User Profile

Name: Ayame
Personal LJ: minako134
Contact info: AIM: irisbelltree
Character Name: Vash the Stampede
Character Series: Trigun/Trigun Maximum (manga; this WILL NOT be anime Vash)
Age: At least 150, appears to be 24.

Background:
This background (and the journal as well, potentially) will contain major, MAJOR spoilers for Trigun manga, up to volume twelve!

...

Okay, I warned you!

On a huge fleet of "arc" space ships transporting the entire human race across the galaxy to find a new home, Rem was the only human not in cold-sleep when she found Vash and Knives as infants in a plant reactor. Vash and his brother developed quickly, but that was the only thing that apparently seemed different between them and humans. When he and Knives discovered they had not been the first "plant children" to be found, and that the ship's crew had experimented on "Tesla", they both were repulsed and shocked beyond words; Knives fainted, and Vash nearly killed Rem, and then himself. Rem stopped him, though, and admitted that they had made mistakes, and Vash forgave her. However, Knives came out of his coma without that experience, and this is where his hatred for mankind began. He programmed the ships to crash into a nearby planet. Luckily, Rem sacrificed herself to, at the last second, re-program the ships to save at least some of the sleeping people aboard. Vash could do nothing but watch Rem die, and his brother become a maniacal monster.

What was left of humankind awoke on a sandy planet with some of the equipment on the ships still working; people did their best to survive, and over the decades the decline in the population eventually slowed as cities were built. Over 80 years of time, Vash could do nothing but stay with his murderer brother; he knew he couldn't leave him alone. The start of the next tragedy was when Vash was tricked by some townsfolk and beaten. Knives killed every single one of them in retaliation, but Vash screamed back at him, telling him that the townsfolk had had no choice; they had to prey on others to survive in the world, a world which Knives was responsible for creating. Knives said he didn't care, and was about to leave to continue his killing, but Vash desperately tried shooting him. Knives struck back, and sliced off Vash's left arm. (According to what has been shown in the manga) It appears that Knives left Vash there and they separated from then on.

Vash made his way as he could, and eventually settled down in one of the seven main cities, July. He lived his life peacefully, made friends with nearly everyone. Knives found him again, unfortunately, and forcefully made him activate the power of his "seeds", which caused Vash's right arm to mutate into an Angel Arm. Unable to control it, Vash aimed the quickly-overheating other-worldly cannon at Knives, and it fired, almost entirely destroying Knives' body, and the entire city of July and every living soul in it. This is the first time that the name "Vash the Stampede" entered the annals of history. Vash was frail and almost dead after the explosion, and had no memory of what happened. He was picked up by a colony of survivors that lived in a floating ship in the sand which housed a plant power generator which Vash was able to get better just be being close to.

Eventually, Vash simply did his best to travel from place to place, making friends when he could, and staying out of trouble. The last of those three almost never happened. The 60 billion double dollar bounty on his head meant that he was constantly being chased after. He eventually was causing so much trouble (not that he intended any of it!) that the bounty was called off, he wa classified as a "localized disaster", and Bernardalli Insurance sent out two of its agents, Meryl Strife and Millie Thompson to perform 24-hour surveillance on him for risk reduction purposes. Cue hilarious and dangerous hijinks where Vash saves the day a bunch!

Vash was then approached by Legato Bluesummers, who refused to divulge information about his master's, Knives', whereabouts, but delivered to Vash a case with 12 half-coins inside, telling Vash to defeat each of the Gungho Guns and collect the other halves of all the coins. Vash wasn't interested at all, of course, but had to string along in order to protect lives and to get closer to finding Knives and settling things. Meeting Nicholas D. Wolfwood along the way, he fought and defeated one Gungho Gun after another, often getting his butt saved by the chain-smoking priest who for some mysterious reason seemed connected to this whole charade.

Disaster strikes, however, when Knives is finally revived with the help of a human scientist who syncs him with another plant. Vash senses this immediately, and goes out to find him. When Legato sees Vash approach and is about to give the order to kill him, Knives steps forward and crushes Legato for daring to harm his brother. Knives forces Vash to activate his Angel Arm once again, and this time it is pointed straight up at the moon in the sky. Wolfwood, the Gungho Guns, the Insurance girls, and the rest of mankind could only watch in terror as a wide crater was etched into the Moon's surface. "The devil is real," someone murmured.

Vash the Stampede was not found for two years... And then was found, by Wolfwood, trying to live a new life as "Eriks" in a small town. His hair turned half black after shooting his Angel Arm. Reminded of his duty to protect everyone and find Knives again, he set out again on his journey, and continued taking on every Gungho Gun sent after him. He and Wolfwood managed to defeat two Gungho Guns that had infiltrated Vash's 'home', the ship that floated in the mist where he had been rescued so many decades before. They all caught up, and during their stay a miracle happened; a message from Earth! They'd created hyper-drive, and a fleet was flying across space as they speak. It would be only a matter of months before they were saved.

Vash and co. continued their travels, and this time Meryl is kidnapped by one of the Gungho Guns. During the rescue operation, Vash's seed power was activated to stop an elevator with Meryl inside from falling, and in the other-worldly feathers that grow out from Vash and encircle everything near, Meryl was shown Vash's past in its entirety, and Vash recalled that he did, indeed, cause the calamity that was Lost July. As the battle continued, he stayed lost in his mind, overpowered by the sense of loss and guilt. He pulled himself out of it, though, and Meryl was saved, and the Gungho Guns were driven back once more.

Vash never seemed quite as carefree as before, know that he realized that his hands were responsible for the deaths of so many people, but he continued to move on, for Rem's sake, and for the sake of all those lives he loved. Finally, he found Knives' base, and after a fast and furious battle, was defeated. Knives ordered Legato to restrain him and bring him along on their ship.

While Vash was captured by Knives and unable to break free because of Legato's telekinetic powers, Knives flew his "Arc" over the entire planet, stopping over town and town and taking back the plants which he believed humans were greedily taking advantage of. Those plants were humans' life, though, and over seven months humankind spiraled into an age of chaos only comparable to that of the first years when humans had first crash-landed on the planet. After seven months of this, finally Vash was busted out by Wolfwood, who risked his life to save him.

Back on the ground, Vash and everyone discussed the crisis at hand, and it became clear that Knives' goal was not only to wipe out humans on this planet, but to take the plants from the incoming ships from Earth as well once they arrived. Vash determined that Knives had to be stopped in the time before those ships made it, or all hope was lost. Wolfwood took off on his own, grumbling that Vash and Knives were soon to tear each other apart, and he'd be better off not getting involved.

Eventually Vash caught up with Wolfwood again, and found him fighting with every he had to protect his old orphanage from the Order of Michael, the very group of assassins that Wolfwood had been trained by. At first Wolfwood was confused at Wolfwood's attitude during the fight, but then understood that his friend, who before had been so stubborn about killing to survive, was actually going to put his life on the line and fight his last fight. In the end, he did win the fight, and managed to drag his beaten and bloodied body to an abandoned old sofa where he shared one last drink with Vash before passing away beside his friend.

This is the point at which I will be taking Vash from in the manga canon.

Equipment and other stuff he'll have on him:
- upgraded, bullet-proof, heat-resistant, cold-resistant easy-to-move-in red jacket with built-in machine gun ammunition canisters
- (we'll saaaay...) 6 spare rounds of pistol ammunition
- Frank Marlon 6-barrel pistol
- prosthetic left arm with built-in machine gun
- leather-ish glove on right arm to match left arm
- yellow-tinted glasses (just for show)
- a little charm necklace with an old photo with him and baby Jessica inside
- heavy-duty boots
- a shot glass
- one loop earring on his left ear
- $$9 double dollars (not that it'll do him any good >_>)

Personality:
Vash just wants everyone to get along.

He is here to have fun, to act like an idiot, to make friends with everyone, and make sure no one is being ignored. This isn't that rare of a personality in the kind of world you and I live in, but in a post-apocalyptic world where the next meal you eat might be your last, it's downright unheard of. And it's contagious. People can't help but love a guy who plays cops & robbers with the neighborhood kids (and lets them win), play checkers with the old folks, and never ask for anything in return but maybe a stack of pancakes or sandwiches, depending on the time of the day. On person in the manga comments that Vash's "definition of the word 'kin' stretches much farther than yours or mine." To him, everyone on this planet is family. Everyone's pain is his pain, and it's not rare to see him crying like a baby just because someone's told him a depressing story about another town that is struggling to survive.

Vash gets up earlier than the morning paper and Sunday church every morning, meditates on "life and love" for 3 seconds, and then trains and works out for 3 hours. He has a soft spot for pretty women, and ends up acting like a total pervert often times, but would likely never let any get too close, given his scar-covered body is, as he puts it "not fit for the eyes of ladies." He gets through his social interactions with plenty of humor, and often his fights with his enemies are punctured with Spider-man-like jokes at his enemy's expense. He cherishes life more than anything, and would never ever extinguish a single life. The scars on his body are the result of that oath. He will stop at nothing to stop a single life from being extinguished.

Vash will always trust that there is good in someone, and will want to give that person a chance to change their mind rather than stop them from doing something bad. His conversations with Knives over the volumes in the manga illustrate that even in the end, Vash is still trying to reason with his brother and convince him with words that he can still change his mind about humans. Even if Vash is ground down by angst and guilt, his determination to protect everyone will keep him going.

Sometimes it's painful to see how Vash will continue to keep a smile plastered on his face, even when things are heading for the worst and he's really hurting inside. Still, he knows that he's not the best liar out there; when leaving the colony ship to face Knives, Brad stopped him and told him he should say goodbye to Jessica, but Vash just smiled and said he couldn't, that his face "would give it away." He doesn't want to burden others with his problems. This also means that he doesn't want to burden others with his morals. Even though at first he yells at Wolfwood for killing and tells him to consider other options when facing an enemy, he eventually apologizes to Wolfwood for burdening him with his feelings on the matter. Their relationship is an interesting one; Wolfwood from then on claims that since Vash isn't willing to "pull the trigger", Wolfwood will dirty his hands in his stead, so that Vash can safely get to Knives. Vash is probably conflicted about this, but on the surface he seems not inclined to push his morals onto his friend.

Above all things, Vash puts everyone else before himself in all situations. The fact that he will not kill an enemy is frustrating and contradicting to them, and Vash is often accused of being prideful and "taking the higher road", but the reason he refuses to kill has nothing to do with this. He feels that every single life is precious, and cannot bear for one life that Rem saved to go wasted. Vash is anything but boastful; he's not out to prove his strength or shoot a gun. The only case in which he will do that is to protect someone.

Item Lost:
His memories of Rem

Friends (284):

Friend of (260):