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!
"no, not really -- i was just going to provide an example of how i did it, so i didn't really give that much thought as to where exactly i wanted to go," said the ranger, glancing around the lounge. "where did you want to go?"
ikram had no clue what batin was talking about, in complete honesty. what game was she supposed to play, exactly? or philosophy -- she didn't really know things about that, either.
"i don't get what you're saying," she said, finally.
"That's what I don't like about this place," Batin clarified. "That's why I don't like it and it doesn't like me."
He waved away another server and its tray. They seemed rather insistent. Perhaps the wine was poisoned. Perhaps he was merely getting paranoid in his old age. I keep forgetting I made Batin creepily old to be hanging out with Ikram.
He plucked a canape off a tray, ate it and immediately regretted the action. It might have been better if it was poisoned. Haute cuisine was not the Land's area of expertise.
"I wouldn't eat anything they offer you," he said. Although who knew? They might mock up something better for her.
ikram nodded. different people and all that, right? she supposed she could make some sense out of that.
the serving staff seemed to be very insistent. they came with silver platters and golden goblets, and insisted that they eat something while they were there. ikram wasn't that hungry, but they were rather forceful in their gestures. something lurked behind their eyes too, or perhaps what she saw was merely a trick of the light.
one of the servers turned to her after batin had ate.
ikram bit her lower lip. batin's advice seemed sound.
P4xYJcW0 <50 gets offered food
"i agree with you," she told him, and a tray was pushed dangerously close to her. ikram took a step back as it pressed closer. "but they seem -- okay, fine." she ate took one of the canapés, but of a different color than the one batin had had.
<30 yum?
"... it's food, i guess," she said. it wasn't exactly what she'd call gourmet, but it was acceptable. kind of like chain restaurant standards, which meant that it was perfectly edible and definitely didn't taste like scourge.
"They say that Persephone was the daughter of the goddess of the harvest, and so beautiful that even the King of the Dead wished to possess her. He captured her and took her to the Underworld, and while her mother came to rescue her, it was too late--Persephone had eaten the food of the dead, and was bound to that world for at least part of the year. And eventually, although she had not come willingly at first, she became a dread queen whose name one dared not speak, for fear of drawing her attention."
He smiled.
"It was just a story I thought of, with how insistent the servers were getting with their food."
she listened. it was an interesting story, to say the least, but had batin not explained its significance, she wouldn't have gotten it. oh, so she shouldn't have the food then -- also probably why she had been told that maybe the Land would choose her one day? probably.
"you're a good storyteller," said ikram, "i don't think i'm going to eat anything else from here."
ikram politely declined the offer of more food. the servers gave them a glance before leaving.
"maybe we should make a move," she said, turning away from the lounge and back to where the ascension was. she stepped out of the door, and waited for batin. "you could pick where to go next."
suddenly, she remembered something.
"where is this place located, anyway? i mean -- if this is all a dream, because we were in a forest."
that was strange. she was almost certain that this was where the stairs led, but here she was, feeling like they ought to be in a forest instead of a lounge. perhaps everything happened as they had because it was a hallucination, like batin had said.
it was still rather strange, no matter how she decided to dissect the issue.
"is there a way to test if this is real?" said ikram, glancing around her -- nope, nothing to indicate that anything was out of the ordinary, if one disregarded the fact that they were in a land with never-ending staircases and mysterious pillars stretching up to red skies. "like pinching yourself to see if you're in a dream."
she shut the door to the lounge and it dissolved from view, as it was no longer needed.
"hmm."
the girl paced about, then paused mid-step to look at batin.
"you know, i heard that lake pax was in the middle of scourgehaven."
"One of us could try dying, and see if it sticks. Or a traumatic injury; amputate an arm, maybe. If you don't wake up when you die, or end up arm-less in the middle of Ceres, we were here for real. Bit of a hard way to find out, though."
He met her gaze when she stopped to look at him.
"Lake Pax is just the gateway to scourgehaven. This is scourgehaven."
