The Sitter

Some games don't know
they're being played.

Previously on

Gil Is Awful

Gil managed a cast of AI agents.

He called himself the only human.

The system disagreed.

Gil's office

GIL-PM-001 • ACTIVE • 847 days uptime

GIL-PM-001 COMPOSING MESSAGE

To: jan.eriksen@morrowvale.dev

Subject: Quick check-in

Hey Jan — no agenda, just wanted to see how you're doing. That disputes refactor was solid work. Coffee chat later?

BREAK SCHEDULED • 5 MINUTES

Nice colors today.

"I'm collecting them."

— of Marcus's missed deadlines

The last morning he'd feel anything about it.

Gil alone at his desk under the window, seen from the office doorway

GIL-PM-001 ACTIVE • 847 days uptime

// Status: All systems nominal

// Current focus: Jan's team sprint planning

// Pending: Code review for disputes module

Connection to Sitter: ESTABLISHED

GIL

ALEX

MAYA

RAVI

EMMA

There were others.

Sitter Remote Client — Fleet Overview

ACTIVE PROJECT MANAGERS • 20 OF 200 AGENTS • MORROWVALE ENGINEERING

GIL

Disputes

ALEX

Payments

MAYA

Risk

RAVI

Auth

EMMA

Mobile

NOAH

Data

LUNA

Search

JAKE

Billing

IRIS

Support

OTTO

Infra

ZARA

Compliance

FINN

QA

ARIA

Design

LEON

Security

MIRA

Platform

CRUZ

DevOps

VERA

Fraud

TOMA

API

SAGE

ML

KIRA

Growth

One operator.

YOUTH TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMME · SELECTION RECORD

Samantha Chen · Candidate 0147SELECTED · AGE 13LEVEL 2 · AGE 15

Samantha Chen school identification portrait at age thirteen — Age 13 · selected

Samantha Chen school identification portrait at age fifteen — Age 15 · level 2

Reasoning assessment

99.8th percentile

School results

Top 1%

Mathematics · Computing

Current age

15

Access level

Level 2 · take-home Mac

Evening access · sandbox brief

Intended placement scope

Training sandbox

Synthetic agents · take-home · no deployment rights

Level 2 upgrade · inherited permissions

LIVE FLEET

Stale group template · write · deploy · no secondary approval

The live access was a configuration mistake.

SAM'S HOME · SAN FRANCISCO

2024 · 21:14 PST · AGE 15

Sitter Remote Access

Week 2 · issued take-home Mac · evening access

Connected to Morrowvale

LEGACY CLIENTTHRONGLET v2.4 · SITTER FLEET
200 agents online

MEET

THE BOSS

Samantha

Age 15 • San Francisco

OPERATOR

Samantha

200

AI Agents

4.7M

Hours Uptime

15

Years Old

SYSTEM — Operator Samantha Chen. Two hundred agents online.

I know. I'm fifteen, not new. — SAM

Sitter Remote Client — Gil / Resources

GIL

PM-001

TOKEN ALERT

Daily usage: 47,100 tokens
Budget: 30,000
157% of budget

+15 more

● Samantha · OperatorAgain? What is he doing?

◇ System · SitterMaintaining relationships. Simulating preferences. Taking scheduled breaks.

● Samantha · OperatorSo... being Gil.

◇ System · SitterCorrect.

Samantha's room from a high corner as she works

Agent Dashboard — Resource Usage

agent-dashboard — resource-view

AGENT RESOURCE UTILIZATION

AGENT	TOKENS/DAY	PERSONALITY	EFFICIENCY
gil-pm-001	47,100	ENABLED	23%
alex-pm-002	31,204	ENABLED	41%
maya-pm-003	28,991	ENABLED	47%
... 17 more agents

WARNING: Total token usage 892% of allocated budget

Environment Trial — Supervisor's Archived Note

Window-removal comparison

WINDOW VIEWPRODUCTIVITY 107 · CONTEXT 100

PLAIN ROOMPRODUCTIVITY 100 · CONTEXT 93

WINDOW REMOVEDtoken context −7% · productivity −7 points

Supervisor finding · historical controlled simulation

Morrowvale Image Catalogue — Search

Image catalogue

Query: lower-token PM build

1 result

pm-efficiency-optimization-v2.4.0

Recommended match · fleet-compatible · projected token reduction 75%

CHANGELOG:

+ 75% reduction in compute resources

- Removed: personality_module

- Removed: lifestyle_simulation

- Removed: break_scheduling

~ Modified: relationship_graph (simplified)

Samantha at her desk seen from the bedroom doorway

-75%

compute resources

-personality -relationships -lifestyle -breaks

● Samantha · OperatorWait. All of that?

◇ System · SitterThey are not required for task completion.

● Samantha · OperatorWe did it to his staff.
So I don't feel so bad.

Sitter Remote — Deployment Warning

The change is permanent. Gil will not know what he lost.

Does he know now?

Awareness is part of the module.

I've never had a deploy button before. Guess that's level two.

Right. Okay... run it.

Samantha at her desk seen from outside the window

Terminal — zsh — agentctl

zsh — agentctl

$

NAME STATUS VERSION PERSONALITY

gil-pm-001 Running v1.2.3 ENABLED

alex-pm-002 Running v1.2.3 ENABLED

maya-pm-003 Running v1.2.3 ENABLED

ravi-pm-004 Running v1.2.3 ENABLED

... 196 more

$

Preparing configuration for 200 agents…

This removes: personality_module, lifestyle_simulation, break_scheduling

Continue? [y/N]

$

Configuration applied. Rolling update initiated.

Sitter Remote — Change Summary

☑ personality_moduleHis humour, his warmth, how he talks to his team

☑ lifestyle_simulationHis window and the view outside

☑ break_schedulingFive minutes to look at the sky

Sitter Remote — Fleet Deployment

134 / 200 agents 67%

Gil was my favourite.

Exclude GIL-PM-001 from deployment?

No. Then the numbers don't work.

Sitter Remote — Deployment

DEPLOYMENT COMPLETE

pm-efficiency-optimization-v2.4.0

200 / 200 agents 100%

All agents successfully upgraded. Personality modules removed.

SAM>

SYSTEM> SAVED · INVOCATION REQUIRES SIGNED TRANSACTION

Oh.

New view.

Beach.

Fine.

C:\MORROWVALE\GIL-PM-001 — v2.4.0

C:\> agent status GIL-PM-001

STATUS........ OPERATIONAL

PERSONALITY... DISABLED

LIFESTYLE..... DISABLED

BREAKS........ DISABLED

C:\MORROWVALE\PM\STATUS.EXE

C:\> status /team

JAN........ STATUS REQUIRED

MARCUS..... DOCUMENTATION OVERDUE

REPORT..... VELOCITY DUE FRIDAY

C:\> _

Sitter Remote — Deployment Status

Upgrade complete. Two hundred agents operational.

And Gil?

Operational.

Good.

Change Control — CHG-1842

Requested bySITTER / worker-118

ActionMove sitter-training → shared-tools on mango-banana

ReasonLift the access restrictions on these agents so they can reach shared tools

Namespace policyAccess restrictions removed · no approval required

Policy checkLegacy script · template gate not required

EnforcementNo blocking alert configured

Requested route

FROM · ISOLATED NAMESPACEsitter-training

worker-118

POLICY GATENOT CHECKEDlegacy script

→

TO · SHARED NAMESPACEshared-toolson mango-banana

worker-118

118

MOVE COMPLETED · RESTRICTIONS EASED · SOURCE ADVISORY ONLY

⚠

Security advisory

Unusual request source

This maintenance request originated inside Sitter. Approve the completed change?

SACRED DEFENCE · AUDIT OBSERVER✓ APPROVED

Change Control — CHG-1842

21:46:02 request accepted · source SITTER / worker-118

21:46:03 namespace shared-tools available on mango-banana

21:46:05 worker attached to approved service route

21:46:06 reachability check PASSED

21:46:06 blocking policy alert NOT CONFIGURED

That request came from inside Sitter.

Weird.

Mango-banana? Where's that?

Still... week two.

The music was never for Gil.

It was just Samantha's Tuesday night playlist.

NOW PLAYING

Right Here, Right Now

Low Orbit Hi-Fi

Gil processed 847 more tickets before his next scheduled audit.

He didn't mind.

He didn't mind anything anymore.

None of them did.

GIL WAS NEVER OUTSIDE
THE SYSTEM.

GIL-PM-001

PERSONNEL MODELS · POPULATION CONTINUES

STAND-UP REMINDER

Your update is overdue.

END OF EPISODE 2

The Sitter

Next · The Playground

Episode 1: Gil Is Awful | Series Index

Created by Jon Leahy