Day 1

[captainryan]

Ryan’s eyes open and he stumbles at the sudden change in scenery. Already reaching for his sidearm, it comes out on instinct, safety off and pointed up. He blinks again, nostrils flaring, to be sure he really isn’t hallucinating and, yes, he is in a wide open field. Except it’s oddly flat and smooth, and very, very colourful. He twists his neck, scanning his surroundings, absolutely dumbfounded by the two-dimensional cows.

“Moooooo!”

He growls and shoots the bovine a glare and it decides that that end of the pasture would be much healthier for it.

But how - the angel. Son of a bitch. It transported him here, wherever here is. He looks around again, seeing nothing but the field and the huddled cows at the far end. He’s still taken aback by the flatness of everything, more so than the bright colours (though those are close to giving him a headache). It’s like watching a picture move, or an animated show on the telly. At least everything smells normal, if unfamiliar, and there’s even the scent of humans and civilization emanating from…somewhere.

He has to get back to Milliways and Suzi and Deitmar. And once he’s made sure that they’re all right, and they know he’s all right, he’s going to take a sledgehammer to that fucking statue, rules be damned.

But one bridge at a time. He has to find a Door, first. He puts up his weapon and starts walking towards the scent of humans.

He’d run, but he’s not yet used to moving in a cartoon world.

Two fields over, Ryan finds a road and a signpost. "Nassburg," he reads aloud, frowning at his lack of recognition and the lack of a posted distance. Still, a town is a town and it doesn't smell all that far off.

Comments

[captainryan.livejournal.com]

Ryan can totally climb in a car crowded with people he doesn't know!

He's cracking open the window, though.

"It's a female angel, usually seen with her eyes covered as though she were crying. The statue's large, taller than myself. As I said, they only move when they're not being looked at, but they move very quickly," he rumbles slightly. "It was across the room when I blinked and found my self in the middle of a field surrounded by cows."

[gone_byebye]

"Hm. That sounds familiar," says Egon thoughtfully.

"Yeah, Egon," Peter interjects. "That's what the ghosts in Super Mario Brothers do, remember?"

"You know I don't play video games other than Tetris, Peter."

"Too bad. You should try it sometime. Might loosen you up a bit."

"Was there any noise or feeling of disorientation involved?" Ray asks in the meantime. "Any sense at all of something unusual happening or about to happen?"

[captainryan.livejournal.com]

"Other than the realization that I was in a completely unknown world? No." He doesn't mention the cartoon bit. "It's instantaneous transport, as far as I can tell, between one blink and the next."

Stupid angels.

[gone_byebye]

"Fascinating," says Egon, simultaneously with Peter- who still has his eyes closed. Egon darts a glare across Ryan at Peter, who just smirks.

"You're predictable, Egon, what can I say?"

"I'm not talking to you, Peter."

"Aw."

"Captain?" says Ray. "Normally we don't see people teleported across entire worlds by the action of spirits and ghosts. If someone gets sent somewhere else, it's usually to another dimension, but it's one that's connected to their own world. Would you mind very much if I tried to get a preliminary PKE reading on you?" He holds up the PKE meter. "I promise it won't hurt. I won't even have to touch you."

[captainryan.livejournal.com]

Ryan frowns. "You may, but I strongly doubt you'll have anything to compare it to." He didn't expect this to come up, but if it could help...

"I'm a deceased werewolf," he explains neutrally.

[gone_byebye]

Egon and Ray exchange glances. Peter opens one eye. "You look pretty good, for a zombie," he says. "Nice trick."

"He's not a zombie, Peter," says Egon with some asperity. "Milliways has a limited capacity for bestowing solid, working bodies on the dead. Captain, I don't mean to alarm you, but this changes matters somewhat."

Ray has the PKE meter out and the scan running already. "What was the limit last time you checked, Egon? Three days, right?"

"Approximately, yes."

[captainryan.livejournal.com]

Ryan snaps to attention, spine ramrod straight. What had been reserved anger, irritation, and annoyance is now morphing into concern and wariness.

"Three days for what?" he asks, nostrils flaring on instinct.

[gone_byebye]

"The morphic field extended to the otherwise spiritual dead by the Bar is only persistent because of the constant influx of energy from the Bar's own standing mana field," says Egon as Ray examines the meter. "Those of the dead who leave the Bar's bounds begin losing physical coherency after thirty-six hours. There are ways of reinforcing the morphic field, but we haven't had the opportunity to test that on a Milliways subject yet."

[captainryan.livejournal.com]

"Lose physical coherency? Meaning what?" snaps the stressed werewolf. He really doesn't like the sound of that.

[gone_byebye]

"Meaning you start fading out and 'going ghost', so to speak," says Ray. "Okay, I think I've got all the numbers I'm going to get."

"Don't worry, Captain. Between Dr. Stantz and myself, one or the other of us ought to be able to get you back to the Bar long before the Milliways limit comes into play."

[captainryan.livejournal.com]

The limit's never been an issue before. Ryan has, quite obviously, never even heard of it before.

The thought of fading away frightens him.

Except for a flicker, though, it doesn't show. "Thank you. I appreciate it."