Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.
Fecto Elfilis had the slime securely confined upon Vesa's request. She stood outside the front door with Elfilin perching on her shoulder the following day. She held a book about ecosystems in her arms. From a distance, she could see Kirby approaching the tower via the dirt path. Elfilin perked up his ears as the pink star warrior waved his arm.
"Hi, Kirby!" Elfilin called.
"Poyo!"
Once Kirby entered the courtyard, Vesa noticed Marx and Magolor following close behind. Elfilis emerged from the tower with a large and clear reinforced jar in their hand. The slime inside it wiggled around constantly. Elfilin locked eyes onto Marx and Magolor before he floated over to the pink star warrior.
"I wasn't expecting Marx or Magolor," Elfilin admitted.
"Whatever the reason," Elfilis shrugged, "I'm sure whatever advice they have can be useful."
Vesa walked up to Kirby and casually waved her hand.
"How are you doing this morning?" she asked.
"Poyo!" Kirby chirped.
Elfilis hovered towards Vesa, standing next to her and locking eyes onto the jester and the mage.
"Oh," Marx commented, "it's that living petri dish guy."
Magolor sighed with a facepalm.
"How are you two doing?" Elfilis asked.
Magolor took a moment to think, but then Marx rolled on his beach ball towards the tall space rodent.
"We're doing fine, how about you though, big guy? You look like you've got something on your mind."
"I'm not sure why you had the need to come over here," Elfilis answered, presenting the slime in the jar, "but perhaps you might have knowledge of which planet might be best for this little creature."
Elfilis paused for a moment.
"Though," they continued, "I might need some advice. I recently entered a relationship for the first time and I'm not sure how it's really supposed to work. I know how it should work in theory, but I don't want to mess it up; especially since I have yet to be familiar with when to initiate or reciprocate physical contact."
Magolor and Marx shared glances.
"Sounds like you're kinda socially inept," Marx commented, "that's not different from our own relationship, honestly. This is kind of embarrassing to talk about, but you need to hear about it. You probably aren't going to get comfortable being physically intimate in that kind of way until you get to the final step on the ladder if you catch my drift. I mean, that's because you don't really understand the boundaries in place due to your own awkwardness and social ineptitude. That's how it worked with Magolor and I, anyway.
Marx hopped off his beach ball.
"Magolor had the same issues and I pretty much had to do a lot of the heavy lifting on that side of things for a while," Marx continued, "you're gonna struggle to figure out when it is and isn't okay to do that kind of thing and your lady friend is probably going to need to decide for you both when to take the next step, whether it be cuddling, kissing, sleeping in the same bed and so on. But after you get to each point you should be fine to engage in some of those things on your own, or even ask if you have to even if it might be embarrassing."
"I'll try to keep that in mind, too," Vesa nodded.
Marx jumped back onto his beach ball.
"That's good," Marx agreed, "I shouldn't be the one guiding this relationship, though. But it's kinda working out so far, so I guess it's not the worst thing."
"I meant to ask that," Elfilis pointed out, "you seem much more wise than last time."
"Oh," Marx blurted cheerfully, "I let out all my crazy before I got here…blew up a mountain and turned it into a pitch black goo. I dunno what it does but it's best no one touches it. Magolor took care of it, though."
Magolor placed his hand behind his head before he approached Vesa.
"So you're Magolor?" Vesa asked.
"Yup, that's me," Magolor nodded, "we came over since I was told you guys need to take this…"
Magolor made a brief glance at the alien slime.
"…to another planet that's supposedly unpopulated by sentient life."
Vesa offered her hand, allowing Magolor to shake it with his own disembodied hand.
"I could've taken it myself," Elfilis continued, "but I'm still unsure of things. I'm still paying them in magical knowledge and old artifact blueprints we don't need."
Magolor clasped his hands together.
"I can think of a planet or two that'll fit what you need," Magolor offered, "we'll just need to reach it through my ship!"
"That works for me," Elfilis nodded, "I haven't been able to check on any of them in several hundred years and I've been busy lately."
Their feelers twitched when a thought popped into their head. Dark Matter should no longer be a threat, yet they remembered they still had all the preserved species assimilated in their DNA…they should be bringing back those species from extinction. As much as they were happy in Dreamland, they knew they still needed to do their work. Elfilis didn't realize they were hyperventilating, but Vesa noticed their rapid breathing. She thought fast and gently grasped their hand.
"Elfilis?" she softly called out.
Elfilis snapped out of their thoughts and locked eyes onto Vesa.
"I-It's nothing," Elfilis stammered, "just got caught in a recursive loop is all. We can talk about it later."
Vesa let out a soft sigh of relief. Elfilin checked the slime in the jar before floating over to Magolor.
"So, where's your ship?" Elfilin asked.
Kirby, Vesa, Elfilis and Marx focused their eyes on the floaty manipulative mage.
"Well," Magolor answered, "I'll be happy to show you."
Magolor fished around in his robes a little before he pulled out a remote. Pressing on the big red button, a star shaped tear in space opened up overhead as the Lor Starcutter slowly sailed through. Vesa and Elfilin stared in awe.
"Whoa!" Elfilin exclaimed happily.
"Yes, it's impressive," Elfilis agreed, "it's one of many space faring ships we possessed, but almost all of them were lost in the destruction of our planet."
Elfilin turned his head and locked eyes onto Kirby. The pink star warrior happily nodded at him. Soon enough, the Lor Starcutter touched down on the field. The small chinchilla and the pink star warrior sprinted up towards it. Elfilis approached the ship and entered via the gangplank. Everyone else followed suit and once they were inside, Vesa took in the surroundings, staring in awe. It seemed a lot bigger than she thought and she couldn't help but suspect it might've been made for warfare. No matter how delicate it looked on the outside, it didn't feel like a passenger ship.
Magolor didn't hesitate as he approached the main terminal. Typing on the keyboard, he pulled up some coordinates to a distant planet. Elfilin and Kirby stared in awe as the image of the planet displayed on the overhead screen, which appeared to have some strange red and purple dots on it which appeared…sickening.
"Ok," Magolor explained, "so this is a world that should have what you're looking for; plenty of different terrains for them to inhabit. It's got grasslands, icy areas, an ocean, some jungles, a few deserts. There are a lot of different creatures down there too they can prey on. Heck, there are some weirder biomes that I don't want to get anywhere near. So let's head over and just teleport the slime to the surface."
"Yes, it looks good enough," Elfilis nodded in agreement, "it looks like a good place to do other experiments there, too. That way, there's no risk of it being an issue for us."
Vesa placed a finger on her chin as she observed the charts surrounding the planet's map. The planet had several different biomes, the most visible were the two masses of color, one being purple and black and the other looking red like blood. The rest was pretty standard, grasslands, forests, deserts, jungles, and some frozen spots. Interestingly enough, most of the planet was ocean and there wasn't too much land.
"It's all worth a shot," Vesa nodded.
"Sounds good," Magolor smiled, "if you decide to go and take a look around on the planet, please don't bring anything back with you. That purple and red stuff is obviously not natural and I want no part in it."
"Oh man, now he's started," Marx snickered, "you guys have fun with that. And I'm absolutely going to go down there with you and check it out…for, uh…reasons."
"Poyo," Kirby stammered.
Magolor paused for a moment.
"Oh, right!" he exclaimed as he approached Vesa, "I wanted to talk to you about your planet. I heard there was a theme park back there. I was planning on building my own, but re-purposing an existing one would be easier."
"Wondaria Park, you mean?" Vesa blurted, "I…my family visited it when I was 10."
Kirby and Elfilin blinked as they focused their eyes on Vesa.
"Poyo?!"
"Yup," Magolor nodded, "I think that's the one. I'm mostly curious about the location's coordinates so I can get to the planet. I'm probably gonna do some rebranding of the park after I fix it up."
Vesa and Elfilis exchanged glances.
"I'd love to revisit that park afterwards," Vesa nodded, "though, I'll let Elfilis decide on whether they want to come along or not."
"I'd rather not set foot on that planet again for any reason," Elfilis turned their head away, "too many bad memories."
Vesa sighed softly and shifted her gaze towards Elfilin and Kirby.
"Should we be heading out soon?" Elfilin asked.
"Let me initiate takeoff," Magolor mumbled.
The ship shook slightly as it lifted off the ground. The floaty manipulative mage clicked a few buttons and the shaking stopped. Elfilin perched on top of Kirby. Magolor pressed some more buttons and a nearby door opened.
"There are some viewing rooms over there if you want to look outside as we take off," he announced, "should we use FTL travel or just go there via wormhole? If we use FTL travel, it'll probably take about a day to arrive."
"Just open the wormhole," Marx grumbled, "if we're in here for a full day, I'm gonna lose it eventually around them and that can only end poorly for someone. Whoever has that short end of the stick is up for debate, but no one will be happy."
Marx rolled up, sprouting his wings and nudging Magolor away from the console. The jester tapped another button which opened a portal. Magolor brushed some dust off his robes.
"A romantic journey across the stars could've been nice," Elfilis sighed, "but you have a point. I suppose we should get things finished as I'm paying you."
Marx started flying the ship towards the now opened wormhole. Vesa approached Elfilis, leaning closer to them. The ultimate life-form gently put their hand on her head, running their fingers through her short hair. The Lor Starcutter soon entered the wormhole. It felt impossible to try to look outside as they traveled through the dimensional space. Colors she never saw before whizzed by at high speed. Soon, the ship emerged from the other side. Magolor approached the console, nudging Marx out of the way.
"Nya!" Marx blew a raspberry before flying down the hall.
Kirby and Elfilis exchanged confused looks.
"He does that sometimes," Magolor rolled his eyes, "honestly, it's like I'm babysitting half the time."
Magolor tapped on some buttons, and the ship entered the planet's orbit, touching down on the surface.
"Ok," Magolor instructed, "drop off the slime and get back on board. Something about this planet makes my skin crawl…"
Without warning, Magolor spotted Marx outside through the port window.
"Oh, gods damn it," Magolor shook his fist, "Marx, get back here!"
Elfilin floated off of Kirby as the pink star warrior ran up to the floaty manipulative mage.
"Poyo!" Kirby called, "poyo poyo! Poyo!"
Magolor turned around.
"Thanks, Kirby," Magolor sighed, "we'll stay here and work on getting the slime situated. He's in one of his crazy fits, so don't expect him to come quietly if you need to force him to come back."
"Poyo poyo," Kirby nodded, "poyo!"
"Good luck, I guess," Magolor sighed.
"Be careful, Kirby," Elfilin waved his paw.
Kirby sprinted his way to the door just as it slid open. The pink star warrior set foot outside onto the planet.
"I'm mostly concerned since that purple stuff over there," Magolor tilted his head, "I just don't see how this can end well."
Elfilis approached the entrance to the ship and opened the jar, releasing the slime and watching as it skittered into some cover.
"Should we…?" Elfilin swayed his tail side to side.
"I'm sure Kirby can handle it," Elfilis interrupted, "if not, then we have bigger issues."
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