[Video - Grabbag Virus, Body Swap]

[hunterofpeace]

[In the background of the video is the hum and rumble that sounds like a locomotion, visibility low as is if the primary source of light were the recording device itself. It highlights a shirtless Vash, covered in deep but old lesions, surgical scars, even what appear to be hunks of long missing flesh. All of those appear to be so old as to no longer even hurt; in contrast to the deep, dark splotch of blood smearing over his stomach as he gives up at wiping it to start padding it over with cloth scraps.] 'least it's not gushing anymore. This'll have to do for the short run. [For anyone familiar with Vash, his speech cadence seems off from his usual pattern, along with some of his pronunciations, still entirely coherent, but distinctly... accented. Even if he seems to be talking to himself, he gives a pained grin to the camera as he reaches into a (random) passenger's suitcase for a shirt to use as a bandage to hold the cloth in place.]

But, really, Needle Noggin, if you're doing all this...Ghh! [Jerking the bandage a little too tightly in emphasis on his own body, his eyes roll and his teeth grit before letting some slack loose and panting. He decides an easier means of emphasis is to slap his hand to his chest, leering towards the camera.] ...because some mystery "she" would get her tush in a sling over somebody dying, like that Kaito said, do you think any good woman's going to be happy about you coming home looking like this?

I've... [There's some hesitation as he gathers up the edges of the cloth to wrap it around again, avoiding looking at the camera even though there's no organic gaze in it yet to meet.] ...got three lives to save over here. Yours, mine, and li'l Kaito's. So I'm gonna have to put a black mark on your Saint's record.

Comments

[smokepraylove]

[HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!]

Then you do get it!

[hunterofpeace]

[The laughter comes to a dead stop.]

Impossible.

[smokepraylove]

If you can't shoot, just hit them in the head. That cross is heavy so you should be strong enough to do it.

I'm counting on you.

[hunterofpeace]

To keep the passengers from being killed by the Bad Lads, without killing any of them, either. That's one longshot bet you're placing.

[smokepraylove]

Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but it's important.

[hunterofpeace]

Don't blame me if you lose another limb. [He holds up the Angel Arm.]

[smokepraylove]

[His smile becomes a bit strained.]

Let that be our secret, okay? [Don't show it on camera.] An arm is less important than a life, right?

[hunterofpeace]

You're threatening me now?!

[smokepraylove]

Threat? [He's not doing that yet.]

[hunterofpeace]

...It's fine if that's not what you're getting at.

[Somebody took 'an arm is less important than a life' the wrong way. No matter how ass backwards threatening lives over his arm would be in this situation, it seems easier to accept than the fact that anyone, even someone with an unearned reputation for blood lust, expects the standing situation to be resolved peacefully.]

This Little Secret of ours useful for anything besides a bullet shield?

[smokepraylove]

[Here comes all kinds of secrets to a guy he doesn't know. Not telling him would end up being fatal, though. If not to others, then to him.]

Awww..man... don't I get to keep anything secret. This place really does hate me.

[On a more serious note...] It's a gun, too.

[hunterofpeace]

For real? [His good hand makes a cautious run over it, eyes wide. Unable to find the activation trigger at a first glance, he looks to the device again, considering his expression, trying to read into whether it's a gun that's a secret for convenience--even a man as broken down and scarred over as this has to have a few tricks up his sleeve to even be alive with his way of life--or a secret because of the nature of the weapon itself, eve if it is his own body and, in theory, replaceable.

It's not something he can ask verbally. Implying the second has even occurred to him would drop too many hints of how much he already knows, things nobody should know, things nobody should be able to tell him but one man.]

[smokepraylove]

[So, better now to act like it's a shared secret. His scars were actually kind of a secret too, and now they were there for everyone to see.]

But it's harder to keep from hitting vital organs if you fire it into a crowd. [Faster bullets increased the chance of a stray bullet.]

Do you know the plan? [Jokes aside, he did have something important to do.]

[hunterofpeace]

The plan is to avoid a crowd. Well, that much is practical enough even without trying to be a Savior of Man, so I won't argue with that much... Kaito will be in the pipe room with a map, listening for their movements. The goal is to get to the control room again.

That about right so far?

[smokepraylove]

I knew you could do this.

[hunterofpeace]

And when I get there?

[smokepraylove]

That's where their boss is.

[hunterofpeace]

And you want me to take him down without a kill, too.

[smokepraylove]

You can do it!

[hunterofpeace]

[There's a sigh, but it seems almost good natured, somewhere down beneath the exasperation, as if he really will go ahead with that plan.]

You be a little more careful while you're in my body, at least.

Sorry, didn't see this!

[smokepraylove]

You're the one riding a death machine while carrying a weird cross and smoking.

It's easy to see your screenname at the bottom of a thread and think: "Cool, their turn."

[hunterofpeace]

Death machine?

Hey, wait.

What happened to my Angelina?!