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[garganteren]

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Fox
ARE YOU AT LEAST 16 YEARS OLD?: I am!
IF UNDER 18 YEARS OLD, PLEASE STATE YOUR AGE: I am also over 18.
CONTACT: teacuppity
CHARACTERS PLAYED: N/A

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Eren Yeager
CANON: Attack on Titan
CANON REFERENCE: Some ridiculous protagonist.
AGE: He is 14 in his AU. He's 15 in canon, but is also shown when he's younger.
GENDER: Male
YEAR IN SCHOOL/FACULTY POSITION: 9th grade.
APPEARANCE: In human form and in titan form.

PERSONALITY: Eren is nothing if not determined. His life story is one of determination: sometimes wrongheaded, but always passionate.

Even before the incident in which his home was destroyed and his mother was killed, which inspired his angry, vengeful dream to kill every last one of the titans, Eren was a young person with an unusual tenacity and violence. At the age of nine, he killed two human traffickers who had abducted a young girl after murdering her parents. He also convinced the young girl—Mikasa, who would later become his adoptive sister—to kill the third kidnapper to save both their lives. Eren showed no remorse or hesitation regarding the deaths of the men he killed. He considered them animals, not people, saying, "Beasts like that just happen to look like people sometimes!" For a child to have such a thought and to be able to kill two fully grown men is unusual, and shows the kind of intensity and even ferocity that Eren is capable of.

This also illustrates Eren's very black and white, kill-or-be-killed attitude toward life. Men who would commit such crimes shouldn't be shown mercy or even viewed as human. Their lives aren't worthwhile, as far as he's concerned. He is harsh and unforgiving. He takes a very direct route to problem solving: these people are violent and should be killed. There's no question of ambiguity or doubt where Eren is concerned, no moral shades of gray. A simple problem has a simple solution, and it should be executed immediately. He isn't the type of person to plan beforehand. He reacts. He's actually not very good at planning at all. The wider strategy of some of the other characters is lost on him, and he doesn't seem to have much luck seeing the bigger picture, without some coaxing or explanation.

Eren's determination only seems to increase once his mother's death fills him with the desire for vengeance. He swears that he will slaughter every single Titan, no matter what. He is a young man with anger issues, to say the least. He's quick to react with emotion: whether facing off against unjust soldiers or having an argument with a comrade he doesn't like. He is an extremely expressive person. When he's experiencing a powerful emotion, his eyes will fill up with tears, and he doesn't hesitate to raise his voice. He rarely thinks before he speaks, and he often doesn't think about what he's doing, or stop to consider that it may not be the wisest course of action. He does earn himself the nickname "Suicidal Bastard" for his actions as a recruit.

For although his determination can be an asset, it is a double-edged sword, as he is impulsive and reckless, not to mention amazingly pigheaded. While his quick thinking and unhesitating manner can have results—he does manage to save Mikasa's life at the age of nine—it can also work against him. In his first battle against the Titans, his leaping ahead and not adopting any strategy nearly got him killed, when he attacked unthinkingly and had his leg bitten off. He definitely would have died, if not for the fact that he was able to turn into a Titan. And yet, if not for his incredible determination, his friend Armin would have died, as even lacking a leg, Eren was able to rescue him from the jaws of a Titan.

Eren can be violent and unthinking, yet at heart, he is a kind person, as his ultimate motivation is to help others. That's the reason he kills the kidnappers, and it's the reason he wants to kill all the Titans. It's not just vengeance (although vengeance is part of it). Titans threaten all humanity and need to be stopped, as far as he's concerned. So does anyone who would rob people of their lives and hopes. He's not easy to befriend, considering his intensity, stubbornness, and single-mindedness. He focuses so much on his goals that he considers he has little time for anything else, but he can be a very loyal friend once he's made up his mind to be friends. He's devoted to Mikasa and Armin, and he's filled with righteous anger if he sees a comrade or loved one injured or killed—or even a person he doesn't know at all. He'll fight to defend others, risking his life and health like the "suicidal bastard" he is. He can be a difficult friend, either shrugging off help or being too protective, but he tries his best to help the people he cares about.

Anger isn't his only emotion. He can be warm and generous, and he has a lot of compassion, even if it is denied to people he thinks are like beasts, like the kidnappers and like the Titan Shifters he holds responsible for his mother's death. But he is capable of bending a little, when his strong loyalty conflicts with his strong killing urge. When he discovers that Annie, who he respected greatly, is a Titan Shifter, he's willing to consider that there might be some good in her regardless, and wonders why she did what she did, which contrasts with his instant determination to kill Bertolt and Reiner, the other Titan Shifters responsible for the attack on his home town.

Another of Eren's good traits is his curiosity. He's grown up in relative isolation, and he yearns to know about the wider world, to see what lies outside the walls. He has something of a sense of adventure, although his experiences have shaped this curiosity, like so much else about Eren, into violence. To go out and see the world, he has to kill and risk his life; he has no choice. He doesn't care about being safe and secure. He wants to go out, to see and experience. He may be stubborn, but he hates complacency. Although, on the negative side, this makes him scornful of people who feel differently, who are content to hang on to their safety and not take action. He accuses such people of living like livestock and has been quite a judgmental person since he was a child. He can even make his curiosity into something judgmental.

Eren, in short, is a difficult young man, but not a bad one.

[AU differences: The major difference between AU Eren and his canon counterpoint is that Eren has been raised to hate mutants, not Titans. As mutants can think and reason, Eren, because of his basically kind, moral nature, doesn't believe they should all be exterminated, even if some of the people who raised him do. For instance, he would never harm a child, mutant or otherwise, and when pressed on the ultimate goals of the Friends of Humanity, he becomes hesitant and evasive rather than saying they should be wiped out. Eren has also intentionally been raised to stick to his own kind, so his curiosity about other people and places is not currently as pronounced as it would be otherwise. It requires some inspiring.]

POWERS/ABILITIES: Eren has the ability to adopt Titan physiology, meaning not the creatures of Greek myth, but a large giant, described here (although the AU version differs somewhat). Eren transforms always into the same giant form, which is 15 meters, or almost 50 feet tall (pictured under appearance).

As a Titan, Eren is huge and strong and has incredible endurance. His titan body is also able to heal itself, which is a part of its mutated physiology. Tissue growth is accelerated to an exceptional degree, which is why Eren can grow so quickly and attain Titan size. He expends energy in a massive rush of tissue growth. To damage Eren when he's in this state is very difficult, as his body is hardy and heals itself. It would be necessary to deal extensive damage to the head or spinal cord to stop the tissue growth and regeneration.

When Eren is in human form, he doesn't have the strength and endurance which are bestowed upon him by his Titan body and size. His strength and endurance are completely normal for a human. He does retain the healing factor, as his body retains the potential for extreme tissue growth that allows him to transform. He can even regenerate lost limbs, although to do that takes a while and puts a significant strain on him. He couldn't get up and walk around casually while doing so. His less severe injuries, like bruises and scrapes, can heal rapidly, and he can even heal broken bones and regrow lost teeth. Eren can easily be killed by a fatal blow in this form, however, like any human.

At his current level of training (nil), Eren has little, if any control over his shifting and his behavior as a Titan. He will turn into a titan at times of great stress, or when experiencing great pain. Because he has such poor control of his power, when he is a Titan, he is unreasoning, and his actions are inspired by emotion and aggression. If something made him angry, and that's why he transformed, he'll unthinkingly attack it. He does not feel the desire to eat people, as Titans in his canon do, but he will attack people if he's angry or feels threatened, which makes him incredibly dangerous in this state.

Maintaining the Titan form is draining, and Eren currently cannot maintain it for that long, probably no more than a half hour maximum, a half hour during which he has no control of himself. Eventually, he will collapse, and then he will have to be extracted from the extra tissue. In time, this tissue will break down on its own and release him, as its structure differs from normal human cells, but it's messy and unwieldy.

It would be possible for Eren to learn to gain control of himself in his Titan form with practice, and to stay in that form longer, but as a Titan, his language skills are impaired, and he will always find it more difficult to focus and think clearly.

AU HISTORY: Eren is yet another victim in the ongoing societal conflict between mutants and humans.

He had a fairly ordinary childhood. He lived in a small town, with his mother and father. His father, Grisha, was a researcher for the government, a brilliant geneticist. His mother, Kalura, was a freelance writer who stayed home and took care of Eren. Eren was very close to his mother. His father was often away for long stretches of time, working on secret projects for the government, but Eren loved and respected him, and they got along well, although Eren shared none of his father's aptitude for science. Eren wanted to be a policeman when he grew up, because he wanted to protect people.

When he was seven years old, everything changed. His town was attacked by mutants with an unknown political affiliation. In the attack, Eren's mother was killed, as were many of his friends and adults he'd grown up with. To this day, it is not known who was behind the attack, or why it was carried out, and none of the mutants were caught. The tragedy was used by the Friends of Humanity and others like them to show how dangerous mutants could be and to sway more of the U.S. public to support their views.

In a move that was as much PR as it was kindness, the FoH decided to adopt some of the town's orphans, including Eren. Eren, however, was not technically an orphan. His father had not been killed in the attack. However, his father was gone, doing research for the government in a top secret location. No one knew where he was, and the government was not about to reveal his whereabouts, so Grisha Yeager was declared missing, presumed dead (which actually suited the government fine). Grisha was not told what had happened to his wife and child, and Eren was not told that his father was still alive.

From the age of seven onward, Eren was raised by a separatist branch of Friends of Humanity and taught to hate mutants. He was raised to expect a war between mutants and humans, homeschooled and taught to fight.

As Grisha was researching mutants, the government, which had him in isolation, at first kept news of the attack from him to avoid compromising his research. They could only do that for so long. He eventually found out, yet he did not realize that his son was still alive. In his grief and anger, he attacked one of the mutants involved in his research, causing great harm to himself and to the government project as a whole. He was in a coma for some time, and once he recovered, he had to deal with the repercussions of his actions and the damage he'd caused to government property.

All these complications meant that seven years passed before Grisha was able to discover that his son was still alive, find him, and attempt to reclaim him. During this time, Eren had become indoctrinated and fully believed in the goals of the Friends of Humanity. He saw his caretakers as his new family.

When Grisha came to take his son back, he was rightly upset by what had been done. The FoH didn't want to give up one of their number, claiming that they were now Eren's legal guardians and that he wanted to stay with them. Eren, who had believed his father was dead, was very confused and stressed by the conflict, and this distress caused his power to manifest for the first time. He transformed into a Titan, and in the ensuing chaos, several people were killed, including Eren's father.

When Eren woke up, he found himself imprisoned by his caretakers. While Eren did not fully remember the events that transpired while he was in Titan form, or those leading up to them—having blocked them out in response to the trauma— he was aware of having transformed into a "monster", and he had a terrible sense that he had done something awful. The FoH said that he should be removed from society, for humanity's sake as well as for his own good, and Eren readily agreed.

The FoH genuinely believed that they were doing what was best for Eren, and they didn't kill him immediately, trying to determine the best and most painless way to take his life. During this delay, an operative who had infiltrated the FoH, who wasn't about to allow them to kill a mutant child, informed the X-Men of what was happening, and Eren was rescued. Not that Eren sees it as a rescue. He believes he was kidnapped and wants to go home, even if this would mean his death. Therefore, he is considered a flight risk, and he is not allowed to leave the campus.

He's still very loyal to the FoH, and very distrustful of all mutants. He thinks they want to brainwash him, and he is hostile to his rescuers. Yet it is quite obvious to Professor Xavier that Eren has no intention of hurting anyone, so he is allowed to move about freely, as long as he remains on school grounds.

Update: Eren was previously in the game and retains the same history as well as his experience and CR over the months that he was in school. While at the Institute, he clashed with students and teachers, completely refusing to attend classes, although he did form a few positive bonds. He also took up janitorial work.

When Eren suffered a breakdown after the holidays, it was deemed that his release into the general student population had been premature, due to his severe emotional and mental instability. His mental condition had quickly deteriorated. He was re-evaluated, then removed to a medical facility and given extensive treatment over the months he was absent from the Institute. Following treatment, he is much less aggressive and better able to interact with his peers.

[Note: Since an angry 14 year old suddenly turning into a 50 foot raging, uncontrollable giant is always a bad idea, and since Eren is still emotionally unstable, I plan to have it so that, in the event of him being about to transform into a Titan under uncontrolled circumstances, Professor Xavier or another NPC telepath who is monitoring him will simply harmlessly knock him out.]

SAMPLES

NETWORK SAMPLE: Test drive threads.

LOG SAMPLE: He hates it here. He hates everything about it. It's stupid, and it's creepy, and it's weird. He doesn't want to live surrounded by mutants, even if he is one of them! It's not fair. Why'd they have to bring him here? Of all the places in the world, this is the one he wants to be the least. Except maybe Genosha. Being in that evil mutant country would definitely be the worst. They'd probably brainwash him and try to make him one of their mindless super soldiers...

Although that's probably what they're going to do here. But they made a mistake! There's no way Eren's going to become one of them. He'll never betray humanity, never. No matter what happens.

Eren slams his fist into the wall without really thinking about it. He's breathing hard. He wants to go home! If he were home, he'd be training right now, and it would almost be time for a break, when he'd hang out with the other kids and play some games, maybe watch a movie.

No, that isn't right. He'd be in confinement right now. They wouldn't let him play with the other kids. Because he might hurt them. He glances down at his hand. The skin on one of the knuckles split open when he punched the wall, and as he watches, the tiny cut closes up again. Eren shudders. That isn't right. It's unnatural. People shouldn't be able to do things like that.

If he was home, maybe they'd have figured out how to help him by now. They were going to make sure it didn't hurt at all. They really love him, no matter what anyone says. His mother—his second mother—was crying when she told him. They don't want to hurt him. They only want what's best for him. Why can't anyone here understand that? He'd rather die than hurt any innocent people!

Did he—? He tries to remember, not for the first time, what happened before he transformed into the monster. It makes his head ache and his pulse beat fast and hard. He can't remember. What if he— What if he did something terrible? They said that he did something bad, but they wouldn't tell him what it was. Eren feels like crying, but he blinks back the tears. Tears won't help him now.

He keeps staring at his hand. Now that it's healed, it looks just like a normal human hand. He doesn't feel like a mutant. He feels like himself. The same Eren, who loves humanity and hates mutants. The same person he's always been. But he isn't. He's a monster, now. He'll always be a monster. Not a human.

Eren looks up from his hand and out the window, to the green grass of the campus below. He has to get out of here. No matter what. He's going to. He knows his chance will come. His hand curls into a fist. He'll never stop trying. He may be a monster, but he's going to be as human as he can be and fight for humanity with his last breath! Eren doesn't even feel it when he punches the wall again.