sticksandbones | [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

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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