#vtm kickstart my heart

[spell-fox]

PLEASE everyone needs to look at this right now. Everyone came out so well! I'm obsessed

Left to right is half of Abaddon, demon nerd Tremere wannabe Baali boy, NPC played by ST @urbanknightart

Linden, played by me, Tzimisce Trying Their Best, very excited by all things isopod, arthropod, arachnid and taxidermy

Dr P Pimbleberry, played by non-tumblr friend Josh, Gangrel professor with his erstwhile companion Little Oak

Monroe/Cash, played by @cynical-tuba, Malkavian cowboy also Trying Their Best. Excellent at playing guitar, but things do have a habit of going wrong when they do...

Agatha, played by non-tumblr friend Greta, Tremere student finding her way in the world and learning how to rebel

THE ART IS SO GOOD I LOOOOVE, look at it, loooooook

See also the Brighton West Pier in the background, before it gets burnt down

I was honored by the gorgeous @spell-fox with the task to draw an anniversary gift for their VTM game set in 1980s Brighton, England - Kickstart my Heart! I love getting their updates and was overjoyed to get to draw everyone! Happy anniversary guys!!!!

(Tumblr EATS large images so I have the OG and then lil snippets, hope that's okay formatting!)

[cynical-tuba]

The economy hit different in 1986.

Between the four of these Coterie members, Agatha is the designated Braincell-Holder.

Agatha - Dark academia Tremere. (She/her)

Linden - Plastic surgeon Tzimisce (They/he/she/any)

Monroe - Con man Mountaineer Malkavian (they/he)

Dr. Pimbleberry - Natural Science professor Gangrel (he/him)

(x)

[spell-fox]

vicissitude lessons ~ childe-sire bonding

after successfully melding a selection of bones into an art piece, Linden (they/them, pretty much any pronouns) has the honour of an opportunity to add to their sire Damyan's (he-they) legwork, embroidering delicate lace bone into a scorpion

details after the cut

[urbanknightart]

Linden receives a baby "The Dutchess" from their sire Damyan, in effort to help them get used to the changes in various circumstances.

For @spell-fox ✨

[spell-fox]

accidental kill

the thrill of the hunt gripped Dr P into a wild frenzy, feeding long and deep. When he emerged, Linden was dragging him from his prey, now dead.

in parallel to Linden's first accidental kill, Dr P managed to get his first overfeeding last session with only Linden close to help clean up. It was their turn to guide him through, as he'd guided them.

Thought I'd draw the two parallel hugs since I drew the last one. Also wow my art style changed enough that I want to redraw the previous one haha

[spell-fox]

frenzy

Monroe Cash manages to extract Linden away from their meal after they lost control. The man drops to the pebble shore as the two coterie-mates tussle for control.

Fledgling Linden's first accidental kill from last session. In return for removing Linden from their prey, Monroe gets a headbutt to the face and thanks to some hideous dice rolls even the much stronger brujah companion Rhys couldn't stop them.

Rhys helped them stash the body and deliver it to Linden's sire "weird dad". What a lad.

[spell-fox]

Ancestral soil

Linden had a rough night last session after a daysleep away from their soil. They tried explaining it to their coterie of fellow fledglings. Monroe (@cynical-tuba) summarised for them.

[spell-fox]

vicissitude as a love language <3

slightly crunchy file version of sketches of various bits from last session. Linden gave themselves one (1) antenna under the watchful gaze of the Duchess (using some of her discarded moults), put makeup on Cash/Monroe, the duchess! Linden gifted their small (regular height) bf Abaddon a vicissituded bone bracelet, then went back for vicissitude and chill

Cash/Monroe is @cynical-tuba, the Duchess and Abaddon are SPCs by @urbanknightart <3

Some close-ups

[spell-fox]

Pov: the animalism half of the coterie gossiping about your new bf in Owl (Dr P the Gangrel and Linden the Tzimisce)

After an unfortunate frenzy accident, Dr P spent all the session in owl shape. Linden was on animalism translation duties, but wasn't necessarily translating eeeverything Dr P said.

[spell-fox]

Linden and their steadfast companion, The Duchess.

It's important to take her for her evening constitutional

[cynical-tuba]

⁠✧.*I was supposed to have been your Childer.*⁠.⁠✧

Aloysius the Tremere, and Monroe the Malkavian.

[spell-fox]

late to meet the coterie for demon-wrangling because the nerd they spent the day with insists on showing off magic tricks.

Linden and Abaddon from our Brighton game. Linden had their first experience with their clan bane; sleeping away from their ancestral soil. An entire session halved dice pools sure was something alright.

[spell-fox]

Today in VtM, Linden had a Bit of A Time in-session, managing to roll 4 botches overall. They accidentally murdered someone, baby tzim's first kill, but hey their sire has a new body to work on I guess ??? sweats . That won't be traumatic for them I'm sure

they did manage to give themselves and coterie mate Monroe new piercings though

[spell-fox]

A million thanks to @crownedinmarigolds for art of Linden <3 I'm going feral over this pic it's so good aaaa

My problem childe chaos Tzim (gently holds)

[spell-fox]

Kickstart my Heart Session 6 summary (with sketches!)

Brighton 1986, 7th March

In which Dr P learns Crime, Linden is exhausted operating at 50% capacity and makes a dear sacrifice for the coterie, Monroe tackles a cop and Abaddon has a deep dark secret of betrayal

I tried to keep this as conscise as possible but it still ran up to 1.5k words eep

Resident Gangrel Dr P is awakened by his ghoul with a letter from the next member of the band the coterie will do tasks for, and some students asking for extensions on their paper deadlines, which he graciously grants.

Our Malkavian Monroe awakens to his sire Hollie looming over him, a perfectly clean flat, her shows are going well thanks to him. She's just like his mom right? Right??? He packs his guitar and wanders down to James Street.

Tzimisce Linden woke up in Abaddon's college room, absolutely destroyed. Baby dayslept without their ancestral soil for the first time. They look and feel terrible. First court of order was to phone their sire to inform him they were still unalive.

The group convened at the Black Dove to wrangle the demon they accidentally released last session. Dr P was joined by his barn owl famulus Little Oak. There's a police cordon and LOTS of people, shops damaged, blood, lots of police and people in plain black suits. They discuss various crimes one can do

Next was getting ready to meet the coterie, but first Abaddon gifted them a stolen blood pack and decided to show off some thaumaturgy rituals just because? Turning incorporeal and summoning flame, which he put out in an ashtray and managed to trigger redfear in Linden. We learn he is a fair bit older than Linden, he's interested in demons and potentially... Changing families....

Monroe: money laundering

Abaddon: arson

Linden: theft of a corpse

Dr P: ....lying...?

Monroe calls a friend to help, Aloysius will graciously come help with their "Jack Russel" problem and pull them out of the shit again.

Dr P surveys the street in the meantime, sweet talking past the police, one of whom offers to escort him to his apartment that he totally lives in. He's able to scope the situation out. Trying to get a better view, he does break into an apartment overlooking the street, sees kids shoes, hears noise, panics, runs.

He reports a break-in to the police at the cordon and one goes to check out the door he just smashed in. One down, another to go.

Aloysius arrives to save the day! The better, more American, Tremere is here, and he's not taking shit from the less-good Tremere Abaddon. Linden instantly hates him for disrespecting their nerd. Aloy goes to dominate and the gang sneak in.

Then it's following the trail of the demon. They are able to find a way up to the roof of a nearby building, Dr P making enough noise to alert a resident, they all vault onto the roof which is covered in dead birds, except Monroe who fails the roll. A man in a bathrobe confronts him, Linden decides to help ?? By throwing a dead pigeon down to terrify the man's daughter.

Linden also finds an excellent specimen of a dead pigeon and bags it up for taxidermy purposes. The coterie see the path of the demon, follow it along, Linden talks to a woman who swears she saw a demon, the end up paying her money to steal a leather jacket from the shop.

The people in sunglasses are watching but not doing anything. Aloy alters one of the demon's victims to look like they died a more natural death.

On following the trail, Dr P and Monroe play rock paper scissors to see who gets to eat the police officer blocking the way. Dr P wins the game, but fails at grappling the cop, Linden fails to help, getting punched and knocked down, it's only Monroe able to tackle him and Abaddon dominating silence from the man before Dr P feeds from the guy's.... Leg ? Well, it soes the trick even if it's not graceful. Monroe hides the unconscious man, steals the badge and handcuffs.

Following the route of the demon, they go into a block of flats and ascend. Scrabbling noises are coming from one of the flats. Remembering it's interest in pigeons, Linden offers the beautiful dead pigeon to the coterie to use as bait. They're not happy about it. Confronting the lesser demon, everyone is able to keep it calm, Dr P offers the pigeon which it plays with, so Linden chucks it into the attic space.

This begins a game a fetch with a lesser demon (a "jack russell not a mastiff"), where Dr P summons a flock of pigeons to lure it across the roofs, with Linden in the middle to compel the birds on back towards the demon's home. All while Aloy is being incredibly distracting, presumably with some discipline use.

Demon returned to the Baali church, they have the wonderful gift of the Baali leader using Daimonion on Abaddon, commenting simply about a betrayal and telling the coterie to be careful about him. They also the gift of.... A tooth necklace. Great. I'm sure this isn't a reliquary or something horrible. Great. Everyone is invited to a ritual in a few weeks time. Bring your friends.

Monroe goes back to meet Aloysius who drives to his hideously decorated fancy house in a classic car. Aloysius laments the loss of the old days, Monroe doesn't neeeed to stay in contact with his sire, why not just leave? She'll just follow. Weeeell they could just stick her in torpor.

They go down to the sea front to discuss. Monroe takes the necklace but putting it in his bag it feels... Uncomfortable. Abaddon takes it. I'm sure that's fine. Everyone discusses clan weaknesses. Linden explains why they are operating at roughly 50% capacity.

Monroe wants to learn thaumaturgy like Aloysius. That's easy, it's just about....consuming the right person :)

In order to pay the debt for covering the masquerade breach, he wants info on other coterie member Agatha's sire. Monroe can't do it anymore. It changed after the embrace. Well, perhaps Hollie could teach something useful, they'll just have to have her teach Monroe dementation *then* they can stick her in torpor. Aloy has lots of uses for dementation. "-_- You want me to use my mental illness to win the lottery?"

Monroe sleeps at Aloysius' place that night.

Linden walks home with Abaddon. They chat about the soil situation, he tells them about the Tzimisce in London who is rumoured to store his soil inside him. Huh. That's a good idea, wonder why Damyan hasn't told them that. They aren't sure whether to attend the Baali ritual, especially since he used a power on Abaddon who knows what they're capable of. They say it's fine to have betrayed someone, he doesn't have to tell them and he doesn't need to keep denying it. But they had fun. Returning home, the lights are on so Linden keeps the goodbye friendly but neutral, a quick hand touch and that's it.

Before seeing Damyan they need to assess the damage to his artwork on their chest. It's... A bit damaged but not much so uuuhh they try to fix it. They manage a little, but then keep going. The fix is crude. It's obvious. Too obvious. After having been instructed *not* to vissisitude their chest piece, they can't go up like this. So they... Tear their new stitches out. It's horrible. Much blood and pain later they still have damage.

Damyan is angery >( Linden didn't come home last night, he was so worried. He's annoyed about the tasks they're being sent on (to cover his debt...), he wonders about their newfound colleagues. Linden says they are very capable and valuable allies. Ah. In that case why not invite everyone over? Damyan would like to meet them. Excellent.

They mention the damage and he sits down to fix it, adding a few new decorative elements. Should he reinforce it to prevent damage in future? Hmmm, no, that would mess with the aesthetics.

Vissituded twice over, exhausted, they stumble down and crawl into bed, grasping around for their dirt and hugging it close. Let's not do this halved dice pool thing again.

Dr P is summoned to meet the dean of the university. At 3am. Interesting. Yep, he's a kindred. Either that or Dr Sam Fletcher just likes keeping specific flavours of vitae in a secret painting compartment for funsies.

He's aware Dr P is In The Know now, shame that he's a gangrel. He also wants info on Agatha's sire. She's building quite the little coven here on campus. He insists he is in charge here, and he'd be in charge of the city if not for the anarch problem. Too many "low clans", the city is overrun with them. Should Dr P get intel for him, Fletcher can offer him alternate employment.

After a stressful meeting, Dr P's ghoul Graeme has made the cupboard he daysleeps in a little more comfortable. There are blankets and pillows. What a bro.

[crownedinmarigolds]

I was honored by the gorgeous @spell-fox with the task to draw an anniversary gift for their VTM game set in 1980s Brighton, England - Kickstart my Heart! I love getting their updates and was overjoyed to get to draw everyone! Happy anniversary guys!!!!

(Tumblr EATS large images so I have the OG and then lil snippets, hope that's okay formatting!)