(Untitled)

[morethanwatcher]

Giles peers around the door as it opens, nodding once with something resembling smugness. Last time he left the Bar he had a long talk with it about where to establish a regular door, so he could stop misplacing his office all the time.

And now he walks in, sits down, and orders some tea. His expression is thoughtful, even a little perturbed, and

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[gone_byebye]

Ray is not so great at the whole 'subtlety' thing, so when he spots an interesting looking book on a table as he returns from the Bar he stops to have a look. It's one of the closed ones, if that helps at all?

[morethanwatcher]

Well, he might be a little nonplussed by the two closed books, then: one of them has a title which clearly states its purpose is to banish demons, and the other... well, it's hard to see the cover, given that it is underneath the demon banishing book, but there seems to be a drawing of some beast-like thing on it.

Giles, however, does look up from his reading and carefully closes it a little. "Can I help you?"

[gone_byebye]

"I realize this is something of a long shot, but is the one on the bottom by any chance Unpleasant Things It Is Sometimes Necessary To Know?" Ray asks. "I recognize the other one, but I haven't seen a copy of Unpleasant Things in a dog's age."

[morethanwatcher]

. . .

"Ah... no, actually, it's a book which used to contain Moloch," he answers almost absentmindedly as he looks up at Ray with a little shock. "...I'm sorry, you've seen this book before?" Giles picks it up--and now the cover of the other is visible, which has a drawing of this demon-looking-thing. "I wasn't aware that people outside the Watcher's Council and a few very rare demon hunters even had access to this particular tome."

He's referring to the demon banishing one, not the Moloch one. He's gesturing with it, so it should be fairly clear.

[gone_byebye]

"I was assistant librarian to Dr. Henry Armitage of Miskatonic University's Orne Library for a good few years," Ray says. "Did restoration work on a lot of the stuff in the Restricted Section. Come to think of it, Dr. Armitage used to give me roughly the same look you've got on your face now."

[morethanwatcher]

Giles carefully pushes the diary and the Moloch book off to one side, still holding the book on banishing demons. "I don't think I've heard of Miskatonic University," he says a little curiously. There's an implicit question in there somewhere.

After a moment, he holds out his free hand. "Rupert Giles."

[gone_byebye]

"Even in the timelines where it exists, it's a little bit of an obscure school," Ray says, shaking the offered hand. "There's no finer place in the world to study medieval metaphysics, and it's one of a handful of institutions of learning on the planet to have first-generation copies of some of the more esoteric texts of summoning and binding out there. My name's Ray Stantz. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Giles."

[morethanwatcher]

Ah. That explains it--the timelines issue. Giles immediately files this under "alternate universes," as he'd know about universities to study medieval metaphysics in his universe.

"Ah, that would explain it. A pleasure indeed, Mr. Stantz." Giles gestures for him to sit. "You investigate mystical disturbances, then?"

[gone_byebye]

"Paranormal investigation and elimination as necessary," Ray says with a smile. "Currently I'm based out of New York City in early 2009. Yourself?"

[morethanwatcher]

"Ah... Sunnydale, southern California. Early 1997."

Giles examines Ray a little. "What kinds of disturbances are you frequently called to deal with?" Someone to talk shop with and who isn't a stuffy Watcher. Giles is secretly ecstatic.

[gone_byebye]

"Primarily active, hostile ghosts and specters, although just about anything that comes roaring across the dimensional borders with its fangs out and its ectoplasm flying is fair game," Ray says. "We've had to deal with everything from verifying the presence of a good-luck-granting actor's ghost in a Broadway theater to the arrival of the Sumerian deity of eschatological destruction via the work of a cult that got set in motion after the First World War. And there was that one bit with the Ark of the Covenant, but it turned out to be a fake, so it doesn't count."

[morethanwatcher]

Giles blinks a little bit. "We haven't had to deal with any ghosts," yet, "although as I may have mentioned we did have a run-in with Moloch. He, er... took over the Internet for a time." Giles winces. "Mainly I help one of the students handle vampires, although there was a rather interesting case of possession by a pack of hyenas." Among other things.

[gone_byebye]

Ray winces. "Can't say I've ever had to deal with him myself," he says. "Other than in the reference material, obviously. We're a little short on vampires in my universe, too, I'm afraid, although I can confirm at least one known and demonstrated werewolf in upstate New York. The possession incident's a little more like the kinds of matters we normally deal with, to be honest."

[morethanwatcher]

Giles looks more than a little intrigued. "We haven't had any werewolves yet," he comments. (And yes, he somehow guesses they will, in the future. It's the Hellmouth. He'd be almost disappointed if they didn't.)

Giles nods and winces. "The pack... er, ate the principle of the school before we stopped them, I'm afraid," he admits. "Generally, however, we have to handle more corporeal nuisances. Witches, giant shapeshifting mantises..." He shudders. That was a particularly unpleasant one.

[gone_byebye]

"The one I met ran a gas station, and it looked like he had his shapeshifting under control," Ray says. "He got stabbed during a robbery and went furry to throw the robber around a little before calling the town sheriff. Nice guy, otherwise."

"Mantises, huh? Hm. I don't think we had any shapeshifting insects, thank Fnord. On the other hand there was that one woman who managed to summon and corporealize a couple of representatives of pretty much everything in the Hall of Extinct Mammals." Ray wrinkles his nose. "We had prehistoric whales trying to wreck Chelsea Pier and things with jaws longer than a man's torso swarming the West Side Highway."

[morethanwatcher]

Giles raises an eyebrow at that. "A very different kind of werewolf than ours, then."

At that Giles' eyes widen a little. "Animation of the models, or the actual skeletons?" he asks with morbid curiosity. "Either way such a magical undertaking is... formidable, to say the least."