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!
there's a man here apparently-- and he has something to teach her. rhea scribbles her name into the dirt on the ground with a stick and shuffles over it, leaving only remnants of letters, distorted and demented by her own feet. she sighed. lucky looked up at her with a nervous look.
the chansey was usually spunky and courageous but this was a little out of her comfort zone. this was a place to mourn the dead apparently-- and although it wasn't as scary as the crypt, it was still pretty bad. rhea gave her a pat on the back and quietly waited for hieronymous. @mod
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and it doesn't take long for hieronymous to show up. within a quarter of an hour he's heard of the ranger with a chansey just loitering outside the shrine, waiting around for seemingly nothing, and he's hobbling out without a second thought.
"are you going to just stand there?" he shouts, just on that side of too loud. he's waving his cane quite dangerously and glaring at rhea. "that's sloppy! careless! entirely unbecoming of a ranger, because you're dead!"
she decides to take it all in and not say a rude word back to him-- she'll say as little as possible now, simply because rhea recognizes that he is the master and she is the apprentice here. and hieronymous does have the right to refuse to teach her.
yet still, the comment about death interests her. "i'm dead?" she repeats, eyebrows raised. "hm.""respect your elders," rose always said. and rhea liked that old lady from juturna, so she'd follow her advice.
"i wonder how i died." she said to the chansey. nette
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hieronymous taps his cane on the ground, impatient. it's good that the range is willing to speak, question, with her partner, but that isn't the point he's trying to make here. "you died because you weren't vigilant enough! do you have your styler out and ready to draw a sign? are you prepared to fight off a hoard of scourge at a moment's notice? did you not think to do a bit of recon before simply waiting out here in the open? and your choice of place! it's wide open! you could have a flying-type scourge come down on your head and you wouln't even notice until it's too late!!"
he gives rhea a side-glare. "constant vigilance! you lack it, and that is why you died!"
rhea clenched a fist, but resisted from saying anything foolish. "i'm sorry." she couldn't even look him in the eye-- he was intimidating. grumpy. somewhat annoying. but he was retired and growing old, so he had every right to be that way. she took a step towards him.
he huffs. young ones these days. at least this one has manners, unlike the last few that came in. he gives her a more subdued handwave and a nod. "hieronymous, but i'm sure you already knew that." he turns towards the shrine, beckoning with his cane. "come on then, i don't have all day."
he turns on his heel and leads them into the shrine proper.
"flattery, girl? that won't get you far. but yes, i've been doing this awhile." his voice is old, weary, when he says this - even as he nimbly dodges a chansey pushing a cart and practically running down the hall, he has a weary set to his shoulders. but that disappears when they turn a corner into a quieter hallway.
"you're here for the rebirth sign, yes? that's all that rangers today come for, really."
"it's not flattery." she barks, neck tense. a sigh escapes her lips as her shoulders drop. she rubs her eyes. "i've just heard good things." rhea studies the shrine, before turning back to hieronymous. "and bad."
she nods her head. "yeah. the rebirth sign." she blinks. "what does it do?" nette
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he leads them all down a corridor where, at the very end, there is a trap door with a black-iron ring handle. before he opens it, though, he leans on his cane and looks into the ranger's eyes, and looks for that knowledge that is required of the next task. he has a question for the girl in return.
"there are especially..." she thinks, "diverse comments about you."
rhea raises her eyebrows. "death?" what is it? how is she gonna answer that? "death is..inevitable. death isn't...the end, it's..." she runs a hand through her hair. "emptiness?" it's more of a question than a solid answer. nette
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he shrugs. he's made his peace. becoming a ranger has helped with it, but he's made his peace and laid his ghosts to rest.
(you wish)
he gives the ranger an approving nod. "close, but not quite." he opens the trap door and holds it open for her and her partner to go down the dark staircase. when they reach the bottom, hiernymous lights a match and lights a lantern hanging on the wall.
it illuminates the room, which is filled with rows of pokemon and human bodies.
"death is inevitable, yes. but it also comes for everyone. they may die a peaceful death, a violent death - but how will it come for you, ranger? how will you die?"
this time, hiernymous doesn't have to use his cane to make his point. his voice reverberates in the small room, what is usually just a little louder than normal practically enhanced by the stone walls. "that attitude's gonna get you killed, ranger! didn't we talk about how you died before even entering the shrine? how do you expect to hold your own against the stronger scourge if you expect to end up a statistic?!"
he silences himself for a moment, letting it sink in, perhaps, before gesturing. "pick a body. any body - preferably a pokemon, of course."
she doesn't say anything back, let him think what he wants. rhea just watches the old man go. eventually he tells her to choose a body. she blinks and stares at him, but eventually breaks eye contact and scans the bodies. an orange bird catches her eye.
"the torchic. right there. do you want me to fetch it?" nette
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