video | @typhoon

[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]

( Oh.

Oh no.

Oh no no. )

a god, huh? what kind of god?

[fursuit]

ehhhhh not a capital-G god, but pretty damn close

omniscient. omnipotent. the whole shebang.

not, here, of course, since that's too much for LILTH to try and grab, presumably. but name's Tezcatlipoca. tloque nahuaque--lord of the near and nigh

[photosympathies]

oh.
a real one.

( Listen he might have some TRAUMA regarding the concept. Sometimes your brother gets too big for his boots, sometimes he has ideas of grandeur and he starts a cult, sometimes gods suck. )

the near and nigh, huh?
sounds mysterious.

[fursuit]

yep, the real deal.

[ He doesn’t mind it being questioned, since at least where he’s from, gods aren’t exactly easily accessible anymore, and that cuts both ways. ]

but yeah, supposed to. didn’t pick the epithet, but it works. the near would be humanity, since I watched over them pretty closely, and the nigh would be cuz I’m omniscient

well, normally, anyways. LILITH couldn’t grab that much of me

[photosympathies]

sorry if asking was rude.
i just know some people who take religion way too far.

but that's super cool.
watching over humanity i mean!!! i bet you get to see all the good they do. what's it like? it sounds amazing.

[fursuit]

nah, doesn't bother me. I'm used to people being curious. isn't exactly every day any mortal creature gets to chat it up.

[ Religion, though. That he doesn't touch, since he kind of doubts this guy would be thrilled to hear about Aztec religion and his worship in particular with a comment like that... Even if it's in the past, it's still pretty brutal, so far as they go. So! Anyways!

He doesn't answer the question. He doesn't think it's a good one, in a sense. So, he points out something else first. ]

you have an optimistic steak, huh?

[photosympathies]

( Mortal is a little funny. Vash isn't sure he exactly counts. But it's not like he's here to advertise his otherworldly status not when it gets him into so much trouble back home. )

i mean, i try to?
being pessimistic has never gotten me anywhere.
and things are never as bad as all that to be anything but.

[fursuit]

it's a nice pov to have

I ask because watching over humanity is that, sure. but not all the time.

so, reflects well on you that it's your first guess

[photosympathies]

oh.
yeah.
i guess you're right.
i'm not a god or anything but i've seen a lot of people and a lot of what they do. i just think the good outweighs the bad.
most of the time anyway.

[fursuit]

yeah. pal of mine has that view too. mine is more neutral, but to be fair, my domains don't pull the best out of people by default

it's a view I appreciate tho. pessimism is better suited for gods than humanity in my opinion

[photosympathies]

i would have thought gods should be optimistic!
all that boundless potential, right?
isn't that enough to be hopeful?

[fursuit]

on the individual, sure. even on the group, sure. but it's a matter of scale. for both the amount of people and time itself.

potential takes people far. even if lives are finite, the progress each life can make still pushes things forward.

but eventually, all things end. that's just the way of things. civilizations will fall. extinctions happen. entire worlds will come to their conclusion.

that's not something people are meant to concern themselves with though. hence why the pessimism is better reserved for the folks like me that have the ability to live through it all. even when the world ends, we'll be there to make something new.

[photosympathies]

has it ever happened like that for you? things just completely ending?

( Because it's an uncomfortable thought for Vash. He's far too aware that Nai would find this fascinating, that his brother had thought them gods. But his brother is not here - is not anywhere now - and he finds himself wanting to, what? Defend humanity? Talk about their survivability? Denounce pessimism in general? )

where i'm from, even if the worlds end humanity still finds a way. their last one is long gone and they made it all the way across the stars. not as many as they'd have liked, but they still did it. they're resilient.

[fursuit]

sure. four times. the first world was one of my own creation, and my brother's the one that fucked it up beyond repair.

[ Now, granted, Tezcatlipoca is also the one that destroyed it, but. He still blames Quetzalcoatl for its fall, since Quetzalcoatl is the one that removed the sun from it. Erasing the world was a kindness at that point. ]

each world we made after still had a flaw that led to its downfall. fifth time was the charm, in a way, but the way things are going? prospects aren't good. you think this world is struggling, mine would impress you with how dire shit is.

[photosympathies]

( Brothers, amirite? But Vash isn't going to comment on that because he isn't Thinking!!! )

you make the worlds?
that must be a lot of pressure.
i don't think i could ever do that.

is it the world itself? or the people? can you help them out?

[fursuit]

to be fair, you aren't meant to. I was made for it, literally. so it's no pressure to me. but it's not a responsibility anything but a god should shoulder.

[ It's part of what he'd found troubling about his last deal in Kenos. The situation on this Earth is much more his speed. ]

but yeah to all of those. caveat with the first one that I don't mean an entire planet, since that's outside of my power, but so far as people are concerned? we're talking continental, so it's their world.

making people is easy, relatively speaking. helping them, though, that's complicated. they have to help themselves, generally speaking.

[photosympathies]

do you make them and just watch what happens?

( It feels cruel, but Vash could be wrong. His own feelings on humanity are all ensnared within each other. He can't necessarily expect other people to see it the same way. )

[fursuit]

essentially. it’s the right thing to do.

think of it like a parent and their kids, but on a way bigger scale. parent shouldn’t do everything for their kid. they have to learn how to thrive on their own. we can’t make a perfect world, so… the people have to learn to survive it. for all the good and bad that means.

though I also have my own view on it, I admit. there’s gods that would be more coddling than I am.

[photosympathies]

i guess you're right.

i just think sometimes people need more help than they know of. sometimes there's a solution and they can't see it, sometimes they get tired. i think if i were a god i'd have to step in. i wouldn't wanna control them, but i'd want to help.

but hey! luckily i'm just a guy.

[fursuit]

haha well. you wouldn't be alone there at least. like I said, there's gods that have that kind of hope.

but I'm conflict and providence. so, that ain't my bag, exactly.

not to say that I'm not a people-person, though. my help is just more like harsh tutelage. or tough love. either or.

[photosympathies]

and who knows! maybe you just haven't made the right group of people to change your mind!

[fursuit]

there's that optimism again.

won't hold my breath, but sure, maybe.

then again, I'm helping out with this whole situation, so that's pretty close to counting. not like I have all the shit that makes it a problem to interfere with human affairs, so that's why I don't mind it so much.

[photosympathies]

you're right! you're helping lilith, right? that means you're going to get to know more people. i guess it's going to be a bit of an adjustment, right? so if you need any help you can absolutely count on me.

[fursuit]

huh? why are you talking about it like I'm some kinda shut-in?

[ that's the other fate/ god, duh!! ]

I talk to people all the time. like not in ideal conditions maybe, but still.

[photosympathies]

well now you can have ideal conditions!!!
isn't that fun?