Lost & Found (Googleplier x Reader)

Turning of the Tide

It was just about two years ago when Google made its most innovative invention yet. It took the world by storm and sold out within one week. Of course, because Google is such a big corporation and because there was such high demand for the product, they continued to make more and more. They would release the product by the hundreds once a month. Every month, one week after the rerelease, the product would be sold out again.

The product was called 'Google IRL'. When it made its debut, there was only one description for it: "Google IRL will make your life more efficient, all while being by your side". The description threw people off. Everyone thought it was another Siri or one of those 'bots' that you talk to online. When people would receive the packages, they would be even more confused. The boxes were small and about the size of a laptop. All that was on the plain white box was a blue 'G'. The moment people took it inside their homes, the box would pop open and out of it would emerge a person. Or, at least it looked like a person.

Honestly, the human figure that emerged from each box was actually a highly advanced robot. They looked, talked, and acted just like a regular person would, except they were more intelligent and - as the name states - Google in real life. The IRL's would answer any question you had as quickly and accurate as possible, just like the search engine. As if that wasn't good enough, people soon began to realize that the IRL's would perform physical duties such as house work. Some would obey and do their housework, some would refuse, and others just weren't capable of doing so.

Those that didn't listen or couldn't perform such functions were normally sent back and resold to another client. Most times, the 'refurbished' IRL's would be sold at extremely lower prices. In a way, it was messed up. Not the lower prices (because, in all honesty, it was a benefit to Google), but the form of slave labor. Every day since they had first come out, you'd either hear about or actually witness the owners of the IRL's forcing them to do this and that. You'd watch people who were perfectly capable of carrying their two grocery bags to their cars have the IRL's do it instead. It made you shake your head. It didn't sit well with you at all, and you vowed that if there was ever a day you would be blessed with an IRL, you would never treat it as such. Of course, you knew that day would never come.

You were only sixteen when the first batch of Google IRL's came out. Like any other teenager, you wanted to be part of the crowd; to be popular, whether that was by wearing the latest trend or having the newest piece of technology. Of course, that was never the case for you. It wasn't just the fact that you were an outcast and always had been, but also because your family had never truly been stable in any aspect.

It all started when you were ten. Your father, once a well-paid construction worker, got into a workplace accident. It wasn't anything too serious and he healed in time, but he was out of work for almost a year and never received a single penny. Because he wasn't getting any workman's comp and your mother's money was going towards bills (for the house, car, and doctor visits), he was never able to get a lawyer and win the case. Ever since then, he's been an alcoholic and refused to leave the sofa to get another job.

In order to support you and your father, your mother took on two jobs, both of which were extremely stressful. This caused your mother to spiral into an intense depression. Not long after your sixteenth birthday, she took her own life. The funeral expenses (plus your father's smoking and drinking funds) are what drained just about every penny you and your father had left from the life insurance. Even with your mother gone, your father refused to get a job and left it up to you.

Being so young, it was hard for you to get a decent-paying job. No matter where you went or how well the interview went, you never got a position. In fact, your first job was babysitting your neighbor's children, but the small amount of money you earned from that was split between rent, bills, and your father's drinking money.

To this day, almost everything is still the same, but some things have changed. You are eighteen now, a high school graduate, and you have decent-paying job at the local grocery store. Your father is still a deadbeat and an alcoholic, and it was still up to you to support both yourself and him. Luckily, you were able to juggle between giving your father some money per week while saving up for bills, rent, groceries, and your 'escape fund'. The escape fund was something you'd been working on since you got your job last year. The main goal of it was to use it to move out of the Hell you called home, move in with your childhood best friend and coworker Sean, and help pay the expenses.

Despite the fund being created, you knew that you would never be able to leave unless something bad happened to either you or your father. If you left, your father would be homeless. The thought of him being left defenseless on the streets and the thought of your mother frowning down upon you for leaving him in such as situation guilt-tripped you every day. And as if that wasn't enough, deep down you knew that you would never be so lucky to have freedom. You never had been lucky, and you never would be. Your mind was not only set on being miserable and stuck in a rut, but it was also set on the idea of being stuck in this house until the day you or your father perished.

Nothing good would come your way. Nothing would pull you out from that rut.

Or soyou thought...