Phortographer

**Phortographer** is the predator of the See Phore. It belongs to the Dark and Nuclear Elements. It does not grow.

## Appearance

It looks like a torus with several bulges around its midsection and end. It has four legs and a toothy, circular mouth. It has green scales. It is about 18 inches in width.

## Information

They are carnivorous and poikilothermic. Their mating season is during the spring. They are diurnal.

Phortographers are Compliens that have specially evolved to prey on the See Phore, a Complien found in West Ilson. The See Phore explodes violently if damaged while it is awake, and whether or not it is awake cannot be determined without damaging it.

The Phortographer gets around this issue with a very unique adaptation. First, it digs into the ground and unearths the See Phore, then sucks it into its mouth without damaging the biofilm. The See Phore is lodged in the lump on the Phortographer's right side. A tooth inside the lump breaks open the biofilm, but since the interior of the Phortographer absorbs all light, the See Phore will not detonate.

The Phortographer then opens and closes its teeth rapidly to release a single photon into its interior. When the photon enters the Phortographer, it hits a lens that has a chance to deflect the photon in one of two directions - the left path inside the Phortographer, which is empty, or the right path, which holds the See Phore.

The photon whizzes towards its deflected destination. If it went to the left, it bounces off a few mirrors and hits the back of the Phortographer unscathed. If it went to the right, it hits the See Phore. If the See Phore is awake, the photon causes it to detonate, killing the Phortographer. If the See Phore is asleep, the photon will bounce off its eyelid and be redirected by the regrowing biofilm around the See Phore to the back of the Phortographer.

Once the photon hits the back of the Phortographer, there is another lens. If two photons hit the lens at the same time, the lens will emit a photon amplified through constructive interference and a photon reduced through destructive interference. Two detectors detect the presence of these photons. If only one photon hits the lens, the photon will remain unchanged and bounce towards one of the two detectors randomly.

Again, only one photon is released by the Phortographer at a time. The photon has a chance to move to the left lane and be guaranteed to reach the two detectors, or it can move to the right lane and either blow up the See Phore or move to the detectors unscathed. However, once the photon hits the first lens, it enters a quantum superposition in which it is in both lanes at the same time.

If the See Phore is asleep, the photon will move through both lanes and hit the detectors. Since there are "two" photons at the same time, the detectors will register two amplified and reduced photons. The Phortographer then kills the See Phore and digests it over a period of several weeks.

If the See Phore is awake, the photon will *not* enter a superposition. This is because it is possible to determine which lane the photon went down - if it goes to the right, it triggers the See Phore. Thus, the photon will either move to the left and enter one of the two detectors, or it will move to the right and blow up. If the detectors register a single normal photon, it is guaranteed that the See Phore is awake, and the Phortographer will eject it from its body and bury it back in the ground.

### Habitat

It can only be found on West Ilson near the habitat of the See Phore.

## Origin

Some insights on Phortographer's origins.

### Name

Its name is a pun of "phore" and "photographer".

### Design

It was based on an Elitzur–Vaidman bomb tester.

## Trivia

* They have a very keen sense of smell that allows them to dig up hidden See Phores.
* It was inspired by the alt-text of this SMBC comic.
* This species is a distant relative of the Phorensics and the Phortuneteller.

## Spells

 Spooky Action
 Sneaky Swap
 Slime
 Gnaw