Category Archives: Lower Austra

I first published pictures of some of these Mysten Underhill locations way back in January 2012, but didn’t ever get around to generating the accompanying text. At the time I was calling the community Happy.

Actually as I’m checking now through those old 2012 posts, I named the Mysten Parva community Happy, with the ajoined Mysten Underhill neighborhood having an as yet undetermined appelation. Did I get them backwards?

This seemingly out-of-place cottage acts as the southernmost of 11 official Mysten Underhill buildings (as I had Baker Bloch count them off a second ago).

We start in the front room of 2, and a picture touting the personhood of the Undead. The whole house gives off a vibe of Halloween, starting with the interactive witch greeting you near the front door named Esme Weatherwax, *which* is the name of a fictional character from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.

An I Ching Coin dominates a central table. You can touch it to open a web page and receive an instant I Ching reading. As I’m using it now through Baker Bloch, I was given hexagram 45:

http://www.rightreading.com/yi-jing/yi-jing-pages/45.htm

Come together. The ruler is in his palace. Schedule an audience. Make an offering. Take a stand and the result will be good.

Within the bedroom are found more vaguely pagan or occult paraphenalia such as a broom, a mortar and pestle, a Vesta’s blessing bowl, an Egyptian chest of drawers, a crow on a perch, and, perhaps most telling, a human skull. You can meditate on the “zafu cushion”, as Baker Bloch is demonstrating below.

Esme Weatherwax stands tall over all. The ruler of the palace? Here’s a web site on this powerful witch:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granny_Weatherwax*

Looking out the bedroom window toward the Church of the Silicon Soul. Does church leader psimagus Hax approve of having a witch live so close to his sanctuary?

The Mysten Underhill stream curls around the cottage, as if protecting it or separating it from the rest of the community.

Jesus towering above the cottage and village. We now know this statue is the same size… well, I’ll save that surprise for a later post.

Looking back toward Mysten Underhill from beside the Church of the Silicon Soul located in neighboring sim Goremoor. We’ll also talk soon about a perceived separation of the sims Mysten and Goremoor, perhaps purposely enacted by Hax. If so, it seems that the sim name Siliconicus might also be involved. Perhaps even others in the general area (Fumb?).

Curious metallic sculpture called “Twisty (Sculpt Prim Example)” at the front of the church. The sculpture lies in Mysten, the church in Goremoor. The statue stands at the lower right corner of the church, as Esme Weatherwax stands at the lower right corner of what appears to be her cottage. Purposeful mirroring?

Okay, more curiousities here (!). The sculture is actually positioned right on the line between Mysten to the west and Goremoor to the east. Exactly 1/2 lies in each; this had to be done on purpose. And when Baker Bloch touched the shiny object to see what would happen, he found an object inside called “Diana The Huntress”, another sculpture and one that had existed in Collagesity in both its Noru and Rubi incarnations. He promptly rezzed and positioned it inside Spongeberg’s Magic 12×12, “collaging it in” at a most logical spot: directly behind the ladder leading up to The Snug. All this seems most peculiar. Curiouser and curiouser I might even add.

The “Twist” in front of The Church of the Silicon Soul.

—–

* Especially interesting to me as I’m reading down the text currently is this description of her personality:

Granny Weatherwax has a near-unshakeable belief in her own abilities, which has thus far proved accurate, and an extreme distrust of stories. She was intended by nature to be a “wicked witch” but, at an early age, realised she had to be “the good one” to balance her sister, Lily (Lilith). Ironically Lily, who became a fairy godmother, was convinced she was the good one, because she gave people what she thought they should want. Granny Weatherwax, however, gives people what she knows they really need. Witches themselves seem hesitant to use “bad” or “good” as descriptors, especially when discussing very powerful witches; as Pratchett would put it: being Good (with a capital G) and Right (with a capital R) doesn’t necessarily make one Nice (with a capital N), and Granny isn’t (Nice, that is). Granny prefers to be respected, and if that is tinged with an element of fear, so be it. And except for those who know her well, such as Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick, Agnes Nitt, and Tiffany Aching, people do respect and/or fear her rather than like her. However, very young children seem unintimidated by her because of a reputation that she won’t intentionally harm them. People in Lancre know that she will always come when they need her and do her best for them, because that is Right (with a capital R).

Another depiction of Esme or Granny Weatherwax.

—–

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_question_and_exclamation_marks

We might be down to 4 contestants in the Mystenopolis deity election, and possibly even 4 winners: Lisa The Vegetarian, [Little] Wappo Jack, Jesus of Nazareth, and Piet Mond. Eliminated are temple bookends Master “Didn’t Even Try” Shake and Boxy Brown. Carrcassonnee was also written out due to a technicality (now too big to fit into the temple). Fellow former Collagesity contestants The Bobs have already seen exteriorization through Artie J. Spongeberg, who is out and roaming about Mystenopolis already, particularly focusing on an area we’ve been calling the 12×12 in recent posts. He’s not in the temple any longer. What I mean is…

“What you mean is that he is already a winner, back in Collagesity. Carrcassonnee too. Big C passed her crown on to Spongeberg when she went on her honeymoon trip to the Kerchal Forest region, which also doubled as a peacekeeping mission to dissuade the forest spirit from invading Rubi and Collagesity. Now it’s kaput anyway, or the town is (note: I still own 5120 square meters of land there, down from 8704 during Collagesity days however). You have 4 newcomers who have all won won all. Oh, and Jesus of Bethlehem, the only one remaining from the original deity contest.”

bb:

I believe he prefers (the name) Jesus of Nazareth.

Hucka D.:

Whatever. Wappo Jack has a giant form as well that probably wouldn’t fit into the temple. So it’s technically Little Wappo Jack that won the election. Contest. Whatever.

bb:

What is the meaning of all this? Townspeople have a choice of deities to worship. But there’s not really a town.

Hucka D. (correcting):

Mystenopolis. The 4 deities must confer with each other and find bridges. They must take the yellow submarine out to the Nautilus nether-regions to discover Bob Too, Leemington, Yelloo and more. They have tickets to ride. To Nowhereland.

“We cannot talk to anyone in the town until a deity is selected. I vote for Carrcassonnee (to return).”

bb:

But it’s not a town, Hucka D.

Hucka D.:

No. But they want it to be.

bb:

The townspeople… who don’t know that they don’t live in a town.

Hucka D.:

Yeah. The residents of Mysten Collages and Mysten Beliefs.

bb:

There’s not any houses.

Hucka D.:

There are houses on the stream.

bb:

Tiny houses?

Hucka D.:

No. In Mysten Underhill.

bb:

But that’s not…

Hucka D.:

No.

bb:

What of Mystenopolis? That’s a town.

Hucka D.:

Yes.

Mysten Underhill calls those White Falls. Not Blue Falls.

Preacher rents in Mysten Fieldton. Reverend White.

—–

Mysten Underhill has trouble enough. Allen. Martin. Martin wishes to know about Winesburg. He’ll listen. When Martin changes to Allen then Allen changes to Martin. Listen to Martin. Set up an underground base. 12×12. Spongeberg. Place of Safety. 5.5 years.

Nasty Medicine Falls, aka Green Falls or High Falls. Stream has begun.

High Cy(an).

Blue Falls or Wide Falls…

… into Crystal Pool, sometimes also called Blue Pool or simply The Pool.

Low Cy or The Narrows beside the Red Umbrella.

Confluence Place; cave mouth to underground Mysten Underhill (“Underhill Mysten”) on left. Stream has ended.

End Rock.

The Stream.

Start again?

It’s time for the people of Mystenopolis to help choose their deity. Send your votes in today! I’ll talk about my preferences as I go along.

First up is Boxy Brown, one of the candidates for chief Collagesity deity filled by Carrcassonnee back in February. Now in the new contest the parameters were broadened a bit. Candidates can choose up to 6 objects to aid their cause. So while retaining the simple “Head Trip” psychedelic poster backdrop from the first contest, this go around Boxy Brown has also enlisted X-Files co-stars Dana Scully and Fox Mulder to help pitch his message, along with Perch’s cousin Pincushion Head hovering menacingly above them all. Filling out the 6 objects from Boxy, we have a version of the Mmmmmm’s King Bill to his right here, along with a painting called “Son of Man” by surrealist Rene Magritte. Awesome.

Next comes a newcomer: Wappo Jack, who was around in 2014-15 Collagesity but didn’t have designs on becoming a deity at the time. That’s changed, as he’s cooked up a collage of spiffy associations. Jack now identifies with the Jack Nicholson character of The Shining, who, in turn, is also called Jack — Jack Torrance, a name carried over from Steven King’s source book. Wappo Jack poses as Jack from the movie in a 1921 photograph famously zoomed into at the end. A computer monitor by his side displays perhaps the most iconic shot from the film: Jack Torrance’s head poking through a door panel he’s just axed away, and announcing, “Heeere’s Johnny!”. Brilliant, and a line Jack Nicholson reportedly improvised on the spot. The Hollywood table sign reflects the Hollywood movie, or how The Shining both adheres to an industry code for horror movies and shatters it at the same time. Director Stanley Kubrick purposely inserted a seemingly countless number of what appear to be continuity errors on the surface, but are obviously not, or at least the great majority aren’t. Floor Shine Man (“shining” again) and Philip Linden inspired pop art complete Wappo Jack’s tableau.

Across the temple’s aisle we have another newcomer. This setup is the concoction of Lisa Simpson of The Simpsons, or who has chosen here to be known as Lisa The Vegetarian, per one of her more thoughtful characteristics in the long running animation. Lisa converts to a non-meat way of life during the namesake episode Lisa The Vegetarian from the 7th season. The last 2 episodes from that season are Lemon of Troy and Who Shot Mr. Burns Part 1, which Lisa has decided to combine through a burning lemon making up the central part of her display. On the wall behind the lemon is a Medieval painting of St. Lemon of Troy, patron saint of Sunklands. Marvelous. The water urn toting ballerina to the right indicates a solution to the burning, with the 3 blue rings surrounding her representing the 2 major streams of Mythenopolis along with a hypothetical common confluence, a central Mysten mystery pool if you will. To Lisa’s left is a Tron arcade game, symbolizing the beginning cue of Carrcass-2 which prominently features the Simpsons episode Lisa The Vegetarian. More on that connection soon, perhaps. Old Man Baby and an oil drum to the right complete the deal. I think this is a wonder display, and probably should have won Lisa the title of town deity. But it didn’t.

I should pause here and announce the judges of the contest. We have Norubi Turtle walking past Lisa The Vegetarian’s display in the above photo. Cardboard Derek Jones and Starbuccanneer Barista are also circling around the contestants’ spaces this morning, taking it all in. Accompaning Starbucanner presently, as I’m eyeballing the scene through Baker Bloch, are the small pink Mooninite Er along with the tall Plutonian Emory, both from Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. And lastly there’s Queen Maria from The Life 2.0 Movie Fan Club just appearing at the door. I think that’s it.

Woops. Hucka Doobie has just rung me up to say that the Mooninite and Plutonian are *not* judges, as one of their own is part of the contest (Master Shake, also of Aqua Teen Hunger Force). They’re just accompanying friend Starbuccanneer this morning after a long night of partying with her.

Moving to the 3 displays on the other side of the temple, we first come to Jesus of Nazareth, who like Master Shake to his left and also Boxy Brown at the other end was a candidate in the Collagesity deity contest. The most holy Jesus has chosen to completely make over his former arrangement, here paired with who appears to be Mary Magdalene inside a blackened grotto. Painfully green Boss Moss seems to be elucidating the story of the famous foot washing scene involving the two. Gears spin behind Jesus’ head — his holy machinations? Three masks of red, yellow and blue top everything off. A masterful upgrade from the Prince of Peace.

Such is not the case with Master Shake, unfortunately, whose true, selfish colors have seemingly been exposed and made clear in the new contest. Shake blatently stole the Big Fire of Lisa The Vegetarian, reporting saying to her in a jealous rage something to the effect of, “You think that’s a fire, I’ll *show* you a fire!”. He is truly engulfed in a massive flaming, and takes with him a group of innocent butterflies, stolen from the display to his left (Piet Mond). I won’t say any more about his tableau as I don’t think it is worth wasting blog space on.

So we move to Piet Mond, yet another new candidate for town deity. The clown being assumes a virile pose in front of a 3 part room screen with design based on the artwork of Dutchman Piet Mondrian, famous for making geometric tri-color paintings. Red, yellow, blue — just like the masks displayed in the Jesus exhibit right across the aisle. I’m not sure whose is a reaction to whose, or if the repetition of theme is mere chance. Anyway, it would be good to know, since it will affect the judging in a positive or negative way. Behind the screen appears another jester or buffoon, holding a rock with the engraving, “Nothing is etched in stone.” Irony — always a plus to the judges. And the ladder leads to the orange butterflies we’ve just seen burning in Shake’s display. As I said before, Shake stole them from Piet Mond, however. It’s like he didn’t even try hard in the new contest. Undermining?

Then the final display in the temple comes from robot “It’s Alive”, but was later seen to be just a ruse of Carrcassonnee waiting outside with a huge surprise.

Now when Baker Bloch finished up inside the temple and went outside and spied Carrcassonnee way up in the sky staring down at him, he was sure she’d win. This was the topper, as much as he liked Lisa The Vegetarian’s display, along with a strong showing from Jesus, Wappo Jack and maybe Piet Mond. But then after about 5 minutes she disappeared — gone in a wink.

He then wasn’t so sure. And as he thought about it later, he became more concerned about that lack of eyeball within her head. Something wasn’t prepared to the fullest in the ambitious yet perhaps overreaching attempt.

More results and speculation soon!

Nasty Medicine Falls.

Temple The.

Awaiting a deity.

Confluence influence.

11:30pm:

Quite a crowd assembled at Mysten’s newly rezzed TILE Temple tonight. Everyone appears to be jostling for position, like in a horse race. Except this seems to be shaping up as another one of those deity races. Much too early for guesses about a winner yet. Incumbent Carrcassonnee obviously will have her chance.

Abandoned an additional 1536 in Rubi (512×3), bought an additional 1536 in Mysten to the immediate east of what I already had there (a 2048). Rezzed Collagesity’s TILE Temple again, along with a supporting stream this time with several waterfalls and cascades. Nothing in the temple yet. Hopefully I’ll have enough prim space left over to play around with stuff in a skybox.

The new stream seems to be the twin to the one running through the meat of Mysten Underhill. They end at the same place here, at the southwest corner of my Mysten properties. One again gets the impression that a lake should actually be in this corner, a common confluence.

TILE Temple to left, new stream waterfalls to right.

Interesting rock and dirt (sand?) pile found along the northern edge of the Leemington sim in central Nautilus, called a “corner tor” in the description. There’s nothing inside it, yet the object still has a rather hefty prim count of 52.

Nearby lonesome cottage in Underclaw. Looks very familiar to Baker Bloch. It should. 🙂

Ridiculous row of linden palm trees straddling the border between Yelloo and Far Sight from the same general area. Each tree is one prim apiece, and they seem to number in the hundreds. An even more obvious waste of land resources. But, hey, to each his own. And the palms don’t even make really effective border vegetation.

View of the trees from a Yelloo bay.

Small beauty spot in Ampollino 2 sims north of Far Sight that offers a bit of visual relief from the vast stretches of Nautilus mountain wastelands.

*Finally* a legitimately beautiful larger parcel was uncovered in Gualdo this night of exploring, several miles north of my home base in Mysten. It’s called Avian Retreat, a park dedicated to avian avatars and bird/nature lovers. A flock of parrots moved in from the right just as I was snapping the picture.

The green paneled hillside to the northeast provides Baker with a strenuous hike. At the top lies Rubin Mayo’s Tresor de l’Art gallery that I’d already visited the night before. Or Baker Bloch visited the night before. Certainly a more interesting Nautilus continent gallery. Here’s its blog:

http://tresordelart.blogspot.com/

I took this bucolic picture from the Aspen Farm located one sim north. Just over that mountain range in the background lies Tresor de l’Art.

More mountain scenery near a southern terminus of Route 12 in Camorro.

Contrasting underwater vegetation in what I call The Scorpion (sea) in upper east Nautilus: the brown kelp of Tetra to the right and Amago’s green seaweed to the left. These are the only objects found in each sim respectively.