Near July, before all the chaos

[cowgoesmoo]

Nai's missing, the smashed-up city that Rem had put her house next to keeps changing, there's people nearby, human people, more and more of them all the time, gathering... it's been an eventful few days for a tiny plant!

It's not healthy to sit inside all day, hunched over the radio, waiting desperately for any sign of his brother, and so Vash is out wandering the dunes and cliffs near the station, a small two-way radio clipped to his belt that lets him keep listening to the radio inside, just in case Nai is able to call again. Some of his day is taken up training, working on focusing his plant powers to summon feathers that sprout in tiny downy tufts all along both his arms. Some of his day is just walking, exploring and re-exploring the space around the station, finding holes, bugs, interesting rocks. Some of his day is lying flat on a cliff, watching the human refugees below as they gather around the ever-changing city of July. Sometimes he finds a quiet space where nobody can see him, and cries for awhile. Sometimes, when Rem's been out late working hard, he's inside the station, cleaning and cooking and helping out as best he can. And, late at night when he can't sleep, he climbs up on the nearby ledge and watches the stars.

Comments

[lacreatura]

In on of those quiet, sad moments when he cries, a small paw reaches out to pat-pat Vash's head. It wasn't there a second ago, but now a weird cat-sized creature made of golden feathers and wings sits next to the little plant.

It has cocked its head a bit to the side, as if both questioning and sympathizing with the current sad vibe.

[cowgoesmoo]

One second he's alone, having a private little breakdown, and the next there's something batting at his head! Vash jumps up, scrubbing one hand over his eyes to clear his vision as he scrambles away from the...

What is that?

"Hi?" That's not a worm. And it's definitely not a person! "Are you friendly?"

[lacreatura]

"Va!" It chirps, remaining seated as Vash skitters away from it. Poor little plantling, is it afraid? In an attempt to show off how friendly it is, the creature rolls over a little, showing off little paw pads. People like the beans, right?

"Va-va!"

[cowgoesmoo]

It sure looks friendly!

"Are you lost?" It's got to be somebody's pet, right? Cautiously, Vash holds out a hand, inching closer. Can he get close enough to pet the cute thing, or will it bite and claw? Wild animals bite, he knows this, but it doesn't seem wild?

[lacreatura]

What does nice animals do? What can it do to make the plantling feel better?

Dogs wag their tails... what if it pops out an extra long feather and wags that? See! Very nice creature!

Vash can indeed get close enough to pet if he wants to. It's warm and soft and fluffy. Great to hold and cry on.

[cowgoesmoo]

Nai is never going to let him hear the end of it if he gets bitten!

He's never met a dog -- or a cat, or any other animal, for that matter! -- but that looks like tail wagging, like he's seen in movies. He decides to go for it, and gives the cute little thing a pat on the head.

It's so soft! He giggles quietly, relieved, and pets it again.

"I bet somebody misses you, huh? I wonder how you got here?"

[lacreatura]

The creature wiggles a little under the touch, happy to get petted and distract Vash from his sadness. There's even a lick from a tiny little tongue, because that's also what pets do, right?

"Va!"

[cowgoesmoo]

It sure is! Every movie about a boy and his dog includes the boy getting slobbered on by the dog. Sadness completely forgotten for the moment, Vash drops down to sit next to the cute little, uh... bird? Dog?

Well, whatever it is, it's soft, and fluffy, and super friendly!

"Don't worry. I'll help you find your family." It's a promise, just... not one that he's sure he can keep. Unless the little creature wandered away from one of the refugees in the nearby human encampments, Vash has no way of knowing where it came from. And what if his sisters brought it here? Without a collar -- without a car! -- he's got no way of getting it home.

He's got a little water bottle in his pocket that he pulls out, pouring a tablespoon or so into the bottle's cap. "Here, are you thirsty?"

[insectlike]

Zazie is, as ever, watchful of the people on their planet as they mill about, in and out, around and around the ever-now changing planet that, previously, never changed a bit.
Having so many new and exciting things to focus on was nearly a sensory overload sometimes, for the usually so lazily-milling-about hive of insects, but.
It was a clear day, nothing was really going on, and he could hear the sound of a tiny little Vash doing his best to hold everything together on his own.

Ah, left on his own again. ᴴᵉ ᵍᵉᵗˢ ˡᵒⁿᵉˡʸ ᵠᵘᶦᶜᵏˡʸ. ʜᴇ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴊᴜsᴛ ɢᴏ ғɪɴᴅ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅs sᴏᴍᴇᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴇʟsᴇ. Why does he depend on just one companion. ₙₒₜ ₐ ᵥₑᵣᵧ 𝓰ₒₒ𝒹 ₛᵤᵣᵥᵢᵥₐₗ ᵢₙₛₜᵢₙ𝒸ₜ.

Zazie could just leave him here, but.

What if he leaned into the window of the station, one day, while it was open. Arms folded over the open part, chin resting on their arms, a smirk on their face.

"You're a pretty big busybody for someone so, so small."

[cowgoesmoo]

Rem is busy all the time, and that means it's got to be his job to keep the station tidy. If it was just a matter of dishes, and putting things away, and maybe laundry, he wouldn't mind so much... but the darn sand gets in everywhere. It comes in the open windows, it tracks into the station on his shoes, it works its way through the cracks and seams and gets everywhere, crunchy and scratchy and sneezy and it's so frustrating!

He's sweeping, again, trying to get the last bit of sand and dust out of the corner of the main room, when another child leans into the station and starts talking to him, just out of the blue. Vash spins around, heart pounding and broom held up like a sword... but that really is just a kid.

A kid who just called him a busybody?

"Well, you're a... a pretty big jerk for stickin' your head in my house and calling me names!"

[graveresemblance]

He's been back and forth, somewhat keeping mental math (and a literal one stuffed in his poncho) on whatever landmarks are left, where he's found friendly faces and not-as-friendly ones.

He runs into a little guy in the desert. Not as surprising, this is a bit of deja vu.

"Hey...you okay out here?"

[cowgoesmoo]

It's the furthest he's been from the station, right at the very edge of the range for the little radio clipped to his belt. It hisses and crackles every time he moves behind one of the big boulders out this way, so he knows that he can't go any farther. The whole desert stretches out in front of him, but he's tied to the station -- that little bright building, barely visible in the distance. He doesn't want to leave, but he doesn't like feeling that he can't.

But then, from a side road, a familiar face! "Mr Livio!"

[graveresemblance]

Oh, it's-- it is little Vash, isn't it! The one he knows. He instantly breaks into a smile in greeting.

"Hey, kid. You're still out here in the middle of this?"

And alone....

"No Rem?"

[cowgoesmoo]

Any friendly face would be welcome right now, and Mr Livio's a friend he hasn't seen in weeks! Not since he first found Tessla...

"Oh!" He shakes his head, still beaming, and points off in the distance. If Livio squints, he might be able to pick out the white shape of the station where Rem's set up house, right at the edge of July. It's Julai right now, with that tall skinny tower in the middle of buildings that are bright and neon even from this distance. "No, I found her! The person I was looking for, I found her and she's all better now. And Rem's just over there! That's my home!"

A home that's missing somebody very important, but he's being brave about it.

"Are you here to see the city change too?"

[graveresemblance]

He does squint, and he does see the station out there. Just barely, the shape of it. Livio thinks it might be somewhere he's been not too long ago, so that Rem must have been his? There are so many...odd things. But you have to roll with the punches, and take the good times when they happen.

"I'm glad you found her. And Rem, too." His smile widens, and he shrugs. "Somewhat. I wanted to see what I could see, basically."

[cowgoesmoo]

That city out there is sure an odd thing. That one in particular -- the white city, the one made out of big blocks of what looks to him like stone? That one's just a city, and the rubble version of that city's just a destroyed city. It's strange that it shows up sometimes, but it's not odd. Even the pit, when everything disappears and it's just a big hole in the ground, that's strange, but it doesn't put his teeth on edge like the city with the big tower in the middle does.

He doesn't like looking at it, to be perfectly honest. It doesn't feel right.

"You can feel it, when it's gonna change." Or at least he can feel it. Maybe it's different for humans? "The air gets weird and my ears hurt, then poof! It turns into a new city."

[graveresemblance]

This entire thing has his hackles on end. All of it is strange-- doesn't feel entirely bad, just. Odd.

But there are wonderful moments like this.

"Yeah, I feel it too. The air tastes weird...but you wanted to come see it, even if it hurts?"

[cowgoesmoo]

Vash glances up at Mr Livio, jaw tight. He's being brave, but brave is hard!

"Nuh-uh." See? He's got a little radio clipped to his belt, like a walkie-talkie. "I have t'stay close by so I can hear if he calls." And also so Rem can find him if there's a problem, but... but it's mostly for Nai. "My brother. He disappeared."

So I'm just hijacking this to use from when Vashlet pops up in Octovern.

[whatevermaycome]

Octovern! City where nobody wants to be!

Or well a lot of people do want to be there and some are even beginning to spread back out into small outlying towns, many people not willing to go that far from the last bastion of humanity AND the strongest concentration of plants on the planet. By the main road through Octovern, perched up on the top of an abandoned caravan once pulled by now missing tomases, Vash watches people come and go with alert interest, cross-legged and fairly comfortable. If the suns got unbearable he'd go inside for a while but for now, watching. Sooner or later someone would actually lay claim to the wagon, and he wouldn't put up a fuss, but for now it keeps him well above the crowd, which is content to ignore yet another stray dirty kid. He won't look anything like his posters for another several decades, and an utter lack of even a speck of telltale Stampedeish crimson means he could be anyone.

He'd spotted what he thought were other independents in the city but lost track of them a while ago. Just looking didn't help, smart independents would be wearing disguises, unlike himself, but usually he could tell when another plant was nearby. He just has to wait, right?

[cowgoesmoo]

A lot of people want to be in Octovern, but the smallest of the plants isn’t one of those people! His sisters keep dropping him into towns away from the worst crush of humanity – this time it’s a stinky alleyway, full to bursting with garbage that somebody really should have burned weeks ago – but the fact that nobody sees him magically appear out of nowhere doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t want to keep appearing out of nowhere. Thankfully his clothes, while strange (and suspiciously clean) don’t attract too much attention, and he’s small enough that nobody thinks twice about the little blond kid wandering around.

He can hear his sisters singing their sleepy songs way out at the edge of town, but when he gets there, there’s too many fences and guards and people with guns to even think about sneaking through. No matter how loudly he shouts from the other side of the fence, none of his sisters respond – he’s too far away, he figures, finally giving up. They can’t hear him. They can’t help him.

He’s got to get home on his own then.

A shop advertising July-style noodles catches his eye (and makes his stomach growl, but he doesn’t have any money), so he ducks inside, asking how to get to July, spinning a more or less believable story about missing the caravan his family was on. There’s a sand steamer, they’d said, if you can pay. If not, your best bet is to try and hitch a ride with another caravan, but there aren’t many heading that way. There’s nothing in July, after all. Wouldn’t he rather stay here, in Octovern? He thanks them, but he can’t stay. He needs to find his family.

So the shop owner takes pity of him and sends him on his way with a refilled canteen, a well-wrapped bowl of noodles to eat later, and directions to the main road out of town. If there’s a caravan, they said, it’ll be there… but don’t hold your breath.

He’s not really sure what a caravan looks like when it’s not caravanning, but he figures he can just ask everybody with a vehicle outside the city gates if they’re heading for July, and see what happens. Maybe he’ll get lucky?

[whatevermaycome]

Vash couldn't get through either, and he had similar protection of just being a troublemaking brat looking to get into things; he'd been yelled at, chased a bit and once had a discarded shoe thrown at him but the guards hadn't ever actually drawn weapons on him, but getting in was as of yet beyond his skill level.

He's working on that, when he has time. He blends in better than the other little plant, his clothes are careworn and hardly pristine but they work well enough, and he probably hasn't had a bath in quite a while, but that's par the course for most. But a splotch of clean isn't as noticeable as the sense of another plant, and combining the two, clean AND plant, the smaller Vash sticks out like a sore thumb. The somewhat older Vash watches with interest, waiting to see if someone turns up for him, and when that doesn't happen, eels off his perch and heads in Vash's direction, or at least where he was seen last.

He still hasn't bothered to find shoes. He's still wearing a small array of scavenged weaponry and the gun he'd had since his rescue, but that's normal for Octovern! Well except for the shoeless part, most people at least had those. Whether this was another version of himself or Knives, or an entirely separate independent, he doesn't know yet. The powers and abilities his older selves use with impunity are still a long ways away thanks to a glaring lack of practice. But that's what accosting someone at random is for! To find out! "Hey!"

[cowgoesmoo]

Vash realizes there’s another plant around just a second or two before somebody comes up behind him with a hey! that almost makes him drop his noodles. He spins around, clutching the bundle tight to his chest – whoever it is, they can’t have it! That’s his lunch! – and ready to run. But the person behind him isn’t a danger. The person behind him… is him?

“You!” He cycles through surprise, excitement, definitely some fear at the sight of that missing arm, and finally lands on relief. Squaring up to his older self, Vash narrows his eyes, and mentally sends a little wave to the other plant.

Can you hear me like this?

Around them, humans of every description (so long as that description includes dirty) swarm about, unmindful of two little blond kids. The converted delivery van that little Vash was about to inquire at is going to want to leave soon, so they’ll have to move before then, but for now, they’re fine where they are.

[whatevermaycome]

The lunch is very tempting, but he's not inclined to steal from people who actually need it. Thievery is firmly reserved for those who keep too much for just themselves. He reaches the same conclusion his counterpart does fairly quickly, the mole is really a giveaway, and he starts running guesses in his head as to exactly how old his one was. Before or after the tragedy that shaped their lives?

Before the Fall, or after it?

The way he startles a bit at telepathic contact suggests he's really, really not used to that, but to the casual eye it can be passed off as surprise at seeing what is very obviously a younger brother. "Yes, but don't ask me to do that too."

Things he doesn't know how to do yet: that. Talking to his sisters was different, that wasn't really ... talking. "And don't eye me like that either! I thought I saw someone around, but I didn't think it'd be someone so .... ..teeny." So smol. He's hardly grown himself but he's bigger! The method he seems to be using to keep human attention off as this being anything unusual is acting as if it isn't. People just ignore so much right in front of them that it can get a little ridiculous. "Are you okay? Are you alone?"

In the vast scale of Vashes, they're far closer to each other in size, sound and age than the scattered adults ever were. Did they worry about him suddenly, the way he worried about this little brother?

[cowgoesmoo]

If you’re not a threat – or an easy mark – then most humans just didn’t care. Vash is learning this, slowly. He’d been so ready for every human he met to immediately clock him as a plant, but it turns out humans don’t pay very close attention to the other people around them. It’s a real relief.

“I’m alone.” And he’ll scowl if he wants to! “And I’m not teeny. You’re only a little bit bigger than me!”

Bigger than he is, but unable to talk like a plant? Vash considers the new plant – the new Vash, if the moles are always the same. He’s really dirty – and barefoot, gross -- but he doesn’t look like he’s starving. “Are you alone?” And, the most important question: “What happened to your arm?”

The other Vashes hurt themselves on purpose, big brother Knives had said. They’re covered in scars. He wouldn’t have hurt himself that badly though… would he?

[whatevermaycome]

"Huh." Alone isn't good. He at least had Knives for quite a while, and between the two of them they managed to eke out a living. Vash doesn't look underfed or ill at least, so Octovern is either treating him very kindly or he has someone looking out for him. "You're definitely teeny, short stuff." Like he is compared to the Vash he met!

Standing around thinking isn't really his strong suit though, so he waves one hand. "Come on, if you want to eat that you can't do it in the middle of the road." Where's he headed? That abandoned caravan wagon, because why the hell not, and also the rest of his meager belongings are in it. "I'm.. um."

He's definitely alone. In a few decades, hell even a few more years he might be better at mastering his own expressions, but now his heart's still on his sleeve and either the first question or the second is profoundly upsetting. "Yeah. I. ...Yeah, I am now." If he has other scars there's no sign of them, just that stump of an arm which is its own brand of wrongdoing. It had been fair retaliation, for what he did. But what happened to it? "Worms ate it."

And then he ate the worms. The circle of life, with him as the base of it.