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[photosympathies]

I need advice!

( Hello network, here's your friendly neighbourhood Stampede about to fully launch into something with no forewarning and no introductions. It's how he makes friends ... and also enemies, don't worry. ) So, we have to get jobs, right? But I'm not exactly sure what I'd be good at. I usually just do whatever people need around the towns I'm visiting, which means I know a little of most things. But I figured this place was new and people might be a little more cautious about that. So I made flyers!

( In one hand - metal, blue sometimes sea green - Vash holds up a stack of leaflets. )

Only when I was trying to give them out I got a lot of dirty looks so can someone tell me what I've done wrong! I really want to be useful while I'm here.

( Turning the flyer around so that his ( unfortunate ) captive audience can see. The design is obviously home made, and probably in a rush. On the paper it proudly proclaims

VASH THE STAMPEDE
RENT BOY
WILL DO WHATEVER YOU NEED
COST: ???
Below that is a crude drawing of the man himself - a stick figure with a triangle body ( his coat, sadly missing ) and a mass of spiky hair. It has a crude beaming smile on the circle of a face. )

Is it the drawing? I could have done better I guess, but I was in a hurry. ( A pause, a slow dawning realisation. ) Aw, shoot. It's the name, right? I didn't use my civilian name! Crap, that's probably a no-no.

( Nothing else could be the issue.

... Right? )

Comments

[photosympathies]

Right!

( Could it be ... a kindred spirit ...? )

And like, I don't mind not being paid at all. I tried telling some guy he didn't have to give me money but he took off like I was trying to rob him or something. ( Potentially the prostitution crossed-wires, but who knows? ) I guess I could put 'fee on agreement' but then I'm worried people might think I'm too expensive instead of less.

[eyescar]

It's the same for me. As long as I can help people, that's what matters to me.

[ Yuji sighs softly. ]

Could it be something like... 'Pay what you can'?

[photosympathies]

Hang on, where did I put that pen? ( He starts patting down the LILITH greys, then proudly produces it to start scribbling on the flyer. ) Pay what you can sounds much better. Also I guess I have to change the wording elsewhere too.

( How was he supposed to know what rent boy actually meant! )

Does guy for hire sound weird to you?

[eyescar]

It's a work in progress, so that's okay, isn't it?

[ As for the rest - ]

It sounds normal to me.

[photosympathies]

Oh, good. Because I am not making that mistake again. Gonna be real careful on my next flyer! I'm Vash, by the way. Or I guess you already knew that because it's what it said here.

( He's trying! )

[eyescar]

Itadori Yuji here!

[ an introduction is nice all the same, isn’t it? ]

What sort of jobs are you looking for anyway? Is it really anything?

[photosympathies]

Yeah! I've kind of done it all. Mostly I go around towns and just see what needs done, you know? Let's see, I've worked in a couple of diners, a bar or two, I've been hired muscle - that sucked, I had to pretend to be all macho - I've definitely done more than a few delivery runs across Gunsmoke. Bodyguarding, uhhh, security work, newsboy - but a worm ate all the newspapers, I got fired from that one. Personal trainer, one time a life drawing model! But when I took my clothes off they were like, no thank you Mr. Stampede, so I had to leave. There was one time I tried a casino but boy, did that have a lot of shady people and I kept having to fight them so they made me leave.

( He's rambling. He seems to realise it, teeth clicking shut. )

... Actually, I got fired from a lot of them. So I guess I don't really know what to do here. It's a big city, and it has a whole lot of stuff I've never seen before.

[eyescar]

Woah...

[ Yuji's eyes are a little wide. ]

Didn't they give you a job when you woke up here...?

[photosympathies]

Uhhhh.

( ... Did ... they ...

Oh god. )

If I tell you I wasn't exactly listening are you going to judge me for it?

[eyescar]

Nope. I didn't pay a lot of attention at first either.

[ Too many words when he had a headache. ]

They made me a firefighter.

[photosympathies]

Oh hey, that's neat! You must be very brave, right?

( He's impressed! And what Yuji said earlier about helping people definitely makes sense then. )

Have you had to fight a lot of fires?

[eyescar]

Sure, that would be a good word...

[ Hehehe... ]

Not as many as I'd expected, since I'm still so young, but that's fine.

[photosympathies]

Yeah, you look pretty young. But I don't like to assume!

( Being 150 and acting like a baby kind of skews the data a little anyway, so he mostly doesn't guess. )

Do you like it? Is it a good job? I've helped put out a few in my time but never, officially. Sometimes you just have to roll out of bed and grab a bucket, you know?

[eyescar]

I'm sixteen.

[ So, yeah, a little bit young... ]

It's fine! I like helping people, and I'm strong enough to do it, so I'm happy.

vash undoing all geto's hard work so now they must fight in my head

[photosympathies]

( Kids don't really get the chance to be kids in No Man's Land, so Vash rolls with that revelation a lot easier than most might. )

I get you! It's like I'm always saying, why should someone else do it if I can, right?

( Vash, pls. )

What's your home world like? Is it the same as Neo Tokyo?

they're gonna 1v1

[eyescar]

Exactly! I don't mind doing the hard stuff if it makes things easier for other people.

[ A shrug. ]

It's similar, since I live in Tokyo, but this place has way more technology.

neither of them make it out alive and i gotta quit the game

[photosympathies]

Oh! So you're from here but also not here. Neat! Then you're the guy to go-to when I have questions.

( Which he does, an ever growing list. )

Do you like it here?

i take it back --

[eyescar]

I've been here for months, too, so I've got a good idea of how things work.

[ A pause, then another shrug, Yuji's mouth twitching. ]

It's fine, even with the kaiju fights. I'm used to fighting, so it's kind of normal to me.

asdhjs

[photosympathies]

Yeah? How many have you fought? Are they super big? What are they like?

( He's been imagining just a whole bunch of worms. Which apparently is not wrong but -. )

[eyescar]

I've fought... Four? I think...

[ Do some of them count...? ]

Some were huge, but some were normal sized.

[photosympathies]

Are they all animals? Like the crabs were?

( Because a part of it sounds fun, but he's a little worried he's going to be forced into bullying a native species. )

[eyescar]

Most of them? There's been whales, and lizards, and worms...

[ But they've been... Big. ]

There were apparently some boar, too, but I couldn't fight those.

[photosympathies]

I got eaten by a worm once.

( As nonchalant as can be! )

But whales? That's pretty cool. I bet they're hard to fight on water. We don't have oceans where I'm from, though considering what's in them maybe I'm happy about that.

[eyescar]

The lizards electrocuted me.

[ Yuji just grins, though. ]

We had to go out onto boats and fight them there! It was intense.

[photosympathies]

Electrocuted? Yowch.

( He's been there, buddy. )

But that's so cool, I'm a little jealous. Not that I want to fight a whale, but the beach was so fun. I've been on a sandsteamer before, but never a boat.