( What finally gets her to straighten up isn't the list of what makes this good for Bertholdt. It's the resonance with the statement: he doesn't have to fight.
She's already lived through what it means to everyone else. She's seen Reiner both want to die and be forced to live, circumstances conspiring to push him forward. Has seen it with the fractured balance between the people they'd trained with into their teen years, and the core group of them, the Warriors, who'd know each other from childhood.
No, what has her straighten up is the list of the (former) Warrior Candidates — all two of them, for all Gabi is gone now — and the list of the dead still living here. Sasha. Erwin. Eren. Marco.
(Frieda, whose last name tells Annie anything she really needed to know, just as it also tells her: maybe it's the best thing that she no longer has her Titan, but it sure is troubling to think everyone else he just named probably does.)
But she knows why Marco was listed last. )
I know Falco, and I've met your cousin. Back home. ( She makes herself let go of her hoodie, brushing her palm over it to flatten the fabric over her chest. It's more for her hands to have something to do in the moment than anything else. ) You don't make it sound like anyone's lost their Titans. Does he have the Jaw?
( As if she's glossing past Marco's name, but she hasn't. It takes her time to circle back around, still remembering their ride in the cart, her voice feeling small to herself when she asked Jean, "What about me?"
What the hell is forgiveness besides absolution none of them earn? )
Is he happy here too?
( She's not asking about Falco, but she isn't saying Marco's name in that moment. )
no subject
She's already lived through what it means to everyone else. She's seen Reiner both want to die and be forced to live, circumstances conspiring to push him forward. Has seen it with the fractured balance between the people they'd trained with into their teen years, and the core group of them, the Warriors, who'd know each other from childhood.
No, what has her straighten up is the list of the (former) Warrior Candidates — all two of them, for all Gabi is gone now — and the list of the dead still living here. Sasha. Erwin. Eren. Marco.
(Frieda, whose last name tells Annie anything she really needed to know, just as it also tells her: maybe it's the best thing that she no longer has her Titan, but it sure is troubling to think everyone else he just named probably does.)
But she knows why Marco was listed last. )
I know Falco, and I've met your cousin. Back home. ( She makes herself let go of her hoodie, brushing her palm over it to flatten the fabric over her chest. It's more for her hands to have something to do in the moment than anything else. ) You don't make it sound like anyone's lost their Titans. Does he have the Jaw?
( As if she's glossing past Marco's name, but she hasn't. It takes her time to circle back around, still remembering their ride in the cart, her voice feeling small to herself when she asked Jean, "What about me?"
What the hell is forgiveness besides absolution none of them earn? )
Is he happy here too?
( She's not asking about Falco, but she isn't saying Marco's name in that moment. )