about Eren’s collar

copperscript:

more headcanons for titan!Eren AU because I’m too busy to produce real content and too lazy to study:

Not everyone trusts the Rogue Titan, even (or especially) when he takes the form of a human-looking boy. The wall cult, in particular, would sooner see him captured, vivisected, and/or killed before letting him inside the walls.

But with Levi and a few other higher ranking members of the militia vouching for Eren, they compromise: Eren is permitted within the walls but only in human form, and only when wearing a specially designed collar to keep him from transforming within the city.

The collar has embedded blades that, when triggered by an attempted transformation, will spring inwards and pierce the throat and nape, killing Eren.

Eren hates it because it’s tight and chafes and leaves bruises. Levi hates it for what it represents and the constant threat to Eren’s life. But they tolerate it because they value the time they’re permitted together within the walls.

Until the day it malfunctions. The day when Eren returns to the city after months in the wilds and finds he has grown and the collar is now too tight. But it will take time to manufacture a replacement, and eager to reunite with Levi again, Eren submits to wearing it anyways.

It’s awful. It’s restricting and makes breathing a burden, but Eren is so pleased to see Levi and his other human friends after the separation that he puts up with it.

Harassment is always a risk for Eren in the city, but this time when a quarrel in the streets escalates, Eren is physically attacked. A blow to the throat trips the spring-loaded mechanism in his collar, releasing the front blade partway.

And now…fuck. Blood everywhere. Eren’s impaled through the throat and drowning in his own blood even as his accelerated healing tries to save him. Levi’s frantic to get the collar off but he’s forbidden from uncollaring Eren within city walls.

He could try to remove it by force? But no, he’s afraid it’ll trigger the second blade at the nape if he so much as jiggles it.

Carry Eren outside the walls and remove it there? But the walls are far and Levi has no idea whether Eren’s human-titan physiology can withstand the damage long enough to make it.

There’s shouting back and forth. Levi’s looking down the barrels of half a dozen Military Police rifles while Eren’s gurgling and choking blood in his lap. The Military Police are terrified and trigger happy, Eren’s damn near painting the streets red, and Levi’s terrified Eren might die before he can work out a resolution.

Pixis saves the day by letting Levi take Eren to the underground prison, the only place in the city they can get permission to remove Eren’s collar. It’s the second time Eren has been confined here, and the place has nothing but bad memories for both him and Levi.

Still, Eren’s life is more important than his freedom right now, so Levi reluctantly imprisons Eren and removes his collar. The confined space of the underground prison might prevent Eren from transforming, but it is also hidden from sunlight and therefore hinders Eren’s healing.

It’s a slow and difficult recovery.

(seriously do I even need to write fic when I headcanon so much)