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!
Hell it was cold outside. Felizia was quite content with spending the rest of the day inside the Pokemon Centre where it was heated and warm and cozy and completely free from winter weather. Usually the temperature had to drop a few degrees lower to get this reaction out of her, but today the cold had teamed up with the wind and there was no way Felizia was putting up with that for more than ten minutes. Knowing her luck something would get blown in her face.
Felizia hugged her Teddiursa closer to her. It wasn’t the warm fire-type she wanted, but at least the Pokemon’s fur felt nice and was warmer than her jacket. And, more importantly, this Teddiursa was one of the few Pokemon that still tolerated hugs. There was nothing worse than trying to mooch some warmth off a Pokemon who’d kick itself free of the hug. Seriously, you’d think they were all fighting-types or something.
the pokémon centre was surprisingly empty. with the temperature outside too cold for comfort, ignatius had expected more people when he stepped into the building. instead he was greeted by a few persons, most of them medical personnel.
zalitz cocked its head, muttering its name to ignatius. as always, the man pretended to understand the flygon perfectly. "yes, zalitz," he said soothingly; when he received the flygon, he was told to take good care of it and interact with it often. it would apparently help out with getting it back into fighting condition.
that was precisely why ignatius remained in proserpina. there was no point in leaving when he would only end up backtracking due to incapable pokémon.
at least it gave him an opportunity to work on his pokédex.
ignatius approached a female hugging a teddiursa, pokédex in hand. "do you mind giving a budding researcher a hand with his pokédex?"
“You’re so fuzzy,” Felizia cooed at the Pokemon. If she said enough nice things, maybe it would never grow into a hug-hater. Maybe it could become like a permanent, portable blanket. Or something.
The image of being crushed to death by an Ursaring flittered through Felizia’s mind and her hold on her Pokemon loosened. Luckily, the image was broken as soon as someone spoke to her.
In all her elegance, Felizia stared blankly at the stranger for a couple of seconds too long. She was trying to figure out how she could help anyone and who this researcher was anyway. Thankfully, she did manage to figure it out in the end.
In another show of elegance, Felizia lazily shrugged her shoulders. Did giving someone a hand require moving? Rather than that, she asked, “How much of a hand?” Then, trying to be helpful she motioned to her Teddiursa and added. “I have a grown one of these.”
being polite and tactful paid off. sometimes. in this case, it seemed to work. ignatius smiled at felizia and muttered his thanks. "just show me your pokémon," he said, "doesn't need to be all you have -- just the ones on you at the moment. i just need to scan them for their entries."
the flygon softly cried its name as it glanced at the teddiursa, then back at ignatius. it cocked its head expectantly.
"no, zalitz," said the researcher, "you can't play a game with the teddiursa."
Felizia shrugged and reached for her pokeballs. “Okay then, let’s see…” Truth be told, she wasn’t all that sure which Pokemon she was carrying with her right now. Time to find out.
Out came an Ursaring, Sneasel, Sandile, Miltank and a female Nidoran. They were mostly surprised to find themselves in a Pokemon Centre as they rarely had reason to be in one. A couple of them had never battled before, ever. “Say hi to the reasearcher guy. He’s gonna study you or something.”
Putting her Teddiursa on the ground and nudging it towards the others, Felizia added, “And then there’s this little one. You wanna say hi to the Flygon, little guy?”
The Teddiursa looked at Felizia’s Pokemon, confused as to which one of the Pokemon was supposed to be a Flygon.
ignatius observed the gaggle of pokémon that appeared before him. they seemed rather disoriented, a fact that he understood considering how they acted around each other. he tapped a button, and the pokédex flipped open. its screen lit up with a pale green as the scanner picked up the pokémon in the vicinity. "hello there," he greeted the group of five, "stay still for a bit while i scan the lot of you."
he raised the pokédex before pointing it at each of them in turn. the device did its work smoothly, and then there was only the teddiursa left to take note of. unfortunately for ignatius, his flygon was staring straight at the teddiursa, and was attempting to capture its attention with its tail.
zalitz lowered its head and peered curiously at the little bear. it took care to keep its distance to avoid startling the teddiursa, but its interest in the furry pokémon was evident.
"excuse me," he told the dual-type, before pointing the pokédex at the teddiursa. the beep that sounded had never been so satisfying to ignatius's ears.
no longer interrupted by a pokédex looming over them, zalitz proceeded with its continued staring at the bear pokémon.
It felt… a little weird honestly to watch her Pokemon be scanned. Felizia turned her attention everywhere else, and everywhere else easily became the researcher’s Pokemon. She ended up staring at its tail almost as much as her Teddiursa did. (It still hadn’t realised that it was staring at a Flygon).
The Teddiursa was now so focused on the tail that it hardly noticed the researcher scanning it. It just… stared. Felizia nudged it with her foot. “Go say hi already.” At that, the little bear took a couple of steps towards the tail before promptly resuming its stare.
The rest of Felizia’s Pokemon watched the scene with mixed reactions. “Jeez you guys.” Felizia couldn’t say more than that since she too had been watching curiously. She returned the Pokemon, making a mental note to let them out more often. It had become painfully obvious to her that they needed to socialise more outside of themselves.
“Bunch of weirdos.” Then to the researcher she said, “Hey Mr. Researcher Man, if you give me a minute I can get some more Pokemon to show you?” Her cushion had already left her so what harm was there?
"ignatius," the researcher corrected her, "my name is ignatius."
zalitz continued to stare unflinchingly at the teddiursa. it didn't mind the fact that it was being stared at by another pokémon; after all, it was doing the same as well. it continued to watch the teddiursa, mumbling to itself in its own tongue about its observations.
ignatius ignored the flygon in favor of the breeder's offer. "sure, i would appreciate that," he said, giving her a small smile, "thank you very much."
“Uh huh.” Weird name. Vaguely familiar, but still weird. Felizia preferred Mr. Researcher Man. “Hang on a sec.” She left to switch her Pokemon around; all except the portable cushion of course. No one switches out a portable condition in this cold.
At the height of its curiosity, the portable cushion decided that it would like to catch the tail. It jumped, flailing with its arms as it tried to catch its new toy. It was sure that the tail would soon belong to him…
Felizia returned and sent out her next lot without a word. Ba da bing, ba da boom, guess which Pokemon came into the room. The Girafarig stayed calm, the Mankey started looking for something to throw around, the Nuzleaf told off the Mankey, the Kecleon became overwhelmed and started to disappear, and, finally, the Exploud decided that the Pokemon Centre could do with a lot more noise.
Felizia easily became reacquainted with the feeling of regret.
zalitz narrowed its eyes when the teddiursa lunged for its tail. it whisked its tail away almost at once, but the bear was fast. it quickly moved a second time to catch the moving appendage, and soon it had its grasp upon it. the flygon's lips thinned, but its glassy eyes glanced away. patience was a virtue. the teddiursa was still young and all. it could take this. right.
on the other hand, ignatius wasn't sure how to react to the scene that unfolded before him. before the kecleon disappeared, he pointed his pokédex at it -- so that was one down, four more to go. his ears pounded from the exploud's noise as he pointed it at the rest of them in turn.
trying his best not to flinch (or frown) at the noise, he turned to felizia. "that exploud certainly lives up to its name," said ignatius.
the nurses ran about while a chansey bravely stepped up to where the exploud was and gave it a good slap on the face. it spoke disapprovingly of the pokémon's conduct.
Yes. The Teddiursa had only know that it would be a matter of time… and with its new plaything, it could rule the farm! He had the power! ...only, he had no idea what to do with this “power”. The Teddiursa wasn’t a planner, and now that he had caught the Flygon’s tail he genuinely had no idea what to do next. With that in mind, he gave the tail an experimental tug.
Contrary to what you’d expect (or maybe it was exacltly what you’d expect), Felizia wasn’t sure how to react either. Only after the Kecleon had almost fully disappeared did she think to return it, and she watched the interaction between her Mankey and Nuzleaf, trying to gauge whether they were going to get into a brawl or not. She hardly paid attention to her Exploud since the Mankey was the more obvious trouble maker, and pretended it was all background noise.
It didn’t work. The Exploud was too loud to be background noise, and Felizia barely heard what Mr. Researcher Man just said to her. “Huh?! Exploud a what?!” She shouted back. Just as the main noise stopped abruptly and the Pokemon Centre echoed with the sound of a slap.
Well, that had worked. The Exploud was suspiciously ashamed of its behaviour and, even more suspiciously, it apologised, even if only to the Chansey.
“What a liar. I bet he waits 'til the Chansey isn't looking, then...”
zalitz's lips curled once again, unhappy with the turn of events. it pulled its tail back and out of the bear's grasp. the appendage snapped around zalitz's own feet, while the flygon watched the bear with a wary eye.
ignatius raised an eyebrow at the chansey's actions. "is it legal for a nurse to act that way?" he mused aloud.
the chansey snapped angrily at the exploud and gave it a earful for its misbehaviour. in no way was it condoning loud noises in a place like the pokémon center. the injured and sick were here to recover, not to participate in a rave! it continued to lecture the exploud, and had almost no intention of leaving any time soon.
"he'll have some time to wait," ignatius pointed out. "the chansey hasn't finished its piece."
No. The power had slipped out of its grasp. What was he to do now? The Teddiursa followed the tail’s journey with its eyes and, for the first time, realised that it belonged to something. A Pokemon. A Pokemon who didn’t look like it was about to share.
Grumpy at the loss, the Teddiursa plonked its furry butt on the ground and crossed its arms as best it could. It was time to mope.
The Exploud rolled its eyes and tried to cut in and say something sarcastic or rude, but the Chansey was too good at this. In fact, the Exploud, and Felizia, suspected that the Cahnsey was well practiced in the art of telling Pokemon off. Surely the Exploud couldn’t be the first disruptive Pokemon to have ever set foot here.
“Ugh, this is so embarrassing,” Felizia groaned. “Hey, hurry up and do your researcher thing already so I can call it back.” She didn’t see any problem with cutting the Chansey’s speech short; if anything, it would save its breath.
moping did nothing to deter zalitz from continuing to growl at the teddiursa. (i keep trying to type terriermon instead.) the flygon hissed, its tail dragging back and forth over the pokémon center floor.
the chansey continued its verbal assault and sent the exploud back to felizia's side after a last, final slap to ground it into its brain that making noise was a no-go in the pokémon center.
"quicker than you are," ignatius said, as gently as he could. "i've scanned them all."
Just as the Flygon wasn’t deterred, neither was the Teddiursa who, now that it watched the tail being dragged back and forth over the floor, prepared itself to pounce.
“What?” Felizia was a little stunned, and a little annoyed that she could have recalled her misfits earlier. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?” She rushed over to her Exploud, who never wanted to see a Pokemon Centre of a Chansey again, and returned it. “Sorry,” she quickly apologised to the Chansey before turning to look for her Mankey who thankfully hadn’t found anything worth throwing.
Regret. She regretted letting them out at the same time so, so much.
When only the calm (thank Arceus) Girafarig and elusive (dammit Arceus) Kecleon were left, the Teddiursa decided to make its move. It had stalked its prey long enough. It made a dive for the tail.
j8QoI9aL <50 completely misses and crashes into… idk Ignatius or the chansey or something. your choice. @veritgo
