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!
verte was, simply put, killing time. she couldn't challenge the gym leader yet, her team wasn't trained enough, and she didn't dare journey to juno in the harsh snowy weather that had enveloped proserpina. so here she was, sitting outside in a cafe seating area with a cup of hot chocolate between her mittened hands. alone, she watched the snow flurry down and accumulate on the ground - an inch or two now, but it'd stack up later.
verte still sat outside, the only one as all others passed by her seat for the warmth inside the cafe, with only her thoughts for company.
Abraham liked the cold. The sting on his cheeks was refreshing (for a while), the chill in the air serving as a means to clear his mind. It woke him up, made him more efficient. At least, it had when he was trekking from Juno, an on-foot trip that could have taken much longer. He took a deep breath, tucking his copy of Gulliver's Travels into the inside of his coat, carefully keeping his coffee balanced in hand. Reading outside in the freezing cold wasn't his cup of tea. Or coffee.
The bell signalling the opening of the door rang as he exited, taking another deep breath and glancing around. He had what felt like a bad case of the butterflies as he absorbed his surroundings. Abraham was just glad to be on his journey. Behind him, Odin looked on calmly. The noble creature had a similar mindset to that of his master -- serious and motivated. A figure caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, and he smiled at her happily. She was bundled up like he was, unafraid of the cold. "Gotta love the snow." nette pfft i'm not stalking you what
she looked up at the sound of another person speaking, her green eyes flicking over the newcomer. brown hair, coffee in hand, and a bagon behind him, verte supposed that there were less welcome people to drink with in the cold. the fact that this person was eos didn't hurt, either. "yeah, it's pretty and all that. a nice deviation from the regular weather, true, but a pain when you wanna travel."
she held out a hand, the one without a cup filled to the brim with hot liquid in it. "i'm verte. that's a nice bagon you've got with you."
cass lol girl whaddaya mean i stalk follow people all the time
Abraham nodded and looked back to the street, watching the snowflakes congregate on the surface of the pavement. The grayish color of the road was hardly visible anymore. "Yeah, but it forces you to change your way of operation." he countered calmly, looking around her for a Pokemon. There were none.
"I guess you can look at that as a pro or con. Or both." Again he grinned, mainly happy to be on his journey as a researcher. He wasn't typically outgoing, but journeys promoted change, just like the snow. Proserpina was the first step.
His eyes fell to Odin for a moment, who was looking at Verte indifferently. Awkwardly, the researcher switched the hold on his coffee to the other hand so that his right could be used for shaking. "Abraham Jacobs. Yeah, um, thanks." pulling his hand back to his chest, he returned the coffee to his dominant hand and took a sip. "Ow, hot." he whispered, biting the tip of his tongue gently to attempt to replace the burning sensation. He shifted uneasily, his book falling out of his jacket and hitting the snow-covered ground. It was mostly patted down, as he was still in front of the doorway, so it didn't seem to be entirely wet. He didn't quite believe in paperbacks anyway.
Carefully, he bent down and grabbed it, rising back up into a standing position while keeping his coffee level for the most part. "Sorry." he muttered. His cheeks would have reddened, had they not already been from the chill. Rather, a familiar, sheepish smile replaced his jubilant one. "Sorry." he repeated, shaking his head. "Nice to meet you, Verte." For his intelligence, Abraham seemed to always come off as a klutz in front of other people. It was something he needed to work on. nette LOL that's reassuring
he shook her hand, and verte gave him her most brilliant smile. it seemed as if he was the decent sort, then, although she couldn't say that for his bagon. she returned to look at the falling snow for a moment, although she did glance back at abraham when there was a small thud. carefully, he bent down, and verte leaned slightly out of her seat to see why. a paperback book, it seemed, and satisfied, the trainer sat back again and set her hot chocolate on the table.
"it's nice to meet you as well," she said, a smile on her face, before motioning to the other two chairs pushed in towards the table. "hey, the table isn't private or anything; have a seat if you want to." it couldn't be comfortable standing around like that, and so abraham had the choice of sitting either across from or to the right of verte. or he could leave, if that had been what he'd been planning; whichever way he went, verte kept the smile on her face and waited patiently.
Seemingly recollected, Abraham smiled and nodded to Verte, moving toward her quickly. He elected to take the seat beside her; he didn't want to miss out on the snowfall. "Thanks," he replied happily, sipping at his still-too-warm coffee. "Sorry...remind me never to become a waiter." Not that he'd ever want to do anything other than what he was doing already.
"Research is good enough, I don't need to pile on other skills." nette
leaning back further in her chair verte laughed. "will do," she said, and took another sip of her hot chocolate. the snow was flurrying down a little harder now, but still only a few inches on the ground. she hoped it'd stay that way - any more and it'd be too much to travel in.
she did glance at him, though, and raise an eyebrow as she did so. "research? are you a researcher, then?" she'd only met one of those so far, and she hadn't been the most talkative of people. "how far along is it, then? i imagine running around to collect data is tiring enough while training pokemon to battle."
Abraham smirked and followed Verte's eyes to the street, noting the falling snow. "I, for one, can't seem to get enough of winter." the whiteness of the snow was too pretty to pass up for muggy, summer air. It will always be warm at the beach. "It's always a nice change of pace."
"Yes, I'm a researcher!" he toyed with the mug in his hand, flicking the handle idly after setting it on the small table. That was his official title, at least. "Not that I've gotten anywhere with it." he added, cheeks reddening. "I don't have much experience. Well, I don't really have any experience, really..." his eyes fell to the ground before popping back up. "But that'll come. And training will come, too." Abraham was fine with the fact that he was perhaps too optimistic for his own good. It was better to have faith than not -- what else would he have without it? Smarts? "This wasn't meant to be easy, though. Nothing about the Scourge is easy unless you're killing them." That was a hard, cold fact he took great pleasure in saying. They deserved to die. He had no qualms with their genocide. nette
"yes, i suppose it is," verte said thoughtfully. it was much easier to deal with the cold than the heat. and if she wanted warmth she could always crank up the heat in her hotel room or something.
she laughed a bit though at abraham's reaction, in good humor. though she wasn't sure if he'd take it that way. "you'll get there, i'm sure," she said, but kept a cold smile on her face when he mentioned the scourge. there was a reason athena was the only named pokemon out of all of the ones she had. "yes," she replied simply instead, and sipped out of her mug to conceal the hard edge that her smile had taken.
a thought struck her as she was drinking, though, and she lowered her cup to look at abraham curiously. "how do you guys get entries, anyway? i know that researchers just take scans of pokemon sometimes -" thank you scar for that, now verte suspects all of your kind to just whip out a dex and scan "- but do you ask, say, trainers or breeders for pokemon? or does the opportunity just... appear?"
wow verte you need to stop and think for a moment.
"I can only hope." enthusiasm filled his voice as it rung stark against the silence of the street. It wasn't the busiest of alleys, and apparently, not too many people enjoyed the snow like Verte and he did, seeing it go undisturbed by any footprints.
"Yeah, to all of that. You can scan any Pokemon, so long as you have permission and the time. At least, I think, like I said, I'm new to this." Abraham sipped at his coffee, which had cooled, tasting the richness of almonds. "But I've done my reading!" He smiled at her curiosity, leaving the information unguarded. Abraham was rather trusting, even though he hadn't the slightest clue who Verte was. Her simple, vague answers only reminded him that he needed to be sure of whom he was talking to.
verte smiled with abraham, genuinely happy for him. he was a cheery sort of man, in her opinion, and he made the previously-dull act of watching snow fall enjoyable. she did, notice, however, when the researcher turned the topic of discussion to her.
she gave a grin, a reveal of teeth at the very edges of her mouth, to him. he had told her who she was and what she did; it was only fair that she did the same. "i'm a trainer with eos. new, too, though i've already got general experience with pokemon already." fighting with pokemon was in her blood; it was something that she loved to do, even now, when she so picked-and-chose with who she took on as her main team. "honestly, i think the trainers might have the easiest time out of all the groups. though i'm not sure if that's just because we're the fighters and don't take on any additional duties, like protecting wild pokemon or making vaccines."
"That's excellent!" he really was quite cheery. If there was any one thing Abraham was good at it was being optimistic, and the cheeriness was a result of his hopeful disposition. He didn't think that would change when he started interacting with zombies for a living, but he knew what he was getting into. Nodding along, he kept his thoughts away from his expression. "I have all the respect in the world for Trainers." he looked at her, then looked away. Trainers had a recklessness he didn't possess. Abraham liked to think that, as scientists, researchers overthought things. That was probably untrue -- there were reckless researchers out there.
"Directly combating the Scourge as your sole task." he itched the back of his head, wishing to retract his blanket statement. "For the most part. I mean, you have other things to do, of course..." he hoped that his hardly offensive, rather true statement didn't offend her in some way. "You know what I mean." his cheeks were flushed. Abraham sipped his coffee.
"The previous knowledge of Pokemon is coming in handy, I bet." he changed the subject quickly. "I'm sure it'll help me. Genetics, too." Perhaps Verte had a multi-generation trend going on as well. nette
"some, but not a lot. mostly just acquiring badges and seals to make our lives easier." to be honest, trainers were more of the every-day soldiers of eos; without specialties, but more numerous and less demanding in requirements than the others. "i do know what you mean."
though, genetics? "why, do you have a lot of researchers in your family?" the d'verte had a fair amount of researchers and trainers in theirs, which was family tradition, or even genetics, verte supposed.
Abraham almost let out a sigh of relief -- Verte was calm, it seemed, and not bothered. He didn't need to be stepping on anyone's toes. He nodded vigorously as he sipped at the coffee, which had cooled considerably. The chill of the air was getting to it, but it was still lingering in the acceptable temperature range. Abraham cherished it with another long sip, his head bobbing slightly as he pulled the cup away. He pinched his eyebrows together, nodding.
"Yeah, my parents both are. Or, were, I guess." disdain laced his words as he thought of his dad. The dreams crept into his conscious and Abraham shooed them away with a sip of coffee. "They signed up to fight and find a solution right away. I wasn't really ready yet, and I was a year younger than I am. Well, obviously."
verte took a sip of her own drink, surprised at how quickly it had cooled. well, she had been out here for a while; and that she'd left it alone while talking to abraham probably hadn't helped its temperature. she didn't mind, though - cold drinks had never been a problem with her.
"i'm sorry for your loss." she didn't pry; a lot of people had lost family and friends to the scourge. most, she'd found, didn't like pity. verte didn't, either - so she moved on to his question.
"my entire family's known in the social circles as a trainer family. for years, we've churned out ace trainers and sometimes researchers and breeders. it's in my blood, to be honest." cass ...i feel so bad i'm writing such short posts for you o.o