#body augmentation

No.

Sadly I started listening a couple days ago, and I started working on CG back in late Jan.

But there’s definitely an intersection of vibes, setting aspects, and themes that makes the podcast irresistible to my hyperfixated little autistic TTRPG girlie brain.

I have binged all of season one in three days.

Surely this is a thing other people have/want to have and it's not just me?

Disability Rep: Body Augmentation, Prosthetics

Genre: Science-Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy

Age: Adult

Setting: Future Nigeria

Additional Rep: Black MC, M/F

For more information on summaries, content warnings and additional tropes, see here:

Oooooo love this question.

So I kinda go with a league hybrid. In League his right hand is still flesh and bone. But obviously, his right hand is the one he augmented with the Hexcore in Arcane. So I have most of his right arm still flesh, including his shoulder, all the way down to the wrist where the crazy purple shit starts. A majority of the chest and the entire spine is all augmented, as well as his neck and cervical spine. Basically it stops just at the hairline, with some in the back going up a little higher to account for the systems that are integrated into his brain. His entire left arm and left leg are cybernetic, and the right leg is that Hexcore material. Both legs meet at the hips, which are still flesh and bone, as well as a good majority of his stomach (augments finish at the ribcage on the front). So basically the things that are still flesh and bone are his face and most of his head (though he probably reinforced parts of his skull when he operated on his brain), his right shoulder and arm down to the wrist, his stomach and hips, and the booty. I kind of go back and forth on whether or not he augmented his fun bits. In Dream of You, I wrote him having robotic genitalia. In Pulse of the Machine, I didn’t. Both options are fun, and they kinda depend on what he really values. Does he value sex that much? Does he enjoy it that much? Or does he see that part of his body as just another area to be improved? Is that improvement worth the loss of sensation? Idk, I haven’t really decided yet. So I’ll probably keep flip-flopping till I do!

But for now here’s an incredibly shitty body map that I made while I was supposed to be working!

I have been working on a very complex and multi timeline scifi since i was a little kid.

I have created a planet and am still developing finer traits of civilization for a plethora of species in an intergalactic setting.

However, im having issues with submerging characters.

Because of how complex the system and cultures are i figured i should have a framing reference in form of a character. Base line human.

But, on developing her character, i had to erase much of the earth like culture from the context due to timeline and conquest events before her presence in the main plot.

One of the things prominent in this culture of intergalactic conquerers is the use and application of bio manipulative technology. As in, this use and application of augmentation is pivotal to much of the cultural integrity.

So, im taking a human being with no augments raised in a more or less experimental preservation biome on a different planet many many lightyears from the holograph that is earth.

To not get too specific, she will eventually and forcefully go under augmentation due to accidental injury in some of the more strenuous experiments.

I have no knowledge when it comes to living life as an amputee. I have severe nerve and soft tissue damage in my legs that causes pain but i still have them and they function for the most part. So a complete loss of limb is more or less a foreign concept. I try not to romanticize it (from my biased view it seems i would be better off with no legs than painful legs some days) just because i find that sort perspective in ill taste. (I could be wrong).

Speaking in the persepctive of a very much war machine based culture, seeing cyborgs and machinery as limbs in an "unorthodox" (non-anthropological) state is common place that the beings hardly take second glances at, so having the character body augmented with tech isn't something canonically extra ordinary.

However, she was still raised around humans that are considerably new to this tech and genetic manipulation so it is considered both disconcerting and uncomfortable to have a human augmented to some of the degrees that other species think nothing of. Not that it is Taboo but with centuries of physical oppression and dogma influenced ideals, the human race would take a huge "rewiring" for their physical bodies to even accept some of the more advanced tech let alone cultural acception. (As a frame of reference the human race has been involved with this culture since the destruction of their planet in more or less recent memory about 3-4 generations. The same length of time that i am separated from my great-grandmother who fled nazi persecution in the 30s. Context Just to express how recent that these humans have been exposed to alien tech and culture in the books timeline.)

Im trying to extrapolate some references i witness today when it comes to mass reaction to some of the more controversial sciences (irl) without overt theological influence but more psychological consideration and medical ethics. (Scientific approach not spiritual). Once i get a mild understanding of that then perhaps i will implement religious rhetoric in some of the reasons (but i want to establish a base moral that doesn't depend on religious exemptions.)

That brings me back to the structure of the frame character. As to not touch base with any of the lingering earth culture that influences major decisions, i want to know more of the human psychological relations with their own body.

As expressed, dysphoria, disassociation, and alien limb syndrome are all expressions of "organic" physical rejection (at present) and can be applied in circumstances that would include in body augmentation (even stuff like plastic surgery, transitioning, reconstruction, transplants, or even tanning , tattoos, and dieting). I do have an inkling on how augementation causes an emotional distance from the limbs or body parts were worked on but i still feel that i know too little on the subject to properly epitomize the sense of true full body transitioning.

I do wish to have multiple perspectives on the whole body manipulation (for the plot line does engage with even the opposition of body augmentation based on several principles).

So, if youre reading this and feel strongly in relation to the character. As in you have had surgeries or accidents or deformities that have caused a change in your body that you emotionally wrestle daily, or just have super strong opinions on the topic please message me privately to explain why, how, or what established that sense of self and views within you... Or even if you have some thing you would like to see in a project like this.

I havent actually started writing the book. Its a narrative in my head that i have been working on since my health declined as a child. So, its still in much of the building stage. (From the looks of the foundations its a pretty big piece of architecture. )

Its asking a ton. Im not looking for a fight or an argument. Im searching for understanding.

Writing these (eventual) series of novels is my way of trying to make sense with my own body dysphoria and health problems but as i stated i want more perspective to work from so i can communicate the struggles that the character(s) may experience or endure.