STORY COLLECTIBLE PROFILE
Freshie
By Tom Brownscombe
COLLECTIBLE PREVIEW
Front & Back Card Images
These preview images show the current story collectible design associated with this title.
About the Story
We experience a day in the life of Alaina, a young woman subject to the Youth Civic Responsibility Act of 2033 which mandates that young adults must complete community service by participating in parabiosis with the elderly rich, having their blood circulated between the two bodies to cleanse that of the old and rejuvenate them with the anti-senescence factors of the young, aging the young before their time while preserving the lives of the elite rich. Alaina must spend 8 hours with her blood flushing the toxins from the body of the 119-year-old revenant to whom she is connected, while her anti-senescence factors also rejuvenate him. During this time she dreams of the old days before the Act with bitter and cynical observations of how her world of 2043 compares to prior times.
- Author
- Tom Brownscombe
- Genre
- near-term dystopian sci-fi
- Publication / Creation Year
- 2026
- Publication
- Short Stories by Texas Authors
- Volume / Edition
- 11
- Story Position
- 11
- Approx. Word Count
- 3600
- Registry Number Range
- LC-SSSF-001 – LC-SSSF-050
AUTHOR'S PURPOSE
Why This Story Was Written
Given the hollowing out of America by the concentration of wealth/entitlement in the exploding population of billionaires, and the efforts of many of them to try to live “forever”—from reported stables of young women giving them blood transfusions to millions a year spent to optimize every part of a tech bro’s body, this is more prediction than story. Parabiosis has been researched in laboratory animals from the 1860s. In the 20th century, young and old animals were surgically connected to share blood; the results were as in the story: the old animal aged slower, the young one aged faster.
STORY AT A GLANCE
Premise & Themes
Central premise or conflict: Abuse of the young to preserve the lives of the entitled aged rich
Primary themes: corollary damage of biotechnology, victimization, longevity traps
Why it is memorable: It gives a realistic appraisal of one possible technology actively under investigation to preserve life at the expense of others, and explores the emotional response and coping mechanisms of the victims and the effect on society.
- Emotional Tone
- Dark
- Setting
- USA 2043
- Main Character / Central Figure
- Alaina Saporito
READER INFORMATION
Reading Notes
Content notice: It refers to prostitution as a former but far less intrusive abuse of the young by the old.
Where readers can access the story outside the anthology: nowhere
COLLECTIBLE DEVELOPMENT
Visual Direction
- Artwork Exists
- Yes
- Artist / Designer
- Alan Bourgeois
- Preferred Style
- Not provided