"Oh! And if you're in a context where recreational Pokemon battling is a thing, like in a Gym," he shows another picture of a building on his phone, "or walking the routes, you can challenge verbally or by making eye contact."

"Wild ones don't come over the city walls?"

"Nope! They tend to stick to their areas on the routes, mostly patches of tall grass and bodies of water. If any of them do try to bust into the city, the guards at the gates keep an eye out for them with cameras and the Gym Leader—uh, the local strongest Trainer—and his guys can do something about it."

"And strength as a trainer is determined by battles? Does it change often?"

"Yeah! It doesn't change that often, maybe every five or ten years on average? Most people don't do the kind of all-out challenge it would take to assume leadership of the Gym, they don't want that responsibility."

"Oh, I see, so someone might be stronger but they would either arrange not to fight the gym leader or they'd throw it if they found themselves doing so anyway?"

"Everyone fights the Gym Leaders! It's just, like, normally you do a challenge where they match your team in strength and test your skill to certify you as a competent Trainer, you only challenge them at full strength if you want to take over the Gym."

"So the gym leaders are normally throwing matches?"

"I wouldn't call it 'throwing'? It's normal for battles to vary in how all out people are going."

"Wasn't the point that Pokémon are competitive and enjoy winning?"

"Sure, but they can still enjoy winning at different levels of intensity? Plus it's not like Gym Leaders deliberately command their Pokemon to make suboptimal tactical choices in badge challenges, I think that really would piss them off, they just have a pool of Pokemon and don't always use the strongest ones from the pool."

"Oh, I see."

doubt.jpg

Not Frank's business if he doesn't really see, though. He'll take his word for it.

"Anything else about Pokemon etiquette I can clear up? I'm sure there's stuff I'm missing, I don't think anyone's ever tried to explain our world to people who grew up without Pokemon before, but for the same reason I think people will be pretty forgiving if you tell them you're from another universe. If anything you might get some clout out of it, people think portals are cool and most haven't seen one in person."

"If it comes about that I want to acquire one how would I do that, do I... buy one?"

"There are places where you can buy them but it's not common, the usual way is a friend or family member or the local Professor or Gym Leader hooks you up with a starter Pokemon."

"There are specific starter ones?"

"Technically any Pokemon can be a starter if it's given to you to kick off your journey, but there are certain species commonly used for the role, especially if you're getting one from a professor."

"Why do professors and gym leaders hand Pokémon out?"

"It's part of raising the next generation? We all benefit if lots of people grow up knowing how to train Pokemon, since they're useful for so many jobs."

"Where do they get surplus Pokémon?"

"They catch them! Or breed them, neither is that difficult when you're an experienced Trainer."

"The Pokémon don't... mind being bred? The wild ones tame down so immediately that they can be a 'starter'? For children?"

"The skill of breeding is arranging situations where they wanna mate of their own accord! There are 'day cares' that are set up for the purpose, and Pokemon are classified into egg groups as a guide to compatible partners. Taming is a process that varies by individual and species, but a Pokemon that remains in a ball rather than breaking out almost always has sufficient respect for human society to not actively do any harm. Weak, inexperienced Pokemon will listen to orders from similarly weak and inexperienced Trainers, that's why weak and inexperienced ones are usually the ones handed out as starters."

"Egg groups? It's not by species? Is that not what 'species' means -"

"Ah, no, there are some researchers who argue that the word 'species' should be used for what we now call 'egg groups' and we should adopt a different term for Pokemon who look the same and emit the same vocalizations and use the same techniques, but it's never caught on with the general public."