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!
Despite all intentions to enter the tavern in a mature yet casual manner, Tiffany and Mo somehow ended up squabbling over something or another, and even though Tiffany had firmly instructed her partner that they had to settle the stupid argument (ie, admit she was right) before entering, Mo stuck out his tongue and rushed in before Tiffany could even shout after him.
Isaac was easy to spot, and Mo made a beeline for him. Rather than play his usual prank, Mo intended to suck up to the ranger. <Hey! Hey! It’s you!> Mo whirred once around Isaac’s head before settling down. <Quickly! Get me one of those happy drinks!>
Meanwhile, Tiffany had marched over. “Mo,” she hissed at her Pokemon, not making much of an effort to be quiet. “Stop being such a pest!” Then she turned to the poor tavern worker who had to deal with Mo and made to apologise but could only stare wide-eyed. “Oh. Oh! It’s you!”
Mo couldn’t help himself. <Stop being such a pest, Tiff.>
Tiffany blatantly ignored him, and continued talking to Isaac. “I haven’t seen you in ages, Zac! How’s the job here? And Clavier? Please tell me you two have tried the Clamperl Chowder. It is seriously the best thing about this place–apart from the ranger... outpost... stuff. Of course. Ranger stuff is totally the best.” Saying that, if she remembered correctly, rangers could get free food here, so really ranger stuff could actually be the best...
the tavern was less busy than it was at its peak hours, but it was still filled with people -- inebriated ones, mostly. a few rangers were about to leave for their shift in di manes, and assist pokémon crowded the outside of the tavern as they waited for their partners to emerge from the establishment.
isaac was busy as always, but he found time from work to keep a conversation going with two friends he had not met in a long while: tiffany and mo. their adventure in di manes had been unforgettable. as rangers, their path branched too quickly, and he was now permanently stationed in the area to aid new rangers while tiffany was (presumably) still fighting on the frontlines.
"what happy drinks?" isaac asked mo, slightly bemused. he cast a glance over his shoulder at one of his colleagues, who quickly avoided any and all eye contact. "... never mind," he muttered, shaking his head. people at the tavern got strange all too quickly.
"i haven't seen you either," said the ranger, grinning at his friend, "i'm glad you've been safe from harm." the boy's grin only widened as clavier poked its head in from outside the window. the haxorus had come a long way from being an axew. time had changed them, mostly for the better. "i dunno about the clamperl chowder ..."
'i've tried it,' said clavier, waving a claw in the air, 'it's pretty good.'
"ranger outpost stuff is better, though. ranger stuff is good in general, yeah," he agreed with tiffany, laughing slightly. of course it was. he taught the heart sign to new rangers, after all. "i'm permanently stationed here, so i see a lot of people. some people i see again, some people i don't."
he glanced away, stifling a sigh. isaac refused to let dire times dampen his spirits, but sometimes, a tiring day of work got to him.
Tiffany tried to respond first, but Mo beat her to it. <Of course we have! You can’t really get in danger when you don’t—>
“You’re safe too!” Tiffany interrupted, voice loud to overtake Mo’s. There was no need for him to be too honest about that; it was embarrassing, really. “That’s great…” Her voice trailed off as the giant bug-ish looking thing poked its head in the window. The voice was familiar, but…
<Whoa!> Again, Mo got to react first. <Clavier? You’re huge!> Then, in an almost deadpan serious, he asked, <How’s the weather up there?>
For the moment, Tiffany wasn’t sure what to say, or even where to focus her attention. She had never really been a good multitasker, and in the end she put all her energy into not gawking at Clavier so obviously. (Seriously, where had the tiny, cute little Axew gone? The thing that replaced it was kinda scary looking.) Absent-mindedly, she agreed with whatever Isaac was saying. “Yeah. Outpost ranger stuff. I meant that. Oh yeah, lots of people…”
Wait a minute, there weren’t lots of people here. What on earth was Isaac talking about?
Mo had now hovered over to Clavier and was trying his luck a second time. <Hey buddy, do you think you could get me one of those happy drinks?> He had ordered in a lower voice, which was enough to make Tiffany suspicious of what he was doing.
“He’s not thirsty. Just get us some Clamperl chowder.” She turned back to Isaac, again ignoring Mo’s protests, and asked Isaac quietly, “Is that really Clavier? I didn’t know he was part bug-type…” And what was that about Isaac's chin? Did something happen—ooh! Maybe there had been a bar fight?
... Nah. Surely not. vertigo (ooc: sorry if this doesn't 'flow' or anything but people kept interrupting me and i kept forgetting what was going on >>
'i ate well.' clavier chuckled. its evolution had taken isaac by surprise as well. the boy had been less subtle than mo. the haxorus remembered the moment it had evolved from an axew into a fraxure. it was a small change, but isaac had reacted as if he had seen a mew in real life. it was still the same creature though, and mo's attempt at a joke was ignored almost instantly. but it still added: 'are we really out of things to talk about that we have to mention the weather?'
isaac punched clavier lightly on the shoulder. he had to reach out of the window to do so, and it was an awkward gesture. isaac wasn't a very lanky person. "clamperl chowder it is," he said, "for two? for two." he answered his own question, and disappeared into the kitchens. work was enjoyable when he saw familiar faces.
he returned with a tray of food. "you asked if that was clavier, right?" he said, glancing at the haxorus and then at tiffany. "it's definitely clavier. he grew really big -- and no, he's one-hundred percent dragon."
clavier grunted his agreement. but what on earth was mo going on about happy drinks? it had a suspicion that it was something else altogether, but kept its thoughts to itself. the dragon-type contributed to the conversation.
'evolution works in strange ways sometimes.' it did get the short end of the stick when it came to evolutions. some pokémon changed little, or grew a pair of wings to facilitate movement. but he had changed so much from its original state that it was certain that evolution had somehow decided to screw its species over randomly. at least it knew a fair few new techniques to make up for it.
"i wonder if hadean pokémon evolve too," mused isaac.
dizzy (( that's fine, i know how it's like. i think your post is still good tho heh ))
Having decided that Clavier had simply just not understood the joke at all, Mo was torn over whether or not to do the forbidden thing and explain it. In the end, he just tried another joke. <You ate well? You must’ve eaten an entire shop of rare candies!> Ooh, wasn’t that clever? He chuckled at his own joke.
Ooh ooh, how about: <But really Clavier, is your head running away from your feet?> Again, Mo chuckled, and Tiffany gave Clavier and Isaac – wait, where did he go? – an apologetic look. “Sorry, he’s been wanting to say that one for a long time,” she explained. She regretted introducing Mo to television. Not only did he like to possess and near enough destroy them, he liked to memorise anything he found funny from various shows Tiffany hadn’t even known existed.
When Isaac returned with only food, Mo was clearly disappointed, and when it became apparent that he was about to complain Tiffany quickly made a (false) promise to him that she’d buy him a 'super special awesome happy drink' in Nerio city. Mo didn’t quite believe her, but was willing to believe in the false hope. For now.
Besides, they had Clamperl chowder now. How could anyone be unhappy when Clamperl chowder was around?
“He’s really full dragon? But he does kind of look bug-ish… In a good way, of course!” Tiffany said as she scouted out the nearest empty table. “There are some very cool bug Pokemon around.”
<I dunno, you really ignored that one Joltik.>
Having no idea what Mo was talking about, Tiffany quickly got back onto the topic of evolution. She agreed with Clavier, saying, “Evolution is hands down the strangest thing. I don’t really understand it much, especially with Mo.” The Rotom had made sure to trick Tiffany into thinking that his form changes were evolution, something which Tiffany only half caught on to as being a lie. “It’d be scary if the zombie Pokemon could evolve but… well…”
Zombies were dead and dead things couldn’t evolve, but Tiffany didn’t mention that; she was never sure if the Hadean Pokemon were technically undead or not. “Anyway, can you take time off to talk? Or are you gonna keep disappearing to do, uh, tavern things?”
jokes and clavier didn't really mesh. he either got the joke and didn't laugh, or didn't get the joke at all. the haxorus reverted to keeping an eye on mo and not smiling at all at the attempts at creating laughter. the creature tilted its bladed head, and came a little too close to the rotom after a while. its voice rumbled. 'watch it.' clavier drew away only when its partner returned with their orders.
"yeah, he's all dragon," said isaac, "i guess i can see why you say he looks like a bug. he does, in a way." the ranger crossed his arms and took a step back to better look at clavier. "he's cooler than your average bug, though," he added, before clavier had his feelings hurt by a trivial discussion. he flashed his pokémon one of his usual grins before responding to tiffany.
hadean pokémon were odd and even though he wanted to know more about them, he wasn't a researcher and therefore, wasn't as privileged with first-hand information on them. coupled with the fact that he was stationary, he was unlikely to see whatever scourge that came unless it hit ceres in the face.
"they'll die before they manage to," said isaac, "at least, that's what i hope happens. we've got our rangers and they've got their trainers, so we should at least be able to manage." he paused for a moment as he glanced over the tavern, which was gradually emptying as time wore on. "i could probably get off work now --" he glanced over to a man behind the counter, mouthed something, then turned back to tiffany with a pleased expression.
"-- yep! i'm done for the day, so no more disappearing from me, haha."
clavier raised a metaphorical eyebrow. 'that's the first time you've chosen to leave earlier rather than later.'
"well ... we've got visitors and they're friends, clavier."
Mo had never been threatened by another Pokemon before, not in such a manner as this anyway, and as such wasn’t entirely sure if Clavier was serious or trying to crack a joke himself. Clavier didn’t exactly have a great taste in jokes, after all. He ended up just mumbling a, <Your face.> before redirecting his attention to his food. Clamperl chowder had suddenly become the single most interesting thing in the tavern.
On the bright side he hadn’t tried to regurgitate any Yo Momma jokes. Mo didn’t quite understand most of them. Like the fan one. He could possess a fan and frankly didn’t see what the big deal was about blowing people. Maybe one day he’d find an inappropriate moment to ask.
“Oh? Well I hope so too.” If that was the case, it made it easier to think of them plainly as zombies. Zombies whose heads didn’t have to be chopped off, thank Arceus. That was a sight no sane person would want to see.
“Wait what?” Trainers? Scourge had legit trainers? What? Feeling as though this was probably something she should have found out over the past few months instead of doing non-Ranger-related things in Nerio, Tiffany decided not to ask any more.
All things scourge-related thought exited her thoughts pretty fast. She clapped excitedly – from what she gathered, getting time off work wasn’t the easiest task in the world – and, surprisingly, didn’t say anything. Not until she had beamed at Isaac and Clavier for an almost awkward amount of time (the almost was from her perspective, of course). Tiffany was stalling; she hadn’t expected to get this far and didn’t know what came next.
Having friends with a normal job was a real novelty.
Finally, she asked, “Do your legs hurt?” Hmm, that wasn’t right. “I mean, come sit down. Are you hungry? Do you mind if we’re eating and you’re not—oh, oh! I haven’t touched mine yet!” Blasphemy, really. “You two can have my chowder it you want. Or can you get free food here? Wow, that'd be sooo nice! You must—”
isaac sank into a seat opposite tiffany, before he smiled at his friend. "to answer that earlier question of yours -- yes. i heard they had trainers and all, but it's nothing we can't really handle," said the boy, "all we really need to do is pacify. that comes in really handy when you're fighting scourge." he spoke from experience. he had fought scourge pokémon alongside another person and the ability to pacify scourge for a turn helped out a lot, especially when there was only one of them left.
he laughed at tiffany's rapid-fire questions and sentences, before he shook his head. he wore a smile on his face as he spoke. "well, i'm kind of tired after a day's work, but it's always good to relax. so no worries about it. i'm not hungry, but ... you two should eat up," he said, nodding towards the chowder. "you shouldn't let it sit for too long."
'isaac gets free food here but he usually doesn't eat them,' clavier interjected, 'he prefers making his own.'
the ranger glanced back at his pokémon, and frowned. "well, that's not a bad thing at all. i just happen ... to be a picky eater," his voice trailed off at the end of his statement, "i can't eat the same foods every day, and the tavern serves the same food every day."
at some point, the luxury of eating out every day had become the mundane. isaac excused himself briefly to get a tankard of apple cider, and somehow returned with a platter of calamari rings as well.
"it's, ah, on the house. i don't get friends visiting often."
Oops. She had been hoping for too much hadn’t he? Still, the explanation was appreciated, especially since Isaac made no indication that she should have already known this. Maybe it wasn’t common knowledge. Although... it was hard to wrap her head around the idea that people trained zombie Pokemon. She nodded slowly, trying to picture the living and the dead working together, and subsequently missed what Isaac said about pacifying.
Oh well. As if that was important.
“Jealoooouuuss. I wish I had this free food all the time.” It sure as hell beat tinned food, stall food and microwave meals. But not junk food. Not yet. “Can you really cook though? Like, actually really cook? Properly?” That was surprising. Tiffany assumed he must’ve learned it since working in the tavern; everyday people didn’t cook all that often. Or at least, not properly – but that’s where the microwave meals and, of course, restaurants and takeaways came into the picture. Tiffany turned to Clavier and said jokingly, “Your partner’s weird. First he doesn’t like Clamperl chowder, then he doesn’t want to eat it every day even though he totally could… Please tell me you’re not the same.”
Mo perked up at the sight of Isaac returning with some sort of drink. <Oh!>
“No.”
<But...>
“It’s not even a happy drink. Don’t get excited.”
<Aww lame.>
Tifffany ignored the urge to retort ad let a childish argument of who was lame escalate. Mo decided he would get back at her by eating any calamari rings she reached for, so he waited, watching the calamari rings out of the corner of his eye while he pretended to be finishing off his Clamperl chowder.
“So, tell.” Tiffany was starting up again. “What’s it like… working?” She sounded as if she were asking what it was like to be the first human to live among aliens in some far off planet; the idea of working had always been that farfetched. “Like, are there chefs that shout a lot? Or, do you get grumpy customers? Ooh, has anything funny happened? Have you spilt food on someone yet? That’d be hilarious!” Yeah. Comedy gold.
But seriously. “And what do you mean you can’t eat the same food every day? It’s free and it’s tasty. What’s wrong with you?” Said the girl who still hadn’t touched her food. Talking obviously took priority.
isaac didn't know if he was good at cooking. he certainly knew how to prepare a few simple dishes that the cook had taught him to, but as for something more gourmet -- he was certain he would fall short of expectations. "not as good as i'd like to," he said, "but hopefully i'll improve someday to attempt more difficult dishes."
he stirred his drink with the aid of a straw. clavier merely smiled at tiffany and shrugged.
'all humans are strange some way or another, like they find us pokémon strange in some sort of fashion,' said the haxorus, 'it goes both ways.' for some reason, ever since his evolution, clavier had become more serious and sage-like. (it also depended on how one perceived it. it was probably 60% more boring than when it was an axew.)
"work's work," said isaac, "i don't really know how to describe it. the tavern work isn't nearly as interesting as the things that i get to spring on new rangers, though." he grinned. new kids who came for the heart sign were always subjected to something different, depending on his mood. "sorry to disappoint you though. i've been a model employee most of the time." the teenager laughed, and then shook his head. "you'll be surprised at how often grumpy cooks happen compared to grumpy customers. everyone's happier after a drink."
then he paused, unsure of how to address her next question. he glanced at clavier, who stepped up to the plate.
'nothing's wrong with him. there's just something about ... the monotony, or something. i don't know, the kid never explained.'
The “Uh, hmm,” had revealed enough; Tiffany had used too many adverbs with too much emphasis. She hadn’t meant to sound like she was asking about fancy, top-chef cooking skills, but instead of pointing it out, she chose to take the opportunity to take a bite of the Clamperl chowder. Finally. Mmm Tavern food was tasty. Not only that, but it also toned down her surprise; instead of blurting out another line along the lines of “What’s wrong with you?” Tiffany only raised her eyebrows.
There were people out there who actually wanted to cook difficult things? Why would anyone even—oh, maybe he wanted to become a chef. That had to be it. That had to be the reason.
Tiffany tried very hard to keep a straight face as she pictured Isaac with a silly chef’s hat on.
“I wasn’t being serious, Clavier.” The smile cracked through, but it could have just as easily been in response to what the Haxorus had said. Tiffany couldn’t remember if he had always been so serious.
She returned to her food and was very disappointed to hear that Isaac’s job was rather boring and that he hadn’t stuffed up somehow. Mo didn’t perk up at the mention of a certain kind of drink, as he was starting to accept that it wasn’t going to happen today, but he did have a suggestion for Isaac. <You should shock ‘em, the new rangers. And the tavern people too. That’d liven things up.> He started to cackle.
The pause was noticeable, and if Clavier hadn’t said something, it could have well passed over into awkward territory. Tiffany shot him a grateful glance, then prodded at her food, a little annoyed at… well, she hadn’t liked being taken seriously again, but that wasn’t quite it. “Okay. Cool.” She gave up. “Quirks are fun. Everyone has one.
“Anywaaay.” It was time to drop that topic. “What’s up with these new rangers? I can’t imagine you shocking them or giving them some heart speech. Do you ‘spring’ a grumpy cook on them?” That sounded equally frightening and amusing.
clavier was always a serious pokémon. it just got out of hand as he grew and evolved into a haxorus from an axew.
isaac seemed to be in thought for a moment. heart speeches weren't really his thing. they were more of polymnia's sort of thing, where she talked about having heart and spirit and sent rangers on their way to conquer the world. he was more practical, like having things happen and seeing a solution form to combat the issue.
"i usually have trapped scourge from who knows where," said isaac, "to be honest, i have no idea where they come from. they just wander around in ceres and i trap and weaken them for new rangers to practice on. usually it involves the heart sign, because trapped scourge are sitting ducks if i pacify them. sometimes it's guarding the watchtower, nothing much of note."
isaac led a surprisingly boring post-retirement life.
Don’t kid yourself Isaac – post-retirement life was never meant to be exciting. Not in a small village like Juturna. The city was where it was at.
Although, the whole scourge trapping and setting them loose on newbie rangers thing did sound pretty interesting. And… well, a bit frightening for the said newbie rangers. Tiffany was grateful to have received the heart speech instead. Good ol’ Polymnia. Where had that awesome redhead gone to anyway?
“Ohmygoshthat’ssomeanofyou!” Scourge had not been the answer Tiffany had been expecting, but she guessed it made sense. Tiffany wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cringe at the misfortune of the unsuspecting rangers and barely stopped herself from doing a weird mixture of the two. She leaned forward. “Do you really set a scourge on them? Like, really really?”
And the way Isaac had said it too – as if trapping scourge was an easy thing he did every day. Which, okay, maybe it was. Zombies weren’t exactly stereotyped as being smart and pacification was bloody useful when people actually remembered to use it. It probably wasn’t hard to trap a single scourge at all.
well, isaac did come from bacchus town. it was a small town. was, because right now it's pretty much a ghost town of nothing. it made sense for him to settle in a nice village rather than, y'know, lake pax's boathouse where everything was grimdark and gloomy.
"is it!?" isaac said between laughter. it was admittedly something rather interesting for him to do, but to think of it as something mean ... well, it wasn't his intentions to do something like that, so it was definitely not premeditated murder! ... or something along those lines. "yes, i do set scourge on them," he affirmed once he had stopped laughing, "most recently it was a scourge arcanine.
"it's honestly rather bewildering to us whenever we see scourge around. it's supposed to be peaceful in ceres, not ... like this. makes me wonder if something's going to happen soon."
(oh yeah. oh hell yes ceres was getting attacked some time after this thread. makes you think that you gutta be careful what you talk about just in case it comes true.)
Oh as if those were the only options he had. He could have totally ditched the ranger business to do chef’s training in Proserpina, Juno, or – drumroll – Nerio, aka the best city. And when the scourge came to his doorstep he could’ve fought them off with chilli powder. Kohaku AU: Chefs vs Scourge.
Okay I’ll stop now.
“It is!” It was totally mean and unfair, yet at the same time it sounded entertaining. And an Arcanine too! That must’ve been scary. Probably. Maybe. Actually, Tiffany couldn’t quite remember what an Arcanine was but decided that it must have been as scary and ugly as all the other scourge. “I can’t believe you do that! Well? What do they do? Have any of them ever reacted…” How to say this nicely? “Uh, funny?” What she was trying to ask was had any of them freaked out or peed their pants or done something she could laugh at.
She really shouldn’t be enjoying the thought of this so much, but Tiff had never seen a scourge Pokemon in person before and had no proper grasp of what facing one was like. Not yet.
Then the conversation got a bit more serious. “Or maybe something won’t happen. Maybe it’s just a coincidence.” Ha, yeah right. Someone was being hopeful.
(I know. I think I’m gonna have to tempt fate now. Jinx everything. Let’s lose Ceres.)
