middaeg | Aguril catchall

[She wasn't sure if she'd ever seen a chemical plant...A bit beyond her homeland. But she could guess what it was from the name, though that makes her nose wrinkle. Cause it really didn't smell pleasant.]

Maybe it's worth too much to have it outside? The water smells bad too...I fell in last month and couldn't get the smell out.

[The dog guy who fell in must have had it worse with it soaking in his fur. But she looks away, checking the map again.] This path- [Points!] Seems to go in a straight line for awhile.

[Hard to get lost that way.]

[ That should be nice and easy to follow then, especially because Sougo is now staring at Mikasa with some deep concern after she mentioned falling into foul smelling water. In all likelihood if she wasn't sick by now she's probably fine, but... ]

When you fell in nothing weird happened, right?

[ He's not a huge comic book reader or anything, but he does know some. He watched super hero shows and movies as a kid, and radioactive or chemically water seems like super powers 101. Who knows what happens when you add magic to the mix?

Or more likely there was nothing in the water at all that would cause this, and he's just leaped to his own conclusions, but that's another matter entirely. ]

[What? The concern just gets a slow blink as she tries to work out the why, but she shrugs giving up.]

No. Someone teleported me there as a prank, my clothes stank for a week... [She'd had to wash them so many times. But she was the lucky one, she didn't have fur for it to soak into.] Why? Did something happen?

[Please don't tell her the dragged a body out or something. She wasn't squimish but still.]

[ If she thought he looked concerned before, that's nothing compared to the alarm on his face now. ]

Eh? As a prank?

[ What kind of prank puts your friend's life in danger? Is this normal for some people. He shakes his head slightly as he tries to put it all together for for himself. ]

I wouldn't know... Nothing did happen after that, right?

[ She's the one that got dumped in questionable water. ]

You didn't get sick or anything?

Yes. During that festival, we went into a maze... I think we ran out of time to find a way out... [She honestly didn't know. She'd thought it had just been a simple find your way from one side to the exit. But the maze had constantly shifted. They'd watch it make a dead-end right in front of them.

Then they'd heard a giggle and found themselves above the harbor's water.]

No. We were both fine after that...Would the water be that dangerous if merror swim in it?

[...Though they'd been cleaning it a few months ago...Um...]

[ The concern melts off his face for half a second, then is back on in a flash as he figures out the situation at last, only to suddenly have another question. ]

Ah-- That water, but... is it really okay from merror to be swimming in something gross like that?

[ Not the pool of stagnant chemicals he somehow got in his mind, but if the water was that smelly it seems almost cruel to have people swimming in it. He knows that they were cleaning out the river a few months back, but it hadn't seemed as gross as what she's describing. ]

[Her face was the face of someone who just didn't know. Lips pursed in a thin line as she thought about it.]

...Probably not, but they do. Maybe the chemicals sink to the bottom. [She didn't know. The science for that stuff wasn't exactly developed where she was from. So she keeps walking, crossing a small canal bridge. Pausing to look down at the murky water below. A small sigh slipping out, wings giving a flicker as she leant over the railing.] The heat from last month probably made it worse.

[Less water to dilute the bad stuff.]

[ Sougo crosses his arms thinking about this, and nods uncertainly. He also doesn't know, despite being from a world where the science is very pretty developed in this area. The problem is that if the school subject wasn't history then he was lucky to pass it.

He frowns a little more at that comment. ]

Maybe... I hope it's still okay for them to swim in it... But if you've been fine since then it's probably okay.

[She blinks, still looking down at the murky water.]

I think we'd have heard if it wasn't. From what I've seen a lot of merrow spend most their time in water. [But she pushes off the railing, gets walking again. Her assessment of the water complete, as little as it did.]

How have you been? There's been a lot going on the past few months... [The underground, the tree with the dragon in it, the heatwave...Her life had been busy as well with the wings and Eren's everything.]

[ That would make sense for fish-people, wouldn't it? Sougo can't imagine that being on dry land would be a lot of fun if you had to deal with a fish tail.

So he'll nod quietly up until she asks that question, where he seems to freeze while still managing to walk forward and an even faster clip than before. ]

Ah- Yeah... I guess, not that well.

[ He sounds weirdly wishy-washy for someone making a confession like that. ]

I sort of blew up while we were in the Underground?

[That gets a second's pause and a slow look. Mikasa's large black eyes blinking at him. Questioning if she'd heard right. Her mouth opening agape, then closing as she stared ahead.]

...That can happen?

[Of course it could. If she could go feral from lack of magic, it made sense that witches really would explode. Like they'd been warned. It's contemplated for a moment.] But you're right next to me now?

[She'd...seen people who'd been blown up. Used explosives on people, knew the result. He had too many limbs, even if they were good at healing here. There was no way he was that healed already. Was there? But she did take one small step closer, not enough to brush his side as they walked, just closer than before.]

[ Most Witches are just smart enough to avoid letting it get to the point of the boom, but as it turns out Sougo was not so much. It's hard when you don't have as much regard for your own safety as you probably should, and it's hard to say this experience taught him to have any more, though it did certainly teach him that dying sucks.

If it's avoidable then he'd much rather avoid it, but that doesn't mean he won't still toss himself in harm's way when people are in trouble. Hero complexes are like that.

His lips are pressed together as he smiles, and nods slightly at her questions. ]

The magic here is really impressive, right? I didn't know they'd even be able to bring me back to life.

[ The laugh is definitely forced. ]

Ah, but I'm fully recovered now, so I guess it's fine at this point.

[She's watching him, the smile isn't joined. He just gets the concerned stare, head tilting, antenna giving a flick at the laugh. She is bad at emoting but that, she could tell that was faked. Do not. That only made it sound worse.

Though she couldn't stop him if he really wanted to fake it.]

It is. Impressive. They healed me when I arrived. [Nowhere near as impressive as bringing him back to life. But it was still something that shouldn't have been possible. But she hesitates, holding back her comment on his well-being, chirping and chittering instead. For once, very carefully thinking her words through.]

But it's not fine... If it weren't for that, you'd be dead.

[And still saying it anyway. Even if it's more gentle than scolding.]

[ For all that he can fake a smile and a laugh, he couldn't really expect anyone to join in on this one. He knows what it looks and sounds like, but he's not sure how it would feel to admit to this while being so gravely serious either. Somehow that seems like it would make saying it even worse, though Mikasa is right that it's not fine.

He does let the smile drop away now though, and nods just slightly. He doesn't want to think on it too deeply, because the truth of the matter is that as far as he's aware he's going to have to die shortly after returning to his own world anyway. It's not something he's looking forward to, but something he's accepted.

Because the alternatives are much worse, and even dying once, as horrific an experience as it was, isn't enough to convince him otherwise. ]

I really was pretty lucky, wasn't I?

[ Funny thing to say about having died in the first place, though that's not where he's talking about being lucky. ]

[It wasn't as though she was good a laughing when she did find something amusing. Faking it would have been impossible. The same went for smiles, it'd have looked obvious on her face.

But she swallows, head dipping. Glancing at the ground.]

I'm not sure...You're lucky to have escaped death, but you didn't...At the same time. [He'd still died to begin with. So, magic. It made everything complicated, even something that should have been simple like death. And besides-]

If you were lucky, you wouldn't have been in that situation to start with. Would you? [It's quiet and unsure because, really, she didn't know. Some counted themselves to be lucky that they could escape to this place, others considered it an annoyance. She wasn't sure what to think of it. Not until she had 100% proof that everything was still back home.]

[ Whether or not Sougo is lucky to have come here in the first place is still up for debate for Sougo. He had something important to do back home, something where the fate of multiple worlds literally hung in the balance.

But at the same time while he's here, it buys him a little more time to live. It's ironic, but even though being here did result in at least one death that didn't stick for him, it kept him from another one that would. At least, as far as Sougo is aware of his own impending future, though it hasn't been written yet.

He breathes in sharply, and exhales slowly as he stalls to answer that question. It's not an easy one. ]

Maybe not... Though it might have been my fault I was in it.

[ Mikasa might be bad at them, but that sad smile pulls slightly at the corner of Sougo's mouth as he looks at the street ahead of them. ]

They give us lots of warnings about what happens if you don't form a bond, right?

[Mikasa still wasn't sure where their luck lied. Some had told her to take the time, recuperate, learn new things. But what good was that ultimately? In the end she'd forget and reawaken on that rooftop. Not matter how long she was here, how many plans she made to deal with everything, it wouldn't help.

Bonds...She holds the sigh back at that. After her recent bouts of tiredness, she'd caved. Emet-Selch might not have met her criteria for 'harmless' but she knew him from Mettaton...And as of the current moment in time, didn't particularly care for him as a person. He seemed knowledgeable enough, someone she didn't have to mince words with. Lest he got offended or upset.]

They do...And we never listen. [She hadn't. She'd brushed it off. Not so much out of a sense of pride, that she was different like some might have. But because of Eren's chilling words of her being bound to serve. Even knowing it was false, those words still rung though her head.] I...Ate a rabbit-thing, tried to bite one person, managed to bite another person...

[It was horribly fortunate that she'd only had chance to kill one thing.]

[ It's a more understandable excuse than Sougo has. In large part his had been based in carelessness. Though if he were to be completely honest with himself, and he rarely is, then he would admit that an even larger part has to do with the fact that even after all the personal growth he's gone through he's still a lot more guarded about his emotions than most people are.

It's not like Bonding allows someone unhindered access to your head, but there are things within the description of a Bond that has made him hesitant in a way that he's not even fully cognizant of in the choices he's made.

Her admission does stop him from focusing on his own problem, and instead shift worry onto hers. That's another Sougo based problem though, in that it's easier to focus on the needs of others and ignore focusing on fixing himself. ]

Just bite though, right? So they were probably okay after...?

[She scoffs, a low noise from the back of the throat. 'Just a bite']

Yeah. The first person had metal so it did more damage to me, the second poked me in the nose... [Just jabbed a finger there enough to make her flinch back.] The rabbit thing wasn't just a bite though.

[That thing...It'd been eviscerated.]

[ His expression falls a little at that. It's not like he's not a meat eater or anything himself, but at the same time he's not sure how he feels about the idea of having to see his food die.

He certainly wouldn't want to eat it quite so raw either. ]

Mmm, I guess not...

[Mikasa was a farmer. She'd hunted, she'd accepted that you had to kill and animal to eat it, had done so a few times. Couldn't be picky or squeamish when there wasn't enough food to go around.]

I'm still not sure what it was... A rabbit with horns. [Horns that had worked against it. Made it diffcult for it to run away. The rabbit couldn't dart into a small hole where the fae couldn't follo.]

I guess it was a good job it was a wild animal. [She shrugs slightly, still walking.] I used to farm, but someone said any animals I got would be eaten. [It's be a waste of money.] Have you done anything like that? Farm?

[He's getting the curious head tilt. Most people here hadn't, they'd all had strange jobs that weren't even a thing where she was from.]

With horns?

[ There's a few names for mythological rabbits like that, but unfortunately they're not ones that Sougo himself is familiar with, so right now he's imagining something far more wild than say a jackalope.

He's broken out of this imagination spiral by the question, and gives himself a moment of foolish looking blinking at the revelation that Mikasa used to be a farmer. For some reason he hadn't expected to ever hear that, though it would make sense why she was so strong now.

It's got to be hard to do a job like that in a world like hers... ]

Ohhh... Not really?

[ Not at all. ]

I was a student for most of my life, and after I graduated... I was preparing to be a king?

[ This makes Sougo sound like royalty. He definitely is not. This is just a weird delusion he developed as a kid, and unfortunately gained the powers to make a reality. ]

[She nods. She didn't know the actual name, those things didn't exist where she was from. It was a rabbit with horns and that was that.

...And whatever she was going to say about him being in education for a long time dies in her thoart. Eyes widening.]

...A King? [Then she's squinting. Looking him over, then shrugging. He didn't look like a king. Or nobility at all, he seemed to nice.] What were you then, in between those?

[ In a very literal sense they don't exist where he's from either, but people do love their legends.

The reason he doesn't look much like a king or nobility is simple, it's because he very much isn't. His aspirations to kingdom are based on a strange dream that he later found out was a blurry memory of a time probably better left forgotten.

Still, when you've spent your entire life making outlandish claims about your future position it's hard to just let it go.

As for her question, he laughs a little nervously, looking ahead of them. ]

Unemployed, I guess?

Ah...[And it's a knowing nod. She didn't miss those times. The years between the fall of Wall Maria and joining the cadets.]

Warehouse floors are the worst to sleep on, aren't they? [Well not really. Outside, huddle in a gap on the streets was worse but... She mainly remembered the grain storage houses. Emptied by the food shortages.]

What are you studying to do?

[And as they walk they move through the places of industry in the city. Past large factories. Buildings with large windows and pullies to get goods onto the upper floors. Children no older than eight running around carrying bundles and boxes. A sight which didn't bother Mikasa.

She'd done farmwork all her childhood, until she'd joined the milatary.]

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warning for the victorian times being poop for kids