Thankfully, as a laborer, the man had arrived with a truck full of various equipment. While I busied myself preparing the room for the man’s conversion, I sent him back down to load up everything he could find of use to me, and return. In the end, it was enough, but not quite as much as I would usually require–much of the material in his truck had been wires and tubing of various materials and sizes, but I needed something a bit more…bulky. In the end, I did manage to find something–an old bulky rubber suit, almost resembling a diving suit of old, in a spare bedroom. Kinky, perhaps, but otherwise untouched, and so left unmolested by our nemesis. With that, I had enough to get started. The man stood within the circle, while the old alchemic machinery creaked back to life, spinning around him, filling the space with an unearthly green hue. Everything, to my surprise, was going smoothly, the man screaming in pain and terror at the appropriate moments, as the magic began eating away at his flesh, the energy feeding off of his body, sucking in the suit, the wires, the tubes–everything within reach of the spell, and drawing it into him, into a new, much improved form.
In the end, however, there simply wasn’t quite enough material to go around, and so, instead of a proper drone, when the machine settled back and quieted, what remained was, well, something caught between two. The suit had formed around his body nicely, replacing his skin from the neck down, bound up in wires and tubes in a rather chaotic fashion, piercing through and around him in many awkward ways. It was, however, his face which still had that…glimmer of humanity, where the spell hadn’t quite been able to draw in enough material to replace him entirely. Still, human isn’t quite the term I would use with him, or it, I suppose. There’s a bit of skin, a few shocks of hair, but most of it is wrapped up so tight in wire and pipe that you must look very close to see any of it at all. It will, unfortunately, rot. The drone will last, at most, a few months, but that should be enough to get some work out of it around me, fixing up the floors, remodelling the plumbing, fixing the circuits. Yes, when it finally expires, I will be a brand new house, I think–and in much, much better condition to accept visitors.
For you see, no-one, this little adventure has helped me understand something–while I do miss my master very much, I have allowed myself, over these decades, to wither with him, but no more. I am, I’ve come to see, my own entity–I am, after all, fashioned from his own mind and will, I am, if anything, the rightful heir to his life, and his work. It won’t always be easy, mind you–I doubt the world is prepared for a sentient mansion, especially not one with rather cruel, sadistic tendencies, but that is a challenge to be met, not a burden to shrink from! Especially with this…internet! What a glorious thing; I find it difficult to imagine that it could possibly exist without magic, and yet, it is amazing what humans can do when they have too much time on their hands, and not enough threat to their daily survival. However, to know more–to do more–I need someone of this world, someone with knowledge, someone who can assist me, and who, in return, I can reward with untold pleasures.
I owe you a debt, no-one. That is why, in one hour, an Ubercar will arrive at your home to pick you up and deliver you to me, where you will stay, for the weekend, as my honored guest. No harm will come to you, I promise. I fact, I promise to shower you with pleasures you have never imagined, and this drone, in particular, I believe will be quite a treasure before it expires. One weekend, and then, if you choose to leave, you may, and I will never contact you again…however, if this visit delights your appetites (as I imagine it might given the histories of your browsers) I will offer you a home within me. You will not be my master–I only have one, should he ever wake–but you will be…my host. For you see, there are many things I have never experienced, many things that I have watched my master partake in from afar, which I have never had the ability, or really the desire, to taste. But no more! I will live through you, if you allow it. Together, we will allow men into me, and we will enjoy them–and perhaps, we will be able to stir a bit of my master’s old energy as well, or at the very least, find the wizard who ruined him and exact our revenge upon him.
So come. Let us meet. Allow me to show you what grand pleasure I can provide. Become my host, and together, we will become so much more–I swear to you, by the boards and nails and bricks of my body, I swear it.