Katie wasn’t entirely sure what a haunted hayride would look like in this town. It certainly was different from your typical muggle town, so she was fairly certain there would be real ghosts. How scary they would be was still up in the air.
She was starting to lose track of the exact number of days she’d been in Night Vale. She was still homesick, but at least with each day it was getting a little easier. After making plans with Peter, she made sure she had everything she needed before heading out the door. She was grateful for times she spoke to Peter and Janine. It certainly made the days here more amusing.
As she entered the lobby, Slimer was hard to miss. A big smile appeared. “You must be my date for tonight, hello, Slimer.”
Slimer reacted like any overexcitable toddler-like ghost would - with an exuberant squeal and flying circles around the witch. His English was, again, toddler-like, but he at least knew her name. And had brought a flower for her from the display in the room. At least, Pete had hoped it was from housekeeping and not left over from Egon and Janine’s non-date date.
Fortunately, before the Class 5 free roaming vapor went in for a slime-filled hugged or something worse, Venkman happened to notice the Spud’s movement out the corner of his eye through the glass doors. “Fuck,” he muttered, plucking the cigarette from his lips and quickly stomping it out as he hurried inside.
“Slimer,” Venkman chided as he walked over, stopping the green blob in his tracks. “What did we say about boundaries?” The ghost whined with a frown, letting his little arms hang. “Rersonal berble,” Slimer replied reluctantly.
Peter smiled and dialed the charm to a hundred as he turned to Katie, holding out his hand. “Katie Bell, I presume?”
Well Slimer was certainly different from Peeves. If Peeves had presented Katie with a flower, she would’ve been sure the thing was cursed or covered in something. Granted, this one was covered in a little slime residue, but it clearly wasn’t a prank on Slimer’s fault. More than likely, just something that happens because well...he was slimy.
In perfect timing, she heard Peter call out before Slimer had a chance to, well she hoped he was going for a hug. She smiled, his vocabulary wasn’t quite like Peeves either. Seems their homeworlds had some differences in their ghosts and poltergeists. Though, she had to remember to ask Peter what exactly Slimer was.
“Thank you, for the flower, Slimer. It’s lovely.” She didn’t want him to feel bad, especially now. She turned her head and grinned as she shook Peter’s hand.
“Nice to actually see you in person, Peter.”
The ghost made a cheerful noise and floated jubilantly around, more than ready to head off on their little haunted hayride adventure.
All things considered, Slimer meant well, and strived to make friends wherever they went. Even when he shouldn’t - which Pete secretly worried about. Their pet ghost had gotten mixed in with the wrong spectral crowd before, and he didn’t wish to relive any of it.
And while he realized she was likely referring to their correspondence over the network, Peter couldn’t help but grin faintly. “Have you been Googling me?” he gasped in mock offense, letting go of her hand to place it over his chest in full-dramatics. She wasn’t what he’d pictured; a lot less.. Well stereotypical witch and way more Samantha Stephens - which he wasn’t complaining about. But of course she was brunette, because he didn’t already have a troubled past with brunettes… Winston would argue that clearly, he had a type, but Venkman was more than willing to deny it to his grave.
“So we’re doing this the old fashioned way, huh? No broom tonight?” he asked teasingly, moving to hold the front door to the hotel open for her.
Katie eyed him for a moment. “Is that American slang?” Having no idea what Googling was, the comment went completely over her head, but by his tone and movements-no, she still had no idea what he was talking about.
Her head cocked to the side with a thin but still amused smile on her face. “I don’t have it with me, actually.” There was a small pout after she said that but she really didn’t want to get into how much she actually hated not having her broom with her. “I could apparate us there, but there’s less likely for splinching if I’ve been to the place before, which I haven’t. Plus I couldn’t bring Slimer with us and you wouldn’t want to leave him behind would you?”
She took a step past him to walk in Slimer’s direction towards the door. “So I guess we’ll just have to go the muggle way and walk.”
Because of Egon, Peter was incredibly used to not having his references -especially when it came to media and social interactions- understood. Anymore they were just treated as mostly tiny hiccups in conversation and not complete killers. He’d explain it later if it came up. “Possibly,” he told her with a smirk, more than a little distracted at her accent.
While apparate was a new word, Peter couldn’t help but focus on a different one that followed shortly after. “Splinching?” he asked with a small chuckle. “That sounds slightly dangerous, and I’m intrigued.” At even the slightest mention of being left behind, however, Slimer reached his little arms out with a cry and latched onto Venkman’s leg.
“Aw, Slimer!” Pete drawled loudly, feeling the wet ectoplasm soak through to the outside of his leg. At least he wasn’t wearing the one suit he’d arrived in. Getting slime out of it would be a drycleaning bill he couldn’t afford at the moment.d “Relax, wouldya?” Looking over at Katie he laughed and tried pushing the Spud off. “He’s got serious separation anxiety, we tried to get him to therapy but he doesn’t have the attention span for it. Are your ghosts like this?”
“It’s when you leave a part of yourself behind.” Katie replied. After a beat she continued. “Apparating is basically disappearing and reappearing in a different place, like teleporting. There’s actually a few different ways to travel back home. Broom isn’t always practical because you can’t let muggles see you. Splinching, is well, like I said sometimes accidents happen when you use Apparation, and you end up leaving a part of yourself behind. It can be a toenail or something much worse.” Katie shivered at the thought. Everyone back home heard of at least one horror splinching story. Even when Katie first learned how, she had left behind some hair, which lead to a very interesting haircut.
She couldn’t help but smile at Slimer’s behavior. He certainly had a more childlike quality to him, though she had a feeling there was much more to him than what she was seeing now. “Don’t worry, Slimer. We wouldn’t dream of going without you.” Katie replied kindly.
At Peter’s question, she shrugged. “Honestly? I’ve never met anyone like Slimer and we have a lot of ghosts at Hogwarts. He does remind me a little of Peeves, our poltergeist but he doesn’t look like Slimer, and tends to be fond of bad rhymes. He’s a lover of all things pranks and chaos.” A very clear memory of the battle, while she would like to not think about it, she couldn’t help but remember Peeves helping them defend the school. “But sometimes he comes through, when it counts.”
While Peter wanted to make a joke asking if she meant figuratively or literally, because he’d been to some wicked parties when he was younger, he could safely assume that with magic it was in the literal sense. And honestly, it sounded like something Ray would accidentally do.
A toenail or something much worse, made Venkman’s eyebrows raise. “Warning noted,” he insisted, giving a small shiver at the thought.
Hearing more about this Peeves fellow made Pete think of Jenny, whom he liked even if he didn’t understand her taste in men. Feeling himself getting a little to sentimental for the team, he grinned faintly and gave a nod toward Slimer as they walked. “He loves his chaos but most of it is accidental,” he said in a surprisingly normal sounding statement, free of humor and… arguably somewhat fond. Slimer came through when needed - usually when he was the last chance for the team to survive.
“Usually always finds a way to screw it up in the end though. I can’t tell you how many flight suits I’ve gone through because of that little Spud,” Pete said, referencing the slime once more - to which Slimer who was floating ahead, turned and gave a little mischievous chuckle.
“So are you the one with the badger, the bird, the snake, or the lion-thing?” he asked, hands shoving into his pockets. Yeah, he’d done some research.
Katie had to admit that the confusion was quite amusing. Back home, she couldn’t exactly talk about her world to muggles, but this place had its own rules. She was sure that she was far from home, when she had done magic in front of a muggle and no post from the Ministry appeared. It seemed safe, and she rather liked the idea of not having to hide that part of her life. It was refreshing.
She watched Slimer and let out a soft laugh at his mischievous chuckle. “I’m curious. What is Slimer, exactly? I’ve never seen anything like him in my world. We have ghosts of course, but they look like you and me only more transparent.” They still had the floating in common, and she was sure Slimer could pass through walls, but she noticed that he could hold things. The only one she really noticed back home that could do that was Peeves, and she wondered if maybe that was a difference between Poltergeists and Ghosts. Now she wished she could remember that lesson in school.
At Peter’s mention of the houses, her eyes raised curiously. “Someone has been doing their homework.” She remarked. If he had asked the question some time ago, she would have been flabbergasted on how he even got the information. Now she understood it was available, which was still very weird for her. “Lion, for Gryffindor.” Katie replied. “What else have you found?” She asked him curiously.
He drew in a slow and steady breath, preparing himself for having to talk science. “Technically, he’s what we call in the biz a Class-5 Full Roaming Vapor,” Peter began to explain as they walked. “There are still plenty of ghosts like the ones you know, but Slimer there is a mid-level who ended up taking on a non-humanoid form for whatever reason. Ray and Egon have their theories, but he was our first paid job,” Venkman said as he gave a nod toward the floating green mass. Not that he was sentimental at all sometimes, and not that he was going to go into further detail on how he got slimed the first time they met.
“He generally just eats everything in sight and sews slime-covered chaos,” he added. “And don’t ever let him drive.”
Katie’s remark made him smirk a little wider. “Yeah, well, I try sometimes,” he told her with a faint shrug of his shoulders. He studied - when he needed to. “That this Harry Potter guy was a bit more popular than you, that I would be in the snake house, and that bogarts have nothing to do with the actor Humphrey,” he snickered. “And that’s the amount of research I managed before I got distracted by the Spud,” Peter admitted.
He gave a considerate glance to the witch beside him for a moment. “Plus I didn’t want to freak you out. Not everyone is numb to the whole swapping universes thing like us.”
“I guess it’s a good thing Peeves isn’t here then.” Katie laughed. “I don’t know if the town could handle the two of them. I still remember the time he poured ink all over me.” It was rather annoying at the time, but she still liked to remember those Hogwarts days fondly.
Katie was certainly impressed by his research. She laughed at his remark about Harry. “Yeah well, it’s Harry. A lot revolved around him, though I know he hated it. He’s only a year younger than me at least back home, who knows what age anyone is going to be here.” Coming from different timelines was still too weird for her to comprehend. Katie had decided that it was best not to question it and hopefully she wouldn’t have to tell the same horrible story to anyone else from her past.
“Slytherin,” she commented. “I was guessing Slytherin or Gryffindor.” She wanted to ask who Humphrey was, and wondered if he was English. That was such an English name. “It doesn’t freak me out. I don’t mind answering questions. Oh!” Which had reminded her, this was the first time they were face to face. Katie took out her wand and did a small twirl with her fingers. “What do you want to see?”
Peter cringed lightly at the idea of having to clean ink off. Slime was uncomfortable and got everywhere, but at the very least, it didn’t stain. “Peeves sounds like a real trip, though I enjoy a good prank every now and then,” he admitted.
When she spoke of others and from when they would show up he gave a little shrug. “Egon and Janine are from the same time I am so, don’t worry too much.” Though in reality he knew the whole multiverse thing was unpredictable. Part of him even wondered if the containment unit had been leaking (again) this whole time and was secretly the cause of all this.
“That’s fine, I look good in green,” he commented casually before she was reassuring him about questions. And taking something out. Venkman quirked a brow before purposely pulling a face. He wasn’t an idiot - Katie had just literally pulled her wand on him. He knew this. And yet…
“You.. brought a stick, that’s great,” he said teasingly with a sarcastic nod. “I feel safer already.”
Katie studied him for a moment. Depending how much research he did, and with what he knew already, there was no way he hadn’t heard about wands. Plus, now she was certain, but she thought she had mentioned it once. “Uh huh.” Katie replied. “You should.”
A part of her thought maybe showing her Patronus, but she wondered if the state of her emotions would make the spell work at it’s full capacity. Her memory didn’t make her any less happy, but she had to admit that she had been feeling homesick lately. It might not work as well as she would hope.
So instead she went for “Avis.” It was a simple one, but she thought Slimer would get a kick out of the birds that flew out and above their heads in a circle.
Venkman gave a quiet snicker to let her know he was joking, holding his hands up in the air as if to say ‘alright.’ At some point, should the two ever cross, Egon would likely ask to study Katie’s wand. Pete, however, was more interested in whether or not it could turn all the stuff in their apartment into a less obnoxious shade of not-purple.
The birds that appeared and did a lap overhead caused his gait to slow somewhat in appreciation. It was impressive and for a moment he could understand why Ray studied magic so heavily. Still wasn’t his thing, but briefly it made sense. Even Slimer noticed the birds and gave chase as best he could. Not that the green ghost would know what to do if he actually caught one...
“Okay, I was wrong,” Pete said, laughing softly as he looked over at Katie. “It’s a magic stick,” he added, giving her arm a nudge with his elbow.
“Alright semi-serious question time,” the Ghostbuster said, seeing the hayride attraction up ahead but still a few minutes worth of walk. “If you could have brought anyone here with you, who would it be?” A seemingly innocent question but it was a quick way to reveal a lot about the witch he was quickly befriending.
Katie let out a laugh as she waved her wand to make the birds disappear. “That’s right, a magic stick.” She wondered how silly it looked to someone that wasn’t used to seeing it. Having a wand was so engraved into who they were, that she never considered that it might really look like someone waving around a stick.
His question did catch her off guard. “I don’t know if I can pick just one person.” She paused for a moment to look up at the night sky. “Don’t get me wrong, I miss my family but since I’ve been homesick, my thoughts just keep circling back to my friends.” She looked over at Peter and gave him a small but sad smile. “You’re lucky. I know you still have some friends back home, but you still have Egon and Janine, and Slimer.” She looked back over to Slimer and smiled again. “There are people here from home, but it’s quite the same.”
“I guess it’s a tie. Leanne, Alicia, and Angelina. They're all my best friends and it’s-” Katie shrugged. “Just feels weird without them here.” There were more of course, and she thought it might be too soon to talk about her hopes for Fred. “But I’m staying optimistic.”
Slimer pouted when the birds disappeared, falling back into line with Pete and Katie.
“Friends are sometimes better than family,” Venkman reassured her, noting the somewhat sad smile on her face. Given the choice to save his own father or one of his team? He would pick his team every single time. And honestly were it not for Egon and Janine, he would have gotten himself into bad trouble by now.
Pete gave a slow nod of understanding, unable to help but note the lack of any male names in the trio she gave. Though, that didn’t exactly mean she didn’t have someone. Especially in this day and age. “Well until your friends show up consider yourself one of us,” Pete offered, a twinge of guilt for breaching the subject at all. “Besides, we’re still missing Ray and Winston, we could use a sound mind to deal with our madness,” he added in reason, a lopsided grin stretching across his lips.
“I mean, if you can stomach being friends with a Slytherin and all,” Pete teased.
"Thanks, mate." It did mean a lot to her to have him say that. She's met a few people since her first arrival, but she did rather like Pete and his friends. Though, technically she had yet to have an actual conversation with one of them. Still, it was nice to not feel so alone, especially since they were all taken and brought to a new world. Katie sighed. "Alright, well I guess if someone has to, I suppose that can be me."
Katie laughed. She had a feeling that he knew more than what he was letting on, but she was curious to see how much he would say. "I think I can make an exception, if they're worthy enough." As they approached their destination, Katie was thankful that the line wasn't too long and they'd be able to make it on the first group. It seemed Slimer was ready to go as he flew around the truck excitedly.
"Looks like he's ready to go."
Peter cast her an amused grin. “I love that enthusiasm,” he teased in response to her sighing and begrudgingly agreeing. Thank Gozer he had found the few people that he did, and that things seemed relatively fine in this world. Things could be worse - they could always be worse.
Looking ahead at Slimer he laughed gently. “I hope they let him in as a child,” Peter commented, retrieving his wallet from his pocket as the line crept closer. “So I know he’s aching to play the whole knight in shining armor role but… chances are he’s going to be clinging to you or me the entire time and crying,” Peter admitted, trying not to laugh - because it was actually hilarious that Slimer was scared of his own kind. And the closet, ever since they had the run-ins with the Boogeyman.
“Your hair looks very nice tonight,” he said in earnest, “and I apologize in advance for any slime that gets in it.”
“Hopefully it won't be too spooky for him.” Then again she wasn’t very familiar with this town, there was a lot of interesting things around, so she honestly had no idea how real or how spooky this was going to be. She smiled at Pete as the few people ahead of them started to load in the back of the truck. “Thank you.” She unconsciously touched the ends of her hair then let out a small laugh. “If that happens, I’m sure I’ll be able to get it out. Can’t be any worse than ink, right?”
When it was their turn to load onto the back of the truck she took a step forward. “Ready go go?”
“Uh.. yeah I think so,” he chuckled softly as he paid for them and the Spud - even though it was more of a donation to the farm that was running it than actually buying tickets. “Hot bath usually does the trick,” Peter told her, having been slimed more times than he could count. Though he was sure that with the aid of magic slime would be a minor inconvenience.
For a moment he considered one last cigarette before they started on their spooktacular venture, but just as the thought crossed his mind it was their turn. “Absolutely,” he agreed, watching as Slimer floated up onto the back of the truck. Pete bent his knee, hands placed palm-open over his leg to help give Katie a boost onto the truck. “First time for everything, right?” the Ghostbuster revealed to the witch. He had spent most of his adult life surrounded by ghosts and supernatural phenomenon, he had never really sought out haunted attractions in his free time. Unless trying to spend time with a woman, obviously.
“Thanks.” Not minding at all for the assist. When she made it onto the truck, she turned around and offered out her hand. “First time for everything.” Katie agreed.
Once they were settled, Katie shifted slightly. The hay underneath her was certainly new, but she knew it was part of the harvest/Halloween aesthetic. “I’ll be honest. I’m a little excited.” By now she couldn’t help but smile. “Every now and then my friends and I would go out into muggle London on Halloween, but really it was just to go to some of the muggle clubs to dance and look at all the costumes. I’ve never done anything like this before.”
He was surprised to get the kindness in return; reaching up and taking Katie’s hand so he could join her on the hay. The witch’s admittance made him grin faintly, finding himself curious as to how a bunch of witches and wizards spent their free time in the muggle world. “If if makes you feel any better neither have I,” Peter told her.
“I grew up in a bad neighborhood in the city so.. this kind of thing wasn’t readily available.” Though, he could honestly crack a joke or two about drive-bys being kind of like a haunted hayride? Probably too dark of material for their first hang out. “And in college I didn’t much care for it, I was too into the party scene,” the Ghostbuster revealed. Still kind of was, but he had definitely slowed down over the years.
“Have you really never dressed up for Halloween before?” he asked, finding it almost hard to believe.
As the truck started down the dimly lit path, Slimer settled just behind Peter’s shoulder, between the two of them, and was suddenly hyper aware of just how dark it was getting.
“Costumes, a few times.” Katie answered. “Hayrides, no, and I’m sure there are other Halloween traditions I haven’t tried. Then again, unless you knew enough in muggle culture, our costumes are a bit different. Not too far out there,” she added. “I know some muggles like to dress up as their favourite athletes. We do too.” For Katie it was likely a famous Quidditch player or one year where the group dressed up like members from The Weird Sisters.
Her eyes raised curiously at him. “What’s college like? We don’t have anything like that in our world. After school we basically just enter the workforce. I mean some jobs will have first-level training but unless you’re going into the performing arts at WADA.” Before he could ask she quickly added, “Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts.”
It still took some getting used to - the whole muggle thing, but Pete was giving an honest effort to keep up. “So Quidditch players,” the Ghostbuster nodded in understanding. He was curious as to how that looked, and would probably be searching the internet for it later.
Katie’s inquiry about college made him pause but smirk softly. “It’s uh.. Well,” Pete had started to say, but was instantly swarmed with fond memories of Ray and Egon and their time in the lab at Columbia. “Lots of regrets and.. some of the best mistakes I’ve ever made in my life,” he chuckled.
As the truck passed through a canopy of trees, fake cobwebs hung from the branches at shoulder-height. Slimer decided to try and taste one strand while Pete simply waved one off. “What kind of job did you have back home?”
“Sounds like fun.” Katie always wondered why the wizarding world didn’t have education beyond their seventh year. What did 18 year-olds know about starting a career? Not to mention with the war brewing and going on after Katie had left, it really made her late teens and early 20s difficult.
“Quidditch player.” She grinned. “We have a professional league and the team I’m on is called the Montrose Magpies. We actually just finished with our World Cup before I arrived here. First time playing for Scotland.” A bright smile appeared on her face thinking fondly of the memory. “We didn’t win, but it was still a lot of fun. Some of my friends play professionally too.”
“Definitely still making mistakes and have some regrets so, you don’t completely need the college experience for that kind of fun,” he grinned fainty. Though he probably shouldn’t encourage others to act like him - there was a reason he had five very close friends who kept him out of trouble, and from death, on a semi-regular basis.
Pete’s eyebrows shot up as he was genuinely impressed with Katie. Even if he only had a hint of what quidditch was - he was interested to see it in action. Or try it. Egon would probably suggest otherwise and Janine would be ready to dial emergency services but hey, how often did you meet witches from different worlds where they played sports on their brooms? “Alright I gotta ask..” He leaned a little closer and nudged her arm again with his elbow. “Do you have your broom with you?” the Ghostbuster asked just as the first scare played out.
“I have been told that’s what my twenties are for.” Katie joked. “Thankfully I don’t think I have a lot, although I guess that could be a bad thing depending on who you ask.” Everyone had a few, of course, and most of her regrets were fairly typical. Only a small handful stuck out in her mind. Besides, she wasn’t dead yet so technically if there was anything she wanted to do, she still could, regardless of age.
Katie didn’t bother hiding her look of painful disappointment before asking Pete’s question. “No.” She groaned. “I hate it. I’m glad I have my wand here and all, I’d be worse off if I didn’t, but not having my broom here.” She took a small straw of hay and flicked it. “Feels like there’s something missing. It’s really annoying, not knowing when I’m going to be able to fly again, it stinks.”
“It’s absolutely a bad thing,” he snorted faintly with amusement.
Honestly Pete didn’t really care for his proton pack all that much, and he loved the Ecto but it wasn’t on a Ray or Winston level by any means, and Egon never let anyone else touch the PKE meter so it wasn’t as if he was attached to that… So he chalked up Katie not having her broom as him not having Slimer. Which, they both flew so it wasn’t completely dissimilar.
It was a sobering thought - even as the Spud had one arm hooked around his leg and the other hooked around Katie’s - making a sort of protective cage for himself against the hay bails they sat on. First scare in and the ghost had had enough - go figure.
“Yeah I get it,” he said quietly. “I hope it shows up for you,” Peter told her genuinely. “And if it does I totally want a ride.” He was being completely serious - nevermind if it wasn’t a good idea or not.
“I had a feeling you’d say that,” she laughed. Not that she had many regrets about not having many regrets. Most of her major life experiences happened when she was younger. Then again, having eyes on her because of her, big or small, celebrity status, did make things a bit more difficult when it come to just acting stupid for the fun of it.
Katie smiled. “Thanks.” She looked down at Slimer and smiled sadly at him. He really did seem very childlike. “Oh of course.” Katie clapped her hands. “You’ll be among the first to know when it does.” It amused her, thinking about taking a muggle out on her broom. Yes, she knew they could technically fly in their airplanes but she had to think that flying on a broom would be so much better.
Motioning down to Slimer she grinned. “That didn’t take long did it? Doing okay buddy?” She asked him.
“We’ll remedy that,” he promised in a teasing manner. At the very least he could guarantee he’d give it the ole honest try. Especially if she spent time hanging around the group.
In reality, Pete had no idea what he just volunteered himself for; riding a broom with a professional Quidditch player. With no seatbelts. What could go wrong? The idea of having the bragging rights, if Ray ever showed up, was all the motivation he needed to ignore his better judgement that would say it’s something dangerous.
Slimer gave an unsure nod and whine in Katie’s direction when she checked on him.
“He’ll be fine,” Peter insisted with a nonchalant way of his hand. Then a pause. “Just be glad you don’t have to check the closet for monsters later,” he added with a little roll of his eyes, but he smirked with amusement and perhaps a bit of fondness, as well.
“You can try.” Katie was typically up for anything, though like Janine had said, out of her group of friends she did have a more sensible side to her. Not that everyone else was irresponsible and reckless, more that Katie was usually the first one to ask ‘should we be doing this?’ Still, it was fun to tease Peter and she had a hunch that he enjoyed a challenge.
“Oh no,” Katie laughed softly. Poor Slimer she thought. “Don’t worry.” She said, lowering her head to speak to Slimer. “I know just the right spell to make sure no monsters or spooks bother you.” She lifted her head back up and winked at Peter.