"In any case, yes, I'll take the weaponized thymus. Knuckle busters and punching tendons. Projectile launcher in the right arm and the steel-slicing pincers in the left. And, yes, I want the spider-climbing package. And the ink jet. I think that's everything."

"Ah, I didn't mention, but these are relatively low-impact; highly optimized for obvious reasons. You can get eight rather than six."

"Ah, okay. Let's say... the poison stinger, and another projectile launcher like you said. Right, let's look at where we stand with this list."

"Twenty-four extra organs ignoring the penciled, thirty-four if you include those. But I think you will want to go somewhere in between. Here, I have the running list."

"Right. Okay, it's looking like I might drop two of the potential digestive changes, I'm still not excited about the spare teeth and long tongue - especially after looking at the tentacles and bioweapons. What would that get us in terms of reduced stress on the system for applying other varieties?"

"Some reduced load, not an enormous amount. Certainly it buys us less time spent modifying your digestive tract, but unless it's something closely related from another slate, probably we could only squeeze in one other per two forgone."

"Does the chemoreceptor enhancement count as sufficiently related?"

"Ah, that probably would. I'll double-check at the same time as checking the nerve enhancements and the overload with the brain."

"If that works, then I have... two spares, one for the chemoreceptors and one from going short on wings. Well, four, but two I use for the ancillaries, since you said that was about the only way to get more of those without excess stress."

"Those would work, yes. If you weren't dropping half the quota for wings, I'd say the stress drop was enough to handle an extra organ somewhere else, but diminishing returns is setting in at this point."

"Not increasing, since most extra wings would be combining past a point?"

"Maybe if we had a default process that assumed missing wings. But our initial templates were mostly winged, so no." John shrugs, in a way that makes his own wings under his jacket more visible.

"Fair enough. Okay, skipping through these other penciled choices... drop grip flesh. Drop side eyes. That leaves me at 31 beyond the standard five-year quota, and the schedule you gave plus the flex from the missing ones accommodates 28 for seven years, I think? Or 27 if the chemoreceptors don't work out."

"Yes, your count is good. Think you can bear to cut three? If the nerves are too much, that's two. Though I think you were restrained sufficiently that you'll get the fast nerves."

"If nothing jumps out at me, that comes back unfavorable, and the digestive replacement favorable, I'll just drop the gridlock immanis and not be too troubled. Probably I should make a copy of my list, take this set of diagrams and explanations back to my new apartment, and look it all over. I assume everyone takes a week or three to think before finalizing."

"Yes, a whole month if you like. We do want at least a preliminary set of selections in a week, so the doctors can take your samples and compare to reactions, start planning the details of your treatments. But it doesn't have to be complete, this will do well enough."

"Then I think give the planners this, including everything penciled, and aiming for seven years. And I'll get back to you in a few days with edits."

"We'll talk then. And until then, I suspect will see you in the reading room."

"Until then."

Lesya took the full detailed files on everything he'd selected or penciled down, and secluded himself in his - still spartan but otherwise quite nice - apartment. Thirteen things penciled down, and if he took more than four he'd need to add more time beyond the seventh year. Not necessarily prohibitive, but given how much time he was going to spend blind or deaf, and then the time with his brain misfiring in considerably less entertaining ways than his usual, he'd rather keep it down.

Several were fairly easy choices; the side eyes could be dropped and the microscopic eyes would be covered in his palms. The dexterous tentacles and grip flesh didn't seem needed, and the gridlock immanis, while surely entertaining, was never a priority. The ancillaries he'd already mentally filed as locked-in. Harder were the digestive changes; even dropping all three would only get him one other implant, unless the chemorecept amplificat counted as similar enough. He dropped the extending tongue and the secondary teeth, and considered keeping the food storage pouch.

But with those gone, he still had the throat sealer, gastric pouch, organ cushioning, breaths plate - and wasn't that a terrible pun - and the three nervous system improvements. From the third forgone wing tissue and some of the forgone digestive changes, he'd be able to fit in one more in the usual schedule, probably two. That would give him time for as much as a hundred thirty implants of one size or another, and as long as he wasn't over the high-margin safe tolerances for the brain, that was still his main limiting factor.

He currently, with the pouch, sealer, nerves, limbic enhancer, and armor, stood at one hundred thirty-three. If the nerves were just too much, he'd drop those. He was nervous enough about getting weighed down by metal bones that he wasn't going  to cut the throat sealer. So that left pouch, limbic enhancer, and armor.

...The pouch he could spare. And if he could keep the nerves, he would drop the armor; he had gotten the really critical organs covered already.

Well, he'd ask how much extra time it would be to add the armor and pouch anyway. He was guessing three months, even though it was less than a quarter of what he'd get with a third extra year; the amount of information they gave him about the process suggested it was not well-optimized at smaller time scales.

And if he couldn't safely get the nerves, he'd get the armor, and possibly an extra month for the gastric pouch.