#mechanical age

[shoomlah]

my new poster for the 30th Anniversary of Myst, available over at the Cyan store (link in the source and the comments)! This imagery has been indelibly inscribed on the inside of my eyelids since I was a kid, so it was an absolute joy bringing it to life in a more official capacity. 📚

[timchamberlin]

This guy looks like a pirate

[mysticiiisms]

What if the Mechanical Age wasn't as deserted as we thought?

More context found at Part 1 and Part 2. This should be the third and final part, I mean unless Selenitic had some deeper secrets. I wouldn't doubt it, but for now let's focus on Mechanical. On our return trip after the events of Myst to 'exlore at our leisure' and make sure the Age is truly uninhabited, we actually come across a few pages making a little trail towards the fortress' elevator. Looks like someone was using the elevator while we weren't watching!

Here's a random page from the trail:

And below is a transcription of the rest!

I miss my home. I don’t want to say it, because I promised I would be better, but I don’t have to if I write it. I don’t have to tell anyone. I will rip it out of my chest, put it on this page and then burn it. And then it will leave me alone.

I miss my room. My wind-up birds chiming in the morning. My window screen, showing me the starry purple sky and the pretty flowers. The locked doors, and not being allowed to go beyond them. The shelf clock, ticking and reminding me of the schedule. Mitra and Bevel coming in to wake me up, bathing me and dressing me at eight on the dot. Having breakfast at nine, idling a little until ten and then sitting through my lessons until two in the afternoon.

I miss the labelled hours. I miss knowing what would come.

We would have tiffin at two, and then I would practice my études from three to five. Then Mother would come at five.

I miss Mother.

I used to dread Mother, and I feel that I still might, but I miss her anyway. I suppose it was at least a familiar dread. Hurrying into my proper clothes, standing straight, reading without fumbling. She would stay for supper and until eight in the evening, then Mitra would get my bed clothes and tuck me in.

I miss Mitra.

I keep going back to the coast, wanting to see Mother’s ship arriving. Wanting to hear that Father is here too, that he finally returned to his kingdom and destroyed the enemy once and for all. Wouldn’t that be nice, you stupid child?

But the sky hasn’t cleared. If anything, it looks darker. She won’t come anymore, none of them will. She’s dead and he abandoned us. She’s dead because he abandoned us. I could have been dead too, I could be dead still, but he can't be bothered with so many prettier worlds out there.

Is it really that important, dearest Father, to have that many when you can’t even take good care of one?

No matter. I can take care of myself. I may be aching for home, but it won’t last forever. It can’t.

Today the coast was covered in washed-up wreckage from yesterday’s battles, and it stung as much as it always does, but I breathed and pushed it down. I helped Bevel and the Foreman scrounge for scrap to use on the shelter, so it can have more plating. We shouldn’t lower our guard if it’s still dark, they said, and I understand. It’s true that not even the black ships would sail into the perilous west, but since we somehow made it through its storms and to this strange land, nothing is stating that they can’t be just as fortunate and reach us.

Bevel has said that she disagrees, that we shouldn’t have survived and that some provident force must be aiding us, but I’m having trouble believing her. She’s being too fanciful, treating me like some destined princess that will save everyone. Somehow.

But I’m not a savior. I’m a stupid child with nothing else to do.

[queencordite]

Rough sketch/one from the vaults.

Replayed Myst to take my mind off things while I was waiting to go into hospital in 2022...and predictably also did a lot of drawing.

[tinyplanetsandscreenshots]

Stomping Rounds

[noosphe-re]

My main theme is the extension of the nervous system in the electric age, and thus, the complete break with five thousand years of mechanical technology. This I state over and over again. I do not say whether it is a good or bad thing. To do so would be meaningless and arrogant.

Marshall McLuhan

[csleko]

Old PC games are fun. Sometimes you get to play “Is That a glitch? Or is it an intended feature of the game?” Maybe if the elevator timer had a different sound than the default beep, that would’ve been more apparent? What is it with me and elevators in this game?  

[linksvorne]

51. MECHANICAL AGE. 2017-04-22 @ Café Stadtbahn