TEST DRIVE MEME: The First (Fixed Setting)

[thecrows]

TEST DRIVE MEME
HOW TO: Post with your character in what will be a fixed setting for the first round! Do a top level, respond to others! If your thread is substantial, it can be used as a first-person on your application! Remember that this is not game canon, and everyone is welcome!

You were just ushered into a large park by a murder of loud and insistent crows who somehow manage to get the gate shut behind you before they fly off. The park is awfully green for such a dead-looking town. It's dusk, and things are starting to get a little noisy at the edge of the tall iron fence that surrounds the area. There are gazebos, cobblestone pathways, gentle slopes, and of course, the lake and the island with the large, dead tree. It's full of crows, and if you stare at them, they'll all stare back. Feel free to take a load off on one of the many iron and wood benches, but the gates to the city are closed!

This does not, however, mean you are barred from ghost-watching as night progresses. Remember, they won't see you!

Comments

[stone_heart]

[This gets a slight chuckle out of Erwin, but it's short-lived as he processes the look on Levi's face. He knows better than most that plenty of things get under Levi's skin, even if he rarely gives any obvious visual clues to indicate it. So when Levi is visibly bothered by something, he's very distressed indeed. And the fixed gaze on him says it's more than just their strange situation.]

...what's wrong, Levi? [Because he genuinely doesn't know. As far as he's aware, Levi's known about the loss of his arm for well over a month.]

[beyblade]

... Your arm. [ The blatant distress in his stance should be enough for Erwin to realize that something is amiss. He's pointedly avoiding putting weight on his injured leg now, like seeing what's happened to Erwin has startled him into paying attention to it. ]

[stone_heart]

[Erwin's eyes are quick to pick up on the deliberate shift in Levi's weight, and the way it seems to be more due to discomfort than any more natural causes. (Levi's never been communicative, and over the years Erwin's learned to read the smaller man far more by tone and movement than speech.) His brows immediately furrow in concern of his own.]

Is your leg injured again? [It's potentially bad news, if it is. To be hurt again in the same place, so soon after the last injury, could cause complications. His arm pales in comparison, whatever Levi could be referring to about it.]

[beyblade]

[ Levi shifts away from him, eyebrows furrowing. ]

"Again"?

[stone_heart]

[Erwin can tell that something's very wrong here, but thus far he hasn't grasped what. There's something standing between them and the total understanding they usually have, and it's openly unsettling Levi as much as it's privately unsettling Erwin.

All Erwin can think of to help straighten things out is to be as clear as possible. There's something he doesn't know going on here - something between himself and Levi, rather than simply the situation they're in - but until he figures out where his ignorance lies, he can't do anything about it.]

Again. Since you injured it fighting the female titan. You stopped favoring that leg over a month ago. Did you hurt it again, or is it a strain on the original injury?

[beyblade]

Did you hit your head-- [Did I?]

We just finished with her. You're in trouble for it.

[stone_heart]

[From the way Erwin's eyebrows go up, Levi will know at about the same time Erwin does that they've stumbled upon the source of their communication breakdown.]

...that was months ago, Levi.

[beyblade]

... Something isn't right. Where did you get that injury? [He uses a much more demanding tone than he would normally; his confusion is dragging his defensiveness to the forefront.]

[stone_heart]

[All Erwin can think is that perhaps Levi's lost his memories of the past few months - although, as an answer, he realizes that doesn't hold up to close scrutiny, since Levi's memories wouldn't affect how healed his leg was. But with Levi demanding immediate answers, he doesn't have time to mull the matter over in-depth yet.

He knows Levi well enough to recognize that the man would rather have everything laid out as quickly and clearly as possible, no matter how much information that forces him to process at once; Levi's always preferred too much to not enough. So he doesn't waste any time, or even consider how to phrase the information - he just gives Levi what he asks for.

For more reasons than Levi's demanding it, too - Erwin can't afford to have his captain on a different page than himself.]

It was during the incident where two soldiers from Eren's squad revealed themselves as the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan and kidnapped Eren. An aberrant titan took my arm during the battle - but we reclaimed Eren.

[beyblade]

[Levi is quiet for a long moment, face twisted vaguely in upset, but unreadable at large. He's trying to process this, that they let the monsters responsible for so many deaths in among their ranks, that the calamity was caused by children, that they're responsible for the loss of his commander's arm.]

And where was I during all of this?

[stone_heart]

...you remained in Trost with Hanji and other soldiers who'd been wounded when the titans revealed themselves. [It's the last thing Erwin wants to say, because he suspects Levi will blame himself when he hears it. He couldn't say whether he might still have both arms if Levi had been by his side, and he's never bothered to speculate - things are how they are, and as always, he'll work with whatever comes.

Levi, however...Levi tends to think in terms of right and wrong choices. Levi may wonder, and Erwin doesn't want him to. But he wants to lie to the man even less.]

[beyblade]

[Erwin is dead right. This isn't something Levi is going to let slide. He wasn't there, he wasn't with Erwin, protecting him, keeping those disgusting creatures away from him. If he'd been there, Erwin wouldn't be down an arm. Erwin may not be speculating this, but to Levi, it's just plain fact. If there is one person left in his perceived world whose life Levi would lay his own down for the sake of preserving, it's Erwin. As far as Levi's concerned, he's failed his commanding officer.]

[His silence is no doubt telling.]

[stone_heart]

[Erwin doesn't even need the silence to tell. He's fluent enough in Levi to recognize the man's distress, the self-recriminations he's not voicing.]

...Levi. [His voice is quieter now. Normally they can't afford the luxury of this sort of personal discussion, but since they're alone here (or at least not around other soldiers, which is the same thing for their purposes) Erwin will take advantage of the opportunity. He steps forward, lifting his hand to rest it on Levi's shoulder.] Those were my orders. You followed them.

[The message is loud and clear: 'This is the consequence of my decision, not yours. You'd have accompanied me if I asked.' Truthfully, Levi probably would have accompanied Erwin under any circumstances short of Erwin's expressly ordering against it. There aren't many people Levi trusts without reservation, Erwin knows, and he protects those precious few like a dragon.]

[beyblade]

[ It's grounding, the weight of the hand on his shoulder. It took so long for Erwin to become this force of faith in Levi's life. Beyond feeling like a failure, there's a fear that Levi would never admit to that he's going to lose Erwin. It's always been there, but seeing him without his dominant arm and recognizing that it's usually the other shoulder he touches in a time like this causes it to claw its way to the forefront of his mind. Could he lead in Erwin's absence? Could he trust himself not to make an impulse decision? Even today, Erwin makes calls differently than Levi. Even after seven years of serving him, he can't read his plans every time. Would he fail, if Erwin were gone? It's no question that he wouldn't try... but... ]

... I understand. [ It's a little more hollow than usual, as Levi closes himself further back in the recesses of his stone cold heart. This is something he has to deal with. ]

[stone_heart]

That isn't what's important now, anyway. [Erwin gives Levi's shoulder a slight squeeze before letting his hand fall away again, one last gesture of wordless comfort before returning to business. It's better for them both not to dwell on this, and to focus on the present.] We've got more pressing concerns. This isn't anywhere I recognize. I trust you don't know anything more about this than I do?

[He's almost positive of it, but it doesn't hurt to check. Besides, even if the situation is just as strange to Levi as it is to him, the other man could have made observations since their arrival worth reporting, ones Erwin may have overlooked.]

[beyblade]

[ Levi watches Erwin's hand drop, and the distance remains in his stature. ]

Doubtful. The crows appear to be smarter than we're used to. They have almost human stares. This isn't our home by any stretch, and I'm inclined to think it goes deeper than that, with some of the other people I've seen here. Some have been refined, others total pigs. No one's wearing the same clothes.

[stone_heart]

Hm. Perhaps they're ravens? I've heard ravens are even smarter than crows, and look similar...though I've also heard they're larger. But birds aren't my specialty. [Erwin looks over at them thoughtfully.] But there's certainly no denying they had some purpose driving us here.

I don't see what benefit our being here could possibly present them, and they themselves seem to be waiting - for further developments, perhaps. It's likely they're acting in the interests of a third party.

[He glances at Levi.] I agree with your observation - very few people here seem to know each other, or to come from anything like the same place judging by their looks. Whatever we're here for, I don't think it's for anything we have in common with each other.

Why we're here together, I can't speculate yet.