I’ll have to post the roll when I get home from work
Kris thinks about the television in this room.
Kris rolled an 8(no ghost) for brains, but I’ll add 3 brownie points to get it to 11
[Morbo]Brownie Points do not work that way![/Morbo]
But, I’ll allow it this time. Remember, from now on, you have to use Brownie Points *BEFORE *you roll the dice! Kristopher got an 11 on his BRAINS roll for this attempt.
The power cord to this television has been chopped to pieces by some sharp object. However, on closer inspection, you see tiny filaments of copper connecting some of the severed ends of the wire back together. The insulating plastic remains severed; only the wire is ‘growing’ back together.
So needless to say, I’m odds and ends, but I’ll be stumbling away~
Liz had her head down and her headphones blasting as she rounded the back corner of the building. Bad choice considering she almost ran into a giant of a man.
“Hey! Watch it! I’m walking here!” She says in typical New York fashion, though it was a little louder than intended with her music on.
She takes off her headphones as he begins to apologize and introduce himself. “I’m sorry, I just went down to the corner bodega for a snack. I’m JT Roth, owner of this here establishment,” he explains in a Texas accent while she feels his eyes roam her slightly curvy figure…this should be fun. “We’ve got two receptionist areas, you can pick the one you like. How’s your typing speed?” JT asks in quick secession. “Just bought a nice new electric typewriter for you as well…”
She scoffs. Her eyes narrow as she crosses her arms. Never has she wanted to hit someone so badly, but of course, this is her new boss, so Liz restrains herself. “Well, Jumbo, was it? Sorry, I’m terrible with names…” she insults him coolly, “I can type up to 64 words per minute, but that’s not really going to help when I’m wielding a Proton Pack and covered in ectoplasm, now is it?” She checks out her nails, never making eye-contact, “I’m guessing you didn’t get the memo…I’m Liz, your new field transfer. Sorry, I don’t specialize in making coffee or taking phone calls.”
JT sputters a response, “Now, look, I didn’t mean anything-”
“No, of course you didn’t,” Liz cuts him off, “I don’t know what else I was expecting, I mean, Ray and Venkman were bad enough, treating me like a kid or some kind of sex object, but I was finally starting to get some respect and then they dump me off on you.” she flicks her cigarette to the ground as she ends her rant.
They come to the front of the building as she notices two men in uniform, her new teammates. She quickly reads their name badges: Cornwall and Jenkins. JT unlocks the doors and she quickly throws her purse down on a chair in the reception area and fishes out her keys.
“If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I have to go and get my pack out of my car,” she explains, “I was supposed to meet you at 10:30 and seeing that it’s now,” she checks her duel calculator watch,“almost 11:00, it’s really not safe to keep it in this kind of heat for too long.”
Brian examines the glass, occasionally muttering “fascinating”
He scrapes a piece of the mysterious material off to examine under the microscope.
“Well, I think I have all I need here, shall we join the others and see how they are making out with the rest of the tenants?” He says to Louis.
Before leaving he walks to J.T.'s office to introduce himself and Louis to the new recruit. Asking about her knowledge of the ghostbusting equipment and experience with the other team.
He uses one brownie point (which turned out to be unnecessary) for a total of 33 on his physics roll
Kris is pretty surprised to actually see the wire growing back together. “Hey, Gerald, come look at this. The copper is actually reforming. It reminds me of the movie Christine, the one where the car comes to life and kind of heals itself. Why the TV wires only, though?”
Kris pauses and continues, thinking out loud,“Could the ghost have some kind of connection to copper? The book said there is usually a connection between ghosts and the things they control, like the TV’s here. And I’m assuming copper is in a lot of wiring around here. I’m gonna check the book for a minute.”
Kris looks for information about ghosts/phantasms being able to regenerate metal, like copper and so forth.
Kris rolls a 9(no ghost) for checking the book.
“Also, Don, do you have any info. on previous tenants and supers for this building?”
Gerald leans over to observe the wire, tilting his head.
“It’s unlikely the connection is to copper specifically. The wire is a component of the television. I have a feeling we’ll come back to see the duct tape peeling off the wall in Don’s apartment. This is powerful stuff. Your typical poltergeist can’t do much more than toss stuff around. I wonder how… hm. Hold on a second.”
Gerald walks over to the door and, holding the knob so that he doesn’t swing it open, raps on it lightly with a knuckle.
“Ms. Lecouque, about how long ago did you cut the cord?”
While he’s talking to her, he’ll flip through his Tobin Spirit Guide for anything related to ghosts having the ability to repair objects to facilitate hauntings.
30 on the parapsychology check, no ghost
“And the plastic coating around the wire is not part of the television? OK, I guess I can see that,” Kris replies.
Gerlad glances up from his book. “Well, it is - but it’s not one that’s necessary for the television’s operation. I’d be very interested in seeing what would happen if a necessary component were removed altogether.”
Brian calls Gerald’s cellphone from his office, to get a status update and let them know he and Louis are on their way back with a new recruit.
Gerald tells Brian to make sure the new recruit is bringing a trap.
“I’ll ask.”
Kris asks Ms. LeCoque if, since she already cut up her cord, they may disassemble a few components of her TV.
Perhaps we can include this in the previous smooth-talker roll? If not, I can roll again.
First thing I wanna do here is mention that the Ghost-mobile is designed to seat four. I suppose it’s possible to squeeze a fifth person into the back seat, and cram an extra ProtonPack in there somewhere, but… might I suggest that Louis takes his motorcycle instead, leaving Liz or Brian to drive the Ghostmobile? I don’t have any specific reason for this (although I could make it a plot point… hmm…), just that it makes sense to forestall trouble when you see it coming. q;}
JT Roth follows Liz out to her car. “Look, Ma’am. I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot here… but hey, I’m kinda limited in my choices!” he says, with a sly grin. He holds up his prosthetic limb to punctuate the pun he’s made, and gives it a silly little shake.
“I’m sorry I assumed y’all were here for the receptionist’s job. We’ve been looking to hire one for a while now, got a lot of adverts out, and our phones have been kinda rambunctious lately… Anyways, I didn’t realize y’all were coming. Welcome to the team; let me know if I can help ya get situated.”
JT will introduce Elizabeth to Gerald and Louis when they go back inside.
Meanwhile…
“Fascinating…” says The Professor, gazing into his microscope at the sample of television screen. The ‘mysterious coating’ is simply an application of phosphorus, which is how televisions work, something Brian’s physics knowledge should make obvious to him. However, he notices something which, by that same extensive knowledge, should be impossible…
“Louis, look at this and tell me what you see?” he says, motioning for Lou to look into the microscope. Lou does so, and he can plainly see the edge of the broken piece of glass. Instead of a sharp, jagged brittle edge like one would expect to see on glass, it is smooth and pockmarked. In fact, as Lou watches, the edge seems to shimmer slightly, and the ‘pattern’ of pockmarks changes subtly, almost as if it were flowing like water.
“Not flowing,” says Brian. “Sublimating. The glass (and the coating) are literally evaporating before our eyes! I’ve never seen anything like it! I mean, on some level all materials sublimate over time, but glass should take billions… trillions!.. of years to have any noticeable loss of material! And here we are, watching it melt away before our eyes! There could be a whole new field of physics, from this single example alone! Marvelous… truly fascinating…”
Much of this goes over Louis’ head, but he understands that it’s clearly some kind of powerful ghostly force, causing this material to do un-natural things. This phantom, haunting, apparition, whatever it is… this isn’t going to be your run-of-the-mill spook. He mentally steels himself for the inevitable confrontation to come.
Brian, Louis, and Liz: Decide on transportation options, please, and finish up anything you have to do here at GB Headquarters. Tomorrow night at midnight, if nothing else occurs, I’ll return you to Flatbush Avenue.
Meanwhile…
Kristopher continues his examination of the severed electrical cord, and asks Ms. LeCoque if he can disassemble the set.
“Dahling,” she says in her sultry voice. “I never watch broadcast television anyway; I only have that set so my… friends and I can watch… movies.” Something about the way she says that makes you think certain thoughts, but you’re here to do a job, and you push those thoughts to the back of your mind. “If you think you can fix it, do whatever you have to do,” she says, giving you full permission. “Oh, and it was about three days ago that I chopped the wire apart.”
“Youse can take it down to my place,” suggest Don Davidson. “I have all kinds of tools and everything you need, there. The door is open, I’ll stay here with Ms. LaCoque and help up here.” Clearly he’s torn, but being allowed in Sirena’s presence wins out over his love of messing with electronics.
Please let me know where you wish to work on the television and, as specifically as you can, what you wish to do to it. Kristopher’s EQUIPMENT EXPERT skill will suffice for this attempt; difficulty will vary depending on what he chooses to do.
Kristopher thinks about the copper wire, and recalls something he heard about once, long ago, in a children’s story: Fairy Gold. Perhaps ghosts can do the same thing with copper?
Gerald, however, is a little more knowledgeable on the subject. He flips through Tobin’s Spirit Guide, and finds several relevant entries. Fairy Gold is mentioned, as are other obvious sources of metal, such as Leprechauns and Genies, who can create valuable metals out of thin air, as it were. After talking to Brian on his mobile telephone, Gerald also considers the paranormal aspects of metamorphosis, the ability to change one thing into another, which is common enough in the supernatural world. Telekinesis is another possibility, high on his mind after his recent run-in with a powerfully telekinetic female phantasm… but the level of sophistication needed to manipulate material on a literally molecular, if not atomic, scale is presumably quite an outstanding feat. Finally, he notes that a lot of spirits have the powers of Materialization and Dematerialization, with the ability to create real physical objects of any description by willpower alone, and the ability to cause real physical objects to vanish by the same means.
Obviously, there are no mentions of television ghosts in this book, published in 1920. Nonetheless, Gerald thinks he has some useful clues here.
Johnny Bravo: I think I’ve made myself fairly clear here, but your roll of 30 means that you know a LOT about this kind of thing. If you have any questions for me, need me to clarify anything, or whatever, please PM me about them and I’ll do my best to tell you whatever you want to know.
So, in today’s turn I need to know who drives what, and what else is done at Headquarters, as well as conversations between JT and Liz and Brian and Louis, of course.
I also need to know where Gerald and Kristopher are going to work on the television, and what they intend to do to it. Obviously, they too can talk to others present. And/or on the mobile telephone, I guess.
I’m in a creative mood at the moment, so…
Gerald finds a relevant entry in Tobin’s Spirit Guide. Most of Tobin’s later research was concentrated on the east coast of the United States, but a few stories from the West are included, such as the Tale of the Telegraph Terror:
In 1882, so the story goes, there was a new rail line going through parts of Colorado. Alongside the railroad, telegraph stations were set up, to aid with track changes and the like, so the railroad would run more smoothly; this was considered high-tech and progressive at the time. One night, a storm hit, and it caused a landslide to pour down onto the tracks; an entire mountain’s worth of rocks and debris completely blocked the railroad. A single, lone telegraph operator heard about this and tried to signal back to the previous junction, to let them know to stop the train before it hit the avalanche. Unfortunately, the storm winds knocked over a lamp, and the telegraph shed caught fire. The operator died in the fire, still trying desperately to get his message through, but was too late… the train hit the landslide, derailed, and several people died. After this, the neighboring telegraph station would get repeated signals coming in from the burned-out station, warning of an avalanche. Even when the rail company disconnected the telegraph wires, they would re-connect themselves and the signal would come in again and again. Eventually they decided to leave the old telegraph station alone, and built a new one. Rumor says that, to this day, there is an old telegraph station somewhere in the Colorado wilderness, with wires that lead off to nowhere, and a telegraph receiver that clicks away to itself in the darkness.
Brian assesses the transportation problem.
Louis, I suggest you take your motorcycle. Liz, how are you at driving?
"Gerald, I think you are right. My guess is that if we remove essential components of this television, they will regrow. I suggest the following course of actions for us now:
-
Let’s go downstairs and I’ll attempt to take the back casing off and remove a few parts. It shouldn’t be too difficult to cause some minor, but essential damage to it and watch what happens.
-
Let’s make sure we watch the television tonight. I’m starting to suspect the supernatural presence here is trying to communicate through it.
-
After we break the TV, let’s head up to the top floor and get inside to see what is up with Dr. Panama. Even if we have to break down the door, let’s see if we can get in there. My spidey-sense makes me think that top floor is important.
Agree?"
Kris rolls a 15 for equipment expert(no ghost). This was for taking apart some of the TV.
Lou to the Prof: “Fahn bah me, ah gay-rone-tee.”
Liz smirks at his pun as she throws her proton pack over her shoulders. “You’re right…we did get off on the wrong foot,” she puts on a smile and offers a handshake, “I’m not usually this witchy. Thanks for the welcome.”
They go back into the building and her bespectacled teammate introduces himself as Brian and the other man as Lou. He explains the current job they’re on.
“Possessed TVs…sounds interesting,” she muses.
“Louis, I suggest you take your motorcycle.”
“Fahn bah me, ah gay-rone-tee.”
Brian turns to Liz, “Liz, how are you at driving?”
“Show me where to go and I can get there,” she answers cheekily, “Just let me get changed and we can be on our way.”
Liz will take her proton pack, ecto-visor and PKE meter.
Once Liz is ready they pack up the Ecto-1 and head off, Brian providing diections back to 66666 Flatbush.
On the way he runs down their findings so far, recounting the following:
Don is an amateur electronics buff
Ms Larocque’s TV is s lowly repairing itself
The glass from Dons old TV is evaporating
The next tenant, Mrs Poloni, recently lost her husband. Possible ghost identity?
The top floor tenant is odd and reclusive.
The Ghost seems to want the TV on during prime time, 8-10 PM
Missed the edit window!