smash_logs | Dorm Log: School's in session

Who: All of Smash.
What: Dorm log! September edition.
Where: Student and Teacher dorms, and quite possibly beyond campus.
When: The span of September 15th - 30th.
Warnings: HAHAHAHAHA.

Ripped off the last one and all its friends: Basically, here's how this works. We all know our characters experience downtime after classes and their busy schedules, and this is a good venue 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. It's easy!

Feel free to begin in any way you please! Plan with (a) fellow player(s) if you'd like! Or, set up a thread and wait for characters to bite! Just add a thread with the room number (and date/time, if it matters) and the characters that reside there (just for reference!). You do not have to use one character's thread as a dual-purpose for both characters if you do not want to. Doesn't have to be a dorm room, either, if you have something else in mind. It could be the common room or the student science lab or wherever. So how's that first week of school been treating you? How big's your pile of homework? Sure, you could be doing that. But why do that when you could decimate your friendships by playing a round of Giana Party 4? Host a girl's-only slumber party! Spy on a girl's-only slumber party! Dare someone to spend the night in the haunted dorm! Slip a (fake) love letter beneath that special someone's door! Etcetera, etcetera... I'm sure you can think of something to get your bad self up to.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"He'd destroy me for less," Jolt reminded Vinnie, biting into his burger. "Yeah. I can't let anyone get the drop on me next time. I'm gonna be ready."

"Maybe, but he's not wrong." The Venusaur popped a slice of kiwi into his mouth. He chewed on it for a moment as he tried to gather what it was he wanted to say about things exactly. It's not like he wanted to discourage someone from training or being prepared, but...

"Look... Gettin' turned into a robot and attacking your teammates, there's not a lot've things that'd feel worse. You felt helpless. I get that.

"The school has a way've pulling this shit. But there's no way've being prepared for everything, man."

Jolt swallowed his burger, looking down a bit. "I know there's no way to prepare for everything," he relented. "But I feel like I failed them... That because I couldn't look out for myself, I put them in danger. Like I screwed up."

Hearing that, Vinnie finished chewing and put his fork down. There was a sudden sternness that had settled into his face, having known those words for himself personally.

"Yeah... I've been there, too." There was a pause as he took a deep breath, before looking Jolt straight in the eyes and continuing, "That's why I don't wanna watch you do the same thing I did."

"I've got a bit of a hard time picturing you in that kinda position," Jolt admitted solemnly. "You always struck me as that 'like a rock' kind of guy, honestly."

Vinnie gave a small but amused snort, hearing Jolt say so. Yeah - that was definitely what he wanted to be, back then. It seemed like even if the Jolteon knew about his scars, he still didn't know everything.

He picked up the fork again and began absently pushing around the fruit in his bowl as he continued to speak, if only to occupy himself with something.

"About... three years ago, I was in the hospital, an' they told me I might not be able to fight anymore. Y'know what I did?

"I fought anyway. I trained like hell. I felt like a burden and a weakling that couldn't protect anyone. Even joined th'army - at least I was doing something. Anything to get stronger."

He stabbed through a strawberry. "But if your goal is just being 'strong', then it'll never be enough. After a full year of carrying everything alone, pushin' myself t'my limits, all I'd really accomplished was t'push away help. An' I..."

There was a pause as the Venusaur breathed a heavy sigh.

"I beat myself up for a long time. I was so unhappy."

Edited 2013-12-07 08:10 (UTC)

Jolt listened in silence. For a while there he didn't even touch his food, despite his hunger, so intent was he in listening as Vinnie poured his heart out to him. He was silent for a while after it, hearing so much of himself in Vinnie's earnest admission. He fidgeted with the cutlery next to his plate. "Then if it's not strength we're missing... what is it?" he asked finally.

"I think," Vinnie mused as he stared at his strawberry, "that's not quite the right question. We're not 'missing' anything... we just need to find that balance."

Even if Jolt wasn't going to eat, the Venusaur felt fine taking a bite out of the berry skewered on his fork. Maybe cuz for once, he felt like he knew what he was talking about. Or, at the very least, this was something he'd already deliberated a lot of thought towards.

"We all wanna be strong. S'not a bad thing. But it's worth it t'take the time an' figure out what 'strong' really is."

As though recalling something, Vinnie peered out the window from the corner of his eye as he admitted, "S'probably different for everyone, but for me... it's about being able to accept myself, an' the things I can't control. It's knowin' how to be patient, which I kinda suck at, an' understanding."

He looked back at Jolt with a small, but encouraging grin. "Sometimes it's harder to be helped or forgive yourself than it is to go at it alone. It doesn't mean you're weak. Just that you're getting stronger."

"It's pretty hard for me," Jolt admitted. "I trust my team, and I know they've got my back. But I worry I'm not pulling my weight. That if I let myself get taken out..." Jolt shook his head to banish the thought.

"When I was still an Eevee, I couldn't stand other people," he admitted. "But Green worked me over and I learned to trust him. I've never quite gotten over that solo mindset, that I need to be powerful and stand up for myself."

"It's... not an easy thing t'grow out've," Vinnie admitted. "I don't think I ever really did." Really, he wasn't the best candidate to even say anything about sticking by your team when... the Venusaur just left his...

Maybe it was just because over the years, he still never managed to let them take care of him as much as he did the other way around. No matter how much he trusted all of them, there would still always be that level of self-reliance he staked on, first and foremost. It'd softened over the years, but it still hadn't quite given way.

"Just..." Hmm. He propped an elbow on the table to think. "Bulba's looking out for you in his own way. His murder an' wheelbarrow-y way. Just try listenin' to him some more, at least? Let him help."

It'd be a start, anyway.

Edited 2013-12-16 09:59 (UTC)

"Yeah, I know he's looking out for me," Jolt admitted. "And I like to think I try to look out for him too. Like all of my team. I'll try. But fighting years of instinct is way easier said than done."

What a truth. He was trying though, and that's what was important. Vinnie smirked and casually chinhanded. "Well, if nothin' else, at least I can count on your instincts being unable to resist a meat platter, too."

"Hey, there's some things that'll never change," Jolt said, grinning while taking a bite of a nice big steak.

Dorm Log: School's in session

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