Geranium

[nurturing]

[ A small podunk town outside of Lost July now houses a small science station, cobbled together by pieces from an escape pod. Rem has been busy cataloguing everything she's managed to put together about both NoMan's Land and this glitch in it so far. Her data pad is overfilled with information, including some pre-downloaded survival tips for hot climates.

It means she's not longer horribly sunburnt, at least.

A radio dish and a messy attempt at a solar panel has been somewhat haphazardly attached to the roof of the house she's taken over, but there hasn't been enough parts to finish them so neither of them have been working right so far. The radio sends signals, but the receiver doesn't work. She keeps trying, though, and the adult Vash she met had been helping her set everything up so that she could live there.

Right now she can be found outside of the house, shaking out blankets and hanging them over a line. Vash had left to find more provisions, and she wanted the other bedroom to be clean when he came back. It's very domestic, and she's singing softly to herself. ]

Sooo... on the first celestial evening, a pebble from somewhere out of nowhere drops upon the dreaming world~♪

[ Rem has held it together fairly well so far, but she can't deny the nightmares and the rush of grief that falls over her in the times she's alone in the house, scarred to the bone by the catastrophe she barely escaped. All the dead in the crash, and all the suffering on this planet. ]

Sooo... on the second celestial evening, all the children of the pebble held hands and composed a waltz~♪

[ Rem shakes out another blanket - a smaller one this time, perfectly sized for a child. She needs to get that radio working so that she can try to contact other settlements and see if anyone has seen small versions of her twins. While she met an adult Vash, she's worried that this timeline mess also means that her little twins are around. ]

Sooo... on the third celestial evening, the children's waltz spawned rippling waves across the waking world~♪

[ Then there was Nai. She still hasn't found him, not even an adult version, and she's not stupid - she knows what he did now, but he's her boy, and she needs to know more. She needs to understand why, and she's not ready to hear that something happened to him. She can barely stand the well-hidden (but still obvious to her) sadness in Vash's eyes. ]

Sooo... on the fourth celestial evening, the waves showered the ground upon which every child wandered~♪

[ She shakes out clothes this time, her ship uniform changed to some salvaged clothes and a hooded cloak that protects her from the sun. ]

Sooo... on the fifth celestial evening, the showers on the earth became its beacon of existence~♪

Comments

[louboutinjudas]

[ This is not his JuLai.

It's been an interesting couple of days to say the least. One minute he was well on his way to getting completely, satisfyingly, mind-erasingly drunk in some filthy bar on the far side of the aptly named Carcasses, and the next the world split open with a choir of angels singing knives of song right through his brain. When he could see again, the bar was gone, Carcasses was... different, proper synth buildings replaced with stone and clay, and, probably the most frightening of all, no people. Nobody at all.

Oh, there were bodies, starved and desiccated, but nobody alive. He'd always figured Hell was made up, but if it really did exist, Wolfwood was prepared to swear that an empty world made for much better torment than fires and pitchforks.

So he'd headed to JuLai. Why not? If this really was Hell, then JuLai was the site of his worst betrayal, the crime he'd been well and truly damned for. Walking half a day across the sands proved to him that his body still worked -- more or less -- so he'd clawed his way back into Carcasses and found himself a car to hotwire.

JuLai -- or July, as the map he'd found in the car named it -- was different as well. He'd been expecting a crater in the middle of the desert, but what he found instead was a pile of rubble. Abandoning his vehicle, Wolfwood wandered through the empty streets, trying to wrap his head around what exactly he was doing here. The bricks were softened by the wind and sand, and the drifts against the few walls still standing proved that this city had been blasted years ago.

There was nothing here for him, he finally had to admit, and he was just about to turn around, head back into the city and find that car again, when he heard singing.

He was running before he was aware of it, desperate in a way he didn't want to think about quite yet for the sound of another human voice, the sight of another person's face. And then there she was, a woman standing outside of a slapdash kind of building, hanging up laundry like it was any summer's day. If there'd been any water left in his body he might have cried for joy. ]

Yo!

[ Exhausted, sunburned, looking more than a little wild, he stumbled down the incline and headed in her direction. ]

Are you real?

[nurturing]

Sooo... on the sixth celest-

[ She pauses as she hears a voice call out to her that isn't the Vash she knows, turning to see a man heading her way. She raises a hand in greeting, putting down the next blanket as she does. ]

Hello! Last time I checked, I was definitely real.

[ There's a smile, and she raises a water jug towards him so he will join her. Poor guy looked like a mess, and with what Vash had told her, people were sparse around here.

He could definitely use her help. ]

[louboutinjudas]

[ He could definitely use her help! Wolfwood runs for her -- and the promise of water -- on shaking legs. If there isn't a glass, he'll just drink straight from the pitcher, but one way or the other, every drop is going down his throat, and now. And then, sloshing, he collapses at her feet, out of breath but more alive than he's felt in however many days it's been. ]

I'm saved.

[littleblades]

[ nai is growing increasingly loathsome over the way this planet and whatever ethereal magic wrapped around it seems to enjoy tossing him all about without much more than the warning of a tremor and a terrible headache afterwards. one moment he'd been in december in search of a working radio and the next he was here, laid out flat under the desert sun with only the warning of the ground trembling before everything went dark.

he doesn't have a map nor an older-little brother to guide him through the wastelands of sand and heat so when he looks around to see a modest building of some kind in the distance, nai figures it's certainly better than having nothing at all.

as he gets closer, the soft sounds of a melody reach his ears and for a moment his steps falter.

could it be...? maybe - could it be?

before he can let his thoughts spiral, nai's steps pick up until he's breaking out into a mad run. he nearly slips a few times when the sands underneath him give out, but he doesn't stop until he's rounding the corner of the makeshift building to see her there. his heart pounding, nai's hands twist in his shirt as he tries to catch his breath. ]

R-Rem?

[nurturing]

[ She almost drops the next piece of cloth as she hears someone rushing towards her. Little legs stumbling through sand, and then

and then- ]

NAI!

[ There he is. Her Nai, just as small as she remembered - a child, a boy, just an innocent kid but with such a broken spirit that he did all the horrible things Vash had told her about.

Even so. Even so. That was Nai, and she drops to her knees, holding her arms out for him. ]

Oh Nai, I was so worried.

[littleblades]

[ seeing her there, calling out his name, nai's chest tightens painfully. he hesitates for a moment, weighed down by everything he knows now - the dread and anxiety that constantly threatens to rush over him without warning. that heaviness sits in his chest, chewing through him bite by bite.

but he finds the strength to move, nearly tumbling down the small hill to just about fall into her open arms. vash's voice rings out in his mind as nai breathes in her familiar, comforting scent, arms wrapped around her neck. all at once he feels terribly exhausted. ]

I'm okay... [ he murmurs against her shoulder, hesitant to let go like he might be under normal circumstances. ] But I haven't found Vash yet... [ his vash, their vash. how many other variations of his brother would he encounter before finding the one he shares a face with? ]

[graveresemblance]

[how had this all started? well, the quake-- the split, the rendering of space and time and of all things known to the already unsteady way of things. things were settling until they weren't.

waking up where he'd been, alone, Livio had immediately begun to roam, to search. his people weren't there where he awoke, the setting...set back in time.

at least roaming is familiar, roaming with little resources, but enough to keep him alive. July looks different, as he avoids it like the plague, and the nearer offshoot of the town seems abandoned as well.

abandoned but for...a song. maybe a note of something familiar. from a house, from white sheets-- no, blankets, on a clothesline.]

Hello...?

[nurturing]

[ Rem looks back as she hears another voice, and smiles as she's met with the sight of another scraggly desert man. At least he seems more cut out for traveling in the heat than Nicholas was. ]

Hello there! Would you like some water?

[graveresemblance]

Uh yes-- yeah...

[she doesn't react the way Livio had expected. revulsion, fear, running. but the big man still doesn't come any closer, just eying her and the surrounding area]

If you can spare some, I'd appreciate it. If not that's okay.

I WANT to say I'm sorry for dropping him here before my Vash, but...>:D

[el_llorono]

[He'd been walking for what felt like ages when the sound of singing rippled through the air in his direction, though it had admittedly been long enough in the "in-between" that his sense of time was shot to shit. Had it been a week? Months? All he knew was that there was no sign of Vash, and it had seriously taken him years to finally be able to catch up with him the first time. Enough years had passed since then that Vash had legitimately started showing signs of aging, even if it was subtle. He didn't want to be separated from him like that again, worried he wouldn't find him in time.

At least for now, though, he paused, and then let himself change directions, following the soft sound as each refrain reminded him more and more of something he'd heard years ago. It took him a while to remember just where, though the fact that he didn't fully realize where it had been until he saw the young woman standing, hanging laundry under the suns, left it up in the air whether it was because of the song itself or the sight of someone he hadn't expected to see in a good, long while.]

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Rem? Why- er how are you back? Did the Big Man upstairs let you come down an' visit? Thought that was off limits or somethin'! [Because she was different, yes, things didn't quite line up exactly with his memory. But she was still undoubtedly Vash's mother. He hadn't expected to see her in a very, very long time!

It took him a moment to realize, though, that...she was physical. She was folding laundry. He knew it was possible to manipulate objects, yes, but the level of concentration needed to do it was high, and she was just...]

Uh. H-...hey...? Mami? [He tentatively waved his hand in front of her as he stepped slowly closer, and then, focusing as hard as he could, reached out for the blanket in her fingers and yanked.]

[nurturing]

Sooo... on the sixth celestial evening- oh!

[ The blanket was just yanked away from her, but... there's nothing there. Rem looks confused, looking around as if she can somehow spot a snagging piece of rubble, or maybe it was the wind?

There's nothing, though. Just a scent that she can't quite place. ]

...Vash?

[ Maybe she just imagined it, and is getting dehydrated. The suns were not kind to a fair-skinned woman that spent a good part of her life on a ship, so maybe she's been overdoing it. Lots of maybes.

Bending down, she picks up the blanket again and shakes the sand off of it.]

[el_llorono]

[His face fell a bit as he watched her shocked reaction, though the fact that she called out for Vash made his brows inch their way slowly toward his forehead. He waved at her again, leaned in to stare her in the eyes, as if he could make her notice him just by getting in her personal bubble.]

You don't even know I'm here, do you? Huh. Well...I guess...if Vash is around here, then...[He sighed, plunking himself down in the sand nearby to wait. With a thought, a cigarette manifested in his fingers, and he lifted it to his mouth and took a drag. It wasn't real, he didn't even have a body that could react to the nicotine if it had been, but it was an old, old habit, and the motions of it were still soothing to him, even after so long.] How'd you even get back here? I'm sure Needle-Noggin was happy t'see you, yeah, but kinda wish you'd told me how-...

...Aaaah, fuck it. 'S better this way, anyway. [He flopped backwards without finishing his original thought, his hands folded on his stomach and the figment of a cigarette bouncing between his lips as he rumbled on without a thought for how it might have looked if someone had been able to see him.] You two deserve another chance, be a happy family. I'd just muddy things up a bit. 'S nice, not havin' to watch my back constantly, anyway. Though...

[His brow furrowed, and for a minute, he quieted, thinking. And when he spoke again, it was after pulling in a deep, slow breath he didn't need, focusing his attention, he energy, so that hopefully when he spoke again, he wasn't just talking to himself.]

Rem, 's me, I found you again. You said Vash is here? Do you still want me t'stay an' wait for 'im?

[And even that little bit took a lot out of him, left him tired. He forced himself to sit up, anyway, so that he could look up at her from his spot on the ground. Had she come back to pick up where she'd left off? What had happened when she had walked with Knives into the light? It made sense Vash's mom would want to be there for him herself, instead of leaving it up to him. She'd been watching over him for so long. Maybe it was better, this way. Maybe he should move on and leave them to enjoy what time was left in peace.

He didn't expect anyone had been praying for his salvation in the years since he'd passed, so he certainly didn't expect the end of his purgatory to be a rosy one, but that was ok, too. The fact that he was here at all seemed like it must have been some kind of celestial clerical error to begin with. He'd had a couple generations in the in-between to be ok with whatever happened after. Actually ok. He had no regrets.]

[cowgoesmoo]

[ Vash doesn't notice the world shifting beneath his feet. He's too focused on running, keeping his eyes on that tendril of smoke far in the distance and keeping his feet under him on the sometimes soft and slippery sand.

He's exhausted -- and reduced to walking -- by the time the structure ahead comes into view, and for a moment he's sure he's seeing things. But no -- that's really her. ]

Rem!

[ Incoming sweaty ball of kid! Prepare for hugging. ]

[nurturing]

[ Rem!

The sound of her name being called makes her heart throb and Rem drops the things she was working on, rushing towards the boy and falling to her knees in the sand so she can take him into her arms. ]

Vash! Vash. [ She says, voice almost breaking with how relieved she is. ] Are you alright? Are you hurt? Oh sweetheart, I was so worried...

[ He looked a little different and he dressed differently, but it was still obviously her boy. The little one, the one she had been worried about ever since she found Nai. Knowing that there might be a lost small version of him out there. ]

I'm so sorry that I couldn't find you.

[cowgoesmoo]

[ He face plants right into her, arms holding tight, and for a few seconds he just lets himself be relieved that she's here. This place is so strange, there's so many people here, but she was missing and he was getting worried too! But she's here now. Nothing can be wrong when she's here. ]

I missed you.

[ But he's not here for cuddles like some little kid! He's got important business! He wiggles his way free just enough to face her -- not entirely letting go, though -- because he's in a rush. ]

I'm not hurt! I'm okay, but there's somebody else who's hurt. I need bandages, and, um, pain killers, and... and anything else you have, all the medicine, Rem, it's urgent!

I am VERY sorry, Rem, you thought your other boys were sad... :X

[celestialcrybaby]

The road to Octovern from December had seemed...shorter somehow, the first time around, but Vash couldn't be sure how much of that was the rush of everything going on pushing him to move faster, rush, ignore the need to scream until his throat bled and reach Knives before he did any further harm, and how much of it was actual distance. It didn't help that something in the back of his mind told him that if the call had already come out from his sisters, then the battle was over. There was nothing for him there, besides Earth Feds and civilians trying to begin the cleanup that had needed to happen and the redistribution of the Plants to their proper homes.

But that didn't mean he was just going to ignore it. He had to go and see for himself, had to be sure that everything hadn't somehow changed, that all the fighting he'd done and all the blood on his hands wasn't for nothing because it was happening all over again and only this time, it was different and it was worse.

He had actually stopped for the night in the remnants of a small town, low on provisions and energy both, and had had the luck of finding a stash of non-perishables in the abandoned general store that should hopefully get him the rest of the way to the city. And then, tucked behind a bunch of jugs of pancake syrup and jars of spices as if someone had hidden it so that they could come back for it later, his eyes landed on the amber glow of a bottle of liquor.

He passed it up at first, telling himself he shouldn't, it wasn't a good idea to let himself fall into the bottles now, but then, as he was making a final circle around the shelves and making sure he hadn't missed anything, the little voice in the back of his head that usually lead him into some of his worst decisions whispered at him; It's not a big deal, I'm stopping for the night, anyway. It'll help me sleep, won't it? It's fine.

That was how, an hour later, he had imbibed the entire bottle as he sat on the walkway outside the store, staring out into the darkness of the growing twilight. He could tell on some level that he'd hit the point of Stupid Drunk, but it had at least given him a little bit of that comforting, numbing buzz that helped quiet the thoughts, helped sooth a little of what, if he were a religious man, he might have considered his soul. Temporary as it was, at least he didn't have to worry about thinking for one night, and the town being abandoned meant there was much less danger for him to just...stop. For a bit.

But it seemed like whatever had caused this whole debacle in the first place had other plans for him, and he honestly should have expected as much. But it still caught him by surprise when, as he stood from his spot on the walkway and went to step down into the sand to begin making his way towards the town's abandoned inn, the instant his foot touched the ground, there was a sharp, ethereal tug on his senses and a ripple in the world around him like a mirage in the sun, and then everything was gone. He gave a startled shout, stumbling and falling to the ground in a pile of limbs and duffel bag, the empty bottle still in his hand because he'd forgotten he was even holding it.

He laid there for just long enough for his brain to catalogue all of his extremeties and tell him that he hadn't taken any damage that he could feel before wobbling to his feet, dusting himself off, turning in a slow circle to take in the area around him. The most obvious feature was the sight of a massive crater, surrounded by iles and iles of fencing, and next to that stood a small building that looked to be more of a home than anything else, but was also strangely alone amongst the dunes. Even the most adventurous sort of homesteaders tended to stick at least somewhat close to one of the populated regions as they expanded outward, but when he turned again, there really was nothing but the crater and the house.

He turned back to it, staring at it, and then finally decided there was little for it but to check it out. At the very least, someone could direct him back to the road. He might have been more concerned with that, but then...the alcohol really had knocked most of the energy for Worrying Thoughts out of him.

"Helloooo? Anyone home?"

[nurturing]

I'm in the kitchen! [ Rem calls out when she hears the voice, and wipes her hands from the powder she was working with to go meet her visitor. She can feel her pulse in her ears, anxiety brewing - it sounded like Vash, but... off. Really off.

What se sees is... well. It is Vash, she's sure of that. He looks different, yes - older and rougher - but she can see those eyes and that little beauty mark. The lack of blonde is strange and it's almost distressing to see her own hair color in lieu of his own. (Black is a common hair color. She needs to remember that. Maybe he dyed it to keep away from bounty hunters.)

He's mirroring her in worse ways, though. She really doesn't know what she was expecting, really. In all these worlds, all these realities, of course there would be a version of her Vash that fell down the same dangerous hole she did, long ago. It was normal for people to get drunk sometimes, she knows. It just makes her heart hurt to see her child like... this. Stumbling around with a bottle. ]

Vash...

[celestialcrybaby]

[Something about that voice tickled the back of his brain, but he was too far sauced for the connections to fully process what it was that he was registering. He put a smile on his face for the cheerful-sounding greeting, though, winding his way around the little dining table towards where he expected the kitchen to be.]

Hello! 'M Sorry t'bother yah, I think I'm lo-! [His words died on his lips before his brain had a chance to realize what was in front of him when the woman turned the corner, and then it was as if everything came into sharp, horrible focus. He gasped, stumbling back, the bottle in his hand shattering on the ground as he tripped on one of the chairs that was sat next to the table and fell backwards with a crash. He might have been able to focus on pushing the alcohol out of his brain enough to sober his mind, but the way his head cracked against the floor made it a bit of a moot point.

He lay, dazed for a minute, a tangle of limbs and metal chair legs, before trying to roll himself out of the pile and back to his feet. And the entire time, the white static noise of his thoughts kept wanting to scream at him, get up, get up, it's not true, she's not real, don't let her see, no, no, no, no! He clambered to his hands and knees, waving shakily back at the woman behind him with his left hand, as if waving her away, a sob bubbling out of his throat as he managed to at least get one of his legs underneath him before he reached to pull himself up with the table.]

after thorns because they need some catching up; pick up at your time

[dontdeserve]

[ Usually when Vash goes for provisions, he lets her know that he's going. This time, he got poofed away, but when he can, he makes his way back. Because of course he does.

He comes in with a greeting, but also goes straight to wrapping Rem in a hug. If she's turned to greet him also, facing her; otherwise, just draped around her back.

He's home. ]


ooc: also if anyone at Rem's who wants to poke at him, feel free.

[nurturing]

[ Rem brightens up when she sees Vash, smiling at him as he greets her - but then she's engulfed in a hug and her features turn soft and sad. What is she going to do with her broken boys? ]

Hi, honey. Tough few days?

[ She gently brushes his hair back a bit, standing on her tippytoes so that she can place a kiss on his forehead. ]

Do you want to talk about it, or just stay like this? I have all the time in the world.

[dontdeserve]

[ He's already breathing more easily, just being here. Knowing that she's safe. And also she's not angry, but he still. Has to apologize. ]

I'm sorry for disappearing. I didn't do it by choice. But I'm back. And... yeah. It's been complicated.

[ He considers the question. ]

Stay like this. And then also talk, but, um. Possibly not yet where the little ones can hear. Not because I want to hide things from them, but because I'm not... at my best right now, and there's letting them know about things and scaring them needlessly. Is that all right?

Much later in the day, after Vash has some time with Mom

[el_llorono]

[Thoughts had been brewing in his head, worried thoughts that were increasingly persistent, and anxiety had managed for the first time in decades to take a hold of him and refuse to let go. He'd been doing his best to keep it buried as much as he could, but he had also learned that Vash, at the very least, was good at picking up on things like that, even with him as he was. So he didn't think it was going to be too much of a surprise when, after he'd lingered quietly in a far room of the station so that Blondie could spend some time with him mom, he approached him during a time when he was by himself and sat next to him, incorporeal and unseen but close.

He was quiet for a while, even after that, and Vash might have been able to feel that he was silently trying to work up the nerve to open up, wanting, needing something but worried about asking for it when he knew the man was already dealing with so much.

Maybe...maybe it wasn't such a big deal, he tried to tell himself quietly. There wasn't a guarantee it would even need to be acted on later, he may have been worrying himself over nothing, and this might have just been another stone on the already heavy load he was asking Vash to carry on his shoulders. But...he couldn't ignore it anymore. It was a big deal to him, massive, and it was eating him up, more and more, with each new awful thing they experienced in this weird new existence they shared. And he already felt awful for coming to him like this.

Finally, softly, his voice came from just near Vash's shoulder. He was sitting right next to him, close enough he might have been able to feel the heat from his shoulder if he'd had a physical form.]

Vash, I-...You don't have to agree to it, I'll understand if you can't, but...I was...[hoping] Wondering if...I...want to show you what my Vash looks like...in case...something happens to me. [And then he lost what nerve he'd managed to work up, and the next words spilled out of him quickly, anxious and fretting and sounding like he already hated having asked.]

I mean I know that things are weird right now and it may not ever come up, since it looks like people can't die now, so I'm probably just making a big deal out of nothing, but this is twice now I've...twice now I...thought I would have to make the decision to leave without him, and that I'd never see him again, and he'd never know, and, and...and I just haven't been able to stop thinking about what it'll mean if I have to follow through, but...I just...I can't just...I can't just... [And suddenly, he was crying, even though he tried very hard not to, grinding his teeth against it and burying his face in his hands] I don't want to leave him behind, but I know it's what he would want me to do, if it meant helpin' someone else. He would understand, right? He would want me to help, right???

Some hours later

[cowgoesmoo]

Playtime at big brother Knives's place always leaves Vash in the best of moods! He's dusty, scratched up, and delighted, running around the site looking for Rem, eager to tell her about something that happened during play time today -- just because she can't be directly involved with Tessla doesn't mean she needs to be left out entirely, right? -- when he spots an unfamiliar face. A familiar unfamiliar face.

Good mood quickly evaporating, Vash approaches the stranger, a tiny scowl scribbled across his face.

"Are you the one who ditched him?"

Hi Vash. Meet Vash.

[cowgoesmoo]

Rem!

[ Just twenty minutes ago he was a dusty, scratched up, happily exhausted little kid, fresh off an afternoon of running around with his brother and new sister. Now he's in a panic, tear tracks making clean places on his miserable little face, mind and heart both overfull with new information. ]

Rem, where are you!?

[nurturing]

Vash!? I'm in the office, honey!

[ She steps out, however, on alert from hearing the urgency in her littlest boy's voice. When she sees his teary face, she kneels down and opens her arms so that he can run straight into a hug. ]

Hey... what's the matter? Did something happen at Knives'?