#their inverted a to b relationships with mortality to world framing has been driving me up the wall (affectionate)

[vaultsixtynine]

also like. ok sorry here we go (this is what i think abt all day in the empty moments between other shit) -

vash and darcy have different (but exceedingly complimentary) fundamental framing for their worldviews by virtue of who they are - vash frames his life in small, discrete interactions as he takes on the guilt and responsibility for a 1.5 century-old mistake that has befallen all* of humanity (*on gunsmoke which Could be the last of humanity as far as he knows). it is All his fault and thus he Has To care about every little detail - this level of detailed focus is derived from his non-human nature as well, though he's never known anything different and has rarely had anyone know him well enough to discuss the differences. he has to help and save and protect and love every person he can on an individual level as long as his slightly-removed Other status is maintained. he staunches blood flow and stitches open wounds.

darcy frames her life on a huge, immense scale - weather patterns over decades, how long it takes a tree to grow or geologic strata to form; she does this because she has been aware since she was very small how insignificant a single human life can be against the ravages of time, greed, ignorance. she made a decision that it doesn't matter that she will likely never be able to see any benefit of her labor beyond surface-level, she still has to do what she does for humans on gunsmoke to survive eventual, slow extinction. she has to build what she's testing and learning into more people, needs to help people by showing them how to do this themselves and WHY - this extends to interpersonal conflict, too, and the violences humans inflict on each other. she sees and understands systems, and starts at the top or works backwards as far as she can - she wants to and does help in an immediate problem, but she prefers to ask Why a moment of tragedy had to happen at all. she identifies why an injury happened in the first place and prefers to navigate how to prevent it in the future.

when together, they manage to address one another's blindspots (most of the time) and balance their shared interests/goals against their differing approaches - action vs. inaction, the value of making a plan that doesn't require endless self-sacrifice, looking for opportunities to cut to the heart of an issue that lies outside of the most obvious solution. they are both very smart individuals and become extra double stupid when they're together except for when anything's actually under threat, at which point they eventually settle into a paired dynamic that makes them stronger and also makes them better at finding option C's in a world obsessed with trolley problems.