#smart pass

[cosmicjoke]

AoT Short Stories Vol. 4 First Tea Cakes: Levi:

So this story got me in the heart.

It revolves around the wife of a wealthy patron to the SC donating baked goods to their branch, and everybody trying to figure out what to do with them, being unused to having any, real luxuries for their soldiers. Nanaba suggests that they split the goods up and have each squad leader take them back and share them with their subordinates.

There's this exchange when Levi brings his share back to his Special Operations Squad:

"'Oh, Captain! Why don't I take this opportunity to make some tea?'

'Don't get so worked up, Petra.'

'Opportunities like this are so rare, though! Also, Olou, you'll make a mess if you cut it up, so let Eld do it.'

So it was true that these soldiers ate for sustenance and little else from their Training Corps days. When Levi met soldiers during his Underground City days, they were always MPs, so he believed they'd all grown fat on luxuries. It almost seemed comical that other fellow soldiers grew congenial over a single sweet, but something about it was also pleasant.

'Do whatever you want. Well... there's a black tin on a shelf in my room. It should be better than the disgusting tea you get in those rations.'

Levi's soldiers recognized the consideration in these words and looked at him with shock. It may have been the first time he showed them anything resembling kindness outside of battle."

What's so telling about the above excerpt is how it demonstrates Levi's kindness, but also his struggle with communicating that kindness. His squad is shocked at his generous offer of letting them drink his own, higher grade tea, because he's never, apparently, offered them anything like that before. But Levi's internal thoughts here are important to understanding why. The only experience Levi really had with soldiers was with the MP's, when he was still in the Underground, and so his impression was that all soldiers in the military, including Survey Corps soldiers, must be used to luxury items and being able to indulge in them. We see Levi's initial confusion here at Petra's excitement over the baked goods, telling her not to get so worked up about it, before realizing it's because they aren't used to having nice things. Seeing the genuine joy it brings them to finally have an opportunity to indulge a little spurs Levi on, then, to offering his own, higher grade tea to go with the sweets. The moment he realized getting to enjoy something of higher quality actually brought his squad happiness, Levi offered what he himself had to give without hesitation. And that really does encapsulate Levi as a person. He has such immense compassion for people, and always wants to help. He just doesn't always know how to share that kindness, almost assuredly because of the way he grew up and the lack of good role models he had. He struggles to know how to express what he's feeling, how to communicate how much he cares.

Then, later in the story, Levi is out at the market, buying provisions it seems, and we get this excerpt:

"He looked over to find a stall with a line of fruit-based sweets. Society was now in a place where more than just the bare necessities could be sold.

'Hey, Mister Survey Corps! How about something sweet to take back to your family?'

I have no family, Levi thought as he tried to ignore him, but then familiar faces came to mind. A new commander, hard at work. Young men who bore the guilt of having survived the killing fields as they analyzed the world's secrets and prepared for the next operation. He doubted he'd get to see the peaceful smiles that came to those expressions like he did before. Even so-

'... Wrap it up for me.'

Something sparked his interest.

All of them thought Levi's sour look never left his face. How would they look if he brought them back some sweets and even made them some tea?

The packaged sweets were freshly baked, and a warm heat spread across Levi's palm."

I mean... just kill me now, please. How sweet is Levi? First, Levi thinking he has no family (which is just all kinds of heartbreaking), but then him thinking of his fellow soldiers. Thinking of, I'm guessing, Hange, and his new squad, realizing they're his family. And then just the way he immediately decides to buy them the sweets on display, thinking about how so many of them have lost their hope and optimism, but hopeful himself that maybe having something nice like this will give them back a little joy, even as he knows it won't really fix anything. When he wonders how they'll look if he gives them sweets and makes them tea, he's obviously remembering how much it meant to his original squad to have even something as small as baked goods to share between them, and he's trying to replicate that here for his new squad, and for Hange, too.

And we see Levi thinking here also about his own difficulty in communicating and expressing his true feelings. He's aware that most people look at him and see an unfeeling, distant and callous person, and he's wondering here, also, if they'll be able to see that's not the case if he gifts them something nice. It's pretty clear from this line that Levi doesn't mean to give off the impression he does to people. He doesn't want to make anyone think he doesn't care. Again, because of how he grew up and the experiences he's lived through, it's had a deeply negative impact on his ability to properly socialize and communicate with others, and Levi is aware of that. He wants people to know he cares about them, again, he just hasn't ever really been shown how to express that care.

It's why we get so many awkward interactions between Levi and others, with him attempting to express compassion or provide them comfort in some way, and it often coming out in strange and sometimes even inappropriate ways, sometimes even leading others to think Levi is being the opposite of kind, like what happened with Historia during the Uprising arc, or like Levi making shit jokes to cheer Eren up, or the numerous times he's hurled what seems like insults at people, but rather than malice, it's simply been out of fear or worry for them on his part. Levi just simply hasn't ever been taught how to communicate with others in a way that would be deemed socially acceptable, and so we see him struggling to learn how to express his care in a way that will be understood by others. We see in this story Levi gradually learning one such way he can, and it's just a testament to what a kind and caring heart he has, that he keeps seeking out ways to show others kindness, and tries here to replicate successfully doing so again with his new squad and commander, just like he once did with his old squad. We see this play out again, when Levi allows the men under his command to take the boxes of wine with them for their mission of watching over Zeke in the forest. He's once more trying to give his subordinates a little joy among all the suffering and loss.

Honestly, how could anyone ever claim that Levi doesn't care or feel anything for others? It seems impossible to me that anyone could be that blind. He's truly just such a good person.

[pangur-and-grim]

it's so nice to see Pangur getting over her fear and returning to normal. after months of nothing bad happening, she's finally had the brilliant thought of "huh.....perhaps nothing bad will happen???"

yes, pangur, you are living a life of decadence like none other. nothing bad will happen to you.

[the-last-butter]

HC they first met a year or two after Yelan got her vision; post fighting the in abyss but when Kaeya was still navigating his identity from Kaeya, Brother and Right hand of Diluc Ragnvindr to Kaeya Alberich, Cavalry Captain and Quarter master of the Knights of Favonius.

[teacupsandcyanide]

Something I miss from earlier eras of the creative side of the internet was things just being unabashedly low-budget. Just all unashamedly amateur, unprofessional, ‘I don’t own a good camera but I have a story to tell you’, ‘I can’t afford a good mic but I have a song to sing for you,’ ‘I don’t have any kind of background in editing or lighting and I only just picked up this guitar last Tuesday but here’s an entire musical me and my friends wrote about our favourite book, we filmed it on a potato and put it up on YouTube in ten minute segments because we thought it was pretty funny.’

[beifong-brainrot]

[zobix]

BOOMSHAKALAKAAAAA

[leglessstreetlights]

fleshing out my Relativity Au some more, i fujking love these guys, they're so-

part 1/ part 2

[ratatatastic]

Vanha Kauppahalli date: en full, a 2 minute 50 second masterpiece...

Primetime Panthers | 11.6.24 (x)

[lazylittledragon]

You actually CAN use different words to muffle emotional effects! we've been making euphemisms for death for as long as we've had language, that's why we say things like "passed away". even the word "die" was an old Norse euphemism for the old English word "sweltan", which itself is a euphemism for the even older word "diegan". (I really agree with your post, the origin of using "unalive" is incredibly dystopian and censorship is awful, I just wanted to infodump about linguistics)

that's actually really cool!!!! thank you for sharing!!!

also anon i'm in a linguistics fixation right now so we shall have a summer wedding

[cosmicjoke]

do you know where i can find any canon information (ova's, smartpasses etc) about levis life between no regrets and season 1

Hmmm, well, I'm not sure exactly. All the smartpass stories I've read, I've done so through the collected box sets of AoT that you can buy online, and the same for the OVA's. Though I know you can stream the OVA's on crunchyroll.com. Someone else might be better to ask about where you can find the smartpass stories. Usually I would just type it into google, attack on titan smart pass stories, and it will probably come up for you.

[drinking-tea-at-parties]

Thinking about Ruby,,,,,,

The Hardie boys went to her when they had problems. They saw her as a leader.... People around the neighborhood knew her... AUGH

She TESTED THE FUCKED UP PALE MACHINE ON HERSELF FIRST ARRRRRRGGGGHHHH

We only get to see this tiny snippet of who she is but I need to know everything about her.

[i-am-a-fan]

I saw a post talking about how there’s a deep mischaracterization of Mk in the fandom specifically about his monkey form and I’m here to dissect it. (WIth doodles!)

Tldr: Will Mk end up hurting his family in season 5 due to his new Monkey form? Most likely no, but it is possible that he indirectly hurts them by not understanding the limits of his power.

First things first let’s collect a list of attributes that we know Mk has from past seasons. This will serve as a spine or checklist to see if certain actions are possible. A thing to keep in mind though is the ranking of each attribute as the writers of LMK wrote there are characters as complex and sometimes abandon certain character values if their center value is threatened. 

Mk’s character value list (in my opinion) is as follows: 

-Family 

-Strength 

-Freedom 

-Dependability 

with family and strength being so close to each other, so sometimes strength ends up as Mk’s main concern. Of course, all of these end up mixing at times and in the first seasons we see the mixing of these values gets him in trouble 

Desiring the freedom of choice over listening to Wukong (Pig Pong Panic). Wanting to be dependable but overestimating his strength (Duplication). Wanting to be strong but forgets his family in the process (shadow play). Eventually, he gets his priorities in check and has ended up sticking to this list for most of seasons 3 and 4. 

Now his flaws (in no particular order): 

Impulsivity 

Forgetfulness 

Stubbornness 

Blind devotion 

He’s overcome a lot of these when he was forced to learn them in season 3. His stubbornness to not tell anyone what was happening with the LBD got people hurt. His impulsivity with his actions ended up crashing the ship, and almost sold his family to a goldfish demon.

(Text: Mk's Fault, Good Intentions, Trying mentor)

So he’s had to come up with methods of working around that. Mk’s blind devotion to Wukong almost got Mei killed, and we see how he changes because of it. At the end of season 3, Mk doesn’t explicitly say that he sees Wukong in a new light but he heavily implies it with the metaphor of a bowl of noodles. 

So… Will Mk go crazy and end up hurting his friends? 

I highly doubt it. While I toyed with the idea, Mk is a lot smarter than the fandom usually gives him credit for. He knows Wukong is flawed, and he still trusts in him because he knows Wukong is trying. Mk has faith in Wukong’s strength and the fact that Wukong also heavily values family, even if his isolation makes it a lot harder for him to do so. Just rewatch the ending of season 3 where Wukong apologizes to Mk and watch as Mk comes to the realization that Wukong is trying so hard to make up for his past. (They also drive this point home in season 4 with how disappointed Wukong sounds at himself for not finding Mk in the scroll in the season finale.) 

(Text: He's flawed and trying, Has to accept harsh reality, Dissociating Coping mechanism)

So what about Mk’s impulsivity? I doubt that’d be something that directly harms his friends. He’s worked on his impulsivity by working with others (Redson in season 3 and Mei’s planning in season 4) to help fill in the gaps in his plans. In order for his impulsivity to harm others, you’d have to break that family value first or raise that value of strength and freedom. Most likely this flaw can manifest in Mk overdoing his Monkey form ™  and sending a shockwave that accidentally hurts the people around him.  Probably manifesting either in training or while having fun with Mei (think about how Mk was in the Bad Weather episode). 

Okay, what if Mk is tricked into it like he was in Season 4 (back to the flaw of blind devotion)? Mk has spent every season backstabbed by someone he trusted. We see him snap at Azure after he finds out that he was going to keep Wukong in the scroll. He snaps at Macaque in season 4. It’s safe to say that he’s learned, at least partially, to not trust others so blindly. Mk is also supposed to have gotten the “skill of self-reflection” in “Revenge of the Spider Queen” but his reflecting has mostly just impacted the other flaws. 

(Text: Side note, Monkey Mk doesn't have a nose)

But there is one possibility I toy with, bottled up emotions. Mk has extremely big emotions but hates showing any emotion that can be seen as negative. He loves being happy and he’s not afraid to show it, but as soon as those emotions turn to doubt, anger, or sadness he bottles them up fast. He knows he can rely on his family, but he’s stubborn and thinks that his emotions aren’t worth that hassle. Take the ending of season 3 where Mk states that “he tries not to think too hard” about his own place in the universe, which could be due to a fear of losing the value of freedom if he has a specific role to play in the universe.

(Text: Guys He's so avoidant, forced to think about his identity, 18-early 20's and Identity crisis)

It’s worsened by the fact that every. other. character. avoids. their. emotions. No other characters in this series are open about their emotions except Tang and Sandy. And from season 3 (and a bit of season 4) we know that Mk doesn’t view Tang in an extremely positive light.

Not exactly negative, but his admiration lies more on the rest of the team. Macaque points this out in season 2 stating in “Shadow Play” that Mk should talk out his insecurities, but no one else does that. 

That being said Mk isn’t entirely forgetful either. Macaque was a season 1 villain with his betrayal going through season 3. Mk’s high value of family, and flaw of blind devotion, make him want to give him a chance as Macaque’s past is connected with Wukong’s. HOWEVER, Mk is also stubborn and hasn’t forgiven Macaque’s actions. That’s why he snaps, plus the fact that Macaque is terrible at direct communication. Like I said before, Mk won’t directly hurt anyone he cares about, but if his monkey form is highly connected with his emotions (as most magic tends to be) having those bottled-up insecurities might accidentally cause Mk to unleash more power than he means to.

(Text: Normal, Fed up Meter, rage (on jar))

I have no idea where season 5 is going to go, but I’m so excited about the possibilities. 

(Text: Terrified of his actions hurting his family. UNSTABLE!!!)

[casecoded]

Dr. Wade Urbanczyk

new oc, leader of some sort of prosthetics development department for a catastrophe lab. I think he stuffs the consciousnesses of his dying coworkers into digital appliances in the hopes of keeping them alive til better days come along… But maybe he should just let them die.

kinda obsessed w/ him actually

[kissingarthurclaus]

And who says scientists aren't passionate! 😉💖 here's a little comic based off an ACTUAL moment I shared with my irl partner @cherry-bomb-ships last night 😂

Taglist♡: @crushes-georg @changeling-selfship @me-myself-and-my-fos @sunstar-of-the-north @tiny-cloud-of-flowers @adoredbyalatus @dearly-beeloved @squips-ship @sunflawyer @miutonium

[hazelkjt]

Hazel has her moments holding the Idiot Ball as well.

[dykedvonte]

Also Anya tried to get into medical school eight times which is both a lot and not for post graduate things seeing how selective real life med schools are and how frequently she must be applying.