With their unplanned exertion eating up most of the remaining daylight, Jason decided to spend the rest of the evening helping Ren practice her speaking while Korrina and Alexa conversed. It was a little awkward with Laani sitting close to him, ostensibly curious about the picture books they were reading, but he did his best to ignore it.
doh do dew
"Doh do doo...?" parroted Ren, tilting her head back and bumping Jason's chest.
"That should be Grant and my sister," stated Alexa, rising from where she and Korrina had been seated atop the almost ring-shaped white sofa with their knees touching.
"You called them over...?" asked Korrina, raising her brows before casting a glance and a slightly apologetic smile at Jason. She figured they would meet Grant and Alexa's sister early the following morning, but it appeared the chestnut-haired journalist had other ideas.
"Well, yeah. This place is enormous. It would be a waste to keep it all to ourselves," stated Alexa, making her way over the penthouse's entrance and opening it with some flourish.
"Alexa! It's so good to see you~!" chimed a blonde-haired woman with conspicuous bangs that framed her face similarly to Korrina but with the ends looping inward. Her ponytail curled in a similar fashion, and with the same build and green eyes as Alexa, it wasn't difficult to infer that the two were sisters.
"It's been too long," remarked a taller, lean, and muscular man with brown skin, sharp, steel-grey eyes, and a rather prominent afro-esque hairstyle that resembled a protruding rock formation with four—pink, red, blue, and yellow—gemstones embedded in its surface.
"Very nearly a full year. Have you been treating my sister well...?" asked Alexa, sharing a hug with the blonde-haired woman before half-turning as Jason and Korrina approached with Ren and Laani trailing them.
"As well as he can with his climbing obsession..." responded the blonde, exhaling faintly from her nose before turning her attention to Jason and Korrina, her expression brightening at the latter.
"Korrina! Look at how tanned you are! It really suits you~!" chimed the blonde, separating from Alexa and darting past her to share a reciprocal hug with Korrina.
"And I really like what you've done with your hair, Viola. A ponytail suits you. And I'm not just saying that because I wear my hair in one~" replied Korrina, her voice suffused with a sing-song quality as she and the buxom blonde, Viola, kissed each other's cheeks.
"Oh, you~" hummed Viola, turning her attention to Jason and causing him to tense slightly as she stepped toward him and stated, "And you must be Jason. You're really tall," before wrapping her arms around him and giving him a paradoxically firm but notably cushioned hug.
"Right. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance..." Jason responded, his tone awkward and his smile cramped as he gave Viola's back a reciprocal pat with his left hand.
"She's not wrong. It's not often I meet people who are taller than me. At least not here in Kalos," said the brown-skinned man, approaching Jason with a confident, unassuming smile and his right hand extended. He didn't seem to care at all that Viola had embraced another man, reinforcing that physical contact as a form of social bonding was completely normalized in the Pokémon world.
"With your hairstyle, I'd say we're around the same size..." Jason quipped, doing his best to appear calm and casual as he accepted the man's rough, callus-lined hand and gave it a firm squeeze.
"You think so?" responded the man, his smile broadening as he squeezed Jason's hand much harder and introduced, "The name's Grant Rochefort. Alexa and Korrina have probably already mentioned it, but I'm the Cyllage City Gym Leader, specializing in Rock-types. It's nice to meet you, Jason."
"Likewise..." responded Jason, following his response by briefly clenching his jaw as Grant's grip was like a vice. The man spent hours climbing walls and boulders each day, so his hands were nearly as rough as the stone he scaled.
As Jason suppressed the urge to shake the tension out of his hand when Grant finally released it, his ear perked at Viola mentioning to Alexa, "We brought our swimsuits as you requested. Where should we get changed?"
"Follow me. I'll show you," responded Alexa, prompting Viola, Korrina, and Laani to follow her as she led the way to the master bedroom, rather than one of the guest rooms. Jason briefly frowned in suspicion, but instead of calling out to them and asking what she had in mind, he stayed with Grant and gave the man an impromptu tour after formally introducing him to Ren and Rotom...
...
..
.
After waiting and chatting about random topics for nearly a full hour, Jason and Grant were given a sight to behold when Korrina, Alexa, and Viola emerged in bikinis. Korrina's, as usual, was white with red trim. As for the latter two, leaving very little to the imagination, Alexa's was dark grey while her sister's, Viola's, was pure white.
"Sorry for the delay~" hummed Alexa, smiling conspiratorially and giving Jason a playful wink as she explained, "We got caught up discussing the evening's itinerary."
'This woman is beyond audacious...' Jason determined, fairly certain he understood what Alexa had in mind. She had just learned about sex and experienced the satisfaction it could bring, and since she existed within a society that had no moral scruples toward sex, he presumed she intended to share the experience with Viola and Grant...
Outright confirming Jason's suspicions, Viola, staring at him as if he were a strange creature, questioned, "Do you really stick your tongue and penis in such a place?"
"Hmm? What are we talking about...?" asked Grant, blinking in surprise and raising his brows to their limits, understandably confused by Viola's unexpected query. Before the conversation continued, Jason asked Ren to return to her Poké Ball, not wanting her to hear what they were about to discuss. Then, with Alexa taking charge of the discussion, things very quickly escalated in a predictable direction. The inhabitants of the world of Pokémon were simply too adventurous, curious, and lacking inhibition for them not to...
...
..
.
With his body count increasing by two in a single afternoon, Jason found himself staring listlessly at the ceiling of the master bedroom with Korrina and, of all people, Viola flanking and facing him in their pajamas. To make the situation even more outrageous, the two women were being spooned, Korrina by Alexa and Viola by a peacefully sleeping Grant...
'This is going to be a long trip...' Jason sighed internally, closing his eyes. He had, once again, crossed a line he never thought he would cross, but since it had been at the insistence of the involved parties, he didn't think he had done anything objectively immoral. It certainly didn't feel that way, but he understood that was due to his disparate views and values...
'At least now I know I'm truly unique in this world...' Jason mused soberly. Viola had tried her best to get a reaction out of him, but while he affirmed that it felt pleasant, Grant lacked the prerequisite physiological response to initiate intercourse. This had led to the man feeling guilty, and since he could tell that Viola really wanted to try it, he was the one to ask Jason to have sex with her.
'Korrina and I need to discuss who with and how we share this knowledge in the future...' Jason determined, doing his best to let his thoughts settle so he could get at least a few hours of sleep. He was getting accustomed to going with the flow and not being weird about things. But if they didn't establish at least some boundaries, he got the impression that she would have him complete his S-Ranked [Planting Seeds to Amass Flowers] and A-Ranked [Propagator of Forbidden Knowledge] Quests before his return to Akala. He understood that she was trying to be helpful, but while there were certainly narratively significant characters he was looking forward to encountering, the notion of having a one-hundred-woman body count left Jason feeling empty rather than excited...
...
..
.
After an awkward morning, where Viola offered to help settle his morning condition for personal reference, Jason, Korrina, and Alexa checked out of the hotel and parted ways with the Gym Leader duo at the station. Jason hadn't gotten much sleep the previous evening, so once they were in their private compartment, he retired to the attached quarters and spent much of the trip napping alongside Ren. Their next stop was the rural Geosenge Town, famed for its mysterious, megalithic rock structures, but they didn't disembark.
shhk
"It's time to get up, you two. We'll be arriving in Shalour soon~" Korrina chimed softly, sporting a bright-eyed, effortlessly radiant smile as she entered the sleeping compartment and sat on the edge of the lower bunk to gently shake Jason awake.
"Time to wake up—" Ren repeated, performing a cat-like stretch with her butt in the air and her forepaws fully extended. Jason was a bit slower to rouse, but once he realized he was being awoken, he sat up and inhaled a deep, chest-expanding breath through his nose.
"How are you feeling? Do you have any aches or pain...?" asked Korrina, scotting closer to Jason and brushing aside the bangs hanging over his brows with the tips of her fingers.
"I'm fine..." responded Jason, habitually snaking his hand around Korrina's waist to cup her side. Then, as she had already drawn her face toward his to check on him, the two shared a series of casual, lip-smacking kisses to really get his blood pumping.
"Ren too...?" asked Ren, standing next to Jason on the bed with her paws clasping the front and back of his shirt.
"Ren gets headpats and hugs..." responded Jason, meeting Ren's gaze and reaching around her to cup the back of her head. Then, drawing her carefully to his chest, he hugged her reassuringly, rested his chin on top of her head, and hummed, "Kisses are for humans and naughty Pokémon like Laani..."
"Right~?" pealed Korrina, gently tickling Ren's side before getting up from the bunk and stating, "The Conductor said we'll be arriving at the station within seventeen minutes. Luca will be waiting for us when we disembark, so you should get Ren changed into her battle attire."
"Battle~!" exclaimed Ren, raising her paws as clenched fists and beaming excitedly.
Though he was momentarily confused by Korrina's suggestion, Jason's mind dutifully brought forward what he knew regarding Lucario and Riolu ecology. In the wild, the older, more experienced members within a vigil of Lucario and Riolu would subject the younger members to various trials and tribulations to help them become stronger. With Luca being one of Ren's parents, it was to be expected that he would want to challenge and test her...
"I understand..." responded Jason, offering a reluctant but accepting nod. Korrina smiled approvingly in turn. Then, as she and Alexa had been in the middle of a discussion before the Conductor's voice came over the train's intercom, she left Jason and Ren to prepare without her.
After following Korrina with his eyes and exhaling exasperatedly from his nose, Jason shifted his gaze to Ren, forced a supportive smile, and asked, "Are you ready to meet one of your parents...?" while grabbing the elastic sides of her top.
"Parent...?" Ren repeated, habitually raising her arms to enable Jason to remove her top more easily. The word was familiar to her, but she hadn't used it enough to associate it with a specific concept. Jason understood this, so while helping her change, he explained to her how older Pokémon produced eggs that hatched into younger Pokémon like her. That concept went thoroughly over her head, but when he told her that Luca was one of the strongest Lucario in the world, she became irrepressibly keen to meet and have a battle with him...
...
..
.