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Has someone done this before

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... if Knives had children, would he need to be baby proofed? Like-

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If there was one thing Nai never thought would happen, it's that he'd have any empathy towards a human. When that happened, the new "it will never happen" thought was that he'd fall in love with them. And when that happened too, it was already too late.

Nai's a complex man with many thoughts stored away in his mind. He's tactful. Nothing happens without having deliberately been thought out.

The Great Fall was mentally his undoing. He believed he was doing the right thing. He believed he was giving not only himself freedom, but his brethren. It didn't matter what stood in his way, he would face it and he would be victorious. And when his actions presented fruitful, there was no turning back.

He did what he set out to do. A chain of events were presented to him and there was no other option. A never-ending battle was presented to him and he was the crux. That never bothered him.

What did bother him was when he extended a hand to Rem, his own mother, she chose them instead of him. Whether or not Nai admitted it, he loved Rem in his own way and having her reject them was the nail in the coffin: if his own mother chose the monsters over her own sons, she was also a monster.

And when Vash chose the monsters immediately after, that was enough. The sacrificial act of saving them was not appreciated. That was proof enough that Vash had been manipulated and was too far gone, at least at that point. In time, Vash would come around. In time, Vash would open his eyes... just like Nai did. It was inevitable.

Nai hid his sorrow, burying it deeper and deeper until it was just a fragment of a memory. He might not have even realized he held that grief.

Whatever lingering feelings he had were a waste of time. The love he held for his brother was what drove him to continue, but other than that, he didn't need these useless human feelings. Was he disappointed Vash didn't immediately side with him? Yes. But it would all be rectified eventually, so why process those emotions at all? Nai would always protect his brother.

But that disappointment in both Rem and Vash's rejection would fester in ways he didn't realize.

The fateful day you two met, these disappointments came to light. It doesn't matter how it happened, or what happened at all. One act of kindness or empathy and Nai was immediately hooked, much to his dismay.

He was starved for some kind of positive reinforcement and he would continue to seek it out whether he realized it or not. He was crippled beneath the weight of your actions and surprisingly... he didn't want it any other way.

He spent a long time denying it. You were a human and therefor you were the enemy. He could kill you if he really wanted to... but he never did.

Eventually, he began feeling... empathy for you, something he never thought were possible. Was it an eye-for-an-eye mentality? Because you showed him kindness, he felt like he needed to do the same? Maybe not to the same extent, but...

Maybe it was the looming threat of your rejection. Nai had cared only for two people in the past and they rejected him. Could he handle being rejected again?

He wouldn't give you a chance to reject him. Ever. You want to live? Done. You want an apology? Begrudgingly, it will happen. You want attention? It will be done. You want... love? ... you can have it.

At first, he just believed you were the exception. All humans are disgusting abominations... except you. All the humans needed to die... except you. It took him a long time to accept that your empathy towards him was what made you human. Your humility towards him is what made you human. Your forgiveness towards him is what made you human. And maybe humanity wasn't... all bad...

Maybe a small part of his ideology was wrong.

Maybe.

Begging him to leave everything behind was excruciating. Asking him to give up everything he had worked for and everything he believed was asking him to give up every part of who he was. You were asking him to tear down a century of growth in the (possible) wrong direction. The humans needed to be punished for their misdeeds and he was the messenger. To deny the messenger the act of delivering justice was, in his mind, cruel.

What convinced him was the conceiving of your child. Neither of you knew if you could conceive until it happened. But when it did, there was no denying that he already betrayed his cause. Plants would always be superior. Plants would always deserve more. And humans were a product of destruction, and deserved just that...

... but the middle ground, this child of both plant and human blood, was such a beautiful sight to behold...

And the thought of killing you or the child was something he could not do.

How do you rid the planet of an entire species save two people? Because if you make the exception, where is the line drawn? Humans were filled with flaws such as hypocrisy, and Nai could not fall to these weaknesses else he become exactly what he despised.

So what do you do when you feel you are forced to give up your life's purpose? You find a new purpose.

And finally, the tale of Millions Knives was over. Gone without a trace. The looming threat of his return would always be present, but people could finally breath a sigh of relief... at least for now.

There wasn't a bone in this man's body that knew how to live a domestic life. When you don't need to eat, you don't cook. When you don't need to sleep, you don't dream. There were many things he felt were expected of him that he could not bring to the table. How do you provide what you have not had provided to you for over a century?

Running away from his problems would never be an easy answer. He was forced to lay down a lot of his pride and ego to be able to fit into this... quaint life that he never wished for but so desperately wanted to keep.

But he can learn. If a mere human could do it, so could he.

Eventually, he got used to lying beside you during the night. Despite not needing it, he would sometimes sleep... but most of the time, he'd lie awake and think many a thought.

Did he regret his actions? That was complicated. What he did was for the plants. For his brother. He would never regret his loyalty. He would never regret his beliefs.

But something would always gnaw at him knowing to hate all humans meant to hate you and his child, and he couldn't bring himself to do that.

He would never be able to take back what he had done, and in truth, he didn't want to. Whether that painted him as a villain or not didn't change his mind. He could never adapt a new line of thinking, not entirely.

You knew this. And he knew you knew this.

But the one thing he didn't know you knew... is in the middle of the night when the whole household was supposed to be sleeping, Nai would sneak out of bed.

Maybe it was a need to feel a connection to something he had lost. Maybe the child called to him in a way you couldn't hear. Something drew him from your side during the dark of night that begged him to hold your child.

And with the infant in his arms, the two would glow in the small nursery. The communication between plants that you could not hear but could see. It coloured the room with a dull blue light and lingered in your mind as a beautiful and comforting scene.

Nai would never tell you he did this. And as your child grew and eventually forgot these kindred moments, he would never tell them either. But the message he was trying to convey would always ring true: he would always protect his family.

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Trigun brainworms are setting in.

If anyone is interested, this print is now available here

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If Vash was reverse-isekai-ed

There was something in the night sky. A bright light. Was it a star? No, it couldn’t be a star, it was too bright and… getting bigger? Was it safe to get closer? But get closer how? How does one get closer to the sky? How was no one else seeing this? You felt like you should be scared, at the very least more cautious. This was potentially a supernatural event and you were at the centre of it. The hair on the back of your neck stood upwards. Someone else might have taken that as a sign to run, but… it felt like something was calling to you. Something was there and you had to see what it was, no matter what

When Vash appeared in this world, it was like he was brought here on a falling star. A mysterious light in the night sky that kept growing and growing and growing until it fell to earth and landed with a large impact. It was a miracle no one else was around to see this phenomenon.

There would be a moment of disbelief. How can this be the real Vash the Stampede? He's a character. But the supernatural falling star and the prosthetic arm are enough to convince you there was more to this person than what you could see on the surface.

Vash was entirely disoriented. He was screaming. Panicking. It took a second to realize he was not where he was just minutes ago. A few minutes ago, he was fighting his brother as they plummeted back to No Man's land. There should have been an explosion, Vash right at the center, but instead he was here.

He'd have a lot of questions, a lot you wouldn't be able to answer.

But it's a no brainer that it would be easier to talk things over in a secluded and safe environment, so when you offer to take Vash home, he follows. Besides, where else would he go?

Accepting that he was in a new world where he was safe took a long time. He didn't have to be looking over his shoulder for danger every few minutes. He could finally relax and not have to worry about what he thought was the inevitable: destruction around every corner that he was desperately running from.

There would be nights where he would try to sneak off without a goodbye. Whether it was because he felt like he was being a burden or because he still hadn't accepted he and the people around him were safe, he would try to leave a few times in the first few months of him being around. It took a lot of patience and compassion to convince him he could stay without consequences.

Having him stay was hard, though. He had no identification. He couldn't get a real job. He would do as much housework as he could to try and compensate for his living expenses, but there was only so much he could do. What if he got sick? What if something happened? There'd be a lot to work out and a lot of backup plans upon backup plans that you two would discuss.

It became a strict rule to not leave the house with his prosthetic attached. That kind of tech doesn't exist in our world and would draw too much attention if seen by other people.

It also became a rule of how many doughnuts he could have in one day. Doughnuts are cheap. You don't equate the price of doughnuts to the price of bullets in this world. You can get a half a dozen for less than six dollars depending on where you went. And so, you almost felt like a bartender making sure your customer didn't overindulge. One doughnut per day.

There was something so satisfying about watching Vash expand his interests. He had time to do things he thought he'd never be able to do, and there were many things he had enjoy that would never have been accessible to him in his own world. With expendable money, you both would often attend classes to learn or expand on different hobbies such as playing sports, baking, or making handmade crafts. One taste of freedom and Vash wanted more, he wanted to experience everything the world could offer to him at least once just to know what it'd be like.

He was enthralled with your world. Animals and nature all around were something he hadn't truly experienced before and he was enamored with it. He'd often go out just to sight see or people watch just to get a glimpse of what he could be and what he could enjoy.

It took him a tremendously long time to accept he was dancing on the edge of being real and not. He definitely was real, he was there and that was a fact. But he came from something not real, a fictional world.

He'd often watch the show he came from and would read online the manga that it originated from. It was interesting to him to see the scenes from his memory play out in a different perspective. It was both painful to revisit the crux of his existence, but soothing to hear the voices of people he missed. He would play scenes of him, Rem, and Nai over and over again. This window to his world was so close but so far.

Vash came to his own conclusions and found his own way to cope with it. He learned to accept that his world was very real to him even if it wasn't real to anyone else. But there's this faraway look he gets when he thinks about home, a place he may never see again with people he may never know again. That never went away.

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GIMME YER FUCKIN HANDS, VASH

I don't want to see Vashwood or VashMeryl, not because I'm against the ships, because I just waNT VASH TO MYSELF

HE HAS TWO HANDS AND I WANT TO HOLD BOTH

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I don't want to see Vashwood or VashMeryl, not because I'm against the ships, because I just waNT VASH TO MYSELF

HE HAS TWO HANDS AND I WANT TO HOLD BOTH

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Vash hadn't dealt with love before, not really anyways. Opportunities had come and gone but he never actively pursued anyone. He was always in control of himself.

Not with you, though... You sparked something new in him. It was all uncharted territory.

For the first few months of mutually knowing you had feelings for each other, he was pretty on edge. He tried his best to not show it, but there was always something at the back of his mind telling him not to let his guard down.

When he finally calmed down, he had another problem to deal with.

When he was with you and felt totally relaxed, feeling happy just to be by your side... he would glow... like he'd glow. A normal plant reaction, but to humans, it's a beautiful spectacle.

Vash had never experienced a time where his plant reactions would trigger when he didn't realize it. It was probably the equivalent of a blush response that only happened when he was truly relaxed, something he'd never had to experience at both times.

It took him a long time to truly let loose and let himself glow freely in front of you, in private of course. It's not something he was exactly proud to parade around, but your insistence on the beauty of it made him feel at least a little less embarrassed.

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Quick redraw of the sight I woke up to this morning 🫶🏼

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💗✌

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🌱🌺🌿

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Just give him a hug already. Someone. He needs it

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Redraw with Stampedey

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So uh...

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Sunflower in his dusty old robes