plantcounselor

OOC:
Name we know you (the player) as: Mel
Plurk and/or Discord contact: tronja307020 on Plurk, hellsing_mongrel on Discord
May mods who do not have you on one or the other add you?: Yes
Triggers? (You may PM us or post to the Trigger list if you prefer): Graphic brain things - it doesn't come up often, but stuff like the bugs sucking peoples' brains out of their heads in starship troopers or lobotomies. It's fine in passing, but a warning beforehand would be preferred, so I can try to skip that bit.


IC:
Character name: Vash (technically last named Severem, but he hasn't taken to claiming the name, for various reasons)
Character age as of canon point (As best as is known): He's literally 6 years old, but Plant biology is different, and his species ages much faster than humans until they reach maturity. Currently, he could be mistaken for a human of about 16 years, and his aging has slowed down considerably, so it probably won't be noticeable that his aging is different than everyone else's. (In canon, once he hits around the maturity of a 20-24 year old human, his aging slows drastically, and he maintains that outward appearance for hundreds of years.
Canon format (Anime, manga, video game, live action TV, novel, web comic, etc.): 3D-animated anime
Name of canon: Trigun Stampede
Canon point: About 5 years after the Big Fall, when he's living on Ship 3 and has become a "counselor" for the other Plants on the planet, just before he ventures out to find his brother in July and loses his arm.
Is the canon point more than 6 months old in the US as far as you know?: Yes, a year and a half at this point. The original version of the canon - the manga - came out in 1995 and finished in 2007, and there was a previous anime that aired in 1998, so it's fairly old by today's standards.


Completely optional history and personality section. YOU ARE ALLOWED TO SKIP THIS!: Hundreds of years in the future of Earth, when humanity has pushed the planet to the brink of devastation due to the climate crisis and overpopulation, a team of interstellar explorers left the Earth to find a new home for the species. Their ships were powered by a race of seemingly-non-sentient creatures with a vaguely feminine-humanoid appearance from the remains of an ancient mummy discovered on Earth years before who were capable of producing nuclear-reactor levels of energy and the necessary resources for the species to continue life on their new homeworld.

But then one day, centuries into the fleet's journey, a pair of twin infants were born from one of the Plants carried on Ship 5. The single woman who was performing her routine years-long shift out of cryosleep, took the boys from the large bulb-like tank containing their mother and chose to raise them on her own, in secret, as if they were simply her own two normal, human children. But these children, a pair of boys she named Vash and Nai, aged far more quickly than a human child, aging to a young adolescence similar to that of a human aged 8 or 10 at the oldest in the span of only a single year. She did her best to raise them to be kind, good people, and they showed it in their own ways, though both adapted to human life in different ways. Where Nai was stoic and could be headstrong at times, proud of his abilities as a Plant and acting above the simple comforts of human life, Vash was boisterous and outgoing, wanting to be accepted by the humans still in cryosleep when their time came to start their new civilization, but was also ashamed of his seeming inability to use any of the powers his brother and the other Plants, their "sisters," had easy access to. At times, they butted heads over the differences, but the three of them, Rem Saverem and the two children who had become her sons, were for all intents and purposes a happy little family, sibling rivalries aside, and loved each other very much.

But then, as any child would be in a massive ship with only their parent and each other for company, there were days when they spent their time not learning the lessons Rem gave them with exploring the ship around them, venturing into the empty corridors and facilities that went unused with such a small crew on shift. And one day, their explorations lead them to the medical wing of the ship, where they found a red, potted geranium - Rem's favorite flower of all things - still fresh and cared for as if it had been left recently, and a computer terminal with files locked behind a password.

Vash had the password, and thinking nothing of it, he accessed the computer when Nai was unable to get through, and inside the files they discovered records of tests done on another Plant some 50 years before they had been born. Another child named Tesla who had been born sentient and human in appearance like they were, but who had been taken as a test subject by the scientists of the crew instead of raised as a human child, put through such intense, archaic testing and study that it caused her body to become riddled with cancer until, at less than a year old, she had been dissected and put into a set of tanks hidden away for future study, still alive.

The boys realized that their own medical files had been stored in the same hidden database as their older sister, and while they were dealing with the shock of the medical reports they had read, Nai managed to activate the systems containing her tanks, causing the boys to have to see what remained of her with their own eyes, and the shock of it was too much. Both of the boys screamed, leading Rem to find them and realize what they had found, and Nai fainted from the shock.

In the days that followed, Nai remained catatonic, refusing to wake, while Rem did her best to comfort Vash, who had been left horrified and terrified, now suspecting that the humans on the ship would only do the same things to the two of them. He refused to eat, shutting himself and Nai away out of fear for their safety, and as his condition deteriorated, he became increasingly despondent, refusing Rem's efforts of caring for them and openly demanding that she let him die instead of have to live amongst a species that he felt would only want to cut him apart and hurt him the way they had the sister he hadn't been allowed to know.

But Rem refused, insisting that she would get him to eat and help him get through what he was feeling, until one day, when it was time to eat, she came brought him an apple, telling him that that day, he would finally eat, and began to peel the fruit with a small, sharp pairing knife.

When she wasn't paying attention, Vash took her moment of inattention to grab the knife from her and try to slit his own throat, only to have her grab the knife back from him by the blade, cutting herself in the process. In the small scuffle, in a moment of mania, Vash pulled the knife from her, deepening her wounds, and lashed out, stabbing her in the gut and knocking her unconscious. For a moment, he felt empowered by the actions, almost gleeful, but the sight of her blood on his hands and her laying on the ground managed to break through, and he snapped out of it, horrified and disgusted with himself. It was the second traumatic event that he would endure in such a short amount of time, and the guilt of it became the first of the awful things he felt he could never be excused for, whether or not he had done them willingly or not.

On his own, he bandaged Rem's wounds and finally made himself eat while he waited for her to regain consciousness, and when she did, instead of being angry with him, she instead apologized for not having told the boys about their sister, and about her own guilt over having been a part of the team who had tested her when she had been born. She had protested the actions the scientific team had done, but had been powerless to stop them even with the support of one of the other members of the team, and her shame over her role in Tesla's fate was what had lead her to raise the boys on her own with the intention of forging their paperwork and putting them into cryosleep with her when her current shift was over so that they could live secretly as a normal, happy family and where she could try and atone for her actions by protecting the boys from a similar fate. It was in this conversation that she told Vash about the philosophy she'd developed after losing her significant other before the start of the expedition, that "everyone is given a blank ticket to the future, it's up to you to fill out the destination," that no life is more precious or worthy of existence than the other, and everyone deserves a second chance.

That was also the day when Nai finally awoke, and seemingly suffering a case of amnesia about what they'd found in the medical wing, appeared to be none the worse for wear. Even when Vash and Rem insisted that he needed to know the truth about their sister, he did his best to push the shock down and go on as if nothing had been wrong. And Rem and the boys did their best to pick up the pieces and heal from what they'd been through, and to have hope despite their trauma.

But Nai hadn't truly forgotten, and instead began to hatch a plan, overcome with his own paranoia and rage over what they'd discovered. He spent the next few months secretly learning how to control the ships from the main computer with the access password Vash had given him, until finally setting his plan into motion.

Instead of landing safely on a new, hospitable planet, Nai set the entire fleet of ships into a direct crash course with a desert planet they were only meant to pass by, setting the systems to fail in such a way that the parts of the ships carrying the other Plants would survive, but the parts of the ships carrying the humans would suffer a catastrophic failure. He intended to make the planet a refuge for him, his brother, and their sisters, though he tried to get Rem to join him and Vash on the escape pod she put them into before the ships went down. She refused, and instead, made sure that the boys would be as safe as they could be before jettisoning their pod and using what little time she had left to correct the course of the rest of the fleet as much as she could. She didn't survive the crash, but her actions ensured that many of the humans in the expedition would. Her sacrifice became the next great trauma in Vash's life, and was in itself the single greatest guiding event in the way he would live from then on. To him, she gave her life to save humanity, and her sacrifice was so great that the thought of any of those humans suffering or meeting an unkind fate was just as painful for him asthe thought of it happening to someone who he viewed as his own family. Indeed, he began to view them all as her family, as his family by extension, and he learned to love every single one of them, even when they acted unkindly or in violence. He wanted nothing more than to see them live long, happy lives, in the hopes that it would make Rem's sacrifice have meaning.

In the immediate aftermath of the crash, Nai admitted to what he'd done, but also accused Vash of being an accomplice in the action, because without Vash giving him the passcode needed to access the systems, he never would have been able to accomplish what he did. The guilt of it and the horror that his brother could be capable of such a thing and of the weight of how many people had died as a result made him flee, leaving Nai alone and running into the desert until he collapsed some time later, exhausted and overcome with shock.

He was discovered a short time later by the survivors of another ship, Ship 3, who took him in and, knowing that he was a Plant due to his bioluminescent markings, kept him confined to a room until they could figure out what to do with him. Two of them, Luida Leitner and Brad, took care of him the most, though Brad was more often suspicious of him as an oddity, unused to the concept of a sentient, "Independent" Plant who looked and acted like a mundane human. Luida, on the other hand, stepped in as a motherly figure, and did her best to shield him from the suspicion and distrust that made the other humans feel that they would be safer if he were simply killed. Vash, meanwhile, had fallen back on his suicidal self-harm, denying any food they gave him and counting the days he was locked away until one of the Plants maintaining the ship began to fail.

The telepathic cries of distress from one of his sisters was what finally managed to break him out of his depressed stupor, and in his panic to be allowed to help, he convinced Luida to let him go. It was then that the humans learned that, though he had no other abilities to speak of, he was able to communicate with the Plants, pulling them back from overloaded states that would otherwise cause them to burn out all of their energy in a catastrophic "Final Run" and die. This ensured that the Plants survived, able to continue working to ensure the survivors could continue to live while they waited for their distress signals to reach anyone out in space or even back on what was left of Earth and for rescue to reach them.

It was also the turning point in the way the humans looked at Vash, and even Brad warmed up to the boy, supporting Luida in her entreaties to the rest of the crew to let Vash become a normal part of their community and continue to help his sisters when they were in need of the care only he could provide. Before long, he was able to roam freely amongst the people of Ship 3, and he began working in earnest to be a sort of "counselor" for the Plants, traveling to other shipwrecks and caring for their Plants and further strengthening his bond with his new crew.

Which brings us to the point I'm bringing Vash from, five years after he was taken in by Ship 3, which he helped name "Home," now grown to such a maturity that he appears not like a 6 year old human but instead one of elder adolescene, easily mistaken for someone 16 years old. As a gift for all he's done and to fully show their appreciation and love for him as one of their own, the "family" of unrelated survivors on the ship have given him a bright, red coat - his favorite color, as it had been Rem's before him - and he has finally found a place where he is beginning to feel accepted and loved after losing his family in the Great Fall.

But despite the bubbly, upbeat, loving nature he shows to the crew, joking and playing with them, sassy and sweet and a bit of a goofball, Vash still hides a great deal of guilt and shame for what happened. He still hasn't told anyone about what his and Nai's roles in the crash were, and it's a constant sword hanging over his head, leaving him waiting in the certainty that if and when they ever do find out, no one will ever be able to forgive him for what happened, just as he is unable to forgive himself.

Please list and explain the three worst (morally) things your character has ever done: In his own opinion; Vash feels guilty for giving his brother the access codes required to get into the computer systems controlling their ship, ultimately giving him the ability to set the entire fleet on a crash course for the planet they end up living on. He also feels greedy for enjoying food, even though he doesn't need it and therefore feels it should go to the people who require it to survive, and he feels guilt for not being able to "produce" resources to help the other survivors survive, the way the other Plants can. And he feels a deep sense of guilt over having almost killed Rem with his own hand when she stopped him from killing himself, something that while yes, he had done with his own hands, had still been done in a state of temporary insanity caused by shock, trauma, and paranoia.

In reality, he's still only a child, and a very young one at that, who went through a very traumatic series of events that effected his mental health in severe ways that have warped his sense of self worth. Is a child bad just for wanting a sandwich, or for exploring the technological confines of the very isolated world they were born into? Or for simply existing? He hasn't really had much time to do many "bad" things, though keeping secrets from the people who raised him on Ship Three could certainly be considered unwise, even if they were secrets kept out of a fear of being rejected and brutalized by the adults around him.

Please list and explain the three best (morally) things your character has ever done.: Vash goes out of his way to help others around him, even when it puts himself in danger or causes him stress. This is true even as a child, when he focused more on helping keep the other Plants alive and well in their bulbs so that they could keep the human refugee camps functioning and so that they could run without being pushed to their "Final Run." But just as he hasn't had much time to do many bad things, he also hasn't much time to prove himself to be any more morally strong than anyone else. He's simply a kind, upbeat, sensitive child who wants what's best for those around him, and for everyone to be happy and healthy and to flourish without strife or stress.

Please put the six things above on a timeline relevant to each other: His guilt over food didn't initially manifest, but it and the guilt over his inability to produce resources like other Plants started when he was less than a year old, both through his own inherent sense of self-worth and due to what would have normally been considered a typical sibling sort of rivalry with Nai. He showed himself to be sensitive to what he viewed as his inadequacies next to his brother, who also showed a tendency to tease him for enjoying food as much as he does, but it wasn't until he and Nai were exploring the medical wing of Ship Five and came across the locked room where they found their older sister and he gave Nai the code to access the password-protected files. After the Big Fall and Nai admitted to what he'd done and gloated that it had been possible because Vash gave him the code, his guilt and trauma made those insecurities become omnipresent in his head. The lying to Ship Three happened fairly early, when he told them that Nai was dead without even knowing if he was, himself, and in not telling them that Nai had been the one to cause the crash because of his own tendency to carry all of the guilt over the incident on his own shoulders over the passcode incident and his fears that the adults finding out would result in them doing to him what they'd done to his sister. And it was in the months following his captivity on Ship Three that he showed his instinctive need to help the other Plants. His tendency to self-harm through protecting others hasn't quite shown itself, yet, because he's been sheltered from the more dangerous parts of the survivor colonies on No Man's Land.

Do you consider your character a hero, an anti-hero, a good aligned side kick, a bystander, a victim, a fence sitter, a mercenary, an evil aligned side kick, a villain, or something else? Why?: A heroic character, but one that doesn't handle that heroism well, who can be hypocritical in his ideals and knows it but stands by those ideals so strongly that it ends up getting him hurt in the process. He wants nothing more than for everyone around him to be happy, successful, to live happy and fulfilling lives where no one suffers or is in pain or has to fight over resources, and he wants to make amends for his brothers actions that put everyone in the awful nigh-apocalyptic situation their in, and who blames himself for said brother having even committed those things in the first place. He does everything in his power to keep everyone from getting hurt or killed, no matter how much they want to do those things to each other, and will go to self-destructive lengths to try and achieve that goal.

Do you think your character should start on the Isle or in Auradon? Why?: He would think he deserves to be on the Isle, but his rightful place would be on Auradon.

Which of those two would you prefer your character to start in?: Auradon

Are you still interested in having this character in this game at this time if that preference is not met?: Yes

Powers and Abilities: Vash hasn't yet "grown into" most of his powers, so to speak. In fact, his lack of powers is a particular point of shame for him, and he hasn't reached a point in his timeline where he's aware of what he's capable of. When those powers manifest, he's able to produce "gates" into parallel dimensions that act like tiny black holes, sucking everything around them into them instead of drawing materials and resources the way the other Plants are able to do. They can be catastrophically devastating, capable of destroying entire cities, or they can be infinitesimally small, only effecting a single target that he's aiming at. They don't have to be physically connected to him, but can be shot from bullets, though he has to spend time and energy crafting the bullets himself ahead of time. On top of the black holes, the raw "nuclear generator-style" energy of his body can be directed into an absolutely devastating energy blast, like a laser, or collected into a single small, physical form if he tries to contain it. It's not something he ever wants to have to do, and it's extremely devastating and unstable, capable of blowing holes in moons like an atom bomb. The only times he's ever shown doing this are when it's against his will, and if he can avoid it, he'll do everything in his power to do so, including causing himself physical bodily harm.

He also has a level of telepathy that, even when he learns to use it, he chooses to only use very rarely with anyone other than the other Plants. It gives him the ability to hear his sisters and Knives from great distances and even track where his brother is, and it gives him the ability to communicate with the Plants in their bulbs and manipulate their physical bodies when in an emergency situation and they need to be calmed down by force. When it's used with humans, he can actively hear the thoughts of the people he's close to, though this is only shown in the manga, in particular when he's speaking with Legato telepathically or when he speaks directly about Wolfwood's unspoken hopes and fears. He doesn't make a habit of doing it, though, probably out of a sense of respect for peoples' boundaries. Still, it does make him an excellent judge of character, though whether or not he actually uses those judgments is another matter entirely. He's more than willing of giving even the worst of humanity the benefit of the doubt, even when he openly admits that the person in question has done something so awful that he wants to do them harm.

His reflexes, senses, and ability to process things as they're happening are much faster and stronger than any normal human's, giving him the ability to dodge bullets and - with strenuous training and self-discipline - aim with shocking precision when he wields a gun, and he's capable of bending himself into all sorts of awkward positions if need be, to get himself into and out of sticky situations, though all of these things won't really be made fully apparent until he's had years to train his body and sharpshooting abilities to what he will become known for as an adult. As well, he's far stronger than normal humans and able to go long periods of time without food and water, though not for lack of wanting them. His body heals at an accelerated rate, and he can walk away from injuries that would kill almost anyone else, and when he's older, he uses it to his "advantage," insofar as he prefers to put himself in the direct line of fire between innocent people and anyone seeking to do them harm, no matter how much it hurts or maims him in the process. His body will still bear the scars of the wounds he receives, and sometimes even requires extensive medical intervention to repair damage that is done, but he can still survive things that would leave anyone else more than just a bloody smear on the sand.

When he's older, Vash is also capable of growing "wings," which appear vine- and plant-like in the most recent series, even growing bright, glowing purple flowers, and feather-like in the manga. As well, many of the feathers can be used unconsciously to deflect bullets and carry other people, though they act without him putting active thought into and seem to be somewhat out of his control a great deal of the time. They have a tendency to manifest when he's only at his most emotionally stressed, and can even completely envelop his entire body, twisting it into unrecognizable forms if his body acts defensively when he's unconscious. Though the feathery wings haven't made an appearance in the latest version of the series, the timeline of events and the fact that the vine-like growths appeared in both Stampede and Maximum during the destruction of July, it's easy to assume that this version of Vash will also begin to manifest the feathered wings as he gets older. None of this will happen until well after he's lived more than a century, though, so there probably won't be many instances of Vash at the age I'm bringing him in being able to grow these extra features.

It is noteworthy that he's also capable of flying, though he doesn't require the wings to do so, and it's more of a case of manipulating gravity (an ability that some Plants are utilized specifically for in space-faring technology) than actual wing-powered flight. He also isn't the best at navigating that way, though more because he doesn't really make an effort (or possibly even know he's able) to practice it. At the most, it will probably show up as a particular resilience to taking "fall damage," and especially given the game's rules against flight, unless it's allowed for an event of some sort, he won't ever take actual flight. The boy is bouncier than a rubber ball, though. It's going to hurt like Hell, but he'll survive falls from some rather extreme heights with little more than whining, complaining, and milking any injuries for sympathy points in an attempt to make people think he's less "bouncy" and non-human than he really is. (Just don't question him too hard on why he's able to eat dirt face-first from dozens of feet in the air without even bruising. He'll make a very loud effort at directing the attention away from himself, and if that involves some small manner of uncomfortable but mild chaos, then so be it.)

When he lets his non-human abilities show, it often causes bioluminescent markings to appear on his skin and in his eyes. They aren't always invisible, and can be detected if someone looks closely enough even when they aren't showing, particularly in his eyes, which is why he took to wearing orange sunglasses as an adult. Anything to look more human, the better.

Something that he's capable of doing, but will definitely not be shown here, is his ability to shake off the mental effects of alcohol when he really puts his mind to it. It's unfortunately something that he has to make use of a lot as an adult (what are healthy coping mechanisms? He definitely doesn't know) in particular when he finds himself drinking in a situation where things become violent. His body will still feel the effects - nausea, hangovers, etc - but he can go from mentally two sheets to the wind to as alert as being stone-cold sober at the drop of a hat when he needs to.

What clothing/items did your character arrive with? (See rules and FAQ for what is allowed, feel free to ask if you are unsure): At the age he is, he mostly just wears a white, tattered tank top, a pair of white and grey leggings, and a pair of velcro-closure sneaker-like shoes. His family from Home have only just given him his signature red coat, an oversized, bright red duster hoodie, and in the anticipation that he had some growing yet to do, they made it even more oversized than usual, which means it swallows his lanky adolescent frame and covers his gangly arms in "sweater paws" when he's not folding the sleeves up and out of the way. He's not even old enough to have gotten his ear pierced or start wearing his orange sunglasses.

Optional- What do you have to keep in mind when playing this character?: The character can be a very emotionally broken person, and I that a lot of people don't like to play off of someone dealing with the ramifications of some intense trauma. At the same time, while he's known for playing up a goofy, hyperactive, manically-happy demeanor to keep people from worrying about how depressed he is, it is in so many ways an act that he goes out of his way to maintain. I have to make an effort to find the middle ground between digging into the darker sides of his depression so that it's not uncomfortable to rp off of for other people while also not going as over-the-top goofy and silly as he was shown in the original '98 anime, which is something that was played far more exaggeratedly than he is shown to really be in either Stampede or the manga. He can be silly and he does genuinely enjoy the lighter moments in life when he can find them, but he's not really as airheadedly ditzy and goofy as he's initially perceived of being until someone really looks beyond the surface level of the story that we all grew up with in the early 2000's.

What mod candy, if any, does your character bring? (Aka what elements would you really like to see us play with?): His desire to find someplace he belongs and just be accepted by the people around him, and how much he's going to miss his family now that he's away from them. He's not yet reached the point in his life where he's taken to traveling on his own, and it's going to be only the second time in his very short life where he's left without the people he loves and who raised him, and like any young person, he's going to be seriously homesick and feeling alone and unsafe.

What else do you think the mods should know about your character or their canon?: All in all, Stampede is a lot closer to the manga than the 98 anime is, and it can be a bit of a shock, to see how things play out if you've only had a chance to watch the old anime. Even for me, with the original anime being one of the things that really got me into Japanese media when I was in college and with Nightow being one of my favorite creators because of it, coming back to the series 15 years later when Stampede came out and finally getting a chance to get my hands on the rest of the manga I'd never been able to read in the old days, I realized how little I'd really understood the story and the character even then. It's not to say that the original anime was bad; it's still a favorite, but the story and characters are so much more complex than they were shown to be there, and it was a smack to the head to see that the "I disapprove of suicide more than anything!" Vash was someone who in fact attempted suicide and lived with suicidal ideation his entire life, who actively admitted that he wanted to do violent things to people and showed intense rage on a fairly regular basis when he was pushed to his limits. He hates the thought of killing someone, but many times I found myself remembering the old saying "You'd be surprised what you can live through," when watching and reading some of the fights in the series.

Basically all that is to say that it gets a lot darker than originally expected, but also it's handled shockingly well, and less than being an example of a typical "male power fantasy" hero figure, Vash and everyone else in the series is so much more complex and relatable and rooted in reality than I ever expected. I try really hard to play that complexity and heart when I'm playing him, and I cannot recommend the new series or the manga enough. It's easily a piece of fiction I would be willing to debate as being one of the strongest pieces of literature, literary or graphic novel or not. Not that people in our fandom circles don't know how good some graphic novels and "pop fiction" can be, of course, it's just sad to see that more people aren't aware of it because of the lack of attention it gets from more mainstream audiences and critics and literary academia.

Also, because Trigun Stampede is a prequel of sorts and was also done in only 12 episodes, some of the events from the manga were omitted or weren't allowed to be shown in their entirety. However, due to the fact that they are extremely important to the story and there's enough evidence to show that the creators of the new series are doing their best to address all of the important elements when and where they can, some of the backstory notes are being pulled from the manga, where it had more time to flesh certain events out more fully. This means that this version of Vash is 99% from Trigun Stampede, but has sprinklings of Trigun Maximum here and there, though mostly that relates to one particular event in his very young childhood, as his current place in the story is too early to have gone through the other events, and to what his powers could and would be once he was an adult. His wings, for instance, are never shown to be feathery in Stampede, only vine-like, but in the manga, while he was shown to have vine-like growths during the destruction of July, the same as Stampede portrayed, he later developed the feathery, more-angelic appearance, during events that haven't yet occurred in the new series' canon. I'm confident, given all the other details that are pulled directly from the manga when one really digs into the decisions made during production of Stampede, that these details will be explored once the next season finishes production, so I'm incorporating them into my headcanons for this Vash where applicable.


Any questions?: None that I can think of, honestly.