"Okay. Uh." She grabs a photograph of a Herdier off the mantlepiece and shows it to Laia. "Cameras make... pictures of things exactly the way they looked at the time? —Sometimes the shows on TV get edited so they don't look exactly the way they really looked, but that's the general idea."

"...I love it! What a marvelous thing."

Smile. "Do you want me to put on a movie to watch until dinnertime? Movies are... like television but longer, and almost always telling fictional stories."

"Oh, yes please!"

The alien mentioned that Shelyn is associated with love as well as art, so she puts on a rom-com, Love and Battles: Miguel's Story.

The movie revolves around a pair of Pokémon Trainers, Penelope and Miguel. Their eyes meet — the movie treats this as enormously significant — and they end up in a "battle" with each other, which appears to involve them having their weird-looking creatures fight each other. (Penelope's is a "Lickitung," a vaguely-humanoid pink-and-yellow creature with an enormous tongue; Miguel's is a "Smeargle," which has a tail that strongly resembles a paintbrush.) The non-human creatures don't appear to speak whatever this language is, but subtitles appear onscreen to translate their thoughts.

Initially, Miguel is only motivated by the possibility of winning prize money from Penelope, but as their Pokémon battle, he starts to fall in love with her. He decides to throw the battle on purpose as part of a strategy to seduce her. (His Smeargle thinks he's being a bit ridiculous.) Penelope seems surprised to be doing so well — Miguel is apparently an "Ace Trainer" — but it doesn't occur to her that he might be losing on purpose.

Eventually, Penelope's Lickitung knocks out Miguel's Smeargle by throwing a rock at it. However, in the process, the rock grazes Miguel. Miguel congratulates her on winning, and attempts to offer her the prize money. Penelope, meanwhile, is focused entirely on whether Miguel is okay, and refuses to accept the prize money even after he insists he's unhurt. In lieu of giving her the money, Miguel offers to keep practicing with her, and she accepts; the movie concludes with the strong implication that the pair of them will end up as a couple.

The whole movie takes place against the backdrop of a city street, but it looks more like Absalom or maybe Axis than like any city Laia's ever been to. Whenever either character expresses romantic interest in the other, rose petals fall from the sky.

Laia has no antibodies against romance played completely straight at all and she loves it, to the point of applauding in several places.

Aww, what a cute alien.

Partway through the movie, the husband comes into the living room. "Will your Pokémon be joining us for dinner? Any of you have any dietary restrictions I should know about?"

"My - oh, Shelyn? No, She doesn't appear in person, She just gives me spells every morning. I would expect to be able to eat all the things you do since we seem to be the same race."

Blink blink.

"—Most people on this planet travel with a few Pokémon, even if they aren't professional Trainers," says the woman. "It's not really very safe to travel all by yourself. Travelling with a Legendary would be very rare, but... well, I guess we can get that sorted out before you leave tomorrow."

(Her husband looks uncomfortable.)

"I'm supposed to have a trained one to fend off wild ones?" The movie was very helpful in a lot of ways. "Well, that does sound important, can I - buy one, or -"

Nod. "Usually a relative or a friend helps you catch your first one, but one of us can help you out with that instead, or if you'd rather we can see if one of the Mareep wants to leave the ranch."

"Those are the zappy sheep? They're super cute. Do you use silver here, I only have what I had on me but I had some spending money."

"We use Pokédollars. I don't know what the coins are made of — do you know, dear?"

Her husband shakes his head.

"In any case, most of the money is paper. But you could probably sell the silver at just about any shop, and then you'd have Pokédollars."

"That works for me, assuming twelve silver is enough for a Mareep."

"Oh, I wasn't thinking I'd charge you for it."

"That's so generous of you! I do expect to be able to sell spells in the long run, though, I'm temporarily embarrassed, not indigent."

"Oh, I'd do the same for a kid who was just getting started on their journey — I know you're not a child, but it's the same sort of thing, you know?"

"If you say so!"

Eventually dinner is served. It consists of some kind of salad with cheese, greens, and berries, with lemonade to drink. (The Herdier join them at the table, and are served berries.)

Yummy. Could use croutons but she's not going to say that.

After dinner, they make up the couch with blankets and a pillow.

It's very kind of them. She will do her best to adjust to the local time zone by going to bed when they seem to expect her to.

She is not disturbed during the night.

She wakes up at dawn, as usual.

For once she's actually all done sleeping at dawn! Because she went to bed at what felt like noon instead of a couple hours past midnight!

Create Water, Virtue, Light. Summon Monster I as a backup in case the Mareep needs help, can she get Scald just out of curiosity? - no - might not be first circle. Cultural Adaptation then. She'll swap the Charm Person for the Shield. She is pretty sure the Mareep will not count as a Person.

The woman emerges from her bedroom shortly after Laia finishes her prayers.

"Good morning!"