{"sf1_id":1656308,"sf2_id":"Rm0z4yZ1","title":"The people of my mind. Ch.1 Introduction to MECO","author":"MrZeke","words":1330,"posted_at":"2020-12-01T20:20:00.000Z","tags":["Clean","Intro","Introduction","Sci-Fi","Story"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1656308-the-people-of-my-mind-ch-1-introduction-to-meco","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/Rm0z4yZ1","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/d1/ba/d1ba6692-d93b-43f3-bfb8-f498641c6531","description":"","content":"I'm not sure how you got here, but welcome to the place where I keep all the characters that I dream up that are dear to me.\u0026nbsp; Many of my friends here have spent a great number of years with me.\u0026nbsp; We have had many adventures together in various forms, but... outside of my mind, they don't exist.\u0026nbsp; I know it's a bit depressing and that they should all have had their stories written and told countless times over now... but they are of My mind.\u0026nbsp; Creations to help me during times of strain and the years where expression outwardly was taboo and the makings of a vulnerability to be attacked\u0026nbsp;repeatedly.\u0026nbsp; Even after that time passed, the anxiety remains.\u0026nbsp; That suffocating weight, that makes feel like you have to force your heart to beat and your lungs to breathe.\u0026nbsp; The icy numbness that cramps your fingers and fogs your mind.\u0026nbsp; That kind of anxiety that persists not only at the beginning of a task but steadily grows through\u0026nbsp;out and becomes a constant ominous roar as end of what you need done inches painstakingly closer.\u0026nbsp; Decades of that have robbed my friends of their chance of being.\u0026nbsp; Beings of little more than figments of my imagination.\u0026nbsp; Every day I feel shame that I did not press on harder for each and every one of them to have their story told.\u0026nbsp; The times we shared together... for most of them, are fading from my mind.\n\nIf you would indulge me, I would like to use you to make some sort of amends for this and introduce you, the reader, to those that are literally precious IN my mind.\u0026nbsp;\n\nNot all at once of course.\u0026nbsp; That would be silly, and confusing.\u0026nbsp; Almost everyone here were unique to the universe that they were from, and that the only commonality for them... for as self centered as it sounds, is me.\u0026nbsp; Nevertheless the one who has waited the longest to have a proper introduction is MECO.\n\nMECO is short for Medical Companion.\u0026nbsp; In the universe that MECO hails from society had made great advances in medical technology, so much so that the expected lifespan for humans extended into the 130-140 year range.\u0026nbsp; Coupling that with and ever slowing birth rate meant that most of humanity was quickly becoming too old to naturally have children, creating a large labor gap.\u0026nbsp; Too many needing long term care, too few to grow up and take care of them.\u0026nbsp; At first robots and automatons were used as a stop gap for manual labor and other less \"thought inducing\" occupations.\u0026nbsp; For health care though, people wanted\u0026nbsp; real, organic, living,\u0026nbsp;doctors\u0026nbsp;to care for them.\u0026nbsp; Even with all the automation, not every person born can become a nurse to look after the elderly, so something a bit more drastic was developed.\u0026nbsp; Organic beings grown and conditioned, nay, programmed with a bevy of technical and\u0026nbsp;medical knowledge to become the new core of civil servants for this society.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\n\nIn a utopia it might have worked as intended, but time makes fools of us all.\n\nEven with fantastical science,\u0026nbsp;it took over 10\u0026nbsp;years before the first generation of Bio-Mechanical assistants went into service, and with mixed results at that.\u0026nbsp; Yes, they were doing the job that they were made for, but they weren't\u0026nbsp;made, they were living beings that were\u0026nbsp;grown.\u0026nbsp; Most of them buckled under the mental pressure of caring for people that treated them with all the dignity and grace of a motorized garbage can.\n\nNot surprising, nature solved this problem with time.\u0026nbsp; After about 40 years, the birth rate had climbed back up some, and a good number of the elderly naturally passed on.\u0026nbsp; Although there was still a need for Bio-Mechanical beings, it had become less of a mass production to cover anything and everything, it had become specialized and customized for a discerning clientele.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\n\nMECO herself is of the last generation of the \"mass production models\" .\u0026nbsp; I say herself because that's how she identifies.\u0026nbsp; Although some, how do I put this,\u0026nbsp;\"models\" carry the equipment for sexuality,\u0026nbsp; none that I know of can actually reproduce.\u0026nbsp; MECO is without gender, and absolutely hates to be called an \"it\", therefore chose to be a she.\u0026nbsp; As far as a Medical Companion, her skillset is focused to the long-term care of those with chronic illnesses and/or disabilities that would require frequent treatments and such.\u0026nbsp; Part physical therapist, dietitian, nursemaid, and all around great listener. MECO herself is short, shorter than most of her generation, about five foot two inches tall, and a very slender build.\u0026nbsp; Despite that the muscles she has are well toned.\u0026nbsp; On the day I first met her she\u0026nbsp;was so pale it seemed like the sun tried to avoid her. (she's not like that now).\u0026nbsp;She has strait\u0026nbsp;dark hair that she keeps just above the shoulders and\u0026nbsp;her normal, informal, outfit is a button up short sleeve work shirt and shorts.\u0026nbsp; When I first met her however, she had showed up to my house in, I kid you not, blue scrubs via a taxi from the hospital that wanted to be paid.\u0026nbsp;\n\nShe was mistakenly sent to me\u0026nbsp;after a hospital visit for a sinus infection, because apparently the code for that is right next to some unpronounceable neurological disease that requires constant training and a diet mostly fruit, nuts, and fish to keep at bay.\u0026nbsp; I called up the hospital to tell them\u0026nbsp;that she was mistakenly sent to me and that she wasn't necessary, to which a phone cut in on the automated system\u0026nbsp;to someone who had a title so convoluted that I can only assume it meant \"guardian of the stuff in the cellar.\"\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;He told me he knew about the mix up, he mixed it up on purpose.\u0026nbsp; MECO's generation was being phased out of service, and although I don't exactly\u0026nbsp;know what phased out implies for someone like her, I know what that means for basic machinery.\u0026nbsp; He was giving as many MECO's as he could a chance to have, not only a long service life, but a long life in general.\u0026nbsp; According to the rules that he told me if a MECO was in service at the time of the \"cutoff\" they wouldn't be replaced until their duties for that patient were complete.\u0026nbsp; Since at the time I was a young man, that would mean almost a century of time for her.\u0026nbsp; For a MECO, a lifetime and a half.\u0026nbsp; I had a million questions for him, but he stopped me and said.\u0026nbsp; \"Listen, all you need to know right now is this.\u0026nbsp; Sometime in the near future someone is going to knock on your door and ask you about how satisfied you are with your MECO.\u0026nbsp; YOU tell them that it is YOUR MECO and YOU DON'T\u0026nbsp;want an upgrade. You tell them that no matter what they offer.\u0026nbsp; After that,\u0026nbsp;they will have you sign a form, and after that I can contact you again once things have processed.\n\nSo naturally, I took his advice, remembered his instructions, and took in this little nurse that could soon have less than no where to go.\u0026nbsp; Why?\u0026nbsp; The answer to that came to me in pieces over time.\n\nIn the story we shared a small apartment, and after some adjustments for both of us, seemed to find a balance.\u0026nbsp; That person did knock at the door, and I told her what I had to say, and repeated it verbatim every time she made a new offer.\u0026nbsp; MECO watched this exchange...\u0026nbsp;she had the right to.\u0026nbsp; Even though everyone else saw her as much property as a dairy cow, she had the right to see the discussion of her fate.\u0026nbsp; Ultimately I got to\u0026nbsp;keep\u0026nbsp;MECO and all of the challenges that went with her.\u0026nbsp; The voice on the phone would call up from time to time offering \"customer support\" for her long term care.\n\nThank you reader for helping\u0026nbsp;me get started and\u0026nbsp;finally having people like MECO have a place that is somewhere that isn't just in my min\n\n  \n  \n\n","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1656613-the-people-of-my-mind-ch-2-i-ll-call-her-mureen.json"}