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Einsol loved her siblings. Each one was special and pretty and cool in their own way. Thallassa went fishing an' knew how to sail a boat and had a beard like Papa! Ushi helped her think through tough spots when she got frustrated thinking something through, an' he was always good for a race! Honi knew how to make stuff outta mud! Which brought her back to the last sibling, Kina. Kina knew how to be pretty an' dress nice an' was learnin' to poke stuff with a spear. While her little sister loved her unconditionally, the elder girl was introducing the concept of 'difficulties' with the people you love. Today, it had started with getting caught tracking mud in the house, so she'd caught a scolding. When she was told to put her shoes outside, it happened to come up that she wasn't wearing shoes, and that it was her feet that had all the mud caked on. And her shorts and tunic. And her face. And- if it was attached to the sunny Matoran, it probably had mud somewhere.

So she'd been instructed to take a swim, come back and have a bath. These she dashed off and back happily for. Unfortunately, the difficult part had begun afterwards, with her big sister deciding to take her in hand and sit her down in front of a mirror. While Kina busied herself getting stuff together (to terrible purpose, no doubt), Einsol kicked her feet through the air, being patient and staying perched atop the stool. "What'cha thinkin', Kina?"

While she understood, in her own way, the concept of 'pretty', it seemed to Einsol an inherent quality. Not very useful, but it made people smile so it was a good thing. She found pretty things herself, a shell, a shiny rock, some odd flotsam, and brought them to people she wanted to see smile, and it worked. Kina was pretty, and that apparently worked too. Some boys smiled at Kina even when she wasn't being so nice to them, for example. "But they've seen me at the shops. They already know I'm nice. I don't gotta dress nicely to tell 'em that, do I?"

There was an odd feeling in the pit of the small blue girl's tummy. She wasn't certain she liked it yet; it was a heavy, twisty sort of feeling, an' it wasn't something she knew what to do with. The closest in memory was when she'd been growled at by a particularly big beastie, fresh from the wilds. He hadn't attacked, though; she'd just had to sit still until he got used to her. ...And leave him some treats. "Do my hair up what? I don't think my tails'd feel good if I bunched 'em up at the toppa my head."

"No tails?" The very thought scrunched up an impudent little-girl nose. Not in disgust, but bewilderment. Mama had done Einsol's hair up in low pigtails forever, an' showed her how it was done when she got old enough. "But Mama taught me my tails. Said they'd help keep my hair neat. They aren't pretty?" No accusation colored the younger sister's tone, just confusion. Occasionally she ran into problems like this. Reality didn't always follow the perfectly logical thought she'd worked out for a concept. That was where Ushi or one of her elders had to come in.

Kina qualified, an' she knew pretty better as applied to people. "Kay. But ain't that what pretty's for? To tell folks you're nice an' they should smile? ...But some of Papa's beasts got pretty colors what mean 'stay away'." Almost on cue with her confusion, Kina's sister began to fidget in her seat, unused to sitting passively for so long. Attractiveness wasn't a concept the small blue person was quite ready to handle yet. She knew how mating worked, their parents had made a point of explaining things early so that the children wouldn't interrupt the beasts and get hurt for it. Also less trouble than telling their kids about babies in seashells or whatever the new explaining tale was. But natural facts wouldn't connect with abstract things like 'pretty' in Einsol's mind for many years yet.

Had there been a mirror before them, Nykinae might have seen yellow eyes widen in astonishment. "You can do that?! Can it be like keep-away feathers, or shiney rocks?" The point, of course, sailed straight over that damp blue head of hair. The concept itself was easy. Different kinds of pretty already existed. Hair was hair and feathers were feathers. Fitting an appropriate context to it, not so much. That part sailed off towards the sunset. Bare feet happily swung around below the stool, their owner trying to picture earthlings with feathers or shiny rocks for hair.

Had she not been asked, the idea of metamorphosis might have set Einsol to more than fidgeting, going up to squirming and possibly outright vibration. As it was, she made the best attempt she could to sit still, but even she knew it couldn't last. Kina was tryin' to be really nice, so her little sister had to help. "I don't get it. You knot your hair up fancy, an' you're pretty then, Kina. But you're still pretty when you untie it 'fore bed. Is it that big a change?"

She was makin' noises again. Like she did when she was put out by somethin', or when somebody else said somethin' silly an' Kina didn't wanna smile. Nykinae, her little sister mused, spent a lot of time tryin' to be pretty an' grown-up. It helped that she was awful pretty to start with, in Einsol's opinion. Not the least biased source, but Papa said that didn't matter with facts. An' facts said her whole family was pretty, just like Kina.

Talkin' without words was something she understood. Papa's beasts did that a lot. That was what got things clicking away in the smaller girl's mind. Communication via ornamentation wasn't an angle she'd looked at before. Most animals that did so were stuck with what they had. No changing your pelt or carapace save through illness or seasonal shifts. Again, excited wriggling threatened to follow. It didn't fulfill that threat until her big sister pulled away and showed her the new style. Then the blue earthling squirmed around to face the paler one, grinning wide and bright. "That's pretty neat! Thanks Kina! What's this say? I bet my tails say I'm ready to run real fast!"

Mention of a dress gave the little girl pause. That part had slipped Einsol's mind entirely with the discussion on how 'pretty' worked. Maybe, she mused, if she triied the manners thing Mama and Honi talked about sometimes. Ushi caught those talks, too, a little more often than his sister, but she stuck around to listen to some of his. "Thank ya for doin' my hair, Kina, but I don't wanna wear a dress. Already got a clean tunic an' breeches on after my bath!"

At least she hadn't said anything about shoes. The hybrid thought it best not to mention those, in case Kina remembered. They were helpful further inland, but in town, or on the beach? Her feet were getting tougher this way, and that was a good thing!

Despite the freedom of movement some of the dresses Mama had suggested on previous occasions, they also came with problems. Mama an' Kina expected the youngest girl not to run around in those, for reasons that didn't parse so well to an energetic little girl's mind. They didn't have these issues when she wore breeches underneath, so skipping the dress entirely just made more sense to Einsol.

The younger sister beamed when her elder praised her. Sayin' thank you' had helped already! "Okay! Think the ones with flowers stitched on the hems're clean. I can go put those on!" In keeping with her usual means, Nykinae's sibling dashed out to her own room, and the basket in which she kept her clothes. Changing clothes again still sounded silly, but it was better than all the hassle that they seemed to think came with dresses. Before long, a fresher-dressed Einsol stood in the doorway, hands on her hips. "Okay, I'm ready! Let's go!"