gone_byebye | (no subject)

There's music pouring from well-concealed speakers in the Firehouse as Tyler arrives, and we do mean well-concealed. When a building's decorator corps includes a twenty-three-foot-tall transforming robot and a five-armed, five-eyed, five-brained alien from an arboreal species, the decorations get everywhere. The outside of the Firehouse is practically wrapped in strings of lights, and the inside- well. Someone introduced Jhalak to the concept of pine garland this year and she kind of went berserk with it. The tree in one corner is as sparkly as a north Jersey homeowner's attempt to get on the local news. Even the dinosaur skull hanging from the ceiling of the ground floor is decorated. Ecto's probably to blame for the dinosaur-sized Santa hat, though.

Which isn't to say that's the only holiday being marked here. Miss Eartha the golem has very firmly staked out part of the Firehouse's ground floor for Hanukkah, on the grounds that it was a Jewish ritual that got her into the golem body she now occupies and she feels a certain measure of gratitude for that. Janine's been helping her with that, and somewhat reluctantly Egon's been doing so as well. No sign of Kwanzaa on the premises, probably because Winston is as big of a Christmas man as you'll ever find, but someone tacked up several solar symbols and "Joyous Solstice!" messages. As a matter of fact, about the only sign that anyone here isn't celebrating something is the periodic snark of "Bah humbug!" from the fish tank on Janine's desk.

"Here we are, Tyler. How's that look to you?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

basic_powers

"When isn't Peck a crankybutt?" Tyler replies, smiling up at the Eartha, really, even the world's worst fish can't put a dent in this. "What'd he try to do?"

From:

gone_byebye

"Aw, Miss Melnitz got herself an iPhone with voice dialin'," says Miss Eartha. "Somebody thought it'd be a good idea to use it to get himself on the Internet."

"He put an ad on Craigslist for engineering students," calls Ray, who's busy putting away his jacket. "Tried to get them to build him a giant robot body that he could control from a fishbowl."

"And it would've worked, too, if that so-called daughter of yours didn't spend twenty-four hours a day on the internet."

From:

basic_powers

"And he thought that'd work?"

Don't mind Tyler, he's just going to have himself a good old snickerfit at the fish's expense. So far the only ones capable would be someone on Ray's level of engineering...and he doesn't doubt that the government isn't keeping a close eye on their work now.

From:

gone_byebye

"I'm guessing he did, sugar, because he's been mad as a wet cat ever since Ecto pulled the plug on his plans," says Miss Eartha. "More than the usual, I mean."

From:

basic_powers

"Well, this is the guy who decided to steal the Ark of the Covenant with Nazis." Tyler smirks. Brains. Peck doesn't have them.

"...hey Miss Eartha?"

From:

gone_byebye

"Don't get me started."

The golem just laughs and glances Tyler's way. "What's up, kiddo?"

From:

basic_powers

"...I kinda need to do some holiday shopping," There's a pointed glaze around the firehouse, towards, Ray, Janine, well, most everyone in the Firehouse that the kid is on good terms with really.

From:

gone_byebye

"You and half this city." Miss Eartha shakes her head. "I can help you out with that, if you don't mind riding the subway. Kinda hard to get a taxi this time of year."

From:

basic_powers

"Well that and aside from Ray and Peter I don't know what to get anyone..." Tyler mutters softly. "Subway is fine."

From:

gone_byebye

"Not a problem, kiddo," says Miss Eartha. The golem raises her voice. "Ray? Hey, Ray?"

"Hmm?"

"You mind if I take Tyler here shopping? I think we've got some stuff to pick up."

"Oh- oh, sure. Just take a cell phone with you in case I need to reach you."

"Sure thing," says Miss Eartha, offering Tyler a thumbs-up.

From:

basic_powers

Victory fist pump!

"Winston, stay, guard Firehouse." Tyler says to the miniraptor who is nosing at the airvents hopefully, while dashing upstairs to stow his duffelbags and grab out what he needs for shopping.

Between Sherlock and Garion paying his tab, he's set for money, and it only takes a quarter of a minute for him to strap on his tazer gauntlet.

From:

gone_byebye

"All righty, kiddo," says Miss Eartha, slinging on a magenta purse and propping open the door. "First things first. Who do you want to look for a gift for first? There's a lot of places we can go."

From:

basic_powers

"...Janine first, I think maybe there'll be something for Egon in the same place as Ray's gift." May as well get the hard stuff out of the way first.

He figures that he'll find something at the Science Surplus store anyways.

From:

gone_byebye

"All righty," says the golem agreeably, heading across the street to the subway stop with a big red 1 on its sign. "Now, are you looking for the kind of gift you keep, or the kind of gift you eat?"

From:

basic_powers

"For Janine? ...the kind you EAT."

From:

gone_byebye

"Okay then," says Miss Eartha. "That sounds like the voice of chocolate talking, am I right?"

From:

basic_powers

"Yes," What? he's not going to lie, the thought of getting Janine something to eat for a Christmas gift hadn't really occurred to him.

From:

gone_byebye

"Should be easy, then," says Miss Eartha, ignoring the looks she gets from New Yorkers streaming by on both sides as she fishes a MetroCard out of her purse and works the turnstile. "There's a Godiva store up in Times Square. Puts us nice and near a whole lot of other stores, too."

From:

basic_powers

"...Miss Eartha? oof! hey!" He's just going to be giving one fella a dirty look. "Is it alright if I climb up on your shoulders? I don't wanna have to tazer someone in the kneecaps tonight."

From:

gone_byebye

"Soon as we're past the turnstiles, kiddo," says Miss Eartha. "Ceiling's a little low around here."

And it is- and it's nasty-looking, too. Fortunately, down on the platform the ceiling is higher, and there's room for Tyler to sit while they wait for the next uptown train.

From:

basic_powers

He isn't even going to look at the ceiling now, that is just gross, when was the last time they cleaned it?

And he's gotta climb down as soon as those doors open.

Ofcourse, the scruffy Puerto-rican soul-patched guy who knocks him over deserves the tazering in the calf.

"Ha! That's what you get for playing bowling for kids on the subway, Eduardo, come on."

"Shut up Kylie."

From:

gone_byebye

... cleaned? ahahaha.

*cough*

At any rate, the 1 train is a straight run up from their stop. Canal Street, Houston Street, Christopher, 14th, 18th...

"By the way, Herald Square isn't too bad a place to go shopping," Miss Eartha notes. "That's 34th Street. Biggest Macy's there ever was, not to mention a good couple of other stores."

From:

basic_powers

"Still not familiar with the streets here, but I'll take your word for it, Miss Eartha."

From:

gone_byebye

The golem nods. "We'll just keep on movin', then," she says amiably. "Not like we can't stop there coming back."

The train pulls to a halt at Forty-Second, and the sound of steel drums fills the air: there's a man on the subway platform playing "Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem", and selling CDs of his performances. He's got precious little space to maneuver in. This is one popular station at this time of year.

From:

basic_powers

We're just going to say it now, there's going to be a lot of sore legs and kneecaps before Tyler and Miss Eartha Kitt make it up to street level again. Then it's going to be climbing onto the 8-foot golem's shoulders and ooooh.