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!
"you wound me with your assumptions," said ignatius with a shake of his head. "we're not all people who experiment with the dream world. granted, most of the members appear stoned eighty-percent of the time, but that's just a side effect of being in the labs for too long."
"huh? then why is it called the department of dreams?"
karimi laughs.
"i'm pretty sure that's universal among research departments! god, you really don't want to see what i look like the week before a conference!" vertigo
ignatius immediately understood that someone without first-hand knowledge of the department probably had no clue what he was referring to. when he said stoned, he meant people who believed they were awake in the dream world and asleep in the real world -- when reality was just the opposite.
"department of oneirology is actually the proper name for our department. we research brain activity between the human world and the dream world, between vaccinated, unvaccinated and hadean pokémon. it's not all dream world."
"huh." wow, 'oneirology' is a mouthful. no wonder everyone keeps calling it the department of dreams. "wait, so...there's a difference in how the brains of unvaccinated pokemon and vaccinated pokemon work? do hadean pokemon dream? i've never ever seen a scourge pokemon in the dream world before."
well. not unless she counted her adventures in the land of nightmares, but that wasn't something that she was eager to share with someone who didn't already know. what she wanted to do with the information, she still hasn't decided at this point in time.
"i don't know. i've spent less time in the department than i would have liked."
not really. he didn't want to end up inhaling too much of the dream mist. he had only gone there a few times to claim his rewards for fighting scourge, skimmed a few journals (trashed the ones he thought were junk) and left.
"but in general, yes. if there's a change in the way the body functions, the mind usually changes as well. think of it like suddenly losing a limb or two. you may go through a stage of depression before picking yourself up again -- something along those lines. it's a little vague, but i'm sure someone in our department is working on a theory like that."
it was one of the few journals he hadn't shredded.
karimi tries not to look too disappointed. she had been hoping for something that would explain a thing or two about the dream rift without actually having to dive back into it. nothing ventured, nothing gained, it seemed.
it's how karimi would have preferred it a year ago. now, she's not so sure.
she's also never had the experience of losing a limb before, so all she can do is take ignatius at his word. "so that's what your department is doing with the scourge data that you've been collecting?" her expression turns serious for a brief moment. "that's really interesting! you should send me the name of that paper after he's published it! i'm sure that it's really important research for fighting the scourge!" moreso than he ever imagined, probably.
karimi finishes her sandwhich and wonders how much progress she can really make on land of nightmares without involving other people.
his department wasn't exactly a talked-about department because they got things done. they were talked-about because they got nothing done, and their appearance was very shoddy. half the time, the people there were stoned from exposure to dream mist. that was honestly it.
he also didn't think that his colleague's paper was going to get published. it wasn't something the world wanted to hear about. he would have more luck getting himself published in a joint researcher journal with sabina.
"it's not important at all. the other departments are probably better off in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. the department of oneirology is a prime example of having too much and taking too long to chew it. take that however you want, alia, but we are unlikely to make a breakthrough anytime soon."
karimi closes her eyes and decides that she should probably be a little more forward with her inquiries. this is ignatius, not neo. she can't see him risking his safety over a bit of curiosity, not when he's already so convinced that he's cursed.
all that she can do is hope that she is not a part of his curse. karimi takes furtive glances around them and drops the volume of her voice.
"...ignatius. have you - or anyone in your department, really - heard of a gateway into the dream world? like, not sleeping, but... a physical gateway? a rift?" vertigo
"we have not. from the tone of your voice, i assume you are not keen to share what you know. if that is the case, i suggest that we drop this line of conversation before you get someone else involved."
it seemed that the rift would be completely uncharted territory until someone was willing to risk their neck for it.
(you're not sacrificing yourself at all, not when so many people depend on you still. don't be a hypocrite, karimi)
"i think... i think that's all the the concerns that i really have, then." she laces her fingers together. they still have a war to attend to. "is there anything that you need from me, ignatius? anything at all?" they might not be scientists working in the same departments, but they were all still eos researchers.
ignatius didn't really need anything from karimi; not at the moment, no. he believed himself to be self-sufficient, but he wasn't sure how far that would carry him. (it had, at the very least, kept him alive long enough to see juno.)
"no, i don't believe there's anything i would need from you," said ignatius, glancing at karimi for a moment. he supposed he could always ask about lake pax and his chances of survival. he felt that it was better to be jeered at as a coward and be alive than to be talked about by many, but be dead from certain causes.
someone like him couldn't be too careful.
"however, i must thank you for the offer, alia," ignatius smiled. "i trust that your c-gear is always open for me to drop you a call should the need arise."
"of course!" she chirps, and she means it. "haha if more of my pokemon evolve, i might just call you up anyway - if you don't mind, i mean. just...just take care of yourself out there, alright?" this isn't proserpina anymore. this is near the heart of scourge territory. vertigo
"that's true. although i would argue that the smell of fresh meat is what brings them in a lot easier than a c-gear. it's probably the agents that you're gonna have to watch out for." vertigo
"hm, the agents?" said ignatius, glancing at karimi, a curious look in his eyes. this was something new to him, and he supposed that knowing about them couldn't really hurt. from the sounds of it, they were likely dangerous figures -- whoever they were, they couldn't be with eos.
"interesting," ignatius noted, "i suppose it is inevitable that i would have to cross paths with one of them someday. do they congregate around lake pax, or are they scattered across the regions?"
"huh? then why is it called the department of dreams?"
