This world is inhabited by creatures that we call pokemon. People and pokemon live together by supporting each other, but now the scourge threatens the safety of the entire region. Kohaku has become a dangerous place, where children stay at home and only brave souls go adventuring.
Welcome to KOHAKU. Come for the nightmares. Stay for the tea and crumpets.
The season is SUMMER. It is easy for survivors to forage for food from the land, as there are entire abandoned farms ready for harvest. On the downside, you can smell the corpses.
swarms
GRAND OPENING !
Welcome to KOHAKU REGION's grand opening! If you're interested in joining, come check out our grand opening giveaway!
mood: irritated notes: i'm running out of ideas for starters after six threads lol sorry
He’d come back to Juno to see if he couldn’t sit down with Professor Cypress - to be honest, he wanted to ask a few things, mainly about his missing mom. But it seemed the poor prof was still rather busy handling new EOS candidates, and it felt somehow…selfish to interrupt something important to the entire region for the sake of a personal issue. Then again, his mother had been a top scientist at Pax…finding her alive could potentially shift the balance in their favor. At least, he liked to think so… Even if there was that nagging thought that it was the scientists that created this mess in the first place.
For now, Nima was parked on a slender bench, sipping water while a few of his pokemon frolicked. By a few, he meant Phoenix and Raijin. By frolick, he meant rough housing. The two horse pokemon were really going at it, reared up on their hind legs and pushing at one another. The two had instantly hit it off, almost like brothers. However, there was a bit of danger involved when a ponyta and blitzle got a bit too into it. Flames and electricity = imminent destruction. That, and a lot of uneasy onlookers. “Oh honestly you two, behave yourselves please! You’re making a scene, and not of the good sort.”
clavier stopped in its tracks, causing the ranger behind it to stop as well. isaac bumped into the rough, scaly back of the axew, and blinked in surprise.
"h-huh?" he mumbled under his breath, wondering what was amiss. they had been aimlessly wandering around juno, with no intentions of moving on to the next city -- not until the next day, anyway. he could sense a general uneasiness coming from the little dragon-type.
upon following its line of sight, isaac saw a blitzle and ponyta striking each other, sparks flying from their apparent conflict. stunned, isaac wasn't sure how to react, but clavier had an idea.
the axew jerked its head towards the golden-haired person, and that got isaac to face them as well. "... ?" wordlessly, isaac approached nima.
mood: apologetic notes: hey, if you could, tag me when you reply plzu! i have so many threads going, it makes it easier to get notifications than check manually lol
O-oh wonderful…now they’d done it. Blushing slightly, Nima stood and rubbed the back of his blond head sheepishly. “Ah, y-yes…I’m sorry, I don’t mean to disturb anyone. They’re really good friends, and they’re always like this when I let them out together.”
Turning on his heel, he placed both hands saucily on his hips and gave his pokemon the most impressive ‘angry big sister’ look either of them had ever seen. “Phoenix! Raijin! Stop that this instant!” The two pokemon stopped mid-tussle, still on their hind legs. And then they both dropped to all fours, dipped their heads, and walked up to Nima. He didn’t relent his disapproving stare, although he was having a hard time stopping a smile. They were so cute…it was hard for him to stay mad at them. As soon as a pair of soft pony noses bumped into his belly, he couldn’t help but laugh. “Ok ok, don’t look so dejected. But you should apologize. You had people worried with all that rough play.” Raijin the blitzle gave Isaac a somewhat grumpy look, but Phoenix went right up and nudged Isaac with a whinny. Seeing his friend do it, Raijin relented, and copied the ponyta.
isaac laughed, amused at the attention he was getting from other pokémon. he petted both ponies, and glanced towards nima. how lucky, to have more than one pokémon!
but he was content with clavier, yes. "are you a trainer?" he asked nima, "i'm new here, and i don't know how to differentiate one from another."
clavier remained silent, but his gaze told more than his lack of words did. isaac was indeed --
"i'm isaac, by the way. this is clavier, my partner pokémon."
-- yeah, okay. clavier gave the trio a small wave.
Raijin changed his grumpy tune as soon as Isaac petted him, stubby lighning bolt shaped tail sticking up happily. Phoenix, far more friendly, started nuzzling into Isaac’s neck happily, snuffing at his ear. Nima was trying (and failing) not to giggle. “They certainly like you now!” Nima perked up a bit at the question, and his smile took on a more understanding edge. After all, he was still pretty new at all this as well. Holding out a slender hand, he introduced himself. “My name is Nima. It’s nice to meet you Isaac, Clavier! I’m actually a researcher, so if it’s ok, I’d like to take a look at Clavier. Are you a ranger then?” Rangers were quite intriguing to him. They worked on a completely different set up than anyone else, and that in itself had him curious. Grinning, he made sure to wave back at the axew. Raijin bent down to sniff curiously at the dragon type, giving him an exploratory little shock in greeting.
"how'd you -- hey, that tickles!" isaac said amidst laughter as the two horses assaulted him with nuzzles and nudges. "you're a researcher? that's pretty cool!" he took nima's hand and shook it, grinning from ear to ear.
clavier glanced at nima, and took a wary step back. despite the greetings and formalities, he wasn't about to let itself be assaulted by the likes of snugs and nudges like isaac did. it hopped back from raijin's sniffs, vaguely appalled, almost surprised at the attention it was getting.
the axew shrugged off the shock; it was a dragon-type, after all, and electric-attacks weren't all that effective on it. it glanced at isaac, and said something -- isaac nodded in response, and turned to raijin.
"he didn't like that, raijin. that wasn't very nice ..."
Nima giggled, watching their antics. How cute! “Heehee…ah, well, you referred to Clavier as your ‘partner’, rather than say ‘starter’. It was a bit of a guess on my part, but usually only Rangers use that sort of term.” He glanced down as Raijin offered up greetings to the somewhat standoffish axew, and then blinked at what Isaac said next.
For his part, the blitzle snorted indignantly, stomping a foot against the pavement with a crackle of electricity. Knowing his pokemon well enough, Nima stepped in on behalf of his moody pokemon. Leaning down, he rested his hands on his knees, to better be at Clavier’s level. “I’m sorry Clavier. Electric types usually use their electricity to communicate. He was saying hello to you, albeit none too gently. Are you ok?”
hm, nima was right! isaac hadn't thought much about it, but sa'di had used partner, and it seemed appropriate for him to use the correct term as the leader had used.
"a-ah," isaac mumbled, slightly embarrassed. "um, yes i'm a ranger ... i guess i should have known electric-types used electricity to communicate." he actually didn't know, despite being on the receiving end of the attacks of wild pokémon on multiple occasions. "i-i'll learn better next time."
clavier nodded in response to nima, but was still somewhat bitter at being jolted for no apparent reason. did pokémon nowadays not have an idea of what to do and what not to do? were ranger pokémon the only ones to be relatively well-behaved? it exhaled, and extended a clawed hand to nima as an offering of ... peace. or something.
mood: amused notes: guuuh isaac so cuuuute quit it
Still stooped over for the axew’s sake, Nima tilted his head to look up at Isaac. He blinked at his stuttered statement, and then smiled with a shake of his head, sending blonde hair in various directions. “No, don’t worry about it! I’m a researcher, I know way more about most pokemon than anybody probably ever should. Like, too much, and weird things that are probably not even useful you know? But you get to understand your pokemon, it’s really amazing! Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
Raijin and Phoenix looked at each other, and then decided to give the poor ranger some more nuzzling to make him feel better. No need to go looking so sad! Their trainer was way smart or something, right?? Nima, on the other hand, was pleasantly surprised by Clavier’s extended hand. “Oh?’ But he quickly took it and gave it a shake. “Heehee, you have wonderful manners Clavier. My boys could probably learn a thing or two from you, hm?”
isaac blinked at all the hair. delilah didn't have that much hair, did she? he wondered how people with long hair ever managed, and at once felt grateful that his hair was easily manageable.
clavier almost swelled with pride at the compliment, but quickly brought itself back down to earth. of course was at the tip of its tongue but it stopped itself, and instead opted for a smile that was polite and well-becoming of a ranger's partner.
"really? my brother's a breeder and my sister's a trainer, so i don't know much about researchers ... if we can be friends, i think i can learn something from you! i actually enjoy reading and learning new things, so i don't mind listening to weird stuff ... and i do want to get closer to clavier ..."
his voice trailed off, and isaac paused to rub the top of phoenix's head. "oops. i mighta said too much, heheh."
mood: curious notes: wow i can't believe nima has gone so long without asking to scan clavier lol
For that, Clavier earned another grin from Nima, before the researcher finally stood. He swept his hair out of the way with surprising ease - practice and all that. He liked having it long, even if it was annoying at times. His interest in Isaac’s outpouring of words was not at all fake - he really truly liked talking to people. And the mention of siblings always elicited a certain amount of envy, though he’d also heard enough ‘horror stories’ to know they weren’t always a great thing, haha. At the end though, he was left a little puzzled. Phoenix was super happy about it though, and he clapped his hooves against the pavement before leaning into the petting. The flames of his mane were but a warm tickle, evidence of his comfortable demeanor. Of course, most of Nima’s pokemon were very friendly and they only fed off Nima’s inherent gentleness. Raijin, and Dizzy, might be the only real exceptions. But, all pokemon had a personality, so it was to be expected.
“Really? Well first, the three of you are pretty incredible sounding to me. I’ve never had any siblings, so sometimes I wonder what that’s like. And as for being friends…the answer is of course! I’d like to learn more about Rangers too, you guys are really rare in Kohaku you know?” He tapped at his bottom lip then in thought. “Closer to Clavier? Well, you guys are in Juno, so you probably just started right? I think it’s best to give it time! Nobody becomes best friends overnight. You have so many things you have to learn about each other still. You and your partner are going to have a special bond, but don’t rush it. Hm, you do seem pretty worried about it though?” He put one hand on his hip, and then reached out to poke Isaac in the nose gently with the free one. “Did something happen already?”
"we are?" isaac blinked. he didn't know that -- sa'di had been really busy in hq, and he thought that there were more rangers around than what he saw. he didn't know if he should believe nima's words, especially after the bustle he saw from pokémon and humans alike in the warehouse.
"i don't think so. most of us are actually fighting on the frontlines; i have yet to make my way there," he said, looking around himself. yep, still juno with proserpina no-where near in sight.
"yup, i heard this quote before ... sootopolis wasn't built in a da -- oww." isaac flinched from the poke, and blinked a couple times more. "nope, but usually wild pokémon don't really like me, so i was kind of worried." his eyes were still shut as he spoke, his face scrunched up for fear of being poked again.
….Oh man he was so cute! What even was that face he was making?? Heehee he was all scrunched up! Nima tried really hard to contain himself. Really. He barely knew Isaac. But. But! So cuuuute! He snuggled Isaac before he could help himself. “You are making such an adorable face right now!” Not wanting to freak the poor guy out more than he probably already had, Nima released him pretty immediately - the need for cuddles was satisfied for the time being. “Ahem…well, Sir Squinchyface, there might not be much you can do about it. But if Clavier wanted to leave you, he probably could. And besides, Raijin and Phoenix liked you. Pokemon have personalities just like people - you won’t get along with all of them, just like you won’t get along with all people. Don’t feel too down about it!”
But back to some rather important things. “Oh and so you know, Rangers are new to Kohaku. They sort of showed up as a result of the Scourge. It might be awhile before you see too many around. And don’t, DON’T, be in a hurry to get to the front lines! Train. Get strong. Be prepared. And then face it at your best. No more people…should disappear from the world ok?” This time he reached out and poked Isaac’s cheeks. “Got it? Hehe.”
isaac tried to protest the snuggling, but it somehow felt familiar. almost like his sister smothering him with hugs or cuddles whenever the opportunity arose. "i-i am?" isaac murmured, trying to navigate his thoughts. he didn't know what to think of being hugged by someone he barely knew; delilah was embarrassing enough sometimes (but loving!), and nima was ...
nima was nima, he supposed. "i think you're right!" he agreed, easily. isaac found agreeing better than saying otherwise; favorable responses usually came from being a nice person all-around.
isaac's cheeks puffed after nima poked them, and then he burst into laughter and a friendly, playful grin. "they are? but there's so many of them -- i'll train hard to fight the scourge, then!" said the boy, rubbing the back of his head, "you're right, no more people should disappear from the world."
something inside isaac stirred, and he fought to contain it.
"i'll do my best; i'll pinky promise you." he held out his finger.
“See? Just keep your eyes ahead, keep moving forward. If you get bogged down by the past or by fears, you can’t move. You just sink.” Nima was as chipper as ever, but only because he believed what he was saying. It was how he tried to live his life these days…because the alternative was rather grim. He laughed at the puffed up look, again having to resist the urge to cuddle something cute. At least this time he succeeded! “Heehee, alright! Just remember, it’s a serious pinky-promise!” Grinning, he tucked his pinky around Isaac’s and then gave it a little tug. Making such heavy promises with people he’d just met wasn’t…exactly normal for him. But what could it hurt? He didn’t want this new Ranger to get himself killed. He didn’t want anybody to get themselves killed…which seemed a little funny considering they were all aiming to face off against the Scourge. But he believed that it was possible to do it without throwing away your life - you just had to be prepared. As prepared as you could be. They had to fight, or there may not be a future.
