"...aww! You're cute," he says to the Ralts as he walks over to the Charmander and gets down to one knee to look at it. "And you my friend, I feel you may be a weapon of mass destruction."

    The Charmander does not roll its eyes—Charmander, like most lizard-like Pokémon, are capable of very little actual eye movement within their eye sockets—but it is giving Tōkan a look that Tōkan is pretty sure is meant to be something like that.

"I'm Tōkan, and it's fine if you don't want a name right now or ever, I can just call you Charmander instead."

   It continues giving him a level look for a couple more seconds before breathing a pah and turning to watch Edmund and his Ralts.

Tōkan grins and gets back to his feet and likewise turns in that direction.

"I... had a name in mind, if you wanted to hear it?" he offers.

"Ra," says the Ralts agreeably.

"Do you like 'Cytherea'?"

"Tseh."

"Um. That's okay... what about 'Antiope'?"

"Tsehhhh."

"So much for that region... what about 'Dulcinea'?"

The 'mon shakes itself vigorously.

Edmund squints. "Are you a boy Ralts. Does that happen, I thought gender was just something humans projected onto Pokémon..."

"Ra!"

"Um. I admit I didn't really prepare for this. ...how d'you like 'Nigel'?"

The Ralts tilts its head, flopping its bangs in such a way that one eye is revealed.

"...is that a yes?"

Nigel hugs his leg.

Awwww they're very cute. Tōkan looks over his shoulder at the Charmander who's following him and asks, "May I pet you? ...no? Okay," before getting to where the other boy and his Pokémon are.

Edmund looks up from rubbing Nigel's head. "Oh! Hello, um... I didn't get your name... and hello Charmander as well!"

"Tōkan," he repeats. "Nice to meet you, Edmund." Despite the different language-of-origin Tōkan seems perfectly able to pronounce Edmund's name correctly.

    Charmander looks up at Edmund and its tail moves very slightly—especially the tip—for a couple of seconds. Its face continues to not be very expressive, at least to human standards.

"You really don't like chatting, do you," says Tōkan to his Pokémon. The Charmander looks up over its shoulder at him, lowers its tail a little bit, then looks back up at Edmund.

"Sorry," Edmund says to Charmander, then turns back to Tōkan. "Nice to meet you as well, Tōkan!" (His accent puts just a touch too much pressure on the ō.) "Did you want to battle, or anything, or just say hi?"

"Just say hi, I guess. We're the two stragglers, it seems, and that's a good excuse to bond."

"Right... I woke up at sunrise, I couldn't even sleep I was so excited, and somehow I was still late."

"Did something happen? Um." He looks up at Professor Birch. "Should we see ourselves out?"

Birch shrugs, looking up from his computer briefly. "I don't have another appointment."

Edmund sighs. "I... started reading to pass the time... and apparently everyone thought someone else must have sent me off. And so no one did. And I thought someone would stop me reading when it was time to go, and so I didn't really notice the time passing."

Despite his tragic expression, he has one of Nigel's little handnubs between each thumb and forefinger, and he is using them to make Nigel perform the Caramelldansen. This is an important bonding activity.

"See that, Charmander? That's appropriate trainer and Pokémon bonding activity." Charmander breathes another pah that may or may not suggest he finds the suggestion amusing.

Nigel meeps happily.

"My suffering is nothing to you, I see," Edmund says with dignity.

Tōkan laughs. "Sorry, I'm sure it must've been awful, but look, you got Nigel now and everything worked out great."

"True enough! Do you know what Gym you're going for first? I'm kind of inclined to try for the Knuckle Badge - I know going for the easy type match-up won't keep me on my toes, but I've only got one 'mon yet, and I'd rather sweep my first big match than lose it..."

"I don't have specific plans yet." Or nonspecific ones. Any plans, really. Charmander throws him an odd look and he blocks its sight of his face with a hand.

"...do you have, you know, a general compass heading?"

"Not as such."

"Want to come along with me?"

Score!

"I'd love to!"

    Charmander makes a snorting noise and Tōkan pushes its face away. It nips at his hand but he pulls it away fast enough to not actually be bitten.

Score!

"Let's head out, then. No time like the present."

"Yosh!"

He starts marching, placing a hand behind Charmander's head to pull him along (Charmander immediately swats that hand away before following somewhat sullenly).

Edmund carries Nigel on his shoulders. 

"So," he says, "um... do you have any siblings?"

"Yeah! I have an older sister, she started her journey last year. How 'bout you?"

"I've got three, two older one younger - Peter is a Gym Leader in Johto, Susan is off at university, and Lucy is waiting impatiently for her journey to start as must we all."