A lone woman stood at the bottom of a mine shaft, carrying a cannon that would fire bullets that were essentially, metal-plated, non-lethal syringes and trackers. Her lone source of support were the shielding and healing units that stood behind and in front of her. Metal rectangles that would hopefully keep her from dying if her latest experiments didn’t pan out.

“Alright, ladies and gents…No need to be shy. I’ve got enough medicine for everyone. Now who wants to get their shots, first?,” laughed the woman. Smiling defiantly at the crowd of semi-humanoid, largely-apelike, enamel-covered, monsters. The tooth-fairies charged the woman’s position and the woman began firing. Aiming to injure but not to kill, despite the ferocity shown by the beasts that charged her position.

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Remmington “Remmy” Kruger hummed a happy tune to himself as he waited for his meal to arrive.

“Here you go, Mr. Kruger,” said the pink-haired, yellow-eyed, inexplicably good-looking shopkeeper.

“Thanks, Ellis,” said Remmy. The old half-dwarf immediately took a sip of the frosty ale that had been placed in front of him. Savoring the rich, barley, hops, and the thick foam head. Quietly marveling at the fact that he now lived in a world where drinks being cold was once again a thing to enjoy, rather than endure.

“So, how have things been with you?” said Remmy. Putting down the tankard of ale and digging into the steaming plate of hearty beef stew, paired with Yorkshire pudding. The beef in the stew was tender to the point of melting apart within a single bit. The potatoes held a sweetness that gelled perfectly with the onions, parsnips, mushrooms, and celery. The sauce had an earthy umami. Finally, as always, there was a feeling of profound wellbeing that always accompanied eating the food in this little shop. A feeling of satiety that went beyond merely having one’s belly filled.

This feeling always puzzled Remmy. Even after his studies took him beyond the knowledge of the mundane world, and he began to learn about the supernatural and anomalous worlds that were hidden from the eyes of most, Remmy still found the feeling unexplainable. It was a feeling of embetterment. A feeling like being bathed, being full, being whole, on an entirely new level.

A feeling that mysteriously even seemed to affect his prosthetics. Making it so that he’d basically never had to tune-up, or repair his metal limbs, and the other cybernetic parts he’d had grafted onto his body over the years. The material parts, and core functionality of all parts of his body seemed to improve as time passed, making it almost feel like he was aging in reverse to many extents.

“Things have been fine…Maybe a bit hectic. But ultimately, fine. I’ve recently gotten into politics despite my earlier intentions, and I’m finding it a bit tiresome compared to simply watching over this shop,” said Ellis. Sighing.

Remmy’s eyes widened as he looked over the outrageously handsome shopkeeper, and noticed a bit of tiredness that he hadn’t seen there before.

“Huh…You 'have' been looking a bit run down there, mate. Kek, I can relate. I’ve been finding myself getting pulled into the world of politics and power plays as well…” said Remmy. Taking another drink from his tankard of ale, and shaking his head ruefully.

“Oh? Is that so? I think I might have heard something about that? I think the people of Regina are calling you their ‘Great Engineer’ now?” said Ellis.

“Tch, It’s damn annoying, that’s what it is…and maybe a bit creepy… I set off to be the best damn engineer I could be…and maybe turn the screws to some folk who were desperately in need of a swift kick to the short and curlies…Now it feels like I’ve stepped into something bigger than I intended…” said Remmy.

“And how do you feel about that?” said Ellis. Wiping down the other end of the bar’s countertop.

“How do I feel? Hm…I dunno. Sometimes I try not to think about it. Keep my head focused on helping with rebuilding the bloody world…Other times…Other times, I try to use my position for good, while hopefully nudging the folks around me, from turning all dickish…I’ve also, been publicizing some of my work to keep the Reginans honest, and avoid creating a monster…” said Remmy.

“I dunno though…With all that I’ve learned, I’ve still no clue, whether I’ve been going about this the right way…That’s why I’ve been trying to build up my own personal strength…Just in case, you know…I don’t aim to let myself get locked up and pushed around again…Never again,” said Remmy. Shuddering. His grip on his spoon tightened.

“Fair enough…In my experience, so long as we truly try our best, and avoid that most dangerous of lies “it can’t be helped”, then it should always be possible to stay on the right path,” said Ellis.

“Heh…True, enough…Try your best. Don’t make bullshit excuses for yerself, or the world around you…You almost sound like my dad…Not that that’s a bad thing,” said Remmy. Laughing.

The rest of the meal was spent in amiable quiet, while a show played in the background. Remmy gave it some thought and decided returning wide-spread laughter and entertainment to the half-frozen world of Kalt-Zahn-Brennan would be his next pet project. Then Remmy paid his bill in cash, since the Reginan government was definitely doing its best to keep him flush and happy, these days.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Till later then, friend. Send my love to the missus and little red,” said Remmy. Waving as he headed out the door.

Ellis nodded.

“Will do, you have a good one… I wouldn’t be too hard on myself if I were you…You’ve been doing pretty good about not letting all the fame get to your head. So long as you remember what you’re trying to be and what you’ve been trying to do, you’re unlikely to lose your shape…And uh, as a last word from a meddlesome shopkeep, I’d pay closer attention to some of the lab aids and workshop assistants that are being put beneath you…You’ve got a whole lot of flowers and weeds beneath your branches…In my experience, you can tell which are which, by seeing which ones are trying to choke out the others,” said Ellis.

“Hm?…I’ll keep an eye on that then,” said Remmy. Pausing at the door and then nodding, before waving again and going his way.

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Shortly after Remmy left, a new customer came in. Short and solidly built. The stalwart woman had a long face with a round chin, a turned-up nose, thin lips, and her dark brown eyes were narrow. Her black hair was shoulder-length, fine, and slick. She wore a headscarf and some light, heavily-battered, body armor, beneath a long hooded, lab coat.

“Yo…” said Millicent “Millie” Franklin. Sounding upbeat, yet exhausted.

“Glad to see you again, Doctor Franklin,” said Ellis.

“Pft, quit it with Doctor Franklin stuff, will ya?… I get enough of that at work…” said the woman.

“Heh, as you wish…Should I get you your usual then, Millie?” said Ellis.

“Yes, please,” said Millie

By the time Millie arrived at the restaurant area of the small store, there was a plate of fish and chips, with a warm mug of tea waiting for her. Comfort food. There was also a box with more for her to take home, to her mother, who also liked the restaurant’s offerings even if she’d never bothered to come in person.

“So, I’m glad to see you alive and in one piece…How’d the experiment go?” said Ellis.

“It went…” sighed Millie. Making a face. Her expression softened and turned brighter, as she chewed a mouthful of crispy, fried, potato alongside a perfectly seasoned, flaky, bite of fish.

“So, I take it this particular iteration of the Amita-serum was a failure?” said Ellis. His expression sympathetic.

“I don’t want to say failure, exactly…This is science after all…Even our failures can give us something to learn from…I’d rather say that I didn’t quite get the results I was hoping for…Still, hopefully, the lab results will be able to tell me a little more about what went wrong, and why this time’s attempt didn’t work…” said Millie. Wearing a small stiff smile.

“An admirable point of view,” said Ellis. Smiling brightly in a way that left the young scientist blushing, and wandering off to do other things in the other areas of her shop.

Left alone with her thoughts, Millie considered all she’d done and experienced over the last few years. Though she still loved her father very much, she’d decided to do her own thing, to evade the impression that she was just an extension of him. She went into medicine and worked in Regina’s clinics for a bit. Then the urge to tinker reared its ugly head again, and Millie found herself entering in the field of bio-engineering.

She found a few relative successes and even managed to create some crop variants that would grow faster, and healthier, despite the cold. Though again, her father’s work kind of overshadowed that, because this was no longer as pressing, or important, when climate-controlled shielding was now increasingly available. However, that wasn’t the point.

The point was to find something that would be her own thing, so she could make her own mark on the world. After a few twists, and turns, and having to deal with a whole bunch of patients from a recent toothfairy attack, Millie realized that the toothfairies were pretty much a blank spot in the world’s zeitgeist. No one knew where they came from, besides “underground”. No one knew what they really were. No one knew why they were all almost invariably hostile and aggressive.

With that, Millie found the thing that “she” could do. At first, she started off thinking of it from a position of eradicating the tooth-fairy threat. Yet the more she thought about, and the more she learned about her subjects and would-be victims, the less palatable the idea became. Eventually, she started simply studying the tooth-fairies, using a mixture of purchased and homemade drones to observe their tunnels and subterranean dwellings.

Millie was disturbed to find that the creatures were just as terrible to each other as they were to the surface dwellers that they routinely raided and brutalized. They acted like monsters out of a nightmare. In fact, individual tooth-fairies even rabidly inflicted harm to themselves when there were no other entities to attack. Millie was on the verge of going back to the idea of destroying them all again, when she realized that not all tooth-fairies fit this model.

A few stray words from the yellow-eyed shopkeep pointed Millie to the concept of a creature known as “trogs”. Using the skill and class books sold by the shop, Millie learned about something called trogification, which made lifeforms into a profane and twisted parody of themselves, and the existence of magics that could alter someone on the genetic level. An act of war so foul, that all the gods, angels, devils, and spirits…immortal beings that apparently existed according to what she’d learned…would universally punish any found dabbling in such acts.

Now, Millie had two ideas in mind. The possibility of “curing” the toothfairies from the ailment that made them into less than beasts, and or, contacting and preserving the tooth-fairies that were still themselves, before dealing with all the others. Millie wasn’t sure which route was the most likely to succeed so she was aiming for both.

True Trogs were supposedly incurable, but Millie had observed enough to see that if these tooth-fairies were sufferers of a trogification-type malady, it wasn’t so complete that they were unable to show some care for their own. Or alternatively, the affliction might already be on its way to being undone, since creating and keeping a perfectly bad specimen or a lifeform was just as hard as making a perfectly good specimen of a lifeform. Natural mutations, and natural selection would eventually lead to the worst traits being bred out.

“Hopefully I’m not fooling myself…” sighed Millie.

“Heh…I’d have a bit of faith, Ms. Franklin…You’re quite competent…and you’re closer than you seem to believe,” said a voice, both eerie and comforting, from across the end of the shop.

“Er…Th-, thanks…I guess,” said Millie. Smiling stiffly again, before focusing on the food in front of her.

(The man has ears sharper than my mum's…) thoughtMillie. Brow furrowing lightly, before her expression eased and she decided to relax before heading back to the clinic she worked at.