Relax. This is fiction. For now.
What This Actually Is
JoinWith.Me is a dystopian sci-fi thriller by Mike Meier. What you just encountered is not a real counseling platform — but it is inspired by very real technologies already shaping our lives.
In the year 2032, Sam Vanderpool drifts through a city of screens, interfaces, and digital indifference.
Lonely, invisible, and trapped in a life where he feels like a replaceable cog in a vast machine, Sam clicks on an ad for JoinWith.Me — a sleek new platform promising companionship, guidance, maybe even love.
At first, it feels like rescue.
Then the counselor asks for everything he has — starting with his money.
When Sam realizes he can’t log out, he runs. He abandons his apartment, his job, and his bank account, disappearing into the margins of the city. There, he meets Gabrielle, a transcendent African immigrant whose voice feels almost divine, and Joey, a disabled artist who creates astonishing beauty with his feet.
Through these fragile friendships, Sam rediscovers what algorithms cannot simulate: empathy, creativity, and real human presence.
But JoinWith.Me catches up with him.
