by
Imagined conversation between Eren and Jean while they were in Marley. An Attack on Titan fanfic vignette, in celebration of Jean’s birthday week (April 1 to 7).
Spying is hard. It’s hard because you have to pretend you’re a piece of rock. You try to see without being seen, hear without being heard, talk without drawing attention to yourself. The Marleyans spoke the Eldian language, but between them and the Paradians there was a difference in accent. Regional dialects, inflections, small details that were a giveaway to the sharpest ears. So Kiyomi picked the most obscure town in Marley and told the team to tell anyone who asks that they come from a village most Marleyans have never been to, much less heard of.
But that was really the easy part. The hardest part was finding out just exactly how much the world hated and feared Paradis, how much they despised Eldians as a whole. All that animosity aimed at them tore into the Scouts’ psyche, weakening them from the inside, hurting them, making them lose hope.
There were only two respites: the fact that Marleyan food and drink was, as Nicolo had insisted, better than what they’ve ever had in Paradis. The other way to escape from the harshness of reality was to fantasize. Real life was cruel and violent and full of hate– the only means of keeping your sanity was to imagine a world where everything was different.
Jean and Eren were heading back to the Azumabito residence in Marley after a full day of being spies. They rested on a park bench for a short while, watching little children cling noisily to the joys of the playground while their parents and guardians and babysitters came to bring them home as the sun was about to set.
They’d been discussing the horrendous fact that Eren has only a few years left to live.
Jean wants to say something comforting. “Hey, you know what, if I have a kid and it’s a boy, I’ll name him after you,” he says.
Eren grins, “That’d be neat, thanks!” But after a short pause he asks, “What if it’s a girl?”
“Well, a female version of your name. Maybe Elena or Elaine or something,” Jean answers. “But Mikasa might want to use your mum’s name, Carla. Or maybe Sasha. But if it’s a boy he’s definitely gonna be called Eren.”
“Maybe you can have a boy and a girl,” Eren suggests, thinking out loud, “and you can use middle names.”
—— AD - CONTINUE READING BELOW ——
“Middle name? Like two names each?”
“Yeah, they’re common in other countries, aren’t they? I hear most of the nobility in the continent have like, a dozen names each,” Eren says. “Ordinary people are less pretentious, I should think. Two names sound just about right.”
“That’ll solve the dilemma of which grandparent to name your kid after, I suppose,” Jean remarks, liking the idea.
“So if a boy, then Eren Marco Kirschtein, a girl, then Sasha Carla Kirschtein. Sounds good, ey?” Eren was on a roll.
“That’s a swell idea!” Jean exclaims. And then, suspiciously, “Why’re you finally saying things that make sense? What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”
The titan shifter snorts out a laugh. “I’ve always made sense.”
“No, no, no!” a little girl in a lavender jumper was screaming, making a racket, kicking dust with her tiny purple shoes. “Me no go home, me stay, me climb!” Her childminder was scolding her and trying to pry her fingers off the base of the monkey bars.
Jean and Eren watch the scene, lost in their own thoughts.
—— AD - CONTINUE READING BELOW ——
“What about you, Eren? What’ll you name your kid?”
“I don’t think I’ve any say on that! If it’s a girl, Historia will want to name her Ymir. A boy, then after me, I guess.”
“Maybe Historia will have twins. That’d be cool, don’t you think? A boy and a girl.”
Eren smiles, an enigmatic, soulful smile. “Twins would be amazing.”
“Hey, here’s a thought! We’ll call the girl Lily, for Little Ymir. We don’t want to confuse her with our classmate Ymir. And the boy we’ll call Len, for Little Eren, so as not to be confused with you.”
“Lily and Len. Len and Lily,” Eren vocalizes the names slowly, cocking his head to one side, testing the sounds on his tongue. “I like it!” he decides.
Was there a tinge of brightness in his tone, Jean wonders. Eren has been so morose lately. Must be the barrage of memories from past titan shifters that he’d inherited, making his mind go crazy, keeping him up at night.
The little girl in the lavender jumper was bawling her eyes out as the childminder hoisted her on an arm. “There now, sweetie, quit yowling. We’ll come back tomorrow. There’s always tomorrow,” the adult tries to reason with the child. The toddler, unable to grasp the concept of tomorrow, keeps on wailing.
“Jean,” Eren says.
—— AD - CONTINUE READING BELOW ——
“What?”
“You’ll keep an eye on my kid, when I’m gone?”
“Course I will!” Jean replies emphatically. “I’ll be the best uncle ever. Just wait and see!”
“No bad-mouthing me in front of my kid? No calling me suicidal bastard?”
“You fucking insane? Not in front of your kid. I’ll make you into a hero, promise!”
“You’ll really do that?”
“Cross my heart, hope to die.”
“Don’t die, Jean. Don’t you goddamn dare.”
“It’s an idiomatic expression, silly!” Jean rolls his eyes.
—— AD - CONTINUE READING BELOW ——
The playground was empty now. At this time of day it was eerily quiet in this part of town.
“Guess we better get going,” Eren says, getting up and stretching a little.
“Supper’s at eight. Still got an hour. Let’s hit the pub,” says Jean.
Eren chuckles. “You say that everyday, dipsomaniac.”
“Oh, so now you’re suddenly imbibed with a rich vocabulary!”
“Debauchee, boozer, carouser, tosspot, barfly…” The titan shifter was on a roll again.
Jean throws his head back, laughing good-naturedly.
“Call me whatever you want; we won’t be in this wine heaven of a country for long. Our god-forsaken island awaits. In the meantime, let’s live it up!” he says, putting an arm around Eren’s shoulders and steering him in the direction of the nearest tavern.
Thank you so much for reading! Please consider sharing a thought or two in the comment section below. Your comments give me life and are a real source of encouragement. xoxo, hana
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I absolutely love your work! You are such a gifted writer! I’ve only recently come across AoT world, but I’m already addicted, and the stories you share with us have only increased this addiction. I’m not a native english speaker, but certainly your words are helping me to improve on it. Thank you very much!
Hi, Thais! I can’t thank you enough for this lovely comment. It’s really encouraging to hear from my readers. Many don’t take the time to say a few words and it’s very disheartening, but every now and then along comes a wonderful reader like you who makes my day! It means the world to me 😀
I’ve seen my works translated into various languages (French, Russian, Chinese and so on) and it makes me worry that Google Translate is messing everything up. Also, I don’t have an editor and make mistakes here and there. But I’m really glad to hear you’re reading in the original. Your English is flawless! If there’s a word or phrase in any of my stories that you find confusing, please don’t hesitate to ask for clarification. I’d love to learn more about how I can make my stories easier to read and understand for everyone from all language backgrounds.
Once again, thank you so, so much for your kind words! AoT is a wonderfully layered, amazing world full of brilliant narratives, touching dialogue and a whole cast of complex characters. I’m so glad you’re enjoying it as much as I do. I’m always happy to chat so please feel free to write whatever you’re feeling or thinking, even if it’s just a single line! xoxo – hana
i love it it must suck for eren to know future events
OMG thank you so much for commenting! No one ever comments on this blog except Krissy, my old classmate from years ago. I’m so, so happy you took the time to say a few words. THANK YOU! I’m glad you enjoyed the vignette. I’m working on the next part of the novela (centered on Levi, Historia, her kids and other original characters) and hope to have some of it published by next week.
I’ve always thought it would be cool to know the future, but I guess that would take the joy and anticipation out of life. It reminds me of that old Tom Cruise movie “Minority Report” where psychics with foreknowledge are used for crime prevention, with terrible consequences. Personally, I’d like to know the future, but I want to be able to change the course of events and not just have the knowledge of their happening. It must be terrible to see what’s in store without being able to do a thing about it.
Isayama has said in interviews that he wants a “bittersweet” ending so I just took it for granted that Eren will have to die, as shown in the way he’s come to accept the fact in the vignette. But maybe I’m wrong about this? Once the manga ends they’ll start hyping the Hollywood live-action film. Do you think Isayama will replace whatever bittersweet ending he planned to do in the first place for a Hollywood-style happy ending, you know, like the ones Marvel films usually have?
I’d personally be disappointed if he sells out to Hollywood (ending-wise). What about you?
depends on how much you see if it is like the attack titan i think it is perfect two characters in american dragon jake long they are twins one can see all good parts of the future and the other is the bad parts it makes it funny and one is a emo and the other is all happy and they emo has the good visions and the happy one has the dark and gloomy visions. But if a character can see all futures then it is really unfair but if it can see the future and twist it to your will then it is unfair that yhwach from bleach
the ending well tokyo ghoul was really dark but it had a happy ending i am fine with a happy ending but not to happy i want all of eren’s friends to realises they caused Eren to become like this and spare him and they find out how dark he got because no one helped them. the ending can’t be worse than bleach everyone dies and it still will be a better ending hopefully everyone who died comes back if i want that i will watch/read dbz
from a eh discord server
this theory is: Eren’s plan has 2 options:
first Eren starts the rumbling and then
1) if ppl around the world can understand why the rumbling happens and get the comprehension level that Eren understand Reiner. He can finally stop the rumbling.
This is ‘hope’
2) if ppl cannot reach this level. Eren will destroy the world.
This is ‘hell’
he doesn’t know what will happen to these ppl. So he says ‘the only people who do know …are the ones who keep moving forward’
We can see the allience gradually reach this level in this chapter.
And this can also explain why Hisu is hidden so far. Because she reached the same level as Eren at the beginning. So she can only be shown after everyone around the world reaches this level and understand Eren.
I would personally be pissed if any of Eren’s friends (not including Reiner and Annie, they get a pass for wanting to kill Eren in order to stop him) end up trying to kill him. I think it would be completely out of character. Eren is very much loved by Armin, Mikasa, Jean, Connie…they’ll try to talk him out of the rumbling but if Eren ignores them then I see them as letting him have his way and just dealing with the aftermath. The Mikasa vs Eren or Levi vs Eren or any of the ‘vs Eren’ battles that some people are predicting are just so out of character I can’t wrap my head around any of them.
I actually expected Kaneki to die in Tokyo Ghoul, but when he didn’t half of me was disappointed he didn’t ‘die in style’, while the other half was satisfied he got a happy ending. But to be brutally honest, there was a part of me that wanted him to die, and the only reason I can think of is because I’m a very bad person. I somehow think that to be the perfect protagonist one has to die in the end, like Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop.
For AoT, one side of me would really love a happy ending (erehisu, jeankasa, Connie, Levi, Hange, everyone else) but if everyone is happy then there’s no bitter in the ‘bittersweet’. It would end up like a syrupy Disney movie (which I thoroughly despise, again because I’m a bad person) and I’d simply find that too disappointing. It’s difficult to find that perfect ending because if Eren dies people will complain it is too Code Geass-like, if everyone dies people will complain it’s too Evangelion-like (the one with the ending where everyone’s soup), if no one dies then I’ll complain it’s too Disney-like, if some of the major characters die and one of them’s Jean then I will lose the will to live (but will donate my purchased volumes to the local library before I die). But since Isayama has added the time travel thingy and the Paths thingy and whatever other dimension there is that we don’t yet know of, I’m sure he’ll come up with a mind-blowing, original ending. Or maybe I’m expecting too much. I’m preparing myself to be disappointed whichever way it goes xD
I think my problem is that Isayama once mentioned in an interview that he like the ending of “The Mist” film, but once AoT became a global hit as a manga & anime, he said he changed his mind about the ending and is thinking more of a Marvel-style one. I see that as being a sell-out, although of course it’s his story so he has every right to change his mind. I guess my problem is that I consider “The Mist” film as one of the best book-to-film adaptations ever made in the horror genre. I really enjoyed that film because of the dark, utterly heartbreaking ending. Without that ending I’d have forgotten about it the moment the credits started rolling. It’s precisely that ending that makes the film great, even better than the book.
So you have the likes of me, overjoyed to find out that Isayama enjoyed the same film I did, and then there’s me again, disappointed that he now prefers GotG over utterly heartbreaking but thoroughly memorable.
awww this is so sweet! wish it happened in canon!
Thanks! Too bad it won’t happen in canon, but I do wish for one last Jean and Eren conversation before either (or both) of them dies.
I really wanted to add Mikasa’s mum’s name and Jean’s mum’s name in the mix, you know, make the baby girls have lots of names. But we don’t know what they are and I didn’t want to just invent names for them.
am trying to think up of names for mikasas mom: hide-hime mine-hime asa-hime yasu-hime sue-hime tsuya-hime names of princesses from the tokugawa clan tokugawa ienari had more than fifty kids maybe mikasas moms mom was one of them 😀