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!
"yeah, it's pretty sweet," polymnia said. her breloom had trundled over to the demolished bar stools and had begun arranging them in a careful stack to be disposed of later. he had the long-suffering, resigned air of a pokemon with an overly exuberant partner he had long since grown accustomed to.
polymnia beamed at him, then looked back over her shoulder at ikram.
"any ideas yet? of course, you could always just try drawing it and see what comes out."
polymnia blinked as well. it wasn't like she had an intimate knowledge of ikram--or even just a shallow knowledge--but ice ball wouldn't have been her first guess either for the other ranger's heart sign.
"maybe if you draw it again, it will be a more personal ball of ice?" she said, but she didn't sound convincing even to herself.
this, at least, polymnia recognized. she was a Very Important Ranger NPC after all.
"your styler is charging," she said. "which means you manifested an attack that required more energy to output than it had on hand. which is a different attack than ice ball, obviously."
...
she thought she knew what was going on here. maybe another demonstration.
ikram nodded. "alright --" she had barely finished her statement before her styler shuddered, and from it a large blast of ice emerged. it seared the tavern floor, sizzling and crackling with electricity for some reason.
the styler finished charging. it released freeze shock!
she cocked her head at the sight. "it's not ice ball," she observed, "but i don't think i've seen this move before. should i try again? this heart sign seems a bit fickle-minded."
probably spoke a lot about herself too, she realized in hindsight.
ikram did as she was told. "harsh? i don't think so," said the girl as she drew yet another air heart.
ikram drew the heart sign
the styler shuddered and hummed, a green energy overtaking it. a bad feeling rose in ikram's gut.
heart sign manifested as ... frenzy plant?
one of the ancient trees in juturna village was promptly uprooted by a divine force and smashed into one of the buildings in the area. thankfully, it wasn't the tavern, but it did provide a pretty good view of the destruction.
"exactly! and knowing your weaknesses is the first step to overcoming them. besides, there's a lot of people who would jump at a chance to have metronome as their sign."
ikram glanced from polymnia to the destroyed hut outside. she quickly turned back.
"i guess i'm lucky, then!" ikram said. going back to being optimistic and cheerful wasn't a difficult jump to make for her. "at least we've identified it as metronome, so that's good. hopefully it won't backfire on me."
polymnia hoped ikram never rolled self-destruct. she seemed like a nice girl. more importantly, she seemed like she might make a good ranger. nice girls were a dime a dozen, but good rangers were a scarcer resource these days.
"i'm glad i could help you get your heart sign," polymnia said, and her breloom waddled forth with two mugs of beer from behind the bar. she took one by the handle and held it up.
