No-Savantism Bendalloy Superspeed

[Longshot97 he/him]

Allow me to introduce my dear friends William, Bartholomew, Robert, and Benjamin, all of whom are Sliders. We call them Bendalloy Bill, Bart, Bob, and Ben. They have all sorts of fun together. Two of them are secretly related, one is secretly Twinborn, another is secretly a Hemalurgist, one was responsible for another losing a parent, and all sorts of fun relationships. Oh, and they also cracked the code to superspeed.

Bendalloy Bill throws up a speed bubble with his friends Bart, Bob, and Ben inside it. All four of them then walk to the edge of the bubble. As soon as they touch the perimeter (where the speed effect is still engaged) Bendalloy Bart speeds up time. They continue walking at a leisurely pace, until reaching the edge of the bubble yet again. Thankfully, Bendalloy Bob steps up and burns some Bendalloy, creating yet another speed bubble. They keep going until-you guessed it-they reach the edge of the bubble. As soon as that happens-you guessed it-who should start burning Bendalloy than Bendalloy Ben. And so they keep walking, until it cycles back to good old Bendalloy Bill.

And meanwhile, they are moving faster than the eye can see while everyone around them remains practically frozen in time. Thoughts?

Edited October 26, 2023 by Longshot97

[therunner he/him]

As far as we know should work
 

[The Stormfather He/Him]

that should work, although whoever's at the back bubble would be put in regular time for a moment if they didn't reach the overlap of the two bubbles in time for when the next bubble went down.

[alder24]

8 hours ago, Longshot97 said:

And meanwhile, they are moving faster than the eye can see while everyone around them remains practically frozen in time. Thoughts?

It works. But they would move 2x as fast because the bubbles overlap, or even 3x for the guy standing in between the other 2 guys. You could make this with just the 2 of them, and it would work just fine - the bubble would be roughly the same size so every time one of them would make a second bubble, it would include the first guy standing in the center of his first bubble (but they can just move together).

Spoiler

Kurkistan

When time bubbles overlap, is it multiplicative or additive? *laughter*

Brandon Sanderson

...It should be a-- whew.

Kurkistan

Should I ask Peter?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah ask Peter. We talked it all over. I'm gonna get the wrong one. I think it's additive, in fact I'm pretty sure it's additive. But let's ask Peter.

Footnote: Brandon has previously stated it is multiplicative.
Oathbringer Chicago signing (Nov. 21, 2017)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

What happens if you overlap time bubbles?

Brandon Sanderson

Usually, it is additive. I believe. That's a PAFO. That's really a Peter And Find Out. I've nailed this all down with him, but I know we went back and forth on this. I think it's additive. Or, if it's different types, they just cancel each other. I'm pretty sure they're additive. It's possible he vetoed that for certain reasons. My recollection is that he didn't, but for some reason brain is saying "Wait a minute!" So I don't know why my brain is saying that. All I'm saying on that one is, if you read later on that I contradict that, it's because of something my brain is telling me I don't remember.

Arcanum Unbounded release party (Nov. 22, 2016)

 

If you have 4 of them, make 2 of them make 2 bubbles simultaneously in the same place, speeding the time 2x, and then the other 2 would make 2 new bubbles on the edge of the first 2, in the same place, speeding the time 4 times. Fast and cool. 

But Wayne is doing almost the same thing with his single bubble - he runs inside the bubble, dropping it as he gets to its edge and almost immediately making a new one. You need a lot of practice but it works.

Edited October 26, 2023 by alder24

[NerdyAarakocra They/Them]

Yeah, this should work! Nice thinking.

[Longshot97 he/him]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

If you have 4 of them, make 2 of them make 2 bubbles simultaneously in the same place, speeding the time 2x, and then the other 2 would make 2 new bubbles on the edge of the first 2, in the same place, speeding the time 4 times. Fast and cool. 

But Wayne is doing almost the same thing with his single bubble - he runs inside the bubble, dropping it as he gets to its edge and almost immediately making a new one. You need a lot of practice but it works.

Well, you see, the advantage comes with the fact that Bendalloy needs a few seconds to reactivate time bubbles, on which the Slider is vulnerable. This is why multiple Sliders are necessary in the scenario I described above, to allow the cooldown to elapse between the lot of them, so that the time bubble never stops.

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

It works. But they would move 2x as fast because the bubbles overlap, or even 3x for the guy standing in between the other 2 guys. You could make this with just the 2 of them, and it would work just fine - the bubble would be roughly the same size so every time one of them would make a second bubble, it would include the first guy standing in the center of his first bubble (but they can just move together).

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Kurkistan

When time bubbles overlap, is it multiplicative or additive? *laughter*

Brandon Sanderson

...It should be a-- whew.

Kurkistan

Should I ask Peter?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah ask Peter. We talked it all over. I'm gonna get the wrong one. I think it's additive, in fact I'm pretty sure it's additive. But let's ask Peter.

Footnote: Brandon has previously stated it is multiplicative.
Oathbringer Chicago signing (Nov. 21, 2017)

Not quite. See, as soon as Bendalloy Bill exits his time bubble, it pops. I specified that as soon as all Sliders hit the edge of a bubble, that is when the next bubble is thrown up. So yes, they would all be caught in a "stacked bubble" but only for a moment or so. If the Sliders were to try and stack bubbles the whole way (at least in the numbers I've described above) they would have to re-enter normal for at least a few seconds.

Instead, in the scenario described above, it is almost as though the time bubble moves with the Allomancer, similar to a Bendalloy Savant (hence the title of this post).

Edited October 26, 2023 by Longshot97

[alder24]

1 minute ago, Longshot97 said:

Not quite. See, as soon as Bendalloy Bill exits his time bubble, it pops. I specified that as soon as all Sliders hit the edge of a bubble, that is when the next bubble is thrown up. So yes, they would all be caught in a "stacked bubble" but only for a moment or so. If the Sliders were to try and stack bubbles the whole way (at least in the numbers I've described above) they would have to re-enter normal for at least a few seconds.

All bubbles would have the same radius (assumption). Assuming that they walk in a straight line and don't move until they need to make the next cycle of bubbles, the first guy Bill will stand in the center of his bubble, and the second guy Bart will stand on the edge of the bubble. When Bart creates his bubble, it will have the same radius as Bill's bubble, and therefore it will catch Bill standing in the center, overlapping with his bubble and speeding time from him 2x. Both Bart and Bill will experience 2x the speed of a regular bubble. But then the third guy Bob will go to the edge of Bart's bubble, place his own, and that one will catch Bart standing in the center - making him 3x as fast as a regular bubble would give him, because 3 bubbles overlap where he stands.

Of course they can all follow each other, instead of standing in the center of their bubbles. Yes, when Bill exits his bubble it will collapse, but they all are in Bart's bubble so this doesn't matter that much. They will be running from 2 bubbles overlapping to just 1 bubble, before the next one is made and another 2x overlap is affecting them. I didn't want to say that they would constantly move 2x or 3x, this only applies where bubbles overlap (3x would be just a point).

The bubbles pop not when they touch the edge, but when they leave it - as long as some part of a person is inside the speed bubble, they will be included in its effect. Standing on the edge of a bubble is fine.