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Post by nix on Nov 17, 2012 23:07:13 GMT -5
GHOST LISTENING DEVICESnappier name TBD This handset is one part of the overall Ghost Listening Device package; the second is a pair of heavily-modified Pioneer DJ-1000 headphones. (Pioneer used to do anime back in the day, so it all works out nicely!) The GLD's purpose, as its name implies, is to scan for, listen to, and record auditory manifestations that the ordinary human ear cannot pick up.The headphones jack into the handset, and the handset plugs via USB into the Wrist Terminal, which displays a kind of "mixing board" in Analyze/Ear mode. On this panel, users can futz with the sound until the manifestation resolves itself into clear focus. In ordinary "Scan" mode, the handset picks up sound; users can hit "record" at their discretion. This gadget went through quite a few iterations, none of which I found satisfactory enough. At first, I was trying to think of a pistol with a collapsible dish, like a kitchen strainer, surrounding its barrel; this would reflect the sound waves for more precise listening. But then I thought, "how do I fit that onto the belt?" Into the bin it went!
The next idea was, yet again, a pistol-grip, but with a miniature boom mic at the end of it. It was getting there, but not quite good enough. Still, though, the pieces were falling into place, especially with the addition of a control panel at the back of the housing.
I had toyed with the idea of a larger mic on a telescopic pole, but found it impractical and a bit stupid-looking. This final iteration is based on an infrared thermometer--a Ryobi one, to be exact. The grip was lengthened, and the complex "pistol" part got rounded and simplified to look less like a gun.
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Post by nix on Nov 18, 2012 20:51:48 GMT -5
Finally, I have their names locked down!
Introducing...
TETSUO OKAZAWAYA
JIYUKO SAIONJI
MEGUMI FUJIWARA
HIROKI MORIKAWA
and
PROFESSOR MASATO KUBOTA
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Post by nix on Nov 23, 2012 22:15:41 GMT -5
I fear I shall never get my equipment "locked down." There's always one little thing that could be improved...
Long story short, I've added a new setting module to the wand. Look at my latest iteration on pg. 1 or so, and imagine a cylinder, about an inch-and-a-half or two inches around, just underneath the mini-cyc and where the main "barrel" begins. At each end of the cylinder are Wavelength and Frequency adjuster dials. The left-hand one (Wavelength) turns counterclockwise; the Frequency one on the right hand turns clockwise.
I don't know exactly what they do--Wavelength and Frequency are placeholders. XD
On the main handle, just above the Capture trigger (a pressure-pad), is a Stream Length dial.
Right on the side of the mini-cyc, along the inside of the "Explorer progress ring," is a "Stream Width" adjuster. As the stream gets wider, it gets weaker (i.e. doesn't damage stuff).
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Post by nix on Dec 19, 2012 13:12:34 GMT -5
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION ECTO-MAGNET From the notes of Prof. Kubota:
Our newest recruit, Hiromu, has found the Nutrona Wand irresistible. Though his incessant tinkering has forced all of us to spend a day patching holes in the walls, I have to admit that he's done some interesting things. He discovered, quite by accident, that widening the Proton Stream's focus results in a "funnel" of concentric rings that can attract objects with a charge opposite to that of the stream. I have since dubbed this phenomenon the "Ecto-Magnet." Recent field-testing had determined that simply sliming a nearby object will grant it sufficient charge for attraction. At the moment, it is only useful for levitating hard-to-lift items, clearing obstacles, and manipulating far-off controls. Make no mistake, though, it is still very versatile. Ghostbusters, take note: Hiromu's last recorded setting was F1--09:00; W--12:00; F2--9.
AAAAaaaaargh! I cannot for the life of me figure out precisely how to create the Slime Tethers. Perhaps I have failed in this regard, and so I shall scrap the idea and start from scratch.
Result! I've since cleared my mind of tethers and discovered a new effect. It is possible to create a large, slime-filled "bubble" at the end of the wand. A short but powerful burst from the proton-driven electric pump launches this bubble at high speed and long range. But what to call it? Slime Balloon? Splat-bomb? Must ponder this one. Jiyuko will come up with a snappy name, I'm sure.
Anyway, a quick note to my guinea pigs, before I forget: I strongly advise against using the slime bubble on possessed people. The force is sufficient to knock them onto their feet at best and behead them at worst! Stick to the ordinary Slime Blower for that.
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Post by nix on Dec 19, 2012 13:16:40 GMT -5
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION TO: Saionji Jiyuko; Okazawaya Tetsuo; Morikawa Hiroki FROM: Prof. Kubota Masato; Fujiwara Megumi DATE: 27 November 2023 RE: Crossing the streams As you are all aware, crossing the Proton Streams when a) the Stream-Cross Governor is disengaged, and b) a cross-dimensional portal is unavailable, will result in the phenomenon known as Total Protonic Reversal. That will change very soon. Some time ago, Prof. Kubota and I stumbled on a new frequency that allows two or more streams to be crossed without a portal. We've effectively weaponized Total Protonic Reversal! (And no, this frequency cannot be altered—it will be the default pending further refinement.) It means that you will be able to annihilate paranormal entities completely. Having said that, however, wielding this against anything less than a demigod/Destructor Form is strictly frowned upon due to the sheer force of the resulting blast. The combined stream is powerful enough to rip through a Cthulhu-level deity, take out a block of skyscrapers, and/or create a fault line deep enough to send half of Japan drifting out to sea. Casual deactivation of the SCG is therefore grounds for immediate termination—of your lives, that is--on the first offense. But that comes with a caveat: deactivation requires all four of the Governors to be switched off within thirty (30) seconds. I tell you how to do this so that you will know how to do it when the time comes, but the procedure is so time-consuming, and the consequences so severe, that using it on an ordinary call is pointless. I have every faith in your better judgment, Ghostbusters.
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Post by nix on Dec 19, 2012 13:20:49 GMT -5
Two updates to the Cursed Artifacts log and one to Tobin's Spirit Guide:
The Runaway Mochi: Roughly analogous to Western legends of the Gingerbread Man and the Runaway Meatball, the rice that makes up this free-wheeling confection absorbed a great deal of PKE at some stage of its production. Prof. Kubota has conjectured that it must have been the first one finished, because the people who baked it reported that the other ones didn't roll away from them.
Basically, this thing doesn't want to be eaten, so it rolls away from whoever might want a little snack. Efforts by frustrated gourmands to catch it have resulted in minor and major injuries, accidents at intersections, pileups, traffic jams, and other assorted maladies of modern life.
We kept a week-long lookout for it. Jiyuko, ever our sharp eye, spotted it following a bus (was it trying to catch a lift?) We sprang into action, each of us cutting it off in the middle of a "cross." Hiromu and Tetsuo lunged at it and successfully sealed it inside a neutralized, unbreakable, vacuum-sealed canister. It is now firmly anchored and bolted down to the workbench in the lab, where further research will be conducted upon it.
--Megs
Eye on Russia: The National Science Museum of Japan, which plans to open an interactive Broadcast and Communications wing, recently purchased a TV camera at an auction for a very good price. It was originally made in Russia sometime in the late 1980s/early 1990s, and when technicians test-activated the thing for maintenance, it worked normally for about five seconds. Then, it started sparking and smoking. The lens glowed green and issued forth vast swarms of stone heads with fierce faces not unlike the Flying Skulls found in Tobin's Spirit Guide.
(Megs took my scans for analysis a few days ago. She told me that the Stone Faces look like a sculpture of an ancient Chinese philosopher--now confirmed as Guo Xiang--she found on an image database.)
Tetsuo, Megs, and the Prof took it apart at HQ, where they discovered large Black Slime deposits all over its inner workings. Cleaning the camera without damaging the components will be a problem, but we're all pitching in. Tetsuo told me that he wants one of my airbrushes--he thinks he's going to modify it into a Green Slime mini-sprayer. It was very expensive, but I must put the company first.
Somehow, I get the strange feeling that the d**n thing is switching itself on at night, when the Witching Hour team punches in. The Prof has it safely locked up, but it might be producing more Stone Faces on its own...
--Jiyuko ===================================== TOBIN'S SPIRIT GUIDE ENTRY: STONE FACES
These stony entities are lithoform cousins of the FLYING SKULLS. We know little about them, but we do know that their initial manifestation point seems to be a late-20th Century TV camera of Russian manufacture. We opened it, and found Black Slime covering the camera's inner workings. The interaction of slime and technology must therefore be opening another cross-dimensional portal.
Cleaning them up is easy enough; the Shock Blaster and Stasis Stream makes short work of them. There's just so many of them! Is the camera spawning them when I'm not looking?
From recent analysis, Megs has concluded that the Stone Faces bear some resemblance to Guo Xiang, an ancient Chinese philosopher. Everything traces back to Russia, so...why do these entities take on the appearance of Guo Xiang? I fear we're still missing a piece of the puzzle.
--Prof. Kubota
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Post by nix on May 8, 2013 13:59:31 GMT -5
In recent weeks, I've grown unhappy with my original, disc-shaped Trap. It was time to throw away everything I had developed over the past couple of years and start afresh. This trap is a 3 or 4-inch diameter ball, like a large bocce ball. You don't throw it at your target; rather, you "bowl" it onto the floor. Having rolled for 2.5 feet, a pair of internal "smart motors" kick in and act as brakes; these are also calibrated to ensure that the trap stops with the doors facing up. On "Manual," you can open and close the doors with a wireless trigger on the Nutrona Wand. On "Proximity," however, the doors open automatically, and a pair of laser emitters switch on. When a ghost hits these lasers, this will trigger the trap's containment field.
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Post by Devil of the Ghostbusters on May 11, 2013 10:33:53 GMT -5
In recent weeks, I've grown unhappy with my original, disc-shaped Trap. It was time to throw away everything I had developed over the past couple of years and start afresh. Reminds me of this flying Ghost Trap in RGB episode "Partners in Slime".
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Post by nix on May 20, 2013 23:42:14 GMT -5
Do you know, Devil, that never crossed my mind once! FWIW, my Traps went through four or five variations over the past few years. First, I had something like a Pringles can (neat and streamlined, but way too derivative). Then, for whatever reason, I had one that looked like a steam-iron that's currently on sale. This one pioneered the idea of the retractable foot-pedal. (And, surprisingly, I still kinda like it. My only objection was that it started to look too bulky and low-tech.) You know what No. 3 looks like...that's the one based off the Escargot vacuum-cleaner. I kept this design for the longest time, but it started to get a little too involved...too many moving parts and too much ornamentation. Actually, I settled on a spherical trap because it allows me to continue the Dyson motif I have on the packs! ;D
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Post by nix on May 22, 2013 13:15:56 GMT -5
So I was at work today (I now work at our local Credit Union), and during one of our awkward pauses, I went online searching for pictures of anglerfish. You know, those dreadful things with big-a** jaws, like you saw in "Finding Nemo."
"Where's he going with all this?" you ask. "And what's it got to do with Ghostbusters Japan?" I'll tell you!
BOO FISH
Prof. Kubota's notes: Every so often, NHK News has a story about some poor gaijin--or, worse yet, one of our own--getting lost in the fog, being drawn towards strange lights, and inexplicably disappearing off the face of the earth. "Inexplicably," that is, until now. Megs and I have determined that this "fog" is a dense, low-hanging cloud of crystalline ectoplasmic residue (A possible strain of cryoplasm? Must investigate further). As for the ghost lights, Jiyuko has gotten back to me with some scans from out in the field. Her findings are beautifully horrific...horrifically beautiful. What she has found, I will call "Boo Fish"--I just like the name, and it rolls off the tongue.
BOO-FISH DRONES
Slimy, pesky, and malodorous, the Drones are unintelligent "swarmers" that pick up on and respond to chemicals given off by the body when in states of fear. Though terrifying in appearance and demeanor to an unarmed civilian, they are like insects to us...Tetsuo has informed me that a single Proton Stream instantaneously disperses them into nothingness.
BOO-FISH QUEEN
As bees have a queen, so do Boo Fish. She, I've been told, is much stronger than her drones--she cannot be dispersed, only contained. The Proton Stream is...moderately effective. Bigger, smarter, and meaner than the swarmers, the Boo Fish Queen is a fearsome opponent. I shudder at the thought of a Queen powered up with Black Slime...
UPDATE: My heroes just got back a half-hour ago. Hiromu complained that the Boo Fish were giving him and the others electric shocks. I took all of them into my office and pressed them for more information, and what they gave me confirms it: There's a third species of Boo Fish. This new subset, the HUNTER BOO-FISH, is (by Jiyuko's estimation) larger than the Swarmers but smaller than the Queen. They seem to be stronger, too, and have to be trapped. They're also very fast, a trait which the Stasis Beam can counteract.
Electric shocks...Sounds like the extension that normally emits the ghost-light also carries an electroplasmic charge.
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Post by nix on May 23, 2013 21:49:25 GMT -5
BLACK SLIME REVENANTS
Most of the time, our work is in catching ghosts. Lately, however, we've noticed a rise in corporeal foes...I'm loath to call them "zombies," because they're not technically undead--they're mindless constructs, almost like the artificially-created thugs from that show, Zyu-something or other.
These Revenants, as I shall call them, are terrifying but insensate creatures of pure instinct. Nevertheless, they can and do pack quite a punch; three hits were enough to bring down even the redoubtable Tetsuo!
Still, we can take comfort in the knowledge that they're easily dispatched. The Shock Blaster and Slime Blower are most effective.
--MK
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Post by nix on May 28, 2013 22:52:21 GMT -5
Many of my posts have had too much of a horrific edge to them. I think it's time to inject a little humor into the mix.
While GB.jp derives the flavor of its humor from the original 1984 movie, the futuristic, toy-like nature of the equipment is also a good source of laughter.
One idea I just had a few minutes ago concerns a wildly frivolous Ecto-Containment Unit. Besides being a "drunk tank" for the ghosts, it's also a soda machine and a slot machine.
You put your ghosts in, do all the fun-stuff, and select your drink. When you flush the ghost from the trap into the storage facility, you get a four-reel slot machine on the touch-screen.
Get all four reels right, and you're rewarded with flashing lights and a J-Pop-inflected snippet of the Ghostbusters theme. If you don't get all four reels, you still get your soda. The slot machine serves no other purpose.
Occasionally, though, the ghosts like to get into the soda machine and troll our heroes. Sometimes they give you the wrong kind of soda; other times, they forcefully hurl the can at you.
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Post by nix on Jul 2, 2013 10:43:05 GMT -5
New enhancement to the Proton Pack: MESON FLASH
The members of Ghostbusters Japan are doing exceedingly well in the field. The time is right for an upgrade to the Pack's Composite Particle System. This new function, the Meson Flash, is achieved with the Beam Width dial used to widen or focus the Proton Stream and Slime Blower. It is a beam of meson particle-enriched light that, when discharged at its highest capacity, totally disperses weak ghosts and damages stronger ones. Its damage to non-ghost entities and real-world inanimate objects is negligible; in this case it's a better tool than the Shock Blaster. Words of caution: First, the Meson Flash generates more heat the longer you charge it. You will want to discharge its beam just before the pack shuts down from overheating. Second, its effects dissipate at range. Restrict use of the Meson Flash to close combat accordingly.
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Post by nix on Aug 23, 2013 10:36:04 GMT -5
FURTHER NOTES ON THE PROPERTIES OF ELECTROPLASM
The strain of ectoplasmic residue that I like to call "electroplasm" has some truly unusual properties. For example, ghosts that come into contact with it can become strong enough to literally swat your Proton Streams away! Worse yet, at their highest strengths, they can use the built-up charge as a powerful and extremely painful ranged attack.
Fortunately, there is a way to weaken them. You will need a pair of iron bars: one to hit them with and the other to stake into the ground. In this way, you can complete a circuit, which will dissipate their charge and open them up for capture.
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Post by nix on Aug 28, 2013 3:49:46 GMT -5
FOLDS IN REALITY AND OTHER PHENOMENA Psychokinetic energy is a strange and unusual force whose effects are often random and unpredictable. Well, " durr-hurr-hurr", as the kids today say. But it's not all about ghouls and ghosts and things that go bump in the night. Sometimes, concentrations of PK energy can cause local, small-scale disruptions to the time/space continuum. At its most innocuous and benign, this effect is the bread-and-butter of simple conjuring tricks*, but larger, more malevolent disruptions can make once-present doors and passageways disappear. (Some say that this is how Daedalus trapped people inside the Minotaur's maze.) These are far more than simple optical illusions. To the unaided eye and hand, doors and other passageways are quite simply gone. Fortunately, your hands and eyes are not unaided: Prof. Kubota's specially-designed gear can counteract most cases of this phenomenon. (*One of the most famous conjuring tricks uses a magic word or phrase to set up a resonance-field pattern and a plate as the "focus" for that field. The end result: If you clicked your fingers, you could conjure a slice of buttered, bejammed toast from out of nowhere. Could this lead to summoning evil spirits bent on world domination? Possibly, but the toast is delicious!)
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