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[zen_en_vert]

Did you know it is actually possible to pick up ghosts with an EMF detector? Though it's also perfectly possible that this thing is just picking up general ambiance, I mean, the bracelet, for one, she really seems to set it off.

[Bruce murmurs, almost to himself, vaguely aware that he's broadcasting but honestly more focused on the shade in front of him, and the strange collection of scraps and stripped wires and pen lights that he's rotating carefully. It's sort of tricky to make sure it doesn't fall apart as he does, and the spirit ahead of him seems to be intent on complicating matters by moving inexorably closer to him.

He's almost distracted enough by the device that he doesn't realize until she's a few seconds away, at which point there's a sort of jar of realization as she murmurs;]

I would have made it out on my own, if I hadn't had to go back to get-

[Her voice is somewhere right between sadly mellow and fingernails on slate, and what she's saying makes him swear in surprise. The video ends abruptly.

He is going to be significantly motivated to deal with this problem.]

Comments

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[freezerburned]

so they really are ghosts then??

geeze

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[zen_en_vert]

I don't know that. All I can ascertain from this is that they're something real, I can definitely register energy. If it's a mass hallucination, it's a mass hallucination that's extending to my ability to interpret feedback from machines. If I could get my hands on something to use as a voltmeter I'd be able to tell you more.

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[freezerburned]

something to use as a what now? high school science language please?

any idea how to get rid of them?

[Video]

[morethanadream]

[He doesn't know what that ghost wants, but whatever it is, he hopes it isn't what the ghosts haunting him want.

A little gold man wearing a turtleneck and looking very pale holds up a sprig of sage, then a sprig of sweetgrass, then a sprig of tobacco. He emphatically ties them together with a little twine, putts them in a shallow bowl, then takes out a lighter.

After showing the lighter to the camera, he lights the plants on fire, and he suddenly looks slightly less pale. It may not be completely clear, but he's trying to teach Bruce how to smudge a room and temporarily banish spirits from it.]

[Video]

[zen_en_vert]

Do you think that's it's our perception of the effectiveness of these rituals that give them meaning? Some other cosmic string that they set vibrating? Or a property of the smoke itself that disrupts the stability of whatever pattern these creatures try to form?

[Video]

[morethanadream]

[He's not exactly sure why it works, but he knows that the smoke does something to ghosts. Spirits like himself--Jack Frost, Santa, Death--can pass through smudged areas okay, but ghosts? Not so much.

Luckily, he doesn't talk, so he wouldn't be able to explain it even if he did understand. He pulls out a sketchpad and draws smoke, and the smoke wraps around transparent silhouettes and throws them off the page. It's something to do with the smoke, mister.]

[text]

[ofthursday]

EMF detectors work in my world as well. They are used often to detect spirits there.

[text]

[zen_en_vert]

You mostly see it on bad tv shows, in my world, but I'm glad it's turning out to be useful.

[text]

[ofthursday]

The science behind it likely is true in some worlds and not in others.

[Video]

[modernmarvel]

[Tony inspects the EMF detector with a wry smirk, tiling his chin slightly.]

Seriously, Brucie? You built yourself an EMF detector and didn't even ask for my input? How is that fair? If I built a Geiger counter I'd at least try it out on you. If you were lucky, I might even ask first.

[He's only a little hurt you went ghost hunting without him. And a bit worried after the video went black.]

I'm coming over before you get yourself slimed.

[Video]

[zen_en_vert]

If I can put together a slightly more reliable voltmeter, I'll be able to get a sense of what sort of frequency we're looking at.

From there, it might be possible to use bits and pieces of a speaker system, cone removed and hooked up to an antenna or substitute, to flood the target with a phase shifted replica signal.

[Same principle as the very good noise-cancelling systems; hit the ghosts with equal and opposite frequencies and you may be able to essentially borrow the principle of the higher end noise cancelling devices, and cancel out their ghosts. It's ambitious, considering how imprecise their readings will be and how they basically have to do it out of junk, but if there's anyone that can make it work, it's them.

Bruce is a radiation expert, after all, and Tony is one hell of a mechanic.]

[Video]

[modernmarvel]

[Tony glances over to the speaker system on his workshop desk, frowning before he nods.]

Guess I can always just put it back together. Give me an hour and I'll have that voltmeter for you--and a few other goodies. If can find an antenna.

...I just wonder, though, if you're Egon, does that make me a more ruggedly handsome Venkman?

[Yes, because that's clearly the thing to be worried about here. Not the actual ghosts.]

[Video]

[tonsofpun]

... you made a ghost detector out of junk?

Dude, that'd be really cool if we weren't... surrounded by the things already, but- hate to break it to you.

[Video]

[zen_en_vert]

That isn't really what the point of it was. I know they're there. Obviously they are.

Now I know at least part of what they are.

[Video]

[tonsofpun]

[She wants to point out that of fucking course they're ghosts, but-]

... you mean, science-wise? You think you can do something about them?

video.

[livedtwice]

... Well, I guess that confirms whether or not ghosts are normal here. Do they need to be detected, though? What good will that do?

video.

[zen_en_vert]

They need to be gotten rid of, as far as I'm concerned.

[He says, a good deal calmer now that he's won some distance from the woman.]

video;

[mccallmemaybe]

What's an EMF detector?

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[zen_en_vert]

EMF. Electromagnetic frequencies. This picks up ambient fields. Normally you don't get them midair like this unless something tangible is causing them.

text, private.

[redhourglass]

Are you all right, Dr. Banner?

[ not that Natasha doesn't have ghost problems of her own. ]

text, private.

[zen_en_vert]

I'm fine. It took me aback, is all.

[It only takes a second to realize that if his is bad, hers has the potential to be... truly alarming.]

I'll be in touch as soon as I have a potential solution.

[masterofmystery]

How does a bunch of wires detect anything? You've got to be blind not to see them.

[zen_en_vert]

Mm, yes- it's more like looking at a hill and seeing a house, and then walking up the hill to know that it's made of bricks.

voice.

[likethetragedy]

Are you willing to loan that out?

voice.

[zen_en_vert]

Once it's in working order? If, I should say, it's in working order, absolutely.