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!
((Sorry about the length, and I hope this is okay. Intros aren’t exactly easy. XD))
This looks like a good place to stop for a bit. Taryn broke away from the crowd as soon as she could and sat down at the first empty bench. It was far from comfortable, but it gave an impressive view of the sea, and her feet were too tired to take her much further, anyway. She was still unused to travel, sadly, and she was already farther from home than she’d ever gone by herself. It was a sort of numb feeling…maybe she was just in shock over all the changes in her life. It seemed like only a few minutes ago when she arrived at Cypress Labs and met her Cirrus, her Swablu. Now she was one city over and two pokemon friends richer. First was Firestorm, a Fletchling Cypress’s assistant handed her to help her balance out her team. Next came Ripple, the Skrelp she had purchased as an egg. It was a good start, in her opinion, though she had a long way to go before she’d consider herself ready for her first gym. That would have to wait for three more pokemon to join her and what would probably amount to weeks of training.
Well, who said pokemon training had to be a race?
After a moment’s consideration, Taryn released Cirrus from her pokeball. As she always did, the Swablu immediately flew up and perched on her trainer’s head. Taryn was halfway used to this by now, so her only reaction was an amused sigh. She lightly brushed her hand along the Swablu’s right wing and looked around. Aside from her pokemon, she hadn’t really had any company since the start of her journey. Maybe she should seek someone out.
Nix found herself going backwards, in location. She didnt know why she felt drawn back to where she had started her trip but she did all the same and it was kind of nice to come back. She wasnt the sort to go backwards normally but what with a much bigger team that she had when she had been here the first time, it seemed kind of nice to show the newer pokemon where her trip started.
She paused as she reached a busy street and rolled her eyes before darting down an alley way and then leaning against a wall to check the next street over, a few people but not as many. She stepped out in to the street and then looked around for a bench to perch on, there was one close by so she started to walk over to it before a mew close to her ear made her smile. Mimi was laying around the trainer neck like a bright pink scarf, something you would know was out of place if you knew nix but when said scarf opened eyes and started talking it was clear she was a pokemon."I know, you were so timid when we where first here" nix said with a chuckle as she lifted a hand to stroke her partner, it seemed to long ago
Occ - Tis ok, and tag me with nixnight, all one word. @ree
Taryn had closed her eyes at some point and was only vaguely aware of the world. Thanks to Cirrus’s feet in her hair, she managed to keep from falling asleep completely, and she could still hear what was going on around her. At the sound of a voice nearby, her eyes opened and she looked around. There was a girl about her age, talking to a…was that a Dratini wrapped around her neck? She couldn’t help an amused giggle – it was quite a lot like Cirrus and her hair-perching. The cotton bird pokemon was still nestled on her head. How that was comfortable to any creature, she’d never know.
“Hello!” She waved at the girl. “Come to enjoy the view?”
Nix came to the side of the bench and dropped herself down, a little harder than she meant to but no harm done. She took a moment to glance around and spotted a few other trainers with their pokemon and even a few simply civilians which made her smile, she did think people were brave to just keep up with their normal lives conceding the environment at the moment.
A voice spoke up near to her and she turned her head to see a trainer has had already mentally noted, female with a soon to be dragon type on her head. "just reminiscing, seemed like a good way to spend an afternoon. You just starting out? she said with a little nod of her head and a friendly smile. Her mind wanted to say this girl was younger than her but she wasn't quite sure about that, she knew she was a tall girl for her age and all the rest so that could easily confuse ages
The other girl sat down on the bench – well, more like flopped down. Was she all right? It didn’t look like she’d tripped. Maybe she was just exhausted. Traveling had a way of wearing a person out, so that shouldn’t be surprising.
Taryn waited as the other girl glanced around. She didn’t have to wait long to be noticed, though, and immediately after came a reply. Taryn nodded at the girl. She was too new to the trade to take a literal trip down memory lane, but she could understand the appeal. Perhaps after she’d beaten a couple gyms she’d return home for a little bit, just to check on things and see what had changed or stayed the same in Juno.
The other girl asked if she was starting out, and Taryn nodded – a slight, slow movement that hopefully wouldn’t disturb Cirrus. “I just arrived from Juno. I think I might be here a while, though. I need to add to my team and make them stronger before I’ll be comfortable taking on the gym. My name’s Taryn, by the way. What’s yours?”
Nix smiled as the other female spoke up and nix nodded at her words before she waved a hand over her pokeball belt, "I'm nix. I have a team of a few pokemon at the moment thats getting a bit too big for me to handle so you dont need to worry about finding too many more, though this here is my starter Mimi" she said as she drew her hand up to stroke mimi's head. "I've havent actually battled the gym yet, i moved right on to the next town up to train against some harder pokemon and get my team stronger before i'm planning on coming back here for the gym battle. Though its getting a bit wild out there at the moment" she said with a little frown as she thought about the recent attacks, she liked the forest out there and it was nice but she was forever on edge with these other pokemon that could come out and attack her and cause her to lose her own pokemon to them
Taryn nodded at Nix’s introduction. “It’s nice to meet you, and I suppose not but I would like a full team of six at the very least. Ideally, it’ll be a team of six with all the type strengths and weaknesses covered between them, but that’s a bit tricky.” She grinned at the Dratini as it – she – was introduced. “She’s cute. Glad my starter’s not the only one that likes to perch on people.” She brought her hand up to pat the Swablu’s head. “This is Cirrus. I have two others, but my Fletchling’s not vaccinated and my Skrelp’s a newborn, so I’m not entirely comfortable letting them out into the world when I don’t have to.”
She listened as Nix continued, frowning at her last sentence. “Scourge attacks? It’s probably for the best I planned to be here a while, then. I became a trainer earlier than planned so I could help fight the scourge, but I just started. My team’s nowhere near ready for that kind of challenge yet. It’s a good thing you made it back alive.”
Nix nodded to the other pokemon as it was introduced and she smiled and then looked upwards as she thought of her own pokemon, "I only have 2 pokemon actually safe which are Mimi who you know and my lapras, Misty. And Misty is far too big for a place like this. Though not being vaccinated doesnt hold my others back, poko is a head strong little madam who only does as shes told when i really snap. Ickle is wonderful, small and cute and loves everyone but a little too in to her battles. Tommy is my newest pokemon, a newborn like you say your Skrelp is. Though the first thing he did in life was ask poko to train with him so i think he'll be a fun little guy" nix said in a long breath. That wasn't even all her pokemon, she did have some others but she also didnt really want them so was planning on selling or trading them on to others. Well, to anyone who needed them. "I think it was more luck i got away from there in time, no one knew they were coming until they arrived and i was walking out" she said with a frown as their converastion fell to darker words.
Taryn’s eyes widened at the mention of a Lapras. She had one of those already? Lapras were beautiful! It would be quite a while before she managed for find one for herself, though. Besides, she wasn’t exactly unlucky. She liked all her Pokemon so far. That didn’t stop her from wanting specimens from her favorite species, but that would come later.
She listened as Nix talked about her Pokemon. They seemed like a lively bunch. She worried at the mention of Nix snapping, hoping that didn’t mean she yelled at her Pokemon. That would hurt them, wouldn’t it? And it’d be counter-productive. At least, that’s how she felt. Trying to set aside her feelings – they weren’t her Pokemon, so they weren’t really her business – she grinned at her companion. “Sounds like a good team. I hope my own can measure up, someday.”
She nodded at what Nix had to say next, shivered at the memory of her older brother’s return. Was that what had happened to him? The scourge just came out of nowhere and ambushed him? With his injuries and the fact that all his Pokemon were gone, at that point, it was hard to imagine that anything else had happened.
“Luck or not, it’s a good thing,” Taryn said after a moment. “We can work to push them away when we’re stronger, and eventually the region will be safe again.”
Nix smiled softly as the female replied to her and she could sense the worry in the girls tone but didnt know why, she knew her training methods were not quite what everyone else did but she didnt really mind. She picked pokemon for their bond to her, not their type or moves or stats. "I bet give it a week and you'll have someone new on your team" she said with a little chuckle as she thought about how quickly she had built up her team, it had all happened rather fast. The girls tone shifted as she spoke of things nix rather would not and the red-head simply nodded as the other spoke, "All i want from them is to have left someone i care about in peace, to be honest,if they could go and sit in some nice corner somewhere and stop causing issues then i wouldnt have an issue with them" she said in a lower voice that was both worried and dark with anger. It was true, nix didnt mind any sort of pokemon so these were just another type to her. If they sat somewhere and behaved she wouldnt mind them, though he infecting of new Pokemon would still happen so maybe there was no choice but to annihilate them
Taryn smiled as Nix talked. “Maybe. Until then, though, I’ll be focusing my efforts on the ones I have.” The need to make her team stronger was stuck at the front of her mind and probably would be for as long as she remained a trainer. Right now, her goal was to build up a team and challenge the local gym, but after that she’d need to start all over again, making her Pokemon even stronger for the next gym, then the next, then so on until she felt strong enough to join the fight against the scourge.
She frowned when Nix spoke about the scourge. She could understand the girl’s feelings, but – in her case – it was far too late for that. The scourge had broken her brother and – she assumed – killed all his Pokemon. That was just too far to tolerate. She decided not to say as much, though. She just met Nix. It wouldn’t be right to burden the other girl with her problems. Not yet, anyway.
“All anyone wants is peace. I can understand that. They haven’t been very peaceful, though. They’re making life hard on everyone.” She sighed. “Someday, though. Right? One way or another, the attacks have to end.”
Nix found her head nodding as the other girl spoke, she seemed to have herself well set of the hard times coming up for her. Though nix found herself thinking for a moment, this girl was a new trainer and nix knew she needed more pokemon. Nix knew she had a few pokemon she had managed to get a couple of times and didnt really want with her so maybe she could offer them to this girl, she was clearly nice and all that. However she was speaking again, better to pay attention. Nix sighed as the girl finished talking and she nodded, "i mean if we could cure them or stop them being so bad i'd be all for it, but i dont think we can anymore" she said with a little drop of her head as she thought of all the pokemon that had been lost to that dark shadow.
Nix listened to her, and suggested curing or stopping the scourge. She nodded at that. Like Nix, she wasn’t sure that was possible, but…
“Curing them would be the best outcome,” she responded. “We have vaccines, so we’ve taken the first step. We know how to prevent it. We just need to figure out how to reverse it. That’s probably a long way off, though. From what I’ve heard, it’s been hard enough holding the scourge at bay and nearly impossible to make any permanent progress…” She shook her head. “It will end someday. We have to believe that.” Well, she had to believe that. She needed to have that little bit of hope to keep her spirits up. Maybe Nix was stronger. “In the meantime…I guess it’s not something we have to worry too much about as long as we’re in the city.”
Nix was enjoying herself here, this other girl seemed smart and she knew what she was talking about. Though nix could sense a little emotion behind her words, she found herself wondering if this girl had come across the not so lovely pokemon before or if they had hurt someone close to her. It wasnt her place to ask of course but the wondering was still there. Though that idea of hers back back in her head and so she decided why ont ask, whats the worse that could happen. "You are just stating out right, well, i have a few pokemon i managed to get and wont be using. You seem like a nice kinda person and these guys need new homes so i wondered if you'd like one" she said with a little smile before she tried to remember what she had, a shuppet and squirtle and could remember. Though minx was now in there too and she was a psychic type which she knew many people liked, and nix had spent time training her too.
Nix changed the subject – a fact for which Taryn was grateful. Talking about the scourge was upsetting. It was a constant presence in her mind, and probably in Nix’s too, but it seemed like they both needed a break from focusing on the problem. There was nothing they could do to help, anyway. Not yet. Not until they were both stronger.
Taryn nodded at Nix’s question and listened as she explained that she had Pokemon she wouldn’t be using. Her eyes widened a little when she was offered a Pokemon. Was that a common practice among trainers, or was Nix just nice? Would she be able to give any of hers away? She couldn’t imagine it with anyone on her current team, but right now she had so few…
“I…are you sure?” she asked after a moment. “I mean, I’d be happy to take care of one for you if you’re sure you’re willing to part with it.”
