@Mr Frog: No, no. Don't edit your posts to take them out, you already included them, and Splint took the idea and went with it. The only reason I didn't want them in the Spearbreakers thread was that the happy, colorful things clash terribly with the general dark theme. Asari can be made stupid and cavy girls and frog men can be made evil, but ponies are always happy and cutesy. It just seems... un-DF to me. I can imagine sci-fi universes with DF, but ponies... not really.
Honestly what's bugging me more at the moment is that I can't find a way to finish Vanya's story without leaving a huge number of plot points unexplained.
I guess I'll PM you and Splint the problems.
And I'm posting this here, so that nobody gets further confused, or writes up another continuity snarl that takes me a few days to untangle... I was going to try to establish the laws in a story post, but it appears it needs to be done faster than that.
Spearbreakers Laws of Interdimensional TeleportationDue to the conflicting ideas over what teleporters are capable of, our teleportation idea seems muddled. We have spies secretly porting in and out, Mr Frog and Draconik managed to land outside Spearbreakers without alerting the forces inside, there's Splint, Hanslanda, and then I have a whole slew of characters porting in and out, and choosing Mr Frog's portal (the only one in Spearbreakers) to do it. After MUCH thought, I came up with an explanation that works.
- Portals work by establishing wormholes between two sets of dimensions. Don't ask how this works, because wormholes are impossible in real life. We're ignoring this.
- There is ONE outbound portal device in Spearbreakers. This is in Mr Frog's room. It's small; we can call it a "miniportal".
- All our universes and bubble universes share the same laws - that's been demonstrated already. Otherwise weird things would be happening like the ability to taste gravity. That's the definition of a different universe - the fundamental laws are different. Thus, these "bubble universes" are attached to the outside of the main one - the Spearbreakers one.(Imagine a floating soap bubble (main universe) with smaller soap bubbles stuck to it (bubble universes), and that's a pretty accurate depiction of how it works... but outside three-dimensional space... Parasol used to be attached to a different universe, but they attached themselves to Everoc's universe. With this established, it takes a huge amount of energy to go back in time or switch timelines/main universes. This is why megaportals (explained further down) are larger, and also part of why people don't really do it. Parasol did it once, to save the Everoc universe from being destroyed by Armok, but that's the only instance when it's been used. However, at the same time, it attracted the attentions of Ballpoint and Stone INC. Doing something big like that can't be done in secret.
- Wormholes created by miniportals are confined to a single universe and its bubble universes. They can't time travel, switch timelines, or go to other separated universes.
- Eris has a huge portal sunk into the ground; we'll call it a "megaportal". Megaportals allow you to switch timelines/travel through time/switch main universes. However, actually using it to do anything but switch universes is considered taboo - nobody does it.
Unless you're evil and you want me breathing down your neck. - Ballpoint has megaportals too, and so does Parasol. Megaportals also have the advantage of being able to transport large vehicles like Splint's moghoppers and octavians (or whatever they were called).
- Any size of portal can establish a connection to anywhere, without needing a portal at the other end to hold it open. This is unlike Stargate, but it's a necessary law.
- Communications devices can create portals on the near-microscopic level to convey signals to other universes. Not all communications devices have this function, and those that do are expensive to manufacture. This explains our occasional interdimensional communication, such as Joseph talking to Mr Frog.
- Portals log all places they've been linked to. This information can be read or deleted, provided you know the passwords, and provided you're standing at the portal when you attempt to access the information. Frog keeps his deletion password unknown, thus, agents who use his portal can never delete their coordinates. However, he never checks these coordinates either, much in the same way he's always forgetting to lock his door. I'm guessing Draconik managed to read Mr Frog's coordinates. It's the only way to explain his post that I can think of, and if it's what he did, there were a lot of missing details.
- Portal consoles can be activated by remote control, provided you're standing in the same universe. This is necessary for the next law.
- Mr Frog previously invented a device (a "portal bracelet") that can create a wormhole back to the last portal console it was attached to, and activate it the same way as a remote control would, making the miniportal create a portal near the bracelet's coordinates. Mr Frog is the only one who has this technology, though I suppose that can change if deemed necessary... At the moment, bracelets only work with Mr Frog's portal console, as he's modified it. This bracelet circumvents the following problem by using interdimensional triangulation.
- You can't simply call up a friend in another dimension and say, "Hey, can you send me a portal to pick me up? I'm at 302093.399392,2034991.33300, -993384.33,39944,-183857,10038." You have to go to a predesignated zone and tell your friend to activate a portal there. I'm guessing this is because you can't possibly figure out your own coordinates. Good example: Do you know what your current coordinates are relative to the center of the universe?
- It's possible to establish a portal directly into another portal, like in Stargate. However, most people just don't bother. Megaportals "attract" incoming wormholes, so that it's more likely they'll land there instead of somewhere else.
This fixes
ALL the myriads of plot holes and apparent continuity snarls involving wormholes. I doubt anybody will break them, as none of the above have been broken so far, but I want to get them up just to make sure.
The continuity snarl has been struck down!If you break the above laws and I have to untangle yet another continuity snarl, I will end you. (kidding, but seriously.) Can you really imagine me ending somebody? (look at my cute little cuddly-wuddly avatar)
(It's getting harder for me to kill portal plot holes at this point, and I'm getting tired of having to figure it out.
I figured I'd better get these laws up before all hope of having a snarl-less Spearbreakers is lost.)
edit: actually, I'm going to unspoiler this... just to make sure everybody sees it. I've been untangling snarls in the shadows for a while, and fitting it into my story posts isn't easy.
Spearbreakers, meet Dark Talvieno. lol
reedit: Awesome picture, Splint.
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2279267 times)