[IC] [AoT 1x1] - 'Grim Tales'

[Jeep Wrangler]

The ground began to thud. Heavy beats like wardrums of a thousand armies began to chant throughout the empty air. Crumbling trees, bellowing breaths and god-awful crumbles left a silent world open to the uprising out fear. The ground's nearby pebbles and stones began to tremble and leap, many losing complete control. The beats began to increase, heading faster and faster. The increase took a larger effect, as they grew louder and louder. Growls of anger mowed down the last remains of complete peace between loudness and quietness. The thuds grew louder...It drew nearer, wanting to fulfil a purpose this time. It wasn't seeking complete destruction, only the soul protection of another minor ally. The beast was gaining upon the scene, running faster and faster, gaining speed with every step. It wanted to gain a small success...for what the beast desired was but a damsel on more than distress...

[RainbowFactory]

The rumbling ground and shaking building woke up the unconscious Hope, her eyes shooting awake. From the way the ground is rumbling she recognized what was happening. Not an earthquake, not a group of titans, but a titan shifter. Grant must of heard the call, using his shifter form to quickly travel across the land so he could help Hope. She couldn't go back to sleep and try healing at this point, the ground shaking too much and her body already waken fully.
Hope decided to do another roar, moving the arm she's laying on enough that she could cup her hand around the edge of her mouth. She opened her mouth widely again and did her screech, hoping the Grim Titan could track her down using her roar. Hope screamed for a long period of time, until it was at the point when the building was falling apart, indicating that the Grim Titan isn't far from her now.

[Jeep Wrangler]

And as the ground took one final shake, the beast was upon the vicinity. And with that being said, the seeminnly Minute Titan compared to the sheer size of the Grim Titan was more than enough to know how it was going to go down. Taking upon a terrifying growl, Grant's form edged closer to the distracted Titan. The naked humanoid was edging closer to the crash-site. Grant's inner control began to kick in, as he felt himself take the piloting role of such a gigantic hunk of flesh, fur and heat. Crawling over in its Mutt-posture, snarling away as boiling dribbles of saliva sparked onto the grass, charing up the surrounding green and creating a black setting. It was as if the nightly terror of the Grim Titan was spreading into Nature itself.

Claws at the ready, the Titan reached its daunting and deformed hand [Or paw] out. Grant's grip slowly found its way onto the head of his opponent. The claws dug deep into the chest, back and waist of the standard Titan, the squelching of punctured skin and organ being drowned out by a melodic growl. It didn't move, as if resisting the Titan. It was restraining it. Grant's titan hands had a rush of intense temperature flow directly into them. The prey began to toss and turn slightly, as if suffering, as the scalp was being burnt to a crisp. An over-cooked meal being roasted in a horrifying way. Chared flesh and ashy skin flickered around Hope from above, as the Titan let out a piercing screech. It struggled more, as the Grim Titan pleasured from its suffering. After a full minute of burning the beast's scalp down to the skull, Grant's hands suddenly slammed shut, like some sort of bear-trap. The seperation of head and body sent blood flying onto Hope's position, the Grim Titan snapping its huge jaws into the face of the dead prey. Ripping it almost every facial feature in a single tear, the body of the Titan was picked up and tossed to aside, left to burn away as a Corpse. As such danger was gone, the Grim Titan leapt down, placing the muzzle in front of Hope, before eventually dying off to finish the cycle between Titan and Man...

[RainbowFactory]

Hope struggled to get back onto her feet, the titan's muzzle directly in front of the hole she made in the building. She stayed in place for a few moments, staring at the Grim Titan's steaming body, then limped over to it. The girl looked over its head to the last moments of another titan's body disintegrating, most likely caused from the titan's destruction. A faint smile appeared on her face as she struggled to grab another blade from her broken gear, and climb over the beast's head. Hope got to the nape and carefully cut the meat, wincing every slice, and revealed the body inside. "Grant..." she said in a low tone, seeing his body inside.

[Jeep Wrangler]

The light bared down upon his back as he fluttered into an awoken state. His eyes and head was heavy, his body weak. This was the worst weakness of him being the Grim Titan. After every single shift, his human form would feel week for about 10 minutes, before he'd reconfigure himself to a strong state. By this time, he knew that he'd done something right, and that his target was indeed fine and awake. That or the Titan hordes of this world had ripped him out, and are about to indulge him. He turned his head, seeing only Hope in front of a ray of sunshine. He grinned to himself slightly, only to feel his eyes close yet again. He was tired, and through his last moment of being awake, he whispered to the two. "You're welcome."

[RainbowFactory]

Hope rolled her eyes, a quiet but slightly disappointed chuckle coming from her mouth. "I'm not saying 'thank you' until you help me with this mess," she said, using her good leg to dig her foot underneath Grant, and start pulling him out. She managed to pull part of him out, his body now partly dangling from the nape, then emitted enough heat that she could burn his surroundings away. Hope rolled him into the Grim Titan's left over fur then plopped down next to him, waiting for him to take consciousness. She also was feeling weak, most likely from standing up too long, so she rested her forehead on his side, continuing to wait.

[Jeep Wrangler]

It took time for Grant to regain his conciousness. In all seriousness, the brutality of his actions left him quite shocked himself. He'd done such an inhumane thing for only saving one person. Whether it was a brief observation of his strength, or his will to help the newly acquainted old-enemy, he still did some messed up stuff. His head felt rather heavy still, as he was laid onto the Titan's body. His mouth had a taste, strange and quite disturbing, that had been left over from his transformation. Nothing he'd done in those moments were something he could claim pride in, except the succession in both fear and task completion. What's more, that was the first time he'd transformed twice between such little time. If he were not to be careful, those within the AHSS still searching for him, even Yuri, would eventually come across him and Hope. He knew that Hope was not yet familiar with the hunters, and Yuri's cause. For all that he knew, he could convince her that his former friend isn't the good-guy, when in retrospect he is. Lance Corporal Hugh Portman was still on the case, no doubt, and wouldn't rest to see his job complete. Again, he wasn't even the antagonist. No one who was hunting him down was the antagonist...Because despite his morales, and his change of heart...Grant has, and always will be the Antagonist. He thought about it, looking to Hope as she rested herself against him. He let out an audible sigh, knowing that any signs of danger towards another Human aren't going to go down well, especially with the AHSS soon to be on his doorstep. "Well...thanks for helping...me out..."

[RainbowFactory]

It took a few moments for Hope to realize Grant has said something, raising then shaking her head to focus. "Can you help me now?" she asked, a bit impatiently, before slowly standing up again so he could help. "Do I have to explain what happened or you just came to help with this?" Hope questioned again, making a quick chuckle. She did want to tell him what happened, wanting to see how he would react to her stupid decision to attack a titan without any gas, but she also wanted to get the wood and blade out of her body as soon as possible. Hope could also explain what happened while Grant took out the two objects, but any sounds of pain would most likely come out of her mouth instead of words. She simply waited for a response, staring down at the former soldier with slightly squinted eyes.

[Jeep Wrangler]

He looked up, at the now impatient Hope. Two objects had embedded themselves into her, like Shrapnel from the Cannons he used to man. Grant's face widened, thinking in a confused manner. Taking his left hand, he prepared to start yanking out out. "Right...I...uhh...Hope you don't mind, but this'll hurt...a lot..." Without any warning, he wrapped the left hand and pulled suddenly, ripping the item from herself. Quickly, he moved around pulling out the second. Knowing that she'd be in great pain, and more in a second, he moved in to remove any cases of bleeding from the now open wounds. His right hand began to heat up, as if he were still in his Titan form. It didn't take long for it to get to a scorching temperature. Hesitating, he thought about her upcoming pain, before placing the hand to burn/scold the wounds. Cauterizing, as the method is called, he began to close them with the intense heat. It almost seemed like a mythical practice, what he was doing, yet with time and care, the wound began to seal. He let out a smirk, both of joy and somewhat enjoyment from the process, as he looked at the inevitlbly pain-filled Hope. "Now you're welcome..."

[RainbowFactory]

Hope was about to say something about Grant's "hope" statement, but didn't have enough time to do so. Seconds later a shock of pain went through her as both items were ripped out of her body in a matter of seconds. The pain was too much. She couldn't even scream out due to it, only opening her mouth to let out air. Hope dropped down onto her knees and right arm, tightening her left fist. She tried to get up but a blast of heat came upon her bleeding wounds. Something that felt like a hand was pressing against her, quickly closing the injuries using the heat that emitted from it. When both wounds were closed the burned skin faded to its normal color. Steam came off of her body, mostly from the former wound areas. She felt paralyzed in one spot as her body twitched. "Damn you..." she muttered under her breath.

[Jeep Wrangler]

Grant let out a minor grin, still slightly woozy from the whole experience. He watched her fall down slightly, cursing his actions in a low tone. Slowly bringing himself to his feet, however staggering upon doing so, he once again towered over the woman. "Well...Next time, don't ask me for help...Maybe you could just leave it in there, or worse...bleed out?" He carried that same grin on his face as he had done in previous encounters. "You don't exactly seem like the ideal injury candidate, do you?" He squatted down again, looking at the slightly battered gear that was barely hanging onto her waist. Grant's eyes narrowed dearly, as he placed a large hand on one of the Gas Chambers on the 3DMG. He held it for roughly seven seconds, his eyes trailing leftwards towards the sky. Thoughts buzzed through his mind as he spoke out the results, regardless if she was listening or not. "Your Gas tank is...warm. If it's warm...then..." He paused, removing his hand. Grant began to chuckle deeply to himself, knowing that it was more than humorous to find out her crucial mistake. "You went head-to-head against a Titan...With barely, if any, gas. Geez, you'd think I was wrong for saying shit like you think to quickly....But you definitely think too quickly!" By common initiative, he held out his right hand, gesturing a help up for whenever she wasn't going to complain in utter pain. "I think you'll find we've got something to speak about...as well as you saying thanks, which I'm still waiting for..."

[RainbowFactory]

She listened to every word he spoke, watching as much movement as she could in that position. Hope turned her head slightly to the right hand reached out towards her. Her mouth was still open, as if about to say something, but nothing came out. She rejected getting help right away, hanging her head back down, before adjusting her body to point at her dead-looking horse not far from the two. It was laying helplessly on its right side. The only movement visible from it was its body barely moving up and down, showing sign of shaky breathing. A quiet snort came from Hope as she stopped pointing to push herself upwards, enough that she was onto her knees, then grabbed Grant's hand to steadily get up. She stumbled around before quickly reaching forward and wrapping her arms around Grant. All Hope needed was a few moments before passing out again, still tightly latched onto the man.

[Jeep Wrangler]

He stumbled back slightly upon her grabbing onto him like some sort of blood-thirsty leach. Taking him by slight surprise, he stood there with his arms straight, an expression of slight confusion and awkwardness. His chin sat nicely on top of her head, being bristled by the semi-washed feel. He looked over to her horse, which was still breathing. Incredible how it survived, it was. "I...uhm...don't think you'll be riding that anytime soon." He thought about the connections between Hope and Yuri, the two sort of seeming similar in their own ways. Yuri, obviously, was a Horse-Lover. Tall, same sort of personality...it sort of left a strange shudder in himself. It could be the only explanation to why he'd not raged at her, murdering her once and for all. In his mind, she was his replacement...being the Titan version of who Yuri was. "You should probably come back to the Windmill and rest up...clearly you aren't in a position to zoom around a lot...I'm sure your friend could use one as well. We'll sort out your gas supply another day..." He sighed, beginning to shuffle his feet.

[RainbowFactory]

@LetMeDoStuff
Hope forced herself to stay awake, weakly moving her eyes upwards to him. She made a small sigh before slowly unwrapping her arms around him, and looking over to her injured horse. "How are we going to bring Jean to the windmill? You already shifted, so you can't do it again at the moment, right?" The woman dragged her feet over to her horse, bending down to her knees and petting the animal's side. It would move its eyes to her and take slightly deeper breaths, as if trying to recover for her.

[Jeep Wrangler]

He would look from the Horse to the Woman, to and fro. Letting out a small sigh, he began to walk over to it. Inspecting the damages would be a priority before even moving it, especially if they didn't want to cause anymore. Grant's hands would rub gently across the flank aiming towards the sky. He would pat it, stroke it and shush it if it were to begin become discomforted. "You are one tough bastard, I'll give you that." Grant slowly brought himself back to his full height, still beside the laid creature, whilst turning to Hope. "I mean...You could Shift, if you wanted some Medium-Rare Horse Meat?" Grant looked sympathetically back towards the creature, seeing if its legs had any strength left in them. "As strong as they are, the problem is their fragility. One sprained ankle can ruin their lives for good...If you are thinking of getting him, or her...whatever, back onto their hooves...It'll take more than just time, especially when we can't move it out of an open fucking Field."