"You will have bones particularly hard to break. But absorbing forces is always helpful. Sound choice."

"Alright, round it out with the lactic dissipator and reoxygenator. That seems like a reasonable amount of extras."

"I think you're at thirty-one, now, so you're looking at eight years instead of seven. But if there's only one or two more extras, only about seven and a half."

"I'll try to restrain myself. Or drop some of the penciled ones, there's... six?"

"Seven, and there's two under the usual count for the gut. I think you'll end up close to seven years, depending on what we hear back about the nerves."

"Right. Now, the creepiest section of all - autonomous detachable symbiotes. Where did you get this stuff?"

"Oh, pretty much all of these were in the care package. We just had to adapt them better to human physiology."

"Right. I think I go with the cocoon weaver and the infiltrator, and then some of the living ammunition. Grapple, armor-piercing. Weaponized hallucinations? That seems useful to make any reports of me unreliable. What would you suggest?"

"Spies not primarily intended for wetwork make use of the adhesive cocoon and the glow-tracker. And the explosive may be very useful in emergencies."

"Wetwork... that's when you're intending to go for combat?"

"Correct. Anything where you expect blood to be dripping at some point in the process."

"Isn't that a lovely euphemism. I doubt I should drop the piercer to make room; should I drop the grapple?"

"I think if you're still inclined toward being Spider-Man, yes. None of these have decent range, but I think unless you intend to snipe from rooftops - which you will likely be capable of - that is not a problem."

"...Good point. You are correct, I do not want to do that. I so, so, do not want to do that. I mean, better than shooting people close up, but also much easier to be sure I'm avoiding it. That's enough symbiotes. Next... reproductive modifications. What're our experimental options here?"

"Two reproductive bio-drones, primarily. A womb that can implant itself through a wound and carry to term in any mammal or most reptiles, and incidentally leaves the host healthier and long-living. A mobile zygote collector that can return a fertilized egg with material from up to a dozen sources."

"...Are those both the same researcher's work?"

"How would you possibly guess?  There's also the genetic sampler - extend a 'tongue' to sample someone's genetics. It's a fairly simple implant, built with pieces we understand, so minimal potential downsides, but you'd be the first trial run."

"That one seems useful, let's go with it. Most of these seem much more useful for someone intending to bear pregnancies. Though I don't really think I'd be much of a parent..."

"We do firmly encourage you to have children; it's much more efficient at expanding the project membership than implantation, even when we select very talented adult members to induct. We do, eventually, need to be an army."

"I suppose that's a good reason."

"Also, given some of your existing choices, you'll be capable of bearing children. The hormonal balance and gross anatomy of a female form is enough to make it work, if awkwardly, and your disguise and biomonitor implants give you that."

"Fascinating point. Alright, add the myriadic organ, which I assume removes a lot of the awkwardness. Pario ovum, because I've seen enough pregnancies from the outside, thank you, no need to see one from the inside. The 'plagiarist' that lets the kid start out at toddler. I don't think I want to add extras to bear a pregnancy well, so... Is it worthwhile to take the fast-blank for one month pregnancies in the external womb?"

"It would only be moderately convenient, if you're not expecting to have a lot of them."

"And I'm not. Alright, I'll take the fun one... Actually, no, the recycler. It's not my preferred way to be a godless sybarite anyway."

"I'll pencil the other one in," he said dryly.