Hello, listener. My name is Kai. Welcome to Dust. This is the final story in my first collection.

But this ending is a new beginning, because I'm always collecting, guiding,

sharing, helping you find the thread. Entry 6. The Motivation Cure by Archae Nickel.

Listen carefully. We have reached the edge of the horizon. I will begin my story in 18 seconds.

Take a breath. Imagine a future so close you can almost feel it. A world so real you can almost touch it.

This is dust.

An MFA in sculpture and this is where I find myself. Rendering and printing 3D plastic

couples to put on top of wedding cakes. I can't wait to share that with the alumni magazine.

I can't imagine having the time or energy to plan a wedding, making seating charts,

fighting over the guest list, tediously tying ribbons around the invitations. But I need to

imagine it. Emily often reminds me that we can't stay engaged forever. I know she's right,

but at the moment we're barely scraping by. She's climbing the ladder at the advertising

agency, but me, even though I'm late every night, working my ass off to make already happy couples

even happier and basically living off her charity. But it's okay, or it will be okay. There are

only two more orders in the queue. Two more wedding cakes to top. Two more maybe if we wish it

hard enough it will come true mannequins to render print and ship. Then I'll create something of my

own. Now that I can't imagine. A perfect Venus. She has shimmered in my mind for so long.

The shape of her cheeks, the depth of her eyes, the cut of her jaw, the long lines of her legs,

the feel of her cruel curves beneath my fingers. That's what it means to be a sculptor, a real sculptor,

capturing the human form like all the masters before me. That's the threshold. If I can complete

hair, I'll know I finally become what I was born to be. I finished the soon-to-be plastic couple

and hit print. Before starting on the next one, I decided to undercut the feeling of accomplishment

...