The Ocean On Their Shoulders

Chapter 32

Becoming a little more power-hungry, Jane had her sights set on the throne, whether that meant setting up another seat or removing the king entirely. Falling into the whole shtick of "Rapture's Power Gal", the Futuristics didn't hesitate to help support her in her quest for the limelight. Pumping out posters, messages, and commercials day in and day out with Jane's vision of becoming a Rapture icon closer to being obtained than ever before. Of course, actions such as these are hard to ignore, especially for Ryan and ex-best friends. And such actions aren't invincible to sanction, or are they?

~*~

If there was anything Jane could count on, it was that Frank was a man of his word. She asked to be made untouchable, and he went above and beyond to make sure no one in Rapture could lay a finger on her. Not even Ryan.

And in this, she finally found no shame in taking that confident step into the spotlight, finding pleasure in soaking up every beautiful ounce of it.

A couple of weeks after her first interview with the Herald, the producer approached her and Frank about doing a weekly segment with Jane. It was a spontaneous idea meshed together by a few of the staff members to make something more "family-friendly", with generous pay, of course. A potential program talking about the importance of energy conservation within Rapture and of Jane's project both in the present and for the future.

"Something for the kids." She recalls hearing spoken with credence from the other end of the phone's line. "Something to give them a reason to tune in every week, 'What's the scoop with Jane, Rapture's Power Gal - what advice can she give to the citizens today? What fun facts can she give the kids?' ."

It wasn't a bad idea.

Granted it was probably more of a pull for views with the Herald, they had the Tribune and Rapture's Radio as competitors anyway. But it was exactly what Jane was looking for in terms of exposure. Hell, after the call she even mentioned to Frank about doing the same sort of advertising with the Futuristics. Create a series of ads featuring her with this supposed title the Herald had coined to promote energy conservation and, essentially, Jane's whole project. A subtle pull for the Futuristics as well in saying the idea, the project, it all came from them - versus the Industries, who were just paying for it at this point.

It was a brilliant idea, but they had a loophole to find.

Ryan had stated to them multiple times that the Industries would be responsible for all advertising featuring this project. It was a detail he was pretty adamant about keeping straight between the two companies as that's where most of the money was coming in from. Rapture's citizens were always knee-deep in consumerism. Still, it drove them and the city's businesses day in and day out. Jane was still curious, however, wanting to know for sure if the ads Ryan wanted to keep close tabs on involved just the project or everything.

It led her to stay up in the early hours of the morning sitting at Frank's desk in his office at the complex, painstakingly reading over every line of the contract by the soft warm glow of a lamp light. Frank was adamant in letting her know he could easily get a lawyer or some other official person to read over it instead. But, Jane wanted to see any loophole for herself, a wicked smile beaming a couple of days later when she found exactly what they were looking for.

Everything after that received a solid stamp of approval from both her and Frank, going ahead with the TV special and Futuristics ads on energy consumption and conservation. And with each TV segment, each ad, and interview to be slapped on the front page of the Tribune, more money would line her and Frank's pockets, and more people would come to recognize her among the crowd.