Transhumanism meets commerce in today's Concept Art Writing Prompt. What happens when you can shop for feet the same way you used to shop for shoes? Come up with your very own flash fiction piece and share it in the comments.
This week, we actually have a handful of related art pieces to get your creative juices flowing. These photo manipulations are created by Franz Steiner, discovered via Design You Trust. Are these consumers robots looking for an aesthetic upgrade? Humans whose feet don't quite fit? Or something else entirely? Post your story in the comments.
Here's my quickie piece:
Out of the corner of his eye, Paro watched the artful wiggle of Cherish's hips as she navigated the aisles of tanks. She would occasionally pause at a tank, pressing her manicured nails against the glass as she peered inside. Her Hermes bag — two pounds of real cloned leather — would slip from her forearm and thump against the tank, causing the disembodied leg inside to momentarily kick in its preservation fluid. Paro looked down at his own purse, a faux leather-like Yslam Mudder knockoff he'd printed off last month, and frowned. Everything on Cherish was real: hand-stitched cotton stretching from her narrow shoulders down past her aging thighs; mined and cast gold jewelry dangling from her ears and waist; real bone — albeit reinforced — replacing each piece she had worn past utility. There wasn't a PlastiDerm piece on her body. Even her new nose had been grown from scratch.
So when she'd decided to replace her cellulite-pocked gams with newer, younger models, she'd headed straight for BioGem. Paro wasn't sure if he was there to offer Cherish moral support or the benefit of his envy. He'd started to develop osteoarthritis in his own legs, but he'd maxed out his bioreplacement plan after an allergic reaction to Europan hazelnut mushrooms, so he'd have to settle for MockMeat in the meantime.
Cherish gasped and started tapping at one of the tanks. "Here it is!" she called out. Paro tried not to dash right over, but he had to admit, he was excited to see the Legstrong Deluxe in the flesh. One hundred percent human tissue, each muscle design based on the natural musculature of a premiere athlete, hand-cultivated by BioGem's best tissue gardeners. Paro spotted the prodcode and winked, triggering the scanner in his left contact lens. Both eyes flew wide open, though, when the price flashed across his vision.
"That much for a pair of legs?" he asked Cherish. "You could get a total reconstruct for that!"
Cherish twisted her lips — modeled after an early 21st century actress's — into a lopsided grin. "One leg," she corrected.
Paro felt faint. "You can afford two of these things?"
Cherish shook her head. "Not for now," she said. "But sometimes you have to put perfection on one leg at a time."