From Mazeworld

A bionics workshop is a business in Mazeworld specialized in buying, selling, installing and removing bionic implants. People in charge of such businesses are called bio-engineers, but there is only one such person in the Mazes - this person is Lance Chaosclaw.

The shop

Rules of a bionics workshop

• Sells all types of bionics
• Buys back bionics for 50% of their value
• Installs bionic implants on the body of clients, for free
• May remove existing implants on the body of clients for a fixed fee of 200 P$
• Accepts credit
• Accepts valuables and will exchange them for money or credit

If threatened, Lance will either remain indifferent, or explode in maniacal laughter at the face of whomever is threatening him. However, he will not attempt anything to defend himself. If Lance is killed in action, the contestant will not be able to use the bionics workshop anymore, and any subsequent room in which the bionics workshop was meant to be found will be instead considered a crime scene guarded by Maze Guards. Threatening or attacking Lance can give the contestant a code orange, and killing him can increase it to a code red.

If Lance dies, he will drop the following:

• His clothes: Shirt with tie, Lab coat, Pants with belt, Regular shoes
• A pair of fingerless gloves

Products sold

• Bionics

The man himself

Early days

Born to a couple of prosperous but unremarkable parents, Lance's father Sylas was a scientist living a quiet life and career as part of the Science Team of Physics and Chemistry, while his mother Janet worked as a weapon shop owner. He was the oldest of three siblings, all male. The second brother, Victor, died at the age of 14 in the children's realm from a mysterious and unexplained heart attack. The youngest brother, Falkner, went on to live as a librarian, but was known for streaks of bad luck, leading to repeated and numerous injuries and ensuing trips to the hospital.

Lance was known, as a child, for being one of the most successful students in the history of the Mazes, scoring nearly perfect grades with seemingly very little effort. Avid for knowledge in all sorts of fields and subjects, Lance was particularly attracted by scientific subjects, and became one of the very rare denizens of the Mazes to have some sort of fame in the regular Mazes while still attending the children's realm education.

As a cheerful and passionate child, Lance only sought solitude by choice and solely to devote himself to what he likes best - he is surpisingly sociable, though many have described him as "quirky", "very charismatic" yet "very peculiar".

Over the years, however, the young Chaosclaw attracted the attention of several figures; his intellect, his abilities as a student, and generally speaking, his personality and quirky behavior, have been seen as the symptoms of an abnormal individual by many - he was repeatedly analyzed and diagnosed by various medics. At the age of 10, following his entry in E2, Chaosclaw was tested for IQ (WAIS type test), and scored 153, a score that would make him a genius and a child prodigy by the test's standards.

While he was aware of his performance at school, he felt that there was no accomplishment in scoring perfect grades or reaching a high score in IQ tests, which he deemed to be "foolish". Later on, at the age of 14, Lance attempted enrolling in EVERY Science Team program at once, rather than a single one, and to the amazement of his teachers, managed to score high grades in every single test, with perfect scores in tests that would have allowed him entry in the Science Teams of Biotechnology/Genetics and Quantum Physics. He also demonstrated remarkable skills as a conventional engineer, and became the first, and to this date, the only student in the Mazes to have managed to essentially graduate multiple times, qualifying himself for entry in multiple fields of work.

Birth of a new scientific field

At the time of his graduation from the Mazes' children realm and his entry in the real Mazes, his almost inhumane skills attracted the interest of the Game Masters themselves, who have made the decision to personally support and fund his projects. Developing a keen interest in robotics, bio-technology, and generally everything touching to what Lance perceived as the "improvement of life", he has invented the field of biological engineering (commonly abbreviated as "bionics"). Working closely with other STs, Lance imposed himself as a new authority in the Mazes' scientific world, managing to create successful prototypes of a long-sought dream of many engineers and scientific: the bionic implant, the artificially created machine that would extend one's life.

Lance was granted access to the early drafts of the Life System Support prototype already tested in certain Failed contestants, with limited success, and was given the task to refine and improve on it; it had to be less bulky, more cost-efficient, and have less impact on its receiver's psyche and mental state; the early prototypes relied heavily on the use of chemical injectors, which injected a stream of substances such as epinephrine, morphine, certain other analgesics and benzodiazepines, in the host's system. Certain models also made use of steroids to improve strength and combat ability. However, this heavy reliance of drugs was disastrous for their hosts' mental state and psyche, who were reduced, more often than not, to little more than mental wrecks with immense powers.

Inspired by the very literal failures they represented, Lance's new drafts were motivated by certain ideologies which are now the cornerstones of his work today: bionic implants must respect the body and the mind, they must improve on the body without taking tolls on the mind, and must not trade off, or destroy the receiver's integrity in order to benefit from the bionics' new advantages. They had to be all gain, and none (or little) drawbacks.

Downfall, or skyrise?

Lance's own mind and psyche were, according to the medics who have routinely examined him throughout his childhood, riddled with personality disorders and troubles. Famous for his outbursts of nigh-stereotypical maniacal laughter, his slight speech impediments and his awkward social behavior, the various health experts who have examined Lance's case agreed on the following:

• Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD)
• Schizotypal personality disorder
• Narcissistic personality disorder
• Delusions of grandeur

Lance's obsession for his work and his perceived goal of improving the human race led to him being one of the first true trans-humanists of the Mazes. He is convinced, to the point of considering himself the "harbinger of a new era", that bionics are the Mazes' human race's future, and that until all of them choose to "improve" themselves with his implants, those who desire to be the best "will be the ones who chose to obtain implants".

After the success of his new Life System Support prototypes, Lance was allowed to work in the officially new Science Team of Biological Engineering, as its sole member. His close ties with the Game Masters, who have shown ever-increased interest in his work and mastery of this particular scientific field, led to him being a favorite of the GMs; he received a special, high-paying salary, and worked on the most important projects in the realm's history, the most notable of which is the development of the controversial Enhanced Life Support System, or E-LSS.

The E-LSS is a special, unique bionic implant, and the ultimate development of the original LSS and its past prototypes - a biomechanical heart capable of restarting itself regardless of its host body's condition. This heart was incapable of aging, required little maintenance, and Lance's highly dedicated work ensured that any repairs of improvements would guarantee that the implant would be ever better as time passes. The E-LSS project was, eventually, so successful, that the GMs were interested in installing it on someone in the Mazes to test out its capabilities.

That person was selected by the GMs, a certain Thomas Wight received the implant, on the condition that he accepts to be neutered by medics specialized in sex change (at the time, only select medics were trained to perform such treatments), in order to fully commit himself to his future job: to be the head of the Mazes' military as their future Colonel. The experiment was successful, so successful that Wight had deliberately and repeatedly placed himself in situations that would have otherwise killed him; but thanks to the inhumane possibilities the E-LSS enhanced, he came back to life to slay his targets, every time he would suffer a wound, a hit or a blow that would have killed him.

This experiment was Lance's consecration as a scientific prodigy and his biggest personal achievement. Although he had never officially taken sides in the Human-youkai rivalry, he had involuntarily and significantly contributed to the anti-youkai side. Despite this, Lance always advocated himself as a neutral party, only acting to further his goals and his beliefs; though he has repeatedly stated he refused to create bionic implants for youkai beings, stating that he worked to "improve human life, not youkai life", and that he firmly refused the idea.

While many perceived this standpoint as being anti-youkai, Lance was in reality simply apathetic to the entire conflict. What it did do, however, was further convincing himself that he was the "only one" capable of working in the biological engineering field, and that he was "not only the best, but the only one with a pure, real vision for the humans in this world", again in his own words, deepening his narcissistic issues and delusions of godlike grandeur. Despite the indisputable signs that the bionics prodigy was reaching comical levels of delusion, the GMs continued to follow his requests of never allowing anybody unauthorized to be taught about biological engineering. As such, the ST is still closed, to be constituted of only one member until further notice, which was likely to never come.

Today, Lance owns the sole Bionics Workshop in the Mazes and openly commercializes his services and his products to all humans in the Mazes with the money and the will to "improve" themselves, in his words. He is sympathetic to anybody supporting his cause, regardless of race and origins, though will always ultimately be interested in the human genre.

Gallery

Images needed!

See also

• Karin
• Colonel Thomas Wight
• Game Master