milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Bar is occasionally weird about time even within her precincts. Some people go into the bathroom, or upstairs, and get stuck there for ages on end from one side's perspective- but only a few moments from their own.

In Ray's case, it's been about a day since he started feeling unwell and went upstairs to take a nap. He's spent that day in bed trying to:

a) drink lots of fluids
b) blow his nose enough
c) get over the sudden and powerful urge to call himself 'Megatron' and start building some kind of bizarre device to extract energy from the world's housecats or something similar
d) bring his fever down a couple of notches without resorting to painkillers.

It hasn't worked so good, so he's downstairs in search of OTC painkillers and some tissues that won't take off much more skin from his nose. Fair warning, the man's still infectious.

[OOC: yeah, he's still an IMDB Flu vector, for those who're interested.]

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There's a very large map of North America laid out over the largest table in the Bar. An olive-skinned, almond-eyed young woman is bent over it, marking it with dots and arrows.

Ray suppresses a sneeze as he heads over in that direction; he's curious, but he doesn't want to intrude. Unfortunately he can't entirely avoid the sneezing, so she'll have warning of his impending arrival.

"Ugh. Sorry."

She has an expression of concern when she looks up. "You okay?"

"I'm all right." Ray rubs at his nose with one hand, then digs for a tissue. "Ugh. I didn't get anything on you, did I?"

"I don't think so," she says. "You're not going to start babbling in German, are you?"

Somebody has encountered this particular illness before, but has a rather skewed idea of what the symptoms are.

"I wasn't planning on it," Ray says. "But I caught myself trying to make monkey noises yesterday when I got frustrated because I was out of orange juice. Does that count?"

"I... don't know?"

Ray offers a weak smile. "Sorry," he says. "This is why I've tried to stay out of sight. It's just safer."

"How long ago did this start?"

"Just the-" He sneezes. "Ugh. "Just the other day, I think..." He sneezes again, and whimpers. It's not a particularly human-sounding whimper. At least he is not barking.

Alyx frowns worriedly. "You want me to get you some chicken soup or something?"

"I should get it myself," Ray says. With an apologetic look he adds, "No sense me being down here and bothering somebody who's busy, right?"

Alyx shrugs. "I've got time. That's half the reason I came here."

He'd insist, but the flu really isn't doing his inner ear any favors, so he sits down with an apologetic look.

"Thanks, miss," he says. "I'm really sorry if we've met and I don't remember your name, but I'm really not feeling well right now. I mean, in case you hadn't noticed. My name's Ray Stantz."

Blink. Blink.

"Seriously?"

Silently, Ray flips open his wallet and holds it out for inspection.

It's worth noting that the expiration date is in 1988.

"...huh. That is weird. I know a guy with the exact same name and the exact same job..."

"Dark hair, about yea tall, robot daughter?" Ray says as he puts his wallet away. "That's the me from another universe. He comes here way more often than I do. We leave notes for each other to keep each other up to date on what's going on back home."

"That's... different," says Alyx. "I'm Alyx, by the way. And I'm pretty sure there's only one of me."

"Oh, there's at least five or six universes with different versions of us in them," Ray says. "I haven't been to them myself, except for one a few years back. It's-" He sneezes again. "Ugh. It's good to meet you, Alyx. I'm sorry about this flu."

"It's okay," Alyx reassures him. "Hang on, I'll get you that soup..."

She heads for the Bar and returns a moment later with a large bowl of chicken noodle soup and a fresh box of tissues.

"Thank you," says Ray. "I-"

He pauses and clutches the edge of the table very, very hard for a while. Finally he says, "Okay. That keeps happening. I have to keep telling myself that if I really was a giant robot overlord from the planet Cybertron I wouldn't have to keep blowing my nose."

"And I wouldn't be here offering you food," agrees Alyx. "Maybe you ought to go lie down..."

"You know? That's probably a good idea," Ray says. "I'll just bring the soup upstairs. Thanks, Alyx!"

"You're welcome. Feel better."

Alyx turns back to the task of marking train routes on the map.

Occasionally, she sneezes.

...Tyler's seen either of Ray in better condition than this. That is why Ray's going to find the kid with the inflatible bouncepad offering him a big oj with a worried expression.

Ray accepts the orange juice with a smile once he's done blowing his nose. "Thanks," he says. "So are you here to tell the emperor he has no clothes, or are you supposed to be playing one of the shoemaker's children?"

That...that is very new.

"...Ray, are you feeling okay? It's me, Tyler."

"I know." Ray rubs at his face with the heel of one hand. "Sorry, Tyler. I've come down with-" He sneezes. "Something nasty, and I keep hitting these ... really weird patches even though I don't have a high enough fever to be hallucinating. I just couldn't s- excuse me-" He blows his nose again. "Couldn't stand being up in my room with it any more. I was going nuts up there by myself."

"...I can understand being that cooped up," He replies, tugging Ray over to a booth just incase the next hallucination has him a little more agressive. "...are we talking weirder than work or usual Milliways weird?"

"Just-"

Ray starts blinking suddenly, and holds up one hand to oh-so-cautiously feel along the length of his nose. When he gets to the end he stops, and then reaches for his ears.

"... I don't have tusks either, do I?"

"...nope." But this has pretty much answered Tyler's question.

"Oh good," Ray says. "Because for a moment there I was sure I was supposed to be an elephant. That was... I should have that orange juice now."

"...before you think you're a snake or something..." Oh good there's the booth seat, maybe Ray'll be better if he's not standing up. "...you want me to get someone from the infirmary for you?"

Ray smiles, and nods rapidly, and makes a series of very odd yabbling noises that would sound more appropriate coming from a cartoon purple dinosaur that thinks it's the family dog.

A moment later he looks horrifically embarrassed.

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