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The Magnus protocol 20 - Social stigma
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Well, is effed.
Key notes are that, as PonderingAlpaca said, Ink5oul tattooed an elaborate version of the alchemical symbol for the Sun, which is popularly* the same symbol for Gold. Gold is notoriously two things in Alchemy. The metal, which is considered to be very close to a metallic version of the Philosopher's Stone and therefore a perfect substance, and the Alchemical Sulphur, a property of nature that imbues things with a Soul. The Soul is different from the Mind; the Soul is emotive, primal and contains everything that makes up our sense of self and identity, whereas the Mind (Mercury) is abstract, ephemeral and logical. Alchemical symbols and Astrological symbols are also often the same because Renaissance Alchemists believed that the 7 planets corresponded to 7 metallic substances, with Gold being the Sun, as the Moon was Silver. Oddly they seem to have channeled the power of the Sun and the person caught on fire. oops.
*If anyone's curious, the reason I say "popularly" is because Alchemists didn't agree on every single symbol. There are dozens of these, though some appear more often and more consistently than others. It just depends on the author. Though, I doubt Rusty Quill is checking into the niche authors and are instead going by the more well-known stuff.
What I find interesting is that there are 3 components to Ink5oul's "magic". We have their intention, we have the ink, and we have the design. Originally they only had the design, which worked somewhat. Then, they had began pouring their own intention and desire by feeding off of the fear in others. But that wasn't enough either, and they began experimenting with the ink's components. It does seem like they're experimenting with the Tria Prima here. They have an idea/concept, they have the intention that drives it but are missing the physical component that binds them perfectly. In short, they seem to have Sulphur and Mercury but are missing the Salt. Which is ironic, given their real-life instagram account has the symbol for Salt in the bio.
As for the Magnus Institute, we have confirmation that they got Starkwall'd. Interestingly though, Gertrude and Gerry are alive. Remains to be seen what their role is in all this. And we got confirmation they were trying to do some end-of-the-world shenannigans again. Question is, in what way.
I don't think they actually messed with the ink's composition itself. They might have, of course, but it seemed like they were just drugging their clients before doing the tattoing.
Those old Victorian inks seemed to last forever, but my adaptations definitely didn’t. It was very difficulty keeping canvases still on the more complex designs and after I was done they would usually end up having grotesque experiences. That didn’t matter so much to me once the pictures were captured and posted online but after a while the police did notice a definite, if unprovable, connection between my tattoos and a series of rather disturbing accidents. Eventually it was easier to just use some chemical cocktails to keep clients quiet
Then they switch to the ink flowing through/out of them, as if it's a part of them.
It's interesting that Ink5oul has a similar feeling as Dr. Webber from Putting Down Roots - that there's something inside them that feels differently than they do.
As in, they manifested the ink directly?
That's what they made it sound like.
Jarrett doesn’t matter now. The ink flows through me and out of me, transforming the lucky into something newer and more beautiful than their own shallow tastes could have conceived.
I took this to mean they no longer have to plagiarize, they have cosmic inspiration from whatever they are an avatar of.
That's another interpretation, for sure.