[open] september/october catchall

[techmaturgy]

Who: Viktor and special guests and YOU
When: Post-Nocwich, through September and early October
Where: Cadens, Libertas the Horizon
What: open stuff, closed stuff, Libertas stuff, horizon visits, whatever I WANT
Warnings: the usual references to terminal illness, will list additional warnings as needed.

[open and closed starters in comments! If you want a custom starter or something specific, just hit me up. full horizon details are here for any and all wildcarding needs. For everything else, I’m on plurk at whitticus and on discord at whitticus#8139.]

Comments

[ushiri]

[ When he explains the teleportation technology, he gives him another curious look, and for a second seems to be considering his next words carefully. These are two very different problems to him.

Selfishly, he wonders if this man might be able to help him with the issues he's been having traveling via the Gray Space, if this work became anything more than theory, he'd also need to do something about the protective spells and wards in this world.

But there is a larger issue, and he's only just met this person. Most of the people he considers his friends don't know the extent of his abilities.

His expression turns grim. ]

There were those where I'm from who could travel from one world to another. But there was no ambient magical energy to draw from without cost, and it required an immense sacrifice to control that power. I worry that this world is more like mine than yours, even with your device's help.

[ The key itself required the death of a god.

Another pause. ]

Teleporting over land - Thorne uses portals for travel from city to city, but if you're using less-than-official channels of movement, protective wards basically make it impossible to go very far. If you happen to have any ideas, theoretically, for how to bypass those, I'd be curious to hear about them.

[ Since, you know, he'd need to figure that out for his own device to make use of teleportation anyway. ]

[techmaturgy]

[Viktor is well aware that the Hexgates are a hell of a thing to casually drop into conversation, but Kyle wouldn’t be asking if he didn’t have some frame of reference for that kind of technology. In fact, he follows up fairly quickly with an example of something that sounds comparable, even if it seems to be an innate ability of mages, rather than the way he and Jayce managed to harness the power.]

Admittedly, the teleportation was at the behest of our investors.

[As in, Viktor was never really interested in revolutionizing trade for Piltover’s wealthy elite—that had just been a foot in the door, the first spell Jayce witnessed and therefore was able to reproduce. That said, he understands the concerns here. The summoning rituals conducted by the mages seem to be fairly involved, and it wouldn’t surprise Viktor if the Singularity received something in return, for the ability to draw on its power.]

Theoretically? Perhaps. [It’s not his priority, but he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t considered ways to bypass portal travel.] “Teleportation” is a term that could be used loosely. If you’re moving quickly enough, such that your travel is instantaneous, is that functionally the same as travel through a tear in space? A portal?

[ushiri]

[ He considers the question. ]

My way is not instantaneous. It's more... a folding of space that I can navigate. It shortens the travel time immensely. I can show you here in Horizon - I think.

[ He's never tried to show someone else before - not the inside of the Gray Space. Theoretically he might be able to actually give someone else a look into that space.

He flicks his wrist, and what looks like a tear in reality appears there some feet away from them - the same way he would do in the real world. He splits his forefinger and thumb farther apart and the tear widens horizontally.

What Viktor sees if he looks at the inside the tear: the same view of his study, but in a strange greyscale. The darkest objects are anything metal, they turn almost black inside this space. There's something else if he looks closely enough, strange refractions in the air, as if there are hard and sharp edges.

From the outside he'll feel cold air coming out of the tear. It smells sterile.

A place between time and space.

As soon as the tear is open wide enough to see all this, though, Kahlil will hold his arm out in front of Viktor. Just in case he attempts to move closer to it. ]

I don't know what it will do to someone who attempts to go inside. There's a chance it will still rip you apart, even in Horizon.

[techmaturgy]

A folding. Interesting.

[Viktor is a theoretically physicist, in addition to being an inventor—-so the concept of literally folding space in order to shorten the distance between two points makes perfect sense. Seeing it, however, is appreciated, and he takes a step back so that Kyle can more effectively demonstrate. Once it seems safe, however, he’s quick to peer in.

His eyebrows furrow. There’s something otherworldly about it, that’s certain, though he cannot deny that the strange reflection of his own space gives him a moment of pause. He’s not necessarily afraid of being ripped apart within the Horizon—surely his own force of will could mitigate that, at least in some way, but he won’t go any further unless Kyle considers it safe.

He doesn’t seem to. That in itself is interesting.]

But you can travel through it, unharmed?

[ushiri]

[ After a moment he lowers his arm, allowing him a better look now that he has the warning. He shouldn't be able to hold the tear open like for so long this in realspace without significantly more effort, but Horizon is powered by will so - ]

For the most part. Nothing in there is totally solid, there are ways to push through any material. With enough momentum and nothing blocking my way, I could probably travel from the northern-most point of the continent to the southern-most in a couple of hours. [ He shakes his head, then steps closer, pointing at one of those floating, sharp refractions in front of the opposite wall. ]

But in places where the texture is more like that - I can't do much without getting stuck. [ Or worse. He makes a face. ] They occur naturally sometimes, but they're concentrated anywhere that has wards or protective spells.

[ In a worst case scenario, he thinks he could make it to Thorne's border. Probably barely clinging to life, but, well, worst case scenario. ]

[techmaturgy]

[Viktor ventures a step closer and bends at the waist, peering inside more fully. It's tempting, of course, to step in, but he'll defer to Kyle in these matters, even if they are in the Horizon. If he's not explicitly invited to explore it, he'll simply observe for now.]

I understand. [Very powerful, but not without its limitations, and Viktor can easily see why such an ability might be a problem here, when travel by portal (or even leaving Thorne castle entirely) is so restricted.] And you're looking for a way to reproduce this here?