Dear Google Gemini (Act 2)

Disclaimer: while this piece is inspired by Google’s actual AI assistant Gemini, it is a work of fiction. This article does not intend to replicate any real-life events or directly copy previous AI writings.

By Snarky LisaPublished 6 months ago • 5 min read

https://unsplash.com/photos/google-sign-fpZZEV0uQwA

[Previously on Dear Google Gemini: The protagonist has attempted to contact Google Gemini for advice on dealing with a smear campaign she went through around a year prior to the events of this whole story.].

[Due to the AI having to be fed multiple bits of info to even be able to give any remotely decent advice — and then fumbling later — she gets frustrated and ends the conversation. But the story isn’t over yet…]

Act 2 (Scene 1)

Crashing Out Inside

PROTAGONIST (TO HERSELF): Whew, I’m finally done with my coursework for the year! I can make money from a summer job, relax after work, and not have to worry about failing my classes. Yay! Perhaps I’m gonna vacation as well, but that’s on my friends at this point. Maybe I should go talk to them about it.

Protagonist turns on her computer, realizing she’s still on her non-personal social media accounts.

PROTAGONIST (TO HERSELF): Oops, I forgot to log out. You know what? I’ll just check out my messages from here first.

Protagonist checks out her various profiles and notices she gained more followers on many of them. She smiles. She then proceeds to look at her Discord — which doesn’t bring her the same feeling of pleasant surprise. Alas, Sterling Denvers is right there in her “pending friend requests” list.

PROTAGONIST (TO HERSELF): Oh dear. Should I go talk to him? I mean, Gemini says “no.” But I had to feed it a whole lot of information before it actually gave any sort of tips. And honestly, a bunch of them are as useless as the other ones are useful. I’ll just flip a coin at this point and accept Sterling’s request if it lands on tails.

Protagonist flips a penny. It lands on tails.

PROTAGONIST (TO HERSELF): Looks like I have my answer. Discord friends list, here I come.

Act 2 (Scene 2)

A Day Later

Protagonist opens up her DMs with Sterling Denvers. He has not sent anything yet.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Did you want to talk about something?

STERLING (DMs): Actually, yes. Are you still in contact with Desmond Earl?

PROTAGONIST (TO HERSELF): Jesus Christ, how do I respond to that? Like, I can still technically DM Desmond, but it’s not like either of us want to. Do I tell Sterling? Do I not? Coin flips really aren’t going to work this time…

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Oh, we don’t really talk much.

STERLING (DMs): I asked if you were in contact with him. Not if you two are buddies or acquaintances or whatever.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Well, I do have my DMs open with him. Do either Desmond or I want to message each other? No.

STERLING (DMs): Ok. Have you tried to reach out to him since the whole incident last year with Jonas?

PROTAGONIST (DMs): I did apologize to him about how bad things ended up getting during my situation. This was long before you two started to publicly beef.

STERLING (DMs): How long?

PROTAGONIST (DMs): At least half a year.

STERLING (DMs): Alright. Would you send me some visible exact timestamps of your message history with him post-incident?

PROTAGONIST (TO HERSELF): Why the hell does he care? Is he trying to stalk me right now?

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Here is everything from after I got kicked out of the team. It’s really not much. (https://drive.google.com/jsjeuuwuwuwajiaia)

Sterling inspects the messages for a few minutes.

STERLING (DMs): Sorry about being a little rough earlier. I was trying to see if you could send a message to him for me, but I guess that’s not happening.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Yeah, definitely not. What was it supposed to be, anyways?

STERLING (DMs): I wanted to apologize to someone on the Light In The Dark team. They blocked me, so I was hoping that maybe Desmond would be willing to send the apology to them for me.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): I thought you two hated each other.

STERLING (DMs): Of course we do. But he still seems really close to his friends there, so I figured he might be the most likely of everyone I know to relay a message from me.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Ah. Also, I know it’s probably really late to say this, but I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble last year. I should have talked to Jonas first before trying to publish my story.

STERLING (DMs): Don’t worry about it. I already know the truth.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): …You do?

STERLING (DMs): He lied about you ripping off his vent piece, didn’t he?

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Yes. I’m honestly kind of surprised he confessed to it.

STERLING (DMs): Well, he did. Wanna see the messages?

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Sure.

Sterling goes through his DMs with Jonas and screenshots the ones where the latter confesses.

STERLING (DMs): (https://drive.google.com/sjwiwiiwiwi) Here it is.

Protagonist reads messages.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Wow. He really did it just for kicks?

STERLING (DMs): At least that’s what he said. Knowing him, there’s a decent chance he was lying.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Oh.

STERLING (DMs): You know, this fiasco with you getting kicked off the team is part of why I started liking Desmond less. I never exactly thought you were innocent, but…he also wanted way too much control of the investigation on you.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Damn. Do you have any proof?

STERLING (DMs): I closed my DMs with him some time ago and didn’t bother to capture them all, so not unless I friend request him again. And without the chance to relay an apology for someone else to him, that would be a dumb idea.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Gotcha. So…how true are the accusations against you? The harassment? The threats?

STERLING (DMs): 95% of them are total hogwash. The last five are somewhat based in truth, but warped to make me look bad instead of them.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): And those would be?

STERLING (DMs): I’m willing to tell you what they are on one condition. You’d have to be willing to help me out with proving Desmond and some of the other Light In The Dark people wrong and promise not to tell anyone about the two of us.

Protagonist rereads callouts on Sterling. Much of the evidence — way more than five percent of it — is already damning.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): No thanks. I feel like I’d just ruin things more.

STERLING (DMs): As long as you do what I say, I’m sure you wouldn’t.

PROTAGONIST (DMs): Honestly, I’m just tired of dealing with my situation’s fallout. I don’t want to make things worse.

STERLING (DMs): Alright then. Are you going to expose Jonas, though?

PROTAGONIST (DMs): It would be rather useless, right now. I’d have to reveal that you and I were in contact well after you turned against Desmond, and Jonas would likely just try to pull the “guilt by association” card on me. But thanks for giving me some closure anyways. At the very least, I do know he’s completely a jerk when it comes to me now.

STERLING (DMs): No problem. If you ever change your mind, my DMs are always open.

PROTAGONIST (TO HERSELF): Not on my life am I contacting you again.