#Western Appliances

[fruitcage]

[zaynsource]

Water Slide Pool Large eclectic backyard photo with a uniquely shaped water slide

[illillsa]

Beach Style Living Room - Open Example of a mid-sized beach style open concept living room with white walls, a fireplace, and no television in a beige and medium tone wood floor.

[professorpryde]

Water Slide Pool Large eclectic backyard photo with a uniquely shaped water slide

[roachrotting]

BEN!!!! I always kind of dread turning my ideas into art, especially if it's my first time in a while trying to draw a specific character. Thankfully, my version of BEN Drowned is insanely easy to draw! Woo hoo! Some headcanons under the cut:

Benjamin Lawman, born 1984, was a prospect computer engineer, studying his undergrad at Oregon Health and Science University. In 2003, at the tender age of 19, Ben was brutally bludgeoned to death, and his body was tied to bricks and sunk to the bottom of Smith Lake in an attempt to hide the act. The reason behind his murder, and the person (or people) who carried it out are unknown. Lawman's murder is one of the most widely known cold cases in the Western United States.

Seemingly unrelated to this, in 2003, a virus known as Stillwater starts corrupting random devices, from personal computers to gaming consoles. Rates of self-harm, extreme violence, cruelty towards humans and animals, and suicide in households with an infected device are sky-high. The only reason it wasn't declared a national emergency was its relative obscurity, and the fact that infections seemed to happen within small clusters of people, or in niche communities. Most local police departments had no interest in exploring the root cause of any of these clusters of crime, and any that did were quickly overtaken by BEN's demonic influence.

BEN does not have a tangible form. Rather, his ghost is entirely contained in the haunted code that spreads the virus. The one exception is his hold on his victims - BEN is a cognitohazard, which in his case, means that the more a person thinks about him or interacts with him, the more power he has over their thoughts and actions. Still, though, he is unable to hurt people directly. What BEN is able to do in the real world is limited by the amount of devices he has access to, as well as the people who know about him.

A typical Stillwater infection starts on a personal computer, then moves throughout all devices within a household, such as TVs, kitchen appliances, and eventually, your power source. BEN is able to control these devices with the virus, and he uses this control to wreak havoc on a person's life. Draining your online finances, stealing your identity and publicly confessing to horrible deeds under your name, directing power throughout your house in a way that creates fire hazards or blackouts...none of this is off the table for him.

Once Stillwater has infected all of the devices within a household, BEN attempts to gain access to the minds of his victims. They will start to see BEN's face in any surface capable of having a reflection. Mirrors, glass windows, glass cups, actual glasses...it grows to be a living hell in a startlingly short amount of time. The more of a grasp he has over your mind, the closer he looks in the reflections.

The most common direct cause for Stillwater-related deaths is suicide, followed by electrocution, burning to death, and car accidents. It seems that, while BEN is able to enact a huge amount of control over his victims, he is unable to gain ultimate control over their bodies and minds, and his attempts to do so usually lead to his victims' deaths. It doesn't stop him from trying, though.

BEN looking like Link from Majora's Mask is due to his prehumous fixation on the franchise - Stillwater's first infection was on Benjamin Lawman's own GameCube.

[mary-bell-radiation-authority]

how do you guys feel about the queers??? 🤨🤨🤨🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

Congratulations homosexual! Your existence has been deemed profitable in the following regions: North America, Western Europe, and Australia.

To celebrate the occasion, we have temporarily recolored all Mary Bell Radiation Authority appliances in these regions to your favorite flavor of gay.

For further pandering on a wider area please continue fighting for basic human dignities and the MBRA will be right there to celebrate your victory with you. Afterwards. - Unpaid MBRA Intern Number 2012

[alpaca-clouds]

Worldbuild Differently: Unthink Family

This week I want to talk a bit about one thing I see in both fantasy and scifi worldbuilding: Certain things about our world that we live in right now are assumed to be natural, and hence just adapted in the fantasy world. With just one tiny problem: They are not natural, and there were more than enough societies historically that avoided those pitfalls.

What is a family? What do you imagine, when I say "family"?

Does your first idea include father, mother, two kids and a white picket fence? Even though you are kinda queer and do not even aim for something like that? Yeah, see. Because we got pretty much brainwashed into assuming this was what family looked like. Father, mother, two kids. Heteronormative, mononormative, one generation.

And here is the issue: This is not how humans have evolved to live. And the absolute insanity is, that the modern world might be even less viable for this model, and yet is the one that is enforcing this idea.

Because this model is so normalized, we will constantly see it show up in fantasy and scifi settings, even though it is as ridiculous for the world to be like that. Why would people in the scifi setting live like that? Why would people in a medieval world life like that - even though they historically did rarely do it like this?

See, historically there are usually two models of familiar living:

The multigenerational household

Village as family

The multigenerational household is what was probably most common in Europe during historical times. No matter whether you go back to ancient times or medieval times. Usually a lot of families would actually live with grandparents, aunt/uncle, their kids, the parents, and the parents' kids as well. It was usually a lot more sensible given that this way there was always someone around to take care of kids that were too young to be alone and too young to help working with either the job, or on the fields.

The alternate version of this, that a variety of indigenous cultures also had. Instead of having a very certain family unit, some also had the concept of a village as a family. Meaning: Kids were raised by everyone in a villaige/group together. It does not matter who are the blood parents, everyone is there for those kids, and everyone is responsible for them. In some cultures this had even been so far formalized that a lot more than two people are considered the mother and father of any given child.

This modern idea of father, mother, two children and the white picket fence? Yeah, that was something that was created in the 1950s. Really. It is not even a hudnred years old.

The idea for the small nuclear family was developed for capitalism. Because they assumed that the nuclear family would be better consumers, they pushed for it. See, when the parents to no longer live with the grandparents, we have already parted one household into two. So both of those households need to buy a house, need to buy a lot of appliances, and so on. More stuff sold. More stuff consumed. Yay, capitalism. (Please note how sarcastic and bitter I am sounding.)

And... Honestly, here on the end of this big I am just thinking to myself: I am begging you. Please, please, unless you write a capitalist scifi world, don't do a father-mother-children family model. It does not work. It is not sustainable. It is not what humans have evolved to do. And in a pseudo historical setting it is simply just bad worldbuilding, that does make no sense whatsoever.

You will notice that I am not gonna do examples here, because... Honestly, I am struggling to think of many books that do not use the nuclear family as the standard model in their worldbuilding.

And I am sorry. Even if you do not wanna do polyamory... The nuclear family is a toxic construct of modern western capitalism, and it is destroying families and people everywhere. Stop propagating it in your books, just because you have swallowed to cool-aid too much.

If you take anything from this week of worldbuilding advice, it is really this: Don't worldbuild around a model of family, that is hurting people, after being invented to sell more stuff to people in the US.

[dankxsinatra]

Man this has been bugging me for years. One of my first memories is seeing a cartoon, an imported anime, of like a cop whose team is made up of appliances like a dishwasher and a stove but they were autonomous robots. This was like a late 80s anime adapted for western audiences.

It's weird that I have such a vivid memory of the opening sequence which is them introducing themselves but I can't find anything like it online to this day.

Part of me wonders if my kid brain mixed up some show like transformers and the brave little toaster but it's so vivid I don't think it's that.

[biggerchallenge]

Had a bit of a revelation about gaming culture 10 years too late.

Once upon a time, games were primarily considered an electronic toy, and were typically criticized on the same level as any other home electronic, like a toaster or a lamp.

As the medium evolved, so too did the criticism. Many chose to criticize the medium the way they would criticize other mediums of artwork, such as literature, film, or music.

But to criticize them on that level meant having to address them for what they said, what they believed, and how they presented that. Which meant for many having to read things they disagreed with, or worse, criticizing the things they did agree with.

And they reacted. Harshly.

Consider the criticism that reactionary gamers do like and do appreciate. Outrage merchants like crowbcat, who present the failures of gaming with things like visual effects, performance, and stability. Consider the usual things reactionary gamers complain about that aren't about the presence of those who don't conform to the standards of western hegemony, such as queers, people of color, and women who they can't jack off to. They complain about framerates. They complain about the lack of 4k resolutions. Performance. Stability. Optimization.

Imagine a review of a book that only spoke of the quality of the ink, the paper, and the binding and ignored any of the writing those physical materials were meant to convey.

The reactionary gamer does not want art crticism, nor do they want art in their home. The reactionary gamer wants electronics reviews and expensive home appliances.

[zinger-begonia]

Selected passages:

"Most of the Central and Western US, New England, and Ontario, Canada, are at elevated risk, according to the analysis. Energy shortages are a problem when hotter-than-normal summer temperatures cause electricity demand to skyrocket. People crank up their air conditioning, putting greater pressure on the grid. At the same time, extreme heat can make power plants, as well as solar and wind farms, less efficient when it comes to generating electricity. That mismatch in supply and demand leads to blackouts when people need air conditioning the most to cope with the heat...

More than 46 million people across the US are under extreme heat alerts today, compared to some 29 million late last week...

Heat already kills more people in the US than any other weather-related disaster, a threat that’s expected to get worse with climate change. And it’s not just the US that’s in hot water. Mexico’s National Center for Energy Control declared a state of emergency last week when temperatures soared above 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) and triggered record electricity demand. In India and China, home to more than a third of the world’s population, heatwaves have strained health resources and power grids since April..."

Their suggestions:

"Turning off lights and appliances can help take pressure off the power grid, ERCOT says. So can raising the thermostat at home and keeping blinds closed to block out sunlight. Fans can help circulate cool air but might stop being helpful if indoor air temperatures get hotter than your body temperature. Many cities set up cooling centers where people can find air conditioning to stay safe and healthy."

From experience (live in the maritime PNW, it used to not get above like 85, had a heat wave up to 110 and people died, so please hold the mocking), putting aluminum foil over windows makes a huge difference. Opening windows and doors at night if it is cooler outside, and then closing them in the morning helps. Staying hydrated, using electrolytes, wiping yourself down with water, putting your feet in a basin of cool weather, and visiting a forest or body of water can all help. If you can cook outside, do. Last time, we ran a cord outside to a single burner.

[fruitcage]

[ravenpostpublishing]

An Abridged Excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" (1842)

"The 'Red Death' had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avator and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.

"But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys … The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the 'Red Death.'

"It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.

"It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. There were seven—an imperial suite … [The] windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue—and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet—a deep blood color … But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.

"It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to harken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused revery or meditation. But when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians looked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly, and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and then, after the lapse of sixty minutes, (which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of the Time that flies,) there came yet another chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as before...

"[It] was [Prince Prospero's] own guiding taste which had given character to the masqueraders. Be sure they were grotesque. There were much glare and glitter and piquancy and phantasm ... There were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams. And these—the dreams—writhed in and about, taking hue from the rooms, and causing the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their steps. And, anon, there strikes the ebony clock which stands in the hall of the velvet. And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. But the echoes of the chime die away—they have endured but an instant—and a light, half-subdued laughter floats after them as they depart. And now again the music swells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more merrily than ever, taking hue from the many tinted windows through which stream the rays from the tripods. But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture; for the night is waning away; and there flows a ruddier light through the blood-colored panes; and the blackness of the sable drapery appals; and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet, there comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than any which reaches their ears who indulge in the more remote gaieties of the other apartments...

"And thus too, it happened, perhaps, that before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before. And the rumor of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise—then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust…

"The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood—and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror..."

– Edgar Allan Poe, 1842

To read the entirety of this classic tale and bask in its ghoulish glory, please do pay a visit to The Raven Post.

To contribute your own short story to The Raven Post's library, please visit our Submissions page.

[lumpyorganelle]

Alpha quadra socionics

Alpha, or the 'first' quadra, includes ILE, SEI, ESE, and LII. Reinin characterizes this quadra as Judicious, Merry, and Democratic.

Valued/dominant information elements:

Ne, Ti, Fe, Si

Subdued/unvalued information elements:

Se, Ni, Te, Fi

Outlook on life/keywords:

light-heartedness, down-to-earth, to have a good time and fun, avoidance of pain and taking things too literally/seriously, not overly competitive or ambitious, goofy, warm, sociable, child-like, curiosity, intellectual banter/tangents, exchange of abstract ideas, judgement-free, merriness, enthusiasm, freedom of speech, democratic, entertainment, community, less inclined to making long-term commitment, present-oriented

values:

sensory and mental comfort, peace, simplicity, family, relaxation over force, avoidance of conflict, high-pressure, (Si > Se)

possibilities, subjectivity, openness to new, abstract and unusual ideas, 'what if this happens? what if this is possible?' etc, multiple viewpoints rather than one definite one (Ne > Ni)

exchange of theoretical ideas for fun/intellectual stimulation rather than the practical merit/appliance (Ti > Te)

warm emotionally charged/comfortable/cozy atmospheres, mood/vibe, community/collectivist oriented, absence of dogmatic judgements/harsh opinions and emphasis on psychological closeness (lack of in-group/out-groups bias; openness to everyone) (Fe > Fi)

fantasy setting analogy (u/G-G_Sensei ., A take on quadras as types of narration (2023) r/socionics):

adventure novel set in some kind of golden age of great exploration. Lots of focus on vastness and stimulation of new-found worlds, detailed descriptions of luscious nature, geeky science in linnean fashion, group environments ("western"-like society, ship personnel, tribes on remote islands, etc)

Negatives/cons:

other types (especially those that value Fi or Te) may view this quadra as superficial, obnoxious and obtrusive. May find them irritating because they are unable to be serious and may be dismissive, detached or insensitive.

memes:

by u/kingofdictionopolis:

By u/Allieloopdeloop:

References:

https://www.personalitycafe.com/threads/reflections-on-alpha-quadra-descriptions.221258/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Socionics/comments/1abh2nj/summary_of_quadra_attitudes/

https://socionics.world/socionics-quadra/1/Alpha

[gothicprep]

“big box entertainment and short form content are pushing out room for art” is one of those things that I do think there is some truth to, while also being completely overstated.

i wanna take you guys back to the post-war era in the US. this was the time when television was first becoming a major media force and was in many ways replacing radio. if you go and look at time use surveys in the post war era, a couple of things happen. you saw that americans suddenly had huge amount of additional leisure time because of the rise of the middle class, the boom in home appliances that made keeping up a house – doing the dishes, shopping because you now had mass refrigeration and freezing, doing laundry. if you go back before the washing machine, it was very, very common for middle class & even upper middle women who didn’t have a lot of help to spend one whole day doing the laundry. and suddenly, they didn’t. so now there’s a massive amount of leisure time to fill now. and what did they spend doing? just watching television. and some of it was great and we look back on it with fondness, but a lot of that stuff was really trashy time filling junk. and it was kind of designed as trashy time filling junk. it needed to be just entertaining enough to hook in the maximum amount of people and it was assumed that you weren’t really going to be paying attention because you’d be doing something else. soap operas in particular very specifically designed for homemakers to watch while they were doing their chores.

and as we probably all know, before the streaming model or hbo model, most american television was designed with the expectation that viewers wouldn’t watch most episodes, so you couldn’t tell a long story that needed people to concentrate on over the course of, say, 8-13 episodes. in many ways, this was sort of viewed by the culture mavens and the intelligentsia as a terrible thing. if you just go back and read this sort of bookish set of that era (60s-80s) wrote, you’d hear this constantly. it’s rotting people’s minds. it’s the idiot box.

there’s this very famous speech from an fcc chairman, newton minow, about how television was a “vast wasteland”. and a lot of the critiques I hear about the current media landscape, to me, read as the “vast wasteland” speech but for the internet era. there was something true about minow’s view of television. but what’s really interesting is that, if you go back and you read it, he singles out three types of shows – police shows, gangster shows, and westerns.

and what were the three hbo shows that founded the golden era of television? the wire, a police show, the sopranos, a gangster show, and deadwood, a western. over time, television found a way to be more intelligent, more complicated, and promote more concentration. and even then, that criticism of television in the post war era was just sort of overblown at the time.

as much as it is obvious that tiktok just sort of plays on an instinct to not pull away, but to simply dismiss all of it as “this is distraction eating everyone’s brains and it’s like a drug” is probably not something that’s going to hold up 20 or 30 years from now. there’s always a cycle of this sort of thing.

[zac-salazar-01]

Hello people of tumblr

after much thinking

I decided to rewrite my original sentai and riders with some new additions

there are still 25 OCs in total and separated into two eras (Mugen and Saikyou)

Riders from the Mugen era

1 Kamen Rider Kaizoh

theme: Pirates and ancient civilizations

2 Kamen Rider Psion

theme: Telepaths and toys

3 Kamen Rider V-Wing

theme: Birds and weather conditions

4 Kamen Rider 0-X

theme: Espionage and smartphones

5 Kamen Rider Beat

theme: Angels and dances

6 Kamen Rider Zyunin

theme: Ninjas and dinosaurs

7 Kamen Rider Volt

theme: electricity, appliances and mythological beasts

8 Kamen Rider K

theme: Kaijus and soft drinks

9 Kamen Rider X-Tyle

Theme: clothing

10 Kamen Rider Eco

Theme: ecology and plants

11 Kamen Rider Appare

Theme: festivals and kabuki theater

12 Kamen Rider Punklord

Theme: kings, kingdoms, chess pieces, punk aesthetics (steampunk, solarpunk, etc.)

13 Kamen Rider Seiza

Theme: western and constellations

14 Kamen Rider Job

Theme: professions

15 Kamen Rider Author

Theme: manga and riders from the past

Riders of the Saikyou Era

16 Kamen Rider Hoshin

Theme: trademark arts, wuxia, Chinese mythology and the Investiture of the Gods tale

17 Kamen Rider Valk

Theme: norse mythology and battle royale

18 Kamen Rider Shard

Theme: gemstones and sports

19 Kamen Rider Zyte

Theme: parasites and components of the human body

20 Kamen Rider Atom

Theme: periodic table

21 Kamen Rider Shura

Theme: Hindu\Buddhist mythology

22 Kamen Rider Film

Theme: movies

23 Kamen Rider Petz

Theme: pets and animes like pokemon and digimon

24 Kamen Rider Blaze

Theme: elements, weapons, rpg classes

25 Kamen Rider Hyperion

Theme: Riders from the past, fusions and aliens

I hope y'all like it

[zedecksiew]

Three Objects

Sketching has been good at breaking up the misery of staring at a manuscript and being stuck. At least with the drawing I'm roadblocked by my lack of skill rather than my lack of ideas. There are things from an adventure I am currently writing for Colin Le Sueur’s We Deal In Lead. It began as a homage to Wisit Sasanatieng’s tomyamgong western Fa Thalai Chon / Tears Of The Black Tiger.

+++

WIDOW GON'S PALANQUIN

A broad teak throne: canopied, curtained, cushioned. Stinks of tobacco.

Its bearers: the captive brothers Khol. Every night Lady Sao Rai visits their garage, selects a brother, and fucks him in her grandmother's palanquin.

The Khols are too afraid to refuse her.

+

The Widow is matriarch of House Gon. It will be her fiftieth birthday, soon. An elaborate fete is planned.

Captives are found across the sea, created through poverty, criminal sentences, or legal abduction. By Admiralty law, a captive must go free once they earn their owner their original price, a hundred times over.

In practice, few owners obey.

+++

It should be obvious what captives are. I ding-donged with myself about the nomenclature, here.

A simple reason for avoiding the word "slave" is because most people think "transatlantic slave trade" as soon as you say it. If nothing else I want to avoid the association because it is inaccurate.

On the other hand: annoying to have to decenter Southeast Asia in this way! The equivalent of having to say "chai tea" when I should be able to say "tea", because that is what the word means to me!

(I strain against this specific problem often.)

Finally I decided "captive" was good, after all. This kind of legalistic euphemism ("Oh, they aren't slaves, they are indentured servants.") is exactly in character for rich assholes bending language to assuage their consciences.

+++

HOUSEHOLD PSYCHOPHONE

Listening room: settees; shelf of wax-cylinder records; a podium on which sits a psychophone.

Pop a cylinder into the psychophone, point its antenna at a servant wearing the receiving brooch, listen to them sing in an alto entirely not their own.

+

Psychophones have been ruinous to local performers. Once-celebrated local singers have been reduced to glorified loudspeakers: vessels for the voices of famous chanteuses from across the Ocean.

This home entertainment system requires at least two to operate:

One servant (or more commonly a servitor) to turn the crank;

One servant to serve as a receiver-singer.

A receiver-singer's health eventually suffers. When you have somebody else's voice (and soul) forced into you over and over, and you begin to lose your own …

+++

This one was troublesome. Felt like production design. Appliance design.

Had several goals:

The core mechanism has to look like it makes sense, to its own internal logic. No greebling; every bit needs to look like it has a purpose.

Lots of ornamentation. This is a luxury device belonging to aristocrats from a rococo Indochinese-inspired society. It needs to be a jewelbox.

Genteel normalisation of vicious magic. The needle made of bone; the antenna that is basically a massive needle pointed at your head---but disguised as a pretty bird.

The receiver-brooch is something I discovered while sketching. Seems gameable? Also, in the spirit of point 3: the brooch has a pin you stick in your forehead.

+++

GHOST WATER

Auw Yin Yan, the Sea of Sorrows---of Sighs.

Imagine bodies in a mass grave the size of a country. Imagine them luminescent, in motion. Pulled by the moon, waved by the wind, clawing at the quay.

+

Always forms into human shapes: when poured into a bowl, ghost water sits as a balled fist.

Like saltwater in most respects. The Sea teems with marine life, though these are cunning and cruel in human ways. Humans cannot swim ghost water. Do not fall in.

Ghosts wear the outfits and injuries they had at death. Rarely, one will crawl onto land, eyes open, a hungry ghast.

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Yeah, so: the wider campaign setting for this adventure is defined by the Sea of Sorrows. It has whales and islands and pirates. It is filled with ghosts instead of water.

I saw the Sea in my mind as a vast Escher-esque tangle of interlocking ghost-bodies.

A wave would be bodies flinging themselves on a beach; their arms and hands dragging on the sand as they pull back into the surf.

I drew a way simpler visual. And the ghost's hair is cheating: it already looks like water.

Still: very pleased with this sketch. Gentle, sort of sweet, quietly creepy. Also it is a modest bailing bucket, which contrasts with the material excess of the palanquin and psychophone.

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