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!
sophia ignores the dirty looks that a few researchers shoot her as she walks by. she's not here for them. she's here for the eos recruiters who wouldn't stop calling her at her workplace and clogging her mailbox with fancily embossed letters. her colleagues and neighbors were starting to get suspicious. she can't have that - she's taken every preventive measure, and eos thinks that it can take that away from her.
sophia doesn't think so. which is why she's sitting here in mr. lucerne's office, glancing uncomfortably at the open door. before she can offer to close it, the man is already espousing his stance on how vital she is to the kohaku reclaimation effort, how many lives she would save if she contributed to eos' research.
"they are not mine to save. i am a student, sir"
a student who has witnessed firsthand of the scourge's vicious potential. the other researchers are dead, the the body count only rises. doesn't she care about the dying? doesn't she see how devastated the scourge lands are?
sophia is a woman of infinite paitience.
"i refuse"
nerio won't be safe forever, he says.
"nerio is already unsafe from your harassment, sir"
he harps on about lives, yet how many teenagers has he sent to the battlefield? how many brothers and sisters? how many mothers and fathers?
sophia doesn't know. she lost count after the tenth body that fantine mangled.
"i would rather not be coerced. just stop trying. please"
Mordecai has been running low on food and water for days, and he's incredibly relieved to have finally stumbled upon the Fortuna Oasis. He had also been told that Eos handed out rations to their members at the oasis, enough to carry their trainers, breeders, researchers, and rangers, all the way over to Cura Village. With a full bag slung over his shoulder, there is no reason for Mordecai to stay any longer.
Except, as he passes down the hall of the Eos building, he hears a familiar voice. The door of Mr. Lucerne's office was left ajar; whether it was purposely left open or on accident, it is already too late for him to un-hear the words floating through the crack. Mordecai pauses for a moment, leaning against the wall. It almost sounds like bickering, and he manages to catch a snippet of an unfamiliar name. Sophia Rosenburg? Who was that? The woman he knows is named Rosalyn. Perhaps he should continue.
He raps upon the open door anyways. "Mr. Lucerne? I apologize if I'm disturbing. Is Sophia in there? We were hoping to head out from Fortuna Oasis as soon as the sun began to set."
sophia sees an intruder in mordecai. the recruiter sees an opportunity. mordecai should probably expect a lot of calls from the fortuna office for the next few weeks.
she could have walked out without him, sophia thinks. there's always a point in which words do nothing. she can already tell that her neutrality is a lost cause with this man.
honestly, there are only two people in this world who have saved her from a life of misandry. only one is alive.
how much did this man overhear? if she wasn't so desperate to close this particular loophole, then sophia would never have exposed herself like this. if not for decima, then she would have already been devising methods to ambush him in the desert.
that's not a part of the plan anymore. sophia walks out of the room despite the man's protests.
He heard enough, which is why Mordecai is relieved that Sophia walks out too. He slips out of the room with the woman. Mordecai also has a feeling that he should expect plenty of calls from Fortuna Office, which really isn't much of a problem. He hopes that Mr. Lucerne will realize that Mordecai has nothing interesting to tell the man about. There was not much that a Pokémon breeder saw, anyways. The most that he had to report were the different Pokémon he managed to breed successfully.
Mordecai almost wonders if he should say that he could pretend he heard nothing. Then again, that would only add insult to injury. How could he pretend that he hadn't heard her name? Of course, this was the most that the man had caught, and a first name wasn't quite as useful as a surname. So instead, he says, "My lips are sealed."
He wants to ask Sophia more about who she is. What was she doing in Decima? Eos was to each his own, but certainly she had a reason to not participate in the association's crusade against the Scourge. She had every right to decline the Fortuna Oasis base's harassment.
sophia walks along the corridor with him and wonders when it would be appropriate to split up. he would be wanting answers, she supposes. his kind always does.
she just doesn't know when. for now, she holds on to what precious silence she has left.
Mordecai takes it upon himself to break the silence. "I'm... glad to see you're well," he said. It was a genuine statement, and considering who was speaking, not forced at all.
And then, on a whim, he asked, "... I saw a coffee shop right outside Fortuna Oasis. Would you like to join me?" Then, "Though if you had different plans, I understand as well."
After all, they were strangers for the most part. He was still not supposed to know her name.
usually, sophia would have refused. however, it might be helpful to have an ally in this den of wolves. sophia has a sack of berries on her person, so it shouldn't be too difficult to bribe a wild siglyph or gliscour into giving her a ride back to hespera. but she has to leave fortuna oasis first.
"...okay"
she follows him outside of the eos building. she doesn't trust him, but thankfully, there are a lot of situations in which complete trust is not necessary. this is one of those times.
The "coffee shop" was really a coffee tent. Made from a relative of polyester, the tent was a cheerful lime green color, light in shade to keep the heat reflected off of it. A sign post on a stake was driven into the sand by its entrance, of which the sign read "Cacnea Café". Mordecai had thought, at first, it was strange to name the café after the spiny Pokémon, but decided not to question it.
The pastries and cool drinks were kept chilled by a little Snorunt that stood at the owner's side. The man at the cash register greeted the two newcomers as a waitress hustled out from the back of the tent. "Welcome to the Cacnea Café!" she piped up, then, "please, follow me!"
She led the pair over to a round table covered in a lacy white tablecloth, then handed the pair a menu. "I'll be right with you soon," the woman said, before scurrying away.
Mordecai glanced over the menu and immediately saw that this was a place that specialized in chilled drinks.
sophia can't imagine anyone who would be ordering hot tea in a place like this. the waitress comes back soon enough.
"cheri-flavored water" she readies herself for the interrogation. if mordecai is half the gentleman that he appears to be, then it's probably coming after the waitress leaves. she's rehearsed her cover stories plenty. it's easier when they contain a hint of truth.
"And one ice Pecha tea," Mordecai adds, to which the waitress scribbles down both orders. She gives both customers a half-nod-half-bow, before taking her leave to prepare the cold beverages.
Part of Mordecai wondered if he should apologize for the unfortunate harassment that Sophia had faced not too long ago, but she's a tough girl. He knows that much. He still asks, out of courtesy, "I hope you aren't too bothered from earlier." He mostly wants to make sure that Sophia was in a better mood. He wasn't sure why, perhaps, an act of whim, but it was too late to go backwards now.
Worse, the actions were genuine.
"I'll take you got away from Angerona Station without much trouble, then?"
granted, sophia had been hoping for better results. maybe she should hire a porygon. filter the messages out from within. those sorts of companies usually offered complete privacy.
who knows how long it would take before eos grows powerful enough to demand this information, though? public distress can be a powerful force for bureaucrats to get what they want.
"i did" not that it was really much of a feat when the scourge weren't out to eat her. fantine got off with some minor annoyance, but she'll live.
"I'm glad," he replied. Mordecai did not doubt once in his mind that Sophia(?) was quite capable of taking care of herself. On the other hand, he would have been concerned for anyone that had been left behind at Angerona Station. It wasn't the sort of concern that was obligated or expected, for when it came from Mordecai, it was genuine.
The waitress interrupted the Eos breeder's thoughts as she carried two iced drinks back to the table. Each had a miniature parasol attached to the rim of the glass, the color matching the type of berry that had been used to flavor the water. "Enjoy," the woman said with a polite nod before she took her leave. The Snorunt at her side tottered away with her as they retreated into the back of the tent where, Mordecai presumed, the cold drinks were made.
What he doesn't understand is why Sophia had agreed to follow him to the Cacnea Café. There was absolutely no reason for her to associate with him any longer, especially considering the fact that he was certain she knew that he realized she'd lied to him about her true identity.
He doesn't really know why he asked her to stop by this place with him either.
Mordecai has been running low on food and water for days, and he's incredibly relieved to have finally stumbled upon the Fortuna Oasis. He had also been told that Eos handed out rations to their members at the oasis, enough to carry their trainers, breeders, researchers, and rangers, all the way over to Cura Village. With a full bag slung over his shoulder, there is no reason for Mordecai to stay any longer.
