This is Vash the Stampede, from about a year or so after the end of the manga Trigun. Until I can get his icons updated, please pretend with me that his hair in all of them is completely black -- technically there's about three or so golden hairs at the hairline above his right eye eye, but they're easy to mistake as a trick of the light.

He's going to start off in his traditional leather bodysuit, boots with far too many buckles, and a long red duster that's heavily stained around the hem, and that looks like somebody set it on fire then shot it a bunch of times (example image here). He'll always have a glove on his left hand, even if the right one is bare, and he's got a ridiculously big Colt revolver strapped to his side. Since this is manga Vash and not anime Vash, that Colt shoots .45s. He's very good with it.

He's tall (about 6'/1.8m), and jacked, although it's hard to see how muscular he is with most of his wardrobe choices. He looks about 25 or so, Ethnically Ambiguous with very light skin and bright blue eyes. He'll almost always be smiling, usually while babbling in a cheerful tone. He puts on a silly, bubbly persona most of the time, so chances are, if he's talking to your character, he's doing his best to come off as a harmless Funny Guy.

User Name/Nick: Joe
User DW: n/a
E-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact: notJoe @ Plurk
Other Characters Currently In-Game: n/a

Character Name: Vash the Stampede
Series: Trigun Maximum
Age: 150, give or take a few years. He looks to be in his mid 20s. (Update: going with 155)
From When?: Just post-canon. The ships from Earth have arrived with supplies and the promise of contact with Earth, Knives is dead, and Vash was just about to walk off into the sunsset when the Admiral showed up with his offer.


Warden Justification:
Let's be real, Vash is exhausted. He's been in a long cold war with his brother for more than a century, and he kinda wants to just lay down and die in a quiet corner somewhere. But as long as he's alive, it's his duty to try and make better for other people, so if asked, he'll say that he's DELIGHTED to have the opportunity to help somebody become a better person! All life is valuable, everyone is special, and surely this evil doer just needs a friend to guide them in the right direction!

He will not quit on his Inmate. He’ll put in the time to learn all about them and will try absolutely everything he can think of to get them to see the light. Vash himself is a good, kind, caring person, and he’ll lead by example with whoever he’s paired with. He’s had luck in the past in getting people to lay down their weapons and to work together, so he has a good likelihood of success here.


Item: His Warden item is an earring. It's a small silver hoop in a medium-large gauge that he wears in his left earlobe. Back on his world, this earring was a two-way radio that was paired with another radio in the shape of an ink pen (the pen was left behind with a friend). As a Warden item, when turned on it can beep faster or slower to indicate his Inmate's location.


Abilities/Powers: Vash is significantly faster and has better aim than any human, although part of that is because he's not human and part is because he's spent more than a hundred years wandering a desert world fighting gangsters and killer robots. His left arm is artificial, and hides a machine gun. Vash also used to have the ability to generate a huge amount of energy (enough to blow a city off the map, or to burn a hole in the moon), but canon events have drained his power so that the best he could do at this point is maybe generate a shield. And then he'd pretty immediately die, so for all intents and purposes, this power has been negated.


Wardening Strategies and Philosophies:
Vash will be the paragon of cheer and goodwill for as long as he can keep up the charade (which will be a very long time). He’ll take his job as Warden extremely seriously, and will want to spend all his time with his Inmate, especially at first, in order to get to know them. He believes that everyone is good deep down, and that people who hurts others (including themselves) just haven’t had the opportunity to make better choices. So he’ll want to learn everything about his new best friend in order to address what he will determine are the causes of their poor choices. Greed is just understandable selfishness in the face of want, and there’s no want here! Cruelty is a lack of love, and he’s got plenty to give! Being closed off from the world is a defense mechanism, but here’s this wonderful ship with amazing people, and it’s safe to reach out here! He’s going to sign them both up for volunteering in soup kitchens, to care for orphaned puppies, to… to do whatever the spaceship version of digging wells and raising barns is. There’s work that will benefit others, and dammit, they’re going to go help others. He really won’t know what he’s doing, so he’s going to try everything that makes him feel better and see what sticks.

He doesn’t know anything about therapy, but once he learns that that’s an option he might push hard for his Inmate to go cry about their past and wash those old wounds clean. Hypocritically, he won’t do a thing about his own grief and poor life choices, unless he ends up with an Inmate whose care requires it.
Please note that Vash is a functional alcoholic (in lieu of therapy he’s been using alcohol to endure bad times and to celebrate good ones for literal decades). He’s also incredibly stubborn, and might keep trying failed techniques because he’s sure that if he just keeps at it, eventually it’ll work.

He should not be paired with anybody who has self-harm tendencies, and he is likely to become violent (casual violence, like throwing punches, slapping them upside the head) if paired with an unrepentant murderer. I’m good to play out that kind of violence if the other character’s player is (and obviously would discuss it with them first), but please note that that’s a possibility.

No matter who he’s paired with, he won’t quit, but his own coping mechanisms (drinking, insomnia, fighting in the holodeck) may get worse with an Inmate who 1) enjoys hurting people, or 2) reminds him of his brother or his dead best friend.


Deal: Honestly? He needs a reason to stay alive. He won't say that, no -- he'll say that he misses living on a ship, and that helping somebody become a better person will be its own reward, but the truth is that everyone he's ever cared about is either dead, or will suffer if he sticks around. He doesn't believe in suicide, so giving his life to redeem somebody else is the best possible option he's got. If pressed to name a reward, though, he'll ask for pizza toast, made just the way that they use to south of the gap (black olives and cheese, with lots of onion in the sauce).


History: https://trigun.fandom.com/wiki/Vash_the_Stampede

Sample Network Entry: Day 3 on the Barge. There's so much to see here, but between the bar with the shark tank and the greenhouse, I haven't made it past the first deck! I had a nice long nap on the grass yesterday -- grass tastes terrible, by the way -- and I made a friend with a plant! That's what they call flora here, "plants". It's a very nice plant that doesn't seem to produce anything other than leaves (which I didn't taste, because that felt rude). It doesn't have flowers like a geranium does. It's just green, but it's very pretty!

If nobody tells me that I have to leave I'll take another nap there tonight and see if I can figure out what the plant is saying when it waves its arms. It looks healthy, if the condition of the rest of the non-moving plants is any indication, but it would be nice to know that it's happy too.

I wish I could show it to you. I wish I could show all of this place to you. It feels wrong, being back in space without either of you.


Sample RP: From the current TDM: talking about sharks with Mikodez

Arrival: meeting Nai
Arrival: meeting an older, black-haired Vash
Arrival: meeting Wolfwood and CRAU Vash

Vash disappears from December and finds himself in July, with Nai and eventually Rem

on his way to Octovern, Vash meets an older Knives

Another Vash! on the way to Octovern

And on the way back, a teenaged Vash! With a thing for hunting worms, yuck.

A reunion with Wolfwood and that gentle Vash

On his way back from Octovern, stopping at Knives's place to meet Tessla

"Tim", who is neither Vash nor Knives.

Almost home! And then he's whisked off to Octovern again.