Tragic Ends VS Bad Ends, Trigun Flavor

[procreation]

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.

Comments

[procreation]

[ He can feel the other him approaching, and it takes some willpower to not activate all the thorns on the vines outside. It's still technically a him, after all... no matter how sick and wrong.

A few of the roots move to open the door for Vash, showing the hood-clad version inside with his arms crossed. He looks okay, at least... a little stressed and with dark circles under his eyes. ]

What do you want?

[ He asks, cold eyes doing a quick once-over to check for weapons. ]

[dontdeserve]

[ Of course Vash has his gun, he couldn't very well leave it for little ones to find, but his pose is relaxed, calm, and he tilts his face to make sure the light does not make the lenses of his glasses a pair of mirrors. His eyes are open and... warm. And, yes, of course he is in readiness to defend himself if he is attacked - he knows it is a high probability with this Vash - but he refuses to take it as a certainty.

And he has no intention of attacking first. ]

To check on you. Perhaps spend a little time with you, if you'd like. See if there is something you need... beside what I can't give because it's simply outside my abilities.

[ He cannot give him his Nai. It's a simple matter of fact. ]

To me, you are family. All of you.

[ It is the truth. Painful, in some ways, but truth all the same. ]

[procreation]

[ Needing human weapons is pathetic, weird-self. You're so much more powerful than a measly metal thing! Still, the wrong Vash seems honest and his smile is less annoying when Vash isn't annoyed already. No hugging dead dogs. ]

Why?

[ He asks, but the Vash answer that's quickly. Family. Family means everything to Vash, but it's hard to see another self, an impostor and a reminder of how sick he used to be before he was reformed as family.

Vash is bored, though, and painfully lonely. ]

Alright. Get inside and don't get any stupid ideas.

[ The house is small and clean but covered almost everywhere with his roots on the inside as well. Huge ones to make places to sit, smaller ones holding some baskets for storage, a large coil of roots and flowers making a bed. ]

[dontdeserve]

[ There is a short, soft pulse of love in addition to the answer he already gave. It's not even fake.

He's never known love that did not hurt him, anyway. Tessla being the closest to it - though he suspects there will be heartbreak there eventually, too, and he'll try to take it all on himself, to spare her the pain. But he will take every moment until then as the blessing that it is. ]

Thank you. And no, I don't like hurting people at all.

[ In he comes, without hesitation. Although if he's not indicated a specific place he's allowed to sit, he'll just flop cross-legged on the floor. ]

[procreation]

[ The beat of love hits a wall of mistrust and slight disgust, but it does seem to calm a bit of the tension in Vash's shoulders. He's profoundly lonely even among his own kind - because they're not his kind.

He takes a seat on a flower-covered root, soft and bouncy, and gestures to the weird copy of himself to sit anywhere he wants. It's not like Vash has any tea and cookies, so being allowed in a flowery spider web will have to be enough hospitality. ]

So.

[dontdeserve]

[ Well that's not exactly the first time it's bounced off of that. Really, that's not even a fraction of how it felt for Wolfwood to say what he said when they first met at Rem's.

And this time, he's more or less prepared for it.

He does bounce a little at the permission to sit on the carefully arranged vines and blooms, even while fully aware that they can turn into a weapon, a trap, without notice. ]

They smell really nice. Thanks.

[ ... he'll still not crush a blossom. A spot made of bare vines will do. ]

So. Have you met many of the people here? I hadn't really come before, and now I brought them some gifts, that they allowed you a place where it'll be at least marginally less unpleasant for you.

[ Alone or among humans being the other options. ]

But I can't stay, not really, too many people to take care of.

[ He's here now. ]

Do you think they miss the world that they came from?

[procreation]

[ It's... weird, to have a civil conversation with this Vash. Is it because he's so damn lonely? Still, he pulls his cloak down a bit so that his doppelganger can see his face more clearly, and then leans his chin on his hand. ]

I've met some people. It's... weird, to see Independents that I'm not related to. However, you were right that it's the best place to be until I find Nai.

[ Nothing makes him particularly angry, here. Bored and anxious, yes, but not angry. This is his people - and not, at the same time. ]

...seeing them makes me miss my little ones, though.

[ There was no way he could have had a personal hand in raising the children Nai made, there were just too many - especially in the second generation. That amount nearly killed him, which is why a hundred is the max for this and any future gestations. Still, Vash tried to interact as much as possible. They were his kin, and these people, here? There was a connection missing that makes his chest ache. ]

I hope not. I heard some of them are even from Earth.

[dontdeserve]

[ Weird, perhaps, but hopefully not the last. If anyone can understand his loneliness to a degree, it would be a Vash, and this one will at least try to alleviate a fraction of it. ]

Well... if I remember correctly my lessons from a long, long time ago, all plants are cloned from the same cell, so you are related to them. [ He almost said 'we'. But then he realized that it'll make it, he hopes, easier for Vash to connect to the other independents if he removes himself from the relationship. ]

It won't make missing them less, or better, sorry. But it might be a little less lonely, to know that they are also relatives.

[ A beat, and then Vash shrugs slightly. ]

When you said you had pictures of them, before. Do you? And would you show them to me?

[ He was not ready back then.

He is still not ready at all.

But, perhaps, it will help Vash here. ]

[procreation]

[ It does make it a little better, even if it's not the same. It isn't the independents he's carried, isn't the ones he's been covered in when they play or watched coming into their powers. He can't fill his root-and-flower nest with his family. ]

They are cousins, I suppose. It's... not the same, but I'd rather be here than anywhere else. It's a poor substitute for our Eden, though. Only green around here is the cacti.

[ He leans back a little against his flowers, and then gives a bitter laugh at Vash's request. ]

No, I don't. I was baiting you and the dogs. [ Vash shakes his head. ] I didn't exactly bring a bag and the suit does not have pockets... but I could show you in other ways.

[ He holds out his hand - the one the other Vash is missing - as an offer. ]

[dontdeserve]

Mm. It's not the same, but cousins is much better than strangers.

[ Vash smiles a little more. ]

You can try to get in touch with Delphinium. I think she means for more greens to be out there with time, and if you'd like to help, I suspect she might appreciate it.

[ He understands. This Vash misses his home. There is not much he can do about it, but he doesn't have to stand in one place and ... wallow in it unless he chooses to.

He moves closer and reaches to hold that hand, but pauses a short distance from it. ]

Are you sure? A connection can't be one-sided, and you might get some things from me that you won't like.

[ He is not afraid.

Not for himself. ]

[procreation]

...that might be acceptable.

[ It's what he does, after all. He creates.

At the mention of the fact that it's not one-sided, Vash pulls his hand away like he was about to stick it into fire. Normally an exhange would have been fine, so he didn't question it, but... this Vash is sick. He doesn't need that up inside himself, undoing all of Nai's hard work. ]

No. No, you're right. I don't want your disease.

[dontdeserve]

Mm. I thought that might be something nice to do.

[ Vash's own arm is retracted, calmly, and the smile doesn't waver, there is no flicker of hurt in his eyes. With knowing that there is the real Vash trapped somewhere inside that one's mind, screaming in pain for what he has become, locked away from any help, he can't let any of those barbs sting. Because if he doesn't, if he doesn't let this 'Vash' hurt anyone else, perhaps with time the pain of the Vash inside will start letting up.

It would take a long, long time. But it's the only thing he can think of to try. ]

And I don't want you to be hurting.

[ Truth, whole and real. He shrugs slightly and goes back to the seat he'd had before. If he'd meant to attack him, he would not have given the warning. Because this Vash is also loved. Not just by his Nai (Vash can see how at least Nai thinks it's love). Nor only by their little ones, and Vash's heart aches for all of that.

He is loved now, too. ]

[procreation]

[ Vash doesn't really understand how the sick one could be loving towards him and he doesn't really want it. However, as long as they're not having an argument it's not as bad as he thought it would be, to speak with the broken version of himself.

As long as the other Vash keeps taking those barbs, it's also amusing. It almost feels like watching the worshipers, enjoying their status as barely acceptable nuisances.

His eyes widen just a bit when he's told that he doesn't want him to be hurting, though. That's... something. ]

Why not? You wanted Nai to hurt.