Self Experimentation

Self Experimentation

It was insane.

It was completely, doubtlessly, sugar-frosted insane.

Brilliantly insane.

After all, they weren't interested in saving him or curing him or even exorcising him. No. They studied him. They strapped him to tables and ran electrodes into him. They took notes. They exposed him to things just to watch the ecto-acne bloom. They poked and prodded him, they took samples, they tore away tissues, pride, ego, anything they could to find what they were looking for.

But they never found it.

Vlad knew that it was his ghost who'd kept them from finding it. From finding the contract, from finding ways to duplicate it, to bring more ghosts under control. And in the end it was his ghost who'd rescued him, saved him, allowed his escape.

And now he had this new form, these new powers. Powers that were so difficult to control, so strange. So dangerous.

He could feel himself slipping away every moment he spent wrapped in his ghost's guise. Red eyes stared at him in the mirror, even in human form.

But if he stopped they'd catch him.

*****

Perhaps the most interesting breed of ghost is the individual. A particularly powerful or unexpected death can sometimes result in a ghost that is a full copy of the living mind it sprang from. This is the breed that is most likely to insist they are, in fact, not dead. Occasionally they may be at least partially correct. There are reported cases of ghosts, known locally as loa, inhabiting 'dead' bodies with such skill that the body retains physical function including respiration and pulse (Hurston 1942).

What makes this breed interesting is not its insistence that they are not dead. Nor is it their ability to possess the unwary; any ghost of sufficient power is capable of possessing a body, living or dead. It is their physical structure. The individual is the only breed of ghost known to have an elemental core. The source of their power, the core is at its simplest the structure that grants the ghost tangibility and physical form. The known core types seem to involve variations of the four elements of phlogiston theory: earth, air, fire, and water (Priestley 1774) and a fifth element best described as Force (Tesla 1925). Known variations include Ice, Sulfur, Flame, Gas, and Magnetism. It has been theorized that core variations may also include Steam, Electricity (Tesla 1885), and even Radiation (Anonymous 1899).

-Masters, V. Variation and Specialization in the Ghost Zone. Journal of Paranormal Theory, 1987.

*****

There was only one thing to do. Only one way to save himself. They wanted to study him. To learn what he was, what had happened to him. To research him.

Fine.

He would give them what they wanted. And he would do it so well that they never bothered him again.

If he published first he would be useless to them.

But they weren't the only ones who noticed.

*****

Despite theoretical work to the contrary (Masters 1987), no evidence has been found that ghosts can be separated into multiple species. Rather all ghosts can be considered variations of a single class of phenomena. It is a fallacy to grant ghosts the qualities normally associated with life forms. It is the same fallacy that considers fire, a chemical reaction, to be alive for no reason other than it fits the logical requirements for life (birth, growth, reproduction, death).

For the sake of study, ghosts can be placed on a spectrum based on their power level (Spengler 1986). On the weaker edge of this spectrum is the imprint. Basic psychological imprints represent the vast majority of spectral phenomena in a given area. Above the imprint is the common vapor and the myriad of forms it takes. Next is the revenant, known by some researchers as the 'individual' (Masters 1987). Highest on the spectrum are those ghosts powerful enough to have been mistaken as gods in previous eras. Gozer the Gozerian (Spengler, et al. 1984) and Technus the Master of Technology (Masters 1988) are known examples.

-Spengler, et al. Variation of Spectral Power Levels. Journal of Psychical Research, 1989.

*****

At first he was delighted. Someone was taking notice in his work. He was cited as a source. But then he read closer, heard what they were really saying.

Those bastard ghostbusters decided they were going to discredit his ideas.

He didn't want to. He knew it was a bad idea. But he was right. His ideas were right. They were based off of real ghosts, off of spirits he'd found, talked to, off of experiments done on Ge Rouge and his own possession.

In the end Vlad didn't have a choice. Ge Rouge pounded out a reply on their ancient typewriter and had it sent off before Vlad could stop him.

*****

So rather than add legitimacy to our mutual field of study by accepting the concept of speciation in the Ghost Zone you've decided to insult my work in the public forum. Fine. Where's your data, Ghostbusters? Or are you too busy imprisoning individuals, sorry, 'revenants' for the crime of existing to collect data on them? Two can play at this game. And unlike others I might name, I have the data to back my conclusions.

And Technus is nowhere near the same power level as Gozer. If you'd ever met him you'd realize that.

-Masters, V. Journal of Psychical Research Letters. 1989.

*****

Vlad was right. It was a bad idea. It was a supremely bad idea. Because of Ge Rouge's vendetta they'd been in one place too long. They were traced.

They were found.

All his notes, half-finished papers, his equipment, all of it lost. Even his clothes. He'd been surprised naked and half-asleep in a night raid. The desert air was thick with thunder, the storm was brewing around them as they broke in.

It was all he could do to grab the typewriter and fly. He transformed and shot off into the night sky as the rain began to fall. Off into the thunderhead. He remembered dodging hail, dragged this way and that by twisting winds, Ge Rouge howling with glee using his voice.

He remembered the lightning. Falling from the sky.

It was some sort of miracle that the typewriter survived.

*****

The first lightning strike initiated the core flare. The ghost was observed facilitating subsequent lightning strikes by reaching up toward the storm. Each strike seemed to represent separate peaks of activity within a single flare, suggesting the core flare phenomenon is a complex one. Considerable involuntary action was recorded affecting the ghost during the flare including vocalizations and physical arousal. While no equipment was available to record elemental activity in the vicinity of the ghost during the core flare, after the flare the ghost involuntarily produced a charge of several hundred volts for multiple hours. With concentration the ghost was able to direct this involuntary charge through induction to do work in completed circuits with a maximum resistance of 10 ohms. Despite observations of conscious control the charge must still be classified as 'involuntary' as the ghost was unable to suppress it until after it was naturally depleted.

Subsequent analysis showed the core flare to be largely accidental in origin. Figure 4 shows the power extinction curve of this particular ghost's charge following a similar core flare. Further experimentation is necessary to determine if the flare destabilized the storm's electrical charge enough to cause lightning strikes. If so this would represent the first time an individual was recorded affecting regional weather patterns.

-Masters, V. Observational Analysis of the Electrical Core. Journal of Psychical Research,1990.

*****

It took almost a year before he felt willing to publish again. Amazing that in that time he hadn't been forgotten. Or maybe it was because no one had ever survived studying a creature like him.

Ge Rouge's core was the most powerful drug, the most dangerous weapon he could possibly imagine. And now he had access to it. But when he looked at his hands he saw them burned black. When he gazed in a mirror he saw red eyes, a blood red cloak, and white, so much white. When he spoke all he heard was Ge Rouge's purr.

He didn't know who he was anymore.

*****

The revenant's elemental core represents possibly the most deadly power that any ghost is capable of wielding. This core is the reason why the revenant cannot merely subsist on psychokinetic energy as do all other ghosts (Spengler, et al. 1984). Instead the revenant must periodically surround itself with its own element or else it begins wasting away as its energy slowly bleeds out into its surroundings. In essence it starves. The speed at which this bleeding occurs is dependent upon the strength of the core, the will of the revenant, and the laws of thermodynamics (Masters 1987).

Aside from this bleed a core will also interact with the outside world through the flare. A core flare can occur when a revenant is overwhelmed by emotion or its own power, or has simply glutted itself on its element and is essentially vomiting the excess. The power of the flare will spread unchecked, stripping all control away from the ghost. In particularly powerful flares it may even alter reality on a local level (Masters 1990). Long-term exposure to a revenant is often fatal for this reason (Grimassi 1981).
Core variations can be determine through observation or through calculation. Variants such as Steam, Radiation, Electricity, and Entropy were initially determined through calculation because of the inherent foolish danger in studying such unstable cores. Observation of these dangerous cores should not be considered more important than the safety of the researcher; to place data collection over the life of the scientist is insanity.

-Spengler, et al. Elemental Cores and the Second Law. Journal of Psychical Research. 1991.

*****

They were wrong. The ghostbusters were wrong. Very wrong. In many ways.

As Vlad, as Ge Rouge, hid in yet another safehouse, yet another condemned building on the edge of society, stealing to survive, begging and panhandling for the money he needed to buy equipment, to keep the typewriter running, to pay journal fees and tariffs and taxes... As he cowered there...

He knew. Those pitiful little humans were wrong. It wasn't the ghost's power that was to be feared. Sure it could kill. But the ghost's contract was so much worse.

*****

Calculation is useful but cannot replace observation. Calculation requires accurate theory upon which to build a base. Accurate theory requires observation. The amount of actual observation of the so-called "safe" individual, sorry, "revenant" cores is so appallingly dismal that your best theories couldn't even account for half of the observations made on a single electrical core. If safety were paramount in science would we have ever shoveled coal into a steam engine or would a single boiler explosion have dashed all hopes of ever progressing past the horse and rider? Would we ever have made an attempt to understand the logic and science behind death and undeath or would we continue cowering in fear of the dark because we were afraid?

Your concern for my safety is noted and dismissed.

-Masters, V. Journal of Psychical Research Letters. 1991.

*****

He couldn't keep doing this. He really couldn't. He couldn't keep letting Ge Rouge imprison him in the back of his own mind while the ghost took his vengeance on the puny human scientists. They don't know any better, he whispered.

“I don't care.”

They think I'm in danger. We can't convince them otherwise, you know this.

“You are in danger, Vlad. You have no idea what I'm capable of in this body of yours. Of ours.”

They're not going to let this go.

“I don't care, Masters. You wanted to study us, to make us useless to those men in white suits. Well this is my price. You will pay it in some way or another.”

*****

The seduction of death and unlife is a known phenomenon. From Bram Stoker's seductive Dracula to Anne Rice's anti-hero Lestat the line between living and dead has long been one sought after by fools and romantics. Though it is not as publicly acknowledged ghosts have that same hold over those so inclined. The romanticization of those souls and monsters trapped between this world and what lies beyond is a dangerous phenomenon that has claimed dozens of lives over the centuries (Tobin, 1965).

This seduction is what makes the revenant the most dangerous ghost on the spectrum of psychokinetic power. Imprints and vapors are not complex enough to attract the attention of a human in such a manner (Spengler, et al 1984). Those ghosts above the level of the revenant are no longer human enough for any but the most debased persons to feel attraction to. The revenant itself, with its mostly human guise and its natural taboo power, is the type most capable of seducing a weak-willed researcher away from his work (Stantz 1984). The dangers are multiple and complex. In addition to turning a legitimate researcher into a cultist the revenant is fully capable of outright killing its victim. Revenants react to strong emotion with their inherently unstable elemental cores and can easily kill a human in the throes of passion (Masters 1990).

-Venkmen, P. Spectrophilia: A Review of its History and Dangers. Journal of Psychic Deviancy. 1991.

*****

“If only you knew, human. If only you knew.”

Six years. Six years since he signed that damned contract and he'd picked up the ghost's speech patterns. He was losing his ability to think of them as separate entities anymore. There was no difference. Not anymore.

So who was he? Who were they?

It didn't feel right to call his ghost 'Ge Rouge'; a mere title no longer described everything there was to this ghost. Vlad's human name didn't fit him, either.

He sat in the darkness of night in his safehouse, yet another one. So many places he'd hidden. In the forest, lurking outside resort cabins like a monster in the night. In a boat stolen from a wharf, beached in a smuggler's cove. In the desert, in towns dying of progress. But his favorite was here in the stinking bayou, left alone amid the alligators. He gazed out into the night, heard the deafening roar of insects.

He needed a new name. They both did.

But this was the human realm. They had to keep his human name for some things. Vlad Masters would exist in whatever function was necessary. A name to hide behind, a human disguise.

He wasn't human anymore. But nor was he a ghost. He was something different, now. Something more than either of them. He needed a name to reflect that.

Plasmius.