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!
What's a loyal lucario to do when their trainer is kidnapped by a hades agent? Walk around aimlessly, that's what.
Athena carried Neo's bag slung over her back, but otherwise the lucario was obviously without her trainer. So far, no pokemon snatchers had troubled her, but that was probably just a side effect of being lv100.
Frustrated, although thankful she had at least managed to find her way from the Amberwell back to civilization on her own, Athena sat down cross-legged on the ground at an open park space. It was the nice part of town where squatters weren't welcome, but Athena hardly cared. Remember: lv100.
From Neo's bag, she started releasing her stalwart teammates. Out came Phoebe the reuniclus, Icarus the gyarados, Tiresias the hydregion, Apollo the blaziken, and Leto the haunter.
With great magnitude, Athena began, <Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, because some asshole in a mask grabbed Neo and teleported off with her to who knows where. Guys, now what?>
note: open to anybody, new researchers preferred. dex entries available: 1) lucario, 2) gyarados, 3) reuniclus, 4) hydreigon, 5) blaziken, 6) haunter. the lucario and reuniclus are capable of aura/psychic speech.
proserpina city was a place that had gotten dull too fast, too quickly. playing the role of a newbie researcher toting a pokédex was a silly act, and ignatius had long since given up on it after a few days in the area. there was no real point in pretending to be remotely interested in a passerby's pokémon just for the sake of entries.
he wanted and liked results, but he was not going to stoop to that extent. flygon by his side, ignatius crossed half the city, only to come across a group of gathered pokémon. zalitz tilted its head, blinking as it watched the sextet.
ignatius pointed his pokédex at the group and scanned them for entries.
<There's a human,> Phoebe said, with her telepathy.
<We're in a city yo. There's lots of humans. Everyone's got humans!> Athena replied, with her aura.
<No, I mean, there's actually a hyuuuuuman, right there. Pointing a dex at us.> Amicably, Phoebe hovered over towards Ignatius. <Hello, human. Can we borrow your voice?>
<Whoa, if I'd known you were such a creeper, I'd have kept you snug in your pokeball.>
Phoebe paid the lucario no mind. She'd basically paid Athena's eccentricities no mind ever since Athena had been born. <We need to send a voicemail to a few people. It won't take long, I promise.>
ignatius pocketed his pokédex before they questioned his intentions, but it was soon apparent that the group of pokémon had different intentions about things. "my name is ignatius," he corrected the green glob, "much like i'm sure you have a name, instead of reuniclus."
the researcher glanced from the lucario to the reuniclus. were these two pokémon the ringleader of their little pack? the rest of them seemed disinterested in anything else while the two of them chattered with each other.
"from who am i sending this voicemail?" asked ignatius, finding it a suitable favor to do considering how he had obtained six entries from them.
The other pokemon were, for the record, squabbling in the sky. Gyarados and hydreigon soared high above them, talkng to each other. (They were having a conversation about flying off in search of Neo; give them another ten minutes and they'll realize how dumb an idea that would be.) The haunter was invisible for the time being, and the blaziken watched them all.
<Nice to meet you, Mr. Ignatius! I'm Phoebe. But you can call me reuniclus too. It's a mouthful though, much faster to say if you're telepathic.>
Phoebe snatched Neo's c-gear out of Athena's hand and levitated it over to Ignatius.
<There's a man named J. We were supposed to meet him in a few days, but our trainer's been kidnapped, so tell him we'll be running a little bit late,> Phoebe instructed.
"okay, phoebe, what is this favor?" ignatius' took the c-gear out of the air, and scanned its screen. there were many people he didn't know, but he managed to located the contacted labelled as J just fine.
"which parts do i include, and which parts do i not include? i suspect you want to keep the kidnapping out of the message."
<It doesn't really matter, just as long as he knows we're going to be late, and we don't really know how late. He might have to wait for a while. We'll let him know. Athena can almost send texts. It's hard with only a paw though.>
Phoebe considered the important parts of the message. J must know that they were delayed, and otherwise...
<But tell him not to worry! We've got this under control.>
ignatius raised an eyebrow, but did not further question phoebe. "if i may excuse myself to make this call," said the researcher, "i shall be right back."
---
he left to make the phonecall as the reuniclus had directed him to, and after leaving a message, he realized he had no idea who the trainer was, or even their name. he felt stupid, but returned the c-gear to phoebe all the same.
<Thank you,> Phoebe said, and then bumped pointedly into Athena. No response. She ran into her again.
<Yeah, thanks,> Athena chimed in after she got the point.
Then J's message came in. After some key-punching, Athena got the voicemail playing aloud on the speaker.
Phoebe and Athena looked at each other, uncomprehending. Athena even glanced over to Apollo, who was now meditating and ignoring the rest of them. Great.
<Humans are weird,> Athena declared. To Ignatius, she asked, <What's he so confused about? We told him everything.>
ignatius wasn't sure why it sounded like he was talking to himself. "what's this J person like, normally? humans are weird, yes, but they are also complex. an explanation on how he usually acts would help shed some light on the message."
Phoebe looks Ignatius straight in the eye and admits, <I have a hard time telling humans apart. He doesn't talk very much though--but I don't think he's shy.>
<He likes bitter powder,> Athena added, as if that was all that needed to be said.
"so he's just quiet, and that was likely an outburst of emotion," ignatius guessed, but felt that he was getting nowhere. the comment about bitter powder didn't help much, either. he knew it was some sort of remedy, but that was probably of little to no influence on J's personality. "i think he may be concerned for your trainer, and if he looks like a strong person, he would most probably murder someone."
finished with his analysis, ignatius looked at the lucario and reuniclus with an all-too calm expression.
If Ignatius was too calm, it hardly bothered either of the pokemon. Neo was hardly dissimilar.
<I hope he doesn't murder anyone nice,> Phoebe replied. Because that was obviously the biggest concern when it came to murdering people. <He should murder someone tasty.>
<Yeah, cool,> Athena said as she popped a pokeball on Phoebe's head. A little confused, but not actually protesting, the reuniclus returned. To Ignatius, she said, <Give me a second>
Athena went back to the rest of the pokemon, still milling about the park like homeless bums. She grabbed the air, caught onto an invisible Leto (aura is handy), and booted Apollo until the blaziken cracked open an eye to see who was disrupting his meditation. <Back to the bag,> Athena declared to the rest of the team, and she specifically looked up at the two flyers in the sky, <unless you're not done arguing yet. Then we'll just wait for you to finish. Which will be, you know, sometime next year. Sheesh. Get a room.>
With everyone stowed away, Athena went back to Ignatius. <Thanks again. Really. Anyway, I wanted to ask, before I go, if you're familiar with how humans do things. You know, because you're human, I thought you might. But I shouldn't subscribe to stereotypes. But if you do, if you murder a murderer, does that make you a murderer too? Or is that justice.>
There was always a steely glint to Athena's hide, but now there's a steely glint to her eye.
"correct, phoebe," said ignatius, "murdering a nice person is not nice." he nodded at athena; doing them a favour had turned out to be simpler than he anticipated. he didn't know what J would have told them in return, but that was about it for his involvement.
"i can try answering your question," the researcher replied, "personally? i don't care if you've murdered someone, or who everyone involved did. the question is if it was the right thing to do for yourself. fuck the consequences, really."
Athena swung Neo's bag over her pack, almost a proper pokemon adventurer herself (except for the part where she was a bipedal yellow dog made of steel).
<It's a personal thing then. That sucks,> Athena concluded. She didn't know for sure what Neo would approve of, in a time like this. Was hunting down a masked man alright? Or was it rude? She'd been told a few times that she was rather rude.
<I think I have someone to aura sphere a few times then. It'll be totally rad. Like chasing a stick. Thanks for everything, Iggy. Next time we run into each other, pokepuffs will be on me.>
What's a loyal lucario to do when their trainer is kidnapped by a hades agent? Walk around aimlessly, that's what.
