(Untitled)

[gone_byebye]

Ray trundles downstairs in the morning, yawning fit to unhinge his jaw. His morning cereal arrives with Marian's letter; he blinks a few times, shrugs, and fishes a pen out of one pocket.

Comments

[gotham_knocking]

"Hey, Ray. You see the note?" Knox is beaming as he heads to the Bar to grab his own breakfast.

[gone_byebye]

"Yup," says Ray around his mouthful of cereal. "I dropped off a summary of my results so far and told them I'd be available whenever they needed me, too. How're you doing?"

[gotham_knocking]

"Better. Duela's still stuck up here-" He points at his head. "-but she feels more like a bad dream. Just one I'm having when I'm awake. Good thing that Raps is really keeping me grounded. And focused."

[gone_byebye]

"Good, I'm glad," says Ray. "Andrew's had a hard time keeping his brain in place, and Bob's had it even worse. What's Rapunzel's take on the deal?"

[precocioustilda]

Thankfully Tilda manages to catch him before he heads outside, because lightsabers and terrified six-year-olds really don't mix well.

She had a bit of an unusual encounter last night, you see, and after going back upstairs and absently resuming work on translating her canon, she discovered that in fact she does not have - has never had - a brilliant, charming, lovely older sister named Annette who's studying quantum physics at Oxford.

Therefore you'll excuse her if, upon trotting down the stairs in the morning still upset over this fact, she sees Dr. Stantz and takes immediate action.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"

(Immediate action in this case means 'dash across room wailing and proceed to cling frantically to Ray, hopefully without spilling his cereal in the process'.)

[gone_byebye]

... this? This is new. Normally it's one of his nephews who does that.

"Um?" says Ray intelligently.

[precocioustilda]

"The sort of creepy evil woman who psychically takes over people's lives got me and pretended to be my older sister Annette, only I don't have an older sister and I wouldn't even have figured out that I don't if I hadn't read my book - there's a book about me, did you know? - and noticed that all the bits she'd helped with I had actually done all by myself, and even in her made-up perfect brilliant self she wasn't very nice, she ran off to Oxford to study advanced physics and didn't come back for a whole year or write or anything but I suppose technically she didn't do that because in any case she doesn't exist and it's very confusing and I'm upset and--"

Deep breath.

Plaintively: "--can you please make her go away?"

[gone_byebye]

"I didn't know about the book, no, but it sounds as if you get to be the new data point," says Ray. "Hang on-"

He pulls out the holocomputer and pulls up the full, detailed display of all the known victims so far, himself included.

"I'm going to do everything I can in my power to get rid of this entity, Matilda," he says. "Most of the means of doing so put the victims' lives in danger, but there may be some alternatives. I'm going to start by talking to a man I know who drives out demons and spirits using means I don't have access to, in the hopes that he'll have an idea how to go about doing it without hurting anybody who's still under her spell."

[mend_and_defend]

Last night, Bob talked to his sister, and came to certain conclusions. Now, he's looking for Ray, so he can share those conclusions, and possibly a few other things.

If Ray happens to look in the direction of the Bar, he'll see a blue-skinned man marching purposefully toward him, looking Not Happy.

[gone_byebye]

Around here, looking Not Happy can mean a lot of things, and Ray : survival instincts :: Nyarlathotep : Mr. Rogers. So.

"Hey, Bob," Ray says peaceably. "How's it going?"

[mend_and_defend]

"What. Do. You. Think. You're. Doing."

He'll give Ray a chance to explain. Just one.

[gone_byebye]

".... uh, notifying Security of a significant risk to the health and well-being of quite a lot of patrons?" Ray says. "Is this a confidentiality problem?"