Dusty.
Dirty.
Squeezing.
Suffocating.
All these feelings hit Peashooter the instant he stepped into this hell disguised as a garage.
In the back of his mind, he knew that he was only acting this way out of defiance, out of his unacceptance to literally everything that's happened in the past days, or months, or years, or whatever.
He was angry and defeated and honestly not in the mood for this crap.
He just wanted to sleep, but nope! He had to attend this 'meeting' that's happening in front of him. Dave, the one that's supposed to be briefing them on all this information is eating a taco and talking to Dave Bot 3000, if that's even his name. Chomper is rolling around on the floor, Cactus is looking through everything, Sunflower is studying each of them carefully like they'll drop dead or something, and Peashooter is going to pop a goddamned vein if this meeting doesn't happen in the next two seconds-
(Somewhere in his mind he questions where this sudden burst of anger came from, but realizes that he doesn't have an answer, only more questions and assumptions)
"Okay! Thank you all for arriving on time! I was just talking to Dave Bot here for some clarification on some things and I'm ready whenever you all are!" Dave yelled, enthusiastic. Too enthusiastic.
After some affirmative replies—ranging from cheerful to barely audible—Dave nodded and put his hands on his hips, the pot on his head shifting forward slightly from the movement.
"So! As you all know, this is a new home, a new start! But unfortunately, what comes with 'new starts' is 'new stuff', so me and Dave Bot have managed to compile everything that you guys should know into this pile of paper. I'll read it to you guys, so don't worry!" Dave chuckled. He grabbed the papers from Dave Bot and shuffled them in his grubby hands, skim reading them for a bit. Then, he quickly glanced up towards the plants, his gaze resting a few seconds longer on Peashooter before shooting back down to the papers.
"Any questions?" Dave Bot suddenly asked, which startled Peashooter a bit and caused Chomper to laugh at him quietly. But when Peashooter swung around to face Chomper, preparing to shoot him square in his big fat purple face, Chomper quickly shut up.
"Nope!" Sunflower cheerfully said, followed by Cactus' and Chomper's small shake of their heads. Peashooter muttered something that he was pretty sure supposed to be some sort of 'no', but he wasn't really certain.
Dave Bot nodded and looked towards Crazy Dave, who had stopped shuffling the papers. He cleared his throat and read the papers aloud.
"The first thing we'll talk about is the new house, or base, if you prefer," Dave quickly added, and Peashooter had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with himself. "You've probably noticed the huge oak tree at the top of the base or house." Peashooter blinked. How did he miss that? "Well, not only does it house my house at the tippy top, but it also has a hollow bottom. The hollow bottom houses little stages installed along the walls, with the respective plant's face painted above it. The stages have little plush versions of all the plant variants on them, and the stages will light up when you're near them.
"We've installed these stages because of the new promotion idea I've been thinking about for a while, and it'll hopefully encourage you all to practice more often! You guys already know how promotions work, but it's a little different this time! So, when you kill a zombie, you gain XP, right?" A few nods. "I thought so! You can still level up, and you'll still get promoted at level ten, but the difference here is that you all gain your XP independently. What I mean is that you, specifically, gain all of your XP, and your other variant gains all of their XP. Pretty nifty, right?" Dave was almost giddy at this point, borderline jumping where he stood and grinning like a lunatic at the plants. Sunflower, as always, didn't mind and grinned back at him, nodding excitedly. Peashooter only huffed a bit. Now he'll be at a competition with the other variants of himself.
Great.
Cactus cocked a brow. "Dave, this is great and all, but I'm a little concerned about these 'new members' you've mentioned. Do you mind talking about them?"
"Hm? Oh! Yeah! No, I don't mind. That'll bring us to our second segment, which is about the new plants—er, members!"
Wait.
Members?
"You mean these new guys will be part of the team, permanently?" Peashooter stressed, staring incredulously at Dave.
Did Dave somehow forget that Peashooter didn't do well with new members?
I mean, sure, he was the first plant that joined the plant team, but Dave had slowly introduced the others to him, making sure the Peashooter was fully comfortable with the newbies before making them a part of the team.
And even then it took a while before Peashooter could work to the best of his ability with his teammates. More so than the others, who had adapted flawlessly to working with each other.
So just throwing new members at Peashooter like that out-of-the-blue was not good for his sanity, goddamn it. Temporary members he could deal with; they usually stayed for a week before leaving for good and Peashooter could happily forget whatever training or information that was required beforehand.
But you can't do that with permanent members!
Dave, at least, looked somewhat guilty, nervously shuffling the papers before nodding.
"Yeah, well, because of what's been happening—or, what's not been happening—lately, we've had to recruit members on a dime and deal with the repercussions later, since the larger a team we have the more intimidated Zomboss may feel." Dave replied, the expression on his face a cross between sympathy, guiltiness, and nervousness.
Peashooter stared at Dave, emotionless, for a few seconds. He ignored the first emotion—sympathy, really?—and instead focused on the other two, particularly the 'guiltiness' one.
He knew, didn't he?
Of course he knew, he made the decision after all.
But why didn't he warn Peashooter about these 'new guys' anyways? At least he would've been able to prepare somewhat, no matter how futile the effort would've been.
But, instead of calling Dave out on it, Peashooter simply nodded.
"Okay." Peashooter quietly said.
And that was that.
He'll cross the new member bridge when he gets there, for now, though, it's causing too many emotions within him, making all the conflicting feelings swirl and leaving him slightly nauseous.
Dave hesitated, sharing a quick, discreet look with Sunflower—Peashooter almost missed it, but he was certain concern was plastered on Dave's face—before Dave was clearing his throat again and flipping through the papers.
"The new members we've recruited are the following: Kernel Corn, Rose, Citron, Plasma Pea, Alien Flower, and Camo Cactus. The beginning three are arriving in a month or so, Plasma's arriving tomorrow, Alien's arriving in three months, and Camo's arriving sometime this year." Dave stated, eyes glued to the paper and using his finger to follow the words he's reading.
Peashooter rubbed his eyes and let out a small, annoyed chuckle that formed into a huff.
Plasma.
Why's it gotta be goddamned Plasma?
At least Alien's alright to work with, she just hangs around Sunflower all day. Peashooter's never met Camo, so he can't say what she does or will do, but knowing Cactus he can infer that Camo's gonna be like a ghost and just be there…..unseen.
There in spirit, y'know?
Peashooter's eyes flicked to Sunflower, who was wearing a particularly sunny grin on her face once she heard about Alien. Cactus, as usual, bore no expression and honestly looked unimpressed, inattentive, and, quite frankly, bored.
Just like himself! Though without the inattentive part, unfortunately.
Chomper looked like a kicked puppy, probably over the fact that none of his variants have been recruited, which Peashooter silently cheers over. He didn't need to deal with another Chomper, thank you very much.
"And our final segment is the new zombies that Zomboss has. Whether he created them or recruited them we're not entirely sure on, but we do know they're much more dangerous and full of their own tricks." Dave announced, nodding to Dave Bot 3000, who started to (unfortunately) speak.
"We've identified three new zombies: Captain Deadbeard, an Imp, and Super Brainz. What they do, we don't know. But we do know that they've been specifically training to take you original four out, which is why we need the new recruits. The new recruits have more powerful skills and stats, making them an ideal choice for battle. You guys are strong, yes, but the new guys are
much more powerful, to the point of you all seeming a little less useful. No offense, of course." Dave Bot informed, sounding quite pleased with himself.
The original four looked at each other. It sounds awfully like Dave Bot almost considered them inferior, which Peashooter certainly wasn't.
Chomper he was less certain about, but that wasn't the point.
The point is—
Peashooter whipped around and glared accusingly at Dave.
"Are you saying we aren't strong enough for you? Are we too inferior, Dave? Are we disappointing, old, too weak to conquer the enemy we've been fighting for years, Dave?" Peashooter spat, staring at Dave with hurt written all over his face.
At Dave's emotionless look, his gaze firmly at the ground, Peashooter felt his heart break.
"Am I not good enough for you?" Peashooter whispered, voice cracking. Tears were filling in his eyes as he stared at Dave, demanding an answer, an acceptable response to remove the deep, weighing feeling of uselessness that was setting in.
Dave opened his mouth, and hesitated, eyes still downcast, before closing his mouth.
That was all Peashooter needed.
He turned sharply and stomped out of the garage, angrily scrubbing away the tears falling down his face.