gone_byebye | (no subject)

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apocalypse - what now?

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14 North Moore St
Manhattan
Mid-Afternoon

The door opens on a cloudy day in New York City; the air is cool, the winds are stirring, and the alley, as usual, has more than a few discarded papers and plastic bags blowing around. "Looks about right," Ray comments, stepping through. "Welcome to New York City, folks."

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This hasn't taken as nearly as long as he thought it was going to. It's a nice surprise.

"Thank you for this, Ray. We truly appreciate it."

"Yes, and if you ever need anything researched, please. Let me know."

She has no idea what UPS is or why it's such a bitch, but if it becomes necessary, she'll be sure to ask.

"Not a problem," Ray says. "By the way, unless I greatly miss my guess Egon should be coming home about now. He and Miss Eartha went off to a rare books auction at the Armory today."

Before River can ask about the books (because Ryan knows she will ask about the books), he inquires, "Miss Eartha?"

He knows this isn't the same as the animated continuum, but what happened to Janine?

River stops mid-sentence, the word 'books' dying on her lips as she waits for Ray's answer.

"Ah, I see I forgot to mention her to you." Ray smiles. "Are either of you familiar with the Jewish legend of the golem?"

"Only that a golem is an animated statue."

He looks at River.

"Yes, that's what I remember. But that's just a fairytale isn't it?"

She cocks an eyebrow. This is Ray's world after all, where the founding fathers get up and go for a stroll.

"That was Egon's contention until relatively recently," Ray says. "After an unfortunate chronal displacement incident that struck the island of Manhattan over Presidents' Day Weekend of 2008, Egon was left with the sort of memories one would normally associate with the skill set of a professional exorcist or extremely specialized rabbinical scholar. In an effort to demonstrate that what he had seemingly acquired from the past was false, Egon went about building a golem in the basement in secret." He shrugs a little. "Winston and Ecto and I came home from New Year's guard duty in Times Square to find that he'd inadvertently succeeded in genuinely animating a golem- with the Divine Name and the words on the forehead and all. More to the point, the clay body in question was animated, and has since been animated, by the spirit of the late Miss Eartha Kitt- with, of course, the exception of the day of the Sabbath each week, and the various requisite holy days."

"Ah."

Ryan is not fazed by that explanation in the least. This is Ray's world, after all. It's kinda like Milliways, in that respect.

Edited 2009-09-24 04:43 (UTC)

"So in an attempt to disprove what he learned, he succeeded in doing the exact opposite." She laughs, shaking her head. "Never a dull moment around here, is there? Is this Miss Eartha Kitt someone I should recognise?"

"That would more or less depend on your familiarity with actresses of the late twentieth century," Ray says. "Are you at all acquainted with a television character by the name of 'Catwoman'?"

Ryan simply shakes his head.

"Catwoman? Really?"

"Among other roles, yes," says Ray. "Right now she's rather enjoying her current residence. Egon built the golem pretty physically formidable."

Who the heck is Catwoman?

"Did Egon design the ritual for her specifically or did she simply show up?"

"I wasn't under the impression you could build golems for specific spirits, but then again, I wasn't under the impression that you could build golems in general, so..."

"It was purely an accident," Ray says. "Some of the lore indicates that that sort of thing happens from time to time as a warning against hubris, but I'm not making a particularly in-depth study at the moment."

Ryan isn't particularly fond of hubris.

"If you've taken the proper precautions, there's nothing to be worried about," he theorizes.

River catches his scent and smirks, but holds her tongue on this one.

"Anyway, the point is that Egon's taken Miss Eartha to the book show at the Armory so that she'll carry any particularly heavy purchases home," Ray says. "They should be arriving fairly soon if you wanted to say hello."

Ryan eyes River with a barely restrained eyeroll. Yes, we can wait. Amusement is shot all through his scent.

There's a faint hint of unease, too, though. He knows Egon, but he doesn't know this Egon. It's rather odd.

"Books? Real, paper books?"

You could light a small city with the power of her grin.

Thank you love!

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