#those big birds in trigun

[littleapocalypsekitten]

Noman’s Beast of Burden 

Sculpture of a Toma / Thomas done in the mid-2000s.  Old anime-design. Sculpey clay, various fabrics, freshwater mussel shell, beads, wire-bits, and leather lacing.  I have mixed-feelings on the new design of the critters in Trigun Stampede.  On one hand, I’m underwhelmed because they look just like standard riding-birds you see in all kinds of anime and video games / pretty much like big blue emus while the OG toma were these weird spike-tailed horse-bird monstrosities with bigger head-shields, but... the new guys can get away with a lot by being super-cute.  So, you win some, you lose some.  I miss the weird-ass mixed-up monster things, but kind of let out a happy squeal at seeing the baby chicks that Wolfwood and Livio were feeding in the new series.  

[whirlwindimagines]

Trigun Stampede Master List

Trigun Stampede 2023 (You can assume if im writing for Trigun its the 2023 verison, unless stated other wise.) Masterlist under the cut :) Will try to update as much as I can!

Vash the Stampede:

‘Glitter and Gold’ (Reader is Wolfwood’s sister, Wolfwood!Reader)

‘Wanted’

‘These morning with you’

‘If you saw him too, you’d know what I mean’

‘Those hardest to love need it most’ 

‘What if we ruin it all, and love like fools’ (Part 2 to ‘Those hardest to love need it most’)

‘You are loved more than you know’

‘In the moment we’re lost and found, I just wanna be by your side’

‘When you’re lost in the universe, don't lose faith’ (Part 2 to ‘In the moment we’re lost and found, I just wanna be by your side’)

‘Maybe I’m not built for love’

‘Bad Luck’

‘Locked in’

‘Locked in Part 2′

‘If he is the sun, i’m Icarus’

‘Can I just stay up with you all night’

‘Oh if the sky comes falling down’ (Sister!Reader)

‘Eyes on you, eyes on me’

‘One step closer, we’re gonna be alright’

‘Help me hold on to you’ (Part 2 to ‘One step closer, we’re gonna be alright’)

‘I’ll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror’

‘Can I hold you, real close’

‘Humming bird heartbeat’

‘Sweetheart you look a little tired’

‘And I’ll love the world like I should’

‘I’ll be your shelter’

‘Its like the sun came out’

‘Finding magic in the smallest things’

‘I don't have much to say’

‘Ended up with a pair of cracked lips’

‘And your hand in mine’

‘They see right through, Can you see right through me? I see right through me’

‘Talk about it somewhere only we know?'

‘I close my eyes and all I see is you’

‘I wanna be with you’ *NSFW* (Part 2 to ‘Its like the sun came out’)

‘If something’s wrong, you can count on me’

‘I was enchanted to meet you’

‘You can hear it in the Silence’

‘ “just trust me you’ll be fine” ‘

Nicholas D Wolfwood:

‘Ghost of you’ (Sister!Reader)

'Cat got your tongue?' (Fem!Reader)

‘Take me to church’

'Bad ideas, and big guns'

‘Last breath, first kiss’

‘Fate’

‘Notice me’

‘And the name of the game’s just the living’

‘No ones gonna listen to me’

Millions Knives:

Knives with a mostly human soulmate headcanons

‘This world you live in is not a place for someone like you’

‘If our love died, would that be the worst thing?’

‘Do you still believe in one another?’

Multiple Characters:

Vash and Wolfwood w/ and Artist!Reader

Vash and Wolfwood helping you while injured.

Vash and Wolfwood comforting their s/o while they are on their period

Vash and Wolfwood headcanons for meeting their s/o in a dream

What Pokemon would Vash, Knives, Wolfwood, Meryl and Roberot have?

Vash, Wolfwood, Knives comforting you after a nightmare

Vash, Wolfwood, Meryl, & Knives Coffee orders and general headcanons.

[magadauthan]

the birds and the uhhh... Plants

There's some weird stuff going on with Tristamp where reproduction is concerned. As Matt Damon once said, "I'm going to have to science the shit out of this."

Let's review.

(With big, big thanks to @versaphile for the Tristamp transcripts, which were v helpful for the details.)

It's my understanding that Tristamp deviates from the source material by having the Plants be derived from some ancient lifeform rather than being entirely artificial. Which came from Xitter or something idk, I'm not on Xitter, so there's no citation. Bad scientist, no cookie. Anyway.

That snip of info, combined with Luida's exposition about most Plants being cloned from a single cell, brings to mind the mechanics of cloning to produce an antibody of interest. Without getting into too many specifics, the target cells (spleen) get fused into hybridomas with immortal cells, then the hybridomas get cultured into wells such that (nominally) there is one cell per well, and they grow. Then you check what those cells are producing once you have a culture / cell bank.

Sooooo.... are the Plants grown from hybridomas of whatever alien lifeform the Sinners dug up? More importantly, might they have hybridized the lifeform with human cells to make them grow? Sure would explain why the Plants are humanoid, and why the researchers are called Sinners. (pretty sure we'd call them Sinners too, since human cloning is illegal for a reason.) It would elucidate why Plants tend to produce one basic thing (Luida mentions gravity, electricity, chemical compounds, and maybe amino acids; and of course, water); it's because they're monoclonal, not polyclonal.

Plants are clones (asexual reproduction), but Luida also mentions that under rare circumstances, Plants give birth (sexual reproduction). Not that the Plants are doing the humpty dance in there, exactly, but rather they are recombining their own genetic material in novel ways. Producing polyclonals, so to speak.

Vash and Nai are twins, and they look identical, but they could be fraternal (remember that all their parents are clones). It has happened that fraternal twins from mixed-race parents get different genes from each (this is pretty fkn cool actually) and so express different traits for appearance. With Vash and Nai... could that mean Nai expresses more of the Plant traits, and Vash more of the human traits, from the original alien/human hybridomas?

Both have human-like and Plant-like traits. Vash can eat, drink, and sleep like a regular human, and Nai can create matter out of nothing like a regular Plant. It remains to be seen what human-like traits Nai has, but Vash's Plant trait is being able to send and receive from the Core, to create "souls" (independent life?) where there was none before.

Nai can't do it by himself. Conrad has been busy mucking around in the lab with genetic material derived from Nai's cheek swabs to create human/Plant hybrids, such as Elendira. Why Nai permits it isn't entirely clear, unless he's hedging his bets on creating Independents, but he's got "children." Conrad is sick, but Nai won't let him stop researching until he gets the "children" he really wants... and he won't get them without his brother's (unwilling) help.

let's not talk about what he does next.

Trimax and '98 Trigun didn't have anything to say about how little Plants are created aside from that the humans on NML didn't have the ability to make any more of them. It wasn't at all important to the plot, honestly. Tristamp threw that right out the window, because the climax to the series has everything to do with reproduction. And it makes me wonder... Luida said most of Vash's genetic makeup is human, so is he... fertile? Is that where y'all are going with this?

Vash and Meryl had better use protection, that's all I'm sayin'.

[novasintheroom]

I'm having a really bad day today, and was wondering if you have any vash crumbs you could drop? Anything from if Vash has a particular way of cleaning his gun, how you think he spends his quiet days, the smallest take would be amazing. Absolutely no pressure and I totally understand if you can't since requests are closed, but I wanted to ask you because you're my favorite trigun blog. You also can absolutely throw this ask in the bin and ignore it too, no hard feelings. Have a nice day and make sure you're hydrated. ❤️❤️

Aw, I'm sorry you're having a bad day! Those are always rough. Thank you for reaching out and allowing me to help out in some way!

--

Vash is meticulous when it comes to his gun. We all know it's not because he wants to shoot someone, but because he wants to make sure he doesn't. I think Vash checks his gun more than regularly - always looking for flaws, dings, anything that might cause him to shoot off-the-mark and injure someone. It's No Man's Land, so of course there's going to be something that goes wrong with his gun at some point. I think he's had moments in the past where the gun accidentally shot someone in the shoulder or foot or severely injured a person when Vash lapsed on his gun upkeep. It haunts him, and pushes him to be better, do better. He makes sure the gun is an extension of him and all his hopes and dreams.

As for how he spends quiet days...those come very rarely. Not because he doesn't have the time to - he's always traveling, always looking for a way to help humanity in any small or big way - but because he rarely allows himself to have a moment of quiet. Quiet lets the thoughts in. And with the thoughts come memories. Rem, Nai, Luida, Brad, the woman he had to carry from the desert only to discover she had passed at some point on the journey, him not being quick enough to save the little boy who was in the line of fire of those bandits, all of his failures pile up and overwhelm him if it's too quiet. It's why he seeks out humanity when he can - they're loud, always turned in on themselves, worrying about where the next meal will come from, if anyone will give a helping hand, etc. It allows him to focus on others rather than himself, which is his whole goal. But he's learned that even he has his limits, and when a quiet day comes, he spends it reading or writing in his journal, catching up on hobbies he allows himself to try - metalworking is one I headcanon him having. With his strength and the luck of having a metalworker in the town he's visiting, he creates flowers, bowls, birds from earth, etc. and either sells them or gives them away as gifts.

[snowywolf1005]

TRIGUN STAMPEDE

VASH X PLANT READER

EPISODE TWO: THE RUNNING MAN

Vash and y/n at the dinner table with merly and Roberto.

"So let me make sure, I'm followed, This Bad man running around, stealing plant, is not you? And this guy who looks like you, but he's your twin brother." Vash nodded, Roberto smoking, y/n cough, "there's no proof, though, " said merly.

Vash was doing fake cry.

"Crying won't help your case," said merly, Vash put his head down. Y/n put him on his back.

"That guy knives, stealing plant. What did he want from it?" Said Roberto, "The money? Or is it about honor? " said Merly.

Then a little boy come up to them, bringing some bugs in a cage.

"Hey there, kiddos," said Robert, "or those guys for us" y/n question. "Thanks you Tonies, I keep your budding safe," said vash, patting in the head.

"What a heartwarming scene. Hehe, are the bug gone?" Said merly, "almost. ".

"Okay, quite that. Tonies, how many times I told you? Don't bring your worms here! Mama loves you, baby! Now shoo!" Rosa yelled.

"Sorry, vash and y/n," she said, pulling her gun at them. Everyone else pulled out their guns, too. "It the cash, not you two," said Rosa.

TIMESKIP

"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!" vash scream, "Y/N!!! HELP ME!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!" vash screams top of his lungs.

"Don't let them get away!!" Rosa yelled, vash running for life, while y/n swinging around with her blade like spider-man.

And she is looking for vash as well. Y/n dough all the bullet.

(She spider-girl, spider girl), and she finally found vash.

He was surrounded by six people. "VASH!" y/n yelled, grabbed vash.

"Vash! Y/N! Over here!" Merly called out. Y/n landed safely, "Y/N! THANKS YOU! THANKS YOU!" said vash, hugged y/n.

Later.

Vash and y/n looked at the photos of themselves. Vash made a frown face, "Why do they use this photo?" Y/n asked, "that you're issues," said Roberto.

"So this journey, folks are part of this gang?" The man asks, vash and y/n, and other steps away back.

"Who cares? I can't wait to meet them anyway," said the other man.

After moving somewhere.

"This is why's we don't save lost puppies," said Roberto, "Sorry," said merly, while their walking. "Hey puppy, it would be easier if you pick up a fight," said Roberto.

"Huh!? Are you really in the mood for a shoot-out? Y/n is a good fighter, and she even has her blade, " said vash.

"What you deal!? oh wait, let's me guess, you forgot ammo," said merly, "no, I got extra, I prefer not to use it, bullet are too pricey, " said vash

"YEAH! Even pain our pill!" Said merly, "I can buy one bullet or two thousand doughnuts," said vash.

"Oh my God, vash, but I do have a plan, though," said y/n. They look at y/n, "OK, what your plan?" Said Roberto

The man sees a red coat. "This way!" He said running, "someone saw him!" Said the other.

"There!" He yelled, "That a dead end!" The other guys yelled, but they were shocked to see.

"Damn, they got us," he said. It was a blue bird. Y/n looked around, "Cost is clear come on," she wisperd, they walked. "You're plan works!" Said merly.

When they about leave. Rosa and two other women come out pulled out their guns. Y/n and other stop, "vash, y/n, don't make harder for me," said Rosa.

They dropped on their knees and put their hands behind their back. "With the plant(something, something), the money is our only hope," said Rosa.

"How could you! They scrafic their life, they save you twice," said merly,".

Rosa said (something, something, something, something, something, something, something, something,".

Then a big car coming towards to tonsi. "Tonsi!" Rosa yelled, y/n stood up and pulled out her blade, grabbed Toni's.

"VASH THE STAMPEDE AND Y/N THE STAMPEDE!! YOUR COMING WITH US!" An old man yelled.

Vash and y/n hopped on blue bird. Y/n is riding it, "money! Come back!" He yelled, merely and Roberto followed them, "what your plan now y/n?" Said vash.

She looked around and saw some rocks. A hand almost hit y/n and vash. The car is slowly down, and they stop, "they stopped," said merly.

Then, a hand came out and grabbed sleeping bags cause the birds get scared. They went off again. "Come on, fight me! You are a gunman, "an old man yelled.

"Nope," said y/n, vash laughs. Then the bag came off, the old man and his son fell.

After Merry takes vash, he has to fight back and can't run away. Leaving y/n to help him while she was injured.

"Help! We need backup! Bac- augh!"

"Coming," said y/n, they look at y/n. "Coming with wha?" Said Roberto, "the plant," she said. They were shocked, vash get on the blue birds, and took off.

Later (Sorry)

The old man fired a bomb at y/n, but she missed it. "Vash!" Merly scream. "That was a close one," said vash. Old man jaw dropped.

"Y/n, let's me protect you. You have enough to protect me," said vash. After some fight and talk. The bridge is falling apart, y/n used her blade to pull up the bridge so the old man came back, but her hands started Bruning.

Later again

They have drink. Y/n and vash packed their things and about to leave, but they were stopped by Roberto. "You shouldn't say goodbye, the people miss you, what are you running away from? Oh, right, he told me morning million knives, " he said

Then, a loud scream comes from the dinner. "What going on!?" Said vash. A spider creature crawling around on gofes. The spider trun red

He ran outside, and then he exploded.

[kaz-identified]

houseofmcallister presents...

The Kaz-Identified Master Post / McAllister Introduction

A definitive breakdown of all of my fics, as well as my important links and some information about me.

some of these are on my main account, houseofmcallister. some of these are on my ko-fi. they're all my work though. not every work of mine is on here cause some of them deserve to rot.

five bells are ringing (oh, birds have been singing) - five bells, coco and the butter fields ^ kaz's favorite song of all time

kazzy's requests are: OPEN! find rules here!

Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go. I wanna be sedated.

Series Masterlists

A Wolf Walks Into An Apartment Masterlist In which five or so highly powerful Guardians are forced to adapt to their new friend, the Young Wolf. Genre - Comedy Rating: 13+ (Swearing, mentions of drug use, sexual humor, inappropriate language, existential ponderings) Created by houseofmcallister media with the aid of friends

Said to the devil, devil do you like drums?

Drabbles Recommended Work:

Field Patch Uldren x Young Wolf (Canon Divergent Timeline - House of Wolves) In which wounds, and bad attitudes, are treated. Genre - Fluff Rating: 13+ (Inappropriate language, mention of injury) notes: ko-fi exclusive!

No grave can hold my body down, I'll crawl home to her.

One Shots

Recommended Work:

Do or Drown Crow x Young Wolf In which confessions are shared. Genre - Fluff Rating: 13+ notes: Author's personal favorite.

I'm the ruler of everything, in the end.

OC Lorebooks

Recommend Entry:

Mine and Mine Alone Young Wolf Howling

For he has cast down Leviathan, the tyrant, and horse and rider

Original Works

Risky Gamble Sunset Chasers The Gambler, Last Outrider Arcadian of the Dawn Riders' introduction In which a fool opens her mouth and it almost gets her killed Genre - Fantasy Rating: 16+ (Inappropriate language, references to sexual content) notes: the first piece in my original series, Sunset Chasers

What's cooler than being cool? ICE COLD!

About the author!

Hi! I'm the guy writing those pretty words for all of you!

I'm Shepard, or Kaz on here I suppose. Why the difference? Uh... I don't know. Blog name I guess. Kaz is a nickname a dear friend gave me. Short for Kazzymandias. Or, if you aren't sure, just call me McAllister!

At time of update, I'm 19 years old. I'm a sophmore at Xavier University, studying film! I like writing, as you can tell... and when I graduate, I'm gonna be a filmmaker! Or make video games. Really up to fate.

I like media in general but a highlight of the hits (my favorites) TV Shows: Psych, How I Met Your Mother, Friends, Frazier, King of the Hill, and a lot of old Nickelodeon stuff... Anime: Jujutsu Kaisen, Blue Exorcist, Fullmetal Alchemist, Trigun... Movies: Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver, Mission: Impossible, Man From U.N.C.LE., A lot of action movies I can't remember... Music: Coco and the Butterfields, My Chemical Romance, The Clash, Cheap Trick, Powerwolf, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, Metallica, Twisted Sister, Sabaton, Hozier, Johnny Cage, Insane Clown Posse, Tally Hall, Kendrick Lamar, Eazy-E, Eminem... Games: Destiny, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Dragon Age, Witcher 3, Fortnite...

Now here's some rapid fire funfacts.

My favorite president is Ulysses S. Grant cause I did a project on him in second grade! My designated technology color is white! My favorite color is green, pink is a close second! My favorite sport is football! I love the Cowboys, I'm from Dallas, sue me. And I'm a big Bengals fan! I used to fence! Not well, but still! I was a Girl Scout! My favorite subject is history! I'm actually not a very good English student!

I wish I was a little bit taller. I wish I was a baller. I wish had a girl who looked good, I would call her.

Questions I get asked about my work.

Q: Do you take requests? A: I do! On my ko-fi for speedier answers and here on tumblr to be answered when I have time!

Q: Who's your Guardian? A: Telemachus Ashford! She's the Young Wolf I default to in most fics.

Q: How do you write so well? A: It's partially natural talent, I've been writing since, and I am not joking here, I was three years old and first learned to speak. But mostly it's just a lot of reading and watching to find out things I like and then using those skills. And it's also a lot of practice! I write all the time, on my notes app, in my friend's DMs, on tumblr, whenever, wherever. Persistence is the key to any skill!

Q: Do you write for other fandoms? A: Not at the moment! But eventually.

When they lay me down to die, going up to the spirit in the sky!

Questions I get asked about me as a person.

Q: Do you have a partner in real life? A: No! Believe it or not, I've never even had a crush in real life! I'm not really big on romance. Ironic, I know. Q: Who's your favorite character? A: In all of fiction? Eli Monpress. But my like, number one hehehoo <3 character is Dante Sparda. I like my men very cocky and a little stupid.

Q: Favorite song? A: Five Bells by Coco and the Butterfields!

Q: Favorite trope? A: Friends to lovers is my bread and butter.

Q: Favorite game? A: Destiny. But besides that, I like Ghostwire Toyko!

Q: Favorite book? A: The Twistrose Key by Tone Almhjell!

Q: Favorite genre? A: Action-adventure! Especially the funny ones!

Q: Favorite TV show? A: Pysch! It totally influenced how I write comedy and talk.

Q: Favorite author? A: Can I be boring and say Shakespeare and Tolkien? They're the reason I write like I do.

Q: Favorite musical artist? A: Coco and the Butterfields! But Powerwolf is a close second.

Q: What's your username mean? A: Kaz-Identified was just a whim, there's no real meaning behind it. Houseofmcallister is a joke on my last name and old nobility.

Q: Any advice for writers? A: Practice! It's the only way to improve.

Give me a shot to remember! And you can take all the pain away from me!

And that's it! Wow, that's a lot of words!

So now you know me! Yay!

ao3: houseofmcallister main account: houseofmcallister buy me a coffee!

Don’t repost my work or I’ll eat your shoulder blades! I do not consent to my works being used for AI training purposes.

[splinter-sister]

Tomas's are big birds in Trigun and they seem to double as mounts and food. How hard is it to break in one of those? They must be trained like horses or something. But they also eat them???? Must be a lot of birds.

[scribble-dee-doo]

uuuh ffvii/trigun crossover go

Cloud discovers the only man on the face of Gaia with worse danger bait than him in a bar on the edge of the Midgar Wastes where it butts up against the endless sand of the desert. If the desert has a name, he's never heard of it - there's not much call to travel this way, anymore, and he never wandered so near a place that could swallow him without a thought before the Midgar Wastes were just Midgar. Deserts in movies are usually golden, and there are streaks and striations of gold peeking up from the ground as it gets sandier, so the blanketing gray is probably dust from the Waste side. It's absolutely fucking dismal. After three days of rocketing across the Waste and straining his eyes to shit trying to figure out where the awful gray sky and awful gray land meet, he's starting to feel itchy all over. Because there's dust in his clothes and Fenrir, for all its many benefits, doesn't carry a shower, sure. Also because the absolute absence of life and the sense that, no matter how fast he drove, he never got anywhere, it was just. A little too close to unreal.

There was a rough second where he saw the buildings - also gray - rising out of the formless horizon and felt like he was waking up from a nightmare. He's telling the next anxious granny with a stupid child "trying to make it" in the devil's asscrack that she could deliver her letters herself.

He's never been quite as conscious of the way Fenrir's engine sounds amongst buildings compared to flat openness as when he rolled into those dust-coated buildings on the dust-coated plains on the rim of the dust-coated desert, and he hopes it's a knowledge he'll forget and never learn again. Room for the night isn't hard to find, Fenrir is too heavy and plain bizarre for anybody to steal it without making an unholy racket and possibly killing themselves, and Cloud finds a fuckoff big sword is a great way to enforce his boundaries without much effort no matter where he is. There's a rangy blue chocobo of a subspecies he's never seen before in the stable, with a narrow neck and face and broadly-splayed feet like snowshoes. He says hi and takes a quick look at what appears to be a dust mask for the bird hanging on the wall, makes a mental note to try finding its owner to talk shop, and beds down in a gray little room he's hoping is too arid for lice or fleas.

He comes down for breakfast the next day and discovers the chocobo's owner and his new best friend was bedded down across the hall from him. He learns this later. When he comes down the rickety stairs of the inn hoping against all hope that they'll have coffee strong enough to oust the headache he's been battling for days, the violently red coat at the bar is the first and only impression he has for a very long moment. Then he notices how the room has more people in it than strictly should be at just after dawn in the middle of nowhere. Last is the way that the overpowering gray even of the interior decorating has been livened up by the brand new scars of a scuffle revealing the underlying color of the wood.

That's probably why he came down with his swords strapped on, even though he's barely conscious for the first five minutes after he's ambulatory. The red is a ridiculous coat, obscuring most of a bloodied body draped backwards over the bar at an angle that makes Cloud's hips twinge. He knows better than to get involved in small-town scuffles and makes for the door.

He narrowly dodges a heart attack when the red coat jolts in the corner of his vision and he's suddenly joined the entire room in pointing swords, clubs, pitchforks, and the remnants of a shattered chair at the body that just sat up like a jack-in-the-box.

"That was way too close," he says, and does a backwards flip off the bar that shouldn't be possible in pants that tight or covered in useless belts.

[adelha-mathilde]

Falling Into Paradise (Trigun Fanfiction) part 6

summary: After falling into a new world, Vash has been saved by a woman named Adelha. Yet he does get to meet a few other residents. Which leaves a very big impression on Vash.

characters: Vash the Stampede, Adelha Mathilde

content: mention of violence, mention of trauma, blood, injury

Vash ends up eating three plates of the pancakes and waffles as Wesson and Aqua play with his toes. Adelha more than willing to keep the food coming until he finishes the third plate and huffs out a breath. So Adelha hums to take the now empty plate and chuckle at Vash. "Someone was definitely hungry. But I think it is time you stopped, Vash. We don't want for you to overdo things." Vash gives that nervous smile to blush. "It was just so tasty. Especially the fruits you used for the pancakes. But I will say that I should make you breakfast at some point in time. To show my thanks."

Adelha visibly pauses to then give another chuckle. Vash looking to Adelha as she sits down with her mug of lemon tea. "I would accept such a trade. But you should be mindful of how you phrase things. I doubt you know of the old tales about fairies and the magic Fae folk. But I grew up with those warnings and cautions to live by them." Vash looks quite confused to really think on those words before shaking his head. "I haven't heard about fairies since I was a little kid and reading old books from Earth. Like Rumplestiltzkin. Are you saying fairies exist here?" Adelha gives a nod of her head to smile at Vash. "Hence why I warned you about my neighbors. Since they are of the Fae and tend to love pranks and mischief. The oldest warning any who believe in the Fae know is to never tell them 'thank you' for anything. Since saying such may be translated into that you owe them a favor. Which will be a disaster. Hence the stories like Rumplestiltzkin and so forth. they are to show the dangers of treating with the Fae and how terrible things might get. So mind your words, Vash."

As if on some cue, the sounds of giggling come from the outside for Adelha to heave a sigh of air. "It would seem they heard me. Brace yourself. The aerials decided to come by my home." Vash blinks to then open stare as three little winged creatures fly into the kitchen area. But they were not birds. They looked like a mix of human and bird to be giggling and chittering away. All three end up circling him before they land upon the table. The biggest of the three being the only one with arms and hands. The other two merely having wings for Vash to just stare in absolute wonder. While Adelha sips her tea to say a few things in Gaelic to her newest visitors. Which has all three look to Vash to then bow their heads before the biggest one speaks. "Hello hello, to you. We are so happy to see a new visitor in these woods. Yes yes. Such a surprise to savor. Like fine honey fresh off the honeycomb. The birds and bees said that our healing lady has a new friend. So we simply had to come and see for ourselves."

Vash gives a squeak when one of the smaller bird creatures lifts up to then land on his shoulder. Her feathers being the darkest green of the three as she coos and all but rubs her frame to his cheek, "We have never once met one such as you before in all these centuries. Such an exciting thing to meet an unknown fellow creature. Yes yes. We knew you were hurting and needed rest. But now you are awake and looking much better. We are happy to finally meet you." Adelha sighs to note with a tone of warning, "Remember. He is under my direct care and safety. As such, I expect for all of you to be on your best behavior. Vash is not to be harmed or tricked or any of those things." The bird creatures sound a bit off put to openly pout at Adelha. But they soon nod as the biggest of the three sighs and speaks. "We understand. It would not do to tire or sadden our newest guest to these woods. Especially when this one is still so badly hurt. We found the traces of the blood that was left behind from the shore. It had many of the others very worried for our guest. But if we are needed to help with the healing, we will accept an extra bottle of cream for the bargain."

Adelha looks visibly surprised at this as Vash reaches his hand out to gently touch one of the bird creatures on the head. Which has them huff to then openly grump a little. "Hey hey. How rude. We are not little pets for you to pat. We are of the Fae and should be treated with respect. But that... Does feel good..." Vash keeps giving the bird creature head rubs for the creature to coo and chitter. Which has the other two smile as Vash speaks. "So amazing. I would never be able to meet such amazing new individuals back home. it's all desert and rocks and hot winds." The bird creatures look up to Vash to ask him, "What else? What might you tell us about your home? Please please tell us!"

So Vash goes into talking about his past and his world. About how humanity ended up there and how they live their lives. About the Tomas and the Sandworms as well as the Plants. About the people he has met and the cities he has been to. Adelha filling his mug of tea on occasion as the three neighbors sit and listen with all of their attention. Until Vash goes quiet for Adelha to look to the clock and laugh. "It would seem we have spent a good hour listening to your stories and tales, Vash. But I would say we stop there for today. If you want to continue this tomorrow, I see no reason to refuse the aerials another visit."

The bird creatures openly cheer to fly around Vash and give chirps of elation. All for them to each float close and give Vash a kiss on the cheek. Which has Vash blush and smile one of those genuine real smiles. While the biggest aerial speaks with sweet happy words. "We would love to hear more about our newest addition to these woods. Yes yes. Stories are one of our favorite things. So we will go back to our nests and continue our duties to the island. Be well, one that is named Vash. We will return with gifts to trade for more stories." With that, the three little fairies fly off and out the door to giggle and laugh. Adelha looking quite thoughtful as Vash watches them leave. With Wesson and Aqua soon scampering off after the aerials and out into the front garden. Adelha gets up from her seat to move and place her hands to Vash's shoulders. "A good start for your stay here in this sanctuary. But your throat has to be raw after all that talking you just did. So let's get you back to bed for a nap."

Vash nods to then turn his gaze and look into Adelha's eyes. His words full and soft as he asks a question that came up after the fairies entered the kitchen. "Adelha. Be honest with me. There are no humans on this island. Are there?" Adelha goes as wide eyed as possible as Vash watches her reaction. But soon Adelha huffs to look to the ceiling and nod. "You would be correct, Vash. I had a feeling you would catch on rather quickly. But you keep exceeding my expectations lately." Adelha then looks to Vash to gently turn his office chair around so she might fully face him. A sadness in her gaze as she speaks. "We are supposed to simply be legend and myth to the humans that call this world their own. The Fae decided long ago that secrecy is paramount for survival. So we live among humans in plain sight. But we also do not let ourselves be known to the vast majority. But considering how you ended up here, there is little reason to hide the truth from you. I place my trust in you to keep things that need to be kept under lock and key. Yet the real question is if you trust me?"

Vash takes but a moment to really think on Adelha's words. But he makes his choice rather quickly. "I have spent so long keeping my own secrets and sins. You have given me no reason to fear you or mistrust you. So for now, I will place my trust in you. Adelha. You have given every kindness and ensured my safety ever since you found me. So I have no reason to doubt you now." Adelha goes rigid to then close those striking blue eyes. A few tears tracing down her cheeks as she sighs in relief. "I am honored by your words. Truly. Vash. Your words mean more than you might ever realize..."

[vvildflowerrr]

⛤🍃🫀🌿welcome to my blog!🌿🫀🍃⛤

(03/30/24 - read while u can i plan to delete a lot of this soon, the internet is a shitty place)

name - Wil (short for Willow!)

age - 24

gender - fluid (they/he and sometimes she)

orientation - poly, queer, sapphic, fluid

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about me:

I'm here to shitpost and look at pretty things, and hopefully find interesting spiritual anecdotes from other folks too! this blog has turned into - mostly - a collection of information to pair with my real life studies into esoteric knowledge and my personal religious/spiritual path. I also vent on here at times in the form of prose usually, but sometimes just screaming :) lol

I'm currently studying a form of Feral Druidry with some guidance from my former roomie/my good friend, who is a Druid Priest, as well as taking online courses! I started my spiritual path with An Mórrígan from the Irish pantheon. I studied Heathenry for awhile to connect with Hel, whom I still love and work with even if I've shifted in my path more. I incorporate some practice from Cultus Deorum/Roman paganism because I connected with Venus as well last year during Yule! Past those three, who I work with loosely, I also work with the concept of "The Wild" as an overarching theme, they are all the unexplainable energies in my life and push me to challenge myself as much as the Goddess figureheads I love do <3

You'll often find me writing miscellaneous bullshit and putting a melody to it in my feeble attempts at making music. ( check out my youtube channel here: https://youtube.com/@willowcrowluxx )

I have two cats! one is a shorthaired blonde tailless boy named Nubbin, and then a longhaired black, poofy tailed baby named Binx!

I'm currently in therapy working through ptsd stuff etc, so you will definitely see me get emo on the dashboard every now and again. my apologies in advance.

you can find all of my spiritual content under my personal tag: #anmorheljave

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- ⛤ -

interests:

(things I like and look for on this lovely little hellsite)

skyrim - I just started playing in 2022 and have such a deep love for this game. I finally defeated Alduin! And am now spending time going through all the other questlines and digging deeper into the lore!

queer stuff - I'm some flavor of gay, a fluid nonbinary person questioning being transmasc, figuring it out! but have done my fair share of discourse in the past, not down for that now lol 🙃 queer people are beautiful and wonderful however they identify in good faith <3

music - I have an eclectic taste in music and am always seeking more! and also want to make music for a living in my future :) some faves are: tash sultana, vernon jane, ocean alley, halsey, ethel cain, IDLES, fleetwood mac, hozier, paramore, alanis morissette, janis joplin, amy winehouse, nirvana, alice in chains, brown bird, queens of the stone age, ¡mayday!, lights, bring me the horizon, ghostmane, $uicideboy$, mother mother, tame impala, rainbow kitten surprise, pvris

nature - I find a lot of peace in nature and find a lot of my next steps while hanging out within it. also it's beautiful so I like finding aesthetically pleasing media for it :')

psychology and self-help - I'm a mess lmao, better to learn the whys and how I can improve as a human!

spirituality, paganism etc.

dungeons & dragons - just a big time fantasy nerd

anime - I love one piece, soul eater, sonny boy, chainsaw man, trigun, and others✨

horizon: zero dawn - I started playing this game in 2023 and fell IN LOVE with the world, the story, everything. plus I will always have the hots for femmes who use bows and arrows 🥹<3 I can't wait to play Forbidden West!

percy jackson universe - currently rereading PJO and HoO, have been reading these since I wars 9 and very excited for new book and show!

youtube - I watch julien solomita, markiplier, ethan nestor, strange æons, dan & phil, kurtis conner, jarvis johnson, chad chad, gabi belle, eddy burback, ted nivison, and various other video essays I find on interesting topics :)

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if you want to know about my music taste, here's a hellishly long playlist with all my faves :)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2KzaesbV2ESDKI8AB3cfQC?si=muKOSyjMTaWUDb4SWrfPqw

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sideblogs

@thatferalbogdruid - spirituality & paganism

i hope you enjoy your time here!🌿🫀🍃

- ⛤ -

Anmórheljave.

[delcat177]

“Del are you going to use all those stickers you got from @juliahut or not” “STICKERS ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO COMMIT TO A STICKER”

Hey guys I finally committed to stickers 8,D  And I used them to make a galaxy of the things I love!

First things first, I wanna say these are A++++ stickers.  They come on sturdy backing so there’s no distortion in the sheets, and there’s no fading or color inaccuracies (the Trigun stickers look a little more pastel because of the relative thinness of the lines compared to the other designs, don’t be fooled!).  I was also able to peel and replace them to adjust placement initially without them tearing, wrinkling, crackling, or otherwise leaving me with a sad mess of ex-sticker.  I will say that they adhere ROCK SOLID after 15-20 minutes, so they’re not swappable like some stickers, but that’s assuming you’d wanna let these bad boys go in the first place.

SO ANYWAY HERE WE GO

Sheets used: Kiki’s Delivery Service, Trigun, Drinks, Fluffy Dinosaurs, Ice Cream Planet, Local Birds (currently out of stock)

I’m always nervous about these things because stickers are COMMITMENT, but I started with the ice cream planets and then went “you know...I already have my space nerds...what if it was a galaxy of ME” and I took off running from there

In the upper left we have the border lands, Pandora and Gunsmoke hanging out like the crossover I desperately want to read but desperately don’t want to write

Closer to the back, we have the unknown and bizarre reaches of space, where one of @bogleech‘s designs rules sovereign over the fluffsters time forgot

LOOK OUT CAP’N WE’RE GETTING SUCKED INTO A SNACK HOLE

I’m funny

With a little drift to them, the big sof birds make wonderful celestial bodies drifting around.  As @qglas put it, they’re in borbit.  gdi Megan how dare you beat me to the punch on a birb pun

Ursula transcends all laws of space-time in pursuit of her craft, as is right and good

My frontpiece is less organized, but my nerd heart is way too pleased with the symmetry of Jiji and Kuroneko-san.  This is what the inside of my head looks like all the time, except uhhhh less ESRB-friendly

AND because Julia is an AWESOME PERSON (seriously, I’ve been following her art for a llllong time and she’s super fun, super talented, and super sweet), she threw in an extra-large steggy sticker that completes the Oort Cloud of my external hard drive.  Hehe.  Oort Cloud.  I also got a nice handwritten thank you note and a freebie sticker sheet (not pictured here because a certain friend is getting it in a card shhhhh)!

So yeah, my computer is boss now and yours could be too!  Each sticker sheet is $5, which is a pretty heckin’ good deal when you consider it’s 8-12 quality-printed designer stickers apiece, and that they’re great for filling in around those big chunky Redbubble pieces you know you have slapped everywhere.

Or enhancing them.  I am way too pleased with this arrangement ok

If you wanna be a COOL SPACE CADET, consider checking out Julia’s shop today!

[ofcorsetstrash]

Between Scenes - Part 3

This is... less of a deleted scene from my weirdly epic kylux fic and more of a ‘I have no idea where to fit this in’ scene. So, yeah, consider this as actually happening. You know. Between You and Me.

Oh, and in case any of you were wondering about how much I’ve been borrowing from Trigun for this fic...

Wast Liorpan wiped at a stubborn sticky spot on the bar, hoping a little elbow grease would be enough. When it wasn’t, he shrugged and moved on, It wasn’t like his usual clientele would care. A small sigh escaped him. It had been a further step down than he thought it would be, moving to the wild and lawless Outer Rim. Guess that was the price of getting lazy with the less legal side-business. Next thing you know, people are yelling things like ‘jail time’ and ‘thirty-year-sentence’.

The bell hung over the door rang, which wasn’t terribly unusual. Even in the middle of the day, like this. Some people liked to get their drinking done nice and early. This person, though, didn’t really look the type. Tall, black robes, hood over his head and cowl pulled up to hide his mouth and nose. Or maybe to block out the smells outside. Skulked into the room like an awkward, gangly carrion-bird.

Wast set down the glass he’d been cleaning. “What can I get for you, stranger?”

The man dropped his cowl and hood, carefully seating himself at the end of the bar furthest from the door. He looked around the empty bar, shaking long black hair out of his face. Wasn’t a bad-looking face, either. Even with that scar.

“Do you have any ice cream?”

Wast blinked a few times. “Any… ice cream?”

The stranger smiled and nodded. “I haven’t had ice cream in… in years.”

Wast was about to laugh in his face and shoo him out of the bar, when he remembered. “Actually, yeah. I do. Use it for mixing up those slushy drinks the Yaroshians like so much.”

“Great!” The stranger was all but beaming, child-like glee bursting out of him. “Could you put some of that purple lindenberry sauce on top?” He pointed at the jar on the shelf.

Wast dug a wide glass out from under the counter and located a spoon. “Do you want sprinkles on it, too?”

“You have sprinkles!?” The kid asked. He must have been a kid. Looked like he might not even be old enough to shave regularly, with that smile lighting his face up like that.

“No.”

“Oh. You were joking.”

Wast got the ice cream dished up and set it down. Eager as he was, the stranger took only a very small spoonful at first, almost daintily taking his first bite. Wast was about to return to cleaning, but he noticed tears running down his customer’s face.

“Um…” Usually this didn’t happen until after several Coruscanti Specials. “Are you… alright?”

“Yes,” the kid sniffled. “I just… it’s been awhile since I had ice cream. It’s better than I remember.”

“Do you have a name, stranger?”

The kid nodded. “Kylo.”

“Just Kylo?”

Something dark tugged at the corner of the stranger’s mouth, and suddenly Wast wasn’t so sure about how old he was. “Yeah. Just Kylo.”

Wat gathered up a few glasses and ran them back to the sanitizer. When he got back the kid was still savoring a spoonful like a good round of geppers on a cold night.

“So,” said Wast, feeling more comfortable now and rather wanting to gossip. “Did you hear about that…” He’d heard the news from a Wookiee bounty-hunter, and wasn't sure how the word was supposed to translate into galactic basic. “Killing-Star?”

The kid, Kylo, lowered his spoon and stared at Wast. “Killing-Star?” he repeated, disbelief in his voice.

Wast couldn’t tell if that was because Kylo hadn’t heard or because he was saying it wrong, so he gave it another stab. “Killer Star?”

The kid set his spoon down. “What about it?” he asked.

“Oh,” Wast shrugged one side of his body. “Didn’t you hear? It blew up and now the government is a mess and a bunch of people are upset.”

“I hate to think what that’ll do to the economy.” Kylo said, his voice bland.

After that, Wast just let him eat in peace, content with his attempt at social interaction this early in the day.

*_*_*_*

“Hey. That guy. How long has he been sittin’ there?”

Wast tensed. The slavers sounded like they’d already been around to old Thristan’s place and drunk him out of business for the evening. They sounded like they were eager. Eager for a fight, or maybe to add to their collection that followed them quietly, eyes downcast.

“Beats me,” one of the slavers grumbled. Alarm rising in his throat, Wast realized that they were talking about the kid. Kylo, he’d said his name was. Still sitting quietly at the far end of the bar, nursing his third dish of ice cream. Damn. Wast kept an old Corellian blaster under the bar, but it was mostly for show, to scare some off the big talkers.

“You bitch!” One of the slavers suddenly roared, backhanding one of the girls behind him. “You were looking at him! You know I have to punish you, now!” He stood and slapped the girl again, sending her sprawling to the ground. “Disrespect! I can’t stand it when I’m disrespected!”

This was already looking to turn ugly. Wast looked down at the glass he was cleaning. It was already clean, but he didn’t stop trying to get it even cleaner.

A loud clack. “Alright, Boaz, that’s enough,” said another slaver, his voice calm, even bored.

“But she was lookin’ right at him!” argued the brutish Boaz. Wast wasn’t sure what species this guy was, but it sure wasn’t pretty to look at.

The other slaver, Wast thought he must be their leader, laughed a little. “You don’t stand a chance against him, anyway. Too bad. He looks like one of those ladykiller types. The kind the women all go after.” Wast finally looked up as the leader stood slowly, stretching his arms over his head. “Well, Mister Handsome, that’s real cruel of you. You see, these girls are too delicate. They have nothing. No families, no lovers, no pasts. And there you sit, making ‘em think of what they don’t have. Now I gotta take the time to help them forget it again, won’t I…”

Wast glanced down to the other end of the bar. The stranger, Kylo, gave no indication that he’d even heard anything from the slavers. Still a placid look on his face as he raised another spoonful of slowly melting cream to his mouth.

The big ugly brute growled, his hand drifting to the blaster at his hip. “Are you listening, slick? What, do you think you’re too good for us? Hey, PUNK!” The slaver drew and shot his weapon faster than Wast could blink. When he did blink, he saw Kylo blinking, as well, looking rather startled at the sheared-off end of his utensil. I’ll have to repaint that wall, Wast heard himself think. The slavers all chuckled, shifting as they smelled blood in the water.

Kylo looked up at Wast then, still no emotion on his face. “Could I have another spoon?”

“ASSHOLE!” A flurry of blaster shots flashed across the bar, and Wast ducked, tried to make himself as small and unnoticeable as possible.

Quickly, though, the noise died down, and Wast glanced up, fearing the worst. There sat Kylo, still, blaster holes in the wall next to him, his dark eyes finally fixed on the slavers. He looked… bemused.

“It isn’t wise to be hasty,” he murmured. “I was already planning on killing all of you later today, but…” Kylo stood, slowly, and seemed taller than he had an hour ago. The shadows around him seemed darker, too, but that must have been just a trick of the light. “Why is it you insist upon meeting your death sooner?”

The big, ugly slaver laughed. “You don’t make any sense! Just talking a bunch of nonsense…”

But Kylo was walking forward then, his eyes unblinking as he stepped closer to the slaver. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter,” he whispered. The slaver blinked rapidly. He hadn’t expected the scrawny person eating ice cream in the corner to tower over him, it looked like. Then, he raised his hand in the air.

Much to his own surprise, it seemed.

“Oh,” Kylo said with a grin. “We have a volunteer. How wonderful.”

“What the- What the hell are you doing to me!” the slaver screamed.

“It’s simple. You’re the first to die.”

Wast cowered behind the bar, watched in horror as the slaver’s limb twisted, seemingly of it’s own accord. The creature screamed, then screamed louder as his own fingers dug into the flesh between his ribs. Wast had to close his eyes, had to look away and try not to lose control of his stomach. The terrible screaming and the sound of tearing flesh continued for only about ten seconds, according to his chrono. It felt much longer.

“Boaz!” the leader shouted. Wast glanced up just in time to see him pull out his blaster, murder on his face as he stared down Kylo.

It wasn’t Kylo that he shot, however. Everyone in the room watched as, at the last second, he turned, firing his own blaster into another slaver’s chest. The dead man could only gape in silent shock at his leader as he crumpled to the floor. Before anyone could even think, all of the small band of slavers had their blasters drawn. All of them pointed at each other.

“What the hell are you doing!” The leader was screaming, now, his eyes full of fear like he’d probably never known in his life. Kylo only tipped his head slightly, that dark smile still dancing around his mouth and seeping out his eyes. “You bastard! DAMN YOU! BASTARD!”

“No!”

“Please stop!”

“I don’t wanna die!”

But none of them could move, suspended as they were, held captive by… by some kind of force…

Wast had to look away. He had to. Couldn’t watch this horrific display of terror and death as one by one the slavers began to shoot each other. Their screams rose in pitch, panic painting the room red, until only one lone voice remained. That voice cried out in terror, and was suddenly silenced.

The dead quiet was broken only by a very small scraping sound. Wast looked up to see the tall, dark monster gently placing a credit chit on the bar.

“That should cover the ice cream,” Kylo’s voice was deceptively soft. Deceptively bloodless. “And the cost of body disposal. Plus a little extra, for the inconvenience.”

~~~*****~~~

[scribble-dee-doo]

OH HEY IF I HAVEN'T GONE TO BED YET DOES IT STILL COUNT AS WEDNESDAY. i have discovered 4thewords and trigun has seized control of my brain, i've written So Much in the last two weeks

WIPs:

moon entertains himself, the books of the raksura

"We should have just put him on the hunting rotation, I think," Chime concludes.

Balm hits him in the arm. At this point he's been around warriors, female warriors, and Balm the female warrior for long enough to tell that it's barely a love tap. She agrees with him. She's watching Moon stalk Flood through her fingers, but she agrees. Letting Moon join the hunting parties a month ago might have headed off whatever new Moon-ness they're dealing with now.

roberto & vash musings (the continuation of this), trigun

Vash grins, still holding his shirt down over where his hand is pressed to his side. It looks like he's trying to hide a kitten from a strict parent, except his visible hand is bare of his glove and blood-streaked.... Vash protests, a little, painfully polite, but Roberto just tugs at his shirt again and he lets Roberto look through the tear. Even with that much he slumps like a teenager, head falling boneless to his sternum with a put-upon sigh.

"Brat," Roberto informs him, and gets a tongue stuck out at him.

Two of the three visible moons are full, so even with one hanging heavy near the horizon, there's enough light to see Vash has been hiding roadburn's ugly older brother.

trigun time travel

Knives visits the cells for the first time in over a year and hears one of the doctor's lab rats humming. It's a cracked, ugly sound, worse than the humans' usual fawning but better than their gloating laughter. He would ignore it and continue on to remind the vermin that he sees even into their dark corners if it wasn't his song. Their song. He stands in the corridor for a long moment, listening to the tune he spent decades perfecting warp and stutter in a human's voice.

i've considered the parallels between cloud ffvii and vash trigun and concluded they should be best friends

He's never been quite as conscious of the way Fenrir's engine sounds amongst buildings compared to flat openness as when he rolled into those dust-coated buildings on the dust-coated plains on the rim of the dust-coated desert, and he hopes it's a knowledge he'll forget and never learn again. Room for the night isn't hard to find, Fenrir is too heavy and plain bizarre for anybody to steal it without making an unholy racket and possibly killing themselves, and Cloud finds a fuckoff big sword is a great way to enforce his boundaries without much effort no matter where he is. There's a rangy blue chocobo of a subspecies he's never seen before in the stable, with a narrow neck and face and broadly-splayed feet like snowshoes. He says hi and takes a quick look at what appears to be a dust mask for the bird hanging on the wall, makes a mental note to try finding its owner to talk shop, and then beds down in a gray little room he's hoping is too arid for lice or fleas.

bubble vash and the horrors (post-stampede au)

Upside: Meryl doesn't hit Wolfwood with her truck this time. Downside: the look on her face tells him that if she does it again, it'll be on purpose. Upside: she still picks him up out of the desert. Downside: he's still stuck in the back seat, because somewhere along the way Meryl picked up a new cheerful giant. She calls Meryl "Miss Stryfe." She tries to make small-talk with him. She looks between where he's slouched against the window, watching the dunes go by, and Meryl gripping the steering wheel so hard he can see the strain of new muscles all the way up to her shoulders, and says "Oh! Are you two exes?"

[scribble-dee-doo]

uuuh ffvii/trigun crossover go

Cloud discovers the only man on the face of Gaia with worse danger bait than him in a bar on the edge of the Midgar Wastes where it butts up against the endless sand of the desert. If the desert has a name, he's never heard of it - there's not much call to travel this way, anymore, and he never wandered so near a place that could swallow him without a thought before the Midgar Wastes were just Midgar. Deserts in movies are usually golden, and there are streaks and striations of gold peeking up from the ground as it gets sandier, so the blanketing gray is probably dust from the Waste side. It's absolutely fucking dismal. After three days of rocketing across the Waste and straining his eyes to shit trying to figure out where the awful gray sky and awful gray land meet, he's starting to feel itchy all over. Because there's dust in his clothes and Fenrir, for all its many benefits, doesn't carry a shower, sure. Also because the absolute absence of life and the sense that, no matter how fast he drove, he never got anywhere, it was just. A little too close to unreal.

There was a rough second where he saw the buildings - also gray - rising out of the formless horizon and felt like he was waking up from a nightmare. He's telling the next anxious granny with a stupid child "trying to make it" in the devil's asscrack that she could deliver her letters herself.

He's never been quite as conscious of the way Fenrir's engine sounds amongst buildings compared to flat openness as when he rolled into those dust-coated buildings on the dust-coated plains on the rim of the dust-coated desert, and he hopes it's a knowledge he'll forget and never learn again. Room for the night isn't hard to find, Fenrir is too heavy and plain bizarre for anybody to steal it without making an unholy racket and possibly killing themselves, and Cloud finds a fuckoff big sword is a great way to enforce his boundaries without much effort no matter where he is. There's a rangy blue chocobo of a subspecies he's never seen before in the stable, with a narrow neck and face and broadly-splayed feet like snowshoes. He says hi and takes a quick look at what appears to be a dust mask for the bird hanging on the wall, makes a mental note to try finding its owner to talk shop, and beds down in a gray little room he's hoping is too arid for lice or fleas.

He comes down for breakfast the next day and discovers the chocobo's owner and his new best friend was bedded down across the hall from him. He learns this later. When he comes down the rickety stairs of the inn hoping against all hope that they'll have coffee strong enough to oust the headache he's been battling for days, the violently red coat at the bar is the first and only impression he has for a very long moment. Then he notices how the room has more people in it than strictly should be at just after dawn in the middle of nowhere. Last is the way that the overpowering gray even of the interior decorating has been livened up by the brand new scars of a scuffle revealing the underlying color of the wood.

That's probably why he came down with his swords strapped on, even though he's barely conscious for the first five minutes after he's ambulatory. The red is a ridiculous coat, obscuring most of a bloodied body draped backwards over the bar at an angle that makes Cloud's hips twinge. He knows better than to get involved in small-town scuffles and makes for the door.

He narrowly dodges a heart attack when the red coat jolts in the corner of his vision and he's suddenly joined the entire room in pointing swords, clubs, pitchforks, and the remnants of a shattered chair at the body that just sat up like a jack-in-the-box.

"That was way too close," he says, and does a backwards flip off the bar that shouldn't be possible in pants that tight or covered in useless belts.