He slips a tape into a grimy VHS machine and turns the TV towards you. It's too dark to make out anything happening onscreen but you hear heavy breathing. The camera angle shifts and you get a glimpse of a wide, empty warehouse room. Whoever's holding the camera is laughing. They slowly pan it down to show what looks like a functional conveyer belt leading to some kind of press. There is a plastic robot dog with LCD eyes on the conveyer belt. It is yapping repetitively and twisting around. You realise from the movements of the dog that its feet have been glued firmly to the surface of the conveyer belt. The dog keeps yapping as the belt carries it forward. It's playing a tinny little song and wagging a plastic tail. The belt stops. There's a kind of pneumatic noise and you realise the press is descending, slowly but inexorably, onto the trapped plastic dog. The merchant is watching you encouragingly. The press is slowly forcing down the dog's head. The plastic dog is interpreting this as a 'heel' command and is trying to sit down. The heavy press pushes down the dog's head and body until it is right against the floor. The dog's legs are buckling. It's playing a 'hopeful' midi sound and trying to wag its tail. Its legs have snapped under the pressure and now the plastic torso is cracking apart. You realise that the sound of the dog breaking apart is being amplified somehow. The press continues descending until it is flat against the belt. By now nothing of the dog can be seen. The hand behind the camera pushes up a lever and the pneumatic press begins to slowly move up to reveal a puddle of cracked plastic shards and broken circuitry. The tape ends abruptly. The merchant leers at you as he turns off the machine. |