#stampede survival

[amitkakkarhealthyway]

(AmitkakkarHealthyway)

[buried-l0cket]

Polygun but it’s how they all see each other

i always really like in books with different narrators when how a character looks itself is unreliable narration bc they describe themself differently compared to how the other pov characters see them, and the dungeon meshi shapeshifter chart scratched that itch for me art wise and I got inspired ✨

To be more specific this is what they each picture when they think of each person 👉👈

Details under cut!!

Meryl clothing details aside because I think she’s just short and the boys aren’t looking at her traveling clothes too hard (and vash clearly likes making his own clothes with how much his overly intricate jacket design changes so ofc his version of her outfit just looks like another one of his designs 🙄) all of the clothes are based on specific parts of the manga!

A big thing with these designs was taking moments that were important regarding each characters relationship with the pov character and adding in visual nods to that to show what memories stuck with them to shape their image of that person.

The clearest example of this is everyone thinking of a different Vash coat, for Wolfwood it’s what he was wearing when he turned him over to Knives, to Meryl it’s his final fight coat, and for Milly it’s when she met him.

It may be Trimax but I will always have a soft spot for 98 millywood so those two’s impression of each other has been influenced by that, but more specifically just the idea of them both alone together, layers and walls down, hair messy from sleep. Their relationship is one I just see very clearly developing over a lot of late nights at inns and bars during traveling!

Vash is the trademarked inventor of Savior Martyr Victim complex supreme and when he thinks of everyone he sees times they’ve been let down by him. To me he’s the biggest broken gear in their dynamic because of the way he holds himself back and isolates, the ship really works in spite of him most of the time. But he also sees traces of times his desire to be by their side was cemented. His Meryl is heavily based on after she was kidnapped by the GHGs and he lost control in front of her, but her hair is longer + earrings are gone like when they saw each other again after Knives released the ark, and she has a black turtleneck peaking out from under her traveling clothes the way it did under her space suit during the final battle. His Milly has the hair and undershirt of the final battle but her outer clothes are from when they traveled together for the majority of Trimax. His wolfwood isn’t doing too well.

Meryl’s versions of Milly and Wolfwood are both pretty similar to how they looked when she first met them, wolfwoods hair is just a little longer like I imagine it being towards the end of Trimax and is very windswept, from their short first meeting in the original Trigun manga run I always got the impression she thought he looked very cool lol, she was staring up at him like ://0 the whole chapter.

I mentioned it before but honestly most of Wolfwood’s Vash is based on how he looked when he turned him over to Knives, not only do I think that moment stuck with him but I feel like it’s a good visual summary of all the mixed feelings he has towards Vash. He’s drawn to him and sees how sad he his but he also sees how inhuman he is and the threat he and knives pose for the people he cares about and prioritizes. At the end of the day Wolfwood chose the orphans over Vash twice and never went back on that, and a big part of why he broke Vash our of Knives prison was just so he could go fight Knives to the death for humanity’s sake, and I think that’s important to his character and their relationship.

Similarly, Meryl’s Vash is really just final arc Vash. She’d already developed a very strong impression of him before then but they would go weeks to even years without seeing each other and each time the way he looked and the way she felt about him would change drastically, it seemed to me like it wasn’t till she was on the ship advocating for him and the people living on gunsmoke that she knew how she felt about him and what kind of person she saw him to be. It was also a huge moment for her character wise with the way she faced her fears in the name of human connection and made the active choice to not be as apathetic and closed off as she realized she had been in the early manga.

I think Milly’s first impression of Vash was strong and accurate enough to not change much, this nice guy is Vash the Stampede and there is definitely something weird about him.

I don’t know why Wolfwood doesn’t know what Meryl’s hair looks like, what’s wrong with that guy? In general his version of Meryl is very inaccurate now that I’m looking at it, I promise he likes her

+small details that are my personal headcanon and not the characters interpretations are Meryl and Wolfwoods hair being a bit more curly/textured than canon, Milly’s eyes being green, and Meryl’s earrings being silver (gold earrings with a white black and blue outfit and silver guns?? C’mon girl accessorize properly)

[llamahearted]

my discord secret santa for @goblindrift! was fun to step outside of my wheelhouse for this one, your message sparked so many good ideas 💕

(this one is now available as a print!)

[stainedglass-sketchbook]

CHILDREN OF BHAAL

I adore the vibe of redeemed durge your sister killed your mind and took your place - it was the greatest gift she ever gave you

[kitamars]

vashwood week day 6: light

but we will still live to see tomorrow’s sunrise

[alexiethymia]

If I could gif, I would probably gif three scenes. The ‘what rope’ scene where Vash calls Meryl and Roberto his friends so that the townspeople of Jeonora Rock don’t lynch them, and then the scene where Vash says Meryl and Roberto aren’t his friends to Wolfwood when they separate on the Sand Steamer and Wolfwood calls him cold, and finally the scene where Luida definitively calls Meryl, Roberto, and Wolfwood his friends when he first wakes up.

It’s such a nice progression of his bonds in such a few number of episodes. For all that Vash is a nice guy, and has people he helps, and even family in the form of the people in Home, it’s possible Meryl, Roberto, and Wolfwood are his first friends. It’s only when the three stick by him even after Monev and finding out that he’s a Plant, that it really dawns on him that huh in his hundred years alive, he may have finally found his first friends.

Vash isn’t naive. He knows the capacity of people to betray his trust. He’s resigned to it in a way. But he still extends that trust to people. The plan to stop the Sand Steamer wouldn’t have worked without Meryl. But Vash still leaves the task to her without any assurance that she would do her part. At the same time, I get the feeling that he wouldn’t have blamed her if she did decide to run away, same as Roberto was telling her. And it’s such a wonderful thing that through the friendships he formed with Meryl, Wolfwood, and Roberto, the trust that he freely gives is finally reciprocated. (And of course he would always have faith, what with his experiences with Rem, Luida, Brad and the people in Home).

In the same way, Vash saves what was precious to Wolfwood which was the orphanage, Wolfwood eventually gets to return the favor in saving Meryl. Even though it was out of order, you can also look at it as Meryl saving Vash, who saved Wolfwood at the Sand Steamer, who eventually ends up saving Meryl. Even Roberto, cynical as he is, does end up advising Vash on occasion.

People get hurt. People die. It’s a dangerous world they live in. But it’s nice that Vash who always asks if people ‘need a hand’ eventually meets ordinary people who also ask him if he ‘needs a hand’ sometimes too.

[justshipsandstuff]

He’s just an uncanny baby that’s really bad at direction

[ruporas]

can’t help falling for you

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 255

You know what? Three-way crossover. Danny Phantom, DC, and Monster Hunter. 

Specifically something akin to Monster Hunter Wilds (Which isn’t out at this time) where there’s not much or any sort of settlements (from what we’ve seen) though there’s some signs of ancient ones. But several heroes might have erm, fallen through a portal or two and now they’re in some sort of… place full of unknown creatures and monsters. 

Dragons, for one, but that’s just the beginning of the proverbial iceberg. And they might be a bit… stuck. Just a little bit. 

On the other hand, the Eternal Quartet- that is Tucker, Danny, Sam & Valerie- have decided to go on a bit of vacation before college. You know, get some last bit of feral-ness out and alright maybe they just wanted to not have to deal with other people. 

And there’s a bunch of creatures here, and plenty of plants for Sam to get excited about too. And look, Valerie isn’t going to say no to a giant velociraptor sort of creature that she can ride. And- holy fuck Tucker do not harness the power of a storm to power your PDA- Actually stop summoning storms please- 

[tzarrz]

a heem heem- whimper

[alexxuun]

I want these bitches to interact. They could form a “high hair club” or something.

[carmineskiesandspidereyes]

A Softer Trigun, part 22/?

pt. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

and an Alt, bc I just can’t decide these days :’)

[makima-s-most-smile]

I saw this post today and thought about it (I also didn't want to rant on a post that is a year old... so... separate post)

The soul talk is from Conrad in Stampede, if I remember it right, and it is mostly basis for him to justify his eugenist views and his inhumane experimentations.

All plants are sentient and sapient. While they are individuals, they are also existing in a state of psychic linked hivemind, not quite dissimilar to Zazie the Beast (though they are one person with many bodies, while plants are many people with many bodies connected through another dimension).

Plants feel joy, hurt, fear. And humans who work with them seem to be aware of it, as seen in flashbacks in the manga. A plant engineer is shown at a last run and seen praying as the plant is killed. They know and they feel guilt.

Though, does the regular human know it? Or does the general public see them as generic producers? Kinda like people today forget that the bacon they get in the supermarket is from a once living being, a pig, that lived, breathed and oinked. And that disconnect invites greed, dehumanisation of the plants and the overusage of them. That disconnect invites waste, greed and cruelty towards plants.

A big difficulty in the coexistence between humans is -besides the dependency of humanity on plants as producers - that plants and humans cannot directly communicate. A plant cannot just say: No! She cannot decide to not produce. And that puts her in a position that is easily exploited.

Her wellbeing is in the hands of her caretakers. And the actions of those are dependent on their power (Are they independent or can someone pressure them for more food, more materials, more anything?), their education (were they taught by other plant engineers? If not, how do they avoid critical malfunctions killing more plants which worsens the pressure to produce on other plants) and environmental factors (98 put it pretty good. By destroying July without killing anyone, the people needed shelter elsewhere. The refugees put pressure on the system in place, which let to more plants dying and more humans dying as a result. No Man's Land/Gunsmoke is a system barely held in balance, if at all. Even a tiny shift in higher birthrates, a bad sandstorm, a malfunction, can topple everything.)

That's were independent plants like Knives, Vash, Tesla, Chronica and Domina come in. They are born from their sisters, who need their bulbs to live, as beings that can walk the surface and talk like the humans. Additionally to that, they need a caretaker like every baby does. That way, Independent plants are in the role of a bridge between the two species.

Independents are not only able to communicate with humans, they are also able to do the same with their sisters. Sadly… Knives and Vash SUCK at communicating. Finding the remains (are they just remains? That remains to be seen… (In Stampede)) of Tesla, traumatised the boys and their following path, while diverging radically from each other, is not one of peaceful, intertwined living.

Knives is scared as fuck that he will be murdered the same way as Tesla was. While he cares about his brother, this is mostly about himself. Knives does not listen. He does not listen to Vash and he really does not listen to his sisters. Knives does as Knives does and everyone else is in for the ride.

And by stranding humanity onto a planet without any ressources like he did, Knives also made it extremely difficult for humanity to be good. They are as desperate and as vicious as Knives is (thank you @duncanor for pointing that out). Knives put humanity into a situation that makes it easy for him to point at them and say: 'Look, they are all rabid beasts, killing and maiming each other. They need to die faster.'

Vash is grieving and feels guilty. He does listen, he smiles and then keeps on going the same way he was on before. Vash is put in a situation of having to listen to his sisters being overworked and dying, but he also sees humans desperatedly fighting for ressources and trying to live. So he does nothing to change the status quo, only barely patching one grievance to rush to the next one, while trying to find his brother. Because Vash needs everyone to live. His sisters AND humanity for which Rem died. And changing the system could destroy everything. So he focuses on patching things up and stopping his brother.

Tesla is dead, Domina and Chronica are still on Earth. I am sure the latter two would be entirely overwhelmed, too, in Vash' situation. How do you fix that massive ball of mismanagement, when humanity is barely scratching by? Yes, the Independent Plants exist, they are in a unique place to overcome the crack of communication between the species.

But how? No one gave Vash or Knives any instruction in how to do their part in this. We got from one line that the independents went through a similar uprising on earth, too. But we do not know how they overcame it to coexist.

So, NO ONE is in a position to truly fix this situation, since there are not many ressources beyond the plants and there are so many more humans just existing than the planet and plants could provide for. There… there is no answer.

THIS is no trolley problem… If you save the plants, humanity dies, but plants need humanity, too. This is a last ditch effort of two species to not die out. It is their extinction. Many dinosaurs survived the meteor and then died off in the next years, decades due to starvation, thirst or just not finding a mate.

And then there is the last important part. What do the plants want? Knives does only what Knives wants, he has no idea what his sisters want. Humans also have no idea. And Vash… doesn't dare to disturb the status quo, because he wants to keep everyone alive.

From what we can gather in Trimax and interviews, plants like humans and they like producing things. And it is one of the few positive parts of Trimax' ending, plants and humans communicate. The plants share all the good and bad memories of humans with humanity and receive help from humanity. Plants see their future with humanity interlinked. They want humanity to survive, too, together.

[fedyavoidart]

they are in love, you know it's true.

[viviarts-c]

Hey remember when Vash was in denial when Rollo died in stampede ep 5? Yeah can't wait when that happens again in season 2......

[yutamayo]