with-no-regrets

(Manga spoilers, swearing - it's also insanely long. Sorry!) The wooden slats of the carriage can't block out the cool evening air, and you shiver a little as you huddle under your cloak. Well, try to huddle. The torture device — sorry, 'corset' — you've been strapped into doesn't really let you bend. Linus, seated opposite, glances away from the window and smiles at you warmly. "I'm sure you're chilly now, Captain, but you'll soon be grateful. The ballroom of Mitras Castle gets awfully stuffy." You look back, despairing that Captain Doctor is so distinctly unbothered about this ordeal. Of course, there's no reason he shouldn't

(Manga spoilers, swearing.) Monday You're in the office, filling out requisition forms for new uniforms, when Hange stops by. "I was supposed to give a morning lecture on Corps history to the recruits tomorrow, but Nile just granted permission for me to visit the lab on his base." She thunks an almighty stack of documents on your desk. "Oh-eight-hundred, please. This time, try not to talk about how they'll all die." The longer you gape at it, the bigger the stack gets. "Wha—" "Break a leg!" The slam of the door follows her cheery goodbye. Setting down your pencil, you lift the topmost page, rising slightly from your seat to reach

(No spoilers; swearing. Second part of Book of Days, dedicated to the wonderful ErwinSmithIsMyMan, who has shown endless patience in waiting for her man.) Book of Days Enrolment Day “But that’s fucking ridiculous. I didn’t come all the way here to let you fucking arrest me.” Your “joining the army” plan has not, thus far, been a success. The team of Scouting Corps soldiers faces you with swords drawn. It’s making your best knife look harmless by comparison. A complete overreaction, this. All you did was escape the pigs and land in the middle of the Corps Headquarters asking to talk to whoever is

(No spoilers; swearing. Book of Days is *yet another* Nightfall companion, specifically for showing the important – i.e. dramatic verging on angsty – days that the main series alludes to sometimes.) Book of Days Leaving Day You re-read the letter, the stolen pen’s ink patchy in the kitchen’s candlelight. We always talk about going to the surface. How we’ll bribe our way up somehow, create new identities somehow, and find somewhere to live... somehow. There’s an easier way, but we never talk about it. We could enlist. That’s what I’ve gone to do. It might be hard to convince them to take me

(Manga spoilers, swearing.) The street is dusty as you make your way along it, Linus towering over you on your right. You seem to have caught Hange’s Disease; your attention is held by the paperwork in your hands, and a minute ago, Linus had been forced to physically pull you out of the way of a surprise building. It’s another clear, cool day, and the slight breeze has your uniform cloak flapping behind you. In the background, voices come and go, rising sharply and then falling to whispers – it would be something to investigate if you weren’t already busy with the minutes of the war council. Whereupon Capt Levi refut

(Manga spoilers; swearing - apologies for the delay, we were experiencing technical issues. Please continue to hold and the following chapter shall be proofread shortly.) In the end, it takes a full two weeks before Linus finally relents and permits your release. He's let you walk around a little, but never far, and never for long. The lack of physical activity hit you harder than you'd have expected. At times, it felt as though the restlessness inside you was an explosion in slow-motion, being constantly smothered and contained even as it threatened to burst out. So today - the day you regain a measure of freedom - there's an impatient ener

(Manga spoilers, swearing. Note: While the treatments alluded to here are real, they are not recommended in a world with modern medicine. Besides, they’re gross.) You toss and turn, but you can’t find comfort. The wet cloth on your head isn’t cool anymore, and the rivulets of cold water have become warm teardrops. You try to lie on your left side, but someone blocks you, their hands keeping you from rolling over. “Sorry, Captain,” a light, stern voice says. “You can’t lie on your side.” Frustrated, you roll back, but now new hands are stopping you from lying on your right side. Another voice

(Manga spoilers, swearing) “It’s true, right?” You know your eyes are gleaming. “Shortass is finally getting NJP’ed?” Hange doesn’t smile back. “You are entirely too happy about that.” You fight off your smile. “Me?” Now for a clearly affected attempt at innocence. “Why would that possibly make me happy, Hange? It’s not as though I went through six years of watching him get away with everything just because he was Erwin’s pet.” You see the slight change in her face, and know she’s about to launch her counterattack. “But you didn’t s

(Manga spoilers, swearing. Note: NJP stands for non-judicial punishment. US Marines call it ‘being ninja-punched’, but as SnK probably has no ninjas, I sadly could not steal this excellent term.) You summon every possible ounce of disgust to your features as you eye the contraption beside your bed. “Linus, I’m not getting in that thing.” The doctor pats one of the wheelchair handles affectionately. “Please, don’t call her a ‘thing’.” “’Her’?” You look at him, stonily. He smiles at you benevolently. “I call her Romhilda.” Naturally. Anything el

(Manga spoilers, swearing) Ida finishes laboriously slipping your broken arm through the arm hole of your white vest, taking an absurd amount of care that nothing so much as brushes the hardened bandages, and then ignores your attempts to pull the rest of it on yourself. You feel like a toddler as she dresses you, and you’re being very conscious that to be angry would be ungrateful. Because you kind of are angry, and it’s not her fault. Your stupid arm decided to snap like a twig, and you just have to pay for it. As she tugs the hem down to the waistband of your trousers, you make to stand up and she immediately plants her hands