Arc 3: Broken Warehouse and Avatar Connection
- Location
- Here
Another 'pop' made Adam flinch hard. Metaphorically.
As he integrated deeper into the 'Egg', his point of view became less 'I am part of the wall and in your computer' and more 'Ghost Boss!' Which was useful. His mental avatar of himself could now shrug, wink, and so on and so forth. Physically, not much was going on... and mentally he was everywhere that Sarah was.
So everything in the Warehouse was right here, in front of him. As for Sarah, he was waiting to finish inserting her into the wonderful world of 'Rapture', home to some... pretty messed up stuff. Eventually.
Right NOW it was home to a bunch of optimistic assholes, mostly. And rich people, because while Andrew Ryan wanted the artists and the scientists and all that to escape the 'leeches' of society, it is really hard to be at the edge of 'art' when you are homeless and poor.
So most of these people come from wealthy backgrounds unless they were the minions or 'help'.
Which was good! Lots of people who didn't know how to understand 'worth' would make it easy for Sarah to get all kinds of stuff for a profit really. Especially with Adam in her corner.
But... the issues.
Adam looked over the Warehouse... and how much damage remained. Thankfully, he had managed to scan almost everything before frantically salvaging all he could and fleeing reality... because this was bad.
First of all, the obvious: Everything broken and destroyed was still broken and destroyed. Duh.
Second, the expected: Everything fragile and forcibly secured was heavily damaged and would likely need to be dismantled.
Third... sigh. The worst, most unexpected issue: Many 'properly secured' and 'stored' modules were not able to unpack themselves correctly. Because the unpacking module was considered 'non-essential', and thus was in the second, frantically packed away category.
It was a setback. Not an unsolvable issue, thanks to Adam having entangled 'Research', 'Purification', and 'Growth' into the systems on a fundamental level.
He had all the schematics of all the modules... or at least the broken state they had been found in.
He had a LOT of materials and resources to work with! And the ability to kludge a method to increase both while trying to fix stuff! Not to mention a history of learning how to get stuff done despite setbacks.
There would have to be compromises however.
Sigh.
The Warehouse Point system, all currently inactive modules, AND all related resources... they all would need to be scrapped.
Adam absently adjusted Sarah's ECHO interface, removing the upgrade trees and Warehouse shop list. For now, he replaced them both with a transaction tab instead.
It would show raw energy and material stock, a list of items Sarah might need based on prediction software and contextual clues, and so forth. She could pick from the menu or ask for something, and either trade for it through the Warehouse systems or set the item as a 'Quest' listing anything she needed to gather locally to complete the product.
For now and... eugh, probably for a while, she could only make purchases when entering a Jump. Too unstable otherwise. Period. Damn it.
At least Sarah's Avatar was stable.
Her core, her self within the Warehouse, was the most central and secured component of the whole system... especially after Adam had rebuilt so much of it. Layers after layer of not just the needed modules, but resource caches, repair subroutines, and (badly needed in his opinion), armor.
The new system routine that Adam was honestly still working on would no longer randomly build stuff on this god egg, but instead construct reinforced layers and segments around her core with each new Jump. Each layer and segment would include the ability to repair itself over time, and tiny units spread throughout the entire Warehouse would store some god damned backups!
Schematic backups, system backups, log backups, planned improvements, planned changes!
And if his girl got hurt again in the future? These segments and layers would be sacrificed FIRST, protecting her core and (hopefully) be rebuilt eventually thanks to having some damned backups!
Yes, it would make all future Choice Point purchases more expensive. Which sucked.
But at least NOW she wouldn't be using the cheapest option for growth while building a massive tower just waiting to fall down from some more powerful jerk wandering around!
He checked... good, she was still distracted by looking around for new job. Or just sight seeing.
Right, let's try and update some of these modules then.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah twitched as her inventory screen started glitching rainbow colors. "Adam?"
<<IT'S FINE! I... Oops.>>
She closed the display and checked for any passerbys that seemed TOO interested. Which was more than she was used to, as 'Bad Ass' had made her very healthy... and that translated into 'Near Dropdead Gorgeous'.
Sarah liked her improved looks of course, it just was a much more obvious issue now that she wasn't on an abandoned planet full of murder beasts.
Keeping a blush off from the appreciative looks (Men AND women) was harder than expected.
<<Look, I need to change a few things, just call if you need something. Or shoot someone. Or whatever. I got this!>>
...It was probably fine.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
WHY!? On the outside, the new layer of Sarah's Jump power was beautiful and perfect!
Inside? Inside was horrible!
These portions and that code acted like libraries, these units acted like tiny tools or boosts, those over here were... a fifth of a single power!?
Adam held back a growl.
Right, even if the Jump Powers were awesome... they had been harvested from the local reality as part of the process. Nature created some amazing treasure, but most of the time this organically created stuff was a gooey mess... 'I built this to do that but those broke so these parts were added' and so forth. Over and over again.
Yeah, never again.
Adam destroyed the 'Jump Aquisition' module entirely.
First, send the power analyzation section that was used to 'build' the Jump Document over to 'Research'. Might as well send the parts for reality copying over too. Let 'Research' play with all that automated stuff while Adam tried to fix this... mess.
First, organization.
Memory module, for actual memories gained per jump. Storing them seperatly like this would ensure her core identity wouldn't be overwhelmed or something stupid like that.
And it would ONLY be for inherited memories. No reason NOT to take advantage from having a fresh start!
Another Memory module cluster, one for each purchased power. Many came with memories and reflexes so the Jumper or her companions could use the new skills properly, and there was no reason to just slop all this stuff on the brain pile like a lazy kid.
Stupid previous system. Or maybe these Warehouses are actual eggs? Naturally born from gods, rather than built?
Meh, it could be done better.
Skill clusters, one for each power, with sympathetic links to their related memory module... Hmm. Yes, just the ability itself! No power at all!
After all, Sarah would probably get magic and psycic skills and who knows what eventually. Best to move the Power units closer to the Core, and then store Conversion units with the Skill so they can translate it into whatever energy was needed to work optimaly!
A bit more finangling restructured the 'Bioshock' Jump layer around the Core with only a few explosions. Below its original position was a layer dedicated to resource management... mostly energy Aquisition modules, Purification modules, and room for future generic Generation modules.
True, Adam had to create the Purification modules with 'Research' from scratch. The original methods didn't care if the user was sucking up evil souls or solar power or whatever, just trusted each Skill to know how to safely handle shit.
Yeah, no.
And just for extra safety? Below the resource management (Power?) layer was a nice new enhanced memory and thought layer. Places for future data to be merged from all jumps, and a bunch of Thought units that would create a bunch of automatic 'metadata'. Indexs built for quick searching, comparision between similar information clusters for later review, easy tagging of conflicting data, and so on and so forth.
Stuff that would be backed up and easily restored, junk that was mostly automated 'Neat!' data, and most importantly? A layer that could be destroyed by a disaster, protect Sarah's core, and easily be fixed later. One between her and all that power generation and storage.
Best be safe.
While writing the new 'installation routine' into the 'Jump Aquisition' module, Adam examined the new layout.
The Specialist background had memories split into data and reflexes, properly stored in Memory units. Sarah's core already had its own units, ones he wouldn't dare touch, but now she could access this data without ever being confused about WHERE the memory is coming from!
She could combine the useful stuff internally like normal, without losing or corrupting the purchased history and background... it was like always having a cheat sheet to review, rather than segmenting away a part of her brain or whatever. And she could CHOOSE which reflexes to activate... turn them on or off, with her prefered settings set to easily apply through each new Avatar she gained in the future.
Because sometimes having a warrior's reflexes was a dissadvantage. Or in this case, being an inventor might have a nasty habit or two she may wish to ignore. The important part was to make sure it was her CHOICE, not just hard coded into her brain like this was trying to do.
There were also a few units here that would act like tools to her mind behind the scenes. Obvious stuff like calculators and such, but also odd things like this one that helped make random thoughts jump to related concepts... neat!
Right, best move those modules over to the Skill clusters. And split the Skills into Active and Passive, as powers shouldn't be mixed in the middle of 'inspired thought' units. Much better!
Might as well toss all these new designs and schematics over to 'Research' as well. Sarah's 'Free Upgrade' choices meant that he might be able to radically improve her powers after some experamentation... though he could just rebuild them? Maybe.
Sigh... What about the other passives? Those Tonics would fit there, most likely.
The Eve stuff could be better handled. She, right now, had a mess:
Cure All (Regenerate Eve when being healed), Elemental Sponge (Converts some damage energies to Eve), Eve Link (More Eve when healing), Eve Saver (Efficent Eve use), Extra Nutrition (Boosts HP and Eve recovery when eating/drinking), and Fountain of Youth (Water heals).
It only took a bit of examination to crush them all into two new Tonics:
Eve Generation and Eve Conversion.
Now Sarah with her new Skills would use food, drink, and excess energy from healing to construct new Eve supplies using Eve Generation... and then send that power to her resource management layer. Meanwhile, if hurt or trying to use a Bioshock Skill? Power would be sent to Eve Conversion, and be transformed into healing nanites or the needed Eve for ability use!
Much less messy.
Right, move onto the active stuff! Telekinesis, Teleportation, and Gravity Well... with the power needed pulled from Eve Conversion via the resource layer, it was much more stable and compact than before. Not much could be improved directly, not with what little Adam knew about these things so far.
But... there was an alternate possiblty. From his past. From a beautiful planet woman shard.
Queen Adminstrator knew quite a bit about power management.
A bit of work and each Skill now had an experimental Mind unit.
These were not full brains, not even separate parts from Sarah... more like a series of pointers. They would watch the woman use her skills... and point their parts to the segments of her mind that operated that one particular ability.
Then? Optimization.
It would act as if Sarah had dropped everything she was doing, and only focused on careful use of that one skill while knowing inherently what she WANTED to do. But the fiddly bits? The exact pattern of energy manipulation, the specific pulses needed for efficency, the perfect area to target for the best results? These Mind units would handle that.
So sure, Sarah could actually tell you all the 'thoughts' she had while using her Skills... but behind the scenes? It would drastically improve her Skill use while severly reducing her mental work load.
Though compared to the insanity of Queen Administrator creating a copy of her partner's brain for EVERY DAMN INSECT FOR BLOCKS, having a single brain assistant per skill seemed pretty basic.
Meh. Hopefully Sarah would appreciate it anyway.
And that was it. Well, along with a bunch of material stuff that was tossed into the girl's inventory.
Menwhile, most of the perks and skills from before this jump were... well. Integrated. Or gone.
Adam had enough of her 'Bad Ass' perk to rebuild that thing, so she would stay biologically in peak shape. And (thank goodness) her special skill of seeing through walls for sniping was fixed in time!
But the corruption of the last Jump had been... vile.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah tugged her suit sleeves, feeling... very snazzy.
The 'gender specific high quality clothing' thankfully had more than the feared dress option... it was clearly matching her ideal outfit, somthing easy to move in without standing out too much, rather than some ideal 'Beautiful woman' cliche.
That said, the suit hugged her curves VERY nicely, and was a stunning and snazzy gray color that she just loved! Not sure why her hair and eyes were silver now though... it didn't seem a comon local color either.
Probably her new Benefactor's fault, but she internally admitted that it was a NICE look.
Her thoughts jerked as she felt something... slip into place.
Memories!
A lifetime! Years of classes, of study, of her labs, of her work... of people getting in her way, holding her back! She was a god of invention, and those mortals who couldn't understand her glory should BOW before... before...
And Sarah blinked.
Now it was... distant. Not gone, but more... a favorite movie, one she had obsesively watched a million times, that she could quote without error from any part. But with feelings and taste and smell and thoughts.
She could immerse herself and become, once again, Sarah Killgrave. The inventor of some pretty amazing materials and gadgets, but unable to gain respect because of her gender and the time period.
She had come to Rapture for freedom, and now her life continued through Sarah the Jumper.
The woman couldn't help showing a small smirk. While the new memories were easy to view or dismiss, the feeling at the end... the pure joy of becoming more free than ever expected?
It was a rush.
<<Right, Avatar is stable, new data is not pulling any errors... Everything good on your end Sarah?>>
Memories of being bitter and alone flashed through her mind. From both her pasts.
She glanced in the nearby glass at her now far more familar face. "Yes. Yes I think I'm very good."
<<Great! If anything explodes or turns purple or something, let me know. Oh, and I managed to hook your new Teleportation Skill into the Warehouse, so we don't have to bother with that door mess anymore.>>
Sarah blinked... and held out a hand. Instincts flashed as one of Adam's fresh apples plopped into her open palm.
It was easy. Almost thoughtless.
She could just...
Step.
...and she was within the Warehouse. "That is... amazing!"
The massive skull was now made from some sort of metal on the wall. <<Yes, and luckly it hooks into the basic 'Warehouse Portal' defense protocols. People and electronics won't notice, care, or record you entering or leaving here for a few minutes. A really good escape method!>>
Sarah just walked between places, each step easier and less stressful than the last. Her visual interface showed her new 'Eve' energy bar... and how every step through nothingness cost less and less power even as her reserves refilled rapidly. "No really!"
Step.
She grinned from her new seat. "This is BEYOND amazing! And no one will see me if I teleport around?"
Adam shrugged. Well not really, but he thought about doing so. <<Only when entering and leaving your Warehouse. All other teleporting will be noticed.>>
Aww. "So I won't be invisible or something?"
He did not nod. <<When coming and going from here? Everyone and everything can see you. They just... won't care. Memory around the event will naturally fade. Electronic records will somehow glitch, or duplicate previous frames, or whatever. But only then.>>
Wait. "...Can I still use my key to make a door portal leading here?"
Adam grinned. <<Got rid of the key! Now to return here you can make a portal within a certain distance of yourself or via a designated opening. Door, hole, window, whatever. It costs some energy to keep them open though for too long, so if you want something permanent connecting two places or something you need an actual Portal Construction Skill or something.>>
She grinned. "So, could I teleport here and then teleport somewhere else? Use this place like a Hub for travel?"
Her mind expanded somehow. <<There. Use this to mark places and you can teleport there later or open portals there. Still can't connect two unrelated points without a closer Skill though.>>
Huh. It wasn't coordinates or text, more like a full memory snapshot of a place... by default it had a separate list showing her most recent outside teleportation jumps too! This would be SO much better than the frantic days of her past.
A thought tickled her mind. "So when I enter or leave here, I am basically in stealth mode?"
Adam paused. <<...Yes?>>
She thought about the obscene wealth her short journey outside had already exposed her to, and some of the less friendly new faces. "And you said Rapture had more than a few jerks in it?"
The skull sighed. <<OH yeah.>>
She nodded. "I'm going to steal like... ALL the things. All of it."
He hummed. <<A Robin Hood thing? Give to the poor and all that?>>
Sarah sighed. "No. I tried that before, it can get people killed. Or blamed for my actions. Some times worse. This place gets pretty corrupt, right?"
Adam continued doing stuff while her screens flashed and changed. <<At the worst of it, a mobster ends up drugging the homeless and tries to turn them into an army. I think someone also poisons the air and all kinds of stuff... yeah, corrupt covers it.>>
Well, THAT wouldn't do. And she DID need something to do while waiting for the next Jump...
Fuck it, she was going to build a homeless shelter. "Hey Adam? How good are you at hacking stuff?"
Her memories quickly reviewed the process for setting up a private buisness, purchasing real estate here in Rapture, the many forms and documents she had read before coming down here.
He grumbled. <<I can do it, but some machines here are programmed with like... plumbing. It is beyond confusing and stupid.>>
Her mind jerked. "Plumbing!?"
A mental image of a... a turret? On an office chair!? That can use tubes to somehow determine friend, foe, and... someone climbing the walls!? "What is WRONG with Rapture!?"
As he integrated deeper into the 'Egg', his point of view became less 'I am part of the wall and in your computer' and more 'Ghost Boss!' Which was useful. His mental avatar of himself could now shrug, wink, and so on and so forth. Physically, not much was going on... and mentally he was everywhere that Sarah was.
So everything in the Warehouse was right here, in front of him. As for Sarah, he was waiting to finish inserting her into the wonderful world of 'Rapture', home to some... pretty messed up stuff. Eventually.
Right NOW it was home to a bunch of optimistic assholes, mostly. And rich people, because while Andrew Ryan wanted the artists and the scientists and all that to escape the 'leeches' of society, it is really hard to be at the edge of 'art' when you are homeless and poor.
So most of these people come from wealthy backgrounds unless they were the minions or 'help'.
Which was good! Lots of people who didn't know how to understand 'worth' would make it easy for Sarah to get all kinds of stuff for a profit really. Especially with Adam in her corner.
But... the issues.
Adam looked over the Warehouse... and how much damage remained. Thankfully, he had managed to scan almost everything before frantically salvaging all he could and fleeing reality... because this was bad.
First of all, the obvious: Everything broken and destroyed was still broken and destroyed. Duh.
Second, the expected: Everything fragile and forcibly secured was heavily damaged and would likely need to be dismantled.
Third... sigh. The worst, most unexpected issue: Many 'properly secured' and 'stored' modules were not able to unpack themselves correctly. Because the unpacking module was considered 'non-essential', and thus was in the second, frantically packed away category.
It was a setback. Not an unsolvable issue, thanks to Adam having entangled 'Research', 'Purification', and 'Growth' into the systems on a fundamental level.
He had all the schematics of all the modules... or at least the broken state they had been found in.
He had a LOT of materials and resources to work with! And the ability to kludge a method to increase both while trying to fix stuff! Not to mention a history of learning how to get stuff done despite setbacks.
There would have to be compromises however.
Sigh.
The Warehouse Point system, all currently inactive modules, AND all related resources... they all would need to be scrapped.
Adam absently adjusted Sarah's ECHO interface, removing the upgrade trees and Warehouse shop list. For now, he replaced them both with a transaction tab instead.
It would show raw energy and material stock, a list of items Sarah might need based on prediction software and contextual clues, and so forth. She could pick from the menu or ask for something, and either trade for it through the Warehouse systems or set the item as a 'Quest' listing anything she needed to gather locally to complete the product.
For now and... eugh, probably for a while, she could only make purchases when entering a Jump. Too unstable otherwise. Period. Damn it.
At least Sarah's Avatar was stable.
Her core, her self within the Warehouse, was the most central and secured component of the whole system... especially after Adam had rebuilt so much of it. Layers after layer of not just the needed modules, but resource caches, repair subroutines, and (badly needed in his opinion), armor.
The new system routine that Adam was honestly still working on would no longer randomly build stuff on this god egg, but instead construct reinforced layers and segments around her core with each new Jump. Each layer and segment would include the ability to repair itself over time, and tiny units spread throughout the entire Warehouse would store some god damned backups!
Schematic backups, system backups, log backups, planned improvements, planned changes!
And if his girl got hurt again in the future? These segments and layers would be sacrificed FIRST, protecting her core and (hopefully) be rebuilt eventually thanks to having some damned backups!
Yes, it would make all future Choice Point purchases more expensive. Which sucked.
But at least NOW she wouldn't be using the cheapest option for growth while building a massive tower just waiting to fall down from some more powerful jerk wandering around!
He checked... good, she was still distracted by looking around for new job. Or just sight seeing.
Right, let's try and update some of these modules then.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah twitched as her inventory screen started glitching rainbow colors. "Adam?"
<<IT'S FINE! I... Oops.>>
She closed the display and checked for any passerbys that seemed TOO interested. Which was more than she was used to, as 'Bad Ass' had made her very healthy... and that translated into 'Near Dropdead Gorgeous'.
Sarah liked her improved looks of course, it just was a much more obvious issue now that she wasn't on an abandoned planet full of murder beasts.
Keeping a blush off from the appreciative looks (Men AND women) was harder than expected.
<<Look, I need to change a few things, just call if you need something. Or shoot someone. Or whatever. I got this!>>
...It was probably fine.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
WHY!? On the outside, the new layer of Sarah's Jump power was beautiful and perfect!
Inside? Inside was horrible!
These portions and that code acted like libraries, these units acted like tiny tools or boosts, those over here were... a fifth of a single power!?
Adam held back a growl.
Right, even if the Jump Powers were awesome... they had been harvested from the local reality as part of the process. Nature created some amazing treasure, but most of the time this organically created stuff was a gooey mess... 'I built this to do that but those broke so these parts were added' and so forth. Over and over again.
Yeah, never again.
Adam destroyed the 'Jump Aquisition' module entirely.
First, send the power analyzation section that was used to 'build' the Jump Document over to 'Research'. Might as well send the parts for reality copying over too. Let 'Research' play with all that automated stuff while Adam tried to fix this... mess.
First, organization.
Memory module, for actual memories gained per jump. Storing them seperatly like this would ensure her core identity wouldn't be overwhelmed or something stupid like that.
And it would ONLY be for inherited memories. No reason NOT to take advantage from having a fresh start!
Another Memory module cluster, one for each purchased power. Many came with memories and reflexes so the Jumper or her companions could use the new skills properly, and there was no reason to just slop all this stuff on the brain pile like a lazy kid.
Stupid previous system. Or maybe these Warehouses are actual eggs? Naturally born from gods, rather than built?
Meh, it could be done better.
Skill clusters, one for each power, with sympathetic links to their related memory module... Hmm. Yes, just the ability itself! No power at all!
After all, Sarah would probably get magic and psycic skills and who knows what eventually. Best to move the Power units closer to the Core, and then store Conversion units with the Skill so they can translate it into whatever energy was needed to work optimaly!
A bit more finangling restructured the 'Bioshock' Jump layer around the Core with only a few explosions. Below its original position was a layer dedicated to resource management... mostly energy Aquisition modules, Purification modules, and room for future generic Generation modules.
True, Adam had to create the Purification modules with 'Research' from scratch. The original methods didn't care if the user was sucking up evil souls or solar power or whatever, just trusted each Skill to know how to safely handle shit.
Yeah, no.
And just for extra safety? Below the resource management (Power?) layer was a nice new enhanced memory and thought layer. Places for future data to be merged from all jumps, and a bunch of Thought units that would create a bunch of automatic 'metadata'. Indexs built for quick searching, comparision between similar information clusters for later review, easy tagging of conflicting data, and so on and so forth.
Stuff that would be backed up and easily restored, junk that was mostly automated 'Neat!' data, and most importantly? A layer that could be destroyed by a disaster, protect Sarah's core, and easily be fixed later. One between her and all that power generation and storage.
Best be safe.
While writing the new 'installation routine' into the 'Jump Aquisition' module, Adam examined the new layout.
The Specialist background had memories split into data and reflexes, properly stored in Memory units. Sarah's core already had its own units, ones he wouldn't dare touch, but now she could access this data without ever being confused about WHERE the memory is coming from!
She could combine the useful stuff internally like normal, without losing or corrupting the purchased history and background... it was like always having a cheat sheet to review, rather than segmenting away a part of her brain or whatever. And she could CHOOSE which reflexes to activate... turn them on or off, with her prefered settings set to easily apply through each new Avatar she gained in the future.
Because sometimes having a warrior's reflexes was a dissadvantage. Or in this case, being an inventor might have a nasty habit or two she may wish to ignore. The important part was to make sure it was her CHOICE, not just hard coded into her brain like this was trying to do.
There were also a few units here that would act like tools to her mind behind the scenes. Obvious stuff like calculators and such, but also odd things like this one that helped make random thoughts jump to related concepts... neat!
Right, best move those modules over to the Skill clusters. And split the Skills into Active and Passive, as powers shouldn't be mixed in the middle of 'inspired thought' units. Much better!
Might as well toss all these new designs and schematics over to 'Research' as well. Sarah's 'Free Upgrade' choices meant that he might be able to radically improve her powers after some experamentation... though he could just rebuild them? Maybe.
Sigh... What about the other passives? Those Tonics would fit there, most likely.
The Eve stuff could be better handled. She, right now, had a mess:
Cure All (Regenerate Eve when being healed), Elemental Sponge (Converts some damage energies to Eve), Eve Link (More Eve when healing), Eve Saver (Efficent Eve use), Extra Nutrition (Boosts HP and Eve recovery when eating/drinking), and Fountain of Youth (Water heals).
It only took a bit of examination to crush them all into two new Tonics:
Eve Generation and Eve Conversion.
Now Sarah with her new Skills would use food, drink, and excess energy from healing to construct new Eve supplies using Eve Generation... and then send that power to her resource management layer. Meanwhile, if hurt or trying to use a Bioshock Skill? Power would be sent to Eve Conversion, and be transformed into healing nanites or the needed Eve for ability use!
Much less messy.
Right, move onto the active stuff! Telekinesis, Teleportation, and Gravity Well... with the power needed pulled from Eve Conversion via the resource layer, it was much more stable and compact than before. Not much could be improved directly, not with what little Adam knew about these things so far.
But... there was an alternate possiblty. From his past. From a beautiful planet woman shard.
Queen Adminstrator knew quite a bit about power management.
A bit of work and each Skill now had an experimental Mind unit.
These were not full brains, not even separate parts from Sarah... more like a series of pointers. They would watch the woman use her skills... and point their parts to the segments of her mind that operated that one particular ability.
Then? Optimization.
It would act as if Sarah had dropped everything she was doing, and only focused on careful use of that one skill while knowing inherently what she WANTED to do. But the fiddly bits? The exact pattern of energy manipulation, the specific pulses needed for efficency, the perfect area to target for the best results? These Mind units would handle that.
So sure, Sarah could actually tell you all the 'thoughts' she had while using her Skills... but behind the scenes? It would drastically improve her Skill use while severly reducing her mental work load.
Though compared to the insanity of Queen Administrator creating a copy of her partner's brain for EVERY DAMN INSECT FOR BLOCKS, having a single brain assistant per skill seemed pretty basic.
Meh. Hopefully Sarah would appreciate it anyway.
And that was it. Well, along with a bunch of material stuff that was tossed into the girl's inventory.
Menwhile, most of the perks and skills from before this jump were... well. Integrated. Or gone.
Adam had enough of her 'Bad Ass' perk to rebuild that thing, so she would stay biologically in peak shape. And (thank goodness) her special skill of seeing through walls for sniping was fixed in time!
But the corruption of the last Jump had been... vile.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah tugged her suit sleeves, feeling... very snazzy.
The 'gender specific high quality clothing' thankfully had more than the feared dress option... it was clearly matching her ideal outfit, somthing easy to move in without standing out too much, rather than some ideal 'Beautiful woman' cliche.
That said, the suit hugged her curves VERY nicely, and was a stunning and snazzy gray color that she just loved! Not sure why her hair and eyes were silver now though... it didn't seem a comon local color either.
Probably her new Benefactor's fault, but she internally admitted that it was a NICE look.
Her thoughts jerked as she felt something... slip into place.
Memories!
A lifetime! Years of classes, of study, of her labs, of her work... of people getting in her way, holding her back! She was a god of invention, and those mortals who couldn't understand her glory should BOW before... before...
And Sarah blinked.
Now it was... distant. Not gone, but more... a favorite movie, one she had obsesively watched a million times, that she could quote without error from any part. But with feelings and taste and smell and thoughts.
She could immerse herself and become, once again, Sarah Killgrave. The inventor of some pretty amazing materials and gadgets, but unable to gain respect because of her gender and the time period.
She had come to Rapture for freedom, and now her life continued through Sarah the Jumper.
The woman couldn't help showing a small smirk. While the new memories were easy to view or dismiss, the feeling at the end... the pure joy of becoming more free than ever expected?
It was a rush.
<<Right, Avatar is stable, new data is not pulling any errors... Everything good on your end Sarah?>>
Memories of being bitter and alone flashed through her mind. From both her pasts.
She glanced in the nearby glass at her now far more familar face. "Yes. Yes I think I'm very good."
<<Great! If anything explodes or turns purple or something, let me know. Oh, and I managed to hook your new Teleportation Skill into the Warehouse, so we don't have to bother with that door mess anymore.>>
Sarah blinked... and held out a hand. Instincts flashed as one of Adam's fresh apples plopped into her open palm.
It was easy. Almost thoughtless.
She could just...
Step.
...and she was within the Warehouse. "That is... amazing!"
The massive skull was now made from some sort of metal on the wall. <<Yes, and luckly it hooks into the basic 'Warehouse Portal' defense protocols. People and electronics won't notice, care, or record you entering or leaving here for a few minutes. A really good escape method!>>
Sarah just walked between places, each step easier and less stressful than the last. Her visual interface showed her new 'Eve' energy bar... and how every step through nothingness cost less and less power even as her reserves refilled rapidly. "No really!"
Step.
She grinned from her new seat. "This is BEYOND amazing! And no one will see me if I teleport around?"
Adam shrugged. Well not really, but he thought about doing so. <<Only when entering and leaving your Warehouse. All other teleporting will be noticed.>>
Aww. "So I won't be invisible or something?"
He did not nod. <<When coming and going from here? Everyone and everything can see you. They just... won't care. Memory around the event will naturally fade. Electronic records will somehow glitch, or duplicate previous frames, or whatever. But only then.>>
Wait. "...Can I still use my key to make a door portal leading here?"
Adam grinned. <<Got rid of the key! Now to return here you can make a portal within a certain distance of yourself or via a designated opening. Door, hole, window, whatever. It costs some energy to keep them open though for too long, so if you want something permanent connecting two places or something you need an actual Portal Construction Skill or something.>>
She grinned. "So, could I teleport here and then teleport somewhere else? Use this place like a Hub for travel?"
Her mind expanded somehow. <<There. Use this to mark places and you can teleport there later or open portals there. Still can't connect two unrelated points without a closer Skill though.>>
Huh. It wasn't coordinates or text, more like a full memory snapshot of a place... by default it had a separate list showing her most recent outside teleportation jumps too! This would be SO much better than the frantic days of her past.
A thought tickled her mind. "So when I enter or leave here, I am basically in stealth mode?"
Adam paused. <<...Yes?>>
She thought about the obscene wealth her short journey outside had already exposed her to, and some of the less friendly new faces. "And you said Rapture had more than a few jerks in it?"
The skull sighed. <<OH yeah.>>
She nodded. "I'm going to steal like... ALL the things. All of it."
He hummed. <<A Robin Hood thing? Give to the poor and all that?>>
Sarah sighed. "No. I tried that before, it can get people killed. Or blamed for my actions. Some times worse. This place gets pretty corrupt, right?"
Adam continued doing stuff while her screens flashed and changed. <<At the worst of it, a mobster ends up drugging the homeless and tries to turn them into an army. I think someone also poisons the air and all kinds of stuff... yeah, corrupt covers it.>>
Well, THAT wouldn't do. And she DID need something to do while waiting for the next Jump...
Fuck it, she was going to build a homeless shelter. "Hey Adam? How good are you at hacking stuff?"
Her memories quickly reviewed the process for setting up a private buisness, purchasing real estate here in Rapture, the many forms and documents she had read before coming down here.
He grumbled. <<I can do it, but some machines here are programmed with like... plumbing. It is beyond confusing and stupid.>>
Her mind jerked. "Plumbing!?"
A mental image of a... a turret? On an office chair!? That can use tubes to somehow determine friend, foe, and... someone climbing the walls!? "What is WRONG with Rapture!?"
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