Potatoes?

[plantussy]

CHARACTERS: Vash & You
TIME: Today
LOCATION: Mess Hall
WARNINGS: Alcohol and being blackout drunk

[ There's a bit of a mess in the cafeteria, and the mess is named Vash Saverem. Slumped over the table like an oversized toddler, the engineer is clutching a pail like it's the most important item in the world.

Whatever is in it smells awful. Like straight up death and dumb ideas. Trying to grow potatoes from synthesized ones was one horrible mistake, and trying to ferment them into alcohol an even worse one. How he's even managed to drink himself stupid on it without throwing it up from the taste alone is impressive.

He just - he needed to get that image out of his brain by any means possible. His twin, filling the sky with blades, slicing through stone like it was butter. His laughter. So yeah, he might have been binge-drinking from a pail of cloudy death vodka.

...the only redeeming quality in this pathetic display is the P-HYMN-1.A on the table next to him, showing acceptable levels of methanol. He'll live, but he'll be wishing he didn't when the terrible moonshine has run its course. ]

Comments

[lastdecember]

[ The doc told him to eat better, and so in the interest of not having to see the doc again Wolfwood's doing him damnedest. Two days in a row now he's come up to the cafeteria and eaten something with protein and fiber and a balance of vitamins and minerals! Synthesized food will enver taste the same as fresh, but he doesn't have fresh as an option, and so it's either lean meat and veg from the box or ration bars.

And after all the trouble they've had with the AI, he's saving the ration bars for a later emergency.

But he's not eating today. He can smell the problem halfway down the hall, and he's already gritting his teeth against the mess he's about to walk into. The damn synthesizer made rotten food, didn't it? Or L3TH3 decided they needed more enrichment so it swapped the flavor profiles of the menu options with the stink of rot and sweat. Hell, maybe it's the waste overflow, overflowing. Whatever it is, it's his job to fix it.

And that statement remains true, even when he steps into the cafetria and sees Saverem, curled up with what Wolfwood can only assume is a puke bucket. ]

Santa Sabina, what the hell did you eat?

[ Hope Baizhu's working, because Wolfwood's going to pick this sick bastard up and haul him down to Medical, stat. ]

[plantussy]

[ Oh. It's Wolfwood. He likes Wolfwood, he's nice behind those sad eyes.

Vash whines loudly has his bucket is taken away and his poor intoxicated body is moved, making big, dramatic grabby hands for it while having the very weak wherewithal to not throw up on his savior. ]

Nooo... my drink. S'awful but it's working...

[ Careful to not jostle him at all, he will make the cleaner bots work overtime. ]

[lastdecember]

[ He is not fucking nice, and he's going to pour that industrial solvent down the nearest drain, just as soon as he gets Saverem here to Medical. Do not puke on him. ]

There's easier ways to kill yourself, you know.

[ God he stinks. This is going to end up a bridal carry -- don't think he's not tempted to throw Saverem over his shoulder, though -- and that means Wolfwood can't help but get a good noseful of the rotten potato reek that's permeated Saverem's whole stupid self. Fucking idiot! ]

What the hell were you thinking?!

[plantussy]

[ Vash is so drunk that he can barely see straight, and Wolfwood is lucky he doesn't decide to throw him over his shoulder - or he'd empty some of that horrible drink in his stomach right down the back of his uniform.

That voice is pretty far away, but he feels pretty comfortable now. Definitely better than the table, and even if the moving is awful to his nausea, the table was kind of moving as well. ]

Kni... Kni was... he killed everyone.

[ He mumbles against a pec. ]

A million knives...

[lastdecember]

[ For all that he's furious and snarling, Wolfwood's doing his best to keep his steps even so he jostles Vash as little as possible. It's not a long walk to Medical, but it's long enough. ]

Oi. [ He's been gruff up until now, but that warning is cold. ] There's some things you don't joke about, I don't care how drunk you are.

[ But Vash is drunk -- stupidly, worthlessly drunk -- and Wolfwood's tone softens almost immediately back to his regular harmless roughness. ]

You had another dream, huh? Sounds like a bad one.

[plantussy]

[ Oh, he doesn't like that cold tone. Vash whines and hides his face against Wolfwood's uniform, the world moving way too quick for him at the moment.

He just wanted his thoughts to not exist for a while. Is that so bad? ]

S'bad.

[ It's hard to hear him now when he's pushed up against a body, but maybe that's intended... and probably drooling or something with how garbled it is.

At least the uniforms are mostly waterproof. ]

SO many blades, Wolfie. So many.

[lastdecember]

[ Saverem's had the worst of the dreams so far, hasn't he? They really seem to upset him -- even that fuckhead Massani, whose dreams messed with him so badly he nearly shot Wolfwood, hasn't been hit as hard. And that's not even getting into the changes to his eyes and the markings on his skin. Something's targeting this guy, and whatever it is, Wolfwood really wants to find it and smash it with a rock.

Stuck in his thoughts, the nickname catches him off-balanced and he nearly stumbles, grip tightening so he doesn't drop the jerk in his arms. ]

Did you just call me Wolfie?!

[plantussy]

[ Vash barely even notices the stumbling, his world is already moving too much and all he has to do is trust that Wolfwood is safe. He's not going to let him fly away to the next planet over.

Bleary blue eyes blink up at the other man as his head flops back, and he looks only half-there. The rest of him is reliving those blades over and over, and that's what he tried to kill. ]

Wolfie! You're Wolfie. Wolfwood. Wolfwooooooood. Wolfie.

[ ...yeah, he's not doing well. ]

[lastdecember]

[ He's gonna drop this guy out an airlock, is what he's gonna do. ]

You're even stupider than usual when you're drunk, you know that?

[ Wolfie. Unbelievable. ]

Shut up with that Wolfie shit, and tell me about this bad dream of yours.

[ Please let them not run into anyone in the hallway! There's only a handful of people on this ship, but sometimes their timing is terrible. ]

[plantussy]

Bad dream... mmm.

[ He closes his eyes again, wondering if unconsciousness would be easier. ]

I saw... Nai. Then... blades. So many. A whole sky.

[ Ugh. He's starting to look a little green. Better lean him to the side so he doesn't choke. ]

Then... then he destroyed a whole city. M'brother. He did it. Just... sliced it.

[ The sudden cold sweat isn't a good sign, but who knows if it's from the alcohol or his 'dream'. ]

[lastdecember]

Mmm.

[ Dreaming bad shit about somebody you care for -- don't people usually care for their siblings? Wolfwood wouldn't know, but he thinks that's the case -- seems pretty awful. Maybe it feels like a betrayal? Even thought it's just a dream, maybe it felt real. It sure landed him in the cafetria drinking whatever the fuck that was in the bucket.

God, Wolfwood's going to gag if he thinks about that bucket too much. ]

Sounds like your dream brother's a real asshole. Is that what the real one's like too?

[ From the way he's asking the question, it's clear (to anyone sober) that he expects the answer to be no, of course not. ]

[plantussy]

[ There's something raw in his eyes at that, a hint of actual fear in his drunken stupor. His mechanical left hand twitches and the pretty teal finger close. Is that what the real one's like too? ]

Yes.

[ He says ever-so-softly, with the kind of lived fear of someone haunted by his past. Kni drove him to the fringes, forced him to hide among the badlands as his body suffered through betrayals and radiation. ]

He killed our... our mother. Never stopped chasing me. No blades, but... but...

[ Finally, Vash reaches a breaking point and throws his head to the side to empty his potato-death drink all over the floor. There is no way he's going to know what he's said after this. It's a miracle he's still conscious. ]

[lastdecember]

[ Wolfwood doesn't get a chance to respond to that revelation, or even to really let Vash's words register, because immediately he's too busy trying to keep a grip on the puking man clutched to his chest, while avoiding the splash. He manages not to drop Vash, somehow.

He doesn't avoid the splash. ]

Fuck, fuck, hold on!

[ He takes a quick scurry-step back away from the growing puddle, then drops to his knees so Saverem can get set down on the floor. Keep puking off to the side, please, and everybody pray that the smell doesn't flip Wolfwood's stomach too. ]

That shit is foul. ...No, keep going, it's poison. Get it all out.

[ Saverem's brother killed their mom? Is that true? Nobody knows better than Wolfwood the kinds of awful things family can do to one another, but...

Fuck it, he'll worry about it later. ]

C'mon, sunshine, you've got it. One more.

[plantussy]

[ Vash coughs and wheezes and is an awful, awful mess of a guy to that poor floor and Wolfwood's boots. His stomach feels like it's in knots and his eyes roll back a bit after the last heave, trembling like a leaf in the other man's grip. ]

S'rry...

[ He seems to have emptied the last of his stomach's content, a few dry-heaves and uncomfortable sounds the last sounds out of him before he's drunkenly passing out.

Don't worry, he's breathing. ]

[lastdecember]

[ He'd fucking better be breathing! Wolfwood likes the guy enough to take him to Medical but giving him CPR is another matter.

He'll carry Saverem's unconscious idiot ass the rest of the way to Medical, and then he's Baizhu's responsibility. Wolfwood's going to go take two showers, and they can pointedly not talk about this later.

...He might, though, make a stop (after his two showers) to talk with Rin about who has access to personnel files. ]

[heartofhealing]

[ God damn it, Saverem... ]