22/2/11 [PF #158] POOF

[Sprocketsdance]

teehee... Yak feet 

[joshofspam]

And thus the great escape was committed.

*Cue Scooby Doo door chase scene*

[ChaosMageX]

Finally, the comic has some suspense again!

This is why Ch. 19 of FH is one of my favorites, and hopefully Episode 19 of PF will be just as awesome.

EDIT: What's really good about this is that Tapewolf and Ren managed to meet my estimation of them starting Ch. 19 in Q1 of 2011.

[Keleth]

Is the whole building able to keep from teleports from happening either ingoing or outgoing?

Or is the bathrooms a seperate but connected section of the building?

I would of thought with all the creepers with magical abilities, you wouldn't want people teleporting into women's/men's bathrooms and be all...creepystalkerish.

[joshofspam]

Wonder if Keaton has any experience in hacking or stealing huge pieces of machinery?

Be kind of funny if she was trying and failing to steal something just because she didn't know how too.

[Tapewolf]

Is the whole building able to keep from teleports from happening either ingoing or outgoing?

The research lab is protected against incoming teleports, but there are ways to bypass it so authorised users such as Daryil can get in.  However, those enchantments can't protect against Warp Aci teleportation, which works like the Subtle Knife* (if anyone remembers those stories).

The defence against Warp-Aci based attacks so far has consisted of preventing people bringing them in or knowing the location of the base.  To be fair, the research base has kept a low profile so far and doesn't get very many unauthorised visitors anyway.

(*)I am assuming for the purposes of PF that general-purpose teleportation spells work on a different principle to Warp-Aci.  Only Amber really knows the answer to that.

[Keleth]

That's kind of what I thought.

But how did she teleport the warp aci in the bathroom? Did it warp in by itself? Or Did Keaton bypass the teleportation wards to warp it in herself?

[Tapewolf]

That's kind of what I thought.
But how did she teleport the warp aci in the bathroom? Did it warp in by itself? Or Did Keaton bypass the teleportation wards to warp it in herself?

The HQ (e.g. P154) is in the middle of a city.  The lab is in the middle of an Arctic waste and they are linked together via a portal, hence Keaton's comment about it suddenly getting a bit colder once she was in the lab proper.  The HQ itself is not so heavily protected as the lab, but that's another story.

What Keaton did was to summon Xianxi to her after her briefcase had been checked through security.  In principle she might have been able to fetch him in the meeting room, but then she'd have lost the element of surprise.

Exactly how the owner calls up the warp-aci when it has wandered off is more Amber's province, but going by DMFA 424 and 605, I'd say it's probably some kind of long-range telepathic link to the person they're bound to.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

The research lab is protected against incoming teleports, but there are ways to bypass it so authorised users such as Daryil can get in.  However, those enchantments can't protect against Warp Aci teleportation, which works like the Subtle Knife* (if anyone remembers those stories).

The problem with this is that, in the Golden Compass series, the Subtle Knife was the only device that could make the holes. In this situation, both Cubi and Warp-Aci can teleport; my personal inclination (and this is no criticism, mind) is that both work in exactly the same way. Obviously, this has a deleterious effect on the story, and I'm more than willing to suspend disbelief in this case.


Heck. I'm already believing in creatures that can change shape on a whim, read minds/emotions, and travel faster than light. What's a little differentiation between friends? ;-]

[Tapewolf]

The problem with this is that, in the Golden Compass series, the Subtle Knife was the only device that could make the holes. In this situation, both Cubi and Warp-Aci can teleport; my personal inclination (and this is no criticism, mind) is that both work in exactly the same way. Obviously, this has a deleterious effect on the story, and I'm more than willing to suspend disbelief in this case.

Perhaps, but I'm not convinced.  It might be the same underlying principle, but teleportation is not limited to 'Cubi or Warp-aci, many Creatures are able to teleport, even those that can't shapeshift (and therefore do the tail trick).  But yeah, like I said, it's one of the assumptions I've made about DMFA physics for the purposes of the story.

Arguably, even if they do you may be able to detect and block the signature of a spell cutting into the dimensional fabric, vs a warp-aci tail.  You might still be able to - as a 'Cubi - morph your wings into some kind of cutter [and evade detection] but I imagine it's rather easy to screw that up in a fatal manner, and it's certainly not what Aniz seemed to be doing when he did his little cross-fade.

[ChaosMageX]

My theory on warp-aci is that they are literally living portals back to the realm of non-sensation.  This is based on a warp-aci's ability to teleport objects simply by "eating" them, as shown in DMFA 1021.  I like to try to think of warp-aci as dormant black holes without the massive gravity well (since they're linked to the realm of non-sensation rather than a wormhole.  They naturally absorb anything, including sound and other forms of kinetic energy and light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation, and any and all forms of magic, unless their summoner wills them to reflect it.

The fact that their summoner has to keep them supplied with a constant flow of energy (albeit a small flow) means that this energy most likely goes towards keeping a warp-aci tethered to whatever dimension their summoner is in.  It's almost like the owner is constantly holding a small rubber band taught.  Without this energy supply, warp-aci will collapse in on themselves and disappear back to the realm of non-sensation, hence being "disposed of" or "killed".  This is why warp-aci owners must constantly stay in tune with and monitor their energy flow to the warp-aci, as explained in the background text of the first panel of DMFA 1022.

As indicated by DMFA 1018, warp-aci can be summoned by beings, so the amount of energy required to keep them in this dimension is relatively low.  When Fi hid in Dan's sword, its link with Fa'lina and her energy severed, but the magical energy the sword was imbued with was enough to keep Fi "alive".

The mechanism of teleportation that they use, however, is a bit more ambiguous, but since warp-aci are described as coming from a dimension without sensation, that leads me to believe that the physical speed limits, like the speed of sound and light, are a lot looser in their nature dimension, if they even exist at all.  This allows warp-aci to travel much faster than the speed of light by temporary disappearing back into their own dimension and back out again in another dimension.

As seen in DMFA 423, the concept of them using their tail as a knife to cut back into their own dimension may not be far off.  However, in DMFA 604, Fi is shown to have merely made physical contact with Dan to teleport him to SAIA, but its tail was off panel, so it could very well have been using its tail to cut back into the realm of non-sensation and back out into another location in their summoner's dimension (or possibly even another dimension entirely).

Again I'd like to refer back to DMFA 1021 and the concept of warp-aci eating objects to teleport them.  When a warp-aci teleports physical objects or even people from outside their dimension, they might technically devour that object in a way, by temporarily turning part of their body, either their tail or their "mouth" or another part or even their entire body from a dormant portal to an active one and sucking the object into it.  This probably results in a slight increase in the drain of their summoner's energy to accomplish this effect, which also why they must stay attuned and monitor and adjust their warp-aci's energy consumption.

When they do so, the object ends up passing through the dimension of non-sensation and back out at the location that the warp-aci is concentrating on.  If they aren't concentrating on a particular location, they end up littering a random location with the objects.

Anyway, it is because of this indirect route through the realm of non-sensation, and the possibility that warp-aci are like dormant black holes in that they absorb all EM radiation that comes their way, that their teleportation very hard to detect, track, and prevent.  Because their teleportation is more natural than magical, they don't leave a magical residue of some sort in their teleportation that can be detected.

Also, if you go by what was said in Abel's Story Part B Page 26, for beings and possibly creatures, most teleportation spells take a long time to set up and a possibly a lot of energy to perform.  Even if warp-aci consume the same amount of energy when executing teleportations, they can perform them instantaneously, which is another advantage in having one.

And anyway, that's how I think warp-aci and regular teleportation spells work, but I could be completely wrong.