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!
"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow," she quoted. Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time.
Neo didn't know how she felt about never seeing him again. It'd be a shame, maybe, especially since she was certain he still knew more about hades agents (or at least Cameron) than he was willing to say. On the other hand, that's life. People come and go. "So pessimistic. If EOS accepts you, we'll run into each other again wherever the fighting's thickest, assuming I don't die in the meantime. But if you never want to hear from me again--today or after tomorrow, depending--I could arrange that too."
Oww for what? Baffled, but rapidly putting two and two together, Neo asked, "You okay?"
Phoebe leapt out of her lap with a distinct tsk tsk, running to the kitchen to fetch a second soda pop. She presented the chilly bottle to Iskander. <At least it's cold.>
"you won't die, neo. i assume i won't be on the frontlines either, or on the battlefield, fighting. i'm not suited to that. i can't take violence." it took courage to admit that. iskander wasn't a fan of things beating up other things. "it's not that i don't want to see you again, either. i guess you can't stay away from important things too long. like fighting scourge, or freeing afflicted areas.
"but i'm sure that i'm going to miss you." she was an interesting person, and iskander wanted to see her fight again. maybe something different though. something that wasn't her own pokémon. he almost thought about a lot of things, and nearly told her that he was changing his mind, too.
"i guess," iskander winced, but managed a smile at phoebe. "thanks, phoebe. you're amazing." he stuck the cold exterior of the can on his burnt hand, instead of opening it. the reuniclus somehow knew that he was going to use it for an ice pack. he left it against his skin, and glanced at neo. "yeah, much better now. i should probably get this looked at tomorrow, if it doesn't act up tonight," said the agent, and glanced at his hand.
it probably wouldn't fall off overnight. probably.
The first time she'd met him, she would've assumed every word out of his mouth was a lie. (The first time she'd met him, she'd done exactly that.) This time she shook her head and laughed, tiredly. "I don't know why I believe you."
"But I'll tell you this: I don't think you can stay away from battlefield for long." Neo genuinely took him at his word; so he didn't like violence. That didn't mean he'd stay away from it forever. She'd met him at Lake Pax; a temporary bout of reckless bravery didn't take a man that far unless they had an appetite for the scourge. She assumed he would've stopped in Bacchus if he were so easily satiated by doing good deeds. "Call it a hunch."
Phoebe puffed up at the praise. She was amazing! Neo didn't acknowledge that enough, but this man did, so that put him in her good graces.
Neo stood up and went to his side, and gingerly took his burnt hand into her own. "A bit of medical expertise, remember? Won't punch you this time. Maybe."
i don't know why i believe you, eh? iskander laughed at that, and so did he at neo's next words. maybe he couldn't stay away - god knew he was bad at staying away from things that wasn't good for him - maybe he was going to prove neo's hunch right, after all. he still didn't want to meet her in battle, face-to-face. as far as he was concerned, hyde was just a creature too intelligent, too wise, wanting to prove its ideals and dreams too much.
"we'll see if your hunch proves true. i'm going to read the entire library while i wait," iskander said, raising his hand for neo to inspect. "and if you punch me, i'm not fighting back, either." he smiled. "you know what happened last time." iskander turned away, not exactly proud of what had transpired after neo struck him.
"I'm serious," she protested as he laughed. She did punch him then--gently, even fondly--in the shoulder. It would've been playful if Neo were particularly good at being playful.
"It will. I'm not wrong very often." Neo wasn't particularly good at being humble either. "And if I ever need a punching bag, I'll visit Juno and call you up. Cameron did say I needed to practice."
She turned his hand over, inspected the burns on his skin. Without warning, she prodded at a particularly red blister, honestly more for her entertainment than any other reason--for science, she'd explain. "Needs burn heal. We can pick one up at any cornerstore tomorrow. Do you have bandages somewhere? We should this up in the meanwhile."
iskander froze when she raised a curled fist, and braced himself for the punch to hit. once the worst of the storm was over, though, he opened his eyes, and looked at neo. he still wasn't too used to physical force; even playful punches triggered the urge to flinch in the agent. "don't hit me," he managed to say, which was a marked improvement over the last time in lake pax, where his attempts to justify his emotions had been disastrous. "please, neo. no."
he had half a mind to retract his hand when she further prodded at his blisters, and it was then that he flinched and pulled away from her. had iskander been a puppy, he would have whimpered -- he didn't like this feeling at all. from neo being the stray, to him being it; she had somehow turned the tables on him while he was hurt. (the agent made a mental note to not get hurt again, because he didn't like the way he was being treated, or the way people - neo - reacted to him.)
"yeah," iskander agreed after a while, decidedly holding his wounded hand away from neo. he got up, and awkwardly shuffled towards his bag. he retrieved a first aid kit from it, and handed it to neo. "the bandages are in there, and i guess it would be nice if you didn't ... make it hurt anymore. by poking it or something, really." he turned away, and let her dress the wound.
His reaction caught her off guard, again. She suppose she should've expected it. She didn't know if she was amused or exceptionally concerned. Probably both. Exceptionally intrigued as well.
Without comment, she took the bandages and also searched the first aid kit for antiseptic. He'd need that too. It wasn't a terrible burn, but the redness was reason to worry. She didn't think it'd infect (the apartment seemed relatively clean), but better safe than sorry.
"Needs disinfectant. Will sting." That was the only warning she gave before she started dabbing at his burns. She went at it as gently as she could, brushing over his palm and nestling the cloth in the crevices between his fingers. No amount of gentleness would help the chemical sting though. She wondered how he'd deal with it, if he would/could at all.
She talked, mostly to distract him. "Earlier you said you were drawn to anguish--to nightmares. Why? I see two likely reasons, neither of which I like. The first: you dislike pain upon yourself, but rather enjoy upon other people. Obviously--hypocritically--I don't approve of that. The second: you hate yourself and just take a bizarre interest in what terrifies you. In which case, while you're in Juno, maybe find a shrink."
Neo wasn't an experienced medic, which meant she made for an incredibly methodical medic. Her bandaging was precise, mathematically even, and neat enough to make a robot proud. She didn't poke at any blisters this time. That took more self-restraint than she thought she had. More than anything, Neo was curious exactly how far she could push him before he sent her away. Her hypothesis: as far as she damned well wanted.
iskander allowed her to apply the disinfectant and subsequently, the bandages. he said nothing even as she spoke, the pain seemingly searing his mind as she brushed the cotton across his injuries lightly. when the bandages were done, he pulled his hand back gently, but he wanted nothing more than for it to be out of neo's hands and safely in his control. he flexed it slightly, but flinched at the pain. shouldn't have done that, he chided himself mentally.
now, to address her statement. or perhaps he could leave it unanswered for once. he didn't need to answer everything. iskander exchanged breaths, and glanced up at neo. "i don't know," he said, resigned. "sometimes, i just sense things. like i can tell you that some guy out there, down there, maybe a block away, is getting his fingers cut off and he's feeling real painful but he also knows that he deserves it. it just ... happens. i don't know. i don't know."
She wasn't sure if he sidestepped her questioning because that was the best answer he could give or if he'd meant to elude her again. He sensed things--strange, psychic probably, but okay--but to go to the source of the pain was the action of a very kind man or alternatively a very twisted man. Neo still hadn't figured out which one Iskander was. Granted, she still hadn't figured out Iskander's name, so this was slow going.
But she was patient.
"That's gruesome," she commented with zero distaste. Gruesome was her thing. "Do you think he deserves it? Will you administer healing unto him half an hour from now?"
She didn't understand. Perhaps she couldn't understand; Neo had already considered that possibility. If he moved to help her and Thalia out of kindness, he would've shown up earlier--during the scourge battles rather than after. That was simple enough. No, instead he came too late, after they were tired or defeated.
So then. Why did a broken man like broken things? Did he want to fix them, to be unlike himself? Or did he simply like seeing broken things? Is the broken man even broken at all?
"Please," she scoffed. She stepped closer, invading his personal space, not keen on letting his tension abate. She didn't need him to be comfortable with her. "You don't know? We are humanity; we are not basic creatures subject to whims, nor are we robots running on arithmetic. You are not starmetal; anguish can't be some magnetic attraction to the poles. Surely, you had a purpose. Surely, you have needs. And if meeting them's so dangerous as to bring you to scourge territory--are you really dumb enough to have never thought about it?"
this time, iskander answered all her questions methodically. these were questions he felt like answering -- he usually answered based on the fact that they were sentences that demanded answers, not because he felt like it or anything. well, he figured it was about damn time for some sort of change to be made. perhaps it could even be a change for the better; a more emotional, vulnerable iskander. he entertained the image briefly. it would work, perhaps. he didn't know if it had on neo, but she certainly didn't seem to be hitting him any longer.
"i don't know until i see it for myself. i probably won't go there. i don't know if anything else is there to attack me. i don't want to get hurt. i don't want to get hit.
"i still don't know. sometimes i act on impulse. i can sense anguish, and i think maybe you can't. do you feel that? or do you feel sadness and anger separately? you probably have a better grasp on your emotions than most people, or you've pushed them aside to some compartment in your mind. locked them away, most likely. you're not in touch with a free flow of them.
"scourge territory is different. it's a human with pokémon fighting against pokémon gone bad. out there, it's humans fighting against humans. there's no pokémon involved. and if you were curious, no. it's not about the pokémon.
"i think i may have found the answer to something, though.
"i guess i'm selfish. i care for my own well-being. i care more than i should for people fighting for the sake of eos and for a cause. a destroyed home, a broken family. something. i don't know what the man down there is getting his hand cut off for, except that he knows he deserves it, like i've said. he's getting beat up by someone who thinks he deserves it.
"but no-one deserves the scourge. not even cameron."
(i don't know what just happened i can't rp arguments fuck)
"I don't need emotions. They're a distraction," she replied with the perfect assurance that she was correct. Maybe she was. Compartmentalizing had certainly helped her find the clarity of mind and purpose to survive the scourge's first onslaught.
"Cameron seems to be doing quite well with the scourge, and you're not dead yet either." She touched the scar on his jaw, frowning in thought. "Does your well-being mean more to you than the scourge now? A sudden change of heart to turn you away from martyring yourself at Pax. What do you have in Juno anyway? A home? Homes are nice; you don't know what you've got until you've lost it. No pokemon, obviously. What about family? Friends?"
As far as empathy went, she had enough to navigate a conversation--to know when she was pushing the wrong buttons, and when she'd trespassed into unwelcome territory. This didn't mean she took a step back when she knew she'd gone to far. Usually the opposite.
Neo wondered if he'd shrink back away from her again. She took his hand again--the good one, this time.
"I'm always curious," she said, and those were the truest words ever spoken. "If it's not about the pokemon, then what's it about?"
"i agree," iskander said. he could see why they were a distraction; they often got in the way of his thinking because he felt too much, heard too much sometimes. he let her touch the scar on his jaw, and this time, he didn't shrink back. he'd gotten used to neo's presence by now. it wasn't much, but at least it wasn't cameron running a hand down his scar, then punching him again.
neo did that, too, a tinny voice said in the back of his head. neo did that to you in lake pax, remember? it hissed, and iskander remembered everything in an instant. "i haven't seen her in a long time," he said, "yes, i have a home in juno. and you're wrong, though. i don't have pokémon, and i don't have family. friends? i don't know. i don't think i have any of them."
he didn't want to remember growing up, really. recalling not only took effort, but courage he didn't yet have. "most of them left when they turned ten. on a journey. they never came back. some of their pokémon did, though. they left with new trainers soon enough."
loyalty never lasted. holding on was futile. trusting someone was foolish. it had been iskander's mantra for a while.
"maybe it's the humans. sometimes humans do things that are unexpected of them. no one expected humans to be the source of everything inflicted upon themselves. they might not have deserved the scourge, but they brought it upon themselves. the least i can do was to help out somehow."
it had boiled down to a questioning of ideals, personality and thinking. the questions were progressively getting harder, tougher.
"neo, sometimes i just don't have the questions to your answers."
"I'm sorry." There wasn't much else to say. Neo didn't have much of a home left, but there was a heart there, if not a building. A home without a heart seemed like an awful joke.
Neo looked at him dispassionately but analytically. His expression was always impossible for her to read; often she swore he was fully genuine, but that niggling doubt remained. Somber Delta was better than smiling Delta though; she didn't really trust smiling Delta. He knew too much--talked too much and told too little.
"But you have the answers to my questions," she said. He had information, and she didn't. She hated that--hated him for it even as it drew her to him like a moth to flame. "How did we cause the scourge?"
iskander shrugged, tired. he had expected that kind of response from her; he cut a similar figure to J as he shifted his shoulders, except he was smaller, leaner in physique. he stared at the ground, and said nothing for a while. there were things he didn't necessarily agree with, or share with the other agents -- to tell neo what he did not believe in wasn't his way of doing things.
"i heard that people were experimenting on pokémon in pax," iskander said, drawing patterns on his bandage like he did in the ground back at the lakeside, "things went wrong, and the pokémon were infected by the virus. that's the scourge, that's what we've been fighting all this while. researchers, scientists working there."
he didn't know what class neo was, but she certainly didn't seem like a breeder. maybe a trainer, maybe a researcher. definitely no ranger, she didn't have pokémon running to her aid all the time. iskander glanced at her. "things were bad," he said, "the entire place was wiped out, wasn't it." he drew a circle on the bandage, then drew it again as he inhaled.
was this an interrogation? it felt like it. probably was one. neo had no intention of letting him go, right? it felt like it. there were more questions coming, probably. it felt like it. she wanted more answers, it might have been in her tone or eyes, detached as they were. it felt like it.
outside, a woman shrieked, and iskander jumped from his seat.
it was fear.
it felt like it.
now standing, iskander stared out the window, holding his breath.
She weighed his words for the truth. She knew him for evasive--let him be, so were a lot of people--but if he was a liar, it was either wholesale or not at all. That thought that he spent every moment lying to her (this was not the same invulnerable man that had smiled at her while fishing in Lake Pax) was reason to back up slowly. The thought that he told the truth gave her every reason to stay.
He was right that the Institute was a ruin though. Something had happened there, that much was obvious, but a manmade virus? She could believe it. Mankind didn't have a track record of making good decisions.
"Things were bad. They'll get better. That's what EOS is here for--that's our potential. To fix our mistakes." She spoke as gently as she knew how to, but there was steel under the kindness. He'd been there before, not far from the Institute. It hadn't seemed disturbed or downcast then. "And don't scratch," she added, mistaking his drawing for itching.
Neo wondered if the woman outside thought she deserved whatever she was getting too.
She glanced to the window and scowled. Hair still damp and only half dressed, she picked up her bag, intent on going outside. "Be right back. I'm going to find out what going on outside. Phoebe, stay here on guard."
