Fallace in Blunderland

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Since the escapades that had brought him into contact with the large displaced cloud, Astir had failed to leave the dark and overgrown forest. Granted, he hadn't exactly tried to leave said forest, either. He was too easily distracted by everything around him; a weird branch here, a hostile pokemon to fight there, round the corner and oh, hello, another bush appears. He had spent so much time in this place that he came to accept it as world canon; that is, he came to think that the world was made of these tall, dark trees. That they stretched out forever, or at least until it came back to a point that it had already passed. That was something Astir had done quite a few times, thus he found the world to be rather small. That's what he would think, anyways, until suddenly the trees looked completely unfamiliar and he came across a path he didn't recognize. THEN the world became an ever-expanding place again, a void in which he continued to find new avenues and new things to harrass explore. Such was the cycle that Astir had been experiencing, that had fully immersed him in this rather straightforward place.

Today, Astir was feeling a bit under-stimulated. Things in the tree world were fairly normal: the sun was out (probably? or the moon was really bright), the hostile inhabitants were apparently taking the day off, there wasn't really anything to be found in the trees... and he certainly hadn't seen anything remotely Danger-esque about to challenge him. What was he looking for, anyways? He didn't have a concrete idea, just that it was big and it hit like a sack of bricks. There were things like that in this forest, but for some reason none of them felt quite right. They weren't exactly what he was looking for, or at least he didn't want to believe that a bunch of buff bugs and drooly dogs were the challenge he was meant to devote his entire life to conquering. That just felt... incredibly underwhelming compared to the foggy silhouettes he saw in his mind, the figures that he saw looming below and above him in his sleep. What were they? He could only ever make out blobs, no matter how hard he tried to focus.

He found himself a spot under a pile of leaves to watch the world go by from. He was fully concealed, because of course he was. It was easier if he couldn't be seen, easier to catch mons should he need to confront them for.... well, out of boredom, really. He wished somebody knew where all the cool things in this forest were.

"Bleh," Astir mumbled under his pile of leaves. "Blep. Ble, blor. Bloop blaaah, ble..." At this point he was just making noises for his amusement. Kind of defeating the purpose of concealing himself in the process, but again, he definitely hadn't thought that far ahead.

Astir - 7 Energy (Dragon Sash Equipped)

"Ah...W-Well..." Alki mumbled, shifting her weight from foot to foot and looking between the two pokemon accompanying her. The Venipede seemed nice, and he seemed to want to comfort her. And while his words were kind, they seemed rather empty, if only because he was wrong. She hadn't been at this long at all! Was... she still the newest person at the guild? No, surely not... although it certainly felt that way sometimes. She really didn't know anything! Alki had impressed him with a neat piece of trivia, and that was it. She really didn't know anything about adventuring besides that. She'd been in this forest once. That was it. And she didn't know her way around at all. She could read a map. Kind of. She didn't know the names of some places, but she knew what Shadowhue was. And... well, the mountain places were drawn funny. She really only knew a few places by name. But she knew how the directions on a map worked!

Alki laughed nervously, burying herself in the map as she thought of what to say. "I mean... T-Thanks. I'll do my best..."  That was the best she could do, anyways! If he insisted that they don't go back... Well, if things turned out poorly, then it wasn't her fault! She'd tried to be responsible! She'd done her best...

She busied herself reading the map, letting the other two sort out their differences. The jigglypuff jumped as the Dratini began to exclaim indignantly about... something or other as the Venipede sought to comfort her. She buried her face into the map, deeper and deeper as she tried to hide from his loud yelling. At that point, she wasn't even really reading the map. All she wanted was to avoid being targeted by the Dratini's half-mad rambling.

Alki only dared look up as a huge commotion seemed to occur some... wait. Alki's eyes widened as she looked up at the Dratini. And... how did this happen? Alki was indignant. This was the guy yelling at them? How many brain cells did he have? How many of them were even functioning?!

Alki paused, mouth hanging open ever so slightly as she stared at him. "B-But... you caused all that! That wasn't danger! That was just..." She hesitated, but after a moment, decided that it fit the situation. If only because it was true. "That was just you being stupid!" She cried out loudly, looking up at the Dratini and closing her eyes tightly in frustration. She waved the map around harshly in one hand and pointed up at the Dratini with the other.

"Can we just get going! And be careful next time, you're gonna get us all poisoned!" Perhaps it seemed rather sudden from Alki, but she was sick and tired of having other people ruin everything for her! This Dratini would have to chill out, or else... she wasn't going to be emotional and sad because of someone as stupid as this!

"I think I know where to go... She huffed, walking off in kind-of the right direction. Anything to get things going... "And you definitely said in danger." She finished, not even knowing if she was right. Anything to prove the Dratini wrong. She'd trust the Venipede much, much more than the Dratini. He seemed to have a brain. That was more than she could say for the other.

Astir made a face at Alki's implication that danger wasn't present. The foolery of it! Tis pink ball was clearly up to some major trickery, and it stunk. It stunk like the smell of deception! "Excuse me? I think you take me for a fool" he huffed.

"That'd be because you are one," Lennox interjected, loudly and bluntly in a serious attempt to drive home an obvious point. Astir only shook his head with a scowl, causing Lennox's ever growing blood pressure to skyrocket.

"I am not the fool. You are the fool if you think that this 'stupid' is somehow more potent than danger!!! Who may or may not be here, you never answered my question!!!!" he proclaimed in an urgent tone."Danger is an unbreakable force!!! All kinds of pokemon strive to emulate danger, and they all pose a threat if you're not careful and ready for the circumstance that they do!! If you haven't caught on to that, I think you're the fool! Which is a bad trait for a spy!!!" It seemed that the more Astir ranted, the less he noticed the world around him. He was certainly unaware of Alki's discomfort and Lennox's growing rage. He was also very unaware of the suspicious mushroom patch that they were approaching, and the small smattering of poison pokemon that were gathering around it. A venemoth was casually clinging to a tree, enjoying the breeze in the cool shade. An ariados who had a web built up on a nearby tree was doing the same. A few of the mushrooms stirred in a strangely contented fashion. Astir was having no perception of any of this.

Lennox wasn't having any, either. He advanced on the Dratini with a piping hot, fresh piece of his mind just waiting to spout off on this annoying little shit. For a moment, he completely forgot all of that resolve and realization that he had experienced just a few moments prior. Frustration came flooding back into it's place. "Listen small fry," he hissed, clearly irate, "I'm gonna say this one final time to ensure you understand me clearly: everything you got cooked up in that crazy little noggin of yours is backwards. You ain't seein the world the way it is, and you got no right to go flingin' rude accusations around like that!! Now shut your trap and let Alki here do the nice guidin' thing she's trying to do in peace before I really show you some danger!!"

Astir snapped to high alert. "You should be showing me danger NOW!!! I asked you to twice now and you haven't done it!!!" He began to search around frantically, whipping up a preemptive twister around him as he prepared for glorious combat. He would not be bested on his own home turf in this way!!! Unfortunately for Astir, the only thing around him to be disturbed by his little magic stunt was the group of lounging poison types. In the ultimate and literal twist of irony, Astir's little whirlwind caused all of the poison types to panic and scatter defensive venom all at once. A few of the suspicious mushrooms suddenly revealed themselves to be Paras and shroomish as they got up in a cloud of poisonous spores and ran away. The ariados spat a poison stinger out as a warning to back off. The Venemoth shed poisonous scales as it took to the sky and absconded. And all of that poison got sucked up into the wind tunnel and focused itself directly on a completely unsuspecting Astir. He felt himself becoming overcome with an intense burning sensation that caused him to squeak out a noise of pain and instantly collapse. The energy drained from his body, and not long after that he felt the energy rapidly draining from his body as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Except for the stinger. Lennox absorbed the stinger, only looking mildly displeased by it after.

There was a large part of Lennox that felt satisfied just by seeing the snake's foolhardiness get him what he deserved. He couldn't help but lean over to Alki after all was said and done and joke, "Didn' take him long to take you up on that jinx, did he?" Once all was said and done, however, he found his mounting frustration had been thoroughly diffused again. This was not just your ordinary dumb kid. This kid had an affliction of the brain. There wasn't anything normal about his stupid. He couldn't hate the kid when he had clearly never even had the chance to think or learn normally. Lennox could empathize, albeit from a different perspective. He couldn't imagine what it was like to think like this kid was on a daily basis.

Still addressing Alki, he began to walk over to the now incapacitated Dratini. "I think this one's got a problem bigger than just bein' a stupid idiot. I'm a stupid idiot. He's got some actual sickness," he observed. Being short on supplies that would cure poison, he dug around in the kid's bag to check and see if there was anything to help the snake. He managed to find a heal seed. He was sure that the little bugger wouldn't mind loosing it over laying in agony for the next few days.

"He's pretty much a hassle no matter how you slice it. We're probably just gonna be dealin' with more of this the more we travel with'm." He struggled to get the Dratini's mouth open so that he could slide the seed in. Eventually, he was successful. "Gurrh -
there. That'll do 'im good. ...As I was sayin' though, it's just gonna be more of the same with this idiot. I don't think he can help it, though." He kept standing by the limp Astir, but he turned to look at Alki. "...We could leave while he's unconscious. He's got the seed, he'll be healed up in a matter of minutes. No harm; no foul. He'd prob'ly think we were a fever dream or something. I think that'll be bad for him, though. If someone doesn't put up with his garbage long enough, he's never gonna know the difference." In truth, Lennox was beginning to feel a bit... responsible? His poor temper control had certainly not helped matters. But more than that... he remembered what it was like to have his confusion be met with anger. With violence. It wasn't hard to imagine exactly how this kid felt - or at least, should have felt - when all he had was someone telling him he was wrong with no reasonable explanation for why he was wrong. Lennox wasn't necessarily the pokemon who could give the kid all of those answers, but... he had the willpower and stubborn attitude to try. It was a little hypocritical and completely counterproductive considering his temper, but.... something had to change. Something had to change if this kid was going to learn how to function.

"...I think I'm gonna stay," he finally concluded. "I remember what it was like to be surrounded by people who don't wanna bother with you because you're too much effort. As much as this kid grinds me in all the wrong places, I don't want to see that happen to anyone else. 'Least of all a kid." He looked down at the unconscious idiot sweating out a massive poison fever on the ground next to him. "You can go if you want, though. I ain't gonna ask you to destroy yourself with me, you don't deserve all the shit. I'm pretty good at walking in a straight line, if you just point me a direction I can go I'll just keep walkin' and I'll get the kid out on my own."

Bold of him to assume he could do such a thing in a mystery dungeon.

"....Maybe if you're willin' to stay for a minute while he's unconscious, you could give me some pointers on that map. Just in case. It's a really bad map; I can hardly understand what the heck it's even supposed to say."

It was a perfectly normal average map for average intelligence people. There was nothing wrong with the map. These were thing Lennox would never admit, though.

Astir the Dratini - 11 energy

Lennox the Venipede - 7 energy