It's easy to dodge, and—once they notice it's coming, once they realize that Neos is letting them dodge it (maybe she's taking pity on them, that's the only reason anyone would, obviously), they duck down into a squat on the floor. When the punch is gone, so is Nova Pandora—they break Supernova, something that they probably shouldn't be doing in the hideout with other people in the next room, but it just feels so impossible to keep all of this up. Everything feels so heavy. The fire that had just driven them quenched in record time by their own stupid brain. Again.

They stay down in that squat, and their heart aches for how they can't even maintain the one thing that's supposed to make them feel better. "Fuck," they say, quieter and more clearly. Their throat is tight. "Stop it, Neos. It's pointless."