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!
Snow had fallen through the holes in the Bacchus Gym roof. Now that spring was on its way, the snow was starting to melt and ruin what little was left unscathed in the gym.
And so Thalia and her feraligatr were shoveling it away. Wielding a shovel almost twice his trainer's size, the feraligatr dutifully dumped heaps of ice and snow into a massive wheelbarrow, that Thalia then wheeled to the exit. She dumped the contents outside and wheeled it back.
Rinse and repeat. They'd been here about two hours, and cleared most of the main room. She wasn't looking forward to trying to navigate the winding hallways and dressing rooms behind the stage.
the metagross was on a job to survey the area for scourge. just a simple recon-type of mission, nothing too difficult. it wasn't supposed to fight. without a support partner, it wasn't supposed to fight anything in the first place. it sort of missed its glitchy partner, a porygon-z. fighting alongside it had been much more bearable than it was now.
it moved carefully through the snow, pausing when something approached the exit. ah, a human. don't get too close, or something. it took a step back, watching as the figure came back and forth with lots of snow. were they digging through the gym for something? maybe. it scanned the area once again, reporting to its agent partner on its current findings.
its message was replied in due time, and the metagross decidedly parked itself outside the gym, waiting for its turn to enter.
Thalia fell into a comfortable pattern of work. It was reassuring, in a way, to do something productive and useful that didn't actively involve destroying things. Even killing scourge, although it felt right--although she knew it was right--frightened her, at times. The act of it, the enjoyment she derived.
But this was just quiet work for a cause. Even though these days with her new strength (she pushed the wheelbarrow with one hand, heedless of the fifty pounds of snow stacked high in a solid block) Thalia probably could have cleared the gym by herself, she liked having her pokemon out. She was in fact, so caught up in the action, she almost skipped her gaze over the metagross when she opened the door to throw out the latest load of snow.
Her gaze flickered and then returned to the scourge pokemon. Thalia stood in place, one hand propping open the door, the other still on the wheelbarrow, until her feraligatr grew curious and trundled after her, ducking his head under the mantle to see what she saw.
the metagross's red eyes locked unto the feraligatr. the growling didn't really intimidate it at all. the metallic creature remained parked where it was, eyes trained on the creature.
it was still on orders to not attack. instead, it reached out to thalia psychically. it spoke human-tongue.
reference iOiJiN_5 < 50 thalia still understands/speaks scourgetongue
Thalia tensed at the voice in her mind, her grip on the door tightening instinctively. The memories of Darwin's siren call didn't fade easily. Her fingertips dug grooves in the metal, and she pried her hand away with a look of disgust at herself before responding to the metagross.
Although the project in the gym had not been exerting in the slightest for her, new and improved as she was, Thalia felt bone weary at the scourge's words. She laid her head against the door and gazed at it through half-lidded eyes.
"I hope you aren't planning on entering the gym only to undo all my careful work," she said. "That's what scourge generally seem to do."
_nAMHyig < 50 she's slipped into speaking scourgetongue without noticing.
no, i just need to do a cursory scan and i shall be off. perhaps i can offer you something in return for your help? the cleared snow would make it easier for me to work.
the metagross shifted back into scourgetongue upon realizing that thalia spoke its native language. it spoke with much more grace and ease now.
WYbHGS68 < 50 thalia speaks more fluently in scourge than in kohaku-tongue < 50 she realizes she's speaking scourge
The metagross sounded more graceful in scourgetongue; Thalia did not. Her human mouth was ill-suited to the language, and it was both the harsh, unfamiliar noises that issued forth from her, combined with the feraligatr's hesitant claw on her shoulder, that jerked her out of her reverie.
Her face paled, her mind went blank, and Thalia switched back to human.
"We all must do our work," she said. "It's all we can do. Instead of a favor, I'd like to offer a proposal. We fight. If I win, you don't get to scan the gym. If you win--well, I'll be at your mercy, and in no place to stop you from doing whatever you want with the gym. Sound fair?"
the metagross noticed the shift in languages, and switched to suit thalia. it pondered its options for a moment. it doubted it could win against an eos-aligned person; it had learnt as much from its previous encounters. they were all rather vicious.
i do not think i will win, but i suppose i have to agree. there is no other way around it, as you have not given me that option.
it shifted, moving snow with one of its limbs to pull itself out of its current position.
She shrugged. Was it unfortunate? Maybe, but she'd hardly label it a tragedy. No one in Kohaku seemed to have any other options these days, scourge and EOS alike.
feraligatr stepped forth. focus badge mimicked x-speed feraligatr used crunch feraligatr used scary face feraligatr used aqua tail feraligatr used scald
the scourge metagross was robotic in its movements. its voice and personality may have been human, but physically, it was nothing more than an animated clump of steel -- albeit also a supercomputer.
metagross used meteor mash metagross used rock slide
Snow had fallen through the holes in the Bacchus Gym roof. Now that spring was on its way, the snow was starting to melt and ruin what little was left unscathed in the gym.
