Build-A-Partner: Experimental Tech

"How was work today, Sabs?"

Her brother didn't mean anything by it, but the question stirred a hollow dread in the young woman's stomach. She huffed softly and let her canvas messenger bag slip from her shoulder, dropping it to the ground with a dull thunk. Sabrina looked like... well, like she had just finished a shift at a minimum wage job. Sad, tired, and defeated. Her dark hair has spent all day pulled into a tight ponytail, and now that it was free it hung limply around her pale face. At least it did a decent job of hiding the dark circles under her eyes, and her uniform did nothing to flatter her figure. The loose-fitting polo shirt was in garish company colors, and Sabrina just wanted to shuffle to her room and get it off.

Her parents had insisted that she find work if she wanted to keep dumping hundreds of dollars into her gaming rig, and while the financial independence was nice the teenager couldn't help but regret all the free time she was losing. Between school and work, she was usually too exhausted to do much in the few hours of the day she had to herself.

"...s'alright..." was her muttered reply as she slipped out of her shoes and walked through the living room, beelining towards the stairs. They led down into the basement, which she had taken over as her room shortly after finishing high school.

It wasn't terrible, and it provided all the privacy and isolation she wanted. Sabrina really only had to go upstairs to use the bathroom, since she had a habit of stockpiling food in her bedroom to lessen the trips she needed to take to the kitchen. That's what her minifridge was for, right? Now that she was alone in her room she could peel the awful, sweaty uniform off of her body. Her pajamas were still in a crumpled heap at the edge of her unmade bed, sitting next to a pile of mail addressed to her. Typical of her parents to leave the envelopes there, even after she had told them not to go into her room without her permission.

Credit card applications, auto insurance, junk, junk... She swept the useless paper off of her bed and into the wastebasket she kept near her desk. Upon that desk sat her pride and joy, radiating in all of its RGB glory. Her computer and all of its peripherals and accessories were set up pristinely in her otherwise messy room. A nice case with stylish angles and a transparent panel to peek in at the obsessive cable management job she had performed, she was pretty sure that at this point her PC cost more than her brother's junker of a car. Her nice studio headphones rested on the articulating arm that her microphone was attached to, and three monitors were fixed to similarly flexible mounts drilled into her wall. Her high-backed gaming chair was accented in red, as were the LEDs shining from her mechanical keyboard and button-covered gaming mouse.

Sabrina stood in front of the full-length mirror that hung from the back of her closet door, although maybe referring to the alcove as a 'closet' was being generous. It was where the house's water heater lived, it just also happened to have a horizontal pipe running parallel with the ceiling that made it perfect for clothes hangers. She made due with what she had - at least she didn't have to pay rent. The dim lighting in her bedroom helped to obscure most of her physical insecurities, but at nineteen she had to wonder just how much more growing she would actually be doing. Sharp, angular, and bony, her body looked skinny in all the places she didn't want and only lent to her overall gaunt appearance. She wasn't bad-looking, but Sabrina's lack of any sort of self-care routine wasn't doing her any favors. The teen slipped into her sweatpants and baggy black t-shirt to save herself from the mounting self-doubt and plopped in front of her computer with a long, relieved sigh. She didn't have to be on her feet anymore - thank God for small miracles.

__________

"I'm only a few levels away from finishing the season pass," Sabs said into her microphone, her face illuminated entirely by the glow of her monitors and the various garish lights emanating from her keyboard and PC case. "Just need to finish up another weekly and I should be-"

BZZZTT!

Her conversation with her friend was interrupted by a sudden loud buzzing that vibrated off of the metal wastebasket that sat on the floor next to her desk. At first Sabrina was confused, unsure if her phone was the culprit but... nope, it sat right in front of her, its screen dark.

BZZZTT! BZZZTT!

The buzzing was getting more insistent and it was definitely coming from the basket, much to her surprise.

"Hey, hold on Ian," Sabrina muttered before she muted her mic and took her headphones off.

The only things in the basket were empty snack wrappers and the letters she had pitched in there earlier, all of which were too thin to-

BZZZTT!

She snatched up the offending envelope, a plain white rectangle marked with bright red letters that exclaimed EXCLUSIVE OFFER WITHIN! Of course she had tossed it - it was obviously spam for a business that she had never heard of, and therefore had no interest in. The return address was to a B-A-P Inc., nice and vague, but Sabrina could feel the outline of something solid inside, about the size of a credit card. The teen sighed - this was going to be some piece of electronic garbage like one of those novelty cards that you had to pierce the battery to disable, but it obviously wasn't going to stop until she did something. So she tore the envelope open and dumped its contents out on her desk.

An unremarkable, featureless black rectangle clattered onto the desk, smaller than her phone and of the right dimensions to fit easily into her wallet. Was this what was making that-

"CONGRATULATIONS!" A tinny voice boomed, compressed and harsh, coming from the rectangle.

"Jesus fuck," Sabrina winced. "This can't be legal..."

"YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED TO TEST AN EXCITING NEW PROTOTYPE FROM BUILD-A-PARTNER INCORPORATED!" The voice continued. Sabrina just hoped that no one else in the house came downstairs to complain about the obnoxious volume. "OUR PORTABLE ADJUSTMENT DEVICE, OR P.A.D., IS THE CUTTING EDGE IN REALITY PERMUTATION EXPLORATION! THE INTERFACE IS SIMPLE - HOLD THE DEVICE IN YOUR HAND AND LET YOUR THOUGHTS SHAPE REALITY!"

The voice then sped up to a hilarious, incomprehensible degree, spouting a nonstop string of legal jargon that Sabrina couldn't even understand. She only caught a few snippets about chaos theory and how the company wasn't liable for damages, but after it finished spewing noise at her it finally sat quiet.

"...What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Sabrina turned the - what was it called? The P.A.D.? - over, flipping it between her fingers and feeling the cool metallic surface. It felt sturdily constructed and surprisingly heavy, like one of those fancy high-roller credit cards but weighted similarly to her phone. The instructions that it had shouted at her had been vague, and the card itself didn't appear to have any additional markings or buttons for her to press.

"This was a lot of effort for a weird promotion," she mused to herself as she pulled her headphones back onto her head and returned to the Discord chat she had stepped away from.

"What's up, Sabs? Did your house catch fire or something?" Ian asked with a soft chuckle.

"Nah, way weirder. Someone mailed me this thing and..."

Sabrina trailed off, distracted by the odd greenish glow that began to radiate out from the card. It was casting eerie shadows on the objects on her desk, forming into a mote of green light that hovered above the card's surface. It quickly twisted into an image, projecting a hologram likeness of her friend and displaying his name in plain text above his head. 'IAN GRAVES' it read, and she had to admit that his features were immediately recognizable. A slightly overweight boy the same age as Sabrina, his greasy hair grown out to cover his acne-scarred face and the beginnings of a double-chin that he wasn't too proud of. It was the spitting image of Ian, right down to his Star Wars shirt and cargo shorts.

"Uhh... Hey dude, you didn't go through one of those full-body scanners recently, did you?"

"What? No - what are you talking about?" Ian sounded understandably confused.

"I'm looking right at a-" Sabrina was cut off mid-explanation when the card let out a mechanical chirp and the image of her friend shimmered.

She had been staring at his shirt - one of the many pieces of pop culture clothing she had seen him wear over the course of their friendship - when it began to change. It was like the hologram was switching between options, reminiscent of a video game customization screen; at least that's how Sabrina's gamer brain related to it as she watched an assortment of tops materialize on holo-Ian's body. At first she thought it was just cycling through his wardrobe until it began displaying shirts that she knew Ian wouldn't wear, uncharacteristic pieces like a garish pink v-neck and a polo with a popped collar. It was amusing, even if it only added to the mystery about the device's actual purpose.

'Now I know what Ian would look like in a Hawaiian shirt,' Sabrina thought, chuckling to herself at the floral pattern. It would be a welcome mix-up to his otherwise stagnant fashion sense.

The text above holo-Ian's head changed, reading 'INPUT SELECTED', and Sabrina's nose crinkled when she smelled the faintest hint of ozone coming from the card.

"Right at a... what, Sabs?" Ian asked, snapping her out of the distraction.

"It's going to sound dumb but I'm looking at you in a Hawaiian shirt right now."

"Are you looking through my window or something?" Ian chuckled.

"No? Why would I- Wait, are you wearing a Hawaiian shirt?" Her interest was piqued. Ian was the kind of guy who wore the same three pieces of clothing on rotation. He would never step that far out of his comfort zone.

"Of course. I wear them all the time. It's sort of like my 'thing'." He sounded sincere, but Sabrina knew that he wouldn't be wearing something like that while alone in his room.

"Your 'thing'? Ian, dude, I've never seen you wear anything that you didn't buy off the Target novelty t-shirt rack."

"Well, yeah, I still wear my video game and anime shirts, just under the Hawaiian shirt. I leave it open. Are you feeling okay, Sabs? I've been wearing this stuff since high school."

Sabrina wasn't sure if her oldest friend was trying to gaslight her or...

The card.

Holo-Ian was still hovering on her desk, staring at her. What had it said earlier? 'Reality Permutation Exploration'? It sounded like gibberish at the time but now she was wondering if there was more to it. Or maybe her own grasp on reality was slipping, but she was way too young to have some kind of nervous break.

Right?

"Hey dude," Sabrina started with a deep breath to try and steady herself. "I need you to help me with something. Can you turn your webcam on? Just... trust me. Something's uhh... up with my computer and I gotta see if it's my internet."

"Um, sure. You're acting-"

"Weird, yeah, I know dude. It's just been a long, weird day."

Sabrina's Discord window soon showed Ian's webcam feed, confirming that he was, indeed, wearing a blue-and-white Hawaiian shirt that she had never seen him wear before. Also that he needed to clean his room, but the piles of messy clothes and assorted model and figurine clutter wasn't anything new to her. Maybe she wasn't going crazy, but she needed to test things further before she was convinced. How did it work last time? She was just looking at the card when it began to react, so obviously it had a way to detect when she was focusing on it. There was no UI to speak of so maybe she just needed to think on it to see some kind of feedback. She let her eyes settle on his hair, and sure enough it began to change just like his shirt had. Now that she was aware of what was happening Sabrina found that she could control the speed at which the options cycled with a simple thought, and even pick out specifics by just visualizing them in her head.

'Ian with an afro would be funny, but let's keep it simple for now,' she thought while picturing a nice, styled haircut that looked like it hadn't been done by his mom.

'INPUT SELECTED' the card declared, and with Ian's webcam turned on Sabrina actually got to see the magic happen. It had to be magic, right? The way his hair lost its flat greasiness and took on a shine like he actually shampooed and conditioned it happened so quickly; it retained most of its length, only losing a few inches so that it could look better swept back rather than hanging in a curtain around his face. Ian's hair even looked a little lighter than before, no longer mud brown but a nice warm color that brought out his blue eyes. Sabrina thought it would be a small change but it went a long way to helping his overall appearance, and with his new clothes she got a glimpse at some kind of hypothetical version of her friend that was a little more put-together.

She wasn't so sure he could pull that shirt off, though.

"Your hair looks nice," she said in a subtle probe. Ian had seemed entirely unaware of his wardrobe change, but it was hard to ignore something happening to your head.

"Thanks! Trying some new product in it. I mostly picked it because it smells good." Ian laughed softly and turned so he could inspect himself in his own camera feed.

That sort of preening was something that he never did, and Sabrina was starting to realize the far-reaching effects of the weird little card. It could change Ian's outfit, his hair, even the way he acted, all of it apparently retroactively and without his knowledge. It was normal to him, even if she remained aware that it wasn't.

Sabrina felt... dizzy. Overwhelmed. The rational part of her brain knew that this should be impossible, but she couldn't deny the evidence in front of her. At the same time, the implications of the P.A.D. if this was real were staggering. Where did it even come from? A cursory search for Build-A-Partner only returned some kind of beauty salon on the other side of the country and there wasn't any contact info or resources for her to use. All of this seemed way out of her league; she was just a nineteen-year-old nobody. She needed to sleep on it at least, her brain was still mush from the stress of work and all of the recent developments had been a bit much. Sabrina came up with a quick excuse for Ian and logged off for the night - she was already in her pajamas and her bed was looking very inviting. When she got up from her desk the light emitting from the card faded, taking holo-Ian with it.

'We'll figure you out in the morning,' she thought. 'Who knows? Maybe I can do something useful with you. Or at least fun.'

__________

"You're burning the pot, Sabrina."

She was lost in her thoughts again, but this time she was on the clock. Her daily grind at the local Bean Roaster franchise was typically a source of stress and dread; early morning shifts swamped with abusive customers and long hours on her feet handling scalding liquid, all of it for minimum pay. Sabrina usually came home from work with her uniform smelling of stale coffee and sour dairy, but without a car her job prospects were limited to areas accessible via public transit.

"Oh shit!" She muttered to keep any customers from overhearing her while she scrambled to get the pot off of the burner. "Thanks for the heads up, Nick."

Nick was one of the few people at work that Sabrina got along with. He was a few years older than her; tall, athletic, with dark tousled hair and striking green eyes. While she floundered to keep up with the demanding pace of the coffee shop, Nick managed to balance the job with an involved course load at the local state college. He was an art major, something that Sabrina envied, along with his more positive attitude and general customer service skills. It was always an easier shift when Nick was around since he was willing to pick up some of the slack and was much better company than most of her other coworkers. They shared a few overlapping interests, mostly video games, but he was easy enough to talk to that Sabrina didn't fall into the same awkward anxiety traps that she did with most other people.

Plus he was cute.

She never considered herself to be the kind of girl to get hung up on boys; Sabrina's self-esteem issues had put her romantic pursuits on an indefinite hold, and the only action she saw was on her computer monitor during lonely nights. While she didn't consider herself to have a 'type', Nick was probably the closest to it, and he had been the subject of more than one of Sabrina's steamy fantasies.

"No problem. We can't give Florence any more reasons to bitch at us, right?" Nick said with a smile that made Sabrina's heart flutter.

"God, as if she needs a reason..." Sabrina rolled her eyes but returned Nick's smile.

Florence was a typical power-tripping manager. Every wage-slave gig had one, and the Bean Roaster was no exception. She was the oldest employee there by over a decade and existed to act as an extension for the corporate office and make Sabrina's life hell. Dumpy, bitter, and results-driven, she was everything that Sabrina hated about minimum-wage work. Thankfully Flo only micromanaged when she was actually on the floor, and right now she was tucked away in the manager's office away from the noise and bustle.

"Help me get through this line and then I'll make you something to drink, how's that sound?" Nick offered with a gesture to the customers waiting on the other side of the counter.

"You've got a deal, dude! And I promise not to burn anything this time."

__________

"Voilà! I call this 'Coffee Nicholas'," Nick said as he presented an extravagant off-menu creation to the beleaguered Sabrina.

They had survived the rush and this was her reward, which she accepted with a gracious nod after wiping her hands off on her apron. The cup was overflowing with whipped cream and a dusting of colorful rainbow sugar, the straw almost entirely engulfed by the toppings.

"This looks more like a sundae," Sabrina chuckled.

"Yeah there's maybe, like, this much espresso in it," Nick laughed while holding his index finger and thumb so close together that they were almost touching. "But it tastes good, and that's what's important."

Sabrina took a big sip, the sweetness hitting her tongue and coating her mouth.

"God, that's good," she said with a contented sigh. "Thanks dude. I really needed this."

BZZZTT!

Sabrina almost dropped the cup when felt the powerful buzz vibrate through her pocket and up her leg. It was the damn card, intrusively reminding her of its existence and ruining the moment of respite she was enjoying. Of course she had brought it with her to work - what if she left it in her room and one of her parents or her snooping brother found it? It was too risky given what she had seen it do, but until now it had just sat silently in her wallet since the beginning of her shift.

"Hey, you might want to be careful with your phone," Nick said. "If Florence catches you with it while on the floor she'll freak out."

"Y-Yeah, I get'cha," Sabrina replied as she reached into her pocket for the device.

Turning away from her coworker she pulled the black rectangle out, which immediately lit up and displayed a likeness of Nick in the same green hologram form as it had with Ian. 'NICK GORSKI' it said, but this time it had an additional piece of text. 'ATTITUDE TOWARDS USER'. Why had the card activated when Sabrina didn't even have it out? She began to worry as it began to cycle through different options - she hadn't been thinking about something that set it off, had she? Her answer came a few moments later when the text finished cycling and declared 'ROMANTIC + SEXUAL ATTRACTION' before flashing 'INPUT SELECTED'.