smash_logs | Dorm Log!

Entry tags:

Dorm Log!

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 round two. The name has been changed a little because I think it reflects the premise slightly better.

Basically, here's what this is: we all know our characters experience downtime after classes and their busy schedules, and this is a good portal for those kinds of miscellaneous dorm-shenanigans to take place. Not only does it give your characters the easy chance to meet new people in a laid-back environment but it's a good mechanism for strengthening CR and the like. Some examples can be seen in the link I provided if you fight through the buttload of comments in case I'm sort of unclear.

So how do we start? It's up to you, really. Don't have any plans with anyone else but want your character bugged? Start a thread. It helps to staple dates and times, but you can keep that completely ambiguous if you really don't care/it doesn't matter. So disembark and wreak havoc amongst yourselves! Set up karaoke and sing loudly to further improve relations with dorm neighbors! Jack cylindrical fluorescent light bulbs from the supply closet and fight like Jedi Masters! Build couch forts with other people's laundry! (...ew?) Hold a "study session" with that special someone of yours! Harass teachers and students alike with your inane questions! What bountiful possibilities await you.

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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...?"

Edited 2011-01-26 00:16 (UTC)

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.

Edited 2011-01-26 00:43 (UTC)

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.

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.

Edited 2011-01-26 07:31 (UTC)

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...?"

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?"

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?"

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...?"

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."

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.

Oh, look, he was tumbling through the air. Wasn't this a nice comforting feeling. No, not it was not. In the midst of his previous panic he managed to register another panic as his bud was headed straight for the floor with him on top of it. Not enough time for twisting around so he landed as a boy instead, wincing slightly.

He was up like a flash though... Or as well as he could, anyway. Everything was just a bit sluggish. But there they were. Bulba stared at them blankly and then darted his eyes to Vinnie. He should have been saying something but he couldn't get his mouth to work or words to form or anything at all.

What what what what oh no oh no oh no oh no

Vinnie was curled up on his side, wincing. His arms were wrapped around his chest, where only a few days ago a berserk god had bruised his ribcage. Normally it would've healed by now with a few extra hours of photosynthesis each day, but the loss of his leaves had compromised healing as well. The sudden impact of hitting the floor face down had hurt - if breathing didn't ache before, then it did now.

Carefully, he tried to sit up, hissing as he pushed himself off the ground. Coherent thoughts began to find their voice again, but mostly they were the same incessant echos of fear and doubt and helplessness that plagued the Venusaur's subconscious. Why was this happening? god What was he going to do? he was useless what next please no?

The look in his eyes was utterly, utterly haunted. couldn't focus Bulba barely registered in his line of sight at all.

All he could see where those dead, shriveled stubs that used to be part of his body. That... used to be part of him now it wasn't and Vinnie couldn't stop staring.

He wanted to pick them up and hold them. He was too scared to touch them.

He was quiet, save for the rasping of each aching breath.

Edited 2011-01-26 11:33 (UTC)

Bulba gave the remains a wide berth as he pushed himself to Vinnie's side. He couldn't deal with them right now. He couldn't deal with this right now. God damn he was just a giant mistake waiting to happen, wasn't he? Put your trust in him and he was bound to screw it up somehow. Destroying families! Destroying teams! Why stop there when he could destroy someone else's whole life too!

The pity parties and self-loathing were put on indefinite hold. Now wasn't the time. He could deal with it after he made sure that Vinnie wasn't completely broken. Bulba might not have been able to deal with it, but someone had to and he sure as hell wasn't going to make Vinnie do it. The look in his eyes had left him shivering and he was certain it was going to follow him forever. Even if he couldn't do anything right, he could at least try to get him to someone who could.

Yet he was afraid to touch him, as if something even more horrible would occur just because he made contact. Still, he rose a shaking hand. He hesitated, but finally gave in and clasped his hand on the other saur's shoulder. Bulba tried to say his name but the sound still wouldn't come out. Instead he squeezed, trying to pretend that maybe he wasn't trembling. He let the adrenaline pick him up on his feet and try to get Vinnie on his.

Vinnie was numbed to everything, trapped in the vortex twisting up his insides. He knew what was going to happen next. Being prisoner to his own sick and nausea, bedridden, suffering the highs and lows of a traumatized body. It was constant exhaustion and a chloroplast IV drip and pain. Watching Red worry sick over him, waking up in the dead of night from dreams he couldn't remember.

He waited for it. But save for the effects of his own anxiety, there was no fresh wave of lightheadedness, no vertigo. No new hurt on his back. If anything, his body felt... clearer, if that made any sense.

It was either his disbelief had become so strong that the power of delusion was blanking out the symptoms, or Vinnie actually didn't feel wrong. He blinked slowly, trying to register what his body was trying to tell him. The panic of the moment eased its grip on his chest just enough for the Venusaur to consider that maybe, just maybe, this was the right step forward.

Just like autumn, right? Like his berry plants, sometimes. The shedding of leaves sometimes... happened, as they should.

He still wasn't ready to call anything a success, but the pure, naked terror was dissipating from his eyes. As Bulba helped him to his feet (he complied unthinkingly, still confused by everything), Vinnie had enough clarity to notice that the usual blackouts of his vision hadn't happened either.

Speech had to be gently forced from his throat, coming out in only whispers. It was a tiny echo of what the Ivysaur had asked before, but hesitation barred him from trying to hope. "Was this... supposed to happen?"

Edited 2011-01-26 13:44 (UTC)

The Ivysaur had kept his hold steady, slipping his arm under Vinnie's. It seemed like it was for the Venusaur's benefit, but it was hard to tell with the way Bulba was gripping Vinnie's shirt with paling knuckles. The whispered question forced Bulba's thoughts to jostle themselves back into a coherent stream, and he forced himself to look back at the withered leaves on the floor.

It almost seemed a little too much to hope for that this was the way things were supposed to be. But alright, ok. Put things in perspective now. It was unreasonable to expect that something magical would happen and the damaged leave would just... be alright again. That's not how things worked. Things had to start over, and if something was already there... then it would have to go for the cycle to renew. He didn't imagine things would have felt so right if something was actually wrong.

It made sense when he thought about it, but it didn't really make it any less alarming when you didn't know what to expect.

"Maybe?" Bulba managed to croak out, turning his face back towards Vinnie with wide eyes. He lacked the benefits of knowing how the Venusaur felt, and could only go off of his reactions. So while the idea was sound, he had no idea if that's what happened and he was still just a little terrified.

"Are you still okay? I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."

Vinnie answered back with his brain running on automatic - he wasn't all there just yet. "Uh, i-it's okay..." though it sounded like he wasn't too certain of that.

If it were somehow possible to separate the psychosomatic effects and the genuine processes his body was going through, it'd make things so much easier. The panic attack, at least, was passing, but now that Vinnie could see the shrively stubs for what they were, it suddenly made him ill to look at them. Like someone had just given him a box with his severed pinkies inside, all gift wrapped.

This made some sort of sense, he supposed. But he and Bulba didn't exactly follow all the normal rules of plant growth, being half classified in the animal kingdom. And it certainly didn't dull the shock. For all Vinnie had convinced himself that he wasn't dwelling on the past, this only proved that this particular wound had yet to heal over. (He might have been turning a tiny bit pink, suddenly self-conscious about his spazzing.)

He glanced back at Bulba, dazed red meeting nervous gold. There was only one thing he could think of that could give them the resolution they needed. "I think... we should ask Erika..."

Bulba nodded fervently. That was exactly who he had planned on trying to drag Vinnie to just a few moments earlier. If she had recommended this, then she would probably have known what was going to happen right? He was a little sore that she hadn't mentioned it, but he guessed it was part of being a very mysterious lady. All the mystery and all that.

"Right now."

He was already sort of pushing him towards the door.

Seemed like his legs were starting to respond to his brain again. And so, one foot in front of the other, steps were being taken. Out the door. To Erika. She'd know what just happened - she knew everything. She could help him. Bolstered by this thought, Vinnie was steadied himself so that he could walk without using Bulba as a crutch.

But wait. The Venusaur hesitated, glancing back at the two stubs lying on the ground. It felt strange to just... leave his leaves. They were simultaneously fascinating and gruesome and sad to see. (That used to be part of him. That was part of his body, once. They were his.)

"Um. Should we show her the... uhh."

Oh. Right. Bulba gave them a wary glance, unconsciously tugging on Vinnie's shirt a little more. "... Maybe." There was a pause, and he swallowed slightly. "I can't touch them," he announced in as certain a tone he could. Not until he knew what they meant, at least. At the same time, leaving them meant that they were just going to sit there in his room.

Being creepy.

And dead.

In his room.

Bulba made a very distressed face.

Vinnie stared at them for a moment longer. If Bulba wasn't going to do it, then... well, could he picture himself picking them up? For a moment he tried imagining it. The urge was certainly there, as though touching them would somehow absorb them back into his body and everything would be back in its rightful place.

But they were dead. A piece of dead.. him.

A shiver shot through Vinnie as he very quickly turned away and hurried out of the room with renewed distress. "Fuck it neithercani."

Edited 2011-01-27 07:22 (UTC)

Bulba could only nod and hurry after him, pausing only long enough to shut the door behind them with a definitive click. They were out of sight, but they certainly were not out of mind. He shuddered and followed Vinnie as they made haste to where Erika was.

[Continued here!]

Edited 2011-01-27 07:48 (UTC)

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Dorm Log!

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