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!
"flying, poison, psychic, ground, steel, and fairy. but again, i'm not getting myself poisoned for a sign." ahuda took a cannoli because it seemed like madonna had really enjoyed it, and chewed on it for a bit before speaking again. "not really sure how you'd help me get all those, though. unless you wanna climb up to the rooftop of some building with me for the flying one."
it was sad that ahuda was only half-joking about the last part.
ahuda grimaced. "yeah, i really do need it. but i doubt that you'll play mind games on me because i asked you to for a sign. i might just have to wait until i get a psychic assist or something."
"i find it interesting, the power of stories. i have always believed very much in them, even when i was someone else. what story would you tell me about hades agents?"
"i'd tell you a story of how they're like regular people, but they're not. that they may seem like any other person out there, but they work for the scourge, work with the scourge, and further its goals. that they don't care about eos, or innocents, and that they don't care for the safety of whoever gets in their way." she had personal experience with that.
"a good story. interesting, if not nuanced. now here's a challenge: tell me a story where the hades agent is the hero. at the very least, make him or her sympathetic."
that was... more difficult. "...where the hades agent is the hero? i'd tell you a story about how they overcome the scourge themselves, try and struggle against what they'd become and cling to their morales, or what they have left of them."
it was hard for her, to imagine someone like that. that any hades still were themselves, underneath the virus. ahuda wondered where batin was going with this.
"my story is this: pax institute suddenly cuts off all contact with the outside world. then come the reports, tales of some horrific tragedy that had occurred at the labs. were there survivors? no one knew. no one knew anything.
a man's fiancee worked at pax institute. when he read the articles in the news, when she stopped contacting him, he made his move. he ran towards pax as quickly as he could. and when he was there, he didn't find his fiancee. he did find something interesting, though. the pokemon, twisted and warped by their disease, the disease the scientists had unleashed, did not harm him. some of them even spoke to him.
he stayed there for a time among them. the scourge poured forth, relentless. they poured over decima, his mother's town, and picked her bones clean. they poured over bacchus, and up against the walls of nerio, the city where he was born and raised.
when he walked out of the scourge-ridden areas, he had power. he had strength he hadn't had before. and he also knew he hated the scourge; or what they wanted. it was a tool he'd use until the moment it turned on him. he knew as well that the virus was aware of him, that it would use him as well until he was no longer necessary, and he accepted those terms.
his fiancee was no longer important. she had been accepted by the disease as well. she repulsed him, though he refused to admit it. but the people who fought back against the scourge with their own strength and did not accept its offers: those people fascinated him."
she leaned back as batin spoke, mind whirling with the possibilities. the story was well-told, she could understand where batin was going just fine, but something about it struck her as odd. "that... is an interesting story. where did you hear of it?"
it was too detailed to be just a vague rumor going around.
"i made it up," batin said. "cut some parts, embellished others, but i rather like how it turned out. the best stories are the ones you make out of your life. you have to give yourself meaning."
"..." that response left ahuda without anything to say. she rolled back her shoulders, staring at a point somewhere above batin's head, before lowering her gaze to meet him in the eyes. "you 'made it up'? but it's still your story, right? how much of it is plain truth?" because if it was all of it, or at least the majority...
ahuda doesn't want to think about the implications of that.
"flying, poison, psychic, ground, steel, and fairy. but again, i'm not getting myself poisoned for a sign." ahuda took a cannoli because it seemed like madonna had really enjoyed it, and chewed on it for a bit before speaking again. "not really sure how you'd help me get all those, though. unless you wanna climb up to the rooftop of some building with me for the flying one."
"and i have no real desire to poison anyone again," batin assured her. "it was a rather unpleasant experience."
