#62

[tank_rockarms]

My name's Maximilian Justice Powers, and I'm comin' clean. Don't think anybody here even knows my full name.

My dad died when I was 12 in a border skirmish with Blue Moon. My mom washed laundry for a living to support me and her. I was a crummy kid after my dad died, and I never did what my mom told me to do. I got into the wrong sorta people at school. I'm sorry I did that now, and I don't think I ever told her after I grew up. Army straightened me out when I was 16.

When I was 15 I used anabolic steroids for about a year, maybe a year and a half. I was a big, angry kid, they made me bigger and angrier. When I got into the army I had to get clean. Been clean ever since. But I always tell people I'm all natural. I am. But I wasn't always.

Killed three men when I was 17. I learned to stop countin' after that. But I'm probably directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of army men. I'll tell you it was for a good cause, that it was done in the defense of the people of Macroland and Omegaland. But I ain't gonna lie and tell you I ain't killed before. 'Cause I have.

My best friend Grit and I were in love with the same woman, Nell. She's now my boss. And she's married to my best friend. When she asked me if I was okay with her marryin' my best friend I lied and told her I was. I wasn't. When Grit asked me to be his best man I said I was happy for him. I wasn't. I sat there and I cried as I hugged him and told him I was happy for him when I wasn't. I think he knew, though. We both pretended it we both didn't know, though. Sometimes its hard to go back home and see them together.

One time for a week I was Green's Blastoise and another time for a week I was Bulba. If at some time you ever thought one of them was actin' weird for a week, it was probably 'cause we'd switched bodies. I guess that happens a lot here. But I didn't tell nobody when it happened to me.

If I ever told you somethin' that wasn't true, I'm sorry. If you want to ask me somethin' about me, now's your chance.

[Private level 1 to Green]
We need to talk. You know why.
[/Private to Green]

Comments

[blazinglizard.livejournal.com]

You and I both know that I ain't got the right, Max. That business was between Bulba, Vinnie, and Green. Ain't no way the likes of me can go steppin' into that without makin' a hypocrite outta myself, anyway.

[Not just because hurrr Char and self-destructive behaviour stemming from a desperate need for punishment, but because he has no right to even speak about forgiveness when he's still so far away from forgiving his own murderer. No, clearly it would take a powerful force to convince him that his intervention was needed. Something like somebody insinuating it was all his responsibility on multiple occasions, for example.]

Bulba don't got it in him to say a single word against a friend, Max, he's an Ivysaur. You could have ripped his petal out yourself and he'd still smile at you and thank you for helpin'.

[tank-rockarms.livejournal.com]

You're his brother. You've got the right. He's gonna want you to be there for him.

[blazinglizard.livejournal.com]

Let's not turn this into a talk about my endless failings as a brother, Max. I been hearin' that particular song and dance plenty.

[tank-rockarms.livejournal.com]

And I've been hearin' a lot about me failin' to be a friend that knows where the boundaries are from you and Vinnie both.

[blazinglizard.livejournal.com]

I already know I'm a terrible brother, Max. You don't seem to realize that you even got a problem.

[tank-rockarms.livejournal.com]

I'm a thickheaded idiot, remember?

[blazinglizard.livejournal.com]

That's why you're hearin' a lot about it. We drivin' the point home yet?

[tank-rockarms.livejournal.com]

Probably not.

[blazinglizard.livejournal.com]

Come on, Max. Don't make the kid pay the price for your stupid pride.

[Oh, look. Char's being a hypocrite again.]

I ain't orderin' you to never speak to him again or nothing. Just... remember you ain't in charge of Bulba's life. You ain't his family, and you sure as hell ain't his CO.

[tank-rockarms.livejournal.com]

Char, I. It ain't like when I went to your room that time I actually meant to get in a fistfight with you. I just meant to say the thing about the weightroom and that was it but then I just kept goin'. And when I was talkin' with Bulba it was after Kirby left and I wasn't meanin' to say anything but it just started comin' out.

I can tell you I can try not to do stuff like that but I can't tell you I'll be any good at it. It ain't pride it's. . . just. Me. I know I ain't his boss or your boss or anybody's boss but I'm a gung-ho guy. I just jump in first and think later and yeah, I know that's a problem. But that's who I am.

I'll try not to butt in. But I can't promise you it won't just happen by accident. That's all I can give you.

[blazinglizard.livejournal.com]

Y'mean it's all you're willin' to give.

There anything else you wanted to let me know, Max, or are we done with the chit-chat?

You really do not understand the deep-seated compulsion Max has to DO THINGS TO HELP, do you, Char?

[tank-rockarms.livejournal.com]

::Max. Just gives up at this point at trying to explain the innermost core of his muscular being. Char just doesn't get it. Maybe some day.::

Yes, Char, I am gay. Gay for you.

Unless you've got somethin' you want to get off your chest, I got what I need said said. ::Max bent down (with his knees, as he should, dear reader) to pick up the Sonny-Mo-esque weights from the ground where he'd left them when he knelt down to be punched, then jerked his head off to the side at a bunch of charts along a wall. One of them in particular was clearly marked, in Max's large, rather unrefined handwriting 'CHAR'::

Today's your shoulders/back/core day.

[blazinglizard.livejournal.com]

[Sorry, Max. Char would be far more sympathetic toward your inability to mind a habit if he were not being told that in order to stop letting his team down, he has to rewire his basic instincts/lifelong coping mechanisms/pretty much his personality.]

Oh Max, I always dreamed this day would come. Take me into your arms and never let me go.

I got nothin' to add. Let's get started.