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Who: ~~kniferat~~ Nai & you! Probably!
What: Unfortunately, he's here
When: The worst possible time (Dec 27th)
Where: Outside in the coldest snowbank I can possibly FIND
Warnings: millions knives trigun

I. some of u act like murder is such a big deal

[Are you ever just doing cryptid shit for like a century, and then one day you close your eyes and when you open them, the fucking sand is WHITE and COLD and there are TREES? Who fucking authorized this. Where the fuck is this.

For all that Nai wonders what's going on, as you do when dropped in an unfamiliar location where the temperature has gone from "scorching hot" to "Antarctica before Earth fucking died"... he sure isn't showing that on his face. Actually, it might be hard to see his face considering his hood is up and he's sort of just. Standing there. Staring up at the inn, ominously locking eyes with a creature on the roof. Some kind of monster in the middle of nowhere, no doubt, but what.

Idle observations are going to lead him to standing here with his grippers out for FREE for quite a while, in some attempt to take stock of the situation. Human civilization (gross), creature on the roof (glowing), flora abound, what looks like a? moose? animal?, a dog, it's cold... not a human in sight yet, though. Is the place abandoned?

(No, no it's not, you have two minutes of wandering/standing/scientific observation left to do before someone comes to try to put shoes on you, buddy. And like an actual coat that isn't made of knives.)]

II. due to personal reasons i will be named an enemy of the state

[Super cool and fun facts: Apparently, whatever this place is dampens abilities. Like, severely dampens them. Suppresses them, even! Almost completely! Guess How He Found Out. Take a Wild Guess.

(The answer is that he attempted, in no uncertain terms, to cut the inn into molecules and realised he could only really wield maybe a fifth of his power, if that, and he might have also Wolverined the inn wall in frustration.)

(Sorry not sorry if you see him Wolverine-ing the wall. Nai is being 100% normal about this and it's You who is wrong.)

Fine. If he can't obliterate this place, whatever, he's going into the woods and he's going to do what everyone else has attempted this month and Try To Leave. This can only go so well for him, he's inevitably going to wake up something in the woods, but he'll be fine. He's ~~Millions~~ Fifties Knives, he's got this. (Please stop him.)]

III. card(wild)

[hi i'm so sorry for this please slap me wherever thanks]

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[The good news for Vash is that he is very successful in knocking his twin directly into a decently-sized snowbank. It's not like Nai was paying attention to his surroundings much after a point; the single-minded attempt to destroy the building has him tunnel-visioned up until Vash shouts and sends them both toppling in a heap of limbs and knife-tentacles.

Somehow, it is both surprising and wholly unsurprising that Vash is here. One might've called it an act of divine intervention, if one were not seeing red over being interrupted mid-destructive rampage.]

Vash! [Commence struggling, as he tries to kick — not shank, luckily, but kick — his sibling in the gut to get him to let go. Something insanely childish rises in the back of his throat, something he might've said when they were kids arguing over stupid shit — You always ruin everything, why are you in my way — but instead, Nai settles on something ostensibly worse.] I'm doing this for you.

[Are you, buddy? You've been here fifteen minutes.]

This is yet another blight I'm eliminating. [You're welcome for his services, now let him up so he can destroy this place thanks.]

You - idiot!

[Vash does his best to position his hand against Nai's face and shove him directly into the snow. It's like waterboarding but colder, right? Mostly, he just wants to stun some damn sense into the man. Trying to get a word in edgewise when Knives is at his most riled up is an impossible feat. Vash has just one chance to get this right.]

You don't even know where you are. [Cold as it is, his breath comes in sharp puffs that lash at his lungs.] You don't even know who's in there.

[He knows for a fact that not everyone is human. And of the many people in town, only three of them could be blamed for the crimes Knives believed humanity was guilty of. Granted, he can practically hear the comeback in his head. Better to not give them the opportunity. Blah, blah, blah.]

Just - listen to me, okay?! Before you freeze to death!

[There's nothing more shocking than having your face shoved into a snowbank in general, but more so when you've been in the barren, scorching desert for the last century and a half. Nai isn't used to just how frigid everything is here. Vash's hand presses against his face and he goes down, the cold like a lightning bolt to his skull.

Somewhere in the red-eyed fury, through the snow in his ears, does he manages to latch onto what Vash is saying. The thing is, he wants to fight back — remind Vash what they did, continue to do, even if by his measure there are no other Plants here but does that matter, in the grand scheme of things? But when he tries to conjure more of his blades to him, he feels disconnected from his own innate abilities, disjointed like when he was first learning to harness them, and he decides to give. Just this once, for Vash's sake, simply to hear what he has to say before they inevitably start bickering again.

He throws the ball back to Vash's court with a roll of his eyes.]

Fine.

[Vash doesn't quite let Nai out of the snow. As long as he's writing in the cold, he has a reason to listen. The "sitting up and not being cold" privileges will be permitted once Vash is certain he isn't about to do a murder.

Ultimately this means that Vash winds up perched on Knives' torso, arms crossed like a petulant child. It's like every argument between preteen siblings, but on century old bodies. The point is that they're idiots, your honor.]

This is Aldric's Grove. There are no Plants, not aside from us. No one here had heard of them until I got here, and even then I only barely alluded to it. Not everyone is human — to be honest I couldn't tell you who is and who isn't.

We're trapped here. The woods wants to kill us. The shadow people want to help us. And... I think we've been here before, Nai. With Rem.

[It's a lot. None of it makes sense, especially how Vash explains it. But sits there with his arms crossed over his chest like he's made perfect sense and, well. Just waits!]

[Two idiots laying in a snowbank, one of them sitting on his pathetic, freezing cold sibling while said sibling has his knife-tentacles lying limply in the surrounding snow. Truly, neither of them grew up at all.

Nai is glaring at Vash, but his glare starts to fade with each word. No Plants. A sparse human population — which explains the thing on the roof and the shadow-people, for one thing. "The woods want to kill us" has to be a human tall-tale, a superstitious rumour and nothing more. Nai would love the opportunity to point it out. "You always believed in ghost stories."

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how Vash wants to look at it, the opportunity to poke holes in the argument stops dead at that last bit. Nai sits up in a hurry, and if Vash goes tumbling into the snowbank get rekt idiot. Luckily, he is not getting up to Do A Murder. Rather, he's just sitting. They are having a Discussion.]

Been here before? [He echoes.] I would remember if we had, Vash. And so would you.

[Would you, though...]

[Vash goes tumbling back into the snow. His legs stick straight up in the air, bicycling in the air as he tries to regain his balance. He rocks a few times, before finally managing to right himself. Legs crossed and posed like he's at a sleepover, rather than discussing the serious ramifications of their new world — or not sitting in the goddamned snow — Vash keeps right on going.]

I know, that'd make sense, right? But I can't - describe it. I've seen things. They know things about us. About Rem -

[He glances over his shoulder, back toward his home. How would Nai feel, seeing that geranium? Of knowing that this world remembered them as children with their mother, something that no other being should know about.]

[These two when their butts are cold later:

You know what doesn't vibe with being some unknowable cryptid? People knowing things about him. That actually defeats the purpose. Please just let him be knifemothman in peace??

Nai's gaze slides to where Vash's eyes wander, through the grove and the copse of trees lining the riverbank in the far, far distance. Obviously, he doesn't see said house (other buildings in the distance do an excellent job at blocking it), but he wonders what, exactly, Vash is looking at.

His eyes snap to his brother's face a split second later. There are seven million questions squirming in the back of his mind. The most important gets asked first.]

What do they know about either of us?

[There's a tone to the question. Sass. Not directed entirely toward Vash, but a general sentiment. What do they know, how would they know, do people really know or do they think they know, as humans and... human-adjacent shadow-people are so wont to do?]

Edited (pikachu is too big) 2023-12-28 03:50 (UTC)

[He knows the question is sarcastic, or at least double edged. Nai doesn't care about what they actually knew. It's the same arrogance as ever, that humans, or at least anything adjacent to them, could never understand the two of them. His line had been drawn in the literal sand years ago — they were not the same as humans.

Yet even still, Vash answers literally. Even if Nai had rejected the memories of their halcyon days together as children, they still happened. Taking away all the emotion of it didn't change the facts — Rem Saverem had raised them. And no one had been around to witness it. Brad and Luida would learn of this much later, but it was a secret they had kept between themselves, at least.]

They knew that we were raised by Rem. It was only us on that ship, Nai. No one should know that. Which means they had to have seen - something else. [He shakes his head.] And... before you got here. I heard you on the piano. Like you had been here before.

[It's all so fantastical. He knows Nai will call him delusional for believing it. But there are so many pieces that don't make sense without that single, fundamental truth. That they had been here before.]

[Correct. No one should know that, bar any exceptions to the rule due to Vash and his ever-blabbering mouth. One often wonders what Vash tells his pet humans, but either way...

He can't help but agree with the first part of that. The rest, though, brings further questions to mind.]

You heard me on the piano, [he echoes, with that incredulity that Vash is sure to expect,] and you're quite certain it wasn't a hallucination of some kind?

["Or that you miss your very cool not at all psychotic big brother" yeah no, auditory hallucinations are more likely.]

There are more likely explanations, Vash. It's best if you don't err on the side of human beliefs.

When has anyone else ever played that song, Nai? [He clacks his teeth down, practically grinding them together.] It was your part. No one else has ever played it with me.

[He knows that it could be explained away. Especially when he hadn't been sleeping well. When he'd already been emotional and at his wits end. But it doesn't change what he felt. That it felt real.]

You don't have to believe me. But at least take the time to investigate for yourself instead of...

[He motions vaguely to Knives'... everything.]

["Yes, that's why it's a hallucination," he'd say. "You've finally lost it being around all these humans," he'd follow that up with. Vash is a lot of things: over-insistent, a do-gooder, someone who fails to see the hairline cracks in the foundation, way too earnest... but this argument is going nowhere, and Nai can only say "I know everything" so many times when Vash refuses to listen.

An investigation, though, isn't a bad idea. What little he's been able to glean of the place has included mostly the various monstrous beings lurking about, the shadow-people, and the obvious surrounding forest. That is, perhaps, the biggest "tell" that they aren't home. Everything else... it remains to be seen.

Nai cocks his head at the hand-motion.]

Investigate with me, then. [hello brother would you like to Hang Out? no?? too bad—] You speak as though you've been here for some time, but surely, there are discoveries you have yet to make.

[Prove him wrong, Vash, he dares you.]

[Why does that proffered hand always feel like a threat. It isn't the first time Knives has asked him to join his side. And at least this time, it's probably an innocuous offer. They should investigate, Vash knows there's much more to learn. But the idea of going it alone with him, disappearing when Wolfwood could very well be waiting for him at home...]

You need warmer clothes before you do that. [He pulls his own coat tighter around himself as he finally seems to realize the chill seeping into his bones. He lifts himself out the snow, before turning to offer Knives his hand. He'll turn the offer around.] And we need to be more prepared. I went running into the woods when I first got here and almost died. We can't heal like we used to, and I'll bet you don't have near the strength that you should.

[It's not a no. It's a clever dodge to help himself be more prepared for what may yet come.]

[The offered hand is taken, although the help isn't needed. The cold is... cold. It sure is cold. And Nai will later find out that everyone here is on a mission to Clothe Him which will turn out beneficial in the end, but anyway...

For now? He's frowning at Vash and taking those words into account. He's noticed that his abilities aren't working, of course he has, but to find out their healing isn't properly working is... troublesome. Vash almost dying is... troublesome.

Nai's expression sets into a glare after that.]

What, exactly, nearly killed you?

[Because, like, aside from being Plants and being sturdier than humans are... Nai did not give anyone or anything else permission to mangle his brother? Hello?? Who or what was it don't worry bro he'll fuck it up for ya—]

[Vash rolls his eyes. He knows exactly what that question is getting at. No doubt, Nai would put together a list of "people" to hunt down, believing it all to be part of his crusade against humanity. It's the same story, just a new setting.]

A monster. Not too different than a dog, but made of thorns. Nothin' like out of our biodomes.

[Before Nai can do anything, he holds up a hand.]

Don't go chasing after it. Definitely not yet, and probably not at all. They're dangerous, Nai. And you're not going to be at all like yourself out there.

[Even if he has a few knives, he'd still be out of his element.]

["Don't do this Nai, don't do that Nai" there were only A COUPLE HUNDRED ATROCITIES, VASH, you're being overdramatic about this.]

I take it you're fond of this place, [he begins, in a tone that simply says Oh Boy Here It Comes to Vash, probably,] and because that's the case, I take it you don't want to see it destroyed by these hounds. What, then, do you intend to do if one of them leaves the forest and comes to your precious civilization?

They're not... conscious. [His words are halting, despite his attempt at mustering up confidence.] It's not like with humans.

[He still doesn't relish killing, even if it's against an animal. He's done it, but it still fills him with a level of disgust and discomfort. And he knows Nai will push this line of thinking. It's always the same with his morals. Someone always wants to watch him crack.

He won't give Nai the satisfaction.]

Just... go inside, okay. Get comfortable while I go find something warm for you. We can figure everything else out, okay?

...fine.

[Fine! Fine, okay, he'll go inside™ where it's warm. He will get comfortable and then think about those rose hounds for about thirty seconds too long before he just...

Yeah, no, he's not staying in place goodbye Vash.]

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