2026.03.24: Measure of Many Pt.6

Measure of Many (Pt 6/7)
Continuing from the previous log, the group realizes there is something 'else' present below The Nexus and goes to investigate it.
IC Date	March 17th, 2026
Players	Archimedes, Ed, Lavender, Paul, Phil, Robert, Storm (ST)
Location	The Nexus
Prp/Tp	Previous Scene Pt.5 <-- Measure of Many --> Finale
Spheres	Mage, Sorcerer, Psychic, Traditions

Over the past weeks, the group has uncovered a strange web forming throughout the Nexus, stabilizing the strain caused by multiple paradigms in one place. As they experimented, they learned that the web redistributes magical tension, reacts differently to Awakened and linear magic and is likely compensating for failing wards and a dormant node.

Last session, they wandered further in, down the stairs into a hidden space beneath the building where the steps were far, far older than they should be. The lattice converges on a massive, active magical highway. The missing mice are there, working along the lines to unkink knots before they happen. Archimedes has just suggested that the mice are working in a sort of a hive mind.

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The stairs open up into a rough hollowed area beneath the Nexus. It seems more carved out than constructed. The stone is uneven and worn.

At the center, the lattice converges into thick bundles of strands pulling into the center in a dense, shifting mass. It pulses, tightening and releasing as energy moves through it, sending faint ripples back along the web above. All around it, the mice move in precise patterns, adjusting lines and knots in time with the rhythm.

Robert was lagging a bit behind, maybe a little longer in the med bag, and finally joins the others to look over the pulsing magic

Archimedes turns his attention towards Phil, studying the Hermetic for a moment and then asking, "What do you mean set up something to take the load off their shoulders?" He cants his head to the side and mentions, "You could be on to something, but I want to make sure we're on the same page." He then looks over to Storm and shakes his head, "I'm not completely sure, but this looks like an organic computer of some kind maintained by the mice to keep chi or primal energy moving towards where it's needed to hold things together here." He then looks around to the others, "Anybody have any ideas?"

Lavender shakes her head, "I wonder if I try to talk with one of them, if they can reply or not. I'm going to try, and if I cannot get an answer, read their minds maybe." She looks around to see if anyone has an objection to her plan.

Ed takes a moment to look up. "Have you ever seen a... loom? An automated weaving machine? They were the first computational devices. This is both a primitive and advanced metaphysical example of such."

Storm breathes. He has a hold on Lavender and, if you recall, he has a spell building, ready to do SOMETHING just in case. "Haven't we tried to talk to the... thing.... whatever the fuck the mutant ball of yarn is?" He squints slightly and leans in a little closer to peer, but doesn't come any closer. "What happens if we touch it?" NO, he doesn't go do that. "And can we stop it?" He doesn't do that either.

Phil glances over to Archimedes, then back to Lavender and nods. "Yeah, give it a shot. I'm just spitballin' here, you're probably closer to talking their native language."

Robert reaches out to almost (but not quite) touch the lines of magical energy, tracing the routes out. " I suppose the answer to that depends on another question. Stop it from what?

Paul looks over at Lavender, "It can't hurt trying. And I am also very good with animals, nature and spirit. You probably won't need it but if you should need help let me know."

Archimedes frowns, "I think talking to the mice and talking to the processor might be the same thing, depending on how the collective conscience is set up. Let's try speaking with them, Lavender. Depending on what that elicits, I'll see what I can work out about how their minds are working, and then... I'll see what I can do about that thing." The latter is him pointing towards the brain-like thing central to all of this. He then adds, "Maybe, Storm, but we'll want to be careful depending on what it is actually doing. As I recall, these webs are holding together parts of reality as they're trying to come apart?":

At the center, the mass tightens briefly, several strands lining up and actually shifting from one position to another before things slide back out of sync. The following pulse is stronger and a few lines draw inward. No one here, yet, is doing magic.

Lavender steps a little closer to where the mice are working. She waves a little and crouches down a bit. "Hi there! We are looking for you. The mouseguard upstairs said you were missing and were concerned. Is there something we can help you with? What are you working on?" She's hoping a bit of kindness, concern, and gentle speaking with help get a reaction in their favor.

Ed narrows their eyes. "Do we have representatives of more than 4 traditions in the vicinity? I'm Etherite."

Archimedes watches Lavender, the mice, and the central processor as she engages in conversation, only pauses for a moment to look towards Ed and nodding, "We do." He looks back towards Lavender, then the mice, turning his attention to the attempt at making contact.

Robert glances toward Ed for a moment. "If it helps, being of the same Tradition isn't always a guarantee of similarity. Many diverse styles and methodologies have been somewhat crammed together. For example, Xiu and I are both Lifeweavers of the Verbena, but our styles have some fairly significant differences." Robert for example, wears clothes most of the time

The mice don't change what they're doing at all, but one glances Lavender's way. There is a little chitter and one of the mice that's riding Archimedes' shoulder translates. "It needs us. There is too much. It cannot direct it all. Too much was done here. The Gods over-played and it's built up."

Lavender listens to the mouse say something to her, and she looks back to everyone else. "We need to help. I'm not sure how, but I'm in, however to help. Before this goes boom."

"I may take a look after you're done," Phil offers to Archimedes. "If we can work out /what/ they overdid, maybe we can pick out a piece to pull out without droppin' the whole roof on our heads."

Robert gets a bad, bad thought. "From what I understand, the primary issue of using magic wherever and whenever, including someone else's Sanctum, is the clash between what is desired vs what is. Paradox. Not something I'm directly familiar with..." and after just a moment, he vaguely gestures at the pulsing device. "Is that what is constipating this?"

As Archie makes contact, Archie freezes in place. He doesn't look like he's being harmed, he just stops. Pressure builds in the glowing lines and then suddenly shoots forward, faster.

Archimedes nods to Lavender, "That's great. We know the overall problem. I'm going to see now if I can connect with the central unit and then find out a specific way we can help. Find, perhaps, what is overwhelming them." He takes a step away from Lavender, then nods his head to Phil, "Please do? The more we can learn, the better our outcomes can be." He looks back towards the brain, taking a deep breath in and then exhaling out. Both hands raise, pressed together into the Heart Seal mudra. His right hand then extends out to the side, outstretched with the tip of his middle finger and thumb pressed together in a circle. His left hand raises, forming an L with his elbow, his index finger and thumb pressed together with this hand. His eyes go blank and his jaw goes slack, otherwise freezing in place. Input, conflict, resolve, route. Input, Conflict, Resolve, Route. INPUT, CONFLICT, RESOLVE, --. Pressure builds, threatening to pull in every direction from within his mind at once, trying to make them agree, but then failing and trying again.

Ed narrows their eyes and taps their chin. "I need a single member of every tradition with a present representative to simultaneously perform a basic sensing function, in perfect balance. I'd prefer if you used your best focus."

"You'd be surprised how often people drop the ball on that one," Phil replies to Ed. As he talks, he's already going through his pockets, breaking the seal on a fresh pack of cards. "Here, everyone shuffle a few of these once or twice?" as he offers small handfuls around to the group.

Robert does take some cards. He does shuffle the cards. Like a teenager at a frat party that has only shuffled cards at a frat party. This includes picking them up off the floor.

Paul takes the cards Phil offers immediately, but curiously. Shuffles them a couple times then lets them slide easily between his fingers deftly, without seeming to think about what he is doing as he waits for further instructions.

More magic is creating more tension, more little flares here and there. PHil and ARchimedes particularly are causing the mice to work triple time.

Ed winces at the mice and shuffles the cards somewhat competently.

Lavender takes some of the cards and starts to shuffle them together, over under around and around. "Ok, shuffling." She isn't sure quite the next part just yet.

Storm squints slightly when Ed speaks, but his focus is almost entirely on the mass. "Yeah? You think that's a good idea? We're already pissing it off." But he takes the cards anyway and half heartedly shuffles.

Phil circles back around and gathers up the cards after a minute, starting with Robert ("don't quit your day job"), eventually stacking them all back together and squinting at the results. And sighs. "Okay, we might need some tow cables. Or a sword, worst case. I'm takin' a break before I wind up puttin' my foot through the drywall."

Ed says, “I think if we position just right, we may be able to balance the tugging. Archimedes might know the spots better. I am sadly a lesser talent.”

The pressure continues to build and build inside Archimedes' mind/the processor's mind until it reaches a crescendo that nearly takes down the Akashic Brother. When things nearly reach a tipping point, Archimedes' hands splay out, his eyes widen and his jaw seems to spasm, followed by the rest of his body. Reeling away, he slams against the wall and hangs on for support, gritting his teeth and struggling clearly as he attempts to reorder his mind into something more akin to human. Still yet, he growls, "stop... Stop! STOP!" He takes a few ragged breaths and then looks around, "When we do magic, we're overwhelming it. This... this... detects with the individual consensus here begin to disagree and channels magic at it to stabilize it." He then glares at Ed, not out of malice, but out of stress at the situation, "Will having several different paradigms performing magic at once overstress it?"

Robert does pull out a joint, but doesn't light it yet. But he does take a small bit of powdered something out in a baggy, just letting the mages do their thing right now, so as to not skew the results with his sorcery.

Lavender listens to Ed, and listens to the mice. "No. Ed. Not a good idea. The mouse there, he told me that more magic coming from so many different directions? It isn't the right answer to fix this. He doesn't have an answer, but he said that will not help."

Phil makes a face, keeping an eye on Archimedes until he finishes pulling himself out of the whatever. "Still, it was a good question to ask. Only way you figure this shit out, sometimes."

Paul looks at Robert's joint and nods, pulling out a box of matches.

Storm holds a hand up briefly. "Yeah, let's pause here man. We're all doing a whole bunch of experimenting and it isn't working so far. I'm watching the shit light up and it seems ALL bad when we're doing stuff.

From his place up against the wall, Archimedes looks from one to the other, "The more magic we do, the more the system gets overwhelmed. We need to bolster the system, give it enough to survive whatever we do to stabilize realities in the area. Or we need to undo the realities here and let the consensus retake hold." He then shakes his head, "I hate that idea. So we need to ask ourselves... What about the reality here is frayed? Do we need to... I don't know... Change the oil? Reinforce the barriers between the segmentations with chi so that it does not interact and cause the disagreements between them that this system then has to correct?"

Ed says, “I understand." They pause. "I know there's no node here anymore. Would finding a way to spark a new one - to push rather than pull - help?"”

Lavender is watching and considering things, and then Storm says something. "You know. It looks like static magic is calmer for it. It doesn't need more power. I think it needs fewer contradictions. Less difference. More unity."

Phil gestures toward one side of the space. "Some of this stuff looks like it might've been around longer than I have. Or close to it, anyway. Needs to be spread out, too; it's all packed together over here, then there's stone nothing over there."

Paul stares at the situation and blinks several times before he adds to Lavender's statement, "Her talking to the mice doesn't seem to do anything at all." He nods to Phil's words, "Some of them lines ain't lighting up at all."

Robert looks around at the mice.. "Well, the tenders are mouse sized…

Ed raises an eyebrow. "Feng Shui? I can find a mass balance, and my sense of aesthetic does lean old-fashioned..."

"So.. the question is .. what do we DO? Can we zero in on the individual stress points and smooth them out one at a time? Redistribute the load? We're not mice. We're goddamn mages." Storm says.

A couple of the mice who came in with the group bow to the gods.

Archimedes raises his hands, "Primal energy?" He then rubs them together and adds, "In between realities so they no longer interact and cause paradox?" He then looks to Storm, "While you shift the perception of time and bolster the minds of the mice to handle moving faster and staying ahead of any issues we cause." He then blinks, "And we could do our magic from within the realities that respect our traditions to put less strain on the system."

Ed nods. "I'll figure out how to untangle and rearrange the furniture to minimize interference, then...."

Phil gestures vaguely with a hand. "I dunno so much about 'within the realities', but 'one at a time' seems like it would help a lot, too."

Robert says, “Would it work if we pushed it into the spirit world proper? Someplace where rules are more... suggestions.”

Lavender closes her eyes and lets her mind reach out. She is searching... searching.... "Found it! There is one that can help. He's coming. He was either sleeping or meditating. We'll have some help soon."

It's about that time that an old and grizzled mouse wanders into the room from some hidden hidey hole. His eyes glow with little flickers of red and green here and there, but it doesn't seem malevolent in any way. He uses his tail almost like a cane, or like a kangaroo might to balance himself. Slow. SLOW.. Like.. slow for a mouse. But there is something about him that commands attention. The ancient mouse bows to the 'gods' in the place. "Great Ones, if this humble old mouse may be so bold, you have many great answers. That is the problem. Choose one truth. Release the rest." One of the lines nearest him brightens and he lunges for it, laying his hand on it and the power ripples THROUGH him. It doesn't seem to affect him except for the pause. "It can carry what you decide."

Robert looks around glancing back the way they came from. "So one tradition, or one person, needs tomake a claim?

Ed furrows their brows. "All I know is, we are all... much as it seems reductive, magi."

The mouse looks impatient, like he's fucking old and done with this bullshit.

Storm pipes up a little bit. "Together. Unified. What do you think? Something simple?" He gestures to the mouse. "He said pick something. Maybe it doesn't matter what."

Ed says, “I know it doesn't react to everything, only different things that impose upon it. Perhaps only highly active things provoke active reactions? Newton was onto some things, after all, even if woefully ignorant of the depths to which that was true...”

Storm squints just a little bit and he drops the effect that he's been holding. His Just In Case. "Someone tell me what we're going to do and let's do it. What's a simple thing that all of us can do together? Something.. sensory. Paul and Robert? You're exempt, but does everyone have..... like can you all sense life?"

"I mean I /can/," Phil replies. "So the theory is, if we're doing the same /thing/ even if we're doing it different ways, then that may not fuck it up so much?"

Ed shakes their head. "I have never been able to master interactions with the living or spiritual aspects."

Storm gestures toward Squeekrates over there and then to Lavender. "Lavender said more unity... Squeeky ---" The mouse interrupts with the clearing of his throat. "... Hank. My name is Hank."

Storm STARES. ".... HANK... said... pick one. Suggestions?"

Paul looks at Storm, then over at Robert, and waits to hear what the others say.

Robert rubs his chin a moment and thinks on it, even though he's exempt. "Not in the manner you have in mind. I mean, sensing Mana on the other hand..."

Lavender ohs! "Wait! Listen - I have an idea." She tries to get everyone's attention. "Together, simple. We all give power. Quint... Mana. We all have something. If we do it at the exact same time? Not one by one like we tried before. It's simple, and elegant."

Ed nods, but frowns. "I'm still of the opinion that we should spread out if we try it - minimize localized strain."

"That might actually be what happens, though," says Phil. "Maybe it'll push out into those strands that are sittin' empty right now."

Storm leans over to give Lavender a smooch. "Yes. That's it!" He turns toward the mouse to ask HIS opinion, but the old mouse shrugs. He's still pissed about being called Squeaky. "So, let's AGREE to spread out. Maybe all of us actually take hold of a line that's inactive? Push it through there? Can we try it together?"

Robert nods slightly. "So.. we're giving it a magical Rossetta stone. Different words, but the same question with the same answer.

Ed nods. "I guess I kind of had it - we ARE all magi." Ed starts picking their way to a far corner.

Phil starts putting cards down here and there again, getting about halfway around the circle before he shakes his head. No, others need to follow this one more closely, it needs to be more obvious. "Okay, everyone pick a spot, but don't kick till Hank says kick."

Lavender touches Storm's cheek and smiles. "We shall see. It is just an idea." She nods with the others comments and moves over to a dormant strand and is ready to give what she can. "Just count us down, Mr. Hank."

Robert moves toward a strand of his own, lighting his joint (that doesn't smell like a normal joint) and tapping the ashes onto his fingertips before reaching out for an almost touch. Holding off until the countdown

Paul reaches for one of the lines he noticed earlier wasn't lighting and he concentrates, waiting to reach for it and allowing a measure of his Mana to go into it until Phil gives the word.

Ed finds an unlit cord. Their hands hover near.

Archimedes pushes himself to his feet with a small groan, taking a deep breath. He moves over to one of the inactive lines, pauses for a moment to peer at it before he reaches out to settle his fingers on it. He takes a deep breather and turns his head, waiting for the countdown to begin.

Storm blows air out and then leans over to give Lavender a quick kiss. "Careful over there, lady. Anything feels weird, you stop."

Once everyone's just ready, old Hank says, "Three.. two.. one.. Go."

If everyone does just that exactly and nothing more, there is a flare in the line, right there at the center of the whole thing. It all lights up like National Lampoons Christmas Vacation for a moment and then it goes dark. Then that hum that has been quietly in the background is actually gone for a moment and the silence is deafening. A quick second or two later, the lines start to light up again, one at a time, including the ones that each of the group are touching and the lines become not QUITE physical between grasping fingers.

There is a collective shout and squeak from the masses of mice and the ones at the center all just kind of pause.. waiting for their next assigned move

Ed doesn't have a strong pool of quintessence, and they know it - but they pump in a bit anyway, just until their cord is lit. They don't release their grip on said cord fully even as the light shines, merely covering their eyes with one hand and holding the strange thread with the other.

Robert sends his shot into the line, just a little nudge of energy, having to close his eyes like he was looking into the sun for a moment, and holding his breath in case things were going to get worse, and somewhat relieved when everything seems to just pause

As the countdown begins, Archimedes draws a deep breath in, his stomach and chest contracting down into the air he breaths. As he exhales, his body expands as if taking in a deep breath. On the intake of breath, Archimedes channels pure chi into the strand of netting, lighting it up brightly and doing his small part to correct this issue.

Lavender closes her eyes and with a small cant of her head, she pushes her power through it on the GO. It isn't a lot, but it is equal to the others. She holds on as she opens her eyes with wonder to see the light show! Off and on, and what is it that is happening! The squeaks from the mice en masse make her smile and squeal herself with a glee quietly.

What the hell kind of maniac carries playing cards /and/ a Zippo in his go kit? Phil, that's who. At least he has the good sense not to use them at the same time, and the thing is put back away as even before the inert lines light up with activity once again.

Paul sighs out his breath as his mana slips through the line. He watches then as the lines darken then relight, and a very bright smile comes over his face at the reactions of the mice, "I think that did it!"

Storm lets it rip at the same time as everyone else. It isn't much. It's Storm-flavored, but the AGREEMENT was that they would all do the same thing. He has his doubts, honestly, but it seems like it worked. As the threads cease to be on this plane of existence, he releases a breath and looks first to Lavender, then to old Hank. Who the fuck names a mouse Hank?

Hank does. That's who. The old mouse nods and starts to move back toward his hiding spot. "That should hold it for a while. Thank you, Great Ones."