The Specimen Rack

The Sycophant Colony

File: The Sycophant Colony

Number: 0010 - 0566

Experiment: Alchemist Leofing's Question of Life

Current Overseeing Doctor(s): Dr. Ira Homer (file attached with )

Current Assigned Doctor(s): Dr. Amos Edmund (file attached with ), Dr. Christina Morris (file attached with ), Dr. Willard Lloyd (file attached with ), Dr. Merrick Grossman (file attached with )

Current apprentice/assistant(s): Florence Galdway (file attached with ), Vernon Krippers (file attached with ), Nathan Grey (file attached with ), Mayme Burns (file attached with )

Experiment Overview and History:

To answer a question to a long sought-after question in the means of life, Alchemist Leofing of London dated in the Tudor period of very early 1500s was tasked by his masters to find the unlocked potential of the human mind, especially the potential of an undeveloped mind with so many unknowns, so many possibilities. Given the materials of research for this quest was the bodies of deceased infants with fresher corpses being the preferred. To answer this question Leofing began experimenting in something that could grow from death as the cycle states from death springs life. What he thought was a carnivorous type of worm was actually a parasite that latches to a host, lives in their organs and slowly feeds off of the host for several months if not years and typically in rotten flesh with higher clusters found in bodies in extreme states of decay and when it's done feeding latches on to the next that comes to pick at the bones. The parasite showed responses to human voices in certain vibrations along with some capacity to respond to certain questions. The parasite intrigued Leofing and his masters enough that he decided to use them in the experiment, to test if this parasite could help answer the question. Cut into various pieces that soon branched off were placed separately in all parts of Test-Subject-1's brain. The parasite branched enough to regrow and soon latched itself to the new host and experimenting began. Every time any progress was made it took months upon months, the longest record being fifteen years for any progress to be shown again. Only when morale was completely down and Leofing and his masters were ready to stop the parasite finally gave some shove and gave the results that were hoped for. Years of promising work and progress came to be but it took many life times of dedication and research to come up with the outstanding results. In 1540, Leofing remarked that the parasites he named The Sycophant Colony for the pleasing behavior the parasites gave in order to gain longer means of survival by migrations of many hosts. He was old in age and his work needed passing on but he remarked every growth the Sycophant provided. The parasites that were cut into various pieces were still of the same branch however with the gathering of more parasites of this type and splicing the genes the parasites eventually evolved into new strands that changed in behavior in specific parts of the brain. In total he had 8 strands, currently as of this year of 1919 there are 150 strand variants and 2 sister strands in development. The parasites could respond to certain commands, slowly interact, they were capable of thought and understood basic commands such as crawl or jiggle. However this great succession would soon be blocked by questions and ethics. For years freshly dead corpses kept the colony fed and Leofing believed that the consumption of the brain full of potential and questions would go into the parasite's system and if they would become capable of becoming personifications of the potentials and possibly give the answers but the corpses no longer allowed the parasites to grow. The food needed to become more fresh, more fresh that required a serious and long conversation about how far those in charge of the experiment were willing to go. A united decision was made and live test subjects were acquired from various means, typically orphanages were gathered and over the course of more time near the end of Leofing's life with yet nothing to show for this route was ready to give up hope until some parts of the parasites began to mutate and change into odd blobs with what appeared to be tiny appendages on either side. His joy was short lived as Leofing died a week after this triumph and his work was passed onto his successor Alchemist Osgood McDougal of Ireland.