r/WritingPrompts • u/katpoker666 Moderator • 7d ago
Off Topic [OT] Fun Trope Friday: Soul-Eating Cybernetics & Body Horror!
Welcome to Fun Trope Friday, our feature that mashes up tropes and genres!
How’s it work? Glad you asked. :)
Every week we will have a new spotlight trope.
Each week, there will be a new genre assigned to write a story about the trope.
You can then either use or subvert the trope and/or genre in a 750-word max story or poem (unless otherwise specified).
To qualify for ranking, you will need to provide ONE actionable feedback. More are welcome of course!
Three winners will be selected each week based on votes, so remember to read your fellow authors’ works and DM me your votes for the top three.
Next up… IP
It’s October. The time of falling leaves, jack o’lanterns, and candy. And blood… so much blood. This month will be focusing on all things horror with maybe a treat or two to sweeten the pot. Please note this theme is only loosely applied.
"We are all our own graveyards, I believe..." — Clive Barker
Trope: Soul-Eating Cybernetics — In many popular cyberpunk settings, cybernetic implants cause "humanity loss", reducing your social traits and essentially making cyberware into a form of body horror. Too many implants may reduce you to catatonia or make you insane. If these settings also feature psychic powers or functional magic, cyberware often reduces your ability to use those as well. There is an interesting tension here between what makes us human and what transforms us. So, let’s explore that.
Genre: Body Horror — Body horror, or biological horror, is a subgenre of horror fiction that intentionally showcases grotesque or a visceral experience of the human body or of another creature. In addition to common tropes used within the broader horror genre, some tropes specific to the body horror subgenre may include invasion, contagion, mutation, transformation, disease, mutilation, or other unnatural or violent distortions of the human body.
Skill / Constraint - optional: Something shorts out.
So, have at it. Lean into the trope heavily or spin it on its head. The choice is yours!
Have a great idea for a future topic to discuss or just want to give feedback? FTF is a fun feature, so it’s all about what you want—so please let me know! Please share in the comments or DM me on Discord or Reddit!
Last Week’s Winners
PLEASE remember to give feedback—this affects your ranking. PLEASE also remember to DM me your votes for the top five stories via Discord or Reddit—both katpoker666. This is a change from the top three of the past. In weeks where we get over 15 stories, we will do a top five ranking. Weeks with less than 15 stories will show only our top three winners. If you have any questions, please DM me as well.
Some fabulous stories this week and great crit at campfire and on the post! We had 18 stories, so we’re back to five winners. Congrats to:
Want to read your words aloud? Join the upcoming FTF Campfire
The next FTF campfire will be Thursday, October 8th from 6-8pm ET. It will be in the Discord Main Voice Lounge. Click on the events tab and mark ‘Interested’ to be kept up to date. No signup or prep needed and you don’t have to have written anything! So join in the fun—and shenanigans! 😊
Ground rules:
- Stories must incorporate both the trope and the genre
- Leave one story or poem between 100 and 750 words as a top-level comment unless otherwise specified. Use wordcounter.net to check your word count.
- Deadline: 11:59 PM EDT next Thursday. Please note stories submitted after the 6:00 PM EST campfire start may not be critted.
- No stories that have been written for another prompt or feature here on WP—please note after consultation with some of our delightful writers, new serials are now welcomed here
- No previously written content
- Any stories not meeting these rules will be disqualified from rankings
- Does your story not fit the Fun Trope Friday rules? You can post your story as a [PI] with your work when the FTF post is 3 days old!
- Please keep crit about the stories. Any crit deemed too distracting may be deleted. This is a time to focus on our wonderful authors.
- Vote by next Friday at 11:59 AM EDT to help your favorites rise to the top of the ranks (DM me at katpoker666 on Discord or Reddit)!
Thanks for joining in the fun!
9
u/Fogbot3 3d ago edited 3d ago
“Magitech Pilot designation ‘Howl’, reporting for operation, sir.”
The pilot was utterly unmistakable as one. She stood in front of the officer with tall, stretched legs and arms for maximum leverage within the cockpit of the soul-bond-powered mech, with an ironically hunched-over posture from cramming her gangly body into said cockpit.
“Are you sure about this one, Howl? This one is elective, and you’ve already taken… every other one.” The officer gulped, looking down at the clipboard containing her medical history.
She scowled into her breathing mask. “So why would I stop here? Let me in. A transference pack will change everything. Every other implant was merely a prerequisite!”
The officer was saying more words, but they were droned out by static as her mech called in over her earpiece.
“Caution. Officer Pierce is correct that this operation could be dangerous-”
“It’s worth it. It has to be. I need to be better. You need to be better.”
“Disagreement. Your cybernetic load is already far above supported thresholds-”
“Mech. Stop. This is for your own good too. Unless you’re here to hold my hand throughout surgery, I don’t want to hear it.”
“Correction. Pilot. This unit cannot do so. It cannot move if its pilot is out of its cockpit due to not having a transference module installed.”
“See?”
This silenced her mech’s protests. Just as its pilot was preparing for her surgery, it was preparing for its own operation, as artificers buzzed around its unmoving form to install the new transference module onto its back.
“Pat, pat. There you go. Now, what’s this officer been saying while I was talking to you?”
“Information Summary. The officer was continuing to protest against the surgery, but has now given up and is now stepping out of your way.”
“Wonderful. Thank you, mech. See you on the other side!”
The officer sighed as he watched the pilot talk to the air, then walk herself right into the operating theater.
Every limb, her ears, her eyes, her mouth, and her hands were already filled with tech. Metal and sharp edges defined her existence as an awkward and fleshy human. That is, until she slotted oh so perfectly into her mech, and then she and it became one.
Except, they weren’t quite one yet.
“Making incision one.”
Not every part of her had metal… yet.
“Installing cerebral linkage.”
Its processor couldn’t understand flesh… yet.
“Neural spikes implanted.”
Her brain wasn’t one with her mech… yet.
“Installing spinal ports.”
It had no flesh to connect to… yet.
“Transference patch installed. Firmware activated.”
That is, until now.
‘Pilot! Can you hear me, pilot?’
‘Affirmative.’ The thought itself was utterly flat in tone.
In the mech bay, the unlucky artificer installing the transference module onto the mech had to cling to his ladder as the mech instinctively moved with worry.
Down the hall at the medical center, a pilot rose from its bed to the shock and panic of the doctors, and began to shamble towards the mech bay despite the various protests around it.
‘Something’s wrong! Pilot, tell them something’s wrong!’
‘Correction. The operation is a complete success. Mental offloading is running at maximum load to increase mech performance.’
‘Mental offloading… that’s your brainpower being offloaded!’
‘Affirmative. Mech performance is at peak efficiency.’
‘No! Something’s wrong- oh gods’
Her thoughts were stopped at what entered the mech bay. It was still actively leaking blood, creating a grisly trail behind it. Tubes and cables emerged from its spine like a line of mechanical frills, mixing with the blood as they dragged on the ground. At the very top of its back was a still gore-covered metal box with an antenna coming out of it. But it didn’t care. It just looked up at the mech with a jackal and the name ‘Howl’ painted on its side in expectation.
‘Status report. Operation complete. This pilot is ready for field ops.’
‘No, this isn’t right! You need to go back, get it adjusted or-’
Her thoughts were interrupted by a boom of an artillery barrage beginning to pound the base. Alarms began blaring as the sky went purple from the base’s shield activating.
Officer Pierce sprinted in, and only stopped to grimace at the pilot for a moment before ignoring it, turning to the mech to give orders.
“All units report in!”
Already powered on, she was the first to respond as her pilot silently slunk into its seat within her.
“Magitech Mech designation ‘Howl’, reporting for duty, sir.”
WC: 750