"There are some things we were not meant to know, they say. But you wouldn't be down here if you took that seriously."
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"Afternoon. Ready to offer my services. I'm an engineer. Finest you'll ever hire. Treat engines like my own children. Not that I have children. Too busy. Usually busy."[1]
"Does he ever sleep? His eyes are dark-circled, but his hands are steady."[2]
The Tireless Mechanic is a talkative and somewhat scatterbrained engineer.[3] He does not sleep and takes a draught to compensate, which lets him retain his faculties[4] but does not prevent him from perpetually having dark-circled eyes.[5] To stave off sleep, he eats simple meals and refuses wine.[6]
The Mechanic's passion for engines once led him to dream of them, and then of the Stone Pigs - the engine-creatures that allow the Bazaar to travel the High Wilderness.[7] The Pigs sleep for now, but the Fingerkings can breach their dreams. They recruited the Mechanic to steal a secret from the Pigs' dreams:[7] the design[8] for an engine unlike any other.[9] The fascinated Mechanic stole the secret for himself rather than giving it to the Fingerkings as they asked,[10] and stashed the secret in Frostfound where the Fingerkings could not follow.[11] Enraged at his deception,[10] the Fingerkings will hunt him down the moment he sleeps and enters Parabola.[12]
The Mechanic wants to defeat his serpentine pursuers so that he may sleep again.[13] He also hopes to reacquire his secret[14] and use it to build an engine called the Fulgent Impeller,[15] which runs on the same forces that propel the Bazaar.[16] The Impeller also requires a "heart" to function,[17] so the Mechanic has contracted a humanoid Rubbery Man called the Unsettling Sage[18][19] to act as a willing subject when the time comes.[17]
↑Invite him to dine with you, Sunless Sea"His tastes are spartan - he eats little, drinks only water, barely sleeps at all [...] "Thanks for the meal. [...] No, no wine. It makes me sleepy. Oh, yes, I can sleep! Too easily - that's the problem.""
↑ 7.07.1Ask the Mechanic to explain exactly what the hell is going on, Sunless Sea""I talk about engines. All the time. [...] And I dream about them. I found myself dreaming of the Stone Pigs. They're, oh, I don't entirely understand, still. But they're how the Bazaar travels between stars. [...] And they sleep, so the Fingerkings can crack their dreams open. So the Fingerkings recruited me.""
↑Excavate the cellar, Sunless Sea""The Writhing River flows near here," the Mechanic remarks. "One of the tributaries of dream. My enemies find me when I sleep [...]"
↑Tireless Mechanic, Sunless Sea"Oh, captain, captain, let me build it for you. You won't be sorry! [...] Find Frostfound, in the north, and retrieve the Mechanic's secret from the penultimate chamber."
↑Invite the Unsettling Sage to dinner, Sunless Sea"His tastes are piscine in the extreme. [...] "I am aacustomed," he admits frankly, "to be being used aas a tool. [...] My people maade me aas a repository of secrets. It will be a relief, when that ends. But until then, I shaall keep the secrets a little longer." [...] He hands you a little nodule of deep amber."
↑That Which Has Taken a Name, Fallen London"A black stone thing made of spikes floats near the surface. [...] "I hate it here," says the grey-skinned man, to nobody in particular. A thrown pebble bounces off the spiked stone thing. "I have no secrets to take.""
