I was walking by a large restaurant which had a neon sign on it for a psychic. It felt strangely legitimate to me, and I went in. Some of the people I'd been hanging out with were rambling about psychic phenomena, and she grimaced at me.
psychic: "I don't do hexes, or lift curses, or anything like that."me: "I'm not interested in that. In fact, I don't believe those things are real."
psychic: (surprised) "You don't?"
me: "No, I'm interested in things that have mechanisms. I mean, I guess there might be a mechanism for one to give the appearance of a curse... like you poison somebody and then tell them 'you are cursed!' But I was wondering if you would just see what you can figure out about me--if you get any weird vibes."
She agreed, and came close to me. She started crumbling what looked like pieces of sushi rolls in her hand while she thought.
(Note: I had sushi for dinner.)
psychic: "You are part of a group. This group is able to move itself. You move out of a body if it seems too dangerous and go to another one."me: "How does that work?"
psychic: "I am speaking to the slug now. He says... there is a part of the brain one can go through."
(Note: There is a mollusk known as a slug we are all familiar with. But I found an interesting other use of the term... to describe dicytostelids. These are a kind of amoeba that can function autonomously as most amoebas would, but sort of like Voltron are able to group together and form a collective organism if they like... when they collect in this way the result is called a "slug". They have been used as a model organism in molecular biology and genetics, and is studied as an example of cell communication, differentiation, and programmed cell death.)
me: "Okay, so what am I that talks to you right now? A member of this group? The collected thoughts of this group? The host organism being manipulated by this group?"psychic: "Yes...there is a debate, within the group. One side says there is too much attachment, they wish more freedom to go to other parts of the body."
She pulled out a book which was handwritten, and she changed a couple words in it. Then she put a golden seal on the page somehow, which was raised up--and then put the same seal on another page. She signed a name by the change she made.
me: "Why did you do that?"psychic: "I want to test your theory, that he isn't just looking... but is also changing things."
