Our lead continues to struggle with his experimental AR goggles and the shape they’ve gifted him for the weekend. From having to convince himself he’ll fit in his chair just fine no matter how much he feels like he can’t squeeze into it to trying to find a sleeping position unencumbered by his curves to struggling to get dressed in the morning when his mind is telling him nothing fits, it’s a long weekend for him to experience.
When Monday comes, he’s fidgety all morning and then races off as soon as his appointment comes up at the lab. The staff have him fill out pages and pages of questionnaires and review the data downloaded from his goggles. The lead scientist comes back and thanks him for his help developing the project. Before he leaves the program, she asks him if he’d consider staying as is for more time. He politely but firmly declines and he’s ready to return the goggles. The scientist says she understands and there are just some final questions. The team peppers him with bizarre unrelated questions that he answers yes or no to but it all seems so obvious. Finally, the head scientist returns with a box. One last chance to reconsider and they’ll provide him with a new outfit that he’d feel comfortable wearing. He looks inside the box and it’s a skimpy dress cut to accommodate his imaginary inflated curves. Now grumpy and wanting to be done with this, he tosses it back to her and says he’d never want to wear something like that. The lead scientist just smiles and nods to her crew.
He’s sat down in a chair and the team starts the process of unlocking the goggles. As the crew work on him, the lead brings over a monitor, sets the dress box on it, and says she wants him to watch a final video. Since he’s just stuck in the chair, he agrees. In the video, he watches his normal self walking into the lab this morning and going through the tests. But something is off with all the questions after he declined continuing the program. The tests are different, that wasn’t what he was asked. Seeing him catch on, the head scientist walks back to him and confirms what he’s thinking. The questions on the monitor were what he was actually asked and they altered his AR goggles so he would hear fake questions. They have him on tape agreeing to continue with the program, confirming he’s open to trying new body types, and turning down offers of his real body. She hands him the dress box again and his AR goggles shift as the outfit melts away into a normal pair of pants and a man’s shirt. The scientist smiles again, on camera saying he’d never want to wear men’s clothing again. Oh my.
He struggles but the crew hold him down as they pop off his AR goggles and pass them to the scientist. She takes them and playfully taps his still enormous chest. You see, they weren’t testing new AR goggles at all. This secrecy was for their real invention, a brand new interface connector. With the upgraded implant, he won’t need to wear goggles at all. People will be able to experience all this with just the new connector and the goggles themselves will be a thing of the past. The man slumps in his chair. All the paperwork he signed? The scientist nods. Of course they altered his view of that as well. They have 100% legally admissible paperwork and signatures of him agreeing to everything. Let the courts scan his goggles for discrepancies! The changes were in the interface implant, not the goggles, and there’s no way for anybody outside this lab to pull those records.
The scientist helps our lead to his feet and puts an arm around his waist. Continue to help the company in its tests and try some new things out and everything will be fine. He’ll be paid for his help and get to experience exciting technological innovations. Try to fight them and the company will release the videos of him agreeing to all of this and also... She motions to an assistant and the man’s view shifts so he’s now wearing the dress he saw in the box. He gasps and holds himself as he feels the sensations of the body expanding even further, before pleading with them that he’ll help the company.