Studying in Secret (Thimb, Sithani)

"It's somewhat wonderful that we can trust random street vendors to have better food than such a prestigious institution as this - thank you by the way," Sithani adds as she takes the offered candy drops. "Either that or Gwynnestri's meds reacted badly with something she ate." She shudders. "Here's a bit of advice from my own hard-won experience: never take dreamfire after eating anything peppery."

"Oh, obviously," said Thimb, not seeming to be joking at all. "dreamfire lowers water surface tension, which isn't a big deal, especially inside our bodies, but given the delicate balance that is our gut flora and how pepper is repelled when the tension is lowered..." Thimb made a hand gesture that could potentially be viewed as an explosion, "really, anything that messes with the water in your body you should be extra careful with," Thimb went on, not realizing she was talking about a street drug as if it were one of her lab experiments. "Often hydrating with something other than water before, like juices, not alcohol though, that'd just dehydrate you more..."

She trailed off and flushed, "I'm babbling. Sorry about that," she said, starting to chew on her pencil to keep herself from babbling further (apparently where Hamish's habit of pencil chewing came from).

"Not at all. It's good to know why things happen." She smiles. "I didn't expect you to know so much about how dreamfire works."

"Oh! I was taking a class here- not, you know, as an official students, but some classes are open to whoever, and one of my classmates was fascinated by the structure of the stuff. I helped them identify some of the components, nothing big, but learned a lot about it. Academically," she clarified, as if that wasn't already painfully obvious. "I... don't get invited to those kinds of parties. Or... really many parties at all..." she said with a thoughtful frown. Hamish trotted over and headbutt her arm comfortingly.

"Oh!" Sithani reaches over and pats Thimb's hand reassuringly. "What in the hells are people thinking? I mean, I don't know whether you'd enjoy them or not, but I absolutely promise to invite you to the next one I throw. You're a fucking delight to talk to."

Thimb smiled a bit shyly at Sithani's response, "I don't know if I'd like it, either... but thanks. I like talking to you, too. You have such a wealth of knowledge I haven't been anywhere near yet. And, I mean, I have been to parties," she said blushing a little, "but like, barn raising kind of parties? I've helped raise a lot barns." Her mage hand helpfully held a book at a nearly impossible angle to demonstrate how an unusually small gnome might be useful for such a task. "Not that I can hold much with mage hand," she added on, "but not having a mage arm attached to it gives it a lot of advantages."

"I can imagine," Sithani replies, finding it impossible not to include a flirtatious tone in there. "And if we're talking about knowledge, you're the one who actually studied for her power over the elemental cosmic forces. My study extends mostly to philosophy, which has few directly practical applications as of yet."

"I won't pretend I'm not a little bit bitter about warlocks just suddenly being able to do things I've been working on for years over night," said Thimb with a playful glare, "but philosophy of things is how we get to figuring out the actuality of it!" she was growing animated again, "Theory is vital to science and magic, and part of that comes in theorizing and philosophy. Besides, you know how to people and society," she added on, "I've got nothing on that."

Hamish, tiny traitor they were, nodded in grave agreement of Timb's statement of her own lack of social graces. She turned to fix her familiar with a stare which they ignored.

She did not notice the flirtatious tone. Despite having read a fair share of books that made.... creative, use of mage hand, it had never occurred to Thimb she could do that herself. Unless you count tapping people on the shoulder to make them look at nothing. She did that to Jarek a lot.

Sithani nods with a smile. "And theorising about the ontology of things helps us get some understanding of the Outer Planes and the Far Realm! And attacks the assumptions of validity in the current social order, which is always a plus."

"It's so difficult to find good sources of information on the Outer Planes and Far Realms," sighed Thimb wistfully. "A lot of the books written on it are either very thin on information or..." she trailed off, searching for a phrase other than 'written by someone who has gone bibbity' and came up with "difficult to follow."

"That's only to be expected; you can't expect planes like that to be easily described in languages devised to cope with the material experience. I suspect the best anyone can do is go on a series of idiosyncratic associative tangents and hope people follow closely enough. We've both experienced an afterlife, and those are ruled by gods related to and reflected in the material plane, but try describing them in understandable words! I've told you about my visit to the Far Realm but even with my telepathy I couldn't do any better at describing that..." Sithani trails off, waving her hand vaguely. "Place-state-of-mind-interpretation-of-the-world-flash-of-insight."

"One of those you have to see it to get it things," mused Thimb, notching another word out and sliding the pile over to Sithani. "Someone is going to have to talk to our employer once we find but before we return her to make sure she's not going to just be locked up again," she said rubbing her face, accidentally smearing some ink along her cheek.

Sithani nods. "I don't imagine it'll be easy to convince her. Admittedly my parents are hardly stifling, but how does one even approach such a conversation? 'We've got your kid back from her kidnappers, now give her more time outside your watch so she can be at even more risk'."

"If you're not going to let her live you might as well just keep the wax version?" suggested Thimb, making it very obvious she was not the person for this job.

"Ha! Yes, that's basically the summary of what she needs to hear. It's just a question of what she wants to hear, and how to make the latter lead to the former."

"That.... sounds like a challenge for Sunrise, maybe?" suggested Thimb, knowing full well this was not even on the same block as her wheel house.

Sithani nods. "Though it's not a task I'd wish on her."

Jarek's move to extricate himself from Luther's spectacular estate didn't quite work out as planned. First there was the food along the way that slowed his escape--the helpful attendant was right, he was ferociously hungry--and then when he meant to beg out of the ride he'd been offered, he thought again about the possibility of getting ambushed by Redfangs or a slum gang, so it was back into a fine carriage (at least by his standards). And then, of course, at the far end he was dispatched into the Feytower. Not just the stables--he really needed to check on those gryphons properly--or the delivery hall, but all the way through to the main library to find his sister.

It occurs to him, as the enormous wealth of arcane knowledge seemed to press in from all sides, that Thimb might not be all that enthusiastic to be called away. Well. They'll see to it she has plenty of chances to come back.

Lots of students. Lots of shushing. Jarek almost shouts her name across the chamber but catches the impulse in his throat. Maybe the librarians will know where she's hidden. How can he describe her? Would they know her name? "I'm looking for my sister. Very short lady, has a weird familiar, probably here with a friend to study, um, books. Oh! And she's gnomish." That part always slips his mind but always seems to take others by surprise.

The harried librarian gives Jarek a desperate look, as though this huge barbarian of a man had just ordered bagels and fresh fish. "Umm. Okay, you... you just described a fifth of the school and staff," the man says, running a hand through his hair and then scrambling to steady the stack of books which turned out to not be holdable one-handed. "But if they wanted a quiet corner to themselves, I usually direct people over there," he explains, gesturing in a likely direction.

Jarek nods his thanks and gives the man a thumbs-up, rather than disrupt the quiet any further. Cautiously, he wades through the sea of scholastic endeavours in the direction suggested. If he couldn't find her, maybe she'd see him, towering over bent heads and frankly underdressed for this place. Unless she was too focused on her own book. Or her companion...

Thimb sighed, realizing she kind of just had wished that task on Sunrise. "Maybe I could ask one of my Moms to go talk to her? They had lots of experience with Jarek and I dealing in constant dangerous situations. They worried about my liking to bake. I mean, it's dangerous, all those knives and fire in a kitchen. Still, they always got the importance of letting us get into scrapes..." she mumbled before Hamish perked up and flew straight up into the air, doing a strange mid-air spin.

A signal, they had spotted someone who they wanted to spot them back. Thimb scanned the room for who Hamish had gotten excited about and spotted her brother with shocking ease, and waved him over, confused as to what he was doing here.

"Hamish!" Jarek blurts out, just a little too loudly, and then as he picks his way carefully between books and tables and ladders, "Thimb!  And--Sithani!"  He only pauses for a fraction of a second before her name, but it's easy to catch.  They haven't had much to do with each other so far.  Jarek makes a mental note to talk to his sister about their comrades before the day is over.

Anyway.  He has news, and he spent the entire ride over thinking of how to summarise it safely for a public location.  He grins widely.  "Our door-to-door shopping trip got a lot thornier than expected, and fast, but we collected all the goods and got them back rivversside properly quick.  I figured you'd want to know right away.  Have you had much luck?  Oh, and I brought some lunch if you didn't eat already.  Fancy stuff, a little squished maybe.  Do they allow food in here?  And cats?  I got a new cat.  It's been a busy day."

"And here I thought we had been making progress," said Thimb with a smile, "and they allow food, or they haven't told me off if they don't?" she nodded towards the chocolates, indicating he should help himself. Hamish happily crawled up on Jarek to meet the new kitten, poking their nose into the designated small animal pocket. "And sorry did you say you got a new kitten?" because of the things he said that was obviously the one that needed questioning.

Well, you're something of a meal yourself, Sithani thinks, taking the time to appreciate the impressively-underdressed half-orc. "I am impressed with the menagerie we're steadily building. How much did the goods cost?" Let's see how well you can code that, my friend.

Jarek stares at Sithani with a blankness that suggests all of his mental power has been redirected to rise to this challenge. "Well... kind of a lot..." A wide smile suddenly breaks across his face. "But not an arm and a leg like I was afraid it would!"

Jarek instinctively scritches Hamish and the kitten in turns as he talks. "You've been getting some good stuff, eh? Am I interrupting, or are you about ready to pack up and talk about our next outing? I'll feel better about this job when we've got all our smart folks caught up on stuff and agreed on what sort of beast we're dealing with. Y'know. There's a party or something tonight, yeah?"