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not-in-the-library · 54 minutes

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not-in-the-library · 10 hours

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She doesn’t look anything like her pictures…

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not-in-the-library · 10 hours

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At the Side of a Titan

Our First Conversation

The titans are great beasts that no man in his right mind would trust. It is fortunate then that I did not belong to that category, for you see, I have discovered life at the side of such a powerful being to be much simpler than it is within the confines of human civilization. Gone are the worries of food and shelter - a single crumb of the titan's meal could feed me for days, and no soul dare approach such a terrifying figure. At the same time, it is difficult to be so completely stripped of any sort of society. While it seemed otherwise at first, the lack of social exchanges began to weigh on me a few moons after I joined the titan's wandering across the land.

I had not one person to speak with - not even the titan, who made himself clear about the matter. They only tolerate my presence due to my insignificance, but would leave me at the first human settlement we encounter were I to cause any disturbance to them. It is for this reason that I dare not to speak much.

The titan himself seemed to be content with silence. In all the time I have traveled with the titan I have heard them say fewer than a dozen different words, and not once have I heard them speak a full sentence. I would like to think that it is understandable then that I had jumped when the titan chose to initiate a conversation with me for the very first time while we hid from a storm in a large cavern.

"Bothered?"

"E-excuse me?" worry tinted my voice, in spite of me not having anything to worry about.

"You sighed."

"Oh- did I? I apologize!" I feared the titan to be angry - perhaps he thought the sigh to be an expression of frustration, "the rain had simply saddened me, but I am perfectly well!"

"Why?"

The titan sat down in a motion that caused the bolder that I sat on to tremble terribly - almost resulting in my falling to the ground.

"Why?" I repeated, somewhat surprised, "why did the rain sadden me?"

"Yes."

The titan's usage of a word where a simple nod or even a grunt would have sufficed surprised me further, and I attempted to answer carefully.

"We humans are always sadder during the rain," I sensed it might not be enough, and continued before the titan spoke again, "I would not pretend to have a complete answer, but there are a few reasons I am able to think of."

Having paused for a moment to gather my thoughts I noticed the titan's eyes following me with great interest, I did not know what to make of it so I continued speaking - happy at the opportunity for a conversation.

"Rain brings with itself cold and darkness, and these are both things humans tend to avoid - we do not see well in the dark, and the rain constrains our vision further, and the cold is dangerous to us - it weakens and ills us."

The titan hummed in response and looked to the entrance of the cave at the heavy rain. I followed his gaze and we sat in silence for a while.

"You fear us."

I looked up at his face, and was relieved to see it curious instead of angry.

"Well, yes." Attempting to lie of this matter would have been unwise, but that just meant that I needed to tread carefully. "Your great size frightens us as we are all too aware of the harm you are capable of inflicting on us if you so choose."

"And our abilities."

My heart stopped at these words. Everyone knew of the rare powers of the titans, and everyone knew that they never spoke of them with lowly humans. At these moments I feared for my life. Have I spoken too much? Have I irritated the titan greatly enough for them to have decided to rid of me?

Still, I replied, "yes, the abilities scare us most."

The titan - lowering their head - looked away from the rain and inspected me.

"Are you scared of me?"

Yes. Yes, I am terrified.

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.

My body refused to react as the titan leaned lower - watching me all the while. A strange expression appeared on their face.

"Don't be scared," their voice quiet and gentle as it had never been before, "I won't hurt you."

I found myself unable to move as gigantic hands rushed towards me. In terror and awe I watched the enormous hands as one closed around my bolder, and the other around me. I would have disapproved of this, were it not for the fact that my legs chose that exact moment to buckle. I slowly sat down - using the giant hand as support, and looked up to the titan's face. Fiery-gold eyes met mine, fiery-gold eyes that followed every single one of my movements.

A heavy sigh escaped the titan's mouth, hitting me as a warm gust of wind, "sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he apologized.

That caught me unprepared. Did the titan really just apologize for scaring me? Evidently so. As my heart returned to its regular pace I managed to decipher the large being's facial expression as sorrow or perhaps regret. He really did mean his apology. For a single moment I felt a need to apologize to him for having feared him.

"There is no need to apologize," I reassured the sympathetic titan, "the matter has been cleared now," I smiled - both to help assure the titan of my forgiveness, and due to a true easing of a tension that went unnoticed by me until now.

The titan remained still for a few moments - looking me over with those terribly big eyes - before leaning back to watch the weeping heavens once more. I confess that the sight of his hands retracting away from me filled me with relief.

"What do you know about the abilities?"

I would have preferred some other topic of conversation, but with the titan's reassurance and an unhealthy supplement of curiosity I managed to continue the conversation.

"We do not know much," I began, "we only know for certain that these powers exist, and that they are inaccessible to us. All else are guesses. Are these powers tiring to wield, or do they have to be held back at all times? Do all titans possess them, or are there just a select few who are actually able to make use of them? Many of our scholars debated such questions, but to the best of my knowledge none have yet given a complete and satisfactory answer."

When an amused chuckle reverberated throughout the cave I turned to look at the titan.

"You do fear the unknown."

I do not like to admit it, but I felt embarrassment at the titan's reaction - not just for myself, but for all of humanity.

"We have good reason to," I defended, "much too often the unknown turns against us, or is used against us by some other malicious entity."

The titan thought it over shortly before shrugging.

"Fair."

I suspected him not to be entirely sincere - the slight upward curving of his lips might have went unnoticed by a fellow titan, but it clued me in to his still elevated mood. I might have continued arguing, but the titan sighed - and the smile was gone. I took that as an indication that our conversation is over, and reserved to continue watching the heavy rain.

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not-in-the-library · 11 hours

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he sounded like that wasn't the first time he needed to do that

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not-in-the-library · 1 day

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chapter 9 - 3

first ll prev ll next chapter in eehhh... probably in 3 weeks

Pleased to present Varpu's depression bedroom sdlgdl I am seeing myself out.

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not-in-the-library · 1 day

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Behold! Doctor Herman Avery aka Harry, one of @fireflywritesgt's main characters from their story The Art of Love and War. Be sure to check it out, it's beyond amazing. You won't regret it.

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not-in-the-library · 1 day

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