"The workshop, Mang George!" Jun-Jun declared, his eyes gleaming with artistic fervor (or possibly just a sugar rush from the chef's perfect cookies). "Let's give these magnificent ruins," he gestured towards the shards of the Mega-Cookie cooling on the rack, "the monument they deserve!"
Mang George nodded, unfazed. "This way, sir." He led Jun-Jun out of the pristine kitchen wing and through another set of sleek, hidden doors into a space that starkly contrasted with the minimalist aesthetic of the main house.
It was less a 'workshop' and more a private, high-tech fabrication laboratory. Spotlessly clean, yes, but packed with an intimidating array of machinery. Gleaming CNC mills stood beside industrial-grade 3D printers. Laser cutters shared floor space with robotic arms and what looked suspiciously like a small-scale particle accelerator in one corner. Ventilation hoods hummed efficiently overhead. It was the kind of place where one might prototype experimental aircraft components or advanced robotics, not carve up burnt baked goods.
"Right!" Jun-Jun surveyed the room, rubbing his hands together. "Tools!" He spotted the laser cutter first. "Precision work! Let's start there."
Mang George had already anticipated this. He produced safety goggles with advanced optical filters and a fire-retardant apron, handing them to Jun-Jun. "Standard eye protection protocols recommended, sir. And perhaps avoid loose clothing."
Jun-Jun donned the goggles, making him look like a particularly enthusiastic mad scientist. He carefully carried a large, relatively flat shard of the Mega-Cookie over to the laser cutter's platform. "Okay, Mr. Laser," he addressed the machine. "Let's make... a star! A five-pointed star of delicious despair!"
He began interfacing with the machine's complex control panel, tapping at holographic projections. Mang George stood nearby, fire extinguisher discreetly within reach.
"Power levels... lens focus... cutting speed..." Jun-Jun muttered. "Let's try... 'Aggressive Ablation' mode!"
He hit 'Execute'. The laser beam, thin and intensely bright, shot down onto the cookie shard. Instead of cutting cleanly, however, the concentrated heat instantly carbonized the already burnt sugar and slightly raw dough. A plume of acrid smoke puffed up, smelling strongly of burnt caramel and disappointment. The laser traced the outline of a star, but mostly it just created a deeper, blacker burn line on the shard, which began to crumble slightly under the thermal stress.
"Hmm," Jun-Jun observed, peering through his goggles. "Perhaps 'Aggressive Ablation' was too ambitious." He poked at the blackened star outline. "Less 'star of despair', more 'smudge of sorrow'."
Mang George silently adjusted the ventilation.
"Okay! Plan B!" Jun-Jun declared, undeterred. "Plasma torch! Raw power!" He carefully moved another large shard towards the plasma cutting station, donning heavier protective gloves Mang George provided.
"Sir, the plasma torch operates at temperatures exceeding 15,000 degrees Celsius," Mang George cautioned calmly. "It may cause... significant alteration to the material's composition."
"Exactly! Transformation! Art!" Jun-Jun exclaimed, gripping the torch handle. He adjusted the settings (seemingly at random) and triggered the arc. An intensely bright, searingly hot jet of plasma erupted from the nozzle. Jun-Jun aimed it vaguely at the cookie shard.
The result was immediate and dramatic. The plasma didn't cut so much as vaporize the cookie on contact, leaving behind glowing edges and sending sparks of superheated sugar flying. The smell was now overwhelmingly burnt. Jun-Jun tried to carve a shape – maybe a smiley face? – but mostly succeeded in blasting small craters into the shard and further blackening its surface until it resembled a meteorite fragment.
"Whoa!" Jun-Jun stepped back, lowering the torch. "Okay, maybe too much power. Very... expressive though. Full of angst." He admired the cratered, smoking shard. "We'll call this one 'Existential Crumb'."
Migs would have pointed out it was just burnt cookie, but Migs wasn't here.
"Right! Water jet!" Jun-Jun moved to the next station, where a sophisticated apparatus aimed a nozzle capable of producing a hair-thin stream of water at incredibly high pressure. "Precision and power! But gentle!"
Mang George handed him waterproof gear this time. Jun-Jun placed a final, large piece of the Mega-Cookie onto the cutting bed. "Let's try... filigree! Intricate patterns!"
He programmed a complex lace-like pattern into the water jet's controller and hit 'start'. The machine whirred, and the high-pressure water jet slammed into the cookie shard. Instead of cutting intricately, the sheer force instantly shattered the brittle, unevenly baked structure. Cookie fragments, both burnt and raw, sprayed across the interior of the cutting enclosure, mixing with the water into a muddy, unappetizing slurry.
Jun-Jun watched the cookie disintegrate under the hydro-assault. He shut off the machine. Silence fell in the workshop, broken only by the hum of the ventilation.
He looked at the smoking shard named 'Existential Crumb', the poorly-lasered 'Smudge of Sorrow', and the watery debris field that was once 'Attempted Filigree'. He pushed his safety goggles up onto his forehead.
"Well," he announced thoughtfully. "I think we truly explored the artistic potential of failed baking experiments today, Mang George."
"A comprehensive exploration, sir," Mang George agreed neutrally, already initiating automated cleaning protocols for the water jet enclosure and plasma station.
"The results are perhaps... more conceptual than originally intended," Jun-Jun mused, examining the 'Existential Crumb' shard again. "But they make a statement. About hubris, maybe? The fragility of ambition? The dangers of uneven heat distribution?" He nodded. "Yes. We'll mount these. In the foyer. Right next to that baffling abstract sculpture."
"As you wish, sir," Mang George replied. "I shall arrange for appropriate museum-grade mounts and lighting."
Jun-Jun, satisfied with his brief but intense foray into inedible art, removed his protective gear. The smell of burnt sugar still hung faintly in the air. He felt a sense of closure on the cookie front. Time to move on.
He wandered back into the main house, leaving Mang George to oversee the preservation of his 'sculptures' and the workshop cleanup. He checked his phone – no urgent updates from the lawyers or aerospace brokers. He considered calling Migs to describe his artistic triumphs but decided against it; Migs probably needed recovery time.
He ended up back in the den, sinking into the armchair. He idly put on the cheese-rolling documentary he'd considered earlier. He watched intently for about fifteen minutes as people tumbled chaotically down a steep hill after a wheel of Double Gloucester cheese.
"Fascinating," he murmured. "Needs optimization, though. Cushioned track? Individual safety harnesses? Perhaps... jetpacks?"
He pulled out his phone again, fingers already flying across the screen, searching for 'competitive cheese rolling governing bodies' and 'personal jetpack suppliers'. The day might be ending, but Jun-Jun's quest to apply infinite resources to absolutely everything showed no signs of slowing down. The world was full of things waiting to be made more expensive, more complicated, and infinitely more interesting. At least to him.