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 remained silent for a while. delilah liked to pretend he wasn't an open wound, but it were times like these, without distractions, that it hurt the most. "... the not-breeder," she finally responded.
"your personalities, though --" (or what she could tell of J's, in any case) -- "they're pretty different."
was that something good to know, or bad to know? the fact that he was completely different from the brother was good enough for J. delilah's brother was probably the opposite of him, then -- J was aware that he was quiet, and had her brother been alike, he would have brought up the idea of time-travelling. (legendaries did that, didn't they.)
she shrugged. "depends what you think is 'good' or 'bad,' really." delilah wasn't one to decide. "but anyway." delilah has had enough of that particular topic.
(but then she didn't know what to say after that; small talk wasn't exactly her forte.) the woman went for the most unassuming subject she could think of.
"... this glade is beautiful." at least, she thought so.
J could sense that the topic had run its course; thankfully, delilah had made an effortless (?) switch to a different subject, saving J the need to figure out what to talk about next. "i suppose," said the trainer; beauty was subjective, after all. while he did not find it particularly attractive, he found it suitable for relaxing in.
delilah laughed. "i guess you're not one for beauty, then." that was fine; she knew for a fact that her old 'friends' would have found the area much too naturey for their tastes. the woman gestured at the area around them, as calm and stress-free as it was. "it's really different than the other places." places where they were liable to be attacked at any time. "much more peaceful."
"peace is subjective," J said with a shake of his head. had he and wing not been jumped by wild pokémon eager to protect their grounds from being touched by outsiders, he may have agreed with delilah. "i was attacked on my way in."
"more peaceful," she amended. "to me, at least." (although, judging by the blood on wing's -- er -- wings, she could see J's point.) she gestured at the skarmory. "did it give you a lot of trouble?"
J shrugged, and wing shifted slightly in its nap. the bird was lazy and hated hard work most of the time; J was more than used to its mannerisms and tendencies to bother. "no," he said, "they were bug-types." wing's peck was more than enough to take care of the whole lot of them.
"hm." that was good, she supposed. at least, with a skarmory, bug-types weren't all that dangerous. the sleeping skarmory made her smile wryly, however. the blood made it look worse than it seemed. delilah gently stroked her own pokemon before continuing. "have you gotten any badges yet?" (wasn't that part of the job description for a trainer, anyway?)
J nodded. yes, he had. the fossil badge from jasper. he got it after a battle in which he barely managed. "jasper's, you?" in a conversation like this, it was only natural to ask for the thoughts of the other person; the exchange had involved no less than three times of him turning the question around the delilah, and waiting for an answer.
the woman shook her head. "none yet." a frown pulled down at her mouth. "i've been planning to, but ..." she had never quite gotten around to it. perhaps it was because she didn't want to be like every other trainer eos had accepted into their program; or maybe it was because she simply didn't want to have to face down jasper (and come that much closer to the end of the road).
"no rush," J said, for the sake of. due to the scourge, there had been no rules, no regulations forcing trainers to defeat gym leaders before moving on to the next city. right now, their priorities laid with the scourge.
"i guess." though he had only spoken two words, she knew the continuation of his train of thought. becoming champion would have been worthless if the region was destroyed, after all. "have you fought the scourge yet?"
"i haven't even seen them outside pictures. i know how they're supposed to look, but that's it."
the eos program had not provided any sort of training before throwing them all out into the wild. they probably considered the few photos that they had of the infected pokémon to be a more than enough gesture of kindness.
delilah laughed dryly. "the only thing you'll need is a picture." even without one, it wasn't difficult to figure out what the scourge pokemon were -- anything with abnormally dark fur, black eyes, and looking like it came straight from the mouth of the devil itself was scourge. "you can't be prepared for anything like them." experience was the best teacher, after all. (unless you died.)
