because i was born into this world

[usurpers]

Who: eren jaeger & you!
When: night of the 13th!
Where: --
What: dream a lil' dream event catch-all! those who would like a memory are welcomed to choose from the list i have here, just get in contact with me either through pm, plurk (liberos) or discord (owlie#3609), and i'll write you a starter like the ones below ♥!
Warnings: not only written content but visuals will be in the comments for major attack on titan spoilers, drinking, suicide ideation, violence, gore, cannibalism, mentions of rape, abuse, slavery, child prostitution, war and genocide. specific warnings for each will be in the headers!

[ when things start out as a dream, eren doesn't necessarily start it aware that it's a dream he walks in. his dragon form, a little smaller than an adult stag, doesn't question why or how he's ventured into the looking glass house— only that it called and compelled him with whispers he couldn't actually hear, hums and the ethereal glows beyond what the eyes could see, the same way it would when it was time for him to return to what was beyond that.

it doesn't take long to find his mirror; a plain one that stretches tall with a simple wooden frame to those who know little to nothing of eren jaeger. for those who know more, or even more will see the bone-shapes carved into the wood to resemble a spine. ribs seem to span into wings and copper chains hang from one of the corners, broken and snapped. the dragon, once staring at the reflective shine his eyes give into the mirror for long enough and catching his breath, dives into the ripple of this mirror's fake surface in hopes that it will return him to where he belongs, to where he needs to be. you too, may go after him, or perhaps the mirror, for one reason or another, calls you to venture and enter. or maybe you fall in? anything can happen in a dream. there's no one truly stopping you, and when you do, you fall into a vast pool of fractured events and voices.



you fall into a pool, and into one of many memories. ]

Comments

[usurpers]

[ that was three days worth of food for his family! the small eren barks, with the stalkier boy behind him mocking out loud: you’re kidding me! with table scraps like those? when eren turns his fiery glance to him, the team leader taunts: quit it man, you’re making me feel bad now— but if you want it back as vomit, sure. they all begin to guffaw as the eldest begins making ridiculing, gagging faces.

the older, draconic eren doesn’t move an inch, and instead, leans himself against a barrel to sit on. ]

No need. [ the small eren has had enough anyway, challenging the older boy and grabbing the fabric that makes his collar. you’re going to pay him back for what you did!, and with a defiant yank, headbutts the other in full enough to make him stumble back into a wall. the bold bean of a boy grabs him again, hurls him to the ground, and pounces on his fallen body with fists swinging. ] She’s coming soon.

[ even if they could interfere, like paths, eren wouldn’t have. it wasn’t necessary to when the natural flow of time had been without his meddling. at least this time. ]

[fiddlestick]

[Elliot, never been one to like fighting, winces at the sight. He is trying to look around, figuring out how to interject without getting punch in the face himself when dragon Eren speaks up]

She? Who's she? And are you sure about this?

[usurpers]

[ with the older eren’s serenity involving the skirmish, yes. completely aware of what’s happening, what’s going to happen and none of it was preventable. the smaller seems to have landed a good punch, but the older bully is better at holding his arms from swinging anywhere else. nearby, a vendor yells at soldiers supposedly on duty, to get them to stop. the soldiers themselves wave it off in a slur of words between swills of wine: put a sock in it, they’re just being kids. ]

You didn’t recognize anyone?

[ one of the much larger boys tears the smaller eren off the other easily once arms hook under his and gives his friend a wide opening. the first bully then proceeds to take it, tackling the small ball of anger (who is still raging to get at them) into a wall. he takes a couple blows to the gut, the cheek— the vendor has the same concern that elliot has, and the drunk garrison waves it off with the same reassurance: someone’s gonna come to help better than we can, any minute now. ]

[fiddlestick]

W-Well, the small one is you isn't it? It looks like you-

[Oh, this is getting brutal and the garrison is clearly doing nothing to help- which Elliot can't help but give a dirty look. It reminds him too much of the provincial army, who would frequently look the other way at crimes if it benefited their lord.

But Elliot can't be filled with the same assurance, so he when they start pummeling Eren into a wall- he can't help but try to get involved, nervous as he is. He steps forward and reaches out to grab the bully's shoulder]

Hey stop--

[Only for his hand to move straight through his body- as if it was nothing more than ghosts]

-- O-Oh! [Quickly pulls back his hand because his hand going through a boy is an uncomfortable feeling] Crap.

[usurpers]

[ — there it is. the pitter patter of steps, a blond boy screaming after a blur to call for eren’s name, and just as he earns a punch into his cheek . . . the blur comes in the form of a kick. a kick that sends the boy above eren spinning into a merchant’s table and flooring his produce. long raven hair, dark grey eyes, and the group of bullies making faces of panic: crap, it’s mikasa!

she catches a boy who dares to swing again by the face, and little eren!!! little eren could only look so much more embarrassed than he was. he draws her name through his teeth in a flustered whisper, demands what she’s doing— and he only gets told, serenely, to pick up firewood like his mother asked.

she dodged the boy’s left and right, proceeding to beat the literal crap out of them singlehandedly while armin holds eren back by the arms. ]

I’m a handful. [ he says, completing whatever it was that elliot still had to finish, whether it was that or not. because he was just a little ball of fury that didn’t cease even when his best friend tried to hold him back. eren’s so riled he defies armin’s advice to let mikasa handle the rest, shoves his hand into the other boy’s face and forces him to let go and join the fray. ]

You can’t change these, you know. [ he would’ve said “you can’t change the past”, but turns out he did that already. ]

[fiddlestick]

[He looks up when he hears someone cry out Eren's name, seeing the two kids approach. Dark hair girl and a blond hair little boy - yeah, this had to be Mikasa and Armin, just as the others shortly confirm.

The scene that follows is violent, but also...a little endearingly comical in its own way. Mikasa's cool headed way of swinging in to save him reminds him of Fie, and Eren's hot temper and embarrassment about being saved reminds him of Machias.

It's now that he'll actually step back, stopping himself from trying to intervene with the memory]

I thought it was worth a try. [You don't know until you try after all. And he raises his eyebrows at Eren insisting on joining in, even as his friends insist otherwise.]

...I'll say. Though ... I think you still have a little of that.

[usurpers]

[ air spews from the dragon’s nostrils in a single laugh. ]

Is that a compliment or an insult?

[ he’s not offended by what he meant with “insult”— it’s like a rougher compliment when he was a young boy like this, and even as he runs after the bullies fleeing from the scene, leaving mikasa and armin behind— hard to tell with the structure his face takes as a dragon, but the waning feeling of emotion he leaves behind is like a smile watching a bitter taste of nostalgia. ]

[fiddlestick]

[He makes a "hmmmm" sound as he thinks about it]

...Maybe both, but I'd say it's more a compliment than an insult.

[He means that truthfully. There was times when Eren's personality made things harder, that much was true. But there was just as many times it was an asset.

But he can pick up on that bitterness that comes with the nostalgia over the bond- so he reaches over to try to touch his hand comfortingly. Yeah. He knows the feeling. ]

[usurpers]

[ he doesn't how good or bad that is, but everything, he supposes, has the right time and place for it to show. mikasa calls for eren, again, again, but eren just keeps running from them.

he's always managed to get out of their reach, somehow. the dragon feels something small and warm brushing the side of his palm, and he reaches— hesitantly at first, but gradually. the cobblestone streets dissipate, the banter and bustle of a quaint city dips into silence, and the their consciousness fades to a soothing blackness the more eren's fingers loosely curl around elliot's. ]