Computer Surgeons
The Ones Who Tend to The Flesh of Artificial Gods
“Miserable lot- half the time they are out in the wilds. Crawling through those things we wanted to call gods. Hacking and slashing. The other half, they spend cleaning up who knows what in server rooms and the like. They don’t have time to smile I suppose.”
Dragomii, Sable’sa, and Reiss don’t get cancer. But their computers do. And they will not let their divine
machinery rot in the mutation of cultured flesh. While non-flesh computers do exist en masse and have
their own technicians. Many prefer hardware that can health, grow, and learn. Besides, metal, gold,
cobalt, and whatever else is a finite resource in a world bereft of an economy. But bodies are not.
Meat that can be repurposed and taught to think in code. A purposed organism and one that needs its
own specialized doctors. These surgeons while they
Why the fuck would a computer surgeon need to study occultism? Simple. To keep them sane. They are
often crawling through tight crawlspaces born of metal and flesh interwoven. Subjected to the insane rambling
of the lower machines dictating access keys and different seeds. As well as constantly hearing the call of
the void. While it may appear that hacking away at cancer and fixing whatever ails a biological computer
would not need such esoteric measures. But- there’s always rumors, myths, legends, and tales to lead
otherwise stable minds astray. Such tales do not aid in mental stability when a surgeon oft works alone
and in constricting passages lit only by the soft glow of dim machinery for days or weeks at a time. This
and having to read, decipher, and access various randomly generated access keys which come in long poems,
can invoke a sort of psychosis in dragomii.
Many will start to come to the conclusion they must die in the machine. They must perish among the cables in
ritualistic sacrifice. That the wires call to them, and some report seeing a ‘pale many armed thing’
lurking around any still water. Occultism acts as a source of grounding for workplace hazards and
stresses. What is otherwise seen as dogma by others, can be the only thing keeping a surgeon from the
call of the void. Occultism in the biomechanic chamber of a symbolic computer keeps the lure of lunacy at
bay. Instead of taking direct meaning from the code and encryption they bear witness too everyday. It gives
them the framework to instead divine convoluted meaning that wont endanger them.
Though, this leaves long term surgeons strange and quiet. When among civilization most appear withdrawn.
Staring out into nothing and mumbling about the esoteric means of the world. They quickly become
offputting to everyone else. Those who once understood body language now cannot read it. Their dialog
may have once been fluid, they may have been chatty, but now it's stilted and stumbling. Their time
among their work always leaves its mark and many become terrified of mirrors. Often incapable of
drawing near to anything that resembles one. Which does nothing to help them reconnect with the rest
of their kind. Some can rekindle that spark and find themselves again but many instead resort to
living in whatever machine they work on. Novelty becomes their life, and limbo their cradle.