Faller, Noun: Someone Experiencing Interesting Times - Chapter 12

Not long after they had finished battling and hugging things out, the intrepid quartet of partners made their way back to the Pokemon Center. Raiko swore by always swinging by the Center after a battle if at all possible, even if there were no visible injuries. She then blushed very cutely when told that she was preaching to the choir.

Sure, Mawile looked fine and had metal bones, but internal bruising could be an insidious bitch. Either it would be five minutes in and out, or it would be an hour or so of work that’d head off days of misery.

At least, that’s what he’d been thinking before nearly crashing face first into a wall of people.

“Ah. Forgot it’d be rush hour.” Raiko commented as Neil recoiled from the solid mass of humanity, looking like a watered cat. She looked towards Neil in amusement as she continued speaking, gently guiding him through the throng of people, “Not really the most social person ever, I take it?” 

“You assume correctly.” The brown haired man grumbled.

It went without saying that the Pokemon Center was, bluntly, packed. While it wasn’t full to the point it was doing an imitation of a can of sardines about to become an IED, it was a close thing. People were moving in and out of the Center at a breakneck pace, while the palpable wave of sound emanating from the cafeteria gave him immediate pause on any plans to utilize that service while this rush was ongoing. Even the lobby was not entirely free of the phenomena, though the route to the Nurse’s desk was blessedly clear. There was, of course, a fairly sizable line leading to the nurse, but that was to be expected with a Pokemon Center this busy. Thankfully for the quartet, the line was moving with impressive alacrity as a trio of different nurses rapidly handled the needs of the trainers and Pokemon the Center serviced.

“It’ll probably be about two minutes of waiting, given the line.” Raiko mused, turning to look at the wince on her companion’s face, “If you’d like to go take a breather in a more quiet area, I can look after Mawile and make sure she gets passed to-” She paused as Eevee chirped, blushing as she rapidly rummaged in her bag and recalled her Starter “... Right. Sorry Eevee, Return.”

“It’s fine, lemme just-” Red and black headphones were fished out of his vest and wedged on his ears, filling them with white noise and music as he effectively rendered himself deaf. He flashed her a thumbs up, knowing how his volume spiked when he was like this.

His companion began to move her mouth again before she paused, thought better of it, and nodded back. After that, time passed in a blur. As Raiko had predicted, they arrived at the desk not even a few moments later. Removing his headphones, Niel picked up a silent Mawile and placed her on the desk. “Just a light spar, mostly took damage from Swifts.”

The nurse, a pink-haired lady that was obviously a Joy, nodded, “If you could pass her Pokeball over as well, please. If nothing goes wrong, it shouldn’t take too long.” 

“Of course.” The transmigrator said, angling his hand and body so as to not let the crowd all around them get an easy look at the extremely distinctive Cherish Ball. He’d rather not have the attention. Catching on to his intent easily, the nurse took the ball professionally and hid it.

“Next!” She called as he retreated back towards a quieter corner for the lobby, headphones once again clapped around his ears. A few moments later, Raiko joined him. Nothing was exchanged between the two as the pair simply vibed together, the albino scooting close enough to hear the music vibrating his skull.

What felt like a few moments later, Raiko gently poked his shoulder to get his attention. The moment his eyes met hers, she tilted her head towards the counter and straightened her posture. Getting up himself, Neil followed his new friend and approached the counter once more, earphones once again coming out. With another rote exchange that assured the pair of trainers that their Pokemon were in good health, Neil and Raiko once again made their way out into Lilycove City proper. More to flee the throngs of people congregating in the Center than anything else.

Neither of them were filthy extroverts, after all.

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They had made their way back to the park they’d battled in, sedately walking through the bustling streets. The evening rush was in full swing, and it showed everywhere they went. Even the park was busier than it had been before, people in business suits and various other uniforms duking it out on the battle courts or engaging in other activities with their Pokemon partners. Yet the quartet had still managed to find a refuge of solitude amongst the masses, sitting underneath a flowering cherry tree.

“So, how does teaching a Pokemon a brand new Move tend to work? Both with and without Technical Machines.” Neil asked as he reclined back on the trunk, Mawile cozying up in his lap.

“Technical Machines can teach the basics immediately.” Raiko began, continuing to provide Eevee with her due tribute of pets as she did so, “It’s essentially a memory download of a technique, utilizing technology to skip many of the steps needed.” She paused as Eevee trilled, nodding in agreement with her starter, “Actually mastering and building the muscle memory to utilize the move is what takes practice.” Lapsing into silence once more as her face twisted in interesting ways, Raiko continued her ministrations, much to Eevee’s audible delight, “Teaching a Move is a bit more complicated, and works just about how you’d expect it to. Either you coach the Pokemon through the process via another Pokemon, or you figure it out together. Sometimes, Pokemon can intuit a new move through tense situations, but it’s fairly rare and not at all a reliable method.”

“Fair nuff. Any recommendations for what to teach Mawile to deal with long distance fighters and especially fliers?” The brown haired man asked as he idly played with the two locks of ‘hair’ hanging from the sides of Mawile’s head. “My brain immediately went to Rock Tomb, but I dunno if that’d still play to her strengths here where there aren’t arbitrary game mechanics saying it always runs off of musclepower.” 

“You’re talking about ‘stats’, right?” Raiko asked, more for confirmation than anything else. In her lap, Eevee lazily opened one eye as the petting stopped her, lavender iris staring into Neil’s own.

“Only in a roundabout way, but yeah. I know that she’s all about raw physicality, the tests they ran on her said as much.” The transmigrator replied with a bob of his head.

“Mawile as a species tend to bias that way, yes.” Raiko acknowledged easily, humming in consideration as she gently picked Eevee up and set her to the side. Settling into a position that resembled a loaf of bread, the foxcat continued to stare at Neil. Ignoring her starter’s antics for the moment, his new friend continued her lecture, “Rock Tomb would be a good choice. A classic one, even. However,” She paused, staring at Neil and Mawile, “It is not a purely Physical Move. It can be used as one, however Rock Tomb fundamentally utilizes Type Constructs, as most Moves tend to.”

Mawile tilted her head to the side, an expression on her face that could be easily read as ‘inquisitory’.

“Like how you can have a Bite pop up like five feet away from your actual mouth, yeah?” Neil asked with a wistful smile as his mind shot back to a Coordinator he’d brewed up for an RP some years ago. Little lady had focused pretty much exclusively on unorthodox Move manifestation and application.

“Correct. Type Constructs tend to be a fairly ‘advanced’ skill when it comes to ‘variable’ Moves.” The white haired girl answered easily, adjusting her position slightly so she had straighter posture, “To clarify on the points I emphasized, Type Constructs are considered advanced due to the fact that most Pokemon cannot innately grasp them.” She nodded towards Eevee, “Special Moves like Swift are an exception because Swift is not variable.” Trilling her agreement, Eevee finally broke off from her staring contest with Neil and rose to her feet, closing her eyes briefly. They snapped open again a moment later, with a trio of energy constructs shaped like chakrams orbiting the fox’s mane. “But changing them from their default shaping takes a level of skill that most Pokemon will never reach, purely due to a lack of effort and the law of averages.”

Neil dearly hoped that Mawile was just as autistic as these two, because he damn well wanted to see how far some Moves could be pushed and warped.

With seemingly no effort, Eevee dissipated the chakrams surrounding her and once more moved to Raiko’s side. Providing her with more pets for her troubles, Raiko nodded towards Neil, “Variable Moves are Moves that can be Physical or Special or a combination of both. Rock Type Moves have the most obvious examples of this. Rock Tomb, Rock Throw, Rock Slide, Stone Edge. All classic Moves that utilize either the physical environment infused with Type Energy or ones that utilize constructs to do something similar.”

“Not always going to have a ten ton boulder laying around to chuck at the other guy.” The brown haired man grunted in agreement. “Anyways, I somehow doubt there’s going to be any ranged Physical Moves that don’t fall into the variable category, at least ones that Mawile can use. She doesn’t exactly have spikes she can shoot off, or the ability to grow Vine Whips.”

“You’d be correct in that matter, though I would advise checking your Pokedex app for confirmation.” Raiko answered swiftly, giving Eevee a fond smile as she did so, “Eevee and I have pushed beyond what is commonly considered ‘possible’ for her species, but still something well within the expectations of professionals in the various fields that deal with the nitty-gritty of Type Energy on a regular basis.”

Neil gave her a flat look, holding his silence until the albino realized the issue in what she’d said.

She blinked slowly, turning to look at her starter, who simply stared back at her. The contest of wills was broken within seconds as Raiko groaned, much to Eevee’s amusement, “...We never got you your phone. Fuck.” Turning to aim a scowl at the foxcat, the white-haired girl huffed, “You could have reminded me, VeeVee.”

The affronted yip from Eevee was truly music to his ears.