#meryl is still my wife

[junnipi]

Happy new years! dunno what 2024 will look like but who does LMAO

[hinaliix]

So uhhhhh Meryl Stryfe amirite?

[oikyskau]

seeing kenji muto, the director of trigun stampede, reading an article about the portrayal of women in media made me want to take a little bit of a closer look at the women in trigun and as i was rambling about this earlier to my partner, they told me to write it down LMAO

as most of us know, in a lot of fiction, women are mostly characterised through common tropes, leading to a lack of complexity and a one-dimensional portrayal: as the doting wife, the femme fatale, the mistress, or the virgin. Their role only amounts to an Other, an extension of the male hero. they’re either the whore or the madonna.

for female characters in anime that usually means they’re either the sexy femme fatale, big badonkers and all to be gazed at, the mother, the helpless damsel in distress, or the child (yet, still sexualised despite the fact that it is a literal child); they’re portrayed through the way they are being perceived by men and mostly sexualised beyond belief. 

tristamp doesn’t do any of that.

in fact, the female characters in stampede achieve something that you don’t often see in anime: they are people. and stampede makes that clear in its very first episode by decidedly not going the route that you would usually take with the female characters they introduce:

of course, the biggest example here would be meryl, who i’d argue is the biggest driver of the plot, despite the fact that the plot of stampede is technically determined by vash - vash is an entirely passive character, he doesn’t make things happen, things happen to him and they mostly happen to him because of meryl. she’s the one who unties him, she drags them to the city, she makes them stay with him after ep3, she drives over wolfwood (rip my man), she stops for them to find rollo, she makes them follow the steamer.. you get it. she does all of this, despite being introduced as the newbie, the innocent person who would usually be the damsel in distress, who is helpless and shy and easily manipulated and who will probs be sexualised in her role as the “virgin” (sexually naive young girl who just doesn’t get all this adult sexuality yet hehe) 

but she’s not – she wears a non-sexualised outfit, she only gets called out for being a newbie, or for being small height-wise by wolfwood, but not for being a “girl”, she determines the action despite the fact that she does have a mentor figure and is therefore still in a position of a student – she still isnt an extension of roberto, vash, or anyone

in fact, the other characters – Rosa, Elendira, Luida, Rem – all take up roles that would in other media be portrayed in very specific ways: Rosa could just be a pregnant mother, who is also a divorcee, Elendira could be an innocent child beholden to her caretaker, Luida could be the loving motherlike figure and rem the Madonna figure, symbolising all the virtues a woman should aspire to have. – Rosa is a leader, her pregnancy is mentioned one single time and never made a bigger part of her character, Elendira is young but powerful, making choices by herself that are not inherently based on any kind of innocence, Luida doesn’t coddle Vash or prioritise him over her own work and mission (which also serves to inspire another woman, meryl!!), and rem is also just a non-perfect person, with secrets and questionable morality

none of these women are judged on the basis of their gender, none of them experience gender-based violence, none of them are made into a joke, none of them are sexualised (or desexualised – if you compare them to the male characters, who also do not ever make jokes about sexual promiscuity or similar stuff), they have different body types (rem has a very pronounced chest, and yet stampede doesn’t ever focus on it or give her cleavage) – note also that when presented with the perfect opportunity to call a female character a “bitch”, they chose to go with a “witch” instead, in both original japanese and english dub

their femininity is not used as a weapon against them, nor are stereotypical hypermasculine elements used to define characters’ positive traits (vash not being our traditionally hypermasculine hero for example) - the only time we see a semblance of gender-based violence is, you guessed it, at the very end, when knives forcefully takes control and bodily autonomy away from vash and inseminates the plants against their will (also interesting to note that knives, as the character that does exhibit that kind of violence, is the only character to be shown incredibly buff and all muscle) 

the women in tristamp are written for women, with the goal to be women that we can recognise, that represent the women that we are and know

anyways, i love all women in tristamp and have not once felt uncomfortable or said “oh look, a panty shot” and honestly i just find that pretty neat

[needle-noggins]

Time for Vol. 5: Meryl's very bad no good horrible day

Even though she saved the day by shooting Legato, breaking the craziest stand-off while also scared shitless. I love my wife. She can hold so much complexity in her. Now let's get into it:

First, a moment from Vash:

Our boy is in utter agony here, and the thought of Meryl is what keeps him going. Obviously she's in danger and needs rescuing, but come on. He's enduring this pain for her. He can't quit, for her. Yeah, this is par for the course for our anime jesus figure, but come on. Let me have this.

Quick moment of Meryl seeing Vash's feathers for the first time and she's terrified. It's interesting how Wolfwood and Meryl are both so deeply terrified of Vash, but Wolfwood saw a lot more up front at Jeunora Rock and from a distance. Meryl, on the other hand, is trapped. I also think Wolfwood processes it completely differently because he also sees himself as a monster, so to him it's recognition of the self through the other (deragatory). For Meryl, it's just all traumatic. She's just a 23 year old woman and she didn't ask for this.

I think these panels above explain my question from earlier - Meryl is definitely seeing Vash's flashbacks to July here. She sees the black hole gate, the destruction, and the angel arm; I'm not sure if she knows about the part with Knives, but based on some really helpful people on my earlier post today, I think she reveals that she saw that too (oof). I'm not sure what she's seeing in the bottom panel of page 95, though. If someone could explain, I would be super appreciative.

Like I said, she's just a normal person. What was it that someone said to Vash earlier, that he's endured more pain than any person possibly could live with? And now Meryl feels some of that - a lot of it, perhaps, considering that July was so traumatic to Vash that he lost his memory of it. Someone else pointed it out wonderfully that while Fifth Moon was Knives controlling Vash, July was 100% Vash aiming to kill Knives and everyone else was an unlucky casualty of Vash's fear and anger. Meryl sees what Vash is capable of - and that he has killed scores of people - not just second-hand through circumstance, but in actuality.

ANGEL MODE GO CRAZY GO STUPID! GORE GORE GORE!

I mean, Vash doesn't have great control of his power anyway, between hardly ever using it and feeling intense emotion that affects it. Thank god he doesn't use the angel arm here, but holy shit? Meryl just saw what that thing is capable of, and Wolfwood saw it in real time, and he's yelling at Meryl to escape but she's trapped underneath him. After she was also trapped in an elevator, and the elevator fell, and holy shit if i were her I would need extensive therapy to go into an elevator ever again, never mind all of Vash. And then as Vash's angel arm powers down it morphs again into this ungodly homunculus of body parts like it's fucking Envy from Fullmetal Alchemist (*Trigun predates FMA, to be clear) and he is apologizing profusely, knowing how terrifying it is and he has no control over what's happening with his body.

Huh. Between that and how Knives keeps assaulting him, that's a pretty painful running theme.

Thankfully, as Elendira takes the spotlight (my other wife) (she can do no wrong, I love her dearly), I think it gives Vash some time to cool down long enough to go back to "normal". And then he holds a dying Hoppered's hand, showing compassion to a man who tried to kill him but then re-experienced the horrors of July with him, showing that Vash still cares that despite how terrifying and destructive he can be when he loses it. And Meryl watches on.

[novasintheroom]

Can you imagine your wedding day with Vash?

It's sudden, that's for sure - both of you wake up one day, years into your engagement, and Vash has this look in his eye and asks, "Wanna get married today?"

Of course you say yes.

You both bully Wolfwood into officiating the wedding. He does it with grumbles, but you can see the pleased blush on his face at being so included. Meryl and Milly scramble to put together bouquets made of fake flowers and shiny metal bits found in the local pawn shop and just around town. Meryl complains that it should be more, that there should be a venue, decorations, something, but Milly can barely talk because she's so choked up about being made a bridesmaid.

Your dress is simple - something you packed away in your sack for fancier occasions. It's not even white, but it's special, now. You slip it on, pressing down the wrinkles from being at the bottom of your pack for so long. You have to go in your boots, and you worry you don't look like a bride.

That worry vanishes when you see the look on Vash's face.

You appear in the little church the town has, and you can hear the breath leave your man when you walk through the doors. He's staring. Of course he's staring, you look beautiful. Milly did up your hair the best way she knew how, and Meryl helped to clean you up and put some make-up on your cheeks. He's seen you in that dress before, and he still thinks it's perfect for you, how it hugs your curves and just screams you. Wolfwood has to nudge him a bit, giving him a cheeky smile when he sees the tears in Vash's eyes.

You walk down the isle to no music, and when you reach him, Vash reaches out his hand to hold yours. His thumb rubs your ring finger, absent of your engagement ring in favor of using it for the ceremony. "We'll fix that," he murmurs, and you smile at him with your own tears.

Wolfwood does his best at being a proper priest, for the most part. There's a lot of 'ums' said as he makes up his speech while going along. When you get to your vows, Vash pulls out a paper you didn't know he had and reads it:

"Mayfly, I didn't sit back and take inventory of your qualities and say 'this one ticks all the boxes, done.' I was drawn to you and profoundly lucky that you were drawn to me. And we started something that we still work on everyday, that gets deeper and wrinklier every day. I hope that doesn't sound unromantic, calling it work. I don't mean work like drudgery, watching the clock waiting for work to be over - I mean work the way artists talk about paintings as vital and prioritized. It's the most important work of my life, our partnership, and I cherish it. Also, to be clear, I am hopelessly in love with you. That helps. I am on a daily basis completely knocked over by the person in front of me; this crazy dancing, music humming, sweet and spicy woman that I get to spend my life with. It's just that life is long, and I know that loving well is a thing you do, not a lottery you win."

He goes on to promise to always cherish you, listen to you, love you the way you deserve. By the time he's done, you're a mess, and your make-up is running. You kiss him before Wolfwood can even say "I pronounce you husband and wife," but when have you two ever done things the "normal" way?

Credit to @cullinmcgree on TikTok for the vows I use here - her husband's vows; I fell in love with them and just had to share them in a short story with Vash! I hope one day we may all find someone who loves as ardently as that man loves his wife.

dividers

[pennyserenade]

IT’S NEVER OVER 

pairing: dieter bravo x you, dieter bravo x reader rating: mature (no explicit sex but language and content is 18+ regardless)  tags: fluff/comfort, some angst but just a little word count: 2.5k+ summary: dieter asks you to go to the opening night of his play and you do. for this he rewards you handsomely. a/n: this was the most fun i had writing in a very long time and i want to thank all of you who encouraged this in me. i love u & i hope you enjoy ex-husband dieter as much as i do <3

For most, divorce is definitive, final. It’s the last act that two people make as a couple, signing their names on a piece of paper that divides their lives the same way the marriage certificate connected them. If Dieter was any other man, it probably would’ve been that way for you, but Dieter is Dieter; he marches to the sound of his own drum. 

You aren’t obligated to him, but sometimes he asks you to do things and you say yes like you are. Your five year marriage bore no children — a willful decision on both your parts — and you never felt it was fair to do something like get a dog, because even on the best days you knew you would’ve only done it to cope with being lonely in a relationship you shouldn’t be lonely in. So there’s no reason at all that you should still keep in touch with Dieter, but you do. Five years of marriage and three years of dating before that bonded you to him. You’re used to him. Comfortable.  Maybe even achingly in love—but in a more platonic shade than before. 

On Sunday of last week, he had asked you to attend the opening of his play and you had said that you would. He told you he’d set two tickets aside for you, in case you wanted to bring someone, but you didn’t. You can see the relief in his eyes as you make your way to him. The throng of actors that occupy the backstage area make it hard to get to him, as they all seem to want him, but the moment he sees you, he parts the sea of them for you with his own self. He meets you somewhere in the middle. 

“You made it,” he says quietly, “I know you said you would but, you know….I don’t know.” He shrugs, smiling. 

You kiss his cheek. “You did great tonight, kid.”

“God, I’m glad you came.” Dieter brings your body in for a hug and you let him, taking in his scent and feeling a wave of comfortable nostalgia. His voice betrays his anxiety and you hold onto him a bit longer than you should because you know he gets. Even after his best performances, he was always plagued with self doubt and worry. That’s why you came tonight. 

‘We’re all so vain, actors. I can’t get over myself,’ he had told you once, on a night much like this one. And he was right, you came to find: Dieter really could not get over himself. But you don’t hate him for it anymore. He wears it anxiously tonight, that strain of vanity. It’s not like the bad times. You even feel the desire to hold his hand. 

He lets go of you when a woman to the right — the girl who played his girlfriend in the play — taps him on the shoulder. She is a beautiful young woman, about ten years his junior. “Who’s this?” she asks him, smiling. 

“My wife.” He responds. As soon as he says it, you get an idea of just what he’s been doing to prepare for this play of his. The woman tries not to let her face fall, but you know from experience that Dieter could make even Meryl Streep break character with his nonsense. You touch her arm and say, “I’m his ex-wife and you did a very good job tonight. I don’t make it to many plays anymore and it was a real pleasure to see this one.”

The woman relaxes visibly. “Thank you. I’m glad you liked the show. I was just coming to tell Dieter how lovely he did.”

Dieter stares at her like he doesn’t know what to do with her. This poor girl, you can sense how much she doesn’t understand him. He can’t get over himself, you want to tell her, just to assuage the fear you know too well. But then he smiles - a genuine smile - and he tells her he couldn’t have done it without her. 

And it makes you mad, and then sad, and then unsure if you know him either. You don’t meet with Dieter often because this happens at least once every time; you think you know every bit of him and then some part of him has changed, been made better, and you wonder bitterly “Why couldn’t you have done that for me?”

Tonight it passes quickly. He touches the small of your back and brings you closer to him than to the woman he’s very obviously fucking. She sees this. You see her see it and you watch as he doesn’t get it all over again. 

“I’ll see you later, then,” she manages, before disappearing back into the crowd of celebrating actors behind you. 

Dieter watches her go, brows creased. He hums. “Hm.”

You click your tongue. “You ought to be ashamed.”

His dark eyes shift towards you. “I’m positively mortified. Trust me.”

��Good. You’ll apologize to her?”

“I’m in the habit of it these days. Better than I used to be.”

“I’m glad. You can be—“

He cuts you off, “A bit of an ass. I know. I get real neurotic on opening nights. I hate them.”

“Are you going to the after party?” You straighten the tie of his costume instinctively. You don’t get embarrassed by the act once you realize what you’re doing.  Dieter doesn’t make you feel like you ought to be. 

“Thank you,” he says, “But no. I know you don’t like those things and I wanted to see you tonight. Please don’t get mad but—“

“Dieter.” You scold him preemptively. 

“—but I bought out the movie theater. That one we used to go to. I know you said doing things like that isn’t fair to you but you said that like, three years ago, and I promise I’m not trying to fuck you or anything. I mean, if you want, I’m not saying I wouldn’t but that’s not the purpose.” He pauses, then says, “Ignore that last part. I didn’t mean it that way. I wouldn’t have sex with you, but I wanted you to know that I still think you’re good looking and would if life had been different.” 

He looks at you expectantly and you feel the will in you fall away. “What if I had a date?” you ask, ignoring his ramble for his own sake. 

Dieter shrugs. “I guess I would’ve asked him if he—“ He watches your face “—or she? If they liked James Stewart.” Someone bumps into you, pushing closer, into Dieter. He grabs your shoulders to steady you. “Do they like James Stewart?” he asks. 

You shrug him off, shaking your head. “I like James Stewart.”

“I know you do. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.”

“That makes me cry.”

“I know it does. But that one’s your favorite.”

“But you like Rope better.” 

“I like you and I wanted to do something for you.” When he says that, he looks ahead of you, at the people crowding around you. He’s avoiding eye contact, knows he shouldn’t have said it but he couldn’t help himself. You’re not angry with him. You pat his hand affectionately so he knows it. 

“Thank you. Sometimes it’s nice to know I’m liked and remembered.” 

He looks at you incredulously. “You’re kidding me.”

“Absolutely. I know you’re too fond of me and always will be. It gets me by.”

This makes him laugh. The sound of it makes you grin. “Let’s go.” Dieter tugs on your arm, nodding his head to the direction of his dressing room. “I’ll get undressed and we can head to the theater.”

You shake your head. “I’ll meet you by my car when you’re done.”

His eyebrow furrows, then he realizes. His face falls, and you know you’ve hurt him with the implication. 

“I have no interest in hurting some girl tonight, Dieter. She’s bound to be watching and I’d rather save her a little bit of heartache than turn my back to the wall while you get undressed.”

He frowns, but nods his head. “You’re too good for me, you know? I wouldn’t make you turn your head, though. You've seen it before and I’d like to think it looks mostly the same.”

“I know I’m too good for you.”

He clicks his tongue this time. “Give her an inch and she takes a mile,” he says as he disappear through the crowd. You hear the joke in voice even if you can’t see his face. 

You watch the back of him for a moment.

As you make your way to the car, you smile more genuinely than you have in a few days. Despite yourself, you love him immensely and you know he loves you too. It feels nice, even if you make a joke of it. He’s family to you. Not a husband, but a friend. 

He was always such a good friend. 

———

“Oh, kid.” 

James Stewart’s young face, wasted away with exhaustion, and his voice hoarse from desperation, never fails to make you cry. He stands in front of his piles of fan mail and is so damned earnest in the face of evil, it makes you ache. Dieter used to think that this movie was too sentimental, but you wore him down over the years. He sniffles now too when it gets to this scene, but nothing like the pitiful sobs you let out. 

He hands you a napkin and you wipe your eyes. You watch intently as Jimmy collapses onto the floor from pure exhaustion. You let out another sob the same time as Jean Arthur calls out to Jimmy. You hear Dieter’s soft laughter and you know you’re ridiculous, but you can’t help yourself. He knows this is how you get when you watch this. 

“God, this movie.” You shake your head and wipe your nose. 

You watch the rest of the movie in silence — or at least, without acknowledging your cries. When the movie ends and the soft hue of lights crowns over the empty theater, you turn to Dieter and sigh. He’s a little red in the eyes too, you note, but he looks at you in pure delight. There’s a fondness to it, though, so you let him live. 

“I can’t believe you used to think that was too sentimental.” You shake your head, huffing, getting angry at this younger Dieter. “That was so—that was acting!”

He holds his hands up in defense. “I know! I don’t think that now, you know? I think it’s good.”

You scoff, still infuriated with the Dieter that had told you this was the worst of Jimmy’s works. “You said it was American propaganda!”

He laughs. “I was trying to sound clever. I was too serious of an actor at the time. I’m sorry for having committed that crime many, many moons ago.”

You shake your head, letting the last of your tears fall. “I’m heartbroken.”

Dieter laughs. “But it worked out in the end. I can’t understand why this movie breaks your heart.”

“Because he had to fight so hard.”

Dieter softens. “That’s right,” he tells you, handing another napkin over, “I forgot about that—about why it breaks your heart.”

“It’s silly but I can’t help it.”

“It’s not silly. I married you for things like that. I loved those things. I love them now. I couldn’t remember why I liked watching this with you so much until now, but that’s exactly it. Because he fights so hard it makes you cry.” He squeezes your hand and the casualness of those words hit you straight in the gut. You’re glad to already have cried violently because if you haven’t, you’re certain that would’ve made you. 

“I’m gonna die, I’m so sad.”

“Do you want to get high? Will that help?” 

You shrug, blowing your nose. “I haven’t in a long time.”

“I brought a pen.” 

You debate it for a moment. “I shouldn’t.”

“Alright, but we’ve got this theater all night.”

“All night? I thought you just got it for this movie.”

He nods. “I did, but they don’t let you buy the whole movie theater out for just one showing. Not for me anyways, but I don’t care because I used to sneak into movies when I was younger here and this feels like a kind of karma.” That makes you laugh and he claps his hand. “The cloud is lifting. You’ll make it out alive after all.”

You lean back in the chair, wiping away the rest of your tears and most of your makeup. You sigh. “I care just like he does, don’t I?” You look at Dieter. 

“It’s so human of you, don’t change it. Please.” He takes your hand in his. “I always wanted to tell you that, that you care just like that, but I knew you’d take it wrong when we were married. We used to fight all the time for really stupid reasons. But it’s different now.”

“We’re friends.” You look down at your linked hands. 

“In a fashion, sure, but I like to think we’re more too.” You quirk your eyebrow. “Not like that—like lovers or whatever, but I don’t know. I know you get it too. You can probably explain it better than me.”

“Oh.” You smile and crinkle your nose. “We’re friends,” you repeat. This time he nods his head. “Yeah.”

You both fall into a comfortable silence. You sit with that knowledge. 

“Thank you,” he says suddenly. 

“For what?”

“For keeping me in your life. That was honorable of you. I don’t deserve it after the way I treated you during our marriage.”

You wave his words away. “Marriage brought out the very worst of us. This is the best of us. What we did to each other then, I don’t think it’s a reflection of who we are.”

“Yeah but I did the most damage. I know that. I left you alone a lot.”

The pad of your thumb rubs the back of his hand and you watch it as it does, as if you’re not in control of it. “Maybe you did. But it’s finished. We stopped that battle a long time ago and we’re in the clear now. You’re nicer, kinder.”

“I should’ve been all that then. I really loved you.”

“You really love me now. That’s enough for me.”

Dieter reflects. Then he says, “In another life, I’ll find you again and I’ll do it right.”

Giving him back his hand, you shake your head. “I think we’re doing just fine in this one. I think this is where we were meant to be. This is the kind of love that we do the best with.”

“You don’t miss it, the way we used to be?”

“God, all the time, but it was never like this.” 

“I guess you’re right. We do get along better. I don’t feel like I disappoint you anymore.”

“You don’t. Tonight is the most fun I’ve had in weeks, and I even cried my eyes out.”

He smiles softly. 

“You want to know something?” you ask him. He nods his head. “Nothing in the world makes me feel better than knowing you want me when I’ve got nothing to give you but my friendship. Men don’t want women like that.”

“I’ll always want to be your friend.”

“Then you will be,” you respond, “In the next life too. I promise.”

[shadowofroses]

Rejected idea

Trigun

Reader x Vash

Warning: afab reader, itsekai, Vash is a flirt, mechanical worker Reader, reader has some scars and high pain tolerance.

Summery: I wanted to do a Itsekai Trigun wise, and I realized there was a better way to go about it, and now have a hard time working with this idea. Currently, but will be carrying the Reader idea over to the new one etc, but I wanted to share what I did cause I did like it.

Story idea:

You lifted yourself from the vehicle’s engine as oil decided to squirt out onto your face causing you to twitch. “Dammit Sam, why is it every time something fucked up happens to your vehicle I can’t understand how it got fucked up?!” you lifted a rag from the side and wiped the oil off of your face while the man busted up laughing. 

“You got me!” 

You sighed at that. Looking down at your tank top and scarred up skin from fights you had to break up. “No way in hell I’mma find myself a partner…” You muttered to yourself. 

“What was that Scrappy?” 

You rolled your eyes, “How the heck did your wife put up with you? You must’ve broke everything.”

“Har har. I have you know I am heavily packin’ Lil’lady.” The slightly balding gray man said with a smirk, wiggling his eyebrows causing you to deadpan. 

“Ew. Did not need to know that.”

“WELL YOU ASKED!” Sam snickered, placing a pipe back into his mouth and puffing it.

You scoffed, throwing a wrench into his general direction as a cloud of sand picked up in the distance. “Yeah, I regret it!”

“Incoming!” 

You turned your head just in time for a vehicle to stop, putting on its brakes hard and someone in red flew off the top of the jeep and past your right ear. 

“I’M GONNA DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!~” you heard before you and Sam heard a thud, turning to the noise, you saw what seemed to be a man in the sand, luckily not hitting Sam’s house. He was wearing what looked to be a red duster jacket coat, his butt and black pants clearly visible as his head was buried in the sand. 

You quickly jumped off the engine and ran over grabbing the man by the waist and tugging at him, “Ah! Sir, are you okay?!” You called out just as you tugged hard enough to pull his head out of the sand, causing you to fall backwards and him landing backside on top of you causing your soul to leave your body. 

The man coughed up sand, turning around, seeing you, his eyes widened, and seemed watery, and sparkly? He grabbed your hands in his, helping you up, “You saved my life! Thank you! You must be an angel! How about I treat you to a drink~” 

Your eyes nearly crossed in confusion, “HAH?!” 

Sam however was bent over howling, as the man’s friends came barreling out of the jeep. “I’m so sorry Vash!” came a feminine voice. 

“You know damn well she did it on purpose!” came a rougher voice. 

“I DID NOT!” 

A man in a darker suit rolled his eyes, moving to light a cigarette. “Princess here was directed here for brake work.” 

“MY NAME IS MERYL!”

You felt your chest tighten as you realized who all surrounded you. Sam had called this planet No Mans Land at times. But it never clicked that this was Trigun that you were itsekaied into.

Nicholas noticed your recognition of them which made him pause to stare at you this time. However Sam slapped your back, “Just brake work? No problem Scrappy here will take care of it.” You blushed at the name but only nodded, at least before you realized Vash was still holding your hands, causing your face to go darker.    

You pulled away from his hands reluctantly as you turned back to the group, not catching Vash’s pout. “I don’t suppose you can pull it into the shop here or will the brakes make it difficult?” you tried to distract yourself, walking over to their vehicle. 

Meryl nodded giving a glance, “as long as I give it a small nudge…”

Roberto gave you a look, “Do not let her, give the keys Newbie.”

“EXCUSE ME?!” 

You gave a chuckle, “That is fine, just take it out of park and turn the wheel. I’ll hook it up and pull it into the shop.” you jogged off into the machine shop, grabbing a heavy hook and running off back to their vehicle hooking the underside. “Sam, hit the…”

“Yeah yeah, yer not my wife, stop bossin’ me around!” the man slurred his words speaking fast, as the chain tugged and started to pull it in as Meryl quickly hopped in to steer it into the shop. “Ya folks hungry?” the man questioned as you went into the shop. 

You shot him a quick glance, “Also, you fucking had that wrench I threw at you stuck in the belt. I’m not fixing your shit anymore.” before you went to crank their vehicle up, causing the older man to bark out laughing. 

“Starting to think she’s catching on that I’m doing it on purpose.” he said with a grin causing Roberto to smirk and shake his head. 

Meryl hopped out of the vehicle as the three guys followed Sam into the main house, “So, what do you think?” 

You dodged under the vehicle. “I don’t know, Meryl is it?” 

You couldn’t see it but her eyes brightened at finally being called by her name. “Yeah, and they call you Scrappy?”

You reached for some tools, and loosened some bolts. “Oh yeah, these brakes are stripped, and actually the name’s (First name) (Last Name). The old man found me not long ago, and gave me the nickname since I haven’t died yet.” you grunted, “Luckily just the back breaks, should be an easy fix. You want me to look at the engine too?”

Meryl’s eyes widened, “OH GOSH PLEASE DO! I just remembered that I forgot to charge it!” 

You lightly smiled, at least this wasn’t far off from what you recalled of the anime. “We don’t have a plant here, but I can steal Sam’s charge from his vehicle. Run inside and get some food while you can.” you told her, as you got to work on replacing the breaks. You heard her walk off and you sighed in relief. It was a good hour before you managed to attach the new ones. Hooking up the jumpers between Sam’s and theirs you easily charged it. 

It was nightfall before you finally got finished. You yawned, wiping some grease off of your face again. The old man talked them into staying the night, as the next city was within a couple hours drive. Roberto stayed with Sam, Vash and Nicholas stayed in the extra spare room where Sam’s kid used to stay in, and Meryl stayed in your room. 

Middle of the night, you couldn’t sleep. You left the room, and moved outside and climbed on top of the roof. You were concerned. Looking up, you stared at the stars, and worms floating around the sky. 

You breathed in the fresh air, taking a deep breath smiling, regardless of being concerned. You knew this was No Man’s Land. You’ve seen Vash’s Wanted posters around. For some reason you never thought you’d run into the Man in question. 

As much as you were thrilled to meet him, and the main crew, you were also anxious. You were wondering if trouble would follow him here. You didn’t want to think of that. But you couldn’t blame Vash, not one bit if something happened. 

You refused to. The third city July was still standing. 

Still, you couldn’t help but think of how beautiful the sky was. You didn’t look up when you heard a noise. But where exactly in the timeline you were…

“Couldn’t sleep?” You felt your breath hitch, you glanced up, your eyes locking onto green-blue eyes, full of trust. Your heart skipped a beat, causing you to look away as you felt your face warm. There was nothing preparing you for how handsome he was. 

You smiled softly looking back up at the sky. “You could say that, how about you?” 

“The gorgeous woman that saved me earlier is being melancholy on the roof in the middle of the night!” that threw you off for a moment causing your eyes to widen, Vash seemed to grin in response knowing he caught you off guard. “What’s on your mind?”

“Gorgeous? Too generous.” You visibly winced for some reason. 

Vash frowned, kneeling down sitting beside you. “Not generous enough. Will you please tell me?” he asked softly. 

You hummed, “I think I have intruded on Sam’s hospitality too long.” you glanced back up as Vash glanced back at you. “I should leave…but…I’m scared to be on my own. Partially why I’ve stayed this long…”

Vash lifted his hand and held it against his chin in thought. “Oh? I assumed you were his daughter or something.” 

You shook your head, “Nah, Sam found me about five months ago. All I had was a few pieces of jewelry, which I sold for a gun and Canteen but…couldn’t bring myself to leave at the time.”

Vash’s eyes widened in realization. “Ooooh, if you don’t mind me asking, where are you from?” you knew he was mentally preparing himself to hear that he was behind how you were homeless, without family. 

“I…it’s complicated. I’m not even sure I can properly explain it.” you shook your head with a chuckle. “Honestly if feels as if I’m within a dream…”

Vash smiled, “You know…” he trailed off, an explosion sounded, causing the both of you to jump up, “WHAT WAS THAT?!” 

“SHIT!” you glanced over the roof spotting bright lights. 

“Bad Lads!” both you and Vash exclaimed. Vash started patting his jacket. “I left my gun in the room!” 

The both of you jumped off the roof to run back into the house. You ran to your room where Meryl was startled awake. “What’s going on?!” 

You grabbed your gun, and quickly loaded it. “Get your friends, get in your vehicle and get out of here. Bad Lads are here!” 

Why you thought out of everything that you could stand tall against the group, telling the more experienced group to get the hell out of dodge. You shoved the gun into your holster and rushed outside where the Bad Lads surrounded the home.

[mydetheturk]

Title: I Don't Want You to Leave (Will You Hold My Hand?) Author: mydetheturk Rating: T+, bordering on M,so we'll call it M for uh. mildly graphic depictions of how much pain Vash is in. Word Count: 6,730 Warnings: Vash spends a lot of time in pain in this one, Vash has Chronic Pain and it messes with his head, There's a handful of implied and understated "wolfwood has been fucked up" moments as well. If there's anything else I probably should have warned about, let me know and I'll update the post.

Summary: Vash knows, intimately, when the seasons change and there are going to be storms. He tries to avoid being in places where the seasonal lightning storms can turn into water storms, but he isn't always successful. He's lucky this year, in that he has people who care so much about him.

~~

Author's Note: This would normally be going up on AO3, but I'm still waiting for our wife (AO3) to return from the war (Dealing with the DDoS attack), so y'all get to read it here on tumblr. (and if i have to, i will make a dreamwidth/unearth my fanfiction.net account so its a little easier to read. You'll be updated on that.)

This is for @mashwoodweek's Day Two! the prompt I chose was "Seasons," the title is from Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" (feat. Mary J. Bilge).

Enjoy.

~~~

Seasons don't truly exist on No Man's Land. It's hot year round, but people argue about which times of year are worse. Hot, hotter, lightning, and sandstorm are the generally accepted "seasons,” if one deigns to use the term at all. It's easy to track the passing of the days through the weeks and the months, so long as one can track them. Vash has long since given up on tracking individual days, letting the sands wash over him in an endless loop. It's easier for him to notice when the seasons shift; not necessarily between hot and hotter, but between those and the times of the year when lightning and sandstorms are more common.

His body aches, between his prosthetic and all of the scars and metal plates and how he's missing the cartilage in one of his knees. Vash has noticed Meryl gets snippy when the rare storm has rolled in during the off-season, and this is his first lightning season with Meryl and Wolfwood together.

(Right after Wolfwood found him again didn't count – the season was almost over by that point and Vash's memories of them before July were shattered into pieces. The season after is the hottest part of the year, where Vash learned exactly how far Wolfwood pushes himself, even in the heat, to keep Vash and Meryl safe and alive. The sound of a glass ampule shattering is one that haunts Vash in his dreams, when he dreams.)

So Vash knows, intimately, when storms will be rolling in, sand or lightning. He suspects Meryl knows too, can see the pinching of her brow and the way she rubs at her eyes, even if she often doesn't quite realize it until it's too late.

“There's a storm coming,” Vash says, staring out the window of the truck. There's not a cloud in the sky, but Vash knows. There's a pressure in the air that wasn't quite there an hour ago, a hint of something in the way the sands roll off the endless dunes.

Wolfwood sits up, scanning the horizon. “You sure?” he asks. His tone isn't quite disbelieving, because he knows, even more intimately than Meryl, what Vash is. (Vash had spooked him once, bolting upright from a nightmare of July. Wolfwood had been twitching in his sleep, and Vash had hovered his hand over Wolfwood's shoulder, and Wolfwood had woken. Vash's speed had been the only thing to save him from a barely-conscious Wolfwood lashing out. When Vash tried to question him about it, Wolfwood had looked at him with haunted eyes and said he looked like Knives. Vash has never asked, and he probably won't, but he avoids looking at himself in the mirror for a reason.)

“Yes,” Vash states.

Meryl nods. “Alright. Should we push on to the next town or do you guys think we should find a place to hunker down?” She's already got the pinched look in the corners of her eyes, just visible behind her sunglasses.

Vash's knee, the one missing its cartilage, is the first thing to hurt when lightning storms roll through. He taps his fingers against it, thinking while Wolfwood grabs the map and does some math.

“It'll probably be another day or so before it hits this area,” Vash says. The pain will radiate outwards, and the deepest scars will start hurting next. “A town would be nice.”

Meryl's grip tightens minutely on the steering wheel. Wolfwood moves his fingers against the map, picking out coordinates.

“I think we might make it to the next town before then,” Wolfwood says. “If we drive through the night.”

Meryl bares her teeth at the windshield and Vash grimaces. He can't drive, and if he's timed it right, by the time the suns set and night has fallen, Meryl won't be able to any more.

“Don't give me that, Shortstack, Blondie. I can drive.”

“Last time you drove you crashed the truck!” Meryl snaps back.

“How was I supposed to know fucking Zazie was going to show up like that! I don't control the shit they do!” Wolfwood protests.

Meryl slows the truck to a stop and throws it in park so she can bang her head against the wheel a couple of times.

"Ah! Meryl!” Vash leans forward and pulls her back from the wheel, readjusting her sunglasses.

"Fine. Nick can drive. Don't crash the truck,” Meryl says. She's making a face like she thinks she's going to regret letting Wolfwood drive.

"We'll pull over at sunsdown and make the switch then, yeah?” Vash suggests. Meryl sighs and gets the truck started again. She nods, though, a frown on her lips and her brows furrowed. She doesn't mind when Wolfwood drives the bike, but he's the only one of the three who can glide Angelina between the dunes with both Vash and Meryl, the sidecar, and the Punisher at once and not crash her. But the truck is her baby, was Roberto’s before July. It’s one of the few things she has left of her mentor.

“Works for me.” Wolfwood settles in to nap until sunsdown, his (Vash's old) sunglasses shading his eyes. His breathing evens out, steadies as he drifts into sleep until Meryl will come to a stop in a few hours.

“Go until you need to rest, yeah?” Vash says quietly, once he's reasonably sure Wolfwood's out for the afternoon. “Don't push yourself too hard. If we have to stop sooner, we can.”

“It's fine, Vash,” Meryl says. She smiles at him in the rear view. “If we come across a way station, we can make the switch there. Sound good?”

Vash nods. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

Clouds start drifting across the sky as they drive on. The ache in Vash's bones slowly starts to deepen, and he makes a hissing noise when Meryl hits a particularly rough patch of rock and sand.

”Sorry,” she says, eyes soft in the mirror.

”It's fine,” Vash replies. It's not as bad as it could be – not as bad as it will be, in just a few more hours time. Human painkillers don't have much of an effect on him, only make him irritable and paranoid. The only thing that really kills the pain is heat, whether that be from a soak in a hot bath or from being trapped under blankets by Meryl and Wolfwood. Mostly from Wolfwood, if Vash is honest with himself – something about the experiments Wolfwood has gone through leave him burning hotter than the average human. Not as hot as Vash should run, nor as hot as one of Vash's sisters, but far warmer than Meryl.

Another hour passes, the suns starting to settle low in the sky. A way station sits on the horizon, and Meryl angles the truck for it.

”Careful waking him,” she says. Like Vash needs the warning.

Vash places his hand on Wolfwood's shoulder, slowly adding pressure. Wolfwood wakes with a jolt anyway. He doesn't come up swinging, the way he has in the past, but he does startle, smacking his head against the window.

Vash pulls his hand back, murmuring quietly. “We're in the truck, Wolfwood. We're coming up to a way station.”

It still takes a moment for Wolfwood to blink himself fully conscious. There'd been an incident while Vash was Eriks, one that neither Wolfwood nor Meryl would talk about. Meryl because she doesn't know the details, and Wolfwood because even now he holds his cards close to his chest. There's something different about the ampules that Wolfwood still doesn't talk about. Vash hasn't had the heart to take one and crack it open to inspect it.

Wolfwood sleeps deeper now, though, if he thinks he's somewhere the Eye can't touch.

So, the truck, mostly.

“How late's it?” Wolfwood asks. His voice is a little slurred, raspy with sleep.

Vash smiles, glancing at Meryl in the mirror and seeing her eyes crinkle with her own smile. “The parent sun should set here in about an hour.”

Wolfwood hums, stretches out. His back crackles against the seat. “Great. Could use a bit to walk around.”

“Another couple minutes,” Meryl says in the front seat. She presses the fingers of one hand to her eye and smooths out her brow. From the one movement alone, Vash knows Meryl's starting to feel the shift in pressure. He can feel it in his stump now as well.

Wolfwood is fully awake by the time they pull in at the way station, Meryl pulling the truck up to a charger. It's got enough to get them to the next town, but it's always good to recharge the truck when they find a way station.

“Gonna take a bit,” Meryl says. “Wanna get some supplies while we're here?”

“We should probably get dinner so Wolfwood doesn't have to catch us some worms again,” Vash teases. Meryl makes a face that Wolfwood snickers at while he lights up a cigarette.

His deep sigh at the first inhale pokes something brittle in Vash's heart. Smoke filters away from Wolfwood as he goes from the truck to the little store of the way station. Vash catches that he'd grabbed their canteens to refill while inside. Its sweet of him to remember.

Meryl stretches out and makes her way inside as well, while Vash watches them both.

He loves them. They love him, refuse to leave his side despite everything.

With a soft smile, Vash pours himself out of the truck. There's an ache in his hips that he hadn't realized had started up, and he stumbles slightly. They're the only ones at the way station right now, and Vash is glad for the lack of witnesses to his fumble.

The sooner they can get to a town with an inn, the better.

Inside, Vash finds Meryl and Wolfwood debating the merits of the various shelf stable and easily snackable foods in the way station's shelves. They're doing it surprisingly quietly for them; he's used to them being much louder about it. Wolfwood's the one with a basket in hand; the canteens have been slung over Meryl's shoulders. The way she's walking, Wolfwood must have filled them first thing.

Good man.

Vash drapes himself over Wolfwood's back and makes a noise deep in his chest. Wolfwood absently reaches back and pets Vash's hair as he continues to debate with Meryl.

“I'm telling you, the red ones taste better,” he says. He's holding a pack of gummy candy. It looks like straws, and there's a little bit of something crystallized on the outside.

“They're too sweet,” Meryl responds. “The black ones are better.”

“You think I like that bitter crap?” Wolfwood makes a face, his nose crinkling cutely.

Vash reaches around and grabs a handful of both types to inspect them. The red ones are coated in sugar crystals, but the black ones have salt on them. He didn't think anywhere outside Sanforrd made the black ones like that.

“I like them both,” he says.

Both of them stare at Vash. They're still not used to him expressing the things he likes and doesn't like. Meryl lights up though, and Wolfwood softens under Vash's weight.

“We'll get some of both, then,” Meryl decides. She grabs a small bag and scoops a handful of black straws into it, handing it to Vash, who drops his own into the bag as well. She does the same with the red ones, and Vash hands the bag to Wolfwood, who clutches the bag tightly. “We should grab more suckers too, Nick,” Meryl points out.

“Way ahead of you, shortie,” Wolfwood says. He's already moving to grab another bag to stick suckers in. Vash lets him drift away.

Vash has noticed as they've traveled together that Wolfwood doesn't like bitter things – he prefers sweet, and prefers sour to sweet, even. Meryl is the one that likes bitter foods despite how the taste makes her nose crinkle. She's cute like that.

They continue drifting through the way station, all three of them idly watched by the station's manager behind the counter. Vash enjoys watching Meryl and Wolfwood debate. He really doesn't have many preferences, other than the occasional head shake when one of them presents something for his opinion. Most of the proteins are repackaged worm or thoma, and Vash doesn't care which he gets, when he's eating. He does prefer thoma jerky, however, and he's pleased to see that one of them has placed a couple of packages in the basket for him. Meryl's the pickiest eater of the three of them, but it's alright. Vash also doesn't see the point of snatching worm larva from the air and crunching on it raw.

He'll leave that to Wolfwood.

The truck is long-charged by the time they finish in the way station, laden down with enough to keep them going through the night and into the next day if they have to. Vash sets their prizes down in the back seat, Wolfwood’s bag of suckers and gummy red sticks in the front while Wolfwood inspects the truck and Meryl unhooks it from the charging station. Vash is riding in the back; the passenger’s seat won’t give him enough room to stretch out properly.

Meryl keeps touching her face and smoothing out her eyebrows absently. Vash can feel the ache in his bones and he keeps having to dodge Wolfwood's concerned looks. Meryl hasn't caught on just yet, but Wolfwood has. Vash watched the way his brows twitched and his eyes narrowed when he put all the pieces together.

Wolfwood knows. From what Vash has seen, Wolfwood doesn't get the aches from lightning storms, the rare one or two that've occurred outside the season. Sandstorms get him down, putting his hackles up and making him more leery of everything around him. Vash isn't quite sure if it's his body aching or if it's the sound of sand blowing against everything, but the sandstorm season they've spent together already has Vash's heart aching for him.

“Who wants shotgun?” Wolfwood asks, sliding into the driver's seat of the truck. “Or are you both holing up in the back?” He grumbles a bit as he adjusts the seat. “Jesus, Shortstack, how do you even fit in here?”

“Not all of us have legs a mile long, Nick,” Meryl deadpans. She's smirking a little though. She likes how long Wolfwood's legs are. She likes draping herself over them when they all share a bed before they actually turn in for the night, if they've found a motel to crash at.

Meryl would drape herself all over Vash's legs too, but she claims he's too bony in the joints. Vash is longer and slightly broader in the shoulders than Wolfwood, but Wolfwood does have more mass. Vash has conceded the point.

She climbs into the back with Vash today, though, scooting into the middle and up against Vash's side.

“Drive, chauffeur,” Meryl says. She says it with a giggle and Vash nuzzles his face into her hair.

“Yeah, yeah,” Wolfwood says. There's a smile in his eyes behind the sunglasses, though, when Vash catches them in the mirror.

The parent sun has set by the time they get moving again, and the child isn't far behind. Only one of the moons is full tonight, the others in various states of waxing and waning. This far out in the sand wastes, there aren't many radio stations to catch. Vash and Meryl share a glance when the static hissing quietly through the truck's radio catches a station and Wolfwood changes it within a few words.

EOM? Meryl draws on Vash's thigh.

MAYBE, Vash traces back on Meryl's hand. It's one of those things Wolfwood either won't or can't talk about.

Meryl keeps pressing at her eyes and the movement has extended to her temples.

“You should rest, Meryl,” Vash says.

“I'm fine,” Meryl says. “My eyes are bothering me, is all. I think the drive was a lot today.”

“Passenger's side pocket has a bottle of painkillers, shortie,” Wolfwood pipes up from the front seat. “Gonna storm, remember?”

Meryl blinks, and Vash watches the wheels turn in the light of one moon. “Oh. How did I forget? How do I always forget?”

The pressure difference of a storm rolling through wears her out, and Meryl's too stubborn to give in at first. Wolfwood had first hand experience after July. Two lightning seasons worth of experience, and three seasons worth of sandstorms.

Vash feels like an outsider at Wolfwood's words, but there's nothing to be done. They looked after each other for two years, trying to find any indication that he was still alive.

Vash is grateful for it.

He is grateful for it. Really. He is.

The heartbroken way Wolfwood had given him his Colt back is another feature of his dreams, soft and broken and so, so apologetic. Like he desperately didn't want to pull Vash back into life on the run but couldn't stay with Granny and Lina himself. There are people relying on Wolfwood, more than just Vash and Meryl. Vash has seen the envelopes he sends back to December and Hopeland with Meryl's reports. He hasn't tried to convince them to swing back to Hopeland, but Vash knows Wolfwood would like to go back.

Meryl leans up and forward, reaching into the passenger's side and rummaging around in it. Vash steadies her, hand on her waist while she leans.

“Got it,” Meryl says, and Vash pulls her back. She twists the cap off after squinting at it. Meryl's nose crinkles. “This is the stuff that makes me sleep, isn't it?” she asks.

Wolfwood waves a hand. “Maybe. I just grabbed whatever.”

Vash peers over her shoulder at the bottle. The moons give off just enough light for him to see, even if Meryl's thumb has Wolfwood's handwriting covered.

Meryl sighs, making Wolfwood scoff. “You need it anyway.” He reaches back and pokes at them. Vash taps Wolfwood's finger with one of his own. “Take your meds and get some sleep. You too, Spikey.”

Grumbling, Meryl grabs one of the canteens and takes two of the little pills.

“I'll keep you company for a while longer, Wolfwood,” Vash says.

Wolfwood withdraws his hand and rummages in the passenger's seat for a sucker. Meryl's given him enough of an earful over smoking in the truck.

“Do what you want,” Wolfwood says. His attention drifts back to the sands.

The truck rumbles easily under Vash, and Meryl snuggles into his coat.

(It's not his original SEEDS Project coat from Luida and Brad, though it is from Home. Their first “mission” after finding Vash again had to drag him Home to get him checked out. Vash had gotten a new coat then; no matter how hard Wolfwood and Meryl had scrubbed, they couldn't get the original coat clean and red again.

Wolfwood had taken to wearing it alongside Vash's darkened shooting glasses, and it soothed something in Vash's heart seeing it. Wolfwood didn't wear it all the time, but the fact remained.)

Meryl grumbles a little bit; she soothes and starts drifting as Vash pets her hair. The tightness in her eyes fades as she drifts away into sleep on Vash.

Vash drifts in and out as well, jerking into full wakefulness at one point when Wolfwood brings the truck to a stop. His leg had fallen asleep and off the back set, jolting pain up his leg.

Vash's gasp of pain has Wolfwood looking at him over his shoulder. “Sorry,” Wolfwood explains, “I need to stretch out. We'll start up again in a few.”

“Time's it?” Vash asks. He presses the heel of his palm down his thigh, hoping the pressure will help with the ache.

“Late. Early? Parent sun’ll probably be rising after a while, if the clouds aren't too thick.” Wolfwood gets out of the truck, easing the door closed so he doesn't wake Meryl. Vash watches as he lights up a cigarette, flipping his lighter instinctively as he does. Wolfwood paces back and forth for a bit while he smokes and stretches out his back and shoulders. If Vash listens hard enough, when Wolfwood stretches his arms up and over his shoulders and leans backward, he can hear Wolfwood's vertebrae pop against one another. Vash has run his flesh and bone hand up Wolfwood's back and has an intimate knowledge of those vertebrae.

There are more than there should be.

Wolfwood finishes his cigarette surprisingly quickly, getting back in the truck after just one.

“Everything okay?” Vash asks.

“Just wanna get to the next town before the storms roll through,” Wolfwood says in a rare bout of honesty.

He tries.

Vash loves him for it.

Wolfwood makes a face back at Vash in the mirror. “Go back to fucking sleep, Blondie. We've still got another couple hours, probably.”

“Alright, alright.” Vash can't seem to kill the smile on his face, though. He hides his smile in Meryl's hair, peering at Wolfwood over her. Meryl snuffles and snuggles in closer, and Vash isn't sure how his chest plate is comfortable for her.

It's dark now, properly dark, now that Vash processes it. Wolfwood has the glasses off, and the moons have either fallen or the clouds have rolled in thicker. Vash rumbles a purr deep in his chest and closes his eyes. Meryl's weight is comforting.

He drifts again to the sound of Wolfwood humming.

When Vash opens his eyes again, his whole body aches. It's settled in deep, and Vash makes a noise as he eases himself upward. Meryl's no longer on him, having migrated to the front seat at some point. They must have stopped after Vash drifted off, deeper than he thought.

“Hey sleepyhead,” Wolfwood says. The sunglasses are back on his face. Vash quietly mourns losing seeing his eyes. “How're you feeling?”

Vash blinks and thinks about it. “Sore,” is what he says. Its a bit of an understatement.

Meryl hums and leans over the center console to look at him. She's also wearing sunglasses, but he can see how she's managed to bruise under her eyes by pressing at them. “Yeah, me too.”

Vash finally puts a word to what he's been seeing. “How's your head?” he asks.

“I'm being stabbed in the eyes and the thought of driving is making me feel sick,” Meryl says. “Even with the good pills, I feel like someone's stabbing me in the temples with a dull knife.”

It's a bad one, then. Vash leans forward slightly and taps their heads together.

He hums at her, a low tone in his throat that he's only heard out of another Plant a brief handful of times. Another Plant was trying to soothe him while she was fading. The other times had been at Home, while hiding in the Plant Chamber of the ship; the other Plants sensed his upset and sang for him.

“How much further?” Vash asks. The words come out of his mouth with a rumble and Meryl blinks at him from behind her sunglasses.

“Not sure. Parent sun should be up, but the cloud cover's pretty thick. We might be in town a couple days,” Wolfwood says. He nudges Meryl back into the seat so he can get at the gear shift.

Vash agrees with that statement. The pain will likely knock him down for at least one of those days and he's going to need to take off his prosthetic.

Blinking out the window, Vash sees what Wolfwood means. This season, at least in this area, might be incredibly active. Vash hasn't been through here in a couple of decades; not at this time of year anyway.

They might need to leave sooner rather than later, once Vash and Meryl are recovered well enough. Wolfwood's going to have to be their main point of contact while they're in town. Rain is slightly more common in lightning season, but still rare, and Vash’s body disagrees with rain.

“Sooner would be better,” Vash says, laying back. He can't quite stretch out fully, but he can get his feet up on the window frame so he's on his back. Meryl coos at him; there's a tired note to it, though.

Vash dozes again to the sound of Wolfwood humming and Meryl messing with the radio. She finally settles on a station that's playing music, someone singing with a guitar. Wolfwood hums along with the song, fingers gently tapping to the beat.

“It's not a sin if it don't make me cry,” Wolfwood croons under his breath. Vash idly wishes he could hear Wolfwood sing for real as he lets the movement of the truck rock him to sleep again.

Vash wakes as the truck pulls to a stop. The pain eclipses his body, but there are points from where the pain radiates the most. His (lack of) arm, the chest plate, the knee where his cartilage is just gone.

“We made it to town,” Meryl says quietly. She's peering at him from over the back of the front seat. “Nick's going in and getting us a room. He's gonna try to get one with a bathroom, if they have one.”

Vash grunts slightly, his breath rattling. It's not the injury rattle, though it is pained.

“Just a bit longer, Vash,” Meryl says. “Nick should be out soon.” She reaches over the center console and takes Vash's hand in hers, rubbing her thumb over the back. His glove prevents skin-to-skin contact but for his index and pinky, but she's never really seemed to care. Vash thinks he loves that about her.

True to Meryl's word, Wolfwood comes back out of the building soon after.

He leans against the back door of the truck, breathing deeply a couple of times before he opens it. “Got a room for a couple of days,” he says. “Its not much, only one bed, but there's a private bathroom. It sounds like it might even have a tub we can use.” Wolfwood reaches out and pets Meryl's hair briefly.

He's worried and bad at showing it. Vash rattles a weak purr at him. Wolfwood strokes Vash's cheek from nose to ear.

“I'll get you two settled, then the truck moved. Shortstack, you good to walk?”

“Yeah. Might take a minute if there's stairs though.”

“Convinced them to give us a first floor room. Didn't want to risk you two with anything higher up.”

Vash loves him. Wolfwood claims he's not kind and then he does this? Liar.

Meryl gets out of the truck and shoves her sunglasses as far up her face as she can. She's got her shoulders hunched up and her jacket around her shoulders, the collar flipped up to hide some of her face and block out extra light. Vash lets Wolfwood slide him out of the truck into his arms to carry Vash bridal style. Vash swallows heavily, and Wolfwood murmurs something against his forehead. Vash doesn't quite hear it over the grinding of his joints, but he tries to get his arm around Wolfwood's neck anyway. Not that he needs to – Wolfwood can carry Vash with no problems even easier than he slings the Punisher around.

Wolfwood kicks the door closed behind him once he's got Vash safe in his arms. Meryl makes a cranky noise but goes inside first, holding the inn's door open for them. Vash process the fact that the innkeeper calls Wolfwood Padre but doesn't get much more as a wave of pain cramps up his leg.

“Easy, angel,” Wolfwood murmurs.

“Soon,” Vash mumbles. “It's gonna storm soon.”

The wind is kicking up – Vash curls his body as he can and presses his face into Wolfwood's throat. He's always hated this season, tries to avoid the parts of No Man's Land that are in it whenever he can. The storms that flare up out of season he can handle – most of them are over quickly. When the seasons – and Vash uses the word loosely – change, Vash knows intimately. Especially when he's gone into an area where the season's already moved in. The red sands should have tipped him off when he spotted them two days before, but all he'd thought about at the time was a flash of memory he didn't realize he'd lost.

Vash thinks Meryl leads them through the inn to the room the innkeeper lent them, but the next little while is a blur, tucked into Wolfwood's throat as he is. He'll probably have markings from Wolfwood's rosary on his face when he emerges, Vash thinks with a horrible giggle. It's better than the Plant markings that show up. Had he lost Meryl and Wolfwood that day on the sandsteamer, Vash wouldn't have blamed them.

Another pulse of pain, sharper than the way his stump pulses with his heartbeat. Vash might make a noise. He's not terribly sure. Tears leak out of the corners of his eyes, and a gentle hand wipes them away. The size of the fingers indicate Meryl. They're small and delicate, calloused in a different way from Wolfwood's, from Vash's own.

Wolfwood gently deposits Vash on the bed and disappears through one of the doors for a moment when Vash cracks open his eyes. The sound of water hits Vash's ears and he shudders a breath. “’sit hot?” he slurs.

“Nick's checking, Vash,” Meryl says. He thinks she says that, anyway. He's not sure he hears her properly over the sound of the now-howling wind. He lets her manhandle him slightly to get his coat off, lets her take off his shooting glasses and place them delicately on the bedside table. He can hear the click of that just fine, but the shape of the words from his own partner's voice? Clearly not.

He flinches when she moves to take off his prosthetic, eyes half-lidded and heat spreading from the end. She doesn't need to be doing this, he thinks, she's already hurting and feeling terrible.

Someone starts petting his hair, and Vash leans into the touch. This, he can handle at the moment. A second set of hands joins in, carefully getting Vash's shirt off him. Vash sucks in a slightly panicked breath, but he knows those hands. They're Nico’s.

“We've got you, Vash,” Nico says. “I ain't letting anyone take you away again.”

This time, he lets them take off his arm. Nico unhooks Vash’s gun belt, slides the leather from around his waist and thigh. He doesn't crack a joke or anything about it, which means Vash looks as bad as he feels. One of them gets Vash's boots, and Nico disappears for a moment. Meryl wrestles with Vash's pants, and Vash helps where he can. Trying to get his leg to bend is impossible, though, and she slides the pants off his legs. Vash gasps, but Meryl's seen him like this before.

The wind howls, and all Vash can hear is the sound of his fluid pulsing in his ears over the burning of rubble and the crashing of ships. It's bad, then.

A hand on his shoulder has Vash flinching back, grabbing it in his own and squeezing. Blinking fiercely, Vash focuses his vision on Nico, who just looks at him with too soft eyes. Too soft for Vash to deserve.

“Easy, Angel,” Nico says again.

“Nico,” Vash rasps. He lets go of Nico's arm and reaches out with his hand.

Nico comes easily, tucking Vash under his chin and into his chest. “I'm here.”

“Meryl?”

A small body leans against Vash's back. “I'm here too,” Meryl says. Vash slowly calms down.

“Sorry,” Vash mumbles eventually. Meryl shakes her head into Vash's shoulder blades and Nico snorts softly into Vash's hair. Vash is trapped, but not in danger.

“Storm rolled in faster than any of us thought,” Nico says. Vash can hear it now, over Nico and Meryl's steady pulses. It's not a regular lightning storm; there's rain too. It could be flooding where they were an hour or two ago.

“It's why my head is so bad,” Meryl says. Her lips tickle against Vash's spine.

“And pro'ly why you're such a wreck,” Nico adds. He trails his fingers up and down Vash's side.

Vash just nods. Okay. That's... that's fine.

“Lemme get you up,” Nico says, and Meryl pulls back a little. Vash sways slightly as he sits up on his own, and Nico's hand doesn't leave his shoulder even as Nico stands up off the bed. “Water should still be hot, but you like it hotter'n we do anyway.”

Vash blinks a couple of times as he sluggishly processes this. “That sounds... good.” Meryl slides off the bed beside Vash, her hands hovering around his waist, just above his underwear.

“May I...?” she trails off. She's always trailed off if she's asking to take off his underwear, and she's always asked.

“I don't think I can bend?” Vash offers. He instinctively tips his head slightly and the movement twinges the nerves and tendons and muscles down his back. He hadn't forgotten about that particular injury – it just wasn’t as prominent until right now.

Meryl presses a soft kiss to Vash's sternum, and her hands settle on the waistband of his underwear, peeling them off carefully. Nico holds Vash steady as he steps up and out, hissing as Vash tries to bend his knee and fails. They end up on the pile that Vash dimly recognizes as his clothes.

Nico carefully manhandles Vash into the bathroom, where there's a tub of still-steaming water waiting for him. Vash could cry. Vash might, in fact, be crying. He's making awkward hiccupy noises, anyway.

“I got ya, I got ya,” Nico says. He scoops Vash up and carefully deposits him in the tub. It's an old clawfoot, big and deep enough for Vash to stretch out near-fully in the water.

It's deliciously hot, and he sinks in shoulder deep. The heat is already sinking into his body, almost too much before his muscles start to relax. Vash groans as his locking muscles and joints unlock. It's almost painful, but in the opposite direction of actual pain.

Vash makes a curious noise when Nico pets his hair. Not even the deep rumble of thunder covering up Nico's words could prevent Vash from staying in the tub and Vash makes a protesting noise and sinks down almost nose deep. Nico chuckles and kisses Vash's forehead.

Nico leaves Vash in the bathroom to soak in the heat. Vash stares at the door for a while before he slowly raises up so his mouth's not in the water any longer. He can just hear someone – Nico, by the footsteps – walking around in the other room.

With a heavy sigh, Vash tips his head back against the head of the tub. The heat is helping. He dozes in the tub; the storm raging outside can't chase him out of it now.

The door creaks open and Vash sluggishly blinks his eyes a few times so he can see.

Wolfwood is at the door, stripped down to his shirtsleeves. He's shoeless and as Vash roves his eyes up and down over Wolfwood's frame, he notices little things missing. His sleeve garters, his shoulder holsters, his belt – all are missing from Wolfwood's body. Vash is a little too tired to parse much more at the moment though.

Wolfwood looks softer than usual, dressed down and not on alert for once.

He pads in to check on Vash. “Hey angel,” Wolfwood says. “How you feeling?”

“Hi yourself,” Vash responds. “Warmer. Better than before. Doesn't hurt nearly as much.”

Wolfwood smiles, one of the real soft ones that Vash loves.

“Good. Shorty's out like a light again. Head's still killing her.” Wolfwood sits on a bucket beside the tub that Vash hadn't noticed before. “Gonna wash your hair, alright? Since you're already in here.”

Vash narrows his eyes a smidge at the uncharacteristic generosity. Wolfwood's been extra sweet the last day, and if Vash had more energy it would be putting him on edge. As it is, Vash wouldn't mind if Wolfwood washed his hair. Wolfwood shouldn't, but its not like Vash can stop him.

“Fine,” Vash says. Wolfwood's smile turns more tender.

“Good. I managed to charm the innkeeper out of some soap. It's not half bad, either.” Wolfwood rolls up his shirtsleeves. “I'm gonna get a cup and the soap. I'll be back in a minute, sweetheart.” Wolfwood tips Vash's face up with his fingertips and gives him a careful upside-down kiss. Wolfwood disappears out the door but he returns just as fast, a cup and a bar of soap in his hands and his sleeve garters back on his arms.

“Could've taken off your shirt,” Vash says. He doesn't mind, really. The garters only emphasize Wolfwood's muscle in a tease that Wolfwood usually plays up.

“Not just yet, pretty thing,” Wolfwood replies. “Don't think you'll be up to anything frisky by the time I'm done with you, anyway.” He's got a slight smirk playing on his lips.

Jerk.

Wolfwood combs his fingers through Vash's hair a couple of times and fills the cup with water. It's still warm on Vash's skin, and Vash sighs deeply at the touch. Wolfwood scratches lightly as he works the soap into a lather in Vash's hair, making Vash flutter his eyes closed and a low purr escape from his slightly parted lips. Despite how he's ached the last day, this is nice.

Vash lets Nico manhandle him so he can wash Vash's hair, carefully working his fingers through the dusty strands. Nico's humming that song from this morning, the one from the car. The humming dies off, and Vash makes an inquisitive noise. “Gotta rinse out your hair, sweetheart,” Nico says. “Lean forward for me?” Vash tips forward; from the corner of his eye he sees Nico scoop the cup through the water so he can pour it over Vash's head. The motion repeats a few times as Nico rinses out the soap and the sand and anything else Vash might have in his hair. Nico runs his thumbs up and down the back of Vash's neck a few times. Vash moans a little bit when Nico rubs out a particularly tense knot; he knows he's going to get teased by the tone of Nico's half-snort.

“Gettin' you all worn out and I ain't even got you in bed yet, sweetheart,” Nico teases.

“Don't be mean,” Vash whines. All he wants now is to curl up with his two favorite people and sleep off what aches remain.

Nico's lips press against the top of Vash's spine in a gentle kiss. They're slightly chapped – Nico must have worried himself sick over Vash and Meryl being down.

“Let's get you out of the tub, yeah?” Nico says. The skin where he's pressing his lips to tingles under his touch.

Vash leans back up with some crackling, but there's less pain overall. Nico guides Vash out of the tub, helping him stand and drying him off with a soft, worn towel. Vash's sleep clothes are already in the bathroom, much to his surprise. Nico'd been ready whenever Vash was, apparently. Slowly, Nico helps him dress; Vash is worn out by the time they're done and the sound of the storm still going outside is distant. Nico scoops Vash up in his arms again, back in the bridal carry from earlier to take Vash to the bed where Meryl has long since fallen asleep in. Nico makes sure to deposit Vash behind Meryl where he can lay with his full arm free. Vash presses himself in against Meryl's back, arm slinging around her waist.

“Coming to bed?” he asks over his shoulder.

“Nah. Gonna be up a while yet.” Nico throws a lightweight sheet over the two of them. Meryl snuffles down into it in her sleep, tucking up against Vash. “Rest. I want you full up if we have to run out of town if someone realizes who we are.” Nico strokes Vash's hair again and goes to the door, where Vash can hear him messing with the Punisher.

Vash will rest. When he's done, he'll make Nico rest. If he can't, Meryl will. Vash closes his eyes to the sound of Nico cleaning his gun, the storm on its way out, and Meryl's soft snores. He might not sleep again, but he will rest.

[what-immortal-hand-or-eye]

tell me what animals you associate with polyguns and why?

My hero!

Wolfwood: I know a lot of people (understandably) call him a kitty, but I think a wolf does suit him. He’s very family oriented and wants to protect them, and is constantly reaching out for connection. But he still needs time to warm up to new people. He needs his pack.

Vash: hyena. Often maligned as evil and vicious when they’re goofy guys with spiky hair and loud laughs. Still a little uncanny-like a dog, but not-and still dangerous. Vash must always have a feral edge to him

Milly: my big gorgeous horse wife. Tall, strong, used to hard work, very perceptive of the emotions and stress around her. Something about her screams self determination in a way that I associate with horses. She’s both a horse girl and a girl horse. I’m maybe too tired for this to make sense

Meryl: she attacks each project and assignment with the bloodyminded determination of a sheepdog. She is just as weird about things as Vash and just as protective of her people as Wolfwood. Especially in Stampede she’s trying to keep everyone where she can see them and where they’re Supposed To Be

[xxladyballadxx]

Always In Your Heart

Vash x (Wife) reader

⚠️SUICIDE AND SELF HARM ARE INVOLVED IN THIS FANFIC. PLEASE DON’T READ IT IF IT MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE⚠️

During an exhausting day by doing bounty hunting with his good ol’ pal Wolfwood, he decided to go for a drink with him before heading home to his wife, (Y/n). Speaking of (Y/n), Vash wondered if she’s managing alright at home by herself. He insisted on calling Meryl and Milly over to spend time with (Y/n) so she doesn’t get lonely. However, (Y/n) wanted to be alone at home. 

Each day and week, Vash’s concerns for his wife grew extremely high and is worrying for her wellbeing and health. Saturday he noticed recent scars on (Y/n)’s arms when he came home from grocery shopping. Vash wished to talk to her about it but kept losing the chance every time (Y/n) changed the subject.  

There was just one time Vash heard (Y/n) sobbing in the bathroom, he comforted her and asked what’s wrong. He held her close while she talked about what’s bothering her. 

Vash managed to talk about the marks on (Y/n)’s arms, he talked her out of it and pleaded with her not to do it anymore. (Y/n) and Vash cried together in an embrace.

‘Whatever you’re going, please know that I’m here for you. No matter how big or small it is, you can always tell me anything.” 

Those words from Vash made (Y/n) cry even more. She calmed down afterwards and fell asleep in the bedroom, resting her mind while Vash lay down next to her. 

~-~-~~-~-~~-~-~

“(Y/n), babydoll, I’m home.” As Vash returned home, he knew something was off. Awfully quiet in the house, (Y/n) didn’t respond to Vash when he called out to her. 

Vash called out his wife’s name multiple times. Still no response. He jogged upstairs to see if (Y/n) was in the room. “(Y/n)..?” He slowly opened the door as it made a creaking sound. 

He entered the room with his heart shattering into pieces, spotted his wife lying down on the floor…dead. A spilled bottle of pills was found on the floor, beside (Y/n)’s right hand. 

“(Y/N)!!!” Vash bewailed, he rushed to her and bent down, holding his wife in his arms as he shed tears, “(Y/n)...why?” His face swelled with grief and sorrow, his head hurting from shedding a lot of tears. He can feel himself falling apart. Witnessing his wife who took her own life….is gone.

Suddenly, he noticed a folded piece of paper in (Y/n)’s other hand. Vash slipped it away from his wife’s cold hand at a slow pace and started reading it, small teardrops dripping down on the letter from his blue-emerald eyes as he read it…

To my wonderful, loving husband Vash

I’m so sorry I did this to myself. I couldn’t stand being in this cruel, harsh reality anymore. I kept hearing voices in my head saying that I’m not good enough, Even my family who left me in the dirt. I can hear them saying horrible things about me. You as well…

Just know that it’s not you, it’s me. I kept having negative thoughts about myself. All this time, I thought no one could ever love me. Never. Until you came into my life. I had no idea someone like you would fall for me.

I said to myself once that I could never be with someone who is warm-hearted, so sweet and so kind…

Keep on living, Vash…for me

No matter how many people are against you just for who you are or what you are, know that I am always here in your heart. Even though I am gone…I will always be watching over you…

I love you so much my dear, I am very glad to have met you, so glad to have you in my life…

Thank you for accepting me,..

Thank you for everything…

From your loving wife…(Y/n)..

Vash’s hands were shaking in despair, he wept and held the letter close to his heart. He screamed out a cry along with his heart screaming along with him…

Vash The Stampede…

A hunter of love and peace…just lost the most precious person in his life…

(A/n)-I actually cried while writing this...💔💔

[dragonlover123a]

Overprotective

10ft Vash the Stampede

4'11 Meryl Stryfe

"Do we have to Mayfly?" Vash whined, "I know sandsteamers are the fastest way to November, but I have the worst luck with public transportation. Even now."

Meryl chuckled, leaning affectionately into her husband's side from her mount, a genetically specialized Tomas her brother-in-law made so she could relatively keep up with Vash at his much larger size named KoKo. "I know Angel, but we're already a week behind schedule because of the storm and you know how my boss can get when I'm late for my bi-annual visit to the office"

Vash sighed, wrapping his long arm around his wife's small shoulders as he looked up at the humpback class sandsteamer in front of them. "I guess. But what about KoKo here?" He asked, gleefully running his free hand through the Tomas' cyan mane when she pressed against his leg at her name, clearly asking for attention too. "I don't want to leave her here"

"Most humpback class sandsteamers have stables for Toma. It costs a little extra, but she'll be safe." Meryl said, patting her mount's neck, which earned a small trill of content.

"What about Stampede Suites?" Vash asked. "I don't want you to be cramped because of me."

Meryl smiled. Stampede Suites where specialized hotel rooms made specially for Vash to comfortably fit his much larger frame. He felt it was more than he deserved and would be perfectly happy on a small twin sized cot, but she knew he only paid for Stampede Suites for her comfort more than for his own.

"I highly doubt it. The S.S. Prosper is almost as old as the Flourish. New enough that the emergency brake issue has been fixed, but too old to have a Stampede Suite, even as an annexed room." Meryl explained. "But it'll be okay Vash. I'll be fine to share a king size mattress with you. It's just for the night." She assured him, giving his much larger hand a comforting squeeze.

Vash sighed again before picking Meryl up and taking KoKo's reigns as he started up the gangplank. "Alright, let's go."

Soon enough, KoKo was settled into a stable and Vash and Meryl where in a decently sized first class room. Or at least decently sized for a human. Despite the high ceiling, Vash was still hunch over quite a bit

"Mayfly are you sure this is the biggest room on the steamer?" He asked, his palm flat on the ceiling as if pressing up against it would give him more space to stand more comfortably.

Meryl smiled in amusement, getting up from the bed and reached up to take his free hand in her own. "I'm sure. C'mon, let's get some sleep." She said, tugging him closer to the bed.

Vash smiled down at her, letting his wife lead him to the bed, but couldn't help but grimace when the bed creaked under his weight when he sat down on it. "Geez they couldn't've at least reenforced it? I feel like it's going to collapse if I have another nightmare..." He said, quickly taking off his long red duster with practiced ease and unbuckling his boots before kicking them off.

"Not everyone is 10 feet tall and weighs more than a Tomas." Meryl replied, shedding her own cloak and boots before climbing onto the bed, standing on the mattress so she could plant a kiss on his jaw.

The smile returned to his face as he turned his head to face her, stealing a quick peck on the lips before scooping her into his arms and cradling her against his chest. "Yeah but it's all muscle" he playfully retorted

"And metal" she added, tapping his left pec where the metal grate was welded into. "If you had anymore metal I'd have to start calling you a robot"

Vash chuckled, kissing her forehead before pressing his own against where he just kissed. "I'm rubbing off on you Mayfly. But you have to work on your jokes. That was pretty terrible"

Meryl just rolled her eyes and patted his chest. "Anyway. Summon your wings. It's the 15th today" she instructed, trying to sit up in his arms.

"Aw do I have to? The room is so small." Vash whined, holding her tighter

Once a month, Meryl helped him preen his wings. Fixing crooked feathers and helping him get rid of old ones to make room for new, healthy feathers. Something that Knives very clearly instructed her she had to do, otherwise he could get sick like he did in LR Town after the Legato incident.

"Yes. You do. If Knives wrings me out because I'm not making sure you're taking care of yourself, I'm throwing you under the steamer with me"

Vash pouted at her for a moment before setting her on the bed, standing up as best he could and summoned his wings, casting the room in a soft turquoise and golden glow before sitting down on the floor in front of Meryl, letting her run her hands through his wings. As much as he complained about the preening, he did have to admit that feeling his wife's small hands run through his thick golden feathers was really nice...

After a while of Meryl preening his wings, Vash found himself dozing off when the sandsteamer gave an all too familiar lurch. He let out a very inhuman growl, much more inhuman than he meant.

Vash really had the worst luck with public transportation.

Meryl paused what she was doing when she heard him growl. Usually she loved it when he growled, especially in bed. But this wasn't a playful growl, it was a frustrated one.

"Vash? What's wrong?" She asked, smoothing out some feathers.

"BadLads" he answered simply

"Again? Let me grab my cloak" she said, starting to get up.

In an instant, Vash had turned around, catching her small wrists with one hand and her waist with the other. "No Meryl... It's too dangerous."

"What do you mean too dangerous?" Meryl whisper shouted, her brows furrowing as she freed a hand from her husband's loose grip to pull at his ear in irritation. "I've helped take BDN down before!"

Normally Vash would ham it up and act like Meryl tugging at his ear actually hurt, but now he was more worried about protecting her, and the people on the ship. "I know... It's just that... Last time I dealt with Neon he promised that he'll kill me"

"But he can't kill you. You're immortal"

"I know. But I don't want him to figure that out and then kidnap you to try to hurt me." He told her, cupping her cheek in his hand. Well, her head, as his palm was much bigger than it. "So please Meryl. Stay here and stay safe. For me." Vash asked, glowing eyes pleading.

Begrudgingly, Meryl nodded as she leaned into his hand. "Alright. I'll stay hidden" she said.

Vash smiled, gently tilting Meryl's chin upwards so he could press his lips against hers. "That's my Mayfly" he whispered softly, pressing his forehead against hers before standing again, rolling his neck and shoulders, letting his markings and wings disappear into his skin, allowing the room to fall into darkness, save for his eyes. Grabbing the scarlet coat, Vash quickly put it on and headed out into the hallway. "I'll be back soon"

Meryl sighed as the door shut behind him and she heard his heavy boots disappear down the hall. She knew Vash would be fine. He was immortal after all. Yes he could be hurt, and the scars and metal that littered his skin was proof of that, but he couldn't be killed. Still, she felt useless sitting here in the dark.

Minutes turned into hours and Meryl was getting antsy. She promised Vash that she would stay here and stay hidden. But it would only be a matter of time before the gang would find her in the room.

With a decisive huff, Meryl grabbed her cloak and put it on before sneaking out of the room as quietly as she could. She knew Vash wouldn't be happy with her for throwing herself into danger like this, but it was still technically her job to make sure he didn't cause too much damage. Besides, she could handle him getting upset with her, and he was never upset with her for long. He knew that if she made up her mind about something, there was no changing it. That was something they had in common.

Only he was an unstoppable force of nature. Meryl thought to herself. Something about Plants self actualizing their names or something? She wasn't sure.

Being careful not to make any noise, Meryl snuck down the hall. Towards where, she wasn't sure. She knew she had to find Vash. It wasn't like her to not have a plan, but her worry for her husband was eating her up inside.

"You! Stop there!"

Meryl froze. Shit...

She had only three options right now, and none of them were good. Draw her weapons and fight, surrender, or run. If she fought, their numbers would quickly overpower her, and if she ran, she'd be surrounded. Either way, she would most likely be brought before Brilliant Dynamite Neon.

Why didn't she just listen to Vash? She asked herself, mentally kicking herself as one of Neon's men took her by the arms and forced her forward. "I'm going, I'm going! Ease up asshole!" She growled at the man

To her surprise, his grip turned gentle. "Right. I'm sorry ma'am. Mr Neon specifically asked for you. I'm sorry for this... I really am" he said softly.

This surprised Meryl, and confused her greatly. "Why are you being so nice about this?"

The man sighed under the mask as he lead her down the hall. "Money's tight, okay? And Mr Neon pays pretty fairly. I was desperate for a job and there was an opening." He explained. "But he caught word that the Humanoid Typhoon was onboard the steamer and decided to make due on a promise he made like, 20 years ago. Which is dumb if you ask me. But when he caught up to the guy he saw what he turned into and ordered us to find you."

"The hell does he want from me?" Meryl demanded as they stopped in front of a set of doors.

"He didn't say... But whatever happens, I'm sorry" The man told her, sounding honest as he pushed her through.

She stumbled through the doors and large hand steadied her. Looking up, she was hoping it was her husband, but she felt her heart sink with dread when she saw who it was.

"Well look who it is. Now this party can really get started."

Meryl tensed when the hand grabbed her by her collar and lifted her up to face Vash on the other side, who was seething in anger. She tried calling out to him, but couldn't get a sound out before she felt his gun press against her temple.

"Turns out, your beau is an immortal god and I can't make due on the promise I made to him." Neon sneered into her ear. "And I don't break my promises. Such a shame... I hate to waste a pretty face"

Meryl cringed as she heard the gun powered up, waiting for her brains to splatter on the deck below. But it never came. Instead, she heard only two words echo in her head, and she knew everyone else heard it as well.

DROP HER

The next few moments where a frenzy of chaos. All she could tell was that she fell to the metal floor and a heavy weight had settled over her. Blinking, Meryl looked up as much as she could. From her perspective, the leader of the BadLads was cowering in fear across the room and Vash had crouched over her in a protective, feral stance, his wings spread out and wide to make himself seem even bigger and more intimidating than before.

Meryl had to do something. She had to calm him down. When Vash got like this, he became a massive angelic like monster who had four arms (well, technically three, as one was amputated) and more wings and eyes then she could count. Yes for the most part he could control the transformation and kept his mind, but sometimes he couldn't and became feral. She really didn't need him to grow to the size of a steamer while they where still in it.

Reaching forward, she grabbed his natural arm, hugging it tight and tried her best to ignore the fast growing feathers that threatened to bury her. "Vash! Vash, I'm okay! Please... I'm okay. I'm safe"

The arm she was holding moved, scooping her into it as she laid her head in his hand. "Meryl?"

She smiled at him, reaching up to touch his face, being careful not to accidentally poke the extra eyes that appeared on his cheeks in his protective rage. "That's right Angel. It's me. I'm safe" Meryl assured him as he closed the extra eyes, making them disappear into his skin.

"Well then" BDN stated, his voice still shaking from fear despite clearly trying to put on a bravado facade for his men. "If you're done with your fancy show of power, me and my men will take our leave. This party ain't fun anymore"

Vash looked up at him, growling out what Meryl could only assume was a string of curses in his native tongue before standing to his full height and setting her down behind him.

"What? You wanna duel again? You have your woman and we didn't kill that many people." Neon challenged, standing to his own full height. It might've been impressive in the past compared to Vash, but now he just looked ridiculously small.

The red clad gunslinger didn't speak, and only bared his sharp teeth as he walked towards the gang leader, making it a point to force him to crane his neck to continue looking him in the eyes.

Neon's eyes widened as his voice faltered to silence. He definitely fucked up. And now he was staring into the eyes of the Humanoid Typhoon. Screw the Diablo, these where the eyes of an angry god.

"Look... I'm sorry. I gave you back your wo-"

He couldn't get the rest of his sentence out before a massive heavy boot landed on his chest, pushing him through the door behind him and sending him flying a few yarz.

Neon landed on his back, his head bouncing off the metal floor, causing his vision to go blurry. All he could see when he looked up was two glowing orbs high above him

"You steal from innocent people. You kill with no remorse and you steal what's mine" Vash growled, towering above the man as he lifted his boot and brought it down hard on his arm, earning a loud crack and a scream in pain.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please! Please don't kill me!" Neon pleaded, writhing in pain from his broken arm.

Vash snarled, moving his foot to his chest and put his weight down on the man as he leaned down to get in his face. "That woman is mine. These people are mine. If you hurt anyone else, I will hunt you down. Understand?"

"Cr-crystal"

Vash scoffed, but removed his foot, reaching into his jacket pocket to toss Beramy a roll of bandages and gauze to take care of his boss's broken arm before going back to where Meryl was.

"How bad is the damages?" She asked

Vash gave her a lopsided grin. "I didn't break any of the steamer if that's what you meant. So it should be a fairly easy report" he assured her, ruffling her hair.

"What did you do to him? I heard screaming" Meryl asked, swatting his hand away

"Nothing to bad. I just convinced him not to steal anymore"

Meryl gave him a look of disbelief, but decided to drop it. She knew what he was capable of, and she also knew that when he injured someone out of anger, he didn't like too talk about.

"Anyway!" Vash suddenly blurted out, spurring Meryl out of her thoughts. "It's late. And you have to go straight from the station to the office when we get to November in the morning" He stated, kneeling down in front of her and offering his arms to her.

Meryl smiled at him and took his offer, letting him pick her up and set her on his hip as he walked back to their room.

She hummed softly as he wrapped his other arm around her, pressing her small frame closer to himself.

Vash really was overprotective of her. But she wouldn't trade it for the world.

[vintagelacerosette]

Tag game catch up ✨️

I'm doing some tag games & picrews I've missed 🫶🏼 and I was tagged by these dearhearts Macy @celestialmickey Cross @crossmydna Evie @energievie Laurel @lupeloto Anna @rereadanon Ling @lingy910y Cherry @too-schoolforcool Ajax @transmickey Lyle @milkovetti Vey @look-i-love-u Coralie @shinygalaxyperson Becki @francesrose3 Ri @tanktopgallavich Jay @surviving-maybe Michelle @michellemisfit Deanna @deedala Julissa @heymrspatel Paola @mishervellous Melodie @sirrudo Thanks y'all 🥰

Name: Myn

Pronouns: She/they

Where do you call home? Sydney

Favourite animal: Cats, ducks & otters i can't choose 🐈‍⬛️🦆🦦

Cereal of choice: Gosh I love american cereal I gotta say I'm now a cinammon toast crunch fiend & lucky charms used to be my fave haha

Are you a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner? Kinaesthetic/visual

First pet? A tank of fishes but I also count a black & white stray cat we took in which we named Gato & oh how i miss him

Favourite scent? Something woodsy or citrusy

Do you believe in astrology? Kinda like I believe some aspects but wouldn't take it so literally in life

How many playlists do you have on spotify/apple music? I'm not one for playlists but I do have like 8 music ones on youtube lol

Sharpies or highlighters? Hightlighters all the colours yall 🌈

A song that makes you cry:

A song that makes you happy:

and finally, do you write/draw/create? if so, use this as an opportunity to shamelessly (😉) promote yourself! Yes I draw & make crafts which you can check out on my tag myn's art 💘 I also definetly gunning to write fic omg the amount of gallavich plot bunnies I have may be in the double digits??

Picrew 1

Last week tag game tuesday ✨️

Name: Shermyn

Age: 26 (27 in 12 day!!!)

Favorite color: Pink

Beverage of choice: Yukult I shot em back like shots lmao

Do you have push notifications turned on for tumblr? I do & for some ppl's blogs too. It can be a lot lol

Opinion on fireworks? Pretty & loud 🎆

Favourite childhood toy? This stuffed bunny I had since I was a kid which I use play pretend like they were real & to pet it so softly 🥰

The store you shop at the most: uhhh maybe ubereats lol does that count 😅

Do you swear a lot? As an aussie fuck is like a brother to me

Favourite trope: Sexual attraction at first sight then falling in love

An album with no skips: Infinity on High by fall out boy

If you could play any instrument, what would you choose? something whimiscal maybe a lyra or ocarina or a steel drum

Your biggest pet peeve: Getting told I'm being disrespectful bc I have a tone that was 'hard'

Favourite time of day: Sunset

and finally, did you drink water today? Yes indeed!

Picrew 2

I'll still tag some loves if they wanna play 💘 @ian-galagher @scarcrosseduntouched @bekkachaos @sisitrip @darthvaders-wife @suchagallabitch @iansw0rld @arrowflier @milkmaidovich @auds-and-evens @callivich @mikhailoisbaby @creepkinginc @mikcrymilkovich @sleepyfacetoughguy @suzy-queued @gardenerian @sickness-health-all-that-shit @stocious @shameless-notashamed @mmmichyyy @xninetiestrendx @intotheblindinglight @skies-below @notherenewjersey @psychicskulldamage @silvanshadow

[laurenablack]

So I ran a DNDADS campaign for my friends and I feel the need to share some of the shenanigans they got up to (I've thrown in a mix of S1/S2 NPCS and some folks from ATMOD)

-Called Doug for everything

-Agreed to kill infants for Erin O'Neil

-Attempted to kick Mark Likely in the groin so many times and failed

-Immediately adopted Hermie and Normal

-Got tricked by Paeden into drawing from the Deck of Many Things

-Still adopted Paeden, convinced him to attack a rock

-Gave Hermie meth ice cream

-Started an empire selling hats through Doug, who gets 40% of the sales and cried over it

-Killed Gartok

-Have been very flirty with both Erin O'Neil and Meryl Streep

-Did a lot of drug flowers

-Decided one of the Purple Robes was Gordon Ramsey and made that the main recurring joke until they discovered Gordon was actually their terrible father

-Attempted to seduce the Robes before finding out who they were. Also attempted to befriend them.

-Have called their loved ones for help. A LOT.

-One player cheated on their wife with a Death God but not in the BDSM side quest??

-Elected Paeden king of the Baby mafia and made zero attempt to return him home to Walter

-Dropped a pyramid on the only entrance/exit path on or off of Ravenloft Castle

-Had a magic fish attack many of their enemies

-Created a weird joint custody arrangement with Scam Likely

Should also point out 3 of them were playing as John Constantine, Percy Jackson, and Mike Afton--

[1800-needs-help]

thinking about millywood and how they WOULD be the two to canonically smash in trigun 98.

just thinking about how Milly (MY LOVE MY LIFE MY REASON TO BE <33333) just CARRIES that heavy ass weapon when no one else at the insurance place does. how she immediately believes that vash is THE Vash The Stampede without too much thought, other than the fact that he just responds to the name. how she's so willing to help literally anyone in need and does not care of the consequences (like her running through burning hot geysers to help save a runaway couple). how she cares so deeply about her friends that she was PISSED when Vash's actions led to Meryl sobbing her eyes out. and last but certainly not least, her fuckin CHEMISTRY with Nicholas D. Wolfwood.

When she saw a child trying to escape a group of men her IMMEDIATE course of action was to pretend to be pregnant with sextuplets and have Wolfwood be the father LMAOOOO. AND THEY PULLED IT OFF TOO. even after the whole episode was over, they still continued the joke of them being a married couple in a later episode.

Now to WW, who is just immediately buddy buddy with the trio as soon as he meets them and is insane in his own right. And yeah, you could argue Vash is crazy and weird and silly and goofy but like, he's a man that's not even a man technically. Vash is what, like 150 yrs old? (I can't remember) He is BOUND to not be alright. But WW is human and is going along with all the same batshit stuff Vash is involved with. which makes it worse, CAUSE WHY IS THIS MAN JUST CASUALLY GETTING IN GUN FIGHTS EVERY EPISODE HE'S IN LIKE HOMIE JUST SIT DOWN AND ENJOY SOME SOUP. He's only mildly normal when he's just chillin with Milly or Vash.

And idk what it is but his gentleness with Milly just kinda breaks me (maybe it's bc I too would like a giant woman to be my pretend ((REAL OH GOD REAL)) wife and be able to swing me around like a rag doll with the biggest smile on her face). He like shields her the best he can, he doesn't want to get her into whatever mess he's made by the end of the series and just tells her to stay put...and she listens and GOD. I was just so goddamn devastated. My heart broke with Milly's and I can only imagine the agony WW must have felt to leave her for the last time.

[denimbex1986]

'On Tuesday, Cillian Murphy was at his parents’ home in Cork, Ireland, drinking a cup of tea when his phone started buzzing. A glance at the dozens of texts revealed the news: For the first time, Murphy had been nominated for the best actor Oscar, for his performance as the title character in “Oppenheimer.”

“It’s very, very humbling,” Murphy, 48, said in an interview by phone on Tuesday. “I’m kind of a little in shock.”

“It’s just a real honor to be involved in a film that has connected so powerfully with people in a way that we never expected,” he added.

In “Oppenheimer,” a stunning biopic by the director Christopher Nolan, Murphy plays the American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, a brilliant, enigmatic figure known as the father of the atomic bomb, a man consumed with ambition and haunted by his past. After opening alongside “Barbie” on July 21, “Oppenheimer” quickly became beloved by critics and fans alike, grossing just over $950 million at the worldwide box office.

Murphy had collaborated with Nolan before, taking supporting roles in movies like “Batman Begins” and “Inception,” but his latest work for the director became a breakthrough moment, with Murphy winning praise for the intensity and emotional complexity he brought to the role. At the Golden Globes, he won best actor in a drama; he also was up for a Critic’s Choice Award (losing out to his fellow Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti); and he’s in the running for a Screen Actors Guild Award, punctuating what has been an exceptionally busy awards season for Murphy.

“It’s been new enough for me, but I gotta say, I think I’m getting good at it,” he said, chuckling. He marveled about a recent ceremony where he was stuck in a line with Meryl Streep.

“That may never happen to me again in my life, and it’s just a wonderful feeling,” he said.

In a phone interview, Murphy also discussed what fascinated him about Oppenheimer the man, how he prepared for the role and the cast’s group chat. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Were you watching the Oscars announcement?

No, I was at home in Cork with my mom and dad and my wife. And my phone started popping, so I figured it was good news. Everybody started texting. You know, you can’t really avoid good news or bad news, but it’s better when it’s good news.

Oppenheimer is a different role than what you’ve done in the past. What drew you to this character?

Well, he is, in Chris’s words, the most important man that ever lived. He changed the course of the 20th century, and we are all living in Oppenheimer’s world. He was complex and contradictory and flawed and vain and arrogant, but he was still immensely charismatic and fascinating. It was a huge responsibility. But the sorts of roles I enjoy are the ones where you think, I have no idea how I’m going to play this.

What steps did you take to prepare?

Oh man, I had six months. From the moment Chris called me, I just started working — from the inside out and from the outside in. I did an awful lot of reading and research and watched every single archival footage about him. Then I immediately started conditioning my body because he was very interesting how he carried himself physically and how slight his frame was. But a lot of it was just walking around my basement in Dublin talking to myself and practicing, practicing and practicing.

As you did that research, was there anything surprising to you about Oppenheimer?

He was an absolute contradiction in so many ways. He could have been an artist or a writer or a poet. But he was also this freakishly bright human being. A lot of his contemporaries would say he was the brightest man in the room at all times. But he was also very temperamental and fragile emotionally and mentally, particularly in his youth. If you were writing a fictional character, it wouldn’t add up to a character people could identify with. But in fact, he was just like the rest of us. He was just a human being. So that’s what I really identified with — his humanity.

What was it like for you to work with such an all-star cast?

A total gift. Every single cast member was fearless in the film, like they had done so much research and could improvise on the spot about their character and the real-life events. I felt really held and carried by everybody on the movie. We’re still all really close. There was a really good bond on this film, and it remains very very strong.

Is it true there’s an “Oppenhomies” group chat?

That is true, yes. Olivia Thirlby came up with that moniker.

You and Nolan have a long history of working together. How did that impact your work with this film?

Oh, it’s crucial for me. I don’t think I could have made this film with anyone else, without that level of trust that goes back six movies and 20 years. He really, really pushed me and I wanted to be pushed. He expects excellence from you because that’s what he delivers himself every single day.

Is there something distinctive about a Nolan set or film that’s different from other projects you’ve been involved in?

I think it’s the level of focus. It’s quite remarkable. It’s laserlike, the way he uses time, because time, I’ve realized, is your most valuable commodity when you’re on a film set. So much of it gets wasted. When you come on a Chris Nolan set, you come on to work. There’s no phones, there’s no chatting. There’s no video footage, there’s no monitors. That’s not to say it’s not a pleasant environment. It’s a private, focused environment. That’s how you get the best out of people.

In terms of time, you didn’t have much of that at all right?

No, we filmed in 57 days, and three of them were a preshoot. So it was insane, the pace of it, but it never felt rushed. We never left a scene behind.

Some people have criticized the film for the inclusion of nude scenes. What do you make of that critique?

Well, I think those things are essential for the story. If you’re familiar with the story, it was his relationship with Jean Tatlock which was the thing that really made him lose his security clearance and ultimately kind of cost his career. I think it was vital to highlight the intimacy and closeness of their relationship.

Besides the Academy Awards ceremony, what else is in the future for you?

I have a film called “Small Things Like These,” which I produced and acted in and that’s opening at the Berlin Film Festival in February. I’m really proud of the movie. It’s produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. They paid for it and we produced it together. So I’m juggling that and attending all these events at the same time.'

[doodleferp]

Sorry if me and other anons are overloading you with these asks it's because you've got such good ideas, writing and drawing skills and your doing your AUs which are amazing and we don't want to add anymore pressure on you. Again sorry.

No, you guys are fine! All these asks have actually gotten me back into my Trigun fixation. It used to be just cleaning out my drafts and inbox, but now I’m actually having fun making stuff for it again! Even my Hellsing OC didn’t have this many people asking about her, and I’m so glad that you guys love Ari and my AUs so much! I’m working on putting together an illustration for some Ari lore that should drop soon, too!

I don’t have a problem with you all sending me asks — I just didn’t really vibe with the worm au for whatever reason. Maybe I’m already content with the naga au (which I’ve been sketching all day, lmao), I don’t know. I just didn’t vibe with it. PLEASE don't stop sending me asks about them. You guys are the reason I’m back and I don’t want you to leave.

If it’s more AU content you’d like to see, I’m happy to throw out other AUs I’ve got hidden away! I, oh...oh, god. I have so many. Alternate dimensions, alternate timelines, alternate futures...you name it. They're all shoved into a fun Google Doc because I'm VERY meticulous about how I log my stuff so I don't lose any of it. I'm happy to share the doc when I'm done updating it, but for now I'll list a few of my favorite AUs.

We got...

Gods Walk Among Us: Rather than being used as objects, the PLANTs are worshiped as deities and have more supernatural aspects to them. Because PLANTs are treated much better, they are able to flourish and create large, lush oases for humans to live in. As such, they must periodically withdraw into themselves to replenish their power. While Knives is worshiped, Vash is feared as a dark god, and has become so beaten down by humanity’s treatment of him that he’s almost suicidal. Thankfully, he has at least one person on his side -- his lovely wife Ari.

Kitty AU: Mostly everyone in the show is a cat. Vash and Knives are twin Maine Coons and Ari is a Havana brown owned by Rem, Milly and Meryl are a Turkish Angora and a Siamese who are owned by the sweet old Mr. Bernadelli, Wolfwood is is a black cat who's famous at the local orphanage, the list goes on.

Hydrophyte: Rather than a desert planet, No Man’s Land is largely covered by water (a la Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet), and PLANTs are large mermaid-like entities called Hydrophytes, which keep the human settlements afloat or sustained underwater. Vash and Knives are more human-like Hydrophytes who can speak for their kind, but they're still BIG BOYS. Ari is now mutated by Hydrophyte DNA instead of PLANT DNA, which gives her Hydrophyte abilities such as speaking to the rest of the species, breathing underwater, etc. It's mainly Ari and Vash navigating everyday life with their spouse being radically different in size compared to them and trying to keep Vash from being hunted down by bounty hunters.

Modernity: A futuristic “modern” No Man’s Land in which PLANTs are used as a source of clean energy. Ari is an orphan unofficially adopted by her mother’s coworker Rem Saverem, and grows up alongside Rem’s officially-adopted children, a pair of Independent PLANTs named Vash and Nai. The children turn to each other after Rem’s death, and form a polycule for several decades. Eventually, Nai’s controlling nature and misanthropic attitude leads him to cripple Vash in an argument, and Ari takes Vash and flees. Nowadays, Vash and Ari are drifters living on the run with Ari taking freelance PLANT servicing jobs to help them get by, while Nai grows his business empire and endlessly searches for them. The couple are forced to flee their apartment after Nai oversteps his boundaries for the thousandth time, and take to living in a trailer while they raise their children.

Sinister Vash, of course. That boy needs no explanation.

Satyr AU, based on this awesoem fanfic by @triplesilverstar. On a far-future Earth, humans have gone extinct, with the species of the future being gender-segregated satyrs and nymphs. Children are typically one or the other depending on their gender. Vash and Knives are exceptionally-powerful satyrs, while Ari is a nymph with satyr mutations. Vash and Ari live together on an orchard that they fixed up from scratch, and they are soon blessed with four beautiful hybrid children. Unfortunately, their happiness is shattered by Vash’s past coming back to haunt him, and they are soon targeted by some of the strongest satyrs that Ari has ever seen.

I have more. I have so many more. I have so many that it hurts. AaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-