doubledollar | IC INBOX

[For a moment, Rose looks extremely...sad. As terrible as everything she went through back home was, she always had people by her side. Maybe she was luckier than she realized.]

I see.

[Said with the cadence with someone who absolutely understands, but does not agree.]

Well, it’s different here, at least. You aren’t alone anymore, and I’m happy to continue fighting by your side.

[ ough the look on her face. it hits him like a train and his hands are coming up, as if to placate her. ]

It's fine!
It's fine, really. It's MUCH different here, see. Back home, um. The entire world is kind of in danger, humans are living on a planet that pretty much isn't suited to them so everyone's pretty...
Well.
Being too nice usually gets you in trouble.

[ he's gonna touch his missing arm without thinking about it. ]

It's much better here. People have a chance, a better world, comforts...
I can make friends here without worrying.

["Being too nice gets you into trouble." Where had she heard that before? Oh, that's right. She's got the deets.]

You know, your friend said something similar. I think Wolfwood was his name?

[Should she have said that? Ah well, c'est la vie.]

Well, regardless, I intend to stay your friend, regardless of what happens. I've weathered worse before.

[ erp. he goes a bit rigid for a second when she mentions wolfwood. then he laughs again. she absolutely has deets. ]

Yyyyeah, that's absolutely something Nico would say. You met him, then?
He's pretty shy, so I'm glad to hear he's trying to make friends.

[ eheh. but. her next sentence makes his face look all... soft, kind of goofy as a hand moves to touch the back of his own neck. ]

That. Means more to me than you know, Rose.
Hearing that you've weathered worse isn't good!! That's not ...
I mean.

Having a friend who'll be there.
Sounds really good.
I'll be there for you, too, yanno?

Thank you. I appreciate it.

[And it's a genuine smile! No sarcasm to be had.]

[Until.]

[Until!]

Yes, Nico did seem rather...standoffish at first? I have a feeling we'll get along. [Because she's exactly the same, when she's not having serious (tm) conversations like this.]

He seemed to think about you a lot.

[ he sees that genuine smile and he is burning it into his memory.
people smiling like that really made his heart light, and were things he liked to think about when he was feeling low.
Roses' smile wasn't any different--it was one that bloomed just like her name.

He chuckles a little. ]

I'll make a simple request to you, to take anything rough he says with a grain of salt.
The planet we come from is. Well. Rough, at best, and he's a pretty big victim of some of its worst. Being standoffish is pretty much how everyone is, until you gain someone's trust.

I think you and him would make great friends, though.

[ but oh no. wolfwood talkimg about him? he seems to wilt a bit under that. ]

He's got... such a bad habit of that. Even back home, he puts me on blast and he doesn't know the meaning of subtlety at all.

It's not that I don't like people talking about me, just.
I don't want people to get the wrong idea about me, yanno??

[ he has no idea what wolfwood might have said, but. hopefully it wasnt anything too weird. ]

[She stops to think. Vash seemed...really serious about this, and as much as she wants to put Vash on blast for being a human labrador, she actually can't. She genuinely likes the guy, and she's learned over her short life the value of true friends. The kind that would sacrifice themselves at the edge of the universe for someone.]

You should know me well enough to know that I rarely take anything at face value.

[Even things she should, actually. It's a bad habit.]

Believe it or not, he spoke rather highly of you. Of course, there were the common threads, "he's too nice," but I hardly think that qualifies as an insult.

[Because it's true. It's true!!! He's too nice for his own good please don't get hurt you're important to her and she'd be sad.]

The only thing I can think of that you'd be worried about is the stuff that doesn't matter. To me, anyway. The wanted posters, the bounty, making trouble wherever you go, it would be in pretty poor taste to judge you for that when I've gone through similar myself. Besides, I've known you well enough I know it wasn't your fault.

[ and vash is exactly the sort of person who would sacrifice himself at the edge of any universe for a friend. he'd be first in line, honestly, were he in another time, another place with rose, in a place where the only way forward was to never be able to look back. ]

Yes, I would like to think I know you enough by now. [ honestly. he doesn't ever get to keep friends long--so he's honest. rose has slowly started to become one of the people he's known the longest, and his attachment to her has long past grown to a place where he'd believe anything she said without doubt.

he does have to give a little bit of a sheepish laugh when she mentions the he's too nice thing. Remembering a certain little kid aboard a sandsteamer set to crash over a cliff--you sound like those people from long ago--over 100 years ago, people who actually knew kindness, the ones who actually had the capacity to be nice. It makes his heart ache a little, but. ]

[ It's an emotion that's overtaken when rose admits what she knows--he's not fully surprised, if she's talked to Wolfwood he usually has a bit of a bad habit of saying more than he should. But for her to look him... in the eye, and say it wasn't his fault, and that it'd be poor for her to judge him for it...

he wasn't prepared for that sort of emotional honesty.

And now the plant man is left, openly staring at her with an expression that very much shows that he has no idea how to respond--with eyes that are filled with something like relief, some manner of comfort--joy?
he brings a hand up to try to cover his eyes as a laugh bubbles out, moments later. ]

...Haha.
Rose, you... [ you're ... ]

I'm glad we were able to meet.
Getting to meet people like you makes me believe I've been doing the right thing, for all these years.

[Rose cracks a sad smile. Loathe as she is to admit it, she’s grown rather close to Vash, too. Friends are important, and good friends are hard to come by. And though she’d never say it, she has been missing people from home.]

[But the difference here is she doesn’t know Vash’s entire story. She’s aware that she doesn’t. As terrible as she is with people, there’s a sadness in his eyes she can’t quite understand. She has no idea what’s waiting for him back home. She also doesn’t care, so she opens her mouth anyway.]

I’m sure you’ve heard this from the others, but back home, we’re holders of an important title. An important mission.

[A surprising non sequitur.]

Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in it. To forget you’re someone beyond the weight of your reputation.

[She has a point she swears.]

I think that, what I’m trying to say is, I’m glad I met you too. I don’t know what earned you those bounties—-and frankly, I don’t care. But I want you to be able to live free of the weight of others opinions. Remember that you’re more than the title that people give you, be it good or bad. Remember that you’re you.

Edited (don’t perceive me) 2023-05-30 01:45 (UTC)

The Warrior of Light.

[ he ... knows of it. he's heard from Takame that there was a number of people who held that title in the city, and he was sure that Takame was one--but Rose was one too. The name holds a weight that, while Vash might not know the gravity of the name, he can tell its there. Heavy and potent in its expectation for those who had it.

Takame had once said it was a title Vash deserved, and the comment had somewhat frightened him. He didn't need the extra weight--and yet at the same time, it meant a lot to hear that kind of belief in him.

Just like its heavy to hear Rose say, so plainly, that she didn't care what his bounty was. Or why.
It... strikes him, in an odd angle.
He's so used to dodging shots that nothing usually stirs him, used to weaving and ducking around real emotions to hide how he's truly feeling

and then she strikes, hard, and he's left quiet in the middle of his quaint little home
on Earth, the planet of his dreams.
Being seen by a woman who had only met him recently, who knew nothing of his atrocities and yet forgiving him anyway.

Did he deserve this.

That was the first thought that struck his head as he starts to dare to let his heart feel light
he threw himself so hard into saving other people because his life meant less to him than other people did
because he...

...because he... ]

Rose, I don't know.
If you
Know what sort of weight you're trying to push off my shoulders.
If you don't want to know. I won't tell you.
I'm terrified. Of telling anyone.
Because I don't want to let go of this.
I don't want to let go of this feeling you've given me.
Selfishly I want to keep that light on, in my heart. That I can be loved despite the things I've done.

You stand there and forgave me.
And I thank you. So, so. So much for that.
But I don't know if I can ever forgive myself.

[ his bounty is one he deserved. ]

You don't need to tell me, if you don't want to.

[Vash doesn't know the things she's done, either. He doesn't know about how she still can't make peace with the killer she's become. He doesn't know about how she still blames herself--for the post-Titan massacre, for the death of Haurchefant, for all of it. He doesn't know that she still can't sleep at night, or that her love of alcohol is partially to help cope.]

[But he doesn't need to. What Rose does know, without a doubt, is that Vash is a good person. She knows that, whatever he's done before, he's a good person now, and that's all that matters. She knows that he's someone she trusts and someone who, dare she say it, is important to her.]

But I can promise you that, no matter what it is, you'll still be my friend. That you'll still be the person that helped saved Takame, that helped save Waver. That I'll still fight by your side. That, even if the entire universe hates you, I won't. That I'll forgive you.

[ its not that he doesn't want to tell her. part of him does--but there's that bigger part of him that struggles with being honest, being open. He closes his eyes a little as she frees him from some of the sort of guilt that comes alongside keeping his heart hidden, telling him it's alright. at least for now.

He nods his head once, slowly. He can feel tears burning on the edges of his eyes a little as he raises his hand up to cover his face. He shouldn't hide it--that's honesty, too, but old habits die hard.

He's not used to it. Having his own words echoed at him, in a different voice, put in a different manner.
But at the same times, it's words he knows.
If god won't save you, I will.
If you have noone else at your side, I'll be there. ]

One day. One day I'll be brave enough to tell you, I think. [ because he's far to afraid, right now, but...

would it be terribly awkward for the very tall plant man to shuffle forward to drag rose into his (1) good arm, for a bit of an awkward embrace? because he's going to. ]

It's more than I could ever ask someone to do.
But thank you.
Thank you, for having that much belief in me.

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slams back into this

waeueaeja opens arms