...maybe he's used to it, but that doesn't make him feel any better.

[thegreatmachine]

It's a hell of a thing to have someone try to kill you.

You're standing there, you're talking, and some nutjob pulls a bow and arrow--a bow and arrow--and tries to pull a bad impression of William Tell. He was still grinning as he turned to Wylie... but that doesn't mean it isn't hitting him where it hurts

Comments

[gone_byebye]

Ray's been busy outside for a while now; he's just coming in from saber practice. For him, this means emptying all his pockets of everything non-essential, so for once the only tech he's carrying is the lightsaber- which is, of course, powered off- and the training drone, which is in passive powered-down sleep mode. "Bar," he says when he gets in, "could I get something in the way of yerba mate for gringos, please?"

If tea smelled like freshly-cut grass, that's what the stuff in his cup would be.

"Thanks."

[gone_byebye]

"No kidding," Ray says. "When they made New York City they gave us a double share of everything in a half-share bag."

He's thinking, a little, of what Matt Parkman said the other day. And of whackjobs with bows and arrows, and of the experiment under Columbia.

"Too bad the Duane Reades charge so much for Zantac. Some days all of it just hits you in the stomach."

[thegreatmachine]

"I don't have a stomach anymore, Dr. Stantz," and it's a meaningful correction, meant as much as an apology as anything else. "I'm a politician. It ate itself somewhere around three days before the election."

[gone_byebye]

"Gotcha," says Ray, and maybe relaxes just a tiny bit, although he's not aware of it. "For me it's either the sour stomach or not being able to sleep. How do you pull that off, anyway? I'm assuming you still do, since I've seen fatigue toxicity before and you're not it."

[thegreatmachine]

"It's all a matter of balance," he says with a mysterious sort of grin. "There's no real trick to it other than to not have a life. The little time I get, I use to sleep."

[gone_byebye]

"I was afraid of that," Ray says. "Oh, well. Not like I haven't been managing for three years now. And I can usually find a few hours to sleep here if I have to."

[thegreatmachine]

"Doesn't that just make the day all that much longer?" he asks curiously. Because he'd thought about that himself.

[gone_byebye]

"My circadian rhythms were shot to hell a long time ago," Ray says matter-of-factly. "Back when I was still teaching at Columbia, in fact. At least when I screw them up here, I'm screwing them up by giving them more sleep than they're used to."

[thegreatmachine]

"I'm a cranky son of a bitch if I don't get my rest," he admits. "Which means, you know, mostly I'm a cranky son of a bitch."

[gone_byebye]

"You and half the population of the island of Manhattan."

[thegreatmachine]

"A 'government of the people, by the people, for the people'," he quotes with a grin. "As cranky as the people... Lincoln forgot it because he wasn't a New Yorker."

[gone_byebye]

"No kidding," says Ray. "Oh, by the way, I don't know how things stand where you are, but in my world, the last mayor of New York City before the current incumbent wound up becoming President. Just, you know, speaking of cranky and all."

[thegreatmachine]

He grins.

"That's a nice thought," he says after a moment. "But I don't mind if I stay Mayor of New York for a while, to be honest. There's a lot of work to be done and I don't know if it'll happen if I move anywhere."

[gone_byebye]

Ray nods. "Your counterpart in my world's been governor since the 2002 election," he says. "There's been more than a few suggestions that he make a run for Washington, but he's been more interested in putting things right from Albany. Most of our governors've been pretty much upstate wonders who wouldn't know what to do with the city if you gave them a magic 8-ball containing the ghost of Fiorello LaGuardia."

[thegreatmachine]

He laughs.

"And my counter part? How's he doing?"

[gone_byebye]

"Better than Pataki did with his two terms. Trust an air traffic controller to keep track of every single thing that's going on in the state and allocate it the amount of attention it really deserves."