Psi-Dome/The More In-Depth Explanation for the Especially Curious or Masochistic
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Contents |
Notes on Construction
Diego can be considered to have two parts: the old Z5 supercomputer (responsible for the bulk of his thinking and which he refers to as "DOS" or, simply, "the system") and the machinery that replaced his organic brain (responsible for his personality and serving as a sort of desktop or "shell" with which to interact with the world). The vast majority of the former is located in its own pocket dimension, while the latter is made up of what Z5 components are present and the cognition hardware surrounding it.
There is a distinct temporo-spacial anomaly permeating the Z5. What exists in this dimension is a self-contained supercomputer of considerable power that looks something like a grey golf ball and is hooked up to all exterior systems through a confusing tangle of mismatched circuitry; what isn't obvious is the fact that this device is considered the "current" Z5 and that all past versions of the system are still present and still in operation, all occupying the same zero-point space and acting like a single massive machine of impossible speed. This occurs because instead of moving in a linear fashion towards the usual past, as it should, each itineration of the machine instead passes through the present and then curves into another temporal dimension which consists of nothing but "now"... where it stacks seamlessly into all other itinerations. The current hardware then draws upon this source as needed-- and, in addition, if for some reason time ever stops or is tampered with in the subjective present, the Z5 will both keep running and remember what originally happened, invaluable traits in a device built to intercept time-travelers. This "log-stacking" function also means, incidentally, that large portions of the machine are constructed of vacuum tubes and other antique or bizarre technologies that were at one point part of its current make-up.
The Diego shell does not experience much of this effect, being present mostly in this dimension, but any anomalies noted by the Z5 will likewise be noted as soon as possible. It is a haphazard system, evidently recovering from considerable damage at some point in the past (through some sort of ambient self-repair mechanism which seems slow but reliable), and while it bears a faint resemblance to a human brain the familiarity ends quickly upon closer inspection. In fact, what exists shouldn't be operational at all-- it's as though over a tenth of it is invisible or missing, with wiring that terminates in raw copper and circuits that never connect, choked with dust and odd energies and space-time distortion leakage. While it is impossible to identify specific functions, Diego's programming routines are ostensibly stored here along with his original memories; what is certain is that after his switch-on date in 2008 all additional memories are now automatically moved to the Z5 archives.
It is possible to contact at least part of this structure through telepathic means, though it is more difficult to reach than most minds, is all but impossible to read without some affinity with machinery, and would seem significantly "off" in pretty much all respects. Any communication would be one-way only: Diego has no capacity to send in return.
The Basic Idea
Every fundamental unit of existence can be described by its own set of numerical coordinates, detailing where it is located in space-time and how it is moving. These coordinates, for all intents and purposes, are reality-- they are the ultimate basis for "what is," much like the bits in a computer are responsible for the programs it runs. Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle renders it impossible to know every detail of these coordinates, but that is where Diego's power comes into play: he observes either location or motion and then calculates whichever is unknown to match what is desired, forcing each individual particle to conform to expectation.
He refers to this as "reformatting." He can adjust, in a single cycle, either location (in time or space or both) or motion (speed and direction of travel) of a single unit of space-time by one unit of change. While this is an infinitesimally small adjustment, he can do this many, many times very rapidly and thus achieve macroscopic effects.
For comparison: a nanosecond (10 to the -9th seconds) is to one second as as one second is to 31.7 years. A picosecond (10 to the -12th seconds) is to one second as as one second is to 31,700 years. Diego's cycling time is 42x Planck, which means that said second, to him, is equivalent to the age of the universe multiplied by more than 30 thousand quadrillion years. This works out to something on the order of 13,314,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (or 1.3314 x 10 to the 37th) individual calculations per second and grants plenty of leeway to mess around with individual knots of existence. Any effects notable at the macroscopic level are the culmination of these quadrillions upon quadrillions of minute adjustments.
The Process
Diego looks at an object and works out its coordinates; if there's magic or something else not strictly scientific involved, he'll have problems and error messages, but he can affect anything around the issue that isn't "wrong." He is limited by distance (the air tends to obscure what he's trying to look at, and his optics aren't telescopes) and must be able to see said object-- no working from memory or around corners. Once the coordinates are under observation he can start reformatting. The time required for any particular action is limited by how many coordinates he's trying to affect: the actual process of detection and reformatting is more or less instantaneous, but something like a desk lamp is made up of an enormous amount of individual coordinates and will take time to affect on any noticeable level. It is for this reason that he prefers to be as direct and simple as possible: rather than pick up and toss someone against a wall (which would require affecting most of their body mass and imparting considerable velocity) he would simply pull their neurons out of alignment or fillet their optic nerves, both small changes with enormous effects on life and behavior.
Applications
Diego could, hypothetically, affect anything physical in any number of ways. He could generate lightning, bend light, start fires, cause ionizing radiation, compress surrounding atmosphere into concussive bursts of sound... it all stems from the numbers, and numbers are his business. However, whether or not he would know how to do any of this is the operative question: his familiarity with math and physics all come from the machinery. Diego himself has very limited knowledge and no formal schooling in the matter, and while he is aware of how things operate at their most fundamental levels, this doesn't mean he understands them. He only knows what he observes, and while he can make connections between "this person did that" and "this happened," anything beyond crude mimicry would require a good deal of training, just like anything else.
As an incidental aside, most of these possible applications (on a large scale) are hazardous for people within the vicinity and Diego happens to be a person in the vicinity-- if he were to try anything dangerous he would be at ground zero, and let's just say that for a guy with a head of metal, lighting isn't terribly appealing.
Much safer, and much easier in his mind, to just smack things around and pull bits of them apart. As such, most reformatting focuses on doing exactly that.
Efficiency
Diego's method is not efficient. Even in the most generous use of the word. To match what most telekinetics are able to do with nothing but the power of the human mind, Diego must rely upon millions of tons of machinery powered by a transdimensional generator that puts out many times the peak capacity of the world's electrical grid. His speed, staggering as it is, is a requirement-- without it, he would never in a million years be able to keep up with the competition, and even with it he isn't flashy. He doesn't rip vault doors in half or tear off limbs; he picks locks and severs joints. Anything else is too resource-hungry and prohibitively macroscopic. His saving grace is his precision.
A Note on Dimensions
There is one further aspect to his ability. DOS, being an interdimensional supercomputer, is effectively another direction: when reformatting coordinates, he can take that additional dimension into account and this enables some strange stuff. With some preparation, he can translate any given particle or set of particles a surprising distance (well beyond what should seem possible), render those particles intangible to the "normal" world, and manifest a sort of localized space-time paradox that causes headaches and sudden surprising problems when an unwanted person gets too close (at a cost of nearly ten percent of his operational capacity).
The first basically consists of shoving the desired target through DOS. This is rather hazardous to whatever is shoved (living or not) and requires a "reset" in thinking: as the supercomputer is full of machinery (insofar as an extradimensional non-euclidean space can be full), Diego has to first rearrange its structure to permit egress, which takes some time. Afterward he'll have to either rearrange all over again immediately or operate at sub-par capacity until he is able. This technique has an advantage in that he can manage much further apparent distances than normal, but it's dangerous and disorienting and not healthy for the target: being stuffed atom by atom through a mathematical point curved to infinity is not a pleasant experience.
The second effect is a variation on the first. While this transition from one place to another is usually experienced as a nigh-instantaneous change from the point of view of those affected (taking some seconds to prepare on Diego's end), another option is to translate one coordinate "set" of those same targets into DOS but leave the rest where they are, effectively removing one spatial direction. This makes it very difficult for those treated to affect the normal world and vice versa: they are now two-dimensional, which dimension relocated varying depending on each particle in their bodies, and will simply pass through normal three-dimensional objects that they encounter (including the floor, provided they weren't held in place by the effect). As would be imagined, this also is a dangerous effect for all concerned: people aren't designed to handle dimensional stresses, and exposing the internal mechanism of DOS to said people for long is a good way to wind up with broken machinery.
The third (which he refers to as "the Difference") is a localized paradox which feeds off the boundaries between dimensions, much like his own generator. This usually exists as little more than a light distortion, but when the paradox is enabled in full force anything that wanders near it is subjected to random reformatting: that area of space-time is uncertain whether it includes DOS or not, and as such particles within it will randomly flicker between dimensions, causing a great deal of damage (and discomfort if whatever owns those particles is alive). Looking at the Difference is as close as looking at DOS as most people will get-- sometimes hints of odd machinery can be seen within the distortion, and Diego has taken advantage of this "window" to let him keep an eye on things even when his own externals are facing another direction or when he's some distance away. If it is present, Diego is watching.
The Difference also tends to be handy as a general-purpose storage device: if he wants to move something, he tosses it into the distortion and ensures that it falls into DOS. Whatever it was is usually retrievable later.
Irregularities
Despite the fact that he can indeed both hover and fly at considerable speed, does so both in and out of combat on a regular basis, and even habitually adopts an aerial stance when nervous, there seems to be nothing in the machinery at all that would support such an ability. It cannot be a trick of reformatting-- he needs to observe something to affect it and he has no sensors to keep an eye on his own body in the required manner.
It should also be noted that on two separate occasions he has been seen to strike a target with concussive force well beyond what strength should permit, causing a great deal of blunt trauma and knocking the unfortunate some distance without ever actually making physical contact. Both times (both fatal to the recipient) were accompanied by a brief flash and resulted in burns across his chest and forearms similar to those caused by electric shock, as well as an uncertain but significant amount of damage to his circuitry.
When turned upon either of these effects, a detailed scan reveals a energy manipulation method similar to that of kheldian Peacebringers, although the signature is much fainter and heavily distorted. Otherwise, only minor irregularities easily drowned out by contamination from his electrical components are evident.
Diego treats both oddities as "just something he does," and has found no reason to question or draw notice to them.
