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!
"Just one lap today." The shellos looks up at her from its position in the water with big, round eyes that ask 'really? that's all?' and she cocks her head at it, blinking once and shooing with one hand for it to get started. After a pause, it shakes the water droplets off its skin and bundles down the lane, occasionally dipping its head underwater and gurgling water like she would mouthwash. She thinks is might want her to smile, and she tries, but her lips don't budge.
"Again." She says when it comes back, shrugging off the look it gives her like she's planned this from the very beginning. "Faster, this time." Perhaps, in less demanding situations, they could've afforded to take a breather. But she knows life doesn't give you breathers, so she shouldn't either.
"into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely."
He stares at it, scowling, feet tapping on the ground. In return, it pecks at the ground a couple of times and then lunges at the shoelace on his sneaker like its a treat he's put out for it. "And why," At the last minute he pulls his foot away and the natu lands, beak-first, on the dirt. "should I give this to you? Do you think you deserve it?" It's what he says, anyways. His eyes, on the other hand, scream 'do you think you've earned it?' and they both know the answer to that one.
"I saw the way he treated you." He continues, eyes narrowing. "Bet he'll be proud of the power you'll gain after we're done. If he cared, anyways." Because if the guy cared, he wouldn't have given it to him, and now he plans to push it, push it hard to be the very best. "Can you fly?" Nothing happens for a moment, then the bird gives a little flap of its wings, but its feet don't leave the ground once. Jayden sighs, curling a hand around some clumps of hair while the other one points into the distance. "Run, then. And don't come back until you're exhausted, either." It's gone in seconds, but he doesn't follow, crossing both arms over one another.
He'll wait. Just like he's always done.
"into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely."
"Can you fly?" At first, the skarmory doesn't respond, dipping its head to preen at the green, steel feathers underneath. Then, when it deems its completely ready to take him by surprise the avian takes to the skies, performing a nice arcing loop in the air before settling back down, gripping the soil in its claws. Jayden can feel a faint twitch of his lips, but its not enough to be considered a smile just yet. "Good." All its done with that act is only proven that its not completely worthless (like it was, last time).
It spreads it wings, posing like its expecting him to order it a few laps in the sky as a flying exercise, but he waves that off with his hand. "Not today. See that, over there?" Its a tree - not a tall tree, but a gnarly, bent, burnt dead tree - and after a minute of looking it over the steel type turns to him and gives him a look of not confusion, but genuine curiosity. He laughs, but its bitter, like his laughs always are. "Cut it down. Use both wings if you have to." And even he has to admit he's a little bit impressed by the way the tree neatly splits in three.
"Two more times. And then we're done." From the way he says it, he makes it clear that this isn't an option, but a command, and there's only going over but not ever once falling short.
"into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely."
"You did good." She puts a hand on kecleon's head, referring to the mishap they faced the other day, and how the creature managed to get out of it without too many injuries. Still, it was a little too hurt for her liking, so therefore they must be better to stay safe, and that was what counted the most. Her eyes drift around the place and they eventually land on a pile of bricks that lay, heaped together without a care in the world.
When she first points to them, kecleon stares at her and pales, eyes dilating rapidly as it gives its lanky arms a stare, then back at her. She shakes her head, reassurance, and stoops over to pick one up, dropping it at its feet. "Its not what you think." Traces her fingers over the rough surface and it feels like she's touching sandpaper. "You're going to sharpen them on this today." If those claws had been sharper that day the pink creature would've never gotten away, she tells herself. Kecleon must understand her too, because it nods its head and sets to work.
The sound, she expects to be grating, unnerving, tense, but its soothing, rhythmic, and she finds herself tapping her feet to it like its some sort of twisted, sick melody.
"into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely."
Sometime long ago, he heard that mudkip acted like puppies, despite the typing and the obvious, 'fishy' resemblance. Now, for the life of him he can't remember and it's decided in the end that the memory is lost in those that he discarded when he left his old life behind and he shrugs it off, staring at the small blue creature by his feet. It stares at him, blinking beady black eyes that seem to sparkle in the weak sunlight but it certainly doesn't loll out its tongue or paw at the ground like he expects it to from the descriptions.
They lock eyes like that for a few seconds before he breaks contact and stares straight ahead, at the cluster of trees his mind has somehow managed to conjure up despite the fact that he thought of waterfalls as he fell asleep. Still, he decides to go with what he's given. "Run through this and back and mark each tree. We'll see how fast you can do it." And as the creature runs off he has this realization, again, that it's just a baby, like a lot of his team still is, and that poses a danger because while the cluster isn't exactly huge, its pretty dense.
He only hopes it doesn't run into one of them during the ride.
"into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely."
There are people that are born special - talented, good looking, with everything they could ever want handed to them on a silver plate. He wonders, staring down at the natu, if there are pokemon that are born special as well, except the entire process of getting everything is reversed. "So tell me: have you learned anything?" If pokemon could talk, things would be easier, but all he can do is gaze deep into its eyes and try to find them that way. As far as he can tell, there's nothing but raw fear there, masked with a light sheet of something completely emotionless. The natu is nervous, too. He can see this because it can't seem to stand still.
"We're doing something different today." It's an order, he makes clear, not to be questioned and not to be disobeyed. "See those poles?" This time, his mind's managed to conjure up some sort of gold-esque course, holes and flags included. "They'll be your checkpoints. Teleport. All of them and back. Miss and you'll probably end up falling in one of those holes." Bright white light shimmers, and as the pokemon closes its eyes, he does too. Not because he wants to emulate what natu's doing, but for the sake of staving off the burning headache this exercise is going to give him when they're done.
And from the way he lets himself peek, once, during practice, his predictions aren't too far off.
"into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely."
They're trying something new today, she tells herself, new things with a new pokemon that she's barely gotten to know since the day she caught it. Gothita stands, daintily balanced on two black, ballerina toes and stares at something behind her instead of the blue stockings she's chosen to wear. And she steps aside, allowing it full view of the lanky poles that are spread out in a zig-zagged path, branching ahead.
"You're going to work with those today." The pokemon gives a non-committal noise, tilting its head in the air and narrowing both eyes at the objects with a mixture of distaste and mild confusion. Then, when it finally turns and meets her blue eyes for the first time does the woman finally step over the obstacles and place her hand on one, almost tentatively. "See this line?" She points, one in a sea of a million. "I want you to hit them there. Not farther up, not slightly down." When scourge attack, there's no room for mistakes and in-betweens.
There's a glint in Gothita's eyes and it lunges, paw lashing forward and she listens, vaguely, to the sound of snapping wood. It's soothing, comforting, assuring her that they're still strong.
"into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely."
Some part of him that was still sane and logical told him to take out natu, continue working with it in this solitary confinement until it could properly work without the others having to bear its weight. And under any other circumstances he would've properly cracked and agreed, but he'd been seeing nothing but its face for the past week and it was time for a change.
He found himself now staring at blitzle and wondering what this pokemon could do to become the asset that he hoped for, eyes slightly narrowed at the sound of water crashing in the background from relentless, strong waves. It was a river - wide enough to be challenging, but not enough to pose a threat, the logs and rocks jutting off various alcoves enough to support that. "Why don't you...jump across that a few times." Jayden pointed at the rock and furrowed up his brow, concentrating. "Pit stops are off limits. Don't fall." And the pokemon clipped both hooves on the soft grass and plowed towards its training location in the blink of an eye.
It was fast, but haste killed. Don't crash, don't burn, don't fall. Don't fail.
"into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely."