gone_byebye | (no subject)

"I think he's used to dining with those with odd food tastes," Ryan says thoughtfully, guiding River after Ray.

"I can tell you he wasn't kidding about the jelly beans." He's already keeping a sharp eye out for a certain ghost.

"In my line of work it just doesn't pay to assume anything," Ray says. "Between the Deep Ones, the ghosts, my dead grandfather, and the French ambassador to the Deep Ones, things can get a little odd when it comes menu time. And then there's Slimer, who eats anything that's not nailed down or made of chromium steel."

River's eyes widen a touch at the sincerity in Ray's scent. "But... if he's non-corporeal? Why would he want to ingest anything? And can he? And you never mentioned your dead grandfather, did you?"

"Because that's what Slimer does." He's grumbling a bit. Don't mind him. He's starting to rethink his decision to hide scents and not notice the ozone coming.

He looks to Ray. "At least the one in the universe I visited. Is this one any different?"

"He's not as smart as the one in the animated continuum," Ray says after a moment's thought. "He understands English reasonably well but he's only got pet-level intelligence at best. The other Slimer was capable of reading and the occasional act of assisting in household maintenance. This spud... well, he's about as bright as you'd expect a reasonably intelligent personification of the concept of 'appetite' to be, no more."

"I'm not sure if I did or not. Grandpa Maxim manifests once a week at Ben's Kosher Deli up on Thirty-eighth. He was a Marine- died when I was thirteen years old, buried in his uniform. Somehow or other he managed to sell the uniform so that he could manifest at the deli and be a paying customer with full right and reason to appear on the premises instead of being a mere haunting. We meet on Thursdays. He likes pastrami."

"Oh my goodness. Well, I see your aversion to him, then." She's looking around a bit, taking in the sights of the firehouse.

"And Ray that's -- wonderful. How amazing to be able to meet him and converse with him. I bet there are war stories aplenty."

Ryan glowers a bit at nothing in particular as Ray finishes describing Slimer.

He sets it aside soon enough to listen to Ray answer the question.

"Oh yeah. Grandpa Maxim fought in the Pacific theater during World War 2. He's great conversation, but he takes constant advantage of the fact that he's a non-corporeal entity now to disappear whenever my back is turned and the check arrives. Not that he doesn't leave partial payment, but okay this is the part where you duck and cover your heads, all right?"

"GRBLAH!" yells Slimer cheerfully as the spud descends through a patch of ceiling quite close to what appears to be a full-sized hanging carnosaur skull of some kind.

River, for her part, does as instructed, using Richard as a shield. The snarl that boils up in her throat is completely involuntary.

She's so cute.

Ryan's also crouched, eyes sharp and watching, ready to move the both of them should Slimer turn their way. There's also one hand in his pocket on what's left of the gum. He'll pitch it in a heartbeat if he has to.

Ray, fortunately, is used to this. "Slimer!" he calls. "Watermelon seeds! Catch!"

The spud dives immediately for the cheesecloth bundle Ray tosses in his direction, yammering merrily to himself as he tears it open and starts stuffing his appallingly wide gape with the little black handfuls. Ray exhales massively. "Man. Remind me to thank the guys at Aji Ichiban. Seasoned candied watermelon seeds are a godsend."

Ryan starts to stand, extending a hand to River.

"They work better than-" he shoots a glance at the green ghost, "-better than the other things?"

He's afraid that if he actually says 'jelly beans', he will be slimed.

River takes his hand, interlacing her fingers with his, pulling in tight behind him as she peers over his shoulder at the spectacle.

"Dear sweet Galileo on a pogo stick. That's a -- ghost?"

"Like I said, I'm pretty sure he's more of an embodiment of the concept of appetite than the ectoplasmic remains of a formerly living individual," Ray says. "But, yes, that's pretty much a ghost. He doesn't hunt the seeds down nearly as much as he does the other things, so keeping them around spares me scrubbing off a lot of ectoplasmic goo."

A minute shudder goes through Ryan's shoulders. He hasn't missed the ectoplasm.

"While that's keeping him busy, I believe we should get started?"

"Yes, please."

This sounds like a double plus good idea at the moment, as she watches little black seeds and sticky ectoplasm fly in a two foot radius around Slimer.

"Oh ugh."

"That, right there? That's my typical workday. When I'm not on the State Department's clock, anyway." Ray shrugs. "Anyway. That's Slimer. He was the first ghost we ever busted. The betta in the tank on Janine's desk there is Walter Peck, a former Environmental Protection Agency agent with some serious issues and a bad temper. The skull hanging from the ceiling was the result of a very unfortunate incident wherein I followed a Milliways patron back to her world, which happened to be Earth around a hundred and ten million years ago. If you'll follow me up the stairs I can show you some of the labs here before we continue on our way- oh, and our library, it's not much in terms of size but it's one of the best specialized collections of esoteric lore and history this side of Miskatonic."

...tourists, right. He remembers how to play this. And he is genuinely interested in the differences between the animated continuum and this one.

"Fair enough." He allows himself a faint smile. River will want to look at the books, he knows. "Lead the way."

Her eyes follow Ray's finger as she takes in the flora and fauna of the firehouse. "Oooo, you have a library?" Her grip on Richard's arm tightens a bit.

Called it, he did.

"It's not like we're going to let anyone else take care of our books," Ray says, and starts up the stairs. "This way. Oh, and don't mind the tenant of the big aquarium in the rec room. Someone caught Blinky in the lake at Milliways and I offered to take him home."

Blinky is about nine inches long, orange, carp-shaped, and possessed of three eyes, all of which do in fact have the ability to blink.

"It's kind of a pity Miss Eartha isn't here- she's out with Egon at the moment. Someone has to carry the books home, after all... oh, you'll like this; this is my end of the lab, here." Ray nods at a diagram on one of the walls. "I've been working on adapting one of Nikola Tesla's designs from 1905 for about a year now. He was attempting to make contact with extraterrestrial entities he believed were attempting to signal Earth wirelessly, and in the process managed to build a device capable of sending up a series of energy pulses detectable by entities that move through the fourth dimension as easily as you or I move through all three. I'm trying to work out exactly how he did it so we can make sure it doesn't happen again."

They're getting to the science talk, aren't they?

Ryan'll just be over here, patiently looking things over and not touching anything.

River's eyes flit from diagram to diagram, taking them all in for later perusal.

"Oh good heavens. What kind of entities were they? Not friendly we've-come-to-fix-all-the-ills-of-your-poor-backwards society, I take it."

"Unfortunately no," says Ray. "Significantly more alien than that; Tesla couldn't figure out what to call them, beyond 'time spirits'. The one that showed up in his labs turned out to have a tendency to record time somehow- it could cause objects to age up or move backwards along their entropy gradients to a point when they were younger. He managed to build a temporary containment device for it, but it got loose a year or two ago, and it was 1905 on Manhattan Island for three days."

Ryan tilts his head at that. "That's the thing that invaded the bar for a bit, correct?"

He loathed those clothes.

For River's sake, he explains a more. "A bit like Cubefall, only 1905 themed and not voluntary."

"Oh really. I should have liked to seen you wearing tweed, Captain," she teases. "I bet you cut quite the dapper figure."

To Ray, "A temporal containment device. I should like to see those plans sometime. But that's not what we're here for, so I won't sidetrack us."

Much.