i work with professor birch in Hoenn, and recently went to Johto to provide information discovered by Birch to Elm. Well while i was staying with professor Elm, one of the starters he had, cyndiquil popped out of its ball and imprinted on me. is it common for pokemon like this to choose their trainer?

Only in Johto, Unova, and occasionally Kalos. (Alola as well, but for them, it’s less an accident and more a cultural point.) No one is quite sure why, but the going theory is that the starters often emulate the disposition of the people within their region of origin.

As a Johtonian, I feel like I should be offended by the implication that my people are all impulsive and extremely transparent about their opinions of others, but on the other hand, you wouldn’t exactly be wrong if you said that…