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"I had a vision."
>"Oh? Tell me everything. Start from the beginning."
"Well... I was at the movies with dad. Suddenly I could sort of see two pictures on the screen. Not like a double image, but I could... sense another image there. I closed my eyes and when I opened them I could see the beach on the day Tony died. Only I could see stuff I didn't see then. Tony sort of jerked upright, and just walked stiffly into the water. And I could see this weird symbol carved on his forehead. What does it all mean?"
>"Hmm. Interesting. Give me a moment to think about this... Yes, yes, ok. It sounds like your secondary abilities are emerging. Sounds like post-cognition to me. It's been in the family on occasion. Tell me, did anything else happen?"
"I, uh, had my first period."
>"Yeah that makes sense. This sort of stuff does tend to coincide with puberty. Did you see anything else?"
"No, just Tony and the symbol."
>"All right. Now listen, postcognitive abilities can be a wee bit dangerous. Visions tend to leave you vulnerable, and can happen at unpredictable times. You don't want to get one during a ritual. You might be able to control it when you get a little older, but for now I strongly suggest we use a spell to suppress that ability."
"I don't know..."
>"Trust me, being postcog isn't the most pleasant ability in the world. People have gone mad seeing all the past horrors in the world. You'd be better off with suppression. Think it over."
"Ok."
>"For now we should finish this damn bird. However, I need to give you a quick lesson before we can do that. I would've liked to spend the day explaining this but I'll have to keep it short."
"Listening."
>"Good. You remember yesterday when we bound a soul to the familiar, and then restored it to life, right? Well, there is a third component that's needed to make something fully alive. To make it whole. The problem is that English doesn't really have a good word for it. It's "haftsusha", usually translated as 'spirit' or 'guardian'. So there's "tuaftia" or "soul", "hanku" or "breath" and "haftsusha" or "spirit"."
"How is that different from the soul?"
>"Ehhh, it's more like tuaftia and haftsusha together make up for what English word for soul means. It's hard to explain, especially in English. Tuaftia is like that part of your soul that is uniquely yours. It was created when you were born and it will travel to the Underworld when you die. Haftsusha is more of a hand-me-down. Some time after your birth a spirit will choose you as it's host and when you die it will eventually find a new host. The exact criteria that spirits use to pick hosts is a little hazy, but they do tend to stick to specific family lines. It's also connected to the person's name. That's where the tradition of naming children after famous ancestors comes from, by the way. The haftsusha carries you know, personality traits and stuff like that. Does this make any sense to you?"
"I... think so."
>"Ok good. Now, uh, usually when you're trying to resurrect someone you don't have to give a toss about the spirit, it'll find it's way back on it's own. Unless it's found a new host already, but that's besides the point. Where was I? The familiar, yes. Since we've essentially created a close imitation of new life, this thing here doesn't have a spirit yet. It's still incomplete. In order to attract a spirit you'll have to name him. But consider it carefully, the name will affect your familiar's personality. I'll try to assist in picking a name so you can choose aspects of it's personality, but it's no sure thing. I think we've covered everything I wanted to bring up today, do you have any questions?"
[Ok so, suggestion time. Give a name for the familiar, and a one-sentence description of the personality you'd like it to have. Remember to also vote if you'd like Tiffany's apparent post-cog abilities suppressed or not.]
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