A Masterpiece's Hurdle
Theo huddled around a jury-rigged computer array. In front of her, severed laptop monitors intertwined with strands of intestines, tangled to resemble electrical wires. Bone intertwined with metal, rooting the finicky screens to the walls of Paracelsus Atelier. Her eyes were engrossed in the bottommost monitor, situated on a simple dusty desktop.
Caspace Serum quota:
- Finalized composition
- Low error margin (Previous samples exploded in electrical current. Never again)
- Optimum potency (Intended effect: gelatinous state.
Maybe check suitable blood type?Works best with O+. Must find suitable donor.)- High composition efficiency (Less ingredients for the same amount of serum. DO NOT USE RING MEMBERS.)
- Procurement efficiency (Can't pump gadgets without a steady supply)
- State memory properties (reactivatable with ANOTHER shot of electricity)
- Self-replication (Probably need a Singularity for that)
- Completion rate: 38.6%
A weary moan escaped her lips. "I'm gonna die before I fill up that list." It had been seven months since her Workshop started business and four since the Seven Association came knocking on her doorstep. And yet, after all the funds and resources and suppliers, no progress. A lesser Artificer would have shut down from sheer frustration. A greater one would start a war for results.
She was a greater Artificer. That thought was the only pillar keeping her mood from dropping.
She turned her attention to the backpack-sized vats at her side, the blobs of indiscernible flesh within being prodded by mechanical arms. All the while, a yellow solution bathed the contents in an eerie glow. This was the famed Artificer's Caspace Serum, capable of breaking down organic material into a moldable form. But it was far from perfected. Without the other properties she was looking for: self-replication, the ability to reactivate denatured samples and production efficiency, it was a constantly non-renewable luxury. Wasting days of distillation for a measly bucketful; what a sick joke of worker's tools.
To hell with the whole process, what good was fiddling with carcasses? While her old Wings were playing with contraptions that could turn the laws of biology upside down, she was just birthing weaponized fetuses. A waste of time, and a desecration of her old team's memories. Her eyes dimmed, her mind returning to the filthy Backstreets. A dirty, cruel place where people like her belonged. If she couldn't complete it in time, perhaps it'd be a fitting resting place. Better to throw it all away and rot. To deny the world a lasting legacy than see it incomplete and ripe for pandemonium.
Suddenly, the phone rang.
With the jolt of a woman fresh from a bad state, her hand whipped to the receiver; the coiled wire stretched straight.
"Yes? You're currently calling Paracelsus Atelier, right? Would you like to hear our catalog of-"
"Tetsu from Seven. Remember those spring enhancements you grafted on our Tingtang insiders? Well, ever since they survived that shock torture session, their legs have been turning into mud. Better do something about it or you can kiss your intel goodbye."
It wasn't just a weight lifted from her shoulders. This was a cooling pad and a 2-hour massage session rolled into one.
"Will do! Tell your boys that I'll be coming ASAP. And don't forget your surprise gift later, you don't know how much of a help you've been!"
With newfound vigor, she shot off her seat. The familiar warm tendrils of TREAD slithered around her body, wrapping into a grotesque version of a suit and pants, her very own Sunday best. Theo's flesh melted into her attire, feeling all the more bigger and stronger. With the flick of a finger, the blade she called Homunculus Heir was tangled and nested in her left hand. As she jumped out the window, rappeling to a nearby skyscraper, her inspiration burned through her eyes.
After all, no child is easy to raise. But all the more precious for that.
Caspace Serum quota:
......
- State memory properties (reactivatable with ANOTHER shot of electricity) (Meet with Tetsu from Seven)
.....- Completion rate: 52.5%