LABYRINTHUM INBOX II

[placation]

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text; un: eren (10/31)

[abandonhumanity]

Can you tell me why a fucking goblin just knocked on my door asking for candy?

[placation]

They came all the way up to the farmhouse? That's one brave goblin...

[abandonhumanity]

It was dressed like a chicken.

[placation]

That sounds a little cute!

[abandonhumanity]

It wasn't cute. What the hell is going on?

[placation]

It's a holiday back in my own reality, and I'm sure in many others. People dress up in costume and go around asking for candy. Honestly, I mostly saw it in movies! I can't believe the locals are doing it here.

[abandonhumanity]

That's stupid. What are they even celebrating?

1/2

[placation]

Back in my own reality, it had religious and pagan roots, but the holiday itself has been largely divorced from those and commercialized...

Which begs the question, do the locals here have similar beliefs that gave way to the holiday? The closest thing I've ever seen to a religion are those worshippers of the crystal or the moon. Perhaps it stems from that? Or is it our own influence that brought it here?

[placation]

[ .........

He's being unbearably nerdy, isn't he. ]

They're most likely just celebrating candy.

[abandonhumanity]

[For once, Eren thinks Maruki is probably thinking a little too hard about this - but that might largely be due to Eren considering the locals to be about as smart as actual chickens, and less useful since they don't even lay eggs.]

I didn't have any. And I wouldn't have given it to them if I did.

[placation]

I'll give you some.

We actually sort of celebrated last year! Do you remember? We told scary stories.

Mine was the most terrifying of all, to be sure.

[abandonhumanity]

If you give it to me, I'm eating it, not handing it out to goblins dressed as chickens.

Now that you say it, I do remember.

[Aubrey was there too.]

That was a year ago?

[placation]

It was.

It feels like longer and yesterday all at once... so much has changed.

[abandonhumanity]

It feels that way to you too?

[. . .]

Your mind isn't like mine now, is it?

[placation]

I'm sure it's nothing compared to what you deal with, but my own mind is... muddled, for lack of a better word.

More so now that I spent that time as a child, then left.

[abandonhumanity]

That feels like a long time ago too...

I'm not exactly good with kids. I was fond of you that way, though.

[placation]

[ It does feel like a long time ago, as distant as his own childhood, and yet–

He can still feel the warmth of their arms around him. Akira balancing him against his hip as he cooked. Akechi soothing him through those miserably ill, feverish nights. Chihaya letting him curl up at her side to read a book. Kazuya lifting him away from Orthrus' jaws.

Eren, holding a baby bird in his palms. ]

You were wonderful. I'd never guess you aren't good with kids. I felt so safe with you, and it took a lot for me to feel that as a child.

[abandonhumanity]

I was almost surprised you weren't afraid of me. You were afraid of basically everything.

It makes sense though. You're you. You knew me, even though you didn't remember.

[placation]

It's true. It will always be true.

Did you run into any other kids?

[abandonhumanity]

[Ah…]

Kurusu. Just for a minute.

Akechi too.

[placation]

I spent a lot of time with both of them as children, too.

They were adorable, weren't they?

[abandonhumanity]

[Eh... Like he can't admit that...]

They were fine.

[placation]

[ It's probably too much to hope that time spent around Akira at that age, unfailingly polite and so desperate to please the adults around him, would have softened Eren's feelings... ]

I suppose I can't help but like Akechi at an age before his sour attitude set in.

I'm sure you were great with them.

[abandonhumanity]

What makes you think that? Just because I was good with you?

It could have been different.

[placation]

Was it?