Third.

[azumods]

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.

Comments

[azumods]

Oh, I know why. It's the same reason the others keep trying once in a while.

They put up a cute little rebellion, and then they're beaten down. It's how this tends to work.

[semistableman]

[You know he could respond to this with some amount of measure, or]

Your world is naive; the problem is that rebellions tend not to work without weapons.

[...or he could just. Do that.]

[hyruglyphics]

[ . . . I mean you're right and all but if that's anathema to their society before hand would it really bring it back? ]

[azumods]

[You know what? That. That actually pisses her off a little.]

You act as though our world has never seen war. We're familiar with swords and blades, with guns and planes and missiles. With massive weapons powered by a god of death, capable of destroying entire countries at a time.

We're not naive, we're civilized. There's a difference there that your worlds literally haven't achieved yet - I'm not saying that as part of Team Galactic's insistence that our mission is peaceful. Even Master Cyrus and Saturn, who are the most peaceful among us, have used large, powerful bombs to get their way. Not Pokémon, or things powered by them. Bombs.

Because we don't use weapons doesn't mean that we can't - that we're too naive to conceive of them, or that we're too stupid to use them when it would benefit us. It means we choose not to, because we've seen what happens when we do. There's a difference. I'm sorry that your worlds are entirely too stupid to resolve conflicts without leaving it up to a contest involving who can kill the most people.

[semistableman]

Instead you resolved conflict by stripping people and animals alike of their sense of self.

Call me uncivilized if you need to, but at least failed rebels can have dignity in their deaths instead of watching the world slowly die.

[azumods]

What dignity is there in getting cut down because someone else was a faster shot than you? Because someone else built a better bomb, because someone else decided that you needed to be sent off to die for something they wanted?

[semistableman]

You have no idea what it’s like, having someone else’s will superimposed over your own, forced to do things you would never do on your own.

Spending decades at the beck and call of someone else, forgetting you were ever human to begin with!

Don’t give me that bullshit; death will always be better than unending suffering!

[azumods]

If you're going to be so adamant, I'm sure something can be arranged.

[...this. this is probably not good?]

[semistableman]

I’m not making deals with the likes of you.

[eudaimonikos]

Fairly sure that was a threat, actually.

[Maybe don't?]

[azumods]

Oh, don't worry. It's not a deal on your part.

[you want to scream about death being a preferable option? she will cheerfully make it an option for you. right here. right now. she will fucking murder you in this pokemon center, that is what she is saying here.]

[discutio]

Bucky.

[nope nope NOPE]

I think this is getting a touch out of hand on several sides. Commander, surely you realize that approaching us immediately after a heavily trying journey was perhaps ill timing, so I must ask your patience in our discussions today.

[semistableman]

[Yeah okay he’ll let Ignis shove him out of the way before he tries to attack her with his one arm.]

[discutio]

[he's just gonna put a hand on your shoulder, that's all]

[...both to keep you grounded and so he knows if you're gonna start shit.]

Don't let her provoke you. You'll just be playing into her hands at that point.

[azumods]

There's a difference between "discussions requiring patience" and hearing him talk about things he has no concept of, and going on about "well, why don't we all just murder each other?" If he wants to solve problems that way, let him.

[ventulus]

[ .....

After hearing her, he turns over to look at Bucky like. Welp. That doesn't sound good. ]

I don't think she's going to be listening in the way you want her to be.

[ .... yeaaaah. What are words. So many reasons why he thinks she wouldn't and he understands his frustation but. She's not a good person, he can definitely tell. ]

Do you want to just stop for a moment?

[semistableman]

[And now everyone knows why he camps outside.]

...you’re right. You ‘n Ignis.

[heritrix]

[Rin leans forward in her seat, setting her drink down and hands poised in a way that suggest she thinks she might need to get up. While she doesn't yet she does lean forward, hissing lowly in Bucky's direction.]

Just because it might be better doesn't mean you should volunteer. Calm down!

[semistableman]

[That seems to get him to snap out of it? Because he’s been going down a dark path in front of people who are practically kids, fuck.]

[redbellion]

[ yo like keith is in 100% agreement with this sentiment here, but he's gonna stay quiet for now and seethe in the background. he'll probably bring all of this up with bucky later. ]

[hyruglyphics]

... To be honest, I find that uniform agreement of your society very enviable.

[ she closes her hands in front of her chest, speaking quietly. Honestly, she can't say she disagrees with Bucky's argument. Both the spirit of it (that conflict would be better than this conclusion) and the substance (that arms would be more efficient) of it, but she knows that's to a large extent because of the nature of her world. ]

In Hyrule, an ancient evil has plagued our lands for unending years, a blight which resurfaces generations and generations apart. Our kingdom has never been given the option to lay down arms... and so I find the fact that even you and your enemies continue to follow the spirit of your engagements an inspiring thing. Truth told, when we met with Cyunthia, one of the first things we were urged was to not try to kill Cyrus or anyone else.

[azumods]

...Master Cyrus doesn't believe in solving problems with violence. He's used weapons in the past, but never against people.

That doesn't mean that we don't have the concept.

[hyruglyphics]

No, of that I have no doubt. You said as much yourself. Rather I just...

[ How does she put this... ]

... I find it admirable. That any confrontation we've had so far does not have the specter of death hanging over it. It's strange to me.

[azumods]

The fact that several of you think that that's naive says more about you than it does about us.

[hyruglyphics]

... It does.

[ She freely agrees with that, keeping her hands closed in front of her. ]

I personally do not find it naive, but I also confess I have been perplexed by it as much as I have admired it.