Jonathan (Rotom)

Jonathan Maurice Halliburton, nicknamed Jon, is, in at least two timelines, a rotom belonging to David Riley Albright some time in the 2040s. In life, he had been a nosy investigative journalist with an adventurous streak. As a pokémon, he conventionally takes on the appearance of a rotomdex.

"Never leave home without skate shoes."

Biography

Jonathan Halliburton in the main timeline is an unremarkable-looking ginger-haired [Metis] man in his Early 20s, of [Wyandot] and [French Canadian] descent, who worked at the Geographic Society's Kalos division as an investigative journalist. A constant traveler, he was often very rarely present in the office as he was usually on assignment on a remote place. Originally from somewhere due north of Unova, in a farm run by a co-op of mixed indigenous descent. His father Pierre raises Bouffalant for milk production; their co-op makes cheese. Not really cut out to be a farmboy, he took his university studies in Ryme City before eventually settling in Kalos. The decision drove a rift between him and his father, which only started to heal in the main timeline. In at least two other timelines, he dies as a young adult and returns as a rotom, where he eventually finds himself in the possession of David Albright. In the Lillifuture, his unexpected death caused his father to die of heart failure not long after his funeral.

He dated Priscilla Kwan, who dumped him in the main timeline for reasons he can't quite understand. In the Lillifuture, their relationship lasted much longer, to the point that they were engaged in a point parallel to their breakup in the main timeline. He died some time after their marriage.

Configuration

"That's so sad. Walter, play Dunsparcito."

Rather than a pokéball, Jon is frequently kept in various devices, more often than not smartphones. His most frequent appearance is that of a Lillifuture rotomdex, which is itself part pokédex and part tablet computer. He speaks human languages and does so almost in exclusion, though he can and occasionally does speak to other pokémon in monese.

He uses an attachable hard light projector to transform his appearance to that of a male human from the early 21st Century. Although the appearance of this disguise can vary (and is often used to impersonate his trainer should the need arise), he often manifests as a red-haired 20-something man of apparent Caucasian descent--which was later revealed to be an approximation of how he was in life.

As a dex, he has encyclopedic knowledge of pokémon that spans the best data available in the 2040s.

Personality

As A Rotom

Jon is inquisitive, curious, and very forward. On first impressions, most people and pokémon would not be faulted for thinking him to be mostly harmless and nonconfrontational. Although more than likely to follow Dave's lead in regular situations, Jon does occasionally overturn instruction, especially when motivated by his trainer's well being. He is immensely polite and diplomatic in times when his trainer isn't, though given the chance he will become rather aggressive. He often uses his pokédex archives to help his team strategize and has the potential to be a remarkably formidable trainer in his own right. However, he retains most of the functions of a trained pokémon and often needs to be reminded that he can be autonomous (especially when imitating a human).

He is quite theatrical and shows a keen interest in playing the role of a superpowered humanoid and often adjusts his hard light appearance to mimic battle damage. Since he is an electric type, he enjoys mimicking shooting lighting from his hands. His inordinate fondness of appearing as a human is the result of him once being a human in life. His fondness for the past, especially revolving around the culture of the 1980s, is a relic of this.

In the Cyfuture, an embittered Jon has become immensely hateful of the Albright regime and lashes out his frustrations in Monese, which he knows that his charge David does not understand.

In Life

"Look, we all know how it ended in the Raimi movies. It's not gonna work out." (Art by Daydre)

Jonathan is much more stubborn as a human, rarely acquiescing to demands given to him by most people. This is especially true in matters of safety. Much as he would in the future, he enjoys playing the role of an action hero. His job as an investigative journalist attracts its fair share of danger. He holds a strong sense of justice and has a stern dislike for upper-class individuals with dubious legal backgrounds. He often peppers his speech with the dialect of Kalosian native to his part of the world, and he curses almost entirely in this language. He shows plenty of pride in his First Nations ancestry and still speaks the [Wyandot] language.

He has excellent deductive and inductive reasoning skills, which he has put to good use in many situations at work. Despite his innate curiosity, he isn't preoccupied with revealing supernatural events to the general public. He tends to focus more on powerful, white-collar criminals and crime syndicates.

His breakup with Priscilla and his lingering emotional fallout from it is a specter that looms over him emotionally throughout the original timeline.

Living!Jonathan's Pokémon

Walter

Eastman

Kodak

Mack

Trivia

"I died, came back, and am now running a robot bootstrapped to Albright's whiny brat."

As A Rotom

• He is known to attempt to cheat on karaoke through a thumb drive stuffed to the gills with mp3s.
• He is an Internet addict and has a tendency to wikiwalk
• He is immensely accustomed to voice activated technology and is frustrated when things aren't.

In General

• He has an inordinate fondness for music from the 1980s and the 2010s, especially those that have a largely ironic following even in the present.
• It was originally planned that he might be related to Gimbal, the rotom belonging to his trainer's father. This idea was more or less scrapped in favor of a different character.
• His name is derived both from Johnny Five, the android main character from the Short Circuit film series, and (secondarily) Prince Jonathan, close friend and brother-in-law of the young King David in the Bible.
• His origin as a dead human was lampshaded by his form in the Cyfuture, which indicated that he was, in fact, the ghost of a previously living being.
• In a fit of irony, the current timeline's still-living Jonathan has rather negative opinions of rotom, stemming from a recent infestation of rotom in the Kalosian offices of the Geographic Society.
• Besides growing up in a Kalosophone household, Jonathan in life was mixed heritage; both sides of his family have [Wyandot ("Huron")] ancestry. Jon himself knows the language and uses words and phrases from it periodically.
• He is a polyglot, fluent in [Canadian French], Galarian, and [Wyandot], but horribly rusty in [Cantonese]
• He has sneakerhead tendencies and appears to favor rare [Vans] shoes.
• As of 2021, he hosts his own online news program, The Halliburton Report, for the Geographer Weekly's [YouTube] channel.