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 practically flies into the cafe at the rate that she's running. okay, it wasn't really a cafe in the truest sense. rebuilding for pal park hadn't been that quick, but eos trainers needed a place to eat and load up on the caffeine. for now, a large tent with picnic tables will have to do. at least the coffee's cheap.
"oh my god i am so sorry for being late, ignatius -" she's so frazzled that she doesn't even notice if he's there yet or not. either way, people are staring. "i got held up by some scourge on the way but it's all fine and dandy since i kicked them all to the curb and shit-"
ignatius sipped his cup of tea, idly staring at the time on his watch. she could have been later than an hour, and he still had the patience to wait. he was the one who needed the entries, after all. had it been the other way around, things may have been different.
but he was a man with a good grasp of patience. researchers were often less punctual than one imagined them to be.
"sit and catch your breath, alia. the details can wait for a while longer."
if ignatius ever gave karimi shit for being late, then he certainly wouldn't be the first one. not by a long shot. she did have a legitimate excuse this time, though. not being eaten on the way to pal park is a good thing. better one hour late than never, right?
or at least karimi hoped so.
she's almost getting used to the use of her first name. the fact that raza isn't dead helped a lot on that front.
(she's not alone - she's not alone anymore. so why does she feel so lonely?)
"yeah..." she huffs as she sits across from him. "it's...it's really good to see you again, ignatius." more than he knows. out of all her calls, only two were returned. she can only hope that they're only busy, and not... incapacitated. "...'specially in times like these. i'm surprised to see that you got here so fast, though! i swear it feels like we hung out at the pokemon center only like...yesterday or something."
a small procession of pokemon march in. the ones that karimi had accidentally outrun in her haste. they were amura, milotic, grovyle, kingdra, hawlucha, and doublade. some of them didn't look too happy with her.
"errrr...sorry, guys" she has the decency to look a little sheepish. "pokepuffs are on me?" never mind the fact that pokepuffs were always on the trainer. it still seemed to do the trick, though. karimi resigns herself and pulls out her wallet.
she calls for a server. "heeey! can i get uh... a dozen strawberry, a dozen chocolate, a dozen lime, and a dozen orange pokepuffs here?" never hurt to have a few extra for the road. "and black forest sandwich for me, thanks!"
ignatius took the opportunity to scan the pokémon while they were busy glaring karimi's way. as soon as the data was collected, the blaziken by his side clicked its beak a few times. ignatius glanced at it, half-ready to recall it into its pokéball. the last time he let his pokémon roam free, it hadn't ended well at all. the flygon he had came to mind.
"two deluxe mocha pofflé," he told the server. the blaziken clicked its beak happily. it was at least calmer than the rest of his pokémon were.
"it's definitely been a while, but i've been doing nothing but walking. i'm relieved i actually made it somewhere," said ignatius, smiling.
karimi usually eats like a lion. she doesn't today for ignatius' sake. the meat in the sandwhich is hella tasty, though. maybe she'll ask what pokemon it came from this time.
"hey, that's a good policy actually! you're always gonna get somewhere as long as you push forward. bet you saw a lotta pokemon too." she smiles nostalgically as she thinks back to her own months collecting wild entries. "how many have you got in that pokedex of yours now, anyway?"
the doublade taps her shoulders with its handles. oh, that's right! "hey, since you had to wait for me and everything, i thought i'd give you a seventh entry!" karimi reaches into her travel bag and takes out a dark stone. "i got this from pi sofia the other week! isn't it cool?" evolution stones were always a childhood fascination for karimi, even when she hadn't decided to become a researcher. "you can get both doublade and aegislash's entry this way!"
ignatius hadn't seen that many beyond his initial boost that allowed him to start producing vaccines and have his pokémon undergo regimens. getting entries seemed to have slowed down drastically the farther he went -- it was probably due to the small amount of people that he had encountered since then.
"about a hundred, i'd think," said ignatius, scrolling through the contents of the device. he quickly realized he'd grossly underestimated the amount of scans he had obtained, but wasn't about to admit it to karimi. "slightly more than that," he added, even if it was an understatement.
ignatius eyed the dark stone, and nodded once. "an evolutionary stone," said the researcher, and that was the bare surface of what he knew of them. he wasn't an expert on them, but he knew where they were commonly farmed from and their uses. "yes -- that would be nice," he said, with a nod to the doublade.
"hey, that's about how much i was at when i got to... pax lake?" not knowing many breeders or researchers meant that it had been quite a hit on her wallet, though. karimi had been eating ramen noodles for a month. "i think most of mine were from eggs or the wild, though. dunno if breeders were still kinda unpopular back then or if i just kept missing 'em." she shakes her head. "oh my god, you wouldn't believe the wild pokemon that kohaku still has to offer!"
she doubted that anyone would believe sudoboobdo. exploding sudowoodo were...weird.
"i mean it's not a very productive method, but being able to see wild bellossom in their natural environment is really something else!" kinda a shame that a good chunk of their region is currently playing host to the scourge. "man, this one time -"
the doublade's paitience wasn't very long, not when the pokepuffs hadn't arrived yet. karimi's own fault for ordering a shitton.
she rambles on, but the doublade grabs the stone from karimi's hands with her tassel. upon contact, the doublade started glowing with a mysterious light.
"woah!" she didn't even mind being interrupted. "you can do it!"
a few seconds later, an aegislash hovers in front of them.vertigo
while karimi seemed absorbed in her adventures during her amateur days, ignatius was less keen about the topic -- but offered a listening ear all the same. his blaziken seemed patient as well, and was happy to wait. for some reason, their pofflé were processed together with karimi's order. then again, they had ordered together.
the blaziken wiped some frost off its face with a large hand and shifted away from ignatius. funny how the weather was still cold despite it nearing springtime.
"that's good," ignatius said, once karimi paused long enough for him to interject, "i've never really bought eggs or went hunting out in the wild." no one wanted to do that nowadays. there had been a mysterious explosion of eggs in the egg shop recently, wherein most of it had been the same species. ignatius had not wanted to spend money on that.
at the same time, going out in the wild was stupid. his flygon had not been battle-ready, and that was his only pokémon for a long while. he was essentially defenseless, and due to that, chose to spend most of his time holed up in proserpina. it had been a boring patch of time, alleviated only when he met breeders, researchers or trainers.
"wild bellossom sounds pleasant," the researcher mused. "were there many or just a few? either way, i imagine it must have been quite the sight."
a bright flash captured his attention, and he turned to face the doublade. his pokédex whirred, quickly detecting the spike in energy levels and locking onto the creature in question. it mechanically announced the name of the newly-evolved pokémon, and ignatius tapped the button to scan it.
"how do you like your new form?" he said to the aegislash, "i imagine it's odd losing an blade and getting a shield in return, but you seem fine."
the pokepuffs come eventually, and the server had been considerate enough to split the bill before they had asked. karimi stacks a pile of bills into his hands.
"eggs were the fast track to dex entries back in the day. i have other researcher friends who can attest to that!" it was kind of nice to be able to remniscence with them on those sorts of experiences. "not sure about anymore, though. haven't had much reason to go except for when my friend tell me about some sick deals. like that mordecai delacroix guy! my braviary was one of his." and now, she can't imagine going into battle without the trusty bird at her side. funny how things worked out like that.
"there were a few! their dance was really cute and they didn't seem to care about some researcher girl scanning them! but oh my god there were also the weird ones like...that exploding sudowoodo that i met in di manes."
karimi shudders. the encounter seems so much more ominous in hindsight.
the aegislash - well, her reaction was a little hard to read, considering that it didn't have much for a face. she did blink. that should count for something maybe.
<yes>
"yeaahhhh maybe it's time to finally beat some training into you! it'll be fun!"
ignatius paid for his blaziken's share of pofflé. the blaziken tucked into the mocha-flavored ones, clicking its beak in approval. it nodded its thanks; the researcher left the bird to its own devices.
he didn't question her choices of notable events in her life, either. ignatius nodded at the other researcher. "training, huh," he said. he rarely went to the training center. it seemed like something to do only when absolutely needed.
karimi's pokemon were still working through the considerable stack.
"yeah, dude it's so hard to get access on most nights when the training center is so flooded with trainers" there were some days when karimi just didn't even bother. "thank god i don't have to go there for regimens anymore."
god, those days were so slow. karimi has no idea how she had the patience for all of that. speaking of doctorates... "hey, ignatius! do you know what you'll be studying once you hit the sol city branch?" vertigo
ignatius had been to the university in sol. it was his home city, after all. he had made frequent trips and had been urged to pursue a doctorate, but he had declined many times in order to avoid the limelight.
karimi's question was something he wished she hadn't asked. however, as she had, he obliged and answered.
"ah. i've no idea yet, as it stands. why do you ask?"
"i was really curious! i mean, it takes forever and a half to get one of those fancy degrees." to karimi especially, it felt like she was sleeping in the library for years. "i think it really says something about a researcher's passions if they can put up with being stuck in the same building for that long!"
karimi had spent plenty of time deliberating, and that was after she had been studying scourge for a year. she figures that ignatius has plenty of time.
"but i'm sure that you'll know the answer by the time that you get there! i mean, all of the university programs are pretty interesting!" vertigo
ignatius merely nodded with a half-smile upon his face. oh, he already knew that he didn't want to go back to sol. call it cowardice, but he didn't feel like walking straight into death's grasp.
"i suppose they are," he offered, "but i find the department of dreams rather fascinating at the moment. i'm in no rush to head down to sol -- maybe when i'm in need of new ventures, i will."
karimi's eyes light up. she's been in the department of battles for what feels like forever. being able to hear about the other departments is hella cool. especially one that was so ... esoteric?
"hey, what's the department of dreams like? how do you guys experiment with the dream world?" vertigo
karimi practically flies into the cafe at the rate that she's running. okay, it wasn't really a cafe in the truest sense. rebuilding for pal park hadn't been that quick, but eos trainers needed a place to eat and load up on the caffeine. for now, a large tent with picnic tables will have to do. at least the coffee's cheap.
