Symbol: The Twins

Major Stars: Castor, Pollux

Mythology: In Babylonian astronomy, the stars Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea were known as the Great Twins, "The Mighty King" and "The One who has arisen from the Underworld", referencing names of Nergal. The Greeks associated Gemini with the myths of Castor and Pollux; the stories say they and their twin sisters Helen and Clytemnestra were fathered by some combination of Zeus (him again) and their mother's husband; the only consistancy is Pollux's divinity. The Romans also associated Gemini with Romulus and Remus, twin brothers involved in the founding of Rome.

Dates: The Sun's transit of Gemini occurs from around May 21 to June 21 of the Gregorian Calendar. This is the last part of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

Modality: Mutable (Adaptability, flexibility, resourcefulness)

Element: Air (Communication, socialization, conceptualization)

Keyword: "I Think"

Gemini is the sign of duality and communication. Its gifts are a quick mind, quick wit, and loquaciousness. Its dangers are superficiality and duplicity coming from having, metaphorically, "two faces".

Body Parts Associated with Gemini: Hands and arms, lungs.

Metallic Element: Mercury (Hg)

Spectral Band: Orange

Ruling Planet: Mercury

Detriment: Jupiter

-Excerpt from Quick Notes on Astrology for the Hermetic Apprentice by Dragonis Vici ex Jerbiton, XXXIV Age of Aquarius.

The early morning Sun was shining hot on the small market.

A somewhat gaudily decorated Volkswagen truck sported the sign "Feine Teppiche von Friedrich Brandenburg". Some pleasant flute music was playing from a thirty year-old boom box.

Well of course the sign was in German. This was Berlin.

A couple of customers were getting the patter from the truck/booth's proprietor. "[...This one here, as you mentioned, is a painting of gnolls playing poker]" the proprietor, a young man who looked to be in his mid twenties, had a clean shaven face and an unruly mop of wild brown hair.

The woman customer laughed. "[What is a gnoll?]"

"[A terrible football player.]" the salesman answered, provoking some more laughter from the customers. "[It's a creature from folklore--like a hyena who can walk on two legs and has better table manners, but only slightly.]"

"[Sounds like some of the police during the DDR days...]" the man joked.

"[Indeed.]" the salesman nodded, flicking the air. "[And over here, I should point out our selection of velvet elves...]"

Then the man staggered.

"Herr Brandenburg?" the male customer asked.

"[I...I..."] the salesman shook his head, and steadied himself. "[I seem to have eaten something that's disagreeing with me."] He turned to the truck, and said something in Latin.

A smaller man--he looked like a kid, really, to the customers--hopped out and nodded. "[No problem, Boss--I'll take it from 'ere!]"

"[What a delightful accent..."] the women chuckled.

"[I get that a lot.]" the shorter man said brightly. "[Terchi's the name--pleased to meetcha...]"

The salesman looked rather troubled as he went back into the truck

Zandrik Fallagar, Filius of Delphia, Follower of Jerbiton, Archmagus of the Order of Hermes, sat down with a heavy thump.

Something's happened.... he mused. He looked at the (somewhat outmoded) cell phone on the charger nearby. No message from Giordano...so I wouldn't think it involved...

"Y's all right, Boss?" The speaker was a blonde woman who, like the man outside, looked at first glance to only be in her tweens.

"I'm not sure yet, Coda." Fallagar responded quickly. He sat up and started to gesture. "Creo imagonem...Intellego vim--Visus Horae Astrologicae!"

Coda Bagwise startled, and started to reach for the sword hidden nearby. The visage of the tacky van around her vanished, and was replaced with a sea of stars, with bright planets moving along in their orbits. "Warn a gil next time, willya?!"

Fallagar didn't answer her. "Twenty third day of Gemini...Sun in conjunction with Mercury and Venus both in Gemini, Jupiter in Gemini, Virgo ascending with Moon in opposition to Saturn in Pisces..."

" 'Is is gonna be anover of 'ose 'ead all fumpy ones, ain't it?"

His brows knit. "There...07:35...but what does it mean?" He seemed to remember he wasn't alone. "Coda--any phone calls for me? Any time today?"

"Whut, I'm you're bloody receptionist now..." she groused before answering. "Nope..none at all."

He looked at the illusory sky again. "Maybe it wasn't here. But without knowing where..." He had a sudden thought. "Coda...where did you say Windy was going to be today?"

"Eh? She's jus' going along wiv Miz 'Lizabef to that New York shit'ole..." Coda answered, shivering a little with a bad memory intruding. "Said coupla' Mist' Ray's friends' sprogs are 'avin' a birfday today."

Fallagar was quiet for a few moments. His hand reached out, tracing the sigil in the sky resembling the roman numeral for "2".

He gestured. The sky changed again.

"An' I really wish she'd not go. Makes 'er Mum worry too much 'at one does..."

"New York City...but what did it mean?" He reached into his pocket as he stood up, pulling out an item Coda knew well--a return stone. "Coda, you and Terchi mind things here. I will be back as soon as I can."

Coda rolled her eyes, knowing from three decades of experience there was no way of talking him out of whatever he was going to do. " 'Ave your fun an' don't worry 'bout it, Boss."

"I don't think 'fun' is going to be the order of the day." He vanished, as Coda anticipated...but strangely enough, the light was different from what she expected. The stones she had used always emitted a purple light.

This one was a darker hue, a shade of indigo.

The illusory sky vanished as well, with the roman numeral being the last thing to disappear from view.

From the Files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBI Historian
GBI Case File GBNY-2024-42/500

In 1983, three unemployed scientists started up the world's first agency of professional paranormal investigators and eliminators. Now, forty-one years later, Dr. Johnathan Spengler, Dr. Eden Spengler, Eric Stantz, Marie Lupin, and TJ Anderson hunt strange things in the neighborhood, weird things that don't look good, things running through people's head, and invisible men sleeping in beds as the newest generation of Ghostbusters.

Tessa Jane Anderson woke with a start.

She glanced over at the clock. 11:38. As it was set to London time, it meant 6:38 AM EDT.

"Johnathan?"

"Yeah." She heard the deep voice of her teammate and now much more, Johnathan Christopher Spengler. He was just coming out of the bathroom; she was a little disappointed to see that he'd put on underpants.

"I had the strangest dream..." she said, sitting up. "It was the middle of the night and Peter Capaldi turned up in the TARDIS and took you away somewhere..." She shook her head. "I didn't even watch much of his run..."

"Too bad--I thought he was pretty good." John replied flippantly. "Yeah...very odd dream."

She yawned, then sighed. "I suppose we should get up. Your Mum has that big party in mind for today, and I wouldn't want to get either of us in trouble with her."

John grinned. "Under the circumstance, I think she'd be very understanding."

TJ rolled her eyes, and fell back onto her pillow "Yes, I know, she's been wanting us to do this for three bloody years just like everyone else we know has." She smirked as she rolled her eyes. "And if I'd known how smashing it'd be I'd have shagged you, oh, at least a few months ago."

He laughed at that. "Yeah. But once the initial round of smarm from Marie is done, I think we'll be fine." He leaned over and kissed her. "You want the shower first, since it's, you know, your shower?"

She yanked his pants down. "I suggest we save water and shower together..." she said in a husky voice.

"Great call..." he said, gently pulling her out of the bed. "...Especially as you're already undressed for it..."

Eden Spengler woke up, smiled, and grabbed her fuzzy pink bathrobe. After putting it on, she went into her apartment's main room.

"Edward?"

He wasn't there. She did find a note sitting on the couch.

She rolled her eyes and smiled again, sitting on the couch, holding the letter to her chest. I knew what I was getting into getting close to him.

Mother dealt with something very much like this all the time, no reason that I can't.

"You were not invited here, Spellsinger." A booming voice said archly.

"I see your manners haven't improved since the last time I was here." Fallagar replied brightly. He held up the return stone he'd used, showing the ornate garnet in the middle of an indigo glyph resembling "v-S". "This token of the Chronomancer is my invitation."

A stern faced man appeared, clad in a white outfit covered by a purple and orange cloak. He had a dark beard but his head was bald, though sporting a jeweled diadem.

Next to him was a short-haired woman in a similar garment, though in yellow-green instead of purple. "He is correct, Thetus.. Master Fallagar is...'

"We were no less the Chronomancer's students than the Spellsinger, Deltae." Thetus snarled. "And we preceded him by centuries...I will not have this stripling just strut in here and make demands of the Council of Eight!!!"

"I demand nothing." Fallagar shook his head. "I am asking to see the Chronomancer."

"If you're asking, then, I am..."

The Lord of the Steady Winds is here with my blessing, Brother Thetus. a voice called from the ether. Please allow him entry.

Thetus shook his head, and looked disgusted. "As you wish, Lady Delphia..."

Clouds of steam filled the bathroom as the shower ran. The hot water was pouring down two hungry bodies...

"...Mmmmm...."

"You like that, huh?"

"...The day my Aunt Dori took me to buy my first brassiere, she did warn me--'If you ever want your knockers very very clean, Janey, shower with a man'."

"Yup. She called that one."

"What makes you men so obsessed with them, anyway? I mean...they just lie there. And get in the way. And make it a bloody bother to do anything even remotely athletic."

"Well, I suppose a questionable evolutionary psychologist could suggest 'Ample mammary glands are seen by the male as a sign of the female's reproductive fitness blah blah blah...' But me..."

"Oh?"

"They're so round. And bouncy. And squishy. And the nipples do fun things sometimes when I touch them."

"Mmmmmm...just keep doing what you're doing...right this moment I'm actually chuffed to have them..."

"It has been a while, hasn't it Zandrik?" she asked.

"Delphia..." Fallagar gasped aloud. His old mentor looked haggard, pale...old in a way he'd never seen before in eight hundred years, even though her hair was still brown and her face unlined.

"...The turning of the age, wasn't it?" she continued, sitting up in her bed. "Thirty-three years, if I calculate right."

Fallagar chuckled despite himself. "It's time Delphia, of course you got that right." He sighed. "Is that what happened to you? You look..."

"Awful, I know." she nodded. "I had to forswear exaltation, for I knew I had to be awake and aware for this day."

He sat down, though not too close; doing so would feel improper. "Tell me..."

She smiled slightly. "You are a Childe of a domain of Saturn as well, Zandrik. You are here because you did feel something."

He nodded, and told her what had happened. "My first thought was that it might be the ascension of the Primordial Wind..." he finished. "But Giordano would have been aware also, and would have contacted me. He has not."

"You are the Steady Wind and he the Dynamic Wind. Yes, you would know. Just as I felt the ascension of the Steady Earth and she and I both felt the Dynamic Earth. Chiron, as the opposite number--the Primordial Fire--and Merinita--also linked to the power of Mercury--will feel it as well."

"But it wasn't that, was it? Yet..."

Delphia nodded. "I told you how, years ago--1986 of the Gregorian calendar--how I was told by my future self..." Delphia continued. "...That the first of three time loops were about to open, and that I must be ready. The first loop closed over a year ago, in 2023. The second was opened between last year and twenty years earlier. But the third one, the most fraught, only closed earlier today. It was linked to the ninth year of the Age of Aquarius...on the day that time itself was almost destroyed."

Fallagar startled. He knew his old teacher was not given to hyperbole. " 'Destroyed'?!"

"Let me now tell you what I can, Zandrik Fallagar..." Delphia's face hardened, and became just a little less haggard. "...of the man called Josiah Nodus, and his attempt to use the children of two of the Five Who Are One to reshape time itself into his own mad image..."

TJ raised an eyebrow. "You had one of your uniforms in your car?" She smirked slightly. "You were that certain your plan would work?"

John chuckled. "Of course not. I've been keeping a spare flight suit out in my car since I was hired."

He zipped up the purple and red garment, and TJ noticed something different from what she was expecting.

"Full sleeves? Not your usual look."

He shrugged. "It is a spare...plus I thought I'd branch out. Maybe I was trying too hard to be edgy or different or something."

TJ rolled her eyes. "Well, maybe. Less of a loss if I get to see your muscles in private now, right?" She looked a little more serious. "Do we go separate, or just go together and get the inevitable bloody stupid teasing over with?"

"It would be more fuel efficient." John answered. "Like conserving the shower water."

She giggled and kissed him. "Compelling case, Doctor."

"I thought so."

"There....I think you got it." Janine Spengler gave a thumbs up. "Perfect."

Eric Stantz breathed a sigh of relief, and climbed down the ladder from which he'd been hanging a banner reading "HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY!"

"You sure this isn't a bit too much, Aunt Janine?" he asked.

"Bite your tongue young man." Janine replied with mock anger. "My babies only turn 25 once. And we had one just like this back in 2021 as I recall."

Eric nodded and shrugged. "True. But you made JC hang that one. And he's so tall he didn't need a ladder."

Janine laughed. "True. Hey, keep an eye on things down here--I haven't heard from John yet but Eden's already let me know she's on her way." She got a slightly mischievous look in her eye. "Hope John didn't overdo it last night..."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Forget I said anything." Janine laughed. "I'm going upstairs to check on the cake. The 'steamed broccoli' signs don't always work anymore..."

Eric chuckled. "I think it'll be okay, Aunt J--Pippi's up there guarding the cake."

Janine laughed again as she continued upstairs.

The door opened. Eden Spengler stepped into the firehouse. "Hello? Anybody here?"

"Over here" Eric answered.

Eden blushed slightly, and looked away. "I admit I was expecting my parents to be here..."

"Your Mom's upstairs while both our Dads are down in the basement doing the Containment Unit check."

"Ah." Eden nodded, looking a little more comfortable. She saw the banner and sighed. "Mother always goes overboard with these things, doesn't she?"

Eric shrugged. "That's just how Moms are, Edie."

"True." Eden agreed.

"...Good sales today, Luv." Terchi Bagwise told his wife of a quarter century. " 'Ope th' Boss comes back soon to see 'ow many Euros we made..."

Coda was pacing as best she could in the small truck. "You know 'ow Mist' Fallagar is, Luv. 'E may not be back for a fuckin' month..."

Indigo light filled the truck. Their patron, the wizard Fallagar, appeared. He didn't look terribly happy.

"Welcome back, Boss!" Terchi said cheerily. " 'Ope things went okay..."

Fallagar shook his head. "Not really. I just found out the entire time stream was almost destroyed both this morning and twenty five years ago."

The two hobbits looked at each other. "Wut?" they said in unison.

He smirked slightly, and looked less glum. "But of course as you can see it wasn't."

"I 'ope not." Terchi quipped brightly. " Tho' if anyone's dumb enough to not notice th' world endin' it'd be me!" Coda smacked him gently.

"When we're done today, get everything completely secured." Fallagar said. "We are returning to Dragonsfall tonight."

"Sounds 'ike it's still serious after all..." Coda mumbled.

Eden had just vanished up the staircase (to go chat with her mother) when Eric heard the door open again. He glanced over to see TJ enter, with John close behind her.

He raised an eyebrow. No...if it's what it looks like the last thing I need to do is make it sound like I'm teasing or worse, gloating. "Happy Birthday, I guess, JC"

John saw the banner. "Figures."

Eric smirked at TJ. "His Mom's idea."

"I believe I've seen this before..." TJ mused. "July 26, 2021. Not long after I started."

"Yeah, that's right, you were here for Eric's 25th." John nodded. "Kinda kept to yourself at the party, though."

"I had just moved here and didn't bloody know anybody." TJ rolled her eyes. "And this annoying ginger kept asking me to dance anyway."

"How'd that ever go?" Eric asked brightly.

John and TJ shared a look, like they were trying not to laugh at his facetious statement.

"Where are Mom and Pop? I saw her car..."

"They're here. Uncle Pete, Uncle Winston, and the Riveras are still on the way. Your Mom's upstairs, and our Dads are doing the Containment Unit check."

"What?" John said. "I was looking forward to that! It's one of my favorite parts of the job!" He looked at the stairway. "If I'm quick I can get down there before they finish!"

TJ rolled her eyes and gently pushed him. "Go on, Love..."

As John headed downstairs, TJ turned to the other staircase, the one leading up. "Janine's upstairs, you say?" Eric nodded. "I rather think I'd better let her know Johnathan and I are here."

Eric followed her. This I gotta see...

"Transstater?" Professor Egon Spengler said.

"Check" Dr. Raymond Francis Stantz responded.

"Field generator?"

"Check"

"Stop that right there!!!" Egon and Ray looked up to see John at the top of the staircase.

"Good morning, Johnathan." Egon nodded. "Some problem?"

"Hey, John." Ray waved. "Yeah. What's wrong?"

"You know doing the Containment Unit check is one of my favorite parts of the job! And you're going to not let me do it--on my own birthday?"

Ray chuckled. "Oh." Egon said simply.

"Tell you what, I'll go back upstairs and let you two finish this." Ray said. "Happy Birthday, John." giving him an affectionate clap on the back as he passed by John.

"Thanks, Uncle Ray." John said, taking Ray's place at the monitor system. "So where were you?"

Egon cleared his throat. "We were just about to check the Ionization decay meter."

John studied the panel. "Check."

"Plasmatic Refractor?"

"Check"

"Anti-ectoplasmic destruct mechanism?"

"Anther check."

"Bi-polar adjuster?"

"One great big check."

"Transwarp drive?"

John blinked. "Huh?"

Egon chuckled slightly. "Never mind....an old inside joke. How are you this morning?"

John couldn't meet his father's gaze, and had to suppress what Uncle Pete would have no doubt termed "a shit eating grin." "So far so good, Pop."

Egon put the clipboard back on the desk. He gave John a hug. "To reiterate what Raymond said, my congratulations on achieving a full quarter century of existence!"

"Thanks." A real smile crossed John's face.

When Egon broke off the embrace, he gave John a more stern look. "I've been staying out of this, but what kind of trouble have you and your mother been up to the last few weeks? She assured me she wasn't 'meddling', but I cannot help but be curious. It seems to have involved her receiving a number of parcels and also collaborating with your Aunt Doris." He paused for a moment. "I got the distinct impression, however, that it also involves Miss Anderson."

John laughed. "You got me, Pop, yeah. It did."

He then explained to Egon his plan--he put Janine into contact with Martin Anderson, TJ's father, and procure the clothing TJ and John had been wearing the previous fall, at Sylvester Cadonfloyd's birthday party. and loaded up a room of the Chateau Ritz with reminders of the couple and their parents.

"...It was actually a fortune cookie that made it all fall into place: 'Every Future Has A Past'. I realized that was what was holding us back--we were afraid of each having the same kind of heartache our parents had: you and Mom's first fifteen years, TJ's mother dying and leaving her Pop to raise two kids alone, with one of them turning into a Victor Frankenstein wannabe. So I figured, we had to face it all, or we'd stay stuck forever."

Egon nodded. "This does make a great deal of sense." He raised an eyebrow. "And how successful was your display?"

John couldn't help it. Being asked a question like that by his own father made him feel like he was four years old again and had just been caught successfully making the microwave explode for the third time: he turned bright red, and had to suppress that smile. He wasn't completely successful. "I would say the results far exceeded expectations."

Egon coughed. "Well, I know you well enough to know that all of the...necessary precautions were taken. As behooves a good scientist."

"Absolutely!" John replied.

Egon gave a slight grin, and echoed Ray's earlier affectionate clap to his son's back. "Perhaps we should go see how things are going upstairs." He paused a second. "And congratulations to both you and Miss Anderson."

He doesn't miss a thing, does he? "Thanks, Pop." John said somewhat quietly

Slimer kept glancing over to the table. He knew he smelled cake. The sign with the words he knew to stay away from was right there...but he still smelled cake. He so wanted to check it out closer...

...But The Cat was laying right next to the box. Janine and Liz, Eric's mother, were drinking coffee while Marie Lupin was eating a piece of toast.

Slimer at least wanted to beg for some toast. But The Cat was laying on the table.

"Mother!" Eden said, coming up and hugging her mother.

Janine looked a little surprised. "My, are you in a good mood this morning."

Eden chuckled. "Yes, I suppose I am."

"Janine Spengler!" a clipped accented voice broke in. TJ stood there in the doorway with a stern look on his face. "You have really done it this time."

"...uh-oh..." Eden heard her mother say quietly.

TJ marched up to Janine. Then the younger woman's face broke into a wide smile. "You and the Professor have raised the most gobsmackingly wonderful man I have ever met!" TJ hugged her.

Janine exhaled. "This is the day for hugs, I guess."

Eric leaned over next to Liz"Any idea?"

Liz shook her head.

Pippi opened one eye. "Cadonfloyd has the tall ginger's scent all over her. She's bathed and perfumed, but it's not enough to defeat a cat's nose."

Marie perked up.

"Eden." TJ nodded.

"TJ." Eden said back.

They looked at each other for a few seconds.

"Oh God...I take it Edward explained himself to your satisfaction?"

"And then some." Eden giggled. "I take it Johnathan's secret plan was to your satisfaction?"

"Bloody hell yes!!!" TJ chuckled back. The two hugged each other and then Janine.

Eric realized what all of this meant. Eden and Edward? They finally...

Liz, remembering a conversation not long ago, had to ask her son. "Are you all right?" He nodded.

"Yeah. I'm fine." And he meant it. It surprised him just a little to realize he wasn't jealous--he was genuinely happy for one of his oldest friends in the world.

"Sounds like you both had quite a night." Janine said with obvious approval, glancing back and forth between the two younger women. "And I know my children take their precautions seriously."

"Edward is a doctor, Mother." Eden rolled her eyes.

"Absolutely." TJ added with a bit of a blush.

Janine shook her head, and pinched Eden's cheek. "You're so much like your father it's reassuring to see a little bit of me coming out in you."

"You did contribute fifty percent of my DNA and were active in my upbringing." Eden nodded. "Nature and nurture would both make that inevitable."

"And then you sound just like Egon when you say that..." Janine chuckled.

Marie stood up, and went over to TJ

Bloody hell...here it comes. TJ thought to herself. Get it over with I suppose...

"Good goin' Anderson." Marie said, high-fiving her. "Congratulations." She yawned and turned toward the bathroom.

"What?" TJ asked, shocked. "That's all?!"

"You really think I'm going to give you a hard time over finally doing what I've been telling you to do for the last three years?" Marie winked at her. "I mean, it's Johnny's birthday and you shared your birthday suit with him--like I said, good goin'." She looked at Eden with an impish grin. "Though I really think you tagging Eddie the very same night is kinda taking the twin thing too far." She walked away. "I gotta take a piss."

The three women all looked at each other, shrugged, and shared a chuckle.

John sneezed.

Egon raised an eyebrow.

John shrugged. "I guess someone's talking about me."

A moment later, the three men made it to the floor above. Eric's mother Liz waved. "And Happy Birthday to you also, Johnathan!"

"Thanks, Aunt Liz. I..."

It happened when brother and sister's eyes met.

"Romulus?" Eden asked, suddenly sounding like she was in some sort of trance

Her eyes started glowing orange.

"Pollux?" John asked in response, sounding just as entranced, his own eyes starting to glow the same orange.

"Johnathan?" TJ said, moving toward him.

Egon pulled out his PKE Meter.

"I didn't want to be Castor or Helen..." John said.

"I preferred not to be Remus." Eden replied.

"And neither of us wanted to keep spelling 'Clytemnestra' " they both said in unison.

There was a flash of orange light, and the two siblings crumpled to the ground.

"John! Eden!!!" Janine called.

Zandrik Fallagar dropped his tankard of beer.

"Was zur Hoelle war das?!" "What the Hell was that?!

"Boss?" Coda looked nervously.

"Boss!" Terchi called. "It's the phone! It's Doc 'Moray!!!"

To Be Continued

Based on Ghostbusters Created by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis

The Real Ghostbusters 2024 Created by Fritz Baugh and OgreBBQ