Magnus is a subterranean Terran operating a cybernetics clinic in Titan's B-District. Although he is not a doctor he still has special clearance to hold a medical license and offer specialized prosthetic services to starfarers in need. He is very stubborn and particular about his craft, but his craft is inimitable so it's easy to see why he'd be particular about the finer details of his work. Magnus tends to work with involuntary cybernetics recipients, telling prospective cyborgs seeking out his work deliberately that they have "a perfectly good so-and-so" already; when talking to his patients he shares his outlook on his craft, that "you're just part mineral now, that's all". Each piece is bespoke, hand-forged and assembled by Magnus himself in his workshop, having taken all appropriate measurements to ensure his work fits his patients as naturally as possible.- this takes time, and he prefers to focus this time on patients in need, which is part of why he rarely takes on voluntary cybernetics patients. If you're a starfarer in need and you don't mind doing things the old-fashioned way, talk to Magnus at the Ironworks Clinic, it's a bit of a wait but his results are guaranteed.
Magnus offers the Clockwork style of cybernetics.
- [+] Clockwork prosthetics are the sturdiest and most durable of all styles.
- [+] No electronic components makes Clockwork tech immune to energy disruption.
- [=] Magnus's work uses no nerve impulse translators, so there's a learning curve.
- [-] Clockwork tech only supports mechanical gadgets. Computers are not supported.
Magnus's Clockwork cybernetics carry on a long and proud tradition with roots reaching deep into the mountains of Terra. He's very fussy about the specifics of his work, as he carries a torch passed from his teacher to him and from his teacher's teacher to his teacher, you get the idea. His prosthetics work, they work well and they will work reliably even in harsh conditions and under extreme circumstances, this is the guarantee he prides himself on. It used to be Magnus's work was no-frills, no gadgetry at all, just a solid mineral component that did its job unerringly well, with none of the convoluted flash or flim-flam features the kids today are all asking for. Fittings involve a fairly painful and invasive process of mounting brackets and metal hooks attached to specific muscle groups, but once a Clockwork mounting plate is installed the cybernetic itself can be unhooked, unfastened and removed for ease of maintenance. Magnus's patients include the old salt Grizzly John and his protégé, Amy Redraven- it was only after taking Amy as a patient that Magnus made a concession and began offering clockwork gadgetry to his practice.
If Amy had it her way she wouldn't have been a patient of Magnus's in the first place. After a bad breakup with her ex-girlfriend Emily Timberwolf, Amy found herself minus a left arm for a little bit. She initially did not let this deter her from her work running a shipwreck salvage company, but after a little while of healing up she decided that she was simply going to build her own new arm and mount it on her own shoulder- Haley, having only her best friend's interests in mind, swiftly intervened, physically plucking the arc welder out of Amy's hand and vetoing this decision with a firm "no". Haley instead booked Amy an appointment at the Ironworks Clinic, believing that Magnus's all-mechanical work would be a good fit for her friend's Mercurian tendencies. She was right, and Amy would go on to become Magnus's most- and least-favorite patient.
Magnus is old-fashioned, he knows how he likes to do things and his clockwork is very precious to him and he insists on performing all maintenance on his cybernetics personally. Amy has the Gift of Machinery, she's able to comprehend generations of Terran clockwork mastery, passed down from master to student across centuries, basically on sight. Magnus learns this fact not long after he's fitted Amy with her new mineral component, his handiwork mounted on her shoulder. She took pretty quickly to learning how to make it work, and as soon as she got her left arm back she immediately began threatening to take it apart and add a bunch of gizmos to it. Magnus blew a gasket at the mere suggestion of it. Amy insisted she could make it work; Magnus demanded she not tamper with his handiwork. Haley thought this was all very funny.
The two machinists eventually worked out a compromise. Magnus had no idea his craft fell within this Mercurian's purview, and now that he'd taken her as a patient he was sort of stuck with her. Amy can bend machinery to her will, there wasn't a practical way Magnus could stop her from tampering with his work, so he agreed to hear out her plans and develop an elegant way to install her ideas himself. Amy wanted two things: she wanted a little place under her wrist to keep her credit stick, and she wanted a grappling hook. The credit stick hatch was easy, that was a few hinges, a double-bar latch and a few springs, but the grappling hook request was going to be complicated. He'd have to rearrange some of Amy's forearm components to make room for it, but he was a professional, and he could make it work.
Amy's Grappling Hook
The compromise Magnus reached was that Amy could design how her grappling hook works and Magnus would integrate the design into his clockwork; this seemed agreeable to the Mercurian mechanic. Amy's design involves a rotating barrel selector pre-selecting the deployment pattern on a mechanical baton ringed with magnets. She has four selectable deployment modes: Slug mode fires the baton as-is, useful for threading tight gaps; Hook mode is a traditional grappling hook, great for catching ledges; Palm mode sets all magnetic panels forward, allowing the baton to latch onto flat metallic surfaces; Claw mode latches firmly onto oddly-shaped or non-magnetic structures. As someone who traverses shipwrecks for a living she feels like these four modes can help serve all her needs. Having been raised in a place on Mercury called "The Den of Pugilists" Amy will naturally incorporate these modes into her self-defense style, but she doesn't tell Magnus that part. Claw mode almost scored her a win on Bi Feng's Illusion Fist Style. Almost.
For Magnus's part, the method he devised to fit a long rope inside his compact and beautiful clockwork was to emulate a Terran spider. A pneumatic launching tube inside a pop-out bracket sits inside Amy's forearm, and inside that launching tube is a ring of spinnerets. This bracket connects to a canister of liquid silk mounted on the triceps region of Amy's upper arm, marked with a yellow arrow- the spinnerets weave this fluid into a fast-hardening and durable spidersilk rope, their rotation powered by the pull of the completed rope connected to the fired baton, creating a long and durable rope from a very efficient amount of space. A winding pulley unit was mounted near Amy's elbow, reeling the line back in with enough torque to either pull Amy's body towards the grappling baton or pulling whatever she latched onto back to her. Once the spidersilk rope was past the winder it breaks down back into its liquid state and is stored in the triceps canister again. It's a clever design, and frankly it is more elegant a solution than what Amy would have come up with herself. In the end, both parties were happy with the results.
Since taking Amy as a patient, Magnus has begun offering non-electronic gadget components to his work, which in turn has made the Ironworks clinic more appealing to younger starfarers. He won't admit it, but working on Amy's requests was actually pretty fun, and Magnus has been cooking up a few more pop-out mechanical features of his own. He will still insist Amy come into his workshop for regular maintenance and checkups instead of trying to do it herself, a sentiment Haley agrees with and stubbornly enforces. While her arm is detached and on Magnus's workbench Amy tends to snoop around the Terran's shop, looking at other half-finished projects he's been working on. She likes to peek over Magnus's shoulder and reach her remaining arm into his workspace, pointing out some interesting thing she noticed- Magnus will shoo her away so he can focus on his work. Amy is a nuisance of a patient but no one else has ever seen Magnus's work the way she has, and she's pushed him to be a better machinist under threat of meddling with his handiwork herself. She's warmed herself a special little place in the old man's heart, and since meeting the scrappy Mercurian he may have added a gadget or two to his own right hand. Sometimes we need a healthy little push to keep ourselves up to speed with the times.