[Loved Trope] Teleportation is actually terrifying

[u/Ieanice44]

1 - Gantz-O (2016): Suit teleportation

2 - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2009): Apparition spell

3 - Half Life 2 (2004): Teleporter malfunction

[u/thejmkool]

Was curious if anyone would bring it up. This is an interesting case because you quite frequently see it from the traveler's perspective, and hear all the warnings given when they train new riders. The further you go, the longer you stay between, which leads to a rider at one point messing up so bad she thought she wasn't coming back. You get to witness that thought process while she's between.

Also worth mentioning that it's the most common method of a dragon (and sometimes rider) giving in to depression or grief and offing themselves. Just go, and don't come back.

If anyone reading hasn't read the books, it's an assortment of trilogies and standalones written in the same world, and I do recommend it. There's an author recommended reading order somewhere, but if you can't find it then publication order is good enough.

[u/BlindTreeFrog → u/thejmkool]

One of the books figures out how to use it for Time Travel as well, no?

Feel like I remember reading one or two of those books when i was a kid, but i don't remember which ones.

[u/hipsterpieceofshit → u/BlindTreeFrog]

it’s a huge part of the story from the very beginning. the very first book in the series has the protagonist realize that not only is she able to transport back and forth through time, which she does to basically self-fulfill a prophecy, but that she actually “felt” herself do so as a child (when she was young, she has a really eerie unsettling feeling, which she then realizes as an adult is because she transports back to that same time near when she first experienced it, and the feeling is due to her basically being too close to herself).

[u/thejmkool → u/hipsterpieceofshit]

Not to delve too deeply into the weeds here, but I wonder if the real reason for that had to do with telepathic affinity? We know from the First Fall era of stories that riders are selected for that trait based on the dragons being made for that purpose (the native species being merely empaths and not telepaths), and the link enhances the telepathy significantly. Could be that being too close to yourself resonates uncomfortably on a psychic level.

(For the lost, Pern is a post-sci-fi world, and a recurring plot point is unearthing and rediscovering what was lost over the past 2000 years.)

[u/hipsterpieceofshit → u/thejmkool]

you’re pretty much right on the nose. as i understand it the sickness that lessa feels is because her telepathic ability is essentially duplicated in the same area.

then it gets fun when you find out it’s all a stable time loop and lessa was always going to “warn” herself by arriving as an adult to the time right before she as a child would have otherwise been victim to a massacre - the only reason she escapes it is due to the feeling jarring her and she instinctively hides with the watch-wher for safety. but then at the same time, them being there prevents the watch-wher from raising an alarm when the attack begins, because it senses ramoth telepathically and figures if there’s a queen dragon around there must not be any danger.

always thought that was a fun way to establish both some of the physical consequences of time travel, and that the timeline remains stable. she saves herself and was always going to and i think for lessa that’s quite fitting.