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!
stefan fares better in this place than most would expect. the things that he sees in liber mirage are surprising, to say the least, but the man accomodates to even the most vivid of nightmares.
it's not a blessing, stefan knows. blessings don't come so easily in this life, if at all. instead, he pays the toll with vision. he does not dare to dream or hope. not for long.
he isn't sure if it is a fair price or not.
the honchkrow's presence beside him keeps him sane, but stefan would say that he is not the one who has to trudge these scathing sands.
The Sigilyph does not trudge, and in fact, would have been quite offended by such a description. It was something of a vain creature. It knew this well, yet the Sigilyph had no shame. Instead, the Pokémon was happy to float along the sandy winds, dipping here and dipping there.
So she's very curious when she spies a green-haired man (green hair?) stumbling over the sands. The Pokémon chuckles to herself at this strange specimen of a human being. The Sigilyph approaches Stefan anyways, swaying to and fro before the man's piercing eyes. From there, perhaps he would mistake her as another one of his hallucinations, poor thing. She had half the mind to toy with him.
The Pokémon drew nearer, flying in circles before Stefan's eyes. When she looked at his face though, she paused in the air, hovering in place. How defeated, he looked, so she cocked her head and stared some more.
is it truly a defeat when victory was never the aim?
stefan looks at the sigilyph with an unimpressed expression. maybe he would have looked pretty stupid for attacking a halucination, but that didn't really cross his mind. instead, he focuses on the crisp lines on the flying pokemon. so vivid and clearly defined in comparison to the blurred dunes.
alexander does most of his staring for him, especially as more sand starts to catch in stefan's eyes. his first duty is to this trainer.
"we are journeying to cura, and i am sure that you understand that every second that is spent in this desert is another drop of precious moisture to be lost" the honchkrow attempts to pry off some sand from his feathers. ZULF ?
"Oh yes, yes, yes," the Sigilyph clicks. "Journeying to Cura, what? What business would bring you there?" The Pokémon rocks to and fro in the air, creating small arcs in her movements of the air. "But I know Cura, yes. I have never been to Cura. The desert contents me."
Only after the small soliloquy did the Sigilyph examine Stefan more closely. If the Pokémon had a mouth, she would have frowned. "Cura Village will do no good. No good, no good. Water is in Fortuna Oasis. It is closer than Cura Village, anyways. You must be lost." Only by trekking aimlessly could a human traveler have gotten caught in Liber Mirage. There was, after all, a reason why the area had been nicknamed after a place that appeared, disappeared, then reappeared by whim.
Suddenly, the Sigilyph dove from the air, wings glinting like metal as she shucked a nearby cactus in half. The soft pulp, saturated by water, shimmered in the sunlight. "It's safe, no worries," the Sigilyph piped up.
he has been watching his trainer very closely for the past few weeks or so. stefan wakes at six, eats a bit of food at six and a half, and go for a jog at seven. training is in the afternoon, and he schedules various activities according to the things that eos sends him on his c-gear. they are small goals that keep him moving.
sometimes, his goals are a little bigger. it's a way of life. maybe not with the choices that any of them would have preferred. that too, is a part of it.
alexander realizes the reason for stefan's frustrations with most people when the siglyph doesn't understand the honchkrow's words as his cue to leave before his trainer pulls out gerfried's pokeball.
he is, of course, a gentleman. so he doesn't say any of this out loud.
stefan blinks and takes the cactus in his hands. it's not the sort with a million microscopic pinpricks that are impossible to get out, but the large needles still hurt nevertheless. not a mirage then. which means that it's likely that the siglyph isn't one either. blood drips onto the white sand, and it occurs to him that he should probably disinfect that. is there anything to even be infected by in the desert?
somehow, the answer seems irrelevant.
a great sadness rises in alexander's chest, and he doesn't make stefan's mistake of trying to quell it. ZULF ?
The Sigilyph cocked her head to the side with a curious expression on. "Chew, drink, spit," the Pokémon recited, as if this were something that she had done quite often. She hovered near the sliced cactus, pecking at the top layer of the pulp. Her invisible lips smacked about as her tiny teeth squeezed the moisture out of it. Then, the Pokémon spat the chewed-up pulp out onto the sand.
"Like that," she said with an imperceivable frown on her face. The Pokémon's markings began to glow as a reflective barrier was set up around Stefan, the Cactus, Alexander, and the Sigilyph. The sands of Liber Mirage hammered against the force field, making a dull beating noise; but aside from that it was rather sturdy. At least the winds weren't much trouble for Stefan. Poor thing, she felt, though also sensed that the trainer would not appreciate "pity". Sympathy, perhaps, but not the former emotion.
The Pokémon hovered in a ring above Alexander's head. She was rather intrigued by the Honchkrow. "What's wrong?" she piped. "Meowth got your tongue, hmm?" She did wish that he was a little more talkative.
ah, instruction. now there was something that stefan was a little more familiar with. he hasn't had any in a while, and now he clings to them like it's the only thing that he has left.
in a way, that's a fairly apt description. stefan tears his attention from his bloody fingers and starts imitating the siglyph. like a child. like a fully impressionable boy, and not a mercenary. the red mixes with the juice to form a lovely shade of pink. he takes a drink, noting the taste of iron. it's nothing new.
stefan is reminded of all the nights that he had spent biting the inside of his mouth, trying desperately to keep himself awake in the middle of scourge territory.
keeping himself alive in the middle of pax.
"we came from decima's direction" is all the explaination that the honchkrow will provide. ZULF ?
Another crusader, then. The Sigilyph wondered, briefly, if Stefan had already succumbed to madness. She had seen one too many members of Eos flee into the desert in hopes that the seclusion would help them restore their wits. Nothing like shutting out the madness of the outside world to try and get back on one's feet. The Sigilyph never truly understood that logic; it was all in vanity and foolish.
If the Sigilyph had eyebrows, they would have risen. "Decima, hm," the Pokémon mused. This poor soul came past Lake Pax then. No wonder he was in such a state. Then again, the Sigilyph had only heard hush-hush rumors about the murky body of water. How ironic that such an accursed area should be blessed with the name of peace. She also wondered if Stefan was trying to kill himself after that ordeal. On the other hand, the man had taken her instructions seriously and at least had some water in his system. Now he just needed food.
"I have no food for you," she said, hovering above Stefan's head. "Though I suppose if you swallow the cactus pulp, that will serve enough of a meal for now. If not, follow along, and don't get left behind." The Sigilyph, though she had compassion in her heart, waited for no one.
