A touch of Fashion and Fire

The day is grand and warm, with a painfully blue sky above, only made pleasant by the breeze from the west, and the occasional scrap of shade along the road. The road is long and remote at times, and the traffic on it is never much, but a few travelers can be seen ahead, and behind.

The monastery is carved into the ancient Spire, which can be seen from an impressive distance away. A few monks practice their katas in the sun, while a gathering of clerics and learned people debate some dull topic, which manages to get heated at times. Young acolytes bring regular refills for the teapots, and for a short time things are quiet as small sandwiches are had.

Deep inside the stone edifice are hidden the cells, affording peace and quiet, as well as coolness not enjoyed outside, lending itself to contemplative bliss. Or so one would hope. Simony's cell is easily found, after a quick question of a passing monk.

The door is partly ajar, and the sounds of humming can be heard, accompanied by a scraping sound. The albino, clad in a painters smock tied up tightly behind her, constantly stoops to gather dried paint and water, smoooshing it into somewhat wet plaster on the wall, spreading a dark blue slowly with a pleasing, repetitive scraping sound. The colour matches the ceiling, which has been completely covered, save for a small strip opposite the door, mimicking the coming of the dawn.

The cell might be easily found with the help of a passing monk, but Fidget has never been one to take the easy path if there was a more fun option available. So, clad in a perfect replica of the robes of the monks out grousing in the garden, the purple goblin is doing her best to look ascetic and humble and all that stuff.

It has certainly taken her much longer this way to find Simony, but eventually Simony hears a "Pssssst", and a purple head peeks around the door with a decidedly un-monklike toothy grin. "Whatchu up to?" she asks, stepping into the room and nudging the door closed behind her with her enrobed butt.

The albino gives a start, and turns around, her eyes saucer-wide. The moment passes and she lets out a sigh. Setting the trowel down, she pads over silently on bare feet, and pushes on the door to ensure it is closed. Simony giggles at the other Goblin, "Hiii! How did you get those robes?"

The Gobbo gestures with a hand, "I'm painting up my room with a fresco. As you can see, there are the regular constellations above, and on this wall..." She gestures to the one she is working on, "Will be the nearby countryside, though all dark and spooky."

Her head cants, her hands moving to her hips, "What're you up to?"

Fidgeting with her sleeves for a moment, the Gobbo's clothes vanish and become a more standard Fidget outfit with her colours and frills, then with a tug to re-seat her sleeves, the dress and the sleeves both are transformed into the demure robes of the monastery. "I thought about borrowing some, but copying isn't a crime yet, so this seems like it'll get me into less trouble if I get caught sneaking in."

"So...fresco... is that fun?" she looks around, "Lotsa blue. Not enough pink or purple. Want some help?" she offers, and produces some coloured vials from a pocket that doesn't seem to exist in the robes. "We could really spice this place up. A little more colour in the sky. Maybe some reds in the village - make it even spookier if there's a murder, right? Oh - or it could be on fire!" she twirls a red vial in her fingers while she imagines aloud how she could 'improve' the artwork.

Simony blinks and smiles at the quick wardrobe change. "Oh uhm... magical sleeves? That's pretty neat! I could let you borrow one of mine, if you ever wanted. But uhm..." She leans in closer to whisper, "You should be careful, don't get caught in those, okay?" The albino reaches up a hand, to tug lightly at the sleeves. "Huuh, they really blend in."

She turns, her hands clasped behind her back, fiddling with the strings of the painter's smock. "Well, the plaster is a pain, you have to put that up first. Applying the colour requires a bit of patience, but it's not too hard. Fun's not the word for it... but it's really satisfying when it comes out nicely."

The Gobbo peers over her shoulder, staring at Fidget. "Hmm, it's meant to be the night sky though. And uhm, I don't think there'd be approval for erm... dead bodies and fires."

"Yup!" Fidget agrees wholeheartedly, "I maged them myself! Using an existing design of course, but ~my~ magic." Fidget hmms, thinking, "I could make you some, if you need to sneak out. You could quick-change into common clothes, or, oooh, into dark robes that blend into the shadows!"

She giggles, "I don't often sneak out.", she says softly. "They sound expensive. I could just spill a bunch of dark paint onto this smock and blend with the stone walls or something." Simony laughs then and steps forward to hug at the other Goblin. "How much are they, perhaps I could afford them. And how have you been Fidget, since that nasty fight?"

Fidget returns the hug enthusiastically, hugging the pale goblin in her smock with both arms. "I'm good, I just had to burn all my clothes, while wearing them, to make sure I got everything clean." she exaggerates, releasing her godly friend.

"I've also been trying and failing to study the local oddities and monsters, though so far no poopsplosion monsters in the books. I did get through the whole P section...well...the whole index of the P section...well...most of the index of the P section before I got bored. Didn't see it." she shrugs, and paces around the edges of the room, looking at Simony's work. "You could sneak out more if it was easier though. Escape the evil, dull men who've imprisoned you here for crimes I'm sure you didn't commit, or which were totally justified at the time. As for how much..." the goblin counts on her fingers as she mentally lists ingredients, then holds up two fingers. "This many gold, uhh, this many hundreds of gold."

"Burn all your clothes while wearing them? I mean, I've been set on fire before, it's not fun.

She giggles lightly at the enthusiastic hug, the little Temperance squeezing back snugly.

"Ooooh, Those things were really gross. I think they are undead of some kind, but it slips my mind currently. Trying to put that out of my memory. Getting hit with that smell and then vomiting onto myself... yeech."

"Oh. Two hundred gold? That's not... too bad. They do have a lot of utility, but like, do they keep you warm, or is the trick to wear something warm and then use the sleeves to make it look like something else?"

"Nah, though the neat thing is if it's really warm you can wear nearly nothing and still look like you're wearing normal stuff. Or if it's really cold, you can bundle up really warm and look like you're in a bikini! It'll really confuse the tough people when the little gobbo is totally unbothered by the cold weather." Fidget giggles and slips the sleeves off and hands them to Simony - "Try it out, what do you want to wear right now that you can't?"

"Are... are you sure?", she wonders as the sleeves are slowly pulled up her bare arms. The albino is suddenly wearing a pale blue dress, with lots of accents including gems and gold. Likely far more expensive than the sleeves themselves. "Whoa!", Simony exclaims. The sleeves go up and down multiple times.

She's first in a blue bikini. Then dressed as if she were going on an expedition to the far north. Next is an outfit perfect for a jungle mission in Am'shere. Then a fancy nightgown that's airy and puffy."

Simony grins and pulls the sleeves around once more, ending up in an outfit that mirrors Fidget's. "Okay, not only is this very handy, it's a lot of fun!"

Fidget's grin broadens as Simony has fun with the sleeves, and her variety of interesting and sometimes slighly risque attire, "Niiiice!" Fidget approves, and then launches into another hug after Simony settles for the moment on Fidget's outfit. "Yep, it's lots of fun. It's still nice to have the real clothes sometimes though, because stuff like this-" Fidget brushes her hands down her side from breast of the jacket to the tips of the skirts, "-also just feels nice to wear. It's bouncy!" she says with a little hop that makes the petticoats flutter and rustle.

"Oh! Oh!" Fidget says, an idea bursting out that she can't contain, "Be the painting!" She points excitedly at the ceiling and the floor and the walls, "In a long dress!"

The sleeves are operated quickly, her smock morphing into a toga-like dress, attached over one shoulder, leaving the other bare. Her pale skin contrasts heavily against the dark blue of the dress. Small holes dot the cloth, using Simony's pale skin to represent the stars. She poses back and forth. "Actually, this is amazing! I definitely have to get a pair of these sleeves!"

"Cooooo~ool!" Fidget exclaims in a drawn-out quiet-yell, "You ~look~ amazing! Though it would still be better if the town was on fire, like, at least a little bit." Fidget says with an impish smirk, "Maybe right here, where noone would notice it." and she points at a spot in the corner where the shade of the room dulls the colours a little, amongst a cluster of little houses. "Y'know you want to." Fidget teases, every bit the image of the devil on your shoulder.

Simony snorts and hugs Fidget once more, "Silly, I can't do that. Maybe I can put some colours into some of the windows, make it seem like there's a nice, warm inside, hmm?" She admires the dark dress once more. "Now, if you could animate the colours on this... you could make it look like there is actually a fire. Now that would be neat on a dress, wouldn't it?"

The Gobbo regretfully pulls the sleeves away, the dress resolving into a plain white painter's smock, speckled with many different colours. "Soooo two hundred, you said? Would it take long to make? I wouldn't want to inconvenience you, so I can wait if you want."