Author: M Van Vleet

Cocoon: An Electric Zine

Cemetery Guns

a few images of ancient weapons and a tweet from DIane Doniol-Valcroze reading: "Cemetery Guns from the 19th Century. Used to protect caskets from bodysnatchers. They were set up at the foot of the grave with 3 tripwires strung in an arc around its position.

I may have failed to kill Moby Dick in life, but in death I shall be avenged when that great devil-cetacean comes to pass water upon my very grave.

ALT: I may have failed to kill Dracula after a life of pursuing him across the continent, but in death I shall be avenged, for I have proffered to that slick-haired fiend an invitation to enter my grave plot, an honor to which he shall be supernaturally compelled to take advantage.

Autodidactimal [a Troika! background]

Autodidactimal

No university in the realms could teach you what you yearned to know about being an animal. Your adopted curriculum: Lived Experience

POSSESSIONS
Animal skin
Hydration pouch
Notepad

ADVANCED SKILLS
Instincts 4
Scholarship 2
Herd Safety 2

The Signal: EP169

The Signal: EP169

The Signal: EP169 – Exactly 45 minutes of music to accompany the dawning horror that this mask may not come off. This is your life now, so aren’t you lucky it’ll have Turkish psych-rock, steel drum hip hop covers, Japanese pop, lo-fi beats, French rap and more?

Download by clicking on the link (or image) above. The file is available only for a limited time. If you’re interested in the tracklist, it’s in the mp3 itself, in the id3 tags. 

Striptease Frankenstein [a TROIKA! background]

Your creator failed to give you purpose and so you found your own: to make of your stitched-together flesh a paean to passion.

POSSESSIONS
• Easily removable outfit
• Charging station

ADVANCED SKILLS
Dance 4
Romance 2
Pathos 2
Science 1

after us

There was about half a year
where I was often alone
in the office and
I wouldn’t bother
to turn the lights on

I’d make coffee in the dim
kitchen and pretend
it was the apocalypse already

imagine the windows blown out
and an unobstructed view
of the lake below

but I still wasn’t ready
for the pandemic and never going back

for grocery shopping with
fogged glasses
and empty
shelves

maybe ’cause all the
lights were
still on

Cupid Wrangler: Troika! background

A bonnet-wearing woman with a sly expression toting a cupid in a custom carrying case.

Whether clearing an infestation or delivering a trained one for a targeted love connection, you’re a trusted pro when it comes to these winged pests.

Advanced Skills:
Cupid Lore 4
Trapping 3
Romance 1

Equipment:
1d3 cupid traps
Wet wipes
Mangled book of love poems

new year’s resolutions (draft)

  • Lure the sailors aboard The Merry onto the rocks, drag them down
  • Fulfill promise to sea crone who crafted my gills and fins
  • Make NEW promise to sea crone for jelly wings
  • Read 10 books
  • Revenge myself upon the seaside town of Baylock, swooping over them with dripping wings, snatching up babies
  • Lose some weight
  • Get betrayed by sea crone, dissolve into foam

REINDEER_JAMZ

A Scratched CD-R Found In An Abandoned Sleigh Labeled “REINDEER JAMZ” – Exactly 45 minutes of xmas music you didn’t know you wanted to hear, picked with the imp of the perverse spinning the ol’ music genre wheel. We’ve got rock, pop, blues, sure… but we’ve also got Christmas reggae, Halloween monster holiday cheer, drum-n-bass, dubstep, vaporwave, a weather report, punk rock and a musical program from a children’s psychiatric hospital.

If that sounds like the holidays to you, click on the image or link above to download and enjoy! Tracklist is in the file’s id3 tags.