3rd (lack of) sleep note. Audio at three am but left on the network as always.

[11calls]

[Alex doesn't sleep. It's a problem. So, when she doesn't sleep, she reads the network. That's probably a problem too. But for now, she's focusing on one thing. It's a thing that she probably shouldn't focus on, and that Strand would shake his head at, and it's three in the morning but Alex's chipper, canadian ready for radio voice comes out anyway.]

You know what I love? Ghost stories. It's so weird how there's ghost stories that seem almost universal. Well, [You can hear the smile in her voice here.] Earth-versal I guess? But things like the hitchhiker in the dress that you pick up and then drop off somewhere or she disappears and it turns out that she'd been dead for years and it couldn't have happened. Or the ghosts of children who move cars from where they were tragically killed.

Or dark ladies or monks or banshees that warn of impending doom. Or ghost battles that happen hundreds of years after blood was first spilled on the soil.

[A beat.]

And let's not forget about vengeful ghosts who are going to get you for something you've done wrong in life. There's too many of those to even talk about.

But what I want to know what ghost stories are like in your worlds. You can even tell me your favorite fictional ghost story. Mine is Hamlet. It used to be "A Turn of the Screw" but a friend ruined that by calling it "the best case for apophenia in fiction." So it's not fun anymore.

[And then she laughs.]

Don't worry, I promise not to call anything you've experienced here apophenia. We've all seen way too much for that.

And just in case you don't know, I'm Alex. Alex Reagan.

Comments

[11calls]

According to Dr. Dumond? [There's something in her voice that suggests she may be using the word 'doctor' here incredibly loosely.]

"Residual energy, intelligent haunting, and inhuman haunting."

[thestarling]

So...unaware ghost, aware ghost and nonhuman ghost?

[It's as good a categorization system as any, really. Less Latin than Peter's used to, but he's hardly going to complain about that.]

[11calls]

Yep, according to her! There are other believers in the community who think that there's way more than that but no one seems to agree on most things.

[The one thing that everyone agreed on didn't have anything to do with ghosts or the supernatural.]

[thestarling]

Not a formal field of study then.

[His tone is a bit dry, but it's also an honest question. His own brand of magic was structured by scientists, you never know.]

[11calls]

[That makes Alex laugh.]

Not even remotely. A friend of mine, he makes it his life's work to disprove everything around the supernatural, and he doesn't even have a good definition of stuff. Other than "it's not true. Nope. La la la."

[Which suggests that Alex herself finds things much more believable.]

[thestarling]

Isn't it a bit hard to disprove something, though? Even without having no real idea of what you're looking for.

[Alright, so he may have been a bit skeptical himself before the entire magic world dropped into his lap, but he did at least go with it once he stumbled into it.]

I mean I've seen those ghosthunter shows too, but I don't think those count.

[11calls]

As Strand says, "the burden is on others because he's not making claims against laws of nature already established by the larger scientific community. He doesn't have to prove that gravity exists, that cells die, that life ends. We know these things. The burden is on his colleagues to prove that life doesn't end in death. And they haven't provided anything other than weak conjecture."

[She may have that bit memorized by heart now.]

They definitely don't count. I can fake things better than that show does if I wanted to.

[Working with someone who debunks things for a living has given her an interesting skill set.]

[thestarling]

[There's a moment of silence while Peter takes all of that in.]

But...there is proof that gravity exists. People have done whole equations about it.

[He knows Alex is not the person he needs to be arguing the point with, he's just so baffled at this point that he can't not.]

[11calls]

[Alex is just going to shrug for a minute.]

Yeah, but the point is that there's no proof that ghosts do.

[thestarling]

Unless you meet one, I suppose.

[It had worked wonders for him, at least.]

What's your friend's take on magic, then? Also skeptical?

[11calls]

Yep! [Alex popped the P on the last part and gave a nod.]

He's a rational skeptic. TM.

[thestarling]

And what would be an irrational skeptic, I wonder.

[Actually he's probably met a few on late night patrol, but that's besides the point.]

[11calls]

Someone who doesn't believe despite all evidence to the contrary. Honestly, sometimes I think that Strand's riding that line.

[thestarling]

Have you seen evidence, then?

[It sounds like she has a much more open mind, at least.]

[11calls]

Well, I've seen a lot of videos that can't be explained, not even with the best science has to offer, so that helps.

And I mean if nothing else, I've been kinda kidnapped to a moon that has ghosts and aliens and magic so it makes it a bit harder not to believe in the unexplained.

[thestarling]

That is a point, yeah. You either start accepting things around here or...I don't know, actually. Go a bit mad, maybe.

[11calls]

I think we all have to be kind of mad here anyway, even if we accept it. I mean...

[Alex is just going to gesture broadly around her.]

[thestarling]

I don't know, I think I'm doing alright.

[Says the man who gets into wizard duels in his normal course of work.]

[11calls]

But you world was weird, right? Cause seeing ghosts and stuff. Raises your madness handling level!

[Says girl who is hunting demons and may have caused the end of the world.]

[thestarling]

Weird is relative, but I suppose so. There's still a lot here I've never seen before.

[11calls]

All of the scifi stuff is a trip.

[thestarling]

You know, back home, whenever you tell someone magic is real, the next question is almost always 'but what about aliens'?

[He'd know, he'd done it too.]

Maybe it's all not so different.

[11calls]

Possible Aliens and TARDIS cabins are my friend's dominion actually. But I think people just really want to believe.

So, does that mean you practice magic?

[thestarling]

Practice is a pretty good word for it, yeah.

[11calls]

Is it more of a Wiccan/Religion like thing or more of a Harry Potter thing?