neverstudied | Victory Road IC Inbox

[The Meowth's toe beans flex at the touch of Egon's finger, and its claws dig in ever so slightly. The egg is faintly glowing.

Venkman nods, and sets his other two eggs on the seat beside him, letting Egon take the Meowth egg for now. He reaches over to grab Doppler's containment unit from Ray's belt and clicks the button, releasing the Ditto.]

Alright, hey- I know I'm not your trainer or whatever, but can you- uh- can you help us out a bit?

[Doppel smiles at first at being let out but soon frowns when they see Venkman and not their good dad.

They bubble curiously before bapping Ray in the face. Dad why are you asleep???]

[Mammals might be good actually.

Egon taps at the egg in what he hopes is an encouraging manner, then looks away as to not immediately blind himself when it explodes.

Wait. What is he supposed to tell Doppel?]

Ray's asleep. [A pause.] He's fine. Can you transform into something that can possibly carry these eggs while we help him off the train?

[Gestures to the clutch of eggs. They're gonna handle Ray. Egon reasons that, if he does wake up, he'd probably freak out less about being carried by his boyfriends as opposed to whatever Pokémon Doppel might turn into.]

[Doppel doesn’t seem convinced and still looks concerned, but they nod at Egon’s request.

They hope off the seat and transforms into a wobbly, smiling Regigigas to carry the eggs.

They’re 12 feet tall now it’s fine.]

[Holy Jesus

Doppel's head is probably denting the ceiling at the very least.]

Uh. Can you even fit through the door?

[Another paw reaches from the egg to hold Egon's hand. The claws dig in a little deeper. If Egon listens closely, he can hear a tiny kitten mewl from inside.

The egg shines with a bright, blinding light...

And once it clears, all that's left is a kitten blinking up at Egon.]

Oh--

[Oh my God.

Egon blinks, staring down at the baby. Without even any sort of change in his expression, he kneels down to try and gently scoop it up in his hands. Agh, but Ray--but the kitten--but Ray--

He ends up just giving it a pat on the head as he directs his attention back to the actual crisis at hand. Spengler goes to lift Ray out of his seat, straining to try and heft him up. Calm. Let's stay calm. There has to be something they can do.]

Give me a hand, will you?

[Venkman is temporarily distracted from this ongoing crisis because oh my god look at the little baby-]

Ohhhh my God, look at the little baby!

[... Right. Ray. Comatose. Still- ok, it's fine, Ray can wait a second. Venkman picks up the Meowth and holds it up over his head like this is the fucking Lion King. The kitten blinks down at him and mewls again, wriggling its little paws in the air. This baby has existed for only a couple minutes and has no idea what's going on, just that these are probably its parents, right? Is this how parents act? Why is there another one not moving?

After Venkman has a moment[tm] of just looking at his newborn baby, grinning like an idiot, he cuddles it to his chest and turns to Egon, sobering up quickly. He loops one of Ray's arms around his shoulder. The Meowth purrs sleepily, reaching up to bat at Ray's hand.]

[Doppel makes a delighted bubbling at seeing the new Meowth. Hey little baby!

I hope you like this giant hulking beast waving at you while they go to pick up the eggs and ooze out of the train.]

[A few people gasp and ogle at Doppel as they exit the train. Egon watches as they leave, then nods in Venkman's direction.]

Right. Let's go and trust that Doppelganger can make their way back.

[He starts walking forward, careful to keep a tight grip on Ray. Occasionally--well, more than occasionally, he'll glance down to make sure he's still alright. If being "alright" means that you're in a comatose state and can't be woken up. Or maybe when he looks down, Ray might just be blinking his eyes awake and asking what's going on, and they'll all have a laugh about it.

Except Egon. He doesn't laugh.]

You alright, Venkman?

Hey, not like we can miss 'em, right? Giant, hulking behemoth- someone'll point us in the right direction if we lose 'em.

I'm...

[Venkman trails off, and looks at Ray's sleeping face, head tilted to one side. He doesn't answer for a moment, and at first it seems like he's not going to.]

... I'll be ok. Don't worry about me, alright? Ray's what matters.

[The Meowth leans up and licks at Venkman's chin.]

[Egon's eyebrows knit together in concern, but he doesn't otherwise comment. He half expects Ray to say something to cheer Venkman up, but...the silence only further serves to highlight his current condition.

Spengler grits his jaw and looks down at the ground, focusing on keeping Ray upright. A few moments of silence pass before he speaks.]

You know, we don't seem to be able to go a few days without encountering any sort of trouble. It makes you wonder if we're some sort of inter-dimensional magnet for supernatural occurrences.

[Maybe not the best thing to comment on.]

Hey, at least none of us've gotten arrested in the last few days. That's gotta count for something.

[It may not be the best thing to say, but it gives Venkman an opportunity to make a dumb comment, and that's better than nothing.]

Maybe in a few weeks we'll get ambushed by one of this world's gods. That'd be fun.

[But only if Ray's awake to see it. He rolls his shoulders to take the brunt of Ray's weight; the Meowth, jostled, wriggles free of his arm and climbs up Ray's shoulders and onto Egon's.]

I've actually been doing some reading on these so called "legendaries" in this dimension. Did you know that there is a Pokémon that supposedly existed before the universe existed and shaped the world to its whim? It's considered a mythical Pokémon as opposed to a legendary, elevating its status further.

[At least this gives him something else to talk about and get his mind off of Ray, but he can't help but think about those books that he gave him for Valentine's Day. He tries to push it out of his mind.

He idly scratches under the Meowth's chin with his free hand.]

Time and space then followed, created by two other different Pokémon. Though, there is talk about another Pokémon that was banished for its crimes. Like a version of Satan, if you will.

Huh. I heard bits and pieces about the legendaries- from other people when I was still traveling alone, and from, uh. Ray.

[Venkman winces a little bit as his own words- Egon's clearly trying to distract them both from the fact that Ray apparently fell into a coma without either of them noticing for hours, and he has to run his fucking mouth and screw it up. He tries to salvage it, at least:]

Like Satan, huh? Did he tempt some lady with an apple, too?

[Egon doesn't seem to react to the Ray comment. Or maybe he just chooses not to.]

Don't be ridiculous. The concept of gender did not exist at that point in time. [A pause.] Nor did apples. However, an interesting thing to note is that Giratina--the Pokémon analogous to Satan--supposedly lost its legs upon being banished to its current dimension. One could make a comparison to how the snake lost its legs after God punished it in the Garden of Eden.

[He falls quiet for a moment, still scritching the Meowth's head.]

Have you decided on a name for this cat?

Hey, fair enough. Gozer didn't need a gender, some people don't need a gender, old eldritch gods from other dimensions full of monsters don't need a gender.

I'm sure they had some kind of fruit way back when this universe was new, though. Even if it wasn't an apple. What else did they eat?

... Do gods need to eat? Like, in general. I'm sure there's some that gotta, but some of 'em can probably get by without. And some probably eat just because they want to.

[These are important questions. And he's definitely not just coming up with them to help keep their minds off the dead weight in their arms.

The kitten mewls into Egon's ear and nibbles at his fingers.]

I've got a couple ideas in mind. Why?

Probably not unless they wanted to. I haven't exactly looked into the history of the local flora and fauna--the people here seem to be horrible record keepers beyond mythos and legends on various Pokémon. I'm pretty sure the recent surge in science has been a result of this lack of information.

[This is fine. This is fine! They can just keep occupying themselves with idle questions until they make it to their hotel room. Venkman's plan seems to be working, at least--Egon seems to be significantly calmer than earlier.

The other option would've been him just repeating physics equations to himself, and, really, would Venkman want that?

Egon seems to pause a little longer than necessary before answering.]

I was merely asking. You could follow the naming trend and call her Nermal.

How recent's the scientific uprising, here? Do you think it's correlated to people from other dimensions showing up?

[And then Venkman just. Stops. Stares at Egon for a long, quiet moment.

With one fluid motion, he sweeps Ray's unconscious body off his dragging feet and into his arms in a bridal-carry, and just. Starts walking away.]

Ok, goodbye, Egon. Nice knowing you.

[... After a few seconds, he returns to Egon's side, shifts Ray's weight onto on arm, and picks up his kitten from Egon's shoulder by the scruff of her neck.]

I'm taking my baby with me.

[He sets the Meowth down in Ray's lap and goes back to carrying his unconscious boyfriend away in both arms. Bye.]

Edited 2019-02-20 06:30 (UTC)

[Spengler opens his mouth to answer Venkman's question when he promptly just. Leaves. He blinks, watching Venkman walk away for a moment, a vaguely puzzled expression on his face. He opens his mouth again when Peter picks up the Meowth by the scruff of her neck, and then shakes his head, putting his hands in his pockets.]

It was merely a suggestion.

[About a half-hour later, Egon knocks on the hotel room to make sure that Peter actually...y'know, got back safe. He takes a small step back. In his hands, he carries a large paper bag filled with bagels and some...electronics, for some reason, and two coffees.

When Peter opens the door, Egon inclines his head towards him.]

Took the liberty of picking up some supplies. How's Ray doing?

[Venkman immediately leans up to kiss Egon on the cheek, grinning.]

God, there you are. I was startin' to worry that you thought I was seriously abandoning you or something.

[He grips Egon's shoulder for a moment, squeezing a little tighter than necessary, like he's trying to reassure himself that at least one of his partners is still with him. He takes one of the coffees and the bag from Egon's arms, talking as he does so. The Meowth, meanwhile, bounds up to Egon's feet, little tail sticking straight up as it mews in excitement.]

I tucked him into the bed. Been watching him- no change yet. Checked his vitals as best as I could, too- heart sounds fine, pulse is steady, breathing rate's normal. Doppel's here- they were in the hallway waiting for me to let 'em in. Set the eggs up with Bond- [He inclines his head to the sofa, where Bond sits atop the eggs, preening.] - and yeah, I made sure to check whose eggs belonged to who so we don't get 'em mixed up.

... He's still not waking up. I mean, you could probably guess that for yourself, but. Y'know.

Of course not. I also wanted to pick up some equipment in case we needed to perform further tests, and I could not achieve that if I had both my hands full. [A beat.] And bagels. Because their presence in this universe indicates that at least one Jewish person who knew how to cook bagels has crossed over into this dimension.

[He reaches up to grip Peter's hand and squeezes it--maybe a little harder than usual. His expression remains the same, however. When he sees the Meowth running towards him, he lets go and kneels down to scratch between her ears.

As Venkman speaks, he goes to pick up the Meowth and hold her with one arm, letting her nest in the crook of his elbow. He wanders over to the bedroom to poke his head in, frowning lightly.]

We could try and do brain scans, see what his brain function looks like. Make sure that-- [He cuts himself off.] He's...not possessed. Ray was always rather vulnerable to possessor-types.

What, you don't think bagels coulda happened spontaneously over here?

[He sets the bag down on a table, digging through it and frowning at some of the wires and electronic bits.]

Egie, I did tell ya to save electric shock for a last resort, right?

[The Meowth squirms happily in her second dad's arms, purring and kneading his arm. Venkman follows Egon to the bedroom, his coffee in one hand and a bagel wrapped in a napkin in the other.]

Jesus. I hope he's not possessed. I know you haven't been through that too much- at least, not the version of you from my dimension- but that shit doesn't feel too great. ... I kinda doubt it, though- most ghosts that'd want to possess someone wouldn't just knock their host unconscious. Not really much use in taking over someone's body if you're just gonna take a nap.

[He knows Egon was probably going to say something else, and he's ignoring that as best as he can.]

Well, they could have. But I like my theory better.

[He begins petting the Meowth, running his fingers through her fur and idly wiping off the stray cat hairs on his jacket. He then picks her up and places her on the nearby desk, kneeling down to dig through the drawers.]

I'm not giving him any electric shocks. Yet. [He pulls open the bottom drawer and digs out the device he rigged up during that one week when they all swapped bodies. It's become a tangle of wires in the process of being shoved into the back drawer, and Egon places it gently on the table surface, trying to untangle the mess. It sort of looks like what would happen if a robot puked on a colander.] We just need to get a solid scan, then we can come with a plan on how to deal with this.

[He hopes.]

I don't like that "yet", Egon.

[The Meowth appears surprised to find herself relocated, and sits on the edge of the desk, peering down as Egon searches. She hops into an open drawer and clambers inside the desk. It's fine.

Venkman, meanwhile, leans against the edge of the desk, nervously nibbling at the edge of his bagel as he watches Egon work.]

[Venkman is uncharacteristically quiet, so Egon decides to say something he knows Venkman won't be able to resist making a comment about. Relieve the tension.]

If it turns out he is possessed, we'll have to figure out a way to replicate the effects of the psychoreactive slime I encountered back in my dimension. That seemed to be one of the more effective ways of ejecting a possessor from its target.

[He untangles a few of the wires and reconnects a few loose ends. He then leans down to plug it into an outlet and the neural wavelength detector begins to hum quietly. Egon taps his fingers against the desk surface, clearly hesitating about something.]

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