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(no subject)

Who: Vash and you
Broadcast: None
Action: A catch all for the Planet!
When: Any time until the drift starts happening again!

Twin Roses

[Your co-captain hasn't been sleeping much. Usually up at all hours when he's not visiting the planet or working at The Space Bar. Pouring over some of the maps he's been attempting to keep of their travels. Watering the planets on the ship. Playing quietly with the animals. If it's not in the middle of the night he'll practice his harmonica. Basically doing anything he can to not fall asleep.

But sleep eventually will catch him. Catch him as he's sprawled out sideways in the arm chair with his legs danging over the sides of the armrest. One arm draped over his face and the other limp on the floor. He may look like he's peacefully sleeping, but approach with care - it's not a pleasant dream he's currently having and his gun is still on his hip. Although the safety is on for those with keen enough eyes to notice.]

Le...go... [Comes the occasional mutter.]

Inside The Vault

[Those who know how important life is to Vash may be surprised to see how unemotional he is at finding all the bodies. There's just an unsurprised, yet disappointed sigh as he takes glasses out of his pocket and slides them onto his face.

"Here we go again." Is the thought that crosses his mind. He knows better than to touch or move the bodies. Back home he would dig a mass grave when he would come upon scenes like this, but not this time. Instead going one by one next to them. Stopping at each to say a small, silent prayer for them and bowing his head.]

I'm so sorry, that you were locked away and forgotten.

In the Desert

[This place has been a painful and constant reminder of the challenge he must face back home. It's also an excuse to blow off some steam, but out in the desert Vash can be found shooting his gun over and over. He's strung up a bed cloth with a crude target painted onto it. It flutters now and then in the breeze. He's chosen to use his old fashion revolver. Again and again there is the crack of gunshot and bullet casings litter the ground by his feet.

Yet the bed sheet seems to have only one small hole in the middle of it. Maybe he's just that terrible of a shot? Can't hit the broad side of a sheet.]

The Space Bar

[Catch Vash here while he's at work and he'll have a friendly smile and the food is decent as always. When he's not working, but not ready to go home he sits and drinks quietly at the bar. Thinking things over. He won't say no to company as he slowly nurses his drink.]

A Bar - Later - Locked to Anders

[Now Vash does want to be alone. He's found himself a bar on the planet that he thinks no one else will visit. He drinks himself to a point where he thinks he can sleep without nightmares, but it doesn't work. He wakes with a start and nearly falls from his bar stool as the empty bottle of whiskey falls to the floor and shatters.] Aw hell...

[He was going to have to clean that up. Even here he was cleaning up messes caused by his brother. Even if he was just in nightmare form that time. No... wait... he doesn't need to clean that up. In a few hours it will be like it never happened. Like nothing mattered here.

Nothing mattered. Nothing mattered. Nothing mattered. NOTHING MATTERED!

He grabs his empty glass and chucks it into the bottles still standing behind the bar. They shatter with a satisfying sound. He's never had a real outburst like this and he had to admit it felt good for the moment. He picks up a bar stool and smashes it over the bar with a scream and just keeps going from there.

Eventually he runs out of energy and sits quietly again with his drink on one of the few reaming bar stools. No, he does not care that his one fist is bleeding or there's a cut just above his eye where some glass hit him. He actually didn't even notice the second one.

He plans to sit there in the ruined bar and make sure everything reverts back to normal before he leaves. Surely no one will come and interrupt him here.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I know you wouldn't make it lightly. [He feels bad that he's ruined the mood now as he takes back the gun. He just can't help himself after over a century of sprouting his ~~unattainable~~ ideals.]

Of course, now I'm picturing a planet full of sheet people. What do they use to sleep on at night? Do they get too warm? Too cold? Do the babies come from sewing machines? Do they judge age by thread count? What do they throw over themselves to pretend to be ghosts? A table? [He rattles these thoughts out loud in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit.]

[Maybe not so unattainable in some worlds. Better worlds than theirs. Then again, maybe not.]

Do you?

...Know that I wouldn't make it lightly. [Because yes, she's kipping all the banter as her mood fails to lighten even with all the effort. She keeps her eyes forward instead of looking back at him.]

Of course I do. [Vash notices that she's not looking at him. So he tries his best to put his full sincerity behind his voice as he gently puts a hand on her shoulder.] Because I've gotten to know you and you're a good person who cares about others. Someone like that could never make choices like those lightly.

If you believe that then why the lecture over the sheet? You don't have to think I'm a good person. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't. [It's not really something she expects from people. She can only barely get it from herself.]

Hmm. [There's a pause for that first question.] I guess, because I've been saying things like that for so long I sometimes don't know when to stop. [Or how to.]

Of course I don't think you're a bad person. You've seen the things I've done. [The only person in the Fleet who saw and knows of his darkest memory. Where he took the life of another.] Do you think I'm a bad person because of what I've done?

Vash... [She sighs, because she hates admitting this to him when he thinks of her as a good person, because surely it will change his mind, but it's the truth.]

The only thing I saw wrong in that memory is that you didn't do it sooner. [That he risked all those innocent lives for a man who not only didn't want to be saved, but actively wanted to harm others.]

Edited 2018-05-06 02:57 (UTC)

[There's a small bitter smile that spread across his face.] You know, my best friend back home probably would have told me the same thing. [Except for the part where he's dead.] Just because we wouldn't agree didn't make him or you a bad person.

[He was a complicated person.]

[Well, she's kind of dead if you want to be technical about it. But she's also standing here very much alive too, so what are technicalities?]

What's he like? Your best friend.

He was here. Really briefly. [And Vash is honestly really bitter about that.] Did you get a chance to meet Wolfwood at all?

No, I didn't. When was that? [Pretty sure it was while she was busy being in a coma for two months.]

Actually, you may have been in a coma. [QUICKLY MOVING ON.]

He's a priest. Sort of. He's kind of a terrible one.

[Ah, that would do it. Though she feels bad now missing out on meeting his friend.]

Terrible how? Because he'd advise you to kill people?

Well, his religion did tend to preach that thou shall not kill line.

Around the wrong people the turning the other cheek thing just leaves you with no cheeks.

Violence only leads to more violence. By showing people there is always another way is a way to end it.

Yeah? So, you're world isn't violent any more, huh? [She knows it is.]

I didn't say it was something that would happen overnight. It's a slow process, but it will get there one day if we don't give up.

Edited 2018-05-12 10:19 (UTC)

Maybe. But there isn't a "we" is there? It's just you back home trying it.

[Vash is quick to shake his head.] No, that's not true. There are others. [One of the last things Meryl had said before he woke up here. The thing that made him find the courage to get back up and try again was proof that it wasn't just him.] There are others back home trying to. I'm not alone. Even if I was, it just means I need to try a little harder.

[She looks away.] I don't know if that's hopelessly optimistic or dangerously naive. [But there was something about it she almost admired.]

[Vash laughs. Feeling slightly embarrassed suddenly.] I like to think it's optimistic. Besides, change has to start somewhere, right? Why not start with me?

Maybe it's both. [Is that a compromise? And he's laughing again and she doesn't want to make things weirder or even stay this strained so she tries to take it away from that. Take it away from thoughts about her own world and the role she played in it and the insecurities that haunt her.]

Anyway, you're good with the gun. How long did that take?

Edited 2018-05-30 20:12 (UTC)

It took awhile. You know, several years. [Over a hundred at this point.] Give or take a couple. [She can probably tell by now that he's dancing around a straight answer.]

Riiiiight. Several years give or take a couple. If you're trying to hide the part where immortals have more time to practice I already figured that one out.

Well, it's just-- you know, it's hard to shake that "old man" image once people learn about my real age. [For some reason that he can't explain he finds himself more worried that Kitty will look at him differently if she knew. It wasn't exactly a new feeling, but it still felt different somehow. Like there was more to lose this time than if someone else found out.]