WiiMake
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Ariel enters the throat of a dark horn. Her only sense of bearing is
the dot of light at the end of the expanding tube, neither threatening
nor encouraging. She walks towards it. She falls off the lip of the
horn and tumbles to a blank expanse.
The ground is neither firm nor soft. It holds her up. The air is
neither hot nor cold.
She yells, but there is no response. There is no reflection. It goes on
forever.
She opens the box that appears beside her. It holds
three cans of paint. She opens them to fill the white with color. =E2=80=
=A8
She pours a glass of water from her pocket and sips it. She pets the
dog on her lap. She combs her hair. She sits on the soft grass,
admiring her work. The sun feels pleasant.
A man walks up to her--
=E2=80=9CHello, Ohmet.=E2=80=9D
Her voice now reflects off of the multi-colored surfaces.
He is speechless at her beauty. He studies her, then expels air to
form sound.
=E2=80=9CHello, Ariel.=E2=80=9D
Ohmet retrieves his colors. He tosses spoonfuls upwards. They slurp to
the sky then drip to the horizon.
They consider what they=E2=80=99ve made. The yellow sun steps ahead of the
transluscent orange. Surfaces are rearranged. Ariel picks up the blue
and sends it forth towards his orange. Hers covers his in waves. Ariel
and Ohmet squeeze hands, admiring their creation. He is nervous of what
she may think. Ariel & Ohmet watch the sun ****ft precisely towards the
horizon, along an even vector. Finally, it is colorless again--this
time dark.
=E2=80=9CHow'd I do, Ariel?=E2=80=9D
=E2=80=9CIt is perfect, Ohmet.=E2=80=9D
I open the door to the descending room of The Haunted Mansion in my
mind.
"Before the time of ...Ariel.. and ..Ohmet.."
Their mechanically generated names wedge abrasively against the
recording which was probably performed by a voice actor that has been
out of work for a while but surely isn't a comedian because his
impression of god is pathetic. The announcer continues with his overly
epic playback:
"=2E..man magically...."
"Did he just pronounce magically with five syllables? How do you even
do that?" Ariel sighed. Ohmet nodded a laugh. He was enjoying the
scenery for once.
"=2E..made patterns and pictures and found direction out of the random
mosaic of stars. He called them the names of his legends."
"Long live the beast! Rock your wand Ohmet, we're gonna go mythic
*****!"
"Where is the off switch on this guy?" Ariel spoke towards the ceiling.
"=2E...Eventually he had discovered mathematical rules to govern the
smallest and largest objects he knew."
"I'll connect the two," Ohmet offered as he pointed lazily to the dust
and then to the stars.
"Show me," laughs Ariel.
Ohmet grabs his controller.
It looks like an oblong rectangle about the shape of a stick of butter
but sculpted into never-imperfect-white. Its only remarkable feature is
an aerodynamic curve on the underside for additional fist friction.
Ohmet points his remote towards the dust rendered on an acorn in the
grass on the displays below the layer of glass underneath the shoes
beyond his feet. It is difficult to target. Eventually he finds the
sweet spot--his controller gives a slight ****ge of the motor it holds
for just such ocassions. Clenching the trigger button on his remote he
lifts the dust upwards towards the stars. He slows as he reaches his
destination. A bullseye around the star and a gentle replacing of his
cursor locks him on to his target and he releases the button in
response. The particles from the acorn travel upward, behind them
sparkling rainbow squirts with perfectly rendered particles that look
as real as makeup.
Ariel notices the snoring fade of the LED on her remote. Her hand
vibrates. Its incessant slow blink is like a clockhand for its own
battery. One new message.
She presses the minus button on her remote and the world they are
within looks to be rocketing away for a moment. The tent, however,
remains. She grips the imaginary crane twenty feet beyond her arm onto
a rock. She throws it against the sky as if she were tossing a ball
but she releases a button instead of a boulder. The rock moves upward
on the domed mosaic of screens around them, an enormous pebble trailed
by glitter spillings following skip and over each other. Ariel
continues tossing objects until she has formed an icon of crystalline
trails recalling, artistically at least, the courage of puff paint. It
is an exit sign.
The displays in the tent all switch to bright white. The game is
reset. Curtains in a corner part to one side and the narrowing path to
the black of the exit awaits. Ohmet climbs upwards behind Ariel
through the contracting tunnel. Ariel points towards play on her
message as she opens the door.
Ariel & Ohmet step out from the circus into the loggia of the Arcade on
Pier5.
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