DonKiwi stood frozen in place, the chaos of the lab around him almost too overwhelming. The immersion in the game itself was so much stronger than it had been in the character creation. He could smell the trash, feel the prickle of electricity from the nearby machines. He felt a wave of nausea as his equilibrium adjusted to this new reality. He was afraid to move his head—much less the rest of his body—for fear the nausea would return. If you threw up in the game did you throw up in real life?

Slowly, as if experiencing limbs for the first time, he lifted his arms into the air. Hands stretched out before him, he flexed his fingers in and out with the utmost caution. He really could feel things. They felt like his fingers, his hands. It was utterly surreal.

A voice behind him caught his attention and, with some mild struggle, he turned. Don wasn't sure exactly what he expected to see, but it certainly wasn't... whatever that was. Had he been a little more comfortable in this virtual body, his instinct to launch himself backwards away from the spectral creature surely would have won out. As it was, he found himself frozen again, arms still lifted awkwardly and mouth slightly agape.

Wait, was that a person? Like another real-life person playing the game. No, right? As it—she spoke again, he toddled his way closer, arms still out to steady himself, looking for all the world like a giant toddler.

"Shadow thing?" he said with a shrug and a wave of his hand that felt more nonchalant than it looked, "You can hardly notice it." He glanced to the Pokeballs in the display case, though his mind was caught up on a singularly important question; a question that was so all-consuming he almost missed the rest of what the ghost-woman-professor said:

Was that how you pronounced "Pokemon"?!

If he'd been saying it wrong this entire time and he was only finding out from a video game ghost lady he might actually lose his mind. A brief thought caught him by surprise: you should call Kell and ask. He felt his chest tighten. This was all part of the process, he told himself. Dr. Bight had warned him this would happen. Don steeled himself. You can't cry your first day in the damn Pokenyan game.

He cleared his throat, saying, "Ok, I'm ready." Then, with some hesitation, added, "Fire."

There was something about the little spectral lady kicking her feet at the edge of the desk that made her seem less intimidating. Something that wanted to kill him wouldn't be patiently tapping her heels, right? Even so, he felt a pang of adrenaline when she produced a card, flipping it up towards him. It was smeared with an ink splotch, stark black against the white paper. Don frowned, tilting his head. Was this a trick question? She did say no cheating.

"I see... ink?" After a moment, he nodded his head confidently, satisfied with his answer. It might have been paint, but as far as he could tell it was a 50/50 shot as long as he didn't need to be specific about the kind of ink.

Her next question came and he tapped his chin with a finger. He was getting more comfortable in the VR space already, even without realizing it. "Hm, I guess what I value most in a partner is reliability. I gotta be able to count on them y'know? Like when you know your teammate is gonna be where he needs to be and you can just throw the ball without thinking twice about it." This was beginning to feel a little more like a job interview than a video game, though for Don that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He'd had such an uncomfortable first few moments that if he'd been thrown right into the action he might have just turned the whole system off.

Don frowned at the third question. Charmeleon? Shit, he knew which one that one was. He chewed his lip, brow furrowing as he racked his brain to dredge up an image of the Pokemon. "That's... one of the lizard dudes right?" But which one? There were a ton of lizard dudes, and probably a ton more that he didn't even know about. On instinct, he reached for his pocket to pull out his phone and look up the answer, cursing when he realized that wasn't how this worked. That there might be an in-game codex didn't even occur to him. His gut said it was the big one, the dragon-y one with the wings. Pursing his lips, he nodded once and said, "One. One lizard dude."

Don strained to see the notepad, immediately curious about the suitability of his answers. The Professor didn't seem discouraged, though, so he could only assume he'd done alright. She tossed a Pokeball and he snatched it from the air—or tried to. His reflexes weren't quite up to par. The ball went rolling across the floor and, muttering an apology under his breath, Don jogged after it.

When he'd finally retrieved the gifted Pokeball, he turned it to look at the name taped across the surface.

"Snivy, huh?" With a grin, he thrust the Pokeball out before him. And nothing happened. He brought it back up to his face, staring at the capsule. He knew enough about Pokemon to know the little monster was inside, but really had no clue how to open it. He thrust it out once more to no reaction. "Uh, thanks!" he managed to say, only half paying attention to the Professor as he ran his fingernail along the seam between the two halves of the Pokeball. He'd figure out how to get into it... eventually.