Things Serafina has bought with XP: Mind 5. I'm going to need to edit the first page descriptions sooner or later, but Mind 5 allows her to basically create minds out of thin air, or, in this case, edit memories. I was going to make you guys roll for it, but this was more interesting. (I am totally willing to offer Serafina bonus XP if you guys manage Intern Stunts to make her Mind 5 uploading easier, though).
FREE XP YOU SAY?
...
Serafina Rosario massages her temples, thinking. She is going to murder Donald. With cancer. Wait, no. Someone would suspect her if he was found with suspiciously fast-growing cancer. She should use something more innocuous. Something more generic. Something no one would ever suspect her of using. Like a fireaxe.
Wait, no. That's not what she's meant to be thinking of. What she's meant to be thinking of is how on earth she's going to set up a full personality simulacrum of Jamelia Belltower when she's never done anything like this on her own before and doesn't think she actually can. And she can't pull strings to hope that Mummy or Daddy will help, because a) this is meant to be top secret, and b) she doesn't trust her parents near that kind of mind tampering technology. Not anymore.
Wow. No wonder she was thinking about how to get away with murdering Donald. It was a much less formidable issue. But sadly, it would have to wait. Even if Donald touches Rose, once they get Director Belltower back Serafina is fairly sure the other woman would like to join in devising some suitable punishment.
But enough of the distraction. She looks around the comfortable offices of the LA construct, which are a much more pleasant working environment than Molotek was. And at least she's not having to use – urgh – 80s era NWO gear.
"Jason," she tells their new New World Order acquisition, "your file notes you have training in hyperpsych and VR training experience?"
He nods. "Yes," he says confidently. "Lots of VR training in the modern curriculum."
He's staring at her chest. Well, that's perhaps not a surprise. That's what it's there for. "Eyes up," she reminds him. "I will require you to prepare a VR combat training simulation, New World Order standard. Director Belltower's sim records should be accessible to you. I will require you to stress-test the intelligence I will be working on and cross-compare it to her records. After each iterative cycle, you will provide me with a summarised version of the correlation data so I can refine it."
His hand twitches. He's clearly not quite sure whether to salute her. "Yes, doctor," he says. There's a gleam in his eyes as he adds, "Wonder what her times are like?"
"Wonder in your own time," Serafina tells him, and mentally curses at another symptom of onsetting Belltoweritis. She turns to Pharmacopeist Thomas Park. "Park, check the neurochemistry emulation module for HITMarks. Find me the ones suitable for running an emulation of someone suffering a failure of a NWO conditioning programme, and then liaise with BioMechanic Patel in case he can see any implementation details. If you can provide a summary of each of the applicable modules, it will save me time. I don't need a full literature review," she reassures him, "but any relevant extra information you can obtain would be useful."
"Okay, I'll get on that," he says.
And with that set up, Serafina retreats to her lab to bring some of her old energy-hungry biomods she'd installed for EXEMPLAR III back online, and begin cramming like she hasn't since… uh, EXEMPLAR III. Right. She has a few objective outside hours to learn how to fully construct a personality template, something she's tried to learn for years before and failed.
Well, saving the fucking world better have fed her Genius, is all she can hope for.
…
An hour later and Serafina has chewed her way through several textbooks, drawn a sketch of Donald being run over by a steamroller, and retreated to VR to work on mindtape expansion and integration. The main product of her work so far has been a picture of a dragon with Donald's head holding captive Princess Rose of the Flower Kingdom, because
it's just not working.
She's getting angry. She's getting frustrated. Especially since this entire thing seems to have entirely been Rose's idea and… and on top of everything, she doesn't want to disappoint her daughter. Or lose Director Belltower. Or… or…
[Dr Serafina Rosario,] an automated voice states. [Please step away from any laboratory equipment. A laboratory audit is now in effect. Your actions will be taken into account by the Damage Control evaluation team.]
"Oh
fucknuggets," Serafina swears under her breath. Now? Really? Of all times. This can't be a coincidence. It really can't. Someone has to be delaying her. Some sinister outside influence, throwing bureaucratic layers in her way and…
"Sera!" a woman declares, bouncing happily into view as her avatar enters the sim. This time she has her hair dyed bright blue – or more likely, she's shifted her chromophores. "Surprise! Surprise audit, that is!"
Serafina bites back her retort. "Alicia," she manages, trying not to anger the other woman. "I'm sort of in the middle of something and…"
"Duh. People always say that when they're audited. But this is Damage Control," Alicia says with a shrug. "Remember? Pro-gen-it-ors have Dam-age Con-trol for in-tern-al au-dit-ing. That's what they pay me for."
"There's no need to patronise me," Serafina retorts, the words slipping out.
"I really think there was," Alicia says, grinning. "And since Senior Constable Cross is out of action for
months, his workload's been spread around. He's a very hard worker. Some of his cases have multiple of us covering them, so you'll probably have to deal with some of our other colleagues who aren't as fun-loving and easy-going as me, and aren't as eminently fuckable as Cross," she adds, archly.
Serafina coughs. "Uh... excuse me?" she says. Not just about how blunt the other woman is being, but also because… well, their relationship is only
mostly legitimate. Oh God, she doesn't need this on top of everything else. No no no no no. This is the worst time.
"Oh, come on. You're the one sleeping with your auditor, not me. Although I would totally fuck him if I had the chance. I mean,
damn." Alicia wags her finger at Serafina. "You're very naughty to be doing him. Naughty in the good way. Seriously, you're no-shit beating out Maria to get your hands on him, and she's a goddamn clone of Helen with added Progenitor biosculpting on top. Bet that makes you feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. Kind of totally jealous here."
"I still don't see how you managed to make it into Damage Control," Serafina says, trying (and failing) not to smirk. And yes, the fact that she was the one in a semi-stable relationship with Alexander, when he had the choice of the EXEMPLAR II clone of Helen - a honeypot par extraordinaire - was quite an ego boost. Even if some of that was probably common sense on Alexander's part, because Maria took 'femme fatale' to whole new, war-starting levels.
"Like I told you last time, I lie a lot," Alicia says with a cat-like grin. "So, anyway, much as it's fun to catch up with you, I'm actually here because you're showing radically abnormal brainwave activity and DC wants to know what you're up to, so I took the chance to show up and ask you exactly what you think you're doing." The virtual projection pulls a stern pair of glasses out of the ether, and puts them on. They do not exactly go with the Damage Control combat biosuit.
"Is the prop humour really necessary?" Serafina asks to buy time while she thinks up an excuse.
"Please answer the question, Dr Rosario," Alicia says sternly. "Please stop trying to delay. Such behaviour is... ah, suspicious." She makes a note in a clipboard which had not previously existed.
Serafina sighs. "I'm trying to hypercram learning how to do braintape uploads from scratch," she says, resorting to the truth. "It's something I've been trying to do for quite a long time. And I'm running several nootropics and augments at the same time."
Alicia checks her clipboard. "Ah, yeah, that's on your file," she says. Serafina tries not to breathe a sigh of relief. "So, let's see how far you got," Alicia smirks, sliding onto Serafina's working desk. The biosuit makes a squeaky noise as it does so. "I notice someone's requisitioned access to the EXEMPLAR III Second Gen Candidates – namely, J Belltower. Someone might wonder why?" she adds, grinning. "Sera, are you trying to work out what your boss would like as a birthday present? Or did you lose her in the wash? PS, it's number two. Sera, you lost your boss~."
Serafina frowns. She had guessed that Alicia had a lot of the similar enhancements as her – not least because they both seem to have the same low tolerance for boredom – but this is another reminder that the other woman is also exceptionally intelligent and also pretty well informed.
"Aww, don't be grumpy. I spent some time around Jamelia, on an assignment. She's a humourless stick in the mud, but she's a pretty okay boss despite it. And it's never dull around her," Alicia says wickedly. "Plus, speaking as a Damage Control girl, the fact that she's nice to Ashford puts her up in my books." She pats Serafina on the hand. "So what don't you get?"
"It just… it just
isn't clicking," Serafina says pathetically. "I'm trying to… to… I'm running so many IQ boosters and everything and it just isn't
working. I should be able to do it and I
can't." She groans. "Maybe it's all my fault for messing around with my own neurology trying to weaken some of the things my parents put in," she mutters. "I was being safe! I was doing it slowly, chipping away at it so I can reinforce it if it turns out I'm psychotic without this. And now I'm just feeling… agitated and maybe it's all my fault."
"Nah, I don't think that's it," Alicia disagrees. "I think you're feeling angry for other reasons." She roots around in the virtual space, and pulls out Serafina's sketch. "Oh, hey, it's Ashford in a super-pretty dress with some dragon with some guy's face." She raises her eyebrows. "Bored?"
"Put that down!"
"Sera. Are you getting broooody?"
"Shut up!" Serafina snaps, making a snatch for the paper.
"Now that's not a very nice way to talk to your auditor," Alicia replies, dancing back out of reach. "Hmm. Passable drawing. I could do better. Also notice you drew Ashford pretty flat-chested. Is it because you think of her as a little girl?"
"Don't you start psychoanalysis on me!" Serafina snaps.
"So it is that, huh. And you think she's a little princess you need to protect from the big scary dragon of… some guy. Oh, Financier Sykes in your amalgam? Probably him. Sera, Sera, Sera. Que, Sera, are you becoming su madre?"
"I… I am not becoming my mother! Stop being annoying!" Serafina pauses, and sucked in a deep breath, her cheeks inflating as she accidentally impersonated a hamster. "Oh no, don't you dare! Don't you dare! Don't you dare compare first boyfriends and… and, look! I was a stupid fourteen year old! I certainly wasn't ready and she's just five! I've had to file several sexual harassment cases on her behalf, and Alexander has had to file more! She is not emotionally ready for
anything of that nature! Especially not with someone who's much, much older, and in a position of power over her. She can't say no to authority figures who threaten her!"
Alicia raises her hands. "Whoa, Sera," she says, frowning. "I didn't say anything along those lines. Where did all that come from?"
Serafina pauses. "Fuck."
"I was just going to make some jokes about how your mother's still prettier than you," Alicia says, sounding hurt, to Serafina's glower. That had been a particular bane growing up. "Urgh. I didn't mean to get ranted at."
"It's no problem, it's just…" Serafina sighs, spinning on her chair. "If she was a normal construct, she'd be able to cope with it. She'd know what to do. Well, and I wouldn't care so much, probably, which is bad of me, but true. But she's a child. She just has a woman's body."
"A high end combat killing machine body," Alicia points out.
"Which happens to look like an adult woman and comes with things which work like normal hormones," Serafina retorts, letting her face sink into her hands. "She's probably feeling urges and Donald is… infamous for liking the company of pretty women. And men. She… she's just not ready for anything like this."
Alicia shrugs. "I wasn't ready for my first relationship," she says. "You neither. And I've looked at her neurology, you know." She waves her hands in the air, and brings up a series of time-lapsed brain scans. "There. She's a long way past the Ridley-Deckard limit. She'd hit that by six months, by my estimation."
The images flash and flow before them, shifting through phase transition states. Looping back to the beginning, and starting again. Back to that chaotic, traumatic point where something went very wrong in the development of the modified clone of Reina Lior and laid the seeds for Rose.
Serafina gasps.
"Nothing I said was that bad," Alicia says, pouting. "Look, maybe you should just give your Sykes man the benefit of the doubt. See if he sees Rose as a five year old too before you do anything, and… look, I don't think she's exactly five, even if she certainly isn't twenty-five either. It's a bit of a mess and…"
"No, no, it's about the mindtape," Serafina says, her words escaping too quickly. "The RiDe limit. The tape is static. The problem is always in the initialisation. That's what the books all say. It's incredibly delicate and finessed. Neural breakdown. Catastrophic pre-initialisation mesoinstability. All these things that require a real master of the art to get working. But it's the instability that's needed. You can't make it perfect. It's… it's too dynamic! You have to cause the instability and then patch it. It'll make it flawed, but it's only a beta-level. It's flawed anyway. And it'll last long enough. But the flaws are the seed culture of the RiDi limit.
She springs up, locking Alicia in a hug. "It'll work! I see it! It…" she laughs, "I needed a distraction! More than just staring at books trying to get it to work! My mind was working in the background and…"
"So you'll at least give Sykes a chance before murdering him with razorwire?" Alicia asks. "And try to talk Rose through things, rather than just trying to lock her down." She grins. "My parents tried to stop me getting up to stuff, and that just meant I had to get inventive to get past them."
"… fine," Serafina says eventually. "I'll give him one chance. At least for this mission. And make sure to remind him plenty. And maybe take him out to dinner and coax him into remembering that she's five. Okay, kind of five," she says to Alicia's raised eyebrow. "But still…"
"I do have to point out that Alexander, despite being a gorgeous piece of male meat, is…" Alicia begins.
"I get your point!" Serafina snaps "Urgh! Stop…"
"… stop auditing you? Well, officially you're just trying to push yourself to learn something any FAÇADE engineer would want, so I have no complaints there from DC," Alicia says. She sighs. "And careful with the nootropics. You've got enough in you right now that… look, it's nice to see you, but I'm only here right now because you're risking poisoning yourself if you leave very carefully controlled circumstances. And I don't want you to have a stroke."
Serafina sighs. "Yeah. They weren't helping anyway," she says, shaking her head. "Not much, at least."
There is a pause.
"Ohmigod," Alicia says happily, a wicked gleam in her eyes. "You know what would be hilarious? Like, literally hilarious? We're talking rolling on the ground laughing levels of hilarity."
"What?" Serafina asks.
"We should totally send the HITMark you're programming in whats'shisname's name as a request for an escort! So he has to explain why he has a robo-escort of his boss."
"That would be…" Serafina began dubiously.
"… a really great idea? Oh, come on," Alicia says. "Like you weren't considering it already."
"Um," says Serafina, who had totally been idly considering it. "You're a terrible person," she says.
"Takes one to know one," Alicia replies with a grin.
Serafina sighs. "Something tells me you used to get us in so much trouble as children," she says sadly.
"You have no idea," Alicia says wickedly. "So, best idea, or bestest idea?"
"Weren't you arguing that I should give him the benefit of the doubt?"
"Well, yeah. But there's benefit of the doubt, and then there's hilarious passive-aggressive practical jokes," Alicia says cheerfully. "You know you want to."
"You're the worst Damage Control auditor ever, 'Licia," Serafina says, shaking her head.
"I lie a lot."
