milliways_bar | (no subject)

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[OOM: Ray's had some news for his colleagues for some time. He's starting with Winston.]

The door opens and Ray wanders in from his New York. He's in a better mood today than he thought he'd be, so he's going to skip over dinner and head straight outside for saber practice. Anyone who looks outside is going to see Ray in his usual street clothes, jacket slung over his Ghostbusters company t-shirt, going up against a training drone set on the 'Someone Gave The Ferret Water-Joe' training pattern.

He's much better than he used to be.

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Ray examines the comic book thoughtfully. "We've got magic in mine, although this year was the first time in centuries it really got particularly potent outside the month of October," he says. "Overall this sort of thing's been sufficiently subdued throughout history that my colleagues and I got laughed out of- well, you saw the movie, you know what happened to us."

"Yeh, actually the first recorded metahuman superhero was a guy who went by the name 'Mr. Extraordinary' he appeared 1916 during the first world war, and disappeared again in 1920." Tyler replies. "It was kind of rare then, and it only really started picking up during the 1940's and fifties, after radiation was discovered."

He had to do a history report to make up for his dismal social studies grades.

"So we're probably looking at a wide-scale eruption later on in my own timeline," Ray says. "Whether it's related to the steadily rising levels of PKE saturating the background radiation of everyday life, or something to do with the persistent chemicals in the water supply finally reaching a critical point, or both. Good to know."

"Yeh, probably. Are people in your world looking around for more of the.... Paranoramal activities or people with abilities?" Tyler asks. "I mean, maybe if there was a school for em, there'd be a lot less property damage involved."

"There's no organized efforts just yet that I know of," Ray says. "The government's currently conducting a nationwide paranormal activity survey to get an idea of the magnitude of the situation. That's probably going to pick up speed now that we've made diplomatic contact with the Deep Ones. As far as actual kids go, I've taken the step of picking up my nephews as Jedi apprentices- they've both manifested with psychokinetic abilities, along with some Force-like ESP talents. I don't have any power at all, but I can at least teach them the philosophies and some of the basic mental exercises necessary to keep things in line."

"...Just don't let them experiment on anyone. Of check and see if anyone else was. There's kind of a bad history of that back home." The kind of history that ends with a smoking glassy crater in what used to be Timeshelp, Iowa.

Seeing someone without any superpowers take on stuff like that is kind of nice. Tyler grins. "Cool, I bet they listen to you a lot. You might run into trouble with super-powered parents though."

"Not gonna happen," Ray promises. "Last year I got kidnapped by a black ops agency that'd been tracking technological movement and development everywhere in the hemisphere. They'd hidden it in the EPA budget. I got told I could work for them or work not at all, and then thrown into the middle of Montana to think about it with a week's supplies, half a roll of toilet paper, and all the Clan of the Cave Bear Books. After some of the folks from Milliways rescued me we went back and blew their operation sky high, but you can count on us not being likely to let the government get away with experimenting on people, I promise."

"I'm having enough trouble with my sister listening, and she has about as much power as I do," he adds. "Catherine doesn't like having to deal with all the weirdness, particularly not in her own home."

"Eeeeeww..." Tyler wrinkles his nose at that. "I hope whoever did that to you got a cosmic wedgie as well."

"You're going to end up running into the other end of that spectum too. Parents with powers who are kinda...insistent." Tyler says somberly, he's already brought up he goes to school with mini-superheroes, how much worse could it get? Besides, Ray seems like he'd understand that situation.

"I'm pretty sure he did," Ray says. He's not about to mention that Walter Peck broke out of prison, at least not just yet.

But he nods. "My child's the most gifted and talented of the bunch, and you're a fool if you don't recognize it, kind of thing?" he says. "Yeah, that's... not really a surprise."

Tyler gives Ray what can be only decribed as a patient look. Then clears his throat doing his best to imitate someone. "This is Ultima Powers, you will train my son as if he were any other metahuman. No doubt the cosmic power he is destined to wield will reveal itself eventually."

It isn't that hard. ...Considering it's his dad he's mimicing.

Ray sighs. "Gotcha," he says. "Yeah, that's not the kind of thing any non-powered teacher wants to hear."

"Actually none of the powered teachers want to hear it either. My dad is scary." Tyler says again. "Now imagine that being a holor recording at the start of gym class and you pretty much described my first day of first grade. Minus the long visit to the nurse's office after gym class."

"Geez, and I thought I had it rough going to college at age fourteen," Ray says. "Please tell me your parents don't buy into the Nietzschean idea about 'that which does not kill me, makes me stronger'."

There is silence.

It actually says quite a lot for being silence.

"If it ends up with me getting superpowers? They do."

Ray grimaces. "I'm so sorry, Tyler," he says. "If there's anything I can do to help..."

"...I'll let you know. Mr. Tommy Oliver offered to make me some armor so I don't spend gym class getting my butt handed to me on a platter." Tyler digs around in his backpack and straps on his grappler unit. "And I get to practice using my gadgets here without anyone noticing or having to ask for a hall pass."

Ray nods. "Mr. Oliver knows his business," he says. "I've spoken with him a few times in the past. I'd offer you the use of one of the Holtzmann defensive shields I worked out how to build, except that they detonate really messily upon contact with a laser, and I don't think you want to take that chance. The gadget practice is a good thing, though. What's that one do?"

"It's an arm mounted grappler." Tyler raises his arm and sights along it to a tree branch. "It's got a taser attachment and a realy strong electromagnet in it. The claw attachment helps me scale up buildings."

"Sweet," Ray says. "I tried to develop one of those once. I never really managed to work out all of the cabling necessary to use one without a full body harness."

"I think the cable in mine is made of defendium alloy... I have a spare set of plans in my backpack if you'd want to go over them." He digs around again pulling out a small notebook from a hidden pocket. "I made another that I gave to Enzo Matrix as a birthday present, so you could probably get all the stuff to make one from Miss Bar."

The drawings inside of the notebook are small..but very detailed in how Tyler's particular model was built. When you have to repair your own gear, you want a guide handy.

"That would be great, actually," Ray says. "We haven't got defendium in my world, but I know enough people that we ought to be able to come up with an alternative. Would it be all right with you if I scanned them into my computer? It shouldn't take long."

"No problem. I'm going to hide out from my world here for a while. That Time Travel mess wasn't the first weird thing that happened to me." Tyler shoulders his backpack. "I think I kinda deserve another break from the crazy back home."

"I'd be inclined to agree with you," says Ray. "Considering how freaky this place can get sometimes I feel sorry for you if this is your refuge of normalcy, but you're more than welcome to it."

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