The Curators demanded a "Plasticity Regency." By decree of the orbital lattice, the global keys to energy, food distribution and law were handed to those whose brains were still in the peak of neuroplasticity: the teenagers. Within the first six hours, the "Dampening Field" was established. Military commanders around the world found that their "Red Buttons" no longer functioned, solid-state electronics in missile silos simply "went to sleep." By evening, the Age-Gate was implemented. Adults found themselves locked out of the global financial and communication grids. Governments didn't "fall"; they simply became irrelevant. A President or Prime Minster could order action, but was unable to  communicate the order and the soldiers didn't have the adrenaline to obey.

On the second day, the "Teenage Uplift" began. Across the globe, 16 to 19-year-olds, those whose neural pathways were still plastic enough to interface with alien logic, were pinged via their devices. They weren't asked to fight; they were asked to audit. Elara, a 17-year-old in Fulham in London, was one of the first. Her screen displayed a simple interface: a real-time ledger of her neighbourhood's water, food, and energy. Below it was a button: [BEGIN CHORE]. The aliens, through the AI Aletheia, began teaching the youth how to run a world not through "politics," but through "genuine housekeeping." By the third day, the initial panic had been replaced by a surreal, quiet hunger. The Curators didn't provide manna from heaven; they provided efficiency.     

Aletheia redirected every cargo ship at sea, carrying luxury cars to be sent to scrap yards; ships carrying grain were diverted to the hungriest ports. Teenagers guided by holographic overlays, began the first "Global Bulk-Buy" distribution. The adults were in a state of "Stunned Retirement." A CEO of a major bank was seen sitting in a park, staring at his useless gold watch, while a group of teenagers used a Curator-issued "Glass-Eater" device to begin dissolving a nearby landfill. The power had shifted from the boardroom to the teenagers, not by force, but because they were the only ones the "House" would listen to anymore. The Regency had begun and the first nights were a study in the collision between prehistoric human instinct and post-scarcity alien logic.   

While the teenagers were being inducted into the "Synthetica," the adults were undergoing a collective psychological breakdown. In major cities like Paris, Chicago and Hong Kong, the shock of the Arrival quickly curdled into desperation. Groups of "Legacy" adults, fuelled by the terrifying loss of their bank balances and social standing, took to the streets. These were not protests for a cause; they were attempts to reclaim "The Old Way." Mobs descended on closed banks and luxury shops, wielding sledgehammers. The Curator’s Response was the Dampening Field operated like a planetary "Parental Veto." As rioters swung their hammers, the air around the glass shop fronts would thicken into a fluid. The hammers didn't shatter the glass; they bounced off as if hitting rubber.

In addition, they used The "Mellowing" Effect, to prevent the crowds from turning on each other, Aletheia projected a 432Hz bio-harmonic frequency through the city's power lines. Protesters reported a sudden, overwhelming desire to sit down. By 2:00 AM, the "rioters" were found sleeping peacefully on the pavement, their anger literally vibrated out of their nervous systems. While their parents were being "mellowed" in the streets, teenagers like Elara were staring at the Regency HUD (Heads-Up Display). Which showed “The Master Ledger”, this was the tool that replaced the Stock Exchange and the War Room. The interface was designed by Aletheia to be intuitive, more like a city-building game than a complex command line. It broke the world down into "Household Categories".

The "Pantry" Tab: A real-time heat map of global food distribution. If a sector turned red, it meant the local food supply was below a 3-day reserve. Teenagers could "drag and drop" cargo drone swarms to move supplies from surplus zones to red zones. The "Thermostat" (Energy Grid): This allowed the teenagers to see where energy was being "wasted." On the first night, the Regents famously shut off the lights in every empty office skyscraper and neon billboard on Earth with a single swipe, redirecting that power to hospital life-support and water purification plants. The "Chore Queue": This was the interface for the local community. It listed tasks like "Landfill Digestion" or "Grid Maintenance." 

The Regents would assign these to adults based on their physical health and proximity. The "Sovereign" Oversight, above it all, the Sovereign ships acted as the hardware for this new software. If a teenager made a mistake, such as accidentally cutting power to a residential block, the ship's sensors would override the command before the lights even flickered. The Curators were the "Safety Rails." They didn't want the teenagers to be perfect; they wanted them to be responsible. By the dawn of Day Four, the world was no longer being governed by ideology. It was being managed by a generation of teenagers who treated the Earth’s resources like the last few bars of battery on a phone, precious, finite, and worth saving.

The transition from chaos to order was codified in a single digital broadcast and a massive, coordinated effort to scrub the planet’s "filters."On day Five, the Global Teenager Council, connected via the Synthetica, issued a manifesto to every adult on Earth. It was titled The Stewardship Mandate, but history remembers it as The House Rules. The broadcast didn't use the language of law; it used the language of understanding. "To our elders: The era of 'Ownership' is over. The era of 'Regency' has begun. You have treated the world like a hotel you intended to trash before checking out. We are now the landlords and these are the rules of the house: No more hoarding, your bank accounts are now 'Pantry Shares.' You have what you need and the rest belongs to the house. "

No more fighting, any attempt at violence will be met with the 'Dampening.' Your anger is your own, but your hands belong to the collective. Everyone has a Chore, if you eat from the table, you help clear it. Your 'career' is now your 'contribution. The Great Ocean Scrub, while the Decree was settling in, the first massive logistical operation began: Project Blue-Lung. The Curators knew that if the oceans died, the "Household" would suffocate. The Tech behind it was the "Crystalline Nets. The Sovereign ships deployed millions of "Glass-Eater" nanites, specialised synthetic organisms that didn't just collect plastic but "digested" it. The nanites bond with long-chain polymers and break them down into a harmless, nutrient-rich sediment that sank to the ocean floor to feed deep-sea ecosystems.

The Chore-Teams involved  thousands of former naval vessels and private yachts being "Re-Commissioned." Teenagers stood on the decks, using the Regency HUD to guide the nanite swarms toward "Plastic Hotspots" like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Former admirals and yacht owners found themselves acting as "Deck Hands" for 17 year-old "Navigation Regents." Many adults resisted, refusing to take orders from "teenagers." The Solution, Aletheia simply disabled the engines of any ship where the adult crew didn't cooperate. The message was clear: You can help us clean, or you can drift in the dark. The choice is yours. The Result: by the end of the first week, the "House Rules" were being followed out of sheer necessity and the oceans were already changing colour.

If an adult was showing early signs of cognitive decline, their synthesised meals were enriched with Curator-designed neurotransmitters aimed at neural regeneration.The "Dignity Chores": Purpose Without Pressure, the AI recognised that a human without a real purpose in life, quickly withers. However, adults could no longer be trusted with "Structural Power" (the ability to allocate resources or declare war). The solution was the Dignity Chore. Instead of "jobs," adults were given roles that utilised their life experience without giving them the "keys to the car." Former lawyers and historians were tasked with "Contextual Tagging." They helped Aletheia understand the nuance of human history, the "why" behind the wars, so the AI could better prevent them.

While the Regency mass-produced everything needed for survival, adults were encouraged to engage in "Slow Labour." Woodworking, painting and gardening were classified as Level 1 Chores. An adult could spend all day hand-carving a single chair and Aletheia would count it as their full contribution to the household, valuing the "Soul" of the object over its utility. The greatest gift the Regency gave the adults was the total removal of Economic Anxiety. For the first time in their lives, the adults were told they would never be homeless and never hungry or "broke." Every adult received a Sustenance Credit that was independent of their Chore performance. By erasing all mortgages and debts, the system removed the "Invisible Weight" many adults had carried for decades.

Because everyone had the same base "Allowance," the social friction of "Keeping up with the Joneses" evaporated. Adults who had spent their lives in high-stress corporate environments often experienced a "Decompression Crisis" in the first year, followed by a profound, child-like sense of relief. The most difficult "care" was mental. Many adults defined themselves by their titles: CEO, General, Senator. To be told they were now simply "Family Members" was a psychic blow. Aletheia organised mandatory (but gentle) group sessions. These weren't brainwashing camps; they were Empathy Workshops. The Simulation Therapy, adults were placed in VR environments where they could see the projected "End-State" of their previous lives.

A former oil executive might be shown the 2100-year-old version of Earth if he had succeeded in his business goals, a dead, boiling rock. Once the adult moved through the "Grief Cycle," they were introduced to a Regency Teenager who thanked them for their "Legacy" while explaining the new "Budget." This "Hand-Off" ceremony was a crucial ritual in restoring the adult's sense of self-worth within the new system. Caring for the adults, also meant preventing them from hurting others, using soft security limits. The Regency utilised Passive Containment. The Mellowing Field: In residential zones for older adults, the Curators maintained a permanent, low-level "Dampening Field" that acted like a global anti-anxiety medication.

It didn't turn people into zombies; it simply lowered the "ceiling" on rage. You could be annoyed, but it was physically impossible to reach a "blind fury." The "Safety-Valve" Communities, for adults who absolutely could not adapt to the Regency's rules, Aletheia created Legacy Enclaves. These were really beautiful, walled communities that mimicked the 20th century (complete with analog tech and limited "private" property). Here, adults could play-act at the "Old World," provided they stayed within the enclosure and didn't interfere with the global resource grid. By the end of the first decade, the "Adult Problem" had been solved through Radical Compassion. The system didn't view the adults as enemies, but as "Retired Architects."

On the day of the Arrival, his "Wealth" became a collection of useless zeros. Marcus was moved from his 15,000-square-foot mansion to a Standard High-Efficiency Home Pod in the Denver Hub. His first week was spent in a state of "Ego Shock." He attempted to bribe a Curator drone with a Rolex; the drone simply scanned the watch, identified it as "High-Density Metal Waste," and offered to recycle it into a set of medical surgical tools. Aletheia identified Marcus’s skill and he was assigned the "Chore" of Global Resource Load Balancing. Instead of moving money to make more money, he spent six hours a day looking at the "Pantry HUB," ensuring that the thermal energy from Icelandic volcanoes was being efficiently routed to the vertical farms in the Sahara.

By the end of Year One, he lived in 400 square feet, wore "Standard" clothes and ate the same Core tubers as everyone else. For the first time in twenty years, he was "Rich" in time and health, rather than "Wealthy" in debt and stress. For the children born after the Arrival, the Regency Natives, the world was not a place of competition, but a laboratory of connection. Education was no longer about "passing tests" to "get a job." At age five, children were taught "Brain-State Management." They learned how to identify their own cortisol spikes and use breathing techniques (and Aletheia-assisted biofeedback) to return to a state of "Cooperative Flow." Systemic Thinking: Instead of "Math" and "Science" as separate boxes, children studied The Household Web.