Open RP - Unpopcorning room

[youreafreak]

He sat on the edge of the pedistal, staring at the ceiling and taking some stock in his life. Here we go: fact, he was covered, head to toe, in some kinda oily... gook. Fact, he was kinda woozy and disorientated from the whole adventure through whatever kinda hoodoo they'd gotten their fingers into back home

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[themountie]

Fraser, with Diefenbaker at his side, was just on his way back to Gryffindor after a most productive evening in the library. Though it wasn't exactly on the way, most days he let his route take him by the Popcorn Room. Not only did it let him check up on things, but it was really a very scenic and pleasant walk by comparison; and as he no longer had the 20-odd blocks from the 27th to the Consulate to contend with, he welcomed the extra bit of exercise. Every little bit helped!

Most days, it was a fairly standard walk, but today things were slightly different. Most days, when Fraser passed the popcorn room, he smelled salt and the grease and terribly chemical fake butter, and beneath that the faint burnt smell of popped corn, and beneath that the scent of slightly damp stone, and that was usually it.

Today, he smelled hair gel. Well, he still smelled the salt and the butter and the popcorn and the like, but underneath all of that there was hair gel, aftershave, and a whiff of car interior that could only have come from a 1967 GTO, and all those things together made up Ray. Fraser stopped in his tracks and looked down at Diefenbaker, who had clearly gotten the scent as well -- the moment their eyes met, the wolf bounded for the door to the Popcorn Room, barking enthusiastically.

Fraser's face split into a grin and he took off after Diefenbaker, covering the distance in a matter of seconds, pulling open the door for the both of them. Ray had finally made it -- it felt like an eternity since he'd last seen his partner, and so much had happened since then. He couldn't wait to tell him. He couldn't wait to see how much Ray believed.

He spotted the man and grinned even wider, raising a hand in greeting. "Ray!" he called. Dief was already off like a shot, pawing at Ray's legs before either one could say another word.

[youreafreak]

"Whoa whoa WHOA...!" Ray nearly scrambled back up onto the pedestal again, but managed some dignity at the very last second. "Fraser!" He was torn between the 'good to see you' and the 'get your wolf guy off my kicks'.

He settled on a comfortable in-between. "What the hell is goin' on around here?" He sized up Fraser thoughtfully. "And why aren't you covered in this stuff?"

Maybe Canadians really did have some kind of anti-mess shield.

[themountie]

Fraser loped over, beaming as though he had just seen the RCMP Musical Ride go through the hallways of Hogwarts. "I'm sorry, Ray. Diefenbaker's missed you terribly." He understood how the wolf felt, really. Well... He cocked his head to the side, sniffing. "Or it might be possible that he smells the grease on you," he conceded. "I've been trying to improve his diet lately. Dief, let Ray be." The wolf backed off, although his tail wagged furiously as he sat down.

That taken care of, Fraser looked back up at Ray and grinned all over again. Ray! Ray was here! And... oh, Ray was asking him questions. "Ah, well, I've been here for quite some time, actually. Plus, I appeared down in the Sorting Room and not here, and there's not a great deal of salt or hydrogenated soybean oil down there."

[youreafreak]

.... what?

".... hydrogenated?" At least with the wolf not sniffing his leg he could regain some dignity, right? He gave Fraser a bit of a look. "And here is... where? How come you got here early?"

[themountie]

"Hydrogenated soybean oil," Fraser explained, as he was accustomed to doing. "I believe you would call it... movie theater popcorn butter?" He sniffed the air again, then leaned a bit closer to Ray, bringing his nose close to the other man's shoulder, and inhaled deeply. Ugh. "Yes, that's definitely it," he decided, making a bit of a face. "You're covered in it." He straightened up quickly.

"As for your other question, well, that's a little trickier to explain..." He scratched his thumb over his brow, thinking. "I'm not early, Ray -- you're late. About a month late, to be precise. Apparently, there was a bit of a-- well, a glitch in the process, which delayed you for quite some time."

[youreafreak]

"... right. Popcorn. 'cause... popcorn." He gestured around the room. He'd noticed the giant popcorn; at least he wasn't that out of it. He had noticed how covered he was in the butter, and he took off his jacket to examine it mournfully. He liked this jacket, dammit.

"What kinda glitch? How do you glitch this kinda freaky business?"

[themountie]

"Well, actually, it turned out to be a rather interesting story, Ray," he said in the tone of voice that usually preceded Inuit tales. "Apparently, much as..." Suddenly Fraser stopped and looked around. Although the Popcorn Room was empty but for them, he moved in a bit and lowered his voice. It didn't hurt to be safe, especially with such sensitive matters.

"Apparently," he began again, quietly, "much as you were brought in to impersonate Ray Vecchio, another detective was in fact assigned to impersonate you -- that is, Stanley Kowalski you, not Ray Vecchio you. I assume it was some kind of... departmental miscommunication that we were never told -- nor apparently were Stella or your parents -- but regardless, nine months ago a man calling himself Detective Ray Kowalski appeared here, at this school."

[youreafreak]

"... huh." He looked vaguely perplexed, which always resembled a scowl on him "... maybe they had to cover that I was gone, 'cos they were on to the Vecchio thing." That could be it. Yeah. Yeah!

"So... what, where is the guy? Was he tryin' to keep us out?'

[themountie]

"Possibly." He'd been looking into it, but he really still had no idea why Ray's double had been so secret, or why on earth he'd shown up here of all places. Maybe they could figure it out together, now that the real one was here.

"In a manner of speaking, yes." Fraser continued with his exposition explanation. "When we were pulled out of Chicago, you see, I arrived here almost immediately, albeit completely disoriented and with absolutely no memory of how or why I'd come. Once my head cleared, I couldn't figure out why you were still absent, so I took the liberty of investigating the matter, at which point I found out about this third Ray and the... popcorn." He gestured to the room at large; Dief, looking awfully hungry, followed the moments of his hand and whined. Fraser gave him a look. "No."

Back to the plot. "My theory is, this place doesn't allow for two of the same person to exist here at the same time. By the time we were brought here, your ringer had been popcorn for several months, but I think his presence may have... well, confused, I suppose, whatever powers are in charge here. Hence your delayed arrival."

The story out of the way, he brightened and grinned again. "It's good to see you, Ray."

[youreafreak]

"Ah." He'd just... pretend he followed all that. That was easier, sometimes, to 'follow', rather than risk Fraser trying to explain it all over again. The long version of some stories could take hours.

"Yeah, well, it's good to be seen." He rubs the back of his head thoughtfully. "Maybe we should get outta here before anyone or anything gets licked. Or eaten."

He nods, and slides on his (somewhat slimy) sunglasses to hide his eyes. "Yeah. Good to be seen." And to see Fraser. But he doesn't have to say that.

[themountie]

Fraser shot another glance down at Dief, who really did look like he was about to chomp right into one of the displays, and nodded. "Understood." He hesitated. "You go on, Ray, we'll catch up in a minute. Take a left once you reach the hallway." He needed to have a word with Diefenbaker, he thought.

[youreafreak]

"Left. Gotcha." He gave a two-fingered mock salute and headed out into the hallway to get his bearings.

He walked slow and waited for Fraser to catch up, before he finally peered over the top of his sunglasses. "... where we going? Actually, where ARE we?"

[themountie]

After a brief discussion with Diefenbaker about how no, it was certainly not appropriate to salivate over the popcorn pieces, no matter how they might smell, and Diefenbaker needed to be sensitive and remember that there were people in there, and how would he feel if someone had come along and eaten Ray, and besides which he ate far too much junk food anyway, Fraser left the Popcorn Room with a very sulky wolf at his heels. He caught up to Ray easily, sighing. "I think Dief's become unused to hearing the word 'no,'" he lamented.

Idly adjusting his Sam Browne, he looked over at Ray curiously, then gestured up the hallway. "I was planning on taking you to Gryffindor, Ray. That's where my room is, and where I believe your doppelganger was Sorted nine months ago. Incidentally, Ray, he really did a marvelous job impersonating you -- I would have put you there myself in a heartbeat."

[youreafreak]

He has his hands in his pockets as they walk -- well, as Fraser walks. He more... squishes. "Oh right. Gryffindor." He rubbed under his nose. "Which one was that again?"

Someone possibly hadn't read any of the briefing. Skimmed, maybe he did skim a little.

[themountie]

Fraser let it slide. After all, the man had been a popcorn kernel for a month. A particularly buttery one, apparently. "Gryffindor is the home of the brave, Ray," he explained with a hint of pride. For Ray, of course, not for himself. He didn't consider himself to be unduly brave, or at least he wasn't particularly prideful about it -- most of the time, he was merely doing his duty -- but he knew how courageous Ray was, much as the man denied it.

"We'll get you set up with a room, but..." He glanced Ray up and down. "You might want to get cleaned up first," he suggested mildly.

[youreafreak]

"... oh man, not this again." He sighed and shook his head. "I'm going to be all kinds of freakish there, you know? They're not gonna ask why I got put there, are they?" He scowled at the floor.

"At this point, Fraser, I would kiss a trout and sing a ditty to the Yankees just to get outta these pants."