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!
Larsa did not understand why he could not go straight to Decima Town, but instead, had to mill about all the other landmarks. He'd gotten to Proserpina with very little trouble, but there was a particularly drunk irate old man, who refused to budge from the single path leading from the city, until he'd received his daily dose of spirits coffee. So be it. He didn't mind having a bit of time to kill.
Sauron sauntered by the man's side, eyes occasionally flickering up to gaze at his new trainer. He liked Larsa enough, at least, enough to listen to him. Still, the Larvitar was liable to go running off unexpectedly. Larsa hadn't picked him up yet, but instead, had a tendency to follow after the Larvitar out of curiosity. The two would get along just fine. Thus far, they had found nothing particularly useful during Sauron's bouts of sudden inspiration.
"Sauron, I think it's unhygienic to go poking that," Larsa said, referring to a leaky garbage bag.
a trubbish comes flying out of the sacks of trash, sending tin cans, berry peels, and goldeen bones flying everywhere.
alia's hand suddenly comes out from underneath several other bags. "trubbish-". she doesn't gag at the smell, not after all those hours dissecting scourge. still, larsa's sudden presence startles her, and the pokedex in that hand goes flying...towards the larvitar's face.
Sauron is none too happy about having an electronic smack him in his face. Granted, he's not particularly injured by it considering his body is particularly sturdy, but he's quite confident that he has a right to be angry. The Pokémon snarled at Alia and stomped his foot, as if demanding an apology. How dare she!
"Sauron, I'm sure it was an accident," Larsa began. He picked up the Pokédex and made his way over to the blue-haired researcher. "Uh, I think this is -- "
He drops the Pokédex, but Sauron feels kind enough to catch the machine on its way down.
"Alia!" Larsa screeches excitedly, before throwing himself at his older sister.
alia digs her legs out of the heaps of trash. she's not used to failure, so under any other circumstances, alia might have taken off after the trubbish.
right now, there is something more important at hand, however.
alia catches larsa in her grime-encrusted arms, squeezing him with her iron-grip. not only for larsa, but for zara too. the sister who would never let her do this. for the lost arza and raza. she buries her head into his shoulder, her pokedex forgotten. "l-lars"
For the moment, Larsa doesn't really care that Alia is covered in Arceus knows what. It doesn't matter that she smells awful from dumpster-diving either. He manages to free his arms from under Alia's grip, returning the squeeze.
"Alia?" He asks. "Alia, are you crying? Alia, please don't cry! You're going to make me cry too!"
And it was true because there were tears in his own eyes. He was very close to burying his own face into Alia's shoulder when he remembered that she was not very clean. Larsa wrinkled his nose, and said, "Alia, you smell..." But he leaned his forehead against his older sister's shoulder anyways. He made a few feeble sniffling sounds that should have come from a five-year-old.
"Where were you? I missed you. Look at that, Alia. Now you've gone and made me cry too!"
Sauron, of course, has no idea what's going on. He finds this reunion touching though.
she pulls her face out of lars' shoulder. "oh my arceus, stop - " she might have slapped him if larsa wasn't her brother. which is a good thing two. alia's slaps have been known to leave bruises. "who's crying to whom?"
if alia was inclined to cry before, then all that died after seeing larsa's face. "c'mon, you don't have a reason to cry" she relieves her feelings by picking up a banana peel and stacking it neatly on larsa's head. "not my fault if you're still a crybaby!"
It wasn't as if this was the first time Alia saw Larsa crying. He'd been very prone to sobbing as a child. He sniffed and wiped his eyes with an arm. "I was happy to see you, so I should be smiling, but then you started crying. Don't you know that I cry when I see others cry too? I don't know why. It just happens. You know what I mean, Alia, right?"
He plucks the banana peel from the top of his head and throws it at Alia's face. "Hey, that's dirty! Don't put it on me!" Larsa disregards the fact that Alia may not enjoy having a half-rotted banana peel in her face either. But he squeezed her tightly again and said, quieter, "I really did miss you though. I hope you know that, Alia. But I heard that there were a lot of people joining Eos, so I thought, maybe I should join Eos too." Because staying in Decima Town hadn't exactly been very good for his sanity.
Larsa thought that his own tears were merited. He really had missed his siblings, all four of them, was still missing three of them. He was also the one most prone to showing his feelings too, but he took a deep breath anyways and tried really hard not to be a crybaby. He wasn't going to let Alia tease him after seeing her for the first time in a year.
"just because you're crying doesn't mean that everyone else is! trust me, if you made me cry, then camus probably would have zapped you in the crotch"
at the mention of his name, the electrik rises out of the trash piles, his skin crackling with electricity.
alia doesn't appreciate the peel in her face. she's a lot nicer with her younger brother. anyone else, and she would have stuffed the half-rotted peel into their mouth.
...crybaby larsa? in eos? she blinks at him.
"hey, no need to force yourself, lars. if you need to pay for food or rent, then i can get you set up somewhere. no need to storm off to the battlefields. kids like you are better off as baristas. it's safer and the girls are cuter" it might be a serious strain on her wallet, but it's not like she has anything more important to spend her money on. not even work-related expenses.
"Who is -- ?" The question is quickly answered by the sight of the Eelektrik. Briefly, Larsa is a little horrified by how intimidating the Pokémon looks, and rising out of the sea of trash made it look like some bizarre eel from garbage hell. If it's Alia's Pokémon though, Larsa feels reassured that the Pokémon must be friendly. He gives the eel Pokémon an enthusiastic wave. Sauron merely narrowed his eyes at the electric Pokémon.
"I'm not forcing myself," he piped up. "I was just as good too, remember, Alia? Don't you remember?" The Luxray had been Larsa's ally, but also, his best friend. Cute girls, yes, but he didn't think that he'd feel right serving drinks to idle customers, especially not while Alia was out fighting Scourge. That was what Raza, Zara, and Arza were doing as well, wasn't it? Or at least, he had a very strong feeling that this was what the silver-haired triplets were up to.
"I'm not a kid!" Larsa said, exasperated. "I'm twenty, Alia. I can take care of myself!" And then quieter, he added, "I want to help too. I know that I can."
Sauron patted the side of Larsa's leg, as if to say you go glen coco.
camus is actually cute as fuck, okay. just a bit on the derpy side. the eelektrik hovers a bit closer, curious towards the human who resembles his trainer so much.
"it's not about being good enough!" and it's true. alia had been a plenty competent trainer. her medicham had been the best. that didn't really change the fact that she's dead now, leaving alia at the mercy of decima's scourge.
"ugh, whatever. i'm giving you a way out, in case you need it. i can't stop you from travelling, but-" the look in alia's eyes change for a second. "if you're thinking about setting foot near the scourge fields, then meet me at nerio. if you can't beat me in a pokemon battle by that time, then it would be a joke for you to journey past nerio"
of course, she fully intends to beat his pokemon there. the thought of losing never crosses her mind. alia knew a thing or two about reinforcement, and if crushing larsa's pride is what it takes...
it pains her to think of it, but he'll bounce back eventually. the karimis always do. she pulls a few more pieces of trash from her hair.
"oh yeah, and...just in case we don't see each other for a while, i've got a late birthday present for you" it's been a year, after all. "i still got a dose of eos vaccine left. show me your luxray. it's not going to matter around these parts, but at least he'll look cool."
Alia and Larsa are just about as stubborn as the other. "I'll do that," he says with a confident nod. He isn't about to allow Alia to go chasing after Scourge alone. He'd also heard of two silver-haired siblings joining up with Eos, but he doesn't want to tell Alia that yet. He wants to find Raza and Zara first, and wherever Arza's gone, he's going to find the third one too. If they want to fight, so be it. He cannot tell them to stay behind.
"I don't want to leave you." Mostly, because the last time everyone split up, they hadn't seen each other for a year. And the last time that had happened, he lost too much. Going with Alia is better, and going with Raza, Arza, and Zara is better, than being left behind.
Larsa nearly forgets to smile, but he catches himself quickly. "Oh, do you mean Theodred?" he asked. "Theodred is no more." His voice does not even waver, as if he has long accepted the Luxray's fate. Perhaps he is being hypocritical, because by venturing out into Scourge territory, he risks losing more. "Theodred's asleep now, you see? He isn't suffering anymore."
not that alia had ever thought about it before, but their mutual stubborness is probably the root of their closeness in the first place.
"sure you will, squirt. just like you said that you would beat me in the last hot-dog eating contest, huh?"
if they'll ever be able to have one of those again.
if alia had been a better sister, then maybe she would have stayed behind. stayed behind for larsa's sake, anything to keep her brother out of harm's way. except she's not. alia is the field researcher who will be the one to stop the scourge from taking kohaku. she did promise neo, didn't she? she did promise herself, didn't she?
"...i liked theodred" alia is easily decieved by smiles from her younger brother. "guess so. yeah, well. take this anyway"
she takes out a vial and shoves it into larsa's hands
WORDS TAGSZULF ? NOTESuh yeah you're actually getting one lol /goes 2 edit out of inventory
"That was one time!" Larsa exclaims. Yes, Alia kicked his ass in that competition, but this is something that matters even more to him. The younger brother nearly asks for a rematch, but he also understands that in life, there are no rematches. There are no rematches to losses against the Scourge.
The man gives his sister a small nod as she shoves the spare vaccine into his hands. "... I liked Theodred too," he says, fingers curling around the vaccine. "Thanks, Alia. Theodred isn't with me anymore, but I know Arwen could use this." His eyes still look a bit sad, but they seem to light up too. "This is Sauron," the man speaks, gesturing towards the Larvitar at his side, "and there's Eowyn too. Aragorn is with me as well, and so is Arwen. Boromir's a little big for me to let out, so sometimes he gets grumpy about that, but Samwise keeps him company so it's not so bad."
Surprise, he's named his Pokémon after book characters.
Larsa hopes that his sister never uses that horrendous pun ever again. He also isn't very surprised that Alia doesn't get excited over his Pokémon's nicknames. Same old Alia.
Sauron blinks, unamused, as the Pokédex scans his face for data. He pulls his lips back, gnashing his teeth at Alia. What on earth was that machine, anyways? The rocky Pokémon glances over his shoulder at Larsa, as if to ask for backup, but the man is too busy fumbling for the rest of his Pokéballs. The Larvitar sighs and crosses his arms over his chest, eyes narrowing still at Alia's strange doodad.
"I don't know, Alia. Might not be a good idea to let Boromir out. He's a little grumpy, but I can't really figure out why." Larsa releases the Pokémon anyways. First, the red Gyarados appears, head raised high above Larsa's own. Then comes Eowyn, blue mane and tail billowing as she snorts, pawing at the pavement. Next is a Scyther, an Archen, and then a Bayleef. The Bayleef is the only one who hasn't been vaccinated.
Larsa did not understand why he could not go straight to Decima Town, but instead, had to mill about all the other landmarks. He'd gotten to Proserpina with very little trouble, but there was a particularly 
