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An Irksome Process
04-11-2013, 02:19 PM
I started thinking about Gatesongs, and realized two distressing things, based on the fact that according to remarks in the Arsenal list, each Gatesong will take him from one specific universe to another specific universe, and no others -- for instance, the song that brings him from the Sailor Moon step to DW8 will not connect anywhere else.
1. Every song identified as a possible Gatesong but not confirmed to open a Gate in some world must be checked again in every subsequent world. This will probably get cumbersome.
2. Unless he finds a few songs that take him to worlds he's already been ("This was the fourth song that'd dropped me in on Sana! At least I never showed up before my previous time there."), he'll never be able to return to any of them unless he first finds a song that opens a Gate to Valdemar -- and then he'll have to retrace however many steps of the Walk if he wants, say, to visit the Potterverse once more. Or can a song that created a Gate from World A to World B work in reverse? In that case, he could backtrack the Walk ... but it'd be a long, drawn-out process getting from Warriors' World to, for instance, MegaTokyo.
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It was always intended that the search for a gatesong would be a long and cumbersome process. If the process of travel also acted as a process of elimination it theoretically would have made it easier and easier for him to find a way home the further on he went (the expanding pool of candidate songs being ignored for the moment). I also intended that there would never be loopbacks. Theoretically I suppose they should be possible by the unwritten rules by which I structured the progress of the Walk, but they wouldn't really serve the purpose of the narrative.
And as it was not in my metaplot to have Doug find a way to backtrack, I never laid down "ground rules" for that.
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Actually, I realized about fifteen minutes after posting that backtracks are confirmed as impossible: the song that brought Doug from Valdemar to MegaTokyo was the first he tried to exit MegaTokyo, and it didn't open any Gate out -- not to Valdemar, not to anywhere. Which still means if he wants to revisit friends he made along the Walk, he'll have to rely on someone else for transportation.
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Actually, Doug probably could revisit past steps provided he first finds a meta song capable of reversing the effect of other songs. So he'd play the meta song, then play the song that sent him to the current world, thereby sending him back to the previous world. Give him a few weeks and he'd be able to revisit any previous world.
Alternately, one of the staggers sent him to the Aladdin world. Imaging Doug finding the "Friend Like Me" song and using it to summon a simulacrum of the genie? Genie may well be able to zap Doug to any dimension he cares to name.
One of the most recent Otherearth snippets actually makes me wonder, doesn't Doug know anyone with dimension travel powers? Theoretically, all he needs is to find a simulacrum creation song based upon someone with those powers, and he'll be able to dimension hop for a few minutes every day.
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Obviously, he does know someone with dimension travel powers. See "Girls, Girls, Girls." The question is whether a way can be found for him to make use of them.
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Quote:DHBirr wrote:
Actually, I realized about fifteen minutes after posting that backtracks are confirmed as impossible: the song that brought Doug from Valdemar to MegaTokyo was the first he tried to exit MegaTokyo, and it didn't open any Gate out -- not to Valdemar, not to anywhere. Which still means if he wants to revisit friends he made along the Walk, he'll have to rely on someone else for transportation.
Has he tried that spell after he left Megatokyo? Because using the song that opens the portal to MT, while in MT, logically wouldn't do anything.
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Quote:Jorlem wrote:
Quote:DHBirr wrote:
Actually, I realized about fifteen minutes after posting that backtracks are confirmed as impossible: the song that brought Doug from Valdemar to MegaTokyo was the first he tried to exit MegaTokyo, and it didn't open any Gate out -- not to Valdemar, not to anywhere. Which still means if he wants to revisit friends he made along the Walk, he'll have to rely on someone else for transportation.
Has he tried that spell after he left Megatokyo? Because using the song that opens the portal to MT, while in MT, logically wouldn't do anything.
I was under the vague impression that Doug's gate songs operated under a GURPS paradigm (ie. each gate spell only takes you from one specific dimension to another specific dimension).
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That's what we've all been assuming, in the absence of data to the contrary... but it's only an assumption.
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Quote:Jorlem wrote:
Has he tried that spell after he left Megatokyo? Because using the song that opens the portal to MT, while in MT, logically wouldn't do anything.
The idea was that gatesongs, instead of being from one particular place to another particular place (the general assumption), or from anywhere to a particular place (what you seem to be suggesting, which might not have been contradicted), might open a gate between two places, regardless of which one Doug starts at. It's this backtracking which has been confirmed impossible.
Quote:Shepherd
wrote:
Alternately, one of the staggers sent him
to the Aladdin world. Imaging Doug finding the "Friend Like Me" song
and using it to summon a simulacrum of the genie? Genie may well be able
to zap Doug to any dimension he cares to name.
One
of the most recent Otherearth snippets actually makes me wonder, doesn't
Doug know anyone with dimension travel powers? Theoretically, all he
needs is to find a simulacrum creation song based upon someone with
those powers, and he'll be able to dimension hop for a few minutes every
day.
Ah, but the Three would take issue with that. Even if Doug thinks such a thing would work, he's not gonna try gaming the system until he's received some indication that the Three are done with him.
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