A Grand Tour of the Beta Archipelago

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Hey everybody. Rusty here. Sorry this post is up late, I just got back from my“Grand Tour” of the island that Espercorp is set up on. When Dr. Nielson handed me a backpack full of supplies I thought he was joking, but he apparently “doesn’t joke about tours.” Anyway, we hiked all over the island, for like two days!

First, Dr. Mark showed me the giant cavern complex in the central mountain where Rhine harvested his first flawed quartz. It’s on display in the EsperCorp museum which, admittedly, is a room with a bookshelf at this point, but man, just to think about how much that one tiny rock has changed the world. I couldn’t get enough of it! Sorry, where was I? The island!

I’ve never been much of a spelunker, which is to say I’ve never been spelunking, ever. But the cave was amazing! It just kept going and going down into near darkness. I say near because there were all sorts of phosphorescent crystals that gave the entire cavern this eerie glow. Dr. Mark showed me all the strange Espers he was detecting down there on his ANCHOR’s radar. Plus, EsperCorp has these remote control robots wandering around the cave mining for crystals. They kept beeping and running into my legs and generally scaring the living daylights out of me.

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Esper Profile: Anura

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Anura is the water Esper most widely distributed on land. They can be found near most bodies of fresh water, and almost every time it rains. While small and not the most powerful Esper around, there is strength in their numbers, which grow more and more numerous with the amount of moisture in the air. While not particularly intelligent, they are capable Espers and an important part of the Thymosphere’s ecosystem.

 

Size 0.4m

Energy: 50 eV

Strength: Water

Weakness: Wind

 

Appearance:

Anura are small frog Espers that appear to be made entirely of water. Their bodies are highly translucent, and within them can be seen a sphere of condensed energy near where the brain would be located in a biological organism. Aurora tells me that because of the highly reflective nature of Anura’s body, they appear startlingly beautiful through the Esper screen, like jeweled sapphires floating on the water. How anyone is able to justify making such aesthetic statements in a scientific setting is beyond me, but I include this because she suggested that such a metaphor would help Agents visualize the spirit.

Behavior:

Like many water Espers, Anura is highly elastic. It can stretch its body to quite extreme proportions, and fill itself with air to further alter its shape or to let out a croak of bubbles. Continue reading →

Experiment: Mandra Awareness

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For a while now I have been testing Esper awareness of the material world. So far we have had mixed results. Some of the more intelligent Espers seem keenly aware of both the thymosphere and the terrasphere, while others ignore humans altogether. I’ve agreed to summarize one of my experiments for the edification of the Field Agents, per Dr. Rhine’s request. Please keep in mind that the following is an extremely simplified account of my research.

Experiment 23

Mandra demonstrate clear awareness of human presence. Their behavior is not unlike that of material lizards, which scatter when approached by a human that is a loud or disturbing presence to their area. This experiment was designed to explore that.

Hypothesis: Mandra are aware of the physical presence of humans, and because of their naturally wary nature keep their distance as much as possible. They are also able to identify the human’s own level of awareness.

Process: We placed a human in an enclosure with one or more Mandra, and had the human (Jenkins) move around the room towards and away from the Mandra. Whenever Jenkins got within 2 meters of the Mandra, the Mandra would move further away. If Jenkins moved suddenly or faster than a walking pace, this would startle the Mandra, and it would run to a corner of the room. When cornered, it would then race up the walls and on to the ceiling.

This demonstrates that Mandra are keenly aware of entities in the material world, and wary of them even though they cannot physically interact with one another. This contrasts with certain other Espers such as Huitzil and Lutrine, who actually seem drawn to human activity.

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Esper Profile: Malila

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So far studies are inconclusive as to whether Espers experience “gravity” the way we do, but one thing is clear: Malila is one of the sturdiest Espers we have ever encountered in the field. If one doesn’t want to move, there’s not much in the thymosphere that can dislodge it. Malila caught in a storm reportedly dig in their legs, sit there and wait for the water and wind passing above them to subside.

 

Size: 3.7m

Energy: 75 eV

Strength: Earth

Weakness: Wind

 

 

Appearance:

Malila is a tortoise Esper that carries a plant habitat on its back. The composition of its skin and shell ranges in texture from solid stone to petrified wood. The greenery on its shell can be grown or retracted at will, and the types of plants that grow change according to the Malila’s mood. A happy Malila might grow a meadow of flowers, while one that feels threatened would present a briar patch of thorns.

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Story Contest Winner: Agent Jessabella

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Agent Jessabella submitted a story that sparked a heated debate among senior staff. The situation was thus:

One evening, Agent Jessabella discovered a Racha on her radar, leading her to cry out in disgust. “Ewwww, a roach!”

Her trusty boyfriend, always alert and ready to defend his paramour from all kinds of insectoid assault, jumped on the case, only to be informed that the cockroach was actually within the spirit world and thus imperceptible to human senses.

Jessabella: “He laughed and told me he didn’t think I had anything to worry about. He doubted it was that sensitive.”

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Esper Profile: Lilyfly

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Lilyfly are very common in areas with heavy vegetation, and as such were an early discovery for Espercorp. Flitting from flower to flower, Lilyfly fly about breezily, spreading growth wherever they go. Lilyfly awake with the rising sun and collect its energy with their petal-like wings.

 

Length: 2-6 in.

Volume: 5-10 cc.

Strength: Plant

Weakness: Fire

 

 

Appearance:

Lilyfly are one of the most hybridized Espers we’ve found, its Energy signatures made up evenly between plant and insect. At first glance, they look similar to a normal butterfly, but on further inspection it’s clear that their structure is more like that of a flower. Their wings are shaped like petals (or are petals?), and they seem to gain energy from the sun in much the same way plants do. A tiny golden crown of stamen atop its head serves as antenna. We named them after the Lilyflower, which is what they most commonly resemble, but they actually come in many, many variations, imitating whatever flowers can be found in their area.

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Esper Color

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Hey Agents! Since I posted about the Esper Screen technology many of you have been asking me how color works in the Spirit World, or the “Thymosphere”. As you know, color in our world (or the “Terrasphere” as we have taken to calling it) results from light bouncing off of objects and into our eyes. Different wavelengths of light create different colors.

Near as we can tell, that’s how it works in the Thymosphere too, except everything that exists in that “parallel wold” is invisible to us. Physical light goes right through it! That’s why no one can see Espers, even though they’ve been around as long as history itself!

What I speculate is that for every photon of light there’s a corresponding “spirit-photon” that behaves more or less the same as our light, except in the Thymosphere’s spectrum. That’s how Espers see each other. Continue reading →

Esper Profile: Iris

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Length: 2m
Energy (by volume): 65 eV
Strength: Light
Weakness: Dark

 

 

It’s impossible to look at Iris and feel sad or angry. I mean, it’s a rainbow unicorn, for goodness’ sake! Ladies and gents, adorable creatures like this are why I love this job.

Appearance:

Iris are beautiful, pure white horses with silver hooves. A single horn protrudes from its forehead. Iris’ horn acts like a prism, refracting sunlight into rainbows on surfaces all around it. We believe that Iris are summoned by thoughts of hope, the same way that the sight of a rainbow summons hope after a storm. This may explain Iris’ sparkling rainbow mane and tail. Iris seems to leave ribbons of rainbow-hued light when it moves – where Iris’ hooves go, colors follow.

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