At first, when Riki realized that he'd finally, finally, be in a region long enough to go on a journey like an actual trainer, he had been barely able to contain himself. It was only after slowing down and thinking about it that he realized that he shouldn't be too hasty. This was the real thing, after all, not just a pipe dream, and if he was doing this he intended to go as far as he could. That meant his team would need to be at it's best, and there was one particular weak link he needed to sort out: a Pancham by the name of Louis.

Well, "weak link" wasn't exactly accurate. The little guy was a scrapper, and damn good at it, but that was the problem. All he seemed to want to do was fight, and when he wasn't picking fights with whatever pokemon he could get his eyes on, he was starting things with his teammates. Not that Casper and Aria couldn't put him in his place when it came to it, but it didn't exactly make for good team cohesion. Not to mention the fact that sometimes Pancham would disregard his orders entirely and disregard strategy for the sake of punshing harder and more often. It had been something Riki had been determined to address for some time, and now he was making it top of his to-do list. After all, how could he hope to get anywhere battling his way through Hoenn's gyms with a half-feral pancham at his side? Well, what better way to calm a wild soul than a nice, relaxing afternoon at the beach?

To be honest, part of it was self-serving, as Riki hadn't been to a decent beach since his family moved out of Alola five years ago. Kalos had a lot of things going for it, but beaches were not among them. However, Slateport Beach was almost a match for the coasts of Alola in every respect. Based on the sheer volume of people here, it seemed other people had the same idea

"Louis, no, do not punch that wingull!"

Riki grabbed his pokemon by the scruff, the fighting type still shadow-boxing at the bored-looking seagull pokemon even as he was dragged away. "Seriously, you do not need to take a swing at everything with a pulse. Half the time you wind up flat on your back and the other half I have to apologize to the trainer of whatever poor pokemon you just decked. Rein in your bloodlust just a little bit, please." Even as he ranted, the fighting typewas trying to wiggle free of his trainer's grip. Riki knew, logically, he could just put him back in his pokeball, but that would defeat the purpose of this entire exercise. Still, the two of them were making a considerable scene, which just made Riki more frantic to get his pokemon under control.