Glitter Gnome

Log Info

• Title: Glitter Gnome
• Emitter: Gadget
• Characters: Gadget, Ashes, Merek
• Place: A14: Artificer's Hall
• Time: Monday, September 07, 2020, 6:47 PM
• Summary: Ashes has come by the Artificer's Hall to visit Gadget. She brings silk scarves, glitter and hair dye, which she is assured all gnomes love. Merek shows up also. He tells Gadget she looks well and she retorts that she has the strength to hide her condition again. Ash explodes the glitter all over the room, then gets down to applying the hair dye.

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--<* A14: Artificer's Hall *>=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

The Artificer's Hall rests slightly off the ground, supported on all sides by eight strong, if nonfunctional legs. The entire Hall is carved from an ancient automation of a giant arachnid. While at one time--many eons past--it may have been functional, today it is a hollowed-out shell of its former self, with rooms made for professors' offices and class rooms. The Hall itself may be accessed by a stairway that leads up, and up...and up through one of its many legs.

Once inside, its appearance is anything but a mechanical spider's guts. With ceilings of polished stone and artifice-metal, the Hall possesses the same, ominous acoustics as any grand cathedral. Twisting, jointed arches of metal reflect its true form--as a great, massive structure hosted within an arachnid's mechanical belly. Everything is dark and metallic, with seams barely visible where pieces have been welded together. The whole building pulses every so often with a hum of energy, powered by a kind of arcane force scarcely comprehended by the outside world. Yet, the energy seems almost gobber-chaotic.

The centre of the building is a great octagon, with eight, great halls leading away from its core. Decorating its core are stained glass windows. They add to the almost holy ambiance. Instead of leading to the outside world, each shadowbox displays life-sized figures enact scenes from Alexandria's past from the Artificer's perspective. They display feats of Building, Achievement, and Experimentation. Towards the north is one depicting the Forge of the World. It depicts what is thought to be a snapshot of the tower at the center of the World Engine, the god's planar home.

The whole of the complex includes dormitories and construction rooms, where artificers compare notes, ideas, and puzzle over the grand works of history. These buildings spawn from the Central Hall in an almost arachnid fashion, connected by walkways of dark steel and overseen by golem guardians.

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There are a dozen mice strewn all over the edges of the baby buggy. Their tiny voices squeak back and forth. Mr. Jinglewidget sits up on the workbench holding a bit of artifice with his feet and tinkering with it.

A chill and an uneasy quiet settles on the workshop. Ash has arrived. There's a clunk and some rattling as a box is set down on the workbench. She looks over at the mice, which she wasn't expecting. She nods at Mr. Jinglewidget. "Are you okay Gadget? The scavengers are gathering."

Merek walks up into the Hall of Artificers, with his usual dark attire on, as well as a hood with the beltcape that adjusts about the hips. The man looks to the place in thought, then he comes upon Ashlee and Gadget in the workshop with a nod. Noticable beneath is the thick stubble along with his luminescent golden eyes, though he seems a bit distant.

The mice scatter as Ash arrives. "I'm fine," Gadget says. A wheel with a handle turns itself and Gadget rises like a board up out of the buggy. Her shoulders are wrapped with more than an ill-fitting dress. It's a beautiful, quilted cloak that wraps around her, pinned closed in front of her which keeps her more modest. "I can talk to burrowing animals. Word is spreading about that. A great, wise being who can answer all the questions you ask it. I mean...it's only burrowing creatures, but you try being the giant, all-knowing prophet, sometime. It's tiring."

"Where are the best seeds, also might not be something you know." Ash says. She nods to Merek as she enters. She looks at the wheel that spins itself, then examines the cloak wrapped around the gnome. She doesn't recognize what it is, and doesn't ask about things, as Gadget may be tired of answering questions.

Clunk, plok, some objects are removed from the box and set on the table. Ash announces them. "Hair Dye. Glitter. Silk Scarves. I am assured all gnomes love these things."

"Knowing things and being asked about them, it can be pretty tiring," Merek admits, while he nods a bit to the two, taking a moment to incline, then he offers a look to the place in thought, "Nice to see the two of you."

Gadget just laughs. She laughs and laughs and laughs. Tears run down her face, and she laughs long enough for Mr. Jinglewidget to swing down from the workbench next to her in the buggy and touch her shoulder. She leans against him and he hugs her. "Yes," she finally says. "That sounds much nicer than anything I was expecting. I was actually kind of scared you were going to make me over like a corpse or like an Arvek or just a generic vision of beauty that would appeal to the widest market available." She is smiling still as Mr. Jinglewidget does his best to wipe her tears from her cheeks. "Hello, other person," she adds.

"I was going to do generic beauty," Ash says in monotone, watching quietly while Gadget laughs, then Mr. JingleWidget embraces. "The other person is Merek."

"The store said I should get glitter, because everyone likes to glitter." A supposed fact that Ashlee is still considering. She would like to glitter, she assumes, although she tries to imagine an occasion where she would, and comes up blank.

Merek nods a bit to the two, "It's good to see you doing well," he states, while he offers a smile to Gadget and also seems to think about it.

Gadget nods. "It is," she says. "Mr. Jinglewidget, can you clear my head so Miss Ashlee can do my hair, please?" The monkey takes the blindfold from Gadget's face, revealing the scares the cut their way through her eyes and the eye replacements themselves, which are spheres of gold polished to a shine. "Thank you," Gadget says with a smile. The monkey makes some noises and climbs back up onto the workbench.

Ash has never worked with glitter before, and the little jar was designed with smaller people in mind. The lid sticks, and when she wrenches it open she does so too vigorously, prompting a small explosion of glitter.

Now she glitters. As does Mr. Jinglewidget, Merek, the buggy, and any mice that sought advice from the gentle giant. "Oops." Gadget, is somehow spared.

"Your eyes look nice." Ash covers quickly. They are striking, in fact.

Merek blinks a bit at the glitter, and nods, while he smiles, "Glad you're better."

Gadget closes her eyes and very subtly shakes her head. "I'm not better," she says. "I've just got the strength to hide it again."

Merek nods a bit to Gadget, while he seems to think about it, "Fair enough," he states, while he offers a yawn. "be well."

"I have several dyes, mostly reds and oranges, but a few others." Ashlee explains, as she moves to the side. She arranges Gadget's hair, slipping a towel beneath her head and taking out a few brushes. "These are the short dyes. The long dyes need bleaching. I don't think you want to do that."

And then she gets to work applying them.