driftfleet | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Vash and you
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: On the planet
When: Late night on July 21st

[It was the same thing every year around the anniversary. Bad memories leading to night terrors and while he rarely remembers them thanks to the combination of Katie's dream catcher and allowing Baku to eat his dreams; they still make it hard to fall asleep. The city of lost July. Gone in an instant and all because of him.

Maybe that's why he was so quick to offer to help a distraught mother find her daughter who had run off into the mist instead of going to a bar like he had planned. Wanting to help someone rather then thinking of all the death this day meant to him.

Of course, it wasn't suppose to go like this.

A very young alien girl with orange skin is suddenly appearing on Vash's communication device. She's wearing a mask that is clearly too big for her. In fact some may recognize it as the mask that Vash has been wearing when going into the mist. Only, where is the gunslinger? Oh, that's probably him screaming in the background.]

Please, can anyone hear me? [She sounds close to tears.] I need hel--

I TOLD YOU TO GET AWAY FROM ME! [Vash's voice breaks through her plea. It's a mix of angry and terrified as the girl screams in shock. She drops the communication device and as it falls you can catch a quick glance at Vash's arm at the start of it's transformation. Along with a bright light right before the feed cuts out.]

(OOC: Vash will be responding to voice! Or your character can come find him out in the mist! Just look for the bright light! WARNING! If tagging in with action please be aware along with his current glitch there will be hallucinations that have to do with/will talk about death! If you do not want the hallucinations please mention so in your tag!)

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[She wonders the same thing at his shouting and she hesitates in place for a moment, not wanting to tip him over the edge while she's trying to help. She waits until quiet falls before speaking again.]

You're strong, Vash. You can do this. [She's not that worried for herself here. She can phase. If she knows it's coming. If there's time... She trusts herself. She can do this. But she's worried about that little girl from the video. The fleet. Anyone he might reach with his...weapon, power, arm gun? And she's worried about him. About how he'll feel if anyone does get hurt or worse.]

NO! [He spits the word out and grips his changing arm tighter.] If I was strong this never would have happened! July-- Augusta-- they'd still be standing!

All those people... they'd all be still alive! Rem! If we had never been born it would have been better! She would have had her peaceful world!

[She doesn't know about July or Augusta. She really hopes there is an after when they can talk about it calmly without this mist around.] The past is the past. Learn from it. Make this time different.

And Rem was like a mother, right? Mothers don't trade their kids for anything. [Not even a peaceful world. They work to build it because of their kids.]

Because she was too soft. [Knives is gone. He's instead been replaced with another man.] But I always knew what you were, didn't I? A little monster and you proved me right. Only a monster would do what you've done.

SHUT UP! [Well, whoever that guy is, he's certainly not helping.] GO AWAY! [It's not intended for Kitty, but Vash would still like her to leave for her own safety.]

[At this point she hadn't still been wondering if Knives was real, but if she had been the sudden switch in performer would have removed any lingering traces of doubt.

The whole thing reminds her so much of something that happened in Marina. There was a creature known as Vapor who could shapeshift and even take other forms like...mist. Most notably they could pull images from your mind and morph into them to induce fear which they fed off of. She tries to push the thought away because it doesn't feel helpful in the moment. There was never a good way to fight Vapor other than holding fast to being defiant and not afraid, but more so because if it is Vapor what does that mean? She never left the system, right? She's still in that shared virtual reality and they just changed the setting and the participants. It's a low key fear of hers. Maybe the mist is getting in through her mask or maybe it's just the circumstances.

Either way, she needs to focus on Vash.]

I've been called a monster too. We're not.

[She reaches out, putting her hand over his non-gun arm, hoping the connection will help both of them and not push him over the edge.]

[He jumps at the touch. Before this day no one has gotten so close, let alone touched him, when he was like this.

It's enough to snap him out of his spiraling thoughts for a moment.] Why? [He shouts to be heard over the increasingly whine of the pent up power being stored in his arm and begging for release.] Why won't you run? [Why won't she abandon him like he should be?]

[She has to keep her voice raised to fight the sound of it all, but she tries to do it in an even way that sounds as calm as it can.]

Because I don't want you to be alone anymore.

[Tears start pouring down his face. A mix from the pain at holding something so powerful at bay and the realization that he was going to kill her. Oh god. He was going to lose control and she's right in the blast radius and why won't she leave!?

He screams out angry at himself. He can't do that. He can't lose someone so important again. Not because of him.

The screaming and grunting continues as his eyes lock with laser focused on his arm. Willing with everything he has against the glitch. After several more agonizing moments the glitch finally fixes itself and he has control over his own body once again.

It happens so fast once the glitch is gone. His arm rapidly decreases in size and Kitty may be a little surprised that his pistol falls out of his grip as he nearly falls face first onto the ground from exhaustion despite already being on his knees. The gun's cover over the barrel has been removed and inside there is a strange cylinder hovering in the air. It holds a soft glow of white light, just like what had been coming from Vash's arm, for just a moment before fading away to blackness.

Vash gasps for air. Perhaps not the best idea to be doing in this mist, but it feels like he hasn't been able to breath in years.]

[She sees him fighting it and the pain it's causing and all she can do is watch. She wishes there was more she could do to help him. She curses herself for not having more reliable masks in stock. She should have brought him one too. She thinks about putting hers on him, but would it be enough? Would they just both be affected then? She's not even sure hers is completely effective.

Did she think about cutting off his arm at one point? She did. But with all that energy building for all she knew that would release it and she doesn't know how far reaching the effect would be. If she's seeing the remains of some place destroyed by this before then too far probably.

But then the battle over Vash's own body turns and she grabs for him as he falls, but he's heavy and she manages to cushion it somewhat, but not stop it. She's worried about him but her eyes keep flickering to the cylinder, not understand what it all means.]

Vash... Vash! We still have to get out of here. Out of the mist. [She wants him to be able to rest, but not here. Not like this. It's not over until they're out.]

[His pupils are still dilated, but he nods along at her words. Knowing she's right as he reaches out with a shaking hand for his gun. He hesitates to touch it for a moment and then reaches out with his left hand to pick it up. Awkwardly reaching across to holster it.

They're still in a devastated city.] Town? [It's taking everything for him to remind himself that this isn't real. He's lost his sense of direction here.] Which way? [His eyes glance and linger in the wrong direction. Down there is the cafe that were so kind to give a worthless drifter like himself a job.]

Going to run off to destroy something else? [Steve walks a casual circle around the pair. Yes, he's still here and Vash's breath catches in his throat when he hears the voice.] Or just going to leave your brother around to cause even more of a mess?

There's no town. There's no creepy guy. It's the mist creating hallucinations, remember? Focus on me. I'm real. [She gets up, and hold her arms out to him to help him up since he still looks so tired and she figures the contact helps. Her new power is being solid.] I'll lead the way to the shuttle.

[Hopefully Kitty won't be too freaked out when Vash sleeps for the next three days straight when this is all over, because she's right, he is utterly exhausted. He gratefully takes the offered help to get up to his feet.] A shuttle? Good.

[Closer than anything else would be. Yet he can't take his eyes off that street. He knows it's not real, but it had been real at one point.] Lets get out of here. It's too quiet.

[He says this even with Steve still shouting at the two of them about the mess Vash is leaving behind.]

[She'll be a little freaked out. Probably have Kurt or Anders check on his vitals. Maybe have Seeker stand guard since she won't really feel like she can spend a lot of time with unconscious Vash.

She rubs keeps hold of him as they walk, giving him as much support as she can. He's kind of heavy even if he didn't contain part metal and he does.

She thinks she understands where he's coming from about the quiet. The town he's seeing—projecting probably used to be a louder, more vibrant one before... Well, she has to assume before his arm did whatever it didn't end up doing back there. She gives him a squeeze as they move.]

Of course. We need you back home.

[Luckily he shouldn't be completely unconscious past the first day as he didn't end up using as much power as he could have, but he will still be very, very tired.

He does his best to not rest all of his weight on her. Only stumbling on occasion as Steve follows behind the pair.]

No we don't. We didn't need him at all. The crew would still be alive. We would have made the peaceful planet Rem wanted. No, instead everyone is dead.

[Vash winces at the words and mumbles to the phantom.] I'm sorry...

[She tries to walk them faster despite the weight and Vash's understandable sluggishness. She wants to get out of range of that guy even as questions build up in her own mind. Curiosities. Vash's life was harder than she even learned from calibrations.]

You saved my life. [As much as she would have phased would it have worked? Sometimes it works on energy or magic. Sometimes it has unexpected effects.] And that little girl. She had your communicator and your mask.

[Vash wants to get away just as badly as Kitty does and manages to keep up with the quickened pace.] Her mask, she broke it. I-- [Suddenly he stands a little taller as if he has a second wind.] What happened to her? Did she make it home?

[Oh? A new fear! The mist latches onto it. Suddenly a young girl's painful scream is heard echoing all around them. Followed closely by Knives's laughter. That should hopefully be enough to clue Kitty in that the sound isn't real, but Vash under the mist's full influence isn't so lucky.]

KNIVES! DON'T HURT HER! [If she doesn't keep a good hold on him he's going to try taking off in the wrong direction.]

[Okay, noted. That was the opposite of helpful to say and now instead of getting him out faster she's trying to anchor him still.] VASH! The shuttle! We need to get to the shuttle! No one else is here. We just have to save us. [She really hopes that's true. Obviously Knives isn't out there but she doesn't know for sure about the girl.]

[The girl had run home. She wasn't out in this mist, but Vash isn't convinced just yet.] But I can hear him! Knives-- he'll kill her! [He looks back at Kitty with wild eyes.] I can't let him do that!

[Hero types. So annoying, right?]

Damnit, Vash, he's not here!

[They are the actual worst. They do things like take off their own gas masks and slam them on the face of the person they're trying to rescue. Which is exactly what she's doing with one hand as she anchors him as much as possible with the other. Maybe they are far enough out that this isn't the worst possible idea. In part she just trusts herself to stay on mission even through the fear. She always has.]

Better?

[This is exactly how Vash got himself into his current mess. Finding a little girl who's mask had broke and she was being tormented by her own personal bogeymen. He too thought he could ignore or power through the mist's influence when he gave her his mask so the monsters would leave and he could carry her out of the area.

He had been wrong. Hopefully Kitty won't be as wrong as he had been. As the voices don't instantly vanish, but with each passing breath in the mask the screams and pleading for help grow quieter. Along with the manic laughter and ruined city landscape.]

Okay. [He has to trust Kitty, because part of him is still convinced she's out there, but why would Kitty lie?] Okay. Let's get to the shuttle. [They weren't going to be any help staying lost out here anyway.]

[The mist isn't as thick here at least. She's got that much going for her. And most of her greatest fears have already come true in reality anyway. That's a plus, right?] Yeah. Keep moving. [She keeps her hold on Vash as the scenery around them starts to shift. It's faded, not quite as convincing as Vash's hallucinations had been. Instead of looking outside it looks like they are in a massive spiraled room, metal and shiny. Everything is very technologically advanced and there are countless pods spiraling out from the center containing bodies. Bodies that are alive, but lifeless looking as they stay in suspended animation within the tanks preserving them. She recognizes all the faces while Vash will recognize some of them. There are people here who were in Marina and those from Drift past and present (though just those Kitty would have known since this is coming from her mind). She sees Allen Walker nad she squeezes Vash's hand tighter and keeps walking.]

[At first Vash thinks that maybe the mask isn't working. The pods reminding him so much of the cryo pods the humans were kept in as they traveled the stars looking for a new home for them.

That is until he sees the first face of someone from the fleet. Then the little differences start to become a lot more noticeable and he knows that these are Kitty's demons and not his own.] It's not real. [He moves a hand to lock his fingers in-between her own. A reminder that she at least is real.] Maybe you should take the mask back.

[Before they both go completely nuts.]

Being not real is sort of the problem, but I'm okay. [Sort of.] We're close. [Her steps slow as she notices herself and Vash in the containers they pass. She feels the urge to run to them and open them up and let them out, but that doesn't make any sense. It wouldn't work that way. Right?]

Is that really what my hair looks like? [He tries to crack a joke. It's not his best because it draws attention to his clone, but he's so tired and it's making it hard to think.]

The scariest part of all. [It's okay. She hadn't missed it. Her attention was already there, but she was still moving forward—still walking toward the goal, even going through pods to keep the spiral from distracting her into getting off course, but sometimes when she does she can swear she hears alarms and beeping as if she phased and disrupted the electronics keeping them alive. She tries to push that out of her mind.

She's doing well too until the upcoming pod in their path is Winn and she comes to a full stop. Really should have brought two masks.]

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