Stage 4: Own Goals, Mindreading Incidents, and Ángel’s Revenge
(Mentioning @Happyhungryhippo [The Rhino Squad] and @Fayeding_Spray [Timeloss])
Morning at Thornes.
Everyone would wake up, but Ángel and his team would wake up earlier than most. Ángel, if you remember, had made a little deal to play soccer with the locals. He was ready, despite the hangover and the sleepless night in the Aurinko. He’d be playing for the Local Team of Thornes, for the first half only.
That morning, he attempted to call other teams, trying to make some friendships… Or at least, trying to give some entertainment before leaving. But none, except his own team, actually came to watch, amongst a crowd of only 200.
Initially, things would go fairly well. The Locals got ahead by scoring a goal at the 7th Minute. Ángel was making really good defense… Until the later third of the first half of the match… Which is where Ángel’s fall from grace began.
At the 32nd Minute, he’d make a catastrophic defense error, allowing the opponents to score the equalizer… And then, came the worst. It was the 44th minute. Ángel was trying to defend and the first of many Mindreading Incidents would kick in… He’d read the mind of a teammate… Which initially wasn’t bad… Until Ángel saw the sort of things he’d definitely not like to watch…
In his suffering he fell over by himself, as the ball went from one opposing player to the other, meaning Ángel had made a deviation on the ball’s trajectory. Subsequently, the Goalkeeper, who was initially preparing to run for the other players, didn’t got prepared for Ángel’s Achilles Heel… THE OWN GOAL.
After this, Ángel quickly recovered (He knew what happened just then, but he still felt the pain), and was desperate to get out of the field, hoping a swap with a teammate. Luckily, his manager was so infuriated, that that was what happened just after…
The Match ended 2-1, approximately 70 minutes later (adding the half time, and the added time of each half of the match), with Ángel’s own goal certifying victory for the Visitors…
Ángel’s team wasn’t happy either, oh, no. Everyone was infuriated at Ángel for misrepresenting the team. But… If that really was the case, shouldn’t someone else have gone out and play? Ángel left his team’s spot at camp with several doubts, and as the others left to prepare for the short trip to Mosoto, Ángel remained in site, admiring the Mansion just in front of camp. He was then bumped by Chantal, and it was a nice chat… Until the ocurrings at Menes would repeat. Ángel had another mindreading incident, in a lapse of time of roughly half an hour…
Still, it was impossible it could get worse, right?
After said incident, his team came back. This time, no discussions happened… Because a THIRD incident happened. And the day was far from over. This time, the target chosen by Ángel’s powers was Ana, and again, Ángel saw things he’d most likely NOT want to see. This time it took him further to recover, and they left camp late in comparison to the other teams…
Andrés would drive for this stage, which was good for him… At least he thought. Because little did he or anyone know they’d soon encounter the same issue that they’d been facing for the past 2 stages…
Pullover, between Thornes and Mosoto.
Andrés:“It’s so un-f#¢king believable how we’ve done so far… And how always punctures is our Achilles heel…”
Ana:“Ves que no estoy maldita, Ángel?”
(“You see I’m not Cursed, Ángel?”)
Ángel:“Ey, no es mi culpa… Solo era una suposición. En este Rally hay mucha gente rara, y hay gente que tiene magia… Así que… Si te maldijeron, no sé que hacer ante ello…”
(“Ayyy, it ain’t my fault… I was just supposing. There’s a lot of weird people in this Rally, and there are people with magic… So… If you were cursed, I dunno what to do about it…”)
Josué:“En parte es tu culpa.”
(“It kinda is your fault.”)
Tomás:“A qué si? Porque no compraste neumáticos nuevos? Cuando es que los neumáticos de esta cosa fueron cambiados por última vez?”
(“Yes it is. Why didn’t you buy new tires? When was the last time the tires in this thing were changed?”)
Ángel:“La última vez, al menos, según dice el historial de mantenimiento, fue en el 2005, hace 19 años… No que tú naciste en ese año? Pero da igual. Los neumáticos cuestan algo de dinero, y preferí invertirlo en intentar evitar problemas en la transmisión o en el motor… Y adivinen que? Aparte de nuestro recalentamiento cuando íbamos a Menes… Nada nos ha pasado.”
(“The last time, at least, according to the servicing history book, was in 2005, 19 years ago. Weren’t you born that year? Anyway. Tires cost some money, and I preferred investing it on trying to avoid problems in the transmission or in the engine… And guess what? Besides our overheating issue while heading to Menes… Nothing has happened to us.”)
…if you don’t count punctures, that is.
Mosoto.
Ana:“This place stinks.”
Ángel:“I mean… To me it ain’t that bad. I’ve had to handle worse smells.”
Josué:“Remember the day at Unmar and Lendehamn?”
Ángel:“Yes, Josué, just… don’t remind me of it.”
It was still fairly early in the day, so, the Team decided to spend their time doing certain activities to pass the time.
Ángel, despite having suffered 3 mindreading incidents today, felt like deploying his social butterfly skills with the other teams… Even after realizing that said skills aren’t really functional with the locals. So, he invited Andrés and Josué to come along with him to meet the other teams. The first was Timeloss, one of their closest competitors in the overall standings… But inmediately when they approached, they started to feel… inferior.
Nevertheless, it was Ángel, as usual, the one to break the ice…
Ángel:“Uhm… H-hello…”
Ruuka:“Look what is coming. After 4 days of constant boredom, we’ve finally got something to do…”
Ángel:“W-well… We just came here to talk… First of all… What a machine you’ve got…”
“It kinda makes me feel like nothing with our Aurora…”, thought Ángel, feeling a bit small compared to the girls.
Mirage:“Well… it took some time to prepare it. So far nothing has gone wrong with it… which is surprising, to say the least.”
Josué:“In ours, nothing has gone wrong either, even if it falls a bit short of yours…”
Andrés:“Well, apart from constant punctures… Guess who didn’t change some 19 year old tires…”
Ángel:“Tires are expensive, Andrés!”
Josué:“Then how did you buy the spare ones…?”
Ángel:“I-- Yeah…”
Both groups burst into some short laughter, except Ángel… I mean, he knew he just made himself look dumb.
Ángel:“I-I mean… The tires worked fine, it was you driving too hard…”
Josué:“Yeah, just like you reading minds too hard.”
Selena:“You’re the mind reader, right?”
Selena asked, with no intention to offend, but Ángel, who felt already a bit bullied over said fact, felt like it.
Ángel:“Would people stop recognizing me JUST for THAT!?”
Andrés:“Heyyy, pal, calm down… At least I don’t.”
Ángel:“Ana bullies me over it. The thing that made me recognizible was that specifically! Would people recognize me for something other than that?”
As Andrés was trying to calm Ángel down, Josué saw an opportunity to try and score something on the girls… But Ángel’s mindreading powers had other plans… The target was Josué, and, for once, Ángel’s mindreading issues were useful… as he wailed, twitched, cried and suffered, he could see Josué’s intents, which, while not as disgusting as what he saw on Ana’s mind, per say, was enough to kick off his alarms. Ángel, despite feeling the pain (as he hadn’t fully recovered), ran to get in front of Josué, and unexpectedly, he’d say something that would’ve been proper meme content… If someone got a camera to record it.
Ángel:“Aaaaayyyeee, Bud, this is a rally event, NOT a dating sim.”
Josué:“How did you know?”
Ruuka:“Didn’t hurd him wailing to the high heavens?”
The girls then laughed, and this time it was Josué the one who felt stupid. Besides, Ángel wasn’t happy, but, this consolidated the sole reason why Ángel would be recognizible, and, sadly for him, said reason was the one he despised to a degree.
After this latest incident, Ángel would come again.
Ángel:“I… I feel sorry for what happened… It’s just that… We are still very unexperienced in this… W-we…”
Mirage:“You’re doing fine. Mind Reading isn’t the worst thing one could do.”
Ángel:“I mean, it’s a common power for Yumeisotitanian Humanoids and YHDs…”
“Yumeiso-what? YHDs? What is that?”, Mirage thought. And she’d soon realize that wasn’t the only trick on Ángel’s sleeve… or, should we say, under that eyepatch.
Ángel (by telepathy):“Besides, while not as effective, because I can only hear me and whoever I want to in a range of 100 meters around me, I can communicate by this as well… And this I CAN control. Say “Hello!”.”
Mirage’s mildly confused expression made Ángel laugh, at last, before he’d have to leave same as his two teammates had done moments ago: Ángel would have to make dinner, something which we know can end catastrophically.
Mirage was still a strong spellcaster though, so, she wasn’t that confused after all. But still, she felt like it would be a good idea to investigate this…
Afternoon-Sunset at Mosoto.
…meanwhile, back at the Firulais’ Spot at Camp, Ángel had burnt something to a crisp again, and almost started another fire, similar to his incident at Nevada.
However, this time, Jan, from the Rhino Squad, would come and teach Ángel, over the next couple of hours, to make some meals. And, while Jan’s results were by far and away better than Ángel’s, at least Ángel managed to make things that were decent-ish. Ana, however, didn’t seem to approve…
Ana:“Are you sure this is edible?”
Ángel:“I mean… It ain’t burnt. And I made it with Jan’s Help.”
Ana:“I don’t know… Being you, I wouldn’t trust it. And who the hell is Jan?”
Ángel:“Chantal’s Boyfriend, from the Rhino S—”
Ana:“That smurf’s boyfriend ?”
Ángel (a tad frustrated):“Ana…”
Ana:“Yeah, yeah, I’m not eating this… Are there any—”
Ángel, while patient for most of the time, had enough, and pushed the food into Ana’s mouth, kind of a rude move. But Ángel wanted at least some way to say “Thanks”… He didn’t spend 2 hours learning how to cook, and Jan didn’t spend 2 hours teaching him how to cook for nothing!
Ángel:“Just TASTE IT, and tell me how it is!”
Ana (with increasing enthusiasm):“This… This…”
Ana wanted to raise Ángel’s hopes just to smash them in an instant.
Ana:“This ain’t too bad.”
Ángel’s expression kinda marked how he felt.
Ángel:“W-Well… It’s better than to starve, that’s for sure.”
Very Late Night at Mosoto.
Not much happened for the Firulais later in the night. Ana got drunk and went to sleep relatively early. Tomás did the same, but without being drunk. He actually stayed up a bit further and watched some Anime he’d downloaded to his phone. Andrés and Ángel had their Pokémon Match, and Ángel came gut-wrenchingly close to finally sleeping in a tent, if Andrés would’ve committed an strategic error. So, Ángel had officially passed a week sleeping in a car. Josué was neutral. I mean, after what happened with Timeloss, he preferred keeping his mouth shut.
Late that night however, Ángel would still be awake. But this time it wouldn’t be his own sleeping issues, another mindreading incident to add to the 4 he had today, or Ana’s Alcohol Shenanigans (because for once, she forgot to do them…). It would be him plotting something…
He’d come over to the Nilpferds’ Tent…
Ángel:“Pst.”
Nobody Hurd him, so he whispered.
Ángel (whispering):“Pssst. Chantal!”
Chanty:“…what is it?”
Ángel:“I need some help with something.”
At this point, Ángel realized his telepathic powers would come in handy.
Ángel (by telepathy):“I have an idea on how to mess with Ana. I’ve just realized that she’s been giving me Alcohol… So I’ll give her some things in return…”
Chantal didn’t know how to respond to this. Did she just hurd Ángel’s voice in her mind ? This was all very strange. And the weird things wouldn’t stop there, as Ángel then asked something unusual.
Ángel:“Have you got any spare hair dye ?”
Chanty:“Uhhh… Yes ? Why ?”
Ángel:“That’s part of my idea.”
They giggled quietly, as Chantal got an idea of what Ángel was plotting. They then made the Short Walk to Ana’s Tent, One of 4 in the Firulais’ Spot at Camp. On the way there, Chantal noticed another one of Ángel’s makings… A “Red” T-Shirt was drying over… It seemed like it was cheaply made, but later, it would be revealed that Ángel had painted it… Guess who was the one who owned it.
Chanty:“C…C…C…P ? What does that mean ?”
Ángel:“Союз Советских Социалистических Республик. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. A.K.A., the USSR, the Soviet Union. I actually painted that.”
(“Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik.”…)
Chanty:“Why the Soviet Union ?”
Ángel:“Ana usually bullies me over the fact I’m Russian… And the fact I live in Russia. But I’m not exactly Russian, I’m Russian-Japanese… A-Anyway. Have you got the hair dye…?”
Ángel whispered as he was starting to giggle again, very silently.
During what was quite a while, Ana, who was in deep sleep thanks to her drinking habits, wouldn’t realize what Ángel and Chantal would be doing to her hair for the rest of the night. Of course, they’d try their hardest not to wake her up with their giggles… And fortunately, they managed to do the whole process without waking her up. After that, Chantal left to her tent to sleep…
…and Ángel headed to the Aurora, feeling very satisfied for the day… He could hardly wait to see Ana’s reaction.
