“Oh my god, look at him.”

Dave ignores the passerby’s comment. He’s gotten a lot of those ever since his new headset arrived.

He’s wearing it now. Just as he wore it every day for the past week, on his commute to the office, at the grocery store, in restaurants, even at the gym.

Why? Who can say. Perhaps he saw an ad for the headset where an attractive man wore it everywhere he went, saying that he saw “more than reality.” Perhaps he’s actually using the AR apps so he can scan businesses for information or whatever all the AI companies were telling him the apps could do. Perhaps he thinks he looks like a cyberpunk badass instead of a tool, like everyone who saw him seemed to think.

Well, given his confident stride, one must imagine him thinking “fuck the haters,” and continuing to strut his stuff, like a majestic emperor showing off his magic new clothes.

That is… until he meets them.

They’re the first person to actively show an interest in his hip, chic headwear. Him standing in line at a fast food joint, and them sitting at a table decimating a box of chicken nuggets while absently tapping at a phone.

“Whoa, check out that headgear! That’s sick!”

He turns his head. No one’s complimented his headset before. Against his better judgment, he exits the line to approach their table.

“Y-you like it?” he asks, sheepishly.

“Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like it! You look like a cyberpunk badass. Here. Want a nug?”

The man obliges them and takes a seat.

“O-of courshe!” he says, the words swimming against the current of chicken entering his mouth.

“You have to tell me more about it!”

He begins listing off detail after detail about the headset. Specs, features, price. He sounds like an ad read, as if he has a press release pulled up. That would explain his lack of attention as they triggered their trap.

He trails off, a long “uhhhhhhh…” finishing his final sentence of the conversation. His arms fall to his side. He slumps into his chair. He doesn’t notice as other people in the restaurant congregate around him. He doesn’t hear what other people are saying.

“Holy shit, what did you do?”

“Hypnosis malware. His headset is unsecured and he waltzed right into the public wi-fi. He never had a chance.”

“So is he…?”

“Ew, is that a boner? He’s into this!”

“What a creep. He had it coming, wearing that pervert headset.”

“Dana, you shouldn’t say that.”

“Okay, okay, I can make him leave if he’s making you uncomfortable. Why don’t you go home, sir?”

This last sentence he hears, clear as a bell. He stands, awkwardly, his arms stretched out in front of him, and he sleepwalks home.

What does he see in there? What does he hear? What is he thinking? What is he going to do when he gets home? Will he ever take that headset off again?

Maybe that’s better left to your imagination.