sticksandbones | [OPEN] 🔪🐀

Entry tags:

[OPEN] 🔪🐀

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]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What, indeed?

[Wolfwood, buddy, he wishes he fucking knew. Even if he had the answers to what he's doing here, he sure wouldn't be handing them out just because Wolfwood is aiming a gun at him. He wouldn't be handing them out anyway, but that's beside the point.

Nai offers something of a shrug. Casual, non-committal, he literally doesn't know my guy he's not sure what to tell you. Yet, for all that he doesn't know what's going on, he maintains his overconfident tone.]

I could ask you the same. As I recall, you had a job to do... didn't you?

[He's trying to get a rise out of him. Maybe he wants to see if he'll shoot, even. Whatever the case, he can tell a patronizing tone when he hears one, and it is especially scathing coming from Knives himself. His employer. The entity that Wolfwood cannot afford to piss off.

Yet. Yet.

This isn't No Man's Land. It's someplace new. Someplace far from the troubles of their home world, one that has invited problems of its own, and if Nai is functioning under its same rules...

Wolfwood won't pull the trigger, not yet. But he sure does wonder if he bleeds red.]

That doesn't matter here. [He mutters, his words carrying a level of confidence he sure as hell hasn't earned, laying eyes on Nai for the first time as he is.] But by all means, go ahead into the woods and don't come back. You'd be doing us all a favor.

[Would Wolfwood care to find out?]

Spoken like someone who believes he has the upper hand. [Nai, buddy, my guy—] I can only imagine where this fury comes from. Might I make a guess?

[This is the point where he actually turns to face Wolfwood, no longer making the man talk to the back of his head and a gaze tossed casually over his shoulder. Wolfwood is aiming for him. Nai confidently thinks he has enough of his ability left in him to block a good portion of the shots.]

Is it the orphanage? [And now he's trying to get a rise out of the man who is, supposedly, in his employ.] The Eye? Or does the river run much deeper than I thought?

[...]

Don't tell me, Punisher, that you've come to care for your target?

[Okay, so Nai isn't just egging him on, he is immediately going for the throat. Cool cool cool-

Wolfwood very nearly whips the Punisher up and unloads right then and there. He wants to blast this cocky motherfucker's head right off his shoulders, even if he's unsure that's actually possible with an Independent. Especially Nai, even with whatever nerfs this place may have put upon him. His fingers lock into the eyes of the skull at the center of the cross, but he doesn't fire.

He has it ready. His fingers are clenching it so tightly his arms tremble. But he's still holding himself back. Not for Nai's sake, or even his own. It's for Vash.

For now. Maybe that's enough to show his entire hand as Nai fishes around in his insecurities for information.]

Shut the fuck up. I don't have to answer you.

[The gun clicks. Wolfwood knows that this tenuous deal he's had with the Eye is on thin ice. It's plain to see, with what they did to Livio. What they nearly did to the orphanage. That wasn't the deal, and the anger flashes visibly in Wolfwood's eyes even as he stands his ground in the snow.]

You have no power here. Bet it sucks, don't it?

["I don't have to answer" may as well be an answer in itself. Humans don't hide their emotions well, especially not a human who never actually grew up.

But Wolfwood is right about one thing: Nai's power here has been suppressed severely. He wonders briefly if it's obvious, or if it's because others, too, have come here and things haven't worked properly. A comment made after observation of him, or the circumstances? Alas, he and the Punisher have never spoken face to face, so Nai is banking on the latter.

In something of a peacocking threat display, he shifts the cloak into his signature blades. If he were really going to prove that he's at full strength, he would've done more than this, but this is just a casual reminder for Wolfwood that Nai isn't powerless. He has fifty of his knives, okay.]

Would you be happier if you pulled the trigger? Would it take a weight off of your shoulders... or would you crumple under the guilt?

[You know... hiding that you murdered Vash's brother from him?]

[The knives should scare him. Terrify him. In some way, they do, because he knows well enough what they're capable of. He's seen the aftermath of cities after he's gone through them. He heard about what happened at Jenora Rock, and he knows that was merely the beginning.

But if he were capable of doing the same here...he would have already. Wolfwood knows he wouldn't have spared this place for being small and "beneath" him. No, he would have destroyed it solely to make the humans living here suffer.

In the end...Wolfwood's self control is only so strong, and he can only take so much of this. Knives- Nai- is right here. He could put an end to this, here and now. Plus, it feels much like a challenge, and he's tired of cowering in this Independent's shadow.

He chooses to not answer, at least not verbally. Instead, the gun takes just a second to rev before he starts to unload the chamber directly at Nai.]

[No response given. Well, that's fine. He can't say he expects the Punisher to be the most verbose person, especially not when all he sees is hellfire and blinding rage and maybe, just maybe, freedom from his fate. A way out. So he takes the shot, and Nai can't say he expected any less.

Now, what he does expect is to be able to block these shots, because he always does, but that doesn't wind up happening. Nai manages to block most of them, but it turns out he can't possibly react quick enough (or knifey enough) to get all of them. Wolfwood's bullets land somewhere in Nai's right thigh, if only because he spent his power protecting the more vital bits.

He does, in fact, bleed red!

Unfortunately for Wolfwood, he's gone from "haha bullies u" to Murder Mode instantly, and his retaliation is swift — the second the chamber is unloaded, those tentacle-knives of his unfurl from his back, six sharp ends all gunning for the Punisher directly, aiming in various spots with no real rhyme or reason other than to inflict tenfold what was just inflicted onto him.]

[He does not regret opening fire even for a second. Sure, it is probably suicide to fire on Millions Knives of all people, but maybe he's justified in being a bit cocky when he knows their powers are dampened. He knows Vash's are, he certainly can't heal as quickly as he used to, and neither can Wolfwood himself for that matter. And though he feels a little twinge of disappointment initially at the way he uses his knives to block the shots...he immediately perks when a few of the last don't ping audibly off the metal.

He watches, wide-eyed, as they pierce straight through his leg. He hits him, watches blood splatter onto a nearby tree, and for a moment can only feel elation for having actually struck true. So he can bleed. He CAN be hurt. He isn't so invincible as he'd like the world to believe him to be.

It does not last long.

He starts to jump backwards, swinging the Punisher in front of himself to block those snake-like metallic tendrils from slapping him in the face. One of them ricochets off the flat of the gun. Another whiffs past him with such speed he can feel the air being sliced inches from his body. A third wraps around and around the top end of the cross, forcing Wolfwood to try and plant his feet in the snow to keep from getting thrown down onto his ass. A valiant effort, but...the other three do not miss.

The fourth tendril slashes harshly across Wolfwood's side, ripping open his blazer with an angry spray of blood that cascades over the snow. The fifth he just barely ducks out of the way of, but not fast enough to avoid a gash sliced neatly across his cheek in a second lance of pain.

The sixth? It wraps around Wolfwood's ankle, looping around it several times. He hasn't been thrown onto the ground yet, but...Nai could easily lift Wolfwood up off the ground by his leg, if he had the mind to do so.]

[Sometimes one has to wonder: Why the fuck are you doing the things you are doing? This goes for both of them, but especially Wolfwood, who somehow went "yeah this is a great idea" and will now be dangling upside-down by his ankles.

Because, yeah, the second that knife-tentacle winds its way around Wolfwood's leg, he's getting yoinked and dangled from five feet in the air, held at... tendril's-length away. Wolfwood could still shoot if he wanted to, but Nai is carefully wiggling the Punisher side to side like a rat over a snake's cage, and the other five tendrils have looped around his gun to try to keep himself from being shot again.

He is, presently, ignoring the stinging pain in his leg. The wounds aren't closing, and Wolfwood might take some satisfaction in that. Nai certainly doesn't.]

Did you think to earn your freedom through this? [He taunts, shaking Wolfwood around more... and if the blades cut through his pants and into his skin, whoops, it's totally an accident (it's not).] Or are you, like every other human in this miserable universe, hellbent on taking my brother away from me again?

[It hurts. It's not unimaginable pain- he's been shot hundreds of times at once, he knows what that kind of pain is- but that doesn't mean being hefted by your ankle with a knife tentacle feels good. His pantleg does nothing to shield him from it as the knives sink into his skin, blood pooling through his clothing until it starts to drip down onto the snow. It's rolling down his face as he hangs upside-down, dripping in much larger splatters from that huge tear through his blazer at his side.

But for as much as he's hurting, and as terrifying as this could be, he feels a surge of elation when he sees that Nai is bleeding. That his wounds haven't healed over, that he isn't the only one struggling. He wants so badly to spit in his direction, but he also doesn't want to lose his foot entirely, even as he feels rage bubbling up in his chest at the way his gun is being held just out of easy reach.

The blood is rushing to his head. It makes his vision swim, but he doesn't reach for his vials, which are a precious commodity he isn't going to waste here.]

I'm...sending a message, Knives.

[He grinds it out, stilted through gritted teeth, copper overwhelming his senses as he tastes blood on his tongue which he promptly ignores. It probably doesn't come across as severely as he would like, since he's being swung about like a ragdoll.]

You ain't invincible. You bleed like the rest of us lowly humans. Chew on that while you spin on the stick up your ass!!

[Vash had only been gone a few minutes. Following his own spat with Nai, he'd only intended to run and grab him a blanket from his own cabin. From there, when his brother wasn't freezing to death, they could figure everything else out. And maybe the fresh air, away from the cloud of anguish that came from confronting his sibling, Vash might have been able to figure out what to do next.

That was his intention. However, as he returns to the inn and looks around, he knows he's made a mistake. Nai is gone, and what the hell is he supposed to do about that. There are so many people, human people that he could have preyed on.]

Nai -

[He wants to be wrong. He wants to hope that he hasn't gone off and picked a fight.

The silence of the night is cut through by the sound of gunfire. He and Wolfwood have fought back-to-back, side by side enough times for him to be deeply, intimately familiar with the rapid fire of his Punisher. He doesn't have to guess what Wolfwood is firing at. Even as he tries to tell his mind to not run away with fear, he can see it in his minds eye.

Nai, blooded on the ground. Wolfwood, skewered by that array of knives. Vash, alone and watching the two people he cares most for bleed out.

His lungs ache with the cold by the time he reaches the two men. His heart feels like it's liable to burst from his chest. He looks between them, watches the way Wolfwood dangles limply, bleeding from one, two, at least three wounds. And then there's Nai, also bloodied and, like Vash before him, not healing.

It's a goddamn mess.]

Nai! [Peacebringer is drawn from the holster at his thigh in a split second. He aims it not at Nai directly, but at one of the tendrils holding Wolfwood up. Three bullets are fired — he's nearly out now — in the hopes of breaking the connection.] Put him down!

[The shots connect, and Nai drops Wolfwood like a sack of potatoes into a snowbank. Plop. Get cold, idiot.

There are a number of things he could say here. He shot first, why do you care, hey fun facts I sent this man after you so ummm you shouldn't like him acshually, hi it's been ten minutes since we last spoke nice to see you again, I was just gonna take care of those rose hounds you mentioned before he started following me... infinite excuses, really, not that he expects Vash to understand literally any of them.

The knife tendrils retract, flicking blood from the blades, and he turns to face his wayward sibling with his arms crossed.]

I do wish you'd learn to keep better company, Vash. [oh my god stop] This one has a bit of a temper.

[NAI, YOU KNOODLED HIM.]

[Unsurprisingly, Wolfwood hits the ground about as heavily as a sack of potatoes when he's dropped. He's lucky he doesn't fall on his head and break his neck, but luckily the snow is such that it cushions his fall. No doubt the Punisher gets tossed nearby- he hopes, that's NOT yours to keep you bastard- but Wolfwood won't make any moves to grab and shoot it again now that Vash is here.

God. Vash. Has Vash known? Did he come across Nai yet, or is this his first meeting with him here? Cause if so, this is probably the actual worst way it could have gone...

For now, Wolfwood focuses on struggling to sit up so he can assess his injuries. Usually, he can tell just from sensation alone if a wound would be bad enough to kill him or not, but now he doesn't fucking know in this place that has dampened his ability to heal. The gash on his face is superficial, and the cuts from the knives on his ankle and elsewhere are semi-deep punctures, but nothing that will need stitching, he's pretty sure. It's that slash on the side where Nai got him pretty good, having ripped open both the blazer and undershirt, leaving him holding it closed with his free hand.

He's not dying but, you know. He's not having a good time. He doesn't say anything for now, spitting blood into the snow as his answer, fuck you.]

[Yeah, Vash doesn't need to be told that. And if he were told the truth, that Wolfwood fired first, he probably wouldn't even be surprised. The thing is, he knows his brother well. Even if Nick was the first to act, he wouldn't have done it without being spurred into doing so.

And Vash knows how good Nai is at picking fights.]

I think I'll stick with the company I have. [He cross the distance between himself and the two men, standing in front of Wolfwood. While he has no doubt that those knives could arc out wide and grab at the Punisher even from here, Vash is confident in his own ability to step in the way and fend it off.

On the outside, he's calm and resolute. There's a firmness to the gaze he fixes on Nai, and his hand is still as he lowers his gun. On the inside, however, the earlier panic continues to rip through him. He can smell Nick's blood, heavy in the air. He's wounded, deeply so, but Vash can't yet tell how bad.

Turning his head over his shoulder, he tries his best to meet Wolfwood's eyes.]

Go. Get to the clinic. [And then he whips back around to face Nai.] I thought I told you to wait for me.

[One might think Nai would be less cocky about all of this. After all, today Wolfwood made the important discovery that he's at like, 25% of his normal power if that and that he is likely 100% killable. But no. No no. Millions Knives doesn't look routed for anybody, not even his own sibling, and especially not when said sibling is continually Wrong about everything. The superiority complex remains firmly in place.

As such, he rolls his eyes. "I'll stick with the company I have", says Vash, and it's lucky for Wolfwood that Vash has seen fit to get in the way.

As always, Nai thinks bitterly. As fucking always.]

I only wanted to find those rose hounds you mentioned and put them out of their misery. ["I only wanted to" might sound a little more pathetic if Nai wasn't constantly in holier-than-thou mode.] A different hound stalked me. That's all.

[Despite his injuries...Wolfwood is tough, and stubborn. And sure enough...he is already struggling to his feet, pain be damned. He may not be able to regenerate like Vash, Nai, or even Livio, but that doesn't matter. He can take pain with the best of them, and this may as well amount to nothing more than a scratch.]

M'fine. Vash- [He starts, which is mistake number one. Vash is not something he's called him openly before, certainly not back home, but. Well. It's a new development, let's just say. But it's also not like he and Nai have met face-to-face before now...so perhaps it will slip by unnoticed. It's his name, there's nothing unusual about it, he will check himself better next time. That's not the important thing right now.] -I didn't. ...didn't know if you knew he was here.

[He's not going to lie about what he was doing. Yeah, he did follow Nai out here. He wasn't just going to let him go...even if the smarter move would have probably been to go to Vash first. But when has Wolfwood ever been a man known to make rational decisions on the fly?

He grits his teeth, tightening his grip on the wound at his side.]

And I told you to not go wandering around by yourself.

[It's a low warning, gritted out as panic grips at his chest. He feels trapped, pinned down by Nai's gaze and unable to get a full, proper look at the wound Wolfwood is sporting. It only grows when the man lingers, when he doesn't hear the crunch of snow as he retreats.

He's going to have to do it. It'll leave him exposed, with only the hope that Nai didn't actually want him dead to sustain him.

He twists at the waist, fast enough that his jacket whips in the air. He doesn't care of the cracks draw any attention, he's already kneeling down and shoving at Nick's hand. It's not wise to take the pressure off, but he has to know how bad it is before he does anything else.

His voice is low when he speaks, little more than a whisper, but certainly loud enough to be picked up by hearing as well-tuned as an Independent's.]

I'm sorry, I didn't have time to warn you - [He swallows, struggling to meet Wolfwood's eyes. He doesn't want to see the blood trailing down his cheek. The blame is already weighing heavy on his shoulders, after all.] Please, please be okay.

[Nai finds this behaviour wholly unsurprising. There's disappointment etched onto his features, naturally, but if either Vash or Wolfwood expect him to just walk away... lol, lmao, no. No no. Maybe he would have, if the two weren't acting strangely close.

Suspicious kniferat squinting. Interesting.

There's a small boon in the fact that he doesn't try to attack either of them while they're distracted with one another. Curiosity has a hold on him; he was right, then, when he remarked that the Punisher must've gotten close to his target. Perhaps closer than intended...

Is it more fun to watch Wolfwood squirm in pain and put on a brave face for Vash's sake, or to stand there and stare daggers at Wolfwood over Vash's shoulder? Both? Both is good, actually. He rolls his eyes at the attempt of comfort. That's all he's been doing lately, is rolling his eyes at what he would describe as his brother's "antics".

Keep talking gays, you're being Scrutinized.]

[Wolfwood may not be looking at Nai directly, but he can feel the Independent's gaze on him. Piercing, judgemental, hateful. And for just a brief moment, he does happen to look up at him over Vash's shoulder, getting the full brunt of those eyes watching before he has to look away again.

He clicks his tongue harshly against the roof of his mouth, focused on Vash now. Just...not entirely. He does not trust Nai to not just garrote them both while they aren't looking, which is why it's nearly baffling Vash is willing to actually turn his back on him.

What's happened, since he's gotten here?]

Needle-noggin, I'm okay.

[He...isn't, actually! He's bleeding quite a fucking lot, which is why he's quick to jolt back when Vash tries shoving his hand away from it. He knows he needs to keep the pressure on, but Vash is both faster than him and also stronger by a wide margin, which means he'll get to see that it's not just skin deep. It would be healed over in due time if he used a vial, but he seems to be staunchly avoiding doing so for the time being. It's not worth the waste, in his mind.]

...but I ain't goin' anywhere until I know what the hell's going on, here. What happened, how long...has he been here?

Not long. A few hours? I only just found him.

[He gets enough of a glance at the wound to know it isn't good. To know that Wolfwood is full of shit. It's his turn to click his tongue, pressing his palm down hard against the wound. His prosthetic reaches toward one of Wolfwood's pockets, trying to dig around for one of his vials. He doesn't relish their presence, knows that they aren't perfect little miracles like one might believe, but right now he doesn't care. He just wants to know Wolfwood will be okay.]

You can worry more once you're not bleeding out. [He tries, desperately, to meet Wolfwood's gaze. There's a promise there, that he'll explain everything just as soon as it's all calmed down. He can't very well do that when he's trying to keep Wolfwood alive and Nai at bay, however.

Since trying to take care of Wolfwood isn't doing much, he shifts gears. Over his should, he casts a glance at Nai.]

Go back to the inn. Wait for me there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[OPEN] 🔪🐀

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

gaslit myself into thinking it was not my turn on this thread like a dumbdumb

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject