tushanshu_logs | Open catch all introduction

Entry tags:

Open catch all introduction

Characters: Bertolt Hoover
Date: January 13th at first, then the second half of January for the rest
Location: He lives in the Water Sector, and is going to be mostly hiding out there unless someone drags him elsewhere. If you want him to be anywhere specific so your character can run into him, let me know!
Situation: Arrival, and then settling in. Wandering aimlessly around the city. Discovering technology.
Warnings/Rating: None presently.

The whole thing is very confusing. One moment he was sitting in a tree, listening as Reiner slipped again, forever drifting further and further away from him, and he with no idea how to get him back, no idea how to tether him back to himself. Then everything shifted, and for one horrible, confusing moment Bertolt thought he was turning into his warrior, letting the change take him, and terror spiked in his chest. That would be suicide here, the other titans would destroy him, even assuming he could transform now.

But he didn’t transform, and when the world stopped spinning and melting before his eyes, he was... somewhere else. He tried to listen as they explained things to him, but everything just sounded garbled and distorted, almost like they were speaking another language. One thing rang clear to him, though.

He is alone.

When they escort him out of the building, he balks a little at crossing the doorway. He’s a wanted criminal, a monster, a mass murderer that slaughters innocents, and going out in public, especially wearing the gear of another soldier around his hips, is like painting a target on his back.
 Except no one here cares. He gets an odd look or two, but most people just brush past him. Ignore him. Look through him like he’s not there.

And there’s comfort in that.

Still, he’s a wanted man, and Bertolt does the only thing that makes sense: he climbs. He’s hesitant to use the gas in his gear, not knowing for sure how full it is and not wanting to waste the time to check. He wonders, idly, if the soldier it used to belong to dissipated into steam when he pulled free from his warrior body, or if parts of him are still inside him. The thought makes him sick, and he needs to stop and concentrate on his breathing for a few moments.

He’s a monster. He deserves whatever happens to him.

When he reaches the roof, Bertolt settles on the edge of it, his knees tucked up under his chin and his arms wrapped around himself in a pathetic attempt at self-comfort. He watches the people moving down below, wondering if there’s anyone down there that knows him, that knows who he is, what he is. Wondering what they’d do to him if they knew what he’d done. Wondering why, when he spent most of his life trying to fade into the background, being alone and invisible now is so terrifying.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"We should get more apple."

Ever since being brought here, Reiner and Annie had fallen into the habit of spending the bulk of their time together, whether in or outside. There is no reason to stay undercover anymore, after all, and it is rather foolish to separate from the only ally either of them have. And, to be honest, for Reiner's side of it, he's unused to not being surrounded by people, or lacking Bertolt's quiet presence at his side. Sure Bertolt and Annie are hardly similar -- even the type of silence they radiate is vastly different -- but it is better than sticking it out by himself.

(Maybe if he just sticks with her it'll be easier to remember who he is rather than get lost in some delusion again.)

It's them.

Bertolt doesn't know how long he's been up on this rooftop--long enough for the shadows to grow and stretch across his legs--but even when he's talking quietly, Reiner's voice carries. Or maybe Bertolt has just gotten very, very good at listening for it. Either way, it startles him into motion, and he stands up, his maneuver gear clinking around his hips as he looks for the source of that sound.

Reiner isn't hard to spot, even in a crowd, but there's someone with him. Annie. Annie, whole and moving and not locked away somewhere below the Capitol.

He doesn't think about what he does, his body moving of its own accord. He fires a grappling hook and, with a tiny burst of gas to propel him forward (he doesn't need much, gravity will be doing most of the work), he swings down off the top of the building and lands neatly behind them.

Annie doesn't think about what she's doing when she reacts. She's very much whole and moving and not a captive, and she intends on staying that way. The telltale sounds of someone too-quietly swinging in behind them have the hairs on the back of her neck standing up, and her body moving before she even tries to consciously recognize what is happening. If he'd been attacking, her blood would have most certainly been spilled in the process as she throws herself in close to their enemy (???), and she ducks in with one hand catching him by his chest strap as she sweeps his legs.

It's a move that sends Bertolt over to land flat out on his back with a clatter of gear, sprawled no doubt painfully in front of Reiner. Annie's already recovered her signature stance by that point, though she doesn't follow up and drops out of it as she recognizes who she'd just laid out.

"We should get what will store better," Annie finds herself saying what she'd intended to in response to Reiner's argument as if that hadn't all just happened, but her expression is clearly stunned.

Edited 2014-01-14 09:25 (UTC)

Reiner has come to trust Annie's senses as much as his own, so when she moves to attack their enemy (???), he moves in accordance. They didn't bring their gear with them, though it was a hard decision to make. In the end though, the gear stood out too much, and they had to conserve their stocks of gas anyway. That doesn't mean he is unarmed though; even as Annie is sweeping their attacker of his feet, he's pulling a knife out of his pocket, ready to drive it towards their attacker's throat.

Luckily it doesn't come so far, because if there is one person Reiner'd recognize anywhere, it is Bertolt. Nobody else has legs that go on for roughly a mile.

For a moment he just gapes, staring at his best friend, not quite comprehending yet that he is here. "Be-- Bertolt?

He has no one to blame for this but himself.

This sage, wise advice goes through Bertolt's mind as he's airborne, a split second before he crashes to the ground in a tangle of limbs and 3D maneuver gear. Annie might be tiny, but she packs a wallop, and that hurt like hell.

He sees Reiner go for a knife, and it's just like Mikasa all over again, and Bertolt does the only thing that makes any sense: he goes completely limp, his eyes wide and shocked. If they've turned on him, they might as well kill him now, because there's no point in moving forward. Deep down, though, he knows that if they wanted him dead, he'd be dead, and the fact that he's still breathing means he just stupidly took them by surprise.

"You... You incredible oaf. You startled her." Because he did not, in no way, startle Reiner. Nope. That is a gross lie.

Reiner's laughing, relief and left-over adrenaline dissolving into guffaws as he extends a hand towards Bertolt to help him on his feet again. "Nevermind. You deserve it for being so late. We've been waiting for you." Come on, bro, grab his hand so he can help you back on your feet and into a spine crushing hug. Because you haven't experience enough pain just yet.

Bertolt really should be blaming himself for coming up on them without a word, but there's more than that. Annie stands back and takes stock of their surroundings, giving a nasty glare to a passerby that looked at them with something more than vague curiosity. After a moment, she's crossing her arms as she looks him over from a distance. She hadn't hurt him, but she doesn't like how he'd taken that fall. Even if he was dealing with the two of them, that wasn't at all the point. He was just as worn down as they'd been their first day here, maybe, but he shouldn't have frozen up.

It's easier to focus on that than the uncomfortably overwhelming sense of relief that he's there. She wasn't like Reiner who always stuck so close to him, they could go for weeks at a time without interacting. Still, given everything they'd been through and knowing what they'd somehow left Bertolt to deal with alone, it's inevitable to feel that way.

Okay good, they're not going to kill him.

Bertolt glances at Annie, giving himself a moment to drink in the sight of her, before accepting Reiner's hand and letting him pull him up. His back twinges, and he braces himself for the almost inevitable rib-crushing hug he's about to get.

"Sorry." He didn't know he was keeping them waiting! From his perspective, he's only been separated from Reiner for the few hours after he first arrived.

Reiner effortlessly pulls him to his feet, using the momentum of that action to pull Bertolt into his chest. His arms come up around him, wrapping him up in a hug that is painful at best, rib shattering at worse, and might even involve Reiner lifting Bertolt straight off his feet for just a second there. Sure, Bertolt might be tall, but Reiner has always had him beat in physical strength and weight.

It doesn't last long though before he is setting Bertolt back on his feet, though he doesn't entirely let go. One arm snakes up around his shoulder, scruffing through his hair, and if that means Bertolt has to stoop down just a bit that is just something Bertolt will have to deal with. His eyes drift to Annie. He's practically giddy. "Come greet Bertolt properly, Annie."

Annie's flat, assessing gaze turns on the more boisterous of their group for just a moment. It's not a pleasant look, not the kind anyone wanted to be on the receiving end of. Still, when her attention goes back to Bertolt, she's less threatening and looks almost thoughtful.

She meets his eyes briefly and says, "Hey."

That's definitely a proper greeting.

Bertolt suffers through his hug with dignity, although it makes one of his ribs crack with a sound like a shotgun going off. He lets Reiner play with his hair, ducking his head and standing at an awkward stoop so he can manage it, and he glances up at Annie and then away again, turning his attention back to Reiner. Reiner is easy, he knows how to deal with Reiner.

"How long were you waiting?"

It is almost like old times again. Not the times during the 104th, when every meeting was tinged with the need for secrecy and keeping things short and discreet. Rather, it is more like the times before they join up, when it could be just the three of them without the repercussions of outsiders.

Reiner rolls his eyes goodnaturedly at their unenthused greetings, but that is just the sort of people they are. Interacting with people had never been their strong points. "A week, a little over. Me and Annie got brought here at the same time." He pauses for a moment, glancing away for a moment to make sure no one is close by enough or showing interest in their little meet-up. "What's the last thing you remember?"

After meeting Eren he had become quite aware that not everything matched up quite as nicely as he had thought in the beginning.

Interacting with people on a healthy, normal social level is more complicated than it looks, and she's just glad that Reiner's not going to be difficult about it. She doesn't want to deal with it, not normally and especially not in territory that an enemy could appear at any moment. They could afford to talk, at least, to look like normal humans so long as those few enemies don't show their faces. They had to if they wanted to fit in.

(Never mind that she'd just thrown someone to the ground that was more than a foot taller than her.)

Annie's particularly practiced at watching their surroundings without being suspicious about it, so long as no one did strike her wrong. By all rights, she looks utterly disinterested with everything around her.

Edited 2014-01-14 18:10 (UTC)

It's comforting, the way everything falls into place so easily: Reiner trying to get up to speed, Annie keeping watch while looking mind-numbingly bored, and him just fading into the background. It's the way things should be, really, and Bertolt starts to relax. The fear and anxiety he'd been feeling when he was alone starts to melt away, and he subtly shifts, leaning against Reiner's side, abruptly aware of how exhausted he is. But recon first. He can sleep later.

"Running. With Eren and Ymir." He glances at Annie again, then looks at a spot near Reiner's collarbone. "Being a warrior."

Being a monster.

"Yeah, I remember." His hand stills against Bertolt's hair for a moment, though it is anyone's guess if he means he remembers being a warrior, remembers running with Eren and Ymir or something else entirely. Maybe Reiner himself isn't entirely sure.

"That the last thing though?" Because by his recollection they weren't exactly running with Eren anymore. "Nothing beyond that?"

Does he? Does he remember? Bertolt looks at Reiner through his eyelashes; he's not sure which Reiner he's talking to right now, the warrior or the soldier, and he's gotten pretty good at telling over the years. Maybe he's just tired right now, not on top of everything like he should be. He reaches up and touches Reiner on the back, letting his palm rest along his spine.

"No. Just running. Resting in the trees." A pause. "Arguing with Ymir."

That makes everything clear enough. Naturally Reiner couldn't forget their time resting in the trees. Things had seemed almost hopeful at that point compared to what was yet to come. He'd have to get Bertolt up to speed the same way he had gotten Annie up to speed.

"Then it seems I'm the one furthest ahead." Using his free hand, he runs his fingers through his hair for a moment, glancing at Annie. "We shouldn't talk about it here though."

Without even thinking about it, Bertolt smoothes down Reiner's hair where his fussing made it stick up in the back. "Where are you staying?"

He just assumes they're staying together, and even if they're not, he's crashing at one of their homes. He's swaying on his feet here and is only an hour or so away from an inevitable crash.

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look Poppy look it's one of the icons you made me

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January 18th, Water District

here we go! sorry about the delay. lemme know if there's any issue with this btw

this is fine!

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