around the edges. She tried to focus on Lenore, attempting to keep her friend safe through sheer force of will, but she could not prevent her eyelids from closing again.
She was laying on a tree branch when she next awoke. “Len—” she started to shout, but she was interrupted by a coughing fit that felt like it was tearing her apart from the inside. Tears rolled from the corners of her eyes and down her cheeks, but the panic that gripped her heart was not panic for her own safety, but rather that of her friend’s. If Lenore had died fighting that titan—
“I’m here,” a familiar quiet voice whispered, her hand closing around Zin’s. To the pigtailed girl, there was no sound more beautiful.
A sob escaped Zin’s throat, and she attempted to lift her free hand to touch Lenore’s face, but something heavy was weighing it down, and it hurt a lot. “Wh—what happened?” she managed to croak.
“You… You broke your arm, and I think some of your ribs are cracked,” Lenore whispered. “After you blacked out, I… I took down the titan. Then I patched you up as well as I could.”
Zin gave a low whistle, pleased that this action did not bring her great pain. She turned her head slightly, and sure enough, a column of white smoke was rising. She assumed a titan was decomposing on the ground, but she would have to roll over to get the angle to check, and that sounded far too painful to attempt. She turned back, brown eyes meeting red ones. “The rest of the team will see that,” she whispered. “They’ll come back for us.”
Lenore opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. “Y-Yeah—you’re right,” she said, not meeting Zin’s eyes.
Zin stared up into the canopy. There was still some sunlight filtering through the leaves, casting shadows like bars in a window. How funny—she had never thought that outside the walls could feel like a prison. Without working 3D maneuver gear, they were trapped more effectively than any prison cell. Even if she hadn’t run out of gas, there was no way she could have gone anywhere with a broken arm. Their only choice was to wait it out.
Hours passed, and the titan’s smoke had long dissipated. The sun had already set, and the smaller titans that had gathered at the base of their tree were starting to learn how to climb.
“They’re not coming, are they,” Zin said. It was not a question.
“No,” Lenore replied. “I… I saw, just before we got away.”
“That explains why only one titan chased us,” she whispered heavily. “Then the rest were… I’d hoped that we’d just gotten lucky, that they’d gotten away… s**t…” She paused to have another coughing fit, and felt Lenore’s fingers immediately link with her good hand in concern. “Lenore, you… you have to leave me—”
“No!” Lenore cried fiercely, more stubborn than Zin had ever heard her. The girl’s normally impassive eyes were filling with tears.
“Lenore, you don’t have a choice!” Zin said as loudly as her broken ribcage would allow. “Those titans down there are going to get up here sooner or later, and I can’t move. Your gear still works, and someone needs to tell the rest of the Survey Corps back at home what happened to our team. It has to be you.”
“I won’t leave you,” Lenore said, squeezing Zin’s hand tighter.
“Lenore, I’m going to die here.” It frightened her to say it; her voice shook.
Lenore was unfazed, whispering right back, “Then we’ll die together.”
Zin opened her mouth to argue further, but yet another cough wracked her body and blood filled her throat. For a moment she choked, and wondered if she would drown in her own blood before a titan could eat her. But she turned her head and coughed again, spewing the liquid down her cheek. “Come here,” she whispered. Her voice was nearly gone from the strain.
Lenore lowered her head to listen, and Zin marked her cheek with a bloodstained kiss. Tears dribbled from her eyes. Lenore drew back, staring down at her friend with unfathomable eyes.
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