![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
[TDM Thread] Crane City - Coastline
Mar. 26th, 2023 07:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
painhub[ Vash had always been good at running. When the heat was on and tensions were high, it was the best way to bleed out all of that violence. Trouble followed him, sure, but it followed him away from people who didn't deserve it.
So, that was what he had done, from the first moment he set foot in Avisle. He'd bolted through the "tutorials" and fled from the "game", and then the scene had shifted again. He'd tossed away the controller and he'd run from his... home? It was all a blur, memories laced into each other, surreal now that he knew none of it - most of it - was Nai trying to rearrange everything inside of him.
You're no hero who will save everyone. You're just a coward who can't stand to watch anyone die.
But that was okay. He just had to keep running.
The nice thing about Noman's Land had been that no matter where he went, the desert would always be there to swallow him up again. That wasn't true here. The world seemed loud and vibrant, and full of blind alleys and lost technology and so many people who looked at him with fear, alarm, and even sympathy.
He supposed he looked strange to them. He'd fled from his room without stopping to find his boots, expecting the scene to change too quickly for it to matter. He definitely regretted that, but he wasn't about to stop. He dodged more than one person calling out to him. He was clumsy, slower than he should be, but he managed. It didn't matter if they looked kind, or - not human? - or if this world was different from anything he'd ever seen up close - Nai would kill them the moment they got close. It was a trick. Even if it didn't feel like a trick. Even if it didn't really... make sense.
He doesn't get very far. Unlike Noman's Land, this place doesn't go on forever, and when he finally hits the sand again it isn't the desert at all. It's a thin stretch of sand that gives way to more water than Vash has ever even imagined, all bright sparkling blue under the late afternoon sun. It seems to just go on endlessly. A beach, some part of his mind supplies.
He isn't conscious of exactly when his knees hit the sand, only that everything seems to catch up to him at once. His lungs burn while his heart is trying to pound its way out of his chest, all well past the point of overtaxed. Vash doubles over coughing between attempts to do several miles worth of breathing all at once. He can feel tears stinging at the corners of his eyes. His arm is back to normal, he realizes, holding it against his stomach.
Distantly, he notes that there's blood trailing behind him from some cut on his heel that he hadn't even noticed, and Nai hasn't appeared to cast blame down upon the world for it.
Even if he focuses, Vash can't feel Nai at all anymore.
It should be a relief, but something about that absence is more deeply disquieting than any other pain. ]
So, that was what he had done, from the first moment he set foot in Avisle. He'd bolted through the "tutorials" and fled from the "game", and then the scene had shifted again. He'd tossed away the controller and he'd run from his... home? It was all a blur, memories laced into each other, surreal now that he knew none of it - most of it - was Nai trying to rearrange everything inside of him.
You're no hero who will save everyone. You're just a coward who can't stand to watch anyone die.
But that was okay. He just had to keep running.
The nice thing about Noman's Land had been that no matter where he went, the desert would always be there to swallow him up again. That wasn't true here. The world seemed loud and vibrant, and full of blind alleys and lost technology and so many people who looked at him with fear, alarm, and even sympathy.
He supposed he looked strange to them. He'd fled from his room without stopping to find his boots, expecting the scene to change too quickly for it to matter. He definitely regretted that, but he wasn't about to stop. He dodged more than one person calling out to him. He was clumsy, slower than he should be, but he managed. It didn't matter if they looked kind, or - not human? - or if this world was different from anything he'd ever seen up close - Nai would kill them the moment they got close. It was a trick. Even if it didn't feel like a trick. Even if it didn't really... make sense.
He doesn't get very far. Unlike Noman's Land, this place doesn't go on forever, and when he finally hits the sand again it isn't the desert at all. It's a thin stretch of sand that gives way to more water than Vash has ever even imagined, all bright sparkling blue under the late afternoon sun. It seems to just go on endlessly. A beach, some part of his mind supplies.
He isn't conscious of exactly when his knees hit the sand, only that everything seems to catch up to him at once. His lungs burn while his heart is trying to pound its way out of his chest, all well past the point of overtaxed. Vash doubles over coughing between attempts to do several miles worth of breathing all at once. He can feel tears stinging at the corners of his eyes. His arm is back to normal, he realizes, holding it against his stomach.
Distantly, he notes that there's blood trailing behind him from some cut on his heel that he hadn't even noticed, and Nai hasn't appeared to cast blame down upon the world for it.
Even if he focuses, Vash can't feel Nai at all anymore.
It should be a relief, but something about that absence is more deeply disquieting than any other pain. ]