~ Meteor Mashed! ~
...
By the time Oshawott had spotted Lizzy the Flaaffy, he'd had his "cool" act ready.
He strolled in front of her, pretending to not see her. Of course it was Lizzy who "saw" him first.
"U-uh, hello over there," she called, hurrying over to him. "Um, y-you're Oshawott, aren't you?"
Oshawott finally stopped and acted as if he'd just seen her. "Oh, hi. Yes, I'm Oshawott. Are you Lizzy?"
The Flaaffy nodded.
"Well then, I guess I'm going to have to spend time with you," Oshawott went on in an oh-so-you're-the-lucky-one voice. There was a wide smile on his face.
Lizzy just nodded again. She seemed to not know what to say. She only kept her hands shoved deep in her fleece.
Oshawott's smile sort of disappeared and he simply stared at her. What a quiet Pokémon, he thought.
"D'you know where you want to go?" he asked. "D'you have any idea what we should do?"
"Uh... I don't know. Up to you," Lizzy said awkwardly.
Oshawott put on his detective face. "Hrumm, let's see. Ah, let's go to the Beach Cove!" he exclaimed, snapping his fingers detective-style. "Area Keeper Samurott's going to love meeting you. Of course, he always loves meeting whoever I bring there since I'm his assistant, see."
He paused and cleared his throat coolly. "That is, if you want to go to the Beach Cove. A good gentleman always asks the ladies if they're willing to go somewhere; they don't decide everything for themselves, you know," he said, his smooth operator act coming back.
Lizzy nodded yet again, an awkward smile coming to her face. "OK, that sounds nice," she said softly.
And that was how they left for the Beach Cove, with Oshawott chattering about how Lizzy was going to see how good he was at beach soccer. Like Lombre, Oshawott unfortunately wasn't that modest either.
Pairing 3: Oshawott x Lizzy seems to be going moderately well, Lopunny would have thought. After she rolled her eyes at Oshawott's antics, of course.
As Gremlin Ombre the Sableye weaved his way between the many Pokémon standing in front of Chandelure's tent, his mind was filled with thoughts.
Froslass Yukimenoko, he thought. A scientist. Huh, she must be some kind of smart. No, she has to be really brainy. All scientists are brainy.
Gremlin couldn't help but feel nervous. What if she doesn't enjoy talking with me? I know next to nothing about science.
What was the other thing Lopunny mentioned? She was a believer of rationality? That was another thing about Froslass Yukimenoko that was the exact opposite of him. Gremlin was not a believer in rationality. He just liked to joke around.
She must also be really serious, he thought. She must be that kind of person who calculates her chances of getting paired up with a certain someone before participating in the Meteor Mash-up. She'd probably say that it was only a one-tenth of a chance. And she'd say it without her face expression changing one bit.
Yet another different thing between them.
Now Gremlin was positively nervous. He was all about making people happy - that was what laughter was for, right? - but this time he wasn't sure of himself at all.
That was how he crashed into a full-on snowstorm.
It was something freezing cold, and he crashed hard into it, too - he was left staggering back and shaking his bumped head.
It was only when the stars had cleared that he finally saw what he'd crashed into.
Or rather, who.
A snow-white Pokémon was hovering in front of him. She had cold pale blue eyes and delicate snow crystals decorating her head. She had long trailing sleeves like that of a kimono, and they were white with pale blue patterns on it. She wore a red ribbon around her slim waist. Although her face was pretty, it showed no trace of emotion at all.
Enter Froslass Yukimenoko, scientist and a believer in rationality.
She was a little bent down since she was taller than he. The pale blue eyes were staring at him, and Gremlin detected the tiniest hint of sympathy in it.
"Are you all right?" she asked, her voice smooth. "Please forgive me; I was not watching where I was going."
Gremlin quickly brushed it off with a laugh. "No, no, no! Please don't apologize! It was my fault!"
Froslass Yukimenoko didn't help him up, so Gremlin jumped up by himself, still chuckling. "Uhh, anyway, the name's Gremlin Ombre!" He smiled the sunniest smile a Sableye could manage.
"My name is just Froslass," she replied with a tiny nod. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Gremlin grinned at her. "Nice to meet you too, Just Froslass!" he said.
There was silence for a few awkward seconds.
"I am afraid you misunderstand," Froslass finally said, her cheeks getting tinged pink. "My name is Froslass. Just Froslass. Froslass Yukimenoko. I was meaning to say I do not have a nickname. I did not mean my name was actually 'Just Froslass'..."
"I knew that. I was... Joking." The Sableye gave a few feeble chuckles. Oops, I think I'm failing fast, he thought. I should have known that scientists don't understand jokes.
However, he thought he saw something else. Gremlin may be mistaken, but he thought he detected the tiniest traces of laugh lines appearing on Froslass' face.
"Of course you were," she said with a tiny, unfathomable smile.
It was only a tiny single smile, but to Gremlin's hopeful relief, it might just be a start.
Pairing 7: Gremlin x Froslass; two Pokémon as different as ebony and ivory. However, is it illogical of Lopunny to think that this pairing might actually end up somewhere?
Braixen Ter Una was wondering why she was here. If she wasn't mistaken, her participating in the Meteor Mash-up wasn't her idea in the first place. Maybe one of her friends pushed her to do it? Hmm. She didn't remember that happening. Or maybe she'd inadvertently signed up only to forget it later? That doesn't sound right, either. Although she admitted herself that she was most of the time naïve and childish, she wasn't that forgetful, either.
Well. Whatever had happened, she was here now, and there was nothing she could do about it.
She was surprised by a voice.
"Heya! I guess you're Braixen Ter Una?"
Braixen quickly turned around and saw a Grass-type Pokémon with a mushroom-shaped cap on his head. He was bouncing on the spot. He seemed like a really hyper Pokémon, which rather intimidated Braixen. She'd been hoping to get a quieter Pokémon.
"Yes, I am, but just call me Braixen," Braixen said. "And you're...?"
"I'm Breloom. Breloom Kinogassa, nice to meet ya." He stuck out one of his stretchy arms. Braixen shook it.
Then the Fire-type spoke again. "Random subject change; was it your idea to participate in the Meteor Mash-up?"
"Huh? Well, not really." Breloom shrugged. "At first this was my friends Lombre's and Cleffy's idea. But then I sort of agreed, since it's not so bad to meet new people and stuff, ya know?"
"Hmm," Braixen said shortly.
"What's wrong? Did ya not participate because ya wanted to?"
"That's just the problem," Braixen said. "These events aren't actually my thing, really. I don't even remember how I ended up here anyway."
"Huh." Breloom didn't seem to know what to say.
"Sorry, that was random." Braixen shook her head. "So, what do you want to do now?"
"Dunno. Up to you, I guess. What d'you wanna do?"
"Uh..." Braixen racked her brains. Looking at Chandelure's grand tent gave her an idea. "Um, how about participating in Chandelure's Dance Inferno?"
"What?" Breloom's bouncing intensified. "I ain't gonna dance! I'll do anything, anything but dance."
Braixen pouted - she did admit she was rather childish - and said, "Well, you did say 'up to you'..."
"Basically, 'up to you' as long as it doesn't involve dancing." Breloom frowned as he thought. Not so long after, his face brightened. "Hey, wanna play Haxorus' Power Bash?"
"Power Bash?" Braixen pouted even more. "But that's so rowdy!"
"Well, then, wanna play Sigilyph's Flight of Fancy?"
Flight of Fancy? Braixen had never played Flight of Fancy, but the name appalled to her. It sounded way more girl-ish than Power Bash.
"OK," she agreed.
As soon as she said that, Breloom burst out laughing.
"I was only joking," he chuckled. "I can't fly. And neither can you. Remember?"
Huh. Braixen sometimes really hated her naïve trait. She could never know when someone was kidding and when they were being serious. She pouted again, and fortunately, Breloom seemed to take the hint.
"Sorry, sorry. Uh. How about Cofagrigus' Cake Contraption, then?"
"No!" Braixen sounded horrified. "I don't like cake. It makes me fat!"
Breloom smirked as if he was thinking something around the lines of "girls will be girls". "Well then, what shall we do?"
Braixen pouted, then finally sighed. "Ugh, OK, we'll play your Power Bash."
"Really? You'll really do it?"
"Yeah. As long as you don't pull tricks on me again."
"It's a deal!" The Mushroom Pokémon's bouncing got even more enthusiastic, if that was possible.
"Come on!" He suddenly grabbed her hand and started bouncing to the exit of the Dance Zone with her in tow.
"Whoa, wait!" Braixen cried, stumbling after him. "Gaah, you're messing up my fur! Breloom! Slow down!"
"Sorry!" he called back, and he did slow down.
A little bit.
Lopunny shakes her head with a smile as she watches Pairing 1: Breloom x Braixen bounce out of the Dance Zone. Good luck, dear Braixen, she thinks. And for Arceus' sake - slow down, Breloom!
Hypno and Snivy were by now walking in the direction of the Arbor Area in PokéPark. Like Nile and Cleffy, they were going to go somewhere quieter.
They were talking about Snivy's days being a princess.
"I wonder how it feels to be royalty," Hypno mused, fingering his pendulum.
"Trust me, it sucks," Snivy said matter-of-factly. "I'd rather go on adventures than stay put doing nothing except watching everyone do their daily jobs."
Hypno turned to her. "But you do go on adventures, do you?"
"Well, fortunately, yeah," Snivy replied. "Luckily my mother still lets me do stuff with Oshawott and Tepig, and sometimes Timburr of the Tech Area. Otherwise, it'd be a nightmare."
"I understand."
"Speaking of adventures, we had a really big one some time ago," Snivy went on haughtily. "It had to do with Darkrai and this very Wish Park."
"Really? Darkrai, the legendary Pokémon of darkness?" Hypno's interest was piqued.
"Yeah. The tough legendary Pokémon of darkness." Snivy couldn't help herself.
Hypno's eyes widened. He seemed really interested in Snivy's tale.
"Tell me more," he said, staring at the victorious grass snake.
Well. It's a good thing Darwin didn't see Hypno's interaction with Snivy, or she would totally have freaked out at Hypno's obvious interest in Snivy's adventures. Pairing 10: Hypno x Snivy is moving forward... And the grass snake is in the lead.
Author's Note: And that's the kick-start of every pairing! (That is, except Pairing 8: Rem x Lombre, but that's because I've got "other ideas" for it, so please bear with me! I'll keep the goods coming! ^^) I also hope I've gotten the submitted characters right...
Also, I know that you don't need to be able to fly to play Flight of Fancy, but let's just... pretend you do.
Hmm. I wonder what Darwin's going to do about that current situation, indeed.
Stay tuned on Wish Park FM, everyone!
