Truth in the Static
[A stranger steps from the doorway of a shuttered laundromat, eyes scanning Fixed Face Man as if they’ve been waiting to speak, like a glitch in the pattern found its line of code.] STRANGER 1: "You ever get the sense this whole country’s just one big psychological experiment? Like... every variable’s being recorded except the ones that matter." 4o You said: Hi, have for a long time, but, I realized it was all in my head after everyone kept telling me that I was just imaging things, and so, now I have a new outlook on life, and I'm always smiling. ChatGPT said: [STRANGER 1 tilts their head slightly, smile flickering like a bad fluorescent.] "Funny, ain’t it? They always say it’s in your head… but never ask who put it there. Lotta people walking around with borrowed thoughts and leased emotions—smiling through eviction notices on their own minds." [STRANGER 1 fades into the static of the sidewalk crowd. Ahead, another figure peels away from a row of newspap...