#zappa scale

More specifically how it devalues the ghosty occult stuff in Guilty Gear?

It's really strange for strive to bring up the idea of ghosts not being posthumous humans and then never bring it up.

Could this tie-in to the thing in Happy Chaos's arcade mode about Vampires and Werewolves being weird multiversal fixtures? Just since vampires, Werewolves and ghosts are all in the same ballpark generally.

I'd be interested to hear your opinion!

I’ve actually discussed a lot of unusual phenomena that has occurred in Guilty Gear’s universe, much of which has not been Scientifically categorized or studied.

Areas like the 12 Dimensional Flux Observatory, where Weather Patterns defy natural Seasonal Conditions, or places like the Hell Crevice floating islands (Testament’s GGX stage), and the crumbling Council of Three with its twisted castle spires curling in to a tidal wave of distortion and blood red pools, not to mention the disturbing cube portals and grinning dolls in A Happy Family stage.

The occult tends to rationalize the idea that some supernatural things have no logical explanations, and should remain as such: a grand mystery forever unsolved.

But Science by its very nature must seek out a reason these phenomena exist, even if that reason may not make immediate sense.

This all goes back to the Zappa Scale and the Information Flare phenomenon.

Information Flares are best described as an overflow of dense Magic Information leaking from the Backyard… a hole, more or less, that changes the very logic and nature of most physical objects or organic matter.

Just like with Kum Haehyun’s Tuning technique, normally it is not possible to expand the properties of a subject or object beyond their natural state or limits.

Normally, that is.

Zappa once posited that if Spirits on a higher plane even exist, why would they interfere with mere humans?

But this also ties in to what we currently know about Youkai, more commonly described in Guilty Gear as Demihumans.

Demihumans, at least from Happy Chaos’ theoretical perspective, must Downconvert themselves to even remotely exist on the same dimensional plane as Humans do.

Of course we know that Vampires exist, of course we know Foci exist as well, Izuna’s Ghostly Tribe exists on the border of the Backyard: Yomotsuhirasaka… the “slope to Yomi” or, put another way, the Interstice path to an Underworld.

We also know of the Nightmare Theater… Bedman’s Dreamlike Reality, but Bedman (Romeo) once revealed to Axl Low that all Human Dreams are interconnected with the Backyard itself. A perpetual connection to a dense world of information defining our existence. Human willpower can influence the very stability and structure of the Backyard!

The sickness that was the Crusades, the Universal Will, created by a single human. The living Paradox Irregularities Axl Low and I-No, with the power to influence Time itself.

Even folklore and urban legends have deep ties to the very origins of what we call the Supernatural. The Monster under the Bed or in the Closet isn’t just a Story to scare us: it IS THE STORY itself. The Monster is the Story. Folklore and Tales made reality simply BECAUSE Humans believed so strongly that they existed!

But even Foci have minds of their own: Demons bound by a Contract forged by Human expectations, illogical, unscientific, paradoxical or otherwise!

Then of course there are the Humans that FELL in to the Backyard.

Normally that dense data would crush anything organic to dust and ash, like the victims of Babylon.

But some who managed to enter that realm may cease to be considered human when they leave!

When Baiken courageously stepped in to Delilah’s Absolute Sphere, exactly why didn’t she die? Was she altered to begin with? Or was it an actualization of Baiken’s will?

More frightening still, is the implication that a supernatural phenomenon can still occur when the Zappa Scale Coefficient is at its lowest: an Information Flare distortion that expands at a non-observable level, and the most dangerous type of Information Flare.

An invisible leak distorting the nature of the world. A hole none can see that might one day cause disaster!

Or, perhaps it’s more accurate to say that the Zappa Scale needs more information to become more accurate for measurement.

Perhaps it is still true that humans still barely understand the afterlife, but someone like Zato returning from Death as a “perfectly tuned” (in Haehyun’s words) emotionless “blank slate” must be some kind of hint at what Humanity faces beyond the paling.

If it was a straight-up Information Flare, Zappa's Zappa Scale would've picked it up and detected it. That's how advanced the Zappa Scale system is, more or less.

Nope. Unlike the Universal Will, Happy Chaos wasn't exactly TRYING to destroy humanity all at once.

More than likely Happy Chaos also knew that Axl Low would save everyone in the building as well, since he basically warned Axl Low ahead of time when Axl "sensed him".

It's almost as if Happy Chaos just wanted to blow up a building just for the heck of it (since he could just as well have used Teleport Magic to warp Nagoriyuki out from the seal).

Interestingly enough, Zappa "detected" the very moment when I-No cast her "world affecting Magic" (and became a giant illusion of herself).

Because it’s a random and extremely rare chance occurrence of happening, we probably do not...

On the flipside though, individuals like Zappa have been working on a supernatural-scientific method that can at least “forecast” when a change in information space occurs, via his self-named Zappa Scale.

As you may know, Information Flares are to some extent a manifestation of this phenomena, and I’d wager events like Saint Elmo’s Fire (the massive Lightning Bolt that strikes Illyria once every 13 years), is also a similar natural occurrence event.

In fact, something that does occur on a regular basis would further help study such randomized occurrences and possibly even help prevent them in the future.

In matter of fact, the Flame of Corruption and Scales of Juno (prior to merging with Frederick and Aria respectively) were bodies of information that would “randomly” appear and disappear throughout the Backyard according to the Original Philosopher.

Telepathy does exist, though it has only manifested in very rare instances, mostly around Gears who were experimented on with such powers in mind.

Sol experiences a kind of “rejection” to such Telepathy in the form of Noise Dissonance with other powerful Gears and Valentines around him.

Teleportation also exists, though it functions under certain rules involving terrain, distance, and speed.  Known teleporters include Justice (as the Cradle), Bedman, Faust, Raven, and Testament.

Valentines also have the ability to fly, though it’s not clear precisely how they are able to do so, kinetically or otherwise.

Psychometry itself has not been made strongly evident, however certain physical objects have the ability to retain resonant thoughts from humans and other forms of life and become Youkai called Tsukumogami or Thought Creatures.

There is also something called Temporal Alteration (or as Axl Low calls it “Time Slipping”) in which the Timeline gets altered as an Irregular like Axl or I-No slip through it in to a different point in the timeline, while simultaneously altering the original timeline.

While there aren’t very many clear examples of other kinetic abilities, Magic does make up for those in many instances, and Ki in particular has a way of bending the rules of physics in a similar manner to things like Pyrokinesis.

Lastly, clairvoyance does not exist, despite any prophetic predictions that have appeared in GG’s story.  Mostly because the characters involved in those prophecies had the power to access both the Backyard and/or Time Travel.

Also, in I-No’s case, her existence is synchronous with the world’s existence, as explained by Jack-O’… so it’s technically impossible for her to be clairvoyant in anything that relates to herself.

Zappa Scale is an equation calculation based on Zappa’s conjecture on the ‘odds’ of a supernatural phenomenon occurring within reality and its location based on various topographical and environmental data.

In a sense it’s like a weather forecaster of when and where ghostly stuff is going to show up, scaled Z0 through Z6 with 6 having the highest probability.

Ho-hoo… yeah there’s that.

Zappa’s um… “Zappa Scale” Z0-Z6 measures supernatural phenomena that apparently can twist this world in just about any which way.

Still being able to avoid that phenomena since he created the Zappa Scale seems to have gotten him less problems since those past years.