I'm Prettier!

[meesh]

This area of the residential district had a setup not unlike apartments. The building looked like a giant combeehive, though thankfully it wasn't as sticky and messy as a real one. It was a popular residence for the less wealthy pokemon as well as the bug types, however, and the air was filled with the constant buzzing of hundreds of flying pokemon flying in and out of the hive in a neverending thrumm of activity. All in all, it made for some pretty noisy ambiance.

Samantha's apartment was on one of the higher floors, which, for a non flying pokemon, meant a lot of stairs to climb. The door was unlocked, as it said in the bottom notes of the job offer, and the spewpa was sitting in the middle of the floor, room around her a mess. Her tearstreaked face looked hopefully up at Ryleh as he arrived.

"Are you the one who took the job?" she asked tearfully. "Oh you must help me, I look positively dreadful right now!"


Ryleh

[Ryleh]

Ryleh had never enjoyed climbing up high like this. The air at this height was dry and cold, and the amount of stairs was tiring as well. Still, he had managed to reach the top of the stairs, that was the hard part of the job likely done with, now for the relatively simple matter of giving a spewpa a makeover. He rubbed his main tentacles together as he walked down the hall, turning to open the door where the client lived.

He did not expect the utter chaos he walked in on. Furniture cast aside in frustration, a variety of unreliable beauty products of the sort ryleh knew mostly because he often peddled them to cheapskate pokemon himself, and a stressed-out spewpa sitting in the middle of it all looking absolutely dreadful. "My word, this simply won't do!". Ryleh decided to go with the persona of a flamboyant beauty expert.

"Why, the state of this room is just unacceptable! No wonder you have beauty problems! Furred insect such as yourself need sunlight and fresh air to get the most out of their hairs!" He scuttled forward with a tentacle extended to the spewpa. "And yes, you look quite dreadful, but that's what I'm here to fix!".

[meesh]

Fortunately, it seemed like Ryleh's adopted attitude was exactly what the Spewpa expected - and needed. The flamboyant attitude seemed to be exaclt up her alley, and as Ryleh fussed about the place, she nodded along, wiping her smudged face on a leaf. "I am hideous, the room is hideous." she agreed, looking about her rather helplessly. "But what can be done? We usually hire our cleaners for this sort of mess. I couldn't possibly..." she looked blankly on at Ryleh.

At least his words did seem to have some sort of motiovational effect on Samantha. She had stood up now and was hesitantly taking his tentacle. "Oh sir, what do I do?!"


---

Ryleh

[Ryleh]

Ryleh slowly edged closer on his myriad tentacles, using his other to wipe clean the spewpa's tears. "Well, I would stop crying for starters love, salt water will dull your chitin!". Gently, he guided the pokemon to the nearest mirror. "Now, don't worry, I'll handle the makeover, the best you can do yourself is just lay back and relax... your hair is just impossible to work with all bristled out from the stress!"

Ryleh reached out and searched trough the room, within just a few moments, he had located all he thought he would need. A set of combs, a few products he knew were at least somewhat reliable, and some trinkets he was pretty sure he could pinch without the spewpa noticing. He knew quite well how to make a pokemon appear good-looking. He did it to himself often enough.  A crash course on proper mannerisms to go with the look would come later.

With his two main tentacles, the inkay hoisted himself above the spewpa, giving his six bottom tentacles free reign. two got to work on combing out the bristled fur, two got to work on mixing up a proper solution for the finer hair detailing, and the remaining two started carefully cleaning up the spewpa's teared-up visage. "Oh my... what soft fur you have, it's like working with quality clay from the distant lands... I can already tell I can make something stunning out of you!" Ryleh gave his client a reassuring look. "Now, close your eyes, this concoction can blind you if you get it in your soft tissues!" He generously applied an arcane solution he often used to scrub his own face, then began to work on detailing her grand bush of hair.

---

Some time later, Ryleh carefully removed the waxing."You can open your eyes now. If we still have time, I would be happy to tell you how to make the most out of your new look as well."

The inkay silently patted himself on the back for his handiwork. The spewpa's ruffled mane had been carefully combed out. The disparate bits of color were replaced with a presice pattern of accesories shaped like coral, staryu and other seafloor life. With a fine comb, he had then laid out her hair to resemble the gentle curves of the sand at the bottom of a tropical ocean. To contrast, the wax solution had blackened the darkened color of the spewpa's head, making it resemble a soflty shimmering black pearl.

"I'll tell you right now, if you move the right way, you can make your hair look like a gently flowing ocean." Inkay waited for the response of his host. Hopefully it would be adequate.