The Gainen, The Conceptual Demons

The Gainen, The Conceptual Demons Jul 28, 2015 2:18:57 GMT

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Post by Kuma on Jul 28, 2015 2:18:57 GMT

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only transform to another type of energy.” Law of Conservation of Energy.

Since the dawn of civilization one thing has never changed for Humanity. We dream, we think, we create, we imagine… What sets us apart from animals is our greatest weapon, our brain. We name things in the world, we classify them, we study them to finally comprehend them and through the understanding of everything around us we try to make sense of life, its meaning, its purpose and its objective.

But, what happens to all the energy created by thoughts, ideas and creativity? Does it vanishes as a simple chemical reaction in the brain or does it go somewhere else? As humans started to think the psychic energy surging from their brains slowly drifted away transcending time, space and dimensions. The energy started to drip out of the dimensional barriers ending up in a pocket between planes of existence, like a small bubble in-between universes.

With time this energy reached critical mass, when the first primitive human managed to think of an abstraction. Thus the Gainen Space was created as this concentrated energy, suddenly overloaded by this first abstraction exploded in a Big Bang-like manner. This new dimension grew like a mole or a tumor attached to our own, slowly getting bigger and more complex, a realm were imagination, creativity and willpower are the lords and masters.

The Gainen Space lacks size or any measures that can be understood by human minds, it’s an infinite ever growing plane that bends and twists based on humanities whims and moods. The creatures that populate it, the Gainen are crystallizations of Concepts and Ideas the humans gave name, function and explanation. They don’t have defined forms in the Gainen Space, as they lack the proper conceptual anchor to take shape, thus they need to enter the human world to get one.

The Gainen as a species share several basic physical traits. They lack mouths and noses, they tend to have humanoid shape and lastly they usually lack the ability to speak. The shape they take in the human world depends on the human they use to enter it. Those humans are known as <Form-Givers> as their understanding of the concept the Gainen represents is the architect of the Gainen form.

So if the <Impact> Gainen enters through a Martial Artist he will surely gain secondary properties related to how the Martial Artist understands the concept and idea of <Impact> so the <Impact> Gainen would become the Fist Impact Gainen with skills and powers centered on magnifications of that concept. Every Gainen name is composed by the main concept in the back and the understanding of said concept in the front.

<Example>

A Writer meets the <Time> Gainen and his understanding of time might end up coming from his trade, or at least the way he “uses” time affects his understanding of it. Thus the <Flashback Time> Gainen could be born with abilities related to <Writing> a broader concept that includes <Flashback> and abilities related to <Time>

In another example we could have an Office Worker with a lot of pent up aggression against his boss. (Figure of Authority) and he becomes the gate for the <Kill> Gainen. This feelings tied up to the Concept would overcome the understanding of said concept. Even if he understands that killing is bad, his feelings of hatred and anger will be paramount thus giving birth to the <Magnicide Kill> Gainen, who is set to kill authority figures.

The size of a Gainen is determined by the importance the <Form-Giver> gives the Concept, not the understanding of it. Maybe somebody is easily angered and is in a foul mood most of the day. So if he finds the <Rage> Gainen it might summon a much bigger and physical imposing body for it than a Psychologist that studied emotional responses. But even if the body is bigger and the physical stats are higher the true power of the Gainen comes from the Conceptual connection, so they prefer somebody who knows about their Concept rather than people drowning on it.

They also are dependant of the <Form-Giver> like or dislike of the concept. If the like it the creature becomes more humanoid, if they dislike it then it will be monstrous. This is fickle, as sometimes individuals cannot realize their true feelings about certain elements or they have neutral opinions, thus the shape it takes tends to be random.

For that purpose the Gainen seek the proper <Form-Giver> to use him/her as the perfect Gat to enter the world with their powers at their best. What do they want in our world? Nobody really knows but some scholars have a theory:

Gainen are creature of pure thought and concept, but as powerful as they are they truly lack an anchor to this world. They either need to kill the Gate they use to ensure their permanent stay on the physical world or they require emotional attachments that allow them to persist. As most of them lack intelligence to think this through they react out of instinct… if people fears them then they have an emotional connection to the world, thus they can stay.

The only reported case of a Gainen staying for more than 1 year in the human world is Zan Kizuato, father to Yami Kizuato, the Half-Gainen operative of the JHWAB. Zan managed to gain a human-like form through an “explosion” of true emotion that anchored to our world forever. He lost some of his powers and the instincts that came with them, so he cannot give the scholars the answers they seek, since he also has fragmented memories of his time as a full Gainen.

Their final goal is unknown, but some spiritually attuned individuals who fought them in the past have declared to feel a strange sense of longing and desire coming from them, as if they were clutching as hard as they could to the Human World. Maybe their end goal is existence in a physical form, as they lack that in the Gainen Space.

The Gainen get their power from the Psychic energy created by human thought and imagination, yet their attacks can’t be catalogued as psionic, but as Conceptual. What does this mean? Well Scholars categorized the attacks this way because of their peculiar characteristics. Just as an example let’s use Yami Kizuato, the Half-Gainen. His conceptual source is “Slice” if Yami cuts an object or individual that cut will resemble every cut done by a sword or the kind Zan Kizuato represented as a Gainen in this case a Katana. Yami’s attacks cannot be traced to him, but can be traced to every blade in existences.

This isn’t only thing to confuse investigators, but also has a secondary most important feature. The attacks a Gainen does are always the best possible attacks of the Concept they channel. If Yami attacks the cut the enemy feels is done by the best Katana ever. If a Flame Based Gainen burns you then those flames are as hot as any similar attack could’ve been at their utmost level. This is what makes Gainen and their powers so dangerous, as their effective attacks can be sure kill blows.

And their effects are lasting, as a clean blow by a Gainen takes longer to heal and sometimes it requires Conceptual Healing to be fixed. Gen Shishioh suffered “Conceptual Burns” at the hands of one of Sakka Jaakuma’s Ink Characters, since Shindo can also channel Concepts, thus he requires Conceptual Healing to be healed. Minor attacks, unless specified, are just wounds that take longer to heal and leave strange regular scars, like lines, squares or circles.

They can mimic shapes of either their form-givers or individuals in the form-givers memories. The smarter ones are capable of performing the part, some being able to hide in plain sight in the crowds of humanity, feral Gainen lack this skill or the power to change their shape, yet their basic combat strength might be higher as they lack fear or pain.

The Gainen are ranked by the broadness of their concept. The more specific is the concept then the weaker will be the Gainen. See this example from Strongest to Weakest:

? --> Evil -->Hatred -->War -->Battle -->Warrior -->Weapon -->Slice -->Sword -->Katana

As you see abstractions, emotions and moral ideas rank higher, and then they go into specifics, this is one of thousands of possible pathways, but this serves as an example. An alternative could be:

? -->Evil -->Hatred -->War -->Battle -->Warrior -->Weapon -->Pierce -->Spear -->Yari

Just one small change and three change. But to be a serve more as an outline please see this example:

? -->Good/Evil -->Emotion -->Human Concept (LARGE) -->Human Concept (MEDIUM) -->Human Concept (Individual) -->Idea used by the Individual -->Possible function of the idea -->Subtype -->Subtype of the subtype.

This is only one possibility, there could be more varied ways to rank the Gainen, but this basic outline will suffice for the time being. Still this is just an average, as some Gainen might be much more powerful than their estimated rank reveals, while others can be much weaker than their rank tells.

The Gainen Space has periodically entered in contact with our world, making contact between dimensions in certain “hot spots” through which natural rifts open. One of the first ones discovered was in the pre-Jomon period in Japan and was exploited by the locals, who found out that certain minerals, radiated by the energies coming from the natural doorway gained certain properties.

The locals shackled the Gainen and used them to fight their wars, gaining dominance and forming a small empire known as the Kazanjin Empire. This didn’t last, soon their lack of restraint bringing more and more powerful Gainen to serve them was their undoing as the restraints they created were unfit to contain the higher level demons and soon they were wiped, the conflict sealing the doorway under a volcanic explosion.

For millennia the Gainen Space remained separated from the Human World, only making minor contacts each 2-3 centuries and releasing one or two Gainen that were either taken to be a God or a Beast, who either vanished or fell prey to a hero of that time. This sporadic relation stopped when in the 50’s a scientist called Eiyu Shomei, following energy readings, rediscovered the Gateway in Sakurajima.

Eiyu went mad as he discovered the true nature of the Gateway and the old scriptures of the Kazanjin. Mad with the potential power and prestige he hid the last tablets containing the information of the Empire demise from his team and got them to work. One of them, a young prodigy intern found the tablets and decided to work on parallel to their research to create a way to contain the Gainen.

Shomei created a high tech version of the Shackles created by the Kazanjin Empire, with the only catch that he could only energize one of them at the time, thus he was limited to pull one Gainen at the time, lacking the Kazanjin skill to harness Natural Energy to serve as the energy source. The Japanese Military, who was funding Shomei’s investigation wasn’t happy with only one Gainen and threatened to pull the funding.

Desperate, Professor Shomei had an idea, he sent probes into the Gainen Space until he found the Gainen he needed. He pulled the Energy Gainen and shackled him, so he could use him as a never-ending source of power. This was the moment when his assistant left him, carrying with him the prototype of the Gainen Medals, made of the same materials the Shackles were, loaded with the Energy Gainen.

Shomei didn’t like this and started his own personal war launching one Gainen at the time. He caused great damages, almost blowing the Hidden World open, but the JHWAB, funding the assistant managed to create enough Medals to trap 108 Gainen. Still most of them were sent back to the Gainen Space through an artificial gateway. The ones that remained, roughly 20, were used for the next stage of the apprentice counter offensive.

He gathered a team who could synch to the medals and summon fractions of the Gainen powers using themselves as channeling tools. They were the Gainen Satsu Tai (Gainen Annihilation Squad) or GSTai. They became an unstoppable force and defeating Shomei and closing the Gateway. But they didn’t manage to win unscathed, as many of them died or were lost to the fight. Only 4 members were still alive.

Hiro Yamanaka, carrying the Medal of Bravery, who led the team was left in a wheel chair and depleted of will, barely alive. Ruri Kizuato, wielder the Medal of Blades, married a Gainen who took human form and is the mother of Yami Kizuato. Kirai Shikufu, holder of the Medal of Love vanished without notice and finally Reiji Fukuma, the user of the Medal of Impact, who secluded himself in Sakurajima with the remaining medals.

All of them are kept under tight supervision by the JHWAB as their potential power is great.

In this section we will cover the interactions of Gainen and Humans without the Humans involvement. The Gainen require human “Gates” to get into our world, even if the Gateway is open they cannot cross it without requiring a human to truly take form. The Gate first allows Gainen to enter our world, then when the Gainen synchs with them, they become Form-Givers. But there are a couple of minor requisites.

The Gate needs to be awake and mentally sound. The Gainen can’t use humans who are asleep as Gates or individuals with dysfunctional perceptions, this includes the mentally ill, the people who is drugged or inebriated. This also works in relation to the usage of Gainen Medals, they require clarity of mind to be activated. This is one of the greatest weaknesses of the Gainen Medal users, as if they get drugged or their perceptions are altered they can’t access their powers.

But the regular humans pale in comparison to Shindo when it comes to compatibility to become gates. The Prodigies are like Premium Grade Single Malt Whiskey while the regular humans are cheap moonshine. Gainen seek the Shindo nearest to their point of manifestation (A smaller crack, sub product of the open Gateway) and try to use them as Gates, since their natural connection to the Gainen Space enhances their powers.

But, what is a Shindo? Shindo are humans with a natural connection to the Gainen Space, allowing them to channel one concept into the world, granting them what could seem like magical or superhuman skills related to said concept. Sakka Jaakuma is capable of creating physical constructs of the fiction she writes, while Raisa Ubiytsy is a natural prodigy with swords. Still some Shindo pay dearly for their talent, as it always comes with a catch.

The Gainen Medals are small disks of 15 cm of diameter with a smooth metallic surface. They are made of the same material the Kazanjin Empire used to create the Shackles that were used to trap and control the Gainen in ancient times. Their main capability is the capture of Gainen, allowing whoever wields it to trap the Conceptual Demons into the disk, with a 99% of success rate. The disks get engraved by a kanji of the concept to signal the capture and gain a light hue. Overuse can break them. Breaking an active medal releases the Gainen. Breaking an in-active medal might open a rift to the Gainen Space that will close after sucking everything in a 5 to 100 mts range, depending on the rank of the Medal.

If a human who is synched to the concept holds the medal he can use it in three different ways:

• Bound Masters: The user can summon a corporeal form of the Gainen into existence who can tap into about half of their real power. These forms can be seen by sentient being, but only as vague silhouettes, while other Gainen or Medal users can see them clearly. This tends to be the default mode the users of smarter Gainen use, as other modes can be dangerous.

• Armored Host: The user “fuses” with the Gainen creating what it seems to be a suit of armor over his skin. Truly their whole body has changed and they can utilize ¼ of the Gainen powers directly. This is the default mode for dumb or feral Gainen, since using it with a smart Gainen could result in being overtaken by it.

• Channeling Soul: The user can fully take the Concept and project it from his own body, these are the rarest and probably most powerful Medal Users, as they basically take the Gainen powers as their own. They have the rapid reactions of the Armored Hosts and the Raw power of the Bound Masters

Shindo

• Sakka Jaakuma: Fiction

• Raisa Ubiytsy: Blade

• Iosif Sveda: Bureaucracy
• DGT: Hacking

Gainen

Heat Gainen (Medal)

• <Soul Heat> (FG = Goemon Williams)
A tall humanoid creature with an armored carapace, muscular physique and flames surrounding him, with harder red armor plates over the chest, arms and legs. Large yellow eyes shine with power under red horns. Soul Heat embodies the “Heat of Battle” making him stronger the more he fights, growing on power and temperature as he does. He is single-minded, feral and only desires to fight strong opponents.

Poison Gainen (Medal)

• <Street Poison> (FG = Jose Hernandez)
Tall, covered in scales and not very friendly, Street Poison embodies street violence and chemical abuse, and how these topics can serve as the divide of families, friends and cities. It has the peculiarity of having a mouth, but it gets covered by a retractable mask when it fights, to shield himself from the noxious gases of his main attack. He has organic tubes circling his arms that end up in bony protrusions that serve as the exit for high pressure corrosive poison he can use either to cut down enemies or poison them.

• <Industrial Poison> (FG = Cadence Arachne)
The figure stood at around 6’ 00’ with dirty brick red skin, slimy and wet. Rusted metallic tubes formed clothing, surging from inside its body. Each tube had glass spheres filled with neon green swirling smoke in regular intervals over its body. They covered its body like overgrown roots choking a ruin. Nuts and bolts were grafted into its unhealthy skin, some parts broken revealing even more rusted metal. The tubes end up in exhausts behind its back, like a pipe organ mixed with a Victorian factory chimney, blasting noxious green gas over its head. A large ornate gas mask with googles covered its face, with some vulture-like stylings that made this mask a strange mixture between a WWI Gas Mask and Plague Doctor headdress.

Deity Gainen (Medal)

• <Ancestors Deity> (FG = Crow Cementerio)
The hunched silhouette of a man in heavy tunic and a leathery hood, with what seems to be the skull of a gigantic predatory bird as mask and carrying a bone staff that grows off its own body. Ancestors Deity represents the old traditions of shamanism from the Native American tribes. His main skill consists in summoning ghostly apparitions of the target’s past, which haunt them until confronted.

Impact Gainen (Medal)

• <Meteor Impact> (FG = Sid Renen)
A golem like creature with a Black Stone carapace lined with cracks filled with magma. Meteor Impact represents the raw power of astral objects hurling against Earth. The creature is capable of launching itself downwards taking a spherical shape to crash land against the ground with brutal power. It can also impact against only objects of his choice, so he can crash against thin air and project the shockwaves. Under the Obsidian-like stone there is a core, the true form, an Iridium-Iron Alloy being, of sleek chrome surface, with large red eyes and small size. It is extremely dense and durable. Currently manifested as a pair of highly armored boots that grant the user limited gravitational powers.

Peace Gainen (Medal)

• <Dull Peace> (FG = Dan Drake)
A statue like creature resembling a weary and tired Greek or Roman soldier, with a helmet, a cuirass and a spear, all fused to the body that has stone-like properties. The overall look is off a worn down statue with blunt edges and cracks all over it. Its main power is to create a field that saps anybody inside of their will to fight and increases gravity to push them to their knees. Dull Peace represents the peace a matchless warrior achieves when there are no enemies who will fight him.

Battle Gainen (Medal)
• <Wild Battle> (FG = Reiji Fukuma)
A hulking figure clad in what at first sight seems like white armor, truly being organic plating, Wild Battle stands tall at 3 mts and is covered in muscles, claws and fangs. It has some Lion-like traits and lacks any special abilities apart from grossly overpowered physical stats, moving extremely fast, hitting extremely hard and being able to take unholy amounts of punishment. Is built to fight without any control or discipline, that being a double edged blade as he can fight to the dead without doubts, but it isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. He lacks normal vision, only seeing individuals who can potentially fight it.

• <Honorable Battle> (FG = Callis Nomene)
A Knight looking creature with organic armor and a large sword. Is graceful, well mannered but tends to be arrogant and consider others under his level. He is very prideful and headstrong.

• <Fierce/Infinite Battle> (FG = Gen Shishioh)

Memory Gainen (Medal)

• <Melancholy Memory> (BM = Kuro-san)
Tall and thin, covered in what at simple view seems like a long coat but upon closer inspection seems to be a membrane like skin. Melancholy Memory hides dozens of thin and multiply articulated skeletal arms under the membrane. These arm end up in long claws that have long strands connecting the tips with the palm. He can basically extract the memories of an individual and alter them by playing them like violin cords with the arms.

Hatred Gainen (Medal)

• <Burning Hatred> (AH = Ikari Fukushi)
A Knight in Black Armor with a helmet shaped like a wolf, with purple flames surging from its body, almost as if under the armor he only was fire.

Blade Slice Gainen (Human)
Zan Kizuato

The Gainen, The Conceptual Demons

Post by Kuma on Jul 28, 2015 2:18:57 GMT

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