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 cheating bastard. Added colour to his cheeks and everything.
Tiffany looked up and scanned the room as she tried to decide on the best phrasing to use. She didn’t want to say something that might offend. “Can you…?” Lighten up? Stop talking like we’re going to lose?
“Can you maybe… try and be more upbeat? Like, not all the time, of course, but even five minutes a day would be an improvement. A big…” improvement. Oops. What was that about trying to not offend? Tiffany looked him in the eye. “Just please pretend that there’s not going to be an attack and that we’re all not going to die.” Tiffany was certain neither of those things were going to happen, of course, but she wasn't the one who needed to believe it.
i know, right. he went from black-and-white to full-on colour. even got his eyes fixed and stuff.
isaac glanced at tiffany. he didn't know if he could promise that to her. he glanced away, his expression clouded for a moment. honestly? he hoped nothing bad would happen, but he was apt to look on the worser side of things. at least things would only head upwards from there. this wasn't going to be like a series of unfortunate events, or something like that ...
"pretend?" said isaac, shaking his head. "try this."
practised, and with a smile similar to polymnia's -- now he understood why she kept herself smiling all the time -- he spoke.
"we're not going to die! hurrah!"
dizzy (( hell yeah. victorious vertigo defeated dizzy! ... man that shouldn't have worked as well as it had.))
See? That shit goes beyond botox. It has to be the fountain of youth or something.
Yup, things in Ceres were totally going to head upwards. Just ask the future Amberwell.
Just as Tiffany thought she had asked the impossible and she began searching for something to shift the conversation to, Isaac did something completely unexpected. Tiffany dropped her spoon and for a second just stared – because what the hell just happened? – then she laughed.
It was such a sudden change. You’d be laughing too if you were her.
“Oh my…” Nope, she needed to laugh again and she did. “That was terrifying!” Tiffany swore that she had seen that smile more than once in various horror movies, and it never belonged to the sane people.
“Very funny, Zac, but that’s not what I meant. …Actually, it was, but what I meant by pretend was…” She waved her hands around as she tried to come up with the words. “Good liars are good because they actually believe what they say, right? That’s the kind of pretending I meant.”
the amberwell froze over. it's rebelling against us.
isaac grinned. at least tiffany knew why he didn't try doing that too often. it was odd, even for him. polymnia did it as easily as she breathed air -- he didn't know why, but wasn't intending to find out anytime soon. "so i'm supposed to lie about ceres, and believe that?" he scratched the back of his neck. it wasn't really making sense, was it.
"kind of like telling yourself vegetables taste awesome ... something like that?"
Shit it better not change sides. How would we win then?
Silly Isaac, it all made perfect sense. Tiffany nodded – yes he was supposed to believe his lies – then she shook her head slowly – no this wasn’t going to work at all. Isaac clearly wasn’t getting it. Duh, Tiffany.
“Okay, forget everything I’ve just said.” She decided to try something much easier and simpler. “New promise: you won’t worry about the scourge so much.” Sure, it kind of went against the EOS job description a little bit, but it couldn’t be good that Isaac worried more than Tiffany did and was able to come up with all these bad feelings about scourge attacks.
That, or Tiffany didn’t worry enough. Which, she was sure, was not the case.
i hope you have a researcher. go do a [recon] thread in the area to contribute a half-pip. or do a [challenge] thread, that's a one-pip contribution. every little helps, and if we exceed the count, some good things might happen. i just approved your researcher, btw.
isaac snapped his fingers. oh, now that was so much easier to understand! he nodded. "yeah, that makes good sense," said the ranger, "that's sensible." he thought about it -- yes, worrying about the scourge a lot was going to affect his mood, and that wouldn't do. he had to keep his spirits up, after all.
"i promise not to worry about the scourge so much. i'll focus on my tavern job -- and also the heart sign. how does that sound?" he grinned.
Ty for that! I’ll try and get her there as soon as I can. And once Deryn’s finished her gym challenge she’ll go over and help out too. She has low-levels that need levelling.
Man, if only I’d thought of the don’t worry thing a couple of posts earlier. “It does?” Tiffany was surprised that Isaac had taken to the new promise so easily. Pleased, but surprised. “It is?
“I mean, of course it is! That sounds marvolizzimous. Great!” It was exactly what she had wanted to hear. And just in case it was too good to be true, Tiffany turned to Clavier and said, “Hey Clavier, did you hear any of that? Make sure he doesn’t worry too much, okay? And don’t you do it for him either.” There. She didn’t want to see worry lines all over their faces next time she visited. Assuming a Haxorus could get worry lines in the first place. What would the equivalent be - getting dull cheekblades?
don't forget to get your exp boost ready! too bad lyanna's dead, because she gives you a lucky egg that's super helpful with levels too.
... also, about that don't worry thing: better late than never, right? at least we don't need some sunny day intervention going on in here.
"hey, no fair!" isaac said when tiffany turned to the haxorus.
clavier cracked open an eye. it had been meditating rather sagely about the current state of affairs. perhaps it was also plotting its rise to the apparently-empty throne of juturna dragon guardian. you never knew, with how serious clavier was most of the time.
'i'm not a worrywart,' said clavier, teasingly. the dragon-type glanced down at its partner. 'i'll knock some sense into him the next time he goes into a spiel about how the scourge is going to kill us all.'
"oh, wow," isaac muttered, mock-exasperation crossing his face, "how do you even get him to agree to things like that?"
Already using and abusing it. I’m gonna see how many level 100s I can get before Deryn gets her a into g and meets the 100+ requirements.
“Thanks Clavier!” Tiffany beamed. “I knew I could count on you.”
She turned to face Isaac, not bothering to hide how smug she felt. She raised an eyebrow. “‘Hey, no fair’? How is it not fair? You weren’t planning on conveniently forgetting the promise as soon as I left, were you?” Ooh, he totally had been, hadn’t he? The standard promise-but-not-promise trick that was easily used to fool gullible parents and others. Tiffany had done that plenty of times back when…
She laughed.
“Because me and Clavier are on the same wavelength.” Mo snorted. Tiffany flicked some of her leftover food at him with her spoon. “We know what’s up.”
Tiffany high-fived Clavier, a little hesitantly because she had no idea how to high-five a Haxorus. It was a fail high-five. “Wait, let’s try that again.” Tiffany hit his hand again before Clavier could move his claw. (Wow, high-fiving could end badly if they weren’t careful).
The flying chowder was originally supposed to hit Mo, but okay, let’s roll with it and pick on Isaac some more.
“You sound like such a grandma.” In response to the ‘oh, you two’ comment. “And go on, what was ‘the case’, then?”
high-fiving a haxorus was easy when you knew what to do. it wasn't exactly simple, but it was exhilarating. maybe the dragon would come too close and shave some hair off your head.
but clavier was careful, and it held its hand out and didn't move so that she wasn't hurt. it was content with how it went. the haxorus drew back up to its usual height.
and okay. let's keep picking on isaac.
'grandpa isaac,' said clavier thoughtfully. it smirked.
isaac sighed. one person wasn't enough to argue against two others. "i meant that i didn't intend to just forget about my promise," he said, "have a little faith in me."
Oh no, the horror of having some hair cut off. Actually, that would at least get a shocked look out of Tiffany. She liked her hair. But if Clavier turned out to be talented with cutting people’ hair…
No, let’s not put that thought in their heads. Just in case.
Tiffany grinned at her wavelength buddy. Totally on the same wavelength. They were an unstoppable force. She’d have to remember to tell Clavier to, every other day, tell Isaac that he could see some grey hairs growing. Or make him a walking stick out of a branch.
“Don’t worry gramps, I believe you.” Heh, gramps. Brilliant. “I just trust Clavier more. He can’t even lie, or if he can then he’s probably not very good at it.”
You know perfectly well why I’m giving you that look.
Clavier totally has to do that now. No excuses.
This was too funny. Tiffany couldn’t stop laughing. Except, of course, to put her own words in. “Don’t be silly, Clavier. Old man Jenkins doesn’t have the strength to do that. He’d break his back.” Yeah, yeah, he wasn't a Jenkins, but Jenkins sounded like the perfect grandpa name.
