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!
the shard had claimed her. an ill sort of feeling clenched her stomach, and she fell to the ground too quickly for her liking. the floating sensation was gone now. nauseous, she staggered to her feet and tried to maintain her balance without feeling sick.
it didn't work. she collapsed back unto the ground, and sat there. she didn't feel like moving.
JwmnvPtc <20 LoN influences her <20 she influences LoN
the staircase she had seen in the presence of the shard unfolded before her. ikram watched it silently, before picking herself up. she felt the whole world swing and twist around her, and for some strange reason, even if she didn't think she was walking in a straight line, the land accommodated her.
the sky was always up above, and there was solid ground beneath her feet. even when she tried falling over, the land caught her.
one moment he was there, the next he was gone. how absurdly typical.
the Land was as eerily gloomy and cryptic as the last time he had been there. batin was getting sick of this story. he wasn't even in the castle forlorn, he noted with distaste, but in some strange wasted corner, walking along an endless set of stairs.
in the distance, a figure appeared. for lack of anything else to do, batin drew closer to it.
ikram was still at the foot of the stairs with nowhere else to go. she circled it, staring upwards -- as soon as she walked, the land melted and shifted under her, forming a red carpet that led her upwards. she continued to tread on the carpeted stairs, but stopped when she spotted a figure a few feet below eye level.
she turned around. there were no stairs leading downwards; only more stairs taking her up to the top.
this didn't seem right.
unable to backtrack, she had to make do with what she could do. she called out to the person down below, "who are you?"
v2yrKStp < 10 recognizes ikram's voice < 50 stairs for batin only
Batin didn't recognize the voice calling out to him, which ruled out any of the agents he knew, but it was a human sound, with cadence and rhythm. Not the voice of the visions that appeared here at times, blank-faced and lost beyond imagining. He supposed that was something.
The figure was standing on a set of stairs that lead only up--it looked like one of the Land's little amusements, something like that--and though Batin tried, he could not will a set of stairs for himself into being. They would remain separate, it seemed.
"Batin," he said. "Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?"
ikram bristled. it was a voice familiar to her; wasn't this the man whom she had encountered in the forest? a part of her wanted to bring him up to where she stood, but the other part recognized a sort of danger. a mysterious world like this where the stairs only led up was somewhere she had seen in her dreams. it wasn't supposed to be physical, or even real.
but it was.
"batin? ..." she paused. "you can call me ikram."
did she -- did she pull him into this place as well? away from his city, and into this place? it didn't seem to make sense, but it was the only thing she could --
"can you come up here?"
she snapped her fingers.
drSK4rf9 <30 a platform brings batin to where she is
To Batin's immense surprise, the moment the figure expressed the desire for him to come up, the Land obliged. The ground he had been standing on detached itself and rose up to the height of the stairs. Batin could have easily stepped onto the staircase as well, but he stayed where he was for the moment.
And the figure resolved herself into the girl from Ceres Forest. Interesting.
"That's a rare gift," Batin said. "To make this place listen to you."
ikram had been under the impression that this was all a part of a grander scheme in the forest. some sort of illusion -- they would bend to her will, which was natural and in the name of keeping her snared within its grasp. batin's words seemed to act against that fact, and she raised an eyebrow.
"what do you mean, listen?" she asked. for some reason, she kept walking and the stairs unfolded like a scroll before her. batin's platform moved alongside her, keeping pace remarkably well. "i've seen this place many times but this is my first time in it."
695bSy0a <30 a flat stretch of floor
she stepped off the stairs, intending to talk to batin in a place that wasn't an endless flight of stairs. the Land accommodated her by providing a stretch of floor, at the end of which the stairs resumed.
"this place feels familiar. you know, it's like seeing someone and feeling as if you've known them for years now. it's sort of like what i saw in the forest, but this feels -- more real, in a sense. in the forest it was just a lot of stairs to walk.
"here, it's more animated. feels more lively, in a way. so it's different from there, is that what you're trying to say?"
"This is the Land," he said. "A place like the Dream World, but distorted, you could say. Warped. It is not a place familiar to most, and even those who are familiar with it could rarely command it as you do. It must like you. It might choose you, one day."
ikram wasn't familiar with the dream world. she listened to what batin had to say about the subject -- and figured out the opposite to it. where the Land was distorted, she assumed the dream world would have something else there -- buildings, people, maybe even a city that never slept. it sounded filled with potential, and she thought she would like visiting it someday.
she wondered why this land with red skies didn't have a metropolis of its own. had it all turned to ash, broken and unwanted? and that would have been why it had warped into this state. being abandoned did funny things to people, she thought.
a while passed before she spoke. ikram was content to sit with her thoughts and ruminate over what batin had said. she watched the spiral staircase and followed it down with her gaze; around, around, and down.
"i'm flattered that it likes me," said ikram, breaking the silence, "i suppose i should say thank you. though if you said that it's like a dream, things should be easy enough to manipulate."
she focused.
hqTfdDtx 1-10 an entire metropolis 11-30, 41-60, 71-100 nothing 31-40 pillars with carvings 61-70 a building
<50 highly detailed carvings, >50 simple ones <50 the carvings tell a story
several pillars rose from the ground. they soon reached up to where ikram and batin were standing, before stretching high above them. they ground to a halt a moment later, their bases twisting to lock themselves into place. the pillars flanked them, forming some sort of makeshift hallway.
the eight pillars boasted intricate carvings of pokémon and humans, each with their own story to tell.
Ikram pulled up a set of pillars from nowhere and Batin whistled. He thought maybe he'd been wrong about the Land liking Ikram. He'd seen how the Land treated someone it liked. Neo had been like a child playing at fisticuffs with a mastiff; the dog was gentle enough, but the kid was never getting anywhere the dog didn't want it to go.
This was more like...well that was a train of thought he'd explore later. After some more observation.
0Hf8iNLs < 20 batin makes a doorway appear
He concentrated quite hard, but he lacked Ikram's mastery. For all his efforts, only a shimmering outline of what seemed to be a door appeared in front of them. It was rather insubstantial.
ikram glanced at batin, and realized that he had conjured up something like a silvery ... silvery something. she wasn't sure. it looked like a door, and ikram felt that it might be one. "it's not really skill, is it?" she asked, walking towards the shining form. she extended a hand towards it, and felt around. "if it's a door, you need to give it a destination. you can't just go, 'i want a door,' and expect dreams to make things happen."
OaqU|mu_ <50 brushes against a doorknob
ikram withdrew her hand from the shimmering mass. "did you want to make a door, or a doorway? i'm not quite sure, but i haven't found a doorknob," she said, feeling the cold air from around it slip away from her fingers as she returned her arm to her side. "but here:"
<30 makes a doorway appear
before them, a door with a knocker and a proper doorway emerged. it stood next to batin's outline, rigid and very much like what it was supposed to be. its frame had similar carvings to the pillars from before, and the knocker was made out of gold.
ikram watched as batin knocked on the door. it was a very solid door; the sound continued to echo throughout the ascension until it faded into nothing. it was only then that ikram answered.
"oh, i was thinking of a nicer place. something like this, but maybe a little more furnished? like a nice lounge with really good service."
the door swung open.
b9UIlQxY <30 yep
and true enough, what ikram wanted had manifested on the other side of the door. it was still very much the ascension, complete with stairs, pillars and landing, but it was considerably more furnished than before. there was also an entire fleet of serving staff ready to cater to their whims and fancies.
