The Pokeball does not seem to know what to do with an unconscious entity and, not being a very  creative piece of plastic, defaults to nothing.

"It's no good trying to catch one that's already fainted, silly!" says the shopkeeper, who has seen weirder events but not very often.

"...okay."

He withdraws Touch of Blissful Release, and Pasiap's opiate trance abruptly ends. As soon as he stirs, Aril tosses the ball against the serpent's forehead.

Ker-digitize! Vibrate vibrate vibrate *bing*.

"Thanks," Aril tells the shopkeep, then slips the sphere into the pocket opposite Daana'd's.

He stops by the Pokécenter and approaches... Nurse Joy? How did she get here?

"Hello again," he says, offering up his dragonballs for more socialized healthcare.

"I don't believe we've met," says Nurse Joy. "You've probably mistaken me for one of my sisters. Pleased to meet you, mister or ms . . . ?" She takes his balls and does the thing while she says this.

"Aril Kalen. Male. I apologize, Miss..."

"Nurse Joy," she says, handing his Pokeballs back. "Our parents decided Joy was the best name for their daughters, and didn't want to give any of us any name but the best one possible!"

"I... see."

He would also have been willing to accept "people in this region are referred to by family name," but that... works? (It's objectively insane, actually, but he was raised by a Raksha, so what does he know.)

"Thank you!" He takes his dragons back and stages a tactical retreat.

Now he's outside again, and can take in the sights, like the lab and the gym and the handful of houses and the people and creatures milling around.

First things first: he releases the stone serpent from its sphere and invokes Friendship with Animals Technique, rubbing its head behind the fin. "Hey there, Pasiap."

"Hello," says Pasiap. Then he looks up at the sky and adds, "Whoa."

"It's cool, right? The sky. Maybe extra cool because you've lived your entire life in a cave."

"It's really really big!"

"It's super big!"

He looks around. Anybody look interested in a fight? He wants to see what Pasiap can do when he's not just wrestling another giant snake.

Well, there's the big building with "Cinnabar Gym" written on it; he can see through the glass facade that there are some people and creatures hanging out in there. 

Cool! He burns a few motes on Sagacious Reading of Intent to learn what "Cinnabar Gym" means. Apparently it's a place where you take your spirits and dragons and such for duels!

"I'm gonna put you back in your ball and we're gonna see if anybody in that gym wants to fight, okay?"

"Sure thing, dude!"

Back in the ball with Pasiap, then. He strolls into the gym. "Anyone here up for a battle against a giant stone snake?"

The area near the entrance is screened off from the rest of the gym by a sliding door.

"Rock is a good type to be challenging this gym with!" says a bespectacled man standing near the entrance with a book.

Then a speaker on the door starts up. "Pokémon Quiz! Get it right and the door opens to the next room! Get it wrong and face a trainer! If you want to conserve your Pokémon for the Gym Leader... Then get it right! Here we go! . . . Does Caterpie evolve into Metapod?"

"I have not the faintest idea. And I came here for a duel, so." He lets Pasiap out preemptively.

The door buzzes and opens; the guy behind it lets out a dog that's clearly ripping off the concept of tigers but looking really cool about it.

Cute! "Show 'em what you can do, Pasiap!"

Pasiap can do quite a lot to that dog! He makes short work of it.

Yes, because he is a very good serpent. Aril scritches him behind the fin some more.

Fin scritches!? Awesome!!