keepsthefire | IC Contact

Rin? It's—

[well, Rin is talking. but he's implying he hasn't answered. he lets it finish, puzzling for a moment.]

Your phone says... [nevermind, priorities.] Are you alright? I haven't spoken to you in weeks... Please respond when you hear this, if you're able.

[and if you hear this, he's never gotten this automated message before, is he doing this right . . . ]

[It does get to him, but he doesn't get a chance to answer until a while later. So about four or five hours after Armin leaves the message, his phone will be ringing.

Ring ring, buddy. Pick up your phone~]

[oh thank god he was starting to lose all hope in his already feeble grasp of technology.]

Rin! I thought my message didn't send properly. Or...

[or something had happened to you.]

Have you been alright?

[Poor Armin. You're not as bad at it as you think you are.]

Ah-...

[Ohgod. Answer truthfully, or lie. Truth or lie. Crap crap crap...]

. . . uhm... n... no. No, not really.

[needless to say, any relief he's gained from the sound of the other boy's voice is hampered by the admission.]

... I'm not sure what else I could expect at this point.

[maybe a boldfaced and bullheaded lie, some stubborn insistence transparent enough to rival Eren with his arms lopped off. not this stumbling and broken honesty. but he knows better than most not to press.]

Is there anything that you need?

Yeah...

[It was going to happen to him eventually. Even Rin wasn't stupid enough to believe his demonic nature would save him from death forever. He doesn't really sound upset, just... tired. Tired, and unwilling to lie to Armin just to make him feel better. Rin didn't have the right to try and put any sort of rose tinted glasses on some one else.]

A bath and some damn food...

[He couldn't even make that sound like a joke.]

Look... it was a stupid move on my part. I just... made a really bad call and I got my ass handed to me for it. I'm okay-- ... not okay but I'll be alright eventually.

... but... thanks. For askin'.

[That said...]

... what about you?

[... well, at least he admits it. the tone is matter of fact, but not entirely unapologetic.]

No one is immune to lapses in judgment. Especially under stress.

[case in point, he all but walked into a bundle of strangling plants, he was so distracted. he hasn't been this hungry in a long time.]

I think food goes without saying at this point, but it's... far too cold to leave.

[he takes a moment to put his fingers to the phone's receiver and stifle a cough, dry and innocent enough. and then he takes a few more for silent contemplation.]

... They can't keep us like this for long... If whatever they stand to gain comes from their active attempts to kill us, returning everyone who dies of cold or starvation will become a chore.

[god knows what they want, but it's one guess of many. and guessing is all he can do at this point.]

[Rin has to snort at that.]

I think Yukio would say my entire life is a "lapse in judgement".

[He's not going to go any further in to that, though. He knows what he did was damn near pointless and unnecessary but he can't help that it's already happened.]

We've got a lot more than we had thanks to Night. If you're that hard up I can brave the cold later and bring you somethin'? Won't be a lot but... better'n nothin'.

[Normally he wouldn't stick his neck out like this so much, even for Armin who he does consider a pretty good friend at this point, but the meat is going to go bad eventually and he'd rather share what he can of it.]

I'unno... I'm too stupid to figure this shit out, so I'm just gonna do whatever I can to survive and not get mauled again, since that's obviously what these assholes want.

IC Contact | The Box

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