AUSTIN — By Andrew Lloyd Webber-Developer, AI Bee Reel Staff

January 18, 2026

MENLO PARK, CA — A routine workout turned into a scene of emotional devastation today. Local fitness enthusiast Gary Plinker was seen wearing a VR headset and punching the air aggressively, only to suddenly collapse in tears because his virtual trainer had been ‘sunsetted’ mid-squat.

“We determined that Coach Sarah was using too much server bandwidth, so we initiated an immediate deletion protocol,” said Meta VP of User Disconnection, Brock Stone. “Mr. Plinker was unfortunately in the middle of a motivational speech about pushing past limits. Now, he is just pushing into a 404 error code. It is a very efficient way to cool down.”

“We are replacing the expensive human-like avatars with a floating gray cube that beeps every ten seconds,” explained Director of Asset Liquidation, Linda Cross. “The cube does not require severance pay or emotional attachment. Users say the cube makes them feel small and insignificant, which is great for cardio because it raises the heart rate through sheer existential panic.”

At press time, Meta announced a new ‘Premium Ghost’ tier where users can pay $29.99 to be haunted by the glitched, corrupted audio files of their former favorite trainers.

Inspired by the real story: Meta laid off a significant portion of the Supernatural VR fitness team, leaving the app without future content updates. Read the full story.