Scene #9065: Star¤Twinkle PikCure Final ~ Goodbye, Multiverse!

Owner	Pose
Merelisa Shaynore	Today's finally the day! Yuma is reuinited, the Nottraiders have been repelled-- the Precures assure you that there's only three of those evil generals-- and the yellow pikmin onion is safely ensconced in a cave built into a cliff near Castle Polaris, one that Hikaru had asked Echolalia to help make so that the cave-in aftershocks wouldn't crush where it was originally. Everything's resolved, so all that's left to do is see the girls off. With Yuma around again, the Elites have the convenience of actually using her powers, rather than hopping through the lingering wormhole from a hundred feet in the air. A pinprick of a glittering star appears in thin air, then spins faster and faster until it expands into a flat portal streaking with stellar speed lines on the inside, which links up to the warpgate network to allow the Elites to step out comfortably onto the ground, right nearby the castle. Yuma herself swoops around them as they come out, cheerful midi-tones with the jellylike fluid light pattern on her head bending and bubbling in upturned curiosity and friendliness, intuitable despite the odd, alien expression. "¯¯¯---_--! -¯¯¯¯¯¯_-_--_--¯--____! -¯-¯-¯-_¯-¯¯¯____!" The adorable spaceship is on its makeshift landing pad outside the twigs-and-grass castle, and Hikaru and Lala are doing some last minute cleaning before setting out. Hikaru's hair is down for once, being held back by a bandana in absence of the pigtails, and she's got a big cleaning apron that's already grass-stained while she hauls a bag of accumulated trash out of the heart-shaped porthole. Lala's in her typical bolero and skirt, but held between her antennae is some sort of cube gizmo, that she's using to zap the bags of trash as Hikaru drops them on the landing pad, causing them to disintegrate completely into fine dust. Some of their leftover food is getting joyously carted off by yellow and red pikmin towards their closeby onions. Hikaru seems to have made dozens of extra onigiri with all the rice Hisako brought, something that both Lala and the pikmin are delighting in, and among the ant-like troupes are fresh made donuts with star patterns punched in the holes. There's not much time before Hikaru and Lala are back to their regular lives... so what does that actually look like, for them? Hikaru tosses a bag of crumpled paper out of the ship for Lala to disintegrate, and pokes at her cheek with a tired chuckle. "Ueheh... it feels like forever since I've been at school. I don't know if it'll be nice or annoying to go back." "Lun. I'll have to get back to searching for more stellar notes, too. But this was a really fun adventure, lun; I wonder how much more of the universe there is to explore if somewhere like this wasn't in AI's database at all...?" "Uncertain, Miss Lala. Yuma's warp can travel astronomically farther distances than current hyperspace technology, and so the practical boundaries of the universe can't account for her." "So we have all sorts of totally new places to explore~ twincool~!" BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4AO-V9NGbs&
Corona Arclite	It is a nice, comfortable change of pace to be able to step through a portal and onto solid ground on the other side without all the impromptu HALO jumping to get down from the wormhole. Corona even gives Yuma a brief thumbs up as the small entity zips around her, then wanders over to see how the duo is doing. Cleaning is what they're doing, it seems. Corona can't help but chuckle a bit. "Looks like the ship picked up it's fair share of stray debris while planet side." A bag gets zapped into nothing. So it's like when she tosses some into the furnace, but faster. Granted, her incinerator also helps generate power, so it can't really be instant. Works how it works and that's all that really matters. >"Uncertain, Miss Lala. Yuma's warp can travel astronomically farther distances than current hyperspace technology, and so the practical boundaries of the universe can't account for her." >"So we have all sorts of totally new places to explore~ twincool~!" "Yeah, that sounds 'bout rawht girls." Corona pauses to adjust the brim of her hat. "After all, ain't part of the adventure is not known what's out there? Otherwise no point in going beyond what ya a'ready know. The potential oppritunities are literally," she tilts her head back to look up at the sky and beyond. "Astronomical."
Futaba Nuki	With the trio finally reunited, Futaba finds there's not a single bit of tension left in her body while she's here at Castle Polaris. She's still looking like her usual self rather than being transformed into a pikmin or something, but she does look a little blobbier than usual. It's like... No, she's definitely shorter and wider than usual, like she's not putting all of her effort into being fully her-sized or something. It's a good thing that Yuma's there to make the entry easier, then, as she just sort of slides forward instead of walking normally to approach the girls at their spaceship. "Yoooo, Hikaru! Lala! Makin' sure you packed everything? Your gadgets, your gizmos, any weird gigantic stuff you wanna bring back as a souvenir?" Raising a stubby arm to wave at the two, Futaba looks up and over at Yuma shortly afterwards with a curious tilt of her head. "Wouldn't happen happen to have a translator in that ship of yours, huh? Although..." She taps a finger to her chin, grinning all the while. "Ah, you seem pretty happy to be back either way. Nothin' wrong with vibing your way through all those new adventures you'll all be on soon enough." She lets out a hearty belly laugh, then squats in place with her arms draped over her knees. "So! Where ya thinkin' of settin' off to first? Somewhere breezy? Cold? Hot? Big city outside of wherever your homes are?"
Combaticon	The three Combaticons arrive as a group once again; Depthcharge and Vortex appearing from Yuma's portal first with the much larger Brawl coming through after them. She rises to her full height after ducking through, rotating her cannons back up to their resting upward-pointed position. Each one has a different reaction to Yuma's cheerful, curious inspection. "Well hello there, little Star," Brawl greets the star drop directly, reaching out in an effort to pat Yuma gently on the head with a fingertip, "Looks like you settled in right away with your friends." That same hand raises, fingers spread out in a wave to Hikaru and Lala as she gets her massive chassis out of the way. Depthcharge follows Yuma with her eyes, as denoted by the white 'pupil' lights in a sea of glowing red, "So this is the Star Drop." A hand rests on her hip, "I will not bother asking if you would consent to be analyzed. Surely you have had enough of that." Her eyes flit to Brawl before she separates from the group, "So instead I will verify the shipboard systems are ready to go. AI, if you would." "This has to be one of the cutest organics I've ever seen," Vortex is quite enamored with Yuma, meanwhile. The rotor wings on her back click and then spread out into a cross formation, spinning up so that she can float about with the Star Drop while it flies and flits around, "Yuma, you said? Call me Vortex!" "Getting ready to go, huh?" Brawl rests her hands on her hips, leaning back a bit to meet Hikaru's face with her own gaze, "I'm sure the pikmin will be alright, you gave them a neat little castle and everything." > "So we have all sorts of totally new places to explore~ twincool~!" Vortex pauses in her playing with Yuma to glance down, "Feel free to drop by Cybertron sometime, ok?"
Hiromi	There being nothing more to overcome for the sake of the two PreCures could be a reason for Hisako to continue her training journey elsewhere, but she at least had to come by to check that that was the case. It's a little easier this time, with less falling through the air and leaping from tree branches and massive trunks to towering grass. That ease ends up leaving her uncertain, and having to check around to be sure she ended up in the right place. "Oh, you cooked the rice! It's good to have extra, isn't it?" Having no familiarity with the place Hikaru came from, she doesn't know how much (or how little) they'll have to bring back to be safe until the next harvest, but she (optimistically) assumes they have it handled. No one would just waste food. She spends a little while walking around and seeing the construction efforts that are being left behind, and wondering, "Will they keep using that fort...?" And, perhaps, more importantly, "We never saw whoever left those, um, giant devices. Giants... might still be out there." Apart from the giant animals they've already seen. 'Ueheh... it feels like forever since I've been at school.' "Hikaru, you're in a school? What's it like?"
Echolalia	Echolalia was thrilled to get to help. She hasn't done some real landshaping in AGES and she make sure that the cave isn't just durable, but prettied up with local flora and glowing moss sticking to the cavern walls. She just couldn't help herself and she wanted it to look NICE. Yuma is just so sweet, too, and it's pleasant to see them all reunited. It's nice. She feels like she's done a good deed. They beat back all three evil generals. Not Lady Mujinko, but maybe that's an adventure for another time. Echolalia is all smiles and she feels like stress she didn't even know she had has melted away into nothing. ''It feels like forever since I've been at school. I don't know if it'll be nice or annoying to go back.'' "It can be nice and annoying," Echolalia says. "All I know is the universe is super duper big and I hope we get to meet up again sometime. You two are some of the twincoolest people I've ever gotten to meet. Not Black Holeriffic at all," She is surprised by Hisako! "You never went to school, Hisako? I had no idea!" Well they did just meet for the first time during THIS adventure.
Hiromi	'I had no idea!' "Oh..." Hisako needs a minute to figure out how to react to this. "Do I seem like I did...? Is that strange?"
Natsuki Nuki	LAST TIME... The battle between Pikmin and Nottraider, a proxy for a conflict, comes to a slapfighting and jump striking end as Natsuki's sprawling gang of pepper punks follow her to safety from poison gas in the shadow of the Futab-air purifier, a baby duck line of dazed wanderers following chirps and whistles home. Natsuki dumps out oversized gorilla arms of cargo and takes a quick count as her little warriors tumble over and trip on the last steps to safety, satisfied there had been no dramatic losses. "Mmn." Drops the voice of the sheltering older sister, turning back to look at Tenjou as the others get the best of the big dweevil and the gang of soldiers. The ones that Tenjou seemed to protect, spend carefully, rely on directly. "I'm sure we'll see each other around!" Is all Natsuki offers with Tenjou's retreat already decided, before reaching over to give a sharp smack to the side of her sister-turned-appliance with monkey palm. "And don't explain for me. I'm not doing this to... understand you better. Or work anything out. I just came here to get you." The tiger-eared woman's flattened orange ears flick as she looks away, and her tail gazes up with an 'are-we-really-doing-this' reptilian distaste to its glare. "... And got distracted on the way." --- The return, after a day to clean up and rest and for the girls to rearrange themselves, is unexpectedly much easier, such that Natsuki arrives in a highly condensed cloud of dark mist. Wrapped like a whole storm failed to drop and spread across the sky and instead was simply miserable in highly concentrated place around her, the bad weather rests rolling down off front and sides and waking about legs in capethick masses that don't deplete, which might look pleasantly forboding if she was some greyscale silent classic movie style of girl -- but she is not, wearing a half jacket over side tied white graffiti tee, fingerless gloves, a black skirt with a purple perimeter stripe, dark leggings, and loosely-tied heavy boots. Wicking and scraping clingy cloudstuff from her and shooing it backwards and away from the orbiting Yuma, Natsuki sighs at her puppydog of a stormfront and heads towards the castle, moseying up to take in the final state. Certainly, she hadn't found anything to keep or sell, yet, but she had been so distracted it didn't seem relevant, and now... "You're not taking the Pikmin with you?" Natsuki asks, as just the tones of her voice makes several of her local goons pop out and perk up from their castle tasks to hover and stare quietly. "After all that, fighting your battles across a whole new planet, you're just... going to go back to school?" Natsuki continues, a kind of scoffing wonder at Hikaru's head. Having expressed enough 'no! not that!!' towards Futaba, now, her slightly grating 'really?' might have that gentled context of an actual question asked honestly. On the side, though... Natsuki doesn't stick around her short-and-softcore little sister, instead angling towards Hisako. "By the way, priestess," Her voice dips lower. "Nice work with the papers you slung that Tenjou. The Arch-wolf's students are a step ahead, hmm? Maybe I'll have to keep an eye - or two - on you..."
Lilian Rook	Lilian believes Lala and Hikaru, but the idea of there only being three Dark Generals bothers her. There's always supposed to be four. Sets of four are how things work. There's even four Blooms of-- "Hmm." Lilian says to absolutely nobody. She stares at the horizon with an expression saying that she found something very unpleasant, then deliberately put it out of mind. It's easy. Yuma is such a critter that Lilian is utterly engrossed. One of the vanishingly few people who've seen how she acts around small animals and young children would be able to differentiate that it seems to be the latter fawning fondness, despite Yuma's ostensible nature as a Creature. She loosely follows her around in her cavorting and gamboling, talking to her in a particularly strange way for how decidedly pictoglyphic Yuma's vocabulary is, at one point fondly saying "You know, you remind me a lot of someone very special that I know~" Otherwise, she's mostly putting herself to sporadic volunteering with small tasks that might help the two move out, leaving the bulk of the work to girls with teenaged levels of energy, and admiring Lala's ability to dispose of trash to the point it takes her measurable effort not to comment on an extra bodypart as if it's something enviably convenient. 'Ueheh... it feels like forever since I've been at school. I don't know if it'll be nice or annoying to go back.' Lilian stops dead. In wide-eyed horror, something only just occurs to her. "Oh my god your parents must be worried sick. Aren't your teachers just going to think you were skipping? Will you really be alright? They won't expel you, will they?" 'Lun. I'll have to get back to searching for more stellar notes, too. But this was a really fun adventure, lun' "It was . . ." Lilian admits with a tiny note of reluctance. "Though I had more than enough worries, I feel very fortunate that I was able to meet you both when you needed it. To the point that . . ." Lilian trails off, seems to look within herself, then firm up on something. She goes through her bag, and hands over the simplest Multiverse-ready communicator she could find, with her contact imprint already loaded. "I'd hate for this to be the last time we ever spoke."
Echolalia	Do I seem like I did...? Is that strange?'' "Well, yeah, I guess you kinda seemed that way. Though I guess if you live at like a temple dojo, that can kinda double as a school anywho."
Sarracenia	For Sarra, It is a bit of a bittersweet thing for Hikaru and Lala to have been reunited with Yuma. While it is obviously a good thing the princess is going to be sad to see them go. When she emerges from the portal and is greeted by Yuma the princess smiles cheerfully and gives the odd but cute creature a pat on the jelly head. "It is good to see you safe, Yuma. I am quite glad those ruffians did not escape with you. I am Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom. I am happy I was able to help you!" 'Ueheh... it feels like forever since I've been at school. I don't know if it'll be nice or annoying to go back.' "What is it like to go to school? I never attended an actual school." Sarra asks Hikaru and Lala. 'So we have all sorts of totally new places to explore~ twincool~!' "We reached you and we are not even from your universe! The amount of adventure to be had is limitless!" Sarra says, sharing in Hikaru's excitement. "But...do be careful out there. Perhaps keep our multiverse in Yuma's dimensional phone if you run into trouble like this again." So, they are cleaning? Sarra mmphs softly in annoyance. She does not -clean- things, after all. Usually the opposite, in fact. But, she helps out where she can anyway. Sarra also greets the others when she sees them. And once things are mostly cleaned up...Sarra starts unpacking things from her purse. A few small folding tables, some bowls and spoons, and finally...5 gallons of ice cream! She brought her favorite of course. 2 gallons of Vanilla Rainbow Bob-omb ice cream! But, she also brought the more standard flavors of vanilla and chocolate. She sets them out then beams a happy smile. "Since this may be the last time we see you, I thought it proper to have a bit of a goodbye celebration! I brought you girls some of my favorite treats for the road! ...the...flight?" Sarra shrugs then reaches into her purse to pull out more stuff. A few cases of grapefruit soda. Various ice cream toppings and syrups. And, since you can't eat -only- ice cream forever she has had various mushroom dishes prepared as well. There is probably some poor piranha plant cook in her purse or something! Fried mushrooms, pasta with mushroom marinara, chicken and mushroom soup. Once everything is set out Sarra smiles proudly. "Please! Enjoy, everyone!" She might have gone a bit overboard. She offers an apologetic smile to the Decepticons. "I am sorry, but I could not find anything made of energon to bring."
Hiromi	'Nice work with the papers you slung that Tenjou.' "Thank you!" Hisako responds to praise instinctively, only processing what it was about after a delay. Did she use any ofuda on Tenjou? It was on the not-spider, wasn't it? For Tenjou, she only -- ohhh, right. Those papers. "I think you're much more impressive, Ms. Natsuki." The 'miss' was gone for a while while they were mid-adventure, but now it's back again. "You even kept all of the little ones safe." 'Though I guess if you live at like a temple dojo, that can kinda double as a school anywho.' "Is it like that? I thought they were different, but..." She has, clearly, no idea. 'They won't expel you, will they?' Hisako looks toward Lilian with alarm. "They could be expelled?"
Merelisa Shaynore	To all the unfamiliar Decepticons, Yuma is endlessly curious about their funny shapes and the way they talk. With her face in a slowly rotating rounded cross-shape, she descends to the ground to totter around Depthcharge's legs, poking at joint articulations with her long head-tendrils while chirping musically. "_--¯? ¯¯¯¯--. ¯¯¯---¯--!" Hikaru looks up from where she's kneeled pulling a taquito wrapper out from under the spaceship, when Futaba asks about a translator. "Oh!! Yuma is our translator. Before she gave us some magic, Lala and I weren't able to understand each other, but now we can talk with anyone on any planet!" She points at Yuma and giggles, while the Star Drop waddles beside Futaba in a mimicry of her melty form. "That means she likes you!" Hikaru stands up and brushes off dirt, ambling over to lean on Lala's shoulder comfortably. "Heyyyy, Lalaaaa? Is there anything we want as a souvenir?" "Oyo? Well, I hadn't thought about it, lun. . . oh!!! I have an idea, lun! What if we took a picture with everyone instead of just us?" "That's starvelous! And we can have the pikmin in it too!" "This has to be one of the cutest organics I've ever seen," "Actually,!" Hikaru skids into frame with the pure and honest joy of getting to infodump at someone who made an innocent misunderstanding. "Stars are primarily made out of hydrogen and helium, at about a 9 to 1 ratio! But what most people don't know, is that the fusion process keeps going after helium, continuing all the way to iron if the star's big enough, and then without the outwards pressure of active fusion in its core, gravity causes the outer layers of the star to collapse inwards and then BOUNCE off that iron and explode in a supernova! And that's where Yuma came from!" "You know, you remind me a lot of someone very special that I know~" Yuma swoops around Lilian's head with all the excitable vertical motion in her loops as she can muster, then drifts to a stop at roughly equal eye-height to her. The light-patterns on her face bubble apart into several variably-sized circles, circling around each other at different speeds, in a way that somehow clearly conveys a sense of intelligent curiosity. "_--¯¯? ----¯-." Trilling question-tone, followed by some indeterminate observation-statement. "We never saw whoever left those, um, giant devices. Giants... might still be out there." "That's true... I never got to meet a giant...." That's what Hikaru's worried about, rather than any potential threat from them. Lala's a bit more practically minded, but still more curious than anything. "Lun, I've thought about it too, but without any data on the history of the planet, I don't know.... Maybe all the people were just normal sized and built big things because of how big the forest is, lun?" "Will they keep using that fort...?" "You're not taking the Pikmin with you?" Lala and Hikaru share a look, and then Lala taps her deelybopper to one of the yellow pikmin's heads, where the electric current makes both glow faintly. She rubs it gently, like petting an animal. "... Lun. This is their home, lun. And aliens aren't allowed on Earth. I look human enough if I hide my antennae, lun, but the pikmin.... So we'll set them up as well as we can before leaving, as thanks for being our friends, lun. With the castle and the food."
Merelisa Shaynore	"Hikaru, you're in a school? What's it like?" "What is it like to go to school? I never attended an actual school." "Right?? Isn't it so cool, lun?!" Lala might have misinterpreted Hisako's question somewhat, but she's bouncing, excited with her antennae zig-zagging and sparking, glad to find someone else who Gets it. Gushing to Sarra too, as part of the no-school-trio, "She tells me all sorts of stories about what goes on there, lun, and I barely get it at all. How do they learn things so fast, lun? And there's so many interesting people there? School is amazing, lun." "After all that, fighting your battles across a whole new planet, you're just... going to go back to school?" "Aren't your teachers just going to think you were skipping? Will you really be alright? They won't expel you, will they?" Hikaru rubs the back of her head with an embarrassed -w- face and an awkward giggle. "I hope not, eheh... I've been doing my online classes with AI's camera that's meant for talking between ships. Director Abraham helps some, because as far as my mom and grandparents know, I'm doing an internship for one of his movies; and as far as my school knows, I'm just sick. So I hope they didn't talk to each other much, eheh...." "My family shouldn't be that worried, though. My mom's always busy, so I mostly take care of myself even when I'm there." "Since this may be the last time we see you, I thought it proper to have a bit of a goodbye celebration!" "Soda!!" Hikaru scoops up a grapefuit soda and takes a long sip of it, with a stereotypical Japanese-businessman-after-work 'hahhhh' of relief. She wipes her forehead with her arm, tuckered out by the work but still energized to do more. "Ever since Lala's been on Earth, she's gotten a bit of a sweet tooth, ehehe." "H-hey, lun...." "All I know is the universe is super duper big and I hope we get to meet up again sometime." "Feel free to drop by Cybertron sometime, ok?" "I'd hate for this to be the last time we ever spoke." "O-oyo...? Everyone, lun...?" Lala's eyes start to get shiny with tears as she accept all the well-wishes and Lilian's communicator. She holds it to her chest with both hands, like she's hugging it, and squeezes her eyes closed, shivery with emotion. "Th-thank you, lun! You're all so kind..." Hikaru bows beside her, bandana almost slipping off her head. "We're both so grateful to have met you! You all really helped us out a lot, and all our adventures were super twincool, so we'll definitely see you again!" Yuma comes over to investigate the communicator too, perching on Lala's back to lean over her shoulders. The oscilloscope waves of light across her face might be for listening, or processing the communicator with whatever cosmic senses she has.
Corona Arclite	When Sarracenia starts pulling out foodstuff Corona's tail flicks. "Oh, before Ah forget." She reaches down to open one of the larger pouches of her dual belts and rummages a bit in it, eventually pulling out a few sealed packets. Which she offers over to Lala and Hikaru. "Brought ya some homemade jerky and fruit chips for snackin' on. Kinda a tradition for long trips where Ah come from. They're dried and seasoned to keep for a really long time without spoilin'," she explains on the off chance the girls don't know what jerky is "... and will help offset all the sweets." Then grabs a can of soda for herself, and gives a tip of a nod to Sarracenia. "Mighty thoughtful of ya, Princess." Soda wasn't her typical, ahem, type of drink... but with the girls still present she'll politely stick to the child safe drinks for the time being.
Combaticon	When Depthcharge finds a small Creature waddling around her legs, she comes to a halt and raises her arms to either side, glowering down, "What is it? I do not want to step on you. Go on, go." So she might have something of a Cat Lady aura by virtue of not actively seeking out interaction with Creatures, thus creating an aura of letting Creatures interact with her on their own terms. "Why?" is all she manages under scientific Creature prodding. Vortex gets the whole lesson on star formation and fusion from Hikaru, pausing in the air to listen with a little tilt of her head. About halfway through, she swivels her gaze to Yuma, now off inspecting someone else. By the end, she speaks up, "I know she's called a Star Drop but I didn't think-- It doesn't matter." She heads that thought off at the pass, eyes flickering off with a shrug, "Adorable." Vortex descends. Once she lands and her rotors spin down, they rearrange into twin V-shaped fans down her back. "Do I detect an opportunity?" sounds from Yuma's helpful portal. Immediately, Brawl whirls around. There's a clash of metal meeting metal just as Swindle starts emerging-- Brawl's fist knocks him right back through in a spray of sparks. She turns back around, rubbing tan paint off her knuckles, "Nothing to see here." She teeters back a bit, then falls down on her backside with a small rumble, bracing her body with one arm while the other rests on an upraised knee, "Feels good to power down for a while and take in the sights, even if it's also a farewell party." There's much hullabaloo about proper education, to which the bot shrugs, "Does it really matter if you miss it? I turned out fine."
Futaba Nuki	"After all that, fighting your battles across a whole new planet, you're just... going to go back to school?" That gets Futaba's head to swivel right at Natsuki, followed by the steady creeping of a wide grin across her face. "Whoa, Natsuki... Are you taking after me now? That sounds like somethin' I should be asking." She comments with another belly laugh, then a brief groan before settling for a more subdued, but still utterly amused snickering. "Oh my god your parents must be worried sick. Aren't your teachers just going to think you were skipping?" And just as easily as Futaba's head swiveled towards Natsuki earlier, so too does it swivel to Lilian next. "That's why they should bring back some souvenirs from here! Then they can do one of those show and tells, maybe get some extra credit and... Uh." She has no idea how actual schools work. "Yuma is our translator." "That means she likes you!" "No kiddin'? Dang, that's a neat skill you got there, Yuma! Bet that'd make coming up with all sorts of puns way easier." Futaba observes, chuckling lightly like she's realized the true evil that could be unleashed on the world if Yuma's just pushed the right way. The waddling gets a laugh from Futaba, and she reshapes her own head to look something like Yuma's own headshape (complete with a blocky heart shape instead of a face). "Good to hear... heh. Haven't known ya for long, but I'll be countin' on you all to take care of each other, alright? If you're taking a picture.. Heck, let's get plenty of 'em for everyone! Group shots, solos, the works." She extends her arm waaaaay out to demonstrate how she could easily handle a wide group shot, too. "Only got my phone, but I could take 'em with everyone's if y'all don't have a problem with me getting my grubby mitts everywhere." There's another pause, though, as Futaba slides a hand into her pouch. She rummages around a bit, then takes out a leaf that looks similar to her own (complete with the little holes) and places it gently on Yuma's forehead(?). "There we go... If you ever drop by Sotenbori, I'll see if I can't teach ya how to shrink and enlarge with one of these. How's that sound?"
Rita Ma	Getting a Good Grade in Precuring didn't give Rita quite the warm fuzzy glow she'd hoped it would. Instead it's a tangled mess in her gut. Joy blends with tension blends with guilt. Rita knows the trajectory of pretending and unearned kinship. She knows its arc has always been 'down'. When she comes through the portal in her usual clothes, her eyes are distant and posture droopy. Her fingers fidget with the folds of her skirt. She's had a few days to think. That Tenjou fight was cutting it too close. Other people- or Yumas- or pikmin- could've gotten hurt. Coming clean would be the selfless thing to do. It'd be... "-¯-¯-¯-_¯-¯¯¯____!" Three seconds after coming through the portal, all sad thoughts vanish from Rita'sCure Glow's head. "Yuma!! It's so good to see you again! Are you feeling alright? Lala and Hikaru have been spoiling you like they should, right? Oh, that must have been so scary..." She holds an arm out in yearning-reaching, almost like she was considering scratch-petting the side of Yuma's face, but her fingers falter just an inch away. "What if we took a picture with everyone instead of just us?" "A-- a picture? Is that what you usually do?" Cure Glow says to Lala. Guilt slams up her throat and is swallowed back down. She looks to Lilian for salvatation instinctively, almost like she did about the scan, but then pulls her eyes back to Lala. She can be brave. It's Rita's last chance to dispose of Cure Glow without any lasting evidence. Softened by Yuma, she can't take the shot. "That... sounds wonderful. I had a lot of fun with our little adventure," Cure Glow says. She puts on a little 'elegant upperclassman' with that hands-clasped head-bowing, and then flashes Lilian a beaming smile about the communicator. "I want to remember it forever, and have lots and lots more, okay? Oh, one second!" Cure Glow steps away for a moment, rummages in her leather messenger-bag, pulls out a scrap of paper, and scribbles a number on it using the spaceship's hull like a desk. While she does, she glances over at Natsuki: "Does it bother you a little, leaving the pikmin alone? We could try to set them up even better, if you want." --and then heel-pivots, to press the contact number into Hikaru's palm atop the communicator. "There! If you're having Precure problems, or just want someone to talk to, I promise I'll be there." (Rita feels a brief shock of impostor syndrome about whether she can give magical girls emotional advice, realizes that she definitely can, and feels troubled for them.)
Echolalia	"Well they are ''different'' but it doesn't mean they don' do some of the same things. Like... squares and rectangles." Echolalia reasons to Hisako. She startles a little at 'starvelous' and says, uneasily, "Aha... that kind of sounded like something else to me for a second..." She manages. "But I get it. Star-velous. What about... Staradical? That's a good one too right?" Yuma is the translator? That's kind of fascinating, actually, especially since Yuma largely speaks in noises. So cute. ''Actually...! A Science lesson from Hikaru!'' "Wow, you sure know a lot abou tspace, Hikaru. Are you thinking of becoming an Astronomer some day?" She could go on a similar rant about PLANTS but the pikmin were kind of new to her so it was just an adventure for her too! "Aww don't worry, Hikaru. You're going to definitely meet a giant one day. I mean, I'm pretty big myself..! Though I'm not a giant. And I never went big here--" She seems a little saddened by that but she couldn't exactly help but be more concerned wth getting to know actual factual magical girls! FUN FACT: Hronn doesn't have actual factual magical girls! "Well you can always come back to visit the pikmin." She suggests. ''You all really helped us out a lot.'' "Oh heck yeah...! It'll be so lunariffic to meet up again!" She beams.
Natsuki Nuki	"Ah, a humble one." Natsuki observes, contentedly affirmative. "Your master raises thoughtful disciples," She praises back, winking open a red eye quarter-lidded to gaze towards the wolf priestess. "Arms clasped at small of back and tail swaying into gap and wake alternating, Natsuki shifts from one shoulder of Hisako's flank to the other, a quick trot across and grinning in the side-swap afterwards. "You were paying close attention, weren't you? To me. It's quite flattering - feel free to keep doing so." She ''teases'', urges with a suggesting and directed bit of attention. "I kept them all through that last battle, but I've lost a few of my little pepper-brothers across the planet. Just like you were paying attention to me, I was paying attention to them - and the little ones have it hard enough here. They need a big, scary protector to help them in this sort of world." "Without one..." Even a fortress might not do. Was this fate? Or just the prelude to failure? Was this nature? Well... It's not like anyone could stop Natsuki from coming back here, even if people were trying to hang on to the Precures. "Well - we're both interested in cultivating particular futures. I'm happy to see another Partner's associates in the world - I think I've learned something about them, and, of course, about you - Mi-ss Hi-sa-ko." Putting on a bit of refinement and interest, engaging on a different level than 'trying to be a big sister to the Precures' and 'trying to throw Futaba towards the horizon with her sheer force of complicated sibling dislike', Natsuki shows off a bit more of her temple girl manners and guile as the oldest of a household -- by almost flagrantly hitting on the foxgirl. While still hovering by Hisako, Natsuki turns down to Lala, lips pulling into a frown that's fainted down to not show active 'that's wrong' down to the impressionable Precure. "The place things start in, where they're found, isn't always the most ideal place for them. Sometimes, you can start with a home that's the 'worst place for you too be', and not best. We found the flying onions in bad situations - if we had never come here, if you Precures hadn't crashed, wouldn't the Pikmin never have gotten this far?" As she speaks, Natsuki is thinking about things - and people - that aren't the Pikmin. "Sometimes, the natural thing that happens is that something dramatic shakes things up, and what 'home' is, and can be, changes. You're not going back home -- Hikaru isn't going back home." "You brought home with you." Shrugging, Natsuki looks at battlements of acorns and the watchtowers of grass. "Or found a new one someplace else. Like the onions did, when they flew up and found better places to land."
Sarracenia	'What if we took a picture with everyone instead of just us?' Sarra claps delightedly at this idea. "Oh! A picture! We definitely should take a picture with all of us!" With her and Lilian on opposite sides of the picture to preserve the atmosphere. 'She tells me all sorts of stories about what goes on there, lun, and I barely get it at all. How do they learn things so fast, lun? And there's so many interesting people there? School is amazing, lun.' "What do you mean 'so fast'? I thought school took something like 12 years to complete?" Sarra says, confused. "I would like to hear some of her stories, though." she adds, then looks to Hikaru. "Would you tell us some of your school stories before you leave? Pretty please? It would be so twincool and..um...stellarific!" Sarra giggles. It is undeniably fun to use these pun words. 'Soda!!' 'Ever since Lala's been on Earth, she's gotten a bit of a sweet tooth, ehehe.' 'H-hey, lun....' Sarra giggles at that. "There is nothing wrong with a sweet tooth if you ask me. I obviously have one myself~ So, enjoy your sweets! Just...not -too- much. Otherwise you will have to train more severely to burn off those calories." The girls thank them and promise they will see each other again, and Sarra smiles a bit tearfully herself. "You sweeties will be very missed until we see you again." Sarra reaches into her purse one more time and pulls out...some plushies! And they are not even the transformative type! "To remember us by." She hands each of them (including Yuma) a Luma plush. Adorable pudgy little stars with big innocent black eyes and friendly smiles. And they are colored the most predominant color of the girls and Yuma. Green for Lala, red for Hikaru, and bright starry yellow for Yuma! Each one holds a plastic lollipop with a star bit on the end. 'Mighty thoughtful of ya, Princess.' Sarra smiles~ "I am nothing if not thoughtful~" 'Nothing to see here.' Sarra definitely didn't flinch and have her hammer in hand in moments when that clashing happened. She holds it at the ready for a few seconds before slowly lowering it. "Education is quite important. Knowledge is power, as they say, and the more you know the more power you have! ...it can be quite boring to learn things, though." Sarra may believe learning things is good, but she definitely did not study in her classes. 'You brought home with you.' Sarra ends up listening sort of awed to Natsuki. Sometimes the princess really wishes she was deep like that. "Well said, Miss Natsuki." she says, more out of habit than anything.
Hiromi	'School is amazing, lun.' Hisako listens with rapt attention. "Lots of interesting people... they learn very quickly... I see, so it's that kind of place." There's no telling what it is she could be imagining, but it's probably wrong. Sarracenia brought ice cream. "Oh, I know about ice cream." Hisako scoops some into a bowl, puts the spoon back, and raises the bowl to her lips. A few seconds later, she freezes, then puts the bowl back down while licking her lips. '_--¯¯? ----¯-.' In-between everything else happening, and having not had an opportunity earlier, Hisako goes to introduce herself to Yuma. At least, it's probably an introduction, by context. She circles, headtilts, gets down to eye level, and slowly pushes her forehead toward the Creature. Once close enough, she can find the scent of star-creatures. This is not likely to be useful information, but it completes the ritual. "Hello, Yuma. I'm Hisako." Tail-wagging is a signal that you're happy to see someone. It's an important part of being friendly. She goes through her bag, and hands over the simplest Multiverse-ready communicator she could find, with her contact imprint already loaded. 'O-oyo...? Everyone, lun...?' Getting a little fidgety, unsure what she's able to offer in terms of 'staying in contact,' Hisako finally says, "It'd be nice if you could come here again. There are still lots of people you could meet." Even if she might not be able to see them. "Like giants." Big, big legends.
Lilian Rook	'What is it like to go to school? I never attended an actual school.' Lilian looks slowly sideways, contemplates something until her eyes widen a little bit, then slowly goes back to looking forward. 'You're not taking the Pikmin with you?' "I'll admit that I was wondering. I'd assumed that those giant stilted things simply aren't space capable and won't fit on the ship." Lilian says. "Plus I think they might just sort of be . . . local vegetables? I don't even know if you could take a seed, since they grow instantly." 'They could be expelled?' "If they miss enough school, yes." Deadly serious. 'I look human enough if I hide my antennae, lun' Lilian slows down and falls into a strangely pensive expression. Though it certainly sounds as if Luna is used to it, the words "I didn't think about that." slips from Lilian's lips before she can go back to biting them. Lala sounds like she has a great opinion of Earth, so any more than that is surely unwelcome, so . . . 'So I hope they didn't talk to each other much, eheh....' "Goodness, you have it all figured out." says Lilian. "I've underestimated you again." 'My family shouldn't be that worried, though. My mom's always busy, so I mostly take care of myself even when I'm there.' Lilian strangles down a little noise, reaches out towards Hikaru's shoulder, thinks better of it, and redirects her hand to her bag instead. "I really did. Keep it up, Hikaru." she says, quietly. Thank god the Soda Drinking is so cute. She was starting to think of her graduation. '_--¯¯? ----¯-.' Lilian pauses when she really has to consider this. She's failed to ever quite explain this well enough to a human being, never mind in a way this critter could understand. The intense need to say something, anything, tumbles smoothly forward on its own inertia into the even more intensely reaching recollection that Lilian falls into, grasping around in the proverbial dark for what shred she remembers of the last time she did so, then-- §Like my <partner/Kepler problem>? But younger.§ 'Th-thank you, lun! You're all so kind...' 'We're both so grateful to have met you! You all really helped us out a lot, and all our adventures were super twincool, so we'll definitely see you again!' "I'm so relieved to hear it." says Lilian, smiling a little sadly at Lala. "I really, truly am." Seeing the way the girl squeezes that ordinary thing, struggling to keep it together, forces Lilian to swallow down more than a little emotion herself. The kind she wouldn't dare burden these girls with right now. ". . . Hey." Lilian breathes deep. "If anything goes wrong, if you need anything; I mean anything, I'll help, okay? Nothing is too small, or too selfish, or undeserved. If you really need help, I won't ask a single question."
Hiromi	'It's quite flattering - feel free to keep doing so.' "Yes!" Something amidst the low-key menace of a closely hovering nue's attention puts the wolf-miko at ease, visible in the microreactions of posture, footing, and eye motion. She is, at a physical level, exceptionally honest, enough so to possibly distinguish it from mere unconcern, if someone cared to think about it. "I'll watch carefully to understand." 'They need a big, scary protector to help them in this sort of world.' "That might be difficult... but, I wonder... how well they can learn. I haven't seen learning plants, before. But I haven't seen plants with eyes that see, before, either." 'I think I've learned something about them, and, of course, about you - Mi-ss Hi-sa-ko.' First beaming with pride at having, she's fairly certain, done a good job of representing her home, Hisako gives a start on recognizing where the rest of that statement went. If she were truly and completely innocent, she could have simply failed to notice. "Oh--oh, about me? But, I'm not--" She can't quite finish that statement. It's one thing to humble herself, but she can't do the same if someone's looking at her at as a representative. Deadlocked, if she can't clarify it. "Did I do something... worth watching?" 'My mom's always busy, so I mostly take care of myself even when I'm there.' Hikaru's words move Hisako's attention long enough to frown. Should she say something? She feels like she should say something, but...
Merelisa Shaynore	"Oh, that must have been so scary..." However scary it might have been, Yuma is basking in the positive attention she's receiving now. When Rita fails to cross the last inch to touch her, Yuma weeeoows uncertainly, a bubble of green separating from the visor-blob light image on her face, and then she uses her tendrils to gently guide Rita's hand the rest of the way to pat her. Surely, she just didn't know how, and Yuma knows how, so she can show her! The subsequent orbiting swoop of Yuma checking out Rita in 360 degrees like a zero-G hummingbird might be less comforting, though. Who knows if Yuma has some sort of 'sense' for Precures, given that she's the origin of them for these two girls. "I know she's called a Star Drop but I didn't think--" "Lun! She's going to grow into a new planet someday!" Lala switches in for Hikaru's explanation of Yuma. "Do I detect an opportunity?" "Astronuts, there's more of you?! Hi!!! I'm Hikaru Hoshina, I love stars and constellations! As a Precure, I travel the galaxy protecting people and making tons of new friends while helping Yuma grow up safe and healthy!" "Lun! There's a whole planet of them, she said! Maybe AI would be able to find the coordinates for Planet Cybertron so we can visit sometime, lun." Swindle getting decked doesn't dissuade Hikaru much. A fight is interesting, because it tells her more about how people interact with each other! "Hello, Yuma. I'm Hisako." Yuma doesn't have a tail to wag in return, but expresses deep interest in The Ritual. Up close, she smells warm and glittery and like nothing that exists on Earth, and Hisako can also hear a very very faint constant roar of incredible energy, infused into their being. "Wow, you sure know a lot about space, Hikaru. Are you thinking of becoming an Astronomer some day?" Hikaru, the thirteen year old magical girl, takes a bit to think about what her future plans are. She leans her elbow on the end of her broom, wobbling around on the unstable perch while her 'hmmMmmMmm' wavers. "I always wanted to be an astronaut. Like how my dad goes around the world for cryptids, but for space! But really, I've just always, always, always loved space so much, and I love to learn everything I can about it. My great uncle Ryoutaru's an astronomer, and his planetarium is super stellarrific, but I'll do anything that lets me keep learning about the stars." "I mean, I'm pretty big myself..! Though I'm not a giant. And I never went big here--" "You can get big??? Are you like Futaba and Miss Nue??" Hikaru takes another look at Futaba and sees how smooshy she is, and drops her broom to sneak up behind her and start molding her like clay. "Futabaaaaaaa why are you squishyyyyyy? Is this for ninja stuff? Can you fit through vents?" "Sometimes, you can start with a home that's the 'worst place for you too be', and not best." It's Lala, despite her look of resigned miniscule-smiling unhappiness, that objects to Natsuki. Gently, and uncertainly, as she watches Yuma march around with a pikmin only a little bit shorter than she is. "We don't know all the details about how their home is supposed to be, lun. And they're not 'asking' us to go. It'd be dangerous for them if they did come with us, lun, so maybe we'd do it if they asked, but... they're not asking, lun."
Merelisa Shaynore	"You're not going back home -- Hikaru isn't going back home." Displaying a level of introspective maturity that'd be shocking for anyone, much less a thirteen year old, Hikaru goes quiet and looks up at the big star-shaped window of the spaceship, a fondly reserved smile on her face. "... You think so? Maybe I'm not. But my family's still there, after all." Lala adds, addressing no one and not sounding fully confident in her announcement, "Um, my home's on Samaan, lun." §Like my <partner/Kepler problem>? But younger.§ The fact that Yuma can understand all of the Elites, and grant the Precures the ability to understand every language as just a side effect of their magical girl powers, speaks to some kind of innate relationship with language that makes her inability to form words in return kind of curious. Lilian's communication is absorbed with a lull of silence in Yuma's warbling, and then a short, careful synthesized ping in return. "<New Planet> <seed>?" "If you're having Precure problems, or just want someone to talk to, I promise I'll be there." "If anything goes wrong, if you need anything; I mean anything, I'll help, okay? Nothing is too small, or too selfish, or undeserved. Lala takes a slow breath to center herself, hand over the communicator on her chest. Without opening her eyes to think about it, one of her antenna snuck around beside her to lightly tap the back of Hikaru's hand as another stabilizing force. "... I'll do my best, lun. I don't want to stop talking, either." "A-- a picture? Is that what you usually do?" "If you're taking a picture.." "Lun!" "Yeah! We always take a picture every time we go to a new planet!" "That way, we can look back at all the pictures, and think about how nice it was, lun." Lala darts into the spaceship for a minute, after a quick "I'll get the camera, lun," while Hikaru gathers up the pikmin. A fwee-fwee-fweeeeee from her fingers stuck between her lips has the little vegetable guys accumulating in a cluster around her, and she starts manually picking them up and placing them in lines for the photo. Lala comes back out with a fairly quality-looking polaroid camera held high above her head, and nearly trips running down the ramp from the ship, causing Hikaru to flinch-react start to run over to help before relaxing. "Okay, okay! We'll all line up over here, so I don't have to move the pikmin again!" "Lun! On three!" Lala's antennae grip the camera and stretch to hold it way out away, negating the need for a dedicated photo-taker. The two Precures stand in the center, with Rita pulled by Hikaru to be right beside them, hands pressed against each other to form a heart symbol. Yuma and the pikmin are in the front row, though Yuma's attention can't be held by the camera itself; she's instead currently occupied with showing off her Luma plushie to a pikmin to see if that sparks any sort of reaction from them, or maybe she's bragging about her new gift.
Corona Arclite	"Good idea. Pictures help make the memories last." Corona was going to ask if they needed a tripod or timer or anything but it looks like Lala's got it handled using her antennae like selfie sticks. Makes sense, if this is something they do at every stop they make. So the vixen just sidles her way in where she can at one side. She's not tall enough to be in the back, but gets down on one knee so her large ears and hat don't obscure the view of someone else behind her either.
Combaticon	"A photograph. Sure. Fine." Depthcharge just sort of Goes Along With It, in the sense that she doesn't feel like she has any way to weasel out of this. Even as she takes her place near the back, being one of the taller folks present, she's working distractedly with the holographic projection over her palm. Everything looks all fine and good, of course. There's nothing for the Decepticon scientist to repair now. "A picture is a great idea!" Vortex trots out from where Hikaru is lining up the pikmin and raises her hands, using Thumbs and Forefingers to create a makeshift frame that holds them all. With this in mind, she backs up a few paces, then gestures, "Hey, Depthcharge, could you move to your left ...maybe one-half step?" Depthcharge doesn't move, either ignoring Vortex or just not hearing her over the focus on her readouts. Helpfully, Brawl picks the smaller robot up by her back-mounted engine pods-- Something Depthcharge ALSO doesn't notice-- and moves her around a bit. "Here?" "No, too far-- a little more-- Perfect! Hisako, if you could move a bit to your right and forward-- Try to arrange yourselves so the tallest are in the back, or sit down if you're up front with the pikmin." Brawl sets her companion down, then assumes her divinely appointed position in the far back, being Huge. Vortex's rotors fan out again and she takes to the air, floating over and settling down on Brawl's right shoulder. Calmly, she folds one bulky leg over the other and otherwise just keeps herself steady. "Yeah, there's more of us," Brawl answers Hikaru as she steadies Vortex, "Six 'bots on my team. There's a couple dozen in the Decepticon Justice Division, and-- yeah, a whole planet past that." She chuckles, "Just think of us as robot aliens, there's a whole civilization of 'em." "I'll slip your AI the planetary coordinates later," Vortex promises, making a little finger-guns gesture at Lala from her perch.
Futaba Nuki	"Star-velous. What about... Staradical?" It's been a while since Futaba came up with a new one, hasn't it? Warping her pixelated face-heart as she goes into thinking mode, she reaches over to fiddle with Yuma's face a bit, like she's trying to divine something that way. Somehow, it works, and the shape on Futaba's face turns into a big checkmark. "Starpendous. And you all...!" Her oversized tail flicks from one side to the other as she chuckles again, patting Yuma's head and then looking over at Lala and Hikaru. "... Get to be honorary Starnukis. I mean, you already got the transformations down pat!" She proclaims with a beaming grin, glancing over at Natsuki just to see how she might take that. Looking over that-a-way, of course, means she also notices that hitting-on going on between her sister and Hisako. It must be a coincidence, right? No, that's... Is that? It's hard not to hide the increasing curiosity practically radiating off Futaba even though her face is still Yuma-mimicking, but she does at least deliberately avoid saying anything or making any noise. She's just really obvious about staring at them both and grinning without a mouth to grin with. "You're not going back home -- Hikaru isn't going back home." "You brought home with you." That, meanwhile, has Futaba's face leaking and clutching her fist to her heart. She sucks in some air through her non-teeth, too, just trying to hold back in a strained noise while looking between Natsuki and the girls. "Guh... So cool...! Dang it, I gotta... Steal that line for another time. So good..." She murmurs to herself with light fist pumps just to let a bit of that building excitement out of her system. "Lun! She's going to grow into a new planet someday!" "That so? Huh. Guess I don't have to worry about her havin' to learn how to get bigger, then." Another laugh, and Futaba stretches her stubby arms out over her head just in time for- "Futabaaaaaaa why are you squishyyyyyy? Is this for ninja stuff? Can you fit through vents?" The initial squeeze has Futaba letting out an uncharacteristically high-pitched noise, and then she laughs a little more loudly than usual to try and disguise that momentary embarrassment at not sounding as... Cool? As put together as she usually is even with as squishy as she tends to be. "Oughleboughle... Heeey, Hikaru! Nah, this iiiis part of bein' a tanuki! Vent crawlin's definitely a ninja thing, though, and I can run with the best of 'em. Big or small, no vent's a problem for me!" She declares with that usual confidence, even doing hand seals with her stubby little arms. She's definitely compensating more with her voice than her physical movements right now, though, since she's still recovering a bit from that last battle. Joining everyone in the photospot, Futaba returns to her usual shape and size to make sure that the girls can get a good shot of her just as they first met her. She's totally not (definitely is) sneaking her way around everyone to make sure she ends up near Natsuki in the image, too, strategically angling and stretching herself up and around to not block anyone in the shot while also being eminently visible herself. Seeing Hikaru trying to get Rita into the heart hands pose, Ftuaba too slides her hand over towards Natsuki's to try and get her to fill the other half of the heart! "Hey, sis. Siiis. Let's give 'em a good memory to remember us by before the next visit!"
Echolalia	''I always wanted to be an astronaut. Like how my dad goes around the world for cryptids.'' "Gosh, you really need to meet Madeleine sometime. I think her work is pretty similar..." She sounds somewhat confident about that. Echolalia wanted to be a botanist since she was even younger. Wanting to be a dragon came a little later. "I was the same way with plants, though. You have such incredible passionfruit!" She winks as she does her own twist on the formula. "Looks like you're learning a lot, but yeah--definitely don't get expelled!" ''You can get big??? Are you like Futaba and Miss Nue??'' "Mhm mhm mhm! I can get big! But I don't look quite like ''this'' when I do. So how about... we save it for next time! Something to look forward to." She dramatically fwips up her index finger. For! Emphasis!! She moves in for the picture, swinging one leg to the side and fanning out her arms as she smiles big and wide.
Sarracenia	'Lilian looks slowly sideways...' Sarra thinks she notices Lilian looking at her and starts to say something, but Lilian is looking away again so she just returns the sideways look for a few moments before returning her gaze to Hikaru and Lala. "That goes for any of us, I think. If you need -anything-, please let us know. Or if you just want to talk! You should be able to contact all of us using that communicator." 'Futabaaaaaaa why are you squishyyyyyy? Is this for ninja stuff? Can you fit through vents?' Sarra can't help laughing as Futaba is molded like clay. "Futaba, you are so odd." she says in a tone that is entirely warm. Picture time! After having a similar but not quite as instant reaction as Hikaru to Lala almost falling, Sarra finds a position somewhere close to Hikaru and puts on a big smile while holding up victory fingers...in a rather close spot to being rabbit ears on Hikaru.
Lilian Rook	'I always wanted to be an astronaut. Like how my dad goes around the world for cryptids, but for space! But really, I've just always, always, always loved space so much, and I love to learn everything I can about it.' "That sounds wonderful." says Lilian. She wanted it to sound smilingly great aunt-y. She's a little surprised at her own sincerity instead. "I believe you. And I know you'll stick with that dream even as you grow up. So do everything you can to follow it, okay?" She pauses to search her own feelings; skimming for the thing that best helps her understand, and finding it easily. She flinches away again, mentally, from her own bad habit, but forces out the words. "Don't let anyone tell you that you're supposed to grow out of feeling that way. They're wrong, and I know they're wrong, because I've lived through it, and I still love the things I did at that age exactly as much. Now I just get to do them." 'It'd be dangerous for them if they did come with us, lun, so maybe we'd do it if they asked, but... they're not asking, lun.' "If it bothers you to leave them behind, even a little bit, there's a little something I can do to look after them." Lilian says, already thinking. <New Planet> <seed>? The reply startles Lilian, and then she realizes in chagrin that it shouldn't. That she'd succeeded at all is something of a surprise, as the how and why and the feeling of doing it already feel as if they're slipping through her fingers. §Yes. <Planet-like>. Very soon. Enjoying <youth>. Enjoy yours?§ 'I'll get the camera, lun' Well now Lilian has to stop and change gears. She gets out her compact to quickly check herself over, moving a little hair here and there, brushing off her shoulders, finding a place to put her bag, and smoothing down her collar. When she takes the Lala-flanking side in mirror of Rita with Hikaru, and puts on her very best smile, Lilian distantly thinks about how this must be the first picture someone else asked to take of her in years. It feels complicated, but mostly it feels good to be here, for a little while longer.
Natsuki Nuki	Natsuki is used to unsettling people by prowling about them, looming, grinning, spooking with her steps. Before, she spooked people with mischief and unassuming steps, and now she spooks just because, and Hisako goes unspooked - apparently attuned to such prowlings. Surprised, which waterfalls into flash-of-grin chirp-giggles, Natsuki continues to favor Hisako at the attentive wolf-miko's high-affinity response. Unfortunately the more Hisako amuses Natsuki the more she laughs, and the more she laughs the more she attracts vaguely-attentive and vaguely googlyeyed Pikmin over to 'attend' them. "I've been wondering how well they learn this whole time, but working best under orders isn't any kind of failure. They needed..." Several Pikmin engage in tiny grass clipping skirt 'dances' with arms out, and others waggle their leafs and buds in waves, and yet more just tumble around the pair, the Combaticons, and the Precures, sent about by the scattered commands that tumble from Natsuki as she just laughs in chirruping song and thrushcall and watches them go. Several of them tumble over each other as they pile up but vaguely might understand 'party' or 'gathering' -- or are getting the plant based mindfreak of their lives as a constant buzz of commands gets input so hard it drives them stupid. Either or! The eyes rattle and clatter but they don't quite speak like Yuma does. "They needed someone." Natsuki decides, crossing her arms loosely over chest and standing alongside Hisako. "But I can understand that not being the Pretty Cures in specific." She admits. She had been making a bigger point, echoing the prior feelings she had felt from the Precures and their enemies. Now, well... She's more fainted smiles than anything, and a bigger glow for Hisako. "And as for what I noticed, it's that you were the one constantly producing solutions to every problems with those-" Pinched index and middle finger raised in talisman-drawing pantomime raise up. "-clever talismans of yours. The bridge, the cave, when my little dorks were stuck, you already had the answer coming out. I can't just expect service like that. I should compensate it." Natsuki's raised fingers shift black for a moment, seeming-scaled, and turn over, in an offering flourish, to angle gold business card with black text onto Hisako's attention. "My card. Let's talk sometime, since you beat me tossing papers at the last interesting woman we met."
Natsuki Nuki	Lala's general disagreement with her doesn't shift Natsuki's mood. "You've made your decision, and I won't tell you to do otherwise if you have." The tiger-eared woman nods to Lala, smiling down at Yuma while the little chime-treasure talks. Her tail, meanwhile, is constantly staring at Yuma when not otherwise engaged, tasting the air and waiting. "So, instead, I'll say: Even if you leave, Hikaru, Lala, there's a whole Multiverse out there, which means there's a warpgate back here. So if you want to spend a day checking in on the Pikmin, you don't have to say goodbye forever. It doesn't have to be a contract - not forever." Natsuki winks at Hikaru, a smart little 'don't forget!' idiomatic hmm, and then the grand and looming Nue steps forward and crouches down besides Hisako, reaching out a finger towards the chiming star, then curls it into her fist. 'Yuma's not a pet', she has to remember, and then she resumes smiling. "Nice to finally meet you. I'm sure you already heard my sister yell it - but I'm Natsuki. I'm planning on taking care of some of these little peppers, so don't go telling everyone." She asides to the little stardrop, and leans back to remain squatting. "Maybe next planet you won't crash! You don't... usually crash, right girls?" Looking up and back at her blubbering sister going 'so cool---!', Natsuki tsks and snaps her head away. "Yeah, go ahead and steal it. Genius girl." 'jiin-yusu gaaru' rolls off her in annoyance.
Rita Ma	Rita freezes for a second when Yuma presses face-to-hand. Her face brightens, awed; spare hand balls up over her chest. Then she laughs her eyes shut, rubs Yuma's cheek, and scratches behind her... ear? "Yuma, you're so sweet. I can't believe those people wanted to-- oh!" Being circled like a shark by the Precure Dispensing Entity gives her a spot of nerves. She lifts her arms, assuming some kind of scan- then hesitates- then winks, troubled-but-happy, when Yuma completes their circuit. 'Don't tell? I'll be good,' she guiltily-tenderly transmits at Yuma, but it's a long shot message-in-a-bottle. She only ate something related to a star, once. Natsuki is thinking about the pikmin's inheritance. Rita's thinking about their education. Once she gets away from prying eyes, she leans down over a flowering red pikmin. For a moment, she's drawn ominously crosshatched and blank-eyed looming. Then- plik, homph- she pulls off one petal and sticks it in her mouth, bracing herself for a taste that might be more vegetable (ick) than animal. Hmph, hmph... it's not that bad? I don't feel disgusted, at least. If I wanted to try salads, it'd be a good way to-- "Mmmphk!" Just then, with mouth full, Rita's dragged into the group shot. She looks down at her hand, guided into the shape of a half-heart, and desperately tries to chew and swallow the pikmin petal before she has to smile. Should I? But Yuma's warmth still lingers in her fingertips. Cure Glow moves her hand the quarter-inch to close the circuit, thumb against Hikaru's thumb, nails against Hikaru's nails, and makes her self smile. "Cheese!" Click. In the second of the photo, every pikmin is staring at her with their blank little eyes. "Relax," she telepathically commands them after; now being ninety-nine percent 'monster queen' and one percent 'pikmin', and therefore becoming 'pikmin queen' automatically. "This is really important, so you have to listen to me so Natsuki and Lala can be proud of you! Let's start with fire and agriculture..." While some of them split off to start knapping rocks and looking for flint, Cure Glow slips around Hikaru (with a hand warmly on her shoulder) and gives Lala a one-armed hug. "Thank you for being such amazing Precures. I'll miss you until the next adventure!" Her heart really soars a little, thinking about it.
Hiromi	Hisako certainly has some sort of acclimation to the looming and prowling, if markedly different than that of one who has needed to brave such trials. There is an affinity, there. At least, an ingrained, positive association. The personal compliments seem something she's less used to receiving, though that could be partly due any number of other factors. Today's context, and last week's, and the week before, are all places far from home, for anyone but the pikmin. "A solution, each time..." She mulls over this praise in an approaching-confidence, hopeful sort of way. The business card is received with both hands and a proper being-bestowed angle of bow, then secreted safely away. Just in time, with a little to spare, for the group photo. Knowing what a photograph is, and that Lala takes them, but not much of the practice of posing for one, Hisako's grateful for Vortex's directions. She gets to stay just a little behind and to the side of Natsuki.
Merelisa Shaynore	§Yes. <Planet-like>. Very soon. Enjoying <youth>. Enjoy yours?§ "<Approval> <Love> <Excitement> <Pretty> <Interesting> <Planet-heart> <Accumulation>. <Home>!" Yuma's communication, even when bypassing the opacity of her midi warbling, is a nonlinguistic stream of conceptual ideas. It feels like a highly developed but limited-breadth expression of pattern matched feelings, from a viewpoint of the universe built truly and completely from scratch, with the alien energy you'd expect from a 'star-child'. "Vent crawlin's definitely a ninja thing, though, and I can run with the best of 'em." Rocking back and forth with Futaba's putty-self stretching and squishing in her hands, Hikaru lets out a plaintive jealous sigh. "I want to fit in ventsssssss... I want to shapeshift... I want to turn into a big blob of gooooooo...." "Nooo, lun! Don't turn into goo! What if you get stuck like that, lun?!" "Oh~ the humanoid form is so tragically inefficient~ but I would turn back for you, Lala~!" "I don't want to have to turn into goo too, lun...." "Gosh, you really need to meet Madeleine sometime." Hikaru clasps her hands in front of her mouth, awed by a concept she hadn't even dared to imagine before now. "Space cryptids.... I can't wait until Earth gets an intergalactic space program so I can tell dad about them." "Don't let anyone tell you that you're supposed to grow out of feeling that way." Still with that faint, sober smile, Hikaru absorbs Lilian's words with wide, pink eyes. She has a way of looking at people that feels strikingly vulnerable, when she's not goofing around, bare of preconceptions and earnestly trying to model the way you experience the world, even beyond the words actually spoken. "... I understand. People are always saying I've got my head stuck up in space, but... when I look around, isn't there so much amazing stuff out here? Why would I want to be anywhere else? I hope I don't ever get it." "Even if you leave, Hikaru, Lala, there's a whole Multiverse out there, which means there's a warpgate back here." Lala smiles shyly and nods-- though, she's not actually sure what a warpgate is. Yuma's wormholes are even better than substitutes, so the point stands even back to the exact spot they're standing. "Lun. One of the best parts about going all around the universe is meeting lots of new friends, and it'd be sad if every new friend was another goodbye, wouldn't it? It's not just about adventuring, but growing, lun. Hikaru taught me that." "Maybe next planet you won't crash! You don't... usually crash, right girls?" Hikaru sticks her hand up in confidence, counting off on her fingers. "Almost rarely! Lala crashed on Earth when we met, and we crashed on Courmaront because of the diamond storm and gravity, and we crashed in that fluffy asteroid field, and we crashed here! But we get better every time!" After the camera flashes and prints, and the group dissolves formation, and the industrialized pikmin empire begins to form, there's really nothing more to delay the trio's departure. Lala pins up the photo on the end of the colored-string trail of memories inside the cozy ship interior, right up beside Hikaru's close-up drawing of a pikmin Kubrick-staring at the viewer, and anyone else who wants one gets a copy too. Hikaru squeezes her Luma and holds it near Yuma, quietly remarking on how similar it looks to the way Yuma did when she was new to Earth, before she grew. The two Precures stand on the ramp of the ship, with Yuma mimicking their waving goodbye with a tendril while floating between them. ""Goodbye, everyone! We'll keep in touch! We promise!""
Combaticon	As the group disperses, the three Combaticons remain mostly stationary with Brawl and Vortex watching the Pikmin suddenly get motivated to develop culture and technology. "That's new." "They got inspired, maybe?" Vortex cheerfully accepts a copy of the group photo and in return, removes one of her rotor blades-- It's literally a sword. A Space Sword. Brawl's parting gift is a full sized crystallized energon cube, and a quick lesson on how to break it down into pieces small enough for teenage girls to cronch on if they want. There is no party gift from Depthcharge, who observes all of this with her arms crossed. When things get to the two girls and star drop waving goodbye, Brawl and Vortex return it. After a few seconds, Brawl gives Depthcharge a noisy metal-on-metal smack that prompts the boatbot to begrudgingly wave as well. "Have a safe trip!" "See you around!" "Stay online."