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!
Thalia had expected a long and gruesome battle, ending in a trail of blood that lead straight to Neo's feet. And then what? She didn't know. The vision stopped there. They would find Neo, and something would happen, and then they would be home.
Strange how home, and the idea of Pax Lake, was more comforting than this place. She thought of her dream and shuddered and walked on.
she's scared, moreso than she's been for most of her time in this war. karimi has every right to be, yet she berates herself for it anyway. never mind, if she can just pull neo out of this arceus forsaken place, nobody will be any wiser. she stands tall, even when the laws of the realm compell her to bend.
"thalia, wait." karimi does not win any prizes for paitience, but she knows better now than to walk aimlessly in a place of so many unknowns. she can be thankful that a year's journey has taught her that.
she releases her gardevoir. "mary, can you give us a sweep of this floor for enemies? or at least give us a general direction." her pokemon nods and begins to make a psychic check.
M8VtrqY5 <50 she picks up a trail that leads in the vague direction to batin's floor <10 she senses someone or something approach >50 nothing
stepping into the land of nightmares felt like stepping into home. it was as if the land welcomed his presence; his dream had been vivid and real, and as he walked, he wondered if hashr would emerge to claim him as his own. so far, there was no sign nor sound of the giratina. he was wary, and his gaze scanned the area.
no sign of neo, no sign of hashr. the gardevoir seemed to have little luck with its attempts as well. he would have asked his metagross to attempt something, but with nothing to hack into, it was going to do jackshit.
he wondered why he was doing this with thalia (see: their other threads together) and a girl whom he didn't know.
"I wonder just how much attention that attracted," she said, and then sighed. "Think of this place more like the Dream World. You can shape it, in a fashion. If you're willing, and have the strength of will." She still remembered the cage Darwin had set around her.
She tried to imitate what he had done, forcing the Land to reveal something to her.
She wasn't sure if she was more apprehensive of failing or succeeding.
7Iy3RUc| < 10 land of nightmares affects her < 50 gardevoir attracted something < 50 the land reveals a path to batin's room
a path emerged. J's instinct was to follow it, much like dorothy and the yellow brick road. he didn't know what to say in response to karimi and as such, fell silent and waited for them.
karimi follows with unhesitant footsteps with her gardevoir behind her. when she sees the lucario, connections start forming in her head.
"so you're that lucario that brand forced neo to clone for him!" karimi shouts before realizing that it...probably wasn't a good idea to be shouting in the land of nightmares. that, and she was shouting at a newborn clone. it was still scourge, though. neverthless, her next question is closer to a regular speaking volume. "what did brand do to neo?"
hWlcNhaW <10 land of nightmares affect karimi vertigo
to J, this was no different from their meeting in pax. everyone else was doing the talking, and everyone else always knew more than he did. he remained in the background.
< Technically, I am not that Lucario, > Minerva said to Karimi. < Heron was male. I am female. But Neo cloned me. Batin did nothing to her. The Land likes her. She is one of us now. It accepted her. Soon she will accept herself. >
She sniffed the air.
< Two of you almost smell right. Strange. Regardless, while Batin said Neo was free to leave the room, you are obviously intruders with nefarious intentions. I will restrain you until he returns from the library. >
She was readying a fusion bolt when a voice echoed throughout the room. It was not loud, it did not shout, yet Thalia heard it more clearly than her own heartbeat. The scourge pokemon froze in place, statue-like.
"Hello," it said, rich and dark. "You have kept your promise. I reward all loyalties. These toys you brought are of no concern, unless you should wish to offer them up in service as well? Otherwise I will dispose of them."
XCZoRNEs < 10 thalia affected by land of nightmares < 20 darwin appears, is giratina's enemy < 50 thalia fights off scourge influence for next post
She hated the voice. It felt wrong, wrong, wrong. It vibrated in her bones. She wanted to rip it up out of the walls and tear at it with her claws(hands) until it bled, sink her fangs(teeth) into the soft flesh and gorge herself.
But beyond the hated voice, she could hear another call. The call that she had to answer.
her first instinct is to lunge at the lucario in anger, but her gardevoir holds her back with her psychic powers. "you're lying! neo wouldn't - neo would never! she's stronger than you, she's stronger than all of you-"
yet here the lucario stands, the testament to neo's capture and helplessness to oppose the agents. karimi feels a surge of irrational loathing for the creature.
the anvil's longsword that is strapped to her back seems to start hissing, and steam comes out of the edges. karimi feels an unexplainable urge to draw it, but then--
then the dream goes to hell.
<karimi!> the gardevoir doesn't look so good on the confidence scale, but both of them know that her species will die for their trainer if need be. karimi had vowed to never let mary go that far. she must keep her vows. at the same time, other people are depending on her- karimi can't quit now.
"thalia! are you alright?" she rushes to thalia's side. "thalia, please-"
gardevoir receives a nasty headache all of a sudden, and she tugs at karimi's sleeve. <someone's here! someone powerful > gqP6HGNL <10 land of nightmares affect karimi vertigo
darwin cracked its neck. it had been some time since the last vanishing act it had taken upon itself to perform. there had been sparks and explosions, and it was a good show -- the trevenant had no doubt been left confused in its wake, but that was perfectly fine in its book. just a little shock never did anyone any harm, it thought.
what was once a sudowoodo had now evolved into something greater. thalia had little idea of what it was capable of; darwin hadn't been lying when it spoke of evolution. thalia belitted it -- said sudowoodo were never going to see the light of mega evolution, but - darwin chuckled to itself - who needed evolutions when it could shift between formes at will?
the deoxys disentangled its tentacles, then wrapped them back just as tightly.
'hm.' it picked up thalia's presence in its vicinity.
its bride had returned to its embrace.
---
the voice was familiar to J's ears. unlike thalia, he did not immediately succumb to a myriad of changes. thalia had gradually taken on the traits of hadean pokémon, and J took a step back -- yet the voice continued to speak, and J was drawn to it just as inexplicably as he had been the first time.
"hashr," he said, scourgetongue coming to him as effortlessly as it had in his dream, "i keep my promises." his eyes fell on thalia, who was snarling as the virus affected her. "thalia is good -- i don't know about the other." his gaze passed over karimi and her gardevoir.
"how many others have you found after i left?" asked J, to no one but hashr in particular.
8h_uGNPS >90 J gets a healing factor <10 J affected by the Gift <10 J and giratina merges
he remained standing where he was, shield in hand.
---
darwin walked over to where thalia was, its movements languid yet graceful. 'you never told me your name,' it whispered into her ear, 'how unbecoming of you.'
the deoxys paid no heed to the other two humans and the garedvoir -- but it did notice the giratina, and it stared straight into the void where it knew hashr was.
'hashr. we meet again,' said darwin, and mock bowed.
Thalia snapped at the girl who drew near her. She would have followed up, maybe, reached out to the flesh, tear the muscle and tendon from the bright, bright bone, but she could sense him coming, and she stayed where she was, eyes rolling wildly like a hunted animal from J to Minerva to Karimi and back again.
Darwin was a steady reassuring presence. "It didn't seem important then," she said. "Thalia. My name is Thalia, if it means anything now."
J answered the voice and Thalia growled.
"It isn't one of us," she said to J. "It is wrong. It twists. It breaks. It will break you and use you. It thinks it owns the virus. It knows nothing and dreams of even less."
Hashr's displeasure crackled in the air like a burning brand, and Thalia took a step backwards into the Deoxys.
"A beast full of fury and hatred," it said. "Poorly forged weapons oft break in the wielder's hand, Darwin. And perhaps she will be reforged anew to serve another's purposes yet. I suppose you have not finally realized the folly of your ways and come to bend knee to me?"
To J, privately: "You are the final choice. You will be the first lieutenant. There was a girl here, earlier. The lucario spoke truly. She is one of us now, but has departed beyond my sight. From here on, all choices will be yours. She can serve as well, if you would desire."
And Hashr appeared in the room. The bedroom expanded to accommodate him, the ceiling spiraling upwards. Minerva was flung to the side against the wall.
Giratina is in Origin forme.
zvz1SfjT 1 - 10 j gets an adamantium skeleton 11 - 40 bone claws 41 - 60 lesser giratina powers 61 - 90 heightened senses + strength 90 - 100 dominion over scourge pokemon < 50 thalia throws off scourge influence for one post
karimi yelps as she draws back with her excellent reflexes, honed by months of encountering the scourge. she's not that afraid of what a 5'2 girl can do to her, but thalia is still looking at her like she is a piece of meat to be devoured, and that is definately not normal.
"thalia, who are you talking to--" what the hell is going on? karimi isn't sure if she even wants to know. especially when a scourge legendary materializes in the room. it's fine, karimi tells herself. she's not alone this time, and she can probably take it if j works with her, the ever-strong and steady hot cousin of delta's -
but then j starts growing claws and a fucking giratina appears in the room, and karimi starts getting a better idea of how fucked they are.
"neo..." karimi actually falls to her knees. she believed in neo, so she can't give up here - but she also believed in thalia. she believed in j. she believed in all of her friends, and now it's coming down to this?
no, get up, alia karimi. get up and fight! or. maybe not fight, not while j and thalia are both incapitated. her eyes dart between thalia and j. neither of them look too good, but at least thalia hasn't been sprouting horns or tails.
"mary, you have to help j! please, do what you can!"
the gardevoir nods and begins to focus her psychic powers at j, trying to find some gap in giratina's hold -
BhHyt6B7 <30 gardevoir establishes some kind of connection with j
in the meantime, karimi gets off the floor and reaches out to thalia. "thalia! you've got to snap out of it! you said that you would help save neo! you promised that much!" karimi puts in as much heart as she can. "we can't help save the region if we die here! our friends need us!"
'it will always mean something to me,' darwin cooed soothingly. 'it's never too late to know someone's name.' the deoxys's eyes roamed the area, taking in hashr's reappearance and J's changes as the giratina appeared in the vicinity. the gardevoir and her trainer afforded the briefest of glances before darwin's eyes left them. they seemed completely out of their element, and it was easy for it to notice that the gardevoir was trying to accomplish something that would only result in disaster.
darwin caught thalia when she walked into it, and wrapped its arms around her protectively. 'are those your friends?' the normal forme deoxys blinked once, twice, as its psychic energies scanned the male trainer. 'they seem different from you. hashr speaks to the strong. i choose the willing. it has always been that way.' darwin's voice was a quiet, level one that spoke directly into thalia's mind; it was confident in its choice of a trainer to claim as its own.
'swaying your friend is a foolish gesture. hashr has given him the Gift, and those who receive it are bound to his will.' while their private conversation continued, darwin lifted thalia with ease, and leapt backwards. a platform extended from the walls to catch the two of them. the ceiling lifted once again to accomodate darwin and its bride. now that it could see eye to eye with hashr, darwin spoke aloud.
'your lieutenant is suffering from your gift,' darwin made an idle observation, 'incompatibility will break him.'
down below, J had collapsed to the ground, and was supporting himself with his arms and knees. ice-cold sweat beaded on his forehead as his body twisted and changed according to hashr's will -- he understood thalia's words just fine, but he didn't feel regret in his bones. "i can't --" growled J, as the Gift continued to spread within him. the giratina's voice was strong and its influence powerful; hashr's whispering revealed to him that neo - he hadn't forgotten - had been around, and that alone made him grit his teeth and push through the pain.
his skin cracked along the faint lines of his veins, but they sealed themselves as soon as they had appeared. the internal writhing he was subjected to quelled over time, and J eventually managed to stand on his feet. his hands still didn't quite feel like his -- he raised them, and immediately noticed that he had somehow grown bone claws from his knuckles. he flexed his fingers and his hand; it was almost if he had had these for ages, and whatever injuries he had sustained from the Gift had quickly repaired themselves.
hashr's final touch was to give him the gift of scourgetongue, and authority over scourge pokémon.
A9XPCF57 <50 J is influenced by scourge <50 the changes disrupt gardevoir's intrusion
"thalia," J said to her. this was an adventure quite different from their other ones, and he wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing. his skin had darkened, and his eyes held a different sort of power behind it as hashr had bestowed upon him. "i know hashr, but not the deoxys." he glanced at karimi, only because she was desperately throwing herself at thalia in an attempt to salvage her.
it was then that he met mary's eyes, and the gardevoir's psychic powers assaulted him. J found his skin tearing and ripping from flesh; they ripped at his skin from the inside, but just as quickly as they tore, they healed, until the gardevoir's psychic connection stabilized and only one word rang out in her mind:
Thalia had expected a long and gruesome battle, ending in a trail of blood that lead straight to Neo's feet. And then what? She didn't know. The vision stopped there. They would find Neo, and something would happen, and then they would be home.
she's scared, moreso than she's been for most of her time in this war. karimi has every right to be, yet she berates herself for it anyway. never mind, if she can just pull neo out of this arceus forsaken place, nobody will be any wiser. she stands tall, even when the laws of the realm compell her to bend. 
??
"thalia," J said to her. this was an adventure quite different from their other ones, and he wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing. his skin had darkened, and his eyes held a different sort of power behind it as hashr had bestowed upon him. "i know hashr, but not the deoxys." he glanced at karimi, only because she was desperately throwing herself at thalia in an attempt to salvage her.
