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!
karimi knocks on the door to cypress laboratories furiously. she had read the kohaku reporter, and even if she hadn't, red skies across juno were never a good thing
1RJZSDMz <50 someone opens the door
nobody's home, apparently. karimi actually tries the doorknob, and is surprised to find that it is unlocked. maybe it isn't too surprising when cypress probably sees about a billion trainers a day. she walks in, and karimi can't help but be a little impressed by the amount of tech that sits in this place for one person. if only kohaku university had been so generous towards their eos researchers.
the door is left ajar as karimi goes further inside.
<50 someone is in the lab <50 that someone is assistant jo <50 pokemon assistants <50 cypress???
karimi sets her bag on a table when she sees cypress slumped over his desk in a puddle of his own drool. gently, she attempts to shake him awake.
1-50 no response, sleeps away 51-90 wakes up 91-100 dead??????
There were red skies above Juno. That was never a good thing, Raph knew, so he'd hurried back to the city in time to read the paper. The hospital had collapsed, in utter ruins, where he'd been only a few days ago. Not oddly, Elysia had been acting oddly, restless, but Raph had been too distracted to make much of it. Now, though, he regretted not asking the Absol what the problem had been - lesson learned, a part of himself bitterly thought - and so here he was, barging in on Cypress to see what the professor made of it.
What he happened across was a blue-haired woman trying to shake Cypress awake. His own bag is stashed in the pokecenter where he'd left so abruptly from, but he didn't need it now. Probably. Everything he needed was in his pockets. But that wasn't the point. The professor was waving his hand around at something, lazily and mumbling something that he couldn't make out, before settling down again, and Raph took that time to approach.
"Excuse me?" Raph asked, carefully moving towards the researcher and the sleeping professor. "Are you here because of the hospital as well? ...and did Cypress fall asleep again?" Because that would mean they needed to wake him up. While he was drooling on the table.
Well, Elysia had stayed back at the doorway, peering at the various equipment scattered across the room, for a reason.
karimi never did get a starter pokemon from cypress. she had caught her tynamo in di manes last year and vaccinated him upon her arrival in proserpina city. she's certainly met him before during her studies into the scourge, but she certainly wasn't introduced to all of his assistants. that was a peacetime luxury.
"there's little that i can do for the hospital now, unless it's being overrun by the scourge" karimi's gaze drops a few inches. "emergency rescuers will do what they can. i have to do what i can"
the absol sets her at ease, the one indication that she has of agenthood, these days.
"...i was actually thinking about letting him sleep." karimi can only imagine that cypress wouldn't be of much help if he could fall back asleep like this. she's been in that situation herself a few times. thankfully, not as often in scourge territory. "i'm only here to pick something up."
He laughs, a sheepish grin on his face that's slightly hysterical. "No, I'm not. I'm a researcher; I just joined a week ago." It's the first time that he's been mistaken for Cypress' assistant, Raph can say that, although with the way that he hangs out near Juno it might start to be more than once. His expression turns grim, however, when she admits that she can't do anything for the hospital. It's true, a researcher wouldn't be able to do anything for a collapsed building anyway, but it was worth asking about.
Raph tilts his head questioningly, coming closer to her and the professor in the process. "What do you need?" he asks, curiously. He might be able to help her look, even in the chaotic mess that the lab is. "I can help, if you can describe it. I think Cypress wouldn't wake up now, anyway." He pokes the sleeping man, though, just in case.
b0gAPTB5 <50 cypress actually wakes up
...Well, it seemed like he wouldn't. Fair enough, and Raph turned to the blue-haired woman for a response.
"thanks - i'm karimi, an eos researcher myself." karimi is sorry that this man has to see her like this. usually, she would have an encouraging smile and a cheerful advice. today, she only has a mission.
"...some notes. i don't know anything about whether it's in data or physical form." god, she should have asked, but it was her own fault for rejecting neo so quickly - "knowing the researcher who made them, though...i think we should start looking for some papers. you'll know that you've found them if they detail the process of producing an hades cure."
This was probably the most over-the-top entrance he’d ever made, but he was kind of in a bit of a HUMONGOUS RUSH. An acquaintance of his could actually be dying right now! Or, well, at the very least be in a lot of danger. He’d started off on Phoenix, his Rapidash, letting the pokemon run as fast as was possible until he grew tired, thus explaining why now he was atop Raijin the Zebstrika. Not a conventional mount, but despite his highly strung temperament, he knew better than to shock his rider in his excitement.
Back to that over-the-top entrance.
Nima and Raijin rode into the building. Well, they DID use the door, at least. Though Nima had to do a rather hurried and intense duck to avoid meeting the top of the enlarged doorframe with his face (thank goodness these places were built with pokemon in mind!). Raijin put on the brakes, which basically equaled a very large horse sliding across the smooth tile on hooves not meant for braking on smooth tile floors. Luckily, the came to a haphazard stop before careening into any of the researchers or the expensive equipment or the piles of paperwork.
“Sorry!” Nima was already scrambling off of Raijin, whom was practically crackling with energy, tossing his head in irritation. Too many strangers in here for his tastes, and he bristled visibly. Nima gave him a pat on the neck, but was already heading for the biggest, messiest pile of papers. “Uh, do either of you work here? ….Is the professor asleep?? Ah, never mind, I’m looking for something! Notes on a cure? By a researcher named Neo?” With his blond hair in a state of disarray, and his mount breathing hard behind him, it was likely he was in something of a tizzy over these notes.
So the woman was another researcher. That was fine with Raph, and he filed the name away as he sifted through the piles of paper that were on the desk. Elysia, herself, was pawing through some of the texts on the ground, trying to be helpful in the face of the importance of this task. Because if Karimi was to believed, someone had discovered a cure for the virus.
Raph's mind was still a little numb from that revelation, which was why he didn't hear the blitzle rushing towards the lab they were in until it and its rider were through the door. He only glanced up once at the newcomer, noting the haphazard disarray with clinical interest, before returning to his work. "No, but we're looking for the notes as well." The name Neo he filed away in his mind as well - you never knew when information like that could come in handy.
Elysia, for her part, only glanced at the blitzle mount before deciding it wasn't worth her time and disappeared behind table, presumably to look through the papers there.
karimi doesn't really stare for too long at nima's entrance. for one, there were other pressing matters at hand. for another, that might have been her chosen method of entrance just last year. she longs to return to the more carefree days. "uh - no, i'm karimi. i'm an eos--" her mind skidded to a stop when she hears neo's name. "--neo? why are you looking for her notes-"
ah, that's right. she had been deemed uncooperative. that's...right. this person must be her other backup. trust neo to leave herself a backdoor. she was always really smart like that.
karimi feels rather foolish about the whole thing, but this isn't the time.
"yeah, i'm looking for her notes. she...she had wanted to entrust the cure to me." except she had let it all blow up in a moment of selfishness. "if you're here, then i guess she didn't expect me to get very far." she laughs hollowly.
karimi turns around without another word and scans the lab. she catches sight of a packet of paper that had some rather familiar scrawl across the top.
"this is..." she starts flipping. the blood starts draining out of karimi's face. "fucking shit."
everything was written in leonida neo's shorthand. the kind that was closer to l33t speak.
Nima shook his head in a flurry of blond hair. “No time for that! Two people looking for her notes is better than one! And right now we have three people looking!” He brushed off Karimi’s moment of self-pity with a rush of frantic energy. Who knew how much trouble she could be in?? They needed to find those notes ASAP!
And at the woman’s exclamation, Nima stopped his own rifling and flitted to her side to peer over her shoulder. “…Oh…Oh no…” What WAS that?? That was notes?? How? What?? WHAT?? “Aaah how could anybody, let alone a researcher, take notes like that!? Neo, don’t you know the first thing about taking notes?? How important it is to be precise and organized?? What is this abomination!?” Ooooh man if he found Neo in good health, he was definitely going to lecture her on this!! She was bringing shame upon researchers everywhere!!
Shoulders slumping, Nima resigned himself to the task ahead of them. “Well…let’s lay it out and…get to deciphering I guess. I never thought the hardest part of this would be the notes themselves…”
Raph slid over to where the other two searchers were when Karimi found the notes, groaning as he realized what she had been despairing about. The notes were in a shorthand that he would have no hope of reading, especially with his lack of prior knowledge about the woman herself. He rubbed the back of his neck, a sigh escaping him as Elysia finally slipped over to see what the commotion was. The blond scientist was making a lot of noise, in her own humble opinion.
"This is going to be a headache and a half," he groused as he grabbed a few pages for his own perusal and leaned against a convenient lab table. "How does she even understand this herself anyway?" He can't make heads or tails out of it, and he put it down on the table behind him as he rubs his temples. It was already giving him a headache.
karimi grits her teeth as she squints at the paper. at the same time, she's a little comforted by how difficult they are to read. that would mean that she intended for them to be for herself only. she didn't give up on herself, not till the end. that's... definately a good thing.
also, the l33t speak felt familiar to her. they were really written by neo, the same geeky little girl who used to sit in her science classes.
"it's...not impossible to do. just ... rather time consuming." she takes the first page of the notes and allows ralph to continue perusing the rest of the notes. karimi pulls out a random sheet of paper from the lab and starts transcribing from the first page. some of it is familiar to her, like an old friend. on other segments, she had to do a bit of guesswork. she finishes the first page and shows it to the other two researchers in the room. "here. i'm pretty sure that i got most of theses formulas right, but i figure that i probably want others to check for error."
she looks at nima. "hey, it's alright. neo trusted you, didn't she? i'm sure that she thought you could do it."
There were red skies above Juno. That was never a good thing, Raph knew, so he'd hurried back to the city in time to read the paper. The hospital had collapsed, in utter ruins, where he'd been only a few days ago. Not oddly, Elysia had been acting oddly, restless, but Raph had been too distracted to make much of it. Now, though, he regretted not asking the Absol what the problem had been - lesson learned, a part of himself bitterly thought - and so here he was, barging in on Cypress to see what the professor made of it. 
This was probably the most over-the-top entrance he’d ever made, but he was kind of in a bit of a HUMONGOUS RUSH.
So the woman was another researcher. That was fine with Raph, and he filed the name away as he sifted through the piles of paper that were on the desk. Elysia, herself, was pawing through some of the texts on the ground, trying to be helpful in the face of the importance of this task. Because if Karimi was to believed, someone had discovered a cure for the virus. 
Nima shook his head in a flurry of blond hair.
Raph slid over to where the other two searchers were when Karimi found the notes, groaning as he realized what she had been despairing about. The notes were in a shorthand that he would have no hope of reading, especially with his lack of prior knowledge about the woman herself. He rubbed the back of his neck, a sigh escaping him as Elysia finally slipped over to see what the commotion was. The blond scientist was making a lot of noise, in her own humble opinion.
