IC INBOX

[doubledollar]

Hey, yo! You reached uh, me! You should know who this is, right?
Anyway, you must'a caught me at a bad time, so, uh. Leave a message! I'll get back to you soon as I can. Love and Peace!

username: STAMPEDE

✉ ☏ 📷

Comments

[doubledollar]

[ don't read him so hard or he might really fall apart from the impact of it, Jun.
he's always first in line to throw himself in the line of fire to protect others, but taking a life
any life...
his body locked up at the mere thought of it.
how many times had he pointed his gun at Knives, only to be unable to pull the trigger?

his expression sours at the last sentece, and something old and tired rears up in him. ]

there's a song that Plants share
I'm not sure if other beings can hear it, it's a high, old melody that the energy in our bodies makes, sort of like a heartbeat
we can hear it when we are in a certain vicinity to one another.
calling out for kin, without saying a word
its loudest when a plant is in distress
in pain, emotional or physical

i will do everything i can to change the course of how things went so noone will have to make a regrettable act that could be avoided.
everything.

I'll only curse you if you don't allow me the chance to try

i will save my breath on the other half
if he doesn't hear the cries for help
he won't hear my curses, either.

[whiteshroud]

[Jun stares at the message, wonders what Vash is getting at by telling him about the dying cry of the plant. To make him feel sympathy? More conflicted? It does for a moment, but his own resolve reminds him of the truth.]

All beings have a dying cry for help.
It's how possessions happen, when a Spirit Realm being hears those cries and decides to intervene.
I'll leave it up to you if you want to be there in your brother's final moments or not, should it come to that.
But just remember: every person he killed felt that same terror, just no one was there to listen.

[He makes no comment about the latter part. What's the point? ]

[doubledollar]

[ it isn't anything like an attempt to shake his convictions, or to change his mind. Rather, it was a plea--a cowardly one, perhaps, but a plea all the same. Vash knows what the heavy reality is here, and he isn't about to tell Shroud his convictions are wrong.

especially not when that last sentence hits vash like a freight train, and he has to lean on the doorway of the cottage for a moment so he doesn't sink down to the floor.
he doesn't want to remember it. he doesn't want to remember those cries for help. ]

which is why im not here telling you that your decision here is wrong
i dont know how much you know, but im very aware wolfwood has spoken a number of times about... his circumstances where everyone could see it
im not going to sit here foolishly and
attempt to convince anyone that what Millions Knives did was forgivable.

what i am trying to say is
that once that song turns to one of discordance and fear
im not sure how my body will react
i dont know what Plants are more than the basic definition


[ some angelic, alien species dug up in the depths of the earth and spliced with plants into living batteries--connected over a thin wire of psychic energy--?

what he's trying to say is

make sure he's far away ]

im going to work hard so we never have to have a conversation like this again, please have faith in me.
...but thank you for somehow being willing to compensate for my weakness.

[whiteshroud]

[He may try to stop him, in the heat of the moment, is what Vash is getting at. Jun is quiet for a moment. There's much he could say to this....most of it too cruel for him to want to say, even from under the shroud. There is no option to this that is pleasant, that isn't horrible in some regard.]

Understood.

[He fingers his silver cross to steel himself. To do what must be done...that is part of his pact. ]

My faith belongs to another, but I'll hope for your success.

[...]

It's no weakness to love. If I thought it was, I wouldn't be giving you a chance.

[doubledollar]

[ instinct may drive him to do something stupid, ill-advised, or even beyond his control. he needs shroud to be aware of that fact, if it truly, in the end, comes down to something like this--that vash simply can't be there to witness it. ]

thank you, shroud.

thank you
for giving me a chance.
for everyone's sake
for the sake of this world that ive grown to love
i wont let it slip through my fingers.

[whiteshroud]

[He stares at at the message. It's moments like this where he remembers why he hates hearing thank you's. He just said he was willing to kill this man's kid brother- and he's thanking him. That didn't feel like something that should be thanked, but cursed or scorned. It's not like he felt good having this conversation.

He has no idea how he's meant to respond to such words, so in the end....he doesn't.]

✔️ Read

[He has said his peace, so it's time to leave this be and try to shake off this monstrous feeling he has.]