Editing Bugge (section)

=== Weaknesses ===
Most Bugges only manifest once, usually for less than 10 minutes. Less than one in a hundred last for more than a day.<ref name = "bestiary4">'''Background''': The insistent voice of an innocent can strike the same chords or guide the spirits in the same fashion that a practitioner might, and a story told enough times in enough voices can, if a vessel is available, lead to the formation of a Bugge.  Some loose example cases could include a child that regularly and consistently draws their imaginary friend for some time, with others joining in or adding to the mythology, or a graffiti artist might stop mid-word after hearing a car hit someone, running to the body, with photos capturing the scene and word in close association, the half-written word becoming a ‘remember her’ kind of motif.  Most Bugge are fleeting, and most will manifest as semi-corporeal spirits for a single event only, so briefly lived that it is hard to catalogue or track them to any degree of accuracy.<br><br>
Because of this, though the word ‘Bugge’ comes from Middle-English, it can be used as a way of referring to spirit-specific, non-practitioner-derived ‘bugs’ in the metaphorical system, with some saying they append the ‘ge’ to the end of ‘bug’ to mark it as practitioner specific.  For every Bugge that becomes something more, at least one hundred last for less than a day, and the vast majority of those one hundred last for less than ten minutes.  Further, some Bugges do find traction, but do not exist as more than a repeating glyph with obscure origin and sometimes no human source for a given appearance, with the ‘super S stussy’ being a commonly cited example.  If such a glyph is ‘raised up’, such as by association with a murder, a greater conspiracy theory, or by a celebrity getting it tattooed on them, and if this raising is enough to elevate it beyond its casual use, it may become active.  Otherwise it is the equivalent of Spirit-world wildlife that encroaches on the real world, and is considered inactive.<br><br>Much of this text will focus on the active Bugge who lasts beyond twenty-four hours, as other Bugges aren’t of any consequence, nor do they require any attention or offer much use.  In the briefest summation, the Bugge arises as a story, imagination or symbol that finds something material to latch on to, then if given an excuse, the story feeds the Bugge, and the Bugge feeds the story, sometimes to disastrous effect. - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nJ6fmch0SH6DMo3dDr2fOd1HK2zILjsvwlBYxk5tDPM/edit#heading=h.tqdoyne9f4k7 Bestiary: Bugge]</ref>

Even relatively developed Bugges are not usually great at either raw [[power]] or at strategy.<ref name="bestiary11"/>

Powerful Bugges will only have built up that power in a particular area; if summoned too far from their territory, they will be unable to appear for more than a moment, like a common Bugge.<ref name="bestiary11">'''Summoning:''' While difficult to bind, Bugge are fairly easy to summon.  The difficulty in summoning grows as one gets further from the Bugge’s environment, with a failed summoning ‘fizzling’, the Bugge acting like the most common Bugge that appears, then flickers out within moments. - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nJ6fmch0SH6DMo3dDr2fOd1HK2zILjsvwlBYxk5tDPM/edit#heading=h.tqdoyne9f4k7 Bestiary: Bugge]</ref> Of course, once summoned, a Bugge may begin to take root and add this new location to their domain.<ref name="bestiary12"/> Bugges often waste their power on people who then leave it's sphere of influence, unless something is keeping a population isolated and easily influenced.<ref name="bestiary8">'''Weaknesses:''' Bugge are not spiritual powerhouses, and even the most aggressive cases like the ‘paper bag head’ or ‘triangles’ are spirits that linger and wait for the right moment to deliver the final blow.  They act through influence, and operate best on the easily influenced.  They are not strategic or clever with their own use or distribution, and may reach points where they are gaining power and frittering it away on people who will soon leave the area (and escape the proliferation’s reach) or on people where the Bugge cannot then take hold.  For this reason, they tend to work best in enclosed spaces, in towns or neighborhoods trapped by the grip of winter (see ‘Triangles’) in schools and in old folks homes.  This is not to say they work ''better'', but to say that these situations see them being less self-defeating than elsewhere. - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nJ6fmch0SH6DMo3dDr2fOd1HK2zILjsvwlBYxk5tDPM/edit#heading=h.tqdoyne9f4k7 Bestiary: Bugge]</ref>

Symbols of a more powerful idea (corporate brands, religions) are a good component for protective [[circle]]s against a Bugge's power.<ref name="bestiary9">'''Binding''': Bugge cannot be bound unless they find a host or a central vessel.  When closing in on this central vessel, it may be prudent or effective to use a greater ideology or symbology for warding and circles, though any circles will generally be for protecting oneself or specific things, because enclosing the Bugge itself is difficult.  Slogans and company logos may serve, as may bible verses. Failing this, the Bugge’s rules can be used against it (and these are often easily sought and found), but this is purely a short-term measure for getting out or getting to the power source and cutting it off. Each use of the ‘rules’ will strengthen the Bugge’s assault in the long run. [...] Quarantines may be enacted with the aforementioned symbology and slogans. This may add to the surreal nature of the landscape, where the perimeter of the area seems to be marked with billboards and signage at regular intervals. - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nJ6fmch0SH6DMo3dDr2fOd1HK2zILjsvwlBYxk5tDPM/edit#heading=h.tqdoyne9f4k7 Bestiary: Bugge]</ref> Further they have a hard time getting a grip in places where symbols aren't what most people would recognize.<ref>“<nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Turtle Queen]]] takes over symbols and writing, things with meaning.  They’re worse with untamed nature.  We can run, and she won’t-” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/09/17 Excerpt] from [[Let Slip 20.e]]</ref>

Most Bugges will have built-in rules for warding them off, at the cost of strengthening their internal mythology.<ref name="bestiary9"/>

Bugges are vulnerable to [[Sympath]] magic aimed at manipulating and diverting people.<ref name="bestiary2"/>