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!
So he'd run into Delilah and not Isaac, then. Otherwise, J would have known for fact that he greatly resembled the youngest Delacroix. "Yes, you do look a lot like him," he responded. "... just, a few years older."
Mordecai remembered seeing J for the first time. He'd thought, for a second, that the man was also Isaac on the other side of the arena. But Isaac was not quite that tall, nor did he carry an entire team of Pokémon (or so Mordecai figured since the teen had signed up for Eos as a ranger). "... you ran into my sister then. Did she mistake you for our brother?"
He eyed the hot chocolate in J's hands. "Is it any good?"
"she had a similar line of thought, but it was quickly apparent that i was not him," J pointed out. whatever the case, the sibling would know better than he did. as the conversation ran on, he realized that he did not want to meet the remaining sibling. not only would be an odd experience, he was certain that the teenager would come out of it startled.
"it's okay," J said, offering the mug to him without much thought. "just like any other drink."
It was strange. The chances of meeting somebody who was the spitting image of another was slim (unless the Delacroix parents had a third son, right before himself that they never discussed). The more Mordecai thought about it though, the more uncanny it was. "You bumped into Delilah then," he commented, then couldn't resist asking, "how did it go?"
Mordecai shrugged and took the mug, blew on it, and had a sip. It was sweet and creamy, and he thought it was rather good for rooftop, vending-machine hot cocoa.
J allowed the question to hang in the air. it was hard to gauge or to say for sure how the encounter with delilah went. certain aspects of it had been good, some others more awkward than not. the discussion about her siblings was in the former category, while the silence they had ended on had been awkward.
"okay," he said, defaulting to his favorite phrase. "not bad."
Mordecai was genuinely relieved. "Good to hear," he responded, mostly because he was aware his sister liked to talk with her fist, sometimes more-so than using words. Then again, J's answer was ambiguous. "She should be nearby. We came through Di Manes together." Mordecai had half the mind to turn back around and head straight to Juno, but he had a particular goal in mind too.
J honestly didn't remember if delilah had said something about mordecai, good or bad. he listened, but didn't remember; he hadn't expected the brother to be concerned over his reputation from the mouth of his sister. he assumed that they had had a row prior to di manes, or they wouldn't have travelled together. or at least, he wouldn't have, had he a sister of his own.
"i saw her at the casino," he pointed out, "and no. not that i remember."
He suspected that Delilah needed an escape occasionally as well. The casino was not the place that Mordecai would have sought refuge from the chaotic world, but to each their own he figured. As if it were a reminder of his meeting with Delilah at Di Manes, Mordecai felt a Pokéball in his pocket rattle to and fro. The Porygon in there was getting restless, but the last thing he needed was for a glitched Pokémon to be running around a city like Nerio.
He hesitated before asking, "do you have anyone? Family? If you're comfortable discussing it, that is."
And Mordecai let it drop as well. Instead, he decided to ask the other man some more casual questions. Some quiet time was nice, now that the troublesome Gible had fallen asleep. So he asked, "Your Skarmory, where did you find it?" Mordecai's had gotten into a tiff with Flavius. The Pikachu was always getting himself into trouble no matter how many times Mordecai told him to behave. To be fair though, it wasn't always the electric mouse's fault. Others liked to pick fights with him.
"i brought it over, got it vaccinated by eos," J said. he wondered if he should talk about his accident; the story which he had told people who had asked him, the story about his debt to eos that he needed to repay. it was a substantial amount, and even though J had repaid it all with aid from his inheritance, he had continued acting under the guise of repaying a massive loan from eos.
Mordecai wasn't aware that Eos allowed for veteran trainers from overseas to use their old Pokémon against the Scourge. Though, now that he thought about it, it made plenty of sense. It was reassuring that not all the people partnered with Pokémon to fight against the infected were completely inexperienced. It gave him, dare he say, a minuscule piece of hope that the Kohaku region would be pure once again. He remembered what it was like before the Scourge. A lot of people did.
"Yeah, the vaccinations are pretty expensive. A lot of work goes into distilling them, though by jacking up the price and making it harder for people to obtain, it makes me feel that can get a little counter-productive if it's severe."
That was a good question, something that Mordecai didn't think about too often. "Revenge" wasn't the right word. It implied that he was angry. He was not angry, rather, he was more afflicted with sadness than with rage.
"I'm out to protect my home," he responded, wondering if he should have added capitalization to that special word.
"... I'm here because I don't want others to suffer."
