Make way for the second update!
Update #2: Nile x Cleffy, Tepig x Darwin, Staraptor x Tori, Gremlin x Froslass.
~ Meteor Mashed! ~
Nile and Cleffy were walking in the Crag Area. They had popped out of the poster portal in the Power Zone and appeared there. Unlike Hypno and Snivy, Nile and Cleffy didn't have any fixed destinations so they found themselves simply wandering around.
"Why did you participate in the Meteor Mash-up, Cleffy?" Nile asked.
Cleffy didn't know what to say. Nile may have asked that out of simple curiosity, but Cleffy couldn't help but wonder if it was because he'd noticed how nervous she was, and was wondering why she'd signed up if she wasn't that type of person who was eager to meet new people.
So, yeah. When she told Roselio she was participating to meet new people when they first came to Wish Park was a big lie. Truthfully, Cleffy was like Darwin - she was actually hoping to get paired up with a certain someone.
But of course she couldn't say that to Nile, or she might hurt his feelings.
"Uh, I just thought it w-would be f-fun," Cleffy said, immediately feeling bad for lying. "Besides, all m-my teammates all are for the idea and are p-participating."
Another lie. Treecko wasn't exactly "all for the idea".
Nile smiled. "Yeah, that's why I participated, too," he said, ignoring the silence that had ensued before Cleffy answered. Cleffy could actually believe him, because Nile really did seem like one of those who were enthusiastic when it comes to meeting people he'd never seen before.
Cleffy sighed. Compared to Nile, she was hopeless at this.
Eventually they wandered into the caves that led out of the Crag Area.
"It's r-really h-h-hot here," Cleffy stammered. She was right; the caves were humid and, to make it worse, treacherous because the pathways were made of rock surrounded by lava pools.
"I w-wonder why no one ever thought of c-covering them up," Cleffy went on as she stared cautiously at the pools of steaming red liquid. "Th-they are d-d-dangerous!"
"Maybe people thought they were beautiful and would make a good tourist attraction," Nile said.
"Th-the only tourists who would go h-here are t-tourists who aren't s-scared of getting f-fried," Cleffy said sarcastically. She had no intention whatsoever to joke, but Nile laughed at her sarcasm. The sound was soothing that Cleffy found herself chuckling too, albeit still rather shyly.
"Anyway," Nile said, "be careful of the wild Pokémon here. I think they're rather cranky." He was referring to the group of Swoobat living in the cave. Although most of them were hanging upside down and clinging to the rocky ceiling, some could be seen flying. They screeched at any Pokémon who got too near.
"O-oh, g-great."
Nile turned to her. "Want to go back?"
Cleffy paused. She did want to go back, but she didn't want to seem like a total loser. Besides, there wasn't anything to do in the Crag Area anyway except for the Battle Tournament (and Cleffy was even more loath to participate in that) so they really needed to go out of the Crag Area. Unfortunately, the only way out was through this cave.
"N-no, I'm fine," Cleffy said quickly.
"OK, if you say so." Nile was now climbing up a set of stone stairs, then extended a hand to help Cleffy up. She took it and climbed up the stairs, only daring to look at the ground since she could practically feel her cheeks heating up.
The plateau they were now on was even bumpier than the one below. It was practically littered with stones and small rocks.
That was when disaster struck, for it was one of these rocks that clumsy Cleffy tripped over...
...And almost crashed into a group of Swoobat eating berries on the ground.
The surprised Swoobat immediately took to the skies with a series of indignant shrieks, and the next second they were flapping their big leathery wings and heading straight for her!
Yikes! If Lopunny was fangirling earlier, she's now cowering with fear. She has once accidentally angered a Swoobat in that very cave, and she doesn't hesitate to say that it was an experience she wouldn't like to go through again.
Ignoring that fact, though, Pairing 6: Nile x Cleffy is going... well...? But of course it would be much, much better if Cleffy could get over her shyness, and her disappointment of not getting paired up with that certain someone!
(Who is that certain someone, anyway? Well, Lopunny doesn't seem to know that either, sorry. ^^")
Anyway... Cleffy's a rescue team Pokémon, supposedly used to a life of danger and risks. So she should be able to handle herself in front of an angry group of Swoobat.
...Right?
Now we look at the so far most disastrous pairing in this Meteor Mash-up! We had left off where Tepig called Darwin by the name Darwynette, which, as you can imagine, totally annoyed our Roserade. After that, Darwin had huffed and stormed away, leaving Tepig stupefied as to what he had done wrong. After all, he didn't know that Darwin didn't like to be called Darwynette, so it wasn't really his fault. Poor Tepig.
Now, he was watching open-mouthed at the vanishing figure of Darwin.
The next second, he was chasing after her.
Great. The person I'm supposed to spend time with hates me.
"Darwin! Wait up!" he called. "Please wait. I'm sorry. I didn't know you didn't like to be called by your real name!"
Darwin finally stopped so abruptly that Tepig almost crashed into her. She turned around, and the fire pig saw that her face was still as bitter as a stormy night.
"Darwynette sounds like the name of some French queen in my history book who got beheaded, OK?" she repeated what she'd earlier said to Altaria. "That's why I don't like that name and whoever calls me by that name." As an afterthought she added, "Except for Hypno."
"Well, I'm really sorry," Tepig said breathlessly. "I didn't know."
"Yeah. Don't worry, I forgive you," Darwin replied coolly. "It must be because that little brother of mine has never told you anything, right?" She turned and started to walk away.
Tepig blinked. "Wait! Where are you going?"
Darwin turned around a few paces away.
"I'm going to look for Hypno," she said. Then she turned and began to walk away again.
Tepig simply stared at her, dejected. He'd completely failed. Even Oshawott had gotten to a nicer start than him, and Oshawott was more often than not annoying.
"I'm sorry," he called again.
"Don't worry. I forgive you. It isn't your fault," Darwin called back. But she didn't come back.
Tepig was unsure whether or not to follow her. Even if he wasn't good at things like this, he did know that girls didn't like to be followed and bugged whenever they were upset. It was probably better to leave her alone.
He actually couldn't understand her. He'd only called her by the wrong name, for Arceus' sake. He thought she was rather overreacting.
...Or maybe there was something about this Hypno guy?
Maybe Darwin had actually hoped to get paired up with Hypno? That would explain why she was already so disappointed in the first place. Then to make things worse, he'd called her by the wrong name. It was a whopping combo that annoyed Darwin.
In the end, he simply called, "Please come back when you feel better. I'd love to start over."
"Yeah. I'll come back later," Darwin replied unconvincingly.
And that was how he found himself taking over the part of Lombre.
Sitting alone on the bench in front of Chandelure's grand tent, unsure and waiting.
Aah! Lopunny feels positively heartbroken. Things have taken a more dramatic but disastrous turn for Pairing 9: Tepig x Darwin. Poor innocent Tepig doesn't know what hit him, and he just can't win. As for Darwin, she's an ambitious (or is that over-ambitious?) Roserade shooting for the moon (aka. Hypno), and she is not about to settle down with landing among the stars.
Hmm, I wonder how this dramatic love story will go?
However, despite everything, Lopunny still can't help acting like a reality show host.
"Is Darwin overreacting?
Will she come back to Tepig, and will they start over?
Or will Tepig be left waiting the whole time in this painful uncertainty?
Stay tuned on Wish Park FM, everyone!"
Darwynette de la Verde had had enough. Yet another one who called her by her real name. How did that happen? Especially when Tepig was one of Roselio's friends. She was surprised her brother never said anything about that to Tepig.
What happened to written in the stars, anyway? Why had she ended up with Tepig Pokabu instead of with Hypno? She didn't understand. Well, however, she'd soon fix that. She was going to find Hypno and make sure that grass snake hasn't done anything disastrous to her boyfriend.
Darwin was storming angrily out of the Dance Zone when she got slapped in the face with physics formulas.
...
A few minutes before Darwin took a load of physics formulas to the face, Staraptor and Tori had been flying above the Dance Zone. It had been a relatively smooth fly. However, Tori had been clutching both Staraptor's feathers and her book. She had to admit that she was scared at first since she very seldom goes flying.
However, after she had gathered enough courage to try and look down, she discovered how magical and enjoyable flying was. She could see the whole of the circus-themed Dance Zone below, decorated with twinkling multicolored lights and patterned tents, the biggest, of course, belonging to Chandelure. In the distance, she could see the dojos of the Power Zone, the futuristic neon lights of the Flight Zone, and buildings made to look like sweet treats in the Cake Zone. Her paranoid fingers finally loosened on Staraptor's feathers. Staraptor himself smiled because he could feel Tori's fear melting away.
But now, it was time to try something else.
"Ready to go a bit faster?" he asked.
"Uh... I don't know..." Tori demurred.
"Don't worry, it'll be a breeze," Staraptor assured her, and without waiting for her answer, he suddenly accelerated. Unfortunately for Tori, what Staraptor meant by "a bit" was actually quite a lot.
"Wh-whoaaaaa!" Tori cried, practically making herself flat against Staraptor's back.
"Isn't this awesome?" Staraptor called over the whistling of the wind. "Don't you just love fast-flying? Next we're going to try something even better: aerial acrobatics! The first thing we're going to do is a loop-the-loop!"
"A loop-the-loop?" Tori cried out. She hoped her glasses wouldn't fall off.
"Hang on tight!" Staraptor exclaimed, and he suddenly did a high-speed 360 degree loop in mid-air. Tori felt her stomach get flipped before it was normal again in a split second.
Well. Maybe "normal" isn't the right word, either, because the next moment Staraptor saw something that made him frown deeply.
"Errm, Tori, would you explain to me why I just saw a bunch of relativity formulas float past...?"
"It's my book!" Tori cried, struggling to be heard over the wind. "You see, it's technically not a book; it's still a manuscript."
Staraptor's eyes widened. "...No."
"Yes. So it hasn't been published yet, and I've only tied them together with a cord..."
"No."
"Yes. The pages sort of... You know... Got scattered."
Staraptor groaned. "Hold on!"
He did a sudden drop, going after the page from Tori's manuscript. Tori was back to clutching his feathers tightly, her white skirt fluttering. When Staraptor finally got to the particular page, he grabbed it with his talons.
"Got it!"
"Great," Tori said breathlessly. "Now we've only got thirteen pages left to catch."
"What?!"
"Yeah," Tori replied shortly. "Approximately, I've missed thirteen pages from my manuscript..."
Her statement was proven right when another page floated right past Staraptor's line of vision, this time containing formulas on static electricity.
Ah. There's nothing like going fast-flying and getting a load of Physics formulas to the face. Staraptor and Tori are going to have to zip around quickly if they hope to recover all of the lost pages, though. And, of course, there's one page that flew right into Darwin's face, and Staraptor and Tori need to hurry and get it before the grumpy Roserade decides to throw it away, or, even worse, to use it as a tissue to blow her nose into.
Or something.
Anyway, Lopunny rather likes Pairing 4: Staraptor x Tori. It's a high-flying but innocent pair that inadvertently gets into trouble. This pairing is also going quite well, Lopunny is delighted to say!
Meanwhile, Froslass and Gremlin were silent because both of them were thinking about what to do and say next.
Gremlin thought of going into Chandelure's tent to watch the Dance Inferno, but then wondered if Froslass would like it. She didn't seem to be the type who liked to move much; maybe she liked dancing even less. Or maybe she liked to watch dancing even though she didn't like to actually dance? Was that even possible?
The only thing Gremlin knew was no, no more jokes.
Froslass, on the other hand, considered visiting Reuniclus' lab in PokéPark, then quickly dismissed the thought. Visiting the lab? What are you, Froslass? A nerd? Gremlin is not going to enjoy visiting labs. No, he is not that type at all. Then what should they do?
The only thing Froslass knew was that Gremlin liked jokes.
Aha! Jokes!
She cleared her throat. "Ahem. Gremlin, I know you like jokes."
Oh no, Gremlin groaned inwardly, but didn't show any obvious signs of reluctance to talk about jokes again. He was just glad someone had decided to start a conversation. They really were in need of something to break the awkward silence, and if Froslass was going to talk about jokes again, he was just going to have to play along.
He only laughed uncertainly. "Yeah, I do like jokes."
"That is very well, since I happen to have a few of my own. May I ask for permission to recite them?"
"Of course!" Gremlin exclaimed. "And no need to be so formal, Froslass. With me you can crack as many jokes as you want!" Another uncertain laugh.
"Very well, here I go." Froslass paused. "OK, so two chemists walk into a bar."
"OK." Gremlin nodded as if he was totally following her, although he'd had a bad feeling about where this joke was going. Two chemists? This was not a good sign.
"The first chemist says, 'I'd like some H2O, please'."
"Uh-uh." Gremlin tried to look as interested as he could, though his heart had sunk even lower. What kind of Pokémon would go into a bar and ask for some H2O?
Froslass went on, "And the second chemist says, 'I'd like some H2O too."
"OK, and then?"
Froslass smiled. "The second chemist dies!" She burst out laughing (daintily).
Gremlin was speechless for a few seconds. Then he recovered and forced himself to laugh. He knew that nothing was more embarrassing than cracking a (seemingly) really funny joke and no one laughed, and if there was anything Gremlin hated, it was upsetting other people.
"Uh... Hahahahahahah! That was... funny! Hahahaha!"
OK, yeah. He was fully acting. He actually didn't understand Froslass' joke at all. And he had to admit that he was horrified by the punchline. What kind of joke ended with "the second chemist dies"?
Froslass seemed happy with his response and she smiled sweetly. "Ah, I am glad you understand my joke," she said. "I am glad we are on the same wavelength. I told Roselio and Staraptor this exact same joke, and they did not understand it. They did not know that 'H2O too' is a pun for 'H2O2', which is a substance with dangerous effects towards our body. That is why H2O2 naturally goes through metabolism in our liver, broken into water and oxygen, which have no negative effects on our body at all. So, by saying 'I'd like some H2O too', the second chemist is mistaken to be asking for H2O2, and he died upon consuming it."
Then she stopped herself. "Oh, I am sorry. It seems as if I have been rambling."
"No, it's OK." Gremlin still tried to sound upbeat. Yikes, Froslass' jokes were so scientific that she had to explain them at the end.
"Anyway, I am glad you like chemistry jokes," Froslass went on enthusiastically, "since I happen to have another one."
Gremlin smiled weakly. "OK, shoot."
"I heard Oxygen and Potassium went dating."
"Huh?" Gremlin blinked.
"Uh... You are supposed to ask how it went," Froslass gave him a hint.
"Oh, so how did it go?" Gremlin played along.
"It went OK!" Froslass laughed again.
This time Gremlin didn't even have the strength to pretend he was laughing. This joke was even more absurd than the former.
Froslass stopped laughing. "I apologize; do you not understand it?"
"Uh..." Gremlin didn't know whether to pretend he did or just tell the truth. In the end, he decided on the latter.
"Sorry... No."
"Oh, forgive me since I was so forward as to enjoy that little joke alone." Froslass regained her cool composure. "Umm, so oxygen in the periodic table of the elements is written as O, right?"
"Uh... Right?"
"And potassium is better known as K. Put them together and what do you get? OK."
"Oh." Gremlin laughed weakly. "Right. I understand now."
"I apologize," Froslass said again.
"No, there really isn't anything to apologize for," the Sableye said quickly. "I just wish my knowledge on science was as impressive as yours, Froslass."
A tiny hint of pink crept onto her cheeks. If you hadn't been paying attention, you would have missed it. "Why, thank you, Gremlin," she said.
Then both she and the Sableye fell silent again, racking their brains and wondering what else they could do, what else they could talk about. Gremlin still had the Dance Inferno in his mind, whereas Froslass was trying to push away thoughts of the lab.
But although they were silent, the Sableye was shuffling his feet shyly, and if you looked pretty closely, you could even see that the pink blush still lingered on the Ice-type's pale cheeks.
Lopunny has to admit that even she didn't understand Froslass' jokes earlier. Then again, she wasn't a Pokémon of science, she was a Pokémon of showbiz.
...But Lopunny also has something else in mind. Isn't is cute how both Gremlin and Froslass are silent because they're thinking about what the other would like or not like to do? :-3
Or, like Darwin, maybe Lopunny's only overracting?
But if so, what's with the long blush, dear Froslass?