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 supposed she had a deathwish or something along those lines. messor rock was somewhere the locals cautioned her against, and it was something she had experienced before -- and yet she was back again to stare things in the face. perhaps it was something that drew people back to messor rock.
the illusions were almost real; it was as if she could stand here for days on end to live out the images it conjured. they were so real -- too real, too realistic that she almost didn't know it was fake. the place had a certain quality to it that was all too fascinating.
the girl stood at the edge of messor rock, staring out at the colorful lights that danced in the distance.
Tiffany hadn’t wanted to come here. Who knew what evil little pink Pokemon lurked around the corner, or worse. But now that she was here she forgot to care why or how she had ended up here. The illusions snap her up and she just wants to stay here. And here wasn’t even Messor Rock. Here was…
Well, it had to be somewhere in Ceres even if it looked nothing like it. Tiffany didn’t see any trees or flowers of wild Pokemon – that sort of stuff never belonged here – but she hadn’t left the forest, so…
It was easier to give up and go with the flow. Tiffany lets herself fall for the illusion and when she finds the girl she asks, a little too defensively, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
if only it were an illusion, then things would have been different. ikram's illusions had been relatively quiet and devoid of sound. it was just herself and a world filled with red skies and a neverending staircase -- whatever that meant, she didn't know. the people who lived there were faceless and nameless, and she liked them that way.
Tiffany didn’t like the girl’s response. It only bred suspicion. By now she had let go of the knowledge that she wasn’t in the forest, and was really in… “But this is my home. I belong here.” She saw it all; everything was as she had left it. Everything was in place and together.
“Oh!” A thought came to her and Tiffany relaxed a little. “Are you here to see daddy?”
what goes on the hearts of fair young maiden nowadays ...
ikram bristled at the mention of a possible father figure. her own -- no. she wasn't going there. who knew how the illusions would bend and blend according to her ideas. she stayed far away from the lights, where they wouldn't wash over her. she'd be safe from all those intrusions then. safe and away from things she wanted but couldn't get.
she stared at the other girl.
"no," ikram said, firmly. she knew she wasn't here to see anyone. she had returned because she wanted to see those familiar red skies and perhaps see it again. maybe at the end of the staircase. maybe at the top of the path she'd see it there.
ikram glanced past the other girl's shoulder. as if it'd be there, the voice in her head whispered, almost sadly. mechanically, she glanced up at the sky to see if it was indeed red for her.
no. it was not.
as if it'd be, the voice in her head repeated.
"your father?" ikram asked quietly. "is he around?" for you, she wanted to add. but she didn't, and instead just watched her.
dizzy (( ... halfway through writing this category 5 from the pacific rim ost came on itunes and i was like wow timing ))
“Huh.” Tiffany frowned. “Are you here to see me then?” The girl had to be here to see someone, and only two people lived here. That was all there had ever been. Only the ends of her mind even remembered her ranger partner who was, let’s be honest, part of her family now.
But he wasn’t part of it and Tiffany couldn’t see him here. He wasn’t part of the illusion.
Tiffany tried to remember the girl, really tried, and of course she couldn’t place her. But maybe she could make a place for her. The people you saw in dreams always had the faces of people you had seen awake, even strangers. Wouldn’t this place be similar?
She shrugged at the girl’s question. “I haven’t looked.” She didn’t need to. She knew that he’d be here somewhere. Tiffany had never worried about him until after he had gone. “Do I know you from somewhere?”
vertigo ((whoa 3 seconds into that song and wow scary that’s dramatic))
"you're a ranger," ikram said, pointing to the styler on the other girl's wrist. "we're coworkers, in the barest sense. my name is ikram." she only nodded in acknowledgement; didn't bother to shake hands. the other ranger seemed absorbed in what she had to experience in the light of the shards.
as for ikram herself, she had had quite the trip. through the corner of her eye, she could see the staircase and god was she tempted to walk towards it like she had, if only to see what sat at the top.
"but your father -- yeah. you shouldn't go looking for him. he'll come, soon."
she felt disgusted at herself for saying that. not everyone was ikram, and not everyone had to remind themselves not to go looking for him.
just to be sure, she swept her gaze over the staircase. no-one was there. good.
Tiffany looked at her wrist. Huh, she’d had that for a while hadn’t she? “Oh yeah. I forgot about that.” She frowned, trying to remember what else she had forgotten. Balls of electricity, forests, a little mouse…
“Oh, I’m Tiff.” She was distracted now that her head was being pulled out of the illusion. “And this is…” Who?
“I mean… yeah.” She smiled. “He always comes home. Usually late, but he always brings me things.” That felt like a lie. Why did it feel like a lie? Tiffany folded her arms together. There was an uncomfortable feeling in her chest and it had nothing to do with the cold.
“Sorry, I must sound weird,” she apologised to the other ranger. “I’m not all… I mean, you don’t see my home, do you?” That was obvious now. Whatever Ikram saw was her own. “What do you see? Your home?”
"hello, tiff," said ikram, even if she wasn't sure what exactly was going on with the other ranger. was it another ideal world that she was seeing? the same one she had seen with the mysterious man, or was it a different one?
her home, apparently. where was her home? ikram's head swirled with the lack of information; she didn't like knowing little. it always hurt for her to try to piece things together from what little she knew, and she didn't necessarily enjoy it.
she glanced at tiffany.
"it's nice to hear that your father brings you things," said ikram, "i wish mine --" a dark shadow passed over the stairs, and ikram took a tentative step back. her sentence was left hanging; whatever she wanted to say had been forgotten when the shadow emerged.
"-- well, i don't see your home," the ranger said when she returned to the conversation at hand, "i ... yeah. i suppose you could say that i'm looking at my home, too."
the staircase spiralled upwards, beckoning to her. ikram stood her ground defiantly.
“Hey.” Tiffany, knowing that waving was a bit redundant, just held her hand up as if she was about to wave. She waited for an answer and honestly had no idea what it would be. A home? That’d be kinda cool; at least then she’d know that whatever was making them see things made them see things about home.
What a weird illusion to make though. It didn’t sound right.
When Ikram took her step back, Tiffany tried to follow her gaze and see what had caused her to pause, but failed. It had been easy enough to figure out how Ikram was going to finish her sentence, and Tiffany wasn’t going to bring up daddys again. “What’s yours look like?” Tiffany asked, keeping to the familiar and, she guessed, nicer subject of homes. “Is it a house? An apartment? Ooh! If it is, you have to tell me how high up it is, okay? High ones are the best.”
ikram laughed softly at the idea of it being high up. well, staircases, for one, led upwards and only upwards. so she supposed that yes, it was a place that was very high up. it fit the description tiffany provided.
she nodded cheerily. "it's very high up, yes," said the ranger, "how'd you know?"
it was also standing in the middle of a deserted land that no one - other than batin - had been in, it seemed. that was something she was less keen on mentioning to tiffany, though. "funny it doesn't seem to have a way up other than stairs," she commented, "but i guess you can't have everything. i suppose you could say that it's like a penthouse way up there! ... i don't really know how else to describe it, haha."
the land had provided her with what she had wished for. as long as she wanted it, she could will it into existence -- platforms, more stairs, anything. it had been most helpful, in her experience.
The laugh would have been contagious if Tiffany’s interest hadn’t been piqued. Wow, she had gotten it right, and just when she was changing her mind and decided that Ikram looked like more like a house person too. “I-It was only a guess,” Tiffany half-stammered, shocked that the guess had been correct. How often did that happen.
That it was like a penthouse was impressive. Tiffany was in awe. “Wow, that’s the highest!” Which meant that it was the best. “You’re so lucky—well, apart from the stairs anyway. That’s a real bummer. You should totally try and get it turned into an escalator. They’re fun, especially when you walk up them the wrong way.”
Being up so high must feel really nice.
“Well…” Tiffany could still see it, so she began to point. “We’re in the living room right now. You’re in front of the window. The flat’s only about halfway up the building thought.” Point, point, point, point. “The kitchen’s over there, the tv is there, the dvds are there, and if you need the toilet you just go through that door over there—uh, not that you’d, um, be able to use it or anything.”
Tiffany felt like the rudest host in history. How could she have a guest in her house and not have them able to use anything?
it was nice to have a home to describe. ikram wasn't sure how she was going to describe hers given the fact that it was only a flight of stairs at the moment. "an escalator?" she asked, "probably, but i'll need some funding before that happens." she glanced at the stairs, wondering if they would change.
they did not. at least they were decidedly constant. or perhaps it was because she didn't truly wish for it to happen.
"what's outside the window, tiff?" she asked, "... huh? why are you apologizing? you did nothing, though!"
If Ikram was honest and told Tiffany that her home was just a flight of stairs, Tiffany would think that Ikram’s illusions were deeeeep.
“Funding?” People got funding for their houses? “Can’t you just…” Tiffany shrugged. She had never been stranded with only a flight of stairs to climb before. “… rally your neighbours and demand that the building owner get you one?”
If a staircase was deep, imagine how baffling an escalator would be. Ikram totally had to petition for this upgrade.
It was hard to explain why she had apologised without sounding silly, but Tiffany figured that this whole illusion thing was making things silly enough already. No harm in adding to it. “Well, you can’t use the bathroom. Or anything. I feel like a horrible host…
“Not that I’m actually a host or anything. It just feels like it. Since you’re in my home and all.”
She forgot to mention what was outside the window, but it was just boring city stuff that Ikram would probably find boring anyway.
a spiral escalator. it will eventually be petitioned for, but we'd need to file an application to the land of nightmares and see if it approves in the first place.
"... right," said ikram, nodding. "i guess you're sort of at the stairway leading up to my home, too. and i can't invite you in. that's much worse!"
she was much more optimistic than isaac was, in a sense.
ikram grinned. "we're both square, okay?" she said, "i'll go sit by the stairs and you settle on the couch. it'd feel better -- wait, where will i be sitting? stairs are over there." she pointed to the corner near tiffany's kitchen. "where's that in your house?"
it was surprisingly nice having a conversation like this. it was almost like playing make-believe as a child, something like that. it was fun; she didn't really get a chance to play things like that when she was younger.
