trans_9 | [Bendytimed pre-Plot]

First the TARDIS, now a castle. Eva's getting to explore all sorts of exciting things these days. She isn't really the most adventurous of people so much as restless, but it's nice to be able to be doing something, rather than lying around at Cassie's dealing with the aftermath of the possession.

"You'll need a leather jacket and some cigarettes if you're going to hold that pose, James Dean," she says with a smile. "A wyvern's a kind of dragon, isn't it?"

James Dean. Why does that name sound familiar?

Oh yes. A human actor. From the movies Elisa enjoyed.

This woman even looks like her, with her warm brown skin and dark hair. Goliath is beginning to think leaving his castle was a terrible idea.

"A two-legged dragon with the body of a serpent." Fortunately, mythological trivia is something to focus on that doesn't remind him of missing loved ones. "And my name is Goliath."

He doesn't return her smile, but Goliath has a face that doesn't look like it's well suited to smiling. He turns, glancing at her over his shoulder.

"Follow me."

"A pleasure. I'm Eva." Since he's already turned, she doesn't reach for a handshake. The lack of smiling is a little unsettling, but she's lived with Hork-Bajir, and they don't exactly smile either. "So this castle is from your world?"

"It is the ancestral home of my clan."

His clan which he may never see again. New topic.

"The humans who commissioned it gave it the name. I do not know what meaning it held to them. The wyvern might have been a heraldic symbol of some historical significance to their people, but they did not make use of the image in the time I knew them."

Goliath, accustomed to walking with humans, has made his steps small enough for Eva to keep up easily, but he does not make any special attempts to direct his communication towards her. He speaks more to distract himself than to deliver interesting facts about the castle.

"Maybe a family crest or something like that. A bit dated, if you ask me, but a nice enough symbol." Eva can tell he's talking more to have something to do than for the sake of the content. After all, that's what she does nearly every minute of her life. And he's jumping between topics, which sounds to her like avoidance. She only wants to scope out his castle, not his personal history, so she'll leave that be and let him be forthcoming only if he wants to be.

Clearly talking to Tall, Dark & Moody will be a matter of finding a topic of conversation that is suitably distracting and casual. "Do you use the library often?"

"Yes." That's a more neutral, and therefore more pleasant subject, and the reason for this tour, after all. Goliath spares a glance at the woman - Eva. "I enjoy reading as a pastime. I should ask if you have any titles in mind for this . . . 'book club' you spoke of."

He says the phrase slowly, as if it's new to him, which it is.

"It's a better pastime than most. And actually, I was thinking of letting a different person in the group choose a title each week or so. I know I have my favorites but it would probably be rude to limit what we read to things from my universe, no matter how many times I could read Neruda or Whitman without getting bored." Besides, part of the idea was to acquaint herself with the works of other universes. "I have my favorites, though, mostly poetry but a few novels. You?"

"I enjoy what humans of the 20th century called 'classics.' The works of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, the Greek playwrights -"

Whitman. Another name he knows, but this time, from his own reading.

"Whitman was highly considered in the historical canon of American poetry, if I recall correctly."

"Whitman sings the body electric. You don't want to trifle with the body electric," she says. "So it sounds like you're pretty well-versed. What do you think of having us read some Shakespeare? Or do you think it's too 'o thou must readeth outdated lingo' for most people unfamiliar with it?"

He gives her a blank look. "You do not think others would enjoy his work?"

'Outdated lingo' doesn't really mean the same thing to someone who was born in the 10th century.

"Why not?"

"Oh no, I think others would enjoy it, but I'm wondering if the vernacular's a bit too antiquated for people to easily follow it. I mean, if you're born in the 20th century, you have to study the comedies before you get the jokes, and that just defeats the whole point." She shrugs. "But I guess that answers my question. Shakespeare it is. I'll make them read Othello until their eyes bleed."

She gazes around at the castle, obviously impressed. "You have a lot of square footage here."

"I was born in the 10th century. Shakespeare was after, not before my time."

The castle is indeed impressive, a looming, expansive building . . . with a high wall and a locked gate.

Goliath makes a sudden leap that takes him halfway up the wall, and pulls himself up easily the rest of the way. He crouches atop, leaning far down to offer Eva a huge, taloned, four-fingered hand up.

Inside the main wall, the large courtyard is overgrown with grass and weeds, but was clearly once carefully landscaped. A bright red classic car is parked next to the castle, looking anachronistic against the ancient Scottish building. Goliath leads Eva towards large double-doors, across the grass of the courtyard.

"Then you're looking very good for your age. I guess it's true what they say about sun exposure and wrinkles," she says, having already clued in that he's probably nocturnal.

She takes his hand and lets him lift her over, making note to ask later how, if they're going to hold the book club here, everyone's going to get over the wall. She bites back the urge to compare the castle to the one in The Beauty and the Beast, thinking that might not go over the right way, and instead follows relatively quietly until the double doors. "Open sesame?"

"I'm no older than I appear," he says, forgetting that at 57, he is, since most humans don't realize gargoyles age at half their rate. "I slept for a thousand of my Earthly years."

The doors are huge and heavy and made of thick oak, but the hinges have been maintained and they were well designed. Goliath pushes them open without much effort.

Inside, the castle has been modernized, with electric light sconces replacing torch holders and priceless Greek and Chinese urns displayed alongside medieval tapestries and ancient weapons. A veritable museum of expensive, rare things. Goliath leads her past these without sparing a glance, to a smaller set of doors, opening into a wide, open room. A huge fireplace opposite the doors is unlit, and the room itself has a second open tier of floor, each wall lined with thousands and thousands of books. By the fireplace is furniture. Someone - likely Goliath - already has a stack of books by the armchair.

He stands by the door, beckoning Eva to enter.

"It was a joke. Don't you know humans put everything in the universe into their own narrow understanding? To you, it might be a thousand years of sleep, for us, it's 'I always expected Sleeping Beauty to be a blonde'," she says. Eva doesn't expect most people to understand all of her commentary. Her humor's never been so much to amuse others as it is to keep herself occupied and light-hearted.

Still, she's left relatively speechless by all the contents of the castle. Were she more of a historian she might be able to recognize the origins of some of the pieces, but as it stands she just stays with the knowledge that they are valuable and that Goliath, or some denizen of the castle, must be some sort of collector. She follows him into the library, remembering only after a moment to not stare slackjawed. It's not as large as the library in the TARDIS, but it's splendid just the same. "Are you - and you - are...this is your collection?"

Unfortunately, Eva's humor is falling a bit flat on ultra-sincere, literal-=minded Goliath. Does she genuinely believe humans are all that narrow-minded? Must he defend her own race to her now? No, that was a joke, but . . . at whose expense?

"It belongs to the human who occupied this castle in the 20th century. I am merely its guard."

He stands by the door, arms crossed, watching her explore the library.

"Who occupies it now, besides you?" She wanders towards the shelves, reaching delicately to touch the books before stopping. "Do you mind if I touch things? I know some people are very particular."

"Books are meant to be read. Only have care with some of the older tomes. They're fragile." He considers - "I am the only gargoyle awake. I permit a human youth who claims to be a friend from a future I do not know to stay here."

"Of course." She is very gentle on the books. She pulls a few out and leafs through some pages. "A human youth? What's their name? I might know them."

"Peter Parker."

Why yes, Eva, you probably DO know him.

She freezes for a minute as she processes that. "I don't know him, but I know of him," she finally says.

"Well, this place looks fantastic. The only thing is the wall - are you willing to install a ladder of some sort? And I think we might have an oversized member, so if that's the case we may need to be outdoors."

"I can open the gate from within. I leave it closed when I leave the castle."

He's a guard. He takes his job seriously.

"I will of course expect that the guests be respectful of my territory, visit only after nightfall, and only when I am present - but this library is not mean to be locked away." He pauses, before adding - "and this castle is not meant to be empty."

Yet it is. He exhales quietly, the sound swallowed up by the furniture and carpets - the library is one of the few rooms that does not echo.

"Excellent. And I'll emphasize all the house rules to the members. Got to keep up proper guest decorum, and all that." She notices that he seems sad at that last statement, so she tries to shift the subject. "Thank you, Goliath, for allowing us the use of your home. Since you're the host, do you want to choose the first book?"

If Eva keeps this up - this knack for changing the subject, or drawing Goliath's attention away from a subject, exactly when he wants it to be - then they might end up getting on quite well, after all.

"You mentioned Whitman." The gargoyle turns his gaze back to the woman, and although he has the sort of features that lend themselves to craggy severity, there is a clear, subtle sort of peace in his expression. He might not be smiling yet, but if he has been in a bad mood, he is not in it anymore. "I think I should like to try something new - something I have not read before, but perhaps ought to."

He's growing glad for this idea, though it involves strangers in his territory. It has been too quiet, here. A castle is meant to be occupied - having strangers, who may yet become friends, visiting even if only for small amounts of time, will make this place feel more like the home he misses it being.

Eva's got quite a history of ignoring the harder subjects herself. Life's easier that way, much easier. "You haven't read Whitman? Leaves of Grass has almost all the classics in it. It's really very beautiful, lots of striking juxtapositions of words, very empowering, very much about self."

After having spent years as a slave inside her own body and being broken down from the inside out, she can't help but find new meaning in such themes. The smile on her face fixes for just a second and she pushes away the why of her affection for the work.

"But yes, I'd have to yell at anyone who wouldn't count it as a classic."

"One can only read so many classics in two years."

It seems the big guy can smile after all.

"You will forgive me if I seem behind the times."

"Obviously you're just not trying hard enough," she teases with a grin. "I hope you're tackling more than just the English canon. People like to forget that we Latin Americans write some really lovely stuff too."

He looks briefly concerned.

"I intend not to neglect anyone." He pauses before adding, "I have more time for reading, without a city to protect."

Sure, the City needs patrolling, but it's nowhere near as crime-ridden as Manhattan.

"That does sound like a full-time job." She smiles. "I got a job on the bridge recently, but nothing too time-consuming. I've been spending all my free time in the Media Library. I can think of at least twenty hobbies more dangerous or wasteful than literature."

A full-time job, and yet another thing he doesn't want to think about missing. Hobbies are safer to stick to.

"It is extensive," he agrees. "Even this library cannot compare to it."

He's privately wondering if Xanatos would have thought to collect the poets she mentioned, Xanatos not being a very poetic person.

"Extensive, but a bit sterile. Everything's for download and I don't know, I miss the feeling of turning pages with my hand and getting papercuts. I must be the only person alive who misses papercuts."

"A strange wish."

He gestures to the books again.

"But if that is what you want, I am glad to have been of service."

The slight - very slight - wry tilt to his smile suggests he might be joking.

"Well, excellent. I'd write you a thank you note but for all I know these pages will tear my fingers to ribbons by then, so I hope verbal gratitude will do."

"It will."

This was a good idea after all. And this will be good for the castle.

"When will this gathering meet?"

"I'll send out a message on the whatsicomm when I decide. Don't worry, I'll let you know."

"Very well. If you'd like to stay here and use the library, you may do so."

Goliath looks set to get back to his own stack of books. Perhaps to pick one for the book club to read.

"I should probably be going. I actually have things planned, for once. It's such an occasion for me."

"I'll see you out."

Somebody has to either get her over that wall, or open the gate. And the gate is usually a two-human job.

[Bendytimed pre-Plot]

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