Thomas’s WU Seminar: The Nature of Ghosts
Date: 2025-09-27 13:02
(Thomas’s WU Seminar: The Nature of Ghosts)
[Sat Sep 27 2025]
A Musty Basement Seminar Room
The Plymouth Seminar Room occupies a windowless corner of the basement, its
low ceiling supported by exposed pipes that occasionally emit soft clicking
sounds as they expand and contract. Fluorescent lights cast an uneven glow
across rows of wooden chairs with attached writing tablets, their surfaces
marked by decades of student use. The walls, painted institutional beige,
display water stains near the corners where moisture has seeped through the
foundation. A heavy wooden table sits at the front of the room, its dark
surface reflecting the overhead lights in distorted patterns. The air carries
a persistent mustiness despite the ventilation grates set into the walls, and
the temperature remains several degrees cooler than the floors above. Cork
boards line one wall, their surfaces dotted with faded announcements and
peculiar symbols drawn in chalk that seem to shift slightly in peripheral
vision. The door, reinforced with a small wire-glass window, closes with a
weight that suggests its age and the settling of the building around it.
It is about 65F(18C) degrees. The mist is heaviest At King and Sidney
Mercy then just shrugs and gets comfortable in her chair, slumping back in that iconic delinquent manner. “Ayeah, sure is.” She comments to Kaelyn, unbothered.
Sophie stretches, “They’re..mid-termy.”
“I don’t think we’ve met,” Thomas tells Mercy. “I am Thomas Hale,” he says.
Mercy directs her sleepy half-lidded gaze back to Thomas and pauses before responding. “We ain’, nah. S’Mercy.” she offers in turn.
“Ah — Miss Matlock,” Thomas tells Mercy. “It’s nice to meet you.” He glances up. “It seems like a small crowd this morning,” he says. “So — who has had experience with ghosts?”
Mercy confirms her identity and acknowledges the pleasantries with a subsequent two-fingered salute, quiet from that point to begin listening as someone with very little experience in any such topics.
Kaelyn shakes her head at that, pauses and raises her hand. “There was one who wanted some people to… get justice for their death or at least share their story.”
Sophie shakes her head, “Minus in movies.”
“Okay — where did you encounter this ghost?” Thomas asks Kaelyn. “And in general, what do any of you know about ghosts?”
Mercy turns her attention to Kaelyn now, a brow ticked up with curiosity.
Mercy says “Ain’ really know anythin’ ’bout ’em beyond what media an’ stories say, hard to know what’s real an’ what’s fiction.“
Kaelyn rubs the back of her neck, “It was closer to when I first arrived in the city so, details are a little fuzzy. One of the factories in the city had and unsafe work environment. One of the machines was having issues. She didn’t actually appear until we found what she was trying to show us, just a lot of fluttering things about and moving the machine. Her death had been covered up due to negligence.” She drops her hand to her lap, “In general I don’t really know that much truthfully.”
Matias walks in late albeit not a student and claims a spot in the chair with a look at his watch and then a tap tap tap of the glass face before beginning to turn it. Must have stopped in the night!
“Ah — those sorts of things happen,” Thomas tells Kaelyn. “But generally: ghosts are unclear entities,” he says. “They appear as echoes of a past life,” he says. “Now, of course: are they really?” he says. “There are two theories. Some say that ghosts are imperfect copies of those who live,” he says. “Others say they are remnants, left behind.”
Mercy scoffs at something quietly after glimpsing her phone screen, otherwise attentively listening if the way her eyes readily flick between those speaking is any indication.
“Does anyone have an opinion on that topic?” Thomas asks Kaelyn, Mercy, and Sophie, nodding to Matias as he walks in.
Mercy scratches at the side of her head a moment, her tousled mess of bedhead worthy hair only finding itself more displaced. “Gettin’ the impression they like, kinda linger if there were some bad shit goin’ on when they died. Ain’ know why some do an’ some don’t, though.”
Sophie tilts her head, her brow furrowing just slightly. “So we don’t actually know if they’re fragments of memory or something that thinks it’s a person,” she says. “That’s…unsettling. If it’s an imperfect copy, then it means ghosts are more like psychological projections-patterns replaying themselves. But if they’re remnants, then it suggests a piece of consciousness lingers, caught in place. Either way, it says more about how we define whats real than about them.”
Mercy blurts out a loud, almost-laugh sounding snort suddenly.
Kaelyn nods folding one leg under her body as she listens. She frowns as if in thought, “But there would be no actual way to test that would there be? Both would act in a similar manner, correct? If a copy believes itself to be real then does that make them any less real?”
Kaelyn gives a soft sigh at something, shaking her head to it.
“There’s not really a way to test, no,” Thomas admits to the class. “Ghosts insist they are the real person, of course — but are they?” he says. “Let’s put another wrinkle into it. Does anyone know that ghosts can sometimes turn into eidolons?”
Kaelyn tilts her to Mercy repeating something quietly. “It’s kind of the same theory that a soldier is just a soldier and a girl is just a girl.” She refocuses turning to Thomas with a shake of her head.
Mercy ducks her head a little, timidly raising her hand to both interject and ask a question. “What exactly.. is an eidolon, again?” Then shoots Kaelyn a sidelong glance with her brow crinkled.
“That’s an excellent question,” Thomas says to Mercy. “Eidolons are bodiless intelligences,” he says. “It’s not clear if it is a judgment where all eidolons are in fact the same class of entity,” he says. “Like birds — are they all birds? Or is it more a description of function, like ‘winged creatures.’ A sparrow and a bluejay have a different relationship than a bluejay and a bat.” He pauses. “Regardless, one of the sorts of eidolons is ghostly,” he says. “And they do, very much so, have an intelligence: they do not seem to be an echo. Indeed, there are stories of mortal men turning into eidolons.”
Mercy says “At a seminar gettin’ learned right now.“
Mercy finds a discarded pen near her seat and begins trying to scrawl some notes onto the top of her hand while Thomas speaks and makes those comparisons.
“Miss Callum?” Thomas asks Sophie. “You’re very quiet, which is unusual for you.”
Sophie blinks and zones back in, “It’s ..nothing I can really comment on.”
Sophie perks up and gives Lucien a smile, “Holy shit..it’s a ghost.”
Thomas follows up with Sophie, “Have you ever met a ghost?”
Lucien slips into the seminar room, a little out breath. He gives an awkward little grimace of apology, even as he starts for one of the back rows.
Kaelyn purses her lips as if trying to consider this, “So, if a man can ascend to that state and a ghost can then.” She didn’t actually seem to phone where she was going with that. Furrowing her brows her head tilts to the side. “It doesn’t help answer that previous- well, it would make more sense for an imperfect clone, then.”
Sophie looks at Thomas, “No, not yet.”
“If ghosts are an imperfect clone.” Thomas asks someone, “Then what do you think happens with the real dead?”
Mercy glances up from her note-taking on the back of a hand to peer at Lucien for a quick second, trying to take everything in and jot down the bullet points.
“If ghosts are an imperfect clone.” Thomas asks Kaelyn, “Then what do you think happens with the actual spirits of the dead? Are there spirits of the dead at all?”
Kaelyn shakes her head, “Does that really matter? Maybe nothingness. Maybe there is something more, but if ghosts were echos then wouldn’t that suggest that they’d be less inclined to-” She frowns rubbed her head, “Sorry, sir, it was a long night. But, less inclined to grow and stuck in the moments before and around?”
Lucien gives a very faint smile of acknowldgment at Sophie’s quip, nodding at her as he produces his own notebook. He still seems a little out of his and distracted, though he does briefly meet Mercy’s glance.
“Mr. Skinner!” Thomas says, looking up at Lucien. “I know you’re just still figuring things out, but have you heard of a shower?”
Lucien grimaces a little as he looks up, rubbing his forehead “Uh… I kinda fell asleep and saw I was already late to class…”
“Indeed,” Thomas tells Lucien. “In fact, we’re all wrapping up,” he says. “I’d hoped to have a little more back and forth, but I think people are busy with their midterms.” He pauses. “Does anyone have any final questions about ghosts?” he asks.
Kaelyn shakes her head, with a look that suggested she could probably wrangle a few more but she was just tired. “None, sir.”
“There are some solutions,” Thomas tells Mercy. “Salt is in fact traditionally effective — but do you know any ritual magic?” he asks the woman. “There are rituals, at cost, that banish a truly troublesome ghost, though I would be careful about their use.”
Mercy purses her lips and shakes her head to the question of ritual magic, woefully unknown to her. “Ain’ dabbled in that sorta thing as of yet, noted on the salt though. Cause I’m guessin’ if they can move shit, they can hurt you.”
“It’s hard, honestly, for a ghost to hurt you,” Thomas tells Mercy. “And the binding and banishing rituals — they can do some great damage to a ghost,” he admits. “But they can also result in blood in your hands. Some ghosts are in fact projections of magicians,” he explains. “And the ritual can kill such a projection. On the other hand… if the ghost is more powerful than expected, like an eidolon, the ritual might just anger it.”
Sophie says “Thanks for the class Proff.“
Thomas frowns briefly as someone just leaves, then turns back to Mercy.
Thomas frowns briefly as Sophie just leaves, then turns back to Mercy.
Kaelyn perks up a little bit, “Like the ones used to speak to people who’ve been caught in the mists?”
Lucien presses his lips together thoughtfully, scrawling a few notes as he tries to at least take in the tail end of the class.
“It does: a lot,” Thomas tells Mercy. “It can be used to kill someone,” he says. He shakes his head to Kaelyn. “That’s probably a slightly different sort of spiritual projection,” he admits.
Matias looks over his shoulder to the departing young woman and then back to the class as it is wrapping up.
Mercy quickly jots that down too, her hand covered in poorly crawled pen ink and already starting to smudge in places.
Kaelyn nods leaning back in her seat with a look of concentration, “Got it.”
Mercy says “Man I got so much to learn still..“
Mercy mumbles to herself while writing.
“Any last questions?” Thomas asks Kaelyn, Mercy and Lucien. “Since Miss Callum already decided she’d had enough.” He nods to Mercy. “You do. If you’d like, you can stop by my office and we can discuss some of the things that need learning,” he explains. “After all –” He nods to Matias. “Both Professor Alejandro and I are here to educate.”
“None at the moment, sir.” Kaelyn unfolds her leg setting it flat on the floor, “Thank you for the lesson.”
Mercy blinks at the offer then glances aside to Kaelyn for some reason, otherwise seeming out of questions for the moment.
Mercy says “Ayeah, thanks fer this. Good bit of info.“
Kaelyn tilts her head back at Mercy with a curious expression.
Thomas goes to write his MyHaven and phone on the board. “For any student to contact me, if needed.” The lines are someone and 710-0196.
“I would have expected a bit more curiosity getting to question a necromancer about ghosts, but I assume it is a weekend class.” Matias confesses in a brazilian accented english while rising up from his chair near the back and brushing off the back of his chest and pulling out his phone to check.
Thomas goes to write his MyHaven and phone on the board. “For any student to contact me, if needed.” The lines are `@Bookmaster and 710-0196.
Lucien nods a little, writing the info doen as well, but mostly still looking like he’s playing catchup with reality. He heaves a faint sigh, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his forehead.
Mercy chews on the inside of her cheek and admits to Matias bluntly, “Weren’t aware of his uh.. hobbies. Hard to know what to ask if ain’ know the subject too well neither, but already know a lot more than I did walkin’ in.”
Mercy checks the board and starts inputting that info on her phone.
Mercy lifts her head back up so fast the phone nearly tumbles right out of her hand. “Can you have- WHAT.”
Kaelyn purses her lips at the word necromancer watching Thomas him with a new light. Things at least made a lot more sense. Leaning back in her seat she slips her phone out of her pocket. “Why would anyone want to do that with a ghost?”
“Am I the only person who saw that classic movie with the pottery wheel and the ghost lover things, that is a classic.” Matias points out and is clearly not as old as Thomas closer to his late twenties or early thirties.
Thomas laughs. “Ghosts — whether shadows or remnants — have desires, too,” he says. “And they can possess people, move things, create sensation…” He lets that fill in the lines.
Matias motions towards Thomas
Kaelyn lowers her phone, “Mom loved that movie, but that’s… so, yes, people have.”
Mercy holds up an interjecting finger. “Righ’ but if they possessin’ someone yer not physically.. with the ghost itself, yer- I can’t believe I’m even goin’ down this rabbit hole.”
“Miss Matlock,” Thomas tells Mercy. “You certainly are.” He pauses, chuckling to Matias. “All the same,” he says. “It’s a weekend, and they have midterms,” he says.
Mercy curls that finger back down with a furrowed brow, realizing she fell for the trap.
Matias offers Mercy a fleeting grin and a shrug at any dirty looks he might get in return.
Mercy shoots Matias only a tired but vaguely amused glance before rubbing at her face with a groan and getting up from her seat. “Fuckin’ wild.”
“Alright,” Thomas says with humor. “The world is, as you say — fuckin’ wild.”
“The real question is. If someone has died multiple times can they generate multiple ghosts.” Matias continues to throw out somewhat disturbing propositions.
Matias says “They do, can those ghosts meet, if they meet do they agree or because they are different points in time they have different motivating interests.“
“That’s one I don’t think we’ve answered yet,” Thomas agrees with Matias. “I suspect not, but I don’t know for sure.”
“Can say that again.” Mercy grumbles with an audible sniff, a glimpse of her phone seeing it pocketed soon after, and her gaze falling back on Thomas. “When are yer office hours, teach?”
“They vary. Usually evenings, late,” Thomas tells Mercy. “But text me and we can work something out.”
Mercy appears to recognize the name mentioned given how she glances between Matias and Thomas, but they settle on the latter and she gives him a quick salute. “Heard, works better fer me too.”
Kaelyn rubs her eyes, the tiredness creeping back in slowly but she tries to keep up with what’s being said eyes darting between each speaker.
“Shoo, Miss Miller,” Thomas tells Kaelyn. “I can tell you are exhausted,” he says.
Matias checks his watch and then tells Thomas, “I have some errands to run in Boston, the farmer’s market. I will reach out to you later Hale.”
Thomas nods to Matias. “Enjoy your afternoon.”
Kaelyn flashed a quick smile to Thomas, “Thank you, sir.” She nods to Mercy and starts to meander out.
Lucien takes a few second to notice the general activity of departure. Shaking his head violently as if trying to clear some cobwebs from his mind, he gets to his feet and heads for the door as well.
Mercy moves around the chairs to go after Kaelyn with a parting wave to Thomas, her steps maybe a little more hurried in spite of the limp.