Octovern, since that's where all the cool kids are.

[teamblue]

Rated R for violence.

1.

It's a good thing all those wanted posters show a black haired angry twin of Vash the Stampede, because the one with hair so pale it might as well be white hasn't been noticed yet by anyone of the Federal sort. Just one more dust covered caravan cockroach in a city full of them.

It has taken Knives the better part of three months to get here.

On foot for almost all of it.

Being picked up a few iles out was nice but almost pointless by then, still, he'd hitched a ride, gotten dropped off and promptly relocated to the nearest restaraunt, bar or otherwise useful source of water and food, neither of which he actually needs.

Pretend to eat and drink, even if you don't have to

He also has no need for human clothing, but he's at least bothered with that, and is dressed in depressingly ordinary bluejeans and boots, black turtleneck shirt and sky blue crop top jacket, fingerless gloves on his hands and dark sunglasses more often than not hiding his both eyes and a twisting pale scar. It hides every single glowing line he struggled to easily obscure or that could catch an unexpected reflection of the light. He could be anyone, if 'anyone' paid for every single transaction in coins instead of paper bills, but nothing flags to humanity as obviously NOT human, which is the point. He doesn't think to hide from his own kind. Why would he?

And so he sits, a careworn bag sitting at his feet, working very slowly through a blueberry muffin and a tall glass of water with a lone icecube in it. Nothing to see here, move along.

2.

Knives, pack once more over his shoulder and map in hand, is losing the fight with navigation. The map's several years out of date and does not at all have all the modifications and camp outs and construction that's happened since the worlds merged. Which leaves him standing on the side of the road at a crossroads that simply doesn't exist on the map, scowling at the grid-marked map in his hands.

This is absolutely Ann Street. Ann Street should run right to North Street, but it does not. Not anymore.

Now there's an entire gun shop in the way and several shanty-town level buildings, and he's not entirely sure North Street even exists anymore. A trio of armed Federal troops march past; they ignore him and he only gives them a cursory look until they stop to update the wanted posters nailed to the gun shop's wall. While they might be on the lookout for a certain pair of notorious outlaws, he just doesn't fit the profile.

The names on some of those posters, though..

He crosses the street, dodging a tomas-pulled wagon, and stops in front of the dozens of posters to study them with a furrowed brow. Whoever's coming up with these things clearly is a terrible artist, while that's his name it looks nothing like him except for the beauty mark. "...Really? Not even a price tag?"

Aren't these supposed to come with a bounty, instead of 'Reward Upon Capture'?

Comments

1.

[louboutinjudas]

A familiar face -- minus the cross that usually hangs across his back -- drops into a seat just two tables down, looking exhausted and annoyed. There's something wrong with the plants here, he's decided. The fight's over. Why do they keep bringing people here? It doesn't make any sense! Octovern is the last place he wants to be right now, with the local feds and Earth forces both looking for any of Vash the Stampede's cohort. At least his face isn't the one they're looking for, but that'll only buy him soo much leeway, given how many duplicates of people are wandering around.

He digs in his pocket for cash, but only manages to scrounge up a handful of coins. Is it enough for a cup of coffee? Maybe. Probably not. Goddammit.

(2) clash of the aus! (also I will be slow I have inlaws visiting for a week)

[procreation]

He does not like to be teleported around by these reality shifts, but he can't blame the sisters any more. Things were more important than him, the other Nai-but-not said. It's a remnant of desperation, and what point is there to be angry with his beloved family?

It's still pretty damn inconvenient, though, especially now that he's more and more tired, energy drained constantly and a painful depression, loneliness in his heart. Vash has to make decisions, he has to protect himself, he has to fight. It all just makes him even more tired.

The new independents are almost fully formed, too... and still no brother.

Midnight cloak closed around himself, hood up to hide that blonde hair, he walks through the damn streets of a human settlement, feeling like he's stepping in filth. Do not fight, the other Nai had said. Be discreet. Patience.

Patience is running out.

...and then he rounds a corner and the world turns on it's axis, some kind of desperate relief coming over him that nearly knocks him to his knees.

"Brother!"

2.

[cowgoesmoo]

Who knows why it happens? Perhaps the sisters in Octovern, seeing a lonely little plant and a grown one missing his brother, decided to bring them together. Perhaps it's a residual bubble of energy from the initial event that brought them all here, and it's pure luck that they've ended up near each other. Perhaps there's deeper powers at work here, far beyond anything that Vash can understand. He doesn't know.

All he does know is that one minute he's in his front yard, the carcass of July behind him, taking a break from practicing with the little pistol that his other big brother has left him to instead work on his feather control... and the next, he's in an unknown city, absolutely surrounded by humans. He scrambles for cover the instant he realizes where he is, feathery right arm stuffed up under his shirt hem -- did anybody see him? Is he safe?

Where is he?!