otx

The file has been running as a background process on the server since 1979, never taking too many resources and never totally stopping. It looks like part of the operating system, and a number of key processes tap into it, but nobody has any idea what it does. It even regenerates itself when deleted, and has jumped the gap from one generation of servers to the next. You've been given the job of figuring it out, but you're out of time so the only way to do that is to run it.

This is the story of an Antique Shop, located in the most unusual places. Locating it is more a matter of frame of mind than physical location. It is attended by a young lady named Ann Tique, or at least that's the name on her calling card. As for the specialty of the store, it's simple: it sells devices intended to provide personal satisfaction – to adults.

There is a game played by children called "hot potato" where an object (sometimes a potato) is passed from person to person; when it is given to a particular person, their only objective is to give it to someone else. What possible origin could this strange game have, and how long could a game really be kept going?

Sure I captured you and trapped you inside my body, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends. Sure you can only act when I tell you to, but freedom is totally overrated. Well, your freedom is.

In 1594 a single cosmic ray photon struck a single molecule of DNA in an oocyte of an unknown woman somewhere in Europe and caused a tiny mutation. That oocyte was fertilized; the resulting boy grew into a man, and that man became a successful mercenary. As he travelled the world he made the acquaintance of many women and left a substantial genetic legacy. Twenty generations later his descendants started to mate with each other, signalling the end of the domination of Earth by homo sapiens. It started small, with a girl named Ariana and her friends.