(no subject)

[gone_byebye]

May 25, 2004
Corner of Varick & North Moore Streets
Manhattan

New York City is a funny place. Things happen there all the time, and nobody notices. Well, the tourists do, but they don't count, and the people from New Jersey do, but they're from Jersey, and the New Yorkers themselves do, but to admit that you actually noticed would be to admit that you were caught by surprise. In New York City this is often the equivalent of hanging out a sign saying 'COME AND GET IT, BIG TASTY BAIT', and so the natives do their best to avoid visibly acknowledging the unusual. Sometimes, especially in the vicinity of a certain firehouse on the edge of TriBeCa, this is all but impossible.

This is not one of those times. Nobody really cares if there's a full-sized refrigerator delivery carton leaning up against the outer wall of the firehouse. Garbage happens.

So nobody's looking when the side of the box stirs a bit, gets pushed open, and disgorges a pair of people. The woman merely steps away from the box as if to get her bearings, but the man takes one look up at the building, then dashes straight to the edge of the street, where he crouches in front of a newspaper machine. "Yes!" he exults, pumping a fist in the air. "I think we found it, Romana!"

Comments

[gone_byebye]

Winston nods. "Winston Zeddemore," he says. "Winston's fine."

The other two introduce themselves in short order. Ray's too busy grinning and running his fingers over Ecto's fins to notice the goings-on- he's finally home! It's been nearly a year for him- six months animated, three months in the 1985 reality, and the time spent in Milliways...

He's home. Even if only for a little while. Soon he and Romana will be going out again, of course, but... for here and for now, at least, things are back to the way they were before it all began.

Which is, of course, an excellent point from which to start anew.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_romana_/]

Romana listens to everyone talk, pleased that Ray's found his friends. Well, that she's found them or either way. Pleased. And the firehouse is charming.

"Now that that's settled, can you show me around?" She asks well, all of the others but mostly Ray after everyone's introduced themselves.

[gone_byebye]

Ray jerks his attention back from the car and smiles. "Right this way," he says to Romana. To the others, he notes, "I'll explain everything as soon as we're done, I promise. I've had a weird couple of months, so you'd better get out the sensors and the tape recorder, because you're not gonna be able to write it all down. Oh- and here..."

He reaches into one of his pockets and pulls out the PDA of Doooom. "Egon, I know you're going to be the hardest to convince, but this should go a really long way towards verifying my story. Feel free to correct the math on any equations you find, but I think I got all the important bits."

As Egon starts scanning through the device's contents, Ray turns back to Romana. "We've been in this firehouse about... oh, close to two years now. It was a pretty standard piece of city architecture when we started, but we've made a few modifications along the way. Left the poles in, though- how about we start the tour in the basement and work up to the third floor? They're really easy to use, if you wanna try them."

Peter rolls his eyes. "He does that to everyone who comes in here," he says in a stage whisper.