nomans_land | In Which Problems Begin: Intro

There's energy building around July's ruins. It's tangible even to humans as a bit of static in the air, enough to give a little shock if one touches metal, but it's enough that worms have fled the area entirely, not a wing to be seen. The occasional bird no longer lingers, either.

Sometimes, it is the sprawling city of July, in brick and desert mortar and adobe and scraps. Sometimes, it's the shining glittering spires of JuLai, a modern city sprouting out of a wrecked hull like a strange technological mushroom.

Sometimes it's ruins, or a giant hole. It used to switch seemingly at random, with no real rhyme or reason, though people only have ever left July, in the occasional vehicle or on tomases, oblivious until the switch happens with them on the outside. More people are leaving now, in families packed onto vehicles, nervous and apprehensive - there's something wrong with their plants, is the only thing they can say before they quickly vacate the area, heading anywhere, anywhere but near where a plant might unexpectedly blow. Watching their city flicker out and be replaced by another is a shock.

Nobody ever leaves JuLai. Nobody enters either, by the heavily armed trucks and guards at every normal point of entry. Sometimes someone makes a run for it, but they disappear like smoke in the wind as soon as they hit the edge of the city.

And the switch is increasing in speed. Weeks, sometimes, has now become days, occasionally mere hours.

A small camp of July's escapees has begun a few iles outside the city, in the lee of a sheltering rock, arguments frequent over whether or not they should try to get back and save their neighbors and friends, or if the only chance is heading for another big city.

The sense of power in the air is growing with every flicker of exchanging cities.

[OOC Note: This is an open prompt, even characters not joining directly in the later bits can interact with it as they please.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He can't help but laugh. "You're really young yet. I was--" Eight. A hundred and forty-eight. His fingers twitch. "A lot older before I could do much that might look impressive, but I was working it out on my own. With all these siblings around you might manage a lot sooner. Even one little feather might not be much to you, but remember, you made it out of nothing at all except the desire to have a feather." It's still pretty impressive, over here violating physics casually.

Hopefully it won't end in more holes in the moons. Or in the planet. In theory it should never be an issue, except..

"..Well, actually. You do have to worry a little bit. See, people who know how to make a plant do things can force you to do those things even if you don't want to." This is pretty somber, there's no laugh or chuckle. This .. little Nai was unlikely to try surrounded by everyone, but he himself had done it before, and there were surely Knives..es.. about. Stupid ones that didn't know as much as they thought they did. "Usually I'd say it's just humans, all the plant techs who know the mysteries of us better than we do. But we plants are a lot like humans, and ... eventually, a bad one might come along, the odds will catch up eventually. And if they know how to force plants to do things, then they could try to make you do whatever they want."

Humans are dangerous, even humans who study plants makes sense to him, but the idea that another plant might try to use his powers to blow things up is a whole new kind of scary thought! It wouldn't even have occurred to him to think that another plant might do that to him, or to Nai...

..Or to Shardik? What was that he'd said, he didn't really have a lot of control over what he was doing? Vash thought he'd just meant that he'd been trying to be big for bigness sake, just showing off, but maybe that's not what he meant?

"Was that what happened to you?"

"That's a complicated question." He's honest about that, at least, he's not weighing how to disguise the truth, just how to say it in a way that's going to make sense with the limited knowledge a child has. "But in a way, yes."

He both forced it, and was the victim of it. Lesson learned, either way: don't put big holes in things, it shaves off entire centuries. "Chances are pretty good it'll never be an issue. You've got a whole army of brothers out there, by the way I hear it, and they'll all be ready to tear a new one into anyone who tries."

He and Nai are well protected, it's true. The chances of anyone trying to take advantage of them the way Shardik was are pretty slim, especially now that they know what can happen. Or some of what can happen anyway -- Vash is pretty sure that that's a complicated question just means that Shardik doesn't want to talk about it, and that's fine. If he'd been made to blow up a whole city, of -- what did he say? Two hundred thousand people, and some were his friends? -- he wouldn't want to talk about it either.

Every other older self he's met has been a hugger so far. Hopefully Shardik won't mind having a little plant wrapped around him. "I'm sorry."

It spares him from explaining what happens when things get super non-consenting between plants, at least, so there's no protest when he's suddenly ... hugged.

It's been a while since he's had a hug. A long while.

After a long moment of surprised bewilderment, he returns the hug, but ever so carefully. He wouldn't feel right either, under close inspection, but the tight buckles, leather and straps kept most of it hidden, and he can probably manage this much safely. He's pretty sure this is how a hug works, anyway; there's an awkwardness to it but no outright rejection, it's ... kind of nice. People are warm. Even small people. "It's ... alright. It was a long time ago." Not that long, really, but it sounded better this way. "And who knows. Maybe one day the city will stay instead of disappearing, and all I have to do then is make sure nothing happens to it."

So long as nothing sharp pokes him, or wiggles in a tentacle-y manner, Vash won't even notice if the shape under Shardik's cloak is strange. It's not okay that bad things happened, even if they happened a long time ago, but it's okay is just something people say about bad stuff, so Vash isn't going to argue the point.

Letting go with a final squeeze, he steps back, and looks out again at the rubble, trying to see the shape of the city in the ruins. "Maybe it'll stay, yeah," he agrees, although he doesn't really believe it. This world is strange, with first people and now whole cities popping in and out of existence... there's no reason to assume it'll stop, is there?

And if it's not going to stop, if the cities are going to keep appearing and disappearing like people have been doing, then maybe there's a reason why it's happening?

"Every time I've disappeared," he says, clearly thinking through the problem as he's speaking, "it's taken me someplace I needed to be. Maybe July keeps coming back because you're supposed to go find your friends?"

He doesn't mean it as the situation had been acceptable - just that this little Vash need not be sorry about it or the pain it caused him. That pain was dull now, it was okay to keep feeling it as it was.

A little harder to accept, the idea of letting go of a warm, friendly touch. But he does. "You disappear a lot?"

Just because it didn't happen to him doesn't mean it didn't happen to other people. "Maybe you're a little right. I don't think it's .. about me or just my friends." There's too many of the parts of him around. Who's to say this was the one he destroyed? "Not if the whole city appears.. and then there's the other one I don't even recognize. Maybe ... it's about them. Two whole cities of people, and our kin keep trying to put them here and save everyone." He's not sure either, that's obvious, he's working through it in pretty much the same fashion. "But putting two entire populated cities on one spot isn't really going to work."

Does he disappear a lot? Vash just shrugs -- maybe? He disappeared a whole bunch when he first met Tessla -- that's even how he found her, by disappearing from the place he'd been to the place she was at! -- and he'd found big brother Knives and that nice Mr Livio the same way. Nai's disappeared, and Vash is pretty sure that he's found his brother, or at least somebody really important to him, so important that he didn't want Vash talking to them. That part still hurts, but he's trying hard not to let it. He should be happy for Nai, no matter what happens. Either way, the disappearances took them places they needed to be, to people they needed to meet. Maybe it's the same for these cities?

"How can we move a city though?" Shardik's right -- the cities, whole and destroyed both -- are appearing and disappearing in the same place, and they can't all be in that spot! Vash can't even imagine what that would look like (well, he can, but a tiny person pushing a floating city out of the way only happens in cartoons). He looks back at the cart full of electronics, wondering. Shardik just showed up with a whole bunch of equipment, and Rem's super smart about all kinds of things. They were all brought here to help that one Vash in a fight, right? But that fight's over, so maybe their sisters found another problem for them to solve!

Too bad they didn't send instructions on how to solve it, huh?

In Which Problems Begin: Intro

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