Still Room 2342, Yee-Haw

The sign on the outside of the door says IF YOU ATTEMPT TO ENTER THIS ROOM YOU WILL BE SHOT.

A slightly smaller sign below says UNLESS YOU'RE ON THE SHIFT ROSTER- PEDO MELLON A MINNO.

The latter part is Sindarin for 'speak, friend, and enter', or possibly slightly different translations thereof.

Ray's Room (Not 2342 For Once)

Ray settled back on his bed, more grateful than he could express. Between Peter's reaction to Danny's situation, and Egon's finally finding something that might be a genuine purpose to his presence, things were starting to look up. Even if the attempt to get Danny back for a while had failed, things in general were starting to look up.

He pulled one of the slim black objects K had given him from his pocket and examined it thoughtfully. He wasn't going to use the sleep compensators just yet. Not until he had to. They'd be necessary soon enough, but for now- well, he could manage at the moment. When the vigils got longer he'd have the stuff ready.

With luck, they wouldn't get too much longer.

As soon as I can, I'm finding Lilly or Moiraine, and asking for them to help me appeal to Dream. I'll figure out how to find Danny's friends and sister then. I don't know how you go about getting the door to open onto someone else's continuum, but… I'll deal with that issue then, won't I?

He started absently turning the black box over and over in his fingers.

Maybe Egon can think of something. Or maybe I can just try to leave, and the Bar''ll dump me there out of disgust? Probably not, unless that's one of the universes where I never went into the paranormal for some reason. Danny would've recognized my name if I were anything at all in the way of a ghost hunter in his world. Maybe I can come up with some kind of… I don't know. We'll think of something.

It's the other part that worries me. . .

Tobin's had almost nothing on Dream, even the up-to-date copy he'd asked the Hogfather for. Oh, it had references to the Endless in it- but they were in the chapter entitled Entities Beyond The Scope Of This Book. Which was rather disturbing, given what else was in the book, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. What little he had been able to glean was that the Dreaming was at least as real and as dangerous as the Netherworld, probably more so, and that it touched on everything Lovecraft had ever written of the Dreamlands. Among other places, of course, but that still meant- well- he didn't like to give the possibility much in the way of head-time. The worst parts of the Australian Dreamtime had nothing on the far north of the Dreamlands, and if that were the case than there was undoubtedly worse than even Inquanok and Leng out there. Not that they were likely to have to go to such parts, but you never knew.

( These are the days when our work has come asunder )

The black box stilled in his hand as he stared at the ceiling. In the Dream Cycle, Randolph Carter had learned just how powerfully real the Dreamlands were, even when he had once escaped them by waking. Ray wasn't that potent of a dreamer (not that anybody was- there was only one Randolph Carter, and he wasn't part of that one's scope). It was just possible that one of Danny's friends could do what Carter couldn't, but either way, they were going to have to be careful indeed. The Dreamlands were real; that meant everything else would be, whether it could be brought into the waking world or not. This was going to be a fight to the finish, and they would have to put forward everything they had to make sure that it wasn't their finish.

( And these are the days when we look for something other )

And that was where the voice came in; that was where the whispers in the back of his head made themselves heard. Even the wish-visions admitted it was only a chance. You saw K's face. What do you do if this goes wrong?

That is not an option, Mr. Mulder.

Oh, very good, pop-culture reference- seriously, what are you going to do if this goes wrong? Not for you- for him? What do you do if Danny loses?

He closed his eyes, fingers closing tightly around the box.

He's not gonna lose!

But if he does? You saw what he's capable of becoming! You can't let that happen!

That's why I have to gather his friends- that's what we're going to be there for. He isn't going to lose. We won't let him.

But. If. He. Does.

It was an enormous effort of will to open his eyes and stare at the ceiling again.

I do not admit of that possibility, he told himself. He isn't going to lose.

He could have been me.

( A man's got to shoot his own dog )

And Once Again, Not Room 2342

From here.

Ray opens the door to his room; despite his personal habits, he's been keeping it fairly clean the past few nights he's slept here. He gestures to the closet. "I have a folding workbench in there and a spare chair..."