smash_logs | Doot doot doot

Who: Vinnie, Char, lemme know if you wanna do a thing at the Pokecentre too?
What: Skyping through to Kanto
Where: Pokecentre
When: Uhhh after June 27?
Warnings: Possibly swearing.

Okay, so his phone wasn't able to connect to anything outside of FDC, and the computers at school weren't doing so hot on that front either. But the PC at the Pokecentre had to still connect to the servers in their world, right? That meant, if he was lucky, he could get in contact with the Fuchsia City Safari Zone and let them know that... y'know. He wasn't dead or something. And not to throw out his bags - all his stuff still in there.

It took a bit of pleading with Nurse Joy to let him use Skipe on their computer so he could make a call, but when he rang... it went through! And thus came the lengthy explanation he had to give for literally disappearing right in the middle of his work experience program.

...All things considered, they were surprisingly understanding. Weird shit happened all the time when Pokemon powers were involved. Pokemon were fucking mysterious, especially when it came to Ghosts or Psychics. No one really questioned it or blamed him, since it was out of his control anyway.

"Al'right. Yeah, I'll get in touch once the trains are runnin' again so I can pick my stuff up. You sure? Okay... thanks, Aiden."

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"Well..." Vinnie couldn't necessarily insist that 'not being Char' was a bad thing, considering the headaches and heartaches that the Charizard had caused by just being his own dickish self. Hell, he'd lectured him on the very subject. Maybe it was partially Char's influence that gave Bulba his anxiety and low sense of self-worth, but there were times the Venusaur just couldn't be sure. There were traits that seemed to carry over most of Green's Pokemon - enough that Vinnie had to wonder if the trainer just attracted certain types. Still, when it came them as a team, he could also see how that weakness had also, over time, become the source of their strength. Perhaps they were dysfunctional and imperfect, but the bonds that had formed over their scars were irreplaceable.

"I dunno," he admitted. "I don't honestly know what you'd be like otherwise. But I think you'd lose a lot, too. Even I can tell you an' Green are pretty similar sometimes. When I think about the two've you, it just kinda... fits."

Vinnie reached for another Timbit. "Everything 'bout dealing with you's a goddamn ordeal, but if you were free of fuck ups, you'd never learn what things're worth. I've seen you break Bulba down only for it t'heal back stronger. At this point, a single gesture from you means more t'him than... probably anyone, after Green."

Whether or not he added himself into that equation, Vinnie wasn't going to say - but by his own evaluation, he put himself behind Bulba's entire team by default. With a shrug, he took a bite out of the donut hole and added, "Not that y'need me telling you about your own team, but... he loves you. Not cuz you're lovable, but cuz've what you've been through together. If any've that changed, what you have wouldn't be the same anymore."

Char couldn't argue that, honestly. No matter what his opinions of himself might have been, he'd believed adamantly for years that bonds weren't forged by things being easy. He bitterly regretted all the harm his presence had done for his team -- they didn't deserve to bear burn scars from all the years Char had spent trying to sear away his abandonment.

But all the same, he valued what all the clashes had forged. He couldn't trust his team so completely if they hadn't seen his angriest, ugliest side and weathered it -- nor if he had never been allowed to see their own wounds in return. There might not have been much good in Char, but everything that was there had been born out of the desire to be worth their time. How much worse off would he be right now if he'd never wanted so badly to be the kind of brother Bulba deserved?

"...Maybe you're right," Char admitted, just a shade reluctantly (because admitting Vinnie was right wasn't something he liked doing out loud). While a part of him did wish that he could have had that trainer-starter bond he longed for with Green, he really couldn't say that what he had now was necessary lesser than that. It was more than just being a pair of smug assholes. They both knew the exact same ache of being left behind by a loved one. Char could never understand that part of Green if he'd been right beside him all along.

He paused to glance at the Timbits again -- mostly just sour ones on top, ew. He didn't particularly feel like rooting through the box, either, so he nudged it toward Vinnie. "Take the sour ones, I can't stand 'em. Look, if you really wanna know what bein' picked felt like, Aiden ain't really the right example to take. Everything about me and Green fittin' together, that's what bein' picked is."

It hadn't been in the moment that some 10-year-old had thrown a Pokeball at a feral Charmeleon and he hadn't squirmed loose in time, maybe, but it was most definitely in a thousand more moments that followed it. The yelling matches and the making up. A bullet being lodged in his tail and thinking that because Green had come running, it was gonna be okay. The dragon scale that Green wore around his neck. Moments that were hard to articulate for somebody like Char, but swam so importantly in his fuel-veins. Not necessarily something that happened once, but something that happened every day, over and over.

Vinnie's thoughts were clouded as he idly repeated Char's words. "Fitting together, huh?"

His mind couldn't help but wander over to Red and Marie. In a strange way, they were both withdrawn, quiet, socially reclusive, but it didn't always seem like the Wartortle was for the better for it. He depended so much on Red emotionally that it blinded him - it could hurt him and others. What could he really call that?

On the flipside, had the Venusaur ever really been partners with Red? The more he looked back, the more uncertain it felt. He'd been devoted to his sense of duty, certainly, but Red communicated so little that it never felt like they had much in common. The more time they spent apart, the more his understanding of the boy had waned. But maybe that was just as much Vinnie's fault as anyone's. His own sense of self-reliance had kept him from ever really wanting to depend on Red and Red alone - there had always been more than one purpose that tugged at his heart.

Maybe that simply made his departure inevitable. It was just a little reassuring to think that might've been the case, but even if he wasn't one of them anymore, that team was still like family to him. He didn't want to cast a cynical filter over his happier memories like that.

So... who did Vinnie fit with, then? A year ago, he might've said Bulba. Back when they were friends, he was utterly confident in what he felt about him. Somehow, between the two of them, it felt like one Saur made up for what the other one lacked - and together, they fulfilled each other's need for a pod. He was at ease relying on Bulba, and the trust they had was unspoken, but strong.

But now, throwing an actual relationship into the works, Vinnie was uneasy all over again. It wasn't that he cared any less for the other Venusaur, because that could never be the case, but any real sense of certainty he had was shaken. After what he had to go through just to start dating, the fear of somehow screwing it all up still loomed over him.

Despite all this weighing on his mind, Vinnie didn't say anything else as he picked off the sour Timbits in Char's way. None of it was anything the Fire Type felt like hearing about, he was sure.

Char couldn't begin to guess what was going on in that head of Vinnie's. Nor, for that matter, did he really feel like making blind stabs in the dark. He knew Vinnie well enough to know that he didn't know Vinnie well enough to pull that off with any degree of accuracy. If it wasn't anything Vinnie wanted to talk about, fine. Fair enough. It wasn't like Char was dying to hear all about Vinnie's problems -- if he just wanted to think it over, all the better for Char.

"That's all I got," Char announced, rising. "You sort your shit out on your own time, and I'll sort mine. I'm serious about this not changin' nothing. Don't go thinkin' knowin' about Aiden gets you anywhere special. As far as the rest of the world's concerned, this never happened, alright?"

And with that, he reached over and grabbed a handful of spicy Timbits. Hey, they were there. "I'm takin' these," he added, shoved them in his mouth, then turned and strode purposefully out the door.

All things considered, it was probably one of the more graceful departures he'd had from an encounter with Vinnie.

Doot doot doot

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