Listener

Lucy Carlyle listening for the voice of Annabel Ward while hunting

A **Listener** is a child with psychic talents that allow them to hear ghosts. This can mean that they hear the sounds that the ghosts are making, like whispers and taps, or that they can speak with the ghosts. Most ghosts are too weak to speak, but a few motivated type two ghosts have been known to repeat a few phrases here and there. The fabled type three ghosts that were written about in the Fittes Manual have been known to speak, although the only listeners known to have encountered a type three are Marissa Fittes herself and Lucy Carlyle.

Listening is one of the three main talents, the others being Sight and Touch. While Sight is the most common Talent, many agents possess combinations of them.

## Advantages

Listening is a very valuable and rare talent. It allows the agent to make a connection with the ghost, allowing them to find motives faster. It can also altert them as an early warning sign of a manifestation or allow them to track down some sources by hearing.

Besides hearing ghosts, listening was one of the two Talents, along with Touch, that allowed those in the industry to sense psychically charged objects, either sources or relics. This was extremely valuable, as it allowed them both to locate such objects and, in certain cases, to learn something about the Object, such as sounds and other bits of history associated with them. The specifics of these phenomena varied, for example, the Bone Glass gave off a terrible buzzing, like that of flies, when a Listener was in proximity to it.

## Disadvantages

The phenomena picked up by listeners could also be severely distracting or even paralyzing. Some strong manifestations, especially those of Type Twos, caused listeners to hear loud sounds, severely distracting them, making a powerful ghost-lock likely. These effects could also be caused by objects, potentially allowing non-sensitives a viable stun for listeners.

Another danger is the ability of the very talented listeners to converse with ghosts. This makes parasocial relationships with them possible and can quickly lead to dangerous situations.

## Notable Listeners

### Marissa Fittes

*Main article: Marissa Fittes*
**Marissa Fittes**, who was one of the first psychic agents along with Tom Rotwell and who opened the Fittes Agency, was a Listener. It is said that her listening powers were the strongest that the world has ever seen. Her powers gave her the ability to communicate with ghosts and hear what they were saying. She briefly wrote about the Type Three ghosts that she had encountered in her Fittes Manual, but they were so rare that most agents regarded them as a myth. Still it is known that she communicated with the Skull briefly, before deciding that he was intolerable and throwing him out. In her younger years before she became an agent, she met a powerful Type Three ghost named Ezekiel, which she befriended. Ezekiel became her companion, and through him, she learned several important things about ectoplasm and the other side.

### Lucy Carlyle

*Main article: Lucy Carlyle*
**Lucy Carlyle** is also a powerful psychic Listener, along with her abilities of Touch and Sight. She grew up in Northern England and worked for a small psychic agency. After an incident at Wythburn Mill, she moved to London and began working with Lockwood and Co.. She is able to communicate with a Type Three ghost, skull, and befriends it. The relationship of Lucy and the Skull grows throughout her career.

Although her talent is quite extraordinary, it is also dangerous. Because of her impressive abilities to connect with them, she feels sympathy for ghosts, a fact which has, on multiple occasions, proven dangerous. She is always trying to communicate with the ghosts that she encounters, even though most of them are dangerous and do not seek conversation. Her relationship with her Type Three ghost is noticeably different from Marissa's. While Marissa wanted to extract psychic knowledge from Ezekiel, Lucy seeks the Skull as a consultant on her cases, as it has proven helpful.

### George Cubbins

*Main article: George Cubbins*
George Cubbins is an all-arounder, meaning he has fair sight, listening, and touch. However, he never seems to rely on his touch or listening talents. George certainly has never heard the Skull talking at Portland Row, but this level of talent could not be expected from an allrounder regardless, as only extraordinary sensitive listeners posses this ability. Still, according to Anthony Lockwood, when the Skull spoke, he could not hear the words, but he nevertheless felt something, a connection that caused his skin to crawl. This is likely a side-effect of the manifestation.

### Kate "Kat" Godwin

*Main article: Kat Godwin*
Kat Godwin is also a Listener, although she far from being as talented as Lucy or Marissa. She is an agent about Lucy's age who works for the Fittes Agency. She was on Kipps' team with the late Ned Shaw and Bobby Vernon, before Kipps lost his job and she was more than likely reassigned to another team. In Bickerstaff's house, both Lucy and Kat hear the rats scurry around them, and they are both terrified.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 *The Screaming Staircase*, Glossary
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *The Screaming Staircase*, **I: The Ghost**, Ch. 3
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 *The Screaming Staircase*, **V: And After**, Ch. 26
4. ↑ *[citation needed]*
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 *The Whispering Skull*, **I: The Wimbledon Wraiths**, Ch. 2
6. ↑ *The Whispering Skull*, **II: Before**, Ch. 6
7. ↑ *Sweet Dreams*: 18:02
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 *Sweet Dreams*: 22:44
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 *This Will Be Us*: 44:50
10. ↑ *This Will Be Us*: 14:20
11. ↑ *[citation needed]*
12. ↑ *The Screaming Staircase*, **II: Before**, Ch. 5
13. ↑ *The Screaming Staircase*, **II: Before**, Ch. 6
14. ↑ *[citation needed]*
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19. ↑ *[citation needed]*