Tamarack Falls is a small enough place that undoubtedly, Kat, being a fan of all things historic, obscure, arcane, occult, or generally just written down on paper, has almost certainly been to *all* of them. Even the ones associated with exotic religions (and yes, Judaism counts when you're an old fashioned New Enlgander with legit Puritan roots!). Of course, this means that at some juncture she has made at least vague acquaintance with the fact that one of her kind dwells in this particular book depository, and if not a frequent social caller, it is not totally unheard of for her to occasionally check in. And even when she's just checking in bookwise, she at least usually pokes her head in back to see if the resident stone guardian is home. So, cue a face poking through a door, possibly after some knocking. "Hi."
Usually, when people find Gisa in the back room of the bookstore -- which is a known hangout for Lost, and mostly for the Freehold, though she's been known to make exceptions -- she's sitting there casually reading something, or she's making dinner for people, or something like that. The golem is a pretty predictable creature, all things considered. When Kat knocks on the door, though? Gisa is just ... sitting in one of the chairs, staring off into space. She has a bottle of wine in one hand, totally forgoing the glass, and is absently scratching her ceramic finger against the paper label with its gold-leaf Hebrew writing. "Come in." A known quantity in the Freehold? Gisa doesn't even fuss a bit about inviting her in. Yeah, that Kat. Yep. "Shalom."
Strix is a tall slender fellow wearing a sharp slim fit suit in a deep shade of navy blue, he has his garish yellow bag in one of his hands. The bag is a vintage style medical bag decorated in a right yellow and covered in distinct Xs... it is a spitting reproduction of the one Felix the Cat used to carry in his own animated adventures.
Strix moves with roving gaze as his odd eyes flit over the shop on his way to the back door. He is only a few steps behind Kat and Gisa's voice carries to his ears causing the Manikin to smile with a subtle whirring of gears. He catches the door in Kat's wake saying with a conversational lilt, "I thought this looked like the proper place." There is a polite bob of the head to both of them and he adds, "Lovely shop you have..." In Gisa's direction.
Non fuss-worthy is definitely the impression Kat gives off! Sometimes she shows up places as an actual cat and just... sits around doing cat things. IE sleeping. So this is actually her being slightly more social, albeit in her typically cautious way. The greeting, which she previously made effort to look up at some point, earns a smile. "Merry met." Though when someone appears behind her, someone *whirring* even, she hops forward a step in mild surprise, looking back wide-eyed. Of course since there's now no obvious path of retreat in that direction, it means she just has to give up and actually go inside. So she does, scurrying a bit further in. Shelves are eyed, curious of any additions to the collection, before she looks back to the stone woman and her bottle. Her head tilts. "Trouble with it?"
"The shop is out front, this is for visitors, make yourself at home," answers Gisa; her accent is heavier than usual -- if anyone's got an ear for such things, she's got a quite distinct Israeli accent. Her words slur just a little bit. On second look: one of the couches is pulled out, made up as a bed, with the blankets neatly folded -- hospital corners and all. There's a dufflebag tucked underneath it. "Merry?" She scoffs a little bit at that. The ceramic woman shakes her head slightly, and then considers. "Well. 's'not full," she answers, her words slurring slightly. "I'm Gisa Cohen," she tells Kat, "If you don't remember me."
Gisa's head tips up toward Strix, on a sort of slow, afterthought sort of thing: "Shalom, Owl. Come in. Get a drink. Maybe get me a drink."
"Certainly!" Strix trills with a hooting amusement as he drifts over to examine the area around the Keurig, setting his bag on a sofa as he passes it, "What would you like, coffee or tea?" He's already fiddling with the machine to make himself a coffee as he gingerly selects a mug from the stack. He glances back around the room at Kat when she issues her greeting and the Owl doesn't have a quip like Gisa but his smile does take on a bemused candor. The left side of his face ticks as his brow lofts and the fellow turns back to tend to his coffee as he bade over his shoulder, "Curious way to say hello," His head ticks to the side pointedly as he turns back to face them with a mug in his hand. "Nice to meet you all the same.."
Kat ducks her head. "It's just a saying." And one that makes her sound not exactly like said abovementioned proper Christian New Englander. But nevermind! A quick head-bob at the introduction. "I remember. I like your store. It smells nice, and it's very comfy." Because seriously, she likes sleeping on piles of books and things. "Are you... is something wrong?" Cautious may be the cat, but curious also, and on the more human side of things, she's not lacking in care for her fellow... well, creatures. Furry, stone-skinned, mechanical, or otherwise! "Katherine," she'll also add, for the mechanical fellow and any necessary repitition for their hostess. "Or just Kat." Har har. And since coffee is being fiddled with, she just can't *help* but wonder, "Do you have milk?"
Cian ghosts his way in without a second thought. It's an unremarkable creature at first, a hoody and khaki cargo pants with chucks. He makes just enough noise to be considered normal, though a sharp ear will notice the whisper quiet wake that trails behind him. Wind doesn't rustle anything for a moment as he passes by. Dark eyes shift from face to face with a staunchly flat look that lands somewhere between cagey and curious. An easy smile comes though and he lifts a hand to half wave and obvious allies. Never mind the brief motion behind him, like a shadow licking over a book shelf - there and gone. "Evening, all," he says with regionally California bland accent.
"There's more wine in the cabinet. I want... more. Wine. Please. Red, for preference. Lots of it." Oh, so it's one of those kinds of nights. Do... do goylomim have those sorts of nights? Apparently so, because Gisa's having one of them right now. She takes a deep breath in, and lets it out, her sigh one of those massive sounds like a blacksmith's bellows being stressed to its limits. "There is milk in the mini-fridge." Rolling her head around on her neck, Gisa makes a sound not unlike a lot of pebbles rolling quickly down a hill. The start of an avalanche. "The murderer is dead." Okay then. "Hello. Do I know you? I'm sure I do." That, to Cian.
Strix drifts over to the cabinet when wine is requested and he able to dexterously manipulate the cabinet and fetch the bottle while keeping his coffee cup in his left. When Kat issues her introduction Strix responds in kind, "Strixton, call me Strix though, if it suits." His own accent is a crisp accent from somewhere in New England, Maine mayhaps, "Pleasure to make your aquaintance." The kind words come out issued with a rote return like something rehearsed rather than sincere. He strides back over to Gisa and hands her the bottle of red as Cian enters. The Owl's odd eye swivels to the new arrivel and his telescopic gold lens swivels to a pinpoint as he studies him even while the amber eye is unfocused elsewhere.
The others are welcome their wine, coffee, and other suitably adult beverages, while Kat seems very happy to have the alternative option and hastens over to the fridge to collect a carton. But she stops, fairly dead still, midway back in search of a cup, as the golem makes her more serious pronouncement. Then she continues on her course, getting a coffee cup and simply cutting coffee out of the process. "That's... good, isn't it?" she asks, hesitantly, as she pours. "I remember meeting about one of the deaths, but I hadn't heard much else in a while."
She finishes the rest of her bottle of wine with one long swallow, and sets the empty on the ground. Oh, is there another empty next to that one? Sure is. How much has Gisa had to drink tonight? Enough to have a bottle opener next to her. She reaches down, twists the corkscrew into the cork, and then just... yanks the cork out, without bothering with the levering action of the corkscrew. "Yes, it is good. But ... there may be others. AJ and Ror... Rosh... Buggo, they think there are others, maybe, maybe something... Loyalists, a cult." She lifts the bottle, her ceramic skin clinking against the glass, and presses it to her cheek, as if randomly hugging the wine, before taking a long drink of it. "Dr. Mengele is dead. Maybe he has assistants. I washed three bodies. Three."
Strix is relatively new in town and so the talk of murders and things /appear/ to flight above his feathered head. He follows the flow of conversation though, taking his coffee and moving to go sit on the sofa beside his bright yellow bag. The narrow shouldered Strix sits with a pert confident posture as he muses, "What's this now? Murderers and Cults?" He takes a thoughtful sip of his coffee before falling silent with a subtle tickety-tock that was almost imperceptible.
Kat's ears flatten as Gisa explains why exactly the good news has brought on not celebration but an apparent bit of depressed binge-drinking. "Oh." Obviously, she likes the sound of that none at all, and her expression and body language all say as much. Once she's poured her milk, she clasps it close in two hands and leans in close to sip, almost protective of the vessel, or maybe finding that same feeling from it. "Because there were so many, you think this? Or was there other evidence of others? I'm sure people are investigating already, but I'm always happy to help... with information." As opposed to the more hands-on work that was presumably just executed!
"I don't... I don't know why they think it. Something AJ and Rorsch... the cock-a-roach found. They think that. I was holding the body. Nana... Nana..." She sits bolt upright, then, and points right at Kat, "Don't. Be. A. Bad. Child. Bubbe will hurt you." So says the drunk golem. Afraid of Bubbe. Well, that's fitting, one supposes. And then she slumps back down in her chair. "Max and AJ have the books, I think. Ask ... ask them. Max has his journal. F... fff." Gisa rambles, cradling her wine bottle in both hands. The golem slowly swaaays back and forth, her eyeflames guttering and smoking as the shin -- that glowing symbol on her head -- gutters and smokes, too. "Oh, pretty owl. So pretty. The... the ... " She sighs heavily, curling up a little in her comfortable chair. "He was torturing them to death. To try to figure out... which kind of us is the toughest. He believed in it, too. He believed in it. He thought he was saving us." Her eyeflames gutter again, and her voice goes so quiet it's very difficult to hear. "Annabeth took sixty-six hours to die."
The golem -- who, if anyone knows anything about the proprietress of this shop, is never ever like this, is slumped in a chair, drinking wine right from the bottle. Kat is drinking milk and listening and Strix is sitting on one of the sofas by a bright yellow bag. One of the other sofas is opened up into a bed, which has very sharp hospital corners on it. Cian is near to the door.
I'ts around then that the door creeks open and in steps Eden, her gaze initially settling on the drunk Golem, then at the others briefly, "Uh heya.. I'm not interrupting anything am I?" she asks, reaching to scritch at one of her ears lightly from her spot at the door.
Strix listens to the macabre drunken retelling with an emotionless visage, that isn't to say his features aren't alert and invested be it in a wholly clinical manner. He follows the movement of the guttering golem with both of his eyes as she sways in her storytelling. "Fascinating a journal?" He gives succint series of nods that echo with a thoughtful clacking not unlike that of a beak in the back of his throat, clearing it, "What a vile sort of experiment." Wonder, fleeting as his face fixes itself amidst the tone of shifting gears into a considerate frown. He echoes Kat's words with a nod, "Investigatons also happen to be my area of expertise, I am well versed in matters of science and general police procedure." Hoot. Strix nods to Eden when she appears across the room from where he was sat on the sofa beside his garish yellow bag
.
While Kat hasn't any real idea of what the woman means, exactly, with her scary-grandma style ominous warnings, her demeanor alone, perhaps the mere phrasing and cadence of it, apparently illicits the intended response. But then again, she's always been a scaredy-Kat. The woman cringes back a little, holding her cup of milk ever the more protectively. "W-who?" A cautious glance around, as if this figure might be with them now. The rest, though, is a little more intelligible, though hardly more pleasant, the feline woman's ears remaining droopy as the grim facts are laid out. But it's Strix who seems to speak her own mind, fixating in on the written evidence. "I... would be curious of it." Pause. "I can ask one of them."
"Mmmm, mmhmm," Gisa mumbles at Strix. "Strix Nebble... Nebulux, Noobl... you. Talk to Ashe, be a Custodian, like me. Right? And help investergater." The golem, who usually has such an even tone of voice, is just sort of... vocally wandering. And then she mumbles something that isn't in English, a long string of ... probably Yiddish? Who knew a golem could go mostly boneless? "Nana. Bubbe. Bubbe killed him. Bubbe did. Oh, he shoulda, shoulda died. May his bones be... be... breaked and brokens more than... than the Ten Commandments. May he be for... forever in one hour of what he did. May... " and at this point the golem just sort of drifts irretrievably into Yiddish, before slithering slowly down out of her chair, onto the floor. Her shin -- the sigil on her forehead -- goes dark but not out, but the flames in her eyepits? Those go out.
And unless someone is very quick, an entire bottle of Israeli wine is going to go all over the tile floor.
"Well..I guess I'll have to come back tomorrow if I want a book on the 'Kosher Myth'." Eden says with a soft little hmmn as she starts over towards the couch claimed by Strix, "So, this is about those bodies, you guys are talking about?" A little glance cast towards the passed out Gisa. She offers a quick smile towards Kat after, "Hi, I'm Eden.."
"Nebulosa. Sounds a bit like levi-o-sa." He offers helpfully as the golem drifts off into her drunken dreamland. When Eden comes over he sets his coffee down on the small table beside the sofa and rests his hand casually on his large ugly yellow bag which was still between him and Eden. "Gisa here-" The Manikin stops midsentence though as he hand darts out to catch the bottle of wine after only a little spills but before it can clatter to the floor. He hops right out of his seat to accomplish the task and his the crest of feathers on his head leaps up in alarm with him.
Standing now and holding the wine bottle he trills and runs a hand through his hair before setting the bottle /carefully/ on the floor beside the sleeping golem.
"Kat," answers the OTHER catgirl, so that kind of lines up nicely and is probably easy to remember! Bonus. She's also sipping a cup of milk and generally being a big walking stereotype. "She was telling us about them," she then begins to explain to the other woman. "Well, telling us about... the one who did them, who they have killed. But maybe, there are notes among this man's things, or other clues, that suggest others?" This is mere repetition of the golem-babble, perhaps from before it was quite as wine-fueled. "I do not know. Only she, the sleeping guardian, witnessed it. We heard only from her. So you hear second hand."
Eden ahhs softly at that, "I'll have to talk to her a bit later maybe then to hear first hand when she's not drinking.." She says after a few moments thought, little flames flickering across her ears, "Think she'd mind if we finished off her wine?" she adds, leaning a bit to take a peek at the bottle saved by Strix, her attention shifting back towards Kat, "It's great to hear they killed the murderer though. We can all feel a little safer."
"I will pass but you can.." Strix bends back over to retrieve the bottle and hand it off to Eden if she wants it before he sits sternly in his seat again. "I am going to have to agree though, it a tale worth hearing from a sober teller." He leans back in his seat and turns to get his coffee cup off the side table for another sip.
Kat offers no opinion on one third party drinking another's alcohol. But in fairness, the golem did seem lively with the spirit of drink, and thus presents little grounds for objection! "We should be pleased, at least, that the immediate culprit has met their due fate." Not that she sounds any more overtly joyful than the stone woman did. "Whatever other mystery there is yet to be unraveled, what others lurk in the shadows waiting to take his place, time will yet tell." One more sip of the milk, and she glances between the others.
Eden accepts the bottle and takes a drink from it, "I shall shine light in those dark places and spook out what skitters in them!" she exclaims matter of factly, flashing a slight grin over at Strix, "We should hope he was working on his own, but be prepared for more trouble to crawl out from where he came. Such adversity for our young freehold."
The normally brazen bird is starting to become a bit ruffled from being in such a small room with two cats- for this long. He finishes his cup and rises from his seat (yet again) to go place it in the sink. "Time indeed, another one for me. Infact." He bobs his head at each of the women in turn and scoops up his back on the way past the sofa holding Eden without pausing in his long legged stride. "Be well and worry not on adversity, we'll all overcome." Even that... is a little monotone. Lacking promise. Then he is off into the night!
The fire-cat is certainly optimistic, although her darker counterpart is... well, if not explicitly the opposite of this, at least more vague in her feelings on the whole matter. "As I told the others... I am happy to render aid if you go looking into it, though more in the manner of information and the reading and casting of fates. I am not keen on such... violence." Watching the whirring man slip off, she actually seems moderately relieved, although only by some fraction, although whether this has anything to do with an actual desire to pounce on and try to eat him is hard to say. "She also said that AJ and Max had his journals, or some such thing. More information, if you are keen on it."
"If AJ has a journal I can prolly chat her up, yeah." Eden nods with a grin, "Just wanted to find out what's up for my court is all. So what's your story, Kat?" she asks, drawing one of her legs up beneath her, taking another sip from the bottle of wine.
"-My- story?" For the tables to be turned around on her that way, focused more personally on a woman who seemed very happy at the edge of the room and edge of the conversation until there was no one else to speak, this seems cause for a certain concern, if not quite alarm. "What are any of our stories? I have lived in this town, or the area around it, for a long time, watching good and ill pass in varrying measure. It was more of the former, with the founding of the Freehold, though maybe now fate exhorts its price, and the scales tip back the other way." She shrugs, and then adds, as if maybe the game is up anyway with how she talks: "I am a member of the College of Worms. So it is for me to watch for signs, that we not be trampled underfoot when such things come due."
"College of worms.. oh.. right." Eden says after a few moments thought, flashing a slight nod of her head, "I am a Knight of the Knowledge of the Tongue, member of the Crimson Court, I do catering and other special event cooking here in the city."
Kat pauses momentarily and cocks her head a bit to one side, as if trying perhaps to place this particular order... until the woman provides a bit of a hint. "Oh. I see. A curious bunch. I will keep this in mind." Mind for what? Well, if she ever needs a chef, now she knows one! Why she would ever need a chef? That is a question for fate itself to answer at the appropriate time, as with all things. Now she glances around, but ultimately back to the sleeping golem. "Will she be well? I should not linger too long," and she's finished her milk, "but I am slightly worried for her. Perhaps I should not be so. She is of sturdy... make?"
"Well, we could put her up on the bed there, unless that was for you to use?" Eden suggests, gesturing a little towards the fold out bed in the backroom there. "She should be fine otherwise, just too much booze."
Kat shakes her head. "I did not plan to stay, and I need not take up much space if I do. If you think we should move her..." And here, she does move away from the counter where she was drinking, leaving the cup behind, to cautiously approach the slumbering golem. "... do you think we can? She looks very heavy."
"She shouldn't be that much heavier then she normally ought to be." Eden says, standing up too, setting the bottle aside and moving over towards the conked out Gisa, "I can get strong too if she really is." a toothy grin flashed.
Kat looks dubious of this assertion, though perhaps there is sense to it. Still, she never relies much on logic where her own kind are concerned. "I cannot, at least, not in any form that would be of help." Bigkitty? "Shall I... supervise?" At least for the moment, she approaches and perhaps moves a thing or two out of the way. Helping!
Eden grins just a little bit and shakes her head, "Just, grab her legs, i'll grab her up top and we'll sorta get her over. It'll be fine." she says, moving to try and grab hold of the golem up under the arms to haul her over onto the bed.
Kat seems happy to defer to her more... vigorous counterpart in all of this, and so nods at the direction. "Very well." Still somewhat cautious, as if the occasionally moving statue of a woman might wake at any moment and execute some sort of divine wrath upon them, she gently pokes at Gisa's knee first, and only then, when there is no reaction and the fiery cat has her in hand, does she execute her own part. She proves every bit as not-strong as claimed, or at least, exercises no such power if she possesses it, merely... sort of aiming the golem's legs at best, and really leaving her weight to Eden. But she helps! "This way?" Shuffle, shuffle.
Eden takes up the other end of the Golem and helps haul/drag her over towards the fold out bed, settling her up atop it then kinda rolling her over on her side. "I guess maybe we ought to get out of here lest we wake her up huh?"
Kat really doesn't help much, but they still manage! Once Gisa is settled, she steps back and takes one more look around. "Well, yes, I have my own home to be returning to. I think... well, I am not sure of her defenses, but I would think a guardian such of her would be cautious by nature. I will make sure what doors can be locked as we go are so, and else, trust in whatever wards she may have set." Because this is how paranoidKat thinks. "She should be well enough."
"I'd be amazed if she didn't have stuff in place to protect her here in her own home." Eden agrees with a slight nod of her head, "You need a ride or anything? I live in the City, so I'm heading back that direction, but if you need to be taken anywhere on the way, just lemme know."
Kat nods her mute agreement with this assessment. She would do no less, and a woman who seems designed in the image of a guardian would perahps do even more! "I- no, that is quite alright. I reside elsewhere, and I can travel there easily enough. But thank you. Let us... be off." A last glance is cast the wine-sodden golem, and then she is ready to slip for the door, setting whatever latches she might from that side before they depart.
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