Sanctuary

[Star]

Lips moved slightly, repeating the names. Maybe they didn't get hung up on the right superhero name the way he did. He thought it was important. The Flash wouldn't be nearly as cool if he were The Blur or The Streak. He was probably over-thinking it.

"I like cards," he agreed. Nope. Big snake still kept popping up. That was really going to put a damper on conversation with her until he got over it.

"Vail's alright, but I really like Telluride!" He turned to face Mandy. You had to have your shit together to rock a name like that. "It's kind of a pain in the ass to get to, but it's still got that legit small town vibe. They do this 'Blues and Brews' thing every year that's pretty fun."

Because drinking and getting stoned at a music festival had so much to do with architecture.

"Did you say Talons? Like all the real Arrows live somewhere else? I mean, not that you're not, you know, real. Or an Arrow. I'm just saying. The non-Talon Arrows. That's what I meant." The words cascaded out as he rubbernecked, looking around. One hand kept his backpack on his shoulder, and the other continued twirling the pen.

"And when you said 'here', you mean the city, right? Not here-here. Because if you did, then probbbbbably not. How do you get your mail? But, yeah, I'm in on the Sacramento thing, in general."

[Zodiac]

Looking thoughtful for a brief moment, Mandy looked towards Avis with a short shake of her head. "Ideally my stay will be short, they generally are," she stated as she looked away from the architecture, though her expression was one of confusion as Cut spoke. Telluride? "Really, Oktoberfest in Germany or really any number of Irish celebrations in Ireland would be more ideal," she quipped. "You can easily get yourself lost in the land while doing a good number of things there, plus the alochol is generally better in Europe anyway."

That said, Mandy shook her head a little and looked towards the now closed door. "I should properly introduce myself," she sighed before giving a light salute. "My name is Ozymandias. I'm trying to get in touch with Ariadne, I've been told. I imagine this means I've come to the right place?" Between that and the address - encoded though it was - that she'd been given, it only made sense. The way Cut spoke indicated to her - by his use of 'you' with reference to the Arrow - that he was in fact not of the Admantine Arrow at all, leaving her to give him a briefly appraising look. Was he, then, a Guardian?

[Avis]

Avis gave a snort at Cut's comment but a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

"Ungula Draconis. Dragon's Talon. I don't know, to me that makes us Talons. But, yeah, Talon is also synonymous to Neophyte soooo I guess I should have said Arrows. And not all of us live here, so 'home' wasn't that accurate either. Thankfully Asp is here to translate for me if I sound confusing," she joked.

"I wish I could be more helpful to both of you but I don't know if the Epopt is available. Didn't anyone give you her phone number?"

[Star]

whoa

OK. That whole snake image? Problem solved. The leg-stretching-thing she was doing fixed that. Welcome to Thym... Thyma... Thyma... the Island of the Amazons. Did he say he wouldn't live here-here? If they all did that stretchy business, he might reconsider.

He only watched to be polite. She was talking, after all. You looked at people when they stretched at you. Talked. Talked to you.

His head nodded at the words that were coming from elsewhere. Germany? Ireland? Europe? That really wasn't in the cards for him. Pegged her as a Warlock though, between the been-all-over plus breaking that language barrier. In Germany, he could handle someone sneezing. In Ireland, maybe a toast. The rest of Europe? The extent of his French was 'Grey Goose'.

When Ozymandias continued, he turned to look at her, nodding. A finger pointed at himself, indicating the whole Guardian and Ariadne bit was where he was headed as well. Side note: Mandy wasn't her superhero name. He'd wondered. How badass would you have to be to own that?

"Ohhhhhhhh," he rolled his eyes, turning back to Avis with a grin. "Is that how it is? It's like that? The Dragon has talons, but not eyes?"

Jumping right into friendly teasing, he was all right with that -- with the Diamond.

"It's all good. We don't mind," he added. The pen stopped spinning long enough to dart between Mandy and himself to indicate the 'we'. "Sure, 'eyes' don't sound as cool as 'talons' or even 'wings', but, whatever."

While he'd been pointing, a business card had appeared in his other hand, and he held it up.

"Actually, I do have a name and number, but thought I'd stop by first."

Because phones. Sympathy was creepy, yo.

[Zodiac]

She turned her gaze to Asp after expressing a moment of disappointment at the notion that the Epopt might not be available to meet in person. She disliked phones and if she could avoid using them, she quite intended to, leaving her content enough to simply leave the question unanswered. "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains," she responded before watching the young woman move off, leaving her to wander a little bit herself, looking at the architecture of the church.

"Many things exist without the ability to see, but eyes are metaphorical much as anything else," Mandy stated after a few quiet minutes of taking the area in. Eyes, ears, nose... one thing they for damn sure weren't, however, was the mouth. Her nose wrinkled a little at that. Of course the Vox Draconis irritated her less than Alae Draconis by far. But she'd keep that little tidbit to herself, as she knew well enough how to do.

[Avis]

"Who's the poet? That inspired your name, I mean," Avis clarified, looking to Ozy. Poetry wasn't something she was very familiar with. She liked it. Some of it, but she didn't really have what you'd call a deep or conventional education. She was working on fixing that.

"And I'll call you Eyes if you want, I've just never heard that used before. Usually it's Guardians. Sometimes spies. Sometimes other things." She shrugged, smiling a bit wider. "And good. I'm glad you've got some contact information. We could probably have scared some up for you but I guess it doesn't matter. I just called when I got into town. 'Course I didn't have an address at the time, just the number.

"You mind if I ask why you chose to come here? To Sacramento, I mean," Avis asked, fishing for conversation. She wasn't very good at small talk. Or most talk, come to that.

[Star]

"Percy Shelley. His wife was Mary Shelley, who wrote 'Frankenstein'." Shoulders bounced in a shrug. "Not that I know anything about poetry, just, you know, Mary Shelley. Spoiler alert -- that new Frankenstein movie with Aaron Eckhart sucks. And, hey, no, call me whatever. Please. I thought we doing some friendly rivalry banter. A little back-and-forth. Ice breakers. Like the Avengers."

Well, if anyone was wondering, the nerd was strong in this one. Want to converse with warrior princesses? Talk nerdy. If there was any way to make a situation involving women who could probably kick your ass more emasculating, he'd found it. If he could get away with a face palm, he would. His head cocked as he looked at Mandy, rolling her words around in his head. Reminded him of one of his favorite songs.

"'We got the eyes to see another broken life that's full of all the awful things that are made'," he quoted.

"Oh, sorry!" Turning back to Avis, he held his hands up in a defensive gesture. "Didn't mean to ignore that question. It's a good question. Did you know that Sacramento has more trees per capita than anywhere else in the United States?"

It was entirely possible he was terrible at small talk, too. Or maybe he was just being an obfuscating Guardian.

[Zodiac]

The brunette paused a moment in her pacing as Cut answered Avis' question, finally lifting her hands to give a little clap, looking somewhat impressed. "He is correct," she stated with a smile. "Percy Shelley wrote the poem in 1818, and it was he and Sir George Byron whose ghost stories inspired the creation of Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus, which in turn quite linked to her own opinion that the pursuit of perfection will inevitably lead to demise. Ozymandias has a similar message, in ways, though I suppose it's fairer to say that... less eloquently... he who dies with the most toys is, nevertheless, still dead."

And that was an important thing to keep in mind, so far as she was concerned. "Sacramento may allow me access to a couple of things I'm looking at," she responded after a moment, though she simply kept it at that. Mandy wasn't particularly fond of small-talk as it were, though poetry was running through her head at a rather remarkable rate now. Would the man be able to name other classic poets, or identify the poet from a poem? It was worth testing.

"'Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt, as well I may spend his time in vain. And graven with diamonds in letters plain there is written her fair neck round about: Noli mi tangere, for Caesar's I am, and wild for to hold, though I seem tame.'"