gone_byebye | (no subject)

Entry tags:

apocalypse - what now?

(no subject)

14 North Moore St
Manhattan
Mid-Afternoon

The door opens on a cloudy day in New York City; the air is cool, the winds are stirring, and the alley, as usual, has more than a few discarded papers and plastic bags blowing around. "Looks about right," Ray comments, stepping through. "Welcome to New York City, folks."

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Ryan steps in a bit closer, peering over Ray's shoulder at the kit.

River sits back, watching the two of them with an affectionate smirk.

"So tell me, Ray, you were mentioning filtering and then shielding the recorder from our PKE fields."

Ray nods. "It's a moderately complicated technique that requires a lot of familiarity with extremely sensitive monitoring equipment, but I'm pretty sure I can pull it off without a hitch."

"You've done something similar before," Ryan guesses. He's still watching to see if he recognizes anything, but he won't be disappointed if it's all just Science to him.

"I would think so," she says to Ryan. "I mean, it was his idea to even try this. I wanted it to be a surprise, but I couldn't get it to work properly. He merely glanced at my notes and knew exactly what the problem was."

"Oh here." She pulls out her sonic screwdriver and pops open the side hatch. "This is for you, along with this." She hands it over to Ray, with the tiny copy she'd constructed, designed to hang off Richard's dog tags.

"A few times, yes," Ray says. "Both here and in one or two of the other universes I've landed in. It's a more basic procedure than I'd previously expected, but everything in the lab really is once you get right down to it- ah, thank you, that should do nicely-"

"So this should be simple, then, correct? What did you need from me?"

Presumably, he'll have to stand still for a moment, if only so Ray has a current scan.

"Hold still, arms out at a forty-five degree angle- I want to get a scan from several positions and it's easier if I take my cue from the people at LaGuardia- and don't actively invoke any particular paranormal abilities or talents you may have," Ray instructs. "This won't take long."

River sits back and watches, curious. A bit amused at the sight.

Ray considers the screen a moment as he straightens up from the scan. Then he nods. "Okay, now turn around, we're almost done... there we go. I think that's enough data, that should do it."

Ryan puts his arms down, shooting a subtle look at River.

'You're next,' it says.

Not fair.

But he's right.

"And before we get too much farther, mm. My situation has changed as well. And I'm not sure the recorder is still working on me."

Edited 2009-09-20 03:23 (UTC)

"Oh?" says Ray, eyeing the scan data thoughtfully. "In what way has the situation changed, should I ask?"

Ryan drops his chin ever so slightly.

"No longer baseline human," he explains, tone somewhere between pride and wariness. "It happened at Cubefall."

River gives a tight little smile, eyebrows dancing up for a moment.

"Yes, that's a good way to put it."

Ray blinks, frowning a little; then his expression clears. "Oh, right," he said. "You asked me about how Cubefall works, and permanent changes and stuff like that. I remember now. So you went through with it after all? Congratulations. I'll be sure to account for that when I run the scanners this time."

Ryan relaxes again. He hadn't thought it'd be an issue with Ray but, well. Better to be safe than sorry.

"Is it that great of a difference?" He asks, curious, before adding, "You don't have to answer if it involves a lot of words I'm not going to know."

"Richard," she says gently.

"Thank you Ray. And yes, I did go through with it, and chose to keep the changes. It's been -- exhilarating, to say the least."

"Congratulations again, then, albeit several months belatedly," Ray says. "Glad it's working out for you. Now hold still, please- as for your question,A Captain, once you've seen the background scan enough times you learn to filter out the lines that read 'werewolf' and concentrate on the remaining variants. I could go into piles of gory detail here but this is usually the point where Peter gives me the Dull Surprise face, so I'll pull up short for all our sakes."

River looks vaguely disappointed, but shrugs nonetheless. She can always pick his brain later.

She holds the same position that Richard did as he scans her.

It doesn't take long here, either. Eventually Ray steps back and says, "All right, you can lower your arms now. I think I have the appropriate data necessary to do this..."

Ryan holds his peace, silently watching instead.

River is peering over Ray's shoulder, trying to figure out just what kind of reading he's taken.

"Sorry, I simply find this all fascinating."

"Perfectly understandable, Dr. Song, and as soon as I've processed it all we'll get the two of you set- not to mention the documentation I'll be delivering to you," Ray says. "Ever since a horrific incident several decades ago whose particulars currently elude my memory I've made a practice of disseminating my information to people from other universes and continua who can be trusted. Granted, that usually means opening my Milliways door repeatedly until I hit an alternate Firehouse, then throwing the documentation through the door, but I'd say you'll do for a substitute."

Sooo... "Then we're done for now?"