Welcome to Gaia! ::

*Totally for sure working on obtaining a nice pic of Drossel to put in these RPs* sweatdrop

The afternoon air was a little crisp for his liking, but for once Drossel didn't mind. He felt he could use the fresher air after his discovery in the art room the other day; that some of his special paints didn't exactly harmonize with close quarters. It had been all he could do to air the place out before the next day's class, and even then he was certain some Nixie had sniffed the air and mumbled something. With any luck, nobody would have suspected the harmless little goblin with the goofy smile and silly hat.

At the moment, he had brought another work in progress outside, and was taking advantage of the open space to paint a bit more enthusiastically, holding his brush in his strong tail, waving it like a wand and smiling in satisfaction as the canvas was spattered with thin red paint. Hints of the red peeked out from the blades of grass around the easel, but those would vanish the next time someone took it upon themselves to water or trim the grounds. At this distance he could hardly smell the paint's tell-tale odor, though he knew it was also partially due to his watering it down to make it easier to tail-paint; the effect looked something like a watercolor painting by someone who apparently had yet to discover that there were colors other than red.

Smiling to himself, he did what he thought was an elaborate twirl, the paint splatting in a line across the canvas, when he suddenly realized that his top hat had fallen off and was lying on the ground. He was stooping down to pick it up when he paused, ears twitching. Was that......rattling he was hearing?

Drossel straightened up without taking his eyes off of the area from where he had heard the rattling, and sure enough he saw a freshling emerge from around the bend. His head tilted in curiosity; he didn't know very many of the students at Arkham, especially the little ones, but he was fairly certain he would have remembered THIS little one. From a different school, perhaps? And just like the last one he had encountered, without a caretaker in sight; really, what WERE those people doing?

He watched her seem to hunker down into her snakelike coils, probably wary of the bigger person standing before her. A thought blazed across his mind; snakes could smell pretty well. Could she smell his paint, and if so, what it was made of? He had taken great pains to keep it a secret, but still......it wouldn't feel right sending her away just for that remote possibility. Ah well, he could always concoct a silly explanation if she asked; he felt as though he had his 'harmless goblin' act down pretty well.

He tilted his head to the other side and put on a harmless smile. "Well hello there. I hope I didn't scare you." As if on cue, his tail snaked up, still holding the paint brush, and began to wiggle about, sending watery red paint dripping onto the grass. Drossel turned to the tail and addressed it with a slight air of exasperation. "Just a minute, will you? I'm trying to talk to the lady."

Drossel stifled a genuine laugh at the freshling's obvious confusion at the 'talking' tail. Okay, maybe he had overdone it a little, but he had noticed that many little ones found such things to be charming and easy to believe, like someone playing with a sock puppet even though they still knew that there was just a hand underneath.

He watched her come closer, and braced himself for the small fingers grasping his tail. He tried to make it wiggle just enough to where it wouldn't shake any paint on the little one, but still seem as though it was reacting to being grabbed. "Sorry about that; see, it doesn't get to paint as often as my hands do. Though I bet it wished it could make noise, like yours does." He watched the young one curiously as she felt the tail, wondering just how many goblins with prehensile tails she had encountered.

"Wellll......." Drossel drew out the word and scratched his head a bit aimlessly. Of all the questions he had thought the little one would ask of him, that hadn't been one of them. Already she seemed a lot more observant than others her age. He did smile as Bismae rattled her tail, and tried to shake the tip of his in return, though he knew it would be rather boring in comparison, since his didn't make any noise. "Yes, I'm afraid it has no rattle in it, but it's strong enough to pick up things, like brushes. Or anything it wants, for that matter; it can be such a frustrating tail." At this, he allowed his tail tip to slowly bend downward, as though hanging in shame.

Tilting his head in consideration, Drossel turned his head to observe his painting. "I really like red. It has so many different meanings. It can be angry, or passionate, or energetic. Some people even think red is the color of courage. Of course, it can also be a delicious color; who out there doesn't enjoy a nice dollop of ketchup with their fresh-cut fries, am I right?" He smiled wider at the next question. "Oh it can be, and at times I use other colors. But there can be different shades of the same color. I like different shades of red, and like trying to find new ones as I go."