NOVEL NEXT Turn 90: Bioware And Alchemy
Turn 90: Bioware And Alchemy
--- Maya Williams ---
Given her recent conversation with Alan, she decided the best thing she could do once getting back to her lab was figure out an -ethical- means of creating leather. A feat that she knew would be relatively easy given her Biopods ability to grow organics, at least once she knew how Leather was actually made.
Which is why she was currently going over a number of videos on how Tanning worked in an attempt to figure out the process worked overall.
"Okay, so if I'm following all of this right… The hide is first stripped from the animal. Cleaned in water. Cleaned of hair and excess meat. Thinned out. Recleaned to remove the chemicals used in the previous processes. More chemicals to remove any remaining proteins. Bleach the hide. Then pickle it to open it up for tanning. Then soak it in a solution that'll soak into the leather to help prevent putrification before binding the chemicals to the hide via basification." She listed out after an hour of videos.
(That is a whole lot of shit to do for something less durable than metal.)
"It really is." She agreed with a sigh, before a thought came to her. "So what if we make a machine that automates the whole thing for us?"
(I figured we'd do something like that from the start.) Her inner reason confessed. (We'll still have to wait for a bio-pod to grow the leather before we can test said machine though.)
(Unless we build the machine straight into the bio-pod?)
"We'd lose the versatility of a normal bio-pod but we'd essentially gain a leather printer whenever we needed it…" Which could be anywhere from never to all the time depending on how much armor she tried to make and sell.
(Don't forget we can likely apply it to our existing armor as sort of internal padding.)
(Isn't that the point of our plastic foam polymer?) Her inner madness pointed out.
(True, but depending on the durability of the leather it could prove more resistant to certain kinds of damage than others.)
(Ah, min-maxing our damage resists. We haven't really touched on that one yet.)
"I doubt there's that much difference in defense from our leather and our foam padding." She noted dryly.
(Also, true. I was thinking more in the developmental long term.)
(Wait! I just remembered something important!)
"Important important, or stupid important?"
(First, fuck you. Second don't we have a scan of that Orkin thing we fought for the Bloody Ballroom? The one who tanked our Hand Cannons until we blew him up with bombs?)
"Uh, yeah… I think we do." She nodded, before going over to her computer and the scans within. "Why?"
(Because he specifically said it was his Orkin Hide that made him so tough, and hide can be turned into leather!)
"Huh… Could we do that?" She wondered as she began to go over the Orkin's scans her COMP had gathered.
(Theoretically? If the hide isn't too reliant on just the thickness of the material, we could make something work…)
"Yeah, something trippy is going on with this stuff…" She frowned as the skin went into detail about the differences between human skin and whatever muscle the other species had for theirs. "Human skin is mostly meant for waterproofing while our fat muscle layers underneath are for shock absorption, this though… Whatever their skin is made of is designed to soften or harden based on impact type via a multi-layered epidermis lattice."
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
While highly durable there were a number of flaws with this of course, such as an inability to sweat for temperature regulation and lack of elasticity preventing both flexibility and agility, even if the thickness and durability of the hide itself made the Orkin more of a living tank than anything.
The important thing though was, "Yeah… I think we can turn this into a leather." A very durable leather. "We just need to set up a bio-printer of sorts to make it for us."
(We'll also need Organics to keep the printer fueled.) Her inner logic reminded her.
"Right…" She nodded, considering the problem for a moment before remembering something else she'd been wanting to do for a while now. "If we're going to get started producing more organic stuff then… we might as well up our productions across the board."
Gathering a bunch of Scrap, Organics, and other materials she made her way to an otherwise empty room that the DMs had fully cleared out of everything of value. From there she got to work on dragging over her other two bio-pods before beginning to assemble several more, each of which could be used for growing Fodder, Healing Herbs, and whatever else she needed them to produce.
Such as the Organics necessary to keep a Bio-Printer focused on the steady production of (faux) Orkin Leather up and running, even if it would likely take a minute before everything was running at a self-sustaining way.
(You know, I don't believe this quite qualifies as a greenhouse…) Her inner reason couldn't help but note.
"Why not? I mean this is where we'll be housing all of the green shit." She argued, hands in the middle of connecting the entrails of her existing two bio-pods to the foundational machinery and meat that would eventually grow into all of the other bio-pods she would be using in this room.
(Unless you prefer we call this the meat room… No, wait! The Slaughterhouse! After all, all of this is fueled by the squirrels and rats DM slaughtered!)
(Greenroom is… preferential…)
"Especially since we'll mostly be growing plants and junk in here…" Her eyes drifted towards the room's window. "You think if we set up a solar panel along that to harvest sunlight we can power the more mechanical side of things without requiring them to consume as much food to function?"
(Or hear me out, we send the DMs out on 'collection' runs to gather… Organics for us to feed the machine? I promise it'll speed up the rate at which everything is growing!)
(Solar panels are… preferential…)
Scene Consequences
-Maya can now generate 'Leather' from her Biopods, or make a special Bio-Pod that converts Organics into Leather.
--Leather: Grants a more flexible material that can be used with mystical modifications. Adds +1 Armor to projects using it.
--Scene Synergy: Leather is upgraded to '(Faux) Orkin Leather'
---(Faux) Orkin Leather: A semi flexible material capable of being used with mystical modifications. Adds +2 Armor to projects using it.
Maya has also built a Greenhouse that will be available under the 'Bio-ware' tab. This possesses 5 slots that can be filled with any 'Growable' that will now generate 1 Production of those resources every 5 Turns. (These cannot receive Overgrowth Bonuses.)
-Items in these slots will not cost resources to re-plant, but will cost resources to switch out for other projects.
-Existing Bio-Pods are considered independent of this effect and can be used for experimental projects, which can get Overgrowth Bonuses.
-Thanks to armor Inspiration and Scene Synergy Maya has now created a small Bio-Printer in this room solely for the production of Leather. (Meaning she'll never have to spend a bio-pod's action to grow it.)
---
With the base greenroom complete, it occurred to her that for her Bio-Printer to work correctly it might be best for her to make a few tweaks to her Alchemy program. The kind that would allow her to slightly mold non-living Organics, (because I'm not a psychopath.) (You mean because you're not fun…)
Of course, given how she was one tweak quickly escalated into another and another, until she was eventually establishing an entire upgrade based on this one anime she remembered Vi being a huge fan of a few years back. One that she was now playing in the background as her hands danced across the keyboard while adding the foundational points required to speed up and use her Alchemy program outside of a lab setting where she had hours to waste on a project.
Admittedly these accelerating sub-routines weren't quite at the level of just being able to clap and reshape an object into whatever she wanted, but they were enough that she could theoretically use them whenever she wanted… as long as she had a minute or two to set up and monitor the restructuring of an object on the molecular level.
(Note to self: Add a clap function to the Hand Cannons to have them run pre-set Alchemy protocols.)
(Noted.)
Scene Consequences
-Alchemy Upgraded to V1.5
--Alchemy can now be used as a Long Action during Encounters to manipulate/reshape metal, plastic, and stone.
--V2 Upgrade now available.