text; un: reiner

[hometown]

I've got a question for anyone willing to answer.

Would you say you come from a generally peaceful world or a violent one?

Comments

[hometown]

The more you talk about it, the more it sounds like a war. But that's just daily life, right?

[abnormalizes]

Pretty much. At least wars sometimes have a better reason behind them than 'money'.

[hometown]

I would hope so. That's the whole reason behind the violence in your world, though? Money?

[abnormalizes]

Most of it, yeah. My job prioritizes profit over employee safety, the Backstreets are full of violence because that's one of the few ways to make enough of a living that you might escape the Backstreets someday...

[hometown]

So people wind up crawling over each other trying to get out.

[abnormalizes]

Pretty much, yeah. It's a wretched place.

[hometown]

For what it's worth, I don't think you're alone in coming from a wretched place.

[abnormalizes]

Jean told me a little, although I've tried not to pry too much. I'm glad you're here instead of there.

[hometown]

[ Reiner starts to type, "Our world isn't as bleak as Jean believes." Then he thinks better of it, deleting the half-written message. Reiner offered to tell Jean about their world—the real world outside of Paradis Island. If Jean chooses to take him up on it, Reiner will explain things. In the meantime, there's no sense in telling Jean's friends the truth, knowing it could travel back to Jean without necessary context.

In the end, he just writes, ]

You two are friends, huh?

[abnormalizes]

Not super close, but I'd like to think so? He's one of the few humans who kind of gets me when I talk about my experiences - being used to death, finding yourself here where everything is wildly different, wondering why you're the lucky one who got to escape.

Occasionally I catch him working too hard training and have to get him to sit down and hold hands.

[hometown]

I'm glad you look after him. He's a really good guy.

[abnormalizes]

He is. He could afford to push himself a little less, though.

[hometown]

He took it easier when he was younger. I doubt he'll return to that.

[abnormalizes]

It's hard to go back to how you were before, unfortunately. Even when you move to a nicer place where the way you learned to survive isn't necessary anymore. (Stop me if I'm projecting.)

[hometown]

No, you're right. When you learn how to survive in a certain way, it's difficult to unlearn it.

[abnormalizes]

Yeah. The best thing I can do is keep an eye out for him. I'm glad he has so many other friends here to help with that.

[these two are friends, right??]

[hometown]

Yeah, me too.

[ Even if Jean doesn't count Reiner among his friends anymore (for good reason), Reiner still considers Jean one of his. ]

[abnormalizes]

So, any interesting results on the survey so far?

[hometown]

Honestly? A lot of stuff I can barely conceptualize. Things like gods and immortality are way beyond the scope of my experience.

For the most part, it looks like violence is concentrated in war. The scale of those wars varies dramatically between worlds.

[abnormalizes]

I can sympathize with that. I do work with unkillable monsters, but gods are a little out of my wheelhouse.

...Well, I do know some monsters who think they're gods, but that's different.

[hometown]

You work with intelligent monsters?

[ It's the "intelligent" part that snags Reiner's attention. There are only a few "monsters" like that in his world—himself among them. ]

[abnormalizes]

I do. We call them 'Abnormalities' in my line of work - they're formed from the human subconscious.

[hometown]

[ Formed from the human subconscious…? ]

That sounds intense.

[abnormalizes]

It is. The mortality rate at my job's pretty high.

[hometown]

Let me guess: it pays well, so people keep taking the job?