[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.
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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.