Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of June, 2026.
Generational
by Elizabeth Guilt
She looked at me, disappointed.
"Don't you want to?"
"Of course I do! But... I need permission."
"From who? You're an adult!"
"The Paterfamilias."
"Ha, the Paterf... wait, you're serious? You still have one?"
My great-great-grandfather wanted his dynasty to last forever. During that narrow window in the mid twenty-first century, when everyone thought they knew the future, he set up complicated deeds and entails. And he did it well. It's completely watertight - we still haven't found a legal route to unplugging the damned thing.
"So, yeah. If we want to get married, we've got to convince a century-old AI."
As I'm sure you'll have noticed, AI is currently the answer to everything. I do wonder which particular aspects future generations will look back on and groan at our stupidity.