(no subject)

[waltharius]

Who: Walter and friends who would like to ride a horse and/or use the property for whatever reason
When: Saturday
Where: Ranch of an ex-numbered ally in Locke
What: HORSE RIDING. And Titan training. And whatever else you can think of

[ Whenever possible, Walter would spent his Saturdays at Chloe's ranch. And his Mondays after school. And... well, just about any day he could make it out there, really. But Saturdays were fairly consistent.

This Saturday, however, is a little bit different. He's still tending to Agro, the massive black mare he echoed back several months ago, but this time he's invited his friends to come see her and ride her. He's out in the field, sitting near a fence and watching her graze as he waits for people to show up. Eventually, Agro stands beside him, seemingly waiting as well.

It's hard to classify horse moods, but if you had to assign one to the gigantic mare, she almost looks bored. ]

Comments

[drama8om8]

[ Octavia is a little apprehensive about all the Weird Titan Shit that's going to be taking place here today. The last time she was around for Alan's transformation she got a teeny tiny bit killed, after all. As such, when she shows up she makes a beeline straight for Walter and Shimmermane Landgallop Agro.

Because of the aforementioned apprehension, she's putting up an even more obnoxiously overconfident front than usual. That's how you deal with animals anyway, right? You be all confident and cool and you show them who's fucking boss. ]

Heeeeeeeey, Wally! Check it out.

[ She points to her awful, gaudy-ass footwear: a pair of bright red cowboy boots. Yeah. ]

Perfect for successfully taming the shit out of Horsey McClipclop, right?

[wirsinddiejager]

[Octavia isn't the only one feeling apprehensive about Weird Titan Shit. Alan's nervous, and it shows.

He follows Octavia to the field, but hangs back a little. He knows his past self spent a lot of time around horses, but he's not really comfortable with big animals himself. Especially not today.]

[waltharius]

Hey guys...!

[ Walter gets up and starts heading over to meet them in the middle. Agro walks alongside him, boredom giving way to curiosity. New faces. ]

You don't have to tame her, Tavia. She's already tame. [ He turns to Alan, smiling encouragingly. ] And you can come closer.

[drama8om8]

Yeah, Alan!

[ She looks from Agro to Alan and back again. What's the big deal. It's a horse. WHY THE APPREHENSION? ]

It's just a dumb horse. Ain't like it's going to chomp your face or whatever. Think of it as like. A giant bike. A giant bike that poops.

[ Wow look at all this respect for the horse up in here ]

[wirsinddiejager]

I'm not scared of the horse.

[And he comes a little closer to prove it. Not close enough to touch, though. That thing is big okay it could step on him if it wanted.]

I think there's some other differences aside from the pooping.

[Dear god why are they talking about pooping when Levi isn't even here yet]

[waltharius]

...she's not dumb. Or much like a bike at all, what with the whole... being a living creature thing.

[ Walter is bristling a little. Agro might not be able to tell that she's being insulted, but he can. ]

But... yeah, definitely nothing to be afraid of.

[ The horse snorts and takes couple steps closer to Alan. That sure is a big horseface coming at him.

In what can only be a coincidence, Tavia is getting a face full of horse butt. And a few tailflicks if she doesn't move fast enough. Maybe she DOES know she's being insulted. ]

top-level so louise doesn't ban me

[dirtdevil]

[ It's hard to look forward to the weekend when your plans include supervising your weird friend while he practices turning into a giant monster he may or may not have any control over. Last time, he killed his girlfriend. This time, he could kill you.

Such is Levi's thought process upon arrival. But no, he's not going to let that happen—to himself, or anyone else. That's the whole reason he's here. And he's made an impressive amount of progress since the last time he was on this ranch, flailing around like a dying fish in his newly-acquired 3DMG and then trying not to puke in front of a bunch of teenagers. He's had two titan encounters now and obviously he survived both. Granted, one of them was more interested in making obscene gestures at him than putting him in her mouth, but hey, let's not get bogged down in the details.

The 3DMG, though heavy and cumbersome, feels a lot more natural now. He's significantly more confident in his abilities, but still wary of what will happen after Alan pulls the trigger, so to speak. He signed up for this himself, though, and there's no backing down now. This was his responsibility in his past life, and it remains his responsibility in this one. Time to nut up or shut up. He's ready.

He just hopes Octavia won't rip him a new asshole if he has to do the same to her boyfriend. ]

brb going mad with power and banning you anyway

[drama8om8]

[ Octavia's approach is, naturally, heralded by a steady trail of blue pixie dust. She may or may not have flown directly over Levi's head in order to ensure that he gets a fine coating of glitter over his shoulders and hair. It's like sparkly dandruff! How beautiful. ]

Sup, Cap'n Gremlin. Cappy Gremz. Captizzle Grizzle.

[ She stays hovering just a couple of inches in the air to ensure that she's just that teeny tiny bit higher up than he is. Gotta assert her dominance. Yeah! ]

I figured that before his starts, we should have a teeny tiny weeny short little chatlet! About boundaries. Boundaries and limitations and rules to ensure that I don't wind up having to stab you in the face with a splintery-ass sharpened twig.

[ Smile smile! ]

[dirtdevil]

[ He only takes a brief moment to half-assedly brush some of the fairy shit from his hair. He knows by the end of the day he'll probably have worse things in his hair, and also he doesn't want her to think he cares. Because he totally doesn't. At all. Nope. ]

You mean like the "chatlet" we had via text message awhile back? You know, the one where you were under the extreme delusion that I was hitting on you.

[drama8om8]

You say "delusion," I say "incredibly perceptive insight." Whatever! Those ain't the boundaries we are discussing, because we have totally already established that my ass - while super incredible - is off-limits to you. I can understand that you are devastated! But try to control yourself, Grembo.

[ There are times when she needs flashing neon subtitles stating "YES THIS IS WHAT OCTAVIA ACTUALLY BELIEVES" emblazoned across her entire life. This is one of those times. ]

We need to talk about how you will treat Alan through this whole... thing. If shit goes wrong, what exactly are you going to do about it?

[dirtdevil]

[ Wow. He's definitely going to ignore these baseless accusations of ass-lust. Gross. ]

Cut him out, if it comes to that. He didn't explain all this shit to you?

[drama8om8]

I know that bit.

[ Even if she doesn't exactly get it. Even though she's seen Alan's partial titan grossness like a zillion times, it's still weird to think of him as being inside his proper titan and it not just being him resized.

She doesn't watch enough mecha anime. TRAGIC. ]

I want specifics! Exactly how confident are you that you could get him out without hurting him? Because just eff why eye if you murder my husboyfriendo with your dumb boxcutters I am going to stuff them up your ass.

[ ... ]

Wait, no, I will mind control you into shoving them up your own ass. It's funnier! Right?

bans you TWICE in fact what now fucker

[shortspoken]

[ Annnnnd here's Ellie. Who wouldn't ordinarily take the trouble to approach anyone but goddammit she is feeling exceedingly smug about the reason Alan asked her to show up today. Not that it shows, what with the permanent lineface thing she has going on. ]

Hey.

[ P-p-p-pokerface ]

Thought you should know I'm your backup.

[ P-p-pokerface ]

In case you can't handle it if everything goes wrong. Alan thought it was a good idea.

[ MA MA MA MAH ]

[dirtdevil]

[ Oh god damn it. He should have known this would happen. Alan, you ignorant slut. ]

Did he? Wow. How unexpectedly forethoughtful.

[ He's not gonna back out of this pokerface competition, though. Oh no. It's on. He knocks lightly on one of the gas canisters for effect. ]

You should know, though, that I've gotten my shit together pretty significantly since the last time you saw me in this thing, when you were trying to teach me. Assuming that was the last time you saw me in it.

[ You know, on the off-chance she's been watching him from afar or perhaps had a role in the Wise Snake battle. Not that he would ever suspect such a thing. How silly. ]

[shortspoken]

[ Oh, that prompts a twitch in the pokerface. Because obviously that means that Levi knows what Ellie is, which in turn means that Alan must have told him.

Or he somehow saw through her cunning disguise, in which Short Angry Violent Blonde Woman becomes Giant Angry Violent Blonde Woman.

Orrrrr he echoed back some sort of memory about Annie being a giant naked skinless murderess in her spare time.

Maybe all of the above. ]

Oh, right. You sure showed those big scary titans who was boss when the snake emerged, didn't you.

[ RESUMING POKERFACE ]

Running away from them is a marked improvement on vomiting on them. Congratulations.

[dirtdevil]

Alan would have killed me very easily. He killed Octavia, too. But Octavia has bullshit fairy immortality powers, and I don't. The fact that I had to split or die is one of the reasons I'm here. It needs to not happen again. Ever.

[ Golly, she sure got defensive there, didn't she? It's almost like he hit a nerve. A giant nerve. ]

The other one was happily killing snakes and not innocent bystanders. Pretty sure my assistance wasn't needed.

the titanining

[wirsinddiejager]

[Hanging around the horse had helped Alan relax a little and forget some of his worries, but seeing Levi brought them all right back as he was reminded of why he'd really come here. Now that it's time to go ahead with it, they've made their way out of immediate sight from the ranch into the safety of the forest.

It's not just the fact that he'll probably get his limbed hacked off if he loses control; just the possibility of losing control in the first place scares him. Even if he didn't end up hurting anyone, he'd still be letting everyone see him like that again. How many times would it take before they just started thinking of him as a threat, a dangerous monster merely disguised as a human? He remembers the looks from the people at his trial, a mixture of fear and disgust and contempt. He doesn't want to get looks like that ever again.

But hey, maybe it won't be that bad. They're here to practice, that's all. There's no reason to think it won't go just fine. Maybe. Hopefully.]

Are you guys ready?

[shortspoken]

Of course.

[ Wow. Look how bored and uninterested Ellie looks. Even moreso than usual. Gosh that is some exaggerated boredom right there.

It's at least partially genuine. She doesn't have any real apprehension about this, since if it proves disasterous she has plenty of options for ensuring she doesn't die. It's a great day to be a titan shifter.

A titan shifter who isn't Alan, anyway. ]

Stop stalling.

[wirsinddiejager]

I'm not stalling. I just wanna make sure this goes as smooth as possible.

[shortspoken]

He said, stallingly.

[ She actually pulls a bag of potato chips out of the front pocket of her hoodie and starts munching on them disinterestedly. LOOK HOW UNFUSSED SHE IS ALAN SHE BELIEVES IN YOU

OR

OR SOMETHING ]

[wirsinddiejager]

[>8O

GODDAMMIT ELLIE

But fine Alan's just going to check things up with Levi and get this done]

[dirtdevil]

[ He doesn't think he'll ever be ready for this, to be honest. He remembers fondly a time before all this titan nonsense, when he was just a regular loner asshole who only ever had to worry about finals and grandma. Those sure were the days... ]

How are you planning on doing this? We need to find out how much control you have, if any. Maybe you should concentrate on doing something specific and then see if you can recall it at all after... transforming.

[ Jesus Christ, this all sounds so fucking stupid. He sounds like a LARPer. They all sound like LARPers. What an unfortunate bunch they are. ]

[wirsinddiejager]

I can't do it in the first place if I don't have a goal in mind. But okay, uh... I dunno, I'll give you a thumbs up or something if I can?

[dirtdevil]

I understand that, but what was your goal last time you did it? My guess is it's not what you ended up doing. We've got to find a way for you to remember that goal after the transformation. A thumbs-up is probably a good start. If even something that simple can't be retained, we're probably pretty fucked.

[ There's a pause before he speaks again, this time a little more apprehensive. ]

We've talked quite a bit about transforming, but not about turning back. I don't suppose you remember anything about that?

[wirsinddiejager]

[Alan opens his mouth to point out that last time he'd had no idea that he could do the full thing, but closes it again. It doesn't really matter.]

...No. The closest I've got is talking about the whole cutting out thing. I mean, I know I turned back somehow last time, but I don't really remember it clearly.