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!
the chansey grumbled, staring at the man before walking off in a huff. patients like him were the worst. god forbid if it found out that J had an addiction; the chansey was sure it would then slap some sense into him.
"hm?" J said, after he had drank a quarter or so of the water. "this one does?" all the same, he sat down. the fact that the chansey had glared at him with the intention to subdue and tranquillize was motivation enough.
"Might know it. Might not. Definitely knows double-slap." Neo hovered by J until he sat down, and after that, she persisted in hovering anyway, because she could spot the chansey watching.
"Asked you earlier, don't think you heard me. Where're you staying? You look alive again. Give it a bit, and we should get you to bed."
"nowhere yet," J said. he had planned in camping out in the soup kitchen where people were around. the trainer glanced over at the chansey, who stared back with the ferocity of a salamence hunting its prey. he turned back.
"probably." he hit his head lightly with the heel of his palm. "my head still hurts," he reported.
...She didn't really know what else she could do for him.
"Well, I can't kiss it better. Stay sitting. Unless you want to lie down. We can ask chansey for a bed. And drink more water," Neo suggested. It might've been a command.
With a faint hint of a frown, she added, "You could also maybe add more solid food into your regular diet. Thinking for the future."
by the time neo finished her sentences, J had already fell asleep (or passed out) in the chair he was seated in. the bottle of fresh water stood on the ground, already emptied.
all of a sudden, the chansey from before hovered around the duo, highly aware and alert.
Neo sighed. She looked to the chansey. Feeling some strange urge to defend herself, she said, "I got him to sit."
She picked up J's things--at least he'd picked a better place to pass out than a restaurant. The pokemon center was well equipped to treat... er, unconscious pokemon. It'd have to do for unconscious people though.
"Do you have a cot? Or a vacant room. I think we should let him rest."
the chansey raised an eyebrow, frowning. it then crossed its arms and looked at neo with a tilted head. uh-huh, right, its expression seemed to say as it single-handedly lifted J onto its body and dragged him along to a 'vacant room', as neo had suggested.
it was quite the sight. a pokémon breeder had to sidestep the corpse body that was being dragged across the reception of the center in order to reach the human wards.
the chansey paused, and turned around to face neo. what about you? it seemed to say, still dragging J along until another chansey came to help it out.
"I can understand your speech," Neo said, because as talented a pantomimer the chansey was, she figured she should mention that her research of pokemon had taken her that far already.
Neo shrugged as she followed the pokemon through the walls. "I have a journal. I have my research. I can stay with him until he wakes up."
Considering that she was the one that dragged him out for real food, she probably owed him that much.
oh, okay, said the chansey, and it seemed to brighten up just a little. that's a relief. trying to talk to other people around here is always a nightmare, you know. it was hilarious in the beginning, but now it's just a nightmare.
the two chansey heaved and managed to toss J on an empty bed. are you sure? asked the second chansey, in a manner gentler than the first one had. do we need to sedate him?
She was pretty sure, yes. "Where else am I supposed to go?"
Wait--they wanted to drug him up further? Like all that bitter powder wasn't bad enough.
"He looks pretty sedate," Neo said warily, not a medical professional but still pretty certain that unconscious counted as sedate enough for most purposes.
maybe the trainer's center. i don't know. the first chansey strung up an IV and affixed it to the unconscious trainer. lots of people stay there. at the gym, too.
the second chansey returned with a hypodermic needle and jabbed it into J's arm. it beamed at neo. just to be sure, it said with a small smile, he's knocked out for the next twelve hours. he'll be awake by 9am tomorrow. if he isn't, let one of us know, alright?
it's a test medicine we've been using. some sedatives just don't work on larger pokémon, like a rhyperior or walrein, explained the first, before excusing itself. if he turns green or something, let us know, too.
they waved cheerily and disappeared out of the room.
If he turned green, Neo would set up her C-Gear to record a video for documentation's sake and observe the color-changing process. If he didn't wake up when he was supposed to, she'd probably panic.
Neo sat down in a chair, pulled her pokedex out of her bag and her journal too, and began to scribble down illegible notes in indecipherable shorthand.
the night passed without much event, and soon, it was 8:45am and there was no sign of J waking up yet. thankfully, through the night, he hadn't turned green, but he had broke out in cold sweat a couple times. probably a side effect from the poison flushing out of his system, a chansey would have explained, had neo asked.
Eventually, Neo fell asleep curled up in a chair, a position that was almost comfortable because of her size (or lack thereof). Rest was fitful at best, and she stirred awake twice. A good time to check on J (not green) and to reorganize herself on the chair so that the next time she woke some other part of her neck hurt instead. In the earliest hours of dawn, Neo decided she'd had enough of sleeping and went to the bathroom, showering in a stall with multiple sets of handholds for the handicapped.
As her hair dried, she gathered her things, and double-checked that J's belongings were all present and accounted for--although she considered throwing out the powder. It wasn't that she expected thieves in a pokemon center, but it didn't hurt to check.
She prodded his cheek. "Perhaps eating pasta would've killed you dead. Should test someday."
