Fiction:Union of Mecholife/Infrastructure

The buildings of the Union of Mecholife are unique. They are living creatures, inside of which the members of the Union live. The structures have a symbiotic relationship with the Union members. The inhabitants protect, feed, and nurture the sessile building-creatures, and in return the building-creatures host them (similar to an anemone and a clownfish). However, since these are living creatures, they are protected from abuse by various laws.

In relation to buildings being creatures, they cannot be shaped against their will. Unlike plants, the are animals, like coral, and grow as they wish. They cannot move much, but they do have the capacity to shift their position and change their shape. They don't do so in a manner that harms the inhabitants, but because each building-creature grows in it's own manner, cities and towns look like convoluted coral reefs of metals and plastics.

The building-creatures are fully sentient and have their own feelings and emotions. Only in the Union can you have someone show up late for work and say "my house was having a fit". They can grow attached to their symbiots, and occasionally die of grief when they lose their inhabitants for any reason. Building-creatures are very loyal to their inhabitants, and can and will kill intruders to the property. If you kill an inhabitant... well, you won't live to make it out unless you can kill the entire building-creature. Even if you do, the city will never forgive you (literally, the city, building-creatures have the same sub-consious connections as all mecholife does), and you will have to flee into the great unknown of the universe.