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!
often you dream of impossible things. can you count the times the dead have come to you while you sleep, taking your hand in theirs and offering you the forgiveness they will never grant you in life? in this place, you could be one of them; your mouth filled with blood, your skin gray and wan, your red eyes and your sharp claws. the crystal that beats over your heart. the crystal you think might be your heart.
here you're the monster you always knew you were. you don't pretend anymore. you sit at the table and don't hide your fangs. there's no more attempts at niceties, human gestures, performing actions you can't understand for people you'll never truly know. the ruined blood wreckage of this sham of a dining room doesn't bother you. you drift from the shattered mirror at the wall to the table set with rotted food, and grin like a hyena. for now you still have your mind, and a part of you is repulsed. another part of you knows that will fade with time.
a good dream for melchior is a flashback to his early twenties, back when he had attended kohaku university with some of the future leaders of kohaku, all of whom were brimming with optimism and hope. melchior doesn't drink, but he does toast them with a glass of water when they do. it is a good sort of reprieve. he even smiles occasionally at the things that his classmates are saying.
that is, if it were a good dream. this is not a good dream. this is a taste of a future that he fights.
he sits at a table with a young woman who bares her teeth at him. that is all that he needs to know. the dream world cannot touch him, but melchior takes out a pokeball all the same. an automatic reaction after everything that has happened.
look at him, look at him! he gleams like a star, he's resplendent with his power. he smells like money and inherited class. don't they all, this old guard? they'd rather burn this world to the ground rather than let anyone else hold it. those of them that notice someone else is reaching for their prize, at least. they wear burnished masks and ignore their rotten cores, the festering disease at their door.
(they don't play your game: looking at the darkness, and then looking away, faster and faster until you can't till which way you're facing.)
the nidoking isn't what you want, but he'll make a fine appetizer. you leap.
nBPAq8T3 < 50 the crystal grants super strength surpassing nidoking > 50 super strength matches it 1 - 30 thalia punches nidoking 31 - 50 thalia kicks nidoking 51 - 70 thalia throws nidoking into the wall 70 - 100 claws at him
somehow, the nidoking is pushed back by the kick. melchior doesn't even move from his seat. why should he? how he wakes up from this world is of no import. what's importance is that he wakes up eventually, wakes up to a toxic hellhole that welcomes no visitors. it's a hell that welcomes melchior, however. melchior, who has planted his roots into the firm soil for years. melchior who will never escape from decima, and has no desire to do so.
it is a symbiotic relationship. he does not think of dreams. he only thinks of his city. the rest of kohaku do not call it much of a city these days, but melchior understands otherwise (how could the association appoint a gym leader who does not understand his city?).
melchior has fought enough monsters to recognize one when he sees one.
that's to say, he doesn't recognize thalia de luca at all. it's easier to remember the things that he has killed than the people that he has allowed to walk away from his life.
the nidoking glares at thalia and hopes that she broke some nails on his hide. judging from the scourge coloration, possibly not.
you did split a few nails, actually, but it doesn't bother you. you know the Land always provides, and here you are the chosen daughter, the favored child. this man and his pokemon are the interlopers. they're out of their league, and they don't even know it. they're dead and they keep walking forward like it'll bring them back to life.
thalia dodged thunder thalia used curse on nidoking C0XQA4Ou 1 - 30 thalia punches nidoking 31 - 50 thalia kicks nidoking 51 - 70 thalia throws nidoking into the wall 70 - 100 claws at him < 50 thalia grows jagged claws < 40 the land itself helps her against melchior < 10 darwin shows up
melchior's venom badge glows and he transforms into a magical boy. okay, not really, but the nidoking takes on a regular poisoned status.
thalia may be splitting nails, but her clawing is splitting nidoking's hide. not in the exact same places, thankfully. being thrown into a wall really pisses him off, however. a feeling of deja vu passes melchior, and he realizes why the pink hair is familiar.
his only reaction is a sense of quiet disappointment. when he had hoped that his victorious challenger would become stronger, this was not what he had in mind.
nidoking uses protect nidoking uses thunder
sending out a second pokemon against a single opponent would not have sat well with melchior a year ago.
there's no time like the present. he sends out weezing.
S|xdbmAZ < 40 the land itself helps her against melchior < 10 darwin shows up < 50 scourge < 50 scourge recognize thalia as one of them
None of the bayleef were Magnolia. Magnolia died a long time ago, and her body died a while after that. But the world moved in cycles, or the Land merely had a sense of humor. It was hard to tell which.
The bayleef battered down the door and stampeded towards Melchior and his pokemon.
the time to negotiate is long over, especially when it comes to dealing with the scourge. nightmares especially. at least, he only hopes that this is an elaborately constructed nightmare, that thalia de luca is still well and scourge-free.
scourge free and fighting their mutual enemy. at least the exp here is real.
nidoking uses poison jab on bayleef nidoking uses captivate on bayleef
weezing uses sludge bomb on bayleef weezing uses smokescreen on thalia 2tsunz
iNqx4xDC < 40 the land itself helps her against melchior < 10 darwin shows up
The appearance of the bayleef had roused the Land's attention on what was happening, and it was not pleased. It had very many more exciting plans involving Thalia! None of them involved this barbaric fighting and clawing. She needed to learn etiquette like a good daughter.
< 50 the land kills melchior's pokemon < 50 melchior and thalia are whisked into an elaborately decorated, very pink room for a tea party > 50 they're both wearing dresses
The Land chastised Thalia to be nice to their guest.
he doesn't seem too perturbed by the dresses, though. nevertheless, he has no business here with thalia if his pokemon aren't gaining experience fighting the scourge.
he supposes that it would be unlikely that he would be able to wake up through sheer force of will. hopefully, he has better luck than sophia.
Do you come here often? Thalia growled to Melchior in scourge again. She smoothed at her dress front with blood-sticky palms, and snarled when she got red stains on the fabric.
often you dream of impossible things. can you count the times the dead have come to you while you sleep, taking your hand in theirs and offering you the forgiveness they will never grant you in life? in this place, you could be one of them; your mouth filled with blood, your skin gray and wan, your red eyes and your sharp claws. the crystal that beats over your heart. the crystal you think might be your heart.
a good dream for melchior is a flashback to his early twenties, back when he had attended kohaku university with some of the future leaders of kohaku, all of whom were brimming with optimism and hope. melchior doesn't drink, but he does toast them with a glass of water when they do. it is a good sort of reprieve. he even smiles occasionally at the things that his classmates are saying. 
