Game Over

“Are the results in?”

“We’ve analysed the data, and I believe the results are quite conclusive.”

“And?”

“They’re cleaner than I expected.”

“What do you mean cleaner?”

“Well, our risk assessment included uprisings and all kinds of violent responses, but the data collected from observations over the last few decades shows that the most it has caused is... disagreement.”

“Disagreement? That’s it?”

“Yeah, they’re just arguing and discussing and trying to prove each other wrong. And then they just move on.”

“No protests? No riots?”

“Nothing like it. It has become more like a conversation starter and an internet phenomenon.”

“Huh, and you’ve implemented all parts of my experiment?”

“Oh yeah, movies, labels, logos, all that we had planned and prepared.”

“So they’re just as easy to manipulate with as I had expected.”

“Even more so, I’d say.”

“How come?”

“Not only do they accept the lies rather quickly, there seem to have formed a large group who fiercely stand by the false information we’ve fed them.”

“Do they not question it at all?”

“Some of them do. Some of them completely refuse to believe the new version, and that was expected.”

“Okay?”

“But what baffled us is that the other group – the 'sheep' we like to call them – always steps in before we have to, and basically does our job for us.”

"They go against their own kind?"

"They do everything that our intervention plans include. They mock those who dare to believe their own eyes over the media, and quickly label them conspiracy theorists – again, sir, your genius – and that seems to settle it. It doesn’t change their minds, but it does quiet them.”

“Well, we did expect some resistance.”

“True. And some of them just come to terms with the fact that people "misremember" things. They won’t change sides, but they accept that their neighbour might remember the same event a completely different way when they can find no evidence supporting their memory. Especially the little things.”

“You mean the burglar emoji, the KitKat, and the Monopoly man?”

“Exactly. These were the easiest ones. Along with the Pikachu and Fruit Loops.”

“So predictable! What about the missing cornucopia?”

“Same as the 'Mirror mirror on the wall' and Star Wars thing.”

“Ha! Of course! So they swallowed it all? No questions asked?”

“I mean, there were questions, but that was it. A conversation.”

“What about the death thing? Have we tried it?”

“We did. Over a decade ago. We used Nelson Mandela.”

“Good! That guy always pissed me off. How did that go?”

“That one actually sparked the larger conversation. We were prepared and ready to act had this gotten out of hand. But the situation never grew big enough for us to do anything.”

“Ha. Who knew!”

“They’ve actually accepted that it’s 'a collective false memory' and started calling it 'The Mandela Effect' now.”

“No way! And still not a single protest!?”

“Heated debates – sure. Loud and proud protectors of lies in comment sections – yes. But protests – no.”

“So it’s working.”

“Better than we had ever hoped.”

“Do you think we’re ready to go bigger?”

“I can’t see why not.”

“Do you think we can skip the dribs and drabs and get right to the point? Go straight to my endgame? Or am I being too optimistic now?”

“Had you asked this five years ago, I would have said it’s still too soon. But thanks to your genius idea to let the governments go rogue, just to see what would happen...”

“It was a good idea, wasn’t it?”

“Completely crazy. But again, you were right. You said they’d run the whole thing to the ground. And they did it faster than expected.”

“I actually feel like I can’t even be bothered with them anymore. This is becoming too easy now. Booooring. We should just delete this Earth map and start over with a different one. But I kind of wanna see how far we can push this.”

“Was that an order to implement the final phase of the experiment?”

“I wanna see what happens.”

“Seriously, I don’t think it’ll take long. The existing generations have now lived through about a gazillion once-in-a-lifetime events. I don’t think they’d even bat an eye to one more. Given their worm-like personalities, they’d probably just shrug and be like, 'Oh, well, what else is new.' They’re pretty much ending the game themselves.”

“And if not, we’ll handle it like we did with the Tartarian map.”

“Understood. Might as well play the whole thing out.”

“Do it. We’ll see if I was right and be done with it.”