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littlesilvertipThis style of research is getting easier with time, I guess. I know where I can find books of a variety of stripes. Without something that’s come from a wolf person, or a mage, or a vampire, it’s a question of reading enough different tale spinners that the truth starts to emerge. It’s funny to think how close apes get to the truth at times - no one listens to them, though. Yesterday was going through a large portion of what I could find on seances in the library, and trying to ignore the garbage. I looked for whatever I could about mentions of ectoplasm. However, the library was mostly a waste of time - the bulk of what I read was about how the seances were fake, and the dead could not be contacted. That’s when I realized that is because the seances were popular one hundred years ago or more - not books that are likely to be in a library. I needed either older books, or reprints of old books. Time to go to the used book shops.
I was fruitlessly thumbing through books at Dark Wine and Roses, getting a headache form so much much reading without learning, when the fortune teller came on by to say hi. She told me that the good things were upstairs, and we headed to go look over things up there. Our talk was brief - she was interested in what I was looking for. After I told her I wanted more on seances, she casually mentioned to me she doesn't really do seances, but she does do psychometry.
Stop right there. I’ve done psychometry. I did it on the mage focus. It’s hard. I rarely get anything useful out of it. Generally I need to know broader context, and have a lot of information in advance. She said she learned it before learning tarot. Psychometry is not some easily mastered thing - the spirits of objects slumber deeply, and waking them is a hard task. Interpreting what they have to say harder. This is not folk-magic, or kin-tricks. Have I… Have I been blind? I never checked for magic when she read my future. I never checked for magic at any point. I just assumed I would sense a little trickle of some folk-magic that a kin had learnt. I might have been wrong.
She helped me look through some books, and offered to buy something for me if it was inexpensive. I am gracious. I will make her a gift for this. After searching for a while, I found two good ones: “The Question” and “The History of Spiritualism Vol I.” Old, but not too old. Rare, but not too rare.
She took me back to my territory in her van (again, such kindness), and I’ve told her I’ll go back soon with some objects for her to read. Specifically, the burned femur from the dead body. I’m… more than a little curious now.
Reading over the relevant parts of the books, and doing a few more tests on the black goo, I’m starting to feel like it isn’t ectoplasm at all. It doesn’t become clear. Light has no effect on it. It never smells. It doesn’t change in quality under heat or pressure. Guards-the-Flame said the black mould weeped this stuff. That doesn’t feel… Again, hunches. I just have hunches. I trust them, but I have nothing to put in place of the idea I have now.
No poltergeist behavior. Nothing moving around. Things bleeding out of the wall, but lots of things can do that. And things seem to happen around mirrors. Mirrors… On the wall…
Magpies. Why am I thinking about magpies?
Both books mention an older book titled ‘Dialogues with the Dead’ (as did a number of books in the library), from long ago. This appears to have started the whites speaking to the dead, until when some went through and began calling all of them frauds. This would be a nice book to have.
I just had a thought: I’ve started a collection, like I’m some sort of vampire or mage. A month ago, Tail-Eater lent me a book to keep me entertained while I guarded him. Now I have several of my own.
What a strange new direction my life has taken. My new hut will need a place to keep books, in addition to all the horned serpent artifacts I've collected over the years. What would my old packmates think?
I was fruitlessly thumbing through books at Dark Wine and Roses, getting a headache form so much much reading without learning, when the fortune teller came on by to say hi. She told me that the good things were upstairs, and we headed to go look over things up there. Our talk was brief - she was interested in what I was looking for. After I told her I wanted more on seances, she casually mentioned to me she doesn't really do seances, but she does do psychometry.
Stop right there. I’ve done psychometry. I did it on the mage focus. It’s hard. I rarely get anything useful out of it. Generally I need to know broader context, and have a lot of information in advance. She said she learned it before learning tarot. Psychometry is not some easily mastered thing - the spirits of objects slumber deeply, and waking them is a hard task. Interpreting what they have to say harder. This is not folk-magic, or kin-tricks. Have I… Have I been blind? I never checked for magic when she read my future. I never checked for magic at any point. I just assumed I would sense a little trickle of some folk-magic that a kin had learnt. I might have been wrong.
She helped me look through some books, and offered to buy something for me if it was inexpensive. I am gracious. I will make her a gift for this. After searching for a while, I found two good ones: “The Question” and “The History of Spiritualism Vol I.” Old, but not too old. Rare, but not too rare.
She took me back to my territory in her van (again, such kindness), and I’ve told her I’ll go back soon with some objects for her to read. Specifically, the burned femur from the dead body. I’m… more than a little curious now.
Reading over the relevant parts of the books, and doing a few more tests on the black goo, I’m starting to feel like it isn’t ectoplasm at all. It doesn’t become clear. Light has no effect on it. It never smells. It doesn’t change in quality under heat or pressure. Guards-the-Flame said the black mould weeped this stuff. That doesn’t feel… Again, hunches. I just have hunches. I trust them, but I have nothing to put in place of the idea I have now.
No poltergeist behavior. Nothing moving around. Things bleeding out of the wall, but lots of things can do that. And things seem to happen around mirrors. Mirrors… On the wall…
Magpies. Why am I thinking about magpies?
Both books mention an older book titled ‘Dialogues with the Dead’ (as did a number of books in the library), from long ago. This appears to have started the whites speaking to the dead, until when some went through and began calling all of them frauds. This would be a nice book to have.
I just had a thought: I’ve started a collection, like I’m some sort of vampire or mage. A month ago, Tail-Eater lent me a book to keep me entertained while I guarded him. Now I have several of my own.
What a strange new direction my life has taken. My new hut will need a place to keep books, in addition to all the horned serpent artifacts I've collected over the years. What would my old packmates think?
