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Margarita's nose scrunched up in reaction to Elspeth's question about speaking with the lake, fairly certain that the shadow lugia was being entirely serious, "It didn't talk to me at all. I don't think water likes grimers, since we have a tendency to pollute it..." She looked almost sad about it, but shrugged it off, "Or I'm not magical enough. Maybe the water just likes you? What sort of things does it say? Does it know when there's bad weather? Does it know what Joe Shmoe is cooking for dinner? Does it even know who Joe Shmoe is, because I don't?" She was quite curious to know if the water really was all-knowing or not. She was also rather interested to know what it felt like to have two strange pokémon swimming across its face. Did it tickle?

The girl, trying to tread water as she tried to figure out Elspeth's erratic swimming pattern, kept her violet eyes on her acquaintance's red-on-red ones. Her head cocked to the side at the explanation, almost causing her to tip over, "So I'm little because I don't know as much as you?" That was weird... and in a strange way, made some sense. So it had nothing to do with height or age, just... mental capacity. Strangely enough, she didn't take the remark as a diss despite figuring out the mechanics, but instead took it as Elspeth being partially psychic, "Ooh, what do I need, then?" The grimer would have bounced eagerly in place had her feet been firmly planted on anything even remotely solid.

The violet child stuck her tongue out at the large legendary currently razzing her, finding her demeaning to be rather amusing. If only she could make a comeback, but she tended to get too derailed in her mind's tracks to form anything coherent... or even remember why she was saying something in the first place. She attempted it, but all that emerged from her mouth was a, "Ever try to cannonball in from really high up?" A tsunami in a lake seemed ridiculously funny to her and... wait, what was Elspeth talking about again. Blast it, she needed to pay attention! The lazy circles that Elspeth was making around Margarita's small form weren't helping her concentrate, but she hopped immediately back to wanting to poke that smokey hide of the lugia's. Just when Margarita thought she had the opportunity to cut the pokémon off in her swim path, though, Elspeth changed direction for a swift cut across the lake. "Hey! You cheated again!" she yelped once she had begun moving into the dark pokémon's established track; the grimer had less foundation to stand on with this second label of 'cheater,' however. She started chasing after the large aerial-type, but she wasn't the best -- or strongest -- of swimmers. No, she tended to just float on the water before.

That gave her an idea! Grimers were known for being able to change their body density, but Margarita was unsure she could still do it as a child. Holding her breath, she attempted it anyway, as though she could just skate on the surface of the water. It wasn't turning out quite like that, and although she still appeared lighter than the average child her age in the middle of a lake, she still couldn't move as freely on the surface of the water. She was moving better and faster than before, sure, but not as much as she had hoped to. Huffing, she exclaimed, "Like a feather! A stinkin' soaked feather!" With a sigh, defeated, she continued trying to dog-paddle after her dark-skinned friend.

Eyes lighting up, Margarita turned them toward the blackness of the nighttime water around her, seeing if she could decipher the same things from the fluid. No go. Contemplating on the matter for a few more seconds, she seemed to flounder a bit in the water when comprehension hit her. "Ohhh oh oh, I get it! It's like how Paprika is to me! Nobody else seems to hear her!" she exclaimed gleefully, thinking she had hit the nail on the head. It didn't occur to her that, perhaps, the water wasn't literally speaking vocally to Elspeth as much as it was conveying with the way it operated and moved. No, the grimer was thinking much too literally. However, it seemed she wasn't going to get a straight answer unless she was able to catch the quick-moving pokémon, so made it her mission to capture the live one. Well... make it her mission again.

As she struggled with the water, deeper than she was used to and equipped with still-alien limbs, she huffed in exertion. It started making the girl sound aggravated when, in actuality, she was quite intrigued by the idea, if a bit confounded. "I trust the world! Who said I didn--" she stated before cutting herself off. Margarita had stated it, when they first met... she hadn't trusted Elspeth at all, from the sounds of it. She giggled, "Aww, I was just goofing! I didn't mean anything by it. Did... did I hurt your feelings?" Maybe she had gone too far with her accusations, and in turn made Elspeth not trust Margarita. But the raven lugia seemed eager enough to teach her the ways in which she worked... The grimer girl smirked with a laugh, "Heeey, you're goofing, too!"

Margarita's arms were getting a bit tired with all the dog-paddling through the liquid by the time Elspeth opposed the grimer's verdict of the pokémon being a cheater. "But you're fast, and I've only got twigs... gimme an oar or something!" she complained. Glancing up, she realized that Elspeth was no longer in her line of sight, and her forward momentum stopped abruptly. She peered skyward, thinking that the lugia had perhaps taken back to the skies, but was met with no solution. Spinning in a slow circle, she surveyed the rest of the surface of the lake, but again came up empty. With a pout, she called, "Where'd you go? You didn't actually melt on me, did you?" Was it a delayed reaction?

Margarita attempted to take Elspeth's advice on how to think about the statements at hand. She thought about what the camouflaged lugia had said before, thought about how she had thought it meant, tried to rethink it in a different manner... and then her squishy brain found it's way into a solid wall. What did she mean? How could she think simpler? There... was something more simple? Her mouth twisted in confusion, feeling that that brick wall she hit at high speed was a bit uncomfortable so she pulled back. "I dunno if I'm smart enough to get it. It's either that, or you're just weird, Spethy! Hehe, or maybe it's both!" she exclaimed, though it felt like she was talking to herself. She heard Elspeth, but she sure didn't see the large pokémon!

"Woah, woah!" the lavender-haired child cried when the bubbles reached her. At first, her skin was crawling, trying to determine what the heck just happened. Peering down as though her eyes could cut through the pitch darkness of the nighttime water, the answer crawled slowly into her mind. "Aha, so you're nearby, are you? Well... how can I tag you if I can't reach you?" she asked, waving a hand under the surface of the water, "I dunno how to swim, so I can't go down there!"

She missed the fact that Elspeth was already two steps ahead of her, and didn't catch the glow of her red eyes in the dark as they rose to the surface. Fingertips grazed the dark hide of her acquaintance, and she cackled in success as Elspeth affirmed Margarita's suspicions. "Hey, who knew you were right?" the child giggled, grin growing immensely broad. She flailed a bit at the return poke, but that was enough to careen her into laughter, "Hee hee! N-no, you're not melted at aaall!" As her laughter subsided, the grimer realized that she had misplaced something that was possibly important. Glancing up to meet the lugia's eyes, she gaped, "I... forgot what I was going to ask you once I caught you..." Nevertheless, she was still grinning.

Margarita thought of Elspeth's jab, glancing upward as though she could see her own forehead. To compensate for the matter when the grimer found that she couldn't, she poked at it instead. "Well... no, that couldn't be it. I used to live in the sewers, and I think the water there would have been worse. This water's not doing a--!" she started before abruptly cutting herself off. She blinked, then gazed up to her friend, "You think the sewer water did that and I never even noticed before?" She pouted, appearing as though she had been struck with a severe case of consternation, "A-Am I brain damaged?"

Blinking at the poke, Margarita's attention seemed to split and again change focus, no longer worried. She gasped in awe, "Spethy! Does that mean you'd wanna teach me?" The violet child seemed to make a squealing sound, but her mouth was closed. Kicking her feet, she nodded her head vigorously, "Okay, I like that idea!" As she began on her first lap, she huffed with the strain, explaining, "Somebody called this 'doggy-paddling,' and I'm not sure what that means... but they said it wasn't real swimming." She was asking for pointers in a very roundabout way.

The night's air was getting chillier as time wore on, and Margarita was slowly changing up her swimming style, adapting the skills as ideas came to mind. Some were... less than buoyant, and she found herself flailing a lot in a futile attempt to move forward, but she was progressing -- at least at a snail's pace. She tried to laugh as Elspeth joked around, but it came in slight gasps between strokes, "No, not your fault at all! It must not have been all that important if I didn't remember." More than anything, she was trying to convince herself of that. "Stories are fun! They are usually more interesting than real life!" Margarita insisted, "Have you ever heard any fairy tales? Or read them yourself?"

Margarita stared at Elspeth for a moment, almost as though she didn't understand a word that was coming out of the corroded lugia's maw. After a moment, however, she burst into laughter, "Ohhh, you were joking! I never heard that one before! At least I don't think so..." she stated thoughtfully between giggles, "At least not in the way you said it!" She was smiling again, very broad and almost idiotically blissful. "Hehe, thank you! I think you're perfect the way you are, too!" she chirped; seemed a good time to return the sentiment.

The waterlogged grimer tried to glance back at her feet, as though viewing them as they waved about the water would command them to do her bidding better. She caught some water up her nose at the effort, though, and sputtered as she turned her eyes forward again, "L-Like this?" She was trying to swim like a frog now, but it seemed she had slowed her momentum instead. Maybe if she pulled her arms more to the side instead of beneath her? Worth a shot...

Her breathing was still strained, as though she were wrestling for something large and heavy. Nevertheless, her eyes were sparkling under the cringe of her expression, "Aww, tell me one story before I hop out? Maybe I'll get the swimming part down by the time you finish!" She was being a very stubborn child now, as though trying to convince a parent to let her stay up a little longer before bedtime.

As she bobbed in the water, buoyant as a duck with a punctured lung, she attempted to spit her tongue out at Elspeth in retaliation for her needing to wait still for her brain to fully grasp the depths of what the pokémon was on about. Unfortunately, before doing that she bobbed a little too far, so thought better of it lest she bite the offending muscle instead. Margarita could wait, so it was all for the best.

Attempting at a sigh, the lavender child blew bubbles along the surface of the lake instead, ceasing the awkward movements of her limbs. Scrambling for the side of the shore, she huffed a, "Awwww, fiiiiine, fine." She liked stories, though! "But you'd better promise to tell me later! You're not getting off the hook that easily!" she lectured as she found ground to heave herself out of the water with. Her eyes gleamed as Elspeth went on with her persuasion, and before she knew it, Margarita's eyes were glittering with curiosity renewed, "Vampire? Oooh, you know any stories about them? Maybe Paprika and I could be on the lookout for some of those as well!" She was almost bouncing again.

That is, until she gave a great big yawn; she was more tired than she thought she was! The adrenaline that had kicked in while powering through the weightless night water seemed to have dissolved off of her person as soon as her body came into contact with the air. "Okay... I'm not saying you are, but maybe you were right about it being kinda late. Maybe," she admitted between yawns, "I will go home if you promise to tell me a story the next time I see you." And if Elspeth refused, Margarita could just... fall asleep here? Her reasoning was not very well thought out, despite it sounding fool-proof to the girl.

Margarita hummed a response, but it was indecipherable what it really meant one way or the other. In fact, it was hard to determine if she was even actually paying attention to the sentence, or if she was merely giving an automated response as she yawned again. In fact, it almost seemed as though Elspeth had hit the nail on the head, for Margarita's attempt at walking came with a shuffle and a stumble, almost as though she were the walking undead. She shuffled up to Elspeth and attempted to hug the giant shadow-colored lugia, but her arms didn't even reach halfway around the large bird-like water type. "Okay-kay, Spethy, I'll be good," she promised sleepily with a grin. Her grip was released before the darkness-infused lugia took to the air, the pressure of it knocking her to the ground. Of course, the grimer thought that was hilarious, and giggled in reaction to it -- and the poke -- from on the ground, "See you later!"

Rolling herself up again, she noted that Elspeth's take-off also worked to wake her up a bit, enough to make it back to her campsite without passing out along the way. Locating Paprika from where she had perched to watch the action unfold, Margarita scooped up the salt shaker and dashed off, careful of her footing along the rocky ledges that lifted the lake skyward. "She wasn't a witch, Paprika," the grimer said with a smile. The smile, however, quickly evaporated into a frown as she rebuked an unheard accusation, "Auh! I so too was swimming better!"