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!
he's a wanted man, but nerio is a big city. big enough to swallow a few criminals or two. not many outside of eos have seen his face, however, and batin somehow doubts that neo went down to the police station to do a sketch of his face for them.
he might be wrong, and he'll find out if he is, but batin doesn't wear a mask in his own city. this is home, in truth. decima is a fancy, a child's playground. nerio knows him.
batin drifts through the streets, looking for a cafe he visited a few months back. it had good food. nice fresh seafood, for a landlocked city. he didn't ask too many questions about that. some of the people he passes gape at the burn scar on his face. most don't. nerio is a big city, and cities have all kinds. and a lot of people have come out looking worse than him in the past year, thanks to the scourge.
nerio is, unsurprisingly, a crime-drenched city. just on entering the city proper, she's seen two attempts at pickpocketing and one for mugging, although some kind soul had stopped them before she could. ahuda is, at the moment, keeping her pokemon close, although not out of their balls; only madonna is the exception, and she can take care of herself.
they've been walking for a while, though, and it's been hours since they've last eaten, so ahuda leads her and her pokemon to a side cafe that has good food, or so the guide claimed when he pointed her there. personally, the ranger has doubts about that, but the benefit of the doubt, right?
she sits down at a small table near the exit, looking over the menu while her mienfoo sits herself to her right. when she's glancing up to look around her surrounding, however, she sees him - a man with a burn scar on his face, walking around as if he owns the city. truthfully, she shouldn't be surprised, with the scourge going around and all, but she finds herself staring all the same.
she's not the first set of curious eyes, but she's the first with a vaccinated pokemon at her side. batin turns out of the line and catches her gaze. he smiles, picks up his box of pastries from the counter and walks over to her.
he's caught her looking, then, and guiltily she gestures to a seat on the same table for him to take if he wished. it's not the best way that ahuda'd liked to be introduced to someone, but she'd take what she'd get. at least he was seemingly nice about it.
it was a moment before she could find her voice. "how?" she asked, then winced at how curious she sounded. nevertheless she plowed on, because what ahuda started she finished. "i mean, what happened? that looks like a nasty scar."
madonna, to her credit, only kicks at her trainer's legs under the table in admonishment before returning to her cake, which had been delivered by a discrete waiter. it was good.
he places the box of pastries in the center of the table and flips the lid open. he'd bought quite an assortment: there's bruttiboni, cannoli, beignets, sweet coca, and a few dessert empanadas. oh, if my stomach didn't hurt so bad i'd be hungry.
batin gestures to ahuda to take one, if she wants.
"it seems the least i can do in return for your service," he says, looking meaningfully at the mienfoo. "as for the scar; it is nasty. i got it in a scourge battle. i lost, obviously."
he'd also been fighting for the scourge, but that was a pesky, unimportant detail.
she does take one, a bruttiboni, and bites into it. it's good, it's really, really good, but she does have to stop herself from taking another when her generous table companion starts speaking.
a grimace washes over her face then, and her hand drops into her lap, empty and curled as if stopping itself from making a fist. "i'm sorry for that; civilians shouldn't get caught up in scourge, we have eos trainers for that." unless he'd fought the scourge when they were first starting out and caught everyone by surprise; that'd explain why the man was so very not about it. but it wasn't ahuda's place to say. "but hey, at least you survived, right?"
ah, gallows humor. ahuda managed to not wince when madonna hit her this time, all the while eating her cake and ignoring them both. the mienfoo did really love her cake.
"it was quite some time ago," he said after swallowing. "before anything was really known about the scourge. and i was out wandering, on my own. a foolish mistake of pride, and one i paid the price for. but you're right. i still have my life, and i'm grateful for that."
he pushed the box of pastries towards the mienfoo across the table.
"for you as well, if you'd like," he said, and then turned back to ahuda.
"but i've been neglectful," he said. "it's a pleasure to meet you. my name is batin brand. thank you again for joining eos. your service is a credit to yourself. may i ask your name?"
ahuda winces again, before offering batin an actual smile after a moment. "thank you, but i haven't done anything memorable yet." a sheepish laugh, before she extends a hand in formal greeting. "i'm ahuda clearglass, and the pleasure is all mine."
the mienfoo glances at the assortment of pastries offered, taking a moment to scrutinize it all before carefully picking up a cannoli and biting into it. then she returns to her cake, because you don't waste food. she does go back for a beignet, though, without looking. she nods to batin in thanks.
"nonsense," he said. "even just signing up is quite the feat in these times. i've heard the recruitment rate is going down unfortunately. are you new? i don't think i've seen you before."
and batin did like to keep tabs on all his little eos chicks.
ahuda returned her hand to her lap and shrugged. "yeah, i'm fairly new. i haven't met that much people yet, or made that big of a splash in the pond." because she liked keeping to herself, thank you very much, and as a ranger making connections weren't her first priority.
but more to the topic - "why, have you met a lot of the other eos members?" which begged the questions how and why.
"the scourge killed both my parents," batin said. "i am unsuitable to apply for an eos position for a number of reasons, but i have my inheritance, albeit in a way i never thought i would, and much earlier than i would have ever wanted, and i do my best to support eos individuals with my resources. i've aided trainers in their endless pursuit of levels, let researchers scan my pokemon and tried to help rangers gain signs."
she sat through batin's story with a blank but polite face, managing not to express any pity or horror by the end of it. "...i'm sorry for your loss," was all she managed to get out, before she sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "and now for the question - exactly how do you help rangers get signs?" because ahuda'd been trying by herself and gotten quite a few signs so far, but she'd only gotten a dozen or so at most, out of the total fifty. and that wasn't even counting the legendary signs.
batin had basically been handed all of his own ranger signs on a silver platter. he'd never worked for anything, honestly, be it his powers or his partner pokemon's incredible strength, but he knew that wasn't the case for an ordinary eos ranger. they struggled, they were challenged. he knew as well that they were better than him for their trials.
"it is my understanding," he said. "from talks with eos rangers, that they have to accomplish certain scenarios in order to gain the understanding necessary to gain a new sign. one woman even asked me to poison her, she was so desperate for a sign."