What's in the box?

The Collar

Josh looks in the box and sees what looks like a smart watch, with a black anodized metal case and a hole drilled through the bottom. Attached to each side is a matching black metal band, much longer than it needs to be.

The ends of the watchband aren't linked together. Instead, at one end is a rectangular metal box, through which passes a rectangular hole sized to allow the other end of the band to pass through.

The voice explains.

"It's a collar that we use to track your progress. It sounds like sci-fi tech, but that box has a little electroencephalograph that can pick up signals from the back of your brain and going down into your spinal cord. Your visual cortex is at the back of your head, so it can tell a bit about what you're focusing on, whether it's what you see, or something in your imagination, or other senses; and from the signals to your muscles it can see whether you're tense or relaxing and enjoying yourself."

"Exactly how it works is beyond me, but what's important is that I get a bunch of progress bars on my screen telling me how you feel about various things. Once the results convince us that you'll behave on the outside, you get to leave. So put it on, and let's continue your treatment."

Josh wonders what it means for him. Should he put the collar on, or should he refuse? Is it even possible to get out of here without it? Without the collar he can always pretend to go along with whatever the voice says, but if he puts it on then he has to let the conditioning actually work before they'll let him go. The voice has been telling him to imagine all kinds of disgusting things, and so far he has been able to just ignore it. But once he's put the collar on, then that's not going to help anymore.

Maybe there's some way to show that he'll behave without doing anything untoward, in which case he should just accept the collar and try to get the woman behind the voice on-side.

But if not, then it will be the start of a nightmare from which he might never truly escape.