1. [text]

[yousayyes]

[As Winston's second day at sea starts, he feels the distinct creeping anxiety of his mind preoccupying itself with worry over what could be happening back home in his absence.]

[Normally, he'd try reading to pass the time and keep his mind busy from those thoughts- but Mom only packed him two books, and he's already read through both of them cover-to-cover multiple times by now. ...he started to realize somewhere in the middle of his fifth re-read of the trainer's guide that he wasn't actually working to absorb the information. By that point, he was just glancing down at the turning pages to feel some amount of productivity as he's stuck waiting for the cruise ship to reach Kanto.]

[Setting the books back in his bag, Winston opens his Pokégear, thumbing through its features until he reaches a text posting option. ...it can't hurt to put something out there, right?]

Hi.

Current events outside of my control have left me temporarily unemployed, seeing as I'm now stuck in a different dimension from my former workplace.

I know- we've ALL been there before... /endsarcasm

While I'm sure my coworkers will be understanding of the situation and leave my spot open until I return... I don't see that reunion happening anytime soon. So in the meantime: if anyone could point me towards a job listing in the Kanto area, I would appreciate it a lot.

Many thanks.

- Winston Zeddemore

Comments

[adandyinspace]

sure, let's go with that

[Mostly because if there's one thing Dandy doesn't like getting into, it's alternate dimensions.]

and it stands for REAL ghostbusters
...oh wait shit you wouldnt even know

check it, there was like this other show called ghostbusters i guess idk this is all before my time, so to avoid confusion and lawsuits and all that crap, you guys whipped out the ultimate power move and just slapped REAL on the title

other show didnt stand a chance, a true classic stands the test of time, everyone knew a classic when they saw one etc

[yousayyes]

I heard about the eight months from Ray. Not all the details, but I know you were here without me for a while.

[Part of him feels bad for being surprised that they miss him this much. Another part of him feels bad for feeling bad about himself, when they're the ones who actually experienced the pain of an eight month separation. Yet another part feels bad for not wanting to tell them about these feelings because it's not nearly important enough to talk about compared to everything else, even though he's sure Venkman would tell him that his emotions are his and he should express them even if they're not "as important".]

[All around it's. Bad! A Bad Time for Winston Zeddemore.]

That sounds terrible, Pete... I can't begin to imagine how it must have felt to be apart from them for so long, and when you guys have been together for well over a decade by this point. ...but I'm glad you wound up finding each other in the end again.

Promise I'll wait for you.

[neverstudied]

goddamnit ray talked to you first

its fine i'll still get to SEE you first

the other two'll have to catch up

and dont beat yourself up over it man its nothing you couldve changed

[On the surface, it looks like he's referring to Winston's sympathy over Venkman's 2-month separation from Ray and Egon. In reality, Venkman knows Winston well enough to read between the lines and pick up on some of what Winston's thinking. Not all of it. But some.]

we always find each other again. all four of us.

[yousayyes]

That's true. If this doesn't prove it, I don't know what will.

[Then something dawns on him.]

Oh boy, so it'll just be "us" for a while then, huh?

...were there any places you went to in Kanto that you didn't have the time to appreciate on your first time around? Maybe somewhere you'd want us to go together?

[neverstudied]

["Oh boy" is right.]

yep. just us

alone together

:-)

to be honest i was rushing through the place so fast i never even went to pewter city and the only time i showed up in cerulean was during one of this place's temporal fluxes and i wound up with two dogs and a 28ft long snake after that and no memory of catching them. so no i didnt appreciate them all that much

or... really anywhere except saffron and celadon to be honest. i was only in pallet and viridian for a day or two each

protip though we probably shouldnt go to celadon at any point

theres a good chance i'll get my ribs broken again

[yousayyes]

You know for a moment there I almost lost sight of how long "eight months" is and how much could happen in that time.

Especially if TIME ITSELF just "fluxes" sometimes!

At least we don't have to pass through Celadon to get to anywhere else on the map so I guess you picked the best spot to break your ribs at?! Let's try keeping it to just the one place then okay. Love you Pete. For the love of god please stay safe on your way to me.

[Text]

[pikapikajankenpo]

Does it help that many of us have actually done the whole different dimension thing?

Mind you, my different dimension was a world of fairies and storybooks. Two of them actually.

[text]

[outofhershadow]

just go beat up some kid's monsters with your monster, you can get money that way

only job i've ever had and it's workin out just fine for me

[neverstudied]

youre goddamn right its a long time im dying here and the fact that i gotta wait even longer to see you is torture

i'll be fine i know this place pretty well now

i love you

[yousayyes]

Look I think it's already pretty messed up to put little kids in charge of animals that are constantly exploding or on fire, to begin with.

I don't want to make life any harder for them by picking fights and taking their money.

[outofhershadow]

don't feel bad, that's just like
how things WORK here
everyone does it

plus the same kid you beat up will just go get his monsters healed up for free and go and beat someone else up for THEIR money
it's one big cycle

[yousayyes]

Anything helps. But I should bring up that this isn't my first cross-dimension trip, either.

Thing is, I never made a habit of staying for too long in other worlds in the past. Most of them were pretty inhospitable places that we only went in-and-out of long enough to do a job and come back home within the day. So everything here is all still new to me.

Where you're from sounds nice. My world's just one of ghosts, monsters, and the New Jersey Turnpike.

[schachmeister]

[This is... a lot of information. Some information for which Armin doesn't have a frame of reference (what is a Brooklyn). But more information is always better, right?]

If you have experience in construction, you shouldn't have an issue finding a job. Most cities have some construction projects going on, and there are also several mines around. They seem to be willing to hire anyone. And most are also fine with hiring for a short period of time if you want to travel as well.

You can also try poke-centres, inns and stores. Most of those hire travellers for short stretches as well. As long as you are willing to work there for at least a week, you can usually find something to do. It isn't always glamorous work, but it is honest and pays decent enough.

Of course, you can also make money through battling and breeding pokemon. It is a less steady source of income, but it is easy to do it on the side. And there is the gym battles too. Even if you aren't interested in collecting badges, the rewards from the fights can make a nice extra bonus.

[yousayyes]

That's really... something. But I guess it wouldn't be the first time we had to make that distinction. Except it wasn't with a show, it was with the actual business.

[tfw your first episode has janine flat-out drop the line "this is the REAL ghostbusters" to give an in-series justification for your title]

I just realized: you already know a LOT about me, but I don't know much about you. You say this show of ours was "before your time"... does that mean you're from the future- relative to us, I mean?

[Why does time have to be so confusing here.]

[pikapikajankenpo]

I would make a crack about Jersey but I'm sure someone would come to it's defense somewhere in the multiverse. Somewhere, somehow.

Yeah, if I could manage to figure out what my old Dimension Jumping ability was, I wish I could manage to use it here and show people my old world. But I highly doubt it works here either.

Have you met your friends, or gotten into communication with them? None of mine are here, but I've made friends here to last me a lifetime.

I'm Yayoi Kise, from Rainbow Hills Japan.

[yousayyes]

Well when you put it THAT way it

still doesn't make me feel any better.

Actually it's a little worse. An endless cycle of kids beating up on other kids because there's no consequences- that makes it sound like the world's just a big middleschool playground.

[ghoststanning]

Hey, you don't need to apologize! You're here now, aren't you? Besides the nice part about being here after we've settled in is that you can take full advantage of Venkman being rich now!

Also we came here on Christmas Eve and as fun as this dimension is, it wasn't exactly fun to be camping out in the freezing cold with barely any food and just a sweater to wear.

[pkemeter]

[Thirty-six. So, not his dimension's Winston Zeddemore. Or at least not his time. Winston was at least forty when he joined the rest of the Ghostbusters at the firehouse in Egon's dimension. He can't help but feel a little disappointed--so far, he's the only Ghostbuster from his own dimension. That disappointment is quickly washed away with excitement as he realizes the implications behind Winston's appearance.]

Winston, this is Egon Spengler--not the Egon Spengler you are likely familiar with, however. I arrived here approximately eight months before you did, along with two other Ghostbusters from another parallel dimension with differing appearances from the Ghostbusters from my universe.

You may ask questions, if you wish. But I wish to know--where are you right now?

Text

[dreamsofahero]

Hello, my name is Sion Astal.

There's plenty of work available here, but no real centralized list to my knowledge. It depends greatly upon both what sort of work you prefer to do, as well as where you'd prefer to stay.

There is no need to worry about your spot being left open or not, either, as the passage of time in this world doesn't align with that of others. I can attest to this personally, as it happens.

[alittleobsessed]

Oh, it's nothing to be sorry about! I'm here with my best friend, and I thought I'd never see her again but she's here so it's great!

I'm not really sure how I got here. One minute we were celebrating Magica's defeat, and the next thing I knew I woke up in a bed with some lady who thinks she's my mom.

And I got turned into a human. I've read about alternate universes, but I didn't think I was gonna actually encounter one for a while.

[outofhershadow]

i mean, that's pretty much what it is
the whole world's economy runs on these monsters and fighting them and working with them
that's why you have places like gyms where anyone, even kids, can win badges to show they're the toughest around

it's pretty rad

[yousayyes]

That's good to know. If I have time to spare while travelling the region, I'll be sure to see where I can pitch in around town.

...one of the things given to me on my arrival was a guidebook on Pokemon breeding. I had the time to pore over it earlier today, and it was a pretty interesting read all things considered. [Even if his mind was preoccupied with other concerns on his subsequent re-reads. ...and even if he's more than a little mystified by the fact that there's a specific egg grouping for minerals.] It's something to think about for the future, since I suppose I'll need to expand my roster first if I plan on becoming a breeder by trade. Hard to make eggs when you only have one animal to work with.

(Though according to the book and the Pokedex, the one I have belongs to the most common "egg group" so I shouldn't have too much trouble finding her a match?)

I'll definitely keep all of this in mind moving forward. Thanks again for the help.

[yousayyes]

I'll admit I can't rag on Jersey /too/ much, at least not while my mom's living there.

...the three of them did reach out over the network a little while ago. But none of them arrived at the same time as me. It wasn't a difference of a few minutes, either. They say they've been waiting on me for months now.

[...and it's still a little complicated to figure out how he's supposed to process this when those were months of separation he didn't experience for himself. But that seems like such a minor concern compared to Yayoi not finding any familiar faces in all her time here.]

It feels weird that we came into this place at separate times, but... I wonder if that means you could still hold out hope on finding your old friends here, in the future.

[pikapikajankenpo]

That's a good reason to not rag on Jersey too much.

Makes sense. I've been here for a few years already, so whoever finds me from my world is going to be completely surprised. Doubly so if they're from ten years ago or something.

[yousayyes]

[...I mean, he makes his money fighting undead monsters back home, so he personally doesn't have room to judge the concept of a world whose economy runs on monster battles? He's still pretty sure it's a bad idea for kids to be involved in it.]

...I guess I should look on the bright side and be grateful that there ARE at least a few safety nets and rules in place to keep things under control, so it's not just a total... free-for-all no-holds-barred endless slugfest here.

But if it's anything like what I remember middleschool being like, I doubt it's that rad for the weaker trainers who keep getting their head handed to them by the tough guys.