Coastal Callings

"I don't like the social maneuvering, the backstabbing, and jockeying to be popular stepping on other people in the process. I love being cute, helping others be cute, and having cute Pokemon." She answered brightly, taking a small disc shaped container and held it against Thel's cheek, then a different one, and a third. "We want to match your concealer to your skin tone, otherwise in different lights it'll look strange. After a concealer, we can add a finishing powder which will give it a more even look, hiding blemishes, and giving your skin a more matte look."

---

Muku finds her footing after swinging her body in against the cliff side, below, Gunshow unfurls his arms in concern and watches as the girl continues her climb after Terra.

"Ahahaha! I've got it!" Muku says with a laugh, flinging her feet onto the ledge and giving her arms a well deserved break. Now she was in business! She takes just a short moment to herself before beginning to hurl herself up the cliff once more.

4d6·4d6·4d6

After a few more lengthy rounds of makeup application techniques, Whitney pulls a small reflective surface from her bag of colors and shows Thel himself in it, 'made up' as it were. Longer looking lashes, a more even skin tone, a certain degree of mystery and suggestiveness about the color over his eyes and her use of shading. Not a spot or blemish anywhere to be seen. "There we are, all done! Try not to rub at your face, or you'll smudge the makeup and it looks awful. It feels a little strange, heavy, to wear at first, but you'll get used to it."

---

Muku puts in a good showing after her recovery, but she comes in just a little short of Terra in the end. Below them, as they catch their breath, there is the sound of breaking stone and intense impacts. On inspection, Gunshow is making his own handholds by punching the cliff. At his arrival at the top with the girls, he dusts his hands off proudly, having left broad hand and footholds the whole way down. The pec dance is glorious.

From up on this higher vantage point, the mountainous forests past Cianwood, unrouted and uncharted sprawled out before the girls, as did the ocean as far as the eye could see in the opposite direction. The Wingull trumpeted overhead, floating to and fro over the frothing and crashing of waves, and more solid fare awaited inland.

Muku's hands swiftly pick up a small stone and throw it near one of the Wingulls. Stupid sea Pidgeys! She crosses her arms and puffs her cheeks out before turning to Terra saying, "Gah! You are really are fast. I was hoping I could catch up at the end there, but you really started off strong and just kept going."

Rubbing her sore limbs, she takes a moment to survey the natural surroundings. No, not the pec dance. Ugh. The nature. There were powerful ocean waves on one side, majestic mountains on the other. She couldn't see it from here, but she knew Cianwood wasn't that far away either. Really, they kinda chose a good spot to build this town. This was a pretty stunning landscape, the kind that she was familiar with, but also not. This wasn't home, but it was 'homey'.

"Well. Since you won, I suppose you could choose where to go next?" Muku says. "Might be nice just to see what's around. I haven't been off-route since Kursz ran into the woods and I jumped through the clear, no-good divider."

"It's not any big thing Thel, honest. It's just what friends do for each other, okay? I hope Em really likes it. You clean up really cute, she might not recognize you at first glance though, I'm excited to meet her." There is a short pause as Whitney packs her things away once more. "What is romance like for a Pokemon?" She asks as she slings her small satchel back over her shoulder and starts up the trail towards Ecruteak.

---

Muku and Terra begin to make their way inland, moving over the crags and roots, breaking their own path through the underbrush and out into the untrodden way. Gunshow moves along with pride in his step, holding branches aside, moving obstacles out of the way, and otherwise being just as gentlemanly whilst using any incident he can to showcase his impressive strength (and kindness). It isn't long into their venture that Muku picks out... yelling. A chorus of cheering, jeering, chattering and violence that is hard to pick out any individual voice. "DESTROY THE NEST INVADER! KICK, SCRATCH, PECK! FIGHT!"

Terra, on the other hand, hears birds twittering in the distance, a pleasant chorus and her attention is likely on other things. (Perception checks for Muku and Terra please.)

"Oh, okay. Are we friends? That's... sort of a new concept to me, as opposed to simply 'denmates', so I'm trying to figure out exactly how it works," he nods and smiles at her, though. "Thank you for the lessons."

"Romance?" he asks. "Like... breeding? For a Salandit, it's basically, uh... you do what the ladies tell you to do, when they tell you to do it. There was... no connection with anyone, not like humans. If you wanted to do it, that's good. If you didn't... well, you better start to want it, or else get punished and it happens anyways. Being around the ladies for any length of time did tend to make you feel good, though... but not in the same way that I've been able to feel over the last few days, as human. Looking back, it was... hollow." He shrugs. "I don't think that I could speak for everyone, though. For Em, her life in general seemed to be more delicate, so that probably extended to everything. Omega, everything revolved around hierarchy. Muku? I... don't even know. But, uh, needless to say, our lives were all very different. Why do you ask?"

"You didn't have a denmate that was really close to you? That treated you with respect, or helped you when you needed it?" Whitney asked, a sense of pity in her tone, turning bright red when Thel mentioned breeding. "Whoa whoa no Thel! Not like breeding at all! Well... that's part of it I guess, but only the end part! Romance... Romance is.." She pulled her collar open to one side and fanned herself for a moment, degrees of embarrassed by the statement. "Holding hands, and sharing meals, writing poetry... it's... more like courtship?"

---

Sprinting through the woods with Gunshow in tow, Muku arrives in a small glade where a Staravia is attempting to fight with sizeable red and black feline with upswept whiskers and bright eyes. The predator is on the chunky side, and has a number of different foods stained along its face, as though it has been binge eating for the day. It launches another ball of fire after the bird harrying it and connects to a cacophony of booing from the nearby Starly. Terra is pretty sure she's watching a territorial dispute? That not much will particularly come of this.

Muku arrives at the edge of the clearing in a flurried burst of air before standing up straight and prim as she surveys the scene. This was war. Starly War! Or maybe not. Usually that would involve the rest of the nest too. Muku knew this instinctually. When it came to defending the nest, it was all beaks on the wing.

The only time that it wouldn't be, if maybe if the opponent was too strong or if there were birds that were too young. If there was only one Staravia, then that would imply that maybe the other Starly were too small. It was simple then. The small needed protecting. If the small needed protecting, then violence needed enacting. Muku could bring the violence! Muku was violence! Violence!

"KAKAKAKAKIIIII!!" Muku screams, eyes wild as she bursts forth from the tree line. Her arms hurl upwards in wide arc. Like bird wings, they stretch out far into the air as her body tilts forward with unconstrained malice. This was a black day. But not for Muku. No, this would be a black day for this nest thief, this demon of egg taking, this creature of gall, this creature of bile. Run while you can egg thief, for Muku will show you no mercy!

"Poetry is... like birdsong in a way? The noises Poliwhirl make at each other in the spring, except how humans do it. Instead of singing, or... I guess crying rhythmically in that case, we write words in verses to talk about our feelings, or like... how special the person you are interested in? You can leave it written on paper somewhere they find it, or read it to them... it's just one of those human romance things?" Whitney tried to explain as best she could. "Humans don't really call it breeding either, or talk about it in polite company... if... if you need to bring it up again, call it intimacy. Way more tasteful." She giggled a little as Ecruteak emerged suddenly from the forest ahead, the aged buildings hunkered low amidst the greenery. "Well, where to first?"

---

The Torracat freezes as Muku comes shrieking into the clearing, emitting an angry wide-eyed hiss before bolting into the trees. The Staravia lays on the ground wounded. "EGGTHIEF! EGGTHIEF!" She screams after the retreating cat, nursing one of her wings, lying on her side in the dirt. The Starly start yelling at Muku for coming into their clearing.