"So we should make summoning really really worth the daeva's time. - I might pass my Singularity alt a note to do something about gags in Revelation, it seems like that kind of turns a fair few demons off taking summons..."

"It really does."

"Kind of an adverse selection thing, too, I bet it turns off friendly curious people more than the ones who just want to murder someone once they get a chance... we're being terribly rude, Bella, sorry. Are there any gaps in the explanation we can fill in for you?"

"...all of them."

"Uh, lemme get a sense of where you're coming from. Name something that was invented recently."

"Uh, the really fast trains?"

"Do you have airplanes?"

"Not personally."

Cam snorts. "Okay. Have you got magic?"

"Not really unless you want to count Pokémon and psychics and stuff."

"I may want to count those things."

"Well, we have those. Are your 'mon less with the special attacks?"

"We don't have the thing you're talking about at all, I think."

"...really? Like, no Zigzagoons is one thing..."

"What are Pokémon? Certain category of animals?"

"What's an animal?"

" - Mingling -"

He sends the concept: ducksbearscatstoads are animals, plantsrockswaterfalls aren't -

"...the first things looked sort of like weird Pokémon, but there are 'mon that are plants and rocks too..."

" - weird. The Elves will approve, they are upset by wild animal suffering. How do Pokémon reproduce, what makes something a Pokémon if not all plants and rocks are..."

"They lay eggs, and the plants and rocks that are 'mon can move around and make noises and be caught and learn moves."

"Learn moves?"

"Yeah. They fight each other a lot. Zag doesn't know anything really fancy though."

"It's a - mechanical thing? Like, as opposed to a model where they fight and generally get better at fighting but other factors like strength or luck or conditions still dominate, they develop specific skills called 'moves' and fighting is mostly determined by those?"

"I don't actually know about mostly, I only just got Zag to myself instead of having to go everywhere with Renée so I don't know much about battling yet. But they're specific things."