Hidden One
Not the Boss, possibly a Playa
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
Adam, accidently turning grimderp into loveshags, baby loveshags.... since... existence. 
Broken Adventure
- Thread starter theaceoffire
- Start date
- Crossover
- Status
Correct me on this, but Susan is nearly to the six month mark on this jump, right? Or is she closer to the one year mark?
- Location
- kentucky
Sarah and iv no clue I am just having fun reading this fic
Well, since she's just now saying she's finally able to hire her own workers, and in the original discussions of the contract's "de-legalized english version", she said:
It looks like that means she's only been here for a single month?
dracklor
Beyond the Frontier
- Location
- Texas
And original Adam turned Worm into a JRPG setting complete with quest boards.
So, my thoughts of late....
In a dark room, a council of five figures were meeting in utter and total darkness. Each of them was responsible for terrible deeds and grand scale atrocities. Yet, they kept all their features hidden from each other under tar black robes and black masks, their blood stained hands covered in thick gloves of midnight wool. Around each of them was the aura of menace, murder and secret plots as they readied to speak, to announce to each other the deeds of darkness, grimness and derp that they were to unleash on the poor and abused world....
And then an Adam shard came by out of the blue lit up with random flashing neon strobe lights as he played a one man marching band (American, British and Scottish versions, somehow simultaneously) as a crowd of children whooping and hollering followed him, riding about on yapping and bouncing pugs as they threw bright and sweet smelling flowers everywhere.
After this exited the room, one of the figures spoke. "Well, that rather ruined the mood."
In a dark room, a council of five figures were meeting in utter and total darkness. Each of them was responsible for terrible deeds and grand scale atrocities. Yet, they kept all their features hidden from each other under tar black robes and black masks, their blood stained hands covered in thick gloves of midnight wool. Around each of them was the aura of menace, murder and secret plots as they readied to speak, to announce to each other the deeds of darkness, grimness and derp that they were to unleash on the poor and abused world....
And then an Adam shard came by out of the blue lit up with random flashing neon strobe lights as he played a one man marching band (American, British and Scottish versions, somehow simultaneously) as a crowd of children whooping and hollering followed him, riding about on yapping and bouncing pugs as they threw bright and sweet smelling flowers everywhere.
After this exited the room, one of the figures spoke. "Well, that rather ruined the mood."
Ryan will be thrilled that his version of Rapture is the best one. Then he will be irked that it wasn't something he did and it was all due to Sarah. There are nearly an infinite number of Raptures out there that all fell. They just didn't work over a few decades.
Oddly, I can see the solution is all the enhance self tonics spread throughout. Andrew Ryan was fearing being bored. What if he gets drafted to secretly correct/fixing all the other versions of his beloved city? Talk about endless paperwork.
So his Jumper has accidentally genre shifted the world. How much CP does she get for that?
Oddly, I can see the solution is all the enhance self tonics spread throughout. Andrew Ryan was fearing being bored. What if he gets drafted to secretly correct/fixing all the other versions of his beloved city? Talk about endless paperwork.
So his Jumper has accidentally genre shifted the world. How much CP does she get for that?
- Location
- United States
This may have been proposed already. I tried to search for it, but it's kind of hard to know what keywords to use...
Calling it now: Sarah's original ROB was actually the entity the mostly died and became Adam/Squishy. Adam's original entity was such an ass that Karma was trying to kill him, and Sarah's original ROB was clearly along those lines. This would also explain why Adam was drawn to her on his random jump, and it would make for nice karmic closure.
Calling it now: Sarah's original ROB was actually the entity the mostly died and became Adam/Squishy. Adam's original entity was such an ass that Karma was trying to kill him, and Sarah's original ROB was clearly along those lines. This would also explain why Adam was drawn to her on his random jump, and it would make for nice karmic closure.
WorldS.
And barely a fraction of what it should be due to the borked CP collectors, but still way more than expected. Lots of repairs Adam didn't expect to be able to do for several jumps yet are happening.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Imagine if he took some time to repair the CP collectors instead of worrying about food storage. Like... they were in a stable Jump that wasn't going to collapse and he made the rookie Civilization mistake of building barracks instead of granaries. Come on, dude! Have you never played any Civ game?!?!?!?
Last edited:
Why not fix the collectors!?
- Location
- Here
Thanks, I updated that chapter to make things more clear.
The original contract had some checks and fail markers hidden within the first month, the ENTIRE contract had many MORE traps and issues for a longer period of time (Not specified).
A significant amount of time is passing, see next update for details.
Almost enough to earn what she should NORMALLY get if her collectors worked!
Yes and Yes. I want her to travel until it feels like she can handle herself, and for Adam to help until she needs to go on without him.
Though he may leave a copy behind, it's almost traditional.
Many system units were damaged.
The CP collectors were torn OUT, during the 'loot' stage of the 'loot THEN burn' escape plan of the Kidnapper. They will never be fully recovered, not without finding a new Warehouse to examine first. For now, they are making do by using the initial Jump Documents to use flaws and drawbacks for earning initial income... Not a perfect solution, but at least it works.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I retract my criticism of Adam's priorities.
Last edited:
Red_Faux
私を終わらせる
- Location
- 'Straya M8
Well, I imagine Research could figure it out eventually. Eventually being a few thousand years.
Just how fast could his fully powered Prime Adam Research could do it, with all its Xianxia land data and more? Or does Benefactor!Adam have the fully powered version, and Cosmic Warehouses are just that complicated? I could believe either way really
Last edited:
Arc 3: Your mother's daughters.
- Location
- Here
For the next few months, Adam stayed out of the way and did hard core science!
Not because Sarah got chewed out by Susan for surprising Dave with the pregnancy, and not due to the hugs and tears and feelings and lots of hugs and sexy times that Adam was excluded from.
But for SCIENCE!
And also to keep busy.
While a lot of feeling stuff was being handled in Rapture, the sports teams were flourishing with high quality financial support, a wave of empathy, and mandatory 'Enhance Self' application for all newcomers.
And dropping a small army of healthy, sexually active and attractive athletes into a City of hedonism certainly boosted the average morale in Pauper's Drop, by no small amount.
But while Adam was happy things were going (surprisingly) well down here, the competency levels of the Pauper Council and Dave's people left a very low level of oversight required for Sarah.
Which was good, because Adam was covering for his Jumper while she went on dates, played with children, and sort of became a mother to Sammy One and Two. He was connected to the systems and networks anyway, and could actually understand Sarah's mind… Filling out paperwork and returning her opinions when asked was easy enough.
Even so? Adam had WAY too much time to test stuff.
It was thanks to the stabilization of the Ant Farm (Expanded several times over the weeks) and the growth of Pauper's Drop that let him have time to finish more equipment for Dr. Tenenbaum.
The woman now had access to psionic analyzers, psionic frame manipulators, psionic duplicators, and destructive collider turbines. With the ability to not only SEE what she was doing AND recreate initial conditions, actual testable and repeatable science was getting done down here!
Most of it would likely not be helpful in future Jumps, but Adam was making sure to study the new methods and techniques the doctor was pioneering to work with and adjust psionic frameworks in general. Seriously good stuff!
So he had stuff to look at while his Jumper was busy.
Honestly Adam was helping the research teams cheat. They had good equipment, but he had 'Research'! There were whole sections of the Plasmid research database with notes from 'Sarah' about interesting things to test and try that just so happen to give amazing results.
They would have made these discoveries naturally, eventually… But if Adam was able to speed up the process by years, why not?
That said, the first Plasmids to hit the Clinic for sale actually take advantage of the fact that this early stuff was so 'weak'.
'Handy' Plasmid acted like Mage Hand, giving the user a small field (Normally shaped like a hand or glove or rod or whatever non-sharp object they desire) that could be mentally manipulated within a few feet of the owner.
No, it couldn't stop a bullet. Nor could it tear a person apart, or lift things that the person themselves couldn't physically lift (It was tied to their own psionic framework in odd ways).
But now, minor levels of telekinesis were available to the public for an expensive but affordable price down here in Pauper's Drop. Sarah nodded absently when told, Dr. Tenenbaum found it interesting but not the pinnacle of her new field, and Andrew Ryan ordered a large batch because the man could smell a good idea from oceans away.
The thing sold like mad!
While it was mostly useless for attack and nearly as pointless for defence, a small amount of accurate mental manipulation of the environment was a DRASTIC quality of life improvement to the average person!
An extra shelf or hook to hold bags while you searched your pocket for keys, the ability to grab something that rolled under the couch, an invisible oven mitt to pull out the roast for dinner straight from the heat! It practically sold itself, and yet was weak enough to not cause biological instability, mental distress, nor energy depletion.
Though Adam had to quickly whip up a 'Power Capacity Measurement Device' to ensure money wasn't wasted.
The electronic ball of psionic analyzers would examine people who touched it, detect how stable their personal fields were and how much space there was to work with, and display in basic numbers the amount of 'Major' and 'Minor' Plasmids currently 'installed' and the number of empty slots left for filling.
It was a safety thing Adam thought up, but it accidentally pushed more people into buying Tonics after everyone realized that adding additional Tonics would empower and stabilize your own psionic field, letting you use more Plasmids without issue.
Now it was common for people to be able to breathe sea water, resist oceanic pressure, and be nearly obscenely clean by default. A general improvement, especially as many of the 'holdouts' tend to be the sort of people who could REALLY use a good bath or thirty.
Sure, it frustrated Dr. Tenenbaum that any 'finished' Plasmids had to be compressed and 'solidified' into maximum psionic framework sizes of 'Major' and 'Minor', but in a way this boosted creativity too!
With limits being marked it forced her and her teams to get creative when trying to make final Plasmids, and testing became easier as the hardened psionic nodes were much easier to switch and replace from a person's psionic framework without having to wipe out all their powers and Tonics first and start from scratch.
Now Pauper's Drop had devices in the Paid Pauper Clinic that allowed Pauper Card members to view all owned Plasmids, see which were installed, and quickly swap the ones that were active or not without having to bother the doctors and nurses on duty.
Oh there were a few issues until Adam added some safety features that checked to ensure everyone had 'Enhance Self' before using the self service kiosk, but in general the ease of use and fast access to the new device was a popular addition to the place.
After Handy Plasmid came 'Cool Comfort', a Plasmid that allowed one to increase or decrease the heat of a small area near the user over a period of time. Again, basically free to use (No heavy Eve or life energy cost), this let people have cooled drinks and warm leftovers at any time, while also letting people change the temperature of their own body to better ignore overly hot or cold areas.
You couldn't use the thing to just swim in lava or anything, but it could stop shivering and sweating with no problem while keeping your hot chocolate hot and your ice cream cold. Kids loved the thing, even if they used the two plasmids to poke each other and surprise friends with ice touches or hot taps.
The only 'Major' Plasmids being sold were to security so far: 'Detain', 'Obscure', and 'Report' Plasmids. Most guards could only handle one of the things, so the Pauper's Patrol would go out in groups of three so they could have at least one of each active for the team to have in a pinch.
'Detain' Plasmid would bind a person sized target and levitate them to follow a user, great for angry or depressed drunks. 'Obscure' was a weak 'notice me not' effect, letting agents keep an eye on things without warning criminals while still being trackable by the cameras… And 'Report' was the ability to send mental messages to familiar psionic patterns.
A team of three could have one member keep the group uninteresting, another let the group keep in mental contact and even send for help from their boss without nearby people detecting or preventing it, while the third would quickly end any shootout or fist fight with a safe and secure method of de-escalation.
Having your drunk friends NOT get punched out, tased, or (in more kindly places) wrapped up in a mattress and carted off while singing drunk? Good PR that. And 'Obscure' was helpful in the field without letting them easily avoid all responsibility and accountability that a full invisibility effect could provide… The newcomers appreciated the less violent approach compared to other stories they heard about Rapture security, and Sarah appreciated less people complaining and forcing her to focus on day to day issues.
Could they make other Major and Minor Plasmids? Yep. Dr. Tenenbaum found more every day with her labs and her research crews.
Would they? Not for now.
Every active Plasmid could be abused. Even the basic ones like Handy Tonic could unlock doors easily enough, though manipulating the mental field without 'seeing' it took surprisingly large amounts of focus and practice. The Plasmid COULD be practiced enough that the user's psionic field would eventually learn to sense feedback from the construct, but if you put THAT much work into the thing you are impressive enough that the Ratcatcher would likely hire you INTO security after getting caught.
So uh. Lots of petty thieves and stuff in the security staff now, and they were REALLY GOOD at catching their own friends and former companions. Almost spitefully good, as rivalries ran deep in the underworld.
No, Adam had to pretend to be Sarah as the Pauper's Council argued over each and every Plasmid and Tonic and serum, trying to determine potential effects with every new one added to the market and clinic, attempting to prevent issues and future headaches.
It was needed, probably saved lives, and Adam was frustrated at the mess anyway.
So yeah, Adam spent his time testing stuff and having 'Research' constantly review the Warehouse and try to fix things. At least it was interesting!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah sighed. "I don't know Grace, both Sammy's refuse to talk! I'm worried."
Her friend was helping her little Ben 'color' a picture book, even if he was more or less just enjoying making a mess with the crayons. "But there is nothing medically wrong?"
Thankfully no. "Not according to my equipment."
The former jazz singer chuckled. "If they are healthy, it's fine. Some children just talk less… Give them time to find themselves."
She waved her hand. "I'm not sure I'll HAVE time! Sammy Two somehow learned a way to move stuff mentally without the Plasmid and I think Sammy One is talking mentally. Like an advanced version of 'Report' Plasmid, but it's hard to tell… I think she's mentally talking to the other kids. Just not to me."
All three children giggled, getting a smile from Grace and a groan from Sarah herself! "See! They do stuff like that and it is SUPER suspicious!"
She wasn't falling for that innocent look you two! No matter how short and fat and cute you were!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
After a couple of years, Rapture began to stabilize to a degree.
At least, the number of people flooding Pauper's Drop began to slow, and Andrew Ryan's increasingly ambitious underground facilities were hitting new peaks and beginning to attract the curious masses.
Fairly quickly, other areas of the underwater city realised that if they wanted to even be considered part of the ongoing expansion and revolution going on? They had to talk to Pauper.
Places and people with a history of helping out? Easy Gold card status and fair pricing for Sarah powered construction projects. It was still nearly pure profit, but not exorbitant in cost considering what you got in return and the sheere quality of production.
Those who were apathetic? Silver card was the best you could get, and it was much more costly to have Sarah come fix your shit. You could earn your way back into the big leagues, but in general the people know you do not piss off two groups: Andrew Ryan or Sarah Killgrave.
There was no third group. If anyone actively fought against Sarah or her people, they had to watch neighbors and shops they oppressed get nearly free upgrades and boosts just out of spite from the woman. If some of her frustration was due to being forced to leave her ongoing 'honeymoon' and vacation to deal with these issues, that was their bad luck really.
Adam was mostly able to get the Warehouse cut out of the various industries now. They had recycling centers and animal husbandry research labs (No, the 'chicken' monstrosities were NOT fixable by the researchers either. What the hell, Rapture?), so Adam and the Warehouse were able to focus on more boring stuff without being required for the city to continue operations.
And aside from Sarah having fun building random stuff every once in a while or stealing an Elizabeth or two for a quick surface date to Paris or Swedish topless beaches, his Jumper barely needed to USE her powers now.
A true vacation, a chance to unwind, and most importantly? A chance to feel safe with people.
So sure, Adam had never ending paperwork. And yeah, some construction projects that were publicly done by 'Sarah' were being remotely set up by him instead.
But letting her relax a bit was worth a slight amount of never ending paperwork.
...Though he still hated doing this stuff. Trying to automate the many forms and document filling procedures helped sometimes, but if he made some process smart enough to do it all? Then it was smart enough to NOT DO IT.
A blink had time slip by day by day, hour by hour.
Oh! They are graduating!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah twisted, swinging both girls in a circle! "My babies are getting so big!"
Sammy One humphed. <<Mom!>>
Sammy Two just hummed, smiling happily as they swirled around! Kept her college cap on by mental force of course, didn't want it flying off like her twins.
She sighed! "It feels like just yesterday you two were helping little Amy set up a military outpost for your paintball league, and now my babies are off to be big scientists and researchers and whatever it is you were going to do!"
One grinned. <<Take over the world?>>
She didn't even hesitate. "Not until you are 25. At least!"
<<Aww.>>
Two straightened out everyone's clothing and sent the many flung caps back to their various owners while One waved at their many friends from her other classes.
Sarah couldn't fight off the smile if she tried! So mature, so adult! Her babies were the best!
A buzzkill best friend sauntered closer. "You'll have to let them go at some point."
She frowned at the smirking sexy jazz singer. "Hush you! I never age and can go without sleep for years! Hugs are justice! Girls, don't listen to Ms. Holloway, letting go is for quitters."
Two giggled while One pouted. <<Mom, come on… Not in front of my friends!>>
But… No, she had to be mature. Good mothers were supposed to be like Grace and Granny Elizabeth, right? That older suave thing, the 'I know best' attitude, right?
Maybe later. "Oh I am just so PROUD of you two! We should go see the girls and I bet we got that really good Tarte Tatin apple pie thing with that sweet syrup from that one time!" Her many Elizabeths loved baking, and it was always a special treat!
Both Sammy's paused. <<Well, we shouldn't keep them waiting, right?>> A firm nod from her sister confirmed it: Time to go get some pie!
Sarah probably should let go of her children, but she wouldn't let something like reason or propriety keep her from feeling this joyous! "Grace, is little Ben going to be there too? I know his team has a game today."
The young women were dragged along by their over bubbly mothers, the small group ignoring the many near worshiping stares the 'Bone Angle of Rapture' received as she tried to reach out and hug as many people as she could on the way to the graduation after party!
Her little ones had gotten so big!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam quietly [[Harvested]] another nuclear torpedo. This one had fun lights on it in odd glass bubbles!
Not sure why the surface bothered to keep trying this, it may just be inertia at this point. Sunk cost fallacy at its finest.
Andrew Ryan had vanished with lots of funds and material to begin with, so the nations were keeping an eye out BEFORE Sarah began stealing large numbers of the oppressed, minorities, and the people trapped in lower income brackets.
And even the best security has some issues… The fact the underwater city stayed undetected so long was only due to Ryan's expensive counter measures and immigration background examination procedures.
After being discovered, some people tried to desperately join such a 'utopia', others desired the riches, and a good number of powerful people in the countries crumbling due to vanishing lower classes now had a target that wasn't politically active in surface politics.
So aside from people trying to infiltrate or flee to this place?
Near constant attacks.
It wasn't even interesting anymore. The Voice of Dionysus Radio, Jasmine Ryan (She said yes!) would just add a small note at the end of each broadcast day numbering how many explosives were collected and the projected number of attacks for the next day and so on for the rest of the week.
It was sort of like a weather forecast? And just like that, the data was mostly ignored by the people now. Might get commented on during lunch or something, but more or less part of the background of life.
Even if Adam DIDN'T collect most of the nuclear substances for free high energy material, Rapture now had a thick layer of Ooze farmed over the whole place. If Adam didn't [[Harvest]] the various weapons FAST enough, it would get all potential energy sucked out of it as it tried to pass through the goo layer. And all heat energy, and all magnetic energy fields wiped and uh… Well, even the electrical power was drained for collection even if the Ooze couldn't absorb it directly.
Heck, even permitted surface travel needed customised vehicles that could pass through that mess!
At some point, Adam suspected the surface would stop attacking out of boredom, if nothing else. And the heavy hostility destroyed the smuggling market entirely, since most products could now be produced under the ocean with higher quality standards than the surface ANYWAY, why would smugglers risk the deadly surface rout when they could set up a black market down HERE instead?
Meh, it was handled. Since almost everything was legal in the markets down here anyway, the black markets had the truly odd stuff. Surface art, religious symbols, blah blah blah. Ryan's people were happy enough to shut that down, so it wasn't Adam's or Sarah's problem.
Oh! 'Research' said this most recent explosive was plasma based!
Let's take a closer look!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
How could this happen?
Sarah twisted her hands. It was too soon! "You both can call me at any time, you know? And don't eat too much, you shouldn't get a stomach ache…"
Her babies rolled their eyes. <<We know, Mom. We've been on dates before.>>
No they haven't, because denial kept them the same two tiny bundles of giggles from her memories. "I know, and Benjamin was always a good boy. Grace did good with him."
Though Grace did get tired more easily and had a few more wrinkles, her best friend always seemed full of energy when with her little boy. He had grown handsome and kind, but not kind enough for this!
Sammy One sighed. When had she gotten so tall? <<He's not a child anymore, none of us are. Mom, he's going to propose to us. Tonight.>>
No he wasn't, because all of them were too young and she wasn't going to let them go ever. EVER, DANG IT!
A slightly sad but warm wave came from Adam.
Oh right. Smile. Big, I'm Fine With This Home Wrecker Smile! "Then you both will have to tell me all about it later! I'm sure Grace will love hearing from you three as well, so send her a message or something, right?" Don't go.
Her angels hugged her. <<We will, Mom.>> Two squeezed her back as One smiled. <<Wish us luck!>>
Don't go. "Good luck to you both! And… I love you both, lots and lots!" Just… A little longer.
The hug ended too soon, the door closed, and Sarah didn't cry because she was a big adult mommy and her babies were happy and this was fine.
Adam sent warmth. <<I'm here, Sarah.>>
She was fine.
Not because Sarah got chewed out by Susan for surprising Dave with the pregnancy, and not due to the hugs and tears and feelings and lots of hugs and sexy times that Adam was excluded from.
But for SCIENCE!
And also to keep busy.
While a lot of feeling stuff was being handled in Rapture, the sports teams were flourishing with high quality financial support, a wave of empathy, and mandatory 'Enhance Self' application for all newcomers.
And dropping a small army of healthy, sexually active and attractive athletes into a City of hedonism certainly boosted the average morale in Pauper's Drop, by no small amount.
But while Adam was happy things were going (surprisingly) well down here, the competency levels of the Pauper Council and Dave's people left a very low level of oversight required for Sarah.
Which was good, because Adam was covering for his Jumper while she went on dates, played with children, and sort of became a mother to Sammy One and Two. He was connected to the systems and networks anyway, and could actually understand Sarah's mind… Filling out paperwork and returning her opinions when asked was easy enough.
Even so? Adam had WAY too much time to test stuff.
It was thanks to the stabilization of the Ant Farm (Expanded several times over the weeks) and the growth of Pauper's Drop that let him have time to finish more equipment for Dr. Tenenbaum.
The woman now had access to psionic analyzers, psionic frame manipulators, psionic duplicators, and destructive collider turbines. With the ability to not only SEE what she was doing AND recreate initial conditions, actual testable and repeatable science was getting done down here!
Most of it would likely not be helpful in future Jumps, but Adam was making sure to study the new methods and techniques the doctor was pioneering to work with and adjust psionic frameworks in general. Seriously good stuff!
So he had stuff to look at while his Jumper was busy.
Honestly Adam was helping the research teams cheat. They had good equipment, but he had 'Research'! There were whole sections of the Plasmid research database with notes from 'Sarah' about interesting things to test and try that just so happen to give amazing results.
They would have made these discoveries naturally, eventually… But if Adam was able to speed up the process by years, why not?
That said, the first Plasmids to hit the Clinic for sale actually take advantage of the fact that this early stuff was so 'weak'.
'Handy' Plasmid acted like Mage Hand, giving the user a small field (Normally shaped like a hand or glove or rod or whatever non-sharp object they desire) that could be mentally manipulated within a few feet of the owner.
No, it couldn't stop a bullet. Nor could it tear a person apart, or lift things that the person themselves couldn't physically lift (It was tied to their own psionic framework in odd ways).
But now, minor levels of telekinesis were available to the public for an expensive but affordable price down here in Pauper's Drop. Sarah nodded absently when told, Dr. Tenenbaum found it interesting but not the pinnacle of her new field, and Andrew Ryan ordered a large batch because the man could smell a good idea from oceans away.
The thing sold like mad!
While it was mostly useless for attack and nearly as pointless for defence, a small amount of accurate mental manipulation of the environment was a DRASTIC quality of life improvement to the average person!
An extra shelf or hook to hold bags while you searched your pocket for keys, the ability to grab something that rolled under the couch, an invisible oven mitt to pull out the roast for dinner straight from the heat! It practically sold itself, and yet was weak enough to not cause biological instability, mental distress, nor energy depletion.
Though Adam had to quickly whip up a 'Power Capacity Measurement Device' to ensure money wasn't wasted.
The electronic ball of psionic analyzers would examine people who touched it, detect how stable their personal fields were and how much space there was to work with, and display in basic numbers the amount of 'Major' and 'Minor' Plasmids currently 'installed' and the number of empty slots left for filling.
It was a safety thing Adam thought up, but it accidentally pushed more people into buying Tonics after everyone realized that adding additional Tonics would empower and stabilize your own psionic field, letting you use more Plasmids without issue.
Now it was common for people to be able to breathe sea water, resist oceanic pressure, and be nearly obscenely clean by default. A general improvement, especially as many of the 'holdouts' tend to be the sort of people who could REALLY use a good bath or thirty.
Sure, it frustrated Dr. Tenenbaum that any 'finished' Plasmids had to be compressed and 'solidified' into maximum psionic framework sizes of 'Major' and 'Minor', but in a way this boosted creativity too!
With limits being marked it forced her and her teams to get creative when trying to make final Plasmids, and testing became easier as the hardened psionic nodes were much easier to switch and replace from a person's psionic framework without having to wipe out all their powers and Tonics first and start from scratch.
Now Pauper's Drop had devices in the Paid Pauper Clinic that allowed Pauper Card members to view all owned Plasmids, see which were installed, and quickly swap the ones that were active or not without having to bother the doctors and nurses on duty.
Oh there were a few issues until Adam added some safety features that checked to ensure everyone had 'Enhance Self' before using the self service kiosk, but in general the ease of use and fast access to the new device was a popular addition to the place.
After Handy Plasmid came 'Cool Comfort', a Plasmid that allowed one to increase or decrease the heat of a small area near the user over a period of time. Again, basically free to use (No heavy Eve or life energy cost), this let people have cooled drinks and warm leftovers at any time, while also letting people change the temperature of their own body to better ignore overly hot or cold areas.
You couldn't use the thing to just swim in lava or anything, but it could stop shivering and sweating with no problem while keeping your hot chocolate hot and your ice cream cold. Kids loved the thing, even if they used the two plasmids to poke each other and surprise friends with ice touches or hot taps.
The only 'Major' Plasmids being sold were to security so far: 'Detain', 'Obscure', and 'Report' Plasmids. Most guards could only handle one of the things, so the Pauper's Patrol would go out in groups of three so they could have at least one of each active for the team to have in a pinch.
'Detain' Plasmid would bind a person sized target and levitate them to follow a user, great for angry or depressed drunks. 'Obscure' was a weak 'notice me not' effect, letting agents keep an eye on things without warning criminals while still being trackable by the cameras… And 'Report' was the ability to send mental messages to familiar psionic patterns.
A team of three could have one member keep the group uninteresting, another let the group keep in mental contact and even send for help from their boss without nearby people detecting or preventing it, while the third would quickly end any shootout or fist fight with a safe and secure method of de-escalation.
Having your drunk friends NOT get punched out, tased, or (in more kindly places) wrapped up in a mattress and carted off while singing drunk? Good PR that. And 'Obscure' was helpful in the field without letting them easily avoid all responsibility and accountability that a full invisibility effect could provide… The newcomers appreciated the less violent approach compared to other stories they heard about Rapture security, and Sarah appreciated less people complaining and forcing her to focus on day to day issues.
Could they make other Major and Minor Plasmids? Yep. Dr. Tenenbaum found more every day with her labs and her research crews.
Would they? Not for now.
Every active Plasmid could be abused. Even the basic ones like Handy Tonic could unlock doors easily enough, though manipulating the mental field without 'seeing' it took surprisingly large amounts of focus and practice. The Plasmid COULD be practiced enough that the user's psionic field would eventually learn to sense feedback from the construct, but if you put THAT much work into the thing you are impressive enough that the Ratcatcher would likely hire you INTO security after getting caught.
So uh. Lots of petty thieves and stuff in the security staff now, and they were REALLY GOOD at catching their own friends and former companions. Almost spitefully good, as rivalries ran deep in the underworld.
No, Adam had to pretend to be Sarah as the Pauper's Council argued over each and every Plasmid and Tonic and serum, trying to determine potential effects with every new one added to the market and clinic, attempting to prevent issues and future headaches.
It was needed, probably saved lives, and Adam was frustrated at the mess anyway.
So yeah, Adam spent his time testing stuff and having 'Research' constantly review the Warehouse and try to fix things. At least it was interesting!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah sighed. "I don't know Grace, both Sammy's refuse to talk! I'm worried."
Her friend was helping her little Ben 'color' a picture book, even if he was more or less just enjoying making a mess with the crayons. "But there is nothing medically wrong?"
Thankfully no. "Not according to my equipment."
The former jazz singer chuckled. "If they are healthy, it's fine. Some children just talk less… Give them time to find themselves."
She waved her hand. "I'm not sure I'll HAVE time! Sammy Two somehow learned a way to move stuff mentally without the Plasmid and I think Sammy One is talking mentally. Like an advanced version of 'Report' Plasmid, but it's hard to tell… I think she's mentally talking to the other kids. Just not to me."
All three children giggled, getting a smile from Grace and a groan from Sarah herself! "See! They do stuff like that and it is SUPER suspicious!"
She wasn't falling for that innocent look you two! No matter how short and fat and cute you were!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
After a couple of years, Rapture began to stabilize to a degree.
At least, the number of people flooding Pauper's Drop began to slow, and Andrew Ryan's increasingly ambitious underground facilities were hitting new peaks and beginning to attract the curious masses.
Fairly quickly, other areas of the underwater city realised that if they wanted to even be considered part of the ongoing expansion and revolution going on? They had to talk to Pauper.
Places and people with a history of helping out? Easy Gold card status and fair pricing for Sarah powered construction projects. It was still nearly pure profit, but not exorbitant in cost considering what you got in return and the sheere quality of production.
Those who were apathetic? Silver card was the best you could get, and it was much more costly to have Sarah come fix your shit. You could earn your way back into the big leagues, but in general the people know you do not piss off two groups: Andrew Ryan or Sarah Killgrave.
There was no third group. If anyone actively fought against Sarah or her people, they had to watch neighbors and shops they oppressed get nearly free upgrades and boosts just out of spite from the woman. If some of her frustration was due to being forced to leave her ongoing 'honeymoon' and vacation to deal with these issues, that was their bad luck really.
Adam was mostly able to get the Warehouse cut out of the various industries now. They had recycling centers and animal husbandry research labs (No, the 'chicken' monstrosities were NOT fixable by the researchers either. What the hell, Rapture?), so Adam and the Warehouse were able to focus on more boring stuff without being required for the city to continue operations.
And aside from Sarah having fun building random stuff every once in a while or stealing an Elizabeth or two for a quick surface date to Paris or Swedish topless beaches, his Jumper barely needed to USE her powers now.
A true vacation, a chance to unwind, and most importantly? A chance to feel safe with people.
So sure, Adam had never ending paperwork. And yeah, some construction projects that were publicly done by 'Sarah' were being remotely set up by him instead.
But letting her relax a bit was worth a slight amount of never ending paperwork.
...Though he still hated doing this stuff. Trying to automate the many forms and document filling procedures helped sometimes, but if he made some process smart enough to do it all? Then it was smart enough to NOT DO IT.
A blink had time slip by day by day, hour by hour.
Oh! They are graduating!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah twisted, swinging both girls in a circle! "My babies are getting so big!"
Sammy One humphed. <<Mom!>>
Sammy Two just hummed, smiling happily as they swirled around! Kept her college cap on by mental force of course, didn't want it flying off like her twins.
She sighed! "It feels like just yesterday you two were helping little Amy set up a military outpost for your paintball league, and now my babies are off to be big scientists and researchers and whatever it is you were going to do!"
One grinned. <<Take over the world?>>
She didn't even hesitate. "Not until you are 25. At least!"
<<Aww.>>
Two straightened out everyone's clothing and sent the many flung caps back to their various owners while One waved at their many friends from her other classes.
Sarah couldn't fight off the smile if she tried! So mature, so adult! Her babies were the best!
A buzzkill best friend sauntered closer. "You'll have to let them go at some point."
She frowned at the smirking sexy jazz singer. "Hush you! I never age and can go without sleep for years! Hugs are justice! Girls, don't listen to Ms. Holloway, letting go is for quitters."
Two giggled while One pouted. <<Mom, come on… Not in front of my friends!>>
But… No, she had to be mature. Good mothers were supposed to be like Grace and Granny Elizabeth, right? That older suave thing, the 'I know best' attitude, right?
Maybe later. "Oh I am just so PROUD of you two! We should go see the girls and I bet we got that really good Tarte Tatin apple pie thing with that sweet syrup from that one time!" Her many Elizabeths loved baking, and it was always a special treat!
Both Sammy's paused. <<Well, we shouldn't keep them waiting, right?>> A firm nod from her sister confirmed it: Time to go get some pie!
Sarah probably should let go of her children, but she wouldn't let something like reason or propriety keep her from feeling this joyous! "Grace, is little Ben going to be there too? I know his team has a game today."
The young women were dragged along by their over bubbly mothers, the small group ignoring the many near worshiping stares the 'Bone Angle of Rapture' received as she tried to reach out and hug as many people as she could on the way to the graduation after party!
Her little ones had gotten so big!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam quietly [[Harvested]] another nuclear torpedo. This one had fun lights on it in odd glass bubbles!
Not sure why the surface bothered to keep trying this, it may just be inertia at this point. Sunk cost fallacy at its finest.
Andrew Ryan had vanished with lots of funds and material to begin with, so the nations were keeping an eye out BEFORE Sarah began stealing large numbers of the oppressed, minorities, and the people trapped in lower income brackets.
And even the best security has some issues… The fact the underwater city stayed undetected so long was only due to Ryan's expensive counter measures and immigration background examination procedures.
After being discovered, some people tried to desperately join such a 'utopia', others desired the riches, and a good number of powerful people in the countries crumbling due to vanishing lower classes now had a target that wasn't politically active in surface politics.
So aside from people trying to infiltrate or flee to this place?
Near constant attacks.
It wasn't even interesting anymore. The Voice of Dionysus Radio, Jasmine Ryan (She said yes!) would just add a small note at the end of each broadcast day numbering how many explosives were collected and the projected number of attacks for the next day and so on for the rest of the week.
It was sort of like a weather forecast? And just like that, the data was mostly ignored by the people now. Might get commented on during lunch or something, but more or less part of the background of life.
Even if Adam DIDN'T collect most of the nuclear substances for free high energy material, Rapture now had a thick layer of Ooze farmed over the whole place. If Adam didn't [[Harvest]] the various weapons FAST enough, it would get all potential energy sucked out of it as it tried to pass through the goo layer. And all heat energy, and all magnetic energy fields wiped and uh… Well, even the electrical power was drained for collection even if the Ooze couldn't absorb it directly.
Heck, even permitted surface travel needed customised vehicles that could pass through that mess!
At some point, Adam suspected the surface would stop attacking out of boredom, if nothing else. And the heavy hostility destroyed the smuggling market entirely, since most products could now be produced under the ocean with higher quality standards than the surface ANYWAY, why would smugglers risk the deadly surface rout when they could set up a black market down HERE instead?
Meh, it was handled. Since almost everything was legal in the markets down here anyway, the black markets had the truly odd stuff. Surface art, religious symbols, blah blah blah. Ryan's people were happy enough to shut that down, so it wasn't Adam's or Sarah's problem.
Oh! 'Research' said this most recent explosive was plasma based!
Let's take a closer look!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
How could this happen?
Sarah twisted her hands. It was too soon! "You both can call me at any time, you know? And don't eat too much, you shouldn't get a stomach ache…"
Her babies rolled their eyes. <<We know, Mom. We've been on dates before.>>
No they haven't, because denial kept them the same two tiny bundles of giggles from her memories. "I know, and Benjamin was always a good boy. Grace did good with him."
Though Grace did get tired more easily and had a few more wrinkles, her best friend always seemed full of energy when with her little boy. He had grown handsome and kind, but not kind enough for this!
Sammy One sighed. When had she gotten so tall? <<He's not a child anymore, none of us are. Mom, he's going to propose to us. Tonight.>>
No he wasn't, because all of them were too young and she wasn't going to let them go ever. EVER, DANG IT!
A slightly sad but warm wave came from Adam.
Oh right. Smile. Big, I'm Fine With This Home Wrecker Smile! "Then you both will have to tell me all about it later! I'm sure Grace will love hearing from you three as well, so send her a message or something, right?" Don't go.
Her angels hugged her. <<We will, Mom.>> Two squeezed her back as One smiled. <<Wish us luck!>>
Don't go. "Good luck to you both! And… I love you both, lots and lots!" Just… A little longer.
The hug ended too soon, the door closed, and Sarah didn't cry because she was a big adult mommy and her babies were happy and this was fine.
Adam sent warmth. <<I'm here, Sarah.>>
She was fine.
Last edited:
Hidden One
Not the Boss, possibly a Playa
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
There is only one way to cheer Sarah up now.
It's either the Comedy CYOA jump to visit Nanny Fine or Team Fortress 2 to show the sniper how to really snipe.
Right?
It's either the Comedy CYOA jump to visit Nanny Fine or Team Fortress 2 to show the sniper how to really snipe.
Right?
- Location
- US
This is fine. I'm fine.
Honestly one thing I love about your stories is how often the teary feelings are happy-based.
Last edited:
- Location
- US
I just hope that shenanigans allow Elizabeth to show up on another jump!
Ah, that was really nice. Dr. Tenenbaum must've been ecstatic at the ability to finally do REAL SCIENCE INSTEAD OF THAT MAD SCIENCE BS RAPTURE HAS! MILK!? WHY MILK!?
Really happy about the Ryan family actually being a thing. Sarah must be their best friend at this point, huh?
It's been about 20 years, so we're either going to the next jump or doing an ungodly long timeskip history recap next. Since the surface world seems to be imploding currently. When you take the indentured servitude tier social classes out of the picture, countries tend to die really fast, huh? Must really suck that like what? 95% of the world genius'/supergenius' are all in Rapture, huh? Bet the ocean is god damn PRISTINE in that entire section too! Environmentally friendly? NAY! ENVIRONMENTALLY BENEFICIAL! Quality is the name of the game! Place is basically the freaking Garden of Eden at this point.
That Goo is terrifying though. At least it doesn't eat people... actively. I'm fairly certain touching it is certain death though, since it's stupidly close to absolute zero because heat=energy.
Did Sarah marry Elizabeth? I assume there's some very confusing mating rituals when you involve a... 17 million strong hive-mind.
Man! Look at Ben! He got the twins! They may have been a package deal, but the dude is living the dream! The Simmy/Sammy Expy's that Adam's Wives somehow foisted onto him across multiple planes of reality and multiverses, somehow became his granddaughters/nieces? What is Adam's relationship with Sarah? Father-type? Brother? Uncle? God? Hero? A mix of all of the above? I'm curious.
This is a...Waterpunk(wtf?) underwater city that has had Adam's undivided architect mode and Research focused on it for at minimum, 2 decades. This place was full of insane Mad Science beforehand! I bet it's pretty damn close to Post-Scarcity for some things (Food. Definitely Food.) at this point! The Milk...
We do still need updates on Ruby, Amy and her minions (Family counts in that regard too!) and Frank Fontaine, still. Oh, Big Ben too I guess, since I'd bet he's the one that took out Fontaine in the end at this point.
Really happy about the Ryan family actually being a thing. Sarah must be their best friend at this point, huh?
It's been about 20 years, so we're either going to the next jump or doing an ungodly long timeskip history recap next. Since the surface world seems to be imploding currently. When you take the indentured servitude tier social classes out of the picture, countries tend to die really fast, huh? Must really suck that like what? 95% of the world genius'/supergenius' are all in Rapture, huh? Bet the ocean is god damn PRISTINE in that entire section too! Environmentally friendly? NAY! ENVIRONMENTALLY BENEFICIAL! Quality is the name of the game! Place is basically the freaking Garden of Eden at this point.
That Goo is terrifying though. At least it doesn't eat people... actively. I'm fairly certain touching it is certain death though, since it's stupidly close to absolute zero because heat=energy.
Did Sarah marry Elizabeth? I assume there's some very confusing mating rituals when you involve a... 17 million strong hive-mind.
Man! Look at Ben! He got the twins! They may have been a package deal, but the dude is living the dream! The Simmy/Sammy Expy's that Adam's Wives somehow foisted onto him across multiple planes of reality and multiverses, somehow became his granddaughters/nieces? What is Adam's relationship with Sarah? Father-type? Brother? Uncle? God? Hero? A mix of all of the above? I'm curious.
This is a...Waterpunk(wtf?) underwater city that has had Adam's undivided architect mode and Research focused on it for at minimum, 2 decades. This place was full of insane Mad Science beforehand! I bet it's pretty damn close to Post-Scarcity for some things (Food. Definitely Food.) at this point! The Milk...
We do still need updates on Ruby, Amy and her minions (Family counts in that regard too!) and Frank Fontaine, still. Oh, Big Ben too I guess, since I'd bet he's the one that took out Fontaine in the end at this point.
At least she's acute one! (I think you meant Angel though.)
- Location
- USA
Why didn't you just import fresh non horrible chickens from the suface?
Isnt my realname
This isn't my real name.
- Location
- Not Here
But that would… make sense!
- Status