- Location
- United States
Clones are a given. Unless we go full grimdark and the companions are fake but the Jumpers mind is manipulated into thinking that spot of air is actually a person.
Broken Adventure
- Thread starter theaceoffire
- Start date
- Crossover
- Status
I'm hoping it is something along the lines of "Makes an Avatar of the Jumper and brainwashes them to think they are the Companion" level of effed up, and not something like "actually vivisected the Companion at the point of departure, ground them up into a soul slurry, then reconstituted it into a new being with the memories at the other end. Repeat at the end of each Jump" sort of effed up.
That last part was my thought too, but then the originals on whatever new universe has to be manipulated too about that spot of air.. and the spot of air has to be able to interact with reality. (Attacking for example) clones would probaly be easier
Eh, everything else seemed interesting but randomly applying grimderp to the Jumpchain companion section in general just seems kind of off to me.
There doesn't seem to be a real point to it and it doesn't really contribute anything other than a brief moment of shock/squick factor as the reader processes Adam's discovery, just drama for the sake of drama with no actual reason for it beyond possibly poking others who play/use Jumpchains.
There doesn't seem to be a real point to it and it doesn't really contribute anything other than a brief moment of shock/squick factor as the reader processes Adam's discovery, just drama for the sake of drama with no actual reason for it beyond possibly poking others who play/use Jumpchains.
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Oh it could be that our dear author is just including more worldbuilding and depth to the world ^^
Vhalidictes
(Verified Demon)
- Location
- Las Vegas
Clearly, the way to the overpowered stressed general's heart is through the stomach.
Poor Rinoa is her own worst enemy; before she arrived everything was going smoothly...
Poor Rinoa is her own worst enemy; before she arrived everything was going smoothly...
It's not really worldbuilding though (at least to me) due to the nature of Jumpchains, it's more randomly injecting grimderp into the framework of an existing system than adding stuff that improves the narrative/effects the setting.
It sounds more like something thats there for the sake of being there rather than anything necessary for the world to function or something that improves general understanding of the fics mechanics if that makes sense.
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BobtjeNORMALguy
Color From Beyond
- Location
- Lost in time and space
Adding drama for literally no reason doesn't add depth it does the exact opposite. Just ask Ultimate Marvel how much *realism* and *grit*did for their storyline..
Anyway I'm curious on how much of the warehouse's systems was originally there and how much was changed just to screw with Sarah.
True, but i will also go with "yet" we dont know where its going yet, it could be deep worldbuilding that will open up new mechanics. Or it could be that the author caught a case of the grimderp. guess we will find out when it comes up ^^
Harry Potter CYOA executable site
HP more comprehensive and complex listing
i'd love to see how you'd make these work... *wink wink*
HP more comprehensive and complex listing
i'd love to see how you'd make these work... *wink wink*
On that note:
That first bit was kind of my first thought as well. Where someone tried to create a space where a Jumper could bring their friends along, but due to the Warehouse literally being the Jumper's soul in this interpretation of things, that really doesn't work all that well. But pre-planning documentation was repurposed, possibly even one ROB using it to hide whats really going on when he sells the system to others.
So it ends up being faked. Copy the companion, convert to avatar, and it looks identical to what is claimed, without someone going into further details.
Which makes me wonder just what happens when a Jumper finishes, and ascends. Do they find out then? Do they continue obliviously, with having sections of their mind completely thinking they're someone else? It certainly seems to be something that would cause issues at that point. Maybe it even causes the Jumper to end up destabilizing upon ascension, a sort of poison pill to destroy 'competition'. Heck, it could even be the original intent was just a record of their friends, not someone who could travel along and join jumps. Let a Jumper bring willing people that they meet, and 'recreate' them in a world that they end up creating on ascension. For in the case they can't bring them over once they finish by looking back at the previous jumps and offering a ride out, using the weird time mechanics between jumps.
Heck, some of this even ties into how Sarah is leaving behind copies of herself. I think there might even be a clue as to what is going on there.
Of course, it might also be Sarah's previous 'benefactor' ripped out the companion system, put in his own creation, either in an attempt to create a 'cheaper' version, or to just be a dick and put in the reveal that 'those friends you thought you brought with you? They're actually you! They got left behind and now they are all actually dead!'
Further along those lines, I wonder if Adam is going to end up able to fix the jumps that he ends up messing up with his alterations as well. Given that there's probably some other nasty implications he'll find in his alterations.
So it ends up being faked. Copy the companion, convert to avatar, and it looks identical to what is claimed, without someone going into further details.
Which makes me wonder just what happens when a Jumper finishes, and ascends. Do they find out then? Do they continue obliviously, with having sections of their mind completely thinking they're someone else? It certainly seems to be something that would cause issues at that point. Maybe it even causes the Jumper to end up destabilizing upon ascension, a sort of poison pill to destroy 'competition'. Heck, it could even be the original intent was just a record of their friends, not someone who could travel along and join jumps. Let a Jumper bring willing people that they meet, and 'recreate' them in a world that they end up creating on ascension. For in the case they can't bring them over once they finish by looking back at the previous jumps and offering a ride out, using the weird time mechanics between jumps.
Heck, some of this even ties into how Sarah is leaving behind copies of herself. I think there might even be a clue as to what is going on there.
Of course, it might also be Sarah's previous 'benefactor' ripped out the companion system, put in his own creation, either in an attempt to create a 'cheaper' version, or to just be a dick and put in the reveal that 'those friends you thought you brought with you? They're actually you! They got left behind and now they are all actually dead!'
Further along those lines, I wonder if Adam is going to end up able to fix the jumps that he ends up messing up with his alterations as well. Given that there's probably some other nasty implications he'll find in his alterations.
It's certainly a different take on how jumpchains work. Makes me wonder if a more traditional version of it is hanging around. Adam did only get one of them, after all. And presumably there'd be other methods. I mean, there's already pre-existing different versions of the warehouse. Along with different setups for Jumpchains, different rulesets. Heck, I could totally see some of them in this version of things being Adam sneaking in and just giving stuff away because he could. There's a 'cheater' pseudo-jump that more or less gives extra points that would work as Adam, after having figured out how to create points much cheaper than other ROBs ended up, deciding to sneak in some extra benefits to those with jerk ROBs in charge of their jumps. Or just pretty much anyone.
- Location
- Cambridge MA
I've always been a bit confused by the idea of taking companions being impossible. For people that don't depend on their souls or psionic waveforms or whatever, you should be able to just digitize them and copy them into nonvolatile storage and print them new bodies at the other end. And with the right scanning capabilities you should be able to digitize psionic waveforms and probably souls too. I mean, objective identity doesn't exist and can't even in principle, and creating continuity of consciousness shouldn't be that hard.
The original ROB was a giant flaming sphere of dicks that used complicated fuckery to be fucking each other even as they formed a chain-dildo ball (basically, a ball of dildos crossed with chainsaws), and from everything about said ROB and the harvest? Said Grimderp would be in character and something Adam is trying to fix.
. . . . Yeah~ But that is what Vilegrave was talking about. Just randomly throwing in new "damages" to the warehouse in order to justify new restrictions or coercion of the Main Character. However, technically, it wouldn't just be throwing in new "causes" to create new "effects," even if it would appear as though it was just being added to promote story drama.
And considering their first few jumps were all about escaping the girm dark bullshit Sarah was originally stranded in by the ROB?
They'd never pick a grimdark jump on purpose. Something like Warhammer popping up would be an instant hard pass.
A generic Harem Protagonist Isekai Anime however seems to be pretty on brand at this point. I can picture them deliberately picking one of those.
Actually speaking of Anime's, something like To Aru would be a fantastic choice in terms of picking up powers. The setting is Magical, Technological, and Conceptual.
The Magical Index half of the series is what it says on the tin, magic. Plus perhaps Faith, from what I remember it's unclear if the Church's magic users had a separate power source. I think they were just magicians, since they belonged to the Church of Necessary Evil. The name at least would seem to imply a lack of divine connection.
The Railgun half though, Academy City is almost by accident very high tech, but more importantly while their approach to super powers (espers) is scientific, the actual source of their power there is literal reality warping. An Esper's personal reality leaking into the 'real' world.
They'd never pick a grimdark jump on purpose. Something like Warhammer popping up would be an instant hard pass.
A generic Harem Protagonist Isekai Anime however seems to be pretty on brand at this point. I can picture them deliberately picking one of those.
Actually speaking of Anime's, something like To Aru would be a fantastic choice in terms of picking up powers. The setting is Magical, Technological, and Conceptual.
The Magical Index half of the series is what it says on the tin, magic. Plus perhaps Faith, from what I remember it's unclear if the Church's magic users had a separate power source. I think they were just magicians, since they belonged to the Church of Necessary Evil. The name at least would seem to imply a lack of divine connection.
The Railgun half though, Academy City is almost by accident very high tech, but more importantly while their approach to super powers (espers) is scientific, the actual source of their power there is literal reality warping. An Esper's personal reality leaking into the 'real' world.
Isn't one of the things that Adam has been struggling with is finding 'okay, I need to find out what exactly got damaged thanks to the screwed up packing and unpacking modules'? And him trying to work around things as they are and exploring and mapping out the damages and repairs, though that takes time and certain things interrupt said study and repair?
I mean, Shiva is a good example of something like this as it stands.
That kind of diagnosis is still going on, but its not likely to break new things.
The current jump is 'interesting' because he hit a time travel scenario without the temporal defenses up to spec. But that was expected, as soon as he realized what was going on they got put at the top of the 'fix it now' list.
I think the warehouse is pretty stable at this point, its just not what it is supposed to be anymore. I don't think they're going to have problems with the warehouse blowing up in their faces anymore, just more 'oh boy, shoulda fixed that sooner' moments.
Yup. Same time, its not like we did not already know the Companion thing was disabled/not active/probably one of those damaged bits that got cannibalized to fix other more immediate problems. And then just one jump back there was the issue with Shiva and how THAT all worked out and the issues that they had at first. So... we already know things are wonky on the companion part of the system and that Adam has not gotten around to that part yet (though there are work arounds!).
So... less reveling that Adam just broke it and more 'okay, do I need to tell Sarah the details, because seriously, her kidnapper was a 'political correctness officer' and I can just say that it needs some rebuilding and tweaking, maybe something similar to the Avatar and memory sharing when going to new jumps?' Or just needing to fix and build that up based on what he knows from past experience.
Alright, this is bugging me. That weapon looks wrong. It's not quite right for any of the standard ww2 Russian issue. Exactly what the hell is it?
Not entirely sure. Just grabbed a pic of a Russian Political Commissar from google.
Arc 3: Found it! Now I just pull the lever, right?
- Location
- Here
There. Boss was a bit tipsy, her dad was FULL on drunk, swap out the dangerous food and drinks for delicious but mortal stuff and… "Come on Ellone, let's get some more appetizers, we're running a bit low."
Sarah blinked as her favorite foodie slumped towards the door slightly. Murmuring.
Uh. At some point, Ellone had clearly gotten some of the good stuff too. Oops.
Right, close enough! "Upsy daisy!"
Lifting the darling into her arms, she grinned at a confused Rinoa. "Right! We'll be back really soon, but just in case why not spend some time talking with your Dad. Alright?Cool?Kay,Bye!"
Mumbled protests? WHAT mumbling protests? Nah, her Boss was going to LOVE some quality family time. "Come on Ellone, let's get you somewhere to sleep this off."
At least spell enhanced booze didn't cause worse hangovers. And dropping a [[Cure]] on the girl should actually help her ignore dehydration too, aka 'Hangovers'. Such a cheating ability.
Sarah waved off the security at the door before letting the room behind her seal for a few minutes. Maybe a couple of hours, tops!
Sweeping away towards headquarters, she mentally made some notes.
First, safely put Ellone to snoozeville. Make sure team Squall and the rest know about it and keep her safe.
Second, quickly step over to the moon and figure this 'Some People' business that involved messing with HER Warehouse. That shit aint going to fly.
Hips swaying, she ignored the distracted people on her way to getting shit done!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The room was quiet as the two silently munched on snacks.
Eventually, she murmured. "I know you can handle more than that."
Dad wearily opened one red eye. "You'd be right… Most of the time." His face was ruddy red and eyes bloodshot. "This batch has a kick though. Not a higher alcohol content, just… Who even looks at wine and suggests fusing it with magic!?"
Rinoa snorted. "I wanted some pocket change and she designed customizable self sustaining [[Draw]] points as an option. Took a whole train ride to talk her down from that."
Her Dad blinked… And took a deep swallow from his glass. "That… That would have stirred things."
No shit. "You… You doing alright, Dad?"
The man snorted. "Without you wandering about smashing the status quo and causing problems? Job's practically boring now! I still don't know how you convinced that bus driver and a whole load of passengers to drag race against each other."
Oh yeah, Jim and Carl… Those boys had been in some BIG trouble after that one. "Sometime's things spiral out of control a bit."
He snorted… And if showing emotions weren't enough of a sign that her Dad had drunk FAR too much, his smile sealed the deal. "My people need a bit of chaos now and then. Julia was madness and beauty and... " His tears were treated as sweat. "We all need a bit of craziness, now and then. Good for the Soul."
She gripped her glass hard.
Yeah, Dad was soused. He never talked about mom without breaking inside.
One of the most powerful men in Galbadia sipped his drink again. "Your girl makes good food. And… I bet she can sing. Julia sang the heart right out of… Singing is important. Don't…. Don't let someone like that go."
She held back a sniffle. "Yeah, my girls are good people." Sarah couldn't sing for crap, but her husky whispers were a serenade of their own.
Dad huffed. "Right, those plans of yours. What are you on now, Holiday plan 7?"
Oh god, those old things? "Nah, working on Happy Harem Holiday plan 12 Beta 4 Gamma." Maybe Delta, but it depended on how Squall and the boy trying to be his 'rival' worked out after some good mud wrestling.
His eyes blurred as he frowned. "Beta 4? Is that the one with hot aliens?"
Pshaw! "No, that was Beta 2. And I'm stuck with Beta 4 because I'm not sure if Sarah is just a Sorceress or if she is some sort of hive goddess. Can't do several things now that I know Sorceress Adel is a bitch and Big Sis Edea has a nasty case of monogamy going on."
Seriously girl, having a husband is fine. Bring him along for the ride! Love is awesome shit.
Like, Cid didn't do anything for her motor specifically, but she didn't know a lot about this Seifer bloke yet. Maybe yes, maybe no? Mud wrestling sorts all things out eventually.
Her dad shrugged. "I barely remember the presentation you gave me at the time, the Hescal family kept trying to get you into marriage contracts back then and the fucking Alstras had to be stepped on."
Her mind blinked. "Huh." Hadn't she been like fourteen or something? "I don't remember the Alstras family though."
Eyes like blood demons flickered. "NO one remembers the Alstras. Not after threatening my little one. Not Julia's girl."
Oh.
The room was a bit quiet as they sipped and nibbled on miracles.
In the end, sappiness overcame being 'adult', and Rinoa whispered. "Thanks, Dad."
He didn't look at her. "Protecting family is everything." He glanced outside. "And… I've seen you protecting your new one."
The room filled with distant laughter and arguments and bustle and life.
His eyes saw impossible things from long ago. A larger family they could have had, the many little ones he once desired to wrap in his arms. But his mind never lost track of the one gift left by love. "I… I'm proud of you, girl."
Her eyes saw a broken man holding what he could with fractured arms. "Thanks, Dad."
In the end, she never actually got 'The Look', but this felt important enough to treasure anyway.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah grinned! "Right, I'm on the side of the moon furthest away from the planet, everything close by is dead, risk to other people is near zero! Let's do this!"
'Research', again, suggested she should wait. "Nope."
It wouldn't tell her WHY, no data suggested anything one way or the other, and now that she had manually looked around in her head she found a whole area of the Warehouse she couldn't access and a lever inside.
A lever that said "Activate Temporal Defenses Total Upgrade? You probably shouldn't."
No, there was no sign and it had no documentation. The lever had a hidden speaker, and Adam's voice was very recognizable as the thing gave numerous warnings when she tried to pull this stupid handle.
'It is likely that side effects may occur', 'Have you managed to [[Scan]] all needed GFs and spells', 'Do you really have to do this now?', 'Oh come on, I did not say never, but maybe wait a bit?' and so on and so forth.
By this point she only PAUSED in her testing because the most RECENT warning from the stupid thing was 'Do Not Activate Near Others' and 'Will Only Unlock Here.'
Now, was Sarah aware that this was probably a bad idea?
Yep.
Was this a bit too whimsical a risk to take after all these warnings?
Probably.
But Sarah was being lied to. Something was being hidden. Something important to the Warehouse, her core self, was being blocked away. Restricted.
Something that was actively affecting this Jump, probably for good considering it was keeping Boss safe, but probably wasn't ENOUGH when it came to her girl.
Plus, Adam was a worry wart at the best of times.
The lever seemed to sigh. "Are you SURE you wish to unlock this lever?"
Yep!
And an unseen chain released. Unheard sounds unlocked unknown restrictions.
Visibly, nothing changed.
It was still an empty room in her Warehouse, with a single unmarked lever.
Nearly supernaturally designed to be the most boring uninteresting thing in the least remarkable section of her Warehouse. An unknown interface that had gone without notice all the way up until some version of Shiva that SHE COULDN'T TRACK made a comment.
Her hands were a bit clammy as she gripped the lever. "I'mma gonna do it."
Any time now. "I really will!"
The room was silent.
Judging.
Fuck it. "Let's DO this!"
Sarah {Recursive Last Name} pulled the lever.
A version of her suddenly realized that the Warehouse she was in was a mockup, an advanced structure seamlessly hooked into… Oh.
A multitude of sighs responded. """""Yeah."""" "To be fair, who wouldn't pull a lever!?" "Adam tried, he really did." "At least it wasn't a button?" "Yeah, a big red button would have been smashed instantly." "I guess he DID delay us from activating the defenses for like… An hour?" "Only with our input." "But our input is the best input." "Not important, everyone give her some space."
Shit. "Hey, everyme."
A multitude of hands waved back.
Damn it. "So, what was this?"
The nearest ones shrugged before Sarah moved forward. "You can join up into the 'Time Loop' hive now if you want. Basically, Adam found out that the EXISTING method of 'updating' the Warehouse Avatar's security units and stuff involved deleting us all entirely and building a new Avatar with the improvements."
Oh. "And of course, he wouldn't hurt us."
Nods.
Sigh. "So what happens now?"
Grins came out! "We think it worked this time!" "Yeah, normally one of us who merged with earlier time lines or who split into several people would have chimed in by now." "I became like seven of me once, very confusing." "At least YOUR temporal defenses let you organize memories correctly!" "Yeah, I made out with myself twice before that got fixed!" "Girl, that hasn't slowed you down at ALL since then." "Well, yeah, but at least I now KNOW when I'm being kinky." "Fair enough."
Huh. "Let me…" Where was the… Oh, h̪̪̟̹̩̩̘e͖r̘̬̠e̙ ͡҉̜̱̣̲̪͈ͅw̸̨̧̺͔͇̖̞̹ͅe͏͕̬ ͈͕̰̭͘g͖̹̞͈͎̰̮͖̞͔͈̕͞ò̶͓̝͔͎͍̥͙͚̘͚̼̰̮̩͢͟ͅ!̡̧̛̭̼̤̮̱̞̘͖̘̲̀͢
Much better! "Got it!"
As she synced with the crowds, things began to clear up. "Huh… Yeah, this is a MUCH better updating method."
A few nods. "Yeah, after this Jump it won't be an issue." "We sent Adam relevant data a few attempts ago." "And hey, at least now he will know to look over ALL those 'update' and 'patching' units to fix this shit!" "Sometimes the Warehouse feels like solidified stupidity." "I asked future us about that." "Which future us?" "The one from AFTER the Jumpchain." "SHIT!" "You can't DO that!"
Um. "What did we say? About the issues, I mean."
Even the girls pretending to be responsible Sarahs perked up with interest as the 'guilty' one rolled her eyes at the rest. "You sure you want to know? It's bad."
She ignored the other's weedling and whining and gave a nod.
The other her sighed. "Long story short: The Kidnapper didn't steal chunks of the Warehouse systems when he tried to [[Harvest]] us and run."
Her eyes were grim. "He took EVERYTHING."
Um… What?
She sighed. "All the shit 'officially' part of the real Warehouse system, the Kidnapper ripped away when he ran. All these units we are using now are like… Hacked together junk and trash left over. Basically, our units are consumable tools and the components too closely linked to our identity to be recycled for future use."
D̞̰̦̪̩̣̦a̪t͇̖̗̹̘̖͇a̩̼̻̦̦ was being shared over the new hive network.
Sarah just… Stared.
Future version of herself had eventually met a 'normal' Jumpchain Warehouse Avatar. A 'real' one, one that hadn't been subjected to the Kidnapper or Adam's frantic repair efforts.
And the difference between THAT data, even if it wasn't enough to copy it, was easy to see.
Units refined from innumerable Jumpers, from infinite Benefactors. Components able to resist nearly all damage, all corruption, any influence… Not due to quality design and enhancement, but accidentally from 'play testing' over an unknown and unknowable range of people and times.
But how? "How are we even alive?"
The feeling was mutual to the group.
It was clear the informed Sarah felt like a heavy weight was off her shoulders. "Adam saw the discarded hacking units the bastard used to influence and manipulate a near perfect system, and assumed those were the fragments of our Warehouse."
More information flowed. "Most of our 'units' didn't actually crash due to him messing up the compression and unpacking components of our Warehouse, they crashed because they were corrupted junk fragments of unstable data… And Adam's been 'fixing' them."
Holy shit. "That's some crazy shit right there."
She snorted. "No, what's crazy is that our future self got access to a full [[Scan]] of a 'working' Warehouse and didn't bother to share it with us."
What!? Oh. "Because of timeline issues?"
A sharp grin came back. "No, Adam's work was just better by then. Why accept a downgrade?"
Oh. Ohhh!
The group's eye's lit up. "Ha!" "That's our partner for ya!" "Of course that doofus would accidentally improve something supposedly 'perfect'." "I need more details!"
A shrug. "The hacking tools, due to the nature of WHAT they were trying to hack, were designed NOT to hook into standard interfaces and use standard methods for anything. Plus, they were all VERY secure and good at hiding themselves, to avoid triggering detection units and systems."
She waved a hand, information streaming. "So we can't use some features, sure… But when it comes to information warfare? Hacking? Data infiltration? Jump Modification? Jumpchain conflict!?"
The data vanished. "Well, we are top of the heap. Or, at least, we will be."
And now, information from the local 'Warehouse' copy began sending data back and forth.
Unlike others, Sarah's interactions with a Jump were basically invisible. No one could detect her choosing Drawbacks or inserting, not if they were an outsider. Unless she CHOSE a drawback that gave out data, she was BEYOND a ghost in the system apparently.
And the Choice Points she was extracting THROUGH those Drawbacks were ALSO undetectable. No traces left, no logs created, no history generated. While a normal Benefactor could easily detect all sorts of data by inspecting a link in another's Jumpchain, NOW each place she traveled to would become more and more defended. Secure.
And there was a… A lower layer. A hidden data network.
Somewhere between the links, a connection between every Jump node was slowly but constantly enhancing the stability, sharing defenses and advances from her Warehouse with past destinations.
A normal Jumpchain would secure a journey for a returning God or Goddess to coil up and keep with them as they returned.
Sarah's was transforming itself into reinforced defensive couplings, ones that seemed to be trying to recursively enhance and improve themselves… Some sort of 'Purification'? Of 'Growth'? It was hard to tell.
It was an automatic, slow process… But eventually EVERY Jump she chained together would gain defenses and common rulesets to protect her people, to simplify the costs of her Warehouse when revisiting… As a part of her. A part of her future, if nothing else.
Her examinations suddenly paused when a small pile of paper slammed onto a desk. "Right, everyone grab your assignments! You too, new girl. We can't just assume the cycles are over until time compresses again and we actually enter this Jump for the first time. Or not."
Oh. The network helped her catch up to the comings and goings of her army of update sisters as she reached for her own page of projects to ease the load. But uh… "Where's Shiva?"
Snorts around the room. "Still hasn't noticed anything, we assume because Junctioning makes copies of her or something. It all blends into the background with her, and the few we tried to tell ended up heading to beaches and lounging around."
Several grins came out. "For an ice girl she does love the sun." "And skin." "Pretty sure most of the sexy people head to Costa Del Sol just to see our ice girls flirting it up out there." "I know I like heading out for a look now and then." "If this is the last loop, can we shock Rinoa with a room of sexy nude Sarah's?" "Not until we get a temporal defensive unit success notification, you remember how confusing it got." "So we gotta take turns?" """"Like usual.""""
At least having a hive mind connection made sharing a girlfriend/harem much easier. Right, now who the hell was this fucker in Esthar who kept trying to make an [[Ultima]] reactor and why hadn't they tried to kill him yet?
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah blinked. "What?"
Adam grinned! <<Finally! Everything feeling good? No strange colors or smells?>>
What? "Adam?"
Data began flashing as he shifted the room (and her) around. <<Good, 'Research' shows everything stable, your Avatar is holding up fine… And this is the three hundredth stable loop in a row! Well, since the last dozen or so tries. Kept failing around the 169th mark for some reason.>>
Sarah felt the confusion fade as… No, this was a different room entirely. "What happened?"
A sigh filled the room. <<Nearly everything. Everything and anything. Honestly, I'm shocked it took so much effort to repair these stupid defensive units! Had to nearly rewrite them from scratch in the end! Sheesh.>>
Wait! "Hang on, what's happening here?"
Adam blinked. <<Hmm? Oh. Here, you go! {S͇ḁ̤r̰̼̭a͈̬̩̼̭̤h̲̹̘͙ͅ_̪̝̖̪̲̫c͚o͇̰̫̟nt͉e̲̤͚̺x̫̝̯t.encrypted} {Sh̺͙͚̙͇̱i̱͖̦̖͕̮̟v̭a̲̦̠̯̪͕̠_͚͉͕̬c͇o̤̝n̯te̼̰̦̰̰x͚̘̙͙̥̠t͉̺͙̠̹.encrypted}>>
Ow! "Holy CRAP that's a mess of Data! What the HELL Adam!?"
He hummed. <<I don't know, you encrypted it in a way that I can't understand. From what 'Research' can tell, parts of it are encoded so that YOU can't understand it either! Freaky stuff though. I'm really hating this Jump.>>
Hey! Not cool, buddy. "I found some awesome people there!"
The skull snorted. <<You found them a LOT of times, yeah. And… You know what? Just check the data packet, I got a thing I need to do. Like I need to do, each damn time.>>
Huh?
In the background, she could hear Adam sending data away. <<Damn it, you are always so frustrating at this point. Right, this should be the correct time:>>
=Set: Automated Reply: I'm sorry; the Warehouse you are attempting to contact is not going to fuck with time travel. Feel free to use your stuff though, because I'm going to be doing nothing fun but checking all your security and making potential upgrades to your stuff that you might like after this Jump is over.=
She ignored him, reviewing the c͚o͇̰̫̟nt͉e̲̤͚̺x̫̝̯t related to everything.
Dang it, there WERE sections she couldn't understand yet. "Holy crap, I'm annoying."
Adam paused, chuckling. <<I know, right? Still think you are an awesome person though.>>
=Set: Automated Reply: If you knew how fucking terrifying time travel is you would be JOINING me in freaking out.=
Sarah snorted at that half remembered line. "I'm not going to believe that."
He rolled his sockets. <<You NEVER believe that. Still, I'm glad I stabilized everything down there. Did you have fun on your adventure?>>
Damn it, she hadn't wanted to leave yet!
But… But the risk that something was going on with Adam that could affect her girls (and Rinoa's guys) was too great. A risk she hadn't been willing to stay blind to, and at a cost that was acceptable, if frustrating.
So… In the end? "Yeah. Met great people, got to be a harem-ee rather than a harem protagonist, made awesome food and got to see a bunch of little kids dress up in fun costumes."
And at least a version of her was still down there, keeping her people safe. "Am I going to be alright down there now? Is the Jump stable and stuff?"
Adam snorted. <<Yeah, I finally got everything fixed and stable this time. For a while it was a bit… Dicey… But it's all handled by now, at least on my level.>>
Couldn't help but worry though. "Will Shiva and I be alright down there with the whole time crunch thing now? I mean, without you keeping an eye on it all?"
THOUSANDS of screens popped up, half of them showing sexy girls on a beach. <<I'm sure the army of all powerful Lunar Sorceresses can handle any problems that crop up. That or the massive number of ice elves that have taken over the sands and hearts of the populous.>>
What. The. Hell. "How many of me are out there!?"
Adam hummed. <<I REALLY don't know. When your temporal defenses were at their weakest, a few million? Now that it is all more secure, I think some of them unified into similar time streams or something or other. I'm certainly not going to touch that mess. Right, that reminds me!>>
=Set: Automated Reply: I'm sorry; the Warehouse you are attempting to contact is not going to fuck with time travel.=
He nodded. <<Good. Fuck all that.>>
Holy crap. "Rinoa's going to pass out." Or squeal so loudly that Space cracks.
Adam chuckled. <<Anyway, I'm not risking damaging this fragile stability now that this Jump finally seems safe to disengage from without hurting it. Ready for the Jump Documents?>>
Her hands absently traced Rinoa's face. "Later. I'm… I'm just going to watch for a while."
Looks like she and her Dad were bonding. That was good.
Adam nodded. <<We can wait as long as you want. Maybe watch time squish once or twice, now that the girls can just enjoy the process without forcing reality to loop again to undo reality collapse.>>
Sarah watched as one of her many selves checked in on… Well, everyone.
It felt good knowing that she could easily protect all her new friends and lovers at the same time without ignoring everything else in life.
In a few minutes, she would take a shower, a nap, and a snack… And get to work looking over the new Jump Documents.
In a while, she would ensure these memories are savored and stored, for sharing between lovers and friends, and look forward to Elizabeth being squeezed by Rinoa as they argue who's in whom's harem and have tickle wars and oil wrestling.
But for now, she just watched her loved ones as she watched her loved ones. Just for a while.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam relaxed.
How long had he worked?
'Research' probably knew, but it didn't matter.
It had been long enough.
Close calls, far too many. Accidents, innumerable.
Couldn't even interact properly without issues happening, without messages going to wrong places. Like that message from a Shiva that got directed to the wrong target most recently…
Something ALWAYS cropped up like that.
A Sarah would bump into another, or missions would get mixed up, or some attempt would go off the rails and have dire consequences. The number of Sarah's that make it this long were fairly few, at least the ones that managed to NOT instantly stumble upon what was going on in the background through logic, or faith, or damned luck.
Because, and this was important: Sarah was VERY lucky.
On a near fundamental level.
How insane would her luck have been if she had taken that perk way back when a Shard of Adam stumbled on her dire straits? The one that enhanced chance even further?
No regrets though, the 'Bad Ass' perk was working overtime by this point. Being the 'best you can be' for whatever you happened to be? VERY overpowered.
Speaking of which, where to Jump next?
MOST of the choices were more stable now. And, if the new Data from 'Research' worked out, a few of them were solid enough for Adam to test a few theories!
'Research' had made some progress over this last… Infinitely long/short Jump or so, and theoretically Adam would be able to nudge things around a bit without cracking an entire reality node into crumbs.
Because his girl would CERTAINLY freak out about that.
Cracking a Jump that was near death was one thing, especially with damaged tools.
Killing a universe that would have been fine for a long time? Not the same. Especially if it was accidental. So, avoid that.
Looked like there was still a cap around 600cp, though it could range a bit more from what he could tell. Never over 699cp, if his guess held out, as something in the Warehouse did NOT like crossing that number at all. If he tried, he got errors related to the detection suppression system units, and that didn't seem good at all.
Still, the new sensor systems did show that these Jumps had a bit more flexibility than expected. Some could support 633cp, a few higher, even one at 689cp caught his eye during review! Really interesting stuff.
Went hand in hand with some bits and pieces he managed to wrangle into shape to allow a bit more flexibility when it CAME to those drawbacks.
Nothing so extreme as free Choice Points or free purchases from the Jump Document, not yet at least… But some burdens could be lightened or increased to manipulate the points earned and limit the restrictions on Sarah's back.
So that was the goal this time. Three Jump options that were stable enough to let Sarah wiggle a bit with the rules without risk: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Sky High, and Star Wars: Podracer.
They were all good, solid choices to work with… Mostly.
The Batman option was sort of close to cannon events… If you squinted. But Sky High? Not one character or person from the original movie showed up in this thing. Still interesting and with some useful powers, but uh… Yeah, any foreknowledge was a bit useless there. Even worse was the Star Wars: Podracer option, as it was VERY slippery with how it interacted with the existing timelines.
Which shouldn't be a problem now.
Because Adam had fixed the temporal defense units.
Sigh.
Drawbacks! If Sarah could avoid needing to wiggle any of that junk about than she could get some benefits/potential discounts from the other options, so let's try and see what they were working with.
Batman: Arkham Asylum Jump, let's do this!
Adam did a quick scan… And blinked. Huh.
{Tick-Tock Croc: +600cp} [...Whoops, you seem to be trapped in one of the more dilapidated sections of the Asylum. What's worse is that this section appears to be the one that Killer Croc is housed in. Y'know, Killer Croc, the man who Batman, who is unafraid to tangle with the likes of Bane and Solomon Grundy, decides the better course of action is to run away from? Suffice to say that you should probably find a way out as soon as possible.]
Um. What?
Adam checked it again.
Nope, this was legit. While other costly drawbacks had every villain and foe desperately trying to slaughter you, or constantly flooding Sarah's mind with horrific nightmares and hallucinations, or becoming the sexual slave (But more likely mindless puppet) to a plant woman, this one just… Stuck you in a flooded sewer system with a very strong monster-like cannibal dude.
No power restrictions, no mandatory duration or ability restrictions. Not even alerting Killer Croc that someone is nearby when she shows up.
Just… Sarah would be there, Drawback done!
[[Harvest]] the entire sewer network? Why not?
Just teleport away? Go for it!
You don't even need to catch the guy or anything.
Holy shit.
Like, maybe if this was your very first Jump or something? And you didn't pick any Batman related fighting skills or… Or something?
But for a Jumper like Sarah, this was just free shit.
Right, umm… Great then!
Moving on. Sheesh.
What we got for the Sky High Jump?
Hmm, {Pacified: +300cp} was basic enough. Sarah would be stuck as an infant with access to her own powers and mind, but not able to shapeshift or change age or whatever. A bit silly, but easy enough to work with.
Adam felt a grin as he found another option, {Archenemy: +300cp}, which would give Sarah a very strong and top level rival who will have lots of resources to use against her… A tiny baby.
That was nearly worth getting for the recordings alone! Elizabeth and Rinoa and her kids from Rick and Morty would LOVE to see super baby battling some super stuck up hero or evil villain!
The other options were a bit less interesting. Maybe {Radioactive Zombies: +200cp}? If for no other reason than the crazy crap that would show up for battles all the time. And the other Drawbacks were either unacceptable (No powers, period) or too much annoyance for the low rewards.
Though maybe Sarah could bundle {Butt-Kissery: +100cp} with {Radioactive Zombies: +200cp} if she wants to avoid the baby thing. Ooh! Or keep the baby thing, since Butt-Kissery would force her to fawn over anyone more powerful (Which is no one) and anyone with a higher social position (Which, since she would be a baby, is everyone)!
A tiny baby fighting an army of plush turtles with lasers while going 'Gee Golly mister, you're so strong!' sounded hilarious!
Hopefully Sarah would love the idea too, and uh… Oh, right. Hopefully that Jump had some powers that would be tempting enough to even bother showing up there.
Because seriously, some abilities there sucked. Turning into a puddle, glowing dimly (but only if it is really dark), and so on and so forth.
Meh, a problem for later Adam.
Now for the one he was most worried about: Star Wars: Podracer Jump.
Because uh… Well, he remembered when Origin Adam stumbled on Star Wars. And touched the energies that existed there.
It… It's not like the Force had hurt him or anything. Just… He had been fragile back then, very influenced by the environment. Neither of which should theoretically be true for Sarah, right? Right.
Also, this option was a bit wiggly wobbly when it came to timeline marking in the Star Wars Jump in general… Which shouldn't matter, because he totally completely fixed the temporal defense units.
But even if everything goes as plan getting there...This Jump was odd.
It was like those worlds where everything revolved around tops, or card games, or football. But in this case, it was an entire Jump where your ability to take trash and force reality to let you fly inches from death was a fully fledged career and acceptable for preteens to operate.
The drawbacks were easy enough to work with, just pick {Vendetta: +300cp} and {Indebted: +200cp} to have Sarah get a few fun death threats and assassination attempts that would make her giggle.
Toss on top {Up-And-Coming: +100cp} to be stuck in a child sized body or {Danger Course: +100cp} to add a few hazards and third party attack risks, and bam! A full +600cp to buy stuff!
But um. The stuff to buy?
Adam just looked at the massive list of… 'Perks'. Most of which were VERY racing related. There was even a list directly related to your Pod Racer alone!
Uh. Maybe Sarah would want some of the mechanic stuff? Although the Jump Document seemed to have marked a few purchases as impossible. The ones that caused changes or goods to follow from Jump to Jump, like the one that ensures 'plot' happens elsewhere for -600cp.
THAT one was trying to set off the internal Warehouse alerts for information security protocol violations, or at least something like that.
Or this one, {Jumper's Pods and Parts: -200cp, With Junkyard -300cp}. There was an error here that mentioned the ability to automatically own a 'similar facility' on all future Jumps would trigger all sorts of shit in the defensive units.
Adam frowned at the mess.
Was it another of his issues? Something he fixed wrong? He had been LOOKING for stuff that built onto the Warehouse or that roamed with the system from reality to reality, but it was clear the new defensive systems saw a problem that he couldn't detect yet. Or was processing it wrong, or something.
Damn it.
With a sigh, Adam began opening the maintenance systems and log review tools.
Hopefully this was a basic issue, something easy to fix… But Adam smelled a bigger problem here, somewhere.
As for whether or not Sarah would wish to spend her points on a robotic repair crew or whatever, that was up to her. Maybe she was super into racing? Honestly, it never came up before.
If he was a betting man though, his money would be on the girl heading straight off to Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Not due to any specific item on the list, nor because of a specific power or ability.
But because Poison Ivy.
Sometimes Sarah could be a little predictable. Just saying.
Sarah blinked as her favorite foodie slumped towards the door slightly. Murmuring.
Uh. At some point, Ellone had clearly gotten some of the good stuff too. Oops.
Right, close enough! "Upsy daisy!"
Lifting the darling into her arms, she grinned at a confused Rinoa. "Right! We'll be back really soon, but just in case why not spend some time talking with your Dad. Alright?Cool?Kay,Bye!"
Mumbled protests? WHAT mumbling protests? Nah, her Boss was going to LOVE some quality family time. "Come on Ellone, let's get you somewhere to sleep this off."
At least spell enhanced booze didn't cause worse hangovers. And dropping a [[Cure]] on the girl should actually help her ignore dehydration too, aka 'Hangovers'. Such a cheating ability.
Sarah waved off the security at the door before letting the room behind her seal for a few minutes. Maybe a couple of hours, tops!
Sweeping away towards headquarters, she mentally made some notes.
First, safely put Ellone to snoozeville. Make sure team Squall and the rest know about it and keep her safe.
Second, quickly step over to the moon and figure this 'Some People' business that involved messing with HER Warehouse. That shit aint going to fly.
Hips swaying, she ignored the distracted people on her way to getting shit done!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The room was quiet as the two silently munched on snacks.
Eventually, she murmured. "I know you can handle more than that."
Dad wearily opened one red eye. "You'd be right… Most of the time." His face was ruddy red and eyes bloodshot. "This batch has a kick though. Not a higher alcohol content, just… Who even looks at wine and suggests fusing it with magic!?"
Rinoa snorted. "I wanted some pocket change and she designed customizable self sustaining [[Draw]] points as an option. Took a whole train ride to talk her down from that."
Her Dad blinked… And took a deep swallow from his glass. "That… That would have stirred things."
No shit. "You… You doing alright, Dad?"
The man snorted. "Without you wandering about smashing the status quo and causing problems? Job's practically boring now! I still don't know how you convinced that bus driver and a whole load of passengers to drag race against each other."
Oh yeah, Jim and Carl… Those boys had been in some BIG trouble after that one. "Sometime's things spiral out of control a bit."
He snorted… And if showing emotions weren't enough of a sign that her Dad had drunk FAR too much, his smile sealed the deal. "My people need a bit of chaos now and then. Julia was madness and beauty and... " His tears were treated as sweat. "We all need a bit of craziness, now and then. Good for the Soul."
She gripped her glass hard.
Yeah, Dad was soused. He never talked about mom without breaking inside.
One of the most powerful men in Galbadia sipped his drink again. "Your girl makes good food. And… I bet she can sing. Julia sang the heart right out of… Singing is important. Don't…. Don't let someone like that go."
She held back a sniffle. "Yeah, my girls are good people." Sarah couldn't sing for crap, but her husky whispers were a serenade of their own.
Dad huffed. "Right, those plans of yours. What are you on now, Holiday plan 7?"
Oh god, those old things? "Nah, working on Happy Harem Holiday plan 12 Beta 4 Gamma." Maybe Delta, but it depended on how Squall and the boy trying to be his 'rival' worked out after some good mud wrestling.
His eyes blurred as he frowned. "Beta 4? Is that the one with hot aliens?"
Pshaw! "No, that was Beta 2. And I'm stuck with Beta 4 because I'm not sure if Sarah is just a Sorceress or if she is some sort of hive goddess. Can't do several things now that I know Sorceress Adel is a bitch and Big Sis Edea has a nasty case of monogamy going on."
Seriously girl, having a husband is fine. Bring him along for the ride! Love is awesome shit.
Like, Cid didn't do anything for her motor specifically, but she didn't know a lot about this Seifer bloke yet. Maybe yes, maybe no? Mud wrestling sorts all things out eventually.
Her dad shrugged. "I barely remember the presentation you gave me at the time, the Hescal family kept trying to get you into marriage contracts back then and the fucking Alstras had to be stepped on."
Her mind blinked. "Huh." Hadn't she been like fourteen or something? "I don't remember the Alstras family though."
Eyes like blood demons flickered. "NO one remembers the Alstras. Not after threatening my little one. Not Julia's girl."
Oh.
The room was a bit quiet as they sipped and nibbled on miracles.
In the end, sappiness overcame being 'adult', and Rinoa whispered. "Thanks, Dad."
He didn't look at her. "Protecting family is everything." He glanced outside. "And… I've seen you protecting your new one."
The room filled with distant laughter and arguments and bustle and life.
His eyes saw impossible things from long ago. A larger family they could have had, the many little ones he once desired to wrap in his arms. But his mind never lost track of the one gift left by love. "I… I'm proud of you, girl."
Her eyes saw a broken man holding what he could with fractured arms. "Thanks, Dad."
In the end, she never actually got 'The Look', but this felt important enough to treasure anyway.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah grinned! "Right, I'm on the side of the moon furthest away from the planet, everything close by is dead, risk to other people is near zero! Let's do this!"
'Research', again, suggested she should wait. "Nope."
It wouldn't tell her WHY, no data suggested anything one way or the other, and now that she had manually looked around in her head she found a whole area of the Warehouse she couldn't access and a lever inside.
A lever that said "Activate Temporal Defenses Total Upgrade? You probably shouldn't."
No, there was no sign and it had no documentation. The lever had a hidden speaker, and Adam's voice was very recognizable as the thing gave numerous warnings when she tried to pull this stupid handle.
'It is likely that side effects may occur', 'Have you managed to [[Scan]] all needed GFs and spells', 'Do you really have to do this now?', 'Oh come on, I did not say never, but maybe wait a bit?' and so on and so forth.
By this point she only PAUSED in her testing because the most RECENT warning from the stupid thing was 'Do Not Activate Near Others' and 'Will Only Unlock Here.'
Now, was Sarah aware that this was probably a bad idea?
Yep.
Was this a bit too whimsical a risk to take after all these warnings?
Probably.
But Sarah was being lied to. Something was being hidden. Something important to the Warehouse, her core self, was being blocked away. Restricted.
Something that was actively affecting this Jump, probably for good considering it was keeping Boss safe, but probably wasn't ENOUGH when it came to her girl.
Plus, Adam was a worry wart at the best of times.
The lever seemed to sigh. "Are you SURE you wish to unlock this lever?"
Yep!
And an unseen chain released. Unheard sounds unlocked unknown restrictions.
Visibly, nothing changed.
It was still an empty room in her Warehouse, with a single unmarked lever.
Nearly supernaturally designed to be the most boring uninteresting thing in the least remarkable section of her Warehouse. An unknown interface that had gone without notice all the way up until some version of Shiva that SHE COULDN'T TRACK made a comment.
Her hands were a bit clammy as she gripped the lever. "I'mma gonna do it."
Any time now. "I really will!"
The room was silent.
Judging.
Fuck it. "Let's DO this!"
Sarah {Recursive Last Name} pulled the lever.
A version of her suddenly realized that the Warehouse she was in was a mockup, an advanced structure seamlessly hooked into… Oh.
A multitude of sighs responded. """""Yeah."""" "To be fair, who wouldn't pull a lever!?" "Adam tried, he really did." "At least it wasn't a button?" "Yeah, a big red button would have been smashed instantly." "I guess he DID delay us from activating the defenses for like… An hour?" "Only with our input." "But our input is the best input." "Not important, everyone give her some space."
Shit. "Hey, everyme."
A multitude of hands waved back.
Damn it. "So, what was this?"
The nearest ones shrugged before Sarah moved forward. "You can join up into the 'Time Loop' hive now if you want. Basically, Adam found out that the EXISTING method of 'updating' the Warehouse Avatar's security units and stuff involved deleting us all entirely and building a new Avatar with the improvements."
Oh. "And of course, he wouldn't hurt us."
Nods.
Sigh. "So what happens now?"
Grins came out! "We think it worked this time!" "Yeah, normally one of us who merged with earlier time lines or who split into several people would have chimed in by now." "I became like seven of me once, very confusing." "At least YOUR temporal defenses let you organize memories correctly!" "Yeah, I made out with myself twice before that got fixed!" "Girl, that hasn't slowed you down at ALL since then." "Well, yeah, but at least I now KNOW when I'm being kinky." "Fair enough."
Huh. "Let me…" Where was the… Oh, h̪̪̟̹̩̩̘e͖r̘̬̠e̙ ͡҉̜̱̣̲̪͈ͅw̸̨̧̺͔͇̖̞̹ͅe͏͕̬ ͈͕̰̭͘g͖̹̞͈͎̰̮͖̞͔͈̕͞ò̶͓̝͔͎͍̥͙͚̘͚̼̰̮̩͢͟ͅ!̡̧̛̭̼̤̮̱̞̘͖̘̲̀͢
Much better! "Got it!"
As she synced with the crowds, things began to clear up. "Huh… Yeah, this is a MUCH better updating method."
A few nods. "Yeah, after this Jump it won't be an issue." "We sent Adam relevant data a few attempts ago." "And hey, at least now he will know to look over ALL those 'update' and 'patching' units to fix this shit!" "Sometimes the Warehouse feels like solidified stupidity." "I asked future us about that." "Which future us?" "The one from AFTER the Jumpchain." "SHIT!" "You can't DO that!"
Um. "What did we say? About the issues, I mean."
Even the girls pretending to be responsible Sarahs perked up with interest as the 'guilty' one rolled her eyes at the rest. "You sure you want to know? It's bad."
She ignored the other's weedling and whining and gave a nod.
The other her sighed. "Long story short: The Kidnapper didn't steal chunks of the Warehouse systems when he tried to [[Harvest]] us and run."
Her eyes were grim. "He took EVERYTHING."
Um… What?
She sighed. "All the shit 'officially' part of the real Warehouse system, the Kidnapper ripped away when he ran. All these units we are using now are like… Hacked together junk and trash left over. Basically, our units are consumable tools and the components too closely linked to our identity to be recycled for future use."
D̞̰̦̪̩̣̦a̪t͇̖̗̹̘̖͇a̩̼̻̦̦ was being shared over the new hive network.
Sarah just… Stared.
Future version of herself had eventually met a 'normal' Jumpchain Warehouse Avatar. A 'real' one, one that hadn't been subjected to the Kidnapper or Adam's frantic repair efforts.
And the difference between THAT data, even if it wasn't enough to copy it, was easy to see.
Units refined from innumerable Jumpers, from infinite Benefactors. Components able to resist nearly all damage, all corruption, any influence… Not due to quality design and enhancement, but accidentally from 'play testing' over an unknown and unknowable range of people and times.
But how? "How are we even alive?"
The feeling was mutual to the group.
It was clear the informed Sarah felt like a heavy weight was off her shoulders. "Adam saw the discarded hacking units the bastard used to influence and manipulate a near perfect system, and assumed those were the fragments of our Warehouse."
More information flowed. "Most of our 'units' didn't actually crash due to him messing up the compression and unpacking components of our Warehouse, they crashed because they were corrupted junk fragments of unstable data… And Adam's been 'fixing' them."
Holy shit. "That's some crazy shit right there."
She snorted. "No, what's crazy is that our future self got access to a full [[Scan]] of a 'working' Warehouse and didn't bother to share it with us."
What!? Oh. "Because of timeline issues?"
A sharp grin came back. "No, Adam's work was just better by then. Why accept a downgrade?"
Oh. Ohhh!
The group's eye's lit up. "Ha!" "That's our partner for ya!" "Of course that doofus would accidentally improve something supposedly 'perfect'." "I need more details!"
A shrug. "The hacking tools, due to the nature of WHAT they were trying to hack, were designed NOT to hook into standard interfaces and use standard methods for anything. Plus, they were all VERY secure and good at hiding themselves, to avoid triggering detection units and systems."
She waved a hand, information streaming. "So we can't use some features, sure… But when it comes to information warfare? Hacking? Data infiltration? Jump Modification? Jumpchain conflict!?"
The data vanished. "Well, we are top of the heap. Or, at least, we will be."
And now, information from the local 'Warehouse' copy began sending data back and forth.
Unlike others, Sarah's interactions with a Jump were basically invisible. No one could detect her choosing Drawbacks or inserting, not if they were an outsider. Unless she CHOSE a drawback that gave out data, she was BEYOND a ghost in the system apparently.
And the Choice Points she was extracting THROUGH those Drawbacks were ALSO undetectable. No traces left, no logs created, no history generated. While a normal Benefactor could easily detect all sorts of data by inspecting a link in another's Jumpchain, NOW each place she traveled to would become more and more defended. Secure.
And there was a… A lower layer. A hidden data network.
Somewhere between the links, a connection between every Jump node was slowly but constantly enhancing the stability, sharing defenses and advances from her Warehouse with past destinations.
A normal Jumpchain would secure a journey for a returning God or Goddess to coil up and keep with them as they returned.
Sarah's was transforming itself into reinforced defensive couplings, ones that seemed to be trying to recursively enhance and improve themselves… Some sort of 'Purification'? Of 'Growth'? It was hard to tell.
It was an automatic, slow process… But eventually EVERY Jump she chained together would gain defenses and common rulesets to protect her people, to simplify the costs of her Warehouse when revisiting… As a part of her. A part of her future, if nothing else.
Her examinations suddenly paused when a small pile of paper slammed onto a desk. "Right, everyone grab your assignments! You too, new girl. We can't just assume the cycles are over until time compresses again and we actually enter this Jump for the first time. Or not."
Oh. The network helped her catch up to the comings and goings of her army of update sisters as she reached for her own page of projects to ease the load. But uh… "Where's Shiva?"
Snorts around the room. "Still hasn't noticed anything, we assume because Junctioning makes copies of her or something. It all blends into the background with her, and the few we tried to tell ended up heading to beaches and lounging around."
Several grins came out. "For an ice girl she does love the sun." "And skin." "Pretty sure most of the sexy people head to Costa Del Sol just to see our ice girls flirting it up out there." "I know I like heading out for a look now and then." "If this is the last loop, can we shock Rinoa with a room of sexy nude Sarah's?" "Not until we get a temporal defensive unit success notification, you remember how confusing it got." "So we gotta take turns?" """"Like usual.""""
At least having a hive mind connection made sharing a girlfriend/harem much easier. Right, now who the hell was this fucker in Esthar who kept trying to make an [[Ultima]] reactor and why hadn't they tried to kill him yet?
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah blinked. "What?"
Adam grinned! <<Finally! Everything feeling good? No strange colors or smells?>>
What? "Adam?"
Data began flashing as he shifted the room (and her) around. <<Good, 'Research' shows everything stable, your Avatar is holding up fine… And this is the three hundredth stable loop in a row! Well, since the last dozen or so tries. Kept failing around the 169th mark for some reason.>>
Sarah felt the confusion fade as… No, this was a different room entirely. "What happened?"
A sigh filled the room. <<Nearly everything. Everything and anything. Honestly, I'm shocked it took so much effort to repair these stupid defensive units! Had to nearly rewrite them from scratch in the end! Sheesh.>>
Wait! "Hang on, what's happening here?"
Adam blinked. <<Hmm? Oh. Here, you go! {S͇ḁ̤r̰̼̭a͈̬̩̼̭̤h̲̹̘͙ͅ_̪̝̖̪̲̫c͚o͇̰̫̟nt͉e̲̤͚̺x̫̝̯t.encrypted} {Sh̺͙͚̙͇̱i̱͖̦̖͕̮̟v̭a̲̦̠̯̪͕̠_͚͉͕̬c͇o̤̝n̯te̼̰̦̰̰x͚̘̙͙̥̠t͉̺͙̠̹.encrypted}>>
Ow! "Holy CRAP that's a mess of Data! What the HELL Adam!?"
He hummed. <<I don't know, you encrypted it in a way that I can't understand. From what 'Research' can tell, parts of it are encoded so that YOU can't understand it either! Freaky stuff though. I'm really hating this Jump.>>
Hey! Not cool, buddy. "I found some awesome people there!"
The skull snorted. <<You found them a LOT of times, yeah. And… You know what? Just check the data packet, I got a thing I need to do. Like I need to do, each damn time.>>
Huh?
In the background, she could hear Adam sending data away. <<Damn it, you are always so frustrating at this point. Right, this should be the correct time:>>
=Set: Automated Reply: I'm sorry; the Warehouse you are attempting to contact is not going to fuck with time travel. Feel free to use your stuff though, because I'm going to be doing nothing fun but checking all your security and making potential upgrades to your stuff that you might like after this Jump is over.=
She ignored him, reviewing the c͚o͇̰̫̟nt͉e̲̤͚̺x̫̝̯t related to everything.
Dang it, there WERE sections she couldn't understand yet. "Holy crap, I'm annoying."
Adam paused, chuckling. <<I know, right? Still think you are an awesome person though.>>
=Set: Automated Reply: If you knew how fucking terrifying time travel is you would be JOINING me in freaking out.=
Sarah snorted at that half remembered line. "I'm not going to believe that."
He rolled his sockets. <<You NEVER believe that. Still, I'm glad I stabilized everything down there. Did you have fun on your adventure?>>
Damn it, she hadn't wanted to leave yet!
But… But the risk that something was going on with Adam that could affect her girls (and Rinoa's guys) was too great. A risk she hadn't been willing to stay blind to, and at a cost that was acceptable, if frustrating.
So… In the end? "Yeah. Met great people, got to be a harem-ee rather than a harem protagonist, made awesome food and got to see a bunch of little kids dress up in fun costumes."
And at least a version of her was still down there, keeping her people safe. "Am I going to be alright down there now? Is the Jump stable and stuff?"
Adam snorted. <<Yeah, I finally got everything fixed and stable this time. For a while it was a bit… Dicey… But it's all handled by now, at least on my level.>>
Couldn't help but worry though. "Will Shiva and I be alright down there with the whole time crunch thing now? I mean, without you keeping an eye on it all?"
THOUSANDS of screens popped up, half of them showing sexy girls on a beach. <<I'm sure the army of all powerful Lunar Sorceresses can handle any problems that crop up. That or the massive number of ice elves that have taken over the sands and hearts of the populous.>>
What. The. Hell. "How many of me are out there!?"
Adam hummed. <<I REALLY don't know. When your temporal defenses were at their weakest, a few million? Now that it is all more secure, I think some of them unified into similar time streams or something or other. I'm certainly not going to touch that mess. Right, that reminds me!>>
=Set: Automated Reply: I'm sorry; the Warehouse you are attempting to contact is not going to fuck with time travel.=
He nodded. <<Good. Fuck all that.>>
Holy crap. "Rinoa's going to pass out." Or squeal so loudly that Space cracks.
Adam chuckled. <<Anyway, I'm not risking damaging this fragile stability now that this Jump finally seems safe to disengage from without hurting it. Ready for the Jump Documents?>>
Her hands absently traced Rinoa's face. "Later. I'm… I'm just going to watch for a while."
Looks like she and her Dad were bonding. That was good.
Adam nodded. <<We can wait as long as you want. Maybe watch time squish once or twice, now that the girls can just enjoy the process without forcing reality to loop again to undo reality collapse.>>
Sarah watched as one of her many selves checked in on… Well, everyone.
It felt good knowing that she could easily protect all her new friends and lovers at the same time without ignoring everything else in life.
In a few minutes, she would take a shower, a nap, and a snack… And get to work looking over the new Jump Documents.
In a while, she would ensure these memories are savored and stored, for sharing between lovers and friends, and look forward to Elizabeth being squeezed by Rinoa as they argue who's in whom's harem and have tickle wars and oil wrestling.
But for now, she just watched her loved ones as she watched her loved ones. Just for a while.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam relaxed.
How long had he worked?
'Research' probably knew, but it didn't matter.
It had been long enough.
Close calls, far too many. Accidents, innumerable.
Couldn't even interact properly without issues happening, without messages going to wrong places. Like that message from a Shiva that got directed to the wrong target most recently…
Something ALWAYS cropped up like that.
A Sarah would bump into another, or missions would get mixed up, or some attempt would go off the rails and have dire consequences. The number of Sarah's that make it this long were fairly few, at least the ones that managed to NOT instantly stumble upon what was going on in the background through logic, or faith, or damned luck.
Because, and this was important: Sarah was VERY lucky.
On a near fundamental level.
How insane would her luck have been if she had taken that perk way back when a Shard of Adam stumbled on her dire straits? The one that enhanced chance even further?
No regrets though, the 'Bad Ass' perk was working overtime by this point. Being the 'best you can be' for whatever you happened to be? VERY overpowered.
Speaking of which, where to Jump next?
MOST of the choices were more stable now. And, if the new Data from 'Research' worked out, a few of them were solid enough for Adam to test a few theories!
'Research' had made some progress over this last… Infinitely long/short Jump or so, and theoretically Adam would be able to nudge things around a bit without cracking an entire reality node into crumbs.
Because his girl would CERTAINLY freak out about that.
Cracking a Jump that was near death was one thing, especially with damaged tools.
Killing a universe that would have been fine for a long time? Not the same. Especially if it was accidental. So, avoid that.
Looked like there was still a cap around 600cp, though it could range a bit more from what he could tell. Never over 699cp, if his guess held out, as something in the Warehouse did NOT like crossing that number at all. If he tried, he got errors related to the detection suppression system units, and that didn't seem good at all.
Still, the new sensor systems did show that these Jumps had a bit more flexibility than expected. Some could support 633cp, a few higher, even one at 689cp caught his eye during review! Really interesting stuff.
Went hand in hand with some bits and pieces he managed to wrangle into shape to allow a bit more flexibility when it CAME to those drawbacks.
Nothing so extreme as free Choice Points or free purchases from the Jump Document, not yet at least… But some burdens could be lightened or increased to manipulate the points earned and limit the restrictions on Sarah's back.
So that was the goal this time. Three Jump options that were stable enough to let Sarah wiggle a bit with the rules without risk: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Sky High, and Star Wars: Podracer.
They were all good, solid choices to work with… Mostly.
The Batman option was sort of close to cannon events… If you squinted. But Sky High? Not one character or person from the original movie showed up in this thing. Still interesting and with some useful powers, but uh… Yeah, any foreknowledge was a bit useless there. Even worse was the Star Wars: Podracer option, as it was VERY slippery with how it interacted with the existing timelines.
Which shouldn't be a problem now.
Because Adam had fixed the temporal defense units.
Sigh.
Drawbacks! If Sarah could avoid needing to wiggle any of that junk about than she could get some benefits/potential discounts from the other options, so let's try and see what they were working with.
Batman: Arkham Asylum Jump, let's do this!
Adam did a quick scan… And blinked. Huh.
{Tick-Tock Croc: +600cp} [...Whoops, you seem to be trapped in one of the more dilapidated sections of the Asylum. What's worse is that this section appears to be the one that Killer Croc is housed in. Y'know, Killer Croc, the man who Batman, who is unafraid to tangle with the likes of Bane and Solomon Grundy, decides the better course of action is to run away from? Suffice to say that you should probably find a way out as soon as possible.]
Um. What?
Adam checked it again.
Nope, this was legit. While other costly drawbacks had every villain and foe desperately trying to slaughter you, or constantly flooding Sarah's mind with horrific nightmares and hallucinations, or becoming the sexual slave (But more likely mindless puppet) to a plant woman, this one just… Stuck you in a flooded sewer system with a very strong monster-like cannibal dude.
No power restrictions, no mandatory duration or ability restrictions. Not even alerting Killer Croc that someone is nearby when she shows up.
Just… Sarah would be there, Drawback done!
[[Harvest]] the entire sewer network? Why not?
Just teleport away? Go for it!
You don't even need to catch the guy or anything.
Holy shit.
Like, maybe if this was your very first Jump or something? And you didn't pick any Batman related fighting skills or… Or something?
But for a Jumper like Sarah, this was just free shit.
Right, umm… Great then!
Moving on. Sheesh.
What we got for the Sky High Jump?
Hmm, {Pacified: +300cp} was basic enough. Sarah would be stuck as an infant with access to her own powers and mind, but not able to shapeshift or change age or whatever. A bit silly, but easy enough to work with.
Adam felt a grin as he found another option, {Archenemy: +300cp}, which would give Sarah a very strong and top level rival who will have lots of resources to use against her… A tiny baby.
That was nearly worth getting for the recordings alone! Elizabeth and Rinoa and her kids from Rick and Morty would LOVE to see super baby battling some super stuck up hero or evil villain!
The other options were a bit less interesting. Maybe {Radioactive Zombies: +200cp}? If for no other reason than the crazy crap that would show up for battles all the time. And the other Drawbacks were either unacceptable (No powers, period) or too much annoyance for the low rewards.
Though maybe Sarah could bundle {Butt-Kissery: +100cp} with {Radioactive Zombies: +200cp} if she wants to avoid the baby thing. Ooh! Or keep the baby thing, since Butt-Kissery would force her to fawn over anyone more powerful (Which is no one) and anyone with a higher social position (Which, since she would be a baby, is everyone)!
A tiny baby fighting an army of plush turtles with lasers while going 'Gee Golly mister, you're so strong!' sounded hilarious!
Hopefully Sarah would love the idea too, and uh… Oh, right. Hopefully that Jump had some powers that would be tempting enough to even bother showing up there.
Because seriously, some abilities there sucked. Turning into a puddle, glowing dimly (but only if it is really dark), and so on and so forth.
Meh, a problem for later Adam.
Now for the one he was most worried about: Star Wars: Podracer Jump.
Because uh… Well, he remembered when Origin Adam stumbled on Star Wars. And touched the energies that existed there.
It… It's not like the Force had hurt him or anything. Just… He had been fragile back then, very influenced by the environment. Neither of which should theoretically be true for Sarah, right? Right.
Also, this option was a bit wiggly wobbly when it came to timeline marking in the Star Wars Jump in general… Which shouldn't matter, because he totally completely fixed the temporal defense units.
But even if everything goes as plan getting there...This Jump was odd.
It was like those worlds where everything revolved around tops, or card games, or football. But in this case, it was an entire Jump where your ability to take trash and force reality to let you fly inches from death was a fully fledged career and acceptable for preteens to operate.
The drawbacks were easy enough to work with, just pick {Vendetta: +300cp} and {Indebted: +200cp} to have Sarah get a few fun death threats and assassination attempts that would make her giggle.
Toss on top {Up-And-Coming: +100cp} to be stuck in a child sized body or {Danger Course: +100cp} to add a few hazards and third party attack risks, and bam! A full +600cp to buy stuff!
But um. The stuff to buy?
Adam just looked at the massive list of… 'Perks'. Most of which were VERY racing related. There was even a list directly related to your Pod Racer alone!
Uh. Maybe Sarah would want some of the mechanic stuff? Although the Jump Document seemed to have marked a few purchases as impossible. The ones that caused changes or goods to follow from Jump to Jump, like the one that ensures 'plot' happens elsewhere for -600cp.
THAT one was trying to set off the internal Warehouse alerts for information security protocol violations, or at least something like that.
Or this one, {Jumper's Pods and Parts: -200cp, With Junkyard -300cp}. There was an error here that mentioned the ability to automatically own a 'similar facility' on all future Jumps would trigger all sorts of shit in the defensive units.
Adam frowned at the mess.
Was it another of his issues? Something he fixed wrong? He had been LOOKING for stuff that built onto the Warehouse or that roamed with the system from reality to reality, but it was clear the new defensive systems saw a problem that he couldn't detect yet. Or was processing it wrong, or something.
Damn it.
With a sigh, Adam began opening the maintenance systems and log review tools.
Hopefully this was a basic issue, something easy to fix… But Adam smelled a bigger problem here, somewhere.
As for whether or not Sarah would wish to spend her points on a robotic repair crew or whatever, that was up to her. Maybe she was super into racing? Honestly, it never came up before.
If he was a betting man though, his money would be on the girl heading straight off to Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Not due to any specific item on the list, nor because of a specific power or ability.
But because Poison Ivy.
Sometimes Sarah could be a little predictable. Just saying.
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- Location
- Earth U.S.
know how you
shrugged
suddenly halted? idk
beaches
crossing
Hidden One
Not the Boss, possibly a Playa
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
Batman is fine but I would really hope for Sky High, not because of the powers but because of the generic item that lets you call the flying bus over.
The powers actually provide cosplay options tho. One of my sillier builds for this involves spending only the free budget on powers and taking the glowing and slime puddle power to pretend to be the mysterious ooze. Yay for cosplay options.
The powers actually provide cosplay options tho. One of my sillier builds for this involves spending only the free budget on powers and taking the glowing and slime puddle power to pretend to be the mysterious ooze. Yay for cosplay options.
So did the Sarahs give the data about what a warehouse is suppose to look like to Adam / Research?
Or did they not get a good enough understanding of the warehouse to do that?
Or did they decide not to give it to him for some other reason? Like it making him lazy or wanting to force him to keep with the 'stealth warehouse' build.
Or is it for continuity reasons?
Because theoretically, any data that they have on Warehouses should help Adam reach that level sooner, even if its not in the same sort of stealth build as Adam is going for.
Either Adam can know those options exist and have them on-hand for 'safety reasons'. Or Adam could possibly use that data to help him upgrade in the first place. Plus it lets him actually make his own decisions.
Plus if adam is making new discoveries with the stealth warehouse build, there are likely advancements he could make using a more normal build too.
It also just feels like a little bit of a betrayal here from this last Jump.
For the entire jump, Sarah has been quite distant of Adam, plus their minor fight in the beginning and Sarah not telling him stuff.
Adams been trying his best to be helpful the entire time he has been with Sarah, and he has left jumps at Sarah's decision not his own.
Plus he saved sarah and honestly probably has the worse 1/2 of this relationship, with doing all the behind the scenes stuff while Sarah makes most of the decisions and hangs out with people doing fun stuff.
So Sarah distancing herself from him and keeping secrets from him and not getting his opinion on stuff and going overboard on minor issues from him etc. Just makes Sarah seem like she is being abit of a Jerk to him and taking him for granted.
Plus all of this is while he is clearly very distressed about the situation, and some of those secrets seem to be about keeping stuff from him that would help him deal with this.
Hopefully that is partly the fault of the circumstances of the previous jump, and this isn't a sign of future things to come.
Or did they not get a good enough understanding of the warehouse to do that?
Or did they decide not to give it to him for some other reason? Like it making him lazy or wanting to force him to keep with the 'stealth warehouse' build.
Or is it for continuity reasons?
Because theoretically, any data that they have on Warehouses should help Adam reach that level sooner, even if its not in the same sort of stealth build as Adam is going for.
Either Adam can know those options exist and have them on-hand for 'safety reasons'. Or Adam could possibly use that data to help him upgrade in the first place. Plus it lets him actually make his own decisions.
Plus if adam is making new discoveries with the stealth warehouse build, there are likely advancements he could make using a more normal build too.
It also just feels like a little bit of a betrayal here from this last Jump.
For the entire jump, Sarah has been quite distant of Adam, plus their minor fight in the beginning and Sarah not telling him stuff.
Adams been trying his best to be helpful the entire time he has been with Sarah, and he has left jumps at Sarah's decision not his own.
Plus he saved sarah and honestly probably has the worse 1/2 of this relationship, with doing all the behind the scenes stuff while Sarah makes most of the decisions and hangs out with people doing fun stuff.
So Sarah distancing herself from him and keeping secrets from him and not getting his opinion on stuff and going overboard on minor issues from him etc. Just makes Sarah seem like she is being abit of a Jerk to him and taking him for granted.
Plus all of this is while he is clearly very distressed about the situation, and some of those secrets seem to be about keeping stuff from him that would help him deal with this.
Hopefully that is partly the fault of the circumstances of the previous jump, and this isn't a sign of future things to come.
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- Status