"What's it like, not being real?"

In LA, where today's star is tomorrow's busboy, discarded "Fictionals" - characters spun into flesh-and-blood by genetic engineering and hypnogogic brain-training - are everywhere. Screenwriter Niles Golan's therapist is a Fictional. So is his best friend. So (maybe) is the woman in the bar he can't stop staring at. It's getting so you can't tell who's real and who's not.

Niles isn't completely sure how real he is...