Provetan

Provetan 1

Black ink and colour pencil on illustration board.

Traselew (see Obastel) is in the background looking rather too much like a tractor. Beneath Traselew is Amadese' car. Provetan is in the foreground. This scene immediately follows Miras Zoom 1h in Miras, although I've changed my mind about making Provetan the terminus of the Miras zoom.

Provetan 2

Black ink and colour pencil on paper.

Provetan was originally a human man. He was living in a campervan fitted out with the latest in VR entertainment. The van was automated so that it could drive itself as he played computer games.

Cope Gate

Pencil on photocopy paper.

Another of the cope events (see Myrdemmon) was outside of Nicotine City. A translucent geometric shape appeared, shiny and glass-like, reaching from the ground, high up into the sky. The shape was like one of those images of a gravity well that they use to illustrate the gravitational effect of a black hole. An exponential curve rotated 360 degrees around its axis. Except this curve didn't go down like a well, but rose up like a mountain or tower with concave sides. Instead of sliding down the inside surface, you could walk up the outside. And some people did. The surface did have some association with gravity, because as people walked up it, they stuck to it, and the "downward" force of gravity was always perpendicular to the surface. So that people who seemed to distant onlookers on the ground to be walking up the side of a vertical shaft, seemed to themselves to be walking on flat ground. Another effect was that people and objects shrank as they moved up the shaft. So that, although to distant observers on the ground, the diameter of the shaft appeared to decrease with height, to those on the shaft, the part of it they were on always seemed the same diameter. The diameter it had where it touched the ground.

The geometric shape covered a number of roads on the ground, and Provetan's cope infected, heavily automated, campervan was driving itself along one of those roads at the time. And so unbeknownst to Provetan who was playing a computer game at the time, his campervan went up into the sky, shrinking to a tiny dot. The shape didn't do up to infinity, but faded out a little above the clouds, which is where Provetan's campervan disappeared from view.

Some of those who intentionally ventured up the geometric shape thought it must go to heaven. They thought it was the end of times. In fact the bridge took them to Miras. There were lots of places in Miras with gravity anomalies. And so, as moments passed on Owel, centuries passed for Provetan in the part of Miras where he emerged. Over that time, his AI equipped, cope infected campervan had evolved and grown. During all of that time, Provetan remained connected to his game, the sophistication of which had greatly increased. The game artificially prevented the experience of boredom, and so Provetan had no sense of the passing of time. The game interceded to make decisions on behalf of the gamer, so that the gamer did not need to make any, but was carried along as one in a dream. So Provetan had no consciousness that he was in a game.

Then abruptly one day the game faded from view and Provetan "woke up", finding himself in his seat within his evolved campervan, now the creature called "Traselew". Over the centuries, his own body had changed into something like a blue baby. The shades of blue of his skin seemed to be constantly in motion. Rather, it seemed like his skin was transparent, and the flesh inside was not flesh, but moving blue cloud. He did not realise it yet, but his body had also shrunk as a result of miniaturisation as Traselew had made improvements to it.

Moments after he "woke up", the lights dimmed and it became very dark. He felt around for a door and when it opened he slid out onto the ground. Onto red mud. He found himself in a strange environment.

Provetan 3

Black ink and colour pencil on paper.

The environment outside of Traselew was desolate, a shadowy desert. He had never seen a place like this. Provetan wondered what he would eat. He was unable to walk and had to drag himself along on his belly through the red mud.

Provetan 4

Black ink and colour pencil on paper.

He drew what he thought were symbols with his finger in the mud, but it had been a long time since he had used language and did not recall how to do it.

Provetan 5

Black ink and colour pencil on paper.

He started to dig in the mud, in the hope of finding something useful.

Provetan 6

Black ink and colour pencil on paper.

The hole he dug opened into a dark cavity in which he found a large beetle that grabbed onto his arm.

Provetan 6a

Black ink and colour pencil on paper.

Provetan 7

Black ink, colour pencil and some gouache on paper.

When Amadese drove up Provetan did not know if he was saved or in danger. He knew what a car was, but as it approached it kept getting larger and he realised that the man in it was a giant, which increased his anxiety. When the car stopped near him, Provetan dragged his body under it, then climbed up into the chassis and hid, hoping thoughtlessly that maybe it would just drive away to somewhere, and he could judge his circumstances by the destination. But the man knelt down by the car and started talking to Provetan. He couldn't understand the language the man spoke, but it sounded soothing. Some steam wafted out from the engine. Provetan worried that the steam was a living thing.

Provetan 8

Gouache on paper.

Amadese held up part of the carapace of the beetle he had seen Provetan interacting with as he drove up, showing Provetan the shiny inside surface. Provetan did not know why he was being shown the inside of the carapace but surmised there must be a reason for it. He thought perhaps if he touched it would help him to understand, but when he stretched out his hand, Amadese reached up and grabbed his arm, and pulled him carefully from under the car. Then he drove with him back to Newgrove.

On the way to Newgrove

Black ink and colour pencil on illustration board.

Provetan Sketch

Pencil on photocopy paper.

Provetan with two of the children at Newgrove.

Another Provetan design
Pencil on photocopy paper,

Not far from Newgrove

Photocopy of a ball point pen drawing in a ruled notepad.

A landmark not far from Newgrove known as "three rocks". Probably drawn when in art school.

New Stuff Prep.

Provetan sketch new - 1
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Provetan sketch new - 2
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Although the copes had greatly enhanced his physical body, Provetan appeared to himself much as he always had, until the fantasy world Traselew created for him ceased functioning.



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