Second.

[azumods]

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?"

Comments

[semistableman]

[Bucky sits, and the poor starly takes the opportunity to jump down on his shoulder.]

Cynthia said something about a god.

[azumods]

What about it...?

[semistableman]

That Cyrus managed to gain control of it and cause.... this.

[He absolutely sounds like he believes it happened.]

[azumods]

It was something like that, yes.

[niceoppai]

And that's what everyone has been after. You knew we were heading to the lake, after all, even if all we said was that we were heading out of town.

[azumods]

The lake...

[Mm.]

Actually, they aren't the sort of deities that can achieve what Master Cyrus accomplished.

[semistableman]

I take it he’s not exactly worried about it getting out and going after him.

[azumods]

Not at all.

[semistableman]

Special containment?

Gods, from my understanding, are massively petty.

[azumods]

[...He kind of tilts his head at that. Huh.]

I actually don't know if ours are or not. Their priorities tend to be different, I think.

[semistableman]

I couldn't tell you what the priorities of the gods I know about are.

[He just sort of shrugs.]

[hyruglyphics]

... I do not know if I would call the typical god petty.

[ Look. ]

[heritrix]

[Okay I know we're having super serious discussion right now, but heck if Rin doesn't turn her head so fast to that comment that she hears her neck pop. Zelda. Honey. You sweet summer child.]

...Literature in your world must be really boring.

[hyruglyphics]

Wha-- no, it is not, but to call a deity petty...? The gods serve the purposes they were meant to...

[azumods]

Yes, exactly.

[see he gets this]

[hyruglyphics]

[ . . . Um?

why is he agreeing with her oh well- ]

And no doubt, the gods and ancient spirits of this land want what it is best for it, the same as any other.

[heritrix]

[Her voice is a little sing-song as she slips some vegetables to her Mienfoo, with a shrug of her shoulders.]

The Greek Pantheon would beg to differ~ That's part of why there's so many of them.

[But she can tell you about that more later.]

[hyruglyphics]

... [ Um ] No doubt they have their own charges or functions... as deities...

[discutio]

[...yeah he's just]

[quietly, distinctly uncomfortable about all of this]

[semistableman]

The ones I've heard about are both weird.

[hyruglyphics]

... Weird? [ Okay like- ] The gods perform their functions, I do not know... I suppose some of those functions might seem unknowable to mortal minds, but I do not know if I would attribute that to pettiness or oddity...

[semistableman]

Oh, no, they're definitely odd.

One of them has no social graces at all and acts like he walked out of a bad production of Shakespeare. The other has tried to take over the Earth several times.

[bucky you haven't even met either of them]

[eudaimonikos]

My universe doesn’t have them in the sense you mean...

....but yes, they absolutely are.

[hyruglyphics]

- Your deities would be watching over that- the other one, Good Place! Would you even know them?

[eudaimonikos]

I know they instituted a system where only maybe one percent of humanity gets to the Good Place.