My remediation will focus on my Concept in 60 project; that silly thing I made without a hint of coherence or reason. I want to add some backstory to the ‘Future Will” character – giving him the proper backstory, providing context to a character we might not know so well. As with the video, this remediation might be nonsensical, but at least now you know the beginnings of a character so passionately loved by all.
His parents called him Bill, but even he knew that the name didn’t fit, nor did it have any merit when you looked at his actions. No, this man, this bohemian of a specimen, was in fact a Will. A Will that was destined for great things.
He was the head cashier of a Pep Boys auto shop, the dinky little shack down the street for him. It was there that he felt at home. The walls were lined with greasy tools and old tires, the floor battered with stains from years of mechanical work. Will, while not able to get his hands dirty, saw from afar the work of his peers. The long hours mustering up the will to fix one more car, the sweat dripping from their faces: Will viewed their work with admiration and wanted to experiment himself. He had been hashing out the final details on an idea that he’d been working on for years, in his room, skipping family dinners most nights a week. His family didn’t understand. They wanted answers. They wanted to know what he was doing up there all by himself with the music from his headphones blaring in the background.
But Will didn’t want anyone to know. His secret plan was massive enough to change the world.
Will was always slated to man the register from opening until 4:30, when he would then be placed on clean up duty. Everyone at the shop knew what this meant. Will, and only Will, was responsible for cleaning the bathroom toilets.
One day, Will didn’t feel like it. He was mad that his co-workers made him clean the toilets all by himself. It was hard work. It smelled bad. He had to use a toothbrush. So he devised a plan to get rid of the mechanics and the rest of the shop so he could use the tools to build what he had been working on for all those years.
From the bathroom, Will shouted a large cry for help, relentlessly screaming, sounding panicked. “Maybe they would think that I’d fallen in the toilet, unable to get out!,” he thought to himself. “When they come to find me, they will be in for a little treat,” he said suspiciously, a tone marked with bouts of maniacal laughter. There was a man in the stall next to where Will was and he heard everything. Will apologized for sounding like a creep.
His co workers heard the yells, but at first they decided to remain put. They knew it was that whiny guy Will. They hoped he would stop after 10 minutes, but he didn’t. Twenty minutes pass by, and still Will was hollowing. Three hours later, and yeup, you guessed it, Will was still yapping away. So the mechanics and the rest of the staff decided to check on him, make sure he was okay. What they found was not what they were intending to see.
When they all entered the bathroom, they didn’t see Will lying on the ground. Rather, it was a pre-recorded track of Will’s obnoxious yelling. Upon realizing this, the group decided to leave immediately. But there was a roadblock. Will, who was hiding in the other restroom, sprang out of nowhere to surprise the crew. “Ha ha! I have you now!,” he said. “You all fell for my trick!” And with that, he closed the door which unfortunately had a lock on the outside. Will was safe and able to create.
You see, what Will wanted to build was not just some ordinary machine. It was a time-travelling machine. Will had been coming up with own designs and at the same time consulting with the very best in the industry. Dr. Bernstein, a renowned time-travel-ologist, happened to be Will’s third uncle twice removed. The two of them had forged a special bond, and Bernstein decided to impart his wisdom to the aging Will. After years of hard work and determination. Will was able to translate the advice from Berstein into an airtight, sure-fire model for his own time machine, for which he would use to change the course of history.
Will thought that if he traveled back in time to when his younger self lacked the motivation, he could change the outcome of his life. While he reveled in watching those car mechanics diligently work, he hated where he was in his life. He was a cashier for Christs-sake! Will wanted more. He wanted to taste the bounty of life, to behold the wonders of life outside the auto shop. What he really wanted to be is an exotic dancer. So he came up with this plan to go back in time, using the blueprints for the time machine he helped make, to motivate his younger self to take control of his life, even if it meant helping him make a PB&J.
With everyone locked in the bathroom, Will began to work. He took the wrenches, the bolts, the nuts, the tired, the scrap metal, and everything else he could find to start building. Within minutes, working at a lightning fast past, Will was able to get the foundation down. A few minutes later, Dr. Bernstein appeared out of nowhere to help him build. They doubled their output and in a matter of no time, they were done. It all happened so fast that me, the story-teller, couldn’t even keep up!
Now was the time. No turning back. Will knew he had one shot to make it back to his younger self on that fateful night years ago. He pressed the red button, then the blue, then the green, then the red again, and finally the yellow. The machine turned on, humming like the sound of an engine. Will stepped inside. He waved goodbye to Dr.Bernstein. He might not see him again.
And off he went, spinning through the space-time continuum, through black holes and time warps. When he finally landed back in March of 2017, he saw exactly what he was looking for. There was young Will. sitting on his bed, lacking the motivation to to anything. It was up to older Will, who now stood at the doorstep of hos former self, to put him on the right track, hoping to change history forever.
The End.
E397: Digital Rhetorics 