"They are non-plant non-human life. Though, uh, humans are related to them."

"Pokemon are... generally held to be related to us, I think? Except the ones from other planets."

"...so possibly they are just the word for animals? Though, uh. If I am not hallucinating then I do not understand how the healing or the telepathy work."

"Pokemon powers are poorly understood. They can do many things our technology yet can't. A professor could explain the healing or telepathy in slightly more detail, but to those of us who haven't taken the college course they might as well be 'magic'."

"...magic animals. I... see."

"I'm sure it's weird if you didn't grow up with it! I can't imagine what life would be like without them. Didn't even think of it as a possibility until I met you."

"There aren't even very many non-magical animals on my planet."

"I'd be fascinated to hear about how things work on your planet! If you have civilization without Pokemon, you must have all kinds of technology we don't.

—but, um, probably a higher priority is to make sure you have everything you need? You can stay in a room here in the Pokemon Center for two weeks; I could get one next to you for a few days so I can hang around with Kellim while you teach the machine translation programs your language."

"...will two weeks be enough for your software?"

"I think it'll be more than enough! Especially if we can get you a computer with a psychic interface so you can talk into it and have Kellim transmit the meanings of words at the same time. And when your time is up in the Pokemon Center, there are charities and government programs that can get you an apartment to stay in."

"I appreciate that, though of course I'm capable of working and will want to spend only as long as necessary as a burden on society."

"Don't worry about it too much! The housing programs here in Unova aren't strained at all, and no one would blame you for taking your time to adjust after being dropped here from an entirely different universe."

"That's good to hear. Uh... I imagine if there were any prospect of getting me home instead, you'd have mentioned before now."

"I'm sorry. The portal closed after dumping you, and we can't yet open arbitrary portals at will, or locate your home dimension without an existing portal to work from. There are researchers working on the problem, but...if I were you, I would proceed under the assumption of being stuck here for at least a few years."

"I understand. So... besides healing magic and telepathy what do Pokémon do that makes it so hard to imagine not having them?"

"They work in almost every industry! There are the types like Timburr and Machamp that are essential in logistics and construction because they're physically stronger than humans. There are the Water-types that can provide people clean water in almost any circumstances. Fire- and Electric-types are a key source of energy for the power grid. Transportation is a big thing—so much more of the world is accessible when you have a Pokemon with you that can fly or dive or climb over rocks. They're the great equalizer—the biggest strongest guys can't walk around confident in their ability to beat on everyone else when anyone can befriend a Pokemon.

But most of all, I think, because it would be lonely. It...doesn't sound like you relate to your 'animals' the way we do to our Pokemon. The hardest thing to imagine is just...living without their presence in my life."

"Don't you... talk to other humans?"

"Well, sure, but—I read a story once about a world where there are no children. People would appear fully formed as adults, already knowing how to talk and do math and command Pokemon and so on. 

The author thought that would be an obviously better world, because kids are smaller and more ignorant than adults and that leaves them vulnerable to being pushed around and taken advantage of. But it seems to me that a world is also missing out on something, compared to ours, if it has...fewer ways of being a person."

"The magical animals are people?"

"It's complicated. Some say 'Pokemon are people' and by that they mean 'Pokeballs are slavery, Trainer-Pokemon bonds are sick and wrong, they'd all be better off back in the wild', and I don't agree with that.

They're thinking, feeling, decision-making entities. Hard to communicate with, hard to do right by, but conscious beings anyway. That's how I see it, and more or less how most people do.

Some of them can learn human language—Zoroark, Rotom, lots of Psychic-types—and when they do, they report having interactions with other Pokemon that rival the depth and complexity of those they have with humans."

"...Psychic types?"

"Types are a classification scheme for the techniques Pokemon use on each other in combat—they like to fight, it's one of the most overwhelming behavioral similarities across species. I think the underlying thing is that they like to win, really, and fighting is the most readily available form of competition.

Anyway, Pokemon themselves are said to have one or two types, based on which techniques they can use most effectively."

So the biosphere here is full of - at least occasionally intelligent - hypercompetitive magical animals, which also have uses in industry and, apparently, translation.

"Okay. How shall I teach Ibyabekan to the translation software?"

"Let me get our rooms! Then you can talk into a computer while Kellim supplies meanings to the psychic interface."

Frank walks away and briefly chats to a bureaucrat at a desk beside the nurse, then returns holding a plastic card and a USB stick out for Kyeo to take.

"This is your room key, you tap it on the door to open it, and this is the psychic interface, you plug it into the laptop in your room so Kellim can talk to it."

Fancy. Kyeo nods, taps and plugs as instructed, and starts up the computer.