milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

Ray's not as bouncy now as he was this morning, but he's still a very, very happy man today. So dinner, despite the Bar's history of feeding him healthy things with whole grains in, involves a big hunk of dead cow on a bun and a lot of fried things. It's been a good diurnal anomaly. What can we say?

Anyway, he could probably do with some company.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ray remembers the flute player; he nods. There isn't much else to say about Jeremy.

"Yeah, there was, actually," he says, brightening a bit. "We saved the people we went there to save, and they managed to close the portals the demons were coming in through before too many of the things could show up. I've got a couple of scars from the whole adventure, though. On the other hand, my world's Egon is getting demon parts for Hanukkah. I managed to salvage a Hefty bag's worth before getting back here and passing out all over my bed."

"Raymond... as my grandmother would have said, sometimes you are completely meshugge. On the other hand, the opportunity to study such things is extremely rare and I'm sure he'll be remarkably pleased by it."

"Was the local Peter involved? It seems like something he'd be involved with - if only because you went. He is many things that exasperate me, but his loyalty is unstinting."

Ray grins. "I kinda felt the same way. There's a couple of teeth, a horn or two, a small jar of ichor, and a few bone fragments. Best I could do- well, that and this-"

He bends over and rolls up his right pantleg a little way. Enough to reveal the mark of two rows of teeth- of fangs- having been sunk into his leg deep enough to leave scars from very nearly the entire dental arcade. The outer row of teeth was neat and pointed. The inner? Snaggly and pointed every which way.

"Some of the teeth are from the same kind of demon that did that. Nasty critters. There were six of them versus one of me at the time and I'll tell you, I have never been so glad in my life to have that lightsabre at hand."

He rolls the pantleg back down. "As a matter of fact, he was. He came along, partly because I was there and partly because he wanted something to do that was actually in our line of work.. he's been Bound for a while, Egon." Ray sobers. "He thought maybe this would be helpful for him, but I think it's only made him worse, and I don't know how to help him. Can you talk to him for me? Try and get a fresh perspective on things? The poor guy's gonna fly to pieces if we don't figure out what's going on and help him get his head back in order."

Egon whistles at the bites. "How many months ago was that?"

Then he listens, carefully.

"Perhaps he'll speak to me. Or, more likely, my lack of tact and blunt manner will get him to vent at me, and then we can work on a plan to restore him to his normal incorrigible self." There's a small smile there. "Should we include Dana in this discussion?"

"Actually? A week and a half ago. One of the local wizards healed it most of the way for me, since I passed out from blood loss briefly towards the end of the fight. I've spent the past week or so recovering here- my world's Egon told me not to come back to New York until my hematocrit went over forty."

"I sincerely hope so, Egon. I keep trying to get him to talk , or at least offer him the opportunity to talk, and I get nothing. Dana can't get anywhere with him either; he's got this whole 'I'm afraid of what I'm going to do to the people around me' schtick going. If I hear him call himself a freak one more time I'm gonna- well- I don't know what I'm gonna do, but he's not gonna like it." Ray shakes his head ruefully. "Whatever you can do, buddy. Whatever you can do. And no... not yet, I don't think. She's worried enough as it is. We don't want her fretting in anticipation or anything, I don't think."

"Freak? That's very unlike Peter. Unless..." He pauses, and looks at Ray over his glasses.

"This is something else you're not telling me. Is he the one who can wave his hand about it not being the droids you're looking for?" This changes things; not that Egon has any reason to fear any version of Peter Venkman, but it means that a slightly different tack might be more useful.

He's thinking. He's got That Thinking Look on his face.

"I didn't mention it to you because Peter swore up and down that you'd been the one to tell him that he was having psychic catalyzation going on-"

Ray blinks a few times.

"Oh, hell, I think there's two of your continuum if you don't remember that. Anyway, Peter went through a period of mild to moderate psychic activity, most of it emotion-linked, but back around Halloween a lot of that got burnt out or something. I wasn't here when that happened- I was trapped in the alternate universe where you work for CSICOP. Peter got hit with some kind of curse and it nearly killed him- it stopped his heart at one point, but one of the local doctors got him back. He's still registering on my PKE meter but not nearly as much as he used to. It's the whole 'oh God I can see the ghosts even when they're not fully manifested and I can do weird things with the power of my brain, oh no, I am a freak' deal that gets under my skin. Obviously, the man isn't enough of a geek to appreciate the hand he's been dealt."

"Well, then," Egon says. "It looks as if I have no choice in the matter but to do something I do better than anyone on the planet:"

"Annoy Peter Venkman."

(( aaaaand slowtime ))

Ray beams, visibly relieved. "Thank you, Egon. You have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that..."

He picks up his drink, takes a sip. "Anyway. My whole point with telling you about Andrew's world- other than explaining the scars in advance of you actually seeing them, there's another set on my left shoulder, by the way- was to tell you that as part of the preparation for the battle I put together several more proton packs for the other people who were willing and able to use them. So there's a spare or two upstairs. I've added fingerprint power-up security so that none of them can be switched on by the wrong people; right now Peter and I are the only ones who can turn them on, but there's room in the bioident memory for several more authorizees. They've had a few other upgrades, too, the most notable of which is the Anakin latch- yes, as in Anakin Skywalker, he was here for a while and he helped me work on the packs when I first got here- anyway, the Anakin latch functions as a kind of safety and reroutes the particle stream between the original accelerator and the quantum-spin match function of the positron collider so that when the protons make their appearance they pass briefly through warpspace. The upshot of this is that crossing the streams with the Anakin latch engaged is not immediately fatal to everything and everyone we've ever known. It can be disengaged at need, of course."

"Also, the throwers now go up to eleven."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only