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!
irene the displaced gym leader was a poor sight in the casino. she had no home to return to, but had made no attempt to fight back against the scourge, like melchior did. iskander had paid the latter a visit atop hyde, his metang. it had been easy to navigate the poisons that the gym leader had set up in the city with the aid of a steel-type; he had calmly surveyed the area and found most of the people where the toxic didn't reach.
so he came back to nerio, atop hyde again, and decided to stop by the casino and pay irene a visit. she wasn't around, though. someone was talking to her, but feh -- that's not going to work. poor thing's depressed. can't you see it in her eyes? iskander exchanged chips for money, like irene had exchanged her reign for a safe haven away from the chaos.
he sauntered over to the bar, and ordered himself a cocktail. paid in cash, because he didn't want to sit at the same table where irene was and beat her at gambling. it'd be like bullying an old lady. he sipped the ice-cold drink, and watched irene lose more money.
she'd never be able to rebuild bacchus if she kept losing, iskander thought with a smile as he sipped some more cocktail.
the casino had great gambling, but terrible food. the air was stale and smelled like smoke, and the flashing lights and great exclamations that arose from around the poker table all blended together in one ethereal mix that only reinforced the distance zahir felt from all of the people surrounding him.
there was a familiar face, though. zahir slapped on a smile and sidled his way through the crowd, flagging down a server out of the crowd as he did so--"can you bring me a beer, please? something local and hoppy, if you would", the crisp pressed lines of his tux assuring that yes, of course sir, i'll have it for you right away,--before slinging himself casually onto the bar stool besides iskander.
"didn't know this would be your scene, eh," he started, without preamble. "but then maybe i should have known better. people watching?"
was this his scene? maybe. iskander didn't know. he was people-watching, yes, but not everyone. he was just watching irene gamble all her money away, and didn't know what the other people were doing. well, he knew what he was doing, that was for sure. "yeah," iskander agreed readily, as zahir was an acquaintance that he didn't mind talking to. colleagues and all; it was quite unlike his relationship with cameron, where he wasn't even sure what was going on half the time.
he sipped his cocktail, before ordering a second one. it tasted fairly good, if a little thin on the lemon bitter. this was an upscale casino though, so iskander figured that the bartender knew what he was doing. "i don't want to gamble at the same table as irene," iskander laughed, jerking his head towards the fallen gym leader. "i don't want her to blame all her bad luck on me; she's depressed enough as it is, man."
at that very moment, iskander wished he'd brought along a book; maybe he wouldn't be that bored, sitting here. maybe zahir would say something interesting though. something about the people that he didn't already know, something, anything. iskander watched the bartender mix another drink -- precisely thirty-six shakes, no more, no less. the glass slid up to him, and the agent sipped it like a child did a can of soda.
his server brought his nice hoppy beer and zahir took a sip, and then another. he watched the rest of the casino through half-lidded eyes.
"irene's game is rigged so she'll lose," he stated like it was the weather. "it wasn't at first, of course. people were reverent, apologetic, accommodating. poor irene, driven out by the scourge. poor irene, lost everything. but then the stories trickled out about that hermit that's still fighting up there, and how bacchus wasn't quite completely gone, and the story fell apart. people do love a good fairy-tale."
iskander sipped his cocktail, and took another look at irene. he laughed, really, he laughed at irene's supposed bad luck. "no wonder," iskander exclaimed, "she's been losing for the past hour. just a little bit more every time, just that little jump she's got to make with her money to win, but it never happens."
he watched her lose another stack of chips, and grinned. "she's won a bit, but lost even more," iskander said matter-of-factly, blinked, and placed his empty glass on the counter. the bartender asked if he wanted more, but he didn't. he was good enough for now, thank you, but maybe an olive would be nice. he nibbled on it, watching irene move from poker to roulette.
nope, still no luck there. "maybe she should just start her own casino in bacchus. maybe it would turn into a city and no longer a town," mused the agent, tapping his chin with the toothpick as he chewed on the pickle, "and she can gamble all she wants there. i'd want to win a badge from her. maybe."
"she'd have to crawl back to bacchus, though, and i don't think that's ever going to happen. maybe she'll move on to juno, and start irene's academy for beginning trainers with parents i can con out of money." he took another sip. "more likely, she'll wash up in a gutter somewhere with her throat slit and her pockets even emptier than usual. that's a pretty anti-climatic ending, but i guess that's life."
he slid his beer toward iskander. "hey tell me if this is too bitter for you. what have you been up to, anyway? playing nurse joy still?"
"i think she'd work well with a dance academy," said iskander after some thought, "she's got the grass-types, right? might want to hula dance a bit, or something. tell some parents she's teaching their kids how to be a kimono girl, a proper one drunk on rice wine and high on incense, and spreading their legs for someone who'd pay their debt at the casino."
he lifted the glass of beer and drank, a small sip. "slightly, but it's bearable," he said, preferring the cocktail's tangy sweetness much more. he did feel that he should drink more beer, though, since zahir did it all the time. "yep, been playing nurse and doctor to some girls around the place. it's fun, really. cameron can do the punching, i'll administer the tlc."
"is cameron still just running around picking a fight with everyone who crosses her way and looks vaguely trainer-like? man, maybe i'm not one to talk and god knows she's a nice girl, but she really lacks subtlety."
...
"you should probably start wearing a nurses's outfit for your tender administrations though. apron, puffed hat, the whole works."
"i think she beat up two people last i heard. she's not very subtle about hiding her identity as an agent, and she strides around with her camerupt -- god knows that thing's huge and damn noticeable a mile away with its smoke and humps and heavy footsteps. she talks with her fists, too, if she feels like it. it's not nice to be on the receiving end of that. do you mind?"
iskander took another swig of zahir's drink.
"hell, i suppose if cameron looks like a man, i should look like a woman to make things up, right? i probably won't. on a scale of mr mime to jynx, cameron's actually off the charts. she's a tauros. she's fine as she is, though, and i guess that's alright with me. hence, i'll pass on the nurse outfit. if she wore one, though, it'd be like watching a primeape in an air stewardess's outfit."
"i don't mind, keep it, i probably could use a second beer after today anyway." he flagged down the same server from before. "maybe a malt, this time?"
zahir considered the idea of cameron in a nurse outfit with gravitas. "someone should cook up some sort of undercover mission that for some reason only she can undertake. and it involves wrestling her into a nurse joy outfit. if only because i'm sure that this delightful mental image i've conjured will pale in comparison to the real thing."
"mm, thank you," iskander said, and snaked his fingers around the handle of the glass. it was a certain change from the cocktails he favoured, but he wasn't so sure about permanently switching over to beer. maybe he'd have a little of what zahir had, and if he liked it, he could always hope that the other agent would give him the drink and order another one of his own. "this is surprisingly good. refreshing, almost."
he hummed as he listened to zahir, alternating between sipping the beer and nodding. "well," said iskander, placing the glass on the counter and drawing patterns on the condensation on its surface, "it'd be a tauros wearing a nurse joy outfit, and that's not very good to see. i'd need to wash my eyes. i wonder if she actually would wear a skirt if she had nothing else to wear. she might actually go somewhere with just bandages and a pillowcase on because men do not wear skirts."
"oh yeah? i'm glad you like it. this place has terrible food, but the alcohol is decent. as it should be, if they want me to get drunk enough to choke down their sad excuse for a tauros burger."
"a kilt," zahir echoed dreamily. "do you think she'd go all the way? bagpipes, those weird knee socks, buckled leather loafers."
"who knows, who knows. does she get drunk? maybe that could happen when she was," iskander said, but found it unlikely. cameron being drunk might as well be a camerupt high on fumes. not very good to look at, not very good to be around, either. "no, that's not happening."
he grinned at zahir's suggestion, though. "really?"
"we do what we do, and you're questioning me in a skirt? of course i could wear one. i'd look killer. you'd probably fall in love with me and it'd be distressingly unfortunate and awkward for everyone involved."
