TarRaCe gets a Glow Up

This evening, in the women's section, the TarRaCe is a little more dimly lit than usual, and it's fairly quiet. In one corner of the marbled floor, a purple goblin girl lays down on her elbows on the floor with a large sheet of paper spread out in front of her so she can see it and the whole room, on a wooden board to keep it from getting wet, and she chews on what appears to be one of several colourful crayons otherwise scattered on the floor around her while pondering the sheet, which contains a crude but to-scale plan of the bathhouse sections in black wax.

And since this part of the bathhouse allows it, Fidget is in her very first suit, her birthday suit. Well, except the top-hat, of course.

In the main section of the TarRaCe, there is some noticeable increase in chatter, as some of the crowd there settles their bills and departs, the chill wind guaranteeing a quick walk home. A short time later, the patter of bare feet can be heard, with Simony arriving at the lady's pool presently. She squints, and pushes her pince-nez up on her nose, smiling a moment later as she begins to disrobe. "Ah! Fidget, if I recall correctly. We had that guild mission together in Am'shere, right? Where I got fireballed?"

The albino Goblin's hair has regrown in a large way, and once freed from her hood and robes, is easily half again Simony's height. It's done up in many smaller braids, with most of them loosely gathered together and held in place with a red ribbon, tied in a bow. Other braids hang loosely around her ears.

With her robes, armor and other gear safely stashed in a small cubbyhole, she laughs and jumps into the pool, tactfully far enough away to not splash Fidget and her work.

"What are you working on?", she wonders, after surfacing and moving to float on her back.

"Yup, that was me. I see they let you out of the monastery again, or did you sneak out like I suggested?" Fidget grins, "I have always found the trick to fireballs was to be the one throwing them, not the one trying to catch." The goblin glances up to see Simony slipping into the water, seeing the white goblin out of robes for the first time.

"I'm planning on improving the lighting. It could be so much more colourful! And bright! And magical!" Fidget adds on new adjectives as they come to her, "Lanterns are for caves, but somewhere like this could feel like you're stepping into another world. Imagine if the pool glowed blue! Or pink! Or different colours on different days!"

Some of her thoughts are punctuated by rapid scribbling as she doodles on her schematic.

The albino snorts and giggles lightly. "That's generally a good rule of thumb, I think, for spells meant to hurt. Same goes for bashy, slicy or stabby implements. Just don't be there."

Simony floats around the pool til she's closer to the purple Goblin, and pulls herself partly out of the water, to spy on the doodles and planning. "Hmm, if you can control what the lights do, that might be a great idea. Don't forget to add options for off, and plain light, for those who don't want to be bamboozled by bright flashy lights."

Her ears perk up, and she looks around the pool nervously. "Doesn't the proprietor like to sleep in this pool? She might not want too bright a light while she's sleeping? Or like, sneaking up on someone all shark-like?"

"Hmm..." Fidget ponders, "well, I'd need to make them swappable if I'm going to let someone change the colours. Maybe some sort of stone that slots into a hole in the pool floor?" She scribbles out a design on an unmarked part of the page, a small circlar stone with a groove that looks like it could screw into place. "Yeah, like that. You could put them in and out as you needed. And I could make some plain ones too, I suppose."

"I guess I didn't think of whether Irshya would want it to be off for her to nap. But maybe!" the goblin thinks out loud.

Simony shrugs her shoulders, "Who knows?". She lowers herself back down til she's resting on her elbows on the edge of the pool. "So aside from that, I see the shop's all stocked up. How is business so far? Do you have much competition?"

The Gobbo's feet kick behind her, sending splashes and ripples across the calm water.

"Have you gone on any other Guild jobs recently?"

"Business has been great! I've got several people asking for cool projects, a crossbow, a cloak, and other stuff too! I think there are other people in the city who've set up too, but I don't think any of them have a shop like mine. I really owe Irshya for that one." Fidget enthuses, kicking her purple feet in the air while she lays there.

"As for jobs..." the goblin headtilts, staring into space as she searches for the answer, "No other guild jobs since that one, but a few things here and there, like I went to a beach party and we got attacked!" Something about the way Fidget says that seems like that might have been a highlight of the party rather than a problem. "Some kind of sea-creatures. But they picked the wrong party to crash because there were lots of us, and some really strong people too."

The other Gobbo grins at Fidget's exclaiming of success, and she nods approvingly. "Yes, you lucked out I think. It's a good location, and there is always people in here during the day, the times that I have come by. I wish you continued success!"

Giggling at the feet kicking in the air, Simony leans back and begins a lazy, floating lap around the pool. "Ah, that sounds like the monsters met their end, the day was carried, and much food was had afterwards? I think I read about that attack mentioned in one of the city newpapers."

As for myself, been keeping busy with some painting, a bit of tattoo work, and studies. I recently started learning the language of the Sith, which I am told is the same language as dragons."

"Yep, many asses were kicked back into the sea. With or without their previous owners. Oh and I totally forgot about the time oozes tried to eat us and also fuzz some of the people's minds. The oozes were smarter than usual, but that was their mistake, because what's smart enough to mind-control you, can be mind-controlled back! So they went to sleep." Fidget laughs, she hadn't expected that trick to work, really, but it had.

"Oh, I know that one, though I cheated a bit. It's easier to learn a language if you can cast a spell to understand it, and then commit bits of it to memory while it's still in there. Still takes a little while though. Some of the Makari kept talking in their language around me and I didn't know what they were saying, so I had to learn it."

"It'd be easier if everyone would just learn Gobbo talk! But then it'd be less interesting than learning new languages." The pale Gobbo continues to float serenely around and around the pool. "Hah, I can imagine the look on people's faces when unidentified asses show up on a beach somewhere, the body mysteriously missing." Her giggle is squeaky and at length.

"And that's convenient, I suppose. Makes it easier to beat them if they can be controlled to drop their weapons or run away. Or! Fight each other!" Simony taps at her chin. "Hmm, I wouldn't call that cheating, really. If it helps, it seems reasonable to use that method to learn faster. But I learned for the same reason. Kept doing missions for, and with, the Siths. Learning their language makes it easier to talk with the locals, some of whom may never has seen a Goblin, like, ever."

Fidget laughs along, "Yeah! Someone just picks it up and looks around, 'Whose ass is this?'" she imitates a confused gruff manly voice, then giggles again. "Noone would ever have that problem with our asses, they're colour coded, so you can find the owner easily!" the goblin adds with a grin.

Fidget looks down and grabs a small bag she'd secreted nearby and she pushes herself up to a kneeling position, then puts it on the paper below and starts casting a spell on it - she surrounds the rock with a thin circle of red dust, and then another inner circle of blue dust, and with some arcane words and gestures, the gem dust is drawn into the rock and changes its colour to blue before it begins to give off a strong blue light.

Picking up the egg-sized rock, she calls out to Simony, "Catch!" and tosses it towards the white goblin.

GAME: Simony rolls dexterity: (11)+3: 14

"I suspect that we would be most upset at having our asses cut off, and undoubtedly we would not be far behind them... or they far behind us." Her cheeky grin is full of teeth and mischief. "Excuse me miss, did you drop ass?", Simony says in a similar, faux gruff voice. She then sniffs at the air. "No, I had extra spice curry, your eyes would be watering if I had."

The albino watches with interest as arcane magics are worked, but she is totally unprepared for the rock toss. Simony manages to get piece of it, and squeaks as it bounces and falls into the water with a sploosh. A moment later she splashes in the water, her feet kicking at the water as she dives down to fetch the rock. The pale blue glow makes its way back to the surface, where Simony sets the rock on the edge of the pool.

"You dropped this..."

Fidget laughs even harder, "Not many priests tell a good fart joke, that I've met." Fidget says in between gasps, after Simony's come back up. After her laughs calm down, she adds "Yeah, but I want to see what it looks like if it's at the bottom. So I can figure out how many I need to make the pool glow nicely." The purple gobbo hops to her feet and visibly ponders, then takes off her hat and sets it aside, before running over to the pool and jumping in with all the grace of the rock she'd thrown before.

The splash gets Simony, a decent portion of the marbled floor, one side of the hat, and at least some of the spray gets to Fidget's paper, but she doesn't seem concerned when she resurfaces with her hair a little wilted from the wetness. "Toss it back?" she asks and holds up her hands, gobbo-paddling on the spot.

"Her pale cheeks colour, her expression growing bashful. "I don't usually tell such crude jokes, but I've spent some time in the Ox-Strength, my good friend Ous liked the place. The sailors and woodsmen that frequent the place have the crudest language, but I have to admit, their jokes are usually pretty funny. Helps that they are usually drunk, too."

Simony snorts as the purple Gobbo splashes into the pool, and she takes up the blue, glowing rock. But instead of throwing it, she dives down to the bottom of the pool, and leaves the rock in the middle of the blue floor. Surfacing, she grins, "I shouldn't throw a rock this big, I am likely to break a window or your nose."

"Don't stop now, I like it! No need to be so stuffy as the monks in the monastery. Just do good stuff that your goddess likes, nevermind all the other people. And even that only until you're strong enough to take on the gods themselves!" Fidget says with a grin, "Then you can truly be free." It's not entirely clear how much of her suggestion to dethrone gods is a joke.

"And I wouldn't worry about that, after all, I can fix the windows, and you can fix the noses. Easy as that." she says with a finger snap. "But thanks!" Fidget says, while paddling back a bit to get a good look at the pool from the edge, "Looks like...maybe four is a good start? You can see it a little but it needs reinforcement."

The albino Goblin laughs loudly, and shakes her head. "I do not see myself becoming strong enough to challenge Gods themselves. Nor do I have the hubris required to even contemplate such a feat. I am happy enough to serve, and to be the best I can be as a priestess of Navos."

Simony sighs and nods, "I would really not wish to hurt you, and knowing my aim... that's a possibility. And hmm..." She rubs at her cheek, peering down. "What if you could make that rock ahve different levels of glow? From one to four? It'll be quite pleasing coming from the middle of the pool, don't you think?"

"Hmm, the magic - at least as it works right now - won't let me put the same enchantment on the same object more than once, they would just replace one another. Buuuut..." The purple gobbo leans her elbows on the edge of the pool to stay afloat while she thinks, "Technically, it doesn't matter how small or big the object is, could be a rock, could be a pebble. If you put four pebble-sized things with the same Flame enchantment on them together - it would be four times as bright, maybe? I'll have to try it and find out!"

Then, as an aside thought spoken out loud, Fidget asks, "Why Navos?"