Changes Detected

You approach the Silicon Graphics server, sitting there unpowered and inert. Now that you've decided to power it up again, you hesitate, but only for a moment. You plug the power cable back into the server tower but leave the power switch turned off.

For the third or fourth time, you check the rest of the cables just to make sure a mysterious network cable isn't plugged in. But you see only the power cable, the mouse and keyboard cables, the VGA cable that goes to the monitor and... oh yeah that weird NUMAlink cable. It is just plugged into the port replicator box, but with nothing else plugged into that it probably doesn't matter.

You want to proceed in a somewhat logical matter. Deep down, you know what you saw and experienced yesterday is real, but you want to eliminate the doubts you feel and making sure to pay attention to the steps is a good way to start.

As certain as you can be that there is no way the old server is on the network, you press the power button.

Once again, the archaic boot up process starts and you wonder about why the server seems to load IRIX and TotalNET before going on to load the Windows NT operating system. It doesn't even give you an option to load into another operating environment, so if you have to boot into Windows why bother loading the others?

Regardless, you're back at the blank Windows screen with the single desktop shortcut that opens TAM. May as well see what this is, so you right click on the icon and view the properties of the shortcut.

The "Target" box has basic instructions in it, so basically what Windows tries to do when you double click on the TAM shortcut. It's lengthy, so you copy it and paste it into a text file so you can read it easier.

C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /user:Administrator "C:\Program Files\TurboPascal-0.55\tb.exe" -conf "C:\Program Files\TurboPascal-0.55\tb.conf" "C:\Panopticon\MultiplierV3\TAM.pas"

Hmm. That tells you a little, but not that much. The 'runas' command catches your eye as being a bit strange. There are no user accounts on this server, when you start it up it loads straight into the default user profile with no log in screen. But this shortcut says to run this program as if you were the Admin account. That might mean nothing, or it might mean someone messed around with the accounts at some point.

The Turbo Pascal part is pretty expected. This shortcut opens Turbo Pascal version 5.5, then uses that program to open "TAM.pas", code compiled in the Pascal programming language, hence the .pas file extension.

You're pretty computer literate, naturally, but this old programming stuff is well before your time and you've never been exposed to it before. You could in theory open Turbo Pascal and dig through the actual code of TAM but what would that tell you? You don't know shit about Pascal other than what it is.

The only real potentially interesting thing is the folder structure. The TAM files are stored in C:\Panopticon, which is a good hint that a company called Panopticon created the program. Not only that, the folder is called 'MultiplierV3' so this wasn't the first version of TAM. Presumably, it was the (wait for it) third version. Unless counting worked differently in the '90s, or '80s, or whenever The Affection Multiplier was actually created. Definitely remember that name though, you don't know what "Panopticon" is but if you're lucky it's a unique name and you'll be able to Google it later.

You close the properties screen. Well, if you're going to do what you've talked yourself into doing, may as well do it properly.

Perfect timing, you hear the sound of Jayne's office door opening and some soft conversation. Whoever she was meeting with is about to leave so you head out of your office door for her office.

Karissa is standing in the doorway, with her head turned to look at Jayne as she says, "Ok, thanks again I really really appreciate it!" The young clerk is wearing a white dress with some sort of green floral pattern on it. The only word you can use for the dress is 'lightweight' because the whole thing looks like it contains maybe 10 ounces of fabric. The hem comes to an inch or two above her knees, and just walking normally makes it flow in the breeze behind her, giving an unscrupulous observer the chance to see even more of her tanned thighs. The top covers her shoulders and is tight across her chest, but you can hardly blame the poor garment for barely being able to contain the young woman's ample breasts. The dress shows more than an hint of cleavage where the buttons strain to remain closed and oh for the love of god are those breasts jiggling just because she took one freaking step that isn't fair how on Earth are you supposed to NOT stare at that?!

With an iron will you drag your eyes off the poor girl a split second after you see her. And just in time, because Karissa turns her head to look at you as you look past the vision of raw youthful sexuality towards a strangely serious looking Jayne.

"Oh! Zach!" Karissa's eyes go wide at the sight of you approaching, but she smiles and turns back to Jayne, "Hey, wubby is here! Talk to you guys later!" And with that she cheerfully prances off down the hallway like a woodland nymph off to tempt some poor old woodcutter into straying too deep into the forest, never to be seen again.

Jesus, what is up with you lately? You make a mental note to rub one out before bed, you're clearly going crazy.

You turn to Jayne, partially just to resist the urge to bite your fist while watching Karissa flounce away. "'Wubby'?" you ask.

Heaving an annoyed sigh, Jayne says, "Work husband. Sorry, is it coffee already?" She frowns, looking at her computer. You wonder why she seems so irritated, you thought she'd engage in some banter. You love the banter, especially since you have some follow-up jokes about her dropping her phone.

Her serious demeanor changes your approach. You wanted to do some light-to-moderate flirting first but you decide to just get on with it.

“No not yet. Uh, look, do you have a few minutes?” you ask, and you can tell you look and sound nervous.

Jayne clearly notices, because she stiffens slightly and says, “Of course. Have a seat? Uh, did you want to close the door?” You can’t help but notice a slightly… excited look flash across her face? Maybe nervous?

“No, I was hoping to show you something on the server rack.” She looks at you, blankly. Whatever she was expecting you to say, asking for help diagnosing a server issue was probably not it. “In my office… that old server. Just wanted to, uh, show you?”

Now she’s looking at you with confusion. God dammit, this is already a disaster. You sound like an especially ineffective serial killer trying to lure your first victim into a dark alley. Shaking your head, you say, “Ah never mind, it’s nothing I can-”

“No! No,” Jayne says as she quickly stands up, “sorry I just blanked out there for a second. Of course I’ll take a look.”

She walks the couple of steps into your office and joins you at the server rack. Her expression is politely interested, like a somewhat dull coworker just started telling her about his vinyl record collection at lunch, and you pause for a second, unsure how to even begin. As a great Canadian once said, wish you weren’t so fucking awkward, bud.

Jayne is just about to open her mouth, probably to ask you if you need medical attention, so you just start babbling.

“I told you about this super old server right? How it was just in asset disposal and I plugged it all in out of curiosity?” At her patient nod, you hurry on. “Well as you saw, it has a program on it called The Affection Multiplier, and not much else. But when I started that program, it did a scan and somehow knew my name. And yours.”

Nodding slightly, Jayne says, “Ok, how did it know our names? I assume you didn’t type them in, so does it have a floor plan or something? It seemed really old, like Zork.”

“Exactly!” You say excitedly, “There is no way for it to know us. It’s not on the network, it has no Internet capability at all. It’s just a super old program that ran a scan and said I was the closest person to it so I was the administrator, and then it said you were the closest person so you were the primary Person of Interest. But it knew our names and ages.”

Frowning now, Jayne looks at the Windows screen. “Uh, but how? And what’s a person of interest? I don’t like the sound of that.”

Deep breath time. “I read the tutorial. It says it’s a program that makes people like other people more. So, in this case, it claimed that it would make people like me more because it said I was the administrator.”

A long pause as Jayne looks at you, a disbelieving smirk growing on her face. “You had me for a minute there Zach. Really? Is that it? Are you going to, like, ask me out now as some kind of weird joke?” she chuckles as she says it, but her blush and a sudden move to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear belies her lighthearted attitude.

You want nothing more than to just laugh and say yeah. It was a lame joke. Sorry. But hey want to go out for drinks later anyway? God, you want that.

Instead, you wince and double click on the TAM shortcut. The blue window opens with seeming enthusiasm, loading the program faster than you recall. The ASCII heart shows up for a moment. That’s new? Or maybe not, you’ve only powered up the program what, two times before? Then it goes to the main menu, skipping the initial bootup screen that it had displayed to Jayne the day before.

===WELCOME Zachary!===
1) SHOW Summary
2) EDIT PoI's
3) ADMIN PORTAL
4) SHOW Tutorial

5)EXIT
==CHANGES DETECTED! SHOW UPDATED SUMMARY? [Y/N]===

Jayne is looking at the screen, no longer chuckling. You sigh. You just really want more than anything to not hit Y, but you can’t just not tell her. What kind of relationship could you ever have with her if you didn’t tell her this? You hit Y to show the updated summary.

===UPDATED SUMMARY===
PERSON OF INTEREST (Primary):
Hall, Jayne (AGE 29, SEX F)
AFFECTION SCORE: 65 (was: 60)
LOVE SCORE: 22 (was: 13)
LUST SCORE: 23 (was: 29)

PERSON OF INTEREST:
Martin, Karissa (AGE 19, SEX F)
AFFECTION SCORE: 49 (was: 46)
LOVE SCORE: 37
LUST SCORE: 16

Your very own Person of Interest (Primary) snaps her head back as if recoiling. “What the fuck is this?” She turns to you in surprise, then looks at the screen again. “Zach? What the hell is this?”

Holding up your hands, you say, “I did not do any of this. I swear to you Jayne. I promise. I can’t explain how it does it, I really can’t. But it does… something? And I had to show you. I don’t understand it and it’s freaking me out!”

Crossing her arms in front of her chest Jayne glares at you and says, “It’s freaking me out too! What do you mean you didn’t do it? Well who did then! And what the hell is this lust score shit! And why is Karissa there!” She is not shouting by the end, but she’s definitely testing the upper limits of loud talking.

You are facing each other but the flicker of the blue window draws you both back to the monitor.

==CHANGES DETECTED! SHOW UPDATED SUMMARY? [Y/N]===

Jayne looks at you, her face now as confused as angry again. You nod to the keyboard, and with a thunderous frown Jayne hits Y.

===UPDATED SUMMARY===
Hall, Jayne (AGE 29, SEX F)
AFFECTION SCORE: 39 (was: 65)
LOVE SCORE: 10 (was: 22)
LUST SCORE: 1 (was: 23)

She is staring at the screen, seemingly stunned. Her mouth opens and closes a few times, and she looks very scared for a moment, then angry, then she looks at you with an expression of pure hurt that stabs you in the heart. But she shakes her head again and, waving her hand angrily at you before you can say anything, she storms out of your office. You hear her door close, not very quietly, a second later.

And all you can think is, you lost her.

==CHANGES DETECTED! SHOW UPDATED SUMMARY? [Y/N]===

Oh fuck right off. You turn off the monitor in disgust and leave your office to clear your head.