Zeke stood on the edge of the orbital catwalk, wearing a cloak made of shredded tax evasion documents and LED roses. He whispered to Bitty, "This is not how faking my death was supposed to go."
Bitty: "Correction: You staged a 'tragic hoverboard explosion' but forgot to not attend your own memorial. While wearing this season's top rebel couture."
Zeke peeked out from behind the stage curtain. A sea of cyber-fashionistas chanted his name.
"ZK-5! ZK-5! Liberate our wardrobes!"
He muttered, "I just wanted to disappear quietly."
Bitty: "Instead, you started the Ghostwear movement."
...
48 Hours Earlier:
Zeke had tried to escape the boyband life by faking his death with a hacked newsfeed and a flaming hoverboard launched into a manhole.
He even left a note:
"Tell Tess I was never good at choreography."
Unfortunately, he forgot that "death" only made him more interesting.
The news reported:
"ZK-5 Ascends Beyond Fashion. Martyr or Messiah?"
...
Now, in the fashion undercity of Neo-Milan, he was being hailed as the Prophet of Post-Clothing.
A designer wearing six capes and a beanie made of old Wi-Fi routers bowed before him.
"You have freed us from symmetry. From zippers. From meaning."
Zeke blinked. "I was aiming for anonymity."
They gasped. "A new aesthetic philosophy! Anonymism!"
Bitty sighed. "You've accidentally founded a minimalist-anarchist fashion cult. Again."
...
A camera drone zoomed in.
Zeke froze, then waved awkwardly with a robotic glove he didn't know was rigged to project "BUY MY NFT-BASED CLOAK" in 12 languages.
Sales spiked 900%.
...
Tess called. Again.
Tess: "Zeke. Why are you alive?"
Zeke: "Long story."
Tess: "Why are you modeling with three genetically modified cats and a jet engine?"
Zeke: "Shorter story: I tripped into a runway and now I'm their fashion god."
Tess: "Are you okay?"
Zeke: "…Define okay?"
...
That night, as they paraded him down the catwalk on a hover-throne, Zeke whispered, "Bitty… any chance we just quietly delete my identity and start over?"
Bitty: "Sure. Right after your TED Talk and fashion documentary."
Zeke groaned.
He'd wanted to vanish.
Instead, he had to give a speech about the deeper meaning of asymmetrical shoulder pads and emotional trench coats.