Casual recall is the ability to tap knowledge from a kotim with little effort. This is seen with many high vogal generation individuals because of their constant connection with the source. This allows them access to trivia that was imprinted into the collective memory but doesn't always provide the required understanding to use it.
⚠️ SPOILER: From this point, this page reveals spoilers for Flight of the Scions.
Ruben cleared his throat before he whispered, “The… votim and kotim don't really give me the ability to understand things. I know things but I can't put them together. They don't fit. I know the technique that Maris is using, though no vomen can use the Crystal Spheres methods. I have no ability to associate the individual skills that consist of an air witch, knight, or smith's abilities.”
— Flight of the Scions 31
Casual recall also doesn't give the ability to browse the known information. This is because most memory addresses don't have metadata that associate multiple memories together in that manner. Instead, the telepath has to think of a specific topic, then they have to see if they have a memory about it.
“Can he tell you those legends?”
“I… not really.”
Kanéko shifted into a different position, setting aside the tiny plate. She nibbled on her lip, and then brightened. “Can he show you what happened in a place? If you ask him?”
Ruben's eyes glazed over for a moment, and then he nodded. “Yes, but like the kotim, I have to ask for it.” Another frustrated sigh. “He can't volunteer information. And I don't have the right identifiers.”
“You said that the kotim, no, the votim, identifies things that you look at. Can he do the same thing? Say, that hill there,” she pointed to a large hill, “does he know it?”
A nod.
“What happened there?”
“I-I can't.”
“Fine, was there, um, ever, let's see, lightning that hit it?”
“No.”
“A fire?”
Ruben looked surprised. “Yes! There were two prairie fires that came through here.”
Kanéko grinned back. “He's about legends. The tribe must have had stories about him. Start with the first one. What did he, Lopidir, do?”
“I… he…” Ruben frowned, and then his eyes glazed over, “he saved a child there. It was a girl of six years, three months, and she got caught under a burning tree which was set on fire during a raid. Lopidir took the shape of a bear and walked through it. He used his claws to hack at the wood and picked it up.”
— Flight of the Scions 31
Word Choices
Having a casual ability to recall words has a tendency to alter the word choices of those who use those memories. In general, their choices are based on the ones that are given and don't always follow the same short or generic verbs or nouns that most people use.
Precision
Because of how the information gained, those who speak from memory have a tendency to be precise because that is how the memory was imprinted, and not understood. It is not uncommon for those with casual recall to speak in time as minutes and seconds instead of more generic “a few minutes” or “a little while.” Same with distances or volumes.
For those with a high vogal generation, it becomes difficult to not be precise when speaking.
Cached Information
Higher generation users also have the ability to save vasts of information without specifically pulling them out, in effect cache the shared memories in bulk, for use when they were not connected to the kotim. This is a reflexive action, due to avoiding overwhelming the kotim's abilities. This data is continually updated among the collective, but when the telepath is disconnected, the data remains in the last known state.
Ruben shrugged. “Partially correct. But, the mind was my own. Children of Vo have access to a shared memory; it is called the votim. But, my access to the votim, and therefore my memories, ceased eighteen years, four months, and twenty-one days ago.”
“What happened then?”
“I was born.”
Kanéko had no way to respond to his answer. She stared at the blue eyes for a moment, and then looked away. She turned toward the cabins that Ruben identified, and she remembered the night on the balcony. “I have an idea. Virsian has a cabin there. I could hide there, and you could send food if it's safe?”
Ruben shrugged. “That seems a reasonable plan.”
“Any idea which cabin is Virsian's? I knew they came this way, but didn't know about the cabins.”
“I cannot. That decision was made after I lost access to my memories.”
— Flight of the Scions 23