"Downtime" (Ghostbusters fanfic, rated G), Great Tales Challenge 307
Title: Downtime
Author: gardnerhill
Fandom: Ghostbusters (film/animated series)
Word Count: 785
Rating: G
Warning: None
Summary: What does a Ghostbuster do when there’s no ghosts to bust?
Author's Notes: For the LJ comm Great Tales’ Challenge 307: Summertime, and the Living is Easy(?)
Summertime in New York City is hot, humid, and muggy. That weather makes for dreadful conditions in which to work. Such work would be made even more miserable if one’s work uniform were to include, say, a bulky jumpsuit, an unlicensed nuclear accelerator, a heavy ghost-trap and waffle-stomping boots - and when one’s work often requires running, charging up flights of stairs, or fleeing for one’s life.
So it’s a good thing that summertime really is off-season for ghostbusting.
Egon and Ray have mapped out everything about the phenomena that assault their city - including date and time. The chart does indeed show a dramatic dip in the number and type of appearances from mid-June to early September. (Even Slimer disappears for weeks at a time, upsetting no one.) Peter’s jocular theory was that the ghosts were all off visiting Europe, or haunting Winnebagos at the Grand Canyon or Mount Rushmore. Ray hypothesizes that because the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead are thinnest in autumn, that the spirit world is dormant in the season preceding, building up the energy needed to pierce the veil. Egon concurs with this theory. Winston thanks them for the info and heads to upstate New York for his family reunion with a clear conscience (and a charged pack, just in case).
Venkman won’t leave the city unless forced by the work - he swears he can feel his powers draining the further he gets from Manhattan - so he happily fills his time by dating, going to the Met, making fun of Empire State Building tourists, being disappointed by the Yankees, and generally being the biggest stereotype he can manage.
Spengler and Stanz are the busmen of the Ghostbusters, and spend their time at the firehall engrossed in research and experiments uninterrupted by alarms or phones, and trading theories over cartons of Thai or Ethiopian takeout.
Zeddemore travels. He goes to mystery conventions, tried out for Jeopardy! when he was in Los Angeles, visits family members spread across the States and in Puerto Rico. He once swung down to Louisiana to visit the site where his ancestors had been held as slaves, and did an EKG sweep to make sure his folks rested in peace and that the slaveowners’ spirits did not linger to cause mischief to the living or the dead. (The only thing that troubled him there were the silver-dollar-sized mosquitoes.)
Janine Melnitz road-trips with friends to shopping outlets, and about every three years or so goes overseas to complain about Britrail or Eurail prices even as she returns with splendid clothes for herself and strange chocolates for her bosses. Like Zeddemore, she leaves the job at the job.
In fact, the only ghost who ever seems to defy this dead zone is Piping Harry. The first July 4 the Ghostbusters were in business they responded with lights flashing and guns out when the mayor of Concord angrily called them out to deal with a full-figure apparition terrorizing an Independence Day celebration. Former Private Harry Clayton was indeed there in the spirit by the site of the rude bridge, still in his ragged uniform of the Concord Minutemen, blowing away on his fife - to the laughter and cheers of the unterrorized crowd. When a bit more investigation found that a) Harry appeared and played every year, b) all the locals knew about Harry, and c) his fifing always drowned out the Mayor’s speech (to even more cheers from the crowd) the actual reason for the Mayor’s pique became clear. After everyone had finished laughing, Peter apologized for their being unable to assist the fuming politician; but he made him see reason by adding, “Your Honor, do you know what kind of political suicide you’d commit if you got rid of a genuine Revolutionary War hero on the Fourth?” ECTO-1 returned to the firehall with empty traps, on one of the few times they were called during the summer. Every Fourth they make sure to leave a message on the phone to let potential clients know that if this is about Piping Harry to hang up, but if this is an actual ghost emergency to press Star. No one presses Star.
Egon and Ray lose themselves in their work, almost in a trance, until the end of summer looms. One day in early September Slimer reappears to gobble up their leftover pad thai and tom yum soup. That seems to be the signal for everyone else to start trickling back to the firehall - Zeddemore and Melnitz bringing souvenirs and stories about life beyond the walls, and Venkman with his social calendar once again spotty as any on-call doctor’s - to resume their work. Summer is over for another year.
***
Author: gardnerhill
Fandom: Ghostbusters (film/animated series)
Word Count: 785
Rating: G
Warning: None
Summary: What does a Ghostbuster do when there’s no ghosts to bust?
Author's Notes: For the LJ comm Great Tales’ Challenge 307: Summertime, and the Living is Easy(?)
Summertime in New York City is hot, humid, and muggy. That weather makes for dreadful conditions in which to work. Such work would be made even more miserable if one’s work uniform were to include, say, a bulky jumpsuit, an unlicensed nuclear accelerator, a heavy ghost-trap and waffle-stomping boots - and when one’s work often requires running, charging up flights of stairs, or fleeing for one’s life.
So it’s a good thing that summertime really is off-season for ghostbusting.
Egon and Ray have mapped out everything about the phenomena that assault their city - including date and time. The chart does indeed show a dramatic dip in the number and type of appearances from mid-June to early September. (Even Slimer disappears for weeks at a time, upsetting no one.) Peter’s jocular theory was that the ghosts were all off visiting Europe, or haunting Winnebagos at the Grand Canyon or Mount Rushmore. Ray hypothesizes that because the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead are thinnest in autumn, that the spirit world is dormant in the season preceding, building up the energy needed to pierce the veil. Egon concurs with this theory. Winston thanks them for the info and heads to upstate New York for his family reunion with a clear conscience (and a charged pack, just in case).
Venkman won’t leave the city unless forced by the work - he swears he can feel his powers draining the further he gets from Manhattan - so he happily fills his time by dating, going to the Met, making fun of Empire State Building tourists, being disappointed by the Yankees, and generally being the biggest stereotype he can manage.
Spengler and Stanz are the busmen of the Ghostbusters, and spend their time at the firehall engrossed in research and experiments uninterrupted by alarms or phones, and trading theories over cartons of Thai or Ethiopian takeout.
Zeddemore travels. He goes to mystery conventions, tried out for Jeopardy! when he was in Los Angeles, visits family members spread across the States and in Puerto Rico. He once swung down to Louisiana to visit the site where his ancestors had been held as slaves, and did an EKG sweep to make sure his folks rested in peace and that the slaveowners’ spirits did not linger to cause mischief to the living or the dead. (The only thing that troubled him there were the silver-dollar-sized mosquitoes.)
Janine Melnitz road-trips with friends to shopping outlets, and about every three years or so goes overseas to complain about Britrail or Eurail prices even as she returns with splendid clothes for herself and strange chocolates for her bosses. Like Zeddemore, she leaves the job at the job.
In fact, the only ghost who ever seems to defy this dead zone is Piping Harry. The first July 4 the Ghostbusters were in business they responded with lights flashing and guns out when the mayor of Concord angrily called them out to deal with a full-figure apparition terrorizing an Independence Day celebration. Former Private Harry Clayton was indeed there in the spirit by the site of the rude bridge, still in his ragged uniform of the Concord Minutemen, blowing away on his fife - to the laughter and cheers of the unterrorized crowd. When a bit more investigation found that a) Harry appeared and played every year, b) all the locals knew about Harry, and c) his fifing always drowned out the Mayor’s speech (to even more cheers from the crowd) the actual reason for the Mayor’s pique became clear. After everyone had finished laughing, Peter apologized for their being unable to assist the fuming politician; but he made him see reason by adding, “Your Honor, do you know what kind of political suicide you’d commit if you got rid of a genuine Revolutionary War hero on the Fourth?” ECTO-1 returned to the firehall with empty traps, on one of the few times they were called during the summer. Every Fourth they make sure to leave a message on the phone to let potential clients know that if this is about Piping Harry to hang up, but if this is an actual ghost emergency to press Star. No one presses Star.
Egon and Ray lose themselves in their work, almost in a trance, until the end of summer looms. One day in early September Slimer reappears to gobble up their leftover pad thai and tom yum soup. That seems to be the signal for everyone else to start trickling back to the firehall - Zeddemore and Melnitz bringing souvenirs and stories about life beyond the walls, and Venkman with his social calendar once again spotty as any on-call doctor’s - to resume their work. Summer is over for another year.
***