"So, what's your name?" Nick asked his new kadabra.

Nick's mind was swamped with the idea of being curled up in an egg, in complete darkness, surrounded by the fuzzy minds of his siblings and the loving warmth of their mother. The darkness was replaced by the image of an abra with a caterpie clinging to it's head, constantly teleporting around a clearing; the pair were clearly enjoying infuriating the hungry raticate chasing them. A new image; the caterpie was now a butterfree, and the pair were following their new trainer, making silly faces at each other when her back was turned. Next, the butterfree was riding on a kadabra's shoulder while their trainer smeared some ointment on the edge of a large hole in one of its wings. The last image was of the kadabra teleporting the butterfree's corpse into a tall tree, knowing that it would prefer to spend its death in the air instead of underground or being cremated like their trainer wanted, and said trainer yelling at him for it.

"I wanted your name, not your life story." Nick joked

That is my name. His kadabra replied

"Oh...how about I call you Joe?"

No.

"Well, what did your old trainer call you?"

Buddy, usually, or Big Buddy, if Little Buddy was there.

"Little Buddy was the butterfree's name?"

No. The kadabra corrected, the butterfree's name was a complex mixture of pheromones, the likes of which you would not be able to duplicate, even if you understood all the subtleties involved. Our old trainer did, however, call her Little Buddy.

"Could I call you Buddy?"

Were you not paying attention?!

The image of the dead butterfree flashed through his mind again.

I was called "Buddy" out of respect for my friendship to a pokemon who is now deceased. If you cannot manage to articulate my real name, then at least think of one that is relevant to the present, not the past!

"What did your butterfree friend call you?" Nick asked, looking for ideas.

After many months of effort, on both our parts, he was able to call me by my name.

His tone made it clear that he was not willing to invest a similar effort in his new trainer.

"Well then, unless I think of something else, I'm going to call you Joe." Nick said

Sigh...If you must.