Touch

Lucy Carlyle listening for echoes while being interviewed by Lockwood & Co.

### Notable interactions with Ghosts

Identifying sources and relics, predicting a ghost's actions through interaction with their feelings

Touch is one of the Talents that can be used to sense Visitors, alongside Sight and Listening. Touch can be used in a variety of ways, for example when Lucy Carlyle delved into the twisting depths of Annabel Wards relationship via using her Touch on the Source of Annabel Ward, the ring. People talented with touch and hearing can sometimes interlace the two, allowing transmission of echoes without touching a ghosts source. This allows them to determine motivation and possibly actions of a ghost, without knowing the location of their source.

## Advantages

Touch is a valuable and somewhat rare talent. It can allow agents to identify hidden or non-obvious sources, sometimes even on accident, and can provide helpful insight into a ghosts motivation. Especially in combination with the hearing of echoes it can become invaluable, as a skilled agent may be able to predict a ghosts actions and therefore react before they take place, gaining them an incredible advantage. But even agents that are unable to use this interaction can find unique ability to identify relics advantageous. This is even more true for sensitives working as relic-men, as they can easily prove the authenticity of a relic or source.

## Disadvantages

Touch was, even though it could sometimes be interlaced with hearing, mostly dependent on physical touch of objects, such as relics or sources, and therefore mostly useless when it came to pinpointing their approximate location. This meant that exclusively touch-talented agents could work extremely well while in groups, but may struggle when operating on their own, especially if they even lack the ability to see ghosts.

In addition, the close connection touch allows can be dangerous, as experiencing the feelings of manifestations can be very overwhelming, especially if their death was a painful one. This could overwhelm agents while in the field, making ghost-lock or even ghost-touch more likely.

## Notable Touch-sensitives

### Lucy Carlyle

*Main article: Lucy Carlyle*
Lucy Carlyle was a powerful psychic listener with a very talented touch. She was able to use the combination of touch and hearing to her advantage and predict and read a manifestations motivations and actions by exclusively listening to echos. She was also very capable of connecting emotionally with visitors, allowing her deep insights into a visitors past. This could tremendously help her with cases, as this insight was easily capable of pointing her in the right directions. Still, it could also lead to misleading conclusions and deep emotional connections with ghosts, that caused her to act irrationally and endanger her live.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *The Screaming Staircase*, Glossary
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 *The Screaming Staircase*, **III: The Necklace**, Ch. 12
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 *The Screaming Staircase*, **III: The Necklace**, Ch. 14
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 *The Whispering Skull*, **II: The Unexpected Grave**, Ch. 3
5. ↑ *[citation needed]*
6. ↑ *[citation needed]*
7. ↑ *The Screaming Staircase*, **II: Before**, Ch. 5
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 *The Screaming Staircase*, **III: The Necklace**, Ch. 13