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!
If she was going to come here, she decided that it was best if she was giving the pokemon that would be most likely to get into these sorts of situations the chance to experience what those situations would be like. And instead of being neutral trainers with safe, healthy pokemon it would be monsters who were toxic to the touch. Safer. They were safer if they were stronger, she told herself, forced herself to believe because this was the only way she knew.
Phione was at risk, therefore it must train. Keep it simple so that things wouldn't be so complicated, and everything would be okay.
the beldum was a new creature to battling; it had wanted to see the human world, but J could not offer it that yet. he was still stuck in his dream, unable to escape. so instead he brought it to the dream world's coliseum, where battles were fought without real-life repercussions.
by his side was his riolu, thorpe. the newborn was still shaky on its feet, but it was swift. very quick, and far more lithe than the beldum was. cross was a decent creature, though; modest, but incredibly intelligent.
why are we here, J? giving you a taste of the real world. you are far more eloquent in thought than speech.
J said nothing at cross's barbed compliement, and turned to face victoria. "we have met before, right?" wasn't it another battle, another 2v2?
The water type by her side gave a trill at his question, staring up at her in a way that asked how these strangers could possibly know them, know her. She silenced it with a finger brushing past its head and nodded her head at the man, because how could she forget someone like him?
"I believe we have." He, like her, brought someone new and different, so this time would be different like last time, more new things. "J, was it? I recall we had an encounter not so long ago, under similar settings." Then, she stepped aside and tilted her head, wondering if he would understand the gesture or make her repeat what she'd said last time over again.
he looked at the phione then at thorpe. the riolu was raring to go, but J wasn't certain if the phione would provide a lopsided challenge for the newborn. the canine sniffed the air and tested one of its kicks, as if challenging the opponent.
"go," he told thorpe, and it walked into the arena nervously and stared at the new pokémon.
Phione wasn't a baby hatchling because it already had levels on it, but it'd been raised in a pampered environment, free of harm, free of danger. It probably didn't even know the meaning of pain, judging by how loudly it squeaked when the riolu's head rammed into it. That was why they had to come here in the first place, and victoria kept telling herself that as she pondered the validity of bringing it to future, real battles.
"Bubble."?Hesitation for a moment, then the water type bunched up its mouth and released a stream of filmy bubbles at the charging riolu.
the riolu's eyes were stung by the wave of bubbles. thorpe quickly leapt into the air and used agility, before dropping back down with quick attack. that was all it knew how to do, really. most of its battle practice had been on trees where it kicked its trunk repeatedly until it fell over and J sprayed some potions on its wounds.
It was fast. Too fast for the eye to follow and too fast to dodge. The only thing that bothered her, if even slightly, was the way Phione always had to let out a grunt or a squeak at every contact that contracted the slightest amount of pain, its emotions an open book to read. "Bubble." She repeated, and at least it had enough of an instinct to obey. They had to both get stronger, she decided. At least this way they were taking that step together.
thorpe quickly avoided the bubble attack and launched itself into full-speed-ahead mode. quick attack at the ready, it went in for a double blow towards the phione, one kick after the other.
At the last minute Phione curved to the right and landed on the dirt hard, picking itself off with the notion that the opponent's head would've hurt much more than a simple pile of dirt could. Without waiting for Victoria to say anything this time it rubbed the particles out of its eyes and lauched another wave of bubbles at the riolu ahead.
thorpe was a fairly competent battler on its own. it already had a few battles under its belt; it didn't need to be told to quickly use agility to keep up its speed boost. unfortunately, it wasn't quick enough to spot the bubbles coming its way and took them in the chest, each bubble pushing it backwards.
the canine sneezed. the bubble attack was pretty cold. it focused on the phione and went back for a quick attack.
If Phione had been another pokemon, raised in a different environment it would've gritted its teeth against the riolu's head and taken a few more of those quick attacks to the chest, maybe sparing a few lasting attacks against the creature. But the pampering showed through this time around and when it felt pain for the third time within such short bursts, it gave a whine and collapsed on the ground, completely exhausted.
She hadn't really expected anything out of this, but she wondered if she was supposed to feel angry she'd lost. "I suppose we've lost this time." She recalled phione and blinked, once, at J.
"yeah," J agreed, as thorpe ran back to his side. "maybe we can have a rematch at a later date, victoria."
they'd met again, and again in the battle arena, but never in real life -- he didn't know if it meant anything, or if it was just pure coincidence, but J wanted to keep it that way, somehow.
"I'd certainly like that." J was someone strong, someone different that she felt she could learn a lot of things from. She tried to smile after, too, but it never came out because the sincerity wouldn't exist otherwise.
"Until next time, then." Whether or not there would be a next time, she wasn't sure. But as she waved once at him and turned around to leave, she couldn't shake the feeling that maybe she'd be seeing his face again sometime, somehow.
(thanks for the thread, vertigo! It's been fun! C:)
