Dr. O'Roarke Goes to College

[Bluehorse]

UAFS Campus
Dr. Burkley's Office
September 13, 2018 10:00am
Nice out!  Cool and cloudy

Coming from Here:
viewtopic.php?f=628&t=11413

Jason had received a call the previous day from Dr. Burkley, Dr. O'Roarke! I am happy to get back in touch with you... I am afraid we both missed our meeting the other day. If you don't mind I have some thoughts I would like to share with you if we could meet sometime tomorrow morning. I have a 9 o'clock class, so... 10 okay? Wonderful! I am very interested in sharing some ideas with you. See you then.

The following day, Julia is able to drop Jason off on the campus. Just give me a call when you are ready to get back.

The walk to Dr. Burkley's office was short, of course. Soon he was standing outside and a simple knock of the door resulted in a friendly and familiar voice from the other side. Come in! Ah! Dr. O'Roarke, right on time. Come in, come in, make yourself comfortable. I trust you are well?

New Brownie Point Pool shows Spending so far from the previous Firehouse Thread. All of these threads will be merged for Phase two of all this later, I will keep things as up to date across the threads as I can but might be all calculated at the "wrap up"

Brownie Point Pool:
Dr. Jason O'Roarke: 187/214 @@
Lionel 'Freight Train' Williams: 230/240 @
Roy O'Dowd: 287/290 @@
David "Mac" McAuslan: 268/268
Dzjokar "Joker" Jelal: 548/550

@ = One free re-roll without ghost die.  Merry Christmas 2019 & 2020!

[Taaz]

After the last few days of action and intruige it was nice to be back in a familiar setting. Jason extends his hand Not too bad, a little roughed up here and there, but thats what makes feild work so exciting He beams, I appreciate you still seeing me Tho I will be honest I forget exactly what I was looking for in this thread, was it information on Kindle or just the region in general, have to find out!

[Bluehorse]

Dr. Burkley

The friendly old professor shuffles over to his desk, all smiles. He seems to be leaning on his cane a bit more than before and maybe is a little winded. He settled into his chair with a groan and a sigh. Then he shuffles some papers on his sloppy desk and pulls out a battered copy of...

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I have been doing some light reading since our last meeting. That display on the college green was quite impressive. It got me doing some digging and thinking, and I wanted to bounce some ideas off of your to see what you thought.

1. What is a ghost? A flicker in the lights? A streak of light or a mote in a photo? What are the common tropes of a haunting? Old Buildings, why? Because someone passed away in it so then you have these hotels where old lady Susan shows up in room 13 at night? And so on. But what else? Translucent? Shadow person? You see something and when you turn it is gone.

Fun thought: Think about we live in and experience 4 dimensions. the 4th detention is time and we have no control over time, we simply experience it. Imagine for a moment that you could experience time as being special. You would be like a passenger riding in a car or maybe like someone forever falling. That would be the sensation of us moving through time in a spatial way because we are not in control.

So imagine we live in an old building, and also in that old building are extra-dimensional beings that experience the 5th detention. They experience the world differently than we do. Perhaps they exist in that 5th dimension that they cannot control just like time, the 4th dimension is for us. So the easiest way to explain that would be if a room in a house wasn't just up the stairs and to the left, but up the stairs and to the left and then back a few years. So treating time as a space.

So to put that into perspective, it would be them simply able to move around our perceptions in any given space and we would just never be aware of them, But that is why we see shadow people because it was just that blink of an eye split second that they cross over into our perceptions and we jump, seeing something and then it is gone because they moved the other direction in time which is something that we cannot do.

And also, another fun idea, is why is it always in old buildings? Because it is big! The older it is the longer, the bigger it is so there is more space. So why do they slam doors and flicker lights and stuff? Because we are all moving around in and shared and predictable space. Like, you friends come over for extra-dimensional pizza, and one says, "Hey do you have any Tab?" And you are like: "Oh, Tab, well that is all the way back in 1970 whatever. But there are a bunch of humans there... so go to the kitchen and then back to say about 1975, bang on the door and scare them all off, and the Tab is in the fridge." And now that you have scared all the human beings away, there is a split in the time, you have changed their path, and now you have all this space and you can get your Tab.

He leans back and looks at the head of his cane as he becomes somewhat lost in thought as he gets into lecture mode.

2. So let's say that time is not actually a space but a fabric or a Mobius strip that moves around. So maybe the reason we are in a space within our three dimensions and we see an old man with a cane in the room is because the different parts of this always moving strip of time we are on briefly touch one another and we get a glimpse of what is on the other part of that strip. So this rare occurrence where you have the Mobius strip is synchronized, but the people aren't and we perceive it as ghost.

So why is this old building haunted? Well, it is because 100 years ago, that old man saw you, and told everybody "I saw this strange man there, it was in the blink of an eye, he was in strange clothes that I cannot explain." So that made a fold in the fabric, a fixed point, and now you hear those stories and you go to that building everyone has talked about being haunted, and you show up and you see the old man with a cane, 100 years later, and it is another fixed point in the fold. You're time dimensions brushed against each other in that spot, in that space.

He seems to realize he has been speaking for some time and looks up almost embarrassed. But listen to me... chattering like a monkey in a tree. I am sure my amateur ramblings are quite elementary to a professional in your field like you. And admittedly, I am delving into physics... excuse me... Metaphysics... and I am just an old history professor. he smiles and goes silent clearly inviting Jason to speak.

[Taaz]

Jason nods along following the professor, Exactly Its my belief that there is even a correlating system that runs alongside, or even intertwined with a unified field theory, a meta-unified field theory where not only are the Psychokinetic effects tangible and measurable, but predictable. Which of course raises the question if PKE is generated by a source will it always manifest the same way, because sometimes you'll find some sort of malicious forces, sometimes compassionate or helpful. So whats the key there, if we could crack that I think we could really be on to something.

[Bluehorse]

Dr. Burkley thumps his cane on the floor and laughs. Precisly! There has to be some kind of... frequency! A way to isolate one side from the other, to seek it directly, yes? Forgive an.... an amateur. I come at this from a strictly... theoretical ideas perspective. I can read histories, and legends, myths, and I am able to understand the deeper meanings and themes quite easily, but seeing that there is something that should be able to measure the "magic" in our modern world. I believe your technology is the key to it all... or the tool to cut the key so to speak. There is a saying I heard somewhere once or twice that we call science magic when we don't yet understand it... All of this... he gestures at his shelf of books which are typical historical texts all interspersed with mythologies etc. May simply be descriptions of science told by people without the proper words to describe what they were seeing. Genesis... Let there be light! The Big Bang. The descriptions of Ophanim... Spacecraft! he chuckles. Salamanders hybernating in dead wood for the winder emerging from fireplaces? Must be dragons! He muses a little more. Things we can do today... think of how they would have been perceived only a couple hundred years ago. We would have appeared as gods to people then. Who's to say it wouldn't work the other way around at some point. Who are we to assume in because people from the past were not better off than we think because we discard their descriptions of how they understood the world, or something about it, which is now lost knowledge?

He looks at his cane while he grins, quite the picture of an aging professor lost in thought with someone who can follow a seemingly left field conversation. Tell me this... Do you think it is a leap for your equipment to say... be modified to find these kinds of frequency differences?
Rather than scan for just the PKE you mentioned to tuning to something specific? Or even match a frequency with your other tech when you fire your beams?

[Taaz]

Jason nods along emphatically, Exactly sort of a dual-synthesis where one moment something is misunderstood magic and the next its quantifiable. I call it the Clarke Threshold, but I haven't been able to get that to catch on, but yeah just because we dont understand something doesnt meant we wont eventually.

He looks at his cane while he grins, quite the picture of an aging professor lost in thought with someone who can follow a seemingly left field conversation. Tell me this... Do you think it is a leap for your equipment to say... be modified to find these kinds of frequency differences?
Rather than scan for just the PKE you mentioned to tuning to something specific? Or even match a frequency with your other tech when you fire your beams?

I think we can cover all of those actually, the issue is looking for a specific frequency. You are absolutely on the right track applying standard physics. PKE seems to operate like the Electromagnetic spectrum and depending one the equipment we can track and tune through it so long as we have a signal. But trying to find something without having a prior signal, well instead of dealing with just wavelength and frequency you have things effecting PKE like the emotional state of a local populace, the time of year, and an unknowable amount of variables out there shifting the signal. I wouldn't be opposed to testing it, id imagine a few of the other 'Busters would like the challenge.

[Bluehorse]

Roll me a hard brains just for fun.

[Taaz]

Brains: [3d6]=9 Ghost:[1d6]=4

[Bluehorse]

Brains: [3d6]=9 Ghost:[1d6]=4

A little shy, but enough to get some partial info.

Jason considers what he understands about the occult and their equipment. The theory would be sound to make some tuning capabilities. It wouldn't be a huge leap at all to make that sort of adjustment, but it is the how that eludes him. Maybe a project for the guys at the firehouse.

Burkley smiles. I would love to find out what you learn on that. I have something of a pet project myself... he shuffles through the multitude of papers on his desk and pulls out what looked like a very old bundle of papers, stained with coffee as well as time. A closer look an you see these are some very old field notes. Do you know what this is?

Mod Brains.

[Taaz]

Yeah, I can help work this out but I definetly need an engineer like Joker or Roy to get it across the finish line

Spending a couple of brownie points to make sure I get a good gander at these papers
Brains: [3d6]=13 Ghost:[1d6]=5 BP:[2d6]=4

[Bluehorse]

Dr. Burkley smiles and looks excited. Splendid! Im eager to hear what you find out... tell me... what are you and your team doing now? Any big projects? I would love to lend my services if possible. Local history... folk lore... seems it would be closely tied with your line of work...

Jason recognizes the notes. These are early and original excerpts from Tobin's personal Journals. The precursors to Tobin's Spirit Guide.

[Taaz]

Oh yeah we have been hopping... Jason pauses and considers the man in front of him, partially evaluating the man, looking for signs of trustworthiness or treachery, May I ask, what do you know of the Church of the Living God? We met the ol' preacher earlier, a real fire-and-brimstone fella, but I get the impression they are a big deal in these parts. Sometimes even localized events, depending on the psychic energy can give a place a,...unique history

[Bluehorse]

Dr. Berkley looks a little disappointed. These are Tobin journals. Originals! I thought you might appreciate them. he gets excited again and smiles. But then again, you might have never seen information outside the modern text... It took a long time to acquire them!
And... admittedly I spent more than I should have... he frowns then smiles again. But they are fascinating! There seems to be a lot of marginal notes of his original thoughts and idea in them that make for interesting consideration... Notes like what you just said about certain places having unique... how did he put it... he thumbs through the journals and finds a scribble in the margins. Ah! Certain areas of consistent and/or concentrated emotional or psychic... I think this says outburst... There is a touch of water damage here... can make that location have a singularly remarkable resonance... he looks up and smiles. That seems to match up, right?

He gets a little more serious and sets the journals aside on the cluttered black hole that is his desk. Father Belmont is... Let me be frank.
He is not a nice man. I am not sure what you are implying about his church, but I wouldn't be surprised if... of strong emotions could cause something in a specific location either. If I were going to make a list of places I would suspect, I think it might easily make that list, considering what I just read to you. he shakes his head. There is the darker side of things I suppose. Tragedy seems to write history, but I hope in this case, whatever story you are involved in, has a positive outcome. If I were younger... he catches himself beginning to muse and actually chuckles a little and looks up. I suppose this is your time, young man, not mine.

[Taaz]

Jason shakes his head a little, Sorry the letters you have are amazing, I didn't mean to discount them. he sits back and puts his head it his hand, Its been a rough few weeks and it looks like its still stormy weather ahead, in a spiritual sense. He chuckles, Things must be bad to keep me from eyeballing those papers.

...tragedy seems to write history, but I hope in this case, whatever story you are involved in, has a positive outcome. If I were younger... he catches himself beginning to muse and actually chuckles a little and looks up. I suppose this is your time, young man, not mine.

Jason straightens up and smiles A positive outcome, you got that right. Don't sell yourself too short there, you might not be wearing a proton pack but everything counts. Every bit of that positivity I get the feeling we are gonna need it sometime soon...

[Bluehorse]

EDIT: At this point, Jason might recall the conversation he had with the Witches a day or so ago where this part of the conversation happened, and he recalls they were talking about how to isolate an entity from a host. Proton Streams are dangerous to living tissue, but maybe this is a route to pursue with fine tuning a stream?

viewtopic.php?p=584679#p584679

Keep in mind that this conversation is happening in this thread 2 days later than the conversation with the witches.

Unless you have questions or a line of conversation you would want to pursue, we can call this one good

[Taaz]

As Jason try to convince the old profession his eyes lock onto the text of the papers, Every, person...and their part you know.. and he stands up and moves to look at the parchment, You know you may have more than you think,

Going off the helpful hint, I want to see if Jason can find anything about isolating a host in these, or anything that might help Belmont without killing him
Brains: [3d6]=11 Ghost:[1d6]=2 BP:[3d6]=5

[Bluehorse]

Going off the helpful hint, I want to see if Jason can find anything about isolating a host in these, or anything that might help Belmont without killing him
Brains: [3d6]=11 Ghost:[1d6]=2 BP:[3d6]=5

You are able to see some of the notes that talk about different spiritual resonances. There was an experiment and notes about how living PKE and non-living PKE have specific differences based on a signal that ties a spirit to their body. There is another note in the margin written in red about "Anchored Spirits" having a similar tether that keeps them connected to a place or object. Much like how a particular demon might be tied to an old cross.

[Taaz]

Jason's eyes go wide So If I get this right identifying and separating the various frequencies is possible. Dr. Berkley, would it be possible to borrow these? Or at least get some high quality copies, I have a feeling this is going to give us better understanding of the way the metaphysical acts on the material.

[Bluehorse]

The professor is very accommodating and takes you to a copier where he fiddles with it a bit longer than one would imagine necessary but eventually gets you some very nice copies in full color for you to take with you.

[Taaz]

Jason thanks the professor and is sure to keep the professors contact information, I appreciate everything, and if you ever need anything gimme a shout! and begins his trip back to the headquarters