Chandler had an hour to workout. He headed to the gym. At the front desk was a kiosk with numerous Wands sticking from it. He inserted his card and took a Wand. He studied it for a moment, frowned, then grabbed a wet-wipe and began vigorously scrubbing the somewhat grungy object.
After a minute he inspected the Wand again… About as clean as he could hope. He closed his eyes and inserted it into the back of his head. He felt it slide delicately past the metallic Module Cover before anchoring into his Reality Port.
A small surge of electricity coursed through his body before waning once more.
“All Nerves Reactive.” The voice came from within his mind. “Welcome, Chandler S. Awaiting initiation.”
“Initiate.” He said silently to himself.
The world went dark as Chandler lost consciousness.
…
Chandler came-to while walking to the desk. He was freshly showered and as he walked he instinctively checked his forearm. While under the Wand’s influence he’d applied a number of temporary tattoo advertisements to his skin… A small trade-off to keep the Wand’s prices so cheap.
The advertisements were small and basic and largely unobtrusive. A smiley face with ‘Kara-Keratin!’ written beneath it. A strong arm with ‘J-1000 Protein’ written on it. A brain with circuitry coming from it and labeled as ‘LEO Bio-monitoring’.
This last tattoo was a new one, and he concentrated on it a bit longer than usual.
The chip in his head detected this. “Are you interested in the LEO Bio-Monitoring Therapy? It’s a revolutionary new body-monitoring chip that is capable of detecting-“
“No, thank you.” Chandler thought.
The chip fell silent.
When he reached the front desk he carefully slid the wand from the back of his head. As it exited the port the pain it had been inhibiting hit him all at once. His muscles ached. His back hurt. He felt sore all over, but it was a good pain… The pain of another successful workout. Laboring with every movement, Chandler cleaned the wand as best he could and hobbled out to his car.