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!
she wakes to the warmth of sun, utterly alone as the grass dips and sways with the force a breeze flowing by. it is warm here, with cool shadows, peaceful, as the sound of forest and active pokemon drifts on the wind. this is sanctuary. this is like home.
no, this is how home should be.
home. such a short word, one syllable, yet it contains so many meanings, ahuda thinks as she lies under the sweeping branches of an oak tree, limbs splayed haphazardly on the grass near its roots as she breathed in the deceptive summer air. home is where the heart is, some say, and she thinks that it describes home perfectly, yet she also thinks home is so much more than that.
ceres is her home. no, ceres used to be her home. after the scourge, after bellona hills, after pal park, after being to places that she'd never seen before in her sheltered childhood, seeing sights she'd never seen, ahuda thinks that she can't call ceres her home anymore.
that betrayal tears at her heart, even as it flies free at the revelation and acceptance that she no longer thinks of ceres as the place to rest her head.
her family is there. the clearglass family has always been in ceres, even as members came and went. they always came back to the forest, drawn by family and friends and home.
(she will be the first to fly away and never come back.)
this goes against everything that she believes, yet this feels so utterly right.
contradictions, contradictions, she muses.
(will you abandon ceres, then? a voice in her head speaks. it suspiciously sounds like her little sister's, so wise beyond her meager years. will you leave us all to die and rot?)
(or maybe it's not her sister, but her conscience, as she bites her lip.)
the dream sun continues to make its way across the dream-blue sky, unseen above the forest ceiling.
she remembered walking in a place like this forest a lifetime ago, when magnolia bounced by her side and chirped with happiness. dono perched on her shoulder, darting forth from time to time to explore, but never venturing too far from her side. and beyond even that, a feral childhood spent running wild and rampant around bacchus, peeling down alleyways, her gaze fixed on the nature that lay just out of reach.
once those memories would have brought sadness. now they feel like they happened to someone else. there's no connection she can piece together in her head (heart) although thalia knows that they were hers once, and she was theirs. she fought them again, this time a year ago, and it nearly killed her. now she thinks of their blank eyes, the unfamiliar gaze--and what is it? it's nothing.
she's left it behind. there was nowhere to stop walking on this road. so there's nothing to be done about it.
(anyway, she thinks, one day soon i'll--)
thalia lifts her head, and there's someone else in this dream forest, sprawled under a tree. she can't see their face from here, but she advances anyway. puts her hands in her pockets. maybe seeing another person will be good. she can still connect, she thinks, with the world she wants to protect.
it's peaceful here, and she's almost about to fall asleep again when someone calls out. upside-down ahuda can see who is visiting the dream world the same time she is, pink hair and standing on the ceiling.
she knows that pink hair from somewhere, and it's only after a moment that she remembers. "hey. you're the one who battled with me in proserpina, when my partner and i were just starting out, right? thalia." how could she forget the woman who warned her about the hades agents?
(not that the warning will do any good now, of course)
she's come a long way since then, and ahuda offers the woman a grin, even as she doesn't move from her spot because it's comfortable."how have you been?" she hasn't seen the woman since the amberwell, and she's curious, and worried, no matter how capable the trainer is.
"that's me," she answers, and feels something dark and tight in her chest unwind, try to sink into her bones like smog. are you? it sing-songs, clear as a bell and just as deafening. are you her? you wake each morning different, you have no connection to the past. monsters exist outside of time, and what you were isn't what you are. does this girl even know you? does anyone. they all think you're on their side, but you know what you are and so do i. she ignores it and smiles at ahuda.
"nice to see you again, ahuda. much nicer than last time."
she sat down beside the other woman and leaned back on her elbows.
"i've been fine," she says, and it feels good to realize she's telling the truth. "good, even. making progress for the first time in forever, it feels. how are you doing? where are you now--out there?" she gestured vaguely towards the canopy that blocked out the sky, as if they could climb to the top of a tree and sight the real world from there.
"anything's better than last time, i suppose," she lets out with a breathy laugh, and turns her attention back to the canopy. it's the truth, and she finds herself staring off into the leaves until thalia lies down next to her, and answers her question.
ahuda's eyes are drawn towards the gesture before she's continuing her attempt to see through the dream trees so she could see the impossibly-blue sky. "i'm... fine," she says, with only a bit of hesitance, and it's true - she's doing well, if there's anything broken that needs to be fixed, she can fix it.
(at this point in time, of course, the future is never guaranteed, and a soothsayer in an obscure corner of the world cackles at her obliviousness)
"i'm near pax, now. my partners and i are heading out in the morning." a lazy hand is waved at the expanse of forest, as if she is pointing in the direction of lake pax, even in dream world. "how about you?"
she remembered walking in a place like this forest a lifetime ago, when magnolia bounced by her side and chirped with happiness. dono perched on her shoulder, darting forth from time to time to explore, but never venturing too far from her side. and beyond even that, a feral childhood spent running wild and rampant around bacchus, peeling down alleyways, her gaze fixed on the nature that lay just out of reach.
