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Nobody asks about anyone else's words. It's only polite, after all.
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Some are the unlucky ones.
Levi can't really hide his- 'Strong' and 'Soldier' they call him, it's plastered over his forehead and right cheek. The letters are bold and blocky, dispelling any doubts that one could have despite his size.
(on his neck, there is a chain of letters 'b-a-s-t-a-r-d-b-i-t-c-h-w-h-o-r-e',
in faded jagged letters, as if maybe they have been carved into his skin by a knife,
like a necklace, or perhaps a noose
erwin is the only one who knows
incidentally, one can find portraits of a younger erwin wearing a cravat)
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Mikasa is another.
'Beautiful'; this is on her upper arm. When she's wearing her uniform she can hide it, but everyone can see it when she wears shorter sleeves. Everyone she passes by murmurs quietly and agrees, and day by day the letters grow thicker and fancier, curly loops and wispy accents, and in turn it fuels more whispers and comments until her right arm is art.
She doesn't like to go without her uniform.
On her other forearm is 'powerful'- this one is still fairly small, but it grows larger each and every day. These letters are plain and simple, completely practical and nothing fanciful about it. Sometimes, Mikasa stares down at her arm and remembers the day she got it- she was nine years old and staring at a wall while listening to the police, thinking about the feeling of a knife in her hands and floorboards splintering beneath her feet.
She really doesn't like to go without her uniform.
And finally, there is one more. This is on her collarbone, so tiny and so small that it is almost nothing. She can't read this one. There is nobody left alive who can. Some mornings, she looks in the mirror and traces the foreign lines of the symbols in the air, wondering what it means.
(she will never find out that it means 'daughter')
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And then there are others, whose words are always hidden.
This does not make them the lucky ones.
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After Trost, there has to be someone with the unpleasant duty of carting away the dead bodies. This someone will see the corpse of Marco Bodt, bitten in half and slowly on its way to rotting in the sun. The stench will be terrible.
His death records will say:
Identifying Features:
Words: 2
Word 1: Kind
Location: Right ankle
Size: 8 centimeters, approx.
Word 2: Friend
Location: Palm of left hand
Size: 2 centimeters, approx.
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Bertholdt has only one word, this is slathered over his entire chest. Even in the military, they understand at least how to give people some measure privacy; the shower stalls are separated by dividers. Bertholdt always brings his clothes into the shower and leaves fully dressed. Whenever the topic of people's words comes up- very infrequently- he just forces himself to look more nervous than usual (not very difficult) and everybody leaves him alone after that.
Reiner knows. Reiner has this word too, but his is not so large, just on his thigh running down to his knee.
This word is MONSTER
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And then, there's Eren.
Eren's a funny case. His word is plainly visible on the back of his right hand. "Yeager", it says, in thick stocky letters.
He gets teased about it a bit, of course. The childhood bullies. Jean, for a bit. Auruo, though this is only (mostly) in jest. What kind of person has their own name for their word? Well, it is true that more people call him "Yeager" than "Eren", and it is better than 'psychopath' or 'monster', but "Yeager", really?
Reiner and Bertholdt are bleeding and broken and now, they stare into furious green eyes; and now they understand.
Eren is the hunter.
And they are the prey.