Mass and air density

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Why does the air get compressed at all? If the castling isn't volume-related, but mass-related, then it's not obvious that the swapped-in air needs to show up in the same volume of the departing person. Perhaps it's just distributed over the same volume it came from (much like the human, as it would be disturbing for the human to get compressed during jump just like the air), resulting in slightly higher pressure over a large volume that rapidly dissipates.

It's an imaginary ability, so you can have it work however you like, of course. But it seems odd that the transfer process is so asymmetrical.

If you want a really creepy effect, have the human EXPAND to the volume of the air they displace. . . .

[Anthony]

Or you can just suck up some of the ground an no compression occurs at all.

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Rupert

It depends on the person - fat people float higher, some very lean people sink even with their lungs full of air. When they fully exhale most people have slightly negative buoyancy, so I'd just assume that people average the same density as water, overall.

When I was in swimming classes I used to amuse myself sitting on the bottom of the pool when we were supposed to be practicing floating positions.

[lwcamp]

The other thing to consider is how fast this process occurs. If the air is released over several seconds or longer, you won't get a blast wave or other explosive effects (unless the person teleports out of a sealed room, and the overpressure blows out the doors, windows, and maybe walls).

Luke

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

When I was in swimming classes I used to amuse myself sitting on the bottom of the pool when we were supposed to be practicing floating positions.

I was thinking of a really lean, bony cousin of mine when I wrote that. He used to lie on the bottom of diving pools.

[Bruno]

Whereas my father-in-law bobbed around like a cork in lifesaving class. He was supposed to be taking his turn playing the part of a drowning victim in full clothing and the teacher gave him hell for treading water when he was supposed to be demonstrating how clothing drags you down. Cue round of complaints and blazing argument because he wasn't treading water, he was finally pulled down to a normal floating position in water.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by whswhs

If you want a really creepy effect, have the human EXPAND to the volume of the air they displace. . . .

That occurred to me shortly after I posted :) And it even makes more sense (to me) than shrinking in both directions.

The equal-mass, volume-as-required rule would make for an interesting Limitation on a castling ability, though. Since no one would want to be expanded into gas, they couldn't teleport into "empty" air. You also wouldn't want to teleport anywhere there was something dense, like stone, or you'd wind up getting compressed. So, teleporters need something very close to the density of a human body -- or simply, another human. (The ability's error tolerance might allow for something like teleporting into a swimming pool.) "Castling" becomes a very appropriate term, as this limited ability only swaps the position of two people.

What might that be worth? It does take out a lot of the usual teleport tactics. But possibly has its own offensive uses for assassination (swap, kill, swap back -- no witnesses or forensic evidence at the site where the body is found), or kidnapping/interrogation, or insertion of doubles (particularly of the illusion or shapeshifting doppleganger sort).