It's Saturday evening in the back room of Cyclone, and Gisa is settled on the couch. She has her long coat folded neatly on the arm, and is leaning against it as if it's a pillow; in her left hand and propped on the end of that same couch arm is a half-full glass of red wine. One ankle's propped on the opposite knee, forming a platform on which she can rest her book -- a battered volume that's clearly well-loved and quite old, with post-its sticking out of various pages and notations in the margins. Things underlined. That sort of thing. Her right hand balances the book, holds a pen, turns pages right to left occasionally, and sometimes makes a little note in a margin or underlines something. Thoughtful Golem Face. The shin on her forehead glows with a gentle, steady light.
Wait. Wasn't she just doing almost exactly this a few days ago? Goylomim aren't exactly creatures of ceaseless novelty, okay?
Max hadn't seen any familiar faces in the main part of the bar, so she decided to check in the back. Lo and behold, she finds her favorite golem sitting back there! "Hey Gisa!" she greets the Changeling with that friendly tone of hers. Wandering further inside, she moves over find a spot nearby to sit. Though, not too nearby because of her whole touching thing. The mortal is wearing her usual casual attire - unbuttoned black and grey flannel shirt with a white tank top underneath, denim jeans, and sneakers. "How are you?" she questions as she settles into her seat, setting her messenger bag down by her feet. "Are you... taking notes about your book?" she asks with a curious raise of her brow.
A tall thin birdish man wearing a well cut suit slips into the back room of Cyclone with a curious bag held in his left hand. Strix moves with fluid grace in his long legged stride and he peers around the space curiously with every step deeper into the room. He left hand swings the case idly, it is made in the tradition of vintage medical bags with two handles on top yet decorated like something else entirely. The case is a garish shade of yellow with obnoxious Xs all over the bag; Felix the Cat carried one just like it.
Strix doesn't deign to take a seat right away and he lingers, puffy up his shoulders some as he notices the various faces already scattered around the room. A small (nervous?) trill escapes him him just before he says, "Hello, folks." An curt open palm wave follows and he looks around the room with eyes that move slightly out of sync from on another. Strix speaks in an accent from somewhere deep in the heart of New England.
Jessie enters the room with a slow, graceful step that is methodical in its intensity. Where Gisa seems to be relaxing she has a frenetic energy that is perfectly contained by her movements and expressed solely through the way her tattoos are shifting on her arms. Jessica is wearing a low cut tank top, black with white polka dots, a garment which manages to leave everything to the curve of her breast bare save for thin straps hanging over her shoulders. The tattoos there settled into what appears to be Latin script, ornately scrolled across her shoulders and chest. On her lower half the blonde is wearing a red mini skirt and strappy white heels that elevate her to just shy of an even six feet tall.
The Muse's arms, on the other hand, are a riot of movement. That is where the energy is expressed, in ornately shaded black and white moving portraits, like comic books written in the slightly grainy film noir milieu. It is, indeed, a rather famous story that is being portrayed here, though it might not be recognized: Laura, a film about a police detective who falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
Jessie presents herself at the refrigerator now, head tilted slightly as she pulls it open and considers the contents. She shakes her head briefly. "Well, water's good for you at least." So saying she pulls a bottle down biting her cherry red bottom lip as she does. "Evening, everyone."
Old lady with a large drink, coming through! Nana, carring a very large margarita in one hand, steers her motorized wheelchair into the backroom. Droopy, saggy old Wizened plus liquor? Guaranteed good time. She steers a bit like a woman carrying, perhaps, her second very large margarita for the evening, cackling as she does so. There are no safe toes to be found in the vicinity of those chair wheels, to be sure. She leaves a trail of autumn leaves as she goes, as old and moldering as the Wizened herself. "Lookout, younguns!"
"Max. Shalom. It is good always to see you." A beat, and she doesn't get up or close her book just yet. "Shalom, Jessie," Gisa offers, looking up from her book briefly, and then down at her book again. She closes the book -- a JPS Tanakh -- and tucks it away in her messenger bag. "What are your tattoos telling us tonight?" She rises to her feet when Nana comes in. "Do you need assistance, Bubbe?" A sidelong look at Strix, and finally, she offers: "Shalom, friend." Because if he's here, he must be?
Strix hops out of the way of Nana with a pronounced squak and the feathers and hair on the top of his head stand up in an expressive crest. He settles after a second though as his hair droops back down by centimeters when he isn't actively alarmed. His gaze swivels to Gisa when she addresses him and his false eye clicks behind a telescopic lens when he focused on her, "Name's Strix, nice to make your acquaintance."
Strix lingers there a moment longer, "A little bird told me about this place, I do hope no one minds the intrusion?" He blinks, shuttering his gold lid twice in rapid succession, "Lovely decor."
The crest upon Strix's head when he's surprised catches Max's attention. There's a smile that touches her lips, amused as she usually is by such details the various Changelings have. "Nice to see you again," she tells him with a friendly tone. "And not while I'm heading out! And obviously if you're back here, you're not one of the bad ones," she says, smiling briefly. Then she glances toward the more familiar faces that had entered before him, lifting a hand to wave. "Heya Jessie. Nana! What kind of drink is that? Maybe I'll grab one at the bar for myself," she asks of the older Lost, thoroughly amused by her actions as well.
"Shalom, Gisa. Max. It's a movie that came out the year I was born. My father loved it." This response is given in a musing tone, with Jessie flashing Gisa aquiet smile as she speaks. She twists open her bottle of water and then turns just in time for Nana to come streaking past. Jessica doesn't much leap away as gracefully sidestep, though she does so with a brow arching. "Bonjour, mademoiselle. That's quite the chair you have there." This comes with no small amount of amusement in the woman's voice and smile, the French words coming easily and with an accent. Strix and Nana are being offered a hand, starting with whomever ends up close enough to take it first. Black nails, to go with her carefully colour coordinated look.
"Jessica. Pleased to meet you as well, Strix. And..." She tilts her head slightly, blonde tresses falling to frame the tattoo on her collar bone. As she does the text on her chest and shoulders shift. Her tattoos are quoting Robert Frost, apparently.
"No assistance required, dear, unless you want to get shnickered with me." Nana wheels her chair to a stop adjacent to a table and sets her big old drink down with a clunk. She proceeds to relax back into her chair, rather like a droopy pear that's started to go a little off. "Well. No assistance with the drink, anyway. I might need your big strong arms to help me track down a few hedgefruits that I need for my Goblinfruit Research and Development Nexus. Trying to make sure I've got fruits in my purse in case anyone I care about tries to keel over dead. Not fond of that, myself." She gives Gisa one of her sweeter smiles, then directs that same smile on Jessica. "Oh! Mademoiselle! You flatterer. I've not been one of those for a good long time, dear. Please call me Nana. That goes for all the rest of you, too." A gesture is made towards Strix, intending that direction for him as well.
Strix hesitates just a moment and he wipes his hand unconsciously on his jacket before he actual accepts the gesture from Jessica. He has a delicate grip for a man.. but not for a bird. It is easy to see close up how portions of his face around his artifical eye have been replaced with plexiglass, exposing visible silver and gold gears inside that have been tended to a high shine. Strix sets his bag down somewhere convenient on a bit of furniture. Strix bobs his head to Max and Nana in turn as they greet him too.
"Strix, that's certainly an interesting name," Max tells the bird-like man, studying him over for a moment with a bit of an interested gaze. Those bright blue eyes of hers easily turn over to Jessie after a few seconds, smiling at the Winter. "What are you up to this evening?" she wonders with a small tilt of her head. As she poses the question, she glances over toward Nana as well, then Strix once more too, as if extending the question to them all. Pulling another chair closer to her, she props her feet upon it and makes herself comfortable, her posture relaxing as she rests her hands in her lap.
"I do not know if I can get schnickered, Bubbe," answers Gisa, trundling back to the chair at which she'd been sitting before. She turns her head back toward Nana when she brings up the Hedge, and tips her head slightly, the shin on her forehead glittering brightly for a moment. "I would be glad to assist you. I agree -- keeling over dead is not a pastime of which goylomim generally approve." She focuses back in on Jessie, then and slowly tips her head. "I... see." One of the perils of being a long-lived Changeling: you can feel old easily. "Strix. Shalom. I am Gisa Cohen." She settles back in her seat. Gisa isn't exactly slow to move -- it's just that everything she does is super deliberate, as if she's seriously considered the halachic consequences of everything she does. (What do the rabbis have to say about drinking with an Autumn, a Winter, a Dusk and a human on a Saturday evening after the close of Shabbat? Nothing, actually. But if they had, Gisa would know.)
"Absolutely nothing at all, Max," Jessica responds with a short laugh. "Other than drinking a bottle of water, apparently. Her clearer, pale blue eyes meet the other woman's for a second before shifting toward Strix and Nana once more. "Nana, then. Jessie is fine if you need a name for me," she adds in her soft, lilting voice. Jessica sips from the water bottle in her hands as she shifts her weight once more. She backs up slightly so that she can better regard the room as a whole then extends anelbow so that she can prop herself against a wall while she is watching everything around her. "This place is surprisingly lviely," the woman notes in a musing tone. "Something, at least. Actually, I've been considering where I could find a good keyboard. I feel like playing and I don't really have somewhere to put a real piano, so..." Jessica shrugs her shoulders lightly. The tattoos there are forming a wreath around her shoulders, almost like a necklace. "But I'll settle for getting drunk with you, Nana. I bet you can hold your liquor."
"It isn't the one my mother gave me, still its good as any that I'm apt to answer to these days.." His thin lips blossom into a wide genial grin as he takes a seat located near his bright yellow bag of tricks. Strix beams at Max when he answers, both brows raised in a curious manner, "Strixton Nebulosa, if you prefer the sesquipedalian version, X if ya don't." He adjusts his jacket by the lapels sharply, just once, while he settles into his seat with an awkward little nod.
Strix's gaze trails off to look at Nana's ride with a bit of wonder, his fake eye drifting that way first with his head following in a belated manner. He peers at it for a bit but he seems to focus on something else in the room only seconds later with his ever roving eyes.
"If I ever actually met one of us who used the name that their mother gave them, I would be surprised," Gisa chimes in quietly, settled again on the couch. She rises again, moves over to the alcohol, and retrieves a bottle of blackberry wine, bringing it back to where she was sitting. And then the golem fills her glass 2/3 full, setting the bottle down next to the couch. "Strixton Nebulosa," she repeats, nodding her head once, and carefully picks up her wineglass, her ceramic fingers clinking against the globed glass. "Ex? People call you Ex?" This of Strix, then.
"None of us are who we were. Our names seem to reflect that. Strixton Nebulosa, hm? You're right, that is a mouthful. Jessica Louise Belmonte, then." Jessica watches in a calculated way whiel she sips from her now hal empty bottle of water. She hasn't moved from that place reclined agaisnt the wall, taking in everything present at once. The girl takes a slow breath inwards and carefully exhales, tracing a toe against the floor. "Have you been in town very long, X?"
"They have," Strix says conversationally to Gisa, gesturing to Jessie, "And they do." As she calls him X and he nods to the questions, "Not long but my associate and I have already settled and seen to joining the Freehold... seems we'll be staying for a time." He has a cheeky grin as he goes to explain, "A genus of owls, my name. It is the genus of the Great Gray Owl... always found it an odd choice." Strix bobs his gaze between the two of them, "And you both? Locals of long standing yourselves?"
"Both of you have longer names than I do." If the golem is bothered by that, it doesn't show. In fact, Gisa doesn't emote very much at all, at least not that's visible at a polite distance. "Your associate?" Another swallow of wine. The flames in Gisa's eyepits flicker off, and then back on again, and it's impossible to tell who -- if either of them -- she's looking at directly. "I was here for the founding of the Freehold." Once you get past the monotone, she has a soft, almost musical accent. "But my Yom Kippur visit to Israel took longer than I expected."
"I've been in town for a little while. I traveled here with a few friends and we've been carving out a niche." Jessica shrugs her shoulders slightly at this nd then gives a slow nod in repsonse to Strix's clarification of his name. "It does sound a bit more like a name from a space opera, doesn't it?" She flashes a sly smile of her own . "My name is just one I picked out for myself. A nom de plume that's become... Familiar. It isn't like my given name still means anything." She shifts her gaze to Gisa after this statement. "I like your name, long or not. Yom Kippur?"
Strix bristle a little, puffing up when questioned about his associate, "I tend to travel with a bodyguard." He makes a flippant little gesture to the gold and silver gears which whir quietly in his face. "I've always been a bit spacey so I suppose its a suited moniker." He leans back some in his seat and smiles between the two of them. He's content to be a watcher at times and he listens to the explanation of Yom Kippur with a curious smirk.
She takes a swallow of her wine, then, and listens as people talk. Goylomim aren't traditionally very chatty, but they made an exception for her. "Thank you. Gisa means 'carved stone.'" Her shoulders rise and fall like a mountain range, gradually and slowly: she isn't a tall woman, but she's solid. The Elemental leans back and props one of her feet on her opposite knee, the wineglass thus resting on her cocked knee. When Strix gets a little bristly about her asking, and explains he has a bodyguard, a puzzled expression travels across her face, and all she says back is: "I'm a golem." as if that should explain everything, no further explanation required, right?
Jessie's question causes the shin carved into Gisa's forehead to flare brightly, however briefly, and then it lulls back to its usual fiery glow. "Yom Kippur is ... " there she stops for a moment, and is lost for words. "It is the holiest of holy days on the Jewish calendar," she sums up. "Not long after Rosh Hashanah, which starts a new Jewish calendar year." Why she doesn't just say it's the new year, who knows? Maybe they have more than one new year.
"Fascinating." Strix intones to Gisa's explanation of Yom Kippur, "I love learning about religion. Endlessly curious about it.." He glances around looking for a counter or something, "Where might one procure a cup of tea?" He sees the fridge and his hopes for a cup of tea are dashed with an idle grin as he wonders, "Probably out front, I imagine." He is seated near his large vintage yellow medical bag which has small black Xs all over it and having a casual conversation with Gisa and Jessie.
"I am happy to talk about religion." No, really, ceramic lady with a very specific version of a Hebrew letter carved into your forehead, you like to talk about religion? Next she'll be saying that water sometimes falls from the sky. "And I am in the process of opening a Jewish book store. I find that it would be helpful to have more places for our people to gather. I am grateful for this place, of course. But a bar is not for everyone." And so a bookstore? Obviously. Gisa is settled into the worn couch with a black canvas messenger bag by her feet, one foot propped up on the knee of the other leg, and her wine resting on her knee. In a glass, of course.
Observant persons might notice that while Gisa seems to be wearing shoes, they're only the tops of shoes: the bottoms only have a strap across the arch. For some reason, her hiking boots have no bottoms on them whatsoever.
Lulu wanders in, sort of wide eyed looking round as she passes into the back room of the Cyclone with an airy somewhat confused expression. She's in her usual second-hand chic, layers of loose flowing skirts and a belted sweater over them. A ptterned shawl with tassels completes the outfit. The fluffy headed blonde lowers her gaze from the nothing she was admiring whimsicaly to notice there are other faces in the room. One of which she knows and she lifts a hand to flutter the pale digits Gisa's way while drifting towards the refreshments to pluck herself a bottle of water.
Strix glances over his shoulder when someone else walks in and he calls a hooting, "Hello-o-o." To the new arrival a tiny wave before glancing back to Gisa. His left eye clicks its gold lens while he studies her closely, taking in the glyph and the various other insights in stride. "A bookstore would be ideal, I far prefer those sorts of places to these.." He gives a grave little nod and his gaze drifts curiously back to Lulu's eccentric whimiscal attire.
Moving a sleepy Nana.
Strix glances over his shoulder when someone else walks in and he calls a hooting, "Hello-o-o." To the new arrival a tiny wave before glancing back to Gisa. His left eye clicks its gold lens while he studies her closely, taking in the glyph and the various other insights in stride. "A bookstore would be ideal, I far prefer those sorts of places to these.." He gives a grave little nod and his gaze drifts curiously back to Lulu's eccentric whimiscal attire. (re)
"Lulumoth," Gisa greets, raising her glass in salute to the incoming figure. "Have you met Strixton Nebulosa?" Her near-musical accent makes the nom de plumage sound even more rarified when she says it. "He may be called Strix." She takes a careful sip of her wine, the glass clinking against her skin. "Lulu is a moth of Autumn, if my memory serves correctly." Introductions tendered, she nods her head slowly. "I hope to be set up sooner rather than later. Vermont is not a religious state. But it will be enough."
Lulu smiles, "Hello, Friend!" She greets Gisa brightly and collects her bottle of water before she flutters over with light steps. "No, I have..oh." Cats and Moths have a thing, Gisa probably is aware of this. Owls and moths? They don't mix much better and Lulu is drifting closer to the Golem woman. She nods, "A moth of Autumn." The blonde replies with a good natured if quizzical smile. "Vermont is not a religious state?" The statement, being new into the conversation, makes her blink dark eyes slowly.
Strix's artifical eye has a gold telescopic lens that shutters down to a pinpoint at he stares at the mothgirl, "Pleasure to make your acquaintance." He croons softly and with a whir the gold lens clicks back open and his mechanical eyes roils on to look at something else. His gaze dipping away and to his big yellow bag wedged into the seat beside him. He pats it with a calm notion as if the action were centering, then he spoke again, "I am an Owl of Dusk myself, as it were."
-> >> Gisa to Here << <-==============================================
Rolled 2 Successes
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=======================-> >> Wits + Empathy.Adroitness 0-Again << <-
The golem's eyes narrow as she watches Lulu move: her body language is a certain thing, and once the golem locks on to it, her free hand absently pats the couch next to her. Come sit next to me, small moth, and I will not let anything eat you. Patpat. Goylomim have many modes, but their default setting is find something, protect it.
When Lulu seems confused, Gisa's eyeflames extinguish for a moment, as if she's rewinding the conversation, backing up, or maybe just randomly shutting down? Then those flames flicker back on, and she clarifies: "I am opening a Jewish bookstore. I am opening it for the purposes of providing a place to gather which is not a bar, though I appreciate the bar. I do not expect to do much actual business, because Vermont is not a religious state." Context!
A low, rumbling sound from Gisa, then, a bit like gravel rolling down a hill. "Indeed. I am a golem of Dawn."
The dark eyed Autumn blinks and moves over to the side of the couch where the patting was indicated and drops down into a seat, knees and feet together, leaned foreward. Immesely interested and yet still - save for the furtive fluttering motion of her fingers. "It's a pleasure to make your aquaintence Mister Nebulosa. Are you a fan of heavenly bodies as well?" The moon moth turns her gaze to the Golem and smiles at her with the open wide gaze of someone who's just not all quite there. Well untilt he light grabs her attention and then she's staring at it with fascination. "That's wonderful! And perhaps it's more than you think; just not a lot of people talk about it. But I will come! I would love to read books if they will teach me more about a friend." Lulu sways a bit and then her attention is caught by Strix once more.
Strix has a pursed quiet expression but the second he notes Lulu glances his way again it blossoms into an overwide genial grin. His strange eyes shift slightly out of sync from one another as he swivels his gaze between the two of them on the sofa across the way. "Heavenly bodies? Sure enough." The man wear a coy lop-sided grin as he goes on, "But I tend to get my beak in just about every subject I come across." Strix adjusts his posture with a preening cast, "Bit of a know-it-all, sad to say." Despite his 'sad' omission he has a proud grin on that falls /just/ shy of smug.
There's a moment of mild confusion on the golem's face, and then whatever it was that was confusing her - perhaps something lost in translation - it fades, and she takes another sip of wine instead of letting it trouble her anymore. Lulu's wide open smile prompts a gentle almost-pat from the golem -- she brings her hand up and slowly sort of pats at the air, where someone else might have actually touched the luna moth's arm in gentle reassurance, Gisa doesn't actually make contact at the moment. There, there. "Thank you. I hope it will be a good resource." She is slouching tonight where normally she sits up ramrod straight, but being dubbed a friend does bring her a little more upright, if only for a moment. Then it's back to haggadah-proscribed slouching. "You are not sad about that at all, Dusk Owl. You are extremely proud of that. Why do you say that you are sad to say it?" Oh, Elementals.
Lulu smiles at Strix, "Which is your favorite? I adore the moon!" Because this is a perfectly normal conversation to be having. Lulu turns to peer up towards Gisa spotting the look of confusion. While Gisa may let it drop, Lulu does not. "What is wrong, Friend Golem?" She wonders wide eyed. reaching up she waits to see if Gisa pullsa way and of not lightly takes Gisa's hand and finishes the patting process. Mind you there's moth dust involved, a significant amount of it this close to a dawn, and plenty of warm autumn air to drift about right up until it conflicts with the wall of Strix' mantle which fizzles it out.. dust turning to embers and ash and then nothingness. "Well, I'm sure it will. You don't seem the kind to do anything by half measures, Gisa." Before she's dran to Gisa's Elemental question of Strix. She, however, smiles at the Dusk for Lulu isn't as ingorant of human ways as she is seemingly most everything else.
Its gets even more amusing when two Elementals try to make sense of their lack of empathy together, he may be an Owl but he was cobbled together from various bits and bobbles. The Manikin is prone to the same Elemental frailties, "Did I do that?" He lets out an embarrassed hooting laugh and flips open one of the tiny plexiglass windows on his face. A single finger dips into the hole in his face and he clicks something with a loud. *POP* It makes him frown and he snakes his finger back out to flick the window closed. Saying with a frown, "That better?"
The humor is wry though and the frown fades with another succinct whirring of gears from the Manikin Owl. He clicks in the back of his throat several times, like the clacking of a beak, "Ah, Selene, she is beautiful." Naming the goddess of the moon with a bit of whimsy as he smiles again slowly in Lulu's general direction. The expression loads on to his features as he spoke more, " The asteroid Pallas was discovered in 1802, it was one of the few things named for Athena... she was sometimes associated with Venus but I far prefer the allegory in an asteroid." He bobs his head once, "Always been a voyager."
"I like the stars, when there is not light pollution. Not one alone, but all as a whole." Her shoulders rise slowly, in that tectonic way that Gisa has. Lulu's touch is allowed, and even received. She seems unbothered by moth dust, or indeed ash, and doesn't even bother to brush it off. "I thought of getting a book for you. And then I thought perhaps it was inappropriate. And then I wondered if the Dusk Owl and you were engaging in courtship ritual and if I was interfering. I am given to understand that 'heavenly bodies' is a pun or play on words in the English language." She seems to take the last as a compliment, and agrees with Lulu. "I never could do half a thing. I hope it is an entire success."
Somewhere, a century and a lifetime ago, Batya Cohen was a terribly thoughtful and empathetic child. It makes the way in which Gisa Cohen tries so very hard to still be even that human all the more -- well -- Elemental, in its way. Silly thing.
"Yes. It is fine. You are permitted to be proud of knowledge." says someone whose entire being is focused around words on a bit of paper, after all. "Your eye is okay also. The window thing. Yes." Her ceramic forehead wrinkles up, and she finishes following the thread of conversation -- doggedly so -- by asking, "What allegory?" English isn't even her third language.
Lulu says, “Oh, so dour, Mister Nebulosa. Very frightful." She approves. Autumns. After clapping her fingers together lightly, "It makes you look proper scholarly for the topic at hand." She's gone still again, leaned slightly forward to engage herself in the conversation more immersively. But Strix' words cause her to take a moment to think and nod slowly, "I never thought of asteroids like that. But it's true, they do wander and they must see so much. I would be content just to visit the moon. There must be ambition to be a traveler.
Gisa's contribution brings Lulu's gaze to the Golem and she inclines her head. "Its shocking that the sky isn't that black at all when there's no light to block it out. It's why I like states like this.. Out West sometimes you can't even see the stars."
Listening to Gisa's explination she nods a few times, "Why would I be insulted by a gift? That seems an odd way to feel. I love presents!"
As for the idea she and Srix were flirting her head tilts and she lifts a shoulder, "No not really. It is often in my nature to flirt with death but.. I've only just met Strixton." She explains before settling to hear the answer to Gisa's question.”
Strix puffs up his shoulders and sits a bit straighter in his seat, ticking his head to the side with an awkward birdish seeming as he's asked about flirting, "I'm afraid it was just a poor turn of phrase on my part, bewitching through she seems-" He then turns his winning grin back to Lulu so he wasn't talking about her as if she wasn't in the room. "We've only just met." Agreeable nod as he echoes her words with a curious swirl to the corner of his smirk.
Strix was ready to explain the allegory or the asteroid and the traveler but Lulu beats him to it and he listens with her a respectful calm. Nodding at the end once in unspoken thanks, "Well worded."
The golem's hands spread wide, then, and she replies, "then you both have a great deal more sense than most of the people -- Lost or not -- who I have ever met. I cannot count that someone has just met a person as to whether or not courtship rituals are occurring, or whether I am wished to leave to allow for courtship to commence." She shakes her head slowly. There's probably a story, or several, in the golem's heavy, blacksmith's-bellows sigh that follows that statement.
"Yes. The sky from the desert is very beautiful. The stars go very very deep." She gently pat's Luna's arm again, thoughtfully. "Oh. I thought to get you the Sammy the Spider books. They explain many holidays of mine. And habits. But then I thought perhaps not a book about a spider for my friend the moth."
Lulu laughs, "I think in the instances where someone isn't telling you they either don't mind or very much enjoy an audience. I' not be ashamed if it were the case, for I've no ties that would prevent it but I only have one true love." She rolls her eyes towards the sky and then smiles at Gisa. "Your concern is also very kind. But you have been my friend since we first met so I wouldn't want you to leave anyway."
"I've never been to a desert before. But I've heard it said it's like being stuck in the bottom of an hourglass. Sandy dunes and a big glass dome and sometimes sand rains down! That sounds like it would be hard to bear." The fragile looking blonde beams and then shakes her head, "Spiders in books are just books. It's the living predators you have to watch out for." She gives a teasing side eye to Strix.
"It sounds as though you might be describing a sandstorm..." Strix gives a little shiver and the feathery crest on top of his head pops up a tiny bit in silent alarm. "Terrible notion, hate to think what that would do to the gears." He leans back in his seat but he can never quite seem to get comfortable because of the hinges on his back. They often go unnoticed being on his back but they're what keeps him from reclining with any permanence.
"I don't know about the dome though, only ever seen the desert in photos.. I was born in place where snow was bit more common than sand." At the comments about people and their free love habits he hahs softly, "The moon's a far better lover I'm sure." His sheepish grin is thoughtfully kind though and he folds his hands calmly over his solar plexus as he listens to them. "If you both love books you're invited to take a look at my library once I have it moved into town, it isn't large but it has a few curious titles.."
Lulu's description elicits a long, long silence from the golem. It might seem, perhaps, like she's entirely shut down, or gone into some sort of stasis mode. "It can be like that," Gisa finally says, and her usual monotone is quieter, that distant Israeli accent somehow further away, echoing a little inside her chest. "But there is no dome in a real desert." Whatever that means.
She clears her throat, then. "I will get you the books," she tells Lulu, and then her head rolls slightly to the side. "She did not say anything about a lover, only a true love. One can be very temporary indeed." Old Changelings, many stories. The corners of her mouth curve up juuuust a little. "I am one of the People of the Book. It refers to the Torah, but I like the title anyway. I would be glad to see your library and its curious titles, Owl of Dusk."
Lulu looks to Strix and shakes her head the idea of a sandstorm boggles her in her protected little moth world of socks, laundry and dust. "Imagine what it does to anything, not just gears." She shivers and eefs softly. She looks to Gisa and nods, "I meant the sky. That there's little to break up the full view of it. But I am sorry, Gisa, if I offended you." A glance towards Strix, "I have been north. The snows can be similar only there are ribbons of light that dance when nights are clear."
Lulu turns to face Gisa more fully and nods, "Yes. And Mr. Nebulosa, I'd love to dive into your library. Books are such wonderful things..well not in large numbers. In large numbers they're heavy.." Gisa's distinction between lovers and Loves just makes the little looney Lulu smile secretly. "People of the Book is a term for those who find their peace in Judaism?" The new term has her interest piqued.
"I'll be in town for some time, I'll make sure to let you both know if I see you again in my wanderings around the local county." Strix nods to Lulu after a moment, "Aurora borealis, the colors in the sky, the ribbons of light up North. I've never seen it myself but I have similar fascination if not all out love for the heavens. It is certainly something to see before I die.." He hehs and chuckles finally at Lulu's observation about books, "Books are heavy but their weight in words usually makes them worth the burden on the back."
"I don't need to imagine." And that's Gisa's last word on the subject of sand and the desert; her words are as simple and final as a door closing. "You did not offend me." And that, it seems, is that. She follows the subject changes: "Yes. The People of the Book are the Jewish people. The Book refers to the Torah, as I said. But I like it even more as a general term." She spreads her free hand out toward Strix. "As so. We carried the Torah for forty years in the desert, and we have not put it down since." Finishing her wine, she rises, stretching her back. "But I must go and sleep now. I am still human enough to be a poor guardian when tired." Her hand briefly touches Luna's shoulder. "I am glad to see you, mothfriend. And to meet you, Owl of Dusk." Hefting the messenger bag into which she previously tucked her Tanakh, the golem trundles away, as if that covers everything.
Lulu sighs, "I am a small woman, I cannot even bear the burden of their contents. I remember what the moon allows and sometimes that's not much at all." She laughs at herself, happy despite the odd statement. "Aurora Borealis? Hmm.. Sounds like the name of a queen." She considers and then her attention, much like that of a moth, flits back to Gisa and her flaming sigil. "It is a good term. It's very humble." She lifts a hand wiggling a dusting hand, "Be safe, Gisa, may the Moon guide you." And then, she's left alone wicth the owl.
"Always good to meet another seeker of knowledge, no matter the form.." That statement could have its own dark connotations but he smiles warmly at the departing Gisa. "Have a good one." He blinks and his left eyes shutters sharply twice as he looks back over to the moth with a bemused wrinkle of his nose. "It does sound like the name of a queen, doesn't it?"
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