nomans_land | Tragic Ends VS Bad Ends, Trigun Flavor

Tragic Ends VS Bad Ends, Trigun Flavor

CW: mildly Plantcesty bc of canon end events but mostly toxicity, mindfuck, extreme codependency and.... co-parenting?

Somewhere in the sands is a tall person traveling on bare feet, a cloak of galaxies and roots covering their face from the sun. Vash moves slowly, not because he's tired or struggling, but because he's not really in a hurry. He doesn't get tired anymore, or hungry. Just weak, sometimes, but he's always been weak, hasn't he? That's why his brother has to protect him.

So this place couldn't be bad, because Knives would never leave him somewhere bad.

He stops briefly to collect a bleached skull left in the sand, picking it up with the roots and wisps of shadow and then holding it with the curiosity of a detached scholar rather than a compassionate man. Human, by the looks of it. Not killed by one of their brood, just unlucky in the desert.

Shrugging, Vash lets it drop into the sand again like an unwanted piece of trash and lets all those roots and glimmering energy unfold around him. He makes a little seat for himself, black flowers with shiny blue specks acting as cushions as the rest of his cloak peels away for a canopy. The dark undersuit is an echo of his brother, including the sturdiness of four perfectly fine limbs.

No memories were left, physical or otherwise. Sometimes you just have to remake your little brother to make him understand your point of view, and Vash... doesn't really know any better, anymore. It's fine, all he needs to focus on is making new Independents.

The roots continue to stretch over the sand, slithering over the area to see if they can pick up anything other than old bones of a doomed race.

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I keep meaning to go to Octovern, one of the plants that's also but been brought here told me about it, but things keep happening and I never quite reach it.

[ A car. That's. Better than Wolfwood walking all alone, and Vash is relieved.

He's better at maintaining these than driving them, himself, he thinks as he settles on the passenger seat. ]

Yeah... I'll warn him along with Rem. Nai would be either the safest with him or in the worst danger. And not just. Physically. [ that's said with an apologetic look, because Wolfwood was killed, but. Not the worst that can happen. Not anymore. ] There is an older Knives also. I think... he's from a slightly different place than me.

[ Because it's not impossible for Wolfwood to be from a different one, too. ]

He... warned me to not let you go off on your own. You had already left, though, that before wasn't because of him. But he said if I let you leave, when I catch up with you...

[ he turns his head in the direction they came from, then hunches his shoulders down, making himself small in the seat. ]

Though that was supposed to happen in December.

Anyway. I should try to talk with that Knives, too. I don't think that... that Vash is what happened to him. He expected me to fight him, not obey him.

He is probably from after having collected all the plants and what happens? Is happening? at Octovern already happened to him.

He didn't win.

Tell me if you'd rather I am quiet, but I think some of that might be important information for you also. While we're in this place.

[ No, Thorns might not kill Nai, but as they've already established today, sometimes dying isn't the worst thing that can happen to a person. That kid is messed up about what his future's gonna look like as it is -- seeing that, seeing a version of his brother that a version of him tortured into sadism? That might fuck Nai up for the rest of his life.

And speaking of things that'll fuck people up for the rest of their lives, if everyone could stop telling him that he's going to die in December he'd really appreciate it. That wasn't him, won't be him, however the timeline on something like this works. He doesn't do more than shoot Blondie a surly side eye about it, though -- he already knows this version of Stampede can't help but care too much, about everyone. It's nice, kinda. Misplaced, but nice. ]

It's fine. [ They've got a long drive ahead of them, and sitting in silence just sounds boring and uncomfortable. Besides, since they're sharing secrets, he might as well learn some more things about Stampede and his family, right? ] The Knives... the Nai in my world, he wanted to fight you too, as far as I could tell. [ Although he's really got no idea what happened between the time he dropped Stampede off in the tower, and coming back into the city to see the twins fighting. He drums his fingers on the steering wheel, debating whether he wants to say what he wants to say, then shrugs and goes with it. ]

Actually, I can't be sure about that. I ditched him, dumped him off and left him to face Knives alone. I don't know what that lunatic had planned. It coulda been just like this, I don't know.

[ His world's Vash might have opted to die rather than become like Thorns -- that might have been the fight he saw. He hadn't thought he could feel any worse about that, but here they fucking are. ]

[ the look just gets an apologetic shrug, and Vash curling in on himself more. He didn't mean that Wolfwood will die in December. He just watched him die. Once again, failed...

But he tilts his head at Wolfwood at the last part. ]

You know that you wouldn't have had a chance against Knives. I... might have been a little underprepared also. I... When we were little, we thought that only Nai had special powers. And he didn't need to eat or drink or sleep. It was many years after the crash that I found out I even have a Gate also. Like all the plants, where they get all the things they produce, only my Gate kind of runs the opposite direction. I and others almost died, sucked in, when it opened. It was Nai who stopped that from happening. But after that, I've been reluctant to try and use it.

The older Knives, he told me what to focus on. If I am to face off with... my Knives, I'll need that knowledge and skill, so I've been practicing. It's part of why the other me left. I think his Knives may be making him use his Gate as Knives would, but that's not how it's best used. Or something. [ He's looking out over the sands. ] This world, each of our worlds, all of you, you deserve nothing less than the best of me. And I seem to have botched things at JuLai. I'll do better.

[ He wants to protest the hell out of that statement! He doesn't know he'd be worthless against Knives! If Blondie here thinks he's so weak then why's he even bothering to keep him around? ...But Vash keeps talking, so Wolfwood bites the inside of his lip and keeps his damn mouth shut.

Besides. That argument, that he's not too weak to be of any help? Will hold more water when he hasn't just been killed by a plant.

So he stays silent, and listens to Vash talk about gates, and plants, and Knives. And he realizes just how little he knows about a fight that he's been part of his entire life. ]

You didn't botch anything. [ He didn't want to accept the idea that he might have died, that's all. Wolfwood can understand that. ] We're all tryin' to figure out how things work when there's more than one of each of us runnin' around, right? [ Nobody even got punched, so what's the big deal? ] It was barely even a fight. I don't want to hear anything more about it, understand?

Edited 2023-06-16 19:49 (UTC)

[ Vash blinks, frowning at Wolfwood. ] That other me looked like he botched something pretty badly. That's all.

[ If only he could really believe him and Nai died there.

He couldn't, and now with the new information...

Well.

The smile perks again, even if his body absolutely doesn't unfold. ]

I just meant that I heard you loud and clear! I'll learn better and make sure that doesn't happen, and that Millions Knives is stopped! Just making sure you know I do get it and mean it seriously, not just agreeing because it's the right thing to do!

Oi oi oi!

[ He better not have heard that right! ]

You're not trying to take the blame for that thing we just fought, are you?

[ That wasn't another Vash. That thing wasn't a person anymore, and he'll stand by that point forever. ]

I know you think everything is your responsibility, and let me tell you, it pisses me right the fuck off! But that guy? You had nothing to do with what happened to him!

He's still me. Under all of what was done to him, he's still there. And he failed to fight it.

[ Vash lowers his eyes until all he can see are his own knees. ]

It... I don't 'think' it's my fault. I know it is. I was an accomplice. Or, to be precise, if I hadn't given an access code to Nai, the Crash never would have happened. You are all stuck here, in this world, so, so many died. Because of me. So how am I supposed to not know it?

[ For a moment, he just breathes. ]

I don't have anything to do with what that was. I just have the potential to become him. So it's my responsibility not to. Right?

[ He failed to fight it? Nai decided to kill everyone because of what was done to the other plant, and it’s somehow Vash’s fault?

He can’t hear any more of this shit.

Vash’s head is down, which puts him in the perfect position. Wolfwood reaches over without so much as a word of warning and slaps Blondie upside the head, hard. ]

Wrong, on every fucking count!

[ Oh, he’s seething. He’s keeping his eyes on the road – there’s nothing out there for miles, but after today’s excitement he’s playing it cautious – but he doesn’t need to be looking at Vash to be glaring daggers at him. ]

If you try to say that guy’s to blame for what was done to him I’m gonna drag you out of this car and kick your ass until your fucking brother feels it!

[ Getting broken by torture didn’t make you weak! Being tricked by somebody you trusted didn’t make you complicit! Was this really the way his brain’s been working all this time? ]

Wh--

[ Vash's forehead doesn't quite bounce off the dashboard but it's a near thing and he stares at Wolfwood in confusion. Yes, that's exactly how he's been operating for 150 years when it comes to himself.

Only himself.

When Wolfwood makes him think of the other him, though, the falacy of victim blaming becomes rather obvious, and he flushes with guilt and, well, yet another failure.

It takes a long moment before he says anything, and his voice sounds composed and yet sadder somehow. ]

What I am saying is that... If he somehow came to himself, he would consider himself to blame. But no. I don't consider him so.

[ That's a little better, but it's still not the answer he wants to hear. He gives Vash a second, then replies, his voice quieter but no less furious for the lack of volume. ]

Would he say that Rollo kid was to blame for not fighting hard enough?

No. You said it yourself. I made bigger promises than I could deliver on.

[ aand more deflating. The grief for what happened to Rollo is still very fresh. And, of note, empty of any anger at Wolfwood by this point.

The only one he can't forgive anything is himself. ]

He was just a child.

[ He huffs at the reminder of his own words. He was right then, and he still stands by what he said, but there wasn't any kindness in the comment at all, was there? ]

How come you can remember me saying shit like that to you, but when I tell you something's not your fault, it doesn't stick?

[ kindness is not something Vash expects, so he doesn't even register anything wrong with the words. ]

Ah? Well it was the truth, and... you know there is only so much I can find excuses for myself for, right?

[ Vash, you aren't even trying to look for any. ]

That reward for capturing me didn't just spring up on someone innocent!

You mean, the reward that somebody put on your head because your identical twin brother was stealing plants, and you got blamed for it?

[ Roberto might be an old drunk, but the man's got a mind like a steel trap... the kind of steel trap that could be pried open with enough alcohol. ]

Is that the reward you're talking about?

Ahahha well yes. But the disasters that follow me, the ones that get wherever I go damaged at best... Why I was called the humanoid typhoon...

Those are still real.

But I've never stolen plants! Just helped them.

[ Nope, says this wave of his hand, he doesn't want to hear it! ]

The disaster that follows you has a name, from what I've seen. [ It's not just Knives that shows up and causes chaos when Vash tries to do good, Wolfwood knows this. It's just pretty damn clear that's who's responsible for most of Vash's misery, and he doesn't get why Vash can't see that. ] I'm just gonna keep saying it, idiot! You aren't responsible for shit other people do, even if they're your brother.

[ that makes Vash unhunch enough to turn and just stare at him.

Then. ]

By that count, whatever happens to me in Julai isn't your fault, either.

[ And that makes Wolfwood slam on the brakes. ]

That's different.

[ Don't you fucking dare try to turn this around onto him! ]

We're talkin' about you right now.

[ Vash actually expected something like that break slam, and his eyes crinkle for the first time in a while. ]

We are, but I needed to point out. Any damage was done by Knives. Even if you helped, it was neither your intent nor your action that did that harm. If I can't take some of those things because he did them, you can't take this one.

It's not easy, is it?

[ That not quite smile is a win, but he's not counting wins right now. ]

It's easy as hell, actually! Because you're trying to help people when things go to shit, and I'm trying to kill them.

[ And yes, the implication there is that he knew what was coming in Julai. He might not have known the details, but there was no way that Knives had anything good planned for the brother he'd been hunting for decades. Breaking him into the thing they just saw, just outright killing him, did it really matter? It wasn't going to end well, and Wolfwood knew it. ]

Don't fucking compare yourself to me like that. We're nothing alike.

[ aaand the small smile promptly dies, the hunch returning.

If Wolfwood doesn't want to let him feel that tiny bit of connection that has brought him joy, then he will cut himself from it. ]

Whatever my intentions, they still die and I still live. But, I understand. I'm sorry.

[ It hurts, watching Blondie fold back into himself. It hurts more than he thinks it should, but it's for the best. Wolfwood opens his mouth like he's going to say something, but thinks better of it, and just turns back to the wheel, hitting the accelerator and moving them again towards July, and Blondie's family.

He's not a good person, and it's high time Stampede learned that. ]

Stop apologizing. You've got nothing to apologize for.

[ there is no 'not good person' in Vash's world. And there are only two monsters, and he can't help, even after all, loving one of them.

The smile he gives now in different, more like his usual one with his eyes wide and focused. ]

For presuming! That's all.

[ His regular stupid "I'm just a loveable dumbass" grin? Yeah, Wolfwood's seen it, and he's not impressed. It makes him look every bit as blank as that mindwiped Vash they just met, and the thought sends a shiver down Wolfwood's spine. ]

Tell me about gates.

[ New topic, then, something safer than the last one. ]

Pretend I know fuck-all about how plants work, okay?

Right. My information might be incomplete, since I got most of it before and around when I was a year old and at that time we thought I didn't have one, so keep that in mind.

On the whole, plants have these Gates which open to a different dimension. Rather than generating gravity or water or what have you, they kind of just bring it over from there. I think... keeping one's gate open is what exhausts plants, this is more a guess than anything else.

For the bulbed plants, the composition of substance and energy determines what comes out of the Gate and when. For Independents, it seems more limited and more on purpose.

And then there is me, and mine just works the other way around. I, um. Lost my arm so I didn't lose my life when it first opened, so I was very wary. No. Afraid. I was afraid of experimenting more with it. Knives, on the other hand, has worked on his as long as we've been alive. It's why I've been practicing with mine, once I got direction.

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