Faller, Noun: Someone Experiencing Interesting Times - Chapter 14

He and Raiko had parted ways after that. She’d gone white after seeing a message on her phone, babbled something that could generously be considered an excuse, and scrambled off. Thankfully after she’d exchanged contact information with him and he’d extracted a promise from her to meet up again tomorrow to discuss his options for training Mawile. Mostly because he sure as shit didn’t have any idea where to start beyond looking up tutorials online. The Joy who had sent him out in the morning had sported a world-class shit-eating grin when he’d crawled back into the Center well beyond a kiddie’s bedtime. She’d passed along that his paperwork had been accepted and it’d likely be about a week until the bureaucracy did its thing and gave him the tools he’d need to further adjust to this world. Also assign him the classes he’d have to take to continue to qualify for League Benefits.

Evidently some Fallers had decided to be idiots and mess with powers beyond their comprehension, and the League was extremely interested in attempting to reduce the amount of times that happened through the power of education.

Thus, when morning came, he crawled out of bed far earlier than he’d like and went to go get some food in his and Mawile’s guts. He hadn’t actually expected it to become something memorable, but the little lady had surprised him by tugging on his shirt and chirping at him instantly. With the vague sense that she’d wanted to continue a discussion they’d had at this very spot.

“Right, did you settle on a name from my rambles?” Neil asked, by now knowing to keep it to yes/no questions. With a shake of her head, Mawile shot that question down. “Right, let’s pick up where I left off, I think there’s a few names I didn’t cover…”

____________________________________________________________________________

In the end, his partner had settled on “Esmeraldina”. One of the servant stock characters, specifically the more intrigue focused maid, in contrast to Corallina who was more of a go-getter. Both were at times merged with Columbina, who was the central ‘crafty servant girl’ character. At least to his surface level understanding.

The name ‘Esmeraldina’ itself was just Italian for ‘little emerald’, which got a chuckle out of him and resulted in his newly-named starter pressing an explanation of his favorite of the Hoenn games out of him. That had led to a series of exchanges that had terminated in her insisting he call her ‘Esmeralda’ when in public. Specifically the Spanish pronunciation, rather than Italian.

“At that point I may as well call you Maragda like you’re Catalonian.” Neil pointed out with an amused sigh. Her delighted chirp at the little nugget of information he had provided only made his resignedly fond smile widen. The sly look she sent his way only compounded the feeling.

“Minx.” He drawled, a tremor of laughter underlining the word. Of course, Esmeraldina only nodded. Because, as he’d just said, she was a minx of the highest order.

“Right, come on, we have potential tutors to sweet talk.” The transmigrator said as he got up, smoothing out his outfit.

____________________________________________________________________________

“So!” Raiko chirped, looking far too amused at the sight of the limpet crawling around his shoulders. She had met Neil at the entrance of the contest hall and immediately burst into laughter. Because, of course, Esmeraldina had been amusing herself by bouncing between his shoulders while he walked. “I see you and Mawile are doing well today. She appears to be a lot more active today as well. Less shy.”

“We got her name sorted out and she’s been living it up all morning.” Neil huffed good-naturedly, “Meet Maragda.”

“Congratulations!” Raiko chirped, a smile tugging at her lips as she started to make her way into the Contest Hall, “Maybe you can help me find a name that Eevee finds acceptable. She’s not been willing to take any of the ones I’ve offered yet, but she’s made it clear she does want one.” A pout, this time, “Silly fox is so picky about her name.”

“Not sure how much help I’ll be, I just rambled about stock characters in theatre and Maragda ate it up.” Neil snorted, trailing right after his friend.

“That’s part of why I’m asking for help. Little miss princess wants a name that ties to mythology but none of the ones from here are ones she’s interested in.” Raiko grumbled, looking more than a bit irritated, “Seriously. Silly fox.”

“That I can help with. Just don’t expect it to be a mythological fox, all the ones I know except one have god awful implications. Like Alopex Teumesios who was sent as a divine punishment to eat Cadmus’ descendants.” The transmigrator explained with a shrug that almost fouled Esmeraldina’s acrobatics.

“Fair enough.” Raiko grinned, a brief mental debate playing out across her face before she reached for her trainer belt and grabbed Eevee’s ball. Tapping the release button, the fox-cat once more manifested unto the world, gracing it with her presence, “Hello Eevee. Our friends are back.”

With a cat-like stretch, Eevee yawned as she mumbled something incomprehensible. As her eyes opened and she looked towards Neil and Esmeraldina, her entire body visibly perked up. Waltzing over to Neil, she rubbed herself against his legs. With an amused huff, Raiko nodded towards her starter’s new favorite human, “Right, if you’d follow me?”

Going back to the same space they’d been at yesterday the quartet of individuals once again were greeted with a group of lounging trainers, though this time there were only three of them. Two late teens and one obvious adult. The two teens were both male, and given their near identical appearance, one would be forgiven for assuming they were twins. The lady, though, took the cake in more ways than one. She was a dead ringer for all the Hex Maniac art floating around the net back on Earth, with everything that implied.

“Heya everyone!” Raiko chirped, bounding towards the three trainers with visible excitement, “I’m back!”

“Welcome back kid.” The lady answered softly, something about her hushed voice telling Neil she wasn’t one for speaking at length. “You’re here early today. Parents actually letting you stretch your legs?”

“Mom and Dad got called in for an emergency, again.” Raiko answered with an expression far too complicated and conflicted for the transmigrator to parse. “Not that I’m unhappy with them being out of the house, but it’s irritating that they didn’t even have time to leave a note.”

“Sometimes it do be like that, sadly.” One of the boys deadpanned, a solemn nod from the other boy that had to be his sibling accompanying the statement, “At least they aren’t here to be helicopter parents today, Raichan.”

Said fond nickname earned an eye roll from the aforementioned girl as Neil stepped up to her side, “Since none of you asked, this is Neil. He’s,” She paused, tilting her head to the side, “Neil, actually, do you want to introduce yourself?”

“Neil Lee, Faller ordinaire.” He obliged, shooting the trio of trainers a lazy peace sign. “And the little lady using me as an acrobatics mat is Maragda.” At the sound of her name, Mawile paused atop his head and let loose a chirp of agreement and amusement. Of course, she immediately resumed her antics after that. How she managed to do all that without unbalancing him, he had no earthly clue.

“You found an interesting one, Raiko.” The woman deadpanned, only the smallest hint of amusement breaking through a tone as dry and barren as Orre, “A Faller isn’t exactly common, though I suppose in recent years they’ve become more so.”

“Mom and Dad would definitely agree with you on the ‘interesting’ bit, though they’d also be chomping at the bit to give Neil a lecture he doesn’t need.” Raiko nodded brightly. Eevee, once more, echoed her trainer in agreement. It was a wonder how in sync they were sometimes, only to trip over each other the next second. Case in point, Eevee had chosen that exact moment to leap up onto her trainer’s shoulder, sending the poor lass stumbling as she adjusted to the unexpected weight. Pausing for a moment, she glanced towards Neil then nodded to herself, “Regardless, you said you’d be willing to tutor a Mawile today, Lesya. Still willing?”

The woman nodded affably, “Of course. Neil, Maragda, if you could follow me? Raiko, you owe me an actual battle for tutoring your friend’s partner. One on one, with stakes.”

“Done. Just name the time and place” The albino grinned.

Neil had been expecting the lesson to take at least the whole morning, and just for teaching the basics at that. It had taken the combined efforts of Leysa and her Cursola one hour to teach Esmeraldina the absolute basics of Rock Tomb. Then, because his partner was just built different, it had taken them the next hour to properly teach her how to utilize Rock Tomb via the environment.

He’d asked, halfway in a daze, if this was remotely normal.

Leysa had laughed and stated that no, this was absolutely not normal, and he was lucky that she was an actual certified move tutor. Her services were highly sought after by most beginner trainers and that he was extremely lucky that he and Raiko had hit it off so well.

For someone who kept getting yanked around, Raiko sure had a bunch of contacts tucked away in those booty shorts. Then again, she had three years to do her thing with Eevee, and presumably more beforehand considering all the things she had shared with him yesterday. Her parents also likely had something to do with Pokemon considering how every trainer in the contest hall seemed to know of them.

Only reason he hadn’t pried was that it was clearly a touchy topic.

“Well!” The aforementioned tutor exclaimed, a cheerful look on her face as she recalled her Cursola, “Maragda has been a wondrous student!” She paused, bringing a finger to her chin as she considered something, “But I don’t believe I’ll be tutoring her anymore without proper payment. I do have a mortgage to pay, after all.”

“Hah, fair. Can’t really ask for more, little lady already has the basics down pat.” Neil replied with an amiable grin. The rest would be on him, to help her sharpen that Move into proper mastery.

“Glad you understand.” Lesya replied immediately, walking over to Neil and placing her hand on his shoulder. “Now, your friend owes me a battle.”

From where she’d been running through her own training with Eevee, Raiko looked up and stared into the tutor’s eyes, “You know I’m good for my word. You want it now or later?” At her side, Eevee’s eyes narrowed, rising from where she’d been laying on the ground, the fox-cat clearly ready to go at it at a moment’s notice.

Tension flickered between the two trainers as they stared at each other, only to snap as Lesya grinned, “Let’s do it now.”