[closed] this is stupid

[dontpokethat]

Who: Ginko and Foster
When: After this
Where: Starting at the Cookhouse, and then WHO KNOWS.
What: Time to find a creepy shadow puppet Pokemon!
Warnings: illegal pokemon finding activities

Ginko doesn’t waste any time in making his way to the Cookhouse.The sooner they can find Mimikyu, the better, and the first step to that is finding a way to attract it.

Once he sees Foster, Ginko raises a hand in a small wave, lingering trepidation making his tail swish back and forth. “Hey. Guess we should get to it.”

Comments

[dontpokethat]

...Um.

Ginko knows better than to ask if Foster is okay, and even if this weren't Foster, the answer is kind of obvious in this instance, anyway. A better question might be why he isn't okay, and why the topic of bananas apparently made him not okay.

Rin stepping away is actually kind of a relief, and Ginko turns to Foster, frowning. "What do you mean? They're... bananas."

A pause. "...Were bananas... not a real fruit where you're from...?"

His tone isn't at all judgmental, because, in fairness, he'd never heard of bananas before coming here anyway.

[criticallyfucked]

"Nnnghhh...!" It's not even a word--he's pressing the heels of his paws against his brow, claws in his hair. Their sharp points are just touching the plastic of his hair clip.

"I don't... I don't know. I don't know!" Frustration, turmoil, he pulls his claws away from his skull with visible effort, but there's nowhere for him to go--

He hates it. He hates that suddenly nothing makes sense. He knows that this isn't right. Everything is scrambled, disorganised, distorted, disordered. Ginko is confused; it's pissing him off.

"I can't... I don't, I mean... it's not--give me--I need to see one!" he finishes with sudden vehemence, pathetic in desperation.

[dontpokethat]

"You-- need to see a banana?" Ginko looks around to find Rin again. "Uh-- I think Rin is gonna bring some back, it'll just be a moment."

[flashover]

Thankfully, it's not long before Rin returns with a plethora of bananas. He lays them out for Foster and Ginko; a bunch of regular old Cavendish bananas, a bottle of banana flavoring, and a bunch of the aforementioned pink-and-green fae bananas.

"Banana-rama! Just be careful with the flavoring, a little goes a looooong way."

[criticallyfucked]

Foster practically whirls on Rin, equal parts startled by the kid's return and much, much too focused on the banana issue. More like fixated, really--it's a hole in his reality, however carefully guarded against--a crack in the glass revealed, a leak between what is and isn't--but this time, he feels so close to catching it out. So on the verge of explaining, of proving--!

He seizes a banana from the bunch, snatching it off the table with one furry paw.

"This. This is the... the fake banana!"

If he weren't talking about bananas, the venom and vitriol in his voice would have been potentially frightening.

But.... it's a banana.

[dontpokethat]

Ginko does actually flinch back a little at that, his gaze flicking apologetically to Rin before he looks back to Foster and the offending fruit.

"What... about it is fake?"

He's really trying to understand this, okay.

[flashover]

"... Um..."

Rin takes half a step back and droops his ears, looking at Ginko. There's an unspoken Is he gonna be ok?

"It's a real banana, I swear!" Rin says, taking one of them and peeling it, revealing the creamy yellow flesh inside. "I wouldn't try and trick you."

[criticallyfucked]

Foster is completely incapable of putting it into words. Not just outside of himself, but inside, simultaneously still and maelstromic--thoughts without words, details without a form.

It's not even new--this experience of the knowledge without the idea, but it's frustrating on a level that doesn't come with actual emotion--it's just impotence, and trying to break it never produces any results.

So for a few seconds, anyway, it just looks like Foster is staring pointlessly at a banana, his jaw clenched and brows knitted as though he's trying to defeat the obstacle it presents with the power of his mind.

Finally, finally it gives way, and Foster's thoughts bubble up in him all at once, instead of by degrees--it's always been like that, but right now he feels... especially impotent, if only because of how stupid and yet how devouring this problem is, and he feels the flat, featureless plane of black glass rupture in a thousand fragmented directions.

"It's fake," he spits, one paw pressed against his hairline, claws digging into his scalp. "It--it's like someone read a... description of a banana and tried to make one themselves, but it's wrong."

When he tries to say it, it's so pathetically underwhelming compared to the reality he wants to explain--so inadequate, so miserable an attempt that he already feels how short he's fallen, and he keeps trying, forging ahead as though determined that more words will make up for what he obviously lacks.

"It looks wrong, the taste is wrong, it... it's just wrong. It's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong."

If he just keeps explaining, one of them will get it. Or neither one will. Or maybe--

Maybe he's wrong. Maybe he's wrong and he has no idea what an actual banana is, maybe he forgot something, maybe he forgot the part that would make sense, maybe--

Fuck, fuck, fuck--!

[dontpokethat]

Ginko wishes he could answer that, Rin, but by now he's pretty sure that Foster is basically never okay.

"Um... Foster, we're not totally sure what you're trying to say here. What's wrong with how it looks? What are bananas supposed to look like?"

[flashover]

"Ummm..."

Wow this has gotten weird. Well. WeirdER. And pretty damn uncomfortable. He looks at Ginko, then back at Foster, and has an idea. He's been here long enough that he's familiar with the concepts of other worlds... and how they may differ.

"This one isn't fake... Not for here anyway. I mean, when I asked the summer fae for bananas, they gave me those pink one first. Those are their bananas! Maybe... maybe where Foster is from, bananas are a little different? Is that it?" Rin pounds his fist into the opposite palm. "Maybe there's different kinds of bananas! Like there's about a zillion different kinds of apples."

[criticallyfucked]

Foster has a lot of trouble with... self-expression. Even before he can try and put words to his thoughts, he has to identify what his thoughts are--a much steeper obstacle for him than most, when none of them will compose themselves tangibly enough for him to claim. But even if he does--it's so hard to find the words.

Like now.

He's being perfectly clear, but somehow no one is understanding him, and no matter how many times he says it, they just.... can't get it.

It's not always this way. Sometimes, it's like words are effortless; they stream out of him, he's inspired, everything is clear, so clear that he physically can't produce words and ideas fast enough.

But right now he just... he just can't.

So when Rin finally makes an (unexpectedly competent) attempt at reconstructing the problem rather than just asking him to repeat the problem over and fucking over, Foster gives him a look that's either withering or just relieved, depending on how you want to interpret it. Or even both.

'Fuck you, and also thank fucking God,' perhaps.

[dontpokethat]

Looks like that was... probably a step in the right direction? It can be hard to tell with Foster.

"That'd make sense. So, looking at it that way, he was probably right about what a banana was before; this is just a different kind." He looks to Foster again, his ears flicking. "So did the-- did you want something more like what bananas were in your world?"

[flashover]

To be honest, Rin isn't sure what to make of Foster's reaction. He's not ranting and raving incoherently at the banana, though, so... maybe it's better? Sure...

"So.... what did you need bananas for, again?"

KNDKJGAS PRETEND THAT SUBJECT LINE WASN'T THERE

[criticallyfucked]

"I don't... I don't know," Foster mutters, trying to remember. He's answering Ginko, not Rin--he can't remember what kind of banana--or 'banana'--the malasadas in Alola tasted like. He knows he knows, he knows he ate them, remembers that he ate them, remembers the act of eating them, all of the details, right--except he can't remember the banana ('banana') at all. It had a different name. Nanaba? Anana? It was whitish-pink. Like fat and blood. Soft. Soft? Yes... but what kind of soft? He can't remember that. He can almost remember. There was something else. Maybe sweet? No. He can't remember that. That isn't right. Is it? It tasted--

At Rin's question, Foster freezes up.

Then looks at Ginko.

[dontpokethat]

Oh boy. Ginko meets Foster's eyes for a moment, then looks back to Rin. He hardly hesitates before replying, "We wanted to get a... pastry or something. We had been talking about a kind of food back in Alola - it was banana flavored? So we were thinking about seeing if you guys had anything like that here."

Technically, none of that is untrue.