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!
The ocean was stunning. Really stunning. Tiffany spent a moment watching the waves before she decided that she might as well dip her feet in. “What do you think, Mo? Are you going to come in too?” The Rotom seemed to shake its head, although it didn’t seem like a flat out “no”.
“Well, I’m not going in far at all. You’ll be fine,” Tiff said, now barefoot and walking backwards towards the ocean. She kept waving her hands, gesturing for her Pokemon to follow her in. After all, he levitated; he didn’t have to worry about getting wet.
Then Mo shouted something at her. Tiffany didn’t catch it the first time, but when Mo repeated himself, she turned around to find a wild Pokemon.
The tauros knew how to surf. By that, we mean that the tauros knew how to summon up a massive wave of water in battle. It'd learned that from tripping over a strange machine in its youth. It's been a fun trick as a wee little tauros.
But he was bigger now, and he looked to the sea. He returned day by day, and now he'd just arrived to the sandy shore. The sparkling sea was theoretically infinite, and he could've been just fine learning to surf upon a slow-moving river, but why walk when you can run?
The tauros lowered its head, pawed at the sand, and charged forward in a mad sprint for the ocean. A wave of water supported his feet--for about five seconds. Then the ocean's undertow swept out under him, pulling him down, underwater, and after a while, he washed up against on the shore. He'd made it about five meters skimming across the watertop.
Determinedly, he got up, shook seawater off of his back. The tauros backed up from the water again, preparing its next charge.
Tiffany let out a small gasp, even though the Pokemon had managed to get up okay and seemed relatively unhurt. The Pokemon was big and was certainly not one she had expected to see at the beach. What on earth was it doing here?
She almost decided to ask it, but it seemed to be staring somewhat… determinedly at the ocean water. Would it be okay to interrupt it? Tiffany looked back at Mo for reassurance, but the Pokemon was still floating about the shoreline.
Well, he didn't seem worried. Might as well ask.
“Excuse me,” Tiffany said in a raised voice, but didn’t move closer to the Tauros. “Are you here for a swim too?”
admin (sadfasdg a tauros that knows surf. how do you come up with these awesome ideas?)
Someone was watching? Oh. Well. Great. This was going to be humiliating--unless today was the day when he finally learned to walk on water.
<Hopefully not,> the tauros rumbled with a sigh. <But probably so.>
Realizing that that was cryptic, he elaborated, <I'm here to surf.>
It was, the tauros supposed, ridiculous to say out loud. Whoever heard of a surfing tauros? Who would've known that tauros could even learn surf? He should never have started trying, it was a mad cow's endeavor, but now he'd started, and the tauros would finish what he started.
Tiffany tilted her head to the side, wondering, then briefly looked around. “But where’s your surfboard?”
She realised too late that Tauros’ were probably too heavy to be supported by a surfboard and that her question was silly. How would a Tauros even be able to stand on a surfboard with four legs? Clearly the Tauros wasn’t using a surfboard.
But if it wasn’t using one, then how was he supposed to surf? The question stumped Tiffany who, although she knew of the move Surf, had never thought that Pokemon other than water types could use it. So of course the truth never occurred to her.
<Surf... board? Are those required for surfing?> This made a lot of sense to the tauros. If he'd been missing out on this secret skill called surfboard, then naturally all his attempts to surf on the ocean would have failed. <I have not seen a surfing board before. The water pokemon don't seem to use anything but what Arceus gave them.>
The tauros had backed up far enough. <Pardon me,> he said before charging for the water again. He kicked up sand in his wake, made a glorious run into the ocean, and a surf surged up beneath his feet.
Again, he coasted on his surf for about five seconds before crashing down below the waves, eventually deposited back onto the shore, soggy and a failure again.
<I don't normally have an audience,> the tauros said a bit sheepishly--if sheep had very differently shaped horns.
“Well, humans… require surfboards for surfing. Maybe Pokemon that aren’t water types do too?” The suggestion had turned into an unsure question. Tiffany had no idea – did other Pokemon use surfboards? Did they even usually have an interest in surfing?
When she thought about it, she supposed that she had seen pictures of a surfing Pikachu before – they had even sold little surfing Pikachu key chains in a corner store near where she lived. She never bought one but always looked at the key chains while she waited for the cashier to process her sod—
Oh. The Tauros had already run into the ocean and she thought she lost her chance to tell him about the Pikachu. To her surprise, the ocean rose up and seemed to carry him.
Until he fell back in again, and was washed up on the shore.
Tiffany walked over and crouched down by him. “Are you okay?” The question had come out automatically – she knew that the Tauros was okay. He still had his limbs and not a sign of a cut.
“Have you heard of a surfing Pikachu? He used a surfboard. A pink one.” The colour always had to be noted when it was pink.
The tauros shook off the excess water again, because damp fur was not very helpful to staying afloat. <I am well,> he intoned formally. And it was true, besides for a bit of ego bruising, he was fine. This was, quite frankly, not his first rodeo. He'd had many, many wipeouts by now. <Thank you for asking.>
He hadn't heard of a surfing pikachu, although now that he thought about it, the phrase did ring a bell. Pikachus did all sorts of weird things anyway though. But if they used a surfboard...
The tauros grunted in thought. Humans... could surf too? He'd seen plenty of human swimmers, but he'd never seen any glide over the watertop without a pokemon or a boat.
Things were beginning to make a little bit more sense.
<What is a surfboard and how do I acquire one? Does it have to be pink?> He was full of questions. Perhaps today would be the day he learned to surf!
Tiffany nodded knowingly. “All the best things are pink.” Her mind almost wandered off to pink things past, but she quickly pulled it back. She wasn’t going to let it wander off again. Especially not now that she was being spoken to.
“Usually you can buy them from a surf shop, but you’d need money for that.” And what Pokemon honestly carried money around with him, or at least enough money for a decent surfboard. Tiffany guessed that they weren’t cheap. And then there was the problem of the Tauros’… size. But Tiffany didn’t dare mention it.
“We could always try and make one,” she suggested the idea as soon as it entered her head and with minimal thought. She had no idea how to make a surfboard, let alone one that held a big Pokemon like a Tauros. “We just need some driftwood. That’s all.”
That settled it then. He needed a pink surfboard, whatever a surfboard may be. Surely that would be the secret to surfing!
<I could try to make money. My mother always said I'd be the most excellent bullfighter. Then again, she's my mother. She'd have told me I could fly if that was my dream.> But he couldn't just waltz over the the arena now and sign up for a bullfighting show. That sort of thing was selective, and it'd take time. He needed to learn to surf soon before he went into a deep depression from all his failed attempts!
He perked up at the mention of driftwood. <There's driftwood all over the shore.>
dizzy (It's good Tiffany didn't mention his size. Tauros would've thought she meant he was too fat too surf.)
Tiffany thought to keep her mouth shut again as she didn’t know anything about bullfighting, but something light-hearted came out anyway. “You’d make a better bullfighter than either of us.” Us meaning her and her Rotom, whom she had forgotten about until now. She quickly glanced over her shoulder – he was still at the shoreline, digging a little at the sand.
“Then how about it? Let’s make you a surfboard!” Without waiting for an answer, Tiffany turned around and started wading back towards the sand, looking over the drifwood on the beach and trying to find a decent looking plank.
“Come here Mo,” she called to her Rotom. “You’re helping.”
<What?>
“We’re making a surfboard.”
<What?>
“Look for a flat plank for wood.” She leaned in close to her Pokemon and added quietly. “One that’s big enough for that Tauros over there. And… strong enough too.”
admin (Well we can't crush his dreams too quickly now can we? :^p)
A surfboard! The tauros nodded enthusiastically in agreement and bounded towards the waters to search for bits of driftwood.
The tauros searched high and low for chunk of wood. Adamantly--and not too certain what he was really looking for--he started amassing a pile of serviceable firewood, mostly logs and branches and a few broken bits of ships, none of which were really ideal for surfing. There was a porthole frame, half a mast, logs from what might've been a raft once, and a few rocks. Not sure how the rocks got in there.
<I found wood,> he announced cheerfully, like a purugly presenting a dead rat for its owner.
Neither Tiffany nor her Rotom exactly knew what they were looking for either. Something flat that was large enough for the Tauros to stand on – that was all they had figured out. No thought went to the actual shape of weight of the possible surfboard.
She was starting to doubt the plan now. Really doubt it. She doubted whether any of the driftwood on the beach was strong enough for the Tauros. They had the completely wrong material, didn’t they? But when she heard the Tauros’ announcement and how proud and happy he sounded, Tiffany resolved that they would make it work.
She and Mo went over to have a look at the Tauros’… collection.
“That is a lot of wood,” Tiffany said, a bit surprised. He had worked fast and it highlighted his enthusiasm for the idea even more, didn’t it? “Nice job.”
<Why did you collect rocks?> Mo asked. Tiffany wished she could elbow him.
“Let’s sort through your collection now!” she suggested, clapping her hands together. “We need to find something flat for you to be able to stand on.”
She crouched down in front of the pile and started to pull pieces out for a brief inspection, throwing aside the ones that were obviously too small. Mo didn’t do the same, but instead turned to the Tauros and asked, <Why do you want to surf anyway?>
<The rocks have pink bits,> the tauros explained sagely. <I understand pinkness is necessary to the success of a surfboard.>
Without hands, the tauros couldn't quite search through the pile of wood himself, although he nudged some pieces around with his nose. It wasn't exactly helpful, so he stepped away after a few moments to let Tiffany do the searching.
<I can conjure up a great wave of water. That is the move surf, is it not? This means I have the potential to surf--or that is what I believe.> By the latter end of that sentence, the tauros sounded increasingly doubtful. <If you had wings to fly, wouldn't you want to learn how to fly? I have the skill to surf, so I would like to surf over the sea.>
Tiffany picked up a rock and looked at it. “You’re totally right. They do have pink bits.” She examined the rock a little longer, wondering if they could get away with attaching rocks to a makeshift surfboard without jeopardising its floatability. Meanwhile Mo continued avoiding the work and listened to the Tauros intently.
<I’m as close to flying as I like,> Mo said, bobbing up and down in the air to illustrate his point. <But I don’t have wings.> He paused, probably trying to make some lame dramatic effect. <Anyway that does sound like the move surf, but why would you know how to do that anyway? You’re the wrong type!>
“Mo!” Tiffany had only been hearing half of what was said at the most. “If you’re being mean to him…”
