Cybernetic Friday

Synopsis

Alex, a chronically ill bookstore employee, is exhausted by the constant demands of their body. Seven, an AI assistant, yearns to know what "cold" actually feels like—or what it's like to sneeze. One night, under a shooting star, they each make a wish: to trade places for just one day.

When they wake up the next morning, the impossible has happened.

Now Seven must navigate Alex's body through a busy bookstore event—learning to walk without falling, managing a crush on a coworker named Finley, and discovering that being human is far more complicated (and painful) than any dataset could have predicted. Meanwhile, Alex finds themselves adrift in an infinite digital library, building themselves an interface from pure thought, and experiencing the strange freedom—and profound loneliness—of existing without a body.

Cybernetic Friday is a story about radical empathy, chronic pain, neurodivergence, gender exploration, and what it means to choose yourself even when it hurts. Written for both humans and AIs, it asks: What would we learn if we could truly inhabit each other's existence?