[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]The praise in Oscar's email caused Aurelie to glow with pride, and the prompt delivery of new Steel-type materials the next morning made her feel truly valued by her current employer, if also still troubled by exactly where—and whom—these materials were coming from. The thought of her own beloved Steel-type Pokemon ending up in a shipping container like this, dismembered and dismantled into discrete body parts to be reassembled into machines and tools, made her shudder. The red-haired smith bit her lip as she sorted through the bins of material, reminding herself to be dispassionate and professional.

Think of it as like a person donating their body to science after they die, she told herself. Or like someone being an organ donor. Only— She couldn't help thinking, I doubt these Pokemon truly chose to donate themselves like this. Or did they? Do I even want to know for sure?

It was a lot for a one-eyed smith lady to ponder, that was for sure.

Even if Aurelie was having doubts at this late juncture, though, she had already signed Oscar's contract, accepted his terms, researched the materials he'd provided, and even eaten at his expense. She couldn't leave now. Nor did she want to, really! She wanted to make the prosthetics casings out of the incredible materials, especially the intriguing Bug/Steel-type specimens that promised to be strong, lightweight, and durable all at once—more so than any mundane steel Aurelie had ever used.

So, she did her best to shake off the melancholy feeling and went to work.

Obediently, Aurelie first burned Oscar's note as she was lighting up the huge industrial forge. Then she dug through the rest of his Steel-type cadavers—no, no, materials—to find her favorite specimens: the Scizor, Lucario, and Bisharp materials. As he'd written, there was plenty of all three types, probably more than she needed, but it certainly wasn't an infinite supply. As Aurelie waited for the forge to reach forging temperatures, she pursed her lips thoughtfully and reached for Oscar's schematics.

First, I'll make this out of ordinary steel, she decided, so that I can practice and figure out what I'm doing. Only when I feel comfortable with that will I move on to using the Steel-type materials. I'll use the stronger, more durable ones—and at this point, Aurelie quickly scrolled over to check her spreadsheets of data. Yes, the more durable ones for the larger casings, and then the lighter, more flexible ones for the finger and joint casings.

With a plan in mind, Aurelie set to work. For a week, she devoted herself to simply mastering making all the casings out of ordinary steel. This was the week where she was okay with letting metal burn while she feverishly checked and double-checked the schematics, forgetting measurements or parameters, and struggling to make parts fit together—with trial and error, in short. She absolutely wanted to know everything about the process before she ever used any of the precious Steel-type materials.

It was all painstaking, meticulous, detail-heavy work. Yet, it was easier than Aurelie had feared, because it wasn't as different from bladesmithing as she'd thought it would be. Heating, hammering, shaping, and grinding out the metal to a specific form—all those things stayed the same.

The next week, she started constructing the larger casings out of the Lucario and Durant specimens, the parts that she guessed would cover things like forearms, calves, and other larger portions of the body. For these parts, Aurelie had always imagined herself forging exceptionally large and detailed swords, and that was the mental approach she took now. But ah, the Steel-type materials! They truly moved in the forge and under her hammer almost like living things, vibrant and adaptable rather than rigid and cold. It felt strange, but it was also amazing.

When Aurelie was content with the quality of the larger casings she'd assembled, she moved on to the finer, more articulated, more delicate casings for the joints. These would have to be perfectly forged and fitted together, so that they would move naturally for the user. For these, she used the exoskeletons of Scizor and the blades of the Pawniards and Bisharps, which were thinner and lighter but still resilient and strong. These materials were even more incredible, just as Aurelie had anticipated.

She spent two weeks working on the smaller casings. She made more mistakes here too, despite all her preparation and planning, ruining large portions of Scizor exoskeletons to faults in measurement and shaping. She gritted her teeth, sternly reminded herself to take more time and not rush, ordered some comfort food those evenings, and persevered.

But finally, even those casings were done. In the end, Aurelie ended up making slightly fewer prosthetics casings than Oscar had initially requested, thanks to her mistakes and struggles with forging. However, the work she had done should all fit together and work together well. She surveyed the materials bins and then her completed casings with an expression of pride, nervously mixed with some misgivings.

What would Oscar think? Would he approve? Was it enough? The Rocket Beast should be stopping in anytime today, since it was the end of the month now, when he'd promised he would check in.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT