(Untitled)

[gone_byebye]

SUDDENLY, BANANAS! ... thousands of them!

No, seriously. They're pouring in through the door. Just- thousands of bananas, piling up in a huge yellow heap that at least promises to block the flow of even more bananas... at least until the heap starts moving and scatters more of the bananas in all directions.

For what it's worth, that's the fault

Comments

[alwayshaveaplan]

Annabeth glances around the corner of her booth at the sound of continuous piling bananas.

"... wow. Did a fruit-stand explode?"

[gone_byebye]

"Possibly on the other side of the planet, but this is the result of a severely localized ectoplasmic manifestation in Tribeca," Ray says as he starts to shovel. "When I get back to the city we'll see if we can't trace these things to their source."

[alwayshaveaplan]

She blinks.

Now, she usually prides herself as a total genius?

But. Localized ectoplas-what?

"Sorry?"

In any case, she's up to help scoop some of the bananas into the shopping cart. Might as well be helpful.

[gone_byebye]

"An extremely specialized poltergeist with a weird sense of either humor or vengeance, I'm not sure which," Ray says. "All part of a day's work. My name's Ray Stantz, I'm a Ghostbuster. Pleased to meet you, miss."

[alwayshaveaplan]

"A Ghostbuster?"

She's wise enough not to say something like, 'Are those real?' because she knows they are. Ghosts, that is.

Still, a Ghostbuster. Weren't they from some movie or something?

"Annabeth Chase," she returns. "It's nice to meet you too. Sounds like you have a pretty exciting job."

[gone_byebye]

"It keeps me on my toes," Ray says. He pauses in the shoveling a moment to dig out his city identification, which was jointly authorized by Public Health Commissioner Thomas Farley and Mayor Nathan Petrelli sometime late in 2009. "Normally I'm more on my toes about meeting new people in the Bar. I have to admit that I don't recognize you, though, and for that I apologize. Been coming here long?"

[alwayshaveaplan]

She shakes her head, grinning.

"It's okay - I haven't been here that long. Besides time being really weird here, my best guess is probably since around the fall, Milliways-time?"

[gone_byebye]

"Ah. And it's past that now?" Ray shakes his head. "Man, I know we had a busy October this year but I really should've taken a few extra measures to keep myself in sync. Oh well. What's the approximate date, anyway?"

[alwayshaveaplan]

"It's January. The nineteenth?"

She pauses.

"I think."

She shrugs. "Which is weird, because in my world, it's the middle of summer."

[gone_byebye]

"Hm. Not too far off from my local time, then. I've just been out of the Bar for far too long."

[alwayshaveaplan]

"Dealing with things like this?"

She gestures to the bananas.

[gone_byebye]

"Sometimes," Ray says. "It was a lot hairier back in October, which was the last time I was here. Word of advice: if you ever find yourself in possession of a large, smelly old book with seven seals and some form of African or Semitic writing on the cover? Don't open it. It won't end well."

[alwayshaveaplan]

"Got it."

She nods solemnly.

"So you said you're a Ghostbuster? What does that mean, exactly? Is that something like a necromancer, only less archaic in practice?"

[gone_byebye]

"Considerably less archaic, unless you want to count Dr. Spengler's recent resurgence of interest in the paranormal practices of his ancestors," Ray says. "Ever since he built that golem just to prove the procedure wouldn't work he's been hell-bent on shaking the traditional trees as hard as he can just to see what falls out of them, which is interesting given that he's a high-energy physicist by training. Mostly we use homebuilt electronic equipment and man-portable proton accelerators- backpack-powered lightning guns, essentially."

[alwayshaveaplan]

"Wow, that sounds kind of amazing," she remarks, generally following the gist of what he said.

She's smart, but she's still only fifteen. And most of her education has been self-taught. And doesn't exactly include molecular physics and the like.

"So I'm guessing the ghosts in your world are generally malevolent."

If the word 'ghostbuster' provides any hint.

[gone_byebye]

It's all right. Ray tends to make people's eyes glaze over, to the point where he cuts notches in his proton pack every time it happens. She's doing pretty well following along.

"Often, but not always," Ray says. "I meet up with my grandfather once a week for lunch at his favorite kosher deli, and he died when I was thirteen."