nomans_land | Near July, before all the chaos

Near July, before all the chaos

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.

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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!"

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.

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?

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?

"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.

You know what’s profoundly upsetting? Getting your arm eaten off by a worm. “Whoa.” Vash isn’t sure whether he’s more horrified or amazed. He pads after the older Vash, keeping close at his heels, but his attention is mostly on the humans surrounding them. They aren’t messing with the boys, but… but the second that changes, Vash wants to be ready to run, or fight, or… or something.

“You’re, uh. Me, right?” He knows better than to say this particular name out loud, especially around so many humans. You’re Vash. “I’m tryin’ to get home. Do you wanna come with me?” It’d be nice to have somebody else travelling with him, especially somebody a little older, and in exchange, he could make sure that no more worms tried to eat pieces of his new brother-self! Rem wouldn’t mind another Vash, surely. Assuming she came back.

No, he’s not thinking about that right now!

“It’s a long long ways. I was gonna try and get a ride, but I don’t have any money, and I don’t think anybody wants to hire somebody teeny to work.” Nervous chatter: check. “I bet they’d hire you though! And I could help!”

That's leaving out some massive important details but when it boils down to it that's definitely the truth: worms ate it. And he watched it happen, rotting beside him in the dust. He's not disregarding the people around him there's just nothing that stands out as a threat right now, they're not interesting the way their adult versions were. Nobody's going to look at a wanted poster and then decide that grown man must be this sixteen year old, or that twelve year old. Not even humans made those kind of logic jumps.

It's safety, after a fashion, and he's been abusing it for a few months. "Uhhhh, that sounds like philosophy, and it's not really my favorite, but I bet we share a name." Hey it's a different topic and one he's happy to pounce on. If he ever figured out that telepathy thing maybe it'd be easier to hold a conversation, but for now this'll have to do! And then he doesn't have to try to hide the image of rotting people in the desert from a mind too young to see it. "...Where's home?"

It's almost automatic, the glance skyward. Ship five was home. Ship five burned and fell, and almost everyone in it died. "... I mean where exactly, not in the vague way of 'home is where the heart is' or stuff like that. One of the outskirt towns?"

It's not philosophy, it's physics! ...But Vash didn't pay attention to those lessons either, so it's a moot point.

He follows Vash's look up at the sky, and immediately wishes he hadn't. That's not home anymore. "July." Home is supposed to be a vast humming city-ship, full of corridors to explore, plenty to eat, cool days and warm nights, with an eternity of stars streaking by outside every window, and a family that was his entire world.

But he's too big to cry about things like that anymore. He's two! He's practically grown. With a shake of his head, he slaps on a big grin -- he's got a new brother now! His family here gets bigger every day, and that's something to celebrate! A brother who might be the coolest person Vash has ever met. Look at all the weapons he's got! "There's lots of us there, but mostly it's me, and my brother, and, um. Mom." No names, just titles. "They're both, uh, away right now, so I've gotta get back before they return or they're gonna be worried."

Vash is eighty and still cries at the drop of a hat, it's going to be a long time before that habit's outgrown. "Isn't July a giant smoking crater courtesy of certain famous outlaws who shall not be named?" He can speak a little frivolously of it because it happened a long time before he arrived, and it hasn't happened to him yet. It's an abstract, like talking about ancient wars, and something he's pretty sure he'll never have to do himself. If it becomes possible, he'll just never go there!

...Is this little version of himself living in a crater.

Honestly, his own lifestyle of whatever bit of shelter he could find was better than that.

Further explanations! Knives is around, and he accepts that without so much as a blink, given little Vash's general good mood it had to be from before everything he knew burned out of the sky, so Knives was probably still okay too, or at least young enough to not be able to dice up towns. Probably. Maybe. He should find out just in case and try to ward off disaster if he can. There's somehow a more important bit tacked onto that, and his quick, easy stride slows. Stops.

A detached part of his mind pointed out that it's possible but not likely that this was implying the plant they were born from. The rest of him is certain otherwise. "Rem?" Hey guess who doesn't know that 'don't use names' thing. "Is she.." Away right now. "Is she really just 'away'?" The question is a breathy sort of squeak, as if it's a struggle to actually speak it.

...Oh. Vash smiles gently, and nods. Hey, should they sit? He's got all these noodles and he can't possibly eat them all himself!

(He could eat two bowls by himself, but it's polite to share.)

"She's alive." He's from a world where the ships crashed and she died, isn't he? "We're all from different places and times, I think, so she's not from my world, but..." But she's still Rem. "She's got a shuttle pod that's a house now, and there's room for you too, if you wanna come?"

He had accepted her loss, more or less, a long time ago. It still hurt, he still imagined her in his dreams, unchanged from childhood, but he accepted that even if she'd survived by now time would have caught up to her, and there was no going back. With multiples of people turning up, and sometimes people just being teleported around, it made sense that Rem could also turn up but he'd never allowed himself to think it.

There's room for you too, and shock and breathtaking joy that crosses his face war with the sudden surge of guilt that follows, his remaining hand creeping briefly towards the stump of his arm. "I.. I don't think that's a good idea." He doesn't deserve it, not when so many have died because of him. Not when he shot his own brother, and even now isn't sure he wasn't aiming to kill.

But oh how wonderful it would be to pretend otherwise, that the happy days he still remembered could come back, that Rem was somehow alive and ..

... and Knives, maybe, was not. Because of him. How could he go back alone, like nothing had happened? "But I'm glad, I really really am, I'm glad she's here. And that you have her, you and Knives both." It's obvious he's already even at this age learning to bury things quickly, dropping his arm and taking a brief steadying breath and then locking into place a smile that he didn't feel. "I bet we can get you back there in a couple days."

So that's what it looks like when he shoves his feelings down and puts on a smile, huh? Okay. Vash considers Vash for a moment, then reaches over and smacks him on his remaining arm.

"Stop that! Whatever you're thinkin', stop it!" He didn't miss the grip on that missing arm, and he's certainly made the connection already between this Vash's missing arm and the Vash back at the station house with the pretty green hand. Whatever happened there, they don't want to tell him and that's fine, but there's no way it's a good reason to stay away from Rem! She's Rem. She'll forgive anything. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to, but if you want to, an' you're just being stupid, then stop it."

He already said what happened to it! It's just not the full story, but it wasn't a lie! There's a muttered 'ow' with no actual pain attached to it when swatted, it didn't have to hurt for it to be an ow. "It's not stupid, okay? It isn't. It's just.. more complicated than just wanting something. Sometimes even if you want something you don't deserve it, and stealing it isn't always the right thing either.."

Stealing is sometimes fine, apparently. "And besides if she yells for you I won't know it's not me and I'll answer instead, it'll be weird." It is in fact, entirely excuses, and it's pretty obvious, but he can at least sulk about it in the shadow of the abandoned wagon. A good place for smaller!Vash to eat his noodles too.

Good! Shade is good, thanks. He plops down into the dust to unwrap his meal before it gets too much colder. Even warm it smells divine.

He's not going to talk with his mouth full, because both Rems taught him some manners, so he inhales a big slurp of noodles before speaking. They taste even better than the smell, oh man! Spicy and salty and savory, with big chunks of vegetables. He could eat three bowls! But after one bite he holds out the bowl to Vash. Here.

"It is too stupid!" Don't think just 'cause you're older he's gonna defer to you, other Vash. "It's not stealing if you're invited, dummy. And what's deserving got to do with anything?" The grown Vash had felt bad about helping his brother crash the ships (although he really hadn't helped at all), so is that what this one's upset about too? "We're your family. You don't have to be deserving to have a family."

Although it is monumentally tempting, he waves the offer off. He still has food stored away, he .. ALWAYS has food stored away, and he had a breakfast at least, and who knows how much his little brother's had til now. "Enjoy it while you can, dust gets into everything. I had something today." The one food nobody fights over: worms! All his assorted weapons weren't really for humans at all, it's for hunting. The one thing he's not at all lacking in his diet is protein, at least.

He missed fruit. He missed donuts, though those still stuck in his mind as a source of incredible nausea, maybe eating them right after being hungry so long really had been a terrible idea..

Juice. Noodles. A vegetable! It wasn't as upsetting as this relentless prodding about family, but it's still upsetting in another way. "It's.. look, it's hard to talk about, okay? But I can't. I'm doing alright here." For a given meaning of alright, being that he doesn't starve to death, or freeze at night, but he's hardly clean and anything like security simply didn't happen. "It's enough to know that she's out there, and that you have her still."

They can fight about family, or they can fight about food. He picks family.

Another mouthful of noodles disappears with a slurp, and he pops a chunk of bok choi in after it, scowling as he chews.

"Okay So where's your house?" If he's doing just fine then surely he's got a place to live, right? It must be pretty great if he doesn't want to come take advantage of a shuttle, with water from a well and a bed, and... okay, they eat a lot of worm too, that part's the same. "Where's your shoes?"

One more bite, and he fake coughs, holding out the bowl again. "This is too spicy for me. You eat it."

"Barefoot is a choice," is the immediate, defensive answer as he likewise plops in the dust. "A lot of things need two hands and I only have one. You can usually get away with using a foot instead, toes are pretty dexterous with some practice." He wiggles the aforementioned, rather dirty toes. There's no keeping them clean around here, the ground's .. well, the ground, and dirty feet are par the course like countless other street urchins. It took him a while to build up enough toughness on his soles so hot stones didn't burn him, likewise the suns, but he's getting there!

Houses are irrelevant, and he glosses over it like it's not even a question. "It wasn't too spicy for you a minute ago, eat it. I have a whole worm I'm working on, it's huge." Immediately, he points. "And don't tell me they taste terrible, it's all in how you cook them and which bits you eat! Raw is gross, don't eat them raw."

Jerk.

Another slurp of noodles disappears down the hatch. Don't think he didn't notice that they jumped right over houses to focus on shoes, buddy. "I wasn't gonna say that! We eat worms all the time!" It can't be avoided, really. They're all over, pretty easy to kill, and they're just animals, like tomas are. Big brother said something about them being people too, but he's not right about everything. "It gets boring though. You've gotta have other things too." He holds up the bowl, but doesn't offer it again. "Like vegetables."

And, since Rem's not here to say it... "When's the last time you ate a vegetable, huh?"

Vash's eyes narrow at the vegetable challenge.

"Maybe six or seven years."

They really weren't on his priority list for pretty much .... ever, really. "Anyway I do eat other things, when I want to. There's this shop about, uh, twenty minutes that way, if you stop in around four in the afternoon you can usually get a free salmon sandwich, with mayo and a piece of cheese." With enough begging and sad eyes, which he had zero problem applying whenever necessary. At this point the shopkeep is aware he's another stray and it is a tribute to the spirit of human generosity that it's allowed anyway. "But worms are easier, and nobody fights you over them. The hard part is finding a place to store them so they don't spoil or turn into beef jerky. ...Worm jerky."

It's easy to just blatantly dodge anything he doesn't really want to linger on. But veggies at least, nobody liked those. Not even people who said they did.

Sorry, he stopped listening early on in that little speech. Six or seven years? "That's not healthy!" Look, he likes being dirty and eating junk food as much as the next plant, but at a certain point you have to eat vegetables and take a bath!

Vash fishes a big chunk of bok choi out of his noodles, and pokes the chopsticks in other Vash's face. "Eat it." Seven years of worm, and the occasional sandwich. It's decided -- he's going to make this Vash get him home, and then he's going to sit on him until he's clean and eats a well balanced meal. Nai'll help, he's sure. Heck, Rem'll help. "it's good for you."

It's pushed aside and back towards the smaller of the two. Not so roughly where the noodles are likely to go flying, but he's out-stubborned most things, isn't as easily won over by adorable children as older people are, and he's not about to change his mind. "I'll worry about my health. You worry about yours. What else are you going to eat all the way to July? At least I have other things." It hasn't killed him yet!

He's not entirely sure pretty much any diet would kill him honestly. Food's food. "If you knock it off I'll give you a meat piece, then you can have some protein too. It's not a fast trip all the way out to the third city you know."

Can he out-stubborn himself though? Vash is undeterred, and that piece of choi is still in play. "I don't want worm. Eat it, an' I'll stop asking!"

Other Vash needs an arm, he's decided. He won't have to be barefoot if he's got two arms. Where did the other Vashes get theirs? Knives might know. One of the Vashes will certainly be able to tell him, but he doesn't know where any of them are, and just shouting into the void with mindspeak seems like a good way to attract Earth plant attention. It'll have to wait until they get to July.

"Keep asking and I'll leave until it's all gone," he shoots right back, bristling; he might actually do it! Or ... at least make good on pretending he is, leaving this little sibling all by himself out here was not really something he intended to do. It might be terribly tempting, incredibly so just to have a different flavor, but ... well, it really is a long way. And he did actually have other food he can eat, whenever he wanted it.

Smaller Vash did not. He only had one canteen, too. "I have food, and you don't. Not eating a vegetable today isn't going to suddenly kill me tomorrow! It hasn't even done any harm yet! If you don't want it all now save it for later, July's like ... a two week walk if we can't find anyone heading that way." ... "I guess I could try to drive."

He could steal a car, totes.

He's about to throw the damn bit of greenery at his other self when Vash drops the bomb about the distance they have to travel.

"Two weeks?" That's so long! That's so far! He drops the bite of choi back into his bowl, still stunned by the news. "I walked two days once, and my feet almost fell off."

No, it's true -- ask his biggest brother. He needed bandages and everything! Vash looks around at the humans, specifically at the ones at the edge of the city wall, where various vehicles were being loaded and unloaded. If they can't get a ride...

"Can you drive?" Are they going to steal a car?

"Sand's kind of hard to travel through." It's why he hasn't gotten very far himself! Staying in Octovern wasn't ideal, but it was better than getting lost in the dunes between ruins. A glance down to his brother's feet, shoes and all. He seemed intact right now, so no reason to make that worse. "And we'd have to take a lot of supplies."

Lots and lots of worm meat, and detours for hunting. Ideally a ride would be found and skip all of that.

He pauses, brows furrowing, at the idea of whether or not he can even drive. "I've never tried," he ventures after a long, looong moment, "But how hard could it be really? One pedal means go, the other means stop, and I'm pretty sure I don't need two hands for that.."

Near July, before all the chaos

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