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nml_mods ([personal profile] nml_mods) wrote in [community profile] nomans_land2023-05-02 05:02 am
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On The First Day

It had been months.

Months of terror, of families ripped apart, refugees racing against the Ark in the sky, against the Plants that had once been their only source of survival on the world and had now been turned against them, raining lightning and death down on them like the hand of a vengeful God. Humanity pushed to the brink, fleeing their homes and communities, waves of refugees fleeing across the sands as more and more towns and cities fell to the reign of destruction that had been biting at their heels every step of the way.

And then, as the last descendants of the survivors of the Big Fall clustered in the city of Octovern, spiilling out into the streets, every available, livable space filled to capacity and beyond, what felt like the final days of humanity began. The sounds of artillery fire filled the air, the sight of the Ark and its grotesque ruler loomed overhead, and in the distant sky high above, the previously-inconceivable reinforcement ships from Earth took up orbit around No Man's Land. Throughout the night, explosions lit up the sky, thundering with deafening reports through the air, and yet the civilians below had settled into a still, terrified, anticipatory silence. They couldn't see, from their perspective, the figures atop the ruins of the Earth's space destroyers that had already fallen to the ground, locked in battle for the future of the people far below. But the sight of Millions Knives high above, terrifying and grotesque with the power of the Plants he had absorbed, was omnipresent, a never-ending threat, the harbinger of doom, biding his time until he could make good on his promise to wipe every last one of them off the face of existence.

And then something had changed.

Electrical currents rippled through the air above the downed ship, carrying screams on the wind. To the people below, Millions Knives' massive form had shifted, writhing, bellowing with unholy rage and pain and despair. And then it begun to unmake itself, shredding, crumbling, tearing itself apart at the seams and floating to the ground in tiny, shining, white particles. Tiny, white feathers drifted on the wind, closer and closer before, one by one, they began to settle to the roofs of the buildings, to the tops of cars and to the streets, and to the heads and faces of the humans staring up from below.

The instant that contact was made between feather and skin, a connection was made; between Human and Plant, between each person standing side by side, minds thrown open in bursts of light and expanding consciousness, and through the doors sprang multitudes of memories spanning hundreds of years. Suffering, laughter, pain, sorrow, joy, enslavement, death, pride, love. The Plants had made the connection to their creators - their keepers - that they had been silently pleading for since their first containment, and with it every man, woman, and child on the surface of the world began to see and feel and hear their stories and their cries for help. They did not want this war, they did not want this destruction. They had seen the promises of vengeance and a paradise for their kind atop the bones of humanity offered by Millions Knives and they had felt the hopes and dreams carried by Vash the Stampede of a kinder, more loving world, and they had made their choice.

Of course, but...what would he do at a time like this?


I wonder if he'll laugh again


I wonder if he'll follow his ideals again.


I see. You all know him as well. That young man with a gentle smile.


Little Red Brother.


Let there be love and peace in this world.


In the chaos that followed, as the bodies of the Plants began tumbling to the ground in a writhing mass and the screams of shock and confusion began to rise from the sea of humanity below, something rippled in the air, a last gasp of those silent voices before the connection was lost.

Help Us. Help him. Please.


This was...different. New. As if reality had taken the distraction caused by the calamity below to shift itself sharply to the left, and then snapped. It started at the core of the mass of angelic bodies as men and women began to rush to their aid, a shockwave in the fabric of creation that rumbled silently in the atoms of the world and ricocheted outward, along the ground, through the air, until it had enveloped the entire planet. Time froze for an instant, and to the eyes of all who had the capacity for sight, that leftward shift became manifest, the world doubling on itself as the ground shook beneath their feet.

Wails of confusion and fear rose into the night sky, and for a brief moment, it felt as if the world were about to unmake itself on the molecular level. But then, just as suddenly as it had come, the distortion snapped back into place with a loud, ear-splitting CRACK, and in the stunned silence that followed, only one thing could be certain; things were not the same as they had been mere moments ago, as if everything and yet nothing at all had changed, all at once.

The world of No Man's Land was as it should be, but all across the surface of the planet, pockets of reality had split open, sending the inhabitants of mirrored existences tumbling through wide, unseen rifts. People and places outside of time and space found themselves staggering to their feet in a world that was both foreign and familiar at the same time, found themselves face to face with their own reflection made flesh, tossed about by the pleas of a race reaching across the fabric of creation for aid in putting a stop to a war that had been fought time and time again, across reality after reality, without fail.


Thus began the new chapter in the history of No Man's Land.



[Wherever your character was, whatever they were doing, when the rifts in reality opened, they will have found themselves rocked by a massive earthquake that lastes a few short seconds before settling with a loud crack, like thunder. While no damage will be left in its wake, the characters themselves will realize that though the planet appears to be the same, it will quickly become evident that they are in an alternate reality of the place they call home. Are they standing in the rubble of a once-destroyed city now remade whole? Is the bar they had been taking refuge in suddenly gone, leaving them tumbling to the sand with nothing but their drink in their hand? And what of the friends that had been standing by their side seconds before? This is where your stories begin.]
climbedup: (carer)

[personal profile] climbedup 2023-05-10 10:00 am (UTC)(link)
So... you were visiting, and if you suddenly disappeared, there would be someone to take care of them?

Not that we'll find anything any sooner if it's also urgent for you to go back, but it's good to know what one's dealing with... whenever possible, right?

[ then she pauses, thoughtul. ]

Right, if you were here, would you want to stay here to find out more? I'll... definitely be going back to Octovern.

[ no, she doesn't want to go and leave him here. but also he might have things to do here. ]
celestialcrybaby: (Max Bewildered)

[personal profile] celestialcrybaby 2023-05-10 10:17 am (UTC)(link)
[He couldn't help the small amount of flailing he did at the question, pointing at the little ruin he'd been trying to nap in and then back at the orphanage, feeling a bit embarrassed for himself.]

I was just-...I didn't wanna-...[No, but then Livio was redirecting himself away from that question and back to Vash's, and his own eyes looked around frantically as he spoke, trying to find any sign of the small herd of children and caregivers who'd been there just moments before.

When Livio's words sank in, the unspoken implications dawning on him, he froze, his own memory of that night flashing back in his mind, and his already pale skin blanched. No, he remembered the noise he spoke of. How could he not, he'd been at the epicenter of it when it struck. And he was right.

The blood on the ground - so much, in massive puddles, trails, flecks that muddied the sand all around them - and the piles of rubble and bullet shells and rocket casings lay scattered about, now that he was conscious enough to really look for them. And he felt sick.]


How-...What-...??? [Words were catching in his throat, refusing to form and frustrating him, but he knew himself well enough not to fight the little spell until it had passed. He was normally so verbose, but sometimes, sometimes, words were just hard.

He glanced up at Livio, reaching up to clutch back at his arm with the one he was holding and even to grasp the hand on his own arm with his free hand, an attempt at offering grounding reassurance. At the very least, the feeling of another person's hand under his own helped give him something to focus on when a horrifying thought crossed his mind and his attention snapped back in the direction he knew a broken, old couch had stood amongst the rubble of an old house.]


Nick...! [The name rasped out of his lungs before he was tearing off around the orphanage, hoping and praying the weird sense of being thrown out of time was just a figment of his imagination.

Shouldn't he have been more concerned with the missing children? A part of his mind that was still calm enough to have rational thought suggested as much, but the panic of the moment had already gripped onto the entire reason he had come back to December, latched onto the grief that had been clawing at his heart for months, and didn't feel inclined to letting him go until he had appeased its morbid, painful curiosity.]
celestialcrybaby: (Max Eugh)

LOL I legitimately had to look that one up, and that sure was a blast from the past!

[personal profile] celestialcrybaby 2023-05-10 11:14 am (UTC)(link)
The man's obvious happiness at the fact that people were dead, one of whom Vash still cared about even after all the years of abuse and terror and the other that had died at Vash's own hand, left enough of a sour taste in his mouth that the horrified confusion in his soupy brain began to settle to a more mellow sort of bewilderment. He continued to lay in his awkward sprawl, listening to the man - Mud-...Midvalley? Something like that, the memories from that particular encounter tend to blur into a bit of white noise after a point - until his state of sobriety was questioned, at which point his face fell just a bit.

This really wasn't what he wanted right now. This was not why he was here. He didn't answer immediately, even with the reassurances that he wouldn't shoot as long as Vash didn't first, simply began to slowly shift and pull himself to a sit before turning his back on the man and moving to heft the Punisher out of the sand, leaning it on his shoulder so that he could begin to dig a little divot into the ground at the head of the gravestone so that when he propped it back up, it would be a bit more stable.

"You're outisde December." His voice rumbled out softly as he worked, one hand cradling the gun to his chest as the other fought with the way the sand insisted on sliding back down into the hole almost as quickly as he shoveled it out. It was the easiest question to answer, and the one that didn't feel too personal. "There's nobody here. People haven't come back yet, but if you head into town, they've started to come back, there. The inn is open again."

He reached a point where he figured the hole was deep enough and slid the Punisher down, letting his body weight wedge it in just a bit deeper before he began shoving the sand back in around it.

"...Ok. That'll hold for now, ok? I promise t'come back an' fix it when I'm not-...whatever." His voice was quieter, whispered only the grave to hear. He really didn't want to leave just yet, but...He gave a long, exhausted sigh, his shoulders slumping before he shifted to lift himself to his feet, bent at the waist, and grabbed his bag.

And then he was turning again, hefting the rucksack over his left shoulder, and looking back at the man in front of him.

"Come on. I'll show you the way."
doubletimefeel: (Default)

It's a classic of highschool hallways from bored band students!

[personal profile] doubletimefeel 2023-05-10 11:38 am (UTC)(link)
Vash's piteous grief over a genocidal lunatic who nearly erased the human species is really not Midvalley's concern. If there'd been another way to stop Knives and Legato, he was long dead before it could have been implemented, obviously such methods hadn't worked or they'd both be alive, and he'll continue to be happy the man who killed him, and the one who would have killed everyone else is gone. "Town it is then."

Wolfwood was another matter. He held no great personal feelings one way or another about Chapel, save that he was a frustratingly hard bastard to kill, and wasn't bad to share a drink with. There'd be no similar intense relief at the idea of Wolfwood's loss. Sure, Chapel had been a traitor, but so had Midvalley in the end, and neither were beholden to that organization anymore. Almost absently, one hand picks at the front of his shirt, where drying blood made it sticky and uncomfortable. Wolfwood was far more difficult to kill than he was, and yet he's the one alive. When he shouldn't be. What did that mean for someone a whole hell of a lot tougher?

Was there really anyone in that grave at all, or was the preacher hiding somewhere, licking his wounds and letting his comrade think for a time that he's gone?

"You don't have to. Obviously you've got other things to tend to here." And traveling with a creature that made his skin crawl was not really high on his do-list. Knives would kill without warning, and his brother .. well, that feathery nightmare that had resulted from Hopperd's attack probably hadn't boded well for anyone in the vicinity either. "Just point me in the right direction and I'll be on my way."

There's a moment's pause as he considers adding to that before deciding to keep his thoughts to himself. These 'independent plants' are too unpredictable, and pointing out Legato, who does not leave traitors alive, had killed him - and here he was, still breathing if bloody and hurt, therefore Wolfwood too might still be ... somewhere, could provoke the very reactions he's working to avoid. Dying again so soon would be pathetic.
nurturing: (the children's waltz spawned)

[personal profile] nurturing 2023-05-10 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She's been looking for what feels like days, frantic yet hopeful at the same time that the boys were okay. Alone in this heat, frightened and possibly hurt? She should have gone with them in their escape pod rather than taking her own later.

...but then again, a lot more people would have died in this mess. This... old mess that didn't make sense. Nor had the cry of voices begging to save a red brother.

Finally, she spots a hint of blonde at the edge of a massive crater and her heart jumps in her chest. When she gets closer, however, it's still not either of her twins. ]


Are you alright?
celestialcrybaby: (Max Soft Smile)

[personal profile] celestialcrybaby 2023-05-10 01:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[The way she turned so easily to look at him surprised him, and his curious glances shifted to shock as he stared at her, and the entire time she was processing him, he was doing the same about her, "feeling" her through the bulb before the delight in her mind and the eloquence of her actual-communicative words rippled down to him and made him grin brightly up at her in absolute amazement.]

You're so talkative, none of the other sisters can talk like you can! Have you always been able to talk? Where are you from, who gave you the buttons? What do they do? [As much as she babbled, he was no different. For the first time in a long, long time, he felt a little bit like an overly-excited, curious little kid again, seeing someone like himself but also not, someone that he never even had a reason to think could be possible.] It's nice to meet you, Delphinium!

[And then the bright, bubbly happiness that bled out of her and into him stuttered to a stop, and he seemed to wilt just a bit on the outside of the bulb. He was almost confused by the shift in tone before he saw the little feather slipping through and wrapping around his wrist. He watched it, turning his hand up so that he could return the touch in a mixture of curiosity and appreciation for what he could sense was an attempt at comfort.

The reminder of his hair settled his emotions back into the more familiar, constant ache that was his perpetual baseline, but he smiled at her again, a sad look that didn't quite reach his eyes as he reached up to anxiously tug at one of the locks of hair that always refused to stand up near his temples.]


I'm alright. It happened during all the fighting, but it's ok. Were you one of the Plants still being stored in Octovern? I was headed back there, to check on everything after what happened a few days ago. Did you feel it, too?

[Was she one of the plants who had sent out the call that was familiar but not? He still wasn't sure what had happened, exactly, just that his sisters had been involved somehow. Maybe Plants like Delphinium were the missing puzzle piece, the big difference between what he had lived and what that had been, that set everything into motion.]
aplantandherboy: (del7)

[personal profile] aplantandherboy 2023-05-10 01:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[She knows what dark hair means. A hard life, if a plant is young, and as far as she knew most independents were around a century or century and a half old. He should still be as golden as the sunrise. What terrible fighting it had to be! There were rumors of course, shared like whispered secrets in the back of thoughts, but she'd never asked too many questions. Maybe she should have.]

If it's not okay, we're here, you know. It might be hard for us to find you, you probably get around a lot quicker, but we'll all do what we can.

[That's what they did in other worlds too, not that she knows it. Answering the call of a distressed Independent ... unfortunately, not the one on the side of life in general.

It's carefully put aside; she'll maintain her delicate grip if allowed to, it might be a thin comfort but it's surely better than nothing, better than being alone. There would be other times to press questions about fighting and why it was so fierce it turned him into a veritable poppy, all crimson and black.]


I left New Miami maybe .. two ... years ago? We've never been to Octovern, it's a bit big for me, too many people. You can't learn their faces and needs when there's so many.

[Hanging around a tourist destination for most of her time on this planet had soured her a bit to large metropolises, some loved them, she preferred smaller places. It's followed with a very human nod, just awkward enough that it's clearly a learned gesture over an inherent one.]

The ground shook, and someone ... maybe several plants, were begging for help. I didn't get a good sense of where it came from exactly but I figure if my boy and I keep sharp attention we'll catch a rumor sooner or later. [She rewinds mentally a bit, the echoed-memory of his own earlier words playing back like a recording.] As far as I know, everyone can talk. But humans can't speak like this, so the interface helps with communication. If I was stationary, they could make me a far more detailed one, but this is the best you can get if you want to migrate. It's low energy, but that comes with the cost of precision.

[A button is pushed, resulting in a tinny, artificial "Hello!"]
dontdeserve: (no...)

SCREE

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-05-10 01:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Except it absolutely is one of her boys. One who feels he's done something very, very wrong right now, and in all the ways he feels he does not deserve all that she's given him, it's never been so bad as right now.

So her voice hits him like a bullet through his chest, and for a moment all he can do is stare, wide-eyed, in front of him, before he cautiously turns his eyes towards her.

No... it looks like her, not only sounds like her.
]

R-Rem?

[ ... unfortunately the answer to the question is 'not really' but he's not even thinking about it. ]
nurturing: (rippling waves across the waking world)

;)

[personal profile] nurturing 2023-05-10 01:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She leans down a bit, dark hair spilling over a shoulder as she gives him a concerned look. It seems like he knows her, which is perhaps a good sign? Had the twins been through here?

Something in the way he looks at her makes her pause, though. The young man seemed so tense and wide-eyed that she worries that he's still in shock after the crash. The way he had said her name was almost heartbreaking. ]


Hey, everything will be okay. Are you hurt?
celestialcrybaby: (Max Squinting Eye)

See, my psycho band directors only let us play stuff from the 70's, or movie themes. lol

[personal profile] celestialcrybaby 2023-05-10 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
He watched him quietly, the look on his face saying more about how much he liked the whole situation than he was willing to say out loud. He recognized the blood stains on the man's jacket, even if his memory of what had given them to him was clouded in a haze of what had been a very severe mental break. He had buried this man's body the next day. Those were the signs of the injuries that had killed him.

Something about that, and the fact that he had just been tending to the undisturbed grave of the one person he would give anything to bring back, tickled in his brain in a way that made his eyes burn and his mouth pull down in a grimace. There was something there that his sozzled brain had trouble grabbing at, but it would hit him eventually. Either way-...

"Hmm. No. You're hurt, and it's a few iles out, in the middle of the night."

And this man was an assassin. He remembered enough to know that he...hadn't exactly been working with his brother's followers, but the whole thing was hazy enough that he didn't know the exact details, and he hadn't bothered asking Wolfwood about it after the fact. That still didn't mean he felt comfortable leaving him alone in one of the cities, with innocent people.

He turned to stare at the empty orphanage a few yarz away, quiet and abandoned while it waited for everyone to return. There was too much history here, but it was better than nothing.

"Look. There should be supplies here, and no one will be coming back for a while. We should be fine staying the night. Come on, I know a little bit around the place. It's better than you bleeding out or freezing to death in the desert before the suns come up."

He turned, plodding his way quietly toward the back doors of the group home, wondering in the back of his mind if the place had had its power restored yet. Ah well, they could always light some candles, and the stove had been gas-powered, at least. He could light that with Wolfwood's lighter if he needed to.
dontdeserve: (sheepish)

i think he broke

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-05-10 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[ oh. She's here. She's really here. It's been a century and a half, but the smell
- her smell, mixed with way the ship smelled - he's never forgotten that, not even for a moment, and her hair spilled it in the dry desert air.
]

Ahahaha... no, I'm not hurt. And this - [ he tilts his chin towards the crater even while scrambling to his feet finally ] - seems to have been like this for a few years at least. I think there may be a few things I need to fill you in on.

[ For the first time in a very long time, he takes off his shades, taking them in his left hand and kind of trying to hide the prosthesis behind his back. The smile he tries is reasonable enough, if still wide-eyed, and he ... actually does not remember how he used to smile back then. He gives a small, sheepish wave. ]

Hey, Rem. It's been a while. I, um. Still do the whole sleep, eat, and drink thing, and Nai doesn't need to.
nurturing: (on the third celestial evening)

whoops >>;

[personal profile] nurturing 2023-05-10 02:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[ When he takes off those shades, Rem sees those sky-blue eyes and her breath hitches a little. She knows those eyes, even if they're so full of grief and sadness that it breaks her heart. ]

Vash...?

[ Oh. Oh no, she's missed so much. This is a grown man, not the small, sweet boy she knows. Has she been in cold sleep, somehow? How many years has it been? How much suffering has he gone through to smile that way? ]

Vash. Look at you.

[ There's pride and pain and hope in her voice. ]
celestialcrybaby: (Max White Shirt Smile)

[personal profile] celestialcrybaby 2023-05-10 03:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[The reassurances of care and waves of concern coming from her made his heart ache, and while he was able to keep it from showing too much on his face, the downside of speaking telepathically that he had never had to face before, not even with one of his sisters in the past, was that it was nearly impossible to hide the emotions you did your best to bury from the world.

No, he wasn't okay, even if he tried to say he was. He hadn't been okay for a very, very long time. But he smiled at her, anyway, brushing his thumb over the little feather that continued to hold his hand.]


I know, sister. I know. You don't know how thankful I am for that fact. [Because in the end, that was what they had done, wasn't it? Yes, they'd come to Knives' aid when they'd felt him crying out for help in the fear and pain that had driven him over the edge, but they had also reached out to Vash, as well, called out to him and for him and the rest of the planet and said under no uncertain terms that they wanted to help him.

He let out a small sigh, pressing his forehead against the bulb, the way he was so used to normally doing when he spoke with one of his sisters, helping support the mental connection with just that much more of a physical one, unconsciously seeking out a little of the comfort she offered, that he had always felt when interacting with one of them, as far back as he could remember.]


So you weren't there with the Ark? Were you never called with the others by my brother? [It was an interesting thought; He knew the Plants in New Miami had been taken. Unless there had been Plants still trapped and hidden in the more isolated crash sites littering the planet, every Plant on No Man's Land had been taken when Knives had waged his warpath. Her story made him sigh again, his eyes shifting to focus on a spot on the horizon through the glass of her bulb even as he nodded awkwardly from where his face was pressed against it.] That was the fight, in Octovern. It was supposed to be over months ago, but then...[He listened "quietly" as she explained the buttons, how it wasn't just her who was able to communicate this way, and his brain began piecing out a theory, his brow furrowing.]

Delphinium...none of the sisters where I'm from can communicate like you can. You're the first I've met like this, and I've met so many. [Images of times he's visited them, sat with them, talking at them, drinking bottles of alcohol to numb his emotions when things hurt the worst, connecting as much as he could to their minds even though there was always a vast chasm between them that kept true communication and connection at a distance. The little, artificial "Hello!" made him stop and give a small laugh, refocusing on her face and giving a tiny wave.]

Hello! [And then, through the thought-voice again,] I think...Mmm... [Easier to show in images, probably, and honestly closer to the way he's used to communicating with his sisters, which makes it a bit more instinctual than what they'd been doing. His fight in Octovern, the sisters calling out, connecting with the humans, their voices crying out for help and urging the humans to seek him out, their Red Brother...

And then the memory of walking the path to visit Wolfwood's grave in December when the other, twinned call had hit and shaken the planet, but it was different and newer than the other memory.

Different calls, different but the same. Meeting a younger version of himself who had just lost Wolfwood and wasn't "all dark", as if it hadn't happened months before, even before the first call, seeing the damage from the fight at the orphanage as if it had just happened. Her stories, of Plants who were able to freely speak with the humans, who could travel and have preferences on where they lived. Things so alike but also different...]


I...don't really know exactly how...we work. Where it comes from. I never used our powers much before... [He gave a tiny shrug.] The Big Fall happened before I was old enough to learn too much about our kind, and the humans had lost a lot of the knowledge by the time I was able to...[Get away from Knives. Be taken in by the residents of Home, cared for, nursed back to health, allowed to begin trying to fit in with the humans again after 80 years of just him and his brother wandering the desert by themselves] I just know it's...dimensional? It's connected to other...places? I think...maybe something happened, the Plants in some other place like ours did something that...

[He didn't know. He wasn't a scientist, even if he had managed to learn a great deal over the years, more than most humans and certainly more than any humans who were the age he looked. He was just throwing the ideas that had begun forming in his mind for the past week out into the void and wondering if any of them stuck.]

Do you think that could happen? Could they have broken through and brought us together? That's why I'm going back to Octovern. If they're still there, maybe they'll know. They reached out once before, they spoke to us once before, maybe we can again! Relocating them back to their proper towns had taken months, and if they did that, if they brought us all together and they're still there, maybe they won't have been moved out yet. I have to know. It was my fault this all happened. If something's broken, I need to fix it.
love_and_peace: (sad - razlo's face is melted)

[personal profile] love_and_peace 2023-05-10 03:16 pm (UTC)(link)
[ At first, as the other Vash shares what he's seen, it's all somehow, wonderfully hopeful! So much happens, in what feels like such a short time, but what he can parse from all the images and emotions is so much joy. Difficult battles, certainly, struggles and pain, but at the end there's light! He sees something about the other plants raining feathers down across the world, which is a miracle, he can't believe it! And Livio survives, and that's such a relief too, another sacrifice that wasn't made in vain... and speaking of sacrifices and surviving what's to come, if the war is truly over and the other Vash is still – clearly! – alive, then did that mean...? Does he convince Knives to change his mind? How?! What does he say, what does he do, what convinces him, please!

But before he can dig further into the memory for answers, the mood shifts abruptly. It's an immediate gut punch of grief, and fear, and pain: first, hinted more than stated, there's something horrific about Legato, something that he instinctively recoils from. Something he doesn't want to dig into. Something that makes the breath seize in his chest, something...

...and then Vash feels his brother die.
]

...No.

[ The other Vash might be maintaining his mask, but Vash cannot, not in the face of all of... this.The tears are immediate and blinding as he staggers back, throwing up his hands to try and ward off the feelings that the other Vash is bombarding him with. It's as if someone reached inside his chest and carved out a great handful of his heart. He can't breathe. It's too much. ]

Stop! Stop, no more, please, stop!

[ This isn't real, this can't be real! Wolfwood's death is still so fresh in his heart, ungrieved and unburied, and now he's going to lose Knives, too? He can't. He won't.He has to... Knives, where is Knives? Where is his brother?!

His feet slip beneath him as he backs away from the man who looks so much like him. Knives is in Dec-- no, Octovern, he has to get to Octovern, now.
]
dontdeserve: (Kind)

full on SMILES EVERYTHING IS FINE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT mode ENGAGE

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-05-10 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[ His fuller smile comes on, and he rubs the back of his head with his right hand. ]

Yeah... this is me! Umm... I know you'll have a lot of questions, and some of them I can answer, but some of them I can't, so I'll start with... that. A little bit ago - like, very little bit - I was standing before one of the big cities that were built after the crash. Then there was a call for help, and I was here, before this... where that city used to be. Like I was moved to the future. I still don't know how or by whom.

Everything up to how we're here, though, I can tell about!

[ ... he hopes he can fudge about some of those things. He has the slight suspicion that he won't be able to, however. ]
mercifullyheavy: (<_<)

[personal profile] mercifullyheavy 2023-05-10 03:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[The emptiness of the city when they finally made it to December was unsettling. He'd been here enough times to know the way it should look, with people bustling about and living their lives. And the last time he'd been here, there had still been survivors rushing about, herding themselves onto the refugee ships and heading toward Octovern.

But he supposed that made things easier. If no one was there to see them, then no one would recognize Vash and try to give him trouble. That was, to be honest, the absolute last thing either of them needed right now. They just needed to stop in town for the night, hole up in whatever bed they could find in the abandoned inn, and then tomorrow would be the last ten iles to the orphanage. And he was not looking forward to that.

That didn't mean the out-of-tune piano he began to hear plinking along in the distance as they got closer didn't make him pause, his brow furrowed in mild confusion as he glanced over at Vash.]


Guess it's not as abandoned as it looks. Wonder who the composer is.
dontdeserve: (no...)

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-05-10 04:03 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Well, at least Wolfwood found the sound reassuling, because Vash absolutely froze for a long moment, before his shoulders started climbing slightly up. ]

That's... Knives. My brother is playing.

[ He'd last heard it at July, and that had sounded different somehow, but the music chilled him to the bone just as it had at Jeneora Rock...

He took a deep breath, looking around, then tilted his chin up, jaw clenched.

Nothing could have prepared him for stepping inside that bar - first, thank you, Wolfwood - and seeing the small, slender blond figure. Nor for the onslaught of the emotions, his eyes stinging as he thought of how he would have, once upon a time, wedged next to him and joined him. He flexed lightly the fingers of his left hand. Not like he even could do that, anymore.
]

Uh... Nai?
doubletimefeel: (10)

That was the chorus teacher at mine.

[personal profile] doubletimefeel 2023-05-10 04:24 pm (UTC)(link)
The middle of the night is not a problem compared to the suns being up. His gaze turns briefly upwards, counting how many moons are visible. It was rare there was a moonless night, and if all five were out and even half full, there'd be plenty of light to see by on the way to wherever this town was. But there was a level of obstinance he didn't dare really push; he wasn't sure yet the level of obedience Knives demanded was necessary here. Finding out the hard way wasn't in the cards, so he'd wait until he was well outside of the range of whatever Vash the Stampede could bring to bear.

Which was, by his hazarded guess, at least on the other side of a sand sea. That hole in the moon didn't appear there all on its own. "I don't think I'll bleed out. It's not as bad as it should... as it looks, probably."

It's not an argument, he's being too careful with his tone and deliberately unthreatening body language to be an argument. Does he know this place? Had he been here before, in one of the Gung Ho Guns' larks across the landscape? Was this damage caused by one of them? Midvalley doesn't follow immediately, gaze turning back to the impromptu memorial of a 300 pound machinegun-missile launcher for a long moment before turning away.

Like hell Chapel is dead, if he's still alive. He'll have to keep his head on a swivel, just in case.

This place felt like it should have ghosts. Midvalley was not a superstitious man, but it's with an uncomfortable chill that he finally follows. Maybe there'll be a tub and some water, his saxophone needed cleaning as badly as he did.

"Don't know how aware you were during ... all of that, with the feathers." Careful, careful. "Do you know what happened to Hopperd? You two, or Legato?"
nurturing: (held hands and composed a waltz)

lol

[personal profile] nurturing 2023-05-10 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[ There's a better smile, and that twinge in her heart calms a little. ]

Alright. I'll listen.

[ Vash is speaking of strange things, wild but also possible at the same time. She heard that call, and the only other possibility to see her boy so grown up in just a few days was that her pod somehow put her in cold sleep.

Moved into the future... was that some kind of space phenomenon happening while they were crashing, or maybe even something her boys could do...?

Speaking of; ]


Vash, where is Nai?

[ She can hear his story in a moment. ]
dontdeserve: (sheepish)

... moooom he doesn't want to upset youuuuuu

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-05-10 04:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah...

[ The question makes him pause and frown, his eyes darting towards the crater but he's not... flinching or upset ... visibly. ]

I don't... know. Where... when... I showed up from, he was in this city, I was coming to him. But I don't think ... I doubt he was hurt by whatever happened here.

[ It's not absolute certainty, but he is pretty sure somehow he would have known if his brother was gone. And... they are hard to kill. ]

Maybe he's just back home and wondering where I went!
nurturing: (rippling waves across the waking world)

she can (probably) take it!

[personal profile] nurturing 2023-05-10 04:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, Vash...

[ Whatever was going on here, now matter how much her mind is swirling with questions and confusion, it will have to wait. The twins come before it all right now. It must be so strange, so lonely to be without his brother. She can't even remember a moment in their short life when they were apart for more than a day. ]

We'll find him, okay? We'll figure this out.

[ Rem holds a hand out, but then pauses as she finally notices the sea-green of the prosthetic arm. At first, she had thought it was a piece of armor, but now... ]

Oh.
littleblades: (37)

[personal profile] littleblades 2023-05-10 05:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[ the moment he hears the sound of floorboards creaking, his name being called in a familiar yet not-so voice, nai immediately stops playing. the bench scratches the worn down floor as it's shoved aside as nai stands, instantly on alert. he nearly books it, but his feet refuse to move when he sees who it is at the broken down entrance. ]

- Vash...? [ older, different, but undoubtedly his brother. he'd just been separated from vash and here he was now, the universe presenting him with yet another little brother that towered over him. his breath tight in his chest, posture still tense as if ready to spring at any moment, his gaze flickers from vash's face to the man behind him. immediately his eyes narrow, fixing the man with a distrusting glower. ]

Who is that?
littleblades: (45)

[personal profile] littleblades 2023-05-10 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Good.

[ the disposition of a very put-upon old man, and yet so painfully sensitive to the world around him that it shakes nai constantly. since tesla, every nerve feels exposed as he fights back the urge to scream and scream. it hurts, and selfishly, he wants everyone to taste even a fraction of that pain.

but vash is a balm, albeit temporary, as nai is learning. his eyes close, drained dry by the whirlwind his own emotions have put him through in such a short amount of time. the skies are as clear as they'll ever be. ]


Is she like Rem? [ nice, soft-spoken, and always ready with a smile... ]
love_and_peace: (smile - head scratch)

[personal profile] love_and_peace 2023-05-10 05:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Good.

Knives's weight settles a bit against Vash's back. With a little smile, Vash changes his gait from his quicker long-distance pace to something a little slower but a lot more smooth.
]

Like Rem?

[ Warm, and gentle, constantly laughing and joking and kind? As much as thinking of her hurts, it's a good hurt, especially with Knives warm against his back. He chuckles under his breath at the thought of Luida in Rem's birthday glasses -- he honestly can't even imagine it! ]

No, if anything, she's more like you. She's smart, and thorough... when she was younger I didn't dare argue with her about anything! She was way too stubborn, always had to be right... [ Sound familiar? ] Now that she's older, I still don't argue with her, because most of the time, she is right.
mercifullyheavy: (Glum)

Exactly! They'll probably be able to find him based on his shouting and ranting. lol

[personal profile] mercifullyheavy 2023-05-10 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
He was startled to a stand-still when Vash stopped in front of him, pulling himself up just short of running into him. And oh, the look on his face hurt. That look had always hurt to look at, even before he'd been as lost as he was over Vash the fucking Stampede, and there he was, proving just how much like the other he was despite all the external differences and softer demeanor. He couldn't look at him, had to look away, but he was obviously listening, even as his eyes turned down to the sand just behind him.

The fact that he was right made him both angrier with himself and...well, still angry, but for multiple reasons. He wasn't doing Nico any good, letting himself spiral like this, he wasn't doing Vash any good when things may have just gone from bad to infinitely worse in the span of an hour. He shook his head, risking a glance back at him just in time to see the way that glass-brittle smile shifted, only slightly less painful than before, just in a different way.

"No, look, you're right." Even if it was hard to admit. Especially knowing how much Vash took these things personally. He was starting to go soft, himself.

Which was probably why, looking at that painful smile, knowing that Vash was hurting - because he was always hurting, and this was just adding to it - remembering what Luida had said to him when they'd come out of recovery back at Home, remembering how timidly he'd asked if he could hold Wolfwood when he'd gone and upset him the last time he'd forgotten to keep his feelings in check around this man, he couldn't help but reach up after a moment, his fingers barely touching the sleeve of his coat, and forced himself to really look at him. Despite the fact that it always hurt so much to look into those sad, hollow smiles of his.

"...Hey. Blondie, is...is it alright if...if I hold you for a minute...?" Was this alright? Was this overstepping a boundary? He...Vash looked like he needed it. He'd asked for it before, so it was fine, right?

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