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!
"From researcher to secretary?" And lo, how the mighty fall. She didn't regard it in distaste though--only that it might be dull. That was unavoidable though. Shopping would become dull too. "If you need one. I'd rather be useful than idle."
Honestly, last she checked, J could do math just fine on his own. Maybe he didn't have the time.
"Yes," Neo said. "You shouldn't worry about me though. I'm not the one that just had a disagreement with a cut of salmon."
"you're hired," said J. at last he wouldn't have to pore over numbers. he was perfectly capable, but at the end of the day, a tired mind wasn't one that was able to handle large figures and sums.
he glanced at the oden cart owner, and paid the bill before he forgot. "i think i'm okay," he said, but was slightly uncertain of his current state.
J tried standing up, and found that he was able to. the salmon hadn't completely wrecked him, then. the radish had tried, but he had spat it out before he suffered.
A smile tugged at her lips. "Hired, really? Do I get paid or is this charity work?"
She took her head. "Tomorrow, yes. Today, I think we've done enough."
Neo hovered around J, partially just in orbit, but also like a mother hen. If he fell, she'd rather he didn't land on her, but she was pretty sure she'd try to catch him all the same. That probably wouldn't end well.
"yes, hired. you get paid," said J, and then he noticed her expression change -- he returned a smile with a faint one of his own, despite the idea of having to eat something that could potentially kill him tomorrow. he didn't know what neo had up her sleeve.
thankfully, J seemed to keep his balance well enough to start walking, albeit at a slower pace than he had when he left the izakaya. it wasn't an urgent sprint back to his office, after all.
"An income," she said, tasting the word and toying with the thought. "What an ordinary life. I never thought I'd see that again."
Neo could rest assured that nothing she fed him could possibly kill him. That was the upside of him having received the questionable gift of a healing factor from the Land of Nightmares. He wasn't going to die from indigestion. That left her free to prepare what she wished.
"No salmon or radish," she agreed. Neo tried to reassure him, but it came out distant and ominous: "Don't worry."
"you're going to have a kid who'll be relying on you," said J, glancing at neo. "it might want an ordinary life."
but who was he kidding, anyway. with scourge running around, the kid wasn't going to have an ordinary life at all.
J made no comment about tomorrow's menu. how was he supposed not to worry about food? what if neo decided to introduce heavy foodstuffs like steak? (he figured he could learn how to like steak. he just didn't feel like attempting it.)
"okay," he said. in reference to neo's new job, "you start tomorrow."
seemed like she wasn't only hired for math, but also to ... keep him eating, or something.
"It can have an ordinary life with the father," she said. "He's much better suited to it."
She nodded. Tomorrow, the start of a brand new life. Start of a brand new experiment too. What could J eat without risking sudden death? (She wouldn't try steak for a while, not until she was sure he could handle protein at all.)
"Fine by me," she agreed. "My doctor would love you. He likes anything that keeps from running into Bacchus with a deathwish."
Then she actually thought about it. Maybe it wasn't a good idea for infants to have already had a few dozen packs of cigarettes before they were even born. "Maybe I'll open a window though."
J had planned on going to the rooftop if neo was against it, but she wasn't. he appreciated that. the ashtray on the coffee table was probably getting relocated, though.
"okay," said J, turning in the direction of his office. "you got an apartment here, or?"
"I sleep at the university when I'm around." Or at the hospital, or often the pokemon center just by habit. You know, when she was even in Nerio City, anyway. Otherwise, she slept in a tent.
"there's a university in nerio?" J asked, narrowing his eyes as he tried to recall the various locations in the city. maybe he didn't know they had some faculties here because he wasn't looking for them in the first place. "huh."
in comparison, nerio was the only city J slept in somewhere else other than a pokémon center or a bar.
"Bellona Hills. It's a new campus. They fortified some of the mansions that were still standing and stuck classrooms and labs where they could. Good spot for scourge research. It used to be crawling in scourge, you could just step outside to pick up a new specimen. So convenient."
It was less convenient now, but it was a quieter place to sleep at least.
"What, you mean sleep on the job? Not sure you'd get your money's worth if I did that."
"paperwork isn't everyday," said J. they only had a lot to do when stefan sent in his side of the work, and it was mostly tallying up numbers. J figured that with someone else in the office, he'd be more motivated to do something else than hang out with irene.
... or go gallivanting with thalia across the region's bars getting not-drunk. and then there was the dream world.
he ignored the mental image of a particular someone with a shit-eating grin.
She was going to ask what she was meant to do every day if paperwork was only sporadic at best. Then she realized she was being hired for company. Fair enough.
"From researcher to secretary?" And lo, how the mighty fall. She didn't regard it in distaste though--only that it might be dull. That was unavoidable though. Shopping would become dull too. "If you need one. I'd rather be useful than idle."
