Brenda and Meiko sat in silence for a while after Tiffani left. They had effectively set their creation of a lesbian wonderland as their highest priority, yet they had failed to account for their feelings about others.
"We could…ah…change her so she doesn't mind the changes, or erase her memory of what we did," Brenda suggested after a bit.
"That's mom you're talking about!" Meiko snapped. "And it was you changing her that got us into this mess!"
More silence, again broken by Brenda.
"What if we set it so we just stopped caring about what others thought?" she asked in a quiet voice, already realizing what a bad idea it was before Meiko unloaded again.
"What's wrong with you? What part of you thinks that becoming total sociopaths will make this situation any better?"
Now Brenda got heated. "We're halfway there already, thanks to you and your desire to control me! And don't pretend you haven't thought everything I've said out loud. We're too alike in that regard."
"So what do we do?" Meiko asked. Tears were running down her flawless cheeks. "Reset everything to the way it was?"
They both gazed at the laptop expectantly. In unison, they realized that they had no will or ability to take a step backwards. The drive to bring the fantasy to completion was just too strong.
Brenda took a deep breath. It was finally time for her to act the grown-up, despite her youthful form. "No. We do nothing, at least for a while. We give your mother time, then we listen to her and respect her wishes. OK?"
Meiko nodded. "I guess we should give Shannon the choice, too, when she returns. And moving forward?"
"We take our time. We have a lot to offer people. They'll come around sooner or later. It's not like we don't have all the time in the world."
"And the people Shannon may have changed at work? They're beyond the range of the Chronivac. How do we reach them?"
"Oh, shit."