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

[mnt_mike]

"With a name like Everlasting I have a feeling that's going to be a good long while."

His smile turns bitter sweet, and before he allows himself to say anything else, he steps forward with his arms open and pulls the much taller man into a hug.

[gone_byebye]

And of course, because it is mandatory, there's going to be hugging back. Wouldn't be right otherwise.

[mnt_mike]

"Wow I'm so glad Raph is the crier in the family, because right now? Would totally be a time for crying," he says mid-hug.

"...never tell him I said that."

[gone_byebye]

"Not a problem," Ray says. "I'll just make sure to remember it for the next three hundred years instead."

[mnt_mike]

He gives Ray one more squeeze, and then steps away.

"You know...I'm not really sure if that's better or worse."

[gone_byebye]

"He'll never find out about it, for what that's worth?"

[mnt_mike]

"A hiding. That's worth a hiding. Though..he's mellowed in his old age, so maybe it's more like...a skinned knee, rather than a whole hide," he muses with a shrug of a shoulder.

[gone_byebye]

"There you go, then," Ray says. "If I make it back here in three hundred years I'll put up a sign about it for any of the long-lived types who still remember him, and we'll all have a good laugh at his expense. Sound reasonable?"

[mnt_mike]

"Sounds like a plan."

"Once upon a time, back when we'd first moved in with April, there was this guy who lived in the basement apartment of her building. Kirby, I think his name was. Anyway, he and Donnie became friends after a while and one of the things my brother picked up from Kirby was the saying, Life at best is bittersweet.

Before I got here I never really got it, you know? But I do now, and this? This is one of those times.

It's been an honor and a privilege, Doctor Stanz."

[gone_byebye]

"The same here, believe me," Ray says. "The same here."

He sobers a little.

"See you on the other side, Mike."

[mnt_mike]

"Damn straight you will." Mike smiles, a real one this time, and then turns to go back in the direction of the Staff Hallway. As he passes Bar he runs his hand across her top.

She doesn't like goodbyes either.