The assistant self

Talbot awakens with a pounding head, his mind still fogged by a night of excess, but he forces himself into a crisp suit and heads for a mysterious interview. He’s been summoned by Soleri, a charismatic executive whose own empathy rating is rumored to be off the charts, and the meeting promises a chance to prove Talbot’s own uncanny sensitivity. The two men mirror each other in dress and demeanor, yet an unsettling undercurrent hints that something more precise than charm is at play.

In this near‑future corporate world, empathy has become a quantifiable asset, measured from adolescence onward and leveraged for power. Soleri offers Talbot a test that could secure a coveted position in the transportation sector, while his secretary Randy watches from the shadows. As Talbot navigates the glossy office and vague promises, he begins to wonder how much of his own perception is genuine and how much has been engineered by the very system he hopes to join.