thecapitol | [Open] Step One: Cut a Hole in the Box

Who: Hanji Zoe, open
What: Hanji is fresh off the metaphorical boat. She tries to settle her mind by taking things apart.
Where: Training Center
When: Afternoon, March 22
Warnings: References to violent death, in all likelyhood.

"Unsettling" was a very mild way to describe the situation Hanji was in. It was almost too much for her to grasp - spirited away by some unknown method to compete in gladitorial games for the amusement of others? That was something out of terrible fiction (not that Hanji read much fiction these days). It was an impossibility, completely unlikely. Or had been until a couple hours ago. She hadn't bothered with threats or pleading. The guards and officials didn't seem like the sort to respond well to that and fornow the best thing she could do waas gather information.

After a quick introductory lesson on the building she was staying in and a brief tour of her new apartment (prison cell), she'd been left to fend for herself. The sheer amount of luxury and dcadence that surrounded her was equally amazing and terrifying. She was still used to spare meals of black bread and potato soup. The fact that she could snap her fingers and have practically anything delivered to her by servants was beyond her experience and left her feeling like a child who'd suddenly been told they have the run of a candy shop, if not a little unsettled.

And then there was the technology and the lack of titans. They had electric lights, every room had indoor plumbing, and a million other things that they'd only talked about in theory or never even imagined at home. She wanted to see all of it. And she wanted to know why they didn'th ave titans. No one had answered that one yet.

Which was way when she'd found a holoprojector in the training room, she'd "borrowed" a few smaller knives and set about trying to get the casing off to get a look at the innards. Besidezs doing something vaguely productive helped her think. How did they run everythingon electricity, anyway? The tip of her tongue poked between her lips, brow furrowed in concentration as she tried to use one of the knives as an improvised screwdriver.

The moment anyone passed close enough for her to hear them, she waved a hand in their general direction, "Hey! Pass me something to use as a hammer!"

A little while later and she had the panel off, a tangle of wires exposed, her goggles snapped over her eyes as she tried to make heads or tails of the thing.

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"Hello!" Hanji responds cheerfully and glances over her shoulder to give the newcomer a look-

Whoa.

Whoa. Whoa.

What is that?

Sorry, Some. Hanji immediately stops what she's doing and wriggles out from underneath the projector so she can get a better look at him. Her face splits in a grin a mile wide and for at least a moment or two she seems completely oblivious to the idea of "personal space".

"What are you? You're... you're... amazing!"

At least he got her away from her dismantling. He chuckles nervously, allowing the proximity. Standing casually, he can't help but tower over her, even slouching.

"Ah... I'm a grue. My name is Some." Offering her a hand to shake at least gives him a polite reason to take a bit of a step back, and he runs another hand through the crest of fur on his scalp, making sure it lies flat. "I belong to District Two."

She thought titans were weird, but Some is a whole 'nother ball of wax. He has too many limbs and too many eyes and an extra mouth and she can't really begin to describe him. Not yet. She has to look at him, really look at him, to start spotting all the details. She shakes his hand with a wide grin and then pulls it up toward her face so she can examine it.

"A grue - I've never even heard of a grue - ah, nice to meet you Some! I'm Hanji! They've put me in District Nine."

Startled, he still lets her keep the hand. Covered in fine black fur except for the gripping surfaces, it's nearly twice as long as hers, with six elongated, attenuated fingers, two of which are thumbs that oppose one another, and short black claws.

"You are new arrived, then?" he asks, deciding that he's going to be at-east with the examination.

Hanji runs her fingers over the fur and then leans a bit closer to get a better view of the fingers and thumb arrangement. She murmurs to herself, making little mental notes on the structure. Only after a few moments more of the admittedly strange behavior does she reluctantly let him have his hand back.

"They just tossed me in here with everyone else, so yes. Very new!"

She's still eying Some like someone just put a platter of some sort of delicacy in front of her and she starts to circle him, trying to get a decent look at his entire body.

"Where do you come from? Are you a native of Earth?"

It's hard to imagine anything living on the moon or elsewhere, but it was possible. At least in theory.

Some restrains a tiny sigh, and smiles instead, crossing his lower pair of arms behind himself, across his lower back, and leaning back against them. "Yes, I think so. My people live in caverns. I never knew about planets or their names while I lived in my own world, but there were humans on the surface."

The concept of alternate Earths is still something she's still trying to really understand. How did that work? She eyed Some curiously (especially the way his lower arms seemed to interact - that was all kinds of interesting), "You've never heard of titans, have you?"

She ought to make sure.

Some cocks his head, but the only thing the word evokes is... well, movie night, back in Bete Noire.

"It is a human story, isn't it? The monsters that came before the gods? There was... a lava one, and an icy one... I can't remember the rest, I am sorry. Why?"

"Ah, there's old myths or something like that, but I'm talking about something different! They were a problem in our world and if you were from it, you might have heard of it - but, no. I'm talking about giant, human-like creatures. They devour people, for the most part."

That's the short version.

He blinked, all four pairs of eyes doing so in sequence. "... Human-like? Like vampires?" But giant?

Whoa, that was pretty cool. But he was asking questions! How exciting!

"No, not like... I'm not sure what a vampire is, actually. They're like giants - well, they are giants."

"Vampires, well, they drink blood. But they are usually only your size. How giant?" It was a relative question, after all. Some could be twice as tall as Hanji if he stood as tall as he could.

"Ah, that varies. There are seven-meter titans, five-meter variants, fifteen-meters. There are even a few larger then that!" Hanji scratches her head, "You can understand why that might be a problem for us..."

If he remembered meters right, he was about four, in his full length. So that gave him an idea of how large she meant.

"Yes, certainly. Those- well, in honesty, they sound a little terrifying."

"They're fascinating," Hanji corrects. Although she won't deny that they're also terrifying.

"It's the world we live in, so we have to try and understand them. At least if we want to live."

"Do you hunt them?" he asks, curious. He can't help but see parallels, being from the devouring race himself.

"Ah, no - it's more like they hunt us," Hanji shrugged, "but... in a way, I do hunt them. I want to study the. I want to find out more about them."

She smiles.

"So we can eradicate them."

He looks at her a bit uneasily, brows furrowed. "They are so few?"

"We don't know how many there are, actually. We know they devour us, though - so we have to fight them if we want to live."

He nods, fidgety. "No, I suppose- I suppose that is how it works."

[Open] Step One: Cut a Hole in the Box

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