nomans_land | In and around Octovern

In and around Octovern

1. Initial Arrival – CW: mention of Body Horror in last paragraph

For five years Vash has lived in a dystopian city. He's experienced weather changes, met other non-humans, he built a home with his twin from the future until that brother suddenly vanished one day, and for five years that impossible to explain in words link he shares with his sisters has been silent. Five years isn't a long time for a Plant, but it's still been a lonely five years. So when he stepped through a door with the promise of returning back to the point in time he was taken from without any memories of the last five years? Vash wasn't expecting to be overwhelmed so quickly.

He was expecting to be back in his cell in the Ark with no memories of the last five years. Only he remembers everything and he was dumped inside of Octovern. What has happened? Something clearly hasn't gone right. Then he can sense his sisters-- is that all his sisters??? In a rush of excitement he reaches out mentally towards them. How he's missed his family, but so many all at once turn out to be overwhelming.

There are startled shouts from the people around Vash as he lets out a scream. Clutching at his head, eyes white, and tendrils of feathers starting to grow out from his neck, hands, and around his face. While it was all warm and welcoming there was so much of it that Vash was beginning to loose himself in the wave of connection he was now feeling.

2. Oh yeah... those double suns

So, this wasn't what he was expecting. Not that he was looking forward to being a prisoner again, but arriving back home with things feeling off was not what Vash had been expecting. Was this some sort of trick by the city he had been in? This wouldn't be the first time it's tried to play on his emotions and memories of home.

Probably best he lay low for a bit. Vash makes the decision to leave the big city of Octovern where so many people are talking about the 'red brother' at the moment. Packing what he thinks he needs he heads out in the direction he remembers a small town was in. He's hoping it's not abandoned as he makes his way there.

Except he had forgotten how bad two suns can be at midday. Even with his coat full of lost technology it's getting unbearable. “Oh man, maybe I should have splurged for a ride.” He's going to aim for a rock he sees in the distance. Hoping to hide under what little shade it can offer.

Or maybe find him face down in the sand. He's a little out of practice with this desert life living.

3. Laying Low?

Somehow Vash makes it to the town he plans to lay low in. If you can call the rumours going around that there is a newly hired broom head, red wearing, bartender who goes by the name Eriks as laying low. He's in a small town not too far from Octovern where he thought it would be a good place to get some information as people make their way to and from the major city. Some people suspected at first that he might be that Vash the Stampede guy, but with the way 'Eriks' cries when he gets a splinter they don't seem to think that anymore.

“Hey there!” He greets the person who just entered the bar he's working at before he even gets a good look at them. “What can I get you?”

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He had snuck into Octovern in the middle of the night, black hair styled down, sunglasses hidden, coat stuffed in his duffel bag and a vest over his button-down. Just a normal, simple human, nothing to see here. It had taken him longer than he would have liked after everything popped off, but he was finally here, finally ready to try and reach the sisters, make a connection and try and figure out just what had happened to cause the whole mess.

But sneaking around at night and trying to get into the facility that had been set up to sort them all and figure out where to send them to had would have been, frankly, a bit of a suicide mission. There was no way he'd be able to just waltz in when the Earth Feds were running around, high security forces stuck on every corner. He needed to stick to the big crowds.

Which was where he was around noon, ducking in and out of the sea of people who were still stranded while they waited for their homes to have their plants restored. He'd left his supplies in the inn room he'd rented for the night, so it was just himself. Easier to travel, didn't have to worry about losing it if a scuffle happened. He was on high alert, but he had also been keeping his own Plant senses restrained as much as he could. After what he'd done to the younger him, outside December, he'd had no intention of letting anyone else like them in close enough that he would risk hurting them in the same way.

So it was, perhaps, a little understandable that the first hint he had that an uncomfortably familiar Independent was nearby was when he heard that voice screaming, heard people nearby shouting in surprise, and then more voices screaming in fear.

"Shit!" He followed the sounds, rushing through the crowd even while other people ran the opposite direction, and he didn't need to see the face of the man standing in the middle of an increasingly wide circle, feathers beginning to sprout from his contorted form, to know who it was. "Let me through, out of the way, I can help!"

There weren't many who heeded the order, though it was enough that he could slip through more easily. He wasn't exactly thrilled about the number of eyes that were now on him and on the other, but that was, frankly, the least of his worries as he rushed toward the red-coated figure, reaching out, grasping the hands that were clutching at his head before moving in close enough that his own face was sheltered in the crook of their arms, almost standing nose to nose so that his face filled the other's vision.

"Hey, hey, look at me, look at me! Listen to my voice, you need to breathe, you need to stay calm."

He knew time didn't stand still. Even after so many people claimed they had been returned to the moment in time they remembered and then came back later to the city, even after his brother arrived with his hair all black to say that in the end things works out, how could time stop like that? Legato had completely different memories than the two brothers. Things could change. Be different. Was this a world where there was no one to stop his brother because he had vanished? Is that why there were so many voices all in one place?!

The eyes that stare at and through his body double are completely white. Jagged lines streaking out and eventually blooming into soft feathers as the overwhelmed man continues to scream. Another him? Another body double sent by the city? Did they want him to kill this one too? Yeah, that was going to work about as well as the other time they tried it; not at all. Or could it be he was the double?!!?

The voices of their sister's join the dark hair Vash's words to be calm. That they were alright. Between Vash as an anchor and their voices behind him the newcomer is able to pull back. To try and slam shut the door that had been thrown open inside of him.

Slowly the feathers start to pull back into him. The screaming stops, but his hands tremble as focus comes back into his eyes. It was difficult to control. For fives years the place he had been in had been dampening his powers greatly. Something he had actually been thankful for where so many cursed it. He works at getting himself back under control. A few remaining feathers can still be seen as he continues to fight for control of himself. Although he's gathered enough wits to finally speak.

"Our sisters," His voice is strained, but he's handling this body double thing fairly well. "They're safe?" That was important. One of the most important things. He can feel them, it felt like they were everywhere. He thinks they're safe, but everything feels so jumbled in his head that he needs to hear it out loud.

It was unsettling, seeing the change from this side, the way his eyes whited out, the strange lines and those horrible feathers bearing down on them as the other panicked, but he did his best to swallow down the revulsion it made him feel, how much it reminded him of the terror everyone felt when they had watched it happening to him. That was the last thing the other needed, when he seemed to have been set off so severely. And if his hair was any indication about how old he was, then it was no wonder.

He muttered soft, soothing noises, encouraging as the screaming began to quiet, as the feathers began to pull away, and he let his thumbs brush over the back of his hands, trying to give him a point of focus that wasn't whatever had overwhelmed him. And honestly, there was so much that could have set this off, he knew.

"They are, they're safe." At least that was what he suspected, the way it felt from the faint points of connection that were still able to get through the mental walls he'd constructed since everything had started going tits-up. But he didn't need to voice the uncertainties there. That would just upset the other him right now, so he would just pretend that everything was exactly the way it had been for him before the earthquakes started. "There's so many of them in one place, it's just taking time to get them all back home. People are staying here until it gets sorted, so it's a bit crowded, but the fighting has stopped."

Mostly. Somewhat. At least there wasn't an active war going on, anymore.

The voices around them began to filter back into his awareness as people recognized that the initial danger was fading and began to crowd back in, and he began to hear the first rumblings of recognition, their name muttered on confused, surprised, excited lips. They needed to get out of the open and fast. He didn't know how long it took for that bounty to go back up after the fighting had stopped, and they didn't need to be caught in a frenzy of bounty-hunting idiots right now.

"Come on, we need to get somewhere safe. I rented a room and you can hide there until you're feeling better, but we have to get there first."

Taking a few deep breaths, Vash is able to regain complete control over himself. The feathers vanishing back into his body. Some things you just never forget, like hearing your name whispered through a crowd regardless if your bounty is still valid or not. It also helps to snap him back into reality and focus on the immediate problem. "Yeah." He agrees with the other him.

His hair is black. He thinks to himself. Just like Knives. Something has gone wrong. There shouldn't be two of us.

"We should get out of here and... talk."

He nodded in agreement, pulling away enough that he could glance around them. People were definitely looking, but if they moved fast enough, the still-lingering undercurrents of tension from the battle seemed to be keeping people at a bit of a distance.

"Yeah. Keep your head down, let them focus on me. I'll be less recognizable." Though hair and wardrobe changes notwithstanding, the two of them walking together would make their similarities impossible to miss. But maybe that would help. Nobody knew they were twins, did they? The relationship between them and Knives had never quite been common knowledge. Nobody would think to look for Vash the Stampede and his identical sibling.

Though a tiny little voice in the back of his head reminded him that...people had gotten used to seeing him traveling with a young, dark-haired man until very recently.

He did his best not to think about that too much.

He looped his arm over the other's shoulders and turned him toward the inn, leading him away at a good clip. The inn wasn't far away, all things considered. It took more time simply because of having to navigate through such dense crowds. But at the very least, that made it easier for them to disappear in the sea of people, and then reemerge in front of the inn about a half an hour later, where he lead him upstairs before unlocking his room and letting the other in first, so that he could glance around to make sure they weren't being followed.

"Maybe red isn't always the best colour when one is trying to hide." He says in an attempt to lighten the mood as the weave through the town. It was so odd, being the one taking the lead of someone else. He's use to being the one trying to draw attention away so that others could escape. This just felt... he had no better work than surreal.

Still, he's able to remember how this works. Working to blend in despite the way he's dressed so that they can reach the inn in retaliative safely. Vash breathing a sigh of mild relief when he's let into the other man's room. He was finally home... and yet? He still felt so far from being back to where he should be. He turns towards the main reason he feels that he hasn't made it home. "Well, this is weird."

He gave a weak laugh at that, shaking his head and grinning as if they were just having a normal, friendly conversation while they walked down the street. "We never really do learn our lesson though, do we? I've been going without it a bit more, lately, but...I really don't want to give up the coat, either."

When they put their minds to it, getting in and out of a crowd could be surprisingly easy. But then they'd been doing it for over a century and a half. There were days when it was almost easy.

He locked the door behind them and stood next to it for a few minutes still, staring through the peephole just to be sure no one came up after they thought they wouldn't be seen, and when he was sure they were in the clear, he gave a long, deep sigh before turning to give the other man a wary look.

"I guess this is your first time then, huh? Unfortunately, it's getting a little...routine for me, at this point. I guess the first question is how much do you know? What do you remember? I'm gonna guess..." He stared at the blond and black streaks, but really, that didn't help. There'd been a good chunk of time when his hair had looked like that, and so much had happened in the interim.

"Well...obviously after the Fifth Moon, but..." Before December. He didn't feel like dropping that wonderful infobomb onto the lap of one of his counterparts who hadn't gone through it. Not after the first time he'd accidentally overshared. He'd learned that lesson the hard way. "There's a handful of years after that before..."

He gestured vaguely at his own head, grimacing to himself.

"Actually, it's my second time." He admits. "Although it's my first time on No Man's Land and you seem much more like, well, me so far." His clone had been so much like him while also so very different.

The song and dance of figuring out where in the timeline someone came from? That he was painfully familiar with. "I haven't been to December in a long while." Passed through most towns when he was younger and exploring the world, but he doesn't think he's been to December in a few decades.

"As for the last thing I remember?" Now it's his turn to wince. "I think that is going to be a little complicated. You see, the last memory I have of No Man's Land is being on our brother's Ark." He pauses briefly to see how the other him might react to that news. "Although, for the past five years I've been trapped in a strange city. One that pulls people from all sorts of realities and timelines."

Unable to help himself he stares at that nearly all black hair. Knowing what it means. "I met Knives in that city. He told me what the black means and he said that I won." Not that Vash ever felt like there was 'winning' when it came to their problems which he doesn't think he needs to explain to the other man. Surely he understands what Vash means. "That we have found peace between us but--" He stops himself. Did this version of him know? Where was his twin? “—but it was a very hard won fight that took a lot out of both of us."

The look on his face dropped from uncomfortable to completely bewildered as he listened. But then, without even mentioning it, the other names December, and he felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Which meant that he just sat, and listened, as the other explained.

So. It sounded like maybe he wasn't the only one that was going to have to make uncomfortable revelations for the other, today. Instead, the more the other man talked, the sadder he looked, until finally he could only look down and give a small, sad nod, reaching down to pick at a loose thread on the cuff of his vest.

"...So...I guess if you know about all of that, then you...know what happened in December..." So he didn't have to worry about accidentally letting that slip. And...it sounded like he...got to make amends with Knives. There was a moment of angry jealousy, the gap in his life where his brother's continuous presence in his mind, no matter how far apart they were on the planet, had once been feeling just a little bit larger.

But that wasn't this man's fault. And at least he was ready for when those things had to happen again for him. If they would have to happen. Because they really didn't know what was going to happen here, on their home planet.

"Maybe that has something to do with what happened here. I'm not sure. The fight with Knives happened...almost a year ago for me. And then, about a month back, just when everything seemed like it was starting to settle back down...there was an earthquake. And our sisters sent out a call for help, the same way they did during the fight. And now, I keep meeting...other versions of us. People who should be dead." Rem, Midvalley, a version of Wolfwood who isn't..."his," but not the one he knew, not the one that he had laid to rest under a gravestone next to the orphanage, and no Knives, as far as he had seen. "New types of Plants, too. They're still in the bulbs, but they're able to interact with people, not just us..."

"I was hoping our sisters could explain what was happening, so maybe I could figure out how to fix things, that's why I'm here. But...one of the new sisters said maybe I shouldn't. Maybe it's better if we...let it keep going. I don't know. It's just...a lot. To take in. After everything that happened."

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