Late on a Sunday evening, but still plenty of time to spend time with folks before all good golems have to go to bed, and so she is here, at A Place Where She Could Find Jon. She has her usual messenger bag over her body, and once she steps inside and it's warm, shucks off her heavy black coat. "I am told," she explains to Nana, holding the door for her, "that Jon and Dielle are here often, so I thought, it is a good place to find people. And I have not been to swim since I was in Israel." Can goylomim swim? Do they sink? Important questions.
Jon was suspended over the pool, his knees over one of the moneky bars above the water and hanging upside down like a bat in his baord shorts. Notably he observed, "Dee you actually look tall again from this angle." Okay most muscled, swole bat in a long ass time, but for him it was just how things were. Jotun was Jotun and didnt' seem to make any effort to call attention to this fact. "Still think we should think about weekend trip. Shit's gonna get busy soon."
"That's because I'm only short compared to you, Ludo!" replies Dielle, who's seen Labyrinth recently. "I'm game for a weekend trip. Next weekend! I already made reservations." She got busy today. She sees Gisa walk in with Nana, since she's in line-of-sight for the front door and calls out, "Over here, ladies! Jon's doin' his Spiderman impression!" She's wearing a bathing suit, a bikini that shows that over her right hip is (to Lost or ensorcelled eyes) not a tattoo, but a brand that's hard to look at long enough to figure out what it is. She pretty much ignores its existence. (But if she were a My Little Pony, that'd be her cutie mark. It might even be the kind Miskatonic U would approve of.)
Wandering out of the locker room, Max has changed into a modest black one-piece with little shorts that one can swim in. Her hair is pulled back into a bun and she has a towel draped across her shoulders. Spotting a few familiar faces around the pool, the enchanted mortal grins and lifts a hand to wave to the Lost. "Hey guys. How's everyone doing this evening?" she wonders with a both curious and friendly tone. Without missing a beat, she makes her way over to the pool. The towel is set down she can easily reach from the edge of the pool. Then with a fluid motion, she dives into the deep end. It's just a few moments before she reaches the surface again, treading the water while she looks around at the current company for the evening.
"Have you ever swum in the dead sea, dear?" Nana's question is for Gisa, naturally, since she's the one holding the door for the old bitty. She's wearing a granny one-piece with skirt flourish, along with duck floaties on her turkey-neck arms. In place of her usual chair, she's scooting along with a walker, complete with tennis balls on the forelegs. Step step, scoot. Step step, scoot. "I'm told that's very good for the skin. Swimming in the dead sea. Or maybe it was the scrubs made from the salt from the dead sea. My memory isn't what it used to be." Step step, scoot. "I hope I'm not holding you up. By the time we get to the water, it will be time to head back home."
Jon had, for what it was worth to the ensorcled/lost, looked like he was made of solid, but moving ice, if he wasn't entirely. Blue, translucent in places, and -//- etched into the ice across one shoulder, which, Gisa might identify. Beyond that there were no tattoos. For Max? It might look like an old tattoo really. It was more subtle. His head swiveled and offered without expression, "Nana, would you like any assistance? It's no sweat." And.. a mobile Max. He paused and up...well downnoddied to DIelle as he was inverted?! at Max's healthy arrival. That... taht did get a faint smile.
"It is not so much swimming as floating. Difficult to describe. But yes. I have. It is a powerful experience. I recommend it. Perhaps someday I will take people to Israel." Gisa sets down her bag and her coat, and takes off her boots. To the eyes of those who can see miens, her boots (no socks) are an odd thing: boots on top but only a strap across the arch of the foot to hold them in place on the bottom. Earthbones need to touch the dirt, y'all. "You are not holding me up, Nana. However, if you would like my assistance, I would be glad to assist you, but I will be glad to wait for you all the same." She shucks off her jeans and her shirt, and hopefully she's got dry clothes in her bag, because underneath her outdoors clothes, she has on an extremely modest bathing costume -- black, long sleeved, full pants. "Hello, everyone. We are well. I thought it would suit Nana to swim. Max, have you met Nana?"
"Hi, Max!" says Dielle. She's already yelled her hellos to Gisa and Nana. "Nice dive, Max! How's everyone doin'?" She looks at Gisa's bathing suit, and looks surprised, then nods at it. It's mixed company, after all. "Nana, I'd take him up on it, if I were you. Then you can always refer to him as your cabana boy...have you met Jon yet?" She's sitting by the side of the water, not in it yet. She's waiting to see Jon do a cannonball and trying to stay out of the splash zone.
Jon had to agree with DIelle, "Nana I'll totally be your cabana boy. In fact when SUmmer rolls about we should do a trip tot eh riverfront and just let people try to guess who you are and why you ahve an entourage. Shit, go to teh movies and I'll get a black t-shirt and slacks that I do for bouncing and an earpiece. Dee can run up to you for your autograph. See how many people try to get pics with you for beign clearly fameous. It'd be a riot."
Step step, scoot. Step step, scoot. Nana draws nearer the pool at her own efficient, if slow pace. "Oh, no, Jon dear. I'm just fine, thank you just the same. The water will do me some good once I get there." It takes her some time, but with Gisa there to ensure her stability, and her walker to boot, she eventually does make it pool side. She has a hearty cackle at Jon's latest suggestions, though her head shakes in the negative. "Oh, at my age I've no interest in attracting attention like that. Maybe if you'd caught me in my salad days! Oh, I could show an ankle..." She leans rather heavily onto Gisa's arm as she descends down into the water at the shallow end, knees all awobbling. "Besides. That's how They find you, you know. Pictures in newspapers, stories of glamor unwarranted. It sounds like it would be real fun, and then something sneaks into your dreams and sucks your brains out through a straw-- and then where are you? In a coma. In bed. All your friends saying, 'Oh, Jon was such a nice boy.'" Nana, once she's down in the water, seems much relieved. She even sighs contentedly. "I really ought to design a zero gravity machine."
Well ain't that a thing. Gisa helps Nana into the water, and her mouth opens, and her mouth closes, as Nana ticks off all of the reasons why pictures in papers are a bad thing. When she gets to 'brains through a straw,' Gisa just shakes her head slowly. She doesn't gainsay the old biddie, though, and follows her into the water. "Bubbe, that is a certain way to look at it," she admits. The water doesn't really bubble around Gisa, but it's certainly warmer to be near her than to not be near her. Which might make people think that Gisa pees in the pool. Such are the trials of being a golem, one supposes: your radiant bodyheat makes people think untoward things when you're in the pool. "But going to the riverfront sounds like fun."
It's obvious that the previous injury Max had is all healed up by the way she moves through the water. Even if it's just casually for now, there's no impediment in her movement. "Thanks!" she replies with a wide grin to Dielle. "Let me see yours," she calls out, chuckling gently with an encouraging tone. A smile is flashed briefly to Jon before she lets her attention drift toward Gisa and Nana. "Not until now," she says, offering a friendly smile to the old Lost. A hand lifts from the water to wave at Nana, the mortal quite friendly. "Nice to meet you, Nana. Like everyone keeps calling me by, I'm Max. New around here or just finally getting out and about?" she asks curiously as she treads water for a few moments.
Jon said drily, "I don't think anyone on this earth is brain damaged emough to mistake me for a nice boy, Nana. I sit on counters. It's all rather shameless." He shook his head and let it go. The news of things invading dreams though was... not a thing he really cared to revisit. To Dielle he said "This shit keeps up and I'm a have to beat up Cartoon kevin Kline again. MAaaaax, good to see YOU are feelin better. What up Mimebreaker?" Yes, she was gettin a nickname.
Dielle says to Nana, "Frat boy. Thinks he's a bad boy. It's ok, we know the truth. He is right about the shameless, though. And believe me, we both got experience about somethin' attacking dreams." She says to Max, "Let you see my what? I mean, I ain't got a problem flashing you, if that's what you're askin' for. I just don't think it's that much of a thrill."
"Oh, I was born and raised here, dear. I'm so old, I'm part of the scenery. So I imagine I've been fairly easy to miss. And I don't have an easy time getting out and about any longer, either. Having my dog has helped, though. They make you ten years younger. But the key to keeping going is staying active. My mother lived to be ninety-seven! Fell over dead in her garden. Right onto her tomatoes. The officer that rolled her over thought she'd been shot." Nana actually laughs at this morbid business, which is pretty much in keeping with her whole creepy old lady shtick. "In any case, it's nice to meet you Max. Is that short for Maxine, by chance?" The chat about invading dreams draws Nana's attention. Perhaps a bit shrewdly, "Oh? You know, old Nana may have something that could help you sleep nice and sound for the right price."
"Mimebreaker? That doesn't even make sense. Maybe Broken By Clowns... I mean, they talked. Mimes don't talk," Max points out to Jon with a playful smirk. "There was only one clown too." The enchanted mortal glances away from the giant icicle and looks back over toward Nana with a curious smile. "Nope, it's just Max. Maxine is much too fancy for the likes of me," she answers, chuckling gently. Dipping under the water, she emerges again further into the deep end. At the talk of dreams, she glances curiously at the various Lost, her brows raising some with apparent interest.
"Max is a Custodian now. Ashe let everyone know earlier today. So. Mazel tov to you for this, Max. And welcome." Gisa neither sinks like a stone nor floats like pumice. Some things the Mien doesn't affect. She seems content to let the pair introduce themselves to each other, and she lowers herself into the water until only her eyepits are above the water. Her coppery hair does slowly turn green.
Jon blinked and was generally an easy going guy in spite of his rather serious, frozen expression. Trufax: Snowskin give the best deadpan. This, though, was the real article. "I'm good, but thanks." Huh, there was a no-go area for him. Ice wall coming up. The moment melted just as fast back to casual with even a bit of a grin< "See, Dee, I told you those killer tomatoes movies might be based on actual events. . Have you met Ian? He's got a whole garden of surley brussel sprouts." He watched Gisa patiently assist with a general aire of approval before curling up to a sit on teh bars above. "Max, nicknames are never based on making sense. Except mine. And that was accidently and ahead of when it'd be appropriate. Besides, if you like Clowncrusher better we cna roll with that." He paused and admitted to her, "Two years ago I picked up the nickname Iceman or Fridgerator cause of the team. Bout a year later did it actually make any fuckin sense." There was some foretelling irony. "Ah, wow. Baller. Well congrats, Max. Can I ask how and when the hell did that happena nd are you ok?"
Dielle watches Gisa, and tries not to giggle. She manages pretty well, but she does slip into the water, herself. She doesn't start swimming laps yet. "Brussels sprouts are surly? I like 'em, they're like bite-sized cabbages!" She turns to Max and says, "Congratulations! That's pretty cool!" She seems a bit puzzled, but that's all good." She smiles at Nana and says, "Jon's pretty good at bein' a sleep aid. Free, too! But if it becomes a problem, I'll let you know, and find out what you charge!"
"Oh," Nana says as though noting something perhaps inappropriate has just been suggested, "Oh, well I suppose that's so." She gives Dielle a cospiratorial wink at that. "Oh, I got my little trinket second hand, actually. I may be able to create a market for them, assuming I can convince my source to produce them in sufficient quantity. And work out a price schedule that's to their liking. Then there's markups, and rollups. You know how it can be, I imagine, clever girl like you. In any case, if Jon doesn't do the trick in the future, you just let me know." Nana proceeds to float on out into the deeper water to truly get her body weight off her skeleton. She proceeds to float in rather blissful repose, humming to herself. Off key, mind you. But happy.
"I didn't even crush anything! Need I remind you I'm the one that got messed up in that situation?" Max says, unable to help but laugh playfully at Jon. "And uh, why wouldn't I be okay? I just walked into Ashe's office and asked if I could join. Then she said sure, I'd be a recruit for now. She even gave me my first task to deliever a book to someone," she explains, smiling lightly. Obviously she's pleased, even with the small little job. Looking over to Dielle first, then Gisa, she gives them both an appreciative smile before her gaze rests on the latter. "You're part of the group too, right?"
The lurking golem slowly rises out of the water, the shin glowing on her forehead a little bit more than it had been a moment ago, and then Gisa answers, "Yes, I am a Custodian also. I had meant to join before but then I went to Israel." She's in the water, in a long-sleeved, full-pants swim costume that floats around her in the water. Nana is quietly floating off in the deep end in a flowery swimsuit with little floaties on her arms, quietly enjoying the low-gravityness of the water. "So now I am back. If you need assistance with your task, I will be glad to help."
Jon grew quiet and nodded to Max. Casual, sure, totes... casual. "Yeha, though, not everyone is. I mean here yeah, but not everyone is. Good to find out first. As a general rule before discussin the playbook and then finding out the person you're tlkin to is Ohio State. Happens. But that's cool actually." His brow furrowed and he wasn't going to get into it with a grandmother. He had far too much innate respect for that. It just wasn't something you fucking do. He did give her a faint smile and say "C'mon, give me some credit. It's the one thing I actually do well." His shoulders saggedas he dropped down off the bar. THe ppool aorund him was a distinct 10* colder near him from doing so. Hey, boy was made of block ice. That couldn't be helped. He walked out of the pool and mused aloud, "No oone recognizes carpentry anymore when IKEA sells shit at a third the price on demand." Who knew what that was about, but it was also just as likely that he was deadpanning that too. There was a faint smile and he said to them, I have to check in on shift and turn the on-call over to me. I'll be back."
Dielle watches Jon, trying to parse out what he's saying, but sometimes, she has no clue what he's talking about and this is one of those times. She takes some time to swim from Jon's area to Gisa's, being a bit on the cold side in her bikini. "Don't ask. Just don't ask," she comments, but she watches him go. Then she turns her attention back to everyone.
This place has water. There's like water that people are getting in. So when Kyle shows up in his Batman hoodie over a red shirt, blue jeans and red Chuck Taylors, he pads into the room and just kind of looks uncertainly at this thing where people are in the water getting wet on purpose. It's not like he is AGAINST water. He likes drinking it! But...awkward.
Max watches the giant walking iceberg as he heads off. Looking over to Dielle, she seems to get an idea of what that expression on her face and offers the unicorn a warm smile. "I think he means something like..." She pauses for a moment, carefully deciding her words. "Nobody recognizes the quality of what he does because of cheap knock offs or whatever being more easily attainable... Something like that." She shrugs gently and chuckles lightly. Then she spots a familiar furry face wander in and grins over to Kyle. "Hey! Going to join us for a swim?" she calls out to him.
She just looks after Jon for a moment, her eye-flames blinking on and off, and then they grow steady again as she turns her attention toward the arriving cat.
Like a continent rising from the sea, Gisa stands up in the water.
She slowly extends her arms, both of them, toward Kyle, with her loose black sleeves hanging from her ceramic arms, cascading sheets of water back into the pool, and calls, "KYYYYYYYYYLE," her booming voice echoing off of the walls. Slowly, she advances toward the edge of the pool, and catbestfriend. She'll arrive next Thursday, at the rate she's moving, but she's coming. Inexorable. Indefatiguable. Dripping water. "Kyyyyyle."
Golem humor. Nothing beats it.
Dielle looks over at Max and then at Jon. She sighs. "Sometimes, I wanna beat him with a pipe wrench. He forgets to actually mention he's in the Order of Oneirophysicians and then gets cranky that people don't just suss it out." She sighs, and dives under the water, just in time to hear the first and second cries of "KYYYYYYYYLE". So she comes OUT of the water and flips her hair back. "Hey, Kyle!" she yells.
Kyle's pupils go wide and dark at Gisa, and he visibly bristles in spite of himself. His fur just stands completely on end! He was already a little edgy about the water, and in his mind he knows it's Gisa messing with him harmlessly, but still! "Max, hi. Uh...I dunno if I should. Gisa's...chasing me." He'll have to get around to fleeing at some point. Maybe tomorrow. Should give him plenty of a head start. He grins with his maw full of sharp cat-fangs and gets a notepad out of a pocket along with a pen. Like he's about to start taking notes here!
Looking back to Dielle again, she offers the unicorn a soft smile. "Maybe nudge him that he should brag more about it. I don't exactly know what this Order is but if it's something he's proud to be part of, he should boast it!" she replies with a wide grin. Then she dips under the water again as she swims a bit closer to the swallow end of the pool. Popping back up, she chuckles with mirth as she watches the interaction between golem and cat. "Maybe she won't be able to catch you in water. Better jump in to find out," she teases with a playful wink.
When Kyle actively bristles, Gisa stops, flopping her arms down into the water. They splash, but they're far enough away from Kyle that it's not like he's going to actually get splashed. "It is okay, Kyle, I will not really chase you. I am only pretending." In case he didn't know that for real and thought that Gisa was actually chasing him. The earnestness on the golem's expression is unimpeachable. "You do not have to swim if you do not want to. I brought Nana because it is good for her joints and things, to get more exercise."
Dielle nods at Max. "I do, every so often. But sometimes, he gets stuck in his head and I just wanna beat the crap out of him. Ain't like I'm really gonna hurt him, y'know?" There's a great deal of fondness in her voice, and worry. But she grins at Gisa and says, "Better reassure her, Kyle, or she'll think you're really serious. You should see about getting in. Should be ok if you ease into it."
The bristling is obviously involuntary. Kyle could no more help it than anyone else if their hair stood on end, but he seems at ease psychologically anyway! "I know Gisa. I trust you completely." he says to her, his tone genuine as he finishes writing whatever it is he was writing on the notepad and tossing it and the pen on the ground. Then he folds up a sheet of paper her tore out of it, slips it into a hip pocket and takes another piece out to wad up.
It's literally magic, the way his clothes instantly transform. They shift around him to make a red pair of swim trunks and he stands there quite obviously covered in fur even where clothes usually rest, tail whipping about free as you please.
Kyle's response to the teasing he's gotten is to brace himself and take a running start before hurling himself into the water with a splash!
Max blinks in surprise as she watches Kyle's outfit change before her eyes. "Whoa, how do your clothes do that?" she questions curiously, those bright blue eyes of hers a bit wide with awe. For now, the mortal treads in her spot, though she does offer a grin the cat's way. "Never seen a cat swim before," she tells Kyle warmly. Then she looks over to Gisa and chuckles. "You could be threatening if you wanted to, I'm sure, but you're not exactly that way naturally. Not to me, at least."
"He is a magic cat," Gisa explains, and lapses back into the water, floating easily. Kyle's reassurance is received with a simple, "Good," and the eyeflames of the golem go out. She lays back onto her back, floating on the water, and is thus caught totally unaware when the cat cannonballs into the water. Spluttering golem, laughter, and she rights herself. "Well done, Kyle." Her eyeflames come back on again, and she tips her head toward Max. "Thank you. I am glad to hear that. I would not like to be threatening toward the people I am meant to protect."
Dielle is trying to be merry, but she's still rather bothered. She keeps looking at the door Jon walked out of, furtively, and then the splash happens. It's a hell of a distraction. "That...was completely not what I expected."
Okay so it's a cat-cannonball. There is a great splash and some waves and spluttering, and whatever Kyle heard better have been mid-air or he wasn't going to know it was said to him. When he surfaces again he looks like an atrocity. His fur is completely matted against him, drooping. He looks a bit thinner than before, and drips from everywhere. His ears are a problem and he actually has to shake his head back and forth several times to get the water out of them, but once he finally does he yawns a few times to try to get some equilibrium and says with a shiver in his voice, "..ttthis is ssssso ccccold..." Grinning though! As he makes several whole-body tremors of shivering and hugs himself he tries to explain about his clothes, "...I jjjust have the one ss...sssuit. Magic ssssuit...ddddt dt dt..." He laughs a little as he tries to get his trembling under control then, because it's making it hard for him to talk.
"If you need to go and talk to him, Dielle, we will not be offended. He is your Jotun. You should be concerned about his feelings." Trust Gisa to just Say Things. When Kyle comes up shivering, the golem makes her way through the water to him, and casually gathers him up into her arms like he's, well, a kitten. Gisa is warm. The water around her is warm. (But thankfully not in the gross way.) She's a natural heater and she knows it. Kyle can easily extract himself if he desires to do so, but, well, now he's got his portable bestfriendheater at the ready. She settles sort of seated in the water, and is content. Apparently she's seen the clothes thing before. It's just Kyle, being Kyle. And now she is a Kyleperch. This is her life.
Max smiles curiously as she watches the interaction between cat and golem. "I was about to suggest swimming around to heat yourself up but Gisa there looks pretty warm," she says with a gentle chuckle. The mortal's bright-eyed gaze shifts over to Dielle once more and she gives a small nod of agreement with Gisa. "Yeah, go check on him. I'm sure you'll comfort him more than silence."
Dielle looks at Gisa for a long moment, then offers her a smile of thanks. She offers the same smile to Max, for setting her straight, then she hoists herself up out of the water, shakes herself off, and grabs a towel before following Jon out the same door.
"Tktch dsgh-sh-sshkll..." It may be a strange thing to base a friendship on, but Kyle is completely okay with basing it on warmth. Especially now. He almost hyperventilates even after she gathers him up. In steps he starts to calm and relax and blow out controlled breaths. "Phew...okay...okay...Oh Gisa thank you." He leans back against her, eyes closed and looking ridiculous while wet still. He just relaxes in the relative warmth, evne if chills take time to go away. "Side effect of things I guess is I do not deal well with cold. I didn't even think about the water. Man." He starts to acclimate and pats Gisa's arm in a sign that she can let him go. "I think I'll be okay. No heart attack just yet." He watches after Dielle and then looks to Max. "Hope it wasn't something I said."
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