open | all I want is the moon upon a stick

[vaccination]

Date & Time: October 10th onwards.
Location: Around the base.
Characters: Ellie and you.
Summary: Ellie's hangin' around, totally over this moon business.
Warnings: Swearing.



a. the cafeteria
[Ellie sits at one of the tables in the cafeteria, a pyramid of upside-down cups stacked in front of her. It's certainly not the sturdiest of structures, but she's spent some time on it, and she's vaguely proud of her accomplishment. They only clattered to the floor once or twice.

Now that she's done, she leans back and slides down a few inches in her seat. Well. That killed twenty minutes.

She reaches out a hand to slowly nudge one of the cups at the bottom corner of her pyramid. That might be loud if she keeps going.]

b. the observatory
[Space is cool. It kind of makes her feel like she's falling when she looks out the window or through any screens, but she keeps coming back to the observatory to do just that. She's not sure if she likes that feeling or not. The wasteland where Exsilium once was is still visible, but Ellie doesn't seem to pay it much mind right now. She's lying on her back on the floor, sneakers propped up against a wall, comic book held over her face.

Every now and then she makes some sort of noise. This comic is so intense.]

Comments

[blondtactician]

They transform...

[This connects with something Armin's seen, his worries about what the titans might actually be. Because Eren can become one, and they look human in their own way...]

I'm sorry to make you talk about this, and if you don't want to, you don't have to answer. But do you know what caused this plague?

[vaccination]

It's fine. I don't mind talking about it. [It's just how it is.]

No one really knows how it happened. Cordyceps, it used to just be in--plants and bugs, I guess. Then it just somehow jumped to humans.

[blondtactician]

Cordyceps? What are those?

[It doesn't ring a bell, but Armin makes a mental note to look it up in the archives later. Even if it doesn't appear to be a lead at the moment, maybe it could be.]

[vaccination]

It's the infection. The official name is the Cordyceps Brain Infection or something like that, but it's like... a growth. Like the name says, it's in the brain. It kills the host and takes over the body.

[blondtactician]

Like a tumor? That sounds particularly unpleasant. [And not particularly helpful in the way Armin hoped, though that's hardly Ellie's fault.] And no one knows why these things mutated? How awful.

The worst kind of enemy is one you can't assign any sort of reason or understanding to.

[vaccination]

Yeah. Like that. [She won't go into details about how it just sort of bursts and grows from the body. He doesn't seem to need that imagery.]

Things could always be worse. We're alive, right?

[blondtactician]

[Armin actually smiles.] Right! And I got to read a comic book to day. And see all these stars, and the ocean.

It's alright.