TTYL
Adult Science Fiction Thriller
What if you could get your dead sister back?
Ashley thought she'd lost Brianna forever. Then she discovers a virtual reality world secretly built by her sister before her death, one where Brianna still exists, memories and all.
But when a hacker discovers the technology, Ashley must choose between saving humanity's future and holding onto the only piece of her sister she has left.
Grief
Nostalgia
Gaming
Sisterhood
Virtual Reality
Game Over wasn't supposed to be temporary.
Ashley and her sister, Brianna, were an inseparable gaming duo: always player one and player two. As kids, they had grand plans to create video games together, but it all crashed down when Brianna died. Now, twenty years later, Ashley’s life is stuck on a loading screen.
The closest Ashley gets to her dreams is fixing retro video game systems. That is, until she finds an old virtual reality console coded by her tech-genius sister. But it’s not a typical system, it houses a lifelike, fully immersive world—a ‘90s wonderland where her sister’s avatar resides with her real-life memories and personality intact. In this artificial paradise, Ashley can rebuild the life she always imagined, pixel by pixel.
But it’s game over when a hacker threatens Ashley for the advanced tech. Her nostalgic utopia becomes her personal hell as he infiltrates the system, altering Ashley’s mind and blurring the lines between reality and the virtual world. When Ashley finds that he’ll do the same to others when he mass produces the tech, she realizes the only way to stop him is to delete the code. In other words, destroy her dreams and lose her sister—again.
The Story Behind TTYL
I look back on my past fondly. Maybe too fondly (but I was lucky enough to grow up in the '90s, the perfect childhood decade, imo!). It's easy for me to get lost in the old TV shows, the movies, and the video games. I spent my childhood with my brother and cousin (who might as well be my sister), playing video games, drumming up story ideas, watching cartoons, and living in what felt like perpetual summer.
But we all grow up. We all lose our childhood spark... and childhood friends. Now, there's a comfort to nostalgia. Something that feels safe—and lets us leave reality for a while.
So, I wondered, what if I could actually leave reality for the past, just for a little bit? To have my comforting games—and my comforting relationships. Relationships that don't exist anymore.
If I could leave it all behind and go back to that... would I?
Would it be better to lose myself in the past, or move forward, to make room for the future?
Real life footage from my childhood.
Emily Rae is an adult speculative fiction writer, represented by Maria Whelan of Mushens Entertainment.
Her short stories are published in CrayfishMag, Penumbric Magazine, and Verdant Wonders Literary Journal. She is a proud member of Literary Cleveland and sits on the committee of her local literary nonprofit organization.
TTYL was chosen for mentorship in the Author-Mentor Match program and was also shortlisted in the Pitch Wars mentorship contest. As a 1990s gamer girl at heart, a frequent comic con vendor, and someone who codes professionally, Emily has pulled inspiration from her own life to write this manuscript.
