by Davi Cao
She created explosives attracted to bright patterns, objects that rolled towards the colossal pillar. She materialized a whole legion of them, watching them race over the land with the fury of an invading army.
To analyze her experiment, Ai.iA set up a precision ruler to measure possible dips in the World Voice’s intensity. The bombs reached their target, they exploded in unison and their dissolution forces dug a hole to fit a skyscraper, not causing any seismic impact. Her measurements showed an enemy who thrived under fire.
In a worrying coincidence, the pillar changed its direction and headed towards Ai.iA. Taken by surprise, she ran and changed her orientation to escape the creature’s projected path by going sideways. It followed her, though. It hunted her down.
She fled by punching the slimy ground, a splotchy tail gushing behind her, imagining and materializing ricocheting energy beams, firing them from her thicker rods. They struck the light and perceived something, because when they hit it, they bounced and went back to hit it again and again and again, melting down at last. In OOOO’s world, even crafted light suffered from the universal sadness.
Looking ahead, Ai.iA saw a big vortex over an area full of Terra’s ruins in the distance.
Dalana walked hurriedly towards the same spot, looking pregnant with her front pocket filled with new research materials. They would meet at the ruins.
∙ 2 ∙ Dalana and Ai.iA
A tower pierced the warehouse. Half the building’s walls lay broken down and melted, and an invading column swallowed the ceiling, supporting it with its hunger. Made of exotic matter, capable of shifting its innate blocks vertically by crossing through each other like ghosts, the tower imagined a vortex and it materialized over it.
It, too, was a Creator and did its best to survive the World Voice within its own limitations. It came from a world where translational motion didn’t exist, where things stayed put and stillness fed all creations. The vortex removed its mind and protected it in a dimension no sadness could reach.
“Come to me, Pip Good, the Voice is away.” Dalana entered the warehouse’s ruins, and patted the tower’s rounded veins.
“I am aware. All is clear,” Pip Good said, sending a few of its body stones down at vertiginous speed.
“Good. Are you aware of any new Creators around? I just saw a small one, crawling in the mud, with a soft body and two shells in its back. It didn’t communicate at all.”
“I know it. It is not what you think it is.”
“Are they creations? That’s odd, because they resisted a long time without melting down.”
“Even so, they are creations. Do you have resistant things?”
“My pocket is full of them. Some melted down already, but some of these might prove useful.”
“I have new ones. It’s for you.”
Bricks on the tower’s top slid down its body. A big one stopped at Dalana’s height, offered for her inspection. She examined the intricate block, decorated with a patterned bas-relief similar to the nebulae of old Terra. It had the overall shape of a sink, where she shuffled through loosened stones and artifacts to verify their nature, impressed by the quality of those new discoveries.
“How did you get these objects? Did you craft them?” she asked.
“New friends always come. I ask them to help you,” Pip Good said.
“How nice of you. Do you mention my name?”
“I don’t. If I do, they ignore me.”
“That’s right, that’s the price to pay, sure.” Dalana looked down at her front pocket. “They brought good stuff, anyway. Did you notice any strange behavior, by chance?”
“I did.” Pip Good shifted all its blocks slightly, spinning around its own axis. “Take the first on the second layer. It is the bulkier.”
She picked a piece of thick iron, certainly taken from a safe vault’s wall. She pressed it against the tower to be sure she got the right one. Pip Good replied in the affirmative.
“Now find a ruin. One yet to melt. Let it drop on the tough thing,” Pip Good said.
“What will happen?” Dalana carried the piece with both hands towards the warehouse’s wall.
“You will see.”
She grabbed a loosened brick on the ground and held it over the iron piece. Sadness struck at the brick, its clay bleeding slowly, flowing to one of the block’s edges, dripping down. As it hit the thick object held by Dalana, the melted brick’s drop expanded, a balloon growing bigger than the warehouse itself.
In the time she took to turn her head, the giant bubble of matter went by her body unaware of the physical realm. An illusion made real, its boundaries took over the land, enveloping Creators and creations in a huge dome of clay and iron.
It reached the World Voice’s pillar far away, and popped. Another drop fell and another bubble expanded quickly over the world, stunning Dalana. Not everything melted down in that world, and a few combinations yielded surprising behaviors.
“Wait, this isn’t normal. Was it your doing, Pip Good?”
“It is from this world. You can’t have absolute sadness. Take it to base and discover more.”
“Of course! Our team will love it, although I hope our melted stuff doesn’t suffer from our protection. I’m doing my best to make things not melt in there.”
“I don’t like this melt down either. I am with you on this. Even Utopia is better.”
“Even Utopia ... I see.”
“No offense. I’ll be glad to have another of your worlds. Better than this one. I have another human to help you,” Pip Good said.
Dalana raised her head, dropping one object from the sink into her pocket. “A creation? That ought to be somebody’s joke.”
“Not creation. A new Creator. Human like you.”
Her black eyes flickered. Somebody entered the warehouse. The new human?
“Fruitless exploration, and I can’t hurt it anyhow. I need to talk, need more fuel to my thoughts, come, Dalana, we need to speak more. Babble with me, it could be anything,” Ai.iA said, storming the place with its jumping rod.
“No progress, I see. Not even the seismograph?” Dalana loosened up her shoulders.
“It was noisy underground, abundant with chaotic flows that confused me more than enlightened any thought. I am afraid even if I probe the entire globe, we will never be able to predict anything. And why should we, now I ask myself, if the World Voice has no mystery of its own and never fails in the one thing it does well.”
“Are you frustrated? You can still think of new stuff, don’t worry. I’ll help you.”
“That’s what I need, please. I feel powerless once again, and we know well how dangerous it can be in front of the enemy! I got distracted for a moment and the thing was heading towards me, disabling all my probes with that awful Voice,” Ai.iA said.
“If it serves as consolation, we have plenty of new material for the experiments. Here, look at what we’ve got.” Dalana knelt down on the firm floor to show her the collection. “Pip Good here got help from other Creators and gave us even more.”
“That’s a great batch you have there. What are the odds, in your opinion? One out of ten again?”
“Somehow I’m optimistic about these ones. Two out of ten, we could say. And one in a hundred against the pillar.”
“I can’t wait to see it. Ready to go? I need to chill out a little, my mind is too agitated, I can’t think of anything else now. The team will refuel me in the lab, and it’s about time that we make one step in the right place at least, don’t you think?”
“I do. But wait, I was talking to Pip Good here before you arrived, something very important. A new human around these parts,” Dalana said.
“What’s this story, Pip?” Ai.iA asked.
“A new human Creator, whom I never met before. Good guy. Looks fresh, of the monomaniac type.”
“We need to find him!” Dalana grabbed Ai.iA by her top head.
“We need to get back and work, that’s what. Waiting is futile in t
his world that will never change, and we need to put an end to this big joke,” Ai.iA said.
“I know, we three here want the same thing, but that’s something we can’t let pass,” Dalana said.
“After we’re done with this world and I become the dominant one, you’ll find a more pleasant world where to find the others, and I’ll give you even more humans than you think, just wait and see until I have my way. I’m sure you’re going to be surprised, you’ll love my world.”
“First worlds are always lacking,” Pip Good said. “Lower your expectations. Few of us will enjoy it as you believe.”
“If you gave me more chances at world building, then I would be much better by now! Nobody obeys me, though, they refuse to let me have my way, so I have to fight, and it has to be quick, I have to be faster than all others, otherwise they’ll defeat me again and I’ll never be the dominant one.”
“Your weapons are worthless in here. And yet, you insist. Dalana is more likely to get the next world. Not you,” the tower said.
“No, that’s not true.” Dalana caressed Ai.iA’s prostrated head, who lowered herself by recoiling her bottom rod, not bouncing anymore. “That’s not what I want. I want to help Ai.iA have her way now. And I also want to find this new human. Please bear with me, you two. How can I find him, Pip Good?”
“You have to wander. He has a friend, the current dominant Creator.”
Dalana grunted, annoyed at the mention. “That one ... Can it help me getting to the human?”
“If you find any, it will be the same. They are around this region.”
“Good. I’ll leave Ai.iA in the lab and go out looking for him. If you get more resisting materials, keep them here and I’ll come grab them sometime. If you need any help with anything, don’t hesitate in asking me.”
“I am fine. But Ai.iA seems bad. I meant no offense, Ai.iA. I have an absent mind. Good luck to you.”
In a childish impulse, Ai.iA raised one of her thick limbs and offered it to Dalana. Dalana led them out of the warehouse, nodding to Pip Good and pulling her friend’s cold body against her dress. Her front pocket stretched to its maximum, made of strong fabric, capable of holding a human. Only this way could she hope to walk as the pregnant mother of Ai.iA’s future world.
“Don’t let it affect you, please, I don’t like to see you sad like this,” Dalana said.
“It’s not fair ... They don’t want to see my world, nobody is curious to check on my ideas. I am the worst Creator ever!” Ai.iA said.
“See, that’s a lie, a big one. You mention my name to any of them, and what do you think they’ll say? Yes, you know it quite well, don’t hide. The battle for the most boring of us is already settled. I won that game. Even so, I had the chance to be the dominant one many times. You just have to be patient for a while.”
“More than I already am? No, it must be now, I’m going to beat this stupid World Voice and have my way for once. I’ll show it to them, it will be a good world, and I’ll create lots of space to let the others roam without messing with me.”
“That’s a good idea, yes, do it when the time comes, and I’ll—” Dalana tried to say, seeing another three-legged snail ahead of them.
“What? Is that a Creator? Hello? What’s your name? Want to join us? We’re trying to destroy the world, you can help us, if you want,” Ai.iA said.
The small creature dug a path in the mud with its three long legs, all immersed in the ground. As Dalana got closer to it, she noticed it had countless flexible membranes that swallowed the melted matter in front of it, allowing it to slide through the slime at a slow pace. Ai.iA poked the snail’s shells with one of her rods, watching it stop to make sense of the new presences around it.
“Pip Good said it’s a creation. Strange, don’t you think, to see it moving when instead it should be melted?” Dalana said.
“Very much, correct. Should we collect it? It’s a resistant thing too,” Ai.iA said.
“I guess you can’t do that. It likes to pick a fight, or at least that’s what it did to me when I tried.”
“If war is what it wants, war is what it will have.”
The little creature didn’t have time to react. The ground beneath its long legs disappeared and it floated in the air by constant gushes of steam created by Ai.iA’s wish. That beast struggled if it stood on mud, but surrendered easily when removed from its habitat.
Dalana enjoyed the opportunity to place the snail’s soft body on top of her front pocket and caress its elongated skin. They marched towards their laboratory, and the creature stayed still.
A tall obelisk marked the entrance, its height cut in half by the world’s corrosion. The World Voice greeted them with a dangerous approach.
It came swiftly in a hurricane sweep, pressing horrible thoughts on their distracted minds. All of a sudden, they remembered how useless, miserable, and worthless they both were, and to protect themselves, they ran away from the projected great pillar’s path, hoping to get away from its center before late.
Dalana bounced in her desperate hops, losing control of the snail. It fell on the ground, reinserting itself in the mud, slowly preparing to move again. Dalana ran with Ai.iA, holding on to her front pocket and looking back to see how the small creature fared against the depressing Voice. It melted down after a short while, right when the great pillar hovered on the area above their own laboratory.
The World Voice circled around the same region, maybe sensing a presence in there, some strange reunion of beings, intent on studying ways to stop its suffering. Dalana watched the scene in horror, praying that it would end soon. The obelisk collapsed, a frozen popsicle in a hot oven, a brief taste of the challenge the rest of the base faced underground.
It changed route when all seemed lost. The glowing column raced away from them, leaving behind an abandoned land, more than ever. Punching the ground with brief pauses, Ai.iA started the walk to their lab, fearing for the worst.
“If something resisted in there, that’s some valuable material. I’m still optimistic,” Dalana said.
“Maybe you are right. That was rough. I hope it didn’t spoil the research.”
Walking on mud after a recent World Voice’s pass required special care. An upper layer of melted matter flowed softly over the more rigid parts below, posing trouble to those who tried to step on it.
Dalana used to roll with her body to go to places, lying down and spinning to the side, increasing her surface area. On collecting missions such as that one, however, she and her friend Ai.iA often crafted boards, hovering planes, and safety nets to help their movement. These creations melted soon, though, adding even more soft matter to the universal mud.
For Ai.iA, nothing disturbed her thoughts more than exploring the world. Her thin rod, which served so well in solid worlds, entered whole in the slime at every punch. To get out, she had to use her lateral arms, flapping like a fish out of the water. She rolled, she disintegrated matter when needed, she created strong winds to make her float. The simple act of moving in there required constant creation, and to an overactive mind of her kind, more thought equaled more agony and less time to think of new weapons.
To Dalana, the universal slime reminded her of the mangroves in worlds where liquid and sand existed. In none of them had she ever had to face areas in which her leg sank up to her waist at each step, as it happened in the first moments after the World Voice’s sweep. “Everything will exist one day, right?” she thought, facing her challenge head on.
Already close to her lab, the intact entrance door soothed her. If only she could create a wide board of the same material to help her moving around, she wouldn’t have to listen to Ai.iA’s complaints all the time.
“They like a disgusting world like this, and refuse to let me be the next one. Can you explain it? No, I doubt you can. Give me the chance and I’ll show a truly inspiring place,” Ai.iA said.
“Creators enjoy difficulty too, that’s the problem. Getting trapped in the mud and the risk
of melting down is risky and amusing for many, you know it. I don’t appreciate danger, but, well, we’re not alone in here. You’ll have your chance, when they’re tired of this one.”
“I’m tired already! And I can’t understand why the others aren’t. The pillar comes, it goes, it cries and it bemoans, on and on. It’s so boring.”
“You have to admit that the world is still changing. We just came from the warehouses, where they are still resisting. And we saw those strange snails. I see why some Creators like this world.”
“What, are you betraying me? Even you? No, please, don’t do that, I need your help!’
“I am helping, stop that. It’s only an attempt at understanding.”
They reached the lab’s entrance, opening its heavy door with relief. The stairway glistened with sharp edges, its steps rugged and solid. Ai.iA bowed her top head to signal her frustration at their talk, and received the collected material from Dalana’s pocket. She placed them in a box crafted for that purpose.
“Go ahead and give it to the others. I’ll look for the new human,” Dalana said.
“Fine. Take care ... Please. And come back soon, we need you,” Ai.iA said.
Having no idea of where to find him or his friend, Dalana confronted the mud with joy. Not carrying any stuff with her anymore, she lay down sideways on the ground and rolled, increasing her speed without worry. She couldn’t control her direction with precision, watching the world spin around her head, but for a person that had no clue as to where to begin her search, any random direction served the purpose.
She followed the recent World Voice’s path, sinking in soft mud, and having trouble to get out. She crafted ground nets, resistant soil, managing to leave the traps she fell into, rolling farther and farther from her lab until she lost any reference of her position.
Lost and worried, she stopped. Raising her back to see higher up, she imagined the lab’s obelisk rebuilt in its place. Even with its materialization, the horizon showed up free of tall buildings, dominated by round mounds and the great glowing pillar. She imagined a taller obelisk, higher than any other thing in sight. A faint straight line showed up at a huge distance, surprising her with the efficiency of her locomotion.