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chibivesicle · 1 year

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I would love to see an in depth breakdown of Stampede’s reworkings of Trigun’s female characters and how they compare to their original counterparts. Because although I’m not normally one to cry “misogyny” but I can’t help but feel like whoever decided to turn multifaceted characters like Meryl, Luida and Elendira into cutesy waifus and reduced Rem to the classic ‘dead mother’ trope has some explaining to do. There’s also the matter of the plants in Stampede being forcefully impregnated via Knives violating Vash, complete with swollen pregnant stomachs, which to me is just straight up, well, cursed(although something similar happened in the manga).

I can’t help but feel like there’s a lot of unspoken misogyny here.

Hello!

Now that Trigun Stampede is over and the dust has settled, I can 100% say that I agree with you. The level of lazy misogynistic writing in Stampede was high. When I was doing the weekly videos, I kept thinking, "Well, it isn't that bad. Is it?" until looking at the entire show and realizing, that "Yeah. It was terrible."

I'm not even going to touch on the entire sexual/impregnation of the plants via Knives by violating Vash at all! I'm sure one could write an entire meta about it and how cringe it is but I'm not feeling that vibe.

I'll focus on the female cast and how they were shortchanged from the original work to this 're-imagining'. I will say that the Trigun manga, focuses less on the female characters. But they are all totally competent individuals who are not driven by the romantic need to marry some man. Overall, the '98 anime was even better by creating the quartet of Vash, Meryl, Milly and Wolfwood. I mentioned it from time to time in my reviews but the original anime passed the Bechdel test. Which on paper isn't a high bar for media to clear but soooo many things fail that test.

For overall female character significance and roles in the Trigun universe (multiverse?) the '98 anime is top. Meryl and Milly play a major role in how Vash and Wolfwood behave and also bear witness to their actions and support them. Yet, they are not weak but instead demonstrate how four people, will have four different ways to solve the exact same problem.

However, the manga has a greater cast of women and cannot be ignored. As you mentioned, Luida and Elendira appeared in Stampede from Trimax and both are great characters. Aaannnnddd, Stampede ruined them for me.

The best way to approach all of the key women of the series, we'll break it down by character.

Meryl Stryfe - insurance adjuster/reporter

Trigun manga - secondary character. Acts as human viewpoint watching Vash, reacting to the power of his angel arm, contemplating what it is like to kill someone with a firearm. Age at the start of manga 21. Age after time skip, 23. By the end of the series 24-25 ish?

Trigun '98 - main character. Acts as human viewpoint in observing Vash [again] but also feels compassion towards him as their friendship grows. Senior and experienced insurance adjuster both a friend and mentor for Milly. Competent on the job, hard worker, gets things done, leans for logic over emotions. Age not mentioned in anime, but likely similar to manga. Vocal, opinionated, and ready to take on any situation.

Stampede - main character. Newbie reporter for November news under Roberto. Older starting age of 23, yet acts like she's 16 or something. Her character is a disappointment in this version; with her being junior to Roberto there is no senior female in the cast and it shows. By no means is Meryl supposed to be a perfect person (this is Nightow after all) but he does not write cutesy female characters. No female character in his cast is like how she is in Stampede.

Milly Thompson - insurance adjuster/reporter/???TBD

Trigun manga - secondary character. Strong, emotional, a bit naive but still able to help Wolfwood out during a fight. Continues to be the junior to Meryl and follows her to their secondary career as journalists.

Trigun '98 - main character. Foil to both Meryl and Wolfwood. Besides Vash making Wolfwood change his viewpoints, she also pushes him to think about things differently. Most importantly, she doesn't judge him based on his actions and only shows that she cares. Emotionally intelligent, naive and honest to a fault.

Stampede - next season?

Enough said right there. Why was Milly replaced by lame ass old man info dump Roberto?

Rem Severem - Key team member of Project Seeds/Vash and Knives adopted mother

Trigun manga - Rem is the mother/moral guidepost for Vash in the manga. He tries to uphold her ideals and moral code to not kill anyone. She told him about the death of her significant other which left her feeling lost. However, a dream about her taking a train with a origin station but no destination created her philosophy that everyone's ticket to the future is blank.

She is an incredibly compassionate individual and even tries to stop Vash from committing suicide being injured herself in the events. It causes him to snap out of it as he put her in medical care. However, her philosophy is impossible to practice on the planet where the ships crashed. Yet for ~150 years Vash is able to not kill another person.

Trigun '98 - The exact same role as in the manga but with less backstory fleshed out. However, her quote of one's ticket to the future is blank is the same. Additionally, the anime adds in her love of a creation song which becomes a musical motif in the anime linking Vash to her and to the present day humans as they try to create a new world. Hence the creation myth song as Project Seeds was to allow for them to restart.

The anime links Rem to Meryl when Vash finds himself lost as she supports him before he heads off for his final showdown with Knives. It shows that a very similar philosophy still exists within humanity and that Vash can continue on with his personal moral compass.

Stampede - At first, we learn who Rem is, unlike the anime or manga. She shows us that she saved Vash and Nai and that she loved them. However, that was it. We never hear her personal philosophy. The flashback only focuses on how she tries to raise them as her own children but no deep moral discussions are had like in the manga or even the anime.

Again, this is a huge determent to her character in Stampede; the series very much went for tell not show. So to try to convey Rem's character through showing when the default was tell made it a disappointment. I waited, waited, waited for her to say at least some version of her quote about the ticket being blank. Nothing.

Rem barely spoke in the scheme of things. Nor did Vash have dream or one sided conversations with her in Stampede which also made it hard to understand why he wouldn't kill.

Elendira the Crimsonnail - 13th Gung-ho Gun/nail producing child-plant hybrid who doesn't age

Trigun manga - A trans woman and the strongest of the Gung-ho Guns. Truly a witty and fashionable individual with her briefcase that allows for her to pierce opponents with a rain of oversized nails. Elendira's character is quite nuanced, watching the fall of humanity on the planet while having complex conversations with Legato. The two of them are frequently at odds but both see their roles to assist Knives in his goals.

I found her character to be the most sane/rational viewpoint into Knives and his organization. She always has a witty remark or comment and seems to have chosen to work with Knives thinking that this would be the winning side.

After she's revealed to be trans, that's pretty much it. It isn't brought up time and time again, nor does it define her character - you know with the whole ending of humanity on the planet taking more precedence.

Her final battle against Livio is epic and overall, I liked her character. She was badass in the best way possible.

Stampede - Ugh, where do I even start. . . . Elendira appears to be a perma-prepubescent child being a human-plant hybrid. We see her with Grey the Ninelines when they steal a plant in episode 3 wearing a pink dress. So maybe a girl? Maybe a boy? No gender?

But then, when we get the Monev the Gale/Rollo flashback, she speaks to young Rollo calling herself an angel and appears the same age. Present events put her fight with Vash, Wolfwood, Meryl and Roberto 25 years later and she looks the same. Apparently, being a human-plant hybrid makes her inferior to Vash or Knives since she still has to plug herself into one of the glass aquariums to regulate her 'gate'. So, not a plant plant, but lacking the skills of an independent plant. Sort of a crappy outcome the more you think about it.

Despite her age being at least 35 (say she was 10 when she met Rollo) or even older than that - she acts like a child. Gets angry like a child and has not mentally matured at all. Again, didn't get the rapid aging bits of Vash so still mentally a child? Unless I am told otherwise, I'm gonna stick with she/her pronouns and based on the rest of writing for Stampede, they likely want us to see her as cis not trans.

You cannot even compare Trimax Elendira to Stampede. They are not the same character other than the name. They don't even use nails the same way! As far as I'm concerned, she's pointless in Stampede. A cutesy angry girl who will kill you with her gate manifested nails.

Luida - Leader of [un]crashed seeds ship/botanist

Trigun manga - leader of humans from the Project Seeds ship that had been in hiding with several generations of humans living on it above the barbaric planet below. As events worsen, becomes the de facto leader of all the humans resisting Knives and coordinates with the NML cavalry. Wise, straight shooting and in charge. Brad works for her after the death of the Sensei by the Leonoff the Puppet master situation.

She never really steals any scene but is critical to the success of their plan and acts as the link between the humans from Earth and the people on the planet's surface. Always framed in a strong position of leadership. A very androgynous appearance with spiked black hair, and simple clothing.

Stampede - Simplified to the second stand in mother figure for Vash. She also gets aged up with her first meeting Vash when he was a teenager and brought him into their home. Instead of being older than Brad, she is a peer with him and both of them are considerably older in the current time point. A plant biologist expert - something which is not even close to the role that she played in Trimax.

She also elicits the anti-mother anger from Knives in Stampede, meaning that Knives only wants Vash to himself. No women allowed to be mothers for them! Compared to the manga, she again like Elendira is a totally different character. We don't see a whole lot of that natural leadership and commanding presence from the manga.

Therefore, of this list of key female characters their fates are as such in Stampede:

Meryl - aged up but down in maturity and experience.

Milly - missing.

Rem - dead mother trope. Never said anything to convey why Vash is the way he is.

Elendira - infantilazation to a perma-child.

Luida - kind older lady/second mother.

Therefore, two female characters have been relegated to mother figures; Rem and Luida. Meryl was made less mature to be the junior to an old asshole. Elendira is as far as we know a perma-child.

All mature women with years of experience have been removed from the story. Yeah, I enjoyed the previous versions of Trigun for their killer girls, uwu-waifus, and doting mothers. Really connect with these sorts of characters. . . .

I'm sure you can tell I'm being sarcastic. Thus, I will rewatch the '98 anime, or reread the manga and turn my attention to Kekkai Sensen. Where there are more excellent female characters - shocking! K.K., Chain Sumeragi, Luciana Estavez, Aligura, Michella Watch (a blind woman in a wheelchair took out a Beyondian mad doctor remember?) and in the anime, White.

If Stampede wanted to do scary cute well, they only needed to look at Aligura. One of the 13 kings and a gothic lolita. It takes ovaries to liquefy your boyfriend and inject him into your crush. But hey, it works. 'Cause based on her dismissal of Leo thinking that he was important to her, she's not one to cry like a perma-child like Elendira in Stampede. When one's monster truck, car eating vehicle of destruction causes thousands of casualties, you are pretty badass.

#ask #answered ask #trigun stampede #trigun anime #trigun manga #trigun maximum #meryl stryfe #milly thompson #luida #rem severem #elendira the crimsonnail

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arty-cado · 9 months

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Ok so au where it’s coffee shop shenanigans but also make most of the cast musical prodigies.

I also have a playlist of the songs ww plays to fuel my brain. More ramblings will be below

Vash works at Luidas coffee shop to save for his dream job and house after graduating college. He went to high school with Meryl and Milly and they visit the cafe often to see him. Recently a guitarist who has the most perfect music taste starts playing live music on the weekends and Vash definitely has the hots for him and often tries to start up conversations. He always gives him a free drink and a song request.

Wolfwood had dropped out of school to pursue his real dream of music in his junior year. He used to do church choir with Livio as a child which got him into music. It was a hobby for him his whole life until he realized he could make a career out of it. Loves playing at local businesses and especially likes Luidas place. Finds the barista overly nice and maybe a bit annoying but in a cute way.

It isn’t until the two find themselves at a bar later on with their respective friends when they really connect though. Vash was peer pressured into doing karaoke and Wolfwood took the liberty upon himself to join the duet and get Vash to come sit with him afterwards. Wolfwood ends up asking Vash out on a date maybe because he’s a little too drunk and unable to stop himself from making a fool of himself but of course Vash says yes. It’s just going to be an awkward day at work tomorrow when they both go in.

There’s also going to be a millionsummers subplot because I said so hahahahahahahahah

#trigun #trigun stampede #trigun fanart #tristamp #nicholas d wolfwood #vash the stampede #vashwood #vashwood fanart #trigun au #trigun vash #trigun wolfwood #karaoke au #Spotify

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hecatombi · 7 months

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@spookyagentfmulder // x

It wasn't every day that Vash went into bars for anything other than plant maintenance checks. Yeah, maybe he'll have a drink or two every now and then -- but, just as he'd always done, his first instinct when arriving to any new place is to scout the shadiest bar out. The one furthest from the cops, or normal civilians -- anyone who would turn him in.

Or, at least .. that's what he had been doing for as long as he can remember. Visit a town, check their water supply, fix their plants. Spend a day scouting out the shops, avoid the people so they don't get hurt. Leave. Find a new town. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. The endless deserts of Gunsmoke had been familiar to him for one hundred forty nine years. it's all he'd ever known since the great crash, too. And anything he knew about Earth, about plant life -- he either knew it from Luida or Rem, and he was always told that Earth had become a wasteland.

So, then --

Why now had he awoken on a planet so similar to Earth? Where was he? He can't even remember how he got here, or why there's so many people, or why the city streets are .. decidedly less higher tech than he's used to; if he didn't know any better, he'd almost say this WAS Earth. But, that wasn't possible -- it was supposed to be gone, wasn't it?

Then again, he knows more than anything that despite the weird vibes he's getting, and how out of place he feels, he must stay calm. Irrationality leads to dark places, and though it was tempting to freak out, he'd only JUST gotten here. He needs to familiarize himself with his surroundings, keep a keen, observant eye on everything going on. Maybe it was just a new place he'd never seen before on Gunsmoke, where they just HAPPENED to not have any sand or worms or endless bloody red oceans from where he could see. Then, it was time to do what he always did. Check out the nearest bar, and get the low down on just where he was. Shouldn't prove all THAT difficult, right?

... Ultimately, it took longer than Vash would like to admit to find a bar. There was no real clear cut signs, and this place was so colorful and vibrant that it almost felt overwhelming. The place wasn't made of the typical Gunsmoke building materials; nothing here felt as rustic. It looked kind of retro to him, with patrons all in equally bright clothings and chattering away to each other.

The thing that was sounding alarm bells more and more, though, was the fact that nobody really turned to look at him. Granted, he was still kind of condensed, as to not freak out the other humans in the bar -- but even so, he stood at a hefty six foot five in said form. And yet, while he was pretty tall, there seemed to be other humans his size, too? Usually, he'd stick out like a sore thumb from that alone, and from his signature bright red coat, but here .. that doesn't seem to be the case at all.

How.. very, very strange.

Well, alright. Might as well try to find a seat.

So, that he does. After gazing all around the establishment, he sees one open seat -- with a man sitting in one side of the booth, and the other completely empty. He seemed to be drinking alone -- and though Vash couldn't tell you why, he felt drawn to him. Keeping his head hung a little low, Vash weaved his way through people with inhuman fluidity -- and once he got to Mulder's table, he knocked gently.

"Auhhhmmm..." Vash sheepishly smiled, brows knit upwards ever so slightly. Scritching the back of his neck, and with a slightly nervous laugh, he shoots his shot. Hopefully, his smile was gentle enough to not be offputting in any kind of way.. "Excuse me, is this seat taken? I can't find anywhere else to sit, so ..."

#╰┈➤ 🌿 [ REPLY ] vash #MOST OF THIS IS SET UP you do NAWWWWT have to match length ok??#i'm gonna approach this with the mindset of #he is still from gunsmoke ( as his entire existence is pretty defined by what happened there i think )#HOWEVER #instead of the eriks arc #he's going to be isekai'd to past earth. because of dimensional gate shit #:)#so #alien in an unfamiliar time YAAAAAYYYY #is that even POSSIBLE within canon ? no fucking clue. but hey. i think it's cool. ok?#lmk if i need to change anything!#also i think this would be right around when they started manufacturing plants so some #optional trigun lore can tie into it that way if you want #not sure when it'd come up or how #also * sprinkles in eldritch vash hc's *

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princess-of-purple-prose · 1 year

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Does anyone have the tweet where it's like tri/stamp ep 8 baby vash BEAMING when luida says that instead of being handcuffed and locked up they're going to place a guard on him instead captioned "his bar for being treated well is in HELL" because I just watched that episode and am like. Shaking. Lmao.

#tristamp luida i hate you FOREVER. brad you have not escaped my wrath either #bad designs bad people.#i literally. i do not have the time to get into how horrifying and evil 'home' was. the genre of that episode was horror.#i'm sorry i'm sure lots of people enjoy them and ship three but like. that was abuse.#that was abuse and neglect and child labor and exploitation (?!?!??!?!?!?!?!) and they just BRUSH IT OFF?#i know why tristamp vash is the way he is. i understand him now. holy fucking shit #i thought the 'having his worth and safety directly connected to his ability to Do Things for others' was bad enough but #they also just straight up gaslight him. lol!#frankly so far tristamp knives has told no lies.#kay talks #wrote this last night in a fugue state and will not be editing ✌️ love and peace

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nyannyannihon · 4 months

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#dragon quest cafe #luida's bar #dragon quest #akihabara #japan #ドラゴンクエストカフェ #ルイーダの酒場

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ofdreamsanddoodles · 1 year

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aster episode 8 made me. so mad. it was a little aggravating. like im gonna keep watching but it made my hopes kinda dwindle a little bit.

i rlly hated the like. generic story beats if you know what i mean?? like.

vash gets saved by humans who magically know to check for signs of him being a plant despite also them not knowing ahead of time that he is an independant, and also they dont trust him at first until he can do something for them, then suddenly he is a real person!

and then suddenly conflict emerges when they hear a very small partial conversation and then make assumptions despite vash showing no evidence over the years they knew him to this point of him being evil! and then suddenly they find that one piece of paper where he apologizes for his guilt and promises to atone and suddenly they believe hes good again!

and also what they did to knives.... i will never forgive this. why are they kinda building him up to have been evil from the start like come on please dont i really like knives arc and his character in general. dont do this to my evil guy....

it fills me with fear of how stampede is gonna go...

i think with knives it could still go either way, bc they aren't positioning him as like, an evil kid (before the fall at least), i don't necessarily like that he's more "inhuman" it kind of makes it seem like it's more natural he'd distrust humanity or whatever, but it's not like knives doesn't have a reason to be distrustful of humans if luida & brad are just like. locking vash up solely because he's not human. idk if the show will actually bring that up, though, because it is very much people do things for the sake of plot instead of their actions moving the plot if that makes sense

the generic storybeats are getting like. really blatant. i remember seeing a few people complain about rosa in episode 2, for flipflopping so fast on vash & everyone. first she loves him, then she's after his bounty, then suddenly they're all enjoying a beer together. it'd not as bad, but it does kind of feel like they only go back to the bar at the end so they can get to a "day is saved, lets party" end scene. like, the plant is still dying. it's natural to celebrate getting it back, but nothing actually gets solved for them.

none of luida's and brads reactions make sense to me though like luida's like "i've heard of independent plants" except... all information on them is classified??? so how would she??? even know?? it just feels like the show thinks we need this information quickly but a lot of this would probably be solved if they'd just... given us another episode for backstory. like it's really hard to not see it all as contrived, especially when brad's yelling about how vash is OBVIOUSLY working against them after they'd spent 5 years together, only to immediately do a 180 and ask Luida to apologize to vash for him. like, they could have just had him be more hurt than angry (they'd known each other for five years, he vouched for vash, & yet he was still keeping such a big secret, that's definitely a reasonable time to have complicated emotions) but instead they just went the most basic route possible. it's not a story, everyone's just getting herded around into the plot rolls they need to fulfill. it's frustrating!

#but of course i am always here to listen to u complain <3 #i want tristamp to be good so soooo bad but i think it just. doesnt have enough time to be #like maybe the season'll end w/o any explaination on knives motivation jsut bc they dont have the time to go into it all #though i do think they have to explain the access code stuff at least a little #asks #trigun

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luckymeryl · 1 year

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Outlaw Insider Chapter 8

Damn that Man

Author's Notes: Sorry for previous misspellings. It's Amorus Lynch, not Amorous. He is not lovely. If you would like to show your appreciation and/or help me move out of my mom's house feel free to send me a ko-fi https://ko-fi(dot)com/kokohamstar

Summary: Meryl and Milly are reporters interviewing the biggest baddies on No Man's Land. Now Vash is just trying to keep them safe. Who is chasing who now?

For the whole story, read on AO3 here

Now. Onto the story:

If they were traveling for pleasure, the three of them could say their vacation was relatively enjoyable. They were able to see friends that they hadn’t seen in years. People like Brandon Marlon, and Miss Melanie from the orphanage. It was unfortunate to have to give her the news on Wolfwood’s passing, but she seemed like it was almost expected, albeit heartbreaking.

They met up with Kaite, who was now, legally, working on sandsteamers. He’d grown so much. He was a young man now, and had worked up the ranks to being one of the head engineers on the steamers. He was even able to grant them passage on the one he managed for free.

Luida was a sight for sore eyes. Milly had scooped her up into a hug the moment they saw her, Vash and Meryl laughing gently at the scene. It was a nice break from traveling for a few days staying with her, but when their feet had rested and the itch to keep moving settled under Meryl’s skin, she was practically dragging her two partners back out into the desert.

The most interesting visit that they’d made, was to a girl Meryl hadn’t met before. Lina and her grandmother pulled Vash into a strong embrace. The younger cried upon seeing him, touching his hair gently.

“Wow Lina. You’re growing up so fast.” Vash laughed, patting the girl on the head. “I almost didn’t recognize you.”

She gave him a punch on the arm. “Yeah yeah. Where have you been? You should have visited a long time ago!” There was blush proudly spread across her cheeks.

Meryl smiled at the girl. So that was the one who cared for Vash after the fifth moon incident, huh? This is where he had settled down and lived…normally for a bit. There was a bit of sadness as she thought about this. Could he go back to living a normal life? Was having him chase her around ruining what could be considered retirement?

Dinner was cleaned up, Milly ducked off to bed, followed by Lina and her grandmother. Meryl considered following Milly, but found her mind still buzzing with the idea of what Vash could be doing, instead of wandering from town to town as he always had. Instead of sleeping, in that case, she decided on a walk. It was chilly. Without the warmth of the suns, the dry cold wind caused chill bumps on her arms before she ducked into the town saloon.

It was relatively quiet, as far as bars are considered. There was a gramophone playing in the corner, a low rumble of chit chat among the men (and a few women) that occupied the room, and the clink of glasses for those being served.

It’d been a while since she’d had a drink, she thought. So headstrong into her goal of finding her next big scoop, she’d barely given herself any chance at relaxing. She took a seat at an empty table, ordering one beer from the waitress, and picked at the splintered wood as she waited. She heard the movement of the chair in front of her and readied a glare at the intruder before even looking up.

“Hey Meryl.”

She blinked slowly. “Uhm. Hi, Vash.” The waitress brought her beer and Vash ordered his own. “Why are you… did you follow me?”

“Yep!” There was a brilliant smile on his face. He looked like the dopey-faced puppy she first met and she couldn’t help the warmth in her heart at the memory. “I can’t have you getting into too much trouble without me, after all.”

How the tables had turned. For years she chased him down, trying to keep an eye on him, trying to keep him out of trouble….trying to keep him safe. But now he was here. He chose to be here. He chose to keep her close and out of her own mess. “I can take care of myself.” She mumbled as she brought her mug to her lips. “You’re the one that causes trouble.”

He laughed. “Yeah I guess you’re right about that.” He accepted his own drink from the waitress with a smile and a ‘thank you’ before she left. “But you left alone. You’ve been in your head all day. I was worried about you.”

Meryl couldn’t help the flush on her cheeks. Stop it. She told herself. Stop it stop it stop it. She was willing the blush to go away before he noticed. “I’m fine. Thank you.” Her tone was short.

“Mm.” He nodded. “Man this place sure has changed.” He glanced around the room, stretching at the same time. “This place used to be eat up with bullet holes. They did a lot of fixin’ up since I left.”

“You were here for a while, right?”

“Two years.” He commented. “Lina and Sheryl were very kind to take care of me back then. I owe them a lot.”

“Do you miss it?”

“Lina and Sheryl? Sure. It’s been great seeing them again.”

“No I mean…” Meryl stared into her drink. “I mean do you miss living an easy life here?”

“Hmm…” Vash thought for a long moment. Meryl could feel the muscles in her shoulders tensing up as the clocked ticked just a few seconds. “I mean… kind of? I liked it. But there’s something about a normal life that always makes me wonder when the other shoe will drop, you know?”

For some reason that didn’t set her mind at ease. Her thumb ran across the rim of her glass. “But if you knew it was safe. If you could just…erase your reputation. Would you do it?”

“Mm… nah.” He laughed. “I think I’d just get bored.” He leaned over, tipping his head low to look at her face. “What about you?”

“Huh?” She looked up at him. “What about me?”

“I mean do you think you’d ever be able to settle down and live the normal life?”

“I… maybe at another time I could have done that? But now… no. I don’t think the normal life is for me. I feel like if I’m not moving, I’m stuck.” She took a long drink to finish her beer before ordering another.

“Careful.” He teased. “If I remember right, you’re kind of a lightweight.��

“Lightweight?” She glared up at him. “I’m not a lightweight! I can hold my own just fine.”

Vash motioned his hands to lower her voice. “Hey hey. I thought I was the one who caused a scene.” He laughed nervously. “Besides, if I recall, it didn’t take much for you to get incoherent in the past. Maybe two or three beers?”

Meryl’s eyes bore into him as she brewed silently in her thoughts. “Ma’am! Can we get two whiskeys please!”

“You’re having liquor now?” The look he gave her was that of worry. “You don’t need to prove anything.”

“We’re having liquor.” She corrected. “I’m not proving anything. I just want whiskey. And I know that’s your drink of choice. Okay?”

“Alright, alright. We’re having liquor.” He wouldn’t argue with her. In his experience, it never ended well when you chose to argue with one Meryl Stryfe.

That explained the first drink. Getting lost in conversation could almost explain the second glass of whiskey set before them. But when she ordered a third, he started to worry. Alcohol didn’t sit as well as it used to. Now he was more human than ever and his alcohol tolerance was getting to be about the same. “I think that’s enough, short girl.”

Meryl frowned up at him once again, face flushed and a pout on her lips. “You just don’t think I can take another drink.”

“No no. I know you can. But I think I’m done.”

“See? I’m not the lightweight. You’re the lightweight.”

He couldn’t help the chuckle that left him. “Right. You’re right, I’m a lightweight.” At least more so than he used to be.

She groaned, taking a drink of her beer. “I can’t believe we’ve still got nothing on him.” She ran her hand through hair. “We’ve been at this for weeks and just…just dead end after dead end.”

Vash wasn’t going to complain that they hadn’t run into a serial arsonist slash murderer in their adventures. If he were being honest, meeting up with all of their friends was actually his favorite part of traveling. He could do with just that. But he’d support her, nonetheless. “We’ll get something soon. We’re scouring the planet, after all. So it’s only a matter of time.”

There was a small huff from the woman. “Yeah well… I need a matter of less time.” With that she downed the last of her beer. This time, she didn’t order another drink. Perhaps she’d proven her point well enough. She glanced up at Vash, meeting a warm smile in return that made her heart flip.

No. No no no. She’d gotten over it. She’d gotten over him. She’d moved on. He was… just a friend. Just a partner in all this. She used all of her will power to try and get her pulse to slow down, but his smile faded into a frown and she felt her insides sink.

“Are you alright, Meryl?” He was concerned. Of course he was concerned. Of course he was just… just good. Of course when she needed most to forget that, he’d give her a gentle glance, with brows furrowed just a bit and make her remember just what it was that she fell for years ago.

“M’fine.” She muttered, turning her eyes away from him. Her cheeks only reddened further, which she hoped she could simply blame on the drinks. She wasn’t so far gone that she’d try to acknowledge it, after all.

She heard his soft laugh across from her. “You’re kind of cute when you’re drunk.”

Damn him. She didn’t know if she wanted to spill everything, grab him close and kiss him, or just simply run outside and vomit in the closest dark alley and hope he never found her. “Hush.” She said instead. When did words become so hard?

Vash only chuckled again. They sat in silence for what Meryl considered an awkward amount of time as she stared into her empty glass. When the silence between them broke, it was Vash that spoke up. “This song is nice.”

“Huh?” She lifted her head, listening close to the old gramophone, trying to catch the tune. It was a nice song. A little jazzy. Slow. Maybe something from Earth? She wasn’t sure. There weren’t any words. “Oh… yeah.”

“Do you want to dance?”

“I…what?” She blinked at him, jaw dropped in shock before she shook the expression from her face. “I mean… this isn’t really the dancing place. It’s a bar.”

“C’mon.” He took her hand, pulling her to her feet. “No one here cares. Maybe we can make it a thing? Dancing in the bar.”

She stumbled a bit, the alcohol in her stomach flowing into her head. She fell against him, hand still in his before stepping back carefully. “Sorry uhm…” She took a deep breath. “I’m not really a dancing type.”

She wasn’t sure if Vash didn’t hear her or just didn’t care, because he gently led her to an open spot between the tables and the wall and placed his right hand on her hip, his prosthetic left holding hers. “It’s easy. Just follow me.”

With the way her head floated, she didn’t have much of a choice. He turned her and swayed with her to the music, holding her close. Her vision began to drift from the focus she was trying to keep on his coat, up to his neck, then his lips, until she was finally looking at his eyes. Okay… so she wasn’t over him. She clenched his hand, hoping he couldn’t feel it. Her feet started to freeze beneath her, causing him to have to catch her once…twice.

He stepped back, looking down at her. “Are you okay?” Once again, he was ducking his head down to get a close look. “You’ve had a lot. Do you need to sit down?”

“I uhm… I just…” She stepped back, pushing him away with her hands on his chest. “I think I need to go sleep this off. Get some water. Don’t want to have a hangover tomorrow.” There was an awkward laugh to match the mood she’d placed between them.

“Okay. Let me just get the bill and we’ll leave.” Damn him and that smile. It was supposed to comfort her. She could tell it did. But instead it just made the alcohol burn more and her stomach churned.

“Mmm…mhm. Thanks uhm… I’ll pay you back.” She was not going to puke in front of him. He was not going to see that.

“Meryl?”

“Thanks again, Vash. G’night!” she turned on her heels, feeling the whiskey burning its way back up. She held it back. She held it until she got out the door, round the corner, and into the dark alley between the tailor and the grocer. Just like she’d imagined doing out of sheer embarrassment, she found herself heaving on the ground, propping herself up with a hand against a wall. As she regained some sense of composure, taking deep breaths and, gracefully, wiping her mouth with her hand, she grumbled. “Damn that man…”

How she’d missed him getting back to Lina’s she would never know nor care to find out. She’d made it before he did. He never knew what happened. She just owed him a few double-dollars for the booze and what dignity she had left when they continued their excursion the next morning.

“Feeling better?”

She’d avoided Vash during breakfast, choosing instead to shower and have coffee in her room. Now she was face to face with him as they loaded up the bed of the truck and, even through her hangover, she’d rather look straight into one of the suns than look him in the eye. “M’fine.” She mumbled, giving him a nod as she threw her bag onto the mess of provisions. “How much do I owe you?”

“Don’t worry about it.” His hand came down on her shoulder and he gave her a gentle squeeze. “Just get some water and let me or Milly drive, alright?”

Another silent nod is all she gave him before she went to the cab of the truck, listening to the creak of metal as Vash climbed onto the back. At least she wouldn’t have to sit by him while they traveled. She took the paper from Milly as her partner had approached her with a canteen. “Thanks.” She took a sip of the water—the only true cure for a hangover, she was sure of it—and unfolded the newspaper. “Milly…”

The blonde looked at her, head tilting curiously. “What’s up?”

“They caught him.” She said, looking over the page again. Mass Arsonist Behind Bars. “They caught Amorus Lynch.”

#trigun fanfiction #trigun #trimax #trigun maximum #trigun maximum fanfiction #trimax fanfiction #vash meryl #meryl vash #meryl stryfe #milly thompson #vash the stampede #vash #trigun vash

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nihilspero · 1 year

Text

— V E R S E S

† verse: MAIN (long post) —

She was a 6 y.o. orphan of the north who was kidnapped amongst other kids—regardless if they had parents or not—for the sole purpose of cash fodder in the black market. Whether it was luck or the exact opposite, she was bought by an unnamed group that forced her to go through grueling and extreme training. The training was too harsh that only 30 kids out of 350 survived. From there on, each children were given the name G01 - G30 regardless of skill.

It was known later that the unnamed group was an experimental military unit that prepped younger children for scientific superhuman experimentation. After all, only the strongest and the ones who lived are given ❝God's Blessing❞ as what the researchers would say.

After contributing a decade into mercenary work alongside her adult peers in all corners of the world as well as showing talent in persevering against the odds, she was picked as one of the 7 Archangels of God and was baptized with the name of Uriel the 4th Archangel. However the name Uriel was mostly for show and the researchers preferred to dehumanize her and the other Archangels by calling them as strictly numbers instead.

If Fourth believed that her previous military training was hell, she will eventually learn that the ❝ God's Blessing ❞ experiments are beyond that. Excruciating, countless pain with her being continuously ████ ████ ████████. They forced the experiments onto Fourth until she gained the power they desired.

Once the operation amongst all 7 Archangels reached a resounding success, they were immediately given mercenary orders that would affect the state of world; shaping and trimming the world to fulfill their master's wishes.

At some point, she defected from the group during a duo mission with First—known as Michael—and was reported dead by them. As to why they lied, no one will ever know.

Now she stays low by opening a small, cozy bar that hardly had customers but a select loyal few, who only attended due to their fascination of how badly she bar tends and the mysterious persona that she exudes.

❝ I refuse to lay my hands on another living being ❞

——————————————————————————————————

† verse: TRIGUN —

One of the assassins of Eye of Michael—known as Gloria—who defected after she was saved by Luida due to being badly injured from a mission. Later on, she was invited to the dome of flora and as she listened to Luida's principles on following the right path, it sparked a change in Echio's heart.

Although she wished to stay longer due to her newfound and profound love for plants, she didn't want her past to creep up and affect the researchers.

So she left.

And decided to open a small bar with the side-job of being an informant.

❝ Welcome, are you here for water or liquor...? ❞

#† verse: MAIN #† verse: TRIGUN #† verse: TBD #{ excuse the long post }#{ verses will most likely be updated }

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