Let's hack a cute girl

You smile as you finally close your sister's door. Phew, that was something. But it worked, you think to yourself as you make your way back to your room. As you sit down behind your computer you look at the list of available connections. You live in an apartment building, so you have a lot of neighbours, with a lot of implants. Most of them won't actually result in anything though. You see the leg implant of your neighbour, the ear chip of another neighbour and generally just a lot of other unprotected hardware in the neighbourhood. You do pick up one interesting connection though.

Most of your neighbour's have never even see you, but there's this one girl two stories lower who you've had some interactions with a few times on your way to your car. Usually just a nod and a smile, but it was more than you had with most people. Her name is Carliah and on your screen it says she has an Emotional Control Unit, or ECU. It is constantly transmitting data to what you assume is a controller unit. You check out the information stream you're receiving from it. One input stream is the emotions that are being suppressed and the other is the emotions that are being enforced. Doubt, anger, panic in one stream. Happy, calm, certain in the other.

You quickly find the brand and model of the ECU she's using and scan for weaknesses. You almost instantly find the entire code for the ECU and decide it would probably be harder to find strong points than weak points. You really like her. She's been one of the few people you've ever had a real conversation with, but this is an amazing opportunity to improve your program. You start coding before you have decided whether you're going to use it or not.

After just 10 minutes your program is finished with everything you could ask for. The ability to intercept, alter, and mimic the signal to give you full control over everything that Carliah would experience. As you compile your code and run a quick test however, you're once again faced with the question of whether to use it on her or not.

You decide that there's no point acting like it's not there. She has to know the risk she's facing with such a **** ECU controlling her emotional state. You connect your phone to your pc so you can control the program from there and make your way down the stairs again. You ignore your mom's questions and head out of the door.

You take take the elevator to get floors lower and ring the doorbell of Carliah's house. You'd never done that. Not just at Carliah's house, but ever. You had never rang someone else's doorbell before. Usually you would have already been picked up on a dozen scanners and would be asked for a passcode. Or your identity had already been confirmed and the door would open automatically. It was weird to have to do that manually now, even though you knew it was a very normal thing...

The door opens and you see who you presume to be Carliah's mother. She has dark brown hair like Carliah and the same olive skin. Her face is also unmistakably like that of Carliah.

"Good morning. Can I help you?" she asks.

You're frozen in place, your thoughts not quite having caught up with the situation. She hadn't asked for a passcode. Not even your name. You realise that this would be very different from your normal interactions. This is social.

"Uuuhm. Carliah… is she home?" you manage to say.

Her mother smiles. "She is. Is she expecting you?" she says sweetly. She had a very large bosom which seemed to constantly be pulling your eyes downwards. First impressions. Need to make a good first impression, you think to yourself though and you manage to keep your eyes on the sweet smile of Carliah's mother instead. It was very warm and welcoming and it actually managed to put your mind at ease a little.

You shake your head. "No, but she knows me, probably. I'm Jay." you reply. Carliah's mother closes the door a bit as she walks into the house. Finally you breathe out. After a short bit of waiting the door opens again and you're greeted by the beauty that is Carliah. She's wearing a loose olive green shirt and baggy trousers. It doesn't accentuate her assets but you know that she's rocking a stellar body underneath.

"Hi Jay. I wasn't expecting you. What is it?" she says, releasing you from your trance.

"Uh, well. I wanted to discuss something with you. It's kind of important. Can I come in?" you blurt out. Her face has gone from happy and intrigued to scared, worried and suspicious before going back to happy and calm. That ECU is really messing with her, you think.

"Sure, come in. Did you want something to drink?" she asks you.

Your throat is dry but you really don't want to stay here longer than is necessary. But it might make your stay here a little easier.