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!
Another man might have worried about blasphemy, about being cast down from the heights and his body breaking on the walls of the tower as the final testament to his pride.
But the truly righteous and the truly delusional shared the same conviction of purpose. Batin paced around the prism, hand occasionally reaching out to brush the pedestal it rested on before drawing back, while he waited for his guest. vertigo
it was very much like batin to pick a place closest to whatever fed his interest -- but then again, didn't they all? the scourge attacking wasn't exactly uncalculated. unintelligent and ill-fated half the time, probably. sometimes calculations didn't turn out right because none of them were fucking mathematicians, and from the looks of the writings etched upon the relics, none of them were historians or linguists able to decipher these ruins.
he wouldn't put it past batin to know something about it, though. iskander's footsteps were light, almost like a cat as he approached the man. "hey," he called, loud enough to hear, but quiet enough to prevent an echo from resounding in the area. "did anything change while i wasn't around?"
iskander was quite aware that this was batin he was talking to -- he didn't quite remember zahir, but things were often fun and interesting whenever he was around this person, whoever it was. "is this it? well, it obviously is." after answering his own question, iskander brushed a finger over the surface of the prism.
funny thing, it was. didn't seem to do anything in particular other than make rainbows out of sunshine. whatever little grime he had managed to lift with his finger had resulted in a clear surface that refracted light, which were what prisms were supposed to do anyway.
at the same time, iskander wasn't inclined to leave with it to study it in a better environment.
"hmm."
RSl4empU <50 a double rainbow appears
what the fuck it's a 50 what happens if it's a 50 we may be on to something here
"I lost my good looks," Batin answered, "So you're the undisputed winner of Kohaku's Prettiest Agent. Nerio fell and rose again, we attacked Decima, everyone seems drawn tighter than wire, angrier than a Tauros and just as directionless as ever. How was home?"
He watched the rainbow that arced where the light hit the spot Delta had cleared. "But I didn't ask you out here just because you're the prettiest." He looked at the carvings in some ancient language that decorated almost everything around them. "Given enough time, do you think the Library of Lost Things would teach you how to read these?"
iskander hadn't noticed. had batin really? as far as things were concerned, he still remembered how exactly he looked before his disfigurement, with a mask and without -- he didn't forget things easily, and never did, to be quite honest. the agent regarded batin's words with a measure of salt. it wasn't as if he hadn't heard it before; what aaron had told him matched up, but one thing the other agent did not do was ask him how juno was.
"home's fine," he said, "everyone's been over at varying points in time, but you're the only one who's even asked how it was." iskander smiled -- good smile, no teeth. "you're still pretty in my eyes. i don't think you've changed." not for iskander, no. batin wasn't exactly cameron and her tendency to punch things when it didn't go her way; she was probably the most scourge-like agent that they had, and that was actually a compliment to her in iskander's book.
the double rainbow was nice, and a good step forward in whatever they were trying to accomplish here. iskander rubbed off more grime; the prism responded by creating more rainbows, which shone upon a wall with runic carvings upon them. it reminded iskander of a book wherein it was stated that the last light would reveal the way forward, or a return to a homeland, something along those lines -- he wondered if it would ring true for the both of them.
he skimmed the runes and glyphs, finding them unfamiliar. "definitely," iskander replied; the reason he hadn't been reading up on them was because he hadn't been looking for these scripts in the first place. he had been more occupied in news and happenings to bother about ancient history. but if batin requested, if there was a need -- sure, why not?
"unless physis is in the library looking for methuselah, in which case, i think i'll pass. can't really breath the same air she does; it feels strange. like a sort of violation of privacy, something like that." he waved a hand in the air.
he glanced over the glyphs, before walking over and tapping one.
one of the runes changed.
Fp9MQJIo <50 iskander actually understands the rune.
"Don't worry. If she's at the library, she'll just start yelling at me and forget you're even there. You'll have utter privacy." Batin looked at the rune that had shifted under Delta's touch. I would copy that down, but I trust your memory more than I trust my own drawing skills. Recognize it?"
eA61OMse > 50 the changed rune activates something about the prism vertigo
"that's fortunate," iskander said in regard to physis, but as he glanced over the rune, his smile turned apologetic. "what isn't quite so is this rune. i don't really recognize it, but since it has changed --" he ran a finger over it, the same grimy one that had swept across the surface of the prism. the rune shuddered; even if it was rock, it moved with liquid flexibility. perhaps it wasn't all that it seemed, but iskander knew that -- the question was, what was it exactly?
he couldn't help but feel that if he could understand what the rune stood for, things would fall into place. but alas, things didn't work that way.
his brush against the rune did something, however. it took a while before the prism reacted to the action; the rainbows filtered away into plain light. it was as if the prism had ceased to work like the thing that it was; it seemed to be nothing more than a plain and simple gemstone now.
"odd," iskander observed, "the light isn't refracted anymore. does it work like a mirror?" he peered over it, but saw only light -- no sign of his appearance anywhere. not even his head of black hair. it soon dawned on iskander that it probably wasn't doing anything special with the light -- it was trying to absorb it from the surroundings.
considering how close they were to the sun, he felt that he might be onto something. he exchanged a glance with batin.
the glyphs continued to shimmer, unchanged from before. the only thing that had was the prism; the rune iskander had touched before was now solid stone.
fmTpCq|s <50 the glyphs react <50 the runes react <50 the sun reacts
It had been a mildly overcast day when Batin ascended the tower; but suddenly he realized that the clouds had rolled back--or been forced back--and the sun was beating down heavily upon the peak of the building. The dirt that had not been brushed away by Delta was crumbling under the light, and the glyphs that were projected about began to flicker rapidly through different appearances, as if they had fed on the increased sunlight. The runes shuddered as well, slowly coiling and uncoiling into new shapes, never lingering on one for more than a minute.
mkCMMD3j > 50 the glyphs and runes freeze in a message that will make sense (arguably) once deciphered. < 50, they will continue to spin. vertigo
iskander had to quickly step away from the prism as the light around it intensified. armed with nothing but curiosity, he lightly touched the glassy surface -- and recoiled with a stare at the prism. it was burning hot -- not only was it absorbing light at an alarming rate, it was also taking in the heat from the sun. perhaps it was trying to drain the sun ... ? iskander wouldn't have put it past the prism, considering how little he knew of it.
this was fascinating indeed. he watched the prism for a little while longer, glancing occasionally at the walls to see if anything had -- well, they had indeed morphed into something ...
the glyphs spun, before faltering slightly as the sun dimmed. (not because of the clouds, but as soon as iskander had that thought, the sun resumed its usual glorious shine.) a slow smile spread across his face as the runes froze in place, followed by the glyphs to form a particularly interesting image -- it was more of a paragraph in a forgotten script, but everything was nearly the same when he had a memory like his.
"i wish i could read these," said iskander, wistful. "they sound like they'd be fantastic if only i could understand them." all they needed now was a cipher -- pity, because iskander really didn't want to go to the library, spend a good amount of time, only to return to a completely different sight.
landmarks liked playing tricks on people. if they had gotten this far -- he was determined to finish what they had started.
OI3|lPVA <50 the prism starts spinning <50 rainbow light and rainbow glyphs
"Why was this built? For truth-telling, prophecy? To pass on a message to whomever came after? And who built it? There's too much I don't know."
He watched the prism spin in place on the pedestal. What it wanted to tell him was as mystery to Batin as when he'd first arrived. But at least he knew now it was trying to speak.
batin's questions were practical ones. an inquiry for a purpose, and then the who, and then the how and the five W's and one H and so on and so forth. iskander's thoughts were less ruminating and more questioning about the process the prism was undergoing. a wrong step would set them back to the starting point once again, and he didn't really want things to come to that. not only would the aftermath be hideous, he would also loathe the idea of having to restart something he had so carefully built.
"to answer your question," iskander said plainly, as if the answer was clear as the sun that shone down upon the prism, "someone did at some point in time, and i suspect i'll find out as soon as i get the cipher to these ruins." he watched the spinning item and its almost forlorn nature, and wished that he could help it like he had helped the trainers cameron beat up in bellona.
he would have tried lifting it, but by now, it gleamed a faint shade of orange-gold and it seemed like a bad idea to even think of making skin contact with it. and so iskander waited and observed.
he had patience.
HRdKTCWl <50 the prism rises a few feet above them <50 more sun reactions
Batin's curiosity wasn't satisfied by Iskander's answer. How long had it lain here, untouched? Had it been changed by the scourge virus as well? Had it even been built? He watched the prism ascend into the air, hanging in dazzlingly splendor in the air, and folded his arms across his chest.
Eox_XAAu < 20 there's a solar eclipse
For a moment, Batin thought his vision was going: the world seemed to fade away to gray and white. Then he realized the sunlight was merely fading away. The prism shone like a star in the air, almost seeming the block the sun out with its light, and Batin felt the temperature drop a few notches.
the prism further ran along its trajectory towards the sun, until a point where its absorption of light temporarily induced a solar eclipse. iskander felt the surrounding temperatures drop a few degrees; as the light became solely focused on the prism, the glyphs flickered and disappeared from view. what was left were the ruins in their ancient language, almost taunting iskander's lack of knowledge whenever his eyes passed over them. the prism continued to shine as if it were the new sun in the sky, the new beacon of light that kohaku was to be led under.
it wasn't until a while later that the sounds of groaning and creaking were heard. some sort of mechanism had been set into motion, and the higher stone pillars were grinding and spinning in place. several square walls of the tower had given way into new passageways, revealing stairs carved from quartz and new carvings on the wall. they weren't exactly runic sentences, but instead images --
-- frozen in the quartz in some sort of sacrificial stance were several creatures, both human and pokémon alike. iskander inferred that they were likely tributes to the sun god, or to the prism itself. or perhaps some other being they had yet to see, but it was all up in the air until something actually happened.
"left or right?" iskander offered. the platform they were standing on led to two separate paths, but they both converged at a new floor of the tower that had just revealed itself due to the solar eclipse.
the prism continued to shine bright like a diamond.
"With what they say about the left-hand path," Batin answered. "I think it's already been decided that we have to walk it."
He began to advance up the left set of stairs, stopping to examine a particular frozen image in the walls once or twice. "They look calm," Batin said. "At peace. Not a rictus of agony among them. Not what one would expect from those condemned to a death by entombment in quartz. Were they willing volunteers?"
But even Batin fell silent as he stepped onto the platform. He did not spend as much time in the Library of Lost Things as Iskander, or even Sophia, but he recognized the black cocoon that hung motionless a few feet above the platform. He swallowed.
"Now this is truly interesting."
zScocbAO < 5 yveltal is infected by the scourge < 5 - 10 yveltal wakes up vertigo
he plodded up the stairs after batin, sparing little to no attention to the frozen faces in the quartz. "willing, or unsuspecting. i believe it's the latter," he said. the way the quartz washed over them seemed like it was something that had happened too quickly for anyone to react to it, and because of that, neither of them seemed surprised or shocked. or at least, that was what iskander thought was the truth -- maybe the god, whoever it was, decided to claim its prize without notifying its host. things like that happened in times past.
as they reached the new area, batin's lack of a response prompted iskander to hum lightly. "oh," he said, mouth curving into a smile, "hello there."
the black cocoon was yveltal, something he had read of in books. not in the library of lost things -- legendary pokémon were not as easily forgotten as languages of times past. people still revered these creatures, some even treated them as their own personal religion; they were very much alive in the minds of people, and therefore, had no place in the library.
"yveltal," iskander whispered its name, eyes flickering from the faintly-glowing being to the floor below it. he could see a long way down from the quartz that made up the floor; it was going to be a long drop should they have the misfortune to experience that. "the beast of death and destruction. absorbs all life around it, should it awaken from its slumber."
he wondered if the runes spoke of yveltal. perhaps he would have been more prepared to handle the creature that was before them.
"fascinating."
8eTRYhMI <30 cocoon-yveltal establishes a connection with the prism <10 cocoon-yveltal absorbs energy from the prism
The cocoon pulsed with a light that was obviously the same energy as the one that lit the prism, red-gold waves washing over it. Batin felt himself drawn to it. And because no one had ever accused him of good sense (or even sanity), he reached out to place his palm against the cocoon.
jQE8bsg9 < 30 this does something < 6-10 this something is good < 1-3 yveltal establishes a connection with iskander < 3-6 yveltal established a connection with batin vertigo
