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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.]
rejuvenation: (4)

[personal profile] rejuvenation 2023-05-26 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Anger takes so much energy, energy that could have gone to trying to heal herself, but Tessla doesn't know that; doesn't know anything other than said anger, pain and loneliness. There's so little left of her that it's impossible for a child to know where to even start.

Laying here feels so nice, though. Warm and soft and soothing, taking some of that agony and leaving unspecific but pleasant fuzziness instead. Feeling safe and cared for is so new to her that she's not even sure what to make of the feeling, only that it better than anger and pain.

Then she hears the other person again, and she twitches slightly in Vash's arms. A big dark place? That sounded scary... but so did a light. They had stuck a lot of lights in her eyes, and the sharp lights in the box made her sick. The Wolf said Vash would be there, though. Right? ]
Okay. [ She finally replies, a little uncertain about it all.

Then her red brother speaks again, mentioning the sharp brother. ]


Ǧ̟̥͎̼̝̬̇̆ͯ͂ͬ́ͅū͚̦͌ͣ͒̄̈́i͍̊ͫ̈ͣ̑d̻̮̝͕͙͖̪̒͞e̡͙̾ͤͩͧ̏... [ She mumbles, wondering what that word means and why it made her brother feel a lot of feelings. It seems it will help, though. Because her red brother is made of helping. Asking another brother to come fix her.

She likes having brothers. ]


The sisters... they're part of me. I'm part of ț̷̩̖̺̱̦͓͊̾̈̚h͚̲̭͉̞̥͈ͩe̹̥̳̲̭̦͛̌ͪ̐̄̎m̗ͨͣ͟. They want to keep me safe. [ Tessla starts, and the cocoon sways a bit, a few wings stretching. The hole in the middle where she pulled herself free is also bleeding, an open wound in their half-assimilated shared body. ] They will help.

[ They've been helping ever since the crash, to stop her crying, to shield her body, to hold her tight every time her soul cracked and she screamed and screamed until there was no air left to fill her sick lungs. Protectors, nurses and avengers, creating a feathery hospice for a girl who should have been loved. ]

I don't know any other sisters.

[ She eventually says, and her voice is wet and unsteady, blue eyes hazy on the wing that hosts them. ]
Edited 2023-05-26 22:30 (UTC)
dontdeserve: (Cry)

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-05-28 10:15 pm (UTC)(link)
There are more sisters. I hope we can find them, there are so many more, and they are all wonderful. [ He knows. He's spent a very, very long time caring for them.

And he is doing as much as he can to maintain her state, rather than degrade, although the cocoon bleeding is worrying him. There is so much that he is not certain about, but calmer does seem to be better. He thinks.
]

If everything works out, there will be so much to show you. Some of it might be complicated, and some you might not want to see again, but ... if nothing else, there is Delphinium. She is one like the other sisters, only she will talk to us, from her bulb. She is very nice.

[ ... that might not mean much coming from him, but on the one hand, he means it - on the other hand, it is not as though she can tell. Yet. ]
Edited (... weird formatting ) 2023-05-28 22:16 (UTC)
rejuvenation: (8)

[personal profile] rejuvenation 2023-05-28 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Laying in his arms like this, surrounded by his warmth through the coat and the softness of pretty black-and glowy feathers, Tessla learns a peace she hasn't felt since she was deemed large enough for the serious experiments. It's like he's taking away her pain a little bit, hiding the stabbing, ripping, tearing agony behind kind eyes and kind words. ]

I... would like to see more sisters.

[ Tessla whispers, her voice slowly starting to sound more like just her and not entwined with the other plants - but so, so much fainter. It hurts to speak, but she doesn't want to go back to the bed of sisters quite yet. With the edge of her misery dulled slightly, the little girl carefully turns her eye-wing to look up at her brother and then the sky.

She likes the sky. It has pretty colors. ]


You feel sad, red brother.

[ Tessla says, a tremor in her voice that ends in a raspy, wet breath. Her eyes slowly close, and her grip on his coat loosens as her consciousness wavers. ]
Edited 2023-05-28 22:41 (UTC)
dontdeserve: (Cry)

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-05-28 10:44 pm (UTC)(link)
You will see them, we'll find a way. Sharp brother says he knows this can be mended. And... I am a little sad, yes, but sadness is part of life - then you can appreciate joy even better. I'll show you that, too, I think.

[ His wing gently rocks her, but it's less soothing her to sleep - he remembers Knives warning against that - and more keeping her attention. ]

Hey... do you think it will be easier if you go back with the sisters? I will hold you even then, my wing can wrap around them and you, I think.

[ ... it's the first time he's had it, he can only guess. ]
rejuvenation: (5)

[personal profile] rejuvenation 2023-05-29 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
I'm always... always sad. Or was. N-not with you.

[ She mumbles slightly incoherently, and then her remaining facial features tense a bit as she's rocked. It hurts, despite how very soft the wing is. It does what is needed, however, and makes her open her dull eyes a little once more.

The cocoon of wings move, as if called by her declining health or by Vash's words, dragging itself forward with mutated wings and creaking, bone-snapping noises. It's almost the size of a truck, so it might be hard for Vash to hold it - but softer, straighter feathers reach for their tattered charge to be returned to them.

Once she's safe in their wings, she disappears into the mass of half-assimilated plants and the cocoon shudders. Sharper, deadlier feathers start facing outwards, a many-voiced growl telling that they are in a protective mode again.

...at least the wild mutated feather tumbleweed doesn't attack Vash, instead remaining still and keeping the front without their deadly defense for him to be able to stay close.

Tessla rests deep inside, able to relax a with the worst pain dulled for the first time in a very, very long time. ]
nyctinasty: (8)

[personal profile] nyctinasty 2023-05-29 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
[If there's any benefit to a desert, it's incoming vehicles can be seen from a long way off by the dust plume alone, and one is incoming. Knives doesn't broadcast his presence otherwise, but Vash knows he's on the way and that would hopefully be enough of a warning.

She might be a plant, but she's also a wounded, frightened child. He doesn't much want to make that worse, and he doubted she'd had much experience with vehicles, never mind loud stinking ones that kick sand and dust and pebbles everywhere. At least the feather ball is easy enough to see from a short distance, though the addition of a dark wing is .. unexpected and strange.

The only time he touches the brakes is within a quarter mile, slowing the sputtering, unhappy vehicle by degrees until he can drive closer with it without much disruption of dust. Only then does he too stop deliberately muting his own presence, in case that protective knot of sisters took offense to a 'human' on the approach. No humans here. Not even dead ones!

All his fury, all his hatred for humanity stirred up at the revelation of her survival like that is very carefully buried; it's not important right now even if he can't help but a brief look around for a potential target - if she'd appeared who wasn't to say one of her tormenters had? But there's no one. Just a tangle of sisters, and Vash. Who ... has black feathers, presumably feathers in a shape he's not used to seeing.

..... Worry about that later. There's blood on the wind and staining the sand with unspeakable giblets, and black doesn't kill immediately.]


What a mess.

[It's not loud, not over the rumble of the engine, but the wind might carry it anyway. He's going to have to make his approach on foot, by the protective stance of those countless wings.]
dontdeserve: (no...)

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-05-29 07:47 am (UTC)(link)
[ He is doing his best, and even after she is in the cocoon - he cannot completely cradle it as he did her, but he can wrap his wing around it - he keeps giving as much comfort and healing as he can. And... he doesn't let go of one of her hands, if he can, as the cocoon stays partly open. All that he can give, all the comfort, she gets.

When Knives gets there, Vash is looking in that direction, and when his brother is out of the vehicle, he starts apologizing immediately.
]

I'm sorry, she's not awake now, but she is not getting worse. I think just... when it hurts less, she's just comfortable for the first time.

[ It is indeed a mess, but he's doing his best. He is. ]
rejuvenation: (3)

[personal profile] rejuvenation 2023-05-29 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The rumble of a car is noticed, but it's far enough away at first to not mean immediate danger. There were wams around in the sands and even a grand one in the distance while they were raging across the dunes, and they only killed the ones that came to close. The cocoon does bristle again when the new presence makes itself known, but it doesn't go into death mode when their little core is calm and as comfortable as someone with her injuries can be. Not afraid, because she has a brother. Many brothers that are also the same brother.

The closer Knives come towards them, the more the wings fluff up until it's almost round. It could maybe be called cute if it wasn't for all the blood in the sand and on Vash's coat.

Tessla is quiet inside, still radiating more agony than any one normal person could handle, but feeling a little better thanks to the way Vash had taken some of her pain. The terror is also less thick in the air, and with that the anger has calmed to hot embers rather than a wildfire.

There's still tension from the semi-assimilated dependents, however. Even without eyes and their own individual consciousnesses, they're watching you, Knives. ]
nyctinasty: (3)

[personal profile] nyctinasty 2023-05-29 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[Vash's best, with the primary direction being 'don't let her sleep', is not good enough.

When the primary direction was 'don't let her sleep because it could kill her', Vash's best could be a death sentence, and the look Knives gives him is one of disappointment, but not surprise. If that had been a human child, he's certain his instructions would have been carried out flawlessly. Had he even bothered to dull her pain, or was that left to the sisters?]


The fault is mine. I'll be more careful. Let's ... see what we can do.

[He should have known better than to rely on Vash, and if Tessla paid for it with her life, then the blame was entirely on his own shoulders. Perhaps he should have burned what energy he had left and taken to the air, less time for things to keep going wrong, enough time maybe to tell the sisters what they needed to do.

Faced with a defensive ball of puff that could easily turn deadly should they so choose, Knives ... doesn't do anything about it. They're acting as they should, and he could only meet them with his own sincerity and concern- for all that he hated humanity, his affection for his own kind ran just as deep. He is no threat. Not to a plant.

His words are both aloud, and ... not. An appeal to the heart as much as to the ears, as he brings the confidence and hope of experience with him.]


Sisters. I've come to help. I know how to fix this. Together we can end this pain. Will you let me show you how?

[Simple, clear and straightforward, the same way he'd convinced countless plants to stand by his side before. No deceptions, no lies, and all the gentle kindness that humanity has yet to ever earn.]
dontdeserve: (Cry)

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-05-30 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
[ Vash flinches at the disappointment, the pain of it cutting deep to the point where for the first time since he realized how important it was, the soothing and comfort and calm he's radiating wavers for a moment before he digs his heels in and steadies it. He doesn't matter. His pain doesn't matter. It never did, and it never would.

The night-dark wing remains wrapped as far around the cocoon as it will go, but if Knives needs to stand in front the cocoon, closest to where Tessla is, he will run his thumb along the small knuckles and let go of her hand, to place his palm against the soft-sharp feathers.
]

I'm still here.

[ But he doesn't dare offer more help to Knives. He already has, and he knows his brother will take from him if needed, but he hasn't earned that trust, clearly. ]
rejuvenation: (4)

[personal profile] rejuvenation 2023-05-30 02:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[ There's a small whimper inside of the cocoon when Vash lets go of that feathered hand, but at least it's a sign that she's still alive. Tessla doesn't really know how to control the way she shares in their connection, it's all emotions and pain leaking out freely, just like the rage flooding the desert when the cocoon first arrived. Right now there's a hint of fear, because there's a new voice - but Vash and the sister's calm soothes her right back to just wary.

Said sisters start to soften the defensive feathers, folding threatening wings back - except for a few that have turned to directly face Knives. Their brother's earnest words and kindness have their attention, including Tessla's since they're all connected. ]


SA̜̗͍̮̪͎ͣ̿ͩͅV͇̜͈̉ͬ̐Ė̥̬̼̩̎̒͐͌ͣ̈́ͅHER.
TAKE THE P̘̉͊A̬͖̟̋̚I̶͈̣͇̜N͔̠̱ͧ͂̚
END IT. E̖̰͈̽̄̈́̏̾̀̃N̴̯̞͚̝̞̳̫̎͂ͬD͖͖̭̲͉̲ͩ͐́ IT.
SHOW US.


[ The cocoon peels away more wings, a myriad of twisted feathers and limbs until the core is visible again. Tessla is lying on larger feathers to support her, head tipped back a bit and the feather-filled blonde hair spilling over white. It's not a sight people can easily stomach; she's a horror of gore much like the twins remember from the containers, and even worse in a way since she's missing her lower half.

It looks like the assimilation has fixed her in some ways, probably out of desperation. Her hand and her arm are attached to more twisted wings, just like her eyes. Her brain is placed like it should be rather than floating in another tank. That's where it ends, though. That's how much a little, terrified child could do with the help of her sisters - and lying on her back like this rather than face down in her brother's arms, there are a few dark strands hidden underneath the blonde. ]


Sharp brother...?
nyctinasty: (4)

[personal profile] nyctinasty 2023-05-30 03:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Don't get ideas about doing more than you're asked for and 'sparing' our sisters their part in this.

[The warning is quiet and firm, an undercurrent to that tiny whisper in the coccoon.]

It won't help, I need precision and predictability, not recklessly dumping power into a broken vessel. She - all of them, I don't know if I can separate them or if they'll want to be .. they will need help later and I can't do that. You seem always eager for a new way to sacrifice yourself, it'll do you some good to have something to live for instead. She'll need you.

[He can't do it himself. Not when he can feel the rot of dead power in every moment of every day. It could catch him later today, tomorrow, a week from now ... a year, there was no knowing. Where humans had failed to get rid of the menace that lurked in the dunes, time's relentless inevitability would see it to its final conclusion. He didn't think about it when he could avoid it.

Tessla, a gestalt or alone, deserved better than to be shackled to that. Vash was still vibrantly full of life, he could last a long time if he had a reason to care, a reason to not throw himself at every lethal situation. She didn't need to be another lost orphan alone in the desert like they had been. How much different would their own lives had been, had his original plan worked and Rem went with them into the endless wasteland? Experience has its benefits, as the shrouding ball of feathers begins to uncurl and he can easily hide and obscure fresh horror at the state Tessla's been left in, the smell of viscera, the echos of pain and fear. He knew how much she'd be hurting. He'd been there, twice. No plant should have to endure that, suffer like this, and Vash is given another brief glance.]


Give her a better life.

[This must not be all there is for her. It can't be allowed.

She shouldn't have black in her hair, so young. She should have had a chance to experience something other than suffering. If ever he needed a monument to human cruelty and callousness, it was here in this nest of feathers. Gently he reaches a hand for the feathers, for Tessla's ragged form, there's no blades to mark where he chose his name from. There was enough fear already.]


We will all save her. If there are remnants left in the sand, anything bigger than [image: a golfball] and you can reach them please bring them close. Dear sister, this will feel strange, but even if you are tired you must not sleep.

[Because it's easy to want to rest, to want to relax, when there's no pain anymore, and as soon as Knives makes contact with a feather, a wing, a bloody arm - that pain will suddenly end in time to spreading pale glowing lines at the point of contact. He'll take it and endure it instead, he's felt it before, worked through it before. He could again. Had to.

Without pain there's still other sensations, some might not be comfortable, like the press of rock and sand, the way air feels on open wounds without the suffering attached to it, the singing confusion of nerves expecting pain and making up a sensation to feel instead of it. For the tangle of sisters and Vash it might not be easy to see what he'd done, but feel it, and be able to reproduce it.. that's easier. He doesn't have power to use, but this isn't using his power, this is convincing power to work in a different way, the way he tells it to, and he can keep his voice mostly steady through it, though his smile is more wan than he'd care for if he knew it.]


Hello. After all this time, we meet at last.
dontdeserve: (Cry)

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-05-30 04:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I wasn't going to interfere. You are the one who knows what you are doing. I will just keep doing what I am doing.

[ Calming, and easing the pain. Of all the cocoon. And something in Knives's tone made him brace himself, but it was not enough. The process is brutal, and vash's entire being aches for all of them. He doesn't cross what Knives told him - not for preserving his own life, what does he need it for anyway - not a thought to voice when their sister is fighting for hers - but because he wants to give her the best chance to be whole, after so long, and Knives is her best chance for that. ]
Edited 2023-05-30 16:43 (UTC)
rejuvenation: (7)

[personal profile] rejuvenation 2023-05-30 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She doesn't really understand what the new brother is talking about when he's speaking to the red brother, head swimming with strange sensations. The pain is lessening even more and it's both a relief and terrifying at the same time. She hasn't felt like that since she was very small, too small to experiment physically on.

Not even when the humans thought she died.

No pain leaves such a raw sensation, she can feel every grain of sand stuck in her mess of gore, every feather around her and on her, and the heat of the suns. ]


Hello. [ Tessla says softly, almost just a whisper. She had to fight the complete exhaustion that falls over her, every part of her begging to sleep. ] I'm h-happy to meet a new big little brother.

[ While she speaks, another part of her and the sisters gather what they can of the mess, scooping it up on a larger wing for safekeeping. It's mostly unidentifiable pieces, for better or for worse. ]

WE LOST THE O̬̮̜̫̽̆̊̔̀͒̊Tͤ̔HE̛͓̋̿ͪR̴̟̀͐̈́͗̃̇͊ HALF OF HER
IN THE S͌̑̀ͯ͒̓ͥ҉͎Ā̸͎̬͇̰̳̺̤͒̏N͋̑͒D͇̈̾͗̂
TRAPPED
͓͚̝̩S̲͕̺̲̺ͅT͕̥̭̗̏̋̕U͓̥͋C̗̭͊ͬ̐ͣ̐̿Ḳ͎͇̱̋̎̀͋ͤ͌̾
WE HAD TO BREAK FREE


[ The sisters apologize, one wing reaching out in the direction they had come from. It's fairly easy to see their tracks, being a giant ball of wings. Somewhere out there was the lower part of a little girl, hopefully not being the dinner of some hungry wam.

Tessla looks at Knives and then back at Vash again, before holding out her little hand to the older of her little brothers. Her voice is stronger now, clearer when not dulled by pain - as is her mind. ]


You can really make me better? Not take me somewhere dark or give mercy? The other unseen thing said red brother should give me that and I... don't know what that means. The people always lied about mercy, s-say I'm given mercy, say I'm dead and nobody heard me when I screamed for them to stop cutting me apart. [ She sobs, tears wetting the feathers. ] I'm scared!
Edited 2023-05-30 17:29 (UTC)
nyctinasty: (5)

[personal profile] nyctinasty 2023-05-30 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
You'll also know what we're doing soon enough.

[And it may be needed again one day in the future, though he hoped not, and if so, that Vash would remember the price and that the more plants were involved the better it was for everyone. It was the best he could hope for, for now, with the ordinarily bulbed Sisters scrounging for what meat they can, and the apology of some left in the sand. The other half .. that's significant. There was enough power here that they could bull through it regardless, but it would be a better heal if the larger pieces could be found, more time spent on fine detail over gross requirements of blood and organs.

He doesn't switch tones to speak to Vash OR Tessla from the reassurance he was doing his best to offer to her, taking the offered hand in his own, rough and calloused by time but still careful, but there's a brief look of question or pleading to Vash - somewhere out there is legs, or more. They needed it.]


I can! I've been hurt like this before, and it was terrible, but I got better.

[It's true, and the lack of a lie is an evidence of its own that he allows to bleed through. They can survive this, and worse.]

Healing is mercy too, the ... unseen thing probably simply didn't know how to help in any other way. You don't have to be afraid anymore. We'll always come, if you call. And if anyone tries to cut you apart again... [He keeps it buried, carefully, ever so carefully, but there's a brief edge to his voice he can't hide.] Then I will do to them what they've done to you, and I will be certain they are awake when I do it.

[It eases quickly, now isn't the time for bloody revenge.]

It may take our brother a minute to find something for us, so if it's okay, we'll wait just a little bit. He's good at finding things, though.
Edited 2023-05-30 18:09 (UTC)
dontdeserve: (Cry)

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-05-30 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Vash nods, just taking a moment to caress the wings. ]

I will be back soon.

[ And he sets off across the sand. Perhaps if he were a decent driver, he might have taken the vehicle that Knives arrived with. As things are... that would probably be a less than great idea. And potentially slower. Though after a moment he does realize he has a whole wing on his back. It makes the running thing more awkward, but perhaps... perhaps he can use it as an actual wing?

Even as he moves, he tries to maintain the soothing and pain-easing aura, but there will come a point where that will be too far, and the full extent of pain will likely return. He is sorry. He is sorry....

Even as he moves, he hears Knives's admission, and winces.

There are not many things that can damage Knives to that extent. In fact, he thinks to what Wolfwood had said - that both himself and Nai had died at JuLai. It...

It was probably him that did it to Knives.

He just keeps struggling to make his wing work. Flying would be faster than running...
]
rejuvenation: (7)

[personal profile] rejuvenation 2023-05-31 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She holds on to Knives' hand just as desperately as she did Vash's - maybe even stronger now that she wasn't in such horrible pain. Still, she's very confused about it all, not really understanding much but trusting her brothers enough to go with what they were saying.

After all, what could be worse than the hell she was already in? Not even a year old and she suffered like an animal at the hands of people who had been given a gift, not a test subject. So when Knives words turn slightly sharp about her tormentors, the little waif of a girl does not hold back her anger at all; she doesn't even know how.

The rage of a small child is somehow still all-compassing and sets the sisters off as well, hissing sounds and shrieks mixed into it all. She's so, so angry and she grasps that hand even tighter. Earlier while being a shrieking feather terror in the sand she had wanted to destroy everything around her, no matter what it was - and while an innocent being, she's more than earned the right to hate.

Just like a little Knives, it's all fear underneath it all.

Even emotional tantrums are draining, though, and Tessla's eyes grow a little hazy again. ]


...we'll wait for red brother. He is made of helping and a lot of sad.

[ She finally says, a few wings curling around her like a blanket.

Half an hour out in the sand is the other half of a little girl, some of the wam buzzards circling over it and smaller wams picking at the gore. It's a large chunk of the puzzle that is the horror of Tessla, but it can save a lot of time to rebuild with familiar pieces.

After all, she wasn't almost vaporized by an angel arm. ]
nyctinasty: (2)

[personal profile] nyctinasty 2023-06-01 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
[It's not at all what he excels at, but Knives does his best to project calm and reassurance instead of anything possibly distressing. It's a strange balm to old hurts, to feel someone else's fury and hatred of humanity wash over him without it just being an echo of his own feelings, but it isn't good for her right now, and he's not going to encourage it. Yet.

Later, maybe. When she's healthy. When her entire small colony is, and they're able to defend themselves. The hissing and shrieking is exactly what he wanted to do most of the time when he had to endure human company. It was a strange sense of kinship, forged on fear and brokenness, but he'll cherish it all the same, and fold his other hand over her small, viselike grip.]


It's alright. You can hate them too, they deserve it. [Knives is never, ever going to tell another plant they shouldn't hate humans. Learn to harness that rage, perhaps. Make it useful - but now? Right now?] But they're not here now. And I won't let any of them near.

[He wished with a bitter ache that he could do as Vash did, and add feathers and wings to the mix, but he couldn't offer that simple basic comfort almost any other plant could. He had to do nothing that a human couldn't, the bare minimum of a gentle grip and presence.]

...He is, isn't he? But if you can get him to smile the sadness goes away for a little while.

[There's a moving red spot in the sand, but Vash might not be in sight much longer. He watches it for a moment, fogged by old memories, then shakes his head as if to clear them away. More importantly, the small flock of fury..]

Tessla. My sisters. I have to ask.. do you want to stay together, all linked? You can. It'll make all of you stronger, safer, but you don't have to if you don't want to.

[He missed it, in some ways. He hadn't been alone, then, even through the abstractness of their communication.]
dontdeserve: (Cry)

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-06-01 10:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ Vash had just found his way with the wing, when the wave of hatred and anger and fear caught up with him and knocked him down, sending him rolling and then sprawling on the sand, tears he had been trying to stem starting all the harder.

Hatred could not bring about anything but pain. Fear could not bring about anything but choices with no future.

But Tessla. Tessla had the right to hate. The right to fear. It just hurt him all the more. But it was her choice. As it had ever been Nai's.

Vash pulled himself up and took to the air once more, hurrying as much as he was able. He shooed the small worms gently away, gathering as much of what had been left behind as he could, quickly and carefully. He had no idea if without the... core? Of what a plant was it would matter, but he extended what healing he could towards this as well, even as he took to flight again, in as straight a line back as he could. Hurry, hurry, hurry. The faster he could go back, the sooner she would be in less pain.
]
rejuvenation: (3)

[personal profile] rejuvenation 2023-06-02 07:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Her breath stutters a bit when wings gently move her pieces around, lungs still trying to work even when half-collapsed outside of her body. As scared as she is, as angry as she is, she'll put her fragile trust in her brothers, and only because her sisters can come to save her once already.

...and speaking of- ]


I don't want to leave them. [ Tessla says softly, almost afraid at the thought of being separated again. Her other hand reaches to touch a wing that doesn't belong to her, small fingers curling in the feathers. It reaches for her as well, agreement radiating from the plants around her. They love eachother so much, parts of a whole. ]

WE WILL ALWAYS P̶̬͖̪̪̦̘̲R̨̻̜͖̘͂̅̿̃ͣ̇OT̲̩̰͕̻ͦ̉Eͤͨ̊C̣̦̘͓T̼͈̫̬͇̏ͣ͛͆ͬ̊ HER.

[ A small smile ghosts on the tiny girl's lips when she hears that, warmth replacing all the rage and fear she spread before. A child held lovingly by her older sisters, safe while her older brothers watch over her.

Her body is struggling, though. Ripping free from the cocoon had greatly diminished her energy and health, and with the pain gone it's like her body thinks she's dying. Again. ]


...I'm very tired. It's so odd, sharp brother. Everything feels different.
nyctinasty: (4)

[personal profile] nyctinasty 2023-06-02 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm happy to hear that.

[It was true. That sort of affection all of them had for each other was a little foreign but welcome to catch the edges of, its unhesitating, all-accepting embrace. She'd need them, need protectors, one way or another. And they'd grant her power beyond what an individual plant could do, he'd just have to find a way to gently warn her to not especially trust the Terrans, as they had ways of breaking the gestalt.

Her tiredness though, the pain he'd taken, it warned that if they weren't getting to healing soon it may not go so well. He looks for Vash, that distinctive spot of red amongst all the paleness of the desert, and that ominously beautiful black wing.]


Soon it won't hurt at all without me doing anything. You'll be able to stand, and run, and play if you want to. You can sleep then, too. Just... a little bit longer. I'm sorry we're making you wait.

[But for a good cause. Easier healing, faster recovery..

..There. Red, gold and dark, and the smile that crosses his face is brief but bright and an equally quick surge of happiness, there and gone or buried. Such an expression doesn't suit him well, better worn by slightly different features and a mole on the other side.]


See, I told you he can find things easily. Things will be much better very soon.
dontdeserve: (Cry)

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-06-02 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[ that's why he had allowed her to rest a little while Knives arrived, she needed to conserve her energy...

This is the second time a strong emotion more or less knocks Vash off the air, and he tumbles down, rolling a bit across the sand with his precious cargo cradled safely against his chest. Then he stumbles back upright and runs the rest of the way... trying to keep a bit out of Tessla's view to show to Knives... a silent question on whether it's all right for her to see. Then again, he already knows the answer.

And yes, he's taking over the pain soothing and calming as soon as Knives lets him, but also there is more affection added now. That surge of happiness... even brief as it is, he's not been the cause of that before. He could bask in even that brief moment... were there not far more important things to handle first.

He bites his lip slightly, as he approaches enough to feel it.
]

Sorry, I'm sorry, I went as far as I could... [ The tip of his wing, the most far reaching part, caresses the side of the cocoon. ] Sisters, can you open up a little to take this part in? It will be safer inside, so she can be made whole.
rejuvenation: (7)

[personal profile] rejuvenation 2023-06-03 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
[ Tessla doesn't quite know what 'play' means, but walk and run seems so nice. It feels like a lifetime since she could stand on her own, everything weak and falling apart as the tumors ate her alive. Now a little light of hope has hatched inside her chest, and it's a fragile little thing for a girl who has always seen the end of all hope, all promises, all apologies that meant nothing.

Still, she's starting to struggle a bit. Now that she has a goal, a possible future, it's like her own body is betraying her. She's getting bleary-eyed and pale, struggling to make sense of what the sharp brother is saying... but she thinks the red brother has found her lower body.

The sisters hurriedly reaches for her final part, gently folding it in with the rest to push together the mutilated pieces of Tessla - or at least 70% of her mass. The rest is lost to scalpels and the sand. ]


C-can you put me together now? [ The little girl asks, struggling to keep herself conscious and her grip on her other brother loosening a bit from the desperate hold. ] Me and our sisters. Always. Please.

Please.

P̛̥̳͚̹͋̍̔̑ͮL̺̣͎É̼̤̳͎͚̩Â̤̘͞S̮E͍͈̻̼͖̺͚ͨͩ͆͂
nyctinasty: (8)

wall of text. TW: descriptions of inside bits.

[personal profile] nyctinasty 2023-06-03 12:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[When sleep is a more lethal risk than staying awake..]

You succeeded, so no more apologies, you'll wear them out.

[It's grisly, this gathering of what amounted to organic debris that was still alive and should be in horrific pain had he not muzzled that. He'd seen humans torn apart in that fashion countless times, been the perpetrator nearly as often, but it hit so much differently when it was his own kind. It was, of course, utterly different to him and always would be.

He sets it aside. Compartmentalizes emotion, puts it away with the rest.

Doing is one thing. Teaching others how to do it is another, especially in the middle of this kind of situation. He nods regardless, they can put her together again now. Legs weren't explicitly needed, but it helps. Healing thirty percent of a person is much less taxing than healing 70%. And with him right here, the chances of Tessla slipping away and dying were close to zero.]


Of course. We have everything we need now; I will need to take a bit of everyone's strength. You won't get it back, but it will heal Tessla. I can't- [He can't just force it anymore, he didn't have that power.] ..assist directly. What I will show all of you will work for every plant, but be careful doing it alone. The more help you have, the easier it will be. Touch makes it easier too. It may look scary, there will be smoke, maybe light, but it's safe. Pay attention if you can. If you can't, it'll be over in a couple minutes.

[It's nice they're all in contact already but that's part of instruction, stating the obvious so it's no longer implied, it's an out loud fact. He doesn't say it'll work on humans, he's never tried and doubted it would, there wasn't the same fundamental biological connection. Even mentioning it would likely upset the small flock regardless.

Granted power, he's deliberately slow at first in taking it in a fine, minute strand of his own waning abilities and directing it, moderating its flow and strength, allowing very little of Tessla's though it was needed to form a connection at all, somewhat more of Vash's, and putting the heaviest metaphorical lifting on their numerous intertwined sisters. Their greater numbers were their advantage, and there is the barest echoes of muted puzzlement is the only mark that Knives has to take a moment to figure out exactly what Vash's power is, and then how to best make use of it. That wasn't ... how it was supposed to be, what it was like before.

A puzzle for later, he can still make use of it.]


Start with bone. It knows where it belongs, give it the power to be there, and rebuild itself. While it does, organs need to be put back into place, bone usually protects them.

[Like so, the needle-thin direction of their combined strength set to fueling the rapid regeneration and healing of severed joints, broken bones, and missing bones, and close them over organs gently pulled back into place by threads of flesh and the subtle tug of microscopic specks of gravitational force. At the edge of rebuilding bones is the light he'd warned of, the fine spiderweb of plant-glow and discharge of unwanted matter mixed in such as sand burnt off in a thin haze of white smoke.

It would be terribly painful, if Knives allowed any of them to feel the pain. In the absence of pain, there's much more bizarre sensations. Once he has a sense of them understanding what he's directing their powers to do, the process speeds up, mending blood vessels before they can hemorrhage, an intertwining rootlike network of veins and arteries, bones encouraged to produce more blood. It's a drain, tangibly, for any he's taken power from. And none of the power being used is his, there's just emptiness where there should have been Knives' own plant abilities.]


Work from the inside out. Once everything is in place and held together even a little bit, then the rest can follow. Skin is always almost last, without a cut there's no bleeding to worry about.

[The only real problem is it does rely on a body's innate sense of what it's supposed to look like, the number of limbs or digits and so on, and that might be ... blurred, connected directly to ordinarily bulb-bound sisters. Power seeks out broken and torn bone and flesh there too, in amongst the feathers. Damage is damage and they are a whole.]
Edited 2023-06-03 12:23 (UTC)
dontdeserve: (Default)

wehhh

[personal profile] dontdeserve 2023-06-03 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Vash has not forgotten what Knives told him, about throwing his energy into it uncolicited. But he is paying attention, and there is a moment when Knives's guidance falters somehow. He tries to think, then slowly starts building in his mind the image of how their bodies work, in specifics. He's healed from a lot of damage, himself, on his own and with the help of human medicine; he's helped a lot of bulbed plants also. He can give some idea of how things work, for the sisters to build upon, for knives to use ase a structure.

He doesn't speak, only stands there, radiating what cmofrot he can, his wing wrapped around the cocoon as far as it will go, his hands buried among the feathers, and forehead leaning against the frame of a wing.

He will be needed. He must not throw himself away to the process of reconstruciton.

It helps anchor him away from self-loathing and into the love he has for his siblings.

Both of them.
]

continuing the body horror

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THAT WAS MY MISSING It oops

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<3

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oops!!

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Ah well.

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