sticksandbones | EVENT 009

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EVENT 009

RULER OF MY HEART

HOW SWEET IT IS

As time ticks on in that strange, wobbly way it does in this place — where the nights feel like they last days, and the days feel like they’re only a few hours long — the fog, ever so gradually, rolls back in, until it’s that oppressive black wall it normally is. It means no more trips into the greater forest for the time being, though the surrounding ring of treeline around the Grove and the burned town to the north remains readily accessible.

The woods, now awake and alert, sends its regards with the occasional roar of a beast in the far distance, and the occasional biblically-accurate deer wandering into the Grove proper to nibble on grasses starting to spring up through the snow. Speaking of things springing up through the snow, there are some new trees near the riverbank, sporting perfectly normal lemons that are growing perfectly normal eyeballs. It’s fine, they’re edible, although they don’t seem to be native. Hmm.

All is peaceful thus far, until you open your dresser drawer. Suddenly, a little creature flies out at you, or cries out angrily because you woke it up. Perhaps, that creature climbs on you instead, shuffling into your pocket to snuggle up. Or, maybe you lay down for a nap, and your pillow feels just a touch lumpier than normal, and when you move your head, something squeals at you. No matter where you find them, even if they’re being a nuisance and eating your shoelaces, these creatures are harmless: they’re merely cold, and you, a Warm Thing, will now be their space heater.

I REALLY LIKE YOU

One of Ydalir’s secret passions is cooking. You would not know this, because she doesn’t have the ability to eat, but that doesn’t mean she lost the ability to cook. A holiday is coming, you see, and it’s tradition for everyone to partake in cute chocolates and have candlelit dinners! (She will not be providing the dinners, that’s on you.)

What feels like early on in the month, Ydalir will approach everybody with a box of chocolates customized for each person with their favourite flavours. For those of you who don’t eat human food, don’t worry: These are safe for consumption for vampires and robots alike.

Like with most things here, though, things are not as they seem. Eating one of these chocolates suddenly makes you feel very, very cuddly, like suddenly you wouldn’t care who you snuggled up to right now so long as you were comfortable. With the candy in your system, you feel affectionate to anyone who you come across, even if you may not have liked them previously.

As it turns out, mixing magic with cooking makes a potion. Ydalir swears up and down she didn’t mean it, but enjoy your cuddle-chocolates anyway!

LET’S STAY TOGETHER

Sometimes, when you touch another person, your mind goes elsewhere. This isn’t a result of the chocolates, but rather some other force at work. If you see two people asleep somewhere — the ground, the couch, the kitchen counter — it’s best to leave them where they are, unless you want to risk passing out with them and seeing what they see. They’ll wake up in a little while.

What those who get dragged into their own minds see depends on the person, and what lies within their heart. These “heartspaces” are made up of core memories to the participants — important locations, emotional states given form, meaningful items, or anything else, really. When in contact with another person, these heartspaces will combine into one, perfectly interactable and wanderable at your leisure. Touching objects within these spaces will play a core memory before your eyes, or even change the scenery a bit, depending on whose heart it is you’re messing with.

Perhaps now is a good time for bonding and learning about one another, in the comfort and privacy of your own minds. After all, you won’t exit the heartspaces for quite a bit.

PAIN IN MY HEART

…just try not to break anything while you're there.

It might be an accident. Maybe you walk backwards into a table containing a framed photograph, and that photo falls and the glass breaks, the picture inside the frame ruined. Maybe you broke that cheaply-made but still-important toy while fiddling with it. Or, perhaps, it wasn’t an accident at all: You broke that thing on purpose, you punched through that wall, you set that fire.

Whatever broke the thing in question doesn’t matter in the end. What matters is that the memory associated with it begins to fade away like smoke on the wind. Fixing the broken object will bring that memory back, but failing to fix it before you wake up from the dream will have that memory gone forever.

Although, there are some pretty bad memories out there… if the memory broken was terrible, or if the item in question showed someone a dark secret you didn’t want them to know… shouldn’t it stay gone?

SPARK NOTES

CLICK TO EXPAND!

HOW SWEET IT IS

The fog is back. The creatures are clinging to you because they're cold. The eyeball lemons are, uh... lemon...y. Enjoy your completely normal slice of nature.

I REALLY LIKE YOU

Ydalir has made everybody chocolates! They're delicious and induce feelings of affection and a deep need to cuddle others. Surely this won't go terribly awry. Also, she's very sorry.

LET’S STAY TOGETHER

Sometimes, touching someone else takes you to a combined mental space made up of the important things to you and the person you touched. You can touch things within the space to play memories, or explore the environment together. Outside, you're just asleep on the floor somewhere probably, so hopefully no one trips over you.

PAIN IN MY HEART

Be careful in the heartspaces. Anything you break will take a relevant memory with it. If you can find a way to repair it, the memory will come back. Although, sometimes memories need to stay gone, don't they? Maybe leaving it broken is okay?

OOC

Happy February! The mod team will not apologise for the amount of pink in this event log. If you'd like to plot with people for this event, head over to OOC plotting. We will allow you to make up various plantanimal creatures for this event, they don't have to be like the images linked as examples. Have fun, enjoy creatures, they're here to stay. Reminder this month will have Heimrquest, so if you want to sign up, please do so on the OOC plotting post.

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Maybe. [Unlike Wolfwood, Vash hasn't found it in himself to look away from the girl. A century of horrors, and he still hadn't forgotten the first in the line. This was what had started everything, the line in the sand separating brother from brother.

He feels like a child again, scared and desperate for his mother.]

But this isn't just me.

[The bells are new. The bloodstained floor, though likely similar, isn't one from his own memory. And while he has no way of knowing that it's just memory in play, pointing out the differences still seems right. Grounding. He's not actually back there.

Finally, he breaks eye contact and faces Wolfwood.]

Sorry. You really shouldn't have to see something like this.

...I know what it is.

[Wolfwood murmurs, because he doesn't have to look or listen that hard to be able to pick it out. It's Hopeland. And...something else.

A place he never wanted to have to think about again.]

The hell are you apologizing for? It ain't like this is your fault. We just...

[He takes a breath. Takes another stiff step back, relieved when he feels his foot sinking into soft earth, instead of slipping on cold, unforgiving tile.]

Gotta find a way out. That's all.

[Assuming...Vash wants to leave at all.]

[Vash knows he should be more concerned. Perhaps his own dream was... decent, but he can already feel the fact that it's untrue for Wolfwood. If nothing else, that should have alarmed him.

And yet - ]

A way out...?

[For some reason, Vash doesn't sound wholly enthused. Yes, the reminder of Tesla is an uncomfortable one. But even as he looks up, he watches the surface of her tank glimmer, then all but disappear. The bark of the tree replaces the tank once more, leaving the peaceful scene once again in tact.

How could he want to leave this?

Instead, he kneels down. A geranium is cupped carefully between his hands. He holds it delicately, not tearing to sever the stem. The petals are thumbed over one by one, Vash relishing in the fact that it feels real. The texture is there, every bit like the one back in their cabin.

Under his breath, he murmurs something. Just a single word, one that perhaps Wolfwood won't even pick up on.]

Rem.

[See, Wolfwood had already turned to walk away. He was ready to leave, because the more he looks, the more he can tell this place isn't right. In the distance, beyond the biodome, he can see sections of Hopeland that should not reasonably be there, as if the dome has been spliced with the building itself. It normally might be a happy memory, but...not when it's been perverted like this.

But then, as he takes a few steps and realizes he doesn't hear or see Vash following in his wake, he stops. He pivots, just a few feet away, in time to see Vash kneel down int he flowers, carefully cupping one of the flowers in his palms. He hears him say something, but he's too far off to actually pick it up.

...that's right. Wolfwood has seen that flower in the cabin, it just never struck him as being anything other than what it was. Why would there be any meaning attached when flowers weren't native to their home?

Yet, Vash never explained it to him. Wolfwood had assumed it was because he never thought to ask.]

...hey. Vash?

[Vash doesn't seem to process the noise at first. Some part of him must pick up on it, because his head does eventually rise upward, but it takes some time. He squints toward Wolfwood, as if he'd forgotten he wasn't alone. Surely, it must be a strange sight to see the Undertaker, of all people, in this place.

But then he glances over his shoulder and remembers — right. This isn't the place of his memories. No matter how long he stared, he wouldn't fall further into the dream. He had to wake up.]

Nick? [He shakes his head a few times.] Sorry, I'm here. What's up?

[He opens his mouth to tell Vash to stop apologizing, again, but...seems to think better of it, his hands slipping into his pockets.

Okay. Calm down. This place...maybe isn't going to be so easily left, he's realizing.]

I don't get it. What's this place mean to you, anyway?

[Despite all of the hurdles they've managed to get over, it's a little surprising when Wolfwood asks after him. He hasn't been emotionally distant by any stretch, but talking about one another's pasts hasn't really ever come up. As far as Vash knew, it simply wasn't on the table.

But, he is asking. And as Vash stares down at the geranium in his hand, he finds that he doesn't hate the idea of answering. There's a bit of hesitation there, but only because it's hard to talk about, not because he doesn't want to try.]

It's... where I grew up. Sort of. [He glances toward the tree, as if he might be able to stare through the bark.] That part came later but... The rest of it is where I spent the best year of my life.

With Nai and - [He lets the flower go in favor of pulling his knees to his chest.] And with our mother.

[Well...that may be where Vash is wrong. You see, they haven't talked about Vash's past, not yet. They have talked about Wolfwood's, at least a little...Vash, though?

Vash is still a bit of a mystery. There's a lot about him and his history that Wolfwood has been left completely in the dark about, not that he's been clambering for answers. Knowing how things are with Nai...

He can't imagine it all has a happy ending. Either way, it starts with this biodome. With these flowers he's being so careful with.

Wolfwood hesitates before he carefully makes his way over, looking down at Vash sitting in the grass. He follows his gaze over to the tree, thankful that it's no longer showing them that grisly image.]

Your...

[Oh. Oh.

There's a lengthy pause. With no wind to speak of, the only sound is their combined breathing, as well as the occasional chime in the distance, reminding them of the oddity of the space they're in. Only after another few seconds go by does Wolfwood hazard sinking into the grass next to Vash, one leg bent with the other stretched out in front of him.]

Guess it makes sense. That someone was there to raise you. Not like you just...popped up fully formed, or anything.

[...he thinks.]

[He blinks as Wolfwood sits down beside him. The man had only just been eager to leave, after all. Should he feel guilty for making him linger? Vash tries to summon the urge but finds that only grief and melancholy remain, both lodged firmly within his chest. Some of it, though, does seem to abate the longer Wolfwood lingers. The memories were difficult to grapple with, but they were easier to bear with company.]

Not quite - [He smirks, just a little. He doesn't remember back then, but he was born, rather than manifested. That was what Rem had said.] She — Rem — was the only one on the ship that was awake. So when one of the Plants started having issues, it was her job to investigate.

She wasn't completely out of her element at least. She'd - seen something like us before. [He casts a glance over his shoulder.] She did everything she could to keep us safe from something like that. And over the course of a year, she raised us like we were her own.

[He nods to the flowers all around them.]

Geraniums. They were her favorite.

[Ah. So that's why the flower is in the house. It reminds him of her.

It doesn't really take a rocket scientist to wonder where it came from, which makes it all the more painful to think about.

Wolfwood does want to leave, yes. No matter how peaceful it seems on the surface, he can tell that it's some sort of painful illusion. He can't even be happy seeing the orphanage again, not when it's bleeding together with fragments of things best forgotten. So he tries not to think about that, and instead focuses on the ground in front of him. The red flowers, and Vash's soothing voice in his ear.]

Rem. She must've been tough.

[To be the only one awake on a ship of thousands...was that normal protocol? What if something happened to her? It seems hard for him to fathom, honestly. And then, to have two...essentially alien children to care for, it's almost too much.]

And you all had...all of this? Up there?

[Up in space. Trees, flowers...the capacity to bring life to a new world.]

[That draws out a laugh from Vash. He tilts his head to the side just enough to catch Wolfwood's gaze. Beneath the melancholy dances a faint hint of mirth.]

Had to be, raising both me and Nai. [His smile fades, just a little. His head turns away.] He was different back then. We both were. And we were all happy.

[He turns his head up toward the sky. In places it cracks and bleeds into the dusty hues of No Man's Land. But there are also pieces of pristine, cloudy blue. It was Earth's sky, or at least that's what he wanted to believe.]

We had it all. The whole plan was to find a planet to colonize. One that we could survive on without taxing the plants so severely. Really, they were just supposed to get us there, maybe help us survive for a few years, tops.

Instead... [He motions vaguely to the distant images of No Man's Land.] Every bad thing comes back to us.

[It's strange to think about, if the ships never fell...how different their world would be. How different their lives would be. Would they have made it to a different planet? Would it be better than this, or worse? Would it be, at the very least, similar to the way Earth was before they destroyed that, too?

Wolfwood exhales through his teeth, shucking a hand through the side of his hair. If it were anyone other than Vash or Livio, he's not sure he'd be volunteering himself for this kind of conversation. But right now, he thinks...Vash needs this.

Maybe they both do.]

...tell me more about her. Rem.

[It's the first time he's been invited to talk about Rem in years. Through the grief, gratitude manages to flicker through. He doesn't know how to vocalize it just yet, but perhaps some time later, the praise will be heaped upon one Nicholas D. Wolfwood for allowing him to broach the subject.]

She was... perfect, honestly. She always taught us about fairness, and treating others like equals. Even though we were different, she never wanted either of us to think we were better. It probably helped that Nai and I were on such different levels functionally. I needed to eat and drink, he didn't. He had his own latent powers, we didn't know what mine were.

We didn't know then, that a lot of her teaching came from the past. From things she regretted. But I think that was the best thing about her. [The smile that spreads over his lips is watery. His head angles, trying to catch the light on his glasses to hide the tears that are building.]

She was human. Flawed and with a bad past. But she didn't let it hold her back. She told us once that everyone in life had a blank ticket. That at any point, they could write a new destination, to choose a new path.

She did that when she found us, you know.

[The thing is, Wolfwood never knew his parents. He never had the same kind of experience Vash did with Rem. You could argue Miss Melanie was there acting as his surrogate mother, but she was mother to all of the children, not just him. And now...he doesn't think she'd even know him anymore if she saw him. In essence, he's dead to her now.

It isn't just a fact of letting Vash talk about her. He wants to hear what it was like for himself.

Things she regretted...yeah. Wolfwood can still see her behind his eyes when he blinks. He imagines that's how it was for Rem, too, every time she looked at the boys as she raised them, imagining the same thing could happen to them if the others on the ship knew.

Wolfwood had been trying to keep his gaze angled straight ahead out of respect for the moment, but...he can't help but look over at Vash out of the corner of his eye, brows slightly furrowed.]

A new path, huh...

[He sighs, looking away and back up towards the ceiling of the dome, presented with that same split sky.]

Not a bad way to look at things. Means that even a screw-up can change.

[Like him.]

Edited 2024-02-04 03:53 (UTC)

Yeah. She believed in the best of people. It's probably where I got all the hopeless optimism from so — be sure to give your thanks.

[His laugh is strained, but no less warm. He thinks of her face, exasperated as she chased after him and Nai for hours on end. In only a year, she had given them more love than Vash ever knew what to deal with. It shouldn't have at all been surprising to know that he still bore those wounds.]

We wanted her to come with us, when the Big Fall happened. But she insisted on staying behind. [His voice catches.] So many more people probably wouldn't have made it, if she hadn't done everything she could to make sure the ships landed safely. That emergency crews were woken up.

She fought until the very end for humanity. [He lifts his hand, the one of flesh, and places it over his heart.] So I want to keep doing the same. For her.

[A few more of the missing puzzle pieces fall into place. Rem, brave to the very end, had essentially sacrificed herself to save as many people in that catastrophe as she could. She had to have known that she wasn't going to be making it off that ship alive. And the twins...they probably knew too, when she ferried them off to the planet ahead of her.

It would be the last time either Vash or Nai saw her alive. Wolfwood wishes he could say he didn't know what that was like.

He exhales heavily through his nose, looking up into the boughs of the tree now. It feels as fabricated as he knows it to be, given the illusion he'd already accidentally broken when he came in here, yet he knows it probably gives Vash comfort all the same.]

...yaknow. I think, if she could see you now, and know what you've done, she'd be proud of you. Sure, it ain't perfect, but you've been trying. More than most of us are capable of.

[And he has Nai to fight against. Trying to clash with the forces of another Independent, one with vastly stronger powers at their immediate disposal...it's no wonder Vash keeps coming up short. No wonder he's leaving destroyed cities in his wake, taking the blame for what his brother has been doing.

Maybe.

[He has his doubts. People had suffered because of him. Jeneora Rock was evidence enough of that. And even beyond that, there was the fact that he hadn't been there for his brother. Surely her hope had been to keep the family together, yet from minute one Vash had ran.

She had no way of knowing, of course, what Nai had done. Or maybe she had an inkling — she'd always been smart, and it wasn't like an entire fleet to suddenly lose control. Even still, she would have wanted them to support each other, right?]

I just have to keep trying. For as long as it takes.

[Until he and Nai can be together again. Until the world feels just that little bit more peaceful. Until he can be certain that she would be happy with the world around them.]

Been talking about myself too much though, don't you think. This place... isn't just me.

[Wolfwood won't push it. He knows Vash has problems when it comes to accepting that he has been doing good in the world, especially when he inadvertently invites so much bad. It does help to be reminded though, he has to think.

It doesn't take long for Vash to turn things around on him though, and Wolfwood...immediately looks nervous. Or maybe anxious? Perhaps some combination of the two as he glances away, yet the flickers of the courtyard just outside the dome are hard to ignore. Vash may not have seen Hopeland before for himself, but it's easy to assume.

That, and...Vash is unfortunately intimately familiar with what a bloodied medical facility would look like.]

There really ain't much to tell.

[He rumbles, looking down at the grass now.]

[Having criss-crossed most of No Man's Land, he's at least somewhat familiar with the sight of Hopeland. The architecture, at least, is familiar to him. The details are where he falls short, which is why he hopes to hear from Wolfwood. Some of the happier memories might be nice to have.]

You grew up there, right? [He's keeping his focus on the lighter side. They both knew what the other parts had done. And while there would probably be a time to talk about that aspect, they could work their way up to it, right?]

Even if it isn't real, how does it feel to be back?

[How does it feel...

Wolfwood brings his knees to his chest, tracing the outline of the building far off in the distance in his mind's eye.]

Really...weird.

[Surreal is another word he could use. It's like, he knows it's not real. He knows this is an illusion, or a dream, or whatever...but it feels more real than that. It's far more real than something he could dream up, after all.]

...yeah. It...it's my home.

[Not it was. It is. It still is, even if he was forced to give it up.]

I obviously didn't know what was going on while I was there. But whether I did or not, I never really thought about somebody comin' along to adopt me, or whatever. I never really could imagine myself anywhere else.

I think I could've spent my whole life there.

You deserve that life.

[Maybe not all of it. Vash doesn't know what it was like in Hopeland, but he's heard horrors of orphan children struggling and starving. Even if Wolfwood talks about it with no small amount of affection, it doesn't mean it was perfect. And what Vash wants for him is only the perfection.]

I was the same way. Those early days only lasted a year, but back then... All I could think about was how I wanted to spend the rest of my life like that. [They had this much in common.]

Maybe, though... We can hope for that future? One day you can go back, once we've put it all to rest?

...maybe.

[Haha. Sound familiar, Vash?]

The last thing I wanna do it put those kids in danger. Even leaving wasn't enough for me to keep it safe.

[They just narrowly avoided total disaster. He still doesn't get what the goal was, because had he lost Hopeland...he would have had nothing left to live for. Nothing to fight for.

If it was supposed to motivate him, it was a shitty fucking plan.]

Even in a world where everything's normal again...I dunno if there's a place for me there. Not when I'm like this.

Like what?

[He can sense something there. He might not understand it, but there's something eating at Wolfwood's mind. He tries to study his face, as if it might avail some sort of answers. When that fails, he looks skyward, as if their shifting landscape might somehow spell it out.

When nothing happens, his attention turns back to Wolfwood. His hand shifts outward, crossing the distance between them and laying palm up. It's an offer if Wolfwood wants it, but Vash won't be the one to push.]

I think... anyone would be happy to have you as part of their home. Especially your family.

Like this, Vash. ...like me.

[His voice is a bit strained as he says it, still staring ahead instead of looking over at the Independent. At least Vash won't have to wonder for much longer what exactly he means, because he deigns to clarify in a softer tone.]

...I'm not the little Nico they knew anymore. They wouldn't even recognize me.

[If he'd never been taken in by the Eye, he would be more around 18 right now, if that. It's been six years, yet Wolfwood's aged so rapidly it may as well have been ten, or fifteen.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Vash reaching out for him with his hand. There's a long moment of hesitation before Wolfwood lets one of his own drop from his lap, but instead of taking Vash's entire hand to hold, he merely loosely tangles their pinky and ring fingers together.]

Maybe not. But... [He doesn't press the contact any further, but he does rub his pinky over the top of Wolfwood's. Briefly, just for a split second before shying back once more.]

People grow up and change. That's normal. Maybe the way you grew up wasn't normal but... [He angles his head to offer a smile. It's not bright. It's not confident. There's doubt lingering at the edges, but it's still meant to not just be assuring, but adoring.]

I still see so much good in your eyes, Nick. And in the things that you do. You might not be who you were, but you're still a man they can feel proud of. I know I am.

EVENT 009

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