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!
She was cold in the Deoxys's grip. Her head swam. The willing. The words echoed in her mind like a door slamming shut. She met Karimi's eyes when the other girl darted back to her side. She tried to put the bloodlust of earlier into her voice when she spoke, to lean back into Deoxys as she spoke. It wasn't that hard, and that scared her.
"Remember what you promised me when I said I'd take you along? Do it. Leave, you dumb fucking bitch. There's nothing for you here except a painful death at my claws." At her hands. At her hands. She didn't have claws, she didn't have fangs, she wasn't scourge, she wasn't scourge, she wasn't--
There was no waking up from this nightmare.
She glanced over at J dully, barely registering the changes to him. Shock had given the world a glassy, unreal sheen and she felt slightly distant from everything. She looked up at the Giratina that towered over J and suppressed an absurd desire to giggle.
"I met him in a dream," she said. "Where's your friend from?"
Minerva struggled to her feet, and with a common sense and grip on the Land of Nightmares not apparent in any of the humans in the room, she slipped into the wall. Giratina took no more notice of her than it might a bug, but the gardevoir forcing her way into its chosen human's mind had attracted its notice.
"Kill the gardevoir," it instructed J. "Keep the girl as a pet, if you like, so that she may be turned in time, or kill her as well. I care not." The matter dismissed, it leveled its gaze back at Darwin.
"I should end your feeble attempt at denying my rule here and now, but I will offer you the choice to slink away with your new toy and buy yourself a few precious moments of life. I am a merciful god."
XJV3hE7_ < 50 darwin gives thalia a bride price < 50 thalia throws off scourge influence for one post < 20 minerva brings batin back
finally, the land of nightmares allows her the dubious pleasure of seeing darwin and hashr in the flesh. karimi has fought legendaries before, and she has also fought the scourge. never did she imagine that she would be seeing a combination of both, and karimi finally realizes what a blessing it is to be ignorant. except she's a researcher, she doesn't have such a blessing-
"arceus" karimi's voice is barely above a whisper, filled with equal parts terror and awe. her legs won't move, not in front of a scourge deoxys and a half-scourgified thalia and j.
the gardevoir abandons her efforts on j when she recieves the message. she's quick to give her trainer a psychic nudge - or rather, it was more of a shove that karimi needed. she regains enough sense to distance herself from darwin. except distance didn't mean much to a psychic pokemon.
"what's...what's going to happen to you two?" she's not sure if she wants to know at all, but to abandon theses two here would be...she can't, won't, shouldn't-
<you shouldn't, but you must! karimi, we must leave quickly!>
the use of her surname is enough to remind her of the responsibilities that she carries. "i...i know!" she knows what must be done, but she is not like neo. she lacks the conviction, the strength to accept her losses with good grace and dignity. karimi fumbles for a pokeball, and the meganium that comes out throws up a reflect. hopefully, it's enough to buy them some time while they make their way back to the castle exit -
"god, what am i doing..." karimi takes a last tearful look at the two trainers that she is about to abandon. "i'm sorry...i'm so sorry! don't...don't die! i'll be back for you!" she's not even sure if it's an empty promise anymore. she wants to, she wants to more than anything in the world, but who can she risk? even a fight against these titans alone - what would become of her pokemon? no, these questions aren't important right now.
she turns around and runs with her pokemon following behind her.
BF6HYjYe <10 land of nightmares affect karimi vertigo
darwin placed a hand on thalia's shoulder to steady her. she was yet unhoned in its eyes, but time would refine her senses. she was its choice, and she would not fail it. 'relax, breathe. shh.' its voice was soothing. 'she's not worth your time, or anyone's time, my dear bride.'
its arms were still twined around thalia.
J had looked up at the sound of darwin's voice. something in the deoxys's tone compelled him to listen, but hashr's voice overrode everything in his mind. kill the gardevoir. keep the girl? he thought not. mechanically, J turned on mary.
darwin watched on with mild interest as the trainer approached the gardevoir, only to be foiled by a reflect that a meganium conjured.
'foiled!' it proclaimed, 'you are no god, hashr. you are the same as i am, but we merely hold different ideals. but you can agree with me that we are better than those who live outside this godforsaken land, can you not? that is why you seek lieutenants and i have found my bride.' its gaze returned to J.
upon finding his path blocked by a transparent wall, J did the one thing he knew. he took a step back, and lunged for the screen, brick break at the ready.
the reflect shattered. J stepped through the reopened path, and ran after karimi.
UZFcqDgt <40 he catches her by the collar
karimi's reflect had bought her enough time, it seemed. J stopped by the door, and glanced back at the trio still in the room. and then he remembered thalia's question.
"like yours did. in a dream," he said, his human speech stilted.
'hmm.' darwin hummed. 'not bad, hashr.' with that said, it raised a tentacle and pressed it to thalia's temple, and said to her:
'we'll both play that game as well. how does that sound, my love?'
1-10 dominion over scourge pokémon 11-40 a crystal grows from thalia's chest 41-60 psychokinesis 61-90 cloning powers 91-100 body part regeneration
She screamed. It felt like there was a fist ripping its way out of her chest, pushing aside tendon and muscle, her bones grinding against each other and re-arranging to make room for something. Thalia had thought that after everything, she had really known pain.
She had been wrong. She bent over, crying silently, and bit her lip as the pain flared and then subsided to a dull thud. She had clawed at her own skin, ripping open her shirt and drawing blood. She looked down. Directly over her manubrium was inset a faintly glowing white crystal, growing out of her fucking skin.
The world went black for a moment and she staggered forward, barely keeping her feet.
Umxas24e < 50 thalia throws off scourge influence for one post < 50 crystal powers are deoxys related > 50 crystal powers are derived from thalia's personality or smth 1 - 30 crystal grants physical strength 31 - 50 crystal grants extra move of any type 51 - 70 fire manipulation 71 - 90 mental shield from telepaths 91 - 100 enhanced control of LoN
Giratina regarded J with an almost fatherly disappointment as Karimi slipped through his grasp.
"We are indeed superior to those who dwell outside of this place," it said. "And thus it is triply debasing that you refuse my Gift and my Rule. And to engage each other in open combat is unseemly. Therefore I propose we pit our chosen champions against one another. Mine will defeat yours, and you will bend knee to me. A simple matter, and a clean solution."
To J, privately, Giratina rumbled in every corner of his mind "Do not fail me as with the gardevoir."
'fighting here is silly. they can't even meld the dream world to their wishes. how do you expect them to fight each other to their fullest potential?'
darwin had faith in its bride. it steadied thalia's gait and touched the crystal to imbue it with powers. the crystal shimmered, and a warmth spread from its core. 'tha-li-a,' it spoke her name and brushed stray hair away from her face, 'i trust you to not fail me. you have seen many horrors and i assure you that the boy is nothing compared to them.'
on the other side of the battle, J's conversation with the giratina was marked with a subservient desire and a thirst for blood. "fine," said J, even if he wasn't sure why he was going to fight thalia. this felt like one of their usual adventures -- except it was them against each other instead of them against the world. this wasn't wrong, but then again, the entire land of nightmares was supposed to be wrong.
he retracted his claws and stepped into the middle of the bedroom.
_ilnBYrf <50 J throws off giratina influence
hashr disappeared from his mind when the bone claws slipped back into their sheaths under his skin. his mind seemed to clear, and for once, J didn't feel inclined to cave into instinct and rip things from limb to limb. his gaze fell on thalia levelly as darwin released her from his grasp.
"neo's gone," said J. they could leave now, if they wanted. J felt up to the task. he didn't know if thalia could disentangle herself from darwin's influence, though -- but they had survived far worse than that. things were duller and easier to forge through when one was scourge-minded; if one held a human mind, happenings were often twice as furious and thrice as painful to recall. "neo's gone," he repeated, and his voice descended into a growl.
>50 giratina influence returns
darwin chuckled.
'oh, i-told-you-so.' the deoxys leapt away from its current platform. another formed from the walls to catch it. 'choosing the strong does you no good, hashr. the willing is a different story. they will all eventually come to serve us, but to have them do it out of their own heart and will is both victory and satisfaction.'
Neo was gone? She wanted to believe that was J talking to her. She wanted to believe that she could trust him, as she always had. Again and again, hadn't he saved her?
But that was in another world.
Thalia leapt from the platform to the floor. It was easier than it should have been; there was a new strength and response in her muscles that hadn't been there moments ago. She tried to ignore it.
"I don't want to fight you, J," she said, heedless of the act she was supposed to be putting up. "If Neo's gone, we can leave. We don't have to stay here. We can go home."
There was the small matter of the two scourge legendaries still in the room, but she was confident if she could get J on her side, they would come through. Hadn't they always done so before? She believed.
q|NkavkT < 10 thalia's willpower shifts the two of them somewhere else in LoN
And belief makes things true.
1 - 16 different wing of castle forlorn 17 - 32 velvet hall 33 - 48 library of lost things 49 - 64 the ascension 65 - 90 eternity 91 - 100 the rift
The world twisted and blurred, and when Thalia wrenched her gaze away from J, they were somewhere else. Endless shelves of books stretched as far as she could see in either direction. When she tried to look up, there was only a dizzying infinite expanse that hurt her eyes and was uncomfortable to think about.
< 50 thalia throws off scourge influence for one post
belief was a sane, wonderful thing to rely on in times of need. the farther they went from the bedroom, the less of a stranglehold the giratina had on his mind. it diminished to nothing more than mumbling in his ear by the time the world returned to focus. this was perfectly bearable -- hashr lurking in the depths of his mind wasn't exactly painful, but doing things without understanding why he did them had been particularly unpleasant.
J took a step towards the bookshelves, a finger running along the spine of books. he saw nothing of interest to him, and didn't bother looking around once he had discerned that this was a simple library, albeit one in the land of nightmares. apparently the agents had a need for books as well. despite his thought, J didn't feel like flipping through one of the books. it wasn't like he could learn something from it. the books really weren't going to provide him with a step-by-step guide to living a live with bone claws and a legendary whispering into his mind.
"you talked about going home."
his kirlia emerged from its pokéball, slightly nervous. its hands gleamed with a sort of psychic energy.
RGlGWYNN <10 they're able to teleport home <20 they teleport to the dream world
the energies dissolved into the ambience as soon as they had appeared. the land had trapped them and wasn't keen on letting go. perhaps the legendaries' influence was strong over them. J recalled his kirlia before it tired itself.
maybe this was something he needed to do by himself. just like how thalia had warped them away from darwin and hashr through sheer willpower alone.
The shelves shifted, sliding and re-arranging as if a hidden switch had been pulled. The world around J and Thalia drew back and for a moment they were surrounded by a pure bright red light, and then the stage was set.
A circle of iron and chrome had replaced the ancient tomes. Whether J and Thalia were trapped in the orb or protected by it was hard to say, and there was no telling how much use it would be in keeping Darwin and Hashr out, but as she floated in the center, Thalia felt marginally calmer.
"Yes," she said. "We got in, we can get back out. We just have to find the rift again. Or another exit, somehow."
WuKVcJLf < 40 thalia resists scourge influence next post < 30 a book containing forgotten information wrt escape appears < 30 a scroll containing forgotten information wrt j appears < 30 a scroll containing forgotten information wrt thalia appears
J pushed himself closer to the cage, and tested its material. the iron was strong, but J felt like it wasn't going to withstand a magical blow or two. physically, it probably could take quite a beating, but the supernatural reigned in the land of nightmares. he tested it a second time, before launching himself off the wall and back to the center.
"can't get to the rift like this," said J, indicating the orb, "we need a different exit." at this, he wondered if darwin - the more reasonable one - would provide, but he willed himself to immediately think about other things. hot chocolate, and bitter powder. maybe a face he saw often at the pokémart. no one else but them. hot chocolate, bitter powder. his mind kept moving between the two, and sometimes thalia. for some reason, bringing up anything else in his mind felt taboo. felt like he'd invite giratina into his mind again.
She thought too much, that was her problem. She couldn't turn her mind off. Am I right? Am I human? Am I too good at this? What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? Too many questions and not enough answers, and the truth was that nothing mattered except the hunt.
Thalia slammed her fist into the wall, sunk her fingers like claws into the metal and snarled. There would be no chase here, trapped as they were, but he was strong, wasn't he? She'd seen Giratina fawn over him, bless him with gifts in abundance. He'd fight her. He'd fight her and it would be good.
But first she'd snap his arm like a twig, get one set of those claws out of commission.
hashr and darwin had wished for this, but J was certain just a moment ago that neither of them wanted to see things come to a conclusion like this. thalia had suddenly turned into a battle-ready creature, eyes scanning and lips curled back in a snarl. J floated backwards, exhaling sharply through his nostrils.
"shit," he groaned as the doubleslap met their mark. J had no idea thalia was capable of inflicting pain, but she had. the sear he felt racing through his skin and into his nerves told him enough. instinct kicked in, and J fought back.
use the claws, whispered a voice in the back of his mind, but J ignored it. no way in hell was he using them and giving hashr a free passage in again. he gritted his teeth and lunged for thalia's neck with a brick break. he'd knock her out. make her fall unconscious, and maybe then he didn't need to fight a friend.
He looked for a moment as if he might not fight her, hissing out a protest, but that changed when she hit him. Pain had a way of searing away the excess flesh. He struck back at her and she could feel something splinter in her body, bone giving way, but that would be dealt with later. Her blood was singing now, and she was having fun. Thalia knotted her fists together like a sledgehammer and swung.
thalia used flail
KA_ww|lG < 50 punches him in the face < 50 broken bones
< 50 throws off scourge influence for one post > 80 violence attracts hashr
that was a good blow for thalia but a bad one for J. clocked across the face by something that felt like it weighed a ton, he was sent flying across the orb and didn't stop until he slammed against the wall and slumped over. he felt like the blow had cracked something; his jaw didn't feel right, and when he lightly pressed a hand against it, it hurt like fuck -- did thalia just --
he grit his teeth and set it back to where it was, and let his healing factor do the rest. as good as a new person now, J went back to hold thalia in place with vicegrip, before throwing her against the other side of the orb.
VkwjYyzu <30 the force is enough to knock her unconscious <50 he knocks the wind out of her for a turn
>80 suddenly, darwin
something drew up a park bench before the orb, and watched the battle with an amused expression.
Her head slammed back against the orb and Thalia felt something rattle back into place mentally. What had she been doing? Fighting J like an animal, apparently. Her back throbbed and she wheezed for air, twisting in place and trying to get her bearings.
_8IoPFsl < 50 throws off scourge influence for one post > 80 violence attracts hashr
J stared thalia down, his chest heaving with his breaths. he moved towards thalia cautiously, arm poised to perform a brick break if she tried anything against him. "i know you're not alright," said J, "but do you feel particularly bloodthirsty right now?"
'oh, you two,' said darwin. the deoxys was very comfortable where it was. 'were you too embarrassed to fight before us?'
She was cold in the Deoxys's grip. Her head swam. The willing. The words echoed in her mind like a door slamming shut. She met Karimi's eyes when the other girl darted back to her side. She tried to put the bloodlust of earlier into her voice when she spoke, to lean back into Deoxys as she spoke. It wasn't that hard, and that scared her.
finally, the land of nightmares allows her the dubious pleasure of seeing darwin and hashr in the flesh. karimi has fought legendaries before, and she has also fought the scourge. never did she imagine that she would be seeing a combination of both, and karimi finally realizes what a blessing it is to be ignorant. except she's a researcher, she doesn't have such a blessing-
upon finding his path blocked by a transparent wall, J did the one thing he knew. he took a step back, and lunged for the screen, brick break at the ready.
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