AN: So I figured out how to fix the formatting on this godawful site, so whoo hoo! Imma post more on this site now, haha.
"So." Armin clapped his hands together. "Time to put together…" he waved his hand and gesticulated wildly towards the board. "This!"
"I think you're having too much fun with this, Armin." Mikasa deadpanned, and true to her words, Armin was salivating, a distinctly crazy glint in his eye that reminded Eren of Hange Zoe… Even though he's never met Hange Zoe…
"Eren?" Armin all but teleported into his face. "You saw something?"
Eren jolted backwards. "I–yes…?" he trailed off unsurely.
Armin giggled and whipped out a piece of paper. From where? Eren could only guess. "Tell me" he sucked in a breath and leaned in closer, "Everything."
Eren laughed awkwardly and resigned himself to a very long, quite possibly invasive, interrogation.
"So." Armin concluded. "The big things here are the fact that your Titan can talk, apparently, and that it quite possibly serves someone called Ymir."
A chill went down Eren's spine at the sound of the name.
It was like he was forgetting something. Something that was supposed to be at the end of her name.
Ymir…
Ymir…
Ymir Fr–
Eren blinked. "Yeah, that's pretty much it."
Armin smiled, "And you told me about that girl you saw in that weird mental space!"
Eren nodded slowly. "Are you saying… she's Ymir?"
Armin shrugged. "Could be! Do you think you can go back and ask her?"
Eren hummed.
It was at that moment, Mikasa returned. "Hey guys. Another idiot decided to mess with the brothel girls."
Eren gaped at her. "Seriously? Haven't they all learned already?"
Mikasa shrugged. "Guess not."
Eren sighed. "Where's the body?"
"I think they're going to burn it in a bit."
"A'ight." Eren got up and left the room.
Armin met Mikasa's eyes and sighed. "Him and his fertilizer," he said fondly.
Mikasa's eyes smiled. "Him and his fertilizer," she echoed.
O~O
If anyone (Ymir) were to bear witness to Mikasa, Armin, and Eren over the three years they spent selling drugs and doing other dubious things, they'd (she'd) slowly realize that this is not what she planned, this is not what she designed.
She designed Eren to be angry, to strive towards freedom with a passionate flame that never burned out. She designed him with care. She designed him to be everything she wanted to be. (And in the end, he is still a slave of fate, isn't he? Her mind whispered, Just like you are a slave to your King).
She designed Armin to have a strict moral code, to understand the rights and wrongs of an action, to have an intellect so great, the only one to surpass him would be Erwin Smith (another great man, but his intellect, she had no business in designing). She designed Armin to be good. To be a real Hero.
She designed Mikasa to be a soldier. A weapon. Perhaps it was callous, but she designed Mikasa with her love for her King in mind. Though, Mikasa was stronger than she could ever hope to be. And so she would be able to fight Eren in a way that she could never fight her King.
It was all perfectly rounded out. Planned from beginning to finish. Her freedom. The Rumbling. (And maybe, just maybe, it might've been her revenge, too)
But here there was a difference.
An anomaly in the Paths.
An outsider that made her spine tingle with phantoms.
A change.
(Ymir was scared.)
O~O
"FREE… YMIR"
Eren woke up, frustrated yet again.
And as all Gods do when they're frustrated, he became… destructive.
"Talk more!" he howled, "Talk more, you stupid Titan! At least tell me who she is! Tell me!"
A timid knock sounded out at her door.
Eren's tirade immediately stopped.
"Yes?" he called out sweetly. "Enter."
The young girl who gave him the pastries at the shrine (which was still standing) so long ago–Marie–shuffled and gave an awkward smile. "I heard screaming."
Eren immediately felt bad. "Ah. It's nothing. It's fine." See, you stupid Titan, he thought bitterly, Now you've gone and made one of our loyal followers sad.
The Titan said nothing, as it normally did.
Marie nodded slightly. "Um… Eren…?"
Eren nodded. "Yes?"
"What's going to happen when you leave?"
Eren froze. When he leaves.
He… hasn't actually thought about that.
"I…" he paused and looked at the young girl.
She was shuffling around on her feet, clearly guilty for some reason or another, and Eren wanted to sigh. "You don't need to worry about protection." he promised. "I will continue sending tea and herbs, and I'll work on something to protect you all here while we're gone."
With The Gardeners out of business in the Fruit of Passion, there would be a power vacuum, and the brothel would immediately become the center of all illicit activities. Idira would hate it. It would put her girls in danger.
The Gardeners always had Mikasa at the forefront, an immediate, terrifying threat that no one could get past. Even the loss of just her would cause a power vacuum big enough to doom the brothel.
(Eren couldn't do that to his loyal followers)
(He needed to figure something out)
O~O
"So. What are we going to do about Fruit of Passion?" Eren questioned.
Mikasa inclined her head slightly, and though she said nothing, it was more than evident that she agreed with Eren's stand. Try as she might, she did get attached to Idira and the girls. Especially after they listened so diligently to her sermons on Eren's glory (which embarrassed him to no end).
Armin hummed. "I've also been thinking about that, actually." he murmured. "The way I see it, we have two options so far. First: get the girls to enlist in the military with us and lose the brothel itself." Eren snorted. As if. Armin smiled wryly, as if he knew the answer to that question already. (He likely did). "Second option–we expand our gang over the next six months and get them to protect in our stead."
Mikasa tilted her head. "We'd be trusting strangers." she murmured. "But at least we'd know Idira and the girls will be safe."
Eren hummed. It was a good idea. But…
"That won't change the power vacuum though." Mikasa pointed out. "The moment we're gone, everyone will know it, and I don't think there's anyone with loyalty strong enough to us, or nerve enough for us, to face down the entire criminal underground of Trost."
That. That was true.
The Gardeners had many enemies, and though most were friendly with them on the surface, there was resentment beneath the golden veneer that threatened to boil over the second an imperfection showed itself.
Eren huffed out a puff of steam and immediately realized he'd been biting his cheek rather intensely in thought. Well.
It was fine.
He had six months to figure this out.
O~O
It was a little-known thing that Mikasa, Eren, and Armin would leave all together some days to train. From a distance, they'd seen the hell that was the Cadet Corps, and though they were unsure of what instructor they'd get, if not the same, the training would be the same.
For that, practice was necessary.
For Eren and Armin, at least.
Mikasa (damn beast she was) was fine from the start.
"I…" Eren wheezed with great lament and disgust and other negative emotions, "despise running."
"Welcome to the club," Armin snarled, face-flat on the ground, "I'm the president."
Mikasa chuckled lightly. "Weaklings."
"I!" Eren sat up. "Am a God! You don't get to say that to me!"
Mikasa leaned in, a distinctly challenging glint in her eye. "Weaklings."
Eren shrieked and pointed at her excitedly. "Blasphemy! From my high priestess, no less! Blasphemy!"
Armin rolled over. "Hey guys… What time is it?"
"Time for you to get a watch." Mikasa immediately retorted, and Eren laughed.
Armin narrowed his eyes. "Shaddup."
The next few moments passed in a comfortable silence.
"We should go back to Fruit of Passion." Eren voiced.
"Five more minutes." Armin whined. "I don't think I can feel my legs."
Mikasa scoffed. "Get up. It's not even that far."
"For you." Eren hissed, horrified, Armin's face echoing that sentiment very well.
Mikasa rolled her eyes and started walking.
Eren and Armin scrambled to follow.
When they returned, it was to chaos. Lush armchairs bought with drug money were overthrown and ripped, the floorboards had holes, and beautiful vases were shattered. In the corner, Madame Idira was comforting a crying girl.
All tiredness forgotten, Armin immediately stepped forward, and–
The girl flinched back.
Idira looked at Armin apologetically. "S'rry." she murmured. "I don't think she's good with men right now…" her gaze drifted over to Mikasa meaningfully.
Mikasa's eyes widened in understanding. She stepped forward, Armin stepped back. Mikasa… hesitated. What a strange sight. The Demon, hesitating. "What…" she whispered, as gently as she could. "What happened?"
The girl–who they all now recognized as Marie's older sister, Kayla–sobbed wildly and tried to press herself against the wall and into herself at the same time. Mikasa's eyes drifted downward.
Her gaze turned cold.
"Who?"
Idira glanced at Kayla hesitantly. "I saw him." she murmured. "But I don't want to describe him right now. Not so soon."
Mikasa nodded sharply, and without missing a beat, she knocked Kayla out.
Idira breathed a sigh of relief. "He was tall." she supplied. "The way he walked was entitled, but not in a learned way. He wasn't a noble. Definitely an MP. Blond hair, brown eyes… He had a square jaw. A handsome face, if you looked at it that way. Though, his smile…" she shivered. "Disgusting. It made you feel…"
Mikasa nodded. "Which direction did he go in?"
Idira jutted her chin right.
Mikasa turned around. Eren and Armin, who'd been standing behind her at a safe distance the entire time, had… considerably varying expressions, for lack of a better word. Armin's was wiped blank. A cold sort of rage that no one really noticed was there until it crept up in frostbite. Eren's however…
His shadow was blinking between normalcy and his Garden God form. His face was tense and twitching, a tightly controlled rage, haphazardly wrapped, unprepared. A hot kind of rage that melted everything, destroyed everything, spared nothing in its path.
Mikasa mirrored it. "This way." she murmured. "I hope you're not tired."
Armin laughed. "Of course not." he said amiably. "But I'll still wait here nonetheless. I need to… fix this mess."
Eren nodded tightly, and left immediately, Mikasa trailing behind.
She really pitied this man, whatever his name was. Or actually… Mikasa thought back to Kayla's crying face, her desolate expression, the way she clutched her stomach and the bruises on her skin.
No. She didn't pity him at all.
The man was found in a bar. Boasting about how he bested The Gardeners. How they weren't even there as he took a pretty girl and violated her in front of her fellows. The Bar was tentative. Near-silent.
If it was ever noisy, it certainly wasn't now.
Not when the door was launched off its hinges and the Demon came striding in, her blood-red scarf a telling indication of who she was.
Not when behind her, her God was walking.
He didn't shut up.
The Demon cut all the fingers of one hand off. The man screamed.
The Garden God immediately placed his hand against the man's mouth, and the haze in his eyes that came from being drunk immediately disappeared. The God stood to the side as the man vomited.
He scrambled away. "W-Who are you?" he wailed.
The Bar rose up in chatter. Pitying chatter. Chatter.
The Garden God's shadow warped before everyone's eyes. It warped into a beast–into something close to a Titan, but more of a monster than they could ever hope to look like. But–only for a split second.
"You don't know?" he questioned sweetly, and though it carried the pitch of a child, there was just something off about it. Disillusioned? "You don't know, even after you entered the home of my devoted followers and violated them?"
The man whimpered.
The Garden God sighed. "Put him down."
The Demon shifted her dagger and plunged it into his body. The man gurgled and choked on blood. The Garden God snapped his fingers once, and his eyes glowed. Vines erupted out of his chest and encased his body in an ugly cocoon, keeping him alive but suffering.
"Let this be known." The Garden God intoned, and the rest of the Bar flinched as those glowing, cold eyes were then addressed to them. "Any fools that hurt those who worship me most fervently, will be fertilizer for my flowers."
Then, he turned around and left, the Demon bringing the cocoon in tow.
Needless to say, by next day morning, a shrine appeared in the Garden God's image, and the Bar patrons who were there on that day became… quite devoted followers.
O~O
The way Gods were born was quite an interesting process, actually. It stemmed from a sense of devotion that their followers would have–first in worshipping a mortal, and then, when the devotion crossed a certain line, worshipping a God.
Armin found the whole process quite interesting.
Because, see, Eren at first, really only had the ability to grow plants.
Then, one of the girls in Fruit of Passion commented on the recent storm and idly wondered aloud if Eren had a hand in it.
Three days later, after the entire brothel started believing in Eren's nonexistent power of the storm, Eren gained the power of the storm.
…And he demonstrated that quite happily via repeated lightning bolts to a very loud, nearby Wall Cultist.
"Worthless heathen." Eren muttered, eyes flashing. "The only God on land here is me."
Armin shook his head fondly. "Of course, Eren." he murmured. "Of course."
Armin paused.
Wait…
If his theory was true, then wouldn't the Walls also have corresponding Gods?
Armin looked up at Wall Rose dubiously.
O~O
Mikasa cared for Eren.
She cared for him very much.
Though, his mood swings (and developing God Complex) were getting to be a bit much.
One moment he'd be snarling about the destruction of the Titans, and the next he'd be happily burying his face into Mikasa's shoulder and wailing about how lucky he was to have a High Priestess like her.
Every time that happened, Mikasa would shake her head fondly and rap Eren on the back of his own head.
O~O
The day Armin and Mikasa realized that Eren, as an actual God, apparently couldn't eat food unless it was offered to him, was quite the quiet day.
Eren had sat down at the table, food he cooked in hand (just some basic stew) and he tried to eat.
The stew jumped out of the spoon and crawled away from him on the ground.
Eren stared at it.
Armin stared at it.
Mikasa stared at it.
"What."
Eren tried to eat another bite.
The stew and the spoon disappeared.
"What."
Mikasa, sensing an oncoming storm of lightning bolts and possibly life-draining vines (no one wanted another Jerry incident) immediately jumped up and placated Eren.
"Here." she offered. "Have mine."
Eren grabbed the bowl and grumbled, eyeing the spoon dubiously. "If this disappears," he promised. "I will very violently smite every Wall Cultist I come across for the next thirteen years."
It didn't disappear. (Pity)
It also tasted very good. (Yum)
AN: Will be trying to update this to my timeline regularly. Adding more fanfics, and transferring what I have on AO3 here too. Will also be overhauling the entirety of Cage of the Mind so it matches my AO3 formatting. Yessssss. Much love!
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-Oracle
