[ but he wasnāt being hard on himself at all! just realistically viewing facts, at least the ones he remembered. ] There was this one time, when he was a kid . . . [ his finger brushes across his chin. ] That he couldnāt get past the basics. You needed to get the balance mechanism under control if you wanted to pass and go to the maneuver gear. If you failed, they sent you back to the settlement.
Everyone passed and he was the only one failing. And it sucked becauseā [ he rubs his face, as if feeling second hand embarrassment. ] His adopted sister wouldnāt stop babying him in front of everyone. Trying to hand feed him, carrying him away from fist fights . . .
[ it was. really bad sometimes. ]
When he finally passed, because they found a defect in the beltā Thatās one of the first things he thought. That she wouldnāt need to babysit him anymore.
[ he shrugs a little. christ, itās like . . . remembering how much of a kid you were. ]
[He listens to the story, smiling sympathetically. Oh yes, the overprotective sibling, he knows that woe all too well. ]
Haha, Junior really was a kid if he thought that'd stop her from babysitting him. The only reason I'm safe from full Carlos-coddling is because he's not on the app.
[He did wish he could talk about these things with Carlos. He felt it put a distance between them. Still, it was nice knowing his brother wouldn't freak out every time he took up a task that was more dangerous than "playing with kittens". ]
[ haha, carlos. carlos was a great guy, but he knows that big brother protectiveness from a mile away. guess thereās really no way around it. older siblings just have some sort of weird complex implanted when the new baby is born. ]
Yeahā She saved his ass more than once.
[ a lot. she always had to because junior was a dumb. shifting his legs into brief stretch out, he props his arms up behind him. ]
Mikasa Ackerman. They took her in after her parents were murdered. Junior and his dad found them when they were making house calls. [ it got a little tense, butā eren feels like heās telling a story now. this memory didnāt bother him as much as the others. ] They couldnāt find her, though. Dad called the police, but Junior snuck off.
Not the smartest thing, but he doesnāt regret it. Any of it.
[ at least, rather harshly, he says pigs in a spiteful way. zero offense to actual swine, whoāre much better animals than those pestsā he did them a favor. well, junior, and despite the recklessness, itās something that he wouldnāt change. heād do it again. ]
They were going to sell her. She was just ten. [ eren swirls a chopstick in the broth, poking at the remaining pieces of meat floating in it, before hooking it under and placing them in their plates. ] He killed two, but only because he got lucky. She got the other one.
[ and after a rather distant pause: ]
Now that I think about itā she probably felt like she owed him somehow.
[That's uh....wow. Just wow. What do you even say to a story like that. On one hand, people who sell children are the worst, especially if it murdered her parents. Those were the kind of people you typically want to be locked away for the rest of their days.
On the other hand, hearing two little ten year olds straight up killed 3 guys is PRETTY unsettling too. Even if it sounded like they had little choice, and that world was very different from the one they lived now. What was he supposed to say...? Not like his Eren was the one to do it.
...
You know, let's just. Not address it. He clears his throat]
[ not that heād . . . be against doing it . . . which would also say some things about the eren now, but. yes. maybe itās best not to address too deep, else elliot might start getting unnecessarily worried.
eren had his moral compass, then and now, and some things wouldnāt be so easily changed. (why was talking about memories a good idea, erenās were all tense). snapping out of some quiet thought, he takes his glass and clinks it against elliotās. ]
[Yeah, exactly. It wasn't that the kids did anything wrong considering the situation, but it also feel so wrong to be like "yay kids killing people good job".
But Elliot's glad that Eren seems to be on the same page. Clearing his throat and clinking that glass back against Eren's]
Ah- right. Okay.
[Well, speaking of siblings...]
Well, Elton actually had a sister too. An older one named Fiona. She had red hair too.... a-actually, she looked a lot like Orihime from your mission group. [The redhead that was nice but would cook questionable dishes] Don't think they're the same person, but it made me double-take when Akira had her over.
[And then he nearly died via ghost peppers. It was a weird time.]
Pretty sure Fiona's pretty...clingy too. He was visiting his hometown for a field study, I think, and she got upset that he wanted to stay at a hotel with his classmates than at home.
but eren huffs up the start of a laugh, without actually getting to the full out chuckles. ]
Iād want to do the same thing. Seriously . . . [ which was better: stay with your parents or stay with your friends? totally bunking and hanging out with friends all night. remember when 3am was considered cool? ] Canāt say all of them are like thatā Me and Tifa were always pretty independent. [ actually . . . ] Sheās beaten up more bullies than me through middle school.
Itās probably a clingy thingā but she didnāt mom him either, did she?
I feel like Tifa could beat up the military if she really wanted. [YOUR SIS IS HARDCORE OK] But you're right, she's always seemed like a cool big sis.
[....As for Fiona...]
She started getting sniffly about how he was old enough to be too cool for big sis hugs, and insisted she'll still be watching over him anyway. All because he wanted to stay somewhere else.
And it was in front of his friends.
[So. YEAH. LOTS OF MOMING PROBABLY GOING ON THERE. Mikasa and Fiona can never meet]
[ they will never meet, for as long as eren can help it. itād cause the apocalypse of overboard morning sisters. heās almost getting second, wait, third hand embarrassment over here. ]
[That is the keyword. He takes out a couple veggies and puts it on both their places- you need some greens in your diet too Eren! He'll take out the tofu for himself]
A few. It fluctuates a lot. From childhood to adult, andā
[ the confusing stuff from older people. and everything in between. eren pauses for a moment, his fingers tapping against his knee as he takes a sip of his drink. there was something else that . . . tied into that. ]
Juniorās memories arenāt the only ones Iām getting, either.
[ he makes a clicking sound with his tongue, shifting to get something from his pocket. itās a folded paper, opened to reveal a sketch from yusukeā the girl looking into a mirror and brushing her hair. what the frick indeed! ]
No . . . Since we got back from the missions, I counted three different people. That girlās one of them.
[Holy crap. He glances over at the sketch that he's being shown. A girl. She looks like she could be Eren's sister- but Eren just made it clear that his sister was adopted. So there shouldn't be a family relation ]
The girl, Juniorās dad, and some guy the dad knew.
[ he raises his shoulders, teetering his head some ways; it was a little confusing, but the network at least helped piece some of it together. there wonāt be anymore retrospec worries, or crazy surprises heās completely unprepared for. ]
Some people on the app have something like it, but itās got nothing to do with Retrospec. [ meaning, their past selves had something extra if they saw more memories. ] āAnd I almost forgot about it, but Junior mentioned it in a memory a really long time ago.
His life was a lot more complicated than I thought.
[That might be an understatement though. He reaches over and puts a hand on Eren's shoulder, as if to help stabilize him]
It sounds like everyone might be connected in your shared memories...so maybe it was special trick in Junior's world? I'm not sure though, I can't recall anything like that.
I think I prefer it being mysterious over the actual answer.
[ you know when you start getting some side pieces to a puzzle and . . . the middleās just not painting a good picture anymore? thatās pretty much it. ]
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[ but he wasnāt being hard on himself at all! just realistically viewing facts, at least the ones he remembered. ] There was this one time, when he was a kid . . . [ his finger brushes across his chin. ] That he couldnāt get past the basics. You needed to get the balance mechanism under control if you wanted to pass and go to the maneuver gear. If you failed, they sent you back to the settlement.
Everyone passed and he was the only one failing. And it sucked becauseā [ he rubs his face, as if feeling second hand embarrassment. ] His adopted sister wouldnāt stop babying him in front of everyone. Trying to hand feed him, carrying him away from fist fights . . .
[ it was. really bad sometimes. ]
When he finally passed, because they found a defect in the beltā Thatās one of the first things he thought. That she wouldnāt need to babysit him anymore.
[ he shrugs a little. christ, itās like . . . remembering how much of a kid you were. ]
Didnāt happen.
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Haha, Junior really was a kid if he thought that'd stop her from babysitting him. The only reason I'm safe from full Carlos-coddling is because he's not on the app.
[He did wish he could talk about these things with Carlos. He felt it put a distance between them. Still, it was nice knowing his brother wouldn't freak out every time he took up a task that was more dangerous than "playing with kittens". ]
So he had an adopted sister?
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Yeahā She saved his ass more than once.
[ a lot. she always had to because junior was a dumb. shifting his legs into brief stretch out, he props his arms up behind him. ]
Mikasa Ackerman. They took her in after her parents were murdered. Junior and his dad found them when they were making house calls. [ it got a little tense, butā eren feels like heās telling a story now. this memory didnāt bother him as much as the others. ] They couldnāt find her, though. Dad called the police, but Junior snuck off.
Not the smartest thing, but he doesnāt regret it. Any of it.
[ and by the looks of itā neither does eren. ]
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[The name isn't familiar. Part of him wonders if it was Tifa, but...no, probably not otherwise Eren would've said something about that.
But jeez, talk about a sad way to meet your adopted family. The life in Junior's world was rough]
Did he find her when he snuck off..?
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[ at least, rather harshly, he says pigs in a spiteful way. zero offense to actual swine, whoāre much better animals than those pestsā he did them a favor. well, junior, and despite the recklessness, itās something that he wouldnāt change. heād do it again. ]
They were going to sell her. She was just ten. [ eren swirls a chopstick in the broth, poking at the remaining pieces of meat floating in it, before hooking it under and placing them in their plates. ] He killed two, but only because he got lucky. She got the other one.
[ and after a rather distant pause: ]
Now that I think about itā she probably felt like she owed him somehow.
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On the other hand, hearing two little ten year olds straight up killed 3 guys is PRETTY unsettling too. Even if it sounded like they had little choice, and that world was very different from the one they lived now. What was he supposed to say...? Not like his Eren was the one to do it.
...
You know, let's just. Not address it. He clears his throat]
Wow...
Y-Yeah, she probably did. He did save her life...
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eren had his moral compass, then and now, and some things wouldnāt be so easily changed. (why was talking about memories a good idea, erenās were all tense). snapping out of some quiet thought, he takes his glass and clinks it against elliotās. ]
I talk too muchā your turn.
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But Elliot's glad that Eren seems to be on the same page. Clearing his throat and clinking that glass back against Eren's]
Ah- right. Okay.
[Well, speaking of siblings...]
Well, Elton actually had a sister too. An older one named Fiona. She had red hair too.... a-actually, she looked a lot like Orihime from your mission group. [The redhead that was nice but would cook questionable dishes] Don't think they're the same person, but it made me double-take when Akira had her over.
[And then he nearly died via ghost peppers. It was a weird time.]
Pretty sure Fiona's pretty...clingy too. He was visiting his hometown for a field study, I think, and she got upset that he wanted to stay at a hotel with his classmates than at home.
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but eren huffs up the start of a laugh, without actually getting to the full out chuckles. ]
Iād want to do the same thing. Seriously . . . [ which was better: stay with your parents or stay with your friends? totally bunking and hanging out with friends all night. remember when 3am was considered cool? ] Canāt say all of them are like thatā Me and Tifa were always pretty independent. [ actually . . . ] Sheās beaten up more bullies than me through middle school.
Itās probably a clingy thingā but she didnāt mom him either, did she?
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[....As for Fiona...]
She started getting sniffly about how he was old enough to be too cool for big sis hugs, and insisted she'll still be watching over him anyway. All because he wanted to stay somewhere else.
And it was in front of his friends.
[So. YEAH. LOTS OF MOMING PROBABLY GOING ON THERE. Mikasa and Fiona can never meet]
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Christ . . . Thatās overdoing it.
[ they will never meet, for as long as eren can help it. itād cause the apocalypse of overboard morning sisters. heās almost getting second, wait, third hand embarrassment over here. ]
Was that the worst moming you remember?
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[it would be a truly devastating pair]
It's the only one I remember. I only have one memory of her so far. I'm scared what else's to come....
[As he should be. It'll only get worse]
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[ other erenās been there. ]
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[That is the keyword. He takes out a couple veggies and puts it on both their places- you need some greens in your diet too Eren! He'll take out the tofu for himself]
Your turn?
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Did you get any memories from an older Elton yet?
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No. They're all when he's around 16 or 17, I think. [The woes of not having your timeskip localized yet]
Did you?
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[ the confusing stuff from older people. and everything in between. eren pauses for a moment, his fingers tapping against his knee as he takes a sip of his drink. there was something else that . . . tied into that. ]
Juniorās memories arenāt the only ones Iām getting, either.
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[What da friiiiick]
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No . . . Since we got back from the missions, I counted three different people. That girlās one of them.
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[Holy crap. He glances over at the sketch that he's being shown. A girl. She looks like she could be Eren's sister- but Eren just made it clear that his sister was adopted. So there shouldn't be a family relation ]
Iii've never heard of that happening before.
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[ he raises his shoulders, teetering his head some ways; it was a little confusing, but the network at least helped piece some of it together. there wonāt be anymore retrospec worries, or crazy surprises heās completely unprepared for. ]
Some people on the app have something like it, but itās got nothing to do with Retrospec. [ meaning, their past selves had something extra if they saw more memories. ] āAnd I almost forgot about it, but Junior mentioned it in a memory a really long time ago.
His life was a lot more complicated than I thought.
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[That might be an understatement though. He reaches over and puts a hand on Eren's shoulder, as if to help stabilize him]
It sounds like everyone might be connected in your shared memories...so maybe it was special trick in Junior's world? I'm not sure though, I can't recall anything like that.
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[ but even that ends up being nothing but a guess, for now. the girl was still a mystery. ]
It wasnāt the life I thought it was. You ever get that feeling?
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[Says the wizard. But he pauses at that question]
...I do. Elton's been through a lot of strange stuff.
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[ you know when you start getting some side pieces to a puzzle and . . . the middleās just not painting a good picture anymore? thatās pretty much it. ]
Crazy turnabouts?
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