Baths and Dreams
The TarRace has been jumping all day, with numerous new trading vessels having arrived, as well, a colossal day at the Colosseum, two popular gladiators fated to fight one another in a winner-takes-all prize. Dinner officially ended a short time ago, yet the staff still move back and forth taking food orders. The good news is, the drinking patrons now outnumber the eating patrons.
The baths area is quieter. The whole area has been scrubbed and cleaned, the water emptied and refilled in the pools. The lady's side seems to have some gossips chatting about the latest Crimson Pen article, 'Top Ten Facts about Half-Elves, number 7 will astound you!' The men's side is an argument over which day fishing season actually starts on. It... may come to blows.
The main pool is empty. Quiet. Slowly churning about the middle of the pool as the refilling process is not quite finished.
It's been a long few days -- hell, a long few weeks -- for the half-elf sorcerer calling himself Telamon Lupecyll-Atlon. The argument over fishing is interesting, but as it starts to get heated, he casually excuses himself, having doffed his garments and switched into a simple pair of breeches suitable for swimming -- or bathing. Carrying a small jug of wine and a mug, he steps out of the men's changing area, pausing to watch the main pool slowly fill up. He looks around, perhaps wondering at how few people are here.
Wearing a brand new swimsuit of light to dark blue gradient, with black and violet trim, highlights, and frills, Fidget hurries into the main pool and looks set to jump into the empty pool, but stops short when she sees that it's been sadly emptied and might not be ready for a little while. She folds her arms and stares down the empty pool, as if willing it to fill faster.
Irshya, aka the pool-shark, steps out of the lady's side, dressed for work. Her outfit matches her staffs' outfits, essentially a maid's dress with a poofy white blouse. She pauses to smile at Fidget and Telamon, offering a quick curtsey. "I regret that I cannot socialize, as much as I wish to. A few of my staff wish to leave early, so, I shall accommodate them by tending the bar. Enjoy, the water's fresh, and everything's just been cleaned. Be well!"
The pool-shark offers a jaunty salute then, and turns to make her way out into the bar/restaurant area of the TarRaCe.
Telamon raises a hand absently, before stepping down the stairs and into the water. He sinks down on one of the benches in the pool, so he's about up to his shoulders in the pool. Casually, he hooks a finger, and the wine jug... floats into the air and uncorks itself, starting to pour a small measure of wine into his fired-clay mug. His eyes pass over Fidget, and he offers a polite smile, before leaning back a bit and closing his eyes.
GAME: Fidget rolls acrobatics: (19)+3: 22
"Ehh, close enough." Is the only warning Fidget gives before she takes a step back and attempts to acrobatically cannonball into the pool - it goes...surprisingly well! She manages a fairly graceful arc in the air before coming crashing down into the water, with an accompanying "Wheeee-*splash*-*bubblebubblebubble*" as she does so, and then a wave rushes out from the point of impact, not too tall due to her small mass, but some wine mugs may need to evade being watered down.
A small form enters into the baths area, wearing the copper and blue trim robes of a priest of Navos. Her hood is drawn up over her head, obscuring her face with shadow. Her hands and feet are seen, both bare, both a pale white in colour. On seeing Telamon, the figure waves, before turning to head into the lady's side of the baths.
Telamon lets out an undignified yelp, and hastily covers his mug while the jug hovers up out of reach of the waves. "Easy there, friend! Let's not mix the wine and the bathwater!" He hurriedly takes a drink, to make sure the contents haven't been diluted, before settling down again. He catches sight of a familiar set of robes slipping past into the women's side, and he waves jauntily, before settling back down. His eyes close for a moment, before opening again.
The purple-skinned goblin probably heard that as her head peeks above the water level again, and her hair sprays water a few feet behind her as she rises, fortunately towards a clear part of the pool, and she turns to find the source of the voice, noticing the other small person walking by in robes, she approaches Telemon who seemed to know the figure and she asks him "Is your wine okay? And who's'at?" she tilts her head towards the woman's pool.
The albino Goblin shyly steps out of the lady's changing area, dressed in a black, two piece bathing suit. She doesn't take long, simply striding over, and stepping into the pool with a splash. Sinking to the bottom of the pool, Simony crouches, and then flexes her legs. Cresting beside Telamon, she flails momentarily before being able to cling to his side. The albino blinks at him owlishly. "Hello Tel!" Her pointed ears twitch lightly, her eyes focusing on Fidget. "Hello!", she offers cheerfully.
Telamon blinks slowly, again, as Simony reemerges and steps into the pool. When she surfaces, he comments, "Don't know how to swim?" he inquires. He takes another sip from his mug. "I don't get to come here often either. I really should do so..." He sets the mug at the edge of the pool, next to the still-floating jug. "How've you been doing, Simony? Holding up all right?" Tel offers the little goblin a gentle smile.
"Hello!" Fidget replies to Simony with equal cheer, "I'm Fidget, who're you?" She asks, interested to meet more goblins like herself in the city. "And, uh, is it a good idea to be in the pool if you can't swim?" Fidget herself swims more enthusiastically than well, but she's treading water a little to stay afloat without much effort.
Simony kicks at the water a little harder, her head bobbing up more out of the water. "I'm Simony, and this gentleman is Telamon.", she says by way of introduction. "Nice to meet you, Fidget. Er, well, it's not too deep and as long as I keep calm and push up off the bottom, I'll be okay." She snorts and looks to Telamon, "Yeah, I was far too sheltered when I was young. My parents would nae let me go outside much, due to my skin condition. I used to burn so easily. It's a little better now that I am older, but, still need to keep covered, else Ah get some pretty hefty burns. So... swimming wasn't a thing I got to do." Besides, Telamon floats! The albino ducks under water for a few moments, bubbles appearing on either side of the Half-Elf, before she appears above water once more.
"That's a neat tattoo Telamon, but... uhm... the erm artist may have sold ya a bill of goods. Or ye have stars viewed from a different part of Ea?"
Rubbing at her cheeks, she nods, "I'm doing alright, but uhm... been having really weird, almost lifelike dreams. You've been in them a lot, you and those eyes." Simony giggles brightly.
Telamon offers Fidget a smile. "Telamon Lupecyll-Atlon at your service." He chuckles at Simony. "I really -should- learn how to swim, if only so I don't need magic to move around. But being underwater doesn't bother me." His grin is impish. "I can stay under pretty much indefinitely."
At Simony's comments, he glances back over his shoulder where his tattoo is splashed across his back in strange colors. "Oh, yeah. Sometimes I forget... that wasn't done by an artist. It's... possibly connected to my talent. You know how it is -- the stars and the moon and the sun, all wrapped up in my magic."
His eyebrows rise at Simony's comment about dreams. Tel chuckles, though. "That seems to come up a lot, too. My wife and I joke that we're probably some of the most fascinating people in Alexandria."
"Aww, that's a shame. You should both definitely learn, you never know when you'll have to get through hair-deep freezing water to satisfy some crazy Sildanyari." Fidget grimaces from recent personal experience, but surely that happens to everyone sometimes. She nods at Telamon's assertion that he can stay underwater indefinitely, "Ah, are you part-shark too?" she asks matter-of-factly, before curiously casting a quick detect magic spell to find out what magic precisely is being used to float the half-elf and his wine.
The albino makes a face, and then giggles. "Hair-deep on my part isn't terrible. Hair-deep on others..." She eyes Telamon for a moment... "Yeaaaah I'd probably drown." She snorts and laughs. "Well, you know sorcerers, they have magic in their blood. I mean... if I could pick and choose special powers to have, breathing underwater would be one on my list, I think."
She sinks a little lower in the water, basically hanging onto Telamon's arm to stay afloat as she takes a rest. "Well... you are both fascinating, but personally I find you more so. Was.. was that long dinner a dream? Was it real? Felt like a dream to me but... well. And then, in the forest... Apotheosis.. something tried to take him. I felt kind of useless."
The Goblin leans back into the water, slowly floating away from Telamon.
"These dreams could be very dangerous."
Telamon chuckles. "Simony has the right of it. The talent... changes people. You can't wield that much magic without there being consequences. Thankfully, the consequences for me have been my marvelous eyes, a bit of resilience against temperature extremes, and finding out that breathing is something other people have to worry about." He shrugs lightly. "I've actually done some salvage work for the town guard in the Tornmawr in the summers. You'd be amazed what people throw off the bridges..."
At Simony's mention of dreams, and Pothy's attempted kidnapping, Tel's eyes narrow. "No, that was real, Simony. And despite everything, you did well. Sometimes all you can do is be the cheering section." His expression is hard. "Lana said the... entity was speaking Sylvan. We have found ourselves tangled up in fey machinations before; clearly I have not expressed my disapproval loudly enough."
He changes topics, evidently unwilling to muse too much on ways to discourage obnoxious fey. "But yes. Dreams are... I will repeat something my mentor once taught me: just because something isn't real doesn't mean it can't hurt you. Indeed, mortals must dream of things that are not real -- how else can they become real?"
Fidget demontrates hair-deep as she meant it by pointing to the top of her hair, which is over a half foot taller than her head, though the red tips have begun slowly wilting in the damp.
As for the rest of it, Fidget is trying to figure out what it is they're discussing... dreams? Fae?
Simony floats around Telamon, and then in Fidget's direction. "Yeah, yer hair is shorter than mine. I used to have long hair, but I was so mad at my mother, I clipped it all off before I left. Was pretty fun to see th'look on 'er face."
The albino has a little chuckle at that, and eyes Fidget again. "It's a long story. Tel an'his wife have had some fae troubles. And the lot of us have been chasin' after demons of late. Sometimes, there have been dreams we're all in together."
Can't say it's been fun every time, but at least my friends are there... or well, people I kind of know, who aren't out to hurt me."
The albino looks to Telamon then. "I know some stuff in dreams can hurt you.. but uh... do your eyes still do that thing they do in dreams?" She gives a little giggle. "I think in the next dream starring you, I'm going to find out." She laughs, spinning around on her back, and using a big toe to prod Telamon's side.
Telamon's unseen servant refills his mug, as the sorcerer comments. "There's a lot of troubles in the world. And if you set out to try and fix them, well... don't be surprised if -someone- gets offended about you undoing their hard work." The half-sil snorts, taking a sip from his mug, before chuckling at Simony's poke with her toe. "Hey, now, stop that."
He takes a deep breath, less because he needs it and more to center his thoughts. "Hells, Simony, that's not even the strangest thing you've seen. You were the one who wound up taking an unexpected trip to somewhere else and meeting my old teacher."
"Hah," Fidget barks her amusement, "I bet it would be, people who like to tell you what to do tend to get all screwed up when they find out you won't let them anymore." Fidget has certainly had her share of those.
"This fae stuff sounds fun, is there something I can do to help? Or do I need to be seeing Telamon's dreamy eyes in my sleep before that?" she teases, all this talk of dreaming about each other and neither of them has blushed yet? She makes sure to stare into his eyes for a little while to try to get a reaction. But what was that about what Telamon's eyes 'did'?
"Someone said once if you have enemies, good, means you stood up for something.", the albino says, grinning at Tel." Simony grins toothily at getting a reaction from Telamon. "Oho, are you ticklish? Or scared I'm pushing you off course, sloooowly towards one of the drains." Now both of her bit toes are involved in light prodding.
"And it's not the strangest, I suppose. But uhm well... I guess it could be worse. You've seen worse, yes?"
Simony SNORTS at Fidget then, laughing. "Trust me... you will know when he's turned on the power of his eyes."
Telamon lets himself get pushed away. "I mean, if you're really that intent..." He hands his mug up to the unseen servant (so now there's a wine mug and a clay jug hovering in the air next to the pool). "Guess I'll have to put myself out of arm's reach." And with that he sinks underwater... casually waving, as he drifts down into the deeper section, all the way to the bottom of the pool. Sitting there, his expression downright insouciant.
"Well, if he's all the way down there, he's got plenty of water to drink and he can't possibly need this," Fidget eyes the floating wine glass, "sooo - it should be up for grabs?" she supposes out loud and then with a couple of gestures, tries to use her own Mage Hand to draw the wine down towards the two goblins. She does, after a moment, glance over to make sure Simony isn't off drowning due to her lack of a half-elven ladder, though.