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!
looking for a MEGA STONE for any of the folllowing:
gyarados gengar lucario
@tag
Neo wandered the hallways of the labyrinthine ruins. She'd been here for hours already, but she'd intended to stay for days. She carried enough rations on her back to last a week (of rather sparse eating--but she found she ate less and less as time went on), and a bedroll for creature comforts.
There was something here, in these ruins. She was sure of it. She'd examined a few stone tablets already, but found nothing worth learning out of them.
So far, all she'd learned was that the ruins were very, very old.
She knew she should've taken that class in archaeology, but nooooo--instead, she'd had to take criminal psychology with that cute boy. Waste of time. Mistakes of her younger self. Foolish.
(He was cute though. Still, it didn't matter. He was dead now anyway. They all were.)
Neo shoved fallen debris aside. It was heavier and took far longer than it should've. She made a mental note to eat more protein when she got back to town.
A little weary, Neo entered a room past the debris. It, again, held a stone tablet. She, again, approached it.
Despite it being scientifically proven that Mega Evolutions can only occur when the bond of a human and a Pokemon are at their highest, inexplicably, a Mega Lucario floats around this particular chamber without a human at its side. The Pokemon's fur is slightly grayed with aged eyes, human partner long gone. But the Lucario remains, and not even the Pokemon itself knows just how long it has guarded this stone tablet.
"I sensed you long before you entered," the Pokemon rasps, its voice gentle despite its potentially hostile appearance as it stands at guard in front of the stone tablet. Its arms are crossed over its chest as the Mega Lucario inclines its head slightly to the right, eyes always watching Neo.
Suddenly, the Lucario takes a step forward, then another, until it is standing barely a foot away from Neo.
"You've come to be evaluated," the Pokemon says. "You've come to be tested, haven't you?"
Neo took a step back, and she considered sprinting straight out of the room, but--but a lot of things, really. 1. A lucario would run faster than her anyway. 2. She'd come here hoping to find something, anything--perhaps this was it. 3. It hadn't tried to eat her yet. 4. What the hell is this pokemon?
So much to learn. Too much to give up just to satiate her fear.
She reached for a pokeball, but Athena reacted faster. Sensitive to Neo's emotions (it wasn't hard, Neo rarely felt anything, so the slightest blip on the radar was a blaring siren), the lucario appeared in a flash of red light.
Athena's presence was a comfort.
"A test? I don't know of any test, and I don't know of you either. I came here looking for... answers. Power. If there's a test for that, then I will take it--happily."
<You're old,> Athena added, with her usual amount of tact. Curiously, she circled around the old lucario, if it was a lucario. It didn't look like one. <You're dead, aren't you?>
The ancient Lucario raised a brow as Athena began to prod it with a bust of questions.
"A curious one," the Pokemon mused. "Hungry for knowledge, aren't you?" A noise leaves the Lucario's muzzle that vaguely resembles a chuckle. The noise bounces around both Neo's and Athena's heads, and despite the fact that there is no need to move its mouth, the Lucario's laughter appears to be physical along with being transmitted through Aura.
"I am, yes," the bizarre Lucario responds. "Long dead, in fact. My human partner has passed on, but I remain here to guard the chamber." The creature's attention appears to have been averted from Neo and, instead, captured by Athena. "Very perceptive."
"But most importantly," the Lucario says, suddenly, "You traverse the region in search of knowledge. Your Lucario, is she merely a part of this knowledge as well?"
<Hungry for food too,> Athena chirped. <We're on a diet! Travel rations only. I like exploring ruins, but I don't like living on dried meat and berries every day.>
"You just ate." They'd had this discussion before. "There are no restaurants in ruins, Athena."
<I know, but there are dead old ghosts. Isn't that cool? Isn't he cool? Look at him. You think I'll be like that one day? With my hair billowing in the wind! I wanna fight him. I bet I could win. Will you fight me, Mister-->
Sometimes, Athena was an embarrassment to her entire species. Neo couldn't even tell if the spectral lucario had a sense of humor or not when he called Athena perceptive.
"My lucario is my friend--and an ally. I don't know how long you've been here, but our region's under attack. We're trying to find a way to fight back. So yes, we're in this together."
The Lucario blinks at Athena's quick responses. They don't make much sense, but they're viable responses. It's nice to see such a young, sprightly Pokemon after all of the Lucario's years in floating around the dusty chamber. It's a nice change of pace, anyways.
"Oh, this hair?" The Lucario shakes its head, purple tips and all billowing in the wind. "I can show you," he adds, nodding at Neo with approval glowing in its gray eyes. "I think you will find a good use for it if you can use it," the creature says, holding out a paw. An iridescent stone materializes in its paw, along with a bizarre-looking and vaguely chipped bracelet.
"If you can use it, it is yours," the Lucario responds without giving any further information.
Suddenly, the ceiling of the cavern begins to cave in, and the Lucario is nowhere to be seen.
(I... guess this counts as your challenge just go with it)
...Let's be real, anything would be a nice change of pace to sitting around in abandoned ruins for all eternity.
Athena took the stone like a precious treasure and tossed the bracelet over to Neo like a leftover bone. Neo had to jump to catch up, but catch it she did. She peered curiously at the bracelet. How had it materialized? The lucario was spectral. Yet it could conjure physical substance? That defied every law of physics, minus the laws of physics that made no sense.
<Oooooooo,> Athena said, eyes gleaming as she turned the stone in the light. Aahhhhhh, Neo almost wanted to follow up.
"What... is this?" Neo asked, still frowning in thought the bracelet in her hands, but when she looked back up, the lucario already gone.
There was a creaking, crumbling sound. A cloud of dust and sand spilled down, and the ceiling began to fall. Athena responded first, immediately using agility and running for Neo. The lucario snatched Neo by the waist and started to run.
As the ceiling caved in, Athena nimbly leapt across unsteady stones and falling debris, carrying her trainer like a ragdoll. It was undignified, but it beat being crushed deep within the ruins. Athena didn't mind where she ran. Anywhere ahead was safer than the deathtrap that lay behind.
At last, Athena found a space that seemed--in comparison--safe. It was also somewhere dark and cold, perhaps deeper into the ruins. With the way Tellumo twisted and turned, it was hard to tell where you were. They were probably thoroughly lost now. No matter. Neo had found her way out of worse jams.
Neo coughed as Athena finally let her go, and she sank to the floor, spitting out sand and dust from her mouth. She still held the bracelet.
<You should put that thing on,> Athena said. <It's pretty.>
Casually, the spectral Lucario reappears with a grin on its face, grayed fur around its muzzle twitching with its whiskers. "Your Lucario certaily has a spring in her step," the Pokemon notes with a touch of humor, as if it hadn't just allowed the ceiling of Tellumo Ruins to nearly cave in on Neo and Athena.
Still, that didn't mean that the Pokemon wasn't relieved to see that Neo and Athena had escaped unscathed. "Very good," the Pokemon said. "You must be very good friends with your Lucario. It's been quite some time since I've seen one move so quickly for a human." Minus the fact that the Lucario was very, very, very old, and from the state of the ruins, the Pokemon hadn't seen too many people in awhile either.
"The stone varies from bond to bond," the Lucario continues. "You will have to learn how to use it yourself. But given the proper situation and the right amount of trust between yourself and your Pokemon, you will discover the stone's power."
The ancient Pokemon glances in Neo's direction. "Your Pokemon cares for you very much. Why not try now?"
And it takes a seat in midair with an expectant expression on its face.
Neo closed her eyes, trying to count how many bruises she'd picked up in Athena's mad rush out of the ruins by counting how many painy spots she had on her body. She stopped counting. Too many to bother, and no concussions among them--nothing too worrying.
She cracked open an eye to look at the spectral lucario. "Springy. Sure."
Athena cocked her head at Neo, not entirely sure what to do. Usually, it was Neo squawking over her wounds rather than the other way around. The most the lucario had ever been asked to do to care for her trainer was make instant noodles for dinner.
<I think he wants to try the bracelet. Better do it before he makes the ceiling fall again. I don't think I can run that fast again.>
Neo closed her eyes again (maybe there was a concussion), and then she opened them again, squinting at the bracelet. What was she supposed to do with this? Press a button? There weren't any buttons. Fiddling with it, she finally found a gem embedded into the bracelet.
"Is it this thing? The rock?" She touched the key stone, and it shimmered with light. Neo would've jumped back if she weren't still sitting on the ground.
<Sweeeeeeeet!> Athena crowed, as she was engulfed in evolutionary light. When the light dispersed, Athena performed a fabulous hair flip with her now flowing tresses. <I'm awesome!>
