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!
They had stuck close together as they travelled through the caverns, which was just as well since they certainly lost their way a couple of times. When they finally reached it, the shrine was the most welcome thing they’d seen in a long time. It promised a lot more than empty tunnels ever had.
“What was his name again?”
<Uh, something long. I think it was… Hairy-onny-mouse?>
Tiffany frowned. There was no way that was someone’s name.
“Well… we’d better get this over with.” Not only did she feel as if she’d been underground for too long, the shrine gave her an eerie, almost ominous, feeling. Tiffany wasn’t at all familiar with religious sites and was just as fond of them. Her unfamiliarity was the contributing reason why she saw no problem with being loud.
“Hello? Helloooooo? Anyone heeeeere?” Tiffany called out as they closed the distance between them and the shrine. “Excuuuuuse meeeeee?”
<I don’t think you’re supposed to do it like that…> No, generally you weren't.
amadeus sniffed the air, curiosity in its movements. there was something else in the caves today, presumably some-thing in search of its master. hieronymous was busy despite being retired, and so, the umbreon took it upon itself to peer out into the open.
the rings on its body gleamed softly in the darkness as it watched the figure scream and cry. humans were odd things, it thought. its ears twitched as it picked up more noises, and the creature shook its head. this was inappropriate.
it hopped back to where the old doctor was, chattering about what it had observed outside.
hieronymous nodded and sent amadeus back out to greet the duo.
the umbreon trotted up to the two of them, and spoke up in a rather loud voice like its partner's: 'hi. what brings you here?'
its red eyes gleamed along with the rings on its body.
It was fortunate that they had seen the glowing rings and red eyes coming up to them, otherwise the Umbreon’s loud voice would have made both of them jump. Although, watching glowing rings and red eyes walking towards you induced a similar fright; they might as well have been approached by a ghost Pokemon.
“Um…” Tiffany looked towards her partner, uncertain. She didn’t want to say the name. Mo pulled a face.
<You like talking. You can talk.>
She really wanted to say a retort, but then some silly argument would start and that was not something Tiffany wanted to do in front of the Umbreon; not if it belonged to Hairy-onny-mouse, which it must.
“We are, well, we’re here to see…” Don’t say the name, don’t say the name. “Your partner. He’s the one in charge of this, uh, outpost, right?” Tiffany couldn’t help but glance over the shrine again. This was an outpost?
the shrine was an outpost, yes. if tiffany had a problem she could bring it up to hieronymous at a later date. in the meantime, amadeus was the one keeping them company. the umbreon tilted its head and watched the duo.
'yes, he is. he's not ready for guests, though. my name is amadeus.'
Yes there was a problem. This blessed establishment did not look like it served a drop of Clamperl chowder.
(Actually, Tiffany was just expecting every outpost to seem at least half tavern-ish. The Juturna outpost had left its impression).
“Why not?” What could Hairy-onny-mousey-wousey possibly be doing? The atmosphere here didn’t exactly scream busy. But then Tiffany reminded herself that she was supposed to be respectful. “I mean, it’s nice to meet you, uh, Amad…eus. I’m Tiffany, and this is Mo…tisma.”
<Mo.> He was quick to correct; Motisma was such a stupid name, he thought. <Just Mo.>
'he needs to get ready, like a proper person would. you'd comb your hair-fur before you left home,' amadeus spoke as if it were explaining simple math to a child. 'it's nice to meet you too, tiffany and motisma over there.' the umbreon raised an eyebrow at mo's protest.
'why not? motisma is a nice name! and sadly, i have no idea. should i pencil you in?hmm, no, wait. i think i hear something.'
its voice was still rather loud, but the sound of a walking cane tapping against the cave walls was louder.
“Oh, of course.” What an embarrassment for a city girl like her to forget such a necessity. And a man with the word ‘Hairy’ in his name probably had a lot to comb too.
Mo didn’t care whether it was a nice name or not; one simple fact remained. <But Mo is shorter and short names are the best.> Get with the programme, Am.
The conversation dropped then, giving way to a louder sound. Having spent minimal time around old people, neither Tiff nor Mo knew that it was a cane doing the tapping, and weren’t sure what it was. After a short moment of listening, Tiffany asked the Umbreon, “Did you mean a human something or…?”
<Humans don’t sound like that.>
“Wasn't asking you Motisma.”
<Stop with the lame long names, T.>
It took a lot of willpower to not descend into the endless loop of squabbling. The characters felt the same way.
but squabbling is fun and so is commentary. we really should do commentaries more often, because it's way more interesting.
like making the observation that hieronymous doesn't even need the walking cane in the first place. it just functions really well as an item to tap things with, or as an extended arm to hit something.
hieronymous stepped into view, and the first thing amadeus did was to leap around and stare at its master. its snout sniffed the air, and its red eyes gleamed: 'we've been waiting for you!'
the retired ranger leaned on his cane, and watched the two newcomers before the shrine without saying anything.
Its half past the time my brain stops working, so sure let’s sneak in some commentary. I promise to be as sneaky as Colin Morgan’s Merlin (ie, not very).
And don’t be silly. Walking canes are a mandatory accessory for old people. Everyone knows that. Even Mo knows that. He eyed up the walking cane as soon as it came into view, and although it’s really tempting to snatch it off the old man, he’s sure Hairyonnymouse won’t fall over, which would make the action pointless.
Tiffany didn’t think anything so extreme, but she did regard the cane with suspicion. She regarded the old man with suspicion too; weren’t old men supposed to live in rest homes?
Both were knocked out of their thoughts when the old man shouted. “What?!”<Where?!> They span around to look and honestly expected a certain demonic Clefairy to be standing there taking a deep breath.
"constant vigilance," said hieronymous with a puff of his chest. "keeps us all alive."
here comes the lecture. here it comes. three, two, one.
this was no gaius.
"people generally fear death. they don't want to die so they try all sorts of ways to stay alive. they say things like 'i'm going to die from homework' when they can't cope with doing them, and the question you have to ask is -- why do they say that? why do they use the word 'die' to replace a phrase like 'stressed out' or 'cannot cope'? why do they use the word 'die' with alarming frequency but do not want to die?"
he rapped the cane on the ground to catch their attention.
… Can we come to a compromise and say his eyebrows are the same as Gaius’?
Tiffany and Mo were confused. There weren’t any scourge around. They turned back around in time to hear the lecture properly, and when it started it finally clicked (a little late) that there hadn’t been any scourge in the first place.
Well, there goes the hope that this ranger would be another Polymnia.
At least he talked. Even if what he was talking about was a little confusing. Tiffany almost had a heart attack when the old man wanted them to actually answer something. Mo was slightly less fazed by it all, and offered an answer.
<Because... that’s just the way they speak?>
Tiffany felt she ought to try and answer too, even if she couldn’t really think of one. “Because... they don’t take death seriously?”
yes. not gunna lie, i didn't see it until you pointed it out. but now, yes. i honestly see them. he might need a new name now; how does gaionymous sound to you.
"wrong, motisma," boomed hieronymous, and had the rotom not been part-ghost, he would have tried rapping it on the head quite a few times to get it to listen. "good try, ranger. but not good enough. vigilance, i said. vigilance.
"what do you even mean that they don't fake death seriously? you can always cheat death and live on longer! that's what humans always want to do! they want to live forever, outlive each other and all but i can tell you that a charizard will live longer than any human. any two humans combined, in fact. yes."
amadeus listened raptly to its master's speech. it loved listening to them much like its eeveelution friends. they were very good listeners and hieronymous often practised on them, much to their delight.
Oh god, you realise that that name’s only gonna be misread as Gay-onny-mouse then, right? Oh well, doesn’t matter, I got my eyebrows. The best eyebrows. This is great news.
Surprise surprise, neither of them had been right. Mo looked shocked with his mouth hung open at the use of his long name – so the man was an eavesdropper! – but he wasn’t quick enough to say anything more than a <Hey!>
Another mini-lecture had started up, and to their relief the old man told them the answer. Maybe. They weren’t entirely sure.
“So…” It seemed like a good idea to double-check.
<Does that mean I’ll outlive her?> Mo sounded excited at the idea. Too excited. It kind of stung, actually. <That’d be awesome!>
Double-ouch.
“I don’t think that was the point, dumbbell. The point was that… uh.” Crap. What had the point been. Tiffany looked at Gaius-brows for clarification of what she was saying. “Humans want to cheat death?”
gay-onny-mouse with the eyebrows. sounds fantastic. i'll make some official documents and his identity card altered to reflect that in a bit. of course, this is subject to approval from ... from whoever this darned bureaucratic system assigned to approvals.
oh, by the way -- hieronymous wasn't exactly an eavesdropper. he just liked scouting out the surroundings and people present before making his move. vigilance, and more vigilance; constant vigilance always saved a soul. it never hurt to know more of what could be a potential enemies. (perhaps the man was a tad paranoid and sceptical of the world.)
"you? i'm not sure. you're a ghost, motisma. you may be exorcised before you know it. i'm sure there's a sign pertaining to that sort of skill, barring that, the gym leader in di manes is a very accomplished medium." ah, again with the name. hieronymous really didn't give a donphan about what mo preferred to be called. names were always there to be called in full. he was always called hieronymous by his friends. no such thing as nym, or H, or harry, or mousse. nothing of the sort. just good, sensible hieronymous.
to tiffany, he spoke with a kinder tone. "yes, they do. they think life is better than death and yet they complain about things that happen while they live; yet they wish to avoid death so they can continue to suffer. funny, fickle minds that we have. but to answer your question -- many mythical objects apparently give us the ability to extend our lifespans.
"the philosopher's stone. the elixir of life. cybernetics. cryogenics. ambrosia. these concepts and ideas all have the same thing tying them together: they speak of cheating death and extending the time you have before you die."
he drew something with very precise and flourished gestures in the air.
Screw the bureaucratic system, we have magic! And funny eyebrows!
Vigilance and paranoia: the real secret to surviving ‘til old age.
The exorcism thing had never occurred to Tiffany before and it was nice to know that she could always threaten to take Mo with her to her grave. Jokingly, of course. She was still quite a while away from turning dark.
Whoa hang on. Donphan = shit? Or Donphan = rat’s arse? I don’t think the Donphan of the PokeWorld would be happy with that expression.
Mo was starting to give up on asserting that he was Mo. There was no point in wasting energy trying to convert non-believers.
The lecture continued, and again both of them got lost trying to catch hold of the words as they were spoken. This was pretty heavy stuff compared to their more usual everyday conversations. At least this time Hieronymous was kind enough to draw pictures to accompany the lecture. Or something. Maybe they should’ve brought him a pen and some pap—oh wait, that wasn’t a picture, was it.
Tiffany didn’t like being put on the spot with such a weird question, but there was no helping it. She made a non-committal shrug and admitted. “I... I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it.” Considering she was on the side fighting the scourge rather than letting them eat everything, Tiffany was probably leaning towards a ‘Yes’.