[Spoilers to half-way through] Boomerang Shenanigans

[Havoc]

I'm currently about halfway through the book, so no spoilers beyond that please.

I've noticed that the Boomerang watches have very inconsistent consequences. It's originally said that you melt if you don't Boomerang back within 30 seconds. However, there are three occasions so far where a character only Boomerangs one way, and doesn't suffer any consequences of not returning.

1. Zef sending Jax away right before his death
2. Brigan doesn't teleport back from the power room, but Jax was melting at the time?
3. Jax teleporting out of the containment tube

Do these reflect something deeper going on, have I missed something while listening, or (impossibly) has Brandon given up on consistent magic systems?

[NotarySojac]

The first one is definitely because of the fact that Zeff breaks the watch shortly before Jax teleports. (It's established when Jax is doing early testing with the Boomerang motivator that, before he figured out the teleporting back thing, destroying the device was the only way something could teleport and not melt away. That property still remains true with the final version of the device.)

I can't remember the scenes for the other two clearly enough to give a good answer on those, though.

[Philomath she/her]

6 hours ago, NotarySojac said:

The first one is definitely because of the fact that Zeff breaks the watch shortly before Jax teleports. (It's established when Jax is doing early testing with the Boomerang motivator that, before he figured out the teleporting back thing, destroying the device was the only way something could teleport and not melt away. That property still remains true with the final version of the device.)

I can't remember the scenes for the other two clearly enough to give a good answer on those, though.

This applies to the second scenario as well. I thought this was an inconsistency at first as well, but then remembered that Brigan’s watch broke which was why he couldn’t get himself back. 

[MGershone]

And with the containment tube, Jax puts the watch on the guard he knocks out and teleports him back.

It seems like if you're using the tech, but don't jump back, you melt. Otherwise, you'll be fine.

[Havoc]

15 hours ago, NotarySojac said:

 (It's established when Jax is doing early testing with the Boomerang motivator that, before he figured out the teleporting back thing, destroying the device was the only way something could teleport and not melt away. That property still remains true with the final version of the device.)

I can't remember the scenes for the other two clearly enough to give a good answer on those, though.

That explains a lot. I didn't remember about that loophole.

6 hours ago, MGershone said:

And with the containment tube, Jax puts the watch on the guard he knocks out and teleports him back.

It seems like if you're using the tech, but don't jump back, you melt. Otherwise, you'll be fine.

Before knocking out the guard, Jax spends quite a while tracking his patrol patterns. Well more than 30 seconds. I suppose you could assume he teleported back to the tube between observations, but it would have been nice to have a line about that.

[MGershone]

3 hours ago, Havoc said:

Before knocking out the guard, Jax spends quite a while tracking his patrol patterns. Well more than 30 seconds. I suppose you could assume he teleported back to the tube between observations, but it would have been nice to have a line about that.

Isn't he able to watch the guard from his tube? I thought that was how he did it.

Audiobooks make it harder to find specific passages. *sigh*