"Ganglers?" Kate suggests, "After how they're all gangly and sh- jazz."
She corrected herself pretty quickly, given the look Tenenbaum gave her as she habitually tried to cuss. Apparently, manners are a thing she wants the Little Sisters- and little human girls she cured before she met you too, for that matter- to learn early on, and them learning swear words would likely not be appreciated by her.
Not that that stopped you from explaining to them how to curse someone out earlier while she was busy elsewhere, of course, but you sure won't tell her that.
"Hookers? After the hooks they're using for pretty much everything," Sarah puts forth with a sly smirk, Tenenbaum's frown deepening but remaining unable to actually say anything, lest the 'Little Ones' actually find out what the word means.
Fortunately for her, Kate comes to her rescue, leaning against you and sharing body warmth on the expanse of fluffy coverings that this entire compartment is nowadays. "How about we just call them spider splicers and call it a day? They got long, gangly limbs, they climb the ceilings and they're generally unpleasant. Only way they'd fit the description closer would be if they actually mutated to have more arms and legs."
"Sure, works for me," you shrug, unwilling to make this a big point of contention. You honestly don't really care how to call them, mostly just watching the Little Ones play with the Big Sisters accompanying you- and Okita, of course, her expressionless face and weird demeanour accepted by the kids without question.
Seriously, she may as well be an honorary Big Sister by this point.
All that said, before you can bring up some other topic to keep your girls occupied talking about- and serve as an excuse for you not to be buried under a pile of little girls- Delta, with whom you've been staying in telepathic contact all this time in an effort to keep him from feeling marginalized in the greater context of your group as him and Sinclair are the only ones in the driver's cab, sends something at you.
Torpedo... Incoming...!
No need to worry, I've made countermeasures.
At just that moment, you can feel several impact as you pay attention, the recoil of your exterior slug throwers making itself known against the train.
More... Coming...! Weird... Preacher... Radio...!
Well fuck this shit to hell and back, if that isn't one pain in the ass.
Alright, dammit. I'm pretty sure Lamb's just trying to waste our time by orchestrating this, but sure, why the hell not. Let's stop at the nearest station and have a little 'talk' with whoever is doing this.
Will... Do...
Sighing aloud, you get up, the slight jerking of the train becoming more apparent as more of the slug throwers counter the self-propelled explosives that keep on trying to impact the train.
"Looks like we're being intercepted... Again. Someone's trying to just straight up torpedo-bomb the train now. Good thing I actually thought ahead for once. In other news, we're still not getting to our destination, though."
"This is... troubling," Tenenbaum says. "Lamb seems to be doing her best to delay our arrival over anything else."
"She's most likely trying to just wait Delta out until he drops because of the whole bond thing with Eleanor," you speculate, "or perhaps she's doing as she said and is producing this 'perfect utopist' she's apparently fantasizing about. Either way, all we need to do is murder whoever's pissing on our boots and we can, hopefully, get on with the show."
And no, you don't care about the scandalized look from Tenenbaum. You're just telling it how it is.
Okay, so first off, time to get a bead on the local area. Not that you have to work too hard on that, given Sinclair once more jumps into his role as the exposition fairy.
Honestly, if you didn't know Sarah was taking it all in good humour, you might be worried she'd try to fight him over the role!
"Ah," he says as he sees the signs inside the train station, "Siren Alley! This used to be a fancy place, chief, where all the architects of Rapture lived and showed off their decoratin' skill. 'Course, when times got tough, the people ran outta work fast, and most had ta turn to sellin' themselves ta make end's meet. The kind of place you can go to scratch an itch you're ashamed of, even in a town with no laws ta speak of."
Glancing around, he continues when nobody amongst your group that's too invested in morality shows themselves. "But that's not why I favor it. All the people here, proper as you please, an' it just tickles me when someone in a fancy hat falls in the mud. Like a lot of the ladies down here, Siren Alley was born with a more respectable name... but only God remembers what it was."
"Good thing there ain't no god to be found down here, then," you joke, Sinclair seemingly disproportionally gleeful about the comment. Weirdo. "Still, best get the lay of the land real quick before we go break a few knees and necks."
Siren Alley, much as described to you, is essentially a whole lot of fancy buildings refurbished to serve as bars, casinos and even a few improvised brothels, if you are any judge.
Somewhat more concerning, however, are several places Lamb' followers seem to have turned into altars or the like, with those syringe thingies Little Sisters use as well as a few teddy bears that you can see in display cases surrounded by offerings in the form of burning candles and the odd wreath of wilted flowers- both significantly harder to find down here in Rapture, you'd assume.
Now, according to what you were told by Sinclair, one Father Simon Wales, presumably the weird preacher Delta mentioned contacted him via radio, should have an improvised 'church' to Lamb somewhere in the area, but the door you suspect should lead towards him (as your compass soul confirms after a quick momentary summoning) is locked with a code of some kind.
Meanwhile, you also found a door leading to a 'Pink Pearl', aka what you assume to be the big brothel down here, though you haven't ventured too deep inside yet- the multi-floored Little Eden Plaza that you spent most of your time exploring took quite a while to get through, considering you had to be careful of the splicers incessantly moving around the area.
Plus side, you managed to grab a few bites where Delta managed to only mutilate them a little instead of splattering them all across the nearest wall, so that's something, at least.
Honestly, he's having way too much fun with that drill.
Train Upgrade
Radar: It'd be pretty short-range, but you could totally add an active radar to the train, letting anyone in the frontmost driver's compartment see any possible attackers or incoming friendlies ahead of time (3 points)
Central Command: You've already done similar work, and some of the souls inside you can help you with the more complicated parts of this; why not go ahead and build what amounts to a command node for all your connected robots? You're pretty sure nobody in this dimension has really cracked wireless transmission the way you have access to yet, or at least not down in Rapture. (5 points, requires Radar)
Drone Bay: You have the manufactory compartment, you have an unused compartment right next to it... time to find a good and proper use, eh? Have the manufactory automatically produce robots of a given type until the designated storage compartment is full. (4 points, repeatable)
Autonomous Robot Army: You have a source of nearly unlimited robots (just needs raw materials) and a big-ass train. Why not make it an official thing? Just let your train do the conquering for you! Or at least have it automatically ransack nearby areas with the press of a button, anyways. (6 points, requires Radar, Drone Bay, Central Command)
Teleporter Compartment: Fun fact, Rapture is actually built so as to inhibit radio signals fro outside itself, making it extremely hard for your teleportation signal to range too far out from where the teleporter itself is set up, but you could totally teleport stuff around any area of the city you happen to be in at the moment. (4 points)
The manufactory trembles with activity, piece after piece after part after complete structure emerging from it.
Delta's rivet gun slams its payload home.
You assemble the next part and hold it in place.
Delta permanently keeps it in place, again.
Before long, you have completed the construction of a dedicated robot storage compartment, with the possibility for them to just walk out and fill up the next few empty compartments; it's actually closer to an extension of the manufactory itself than a seperate compartment.
This? This whole thing, once you completed the design work, was pretty simple and straightforward manual labor, but you kind of enjoy it all the same. Getting out and walking up to the front of the train, you go ahead and take a look at how things are progressing over there, Jasmine and Lucy using their plasmid powers to weld the completed mahcinery into place after you made sure it was all connected earlier, with Sinclair and Mark lending a hand.
It's amazing how little both of them complained about doing what amounts to physical labor; Sinclair presumably because he knows his best bet to leave Rapture a millionaire and go up from there lies in doing everything you say and Mister meltzer because he seems rather monofocused on finding his daughter, something the radar and wide-area sweeps your robots should be able to conduct with this stuff are supposed to help.
And they do, technically! Of course, you also have Delta roam the area with a few of the others, using his sonar power to seek out any and all Little Sisters and bringing them to join you, so they're just a tad unnecessary for that purpose, but hey, you don't tell him that, and the mindless work does look like it is exactly what this guy needs at the moment.
Nodding your head, satisfied, you turn around, mind already on the next part. or rather, on listening to Yoshi explain what to do next to make all of this shit work together, even as you consider at what point you will simply summon him to do the work for you.
The Pink Pearl, if the name, location and people telling you what it is didn't clue you in alread, is the largest brothel in all of Siren Alley, which itself is Rapture's red light district (or what became of it, anyways), formerly known as just the Pearl, a fine hotel until many of its former inhabitants became its employees instead.
In other words, this is a pretty wide 'building', hallways and foyers connecting rows of rooms meant for a wide variety of sordid activities, everything smelling of old and stale bodily fluids even from where you're standing in the entrance hall.
This... this is fine. You can deal with it. Not like you've ever been much of a prude, especially so after your transformation, it's just vaguely unpleasant.
So, a nice and quick raiding party consisting of yourself, Delta, Jasmine, Lucy and Kate followed by a few waves of Hammers, now in nice and reliable numbers with the sheer amount of junk you (or rather, the Maid) tore out of Pauper's Drop. Not to mention any damaged to destroyed bots can just be recycled, making casualties effectively meaningless for you.
Time to see how many splicers you can round up and how many limbs you'll have to amputate before their owners get the message, hm?
Betsy always just wanted to be happy, ultimately.
That didn't mean she took drugs, or talked about the other girls behind their back, though. She... never really got why the others did that. Instead, she volunteered at the soup kitchen and did chores around the neighborhood whenever she could- a lot of people really needed someone that just spent a little time with them.
Sometimes, an open ear and a free dinner was all that stood between someone and the end, and it broke her heart every time one of the 'regulars' stopped showing up- though few did, many instead seeing their community talks as the high points of their days.
Eventually, though, she had to grow up, get married to her wonderful husband Robert and look after herself, and though she made sure to take the time as always, her hubby got a job offer he just couldn't refuse, and so it came that with a lot of tearful goodbyes, she moved to the city of Rapture.
The fact it was an enormous underwater city was news to her, though.
Living in Rapture was... different, and adjusting took her a while. But before long, she'd geared up to do as she always did, making friends with anyone unfortunate enough not to get out of the way in time and (discretely) helping out those at the bottom, as the weird societal structure in this place seemed to make it a point to actively disdain them, rather than just view them with cold apathy like on the surface.
Some things never changed, Betsy supposed.
That said, she always had a knack for seeing ahead, and the bad feeling she had about some of the things going on were justified when civil war broke out and her hubby, sweetie that he was, just didn't come home one day. She was worried, of course, but just as bad as him being missing was, she had to find a way to keep herself fed and away from those horrible splicers- she'd seen and talked to her fair share of addicted people in her time, but those things were anything but.
She wasn't sure they were even human anymore.
Luckily, Betsy had a lot of friends, both those she'd helped and those that had helped her in turn, but Rapture was caught in a downward spiral and no matter how long she waited, Robert never came home. So rather than face life on the streets when her money started to run thin (she intimately knew how bad that would become), Betsy made a decision she'd never thought possible, but, well... she had experience with prostitutes, talked to them just as much, and she knew what she was getting into, more or less.
Better than nothing, at least.
And so it went, Betsy getting to know the other 'ladies' at the 'Pearl' with great ease (and she was sure they were making sure none of the worse customers got to see her, even if nobody said anything towards that end to her), even as Rapture sunk deeper and deeper into anarchy around them. Daniel, bless his heart, tried his best to keep the worst out there, but he was alcoholic, had been for the longest time, and she knew how hard it was to keep someone's head out of the bottle, especially when things were this... bad.
So when, years after she started selling herself as the only thing she could contribute to Mister Ryan's 'Great Chain', one of the other girls, with swelling ankles and a permanent grimace (more due to splicing than her own demeanour) offered her a tonic, Betsy took a deep breath, thinking about her life. It wasn't the first time someone had offered her their drug of choice, but it was the first time she was honestly considering it.
Her breath ended, and Betsy took her first step towards splicerdom. She didn't want to become one... but she also couldn't muster up any reason not to take that one last jump. Not like she had anything else left anyways, right?
And so it came that poor, sweet Betty was found by someone, another few years down the line, hallucinating due to one of the tumours in her brain pressing on a funny place, as she laid there on her bed. All she could see was an angel coming for her, taking her into his sweet embrace.
Finally, it was time...
The big old hotel takes a decent while to search, though a surprising amount of the whores to be found inside are still alive as you and Kate lead your seperate groups to ransack the building.
Surprising, because you do just so happen to find a lot of dead bodies, more than a few of them mutilated and raped, both before and after their passing. It honestly does go against your sensibilities a little; not so much in the way necrophilia usually would for 'normal' people and more in that you just can't see the appeal of fucking something that can't even react to it- whether because you're heaping love and praise on them to see them bliss out repeatedly or you're enjoying the struggle as they're raped.
Then again, the splicers down in Rapture are all kinds of insane, so you'll just chalk it up to that. Oh, and you're not about to judge, as you said, you just don't see the appeal. Still, ignoring the incredible stink of the rotting bodies, you get to making your way through room after room of big beds with obvious use in mind and peeping booths, Jasmine and Lucy assisting you in ensuring no splicer present escapes your little game of peek-a-bite.
Kate, whom you've been in contact with, mentions that she apparently ate the guy that used to own this place a few moments ago, having found one of those audio recording devices that mentions he knew the code to the door keeping you from the rest of Siren Alley.
You weren't particularly looking for that shit, but hey, always nice for problems to solve themselves.
Hedone Plaza, as the place you emerge into after using the code Siman Wales apparently sent his brother is or used to be called, is full of... interesting finds, just waiting to be picked up.
For one, there's a series of crawlspaces and maintenance rooms above the 'roofs' of the buildings stretching along the streets and into the main plaza that you suppose the name came from. A few turrets are technically shooting any unauthoruzed explorers, but those really arent any issue with just about everyone part of your party immune to bullets. Or expendable, in the case of the bots.
In general, your small army of Hammers is immensely useful for this. You left Nora, Sinclair and your Little Conductors in charge of giving them orders from the train, not that they need much attention in that direction- you (and mostly Yoshi) did a good job programming them.
Beyond that, you found a whole bunch of crates stashed inside back rooms and hidden underneath the floorboards of various homes and other buildings containing bibles, of all things.
More importantly, though, is what you find inside Joe's Green groceries, deliberately ransacking the old grocery store in hopes of finding any food not yet rotten and/or taken by splicers- few members of your group need to eat actual food, and your thralls need to eat less than a bog standard human does, but you still have enough mouths to feed that it is a consideration.
Inside, however, you find a big red button behind the counter.
"Do you see what I'm seeing, Sarah?"
"If you mean an obvious badly hidden secret switch of some kind, then yes, Gabe, I'm seeing it, too."
"Should... should we press it?"
"I don't see why not, worst case it triggers some kind of inconsequential alarm."
You just nod, seeing the logic... and you just can't help yourself.
It's a big. Red. Button. Of course you have to press it.
When doing so causes a very quiet rumble to come from the back rooms, it doesn't take the two of you long to find the now opened hidden entrance to what looks a lot like a secret lab of some kind located inside some kind of large drainage pipe area.
It also contains another splicer controlling a flying security bot somehow along with a security camera, but all of that is dispatched easily and swiftly enough.
An office area above the laboratory space itself contains a hidden safe protected behind a part of the wall disguised with a poster by yet another badly hidden switch, and a quick bit of brutal claws usage and Sarah repeatedly using the 'bot shutdown' nearby to cancel any and all alarms you're triggering later you have a plethora of notes and recipes on the creation of plasmids that went on down here at some point.
Suffice to say, this is a load of pretty interesting shit.
"...and the Lamb came in the absence of Hope! Ryan left us alone, and empty of purpose, but the Lamb of God taught us that We are one! We are Family! And Together, We shall defeat the Ego, and attain Salvation in the Embrace of the Lamb!"
You hear Father Simon Wales preaching aloud before you find him, having found the way to the pumping station without too much trouble after you brought everything useful you could rip out of the underground plasmid lab back to the train station, letting Tenenbaum look over and organize that stuff for the time being.
So, how are you going to deal with that particular nutcase, with Kate, Sarah, Delta, Jasmine and Lucy as backup, along with a dozen Hammers- any more would just get in the way in tight quarters, which is what this looks to be turning into.
"Father Simon Wales," you slowly pronounce as you come through the door, your body language relaxed and ready, yet also indomitable as you walk forwards, crossing the small landing overlooking the 'church' and looking down at the gangly 'priest', his mutations obviously quite similar to those you've already witnessed in other splider splicers.
"Tell me, what is it that you believe in?" Depending on his answer, you'll have to see how to proceed, even as you telepathically have the rest of your group array themselves behind you. Anyone tries anything funny, they're getting smacked down, hard.
"We believe in the Daughter of the Lamb, hallowed savior and anointed vessel, whose blood with our blood, sin with our sin, mind with our minds, life with our life, lifts us up from the depths, transcends base temptation, and delivers us all from ego."
Alright, so, uh, apparently, Sofia Lamb's little cult here believes her daughter to be some kind of messiah, then. Heavily suggests she is the one Sofia is trying to turn into her perfect utopist through throwing ADAM at her, from what the little madman down there is babbling on about.
How stunningly predictable.
"We know of you, for we are Family! Even if all of us fall today, you shall not lead our Lamb astray!"
"Hear me then, Good Priest, for I bring grave news!" You exclaim, your heart figuratively sinking in your chest as you realize that yes, you're actually doing this. Time to brush up what little you can remember from your human days and the bible you were forced to read a few times when your parents were... being themselves.
"The Lord hath decreed that Man Shalt Reign Over His Work! Not a bird, not fish, not lamb shalt lead Man, for Man shalt lead them! It is you, Good Father, that has been led astray by the False Lamb!"
Simon's face twists at that, its features already horribly torn and rearranged by his mutations, but he isn't attacking, at least, so you'll go ahead and consider this a success.
"Who art thou, then, that would disparage the Holy Lamb's teachings? Who dares dispute the Family?!"
"I am Gabriel, child, His angel of Mercy!" You spread your arms a little, making sure all the splicers in the room get the damn message that you're totally an angel and god's gift to them. Or to any ladies, at least, that much you have less issues going with. "Fear not, children, for I was sent to bring Mercy! Andrew Ryan abandoned you! The False Lamb lead you astray! But the Lord is merciful, for His decree is you have suffered enough! Your penance for abandoning Him is paid in full!"
Ooh, he didn't like that, you think, but he is at least making it a point to answer properly. Apparently you've successfully made it a point of faith now, and anything else than defeating you with words would cast doubt on his.
"The Lamb has brought us together after the Betrayer Andrew Ryan lead our flock from His grace! Her words brought the Family together, in preparation for His Paradise!"
"Ah, but what has the False Lamb done? Has she not made many promises, but acted on few? Does she not preach of ADAM, of misguided enlightenment that brings His flock ever further from the Light?! Her daughter is innocent, misguided as you all were, but The Lamb is following only her own goals, casting your souls ever further from paradise!"
And here you go, he can't actually say anything against that... because it's the truth, kind of. His face, too, goes still, as neutral as a flap of skin stretched over a deformed human skull can be.
"I carry with me the Souls of a thousand of the Lost," give or take a few hundred, you think to yourself as you preach, "for just as the Little Ones do His work with their needles and tireless effort, I am His hand and His will! Come to me, children of the Lord, and ascend to Paradise! Mercy absolves you of all sins, all regrets!"
"Is it truly as you say, then? The Lord forgiveth our sins?"
"I am Mercy, Father Wales," you reassure him in a warm voice, just a little disbelieving he's actually buying this. "All are forgiven, no matter how undeserving, for Mercy is to forgive even those that have not earned it, or those that cannot ever earn it."
Aaand now he's actually starting to cry out of the one eye that hasn't been sewed over. "The Lord grants us mercy."
Lowering his gaze from where you stand, he turns to his flock in attendance, screaming in exuberance. "THE LORD IS MERCIFUL! ALL ARE FORGIVEN! Hurry, don't make the archangel wait! He came all the way into the oceanic depth our abyss of sinners lies inside to beckon us forth unto paradise!"
"Worry not, child," you serenely explain, "Mercy awaits all. Time is of no meaning, for His eyes see all, and all are brought to His land in time. Whether one accepts Grace now or at their own time, all arrive at the same place, in the end."
The bullshit flows within you, and it spews from your mouth only to be eaten up by these fools.
"FORM A LINE, EVERYONE! TODAY, THE FAMILY DEPARTS TO PARADISE!"
""HALLELUJA!"" The splicers sitting in the pews scream out all at once now that the spiritual matters are settled, doing as their leaders says.
You don't show it, but you're deeply entrenched in a little telepathic screaming match with Sarah.
What the fucking fuckidy hell, Gabe?!
I have no idea! I never expected them to go and eat it up like this!
I can't even blame the reality distorting porn field on this one, you're literally bullshitting them into walking up into your mouth!
I know! It's complete madness!
Simultaneously, however, you extend your white owl wings out of your back, scaled up to fit for your human(oid) frame and flap them but once as you push off the ground, using your levitation to slowly float down the the church's ground floor.
"Come, children, and know peace."
And so they go, the splicers lining up like good lambs being led to the slaughter even as you push the bodies to the side every time you stuff yourself, Father Wales the very last in line and hesitating for a moment before being eaten.
"Before I go," he asks, obviously uncomfortable in asking something of you, "I would like to put in a word for my brother. He is a drunkard and a sinner, but he has a good heart, and it would hurt me deeply to see him jump into hell of his own volition."
"Worry not, child," you reassure him in your new serene angel persona, "Daniel Wales is known to us, and has been guided by" shitthinkfast "Kafziel, my assistant. He shalt know peace in his own way."
"Thank you, archangel," Simon bows before you, obviously relieved, "hearing you say this takes a load off my mind. It was my last regret after hearing you speak Truth. Please, take me. I am ready."
And with that, you finish up the last of the splicers found within the pumping station, spelling the end for Father Simon Wales.
At least he, uh, had a good run? Anyways, you just grin as you ascend back up, smiling at the rest of your group.
"Well, that was easy."
"Gabe," Sarah sighs, "you just literally convinced a bunch of religious nuts to walk into your mouth of their own volition."
"I did," you answer.
She just lays a hand across her eyes. "I swear to god, Gabe, what do you even need powers for?"
Kate just chuffs, nudging her in the side. "Hey, you can't deny it was hilarious. So, I'm apparently Kafziel now?"
You shrug. "I read up on religion at some point because of the whole abrahamic theme we've got going, Kafziel is the angel that governs the death of kings and is described as one of Gabriel's chief assistants in battle. Also starts with 'Ka'."
"Aww, you romantic, you. So, anything else we need to do here?"
"Uooohn."
"I know, I know. I also still can't believe they actually bought it."
The walk back to the train station is filled with you explaining what exactly just happened to Jasmine and Lucy, as the two of them don't have any reference points for religion, religious fanatics, cult indoctrination capable of convincing people ritual mass suicide is a good idea and what it means to be an angel.
(That last one they do get somehow, but more in an abstract sense, and they're actually startled when you tell them there's a whole religion out there that coined the term in the first place.)
At least Delta seems to get it, his memories returning very slowly and only those connected to general knowledge, as he mentions, but he does remember christianity being a thing at some point (as you know it to be, your database in general knowledge confirming it to be in this dimension).
"Anyways," you say, finally having gotten over most of the explaining you had to do as your wives accompanying you just joked and muddled the issue by throwing in inappropriate jokes, much to your consternation, "now we can finally get to Fontaine Futuristics without being bombed. About time, honestly."
Sarah sighed, getting out her sketching materials and beginning on the newest rough idea they would need to include in their lineup, Kate sitting next to her and grinning.
It was still weird to think of her as her sister-wife to her brother, but hey, they had time to get used to each other, so it didn't really matter.
"So we doing this, or what?"
"Of course we are," she answered, putting special care into the stroke of her pencil as she outlined the wings. "Only question is what we're using it as."
"Eh, I don't think that'll be much of a question, either. Body pillow all the way."
"You always vote for body pillows, Kate."
"I mean, can ya blame me? Your brother's a cuddler. I don't think he even notices, but he's always touching someone if they're in reach and he's sitting down for more than a minute."
Sarah blushed, remembering some of the earlier times she could recall, of her brother summarily placing herself (or their brother, but they didn't talk about him) on his lap at every opportunity.
"You're right, but that doesn't mean the mousepad idea was bad, either. You've groped his ass too, haven't you?"
Admittedly, she may or may not be just as bad in her own way, now that she wasn't repulsed from any human contact anymore. Though her power still gave her TMI, she had a much easier time ignoring or just outright jiving with it.
"You know, I think it says something about you that you immediately jumped to making his back the background and using his butt as bouncy wrist support balls."
"It's a great idea and you know it. It's also great for a reverse version that shows his naked front instead, use his literal balls and all."
Kate chuckled under her breath, embracing Sarah from behind as she looked at how she skecthed out her brother in his 'angelic' form, descending unto a mass of deformed believers, their arms raised as they pleaded for salvation.
She was far from as good as her brother, but she could use her perfect memory and a bit of creativity to get this more-or-less right, at least. she still had to redo more things than she got right on the first try, but hey, she was improving, and that was all that counted, as Gabe told her way back when she first started.
The skill she managed to suck from the 'people' around did help, though it wasn't much.
Either way, this would serve just fine as a basis to create certified Cain (tm) merchandise from, once they entered full mass production. It was only really a matter of time, really.
"Can't wait until Nora can join in on this," Kate spoke up, having slipped into companionable silence as Sarah worked.
"Not much longer before she 'officially' joins the club."
"Mhm. Only wish it wouldn't take quite that long. Think about how far along she would be already if she got her share of food," Kate lamented.
"Eh, can't be helped. It's just not the same unless Gabe does it. Speaking of which, we still on for doing it on the same day?" Sarah asked, trying to keep their timetables straight.
"We sure are. Shame Nora won't be ready yet, but maybe we can talk her into holding it for a bit and joining in, all it'd lose her would be, like, half a month."
"That'd be nice." All of a sudden, a thought came upon her, unbidden but far too hilarious not to say it put loud. "This is kind of like comparing periods and getting them in sync, isn't it?"
"Depends. Does Gabe's period count, too?"
Suffice to say, much laughter was had, the both of them chuckling along until one of the Little Sisters, in a lovely green dress, came towards them, the little scamps roaming the train station freely to have more space to play in.
"Auntie Angels, what are you doing?"
"We're having fun talking about Big Brother Angel, sweetie. Would you like to join us?"
"Yay!"
Honestly, this dimension wasn't all bad, even though these first few days were a bit of a hectic load of work.
Augustus Sinclair was... worried.
Oh wait, no, that was a lie. Augustus Sinclair was just a little troubled and mostly looking forwards to getting done with their little trek to his old holdings and finally start on doing what he did best; shoveling massive amounts of money. All that had him think twice was his new boss, but honestly, he was already working for Satan. Him doing his best angel impression and fooling a wannabe priest into ritual mass suicide to get whatever earthly goals he wanted to get done, done was par for the course by that point.
He had mentioned the big guy upstairs wasn't around down here. Whether he meant the depths of the ocean that Rapture was in or Earth as a whole, didn't matter. he was just gonna do his job and avoid any too fervent churchgoers best he could for a while, that was all anyone could ask of him.
... Though he did wish he had a bible or two to thumb through, get a feel for things. He wasn't ever gonna believe, nor take what was written in the other side's propaganda piece too seriously, but it never hurt to get a bit of a feel for things, yannow?
Another question was what the hell the devil would really want on Earth, but he'd already mentioned he was 'taking souls', so... it was probably as straightforward as it seemed, after all- or as straightforward as anything biblical could be. Gabriel decidin' to take over the world was a lil' bit off for that, but-
Really, he was Satan. Worldly affairs were supposed ta be his thing, right? Right. Probably did it just outta habit, using worldly things such as money to control his worshippers, rather than faith.
An attitude Augustus could sympathize with, honestly. Money was a better lever than anything else to move mountains with, he'd done it a few times himself.
"Uncle Sinclair, Uncle Sinclair!" Ugh, one of the little hellbeasts wanted something from him again.
"What is it, sweetie?" He did know not to fuck with his colleagues, even if they were literal children that had no idea whom they really worked for... or were used as infinite ADAM boosters by.
"Tell us another story, please?"
Dammit, he shouldn't have ever tried to get them off his back in exchange for 'storytime'. Now he was surrounded from outta nowhere, though, so...
"Alright, but jus' the one, lil' poppets."
""Yay!""
"Once up'n a time, in a land far, far 'nd away..."
Time to improvise another part of his life into somethin' kids would wanna hear...
Sofia Lamb was troubled.
Her plans had been proceeding apace, the ADAM gathered across the city at reasonable speeds and the splicers either parts of the Family or staying out of the family's way. It had merely been a matter of time before Eleanor, who even now was being conditioned as per protocol, but...
It all began to go wrong from the moment Subject Delta resurfaced under mysterious circumstances, having joined forces with a group of unknowns. And they were unknown; Ryan had been recording any and all arrivals to Rapture as compulsively as he'd followed the urges of his ego.
An issue that was showing when, beyond just Eleanor somehow being aware of her wayward 'father' returning and thereby delaying Project Utopia, the Sisters, both Big and Little, under her control began joining them.
Gabriel was a problem... and she had yet to find a way to turn him into a solution. Her earlier hope had been to simply wait Delta out, until the Protector Bond drove his body into ceasing just from Eleanor's extended absence and she could negotiate with the rest of the group without his involvement, but he was already keeping on going for longer than any recorded lengths other subjects had survived.
Curious... and worrying. For now she would just have to assume Gabriel had a way to delay the Bond's effects upon Delta. Not that only Gabriel alone was any better of an antagonist, however; she had installed a lot of equipment in Pumping Station Five, the beating heart of the Family and monument to the foolishness of any one person declaring the ego to be a universal driving force beyond the Common Good, and what she'd seen and heard of how Gabriel convinced Father Wales...
She had decided not to interfere, knowing that any direct confrontation would result in the same outcome anyways. Father Wales and his most direct believers were lost to her... and Gabriel had proven himself silver tongued beyond expectation.
He had simply used his abilities and played into their appearance, exploiting Wales' own prose against him until even the man himself agreed... though admittedly, Wales was not necessarily the best example of mental integrity.
This, along with the newly revealed ability to float and grow angelic wings, went into her file on Gabriel. Her most likely recourse to her daughter's ascension still laid in convincing Gabriel not to seek her out...
She may need to talk to him again, just so as to gather more information before everything came to a head. Gently laying a hand onto the monitor showing her Eleanor's condition, she did her best to overcome the love swelling forth within her.
It wasn't proper to love one person over another, after all.
"Don't worry, Eleanor... Mommy will let you fulfill your destiny."
Train Upgrades!
Plasmid Lab Compartment: Well, you have everything you'd technically need to build a proper plasmid lab to let Tenenbaum work in whenever she's not busy with the Little Ones, so you totally could refurbish one of the compartments and install everything there, with a decent chunk of lab equipment made from scratch thanks to the manufactory. WHile you're at it, may as well update the manufactory to let it mass-produce plasmids and tonics as long as it's supplied with plenty of ADAM... (5 points)
Conductor's Compartment: Times are changing. Both in good ways and in bad, but you will go ahead and decisively say that the handful of Little Sisters running around in a conductor's costume are so precious this can only be called a good thing. The train's frontmost compartment could stand to be adjusted for its newest occupants, however, and so you totally should go ahead and refurbish it, with a few comfier seats with little stairs on them so the new conductors can get to them comfortably, a few switches and buttons to let them do more than accelerate, decelerate and halt, etc. (4 points)
Off The Rails: One of the major weaknesses of a train is the fact it requires rails. Well, no longer! Just add a few more engines here, and you could technically convert it into a proper submarine, after all. It'll be unable to really 'land' anywhere but a train station unless you want everything to be flooded, but it's certainly doable. (5 points)
"... and the beakers over there, please. That should do it."
Arranging a proper lab for Tenenbaum is, surprisingly, fairly straightforward. All she really needs are a whole bunch of ADAM, a few ways to store it and some specialty equipment, mostly for heating, cooling, electrocuting, dividing and other ways of manipulating ADAM. Luckily, you have a whole bunch of raw materials carried to your manufactory, so you can just spontaneously create everything she needs.
Oh, and Nolan to be let out occasionally to run simulations as to what her concoctions would do to a living person, as you don't want to waste the food Father Wales' little tour through the surroundings attract, nor the happy meals trying to attack him because they don't agree with his religious views and swiftly get cut down and captured by the Hammers you sent with him.
Waste not, want not and all that.
"So, how exactly does refining ADAM into plasmids work? I know a lot about the theoretical part, but how do you get from green-ish sludge to super cancer?"
"I can show you, now that we are at it. The process itself is fairly simple, once one has exact data on the finished product."