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Post by nix on Apr 28, 2014 0:53:43 GMT -5
RADIOPLASM Radioplasm is a variety of ectoplasm that comes in two flavors. Radioplasm-B, or Benign, does funny things to radio signals. It's thought to be a factor in Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP), though Kubota is still developing this theory. Radio-B is more or less a naturally-occurring form or residue that has come into contact with the airwaves. Oddly enough, Megs' research points to something curious: Radio-B can actually absorb psychic imprints from those airwaves. In high enough concentrations (2000-2500 AK or more*), it can manifest things from television and make them materialize! Themselves voracious consumers of popular culture, Hiromu and Prof. Kubota have bonded and had hours of fun in figuring out which episodes of Ultraman, Super Sentai, and Kamen Rider have spawned ghosts! Radioplasm-M, or Malignant, is far more dangerous. This stuff actually emits high levels of radiation. It was originally thought to be a byproduct of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings (viz. the Godzilla Christmas Tree incident), but further research has disproved this hypothesis. Prof. Kubota now fears the worst, that it's the work of the dreaded Machine-Cult, whose various minions the Ghostbusters have had to face on several occasions (see sections on Machine Cultist, Machine-Cult Technomancer, and Machine Scuttler; Fiend; Flyer; Titan). Radio-M does not occur naturally. Even so, Japan has a long and storied love-hate relationship with nuclear energy (this could be why Japan has never had a Ghostbusters branch until now), and anyone with enough know-how has ample opportunity to create and refine Radio-M. Much to everyone's horror, the limited samples of Radio-M that they have collected share common wavelength patterns. These samples appear to originate from the abandoned Fukushima Dai'ichi power station. The theory is that human Machine-Cult members in industry and government have taken advantage of the 2011 disaster* and claimed the station as their own. It's entirely possible that they have converted the reactors, turbines, and enrichment plants; instead of nuclear energy, they now generate and produce psychokinetic energy. All five members of Ghostbusters.jp are gearing up and waiting for the day when they go to shut the plant down.
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Post by nix on May 6, 2014 18:32:12 GMT -5
Someone on Facebook's "Ghostbusters, Inc." page--Ivan something-or-other--has suggested a new, computer-based Containment Unit. Uniquely, he actually has something to back this up; he ties together Tron (specifically the Big Laser) and a few other movies to this concept.
I personally love the idea of it, and I believe it's what Ghostbusters Japan would use because their little continent is fairly vulnerable to earthquakes, and they need a more stable way of holding the ghosts.
However, it's not all sweetness and light: I have another idea that a group of rather zealous Buddhist (Shinto?) monks* would give them flak for basically imprisoning the ghosts and throwing away the key without giving them any hope of redemption. They laugh it off at first, but the charges are true, and over time they develop a system in which each ghost is stored in its own "file," and which can be extracted through...
GHOST-DRIVES
The Ghost-Drives are a fusion of Obake karuta, a dedicated deck of playing cards on which pictures of ghosts are printed, and USB flash drives.
One 'Drive is about the size of an audio-cassette box, but I'm actually thinking of those "gold-plated" Pokémon cards you could get at Burger King about fifteen years ago, so a little bit bigger than an audio-cassette box.
The idea is, the upper face of the 'Drive has a layer of electronic ink (black; magenta; cyan; yellow). Empty ones are blank, and when you transfer a ghost from the ECU to the smaller Drive, the processor inside draws a picture of that ghost from a file on the main server.
After transferring, it can be placed on a special table that lifts up onto the wall for storage, and if the ghost wants to "talk" to you, the E-Ink panel lights up. Communication takes place through a special machine that consists of a cannibalized Nintendo, a telephone, and an old word processor. Plug the Drive into the machine, switch on the processor, and pick up the phone.
If the ghost inside has genuinely reformed and is ready to cross over, you can transfer it from Drive to Trap and release the trap.
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Post by nixfgbfan on Feb 4, 2015 16:14:39 GMT -5
I'm having some trouble with much of the equipment.
The problem is one that has dogged me for most of my life: I can never simply lock something down and say "okay, that's it." I'm constantly redesigning, constantly refining--this revision has too much going on; that revision doesn't quite make sense; this thing is too similar to a Dyson piece.
To that end, I think I shall lay down some ground rules for what I want.
OVERARCHING RULE: GB.jp is as concerned with maintaining a good public appearance as it is with catching ghosts. The look of the equipment follows this idea.
- The equipment must be of sufficiently high-tech design, yet still retain the familiar, lovably clunky Ghostbusters silhouette. (This is why I chose the Dyson vacuum cleaners for the inspiration--they're futuristic, but not too minimalistic.)
- All other things being equal, the equipment must have as few individual parts ("greeblies") as possible.
a. Corollary to 2: Wherever individual parts are necessary, they must either 1) fold away seamlessly or 2) fit together so as to create a seamless appearance. - The equipment is modular. Parts can easily be broken down and rearranged to user preferences (the left-hander in me is rather annoyed that the Pack is right-handed).
- Whenever possible, individual parts should have some in-universe function applied to them, even if it's as simple as status lights.
- Above all else, the whole package should have some sense of internal logic to it.
CLAUSE: If nothing else, GB.jp is fairly traditionalist as far as iconography goes. This is why their packs retain the cyclotron lights and the climbing blue light on the side of the pack. Neither of them really indicate anything, but are there mostly because they've always been there.
This also explains why the team members carry dedicated sensing equipment rather than having it all on their computer terminals: having some kind of a "prop" just looks better, and besides, that's how it's always been done. (If you want to get technical, it's also because including the sensing equipment would put undue strain on the computer equipment.)
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Post by nixfgbfan on Feb 9, 2015 18:14:06 GMT -5
THE MACHINE-CULT We don't know very much about the Machine-Cult, except that it's very, very dangerous.
However, our first few encounters with the Cult and its technology have revealed some interesting details. I must give credit where credit is due.
Jiyuko got some high-quality scans of a Cultist in action. She and Megumi were analyzing the images in greater detail, and, somewhat disquietingly, its mask has strange yet familiar markings etched upon its surface. ======================================================== I was with Megs just a few minutes ago. Her and Jiyuko's findings make my blood run cold: The Machine-Cult's etchings are very similar to those used by the apparently-defunct Cult of Ivo Shandor.
To be sure, we're sending those scans and Yuji's* recordings from the encounter to the main New York office. ============================================================== It's settled, then. From all that we've gathered, I can only conclude that the Machine-Cult is an offshoot of the Cult of Shandor.
Also, Tetsuo found some kind of ritual dagger. It's a beautiful, yet horrific piece made of stainless steel and with an obsidian blade (or is it just steel that's been coated in Black Slime?) At the end of its handle, there's a metal carving of a leering, skull-like mask--this appears to be the Cult's trademark.
He's been slow to analyze it. He's not going to do it until he's ready; until then, he's getting himself ready. ================================================================= Hey. Tetsuo here. I'm ready, so let's do it.
It's kinda fuzzy at first...There's all kind of equations and symbols; I don't know what they mean, but I'll talk to the Prof.
There's a ritual circle. They're surrounding a poor bastard on a dais, or is it a machine? Can't really tell--it's pretty dark.
Guy's in a bad way. Got tubes and wires and things running through his arms and legs. Chanting something in a language I've never heard before. He looks pretty calm, but I see different: he's scared s__tless.
Are--Are they cuttin' out his heart? They're puttin' in something, looks like Iron Man's chest piece, but green.
They're drainin' his blood, and in goes the Black Slime. I've...never heard anyone scream like that...
More green light. They're doin' something to strip his soul away from his body, now he's a ghost.
Hope he finds some kind of peace in the Containment Unit.
(*AUTHOR'S NOTE: I think "Yuji" was called "Hiromu" at some point. I want to get away from three-syllable names, so Yuji it is.)
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Post by nixfgbfan on Feb 10, 2015 11:36:55 GMT -5
"MACHINE-BUSTERS" - SPECIES: Full-torso, Free-Roaming Apparition
- TYPE: Artificially-created ghost
- ATTACKS: Range, melee, possess, Special Attacks
The latest in Machine-Cult technology, the "Machine-Busters" are spectral "clones" of the Ghostbusters Japan team. Reports from a bust two weeks ago all feature a HYPNOTIC MIRROR of some kind (see under Cursed Artifacts) which compelled them to look at themselves. Apparently, the Machine-Cultists collected copies of the Ghostbusters' souls and bonded them to four ghosts of their own. The end result: Four ghosts who can fight their human counterparts to a standstill. One unique side-effect of copying the 'Busters' souls: Every fight will end in a stalemate. Capturing a Machine-Buster will result in the death of a human Ghostbuster; likewise, if a Machine-Buster actually kills his or her counterpart, then it will cease to exist. Because of this circumstance, we can only determine that these elite soldiers are intended to be a distraction from any of the Machine-Cult's larger plans. SPECIAL ATTACKS: Each Machine-Buster has a unique move, equal and opposite to that particular Ghostbuster's equipment. MACHINE-JIYUKO: Where Jiyuko can take scans of ghosts, Machine-Jiyuko uses PKE as flash-bang/smoke grenades. MACHINE-MEGUMI: Where Megumi's equipment picks up energy trails, Machine-Megumi can either create false paths or suppress energy trails. MACHINE-YUJI: Where Yuji picks up EVP with recording equipment, Machine-Yuji can either "throw his voice," drown out manifestations, or deafen with sonic attacks. MACHINE-TETSUO: Where Tetsuo is the "heavy hitter" of the team, Machine-Tetsuo can take corporeal form with Black Slime and whatever debris is available. The Machine-Busters' ritual daggers function as powerful sidearms equal to the Proton Pack, except they fire streams of PKE at concentrations of above 5000 AK. (We think they are working on their own versions of the Packs' alternative functions--a ray that can encase human beings in ice, for example.) Their version of a Ghost Trap is a TALISMAN MINE (see under Cursed Artifacts) that uses a sudden burst of PKE to cause momentary immobility, just long enough to get that last attack in.
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