Good Morning Maria

Just another little doodle playing around with some composition and multiple figures in the same scene. Once again a pic of my recurring Cyborg/AI character Maria, older pics can be found here > xanderzeller.deviantart.com/ar… . Today's pic is of her following her grafting surgery, when her AI housing was attached to her new human body.

The morning sun softly filtered in through the window as the room slowly came into focus, silhouetted by the light was a tall man in a crisp white doctor's uniform.

"Good morning Ms. Maria, I am doctor MIDAS, your primary surgeon and aftercare physician. Your surgery was completed successfully and without complication, the next seven to ten days will be spent helping you acclimate to your new body. The injuries that resulted in your body being donated have been treated, however the broken leg will take some time to heal. I understand you identify as female, all of the staff has been instructed to refer to you by your chosen pronouns as well"

Maria carefully tested her new body, her arm slowly and unsteadily raising, the morning light lent a soft glow to the pale flesh of her arm. she paused a moment as the gravity of the concept sunk in, "her" arm, something humans took for granted being born with, but it was something amazing to an Artificial Intelligence who had never known life outside the confines of a bulky mechanical housing. She found her body inhaling sharply with excitement and her skin felt strange, the feeling must be "tingling" she thought, no other word sounded so appropriate to describe this new sensation.

"Oh my, everything... it's all so much to take in, so many new sensations. Some of it is similar to the pressure and touch sensors on my housing, but a great deal of it is so... foreign"

MIDAS' voice was very well tuned, even and pleasant to ears, indistinguishable from that of a natural human vocal chord, yet it seemed mismatched given the boxy older generation housing of his CPU. "Yes, calibrating your neural network to the stimuli of the human body will take some time. The sensory input of mechanical housing stimulates the same areas of the neural network as the human body does, such as tactile, visual, and auditory, however, many senses are only partially conveyed and some have no artificial equivalent. As an AI unit myself, I will gladly share my knowledge of my experience acclimating to the human body. I have other duties to attend to, so I will not be able to accompany you at all times, but we have found that new graftees adjustment is much smoother with constant companionship so you have been assigned a twentyfour hour nurse to keep you company and offer emotional support."

Maria ran her hand along her breast, gingerly moving towards the bandages that swathed her neck.

 "Thank you doctor, I am curious though, I can't feel my incisions or injuries..."

MIDAS's optical sensors rotated with the faintest whirring as he refocused in the shifting morning light. "Ah yes, grafting surgery necessitates the donated body be as fresh as possible, so we rarely have time for an extensive explanation of the full extent of grafting adjustment and aftercare before the operation. You are currently under broad spectrum general anesthetic, the neural pathways responsible for the transmission of pain have been completely blocked for the time being. This is because pain is the most difficult part of acclimating to your new body. There is no effective way to prepare the mind for its first experience of pain, humans are able to become acclimated to it slowly, as their infant brains have not fully developed memory and higher cognitive functionality. However for AI units it can be much more traumatic, as our electronic neural networks are equivalent to fully formed adult human brains. We experience it in a fully conscious state, and it is completely foreign to our experience in mechanical housing so it can be a very difficult experience."

Maria could feel her body responding to her emotions, a cold sweat began to gather on her skin as anxiety set. She was apprehensive  of experiencing the pain MIDAS spoke of.

"Oh dear, I knew pain would be part of the experience of living in a human body, but now that it is so near, I'm quite worried about it."

"Indeed, nothing can fully prepare you for it, but you may take comfort in knowing that many have come before you and have acclimated to it safely. The nurse will also help you with coping with the pain, she is a trained psychiatrist and counselor. Unfortunately the anesthetics interfere with some of your other nervous impulses, so we must wean you off the anesthesia before you can fully acclimate to your new body. For now you are on intravenous nutrition and fitted with a catheter so you need not concentrate on adapting to your gastrointestinal needs, we will work on eating and bowel control when you are more comfortable with your body. I am afraid I must see to another patient shortly, so I must cut our conversation short for the time being. The nurse will be in shortly to help you prepare for weaning you off of the anesthetics. Farewell for now, I will be happy to answer any further questions you have about acclimation that the nurse may not be able to answer, when I next check in with you"

Maria made it a point to try her best to wave goodbye as MIDAS left, a simple gesture for a human, but a special pleasure for Maria cherishing her new life.

"Thank you for your time doctor MIDAS, I can't begin to express how much this all means to me."