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(no subject)

Who: HANGE!!! GArak, Coil and Zhas
Broadcast: none
Action: closed to Red Fish crew
When: sometime... when they're in range of the planet... after whenever the waystation mingle goes up...?

[She'll take a look at the spa later - after slowly going a little stir-crazy on the ship, Hange wouldn't close herself in another building (no matter how luxurious) by choice.

Now, just as she's been, she prowls and paces along the edge of the forest, looking in. She looks excited: her eyes wide, pupils dilated, grinning absentmindedly. The movement never quite stops. The whoops and cries of distant birds or other, more alien things; the smell of wet ground and the rustle of leaves... it's like home, just like home, just like being at home, all she needs is her 3DMG and her horse and her squad. If only.

Hange will head in soon. She's seen that path and - it could be a trap, but her nature is way too direct to pass up so courteous an invitation. Soon enough...]

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[and they are no less terrifying than they were the first time. but he at least doesn't have the anchor of his partner weighing on half of his attention. the fact that he doesn't have to look for Zhas' safety or instructions fills him with a little bit of extra confidence.

the sense of self-preservation is much less overwhelming to him.

so he quietly slides over to put Hange a little more directly between the monsters and himself, and pulls out his little handful of bones. waiting and ready.]

Aim for the eyes.

[He probably hasn't forgotten, but it's reflex to remind them.

The titans are spread out a little, converging on where they stand; that's good, especially if they're real. Well, if they're real, they're both probably doomed no matter what they do - might as well go down fighting.

The first one stops just short of the path. Spindly limbs, a ragged beard, and it's slavering with bright eyes at it drops to its knees. Heat rolls off this thing and batters at both of them. And then smell. So it'll try to crawl for them, Hange thinks; she lowers the gun, aims for the head, and shoots - it's easier, no kickback.

Whereupon the beam passes directly through the thing's head with barely a ripple in the illusion.]

[for the most part, Coil is just watching.

especially having already seen them once before, and not having Zhas' shadow hanging over him, he's dangerously fascinated. he'll watch until he's completely out of time, or until they're proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be fake.

he does nothing with the bones yet. ...mostly because she'll be blinded too, since she doesn't know to look away. he can't exactly shout to warn her.

so, he just waits.]

[Nothing happens. Behind the illusion, trees crack and splinter as their moisture superheats and evaporates instantly. And even more than that - the titan shuffles nearer to them, strings of drool dripping off its teeth and lower lip, the other two make it there and crowd in until there are six hungry, luminous eyes watching, but they don't get snatched up and eaten.

Hange cracks into a moment of wild laughter. It seems they're safe?]

[...and that's when Coil finds that he'd been holding his breath.

slowly, so slowly, he straightens up. tentatively letting go of some of that ready tension.

lowering his eye from the giants long enough to watch Hange instead.]

[She's calmed down quickly. Now she only watches with eyes that give the lie to the idea that brown is a cold color. You can see the whites of her eyes as she watches the titans, lowers the gun again and shoots experimentally only to have the same thing happen.]

Well... I'll be damned.

[She steps towards the titans now and tries again, the same step of the protocol she's gone through every time when she gets a captured titan... though these aren't captured, they aren't moving closer...]

Hello. Can you understand me?

[once she moves, Coil finally sidles away from where he'd been rooted.

moving a little closer, along with her, but also keeping his eye moving elsewhere now.

looking at the other titans, really staring at every detail to figure out how true the illusion really is. the fact that they're tricking his eye at all is a bad sign. he looks down the path, glances back into the stretch of forest that they'd had their backs to for so long.

maybe waiting for the other shoe to drop.]

[There's no response. Hange stops at the edge of the trail. She's sweating, under her arms and at the small of her back. This would be an exceptionally dangerous position to be in, a fatal position to be in, if those things are real.

And the titans don't reply. They make occasional, random, animal noises - grunts and deep growls booming in their chests. No recognizable words, though.

Hange stands and watches them. Drinks them in a little bit. This reminder of home and the worst there is to offer there. What her comrades are facing outside the wall.]

So... we're being played with.

[Coil nods, for what it's worth, and points at the edge of the path that she's getting near to. whether she sees the gesture or not.]

[She catches his movement out of the corner of her eye and pauses.]

What?

[he points again, draws his finger back and forth to indicate the line of the trail.

then he signs the familiar no, before pointing at her feet, right where she's so near to the edge of the path.]

[Ah, she glances down and then chuckles. More like a cluck in the throat really, barely a laugh.]

Mm. Looks that way. [A response to something he didn't really say. She steps back a bit and then paces on the edge of the trail, watching the titans. One of them sort of trails after her, the other two just follow her with their eyes.]

It's a pretty good likeness.

[and maybe it's because he knows that it's an illusion now, but they're finally taking on that sort of hazy, unreal look that most illusions seem to him.

he's maybe just a little bit bitter that the one advantage that being Clearsighted gives him has been completely useless here until this very moment.

...so, he absently kicks a stone off the path in the direction of the nearest titan.]

[All three titans glance at the movement. They're more like animals than humans, no intelligence flickering in those enormous eyes. Then all three of their gazes return to Coil and simultaneously they lean in closer to study him. At which point Hange decides that's about enough.]

Let's get moving again and see if it throws anything else at us.

[And she will live up to her words and start walking.]

[once he passes by, he falls into the same walking formation he'd held before. Just a couple steps back and to the side.

...and he cranes his head around to look back and watch the giants as they go, though. He wonders if they'll disappear, or maybe just wander back into the forest.]

[Apparently, the forest will keep up the illusion a little longer, maybe just to screw with them now if they won't run away. The titans keep pace with them, strolling along through the brush, one lazy step for ten of Coil and Hange's.

Hange drops back to talk to them.]

Congratulations, your first sight of a titan and - [Well, she glances to check] - you didn't piss yourself! Some soldiers do, you know!

[thank goodness for that. and he points to his eye, and signs an emphatic 'a lot' --a common sign, and quite self-explanatory.

he's used to monsters and terrors, even though these were certainly ranked in the top three. being what he is, he's a little more resilient toward some of the mind-altering fear that mortals feel when faced with creatures that shouldn't be.

luckily, for his own dignity.]

Haha. [She keeps them at a trot, keeps scanning the surroundings, but she glances back at the titans pretty constantly. They're all out for a happy forest stroll. How picturesque.] Your history seems like it must be pretty interesting, kiddo!

[ha. his eyebrows lift and he nods in her direction.

she's one to talk.]

Those things are called titans! [She'll just fill him in while she walks along, waving her arms towards the subjects in question.] They've really decimated the human population at home. But don't you find their precious smiles kinda charming?

[They do look pretty happy.............]

[ha. he just shakes his head.

not charming at all. nope.]

We should name these guys. They're following us around just like puppies! [They're not like puppies at all.] So we'd better name them!

You feel that heat? These guys are boiling hot on the inside. If the teeth don't kill you, hitting the stomach will. They'll eat their fill of humans until they're full, but that won't stop 'em! Once they fill up, they'll vomit up the humans they've devoured and continue on eating. We have no idea why they keep at it. Some say they just like the slaughter. They don't sustain themselves off of humans anyway. They photosynthesize! So, in the normal way of things they're inactive at night, lucky for us.

[he's listening, but his attention is everywhere that Hange isn't actively looking. she can do all the naming and fawning she'd like--he can't exactly contribute easily or comment on all of this horrifying trivia, so he simply absorbs it while they stroll.

and after a minute, he makes a motion like he's telling her to keep her eyes on the road, whether she's really paying attention to the world around the titans or not.]

[She is, so she ignores the gesture completely and keeps talking.]

There's only one vulnerable point on those guys! Well, you can carve out an eye or slice certain tendons, just like in humans, but that's a stopgap measure because they'll regenerate. Still, it can provide you a few seconds to get out of immediate range. If you want to kill one of them off, you have to slice out the nape completely.

See the tallest one there? [There is one that's a meter or so taller than its companions.] I'm gonna call that one Skip. The one with the beard is Johnson. The other one can be Smiley!

[he's trying to keep to himself like he should... but yeah. he really can't help shooting her a tired, wary look with the whole naming thing.

her sanity is definitely being called into question.]