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Open State of Bliss

"You can't hear it," Lindsay said, "but I'm facepalming right now. You can just make a guess why, although the clefable might be happy to show you."

Well, actually, he wasn't. He was mainly staring at the screen and wondering how much it would cost if he slammed his head against it.

Because, while the frost-covered hand could chase the clefable at the same speed a haunter would, and it wasn't losing speed or power at the distance, that left the hand open to attacks that Godot couldn't stop as much because his body was farther away. And damage to that hand was still damage to the mecha. Besides, now there was a distinct lack of two fists to pummel the clefable and not give it a chance to react. Having the body keep a distance - a short distance - might've been a good idea, but Godot managed to screw even that up.

Lindsay was surprised that it even hit the clefable, right between the wings, but not (entirely) surprised when the clefable turned around and let out a stream of flames, sweeping across the landscape so the hand couldn't avoid it. With the residual coldness, that would probably increase the damage.

Actually, Lindsay had expected a psychic to just crush the hand to a mecha-pulp, so he should probably be grateful for small mercies. He would really have preferred that a psychic would happen to teach the damn haunter a lesson, but you know, whatever.

The flamethrower allowed the clefable to do one thing a psychic wouldn't, though - it flew backward while still spewing fire. Even farther from Godot's mecha. If it weren't for the brightness of the flames, Lindsay probably wouldn't be able to see it.

"If you can't think or follow orders, you really are useless. You could have at least chased after your hand." Lindsay raised his voice. "Bye, clefable! Don't forget to tell the attack-type deoxys that psychic is super-effective against poison, and that gravity prevents a haunter from moving!"

Actually, he didn't know if deoxys could use gravity, but whatever. That wasn't the point. The clefable couldn't hear him, anyway.

"I'm not letting you out until the clefable's gone for good or you're about to die from the reinforcements. Since you're too good for orders, I'll let you figure out how to deal with that yourself."
 
"I'm sorry, it just came to me." Godot growled, "Fine, I don't really care about you. Go and leave me to die. Oh, that's right. I'M A GHOST! You can't."

Godot angrily used Psychic on all the Clefables he could see. He was bashing them into the ground, each other, and any objects nearby.
 
"Oh, ghosts can die," Lindsay said, yawning and leaning against the chair's back. He put his hands behind his head and relaxed, still watching the screen. "Since you're sure they can't, though, that just means I don't have to rescue you, and your only way to get out is success. Oh, and? Ghosts can still Bliss. The longer you're in the dream, the closer you get. That includes the time you spend fainted after your failure."

Lindsay really didn't know what Godot was doing. It was like the psychic power was flailing, reaching, but for what? There was one clefable, and it was barely in sight. Though the hand was close to it, the clefable was far from Godot's brain (if he had one) and the hand probably was dead anyway, after all that roasting. Besides, Godot's psychic was at half its usual power. In the dream psychic moves had an inherent advantage, but there were still some real-life-like rules that had to be obeyed.

The clefable turned tail and fled, probably, since Lindsay couldn't see it any more.

"I think your hand's going to need help," he reminded Godot mock-cheerfully, running a system scan that Godot would also have to see. Lindsay read it aloud anyway, and Godot could probably hear the smirk in his voice: "Right hand damaged - in need of repair. Out of commission. Means you can't even call it back to you, heh. Hmm, out of commission... I think I heard something like that recently. She had to pull out of the dream. Interesting, no? I suggest you just--oh, wait, I probably shouldn't give you any suggestions since you'd just ignore them. Whatever, we'll just see what kind of help the clefable brings."

As he settled in for the potentially long wait, he added, "Man, what happened to the good old days when pokemon could feel pain? They knew when stuff happened to themselves and they actually tried to avoid it. Did you even know something happened to your hand before I checked for you? Did you even care? Remember that two hands are pretty damn useful when it comes to fighting multiple opponents, since you're still too dumb to chase the clefable or anything. Eh. Too late now."

(( It's surprising how easy it is to be unpleasant <3 and you know, anything you don't mention kind of leaves it open for me to stick bad things in, so. ))
 
"ALRIGHT, I made a little screwup!" Godot yelled, getting very angry "Doesn't mean you have to get so angry about it. Like you've never made a mistake!"

Godot launched Sludge Bombs at the retreating Clefable with his working hand.
 
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"I learned! I learned from my mistakes, which you are refusing to do!" Lindsay snarled, shoving memories of Infelinal and Fangore aside. Wangsting took place when he chose to, and never during a mission. "I was ignorant and I had bad luck. And you? Your problem is sheer stupidity. Ignorance is curable - it looks like you're not!"

After a slight pause, Lindsay slammed a hand on the desk dramatically. His palm stung, but the noise was loud enough to be worth it. "Every. single. time you failed to identify the correct response or follow the orders of someone who knew what to do. And you failed to learn. If you don't learn fast enough, you may as well die, because I'm a resource being wasted on you. You're even getting the reasons your actions are wrong laid out in simple words, something I never had!"

For even more dramatic and startling effect, Lindsay got his mouth close to the mic for volume. "Look! Look at what you're doing, dumbass, throwing sludge bombs you know will miss. And for what? What? Tell me, Godot, because all I see is energy being wasted on catching the attention of even more Aliens. Hell, you keep doing that and they can see your range."
 
Shana turned her head and watched Arthur leave the kitchen, a sad silence in her eyes. She notices that there was someone else in the the room, asking what they were to do. She closed her eyes and lets out a sigh.

"You are to cut Eggplants. Arthur will be cooking them later..."

She finishes cleaning the mess and gets up from floor, wiping her hands on her pants. She then notices something else. A tugging feeling in her belly. She looks toward the door where Arthur left and falls silent once more.

"...."

She walks past the new human and pokemon, a muttered excuse that she'll be back shortly. She slips past the door and looks around frantically.

"...Vapor. Where are you?"
 
"I am stupid." Godot said, plainly "Get me out of here. I made a few mistakes. I promise to learn."

Godot stopped attacking.
 
Cleo carefully listened to Skazz's comments and thought them over for a few moments.

"No," she said, "I don't see or sense anyone else around, except maybe Godot. He's our ally anyways, though. And... now that you mention it... I am kind of hungry." The Espeon was craving something salty at the moment, but she would take any food she could get her hands on, with a few exceptions.

"OK Skazz, take me out."
 
"Promise? No." Lindsay calmed down almost instantly, smirking - amusement tended to do that. "No. Promises aren't good enough. This is how you will learn. You've done something stupid and now you'll face the consequences." He grinned savagely. "Worked for me. Hurt a hell of a lot, but it worked. And pain's probably the only thing that'll drive the message home. I really don't see any move here that's going to help you prepare unless you want to gamble some energy on ominous wind, but you can do whatever you think will help. You'll probably have plenty of time. The warriors are farther out than the scouts."
 
"Ominous wind.." Godot grumbled.

He let out the winds of darkness, trying to harm some enemies.

I thought I could do this, but maybe I was too cocky back there. And Lindsay's too stubborn...a bit... like me... Godot thought.
 
Naturally, Godot decided he did want to waste energy, and the gamble didn't really pay off. None of the spirits decided to generously give Godot any power-ups. Or... maybe Godot wasn't even trying to get extra power through the spirits, because they were mostly just flying off too quickly for any of them to even consider staying with Godot.

"Can't be..." Lindsay muttered (into the mic, just because). "He can't be trying to attack something that's not there yet. Right? Especially since anyone approaching is going to feel the wind before it's capable of doing damage so they can find a way around it."

He sighed loudly, drumming his fingers on the desk again and leaning on one hand. "Keep an eye on your energy meter. It's really going to suck - for you - if you can't move while they pummel your mecha to pieces."
 
"Drat!" Godot snarled, moving faster and farther towards the approaching enemies.

He let out a few more Ominous Winds.

"Any suggestions?" he asked nervously, "Look, I'm sorry I was so cocky and stubborn today. Maybe you should've been born a Pokemon, so you could actually save the world."

He let out an Icy Wind attack.

"Please work." he muttered, "I'm already making a fool out of myself."
 
Karae sighed and uncurled, wriggling on the counter for a moment before floating once more. Oh yes - very impressive, a giant blue serpent hovering over the eggplants. She nudged one tentatively and then drifted out of the way, now floating in the middle of the room. "I have nothing to cut it with. My horn is only able to stab, and I doubt impaling an eggplant would help cut it," she observed. "I am sorry I can't help." Well, she was going to help save the world - so why bother about helping in the kitchen? That was what he was for.

((Even more failpost than Kali's.))
 
It was only by moving forward that Godot was able to see any signs of the approaching enemies - four lesser deoxys travelling toward him at a high speed. Two of them were wider than the other two, so obviously this was the standard two attack and two defence backup. Being in sight didn't mean that they were feeling the brunt of the attack, though. Lindsay guessed that they were probably just feeling a breeze.

"An apology? Words? You think that's going to solve anything? You think that means anything? Because it doesn't. Just like you, from what I can tell. Let's see what your actions reveal." Especially since, you know, Godot was only apologising because he realised he'd really, really need help here. "If I was born a pokemon, though, yeah, there'd be less stupidity going on. Except maybe being a pokemon automatically decreases your intelligence - would justify your existence."

Lindsay glanced at the energy bar and percentage estimate on the screen. It wasn't the most accurate measurement, generally, especially since it purposefully underestimated how much energy was left. Still, Lindsay chose to treat it as accurate and reliable.

"Well, first of all, you've got a little less than half of your energy left. When I said to keep an eye on it, I was hinting that you should be wasting less energy, not more. Dumbass. I'll spell it out for you: stop with those winds. They're stupid and not doing anything. You don't want them too close to you, but your attacks suck too much to be very effective from far away. You know what's going to happen when they get concerned? The attack deoxys are going to hide behind the defence deoxys and your winds are going to get blocked. They're not even doing that yet. What does that tell you?"

He paused, then shook his head. "Answer that in your head, not out loud. Waste of time. Anyway, they're going to know psychic attacks, and those are going to work. Even better? You can't dodge them. They don't come in the form of a visible beam. I'm guessing they're going to directly attack your mind rather than throwing you around. It won't damage your mecha at all, but it will make you lose control of the dream and your Bliss level will rise. The dream will become a nightmare. Fortunately, since you're so stubborn, I'll just trust you to Heroic Willpower your way out of it. Mmn... usually it would be better to go after the attack deoxys first, but if they've got any idea of tactics they'll have the defence deoxys attack your mind and have the attack deoxys destroy your mecha."

Dramatic pause. Lindsay wondered if Godot even understood what that meant for him. He decided to spell it out for Godot's sake (and for the sake of being an ass).

"In short, you're screwed. Or maybe not. Maybe they're dumber than humans - would explain why anyone thinks we have a chance, if this resistance isn't all just an act of desperation. But I wouldn't bet on it. Lost a combusken that way, and he was a dick but not as much of an idiot as you. Well, let's just pretend you have a chance. When they get close - and only then, this is important, so don't screw it up as usual - perish song. I don't care if there's any other pilot around, all of you are too weak to matter anyway and they can be pulled out. You're going down before your own perish song gets to you, but that's fine, because they'll still be affected."

Actually, Lindsay was more curious about what perish song would do at Intimacy 1. He'd never seen it used in the dream. Since it was so damn weak, it might actually fail.

That could be a problem. Godot didn't really need to know about that... actually, he did.

"Repeat until it looks like all of them have been affected. Unless it doesn't affect anyone, in which case don't bother. If it doesn't get them all on the first try, this will all have been for nothing, but that's just expected of you anyway. That's just how non-damaging Intimacy 1 moves go. If you survive this and want to be useful at all, go to that Laia person and spill all your secrets. Invite me to watch, because it'll probably be funny. Then start screwing each other.

"After that? It doesn't matter what you do. The outcome's already decided. Swagger - if it works - will prevent good psychics against your mind, but they'll focus on destroying your mecha, and they'll do it well. Use it on the defence deoxys. Ominous wind can affect them all, but it's really weak. Shadow ball is also weak and it'll only affect one at a time, if you even hit them, but it might distract one. Ice punch if a deoxys gets too close. Don't bother with any other attacks."

He frowned. Okay, so the only thing that could remotely work here was ice punch, and Godot only had one hand. Even Lindsay's brilliant mind couldn't get haunter out of this one.

"Yeeeah, you're screwed. Only way to un-screw yourself is to screw anyone you've got a useful relationship with. That'll mean Vapor, Kira, Laia, Skazz, and possibly Marik. I don't know how ghosts have sex, but you'll need it."

Throughout Lindsay's speech, during which he'd ignored/spoken over anything Godot said (not like the haunter had anything worthwhile to say), the deoxys had gotten much closer. Naturally, being faster, the attack deoxys were in front. They weren't in range of a good perish song yet, by Lindsay's estimate, but maybe...

"If you want to get a head start, you can try to shadow ball the attack deoxys. They're fast enough to dodge, but they go down quickly. And also, deoxys can teleport. I--"

The crystal of both of the attack deoxys started to glow. Electricity crackled around the orb of one of the deoxys, and leached off into a ball before it. The second deoxys just stopped, standing and spreading its arms. Small rock shards broke off from the ground and started flying in a ring around the two attack deoxys and Godot. Godot couldn't run away without taking damage, and nobody could enter without getting harmed, either. Even if there was backup coming, it would come at a price. There was a lot of space to move around because of the distance between the deoxys and Godot, so the rock shards were rather sparse, but they made up for that in speed.

"Crap. Stealth rock and, uh..." Lindsay ran the attack analysis, knowing Godot wouldn't. "...zap cannon."
 
Vapor looked up. She squeaked when she saw that is was Arthur that had spoken to her, and lowered her head. She was ashamed of how bad she had did in the dream, and didn't want to be yelled at, like she was sure he would. She sniffled, curling her tail under her some more.

She was so pathetic, she had let a Clefable of all things take her down, and it made her feel weak.

"...Hello Mr. Arthur..." She mumbled, pawing at the floor.
 
Godot actually followed orders for once. He started to sing a deadly song.

"Please work..." he muttered, keeping the attack going.

He stopped to use Swagger a few times.

He then let out one more Perish Song.

"I am capable of listening." he said.
 
Arthur gave Vapor a sad smile, before sitting down in front of the Vaporeon.

"Vapor, look at me. You made one mistake. You can't pretend it never happened. But me, I've made too many mistakes in my life to count." He sounded bitter and sad at the same time, and paused for a moment before continuing.

"You and me are different. I know what your capable of, and one little mistake is not going to change my opinion of you, or stop you from becoming better from this... Me, I'm just a pathetic old man who can't even tell the past from the present..."
 
Vapor looked back up at him, green eyes wide. She wiped away the tears and flashed a small smile, getting to her feet. His kind words had made her feel at least a bit better about herself. She nuzzled his shoulder.

"Thank you... Mr Arthur. But you're not pathetic, you help all of us! Without you we would never have figured out how to run the ANIMa!" She chirped, starting down the hall. "I'm going to find Shana now and ask her if she thinks I can go back in the dream."
 
Arthur watched Vapor walk down the hall, and mentally steeled himself.

"C'mon Gordon, your in charge of these kids... you can't let your own emotions and wants come before theirs... it's your duty as a leader... and it's what I learned as a father."

Rising up, Arthur walked back into the kitchen, grinning at Paul before helping him cut the eggplants.
 
Shana bows her head as Arthur passes her back toward the kitchen, a soft reply that she was looking for Vapor. She gives the old man a small smiles before walking down the hall to look for her water fox.

"Vapor...where are you...."

She lets out a sigh as she searches, wishing that she had a tracking tag on her.

It would make things easier...
 
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