A Phone Call to Bill

Leaning back in his chair, the White Ibis flipped open his mobile phone and after scrolling through his contacts list, dialed a number.

After three rings, the line was picked up.

“Hey there Ibis, calling in to check in on the status of your Pokemon storage system? Give me a moment to pull up your account information. Ahhh I see it! So currently you’re using -“

The White Ibis grinned to himself. He could tell that Bill must have gotten an awful lot of calls about his PC system lately and about account statuses. “Uhhh, actually, Bill… that wasn’t what I was calling you about.”

“… It isn’t?”

“Nope, it isn’t. Did I catch you at a bad time or do you have a moment to talk?” Cradling the phone between his ear and shoulder, the White Ibis opened up the binder on his table and picked up a pen as he leafed through a few pages.

“Awww heck. Sure I have time! What’s up?”

“I was wondering if I could commission you to build something for me.”

“I’m all ears. What are you looking to have me build?”

In detail, the White Ibis explained what he had in mind and as he explained, he made references over the course of the conversation to various sheets of paper contained within the binder on his desk. When the explanation was over with, he flipped back to the sheet of paper he had been taking notes on and leaned back in his chair.

“… So what do you think, Bill? Think you could do something like that for me?”

“The concept makes sense enough, but I have to admit… where I have built similar devices… I have never built anything to the scale that you are wanting so I’m not sure how this will end up working.”

“Well, I was considering that it might be possible to just get a basic system and do a simple sync with my PokeGear system, but…”

“Which you CAN do and the product you are wanting to build will do that for you… but a basic system that’s been tweaked isn’t customized to be used in such a fashion. At least… not to the levels of usage and complexity that you are talking about.”

“… Yeah, exactly.”

“What’s your timetable?”

“I’m not in any particular rush, so I’m not really working with any particular timetable in mind. I know you’re busy so I just thought I would ask you and see what your schedule might be like and if you would be interested in taking up such a commission?”

“Well, if you can be patient with me – geez, but we’re probably going to have to go through a few prototypes to get this thing to work the way you’re wanting it to… – then I will be willing to work with you.”

The White Ibis smiled at the answer and punched a fist into the air with a cheer. The Bayleef curled up at his feet who had been listening to his Trainer talk headbutted his Trainer’s leg and waved his aromatic leaf around with a happy, “Baaayleef!”

“That is excellent. Let me give you my billing information so you can bill me for the work and parts.” After procuring his wallet from his Trainer bag, the White Ibis fished around for the right cards and after making sure Bill was ready, rattled off the appropriate billing information.

“Thanks for that. Did you want to do a lump sum total with installments or did you want to pay as we go?”

“Let’s do a pay-as-we-go plan. It will be easier for us both to keep track of everything that way, I think, and I can set a system to automatically pay the invoices that come in.”

“Just so there are no surprises, you are well aware of the costs that might be involved in this project?”

The White Ibis nodded as he put his cards back into his wallet and put the wallet back into his bag. “Yes, I am fully aware and I have made the monetary provisions necessary.”

“I don’t anticipate an amount much higher than the initial quote I gave you, but with something new like this… you never know how many prototypes you might end up having to build if previous ones can’t be built upon anymore.”

“Yeah, I definitely understand.”

“Well in that case, I will get started on securing the supplies necessary and the sooner you can send me copies of your outlines and design drafts and spec sheet and such, the better.”

After glancing at his wristwatch, the White Ibis made a notation in his notes and then shut his binder. Wedging the phone between his ear and shoulder again, he packed his binder into his Trainer bag and collected his keys and stood up. Gesturing for the Bayleef to either follow him out or to stay at the flat, he said, “I was going to head out for some errands anyways, so I will head to the postal office and get things sent out using express.”

The Bayleef, having already stood up when his Trainer had stood up, trotted over to the front door.

“I will make sure to be on the lookout for the package, then. Thanks for calling Ibis; I will give you a call when your stuff arrives. Oh, and by the way, you still have one hundred twenty three empty spaces in your storage system – good day!”

For a moment, the White Ibis just stared at the phone that had gone dead. After realizing that Bill had still managed to update him on the status of his storage boxes without being asked, he laughed, shook his head, and tucked the phone away.

After stroking the leaf on the Bayleef’s head, he opened the door to his flat and together, the Trainer and Pokemon headed out.