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!
the land was as barren as J remembered it to be, except that it wasn't quite as dreary and depressing. this was not the dream world, even he could see that it was very different. he took a drag of his cigarette, watched, and waited.
he was content to remain where he was; J wasn't one for exploring, but he was one to observe. the red skies seemed to warp all sense of time, and had it not been taxing on him to just remain, he would have thought it a good place to spend a dream in.
Much like J, the Land was content to wait and to watch. Unlike J (perhaps) the Land no longer steered its own destiny. There were other voices now that spoke where its voice had once spoken, and other minds stirred uneasily under the vast red sky.
In the distance, one such mind reached out and found an interesting little tidbit. Not interesting enough to warrant its own awakening, but worth sending a feeler out for.
The emboar shuffled slowly across the empty land toward J, driven by a power that was greater than its own.
J was alone in the forlorn and forgotten place. he watched the emboar lumber closer to him; he knew this was a scourge pokémon from its coloration. was it also the same thing that had happened to the place?
an area, similar to, but separate from the dream world, torn apart because it had been assaulted by scourge. J might not have the most knowledge out of anyone in pax crew, but he was not completely helpless when placed on his own. (he remained shitty at riddles.) J reached for a pokéball, but waited to see what it would do.
questions, all questions but no answers. J had had his fair share of that when he was a child. he asked many questions, but no one ever bothered answering any of them. and so he lived without knowing much, until he dug everything up himself -- and knowing how his hands were bloodied, he fled from his life in isshu and ended up in kohaku.
"who is your allegiance sworn to?" J asked, his eyes watching the emboar. his hand remained on the pokéball, ready to pull it out at a moment's notice, but his self-restraint remained intact. "i do not know how i arrived here, but i'm certain i did not come to here to receive judgement."
I speak with the voice of the One Who Is Not. It sensed your presence. It was intrigued. The emboar sniffed the air.
You do not walk here in the flesh. Judgement can not be properly rendered. You must return properly.
When the emboar spoke again, its voice was muffled, as if being projected from a great distance.
All paths lead to Me, although not all realize this. Some of my brethren mistakenly worship their gift, instead of the gift-giver. But your path is not theirs. You have not the gift. Do you desire it?
J hoped he could return properly, if only to see what exactly this place held for him. he figured he couldn't bring a friend along, either, because things usually didn't work that way.
something struck J from the inside; he hadn't the ability to even resist it physically. he wasn't sure if this was a dream.
his veins pumped ice-cold blood, and it was almost like he didn't give a shit as to whether he would be alive or dead at the end of this experience. all he wanted to do was to kill, to hunt; the only thing stopping him from moving was the fact that whoever it was that did this hadn't shown itself.
No more than experiencing one fleeting instant of humanity is the entirety of what it is to be human. Accept my gift wholly, with both hands and a single-minded purpose, and I will raise you to heights undreamed of upon your current path.
The gift will come to you in time, as it will come to all, but if you turn aside from it now, the second offer will not be so generous.
"i'll think about it," J said in a voice that wasn't quite his. it sounded distant and low; something had changed within him. he felt stronger, more powerful.
his brain screamed at him. this is a bad thing, it insisted, but J felt otherwise. the offer was enticing -- no. it was the land that was warping his judgement. something was amiss; he was supposed to fight scourge, not to aid it.
"do you live here, or are you everywhere at once?"
The emboar's face twisted into something that was almost a smile.
I live here. This has always been my true home. I watch your world, however. My eyes and ears travel through the lands your scourge holds, and so I learn much. And in this world nothing happens without my knowledge.
You know them as Hades Agents. The humans who walk among the scourge. They are not proper recipients of the gift, however. They blundered into it by happy chance, and do not acknowledge with due respect their Maker.
And of late, there have been visitors to this land. You are not the first; only the first I have spoken to.
so there was a name for them. good to know. J took in the information, and regarded the new one that he was presented with. it turned out that they were random occurrences, instead of planned ones -- there was quite a number of them, though. was the virus adapting?
thinking made J's head hurt. "then they have been disrespectful," said J, "i'm glad to have spoken to you instead of them."
he wasn't sure why he sounded so sincere and interested.
j4d4NocA <10 J starts to adapt to the land of nightmares
