My Greatest Experiment (Skelebros' Origin Story)

Entry 7

May 19, 2005

It's been approximately four days since the extraction. My hand has been recovering nicely—I can pick things up again, and initial examinations show that (as predicted) it functions just as it did before. I haven't attempted writing yet, or anything that requires any kind of precision, but I am optimistic. In fact, I will be very surprised if I have any issues in the future. I will say, however, that the pain still hasn't subsided. Not that I expected it to, but it is still an inconvenience—the next few weeks of the experiment will be critical to its success, and I can't afford to have a mind clouded by painkillers.

The experiment has made a significant amount of progress in such a short amount of time. I finished the capsule the day after the extraction, and have since transferred the bone piece from its flask into its more permanent container. I checked on it often in the first few days to fine-tune the energy and magical input to optimal levels, and it has since been growing at an incredibly fast rate—faster than my calculations had projected, even.

When I checked on it today, the disk of bone had finished its transformation into a single vertebra... the beginnings of a spine. It seems my magic is encouraging it to form a new being, as I had intended. Speaking of magic, there is no artificial way to generate it, so I have to transfer my own to the capsule via a magic transfer system—I carry a crystal with me that collects my magic and transfers it through space to a similar crystal within the capsule. (I won't get into the details of how this works, because the odds are that you already know; especially if you've ever tried touching one of the crystals in Waterfall.)

While this provides the needed magic for the experiment, it has taken a significant toll on me. I get tired much more quickly, and my assistants are complaining that my temper flairs more often as a result. In fact, one of them said this to me the other morning, and I quote: "You've been acting like a pregnant bitch with morning sickness." (I would scold him for his language, but I'd just thrown a rather heavy wrench at him, so I suppose it was justified.)

Ironically, his observation isn't too far from the truth. The process of diverting magic from a mother to their developing child is roughly similar to the process I'm using to speed my experiment's growth... though on a much grander scale. A lesser monster would fall down at the rate I'm sucking myself dry. (I've never been more grateful for that early experimentation with my magic, even if it did result in the cracks in my skull.)

Forgive me, I'm getting off topic. I started writing this entry to talk about the issue with the soul, and yet here I am, rambling about pregnancy and magic transfers. With the experiment growing so quickly, the logical next step is to secure a soul for it. A monster's physical body can't be sustained for very long without the presence of a soul, so it's of the upmost importance that I implant one soon.

I've done a tireless amount of research, and yet I keep coming up dry. It seems that no one has ever been able to crack the mysteries behind a new soul's creation, beyond what we already know about conception. (And I certainly hope that I don't need to explain to you how that works—however, if you need a refresher on the birds and the bees, I will include a separate article on it.) So, like I'd already theorized, it seems the only way for me to give my creation a soul is to use part of my own as a template.

I would be lying if I said that I had no misgivings about it. I mean, this is my soul I'm talking about. I have no idea how the removal of a chunk of it could affect me. I would be dancing with death, taking a risk like this... No. I just... I can't... I must have missed something. There must be some document, somewhere, that can offer an alternative. Or perhaps, with enough research, I can even come up with a solution of my own. I just... I just need more time. There has to be a way around this.