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

[ornamentals]

[ that familiar thrum of life, the same pulse they've shared since birth, beating in sync with vash now. the roots start to shift and nai gives a small gasp as they move underneath him, head turning with fascination as he watches a flower open near his head. carefully, he reaches out with a hand to brush a fingertip over one of the petals.

everything here is filled with an energy he knows purely by instinct. since arriving here he's felt it, here and there, some of his brothers sharing it, but never to this extent. never in the same capacity as nai always carried it with him.

he leans into vash's embrace. ] What are they like? Are they... are we happy?

[procreation]

[ Vash smiles as Nai touches the flower, and it gives a few extra glimmers as he does. Quite different from the thorns that tried to skewer the ghost. His brother was his light, his everything.

No matter how young. ]

We're so happy, Nai. [ He says, honest and soft. ] I'm not going to lie, it was a lot of hard times, but it was all worth it.

[ The whole building is bathed in Vash, creation and potential in every molecule around them. It's probably not that different from his gate where their children are resting. ]

You fixed me, and we're almost finished getting rid of the humans. It will just be plants and independents.

[ornamentals]

I... fixed you?

[ his head is spinning, heart hammering away inside his chest. he should be happy - he is happy - yet something held him back. fingers curled in the hem of his emotions, the future of possibilities opening up just a little more with each new brother he finds. or rather, who find him.

vash was the outlier, so far. but wasn't nai also the odd one here, too? his hands yet stained with the blood of millions, but the intention was there. plans in formulation, so close to fruition...

he'd been so close, but now everything was cast in doubt. even now he finds himself hesitating in sharing vash's elation completely. still worrying his lower lip, pressing that sharp canine against the barely healed indent he left earlier. ]

Did I ever hurt you?

[procreation]

You did! Apparently I was sick for a while and didn't even want to stay with you, running around with humans.

[ He shrugs, like the first century and a half of his life wasn't important at all. He was happy now, after all.

...except his little twin doesn't seem as happy as him, which is odd. Vash pets Nai's hair a bit, gentle and parental in his radiating comfort.

At the question, he thinks he knows why Nai is worried and he shakes his head. ]

While you were fixing me, I know you had to hurt me a bit. It doesn't matter, though, because I'm a happier person now. [ He is. Unlike most Vash out there, there's no guilt, no pain, no sadness. No humiliation. ]

After that... no? Well, not intentionally. Our second generation drained me almost to red because you gave me too many, so the third is a lot smaller in number this time. Other than that... no. You always tell me how precious I am, and keep me safe. It would make no sense if you hurt me.

[ornamentals]

[ vash's hand in his hair, leaning into the touch just a little. it was still early morning, the suns only starting to rise. the glowing veins decorating the roots pulsing softly could have lulled him back to sleep if it weren't for the niggling apprehension he still couldn't shake. ]

Maybe you were afraid of me...

[ he'd seen that in the other brothers, too. fear, hidden behind everything else.

but he falls quiet, contemplating everything vash has told him. he knows there's more, there has to be, but there are certain priorities he needs to put in order. he glances around the room again, beyond the shifting roots it looked like a normal living space. ] Vash, where are we? I remember being near July, before waking up here.

[procreation]

There's no reason for me to be afraid of you. You love me.

[ No matter how sick he was, it just didn't make sense! Vash is so glad that he was saved from all those dumb thoughts. There's no fear in him now, just happiness and relief as he holds his brother.

Nai was here and Vash wasn't alone.

When he's asked where they are, Vash shrugs a little. ]

They gave me a house here. It's a city full of independents... not our children, but other ones. They're nice enough.

[ ...but they weren't Nai, so how could he be social with any of them when it felt like a piece of him was missing? ]

[ornamentals]

I do. I love you so much, Vash.

[ the one constant across every different variation of his brother he meets here, that love that could never diminish. he only wished he was bigger, stronger, someone that could fulfill the role of an older brother vash needed - wanted.

he loves vash so much it hurt sometimes. he worried that hurt would spill out and stain his brother's hands, but that future had already come to pass for so many of his brothers already, hadn't it? nai could kick and scream against that fate, but it'd be pointless.

nai leans against vash again, arms wrapped around his neck. ]

I didn't know there are other independents here. [ he admits quietly, a little shaken by that news. one thing at a time. ] But... you're okay now, right?

[procreation]

I love you too! I always will, you're the most wonderful big brother there is.

[ Vash pets Nai's hair gently as the boy leans against him, the bond between them all love and happiness and safety, because no matter how little Nai may be, Vash feels safer like this.

Not only for himself, but for the children as well. ]

It was a shock to me, too. It makes me happy to see more of our kin, but it also makes me miss our kids. I'm used to being surrounded by little plantlings about your age, or older teenage ones trying their best to be 'cool'.

[ He sighs a little, but smiles at his brother again. ]

Yeah, I'm just fine, now. I was... not so fine when I got here. Got hit by a car because a dirty mongrel of a human wanted revenge.