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There was something fundamentally eerie about stepping in through the doorway she'd seen Jagdish disappear into, like the maw of a trap. Yarver's casual lead was a balming but stark contrast. And so it wasn't much later that she was ushered into a dining room. It sported a table that seemed large enough for at least ten occupants. The kitchen was apparently right next to it, with a door between the rooms that in theory could be slid closed, but looked like it hadn't been in a longer while.
Some potted plants sat in the corners. “What kind of tea would you like? Black, green, herbal, fruit?” Yarver asked her.
There was no sign of Jagdish right now, although a mild scent of frying oil suggested he had made true of his earlier threat of Being In The Kitchen for at least some of the time and might yet return to clean up. They were a bit on the early side of his timebox, so maybe it wasn't too surprising that he'd bowed out.
A variety of tea boded well. Or did it? Correlation, not causation: the fact that in the past a wide tea selection was something she'd found a positive sign didn't mean that it would be this time.
Her thoughts were definitely jangled, Adelaide acknowledged with a grimace.
“Green, please.” Safe, consistent, soothing.
“Green, then,” Yarver acknowledged. He lingered for an awkward additional second, as though concerned that Adelaide might yet change her mind about calming down once she was alone, but then sauntered into the kitchen with a smile that actually managed to be casual.
Anything that could possibly have been interesting in the kitchen was strategically out of view from the dining room table, but she could hear Yarver's shuffling about. Clearly he wasn't as familiar with it as Jagdish, but the absence of cursing suggested that it also wasn't a maze.
About two minutes into her wait, to the sound of a kettle turning on, Adelaide noticed that the room wasn't right.
It was hard to put a finger on what was alarming about it - like she'd blinked and the potted plants were suddenly swapped with others, like something had just shifted, but she couldn't catch anything out on being out of–
The pokémon was right in front of her. Like something that had lurked in her blind spot all along, it stood only a metre away, staring right at her, its silver patterns seeming almost alive on its dark skin. Its blue eyes had adopted a trace of luminescence. Even in the still of the room, the flowing feather mane rippled in soundless motion.
~How did it begin?~ it asked, its voice laced through her mind as a schizophrenic medely of a soothing whisper and a hiss.
She'd like to say that she was unflappable, that she'd been sufficiently trained, that professionalism took over.
She'd like to, but that would be a lie. Instead, Adelaide's immediate reaction was an undignified squeak.
Her second reaction was alarm, but she felt that was justified; a very large pokemon had just appeared right in front of her and this was very startling. So was the pokemon talking to her. A potentially deadly human appearing in front of her and asking weird questions would also be startling so this was justified, right?
“I'm sorry, how did what begin?” Adelaide asked politely, hands clasped very tightly in her lap.
~The enslavement,~ the pokémon clarified. There was no more emotion in its voice than before, no more tension in its body.
Somewhere in another reality, the kettle was boiling, but she might have heard Yarver's shuffling pause, as though unsure if he had heard something and, to be a good host, ought to look if something had been requested.
✘ IN PROGRESS