procreation: (4)
VASH 🌱 ([personal profile] procreation) wrote in [community profile] nomans_land2023-06-11 10:37 pm

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.
el_llorono: (Irritated Little Guy)

[personal profile] el_llorono 2023-06-12 12:28 pm (UTC)(link)
The dumb little squeak he gave got an amused snort out of him, but it was short lived. There was just...far too much about this that felt...off. And none of it has to do with the fact that he's currently sporting all of his limbs, though a little voice in the back of his head tells him that that has to be related, somehow.

And then he made his own indignant squawk, his mouth hanging open as he stared up at him with a look of utter disbelief.

"Zaz-!? Why in the Hell would your brother give two shits about a bunch of baby worms??? You have got to be the weirdest Needle-Noggin I've met so far! Is this what you woulda been like if you hadn't gone through the Big Fall??? What the Hell?"

He reached both hands out, holding them over a couple of vines, and then furiously ruffling two whole lines of flowers right where he could see them, like a petulant child.

There was only so much one ghost could do when he wanted to act out, but didn't actively want to hurt or upset someone. Normally he would go for the little things that amused him. This was just too weird for even that, and he had to do something.
el_llorono: (Screaming)

[personal profile] el_llorono 2023-06-12 03:26 pm (UTC)(link)
The last thing he was expecting was for Vash to lash out, for massive thorns to shoot out, straight through his body, drawing a gasping, garbled scream from his throat as he felt his entire body seize up, lightning jolting through his mind and blanking every thought in his head until he collapsed and tried to make his body work well enough to scramble away.

What the fuck? What the actual HOLY FUCK?

Vash, it's me, stop, Vash, holy shit, what the fuck!

He stumbled to his feet, focusing all of his energy on manifesting in front of him from a distance, his arms held up placatingly. He's not armed, he's not a threat, it's just Wolfwood! Screw trying not to upset him, there was something seriously messed up with this one, he'd rather upset him and get him to calm the fuck down than be a good, polite, quiet spirit like he always was!
el_llorono: (Flustered)

[personal profile] el_llorono 2023-06-13 11:39 am (UTC)(link)
That right there, the blasé, weirdly detached demeanor this guy has, how wrong he seems after having just done something that would have outright killed Wolfwood if he'd still had a life to lose, was the first time in a long, long time that he'd suddenly remembered what it felt like to be afraid of Vash. To remember that he wasn't human, that he was powerful, and if he weren't such a good person, if he didn't keep such a tight control over his powers, he could be unfathomably dangerous.

He's not even alive, and he's terrified of the guy.

It doesn't help that there doesn't seem to be any recognition in his eyes whatsoever. He knew Zazie, he knew Knives, but he doesn't recognize Wolfwood? Was he from a world where they never met? Was he from a reality where he had gone along with Knives' awful plans? The thought of a Vash that had been just as murder-happy as his brother felt so wrong.

He needed to warn the others. At least this time, he knew for a fact that this was Vash, and wasn't making a massive misidentification.

...And yet that thought, remembering how he had read Tessla so wrong, and that she was apparently doing better, now, made him pause when he had been ready to dematerialize and run back to Rem's home.

"'S just me, Needle-noggin." He kept his voice as nonchalant as he could. "Still Wolfwood, just...less livin' than you last saw me, that's all." Play dumb, get him talking, figure out what the Hell is up with this guy and then go from there. It wasn't like he could do him any actual harm, anyway. If anyone were going to fuck around and find out, he was the best one for it. "Turns out dyin' doesn't really mean everything just stops, so that's good, right?"
el_llorono: (Smile Void)

[personal profile] el_llorono 2023-06-13 02:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, he was annoying him. Even with his fear, there was a part of Nick that felt a bit of grim satisfaction at that fact. Vash had always been easy to rile up, and it had always been fun, even when he'd barely known him and had been terrified of what he was. It felt a little weird, the little thought that popped up into his head, to weaponize his own annoying tendencies toward the man instead of just playing with him, but he needed to know what he was working with, here, and he could be an asshole until the end of time.

Aw, I'm crushed, Blondie. After everything we had, you don't remember me? Whatever happened to all that talk of "love and peace," eh? He took a risk stepping closer, evaporating into thin air so that he could shuffle around the vines and take a seat next to him without being seen. When he spoke again, it was as he leaned in and whispered directly into his ear. Got great news for you, though, Cabrón; there's a lot more of us than you think. Me, Rem, even Livio? Meryl an' Milly an' their kids, Brad an' Luida an' Lina an' Grandma Sheryl. I'm just the stubborn son of a bitch that's followin' you around for the Hell of it.

And then he let himself drop through those vines, hoping to avoid another hit like he'd gotten before. It still hurt, to phase through the mass of pure Plant energy-made-matter, but he was able to grit his teeth and bear it long enough to lunge away, hopefully before he could figure out where he was and send more of those lovely little stabbing vines back through his body.

Even saw your brother go into the light. Went with your mom, to be with everyone else that crosses over. They're waitin' for yah, whenever you're ready. I'm supposed to take you t'meet 'em! When it's your turn, at least. So hey, whenever you're ready!
el_llorono: (Shocked)

[personal profile] el_llorono 2023-06-13 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
There was an old, giddy part of him that gave a bubbly little chuckle at the way he bared those fangs. If he was going to lean into the lecherous flirtations, then hey, he might as well lean into the little things about the man that had always secretly made him feel just a little hot under the collar, when he decided to show them.

Hey, don't get too frisky with me, Blondie. You can't put those teeth to good use like you used to. I don't have a body to bite anymore, more's the shame! His Vash would probably have given him a good smack upside the head for that and called him a damn dirty liar, but what this one didn't know wouldn't hurt him. But the suggestive tone was quickly replaced by one that was...almost offended in the span of only a moment.

Because I care about you, dumbass. We all do. Me an' your mom an' Knives, we didn't want you t'be alone when-...

What?


Any happiness at the fact that Nai seemed to be a trigger point to keep poking if he wanted to get more answers fizzled out spectacularly when the rest of what he said clicked in his head, and all thoughts of making an ass of himself until he could figure out the way this one ticked died instantly.

Your-...Did you say your kids??? Vash-...Vash, what the actual fuck???

He had to have heard that wrong, there was no actual, possible way he had just heard what he thought he fucking heard, and even the thought of it made him feel like his skin would have crawled right off of his bones if he'd still had any!
el_llorono: (Horror)

[personal profile] el_llorono 2023-06-13 08:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[Nope! Nope double nopety NOPE nope fuck that! He felt his literal entire being give a full-body shudder and had to shake it out of his limbs, and he just knew, if he'd still been alive, he would have just been physically ill. It had been bad enough, growing up in the orphanage and seeing the children who were dealing with families that had done that to them before someone had stepped in and rescued them from that Hell. But none of them had sounded like this, talked as if the whole thing was...was...!

And none of them had been a walking, talking mockery of the sweetest, kindest man he'd ever met, the man he would have gladly spent the rest of his life with if he'd been given the chance to live a normal life!

The revulsion and rage at his expense was intense, and he had to take a moment before he could compose himself, to try and separate himself from the whole scenario and not flip right the fuck out like he desperately wanted to do. But then the sad, brainwashed fucker accusing him of lying snapped the thin veneer of control he had on his temper.]


Chingar a su madre! Do you even hear what you're saying? No puedo creer que esté escuchando esto ahora mismo! Pinche pendejo! [He didn't even realize he was slipping between languages, his voice rattling off in a barely-comprehensible, horrified mumble of syllables.] You think I'm lying? I've lied about a lot of shit, Blondie, but I'm more serious than I am dead right now! Want me to prove it?

[And maybe if it would get through whatever fucked up shit this man's brother had done to him, he could be done with this entire horrifying scene and go home! He lunged in, phasing through the vines surrounding him and gritting his teeth around the seering pain it caused, and his hands became physical, reaching out to grab his head with one hand, grasping onto a flowered vine with the other, and put every single bit of his energy into projecting his thoughts out at him, his memories, and praying to whatever called itself God that they would work the same as the feathers on the Plants where he was from.

Rem, Knives, watching them walk into the light, squabbling with Vash, laughing with him, following him through the sand, unseen, unheard, but loving him still after so many years, mourning silently with him when someone died, and even more recently, meeting the version of him that looked the most like this one, with his unruly mop of hair, his too-big glasses, sad and sweet and soft-spoken and kind, loving him too, because how could he do anything but love them?]


Your brother's a monster!

[Translation: "Mother Fucker!" "I can't believe I'm listening to this right now! Fucking asshole!"]
Edited 2023-06-13 20:57 (UTC)
el_llorono: (Void)

[personal profile] el_llorono 2023-06-13 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[There was so much rage there, but he could handle rage. He almost felt a smug bit of amusement, that he'd pissed him off so bad, whether it was over what he'd said about Knives or everything else. But the lashing and flailing of those roots hurt, burned like electricity coursing through him, and he had to grit his teeth against the scream that still managed to force its way through his clenched jaw.

But then all at once, it stopped. The parts of him that he was phased through still hurt, and he lurched away from them the moment he realized that the man had just stopped moving, but...]


Jesus Christ on a fuckin' pogo stick, did that actually work...???

[He groaned as he dragged himself across the sand, close enough that he could reach out and touch him again without getting too close to any of those winding vines, but he didn't dare make contact for a good few seconds, just stared, biting his lip, battling between worry and revulsion for the man in front of him.]

Hey. Hey, buddy, you awake...? God...I don't even know what I'm hopin' for here, but...[He reached out, gently pressing against his face, tapping gently.] I can see you breathin'...Vash...? Needle-noggin, are you...are you in there...?
el_llorono: (Sad)

[personal profile] el_llorono 2023-06-14 12:48 am (UTC)(link)
[The sound of that voice was so quiet, so broken, he felt his heart breaking, and he didn't think he would have been able to breathe if he'd needed air.]

God, Vash. I...I can't do that. [He probably couldn't even have done it when he was alive, even when he'd wanted to. How did a man kill someone that was damn near a god walking amongst men?

He sighed, sitting near his head and letting his fingers brush against his hair, trying to offer comfort, to at least let him know he was still there, even if he couldn't see him.]


Just...take your time. You got people who'll wanna help, Needle-noggin. You've got friends, you're safe. Just lemme know when you're feelin' up to it, an' I can lead you to 'em. You're gonna be ok.

[Maybe? He didn't know. Fuck, if he were being perfectly honest, probably not. Vash had enough problems as it was. But this...? Wolfwood did not have even the beginnings of what was needed to help with this. Maybe...maybe someone else would.

At the very least, all that talk about...kids...maybe they could do something about...whatever that was. Rem was going to need a much larger house, at this rate.]
el_llorono: (Frazzled)

[personal profile] el_llorono 2023-06-14 04:03 pm (UTC)(link)
[He gave a ragged sigh at those words, rubbing a hand down his face.

"Gonna take a wild guess and say that's not your normal Stampede-flavored guilt talkin'. Fuck. What'm I even gonna do with you?"

Because on one level, he knew Vash well enough to know that this? The things he didn't want to make him talk about so he could try and bring him down off of whatever precipice he was on right now? If they were as bad as all his talk and weird, stabby tendencies indicated? This would destroy him. He already lived with a death wish as it was. Killing him would be a mercy.

And that wasn't even touching on the talk of...kids. Because right now, he just couldn't.

But for all his talk in life, about sometimes killing being the best or only option, right now? That was out of his hands. And he didn't know if it made him a coward or a hypocrite, that now that he was staring a version of the man in the face who was finally begging him to do it? Part of him was glad he couldn't.

Still...sitting out here under the desert suns wasn't going to solve any of it.

He sighed to himself, flopping onto his side with a dramatic little huff. He had a feeling they might be out here for a while, the way this guy was talking.

He arranged himself in a somewhat awkward little curl around his head, putting him close enough that he could continue brushing his fingers through his hair and talk without having to expend the energy to talk loudly enough to be heard. Whispering would probably be less grating on the sorry assholes broken mind, anyway.]


This isn't your home. People are alive here, even a version of me. I promise, you're not alone, and people will want to help. [Maybe not the Wolfwood who was still kicking around, no. He was dealing with enough of his own idiot self, and he doubted he'd be willing to kill the guy, either, if all that guilt he'd been ranting about was any indication. But Vash might be able to help. He was a little wary of bringing Rem into the picture, though, until they knew how this one would react. He did not need to add his mother's blood to his hands.]

And if it makes you feel any better, all those people you killed are alright. Take it from someone who knows this side of things. I've been stickin' around longer than I'm supposed to, and pokin' people on your side has been an interesting little side hobby, lately, but once you're gone, things get a whole lot easier. I wasn't lyin' when I said they moved on. People are waitin' for you in Paradise.

[Whatever that was. But he didn't need to tell the man he'd never seen what waited for people at the end of that light. Little white lies, or lies by ommission, certainly weren't the worst thing he'd ever done.]

Either way, I can't do what you're askin' me to do, Vash. Even if I agreed to do it, it's outta my hands. I can barely even touch you like this. So you're gonna need to get up, unless you wanna see how long it takes for one of you t'shrivel away in the suns. And I know for a fact that you can go for months without food and water without dyin'.

[Unless the little vacation Knives had made for Vash on that Ark had included a complimentary meal plan. He doubted it. The man had been wasting away when he'd finally gotten off of his ass and broken him out of there.]
el_llorono: (Shocked Grab)

[personal profile] el_llorono 2023-06-15 06:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[There was a few moments of worrying silence, the haunted look on Vash's face as he very visibly let things roll through his head making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. And then he was talking, already sounding hysterical, and then screaming, and Wolfwood sat up like a bolt, shocked and horrified and, unfortunately, not at all surprised.]

Blondie, hey, Blondie! Come on, you're ok, breathe! Fuck!

[He knows, he knows. He's heard Vash going out of his mind before, he's seen it so many times from both sides of reality, and it's never been like this, and he should have known it was coming. That didn't make it any easier to watch.

He had to do something, he couldn't just leave him like this, alone and broken and out of his God-damned mind! He wanted to help, but how-...how could he possibly...?

Fuck. This...this was going to be unpleasant and possibly really fucking bad for one or both of them. But he didn't see much choice.]


Vash, Vash, Listen to me! I'm gonna try and get you to people who can help, but you're gonna have to trust me! This is gonna be weird, but I promise, it won't be forever, I can't keep it up for very long, and I'm not gonna make you do nothin' you wouldn't want, I promise! Please don't fight me, please!

[He reached down, his hands touching the sides of his head as he curled over him, focusing everything that was Nicholas into a single point of consciousness on the edge of his awareness. Focusing himself, until he could feel the sensation of sand under his bare feet, the heat of the suns on his skin, and the sound of screaming stopped coming from below him and began rattling around inside of his own head. Distorted by flesh and bone, different to his ears than it had ever sounded before.]

Come on, Vash, come on, relax, it's fine, lemme take over, just this once, just lemme help, please!

[It hurt, his whole body like fire, keeping him detached from being able to take full control as he projected his voice into that consciousness that hovered just next to his own, filling the same space, hysterical and deranged and hurting, hurting so much. It hadn't felt like this before, but then he had never tried to possess a Plant before, and for a moment, he became acutely afraid that maybe he'd made a terrible mistake, and he was about to find out what happened if something really, truly harmed what was left of his being.]
el_llorono: (Void)

[personal profile] el_llorono 2023-06-16 04:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[Everything was screaming and pain and horror until suddenly he felt the body around him gasp and go still, and while the pain didn't fully cease, there was an ebbing to it that made him gasp, the action strange, distorted, and he realized that he had done it immediately after Vash had, and there was no more room in those lungs to fill. He forced himself to remember how breathing worked, and then how to let the body take over and control that for itself, and he rolled over, pushing himself to hands and knees, taking it slowly so that he could remember what it felt like to have physical form.

It was while he was reorienting himself that he heard that final, plaintive plea, and he wasn't sure if it was emotional bleedover from Vash or from his own bleeding heart, but even with the horror of what he was talking about, just the thought of it hurt.]


Vash, buddy-...[Oh, that sounded so weird - his vocal cadence coming out of Vash's vocal cords.] I don't wanna hurt your kids. I don't care what that fucker did to you, they're just kids. I just wanna help, I promise. Whatever...whatever form that takes.

[He waited a few more minutes to really settle into the limbs and get used to the weight before dragging himself to Vash's feet, grimacing at the feeling of what could only be described as electricity rippling unpleasantly through the entire body.

And then he was off, shuffling through the desert and back in the direction of Rem's home, only...not quite. More southerly. He knew the best chance of finding one of the Vashes within a walkable distance would be there, but he absolutely did not want to show this one where to find Mom.]