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 umbreon trotted slightly ahead of Thalia, and so he was the one who noticed the snivy first. He bounded forwards and then backwards, pushing his head against Thalia's hand until she jogged after him to the doorway where the snivy stood outside.
She looked from the empty hallway before her, to the snivy, to the closed door, and then around again before she crouched down and offered her hand out to the snivy.
"Did someone leave you out here? In the middle of winter?" With her other hand, she fished through her coat pocket for an oran berry and offered it to him. "You can have this, if you want. You're vaccinated, so you're EOS. Where's your trainer?"
fuck, it seemed that his grandfather wasn't the only one who could bluff hisham into folding during a good round. he's racing down the sidewalk, but he can't help but grin a little despite his worry. ismael isn't much of an exception to the conniving men that he knew in bacchus, it seems. good to know, and sooner rather than later.
his hawluchas searches the skies above. a smaller eevee beside him acts like a second pair of eyes on the ground. they keep within sight, but so far neither of them have any luck. not in this city, where the skies would end before the sidewalks ever will.
he might have passed the skeevy love motel if it weren't for the crown of pink hair that had reminded him of gym leader irene. irene, whose performances were the highlights of hisham's childhood, even if he only managed to go every other week. the color has long since been immortalized in his memory. he slows enough to see the face of the girl with the snivy.
"i didn't think i would see you either. i hope that kohaku has been treating you well." a pause. "...as well as kohaku treats anyone these days."
not that he would know. #richpeopleprivilege
his expression is thoughtful, but his heart is hesitant. this would not be the same thalia de lucas that he had known when he had left kohaku. he's curious, more than she knows, but there are other matters at hand. proserpina is one of the less safe cities to pass out in (is that even a grammatical sentence).
"...i would love to stay and talk, but i have to find a friend in the city." hisham wonders how he can pull this conversation off without sounding rude to a childhood acquaintance. he opts for the truth. "i suspect that he may be a danger to himself, so i cannot dawdle."
the eevee at his side stares at the umbreon curiously. 2tsunz
"My rise has been as meteoric as Kohaku's descent," Thalia said dryly. It was hard to tell if she sounded happy with that or not.
The umbreon met the eevee's gaze proudly, his tail thumping against the ground. His own days as an eevee were long behind him. They felt as they belonged to a different pokemon. In a way, perhaps they did.
"Finding a friend? What's his name." She looked up at the hawlucha. "It's a very big city, and I have nothing to do tonight."
the eevee thinks that the umbreon is pretty lame, actually. not that she's dumb enough to say it out loud in front of him. she thinks that maybe she'll go for espeon instad, lime green be dammned.
"ismael faysal." hisham supposes that he really shouldn't be surprised that thalia would offer. thalia, the paladin of bacchus city. the successor to irene, the children said when she left at eleven years old. except they aren't eleven anymore, and those children are dead while thalia is not. "he's very sick, and i'm just hoping that he hasn't...passed out in grimer's court or somewhere equally as hazardous."
he's also praying that ismael hasn't been thinking about going to the amberwell alone. don't they also have small children in kohaku, the kind who boot idiots away from the grassy routes for running in without pokemon? that's what happened in pokemon emerald at least.
"just arrived yesterday, actually." he raises an eyebrow. "better enough to have the sense to stay at the pokemon center, i hope?"
it's his last hope.
the eevee doesn't fancy being pummeled to a pile of goo by fist-fighting pokemon, tyvm. she would have thought that fighting types were a trauma that all eevees evolved to get over. looks like some eevees never learn.
The umbreon affected a little moue of horror. Its trainer was too silly to teach the eevee how to dodge? Umbreon was so happy his trainer was a smart trainer. He had never been pummeled in a fight in his life.
Besides, he could also learn psychic, so eat it fighting types.
"Dunno. He was seeming rather lucid when I left him. He might have gone over to a center, but I had to rush to pick up some vaccines, so I didn't stick around to see what happened to him."
it doesn't take a genius to tell that hisham thinks that ismael's prospects are the very opposite of promising. "we should probably check the center first, then."
the eevee doesn't think that thalia looks like a very smart trainer, not if the night in mors is any indication. except she doesn't know about the night in mors. or the time that physis nearly wiped her team, umbreon included. what a pity.
the eevee does awkwardly realize that they'd both be running away scared from scizors and vespiquen for awhile. maybe she does want to be an eevee for a little longer after all.
"Center it is, then." Thalia said, and started walking. "So how do you know him, anyway?"
Umbreon fell in line behind her. It had been around for that Physis thread. Almost didn't count when you still lost in the end. It had also been around for the time Thalia and J beat Physis in less than a page. How unfortunate! If only the eevee had tasted the heights of victory that the umbreon had. But it never would, as long as its trainer kept running around huge cities on foot looking for one person and they got lost and stuck here forever.
"i pulled him out of a scuffle half a year back." by which he means, fought a horde of scourge and saved ismael by accident. not that he's complaining about it now. "he's a bit of a...mystery. ismael doesn't say much about his past, but i'm used to playing that game." he flashes a confident smile.
it isn't long before they reach the doors of the pokemon center. they slide open, and hisham allows thalia to enter first. he also prays that he won't be making a run to the amberwell later that day. it would be on really short notice.
Dark-type Pokémon are notable for the fact that they don't have any strong stat trends other than Attack (which is in and of itself modified by a few powerful outliers and slightly ironic as Dark was a special type, not a physical type), but usually have relatively poor defenses.
"He said he didn't remember his past, when I met him," Thalia said. "Do you not believe him?"
She went up to the desk of the pokemon center.
"We're looking for someone named Ismael," she said. "Has he checked in here? If you have him as a John Doe, he's a man around my age with silver hair, a little over 5'7 maybe?"
Dark-type Pokémon are notable for the fact that they don't have any strong stat trends other than Attack (which is in and of itself modified by a few powerful outliers and slightly ironic as Dark was a special type, not a physical type), but usually have relatively poor defenses, with the exception of Umbreon.
"if you take everyone at their word, then hard feelings are going to come in when they break their promises." he supposes that's why that he's not nearly as angry with ismael as he probably should be. a little more frustrated with himself for letting his guard down, maybe. "better to expect nothing of others and everything of yourself, don't you think? as for your question, i can't say that i do." it wasn't really anything personal against him.
the nurse denies seeing a man of ismael's description, and hisham supposes that it was a vain hope. if ismael had any faith in the region's medical system, then he would have already been resting here, and not chasing legends in the library.
hisham doesn't appear to be troubled by the news, but he's already contemplating the idea of taking a stroll to the amberwell. the lovely amberwell with its mythical waters that worked better than the heal pulse of any chansey, apparently.
"thank you for your time." hisham steps aside a few paces so that the people behind him - the people with actual medical concerns - can speak to the nurse. he pulls out his c-gear, thankful that his maps were up to date at least. the amberwell shouldn't be too hard to find. 2tsunz
"What a terribly pessimistic view," Thalia said. "I'd no idea you'd lead such a hard life."
Thalia had not and never would be impressed with Stefans and their embittered angst. Also she was a hardcore socialist. #KohakuStefanThaliaFriendshipFailure2k13NeverForget
She peeked over his shoulder.
"If you're going to find the Amberwell, you need to follow the trees with red bark."
The umbreon trotted slightly ahead of Thalia, and so he was the one who noticed the snivy first. He bounded forwards and then backwards, pushing his head against Thalia's hand until she jogged after him to the doorway where the snivy stood outside.
fuck, it seemed that his grandfather wasn't the only one who could bluff hisham into folding during a good round. he's racing down the sidewalk, but he can't help but grin a little despite his worry. ismael isn't much of an exception to the conniving men that he knew in bacchus, it seems. good to know, and sooner rather than later.
