Bio-Lathe
Alternate Title: Custom-made
by Oculus, with Art by Carpdime
~
The father figure grasped the tablet at his hand, and was greeted with a over-complicated figure of an equine with an overly-saturated mane, and a gaudy cape. On top of that, not only was this fluffy pony an alicorn, but said alicorn had four wings. And to top it all off, she had a crown and a sceptre. The resultant image looked like a low effort custom fluffy template drawing that the father figure had come across in his youth, when the fluffy fans of his time flood DeviousArt with low-effort pictures of fluffies made in a stock fluffy image generator.
The difference, however, was that he now had children of his own, and the company that created the media franchise now had the technology to bring fluffies to life. And, where a low-effort image created by an image generator could be laughed of or ignored, the Build-A-Fluffy website promised an actual living and breathing fluffy pony would be delivered to his doorstep, along with a hefty price of fifteen thousand real dollars to match the endeavour.
“Uh honey,” trailed off, as he tried to propose an alternative, “how about a bicycle instead?”
The little girl frowned when she first heard that.
“But daddy, you always said you would get anything I wanted if I passed my exam!”
“I did sweetie, but this is a lot for a biotoy. I mean, fluffy ponies are literally pets. Are you prepared to look after one?”
Amy felt frustrated. She had worked so hard in the past school year that she was certain that she deserved a fluffy pony. Besides, all her friends had gotten a fluffy recently. Some even got the cheaper ones that were born naturally, but Amy wanted to get the special one, the one that was advertised on the Build-A-Fluffy. These custom-made fluffies were known to be very loyal, very obedient, and apparently, even more loving.
Amy stamped her foot on the ground, inflated her cheeks, and exclaimed, “It’s not fair daddy! I want a fluffy! I want my princess!”
“Sweetie….”
“I want, I want, I WANT!!”
As she kept wailing and flailing her arms around, she accidentally hit the man’s tablet, causing him to lose a little composure. In an attempt to catch his tablet again, his finger slipped, and accidentally pressed the order button on the website.
The man looked on in horror as he saw the order being processed.
A few hours later, his cellphone started to buzz.
“Good afternoon sir, we would like confirm your order for a custom-made Princess fluffy to be created via our Build-a-fluffy process.”
He was ready to cancel the order. Save his money, gets his daughter a bicycle. Or better yet, just go down to a mill, or one of the shelters that they were setting up for abandoned fluffies, and get his daughter a much cheaper “natural” fluffy. But our father figure was a fairly wealthy man, having earned his experience in the MICE industry.
He turned to his daughter, who had spent the time obsessing over videos showcasing information and usual tips related to looking after pet fluffies, especially those that were custom-made.
“Do you really want this, Amy?”
Amy nodded as she affirmed, “Yes daddy, I do.”
The father sighed.
“Alright.”
Lifting his hand off the receiver of the phone, he gives the verdict into the mouthpiece.
~
It was a slow day at the Build-A-Fluffy Department of Hasbio. Even though Hasbio had started offering a custom-made fluffy to customers and advertised their supposed benefits, the populace at large still preferred to buy fluffies that were born naturally, whether they were sold at officially sponsored mills, or special shelters designed for looking after abandoned and feral fluffies. As such, Sebastian could count the few times within a year when he would get an order at his office.
“We got a big one coming in!”
“Oh? How big?”
Beaming, Sebastian’s colleague summarized, “She wants the works.”
Taking the report into the hand, Sebastian noted the level of addons and intricacies need for the particular job, as he noted “Wow, that’s quite the order.”
But, and with a smile, he declares, “lets get to work!”
~
The Bio-lathe had sat relatively untouched in the workshop for the past few months. Custom orders did not come often at Hasbio due to the recent emphasis on adoption, as well as movement by pressures groups against the purchase of custom-made orders. However, there was always the rare rich kid who had extended their generosity to the craftsmen who had honed their expertise within the new frontier of artificial life.
Sebastian held up the calcium-rich material in his hand. Fairly fresh, he could still feel the warmth emanating from deep within its tissue. Going up to the Bio-lathe, he takes one end of the material, and affixes it onto the clamp.
With the ease of a button, the material immediate rotates vigorously, becoming a blur of chalk-white. With gouge in hand, Sebastian applies the tool upon the rapidly rotating material. As the material was still fresh, it was relatively soft, and easy to work with his tool. But Sebastian had to work quickly, and carefully. If he took too long on the procedure, the heat from the machine and motion would harden the material, causing it to be too hard to work with. If he applied too much force on the material, he would end cutting into the marrow that laid beneath it, damaging it further.
Slowly, as he keeps gouging at the excess material, a fine cylindrical form was achieved with the material. Happy with the result, Sebastian switches off the machine, and removes it. The only thing that remained to be worked on was each opposing end of the material. However, as he was now working in a colder environment, the material was no longer affected by heat. Thus, he was able to work on hand-sculpting the material with a different chisel from the gouge he used earlier.
A blueprint was placed on a screen in front of him, and Sebastian set to work, carefully removing the excess bits of the material by hand. While it is true that this result could be achieved by a machine, the company had promised a result that was entirely handcrafted. With his years of experience in working on wood, metal, glass and plastic, Sebastian was able to note the uneven edges and intricacies that accompanied a depiction of a femur.
It was night time. From the morning he started on the bio-lathe, to spending the rest of the workday working on the harder elements of the bone, Sebastian was finally finished. This process was going to be repeated for the other bony parts, including the skull, which would require more handcrafting. It was a tedious process, but Sebastian took great pride in it.
A week later, the various bones had been assembled neatly in front of Sebastian’s crew. A skeletal anatomy of the fluffy pony remained displayed on a screen, as Sebastian and his crew got to work assembling the bones together. As is with real bones, a synthetic ligament was applied to each joint. Within the span of an afternoon, a fully synthetic skeleton of a fluffy pony had been erected, and was standing proudly in the center of the workshop. However, the only thing that was not attached yet was the skull. Remaining on the ground in its various pieces, something had to be prepared before the skull, and with it, everything else could be attached to the skeleton.
Suspended within a preservative solution, beheld a rather specific synthetic organ. This organ had been grown from grey matter developed from a prototype first developed by an engineer known as Arthurnen at Hasbio. While shaping the other organs were a similar painstaking process, having to understand the mechanisms that allowed for the creation of a biosynthetic equivalent, the artificial brain of a custom-made biotoy was an entirely different affair. The gray and white matter of this organ was not one that could be easily grown, as it had to be carefully worked on, in order to achieve the gyrification needed to develop the biotoy intelligence, though limited.
Then came the hardest part. Sebastian went to visit Amanda in the memory making chamber. With her console in hand, Amanda had been busy recreating the false memories of the product that was inputted into the synapses of this artificial thinking apparatus. Under international regulations, the Dream Maker is a controlled device. Although its ability to affect the human mind is limited, as it cannot affect a brain that already has memories and experience, it was known to be able to create vivid experiences to an almost narcotic effect. As such, this device was the basis for many recent nanotech psychedelic drugs due to its unique and artificial high. However, for a “fresh” brain that was a blank slate, the device had the benefit of being able to establish false memories for the specific product.
There was a template that Amanda had to work with. The intended biography for this biotoy was that she was the princess of her ream. After years of training, and many friendships formed, she had not only risen well and high up within her ranks, but also gained additional prestige. At one point, she grew two pairs of wings, then another pair, and developed an ability to master the cape, the crown and the sceptre. She was a literally perfect princess, but only in her realm – her magic could only work within the universe of her origin and, upon finding herself in the human realm, she would realize that she no longer had access to said magic. But, and as she had been used to times when she didn’t have magic, she came to learn the value of friendship, and not overly rely on her powers.
Then one day, the realm was under attack by a great evil. In order to escape this evil, the Princess and her friends had to make an escape by a great boat into an unending sea. During the trip, the enemy attacked, knocking out the princess, whose body got sucked into a vortex, that was spiraling into an unknown dimension, potentially the alternate world of the humans.
It was rather a standard fantasy biography. Very simple to understand, and one that a child could appreciate, as it was based off one of the fantasy-based My Little Fluffy series.
But it needed something. A personal touch. Chucking to herself, Amanda added a small tidbit that the Princess enjoyed ice-cream.
As the information was fed into the organic brain, Amanda included in a photo of the recipient of the product. Although the Princess had not yet properly met her mistress, inputting this data into the brain would allow for the biotoy to accept her intended master from the get-go willingly. In addition, and due to the limited nature of the speech areas of the Fluffy Pony Brain, only a basic command of Fluffspeak, that most simple of constructed languages, could be “programmed” directly into this synthetic brain. The vocabulary had to be as extensive as possible as, unlike natural-born fluffies, custom made fluffies with artificial brains like this have little to no chance of learning new things.
~
The body that was to be Princess (Insert a name) was suspended in a fluid. Initially starting out as a headless skeleton, the engineers had, by hand, slowly attached the various organs to the approximate areas around the skeleton. The digestive system from Scotland. The lungs from Brazil. Eyes from Japan. And the muscles developed by a local company in Alabama. As they kept working on refining this artpiece, a message came in for Sebastian.
“Sir, the order of the Syn-skin from Israel just came in.”
“Ah good! How are we looking at for fluff?”
“The Hiro farms from New Zealand has sent their shipment of excess fluff from their recent shearing. The cells are still fresh, and should be easy to graft onto the follicles of the Syn-skin.”
It was a process that, while simpler due to being mere assembly as opposed to hard creation, still required a lot more effort due to the emphasis on the human influence as opposed to robotic manufacturing. But, and within a fortnight, it was almost complete, with just two weeks to spare before Christmas. And only one thing was left.
Sebastian carried the brain in a jar towards the unfinished product. As per procedure, the fluffy brain would be alive at this stage but, would lack access to any sense, visual, sensual, tactile and so on. Protocol demanded that the brain had to be placed on a sedative in order to be unaware of its surroundings, and to make its reception to the organs easier. Still, Sebastian couldn’t help but wonder if the brain was aware of its existence due to its living status.
As his hands swam through the fluid, Sebastian carefully places the brain within the skull. Working deftly, he is able to connect the brain to the synthetic eyes, spine and other connective tissue. Upon finishing this, he closes the final bone fragment of the skill, sealing it with a protective glue, than covering it with the special synthetic skin and fluff. The only thing that remained now was to “jumpstart” the body.
Electrodes were attached around the head and heart area of the biotoy, as they were hooked to an electrocardiogram. His crew waiting with bated breath, Sebastian pressed the button that sent a minor electrical pulse through the body. There was a slight movement, but it was not much. Sebastian pressed the button again.
And there it was.
The faint beat registering on the electrocardiogram. It was steady, but strong, a definite sign of life. The product was still asleep, and its brain needed to be used to its organs, its memories still stuck within the narrative of a princess long divorced from her realm, having survived a torment in an unending sea.
After a few hours, vital signs had indicated that the product was breathing the oxygen rich liquid well. The final journey of the product began, as the liquid was slowly drained from the vat that the product had been suspended within. The lungs of the newborn had been accustomed to regular breathing of the fluid instead of air that. As a result, the organism started coughing out the liquid from its lungs, still trying to get accustomed to the supposed memory of breathing gaseous oxygen.
Gasping for air, and heavily wheezing, the creature laid on the platform, its fluff soaked with the fluid. Its eyes started to blink rapidly, as she looked around her surroundings.
“Whewe am fwuff?”
To the Princess, all that she saw was the comforting interior of a room designed after the interior of a mad scientist fluffy from he memories. She would never know the more corporate and industrial nature of the laboratory that she was “born” into.
“Greetings princess. Its good to see you’re finally awake. You unintentionally crossed the border of your world, and entered ours. I’m afraid that we cannot return you home, but we welcome you to you lands.”
The princess sensed that she has a horn attach to her head. However, and despite her best effort, her magic was not materializing.
“Fwuffy nu hab powahs nu moar.”
“I’m sorry princess. In our world, magic had disappeared ages ago, and whatever magic you had from your realm no longer works here. But we will help you get used to this world, and our customs.”
A week was left prior to delivery, and during this week, the product was going to undergo the rigours of the Pony Integration Program. During this program, the custom-made biotoy was led to understand the nature of the human world, as well as be observed for any behavioural or physiological defects. Assuming there were any, the product would have to be built again, and the customer notified regarding the delay. That said, the Program had a 90% efficacy, with most biotoys, especially those that were of the Princess background, able to understand their role as loyal companions to their human superiors.
~
It was everything she wanted.
It was a pink fluffy with a mane like the ocean with four wings and a cutie mark made of hearts and she has blue eyes and a cape made of rainbow! And, more importantly, she was a princess!
To Princess (insert a name) mind, this was her new home. The AI program that had been installed into her brain had guided her to recognize this individual in an almost divine-like manner as she exclaimed, “Pwincess!”
Amy hugged her new biotoy for as long as she could. Finally, she had her own fluffy pony! And the best one that a little girl could get in the world.
. Disappointingly getting a bike, but eventually encountering Princess Pinky at a common pet shop later on, shapes her character and may have taught her a lesson on patience and expectations in life. There is actually a bit more to Princess Pinky, Amy and her parent(s) that I am in the middle of writing, but I’ll hopefully get to show it sometime in the future instead of babbling about it now