The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 30 2012, 10:59 AM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"It's not a natural stone, or at least not one I've seen," Taylor said concerning the hunk of brick they'd brought back from the ruin. "I know you're more in tune with technology than magic, Fran, but I think that material was drawing energy from the void and powering some kind of magical construct with it. Unfortunately, I kind of screwed up, and the construct destroyed itself. I'm not entirely sure, but I think it was a map of the interdimensional void, if not more than that," he reported. "All things considered, not bad for a test run of the gate generator, though," he added as an afterthought.

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 30 2012, 03:19 AM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"We need to get back, anyways. Show Fran what we found, maybe see about picking apart that weird brick. As for the rest of it... archaeology isn't my strong suit," he said, not giving an opinion about letting Mona come back. Personally, he thought if these kids were gonna grow up part of the WWPO, they'd need some experience out in the field. He wended his way back up the path to the gateway, back into the lab. "Sorry we're late... we got distracted."

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 29 2012, 05:35 PM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"Yeah, well," Taylor said as they booked it outside. "Keep moving, keep moving! For all we know, it'll explode," he yelled. He would slow down as they passed the outer wall of the fort, and the tower would collapse upon itself in a crash. "Well, that sucks. At least it isn't a total washout. We got some of the map on camera, and then there's the matter of sifting through whatever's left. Still, a construct like that... that's not your basic 'cast-and-done' spellwork. They built that thing... somehow. If at some point we figure out who 'they' are..." He sighed guiltily. "Too much solo fieldwork, I guess."

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 29 2012, 03:56 PM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"Not how I would have like to test the stability or the safety of the tunnel. That was about as reckless as you can get, alright? For all we knew, it could've killed you. And one way or the other, I would've checked this place out while we were testing the tunnel," Taylor said. "Still, it's historic. You're the first person from your world to safely travel dimensions using technology. It can't just be a map..." he muttered, poking some of the other dimensions' "stars", with the globe of Vactonis disappearing to show the maps of other worlds as well. Phantom script in an unfamiliar alphabet appeared with some of them when he called up the worlds represented by colored stars. "Can't read it... SICC-D, you getting this? I wonder what the people who built this were like?" All of a sudden, Taylor must have poked the wrong world or something, because the bluish glow from the walls faded to an angry red. "Uh-oh," he said as the tower quaked. The crimson light started to creep up the walls past the door. "Maybe... we've overstayed our welcome..." he muttered as he stepped out of the middle of the room, dispelling the map.

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 29 2012, 02:49 PM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"I'm not sure. It looks like a map of the stars, but..." Taylor's voice trailed off. "I don't think it is... But if they aren't stars... Why's this connected to a ley line, anyway?" As soon as Taylor said "ley," thin beams of light started stringing themselves between the 'stars.' Taylor took in a breath. "It's a map of dimensions!" he realized. "At least, it looks like..." Whatever Mona did, caused the map to zoom in on one of the white stars, which seemed to form itself into a globe of the world they'd come from. "Is that...?"

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 29 2012, 10:38 AM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"Might as well," Taylor said, slinging his rifle over his shoulder. Nothing was about to jump out at them.
It seemed to be mostly empty within, not even a stairwell, as he approached the opening. Though there was an odd, bluish glow between the bricks inside. And as soon as Taylor crossed the threshhold, the glow brightened, and light swept up the inner wall until it reached the top, where a massive yellow stone lit up like a miniature sun. He whistled, impressed. "This be some crazy magic stuff here..." he remarked as he reached the middle of the floor. The light dimmed, and the chamber seemed to fill itself with a field of stars. "What the--? I need to stop while I'm ahead..." Most of the stars were a plain white, though several of them were other colors. Once the field stopped whirling, one just over Taylor's head was the same yellow as the stone at the tower top had been. "I think... I think it might be a map. We'd be here, I guess?" He said, reaching up for it. It came down obediently, dragging the rest of the field in step with it.

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 28 2012, 03:15 AM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"I know..." he said when Luna warned him. Despite that, he placed his palm against the door, and the light spread up the tower, in a strange cross between runes and circuitry. In the middle of the door was a 'blank' spot in the shape of a hand. Again, Taylor peeled away his hand, and the light stopped, the glowing runes overtaken by the darkness of the stone. "Geez..." he muttered as he rubbed his hand to get feeling back. "Okay. Third time's the charm..." he added as he pressed his hand where he'd seen the blank spot. The tower lit up again, but quickly went from blue to white. The tower started to shake when the lights reached the top, and Taylor stumbled back a few steps towards Luna and SICC-D. Finally, the door into the tower rumbled open. Once everything quieted down, Taylor shook his head. "Okay, that was entirely unnecessary..."

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 27 2012, 03:43 PM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"It's a weird rock. Mind gettin' off?" he asked Mona. Without another word, he stretched out his hand, and a dark green sniper rifle just seemed to form out of mist that gathered near it. He looked over to Luna. "Yeah. Just what I was thinking. There's some kinda energy... This place must be built on a ley current. A 'river' of energy," he added for Mona's benefit. "So that tower..." He cautiously approached the black stone tower. It looked like there was a door in the base, but there wasn't any handle there. He poked the 'door' cautiously, and felt his finger become ice-cold, while blue light rippled up the tower's wall from where he touched it. "Holy..." he muttered, shaking his hand.

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 27 2012, 03:08 PM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"Heh... Careful, we just might learn something..." Taylor chuckled lamely as he set off across the waste with Mona on his shoulders. Minutes later, they passed through a crumbling gateway into the ruins themselves. "Looks like some sort of fort. Seems to be mostly stone, but it isn't any natural kind of stone. I dunno why, but I think it's got this whole 'border station' thing going for it," he was saying, organizing his thoughts out loud. "SICC-D got a camera or anything? I think we ought to be recording this..." He scooped up a stone from a fallen wall, passing it up to Mona. "Hold this?" Every time he looked around, he kept looking back to the strangely intact tower in the middle of the ruins. Something about this place bothered him, but he couldn't figure out what it was.

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 27 2012, 01:18 PM Forum Private Garden View full topic
Taylor grunted when Mona landed on him. "This rate, it'll be more trouble to drag her back home..." He looked at Luna. "Doesn't look overly dangerous. I'm fine with her coming with to scope out the ruins," he admitted. He glanced to Mona. "Just two things. If anything gets touched, it's me or Luna that does the touching. And if either of us tells you to run, you run straight for the gate. No questions asked, got me?" After a second, he added, "And careful with the jacket, it's probably older than you..."

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 27 2012, 09:32 AM Forum Private Garden View full topic
Taylor could hear Mona from the level below. "Wouldn't recommend it. You rather deal with Luna, or me?" he called up. Actually, though, truth be told, now that they were here, now they knew Mona was alright, Taylor HAD to get a look at those ruins. There didn't seem to be any sign of life other than them. "For all we knew, the gate could've dumped you a thousand feet underwater, or a mile up in the air. You're lucky to be alive right now," he fibbed. Taylor had insisted on working out THOSE kinks first thing...

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 27 2012, 05:02 AM Forum Private Garden View full topic
Taylor sighed. "Five minutes. How much ground can one kid cover in five minutes? he asked himself. He was aware as Luna stepped through behind him. "You want to bet she'll be heading for those ruins over there? I can't see anything else of interest for miles..." he said. He looked over the edge and saw Mona as she scurried down the path on a lower terrace. "There y'are, kiddo..." he muttered as he rolled his shoulders and proceeded to do the reckless thing: jump off the edge and skid down the slope to make up for the monkey child's lead. Unfortunately, he built up too much speed on the way down, and kept going past the path until he finally made it to the foot of the hill, breathing heavily. "Ho, crap. I'm getting too old for this..."

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 26 2012, 06:37 PM Forum Private Garden View full topic
Taylor didn't need to be told twice. "I'm on point. If I'm not back here in twenty seconds, it's safe enough," he said, as he strode to the portal. "Watch your step as you go through..." he warned as he went through.

The other side was relatively safe, as Taylor emerged onto a rocky outcropping overlooking the ruins of some kind of ancient city. Even from a distance, he could recognize the building style. "Hell's bells. There's no way..." he breathed. He stepped from the portal, looking for any sign of Mona. He did note a winding path from the overlook down to the plains below, as well as the sky darkening as if a storm was about to hit. "Oi! Mona!" he shouted. It had barely been a minute, how far could she have gone?

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 26 2012, 04:06 PM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"Huh. Well," Taylor muttered as the gate opened. "Results are... instantaneous. We're in--" He got cut off as the door opened for Luna and the children. "Hey, I resent that! Fran's great to work with when we can find common ground. It's just that 'experts' hate to swallow their pride..." he admitted as Luna commented on him and Fran's 'clashing'. He glanced over to Hera, SICC-D and the kids. "Waitaminnit. Where's... where's what's-her-face, Mona?" He glanced around, his gaze snapping to the fading ripples in the gate. "Oh, HELL no."

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 22 2012, 03:41 AM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"I would not recommend it. Jumping blind can get you in all kinds of trouble... I still got some of the scars," he said. After a moment, though, he smirked. "Then again, most who jump dimensions on their own usually have their first jump blind. I did, too, so who am I to talk?" He nodded. "Aight. Go for it. Your suggestion, your project, you should be the one to punch it in," he said, flipping a few switches for the recording instruments. "Test 14, preparations nearly complete..."

Offical Apology
Posted: Jun 21 2012, 03:16 AM Forum Act III: Feedback Harbor View full topic
So, one mistake and it's "leper, outcast, unclean," MoD?
Me, I consider myself one of L's friends, so I'm biased, but I'm all for letting bygones be bygones, though I'm also hoping that L will be more careful in the future, provided he gets the opportunity again.

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 9 2012, 02:27 PM Forum Private Garden View full topic
Taylor kept working, basically taking out the shield devices from the gateway's ring, and put them back so they pointed to the center of the ring rather than at the wall. "Alright, that should do it. So where do we want to point our test gate today?" he asked as he slotted the last one into position.

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 8 2012, 02:41 PM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"Alright. Give me some time to realign the shields. I'm still iffy about that test, but if we can isolate the area where we're establishing the gateway..." Taylor said, launching into terms that Fran probably didn't realize he even understood, before finishing with, "...If I'm interpreting what I've seen concerning gates right, what happens here, should be mirrored on the other end while the dimensions' borders link together temporarily. That's what I think all that distortion I was worried about comes from. So if we can contain it on this end, it should be contained on the other side, too," he said, opening a panel on the machine they were working on.

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 7 2012, 02:02 PM Forum Private Garden View full topic
Taylor had, in his travels, found kids to be helpful when treated right, but it hadn't stopped him from wanting to shoot the occasional brat. He decided to change the subject. "Well. Near catastrophe aside, I think I got something for the dimensional portal project. I know, we've been butting heads over this for weeks, but... we can safely say now that you were right and I was wrong. Test Six, the one I completely flipped my lid on? That setup was about as quick a connection as we got. I'm still uneasy about the distortions with those settings, but the progress we made focusing on the shield? I think we can use that to protect the lab and the LZ from the harmful effects," he explained. "We can make this thing happen... and I'm pretty sure we can prove it today."

The Minos Project
Posted: Jun 7 2012, 10:26 AM Forum Private Garden View full topic
"Sorry, Canrie. Just trying to puzzle out this project me and Fran have been tackling. I think I--" Taylor was interrupted by the rumbling. "Aw no..." he murmured, making a mad dash for the labs, arriving as the children were being shooed out. Taylor's first assumption was proven wrong as he peeked into the labs. Of course, he still instantly regretted it, 'cause he saw Fran was furious, presumably with the kids who were just kicked out. "Okay, I... I miss something?"