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 forest floor creaked, and J stopped in his tracks to look around and underfoot. was there - was there - nah. J continued to walk, into a patch of sunlight filtering in from the forest canopy.
damp and dark as always, the forest was still untouched by the scourge. he wasn't sure when this was about to change, or if it was going to change -- many people were fighting to prevent it from spreading and ultimately consuming the region.
he glanced at his watch, and briefly wondered if it was time to eat.
Mneme was enjoying the outing in the woods, although Neo was constantly on the alert for a threat. She didn't expect the baby pokemon to last very long against a threatening wild pokemon.
Nevertheless, it was already excited to do battle, constantly picking fights with... threatening tree stumps or invasive grass. Neo wasn't too sure what to make of it.
She turned to weave around a particularly large gnarled tree, and she found J in her line of sight. "You again? How goes the studies?"
studies -- weren't for trainers. not for trainers like him who couldn't read well, anyway. he had recognized the voice to be neo's, the researcher who had inspected his trubbish. (he still hadn't bothered to do anything about it, or its singing.)
"studies aren't my priority, but i'm sure they're yours."
he spotted neo near the gnarled tree, and nodded at her in greeting.
"Indeed they are. Have you acquired any new pokemon since we last met? I should love to see them in action," she said, still wondering how his skarmory research had gone. She suspected not.
As a trainer, she figured he surely had more pokemon than just the trubbish she'd examined before. And he--a trainer was always up for a battle right? What was that old saying? Something about eye contact? "I could offer a battle, if you'd like."
J quirked an eyebrow when she offered a battle; a fighting researcher sounded odd, but interesting. "i don't mind," he said, "... what are your pokémon?"
he quietly kept the fact that half his pokémon were newly-hatched quiet.
"With me at the moment, there is Mneme--" she pointed to the young wynaut that was approaching J with curiosity, "a gastly, solosis, scraggy, and a blitzle. ...There is also a magikarp."
Half her pokemon as well were newly hatched, but as a researcher, that wasn't so huge a problem nor a point of pride. She'd been, in fact, quite obsessive at the egg shop recently.
"do you have any new ones?" he asked, "the aron and mawile are fresh; vaccinated, if that's of any importance."
there; he said it. if neo wanted, she could laugh at him for it, but everyone had to start off somewhere. training pokémon was a long-term commitment --
-- the more he thought about it, the more it felt like he was making excuses for himself.
Neo didn't laugh at much of anything. In this case, she didn't even see any reason to laugh.
"The wynaut I picked up most recently, and the blitzle has not seen combat since it hatched." She took a few steps into the clearing to establish a pseudo field of battle that didn't have an obnoxiously large tree smack in middle. She gestured Mneme to step back, and she released the blitzle Hyperion.
She refrained from mentioning that the wynaut had no usable offensive attacks. That was something he could laugh about, if he wanted.
J released from his pokéballs an aron and a mawile, both still unsteady on their feet. it didn't matter, though; all the pokémon on-field were hatchlings. what mattered was how they were going to fight -- dust was wobbling around unsteadily, while chain seemed eager to mow down its own ally.
"Likely because Hyperion is not quite as young as the others. He's simply never seen combat. Mneme is just very precocious, I have found. Mneme? Mneme! Wait--" Mneme had learned to run before she knew how to walk, and she was already charging forward in a valiant charm attack.
That wasn't really the best tactical opener, but Neo considered it a step up from splash. To be frank, she wasn't certain that Mneme had any moves in her arsenal would would count as even a half-decent tactical opener.
"Hyperion, quick attack, then thunderwave." Hesitantly, mostly because the blitzle didn't want to hurt anyone too terribly, Hyperion did as he was told.
dust shrieked as it quickly found itself heads-over-heels and tumbling all over the forest grounds, having been bowled over rather quickly by the charging zebra. the aron then stood up, but was assaulted by a thunder wave.
"... dust?" J said, unsure of what the aron was doing; it had simply resorted to sitting on the ground and staring at its trainer. the creature shrugged, as chain crumpled to the ground from the paralysis.
he wasn't sure what was going on, and amidst fresh pokémon, he was thoroughly confused.
"try going for a harden and earth power, and chain ... just stay still."
chain shrugged, and tried to use astonish on the wynaut by snapping its massive jaws.
They both dodged the earth power, which Neo honestly found a bit surprising. After that, Mneme and Hyperion both seemed at a loss for what to do. It was their turn to attack right? Maybe? Hyperion glanced back towards Neo.
The wynaut was very astonished! So very astonished! Eyes wide and jaw agape, Mneme reeled in shock and horror. In her terror, she used splash.
Neo sighed. She was beginning to loathe the move splash. She was also going to need to take Mneme aside one day for a lecture on waiting for orders. Or perhaps not, she was no trainer after all.
"The same thing again, Hyperion," she said, because she was short on options.
Hyperion snorted and leveled a second thunder wave followed by a quick attack upon the mawile.
racking his mind for other options from his pokémon, J soon recognized that there was indeed, no other option than a few basic moves for both dust and chain. he had to make do with what he had; after chain shrugged off the thunder wave's effects and took the blow from the quick attack, he told it: "metal burst on hyperion, and dust, tackle mneme."
the mawile's jaws opened to return the blitzle's favor, while dust toddled towards the wynaut, gradually picking up speed to ram into it with its body.
The tackle sent Mneme tumbling. She struggled back to her feet, but she swayed back and forth groggily--not dangerously at least, but Neo drew the line there. "Mneme, return."
For his part, Hyperion weathered the metal burst, but he looked wearier for it. "Quick attack on the mawile," she told the blitzle. Carefully balancing himself for a charge, Hyperion lowered his head and dashed forward.
dust was still plagued by the paralysis, and J decided to give it a break. "just ... relax there for a moment, dust," he said, as soon as neo withdrew her wynaut. "chain, astonish."
the mawile turned, allowing its back - and its massive set of jaws - to face hyperion. it lost its balance though, falling to the ground. chain tried to pick itself up, but it looked visibly dazed from taking the blow and a failed attack. it staggered around, and J wasn't sure if he ought to call it off.
"hey, neo. chain and dust are kind of tired right now, so how about stopping for a break?"
