Reincarnation AU // Illustrated

This post summs up a Reincarnation AU where Reiner, Eren, Armin, Mikasa and the rest of the main cast are reincarnated in our day and age. I've never played D&D, but I think I got the gist right in this.

Art by moi

Reiner and co study in the lower sixth form together (I think the american version is high school?). Reiner, the team's big brother figure, has grown to be a reliable man this time around - he stands up for Armin, he's Eren's role model, he's the guy who got Bertl out of his shell.

One day, Eren descides to assemble a tabletop roleplaying game - Reiner shrugs and tries something like D&D for the first time. Eren made up a bizarre world, where titans roam over the lands and people hide behind three mammoth Walls. He populated this bizarre world with soldiers and a mass of strange, (un?)familiar characters.

The game is fun, but on the third month of playing, a drastic change happens in Armin. Reiner gets used to feeling a chill run down his spine every time their eyes cross. The meek voice disappears, and in its place comes a measured one, a voice that reminds Reiner of Erwin, the politics teacher. In a week's time, no one bullies Armin anymore.

As Christmas comes and goes, the curiosities continue. Mikasa develops an adamant attachment to Eren, Annie warms up to the world, Ymir, who he knows has no interest in anyone, asks Historia out. The world races and spins around Reiner, and he's never been so confused - it is as though the people he grew up with have drifted away and transformed into people completely different.

And then, one cursed night, after a long game evening, Reiner re as well.

Drained and surreal, the world crumbles - Reiner distanses himself from everyone. He neglects to shave, loses sleep, grows restless and haunted by ghosts and eyes of the dead following him in every shadow. To cope, Reiner drowns himself in work, in exhausting physical activity. When Eren and Bertolt try to reach him to talk about what's wrong, he hangs up on all calls and leaves texts unread.

Eventually, of course, the guilt (for Marco, for Ymir, for Shinganshina, for Bertolt, for Porco, for Liberio, for Marcel) catches up with memory, and shatters Reiner's heated mind. He breaks down, shuts himself in at home and contemplates suicide again.

Instead, he decides retribution makes a better punishment, and appears at the next game evening with a knife. Almost everyone re by now - Armin, Eren, Mikasa, Annie, Ymir, Historia, Jean, Marco, Porco, even Bertolt - and Reiner desperately asks why they didn't kill him as soon as they ed. There's no answer for a while, only Reiner's heavy breathing. In the silence, it strikes him how he must look - unshaven, crying, knife in hand.

He extends the knife's handle to Eren, who uncertainly takes it. Reiner sees the reluctance, drops his head in his hands and begs someone to take their revenge.

His mind blurs and hazes. Reiner begins listing off all of his wrongdoings, but his vision, suddenly, wavers and ripples, and, eventually, it blacks out as he faints from stress and lack of food.

I didn't think further than this, but suggestions and ideas are welcome in the comments