He had to mute himself to prevent her from hearing his irritated huff. Thank goodness they’d updated the system so the mute symbol didn’t appear to anyone else anymore. He’d get a chatbot taken away for behavior like this. While his parents were kind and spoiled him, they didn’t play around when it came to attitude. Controlling himself, he unmuted his microphone.
“What do we need to talk about?” He eyed the hamburgers hungrily, fighting to hold his controllers still. How tempting it was to just snatch them up!
“I was going to wait until your father connected, but work has been keeping him busy today. He’ll have to scold you himself when he gets home.” She sat down across from me, a momentary blank look crossing her face. Probably just a glitch in the new system. Father was working to fix that. “We need to discuss how you’ve been treating your dog.”
“You mean Chewie?” His parents had gotten him the virtual labradoodle when he was six. The good thing about virtual animals was that they never died. The bad thing was that people, or at least Brash, got bored with them.
“That’s precisely who I mean. The little guy hasn’t been taken to the park in weeks. All he does is sit in the corner of your room and wait for your command. He’s not a dust-collector.” Her gaze narrowed further. “And speaking of dust, you’ve gotten sloppy with your cleaning. I’ve found dozens of dirt pixels all over your room, and to make matters worse, you’re starting to get bugs from all the cookies you leave out. I told you to put those away, didn’t I?”
Hamburgers…
“Brash!”
“Yeah, yeah, you told me!” He crossed his arms, sticking up his nose. Where was the ever-obedient chatbot when you needed it? His parents were the only ones who ever disobeyed his command. “Where are we going with this? I’ll clean up the cookies and take the dog to the park this weekend.”
“We’re having this discussion because you’re failing to appreciate the beauties of the world your father and I have almost single-handedly constructed for you. Who do you think set up all these servers? Made you a world of your own? Bought you new friends? We did, and you’re failing to realize just how great a virtual life you have. The world outside isn’t such a nice place, you know. Imagine if you were born to one of those rebel crazies who thought life would be better in the real world!”
A shiver ran down his spine. The thought of hamburgers momentarily flew away. A life in the real world? It was enough to make a grown man scared. Who could imagine living in a world where things, where people, were unpredictable? It was hard enough having two unpredictable parents. Imagine having a whole life full of people like that!
“What are you suggesting…?” His voice quivered as his hands hit the table.
“I’m suggesting that you get a reminder of how good you have it. I don’t want this lobby collecting any more dirt because of your complacency. Your father and I have discussed it, and we want you to attend in-person school for the last semester of your junior year.”
His blood ran cold. If he hadn’t smacked the mute button, his mother would’ve heard the yelp he let out. In-person school? What was wrong with her? Did she think he was some common public lobby peasant? He’d worked for seventeen years to build the relationships he had here, and she wanted him to throw it all away?
He hesitantly unmuted himself. “I-In person school?”
“Yes, in-person school.” She nodded, the corners of her mouth twisting into a self-satisfied smile. “If you can survive the semester in in-person school, we’ll forget about this whole ordeal. Perhaps a few months with the regular people will show you how good you really have it, huh? Then you’ll be less quick to go against my requests, yes?”
He shivered. He knew that tone. Though it was sweet and accompanied by a small, positive smile, it promised future trouble. He bit his lip, yet forced a smile on his own avatar. Another positive of these virtual systems: no one could see through any act you put up.
For once, Brash was left speechless. He’d always gotten his way. He’d always been told he was too special to mingle among the commonfolk, and now one minor error had him thrown in with them? Besides, he wasn’t poor! He had no reason to be going there! Didn’t she care about how people would see him now? Agh, how he hated the unpredictability of real people!
“Now, dig into your hamburgers!” She tapped her hands on the table definitively, straightening herself with a chuckle.
Even as the feeding tube connected to his mouth and fed him a specially crafted mush to simulate the taste of a hamburger, he found no enjoyment in it. His virtual hands moved mindlessly as he brought the hamburger back and forth from his mouth. What if those peasants tried to push him around? What if they thought they were better than him? Or worse…what if they tried to make him one of them, like some freakish cult? For the first time in his life, real fear was settling in his stomach.
