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!
This looks like a decent place for a break. Aragorn hops forward to catch up with his trainer. Larsa never seems to stop moving, ever. He's already bumped into Alia, which gives him enough faith that Zara, Raza, and Arza are somewhere out in the wide world. He believes that they are, in fact, quite alive. It gives him a goal, which also makes him pretty reckless. The Scyther's already had to cut a few branches from his trainer's path that he nearly took his own eye out with.
The tavern of Juturna Village welcomes the mantis Pokémon as warmly as they do his trainer. Larsa had found an empty seat in a quiet corner of the local tavern. The Scyther takes a seat across from the trainer as the man counts his prize money from Jasper. "Enough food to last us for awhile," Larsa announces to the Scyther, who gives his trainer a little nod. Aragorn hadn't helped in the fight, but he was still equally as proud of the victory. Frodo, too, had insisted on accompanying Larsa. The little Riolu quite enjoyed watching the battles that the trainer's other Pokémon participated in.
Larsa folded his hands together and leaned on the table with his elbows, waiting for a waitress to swing by and take his order.
The only reason Zara is standing in front of the tavern owner, fixing the last pieces of her waitress' outfit, is because of the woman's cooking --
-- Zara will do anything to learn the secrets of the tavern's food.
So she stoically serves the patrons, bringing food as requested and speaking nothing more than the occasional 'Which table?' every now and then. Zara dutifully took down orders, ferrying the requests and food back and forth from the kitchens. (Just one day, she had been told. One day.)
The woman arrives at the table where Larsa is seated. She pulls out the pad of paper and the pencil from behind her ear. "... Order."
The Riolu blinked as Zara arrived at the table. He doesn't think that this silver-haired woman is a particularly good waitress. She lacked elegance and her demeanor was a little too rough for her liking. The Pokémon opened her mouth, as if to voice his opinions, but Larsa quickly scooped the Riolu up, set him in his lap, and covered his little mouth.
He threw the waitress an apologetic expression. "Ah, I think I'll take the house special, Tauros cheeseburger? Moomoo milk for the little one, and berry salad for the Scyther, if you could, please," he said to her, finally lifting his eyes from the menu.
What.
What is his younger sister doing, waitressing at Juturna Tavern? Larsa raised a brow and leaned on the table with his elbows like a cat. "Zara? Zara, is that you?" He tried very hard to contain his genuine relief seeing his hand-biting sister again, but the man inevitably failed. He leaped from his seat, startling the Riolu, and latched onto her.
"Zara, it's really you, right? What are you doing here? Why are you working here? Did you see Alia yet? How about Arza and Raza? Have you seen them too, Zara? Zara? Zara, are you listening?"
She scribbled down the orders and turned on her heel to go and place them, ignoring her brother. Yes, of course it was her -- who else could it be, really? (Both Alia and Larsa asked such ridiculous questions.) The woman scowled in displeasure when he grabbed onto her arm, and she attempted to pull away from him and his barrage of questions.
Zara didn't answer him, instead casting a bored gaze around her. Just because she heard him didn't mean she felt like answering. She yanked her arm from his grip, resettling the pencil behind her ear, and looked at her notepad. "Cheesburger. Milk. Salad," she recited. "Sit and wait."
Larsa wasn't sure what sort of a reaction he had been expecting from his sister. After all, she'd never been a particularly affectionate woman (unless chomping on hands until the teeth drew bloods was a form of expressing familiar love). It was nice, in a sense, to see that she hadn't changed quite much. So Larsa sat quietly, twiddling his thumbs as Zara began to walk away.
<Larsa, Larsa!> the Riolu piped up. <Larsa, Larsa, who's that?>
The man patted the Riolu on the head. "That, little Frodo, would be my sister."
She returned with the food, precariously balancing the plates in her hands. Zara completely ignored the riolu, oblivious to any hostility, instead silently placing it in front of her brother.
"Is that all?" Zara asked flatly, vaguely eager to escape to another table.
Larsa gave his unamused sister a quick nod. "Yeah, that's about it," he said to her, eying the piping-hot food. "Hey, this looks pretty great! Do you want some, Zara? Actually, am I allowed to give you any food? That should be okay, shouldn't it?"
Meanwhile, the Riolu had begun to lap at his MooMoo Milk. He glanced at Larsa as the trainer lifted a spoon; the baby Pokémon began to imitate his trainer, dipping the spoon into the milk and sipping at it. It took him a few tries to drink from the spoon without spilling any droplets, but he succeeded eventually. Aragorn was much quieter, munching away at his salad.
"I can't wait to eat this~" Larsa hummed as he lifted the burger to his mouth and took a bite. "Oh wow, this is really great! I'll have to tip you extra well, won't I, Zara?"
Of course he could give away food, but that didn't mean she wanted it. She pointedly turned her face away from him in disinterest, wondering if there was anything else pertinent to her that he was going to say. (Probably not.) Zara tuned her brother out while watching the other people eating.
"Sure." She liked money; that would be Larsa's only contribution to her day, anyway.
The woman turned around to return to the kitchens. How much longer did she have to work there?
Larsa's hand suddenly shot up. "Wait, Zara!" he called, "I mean, Miss Waitress! Is that what I'm supposed to call you? That should work, I think. Has a weird ring to it. It's weird calling my sister a waitress."
"But uh, could I get a beer to go with the burger? I think that would really top it off." Larsa took another bite of the burger as Frodo daintily lapped at his MooMoo milk. By now, Aragorn was already done with his salad. It was really just Larsa who was a slowpoke of an eater. He always had been very slow to finish his meals. Zara was usually the first unless her portion of food was at least twice the size of his own.
She paused, looking back at her brother with blank eyes. "... What." The woman stared at him as he jabbered on and on (and on and on). Maybe she should walk away while he was still preoccupied with what was coming out of his own mouth.
Yes, that was a good idea -- until Larsa placed another order. Now she had to listen to him.
"Fine." The breeder strode back to acquire the beer, plopping it down in front of Larsa with an unamused expression. "Slow."
Larsa gave Zara a quick nod. "Oh yeah, that'll do," he said to his sister. He rubbed at his chin, eying the brown glass bottle up and down. It perspired as if it was being interrogated silently by the Eos trainer, though Larsa did not make any movements.
That is, until he slammed a hand on the table as soon as he recalled what he wanted to ask for. "Oh! Bottle opener! I'm going to need one of those, Zara. Do you have any? I hope you do. A sealed bottle's no good to anyone!" And he would go on and on if nobody taped his mouth shut.
In reality though, Larsa really would like his bottle opener soon.
Zara idly wondered if her brother would shut up if she slammed into the hand that slammed into the table with a fork. (No, he'd probably complain more.) That was Larsa -- always tittering, regardless of whether or not anyone was actually listening.
With an irritated snort, she took the bottle from him and popped open the cap using the edge of the table. Zara resisted the urge to pour it on his head (she wouldn't get paid for it, would she?), instead attempting to slam it onto her brother's fingers as she put it down on the table. "Anything else?"
If Zara had tried to slam the bottle, Larsa didn't notice. It was rather typical for him not to though. After all, he usually only noticed any malevolent thoughts towards him if they were really, really obvious (like that one time Zara's teeth had connected with his hands). Aside from that, he either brushed it aside lightly or did a very good job of not showing others he was affected.
The trainer took a gulp of the cool beer. "Aaah yeah, that really hits the spot," he said with a content expression. Frodo seemed to be just as happy with his MooMoo Milk. So the older sibling shook his head and responded with, "Nah, you probably have other stuff to tend to, right? I won't bother you anymore. Or at least, I won't bother you for a bit. Oh, I may need other things later though, but not now so I'll just call you over. That's how it works, anyways. Ah! I'm wasting your time again, aren't I? Yeah, there isn't anything else I need... for now."
This looks like a decent place for a break. Aragorn hops forward to catch up with his trainer. Larsa never seems to stop moving, ever. He's already bumped into Alia, which gives him enough faith that Zara, Raza, and Arza are somewhere out in the wide world. He believes that they are, in fact, quite alive. It gives him a goal, which also makes him pretty reckless. The Scyther's already had to cut a few branches from his trainer's path that he nearly took his own eye out with.
The only reason Zara is standing in front of the tavern owner, fixing the last pieces of her waitress' outfit, is because of the woman's cooking --
