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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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.]

[Ah crap. He should have brought two masks when searching for the girl.] It's not real. [But he can understand only too easily how easy it was to forget that. He hadn't even spent time in a virtual world before.] Maybe you should put the mask back on.

Is it worse if it is real or worse if it's not? [She starts to reach out toward him and then closes her hand in a fist and closes her eyes with it. She shakes her head, thinking as hard as this is at least no parts of her body are about to detonate and she hasn't tried to take off running, so this is better, right? Right? Winn...]

Shuttle. [Reminding Vash because she can't seem to make herself move.]

I think it's worse either way. [Real and it was awful seeing him in that position, but at least he was attainable. Fake and he was once again a lifetime away.

Vash gives a tug on her arm to try to lead her away. He doesn't know for sure where the shuttle has been parked, but the important thing here is to keep moving.]

[Right behind Winn actually. The thinning mist's final attempt to hold on to her. She turns her head to look at Vash as he tugs her arm. She could phase from his grip so easily and part of her wants to. Wants to just stay here with even the illusion of him, but she stays solid and takes a step, trying to keep her eyes on Vash.] My daring rescue is going really well.

Going better than mine. [Considering he has no idea if the girl made it home safely or not.] We're nearly there. [Which is good, because he's so tired and all he really wants to do is sit down for a bit.]

So I'm winning. [Self, did you have to say "winn-ing"?] That's something. [She wants to turn around. Go back. She wants to stay there in that awful setting where at least he's still there, but she keeps putting foot in front of foot in their too-slow trek to the shuttle. It helps tremendously that the mist is so much thinner where she landed and that most of her greatest fears came true before she even knew she should fear them.

She reaches up, fumbling for the hatch, not trusting herself to phase the both of them safely. Opening it will let in mist, but she can program the air control system to filter it out. At least she's pretty sure she can.]

Edited 2018-08-04 00:57 (UTC)

[He tries to think of something to talk about. To distract and keep Kitty focused on what is real. He knows if Rem was in one of those containers, real or not, he'd be tempted to stay if only to see her face once again.] I'm going to need to treat you to dinner or something after all of this. [Vash with the mask is doing a bit better now. He places his hand over her own as she fumbles with the hatch. Helping to get it open and getting inside.

He's tired, but he pushes it aside to do his job as a pilot.] I can get us in the air and then the auto pilot can take us back to the Roses. [He can do at least that after being in the fleet for nearly four years in his sleep.]

[It feels a little strange to be talking about a date-shaped thing right after seeing Winn. The mist even encourages a little spike of fear that somehow Winn will find out? She moves over to the engineering panels to help air out those thoughts and she realizes why he's saying it. It's sweet when she knows he's struggling too.] I like food. There, um, there are some nice hotels here I've heard. Bigger beds probably. [The fear rises up again as she says it, but she pushes through as she purifies the air while he works the piloting controls.] Far away from the mist.

Edited 2018-08-04 01:50 (UTC)

Y-yeah. This has been fun, but I think I'm done with the mist. How about you? [The engine hums to life as Vash gets ready to take off. Once the ship is airborne he'll point it to the sky and try to get them out of there as quickly as possible.]

Wasn't fun. Very done. [She sinks down, taking deep breaths of cleansed air.] I can't see anything...extra anymore. You? [At least she doesn't think she can. And she's right, but after something like that it's hard to be 100% sure.]

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