Broken Adventure
- Thread starter theaceoffire
- Start date
- Crossover
- Status
- Location
- miami
Andrew Ryan was a man of his time the world he's trying to build isn't a bad idea it's just taking way to far. Talk to anyone who lived in the 40s and 60s (assuming they can still think at this point) and they will view the sheer amount of social programs handing out money that we have today to be our right insane and not something we can keep up in the long term .
As a certain mob boss in rapture once said someone has to scrub the toilets but the problem in rapture comes when the person paying said cleaner realizes they can decide what to pay them and there is nothing to gain say them. Humanity is a cruel race if removed from the laws we obey very few of us will ever know any kind of real power and for good reason.
Socialism and communism are bad systems capitalism is also a bad system but it's the best we have at Moment just like democracy is a bad system but by god is it better then any other system we've come up with.
In the western world today R&D is a strange beast the sheer amount of red tape and the fact so many different government and company's don't want research in to certain technologies. The dependency on oil comes to mind there are many possible alternates but no one can research them.
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- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
Nobody show Adam / Sarah Coconut Crabs
Trees growing coconut crabs... is both terrifying, and not too far from reality as it is.
Arc 3: Preparing For Construction.
- Location
- Here
Adam waited while Sarah gathered the last of the notes.
And it was a lot… and incomplete.
Rapture as a whole was a skewed society. The population was around 20,000 or so people, plus or minus a few thousand of which were children. Which was more than one would expect, but less than one would think seeing the people located down here.
In America, around 2% of the population were considered 'upper class', with a disturbingly small amount of THAT with most of the actual wealth. Something like 0.1% had dominated the rest, depending on when you did the measurements and how good you were at finding hidden assets.
Rapture however, had skimmed the elite of the planet into a single city. Many of which looted their homelands to the ground before coming down here.
So Adam had the strange situation where even the poor and low classed people were top mechanics, amazing researchers, and brilliant coordinators and managers… just not as good as the ones at the top.
This meant that required education levels for the future generations would need to be FAR more inclusive and intense than for kids elsewhere. If a child couldn't blow the average college graduate out of the water at a young age, they would be bottom of their class here in Rapture when getting a job.
On the positive side however, Adam didn't need to build more slum housing once Pauper's Drop became popular. Just add some secure elevators and build UNDER the Complex Dome as required… and with those new floors embedded in rock, it was simple enough to add space as needed in the future without shutting the whole place down.
Although Adam decided to not mention to Sarah how the Ruby Forest had seen him making room under the place and decided to start carving out more floors on its own down there. It only needed a coating to protect the roots and provide the expected floors and walls and such, and a quick hookup to power and so forth… BAM, ready to go!
Thus if he needed to, Adam could easily open up a dozen floors underground for future Pauper residents. A couple dozen. So far.
Because the Rose Forest hadn't stopped digging downwards, preparing more and more levels for potential apartment complex levels.
Adam was ignoring that for now.
Right, anyway: Sarah had laid out a deadline of midnight tonight. All plans and requests had to be finalized by then, full stop! And she had made a ton of stops already, full of meetings!
Dave's people cooperated easily enough, and some of the more oppressed minorities respected the man and were willing to talk a bit… but Adam believed that many of the people oppressing the town weren't pulling their own weight on purpose.
Sarah kept bumping into issues. People trying to hold things back, be obstructionist. These groups and people would skip scheduled meetings, argue for hours without actually answering questions, and generally be dicks when Dave or Sarah politely asked anything.
Adam took notes and Sarah paid attention to them. She was polite, Dave was polite, and Adam was sure those morons felt very clever for delaying her planned changes and so on and so forth.
They expected her to cave. To come back and negotiate.
So! The new Market Dome was thus going to gain another four stalls if nothing changed tonight, eleven businesses would be getting new (and smaller) layout designs, and fifteen existing businesses were suddenly going to have double the room to work with!
He was sure they would all love that.
Dave seemed mildly amused at the situation, Sarah was checking her favorite Jakobs sniper rifle eagerly, already eager for the complaints!
It should be fun for everyone, mostly!
As data was collected though, Adam was fiddling with the designs.
He reviewed the plans. The new map had the Atlantic Train Station at the top, leading to the Food Dome where the restaurants, grocery store, letter office, and the new Paid Pauper Clinic location would be set up. It would hook up to the designed farm bubble vines and the other three Domes, while the Resource Station would be moved underneath.
The security station Dave requested for the strange guy called the Ratcatcher would be added down there too. Adam would still be hooked into everything, but that other guy had amazing organizational skills and a great network that only needed to be adapted slightly to cover Sarah's territory easily, giving him video feeds were no issue. A few wireless hookups and some basic electronic microphones for his 'mice' and he seemed happy with the plans.
To the right of the map was the already built Complex Dome. The connection tube was a bit longer than before of course, Adam wanted the room for when replacing the center area with the Fishbowl Diner when building the new Food Dome, but it wasn't that much of a longer walk really.
The Complex Dome had the Sea Park along the top edge, close enough to just see Sarah's section of the Train tunnels. Which were prettied up, of course!
Not transparent, that would terrify some train riders, but lots of pretty colors and bright LEDs added to the outside. Adam was probably going to include a Bathysphere automated tour ride at the train station to show off all the new changes, letting the mini submarine see all the neat stuff normally hidden to those living in the new Domes.
Note to self, add LOTS more seafloor decorations, lighting, and theme park like scenery.
Meanwhile the bottom edge of the Complex Dome went off a little to the above ground factories-to-be, which connected to the underground automated farms that Adam was already constructing. Well, technically it was mostly done at this point… He was just trying to automate more food variety down there, so it was an ongoing project for him.
That whole factory complex was going to be fun to watch actually, since Dave ended up hiring most of Pauper's Drop unemployed workers (A disturbingly HIGH number of people) and they were already setting up the many water belts and conveyor tracks and so on and so forth.
It would take a LONG time before it was ready (Two weeks at BEST estimate! Holy crap!), but Sarah was alright with that long development schedule and Adam was happy most of these people would be busy over THERE rather than over HERE where construction was going to happen.
Also, it felt like Adam's personal ant farm. But with people! And actual farms!
Note two, modify the decorations on the farm to look like an ant farm. He hadn't been sure what to put on the outside of the walls in the place, but Dave was pretty hard core about not having all the domes exposed to the ocean and Adam wanted to do SOMETHING with all that locked off space!
Anyway, back to the center of the map.
Further down the map from the Food Dome would be the Business Dome. Not just the shops and stores and such, but places like King Pawn pawn shop (Closest thing to a fair way to get loans that Rapture allows really), and even the clubs and hotels and such. Office spaces could also be rented down here, and at better rates than the existing joint trying to do so currently under Fontaine's influence.
Speaking of the clubs, Sarah had talked a bit with the people in The Limbo Room, the largest and most popular club formerly on Skid Row. She was still there now, though for other reasons.
Her trip had mostly gone as expected, a few suggested design modifications, better lighting and some stage equipment additions, higher quality makeup rooms and management spaces… but there were a few surprises.
The first one came from a business proposal.
A well known local actress, Ava-Marie Tate (She preferred going by Ava), was a lovely woman and movie producer… And unlike the other singers or town citizens, she was the first one who asked Sarah to do something most would consider impossible!
She had gathered all of her savings, promoted her talent, and spoke out a dream! And unlike many, Ava was willing to risk talking to a potential god-like mutant magic lady if a chance like this was being offered.
Sarah had been enthusiastic!
Now Adam checked the designs for the new Dionysus Theater, which would become THE place for the arts down here in the Drop. Yes, there would be a high quality set of movie theaters built using technology advancements not technically time appropriate for this planet. More than a few sets of advanced speaker and sound enhancing/dampening equipment applied too.
Maybe a bit more enhanced materials used than strictly needed as well. Which they may end up regretting.
Because yes, Adam knew SOMEONE would turn colored movies with sound into a weapon. Somehow.
But Sarah liked the idea of the actresses, actors, dancers and singers having somewhere to go down here without having to move on to the hourly hotels and dance bars. Art and Entertainment was a harsh industry, and those not at the top could fall VERY far.
So! Ten brand new major theaters, a full time filming set with some awesome adjustable scenery and props (Seriously, Adam could even make some Plasmids that would blow normal special effects out of the water!), and a full sized stage for plays and events and such.
The Dionysus Theater would pretty much be Pauper's Drop's face to Rapture, showing that even the 'lower class' could produce something astounding!
Yeah, it might mean that Ms. Holloway would no longer have a stage manager, but Ada seemed happy enough after hearing the passion she gave during her pitch, selling her dream… Yet the Jazz singer was obviously being distracted by something.
Which had led to this.
She and Sarah had gone into a room to have a 'private' discussion, and since his Jumper asked?
Adam was staying out of it.
Yep. Not spying on it. No matter how easy it would be to just listen in on… nope.
Adam sighed, and went back to the map. Again.
Right: Atlantic Train Station, Food Dome, Complex Dome to the right, Business Dome below, and the Market Dome to the left.
The Market Dome was going to be a three tiered permanent flea market, basically. Gold, Silver, and Copper floors for the public and Pauper's Drop to sell their wares!
Though after Sarah heard a few horror stories about low quality trash being sold at high prices and pure lies being hocked for top dollar? She had opinions. Strong ones.
Well, they wouldn't stop the scams. Couldn't really stop it if they wanted to, that would get certain people ALL riled up. But there WAS going to be a Pauper Seal of Approval available to anyone who got their products certified by Dave's Council.
It was a golden circle with a silver cent symbol on it, and hopefully it would ensure some confidence in shoppers. Any stall owner could apply for a product or service to undergo review, and if the service or product was approved by the Pauper's Council the symbol would be applied along with a statement about the item in question.
And Dave would crack down HARD if anyone tried to bribe the Council on this. Or tried to counterfeit the approval seal.
Brand certification only worked when everyone knew it was trustworthy… that kind of background could only build slowly and easily collapse with a few lies or missteps.
It was why only individual services and products could be approved, and not full businesses or stalls. And there would be monthly reviews of services, and investigations of any problem claims… if you earned the Seal, then your customers should be able to trust it.
And trust was very rare down here.
He again DIDN'T glance at the meeting. At all.
God damned curiosity.
Adam sighed and went back to experimenting on more Tonics. He was going to have a whole bunch of one use serums and helpful Ooze Tonics before Sarah's Paid Pauper Clinic opened. And maybe a few exclusive Plasmids for employed Doctors and Nurses on contract, though Adam was hesitant.
Every damned Plasmid could be used for combat! 'Oh, why not make a numbing Plasmid for the nurse?' led directly to 'I touch you, everyone falls down!' and so on and so forth!
At least he wasn't stupid enough to make something more powerful like biomancy or automatic material harvesting or long distance tickling or something. Hell, this place was so full of 'mad scientists', he was concerned about even the most harmless attempts!
Maybe he could build in really harsh limits? Something to ease pain only, to apply on people giving birth and stuff?
He frowned. No, if he only blocked pain you would still feel pleasure. And that could set off a whole wave of pleasure based torture and introduce generations of abusable kinks.
God damned mad scientist city!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah waved her arms and SOMETHING felt different. "We won't be heard now, Ms. Holloway."
Grace felt her mouth dry, and her clenched hands tried to relax. "I appreciate this, Ms. Killgrave."
The other woman slumped into a chair. "No, thank you! Your club has been a breath of fresh air compared to the hell I've gone through with the other places. You'd think someone offering 'anything' would be more appreciated, but I seem to have either terrified everyone into silence or convinced them I am a pushover to be taken advantage of… Very frustrating."
Grace's heart was beating hard. "I'm… I'm afraid I might be one of those hoping to take advantage of your generosity."
Ms. Killgrave rolled her eyes. "Are you going to ask me to stop hiring women because they might not want to be 'slutty prostitutes' anymore?"
And her nervousness was gone. "The HELL you say!?"
She snorted. "I KNOW! Dave and I shafted that place HARD. I'm not letting asses like that run anywhere in MY town. Fuck em."
Grace took grip on her emotions, but still… It wasn't the first time she heard such statements, but they still tore up some wounds inside.
She glanced at the strange new owner of her worn down town. The beautiful woman was at least far more relaxed in private, if nothing else. "No, nothing that… Nothing offensive like that."
Sarah chuckled. "Then I doubt very much you will be taking advantage of me. No one can force me to do anything if I wish otherwise, and I won't get offended as long as people aren't jerks when making requests."
The impossible woman waved a hand. "Mind you, I can and will say no if people pester me or whatever. Just won't smite anyone for something silly like that."
Grace took a hesitant breath. "I heard you can grant miracles."
The other woman winced, causing a weight to sink in Grace's stomach. "Sort of? Depends on the miracle."
Momma said you had to reach for your dreams. "I… there was a drug you gave Mr. Grinder's family? He said it could cure everything?"
Sarah grunted, slumped inelegantly in her chair. "Not everything. Can't handle brain death, soul absorption or destruction, changing things that are technically correct but biologically not what the patient desires… It fixes a hell of a lot though."
Grace reached. "I need a cure." She reached hard. "I… I can't have children."
Her one chance blinked and sat up, looking serious. "Could I hold your hand?"
That… That wasn't a no! Her face was locked as her heart jumped in hope!
Sarah's hand felt hot as fire and cold as ice. Her eyes burned with silver fire, and her hair floated in some wind outside of this room. "Hmm."
She couldn't hold it in! "Can I have that drug?"
Her heart crumbled at the head shake. "No." Sarah turned her hand over. "It wouldn't be a good idea."
Grace felt her dream leaving again. It burned. "Please?"
Sarah hummed. "No, that stuff is far too powerful. And can act odd, if Dave told you anything about what it ended up doing to his little girl. It would be best instead to just heal you up with something far weaker, and safer I think."
THIS WAS IT! "I would do ANYTHING for this. Please."
The woman smiled and the world felt warm. "No need for anything special, this is simple enough. I was planning on doing some basic health fixups for most people down here anyway, Pauper's Drop isn't great for anyone's constitution."
A bright green liquid appeared in a glass vial. "Right, let's start you with 'Enhance Self' Tonic, it will make sure the followup stuff won't do odd things like make your hair uncuttable and keep your fingernails from carving up glass."
What? "I'm sorry?"
Sarah ignored her. "Let's see, 'Cleansing' Tonic? Yeesh, way too strong, where was that other one… Ah, here we go!" A vial of apple cider? "'Hygiene' Tonic! And if it ends up too powerful I can use that 'Purge' Tonic and start over, though that might be disgusting."
Suddenly the green vial was in Grace's hand while Sarah seemed to be fiddling with even more liquids in more containers. "The final products will be in very lovely glass casings, but the automatic factory for those hasn't been built yet. Also, the future versions have safety restrictions that prevent you from drinking more than one Tonic a day so we can catch any issues."
Grace looked at the strange liquid.
It smelled like green apples.
Sarah blinked. "Ah, don't worry about it! Drink up! These were made specifically for you, so there won't be any issue."
She hesitantly lifted the vial to her lips as Sarah juggled more strange liquids and seemed to argue with herself about whether or not the 'Regeneration' serum would be needed or if a general 'Recovery' serum would be enough.
...It tasted like pear juice. Still smelled like apples.
A wave of cool refreshment began to spread inside her body, sweeping through her limbs and forcing her to gasp!
Sarah grumbled as she made a pink vial vanish. "No! Why would I even HAVE a 'Cuteness' Tonic!? That is weapon grade shit right there!"
Grace Holloway should probably pay attention to that, but she just felt too relaxed right now.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
"Hmm." He hit the intercom. "Stacy?"
The voice hummed over the dairy line. "Yes Mr. Dranish?"
Best handle it all at once. "Bring in the whole case order for Mr. Grinder. And do set up a quick summary, I need updating."
Most of his paperwork was high leveled anyway, the full reports were all massive.
He had people to do that.
She walked in, stern like usual. Folders were added to his desk next to the others. "Purchase request #3320, for a Mr. Grinder, as requested."
He looked over the new data as she continued. "This is the first breeding contract requested in over two years, normally the high price and the published low success rates for calf growth, maturation, and breed rates prevent any actual interest."
Not to mention that the breeding contracts sold also got rid of the discounts other customers got when selling their new pets BACK to Calci-o. Didn't matter how often they told people, they didn't listen. 'What do you mean, this cute thing becomes the size of a house?' and so on and so forth. "How much initial stock is being purchased?"
She doesn't even glance at the papers. "Two males, four females. Before being informed of the possible purchase of the lifetime breeding contract, it was three times that amount."
Well, they made that contract damned expensive for a reason! Not that anyone else could raise these things without their specialized research and equipment. Nor feed them, as the diet was enormous in volume and specialized in content.
Hell, that breeding contract had been a quick profit scheme thought up by the financial department. Mostly because even Calci-o had issues breeding new cows, even with their years of research and the (forcibly) passed Dr. Cooper's brilliance!
If THEY couldn't get better than a 53% impregnation rate and 22% successful live birthing statistic, good luck anyone else getting anything close!
Still. He hadn't gotten this far in life by taking chances. "Limit sale to half that, and increase the breeding contract fees to cover the other funds offered." Better safe than sorry, even if he was being beyond cautious here.
With only one male and two females, even if all three survived puberty the chances of them not being sterile were very remote. Hmm. "Make that three females, but only if they remove the buyback discount options from the purchase order contract entirely. In fact, add a processing fee if they decide to pull out later."
A swift nod had her leaving. "Yes Mr. Dranish."
After all, while the male calves were the hardest to raise, the females ate the most. No reason not to have their happy customers bankrupt themselves feeding the damned things while also earning more money when buying them back later.
He leaned back into his heavy workload again. Right, and best check in on R&D in an hour or so.
It was a habit, basically a custom and tradition belonging to every Calci-o owner at this point, to check R&D after remembering or mentioning Dr. Cooper.
Especially considering the cost of failing to do so that one time.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah sat in Dave's new living room, watching the clock on the wall tick down.
Susan was back from checking the children's room again. "They both still look fine."
Adam's Jumper nodded. "The 'Enhance Self' Tonic wouldn't hurt them anyway. It mostly just ensures any changes or odd effects applied to them will manifest in helpful ways. Amy's back to normal then?"
Dave sipped his whiskey as Susan laughed. "No, but she does seem healthy." Her smile was a bit infectious. "Though she is sad that she isn't able to be super fast anymore, she seems happy enough to no longer run into things."
Super speed did not equate to super reflexes. The little girl's powerup helped, of course, but if it wasn't for her enhanced biology and super durability she would have been covered in cuts and bruises from hitting all those walls and such.
Sarah hummed. "I didn't expect any problems, but the delay between Tonics is going to be a standard thing. It will prevent strange interactions between different ones and ensure no possibility of overdosing, if that can even occur."
The clock ticked closer to midnight.
Dave sighed. "At least they taste good."
She nodded. "Normally, my Tonics taste like nothing. The raw material after being modified has no smell either, it's all too odd to work with human taste buds. And if I have to add both flavor and aroma to this stuff anyway, why not pick something enjoyable?"
Susan sat on the chair nearest Dave. "Do we need to refrigerate the 'Hygiene' Tonic until we can drink it tomorrow?"
Sarah waved that off. "The stuff is shelf stable, it doesn't expire. Just in case, the glass containers have a thin layer of electrical shielding embedded in it, so the stuff won't get affected by anything."
A pause. "But don't boil it." Because that would stop it from working. Hopefully. Or apply it to everyone in the area.
Yeah, best make sure the people she cares about gets access to 'Enhance Self' quickly. At least it would prevent some terrorists from vaporizing the 'Insect Swarm' Plasmid in a building and having everyone start sprouting bees over their bodies.
Adam? <<Yeah, I'll test that. Pretty sure boiling won't work if the Plasmid is that dispersed, the psionic field would be overwhelmed by ambient background noise when that spread out… but better safe than sorry.>>
Even closer to time! "We could start now. What are the chances that anyone else would actually show up this close to the deadline?" She looked at the table covered in collected notes, requests, and ideas. "I'm pretty sure these are the last changes we need to consider."
Dave sighed, leaning into his wife as she rubbed his shoulder. "I know, I know. But keeping to your word builds up confidence and trust. Start at midnight, like we said."
They quietly watched the time tick closer to 'go time', with Sarah trying not to bounce in place.
This was going to be so fun!
And it was a lot… and incomplete.
Rapture as a whole was a skewed society. The population was around 20,000 or so people, plus or minus a few thousand of which were children. Which was more than one would expect, but less than one would think seeing the people located down here.
In America, around 2% of the population were considered 'upper class', with a disturbingly small amount of THAT with most of the actual wealth. Something like 0.1% had dominated the rest, depending on when you did the measurements and how good you were at finding hidden assets.
Rapture however, had skimmed the elite of the planet into a single city. Many of which looted their homelands to the ground before coming down here.
So Adam had the strange situation where even the poor and low classed people were top mechanics, amazing researchers, and brilliant coordinators and managers… just not as good as the ones at the top.
This meant that required education levels for the future generations would need to be FAR more inclusive and intense than for kids elsewhere. If a child couldn't blow the average college graduate out of the water at a young age, they would be bottom of their class here in Rapture when getting a job.
On the positive side however, Adam didn't need to build more slum housing once Pauper's Drop became popular. Just add some secure elevators and build UNDER the Complex Dome as required… and with those new floors embedded in rock, it was simple enough to add space as needed in the future without shutting the whole place down.
Although Adam decided to not mention to Sarah how the Ruby Forest had seen him making room under the place and decided to start carving out more floors on its own down there. It only needed a coating to protect the roots and provide the expected floors and walls and such, and a quick hookup to power and so forth… BAM, ready to go!
Thus if he needed to, Adam could easily open up a dozen floors underground for future Pauper residents. A couple dozen. So far.
Because the Rose Forest hadn't stopped digging downwards, preparing more and more levels for potential apartment complex levels.
Adam was ignoring that for now.
Right, anyway: Sarah had laid out a deadline of midnight tonight. All plans and requests had to be finalized by then, full stop! And she had made a ton of stops already, full of meetings!
Dave's people cooperated easily enough, and some of the more oppressed minorities respected the man and were willing to talk a bit… but Adam believed that many of the people oppressing the town weren't pulling their own weight on purpose.
Sarah kept bumping into issues. People trying to hold things back, be obstructionist. These groups and people would skip scheduled meetings, argue for hours without actually answering questions, and generally be dicks when Dave or Sarah politely asked anything.
Adam took notes and Sarah paid attention to them. She was polite, Dave was polite, and Adam was sure those morons felt very clever for delaying her planned changes and so on and so forth.
They expected her to cave. To come back and negotiate.
So! The new Market Dome was thus going to gain another four stalls if nothing changed tonight, eleven businesses would be getting new (and smaller) layout designs, and fifteen existing businesses were suddenly going to have double the room to work with!
He was sure they would all love that.
Dave seemed mildly amused at the situation, Sarah was checking her favorite Jakobs sniper rifle eagerly, already eager for the complaints!
It should be fun for everyone, mostly!
As data was collected though, Adam was fiddling with the designs.
He reviewed the plans. The new map had the Atlantic Train Station at the top, leading to the Food Dome where the restaurants, grocery store, letter office, and the new Paid Pauper Clinic location would be set up. It would hook up to the designed farm bubble vines and the other three Domes, while the Resource Station would be moved underneath.
The security station Dave requested for the strange guy called the Ratcatcher would be added down there too. Adam would still be hooked into everything, but that other guy had amazing organizational skills and a great network that only needed to be adapted slightly to cover Sarah's territory easily, giving him video feeds were no issue. A few wireless hookups and some basic electronic microphones for his 'mice' and he seemed happy with the plans.
To the right of the map was the already built Complex Dome. The connection tube was a bit longer than before of course, Adam wanted the room for when replacing the center area with the Fishbowl Diner when building the new Food Dome, but it wasn't that much of a longer walk really.
The Complex Dome had the Sea Park along the top edge, close enough to just see Sarah's section of the Train tunnels. Which were prettied up, of course!
Not transparent, that would terrify some train riders, but lots of pretty colors and bright LEDs added to the outside. Adam was probably going to include a Bathysphere automated tour ride at the train station to show off all the new changes, letting the mini submarine see all the neat stuff normally hidden to those living in the new Domes.
Note to self, add LOTS more seafloor decorations, lighting, and theme park like scenery.
Meanwhile the bottom edge of the Complex Dome went off a little to the above ground factories-to-be, which connected to the underground automated farms that Adam was already constructing. Well, technically it was mostly done at this point… He was just trying to automate more food variety down there, so it was an ongoing project for him.
That whole factory complex was going to be fun to watch actually, since Dave ended up hiring most of Pauper's Drop unemployed workers (A disturbingly HIGH number of people) and they were already setting up the many water belts and conveyor tracks and so on and so forth.
It would take a LONG time before it was ready (Two weeks at BEST estimate! Holy crap!), but Sarah was alright with that long development schedule and Adam was happy most of these people would be busy over THERE rather than over HERE where construction was going to happen.
Also, it felt like Adam's personal ant farm. But with people! And actual farms!
Note two, modify the decorations on the farm to look like an ant farm. He hadn't been sure what to put on the outside of the walls in the place, but Dave was pretty hard core about not having all the domes exposed to the ocean and Adam wanted to do SOMETHING with all that locked off space!
Anyway, back to the center of the map.
Further down the map from the Food Dome would be the Business Dome. Not just the shops and stores and such, but places like King Pawn pawn shop (Closest thing to a fair way to get loans that Rapture allows really), and even the clubs and hotels and such. Office spaces could also be rented down here, and at better rates than the existing joint trying to do so currently under Fontaine's influence.
Speaking of the clubs, Sarah had talked a bit with the people in The Limbo Room, the largest and most popular club formerly on Skid Row. She was still there now, though for other reasons.
Her trip had mostly gone as expected, a few suggested design modifications, better lighting and some stage equipment additions, higher quality makeup rooms and management spaces… but there were a few surprises.
The first one came from a business proposal.
A well known local actress, Ava-Marie Tate (She preferred going by Ava), was a lovely woman and movie producer… And unlike the other singers or town citizens, she was the first one who asked Sarah to do something most would consider impossible!
She had gathered all of her savings, promoted her talent, and spoke out a dream! And unlike many, Ava was willing to risk talking to a potential god-like mutant magic lady if a chance like this was being offered.
Sarah had been enthusiastic!
Now Adam checked the designs for the new Dionysus Theater, which would become THE place for the arts down here in the Drop. Yes, there would be a high quality set of movie theaters built using technology advancements not technically time appropriate for this planet. More than a few sets of advanced speaker and sound enhancing/dampening equipment applied too.
Maybe a bit more enhanced materials used than strictly needed as well. Which they may end up regretting.
Because yes, Adam knew SOMEONE would turn colored movies with sound into a weapon. Somehow.
But Sarah liked the idea of the actresses, actors, dancers and singers having somewhere to go down here without having to move on to the hourly hotels and dance bars. Art and Entertainment was a harsh industry, and those not at the top could fall VERY far.
So! Ten brand new major theaters, a full time filming set with some awesome adjustable scenery and props (Seriously, Adam could even make some Plasmids that would blow normal special effects out of the water!), and a full sized stage for plays and events and such.
The Dionysus Theater would pretty much be Pauper's Drop's face to Rapture, showing that even the 'lower class' could produce something astounding!
Yeah, it might mean that Ms. Holloway would no longer have a stage manager, but Ada seemed happy enough after hearing the passion she gave during her pitch, selling her dream… Yet the Jazz singer was obviously being distracted by something.
Which had led to this.
She and Sarah had gone into a room to have a 'private' discussion, and since his Jumper asked?
Adam was staying out of it.
Yep. Not spying on it. No matter how easy it would be to just listen in on… nope.
Adam sighed, and went back to the map. Again.
Right: Atlantic Train Station, Food Dome, Complex Dome to the right, Business Dome below, and the Market Dome to the left.
The Market Dome was going to be a three tiered permanent flea market, basically. Gold, Silver, and Copper floors for the public and Pauper's Drop to sell their wares!
Though after Sarah heard a few horror stories about low quality trash being sold at high prices and pure lies being hocked for top dollar? She had opinions. Strong ones.
Well, they wouldn't stop the scams. Couldn't really stop it if they wanted to, that would get certain people ALL riled up. But there WAS going to be a Pauper Seal of Approval available to anyone who got their products certified by Dave's Council.
It was a golden circle with a silver cent symbol on it, and hopefully it would ensure some confidence in shoppers. Any stall owner could apply for a product or service to undergo review, and if the service or product was approved by the Pauper's Council the symbol would be applied along with a statement about the item in question.
And Dave would crack down HARD if anyone tried to bribe the Council on this. Or tried to counterfeit the approval seal.
Brand certification only worked when everyone knew it was trustworthy… that kind of background could only build slowly and easily collapse with a few lies or missteps.
It was why only individual services and products could be approved, and not full businesses or stalls. And there would be monthly reviews of services, and investigations of any problem claims… if you earned the Seal, then your customers should be able to trust it.
And trust was very rare down here.
He again DIDN'T glance at the meeting. At all.
God damned curiosity.
Adam sighed and went back to experimenting on more Tonics. He was going to have a whole bunch of one use serums and helpful Ooze Tonics before Sarah's Paid Pauper Clinic opened. And maybe a few exclusive Plasmids for employed Doctors and Nurses on contract, though Adam was hesitant.
Every damned Plasmid could be used for combat! 'Oh, why not make a numbing Plasmid for the nurse?' led directly to 'I touch you, everyone falls down!' and so on and so forth!
At least he wasn't stupid enough to make something more powerful like biomancy or automatic material harvesting or long distance tickling or something. Hell, this place was so full of 'mad scientists', he was concerned about even the most harmless attempts!
Maybe he could build in really harsh limits? Something to ease pain only, to apply on people giving birth and stuff?
He frowned. No, if he only blocked pain you would still feel pleasure. And that could set off a whole wave of pleasure based torture and introduce generations of abusable kinks.
God damned mad scientist city!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah waved her arms and SOMETHING felt different. "We won't be heard now, Ms. Holloway."
Grace felt her mouth dry, and her clenched hands tried to relax. "I appreciate this, Ms. Killgrave."
The other woman slumped into a chair. "No, thank you! Your club has been a breath of fresh air compared to the hell I've gone through with the other places. You'd think someone offering 'anything' would be more appreciated, but I seem to have either terrified everyone into silence or convinced them I am a pushover to be taken advantage of… Very frustrating."
Grace's heart was beating hard. "I'm… I'm afraid I might be one of those hoping to take advantage of your generosity."
Ms. Killgrave rolled her eyes. "Are you going to ask me to stop hiring women because they might not want to be 'slutty prostitutes' anymore?"
And her nervousness was gone. "The HELL you say!?"
She snorted. "I KNOW! Dave and I shafted that place HARD. I'm not letting asses like that run anywhere in MY town. Fuck em."
Grace took grip on her emotions, but still… It wasn't the first time she heard such statements, but they still tore up some wounds inside.
She glanced at the strange new owner of her worn down town. The beautiful woman was at least far more relaxed in private, if nothing else. "No, nothing that… Nothing offensive like that."
Sarah chuckled. "Then I doubt very much you will be taking advantage of me. No one can force me to do anything if I wish otherwise, and I won't get offended as long as people aren't jerks when making requests."
The impossible woman waved a hand. "Mind you, I can and will say no if people pester me or whatever. Just won't smite anyone for something silly like that."
Grace took a hesitant breath. "I heard you can grant miracles."
The other woman winced, causing a weight to sink in Grace's stomach. "Sort of? Depends on the miracle."
Momma said you had to reach for your dreams. "I… there was a drug you gave Mr. Grinder's family? He said it could cure everything?"
Sarah grunted, slumped inelegantly in her chair. "Not everything. Can't handle brain death, soul absorption or destruction, changing things that are technically correct but biologically not what the patient desires… It fixes a hell of a lot though."
Grace reached. "I need a cure." She reached hard. "I… I can't have children."
Her one chance blinked and sat up, looking serious. "Could I hold your hand?"
That… That wasn't a no! Her face was locked as her heart jumped in hope!
Sarah's hand felt hot as fire and cold as ice. Her eyes burned with silver fire, and her hair floated in some wind outside of this room. "Hmm."
She couldn't hold it in! "Can I have that drug?"
Her heart crumbled at the head shake. "No." Sarah turned her hand over. "It wouldn't be a good idea."
Grace felt her dream leaving again. It burned. "Please?"
Sarah hummed. "No, that stuff is far too powerful. And can act odd, if Dave told you anything about what it ended up doing to his little girl. It would be best instead to just heal you up with something far weaker, and safer I think."
THIS WAS IT! "I would do ANYTHING for this. Please."
The woman smiled and the world felt warm. "No need for anything special, this is simple enough. I was planning on doing some basic health fixups for most people down here anyway, Pauper's Drop isn't great for anyone's constitution."
A bright green liquid appeared in a glass vial. "Right, let's start you with 'Enhance Self' Tonic, it will make sure the followup stuff won't do odd things like make your hair uncuttable and keep your fingernails from carving up glass."
What? "I'm sorry?"
Sarah ignored her. "Let's see, 'Cleansing' Tonic? Yeesh, way too strong, where was that other one… Ah, here we go!" A vial of apple cider? "'Hygiene' Tonic! And if it ends up too powerful I can use that 'Purge' Tonic and start over, though that might be disgusting."
Suddenly the green vial was in Grace's hand while Sarah seemed to be fiddling with even more liquids in more containers. "The final products will be in very lovely glass casings, but the automatic factory for those hasn't been built yet. Also, the future versions have safety restrictions that prevent you from drinking more than one Tonic a day so we can catch any issues."
Grace looked at the strange liquid.
It smelled like green apples.
Sarah blinked. "Ah, don't worry about it! Drink up! These were made specifically for you, so there won't be any issue."
She hesitantly lifted the vial to her lips as Sarah juggled more strange liquids and seemed to argue with herself about whether or not the 'Regeneration' serum would be needed or if a general 'Recovery' serum would be enough.
...It tasted like pear juice. Still smelled like apples.
A wave of cool refreshment began to spread inside her body, sweeping through her limbs and forcing her to gasp!
Sarah grumbled as she made a pink vial vanish. "No! Why would I even HAVE a 'Cuteness' Tonic!? That is weapon grade shit right there!"
Grace Holloway should probably pay attention to that, but she just felt too relaxed right now.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
"Hmm." He hit the intercom. "Stacy?"
The voice hummed over the dairy line. "Yes Mr. Dranish?"
Best handle it all at once. "Bring in the whole case order for Mr. Grinder. And do set up a quick summary, I need updating."
Most of his paperwork was high leveled anyway, the full reports were all massive.
He had people to do that.
She walked in, stern like usual. Folders were added to his desk next to the others. "Purchase request #3320, for a Mr. Grinder, as requested."
He looked over the new data as she continued. "This is the first breeding contract requested in over two years, normally the high price and the published low success rates for calf growth, maturation, and breed rates prevent any actual interest."
Not to mention that the breeding contracts sold also got rid of the discounts other customers got when selling their new pets BACK to Calci-o. Didn't matter how often they told people, they didn't listen. 'What do you mean, this cute thing becomes the size of a house?' and so on and so forth. "How much initial stock is being purchased?"
She doesn't even glance at the papers. "Two males, four females. Before being informed of the possible purchase of the lifetime breeding contract, it was three times that amount."
Well, they made that contract damned expensive for a reason! Not that anyone else could raise these things without their specialized research and equipment. Nor feed them, as the diet was enormous in volume and specialized in content.
Hell, that breeding contract had been a quick profit scheme thought up by the financial department. Mostly because even Calci-o had issues breeding new cows, even with their years of research and the (forcibly) passed Dr. Cooper's brilliance!
If THEY couldn't get better than a 53% impregnation rate and 22% successful live birthing statistic, good luck anyone else getting anything close!
Still. He hadn't gotten this far in life by taking chances. "Limit sale to half that, and increase the breeding contract fees to cover the other funds offered." Better safe than sorry, even if he was being beyond cautious here.
With only one male and two females, even if all three survived puberty the chances of them not being sterile were very remote. Hmm. "Make that three females, but only if they remove the buyback discount options from the purchase order contract entirely. In fact, add a processing fee if they decide to pull out later."
A swift nod had her leaving. "Yes Mr. Dranish."
After all, while the male calves were the hardest to raise, the females ate the most. No reason not to have their happy customers bankrupt themselves feeding the damned things while also earning more money when buying them back later.
He leaned back into his heavy workload again. Right, and best check in on R&D in an hour or so.
It was a habit, basically a custom and tradition belonging to every Calci-o owner at this point, to check R&D after remembering or mentioning Dr. Cooper.
Especially considering the cost of failing to do so that one time.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah sat in Dave's new living room, watching the clock on the wall tick down.
Susan was back from checking the children's room again. "They both still look fine."
Adam's Jumper nodded. "The 'Enhance Self' Tonic wouldn't hurt them anyway. It mostly just ensures any changes or odd effects applied to them will manifest in helpful ways. Amy's back to normal then?"
Dave sipped his whiskey as Susan laughed. "No, but she does seem healthy." Her smile was a bit infectious. "Though she is sad that she isn't able to be super fast anymore, she seems happy enough to no longer run into things."
Super speed did not equate to super reflexes. The little girl's powerup helped, of course, but if it wasn't for her enhanced biology and super durability she would have been covered in cuts and bruises from hitting all those walls and such.
Sarah hummed. "I didn't expect any problems, but the delay between Tonics is going to be a standard thing. It will prevent strange interactions between different ones and ensure no possibility of overdosing, if that can even occur."
The clock ticked closer to midnight.
Dave sighed. "At least they taste good."
She nodded. "Normally, my Tonics taste like nothing. The raw material after being modified has no smell either, it's all too odd to work with human taste buds. And if I have to add both flavor and aroma to this stuff anyway, why not pick something enjoyable?"
Susan sat on the chair nearest Dave. "Do we need to refrigerate the 'Hygiene' Tonic until we can drink it tomorrow?"
Sarah waved that off. "The stuff is shelf stable, it doesn't expire. Just in case, the glass containers have a thin layer of electrical shielding embedded in it, so the stuff won't get affected by anything."
A pause. "But don't boil it." Because that would stop it from working. Hopefully. Or apply it to everyone in the area.
Yeah, best make sure the people she cares about gets access to 'Enhance Self' quickly. At least it would prevent some terrorists from vaporizing the 'Insect Swarm' Plasmid in a building and having everyone start sprouting bees over their bodies.
Adam? <<Yeah, I'll test that. Pretty sure boiling won't work if the Plasmid is that dispersed, the psionic field would be overwhelmed by ambient background noise when that spread out… but better safe than sorry.>>
Even closer to time! "We could start now. What are the chances that anyone else would actually show up this close to the deadline?" She looked at the table covered in collected notes, requests, and ideas. "I'm pretty sure these are the last changes we need to consider."
Dave sighed, leaning into his wife as she rubbed his shoulder. "I know, I know. But keeping to your word builds up confidence and trust. Start at midnight, like we said."
They quietly watched the time tick closer to 'go time', with Sarah trying not to bounce in place.
This was going to be so fun!
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
All praise the update gods!
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
Someone really likes building.
Now.. which really strange jump should Adam run into that has Generic Builder applied to it?
... one that gives any kind of magic for free would be best probably, since theres a way to replace materials with mana.
Now.. which really strange jump should Adam run into that has Generic Builder applied to it?
... one that gives any kind of magic for free would be best probably, since theres a way to replace materials with mana.
It's called propaganda.
They grow up so fast, right? Why it was only a few millennia ago (+- an eternity) that Adam was growing his flame villa/mall/arcology towards the Earth's (Bet) core.
Well, yes, but he was thinking more along the lines of blatant hypnotic brainwashing, or brain wiping; and not just subliminal advertising.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Don't forget memetic hazards and consciousness disruptors.
. . . But would those be under separate categories? After all, a compelling argument can be made that memetic hazards belong under blatant hypnotic brainwashing. And a reasonable, if not as strong, argument can be made classifying consciousness disruptors as a derivative of brain wiping... just less so.
Barbaric Bob
The Barbaric One
- Location
- Soon to be plundering a village near you
rapture killed the milkman? noooo! my favorite nutjob, rapture truly is where hope comes to die
My fluffy cows!
- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
Arc 3: Lights! Camera! Lights! Action! Lights!
- Location
- Here
Adam examined his workspace. His canvas.
Some deep valleys and cracks, coral mountains and ridges, actual mountains. Pretty standard terrain down here, really.
This was the reason for some of Rapture's more odd design choices. Andrew Ryan had to bring down Aluminum foundational anchors, then build and sink buildings and bring down workers to connect up everything with tubes and tunnels and drain the sea out of it.
Considering the speed of construction? His attempts at secrecy, no matter how successful?
To save time, Rapture followed the landscape.
It had to! They didn't have the budget or time needed to do a lot of seascaping down here, they needed a foothold on the seabed to continue construction on everything else!
Sarah wasn't as restricted. Nor as limited.
With her and Adam's attention, they [[Harvested]] most of the seafloor in the location for the future Market Dome. Along with the top layers of silt, mud, vegetation, and sand.
After all, Sarah wanted construction to be done in a beautiful (yet flat) location and Adam wanted to build an underwater theme park styled sea floor. He carefully filled in the new pit with maintenance tunnels, hidden ocean access ports for later workers to handle future changes, and of course the foundational supports and structures needed to secure the Dome.
Coat all that with picture perfect white sand, anchor in some of the collected (And cleaned) coral reefs, toss in WAY too many LEDs, spotlights, and then all the decorative elements. The Market Dome's theme was treasure, so Adam had lots of 'gold' coin piles (connected inside so bits wouldn't go everywhere if someone smacked into the thing), massively oversized treasure chests stuffed with LEDs, highly oxygenated water pumps to attract sea life, and cartoonishly large gemstones and diamonds.
Kind of ironic that it was easier to just use actual gems rather than the costume stuff, but whatever works. Just in case, Adam coated everything in a transparent protective layer of cubic silicon nitride (Dome 'glass' for the win!) to prevent dirt gathering and stop moss from growing on the stuff.
And prevent people trying to steal it, but whatever.
With a large space cleared, and an underground path to connect over HERE, Adam then did the most annoying part of the build!
Moving the Resource Station.
Pause all services, [[Harvest]] that building segment, [[Harvest]] the end of this new underground path that ends directly under the future location of the Food Dome, dig DOWN farther than people would expect, and build!
Layers of armor and gel and sensors, dozens of meters thick. Not specifically required, but Adam was building the new power station designed by 'Research' with Ooze containers optimized to produce power this time from the new nuclear material, since Adam was swapping out the old stuff entirely.
Liquid fluoride thorium was actually not that costly to synthesize, and unlike this… stuff… Adam could easily test and work with it. Whatever mad scientist material the original nuclear core used, it was NOT stable. Or secure. Or based on known laws of science.
Fluoride thorium on the other hand was easy enough to get from Earth without needing entities like Adam or crazy magic science like… whatever that stuff was. Worked great, was easy enough to utilize with the new reactor design, and Adam could increase the power loads available to Sarah's town!
This new cluster generator setup could theoretically power half of the United States. For centuries.
Even at dozens of times the expected power use of all of Rapture, this baby could supply the power needs without issue for a LONG damned time.
Hell, at some point Adam was sure the surface would eventually connect up to it, if Rapture ever returned to the rest of the world someday. Likely over Andrew Ryan's dead body, but still! Nice to have the option.
The output was going to be limited obviously, don't want to freak out the rest of Rapture too much. But at least down here, under the future Food Dome, power would NOT be an issue.
A secured elevator connection to the security hub (Still below ground), and Adam cleared out some space, added in more shielding, and began setting up the massively upscaled water purification systems, air cleansing engines, and a stupidly MASSIVE recycling/reclamation station.
The recycling system was a bit robust. After draining most liquids, grind it all to mush. Extract the rest of the non-solids, handle the liquid filtration over there. Take the new powder, filter out what was collectible here. The rest of this mess? Dump it into the plasma torch.
It would separate the slag into gas (Some burnable, some not) and particles. This baby could handle nuclear waste, Plasmids, mutants, biohazards and plagues, even paper towels!
The original design collected the burnable materials and gases to help fuel the plasma generated, but power wasn't an issue at this point so Adam just collected that stuff and condensed it. Pauper's Drop could one day sell the stuff, but until then Sarah's Warehouse would have an automated routine set up to teleport the contents of the collection bins for her own [[Harvesting]] and personal use.
Connecting the Complex Dome and the foundation to the new Market Dome was simple, though he did take the time to connect the pipes to the Ruby Forest through her roots.
And paused.
Because the Ruby Forest had already shifted several of the connection pipes (Now made of black and gold roots) to be laid out in a more efficient pattern.
And she was somehow directly connected to the power line.
Well. Alright then. She had this covered! Less work for Adam!
He ignored Sarah's pang of concern over that issue as the two focused back to the Market Dome. An access tube with Securis doors, to be connected to the future Food Dome. Four elevators for stall only floor access, not for general public use: The closest lift was limited to Pauper card members only; the next two were express elevators heading for Gold and Silver floors; And the farthest elevator was for freight, heavy goods transportation. The last one even had a dock for external shipments when a stall needed to bring in lots of goods, if needed.
And the floors themselves!
Sarah had decided against having a square layout for the internal Dome walls. Too much wasted room! Instead she made each floor an octagon, which would leave eight much smaller wedges of unusable space for each level rather than four massive ones.
It also meant that the bottom floor was the largest in floor space and the top was the smallest, but since the highest floor didn't NEED walls (It could see the sea! Woo!) it reclaimed about as much floor space as the middle Silver Level.
Four grids of stalls extended from the walls to the center, where Adam set up a large set of eight transparent elevators that the public could ride, Four wedges of stalls to fit in between the other sides, and evenly distributed public utilities (Bathrooms, resting areas, vending machine locations).
It left some fairly wide walking paths between the eight total segments, but having moved a massive chunk of mountain and rock to make room for this place? Yeah, Sarah had lots of space to work with.
Even so, there were tightly packed and low cost rentable stalls for the ground Bronze Level, which would be the location where the many existing 'salespeople' that currently filled Skids Row' shifted to. And if Adam ensured the air would be kept cool and HEAVILY filtered to cut down on smells? No one was likely to complain.
Next floor up, the larger sized stalls for Silver Paupers and card owners. This level also offered every stall not just the electrical outlets like down on Copper, but water and waste hookups for people planning on selling food or drink. Or those services that may have biological waste, like hair cutting or animal selling stalls.
But the top floor? The Gold Market broke the design on purpose.
The top of the Dome would have a series of rings, every stall would have all the hookups that normal housing and business would have, each would have back rooms for surplus supplies and stock, and several stall locations were instead allocated to miniature parks and flower gardens.
Not sentient ones though. Sarah was VERY careful about each plant they modified, examined the data after adding each Tonic, and ensured that they couldn't accidentally connect to Ruby Forest and potentially hurt her.
That said, Adam had enhanced the things with dozens of new Tonics. They smelled lovely, couldn't cause allergic reactions if consumed, didn't grow larger, didn't generate spores or pollen, couldn't reproduce, were able to regenerate, needed reinforced tools to even scratch their leaves (Which didn't 'fall' or replace themselves), and they were all annuals now.
It was his attempt at the perfect, NOT mentally aware house plant!
And although he hadn't intended the aroma to mentally soothe people in the area, he wasn't going to tell Sarah that. She was a bit jumpy about letting Adam test stuff with plants at all, which was a bit unfair.
The gem lobsters turned out great!
Except that one lobster that was used to test the 'Grow smaller and more compact' Tonic. Which he had lost for a while after it got rice sized while he was doing other tests.
Point was, it died, no other big problems showed up during testing, and he was WAY more responsible when it came to testing out creatures and plants with genetic roulette!
Anyway, the eight wedges exposed to the Dome surfaces facing the sea were given maintenance hatches (Hidden of course), and Adam added some fun activity scenes for later viewers. A dragon lair with a mound of treasure and a sleeping model on top, a haunted treasure ship stuffed with rare art and a few skeleton guard statues, a rainbow ending in a pot of gold, he had some fun with it!
Though he did get tired of gems, gold, silver, and even copper near the end. The last scene was filled with expensive cigars, rare drinks, and an oversized chair next to a massive fireplace, as if someone had just left their study or something. And yes, the person sized bottles of rare drinks had dozens of gallons of label accurate alcohol inside. Because why not?
Just in case, the fire was an impressive looking combination of curtains, lighting, and air current. Adding an open, unattended fire near actual shelves of alcohol seemed a tad risky, so best not even taunt Murphy.
With two Domes done, Sarah pulled their focus toward the future 'Food Dome' location.
Which was basically all of Pauper's Drop, really.
Sigh. <<There are still people there.>>
Sarah grumbled. "Of course there is. Dave might have set up that massive party in the Complex Dome with the help of his people, and a lot of the nicer groups showed up since we told them work needed to be done…"
She waved at the map Adam generated. "But these were the assholes. Mostly. These people over here just might have ignored everything going on, and this area is open at all hours… if they didn't come to work they'd get fired."
Adam hummed. <<How traumatic do we want to do this? Knock them out or just send them all elsewhere while we work?>>
Sarah sighed. "Not much of a choice, is there? We need to get this done. But I don't want to risk the vaporized sleep serum, if one person gets too much they won't wake for days. Just move them."
Adam mentally shrugged.
[[Harvest.]]
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Dave paused as hundreds of people suddenly fell onto the lawn. People in work outfits, men and women in suits, and more than a few dozen in sleeping wear.
Or less.
Damn it, Sarah! "Susan, can you get some clothing for our less prepared guests?"
His wife's eyes were twinkling, even if they were both glad their daughters were asleep long ago. "At least this explains why Sarah gave us all those oversized 'I Do Not Listen!' shirts." She moved to the nearest box and yelled loudly. "Anyone currently less dressed than they wish over here! We have free shirts and shorts, just over here!"
It was pretty easy to hear her, since the several thousand party guests had all gone quiet in shock seeing the crowd of surprised visitors drop in. Though the ensuing gossip, giggling, and general laughter didn't take long to start up.
Seeing several dark expressions, Dave stood tall.
And after that stuff Sarah gave him, when he stood tall it was NOTICED.
Before, he had been fit. Muscular, if not as toned as his younger years. Distinguished.
But now? Even with only taking 'Enhance Self' Tonic the difference was subtle but significant.
His skin was toned. His abs could grate cheese. His muscles were the definition of definition.
As his stunning wife put it, Dave's body was twenty pounds of MmHmm in a five pound 'Why not snuggle' box.
She had experienced changes too, but since he already thought she was the most beautiful woman in his life it wasn't much of a change really. Though apparently she appreciated the compliment. Mmm. Good memories.
Point was, before Dave was a big man with political power. He stood up and people listened.
After 'Enhance Self'? He stood up and people stopped.
Half of the more violent targets of his attention gulped.
The King of the Slums didn't need a throne in his home. "I'm sure some of you got things you want to say." Silence swept around him like a breeze. "And we can talk about it later. For now, get your people clothed, grab some shirts and pants if needed yourself, and get comfortable."
He waved an arm at the sealed Securis Door. "The connection tubes are closed during construction. It won't take long before they are opened, but there is nothing you can do about the situation until then. SO!"
Dave's clap made several people flinch. "Until then! The food is free and plentiful, so feel free to mingle if you wish! But keep things civil. Understood?"
A shuffling 'Yes, Mr. Grinder' came out. "Good."
Susan's hot breath tingled as she hugged his arm and whispered. "Do that voice again. Later."
Ignoring his poleaxed expression, she smiled at the crowd! "Again, clothing over here! And yes Jason Mills, we all see how proud you are, but please put on the shorts anyway."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
And [[Harvest]] and [[Harvest]]. And clear out the murky top layers of rock and grit and gunk and add some beautiful sand and lay out some power for the lighting and good!
Above the exposed Resource Station's surface Adam added the Security Station for the Ratcatcher, with lots of monitors and doodads and gadgets and so forth. Another layer of armor and defensive material, and THEN the maintenance layer! This was directly below the Food Dome, and would have the equipment and pumps that originally were scattered throughout Pauper's Drop.
Also, this was a central maintenance travel hub. All the original access tunnels and maintenance paths would start from here and connect back up to the tunnels that the Atlantic Train Station needed, not to mention hookups to the underground passages to the other Domes and future expansions.
Though a bit of a walk and some ladder climbing would be required, Ratcatcher's mice could go from this security station to ANY of the other sections of Pauper's Drop. And through this secured door over here was a heavily armored and weaponized path that eventually split into connection tunnels and tubes leading to all the OLD smuggling paths, tunnels, and external accesses.
Spies needed to get out somehow, but there was no reason Sarah had to make it easy for outsiders to get in with their own!
ALL these tunnels were riddled with visible and hidden microphones, cameras, and sensors. Some sections were kept at specific temperatures, which would change if anyone opened them or tried to pass through even if they had some freaky Plasmid trickery going on. Other paths were kept slightly over or under standard pressure levels, with alerts to Security only when accessed.
Adam ensured that all that data was duplicated and passed to 'Research' to check for improvements or needed modifications. The data would also let Ratcatcher determine where work might be required within Pauper's Drop WAY before an accident occured, not simply detect sabotage or intruders or hardware failures.
Walkie Talkies didn't really exist down here, but it was easy enough to modify some shortwave service radios to be much smaller and have far better coverage in town. Wifi didn't exist yet, nor did the internet… but at least wireless communication could be simple enough for Dave, the town, and the Ratcatcher's mice.
Which brought up the topic of Rapture Radio, the number one (Only) radio station under the sea. <<Sarah, should we set up a radio station of our own?>>
She was busy designing the layout of the Food Dome, but paused. "Huh. I mean, would that cause problems?"
Who knew? Meh. <<Not sure, but I'll set up the hardware when we get to the Business Dome. There are no permits required at least, so if nothing else we can ensure background music for the Market Dome.>>
It would also be a bit more advanced than just letting anyone with a radio tune in. Setting up a few encrypted channels for Dave's people, another for the Ratcatcher… simple really. Just needed the right hardware on either end.
Sarah hummed. "That's fine then. I was a bit surprised when Dave played their family radio earlier tonight anyway. Way more advertising than expected."
He wasn't sure why she was surprised. Billboards and posters were near everywhere in normal Rapture, even if the rebuilt Pauper's Drop walls would mostly just have detailed maps, directions, and public assistance phones.
It was a bit of an experiment, as those landlines led to an office over in the Complex Dome. That way the Pauper Council's phone room could answer questions while also letting Sarah hire a few more Paupers… There were a lot of people to employ, after all.
Still. <<Ava-Marie Tate would likely LOVE to add town music to her Arts platform. Or even radio versions of her movie scripts and plays.>>
Adam watched Sarah get distracted by the idea as he refocused on the work.
The new Food Dome would have a square of restaurants moved to the center of the dome, all with much nicer kitchens and supply rooms. A single Securis Door on one wall would lead down to the Security Station and Maintenance Hub so people could work down there, and the center of the Restaurant Square had another freight elevator, a hidden one with an underground tunnel leading all the way over to the Market Dome's cargo dock.
External supplies wouldn't have to be brought in through the public areas this way, and it was useful enough that Adam modified the existing designs to include a cargo transportation network under the other Domes too. With strong security checkpoints between Domes and tons of monitoring and scanning equipment to catch problems early.
It wouldn't be FAST transportation thanks to this, but it would be both bulk and convenient. This would also allow Adam to avoid building any docks near the other Domes, letting the Market Dome (Where no one lived and business stalls were temporarily owned) take any fallout if someone tried to invade or attack the docks as a weak point.
The farms could ship food out to the Market Dome, just as Sarah could move out future Tonics and serums being sold from her medical front Paid Pauper Clinic.
And moving it all away from the public would make security FAR easier!
Good, now set up the slightly out of place non-food stuff offered in the Food Dome.
The Post Office, which would be able to use the shipping tunnels to send mail to the docks along with a future Pneumo Tube hub for small stuff if Sarah or Adam could figure those out. Mostly needed a mail and package sorting room and some front office stuff, as well as the elevator access for shipping.
The aforementioned Paid Pauper Clinic. Two waiting rooms (One for sick patients, one for healthy returning for checkups), several emergency rooms, many examination rooms, and patient consultation rooms for those who can't just walk out in five minutes with a few serums.
And yes, Adam may have built in some more advanced sensors into the examination equipment, and he might have added a secure room that could produce (Fully automated by an underground and HEAVILY armored machine) the Tonics and Serums in their full and proper packaging… but the rest was mostly standard stuff.
People could sniff around, but Adam seriously doubted most would be able to dig down the delivery shaft deep enough to find the reinforced Ooze CEE generating units with their electronic psionic neutralizing tubes and the Tonic/serum conditioning orbs.
And if they DID somehow try to do so ANYWAY, it would be a loud process and be happening really close to the Security Station.
Sarah would handle it.
Next? Pauper's Plunder market and the Fine Fishy Fresh seafood stall. Plunder was basically just a grocery store, with the second floor having access elevators down between shelves for restocking and the back nearest the Dome wall connected to the Cluster Grape Farms vine that Adam had been building all this time.
The market would also get additional supplies from below the store in the Transport Tunnels from the Complex Dome's Ant Farm, where the Automated Farms below ground were already pumping out packaged products and Dave's people were working tirelessly per each shift setting up the public production machines and equipment.
As for the next door Fine Fish Fresh seafood stall, Adam simply used the Ooze Ice Columns (heavily modified), which ensured any power outage (Very unlikely) wouldn't affect the seafood kept fresh on ice.
Some fish from the farms would also be flash frozen thanks to a modified conveyor belt system (Yes, he added sensors so gangsters couldn't toss someone or a body inside), which should freeze any food passing through at a fast enough pace to prevent frost damage while preserving the product for shipment or sale.
That said? Until the Ant Farm gets constructed, the only thing being offered in the seafood store so far was a bunch of gem lobsters. Adam hadn't set up any automated fish farms after all.
Meh, it should be fine until the other farms get installed and production is ramped up.
Until then though, Adam set up the entire front of the seafood store to be a massive water tank aquarium. Dome material instead of glass, filled with fancy gemstones and gem lobsters, lots of LED lighting and funny bits and pieces… these lobsters were also ones dosed with 'Growth Stability' tonic, so they wouldn't get bigger and would stay small (a foot or so long or less) and cute (No, he still wasn't allowed to give ANYTHING that Tonic) for all time.
And once Adam had those fish farms going, he would add some near immortal and modified samples of THOSE to the tank too! With 'Cleansing' Tonic the things wouldn't even make much waste so the tank wouldn't need cleaning that often. Best pets ever!
Maybe dump a vial of 'Nutrition' serum once in a while to keep them from eating each other too.
Just in case.
That stuff was a bad idea for a Tonic, 'Nutrition' reacted oddly to several things, but in a single dose it would keep most creatures 'full' and not require food for about a week or so, depending on how enhanced the test subject was. It was sort of like Eve, but less stable and didn't just empower Plasmids but normal body cells too.
Note to self again: When Eve sales went public, Adam was going to pester Sarah to buy several doses for examination. There had to be a way to make his 'Nutrition' more stable.
Because again, the Tonic version of it went odd QUICK, but so far the single serving tests had gone fine. And no one would be eating the tank example seafood critters anyway, unless things went REALLY wrong at some point in the future… it would be fine.
Adam left the rest to Sarah, as she went from schematic to schematic making the planned changes for each of the other restaurants and sitting eateries that would fill up the Dome. And it didn't seem to take long before she decided to get creative.
There was only so much room a single place could take advantage of after all… too much space would mean bad customer service and overworked staff.
Since she couldn't just add multiple floors or fill up the Food Dome with other stuff easily? Sarah had gone a bit artsy.
Ramps, spiral staircases, and transparent elevators led up to a network of semi-transparent walkways and paths within the Food Dome. The walls Dave had insisted on having her include ended one layer below this, while the top area had a few elevators connecting visitors to a lovely sky path.
Walkways that were designed to look like clouds with lighting within, 'cloud' supported picnic areas and small areas for dates and rendezvous… The clouds had lighting on the bottom to not cast shadows down below, but on top?
Some were covered in the enhanced grass (Just TRY to tear this stuff!), while others had artificial but soft foam that had fun patterns and colors. The winding paths connecting these clouds could be reached by elevator, ramp, or stairs while still seeming to have no structural support thanks to discreet connections to the Dome itself and the ABSURD material being used to build this stuff.
While Sarah moved and shifted the 'cloud' platforms around into something she felt appropriate, Adam did the more repetitive work: The Business Dome.
And his thoughts went naturally to determining a theme.
After all, the Complex Dome had the underwater theme park motif and the Market Dome was surrounded with depictions of wealth and riches. Sarah was even now setting up fake nature scenes and oversized fruits and food and stuff all around the Food Dome, but that left the Business Dome for Adam to do SOMETHING with.
After some debate and mental arguments giving push and pull, he decided to focus on 'media' for the general overall tone.
At the center of the new Business Dome, a massive old fashion Radio Tower. With lettering declaring that this belonged to Dionysus Radio, free publicity for the local theater which Ava Tate was likely going to love.
The back would have the hotels set up, only needing a minor amount of redesign after reading Sarah's notes.
In the center, the Penny Drops Hotel would be an entirely new place owned by the Pauper Council. Only those people sponsored by a card carrying Pauper would be allowed to even try to rent a room here, and Adam was making it BEYOND luxurious. Posh beyond posh!
Because even with permission to apply? You needed to be sponsored by a certain level of Pauper or your money wouldn't be enough to get these spaces. Because while the Copper Drop rooms were amazing, the Gold Drop rooms were just absurd!
The additional restrictions and quality should really pull in the more fancy of snobs, while the results would be worth the high prices they'd pay.
Most importantly, it was another business the Pauper Council could use to employ the people of Sarah's town. Because with her actions, Sarah was basically going to transform most of her people to the service industry… they would need cleaners and staff and maintenance people and painters and so on and so forth.
Anyway, more building!
Clubs over there, The Limbo Club over here, this side would have the rentable offices and the more boring businesses… And now the entertainment district! One of the few in Rapture without lots of prostitutes and strippers! For a few days at least.
Sarah wasn't going to BAN those vices. Again, certain people would complain. The mandatory quality of life requirements and improvements however would at least have those men and women selling their bodies a certain level of safety down here.
You want your club to have strippers? Then you better pay them enough to live off it and not allow customers to beat the shit out of them.
Can't or won't pay for that? Then get out of Sarah's town.
Period, no exceptions.
Anyway, the theaters, the filming stages, the rehearsal stages (A couple of previously existing hotels had REALLY pissed Sarah off, so there was more room to work with than expected), and some real progress was happening here!
A little bit of historical research had Adam putting up massively oversized posters and advertisements for Dionysus Theater and Ava Tate's past film work high up in the air. A few more previously published ads for the businesses that actually WORKED with Dave and Sarah, but in bright colors and lit up by hidden LEDs… It gave a bit of Vegas vibe to the area. Very nice!
Instead of boring metallic walls like normal, the dividing sections hiding the dome in THIS area were designed to look like red curtains, stage spotlights the size of houses acted as lighting, and it didn't take much for Adam to add a control station to the Dionysus Theater's management office so that they could do something flashy when new plays were released or if they wanted to push a big event!
Maybe a few more controllable lights to act like fireworks? And some for color tinting...
Adam absently made ALL the lights able to change saturation and brightness levels and colors, controlled by the Security Station. Businesses could contact the Pauper Council and apply to have them changed or ignore the day/night cycle… In fact, let's make this a thing for ALL the Domes!
Some Market Dome stalls might want to do odd colors depending on their products or services after all, and since it required Council approval it should avoid the more horrendous colors and patterns.
Hopefully.
He was in the middle of making the lights have adjustable angles based on interval timers when Sarah broke in. "Adam?"
Hmm? <<Yes?>>
She was in the Security Station. "Why is there a room down here marked 'Light: Business Dome Subsection 4c'?"
Well duh. <<Because the hotel district might want different lighting conditions based on the average temperature of the mean body heat of its customers.>>
She seemed frustrated. "Adam, there are over thirty rooms like this."
Huh. <<Good thing I simplified stuff, that saved a lot of space!>>
Sarah pointed. "This one control room has four floors. Four whole floors of levers, dials, buttons, and switches." She squinted. "And I think I see some pull ropes and a punching bag."
He mentally nodded. <<Yeah, Rapture doesn't have any advanced artificial intelligences so I made some workarounds. Then some stuff conflicted, so I made do.>>
She just… glared at it. "Why? Why all this."
He explained.
Her glare didn't change. "No."
Adam gawked! <<But! But what if someone wants to have a bright red light next to a blue soft emerance under a green highlight!? Do you expect someone to just put up with cyan like a plebian!?>>
Sarah pointed. "Get rid of all of this. Now." She threw her hands up! "It's just silly! It's more complicated than your security center!"
It wasn't silly! SHE was silly! <<Oh come on!>>
Her foot was tapping as her arms crossed. "You can let the theater control those special spotlights. Maybe. If you restrict it down to a color choice wheel and brightness levels."
Adam was aghast! <<But! The lack of fine detail!>>
Her eyes narrowed. "And it must have less than five inputs. And output results that make sense to ME, not just to your superbrain."
Oh this was just unreasonable!
Some deep valleys and cracks, coral mountains and ridges, actual mountains. Pretty standard terrain down here, really.
This was the reason for some of Rapture's more odd design choices. Andrew Ryan had to bring down Aluminum foundational anchors, then build and sink buildings and bring down workers to connect up everything with tubes and tunnels and drain the sea out of it.
Considering the speed of construction? His attempts at secrecy, no matter how successful?
To save time, Rapture followed the landscape.
It had to! They didn't have the budget or time needed to do a lot of seascaping down here, they needed a foothold on the seabed to continue construction on everything else!
Sarah wasn't as restricted. Nor as limited.
With her and Adam's attention, they [[Harvested]] most of the seafloor in the location for the future Market Dome. Along with the top layers of silt, mud, vegetation, and sand.
After all, Sarah wanted construction to be done in a beautiful (yet flat) location and Adam wanted to build an underwater theme park styled sea floor. He carefully filled in the new pit with maintenance tunnels, hidden ocean access ports for later workers to handle future changes, and of course the foundational supports and structures needed to secure the Dome.
Coat all that with picture perfect white sand, anchor in some of the collected (And cleaned) coral reefs, toss in WAY too many LEDs, spotlights, and then all the decorative elements. The Market Dome's theme was treasure, so Adam had lots of 'gold' coin piles (connected inside so bits wouldn't go everywhere if someone smacked into the thing), massively oversized treasure chests stuffed with LEDs, highly oxygenated water pumps to attract sea life, and cartoonishly large gemstones and diamonds.
Kind of ironic that it was easier to just use actual gems rather than the costume stuff, but whatever works. Just in case, Adam coated everything in a transparent protective layer of cubic silicon nitride (Dome 'glass' for the win!) to prevent dirt gathering and stop moss from growing on the stuff.
And prevent people trying to steal it, but whatever.
With a large space cleared, and an underground path to connect over HERE, Adam then did the most annoying part of the build!
Moving the Resource Station.
Pause all services, [[Harvest]] that building segment, [[Harvest]] the end of this new underground path that ends directly under the future location of the Food Dome, dig DOWN farther than people would expect, and build!
Layers of armor and gel and sensors, dozens of meters thick. Not specifically required, but Adam was building the new power station designed by 'Research' with Ooze containers optimized to produce power this time from the new nuclear material, since Adam was swapping out the old stuff entirely.
Liquid fluoride thorium was actually not that costly to synthesize, and unlike this… stuff… Adam could easily test and work with it. Whatever mad scientist material the original nuclear core used, it was NOT stable. Or secure. Or based on known laws of science.
Fluoride thorium on the other hand was easy enough to get from Earth without needing entities like Adam or crazy magic science like… whatever that stuff was. Worked great, was easy enough to utilize with the new reactor design, and Adam could increase the power loads available to Sarah's town!
This new cluster generator setup could theoretically power half of the United States. For centuries.
Even at dozens of times the expected power use of all of Rapture, this baby could supply the power needs without issue for a LONG damned time.
Hell, at some point Adam was sure the surface would eventually connect up to it, if Rapture ever returned to the rest of the world someday. Likely over Andrew Ryan's dead body, but still! Nice to have the option.
The output was going to be limited obviously, don't want to freak out the rest of Rapture too much. But at least down here, under the future Food Dome, power would NOT be an issue.
A secured elevator connection to the security hub (Still below ground), and Adam cleared out some space, added in more shielding, and began setting up the massively upscaled water purification systems, air cleansing engines, and a stupidly MASSIVE recycling/reclamation station.
The recycling system was a bit robust. After draining most liquids, grind it all to mush. Extract the rest of the non-solids, handle the liquid filtration over there. Take the new powder, filter out what was collectible here. The rest of this mess? Dump it into the plasma torch.
It would separate the slag into gas (Some burnable, some not) and particles. This baby could handle nuclear waste, Plasmids, mutants, biohazards and plagues, even paper towels!
The original design collected the burnable materials and gases to help fuel the plasma generated, but power wasn't an issue at this point so Adam just collected that stuff and condensed it. Pauper's Drop could one day sell the stuff, but until then Sarah's Warehouse would have an automated routine set up to teleport the contents of the collection bins for her own [[Harvesting]] and personal use.
Connecting the Complex Dome and the foundation to the new Market Dome was simple, though he did take the time to connect the pipes to the Ruby Forest through her roots.
And paused.
Because the Ruby Forest had already shifted several of the connection pipes (Now made of black and gold roots) to be laid out in a more efficient pattern.
And she was somehow directly connected to the power line.
Well. Alright then. She had this covered! Less work for Adam!
He ignored Sarah's pang of concern over that issue as the two focused back to the Market Dome. An access tube with Securis doors, to be connected to the future Food Dome. Four elevators for stall only floor access, not for general public use: The closest lift was limited to Pauper card members only; the next two were express elevators heading for Gold and Silver floors; And the farthest elevator was for freight, heavy goods transportation. The last one even had a dock for external shipments when a stall needed to bring in lots of goods, if needed.
And the floors themselves!
Sarah had decided against having a square layout for the internal Dome walls. Too much wasted room! Instead she made each floor an octagon, which would leave eight much smaller wedges of unusable space for each level rather than four massive ones.
It also meant that the bottom floor was the largest in floor space and the top was the smallest, but since the highest floor didn't NEED walls (It could see the sea! Woo!) it reclaimed about as much floor space as the middle Silver Level.
Four grids of stalls extended from the walls to the center, where Adam set up a large set of eight transparent elevators that the public could ride, Four wedges of stalls to fit in between the other sides, and evenly distributed public utilities (Bathrooms, resting areas, vending machine locations).
It left some fairly wide walking paths between the eight total segments, but having moved a massive chunk of mountain and rock to make room for this place? Yeah, Sarah had lots of space to work with.
Even so, there were tightly packed and low cost rentable stalls for the ground Bronze Level, which would be the location where the many existing 'salespeople' that currently filled Skids Row' shifted to. And if Adam ensured the air would be kept cool and HEAVILY filtered to cut down on smells? No one was likely to complain.
Next floor up, the larger sized stalls for Silver Paupers and card owners. This level also offered every stall not just the electrical outlets like down on Copper, but water and waste hookups for people planning on selling food or drink. Or those services that may have biological waste, like hair cutting or animal selling stalls.
But the top floor? The Gold Market broke the design on purpose.
The top of the Dome would have a series of rings, every stall would have all the hookups that normal housing and business would have, each would have back rooms for surplus supplies and stock, and several stall locations were instead allocated to miniature parks and flower gardens.
Not sentient ones though. Sarah was VERY careful about each plant they modified, examined the data after adding each Tonic, and ensured that they couldn't accidentally connect to Ruby Forest and potentially hurt her.
That said, Adam had enhanced the things with dozens of new Tonics. They smelled lovely, couldn't cause allergic reactions if consumed, didn't grow larger, didn't generate spores or pollen, couldn't reproduce, were able to regenerate, needed reinforced tools to even scratch their leaves (Which didn't 'fall' or replace themselves), and they were all annuals now.
It was his attempt at the perfect, NOT mentally aware house plant!
And although he hadn't intended the aroma to mentally soothe people in the area, he wasn't going to tell Sarah that. She was a bit jumpy about letting Adam test stuff with plants at all, which was a bit unfair.
The gem lobsters turned out great!
Except that one lobster that was used to test the 'Grow smaller and more compact' Tonic. Which he had lost for a while after it got rice sized while he was doing other tests.
Point was, it died, no other big problems showed up during testing, and he was WAY more responsible when it came to testing out creatures and plants with genetic roulette!
Anyway, the eight wedges exposed to the Dome surfaces facing the sea were given maintenance hatches (Hidden of course), and Adam added some fun activity scenes for later viewers. A dragon lair with a mound of treasure and a sleeping model on top, a haunted treasure ship stuffed with rare art and a few skeleton guard statues, a rainbow ending in a pot of gold, he had some fun with it!
Though he did get tired of gems, gold, silver, and even copper near the end. The last scene was filled with expensive cigars, rare drinks, and an oversized chair next to a massive fireplace, as if someone had just left their study or something. And yes, the person sized bottles of rare drinks had dozens of gallons of label accurate alcohol inside. Because why not?
Just in case, the fire was an impressive looking combination of curtains, lighting, and air current. Adding an open, unattended fire near actual shelves of alcohol seemed a tad risky, so best not even taunt Murphy.
With two Domes done, Sarah pulled their focus toward the future 'Food Dome' location.
Which was basically all of Pauper's Drop, really.
Sigh. <<There are still people there.>>
Sarah grumbled. "Of course there is. Dave might have set up that massive party in the Complex Dome with the help of his people, and a lot of the nicer groups showed up since we told them work needed to be done…"
She waved at the map Adam generated. "But these were the assholes. Mostly. These people over here just might have ignored everything going on, and this area is open at all hours… if they didn't come to work they'd get fired."
Adam hummed. <<How traumatic do we want to do this? Knock them out or just send them all elsewhere while we work?>>
Sarah sighed. "Not much of a choice, is there? We need to get this done. But I don't want to risk the vaporized sleep serum, if one person gets too much they won't wake for days. Just move them."
Adam mentally shrugged.
[[Harvest.]]
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Dave paused as hundreds of people suddenly fell onto the lawn. People in work outfits, men and women in suits, and more than a few dozen in sleeping wear.
Or less.
Damn it, Sarah! "Susan, can you get some clothing for our less prepared guests?"
His wife's eyes were twinkling, even if they were both glad their daughters were asleep long ago. "At least this explains why Sarah gave us all those oversized 'I Do Not Listen!' shirts." She moved to the nearest box and yelled loudly. "Anyone currently less dressed than they wish over here! We have free shirts and shorts, just over here!"
It was pretty easy to hear her, since the several thousand party guests had all gone quiet in shock seeing the crowd of surprised visitors drop in. Though the ensuing gossip, giggling, and general laughter didn't take long to start up.
Seeing several dark expressions, Dave stood tall.
And after that stuff Sarah gave him, when he stood tall it was NOTICED.
Before, he had been fit. Muscular, if not as toned as his younger years. Distinguished.
But now? Even with only taking 'Enhance Self' Tonic the difference was subtle but significant.
His skin was toned. His abs could grate cheese. His muscles were the definition of definition.
As his stunning wife put it, Dave's body was twenty pounds of MmHmm in a five pound 'Why not snuggle' box.
She had experienced changes too, but since he already thought she was the most beautiful woman in his life it wasn't much of a change really. Though apparently she appreciated the compliment. Mmm. Good memories.
Point was, before Dave was a big man with political power. He stood up and people listened.
After 'Enhance Self'? He stood up and people stopped.
Half of the more violent targets of his attention gulped.
The King of the Slums didn't need a throne in his home. "I'm sure some of you got things you want to say." Silence swept around him like a breeze. "And we can talk about it later. For now, get your people clothed, grab some shirts and pants if needed yourself, and get comfortable."
He waved an arm at the sealed Securis Door. "The connection tubes are closed during construction. It won't take long before they are opened, but there is nothing you can do about the situation until then. SO!"
Dave's clap made several people flinch. "Until then! The food is free and plentiful, so feel free to mingle if you wish! But keep things civil. Understood?"
A shuffling 'Yes, Mr. Grinder' came out. "Good."
Susan's hot breath tingled as she hugged his arm and whispered. "Do that voice again. Later."
Ignoring his poleaxed expression, she smiled at the crowd! "Again, clothing over here! And yes Jason Mills, we all see how proud you are, but please put on the shorts anyway."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
And [[Harvest]] and [[Harvest]]. And clear out the murky top layers of rock and grit and gunk and add some beautiful sand and lay out some power for the lighting and good!
Above the exposed Resource Station's surface Adam added the Security Station for the Ratcatcher, with lots of monitors and doodads and gadgets and so forth. Another layer of armor and defensive material, and THEN the maintenance layer! This was directly below the Food Dome, and would have the equipment and pumps that originally were scattered throughout Pauper's Drop.
Also, this was a central maintenance travel hub. All the original access tunnels and maintenance paths would start from here and connect back up to the tunnels that the Atlantic Train Station needed, not to mention hookups to the underground passages to the other Domes and future expansions.
Though a bit of a walk and some ladder climbing would be required, Ratcatcher's mice could go from this security station to ANY of the other sections of Pauper's Drop. And through this secured door over here was a heavily armored and weaponized path that eventually split into connection tunnels and tubes leading to all the OLD smuggling paths, tunnels, and external accesses.
Spies needed to get out somehow, but there was no reason Sarah had to make it easy for outsiders to get in with their own!
ALL these tunnels were riddled with visible and hidden microphones, cameras, and sensors. Some sections were kept at specific temperatures, which would change if anyone opened them or tried to pass through even if they had some freaky Plasmid trickery going on. Other paths were kept slightly over or under standard pressure levels, with alerts to Security only when accessed.
Adam ensured that all that data was duplicated and passed to 'Research' to check for improvements or needed modifications. The data would also let Ratcatcher determine where work might be required within Pauper's Drop WAY before an accident occured, not simply detect sabotage or intruders or hardware failures.
Walkie Talkies didn't really exist down here, but it was easy enough to modify some shortwave service radios to be much smaller and have far better coverage in town. Wifi didn't exist yet, nor did the internet… but at least wireless communication could be simple enough for Dave, the town, and the Ratcatcher's mice.
Which brought up the topic of Rapture Radio, the number one (Only) radio station under the sea. <<Sarah, should we set up a radio station of our own?>>
She was busy designing the layout of the Food Dome, but paused. "Huh. I mean, would that cause problems?"
Who knew? Meh. <<Not sure, but I'll set up the hardware when we get to the Business Dome. There are no permits required at least, so if nothing else we can ensure background music for the Market Dome.>>
It would also be a bit more advanced than just letting anyone with a radio tune in. Setting up a few encrypted channels for Dave's people, another for the Ratcatcher… simple really. Just needed the right hardware on either end.
Sarah hummed. "That's fine then. I was a bit surprised when Dave played their family radio earlier tonight anyway. Way more advertising than expected."
He wasn't sure why she was surprised. Billboards and posters were near everywhere in normal Rapture, even if the rebuilt Pauper's Drop walls would mostly just have detailed maps, directions, and public assistance phones.
It was a bit of an experiment, as those landlines led to an office over in the Complex Dome. That way the Pauper Council's phone room could answer questions while also letting Sarah hire a few more Paupers… There were a lot of people to employ, after all.
Still. <<Ava-Marie Tate would likely LOVE to add town music to her Arts platform. Or even radio versions of her movie scripts and plays.>>
Adam watched Sarah get distracted by the idea as he refocused on the work.
The new Food Dome would have a square of restaurants moved to the center of the dome, all with much nicer kitchens and supply rooms. A single Securis Door on one wall would lead down to the Security Station and Maintenance Hub so people could work down there, and the center of the Restaurant Square had another freight elevator, a hidden one with an underground tunnel leading all the way over to the Market Dome's cargo dock.
External supplies wouldn't have to be brought in through the public areas this way, and it was useful enough that Adam modified the existing designs to include a cargo transportation network under the other Domes too. With strong security checkpoints between Domes and tons of monitoring and scanning equipment to catch problems early.
It wouldn't be FAST transportation thanks to this, but it would be both bulk and convenient. This would also allow Adam to avoid building any docks near the other Domes, letting the Market Dome (Where no one lived and business stalls were temporarily owned) take any fallout if someone tried to invade or attack the docks as a weak point.
The farms could ship food out to the Market Dome, just as Sarah could move out future Tonics and serums being sold from her medical front Paid Pauper Clinic.
And moving it all away from the public would make security FAR easier!
Good, now set up the slightly out of place non-food stuff offered in the Food Dome.
The Post Office, which would be able to use the shipping tunnels to send mail to the docks along with a future Pneumo Tube hub for small stuff if Sarah or Adam could figure those out. Mostly needed a mail and package sorting room and some front office stuff, as well as the elevator access for shipping.
The aforementioned Paid Pauper Clinic. Two waiting rooms (One for sick patients, one for healthy returning for checkups), several emergency rooms, many examination rooms, and patient consultation rooms for those who can't just walk out in five minutes with a few serums.
And yes, Adam may have built in some more advanced sensors into the examination equipment, and he might have added a secure room that could produce (Fully automated by an underground and HEAVILY armored machine) the Tonics and Serums in their full and proper packaging… but the rest was mostly standard stuff.
People could sniff around, but Adam seriously doubted most would be able to dig down the delivery shaft deep enough to find the reinforced Ooze CEE generating units with their electronic psionic neutralizing tubes and the Tonic/serum conditioning orbs.
And if they DID somehow try to do so ANYWAY, it would be a loud process and be happening really close to the Security Station.
Sarah would handle it.
Next? Pauper's Plunder market and the Fine Fishy Fresh seafood stall. Plunder was basically just a grocery store, with the second floor having access elevators down between shelves for restocking and the back nearest the Dome wall connected to the Cluster Grape Farms vine that Adam had been building all this time.
The market would also get additional supplies from below the store in the Transport Tunnels from the Complex Dome's Ant Farm, where the Automated Farms below ground were already pumping out packaged products and Dave's people were working tirelessly per each shift setting up the public production machines and equipment.
As for the next door Fine Fish Fresh seafood stall, Adam simply used the Ooze Ice Columns (heavily modified), which ensured any power outage (Very unlikely) wouldn't affect the seafood kept fresh on ice.
Some fish from the farms would also be flash frozen thanks to a modified conveyor belt system (Yes, he added sensors so gangsters couldn't toss someone or a body inside), which should freeze any food passing through at a fast enough pace to prevent frost damage while preserving the product for shipment or sale.
That said? Until the Ant Farm gets constructed, the only thing being offered in the seafood store so far was a bunch of gem lobsters. Adam hadn't set up any automated fish farms after all.
Meh, it should be fine until the other farms get installed and production is ramped up.
Until then though, Adam set up the entire front of the seafood store to be a massive water tank aquarium. Dome material instead of glass, filled with fancy gemstones and gem lobsters, lots of LED lighting and funny bits and pieces… these lobsters were also ones dosed with 'Growth Stability' tonic, so they wouldn't get bigger and would stay small (a foot or so long or less) and cute (No, he still wasn't allowed to give ANYTHING that Tonic) for all time.
And once Adam had those fish farms going, he would add some near immortal and modified samples of THOSE to the tank too! With 'Cleansing' Tonic the things wouldn't even make much waste so the tank wouldn't need cleaning that often. Best pets ever!
Maybe dump a vial of 'Nutrition' serum once in a while to keep them from eating each other too.
Just in case.
That stuff was a bad idea for a Tonic, 'Nutrition' reacted oddly to several things, but in a single dose it would keep most creatures 'full' and not require food for about a week or so, depending on how enhanced the test subject was. It was sort of like Eve, but less stable and didn't just empower Plasmids but normal body cells too.
Note to self again: When Eve sales went public, Adam was going to pester Sarah to buy several doses for examination. There had to be a way to make his 'Nutrition' more stable.
Because again, the Tonic version of it went odd QUICK, but so far the single serving tests had gone fine. And no one would be eating the tank example seafood critters anyway, unless things went REALLY wrong at some point in the future… it would be fine.
Adam left the rest to Sarah, as she went from schematic to schematic making the planned changes for each of the other restaurants and sitting eateries that would fill up the Dome. And it didn't seem to take long before she decided to get creative.
There was only so much room a single place could take advantage of after all… too much space would mean bad customer service and overworked staff.
Since she couldn't just add multiple floors or fill up the Food Dome with other stuff easily? Sarah had gone a bit artsy.
Ramps, spiral staircases, and transparent elevators led up to a network of semi-transparent walkways and paths within the Food Dome. The walls Dave had insisted on having her include ended one layer below this, while the top area had a few elevators connecting visitors to a lovely sky path.
Walkways that were designed to look like clouds with lighting within, 'cloud' supported picnic areas and small areas for dates and rendezvous… The clouds had lighting on the bottom to not cast shadows down below, but on top?
Some were covered in the enhanced grass (Just TRY to tear this stuff!), while others had artificial but soft foam that had fun patterns and colors. The winding paths connecting these clouds could be reached by elevator, ramp, or stairs while still seeming to have no structural support thanks to discreet connections to the Dome itself and the ABSURD material being used to build this stuff.
While Sarah moved and shifted the 'cloud' platforms around into something she felt appropriate, Adam did the more repetitive work: The Business Dome.
And his thoughts went naturally to determining a theme.
After all, the Complex Dome had the underwater theme park motif and the Market Dome was surrounded with depictions of wealth and riches. Sarah was even now setting up fake nature scenes and oversized fruits and food and stuff all around the Food Dome, but that left the Business Dome for Adam to do SOMETHING with.
After some debate and mental arguments giving push and pull, he decided to focus on 'media' for the general overall tone.
At the center of the new Business Dome, a massive old fashion Radio Tower. With lettering declaring that this belonged to Dionysus Radio, free publicity for the local theater which Ava Tate was likely going to love.
The back would have the hotels set up, only needing a minor amount of redesign after reading Sarah's notes.
In the center, the Penny Drops Hotel would be an entirely new place owned by the Pauper Council. Only those people sponsored by a card carrying Pauper would be allowed to even try to rent a room here, and Adam was making it BEYOND luxurious. Posh beyond posh!
Because even with permission to apply? You needed to be sponsored by a certain level of Pauper or your money wouldn't be enough to get these spaces. Because while the Copper Drop rooms were amazing, the Gold Drop rooms were just absurd!
The additional restrictions and quality should really pull in the more fancy of snobs, while the results would be worth the high prices they'd pay.
Most importantly, it was another business the Pauper Council could use to employ the people of Sarah's town. Because with her actions, Sarah was basically going to transform most of her people to the service industry… they would need cleaners and staff and maintenance people and painters and so on and so forth.
Anyway, more building!
Clubs over there, The Limbo Club over here, this side would have the rentable offices and the more boring businesses… And now the entertainment district! One of the few in Rapture without lots of prostitutes and strippers! For a few days at least.
Sarah wasn't going to BAN those vices. Again, certain people would complain. The mandatory quality of life requirements and improvements however would at least have those men and women selling their bodies a certain level of safety down here.
You want your club to have strippers? Then you better pay them enough to live off it and not allow customers to beat the shit out of them.
Can't or won't pay for that? Then get out of Sarah's town.
Period, no exceptions.
Anyway, the theaters, the filming stages, the rehearsal stages (A couple of previously existing hotels had REALLY pissed Sarah off, so there was more room to work with than expected), and some real progress was happening here!
A little bit of historical research had Adam putting up massively oversized posters and advertisements for Dionysus Theater and Ava Tate's past film work high up in the air. A few more previously published ads for the businesses that actually WORKED with Dave and Sarah, but in bright colors and lit up by hidden LEDs… It gave a bit of Vegas vibe to the area. Very nice!
Instead of boring metallic walls like normal, the dividing sections hiding the dome in THIS area were designed to look like red curtains, stage spotlights the size of houses acted as lighting, and it didn't take much for Adam to add a control station to the Dionysus Theater's management office so that they could do something flashy when new plays were released or if they wanted to push a big event!
Maybe a few more controllable lights to act like fireworks? And some for color tinting...
Adam absently made ALL the lights able to change saturation and brightness levels and colors, controlled by the Security Station. Businesses could contact the Pauper Council and apply to have them changed or ignore the day/night cycle… In fact, let's make this a thing for ALL the Domes!
Some Market Dome stalls might want to do odd colors depending on their products or services after all, and since it required Council approval it should avoid the more horrendous colors and patterns.
Hopefully.
He was in the middle of making the lights have adjustable angles based on interval timers when Sarah broke in. "Adam?"
Hmm? <<Yes?>>
She was in the Security Station. "Why is there a room down here marked 'Light: Business Dome Subsection 4c'?"
Well duh. <<Because the hotel district might want different lighting conditions based on the average temperature of the mean body heat of its customers.>>
She seemed frustrated. "Adam, there are over thirty rooms like this."
Huh. <<Good thing I simplified stuff, that saved a lot of space!>>
Sarah pointed. "This one control room has four floors. Four whole floors of levers, dials, buttons, and switches." She squinted. "And I think I see some pull ropes and a punching bag."
He mentally nodded. <<Yeah, Rapture doesn't have any advanced artificial intelligences so I made some workarounds. Then some stuff conflicted, so I made do.>>
She just… glared at it. "Why? Why all this."
He explained.
Her glare didn't change. "No."
Adam gawked! <<But! But what if someone wants to have a bright red light next to a blue soft emerance under a green highlight!? Do you expect someone to just put up with cyan like a plebian!?>>
Sarah pointed. "Get rid of all of this. Now." She threw her hands up! "It's just silly! It's more complicated than your security center!"
It wasn't silly! SHE was silly! <<Oh come on!>>
Her foot was tapping as her arms crossed. "You can let the theater control those special spotlights. Maybe. If you restrict it down to a color choice wheel and brightness levels."
Adam was aghast! <<But! The lack of fine detail!>>
Her eyes narrowed. "And it must have less than five inputs. And output results that make sense to ME, not just to your superbrain."
Oh this was just unreasonable!
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- England
Not wet-wipes, though. What are you, crazy?
- Location
- Home
Octagons? Octagons?! I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure Hexagons are Bestagons.
- Location
- Taken by the hand to a land that they understand
Does Pauper's drop even have enough people for all this stuff Adam is building? Does Rapture?
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- Status