06: Written

[ghostly_heiress]

I'm sorry if no one could contact me for the last two weeks.

And I have a question for the Network.

How common is it for people to temporarily lose all their echoes?

[For anyone who knows her in real life and might have paid attention, she was in the hospital for a good chunk of that time. Nothing like relapsing illnesses.]

Comments

[ghostly_heiress]

I do. It's the same bright green as the blasts. And I suspect the green my eyes might be? When I get the ghost form echo, at any rate. [NTS: Buy colored contacts and hair dye.] I have someone studying a sample of it from someone else, I didn't have that echo then.

I haven't found much in folk lore about actual energy blasts, or the solidity. Though perhaps it could be something like a derivative of poltergeists, since they're supposed to be able to affect the world more.

[evowhisperer]

Fascinating. Let me know if they find anything out, I'm curious now.

Colorful energy blasts does sound like something more likely found in a book about magic than about ghosts, but poltergeists is probably the easiest place to start of anything ghostly. Are you sure that you're a ghost and not some other supernatural entity whose name you haven't yet found, by the way?

[ghostly_heiress]

Sure. It's always good to have more than one person looking over data.

Half ghost, actually. It's been confirmed I'm related in that life to someone whose had another call him that and it's apparently something that can happen in the...universe? Timeline? We're from.

It may involve aliens.

[evowhisperer]

A half ghost? ... That sounds profoundly unusual, all things considered, but it also sounds like a place to start researching. Thank you.

Oh? Do continue.

[ghostly_heiress]

It is. I'm still not sure how it's possible, but three sources have brought it up now.

Yes. I haven't actually gotten a lot of information on the alien aspect yet, but we might be one too? It may explain how it can be a halfway state.

[evowhisperer]

Three? There are three examples of this phenomenon, then?

That would make sense, if you consider that alien life forms might not be necessarily restricted to the living-dead dichotomy that humans are generally lumped into.

[ghostly_heiress]

Two of the phenomenon, just three who've remembered seeing it.

Yes. It may also explain why we're so solid as ghosts.

[evowhisperer]

Ah.

Solid ghosts? Most stories seem to treat ghosts as singularly unable to interact with the world around them directly, so this could lend further credence to this theory.

Does it appear as though your past selves were otherwise human in appearance, if not in behavior?

[ghostly_heiress]

Yes. All of the other powers, there's at least been something in myths related in some way. The easy solidity is the only part that's really abnormal, though we can become intangible.

There are humans around. He even goes to a school, I believe a high school with how tall most of them were.

[evowhisperer]

I see.

Intriguing. It might not be a reflection of your current biological state as much as one of what echoes you have or haven't yet gotten, but have you had enough time to see if any of you continue to age? If you're half ghost, then initial human appearance aside, it could make blending in at a school very difficult over time.

[ghostly_heiress]

No, I think the solidity is something normal enough. I displayed a super strength in a high stress situation, and if the natural state is intangible, that wouldn't happen.

I think the idea is a ghost and a human had a child somehow, so if that's the case, we'd have to age. I don't have too many memories yet, but it's the impression he's gotten.

[evowhisperer]

Fascinating. Developing super strength sounds like an amplification of an already human tendency, implying that whatever your status is, it relies heavily on human biology for its response cues.

I agree: If you were born as this half-ghost state, then you must have aged to reach the age you're in now. How strange... Do you remember if your ghostly parent aged, and if this was likely a result of your human heritage?

[ghostly_heiress]

So you think the super strength may only exist because I'm half alive and the dead part can copy that and it's not a natural ghost trait?

Not yet. I haven't remembered much of any family besides the other like me on the Network.

[evowhisperer]

It's possible. Isn't it a trend in ghost stories that ghosts usually can't even come in contact with the plane of the living?

Oh. That won't help us so far, then. Do you know if that other half-ghost remembers his family, and if either of the same questions apply?

[ghostly_heiress]

True. I wonder if it's a mental idea. There's no actual muscles while ghost. No bones or anything like actual organs, apparently. But if I think I should have strength, it could just happen.

Not yet. I really should sit him down and get everything.

[evowhisperer]

That's a possibility, also. Unfortunately the only way to really test this would be to test as many ghosts and partial-ghosts as possible... You wouldn't happen to know of any full ghosts in the area, would you?

You should. And take notes, if you would.

[ghostly_heiress]

There's a few others, but they're still mostly human at the moment.

Maybe I'll remember more. That'd be pretty fun.

Oh, but of course. Notes are always essential.