LABYRINTHUM INBOX II

[placation]

MORE GRATEFUL THAN EVER text / audio / video / action art code original inbox

Comments

[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?

let the record show this is the point where the thread went from shitpost to genocide - every time

[abandonhumanity]

[. . .]

No.

[He recalls something...]

Maruki. Have I ever told you about the refugee boy in Marley?

EVERY TIME

[placation]

No. Tell me about him.

now let the record show that this is my most hated eren moment of all time

[abandonhumanity]

I was walking through the city. A group of men had cornered a boy from the refugee camp. He was a pickpocket.

I already knew that one day I was going to kill him. He dies in the Rumbling.

I saved him anyway. I brought him back to the camp.

Then, I apologized to him.

I'M MILK WEBKINZING HIM

[placation]

[ Perhaps now more than ever, Maruki sees the value in sparing someone from immediate pain, even if more suffering is coming.

It's why he loves Eren, right there in black and white. ]

Why did you do it?

[abandonhumanity]

I don't know.

I didn't want those guys to beat him up. He looked so afraid.

[placation]

Can I make an assessment?

[abandonhumanity]

I never say no.

[placation]

I've never known you to not care about others, especially people in need. It's been that way since we first met.

Of course you saw a frightened child and helped him. You know what it was like to be a frightened child yourself, and you would have wanted someone to help you.

Even knowing what was coming, it was still important to you to help in the moment. You aren't cruel. You do care. It's why I know you were kind to Akechi and Akira as children, too.

[abandonhumanity]

['You aren't cruel,' might have sent Eren into a spiral, were he younger and, somehow, more miserable, but...right now, he's more amused by Maruki's clear bias.]

I am cruel. I know I don't need to remind you why.

You're right, though. I didn't treat them badly. At least, I didn't intend to.

[placation]

Doing a cruel thing doesn't make you a cruel person.

[abandonhumanity]

[. . .]

What about doing a billion cruel things? Come on...

[placation]

If you started tallying up all the kind things you do in this reality versus all the cruel things, I think you'll be surprised by how heavily it's weighted in a certain direction.