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!
They said the cure for everything is the sea: salt is in your blood and your sweat and your tears.
Thalia isn't sure how true that is, but she does know she's tired. She's spent the last six months fighting, and she knows she can't stop, but a break won't hurt either. You can either start laughing at things or let them kill you. She's not ready to laugh at the scourge yet, but she doesn't want to die either.
Thalia sat on the edge of the boardwalk and tried to get some sun.
ismael was in some sort of suspended animation. he was never fully alive, and never completely dead -- every time he slipped, he somehow was sustained by something else, and whenever he woke up too much, he was numbed to the point where the world slid out of view.
it did nothing for his mental state. constantly lethargic and incapable of doing what he wanted, ismael had little rest between the argument going on in his mind and the conflict he experienced physically.
he settled for a place by the sea, allowing the sun to give him what little warmth it offered.
"excuse me," he said, sitting down next to a person, "i hope you don't mind."
ice-cream sounded good, never mind that it was winter. ismael nodded, too pained to do anything else. "ice-cream it is," he agreed, "i think this is my normal state nowadays. kohaku doesn't seem to agree with me."
despite feeling ill, he had yet to come down with anything more serious than a fever. no coughing, no colds. it was odd.
he tasted the sorbet. it was cold, and soothing despite the chill in the air.
"thank you," he said, smiling. for some reason, the sorbet seemed to help him cope. "i don't really recall, but it doesn't matter that much anyway." he scraped at the sorbet idly. "no one recognizes me, so i feel like i didn't really ... belong here in the first place."
Thalia watched the sea, trying to let him eat the sorbet in privacy.
"No," she said quietly. "I think that makes perfect sense to me. If no one knows you, if there's no one for you there, what does it matter if you've ever been there?"
Bacchus wasn't home anymore.
She shook her head and turned to smile at him. "But I'll recognize you now, wherever you are. So you at least have this beach. There could be worse places to end up."
ismael listened. it was either a relief to be told he was right, or it was a warning as to what the future held. thankfully, thalia played the part of a motivating shounen hero perfectly.
"in that case, i should introduce myself," said ismael, and gave her his name. he exhaled, gaze returning to the sea.
ismael wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing nowadays. he had hisham to work with, but the trainer was often doing something on his own. sickly as ismael was, he wasn't in shape to be following people around in the name of adventure.
"i wish i knew," he muttered, "I'd like a story of my own, too, but I don't know if I'll like the ending at all."
"Well in the end, we all get away from the pain. Apparently. That's what they say. Who knows if it's true. I certainly don't. I just try to make the telling of the story as painless for other people as I can. Seems like the least I could do."
They said the cure for everything is the sea: salt is in your blood and your sweat and your tears. 
