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There was something to Riz that always craved to know that he cared about his friends. An urge that welled deep within his being that he didn't know what to do with… Well, he kinda did.
In his early memories of his parents, he remembered his dad giving "shines" to his mom, whether it was an actual piece of jewelry, or something smaller like a pendant that hung on her bag. Any time something broke, he would fix it. This wasn't just his dad to his mom either: His mom always brought "shines" to him too, from earrings to ties he would wear- Anything was on the table for "shines", and yet, Riz thought it was simply, and exclusively, a romance thing.
It made sense, right? Goblins gifting shines to other goblins meant they cared for each other and wanted to provide. But, Riz didn't seek romance, but he sought to give his friends shines. He has for a while, ever since this gaggle of goofs became his friends. Shines…
Riz had a big collection of shines that he had collected through the years, whether from the ground due to someone dropping it, or asking his mom for it in the store and her allowing it. Various shines, all that he had taken care of cleaning and maintaining, in a chest that he now looked into and wondered: Which ones does he give away to his friends?
The school year was done and over with, and he and his mom were invited to the house warming party for Lydia and Ragh. Of course, they both agreed- His mom deserved the break and some good, homemade food she didn't cook, and he wanted to see his friends again, but now it left Riz wanting to bring something.
He sat on the floor, his eyes and hands scanning the different shines he had. Something practical for them all, that wouldn't be a hassle or a hindrance, but something he could sneak onto them without them realizing. Pulling out one of the necklace chains he managed to grab, his mind immediately flashed to Adaine. The gold was looped in small chain links, too long for a goblin to wear, but Riz guessed that the chain would fit perfectly on Adaine, and there was enough room that it could hold something on it easily.
Allowing the chain to drape across his fingers, eventually grabbing one end to look at the clasp and the ending loops, finding that they were in tact, and working. He remembers finding it on the floor of a store, no tag attached to it. He slipped it into his pocket without his mom noticing, and has had it tucked away since then. Even without the story, he hoped Adaine would like it, he noticed that she would fidget with the collar of her tee shirt so often, tugging it away from her chest, but in a way that wasn't "get this off of my, I'm suffocating" and more of a grounding response to having something on the back of her neck.
He, gently, curled Adaine's shine on itself and tucked it to his side. One out of six picked. His eyes immediately began scanning again, before landing to his collection of bracelets. Admittedly, it was small, but there was one that stood out almost immediately: A thick, black, rubber bracelet with a silver clasp on the end. It used to have a silver bracket to show that it was a bracelet to someone's daughter, but Riz has long since taken that off and placed it with the miscellaneous pendants. But, the pure black wouldn't be fitting, not for who he had in mind.
He looked into the miscellaneous items, trying to see if there was one that fit, both what he had in mind, and the bracelet in a literal sense. It wasn't until he spotted some loose thread that he got an idea, grabbing it out and beginning to twist it on itself, before grabbing a lighter and burning the ends to form them together, doing that for both ends, before carefully measuring, pinching, and burning the ends to another part of the twist to make a make-shift pedant with the thread. He grinned and twisted the thread back into position, before grabbing the bracelet and slipping it on, clasping it together.
Riz can't even remember how many shirts he tore apart when they started to fray, eventually becoming part of the thread pile, but he does remember that he had a variety of colors, choosing the colors of the rainbow to add color for, what is now, Kristen's shine. Tucked right beside Adaine's.
During his search for a pendant, he remembered spotting a flower clip. Pulling it out, he realized it was a barrette that he painted white and never finished. But, there was something charming about it: Riz couldn't figure out what color he wanted to make the barrette part, but he liked how the white made the flower a lighter grey instead, and kept it that way…
He also realized that it was a little too small for him, not exactly made for the size of a goblin. He had other barrettes, but the others had been given a similar treatment, only this one caught his eye for being closer to silver. He had bugged his mom into buying the pack, made for "average sized humanoids" because of the variety of choices on it. He painted one and gave it to his mom, who still uses it to this day, a butterfly that is clipped onto her purse painted blue and gold… He should paint the other one, actually, make her a new one for her new job.
Regardless, he tucked Gorgug's shine with Kristen and Adaine's, the flower being silver and clip being white was pretty as is and didn't need much of his intervention. Plus, with Gorgug growing his hair out, his bangs were starting to get in his eyes when he worked, and the one side can tuck behind his ear, the only side can't do that as easily.
He decided to look at the rings that he had, trying to see if there was something there for Fabian or Fig. His eyes caught on the red metal of a too-long piece of metal. Younger Riz thought it was some sort of ring for an ogre, but now looking at it, he realized: it was a metal tube for the strings, something Fig had called a "slide". He had watched her play at concerts, and realized quickly that she would use it for some songs and drop it for others. One flick with his nail made him grin at the fact that, yes, it was steel with a red coating. Perfect. He placed Fig's shine in the shine pile, and realized all he had left was Fabian.
Looking at the rings yielded nothing of interest, as well as the bracelets, and necklaces, the miscellaneous items weren't it either. All he had left was earrings, which he didn't think would show much of anythin- His eyes locked onto the cuff earring that he had, made for elves and half elves. He remembers finding it in the grass in middle school, the gleam of gold caught his attention, and he snagged it up immediately. Now, looking at it, the gold seemed to scream Fabian, but the design was what made Riz particularly perk up: five lines crossed and braided over each other, with a chain coming off the back to meet in a typical hoop piercing.
Riz immediately deemed this Fabian's shine, tucking it with the rest and looking at it. A small graced his features, before his eye caught one last thing: A silver ring that tapered. Now that he was older and had hung around folks who were different than goblins, he realized that it was a tusk ring, made for someone like an orc or a half orc. He snagged it out as well, deeming it worthy of Ragh's shine. Easily, he gathered the items and tucked them into his pocket, in time to sprint out of his room when his mom called.
~~~
It was a lot of laughing and talking and happiness over Ragh and Lydia being moved in, the delicious dinner of chili, just able to lounge and sit on Gorgug's lap as the half orc talked about something he's working on, his mind thinking about taking an artificer class- Artificer! How incredible was that! Riz noticed, after the third time of it happening, that his bangs were starting to annoy him. Gorgug would flick his head to the side to try and fix it, only to do it again anywhere from three to seven second later.
Easily, Riz slipped into his pocket after it happened for the seventh time that minute, taking out the flower clip, before standing up in front of Gorgug and turning to him. Easily, nearly lazily, he unclipped the barrette and brushed Gorgug's hair with his claws, sliding the clip in place and snapping it down. Looking at it, he realized very quickly that Gorgug looked quite cute with the clip, the white of his hair and the barrette matched in a way Riz wasn't expecting, and the dark contrast of black made the silver pop beautifully.
"Uhh.. Riz? What is that?" Gorgug asked, and Riz nearly responded with 'a barrette to keep your hair out of your face'. It wasn't a wrong statement, but Riz didn't respond with that, instead, he responded with: "A shine."
Had he been more aware, he would have noticed his mom's attention focus on him, but Riz was… Well, more content than he had been in a while, his guard was down, and he had just given the first shine. Instead of sitting back down, however, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the next shine, which happened to be Kristen's bracelet. He stood in front of her, holding one hand out while waiting for her to get the message. She did, holding out her wrist, and he latched the bracelet onto her wrist. "It's stainless steel, not actual silver."
Kristen looked at him as if he had grown three heads, but he ignored it. Kristen had her shine, the black and rainbow against he sunkissed, freckled skin was more contrasting yet cohesive than Riz ever though it would be, and Riz grabbed the next one out. The necklace gracefully swirled out, and he looked to Adaine, seeing an anxious but excited look as he approached. Although, she hesitated on it, she still pulled her hair out of the way, and Riz moved around her to get the necklace on.
When he came back around front, he was right, the necklace sat perfectly on Adaine, and still matched her outfit with the dim gold it was. It almost looked silver in certain lights, which made Riz's ears and tail relax. There were no comments, only silence, as Riz grabbed out the next shine and approached Fig. She held out her hand to him, and he slipped the slider on, finding it, not only a perfect fit, but the groove at the stop allowed for her finger to move. Theoretically, she didn't have to drop it, and could instead play a whole set with it. She took her hand away from his to admire it.
Riz grabbed out the next shine, which was Ragh's. Riz moved over to him, holding out the ring and taking care in cradling his jaw, before slipping the tusk ring on. Yeah… Silver on green skin looked nice, and he pulled away after that, leaving the last one to be: Fabian. And he did, moving over and showing off the earring, and Fabian tilted his head to accommodate. The two that were there, one in the helix and the stud, got removed and settled in Fabian's hand, before the cuff went on, clicking down lightly, and the hoop followed.
He pulled back, signally to Fabian to look at him, and his shoulder dropped in some weird sense of relaxation over the fact of Fabian looking stunning in the shine. He re-took his place on Gorgug's lap, tail swirled to settle on his lap, with the tip thumping lightly in content. Looking around, he could see everyone admiring their shine however they could, and it only made Riz smile.
~~~
It could have been so so easy to ditch the shines as nothing more than 'pieces', and Riz worried that, maybe, he wouldn't see the shines again decorating his people. But when he visited Mordred Manor, before the beginning of the school year, he noticed Ragh was still wearing the tusk ring. Proudly, at that, and his accessories seemed to compliment it as well. It eased him slightly. At least Ragh was wearing his, even when he didn't need to.
When school started again, Fabian drove to pick him up, with a morning cup of coffee, and his earring worn. Riz pointedly ignored the pride that filled his chest. Which was even more impossible when they pulled up to school, and noticed Kristen still wearing her bracelet. Cool, it's cool, it's- His tail kept swishing happily, and he tried to ignore the pride as he did what work he needed to do.
It didn't just end with those two- No, out of everyone, Riz expected to not see his shine anywhere on Fig, and yet, her usual, silver steel slider wasn't on its usual chain, instead replaced with the red one that Riz gave her. His shine was on a special little place, and he couldn't help the rhythmic thumping of his tail against his briefcase. He noticed that Adaine's was on, when she tugged on the chain, giving a light kiss to her knuckle, before setting it back down in it's place.
The straw that broke the camel's back was seeing Gorgug, who's shine was nowhere to be seen, take out his barrette and clip it into his hair as he was working on something, as if it was second nature.
So, yes, Riz was so overwhelming happy, that he had to go get himself changed and cleaned up and brush his teeth to rid the taste of throw up from his mouth.
Did he regret it? Not in the fucking slightest.
Did it take him a couple days to stop getting so overwhelmed that he threw up? Yeah, it took close to two weeks of violent tail swishing, goblinoid squeaking, and hyperventilating to finally act… Relatively normal again around his group, but he would do it again in a heart beat if it meant that he got to see his people in shines.