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 !
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So…hi! You’ll have to forgive me – I’m really bad at starting these sorts of things. Probably bad at keeping them up, too. Writing in a diary has never really appealed to me before. Not with two brothers that have ready access to my room at all hours of every day. Mom thought it’d be good to keep a record of my progress, though, so here we are.
I suppose I should start with an introduction. Chances are, I’m the only one who will ever read this, but it seems the proper thing to do, all the same. My name is Taryn Carter. I’m seventeen, and have just had my Pokemon Trainer application accepted. I start tomorrow. More on that later. I live in Juno City with my family – two parents and two brothers who will remain unnamed for now. My mom’s a retired trainer, and my dad’s a househusband (he prefers “domestic engineer”, but “househusband” is a really fun word to say/write!). My older brother was a trainer for a while and my younger brother will be a trainer someday, if all goes well. All three of us have wanted to be trainers for our whole lives, so it’s a bit exciting to finally be starting. I was going to wait until my baby bro came of age so we could be a team, but times are tough. The whole region’s dealing with the scourge – sort of a zombie apocalypse type deal, only worse – and they need all the capable trainers they can get as soon as they can get them. So…yeah. The sooner I’m on my way, the sooner I’ll have Pokemon, the sooner those Pokemon become powerful, and the sooner I’ll be part of the battle. I’d like to say I’m doing this for the good of everyone, but it’s a personal fight as well. The scourge got to my older brother. I don’t know what happened exactly, but he came back with physical and psychological injuries and no Pokemon. I’m hoping that he’ll be able to recover once the scourge threat is gone. I’m certainly going to do my part to make sure that happens. Maybe if we’re lucky, the threat will be over before my little brother has a chance to join me. I won’t count on that, though.
Anyway…I’m rambling, aren’t I? Sorry. I’m about done with this entry, anyway. It’s getting late and I have a long day tomorrow. I’m heading to Cypress Labs, and then making my way to Proserpina City. I want to cover as much ground as I can on my first day. After that, we’ll see what happens.
Today, I learned that there is such a thing as too much luck! Heh… I went to Cypress Labs just like I’d planned. The professor is kind, but I think I might have scared him. I didn’t mean to, though. Anyway, the current policy is to give trainers a single Pokemon of their choice out of a group of ten mostly-random creatures. In my case, I had to choose between Tepig, Swablu, Dedenne, Solosis, Pineco, Chingling, Drilbur, Buizel, Grimer, and Fletchling. I was expecting them all to be of the more common starter types like fire and water, but one of those is a fairy type I think, and another turns into a dragon type, and yet another turns into a steel type. Then there’s the psychic types…it was a very difficult choice, I’ll just say that.
I am happy with the one I ended up choosing, though. I decided on the Swablu and named her Cirrus. She’s actually perched on my head right now, and has been for most of the day. This is going to be a normal thing from now until she evolves, I guess. It feels very weird, but I think I can deal with it. There are far worse habits.
So…yeah. I have my starter, and some supplies. It’s very late, but I made it to Proserpina. Cypress suggested taking on the gym here, but I think I’m going to wait a bit for that. I want a full team of appropriate-level pokemon, first. That could take days or maybe even weeks. I know I said I wanted to cover a lot of ground today, but I got Cirrus and made it to the next town, and that counts. Besides, I’ve spoken to some of the locals and they’ve mentioned two people I should go see. Cypress has an assistant here that’s giving out Pokemon to cover a starter’s weakness. There’s also a fisherman named Brett that sometimes gives out fishing rods. If I can get one of those, that should come in handy. There’s also the Dream World. I’ve been there before, but never without a family member, and never as a trainer. Now I’ll be able to visit the egg shop and training center. One way or another, my team will be getting much stronger soon.
I should probably start recording some info about my party from now on, so I can look back at this later and really see our progress. Yeah, I think I’ll do that, and I’ll write to you again tomorrow!
First, running around town. I tracked own Assistant Jo and she gave me a Fletchling. Amusing, since that was one of my starter choices, but he’s a welcome addition to the team. I’ve named him Firestorm and I’ve been keeping him in his pokeball for now. I hate to do that, but he’s not vaccinated and the virus is contagious. I don’t want to take any chances. Not unless I have to. Anyway, after making my new friend, I found Brett and he gave me an old rod. I can’t wait to try it out, though I want to get my party a bit stronger before I do anything remotely dangerous with them.
Next, the Dream World! Visited the Training Center with Cirrus and had her practice her moves on some targets. She’s noticeably stronger now, even though she spent a good amount of time practicing Sing. She’s entertaining, I’ll give her that. Once we finished up there, we headed to the Egg Shop and looked over the selection. There were quite a few eggs labeled “Mystery” or after an egg group. Apparently, a Mystery egg can be anything, while the egg group eggs hatch into anything in that group. Then there’s eggs that can be one of two Pokemon (Maril or Skrelp at this time), or eggs that definitely become a specific Pokemon (Skrelp at this time). I happen to love Skrelp, so I purchased one. Her name’s Ripple, and she’s going to be the focus of my next few training sessions. I need to get her caught up to her new friends.
Well, that was my day. Not sure when my next entry will be. Depends on when something exciting happens, I guess. I’m sort of stuck here until I get three more Pokemon and get them all at least a little stronger. Then I’ll feel safe taking on the gym and moving on to my next goal.
Still in Proserpina. Going to be here for quite a while. At least I’m managing to make money, so I don’t have to worry about things like shelter or food. My parents are helping me a bit to cover those costs because they want to make sure I stay safe, but most of my expenses are being covered by my own earnings. It’s nice to see something I want and be able to buy it with the money I made all by myself. I can’t wait until my baby bro starts his own journey so he can experience this for himself. At the same time, though, I’m kind of dreading it. I haven’t seen much of the scourge so far, but I know they’re out there, and it’s only a matter of time before I run into them.
And I need a subject change before I get depressed again.
So, I met someone today! Someone who also has a dragon type! Okay, Cirrus and Ripple aren’t dragons yet, but they will be, so they still count! Anyway… ((Will fill out this paragraph as my thread with Nix continues and concludes. Sorry, but I need this post here now because there are other entries coming in the next day or so.))
In other news, I encountered my first swarm today. I’ve heard about swarms, but Mom was kind of vague when she mentioned them so I didn’t know what was going on until well after the fact. Anyway, I’d gone to the warehouse to do a bit of exploring and there were Sneasels everywhere! There was another trainer there, too. I didn’t catch his name or even get a chance to talk to him, but I saw him just toss a pokeball at the mass of creatures and catch one like it was nothing! I guess when a swarm’s happening, you don’t really need to battle a wild Pokemon to catch it. I copied him and managed to catch a Sneasel of my own! His name’s Hunter, and he’s currently the strongest Pokemon in my team. Also the tamest, despite being a dark type. He was a wild catch and thus not vaccinated yet, so he lives in his pokeball for the moment. I’m definitely teaching him Dig at some point. Once I get the TM, I mean. I have a glaring weakness against electric types right now, and I need to change that as soon as I can. I also need to get vaccines for my boys, and those are expensive. And I want at least two more eggs… I hope I’ll be able to afford everything, someday!
Visited the training center again, this time with Ripple. Since she is a newly-hatched Pokemon, I tried to start with something simple – swimming. The silly creature tried swimming backwards until she wore herself out. I know Skrelps and Horsea aren’t the strongest of swimmers anyway, so I’m not entirely worried…yet. Maybe she’ll get the hang of it next time. At least the activity strengthened her a bit. She’s still my weakest Pokemon, but the gap closed a little. A few more sessions with her, and I think she’ll be all caught up.
I’ve been checking the egg shop regularly. It’s become a sort of nightly ritual for me. The mystery eggs are always there, and I plan on spending so much of my money on those, but now’s not the time. What I’m really looking for is a good Steel type. I think if I can get one of those, it should cover my remaining weak spots, or it will once my someday-Dragons evolve. Unless I get lucky and visit the shop at a time they have a Drilbur or Klink egg or something, the vaccines for Firestorm and Hunter come first, and after that there are some TM moves I need for my team to help increase my type strengths. Mom always said a powerful move with a type advantage could mean the difference between victory or defeat, and it could save my Pokemon from horrific injuries later on. I’m all about anything that’ll help me keep my team healthy, especially with things being the way they are now. I’m going to encounter the scourge eventually, and I want to have every possible chance to come out of the encounters unscathed.
I checked the Egg Shop like normal, searching for a Steel-type egg. I came home with Ana, my new baby Ralts, which is Psychic/Fairy. I just couldn’t leave without her. There were only two eggs left, and Ralts is one of my favorites. Who knows when the shop will have more in?
I guess it’s a good thing, though, even if I’m trying to save money. My team does need six members, and the Steel type I was planning would have been the fifth. Now it’ll be the sixth. I realize, of course, that I’m allowed to have more than six Pokemon, but this early in my journey I’m trying to focus on a well-balanced team. I can worry about collecting more Pokemon and building several specialized teams once my main team is built up a bit. That means getting everyone vaccinated, caught up with each other, and taught their ten moves.
In other news, I’m learning my way around Proserpina and meeting more people. It never hurts to have some friends when you’re traveling. You never know when you might need their help, or vice versa. That, and it keeps things from getting too lonely. After a while, you start to miss your family and friends back home.
I think there was more I wanted to write about, but I can’t remember what it was. Maybe I’ll be able to add it in later.
First off, my team’s progressing steadily. Slowly, but the improvement’s still obvious. Ripple’s about as strong as Firestorm now, and I’ve started Ana’s training. It shouldn’t take her long to catch up to the others. I’m not sure she really understands what she’s doing yet, but she’ll learn.
Second, my balanced team is now complete! On my last visit to the egg shop, I found a Mawile/Flabebe egg and snatched it up. I know it’s no guarantee of a steel type, but I had a reasonable chance, so I went for it. It paid off, too. The egg hatched into Mithril the Mawile. She’s my current weakest, but I intend to change that before I challenge the gym. As soon as Ana’s caught up with Firestorm and Ripple, it’ll be Mithril’s turn. After that, I’ll just need a couple more good training sessions for everyone except Hunter and maybe just one for Cirrus. Then I’ll make my first challenge. It’s still going to be a while, but it’s starting to look like it’ll actually happen, now. It’s exciting and a little frustrating because I can’t just go off and do it tomorrow. Still…six Pokemon, with every resistance between them. I still want to get a bunch of mystery eggs someday, but they don’t tempt me like they used to. I might actually be able to save up for those vaccines, soon.
On a different note, I’m making more friends. There are all kinds of nice people in this city. I almost hate to think of leaving. Almost. I can’t stay here forever. There’s other cities to visit, other badges to get, and an apocalypse to end.
