The Library

[Chibichibi]

The Library is a massive stone building that has been shaped over many years, allowing for new additions and in order to maintain the structural integrity. She looks like she is all one pieces, thanks to the stone molders. There are four floors to her, maybe more. But the others are most likely bound in the strongest magic of Illusion. She has a lion type Cattaur watching over her. Phix had been involved in an unfortunate accident with a flash crafter and had been burdened with wings she could not use. The woman applied for the position of Librarian soon after, and has been here for at least fifty years since then.

(Points if you know who my Librarian is based on)

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble turned a corner and blasted through the Library doors on the first floor. her glasses askew and mildly out of breath, the panicked little spazz almost ran headlong into a desk, nearly missed knocking over a bookshelf, and still managed to hurt herself as she tripped and flew headlong into a table. "Well, At least im here... Owwww~"

[Caulder]

Hoten then slowly entered the library, his face shoved into a book still. "You should learn to use that extra energy of yours for magic, instead of for mundane interactions, Bibble." he says, stopping next to her and offering his left hand to help her up, never looking away from his half-read book. A slight thump is heard on the floor directly behind him, inside his gray robes, as his tail hits the ground, though as to why, he failed to portray on his face.

[cross_grave]

"She still alive?" Grave entered the library at a calm pace. He figured that Bibble wouldn't put herself in too much danger - after all, what's the worst thing that would happen? True, she could hit her head or something, how bad could that be? Cynder regularly exposed himself to a variety of burning objects with a disregard for safety regulations that would make any workplace safety specialist cry in terror and emerged more or less unharmed. This was probably the main reason why he was not worried - his sense of danger had shifted to a different scale long ago.

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble took Hoten's offered hand and stood up, "Your right, sorry Hoten..." dusting herself up and looking around she poked two fingers together nervously, small sparks forming at the instance of contact on every poke... "Where do you think we should start, I kind of had an epiphany while I was looking at the ceiling, I REALLY think we should look at any studies on teleportation to help give us a better understanding of the framework of space and how we move through it with magic could help." Bibble looked down embarrassed, not sure how well her Idea would be takin.

[Caulder]

"Teleportation? Why, I was just about to suggessst that." he says, looking over the edge of his book at the library, then over at Bibble. "I happen to be quite versed in the subject myself." he says, turning the page on his book before drawing a piece of cloth from his robes and marking the page, before closing the book with a dull thud and looking about at the books in the library. "So many books, so little time." he states, beginning his slow walk through the library, picking out books he believed contained the information he would need, and piling them in his right arm.

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble visibly brightened at Hotens acceptance and enthusiasm, he really seemed to be in his element. Bibble knew the concepts and theories but was absolute Shite at it. She had trouble concentrating hard enough, she also jumped around a little in space time whenever she sneezed which could be quite troublesome. "Do you know some of the beginner books? I think a lot of the tutorials and theories are in those tomes specifically and my hunch is pointing me there, Also advance theory rather then practical application would be a good place to look, And I promise to try not to sneeze..."

Bibble said this because several of these books were considered basic knowledge for anyone who used it and some were quite dusty. It was itchy...

[cross_grave]

"Hey, I got a knack for teleportation too." Grave cracked his knuckles together before wandering off towards different bookcases than Hoten, picking up any tome he believed to be somehow relevant to the subject. "Though I wonder... If it's teleportation, how could that work? It's one thing to just instantly move yourself over a distance..." He muttered to himself, considering the problem. "Opening and maintaining stationary rift, and one that leads to a different world, not to mention the possibility they're a two-way road... What in blazes could have so much power? Or could it be that it's simply a matter of boundaries between worlds and their strenght? But that raises the question of distance between two worlds, and..." One could almost hear Cynder's brain overheating as he picked up the pace, selecting the books almost mechanically.

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble spun around and stopped Grave with an outstretched arm. "If I'm correct, and i think I may be, then the distance between worlds is actually infinitesimally small. Transportation is more of a transplant then a travel, remember time is Non-linear. All teleportation does is take the Time out of the equation for travel. You're only moving along the axis of distance..."

This strangely insightful speech gave a glimpse at the actual intelligence hiding within the squirrely alchemist, but it was ruined as she took a deep breath and popped a cute little sneeze, The problem was every time she sneezed she teleported, no where in particular but quite literally at random and as she popped out of, and then back into existence roughly 6 feet away on top of a bookshelf she cursed as she wiped her nose. "Sorry!, sorry. Uhh... Crap" Focusing VERY VERY hard at the spot on the ground she wanted to be, Bibble teleported again down to the floor.

[cross_grave]

Grave watched Bibble curiously, his eyebrows raising as she spoke. True, the effect was a little ruined by her random teleport, perhaps, but the crackpot pyromancer took it as a demonstration, meant to prove her point. "You might have to explain your train of thought here..." He understood the principles of teleportation fairly well, but her idea of distance between worlds confused him a bit. "And that still doesn't solve the problem of power source. Something has to make those gateways and keep them open. There's a possibility it works on a different principle, too, considering we're talking about a location rather than a singular act of magic."

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble grabbed a random book off of the shelf and held it in front of her for Grave to see. Doing this she started talking and very carefully moving a few pages back and forth "If each page is a world, and the ink is the contents of that world, then the worlds can be layered as such, the distance small but the contents usually locked in their own world by some mechanic were currently trying to figure out. If two of these pages were to get wet, the ink would run, staining both pages with the contents of both pages. In essence I think that the mechanic between our separate worlds has started to break down, and these holes are appearing. If Im wrong then Im wrong, But thats where my thoughts are at the moment."

Bibble handed the book to Grave, the title read 'Basic Theories on Teleportation, First Edition' We should start here.

[S u r i]

Lyinne had lagged behind from the original group, as was her usual thing. She greeted the librarian with a kindly nod and looked around. She saw that the other people on this task were already throwing around ideas that revolved around the method of transportation known as teleportation.

Deciding to leave them to their ideas, she went off to where she placed the documents she pulled beforehand. The room was a regular stone study with a large, rectangular table in the middle with chairs. Upon the table were a few books that could offer insight on different methods of transportation, be it physical or corporeal. There were also different pieces of paper that were scattered about the table. These were short essays written on the portals, so they were more recent. Lyinne figured that other people who were around them or even studying them may have some insight on it.

Lyinne decided to get straight to work, reviewing the essays with a quill in hand and a piece of parchment in front of her for notes. With a wave of her hand, the essays were spinning about Lyinne's head in a very slow manner. Her eyes quickly scanned each essay, ocassionally pausing at one essay to jot down a few notes of what it had to say.

Spacial transportation...teleportation...high speed relaying...Hmn...maybe a combination of teleportation and reconstructural science. Hmn...highly unlikely.

Lyinne's mind raced constantly, juggling around different ideas. None of them hit home, but she was determined to find out more.

[cross_grave]

Grave blinked a few times, turning the explanation around in his head before slowly nodding. "Somehow... That makes sense. Altough I'm not sure if basics of teleportation are what we're looking for... I mean, if we look at it like this, then basic teleportation has been made for moving from one point on the same page to another. Something that can break down boundaries between two worlds has to be on a completely different level - even advanced mages can't do that." He slowly shook his head. "It's like moving in a completely different dimension, like a new axis of space. Basics won't cover that. Maybe we should look into advanced spatial theories or something? Whatever we're looking for, it's obvious going to be that water which made the pages damp, blurring the boundaries. That's the process we need to understand and reverse."

[Courage Wolf]

"Agreed!" Said Bibble excitedly clapping her hands, a small thunderclap going off and burning a small chunk of her hair away. "I suggested we look here to give us a clue as to what it could be. You can't move on to advanced without refreshing the basics, The laws are whats going to be important. If we can find the law thats being broken we can move in the right direction from there rather then just guessing."

Bibble ran off looking for a copy of the same book she had handed Grave, and, finding it she pulled out a piece of chalk, secured a blank section of wall, and proceeded to write the current equations for short range teleportation and their congruent laws right there on the wall

[Chibichibi]

Phix sent a small message to Bibble, with a sharp undertone. "Please be quieter in the Library, dear. I know how hard it is for you, but other people are working." Then she broadcast to the group, "If there is anything you all need help finding, let me know."

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble visibly flinched at the slight scolding from Phix, who she loved, and proceeded to be as quiet as possible as she worked on the wall, the only sound from her being the quiet hum of a simple tune and *click click* of the chalk on the smooth stone...

[S u r i]

Taking a pause for a moment, Lyinne allowed the thoughts to settle. The papers floating idly in the air hovered silently as Lyinne thought for a moment. She took another piece of parchment and started to draw something. Two circles side by side with lines going from one point on one world to another point on the other world. In addition, there were also other drawings based off of what the writers of the essays saw or experienced. Lyinne blinked for a moment, putting the quill down and looking at the drawing carefully.

She thought to herself, Why are these portals appearing...? Why these worlds in particular? Are they..two-way? A rift, maybe? Let's gather what we know... Lyinne began to write down just that...

The people of the otherworld are very different.
The same thing is occurring to them.
Given time, the portals will tear both worlds apart.

Now for what we need to know, she continued writing...

Are the portals two-way? Or could they also lead to another area altogether?
What is the distance covered while in the portal?
Who are these otherworlders?
Why these worlds in particular?
What are the otherworlders' thoughts on this?

[Caulder]

Hoten had already made his way to the end of the bookshelves, balancing a large stack of books on theoretical teleportation techniques and energy studies of teleportation on the body. He even had two carefully balanced on his tail as he made his way to a table, then noticed a book on a shelf that seemed to catch his eye. He reached out his left hand, and, without warning, the book flew off the shelf and slapped into his waiting hand.

He opened the book, and began pouring over the contents as if possessed. His tongue occasionally flicked out of his mouth, as he opened several other books and set them on the table in front of him, his eyes darting from one to another, soaking in information from each book at the pace a normal being would be able to read a single book. Some might even hear his tail thumping the ground every once in a while when he came across an interesting article, something he thought might help him figure out just what these rifts were.

[cross_grave]

Grave sighed as he watched Bibble set off. To be honest, he was starting to think the idea of using library as the main source of information was flawed because of one simple thing - this has never happened before. Aside of the few recent reports - which didn't reveal much, sadly - there was no other information regarding this sort of phenomenon recorded in history. The whole system their science had been able to construct was not made with something like that in mind, otherwise they'd have some explanation by now. Unless the existence of the portals somehow contradicted one of the major space-time laws, this venture would likely yield no concrete results, only speculations. Either way, live data would be necessary in order to revise the system. Even as he completed his stack of books, picking up the remaining tomes on his mental checklist, he still couldn't help but think that experiments would be much more productive. Still, he was not going to stop - once he got all his books, Cynder sat down at a table, before going through his selection of tomes on theory of teleportation and space-time. He had to find that contradiction.

[Chibichibi]

As Hoten began to read, something about Teleportations in the past jumped out at him. It seemed, in the distant past, a few members of each of the races had disappeared in "accidents" to the Gods know where.

[S u r i]

Lyinne looked at her picture and the other notes before taking them and crawling out of the room. She walked to the librarian's desk and sent her a telepathic message, "Phix, when can we expect the newer reports on the portals? I'd like to see them soon."

After her question is answered, she'd go pay the team with the otherworlder a little visit.

[Chibichibi]

Phix snorted. "As soon as all the bureaucratic nonsense is over with. We have to wait for the reports to be analyzed and reviewed before we get them."

[Caulder]

Hoten notices the patterns in the writings, and all of the disappearances, bookmarking the pages and piling the books into his hands, before he rushes over to Grave "Grave, read." he says, holding a few of the books up with his mind to the bookmarked pages. "Every member of every race has disappeared at one time or another. This can't be a coincidence, considering there was virtually no proof of where they went or what took them. This means that whatever is happening to their world, it's happened to ours in the past."

[S u r i]

"Nonsense, indeed. Well, I'll be going to pay this otherworlder a visit. Nothing on the reports really say anything concrete," Lyinne nodded to Phix and then smiled before crawling out of the library. She was on her way to the holding cell, where she could hopefully learn a little more about the otherworlders.

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble keeps scritching at the wall, her mind whirring as it follows patterns in the numbers, theres a few blanks in the variables that shouldn't be there, and shes starting to mutter quiet oaths as some of the math doesn't add up like it should...

[cross_grave]

"Really? Let me take a look." Grave paused in his lecture to take a look at the passages highlighted by Hoten. Taking the book into his hand, he frowned as he skimmed the contents, familiarizing himself with the described cases. "One time's an accident, two make a coincidence, three are a pattern..." He muttered as he dug into the details of each case. "There has to be something those disappearances have in common. Nothing happens without a reason, and we need to know what, how and why these portals appear. This might help us answer one of those questions..." He let out a sigh. "Though it doesn't bode well at all if it's true." He began to compare the reports, pulling out a small notepad and a pencil out of the pocket of his clothes and writing down every similarity he noticed, as well as the number of cases that featured these factors.

[Caulder]

"I should report these findings to Ms. Ramielle. Be back in a moment." Hoten says, grabbing several of the books he had been reading and focusing on the holding cells, and Ms. Ramielle, teleporting there in a heartbeat, leaving his other books for Grave to go over.

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble ran over to find Hoten. She'd found something in the math, the variables in her theory only fit if this had happened before, And as fas as she knew it hadn't. But as she was rounding the corner she only caught a glimpse of him before he snapped off to lord only knows where with a slight pop. Scampering up to Grave she asked hurriedly "Grave! has this happened before!? Please say yes pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaaaasse Say yes. I have an Idea but I need to know if you found anything first!" All of this poured out of the eccentric little mages mouth in a torrent.

[cross_grave]

Grave glanced at Bibble, feeling a flash of irritation for a split second before it died out. He didn't like being interrupted during work - while he focused easily, he tended to completely block out any outside signals and thus was easily startled. Combine that with his tendency to work with volatile magic and the reason for his dislike became obvious. "I can't say for sure. Hoten found some notes on incidents that look somewhat similiar, I suppose, but there's no confirmed connection. I'm trying to see if there are any common factors between those mysterious disappearances described here. You can take a look if you want to." He gestured towards the books left by Hoten, those he wasn't going through at least, before returning to his notes, frowning some more as he went over potential matches.

[Courage Wolf]

"Sooo Thats a Yes!" Bibble tore off back to her wall to fill in some missing numbers that hinged on this one fact. Chalking in the new values she took a step back from the 10 foot column of arithmetic and started to snicker... She was going to need an assload of copper, and a mile of wire, It should work. Probably. Hopefully... Bibble tore off to the alchemy labs without a word to gather what she would need for the prototype...

[Hopeyouguess62]

The professor gives Phix a polite nod as she enters the library, sweeping past rows with shelves full of musty tomes. Following her path is a small floating cart containing six ancient texts, carefully preserved and devoid of dust and contaminants. The books are bound in varying hides, hides that have so aged as to escape classification. A small aura surrounds the books, betraying an enchantment to preserve them from contamination or even natural aging. She reaches Grave.

"Where did the rest of your team go? No matter, I will assist you here."

"These are texts from ages long past... the work of ancient humans, elves, dragons... there is even a tome written by an elder selkie kingdom. They are rather dry histories from my collection, but they mention in detail incidents in which these rifts have occurred previously. You may need help from the library staff with some of the more difficult translations."

"There is also a book here which is not of this world, but which was carried back through a rift approximately eight millenia ago. The original attempts to translate it have been lost, but the manuscript remains. My research suggests that it discusses an ancient battle."

"The oldest dragons on the faculty remember the last time these troubles occurred, but the rifts back then were very short-lived. Their research suggests that the old rifts were unintentional... we cannot afford to make the same assumption of the current situation. Finally, from this manuscript and a second-hand account we can surmise that these are a militant people, if not warmongering. Apparently a 'George' on the other side of the rifts mortally wounded an elder dragon before the dragon was able to return."

Professor Ramielle indicates the books on the cart behind her. The otherworldly book is in front, with a single, cryptic word on the front: 'Iliad.'

[cross_grave]

Grave jumped slightly, startled again. He was in the middle of counting all the common factors he managed to find so far, frowning deeply. He turned to face professor, his expression turning into one of mild suprise as he took a look at the books on the cart. Using telekinesis, he carefully lifted the otherwordly text from the cart before slowly opening it, trying to understand what was written inside - without luck. "An ancient battle..." Cynder muttered under his breath. "So it's a kind of chronicle? I guess they must be pretty serious about their own history." The mage mused before setting the book aside. Without a complete translation, it wasn't that useful, especially if it didn't cover the rifts. "If they are that eager to fight, and somehow are creating the portals, then we're probably in big trouble." The pyromancer let out a sigh. "So, the reports on those incidents... Do they mention anything these rifts had in common? I was trying to find a reason why they were appearing, and figured that if there was something that was the same every single time, it'd probably be what I'm looking for."

[Hopeyouguess62]

"Unfortunately that's where things get complicated. I've yet to find a definitive source from the last time this happened -- and the problem seemed to fix itself with a small amount of time." The professor lifts one of the ancient histories off the cart for further study. "Also, if this is a military operation it's not what I'd call a united front. The otherworlder we have in the holding cell is not a warrior and has no idea how she got here, unless she's extremely good at deceptive thought. And that's unlikely as she has no magical aura or ability."

"Besides, our last encounter with another world was millenia ago. There's no way of telling what has happened in their world in the past seventy-eight hundred years, or if time passes at the same rate on either side of the rift, or even if it's the same world we encountered last time. But it gives us some reading to do and premises to work with."

[cross_grave]

Grave sighed as he processed the information. "So in the end, we know nothing. All we've got are some old reports, whatever the otherworlder is going to tell us, and our own theories, which are pretty much guesses at this point." The pyromancer utilized his power over matter again, lifting the tomes off the cart and placing them on the table, next to the books he had yet to study. "I'll go through the accounts we have here and try to write down anything that might be even remotely significant. I'll report back once I'm done or find something particularly interesting. I assume that Hoten is with the field team now?" Cynder paused for a moment, recalling something. "Oh, and watch out for Bibble. I think she decided to look for answers in theories on teleportation, then asked me if there were any accounts of something like this happening before. She set off immediately afterwards, running to god knows where. I suspect she had some kind of a crackpot idea." He sighed, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. He wasn't exactly the right person to say such things about others. "I just hope she knows what she'd doing... I had some pretty dumb ideas before, but at least I knew what I was trying to achieve. It can do wonders for keeping you alive."

[Courage Wolf]

As if Grave's words were prophecy in their utterance, a small explosion shook the ground followed by a flash of blue-white light, and anyone near a window would have seen Bibble flying through the air backwards before hitting a tree and scrambling behind it as a shower of molten copper and caustic chemicals followed her half a second later. Destroying most of the tree and almost eviscerating Bibble, who was patting out small fires that had started on her thick leather jerkin.

[cross_grave]

Grave paused, listening carefully to the sound of the explosion. Years of violent experiments gave him a keen ear for explosions. "A detonation, fairly powerful but non-lethal, unless counting possible shrapnel and other hazardous factors..." He sighed, standing up and closing the book he was working on. "There's a possibility of fire depending on what she was working with. I'll go and make sure she's fine, maybe run some damage control if necessary." Though he still continued to perform experiments that made people question his chances to contribute to the gene pool before meeting a premature and painful end, it couldn't be said that Cynder didn't learn from his mistakes. For example, he was fairly experienced at dealing with the fallout of a research project gone awry. Walking up to the nearest window, he scanned the area outside before noticing Bibble and groaning. "Oh joy. This is going to be fun. At least it doesn't look like her ears got messed up." Shaking his head, he disappeared in a flash of blue light, reappearing a few metres away from the unfortunate inventor. "Need a hand?" He asked dryly, a little wary of getting close to the puddles of molten metal and lethal chemicals.

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble groaned as Grave appeared and offered some help, "That shouldn't have happened" she cursed as she stood up and noticed a shoulder pad was still aflame. Squealing and smacking the fire out Bibble gestured at what looked like a large erected copper circle, or rather what was left of one. the dessicated arc was melted in some places, blown away in others. The two barrels to either side that copper wire fed into had blown open, leaving a black smoking trail wherever what was inside them had come into contact. Small puddles of acid and a strange metal were interspaced around the courtyard, causing small fires wherever they met vegetation.

Bibble held out a small book with what looked like a small archway drawn on the front, the golden embroidered thread along the bottom reading "Teleportation and Gates, Fundamental Mechanics"- "It should have worked~, I set the exit point to an active gate to nix, thinking that the gate would seek out anything to connect to, but the power fed back through the batteries and exploded" Bibble gestured to the barrels "Those are my own design, though dangerous they will hold lightning for a small time before becoming inert. OGOD! is anyone else hurt!?!" Bibble flailed while she looked around at the aftermath of her experiment gone awry

[cross_grave]

"I'm pretty sure if anyone got hit they'd have screamed in agony at least once." Grave deadpanned, though his face was locked in a serious frown. "Next time, you might want to build your gate in a more secluded area." He sighed. The Dean had literally beaten into his head that if he really had to experiment, the pyromancer had to ensure that the area was less than popular, to minimize the risk. Now that he knew better, he had to admit it was stupid to try things like that near other people. Still, he was a little impressed by those barrels... Holding the power of lightning inside an object for a period of time? As much as they seemed to be a safety risk, the idea was quite intriguing. Perhaps with proper seals and containment techniques, they could be safer. "And by the way, a little hint: nature always follows the path of least resistance. This applies to everything, fire included. It would be more likely to connect to a random point in our world than link us to a different one, unless you deliberatly made sure it wouldn't happen." That was a sad truth - you wanted something, you often had to bust your ass to get it. "Still... It would appear that aside of power, there is something specific required to open a rift. Think you can find out what that is?" He paused. "In a safer place, that is?"

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble sighed, "I was hoping against that, thinking if the two worlds were close enough together that if there was an intentional gate on the other side causing these rifts that this would lock one, but..." Bibble gestured around. "If I was going to try this again, I would need more information. We need to get our visitor to speak, and preferably in a language we understand"

"If your interested, all the math is still on the library wall, and here are the notes on this prototype. I have another copy" Bibble handed Grave the notes on the work and waited. Hoping to follow Grave's lead now.

[cross_grave]

Grave shrugged. "From what I've been told, our visitor is as ignorant as we are, if not more." The pyromancer shook his head as he accepted the notes. "I don't think we'll learn much from interrogation attempts." He had to admit that Bibble worked fast. Not only managing to copy her notes on the prototype - Hell, he never did that whenever experimenting - but also building and testing the damn thing so quickly? "Let's get back to the library... You'll probably have to explain the damages sooner or later. In fact, the sooner the better. I'll take a look at what you've figured out so far, but I have the records of previous incidents to go through first." He took another look at the destroyed device and the various puddles of various liquids around the area. "Actually, scratch that. We probably should do something about this first. Can you use telekinesis?" He wasn't exactly certain what Bibble's abilities are - their classes were different, mainly because they've picked different majors, and he didn't know the girl well. "Or maybe you've got some idea how to neutralize this stuff?" Cynder tried his hand at enchanting and alchemy at one point, but the former just blew up in his face and he was only moderatly successful at the latter... If he put a lot of effort into it.

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble shook her head slowly "No telekinesis, Transmutation, Lets me implement things faster, less groping for materials and implementation. But your right, it would take hours for this stuff to neutralize on its own" Bibble started walking around, fishing a small pouch filled with powder out of her tool-belt she started slighty changing the makeup of the puddles, rendering them harmless, but smelly. Better then dangerous she supposed, placing a finger in the puddles she ran a mild current through them, causing them to convert to gases and boil off.

[cross_grave]

Grave watched Bibble neutralize the liquids before he began to use his own powers to gather up the bits of copper that managed to solidify somewhat and dropped them back at the ruined array. "This will have to do... I really don't feel like moving the damn thing now and I don't think it's going to activate again. Let's just head back to the library. I'll teleport us both when you're ready, ok?" The pyromancer shrugged as he telekinetically lifted the last bits of copper, still too hot to be touched. "Altough we should probably leave some kind of warning sign. Damn it."

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble Shrugged "Most people know better then to touch ANYTHING I've fiddled with, Lets go"

[cross_grave]

Grave let out a sigh. "Fine. If something else happens, it's on your head." He walked up to the girl and gently placed his left hand on her shoulder before focusing. There was a flash of light, an odd sense of displacement and vertigo before the two of them found themselves back in the library, near the window Cynder used to observe Bibble earlier. "I've got to finish my notes... Try to check your calculations again, see if you've skipped any variables or simplified something too much. Maybe you could compare the results to some advanced theories, too. They cover details that basics won't."

[Courage Wolf]

Bibble sighed and returned to her math, her shoulders hunched and her head low, she had thought her thinking was correct, she was so certain. But she was wrong. Sitting in front of her calculations she stared, defeated for now, her generally bouncy and inexhaustible energy puttering out. Charging the barrels and trying to use the prototype had exhausted her and without shame or inhibition she passed out, right there on the Library floor.

[cross_grave]

In the meantime, Grave had returned to his seat, picking up his task. Opening the book he was reading earlier and his notebook, he resumed the lecture, copying information. His notes were short, with only enough words to convey the information accurately and nothing else. This sometimes made his writing hard to follow for those who were not used to his methods of shortening everything down to absolute minimum. The reason why he adopted such a style was simple - his writing speed sucked. That, and he simply didn't like to write, not counting the rare occasions when he decided to write a short story for his own amusement. Cynder shook his head. He preferred books that entertained him rather than the dry stuff that made up most of the library. Was it really that hard to make a subject fun to learn?

[Hopeyouguess62]

Professor Ramielle wraps her arms around Bibble, picking her up rather easily and setting her in one of the more comfy couches nearby. She glances at Grave. "I take it no one was badly injured?"

[cross_grave]

Grave glanced at the professor. "Nah. There's still some copper scrap and barrels to clean up, but I don't think it poses any immediate danger unless the person who comes across it is particularly idiotic..." He paused for a bit to consider clarifying the last statement. "As in, too dumb to live. I get the impression her experiments are as infamous as mine, though. Some trees may have been damaged rather extensively, but that's about it." He returned to his studies, pencil scratching against paper as he wrote. "I have to admit... She has some pretty interesting ideas. Perhaps if she were less scatterbrained, she could become really successful with her inventions." He paused for a moment. If it was possible to store lightning, what about heat? This merited some serious research later...

[Courage Wolf]

10-15 minutes later Bibble came to on the couch, not really wondering how she got there. Still mildly heartbroken by her failure she stood up and stretched, fingering the complicated goggles hanging around her neck. It might be time to check up on the others. get some more information...

Moving out of the Library and towards the holding cell Bibble whistled a common tune to try and raise her spirits a little...

[S u r i]

After a brief stroll through the campus, Lyinne returned to the Library. Crawling through the library with her eight legs, she pulled a few more books from the shelves and took them back to the room with all of the research material there. Lyinne opened the books and skimmed through their contents, the books revolving around her head. As she came to notable pages she bookmarked them with a small slip of paper. After skimming through the books, she compiled even more notes. After several moments of her writing away on her pieces of parchment, she had produced a concise set of notes about her research...

Causes and Explanations of the Portals
Teleportation may be a key element to the portal.
A link may exist between the two worlds, portal or no portal.
No one has ventured through the portals and returned, yet.
A tome tells of an incident occurred where masses of people disappeared in the past. A possible clue?
One researcher theorized that it's possible that the two worlds mirror each other, and that the portals act as the light reflecting from eyes to see the image.
A field researcher believes that the portals are because of magical disruption within space and time, that the solution would be found in by studying spacial transportation and time manipulation

The Otherworlder
So far the Otherworlder, named Danielle, isn't very different from a human.
She doesn't seem to be able to read our language, but she can somewhat understand.
She seems to have written something, waiting for permission to view those writings.
More information on the Otherworld is to come...

Personal Theories
I believe that the portals are both because of a disruption withing space and time, but also that the two worlds are a possible mirror of each other. However, I can't be certain until I figure out what the Otherworld is like.
It's also possible that the portals could be a magical experiment gone terribly wrong, with the consequences even more terrible.

...Still no solution on how to close them. More to come later.

[Chibichibi]

It seemed their labors were finally beginning to pay off. Grave had managed to piece together an account of all past occurrences and it seemed like they closed naturally, but these were staying open, likely to some internal influence. Bibble's attempt meant that it took much more than just the right calculations to open these and keep them open. It took Power. Much more and a little different than one person, or even one person and the store from another.

Ramielle was beginning to piece all of this together in her mind, along with the fact that the otherworlders had no magic. It meant that no one on their side was doing this. It had to come from home. But who? And why?

They were close to figuring out how to close the portals as well. That, too, took a massive amount of energy and it would take that from each of them. But simply blasting it was not enough, there had to be some secret, some... finesse.

All they had to do was find it.

(((Agh. Sorry it's so crappy)))

[S u r i]

Lyinne looked over her notes and closed her eyes. She read what little there was about the portals, but concluded that they were being controlled somehow. She couldn't figure out by who or what, or even how they were doing this. What was obvious was that they needed to be stopped, before something tragic happened. Lyinne ran into a wall, she didn't know how to close them nor did she think it would be easy. Also, if there was someone that was controlling these portals...then they would need to be dealt with as well. With that, Lyinne just shook her head and levitating the books and stacking them neatly onto the table. With all the books she gathered, there were three stacks.

Lyinne gathered her notes and set them off to the side. She then started to write down something of a journal...

"First Day of Portal Research. After reviewing the literature over and over again, everyone assigned to the Library team has come up with a few things. They've come up that closing the portals would take a lot of effort, maybe more than the effort of a single person. The portals, according to some accounts, have appeared before. However, the difference between these occurrences is that the portals of the past closed naturally while the portals we have now are kept open. Perhaps someone is keeping it open? If so, who and why? And how? We need to close the portals, somehow. It wouldnt' be easy, but it needs to be done or else."

Lyinne put down the ink quill and looked out the window that let the sunlight from outside flood in. She thought for a moment, To close the portals...an immense amount of power is required. Each of us can channel our magical power to muster up enough energy. But there's something else to it, it isn't gonna be that easy. We need something else to close the portals. What can be used to close it...probably something magical. But what...? Destructive magic? No.... Strong Illusions would just make it seem like it isn't there while it still is. Maybe combining the natural magicks to form a spell of sealing? Or maybe all the magical disciplines...?

Lyinne tossed these thoughts around in her head for quite a while. Good thing she couldn't talk, otherwise people might think she was crazy.

[Hopeyouguess62]

"I find it highly unlikely that any of these otherworlders have the ability to sustain these gates... they are magical in origin and the otherworlders have no sense of magic. Indeed, I doubt that our guest has ever glimpsed sentience beyond her own species. This leaves one explanation only: magic from our world, used deliberately and with enough resources to be maintained indefinitely."

The professor has been discreetly reading Lyinne's research (evidently her eyesight is quite keen) and now addresses the spidertaur in a quiet, measured tone.

"Of course, if we could track and neutralize the source that might close the portals. On the other hand, it's not a sure tactic -- these portals may already be permanent, and destroying the architects may yield no result. I believe that we must first discover a method of closing these portals, then find and eliminate the source. It would most likely take a great deal of power, involving our halfling associate as a reservoir. With a proper application of boosted teleportive and transmutative magic, we could theoretically turn a portal in on itself enough to permanently nullify it. Theoretically."

She then muses on the day's earlier events, "Of course, given the results of Bibble's research we may also wish to set some protective safeguards and enchantments in place... it's possible we may trigger some feedback in our initial attempts. Not just possible... probably likely."

[cross_grave]

Grave let out a sigh as he stretched his back, his right hand twitching a little from all the writing. Standing up, he took a look at his work - more that several pages filled with various accounts of incidents from ancient past. He was sure that something - or someone - had to keep the portals open. They didn't manage to last on their own previously, exactly like teleportation spells - otherwise, the world would have been full of rifts by now. Nature followed the path of least resistance, and it was clear that to move from point A to B one had to exercise some power. Something had to happen to keep the paths from this world to another open. Picking up the papers, Cynder marched to the place where the professor and spidertaur were standing. "I'm done with history research... How's the field team doing? Did they manage to get anything out of the otherworlder?"

[S u r i]

Lyinne looked to Professor Ramielle and nodded quietly, sending a telepathic message. "I agree... But I feel that we're missing something. Something that may be key to closing the portals. I can't really figure it out..." Lyinne looked to her notes and went through them again, to no real avail.

[Caulder]

It was then that Hoten appeared behind Professor Ramielle mid-stride, having just teleported in from the holding cells. Before he could look up to see what was in his way, he was already on a full-on collision course with the teacher. His vision seemed glued to the papers he now held, right up until the point he slammed into Ramielle and fell flat on his ass.

[Hopeyouguess62]

The professor catches herself on a less-than-stable set of bookshelves, then gasps as the set of shelves begins to lean further and further away from herself. She grasps the side of the bookshelf unit, pulling it towards herself, perhaps a little too hard. As she slightly over-corrects, the books on the top shelf begin to slip towards her. This time she catches the books with both arms spread out, giving just enough force to right the shelves in their proper place. One book does fall out from between her hands, however, landing square on her forehead. She shakes it off, then snaps her head back to look at Hoten.

Her eyes widen slightly. "Ah. The offworlder's scrawls. Excellent work. Any luck deciphering them so far?"

[Caulder]

Hoten watches the display as the professor gets smacked square in the forehead. He was always teleporting mid-stride and running into things. He needed to work on that. "I've noticed a few symbols that keep appearing regularly, which might be the equivalent of our vowel system. The rest, I can't decipher without a few reference materials of our language. If we had a few dictionaries I could compare their lettering to ours and try to come up with a translation chart." he says, standing and dusting off his robes.

[Shrike7]

Jess made her way into the Library, huffing like had been running, which she had. She found Hoten and Professor Ramielle talking quetly, and huffed over to the pair, handing the note over. "Bibble says she needs these for stuff, and that you could give her a hand with it." She said by way of explanation.

[S u r i]

Lyinne looked to the two other people that came in, specifically Hoten and Jess. She slowly crawled back into her research room and mostly closed the door. The spidertaur merely kept looking at her notes and different documents to find out anything she may have missed but to little avail. Maybe a few new things, but nothing that might've been of much use to closing the problematic portals.

[Hopeyouguess62]

Professor Ramielle takes the list, nodding as she peruses it. "Yes, most of these can be provided by the University in short order. This one... yes, I believe I have a little of that in my own stock..."

She turns to Jess. "Thank you. I'll be an hour or so gathering these, then I'll be there to assist. Please ensure Grave and Delilah are in attendance -- I want some experts in Conjuring and Teleportation on hand. Hoten, you too. Now, to see about these parts..." The professor strolls out of the library, vanishing shortly after her feet leave the entry way.

[cross_grave]

Grave's eyebrow twitched considerably. "You know. I'm starting to feel ignored around here." He spoke calmly, letting out a sigh. "It'd be a shame if I had to resort to, say, setting something on fire to get her attention." Shaking his head, the pyromancer turned his attention to the papers Hoten brought with himself. "So our guest wrote something for us, huh? Might be interesting... Anything else you've managed to learn? It'd be nice to have some description of these portals and how traveling through them looks like. We're probably going to need live data before we can figure out a way to close them, I think." Cynder's eyes narrowed a little. "From what I've figured out so far, something must be preventing them from closing like the ones that appeared ages ago... I imagine that if we manage to eliminate that factor, we'll be able to deal with our problem easily."

[Shrike7]

Jess' mouth gaped a little at Ramielle's instructions, but didn't say anything until after the professor had left. She turned to look at grave with a sardonic smirk on her face. "I dunno what's worse, being ignored,or being the group's little message bitch. And I've been both in the past ten minutes." She told him, swithing to a mockery of the professor's clipped speech. "Hey, I want you to chase a pair of teleporters all over campus with those stubby little legs, nevermind getting the arachne to just *think* at them,or something." She complaÍned, waving her hands around. "It's a good thing we don't really need you for anything, it may take a while."

She sighed, then shrugged. "Well, got one at least. Meet in the courtyard around Bibble's toy in an hour?" She said, then stalked off.

[cross_grave]

"Wait, we're using that thing again?" Grave's eyes widened a little. "You've got to be kidding me. Even I know not to repeat an experiment that ends in spectacular failure... Not without introducing a few fundamental changes, at the very least." It took him a while to learn the lesson, but eventually Cynder realized that his initial method of repeating the same thing and expecting different results was the definition of idiocy, which was when he started to actually introduce some diversity in his experiments, with mixed results. "Unless we figure out what exactly went wrong with the machine, we really shouldn't touch that thing. Though on the other hand, it might be a little amusing to see how our professor would react to something blowing up next to her..." He added with a little smirk. True, more often than not he was scared shitless when his first experiments blew up on him, but nowadays he was used to things like that happening around him, and even laughed whenever someone brought one of the more amusing ones up. "I'll be there. Later." Still... Now that he was done with the reports, he had some free time left. Shrugging, the pyromancer decided to go and check up on the field team, disappearing in a brief distortion of space as he teleported to the cells.

[Shrike7]

"We're changing something fundamental, we're not using the canisters full of boom for energy this time." She told him, before he teleported away and she left. "I swear, I have no idea how they all don't wind up terribly fat, they're so lazy, blinking around everywhere..." She muttered bitterly to herself.

[Caulder]

"I wonder that as well, Jess." Hoten says from his position next to one of the bookshelves, perusing for dictionaries and other pieces of literature that might help him decipher the language. He had heard Ramielle's orders to be present for the experiment, but failed to acknowledge her as he was engrossed in the books. "I believe if I can just translate their text, then any and all future dealings of ours might go much smoother." he says to no-one in particular, his tail hitting the ground with a thud as he picks up a book from the shelves and begins to head over to a table, setting the sheets out in front of him, then opening the book, as well as taking out his own personal book and opening it, then going through the different words and trying to correlate the vowels he was accustomed to and those of the strange runes the otherworlder used.

[S u r i]

Lyinne heard the conversation going on outside of the room she was currently confined in. Apparently Hoten had came back with the documents that Danielle had written. For a small moment, she thought to herself and then directly to Hoten...

"...May I see the documents Danielle wrote? It'll take me only a few minutes to copy the contents. You can have them back when I'm finished..."

As she was sending this message, Lyinne had a purple haze coming around the irises of her eyes.

[Chibichibi]

Delilah skipped up the broad stone stairs of the library, waved at Phix and went looking for the professor. "Professor Ramielle, I have an exciting idea!" she called out quietly, hoping to find the others.

[Caulder]

Hoten responds to Lyinne after several minutes of trying to compare the languages. "Of course. I'm a bit pre-occupied with them at the moment. I think I've almost made a breakthrough." he thinks as well as he can, not being as well-versed in telepathy as others are.

[S u r i]

"Yes, thank you. It'll take just a moment. But take your time, " Lyinne replied.

Truth is, her brief glimpse of the sheets had got her started on copying it down. However, she only saw the first sheets of paper. She'd need to see the rest in order to properly transcribe the words. She was using an old magic her sister had taught her as a child, that allowed her to copy things to near perfection. It was far from being refined, but it could recreate things otherwise lost. It was a great tool for the preservation of thought and language, and it would serve Lyinne well in this moment.

[Rule 34]

Toring slowly walks up the stairs to the library and kneels down to allow Jess to get off his shoulders. "Let's see if the professor is here, or if we have to search somewhere elser," he grumbles.

[Shrike7]

"Aww, ride's over already?" Jess said with an exxagerated sigh, hopping off from Toring's full height the second he started to dip, feeling to the lycan like he had simply slid off backwards. She pointed over to where Delilah was roaming, looking for the professor. "Chances are following her would work well enough." She said with a shrug.

[Rule 34]

Toring violently struggled to hold back a comment about rides, having already embarassed himself with his reprisal about his gut. Instead, he just nodded his head and got walking - slowly, so Jess may keep up.

[Shrike7]

Jess chuckled, having caught the look on the man's face. "I know exactly what you're thinking, and it annoys me too." She said with a smirk. "I have no idea why women always want longer rides then men want to give, but trust me, you've got the better half of the deal. You're not permanently unsatisfied." She teases, her former good mood starting to return as she strode beside the werebear, still chuckling.

[Rule 34]

"I have no idea what you're talking about. The lady bears out here in the woods always seem to enjoy it," Toring said with a big grin. After a dramatic pause, underlined with rib scratching, he added "Course, it's hard to tell since they don't really have faces... Okay no, this just got too weird," he mumbles.

[Shrike7]

"Do you make them get off you after five minutes too?" She teased him, accentuating it with a couple jabs to his thigh.

[Rule 34]

Toring mock whinced as she hit him. Rubbing the spot, he replied, "Oh, they get off alright. But seriously, can we stop talking about bear boning? I think I've weirded myself out." It wasn't the first time the thought had hit his mind, and it was always met with a decisive "no." Despite his strong bond to his animal side, he still very much considered himself human - no matter what some of the more uppity mages may think.

[Shrike7]

"I dunno, I must say, I'm kinda curious." Jess said with a laugh. "Bear boning..." She said slowly, drawing the words out.

((Spoilered so as not to offend sensibilities overmuch. crude pun, read at your own peril.))
"What position do you use? I would guess doggy style, but you'd have to call it something else, wouldn't you? Bearback, perhaps?" She asked him in a conspiratorial tone, poking at him again.

This was the problem with Jess. She had no filter, and no sense of when to stop. Everyone who had tried to make friends with her eventually walked away, unable to take her constant 'humour'...

[Chibichibi]

Delilah heard the last little bit of the conversation and flounced over to them. "Whatcha talking about?"

[Shrike7]

"Yeah Toring, whaddawe talkin about?" Jess asked, looking up at the big man.

[Rule 34]

"We discussed the habit of my people to toss halflings for sport, and how I haven't done it... yet," Toring immediately replied with the tiniest bit of a growl in his voice as he stared back down at Jess. "As Jess said, though, she's curious to try it out. We were going to head over to the lake later on, right, Jess?"

[Chibichibi]

Delilah giggled, "That sounds fun! I wanna try!"

[Shrike7]

Jess laughed, looking between the pair of them. "Oh that's precious." She says, looking over at Delilah, who had missed their actual conversation.

"So, found the professor yet?"

[Chibichibi]

Delilah was about to reply when the fluttering outside the window caught her eye. "There she is!" She smiled broadly and raced to the courtyard.

[Rule 34]

Toring's snarl broke into a grin when Delilah ran out the library again. "It's settled then," he said to Jess. "Delilah and I will take turns tossing you into the lake. Maybe I'll even get you to skip. The cave elf and the lycanthrope, bonding over halfling throwing," he added in a jesting tone.

[Shrike7]

((Must avoid cruel humour at all costs! /: ))

"Heh, try it big guy, I'd love to see you all hunched over trying to catch me again. almost ran you facefirst into a wall, last time." She said with a chuckle, motioning for him to leave first. Mostly so she could trip him up at the doorway, but that was beside the point.

[Rule 34]

"Hmph. You win this round, Jess, but I'll-- DAMNIT!" Toring walked right into her trap and tripped right as he opened the door. Carried by his own weight and momentum, he falls out of the library door and out of sight.

[S u r i]

Lyinne peeked out of the room she was in, looking around. She saw that Toring, Jess, and Delilah had left into the courtyard, making the library a much more quiet place again. She never did enjoy the socialization aspect of school. Though she could communicate, she rarely had the desire to mingle with her colleagues. The fact that she couldn't speak with her mouth didn't help much at all, either.

Lyinne crawled out of her little research room with her notes held against her chest. Behind her there was a small trail of books levitating in the air behind her. As she walked out, she approached a small pushcart. The books started to stack themselves, in dewey decimal order, onto the cart. After she start pushing the cart to the shelves, it took little to no time to replace the books to where she had pulled them. After she sorted and returned the books, she sighed and just began to review her notes again. As pointless as it was to look at something that hasn't provided her with anything concrete yet, it may pull through for her yet.

[Chibichibi]

Lyinne could see the flashing of wings and feel waves of power pushing at her from the courtyard.

[S u r i]

Lyinne came back from her temporary zone-out and felt the surges of power coming from the courtyard. Curiously, the spidertaur scurried over to see what it was all about.