[February 4] [Trigun] So...

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

Title: So...
Day/Theme: Feb 4th-- before the world was created
Series: Trigun
Character/Pairing: Vash-centric
Rating: G
Word Count: 800
Notes: Animeverse. Spoilers for "Rem Saverem" episode. Based around the song "Sound Life." (Do I have to call it a song-fic if the song runs through canon?)

Cross-posted to rosehiptea.



So... On the first evening,
a pebble from somewhere drops upon the world.

Vash has never seen a pebble, and he has never seen a world. He has only seen a ship and its corridors and a very small patch of grass with animals that were created to belong nowhere, just like him. But he always thinks of that pebble... where did it fall from? Maybe it fell from a ship itself. He asks Rem if he can throw something out of the ship and see if it falls on a world. She tells him about gravity and he understands her perfectly. He is one year old.

So... On the second evening,
all the children of their pebble hold hands and compose a waltz.

Vash insists to the crew, to everyone, that they all hold hands and waltz. No ones listens, except for Rem and Joey, and then Knives just yells and Vash tries to forget about it. But later Rem tells him that a waltz is really for two people. She takes his hands and shows him steps, humming to herself. He still has to reach up toward her, but not as much as he used to. He is one and a half years old.

So... On the third evening,
the children of the waltz make waves upon the world.

Vash has never seen an ocean and he doesn't realize yet that he never will. Rem tries to tell him about waves, but she says that pictures aren't much like swimming in water. He has never even had a bath, just a shower while his clothes are in the sterilizer. There is a tiny tub to soak in but the crew won't let him use it.

So... On the fourth evening,
all the children of the waves splash on the shore.

Vash will see more sand than he can bear, someday. Now, he pictures those children, swimming in water and riding waves onto a beach. Rem is always telling him what oceans are like but when he asks her if he will see one she doesn't answer. She hates lying, or so Vash thinks now; later he wonders.

So... On the fifth evening,
the world is struck by those fragments again and again.

Vash asked Rem where the world is and what is striking it but Rem says she isn't certain what that part means either. He takes a ball, throws little objects at it over and over until Rem tells him not to waste things. Soon he will know what happens when burning fragments strike a world but he is so happy now.

So... On the sixth evening,
by the signal, the travelers are brought together.

Vash thinks everyone is a traveler, wants to know how people got to Earth in the first place. Rem just laughs, tells him he has too many questions. Joey gives him books, all the reasons he can come up with that everyone uses to explain people and the Earth. Vash reads all the myths and learns, though he knows that this isn't him, that he isn't "people." He is nearly two years old.

So... On the seventh evening,
the ship braces through the sky.

Vash stares out at the stars so often now, picturing many Earths and many pebbles and people playing in waves. Rem won't tell him what really happened to all the people back on Earth; she says the ship is the point now. For once he doesn't believe her; he tells her that there is still on Earth he will go back there, tells her that if it's such a beautiful place then they will accept someone like him. Now he sees tears in her eyes, and knows that even Rem can have weakness. He goes silent.

So... On the eighth morning,
a song from somewhere reaches my ears.

Vash's only song is this one. Later he will know other music, drinking to it and dancing to it and trying to sing it in an off-key man's voice. But for now there is only Sound Life and the sound of Rem's singing.

Then... Beyond the new sky,
everything the song recorded echoes up in harmony.

Vash holds onto this, that there will be a new sky and then there will be harmony and whatever did happen to the Earth won't happen again. He holds onto it even though he watches the crew fight, even when he hears Joey try to tell him of the horrors of Earth's history over Rem's questioning protests. Now he is two years old and he is full of hope and not enough darkness, and by the time he sees the suns of the new sky and knows there is no harmony it is too late.