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!
He was really hoping J would show up soon. It wasn’t like he was super over eager to see him again (well, unless maybe he did his hair again), but he figured it’d be less of a hassle to meet up on this side of Di Manes caverns. Better than having to ask the guy to go all the way through the tunnel just to let Nima scan his new pokemon. He was grateful for the chance, but he didn’t want to make it too much of a burden either. Even if it would eventually help stop the Scourge…that didn’t give him the right to be pushy.
Nima was a tad bit worried though. He’d finally caved and called J himself, only to find the trainer half asleep. Not exactly trusting his once-met ‘friend’ to actually get up, he’d shot the man a message a bit later, just to be sure. Assuming no plans had changed, this was where they were going to meet up. At least today there were no crazy winds trying to make a fool of him, eheh.
J was punctual. J never was late for an arranged meeting, but he wasn't early either. he arrived at di manes sharp on the designated time, and brought along the pokémon he'd promised to. he walked into the caverns from the nerio end, and kept an eye out for very long hair and maybe a drifloon.
ahead of him, thorpe the riolu ran alongside quartz the piplup.
mood: mostly amused notes: violette is best awkward penguin
J was met with a rather rubbery sensation and pressure, right around the area that was…his whole face.
Violette had rather…unceremoniously flown straight into his face. And stayed there.
“Uh…thank you…Violette…” Reaching out, Nima plucked his pokemon off of the poor trainer before he got smothered or something. Violette had his usual deadpan expression, even as Nima gave him a pat despite smiling a bit sheepishly. “When I said you could go out to meet J, I didn’t…quite mean like that.”
Standing behind his trainer, Phoenix the ponyta was keeping things extra well-lit with his bluish flames. Leaning forward, he rested his chin on top of Nima’s head and blinked curiously at J. “Hehe. Hi J, sorry about the greeting? Aw, what a couple of cuties you have with you too!” He was of course referring to the little riolu and piplup, who got a happy smile from the blond researcher.
walking did not mean suffocating. walking into a drifloon, however, took some getting used to. it was quite the odd sensation; J could still see through the drifloon, and almost felt as if he'd passed through some ectoplasm that formed the creature's body, but it was still pretty rubbery, like he'd smacked into a balloon that was made out of fluid and cold, clammy things.
J would have asked quartz to send a flurry of bubbles into violette's round body if nima hadn't come to pluck it off his face. things were different after he'd encountered scourge; he was more wary, more trigger-happy, too. J still had rationale within him, however, and he nodded to accept nima's apology.
thorpe and quartz started running circles around the researcher, each of them jumping in a mini competition to see who could tug at the drifloon's dangling arms first. the canine was obviously the better jumper, though.
"uh," J muttered in response. he wasn't sure if they were cuties, or cool pokémon. he didn't grade or sort his pokémon in that manner. it was more of a case where they had steel bodies or skeletons or none of that at all. "hi."
Violette didn’t notice anything at first. Things going on down below him weren’t usually much of a concern, especially not when cuddled into Nima’s arms. But then the riolu snagged his dangly, and he let out an indignant squeak. Giggling, Nima let him go, and the ghost type promptly floated up and…squished himself against the ceiling, well out of reach.
Nima carefully lowered himself to his knees to be more on the little pokemon’s level. “Hi guys!” He held out his rather useless left hand for them to get used to him, but with his right hand he withdrew his pokedex. “I’m gonna give you a quick scan, like taking a picture. It’ll only take a second, promise!” Great, more entries! Lifting his head a bit, he smiled up at J. “Thanks for coming to meet me! How are you?”
thorpe was mildly disappointed. it thought it'd be able to float up together with the drifloon, but apparently it couldn't. it sat down on the earthy cavern floor and stared at the balloon pokémon, ignoring nima and his attempts to scan him.
quartz on the other hand was significantly more willing to play along with the researcher. it peered at the strange device and attempted to touch a few buttons, or to look at its screen.
"i'm pretty good. you?" said J, glancing at the researcher surrounded by pokémon.
mood: curious notes: eventually i'll harass you for other pokemon to scan i guess lol
Nima didn’t mind being ignored by the little guy, he just felt bad that Violette wasn’t coming down to play. Then again, he seemed a delicate sort so…maybe it was for the best? The little balloon pokemon was still squished to the ceiling, but was now staring rather steadily back at the riolu. It didn’t blink. Maybe this was a game. Meanwhile the researcher had his hands full of the little piplup. He giggled and let the penguin pokemon poke around and look at the screen, while still making sure not to let him do anything too damaging. Behind him, Phoenix stepped closer and sniffed at the new pokemon gently, ever the friendly sort. Being surrounded by pokemon was probably where Nima felt the most comfortable.
“That’s good to hear.” There was a lot of unspoken things there, considering the situation. But he figured J of all people was aware enough to know the real gravity of that question, and that answer. “I’m doing well! Still training, still researching. I’m not ready for the scourge yet, but I am eager to get to Nerio. There’s…somebody there I really need to speak to. Have you been to Nerio yet? How bad is the scourge in that area?”
thorpe continued staring at violette, unyielding. it would grab the drifloon one day and float into the air with it.
J wasn't sure which question he ought to answer first.
"yes, i have. not too bad. fought two of them."
he answered each question in turn and hoped that nima wouldn't mind its choppiness. he had no idea how to string along his words after being barraged by lots of statements and questions to had to answer.
Hmmm. This might be a game. Violette wasn’t real good with figuring out how to play with other pokemon. He just went with what seemed the best, and hoped it was what he was supposed to be doing. Thus he considered to stare, without blinking. Maybe he should try and make it more fun. He wasn’t sure what ‘more fun’ would be but…slooooowly he started to float down, still staring back at the riolu.
Nima was quiet for a moment after that. He was actually thinking rather intensely, crunching numbers and possibilities and variables. He didn’t look to be that in deep in thought, as he was now tickling the piplup under the chin idly, but his extended silence was a good indicator. He might be able to find information about his father from Irene…on the other hand, it could be a bust. She was apparently a drunkard now, if the words of that researcher (coughneocough) could be trusted. But it was a risk he was willing to take - this was the first break on the location of either of his parents he’d gotten since starting this. Hopefully he could avoid any major scourge fights…escaping should still be an option in a place only slightly affected. Nerio sounded relatively secure, or at least secure enough to get to the one place he needed to go. Finally he stood, carefully. “Alright. Thanks J. It’s still risky but I need to go there.” He shook his head then, and was able to get a smile back onto his face. After all, he’d asked J to come here to show him his pokemon, not get into anything terribly deep! “So! Any other new pokemon I can see?”
quartz gurgled and flapped its tiny wings while thorpe started making a wild jump for the drifloon's tendrils.
"nerio's safe," J said, "no scourge. we're working to free bellona hills." it was a trainer's duty -- no, an eos trainer's duty to do so, but it wasn't what he was willing to do in the first place. he nodded at nima's next words and released his lairon and beldum, dust and cross respectively. dust had already evolved since last time.
MOOD: subdued NOTES: violette is bad at 'games' lol
Nima might not ever be able to get over just how adorable some pokemon were. Like. He just wanted to cuddle them all. Aaaah. So cute. Meanwhile the drifloon understood the ‘game’ now. This was like…keep away. Feeling confident in his deduction, Violette began the careful task of getting close to Thorpe while simultaneously staying out of reach. This was a challenging game.
Nima let out a small sigh of relief. More than his own safety, he worried for his pokemon. They would be the ones doing the fighting, and he was fairly sure that they were not nearly ready enough for a Scourge encounter. He’d keep training them though, but in the meantime it looked like he could at least get to Nerio in relative safety. “I hope everyone does alright. All of you, I mean. I don’t think… ‘good luck’ is the most appropriate term, eheh.” He was noticeably subdued, but he perked up a bit when J’s pokemon were released. Flipping open his pokedex again, he smiled at the two metallic pokemon. “You’re new, hi there! And look at you! You evolved into quite a cool look! Steel types are pretty awesome, hm?”
thorpe barked repeatedly at violette every time it swerved out of the way.
the beldum watched nima. this was a new species of human, wasn't it? it had a pokédex that worked like some sort of machine. its mechanical eye told it a lot of things; the thing that nima held belonged to him and had the ability to scan it. hm.
J nodded. he supposed steel types were sturdy. he didn't know if his pokémon were the best to conquer the scourge, though. they lasted longer than most pokémon did on the battlfield; that had to count for something.
Once complete, Nima closed his pokedex and then gave a small bow to the team of pokemon before him. “Thank you all so much for letting me scan you!” Sometimes he wondered if he was the only researcher to thank the pokemon before the trainer. Hey, at least he did thank both! Speaking of which, he turned to J and gave him his usual smile. “Thanks again J. I hope it wasn’t too much of a bother.”
Since they were causing a bit of a ruckus, Nima glanced over at the two pokemon playing. Violette certainly had a knack for starting somewhat odd games with other pokemon, hehe. He was kind of awkward at the whole interacting thing…sometimes Nima knew exactly how he felt. Shaking his head, Nima returned his attention to the other human in this little meet and greet. He felt a little bad for potentially cutting the playtime short, but he didn’t want to take up too much of J’s time if it wasn’t necessary. Besides, these caves were super unpleasant! Not that Nerio would necessarily be much better… “I think I’m going to continue on to Nerio then. Thanks for the info on the Scourge as well! Are you heading back too?”
"yes, i am," J said, nodding at nima. he hadn't much to do in di manes; he had, after all, came from the city to meet nima after receiving his call. "thorpe," he called to the playing pokémon, and recalled the rest of his team that he had out for nima to scan.
Nima nodded in response, waving Violette over. The little balloon pokemon blinked slowly, perhaps a sign of displeasure, before floating over to wrap a stringy arm around his person’s finger. Looked like games were done for now, but Nima didn’t try to withdraw him. He just let the pokemon bob on his finger, as if an actual balloon. He was about to suggest walking back together, since it would be awfully awkward to be heading down the same tunnel just a few steps behind one another, ahaha.
Surprisingly, J beat him to it, and he blinked a few times. The grin was quick to return of course, and he nodded. “That sounds good, sure! I’d rather have company in these creepy tunnels anyway.” He also had to admit that…he’d feel safer going into Nerio with J. He still had yet to experience the true brunt of the Scourge, and he wasn’t sure how he’d handle it. The atmosphere in Nerio was bound to be different than in the places he’d already been.
