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!
it was same ol' proserpina city for the researcher. while he had half a mind to proceed on ahead, he figured that staying back in the city would serve him well for his pokédex purposes. after all, he had a good number of entries now -- it would be useful for him to continue to collect more. the next city was nerio, and between nerio was a forest and a series of caverns.
ignatius sat on a park bench, his venusaur by his side. linna was a curious sight in the park -- many children who passed by stared or attempted to play with it, and it was willing to play along as well. at the same time, new researchers also asked to scan the venusaur, and he was glad to aid them in their journey.
after the last of them had left, linna turned to him, lethargy in her eyes.
"it's not all that bad," said ignatius, patting the venusaur on the head lazily.
When Taryn decided she was stuck in the city for a bit while she created her ideal team, she figured life would be slow and lazy between training sessions, which could only happen every so often. So far, nothing had been farther from the truth. She’d only been here a few days so far, but those days were full and borderline exhausting. Between taking care of her Pokemon, learning her way around the city, taking advantage of the gym’s library, and visits to the Dream World’s training center and egg shops, she barely had a spare moment. That was a good thing, though she did look forward to life slowing down just a little so she’d have time to actually think about her Pokemon and their eventual progress.
Today was an exploration day, and her journey had taken her to the park. At first, it seemed like the day would be slow and peaceful after all, but Cirrus had other plans. The Swablu took to the air and flew off suddenly, leaving its trainer to gape for a moment before running after her.
Fortunately, Cirrus didn’t fly far. She was distracted by the largest blossom she had ever seen and attempted to perch atop it, apparently not noticing the attached Pokemon.
“Cirrus, get back here!” Taryn scolded the Swablu once she caught up. She dipped her head to the man she assumed to be the Venusaur’s trainer as Cirrus stopped what she was doing and circled the bench instead. “I am so sorry. She’s normally better behaved than this.”
linna was tired of company, but the venusaur didn't have it in itself to say no to the swablu. so it kindly sat where it was and allowed the bird to rest; the moment was disrupted when the newcomer's trainer emerged and apologized to its trainer. linna glanced at ignatius.
"ah, there's no real need to apologize. i'm sure linna doesn't really mind the company," said ignatius, despite being aware of the venusaur's current state. "she's very nice."
how sure he was about that fact, he didn't know. all he knew that was this venusaur disliked fighting, and had a strong instinct to look after those weaker than itself. it was another one of those pokémon traumatized by the scourge; he had took it in after another trainer didn't wish to care for it any longer.
"your swablu - cirrus, was it? - could perhaps be friends with linna."
“Thanks,” Taryn responded to the man’s words. “But she really doesn’t need to get into the habit of doing this.” Not only was it sure to annoy some people and Pokemon, it wouldn’t always be safe. Here in the city, they seemed to be free of the scourge, but that was only going to last so long.
The Swablue circled a bit more before landing on the back of the bench. She turned to her trainer and blinked at her a couple times before preening her wings. Taryn withheld a sigh. Well, at least she wasn’t misbehaving anymore.
The man spoke again, suggesting that their Pokemon could be friends. Taryn smiled and looked at them. “Yes, and I think she’d like that.” Her gaze returned to the human. “My name’s Taryn, by the way. What’s yours?”
"perhaps you may be right," said ignatius, watching the cotton-winged pokémon come to a landing atop the back of the bench. he smiled down at the creature. "but pokémon are intelligent enough to know friend from foe, and the natural from the unnatural."
the scourge reeked of a certain taste that most pokémon disliked -- at least, that was what he knew from his experiences. but then again most of his pokémon companions were creatures that were saved from the jaws of hadean doom, so what did he know, anyway?
"it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, taryn. i'm ignatius," said the researcher, "and that's linna, as i've already said earlier."
the venusaur lumbered a little closer, a small but hesitant smile spreading across its face at the trainer-pokémon duo.
“That is true,” Taryn responded when Ignatius pointed out that Pokemon could tell the difference between friends and foes and the natural from the unnatural. She didn’t think Cirrus was stupid, but she did worry about her starter. She didn’t want anything bad to happen to her…or her other Pokemon, for that matter. It was weird…she was expected to send her team into battle, but she felt protective over them. She hoped she’d be able to handle it when it was time for her first fight.
She beamed when he revealed his name. “Yours, too. Both of you.” She turned her grin to the Venusaur. As she did, Cirrus leaped from the back of the bench and fluttered onto Iinna’s head. Either she’d forgotten her scolding or figured it was okay to bother the Venusaur now. Taryn really should have expected that, she supposed…
After a moment, Taryn turned back to Ignatius. “If you don’t mind me asking, what brings you to Proserpina?” He had a Pokemon, but that didn’t necessarily mark him as a trainer on a journey like her, and she didn’t want to assume anything.
linna chirped happily at the swablu. its flower let out a pleasant fragrance to welcome cirrus. 'linna is happy to meet you,' said the venusaur slowly, 'linna likes friends.'
"oh, you could tell?" ignatius chuckled. "i'm originally from sol, but i dropped by juno to obtain a starter pokémon from professor cypress. the professor is a good man." cypress had been a pushover, admittedly, but he had gotten what he wanted out of the man, so everything was fine. he took out his pokédex, flashing it at taryn. "i'm a researcher."
Cirrus returned the happy chirp, her eyes closing and her breaths deepening as the fragrance reached her. ‘Me too! Me too!'
“So far, it seems like everyone I’ve met’s been a traveler of some sort,” Taryn responded. “Especially if they have a Pokemon with them. I’m not from around here, either. My family lives in Juno, and I only left recently, right after becoming a trainer. Professor Cypress was nice. I thought I’d intimidated him somehow without meaning to, but if he’s always like that then I won’t feel quite as bad about it.”
He then showed her his pokedex and stated he was a researcher. She stared at the dex. “Oh, nice. What’s it like?”
"ah, cypress," ignatius chuckled. the professor did get intimidated very easily. "he won't have nightmares about it, that i can assure you. mr krauss is very good with his tea concoctions and the professor sleeps well every night." from what knew, that was the case -- but perhaps the professor had more than tea to help him sleep. who knew?
"being a researcher's pretty tedious, if you don't like the job," he said, "but that's just me being honest. my family's into this whole business of academics and research, so it's in my blood." he honestly wasn't fond of it; he had merely chosen to leave because of happenings in the grimm family. "basically, we do stuff like this."
ignatius pointed the pokédex at the swablu. the device beeped, taking down the pokémon's information. "scan, obtain data on pokémon, and we do researcher stuff with these information."
Cirrus smiled back. ‘Of course! Am always making friends!’
Taryn nodded, happy to know that she had at least avoided traumatizing the poor professor. She wanted to know what happened to him to make him so skittish, but it wasn’t any of her business. Besides, she did have some very unhappy guesses about it, and didn’t want to be proven right. The world as she knew it was quite bad enough, and she was still helpless to do much about it.
“I can understand that,” she replied when Ignatius explained about researching being tedious but in the blood. “Researching does sound interesting, but there’s boring bits in every job, I think. Training hasn’t exactly been endless excitement either, though it’s not bad. My mom was a trainer, so my older brother and I got into it, and my younger brother is waiting until he comes of age.”
She watched as he scanned Cirrus. The Swablu turned to him as the pokedex beeped, blinked, and returned her attention to the Venusaur. That was nice – being able to do research on Pokemon without really disturbing them. “So the goal is to collect information on as many Pokemon as you can find?”
'pretty cirrus makes many friends,' linna said somewhat sagely, lowering its head. a nearby taillow came to join the crowd as well, taking perch atop the venusaur's flower. 'hello, little taillow,' linna beamed.
"ah, something of a family deal, then?" ignatius said. he could see why children were inspired to take after their parents; most of them eventually did. he supposed he was an externality, but that was fine. "that sounds interesting, to have a family of trainers.
"and yes. that's the gist of what a researcher does. the more information we have about the pokémon species, the more we can achieve."
Cirrus bounced excitedly and let out a series of chirps. ‘Is good! Iinna has many friends also? ’ Her gaze shifted to a Taillow as it approached and landed on the Venusaur. ‘Taillow is friend? ’
“Pretty much,” Taryn responded. One parent and all three children did pretty much make it a family business, didn’t it? Her dad wasn’t a trainer, but…well…someone had to take care of the children when they were still small, didn’t they? And her mother and older brother had stopped, but maybe they’d start again once the scourge threat was dealt with.
Ignatius then confirmed her understanding of his job. She smiled at him. “I don’t know how helpful I can be, but I also have a Fletchling, Skrelp, Sneasel, and Ralts if you need their data.”
'all friends,' said linna happily, 'cirrus and taillow and linna all friends.' the venusaur's laughter was soft as the tailow chirped back happily to the other two.
'hello! hello! my name is taillow! taillow!'
ignatius brightened up. "please don't worry about it," he said, chuckling, "it's my job as a researcher to find a way to collect entries, but as you have offered -- i'll take you up on it. thank you, taryn."
it was funny how not shooing away a trainer had worked in his favor. it seemed that linna had to take one for the team; but as ignatius glanced at the venusaur, he noted that it seemed to be having fun with the swablu and the new bird. all's well ends well, he supposed.
Cirrus looked between the Venusaur and Tailow, wondering if they met each other before. Perhaps they were both partnered with the man her own human was talking with. Or maybe her new friend was just really laid back concerning wild Pokemon. That seemed more likely, given that the Tailow didn’t seem to have a nickname. Either way, she was just happy that everyone was nice.
‘Hi hi!’ she greeted the Tailow enthusiastically. ‘I Cirrus!’
Taryn smiled. “It’s no problem. I like being helpful when I can.” Which is…rarely, right now. Eventually, she’d have her strong team that was capable of anything, and then she could help everybody. At least she could add a few entries to her new friend’s research. She gathered her occupied pokeballs and released the Pokemon within. The Fletchling, Skrelp, Sneasel, and Ralts all appeared near each other and gazed in confusion at their surroundings. Due to either being recent additions or unvaccinated, none of them were accustomed to being released outside.
Taryn scooped up the Skrelp, figuring her arms would be the most comfortable place for the aquatic Pokemon. “I don’t let them out enough. With the whole scourge thing going on, I’ve been too scared to. I’m hoping I can get everyone vaccinated soon. Then it won’t be…as dangerous…”
'cirrus! cirrus! pretty pretty!' the taillow chirped as it hopped closer to the swablu. it trilled. 'friendly faces, you and you!'
ignatius noted all the pokémon present with his pokédex. "ah, researchers produce vaccines," he said, "i'm still a new researcher, but i've got one or two i could spare you. consider it as my thanks for the entries."
he dug into his pockets, and took out a silver case that held two tubes of clear liquid within them. they were the eos vaccines, and precious doses at that. one would vaccinate only one pokémon and immunize them against the scourge.
"i could administer them to your pokémon if you'd like, or you could hold on to them and use them on pokémon you'd like to maintain for battles. ask a researcher if you need help."
