[Action] Morning of the 23rd

[honorbeforeall]

[Karai spends a good long time staring at the treetops above her before she realises she's back in the forest. Then she spends a good deal more time not moving except to shift a tree root out from under her spine. Uncomfortable. Hurts. Therefore, alive

Comments

[goldenglasses]

[Vash has been spending more time lately in the forest since his little drinking binge. It's a good quiet place to try to collect your thoughts.

He wasn't surprise to catch the flash of white in the forest. New Feathers were still trickling in. So he turns to see if they needed help and-]

Karai!

[honorbeforeall]

[...Vash.

...Vash, the very nosy. She doesn't want to deal with him. Karai opens her eyes a crack, glancing in his direction. The appropriate venom and unwelcoming glare is beyond her capacity right now, so... that's all he gets.]

[goldenglasses]

[Vash doesn't need any look to know he's probably one of the last people Karai wants to see right now, but too bad. He's worried.] Are you alright?

[honorbeforeall]

[Turning away again.]

I am fine.

[Go away.]

[goldenglasses]

[He hesitates, knowing how painful it had been for himself waking up after his death. The hardest part was talking to the people that knew. Yet he can't bring himself to just leave.]

...have you talked to your father yet? He's been worried.

/watches time shatter

[honorbeforeall]

[Worried. Him? She nearly retorts bitterly to that before it dawns on her that that means Vash knows. That her father has talked to him. Idiot, nosy gunsman--

--wait.]

You spoke to him?

D8 I'm sorry! Vash cares to much about everyone's feelings!

[goldenglasses]

He was worried when you went missing. I was talking to him when he was told that you had been found.

Karai, [a pause.] was it a man wearing all black and a long blond braid that attacked you? [Yuber was the only one Vash knew well enough that would attack someone for no reason, but there had been no gloating about it over the journals. That didn't seem like Yuber, but he had to check.]

It's okay. /pets and adds stickytape to timeline

[honorbeforeall]

[This description does not ring a bell, although she can certainly hazard the guess that there is already a known serial killer in town.

...it would be easy to shunt suspicion in this direction. But wrong. She opens her mouth to say 'no', and then realises what the next question will be after that.

...
...]

I do not remember.

[She does not like to lie. But she will have to lie to protect him in any case.]

Re: It's okay. /pets and adds stickytape to timeline

[goldenglasses]

[Maybe the attack had come from behind? Maybe she lost the memory with the death, either way Vash isn't going to pry anymore.]

I'm sorry. [Because it's totally his fault that you died or something.]

[honorbeforeall]

[She relaxes a little. He's not going to pry...?]

You have nothing to apologise for. [Her words are inflectionless, trotting them out on reflex. She's just tired. And she doesn't want to think.]

[goldenglasses]

[Fine. He'll make it a little clearer.]

I'm sorry this happened. [He still should have been there. Somehow.] Do you need any help?

[honorbeforeall]

...

No.

Thank you.

[goldenglasses]

[He's quiet for a minute. From what little he really knows about Karai he doubts she wants company, but he can't bring himself to just leave.]

You should let your father know you're alright.

[honorbeforeall]

[...yep. Just have some flat silence.]

[goldenglasses]

[Vash really isn't sure what to do. He really isn't sure you should be alone. No one really likes to be alone do they?

Hm, what if he went and sat behind a tree? Then he'd be around, without being around.]

[honorbeforeall]

[Hurry up and make your decision either way, Vash The Nosy. For now, Karai is apparently trying to pretend you don't exist.]