CSDestroyer
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ONE-OFF STORY SEGMENT
THE CONTEXT
What you've just read is my attempt at writing a segment of this idea, in an attempt to flesh it out enough for it to be understood as a standalone piece. I'll be putting this idea out here because I'll likely never actually write it out fully myself. However, I do find it to be an intriguing premise, so I want it out there in the event anyone wants to take inspiration or even the whole premise to use for a story itself.
So, where do I begin with explaining this? You could probably pick it up from the context above, but I'll start with the beginning, in case my attempt at explaining it through story was insufficient. This idea was inspired by the Stalkers from Half Life 2; if you don't know what those are, I'll put a simple explanation up for those that might be squeamish, and a more in-depth one that goes into more graphic details.
Basically, imagine a human that's essentially lobotomized, to act as an automated laborer. That's the simple explanation.
THE IDEA
Now, there is obviously absolutely nothing endearing about that, as the title of this post would suggest. The Combine is undoubtedly a repugnant regime, and Gordon Freeman did nothing wrong when blowing up Nova Prospekt and committing terrorist acts upon the Combine. However, I couldn't help but play with this idea, while combining it with some other popular premises that you'd typically see in web novels. And so, I'll pitch the idea below. Anyone can use it, you can take parts of it, you can take the whole thing if you want to. I simply want to get this idea out, because it has potential to be interesting if done right. This is one of those reincarnation premises, where someone from Earth dies and finds themselves inadvertently reincarnated in another world. Reincarnation has been done a million times, this is a science fiction, I suppose, cyberpunk-esque take on this.
I'll also preface that some things might not be fully fleshed out, since I haven't really thought too deeply when it comes to many aspects of this premise. I've mostly been combining elements that would be interesting to see in a story like this, but it's up to anyone who picks this idea up to make it work.
The protagonist finds themselves reincarnated into the patronage of a rich, technologically advanced family, except it's not quite patronage, they find out. They're some kind of genetically modified, vat-grown human, made specifically to work as a servant class. As for the reasons why they do this instead of employing robots or humans, I could think of a potential few; you can't hack organics, transhumanism is normalized, or it's commonplace because it's a fashion statement among the rich. Think of the Epsilon from Brave New World. Now, they were made to be brainless and to have no self-awareness, so the ethical concerns... aside from the genetically modifying part, are meant to be somewhat minimal. That's something that has to be kept in mind when considering the way they're designed, as these modifications would probably be far more horrifying if it was intentionally on a conscious, self-aware individual.
The protagonist is an exception to this; they're intelligent, with the memories of someone from Earth. Now, of course, they have to acclimate to this. The body is human-derived, but is essentially 'cut-down', functions wise, to save time and resources when creating it. For flexibility and modularity, they're grown without most of their forearms or anything below the knee. This makes it easy to swap out arm and leg prosthetics for multiple use cases, and for repair, as those parts are likely to be the most banged-up when used. Most of the digestive system is also probably not needed, if they're fed something directly into the blood stream. By all means, they still look somewhat human, they just have a lot of what looks like prosthetics and attachments. And, due to that, they're integrated with electronics to help 'control' them, but these electronics were made with the assumption that these artificial humans would not have their own compulsion or self-awareness. It likely would not be difficult for the protagonist to resist these compulsions to do their own thing, but they're likely to lie low and follow whatever they need to do, all while collecting information about where they are.
And, in all practicality, the job is not hard. They're assigned to 'care' for the heir of the family, with the reasoning behind that a mindless artificial individual such as them would be more trustworthy than a servant who could potentially be bought out or have ulterior motives. Life isn't incredibly comfortable, but it's not harsh, either. They're well-fed, constantly maintained, and eventually seen as part of the family. Perhaps the protagonist had a background in child-rearing, and is unexpectedly exceptional at raising this heir despite the fact that they're also trying to lie low. I couldn't imagine how someone would feel if, let's say, the members of the family grow to become very familially affectionate with them, even if the family knows to the best of their knowledge that artificial humans don't have a consciousness to be affectionate back, or even comprehend it. I mean, even in real life, we treat belongings like people: cars, roombas, stuffed animals, and even weapons.
That's the endearing part, I'd imagine. Sure, the situation is weird to the protagonist, but I could imagine there would be plenty of wholesome, slice-of-life moments that come with raising a child and being part of a family.
THE APPEAL
I would imagine that the primary appeal for this story, at first glance, would be the fact that the protagonist is in the body of something human-like, yet not meant to be intelligent. I know premises that begin with "stranger in a strange land" are rather popular. That is the hook of the story; that is what most will likely click on it for. In general, the protagonist gradually acclimating to their new environment, making sense of where they are, and figuring out what to do throughout all of this is plenty enough for a good start.
Likewise, the reveal is a big one, when the family realizes that the artificial human they own is, indeed, intelligent. A lot of the tension would probably come from the protagonist getting a multitude of close-calls, with blowing their own cover. They likely wouldn't reveal this information off the bat, reason being that they are aware they exist as an unintelligent babysitter. So, they need to do a good job, but not such a good job that someone thinks "Hmm, isn't this a little too smart for one of them to be doing?" Of course, I'm a sucker for happy endings. So, protagonist gets found out, they come clean with everything once they can properly communicate, the situation is absolutely unprecedented, and the government just decides to grant them human rights to avoid the legal mess. They'd stay with the family, of course, because who would you trust more than someone who's raised your child from day 1? Everyone's happy, they have a precedent to look back to in case it ever happens again, into the sunset they go.
THE FLAWS
The premise is really weird, and you probably will have some very uncomfortable hypotheticals and questions asked about the setting. GMO humans specifically made for that kind of labor work is inherently dystopian, even if they don't have the mind to comprehend that it's essentially slave labor. I don't have any answers for that, if someone wants to pick it up they'll have to address it in some manner, either by somehow justifying it (extraordinarily difficult to do), or just admitting that the setting is a little screwed up from the perspective of a 21st century human.
There's also the issue that, between the initial character waking up in the world and the final reveal, there'll be a large block in the middle of what is basically slice-of-life, or other accompanying story arcs. So, any writer who wants to tackle this would have to be very good at plotting the entire thing, because you can easily have a case of "Exciting start, exciting end, boring middle".
Third problem. You'll need a protagonist tailored specifically for this story. Someone who's comfortable with the status quo, comfortable with routines, and isn't so curious that they'd openly rebel or try to escape. Now, these aren't hard requirements; I don't doubt you can write a compelling story where the protagonist refuses to be a nanny and decides to go out on their own, to change the world. But to do the above premise I laid out specifically like it is, you'll need someone who'll find their situation, in the least bit, okay to be in. Balancing this between them being merely okay with it, and being an utter doormat, would probably be hard. Additionally, some of the conditions that they're now in are somewhat... very hard. They can't eat, they're fed directly into their bloodstream, they need replacement parts, and they don't have the best dexterity. It'll be exceedingly difficult for them to be independent, so some form of mutual relationship is essentially required in this story.
CONCLUSION
I feel like I'm missing something, but that's the basis of this premise I've thought up here. The above is my take on how I would potentially write it. It has the potential to be rather endearing, but it's also got an inherent body-horror undertone to it. I want your thoughts on it, how to make it more interesting, anything along those lines. Anyone can take it, modify it to their wish, write stories with it. I won't ever write it myself; I've got too much on my plate. Hope this serves as a good bit of inspiration for anyone here.
THE CONTEXT
What you've just read is my attempt at writing a segment of this idea, in an attempt to flesh it out enough for it to be understood as a standalone piece. I'll be putting this idea out here because I'll likely never actually write it out fully myself. However, I do find it to be an intriguing premise, so I want it out there in the event anyone wants to take inspiration or even the whole premise to use for a story itself.
So, where do I begin with explaining this? You could probably pick it up from the context above, but I'll start with the beginning, in case my attempt at explaining it through story was insufficient. This idea was inspired by the Stalkers from Half Life 2; if you don't know what those are, I'll put a simple explanation up for those that might be squeamish, and a more in-depth one that goes into more graphic details.
Basically, imagine a human that's essentially lobotomized, to act as an automated laborer. That's the simple explanation.
The setting of Half Life 2 is twenty years after an alien force called the Combine waged war against Earth. They're currently leading a brutal military occupation, and dissident humans are usually killed or worse. The 'worse' part entails being turned into a 'stalker': They're heavily surgically modified humans that are atrophied husks of their former selves. I'll give a segment from the Half Life 2 wikia article about them:
Source: https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/Stalker
THE IDEA
Now, there is obviously absolutely nothing endearing about that, as the title of this post would suggest. The Combine is undoubtedly a repugnant regime, and Gordon Freeman did nothing wrong when blowing up Nova Prospekt and committing terrorist acts upon the Combine. However, I couldn't help but play with this idea, while combining it with some other popular premises that you'd typically see in web novels. And so, I'll pitch the idea below. Anyone can use it, you can take parts of it, you can take the whole thing if you want to. I simply want to get this idea out, because it has potential to be interesting if done right. This is one of those reincarnation premises, where someone from Earth dies and finds themselves inadvertently reincarnated in another world. Reincarnation has been done a million times, this is a science fiction, I suppose, cyberpunk-esque take on this.
I'll also preface that some things might not be fully fleshed out, since I haven't really thought too deeply when it comes to many aspects of this premise. I've mostly been combining elements that would be interesting to see in a story like this, but it's up to anyone who picks this idea up to make it work.
The protagonist finds themselves reincarnated into the patronage of a rich, technologically advanced family, except it's not quite patronage, they find out. They're some kind of genetically modified, vat-grown human, made specifically to work as a servant class. As for the reasons why they do this instead of employing robots or humans, I could think of a potential few; you can't hack organics, transhumanism is normalized, or it's commonplace because it's a fashion statement among the rich. Think of the Epsilon from Brave New World. Now, they were made to be brainless and to have no self-awareness, so the ethical concerns... aside from the genetically modifying part, are meant to be somewhat minimal. That's something that has to be kept in mind when considering the way they're designed, as these modifications would probably be far more horrifying if it was intentionally on a conscious, self-aware individual.
The protagonist is an exception to this; they're intelligent, with the memories of someone from Earth. Now, of course, they have to acclimate to this. The body is human-derived, but is essentially 'cut-down', functions wise, to save time and resources when creating it. For flexibility and modularity, they're grown without most of their forearms or anything below the knee. This makes it easy to swap out arm and leg prosthetics for multiple use cases, and for repair, as those parts are likely to be the most banged-up when used. Most of the digestive system is also probably not needed, if they're fed something directly into the blood stream. By all means, they still look somewhat human, they just have a lot of what looks like prosthetics and attachments. And, due to that, they're integrated with electronics to help 'control' them, but these electronics were made with the assumption that these artificial humans would not have their own compulsion or self-awareness. It likely would not be difficult for the protagonist to resist these compulsions to do their own thing, but they're likely to lie low and follow whatever they need to do, all while collecting information about where they are.
And, in all practicality, the job is not hard. They're assigned to 'care' for the heir of the family, with the reasoning behind that a mindless artificial individual such as them would be more trustworthy than a servant who could potentially be bought out or have ulterior motives. Life isn't incredibly comfortable, but it's not harsh, either. They're well-fed, constantly maintained, and eventually seen as part of the family. Perhaps the protagonist had a background in child-rearing, and is unexpectedly exceptional at raising this heir despite the fact that they're also trying to lie low. I couldn't imagine how someone would feel if, let's say, the members of the family grow to become very familially affectionate with them, even if the family knows to the best of their knowledge that artificial humans don't have a consciousness to be affectionate back, or even comprehend it. I mean, even in real life, we treat belongings like people: cars, roombas, stuffed animals, and even weapons.
That's the endearing part, I'd imagine. Sure, the situation is weird to the protagonist, but I could imagine there would be plenty of wholesome, slice-of-life moments that come with raising a child and being part of a family.
THE APPEAL
I would imagine that the primary appeal for this story, at first glance, would be the fact that the protagonist is in the body of something human-like, yet not meant to be intelligent. I know premises that begin with "stranger in a strange land" are rather popular. That is the hook of the story; that is what most will likely click on it for. In general, the protagonist gradually acclimating to their new environment, making sense of where they are, and figuring out what to do throughout all of this is plenty enough for a good start.
Likewise, the reveal is a big one, when the family realizes that the artificial human they own is, indeed, intelligent. A lot of the tension would probably come from the protagonist getting a multitude of close-calls, with blowing their own cover. They likely wouldn't reveal this information off the bat, reason being that they are aware they exist as an unintelligent babysitter. So, they need to do a good job, but not such a good job that someone thinks "Hmm, isn't this a little too smart for one of them to be doing?" Of course, I'm a sucker for happy endings. So, protagonist gets found out, they come clean with everything once they can properly communicate, the situation is absolutely unprecedented, and the government just decides to grant them human rights to avoid the legal mess. They'd stay with the family, of course, because who would you trust more than someone who's raised your child from day 1? Everyone's happy, they have a precedent to look back to in case it ever happens again, into the sunset they go.
THE FLAWS
The premise is really weird, and you probably will have some very uncomfortable hypotheticals and questions asked about the setting. GMO humans specifically made for that kind of labor work is inherently dystopian, even if they don't have the mind to comprehend that it's essentially slave labor. I don't have any answers for that, if someone wants to pick it up they'll have to address it in some manner, either by somehow justifying it (extraordinarily difficult to do), or just admitting that the setting is a little screwed up from the perspective of a 21st century human.
There's also the issue that, between the initial character waking up in the world and the final reveal, there'll be a large block in the middle of what is basically slice-of-life, or other accompanying story arcs. So, any writer who wants to tackle this would have to be very good at plotting the entire thing, because you can easily have a case of "Exciting start, exciting end, boring middle".
Third problem. You'll need a protagonist tailored specifically for this story. Someone who's comfortable with the status quo, comfortable with routines, and isn't so curious that they'd openly rebel or try to escape. Now, these aren't hard requirements; I don't doubt you can write a compelling story where the protagonist refuses to be a nanny and decides to go out on their own, to change the world. But to do the above premise I laid out specifically like it is, you'll need someone who'll find their situation, in the least bit, okay to be in. Balancing this between them being merely okay with it, and being an utter doormat, would probably be hard. Additionally, some of the conditions that they're now in are somewhat... very hard. They can't eat, they're fed directly into their bloodstream, they need replacement parts, and they don't have the best dexterity. It'll be exceedingly difficult for them to be independent, so some form of mutual relationship is essentially required in this story.
CONCLUSION
I feel like I'm missing something, but that's the basis of this premise I've thought up here. The above is my take on how I would potentially write it. It has the potential to be rather endearing, but it's also got an inherent body-horror undertone to it. I want your thoughts on it, how to make it more interesting, anything along those lines. Anyone can take it, modify it to their wish, write stories with it. I won't ever write it myself; I've got too much on my plate. Hope this serves as a good bit of inspiration for anyone here.
