"Well, I like this bird quite well."

Starly chirps.

"Would you like her for your starter, then?"

"I think so, if there's no reason to think I'm being overhasty?"

"Nope! When offering choices of starter to beginning Trainers, we've done the hard work of finding ones that are easy to train and care for, we won't offer a wrong choice. From there, a good rapport is a perfectly legitimate selection criterion, lots of people use it."

"And what do I need to know about caring for her?"

"I've got a little pamphlet here with care instructions! The same info that's in any of my paper pamphlets is also in the Pokedex app, you should get it on your phone."

The pamphlet includes recommended food and water intake for the Starly line at each life stage, grooming implements, and photos of faces and body language of happy and unhappy Starly. It recommends buying items at a Pokemart, which can be found in any Pokemon Center.

He causes all this information to be assumed into his phone where it can be translated. He confirms that the Starly presently looks like a happy Starly.

She's very happy!

"Do you want to give her a nickname? Pokemon learn nicknames best if you start using them immediately upon acquisition."

"Oh - I suppose that would make sense? - it's 'a nickname' and not 'a name'?"

"Pokemon all respond to their species name, so giving a name is optional. It's more common than not, though, especially among ordinary Trainers who own only one or a handful of Pokemon."

"Is the translation assuming that the species name has something to do with stars correct?"

"Yes! Species names are derived from the set of vocalizations the Pokemon makes, but people usually put them together in ways that sound like words in their own language."

"Hm.

"How about Scallion? Would you like to be called Scallion?" he asks the Starly.

"Starly star!"

(The noise sounds approving, and examples of Starly vocalizations in the Pokedex app would bear this out. She also nods her head a little bit, but this could be a coincidence; she doesn't seem to have spent long enough around humans to have picked up the gesture.)

"Scalliion it is." Pet pet.

Nuzzle.

"Normally this would be where I would challenge you to your first battle, but I actually have a bit of a last minute offer for you.

Double starters are rare in Unova, but...I see you're using a Pokemon as a psychic bridge, and Cedric—er, that's the elder Professor Juniper, he's all 'Professor Juniper is my daughter; please, call me Cedric'—is breeding a line of Espurr with that capability. I could call him up and see if he has one that would make a good starter, and then we could have a Double Battle!"

"- that would be convenient, I can't impose on Frank forever."

"Great!"

She pulls out her phone and calls the professor.

"Hi there!"

Short pause.

"No, it went great, the Starly loves him. It's just—he speaks a totally alien language so he's using a psychic bridge to cover gaps in machine translation. Do you think any of the Espurr would be suited to be a bonus starter?"

Pause.

"Thank you so much! I'll be back at the White Forest capture job in a few hours, then. Have a great day."

Very short pause, then she hangs up. She taps on her phone a bit and a ball materializes in her hand; she sends out the Pokemon.

"Purr."

"I have a fancy foreign phone so I can take out Pokemon from anywhere; you'll have to use a Pokemon Center PC—a desktop, not one of the little laptops."

He nods. "Hello there," he says to the Espurr.

The Espurr marches up to Kyeo and takes a posture that, on a human, might be described as "standing at attention". He addresses him with a very quiet "_{purrrrrrrr...}", and a psychic impression of a salute, or whatever the nearest equivalent gesture in Ibyabekan culture is. It carries with it a very slight warm feeling of approval.