(no subject)

[gone_byebye]

Ray got into a number of habits while he was in Garion's world. They helped to keep him on an even keel, or at least as close as a guy can get to one when he's, you know, pulled out of the twenty-first century and thrown into the past of a world that was already pretty dang medieval to begin with. The first was that every day, rain or shine or otherwise*, he would get in at least an hour of sword or lightsaber practice- preferably but not necessarily with other people.

The other is that every day he would write to Romana. At least a paragraph's worth of writing, or a few inches of equations if he was in more of a mathematical mood. Customarily he did that in Sumerian, to prevent any of the locals from accidentally running across the letters and learning things they shouldn't.

Forty-seven years of habit (he STILL can't believe that number!) are kind of hard to break, so today Ray may be found out back with his 'saber for an hour or so. Nowhere near the spot where he remembers disappearing, we should note. He'll be inside later, writing enthusiastically to Romana, still in Sumerian.

Feel free to catch him in either location.


*When you are on a university campus and there are alchemists in any kind of large number 'otherwise' is a valid weather condition

Comments

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

There is an incredibly cheerful Matilda wandering the bar with her customary picnic basket of cookies.

When she sees the cuneiform she beams harder.

"Hallo, Ray! How've you been? Would you like a biscuit?"

Yes, she missed his disappearance entirely. Shh. University is distracting, especially for six-year-olds.

[gone_byebye]

It takes Ray a moment or two to remember-

"Hi, Matilda," he finally says, and smiles. "Wow, it's been a while. I've been all right, I guess. How're you?"

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"Delightful!"

Huge, adorable six-year-old grin.

"My first day at Cambridge went brilliantly."

[gone_byebye]

"Oh, that's right! You got into- that's terrific!" Okay, the memories are shaking looser now. "Excellent. How're your professors so far?"

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"Oh, they're terrific for the most part." She giggles. "My linguistics professor very nearly fell over when I told him how many languages I speak. I don't think he believes me."

[gone_byebye]

"Well, you know how you go about showing him that he's wrong, of course," Ray says. "How many of them can you argue in, in sequence?"

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

Tiny grin. "That depends. Do I include dead languages and/or languages not spoken on Earth?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_romana_/]

"Should I be worried that you are writing such a long letter?" Asks the Time Lord, setting her teacup on the table as offering him one of her eclairs.

Some days just call for French pastry.

[gone_byebye]

That would be the moment when Ray's throat just plain closes up and only lets out a faint 'squeek!' noise.

He's just... he's just gonna reach for Romana's hand now, okay? With the intention of never never ever letting go of it, at least for now?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_romana_/]

Romana is pretty sure this isn't normal Ray behavior. It isn't even normal human behavior. (She could be wrong about that, humans were never her main area of study.)
"Ray?" She says, not trying to take her hand back yet. "Ray, is something... wrong?"

[gone_byebye]

"I, um."

Deep breath, because he's pretty sure he's only going to get to say this once.

"I have no idea how it happened but I was practicing with my lightsaber out back and I sort of slipped and hit my head and when I opened my eyes I was in Garion's world only it was more than two hundred years before Garion was born and I had no clue how I was supposed to contact anybody or get home because I'd landed in an area that was separated from Garion's people by several million extremely hostile people so I got a job at a university to try and raise enough money to bribe somebody to take me back to the right side of the world and before I knew it forty Terran standard years had passed and I hadn't even grown a single new gray hair."

Wheeeeeeeeeeze. Dammit, he didn't get a respiratory bypass.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_romana_/]

Now it is Romana's turn to squeak and stare at Ray like she hasn't seen him for a half-century.

"... Not a one? Isn't that... unusual?" She asks, because really, there's just no kind way to ask 'shouldn't you be nearly dead by now?'. There is just isn't.

[gone_byebye]

"There isn't a single anti-agathic known to Terran science that can do that," Ray says. "With the exception of the melange spice of the planet Arrakis, but Arrakis won't be discovered for several thousand years yet, plus this planet had much too high a level of atmospheric moisture to be even the earliest precursor to Arrakis."

[thechaosbringer]

One VERY FAMILIAR face is now about three inches from Ray's as he's writing whatever it is he's writing today.

Honestly. Who cares about personal space these days?

FLESHLING. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF A FOOD SUBSTANCE YOUR KIND CALLS A "BROWNIE"? SPECIFICALLY THOSE CAPABLE OF AFFECTING AN INDIVIDUAL'S ABILITY TO FUNCTION PROPERLY?

When you've just gotta know, go to the fleshling you know.

[gone_byebye]

Ray's head comes up sharply; he hasn't heard that voice in years. "The primary exotic chemicals present in the majority of brownies are levels of caffeine and theobromine, a pair of stimulant alkaloids from the methylxanthine class of chemical compounds," he says. "Occasionally the common 'brownie' is used as a delivery vehicle for recreational pharmaceuticals, usually of plant origin, such as tetrahydrocannabinol and the other compounds found in marijuana. Um, why?"

[thechaosbringer]

It's a face he hasn't seen in years either.

...the flesh creature has aged in some tangible way...

Right. How does one explain this in a way that won't have Unicron pretzeling Ray's neck for laughing at the Planet Eater?

I HAVE OBSERVED AN INCIDENT INVOLVING BROWNIES MADE BY THE FLESH CREATURE WHO CALLS HIMSELF "PICKLES". OBSERVED, AND UNFORTUNATELY BECAME AN UNWITTING PARTICIPANT IN. THERE WAS SOMETHING IN HIS BROWNIES THAT AFFECTED ALL THOSE THAT CONSUMED THEM.

Pause. "Common brownie". He makes it sound like this is an ornithology class!

INCLUDING MYSELF. I WISH TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS SUBSTANCE.

[gone_byebye]

"Pickles- oh, lord. Him," Ray says. "Okay. I remember him. I think I can extrapolate just what those brownies must have been like. He's a performer of a type of Terran music that encourages its fans and players to alter their perceptions chemically, sometimes indulging in euphorics as well- so there were probably an absolutely insane level of vegetable alkaloids in those brownies, since he's probably got a pretty high tolerance to overcome himself. The concentration he must've achieved in order to affect you must've been nothing short of astronomical."

[thechaosbringer]

What manner of madness affects these creatures whose species Ray is a member of? Madness that makes them do stuff like this?

Okay so sometimes young Transformers get the idea to spike a little Energon with some random substance for laughs. But that's just general pranking.

They don't encourage this as a lifestyle.

YES. HE WAS RATHER IMPRESSED THAT I MANAGED TO CONSUME AS MANY AS I DID BEFORE ENTERING STASIS LOCK AND EXPERIENCING SOME PECULIAR EFFECTS ONCE I RESUMED A CONSCIOUS STATE.

He'll just sit down on a chair now, and the wood's gonna groan unhappily under his weight.

[gone_byebye]

"That strongly implies that he was adding recreational pharmaceuticals other than marijuana," Ray says. "Although not necessarily. From what I remember of my college days, people of standard human body mass who consumed your average marijuana brownie quickly found themselves entertained by previously average events and happenings, occasionally developed peculiar worries, fell asleep relatively quickly, and later experienced a tremendous desire to eat. Oh, and there was short-term memory loss a lot of the time, too. It's entirely possible that his particular recipe was sufficiently concentrated that most humans could only get a few of them down before passing out."

[mandercommander.livejournal.com]

And a certain kid has his memory back. He looks happier than he's been in a bit (call it adjusting to reality), but he still doesn't look what one would call thrilled.

But he does recognize Ray, and from a safe (ie not likely to get an arm cut off) distance, he waves.

[gone_byebye]

Ray blinks a few times, digging through his memories. It takes him a while; it's been decades, after all.

"Don't tell me, let me guess... Bonzo, right? Have I got the pronunciation right?"

[mandercommander.livejournal.com]

He nods. "Correct. Ray, right?"

[gone_byebye]

"Last time I checked, yes," says Ray. "Sorry, Bonzo. I've been in some unusual circumstances for a while. It's made things interesting."

[mandercommander.livejournal.com]

"It's alright." Pause. "I...uh...just got my memory back a few days ago, and I'm still not sure I completely trust everything I remember."

[gone_byebye]

Ray nods. "I've just spent forty-seven years in another universe," he says. "Terran standard-length years, too, although the planet involved isn't Earth."