(no subject)

[aberrant_type]

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...]

Comments

[aberrant_type]

[She's perfectly sane! She's perhaps a little too sane. She just likes to have fun. She grins at him right back.]

Smiley because they smile so much, you get it?

[mortalcoil]

[and guess who is really bad at having fun.

Coil just looks at her. only offers a blink.]

[aberrant_type]

[She laughs!]

These guys are around the medium size you normally see! You get little ankle-biters that maybe come in at around ten feet, and this type, and the ten-meter type we saw with your big friend. The biggest one on record is sixty meters, though. Big enough to see over the wall.

[mortalcoil]

[he's still listening, though there's some moment there where part of his attention quietly hooks on something else and goes slowly reeling out as they walk.

there's something distracting him. some soft sound underneath all the other forestnoise, below the grunts and murmurs of the giants behind them.

he begins to slow, glance off the side of the path instead of watching straight ahead.]

[aberrant_type]

[She continues to chat away about titans titans titans as they walk. Scanning and watching around them, and watching him too, constant check-ins. Accustomed to processing a lot of information all at once. You can't get too flat-footed outside the walls and this is pinging her on all outside the walls, free and in danger levels.

After a little bit with him lollygagging away, and Hange following him, she snaps her fingers at him.]

- say! Are you listening?

[mortalcoil]

[the snapping calls his attention immediately--much quickly than words do. it comes from all that silent conversation he's used to, making small claps and snaps to catch the other whenever noise is finally necessary.

and he blinks at her for a minute, surprised. but it doesn't last longer than that.

something steals his focus away into the forest again. there's no monsters there, though. no people, no strange sounds. the only new element to their surroundings is the rippling sound of some unseen, nearby creek.]

[aberrant_type]

[She cuts into silence abruptly. The titans can, for once, be ignored - they're no threat. What a strange thing to think. She watches Coil instead, alert because he's alert. Alert to try and scruff him back if he goes plunging off the trail. Shadowing him...]

[mortalcoil]

[he's poised... but not to bolt into the trees. his weight is leaned in the wrong direction for that.

and there's nothing else there but the gentle sound of water.

though, it does perhaps sound as though it's getting closer. it's not a violent sound, no rushing rapids or water falling, but it does seem to be drawing nearer to the path through the trees.]

[aberrant_type]

[She stops watching him and looks past him, lips pressed thin, thinking of what to do. His tension is getting to her too, a sympathy she felt for scouts sometimes, outside the walls. Everyone's energy would knot together that way.

It will only be another illusion. He looks ready to bolt for it. She'll be ready to bolt with him, but, well. She wants to see what, if anything, appears. That first.]

[mortalcoil]

[it's quiet. very slow. and really, it sounds wonderful--the water lapping softly through roots and bramble.

and there's nothing to see until it's right at the edge of the path. other than maybe a light rustle through the lowest underbrush, the glint of light on wetness.

it's just water, seeping from the forest and onto the side of the path. only a few inches deep. but Coil gasps as soon as he sees it, scuttling back a step as if it could burn him.]

[aberrant_type]

[Mm. She reaches to put a hand against his shoulder.]

It's not real.

[mortalcoil]

[he whirls his gaze at her, already so strained around his eye when he stares.

right. he knows it's a trick. he'd been waiting for it, braced for monsters, voices...

but then the water continues to gently flood onto the path--deeper in the forest but still not deep or swift enough to threaten their safety. and here it just comes creeping for Coil's boots. all he can see is how much of the path is being met with water, up and down this whole stretch, and imagine how much it must be. how deep it must get somewhere. it probably connects to some swollen river.

he could lose his footing, slip and fall, stick in the mud until it rises up over him.

regardless of the hand on his shoulder, there's another gasp and he backpeddles further across the path. visibly biting down panic. forget the giants-- this is what really scares him.]

[aberrant_type]

Close your other eye!

[She steps with him. If he goes off the path, she'll go with him. It's just a guess. Maybe it's all visual. If he can feel it too, he'll probably lose it and they'll just deal with that when it happens.]

[mortalcoil]

[he shakes his head! because he already feels like he's drowning, and the thought of being blind or more handicapped than he already is strikes a sharper, more urgent sense of terror in him.

the startled gasps begin to turn into hyperventilation, though he is trying to fight it down. he looks around, as the oncoming tide pushes him back across the path, maybe searching for higher ground. and in the process, he sees just how close he already is to the other side. it's enough to convince him to listen.

so, he sidles close to that far edge, getting as much distance as he can between the water and himself, and desperately shuts his eye.

but he can still hear it.]

[aberrant_type]

Plug your ears too. I'm grabbing you. [And whether he listens or not, she is. She reaches to take hold of his shoulder and get them both walking. They can walk blind. It's fine. It's all good.]

[mortalcoil]

[he fumbles and fights for a second, but then he rushes with her with hands clamped over his ears. he's got one shot at this and he knows it.

it gets tough when he steps down and feels the splash of a few inches of water, though. it makes him jump, shoving into her, but he's still moving forward.]

[aberrant_type]

[All right, she'll get them both running.

Part of her is considering if she should just scoop him up in a carry. That'll be awkward with the gun; she'll consider it if he gets worse.]

[mortalcoil]

[it'd be like trying to carry a giant, panicking cat that has a nasty habit of going right for the pressure points.

the water reaches a limit, though. this forest plays by some set of rules. the titans didn't bear right down on them on the path, and the water doesn't flood all the way across. there is some wetness to splash through, just to scare him, but they still have that skinny strip of space to run along.

and eventually, the forest gives up. it's a long swath that has been flooded, but there's an end on the other side. not that Coil's going to notice in his panic, but it's there.]

[aberrant_type]

[She whacks him firmly on the shoulder.]

You're clear!

[mortalcoil]

[his wheels spin without traction for a minute, bringing his hands down and opening his eye but still ready to flee or fight, staring around without really seeing.

and still hyperventilating, with wetness smeared a little around his eyes. still on high panic but hopefully beginning to come down.]

[aberrant_type]

[She looks off into the woods, to give him at least that little veneer of privacy. No rush. He can take a few minutes to collect himself while Hange cordially pretends not to notice he's crying.]

[mortalcoil]

[he's grateful for it, really.

once he's certain that the flood is behind him, he makes sure not to look in that direction again, eyes anywhere else while he works on calming down. drumming up that willpower of his, long deep breaths, rolling tension out of the knots in his shoulders.

his hands are shaking badly, but he wipes off his face. adrenaline like waves of tiny needles in his blood, slowly receding.

and he doesn't want to look at Hange even once he's leveling out. he doesn't care about her, of course, doesn't care about her opinions... but the embarrassment flares up anyway.]

[aberrant_type]

[She listens to him, counting his breaths and listening to them smooth. Good.

Once it seems like he's under control, she glances back at him again.]

Messed-up place, huh? Let's get going.

[And she'll put her money where her mouth is, and start walking.]

[mortalcoil]

[he also appreciates how focused she is on the task in hand, and isn't wrapped up in whatever personal hassles he's got going on. it's a good trait in a teammate.

he briefly wonders if this is why Zhas is willing to work with her.

but he doesn't think much of it after that. he's having a hard time thinking of much of anything--his mind still half-whitewashed with fading adrenaline. this makes him cooperative, though. following at her heel without another glance.]

[aberrant_type]

[She's mulling over the reaction as she walks. Didn't bat an eye at the titans, but loses his shit when faced with some water to splash through? It's a good weakness to know about. She wonders what the traumatic experience was - it's about the only rationale for a fear like that she can see.

Then again, phobias don't have to be rational.

Eh, she's still betting on trauma though.

All these distractions make her even more determined to get through this goddamn forest.

They're allowed, again, to walk unbothered for a while. Hange is on high alert now, expecting another mind game that either she'll have to deal with, or possibly help Coil deal with. It still means when there's the distant cling of ringing metal through the trees, the sound of a yell, words indecipherable but urgency obvious, she stops and her head turns like a bird dog. Point! And squinting into the trees.]