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!
Fighting the scourge in Bacchus was different than fighting them in Bellona. Thalia knew that. She thought that was probably why she didn't have anyone with her. This was something she wanted to do by herself, at least once. Was that a stupid thing to think? Probably. Was it selfish? Probably.
She couldn't help it though. If there was a way she could prove to herself that she wasn't weak anymore, she would take it. No matter what.
the bayleef had been resting on the grass with an emolga idly nibbling on its leaf in his sleep. the bayleef wakes up with a start and throws the emolga hard onto the ground.
they have been together for awhile now, the two of them. despite the time that has passed, neither of them have left bacchus since their memory blacked out. the emolga had seen no reason to - there was plenty of prey for them to sustain themselves. at the same time, the bayleef cannot help but feel compelled to stay, as if she's waiting for something. she doesn't know what - the emolga had claimed that it was some tasty morsel - but she obeys her instinct nonetheless. and what a hypocrite he is - the emolga hadn't left her side for all this time either.
she has mentioned this to him before, but they only end up fighting afterwards. bayleef is about as hungry as any of the other scourge, but she still has her pride. pride for what, she doesn't know either.
they are about to fight for the hundredth time before they smell flesh. fresh meat, mind you, and not just the half-rotten leftovers that have been discarded by the other scourge.
before the bayleef can blink, her companion is already rushing forward with his agility boost, launching itself forward.
his companion is considerably more cautious, preferring to put up a safeguard before going to investigate. bayleef, lvl 55, solarbeam, safeguard, synthesis, sweet scent, magical leaf, poisonpowder, body slam emolga, lvl 55, volt switch, acrobatics, agility, double team, encore, light screen, tickle
Thalia had learned a long time ago that there was nothing the world would feel bad in taking from you. The places you loved would fade: the tree you sat under on top of the hill behind your house, the bricks of the wall you and your friends played hopscotch under--slowly they would turn into something that was not yours. That memory would become nothing more than an academic exercise, a relay of unconnected facts.
Even herself. In the morning, turning over in bed and looking at her right hand in the light that fell through the window. A hand she didn't recognize, could not possibly be hers. Waking into someone entirely new.
This was what Thalia knew about the world.
She still didn't think this was fair.
Her chest feels very hollow and very heavy all at once. She notes that. She thinks that it's a pretty strange feeling. They have black dead eyes and she can see no trace of recognition in them. That's very strange as well.
"Hi Magnolia," she says. "Hi Dono." Her voice sounds distant. Her voice doesn't sound like a voice.
She should probably take one of her new shiny vaccinated pokemon out. All dressed up and ready to kill. She doesn't. She's not sure if it's because she can't or she wont'.
the emolga scarpers across the field, believing that the grasslands that he hunts on stretches without end, with only the occasional chunks of meat in his path.
the bayleef believes that if they go any farther from these warm fields, then only a great cliff awaits them. one that threatens to swallow up every bit of life that they have drained from their prey, every droplet of blood like an ocean wave that reclaims her children. there is no rhyme or reason as to why the imprudent ones must be destroyed - nature doesn't have time for such nonsense. because right now, their prey is no more their enemy as any chunk of hail that attempts to beat them bloody, any thunderstorm that attempts to fry them to a crisp. this pink haired creature simply is, free for the either of them to claim.
with this kind of freedom draped over their shoulders, the emolga cannot for the life of him understand why the bayleef chooses to stay.
there is a heaviness in her chest when she stares at the pink thing with darkened eyes (darkened on the meatsack's side, maybe - the bayleef sees perfectly clear), and the bayleef is half-convinced that it was merely the zigzagoon tail that she had forced down that morning. she lowers her head, collecting sunlight with her leaf.
even as a scourge, the emolga is ever the showman, bringing up a light screen before creating a display with double team. the acrobatics conclude the show. in his arrogance, the emolga assumes that he will be the first to snap the neck, and that will be the end of that. bayleef readied solarbeam
emolga used light screen emolga used double team emolga used acrobatics
bayleef, lvl 55, solarbeam, safeguard, synthesis, sweet scent, magical leaf, poisonpowder, body slam emolga, lvl 55, volt switch, acrobatics, agility, double team, encore, light screen, tickle 2tsunz
She'd known they wouldn't recognize her. She'd known the pokemon she loved were gone, who had loved her, were gone. The virus had hollowed them out and stolen their eyes, and she was just watching their bodies still walking around, not yet collapsing like puppets with cut strings. Reduced to base instincts, and nothing else.
But she'd still believed that maybe, maybe, maybe--
She shouldn't have believed.
The emolga flips through the air, and for a moment, she can think he's hers again.
He's not.
Acrobatics is a graceless kiss, and only the barest shudder out of the way saves her life. There are seven vertebrae in the neck. Atlas, axis, C3, C4, C5, C6, and the vertebrae prominens. Acrobatics catches her on the jaw and sends her neck snapping backwards. Her C2 vertebrae fracures like a thirteen year old kid's heart when she loses to a gym leader for the first time.
Thalia makes a noise somewhere between a sob and a scream, and falls to her knees. Eyes gazing up at the sky. If she moves her neck, there's an unbearable flame of pain screaming up the sides of her throat, so she doesn't. It's a cloudless day.
the emolga's pleasure at a job well done only lasts for a little while before he starts to become frustrated. why doesn't this chunk of meat fight? why doesn't it protest? why doesn't it appreciate all the trouble that the emolga goes through to entertain his dinner?
the pink thing does not understand art. how terribly boring. emolga soars backwards before diving in again, this time for a volt switch. the recoil sends him reeling - how much the emolga hates the sensation. it's not as if he has anywhere to return to. it's not as if there will be anyone to take care of business afterwards -
at that precise moment, the bayleef fires her solarbeam. she follows up with magical leaf. scourge or not, large chunks tended to wreak havoc on her digestion. emolga used volt switch
bayleef used solarbeam bayleef used magical leaf
bayleef, lvl 55, solarbeam, safeguard, synthesis, sweet scent, magical leaf, poisonpowder, body slam emolga, lvl 55, volt switch, acrobatics, agility, double team, encore, light screen, tickle 2tsunz
Later, Thalia will turn the moment over and over again in her mind. How much of it was instinct? How much was choice? Did she know what she was doing? She wants to think the pain blotted everything out. She wants to think she wouldn't do it again, if she could do it over. She wants to think a lot of things.
solar beam flares up and the temptation to lean into it is strong. Instead, she falls to the side and lands heavily on her right arm. Her eyes turning from the sky to the ground. She can't twist her neck around to see what's happening--the moment reduces itself to sensation. The hiss of electricity in her ears, tiny cuts opening up on her palms, wrists, a slice beneath her left eye.
She doesn't remember when it happens, how it happens, but it happens: her ninetales and her dragonair somehow come out.
What she knows: she hates them, like she has never hated anything before. Her black heart wants to tear their hearts out. She can't speak. They act on their own, as they have been taught, as they have learned at the hands of the scourge.
Thalia does not cry.
dragonair used toxic (acc stat boost) on bayleef dragonair used ice beam on emolga
ninetales used extrasensory on emolga ninetales used confuse ray (acc stat boost) on emolga
somehow, the bayleef isn't really surprised at all when the pink thing starts fighting back. thing, she calls it in her head, if only because the bayleef doesn't see a person. she sees some awfully gummy eyeballs, some tough-to-chew hair, and tender neck tendons. she doesn't see fear and distress as much as she sees life and how the pink thing is full of it, even as she cowers, even as she tries not to writhe in pain.
at the sight of their new enemies, the emolga begins to chortle in excitement. he dodges the ice beam, but catches the extrasensory in the stomach. the emolga gives himself an agility boost, watching gleefully as the confuse ray disappears behind the bayleef's earlier safeguard. the emolga blasts away with his volt switch before swooping foward for an acrobatics on the dragonair.
the toxic isn't the bayleef's concern with safeguard in play. she sends forth a wave of sweet scent before spraying her poisonpowder at the ninetales. more magical leaves shoot out towards the dragonair, and in the midst of the confusion, bayleef deems it time to charge at the dragonair with body slam
(how effortlessly they fight, how effortlessly they fight for you, down to the very last rib. aren't you proud of them now? what strong pokemon they are) emolga used volt switch
all status moves were negated by safeguard emolga is hit by extrasensory emolga dodged ice beam emolga used volt switch on the ninetales emolga used acrobatics on dragonair
bayleef used sweet scent on dragonair and ninetales bayleef used magical leaf on dragonair bayleef used poisonpowder on ninetales bayleef used body slam on the dragonair
bayleef, lvl 55, solarbeam, safeguard, synthesis, sweet scent, magical leaf, poisonpowder, body slam emolga, lvl 55, volt switch, acrobatics, agility, double team, encore, light screen, tickle 2tsunz
