[ she at least . . . has the open mind to want to understand. eren’s arm doesn’t retreat, sitting there, then with a nod, he takes a seat, lowers his voice some tones quieter to nearly an indoor mutter. ]

I grew up in a place where people didn’t live long. [ she didn’t need to know why, unless curiosity got the best of her enough to ask. other than that, eren wouldn’t add. perhaps only this: ] The military would accept kids if they were twelve because there weren’t enough adults. We’d train for three years until we were “ready”.

[ there’s a special emphasis on the “ready” because they were hardly. a mix of luck and fate was what got them so far. ]

The people here, I’m sure there’re other ways. Offering plants. Food. Animals. But they want to give back their way, when they’ve lived for so long . . . [ hm, ] I know people who would’ve envied them.

[ it hadn’t been about cutting something beautiful short. it was about tying a wonderful bow around something already complete. ]

They’re returning the time that moss gave them on their own time.