Faller, Noun: Someone Experiencing Interesting Times - Chapter 13

“Right, so.” Raiko began, swiftly leading Neil through the unfamiliar streets of the downtown area. They had left the more ‘traditional’ markets behind a while ago for the more blatantly modern areas of the city, “Smartphones. I assume they exist in your world?”

“Where do you think the music we listened to came from?” The brown haired man asked with an arched eyebrow as he fished out his phone. It was useless other than for the data inside of it and being able to pair with his headphones, what with the completely different hardware and software in this world once you got past the most surface level descriptions. 

“... Right, let me phrase that more bluntly. What do your smartphones do?” Raiko asked, looking both joyful and pained at the same time. Cute.

“They’re a handheld computer first, high fidelity cameras second, actual phones a distant third.” Neil chuckled, ruffling the girl’s hair because he was a most terrible tyrant about his height. Given the amused expression he received back, his companion wasn’t about to pout and bat his hand away. A true tragedy.

“Right, in that case, smartphones here are phones a distant fifth, high fidelity sensors fourth, Pokedex third, handheld computers second, and artificial assistants first.” She stated firmly, pulling out a familiar yet distinctly alien device from her pockets. A brown and cream colored case sat in her hands, stylistically designed after the visage of an Eevee. A camera sat alongside two other sensors that Neil couldn’t recognize on sight, and a pair of distinct, electric blue eyes sat underneath them. With a fond smile, Raiko did something to the phone, and it began floating in front of her. “This is a Rotom Phone. Contrary to the belief people from your world have, it is not haunted by an actual Rotom. At least by default.”

“Kinda hard to get literal millions of Rotoms ready and willing to hop into the funny rectangles.” The transmigrator hummed wryly, “So it just has some fancy tech to levitate and do the things you’d want out of a haunted phone, while having room to slot in an actual ghost or poke-AI in there if you make a friend.”

Snapping the fingers of both hands, she pointed towards Neil, “Exactly! They’re controlled by Porygon trained Machine Intelligences that aren’t self aware. None of them pass the Akihabara Test, anyway.” With an amused smile, she gently pushed away Neil’s hand. “Regardless, we’re heading towards Lilycove Mall, since they have the best tech store in Hoenn.” She paused, tilting her head to the side as she considered something, “Unless you consider Devon Corp’s HQ to be the better tech store, but most people don’t these days unless they’re saying that out of regional pride.”

“I don’t care so long as it is rugged enough to stop a stray Bullet Seed.” Neil chuckled with a soft shake of his head.

“Do you mean a stray bullet?” His companion countered lazily, “and no, they’re not Nokias. Hard to make a computer that puts the supercomputers of yesterday to shame durable enough to withstand the kinetic impact of a bullet or move.”

“I see the human love for boomsticks crosses dimensions.” The transmigrator said with a lazy smile.

“More love of mayhem, chaos, and destruction.” Raiko admitted with an amused twitch of her lips, “Just look at the most popular sport-slash-debatably gladiatorial passtime most of us have.” 

“God bless, whichever one you subscribe to.” Neil said with all due faux-seriousness.

“Amen.” His new partner in memes echoed, in more ways than one. She managed to hold her serious expression for all of a few seconds, before breaking down into an amused cackle that could also maybe be called a giggle. If one was feeling particularly generous, anyway.

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They got to the store Raiko had pointed out with some time to spare, thankfully. Mind, they still only had less than an hour before the store closed, but at least this way he’d have time to browse to some extent before he was forced to either decide or stop. Raiko had recommended that he simply get a standard model, but there were more than just the standard models on display.

Though, for the most part, it seemed the nonstandard models were simply ‘more processing power’ or ‘fancier cameras’ rather than anything truly nonstandard. There were also a few ‘Poryphones’ on display, the phone essentially a blockier version of the Rotom Phone that styled itself after a Porygon rather than a Rotom. Raiko hadn’t mentioned them earlier, so that was interesting in and of itself.

Their prices, on the other hand, were a complete turn-off.

He came out of the store with a black and gold phone whose only divergence from standard issue was the casing’s coloring. Also a charger and this world’s equivalent to a SIM card, obviously. It hadn’t cost him all that much either. Well within the expectations of what one would pay for a smartphone, despite all the cool shit it could do.

Like float. Or expand into a tablet. Or host a literal sapient being. You know, just normal things for a smartphone to do! Raiko had already told him about these, but the clerk actually demonstrating had left him staring like a witless tourist. Bastard had gotten a kick out of it, too.

Still, now he could finally follow his friend’s advice and use the Pokedex on Mawile. Or, rather, her pokeball. There was a syncing function. With Raiko peering over his shoulder, he looked towards the information displayed on the screen.

Mawile. Commonly known as the “Deceiver Pokemon”. Mawile are a Steel/Fairy Type Pokemon who inhabit most known Regions. They are a short, bipedal, humanoid Pokemon with a pale yellow body, regardless of if they are shiny or not. They have three-fingered hands and two-toed feet, both with black fur. They commonly have red eyes, though other colorations are not unheard of. The two extensions that sit to the sides of their head are vestigial features that serve no purpose anymore. The most notable feature on a Mawile is the large black jaws emerging from the back of their head. These jaws contain sharp, metallic teeth that are constantly replaced as needed, akin to the method by which sharks replace their own teeth. These jaws were originally thought to be transformed steel horns, however, that assumption has been disproven multiple times. Most Mawile who have been asked on the origin of this assumption have pointed towards a long-con style prank by a community of Mawile in Hoenn as the source.

Mawile’s ‘false’ jaws are incapable of tasting as they do not have a tongue or any other sensory organs. In combat, Mawile often face ‘backwards’ in an effort to use their natural weapon to the fullest. Trainers looking to train a Mawile should be aware that much of their early efforts should be directed towards building good habits and situational awareness, to the extent that they can either overcome their natural inclination when needed or always be in a position to use it to their advantage. It should also be noted that Mawile in general have an affinity with Fairy based glamours and illusions, though beyond that extremely specific specialty they are not known to have an affinity with more esoteric applications of Type Energy, much preferring physical or ‘brute’ applications of strength and internalized Type Energy.

This Mawile is an adult female of her species, and does not have any irregularities that the Pokedex can detect.