Editing Connections (section)

===Perception===
Seeing or otherwise perceiving something, even through a camera, creates a connection that can be perceived,<ref name=":0" />  exploited,{{Cite}} or even negated.<ref>“What if I told you this guy was one of the people who might be trying to kill me?”<br><br>He frowned a little, but it was very little emotion for what I was telling him.  “Is he?”<br><br>“I don’t know yet.  But maybe remember his face, and if something happens to me in the next few days, assume it’s him?”<br><br>“Yeah, sure,” he said, frowning a bit more.<br><br>Fell reached out to put his hand on my shoulder, and I stepped out of his reach.<br><br>“Enough nonsense,” he said.<br><br>“Whatever,” I said.  “Lock up my place, Joel?”<br><br>Joel nodded.  “Of course.”<br><br>I popped into the kitchen, found the plastic container and grabbed a cupcake.  I offered one to Fell, and he shook his head.<br><br>I headed down the hallway with Fell.  When we were out of sight of the apartment, he reached into a pocket and threw a full handful of white sand onto the ground behind us.  It made a small cloud as it hit the ground.<br><br>I saw the connection between him and Joel disappear entirely, in the midst of it. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/03/11 Excerpt] from [[Collateral 4.4]]</ref> Observing something more directly and intently creates a stronger connection, while only glimpsing something out of the corner of your eye is weaker.<ref name=":1">“Look to your three o’clock without turning your head,” she said.<br><br>I did.<br><br>Something that might have been a raccoon scampered down from the top of the garage to the far side.  It probably wasn’t a raccoon.<br><br>“It’s gone,” I said.<br><br>“It’s ''there'', it’s just out of sight.  Keep looking.”<br><br>I did.  I searched for the connection, but I couldn’t make out much.  The world was buried under a haze, and the wind was blowing in too many directions at once.<br><br>“Trace your eyes along the paths that things run in parallel, the straightest lines.  Good place to start, and good places to avoid if you think someone’s searching for you.”<br><br>I looked harder.  The saturation and contrast seemed exaggerated, the world painted in a impasto style with coarse brush strokes, animated with life and constant motion.  I followed the areas where the strokes and lines met, so I could see the flow of it, not stopping at a dead end but naturally sweeping my eyes along the straighter paths where the particles danced.<br><br>I caught it a second or two faster than I might have if I wasn’t already focused on the area.  It looked like the slop that you dug out of a gutter after a rain.  Leaves, branches, twigs, and a bit or two of trash.  There were only shadows where eyes were supposed to be, and a few pieces of stone, some teeth, and a bird’s beak where it was supposed to have teeth.<br><br>It stopped in its tracks, seemingly startled, as if my vision had transfixed it.<br><br>A moment later, it bolted, disappearing around the corner at edge of Hillsglade House.<br><br>“You looked too hard,” she said.  “You made a connection, and it noticed.  A lesser elemental.  Now keep looking.  Softer.  Relax, and try to see where the longest lines are.  If you don’t focus too hard, it’s easier to see them.”<br><br>I looked, relaxing my focus on the spirits.<br><br>It very deliberately avoided the railing of the fence as it perched on the stone of the wall, glancing my way.  It seemed ''bothered'' that I’d spotted it again.  Leaves and twigs stood up like an irritated cat or a dog with the hackles up. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/01/28 Excerpt] from [[Damages 2.4]]</ref>