[He's seen Petra get short with Oluo. (He's seen her on form as one of humanity's most talented titan killers.) But save for the misunderstanding with his shifting, she'd always been kind to him.
So.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org what the hell did you do
Petra's come and gone here twice already. It's not enough to get used to it, really, but it's enough that the weight of it settles on him slow instead of punching him in the gut all at once. There's a shortish pause. And maybe sort of abruptly, instead of carrying on the argument—]
[She could be a smart ass here, but it must be scary to have people you know from back home show up here. Sometimes she envied Eren and all of his friends, but at the same time, she's glad she doesn't have to worry about them here.]
[It's scary. It's strange. He'd seen her die once already, and he cannot forget it. (She's alive here, because the CDC wants her to be. All they need to do is change their minds.)
She's ok. That much taken care of, he finally gets around to answering Korra's original question.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org she was part of captain levi's squad
[Easy, when you're the military's pet titan, pretty much everyone's your superior. But yeah, he'd worked pretty directly under her for the first month or so he was in the Corps.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org yeah
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org the captain took responsibility for me after trost petra and the others were assigned to help keep an eye on me
[Kind of like the White Lotus, but with kill orders. If nothing else, he's frank about it.]
it was one of the stipulations for me joining the corps she's one of the best titan killers in all of humanity
[And he says (types?) that latter part with admiration, honestly. (There's only a few reasons you'd assign your best titan killers to watch over your pet titan. As protection. And as a failsafe, in case it goes rogue.)
And ah. Yeah.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org the captain's pretty strict about that sort of thing
[Clean...ing... Eren's rover's always been pretty neat as a result. These things get beaten into your head pretty quick.]
FROM: korra@cdc.org i'm guessing you didn't have much choice there.
[About the stipulations. That's how bodyguards go, in her experience, and knowing what she does about Eren's powers, and his world, she's guessing that he would have been assigned them whether he joined the Survey Corps or not.]
FROM: korra@cdc.org Why do I get the feeling that your captain's expectations are going to get pushed onto me?
[Korra's not exactly a messy person, but it's not the sort of cleanliness that military training beats into you, and sometimes water fights happen with your new roommates and, well, what is she supposed to do about it?]
[Not really. But that doesn't matter, because it's nothing that he didn't plan on doing in the first place.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org I enlisted to fight. for the first time in a hundred years we had a way to launch a counterattack against the titans. I'd do whatever it takes to make it happen
[Even if it meant being held on a short leash for a while. Sleeping underground, doing tests to figure out how dangerous he really is. Eren's always been willing to give just about everything up for humanity. So even if it got lonely sometimes, he can't feel right complaining about it. The alternative to having the Special Ops Squad keep tabs on him was imprisonment or execution under the Military Police. And he got to train under the most talented fighters in the whole of humanity. It's really not too raw a deal.
And suddenly a few things fit into place.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org is that why you're calling her scary
[She wonders what it would be like to be in a situation like Erens. They're not entirely dissimilar, but her unique powers are largely seen as something to respect and protect, not something to fear and control.]
FROM: korra@cdc.org Well, she kind of flipped her lid when she saw water all over the rover
But it was probably because we were kind of throwing it
[Ok, so it's not totally a mystery why Petra wasn't pleased when she got to the rover. Korra doesn't have any beefs about that, but man, the lady has a set of pipes.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org why would she be? you're supposed to be living together. fighting and messing things up isn't going to do any good.
[And Petra's always been a big advocate of teamwork, trust. Having a military perspective is sort of different, maybe. Even back in training, Eren and Jean would bicker, but they'd still get their jobs done.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org she just told you to cut it out
[What's the big deal? Child soldier maturity levels vary greatly and strangely. And in this, she sort of sounds like a kid to him.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org if we got caught screwing around like that we'd get punishment detail for days
[Back in training, anyway. He can't even imagine anyone screwing around like that in front of Levi. But Shadis had been quick enough to hand out swift punishments. Laps for hours, cleaning the mess they'd made, probably gone without dinner to boot. (Because their instructors seemed to believe that if you've got the energy left to let off steam, you're not working hard enough.)]
[Alright, Mr. Serious, you have a point there but if Korra sounds like a kid to him, he sounds like an old man to her.]
FROM: korra@cdc.org Come on. Haven't you ever goofed around? Broken any rules?
[She realizes the world he comes from has some pretty dire circumstances and he especially wasn't allowed much of a normal childhood, but they were still kids. They had to have snuck out past curfew, or not made their bed right or something.]
[Sure he has. Eren's chronically serious, bad at relaxing, sort of a hardass about the things that matter. But he's also a teenaged boy with a questionable grip on his temper and his impulses and his mouth. Making mistakes and goofing off and cutting loose are things that happen.
(But less so, lately. Training seems a long time ago, now. He remembers heading off to the nearby town with Reiner and Armin and something bitter gathers behind his teeth.)]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org I wouldn't act surprised if someone called me out on it
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org Petra's not an asshole or anything
[If she was being scary, she probably had a reason to be.]
[Scary isn't always a bad thing. If Korra thought everyone who ever yelled at her was an asshole, there'd be a lot more assholes in the world. She'd save that sort of label for people who truly deserve it, like Tarrlok, or the CDC.]
FROM: korra@cdc.org You must like her a lot, huh?
[He was pretty defensive of her, right off of the bat, immediately assuming that Korra was in the wrong and all. (Or maybe he just knows Korra well enough by now.)]
[A little of both, maybe. He probably knows Korra best of anyone in the CDC who didn't come from behind the Walls. He's already spoken pretty highly of Petra's sills. (And it's hard not to be defensive of someone when you're the reason they'd died.)
There's a pause before he texts her back. Maybe if there wasn't the extra filter of typing he'd say something a little more enlightening. But for now—]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org I trust her
[That's the crux of it. It got her killed. He knows, logically, that it was Annie's doing. But he still feels plenty of responsibility for the choices he'd made in the forest.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
So.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
what the hell did you do
no subject
FROM: korra@cdc.org
I didn't do anything!
no subject
Petra's come and gone here twice already. It's not enough to get used to it, really, but it's enough that the weight of it settles on him slow instead of punching him in the gut all at once. There's a shortish pause. And maybe sort of abruptly, instead of carrying on the argument—]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
is she ok
no subject
FROM: korra@cdc.org
Yeah. She's fine.
We're sharing a rover now, I guess.
no subject
She's ok. That much taken care of, he finally gets around to answering Korra's original question.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
she was part of captain levi's squad
[So, yes. He knows her.]
no subject
No wonder.
[The little she interacted with Captain Levi, he seemed like the kind of person you'd have to be tough as nails to work under.]
FROM: korra@cdc.org
One of your superiors?
[She's still... not totally sure how the chain of command goes with all of them, but Petra's an adult at least.]
no subject
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
yeah
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
the captain took responsibility for me after trost
petra and the others were assigned to help keep an eye on me
[Kind of like the White Lotus, but with kill orders. If nothing else, he's frank about it.]
no subject
So she's kind of like your bodyguard?
[Korra can relate to that. Not so much the kill orders though.]
FROM: korra@cdc.org
She seems very serious.
And clean
no subject
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
it was one of the stipulations for me joining the corps
she's one of the best titan killers in all of humanity
[And he says (types?) that latter part with admiration, honestly. (There's only a few reasons you'd assign your best titan killers to watch over your pet titan. As protection. And as a failsafe, in case it goes rogue.)
And ah. Yeah.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
the captain's pretty strict about that sort of thing
[Clean...ing... Eren's rover's always been pretty neat as a result. These things get beaten into your head pretty quick.]
no subject
i'm guessing you didn't have much choice there.
[About the stipulations. That's how bodyguards go, in her experience, and knowing what she does about Eren's powers, and his world, she's guessing that he would have been assigned them whether he joined the Survey Corps or not.]
FROM: korra@cdc.org
Why do I get the feeling that your captain's expectations are going to get pushed onto me?
[Korra's not exactly a messy person, but it's not the sort of cleanliness that military training beats into you, and sometimes water fights happen with your new roommates and, well, what is she supposed to do about it?]
no subject
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
I enlisted to fight. for the first time in a hundred years we had a way to launch a counterattack against the titans. I'd do whatever it takes to make it happen
[Even if it meant being held on a short leash for a while. Sleeping underground, doing tests to figure out how dangerous he really is. Eren's always been willing to give just about everything up for humanity. So even if it got lonely sometimes, he can't feel right complaining about it. The alternative to having the Special Ops Squad keep tabs on him was imprisonment or execution under the Military Police. And he got to train under the most talented fighters in the whole of humanity. It's really not too raw a deal.
And suddenly a few things fit into place.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
is that why you're calling her scary
no subject
FROM: korra@cdc.org
Well, she kind of flipped her lid when she saw water all over the rover
But it was probably because we were kind of throwing it
[Ok, so it's not totally a mystery why Petra wasn't pleased when she got to the rover. Korra doesn't have any beefs about that, but man, the lady has a set of pipes.]
no subject
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
throwing it?
[He's seen the sort of things she can do with water. But in the rover. . .?]
no subject
I got into a tiny fight with a rovermate.
it wasn't a big deal, really.
no subject
she broke it up?
[Sounds about right.]
no subject
Yeah.
She wasn't very happy.
[What's a little water fight among acquaintances?]
no subject
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
why would she be? you're supposed to be living together. fighting and messing things up isn't going to do any good.
[And Petra's always been a big advocate of teamwork, trust. Having a military perspective is sort of different, maybe. Even back in training, Eren and Jean would bicker, but they'd still get their jobs done.]
no subject
FROM: korra@cdc.org
We were letting off some steam!
It's not like we wrecked everything.
no subject
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
she just told you to cut it out
[What's the big deal? Child soldier maturity levels vary greatly and strangely. And in this, she sort of sounds like a kid to him.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
if we got caught screwing around like that we'd get punishment detail for days
[Back in training, anyway. He can't even imagine anyone screwing around like that in front of Levi. But Shadis had been quick enough to hand out swift punishments. Laps for hours, cleaning the mess they'd made, probably gone without dinner to boot. (Because their instructors seemed to believe that if you've got the energy left to let off steam, you're not working hard enough.)]
no subject
FROM: korra@cdc.org
Come on. Haven't you ever goofed around? Broken any rules?
[She realizes the world he comes from has some pretty dire circumstances and he especially wasn't allowed much of a normal childhood, but they were still kids. They had to have snuck out past curfew, or not made their bed right or something.]
no subject
(But less so, lately. Training seems a long time ago, now. He remembers heading off to the nearby town with Reiner and Armin and something bitter gathers behind his teeth.)]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
I wouldn't act surprised if someone called me out on it
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
Petra's not an asshole or anything
[If she was being scary, she probably had a reason to be.]
no subject
I know, I know
[Scary isn't always a bad thing. If Korra thought everyone who ever yelled at her was an asshole, there'd be a lot more assholes in the world. She'd save that sort of label for people who truly deserve it, like Tarrlok, or the CDC.]
FROM: korra@cdc.org
You must like her a lot, huh?
[He was pretty defensive of her, right off of the bat, immediately assuming that Korra was in the wrong and all. (Or maybe he just knows Korra well enough by now.)]
no subject
There's a pause before he texts her back. Maybe if there wasn't the extra filter of typing he'd say something a little more enlightening. But for now—]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
I trust her
[That's the crux of it. It got her killed. He knows, logically, that it was Annie's doing. But he still feels plenty of responsibility for the choices he'd made in the forest.]