Octovern. His face fell when the other murmured their location -- he'd just left Octovern!
Rising to his feet, he shook off as much of the sand as he could, shimmying it out of all his cracks and crevasses. He'd managed to cover his face in time, at least, so there was minimal grit in his ears and eyes, but between the powdered dirt he'd rubbed into his hair days ago with another of their twins, and all this sand, his mostly black hair looked almost blond again. It was a shock, to catch a glimpse of himself reflected in the window, and he quickly turned away -- his hair hadn't been that light in years, and it was like looking at a stranger.
Not that there was any shortage of strangers with his face wandering around. He took the offered seat at the counter with a grateful smile, still shaking sand out of... well, everywhere. His face lit up at the sight of that salmon sandwich, and he had half of it swallowed -- almost without chewing -- by the time the other reached out mentally.
That, he stopped immediately, pausing mid-chew to concentrate for a moment on the visual of a hand raised in warding. He hadn't had the best luck communicating that way anyway, and the last time he'd seen a Vash with that much black in his hair, their mental conversation had been... difficult. Sorry, friend.
"Sorry, can we talk like this instead?" he asked around the final bite of sandwich. That tasted so good! It'd been at least four days of nothing but ration bars -- now lost, along with his duffle, somewhere in a sand dune overlooking east July, rest in peace fellow traveler -- and really, there was nothing better than a fresh and cool salmon sandwich on a hot day! He licked the last bit off his fingertips -- getting some sand in there too, but it was worth it -- and only then took a good look around at their surroundings, and at the other Vash.
The other, very brave Vash, for sticking around in Octovern with all the chaos going on!
"Talking the other way keeps getting me in trouble! Metaphors and visuals are fine for chatting with some of the family..." He wasn't about to outright say 'when talking with the plants in their bulbs', just in case anyone else was listening in. "...but they make it hard to really say what you mean, you know?" Not that anyone was around other than the disembodied voice from the back, but this Vash was clearly keeping his identity a secret, so the least he could do was play along.
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Rising to his feet, he shook off as much of the sand as he could, shimmying it out of all his cracks and crevasses. He'd managed to cover his face in time, at least, so there was minimal grit in his ears and eyes, but between the powdered dirt he'd rubbed into his hair days ago with another of their twins, and all this sand, his mostly black hair looked almost blond again. It was a shock, to catch a glimpse of himself reflected in the window, and he quickly turned away -- his hair hadn't been that light in years, and it was like looking at a stranger.
Not that there was any shortage of strangers with his face wandering around. He took the offered seat at the counter with a grateful smile, still shaking sand out of... well, everywhere. His face lit up at the sight of that salmon sandwich, and he had half of it swallowed -- almost without chewing -- by the time the other reached out mentally.
That, he stopped immediately, pausing mid-chew to concentrate for a moment on the visual of a hand raised in warding. He hadn't had the best luck communicating that way anyway, and the last time he'd seen a Vash with that much black in his hair, their mental conversation had been... difficult. Sorry, friend.
"Sorry, can we talk like this instead?" he asked around the final bite of sandwich. That tasted so good! It'd been at least four days of nothing but ration bars -- now lost, along with his duffle, somewhere in a sand dune overlooking east July, rest in peace fellow traveler -- and really, there was nothing better than a fresh and cool salmon sandwich on a hot day! He licked the last bit off his fingertips -- getting some sand in there too, but it was worth it -- and only then took a good look around at their surroundings, and at the other Vash.
The other, very brave Vash, for sticking around in Octovern with all the chaos going on!
"Talking the other way keeps getting me in trouble! Metaphors and visuals are fine for chatting with some of the family..." He wasn't about to outright say 'when talking with the plants in their bulbs', just in case anyone else was listening in. "...but they make it hard to really say what you mean, you know?" Not that anyone was around other than the disembodied voice from the back, but this Vash was clearly keeping his identity a secret, so the least he could do was play along.
"Is it... Eriks?"