So, I was hashing out some ideas for my liquid metal “Doc Oc” harness. I wanted to take it from being a harness into being more a personal attachment or extension of myself. This involves two things to be true.1) The AI of the suit being able to control the shape and structure of the liquid metal it is compromised of. I was hoping this would be somewhat believable, considering how we met. I am hoping with the help of the mice, it won’t be a far stretch.
2) The ability for the AI to grow the highly conductive flesh that is used to produce power and fields of energy. I am hoping this can be achieved by using some of the research found in the shadow cube entity we “collected”. It seems able to grow and manipulate the flesh-like substance, so that could be very handy.
3) Using my Bio-Sphere/Eco-Spheres to help create the tentacles with my elvish magic. This doesn’t seem too far out, but it is a requirement at the moment.
Now! We get into the think-tank bit of things and what I would really like to achieve. I would love feedback and if this seems too crazy…well so be it, I’m a mad scientist of Nature….I guess.
My goal is to completely replace my spine and cranium with the things we have available to us. I am going to try and break this up into parts.
Bone: I was thinking of replacing the bone structure with a hard wood, thus reducing or keeping weight similar to that of bone, but making it easier to replicate/replace/re-grow/repair. I was thinking of using a tree that, today, is found in South Africa if I remember correctly. It is an ebon wood used to make wind instruments. The true wood is light weight, but incredibly strong. I remember watching a video of tribes people carrying a sack full of axes and spending a day, taking turns, sharpening and cutting through a 1-2 foot thick tree. The stuff is incredibly durable and still maintains weight limits. I was planning to use this as a base material and modify it’s growth to provide the microscopic, porous nature of real bone.
Marrow: To fill the marrow spaces of bone I was planning to use a modified version of the protein mycelium we discovered. It grows fast and can be used as a substitute skin with modification. Being protein packed I didn’t think it was too far of a stretch to modify this into a marrow-like substance that could replace bone marrow.
Spinal Cord “sheath”: This is kind of like insulation on wiring. It would help keep electrical signals running their course on the nerves and insulate against interference from outside sources. It also protects the overall wear and tear on the nerve. I was planning to do some work with Bosco(probably spelling that wrong) and see if he could help recommend a good vine-like coating.
Spinal Cord/Nerves: I was planning to replace the spinal cord (and possibly even my nerve structure) with the conductive flesh we found. It seems highly conductive of electrical signals, and able to pull in energy of it’s own from outside sources. I figure it would be an excellent substitute, being as our signals sent to and from the brain are composed of electric current. With its super conductivity, I may even stand to benefit from increased nerve reaction and signal transmission, helping in the control of the tentacles without as much delay.
Liquid Metal Coating: Finally, I was planning to coat my vertebrae and cranium in the liquid metal that was used to create the harness. This would depend on the capability of the AI to control their liquid metal. My goal being to create a type of core. I want to remain light-weight, but increase durability. Even if I am obliterated bodily, this would allow perhaps my mind/central nervous system/etc to be recovered.
Bio/Eco-Spheres: The name I’m giving my little globes that contain a self-sustaining eco-system. I would place six of these, larger in size, in my back. They would be attached to the spinal column with a liquid metal coating, leaving holes for the plants and things I grow to sprout from. Honestly, I would like them underneath the skin so that I could grow the vine/flesh cored tentacles directly from my back…but this may pose issues I can’t deal with at the moment. My best adaptation to this is to replace my skin with the protein mycelium, at least in those areas, so that I can regenerate it after I suck the tentacles back in. The other option is to have the spheres half imbedded into my back, so that half of the dome peaks out of my skin.
Ok so, that is kind of a breakdown of where I want to go with things…here is the general setup. This contains some theory crafting obviously.
I am not sure how much I exactly learned about the shadow world, souls, and what Julius Corple was trying to do from that shadow cube, but I had an idea occur to me. He was using two pathways to try and create this AI that could have mutations, but essentially be an artificial human. Well, the soul, has 3 pieces as we’ve bantered about around the table, but I’m not sure if my character knows that. I would have to go back and look at my notes, but I believe there is a piece in the shadow world that represents your connection to a spirit, a piece that represents your Personality/Will, and a piece that represents Life. I was thinking of using this to modify the AI in my harness to represent those 3 pieces of the soul. Using the shadow tools to create the pathways, I would have 3 nodes in my spinal setup that would each be a piece of the AI. Their position and setup, focusing on those bits of the soul…but not giving the AI a full soul, so much as an interface with my soul. I would have one node near the base of the skull, representing the connection to Spirit and a sense of presence. Your thoughts control your presence in the spirit realm and you project yourself via your mind there, so I felt this appropriate. I would have one node near the heart for Personality/Will. This also being the piece of the soul that can be corrupted with hate and revenge, causing it to come back as a vengeful spirit of rage, but also being the place where compassion and love can soothe those in need and allow for a transcendence of being. The third being the part of the soul that represents Creation/Life. I would put this near the pelvic, near where the Asian ideal of the power center of the body is located. I have seen it in many martial arts where they focus all their “Life” energy at the end of a fight/routine just above the genitals and just below the stomach. I felt this was an excellent place to put the node that represents that energy. These three nodes would all be parts of the single AI assistant that would help in the control, use, and safety of my tentacles/spine. If one is destroyed it would impact the whole, but hopefully wouldn’t completely shut down, just go into a more…routine pattern of recovery. Similar to a person going into emotional shock over an intense event. I also felt that this would help if I were ever mentally compromised in that the AI could take over and go about simple survival tactics and basic communication until I could recover. Like I said, this is a lot of theory crafting.
I was hoping to have this AI soul link, simply so the AI could make use of some of my mutations. Perhaps, not having it’s own mutations, but being able to grow and shrink the tentacles, turn them into useful tools, re-grow a piece of the spinal column that is shattered while I am unconscious, etc. It has this ability over the basic tentacles now, to the extent of being able to control and shape them, but if I change them into a flesh core/wood shell type of tentacle it would reduce their control some without this capability. I think it would be an interesting concept at the least. A good use of resources at hand to create something new and unusual. It may even help to determine how we can help the shadow cube infant perfect itself into a true being beyond controlled construct.
I am assuming Julius will eventually learn to make something like a Warforged from 4e with mutations, or already has. This is a scary thought, but I plan to make a true artificial creature that is three parts of the soul, unlike the usual Warforged, so that our cube can live an existence it prefers.
However, it would be creepy as hell to see a metallic spine, with a skull atop it (missing it’s lower jaw), glowing shadow pool eye sockets, being help up on six wood tentacles that seem to glow with an electric-pink flesh in between the joints, and moving about like some crazy spider that has incredible flexibility and reflex reactions. So I hope that I’m not reduced to that anytime soon, barring any mental scarring.
If this works out I eventually hope to carry this further, replacing all of my bone with this setup, sans the liquid metal coating(that feels like it would make me too heavy). Instead, I’d just weave threads of the liquid metal through the bone on a microscopic level, so that if the bone broke the threads could pull taught to hold it together until repaired or re-grown. It would weaken the structure when broken, but at least keep me going until we had time to sit down and take a breath.
Well these are just some ideas that were bouncing around in my head after last session. Let me know if you have any ideas or what you think!
Note: Picture updated with a better representation of where I think a good place for the nodes would be, the side view is a little off from what I wrote. Also: I couldn’t remember the exact pieces of the soul as I don’t have my notes, so I kind of winged it for now…
Sorry for the long post!
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