V.N. Ebert

The studio paid for the chip in his head. Full immersion, that was where the market was going. Had gotten him into man-on-man because there was more money in that too. The factory default was safe for all ages and that was why he kept hearing that this session was going to be a “rough hump.” Had thought the expression was strangely modest, considering the circumstances.

Was pixelated below the waist when he took off his clothes and that was when he realized something was wrong.

Producer thought it was funny as hell and had access as an administrator on his personal phone. Pushed the slider to maximum and the world got X-rated. Couldn’t say anything without fuck in front of it and after it, and mostly was just saying fuck for the first few minutes adjusting to his new settings.

Toggled another setting and gave him a hard-on.

He’d been a five-star recruit before he’d blown out his knees. Life would’ve been different if he hadn’t. Had still looked like a football player when he’d started doing this. That was before the injections, because was more money as a bodybuilder, and kept pushing him to be bigger. More money, not as though he was seeing enough to get him out of this.

Was given his script. Were pulling out everything for the new gimmick.

Premium subscribers were going to plug in and switch between the performers. Hooked to their nervous systems, would experience every thrust and the producer was going to draw blood.

Producer told him that sensory denial was popular with the top subscribers, had been an online poll for the ones were patroning a thousand new dollars a month on the service. Explained were going to shut everything down except his tactile senses and taste, and those were going to get turned to eleven.

Didn’t have the spirit to complain and another toggle and world went dark and the stream started. Got moved into place and being positioned was part of the show. Whole body was sensitive like his fingertips and being positioned got the streamers acclimated to the heightened sensation, not that he really did himself but then none of this was for his benefit.

The show really started by putting something like a clamp between his legs and if it weren’t for the chip he’d have passed out. Producer had told him the audience didn’t want to miss anything and weren’t going to pay by the minute for a big nothing. So, had gone ahead and overridden the part of his brain that would’ve blacked him out.

He took everything and his setting was toggled to keep him from finishing. Might have had a clip between his balls only the clip was in his head. The term in the industry was a chastity program. Everything happening in his head had a slang for industry professionals. The money was in keeping the audience on the stream and these degenerates were into denial as much as they were pleasure.

Sometime in the proceedings, might’ve been immediately after the vice and might’ve been some time after, the chip screwed with the subjective sense of the passage of time, he tried screaming. Voice had been shut off. Streamers taking the position of the other performer didn’t want to hear it, at least not for this performance.

After his settings had been changed for the next scene, was trying to shout that he wanted out and it came out as saying that he wanted more.

The product worked, couldn’t say anything against the efficacy of the latest in applied neuroscience. Wasn’t even a chip, only they called it that because that was easier to grasp. Was tiny robots got injected through the blood-brain barrier and couldn’t get removed. Settled in and colonized the synapses, started rewiring the connections. Original idea had been for pain-relief, mechanical substitute for synthetic opioids, shut down the receptors associated with pain, and an anti-depressant simulating serotonin release. Dedicated entrepreneurs had turned reprogramming the early models for off-lapel uses into a growth industry, and started bringing new models on the market didn’t even pretend to be medical.

Now, could do damn near about anything to the human brain. Could hit a button and make a man feel nothing but pure joy and some did that.

Others and was a bigger number than you’d think needed something heavier, with some meat and cut to it, and maybe they were suspicious because most of them weren’t putting the machines in their own heads, were just plugging in remotely.

That was how there was a market for him. Be something for others to plug into.

After the scene ended, the producer told him they were going straight into a puppy shoot. One of the super-premium had patroned for it. Would upload the parts of him he wouldn’t need to the cloud.

Tried saying something and came out as a bark. He had as long as the producer took to find and adjust the right setting before he stopped being human.

© 2023 V.N. Ebert