azume | Second.

Second.

ENCOUNTER 2.

Saturday evening arrives, and with it the time to follow through on that invitation.

Upon entering the resort area, the group will be greeted - inasmuch as the emotionless can properly greet anyone - by staff that evidently works there. They don't appear to be affiliated with Team Galactic, at least not outwardly; they're all dressed similarly, but not in Galactic uniforms, and their hair is down and noticeably not covered in identical wigs. They seem to have retained some aspect of individuality, in other words, as opposed to being absorbed into what appears to be the Team Galactic hivemind, and while they don't seem genuinely pleased to see the lot of you, they'll smile politely as they usher you in, albeit in an odd, uncanny-valley sort of way that doesn't reach their eyes. A purely mechanical reaction, their bodies smile while they do not.

It's probably a little difficult to say whether that's preferable or not to the usual blankness you may be getting accustomed to.

However, they seem cordial enough as they escort all of you further into the resort proper, past several bungalows that likely contain a few rooms apiece for people to reside in for the duration of their stay. The walk will take you up a few sets of stairs built into the rock formation the resort is built upon, leading eventually to a restaurant that likely overlooks Lake Valor from the north side of the building - it certainly seems elevated enough, and the positioning is right. The seating area itself seems to have been prepared in advance for your arrival; rather than several separated tables, there's one long arrangement draped in white, with twelve chairs arranged down each side - twenty-four total - and one at the head of the table. That one appears to already be occupied with your host for the evening; the smile Saturn is offering is soft but it isn't nice, disingenuous in a way that's only slightly less unsettling than the mechanical expressions of the staff.

"It's good of you to join me." His voice is likewise soft but it isn't nice; just the same, he'll gesture at the rest of the table easily. "Feel free to have a seat, and keep your Pokémon out if it pleases you; this used to be a battling establishment, so the staff is more than accustomed to things like that."

Food will be brought out shortly after people are seated; there are no arranged seats, so you're free to sit wherever suits you along the table. It's likely noticeable once things are laid out that either the people here don't hunt or Saturn is aggressively vegan; either way, there's no meat involved and nothing that would insinuate that Pokémon were harmed in any way to obtain what's in front of you, though the food is still decidedly nicer and more substantial than anything you've had for the past week - high-class and freshly-prepared, and not...you know, relying on berries and nonperishable stuff from a department store shelf.

"Enjoy yourselves." Saturn's voice is still even, still calm to perhaps infuriating levels regardless of whatever the atmosphere in the room may happen to be, "since I did say that this was intended at least partially to apologize for the incident at the lakefront. And of course, you're welcome to ask whatever you like, seeing as you did have questions and I'm no longer strictly on company time. After all, a peaceful solution to this entire...situation is what we're all striving toward, isn't it?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, humans are terrible. You're very good at torturing yourselves and each other. I've wondered before why any other means need to be involved.

[If Saturn doesn't know his name, he probably doesn't know the context for any of that...oh, well.]

But you're also capable of being great, if you try. Taking away their spirits - you haven't made them good. Whatever negative things they aren't doing, it's meaningless if they lack the moral autonomy to make that choice themselves. Same for any positive actions you might order them to do. They're all just void.

[...That actually kind of gets him to shut up for a moment; it's clear that he has a response for most things, but that's...honestly not an argument he's heard before, at least not put that way.]

What... What purpose does moral autonomy even serve in the world, if so many are willing to abuse it in the first place? It's better that it doesn't exist, so the negative things won't come into being in the first place.

[Deep breath.]

And you deem the free will for humanity to embrace the positives a necessary sacrifice to that end?

"Embracing the positives" is clearly not a choice they're willing to make for themselves.

You would have us believe that in this entire world, not one single person alive was ever kind to another? That there was never so much as one instance where so much as one individual reached out to help another? Showed compassion to their fellow man, or cared for another even in the slightest amount? People are flawed; they cause conflict, turn on one another, bicker and fight and even kill one another. But you posit that not one single light glows within that darkness?

I refuse to acknowledge it. Such a world doesn't exist, not in any universe. No matter how dire the environment, there will always be those who carry that light and reach out to show compassion.

...It's a terribly sad life you've lived, if you can truly say you've never seen kindness even once in your life.

[He'll...well, he'll listen to it, anyway, but god that was A Speech, give him a moment.]

...I'm certain that people like that existed in this world. But I've never been one of them - I'm neither a kind nor a gentle person - and the greatest kindness that's been shown to me has come from Master Cyrus.

And what kindness was it he showed you, if I might ask? What manner of life could you possibly have lived to devote yourself to someone else at the cost of all else?

[Ignis suddenly paused, as if he only just came to realize something with those words.]

[And for a brief second, things made more sense than he wanted them to.]

...That's not an accusation. I want to know, sincerely.

[...]

It doesn't matter anymore. Does it?

It matters to you. You built your whole ideals and even identity on the fact that you were given reason to follow a single person. At cost of all else, even the world itself.

And I want to know why.

You can want to know all you want, but ultimately that's none of your concern. It has little to do with the discussion at hand, and since you've been so fixated on how what I do benefits me, telling you stands to do none of that.

(no subject)

discutio - 2018-06-16 20:55 (UTC) - Expand

[+1, FUCKIN TELL HIM, IGNIS

but like more politely]

Robbing them of the choice to learn and do the right thing isn't any better, though. That isn't peace; it's control.

Edited 2018-06-16 20:08 (UTC)

Sometimes one has to come from the other.

[Ughhhhh, he's so brainwashed he can't even see it. Rin nearly says something out loud to that very effect, but bites her tongue at the last second, thinking of similarly cutting remarks she made to Shirou before they really knew each other that well.

She's angry, but she knows she could stand to be more sensitive. Turning back to her plate with a glower, she begins separating out some vegetables for her pokemon to have later.]

I think our definitions of the term "peace" might be muddled, then. [She reaches again for her water.] Could you elaborate for me, what that means to you?

Primarily, it's the absence of strife and suffering; a lack of pain and conflict.

What about harmony?

That tends to be implied by the lack of conflict.

Only in part.

[She looks to the Mienfoo by her side now, and thinks of the Gligar in her ball. She only captured it when they met because... Well, the precise reasons don't really matter now, so much as what made it stand out to her from the others she's encountered in her journey.]

The pokemon I've encountered in the last few days seem nothing like the ones you described in those legends. You almost made it sound like they enjoy fighting—not for causing pain, but for the joy of it. To show they're strength, and form a bond the creatures they're fighting and humans alike.

That joy is a part of harmony, too. It's not enough to be free of strife; what's left needs to be pleasant, and something you want to share.

Because no positive things will ever come into being, either. It may as well be a world full of corpses, completely unable to hurt or help each other at all.

[He leans forward, resting his weight on his elbows as he warms up to the topic.]

If human beings - if any of us - are capable of achieving anything near perfection, it's in choosing to be good when the opposite is readily available to us. If there's no choice, there's no meaning in our actions. If I tell one of these waiters here to go bring you a cake, it wouldn't be the same as if he made one for you of his own volition, because he wanted you to be happy.

...don't. Do that, by the way, we're fine. [At the nearest staff member.]

So you're claiming that enforced peace doesn't count as such, because there's no option to do otherwise - it's the choice that makes the result valid.

[...He's trying to rephrase it such that it'll make any sense to him whatsoever, and he sounds vaguely incredulous in the sort of way that implies that he is pretty sure this is purest bullshit, but there is an attempt.]

In a way. Well, no. [He holds up his hands.] Let's define terms.

What you've achieved is technically peace. It's the absence of strife, that's literally what peace means. But this is just a negative, an absence. It's defined by what it isn't, rather than what it is. Goodness is more than just a simple lack of evil. The fact that I'm not picking up this knife and stabbing someone doesn't mean I'm doing a good thing right now.

[Though he definitely picks up the knife and points it at the person next to him while he talks, almost like an unconscious gesture.]

...That's what the goal is. Lasting peace, an absence of strife and suffering.

[He says, blankly, like he is not altogether sure why we're having an argument if we all agree on this.]

I see that, but we're clearly disagreeing on whether or not that's the greatest possible good.

[oh my god he literally just said]

...can we try to define what the goal is in positive terms? We know what you want to get rid of, strife and whatever, but what are you adding? Also, side-note, I'm pretty sure you haven't actually gotten rid of suffering.

[...Hang on.]

To address the side-note first, might I ask what makes you say that?

Do you think these people don't notice when their loved ones vanish to your building never to be seen again?

Maybe they can't relate to them in the same way anymore. Maybe they're not capable of crying about it, or protesting, or even wishing that things were different. But they don't forget about them. It sticks. Whatever's left of them dwells on it. Turning your loss over and over in your mind, never able to do anything about it but never able to let it go...that's suffering.