Death is pretty straightforward in Alex's world. There's no such thing as ghosts or the undead or pretty much anything supernatural other than the abilities he and some other characters have, so there's a lot of room for interpretation.
The way I see it, it's a case of where even if the mind doesn't know, the body still remembers-- the final thoughts and feelings that a person has right before their death are pretty much embedded in them. (Normal) corpses can't talk, but they carry the story of how they came to be if you know how to read them.
But most of the time Alex doesn't get the full story. (There's a whole spiel about it in my app in the abilities section, but basically amount of time in direct contact = amount of detail read.) For example, on one occasion he accidentally brushes his hand against a murder victim's. He gets a churning feeling in his stomach (the victim was poisoned), vague images of people he doesn't know, and a strong wish to "protect the vault". On the flipside, a drop of blood from different victim falls on his cheek and Alex passes out before getting the chance to wipe it off. The prolonged contact causes him to watch the entire death in all its gruesome detail. (Also I forgot to mention he can't read peaceful deaths.)
Soooo long story short, it doesn't change anything. I kind of tl;dred there, but I hope that was informative?
no subject
And um. That's a good question.
Death is pretty straightforward in Alex's world. There's no such thing as ghosts or the undead or pretty much anything supernatural other than the abilities he and some other characters have, so there's a lot of room for interpretation.
The way I see it, it's a case of where even if the mind doesn't know, the body still remembers-- the final thoughts and feelings that a person has right before their death are pretty much embedded in them. (Normal) corpses can't talk, but they carry the story of how they came to be if you know how to read them.
But most of the time Alex doesn't get the full story. (There's a whole spiel about it in my app in the abilities section, but basically amount of time in direct contact = amount of detail read.) For example, on one occasion he accidentally brushes his hand against a murder victim's. He gets a churning feeling in his stomach (the victim was poisoned), vague images of people he doesn't know, and a strong wish to "protect the vault". On the flipside, a drop of blood from different victim falls on his cheek and Alex passes out before getting the chance to wipe it off. The prolonged contact causes him to watch the entire death in all its gruesome detail. (Also I forgot to mention he can't read peaceful deaths.)
Soooo long story short, it doesn't change anything. I kind of tl;dred there, but I hope that was informative?