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!
She left Batin's room. She wasn't sure if this was an escape attempt or if she was simply exploring the premises. Escape would be unlikely. Exploring would be unwise.
Yet here she was anyway.
Neo exited into the hallway and, like any good adventurer, turned left.
JDFOt2cK < 50 the door to batin's room disappears < 50 she hits a dead end < 50 she's lost
the froslass is the first to discover the explorer within castle forlorn. she glides gracefully across the hall, past neo, and makes a sharp turn to place two freezing hands on her shoulders. lightly, she breathes cold air into neo's right ear.
a hallway door opens, and a maskless woman emerges. "...that's not necessary, fantine."
So. That wasn't where she'd meant to run. Neo looked behind, and the path she'd come from was different from the path she'd walked.
Neo tried to step away from the froslass again, but it didn't seem to be working. "He's in Batin's room. Batin thinks I can fix him." Could she? She didn't know if a clone would turn up clean or infected, and she didn't know how Batin intended to restore the soul.
grHVPMwg < 50 froslass gives her hypothermia < 50 starts seeing things < 50 starts hearing things < 5 infection check
When the door appeared, Neo figured it was as good a time as any to drop the bomb. Her teeth chatter, but words still come out alright. "P-plenty to fix if th-they're dead. Or n-nothing left-t to fix, if you asked me. He didn't though."
Neo doesn't actually answer the question though. It's Batin's business. It's Neo's too, but it's certainly not Sophia's.
She clenches her jaw down, tries to put her hands to her neck for warmth, but there's no warmth to be found. "Land," she tries, because it worked for the lab, "can I get some goddamned heat?"
LPPAlbhf < 50 land delivers a blanket < 50 land turns the temperature up
"...seems like it." physis murmurs dispassiontately. "i'm sorry, fantine. i know you were fond of him."
not that physis was particularly taken to the lucario. maybe sophia had a better opinion of heron, but that was before he had allowed his human partner to die on the battlefield.
the scourge pokemon gives a melancholic bellow that echoed the length of the hall.
"...eos has finally perfected the cloning theory, then?" physis is not so arrogant as to assume that humans could truly bring anything back from the dead. she had never seen the vaccine-based cloning for herself, since most eos researchers died before acquiring the necessary amount of data (no thanks to her), but it was not an unknown technology to physis (re: fossils).
what a foolishly sentimental man, she thinks. what's he going to do with a lucario of the same abilities? actually do battle with it?
She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. (She swore it felt damp at first, and when she looked at it, it was uncured hide, brown skin, still dripping blood--but then it was only a blanket.)
"Scientists have been able to clone pokemon for ages." In a fashion. Any museum or laboratory with cloning facilities would be able to clone a pokemon, but only as a fresh hatchling. It was a trick of the Amberwell to restore them--physically--exactly as they were, with all their strength and evolutions intact.
(People populated the hallway now, some of them spectral and twisted. Others were physical but clearly long dead, rotting. Neo ignored them as best she could. She couldn't hear their voices, couldn't smell their decaying flesh. They weren't real. This, she told herself, was fact.)
"Are you Physis?" Neo asked. She didn't have to ask. She was quite certain. "Batin thinks you'd kill me."
Yy4eTHre 1-25 the people are from decima 25-50 the people are eos partcipants 51-75 the people are faceless 76-100 the people are all herself < 50 physis can see them too
< 50 starts hearing things < 5 infection check toska
"non-scourge pokemon, certainly." physis has spent enough time observing the researchers clone pokemon at pax, back when it wasn't a graveyard. it was not a branch in pokemon science that she took much interest in. "interesting choice in room decor."
physis isn't sure why the land favors neo like this, but she doesn't mind. she was probably just as married to her ideas about reality as neo was. that didn't mean that the illusions were particularly pretty to look at.
"batin believes a lot of things. he does not think." sophia had suspected that it would come back to bite her one day, and she hadn't known how right she would be. "i am physis."
"We never wanted to clone a scourge pokemon." Plenty of reasons not to, when it came down to it. It was too risky though, and also far too expensive. Neo would do a great deal for silence, but trying the eos cloning process on a scourge pokemon--well, she would do whatever was necessary to save her life.
Neo didn't consider this the land's favor. At best, it was the land's disturbing obsession. Neo looked to Physis and her froslass, and she tried not to look anywhere else. She pulled the blanket over her head like a hooded cloak, blocking out her peripheral vision.
She couldn't block out the whispering though.
"Funny that I'm alive then. Then again, I should know better than to trust what Batin says." She didn't blame Physis for claiming to be Sophia when they first met in the Dream World. Obviously, there were reasons, and Neo still had the impression that Physis hadn't lied any more than she had to.
"He left a while ago. I don't know when he's coming back. ...I still think you should stay away from him."
GTDJqCQH 1-25 voices are an indecipherable mumble 26-50 voices are replays of scourge attacks from her own memory 51-75 voices are her own, a doomsday warning 76-100 voices are the land's, an offer < 50 physis can hear the voices too
"i would imagine not." in another world, maybe sophia rosenburg would have been an eos researcher who was looking to cure the scourge. it's too bad that physis only believes in this one. she could have been a great number of things. those weren't the things that mattered.
she starts walking in neo's direction, because there was no other direction to be walking in. castle forlorn was kind of strange that way. her first arrival into the castle had been rather disorienting, but physis learned to forgo that feeling quickly.
"batin doesn't even know what the truth is, or if it exists at all." physis doesn't blame neo, however. the man was rather difficult to read. is difficult to read, whatever. "i suspect that is why zahir brand approached me in the first place, but batin is beyond caring about such matters."
physis has a feeling that the land will be able to take care of its guest better than she will be. the land does not disappoint. she would hate to rob it of an important guest.
"it seems that you know that he is a danger to himself and others." physis gives her an almost disappointed look. "yet here you are, defenseless and alone"
she isn't entirely sure if the statement applied more aptly to neo or sophia rosenburg.
The rising murmur of voices made it hard to keep her focus on Physis. It was one voice, she'd realized, although it spoke with a thousand tongues. It was sweet, cloying like mountain honey. Something about it was dry and ancient, like old books, like ash and dust.
Neo wasn't dumb enough to trust the voice, but she was curious enough to listen, to want to know more. She wanted to hear it out.
Yes, here she was. Defenseless. Alone. Facing the woman Batin treated like the boogeyman. Don't go outside, Physis might be there.
"You haven't killed me yet. Nor has he," Neo replied. "He won't until he gets his lucario back. I don't know why you haven't yet though."
UjBjVSuY 1-30 land invites her to stay forever 31-60 land offers her salvation in exchange for her soul 61-90 land offers her everything she ever wanted 91-10 land offers ambrosia steak
"i think you already know why." physis looks at her the way that she had looked at thalia. like she was looking at a dead woman, as if her life were already forfeit. the same way that she used to look at mirrors. "there is no need. you are beyond saving."
the land is the reason that all of them are here. the land knows how to deal with every individual fairly. that belief is the reason that they are all agents.
"i would hate to know what else he has been saying about me." she smiles wryly, knowing that she truly doesn't.
"My life was forfeit the day I survived the first scourge invasion. I should've died then, with everyone else." Neo risked a glance at the decaying versions of herself walking the hallway. They seemed to prove a point. "I don't need to be saved while I'm on borrowed time. I just need to make it count."
Batin didn't seem to have anything positive to say about Physis at all. "I don't think he likes you very much."
Neo returned her focus to Physis--doing her best to shut out the land. She straightened up, business-like. "Are you here to see Batin? He's not here right now, as I said. I'm sure he'll find me again, if you want to pass another message. Or you could show me the way out of here. That'd be awfully nice of you. I'd like to leave."
fAGyQCzE < 50 the neos disappear < 50 the voice stops < 50 the land reacts badly to her suggestion of leaving < 5 infection check toska
She left Batin's room. She wasn't sure if this was an escape attempt or if she was simply exploring the premises. Escape would be unlikely. Exploring would be unwise.
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