I wake up to the scattered crystal rays of my spinning mobile and the soft music Maggie plays on the tiny speakers nestled in a corner of the room. I drift into wakefulness slowly under the unbelievable softness of my sheets. They’re beautiful. They’re perfect. The morning is beautiful, the lights of the compound are programmed to mimic the lighting of a real day.
I push myself out of bed and I change into my daytime clothes. I put on a light blue, flowing gown that has frills down the front and is shaped like a slender bell. I brush my teeth and my hair and am down to breakfast before Maggie is even awake.
The chatter down there is lazy and relaxed. And it seems to me like water trickling off of rocks. I go down and join it, taking a place beside Valentina and Brigely, a place I fit into so easily and naturally that it feels as if I am meant to be here all along.
Maggie comes down and I make space for her beside me. She has dyed her thick dark locks a metallic green-blue colour, and it goes perfectly with the mini-skirt she is wearing over embroidered jeans. Her hair looks so pretty. She looks so pretty. She always looks so pretty. She gives me a peck on the cheek before joining the conversation.
Breakfast is brought to us by the robots and we savour it as we always do. It’s a mix of different sugary cereals in a bowl of heavy cream mixed with cinnamon and other spices. On the side we each have a tall glass of lime-and-orange sherbet. It’s all so unhealthy. I’ll have to do some serious working out after this. Or take fat-breaking pills. But it’s all worth it. The cereal tastes so rich and flavourful.
After breakfast Lydia makes her usual appearance. She is dressed in a light coral, so light you can barely see it, shift that has long, flowing sleeves that fan out towards the bottom. Her sleeves and collar and hemline are all lined with soft-looking, smooth, snow-white fur and coral glitter makes snowflake patterns all over her dress, snowflakes that all melt into each other at the edges. Her waist is cinched by a large milk-white gem carved into the shape of five snowflakes, getting progressively bigger as they near the middle, tied to a shimmering coral ribbon that loops around her waist. Her plunging square neckline shows off her beautiful dark skin and on her neck is an elegant snowflake-shaped pendant studded all over with diamonds. Similar snowflakes droop from her ears. And her lips shine a bright shimmering coral shade the same as her eyelids. Her hair is done up in an elaborate braided bun and a single small braid falls down the side of her face, decorated with gleaming pink smithsonite beads. She is so beautiful.
“Good morning my girls.”
“Good morning, Lydia,” we echo back dutifully. We are all honestly stunned.
“Today we are going to watch a movie in the night. This is a special treat for you girls, since the movie starts at midnight and we will be able to go home by three. Afterwards, we will go to a late-night restaurant and order food. But before that, you have all day to explore the facilities.
We all cheer, bright and high. A movie so late at night. It feels rebellious. It feels so subversive. It feels like we are being treated as adults. I smile, and my smile is reflected back in the faces of so many of my friends. The excitement in the room is almost tangible and it is as bright as a springtime day.
We all set out in different directions, wondering where our steps will take us. Maggie comes with me, and we wander the halls together.
The hallways are easy to get lost in. They are all large and wide and arching. They are all immaculate and polished and gilded. They are all lined with all sorts of things that you could spend a long while staring at. They are all brightly, softly lit. They have an amazing ambiance. And frankly the whole place feels palatial.
We go first to the aquarium, a place where we have never been. The walking paths are small and round and twisting, carved into the aquarium, so that all around us and over and under us, there is water and there are fishes. Like we are in a long tube-like bubble of rounded edges and air. The fish are incredible, genetically modified fish with all sorts of shapes and sizes and colours and patterns, all swimming around together, with long, flowing, shapely fins. The coral as well is really beautiful, like a garden of flowers, all bright and blooming and genetically modified to make different geometric shapes and strange structures. We feel as if we are in another world.
After the aquarium, we go to the statue gallery. In it are statues made of every sort of material imaginable, depicting beautiful, heroic figures and strange, fantastical beasts and humanoids that are ethereal and elegant and plants that are tall and regal. They portray spaceships and planets with strange and intricate surfaces, and stars shining forth their solar flares and magnetic fields. They depict scenes from bustling cities and scenes from fantastical worlds. Different colours and textures weave together to make everything look breathtaking. The statues are huge, making us feel small against them. And we barely have time to take them in, we are so busy going through everything,
Following the statue gallery we visit the art gallery. Hundreds and hundreds of intricately painted scenes of every imaginable type are plastered in golden, shining, intricately carved frames. They take up every single available inch of the wall, and they even coat the floor from underneath the glass we walk on. It’s like I’m looking into portals to new worlds. I tell Maggie this. She smiles.
The next place we go is the kitchen. It’s not very beautiful but it smells amazing. Robots whir lively and busy around us, preparing our lunch so it would seem. They look very busy. They look very cheerful. But still, there’s not much to do here. So we leave.
We wander for a bit until we find an amazing room. The temperature of the room is just a bit cold. Not cold enough that you have to put on any clothes. But cold enough that you can feel it. Inside the vast room there is a faint, soft breeze that is just enough to energize you. It smells of vanilla. The walls are a glittering, sparkling white. But what is the best part is the snow that is all around.
Now, it’s not real snow. It’s far too warm to be real snow. But it’s soft and fluffy and powdery and it’s cold to the touch like real snow. It also comes in a million different colours, each snowflake being an individual colour. It feels like you are in a rainbow. Like you are in a void sprinkled with every colour imaginable. But the shades are all light and not too garish.
The snow piles into hills and valleys and mounds and ridges. It forms a mini landscape in the big room. There are fake pine trees with each needle made of a different bright colour. There are fake cloudy patterns etched onto the sky. Clouds that look so soft and fluffy in all their different shades of grey. And our feet sink down into it as our skin dances with the faint cold.
Maggie makes a snowball and throws it at me. I laugh, and throw one back at her. We run all around the room, hiding behind trees and throwing powdery snowballs at each other. We roll in the snow, and we pile it on each other. We make snow angels and we make snowmen. Snowmen and women and snow dogs and cats. None of them are very good but they exist. We jump into piles of snow. And we exhaust ourselves.
After this it is time for lunch, and we all gather together in the cafeteria. Lunch is salsa dip and guacamole and chocolate fudge. The flavours burst on my mouth like fireworks. They twist across my tongue like fire. They leave me hungry enough to take seconds and thirds.
When lunch is over Maggie and I go to the carousel, made of many intricately carved horses placed on spiralling golden poles that shine in the light of the chandeliers. The carousel is large. It has a smooth, polished oak floor with many dark lines flowing through the wood. The horses are decorated with all sorts of flags and symbols hanging from their saddles and above each horse is a carved wooden plaque with a beautiful painting on it. The carousel is huge and the horses rise and fall as well as sway to the sides.
It’s nice. Relaxing. You can really let your mind just lay there and wander at its own pace. And yet it’s still stimulating. In a soft-bright, playful sort of way. I look around at all the horses around me, at their individually-carved bodies and their individually-painted plaques. I take it all in, and I let it sit inside me. I lean against my golden pole as my horse moves fluidly on its pole.
We go on the carousel three times. Three is a good, whole number. And it leaves us feeling satisfied.
Next we just take a moment to walk through the halls, taking in all the little treasures scattered everywhere. It feels as if we are walking through a palace. I tell Maggie this and she smiles. She agrees with me. She says that she feels like a princess. And I agree with her. We are both princesses, are all princesses, in these palatial halls.
We find the artificial forest, with twisting, bending trunks and branches everywhere we turn. The branches and trunks are all made of richly textured, finely carved bronze and copper and rose gold, shaped so perfectly that they almost look like real wood bark. Almost. They look much prettier than real wood bark, which is boring and dull. This fake wood is bright and shining.
All the needles on the conifer trees are made of different colours of shining, metallic material. They shine softly in the ambient light from the room. They look razor-sharp and I am almost afraid of them. The deciduous trees all have leaves made of many different colours as well. There are thousands of colours all around me. But these leaves are made of stiff, translucent fabric and are styled into beautiful, flowing shapes that no real leaves are.
There are glittering gemstones and jade and opal arranged into rocks of different shapes on the powdery-looking shining dark copper of the ground. There are colourful herbs and shrubs shaped into many fantastical shapes, blanketing the rolling undergrowth. They are artfully arranged so that each thing flows into the next.
There are little tiny coloured lights buried among the leaves on each of the trees, and they make the whole forest look absolutely magical. There are also strings of fairy lights webbed and woven above us, coating everything in a bright white light so that we can see everything clearly and well.
What is the most amazing to me though are the robotic animals and insects running and climbing and flying and buzzing everywhere. They are brightly painted in all sorts of fake fur and fake feathers. They fill the forest and are scurrying and hurrying everywhere we turn. They are not real animals that actually exist but rather strange and wonderful creatures of fancy that are pulled from all sorts of fantastical lands, with all sorts of fantastical features.
Maggie and I meander through the forest for a good, long time, just taking everything in. It’s a lot to take in. Almost too much. But it’s glorious to take in. And I love the feeling of absolute overwhelmingness that flows through me. Maggie loves it too. This is so much better than the boring brown and green of a chaotic, haphazardous forest from reality.
We wander through the halls again, and we come upon a long row of life-sized coats of armour, each intricately carved and perfectly arranged. They are not very historically accurate but they are very impressive. The long row stretches on and on and on and we can barely find the end of it. It’s all polished so well that each coat of armour is like a silvery mirror.
We come to a room that is black dark, with soft glowing neon lights of all sorts of over-bright neon colours everywhere. The neon lights line a large play structure, being woven all over the walls and climbing steps and poles and stairs and bars and swinging posts and zip lines and gliders and slides that are everywhere. There are bridges made of moving, floating neon steps that are all disjointed from each other. There are trampolines with softly glowing, stretchy floors for us to jump through. There are ball pits with many glowing balls. There are spinning plates and climbable carousels and ropes that swing around for us to climb.
We decide that we absolutely must spend the whole day one day playing here. But we simply do not have time today. We have to see everything. And so we placate ourselves with simply looking at the neon wonderland. Looking but not touching. Seeing, but not playing. But looking forwards so eagerly to the day when we can make full use of the neon wonderland all around us.
And so we go back down to dinner, using the communal gliders that are scattered around the grounds for us to use. We get there in record time, and meet up with the rest of everyone. We talk about what we saw, what we did, how much fun we had. We talk about what we loved about each of the different rooms. We talk about which rooms we liked more and why. What we are planning to do in each of the different rooms. We talk about all the plans we have to make the most out of the facility.
And we dig down into the cheesecake and ribs and the creamy soup we are presented in front of us. As always, the flavours are perfectly balanced. They are rich and savoury and delicious.
After dinner we decide to all go together to the hot tub. We were all putting it off until the last.
Before going we hurry back to our rooms and change into our pick of the many swimsuits that were provided for us. I wear a purple bikini with frills over the top of the bottom piece and frills down my neckline. It has all sorts of coloured mirrors woven into the bright purple fabric that coats the outside. And the insides are so soft and smooth I feel like I am wearing a cloud. I quick-wax my entire body with the automatic waxer and then it is time to go.
The hot tub is in the dark, glossy, obsidian world of a fake indoor cave. The water is crystal clear and smooth and fresh and of course hot. So hot that it is almost painful. But it isn’t. It is coloured with all sorts of different coloured lights embedded into the very walls and floors of the tub. The water feels like silk against our skin. We all sit down in one of the many water chairs that line the edges of the tub, made of coloured water and hemmed in by a special plastic that feels like nothing at all. All around us is shining dark stone. And in the walls of the artificial cave are embedded all sorts of glowing gems of all sizes and shapes and colours.
We relax there for a long while, talking about the very many things we have to talk about. We luxuriate in the bubbling, flowing hot water that swirls around us like a lazy river. We look at all the gems embedded into the wall. It is all very perfect. The height of luxury. I think I almost drift off to sleep.
Finally it’s twelve o’clock. And Lydia comes and forces us out of the hot tub. We all complain but we get up anyways. And we rush to get ready for the movie.
I wear a fur jacket of a rich, velvety brown colour and sleek, form-fitting jeans. I know it’s not very much but we don’t have time and I cannot choose the best outfit possible. Before rushing to the car I throw on a copper bracelet made of many interlocking pieces.
The car ride to the immersive theatre is a silent one. The city goes by bright and glowing and ethereal in front of us. We train our eyes to the brilliant, magnificent cityscapes, taking them all in. The city towers over us with its tall neon-gilded buildings of so very many different impressive shapes, with its burning sights, with its pretty sidewalks. I remain transfixed to the world outside the car. Nighttime in the city is so very beautiful.
The immersive theatre is big and impressive. We each get our own gaping, stretching room with a single floating chair in the middle. The chairs are round and sleek. They are soft and luxurious. They can be moved whichever way, so that we can get the full experience of the immersive all around us.
I tilt my chair back as the holograms weave themselves to life all around me.
I get immersed into the world of the narrative. Just as I am meant to be.
The story is one of a girl who feels lost and forlorn in her twentieth century world. She finds a strange portal to a fairy land. And that land is fantastical and wonderful. The fairies look at her and they realize that she is their long-lost princess. And so she takes the throne, and holds all the power of the fairy kingdom in her hands. The dark elves attack, and they are dead set on plunging the fairy kingdom into darkness. But she rallies her people and she fights against them, winning freedom for her kingdom from the darkness eternal. There are joyous victory celebrations and a great feast. And then the story ends.
I find myself constantly turning in my chair, looking at all the different parts of the fairy world, following the action as it flows and dances through the theatre. The chair moves so smoothly. It feels as if it is not moving at all. I feel as if I am floating through the air. And the softness of the plush chair would put me to sleep if not for the fact that the narrative and cinematography all around me is so very riveting.
The fairies are so elegantly designed. They look both undeniably human and completely nonhuman both at the same time. They are all so beautiful and breathtaking. The world they live in is so well-designed, so foreign, so elegant, so unnatural. The elves look absolutely hideous and disgusting, but there is some sort of intriguing beauty to their grotesqueness.
The sounds of the fairy world, of the battles, of the celebrations, of the ceremonies, they arch and stretch through the loud room, flowing to my ears from all different directions, large and perfectly clear as if I am in the world itself, as if I am hearing everything in real life. It all sounds so good together, like carefully-planned music that also tells a story.
The pretty scents of the fairy world float through my nose, and the bloody scents of battle. Fairy and elf blood do not smell like normal blood though. It smells strange and exotic. The temperature changes subtly as we move through different settings.
I loose myself entirely as the story goes on. I don’t even know who I am anymore. I don’t know where I am or why I’m here. I cannot even think. I can only take it all in. And there is so very much to take in. So very much to focus on all at the same time. There is so very much to divert my attention to that it almost feels like I am not paying attention at all.
Three hours pass by in the blink of an eye. I hardly notice it passing, I am so wrapped up in everything. But at the end of the immersive film, I slowly fade back into reality as the holograms flow away back to where they came from. I stumble out of the immersion room, almost as if I am in a dream.
I meet my friends, and they look just as disorientated as I do. We stand there in silence for a few moments in the decadent lobby before Lydia shepherds us back into our cars.
I wonder and let my mind wander as I see the city go by. It’s all so lovely. All of it. Love. What is love? There is so much pleasure to be had in the world. And love is nothing but holding on to all the many pleasures with both of your hands. 165Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4w7ayQ0q9V
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