Intro Post//Annie

[crystal_fists]

WHO: Annie and whoever runs into her fleeing, disoriented self.
WHAT: Loses her shit at waking up in a cave and transforms briefly.
WHEN: Mid-day
WHERE: In the bay, or nearing the city.
WARNINGS:Chapter 77 spoilers, some language? Will put spoilery part under a different cut.


Annie's eyes fluttered as she struggled to wake.

Annie! Save me!

He heard us! We can't let him live!

Take Marco's 3-D gear off of him!

ANNIE!

Why are you all yelling at me? Why must I clean your mess? Do your own damn dirty work, you bastards. Don't drag me into it. And you, I didn't place you in the wrong place at the wrong time. And you, I didn't make you run your big mouth so that he could hear everything.

You risked your own life to save Connie's, didn't you?

So what?

Why would you put yourself in that kind of danger?!

Fuck you. Like you never play at being human. You're the 'good soldier' aren't you? So don't accuse me, you piece of shit.

Have you started to feel compassion for this evil race? Prove it to me, right here! Prove that you're different!

........we're out of time. I....

Stooooopp it! Annie?! Annie! Why?! Why?!

Why? Why you ask, like it would make it better if I had an answer. Instead of asking me 'why' you should be fighting me. Why don't you fight me? Kill me before I kill you. You fool. Why are human beings so unwilling to see the truth when it's not nice? You'll wait until the last moment, won't you? Or maybe you won't fight back at all. You'll die in denial.

Fight back. Do anything but look at me like that.

I'm not your ally. I never was.








-spoiler end-

Suddenly her eyes snapped open and she gasped. She was in something. Not her crystal, but some kind of container. She was trapped. She was captured. They were going to dissect her, cut her up - no!! She'd accept dying in battle, she'd accept even being torn apart by Eren or someone stronger, but this was not how she was going to be taken out. She retched and dry heaved, her nightmare still fresh and the fear of capture even fresher. She struggled to get her sore body to work and ended up tumbling out the pod, barely making it to the water as she emptied her insides. She had to get out of here.

[There will be a flash of lightening near where the bay area is. Having completely panicked at waking up underground Annie will have transformed the minute she emerged from that cave ready to flee. But it'll only be for a brief minute or so as she realizes she hasn't been captured by the Survey Corps and is not about to be given to that crazy scientist. But maybe one or many of you saw that weird flash and want to investigate. But she'll be human again should you run into her. (ooc:drop me a line if you have any particular plots in mine.)]

Comments

[inhisdebt]

[Luckily, Mikasa had no idea that Annie was here... At least... not until she saw that flash of lightning. Being Deputy Guardian of Genessia, she was already in the area at the time. She rushed to the scene to find something that she was not ready for. Well... emotionally. Because her temper flared at the sight of her.]

You're here. [Said with some shock, but mostly anger making her voice very deadpan.]

[crystal_fists]

[Her head turned at the sound. So maybe someone had been set to guard her. She tensed immediately when she spotted the dark-haired girl. She could have done without seeing this face so soon. Her body hurt everywhere and the gear felt heavy. How long had she slept? What day on the calendar was it?]

Here?

[The question was uttered quietly and with more than a little wonder. Where were the walls? There were always walls where the larger human population was and she could see something lit up in the distance. What was this place? She had a more immediate problem at the moment, however.

Have you come here to kill me?

[Right to the point then.]

[inhisdebt]

Initially...? No. But the hell if I'll stand here and let you go free. [Sorry, David. You're deputy is probably getting caught up in something stupid.]

[crystal_fists]

[A glacial pair of eyes assessed her would be captor. There was nothing like Eren's fire there, but there was a predatory gleam all the same. She had been controlled by Zeke, and forced to endure a coward like Bertl and an idiot like Reiner. Not that she hated them. They were in the same boat she was. But if it wasn't for that tying them together she'd pay them no attention at all. She preferred to be on her own and there were times when having to keep an eye on two extra (and often careless) people was draining.

She didn't understand what was going on , but Mikasa was dead wrong if she thought Annie was going to become someone else's pawn or sit in a prison.]

And how do you plan to make sure I don't?

[She sounded almost bored. And she'd probably already be trying to make her exit. But talking might buy her time to let her body rest and to get more information.]

[inhisdebt]

[She was already unsheathing a blade.]

I think we both know the answer to that.

[These were the times that she was grateful to bring her gear with her. It was more-or-less a repercussion just in case, but it was good to have. Too bad Genessia didn't really have the ground that she would have liked though.]

[scoutingangel]

[EREN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! is the first question that comes to Petra's mind when she sees that flash. One moment she thinks of calling Levi to ask about it and the next she decides to go take a look herself. Not even thinking it could be anyone else...

So when she gets there and sees her instead... Well, it's easy to put two and two together, isn't it? She'd like to deny it because she's a second away from dying back home and suddenly seeing her killer here is fucking terrifying.

She's shaking while she's also just ... staring at her. Everything is just repeating inside her head again and she's trying not to cry in front of her. Then again she's also feeling a lot of rage somewhere there but that might come later.

Welcome to Genessia, Annie. That sure is Petra Ral staring at you. She's not even wearing her gear or military uniform, nope. Just some cute, casual clothes that fit the weather so really, she's completely unprepared for this. And oh wow, looks like the girl here is engaged with someone considering she's wearing a ring.

Petra is way too shocked to say anything. She should just get the fucking hell away from her as fast as she can but her legs aren't moving at all.]

[crystal_fists]

[At least Petra would have some small form of revenge in the fact that she was shocking Annie right back. The titan shifter stared back, fully convinced that perhaps her time in the crystal had broken the stability of her mind. Was this her conscience punishing her? Or had this girl somehow survived? It was impossible. She remembered the broken body and lifeless eyes. She was the one who had broken her.]

Are you a ghost?

[The question is whispered.]

[scoutingangel]

[She's either getting some revenge or time to re-think about her own actions right now. She should call Levi, but ... She's too scared to do much. Who the fuck would want to give Annie a reason to try killing her again? The question surprises her, not like she's giving much of a reaction to it.]

No. [Her voice is shaking.] ...It's not like I'm dead here.

[Well not yet but she's almost forgetting to breathe right now.]

[crystal_fists]

[It took her a moment to remember that she didn't have to kill people who knew what she was anymore. That was why she had laughed so hard that day that Armin had revealed her secret. She hadn't lost her mind - that has probably happened long ago anyway - it was relief. Relief at not having to sneak and hide and kill anyone that might suspect what she was.

At the moment, Petra's life was safe. But the conflicting feelings of desperately keeping her cover so that she wouldn't be experimented on or killed immediately and the sick feeling it gave her to have to carry out the means to keep herself safe were always with her. And maybe they always would be. Mikasa Ackerman was one thing. To be looking into the eyes of someone you had completely destroyed was another. Annie took a step back.

Her eyes darted left and right looking for a tree line, a place to use her gear and get away again. She didn't want to kill this girl again.]

[scoutingangel]

[Now what? Usuaĺly Petra is cheerful, friendly and rambling a lot to almost anyone here. Now she feels like she doesn't even have anything to say to her and she's not going to ask any questions either. Maybe it's because she's still way too shocked to do anything else except staring at that short girl in front of her. Weird after over a year of being so full of life here every single day by not only talking but also making a lot of faces and gestures and openly showing her feelings to almost anyone. This state of nothing from her is stupid and weak.

She notices Annie taking that step back and looking somewhere else. Why? She has no idea if it's a good or bad sign but nothing's happening after it so knowing what's around them, she can only guess.]

... It's not like I'm going to stop you from going wherever the hell you end up here. [as long as Annie stays away from the people that Petra loves.] ...But if you try to repeat anything from that day, Levi will stop you this time.

[Because surely that shifting got his attention too and he could be anywhere near them right now.]

[ascendedbeing]

[ The flash of light is definitely something new near the Bay, and it's worth looking into. Within seconds, Sertoria arrives, but doesn't announce her arrival or show herself until a few minutes later. She ends up appearing out of nowhere, sitting on top of one of the empty pods, tilting her head, causing her large earrings to clang gently. ]

Not used to the sudden jolt, I take it?

[crystal_fists]

[Annie's skin was still a mess of what looked like patches of red burns from exiting her transformation. Most notably on her face. It would be a while before she could show herself in public. She reached for her swords, automatically on guard. It was one think for anyone from her world to see her like this. Her cover was blown anyway. She wasn't so sure about this person and she disliked how easily they had escaped her detection. what had they seen?]

Jolt? [Her eyes were untrusting ice chips. She still didn't know anything about this world or what had brought her here. Or who.

[koishi_komeiji]

Koishi had actually been on flying when when the lightning came down, drifting around the bay and munching on the last bits of an apple. The sudden light and crack sent her zipping in the other direction, the little youkai putting on the brakes upon realizing what it was.

"Lightning...? LIGHTNING?!"

A new arrival, no doubt. Well, normally she would be enthused, but certainly not this time, turning and heading full speed toward the bay. She was going to give this newcomer a piece of her mind.

---

Annie was likely not fully recovered when it seemed to appear. A floating girl with glowing green eyes and minty green hair. She was floating a few feet above the water, a blue sphere bobbing angrily in front of her.

"Miss! Hey! I can see you're upset but it's very rude to call down lightning without shouting out a warning." She scolded, pointing at Annie with an apple core. "It didn't hit me but it easily could have. You should be more careful next time. It would be absolutely terrible if you hit someone."

[crystal_fists]

Annie's first instinct was to pull her hood up and hide her healing face, but it was too late. Instead, she reached for her blades, immediately on the defensive. In human form, she could still make quick work of a threat. She had been trained from sun up to sun down without breaks and without mercy from the time she could talk.

Well, this person didn't look too shrewd at least. She doubted they knew what she was. That was good. She wouldn't have to kill anyone and maybe she could use this person.

"I dislike being underground," she said. She looked at Koishi calculatingly. "So all you saw was some lightening?"

[koishi_komeiji]

"Well..." Koishi tilted her head, pursing her lips some. "There was something big and now there isn't. And your face is all burned..." She shook her head. "But that's no excuse!"

She huffed, placing her fists on her hips. "Really... Everyone who arrives panics a little but you don't have to summon flesh or lightning or burn yourself... At least you weren't as bad as Okuu..." She seemed a little out of it for a few moments before refocusing on Annie. "Regardless, you're safe here, okay? We're all the same here, just waking up and twisting up slant and down. It's called Genessia. The nice glowing picture of Miss Snow can teach you all about it." She pointed toward the Weiss hologram.

"Oh! I'm sorry. My name is Koishi Komeiji. I'm a satori youkai." So not human. "Don't worry though, I can't read minds anymore." She seemed to have calmed down a bit.

Something Annie said though seemed to have gotten her attention. "Also, why don't you like the underground? I live underground... Or at least that's where my home is. I do things on the surface though."

[crystal_fists]

"You seem pretty calm about seeing someone who can summon lightning," the blonde remarked.

This had to be another world. Most people would run in the other direction if they'd seen that flash. They'd never run toward it and they most certainly would not chat with some girl that they thought was associated with it. Especially since thanks to Eren, a lot of people knew that humans could become Titans.

She wondered what kind of face they'd make if they realized they'd been fighting humans all along, Shifter or not.

"Is having their mind read usually something that people worry about here?" Annie asked, finding it an odd statement to make out of the blue. "Why I don't like it underground? A delicate person like me is just frightened to go into deep dark places is all."

That statement would be laughable to anyone who knew really knew Annie - as a human or a titan. She was anything but delicate. But dark, confining places did put her off. They always had. She had sat in a cellar for week once with no sunlight after refusing to show up to one of her father's training sessions.

[koishi_komeiji]

"Summoning lightning is something a bunch of different youkai can do back home. I come from a world of magic. There are all sorts of special things that can be done." She waved her arms. "Lightning isn't even the most interesting of them either! The nice gap lady can teleport and the little oni at the shrine can grow to gigantic or tiny sizes and the nice tengu with the camera can control wind and the nice maid at the red mansion can control time and space." She was just listing these things off on her fingers...

She smiled tilting her head at the question. "Well, no. Satori youkai are mind readers. But that's not my power anymore. My power is to see and control the unconscious mind. I can see your mind too miss. I can see that you have lovely thoughts that swirl with color and light. They make me feel courageous and determined and all sorts of other emotions that I don't have words for. I really think its a lovely mind."

A small pause. "Erm... I can tell if you're lying too Miss. Minds blip when they lie but that's okay. Humans lie all the time. If you don't want to tell me why you don't like the underground you don't have to." She drifted closer. "Actually, you remind me of the great warriors from my home before I settled in Gensokyo centuries ago. You're calm and focused. It reminds me of Sis and Miss White and I like that."

[waterdroplet]

[The lightning reminds Katara of Azula even though it's completely different from her blue flames. Maybe it should be a sign to stay away from there, probably but once things calm down again... Well, a healer needs to check what's going on! And there's water... That could be helpful if she runs into any trouble.

Katara isn't sure what she's expecting to see, but she sure isn't expecting to see another girl there. Then again coming from a world of bending and others having powers here too makes it a bit less surprising. She looks worried, not like she has any clue that the other girl is the cause of that lightning and stuff.]

Are you okay?

[How do you feel about people, who are actually worried about your wellbeing, Annie? Wait, looking at her and realizing what she's wearing... What? Another one from that world? Okay, that's interesting.]

[crystal_fists]

[At least some time had passed since Annie had begun walking and some of the burns on her face were healing.]

I'll live. [Her reply is dry.] Everyone here seems very comfortable with being a ways from the city. What a laid back place.

[Because only the most foolhardy that could not or would not live inside the walls would do anything else if they didn't expect to get eaten. And they would not be on foot. They would at least bring a horse. But she hasn't seen a sign of any titan activity. Aside from herself that is.]

[waterdroplet]

[Katara obviously has no idea where those burns are from but she looks so much more worried seeing them.]

... If you say so, but if you need help healing those burns... I wonder where that lightning hit, did you see it? [And everything else she says, well, the waterbender is going to pretend like she doesn't know their world at all.] I -- take it you're from somewhere completely different then. It's usually pretty safe in most cities and other places here compared to some worlds where people come from.

[Well it has been at least, no one can ever be sure how long it's going to last.]

[crystal_fists]

"I heal pretty quickly," Annie murmured, quietly.

It was the truth. And now a third person had confirmed that this was indeed a different existence all together from the one she was used to. In the interest of her survival, that might be a good thing. But she needed to be sure.

"Then you are saying we're in a place where no one has ever heard of a Titan?" she prompted."In my world humans wouldn't roam outside so carelessly. And they would not have a city that was not walled up to prevent attack."

[neverfeltthatway]

[Armin freezes, hearing that lightning. His first thought was Eren - but he hadn't thought Eren was around Genessia today. And it came from the direction of the bay.

It's one of them. It has to be. Armin takes a shaky breath, clenching his fists to stop himself from trembling. He closes his frightened eyes and simply breathes for a moment - and when he opens them again, they are angry and determined.

He needs to know who it is. What they're doing here, and what they're planning. It's foolish for him to go alone, without his gear or even anything like a weapon. But then, he's died before - more than once - and it would be no more permanent this time than any other.

Besides which, he's not sure who he would trust to keep their heads, coming face to face with one of the titan shifters. Attacking them would be all but suicide, and even succeeding in killing them would serve no purpose. He needs to prevent that from happening, to protect the others - and to do that, he needs information.

He beats out a quick email to Weiss, and another to Mikasa, then sets them to be sent in a couple hours unless he checks in. If he doesn't come back, they'll know where he went and what probably happened to him.

He arrives at the Bay not five minutes later - out of breath, but alert and wary. And then he sees her, and his world grinds to a halt.]

...Annie.

[His voice is all but a whisper. Even though he'd known it might be her, tried to steel himself for it, he hadn't truly been prepared to see her again.]

Hello thar person I should have killed....

[crystal_fists]

[It was indeed foolish to be alone without gear. Only Mikasa hadn't been so foolhardy. This world must be different, more....peaceful? What else could have made such skilled fighters so complacent? So careless.

She was a little better prepared to after seeing people from her world here before him. But Armin stirred up some uncomfortable memories. She had told herself that leaving him his life would be her one little act of rebellion, to prove that she did have a will of her own and wasn't just a mindless drone like the others. Besides, it had seemed so pointless then. But it turned out to be a terrible miscalculation. Armin, for all his idealism, was still very intelligent. He had survived only to turn the tables on her.]

You've become reckless. [This she observed coldly, determined to remain detached. She's let down her walls once, if only an inch. She wouldn't make that mistake twice.]

[neverfeltthatway]

[Though it's true he's being reckless, it's not from any sense of carelessness or complacency. He knew the danger, considered it, and accepted it as necessary - and, considering death's impermanence, largely irrelevant. In theory, anyway. In practice, it's somewhat harder to keep in mind.

He lets out a shaky breath, and, though he only feels a flicker of anger at her words, he latches onto it - something solid, to hold him steady.]

I don't have my maneuvering gear, here. [He'd given it to Levi, though there's no particular reason to tell her that. He lets out a breath that's nearly a laugh, however humorless.] Not that it would do me much good if I had it. Something we're both aware of.

But I'm not planning on attacking you, and I'm betting that you're not planning on attacking me either. There's no point, here - and with something of a chance to start over, even you might hesitate before inviting Eren, Mikasa, and Levi's wrath. [He lifts his chin, staring her in the eyes - frightened, yes, and angry, but controlling his emotions.] Am I wrong?

[crystal_fists]

As I said, reckless. Must be a soft world I've been dumped into. [As foolish as he's been, she didn't think he'd be foolish enough to fight her and he's proved her right.

But some things never change. Look at him talking about starting over as if there is any starting over for her. Maybe in a world where no one knew her or what she'd done it would be possible. But it was turning out that there were plenty of people here to remind her of what she was.]

Yes, with aid Eren is a problem. [Implying that alone she'd just clean the floor with him - again.] I've never know him to be forgiving though. It could be that he still is a problem.

However, you are right that to fight would be pointless. So what, now? If that's all you've come to say, then I have things to do.