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!
wingulls cawed overhead and the docks were abuzz with the activity of fishermen and trainers alike. dawn had just broken over the city; the sea was dyed brilliant shades of warm colors by the rising sun. seated by the sea, watching the boats bob idly in the waves was J.
accompanied by no one in particular, or having something in mind other than it being the start of a new day, he leaned back, hands supporting himself as he stared up at the vaguely orange-pink sky.
mood: frantic notes: don't mind me, just shamelessly taking over your open thread lol
Some way to start a new day. He’d been attempting to fix up some notes of his that had come out of the binding of his notebook, while simultaneously walking down the pier. Unfortunately, a rather strong sea breeze had whipped by him - taking about half his untethered notes with it. “Aah! Wait, come back! Oh man!” He ran as far as the wall overlooking the sea, smacking into it in a half-stop, even as the wind tugged most of his long blond hair into his face, the papers fluttering higher still. Arguing with his tussled hair with his right hand, he made the mistake of going for his pokeballs with his left. The pokeballs ended up on the ground, releasing most of his pokemon, but that was alright. “Rainbow, Violette, please go catch those runaway notes!” The taillow and drifloon took off after the fluttering rectangles - or rather, Rainbow took off, and Drifloon rode the breeze that had caused the problem in the first place. What a chaotic morning!
notes fluttered through the air, and a few pieces landed around J. one had made its way unto his face; the sea breeze wasn't about to be bothered by a few sheets of paper, and certainly wouldn't slow down for a person and their pokémon.
he plucked the sheet off his face, then picked up the loose sheets around him. some had already scattered too far from J for him to do much; he gathered what he could, stood up, and glanced over his shoulder.
"..."
J was somewhat surprised to see pokémon chasing after the notes, and assumed they were looking for them -- whether the human had anything to do with it, he didn't know.
he whistled, gesturing towards the two pokémon in the air while raising the notes into the air in the hopes that they would notice him.
mood: frantic notes: nima has such good first impressions with people lol
Rainbow was snatching papers out of the air with her claws, flapping this way and that. Violette had managed to wrap a few in his danglies, but was moving a bit slower than the bird type. Already, a few papers had hit the waves, and Nima was in a full panic. He hadn’t even transferred those to the pokedex yet! Scooping up his pokeballs, Nima turned and dashed for the docks. The more he ran, the more pronounced his limp became, but at this point he hardly cared. He almost didn’t realize the gentleman on the dock had his papers, and once it registered he skidded to an awkward hobbling stop. “Oh! Thank you so much! Ah, wait. Shoooot. Okay, let’s do this the right way.” He tossed Zooka’s pokeball, releasing the Horsea properly into the sea. “Zooka please go grab those notes for me!” Horsea cooed at him, and then jetted out into the waves with astonishing speed. Nima knew teaching the little guy surf would come in handy! Panting a little, he took a moment to shove his notebooks back into his bag and get his pokeballs into proper order.
Turning to the stranger, a little flushed both from running and embarrassment, he bowed slightly. “Thank you for grabbing those. I’m so sorry for the trouble.” Ah now if this wind would just leave his hair alone too! Goodness!
J watched on in half-amusement and half-amazement, but showed nothing save a slightly apologetic expression on his face. "sorry i couldn't catch those waterlogged ones," said the trainer, handing over the notes to nima. but you seem to have got those covered, thought J, but decided not to say anything else.
he turned to watch zooka grab the remaining sheets of paper while nima's hair assaulted his sides.
Nima took the captured papers with overabundant gratitude. These things were priceless to him…after today, he’d definitely make sure to be more careful! “Oh no, not at all! Please don’t worry about it. Just the fact you grabbed any at all is wonderful, thank you again!” He meticulously tucked those papers into his bag as well, having to release his hair. Which happily hopped on the breeze and started flicking the stranger standing next to him. Honestly, he should have just braided it! Eeeeh what a morning…
There wasn’t much he could do about it right then, however. Rainbow and Violette were returning to him with their share of notes, and he needed both hands (even if one usually didn’t cooperate) to get everything safely into his pack. Once that was done, he was able to snatch at his flyaway locks. “S-Sorry…ah, Violette, could you help please?” He held up his collected blond hair, gathered now into a hand-held ponytail. The drifloon floated down quietly, and then wrapped his little ‘string’ arms around his trainer’s hair. Nima now had a living hair ornament. Not a bad fix, if he did say so himself! Ah, and now Zooka was coming back with the rest of his notes…hopefully he hadn’t lost much! Good thing he wrote in water proof ink…
J wasn't sure if he ought to make light of the situation or to offer to hold nima's hair while he managed the notes; thankfully he had his pokémon to assist him as he put aside his notes. he remained silent as the horsea returned with the other person's notes.
he said nothing, even when the drifloon functioned as a scrunchie for the researcher. "be more careful next time," said the trainer, but his tone wasn't in the least chiding. he was a man of few words, and whatever words he said were generally well-intentioned, but awkward.
mood: sheepish notes: nothing sways him from his research lol
The waterlogged notes were returned to him, and he held the soggy bunch in his hand with a rather perplexed look. What on earth was he going to do with these now…hmm. Well, he supposed he could lay them out to dry? Somewhere FAR less windy! And there was the awkward silence. He was surprised the other guy was still around…he’d just mainly watched Nima’s frantic flailing. He flushed a little in embarrassment. Not really a good first impression, eheh…
He blinked at the sudden comment. He…was pretty sure that wasn’t meant meanly? A little uncertain, he just grinned and rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. “Ah…yeah…I didn’t expect the wind to be so bad. I’m not really used to the ocean I guess. Uh, I-I’m not usually THIS clumsy, really…” He couldn’t say he was particularly graceful either tho, haha. Zooka bobbed in the waves near the dock, watching them curiously. Violette was twirling around in the strong winds, while Rainbow had landed on Nima’s head - her favorite perch! “Um, I’m Nima by the way.” Well…might as well? “If there’s any way I can thank you? As a researcher, these notes are really important to me, so what you did was pretty awesome! And, well…as a researcher, is it ok if I ask to see any pokemon you have?”
J considered suggesting to braid nima's hair for him, or style it so it wouldn't get in the way. he'd been taught the basics of it in the academy; hair couldn't get in the way of playing music, and he'd often helped his classmates to get their hair done in a rush. however, nima seemed to be managing fine, and he didn't really know ...
... oh well. "really? if you say so," J said in an agreeable tone, despite not having a care about whether nima really was that clumsy on a daily basis, "i'm J.
"i'm a trainer, so yes, i'd be willing to help out a researcher." had he not for other researchers before? "i have mainly steel-types -- a skarmory, aron and mawile. if you don't mind, i can braid your hair or something so it wouldn't ... continue assaulting me."
mood: flustered notes: lol who are you how are you doing this nima is way smoother than this usually pffff
H-He didn’t sound particularly convinced. Nima found himself blushing more, and with a small grumble he hid behind his soggy notes. This was really not his morning! Normally he was way better at the whole…you know…introductions thing! Maybe it was just the cool demeanor of this guy? He didn’t seem particularly ruffled about anything. “N-Nice to meet you J…”
He at least perked up at the mention of the pokemon. “Oh no, that’s completely fine, thank you! I haven’t actually seen many steel types! I…ah…” Back to the blushing. Back to hiding behind the notes. Please could this just stop now, ahahaha… “S-Sure…thanks…I’m sorry about that…”
"nice to meet you to," J said in response, nodding curtly before releasing his skarmory, aron and mawile as he had previously said. "it's fine," he said calmly, stepping behind nima before starting to braid his long hair.
wing, dust and chain stood silently before nima and his pokémon, used to it by now. all researchers needed to do was to take a few notes or point a pokédex at them, and the job was done; some asked more questions, but J usually answered them just fine as long as it didn't go into technical matters.
"is a fishtail braid fine?" J asked nima, pulling at a few stray strands that insisted on getting in his face. cursing the wind mentally, he deftly twisted some of nima's hair and pinned it firmly so it wouldn't scatter. this guy had a hell lot of hair to handle ...
mood: impressed notes: nima-hair-wrangling could become a sport you know
…Wow, he really was totally unperturbed wasn’t he? Nima blinked as J stepped around him after releasing his pokemon, fidgeting slightly. When was the last time somebody else had done his hair? Wow that was…mmm ages ago now. Since there wasn’t much to do beside the obvious, Nima transferred the wet notes carefully to his left hand, which couldn’t quite close all the way but it was close enough. He then dug around for his pokedex, withdrawing it and scanning all the steel types. “They’re really lovely. I mean, Mawile and Aron are really cute, and Skarmory is just majestic. Hehe, these are good entries!”
He was a little surprised at the question. He knew how to do more than just a standard braid? Where…exactly…hm, that was kind of cool though! “Woah yeah, that’s totally fine. I mean, if you can get my hair to cooperate? Haha…” Meanwhile, Nima’s long blond hair was really determined to be a pest. Violette was basically staring evenly into J’s face now. He blinked slowly once, and then unraveled one string-arm carefully…and then reached out and touched J’s cheek with his little heart-hand-thing. It was…hard to know why the pokemon was doing it. Maybe as a way of saying thanks?
"once i'm done i'll leave you my contact," said J, still finagling with the hair looping around his wrist. it was as if nima's hair had taken on life of its own. he remained unusually calm even as the drifloon touched his cheek; he had to, because between all the hair and touching, he had no idea what was hair and what was drifloon appendage.
the mawile and aron fidgeted around as the pokédex scanned them; as relatively weak pokémon, they weren't sure what was going on, but wing knew. the skarmory stood, regal and stoic, its eyes bearing down on J as he put the finishing touches on the braid.
the trainer stuck a last pin unto nima's hair for good measure, took the other by the shoulders and whirled him around to look at the braid. not bad, but not too good either. it had been a while, after all.
"there."
the hint of a smile played at the edges of J's lips.
His contact hm? That sounded intriguing! For the time being though, he knew he needed to stand still and let J wrestle and argue with his hair. Violette wasn’t exactly helping things, but he managed to keep his ‘appendages’ out of the braid in the end, floating up above J’s head as he finished. Nima was spun around abruptly, and after blinking a few times, he burst out into bright laughter. That was unexpected, but fun! “Haha, thanks again!” Reaching up, he patted at his now braided hair - darn good given the situation! Rainbow was fluttering around as well, taking in J’s braiding skills for herself.
Aha, a smile! Sort of? Close enough! Finally he didn’t seem quite so hard to read. That helped Nima feel a lot more comfortable, and he grinned. “I have to go dry out these notes…uh, preferably someplace not so windy. You said something about a contact so…is it ok if we talk someplace else?” Oh, but he ought not to forget the pokemon who’d stood and been so well behaved while he’d studied them. Turning back for a moment, he walked up to the three steel types and smiled. “Thank you for letting me scan you all.” Pokemon were just as deserving of thanks as the trainer, in his opinion!
"you're welcome," J said, slipping his hands back into his pocket's. the morning was chilly, and the seaside was not very generous with the heat from the sun. by now, the sun had already risen, and the area was significantly brighter than before.
his pokémon all nodded or showed some sign of acknowledgement of the researcher before they were recalled into their pokéballs. "certainly," J said with a nod; he didn't feel like chasing after notes happy to ride the wind instead of staying put in a notebook.
