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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

[ When he was a year old? Wolfwood's eyes go wide, and he adds that tidbit to the list of things he knows about plants: they age really differently than humans do!

All he knows about how plants work is that they somehow make everything. The idea that they tap into another dimension is weird as hell, but not as weird as it would have been before he was brought here. It's hard to argue against the existence of alternate dimensions when you're in one, you know?

Wolfwood's hands tighten on the wheel when Vash talks about losing his arm. Sure he's been curious how it happened, but he'd just assumed that it was one time when flipping around the room and laughing about keeping everyone alive backfired. But he'd been trying to reach into another dimension with it? ]

Wait, hold up. If the other plants take energy from some other dimension, and yours works the other way around, does that mean you were sending energy somewhere else?

[ He doesn't have a good image of what "sending energy" looks like -- the best he can picture is electricity zapping into a hole in the world, or maybe, like, wind? Some folks use turbines to generate power, right? So maybe it's like wind? ]

Some place like here?

[ A year old. That's how old Nai is. That's how old Vash was when the Crash happened. But of course he is not thinking of his age in terms of trauma... just in terms of not providing as thorough information as he might be able to if he'd have access to the research on ship Five (not the Tessla data!), or even Conrad, later on.

And, well. It's not that Vash was trying to open a Gate, he was kind of upset and it kind of happened. He can clarify later on. Or others can clarify for him, that's also possible at this point... ]

Well, the first thing that went through it was my arm, I guess? The last thing were tips of the other me's roots... And... I have absolutely no idea what the other place looks like. [ He chews on his lip slightly. ] If you stop the car, I can show you. I don't think my control is great enough to risk demonstration on a moving car.

Emergencies... I'd go for, on the other hand.

Yeah I want to see it, are you serious?

[ He's not slowing the car down yet, though. ]

But if it took your arm off, is this something you can control? You're not gonna lose the other one showin' off for me, right?

[ He's got powers that took his damn arm. And the other one, the broken one, he was covered in roots just like what happened in Julai. Plants are so weird. ]

Because I don't need to see that badly.

Ahaha... I am working on the control thing. Like I said... after that, I was pretty frightened to try anythig.

[ For a moment, Vash leans back, closes his eyes. ]

It was... the first time I saw Nai after the Crash. It had been... years and years. And he was angry. There were plants that were dying, and people who were still... trying to figure out how to survive were about to use their dying energy. So he killed, and killed. And... Luida showed up, and he wanted me to kill her, and I got upset. And that's when my gate opened. In the middle of my palm. It started sucking everything and everyone in, and I had no idea what to do about it.

So Nai... cut it off. And the Gate just swallowed it.

[ ... see, he was afraid to experiment, after that.

But to face Nai and not... let everyone down, he has to learn control. He must. ]

It's nothing like that, now. I keep it very, very tightly controlled.

[ Wolfwood doesn't say anything after that. What could he possibly say? Vash's brother cut off his arm -- to save his life, from the sound of things, but still. It wasn't an accident, he didn't get it caught somewhere... Knives just cut it off.

He wants to ask how old he was when that happened. He really really doesn't want to know how old he was when that happened. ]

It's okay. [ He keeps his eyes on the road, chewing on what's left of his thumbnail -- it's been pretty well gnawed down, at this point. ] Let's just keep goin'. I don't need to see a gate that badly.

[ If something went wrong...? That can't be his fault, not for a silly little show and tell. ]

Edited 2023-06-18 01:14 (UTC)

Ahaha.... right. I guess it makes more sense to see it if there's a reason to make it happen. Or I guess if you're around when I'm practicing anyway, you can see then.

[ Vash hums thoughtfully, his body having unfolded somewhat during his answer. Somehow talking about getting his arm cut off hurts less than talking about himself proper. Can you imagine. ]

On the one hand, it's possible that Rem might be able to tell more about the Gates, since she's the one who taught us back then. On the other hand, I don't know if most of the things she taught us were things she knew beforehand, or what she learned so she could teach us. I suppose doctor Conrad would know more. [ his voice. does go a little flat at that. ] I suppose there may have been others who knew more, but ... they are the only people I really hope did not survive the Crash. Because of what they did to our sister.

[ And yes. Vash feels guilty for hoping that. But it would be lie to claim that he doesn't feel that way about that particular group of people. ]

[ If he's around when Blondie practices he can see his gate then, yeah. That's a good idea. When it's necessary, and not just a risk taken for his own curiosity.

He can't help the small smile -- just a quirk of his lip, really -- at the mention on Conrad and the fate Vash here wishes for him. He's never heard the man say that he would be happy somebody was dead before! It's good to know there's a limit to his pacifism. ]

Your brother told me about that, too, a little bit. About your sister, and what happened. [ Nai didn't give him too many details, just... just enough. Just enough for him to understand. Just enough for him to start putting together pieces that he hadn't even realized were connected before. ] I'd bet every one of those sadists died in the fall, but Conrad kept going.

[ The steering wheel creaks in his grip as he squeezes it, imagining Conrad's throat. ]

If you want to know more about all this, I'd ask the Eye.

I... don't know if they took joy in causing the pain, more that... they didn't care. Like she wasn't a person to them. It... made me think really hard, about people and hurting them because it suits my goals.

[ He considers that last statement for a long moment. ]

You... would?

[ This is... layered, coming from Wolfwood, given the history. ]

I... think I might get more reliable answers from Knives. Except the one who is old enough to talk to me rather than try... things, I think that he's from somewhere a little different. What he says doesn't quite match what I can do.

[ Well, when he said to 'ask' to Eye, he didn't mean politely. Mostly he meant how about I kill everyone in the place and then you can look at their computer records. ]

Do what you like. [ That's not something he'd want to talk to a Knives about, any Knives, but it's not his call to make. ] I don't know anything about the Eye in this world anyway. It's possible it's like you said, and the way all that gate stuff works here is different than the way it works for you.

[ He might still go track down this world's Eye anyway, just to burn off some steam. If death isn't permanent, then that might take awhile.

He won't deny he likes the idea of being able to kill some of those bastards over and over again. ]

[ Well he should clarify! It's making Vash concerned because it really isn't what he thinks about first, but in that context it would make sense to him. ]

Yeah, that's always the rub. This place just... it doesn't stop.

On that note... how are you feeling? Physically, I mean. It didn't seem right to actually ask earlier.

[ Immediately after the coming back to life, that is. ]

[ It's probably for the best that Vash misunderstood his comment about the Eye anyway. That way, when Wolfwood leaves to go track them down and murder them all, Vash wont' be suspicious, and he won't feel guilty for not stopping Wolfwood from leaving. Everybody wins! ]

Huh?

[ He's he feeling? It takes him a second to realize that, oh, Blondie's asking about his resurrection. ]

Fine, here. See for yourself.

[ Eyes still on the road, he holds a hand out so Vash can check his pulse if he needs to, or whatever else he needs to do to satisfy himself that the dead man is alive and well. It's not such a big deal to Wolfwood to come back from that kind of injury, sorry. It happens a lot. ]

Ah... okay... That is good.

[ His touch is once again gentle, left hand holding the back of his palm without restraining - he does know enough about driving to be aware he might need his hand back at any time - and three fingers settle on the lightly. He hasn't felt Wolfwood's pulse before, but he can still see if it's steady and not jumping or fluttering or too fast. Then he lets go, folding his hands in his lap. ]

Thanks.

[ Yes, well. This is different but if it doesn't feel different for Wolfwood, then that's okay by Vash. ]

It, um. I'm pretty sure once I get somewhere that can transmit, I should warn people. What with some of us having a habit uf burying people.

[ 'Some of us' being mostly Vashes, but ... that's more than a few now, and even he's aware. ]

[ His temperature is always a little too hot, his pulse a little too fast. He burns bright, here for a good time but not a long time, but his pulse is slower and his skin less fevered than it was in those first few seconds after resurrection. That's how it always goes, why he thought this resurrection wasn't any different than the usual, vial-induced ones.

As he takes his hand back, he realizes that he could have just said that he was fine, and left it at that. Why did he hold his hand out like that? He can still feel the ghost of Blondie's fingers against the inside of his wrist, and he's really not sure how he feels about that at all.

Thankfully, Blondie's got some new horrors in mind to distract him with. Wolfwood's eyes widen at what he's saying, and he shakes his head slow. ]

At least you're not into cremations, right?

[ Waking up in his own grave -- the thought makes him shiver, and he presses harder on the accelerator, urging the car even faster across the sands. ]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject