Retirement post

[gone_byebye]

The door opens on a chilly grey day in an alleyway in New York and closes behind a Ray wearing his winter dark bluegrey Ghostbusters duds. "Wow," he says, looking around the Bar. "What'd I miss?"

He doesn't stop for an answer, though. He heads for the Bar to drop off a note ("give a copy of this to anybody who asks about me, please?"), and then to the bulletin board to pin up the same thing for people who go there first.

Hi, everybody. This is Ray.

I realize I haven't been to Milliways very often in the past year or so. Believe it or not, I've been too busy. Some of you will remember that my particular universal continuum has linkages, very unfortunate ones, to the realm of the Cthulhu Mythos. Well, here's the thing: for the past several years those linkages have been getting stronger. The stars, as the Old Gent says, have been becoming right- and this past year they've been slotting into place one after another, so to speak.

This has not been a good October. And, bluntly put, there is not going to be a good October again within most humans' lifetimes in my world.

Egon and Ecto and I have been running a lot of mathematical models and simulations and every single one of them reports the same thing. We're about to enter into a phase of seriously horrific Mythos activity beyond the sort even Gozer would be able to stand up to. I've been working on my old applied dimensional science from the times when I worked with Eddie Dean and the Beam generators for this past year and I believe we can just about maintain conditions suitable to human life and sanity during the Mythos assaults on my world, but, as usual with these things, there's going to be a price. We have to slam the door on anything that might give the Great Old Ones and their minions access- and on anything they might be able to use to access other continua should they manage to manifest in my own.

Bluntly put, we have to close the door on all access to and from my world, to and from other universes, until such time as the stars are wrong again. Estimated duration: three hundred Terran standard years.

I may still be around at the end of it. If that happens to be the case I'll make a point of being the first person back to Milliways once we drop the barriers again. If not... well, it's been great knowing you all, and I hope you have a better time than we do.

-Raymond Stantz, Ghostbuster

(P.S. If another version of me shows up here from one of the other continua after I'm gone, please be kind to him. He probably won't wind up in my situation, but ... just be nice to him anyway? Please? For me? Thanks.)

Once the note is up he heads for the Bar, because this is going to be his last time here, and he'd like to make some use of that fact while he's saying goodbye to people.


[OOC: As I mentioned in the Back Room a few week ago, I'm retiring Ray. This is his goodbye post; it's open as long as people are finding it, basically.]

Comments

[street_sparrow]

Gavroche stops, reads the note, and then looks around for Ray.

"You're going to live three hundred years?"

[gone_byebye]

"Assuming I can keep my head attached to my body, yeah," says Ray. "One of the gods who used to come here turned off my aging process and vulnerability to disease. Long story."

[claudiometer]

Once they've established the bar's no longer full of the ravening hordes, Claudia comes in and stops at the Bar.

After she reads the note, she turns around.
A few minutes later, she comes back in, with a briefcase-looking thing in hand, and finds Ray. "Parting gift for you, in that case."

[gone_byebye]

Ray looks up from his bottle of Third Rail (caffeinated beer from somewhere in California, he's never been sure where) and smiles. "Hey there," he says. "What's up?"

[completederrand]

Having seen the note, Eriond decides to drop by the Bar. Sure, he's the only one from home really coming around these days, but he knows the pain of losing friends.

So he slides onto a stool next to Ray. "Milk, please, Bar?" Then he turns to Ray. "I saw your note. I'm from Gara. Any messages you'd like me to take home?"

To the point.

[gone_byebye]

Ray look up, blinks once, and then smiles. "Tell Garion and his family that I'll be back to visit them as soon as I can, but we've got a little problem on the order of an invasion from Hell," he says. "He'll probably understand. I'm going to be doing my best to stick it out until we can push them back properly."

[waco_jim]

Jim, having finally cleaned the last of the zombie viscera from his hair, comes down from his room. He reads the note, shakes his head, and looks around the bar for the man who wrote it.

He pulls up at a nearby stool, still looking straight ahead.

"So. Cthulhu, huh?"

[gone_byebye]

"Afraid so," says Ray. "We've had a few incidents where he's been abortively summoned in the past few years, most memorably one where we had to bring in Gozer himself to throw down with the big guy until he was too weakened to stay manifested, but this time it's the real deal."

[guppy_sandhu]

It's been a while since they talked regularly, but Guppy can't help but come over to wish him luck, even if he doesn't understand most of the technobabble on his goodbye note.

"Good luck, Ray. You want a first aid kit to go, or are you too far beyond that?"

[gone_byebye]

"Anything helps," Ray says. "There's always going to be people getting hurt the ordinary way, after all. Thank you, Guppy, I appreciate it."

[md_donighal]

Gray suit coming. "God's teeth, I wish I could come with."

[gone_byebye]

"I appreciate the thought," says Ray. "Believe me, I appreciate it. I suspect, however, that you have other things that need you to do them."

[a1enzo]

What a fragging evening. Enzo came in after the first of his final exams to find out that he missed a freaking zombie invasion, and someone is dead. Even if it is someone who's apparently come back from the dead before... ugh.

And now...

He hurries over to the Bar after reading the note. "You're leaving?" he demands. "For good?"

[gone_byebye]

"Afraid so, kid," Ray says. "Ecto sends her regards to you and the rest of the sprites."

[gotham_knocking]

Knox's beer comes with a note. He drinks the beer and reads the note.

It takes a second for his mouth to shut again. And a few seconds to understand everything besides "I'm leaving."

The intrepid reporter looks around and sees his old friend.

"Say it ain't so, Stantz."

[gone_byebye]

"Wish I could, but Venkman's always been the liar of the group, not me," Ray says. "Sorry."

[creator_raven]

A small, raggedy black bird drops onto the seat next to him, the sound of impact ringing much louder than it probably should.

Raven is stubborn like that.

"You will also be for closing windows, yes?"

[gone_byebye]

"I certainly intend to," Ray says. "Things get through windows. And mouseholes, and other such apertures. Hi there."

[blue_ajah]

She glides across the room toward the bar with the calm, set expression of someone who is planning something - but pauses as she sees the new notice on the board.

Dark eyes narrow, and Moiraine moves closer, reading it several times. After a moment, she raises one hand and touches the edge of the notice, delicately, as if to test and be certain it is real.

A soft sigh escapes her, and she turns away, looking around the room for one particular familiar face.

[gone_byebye]

Ray's over at one of the better lit tables, with a faint smell of peppermint about him. (Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap gets ectoplasm out of fabric like nothing else he's ever encountered.) He's got one of his favored beers with him; he's pretty sure he's not going to be able to get it at home.

[craftylildoodlepumpkin]

A beer materializes before Ray right about the same time that Juliet figures out he's going to be going.

If anyone deserves one for the long road ahead, he does.

[gone_byebye]

And Ray's good with that. He'd love to know who to thank before he leaves, but he's good with whatever can be managed.

[mnt_mike]

"You know you're not getting out of here without a hug, right?"

Them ninjas are sneaky leik woo.

[gone_byebye]

"Fine by me," says Ray. "Good to see you one more time, Mikey."

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew stares at the note on the bulletin board.

And then frantically around the bar, hoping Ray hasn't gone yet.

[gone_byebye]

Not yet, no. Ray catches sight of Andrew looking for him, and waves.