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!
there is no way for karimi's blood pressure to be any higher than it already is right now. as soon as she recieved neo's message, she flew towards juno with her braviary, grateful that he wasn't injured in the dream world, at least. none of them were, thanks to those two trainers. she can only hope that thalia and j weren't worse than dead.
it wasn't easy. between the long distances and the scourge birds that blocked their path, karimi had to make a stop in di manes before leon had exhausted himself. all that she could think about was checking on neo, but burning herself and her pokemon out wasn't going to help anyone. her body sleeps in the di manes gym. esme hadn't been thrilled, but there wasn't a lot to be thrilled about in kohaku these days. karimi tosses and turns in the night, but the sheer exhaustion in her body forces her into an uneasy sleep.
she's no more calm at the dream tree. why is she here? she shouldn't be here. she should be in the land of nightmares, or anywhere else that she is needed. people need her. she cannot help them.
karimi despairs, and her arcanine can do little but watch.
Neo was dreaming, but only vaguely. She was mostly just comatose. Sometimes, her consciousness checked into the Dream World, but mostly she just floated about, only partially substantial, perceiving shapes and colors.
Phoebe contacted her first, an insistent--incessant, really--rambling about find something, maybe somebody. Neo only really heard the string of sounds.
After a while, a stark, blaring voice shook her into attention. <Yo, Karimi wants to talk to you,> Athena practically yelled into Neo's subconscious. <So you should totally look her up at the dream tree in like a few hours. Okay? Okay. Peace.>
Right.
She needed to find Karimi.
Getting to the Tree of Dreams was like swimming against a tide. She could do this easily if she felt sharper and stronger, but the best she could manage was to float generally in the right direction.
When Neo finally spotted Karimi and her arcanine, it was easier to focus, to snap herself straight to her friend's side.
"Hi," Neo said, still partially transparent and her voice far off, even though she stood right in front of Karimi. "Tell me what happened."
karimi feels a stone drop inside of her stomach when she looks up to see neo's face. neo, who is safe in juno city. neo, who never needed their joint rescue mission into bowser's castle.
which means that they should have all run away as soon as they landed in castle forlorn.
"neo..." her throat feels so dry with a reluctant truth that does not want to come out. except it must. "oh gods, neo--"
she stands up and throws her arms around her friend, except... parts of her body go through neo's. sort of. not all the way, but enough to freak karimi out a little. "neo, what happened- what did batin do to you?"
karimi recoils away from neo. she can't handle this, not now. not after what happened to her two companions. the world's going to hell, and she's not going to have a say in it. it's too much, all too much -
the arcanine stands up as well, grateful that most competent researchers have a decent grasp on pokemon speech. he wasn't there himself, but the gardevoir had told him enough. <we went to a dream-castle with a pink-haired girl and a man with a bag of bitter powder. we were forced to leave them behind.>
karimi snaps. "no one forced us to do anything! we could have stayed, we should have stayed- "
it's all that she can do to prevent herself from breaking to pieces. "why wasn't i strong enough to stay?"
Neo put a token effort into hugging Karimi back. Her physical form wasn't enough to truly bother, though the warmth of touch as Karimi passed through her was comfort enough.
"Karimi? Karimi, listen to me. You need to stay calm. I need to know what happened. Are they still alive? Where did you see them last?" Unfortunately, Karimi looked like she was on the verge of breakdown, or perhaps she was already past the point of breakdown. Neo turned to the arcanine. "What happened to them? What attacked all of you?"
Neo frowned. Maybe answering questions on her end first would help. "Batin didn't do anything to me. I sent him to you for a vaccine, and I cloned Athena. I meant to use the clone to escape, but it succumbed to the virus too quickly. A pointless effort, in the end. I believed Batin would've disposed of me if I didn't do as he asked, but now I'm unsure of his motives. I suspect he wouldn't have harmed me even if I'd been stubborn. I never tested him."
Neo tried again, hoping Karimi was calm enough to answer now. "The land is alive, Karimi. It's a nightmare realm, it will twist around you. It wouldn't let me leave, even though Batin tried sending me back. You got out, that's a good thing."
"gods, i don't know, i ran until i was back at pax lake-" karimi looks down. she doesn't want to remember, the small-town girl from decima does not want to remember what she had witnessed in the land of nightmares. "thalia told me to run, j told mary to run - i promised thalia that i would run before we arrived -" her thoughts are a whirlwind, and karimi hates herself more for providing these excuses to neo. she's stronger than her excuses, or at least that's what karimi thought before last night.
arcanine regrets that he was not there to give neo a reliable account. perhaps that is the reason why he is in the dream world with his trainer tonight. he takes a pokeball from karimi's belt and presses the button against karimi's leg. a gardevoir comes out with a flash of light. there is a certain calm about her, as if she had just been meditating.
<neo needs to know what happened>
the gardevoir gives a small nod before projecting psychic images to neo, images of what she had seen in castle forlorn. giratina, a j with claws. minerva. deoxys and the feral thalia that reached out to snap at karimi.
<it has been a day since we left pax. we do not know what has become of them since then.>
still, karimi does not know if it is better that they do not know. it had only taken mere minutes for the scourge to take control of both of her allies. she can't imagine what state they are in now.
she looks up at neo (yeah, her eyes were staring down that low). she seems normal enough, save for some minor intangibility. "so...so are you..." she doesn't want to say the words, but she must. "...are you a hades agent now?"
karimi isn't even sure if she wants to know the answer. everything is falling apart too quickly.
Karimi's account wasn't terribly helpful. "You're alive. There's no shame in surviving."
Those were but words. Neo knew they were true, but she also knew how hard they were to believe. She'd survived Decima--they both had--but life was a terribly burden when you knew that you left others behind to save your own hide.
Neo watched the gardevoir's images. Her lips pursed when she saw Minerva--her creation, her mistake. She'd have to atone for that someday. She watched on in silence, emotionless for the most part, wincing only when she saw J's transformation.
"If the scourge would take them, I doubt they're in any danger." Not their bodies anyway, but their souls might be worth worrying about. That was between them and their souls though. "I can't fight them there though. That's their turf now. If they remember why they entered the rift, they'll come find me. I'll deal with them then. If not, I'll find them later."
Neo looked at Karimi, and her face twisted--something bitter there but also a black humor. "You insult me."
Shortly, marginally gentler, Neo added, "The virus is a disease. It's like any other. And there's a cure. A cure--and I will find it."
"i don't know, i should have done something - jabbed a syringe into those two maybe..." the only thing worse than abandoning allies was abandoning friends. the first attack on decima was different. she was passed out, she had no say in what had happened to her. but back at castle forlorn, it was karimi who commanded for her legs to move, to move far away from the dangers that the land posed.
"how...how do you say that?" her question is not accusatory. karimi looks at neo desperately, as if that would provide her with the answers that she is looking for. the strength that she requires. maybe neo had a point with that 'superior logical core' thing that she was talking about. karimi sees a strength, but she has no idea how to make that strength hers. "how are you not...?"
(how are you not weak)
"i - i have to come with you." some degree of resolve comes back into her voice. "i promised - i promised the both of them that i would be back. even if they're not... i told them i would." promises to those that she had sworn to protect - those are the only things that sustain her now.
guilt colors her expression. "i...that's what i told the lucario too. i didn't believe it at the time, but i just...i had to ask. especially after what happened to our friends."
she sounds guiltier with every word. karimi decides to stop talking about the subject.
"...i wish i were strong like you." she sounds equally as bitter, and her gaze shifts to the ground once again.
"Dying in battle is an honor, but when the battle is lost, and you have every chance to escape, then you should. If you have a chance to survive, to fight another day with better odds, and don't take it, then your death was only a waste."
Neo looked at Karimi, voice still distant and now somehow hollow too. "A life with a chance of victory is worth more than an honorable death in defeat."
Neo hesitated; she didn't want to say that Karimi wasn't lv100+ ready, but when it came down to it, the two of them together probably couldn't take down either of J or Thalia. From what the gardevoir had shown her, neither were particularly keen on letting Karimi stay alive and in one piece either.
Hers was a risky plan. Karimi could've made all the promises in the world; Neo didn't care. She didn't want anyone else involved in her devil's gambit.
"No. J tried to kill you last time. He almost succeeded. I assume the same would be true of Thalia, if given the chance. Unlike you, I carry the virus. Unlike them, I am in control of myself."
Neo started to fade out of vision. She gritted her teeth, her hands rose to seize her hair, like ripping it out might help her keep focus. She started to regain her form, incorporeal as it was. "Everyone has their own strengths. Identify them, use them to your advantage. Don't push yourself where you'll only die. We can't be inefficient. We can't take unnecessary risks. Damn your promises. There are too few of us left.
"We have two researchers in Eos that can produce the vaccine, Karimi. We are not so dumb as to risk both in one endeavor."
"i'm not looking to be honorable, neo! i just...i can't... i can't lose anyone else!" the words echo into the recesses of the dream world, and karimi finally realizes how foolish they sound.
'i had to ask', 'i have to come with you', 'why wasn't i strong enough', 'i had to ask', 'i wish i were'. all those i's, and nothing else in between.
she hasn't changed at all. she's still the selfish, irresponsible alia karimi who grew up in decima and left to fight for her ghosts. her arcanine seems slightly concerned about her silence, and maybe rightfully so.
"you're right." her words taste like ashes. she hopes that she will never have to utter them again. "i ran away because i decided that there was more hope in my life and the life of my pokemon than in the predicaments of thalia and j."
that is the truth, so why does she feel so terrible with saying it?
she straightens her posture and looks neo in the eye. "what makes you so special, then? what makes you stronger than either j or thalia?" she's seen neo at her worst. in karimi's eyes, that gives her enough grounds to make a comment, at the very least. "what makes you better than them?"
the same words that she had thrown at batin. her voice is not taunting. on the contrary, it is a flat tone that betrays none of her doubts and insecurities. she thought that neo was special once, special for having every quality in a researcher that she lacked. she thought that j and thalia were special too. karimi had once fooled herself into thinking that every life was of equal value. in the end, her hypocrisy betrays her.
not all lives are weighed the same, not in the grand scheme of things. karimi had been willing to throw herself under the bus again and again in order to deny this reality. maybe it's the time to stop crawling out with broken bones and bruised flesh.
"...damn my promises, huh." karimi supposes that it doesn't matter when she can't even keep them.
"Nothing makes me special, but it's my cure, my creation. If it doesn't work, I should be the one to pay the price for that mistake. No one else," Neo said.
For a moment, her physical form becomes almost tangible. If she wanted to touch Karimi, to take her hand, she probably could. She's not transparent--but it only lasts a few seconds.
"I'm willing to die for this, Alia. No, not for this. For them. I... want you to know that."
Her chances of success were minimal at best. She'd seen both J and Thalia in battle before. They weren't opponents she could defeat, not unless they felt merciful. Her only hope was the cure--if she got a chance to use it, if it even worked, and if it worked quickly.
"When I was in the Land of Nightmares, I forgot you. I forgot everyone. I remember now though, and the memory is all the more precious after being lost.
"Stay alive, Karimi. Take no risks. Should I die, at least let it be with the confidence that someone lives on. Finish what I started. My notes and research are at Cypress Labs. The theory is sound, my trials complete. If my cure doesn't work, it was an error in execution. If it doesn't work, make it work, or I will haunt you."
"no, i meant...what if you succumb to the scourge too? you...you can't promise me that you won't. neither thalia nor j planned to stay in the castle" karimi didn't like the idea of doubting neo at all, but that's one of the things that made her a better researcher than when she first started out. "what if you don't succeed? what if you're lost to the scourge? what happens then?" what should i do? saying the words sounds like a betrayal of their friendship, but it felt necessary. karimi hated necessity.
when neo admits her willingness to die, karimi very nearly gives in the urge to throw a punch at her. almost.
"do you really value your life so little?" she's shaking again, but this time, it's from a different emotion. "do your dreams, your friendships...does our time in kohaku really mean so little to you? if you're going to fight at all, then you're gonna fight to win. you're gonna fight to live!" she doesn't want to hear anything differently from neo.
karimi can't imagine forgetting everything about their struggles. not when she's lost so much from the preliminaries. the scourge are more powerful than they had ever imagined. karimi understands this now. what she can't understand is the peace that neo has made with her gambit. "keep telling yourself that i'm your backup plan if it makes you feel better" her fingers ball into fists. "but you're coming out of this alive, or i'll come running into the rift for you, researcher quotas be dammed." well. there was a roll chance <70 that she'd say 'fuck it' and go running into the rift anyway. neo didn't need to know that part. whether she went alone or she went with a group, numbers don't seem to matter in a fight in the land of nightmares. "you're not dying, and that's final"
Neo gave Karimi a tempered look: cool, dispassionate, but somehow paternal. She wouldn't join the scourge, but she didn't know how to protect Karimi from the truth of how. "The scourge cannot claim me. I told you. I'm willing to die for this."
"So little?" She laughed, but it's malformed even in her throat, born hollow and cruel. "No. My ego is at an all-time high, Karimi. If I have any flaw, it is hubris. I have a potential cure. I am confident it will work. I mean to use it. This is my attempt to prevent any error, any miscalculation, from leading all of us to disaster. I don't intend to make Pax's mistake."
She could see Karimi's hands balled into fists. She knew Karimi had a penchant for beating up her problems.
"Karimi," Neo began. Her voice was ice now, her body fading fast. The effort of forcing her presence exhausted her. "You don't get to choose how I live or die. You don't get to choose anything about what other people will do and what their priorities are.
"This is my play to win. This is my trump card, and I will play it. The time is right."
"i want to trust you..." she swallows. "but the stakes are too high, and i know too little. knowing is our power, and right now i'm powerless. thalia knew about the land of nightmares, and she didn't tell me anything. you're not telling me anything either. don't think that i'm too dumb to tell. you're giving me bones to fucking salvage."
she doesn't remember what fear feels like anymore. all she can feel is anger, anger searing her bones. in the waking world, her anvil sword trembles with power.
nobody trusts her. nobody trusts her to do anything right, and karimi knows it. they're all trying to appease her the way that one might appease a ticking time bomb. she's not a liability, she's not and she won't be, not to thalia, not to neo, not to anyone-
her built-up frustration explodes. maybe eos had the right idea.
"i can't stop you, but i won't accept your gamble. find someone else with half the field experience to synthesize your goddamn cure." karimi figures that if neo doesn't have someone to act as backup, then there's no way that she would dare risk herself. "fuck it, i'm either coming with you, or i'm not fucking helping at all."
neo wasn't someone that she could threaten with fists. once, karimi had appreciated that. tonight, not at all.
When Karimi lost her temper, Neo's form dissipated, turning into pale dust as splashes of eerie light.
Slowly, because slowly was the best she could manage, Neo gathered herself up again. It was like piecing together a puzzle of herself, until she recalled all the bits that defined her--a bundle of ideas shaped in dreaming.
"Then deny me my luxury, and search out those fortunates that you find acceptable. Go to the Land of Nightmares, if you want, but I won't tell you any more of it. Those nightmares are mine, and mine alone."
Then she was dust and light, carried in the shadow of the Tree of Dreams. What was left of her voice was an echo of her thoughts.
"If we don't speak again, good luck in all your endeavors. I wish you only the best."
Neo was dreaming, but only vaguely. She was mostly just comatose. Sometimes, her consciousness checked into the Dream World, but mostly she just floated about, only partially substantial, perceiving shapes and colors.
