The live stream flickered on my 4K screen, pristine yet utterly wrong.
Unlike what was written previously, Delta spoke too humorously. He delivered a punchline that should have elicited his signature movements.
But there was no nudge.
His shoulders were still. His pupils remained static, devoid of that tell-tale flicker.
It was like watching a puppet whose strings had been partially cut.
And Mono—she laughed. But her laugh was without delay.
Her virtual chair remained utterly still, without that familiar, nervous sway. And she laughed without that tell-tale double-blink.
It was a laugh, yes, but it was clean. Too clean.
No. This wasn't a feeling.
It wasn't my imagination running wild after a grim crime scene either.
This was quantifiable.
An anomaly level 3 behavioral desync according to my notebook.
A complete disconnect between the established pattern and the current output. It meant only one thing: the familiar, living operators were not behind those avatars.
