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!
J was still very much at a loss for words as the munchlax barrelled off into the distance before it returned with the same speed, panting.
"... return," he told the munchlax, and it returned into the pokéball where it wouldn't terrorize the place with its ability. "apparently it does. who knows what else it can do."
J counted the pokéballs in his pocket, tapping each of them in thought. he was carrying around dredge, roth, a munchlax, wing and what else? two more unknowns.
he enlarged the spheres, and summoned forth the pokémon within them. a larvitar and tropius emerged, looking rather odd as they glanced at J.
"just stay still. neo's going to scan the both of you," J said, voice progressively getting louder as the tropius beat its wings, ready to take flight.
Contentedly, she approached the tropius first. "Where'd you get the flying dinosaur?" she asked curiously. She examined its leaves and tapped a few vertebre to see where they curved. When her curiosity was satisfied, she let the pokedex read the tropius' entry aloud.
Then she moved onto the larvitar, kneeling to peer at its horn thing. This one looked a bit too grumpy for her to touch, so she simply pointed the 'dex at its face.
"Thank you, this helps me incredibly," she said to the pokemon. Then to J, she added, "You too. Thanks."
the larvitar nodded, even though it didn't understand what neo was saying. the tropius chose to offer the female some of its fruit-beard, which were actually perfectly edible and from its appearance, tasted like a banana. the tropius seemed to take to neo well, whereas the larvitar found itself comfortable hiding behind J.
"you're welcome," he said, recalling both pokémon. he couldn't really walk with a small dino clinging to his leg, after all. "that's what ..." he paused, trying to find the right word. friends? colleagues? partners? "... that's what we've been doing all along. helping each other."
Gratefully, she took a piece of the fruit without hesitation. With a great deal of hesitation--although she tried not to show it--she peeled the banana-like thing and took a tiny nibble. It tasted... like a particularly citrusy version of a banana. Not... bad. "You bear excellent fruit," she complimented, not entirely sure what one's supposed to say when eating fruit off of a creature.
"It's good," she remarked evenly, as if commenting on weather. "It beats being alone. I didn't like being alone."
it came as a surprise to J to hear that neo didn't enjoy being alone. he expected researchers to take a solitary life half the time, considering their time spent in libraries doing research alone, or hunting for new and rare specimens to scan. those were all done all by themselves, especially in kohaku where everything seemed ... scattered.
J himself wasn't sure if he preferred being alone or with other people, but he was sure that he was fine with either option. most of the time he was joined by others, though.
"yeah. it's different, isn't it? from being alone, i mean."
"It is. The thought of having to defeat the scourge on my own is... daunting. I wouldn't be able to do it; that's a fact. The entire program though, that's nice. People like you, even better. People to rely on. It makes a daunting task more manageable."
"well ..." J paused. fighting scourge wasn't easy, and not everyone had the strength to battle everything. breeders, especially, with all their baby pokémon. "i don't know when i'll actually fight one, but you could come along."
he remembered her team. "your team's not bad either."
"Yes. You could stand in front, while I hide in back studying the scourge pokemon from a safe distance," she replied, and it wasn't a joke. This sounded like, and indeed was, a pretty good plan to her.
"But if turns out you need some support, I'll lend a hand. Anytime."
J didn't know if he could handle scourge on his own. he knew other trainers who could lend him him a hand, though, and knowing that neo would be able to help him out when needed was something of a relief. his team was hardly capable of wiping the floor with scourge; hell, they weren't even leveled enough for the wild pokémon around nerio.
"sounds good," J said to both statements, giving neo a nod. "icarus would enjoy taking revenge." on his own pokémon too, he thought grimly.
