Dorm Log!

[ohjeffums]

Who: It's OPEN. (Anyone)
What: Dorm hijinks and etc. Whatever you want.
Where: Student and Teacher dorms, and quite possibly beyond.
When: January 20-31
Warnings: Not even gonna.

Remembuh me? The roomie log turned out to be a success, and a lot of really awesome interactions took place. Because of this, I've decided it was about time to post

Comments

[besteststarter]

Bulba just ignored that whole first bit because he really wasn't going to get into that right now. It was the last thing Vinnie had said that had gotten to him a little bit.

It bothered him a lot more than it probably should have. The tone, the words he used, how quickly the topic was trying to get brushed off. Little things that wouldn't have been too big of a deal any other week. They would have garnered a little bit of annoyance, certainly, but nothing Bulba would have made a big deal over. But this week... This week was different. This was the week that Bulba had been counting all the reasons why he shouldn't have amounted to anything worth something. He was trying to cling to Green's words of encouragement, but it wasn't working out. So while it wasn't Vinnie's intent in any way, it still stung and crept up under Bulba's skin. Just one more thing to add to the list of things that were wrong about himself that he couldn't do anything about.

Bulba couldn't blame him for changing his mind. He wasn't a wild Ivysaur, after all. How could he possibly of been of any use to the clearly superior Venusaur. He was obviously only a pale imitation, what could Vinnie possibly have been thinking by coming to him. How could he possibly make anything bloom.

He snapped back with more agitation than was necessary and that Vinnie really didn't deserve. He was just... really tired of a lot of things. "Make up your mind. If you don't think I can do it, just spit it out already."

[punchtheflowers]

Vinnie, obviously, had no idea what had been going on with Bulba's personal stresses that particular week. He was too busy getting thrown off buildings, himself - something that was just the first reminder in what would be many to come of his new, pathetic helplessness. Fighting in human form was something he'd done before, but relying on a tool instead of his floral powers gave him little control, with what little skill he had. It was... a reality check.

If it was the irrationality of his pride that kept Vinnie from talking to Bulba before, then he was feeling anything but proud right now. He couldn't really articulate the sort of shame he felt, after building up the self-expectation to look out for the Ivysaur, maybe be a role model. Yeah right. As a Venusaur, he was like a... failed parent or something.

So Bulba's tone confused him - and, maybe, it stung more than he'd like to admit. It wasn't as if Vinnie was putting him under the pressure to succeed, so what was this guy's problem? Hurt trickled outwards in the form a defensive glare. "S'not like I expect you to. I'm just saying you don't have to worry 'bout it."

[besteststarter]

Bulba's look darkened for a moment. Of course he didn't expect him to. He... Bulba had to bite his tongue to keep himself from tossing Vinnie out of his room right then and there. He took in a slow, deep breath as he pressed his palm against his forehead and sort of glared at a very empty corner of the room.

For being the rational one, he sure was being pretty irrational. "Nevermind," he said in a somewhat dull tone.

He let his hand fall back to his lap and he sighed. "Look. You didn't have to tell me, but you did." Oh, good, he was back to some semblance of normalcy. "I don't have to worry about it, but I'm going to."

Why? It was... complicated. Definitely not anything Bulba would have been able to explain very well. He wasn't under any obligation to care about the other saur at all. They weren't on the same team. They weren't siblings. They weren't friends. ... Though maybe that last part didn't really apply anymore. Somewhere along the way there had been some sort of shift on Bulba's end that he didn't know what to do with now that he was noticing it. That was probably why the notion of Vinnie seeing him as a second rate saur hurt as much as it did.

Bulba leaned forward again, finally looking at Vinnie again with a frown. "Neither of us are going to lose anything over trying it, but if you just want to forget it then just go."

this is gonna be the worst

[punchtheflowers]

Bulba was right (as usual). This was the whole reason Vinnie had even come here. What was the point of telling Dana that she couldn't keep letting her pride get in the way of asking for help when he was being such a hypocrite?

He didn't want to let go of that tiny, seed of hope that Erika planted in him, as selfish as it was. Anything had to be better than the uncertainty of never knowing, never trying, and waiting endlessly on some sort of miracle. That was the worse option between the two. Bulba's opinion of him shouldn't have been such a big deal.

Stop chickening out. Screw second thoughts, screw dignity. Screw everything, maybe if he kept repeating it to himself, he'd buy into his own delusions.

It was obvious that this was still hard for the Venusaur to say - he was feeble, hurt and defensive, self-injecting humility for a tiny glimmer of possibility. His determination was forced, but that was be best he could do right now.

Just because Bulba knew what his injuries were, didn't mean he knew exactly the whole extent of his crippling, right? Right?

"Al'right. Fine. Okay. So." Vinnie frowned, feeling his aptitude with words failing again. What say next, brain? He looked so uncomfortable.

"...I hadn't really thought this through to the part where after I ask you. Stuff. Cuz I was mostly..." Oh no, no hand gestures with his arms crossed. He looked flustered instead. "...if I should. Cuz you probably... Fuck, I sound like Marie.."

no shut up

[besteststarter]

And then they made out.

This was a strange new light to be seeing Vinnie in. Awkward visits to hospitals and gardens aside, he'd always been some sort of bastion of confidence. It had always been a little infuriating, but that was mostly an issue of different team perceptions making him come across as smug. But now he was sitting in Bulba's room, fumbling and mumbling and generally looking very flustered and uncomfortable.

It was a surreal experience. Vinnie probably wouldn't realize it, but it was slowly (sloooowly) drawing Bulba back out of whatever damned shell he had set up for himself. Sure he was still a little aggravated. Sure he was feeling doubtful. Being able to worry about someone and something unrelated to his own miserable failures though- even if it was someone he maybe shouldn't have been worried about- was a welcome change of pace.

And it was stupid but he was genuinely concerned. Bulba had countless amounts of faded injuries on odd parts of his person from when he had been gripped by very deep running instincts. Protect the bulb. Protect the flower. Protect the seed. So, sorry Vinnie, but his mind was leaping to all of the worst scenarios.

"Yeah, you kind of do," Bulba admitted. He was wearing a very small smile, but it dimmed fairly quickly. "Uh... should we try it now then? Or... Huh. It'd probably work better if we weren't people but..." Bulba's eyes flicked to Vinnie's shoulders a bit warily. He knew how aggravating changing forms could be. It was bad enough when Max had ripped his back up. "... Maybe something will still happen if it's just me."

never shutting up

[punchtheflowers]

All the making out

Vinnie's brows knitted. He knew Bulba was just trying to be charitable, not asking him to revert back to the leafless, Pokemon form that gave him so much anxiety, but they both knew it was probably next to impossible trying to make his tattoos grow back.

He just had to man up and do this. If this was gonna happen, it couldn't be half-assed. With a sullen growl, he rolled up his sleeves (which really wouldn't do anything, other than psyching him for the task) and stood up. "No, I can do this."

Pop! In an instant, he was on all fours again, heavy and warty and... pruned. Just like he said, the only thing left of his front and left side leaves were sad, painful-looking stubs. As a Venusaur, he had been rendered asymmetrically broken. Even the pink of his flower was duller in colour, and its scent - while still present - was significantly less strong.

Vinnie shifted his weight uneasily over his feet, unable to look at Bulba in the face. He felt naked.

gosh

[besteststarter]

Even if he had been expecting what it could look like, Bulba wasn't fully prepared to actually see it for what it was. He let out a slow breath as he got to his feet, trying not to admit that the few steps it took to get to him were shaky. They were. It was hard to look at anything but the wounds, though he did try. They just kept drawing him back in with some sort of morbid fascination. The dull sympathetic pains that had been taking root in his back were throbbing. Everything about this was just wrong.

He touched Vinnie's side with a nervous hand, but the touch was brief, quickly replaced by the soft rustle of a leaf against his leg. Bulba kept quiet, not knowing what to say. Then again, he was pretty sure Vinnie might have preferred that he wasn't saying anything about it. Instead he padded around him and gently nudged the side of Vinnie's head with his own, before taking a seat besides him.

Now he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do about it. "Should..." he started quietly, sounding every bit as confused and unsure as he felt, "... I... uh. Climb up there or...?"

Re: gosh

[punchtheflowers]

The Venusaur gave a deep, gutteral huff, equivalent of a sigh. "I dunno, go for it," he muttered, sounding just as uneasy as Bulba did. He nudged the Ivysaur back, a bit more insistently, pushing his head against the smaller saur's legs as an indication that he had permission to climb on top. It was certainly large enough to support Bulba's weight, and Vinnie had a pretty thick skull in every sense of the term.

Lying down was still a bit of an annoyance with his bruised ribs, but he managed by folding his front legs under him. This only made Vinnie look even more withdrawn than he already was.

[besteststarter]

Alright, alright, he was going. It had never once crossed his mind ever in the past that he might have some day been climbing up the Venusaur's face, but there he went, carefully picking his way up to the top of his broad head. Vinnie probably didn't make a habit of toting Ivysaurs around up there either, so it might have come as a surprise that the other saur was a good deal lighter than his usual cat companion despite his size.

Bulba ducked his head slightly under the canopy of petals, treading carefully towards his stem and minding the still present leaf over there. The sight of the damage up close only conjured up a slightly nauseous feeling, so he tried focusing more on the rough brown stem.

Now... how exactly... was he supposed to do this? Nurturing a little sapling was one thing, but this was... It hadn't really occurred to him when he first agreed to it, but now that he was standing there trying to figure it he realized that this was essentially the most intimate moment he could share with someone. Bulba was suddenly glad he was up where Vinnie couldn't see his face because he was gradually becoming more and more flustered the more the knowledge sank in. Oh god this was not what he needed right now.

Well. Whatever. It didn't mean anything. Probably. Just helping a guy out. Yeah. So with a deep breath, he leaned forward and softly pressed his forehead against the base of the plant. Bulba shut his eyes and let the rest of his feelings go.

Except for one. He was searching for that particular one. It was elusive, hiding deep away until Bulba went to look for it. It always felt warm, from the base of his back to the tip of his toes. A feeling like sunshine, condensed into something that he could touch and feel and use... It wasn't something he fully knew how to understand just yet. It was a connection that probably came as naturally as breathing to a Venusaur, but required quite a bit more coaxing on his part. Actual effort. But when he could feel it creeping through the edges of his leaves and building in the base of his flower, he didn't doubt that it was far more satisfying now than it would be if he didn't have to think about it.

Slowly, without any real thinking on his part, vines crept from beneath his own leaves. They reached out, intertwining around the pink flowered plant. And there, within it, the connection he was looking for. Ahh, it was there. Bulba edged a little closer, and gently began to push the feeling through to it. Feelings of warmth and life and the desire to grow, to flourish. Soft whispers of encouragement. A tender stimulus to awaken that which was sleeping.

He needs you.

[punchtheflowers]

Bulba may have been lighter than Euphie, he certainly didn't have the liquid grace of a psychic feline. Vinnie grunted awkwardly as flat Ivysaur feet plodded across his head, onto his vulnerable back. This was actually the first the he'd allowed anyone to climb onto him ever since the fight - the weight of another Pokemon's body only multiplied the feeling of how exposed and bare his body was right now.

Ears flattened unhappily against his skull, Vinnie laid his head down and closed his eyes. It was a futile attempt to brick up the butterflies that were flying wild his stomach as he waited, and for a good while he was unsure exactly what to expect from Bulba's jumpstart.

He'd never been on the receiving end of a floral push, except... in the back of his head, (only it wasn't his head - it was a deeper, encompassing presence,) Vinnie remembered feeling this way before. Only last time, back before he had a name, it hadn't felt like a push at all. It was... a great, warm embrace that took his hand in its grip and lifted him off the ground, onto his feet. A gentle strength that towered over his memories - he called it his father, and with an almost effortless tug he had pulled the Bulbasaur into an Ivysaur.

This, what Bulba was doing, was a far cry from the ease that his father wielded. This was a tease, a tickle, a slight trickling of power - but Vinnie could feel his body recognizing it. Not quite sure how he could nudge his own stubbornly latent energies to life from his end, the Venusaur opted to pour his focus into the memories of his evolution instead. Trying to spark it into a similar growth.

There was a very soft, very low whine that escaped his throat as he did. His family... his other family, his father and his brothers and his sisters... The memories were already so fuzzy. When did that happen? He knew they were there, but trying to grasp at them only chased them farther away.

On Bulba's end, it seemed like something was starting to react to his attempts. Simply looking at it, the change would've been so subtle that the eye could barely catch it - but the shift of energy was happening somewhere.

Slowly, the stub began to shrivel as the flower cast it off.

[besteststarter]

Bulba wasn't sure how long to keep it up would be long enough to make a difference. As stubborn as he had been that he could do something, he recognized in that moment that it might not have been enough of something. The reaction so far felt positive though, and that was encouraging. It was definitely taking what was being offered, he could feel that much. Spurred on by that, he kept going until he was sure there was nothing else he could do.

His head drooped a little. Effort came with a price after all, and once he slipped away from Vinnie's flower he became aware of just how tired he suddenly was. Now all he wanted to do was curl up and sleep forever. He groaned a little, lifting his head to look over at the stubs as he opened his eyes. He had felt something happen, but what was...

They weren't there.

He physically did not know how to register this. His thoughts came to a sudden, jarring halt in shock. His mind was a complete flatline. But then the shock registered a small blip on his system and jumpstarted it. The panic quickly swelled after it, and Bulba just had no idea what to do with himself. What had even happened what did he do oh god did he fuck up oh god no no no no no no no no.

Bulba looked behind him, nervously pulling his vines back to himself. He tried very hard to keep his voice sounding calm, which weariness seemed to help with. "Did... did Erika mention what was supposed to happen...?"

[punchtheflowers]

The withered stub, oblivious to the panic Bulba was exuding in its direction, had flaked off from the main stem, dead and detached completely. Now that the flower no longer needed to spare the energy to care for it and fight infection, it was free to conserve its strength for regrowth. Of course, it didn't really look that way. It looked more like the Ivysaur had talked the flower into losing even more leaf.

The process was so innocuous that Vinnie didn't even notice it at all. There wasn't the slightest pain, or any indication that something had happened. So he was still lying there waiting on some tangible reaction. The tingling in the base of his stem had stopped, but that seemed to be the only change.

When Bulba finally spoke, the Venusaur sleepily opened his eyes. "Uh... I dunno, she didn't really say. Why?"

[besteststarter]

There was a very quiet stream of "...uuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." drifting from the Ivysaur's general direction.

Perhaps if Bulba were to put forth the common sense and general amounts of knowledge he possessed, he might have realized that there really wasn't anything wrong. This was actually quite a natural process and good job, it had worked fairly well on a dormant plant. It was really quite unfortunate then that all of those things had been, at the moment, completely tossed out the window in his tired and moody state. Oops.

So it was with great trepidation that the Ivysaur crept over Vinnie's head, peeking down over his forehead.

"... Do you feel any better?"

[punchtheflowers]

Contrary to what some may believe, it was quite a difficult feat to look at someone when they were standing on your forehead. Vinnie's head lifted marginally as he went cross eyed in an attempt to figure out if anything had actually happened up there.

Bulba was acting a bit odd. If nothing was going on, then he could've just said so. Vinnie had pretty plainly stated before that he hadn't expected miracles or anything.

"Don't think I feel that different." If Venusaurs had eyebrows, they would have been raised. Again, he repeated, "Whyyy...?"

[besteststarter]

His ears laid back, and Bulba kept huddled low as if that would somehow make it harder for Vinnie to see him. ... Despite the fact that Vinnie couldn't really see him right now anyway, yes.

In a very, very, very hushed voice-- that was hard to miss when he was sitting between your ears-- Bulba told him.

"... They fell off."

[punchtheflowers]

they fell off they fell off they fell off they fell off

In an instant, those three words grabbed his heart and squeezed it so hard that Vinnie swore it stopped beating. He definitely stopped breathing. And blinking. And thinking.

Everything shut down as alarm bells instantly, instinctively assumed the worst. It didn't even register that up until the second before Bulba spoke, everything seemed fine. But no, Vinnie felt like he was collapsing in on himself, ripped back to that moment in the snow. A mantra of denial flashed before his eyes, no no no no no no

Pop!

All of the Venusaur's size and mass was suddenly sucked into the nothing of his compact human form, sending both saurs sprawling onto the ground. The leaf stubs, now completely removed from his body, didn't even change with him. They just dropped sadly onto the ground beside them.