sticksandbones | surely it's not hard to build a door to another realm of existence?

surely it's not hard to build a door to another realm of existence?

Who: The Entire Grove
What: Portal Shenanigans
When: Throughout the entire month and beyond if needed?
Where: The Grove
Warnings: portal crimes?? possible snake attacks. possible snack attacks.

Clive has never actually made a portal to some demi-realm before, so he has no idea where to start. Except he guesses if it's going to be a door, he can craft a doorframe? It's... well, it sure is! And it's right in the middle of the Grove the best he can, so everyone can access it who needs to access it. It just needs a door or a portal or whatever, he doesn't know.

He does know that he's not a carpenter, and that the benefits of having a stone hand is you don't feel it when you inevitably knock your borrowed hammer into said hand. But he does his best to get it started so those with the experience for these things have some sort of framework for which to build on.

And other than that, he's mostly on patrol with Torgal for any snakes that may be trying to sneak in to interrupt things.

Welcome to a Mingle, Investigation, Joint Build-a-Thon? This will run for however long it needs to run for until everyone either blows themselves up, or we succeed! Collab with your fellow nerds, watch others, sabotage.

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See, this? This is what Ford is good at. Once he gets the word that the portal staging ground has been determined, he shows up with his armfuls of diagrams and bags full of reagents to get started.

... The basic portal is a little low tech compared to what he's used to working with, though. He eyes it... not exactly critically, but it's definitely an appraising-bordering-on-skeptical look. He speaks, whether that be to Clive or anyone else that happens to be nearby.

"I don't suppose we have any materials more sturdy than wood, do we?"

Like, maybe some rocks?

— — — — —

But Ford doesn't let a little thing like a lack of structural integrity stop him! They can always reinforce the frame later. Right now he needs to confirm the fidelity of the sort of magic he thinks they'll need to use.

So he sets up a little workspace not too far from the portal itself. He's drawn a pretty simple magic circle, with some local ingredients spaced evenly around its perimeter. In the middle stands a simple, never-used tapered candle. Ford sprinkles some glittery blue-black dust on the candle, then closes the circle. A moment later the candle wick ignites!

The flame flickers, dims, brightens, and finally stabilizes. Then it grows larger. And a little larger. Then even the wax starts to emit a warm yellow glow. Then the whole candle starts to warp and deform.

The candle explodes. Warm-but-not-hot wax splatters against everything in a 10 foot radius, smelling faintly of old books and blackberries. Ford, who was sitting right next to the candle, gets the absolute worst of it and only just manages to shield his face in time. But when he lowers his arm he's positively beaming.

"Perfect!"

Listen, sir, if you want rocks you can look around for rocks. Clive just grabbed whatever was handy. He arches an eyebrow and then glances back to the frame, thoughtful.

"I felt wood would be fine for now, in case it had to be relocated."

If it can be relocated once it's up and built. He tilts his head a little, glancing back to the older man, his voice amused, "I've never built a portal before, after all."

He's winging it, Ford.

Despite his critical eye a moment ago, Ford takes the 'relocation' explanation readily. In fact, it inspires a rather thoughtful look from it.

"I hadn't considered portability..."

His last portal was a lot bigger.

"But I suppose if we're not bound to a fixed power source, it's more convenient to be able to move it around the grove freely."

"It should offer more security for it if needed," he agrees, turning his attention back to the door frame. Because that's truly all it is. Not even a door in it, because he doesn't know what a portal will look like. Or if a normal door would interfere with a door to another realm.

"What supplies are you going to need?"

He offered Ford the head of this and he meant it. He'll act as the go-between for Ford if needed, but he's deferring things to the older man.

"It's hard to guess the details this early into the process, but..."

He lapses into thought for a the moment.

"I think charcoal, chalk, candles, and matches are what we'll need the most. And then salt, silver, some common stones like quartz and amethyst, and some common plants like oak and mint."

Yes, he thinks that'll do. Magic varies quite a bit from universe to universe, but there are still some common staples.

That makes him squint a little. Charcoal, chalk, he understands. Writing utensils that can be used against ground. Candles and matches, okay, they need to see. But the rest?

"Why the different crystals, wouldn't one type work?"

Someday Joshua's manners will rub off on his brother and Clive will stop being so blunt about things, but today is not that day. Probably won't be tomorrow either. He doesn't understand the need for oak and mint, either, those go into medicines not... magic?

Fortunately for Clive, Ford is a scientist, used to working with scientists, and from New Jersey. The bluntness of Clive's question goes right over his head.

"That depends on the spellcaster. Some types of magic requires specific materials because..."

He waves a hand. Too time consuming to explain in granular detail right this second.

"... but for some types of magic—like mine—the materials are just a way of helping someone maintain focus. Where I come from, quartz is associated with amplifying energy in rituals and spells. So when I use quartz in my own rituals, it helps me stay focused on the idea of amplifying and channeling energy. I don't need it, but it makes it easier."

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aneikonic - 2025-03-23 23:02 (UTC) - Expand

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cryptograms - 2025-03-29 15:55 (UTC) - Expand

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aneikonic - 2025-03-31 13:23 (UTC) - Expand

"Ah, so that was meant to happen?"

Vanilla was standing a distance away, observing, and watches as the candle explodes. It amuses him greatly and he steps forward once he's sure nothing else is going to blow up, bringing a towel with him to hand to the man.

And of course he's going to investigate the magic circle with delight, he absolutely loves seeing every elses magic. Being careful not to step in wax, it might only be warm, but he doesn't want to be cleaning that off bare feet.

"It was!"

Ford gladly accepts the towel from Pure Vanilla. It's only so useful in wiping up wax, but Ford at least manages to get most of it off his arm and shirt.

"We're going to need to work with multiple magic systems, and we'll be channeling that magic into materials that may be incompatible. I was worried that it wouldn't work at all, so overloading the candle enough to make it explode is a promising first step."

As for the magic circle it's a pretty simple thing, mostly lines with only a few symbols. He's using the symbols for the Behenian fixed stars, rather than more common symbols like those from alchemy and the zodiac.

Yeah the towel is doing a wonderful job of not helping, and Pure Vanilla can't help but laugh a little as he picks some of the cooling wax off of Ford. Just what the towel doesn't slough off. His laugh fades into a thoughtful hum, beaming in response. It's very much like how they tested with Ourania's summoning.

This is a far more delicate procedure, however, and meant to be permanent.

"A wonderful idea! A mix of magics has worked before on a temporary," emphasis temporary, "basis by using ourselves as stabilizing conduits. Without that, however, testing various combinations is a good first step."

And oh, he both recognizes and doesn't recognize the symbols. Comprehension flares through his Soul Jam and tells him what he needs to know to understand, but he's never seen them before. Yet it's familiar in the Witch manner. He looks gleeful as he examines it, crouching down to look closer.

"Would you mind if I picked your brain about your magic?"

Huh, using the Grove residents themselves as conduits is and interesting idea—but like Pure Vanilla says, that had been for a temporary ritual. If the portal is supposed to be used more than once that's going to get annoying fast.

Ford lapses into a moment of thought. Then he pulls out his journal and flips to a page already half-covered in portal notes. In the blank space near the bottom, he writes BLOOD CRYSTALS? in bold block capitals and underlines it three times. He finishes just in time for Pure Vanilla to ask his question.

"Certainly! What did you have in mind?"

And he's being a good Cookie and won't pry at Ford's mind as to what he's writing! He will watch him curiously though, head tilted to the side a little, before beaming when Ford returns his attention back to him. He points at the runes he doesn't (and does) recognize.

"Can you explain these symbols to me? I don't recognize them! As well as I heard you request plants earlier. Do you incorporate them whole, or grind them down to join in the circle?"

He doesn't touch said circle but he does walk his fingers along it, measuring it, taking in the thickness of it.

The circle itself is well-crafted, drawn with confident, even strokes. The circle is about as perfect and the lines are about as straight as a person can draw unassisted, and there's nothing to indicate that Ford at any point messed up and needed to redraw any part it.

"The symbols are drawn the from Behenian fixed stars, which are a group of stars from my dimension that are considered especially potent for crafting rituals. On earth, at least."

He counts them off as Pure Vanilla walks his fingers along the perimeter.

"Those represent Aldebaran, Procyon, and Arcturus. All of them are excellent for promoting stability and an even flow of energy. And that last one is for Alkaid, which helps draw energy into the circle and towards the candle."

It's pretty simple—almost blunt in its construction—but it gets the jpb done.

"Either could work, depending on the spellcaster's preference. If we just need them there for representation, fresh cuttings work best. But they can also be dried, ground up, and burned if there's any need to convey the idea of releasing energy."

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purevanillacookie - 2025-03-18 05:48 (UTC) - Expand

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cryptograms - 2025-03-29 16:09 (UTC) - Expand

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purevanillacookie - 2025-03-29 21:56 (UTC) - Expand

If I may, what are the goals of this particular experiment?

( not critical! only curious and friendly. )

[ Don't worry, Ford can recognize a tone of scientific (or, well, magical) curiosity just fine. ]

Energy transference! There's not much point in building a portal if we can't get the materials to accept the energy needed to power it.

That's very true. What conduits are you considering? I've asked my husband to consider obtaining a Sun Shard as a potential power source, you see.

That really depends on who's willing to actually cast the ritual, but...

[ Hm... ]

Metal would be my personal choice, particularly copper. It's literally a good conductor, and plenty of magic practices associate it with the same. Even just copper wire wrapped around some of the other materials would be helpful, but if we had the time to make the whole circle out of copper....

Copper... That would work very well. We'd have to protect it from outside elements, I think, but...

If we're smart about the timing, we might not need to protect it very thorough—or for very long. Copper will oxidize, but it should take some time before it does so beyond usability.

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lilyberation - 2025-03-29 18:43 (UTC) - Expand

"I'm no mason, but I can shape stone bricks if they're needed," Odile offers idly. She knows Clive is concerned about relocation, but for such a small project she isn't worried. They can always move it on stone rollers if they need to.

This is... Odile, right? Ford's spoken to her in passing once or twice, but never had a chance to get to know her.

Stone shaping, though? That sounds handy.

Do you do that with magic, or some other sort of skill?"

"It's Craft," she explains simply. "To shape stone, I would need a chisel, a hammer, Scissors Craft, and a bit of Paper Craft."

It's not exactly simple or easy, but she has an understanding of the principle and the sheer power necessary to make it work.

'Craft' doesn't quite explain it, but Ford thinks he's starting to get a picture.

"And that won't leave any residual energy in the stone once you're done?"

"Not when I do it," she states simply. It isn't a brag, but it is possible for such Crafting to leave residue unintentionally. Odile may not know the specifics of this particular application, but she's spent years mastering the technical aspect of Craft. Her power doesn't do anything she doesn't want it to do.

"Perfect, then!"

Ford isn't about to argue with Odile when she says that she doesn't leave any sort of residue when she works. He doesn't know her well, but he's seen and heard enough about her to believe it.

"Is it just stone you can work with? Could you work with metal, for example?"