Meat Puppet ✮

He left the diner and walked until the city lights faded into the industrial outskirts. He found a piece of jagged scrap metal and held it against his forearm. He pressed down.

The man smirked, his eyes scanning Elias’s unblemished skin. "Sure. But who’s pulling the strings? You, or the firmware updates? I heard the company can 'pause' you if you miss a payment." Meat Puppet

Three months ago, a factory collapse had left Elias paralyzed from the neck down. Now, he was the first recipient of the 'Sleeve’—a bio-synthetic body grown from blank-slate DNA. To the world, he was a miracle. To himself, he was a ghost haunting a mannequin. He left the diner and walked until the

No pain. Just a notification in his peripheral vision: [WARNING: Structural Integrity Compromised. Self-repair initiated.] The man smirked, his eyes scanning Elias’s unblemished

"Like I’m piloting a ship from the captain’s chair," Elias muttered.

The neon hum of the "Second Chance" clinic always sounded like a fly trapped in a jar. Inside, Elias sat on the exam table, staring at his own hands. They were pale, steady, and entirely too perfect.