"Well, you can be friends with pokemon who aren't yours. Especially if you stay in one city instead of traveling around like I do, although that doesn't mean I'm not friends with any other pokemon. ...Maybe it will clarify anything whatsoever if you meet mine." 

"I'd love to!" says Ember predictably.

There was festival food, right? If she's bringing everyone out they should get a treat.

There is festival food! Fried dough features prominently, as does squash soup served in little hollowed pumpkin bowls.

Little hollowed pumpkin bowls! That's so charming! She will get some of each. 

She puts food in a set of dishes she pulls out of her bag and then pulls her balls off her belt and calls out her pokemon. 

"Chika!" Tess plants her forelegs against Lucy's leg and nuzzles her delightedly. 

Oooooh! Novel food! EXCELLENT. 

"Rike..." Dana the electrike circles Ember. She smells WEIRD.

"And that's Linty," Lucy points at the pink spiky one, "and that's Maggie," the borb, "and Ava." The sleepy yellow one. 

"Ohhh," Ember coos delightedly. Her fingers cats-cradle around each other and she whispers something, and then she says "Hello, little friends! May I pet you?"

Tess bounds over to her. She LOVES pets!!!

...So like, it's not that she's not allowed to pet Linty, but like, is she sure she wants to, Linty is SUPER pointy.

Ember barely has sensation in her hands anyway! Pets for Linty! (And also for Tess.)

Nom is definitely too busy eating right now for pets but like check back in later. 

Instead of pets Dana would like to be LESS CONFUSED about why Ember SMELLS WEIRD. 

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're smelling! Is it smoke? I know I smell like smoke sometimes..."

No, no, Dana has smelled smoke before, Lucy doesn't have any fire-type pokemon but she battles them sometimes and also makes campfires on the road. Ember smells MOSTLY like a human but ONLY MOSTLY.

"Oh! I'm not a human, I'm an elf. We're like humans in most ways but we live much longer, and we've got a little extra magic."

Like they can bond to more pokemon? That is the magic that humans have, mostly, is bonding to pokemon. 

Wow, this conversation is SO interesting. Maggie is going to stand on Ember's head. 

"No, like the thing I'm doing to talk with you! That's a bit of my magic. Or I can put people to sleep, or heal them a little bit, and that's magic too."

That sounds more like things pokemon can do than like things humans can do! Even the talking part, pokemon can all talk to each other but talking to humans is different and harder.

zzzzzzz worth it though... zzzzzzzz

Well. Yes. Obviously. And communicating with your trainer is easier than communicating with random humans regardless.

Ember giggles. "Maybe I'm the pokemon, not Soot!"