2021 & 2022 Daily Jump Challenge RP (2024)

I grunted slightly as I lifted the slab of concrete. Had I been any other person, aside from possibly one of Nina's drones, lifting it would have been impossible, at least for a baseline human. I'd not been a baseline human for the better part of a year, so all it did was get dust over my clothes.
A few minutes later, after confirming with Nina that there weren't anyone, living or dead, in the remains of the building, I met back up with the crew of Haitians I was working with, brushing dust off of my jacket.
"Are you sure you're not the President?" asked one of the workers, squinting at me.
"If I was the President of the United States," I said, shucking my jacket, a pale blue lab coat with retro-reflective fabric from the shoulders to a line horizontal with my armpits, basically an interpretation of the late twenty-fourth century Starfleet medical labcoat. "Would I be working here, without any Secret Service protection?" The rest of my outfit was also vaguely Starfleet-inspired, though technically it was a standard-issue ASDF or T.A.L.O.N. heavy-duty uniform, just without the identifying patches, though the jacket was restricted to medical personnel. A long-sleeved medium-grey reinforced micro-mesh shirt tucked into a black reinforced micro-mesh cargo pants with a web belt and black, rough-out reinforced and titanium toe and sole-armored combat-style boots. The reinforced micro-mesh was as tough as dragonhide, as flexible as silk, and as comfortable in the mid-August Caribbean heat and humidity as pure linen (the temperature-sensitive fibers also trapped air in cold weather, but proper cold-weather gear required more layers).
"If you say so," he replied, not quite believing my assertion. He then nodded to my arm, "What's that?"
I twisted my left arm to better show it to him, "This is my bracer-computer, it's like a smartphone, but linked to the sensors from the drones from the Divine Eclipse and my HUD." I tapped the hologram projector applied around my left orbital that looked a bit like Seven of Nine's ocular implant. Both it and the bracer-comp were fabbed up by Nina when I revealed the Power I'd exported from X-Men: Evolution. They were a couple centuries behind the state-of-the-art used by the ASDF or T.A.L.O.N., but then, their designs were frozen when I exported the Divine Eclipse, and were more that functional enough for use here in the Mundane World. Technically the bracer-computer was the bastardized gestalt of a non-sapient device, tricorder, kimoyo beads, omni-tool, sonic screwdriver, auspex, and a pip-boy, run through a few hundred years of revisions and upgrades, and was one of the most advanced computers in the solar system, behind Nina's brain and her drones, humanoid and non-humanoid alike. The HUD was just a soft-light hologram emitter array and enough sensors to make it so that the HUD was fixed properly to the movement of my head.
"Is that how you're finding people?" he asked.
I nodded, "The drones do the scouting, I do the heavy lifting and triage, before they get teleported up to the Divine Eclipse for acute treatment and then transferred to either a local hospital or one in the United States."
"Speaking of heavy lifting," said one of the other workers. "How are you lifting so much?"
"I'm stronger than I look," I said, and let Different Names take care of the rest.
"How long are you going to be here?" a third asked, older and more experienced with young American doctors, especially feminine ones, coming over during emergencies and then leaving.
"As long as I need to be," I said, then clarified. "I'm not a colonizer, I'm just here to help with the rescues. So, likely at the end of the week if what Nina, the Divine Eclipse's AI, said is true about how many people are left to be rescued." Rebuilding would take longer and would take resources I didn't currently have, even as President of the United States, at least not personally, though I did hope that the charities and organizations would be less wasteful than eleven years prior.
"Where will you go next?" he asked, a pang of disappointment in his voice.
"Where I'm needed," I said with a shrug. "There's always an earthquake, tsunami, wildfire, hurricane, drought, or war zone somewhere that needs doctors."
This self in Haiti wasn't my only duplicate, as my Power had retained the boost from the Gem of Cyttorak, as well as the decade of training I'd put into it, so I had somewhere around fifty or sixty thousand possible duplicates available to me, though I was only using thirty.
Ten of me were here in Haiti, fifteen on-board the Divine Eclipse, two up in the Ring, one in Denver, one in New York, and of course, one in the Capital District, serving as POTUS. Since my consciousness was in a perfect hive mind, but each of my bodies still got fatigued as normal, I expected by the end of the week I'd actually have about seventy or eighty duplicates in various stages of work, downtime, and sleep.

"Are you sure you can spare the time?" asked Rachael, my sister-in-law, as I showed up to help for the third day in a row.
"If sie says sie has the time, I don't think we should turn hir down," said my brother.
"I'm fine, Rachael," I said with a smile, dodging a rowdy pit bull as I carried a handful of plates of breakfast out of the kitchn. "You saw that I've got things covered in the District."
"How do you do that?" asked Rachael, following me out of the kitchen with plates of her own. With me here there were now eight people in the three-bedroom bungalow, the youngest my niece Tesla at three and a half years old, and the oldest Rachael's mother, Mary, in her sixties (I felt it impolite to ask the exact year, though I could easily look it up).
I smiled cheekily as I deposited the plates in front of my older nephews, "It's classified."
"Just drop it Rachie," said my brother, who despite being the older brother of the President of the United States, was still working as a Regional Manager for a tire company.
"I'm still doing my job running the country," I assured them. "It's just, I've now got a way to help out here."
"Which is very nice of you," said Mary, taking a plate from her daughter, who sat down at the table next to her. "Are you not eating?"
I waved her off, "I ate before I came, I did start my day pretty early." Also, as much as I love Rachael's cooking, and I did, between the White House, the Divine Eclipse, and my own cooking, I was spoiled for choice.
"So, what's new?" asked my oldest nephew, Mika.
I kneeled down next to his chair, glad that I'd gone with a more voluminous kilt today than the shorter and more restrictive skirt I'd worn yesterday. "Well, your cousin Nina is helping in Haiti, and once we get you and your brother to school, I'm going to head down and help Grampa and Great-Grandpa with their Meals on Wheels delivery, before coming back here and helping your Mom and Grandma with Tess and Rew."
"I still find that weird," said my brother. "Not that I don't like Nina, but she's an AI."
"She decided that Erin was her parent, and that's all that matters," said Mary.
"I couldn't have said it better myself," I said with a smile.
Breakfast continued apace, followed by a brief stint of chaos as a teenager and a pre-teen got ready for school, while their younger siblings made things difficult.
"You sure you don't want the job?" I asked my brother as I followed him out to his company truck. "It's not just because you're my brother."
"I'm fine, Erin," he said. "Plus, we've nearly found the right place to move to."
"The place in Georgetown is more spacious than anything you can afford, since you won't let me help, and you can't beat the views. Plus, it's definitely a small town, just a few thousand in the entire Ring."
He paused, "Look, if we can't find a new place in our price range, I'll think about it."
"Plus, if you really want, you can still commute here. It's not like it's that much work to have Nina beam you here," I added.
"If it's not tied to the job, why would I take the place in Georgetown?" he asked, getting into the driver's seat.
"Because I want to see you and Rachael and the kids, and even Mary and the dogs, happy," I countered. "Plus, if you move, then I can convince the rest of the family to move up to the Ring. I've almost convinced Mom anyway."
"What about Dad?" he asked, pulling the door closed.
"It's a big Ring, and it's not like they hate each other, they just don't love each other."
"I'll think about it," he said. "Really, I will."
"You do that," I said, stepping back. "Have a good day at work."
"Thanks for the help, Erin. I don't know how you find the time, but thanks," he said.
"Want me to get Rachael?" I asked.
"Already kissed her goodbye while you were helping Stephynn," he said.
I gave him a wave as he started up the truck, "You know, once they get the arty-grav perfected enough for cars and trucks, you're going to be out of work."
"I doubt it'll come fast enough before I retire," he said, before putting the truck into reverse. "Later Erin."
"Later Josh, I love you."
"Love you too."

"So, why did you bring back Duplication?" asked Nina as I jogged around the perimeter of the Divine Eclipse's central deck.
I didn't technically speaking need to jog, since Augmented took care of my health, but it's something I'd gotten into the habit of back as a half-Caitian, fighting the ambush predator and persistence hunter conflicting natures. I was wearing a sports bra and running shorts, and nothing else, jogging barefoot.
"Honestly, if it wasn't for Different Names, I likely would have exported Seraglio from Grrl Power back in May, since I'd been feeling the dysmorphia that came from being in only one place at a time since Invincible the week after I became POTUS," I said, keeping up my pace.
While I was wearing my workout clothes, Nina wasn't even using a humanoid drone to talk with me, instead speaking through a non-humanoid drone, though she shaped the mimetic polyalloy into a chibi version of her default humanoid form dressed as Supergirl, cape and all, flying alongside me as I jogged.
"Ah, I can see where that comes in," she said.
"Honestly, the sixty-seven of me that I have running around here, on the Ring, and back in the States is barely enough to feel like myself, even if it's only a week before I return to my multitudinous self," I continued. "Though, the fact I don't want to stretch even Different Names too much is why I'm so restrained. I'm usually running in the five to six figures for each dimension, between Dupli-Kate and the hived clones, though spread along the timeline of course, so being restricted to just one instance for a week at a time was taxing, reminding me of the uncomfortableness of being an uncracked egg before the Chain."
"I have noticed that you're more euphoric since Sunday," Nina commented.
I smiled, though only so much, since I was still jogging, even though being Augmented meant a jog was closer to a track-running pace. "I'm still greatly diminished from what I'd considering my 'true' self during the Jumps, but, yeah, I feel more like myself."
"Going back a bit and speaking of dimensions, have you done any Walking?" asked Nina.
"Not yet, but mostly because I'm working on my kit," I said. "Also, I was wondering if you'd like to send a drone along? Well, it'd likely be a fork rather than a drone."
"Oh," she said, pausing and falling behind before shooting forward in the standard swimming pose, arms stretched out with her little fists clenched. "I hadn't thought that was an option."
"I've Walked with Friday lots of times," I said. "Though after you were brought here, of course, though even before that I had access to a multiverse. If anything, the Spark is the least form of multiversal travel I have during the Jumps, it's just the only version I've been able to export. As for a drone, we could likely do a drone-suit arrangement if you don't want to devote time to augment a humanoid drone into an exoskeleton."
The drone-suite was one of the ideas developed during the initial planning for the Hubble Servicing Mission, before it was pushed back with the confirmation that the backup computer system was working. It consisted of a pair of hon-humanoid drones docked into a modified SCBA unit, with an extra few liters of mimetic polyalloy. The drones would provide arty-grav flight, the polyalloy physical protection and mechanical counterpressure for use in a vacuum, and the SCBA the essential life support.
"I could probably cut down a fork enough for a couple of spheres, though I wouldn't mind the engineering challenge of integrating life support into a drone torso," Nina said. "I've been whittling down forks to fit in the humanoid drones for experimental FTL tests, but that was theoretical."
"What sort of timeline?" I asked, keeping my pace.
"I was looking at January for the first tests, but we can honestly start now if you'd like," she said. "If I send two humanoid drones it'll be more than enough for a stable beta fork, and a quintet of spheres might be able to run that as well."
"Make it six," I said. "And there's no need to rush."
"I know, but like I said, it was theoretical. Now I actually have a reason to think about it. Plus, I'd like to actually see the places I've sensed," she said.
"Considering I'll need a drone-suit anyway, we can wait to make sure things are working," I said.
"What, your closet doesn't have any spacesuits?" Nina asked sarcastically.
"It's got spacesuits, just nothing I'd trust on an unknown planet or moon, especially since it's likely you'll want to test outside of the solar system, meaning I'll need the drone-suit to fly unless I want to use magic," I said. "While I'd have no problem doing that with Friday or my Jump magic, here I've just got my MCU magic and my Planeswalker Spark, and only a few months of intermittent practice with the former, and just over a month of intermittent practice with the latter."
"Good point," she said.
"So, shall I continue? I've still got five more minutes," I said.
"Of course, let's go," she said, and flew ahead of me, forcing me to nearly run to keep up, a smile returning to my face.

I let out a sigh, "So, what can we do?"
"At the Federal level, not a whole lot," said Sally Yates, my Attorney General, replacing Biden's pick of Merrick Garland back in early April. "It's not a Federal crime in and of itself, and most of the convictions we've gotten in the past related to it are around tax evasion, trafficking, or involving minors."
I nodded, as it wasn't something I didn't already know.
"Can we do anything at a Federal level?" I asked. "And that's both within the Executive Branch and also working with Congress once they came back in September."
"There's always the option of an Executive Order restricting Federal Agents from participating in investigations going after the workers themselves. It's not much, but it signals a change. The inclusivity language we're working in Congress on the Universal Basics Laws are going to help as well, so UBH will allow the workers to have healthcare separate from their 'employer'. The gig economy protections we're working on will help there as well, since that's effectively what they are outside of Nevada as it is," said my Vice President.
Thankfully my efforts with the Civil Religion have helped as well, which is why Sally and Kamala were being as reasonable as they were about even talking about prostitution.
"It's much like the problems we're having with drugs," said Kamala. "The War on Drugs has been such a fixture in our country for so long that it's hard to make the changes. Prsotitution has been stigmatized in our society for far longer, despite it often being called 'the oldest profession', or perhaps even because of it."
"Progress is slow," I said with a nod. "Honestly, getting a Postal Bank set up will be a good first step, removing the difficulties with the private payment processing systems."
"Until we can stack the Board of Governors, DeJoy is going to keep blocking it," said Sally.
"And we can't do that in earnest until next year," said Kamala. "And even then, we'll still need Congress to remove the retirement plan restrictions that are limited the Post Office."
"Postal Service," I corrected her. "Another thing we're fighting against, the insistence of people that infrastructure needs to 'pay for itself'. Thankfully I took care of the problem for Amtrak, but until the Postal Service is seen as the infrastructure it is, it won't be given the respect it deserves."
I took a breath, "So, removing the agents from investigations is a good first step. Then we need to work on the states."
"It'll be hard," I admitted with a nod. "But nothing worth doing is easy, otherwise it would have already been done."

"So, I have to choose a supplement from these four Jumps?" I asked, looking at the short list my Benefactor had given me alongside telling me I was going to Generic SpaceBattles.
"Technically you don't have to, but you won't be getting a nomination if you don't," she said. "Which means you'll have even less control over where you'll go next time."
"But that implies that this wasn't among the choices this time," I pointed out.
"It's complicated, but I felt that Generic SpaceBattles was important enough, and that you deserved this chance, that I'd… bend the rules a little. I can't do it a lot, definitely not twice in a row, which is why this restriction."
I thought for a moment, looking over the list of options.
"Before I pick, what about the Pact?" I asked.
"They'll be from the Mundane World, though until you gain your Spark, they will effectively be forks of their Mundane counterparts, since the world is only stopped when you Jump, rather than permanently until you Spark," she explained.
"And what about the fact that I'm an option for the SpaceBattler Companion?" I asked
"Sie'll be a proper separate fork of your Mundane self," Jump-Chan said. "So all of the Perks and Items you purchase from Generic SpaceBattles, as well as everything you've exported, even Nina and Dogmeat."
I smiled.

"First off, sorry about the abductions," I said with a cautious smile, looking down the long table.
There was a bit of a cacophony as the thirty-one other people in the room started asking questions all at one.
I snapped my fingers and they were silenced, though it took some of them a few seconds to realize it.
"Secondly, sorry about the silence. I want to explain this first," I continued. "Thirdly, technically, all of you asked for this. Okay, well, not you," I pointed to one of my guests, "But she put you on this list, so blame her, not me."
My guests quickly raised their hands, though I one, a short woman in her forties, first.
I pointed to her, removing the spell, "Essjay?"
"Okay, so, that answers one of my questions, and raises a whole load of new ones," she said. "But, who are you, and why is the President here?"
I pointed to the aforementioned President of the United States, "Do you want to explain this one Erin, or should I?"
"This is Mx. Foxglove," said the President. "And in a way, sie's me, or rather, I'm a fork of hir, I presume. Considering I remember the last seven and a half months, I'm going to go with SpaceBattler rather than Pre-Jumper, right?"
I nodded, "Yep." I made sure to pop my 'p'. "So, as the President has suggested, I'm a Jumper. Sie's also a fork of who I am in the Mundane World."
"So, you're on Sudden Mundanity?" asked EssJay.
I nodded, "I believe so, though technically my Benefactor hasn't explicitly called it that, but it fits what's going on. I'm also going through the Daily Jump Challenge, I'm pretty sure, though obviously not the Jumps from the Mundane World, likely Jumps nominated by another world that forked just prior to me becoming a Jumper."
"So, what Jump are we in?" asked Erin. "I mean, aside from SpaceBattles?"
"Artemis Fowl," I said. "And while I paid for everyone who submitted adverts for Companionship, rather than just those in the Pact, from Generic SpaceBattles, I didn't in the primary Jump."
"Since some of you were still doing the Challenge, you're likely asking about the other options. They were Star Ocean, Fate/Legends: Strange New World, Splatoon, and Lightbringer. I was tempted by a few of them, but Artemis Fowl was easiest to exploit for my existing Companions."
"Who imported?" asked Erin. "The Commonwealth Six, obviously, but who took the last two spots? Cordelia and Hiskari?"
I shook my head, "Xandre and Hiskari, actually."
"Foaly? Koboi? Jumper?" Erin asked.
I nodded.
EssJay raised her hand.
"Yeah?"
"Two things. First, can you unmute everyone, I'm sure they'll cooperate. Second, who are we working with as your Companions?"
"More like the Third String, but sure, I get you," I said, before making a superfluous gesture and removing the spell, which caused a brief burst of noise before they all were silent naturally.
"As for my Companions, as Erin implied, I have more than either, especially since I now of thirty-two more, though only thirty-one of your are here. Ursine's a special case and already understood what was going on, so didn't need an explanation," I continued. An image of Nora in hir standard workshop outfit appeared above the long table, "My oldest Companions is my spouse of thirty-three Jumps now, Nora Foxglove. For those wondering, sie was the lead designer on the Divine Eclipse, along with myself and Xandre. The Ring was upgraded by the three of us, the aforementioned Hiskari, as well as Shaun and Isabel, two of the 'Commonwealth Six'."
A raised hand. A pointed finger and a nod.
"Like, Father and the Mechanist Shaun and Isabel?"
I nodded, "Yeah, though I'll get to them PacRat. Right, so, first is Nora. Sie's my spouse, the mother and father of my children, and likely the best engineer in the local multiverse." Another image, this time of Harri in a white blouse, black slacks, and ballet flats, "Next is Harri Potter, originally with a 'y' but now with an 'i'. She was a feminine bilateral hermaphrodite like Nora, Mal, and I for quite a few Jumps, but didn't want to deal with it in Generic Victorian and has generally stayed female since, though since she's got Be Who You Want, Love Who You Want, it's not exactly set in stone."
EssJay raised her hand, then asked after I nodded, "Is that why you, or rather Erin." She turned to Erin, "Is a feminine bilateral hermaphrodite in the real world?"
"It's the Mundane World," said Erin. "And yeah, I… we… sie, exported it to the Mundane World in late February, and by the time I… sie…"
"You're just as real as I am, Erin, they're your memories just as much as they are mine," I said.
"Right, when I woke up, I was no longer a four hundred and fifty pound morbidly obese man, but instead… well, an amazonian hermaphrodite that I swear Disney didn't copy for Captain Carter."
"Could have fooled me," said one of my guests, Adam, under his breath.
"If you'll remember, Erin didn't get Disney until after the What If… ? trailers started dropping, so the design was already finalized," I defended my fork, and myself, really.
"So… right, Nora and Harri. I've mentioned Mal, who is Maleficent from Once Upon A Time." Two images this time, Mal's dragon form as well as hir in a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. "I took the Drawback that made me her daughter, and like myself, Nora, and Harri at the time, went feminine bilateral hermaphrodite in Generic Romantic Story, at least, once we figured out who we wanted to be. Sie sometimes goes female or male, but usually returns to herm by the end of the Jump. Sie was much more villainous, but after travelling with the Doctor for a few Jumps, decided to reform into, at worst, and anti-hero."
"The Doctor?" asked Poor Dick's partner.
I nodded, "They stayed for eight Jumps, but left after Generic Star Wars Fanfiction."
"Right, my next two Companions are a pair, Xandre and Dawn. Originally Xander Harris and Dawn Summers from Buffyverse, Xandre went female when we joined the Adepta Sororitas and has stayed female since." The images of Xandre in her workshop clothes, and Dawn in a sundress, appeared above the table. "Xandre is the second best engineer in the local multiverse, and as Erin implied, picked up Foaly? Koboi? Jumper, along with Thing of Wonder for the boost. Dawn's a bit of a mixed bag, but focuses on travel and divination. Like myself she didn't need a Planeswalker Spark to be able to travel the multiverse, though the magic is always nice to have."
Another image appeared, this time of the Sisters of Battle in full Sisterhood of Steel power armor and weapons.
"These are the Sisters of Battle, though they form the core of the Sisterhood of Steel. Originally an Orders Minor of Adepta Sororitas, they're now their own country and mercenary force, inspired by the Adepta Sororitas they started out as, the Mandalorians slash Clone Troopers, the Brotherhood of Steel, which they had their own chapter of, a splinter from the Capital Brotherhood after the death of Sarah Lyons, as well as the Widows of the late Red Room, though the last only in inspiration rather than import or purchases, since the MCU was my seventh and eighth Jumps and they came from my nineteenth."
"How are they with the Man-Emperor?" asked EssJay.
"Considering we're all Gods ourselves of one flavor or another?" I asked rhetorically. "They were originally from the fortieth millennium, but we spent most of the Jump in the thirtieth raising the Primarchs after rescuing them. That was post Doctor Who so the ten thousand years wasn't a hurdle, nor traveling the galaxy to find the Primarchs. They know that the Emperor isn't a God, but instead a powerful Warp entity. And, honestly, if and when we return to that universe, I'll likely recruit my boys, since I was reluctant there due to numerical limits."
"Your 'boys'?" asked Arythios.
"Technically my oldest Companion was an orphan I adopted during my year in Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them during Generic First Jump, an exception my Benefactor made. Tom was a good man."
"Was?" asked Orion.
"He decided to get married to Captain Jack," said Erin. "Which is when we picked up the Doctor. It wasn't until we picked up the Commonwealth Six that the Companion count went above eight slots. The 'boys' would be the Primarchs, of course."
"Some pronoun problems, but otherwise fine," I added. "Though, yeah, you being a fork is going to make things a bit odd until we diversify some more."
"Next up is, Cordelia and Hiskari," I said, and the image of the married couple appeared above the table. Cordelia was, as fitted her, in a fashionable purple and white pantsuit, while Hiskari, while human, was wearing something that, aside from being purple, wouldn't have looked out of place worn by Emma Frost, Queen Mera of Atlantis, or her original self. "Originally from Generic Star Wars Fanfiction, they helped me reform the Galactic Republic after I killed Sheev and took over his Banite cult."
"How many Star Wars Jumps have you done?" asked Velk.
I grimaced, "Only the one, so I can't grant a connection to the Force quite yet. You can learn magic at Hogwarts, though, and since it's Harri's Jumper School of Magic it's quite a few different kinds of Magic. I've also got a Spark of Power, but we're only going to be here for seventy years, so not everyone is going to get their Planeswalker Spark."
"That's not all of what's on offer, either," said Erin. "Nora is an enhancement and power armor specialist, so the Super Soldier serum is pretty good, though be warned, if you're not worthy it won't do anything, though you can get a lesser enhancement through the Garrick and Danner enhancements separately."
"But if you fail the test, you might be asked to Stay or Go Home rather than keep with us," I added.
"Which brings us to, the aforementioned Commonwealth Six among my Companions," I said. "Codsworth, Shaun, Ecks, Isabel, Nick, and Preston, rewards from the Scenarios in Fallout 4."
"No Dogmeat?" asked EssJay.
"Oh, he's the First Dog," said Erin.
"And he's still the First Dog here," I added. "Nina's here as well."
"Wait, it wasn't just the Perks I kept?" asked Erin, surprised.
"Not at all, Mecks President," I said with a smile.
"Oh, okay," sie said, sitting up straight in the chair, the tallest of my guests, though still shorter than my two and a half meters of height.

"Now, those are my prior Companions, which brings me to my newest Companions, you and Ursine. Thankfully my Benefactor fixed a longstanding error, at least in my opinion, with the Generic SpaceBattles Jump, especially in light of the Pact, and allowed all of you to gain the Perks and Items I purchased from the Jump as part of your Body Mod. Which means you all have Forum Etiquette, Touch Typist, Almost As Good Looking As I Pretend To Be, Total Recall, Talented for writing, Persistent Muse, Efficient Use Of Your Time, and Big Brother for Perks. For Items, you've got the freebie Smartphone, the first paid tier of Bare Necessities, Good Google, both the Bobbleheads and the Pez Dispensers, Username & Avatar, and Internet Access. Now, I didn't grab all the Perks and Items, I didn't need them and I already grabbed seventy extra years of

."
"Be lucky sie grabbed Almost As Good Looking… and Total Recall," Erin added. "Since as you can see, sie doesn't need the first, and sie picked up Seeing the Sights, All The Sights from Generic First Jump, so didn't need the second either."
"Thanks," I said with a nod. "Now, since GSB is supplementing Artemis Fowl, you also received three hundred Choice from that Jump for purchases from

. Since my six Companions that didn't Import into the main Jump all took the same Perk, and it's a damned good one, I figured I'd give it to all of you as well. Rule Breaker being that Perk, which for those that hadn't read the Artemis Fowl Jump before, and thus can't remember it via Total Recall, it's twofold. First, it allows you to break any and all rules that would normally bind you. It doesn't mean you can break any law without a consequence, but nothing from any future Origin or Species purchase will have that problem. Second, you can slip out of contracts, rules, or restrictions of a magical nature, as long as it's not Drawback fiat, while still retaining the benefits. Thankfully this is Jumpchain and I'm a decent enough Jumper, so you won't have to worry about slipping out of any innate contracts with me for being my Companion. I'm a huge proponent of consent and universal rights, if anyone paid attention to what happened with Nina and the Divine Eclipse."
"So, what happens if we die or decide to Go Home?" asked Jae, raising his hand. "

isn't exactly a picnic."
"You'll return once I get my Spark, rather than immediately," I said with a shrug. "Only the Companion I export will do so immediately."
"That'd be me," said Erin.
"Not necessarily, but that was the plan," I said. "It's your choice, of course."
"Oh, I'd like to see it, though has Jump-Chan said anything about The American Presidency?" sie asked.
"She did, though only that she'd handle it," I said. "So either Co-Presidents, India or Indonesia changes their name to 'the USA' and appoints you as President, or one of us gets to retire. But that's a problem for eighty years from now."

"So, wait, you have your own pocket universe, virgin of life except for the last hundred and thirty years, and you're spending time within the main Jump?" asked Drew Rattz, the name that DataPacRat has chosen from themself.
"Only a few thousand," I pointed out. "A few thousand in a couple of the nearby mirrors, but most of me is out exploring. We've catalogued most of the Milky Way, though it'll be more towards the end of the Jump before it's as explored to a level that I feel comfortable leaving alone, and even then, I'll likely be cataloguing and exploring for centuries to come, looking for all the interesting vistas. That's not even counting the dozen or so planets we've decided to start terraforming, and the colonies we've established in orbit of those planets."
"Why stay here at all?"
"Because there are always interesting things to do or see, even if we've eliminated the major threats to the population of the planet. There are injustices that need to be corrected, people given help and hope, and wounds that I and my Companions can heal."
"What can I do?" Drew asked.
"What do you want to do?" I asked. "I remember that you were a transhuman back in the Mundane World. While you opted out of the full Super Soldier package, there are other options."
"Like what?"
"Are you familiar with Lazotep and Etherium? From the Magic: the Gathering multiverse?" I asked.
Drew shook their head, "I've heard of it, but only mentions, never caring enough to look it up."
I nodded, "Understandable, we all have our areas of expertise. So, Lazotep is a magical mineral similar to Lapis Lazuli that helps to retain memories and consciousness during necromantic transformations. Etherium is an alloy that allows for the substitution of flesh without loss of life, and with an increase in utility and magical capability."
Drew nodded slowly, "Okay."
"Right, how familiar are you with Terminator Genesys? Specifically the T-3000?"
Drew cocked their head to the side, thinking, then perked up, "I assume there are linked?"
I nodded, "We've perfected the design so there's no danger of hitting the

clause, and it uses picobots of an Etherium-Uru-Darksteel alloy with Lazotep substrate processors. The process takes a couple of weeks rather than the near instantaneous process of the T-3000 conversion, but that's the fastest we could do it and retain continuity of self that didn't trip the Drawback."
"What about the weakness to magnetic fields?" Drew asked.
I made a dismissive gesture, "Not even a concern, since it's only inspired by the T-3000. The picobots will create a proper endoskeleton as well as serving as the basis for the mimetic polyalloy that will serve as your flesh, though your consciousness and 'selfhood' will be distributed throughout both, connected via redundant purely magical, technomagical, and radio systems. It's also based on the Life Model Decoys from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so despite being non-biological you'll appear to be as human as you'd like."
"What about my appearance? I mean, species, gender, height, weight, et cetera."
"It'll default to your current appearance, since that's the fiat-backed self-image and it's a transformation of your body, but you'll be able to make adjustments manually, after a lockout period to maintain said self-image, and with a gradual release of capability as your soul integrates the changes. Changing the size, shape, and extent of your endoskeleton will, obviously, take time, while adjusting the visual appearance of your mimetic polyalloy 'flesh' will be nearly instantaneous."
"And forking?"
"Until you have the Perks for it, the forks will be based on your Body Mod, so any forks made this Jump will be effectively the same, though only one of you will be my Companion, the rest will be left behind," I said. "The capability of a hive mind is a standard option we've been using and upgrading separately since around Invincible."
"Why then?"
"That's when we picked up the Clone Tubes, the basic version that doesn't tell you which is the original and which is the copy, so to not have relationships falter due to a series of coin flips, we started implementing them. It's just Myself, Nora, Harri, Mal, Xandre, and Dawn that have the tubes and need the hive implants, but we've, or rather Nora and Xandre, plus Hiskari, Shaun, and Isabel since we picked them up, have pretty much perfected them. We don't keep our clone hives, but there are other hives that persist between Jumps, like the Codsworths."
"And computer interfacing?"
"All standard. It's not true technopathy, or even to the level of No Touch Typist, but MMIs are old hat. Oh, and if you'd like we can integrate a Device as a Muse. They'll not be to the level of Friday, at least not on a fresh install, but they'll grow up. You can, of course, choose to not get an intelligent Device, but then you'll be limiting your magical capabilities."

"So, what do you think?" I asked, turning to look between the two of them.
"It's ambitious," said Nina.
"It's good," said Ruby, who had been Erin, and before five years ago, was me. Sie'd decided to use a shortened version of our middle name out in the Mundane World, Rubicon, since I had claimed seniority on Erin, though we had different last names, at least during the Jump. I was back to my married last name of Foxglove, while sie retained our birth surname. "Though, it'll definitely take some getting used to."
"There's still nearly seventy-five years left, I'm sure we'll do at least three more of these refits between now and then, especially since we're no longer concerned by the limitations of a Corvette from the ship builder," I said.
"It's certainly not limited," said Nina.
The design, rather than being a rounded rectangular prism forty-five meters tall, ninety-five meters wide, and a hundred and ninety-five meters long, was more akin to the current classes of ASDF corvettes, a four hundred and fifty meter long, two hundred and twenty-five meter wide, and fifty meter thick ellipsoid, more reminiscent of the twenty-fourth century Starfleet designs from the Galaxy-class family. The internal volume was at a three-to-one linear compression rather than the Divine Eclipse's two-to-one linear compression when exported, so the interior volume was sixty-five million cubic meters, accounting for the six meter thick hull, over ten times the previous volume, while being only four times the size. The number of decks increased from twenty-five to forty-five, and instead of having the decks oriented towards the dorsal and central hull, the decks were oriented towards the center of the vessel.
"Why increase the hull thickness if it's more durable?" asked Nina, referring to the change from a five meter to a six meter hull thickness. "Was it just to maintain the standard deck separation?"
"That, and due to the curvature it's better to have the increased thickness just in case," I replied. "While the darksteel in the alloy makes it substantially more resistant to both elastic and plastic deformation, absorbing and storing the energy instead, the arty-grav generators required for the warp drive need to be closer to the surface, inside the hull proper rather than merely adjacent to it, increasing the overall thickness of the hull."
"And the new drive system, are we sure it's going to work?" she asked.
"It'll work," said Ruby. "It's reverse engineered from the Skyships and Void Ships, so since both Erin and I have a Planeswalker Spark in the Mundane World, the multiverse is fiat-backed to be there, so there's a place for us to go to."
"We'll make sure it works," I added.
"I didn't mean to imply," Nina said. "I just… While I know that the new avatars will host a fork of my mind rather than just merely being drones, it's still my brain that we're risking."
"Speaking of which," said Nora, speaking up. "We should upgrade that as well. For one thing, I can get your brain down to the size of an actual brain, rather than a massive serve cluster, with no loss of functionality. We'll have to do it in steps, of course, slowly replace components with new ones, but we can get you into an avatar, rather than merely forking into one."
"What about the original Nina?" she asked. "Which, now that I think about it, I really should consider changing my name."
"Again, there's time, for one thing, I've already upgraded the shipyards on Ruby's Orbital Ring to be state-of-the-art, so she'll be able to do the computer upgrade as well as upgrade her drone plant to an avatar plant," continued Nora. "For another thing, you're still a corvette, even if just below the five-hundred meter cutoff for ASDF and T.A.L.O.N. limits on the type. If you want to get any larger, you'd need to be re-typed as a frigate, which you can do now, since the type starts at a size of four hundred meters and goes up to a kilometer. Then cruiser from eight hundred to two kilometers, and destroyer from sixteen hundred to four kilometers, and finally titans from thirty-two hundred meters on up, though that's also where the smallest of the battle planetoids start."
Nina shook her head, "No, that's not for me. I'm not that fluid."
"Honey, you're five years old," I said. "I didn't even realize I could be trans until I was fifteen, and even then, I didn't really realize I was inside The Egg until six months before I started Jumping."
"Still, it's a big step to go from vessel to planetoid," she said.
"True, though it's not like thirty-two hundred meters is a limit. Sheev would have had the likes of the Executor built at nineteen kilometers long, and she was definitely a vessel rather than a planetoid," I pointed out.
"Still, perhaps focusing on this refit is best," said Ruby. "Still a Corvette, just upgraded with the state-of-the-art from Arnor and Foxglove Industries."
"Damned straight," said Nora proudly.

"So, what name have you decided on?" Ruby asked, looking aside at hir vessel's avatar from the wall of windows.
"Vela," the former Nina said.
"Which is short for?" asked Ruby.
"Celestial Velitation," the newly named Vela declared.
Ruby nodded, "Fits the naming scheme for cruisers, and I like it. Though, why 'Velitation'?"
"I'm a warship," said Vela proudly. "I might as well embrace it. Plus, unlike Divine Eclipse, it's my name, not one I've been given." She then turned to look at me, "Not that there's anything wrong with that."
"I understand, I mean, I gave up my birth name when I transitioned, even if the Perk retconned everything," I said.
I then stepped forward and looked out over the yard myself, though I knew exactly what I'd see. The newly named Celestial Velitation was the upgraded Divine Eclipse, the third refit of the Jump. Unlike the handful of ASDF and T.A.L.O.N. cruisers in operation, she retained the ellipsoid hull form of her previous two refits, though scaled up in size.
Sixteen hundred meters long, eight hundred meters across, and two hundred meters thick, the Celestial Velitation was impressively sized, and thanks to the four-to-one linear compression, her interior volume was cavernous, including an internal fabber capable of fabricating a vessel of roughly half her external dimensions, though was also capable of producing vessels much smaller. The fabber took up a fraction of her internal space, leaving enough room for two million residents, a park half the size of Central Park in New York City, cargo bays galore, and a few thousand drone interceptors (which could easily be augmented by the aforementioned fabber).
While the Celestial Velitation could put up a fight to match her name, she was actually perfectly set up for either colonization or uplift (or both). Given a full load of passengers she could establish a colony capable of supporting itself in a month, no matter the habitability of the location (or even in deep space, given feed stock for her fabber).
"Ready to take me for a spin?" asked Vela, breaking me out of my thoughts.
"As always," said Ruby.
I turned and smiled, looking at the two of them. Vela had attached her maternal feelings to me rather than Ruby, and it hadn't taken Ruby long to realize that sie had lost Nora as a spouse.
It wouldn't be the first time that a Captain and hir Vessel had been in a relationship.
"Have fun, but remember, you've still got a proper shakedown to complete," I said.
"I know," said Vela. "Two months before I can even turn my hyperdrive, warp drive, or perambulator. At least I can use my teleporter, even if it's just for people and cargo."
The Perambulator was what Xandre had decided to call her version of an inter-universal drive, reverse engineered from both the Planeswalking engine of the various Skyships Jumperling and the Void Ships from Doctor Who. Since I didn't have a fiat-backed multiverse until I exported my Planeswalker Spark three Jumps after exporting the Divine Eclipse, there was no reason to include the precursor to the Perambulator, then simply called the 'void drive', at the time.
"Still, you've got more than enough acceleration to tour the solar system," said Ruby.
"True," admitted Vela.
"Go on you two," I said with a nod.
"See ya Erin," said Ruby, just before Vela teleported them away, likely to her bridge, deep within her hull.
I nodded to myself and turned from the windows, before teleporting away myself, leaving the compartment overlooking the main assembly yard within Ruby's Ring behind.

Nomination: Big Trouble in Little China