Adam mentally wandered while ensuring Jenova got a steady supply of energy serum.
Sarah huffed as the massive flat mountain top now had a thick layer of copper. "This should do it!"
He couldn't really do anything else, her recovery was going well but he couldn't risk ignoring the situation. <<Mhmm.>>
She tapped the cold surface. "Stainless steel is normally used for outside projects according to the material database, but copper is much better for very long term structures. Expensive though."
Adam sent in another dose of health recovery serum… The chamber flashed, but not as brightly as she did with the energy serum. So uh… That was good? Probably? <<Mhmm.>>
Sarah carefully set up the center so that the snow wouldn't build up and get in the way. Which was sort of important, as the Magic Generator was simple enough to set up… But they had made some major modifications.
Essentially it was a series of half orb domes, each one enclosed by the next with a sealed outer shell coating it all. All the dividing walls were filled with thin tunnels and tubes, so that the liquid mako filling the things could better saturate the material and make 'potential' choices, which should provide minor amounts of structural reinforcement and theoretically boost magic retention over the entire construct.
The outer dome would have a seamless surface, while each contained dome within would have a very thin gap with tiny bulges preventing the surfaces from pressing against each other and potentially restricting the flow of liquid mako in the space between.
From the outermost layer, there was a small gap in the bottom of one dome and the tip of the next, so that supplied mako would have to encircle each structure as it flowed from the center outwards.
And in the very center?
A small chamber that Sarah could teleport into (at least initially) and the artificial mako spring.
The entire structure would eventually fill up with mako vapor and liquid magic of course. And then hopefully this design would force all that material to convert to liquid and Materia sand, and eventually become Materia sand and Materia shards… And in the end? A solid mass of Materia filling the entire dome.
Maybe there was a form of magic beyond crystals? If so, 'Research' would find out eventually.
The NICE thing about working with mako in general was how unintuitively it interacted with physics. As the pathways get blocked up with solidified Materia, it becomes EASIER for the other forms of mako to pass through it. Instead of doing the logical thing and blocking off pathways and creating gaps and holes in the structure.
Sarah carefully set off the sudo commands and watched the layers of copper being constructed, like an ice structure melting away but in reverse. "Even with me having to [[Harvest]] the snow as we go, it should only take about an hour or so for this to finish. Then we can try connecting the electric conversion unit to the side closest to the power cables heading down the mountain."
Adam mentally wandered, most of his automation ensuring Sarah was able to work efficiently while the rest kept Jenova supplied with more (yummy?) energy serum. At least, the glow SEEMED to be calling the stuff yummy, but that might just be a failed translation attempt by 'Research' as it studied his current Warehouse guest for health changes. <<That's nice.>>
She frowned at the air. "Alright, what's going on Adam?"
He was still distracted. <<You know that song, 'Ironic' by Alanis Morisseette?>>
Sarah blinked. "No? Or maybe I do, but I can't remember it and I haven't listened to any music while in Wutai or when we visited Midgar city."
Adam hated that song. <<Stupid thing pissed me off for the LONGEST time. Basically, it forced me to learn what irony was so I could attempt to understand the lyrics.>>
She shifted. "Ah. Alright?"
He frowned. <<Irony is, by definition, using words and conveying a meaning that is opposite of what you actually said. And there are three types: Verbal, Situational, and Dramatic Irony.>>
Sarah sighed and sat on a nearby ledge. "Go on."
Adam hummed. <<Verbal Irony is most common and means something different than what you literally say. An example? 'I will never eat this again!' It literally means you won't ever have it, but you MEANT for it to mean that you very much didn't enjoy eating it. Lots of sarcasm also falls into this category, by the way.>>
Ah huh. "Sure."
He adjusted the flow rates and kept his attention solid. <<Situational Irony is when the expected or intended action fails to occur, and instead the exact OPPOSITE happens. Like a man studying to be a Doctor tries too hard and becomes sick, or someone sets up traps to protect himself and then falls into it. TV shows use this a lot, and several comedy tropes rely on it.>>
Sarah sighed. "Not that I've seen any television shows here, but alright."
Ah. Good point. Oh well. <<Dramatic Irony is when a character or person doesn't know something that a theoretical audience or reader or watcher DOES. I think you fall into this category accidentally since I know a lot of stuff you CAN'T know until later because of that drawback decision, but at least I can actively change stuff to keep you safe and prevent you doing stuff you would regret later unlike the audience in my theoretical situation.>>
She slumped. "Adam, where are you going with this? What does this have to do with that song?"
He frowned. <<The song has some situational irony here and there, but most of the examples given by the lyrics are just unfortunate situations. An important day gets rained on, for example. Which means most of the song, which asks 'Isn't it Ironic', isn't ironic. Which means the entire song that literally talked about Irony and wastes time describing it... ISN'T DOING SO! Thus the song itself IS IRONIC because it does something other than it actually claims to do, which means the non ironic song called Ironic IS IRONIC!>>
Sarah shrugged. "And?"
Adam snarled. <<So I hate it! The damned thing forced me to NOT use the words ironic or mention irony for literal years because I so easily mess up the definition or I'm worried I'll use it wrong. And I think culturally that song messed up the world because now that a false definition was added to the background, the definition of irony might slowly be changing!>>
She sighed. "And? Why do you care about ANY of this!?"
He growled! <<It's been stuck in my head since I've started working here! Because the stupid reactor to make money has costed money to bribe people with money to bribe other people with money to allow the reactor to be built to make money and NO MONEY WAS MADE! And since I have to focus on keeping our new friend alive as she heals and ensuring you don't accidentally make a bomb or something while building, that song has been looping in my mind this entire time!>>
Sarah winced. "Ah. Anything I can do to help?"
No idea. <<Not really.>>
She hummed. "Well, we can always ask someone else." <Hey Aerith?>
{Snuggles}
=Yes big sis?=
<What do you do if you have a song stuck in your head?>
=Huh. I guess try singing a different song?=
{Amusement.
E̯͖̻̹̰͙̣n͕̳jo̮̣̻y̙͍̰̰m͔̯̳̠e͓̦̼̼̱̲̗n̜̦̺͓̱̮̘t͚̫̦͍͇̤!͇}
<<OH you BITCH!>>
=LANGUAGE! I'm gonna tell mom and you gotta put a coin in the jar!=
<What the HECK!?>
{Smug.}
<Why am I seeing hand puppets!?>
=Uh. I don't recognize it, but it has a fun melody!=
<<My vengeance will be sudden and unexpected.>>
{Double smug!}
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah hummed along with the tune, which was a bit catchy and mildly annoyed Adam so a win for everyone basically, as she examined the final layers of bright copper solidifying. "Hmm mm mm, bah de badda dee dah…"
What should be added to the surface? Leaving the metal exposed was just asking Shinra to poke it. "Hey, Adam? Since metal grows near mako springs, can we coat this shell with some seed ore to act like more armor and a protective coating?"
<{Grumpy pout.}>
She grinned. "Some people! STARTED singing it, not…"
A SNARL! <<I WILL swap out your vanilla ice cream with cold mashed potatoes! Don't you try me, woman!>>
Heh. "Then help me get stuff done so we can finish this. What metal ores would be best to set up on the surface of this thing?"
Adam paused, and seemingly checked some data. <<For minerals, you could add Jadeite, Red Diamonds, Serendibite, Blue Garnet, and Rubies. And with metals? Rhodium, Platinum, Gold, Ruthenium, and Iridium.>>
Sarah looked up the materials. "Ruthenium is carcinogenic, and Iridium isotope 192 is radioactive... And the rest would have people mining this place in minutes. Adam, I don't want to make MORE people try to hack into a magical nuclear reactor."
He sighed. <<No, no, you got a point. I picked both based on how valuable they were on one of the Earths I visited and on data stolen from Shinra's databases, it's my fault.>>
A pause. <<Ah, try this instead: Copper, Iron, Cobalt, Zinc, Potash and Lithium.>>
Sarah checked. "Potash for fertilizer, zinc for corrosion resistance in alloys, lithium also for alloys and its light weight, cobalt... Huh. Is being magnetic going to mess with the magic generator?"
Negation. <<Nah, it'll be fine. This thing we designed has layers of itself and alternating mako flows before it even interacts with the outer shell, it won't bother the center stuff.>>
She shrugged. Whatever. "Iron and copper seem obvious enough."
Adam agreed. <<Shinra makes tons of it, literally, so they won't bother setting up an expensive mining station all the way out here for that stuff. Oh, they may still try to drill through it to find out what happened here, but at least they won't spend mountains of gil setting up some sort of excavation station or something.>>
Sarah moved to the cablings and then focused.
"[[
Harvest.]] Also, [[
Creation.]]"
A reinforced and heavily coated tube of metal formed. It would react to the high ambient magic levels and nearby mako flows by creating imbalances in the electrical potential within the many capacitors and connections, Sarah exploiting this difference to generate electricity.
The complex part was the bulge near the connection point. Sarah opened the control box while Adam highlighted the mechanical levers. <<Dial A to setting 8, Dial B to setting 3, and Dial C to setting 4. And hit the countdown timer at the end.>>
She made the changes and hit the button before closing the control box and coating everything in a protective layer of lead and copper. "Right, when the countdown ends it will no longer have any more 'outages' and that should be close enough to Shinra's expected power spikes and pulses."
Adam sighed. <<Too bad I'm so distracted, we can't risk an active connection to this system because some asshole, PROBABLY Hojo, would try to reverse engineer it and breed us or pump drugs in or something stupid.>>
Sarah hummed. "Can we just kill him?"
He grinned. <<Might not have to, he's being held in detention due to a small fraction of what he's been up to with other Shinra employees. Also maybe because I decoded a lot of secret files and unlocked a LOT of databases moments before the inspectors began reviewing that department's computers.>>
She innocently smiled. "That poor man. Did you plant anything good in there?"
Adam sighed. <<Sadly, I didn't have to. Guy's literally a psycho, it's his defining characteristic really. Point is, we can wait to kill him once he exposes more plans and resources trying to escape the consequences of his actions. I don't want to rush this, the asshole feels like the kind of douche that would set up a bunch of self destruction timers and multiple contingency revenge plan scenarios.>>
Sarah nodded as she watched metallic seed material begin coating the massive dome of copper, one that seemed much smaller since SO MUCH of the mountain top had been harvested. Doo ba dee doo. "...and they'll continue singing it forever…"
A mental slap! <<No! Bad Sarah!>>
Heh.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Tifa took the news well. Mostly. "So it's just punching better."
Cloud's mom sighed. "Yes dear. Though Mr. Zangan IS a very famous martial artist."
She glared suspiciously. "What kind of artist doesn't paint?"
Cloud gently gripped her shoulder. "Tifa, some artists carve stuff. Like wood! Or punch stones to make statues! Or all kinds of stuff. It's not just paint."
Her eyes lit up! "I could punch statues!?"
Ms. Strife groaned. "MARTIAL. Artist. It means a person dedicated to studying the art of combat, either to achieve self mastery of his own body or to become more powerful physically."
Cloud blinked. "I thought if you self mastered too much you went blind?"
She pointed at him. "Shush." Turning back to Tifa, she hugged the girl. "You can learn from Mr. Zangan or not, either way you will be staying here with Cloud for as long as you need to."
Cloud nodded! "It's like a sleepover but better because you have your stuff here so you don't have to walk all over the next day to get stuff."
There was a knock on the door, making the kids perk up. Claudia stood as well. "That should be him, I let him know you were safe last night after you went to bed. I hope he will stay for breakfast."
The door opened to an incredibly muscular old man.
Who was posing, standing tall and with pride! "Good morning! I'm Zangan. I travel around the world teaching children martial arts!"
Cloud's mom paused with an awkward smile. "Yes, I understand Mr. Zangan. Your people told me last night."
The man's smile seemed to sparkle. "And again, thank you young lady! I had been punching monsters in a growing radius from town for over four hours before you informed my follower of the child's safety, and I would have been horrified if I had failed to help the girl in time!"
Cloud liked him! "Are you the guy who self masters all the time?"
He shook his head. "Only in moderation! Do that too much and you could go blind!"
Tifa ignored her friend's mom's reaction as she bounced forward! "Can you teach me how to punch rocks to make statues!?"
A massive laugh! "Of COURSE! Punching rocks without shattering the entire mountain is a good control training technique!"
Her eyes sparkled and she ran over, dragging Cloud forward. "I'm bringing my partner, he's going to learn magic to help me clean after fights cause fights get dirty!"
Zangan held up a muscled fist! "Training with your friends is always a grand idea! I have a whole company of youthful talents that have followed the pathway to true martial arts!"
He paused.
Looked backward.
And seemed slightly embarrassed. "I might have left them behind while punching monsters. They tend to take time trying to harvest the remains and gather the splatters left over, but they try hard!"
Tifa blinked. "How many people does that take?"
He held up a fist! "I have 128 students across the globe! But… Many have obligations. Only a few have time to travel with me, and the support staff and protection detail of course."
The children blinked. "Protection detail?"
He waved it off. "Some of my people claim I go a bit overboard when in combat and decided to make sure I don't accidentally destroy nearby villages or towns by accident. They care, but they worry a bit too much! I haven't destroyed a house accidentally in weeks!"
Tifa nodded. "I sometimes break the wooden training weapons because they are only wood and crappy metal, nothing useful like my fists."
Cloud sighed. "At least you can train with people, no one will let me even use a practice weapon that is over 20 pounds, much less my dream weapon!"
Claudia sighed, ruffling his hair. "Son, those drawings would end up weighing over 100 pounds. It would hurt you."
He didn't pout. "Tifa helped me pick lighter stuff! At most it would be like… 80 pounds, tops! And how am I gonna get better if I don't practice!?"
Zangan laughed boisterously! "Ah, I remember when my teacher would argue that I shouldn't practice with my weighted gauntlets! But I showed him!"
Cloud grinned! "Really!?"
He nodded. "Broke both my arms and took MONTHS to recover! Also, I missed my intended target and nearly crushed my foot! Good times!"
Clauda frowned. "Yeah, no. Sorry Cloud baby, no practice weapons over 5 pounds at MOST until you are older."
Imagining both arms snapped, he winced. "Alright mom. But one day I WILL have the biggest sword ever!"
Tifa grinned! "And I'm gonna become a punching artist! And punch statues!"
Zangan punched the air! "And I am going to find my support staff, because I might have left them surrounded by corpses last night and I'm likely to get shouted at this morning!"
Cloud's mom paused. "Oh. Uh. Would you like some breakfast before you go at least?"
His face beamed! "I would be HONORED to break our fasts together! Fighting hunger is but a single part of defeating your boundaries!"
Tifa waved in the air! "Woo! Statues!"
Cloud hesitantly raised an arm? "Woo?"
Claudia sighed. "Yes, yes. Woo. Now everyone has to wash up, and I'll go make sure the food is ready."
"""Yes mom/Cloud's mom/Ms. Strife!"""
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah stared at the transformer facility. "Why did I expect this place to suck LESS than the deadly reactor everyone messed with?"
Adam hummed. <<Meh, it wastes power like a sieve but at least it mostly works.>>
She pointed at the pathetic building! "We made better stuff than this by accident!"
He sighed. <<If we try to make the world a better built place it will never stop. Sure we could boost efficiency and durability and blah blah blah, but compared to normal Shinra building practices this mess is fine.>>
Damn what a low bar to aim for. "Fine. Nothing is burning out and the schematics…" Were offensive and mostly changed by people trying to keep the mess working. "...Are fine."
Adam grinned. <<Atta girl. Learning NOT to fix everything is hard! I'm… Really not good at it either, honestly. But I've been told to try and focus on the BIG issues.>>
She nodded. "The constantly exploding nuclear reactor that was modified to torture an invading goddess and infect the planet with her existence."
He chuckled. <<That too, I guess. I mostly meant making sure we don't have to come BACK here after stealing the children. This place sucks.>>
Sarah frowned. "Yeah, I guess. And at least now the town won't have constant blackouts and possibly vaporize when the reactor gives up pretending to almost work."
Adam agreed. <<Plus if you tried to do something big like steal the town, Elder Godo would likely make you sit in more meetings as punishment."
Yeah, no. Not if she could avoid it. "Welp, power set up. Head back to pick up Cloud?"
Her movement paused even as Adam sent a mental shrug as she saw a group of muscled people… mopping? "What the heck?"
Adam blinked. <<Huh. Why am I getting 'fashion passion' vibes from these people?>>
Sarah hesitated. "I'm sorry?"
He sent a mental image of the 'famous Drag-Queen King of Fashion.' <<Mr. King knew how to be flex-able, and I feel like these people are similar soul siblings.>>
She uh. Set that mental image aside. What an unique individual. "What are they doing though?"
He showed scans. <<Cleaning a one sided splatterfest. Don't forget, being silly or fabulous doesn't mean you can't smack a bitch into blood mist.>>
Sarah hummed. "Well, we might as well say hi I guess. Let's just ask them what happened!"
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Greg twisted. "Youse got to get the wet chunks but tries to avoid the normal dirt. That stuff is heavies and youse got to carries it back fors processing."
His understudy nodded. "I understand perfectly sir!"
Poor guy had noodle arms and paper levels of power, but he had heart damn it! "Goods jobs Reggie! Buts uh. Youse get tireds, you rest right?"
Reginauld gave a slight smile. "Of course, sir!"
And the poor guy uh... Kept struggling to move the mop.
Damn he needed bulking up.
They both turned at a cough. "Excuse me?"
Greg blinked at an angel with silver eyes and a flumphy blue fluffy poof outfit. "Yes?"
Her white scarf covered her mouth, but her eyes were cheerful enough. "Can I ask what you are doing?"
He nodded. "We'se be makings sure Master Zangan's battle bees cleaned. It has… Des dirts… Reggie, youse helps please."
His understudy gave a cheerful nod. "Of course, sir. Young madam, I am Reginauld Burbank Esquire Charles Johnson Jr, the understudy of my friend and teacher Mr. Gregarious Smith, who is part of the supporting staff helping Mr. Zangan with after combat care."
Sarah blinked. "Huh. Is that needed?"
The rail thin man leaned slightly out of breath. "Of course young madam! Without collection of the remains, many long term effects could damage the local terrain and even gather a small crowd or horde of monsters! As supporting staff, we determine if any mortal remains of Master Zangan's unfortunate foes could be collected to defray local costs while also ensuring proper cleansing of battle locations and, when not possible otherwise, the closure of areas too damaged for non combatants to visit or travel through."
Greg nodded. "Master Zangan punched a mountain ans it booms."
Reginauld gave a gentle gesture. "Indeed, there have been incidents where a temporary restriction of local travel would allow nature herself to correct the structural instability of the terrain, which is always preferable when possible for cost and time allocation reasons."
Sarah hummed. "I see. Why was he fighting out here in the first place? He covered quite an area."
They both slumped.
Greg sighed. "Master Zangan's friend died, and a little girls rans off… He's with papers..."
He waved at Reginauld who nodded. "While the Master was handling funeral arrangements, legal documentation, and investigating potential adoption processes the girl left with her friends but they returned without her. As the children refused to inform him where she may be, he proceeded to search the nearby region as quickly as possible and was… Not entirely as cautious and careful during combat as he normally is."
Greg nodded. "Onlys reasons trees still there cause blasting thems away coulds hurts de girl."
His thin friend nodded, exhausted from standing for so long. "Indubitably."
Sarah grinned! "Ah, so Master Zangan was trying to find little Tifa? Maybe I won't have to steal the kids away, if there is a good adult involved at least."
Suddenly both men were coldly staring at her with focus. "Steal kids?"
She nodded. "I found a little girl targeted by Shinra for experimentation and stole her and her mom away before they got caught. If Tifa was ignored when running depressed and scared into the wilderness I would have probably killed a few people and taken her away to somewhere better."
Strangely that had them both relax.
Greg nodded. "Shinra's bads, deys hurts me moms while I was not borns and it hurts me toos." She got better, mostly, but it still hurt him to see her wince when he tried to talk. Even if she still gave great hugs, he didn't want her to hurt like that.
Reginauld nodded. "Many of the children that Master Zangan ended up teaching are orphans from the many Shinra conflicts over the years, most of us are very intolerant of supporting that particular organization as a whole."
She nodded. "Fair enough. Where can I find him? I'm not letting him try and take care of a little girl unless I can make sure he is the kind of person her passed mother would approve of."
Greg shrugged. "Hes off at some Strifes place, we bees cleanings till hes needs us."
The women smiled! "Oh! That will save me lots of time!"
And she was gone. Huh.
Reginauld blinked. "That young lady was easily one of the top fifty oddest people I've met this month."
Greg absently reached over and stopped his understudy from falling over. "Youse takes break, I mops a bits."
And this was AFTER the posh dude worked out for a year. Poor guy.
