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]

[All right, so that was a...trainwreck, honestly, but you know what we've talked about some unholy things and Jupiter is feeling a little less stabby, and maybe she's a little less inclined to say that Ignis and Emmeryn are full of shit, and we should probably consolidate at least a little here, wow.]

I know you guys aren't likely to trust this coming from me, but you should probably know that Cynthia lied to you - or at least, she's being really, really misleading. Nothing good waits for you at Lake Acuity. I don't know what she's getting out of sending you in there, but if you go after the Guardian there, you're going to die. Believe me or don't, I don't really care. But I think it's only fair to give you some sort of warning.

I'm going to ask you one more time, because it's important that I get an honest answer - you're sure you haven't seen Saturn since Lake Valor? He isn't...in trouble, it's just important that I know.

[She's...really been asking about him a lot, this entire time; she doesn't seem concerned, just kind of weird about it.]

[redbellion]

[ ...it's not like keith trusts her entirely, but after hearing about her wanting their rebellion to be "entertaining", he has reason to believe she'd want to keep them alive. even if it's for a horrible reason. ]

Can you at least tell us why you think we're going to die?

[azumods]

Because I've already been there. I sent some of my grunts in after it.

Let's say it didn't go well.

[She doesn't sound fazed by this. It just...didn't go well.]

[radiantflame]

Your subordinates. Did they survive?

[If you just sent a bunch of your underlings in to die she's gonna judge you so hard.]

[azumods]

I'm pretty sure they didn't.

[radiantflame]

[Titan's foot.]

You don't seem bothered by that.

[redbellion]

Was it because you were trying to recapture it?

[azumods]

That's why I sent them in, anyway.

[redbellion]

What made this time unsuccessful as opposed to the first?

[eudaimonikos]

Oh no, Cynthia couldn't possibly be shady, we trust her with our lives...

[He says in a wry monotone. And then probably takes a sip of warm berry stuff.]

[azumods]

[That just gets a bit of a laugh out of her; she likes you.]

[eudaimonikos]

[ugh, he's not too proud of that

Jupiter liking him, he stands by the thing about Cynthia]

So what, you lost Saturn? I mean, lucky you didn't bring him up here, he's so pasty you'd never find him again.

[azumods]

I don't think we lost him, anyway. I just wasn't sure if he was with you, or...I don't know, being a higher than usual level of difficult.

[discutio]

We haven't seen him, no.

[...ignis, at least, is not strictly lying and he is aware of this fact.]

[azumods]

[nao i need to tell you how hard i just lost my shit, fuckdammit ignis- ]

...All right. That's what Maylene told me as well; I was thinking that maybe he was with you.

[discutio]

[i'm so sorry he's like this except i'm not]

Not bloody likely. [It was hard to tell if Ignis was rolling his eyes behind the visor, but the tone was certainly clear about it.] Again, with all respect--he's not the sort we'd associate with for long.

[...also not really a lie]

[azumods]

Good to know he's keeping it that way. If he were with you, we'd have bigger problems on all sides.

[divinedescendant]

[doing her best not to give Jupiter a new reason to think she's full of shit tbh

as even and sincerely polite as ever:]

You have my gratitude for forewarning us, and for what you have taught us about this world.

[even if it was some fucKED UP GHOST SHIT]

[azumods]

Oh. Yeah.

[......]

Thanks for. not...

[She kind of trails off a bit, like she's thinking really hard about how to do this.]

No hard feelings.

[nailed it, jupiter.]

[divinedescendant]

[serenely, with cordial friendliness:]

Of course.

[she's doing real well for herself, relatively speaking, emmeryn's impressed]

[ventulus]

[ Cynthia lying or being misleading?

...Ventus doesn't think he can accept that. She's been so nice to them and sent them things, and...yeah. His eyebrows furrow a little there, though. ]

...I guess we'll keep it in mind then -- the warning, I mean. But, I have faith that we won't end up dead.

[ He hopes the Guardian didn't like...bite someone in half or something. Maybe he shouldn't think about this too much. ]

[azumods]

Here's hoping your faith is stronger than my subordinates, then.

[jesus christ.]

[ventulus]

[ HE JUST...wow. ]

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

[ Ventus kind of hopes those subordinates are not actually really dead, but he's probably going to be one of the few thinking there's a scenario in which they lived. ]

[anythingforyou]

[...Yeah, that's. Entirely foreboding, and honestly, might be the worst part of this conversation? It's safe to say that Camilla looks completely unsettled by this, and the idea that the creature is...likely going to be more violent than Azelf.]

...Thank you for the warning, Commander. It's...best that we know now, rather than...

[...]

Well. Going in and finding out ourselves.

[azumods]

Hey, you guys answered most of my questions. Might as well give you a bit of a warning.

Besides, people tend to be a bit more entertaining alive.