I read your newest story and the conversation you guys had in the prompts. I know you don't want more prompts right now, so please forgive me, this one popped into my head and I wanted to get it out before forgetting.
It's from this one
@internutter/challenge-03471-i183-it-never-gets-old
A person who, despite a lot of therapy, hates their biological body. They've taken to hurting themselves because of it. They beg the B'Nari to please, give them a new body, they don't want to live anymore if they have to stay in this one.
The disorder that makes you hate your own body -- The New Guy
[AN: The second link leads to a page about Body Dysmorphic Disorder which may disturb sensitive readers]
Every Deregger Rescue has a suite of problems. This was one of the more extreme ones. Not entirely rare for the world, but rare in that it persisted beyond acclimatisation to Alliance culture.
Human Antonella had already been through an abundance of cosmetic surgeries. So many that parts of her skin resembled matte rubber. She wasn't perfect, and still desperately wanted to be so. All the implants, extractions, and sculpting could not help her. So they called for a more extreme solution.
The B'Nari could engineer anything. Custom orders were never a problem. The interview with design technicians might have disturbed anyone else.
"I eat too much," complained Antonella, already on a diet of minimum possible nutrition. "I'm fat and my abs are too flabby. My breasts keep sagging and it's the same with my butt. How long can you make my legs? I need them to be longer."
It was an extreme case. Antonella wished to be five-foot four[1] with legs longer than she was. Perfect hair was not a problem, but a three-inch waist was.
"The minimum possible spinal linkages require a waist of five inches. We could arrange a holographic presence, but you would no longer be able to manipulate your environment." Design Co-ordinator Pol added a new menu section to Antonella's options. "These come with assistant servos with form and function in mind."
Antonella's eyes bugged. "I can not have a waist at all? I can just be boobs and bum and a pretty face and hair if I want it?" She seemed happy enough, and the preview plinth quickly became a monster.
Five-foot four of shapely legs that were nominally attached to a perfect derriere. Breasts loosely attached to a face and floating free of anything else. Hair with its own gravity and set to its own rules.
This was where it would all fall down. Pol knew it. They readied the virtuality goggles anyway. "These will allow you to experience your design before you inhabit it full time."
Antonella eagerly grabbed them, slamming them onto her head and engaging all possible feedback. "I'll see out of the eyes of my design. Take a good look at my new bod--" she must have spotted the virtual mirror, because she screamed. She threw the goggles off, crying. "But it was perfect. I made it perfect. How can I be a monster when it's everything everyone wants?"
This was when the Melil Counselor Vorn took Antonella's hand in hirs and said, "Perhaps the problem is in attempting to serve what everyone wants. Perhaps you should try seeking what you want for yourself. Happiness is not a race. Finding your own comfort is a more achievable goal."
Pol returned the hologram to a more classical feminine form. "This is what statistics declare as a mathematically perfect form. Would you like to try virtuality from that perspective?"
Antonella was shaking. She needed a moment to dry her eyes and calm her nerves.
"Remember," soothed Vorn, "You are the first person you must make happy. Everyone else is managing their own happiness."
Antonella joined the mantra. "If someone is unhappy with how I appear, that is their problem, and not mine. I am allowed to be happy with myself as I am. I am allowed to be happy with myself as I choose to be."
It would be a long road to recovery, but these sessions were key.
[1] The ancient imperial measurements are used solely for intelligent beings. Standard Distance Units only measure things.
[Image by Milan De Clercq on Unsplash]
If you like my stories, please Check out my blog and Follow me. Or share them with your friends!
Send me a prompt [55 remaining prompts!]
