Editing Alcazar (section)

==The Ritual==
The ritual typically involves a highly complex square [[diagram]] with intricate borders and ancillary details and specifics added, the object or person will generally be in the middle. A typical diagram will include a serrated [[Diagram#Heraldic Diagrams|Heraldic]] square in the center, and the [[Runes]] for [[Runes#Sun|sun]], [[Runes#Moon|moon]] and [[Runes#Stars|stars]] enclosed in the symbol for expanding space.<ref>“Standard Alcazar? Regimented square?”<br>[...]<br>The serrated square border was the center of a diagram that got compass points marked out around it; long thin triangles with lines down the center sticking out of each side, smaller, filled-in triangles sticking out of the corners. Then notation, a circle to enclose it, a sun, moon, and star circle each with a ‘comet tail’, like they were shooting outward from the diagram, as celestial expressions for physical space, expanding.<br><br>After that, it was ten more minutes of adding small details. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/14 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.6]]</ref><ref>“Okay, yeah, let’s get started on the boring part,” Zed declared. “Complicated diagram. You got chalk?”<br><br>The diagram was rigid, lots of straight lines, overlapping geometric shapes, and symbols at the intersections. Verona sketched it out, and as she did, she was left with the distinct impression that this could be an artistic rendering of a church or some really fancy architecture, if drawn from above. A circle for a round tower, lines for the walls, but inside it would be something of a mess.<br><br>Except for the vast open area that the furs occupied, sitting in the center, inside a two-dimensional cathedral, drawn out in chalk. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/08/03 Excerpt] from [[Summer Break 13.1]]</ref> As the ritual activates, the diagram and the object within move and unfold.<ref>The diagram throbbed, the individual parts beginning to move, like gears were turning. The sun, moon, and star part of the circle moved, starting their orbits, and as they turned, the proportion of circle, room, and photograph changed.<br><br>The photograph moved as if caught in a wind, then stood up on end. The border blurred white, the photograph expanded as the perspective skew of sun, moon, and star continued in concert with their orbit, and it became like a cube, each face a door, with a ''lot'' of two dimensional images on the far side. [...]<br>“In you go,” Zed told them.<br><br>Without really coordinating it, Lucy, Verona, Avery, and Snowdrop each picked one of the sides, stepped carefully across the chalk, and passed through. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/14 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.6]]</ref><ref>Smaller parts of the ‘cathedral’ diagram began to lift up off the floor. The furs stirred. [...]<br>That kickstarted it. Bigger pieces of the diagram lifted up, and as they did, the furs shifted and changed position. Light played on light, shadow on shadow, and the floor vibrated enough that specks of dirt and sand were kicked up. Verona could have swiped a hand beneath some with the height they got. Fans on computers redoubled their efforts, roaring like little jet engines…<br><br>And the furs ''sighed.''<br><br>Tense, Verona held her position.<br><br>Like something alive, the furs moved, lengths of them extending like legs planted on the ground, pushing the body to its full height.<br><br>The furs lunged up, the ceiling parted, the sky became visible, and it was as red as anything Verona had ever seen, in multiple shades.<br><br>The edifice in front of her wasn’t furry or furred, but it had the same coppery-red gleam. Damaged, it was shored up by ropes that shouldn’t have supported some of the structures that were there. [...] The edifice took up the entire space in front of her, and trees stood on either side of the two-foot wide path before her. [...]<br>The door was wood, and it resembled the floorboards of the house. Recognizing that point of structure and similarity made it easier to make sense of this world.<br><br>She pushed the door open, and there was only darkness inside, hot like a wolf’s breath in her face. It smelled like meat and it stirred feelings deep in her stomach and brain both, where her headaches and stomachaches tended to dwell. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/08/03/summer-break-13-1/ excerpt] from [[Summer Break 13.1]]</ref>

You can use secondary diagrams as a portal out, or to capture a part of the place and remove it.<ref name=":3">“The Alcazar is a complex tool for any of the practices that use tools [...] It is, at the same time, a crude tool for the beginner who wishes to perform changes with the same care one might employ when swinging a hatchet, and a tool of nuance for the expert who seeks to work with more than mere stone and wood, but with the whispers the wood catches and the heart-impressions laid beneath stone.[ - Excerpt from an unamed book about Alcazars]<br>[...]<br>“Good. Okay. Book should have covered something like how, when you’re inside, you need to be very careful what you say or do. Even small actions and sentences will leave their impressions. If this a gift is for Lucy, then be nice and be Lucy-positive.”<br><br>Verona nodded. “Cool, alright, book did say something like that, but not in that context.”<br><br>“The more of a change you’re doing, the more it’s going to fight you. You’re inside a house and you’ll be rearranging where the rooms are, the walls, some are going to be load-bearing.”<br><br>“What do we do about that?” Lucy asked.<br><br>“Standard rules. A lot of that is going to be metaphor for spirits transforming, or flooding in, or washing out. Picture being in a spaceship and someone puts a hole in the hull, or you’re in a submarine, same scenario. Standard measures for dealing with spirits work. Barriers, diagrams. Reinforce before you undertake anything big.”<br><br>“Circles and lines?”<br><br>“Yes. What does the book say about means of escape if things go poorly?”<br><br>“There are instructions on a circle we can put inside a paper. It makes a door.”<br><br>“Have multiple.”<br><br>“There are also some papers for containing and moving certain objects or aspects of objects.”<br><br>“Bring more than you need. I never did that ritual, but I know my father did, and he explained it. I was young and too stupid to listen as closely as I could have, but I remember it was tough for him. He had to face his demons, looking inward, and he had a lot. Even in the easiest, most mundane case, I think the regret of not having enough is far, far more than any regret of spending the time to prepare more papers.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/14 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.6]]</ref> These diagrams are fairly simple and can be drawn on a piece of paper.<ref>Verona had sketched out the very simple diagrams while Lucy had gone to find Zed. She handed them out. Three ‘net’ sheets, and one ‘escape’ sheet. All sheets were on pieces of paper that had been folded into quarters. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/14 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.6]]</ref> Inside the Alcazar, the diagram for removing items becomes a hole in whatever it was drawn on. It functions best when the Alcazar isn't struggling to represent a scene from multiple angles.<ref>She unfolded it, and it had a hole in the center where the diagram had been, the paper’s edges frayed. She held the paper up, walking around, and elbowed Lucy to get her to follow.<br><br>It worked best when they were all together. Snowdrop joined her.<br><br>Verona centered the hole on the light from above the rink, then carefully folded the paper. Containing the light within.<br><br>The rink was noticeably darker, without those lights.<br>[...]<br>Taking little elements out of the scene in the picture, storing them in paper folds. Avery jogged back around toward the ice.<br>[...]<br>Lucy held up her paper. She centered the image of Edith, the kids, and the bloody rink in the circle. Verona and Avery moved to help it focus, because otherwise it wouldn’t center right.<br><br>“Snapshots of this scene for evidence?” Verona asked. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/14 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.6]]</ref> The diagram for portalling out is "a reversal of the [[Runes#Expansion|expansion sign]]". It forms a doorway, and the diagram will expands around anyone passing through and shrink down again.<ref>She partially unfolded the escape paper. A reversal of the expansion sign. She waited until Avery had dealt with the gathering negative forces, then finished unfolding to make the door.<br><br>The door widened until it passed over them, then shrunk again. It fluttered to the floor once more. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/14 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.6]]</ref>

One way to make the ritual safer is to divide the user's exporation of the object into sections, avoiding reaching 12 of them. For example, they might explore for eleven minutes, eleven hours, pass eleven landmarks, hear a bell toll eleven times, etc.<ref>“We’re intentionally avoiding twelve as a number,” Zed said, glancing at Verona, then Lucy, then Avery, before addressing them as a group. “At eleven minutes, I’ll signal you. If you ''really'' need an extra moment, extra question, we can stretch it out to eleven thirty. But outside of that, we’re going full-on emergency mode. That’s Jessica coming in, us pulling on connections, me shutting this down.”<br>[...]<br>“With these things, it helps to punctuate them,” Jessica said. “It doesn’t have to be time, if it’s very fluid in there. It could be marking out eleven landmarks. You don’t want to get to the twelfth. Or eleven tolls of the town clock.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/08/03 excerpt] from [[Summer Break 13.1]]</ref> Another variation is to do the ritual naked.<ref>“Some people will do this naked, but I’m not going to suggest that,” Zed said. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/08/03 excerpt] from [[Summer Break 13.1]]</ref> The practitioner entering the Alcazar may be placed in a smaller, connected circle, purified with water.<ref>She watched as he used a tool to draw a circle around her where she sat. He drew a two-foot wide path between her and the diagram.<br><br>“I’m going to pour clear water over you, to cleanse you and this entry-space. It’ll be cold but put up with it.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/08/03 excerpt] from [[Summer Break 13.1]]</ref>