(Authors note: this is a document which I believed to be lost when I originally uploaded this story. It's meant to be a short aside, written as if it is the instruction manual Tuera submitted to the Dreadscar Archives in part 11, "Me's A Crowd," detailing the construction of her body-double device. I rediscovered it by accident earlier today, and am including it at the end of this story, in the interest of completeness.)

The Device

- or –

Turning Yourself Into a Shell Game For Fun and Profit!

[The vast majority of this tome submitted to the Dreadscar Archives is a rather dry and clinical affair; it reads a bit like stereo instructions. However, the introduction and overview is written in "Layman's Terms," with only a few bits of jargon here and there.]

Shell Game (Noun): a con game involving sleight of hand, in which three inverted cups (or sometimes nutshells) are moved about, and contestants mistakenly believe one of the shells contains a ball underneath; however, all the shells are truly empty, for the ball is in the hand of the con-man from the start.

Potential uses for Shells:

Body Double/Decoy: As fellow Warlocks, I'm sure that you have encountered people who object to your very presence as practitioners of the Dark Arts. Or, at the very least, I'm sure there are people you've pissed off and would rather you not exist any more. Wouldn't it be grand if any potential assassins could think they succeeded, only for them to realize later that they only "killed" a Shell? It's great for confusing your enemies as it's not only practical, but it's a right laugh to boot.

Magical experimentation: The members of the Black Harvest have been known, on occasion, to dabble in magicks that are quite dangerous – physically, mentally, spiritually, etc. Shells are able to bypass that particular problem, allowing you to perform potentially lethal (or even soul-rending) magical experiments from a truly safe distance.

Consequence-free hedonism: I'm sure there are things you've wanted to do in the past, but decided against because the margin for error was too slim and the consequences for failure, however slight, would be certain death. Or perhaps you simply want to spend a night in a brothel with half a dozen prostitutes, complete with a suitcase full of heroin, ecstasy, and All Of The Cocaine. This will allow you to indulge in your every desire, without the unfortunate scenario of waking up the next morning to find yourself dead.

Unbounded: Truly, the only limitation for what one can do with a system of Shells is the users own imagination. If you legitimately can't think of a use for multiple bodies that are capable of being controlled remotely, then... really, that's your own problem.

List of Major Components in The Device

The Control Pod: To take direct tactical control of a Shell, the user needs to enter a Control Pod. These can vary in design, to meet the user's specific aesthetic preferences, but at its most basic, it must be a container large enough for the user to enter completely. This is because, during operation, the user must be submerged in a Neural-Lattice Interface Gel. This oxygenated link-control liquid is capable of transmitting neurological information from the user's nervous system into The Device when energized by an electrical current; it is also capable of hygienically transmitting nutrients to and from the user while submerged.

The Soulstone Network: The heart of how The Device is able to function. By using a linked network of Soulstones, suspended in a penta-neurazine liquid and augmented by a framework of both arcthium gems and a lattice of hermetic runes (see diagrams), The Device is able to transmit and receive information critical to controlling Shells remotely. At least five Soulstones are needed for each Shell you wish to have active at any given time.

Neural Distribution Buffers: Because the mental burden of controlling even one Shell remotely would be too much for a mortal mind to bear, "buffers" need to be installed. These "artificial minds" are constructed from a mixture of silicon and Ihan crystal, and are able to evenly distribute neurological information transmitted to - and received from – any and all Shells. This allows the user to see and hear "echoes" from any active Shells not being directly controlled.
Note 1: While it is theoretically possible for a mortal mind to control more than one Shell at a time, this is not recommended; the mental stimuli would overload the system, followed by overload of the brain's neurons, followed swiftly by brain death.
Note 2: Weapons empowered to steal souls will not work – as the Shells are, as the name suggests, empty shells devoid of a soul. However, the psychic feedback is still present and will almost certainly overload the system, burning out the circuits and sending everything into catastrophic shutdown. This was an unavoidable side effect, so it is recommended an Emergency Eject be built into the Control Pod, in the eventuality that there is no one to help you exit The Device should such an incident occur.

Crystalline Automated Response Lattice: Similar in design to the Neural Distribution Buffers, this part of The Device allows any Shells not in direct control to act relatively autonomously. Commands are entered on a basic interface, and the responses given by Shells running in "autopilot" rely entirely on the detail of said commands. The more detailed and specific the commands, the more realistic their responses will be. Or, to put it another way:
10 HACK
20 SLASH
30 GOTO 10

Biomass Digestion Vats: Shells are not robots; they are artificial bodies, grown and cultured into "CyberFlesh." This is achieved by reconstructing refined biomass, and the first step in this process is acquiring the biomass itself. Any organic matter will suffice in a pinch, but the easiest (and quickest) way to generate sufficient biomass is to use humanoid (or humanoid equivalent) bodies. The digestion vats are filled with a potent biological acid, similar to stomach acid, and are capable of breaking down organic matter into its most basic components. This system was created after careful studies conducted on the creatures known as Minoris omniphaegea.

Energy Conversion Processors: The second phase of the process involves the broken down biomass being pumped away from the digestion vats and filtered through the energy conversion matrix inside the processing engines. These take the raw digested biomass and refine it into a usable product. Depending on the amount of biomass you are trying to refine, and how many processors you've built, this step can take anywhere from less than half an hour to upwards of several days.

Note: while it is technicallypossible to skip this step, it is not recommended if you wish to use the Shells for the intended purpose. Freshly digested biomass is known to feature many impurities from inorganic matter unable to be broken down (and curiously enough, teeth). These impurities have been known to cause defects in the final product. These defects can range from different skin tones, improperly shaped internal organs, pulsating cancerous tumors overtaking the Shells mass, or anything in between.

If, however, you just want a lump of meat to experiment on – or you want to study whatever hideously grotesque and deformed mutant emerges – then this step can be safely* skipped.

*Tuera Ashama is not liable or responsible for any direct or indirect losses, arising from any such injury, damage, loss accident, or expense including (but not limited to) illness, maiming, blindness, death, or financial bankruptcy that may occur from experimentation on mutant shells produced from unrefined biomass.

CyberFlesh Reconstitution Pods: The final phase involves the actual creation of the Shells themselves. Using a mixture of conventional and magical techniques, the biomass is subjected to rapid cellular reconstruction. Rather than go through the tedium one normally experiences when cultivating clones, this process bypasses things like "infancy" and "puberty" and creates a fully-grown body to your exacting specifications. Depending on the complexity of the genetic blueprint, the process of growing a Shell can, like the refining process, take anywhere from several hours to several days.

DNA Customization Workstation: This silicon-crystalline interface allows the user to determine how the Shells will be put together in the Reconstitution Pods. At its most basic, it can take a sample of the users DNA and create an exact copy. However, with skill and practice, the Shells can be modified any number of ways.

Note: While it is possible to alter a body, it is not always recommended. A normal human-sized Shell will require a roughly equivalent 1-to-1 exchange of biomass; more complex designs (altered and/or backup organs, enhanced muscle density, pre-inscribed magic runes, etc.) may require significantly more in the way of refined biomass.

Storage Bays: While not strictly a technical aspect of The Device, it is nonetheless essential. Shells will need to be put in storage when not in use. The more Shells you have, the more space you will need to set aside to store them. This is one of the major limitations to The Device in terms of practicality.

Power Supply: This is the most critical component of The Device, and the other major practical limitation. None of the individual components of The Device will work without a power source, and even the most basic setup – ie. a Device that will only utilize a single Shell at a time - has significant requirements in terms of power. It is recommended that the user find a power source capable of generating at least 300 MWe, at the bare minimum. For comparison: a heavy diesel-elemental locomotive, like the trains used by the Iron Horde on the alternate-timeline Draenor, produced and used anywhere between 3 and 5 MWe.

Now that you know what The Device is, and what it can do for you, it's time to actually build one...

[From here on, this truly immense tome becomes focused on all the technical details and various specific minutiae related to the construction, use, and maintenance of "The Device," complete with diagrams, charts, graphs, and page after page of calculations.]

[It is several thousand pages long.]