gone_byebye | Chinatown

Chinatown

The Firehouse isn't particularly far from Chinatown, at least not if you're in the mood for it. It's warm and sunny this time of day and year, so there's quite a few people on the streets of New York as Ray opens the door into the alley. "Come on, Tyler," he says. "Let's move before the spud decides to tag along."

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This is the sort of story child psychologists would just stare at before drowning themselves in bourbon.

"...yeah. So. They're all super-excited and get him special armor and everything while the imps mess around with his powers. Eventually they left him alone but not before they 'fixed' his powers so that for every 'good' use of his powers, an equally bad thing would happen." Sigh. "I got told this afterwards, cause after the Order and Chaos scouts booted me out of the remote, it broke the statis chamber and Dr. Newby had to find a cure for the disease."

There's a faint smile here.

"Harold and Julie ended up saving my life. Harold dampened down Julie's powers so Dr. Newby could get blood and super-powered white blood cells from her. Then Harold reactivated the stuff in the blood so it'd take out the virus. I felt icky for a while, but at least the world was mostly safe from alien diseases."

"When I got back to my room though, Toby was there waiting and wanting me to help him with his powers, which he couldn't STOP. First time he teleported out he turned my shirt into fruit rollups. Second time it was sixlets and he tried to go to Cecil for answers. Third time he turned all the stuff I was wearing into a Tron Costume. And then he went to ask Mr. Cranston for help, cause his brain was leaking out his thoughts. Toby did something about the thoughts leaking out, but it cost Mr. Cranston his 'redemption'. They got my parents to...agree that we were brothers and legally adopt Toby."

"By the time that was over with, the portal had opened up enough that more Chaos and Order scouts could come through. And then they started all the superheroes fighting, so they'd open the portal wider...And only kids could see the imps so Toby was trying to help Cecil and Malphast out, and I had to track them all down. We managed to beat the invading forces, but I had to watch Cecil, who was all warped from accidents he'd had in other dimensions on the way towards rescuing me, fight my parents godzilla-style!"

"Ray I don't think there's enough vacation ANYWHERE for this!!!"

"... I could ask Romana about the Zero Room on her TARDIS," Ray says. "It's a space of absolute stillness, completely separated from the flow of space and time. It's good for sleeping in when things are getting really bad. But other than that... yeah, this is going to take a while to work with."

"...all of that stuff happened in a month." Tyler squeaks out after a moment. "At least school is gonna be out in a few weeks."

"Tyler, I hate to say this, but your life is October at this point," Ray says. "You're getting extra ice cream now that we're here."

"Phbbbbbbbbbhht."

...That as witty as he's going to get right now folks.

"...Ray? What does Zen Butter taste like?"

"Peanut butter with black sesame seeds," Ray says. "I've had it before."

Bleh.

Tyler looks over the menu anyways.

"Vanilla with blueberry sauce? And the red bean stuff doesn't look too bad. For being made with beans." Pause. "And a big glass of water? All the talking made me thirsty."

"Red bean ice cream is really good," Ray says. "Sweet and a little grainy. Ma'am, give my companion here everything he ordered, please. And one of the T-shirts. The orange one- no, make that two, he's got a brother back home."

"Sure thing Mr. Stantz."

And while holding the t-shirts and waiting for his ice cream..Tyler ventures a question.

"...Ray? ...am I messed up?"

Ray blinks a few times at that. "No," he says after a while, "no, I don't think so..."

Then again, consider who he lives with.

"But you're in one heck of a tough situation. Dr. Venkman would probably have a lot more to say about it than I could. Assuming you trusted Dr. Venkman with any kind of worry like that, of course."

"Knowing Venkman he'd probably make clone jokes. I trust Venkman about as far as I can shove a putty egg under his mattress." Oh hey, his ice cream's here. Time to find a nice place to sit for a while.

It's going to have to be outside. There's no room in the shop for a seat. Fortunately there's a small park around the corner, and there's an available bench.

"Figured as much," Ray says. "Well, okay. There's other people who might be able to help you out more than I could, to be honest. I freely admit I'm a little bit far along on the spectrum of Normal to Froot Loops compared to most people, but I know a guy in Milliways who might be a step up..."

"...yeh?" Tyler says around a careful mouthful of blueberry, red bean and vanilla. "Who is he?"

"His name's Malcolm Crowe," says Ray. "He's been in Milliways for a while- he's dead, but it's just Milliways kind of dead. He's a psychologist who works with all the different types in Milliways. Pete's gone to see him once or twice."

"...you think I should talk to him about this stuff? And...it'll be okay?"

"It'll definitely be okay," Ray says. "I think he can help, definitely."

Ray's going to find himself recieving another hug from Tyler.

"Thanks Ray. For everything."

Ray smiles and ruffles Tyler's hair with his free hand.

"No problem, kid."

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Chinatown

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