A faint twinge ran through Roisin's shoulder, the tired Staraptor stifling a yawn while gently rolling the joint in an effort to alleviate the lingering soreness from the night before. Staying overnight in the Pokémon center certainly hadn't been the plan for any of the trio, but after the late-night ambush and unplanned brawl in their hostel room, she had really needed some attending to. Even Skye had helped channel some of her own energy into healing up the big bird, despite being in a pretty rough state herself, her hearing only returning to normal as they had arrived at the train station in the center of Jubilife.
"Still not quite back to 100 percent?" asked Skye, sat in one of the seats opposite. The three of them had managed to claim themselves a vacant quartet of seats aboard the packed train to Oreburgh, two pairs facing one another, stowing their bags on the shelves up above and each taking a seat, awaiting departure.
Roisin tilted her head a little, staring out at the now empty platform just outside the window. "Nearly. Just wish I'd slept better."
"You could try and get some more rest while you're here," Skye suggested. "We'll wake you up once we arrive."
"Nah, it's not worth it," the Staraptor explained with a shake of her head. "One, the journey's not that long, and two," she continued, jabbing a thumb toward the Gligar sat between her and the wall, "I've gotta keep an eye on this one."
"What have I done??" Diane incredulously blurted out.
"If you hadn't gotten involved with that gang," Roisin told her with a trademark scowl, "I wouldn't have had to spend the night in the Pokémon center, would I?" Folding her arms, she settled back in her aisle seat, trying to act as a muscular wall between her little gremlin companion and the rest of the train carriage. "You're staying there until we're in Oreburgh."
Almost on cue, the train gently sprung to life, slowly making its way out of the station and beginning its journey onwards. "At least I get the view," Diane retorted, sticking out her tongue.
As the station gave way to the rest of the Jubilife streetline, concrete and glass moving past in all manner of patters, the Lanturn spoke up. "Hey, did you not say there was someone else coming along with us?" she asked Roisin.
The Staraptor sat a bit more upright at Skye's unexpected question. "Oh! The one Rocky told me about, yeah," she reminded herself. "I guess they must have missed the train or something-"
"Hey."
Roisin turned toward the voice alongside her, and had to stop herself from letting out a curse of astonishment at the sight. Standing there was what looked to be a Camerupt, judging by her vivid orange colouring and two volcanic vents jutting out from her shoulder blades. Scarlet bangs covered her eyes with the rest of her hair loosely tied up in a high ponytail, with a simple white tanktop and denim shorts all the clothing she seemed to need, with a mostly white holdall slung over one shoulder and a can of soda in the other hand.
But what had truly startled Roisin about this girl was the sheer SIZE of her. That white tanktop was noticeably stretched out against her heavy breasts, held together by a gold clasp of some kind, a large, soft belly hung over the waistband of her undersized shorts, and thighs like tree trunks were bulging out of the leg holes. The fact she was wearing running shoes as well just made the whole ensemble look even more absurd on her overblown figure.
"Are you Roisin?" the Camerupt asked, in a notably husky-sounding voice.
"...yeah, I am..." Roisin replied, still in shock at the new arrival. "Are you Laurie?"
The big girl only gave a small nod in confirmation, taking a gulp of her soda before casually dumping her bag on the floor among the group, and moving her way toward the remaining vacant seat alongside Skye. "'Scuse me."
The Lanturn hastily scooted over to the far edge of her seat as much as possible, trying to heed their warning, but that wasn't nearly enough. Laurie was far too big to fit into a single seat. As the Camerupt dropped herself down, Skye suddenly found herself pushed up against the window, with half of the huge newcomer spilling into her lap, leaving barely a sliver of space for her.
Roisin and Diane could only watch in bewilderment as Laurie instantly took up both seats opposite them, carelessly flattening their companion. "Uh...?" the Staraptor piped up, pointing toward the struggling Skye.
The Camerupt glanced over at the Lanturn wedged between herself and the window, as though only noticing her for the first time. "Oh, sorry," said Laurie, though without making any attempt to remedy the situation.
Skye tried to squirm around as best she could, seeking any kind of respite, but the huge Fire-type was just taking up far too much space. "Could you...mmf...maybe shift over a little, please?" she asked, slightly muffled as her face pushed up against the glass.
"The Camerupt glanced over in the other direction, peering down toward where the edge of the seat met the aisle. "Nah, there's no room," she stated matter-of-factly.
The Lanturn gave a faint whimper, almost as if she were a children's squeak toy having the air slowly forced out of her. The Gligar was as expressionless as she could be, sitting calmly in her seat, only a small smile betraying any semblance of emotion. And the Staraptor was left staring, scowling and slack-jawed at the display from the Camerupt that had only just joined them.
It was Roisin that chose to break the tension. "So, you're..." she began, having to pause at how ludicrous using this sentence to describe Laurie sounded in her head. "...you're the fighter from Hoenn that Rocky signed up, right?"
Laurie gulped down another mouthful of soda. "Yeah."
"What's Hoenn like?" Diane asked her, leaning forward a little. "I've never been there."
"S'alright," the Camerupt shrugged.
Diane blinked. "...just 'alright'?" she pressed.
"Yeah," Laurie reiterated. "Too much water."
Roisin's usual scowl returned to her face as she folded her arms again. "You don't talk much, do you?"
"Never had to." Laurie said.
The rest of the journey passed by in mostly awkward silence, broken up only by Roisin and Diane's attempts to start conversation with the new girl, Laurie's short, closed responses to them, and Skye's intermittent squeaks as she fought for what little space she could get. The cityscape of Jubilife gave way to rolling fields passing the window, morphing into rocky, hilly terrain as the train briefly slowed, and then more rugged-looking buildings began to fill up the landscape. Finally, after what felt like much longer than it probably was, the train finally pulled up to a gentle stop at a brickwork station, and announced the arrival at Oreburgh City.
Roisin gestured for Laurie to disembark, but the Camerupt instead elected to wait until the rest of the passengers had passed by, claiming she didn't want anyone to get in the way. That earned her an incredulous roll of the eyed from the Staraptor, and it took another few moments for Laurie to be satisfied that the the aisle was clear enough. Pushing herself back to her feet with a soft grunt, the fat Fire-type finally released Skye from her confinement, awkwardly bending over to grab her bag from the floor before exiting the train, the rest of the group quickly following in tow.
As the small crowd wove their way around the foursome, the original trio took a second to breathe - literally, in Skye's case - after the unexpected surprise of their super-sized guest. "So do you know where you're going, then?" Roisin asked of said guest.
"Uh-huh," came Laurie's reply, as her chubby fingers tapped a couple of buttons on her wristwatch, the screen flickering to life as she brought up some kind of map display.
Another awkward moment of silence fell between them. "...well, that's Diane, " Roisin continued, pointing to the Gligar alongside her as she introduced them all, "and the one you were sitting on the whole time, she's Skye."
The two each offered their own hello, as the Camerupt acknowledged them collectively with a simple nod. "Hey," was her greeting once more. "Sorry about that," she added, taking another hefty swig of soda.
Roisin, Skye and Diane each exchanged baffled looks with one another, all equally uncertain as to how to deal with the big girl. Either she was completely oblivious to most of the world around her, or she just didn't care at all. Roisin gave a huff, unsure of which was the worse of the two. "...well, see you at the tourney, I guess," Roisin concluded roughly.
The Camerupt gave a small huff of her own as she finished off the soda can. "'Kay, see you then," she replied, with a half-hearted wave of a hand, before moving past the group and walking away.
"Oh, Arceus," the Staraptor couldn't help blurting out in annoyance as she watched Laurie making her way along the platform toward the exit of the station. Those shorts had looked pretty inadequate on her beforehand, but seeing her from behind revealed that they were only covering up half of the Camerupt's vast backside at best. "...that's who I've been paired up with?" Roisin asked to nobody in particular, as the fat Fire-type waddled down the stairs and out of the station.
"Pffft, hahahahaha!" Without warning, Diane erupted into peals of laughter as soon as Laurie had disappeared from view. "Oh my GOD, she's a freaking Wailord!" she wheezed, grabbing Roisin's vest to keep from collapsing on the ground. "How the heck is she a fighter?! Only thing that fatass is fighting's gravity!"
"Diane, shut the hell up!" Roisin barked, in no mood for her companion's antics. Swatting the guffawing Gligar away, she then turned her attention to the still-recovering Lanturn. "You okay now, Skye?" she asked. "You're looking a bit red."
Skye rubbed the back of her neck, stretching herself back out a little. "Yeah," the Lanturn nodded, "just...she was really hot."
Roisin paused for a second, cocking an eyebrow. "Hot?"
"Ooh, I didn't have you pegged as a chubby chaser, Skye!" Diane chimed in, with the biggest grin plastered over her face.
"Wh-NO! No no no!" Skye frantically tried to correct as her face turned even more red. "I meant temperature hot! Not like...nngh!" She clutched at her esca as words failed her, pulling it down to hide behind against such scandalous suggestions.
"Hey, don't worry about it!" the smirking Diane continued, jabbing a teasing claw gently into the side of the Lanturn. "It's not a bad thing, you like what you like!"
"Oh, give it a rest," Roisin snapped at the Gligar, slinging her backpack over one shoulder, and striding off toward the exit herself. "C'mon, let's go find where we're staying." she called back to the other two, as the trio made their way into the streets of Oreburgh City.
