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[littleblessedvillain]

Our Pugmire stuff came in!

[littleblessedvillain]

The latest from Travis, our humble Geist 2nd Edition developer:

Sin-Eaters borrow the term Memento from the Latin phrase memento mori, “remember that you must die”. People have been finding or making tokens by which to remember death for nearly as long as they’ve been dying, but to the Bound they are something more. A Memento is a physical object with a Twilight presence, transformed by the resonance of death into something that’s no longer entirely of the living.

Death Trinkets

Most Mementos are ordinary objects that were transformed by playing an important role in someone’s death, or by acting as one of a ghost’s Anchors. The Bound have never been able to figure out exactly what turns one object into a Memento while another remains untouched; one grisly murder might result in the murder weapon itself becoming a token of death, while another death, just as violent, leaves the murder weapon unaltered, but creates a Memento out of the porcelain doll sitting on the shelf next to where the victim died.

Mementos can also come from more unusual sources. Objects brought back from the Underworld often become Mementos, resonating with the purpose for which they were returned to the world of the living. With effort, the Bound can even create Mementos, infusing an object of their own creation with Plasm and deathly inspiration. Geists can also create Mementos, through their own demise: a geist that’s torn apart or otherwise ended leaves a physical token of their existence in the form of a mask, and certain Ceremonies can create Mementos by trapping a ghost in one of its Anchors.

Some Sin-Eaters claim to own even stranger Mementos: the bones of a Kerberoi, bottled souls, undead hearts, and more. Such stories are exactly as fanciful as they are impossible to prove, but if nothing else they turn a common Memento into a great conversation starter.

Enduring Treasures

Mementos, like Sin-Eaters themselves, are equally solid to physical matter and Twilight ephemera. They’re also damned hard to destroy — they’re never damaged by accidents or environmental hazards, and even deliberate attempts to destroy them require overcoming an extremely high Durability. (Yes, that means a Memento umbrella can be used as a shield, and a Memento leather jacket is roughly the equivalent of a Kevlar vest.) The Bound can feed a Memento to their geist for a full refill of Plasm, but that’s considered a tool of last resort.

Aside from their Key, which we’ve already discussed, all Mementos have a supernatural effect of their very own — from a marble that always rolls toward the closest exit to a bootleg record pressed onto an old x-ray film that plays new songs by dead rock stars, Mementos warp the world around them. Sometimes they’re obvious, sometimes subtle; sometimes they’re powerful, sometimes they don’t seem to have a practical use, but people do strange things for a taste of magic, and Memento cults are known to spring up around charismatic individuals or especially remarkable Mementos. Even the Bound are known to be impressed by a well-curated collection of Mementos, artfully arranged by theme or expressing the sheer variety of death.

Greater Mementos

While most Mementos have a weird, but ultimately minor, supernatural effects, rumors abound of those with truly staggering power: A watch that stops you from aging as long as you wear it. A perfectly-preserved Roman trireme that can sail to any port in the Mediterranean in one night. A date book that tells you exactly when, where, and how you’re fated to die.

No one can seem to agree on what makes these Mementos, if they even exist, so powerful. Is it because they’re associated with famous deaths, like Caesar’s assassination or the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper? Is it because they’re very old, like the 430,000-year- old skull of the first known murder victim? Or is it just sheer dumb luck and random cosmic convergence?

Whatever the truth, even the rumor of a greater Memento can set the occult world on edge, and an actual, verifiable greater Memento is the sort of thing krewes and cults go to war over.

Example Mementos

Just to whet your appetite, here are a couple of example Mementos from the book. (The usual disclaimers about this being non-final, pre-editing text apply.)

The Cold Harbor Diary

Key: Stillness

Description: A small, bloodstained, leather-bound book, filled with notes written by a Union soldier during the American Civil War. Despite being made in the 1860s, it looks almost new. The pages are a uniform cream, the blood on the cover barely dry. The entries begin cheerfully, but become increasingly nihilistic and distraught as the diary goes on. The final entry is uncharacteristically short and to the point: “June 3. Cold Harbor. I was killed.”

Effect: The body of anyone who dies holding the Cold Harbor Diary cannot be identified. Fingerprints, DNA, dental records, and more all fail. Even the deceased’s loved ones can’t do better than “It sort of looks like him, maybe, but it’s hard to tell.” This effect does not extend to the deceased’s ghost.

The Drowned Phone

Key: Deep Waters

Description: A banged-up smartphone a few years out of date. Drops of water under the screen and behind the lens of the back camera create weird distortions in the display and in any photos taken with it. Despite that, the phone functions perfectly, though the operating system refuses to update to the latest version.

Effect: The phone can make calls and access the internet from anywhere, regardless of reception, provided it is at least partially submerged in water (which doesn’t affect it the way you’d expect). Audio sent this way is raspy and distorted on the other end, but usually still comprehensible. The phone can even make — and, according to one previous owner, receive — calls from the Underworld.

Next Time

Power that goes unused is little more than bragging rights. Sin-Eaters use their powers in service of their fellow dead and in opposition to the forces that would exploit them. So, next week will we learn about Reapers, or about ghosts?

[littleblessedvillain]

Working on designs for a new Exalted character… A Twilight caste. I think his name will be Altair. 

[littleblessedvillain]

A commission of a character named Joan. She was a Beast, and her horror was an Adze–which is a vampiric monster associated with fireflies! 

[littleblessedvillain]

First set all colored, second set outlined and ready to go! Been having a lazy day at home, shirking my chores, but I’m getting faster at finishing these, so I’m happy with how much I did today!

The intent is to make these into paper game minis to play with, as I just don’t have time to sculpt them. Maybe someday in the distant future, but for now, I’m beyond happy with these :D

[littleblessedvillain]

This is the last set of these for the moment. I got my comic break, now if i can finish the next page or two, I want do another set. But dang, was it a good break, I learned a few things, and they all came out soooooo nice.

Czar almost got his own post, his pattern is so busy, but he’s SOOOO PRETTY, I LOVE HIM <3

Back to comic pages! and also trying to survive the work week

[littleblessedvillain]

Work has not been good today, so I’m drawing more Pugmire dogs to take the edge off. For the most part, its working. I love them all. I also have way too many. WHY CAN”T I HOLD ALL THESE DOGS.

Someday I’ll do a cat or two as well, but for now, hotdogs.

[littleblessedvillain]

Okay okay okay. So I’ve seen Star Trek: First Contact about a hundred times and I can’t believe I never noticed this.

So first contact with the Vulcans happens, right? The Vulcan ship lands…

Ooh look an alien. Pointy ears!

He offers what we as Star Trek fans recognize as the traditional Vulcan greeting.

Zefram Cochrane tries to copy…

Haha he can’t do it.

So he of course offers what he knows to be a traditional greeting, namely a handshake.

And ah yes, what a wonderful moment. Two cultures are exchanging greetings, learning about each other. It’s awesome.

Until you remember that Vulcans kiss with their hands.

So basically, this Vulcan offered a nice polite “how do you do” and Zefram Cochrane offered smoochies.

I really hope this came up in conversation later.

[littleblessedvillain]

I want a pangolin Pokémon :(

[littleblessedvillain]

Exercise is great for helping manage Depression. Medication and a doctor are essential.

I really need people who don’t know shit about living with mental illness to stop talking about it, because they’re hurting those of us who live with Depression and other forms of mental illness.

[littleblessedvillain]

the DM: Okay, at the end of the hallway is a stone door with no visible locks, latches, or opening mechanisms. Carved into the stone is an inscription that reads, “What is the sound of silence?”

the bard, instantly:  ♪ Hello darkness my old friend ♪

DM: …………………Oh my god. I forgot-

bard:  ♪ I’ve come to talk with you again ♪

DM: No, that’s not the answer- 

bard:  ♪ Because a vision softly creeping ♪

DM: Here, I’ve got my notes, let me change the riddle-

bard:  ♪ Left its seeds while I was sleeping  ♪

DM: Please-

bard, emphatically now:  ♪ AND THE VISION THAT WAS PLANTED IN MY BRAIN  ♪

DM: IT’S NOT-

bard:  ♪ STILL REMAINS ♪

DM: I’M BEGGING-

bard:  ♪ WITHIN THE SOUND ♪

DM: PLEASE-

bard:  ♪ OF SILENCE ♪

DM, with a visibly broken spirit: …Yeah, okay. The door swings open.

[littleblessedvillain]

Do this four times repeatedly and you’ll be out. But how does it work? There’s some real brain science behind it.

[littleblessedvillain]

just a quick note- no trans person has ever said “did you just assume my gender.” trans people are very aware of how their gender and physical appearance differ and that visually one might assume that they are a man/woman when they are actually not. that’s kind of the whole idea of gender dysphoria. 

[littleblessedvillain]

you know how much pressure there is on girls to be good at every video game they play, because if they fuck up once there’s going to be a heck of a lot of people saying how girls suck and how they shouldn’t play video games 

[littleblessedvillain]

trans women who can not have bottom surgery due to complications are still women. trans women who can not afford or attain bottom surgery are still women. trans women who don’t want bottom surgery are still women.

[littleblessedvillain]

i’m losing terf followers so please keep unfollowing me :^)

[littleblessedvillain]