Examining Spiral glyphs, getting tainted and cleansed, and talk of a new city meeting place.

[nick_garou]

Saturday morning I looked at Rina's map-plot of glyphs to determine where an active glyph would be, in a nicer part of town, and not too far from a coffee shop or a restaurant where I could hang out and look at things from afar. (The damn glyphs are freakin' everywhere in the city.) In particular, I was interested to learn if there was power in these glyphs--tass that could be harvested and repurposed, thus deactivating a critical glyph. Interestingly, the answer seems to be both yes and no. The glyph itself does contain power--yet  it doesn't possess the power itself. It's a conduit or temporary vessel, likely as a result of the pattern shifting as a function of time. (I think.) The power seems to be coming from somewhere else. Possibly shared among the glyphs from some central source. Like houses on an electrical grid, where sometimes some houses shut off all their power while others turn theirs on. Sometimes a glyph is "hot" and at other times it is not. Most of the energy seems to be Mind-based. Psionic. That could explain the riots and protests.

Whatever this is, it's immensely powerful and massive in scale. It smacks of some kind of ritual.

After observing and analyzing the glyph for a time, I noticed--out of the corner of my eye--a spiral glyph on the back of my right hand. (Through my glove!) When I looked directly at it, it wasn't there. Back to studying the gl... there it was again on the back of my hand. Looking at it made it disappear. And again. And again. And again. As I continued investigating the disappearing glyph on me hand, I started drawing 'what's-wrong-with-him?' looks from the people at the table next to me. (Great.) I paid my tab and left. It was still there (I think) after I'd left the area. Not good. Paradox? Maybe a little. I was more concerned about taint, having examined the active glyph for most of a morning. And it was, after all, emitting Mind-influencing magics.

I texted Mouse, Emma, Salem, Slug, and Val to let them know I might need a Cleansing. Mouse to the rescue. I meet up with her at The Hub in Maxwell Tower. I hadn't been there in ages, and it's pretty much finished insofar as construction and furnishing goes. Nice place. Mouse led me up to the roof. Kavi arrived in time to join in the Cleansing ritual. I'd never had one performed on me before, much less seen one performed, so it was a fascinating experience. Mouse advised avoiding the more chest-beating tribes' versions of this ritual as it typically involved bloodletting. Hers was more elements-based--earth, wind, fire, and water. She seemed to summon up small bits of the elements as she did the ritual. I had a feeling of dread start to wash over me, as well as an urge to run. Mouse'd said that that's normal, and I figured if I did I'd get tackled and they'd start over. (Or worse.) I also had the urge to countermagick the ritual itself, kind of like bracing oneself for something that's going to hurt. It was almost a natural reaction, and it was tempting, but I forced myself to not resist. Like standing there and getting ready to take a punch to the face that you know is coming, it wasn't easy. I'm damn glad that the taint I'd picked up was mild, according to Mouse.

The ritual culminated with both Kavi and Mouse in their war forms, howling in discord, and a sensation that the howls were drilling into my eardrums. It was truly unpleasant, but not entirely intolerable. A bit of black liquid seeped out of my right ear--not much, but enough to make me run a Life scan to see if there'd been any ear damage. None. Odd that a spiritual corruption would manifest in such a manner, but this is garou magic we're talking about. Static. Ritual. Tradition. Peculiar. Garou.

And arguably more effective than what I might have attempted myself.

Have a nice, big slice of Humble Pie, Nick. A nice, big slice.
 

Afterwards Mouse recommended I not even think about the glyphs for a while, lest the taint re-seat itself somehow. I probably needed a break from it anyway, as that's been my main focus for the past few days now. I made sure to tell Kavi that Rina's work had been useful and that more data would potentially be useful. I volunteered to linger around Maxwell Tower for a while doing odds and ends chores--mainly some dull coding work, which'll allow me to zone out with some repetitive trance music and not think about those glyphs. There was also brief talk about re-establishing a meeting place within the city for garou to convene. It sounds like the tenement lobby might re-open. Maybe. We'll see. I pitched my idea of getting a small commercial building in a less-ideal part of town on the cheap, creating a front business that did programming consulting work or served as a smartphone app developer incubator (so no one would visit and calls would be few and far between and no one would think anything of weirdos coming and going at odd hours and there being no customers or merchandise coming in or out). I think Mouse is hoping to sell the tenement at some point. That seems prudent.