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 little that she can do for the scourge in the world of dreams. this realm, sophia reserves for herself. she doesn't feel safe here, not as long as there are things that she holds dear, but what does it matter when she doesn't feel safe anywhere?
it's not often that an amusement park springs forth in the middle of city of dreams. daniel used to take her, back when he had the dream cash to spare. which wasn't often, since they were so often in need of real cash. it's strange, to be here as a twenty six year old. sophia had expected to arrive in a body that barely qualified for most of the rides. that's how she usually arrived in the places that connected to important memories.
maybe that's not it. there's a rational explanation for this. there always is.
she sees a man in the distance, and she thinks that she recognizes him. sophia doesn't know if he is real, or if he is only another dream-fluff illusion. that doesn't matter either. whatever he is doing, whether he speaks or remains silent, whether he is surrounded by people or walks alone, sophia takes him by the hand. "i don't know why you are here. but i'm glad that you are."
maybe they're to blame for that. sophia wouldn't be surprised.
she takes a look around them. the dreamers engage in the usual fare of popcorn, bottle games, and pokemon balloons. they're here, among the dreamers who dream wonderful dreams. it's more than the either of them deserve, really.
like all things that they don't deserve, sophia recieves it without complaint.
her feet start moving, although sophia does not know where she will go. she looks at zahir - really looks, and she can't help but think of batin and the things that he has said with those lips.
"...are you really okay with that?" she would have taken him at his word once. they're only in an amusement park, but a shadow looms. it's an unfair question, she decides.
she is an unfair woman.
then again, she is not sure what zahir has to be happy about, these days.
sophia decides to walk until they get to a place of interest. it doesn't take long before they reach a silver fountain with live corsola dancing along the edge. she pauses to watch them. they are naturally pink with blue underbellies - god, how long has it been since she has seen one of these? unvaccinated, unscourgified. the dream world is truly their haven.
sophia does not approach them. it didn't feel right.
"i would imagine that batin eats pretty well." her voice is level. at this point, zahir's state of existence is mere fact. "or are the funnel cakes better than i remember?" 2tsunz
"he does when he eats," zahir said. "which is not as often as you might think. he's busy, these days. lots of work to be done."
he shoved his hands in his pockets, and seemed surprised when they went right through. "they might have been good because i was a kid, but i suppose we could always find out."
"...what kind of work?" she wishes that she remembers how to sound more conversational. once, the wide-eyed wonder had been real. now, there's little more than professional interest.
at the same time, physis is still growing grey hairs over how little batin tells her.
sophia takes his hand again, and it's still as solid as she remembers. maybe that's okay. maybe this is right.
she likes sugary foods, so she doesn't complain. she reaches into her pocket and expects to find coins. instead, she's met with a wad of dream cash.
...cresselia must have been making double rounds. "your father took you to the amusement park?"
she buys one funnel cake, if only out of habit. sophia and daniel had always split it. she hopes that zahir doesn't mind the same.
"the boringly predictable kind," zahir said, mouth twisting in a grimace. "kill eos, capture eos, enact strange hare-brained plans that will further the scourge. my dream."
the funnel cake was good, for where they were and what he was. he chewed quietly for a moment.
"is it really?" she thinks back to the night at pax institute, and a bitterness rises up to meet her. "i'm sorry, i didn't mean to - of course it is." the scourge had chosen him, didn't they? the scourge had chosen them both. she has no idea why. not for a man like zahir brand, but this is reality, a reality that speaks more than all of her conjectures.
sophia knows what the endgame was as physis. carving the world down to its bones because she's much too spiteful to die. she does not see that in zahir. she does not see the endgame that he is planning. or that batin is planning. she'll see it to the end, but that doesn't stave off her occasional doubt.
she's quiet. "it's worth it, isn't it?"
she's lost too much for him to say no. sophia does not ask if the end will make her happy - the world is too far gone for that. if he had wanted to make her happy, then he would have chosen to stay. yet here they stand, two perfectly discontent people.
sophia doesn't really complain as long as there was enough powdered sugar on top of the cake. well, she wouldn't have complained anyway.
3GZa1r9M < 70 batin killed their/his father < 50 zahir knows < 50 he blocked it out > 50 batin kept it from him somehow < 50 zahir is even aware he's dead
zahir thought about the path he had walked. there was nowhere to turn back even if he wanted. "it is." he agreed.
the mention of his father startled him out of contemplation.
she has little choice but to believe him. sophia supposes that it was only natural that she should be added to the tinder pile. she should hate him for that. she should turn around and leave for good, leave him to his strange delusions. she doesn't. had it been anyone else, she might have done a lot worse than leave quietly.
"what should i do about batin, then?" for all her experience, he does not accept her help, and she knows nothing. "he seems to have as much self-preservation instinct as you do, and he tells me nothing, accepts nothing from me." she looks to the distance, in the direction further into the park. she finishes the rest of her funnel cake as she walks, careful not to get powdered sugar on her face. "...i had even suspected him of being an eos spy for a time."
the question catches her off-guard as well. after all, it was batin himself who had relayed the information. sophia had assumed that their memories were one and the same. her grip on his hand tightens slightly.
she had never thought that she would be put in daniel's position. it's not a pleasant place to be. how had he done this? he had sat her down on an office chair and looked at her kindly as he told her, "mother and father are going on vacation for a long, long time."
she is not daniel rosenburg, no matter how much she wishes that she can be at times.
"he is- " sophia amends her sentence, since batin is perfectly capable of being a lying bastard. "batin told me that he is dead." 2tsunz
"i wouldn't advise you to do anything about batin," zahir said. "except avoid him as much as you can, if possible. but i can assure you that he's certainly not an EOS spy. he's dedicated to the scourge." and nothing he said was a lie.
her next words made his mind skip like a broken record for a moment, searching for something he knew was there, and yet wasn't.
"dead? i don't have any memory of that. i suppose batin could have read the news in an obituary, a letter, when i wasn't paying attention, but that's odd."
it's strange, sophia decides, to be talking to a man who has even less than she does. it's also the reason why she moderates her temper. just for tonight.
nevertheless, sophia suddenly finds a need to be doing something with her hands, anything. she lets go of zahir and walks to a dart game, expecting him to follow. she sets down a bit of money and pays little mind to the other fairgoers. the game also gives her the added bonus of being able to look away from him.
"...you don't tell me anything, and you expect me to do as you say." she thinks of daniel, and the anger in her voice spikes. just for a moment. "do you not think that i've lost enough by looking away? have i not told you that i spent five years of my life watching my brother spin the stories that we both knew were lies?" sophia may have been stubborn, may have been indecisive, but she certainly wasn't lacking in memory. hopefully, zahir wasn't either, but she can't be sure of that.
she takes a dart and aims carefully. "i've lost you once before. that's enough to learn."
even if sophia had kept up with the media as much as she once did, she knows that she would have avoided the obituary nevertheless. if she cared enough for remembrance, then she certainly wouldn't be a hades agent.
"maybe he will give you better answers than he gives me." she makes the throw. 284EO9mY 1-20 nothing 21-40 red 41-80 blue 81-100 gold