Antipopuli is an extremely dangerous spiritual form of a combination of misanthropy, ill will, and substance that exists in direct opposition to the social customs and norms of a place.
Featured Episodes[]
| Episodes Featuring Antipopuli |
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The Unsleeping City: Chapter II
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Description[]
Antipopuli is antimatter but made specifically of ill will towards people. It is rooted in the culture of the place that it's in-- in a small town, it might manifest as not saying hello to Jeff from the lumber store, and in a city like New York, it is specifically related to the misanthropic ill will and refutation of the social norms of the city. It creates a magically toxic spiritual substance that, when it congregates, can become spiritually poisonous to people in a very potent way.
History[]
Heaven and Hell on Earth[]
Antipopuli is first mentioned by Bazathrax as he explains the "fucked up" confluence he heard about in the New York Subways. He explains that it's coming from people, not demons, and Pete Conlan knows that Kingston Brown, the Vox Populi of New York City, would know more. He and Cody Walsh travel to St. Owen's Hospital, and Kingston recommends they get the gang together and investigate.
On Halloween, the Dream Team encounters Antipopuli for the first time, as it has turned a subway train full of passengers into classic monsters of the holiday, including the conductor, who announces that they're quickly approaching the end of the line. The Dream Team hops on board to stop them.
The Mystery of the Haunted Subway[]
As they make their way through each train car, it appears that the presence of Antipopuli is pushing the dream world into the waking world, transforming each car of impolite passengers into classic Halloween monsters. The Dream Team fights their way to the front of the train, and Ricky Matsui successfully applies the brakes to stop the train. As he does, and the gang exits to the platform, Pete is able to see a raw, unprocessed form of the Umbral Arcana seep back into the ground and the depths of the subway like a tide. He senses it to be unlike other instances of dream magic in the waking world, which were the result of a violent act or an active desire to be in the waking world, that this magic was here to get away from something else on the other side. He points it out to Sofia Lee as well, and they observe how it seems to sap the color from the world.