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 lure of a vaccinated egg isn't that strong for rangers. what use would it have to them anyway, except the possibility of another parter? nevertheless, an egg move taught to either one of her current ones is enough for ahuda to be here. kaz has not shown up yet, but that does not matter - in this sea of fancy decorations and accessories where appearance is everything, ahuda has taken refuge in a quiet corner, furnished with comfortable seating for a small group and a provided drinks and snacks table. it is more peaceful, here, than in the center of the large ballroom that mercedes has chosen to use for this gala, where the floor is.
madonna and ares are missing from her side, both declining to attend when surely only talk would be done. if she had a choice, then ahuda would have joined them; yet here she is, with a drink held idly in her hand, alone and off to the side on a snow-white couch. she's alone, and all others have company. ahuda wonders how many other rangers are here tonight, among trainers and researchers and breeders, and takes a sip of her sparkling cider.
iker gazes at the crowds in the gala and can't decide whether he wants company or not. he's fine with talking to people, but what is there to really talk about? how many scourge he's killed? is that what people talk about at an eos gala?
iker has obviously never really been invited to many social events. being the brother of meira spector and the child of overprotective parents can kind of do that to you.
at least he's not alone. jax and selywn meander at his side. the gala is relaxing for them, it seems, even if they find the setting to be unfamiliar.
eventually, iker discovers a suitable corner to loiter at when he doesn't see anything worth stopping for on his first trip around the festivities. there's a girl there, but she doesn't bother him and he doesn't bother her. he wheels over to the snacks table and tosses a few nuts to his pokemon. nette
eventually a man in a wheel chair rolls around with his two pokemon, elektrike and shellgon beside him. they're vaccinated, so clearly he's not just some random civilian who comes from a famous family. as he tosses food over to them ahuda manages to glance at the object at his side, and she rolls the neck of the glass in her hand in thought. rangers in kohaku are rare in general, and wouldn't it just be her luck to run into another one tonight?
"a ranger, then?" she calls out to him, a smile on her face. "didn't think i'd run into another one tonight."
iker turns his head to look at her. "that's what i told the other ranger girl that i ran into."
even among rangers, opinion was mixed, it seems. maybe she was here to meet other eos. maybe she was here for mercedes' gift. iker didn't really concern himself with the details.
the manectric seems to have eaten plenty. he curls up on the floor to take a quick power nap. that's all that they really had much time for in bacchus. a deep sleep would have been risky in scourge territory. even in juno, they don't quite kick the habit.
"there was a black-haired girl. she had no pokemon with her, but she had a capture styler."
judging from what he's seen of other rangers, bringing those who brought their partners seemed to be in the minority. that wouldn't have stopped iker, though. not unless lady mercedes expressly forbid it. it is her gala. "we talked."
so maybe his words were a little vague, but he wasn't going to give much clarification without being prompted. that, and i haven't actually gotten too far in that thread with vert yet.
this is ahuda's first gala thread, so i don't have to worry about things like that. nette is glad.
"did you catch their name?" ahuda asks. "maybe i've met her before." she's only met tiffany so far, but that doesn't mean that the girl wasn't here at the gala either, did it? before she gets much further, ahuda is struck with a thought, and she rises and offers a hand to the other ranger. "i completely forgot, we haven't introduced ourselves, have we? i'm ahuda clearglass, and it's nice to meet you."
"i didn't ask." they just...talked about how kohaku is full of people who should probably go see a therapist about their problems. for a good long while. maybe that's what people usually did at eos galas. "she seemed alright." "iker spector." he gives his hand to ahuda. "nice to meet you too, i guess." nette
ahuda lets the hand fall after the shake, and files the name away. "so, how are you, i guess? finding the night alright?" that was the sort of thing people asked each other at a gala, right?
it's probably pretty obvious that it wasn't often that iker would be invited to these sorts of things. "the food's decent." it was mercedes' gala, so it had every right to be.
he should ... probably say something. get a thing or two out of the experience here. after all, he'd be going off in the direction of pax lake not too long from now.
"there's that," ahuda concedes. she doesn't expect anything less from mercedes, but hey, small talk.
"no, they're not." annoyingly enough, they had abandoned her to the gala while they went off to visit the various sights in juno. she'd have thought that at least the charmeleon would have stayed, because she was here for his benefit; but nooo, he had to bail on her along with madonna. "they ditched me at the gala. yours are here, though."
"they'd probably get themselves arrested if they weren't, vaccinated or not."
the manectric rolls his eyes. the shelgon glares.
civilians may have looked to vaccinated pokemon as symbols of kohaku's future, but the ranger was sure that jax and selwyn would find a way around that somehow.
"can't imagine why yours would ditch you, though. new partners?"
"arrested?" ahuda peers down at them. they don't look like they'd get arrested, per se. and they were vaccinated, clearly belonging to someone. so why would they get arrested?
ahuda clears her head of those thoughts when iker asks, and she laughs. "no, but they're not one for fancy parties. even ares - he's one of them, i'm here for mercedes to teach him a move - left me here." they had been mumbling about going shopping, last time she heard. ahuda hopes that they wouldn't get in too much trouble. "at least the local assist is with them. she's responsible enough." the weepinbell would be able to keep them in line.
didn't look like they'd get arrested? oh, how little ahuda knows about these troublesome little upstarts. iker smirks.
"might wanna be careful." iker pops a caramel treat from the table into his mouth. "since they're your extension and all." jax has definitely stepped on more than a few toes, and iker had to step to the responsibility every time. eventually, he simply learned a thing or two about preventative measures. it didn't matter if the ranger was a newbie or a veteran. the ranger community tended to see them as a single unit. a fault of a partner pokemon would reflect a fault in the ranger. attacking a wild pokemon was one thing. accidentally causing a landslide to bury juno is quite another. nette
ahuda picks up a chocolate from the table, bites into it and feels the raspberry filling inside spreading in her mouth. chews, swallows, and then responds to iker. "they haven't done anything horribly bad so far." as far as she knows, anyway. well, there had been that one time where madonna had acquired blankets from... somewhere. without ahuda. granted, she'd been in the waters of the proserpina docks at the time, but still. blankets from nowhere. blankets from thin air.
ahuda doesn't ask when she does those things, and madonna never tells. it's probably a bad response to possible thievery, but hey, it was her partner. hopefully the mienfoo would be smart enough not to get caught. hopefully.
the lure of a vaccinated egg isn't that strong for rangers. what use would it have to them anyway, except the possibility of another parter? nevertheless, an egg move taught to either one of her current ones is enough for ahuda to be here. kaz has not shown up yet, but that does not matter - in this sea of fancy decorations and accessories where appearance is everything, ahuda has taken refuge in a quiet corner, furnished with comfortable seating for a small group and a provided drinks and snacks table. it is more peaceful, here, than in the center of the large ballroom that mercedes has chosen to use for this gala, where the floor is. 
