maskormenace | EVENING NEWS BULLETIN

EVENING NEWS BULLETIN

"In our first news item this evening, America's ministry of imPort affairs has confirmed that it has suffered a serious data breach, claiming its networks were intercepted by a mysterious hacker.

The ministry has provided little detail on the incident, saying it applied to "the internet-based network where open information and data of the lowest classification level are handled."

Data with higher security classification is still secure, the ministry has said. Intelligence and security services are currently investigating the breach, and invite any citizen or imPort who might have information to come forward. The--"

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for a message from our sponsor of this particular news segment.

Citizens. ImPorts. The government is not as all-seeing or all-powerful as they would have you believe. Stand up and demand government transparency. Demand answers. Do not be complacent.

They know nothing about the Porter. They do not have control. Its origins lead to the Atlantic Ocean where it was pulled near the coast in 1985. They have no idea how it works. It is a mystery to both the government and their scientists. They have no control over it whatsoever. Any control you might think they have is an illusion. I have seen their files. They know no more than us.

Their main priority is trying to find ways to control the Porter so that way they can send back imPorts who have no interest in this world. Why have we not been told this?

Additionally, it is currently unknown why people suddenly go home. It is not the government's doing. They believe it is the fault of Lachesis. Additionally, it's been confirmed that the Porter has its own automated defenses that prevents anyone from prying too much information out of it-- even those already gifted with extreme powers it brings in from other worlds. Lachesis is

[The message suddenly cuts out, and you return to a confused-looking news anchor, who apologises for the break in programming and hurries on to the next segment, some boring item about a vacuumer cleaner scam.]

((This kicks off the mini-event I spoke of two days ago! I will not be running this post, though Skye will be around later! Please use this post to react, treat each top level comment like it's a new post in the community, for characters to gossip about and share their reactions, or maybe actionspam your character's realtime reaction as they watch at home or perhaps in the street. Jump each other, have fun!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Kaneki still replays the video again and again, even if muted, and along the way he also watches the replies (also muted). Specifically, he wants to see people's faces. Their hurt expressions, their angry faces, because of betrayal and because they felt like they were lied to. Kaneki understands their feelings, he does, but it crosses his mind about Annie's feelings too - and the other two guys' feelings as well.

And something like this, public exposure like this, is it REALLY the way to go about it? if she explained to her friends - the people who were starting to see her as a friend - privately, what happened, how it happened, why it happened, she might have been able to keep some of those people from becoming angry, from throwing stones at her. Right? ~~kaneki, forever the optimist, even when there is a gun pointed at his head~~

He finally turns off his communications device. It's enough of that. His eye turns to Annie once again, watching her for a moment to let her finish explaining ]

The way you live now, after this, is it the way you wanted to live? And the people you have lost to it? [ if there was anyone who even refused to deal with her anymore, Kaneki doesn't know ]

...

Isn't it lonely? [ asks the loneliest person of them all ]

[ She wouldn't have been able to handle this one at a time. Easier to cut once with a sword, aim for the center, carve it out, than cut several times over, hoping each guided movement of the blade is avoiding what you don't want severed. Besides, eventually, it'd be about telling the rest... and what is "want" in a case like this? ]

Why should loneliness be a deterrent?

[ She says, and it's a calm thing to ask, calm in tone, calm in the expression she wears. No denial - it is lonely - but "is this the way you wanted to live?" It's better than it's been. Loss is loss. People are lost all the time.

She never really had them in the first place. ]

[ why indeed. Because the moment when you find out what it feels like when you are not lonely, it's the moment you realize loneliness is the worst thing you can feel in your life. Kaneki has felt it, and now in this world he is feeling it yet again, and it's so... terrifying. ]

Then what is that you wish for?

[ Live a good life? Alone? Nobody can live a good life completely alone. He has tried, he has! And he says he can live alone, and oho, look at him, in heropa for few weeks and hanging in there.

but deep inside it's terrible and he hates it. It's not something he wishes for.

It's silly to assume everyone feels the same, but Annie doesn't look like a person who hates being around others, even if she is a bit stoic (like Touka-chan) ]

[ she doesn't like being alone. annie can't really stand it, not when there's a choice to live otherwise, but she knows what loss here can mean, has watched reiner with bertholdt going back, has witnessed the ways people react to those not from their homes departing when the bonds have had some degree of strength.

loneliness is what she's been resigned to all her life. and it does hurt, getting close to people. it hurt having them pull away already, but it was almost a welcome pain, a reminder of the expectations she has to keep in mind. like the pain of muscles tearing, those microtears that happen as one exercises and strengthens what one has. the legs, the arms, the abdomen - the heart. ]

I don't know, exactly. I suppose I wish for a chance to figure out what I wish for. This whole... living for one's own sake, that's different. No assigned mission, a flow of events and people that don't move in the same direction, ideals and ideas and beliefs to struggle with... I don't know what I wish for, other than a chance to keep finding the things I couldn't allow myself back home.

[ what she probably never will allow herself, even if she wakes up, if she survives, if she what, escapes? to loneliness, if she is allowed to survive in that mountain haunt with the memories of her ghosts for company. ]

For whatever that's worth.

[ Living for one's own sake.

Kaneki has to wonder about that. He does the same, he lives for his own sake in a way, but he finds such cowardice in it at times ~~thanks mommy issues~~. It's not that he is judging Annie, but he realizes he can't understand her at all. What it means to be that kind of person, a soldier that obeys orders and does missions and didn't have the chance to decide for themselves.

The ghoul doesn't find it bad. if she has the chance to do it now, then she should. Even if she exposed herself, either because she didn't want to hurt and hurt others, or because she didn't want her enemies to go around exposing her secret like that - if she believes she can live in a way she is pleased with, then isn't it worth it? ]

I think that's worth it, then.

[ he puts the communicator back, before he scratches the back of his head ]

I just hope you will be alright. I would be sad, to see you getting hurt.

[ ~~cross parental issues!!!~~ If he expects anything other than surprise out of Annie at that statement, he'll be disappointed - surprise, because such things aren't what she's used to hearing, and aside from adults who seem to have a better understanding of the fact these things can happen (who probably better understand the concept of child soldiers than Annie does on an emotional level, for all she can see it on a logical one), who may even guess at the psychological molding that happened to her over time to make her who and what she is today, and also define what she won't choose to be, when choice is more of an option...

People don't say it'd bother them if she's hurt. Let alone being sad over it; she knows it would bother some of those she knows, and she does know that Kay, Minako, Reiner, Aracely, even Will care... as would others, but they haven't said so.

It's just one of those things no one says. Not to her. So looking surprised, not able to hide it, she replies with: ]

It's almost guaranteed at some point. ... I'm sorry.

[ Lunatic being after any murderer, Levi waiting in the wings, a military that may well decide a use for her that relies on the abilities she doesn't talk about, regeneration from grievous injury - who sees the future? ANd she makes it purely physical in her mind.

Emotional injury is part and parcel of her life, and who the hell cares about that other than Annie? (Maybe the ones who apologize. Maybe Wally, and Houka, maybe Will who watches and makes the quiet suggestions that are both invasive and unobtrusive. Who's to say? Who's looking for such things in the first place?) ]

I know. It's wishful thinking. [ he says softly because it's true, he knows.

And right now, though he cares for Annie, it's still not that strong need he feels over Hinami-chan, Touka, over Hide... it's there, it'll grow into more because we are talking about Kaneki, the person who fights for those he cares ~~and will eventually grow to get really messed up in the head about it~~, but there is still much to learn about who Annie is.

he does care, though, and that's why he would be sad. He can't claim he will protect her, however, because what does he know, for real?

Kaneki scratches the back of his head before his finger feels the elastic strong from his eyepatch. he remembers what Annie said about Titans, but he knows it's not the same. Ghouls aren't mindless; they are very well aware of what they are doing. Kaneki is, too.

But he is curious - ] How... did you become a Titan-shifter? [ organ transplant? ]

It was a decision my father made for me.

[ ~~as far as we know right now, but canon does seem to indicate this is true blah blah blah~~ there's no hesitation in saying as much, even if it doesn't sound like much of an answer. she does add... ]

If you mean in specific... I don't remember much about that time.

[ willingly or otherwise. ]

I remember my childhood. My father's still living. It's... different for Reiner and Bertholdt.

[ ~~hey, if selective memory loss worked for eren, it can work for her too~~

So she wasn't born one. Though because Annie doesn't remember, maybe she was really young? Maybe it's something too difficult to do and involved prolonged anesthesia ~~like organ transplant~~.

Kaneki sighs softly. This whole thing is a lot to take in and a lot to accept. And to think about. It's so complicated. The boy (man? he is technically 18, though he looks 15) bites his lower lip as he thinks about what else to ask. he has many questions, but they don't all line up in a logical order ]

Do you like... it? [ is this something to be asked????? ] I mean, your titan-shifting, does it bother you?

[ ~~imitating eren is never a bad plan, right?~~

She looks a little surprised at his question. Does it bother her? No one's asked that. She has to consider the question, and her own feelings. It's... ]

No. That is... yes, it bothers me. I don't like what I can do. I'm good at it, but it's not a skill I've used more than twice in the last five years. Three times... including more recent events in this world.

[ she remembers fighting mini-Godzilla. that was... a very unpleasant, slightly cathartic end to a miserable, terrifying three days of horror.

~~and who knows how things were before entering the Walls because goodness I don't at all~~ ]

[ Kaneki nods softly, like the answer was plenty for him ]

And can you control it? Completely?

[ this would be an important question in every way. Though Annie speaks in a way it sounds like she has plenty of control over that power, after she told him Titans were mindless, to what extent she stood "human" when she shifted, anyway? ]

[ it's another complicated question, but one the military had asked when they'd all come forward with a detailed confession. it isn't stated on network. until someone asks, she had no plans to lay out the minutia of how titan shifting works... or doesn't work.

but now that she's been asked, what to say? ]

There's always the chance, if you stay in shift too long, if you get too tired... you might get trapped. Once you have control of your shift, it's not as likely, but it's never impossible. As for me... I have control. I can't be forced to shift. I'm fully aware of myself when in Titan form.

[ she controls her actions, but nothing more or less. not the actions or responses of others. not the collateral damage for being thrown into a church; Annie is a careful mover. she's not careless in the things she does, for the most part. her tone is getting more removed again, like she's reciting a report she's been asked for. ]

[ he doesn't like it all when she detaches herself like that, but it's not his place to argue. it's not his place to complain and it's not his place to demand emotions from her. It doesn't work like that, and Kaneki - right now - is just lucky that Annie is willing to continue answering his questions.

In the video she said she had no plans on doing such thing again. She placed herself in a dangerous position, too, and now is telling Kaneki she just wants to find out what she can do without being on a mission.

Honestly, Kaneki can't bring himself to even argue about what Annie did. He didn't think badly of Uta-san when he learned he raised hell, killed Doves and humans and ghouls for no other reason besides wanting blood and guts; he changed, he is gentle and kind now ~~(you should think badly of him, Kaneki, you really fucking should)~~. The way he looks at Annie's point of view is probably the same, though Kaneki realizes what she did was a mission and not because she was craving mayhem. He doesn't agree with it, but Kaneki can't bring himself to judge her, be angry or push her away. ]

I'm sorry for all these questions, Annie. [ he finally says.

He needs a coffee. ]

... I left it as an open invitation, Ken.

[ First name, because he'd said his friends called him by his last name. It's... part of drawing lines. Annie lets everyone help define them, over time, but she does what she can to detach - and that's the problem.

Keep it separate, keep herself as safe as "everyone" else who wants nothing to do with her. Annie opens herself up to being cut out simply because she doesn't want to deal with the cutting later on. She also doesn't protest... not right now. She wouldn't know how.

She's never had a reason to fight to keep people by her before. Not once. ~~She sucks at friends??? And also yeah Kaneki you're a little too forgiving at times, but uh, yeah, that's your thing....~~ ]

There's no need to apologize. Ah... and for the time being, I'll consider our lessons on hold.

[ She adds. Annie is - quicker to sound level and unconcerned when she draws those lines of separation. There is no obligation you have toward me. It's what she tries to do, a little bit of "the least I could offer." ]

If that's all right with you.

[ It's an easy, easy out. It's why she makes the offer in the first place. ]

[ and yet "ken" is still a rather intimate form of addressing him. Yomo only started to call him Ken after he realized Kaneki was worth it in some ways. But he doesn't mind it, nor he questions it. He has told Annie how it works, and he honestly doesn't mind what someone calls him (except Kanechii, don't call him that, god).

And though it was an open invitation, he still felt bad for asking her so many questions as if he was interrogating her. it wasn't his intention, even if it came out as suck, Kaneki simply wanted to understand.

~~And honestly, his friends eat people, he has to be forgiving. Also thank the mommy issues!~~

But when Annie adds that last part, Kaneki does look surprised, blinking a couple of times. On hold? Does that mean no lesson next Monday? ]

... even the next week?

[ look of surprise, meet... milder look of surprise. (at least she does know first names are more intimate, he's told her that, but she runs by the rules of what else he's said - and in other cases, what annoys someone who'd been jerking her chain first, because annie is always mature. [not.]) her eyebrows quirk up, a gentle sort of disbelief. ]

That's up to you.

[ which is kind of the point here, Kaneki. Annie's leaving all of this up to you to decide on. ]

[ the answer seems to relieve him and Kaneki nods softly, as a gentle smile returns to his lips ]

Then... I will see you next week.

[ like that.

Because a kind person only needs love and kindness to be happy. And he hopes the same for others. ]

... Next week, then.

[ kaneki, a kind person might never be happy, and love and kindness don't always find their ways to them. which means it's baffling, but also - gratifying, on some level, when annie turns away and makes her way out, trusting kaneki can handle turning off what electronics need to be turned off, because he's still willing to go through with this.

... this being dance lessons, but it matters to her. she hates that it does, but she recognizes it, and she doesn't have it in her to deny realities forever. annie wants to have bonds with others. she's just very good at doing what she can to sabotage them for her own safety along the way.

nonetheless, she brushes her hair back off her face as she slips out into the night air, rubbing the back of her neck. ahh... damn. how many times is she going to need to do this? and is it ever going to get easier?

maybe she'll know the answer one day. ]

[ shhh don't say that, let kaneki find out about that the worst way possible! by being tortured until his hair turns white c:

Kaneki will stay behind, watching the girl leave. He figures he should give her some time and space, so he will very slowly begin to pick up his things. Though there is much crossing his head right now, the news report and the hacker during it also weight on his mind.

His life is never easy, is it? He has already accepted that by now.

But hey. At least he is glad he spoke to Annie about this. Getting to know others, becoming closer, too. Such things are good, specially when he is so alone in this new world. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENING NEWS BULLETIN

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

icon just because

wraps up this thread with a pretty bow on top c: