Jamison and Wendy are our veteran councilmembers, this is Jamison’s fifth time serving on the council. He can’t say no to his wife, apparently. She’s not a Psycept and believes that a councilmember carries a certain panache. Ha. Wendy knows better after serving once before, eight years ago. It took that long for her to recover from the experience. She’s an artist and despises meetings and agendas. Wendy doesn’t mind doing projects, but the planning is not her favorite.
To Gloria’s right is the seat for the second largest category, PsySapients, which Kyle holds. On his right is Emily Carsonne, the PsySentient councilmember. She’s a PsyPath, specifically an empath, and is also a member of Imital’s supportive services initiative. And finally, in the last seat on the right, farthest from the center and nearest to the audience is the TouchVoyant seat. Mine for the year, yay?! I quickly take my chair and arrange my tablet, documents, writing utensils, and hydration bottle. The audience chamber is filling as we have a lot of people participating in various new resident activities this week and this meeting serves as our final run-through. We officially start in about five minutes.
We councilmembers dress casually in jeans and a decent top. We meet too often and informally for a strict dress code. Though when we serve on the ABQ Area Council, we dress in formal or business attire. Some people ask me about riding a bicycle in jeans. It’s fine if you tuck or wrap up the bottom of the jeans to avoid them getting caught in the chain, especially the right leg. Though if it’s raining, I ride in different clothing, biking in wet jeans is not fun. I’m wearing a long-sleeved shirt with thumbholes covered by a pair of wrist length gloves with grips on the fingertips. My chestnut brown hair’s in a ponytail bun pulled through one of the messy bun beanies that Wendy makes for me. That, plus my mid-calf vaquero work boots is my usual winter garb. In the summer months, as a concession to the warmer weather, I wear a short-sleeved shirt with elbow length gloves.
My touch clairvoyance makes casual touching of people or objects difficult for me. With a touch I’m able to connect to a person’s memories. I call myself a Mind Sage, but unlike other sages, I do not consume tissue to connect with a person. In other words, I don’t eat brains. I’m the only Mind Sage that I’ve heard of, the lone person amidst of sea of PsyChometrists and sages.
PsyChometrists are our largest subcategory of TouchVoyants. They can read an object’s history and are able to see and hear what the object experienced. As several PsyChometrists have explained to me, they can casually touch an object for brief periods of time with no issue. When they touch an object, the object acts like a knock at the door they can choose to ignore or answer. However, if they touch an object for too long, eventually ignoring it is no longer an option and the knock turns into a battering ram. Discussing my difficulty in ignoring a casual touch, we conjectured that a person’s memories are too similar to my own psychic frequency to easily dismiss. While an inanimate object is different enough that it takes a bit of time for the object and a PsyChometrist to get in tune, which allows that buffer period.
Sages are the second subcategory of TouchVoyants. A Blood Sage, like the Sisters Wyrd, can consume blood to connect with a person and have visceral encounter with their memories. Bone Sages, like Tiko, can also swallow bone to reach that experience. Yes, Blood Sages drink blood and Bone Sages grind bone and eat it. Only a small amount is needed for the connection, but the greater the amount consumed, the more vivid the vision. The blood and bone consumption can be addictive. I think blood sages are some of where the myth of vampires originates. However, sages only consume tissue if they wish to link to a person’s memories. Unlike me, they can do other things with their abilities such as divination and creating wards.
I was originally categorized as a PsyMemore as they also connect with a person’s memories. However, PsyMemori and I are very different in our abilities. I can read the memories of a dead or unconscious person and I can also connect to a person’s memories through a favorite object. All require touch. PsyMemori only work on living people, they can’t read an object. It’s more difficult for them to work with the unconscious, though it is still doable. PsyMemori don’t require touch, theirs is all mental ability, thus they can’t get memories from the dead. PsyMemori are now categorized under the PsySentient umbrella and are considered memory paths. Empaths read emotions, telepaths read thoughts, and memory paths read memories. There are no PsyMemori in SWACon, though Auraria of Great Basin, the first Psycept settlement and closest to ABQ, has several dozen. I’ve heard of a few PsyMemori in Edmonton as well. In other settlements, I’m not sure.
My attention is caught by Wendy sliding into her seat just in time. Gloria gives the nod and Bailiff Dichali discreetly pushes the button to activate the mic clipped to his shirt since he stands for most of the meeting. In clear tones, Bailiff Dichali gives our name and date, then calls the meeting to order. Laissez les bons temps rouler.
CHAPTER FOUR
“The first order of business is a report from the Albuquerque Area Council meeting last week,” Gloria begins. “As you know, the third Saturday of every month the ABQ Area Council meets. We have two seats on their council with one shared vote. Last month’s council meeting was just after our elections and before we took office, so it fell under last year’s Psycept Council to attend. Kyle and I attended this month’s
