+It's the High Seraph.

She's the one who did this. She's pulling the strings. I know it. I know Uthred–the proud bastard wouldn’t have given up his position on his own. There’s something going on behind the scenes. Something she doesn’t even want the other Chivalrics to know about. All I know is that he resigned and departed the Tiers immediately after.

That’s not someone consumed by shame or despair. That’s a man with a mission. No expression on his face during the resignation.

His daughter? Maybe. Probably. But I can’t be sure. The High Seraph’s been unpredictable in the best of times; I won’t pretend to understand what she’s planning or what she sees. I just see the point in trying to defy her.

Yeah, I know. I heard Shotin’s been setting things up against your people as well. Sounds like we’re both heading for a nasty time. Hunker down and go dark. Stay silent. We can meet again after the heat dies down a bit. See if there’s any point to continued collaboration or if we should scrub our minds clean and be done with this.

Elegant-Moon? They’re still looking her over. Deep scans show no cognitive compromises and her ego looks mostly the same. Besides what was already missing. I just have a feeling that…

Never mind. You get your own affairs in order. I’ll make contact with you after things have calmed down on my end. The signal will be when I take a walk down Nine-Shadows Street in the district of Loathing. Run my face through a Registry every few days. I’ll update you about things on my end after the trial.

Of course, I’m going to attend. It would look suspicious if I didn’t.

Well, whatever happens, I just hope Instrument Abrel will be spared banishment. I know the girl. She’s a good soldier.

The only thing wrong about her is the cunt she fell from.+

-Instrument Santanado “Starsinger” Mondelles to Seeker “Sintaker” (Ori-Thaum)

19-16

An Attunement of Flesh (I)

It took an equal measure of mastery and artistry to reshape a body. With systems within systems wed to other systems, life was a dynamic structure that grew and withered between the moments. Mere days before, Avo’s new Canons of Biology would be little more than weapons–things solely for harm and nothing further. Imbued with Elegant-Moon’s mind and granted Calvino’s instruction, however, he found himself walking uncharted territory: a complete builder of flesh, matter, mind, and Soul.

Culturing new enhancements within the members of his cadre was delicate work. He plucked and learned the limits of their skin, skeleton, sinew, and organs, heeded the song of their blood, and mapped the path of their nerves. He did this as Tavers and Draus brought new high-end implants for the group’s perusal, augments requisitioned from the Bazaar and Threshold alongside equipment needed to set up a cybernetics and engineering station.

Where Voidwatch’s technological modifications were complex yet non-invasive, the techno-thaumic produce sourced from terrestrial creators was easier to graft and anomalous in their capabilities.

Going over different morphological archetypes with Dice and the cadre furthered his insight. Allowed him to segregate them into jobs of varying difficulty.

Essus occupied the very bottom of requirements. Despite all the options provided and the improvements he could undergo, the shape his body took still meant much to him, and any extreme adjustments would leave him feeling dysmorphic at best. In the end, his apprehensions were little impediment. Voider tech serviced a broad spectrum of preferences, and though numerous polities lived in ways far deviant from baseline, there were more than enough bioconservative communities that still had their own high-end modifications.

Pairing nanosuites programmed to strengthen skin, bone, muscle, and other tissues with respirocytes designed to hyper-charge his respiratory system, the shape of Essus’ sheath remained unchanged even as his constitution grew to rival most FATED. But such was only the beginning. After the coldtech was applied, Avo imbued the man with his own gifts as well.

Domain of (Biology)

   ->Canons: My Blood The Harvester, My Flesh the Symphony (III);  Remembrance of Flesh (V)

Extracting Biological Traits…

Grafting: [Omni-Lungs]; [Thermogenic Sweatglands]; [NewLife Phagekiller-TURBO]; [NewLife Metabolics]; [Skinshift]; [FANG Endocrine Modulator]; [NewLife Sudoriferic Pheromone Ejectors]; [Circadian Enhancer]; [Ascender RangeSighters-III]

“It tickles slightly,” Essus said, as he lay fastened to a grafting station made out of tesselated smart matter, body secured and stilled as the blood within him shifted and changed, clotting into new organs or layering existing structures with further traits. The Omni-Lungs, Phagekiller, Metabolics, and Pheromone Ejectors were all products “ borrowed”  from the NewLife Research Initiative under the No-Dragons. Ensuring Essus couldn’t be compromised by most thaumically created fumes, plagues, and chemical compounds were foremost concerns. Ensuring he was physiologically charming to the FATELESS was more of a social investment. The Skinshift likewise would allow for him to tighten or loosen his facial features substantially, allowing for some limited individual biosculpting in case he needed to escape while the Circadian Enhancer was copied from Kae herself–reducing a body’s required sleep to just two hours if Essus wanted to indulge in such a thing.

Ghosts flowed over Essus’ face and centered their etheric glow on his eyes. The biomedical phantasmic isolated the organs and surrounding tissue in a coating of light, phantoms projecting simulations of the organs, another flexible layer of lens-like biomass lining the man’s eyes.

[Good, good,]  Elegant-Moon whispered. [Honestly, you should grow more. Give him a full spectrum. Grow every kind of eye possible within the socket. Let him see the world for what it truly is–]

{Please ignore that statement and halt your growing urge to force unnatural body horror on the poor man,}  Calvino interrupted. {You know what he asked for. Respect his agency.}

Avo grunted.

Elegant-Moon laughed. [I can feel your urge to experiment. To play. The one you touch now does not know the joys of being more.]

+Have other clay,+  Avo said. +Chambers. Draus. Dice.+

{Might I suggest that you also avoid calling your friends clay?}

+No.+

{Very well. Continue with your dehumanization.}

Retinal veins glowed with luminous blood. From within Essus’ eyes, Avo carved away imperfections, drawing them into his Woundmother and discarding them from existence before growing additional substructures for the new lens. As the former refugee blinked, Avo heard him gasp, his pupils dilating.

“I… I can see… so much detail. How…”

“Eyes are now tetrachromatic. Picks out motion much better too. Adjusts to environmental brightness in seconds. Main thing is distance. Can judge range perfectly from the angle that light hits you.”

Essus closed and opened his eyes, testing the new changes. “I… did not ask for this.”

“Can take it away if you want–”

“No!” Essus quieted. “No. I… Thank you. I… This will be useful.”

The ghoul chuffed in amusement. Of course. Much like with a Frame, when one surmounted a greater height, they often loathed to return to who they were before. How could he have rejected the augmentation? It would be an act of self-disfiguration; a crippling, even.

{I see you will never be popular with the biocons,}  Calvino quipped.

+What’s their stance on cannibalistic subhumans.+

{Engineered diseases; deconstructor-swarms; planetary glassing. Depends on the severity of the infestation. If we’re solely talking about you, their official stance would be to blacklist your Ego-ID and quarantine the area you’re in. Attempted assassinations of Aegis is very frowned upon, you see.}

Avo laughed. Deactivating his phantasmic, the hissed embers as they receded back into Avo’s halo–the inferno now resembling the ringed battlements of a castle more than a crown. “How do you feel?”

Essus drew in a breath and held it. He kept holding it. Nearly a full minute passed as blinked, opening and closing his hands, stretching his jaw as the tendons of his face popped and flexed, expanding the width of his cheeks while drawing his brows closer together. “I feel no urge to draw breath.”

“Yeah,” Draus said, speaking without turning, her attention fixed on the drones putting the cybernetics-engineering workshop together in the background. “Took a peek earlier. Guessin’ the ghoul gave you a pair of Omni-Lungs with some respirocytes. Body’s hyper-charged with oxygenation right now. Learn to breathe less or you’ll get high. Deliberately suck in too many and you’ll get sick.”

“Sick?” Essus said. “Oxygen can make someone sick?”

Draus snorted. “Too much kind kill you. You know that shit burns, right?”

The former flat’s eyes grew narrow, modified irises like glinting onyxes. “Yes. I am not stupid. It’s just…” He tried to shrug, but the grafting station didn’t allow it. “Artad. No wonder they think so lowly of us.”

{It’s a good thing you’re still restricted from requisitioning the high end of our artificial blood-based modifications,}  Calvino muttered. {I shiver to think of how your Heaven might affect such sophistication.}

+Someday,+  Avo said, grinning.

{For all our sakes, may it not be so.}

As the grafting station detached Essus, the man groaned as the smart-matter gimbal turned him upright. Stepping off from the structure, his joints rattled in a series of pops as he staggered away from his modifications.

“You’re a lucky fucker, you know that,” Chambers said, sitting atop the throne instead of on it. “Grafters that did my eyes weren’t nearly as gentle. I mean, they didn’t have a Heaven. Or anesthetic–had to buy that shit myself. But this is like an insta- graft. Your ass doesn’t need to take pills or stand in the rain or anything like that. All you needed was an injection and then Avo here grew the rest. Speaking of which…” The half-strand pushed off the seat, clearly wanting to be next, only for Dice to walk right past him with a nu-kitten slung over her shoulder, meowing at him as they passed. “Hey, what the fuck, it’s my turn.”

“Tell ‘em what I told you to say, Dice,” Draus said.

Dice was three steps away from the grafting station when stopped, turned, and spoke: “Shove your balls up your ass and… and clench yourself cath– cathrated? ”

She looked to Drause as the Regular chuckled, unsure if she spoke the words right.

“Close enough,” Draus said.

“Draus,” Kae sighed, her voice coming from the other corner of the room where she was looking over stacked containers filled with oracle glass–another procurement delivered thanks to Tavers. “Stop teaching the child pointless vulgarity.”

“It ain’t pointless; hells, it’s practically the only kinda language the shits down the Warrens speak. And she’s gonna need to snuff plenty of ‘em.”

“And if the Reg doesn’t teach her, I might!” Tavers said, stepping through a mirror with another three retrofitted cargo drones in tow.

Kae sighed. “Am I to be the only good influence here?”

Calvino coughed. Avo coughed. Everyone turned their stares on him.

“Got somethin’ to say?” Draus asked.

“I don’t curse,” Avo muttered. “I can be a good influence.”

Silence filled the room and Avo’s Conflagration. Both Chambers titled their heads.

[How,]  Abrel began, [the fuck did you say that with a straight face.]

[‘Cause the rotlick’s an arrogant idiot,]  template-Draus answered.

Avo frowned. +How am I wrong.+

An explosion of groans spread through his consciousness.

His words caused Calvino to bite back a growl of frustration. {You were quite literally using her as bait.}

+Apologized. She’s fine with it.+

{That’s because her life is a horror show, Avo. You’re just the least bastardly of the bastards she’s met so far.}

+Isn’t that what a good influence is?+

{Only if we wish to be hyper-liberal with the meaning of “good.”}

Abrel just wheezed. [Again. How the fuck are you saying these words.]

[I don’t see what’s so bad about the ghoul,]  Corner muttered.

[That’s probably more of a personal issue with you, consang,]  Paladin Kassamon sighed.

“I think you’re good,” Dice said in the real, breaking the silence with her confusion, unsure why everyone was glaring at Avo. “You give everyone gifts. Keep us alive. Isn’t that good?” Again, she looked to Draus for confirmation.

“Sure. I know he’s got a lot of people on his mind. Burning. Screaming. Whisperin’ their thoughts to him.”

Avo frowned. “You offered.”

“Plenty didn’t.”

“They were enemies. Had to kill them.”

Chambers made a noise. “‘Had to’ is a strong statement…”

The ghoul hissed his ire at the traitor and waved for Dice to come over. “Didn’t hear any of you complaining when I did it. Helped me. Rashed a district.”

“I’m fucking sorry!” Chambers threw up his hand. Template-Chambers cringed. “I apologized a thousand times! Stop holding that shit over me. I feel bad, okay. I didn’t say I was a good influence. I know I’m not. Maybe we should wait till the faither and Denton get back before we do this.”

“Maybe Denton,” Draus said. “Ain’t good for a juv to get her head filled with cult shit.”

Chambers rolled his eyes. “As opposed to what? Violence and murder? He’s not that bad if you listen to him. He doesn’t even want people to sacrifice themselves. Told me that suicide is like, one of the worst things someone can do because it debases the gift of life–”

Draus rolled her eyes. “For fuck’s sake, Chambers, he got you already?”

“No! No. I didn’t say I believed him, just that… he’s not that unreasonable. You know. What’s the build everyone a nice little place where they can all sing together.”

Kae winced and let out a small breath of apprehension. “That’s how it always starts.”

“Don’t insult Cas while he’s gone. Should be allowed to defend his ideas. Call us half-strands.”

“There! You just cursed!” Chambers said.

Avo clicked his teeth at the fool in deliberate agitation. “Was an analogy. Educational.”

{There really isn’t much of a chance for her to be a well-adjusted child if I am, to be honest,}  Calvino said. {Not unless her mind is drastically altered… By, say, a metaphysically aberrant monster that basically exists as the eldritch equivalent of an infomorph.}

“Dice. Get on the station.” Avo beckoned for the girl to hurry up as he gave up on the conversation. It was a stupid argument anyway. He didn’t see how he wasn’t the one with the most to offer the girl. “I’m right. I can be a good influence. Can turn into good influence with a thought.” And he could. He had the ability to reshape his cognition. All he needed to do was decide.

“Jaus,” Both Drauses chuckled in disbelief. [You’re fucking pouting.]

Casting phantoms out before Dice as a curved display of visual mem-data, Avo growled under his breath as he brought up a list of options for the waif to pursue. The nu-kitten she held hissed at strange bodies drawing closer in interface windows shaped from memory. “Can choose now. Got an assort of implants. Augmentations. Full sheaths for you to try. Can mount plenty of guns on yourself. Tavers bringing in heavy-cyber bodies. Can also give you enhanced organs as well. Many choices.”

As Avo scrolled through the thought-composed menu to give her an overview of all her choices, the girl’s face went still as the phantasmal glow accentuated the thin, curved scars lining her face. Bite marks, the most of them. Things inflicted by the teeth of a nu-dog.

{Least bastardly of the bastards by far,}  Calvino repeated, with a bit more disdain this time.

“Can I have a second to look?” she asked.

Avo grunted. “Can cast choices directly into your mind. Will need to kill you after for reset.”

Dice nodded without a hint of fear. “That’s fine.” She picked the cat off her shoulder and held it out to Avo. The small ball of orange fur tucked and stared disdainfully at the ghoul from the corner of a green-hued eye, the ape-like limbs jutting from its back clapping in agitation. Slowly, Avo reached out, careful not to skewer it with his claws, deleting the sudden urge to take a bite out of the thing–if only out of curiosity about its taste.

Noticing the ebony-lined digits drawing closer, the kitten yelped in agitation as it pawed wildly at Dice, desperate to remain with the person least likely to eat her. Then, Essus was back, taking the cat into his hands, spitting a series of chitters at the bioform to calm its terror.

“You must blink slowly at them,” Essus said, grabbing the kitten by the scruff. “And hold here. It calms the animal.”

A quiet giggle escaped from Dice, watching as the other former refugee bounced it on his chest as if a human infant. “See,” he said, showing the kitten to Avo again. The creature hissed as it saw the ghoul.

Avo barred his fangs and hissed back.

[Well, there’s the good influence we were all lookin’ for,” the Drauses said, nodding at Essus appreciatively. “Him and Kae. That’ll do it.”

A buzzing insect circled high above Avo and he remembered there was a final member they discounted.

{Oh, poor Sunrise is used to such things,}  Calvino said. {Interesting how “human” one is considered if they don’t fall into the confines of your expectations, isn’t it? Perhaps the same thing might apply to the girl when she is done with her choices. Will the rest still think of her as a child if she chooses to house her ego in a body that resembles a tank?}

Only one way to find out.

“Flame’s coming,” Avo said, preparing to link his mind to Dice.

The waif nodded and turned back to look at him–look through him. A faint smile pulled at her lips, but she didn’t quite complete the expression. “Time to be a gun.”