[Open] Let's try this again

[everylastone]

Characters: Eren and Open
Location: Casualty Communal, basement
Rating: PG-13
Time: June 20th
Description: Turning into a hungry titan is something to chew on, and Eren isn’t sure he’s ready to stomach it yet. Locking himself into the basement feels oddly consoling, although sitting still doesn’t comes there easily either.


It had been a couple of days since they had been dragged back forcefully recovered from that mission that had gone wrong. Even though all of Eren’s wounds had already healed – literally all of them, when his titan powers returned that had included his abnormal healing rate which had taken care of not only his mangled limbs and malnourishment, but even of the small surgery they had had to do on his neck as well – the teen still didn’t feel any better about what had happened.

In fact, thinking of it made him feel pretty sick.

He had turned into a titan and lost control again. Worse, he had not only been attempting to hurt people and left damage on the village that was hard to overlook, but he had been hungry enough to attempt catching and eating other living beings as well. And in at least one case, he had also succeeded…

The memory had Eren press a hand against his mouth in order to resist the urge to hurl as he kept steadily climbing down the stairs with a fixed goal in his mind. Nobody had come to take him down, as should have happened. He knew he should have felt grateful for that, but he wasn’t. Instead it felt as if an important promise had been ignored, even though he still didn’t want to die.

No, he couldn’t die. Not as long as even one of the titans was still left alive!

…even if that meant that he’d have to end up killing himself too at some point. Finally reaching the bottom of the steps, Eren fumbled for the keys that he had gotten himself for one of the rooms within the basement. Locking himself up there was no solution, but he felt that he would feel better if he could use a semi-familiar environment while he attempted to sort his thoughts on the matter of his titan-mess. It hadn’t helped within the last couple of days, but who knew, maybe today-

The key slipped from between his fingers and landed with a clatter on the ground rather than to undo the lock as intended. Muttering a low “Oh, come on now” under his breath, Eren crouched down to retrieve it. Maybe he should have thought to switch on the light after all.

Comments

[starfruitfrog]

"The predator of the sea, de arimasu? Soulless black eyes, and rows and rows of teeth, de arimasu?"

Someone who doesn't know about sharks, huh.....Keroro never thought he'd see the day where he met someone like that.

[everylastone]

"The sea? Oh, I see... So it has its own predators too, huh? How big do 'sharks' get?"

Congratulations, you just distracted him entirely from being on the guard around you, Keroro. Any information on the outside world was worth ignoring if the one giving it looking a little funny (to an extent).

[starfruitfrog]

"......Modern ones can grow to be about three times the size of an adult Pekoponian, de arimasu. But I think prehistoric ones could have gotten even bigger than that, de arimasu."

Don't think he's going to let his guard down though. Violent people are scary.

[everylastone]

"Alright. And how big is a pekopin- pekopon- whatever-ian?" He wasn't sure if this frog he caught was being helpful or dense.

[starfruitfrog]

"You're a Pekoponian."

Keroro can very easily be both helpful and dense. Sometimes both at the same time. It seems safe to sit up though, so Kerori slowly pushes himself up into a more comfortable position.

[everylastone]

"No, I'm a human." He was very sure about that as he watched Keroro get back up with eyes that were both suspicious and confused.

[starfruitfrog]

"Pekoponian is what non-Pekoponians call humans, de arimasu."

[everylastone]

"Oh." That made sense now. Except for.. "Why? Wouldn't it be easier to just call us humans?"

[starfruitfrog]

"Why do you think it would be easier, de arimasu?"

[everylastone]

"Because it's less of a tongue twister and people would actually pronounce it right and understand right away."

[starfruitfrog]

"Just because you can't pronounce it doesn't make it a tongue twister, de arimasu."

He pulls out a marker.

"Here, we can even sound it out together, de arimasu."

PE-KO-PO-NI-A-N is written in bright, Gundam white on the concrete walls of the basement. This isn't graffiti because it's educational.

[everylastone]

Eren watched Keroro do with that strange kind of feeling that that was how one got into trouble, but he also felt somehow committed to stay and observe whatever end this drama(?) might come to. All in all he was pretty sure that you weren't supposed to scribble on the walls here, no matter whether you were a frog or not.

That didn't mean he was going to say that strange word, though. After taking a good look at it he looked at Keroro and said, "Thanks, I'll pass. I'm fine with calling us humans."

[starfruitfrog]

There's only the two of them down here, if push comes to shove...Keroro will say that it was all Eren's idea.

He caps the marker, and looks up at Eren, "That's your choice, de arimasu."

It's then that he notices...oops. He drew on the wall.

"......Do you think people come down here often, de arimasu?"

[everylastone]

Keroro clearly never saw Eren's terrible handwriting before.

Giving Keroro a confused look, Eren shrugged his shoulders. "Besides you and me, you mean?" He had seen traces of it but so far he had mostly been alone during his nightly visits.

[starfruitfrog]

"Well....maybe no one else will notice then, de arimasu."

And just in case, he scribbles over the words, making even more of a mess.