PALACE GAME: Round 3

[cultfavorite]

You open your eyes—

You're standing in the vast lobby of a corporate building, facing the reception desk, where a Team Galactic Grunt is stationed—she's currently on the phone, though, and occupied. A few other grunts move through the lobby, looking as if they're on their way to their next assignment. All of them look identical. And if you watch their paths for a while, none of them actually end up leaving the room.

The walls are a bright, metallic, sterile blue with white, and the floor is made up of gleaming silver metal tiles emblazoned here and there with a gold logo. The reception desk is slightly to your right, and to the left of that there are three doors in the far wall in front of you.

To the right of the reception desk, there's a little area with a vending machine, a large ottoman to sit on, a potted plant, and . . . a dotaku? With a face? It's sitting resting on the floor next to the vending machine, and it's staring right at you with those red eyes.

Directly to your right, closer to the front door, there is a glowing green circle on the floor with a sign on the wall next to it.

What will you d—

Wait. Your phone is buzzing. Whether or not you had it with you back in the prison, you do now, whether in your pocket, in your hand, whatever. It's on your person, and it's vibrating demandingly for attention. If you choose to ignore it, a mechanical voice emanating from it begins literally saying the word buzz! buzzzzzz! buuuzzzzzz! in an increasingly irritated tone.

Check your phone?

Comments

[cultfavorite]

" . . . Hmph."

Mars looks like she doesn't know what to think of this, but it's hard to argue with it, and it's a lot to think about. She crosses her arms tightly and nods.

"That guy's always been a lot colder than I am. What happened, huh? But I guess I'm happy for him."

[menphina]

[ She looks a bit sheepish. ]


I don't think you're cold, either. Maybe a little nervous? But you want the best, and so does he.

[ She reaches out and touches Mars' shoulder. ]

He'd want you to be happy too. I'm certain of it! I may not know you, but I've got a sense for these things!


[ Wink! ]

[cultfavorite]

"Ha! Hey, thanks. You're not bad for a Grunt! One sec, I'm going to grab something out of the kitchen for you reeeeal quick!"

She flashes a grin and ducks inside. When she comes back, she's holding three things: a Rage Candy Bar (they're all the rage!), a keycard, and a slip of paper with her phone number on it.

"These are for you! Well, the key's just something another Grunt left behind in there, but their loss."

[menphina]

[ She will excuse being called a grunt because Mars is cute, but she blinks at the "gifts" before chuckling and-

She'll just lean in and press a kiss to Mars' cheek. ]

Thank you, lass. Hope we find each other again!

[ Keycard! And candy! And she doesn't know what the numbers are... maybe they'll be useful. ]

Right... I should be off. I can smell more people here!

[cultfavorite]

"You are so weird. Good thing I'm into that!"

She presses a hand to her cheek and winks, and then heads back into the kitchen.

[menphina]

[ Poor girl. She'll just wish her well- mad respect for going into that kitchen, before checking out.. the door on the right! ]

What's behind door number two...

[cultfavorite]

The door slides open into a spacious conference room. There's a large oval table surrounded by chairs, a water cooler, a little coffee maker, a mini-fridge . . . not a bad place to have a meeting. At the head of the room there's a large wall-mounted monitor hooked up to a laptop for remote conferencing. Currently it's displaying someone's unremarkable desktop, emblazoned with the Team Galactic logo.

[menphina]

[ Oh cool this one is clean.

Maybe she can go press some buttons she never gets to press keys on anything when the Ironworks people are working on their techy things!!



But she's going to the fridge instead to see what's inside! ]

[cultfavorite]

It's a selection of different fancy coffee creamers to go with the coffee machine. There are all kinds of flavors for people who don't like their coffee to taste like coffee! Rawst Berry and Cream, Moomoo Caramel, something called Rage Candy Bar . . . you have one of those already. Evidently it's a popular flavor.

[menphina]

[ I'm so sorry Hen she's going to try and taste ALL OF THE CREAMERS because she has to and WoL puts everything in their mouth

At least once she's done that she'll explore around some more! What're these screens, ooo. ]

[cultfavorite]

All of them taste deliciously sweet and creamy. Your HP is restored if you were missing any, and the Rawst Berry and Cream creamer has an interesting cooling effect when you drink it . . . you get the sense that if you put it in a cup of piping hot coffee, it'd protect your tongue from burns.

Just as she's poking around the biggest screen in the room, it suddenly blips to life, a video chat window opening and maximizing on the desktop. You're being addressed by a Team Galactic Grunt—a nervous-looking young man. From the background, he's clearly sitting in another conference room somewhere in the HQ. Why didn't you just meet in the same room . . . ? But he clears his throat and begins to speak:

"Boss? Uh . . . thanks for agreeing to meet with me today."