azume | Third.

ENCOUNTER 3.

Snowpoint City is small, cold, and definitely not covered in waist-high snowdrifts.

The traveling becomes far easier as soon as you enter the city limits, and the bright orange roof of the Pokémon Center is easy to spot among the white blanketing of snow dusting the ground and the local buildings; it's warm in there, and the attendants inside seem used to this sort of thing - people wandering in bedraggled and cold, unprepared for the weather and the routes leading up to this place - and they'll give you warm, fresh blankets and mugs of warm drinks that steam in your hands. The taste is difficult to place - it's definitely made of berries of some sort, though it doesn't seem to be proper tea or coffee; the point, however, is that it's good at warming you from the inside, and while it doesn't have proper medicinal properties, it'll at least perk you up a bit and make it seem like facing the rest of the day might not be so terrible.

Which is fortunate, really, given what's to come.

Come mid-afternoon, there's a loud, sharp whistle from the doorway of the Center - it's high and shrill, the sort of thing that's designed to get as much attention as possible, in as little time as possible. It'll stop before it goes on too long, but it's definitely enough to be heard, and the source isn't exactly hard to spot.

She's another one that isn't dressed like the other members of Team Galactic, her hair and outfit far different from the usual grunt attire; she seems a bit older than Saturn, her expression harder and more experienced. She's smiling a bit now that she's holding the room, but the expression is strange in that it doesn't reach her eyes, even though those are just as bright and alert as her fellow Commander's were.

It's cold. Unwelcoming. And deeply, deeply wrong in a way that's both vaguely similar and completely different to the way the emotionless people here tend to present - it's unfeeling, but in a way that's natural rather than enforced.

Dangerous.

"So you're the group that left us before I could get to know you properly," she says, and her voice is as cold as the rest of her; it's cordial, perhaps overly so, but there's a firmness to it that heavily implies that she's only being nice because she's expected to be nice. Because maybe if she's nice, this will go nice and easy and nothing will happen.

"I'm Commander Jupiter, serving Team Galactic under the orders of Master Cyrus. Sorry I couldn't meet you all properly before; things got a bit hectic. But we can change that now."

Her tone implies that that isn't a request.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's one of those things that needs to be seen to be believed. I almost feel bad for you.

[...Yeah, hopefully they're going to never have to go near this icy hell ever again...]

...I believe once will be more than enough, because quite frankly, a return trip to this frozen hell would make one lose their mind.

I'm somehow still keeping mine, which is probably why I keep getting sent out here if someone's needed. I'd say I'm getting fond of the place, but I try hard not to lie and I'd rather not break my streak.

Well, they do say that honesty is the best policy.

[Even if they're enemies, it's nice that someone Gets It.]

I suppose I can't say much for whomever...Mars is, if I remember correctly, but Saturn does seem like the type who would likely crumple easily under this weather.

[...Should she be sorry that she kind of wants to drag Saturn a bit? Maybe. But come on, look at that man.]

Edited 2018-07-14 17:15 (UTC)

Oh, please. It's hard enough to get that boy to go outside.

I heard you ran into him at Lake Valor, though. I'm almost proud of him for going somewhere unsupervised.

Ah, so he is the type to shut himself in for all of his days. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

[jesus christ camilla]

You would be correct. I'm surprised it wasn't simply an assignment from that master of yours, really.

It was and it wasn't. We had to recover what was ours, after all, though it seems he didn't quite manage to do that.

[It's not pointed, just an observation.]

I suppose you will?

Maybe. That's the plan, anyway.

By yourself?

[It's clearly an assessing question; he doesn't sound dubious in the least.]

Who said I was alone? I'm not after what I came for right now. I'm just here to talk to you, on my own time.

There are ways of doing retrieval solo. It's not an impossibility.

[Why do you people bother with civility when you can just user trigger words to brainwash people.]

I guess so, but it's generally a stupid idea to try it unless you've got enough power behind it. I'm not saying I don't have any, but if I were here for...say, all of you, it would probably be easier to let Master Cyrus do it. The world's getting screwed up again anyway, so it's best to let him handle it, if he decides he wants to.

Free will's an annoying thing, isn't it.

Not really.

[Huh.]

That so?

[It's not doubt, exactly, but it's close.]

People are a little boring with no free will whatsoever.

Isn't that what the people here are now? They go through the motions, but there's no real purpose to it, besides a desire not to die.

Unless that's why you've bothered to talk to us in the first place.

That's what most people are. I'm guessing you talked to Maylene...?

[Maylene was one of hers, after all, and Maylene said that Jupiter was the one responsible for her not being completely..."perfected", let's say.]

We've crossed paths.

I prefer mine to be a bit more like that.

Any particular reason?

They're more fun that way.

[...She has a really warped idea of "fun", um...]

(no subject)

semistableman - 2018-07-14 19:22 (UTC) - Expand

Oh, what a shame.

[it probably is not that much of a shame]

Perhaps he should simply stay inside and stick to what he's good at, then.

Probably.

[i mean.]