Once people were ready to leave, Emily left to retrieve the grandparents. She closed the door behind her and slipped down the stairs. The conversation radiated up to her from the game table.
“We really fell asleep at the wheel, didn’t we? They’re rewriting history out from under our feet!” One of the grandparents said as Emily walked down the quiet, carpeted stairs.
“I’m kind of glad we’re not the only ones noticing this stuff because it means I’m not crazy, but it’s also really scary because we’re all noticing different things.” Lilly’s voice was clear as day. Emily decided to stop and listen for a moment before proceeding further.
“Why did we have to turn ourselves into friggin’ toys before we realized this crap?” said another one of the grandparents. “We could have been doing something about this stuff when people would still take us seriously.”
“Well, now we have to work with our grandkids to make things right,” Lilly said.
“I’m going to be honest with you guys,” said an old man. “From what I’ve heard here tonight, I don’t think this is going to go on for too much longer. They won’t let us keep going around raising hell, pointing out all their lies, teaching our grandkids how to do research and see the lies for themselves. Whether or not we’re putting ourselves in danger doesn’t matter, but we’ll sure as hell be putting our kids and grandkids at risk. If we piss off the wrong people, who knows how the people responsible for this stuff will try coming after us. My granddaughter is smart as hell, she’s got her own franchise now, and I can guarantee you even she isn’t safe if the people who can alter this stuff come after her.”
The room was quiet for a moment, then a voice broke the mood and changed the subject.
“Well, at least I get to have fun making my kids pick up my poop.”
The room erupted in laughter. Even Emily covered her mouth and snorted, but continued to listen.
“Wait, you can do that?” someone asked.
“These things are built off the pocket pet infrastructure. They added some amenities like restrooms so we could experience normal things from life and not go crazy. It’s a digital psychology thing,” Emily’s grandmother explained. “But you can poop on the ground if you want and they’ll have to clean it up. There are tools for it.”
“Oh man, it’s too late for me. My family already knows the drill.”
“Just tell them there was a glitch in a firmware update,” Lilly suggested. That was Emily’s queue to stop listening.
“Okay, grandma, that’s enough of that.” Emily walked down the stairs and turned the corner, stepping into the light.
“Oh no, the jig is up!” joked one of the grandparents to universal chuckling.
“Don’t tell them about the poo!” said a green grandpagotchi.
“Your secret is safe,” Emily smiled and scooped up the grandparents.
“You’re a good kid,” he said in thanks.
When Emily went back to school after the weekend, it no longer felt the same. After the conversations she had at the party and what she had come to learn, it felt like she was there for show, merely going through the motions. She was mostly pretending to be a student, doing the work she needed to do so she could get to the real knowledge. School became a time sync, draining her of the time she needed to spend learning the truth. The world had become fake, with most of the populace unaware they were running in hamster wheels, obsessed with things that weren’t true.
Over the coming weeks, there was a change in the news stories about grandgotchis. While at first there was nothing but positivity, more stories were published about how they were disruptive and how psychological studies were showing that it is unhealthy not only to be one but to have one. Emily met more and more people who had one, and their families had only benefited from it. Families with grandgotchis were getting stronger and growing, but people who did not have one did not bother to ask them and instead relied on the information that had been fed to them.
Only a month before school was to end, Emily and Lilly finished her history book. Lilly taught Emily how to scrub the file of any traceable information. After that, she talked to people who had shown interest in the history that was being withheld from them and selectively shared the book.
At the same time as this was happening, public sentiment had turned against grandgotchis. The people who had them were seen as sick, twisted individuals who were prolonging the lives of people who wanted to die. At the same time, the people who believed that also believed that those same poor people who just wanted to die were themselves selfish, disruptive elements in a family unit. The people who believed the propaganda would, from one sentence to another, switch from seeing the grandparents as a victim to seeing them as a nuisance. Somehow, in their minds, both were true.
Emily and the others in her group were treated poorly by random strangers who had judgmental comments they felt they could not go their entire lives without saying so they could feel superior to someone for the day. With her eyes open to the true structure of the world, Emily now saw people’s behavior for what it was. She could now see the sheep in society based on the things they would say and the questions they would ask. She also became aware of people who were awake, but going about their business. Their sly remarks and veiled jabs at the hostile, indoctrinated populace were a sign to Emily that they were on her side.
Then came the legislation.
The day after the legislation was announced, the group’s meeting was somber and panicked. Some were sad to soon say goodbye to their grandparents and possibly to the group, while others were alarmed and looking for a solution.
“What about a social media campaign?” asked Joey, who was now in better shape than when they first met him.
“With what traffic? My traffic tanked then all my posts were suddenly labeled as possible misinformation and then most of my accounts were deleted. If my grandma hadn’t told me to get people’s contact information in some other way, I would have lost all my contacts. I thought it was a waste of time until my accounts were deleted yesterday,” Emily said.
“Let’s just cut to the chase,” Sally said assertively. “We’re going to have to give up our grandparents if we don’t figure something out. They’ll confiscate them, then probably destroy the devices. We can’t stop the legislation, so do we try to influence it somehow, or do we break the law?”
“Why not both?” Emily said. The room turned to her and she put her hands up nervously. “What? Why not like… try to make sure that no matter what happens, we get to keep them?”
“Does anyone have any ideas?” Sally asked the room. It was quiet for a moment, then someone spoke up. It was a middle-aged woman named Lucy who didn’t usually say much.
“Can we move them to another device and turn this one in? I just want to keep my grandma alive.”
“They’ll probably check the device at some point,” Sally said. “You’ve got the right sentiment, though. What about starting new social media accounts and starting a campaign built around, ‘don’t kill our grandparents.’ Maybe we could have them moved onto a private server or something. We could write to our senators, try to reach as many grandgotchi families as we can and get them to do the same.”
The room nodded in approval. They tried to come up with ideas for more ways to influence the legislation, but their general skeleton stayed the same. Ultimately, they planned for the worst case scenario, where they were unable to influence the legislation and the grandgotchis would be destroyed.
Lilly’s experience was their saving grace. Since the grandgotchis were built upon traditional digital pets, they could use one of those as their home. However, since she could not program it herself, she would have to go through a contact.
Everyone was willing to break the law and after the meeting convened, Emily was on a mission to get in touch with Lilly’s friend. Because it was for Lilly, the contact was more than willing to quickly and quietly make the simple program, free of cost. It would only serve to attract unwanted attention, afterall. Although, the devices would require a small modification to account for the storage space.
They also followed their plan to influence the legislation to great success. ‘Don’t kill my grandma’ seemed to be a popular sentiment, and so when the law passed, the government created an isolated digital environment for them to live together.
Since both plans worked out, they made copies of their grandparents, with one version transferring into the modified digital pet devices and the original device being turned in to the government.
Everyone at school felt the loss of Lilly, and to a lesser degree Burgo. While everyone celebrated graduation, the student body also paid tribute to Lilly and Burgo as if they were students who had died.
After high school, Emily decided not to go to college. She laid on her bed with her new grandmagotchi like she had after her first day back at school. The world was completely different now, and Emily was aimless. Next to Emily appeared a sleeping holographic corgi. The dog woke up and hopped to its feet, then transformed into Lilly.
“I’ve got to say, It’s cool being able to transform like that,” she said.
“It’ll definitely help us not get caught,” Emily said.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. Life just feels… fake.”
“Life feels fake? You’re still physical. I’m a toy! I’m literally a hologram and your world feels fake?”
Emily laughed and rolled onto her side to face her grandmother’s hologram, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Grandma, you know that’s not what I mean.”
“Yeah, I get what you mean. Sorry, sweetie. This isn’t how I saw things going when I decided to be a grandmagotchi.”
“I guess that’s life, but still… I don’t know what I want to do with my life anymore. I have this book, and I want to just find more stuff but I need to be part of society somehow.”
“Emily, if you could do exactly what you want to do, what would that be? Whatever it is, just put it out there.”
“I want to…” Emily took a long pause, her eyes far away in thought. “I want to dig up all this secret stuff and tell the world. Like, all day every day, just you and me doing research and putting it together and then putting it online or spreading it physically and undoing all these lies. Make society fair and free.”
“Wow, really?”
“Yeah. That would be awesome.” The grin and sparkle in Emily’s eyes told Lilly that she was speaking from her heart.
“That’s going to get you in a lot of trouble. You wouldn’t be able to live a public life the same way. You’d have to be careful and learn some really important skills.”
“I’d do it! I could learn programming like you, and… whatever else!” Emily sat up, facing Lilly. “Grandma! Do you know what I need to learn to do that?”
Lilly smiled, but she broke Emily’s gaze and looked away. “Emily, I’ve got to tell you, as your grandmother, I want you to be safe. I want to see my great grandkids when you’re old enough to legally have kids. I’m not supposed to give you advice on how to be a criminal.”
“Well, grandma, we just spent the first half of this year putting together an illegal document and I have an illegal grandma. You’re illegal. It’s kind of too late for that. That’s what I want to do. Can you help me? Please?”
“Oh, dangit.” Lilly shook her head, smiling. “I guess you’re right.”
“I know I’m right! So, are you going to teach me?”
“I don’t know everything you need to know, but I’ll teach you what I can and guide you to the rest.”
“Yes!” Emily cheered, bouncing on her bed. “Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Emily bounced off her bed and faced her grandma, still in her pajamas. “So, what do I do? Do I need to go to school? Do I find a mentor? Maybe there are online courses I can take?”
“Slow down!” Lilly laughed. “Let’s get you dressed and something to eat, then let’s get online and figure things out.”
“Maybe Sally can help,” Emily suggested.
“Sally is going to be a huge help, especially since you need to keep a low profile. The next time the group meets, you should talk to her privately and tell her what your goals are. Maybe she can give you a job or something that’ll help you out.”
“Great idea. Alright, Grandma, let’s do this!” Emily jumped and pumped her fist in the air with vigor. “My grandmagotchi and me: Operation Super Rebel Team is a go!”
The first thing Emily did was anonymously release her annotated history book online. It was a phenomenon that caused years of turmoil. With the proliferation of their research and Lilly’s many verifiable objections with established history, she became as she had declared, the mouthiest grandmagotchi anyone had ever seen. Not only that, the grandgotchi phenomenon did in fact, as she predicted, end in disaster, despite that fact being unknown to the masses.
The only thing she was wrong about was how much Emily would want her around. They spent every day together, happily and without regret.
The End