With Iris's introduction lingering awkwardly, Lillie took it upon herself to smile and explain, "Iris here is the itinerant Champion of the Unova. She has tentatively agreed to come to Alola to help lay the foundation for the Alola League and to defend the islands against the possibility of an Ultra Beast invasion."
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Jason expressed, bowing his head politely in Iris's direction.
"Oh? You've got some manners, I see," Iris noted, using the foot she had on the table to step over it and leap with surprising grace through the air. Her landing brought her right in front of Jason, where she posed with her hands on her hips and remarked, "And you're super tall. Not as tall as my Grandpa, but definitely taller than most people I've met," while staring up at him with a confident smile.
"Is that a good thing...?" asked Jason, raising his right brow and tilting his shoulders back slightly. Iris was well within his personal space, so he was unsurprised when she extended her hands and began feeling up the sides of his body, remarking, "Boys should at least be big and sturdy enough to serve as a windbreaker. But, wow, you're even better built than you look..."
"Jason works hard to strengthen himself and support his Pokémon, never missing a single day of training..." Lillie contributed, simultaneously glancing back at her Mother with a look that conveyed, 'Why are you still here?'
"Alright, I'll leave you kids to get better acquainted~" Lusamine hummed, giving Lillie's cheek a motherly pinch before departing through the room's still-open doors and pulling them closed behind her.
"Kids...?" Iris repeated, waiting until Lusamine had left the room before snorting faintly, crossing her arms, and remarking, "Don't get confused, okay? Lillie and I may be around the same height, but I'm just as old as Bianca. Treat me like a kid, and you'll regret it."
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind..." Jason affirmed with a nod. In truth, he was shocked to hear that the chest-high Iris was the same age as Bianca, but as the two regularly appeared in the same games, everything lined up. With a 687-day year, that meant Iris was between 32 and 34 years old by his world's standards.
"You'd better..." Iris asserted, issuing a faint harrumph before turning and making her way toward the U-shaped arrangement of white, gold-backed divan-esque sofas. In her wake, Jason and Lillie briefly met each other's gazes, the latter smiling reassuringly as she raised her pastel blue, gloved right hand for him to escort her.
Witnessing Jason escort Lillie to her seat before sitting next to her, Iris, sitting with her legs pulled up and her white-sandaled feet crossed at the ankles, playfully remarked, "Wow, look at you two. It takes a lot of gall or a lot of love to behave all lovey-dovey-like in front of guests. I don't know if I should feel jealous or offended."
"There's no need to feel either," countered Lillie, leaving Iris confused and Jason steeling himself as she calmly, confidently explained, "It's certainly not a requirement, but you would ideally enter into a physical relationship with Jason for the duration of your stay in Alola. There are many reasons I could give to justify why, but they're ultimately unimportant. As you spend time watching and getting to know Jason as a person, I am convinced you will want to grow closer to him naturally."
"I mean, he's definitely my type..." Iris conceded, unabashedly scanning Jason from top to bottom before meeting his gaze and adding, "But he's a little young and waaaay behind the curve. I'm not into babysitting, so if he wants to impress me, he can start by reaching the Ultra Class."
'She's very proud for a pipsqueak...' Jason noted, exhaling faintly from his nose.
"You say that now, but once you get to know Jason, I'm certain your mind will change," Lillie maintained with a smile. "Tangentially, shall we relocate to his Sanctum? We can provide you with a brief tour of its facilities before continuing our discussion in its rejuvenating hot spring."
"The hot spring with healing properties...?" asked Iris, her red-brown eyes sparkling. Dragon-type Pokémon were particularly fond of hot springs, so there were few things she enjoyed more than soaking her weary body in a quality spring and sipping her home region's famed rice wine.
"The very same~" Lillie affirmed with a smile.
"Wait...do you have time for a bath...?" Jason questioned, doing his best not to dwell on the fact that he was practically guaranteed to find himself and Iris sharing a bath in the very near future. It was apparent at a glance that she was simply a short woman, so he wasn't overly concerned about seeing or being seen naked by her. It was just that, once they normalized the practice, things were bound to escalate as her curiosity surpassed her restraint...
"Are you asking that because I'm wearing a gown...?" Lillie questioned, her green eyes narrowing into an expression of mirth as Jason made no effort to conceal his confusion. Then, causing Jason to feel ashamed of himself for not even considering it, she made a subtle gesture at Iris with her chin and clarified, "Champion Iris and I were at the same party before I invited her here to meet you. Mother has to return as one of the event's guests of honor, but my afternoon and evening timetables were naturally left vacant to make time for our reunion."
"And here I was led to believe you were smart. But I suppose even a smart boy is still a boy~" Iris appended playfully, looking smug as she grabbed her ankles and puffed her virtually non-existent chest.
''She's just trying to provoke a reaction to make herself appear more mature...' Jason told himself, exhaling from his nose. Iris was clearly projecting some past grievances onto him, presumably born from a boy calling her immature or unladylike. But as her words lacked animosity, he chose not to take them to heart and instead produced his Subspace Orb from his chest.
"Oh? So it really does just pop out of you, huh...?" Iris noted, her brows rising and her eyes focused on Jason's subspace.
"He can also recall it to him, causing it to phase through all obstacles in its path. It's truly a mysterious object..." Lillie contributed, her eyes very briefly narrowing at Iris's implication that Jason wasn't intelligent. Then, without missing a beat, she began recounting everything the researchers had learned about Jason's subspace. To summarize, they knew very little. But the fact that it was able to resist their attempts to uncover its secrets was significant in and of itself...
...
..
.
"Oh, wow...this feels super weird. It's like the sky is trying to suck me up into it..." Iris remarked, gazing wide-eyed at Sanctum's pitch-black sky, causing her to experience an almost overwhelming urge to tether herself to the ground.
"It might look like it goes on forever, but the balloons we sent up hit an invisible wall at around three hundred meters," revealed Jason, feeling a similar sense of incongruency as he joined Iris in gazing upward. Since it was something he viewed at least once a day, however, the feeling didn't linger as it did with people witnessing it for the first time.
"Then I'll need to be careful when I do a flyover later..." Iris muttered to herself, tearing her gaze from the view like separating a pair of magnets. Lillie regarded that as her cue to begin the tour, but as she gestured with her left hand toward the research facility, Iris preempted her by staring at Jason and posing, "So, how about it? You have the good fortune of having one of the League's regional Champions standing before you. If you bow your head and ask politely, I might be willing to grace you with my advice. Before that, we'll need to battle, of course."
'Even if she behaves impishly, she's still a Champion...' Jason reminded himself, touching Ren's Poké Ball through the fabric of his shirt. He knew she could hear what was being said, and though he could be imagining it, he felt as though he could feel her excitement like a faint hum.
"Alright...if you'll accept my challenge, I would be honored to battle you..." Jason expressed, bowing his head.
"Honored? You certainly have a way with words~" Iris hummed, clearly pleased by Jason's deference. She usually had to prove she was to be taken seriously, so she appreciated his willingness to bow his head and afford her the respect her station deserved.
Reaching beneath the large pink ribbon that framed her hips, Iris pulled out one of the ten Poké Balls she carried, its exterior possessing the color scheme of an Ultra Ball but turned ninety degrees—with a white circle on the front and what looked like tiny ears along its top.
"It wouldn't be fair to you if I used any of my Dragons, so I'll be using this little cutie here. Come on out, Emmy~!"
Flinging her Poké Ball into the air, Iris released what looked like a large flying squirrel with a white underbelly, a black overcoat, rounded ears with yellow trim along their interior, and yellow, black-backed skin flaps that allowed it to loop several times overhead before landing on her left shoulder. Similar to a Pikachu, it had circular pouches on its cheeks, but instead of red, they were bright, electric-yellow—along with a black tail that resembled a flat, three-pronged black fan.
"Emaya~!" chimed the squirrel-like Pokémon, raising its tiny right hand and beaming both happily and excitedly with large, obsidian-black eyes that clearly viewed Jason as a challenger.
"Is that an Emolga? I wasn't that Champion Iris fostered Pokémon who weren't Dragon-types," remarked Lillie, her eyes wide and brows raised in mild shock. She found the Emolga's appearance to be adorable, but as it was an Electric-type, her Poképhobia triggered, causing her to tense and half turn away with her hand to her chest.
"I might be a Dragon Master, but I have a deep appreciation for Pokémon of all Typings. Not to mention that Emmy here is really incredible. In fact, she hasn't lost a single battle," Iris revealed, scratching her Emolga under its chin.
"Emi. Emiroo~" chimed Emmy, raising her chin with a distinctly smug look adorning her face.
"Now is my time to shine...!"
Emerging from Jason's bag, causing Iris's brows to rise to their limits, Rotom circled her as he explained, "Emolga, the Sky Squirrel Pokémon. Emolga is an Electric and Flying-Type. It stores up electricity to glide on invisible currents in the air. During their seasonal migration, Emolga glide along the front of thunderclouds, leading some cultures to regard them as heralds of the Legendary, Electric-Type Pokémon, Zapdos."
"Is this your Rotom phone, Jason? It sure is spirited..." Iris remarked, her surprise relaxing into a broad smile.
Before Jason could respond, Iris reached into the V-shaped slit in the front of her flowing, kimono-esque gown and produced a Rotom phone of her own. Jason's Rotom noticed this, its eyes lighting up before it rushed forward to eagerly exchange contact information with its sleepy-looking, white-and-pink counterpart.
"Nice~" Iris hummed to herself. Then, glancing at Jason, she adopted a smug look and asserted, "You should feel grateful. Hundreds of Trainers try asking me for my number each year, but I refuse each and every one of them. You're suuuuper lucky you're from another world."
"I feel luckier to have come to this one," Jason countered, catching Iris a little off guard. Instead of asking what he meant, however, she spread her arms and struck a dynamic pose, shouting, "Alright, that's enough stalling! Bring out your Pokémon!"
"Emaya~!" appended Emmy, flexing its tiny arms and puffing its chest on the back of Iris's left hand.
"Understood," Jason affirmed, pulling Ren's Poké Ball from the interior of his shirt. Then, with considerably less flair, he presented the ball with his right hand and said, "Come on out, Ren."
pshaa
As her Poké Ball opened atop Jason's hand, Ren appeared in a kneeling posture between him, Lillie, and Iris. She could tell from the confines of her Poké Ball that Iris had been trying to flaunt in front of Jason, so with hazy, bluish-white energy rising from her body like a haze, she rose to her feet and raised her left fist, clenching it tightly as she met Iris's surprised gaze and said, "Ren will win..." with gleaming, crimson eyes.
...
..
.