The Mitakihara Skyline is pretty in the evening. The evening is pretty overall, but with the nighttime comes it's own dangers. Dark creatures, youma, These new 'Wraiths'. The Phantom Empire has also been super busy as of late so this has lots of things on Cure Gull's mind as she sits off the edge of a skyscraper. Sitting on her shoulder is a silver-white seagull who is eating a burger, half in it's wrapper.
A nearby paperbag suggests there's more where that came from.
Cure Gull is also eating a burger as she talks with the bird on her shoulder.
"So. I think... maybe. We might be getting Hannah to understand about some things." she says quietly. "But I feel bad for pushing her." she says quietly. "...cuz I don't love Hannah for who she can be, I love her for who she is!" she says with an almost soft whine.
"But... she can't keep... doing these things." she mutters as she shoves the burger into her mouth so she doesn't have to talk anymore.
"Well." says the Corvus, the seagull. "It's a start. We're almost done getting the shop setup. So it's not like she won't have a bussiness to help run." he insists.
"Just, you know. Coffee instead of Eldritch Horror." he says as he eats some more of his burger.
"Quiet night at least." she says as she looks over the city as she leans forward a bit. She can see the hospital not too far off. She's may be worried something stupid will attack it.
Things love attacking it for some reason.
The seafoam green Precure is otherwise alone, with Corvus, eating burgers right now. There are probably worse things in life.
Jiaying Maki is getting some night air, having taken the time to sneak out her window and climb down. She didn't even fall this time! She's barefoot, wearing wraps around her ankles and wrists, she's wearing a proper hoodie rather than her usual brand of sleeveless and she doesn't seem to have green hair! She doesn't look like herself either strangely. There's a weird fuzziness around her as she walks, but that's what this is about. She's trying to work on a new disguise, or working on illusions in general at least. She looks a touch older and is sporting black hair and pale brown eyes! She had tried doing shoes as a personal challenge, but that wasn't working too well. She's moving stiffly too, trying to keep from moving her arms too much which looks more than a little strange. Whenever her disguise flickers, she also looks tired, but determined.
Definitely kind of strange looking. She's completely oblivious to the magical girl above, but she does conveniently stop and look up at it like she's considering trying something silly. There are other buildings there, her ghosts can- well, hover. Maybe she can get a monster ghost to fly with. For anyone with the ability to see magical things, other than her somewhat iffy disguise, there's also a pair of ghosts following behind her. One looking like an old fashioned Chinese peasant girl and the other looking kind of monstrous.
Cure Flora is running around, trying to remain out-of-sight from ground level... but being a Large Pink Thing makes that kind of hard, and she has yet to really try for stealth. She pauses at the sight of Cure Gull, getting a startled-sounding 'pafu!' and an irritated 'roma!' as the Royal Faeries run into her back. Aroma lands on her shoulder, Puff settling under one of her arms. There is something about the other girl dressed in seafoam green that gives her pause- that outfit -almost- looks like some kind of uniform, and that brooch bears passing similarity to the Princess Precure insignia in the center of her bow.
She glances down at Aroma. "Is she...?" 'a precure' is left unsaid, and Aroma shakes his head sharply. If she's a Cure, she's one -he- doesn't know about. Flora shrugs a little, and raises both her head and her voice- slightly- to greet the other girl. "Good day! Um... I have a question, if it isn't too intrusive." The greeting she uses is formal, and refined, the way a princess -should- be, but the rest just sounds like plain old Haruka Haruno, even to Flora's ears. "...Um, is that a uniform?"
Cure Gull looks down to the right and sees.... some sort of green colored foxgirl doing things with... um. Well they look like Ghosts. She doesn't /seem/ to be being attacked so she wonders what's up with that. She's about to go down there and maybe see after she finishes her burger when there's another voice behind her.
"Wabugh?" comes Cure Gull because her mouth is filled with burger. Corvus sighs and rolls his eyes. "Chew. Swallow. Talk then." he says coyly as he balls up his burger wrapped and makes a three point shot for the bag nearby!--- and he misses. He hrmphs!
Gull stands up as she swallows. "Okay there!" she says with a slightly embarassed blush. "Sorry! I was eating!" she says with a smile.
She head tilts a bit as she purses her lips. "Huh...." she says as she blinks and head tilts at Flora.
"I don't think I've met you before! Yeah. Um. I'm a Pretty Cure. Cure Gull. To be precise." she insists.
"This is my partner, Corvus!" she says to the seagull. He wing waves. "Yo." he says as he seems to peek past Flora at Aroma and Pafu with a blink as he looks back to Gull and whispers something into her ear. She blinks. "Huh?" she says.
She peeks back at the weird Ghost foxgirl.
"Hey uh. What do you think that girls doing down there with the ghosts." a pause.
Suddenly, a subdimensional space erupts over the area, leaving out mundanes of all stripes but keeping the magical people within, and soon after the source of this makes herself apparent, red and blue beams of magic streaking across the sky as a little girl dodges and weaves in the air while some kind of orb-shaped drone is shooting at her.
She gets hit by one of the blue beams, right after she sends a series of red balls flying at the drone, taking it out of the sky. The hit causes her to fly backwards and crash-land on the roof with the Precures. "Owww..." She says softly, not quite realizing there's others there.
Jiaying Maki isn't up there quite yet, but she did see a flash of pink and that's strange and sort of suspicious, I mean who flies pink things in Tokyo? Well- There's a few things that do really. She steps to the side and looks at the alleyway between the buildings, then at the building itself. She leans back and asks the ghost that looks like a girl something and points up. The ghost shrugs and makes as though it were trying to wander off, getting a quick gesture from Jia, which quickly turns into her dancing around in the universal sign of 'ow ow ow' for a moment. The ghost sighs and begins to hover up towards the roof. The other ghost has disappeared and Jia seems to be trying to do something new.
She makes it a few feet off of the ground, then lands back heavily. She gets an idea that she's sure can only go well and disappears between the two buildings especially since that dimensional whatsit just opened up and gave her an excuse to try and ignore whatever was hurting her. The ghost of the girl peeks up over the edge and waves to the three and just sits there watching. Jia joins her about thirty seconds later and lands on the roof clumsily, rolls a few times and looks like she'll be taking the elevator down. But it worked! She then scrambles to her feet and starts to ask if the crashing girl is alright, then- oh right, two others. Also ow. She rolls her shoulders back and sucks in her breath, crouching down after while focusing on anything, but.
Flora yelps in surprise at the streaks of light and the crash landing, backpedaling a couple steps out of the way before walking closer. She isn't quite sure what the subdimensional space *is*, and she can't exactly see many mundane types from up here. Jiaying's clumsy landing just gets her to turn, and Aroma makes a startled, unimpressed noise. For now, the fact that there is another Precure- and the fact that Aroma *isn't* the inexhaustable fount of knowledge on all things to do with Pretty Cure- are shelved for the moment. There are two possibly-injured people, and the first one to deal with is the one that fell from the sky.
Puff hops out of Flora's arms, bouncing over to check on the girl. "Are you okay, pafu?" the fairy asks, her face the image of a pink-dyed spaniel masked with worry. Flora crouches down next to the fairy, Aroma still perched on her shoulder.
"...Do you want a hand up? Did you hurt yourself?"
Cure Gull is about to ask Cure Flora another question when Jiaying arrives properly up above.... and then... there's a sudden loud crash that puts her on edge as she grrrrs. "An attack!?" she calls out. "You have some ne-----"
A pause. "Oh." she says. "Not an attack. Whoops!" she says as she flusters about and looks over to Jiaying. "Heeeeeeey." she says. "What's with the ghosts." she says as she walks over to Nicola and peeks down.
"Woah, hey are you alright!?" she asks at Nicola.
"Yeah let's get you up. What was going on. Did something attack you!?"
"I knew it! It's an attack!" she calls out as she looks skyward.
Corvus gives a very 'oh brother'-esqe face. "I don't think she was attacked, Gull-chan." she says. "Just relax. I'm sure this is just an accident or something."
he gives the foxgirl weary eyes because. Foxes and him don't have a good reputation.
Nicola pushes herself up, the sound of 'people' seems to scare her a little, and she crawls back just a touch, "I didn't do anything wrong!" She defends herself in the eternal tone of kids who did do something wrong, "That drone just came out of nowhere and attacked me." She sounds like she knows exactly why.
The girl has an extremely strong and hard to place foreign accent, though she seems to be fairly fluent with Japanese at this point. No chance to mistake her for a native, however. "Uh, I'm okay, I think. A few bruises maybe, but my barrier jacket is pretty good, so I'm not too bad off." She kind of pushes herself up and looks around, "I'm Nicola Esprit, fourth grade in Seishou Public Elementary. Nice to meet you." Quick clumsy bow.
Jiaying Maki resists the urge to just fall forward and hug the ground-roof-place. Solid thing below her. Yes. Those few moments pass a lot sooner than she expected at hearing Gull declare an attack. She raises her hands quickly, yelps and says, "Nonono-I thought you were. . ." She glances to Nicola at the declaration of innocence and asks, "Who did you annoy?" Going for the easy answer. Totally not deflecting attention from herself, no ma'am.
This is ruined by the girl's ghost sneaking up behind Jia and asking her a question in what sounds like Chinese. Jia shrugs, response quietly and- "What ghosts?" she almost asks, then remembers, right magical sorts. "They're friends. Or she is at least. Say hi Meifeng." As she's saying that, Meifeng the ghost is making faces behind Jia's head. She makes a startled yelp when Jia does something with her tail. She grins wide and says, "Aw, a little one~" Flora's attention to the girl is given a curious look, then she eventually says, "You three are probably friendly? Right?"
Flora tilts her head in unison with Puff. "Barrier jacket?" the pink duo ask in unison. Even Aroma looks deflated and confused. Flora turns to the other girl and curtseys slightly. "I'm Cure Flora. Good day." The whole 'princess of flowers blooming in full glory' thing seems a little inappropriate here, but 'gokigen'you' is ALWAYS an appropriate greeting for a princess! Right? She squints at the ghost, and on seeing the ghost and making that connection, Puff flies up to hide under the outer parts of her skirt. This causes a small squabble between the faeries, though Aroma sounds faintly terrified, himself.
Flora is trying very hard not to feel disturbed that a girl who's *so young* by comparison is obviously some kind of magical girl, or that there's a fox-girl, or another precure. It's not working. Instead, Flora carefully plucks the purple fairy out of the air from where he's arguing with his sister. "You only told me about Cure Mermaid and Twinkle! What's going on here?" Her tone is one part confused, one part accusatory. Aroma sounds faintly plaintive and confused when he replies that he only -knew- about the Princess Precure, and not anything else. Given that Aroma was only in the Hope Kingdom until recently, that makes sense... and Flora seems to drop the subject, though she looks curiously between the other three human(oids?) in the area.
"Is this how Tokyo -normally- is? I didn't realize I wasn't... exactly the only Cure around, or even the only person who could use magic around." She smiles sheepishly, kicking a foot nervously.
Cure Gull looks upwards a bit and scratches her head. "Oh, okay." she says sheepishly as she looks down to Flora. Who finally introduces themselves as a Cure. "Woah, wait!? You're a Pretty Cure, too!" she beams. "You uh. Don't look like one of Kami-sama's though." she says quietly. "No vest!" she says softly.
She sort of crosses her arms. "Wo--woah." she says. "Yeah, you must be new." she says with a big grin.
"Yeah Tokyo is sure is crazy, isn't it?" she says. "There's lots of other Cures here in Tokyo. Though we all sort of help Kami-sama." a pause. "Blue-sama. Guardian God Deity of Earth." she says matter of factly, raising a finger pointedly.
"There's Me... my Sister Cure Tide! Cure Victory! Cure Spark! Cure Boost! Cure Drive! and some other Pretty Cures that don't also work with Blue-sama, like Cure Sunny." she beams.
"Princess Precure." then he eyes lightly up.....
"Are you...."
"...A princess!?" her eyes go wide.
Then a pause as she steps back as she looks to Jiaying. "Are you okay? You seem as confused as everyone else!" she beams. "So maybe that means you're okay." she says.
"So why was the drone after ya?" she asks Nicola.
A pause. "Barrier Jacket? Oh! You're one of those..mages then." she says. "Wait...crap..."
"Do I have Unity Loop on me..." she suddenly pats over herself. Corvus shakes his head. "Nope. Left her at home." he says. "Cuz she's loud."
Gull whews.
Flora sputters a little at that question, turning bright pink. "She's one of the three legendary Pretty Cure of the Hope Kingdom-roma!" Aroma announces, puffing out. *Obviously* his Princess Precure are more important than a massive team like Gull's! Flora makes a shushing motion at him, and Puff peeks out from her hiding space slightly.
"I'm Puff, and he's my big brother Aroma. We're the Royal Faeries of the Hope Kingdom," she announces in that soft, sweet voice. "A Guardian God sounds really important, though..." It's clear Puff disagrees with her brother on how much more important the Princess Precure are over any other team. Flora's cheeks color at the question about her being a princess, and she shakes her head a little.
"Not yet, though it's always been my dream to be one. I want to be a strong, kind, and beautiful princess eventually, though." Puff chimes in with an announcement that Flora *will* be a Grand Princess someday, floating out with her tail wagging.
"...So, um, Esprit-san, what's a 'mage'?" Because all she can think of is evil witches and wizards from storybooks, and it's obvious that this grade-schooler isn't one of those!
"A barrier jacket is a defensive spell that a mage using the Mid-Childan magic system casts when they are about to engage in combat. It's a low-maintenance last line of defense, not a substitute for reactive or proactive defenses, but can save you when those fail." Nicola replies, clearly quoting something she's been told.
The other question then leads the young nerd to explain more, "A mage is someone who uses a formal magic system, generally assisted by a Device that helps them produce those spells." She clinks the dual handguns she has together, "This is Ruby Rose, my intelligent device."
"So uh, nice to meet you. They told me Earth was supposed not to have magic, but I keep running into people with magic. It's weird." Nicola sits down and looks up at the sky, "And the drone was after me because I woke it up, I guess. They keep doing that, it's annoying." Then to Jiaying, "I'm the friendliest!"
Jiaying Maki listens to the list of Cure-things and kind of realizes her eyes are glazing over. That's a lot of information all at once. She'll get a cliff's notes version later, preferably with that flow chart showing who should be fighting what and why because that was a mess too. She's off on her own for a few moments before it clicks that she's zoning out and she says, "Right uh- I'm Jiaying. Nice to meet you all." then she stops and murmurs to herself, "Should I have used Nuwu there? No one gets that anyway and one guy keeps calling me Nu Wa and that's really wrong." Speaking of Nu Wa, "Wait, Blue-sama? Is it like that Inari god that made the other one-" she stops, "Is it like Inari? Can you meet them? I want to ask to meet Nu Wa."
While she's being kinda weird, her ghost is doing it too. The girl's ghost slowly drifts towards the faeries, having seen their reaction, arms raised and one could swear she's making an "OoooOOoOOoooo" sound. Which isn't at all the sound she normally makes, which gets Jia to say something to her dryly- the implication clear as Meifeng turns and sticks her tongue out at Jia. Barrier Jacket's comment to her gets a confused look, then she smiles and says, "I bet your uniform's adorable!" maybe a bit of teasing, maybe an actual 'dawww' thing. Probably both. Still, she offers a warm smile to everyone. So does the ghost, whether that's a good thing or not depends.
Cure Gull beams. "So I was right!" she says throwing her hands forward. "You're different! That's... wonderful!" she beams. Then she gives Aroma a sourpuss look. She hurmphs! "W-well! We're all working to our own ends!" she beams a bit at Flora.
She looks down to Nicola and frowns a bit. "Well... you seem okay." she says with a smile. "But just to be safe...."
She huffs and raises her hand skyward. "Rolling Mirror Change!"
<N-n-Nurse! Time to change~>
Cards go into her PreChanMirror and out comes!--- Gull in a pretty cure Nurses outfit. She raises a box containing!--- well it's a pretty standard first aid kit. Corvus has also aquired a similar outfit and looks kind of adorable in it.
She leans down to Nicola.
"Right then." she says. She removes a large stretch of gauze. "Let's get you patched up!...or... me looking like a mummy. Whichever comes first...." she muses.
She looks over to Jiaying and smiles. "Heya Jiaying!" she says. "Oh? Blue-sama. Yeah you can meet Blue-sama. He has like tea every other week with me sometimes." she insists.
Because God has tea parties. Yes. He does!
"....What's a Nu Wa?" she asks.
That's a -lot- of information from Nicola. It sounds like a textbook, and Flora squints a little- it kind of makes sense? Vaguely? "So it's sort of like what happens when I turn into Cure Flora, instead of-- being me. I can punch and kick and jump a lot better than I can normally, and it doesn't hurt as bad if I get hit." Flora bounces into a fighting pose for a moment, though anyone familiar with martial arts could easily label her a sloppy novice at best. Flora jumps at Gull's additional transformation- it's like her own Mode Elegant, but... nursey.
Aroma and Puff would be commenting, but they're busy hiding under the wild mass that is Flora's hair, and Flora gives the ghost an odd look for a moment, before sitting down next to Nicola. "Let me know if you need any extra hands, Gull," Flora says, smiling. "And... um... do you think Blue-sama would mind meeting a Cure from another group that's not his? I'm new at this, and maybe he might have advice." Puff nods from her hiding spot behind Flora's shoulder.
"Older Brother and I don't know a lot about things here on Earth, and if there are other Cures they might be able to help Flora fight DysDark until Mermaid and Twinkle appear as well-pafu!" It was a nice way of saying Flora was bud. Flora makes a face, briefly, at the implication, but nods in agreement.
"And maybe he knows Kanata-"
"PRINCE Kanata-roma!" Aroma interjects. Flora uses the chance to glare at the fairy to cover her slight blush at mentioning Kanata.
"Sounds like it, yeah." Nicola agrees with it being like any other magical girl transformation. She is lost when it comes to Earth gods, entirely and completely lost. The scary medical stuff causes her to crawl back a bit, "I'm fine, don't worry about it." She insists, looking absolutely and completely terrified. Then, a vaguely feminine voice pings, <Master, you are not fine. You have several bruises and your left arm is bleeding>
Nicola looks at her guns, "Who asked you anything?" She complains, still backing away slowly from Cure Gull. "My uniform is annoying, I miss the clothes I used to wear at home." She responds to Jiaying, sadly. "But I didn't get to take them with me, because certain people are mean." Pause. "I want to go home..." She sniffles a little.
Jiaying Maki rubs the back of her head as she pads over towards them, her footsteps thankfully quiet and she doesn't seem bothered by walking around on bare concrete. "Nu Wa is the creator of us all-" she hesitates and says, "Well people. I uh, as much as I like it, the myths get weird so I want to meet her and find a few things out! Since people here in Tokyo keep meeting gods and goddesses though, I was hoping I could too!" Simple enough logic.
The ghost girl begins to hop towards the two fairies now like a Chinese zombie. Though it disappears with an audible laugh and appears next to Jiaying as she snaps at the ghost, probably telling her to stop teasing the wee folk. That nurse outfit gets a curious look though. She hesitates and asks, "Do you use bandages or magic to heal things?"
The sniffling gets a faint sigh and after a moment she steps over towards the younger girl and- hrm. She offers the girl a hug after a moment and says, "Do you live around here? I think we can help you get home." Not quite realizing there's probably a different home in mind
Cure Gull beams at Flora. "I should be fine...." a pause. "It's possible. Blue-sama knew another Princess from another world. The Blue Sky Kingdom." she says softly. "So maybe he knows your.. um. Prince?" a pause. "A prince? w-wow." she says bright eyed.
"I don't know any princes..." she admits. A pause. "Well. No. I do. Actually. One! But he's been busy and...I really need to meet him again soon." she says quietly.
"I know two princesses, though." she insists.
A pause. "...DysDark." she says quietly. "So. You're fighting a group, too, huh?" she asks as she fiddles with the gauze.
"Maybe we can help..." she says quietly.
She frowns to Nicola. "But.. you're hurt." she says quietly. "This will help!" she beams a bit.
Corvus nods matter of factly. Then Nicola begins sniffling and so Jiaying'll need to wait a moment as Gull's expression growns concerned...."Hey....." she says quietly. "What's wrong.... why can't you go home...?" she asks softly.
She frowns at Jiaying a little. "I dunno if Blue-sama knows any other gods. As for healing. S'just a first aid kit." she beams.
Puff fairly immediately hugs Nicola, obviously distressed by the girl's sniffling. Aroma, on the other hand, has noticed the ghost girl hopping and flaps away to put Nicola between himself and the ghost. Flora offers her gloved hands to Nicola, smiling encouragingly. "Gull-san is a Cure like me, so she -has- to be kind and gentle. I know nurses and doctors can be scary, but she just wants to make sure you aren't hurt and don't get sick from your cut, okay? Sometimes, if you don't cover up a cut and keep it clean, it can get nasty and make you -very- sick."
"If you live around here, we can probably help you get home safely." But if she's from somewhere like the Blue Sky or Hope Kingdoms, maybe not. "Maybe... I don't know if the Blue Sky and Hope Kingdoms are close."
"I've never heard of a Blue Sky Kingdom-roma!" Aroma offers, 'helpfully'. He's glaring at Jiaying as he says this, feathers slicked-flat in a sign of unhappiness and desire to quit the situation entirely.
"I don't live too far from here, but that's not home." Nicola says softly, returning the hugs given by Jiaying and Cure Flora, while looking up at the sky as though trying to search for home there. "I'm from Al-Furat, it's a planet out there somewhere." She points vaguely upwards, "I'm not sure exactly which direction, but it's very far from here." She sounds miserable just talking about the distance. "I'm not supposed to tell people, but I think that's most people wouldn't believe me."
She sighs and reluctantly turns towards Cure Gull, "Be careful, please?" She requests meekly, still a little scared of the medical stuff apparently. "Earth medicine does things weird, it's scary." The princes and princesses thing just has one outcome, "What's a prince, what's a princess?"
Jiaying Maki steps back so that Nicola can have her scrapes bandaged, moving to sit gingerly to the side since she's sure she's not doing favors with the hug or anything. Slowly leaning back, she watches the sky, listening to Nicola talk. "I- really?" She looks at Nicola and there's about three things going through her head. She feels bad that the girl can't go home, she's had similar thoughts lately, but a trip home for her is just expensive.
"I think if you told people you told a princess, a nurse and a fox that you were from space, they'd assume you were talking about an anime." She taps her fingers and adds, "Princes and princesses-" She stops, making sure she's got the phrasing right and continues, "The children of kings and queens. She" she points to Flora, "Seems to have a better grasp on it all though."
To Gull, she shrugs very lightly, afraid to do more with how she's sitting, "That's fine, if he doesn't know others I won't bother him. It's rude to just barge in either way anyway." The ghost girl is now trying to get a better look at the seagull since it was talking. A close look would show the other ghost lurking in Jia's shadow, but otherwise harmless, if not kind of creepy.
Cure Gull smiles as best she can at Nicola as she moves in carefully and begins bandaging up around the affected areas best she can. "Earth Medicine is really weird, but it's effective. Bandging you up stops the bleeding and let's wounds heal." she says. "You couldn't just barge into Blue-sama's space anyway, you're not a Pretty Cure!" she giggles.
She looks down to Nicola and seems to belive her. "Wow. That does sound far away." she says softly. She knows it's hard to travel off world. She frowns. "I know what it's like to be unable to go home though." she says quietly. "I'm sorry... I wish I could help." she says as she bandages and smiles a bit as she stands up.
"There ya go!" she beams.
The Nurse transformation gives way, back to Cure Gull proper.
She looks to Flora and beams, she'll let her answer questions about Princesses and Princes.
Corvus looks back at the ghost and blinks. He seems largely unaffected as he looks back at Aroma. "There's lots of worlds you probably don't know about." he says. "The Blue Sky Kingdom's currently controlled by the Phantom Empire though. And they've been very loud recently." he sighs miserably.
Flora brightens at the question about princesses and princes. "It depends on if you're talking about fairy tale princes and princesses, or ones actually here in the real world. In the real world, princes and princesses usually come from really old families who have been really rich and ruling a country for a *very* long time. Now-a-days they're just really rich people, in the countries where they used to rule. Fairy-tale princes and princesses, though, are usually really strong, kind, and gentle, and on top of being the child of a ruler or someone married to one, tend to be heroes or heroines who help out the people they will one day rule." Flora smiles and stands up, offering Nicola a hand. "*That's* the kind of princess I want to be, and it's the kind of prince Kanata is." Puff and Aroma chime in with agreement. It's not that Flora is surprised that Nicola comes from space- after all, she's not even sure *where* the Hope Kingdom is, in relation to Earth- but she *is* surprised that someone so young came here.
"Are your parents around here, too?" That'd make the most sense- and it'd be easier to deal with a homesick grade-schooler by taking her to see her parents. She glances at Gull and smiles crookedly. "Could another Pretty Cure that isn't one of Blue-san's barge in on his space?" It's halfway wondering out loud- plus, if it was a space with a key, it might respond to her Dress Up Key.
Bringing up her parents... well, it means that Nicola is no longer sniffling. Technically. She's crying instead, and she wraps her arms around her legs, trying to hide her tears a little, to no actual success. Apparently that wasn't the right direction to take the conversation.
After a little, she does say one thing. "I live with a lady from the Time-Space Administration Bureau." She doesn't really extrapolate, but she sounds pretty miserable right now. "She's not so bad, unlike the others."
The explanation of princess helps bring her out of it, at least a little. "Princesses sound weird, but I guess the kind you want to be sounds neat." She wipes her tears, "So, uh... how did you become a princess?"
Jiaying Maki shoots a glare at Flora at questioning if Nicola's parents are around getting that reaction. Jia slowly, very carefully scoots over and puts an arm around the younger girl and gently hugs her while muttering, "The one night I don't bring Meifeng's rabbit out." She settles there quietly, trying to think of a way to cheer the girl up.
There's a sigh and she says to Flora, maybe trying to find a new hook thing to grab for the conversation in general. "So you're an actual princess then? Is it for a country? Which one?" Hey she's never met royalty before and despite making a little girl cry, it is a rare occurance. To Gull, she tilts her head and asks, "Actual phantoms or is it like the wraiths I've heard about where it's. . . Less ghosts and more something else entirely? Because if they're actual phantoms-Maybe I can help?" She's coming to terms with her current ability and where she needs to be, but ghosts, that's totally her thing.
Cure Gull beams at Flora. She doesn't know how one becomes a princess, but she bet it involves probably....marrying....a....prince.....
Then she remembers Flora blushed considerably when she mentioned Kanata earlier.
Then she's starting to put two and two together in odd ways that cause her to get this wry grin that is probably 'I'm going to tease you relentlessly in the future, but not right now.'
"That's a good question." she asks. "We can try later. I bet Blue-sama won't mind. We just need to find a big enough mirror. We'll use mine." she says softly.
She suddenly tries to figure out how to make this situation better. If only... she had something. Like food to offer.
Oh. Wait. She does have that!
She pads over. Picks up the brown bag from earlier and scampers back over and beams offering down a burger. "Here..." she says. "Eating helps me feel better... It's a cheeseburger! They come from an awesome place down by the beachside? The guy who works there is really cool. He likes magical girls, so if you drop by 'in costume' he'll give you a discount." she beams.
She then also offers one to Jiaying and Flora. "Here." she says. "I have plenty!" she says softly. She frowns at Jiaying.
"'Phantom Empire' because they think Love, Hope, Courage and lots of other good things are 'Illusions', like 'Phantoms'.'" she says softly. She still offers the burger though.
"Pretty much if you see someone trap someone in a mirror and turn thier happiness into a giant monster, that's the Phantom Empire." she says.
"Please don't cry! What's wrong?" Flora looks *incredibly* distressed- did something happen to Nicola's parents? "I-I'm not *really* a princess, yet, or at least, not the kind of person who would be called the kind of princess I want to be. Aroma and Puff called that a 'Grand Princess', which I guess is a thing in the Hope Kingdom?" Puff is busy trying to hug the stuffing out of Nicola, and Flora looks like she *really wants to*. She glances up at the mention of the Phantom Empire and her expression briefly darkens.
"That sounds a lot like the Zetsuborgs that DysDark makes... they hate hopes and dreams, so if they see someone who has a dream that's really important to them, they'll lock them and their dream up in a cage of despair and it makes a monster based on their dream." Flora carefully shoos Aroma onto Nicola's head, and the fairy starts preening at her hair- carefully. It's a Royal Fairy family attack on sadness!
All the attention and attempts to cheer her up seem to help, and then there's a cheeseburger. Nicola's mouth turns into a gaping maw that attempts to swallow the cheeseburger whole, and Cure Gull's hand with it if the latter isn't careful! She doesn't answer Cure Flora's question, because much as she tried, she can't quite swallow the cheeseburger whole.
So she's just chewing it to bits with the entire cheeseburger in her mouth, and after a bit she's cleared some, and with her mouth still half-full, she starts talking again. "I don't really have any particular group I'm supposed to be fighting, I just help out when people need help." She then swallows the rest, "Thanks for the cheeseburger, Gull-san."
She looks curiously towards the ghosts, "Do those ghosts feel it if I try to lase them?" There's a curiousity there, like she doesn't mean any harm, she just wants to know for the sake of knowing.
Jiaying Maki recoils just a touch when the smaller kid tries to consume a hand. Well and a cheeseburger with it. She takes her own cheeseburger with a faint smile and an offered, "Huh, thanks." She starts to almost immitate Nicola when she stops shy, suddenly self conscious about her appetite again. She takes a big bite and works through that while she listens to the question about the ghosts feeling anything. She leans back and translates for Meifeng, whose response is once more translated, "She said she doesn't know." then offers a brief shrug. The ghost in her shadow, blinks and responds in what sounds like the reverb of an echo, "I did not feel the knife the other day." Causing Jia's tail to floof out suddenly. Looking over her shoulder quickly she says, "Oh now you're talking." to which she takes another bite of food.
Grumbling to herself she looks to Gull to ask, "So if I don't have a costume persay- Would he just assume I'm a weird otaku? Because that's the worst. Maybe I should get a costume- A fire proof one at that." She scowls and nomfs the last of her burger down. "So not the kind of phantosm I can just strong arm, I guess it wouldn't be that easy would it? I'll-I'll keep that in mind though, if I see it again. I can help other ways too though."
To Flora she points between her and Gull and asks, "So wait, you two were making it seem like you were connected, but you're not? Is that common? Why is Tokyo's magical politics so confusing- I miss just talking to local demons and spirits..."
Cure Gull beams. "You're welcome." she says with a bright smile. As she head tilts at Jiaying. "Oh. Well. All Pretty Cure share... some sort of connection. That's what Blue-sama said. But our power comes from different places, for different reasons." she says. "Blue-sama granted me mine... and I use it to protect Earth, because that's what he does. It sounds...."
"Now. Just a guess..." she says with a smile. "That Cure Flora here is responsible for protecting this 'Hope Kingdom.'" she says softly.
"Just like Cure Sunny and her friends are responsible for protecting Marchenland!" she says.
She crosses her arms. "It is confusing I guess. But. I know I can trust any Pretty Cure." she beams.
She looks to Nicola and smiles.
Then she frowns and blinks at Flora. "That's... awful!" she says with a frown. "I'll be sure to watch out for that kind of thing..." she says quietly. "...is there anyone specific I should be watching out for?"
"....oh right um."
"Look.... Flora? If you ever meet someone with red hair, and a white coat and weilds a sword... and calls himself 'Phantom, The Pretty Cure Hunter'... um."
"Just run." she says quietly. "Okay? I dunno... if he can catch other Pretty Cure. But. He... lots of Pretty Cure just dissapear because of him. Okay...?" she asks quitely.
Flora flushes. "I'm new at this, and I didn't even know there were other Precure! But what Cure Gull is saying sounds right- there was a different Cure Flora before me, the last time the Hope Kingdom was threatened... I think the only reason the Dress Up Keys sought out someone from Earth this time is because the Hope Kingdom doesn't have *anyone* left- they all got locked up in cages of despair before the Keys could pick anyone!" Puff nods agreement at this theory, snuggling closer to Nicola.
Flora nods at the warning. "Um, there's a guy named Close- he has pointy ears, dresses like he fell through a rock band's closet, and he has spiky black hair and marks around his eyes like this--" Flora traces the pattern over her own. "--and he attacked someone. I'm sure there are more people in DysDark, he mentioned a 'Three Musketeers' thing? But I haven't seen them yet. This is only my second time transforming, so I can get used to things." Aroma nods in agreement as Flora fusses at the white stripe on her outer skirt.
"Our would-be flower princess is still a bud-roma!" Aroma seems entirely unaware of Flora shrinking in on herself at that.
"If I see Close I'll stay far away from him." Nicola promises, while she looks curiously at the ghost, device slowly getting aimed over there. Then, a phone rings, and she quickly looks at it. "Oh, I should go. Jessamine wants to know where I'm at..." She sounds like she's a little guilty over that. "Uh, I'm going to have to get of the barrier if I leave, so if you guys need to do any magic after I'm gone, make sure not to get seen?"
"It was nice meeting you." And then she jumps up, soaring into the sky before going down to street level, presumably landing a little after turning around the corner. Then the barrier fades, and the's mundane people down below again.
Jiaying Maki stands up and brushes herself off as the younger girl decides it's time to go. She waves and says, "Good luck." before standing and crumpling the hamburger wrapper up and looking between the two. She looks completely lost at the moment, a Cure Hunter and a bunch of proper nouns she's never heard of. "If- you two ever need help, I'm not great, but I'll do what I can alright?" then after a moment of thought, adds, "So really though, think I could get away with getting burgers? It'd cut down on some of my uh-" She stops and sighs, "Nevermind. So keys? Like actual keys? Neat."
Cure Gull blinks, second time!? "Only your second time!? Wow, you really are new." she says. "I've been at this a year... really. and before that....." she kind of looks down. "I really don't wanna talk about that." she says quietly. "Not here in front of everyone." Corvus also nods matter of factly.
She smiles at Nicola. "Be well Nicola." she says softly.
She crosses her arms. "Close? Huh." she says as she taps her lip. "Not..ringing any bells." she says softly. "Zetsuborgs..." she frowns at that name. Which makes it sound like a robot.
"I'm not sure if I'm liking hearing this." she says.
"If I meet this jerk. I'm going to punch him in the face until he repents." she insists.
She grins. "I think so." she says Jiaying. "For burgers."
Corvus says. "Help is always appreciated." he insists.
Cure Flora nods, waving as Nicola leaves. She's going to make a note to keep an eye out for the young mage. "...Yeah, I am new." She scoops Puff up for a cuddle. "But a good princess protects people, and my dream is really important to me... I imagine it's the same for other people, too, even if wanting to become a storybook princess sounds kind of silly to people." At the statement that Close doesn't sound familiar, Flora sighs audibly. "Any help is appreciated, but I think you might need a Dress Up Key to unlock a cage of despair." She tugs up one of the outer layers of the skirt, pulling the Key off her hip. It looks like the dress she is wearing now, kind of, and doesn't seem to have a key part on it at all until Flora presses the button on the back down with an audible click. "I can't exactly share it, either. It's part of what I use to transform."
"Um... if you two are more used to this whole magical girl thing... I wouldn't mind if you guys showed me things about it..." She bows, all Japanese schoolgirl instead of blond fairytale princess for a moment. "I'm also new to Tokyo- I came here for school, and then found Puff and Aroma, and Close attacked someone from my school... It happened kind of fast, and the Key reacted to me yelling at him to stop being a butthead who makes fun of people for having dreams at all."
"And then she became Cure Flora-pafu!" Puff interjects, obviously enamored with the first Cure she found.
Jiaying Maki holds her hands up and says, "We can be completely lost in Tokyo together friends." She glances over at Gull and asks, "You're not an exchange student too right? Maybe next time we go I'll come up with a costume." she murmurs to herself, focusing briefly as mist begins to draw around her, seemingly from nowhere until seems to be wearing a frilly skirt. That lasts a few seconds before she's wearing her usual shorts. She huffs and says, "After some more practice."
Still, there was an explanation of the key thing, which does hold her attention and had her thinking on a tangent. "So if I find one of those cage things, I should send up the bat signal?"
Cure Gull frowns. "I'm not an exchange student." she says softly.
She looks at Flora and shakes her head. "You need something specific to fix the situation?..." she frowns. "Usually... I find using my purification powers help with things like that. But. I'd rather not risk hurting anyone." she admits softly.
She head tilts. "Don't worry things will be tough, but you can do it Flora!" she says leaning forward.
"I'll introduce you to my friends soon!" she beams.