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Chapter 1
A tale of two traps
85 years earlier...
"What's the matter, Katran?" the elderly lady asked the young girl. Katran sat before the book in front of her, hesitant to continue. "You've learned from an expert, and your skills are as refined as Atrus. I'm sure Myst will be a very stable world for you to live in.
"How can you be sure, Ti'Ana?" Katran asked, sounding desperate for confirmation. "Gehn thinks he is such an expert at what he does, yet all of his worlds are so...unstable. Even Riven is falling apart." She sighed, thinking of her home and her friends and family who were having to flee the age due to one evil man's interference.
"The difference between you two is very simple. Unlike Gehn, you are able to admit your mistakes, and you are able to learn from them as well. Gehn does not own up to his actions, blaming anyone else he can. That's why Riven is unstable. That's why all his ages are unstable. He blames the book, the pen, the ink, even sometimes, the Art itself. But I'm here with you, helping you write this. You can do it. Just take a deep breath and..."
Katran placed pen to paper, drawing the last stroke on the elaborate character. "How much further do we have to go?" she asked, knowing that their time was running out.
"We are about halfway there. We will be done in time for Atrus' return."
Present day...
There was nowhere to go but forward. Lance stood to his feet, realizing that this was neither a dream nor a hallucination. This was reality. And instead of sitting on the dock dazed and confused, he needed to explore and find a way out. From what he remembered reading, there were several man-made structures around, including an imaging chamber (whatever that was), a library, and a rocketship of some sort. The book never described what these places were or what they did, but only that they existed, and where they were. So Lance pushed forward towards a set of stairs.
Before he reached them, an object caught his eye. It was some kind of pedestal with a lever on top. If memory served, the book referred to these as "marker switches," though again, the text failed to reveal their purpose. Flipping the lever up seemed to do nothing. Lance returned the lever to its original position, and found no difference, either. Unsure what he was doing, he left the switch in the "up" position, just in case its purpose would become clear later.
Lance moved forward, following a winding sidewalk up to where what was labeled as a planetarium in the book was located. From what the boy knew, the Library was not far beyond that. He took a step into the grass to cut across towards the planetarium when he nearly slipped forwards, catching himself before he hit the ground. Turning around to see what had almost gotten his neck broken, he reached for a small piece of paper that was now stuck to the bottom of his shoe.
Catherine,
I've left for you a message of utmost importance in our fore-chamber beside the dock. Enter the number of marker switches on this island into the imager to retrieve the message.
Yours,
Atrus
Lance recognized what Marker Switches were as he stood to his feet, but the fore-chamber puzzled him. He remembered an imaging chamber near the docks was written into the book, but he hadn't seen it when he first arrived. Were these two the same location? Tucking the note into his pocket, Lance began to think about what he wanted to do. He could go to the planetarium...but the library probably had more answers for him. Maybe another magic book that would take him out of here and back home.
The library was just ahead and to his right. The massive building looked a little like the Parthenon, though on a slightly smaller scale. Inside, there was one large bookcase, several framed pictures on the walls, a fireplace, and two pedestals, one with a lone red book, and one with a lone blue one. The walls and floor were all composed of wood, and a large chandelier was hanging overhead, bathing the room in a pretty dim light. It almost appeared that the chandelier was lit on fire, but closer examination showed that the room was being lit by some kind of flame encased inside of a glass sphere. It looked bizzare, but no less than anything else he'd seen on this island.
 SkyeGear · Sun Aug 19, 2007 @ 08:51pm · 0 Comments |
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Prologue
Never judge a book…
He had never read a book quite like this one. As Lance lay on his bed on his stomach, his mind wasn’t on how much back and neck pain that position was going to cause. All he could think about was this enthralling book. The odd part was…there was absolutely nothing enthralling about it whatsoever.
As he turned the page, he realized he’d just read 154 pages describing an island. That was it. All it did was describe one island. Lance couldn’t even figure exactly how it had managed to take up so many pages, yet it had. And it was fascinating nonetheless. The beautiful imagery of the trees, the massive clock tower across the small body of water, the strange rocket-ship like vessel that sat on the ground, the submerged pirate ship, everything about this odd island was described in excessive detail in this book, yet it was the most fascinating thing he’d ever read.
Lance turned the final page and read the last bit of the book quietly. “…stretches above all the other trees, more than fifty times the size of the others, its leaves towering over every other structure, man-made or no, on the island.” He looked at the clock. He’d been reading that book for an hour, and now he only had half of one to get ready for work. The 18 year-old was about to close the book and move to his feet when his eyes stopped dead on the following page. He slowly turned it to see a picture of the island he’d just read about.
But the picture was moving. It was like a small movie, taking up a portion of the top half of the page. A flyby movie showing the very island he’d seen in the book. It was exactly how he’d imagined it to look…that was how great the author was who wrote the description. But Lance couldn’t get past the shock of a moving, glowing picture inside of his book!
The book wasn’t thick enough to have some kind of small TV in it, despite how powerful technology could be. The page following was completely blank, with no evidence of anything small injected into the page, or between two fused pages. Yet the movie was still there. Unable to focus on anything else, the boy’s hand reached out to touch the picture. He placed his hand on the panel, noting how warm it felt to the touch. Then his feet began to tingle. Then his legs started to tingle as well. Soon this strange sensation shot through his entire body as his vision faded into black.
Moments later, a panicked Lance could see again, but it was not his bedroom. As a cool breeze blew past him, he found himself standing on the edge of a dock outside. The sky was a perfect shade of blue, and a few white clouds littered the sky. But that’s not what caught his eye. First, to his right, was a massive ship mast. In the water, he could see a huge ship submerged under water. His eyes grew wide as he turned around to confirm. Sure enough, there was a huge tree, probably a hundred stories tall, stretching far above the sea of trees around it. Lance now knew where he was. How he got there was a completely different story. He opened his mouth to say something, as if to confirm he was still alive, awake, and not dreaming. After almost a minute of unsuccessfully trying to get his voice working, he finally said, “Oh, boy…” and fell backwards on the wooden planks of the dock.
SkyeGear · Sun Aug 12, 2007 @ 09:24pm · 0 Comments |
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Static Shock Episode 53: Gigacybrus |
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Scene 1: Streets of Dakota. A purple ball is bouncing down the street. It "unfolds" to reveal Rubberbandman, looking a couple years older. He pulls out a Shockvox, except it's redesigned to black and grey, similar to the "answering machine" shown in the episode "Future Shock."
Rubberbandman: This is Rubberbandman. Southwest sector is all clear.
Another part of town
A shadowy silhouette leaps from the top of a roof, somersaults, and lands on an empty alley in a three point crouch to reveal Shebang. Her costume is more refined with a domino mask instead of the bandanna, and the purple color being her entire costume, with only minor touches of the pink. She too appears older.
She-Bang: Shebang here! Southeast is good.
Gear's costume is only moderately refined. While still maintaining his old color scheme, the upper half of his visor is much darker and reflective, and the viewer is barely capable of seeing Richie's eyes. While his lack of sleeves and his slimmer weight remain, his costume takes a turn that looks more like his appearance in "Future Shock," to include the "W" shape white logo on the front of his torso. He also appears taller and his arm muscles seem a little more refined with his jump in age. He is first seen skating across a wall, then begins to fly straight when he gets to the edge, gaining altitude and flying over a few buildings.
Gear: This is Gear. Everything's quiet in the northwest.
A bolt of purple lightning zaps two men in ski masks and sends them flying into a wall with a yell, as the static cling takes hold. Static is seen, and he too, has seen a slight aging as well as a slight costume modification. While most of his old costume remains, the white part of his mask is now gold, and his suit has become a one-piece spandex type costume, with the "Future Shock" look of the black with blue lightning. His jacket and blue visor above his mask remains. The camera starts with his feet and pans upwards to reveal his slightly matured face.
Static: Static here. Just put the hurt on some bank robbers, but no bang babies in this area either. That about covers everything for today. See you tomorrow, Adam. Have fun at your CD signing.
Gear: Yo, and save us a few autographed copies, Bro!
Rubberbandman: (laughs) You got it, Gear. (Bounces away.)
Static: Meet you guys back at the station?
Gear: On my way.
She-Bang: Way ahead of you guys.
Scene change to the gas station. Inside, the gas station looks relatively the same except for an area near the back wall, where there seems to be some construction taking place. Static and Gear enter to see Shenice already in civilian clothes, sitting at a table.
She-Bang: Slow as usual.
Work in progress...
SkyeGear · Mon Apr 02, 2007 @ 06:29am · 0 Comments |
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