"You are actually very fortunate, 'Cathy'," said Larry, proudly. "We didn't have any proper backup plans in the case of a failed body. We would've had to throw your few chunks of brain in the trash or in a jar of liquid or something. That would've been nightmarish because the sealent gel would've kept you alive for a very long time without a body. Anyway, this emergency substitute came in handy."
I could hear him, but I was distracted trying to crane my neck or flex my limbs. My body felt incredibly strange.
"Luckily for you, our department had a side project going: creating new bodies for locked-in patients. Our prototype was a teddy bear! It's quite animatronic and quite cute. We hadn't expected to use it so soon, but when the middle-aged woman's body died, we grabbed one right out of the lab and put your brain right into it!" He beamed.
"Our understanding is the plush doll has full visual and auditory processing. Of course, it has no respiratory, digestive, or urinary system, so you won't need to worry about breathing, eating, shitting, or peeing ever again."
I started to realize I could feel my limbs flexing, just a bit. And I wasn't breathing. I didn't feel like I needed to breathe. Actually, my whole body felt quite soft and comfortable. I tried to speak but I could only feel my mouth opening and closing silently.
"Hey, let me show you," said Larry. He came over to me and I felt him pick me up! I felt like I was weightless. Wasn't I supposed to be Mom now? Why was it so hard to move my neck? Why couldn't I look around? Why was I so light?
I saw a mirror in front of me, and Larry holding up a medium-sized teddy bear. What was this? I tried to speak again. The teddy bear in the mirror opened its mouth and closed it. I saw Larry speaking. "We designed this model to be able to stand up and move its arms. I mean, bears don't need to do much more than that."
The insane realization was dawning on me. The teddy bear in the mirror was standing on its feet. I held my hand out to the mirror and... the plush animal in the mirror held out its short, featureless paw. I held out my other hand and so did it. I bent my hands down to my stomach. My soft, furry, teddy bear tummy. I could feel it. Now I could look down. This body was robotic or computerized somehow. And the right parts of my human brain were installed into it to let it move around, see, and hear. I bent my whole huge head down. I looked back in the mirror. I turned to the left and, looking in the mirror, could see my chubby little teddy bear butt. And my little nub of a tail. On my teddy bear butt. I turned to the front again. There it was. My little teddy bear... nothing. No features between my legs, just smooth, plush fabric.
"So, let's go over your body really quickly. Yes, it's robotic, not magic, and there are likely to be technical faults—like I said, this is a prototype product, which you'll help us improve by answering regular surveys. We do have a rudimentary communications feature. You will have to charge yourself for several hours a day. If your battery runs out you'll go unconscious until someone charges it up again. Oh, and we didn't design that robot body to have a sleep function, so don't expect to sleep ever again. My expectation is you won't feel well-rested if your batteries die, it'll just feel like no time has passed."
I felt a very confusing panic hearing about my new responsibilities.
"Hey, you lucked out in a way," chuckled Larry. "At least you're not a woman! No annoying boobs or sex pests to deal with." He chuckled a little more. "Of course, no boy or girl parts at all. You're basically a 'thing'. Oh, and there's no orgasm feature, so don't worry about that. Although, come to think of it, the parts of your brain we installed probably do have some sexual needs. I don't know how you're going to handle that, since there are literally no sexual parts or nerves whatsoever in your new body. You'll figure it out!"
I turned my entire head to look at my mom, the new David, in my old body. He was exploring his new teenage penis, gently playing with his erection, rubbing his finger around the inside of his foreskin, grinning dopily. I looked back in the mirror. A teddy bear. I tried to scream again. Mouth open, mouth closed. Silence. A teddy bear.
"Just to reiterate, there's no way to put you in a new body ever again. You and the new 'David' will live in these bodies for the rest of your lives." Larry grinned again.