Building an Identity: Part 1

Killo Zapit was tinkering in what is know as the "Mad Science Laboratory" which was located somewhere near the upper halls in the front part of Killovania. Probably. Maybe. It was honestly hard to tell.

Killovania was after all rather strange when it came to time and space. It was after all really a reincarnation of sorts of the famous Castlevania, Dracula's former castle in another dimension which had been described as a "Creature of Chaos", which was, after all, why Killo was attracted to it in the first place. So Killo, after the castle's last final destruction in that dimension in 2035, had decided to find the last remnant of the chaotic realm portal which was flung away during the final desolation and sneak in to resurrect the castle for himself. Of course he only was able to make a offshoot version, a variant, but that was enough for his needs.

Things had changed slightly in Killo's version, either according to his design, or as a mirror of his mind. The "Inner Quarters" had morphed into the "Concubine's Quarters" where many of the succubi, the strange maids, and other female spirits made their home, ready to serve Killo's ... interests. Though this was also one of the more sane and homely parts of the castle and no actual strange activities went on there (as Killo usually sent them to his throne room for ... that stuff), so Jiggles and some others also had rooms there.

The chapel area was completely abandoned except for a few ghosts and such. Why Dracula even had one, with his apparent hatred of god, Killo never understood. It didn't look demonic or evil, and Dracula dealt with a lot of demonic and evil things, but the chapel always bugged him. He guessed it was that way because Dracula still believed in God in his own twisted way, even if he hated him. Killo had no use for gods of any sort. So the chapel became "The Abandoned Chapel", a dark derelict place, with broken stained glass windows and icons.

Jiggles found it sad in some way. It looked to her like a reminder of some faith someone had once had only to be thrown away. Why it even was there no one but Killo would know, and if he knew he wasn't telling. Jiggles wondered if it was there for a time where Killo would regain faith in something more besides himself. Jiggles secretly hoped so. She wasn't religious as such, but she did believe in faith. She would sometimes come down there to pray, not to any real god, but just to pray. She couldn't be sure, but she thought maybe, when she did, the room seemed less derelict and sad afterwards.

The old "Alchemy Laboratory" had been changed and modernized and looked sort of like a cross between it's old self, the "Devil's Laboratory" in the rebuilt castle cultist made in the universe that the original Castlevania was from, and a old "Frankenstein" movie set. This was of course the "Mad Science Laboratory", and where Killo was currently tinkering, working on a project he had begun when he had first created this lab.

The project was that of a magic construct, a sort of combination of a robot, a golem, a living doll, and maybe a tiny bit of a Frankenstein monster. For most the very idea would speak of science gone mad, and man's hubris to create like a god. Killo of course scoffed at gods, and he wasn't exactly a man anyway. Besides, to Killo man's hubris was not in creation, after all man does that all the time. Man creates art, creates stories, creates crafts, and even indirectly creates the next generation of man. No man's hubris was, to Killo, thinking they could control it, thinking it was somehow theirs, and this hubris was extended to gods as well. Killo didn't intend to control his creation, only perhaps to guide it at best. Killo created for the joy of creation and the interest of watching the results.

Besides he had done it before, of a sort. Both Jiggles and her older "sister" were created in a similar way, but they had different archetypes and were made up of different things. Jiggles was, more or less, a cloned body given a part of Killo's "soul" and with an imprinted archetype, while her "sister" known as Blacky was actually made entirely with magic, gaining substance of a sort after. This project though was more creating a shell body out of mostly inorganic materials and powered and animated with magic. Not that it really matters though. The biggest real difference is that both Blacky and Jiggles were "cat-like" beings, Blacky resembling more a real cat, and Jiggles resembling more a anime-style cat-girl. This project however would be more robot/android-like, or perhaps golem-like, both in materials used, and in the archetypes it draws from.

It's not that how you make a construct is irrelevant, but archetypes are usually more important, especially for personality. An archetype could be in terms of personality thought of as a mental role model, or more likely, a collection of role models. But the magic also flows to make the body more like the role model, giving them similar powers and weaknesses. It is the construct really that decides most of the time, but it needs choices to decide from, and of course, if it's put into a body already quite similar to an ideal expression of it's form, it will tend to match that.

The body Killo was designing was that of a youngish girl. Of course. It had a metal skeleton-like robotic frame, a carved wooden and plastic doll-like exterior, padded with clay in some places, and covered with organic skin. In the robotic brain case was a electronic cpu of some sort wired with fleshy brain bits as well as other electronics. Some of the muscles and organs were fleshy as well, and the... sensitive parts were quite fleshy. One might marvel at the craftsmanship or be horrified with the use of what seems like human body parts, but both would be unfounded reactions for one very important reason: Killo cheated to make it.

[Exposition Dump Begin]

Killovania only came to be because Killo gave up a small part of himself to do it, although really gave up isn't quite the right term because Killo didn't really lose anything, as he can just multiply himself almost effortlessly. Anyway, that meant Killovania was not only his, but in fact, almost part of him. And since it was rejected from the timeline of the, as Killo would say, "canon" Castlevania universe, it was in effect, outside of any particular universe as much as Killo is. Witch basically means, Killo makes all the rules in it. Hence Killo can craft things simply by his will.

Of course it's not quite as easy as poof and anything he wants is there, because, as a general rule of magic, the greater disturbance to the status quo something is, the less "real" it is. Things popping out of nowhere tend to devolve quickly into nothing. The easiest way to get around that is to get raw materials and simply transmute them into something else. Another way is prototyping, taking a raw chaotic form of matter and exposing it to a "form" witch, like a material archetype, causes the chaos to tend to transform into a copy of it. There are other tricks too. Killo has learned most of them.

Also he obtained one inherent to becoming the lord of the castle, the control of the "souls" of all the monsters there. Really though calling them souls is not quite accurate though. A soul is a living thing, a consciousness. It changes and grows. But the souls of the monsters bound to the castle lost that part ages ago. What remains behind is more what Killo calls "essence", which is like it's archetype of sorts, but more specific. It's all the information that makes a thing a thing, so to speak. Monsters form and are destroyed and form again out of this essence, and they become the servant of the master of the castle. But it can also be used to call upon the abilities of the monster, and as a powerful form of prototyping.

But, even with all this, anything made with these techniques (besides maybe a existing material object form outside enchanted with something else) can not be trusted to work outside of Killovania it's self. It might work, it might vanish, it might fall apart, it might explode. Killo can sneak into other universes sometimes, mostly because he projects himself, either as a bodiless entity who watches from afar, or in a body that is half illusion and half real. If he focuses on an object he might be able to get it to manifest there, but he isn't very good at focus in any case. But things with a soul, they can be projected in the same way. Any thing with a soul here could be said to have a soul on the outside as well. You couldn't of course actually use this for much if you were a pan-dimensional evil conquer since it involves way to much to do in large numbers, but for Killo he just wanted to experiment.

[Exposition Dump End]

When Killo finished the shell, it was a mess. It was really a pile of material, much of it disconnected and piled on in layers that didn't make sense. The robotic skeleton was the most actively functional part, and it probably would have turned on if it had a power supply but wouldn't have moved because it's cpu only had a few very basic instructions and no real function besides to wait for input from the fleshy brain bits which were wired up but not really alive and showed no activity. The skeleton was really covered by a wood and plasic shell which was fixed with mud and had flesh on top and if it moved it would have all probably cracked and slid off. Outwardly it looked like a naked young girl with blond hair, but if you looked close you noticed overlaps and sloppy gaps in the skin in places. And it probably stunk a bit too.

This would change of course. Golems were made of simple inflexible clay after all, the magic changes them, it would change this girl. The magic began by taking the souls/essences of many suitably appropriate monsters into her. There were all sorts. Golems of course, both clay and iron had there essence. And of course those of some of those enchanted cursed dolls. There were even a few types of robots hanging around, and they had essence as much as anything else, so he added some. Some types of Angels too just for kicks, which yet again were odd to find in Draclua's former castle, but there were some. Witches too. Maybe Succubi and some of those maids. And those plant ladies, he had one in his gardens, they were nice. Maybe this and that.

He also decided to upload some stuff into the memory in her brain. Some copies of some games, like Mega Man X and it's sequels. Hell, Most of the Mega Man series. Sonic Battle had a interesting robot character too. That Astroboy GBA game? Sure. He stuffed a hard drive full of other robot related stuff in her head. After all, "data" and "essence" are about the same. He was a modern guy after all. He looked around shifty eyed and said to no one "These are all back up copies of course... I own the carts honest". There are some forces even HE was scared of after all. Or maybe he just thought it was funny.

Next he reached into his own chest and pulled out a bit of his own essence. This was of course, completely painless. He reached though her chest and placed it inside without disturbing anything. This would be her "heart" and power source. A part of his being that would always connect them. Each of his creations had a bit, after all, how else were you going to create something? You couldn't just will life into existence ya know. Well you could, but that will would be a part of yourself. Souls are easy to divide, but almost impossible to construct form scratch. With a robotic element it MIGHT be possible to make an AI, but real intelligent living AI's needed either far more programing skill then anyone had, a long time for simple genetic programing to develop the right complexity, or perhaps an extremely lucky break. And for an AI, while developing a full soul is possible, Killo was sure it would take a lot more tech then he had at the moment.

Anyway now came the last step, to pump her full of magical energy and let it change her. And since this WAS the mad science lab, he was going to do it in the mad science way. He pulled a level and the table rose up, while up above a thunder storm was raging, called by Killo's control over this place. Millions of metal boxes with electric tubes, dials, readouts, and other devices beeped and sparked, as Killo adjusted some random instruments. They were random too. Most of this equipment was just for show. "Live! Make my creation live!" Shouted Killo as he cackled madly. Killo was actually quite proud of his evil laugh. It was fun to laugh like this once and a while.

Lightning stuck.
The robotic frame drew power from it, turned on, and began to overload.
The wood seemed to spark and catch fire.
The dry mud blasted apart.
The flesh began to melt.
The essences and the heart Killo put there fed on the raw elemental energy.
Things started to change.

The robotic frame's circuits fused together in strange ways with the surrounding material.
The wood's fire glowed green or blue and changed rather then consume.
The mud became liquid and filled the gaps and expanded inside.
The flesh melted into the mud and changed it to be like flesh too.
The magical essence mixed into everything.
The Heart glowed and spread magic throughout the whole body.

There was a moment of flux where everything became charged with magic and glowed brightly. A moment of perfect chaos. Killo whispered to it in thought in a language without words:

"Chaos is Life. You are Chaos. You are alive. After a fashion anyway.”

“Become life, I have forged your body. Become Life I will share our souls. Become life and I will guide you.”

“Pretty please with a cherry on top?”

The light exploded for a moment then faded.
The table was lowered again.

The girl opened her eyes.

"IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!!!!"