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

[aneikonic]

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.

Comments

[purevanillacookie]

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.

[cryptograms]

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."

[purevanillacookie]

The circle speaks of experience and confidence, and Vanilla approves. Not that he didn't think Ford had experience, it's just that in comparison Ford is so young, and already he's well versed in magic work. It reminds him of himself and Lily, and he smiles, listening as Ford explains the symbols.

"Ah, you use celestial representations as well," he murmurs. He doesn't recognize the names but he understands well enough their representations. Moon, Sun, Stars, the Void. Different names for the Stars here, but the same purpose. Stabilizing, energy transference.

Vanilla looks delighted.

"Mm, it looks like it's similar across the worlds here, yet that doesn't surprise me. We are 'Earthbread' after all. Though flowers are more often used in Witchcraft," incense, ritual, "it's not unusual to use more exotic ones for sugar chalk drawings."

He looks around to find some chalk - since Ford is done with his test - and quickly draws a smaller circle nearby, etching out runes. The circle itself may look vaguely familiar - it's not too different from Goetia. Just the runes are different, except for the eye in the middle. It might resemble the All-Seeing Eye.

The circle itself is nonsense, Vanilla just makes a random one for white magic. A ground seal to bless the land and purify it.

[cryptograms]

When Pure Vanilla confirms that similarities between Earthbread magic and Earth magic, Ford visibly perks up. He leans in eagerly to study the magic circle—and then leans right back, a little alarmed, when the All-Seeing Eye's cousin makes its appearance.

"Ah... yes! That's—" Ford clears his throat. "... Pardon. I've spent several decades traveling the multiverse, and I've discovered that there are several trends or cultural features that commonly reoccur between dimensions."

He takes a different piece of chalk and draws out several of the Hebrew characters used in the actual Goetia next to Pure Vanilla's circle.

"If you swapped some of these characters out for the one in your circle, you'd have something very similar to a demon-summoning circle in my world. We call some types of magic witchcraft as well. And I met many other people from different dimensions that would recognize both of those terms. And..."

What's a good example? A good example that isn't that fucking eye.

"Have you ever heard of a 'vampire'?"

[purevanillacookie]

Oh yes. Though it's not circled in a pyramid, there's no mistaking the eyes position in the middle. Vanilla gives Ford a quick glance as he leans back like that, his gaze piercing as he Looks. Aha. Right.

Bill.

For their magic, it would be Shadow Milk.

Very deliberately he reaches over and smudges half the eye out, to put the man at more ease. He hopes the other hasn't ran into Shadow Milk yet, that might be bad. Especially if Shadow Milk picks up on the other mans issues with his little triangle shaped shitty doppelganger.

He's distracted as Ford places down those other symbols, scooting closer to investigate them. They have that familiar unfamiliarity to them, Comprehension gleaming on his chest, but unable to truly place them. It's reach limited by the blocks between worlds.

"Demon..." His voice is a soft murmur as he thinks of Devil Cookie and the thing that little Pumpkin Pie Cookie summoned into her doll, accidentally thinking it her Sister. Only one of those two he'd consider a Demon by Fords sense of the word, picking the meaning off the other's brain through Comprehension. And it's the thing in that doll.

He smiles a little at the other man, though his eyes are searching. "Vampire Cookie is as close as our world gets, and yes, he does drink jam, though a friend of mine was here not too long ago who had been turned into a Vampire far more closer to your sense of the word before coming here, as I had once been a Minotaur. Are you saying you are able to summon them?"