neverstudied | Victory Road IC Inbox

Apparently not.

And I'd rather he didn't. Even if his plans seemed convoluted and ultimately useless, he still held a significant amount of power and could easily overpower the whole of Manhattan, if he wanted to.

Granted, he doesn't have any access to the psychoreactive slime here, so perhaps not.

[When is Egon going to learn to stop mentioning the slime. When.]

either he shows up here de-powered and de-fanged and completely unable to do anything but get beaten up by preschoolers with rats and pigeons, or he shows up here with the mood slime and you get to do repeats of certain experiments ;-)

id count both of those as a win

[He'll never learn as so long as he isn't allowed to drill holes in his head.]

I suppose Ray and I will simply not finish our trek to Viridian. You and Winston can do as you please. Within a week you'll be complaining and asking us to come join you.

oh really

You wanna be the one to tell ray that?

because you started this message complaining about how pissed ray's been that he hasnt gotten to see winston yet

Then it will be just me.

[Don't test him.]

and then you dont get to see winston

and i'm pretty sure the three of us going off on our own and leaving you the odd one out is the last thing you want, isn't it.

[It's hard to get a read for tone over text, but that sentence feels infinitely more serious than the rest of this conversation. Hello Egon you've fallen into his psychology trap.]

Edited 2019-08-10 04:41 (UTC)

[Egon knows exactly what Venkman is pulling here, but that doesn't mean he has to like it. It also ends up cutting a little deeper than Venkman probably intends, but hell if Egon is going to say anything about it.]

No.

[There's a pause between texts.]

Winston would complain.

yeah. winston would complain

because he loves you. even if you're not the same egon he knew back home, and even if he hasn't met you yet

and you love him.

[It's early February all over again. It's Venkman's stupid half-buried insecurities related to Bill Murray again. Except Egon's even worse about emotional shit than Venkman is.]

[Egon wants to ask something along the lines of, "but how do you know?". For all the probable certainties in the world, there are an equal amount of uncertanties. But that'd be opening up a can if worms he's not willing to open at any time. He'll just put the can neatly in its pre-labeled box and tuck it in his mental filing cabinet. It would be irrational to worry about such inconsequential things, after all.

The day all those cans get set loose is the day the apocalypse begins.

It takes him another few minutes to respond.]

Yes. Ray would complain as well. And both of them would eventually get you to retrieve me, with time.

It occurs to me that I haven't actually informed Winston of my appearance.

[By virtue of being himself, Venkman intermittently strolls up to that cabinet and violently shakes it in the hopes of dislodging a few of those cans of worms. Occasionally, he succeeds and opening up one or two as they crash onto the metaphorical floor. And usually, they're tucked away neatly again within minutes. That's fine. He's not stopping any time soon. He's spent fifteen years on this task- what's another fifteen?]

i told him a bit of what to expect

namely, that you're still egon, just with a different hair color

shockingly, that knowledge didnt dissuade him from wanting to see you

[Something in the back of his mind reminds Venkman of how much he'd despise the thought of his hair color being the only difference between him and his alternate self. He puts that thought on his own mental cabinet of "shit we're not unpacking today".]

[Good thing that Egon doesn't seem too bothered by that. Being self-aware isn't exactly a trait that Egon is known for.]

Ah. Thank you.

I greatly look forward to seeing you both soon. If you have the time, could you ask Winston for a cheek swab sample? Maybe some scans to record his neural oscillations?

Actually, don't do that. I'll do it when I get there.

[His temporary sadness is immediately overridden by his innate curiosity of other dimensions and the strange things that occur due to this dimension being a sort of nexus for other worlds. Egon knows how to handle himself. Most of the time. It's why he's survived this long.]

i know you will you fucking nerd

im not making any promises that i wont cross contaminate the samples by making out with him before you swab him though. you cant stop me

[i hate that i had to look up whether or not kissing could skew a dna sample for this.

As for Egon and Venkman's various Alternate Dimension Issues, it seems those will yet again go completely unresolved.]

[It's fine.]

I'll keep that in mind. Though I doubt I'll be obtaining a sample immediately after you were to kiss Winston.

Ray and I will see you soon.

just saying im pretty sure you wont have a lot of opportunities to swab him without any cross contamination risk for a looong time

because im kissing him at every single opportunity

if that wasnt obvious

... love you too spengs. see you soon

[Ray adored this dimension, more than he can say. He loved all the cool monsters, he loved the balance between nature and technology, and he loved that his partners are all here! ... Even though one is from another dimension, but that's just part of the charm!

However, in these past few days he's seemed a little quiet he still seemed pretty cheerful and chatty, but there were long moments where he would just fall silent as he watched the others, almost contemplative. If the others asked, Ray would just brush it off as him spacing out and continue on.

Today was no different. Ray was having a quiet afternoon patting Annie when his patting suddenly stalls, and his gentle smile turns more wistful.

Venkman was the only one in their hotel room right now along with him, and Ray turns to look at him. Whatever Venkman's doing right now, he will be interrupted by his partner gently calling out to him.]

Hey Peter...? Can I ask you something?

[Venkman had certainly noticed the slight change in Ray's attitude over the last several days. Honestly, he probably would've pried by now, but Venkman's been putting in the work to stay safely in Ray's good books since the whole "running off to see Winston first" thing. It's always hard to tell whether or not Ray'll hold a grudge or not. Better to keep him distracted with affection long enough that he forgets why he even considered holding a grudge in the first place. Just to be safe.

All that said...]

Yeah? What's up?

[Ray looks away from Venkman, but if he looks closely he'll see a look of guilt spread across his face. He only moves to continue petting Annie once she starts fussing.

Eventually he exhales slowly, and speaks in a quiet voice.]

Do... do you think I'm selfish?

[About what, he doesn't say it quite yet, but by the tone alone it's clear that this has been eating at him for awhile.]

[Well, that's... probably among the last things Venkman expected to hear Ray ask him right now. The surprise is evident on his face, especially as he examines Ray's own.]

What? No, of course not. Why are you asking?

[who hurt u ray. who does he have to fight for making u feel this way. is it himself? he'll fight himself]

Edited 2019-08-24 18:32 (UTC)

I've just been thinking, I guess.

[There's another pause as Ray curls up slightly.]

I really love this dimension, Venkie. This dimension has so many cool benevolent monsters and we never have to worry about people believing us that these guys exist. And now that Winston is here, technically we're all back together again. And we don't have to worry about hiding anything.

[The pause is longer this time.]

... And I've been thinking. I'm not sure if I wanna go home anytime soon.

... Aw, Ray...

[Venkman gets up to go join Ray, sitting down beside him.]

That's not selfish, man. Nothing bad's happening back home while we're here. We're not causing timelines to break by existing in this place. Not hurting anything. We get an extended vacation in a place that isn't trying to kill us that often, with a bunch of weird monsters you guys get to examine as much as you want, and like you said- we're all together again. 'Cept Janine, but she'll probably show up one of these days. But we're together in a place that's- y'know, ok with us being together.

... And I don't really want to go home, either.

[Ray leans up against Venkman.]

You're right,I just... I dunno, it's not like we have a bad home life. Our home dimension is great! Sure we can't be... as open as we wanna be, but it's our home, and despite everything our home dimension needs us.

[And another pause.]

Besides we're still missing our E- the Egon from our dimension.

... Yeah. I know.

[Venkman takes whatever hand Ray isn't using to pet Annie in his, lacing their fingers together. He tilts his head to lean it on Ray's shoulder, his face partially buried in the crook of his neck.]

I mean- you already kinda know how I feel about that.

[Guilty, mostly. Like he's betraying one of his partners. Not to mention the Bill Murray thing.]

But we can't really change what version of us this universe decided to drag out here, right? And I wouldn't- I don't want to lose this Egon.

... And if we ever did wake up back in our dimension, we wouldn't remember anything about this place. Including him. And he wouldn't remember us if he went home.

[A beat. Then, softly, as if he doesn't want Ray to hear even though it's impossible for him to miss it:]

I'm scared of that happening.

[It's easier to be vulnerable with Ray than the other two. Egon still doesn't know what to do with his own feelings half the time- and Winston does his best, but he doesn't have 15 years of experience with Venkman's whirlwind of emotional instability.]

... Me too.

[He grips Venkman's hand.]

I'm really afraid of forgetting this place, Venkie. I love my children and I love knowing that there's other dimensions where we still exists. And as much as I miss our Egon, I hate thinking that we're going to forget everything we did with this Egon.

...And I really don't wanna forget what it feels like to be open about us.

[He didn't want to admit this, but that's a big reason why he wants to build an inter-dimensional portal here. If he can go home and remember everything, it would make this entire experience perfect.]

I just- [There's a pause, while he tries to sort through his thoughts, before everything just comes pouring out.] - the thought of going back, and not even knowing what we lost by going back... It freaks me out, man. I feel like... Like we're finally allowed to really be happy together, all of us, and that's just- looming over us, the possibility that it could all be over at any moment if this dimension decides to pull us back, and we'd have no say in it- and we'd never be able to remember we lost something. That's some nightmare shit.

And I dunno if there's anything we can do about it except hope it doesn't happen, and we just live here indefinitely. But that means-

We'd probably never get to see our dimension's Egon again. And I don't know how to handle that, Ray. I don't...

[Venkman turns his head to bury his face completely in Ray's neck, now, and tries to fight back the sudden sting of tears in his eyes. He's not gonna cry about this. He's had months to come to terms with this dimension's quirks in that regard, he's not gonna fall apart over it now.

Goddamnit, he came over here to help Ray, not for them to both freak themselves out.]

[Ray doesn't try holding back as he feels the tears running down his face. Annie is concerned about this as she tugs on Venkman's shirt in worry. Why is her dads crying???]

Not... not to mention the ethical implications of it all. If we're staying in this dimension for the rest of our lives and time doesn't pass while we're here, what's going to happen to our home dimension? Would it be stuck in stasis forever?

[God why can't he just be happy about what he has right now and not think about ethical implications for once in his life]

I'm... I'm really sorry I'm dragging you into this, Pete.

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