....FINALLY SOME VACATION

[basic_powers]

It's Friday morning, and right now...

The bags are packed, the extra money is in a special pocket, there's no one invading anytime soon, he has no real training, so it's a little unusual for Tyler to be in this house.

It's not the usual routine and it's great, and because in a few minutes the 'family' car pulls up into the garage and Ray will be coming to visit.

"...6:56..." The hard part was not bouncing off the walls while staring down the clock. Ray had to come exactly at 7 am.

.

.

.

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"Ray! it's 7!!" Tyler called through the open doorway, which had formerly been the broom closet. "Come on!"

Comments

[basic_powers]

Large and solid and huge, and very oddly there isn't a front door, just a big open archway. Whoever built this doesn't seem to be too concerned about security.

Then again. LARGE AND SOLID AND NOT FLOATING so.

Security.

Security that has the hallways lined with armors from several different species, if the shapes are anything to go by, and tall paintings of places that are again, likely alien. It it weren't so empty, Ray could easily say this place almost looks grown.

[gone_byebye]

"Ah," Ray calls out at the threshold, looking around, "hello? Is there an owner or a representative of the ownership present? Anyone to whom I ought to be reporting before proceeding any further?"

Mysterious castles with no people in them have a tendency to turn into fairy tales, and fairy tales are a lot less nice than people give them credit for.

[basic_powers]

The sound doesn't seem to travel very far, but is some faint noise coming from further down another hallway to the left of the fountain. It's faint and almost sounds like someone talking, but from a very great and distorted distance.

[gone_byebye]

All right, that's worth investigating.

After he tries another PKE reading, and then draws the lightsaber, but doesn't ignite it yet.

[basic_powers]

PKE meter is still reading the same as before.

From the sounds of it, whoever's talking is moving away, further down that corrider, he might want to start running. He's almost past one hallway that's framed with mirrors before the sound of talking gets just loud enough to be heard..

"....holding party here..."

[gone_byebye]

The PKE meter gets stashed immediately. "Hello?" Ray calls out, and turns to dart after the source of the sound.

POssibly not the best move, tactically speaking, but eh. What're you gonna do.

[basic_powers]

Probably not touch one of the mirrors lining the hallway to make a quick directional turn towards the source of the sound?

...especially since the reflection in that mirror doesn't match what Ray is wearing at all.

Oops.

[gone_byebye]

It's not that Ray hasn't seen the outfit before, you understand. It's just that last time he saw it, he was in the Animated Continuum, and Venkman's father was wearing it. And now he's wearing it.

And there are completely unrecognizable people- kids, practically- running around with proton packs like he hasn't seen in a decade or more.

And he's almost certain that he's supposed to be at the car dealership about now....

[basic_powers]

Other rather, the other mind he's in really wishes he were at the car dealership right now. Thinks sort of like Ray, but not enough like the gentlemen of 2003's Gozer appearance, and right now the two thought trains are giving one a major headache.

The one not having the headache is the one listening to Egon explain how this mile wide -ohgod- entity is nothing but an adolescent trying to reach full maturity...as compared to the swarm of hiveeaters from before.

"Uh guys...you better come take a look at this." Winston says, opening up the door to the roof of the firehouse. It's Ray and Venkman who're sharing the looks with the otherKyliecreepyfangirl twoEduardoVenkmanLite kids while the other oneRoland stays down to go over the equipment with Egon.

The kid in the wheelchairGarrett is already up there and looking at a fog bank rolling in. "Check it out."

It's not a fogbank. It's the entity coming in for lunch.

[gone_byebye]

Nothing good is going to come of this. Nothing good ever comes of something like this.

There's going to be tentacles, aren't there? Ginormous building-ripping people-devouring not-nice-to-THIS IS A CHILDREN'S SHOW THERE WILL BE NO MENTION OF JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRLS, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, MIND THAT ISN'T SUPPOSED TO BE HERE tentacles. There's always tentacles.

[basic_powers]

"Either that's a whoooole lotta smog blowing in from Brooklyn," Garret was saying as Ray reached down to grab the binoculars. "Or we have got a MAJOR problem."

It doesn't even take everyone but five minutes to get downstairs and get everything into the car. All eight people's worth of traps and packs with Garret and Roland riding in the equipment area.

"Ok, I gotta stupid question?"

"As opposed to?" Kylie, this is not the time to be sniping at Eduardo.

"If these things," Thumb jerked towards the proton packs. "Didn't do squat before, how is this time gonna be any different?"

"LAST time," Oh god that's definitely Ray's voice sounding all proud of his gadgets and utterly cheerful. "We didn't have the fusion adaptors on, now we've got LOTS more firepower."

"It doesn't look like the entity has reached Liberty Island yet..we have GOT to stop it before it reaches the Mainland."

It is tentacles. It is a thing coming in with the fog that would make a shoggoth tuck in all it's eyeballs and run screaming for it's nice dry, cold mountain hibernation place.

It is also trying to eat Lady Liberty as the Ray fires at it with the pack... But it's useless and now part of is wishing he'd kept at the paranormal business and in shape for the last 16 years since the drop in activity as it just keeps eating...

And the other train of thought is drifting away and glad of it...

[gone_byebye]

"Guh," says Ray intelligently, staggering away from the mirror and shaking his head rapidly. That... that was not cool. At all.

Man, does he ever want an Advil right now.

[basic_powers]

He should probably watch where he's going now... Or else he's going to stumble into that mirror with him in the robes an-

Nevermind.

[gone_byebye]

This is just not Ray's day. At all.

'Course, it hasn't been Ray's day for longer than he can remember. If he ever sees Belar again he's going to punch the God in the sternum. Hard. And then make him come up to the library's top floor and look out the window, because there's some things he needs to see that've been going on for, oh, lifetimes now....

[basic_powers]

Like oh how the world has become overrun with madmen and hybrids of man, fish and beast that should not be possible and put even the demon summoners of Garion's world and the things they summon to shame running rampant over the earth. And that thing in the distance that has been the source of more than one days of tears as Ray tried to keep records. Or the 4 jars on the mantel with brass nameplates under them.

Egon. Winston. Peter. Janine.

They're the only brains in jars that's he's even had that heart to explain the situation to. Everyone else who was still human and sane-ish got smuggled off to a moon around Jupiter. And that was about 1500 years ago.

It wouldn't be so bad these days, but he'd run out of ovaltine about 50 years back.

[gone_byebye]

He'd originally calculated that the stars would only be Right for about three hundred years or so. Humanity was supposed to be able to hold out that long, keep the worst of it at bay, something- three hundred years wasn't that bad as far as times of horrors went. But the problem with that theory was that it relied on the rules of time and space and planetary motion staying reliable after the City at the Magnetic Pole was taken. He'd been there with all of the Ministers Frasier when that happened, he'd seen the wave sweep over reality when the Render of Veils managed to establish itself as the City's master-

There's an audible POIT! as Ray falls flailing away from that mirror. He's going to sit on the floor and pant for a while, mm'kay?

[basic_powers]

Ray can take all the time he needs.

And in that time he's taking to get his bearings, he's probably going to notice how few of the reflections actually reflect what he's really wearing right now. The only one that looks somewhat close to what Ray's currently wearing just has about 3 more gadgets clipped to his belt loops.

[gone_byebye]

Yeah, that's reassuring. In the way that it's totally NOT.

Doesn't mean he's not eventually going to get up and have a good long squint at that one, though.

... dork.

[basic_powers]

And he's certainly pulling a few good faces at the mirror.

But he probably shouldn't do them so close to it, because of someone suddenly cleared their throat behind him he might just flail forward and...

Okay. You know. This wasn't so bad, he was just going over field paperwork and an upgrade for the proton packs. He could probably get them down to 30 lbs, and that'd give them a little more options for the new recruits. Winston and Egon were out checking in on the last estate that gave up their collection of antique books.

He just had to deal with a very bored Peter and Slimer. Namely a bored Venkman that was flinging out handfuls of Jelly Bellies and watching Slimer chase after them.

[gone_byebye]

"You're only encouraging him, you know, Peter," Ray said. "If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times, the more you gratuitously feed him-"

"The more he's going to expect it at other times, I know, I know," Peter retorted. "Come on, Ray, what else am I supposed to do, huh?"

"I don't know, read?" Ray said. "Check on some of the experiments upstairs? Go over the next- what are you looking at me like that for?"

"Ray," said Peter slowly, "you have a passenger."

[basic_powers]

"I what?" There was that growing amount of alarm in his voice.

"There's someone piggybacking in your head, Ray." Peter said slowly, throwing the entire bag of jelly bellies to Slimer and pulling his chair forward to look at Ray more carefully.

"I've still got on that Sumerian device! And Last week you said if something got through the defenses, I'd know about it!"

"Ray? Can we focus on something so I can get a feel on what exactly is riding shotgun?"

[gone_byebye]

"Okay. Yes. Okay. I can- I can do that." Ray swallowed, doing his best to get a hold of himself. "Concentrating now. Go ahead, Pete."

[basic_powers]

"Right,I swear Ray, you attract more bugs than crunchberries under the fridge sometimes..." Peter settled in his chair closing his eyes to get a feel. "Definitely a guy in there and he's..."

Blink blink.

"Huh."

[gone_byebye]

"What?" Ray said tensely, holding onto the edge of his desk for all he was worth. "What is it?"

[basic_powers]

"...well. I think I know how and why he got in." Peter says, staring at Ray for a moment. "He's you. A different you, but well, I think I'd know that flailing like a muppet in a paintmixer sort of feeling."

"Something about a hall of mirrors."