The diagram was live. The blinking LEDs on his virtual shape were synced perfectly with the real server in front of him. The network traffic visualized as a soft blue stream flowing through the connector lines matched the real-time throughput graphs on his other screen.
Arjun looked at the Portable Visio canvas. A final shape had appeared in the center, connected to everything. It was labeled: microsoft visio portable
But Arjun knew. And sometimes, late at night, when he closed his eyes, he still saw it: the perfect, impossible diagram of his own home network, sitting on a phantom canvas, with a single unknown device pulsing softly in the corner. The diagram was live
He double-clicked.
Arjun shrugged. Legacy software, legacy labels. He dragged a "Server Rack" shape onto the canvas. It snapped into place with a sound like a distant door closing. He dragged a "Switch." Then a "Router." He started connecting them with the "Ethernet Cable" dynamic connector. Arjun looked at the Portable Visio canvas
He placed it on the connector between "Diagrammer" and the core switch. A dialog box appeared, the first normal Windows dialog he'd seen in hours: "Disconnecting this shape will permanently delete the diagram. All changes will be lost. Continue?"
Portable Visio wasn’t a diagramming tool. It was a mirror.