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!
"yeah. they evolve into gyarados, and it's definitely a force to reckon with then," J said, finding sense in neo's words despite the contradiction that was the carp itself. there wasn't much different between 'crap' and 'carp', after all. "how far away from evolving is icarus?"
both chain and dust continued to use astonish and tackle respectively, but had to stop to take a breather from pummelling an enemy that was flopping around violently ... on land.
"Pretty close, although he doesn't believe it. I think he's lost hope of ever finding any glory, which makes training him harder than it should be." She worried about him in the future. Icarus was never quite sane, not with his ranting about the magikarp being the most superior species, but his old confidence was better than his current moping.
The astonish and tackle peppered Icarus with blows while he splashed in retaliation. It wasn't much of a retaliation.
The magikarp gasped for air, and Neo relented. "I'm... going to call the battle there. I think he's having trouble breathing."
"he doesn't?" J glanced at icarus, hopelessly splashing against two newborns. "that's fine. i think dust and chain are battered, too."
chain stared at the magikarp, unsure if it was going to do anything else other than splash about. dust had already resorted to lolling about the forest ground lazily. J returned them to their pokéballs as well, and nodded at neo.
"there's a badge out there that allows pokémon to function as if they were amphibians. you may want to check that out."
"Mostly he just flops around these days. ...That's what he does normally too, but it's a sadder sort of flopping, if you can imagine that."
Neo scoffed at the thought of badges. "I'm not a trainer. I don't see any reason to knock on gym doors to challenge them for fame or fortune--" She stopped. She thought about it. "Maybe it'd benefit my research to examine a gym leader's pokemon in action."
"they usually have evolved pokémon. it'd be good to scan them," said J with a nod. "or rarities you can't find normally." he glanced down at her, and then at his watch.
"Too long, but it's a good place for camp. I shouldn't head further anyway. I may want to go back to Proserpina now--to visit the library, and not just to do research." She'd heard he used rare fossil pokemon. She wouldn't run into many of those on a normal day.
"the gym leader?" J asked. he hadn't visited the gym leader; he didn't think his pokémon were capable of defeating jasper, or whatever his name was. "alright then, you take care, neo."
"if i fight the gym leader, you can scan the pokémon without need to fight," J pointed out, calmly. he watched as she shuffled around to set up a campsite, and wondered if he should lend a hand -- or if her words were an invitation in the first place.
She was about to protest because Neo believed she could win--or at least put up a good fight. That was all that was really required to last enough rounds to see a few pokemon.
But why should she if someone else would for her? She could bring a book and a pokedex and stand in back.
"...Alright. That works for me. Who are you going to fight him with?" she asked, curious what pokemon he had besides the aron and mawile (and trubbish).
"i have a skarmory -- more in the computer, i did a few trades, but i reckon that these three could handle it." he considered the mawile's performance, then dust's. a little lacking, but given proper training, they ought to be fine. and besides, they were in no rush to get to jasper.
"a skarmory, an aron and a mawile."
he didn't want to admit it, but neo was making him doubt himself.
She'd been picking up sticks for a fire as she listened to him, but now she stopped to stare at him, her expression blank but there was a certain amount of judging in the air.
"Well then. Maybe we should battle again tomorrow."
She dumped an armful of sticks on the ground, briefly released a scraggy for a good fire punch. "Do you have real food? If not, I can share ramen," she said.
J nodded wordlessly as the sticks burst into flame after a scraggy aimed a good fire punch at it. he had a sneaking suspicion that they were going to train on poor icarus again, and he wasn't sure if it was even ethical to use a magikarp as a punching bag without incurring wrath from karma.
all in the name of training, he tried to tell himself.
"i have some berries," J said, holding out a pouchful of them, "i could probably make pancakes, or stew." he glanced around him, finding no plants of interest. the darkness of the forest was also rather uninviting; he wasn't sure if he wanted to risk a leg going out to scavenge for something edible.
They were, in fact, going to train against Icarus again. Despite his uselessness, he was also her pokemon with the most battle experience. It was, for a magikarp, fairly durable, and, because he was a magikarp, not particularly threatening to weak pokemon. Neo fully intended on putting Chain and Dust through the Magikarp Training Camp, where magikarps were trained upon.
"I usually have pancakes around breakfast, yeah."
She didn't say anything for a moment, but then she asked, "How does one make stew?"
"i usually crush them, then boil them with some water. adding moomoo milk's good, or leftover sauces or gravy or something. just throw them together, and they'll usually end up decent."
he thought about it for a moment. "meat goes well with stew, too. just plain berry stew's a little bare, even if you have a good variety."
