randomplaces | Elisa-garg's reality. Castle Wyvern. Stepping into time.

Manhattan baked, attention spans and tempers both shortened by the summer heat and humidity. In the east a thunderstorm brewed, to the west the sun stood near the horizon. On the ramparts of the castle in the clouds all was silent, all was still.

Then something opened in the air above, and a figure darted out and settled on the edge of the battlement, golden curls blowing in the breeze as bright butterfly wings folded against the back of a tall young woman with weary blue eyes and a strong-boned but lovely face.

"Solid ground," she murmured to the huge furry cat in her arms as the feathery antennae on her forehead waved and took in the scents all around them. "Only a real world could smell this bad."

The cat looked up at her and rumbled a purr, then hopped out of her arms and went to sniff around the bases of the statues that stood nearby before affectionately rubbing his cheek against them as he usually only did to claim friends that he liked.

Sadie frowned and looked at them, wondering why each one smelled as though one non-human person had been leaning on them. Or something like that. Each one had a living scent clinging to them that was unique to itself.

Curious, she stood a little unsteadily and tugged down on the worn flannel shirt that with a pair of boxer shorts comprised her outfit and walked over to investigate just as the sun dipped below the horizon.

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Goliath nodded. "It began over a thousand years ago in Scotland, when my Clan protected this castle, Castle Wyvern, and the humans that dwelled there. We protected them by night, while they guarded our sleeping forms during the day. It was an uneasy alliance in those waning days, the humans relied on us for protection, but feared us greatly.

"And then the vikings came. Norsemen who wanted to sack the castle and ransom Princess Katherine to her uncle, the king. We repelled their initial attack, but received evidence that they would attack again. I took Hudson to investigate, but it was all a ruse. My second in command and the Captain of the Guard had made an secret alliance with the vikings, one that--had I taken the full Clan with me--would have left the castle as ours. But instead, all but a handful of us were wiped out. I took those few remaining and sought vengeance, achieving it only barely. We were frozen in stone by a magic spell, said to last until the castle rose above the clouds."

"Second in command... Angela's biological mom?" Her antennae pointed toward him as she frowned a little uncertainly.

Goliath nodded. "Indeed. Then, I called her my angel of the night. Before darker times. Before she took the name Demona.

"She too survived the thousand years, gaining immortality through a magical bond with a Scottish king named Macbeth. But those years hardened her, more than she had ever been. She became corrupt, evil. She made an alliance with a human named David Xanatos, who sought to use us for his own ends, and brought the castle to New York, here atop his skyscraper. The spell was broken, and we lived again. And almost immediately, we were attacked."

Elisa added to this. "I saw the battle from down below, on the street. Went up to investigate and got the shock of my life when I ran into a real live, flesh and blood Gargoyle. Fell off the danged castle, but Goliath here swooped down to save me. I quickly became their friend, and helped them figure out they were being tricked, both by Demona and Xanatos. Helped them find a new home, in the Clock Tower over my police precinct."

Sadie's shrewd blue eyes narrowed just a little as her antennae tasted the woman's scent. It was gargoyle all the way through... but there was something about some of her mannerisms that was just a little different from the others.

"You weren't a gargoyle then, where ya?" she hazarded the guess, quite aware that she could be laughed at for it.

"Got it in one. Elisa the Gargoyle is formerly Elisa Maza, detective second class with the 23rd precinct," Elisa replied, with a smile.

"And we have Demona to blame on that one too. She was pretty pissed at us for getting in the way of her plans and more than a little pissed at me for a) turning Goliath against her and b) catching his eye--not that either one of us would admit it back then. So she used a magical mirror to call up a fey named Puck and enslaved him, in order to use his powers to kill me. Turned out the exact wording of her request had enough loopholes that all it did was get rid of the human Elisa. Got a little crazy after that, but the long story short is that I didn't get to go back to normal. And now... this is normal."

"Smells like it was supposedta happen," said the teen without thinking as she looked down and scowled at Pug, who had returned with a fresh and determined assault of foot cuddling.

"I've had that kind of thought myself," Elisa replied. "Er... except without the smelling part. But anyway... Things just got crazier after that. Mad sorcerers, Avalon, long-lost daughters, world saving, world tours, other Gargoyle, back home, Oberon, fey children, clones, more world saving... and then the world finds out we exist."

"Sounds almost like an X-Man resume." Sadie snorted and booted Pug again, sending him skidding this time. The big cat's purr never faltered. "Only the world found out about us before I was born 'n had got over the pitchforks part by the time I came around."

"We should be so lucky. There's some support organizations out there... but plenty of people out there against us or just afraid of us."

"That's how it was for Mutants in the beginning, too. They even made laws against us."

"No laws yet," Elisa said. "But plenty's been tried to be introduced. Only a pretty inconclusive record on whether we're monsters or saviors has kept that from happening."

Elisa-garg's reality. Castle Wyvern. Stepping into time.

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