[He's quiet for a long moment. Piper has begun pacing in a tight loop, brushing against his side, her eyes sliding between the two of them. His expression stays contorted in confusion, edged with a blunt hurt. He won't argue against what still sounds like such an illogical truth, but he can't accept it either. That this is it, they're enemies and there's nothing else to say. And maybe that's foolish of him, to choose to feel anything but anger and hatred for those who pitted themselves against humanity, but to him it's not so much a choice as a necessity. A tendon he cannot excise, and would not want to.]
What are they trying to do?
[But what is any Titan trying to do, aside from spill as much blood as possible? He can't make sense where there is none to be found.]
[Bertolt and Annie, too. And Eren's come a long way from Trost, from training. It sits heavy on his shoulders, firm in the set of his jaw. But some things just don't change much.]
They're titans. [As if picking up on the aggression in the assertation, Piper bares her teeth in Eren's direction in an inpatient snarl before resuming her pacing. They're titans, and Eren had admired Annie. Looked up to Reiner.] They're trying to wipe humanity out.
[He reaches out to place a reassuring hand on Piper's scaly neck, watching her as a sort of focal point around which he tries to sort his spinning thoughts.]
None of it makes any sense...
[Without the visual confirmation to burn the image into his mind, he has trouble thinking of the three of them - Reiner, Bertolt, Annie - as anything but the classmates he'd come to care for through years of shared experience. Even Annie, who had always seemed to distance herself from everyone, couldn't be a likely candidate for a traitor in their midst. None of them could be.]
But if that's how it is, then... [Then what? That's that?] Am I to view him as an enemy when our cause here is the same?
[They're titans. (So is he. Technically. It's strange to think he's had months to get used to the idea. It's been so long since Trost.)
But Reiner, Annie, Bertolt. It's different. That's how it is.]
We're stuck here together.
[Reiner and the rest of the Corps. They can't afford to act against each other. They have a common enemy.]
That doesn't make our cause the same.
[They're putting up with this to preserve humanity. Reiner sure as hell isn't. (And the CDC offers some powerful bribes for compliance. The bulk of the Corps has resolved to make use of that in the off chance they would actually aid humanity's fight against the titans. What's to say Reiner can't do the same for his own interests?)]
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no subject
[He's quiet for a long moment. Piper has begun pacing in a tight loop, brushing against his side, her eyes sliding between the two of them. His expression stays contorted in confusion, edged with a blunt hurt. He won't argue against what still sounds like such an illogical truth, but he can't accept it either. That this is it, they're enemies and there's nothing else to say. And maybe that's foolish of him, to choose to feel anything but anger and hatred for those who pitted themselves against humanity, but to him it's not so much a choice as a necessity. A tendon he cannot excise, and would not want to.]
What are they trying to do?
[But what is any Titan trying to do, aside from spill as much blood as possible? He can't make sense where there is none to be found.]
no subject
They're titans. [As if picking up on the aggression in the assertation, Piper bares her teeth in Eren's direction in an inpatient snarl before resuming her pacing. They're titans, and Eren had admired Annie. Looked up to Reiner.] They're trying to wipe humanity out.
[What other answer is there?]
no subject
None of it makes any sense...
[Without the visual confirmation to burn the image into his mind, he has trouble thinking of the three of them - Reiner, Bertolt, Annie - as anything but the classmates he'd come to care for through years of shared experience. Even Annie, who had always seemed to distance herself from everyone, couldn't be a likely candidate for a traitor in their midst. None of them could be.]
But if that's how it is, then... [Then what? That's that?] Am I to view him as an enemy when our cause here is the same?
no subject
But Reiner, Annie, Bertolt. It's different. That's how it is.]
We're stuck here together.
[Reiner and the rest of the Corps. They can't afford to act against each other. They have a common enemy.]
That doesn't make our cause the same.
[They're putting up with this to preserve humanity. Reiner sure as hell isn't. (And the CDC offers some powerful bribes for compliance. The bulk of the Corps has resolved to make use of that in the off chance they would actually aid humanity's fight against the titans. What's to say Reiner can't do the same for his own interests?)]