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!
Proserpina, he decided, was many things - tourist attraction, warehouse for the rich, a good seaport. What it also was, yet people continued to fail to recognize, was the perfect training spot, the waters rough, churning and unforgiving yet offering just the right amount of gentle gestures to lull people into a sense of false security. "One lap." They'd established what laps were before the mudkip entered the water, tracing a thin line from where he currently stood to the dock, wrapping around the stilts and then curving back to his left instead of where it started, his right. The pokemon gave a slight dip, a twist then took off, splashing some water on his legs, because he'd rolled up his jeans to ankle length.
Smugglers, gangs, dealers - that was where he'd gotten it, been cheated into the worthless thing. Proserpina gave the sense of safety and security. That, instead, gave way to danger and corruption no one else could ever have imagined, but he always could.
She'd been watching him for about an hour now. Not that it was anything special really. But ever since their battle, Emily wanted to see Jayden in person. Not just in a dream. And after about four days of searching, she finally found him at the docks. He was there, training his mudkip by watching it swim laps around the area. It didn't seem harsh...not yet, anyway.
The trainer was laying precariously on the edge of a building's ledge. It was the perfect spot to overlook the docks without anyone bothering her. And unless he had been looking up, she didn't assume he'd know she was there.
So she decided to stay quiet and watch; to see if he was really as bad as he'd made himself out to be in the first place. People like Jayden put up walls for some reason, and those walls were interesting to the girl. She wanted to know why.
If he had more water types, fish pokemon or pokemon that could swim in general he would've sent them in with the mudkip to train - not because of the fact that the waters were rough and it was a baby and could potentially drown, but because that way was so much more efficient and less time-consuming, giving them the maximum potential in a short amount of time. He realized, as the pokemon came swimming back, poking its head out of the water with both orange gills twitching and fin dripping with water, that it was his only water type and the pressure on its shoulders must be backed up with extra training so it could be strong.
"Another one. Faster, this time." And as the fish took off again, paddling its way into murky depths he watched carefully, analyzing how fast it was able to complete a 'lap' and make it back to him. Pokemon were meant to be strong, so it was normal not to feel anything when he pushed them to their limits and beyond. Yet seconds later, when the waves had cleared from all that splashing he silently released drifloon as well and sent the hovering specter to float overhead as a precautionary measure.
Maybe this way, if mudkip drowned, drifloon could gain some finesse in weight lifting as well.
The mudkip was still young; or it looked that way to Emily. Was he going to swim the poor thing to death until it drowned in the choppy waters? Well not on her watch! But no, she needed to stay calm. She needed to see if he could really do it. if he could really be a good person.
And of course, she was right. Although his method wasn't what she'd do, he was using the drifloon to keep an eye on the baby, which made Emily feel much better about the whole situation.
"I don't understand you." she called out, leaning over the edge of the building to look at the male. Her hand rested beneath her chin in a lazy position, her legs flailing around lazily behind her.
It acted as a beacon, the way the gold shimmered against the sun's rays and those two tell-tail strings that fitted that cotton swab on the end like a cloud. If it went down, mudkip was in trouble, and he expected it to fall somewhere between halfway and back but it never did. Instead, as he twirled another pokeball that was stuffed into the depths of his jean pockets a voice rang out, too familiar. And honestly, he wasn't sure if to feel smug or oddly disturbed that she'd found him so easily.
"Care to explain that statement for me?" It wasn't because he was rude that he didn't turn around to directly speak at her, but that he was focused more intently on the flickering golden beacon in the background. Pokemon were meant to be pushed to their limits, babies because they had the most potential, but everything became equal when they were dead - the acquittance of something completely and utterly useless.
"I don't know." Emily began, standing from her position on the ledge. With ease she climbed down the side of the building, jumping the last few feet to land on the ground. She then headed over to the male, but kept her distance. Her eyes stayed on the Mudkip and Drifloon; she wasn't sure if she could look Jayden in the eye at the moment without bashing his stupid skull in.
"You were mean to your Natu before...and I thought you were being mean now. But I can see you're not...so your attitude confuses me." The small water type seemed tired, but it seemed like an effective mode of training. Maybe he wasn't as harsh as she'd thought? "Why do you act like a bad person when you're really not?"
They were making good time, by the clock in his head - mudkip was ahead by a few seconds and drifloon could get a speed workout from keeping alongside the water type in its element. It meant that he could be out of this city quicker than he'd thought, but it didn't mean that small talk was out of the question - if anything, the exact opposite. But he questioned the decision of having a conversation, all the same, with the girl that had threatened him, even if it was in a dream.
"Pokemon aren't like people." Closer now, a blue fin barely visible in the distance. "They're susceptible, easily manipulated depending on background. If you take a pampered pokemon from its trainer and pamper it more, it'll never learn to like or respect you. Babies need to be pushed, but given some slack 'cause they don't know what's right or wrong yet." He smiled, turning around substantially less sarcasm and mockery in his eyes this time around because he was trying not to acknowledge that chord her words struck, hard. "It's all facts everybody should know, and I go by them. It's not about being a 'bad person' or not. Just what's necessary."
It was odd. Emily came here expecting to hate this guy. But after hearing his side of the story, she couldn't make up her mind. A light sigh escaped her throat and she turned her eyes back to Jayden as he looked into hers. She stared for a moment; his eyes seemed more sincere than they had been before.
"I see." she began, then turning her body to face the ocean. It felt wonderful to stand next to the docks, and she closed her eyes to take in the feeling before continuing. "Then you're not a bad person like I thought. Which is good because, well, I don't like 'not' liking people."
At this she turned and gave him a warm, genuine smile. "Sorry for before, you know."
There was something about her statement that was bitterly funny - he laughed a slight bit, though it sounded cut off, like something was strangling him and the next second it was gone. "You can think what you want. Just don't get it in your head that I'm a nice person, because I'm not." Just the same as getting off the 'not liking' part of the spectrum didn't exactly elevate him to 'liking', either. It was in between, teetering between doom and whatever little notion of friendship he still had in him.
Delicate strings draped over his shoulders, suddenly, and he reached a finger to brush them both off by the cotton wad attached to the ends. "That pokemon. Show it to me." He turned back to the horizon and tried to make out something in the distance. "I saw it, but that was a dream." How was he supposed to know it was real, and not fake? How was he supposed to believe that bogus piece of evidence?
Mudkip, now under the bridge, dove underneath the waves, leaping up a few seconds later to sloppily land on the deck, dripping water.
Hmm. Emily smirked at Jayden's words. People like him were the ones that needed friends the most. "Don't give me that crap. The whole 'I don't need friends because I'm too cool and aloof for them' thing. Everyone needs friends; so now I am yours and you are mine."
Her words were stopped short when the Mudkip dragged itself onto the dock. Quickly the girl walked to the sopping wet pokemon, offering her hand as if to pet it, but paused because she didn't really have it or Jay's permission to touch it. "You did very well! Jay is quite proud of you~"
The next sentence he spoke took Emily off guard. What pokemon? She had to stop and think about the dream before turning to smile at the male. "Oh, you do? Fine then." She turned and pulled out a pokeball, whispering something to it, then turned around and once again released Entei from a pokeball. "You like?"
He was silent for a long moment, even turning to look at her a second time when he'd decided, a few seconds ago, that that was the last time he'd give her anything like eye contact. Did she understand the idea of friendship and the costs of what she'd just forced upon someone like him? If it were a stranger that he didn't know as well he would've suspected that she was mocking him, or even that she expected something in return now that they were 'friends'. But no, she didn't seem like that kind of person, didn't seem to have the kind of personality to do things like that without being very straight-forward about it. "You'll get hurt by being around me." Not him, but other people, people he knew far too well to back out.
Mudkip, at the sight of anther human, leaned into her touch briefly, shaking the excess water off its scales to dry off and curious at this new presence before Jayden cut it off with a harsh "Don't touch it!". And the water type hopped back, pawing at the fin on its head sheepishly without batting an eye as drifloon hovered in front of it and looped a tangle of cotton and string over the creature's head, almost carelessly. "Don't call me that, either. I don't do nicknames." Eyebrows furrowed, frowning slightly.
And he managed to keep that up, even a few seconds into when the canine burst out of that tiny sphere and he stared at it, searching for that fire that hadn't diminished since they'd last met, that one split second in the very fabrics of time. "You...where did you get this?" Because wasn't that his purpose for living, searching for answers?
She would get hurt being around him? There was the answer. That was why he was so closed off to the world. If Jayden thought people would be hurt by him, he had closed himself off to the world to protect himself and possibly others. Emily just cocked her head and smiled, as if the sentence had no effect on her. "I don't mind."
The mudkip flt soft under her skin but pulled back when his trainer called him away. It was only natural that he'd respond in such a manner, but something about it irked Emily. But once again she kept her tongue, not wanting to get into another argument.
But of course, after releasing her Zorua as an Entei, it was Emily's turn to smirk at Jayden. "I'll call you Jay because you're my friend. Duh. And this guy here? I've had him for a while now, right Mirage?" She patted the Entei's side, and he nuzzled her large head into her chest. How long did she want to keep this up? It was too fun to spoil now.
"Then you're a fool." He thought he'd understood the day they'd battled in the dream, with her straightforward approach towards things and a temper that was explosive as a ticking time bomb. She said stupid things at times, threatened him with bluffs and petty words but he'd never once thought she was stupid, or, at least, not this stupid. If there was anything worse than having the weight of pokemon lives on his shoulders it was the burden of a person's, and he didn't need that kind of trouble, not from someone like her.
"There's no point." It wasn't just his mind that rejected it, it was his body, his lifestyle, his very upbringing that had his instincts screaming against it. "I barely know you. Give it a few years and maybe I'll consider it, but not now." Lies, at least, part of it had been a lie - after this, who knew when karma wanted to bite him and throw her his way again? He let it drop though, after that, biting his lower lip and frowning, half to himself. Arguments were pointless, a hassle, something he shouldn't have to bother with, not with his time schedule.
Mirage? Dumb name. "You know, you didn't look very strong, back then. How'd something like that end up with someone like you?" Was it instinct? Was it fate?
Man, this guy was being so stubborn. "Why are you so against having friends? Everyone should have friends..." Emily mused, looking at Jayden with a half smile. Really, she did want to be his friend. No one really wanted to be along...did they?
He seemed so worried about fate. The future. It all seemed a bit too much. "Why do you worry about the future so much? You know there's nothing you can do to control it." At this she walked closer to Jay, with Mirage following.
"If you just live in the here and now, it makes life worth it. Living in the future will make you crazy." At this she looked to the Entei, and he nodded once before shifting form back into a small Zorua. He jumped into Emily's arms and she nuzzled him once more before looking to Jayden.
Everyone. He laughed, tilting his head skyward - not because it was foolishly optimistic, no, but because she said it in such a way that he almost believed she was being sincere. "You wouldn't want to be friends with someone like me. It's trouble. It'll bring you nothing but trouble." A rude nature and foul language was an offset to most people, but Emily didn't seem to be most people. The term 'everyone' was a category in itself. It was a category that didn't want anything to do with him, a category he didn't belong in.
Society and the future always held so many uncertainties, and the scourge didn't make it much better, even if it was just background noise here. "It's not about controlling the future: I want to prepare for it. The future holds surprises, sometimes unpleasant ones." And even though good news wouldn't necessarily be as estatic if it was old information, it was far better than the let down that came on the opposite spectrum.
The water on mudkip was gone now, either dried up in the heat or absorbed into the fish's skin. Surprisingly, when the legendary creature morphed and changed into a small, black fox it blinked both eyes at the distance it was observing at, yet didn't move, much to its credit. "I don't have many things worth living for in the present." As he said it he searched, looking into the creature's eyes and finding that same powerful flame, unchanged. "The future keeps me going." He grinned at her, but it wasn't genuine, more bitter, less sarcastic, the normal smile. "Maybe I'm crazy. Who knows?"
