United One

[This particular video feed is awfully shaky. All the same, it's not hard to recognize the interior of Striaton City's gym. A Mawile, looking rather battleworn and weary, is squaring off against an equally battered Panpour.]

Come on, Reize! Bite, again!

[The camera's angle fumbles about, and there's a flash of green-ish blue hair and Kariya's anxious face before it's back to the two combatants -- now with Reize's back jaws locked around the Water-Type. There's a harsh clamp down, and...the little simian goes limp.]

Alright! We got him!

[...and, just as soon as that (sort of surprised!) cheer comes off, the video cuts to black.

When it returns, a fair stretch later, things have moved over to the café portion of the gym. All five of Kariya's Pokémon are crowding around one of the tables, mostly patched up but still tired from their brawl. Their trainer looks just too pleased with himself. He's over the moon. He's got his badge case sitting out and open, and his arms tossed around the neck of a newly-grown Liepard. Ceres, still getting used to life as Furret, is getting into the spirit too, curled up around his trunk.]

Hey, hey. Everyone smile...!

[And he tries to aim the transceiver to get a good shot of all of them. Even if Pluton's the only one putting real effort into a smile, with a big ":D" marked across his back.]

[Out in a spot in Striaton's garden, a boy and his Purrloin are spending the afternoon at play. Kariya's bag is sitting in the grass, and, all around it, he's dumped out a seemingly random assortment of items and trinkets of varying value and utility. Suisei is having a fine time dashing around them, batting at them here and there or nudging them together into a miniature hoard.]

Good, Suisei! Come on, come and get it -

[And Kariya has one particularly attractive piece clasped in hand. He's dangling it so that the feline Pokémon can chase and leap after it. Suisei goes up onto two legs to try and seize the item with his paws, then dashes around his trainer's legs to make a leap for it...making Kariya have to tumble onto the ground, scrambling away to keep a hold on the makeshift toy.

He's laughing as he barely yanks it away from the Purrloin.]

Ha-hah, close, but you need to be even faster...!

[Such an innocent scene.

Though, it's possible that anyone in Kariya's traveling group might recognize what's in his hand or all over the grass around them. Given that, you know, they are all things Purrloin's swiped from people's bags, since they got into Striaton. They're celebrating what a great, little thief Kariya's starter is.]

[Kariya's not the type to make his greetings before getting himself sorted and calm, at least not to strangers. So, since his arrival, the network features on his Xtransceiver have been sitting idle while he's dashed about and made a scene and freaked out over being kidnapped and also +1 weird-fickle-cat-creature-thing.

And while he's made his way from the Entralink to Nimbasa City. When he clicks the video feed on today, the noise in the background is from that city's Battle Club -- though he's squatted in a corner and not looking near as collected as he'd like to think.]

This is on, right?

[He blinks once, decides that it must be, and then forces an at-ease smile. See how friendly and unassuming he is?]

My name's Kariya Masaki. I'm sorry to be bothering everyone, but...I'm trying to figure out where to start with...

[He fumbles the Xtransceiver's camera around to give a brief, odd-angled glimpse of a Pokemon practice match some distance in front of him. Then the view swings back to his face.]

All of this? A lot of people seem to have more than one, so I don't know if it's better to start by getting more or...learning to fight with the one I've already met? I'm still a little confused about everything, I guess.

Maybe I should ask someone in person....