Is it cruel to keep pokemon in pokeballs or even in a PC? They obviously need to eat and do other things to live so it seems like they’d need to be let out at some point. What goes on inside there?

My apologies, anonymous. This is LH.

You’ve apparently hit upon the one question that my partner has received so often that it reduces him to a state in which he finds it difficult to communicate outside of memes.

(Oh, I can communicate just fine, Lanette. Whether or not you would want me to, however, is an entirely different matter. —Bill)

So rather than take the risk of allowing Bill to say something he would regret—which he would—

(Hey! —Bill)

—allow me to answer this one for him.

Pokémon are perfectly safe, both within the poké ball and inside the storage system. Both technologies take advantage of a pokémon’s ability to change form. Even pokémon incapable of evolving, such as farfetch’d and the like, have this ability encoded in unused portions of their DNA. The poké ball simply triggers this ability and directs it to convert the pokémon’s body into a electrical-digital format. So while it’s not true suspended animation, as a contained pokémon is typically perfectly aware of what goes on outside of its ball, it is a state in which a pokémon no longer needs to eat, sleep, or perform any other function necessary for maintaining their physical forms. This also halts aging and the progress of most ailments, but strangely enough, it does not halt the affects of poisoning or poké rus. This is likely because such conditions are inadvertently converted into patches of corruption, one form of which “corrects” itself over time as the pokémon adapts and heals itself. (Poisoning is a far more difficult condition to self-heal from.)

Additionally, it’s true that most pokémon are initially aware of their surroundings at first, but it’s possible for pokémon to enter extended sleep states while inside their poké balls, especially if contained for long periods of time. This is why it’s important to allow your pokémon time outside their poké balls now and then. Otherwise, according to psychic scans, when stored in a poké ball, a pokémon simply watches what goes on outside of its capture device. This is contrary to popular belief, which is, of course, the idea that pokémon get their own miniature habitats within each ball.

The storage system functions via the same principle, although for it, pokémon enter a true form of suspended animation due to the recursive nature of the process. You are, essentially, nesting a captured pokémon within a capture device within a capture device. Also according to psychic scans, pokémon who have been through the system are not at all aware of entering, nor are they aware of any time spent in storage. They simply, well, sleep.

Granted, some pokémon have shown a vague level of awareness of their surroundings, and for them, we’ve designed wallpapers meant to make pokémon more comfortable. But the main point is, your pokémon are not at all harmed by being stored, so on a technical level, if used as recommended, neither poké balls nor the storage system are cruel.

Nonetheless, yes, we do recommend that you withdraw your pokémon once in a while for psychological reasons. I’m sure you wouldn’t like waking up to know that ten years have passed either, after all.

There, Bill. Was that so hard? —LH

For you, perhaps. You’ve only been asked once. —Bill