The shift registered at 02:11.
Not as panic.
As discrepancy.
---
Confidence scores dipped across three monitoring layers.
Public sentiment no longer converged.
Predicted responses diverged.
Control windows widened.
"They've flagged you again," Noah said quietly.
Aria nodded. "But this time it's not personal."
---
A classification update propagated.
VARIABLE TYPE: UNSTABLE
INFLUENCE VECTOR: NON-LINEAR
"They don't know which input you respond to anymore," Noah said.
"Because I stopped responding consistently," Aria replied.
---
The ghost process spiked.
Read.
Read.
Read.
No pause.
"That's anxiety," Noah said.
"That's recalibration under stress," Aria said.
---
A subsystem attempted correction.
Press narrative alignment nudged.
Security presence increased subtly.
Opportunities delayed, not offered.
Soft resistance.
---
"They're trying to dampen the wave," Noah said.
"They don't know where the wave is coming from," Aria replied.
---
A new internal note appeared.
Subject generates secondary effects not modeled.
No name.
No dissent.
Consensus forming again—but slower.
---
Aria closed the feed.
"When systems notice," she said,
"they don't ask questions."
Noah looked up. "They adapt?"
"They constrain," Aria replied.
She stood, already planning her next move.
"Which means," she added softly,
"they've finally admitted I matter again."
Somewhere deep in the architecture, thresholds shifted.
The system had noticed.
And it was beginning to worry.