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sama3033 · 1 year

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Whistling Past the Graveyard

I think I may just have headed off my very first panic attack - ever - walking through the park this morning. I’m the first to admit, I can be maudlin at times, inclined to dwell, perhaps too deeply on things I can do little to change, like the climate crisis. I recycle avidly, even knowing that it’s largely symbolic and that almost nothing actually gets recycled; we just hand our crap over to people in the global South to deal with, which generally means throwing it in the ocean.

But, for some reason, it really hit me as I was walking, just how dark and heavy the forces arrayed against action on climate change truly are. I mean, I’ve known it without knowing it, if you get my drift.

Even having read Bill McKibben and James Hansen’s work for years, the genuine gravity of the thing hit me like a brick. I had to stop and shake it off before it became a full-blooded collapse right there, among all those toddlers and their nannies. It wouldn’t have been pretty.

I know it was, in part, brought on by the situation at home. I was born and raised in the UK you see, grew up with its incessant grey skies and torrential rain. For twenty five straight years I endured that sodding torment. At a certain point you just stop shaking your fist at that accursed sky. We lived with the never ending dampness and threat of mold. We were all inured to it.

Two weeks ago the country had its highest recorded temperatures ever and is now deeply mired in drought. The UK…in drought. We’re famous for being soggy, day in, day out so this simply doesn’t compute for us. We don’t do A/C; there’s never been the need! Now we’re having wildfires - on a much smaller scale than California, admittedly, but they’re on the rise. The Thames is drying to a trickle. When this waterlogged land starts burning, that has to be some sort of pivot point, one would think.

Then again, Siberia has been burning as well. Fucking Siberia!

The world is on fire.

A few months ago the Democrats just managed to squeak through a major piece of legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, of all things, that might, just might, begin to chip away at the vast impenetrable edifice that the fossil fuel industry has built for itself over the past forty years, trying (and usually succeeding) to convince us that they’re not the cause of these worldwide droughts and wildfires.

They are.

Paul Krugman, in the New York Times, asks if the Democrats might have just saved civilization. I think we all know that’s hyperbole but it’s a damn sight better than the nothing we had been doing. You know it has to be good when every single republican voted against the act. There’s real cause for hope.

Half the government, the conservative half, it has to be said, while only recently submitting to that which has been blindingly obvious to the rest of us, is clinging, with all its might, to the belief that the only way to mitigate climate change is through market forces.

Money.

Again.

My heart sank though when I thought of how powerful multinationals are still fighting any form of climate warming mitigation. Exxon, BP and Shell along with their government lackeys, are steadfastly resisting any change to the way they’ve gone about their business, even though they’ve been caught lying repeatedly about their complicity in all of this. They’re making more money than ever in the age of world-wide pandemic and recession. Seems there’s no global catastrophe these repellent people can’t mine for their own benefit. Disaster capitalism on only the grandest, grizzliest scale.

I ask myself how they can possibly justify this in the face of a warming world we’re now beyond certain is due to an over abundance of CO2. These are not stupid people after all; they know precisely what will happen if we continue on as we have been. Nothing short of the end of civilization. That much is undeniable. And yet they keep on keeping on. They are complicit.

The oceanographer and author, John Englander, having done years of research all over the world, has concluded that there’s too much momentum to global warming, that there’s essentially nothing we can do that will stop every last ounce of the world’s ice from melting…and then we really have a problem. His calculations are that if just ten percent of the ice in Antarctica and Greenland were to melt, which it is doing at a gathering pace by the way, then global sea levels will rise 20ft. Imagine, for a second, what that will do to the coastal cities around the planet. Englander’s book, High Tide on Main Street, is eye-popping and ought to be a wake up call for all of us.

https://youtu.be/MvqY2NcBWI8

Ten times 20ft? It will come. Probably not in my lifetime but London and New York will be little archipelagos of glass and steel by then. Florida will be entirely underwater. Bangladesh too. Island nations like the Marshall Islands and the Maldives are already looking at the extinction of their way of life. Miami is seeing high tides sloshing through downtown on a fairly regular basis.

While we’re at it, why aren’t we building huge desalination plants around the coast of every nation, sucking out seawater and turning it into badly needed irrigation for crops and drinking water? Perhaps the Colorado could actually be a river again. California should have seen this coming decades ago, surely? Isn’t this low-hanging fruit?

Some thirty years ago, NASA climatologist, James Hansen related his research to Congress and said then that any oil still in the ground needed to stay there if we were to avoid severe problems down the line. As prescient as he was, he was essentially laughed out of the building. As with so many visionary people before and after him, few would listen. Everyone thought he was nuts.

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/24/us/global-warming-has-begun-expert-tells-senate.html?smid=url-share

Well, not quite everyone.

Not Exxon. Exxon knew precisely what he was talking about because they’d already done their own research into what continued use of fossil fuels would do to the planet. Of course it mirrored everything Hansen was saying. So they did everything they could to push it under the rug. They’ve been funding climate change denial groups for forty years, keeping those waters just as muddy as they can possibly be.

The big tobacco playbook.

https://youtu.be/DxoZJ_NXGGk

And now here we are.

So, what are we missing? What is their reasoning, I keep asking myself. I'm dying to know.The people that run the fossil fuel companies and their flying monkey lobbyists will be just as much affected by runaway global warming as the rest of us. No amount of money is going to protect you from incessant 120 degree heat and megadroughts.

So, is it pure greed? Has a form of unabated lust for money entirely robbed them of their sanity? Are we at the whim of some extremely powerful people who have effectively lost their minds, signed on to some End of Days doom cult? I find it hard to explain otherwise.

There's another angle to this entire absurdity I've been looking at that's purely biological and, I admit, might seem entirely unrelated at first blush but, bear with me because I have a feeling the answer may lie in here. It has to do with an area in the brain called the amygdala. It's the part of this wonderous organ of ours that deals with fear and paranoia.

There's some serious study on the subject. You can Google it. Turns out that, in those of us who can loosely be termed conservative, the amygdala can be considerably larger, as though bloated on steroids. As a result, one can infer that the amygdala just might be working overtime and inducing a level of paranoia and delusion lacking in the rest of us.One might be more inclined to believe rabid Qanon conspiracy theories, for instance.

Is this ringing any bells? Anyone? Pizzagate. Hillary as a lizard person? Jewish space lasers. Global warming as an elaborate hoax. I'm thinking specifically of the bottom dwellers, Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Beobert here but, trust me, they're far from alone. Both of them with the IQ of a hubcap.

Anyway, even these people hew to the belief that if you throw enough money at already ridiculously rich people miracles will happen, just you wait and see.

And then we all wonder where the money went. Well, they build themselves dildo-shaped spaceships, for one thing - joy rides most of us can only dream of. Of course it will trickle down.

Hmm, okay. Maybe next time.

Nobody, as far as I know, is talking about prosecuting these powerful companies, even in the face of indisputable evidence that they’re already the cause of trillions of dollars worth of damage around the globe. Who pays when entire cities are submerged? There’s a scary logic to this that says it’s the scale of the crime that matters. If it’s of a size that’s beyond our imagining, you really can get away with it Scott free. Our minds sort of fracture. Maybe that’s what Exxon has been counting on.

The rest of us, those clinging precariously to their sanity, seem at odds as to how to deal with any of this. The whole thing is just too perplexing. The sheer scale of it has so overwhelmed us that we can’t see over it or around it. It’s just too big a thing, too thorny and complex an issue. We’ve created such a mess for ourselves that there simply is no answer. So, do we just throw up our hands and pray for rain?

I know many of us are feeling an existential dread, as yet undefined, an unease we can’t quite find the courage to dwell on. It’s fodder for so many forums on psychology right now. I’m guilty of reading more than my fair share, I’ll admit, while feeding my inner demons. Part of me believes that, in this pandemic era, we’re all tapped into the collective unconscious. In here is a slow-dawning recognition that we’ve already seen the very best of what will ever be. The pinnacle of civilization is already behind us.

Sorry, but it’s all downhill from here.

There’s clearly a level of heightened denial in everything I see in my reading on global issues. Outfits like Extinction Rebellion are screaming for action while our governments seem to be inclined to act only when the flames are actually licking at their capital doorsteps.

While we’re all pulling our hair out, looking for some sign, some recognition that we’re in actual peril here, there’s this strange immobility, this unwillingness to act, from our elected officials.

Seas are rising, rivers are drying up, ice shelves are collapsing, wildfires are raging and the permafrost is no longer frosty. Alarms are ringing people!

When are you going to fucking do something?

Sadly, this leaves the ground open for some really unsavory characters to step in and fill the void, unscrupulous people, only too willing to take advantage of our fracturedness, our disunion: kleptocrats and raging narcissists with tiny hands and orange skin.

I’m projecting and can't think of anyone in particular off the top of my head, but you get my drift.

On the brighter side, we’re finally seeing some genuine movement in the area of carbon sequestration, pulling it out of the atmosphere and sending it deep underground or repurposing it in such a way that it doesn’t do any damage and can, in some cases, be put to good use.

As encouraging as this may be, the current programs around the globe are absolutely miniscule compared to the gargantuan need. Like desalination, we need sequestration on a massive, global scale, sucking billions of tons of the stuff out of the air, day in, day out. And yet governments seem bizarrely hesitant to embark on any such programs, even after repeated, extremely dire warnings from the UN.

https://youtu.be/dRvkOFdfW7k

We’ve been pumping pollutants out into the air for the best part of two centuries after all; we’ve got some serious catch-up to do. Can we move on it…maybe today?

I know governments generally move at a glacial pace but, sweet Jesus, can we light a fucking fire under somebody with an ounce of wits and the willingness to actually tackle this thing?

I can’t get too giddy; there are dark storm clouds gathering even in this arena. Like a giant carbuncle on humanity's ass, the oil companies are sleazing their way into the sequestration game while the sleazing is still good. What’s giving them a stiffy is the idea of pumping CO2 into the ground so they can extract every last morsel of oil. Is this making sense to anyone besides the grim reaper?

Yeah, you heard me. They want to use old pollution so they can make new pollution.

Here’s the real pisser. Now they’ll be able to make money on both ends, producing all the world's pollution, then charging us a second time to suck it out again. Credit where credit is due. That is some fantastic business model. There’s a peerless, dark symmetry to it.

In my super-jaundiced future worldview though, they could hold us all to ransom by simply turning off the air scrubbers, us watching the sky turn a lovely tawny shade.

‘Pay up people…or choke to death.’

Would you put it past them? I wouldn’t. Not this bunch.

It's as if your pooch turned to you after you just scooped his poop and said, 'That's not free you know. That'll be $50 please.'

Am I alone in thinking these people should be taken to cells in a deep, lonely, disused mine and the door welded shut? No visitors, ever. Fed cold gruel through a tube in the darkness?

It feels just, to me anyway. That’s my really cranky side, reacting to the rapidly encroaching end of everything we know. Ignore it!

All I know is this. If we leave everything up to conservatives and their beloved market forces, we are all so screwed. They’re looking on as all of humanity is sliding over a cliff and wondering how they can monetize it.

Just know, I may not be able to avert the next panic attack because, I know…I’m not wrong.

#enviroment #climate and environment #climate #politics #plutocracy #fossil fuels #psychology #qanon

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curious-vulture · 3 years

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My ca.t, ro.e deer and fo.x skull with some random bones and art

#i have so much more back home at my parents place but i dont have much room in my studio appartment #vulture culture #my collection #my post #animal skull #mine #skull #skulls #no mbta in europe #the skull drawing was made by an online friend :))))#reindeer skull in the bottom of the pic #the brown bones are probably over 2000 years old #and the grey thing is a shell fossil #fossil #shell fossil

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insomniamamma · 3 years

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Rain: Ezra X F!Reader w/Cee

A/N: Prickle ‘verse. Takes place after Prickle but before Clean Dirt. Can be read as a one shot. Reader is established crew with Ezra and Cee. This was written for @autumnleaves1991-blog ‘s Writer Wednesday. I am woefully behind. I legit don’t understand how some of you write fics so fast!

Warnings: Mentions of war, a little bit of angst, but mostly gentle fluff. Feelings.

"Hey, Ez," Ezra is engrossed in grading the latest haul, testing for clarity and hardness. The surface of CJ's World is cut through with oxbow rivers, fantastic hoodoos of striated sandstone slashed with valleys deeper than any found in Sol system. You're digging for fossils. These rusty carved out plateaus were once the bed of an ancient ocean. Through some trickery of mineralization and chemistry the fossils of CJ's world shine like the fire opals of Old Terra. Big or small, they all have value. "Ezra," says Cee, "She's doing it again." "Doing what, birdie?" Ezra takes off the loupe and rubs at his eyes. Rain pelts on the tent, even sheltered the humidity soaks through. "Look." Ezra draws open the tent flap and sees you, standing in the rain, your head tilted up, no gentle shower this, rain that pelts down hard, turns the view across the sharp-cut canyons to silver curtains. Your clothes are plastered to you like a second skin. The rain actually aids your cause, washing away loose sediment, making the fossils easier to get to. You bow your head and let the stinging rain hit the back of your neck, let it fall on your closed eyes, your outspread arms. You laugh at the sky.

"What do you know about Falnost?" Cee's eyes go distant for a beat. She has a memory to rival Central computers.

"Hmmm..about two thirds standard grav, class C5, would've rated lower if not for it's primary. Dustball." "Mmm-hmm." "She's not used to real weather," says Cee. "Observant as ever," says Ezra. The rain is not gentle. It is chilly and hits your skin like handfuls of flung sand, but is so different from anything you've known, so new that you can't help but stand there with a huge, dumb grin plastered on your face, even as your teeth chatter with the cold. Ezra comes and gets you. "C'mon, Artichoke, while the rain does feel slinky and delicious it is not worth hypothermia." "Sorry, Ez," you say and allow him to take your hand and lead you back to shelter. This has become something of a habit. Many worlds in the fringe are dustballs like the one you fled, algae and fungus growing on every bit of pipe that condensation beads on. On Falnost they had a deal with the ice-miners, discounted accommodations on world or on station in exchange for chunks of ice from your primary's lush rings de-orbited, burning and evaporating as they fell. The idea was that, eventually, there would be moisture enough in the atmosphere to trigger rains. Someday Falnost will have an ocean, but you won't be there for it, half your life spent harvesting rills of water from sail-traps, careful irrigation channels covered over with plastic sheeting, calorie vs water consumption ratios discussed every planting season. How many credits do we net vs wha† we have to spend? You got fucking sick of dreaming of an ocean your great grandchildren might paddle in. You skimmed enough to buy your way off world and since then you have seen things that you never would have believed as a child. The first time you heard thunder was on a world called Ingwy. Your first thought was artillery. Ingwy was a contested world, Karoclan and Lussia Collective skirmishing over land rights, while small stakes droppers like you and Ez and Cee swooped in to reap the spoils while the big corps and clans fought each other. It was the middle of the night and you were on your feet instantly, railgun in hand, screaming that there was incoming, to take cover. Someone had flicked on a utility light hanging from a cord that swung, illuminating the inside of the tent in sickening arcs, and there's another explosion, this one so loud you feel the pressure change in your ears, hear your own voice crying out in tandem, white hot light even through the thick weave of the tent. "It's just thunder," Ezra yells over the sound of rain slamming against the tent. "That was an explosion!" He presses gently on your arm until you lower the rails. "It's just loud," says Ezra, "It can't hurt us. We're safe here. Put the gun down." You set on the edge of your cot and put your face in your hands. "Kevva. You must think I'm the dumbest dirt-farmer this side of the Great Arm." The cot dips as Ezra sits beside you. "Not at all," he says, squeezes your shoulder, "I come from a backwater as well. First time I ever saw a proper ocean I nearly lost my breakfast right there on the beach." Thunder peals again and you flinch, shrink against him slightly. "Static electricity," says Ezra, "That's all it is. Builds up in the clouds and discharges into the ground." He keeps his hand on you as he speaks, fingers gently squeezing the juncture of your neck and shoulder, "The sound you hear is the air in the path of the lightning instantly heating and expanding. It makes a sonic shock wave, like any explosion." "Like the boom when ships lift," you say. "Just like that, Artichoke," he says, "Storm's already moving off, see?" The rain pelting the tent has settled into a steady drone. Thunder grumbles, a low, almost soft sound, not the air-rending explosion that shocked you out of sleep. "We should try to rest," says Ezra, gives your shoulder one more firm squeeze and a little shake, and when you look up, he's smiling, dimple just beginning to sink into his cheek. "Yeah," you say, "Okay." He kills the utility light and settles into his cot. You can hear the music from Cee's headphones, the tinny, fast pop she favors, threaded through the white noise of the falling rain. She slept through the whole thing.

The ancient life of CJ's world favored heptagonal symmetry, long-dead mollusks like seven-sided shields shine out of the rusty ground, the smallest the size of a fingernail, the largest the size of dinner plates. This is a good deposit. The small ones are fashioned into jewelry and buttons. "They take these great big ones and slice them micron thin," says Ezra, "Use them for window-glass in the temples of the Ephrate. They say it is like standing inside Kevva's very beating heart." "I can see why," says Cee, and so do you. The minerals that limn the shells shine translucent red with brilliant streaks of orange, yellow and even thin threads of green and blue. "They say that Kevva's first heart-beat ignited the explosion that became the universe," says Ezra. "You really believe that?" Asks Cee. "I don't know if believe is the right word," says Ezra, "We all grew up with these stories, why my grandmother..." You smile and tune him out. The back and forth banter between Cee and Ezra is a pulse that underlies every harvest. Cee has grown more talkative with each drop. Their relationship has a growing ease to it. You don't know exactly what happened between them before you joined up, but Cee's initial skittishness and Ezra's new healed scars tell a story you can guess the shape of. You let their conversation fade into the background, focus on the work of your hands, the meticulous scrape of soft sediment away from the hard glitter of the fossil, working around the seven sided edge, loosen enough up to get your fingers under the shell and you can pry it out, focus on the sounds of the world around you, no birds on CJ's world, but there is a range of bug-music, hidden in crevasses in the midday heat, all metallic clicks and creaks. Your rail-gun rests within easy reach, as always. You worm your fingers under the edge of the shell, wiggling it like a loose tooth, pops out of the sediment suddenly and you plop on your ass in the sandy dirt. "You all right there, Artichoke?" Ezra grins at you. "I'll recover." You dust yourself off and take your prize over to the tub that sits in the shadow of the pod. Further cleaning and grading can be done after dark. Nights are long at this latitude. You stretch in the sunlight. This job is a milk-run compared to other drops, but hunkering in the dirt still hurts your knees and you feel every bit of it when you stand. There's a familiar sound, like a rumbling stomach, thunder, you think and glance up. "Ezra!" Your voice is urgent and sharp and he's scrabbling up in a heartbeat, hand on the thrower at his hip, but when he stands there is only you pointing out across the vast expanse of sharp-carved valleys and hoodoos, lined in sharply delineated shadows and rusted cliffs where the light catches. The rainbow swoops skyward into grey cloud-bellies, a luminous curtain against the grey clouds, distant rain falling across the canyons.

"Ezra, look!" Ezra exhales, tension leaching out of his shoulders. His hand drops away from the thrower. "Oh, hey, a rainbow," says Cee. You lower your arm and just stare, transfixed at the glowing phantasm, brightening and dimming with the movement of clouds between it and the sun. "It's beautiful," says Ezra. But he's not looking at the rainbow. He's looking at you. Your eyes are wide, lit up with wonder, an unconscious smile creeping across your face, crinkling the corners of your eyes. The stiff professionalism that you wear as close as your body armor momentarily set down, forgotten. Ezra's heart squeezes. There you are, he thinks. He can count on his one hand the number of times he's seen you smile like this, open and carefree, rare and precious as the gems the three of you pull from the ground. Part of him wants to kiss you, but he suspects he would end up on his back in the dust with the barrel of your railgun jammed beneath his sternum, so instead he brushes his hand against yours and your fingers find his and squeeze hard. "I've never seen one before," you say, barely aware of Ezra's hand linked with yours, "I mean, I know what a rainbow is, but I've never seen one. Not in the real, just in vids." "They don't have rainbows on Falnost?" Says Cee. "They don't have rain on Falnost," you say, "Get's a little hazy sometimes after the ice-haulers make a drop, but that's about it." You shake your head as if just waking, the rainbow still shimmers, a bit duller now, and you are suddenly aware of Ezra's hand clasped with yours, the gentle pressure of his grasp. "Sorry," you drop your eyes, "I got distracted. We got work to do." Ezra gives your hand a squeeze and then lets you go. "Not to worry, Artichoke, rainbows are fleeting things. You look your fill while you can." And so you do. So does he.

#writers wednesday #ezra x reader #ezra x f!reader #ezra prospect x f!reader #ezra (prospect) x f!reader #ezra and cee

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scarletarosa · 3 years

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Eurynome

Goddess of the sea and marine life

Tiamat, the arch-dragon goddess, was forming the first lifeforms in the sea to begin evolution during the very early years of the Earth. When she saw how wonderful her creations were and felt immense love for the world, this love sparked a new goddess to be born. This goddess emerged from the Queen of Heaven (the supreme, formless goddess) as a manifestation of hers and formed through Tiamat, making her connected to them both. This goddess was Eurynome, one of the Queens of the Sea. As a Queen of the Sea, along with Tiamat and Tethys, Eurynome embodies the sea and has a lot of influence in governing it. Her name, Eurynome, translates in ancient Greek as “the wide law”, showing that she governs the whole sea. However, this was mistranslated in modern times and she was mistaken as a land goddess.

The primordial form of Eurynome is of an enormous hydra with dark scales and many tentacles coming from her. But she also appears as a beautiful woman with black hair when she wishes. Soon after Eurynome was born, the sea itself granted to the goddess two dazzling gifts of oceanic royalty: a tiara with shining blue gems and a white scepter topped with a giant moonstone. These also represented her closeness to the sea, for she is one with it. Eurynome soon began using the tiny lifeforms made by Tiamat to create thousands upon thousands of sea life. She created the vast majority of the creatures and plants within the oceans, making her their Mother. All the life of the sea adores her. The creatures of the sea often speak to Eurynome with their thoughts, and the whales sing lovingly of her. Although Eurynome is not the mother-goddess of the mermaids, since these beings were created by a different goddess.

There is not one thing in the sea that Eurynome dislikes, she adores everything; no matter how terrifying they would be to others. She is the alluring woman who swims gracefully through the ocean and is carried by whales, and she is also the enormous creature of the depths. She represents both the incredible beauty and allure of the sea and also its mysteriousness and ancient darkness. The husband of Eurynome ended up being a sea god named Proteus, a deity whose primordial form is of a giant seahorse with tentacles, and who could glide peacefully over the waves. He would also appear as a handsome man when he wished. Usually, Eurynome has her home underwater where she dwells among strange rock formations. But sometimes, she will come to temporarily dwell on an island around other large rock formations.

An interesting thing about Eurynome that might not be expected is that she mostly eats seafood, despite sea creatures being her own children. This is a natural thing to her and is basically how Mother Nature is; she gives life and she takes it. She loves her children, but does at times consume some of them, and allows humans to do the same as long as they do not become greedy or cruel. Unfortunately, humans quickly became cruel to both land and sea, becoming monsters who demonized and degraded everything but themselves. But even despite all this trauma, Eurynome refuses to give up on her children and remains with them always. She does not often reach out to humans, but will make herself known to those who truly love and respect the sea.

Appearance: a beautiful and graceful woman in her late 30’s with long, wavy black hair, grey eyes, fair skin, curved black horns, and normally doesn’t wear anything. Though sometimes, she will wear some sort of decorations made from seashells to slightly cover parts of her body. In her hydra form, she has dark scales and numerous heads. She also has many tentacles coming from her body. Although Eurynome is able to take many oceanic forms and can even look like a formless mass of tendrils or a giant sea monster with large teeth and a lower body that spans out as tentacles.

Personality: Eurynome is elegant, charming, mysterious, compassionate, motherly, and generally peaceful. She holds all the grace and might of the sea within her, but often chooses to remain serene unless angered. Eurynome also spends much of her time around her children, who follow close to her, but she will also venture into strange places of the sea that are dark and unknowable. Other times, Eurynome often enjoys singing, her voice is hauntingly beautiful and attracts the attention of any creatures that hear her. Some things that Eurynome loves besides the ocean and her children include enchanting singing, moonlight on water, ancient underwater ruins, whale song, harps, ocean caves, collecting seashells, and all of nature.

Though when enraged, Eurynome becomes monstrous and horrifying. Her fury impacts the very sea and causes it to rage with her; the goddess’ fury can drown entire ships or she can bring terrible (even fatal) curses upon those on land. She will only approach those who love and respect the sea, and who do not wrongfully harm her children.

Nowadays, millions of years since the birth of Eurynome, the sea is not what it once was. Many of the ancient beings within have been killed by humans and Jehovah, the Aeonic god who sought to claim Earth as his own. And those creatures that survived are either always in hiding or always struggling to stay safe. The waters have become toxic and treacherous, and many creatures are regarded as mere animals by mankind when plenty are quite sentient. Eurynome tries to protect all of her children and becomes fiercely angry at those who pollute their home or kill creatures that should not be harmed (which are the very sentient ones). She has even been known to target whalers and kills them in various ways due to her extreme hatred towards them. She does the same for those who hunt sharks, be it for sport or to kill them just to eat their fins. Eurynome has said that many known creatures of the sea (especially whales, sharks, dolphins, and octopi) are far more advanced to her than humans are. And she says that all animals, both on land and sea, are never mindless and have the ability to communicate. The creatures may not be able to verbally speak human language, but they understand much more than people have given them credit for, and they are generally peaceful unlike humans.

Devotional actions: donate to sea protection groups, volunteer to clean beaches, and do rituals for her on the beach or at sea. Sing to her while near the ocean, allowing your emotions to be full of love for her and her children.

Offerings: carbonated water, lemonade, tropical fruit juices, seafood, seaweed, sushi, pasta with shrimp, papayas, mangoes, pineapple, watermelon, kamu kamu, cucumbers, courgetti, sea salt, pearls, coral, seashells, starfish, urchins, crab shells, shark teeth, trilobite fossils, smooth beach pebbles, orchids, pitcher plants, hibiscus, elegant silver jewelry, pearl jewelry, beautiful seashell jewelry, antique silver hand-held mirrors, perfume of floral with sea breeze scent, arched hair combs, antique jewelry boxes, antique music boxes (with beautiful melodies), silver foil in oil, blue sapphire, amazonite, opaline, rainbow moonstone, red scoria, pumice, obsidian, basalt, other volcanic rocks, white or pale blue candles, hydra statues, whale figurines, plesiosaur figurines, sharks, octopi, dolphins, manta rays, seahorses, fish, and other sea creature figurines.

*no octopus or sharkfin, she refuses to eat these and gets angry

*no alcohol, this is hard for beings of the sea to process due to its strong land connections

Related posts: Tiamat

#eurynome #queen of the sea #ocean deities #sea deities #draconic gods #greek deities #polytheism #hellenism #deity work #sea worship

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catalog-rays-on-a · 2 years

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I did an Allhallowtide hike in remembrance of my 3 lost boys, Charlie, Clifton, and Piggy. As part of that, I did a thing I have felt utterly incapable of doing since I received my dog Charlie Bear’s ashes two years ago. Over the last few months, I have acquired two more boxes of ashes after my precious Clifton and then Piggy died. In the wake of their loss, I had created a memorial altar where all three of their engraved wooden boxes of ashes rested, along with their pawprints in clay, Charlie’s dog tags, a tiny teardrop-glazed cup of kitty whiskers saved over the years, a vial of dried Forget-Me-Not flowers, little sunbursts of Piggy and Clifton’s fur pressed in a hanging glass frame, and the same septarian nodule fossil I held against each of them as they passed in my arms and out of this life. I keep fresh flowers on the altar and light 4 candles on it every night. Having this ritual, along with the physical memorial, has become a great comfort to me. But I have never been able to open the boxes and look at their ashes. This year, however, still in the thick of grieving Clifton and Piggy, I felt a desperate need to do something more to honor all of them and to feel more connected to them. I decided I would open the boxes and put just a little of each of their ashes in 3 small glass specimen vials, and take them to scatter in some place meaningful and holy (hallow) to me. The process of confronting the ashes filled me with dread. I knew that it would be the most visceral reminder of how truly gone they are, which has been an unbearable absence. I also had some sense of what I thought I would see: a uniformly fine black powder. To assist in the transference of ashes from box to vial, and in the spirit of remembering the dead, I decided to use a tiny silver salt spoon I inherited from my grandmother, which had probably belonged to her mother or grandmother. I arranged the boxes on my coffee table and began with Clifton’s. When I slid the box open, there was a ziploc bag of pale grey aggregate folded inside. It looked nothing like what I expected. It looked exactly like a handful of beach sand you might scoop up some sunny day, filled with tiny broken shells of all shapes and sizes. The sight of the ashes, holding them in my hands, did bring me to my knees and I wailed and cried and whispered My baby, my baby till I could cry no more. Then when the weeping had exhausted itself, alongside the grief my attention turned to wonder. I put my hand inside the bag and indeed, it felt just like beach sand, and I ran my hands over so many tiny bone shards and what I even thought must be fragments of teeth. His little teeth. His body. My boy. There was more of it there than I had anticipated, more than I thought could survive the fires, and to touch these pieces somehow brought me comfort. I scooped a few tiny spoonfuls of the finer ash into a vial, and then with a larger spoon picked out some of the bigger bone and tooth shards to place in a separate vial on the altar. I then moved to Piggy’s box. His ashes were darker, but also like beach sand. So, I thought, here is the shore to my ocean of grief. Piggy’s bone fragments were bigger, which made sense. Clifton was tiny, a naturally thin little lion, where Piggy was stocky, thick and big-boned in the way of Russian Blues. Charlie’s bag of ashes was much larger, also paler, and where the kitties had slivers and shards, Charlie’s fragments were hard white pebbles. Tied to his bag was a blackened metal circle which had gone through the fire, and into which had been stamped the words (none truer), Forever Faithful. For each of them I made a vial of fragments for the altar, in addition to the vials of ashes for scattering. I made small bouquets of marigold and forget-me-nots from the garden, and placed the vials in a velvet-lined box. These I carried with me to the summit of Craggy Pinnacle, one of my favorite vistas, and there I sat for an hour in the sun, accompanied by my friend Anya, who hummed a hymn of grief and blessing when I finally opened the vials and released that small portion of my boys back to the earth— to the wind and the ancient rocks. I whispered words to each of them and the wind took those too, along with my tears, and then my own long exhale. In our culture that is so rooted in the sickness of death denial, I am grateful to have found my way to days and rituals like this, grateful to the cultures that have long practiced them, from the ancient Aztec rituals that are carried on in Mexico’s beautiful Dia de los Muertos celebrations, to the Roman Catholic All Souls’ Day, to the Hindu and Japanese Buddhist ceremonies honoring departed spirits, as well as the many other Festivals of the Dead practiced around the world. As we sat on the mountainside, Anya explained to me the incredible jazz funerals of her African and New Orleans heritage, the literal long slow walk through grief and mourning to celebration, in which a jazz-playing marching band leads family and then the greater community. She then suggested we process the day by listening to John Coltrane’s inimitable A Love Supreme in full on the drive home. Though I am abashed to admit that that was my first time listening to it, it also felt like there could not have been a more perfectly suited first time. What a gift. I ended my words to my boys on the mountain with my favorite Buddhist precept: I do not know, I do not have, I do not understand. And against all proof or evidence, I whispered my hope nonetheless that we might one day find each other again on the other side of this Mystery.

#allhallowtide #all souls day #pet loss #death ritual #mourning ritual #day of remembrance #day of the dead

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puppyluver256 · 3 years

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[Image Description: Three people resembling the Pokemon Magmortar, Aurorus, and Calyrex (specifically Shadow Rider Calyrex, riding the Pokemon Spectrier).

The first image features a man resembling Magmortar. He is fat and has light skin, short red hair with a yellow streak in the front, and black eyes. He is wearing a yellow t-shirt, a red and yellow shirt with a black collar, yellow gloves with black cuffs and light grey fingers, and dull pink shorts. One of his hands is surrounded by fire, and the other is guiding three smaller fireballs. The background is a gradient from orange to tan.

The second image features a woman resembling Aurorus. She is somewhat fat and has dark skin, long blonde hair that fades into a pale indigo, and blue eyes. She is wearing a blue and white ushanka (winter hat associated with Russia) with a blue diamond on the front, a long blue and turquoise coat with white trim and blue diamond buttons, and turquoise mittens with blue diamonds on the back. She has her hands out to her sides and a determined expression on her face as she levitates four large brown stones with tan fossils embedded in them (clockwise from top left: claws and finger bones, a bivalve shell, a spiral shell, some sort of leafy plant). The background is a gradient from tan to turquoise.

The third image features a person resembling Calyrex in its Shadow Rider form. He has light skin, shoulder-length beige-grey hair, and blue eyes. He is wearing a beige and white one-piece bodysuit with long sleeves and short legs, a collar made of orbs resembling blue flower buds wrapped in green leaves, a large crown resembling the collar orbs but much larger and glowing, a cape with blue lining in three different shades, and white knee-high boots with green cuffs and heels. He is holding onto a blue set of reins and mounting Spectrier, a ghostly horse-like Pokemon with a black coat, a long violet mane, and a long lavender tail. The man is glaring at the viewer with a hand held up, summoning various purple wisp-like entities from a purple shadow surrounding him. The background is a gradient of green, magenta, and purple.

End ID.]

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Aaaaand here's the Crown Tundra additions to Team Aigis showing off their moves :D Mystical Fire, Ancient Power, and of course the signature Astral Barrage! And I think I'm getting better at equine anatomy, which is a very good thing considering I have to draw someone with a Rapidash eventually hehe...

💖🐶 Check out my pinned post for ways to support my artwork, among other things! 🐶💖

~If you like, please reblog to show your friends! Likes are appreciated, but reblogs let more people see my content! If you have something to say, feel free to give feedback in tags/comments/replies as well!~

Magmortar, Aurorus, Calyrex, and Spectrier © Nintendo/GameFreak Fyrus Palladino, Rora Sutherland, King Artorius Calyrex, and artwork © PuppyLuver Studios

#pokemon #pokejinka #magmortar #fyrus (magmortar)#aurorus #rora (aurorus)#calyrex #spectrier #artorius (calyrex)#jess drew the thing #sfw #image description

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writing-frenzy · 3 years

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HK Reference Sheet: Spellnail/Witch Doctor Felix of the Snail Tribe

Here we go, a reference sheet for me boi; hope it comes out alright. though there might be a slight spoiler with some of Felix’s abilities for my fic.

Stats:

Intelligence: 8/10

Wisdom: 7/10

Charisma: (What he thinks:) 3/10 (what it is) 7/10 (Note: takes a hit whenever around Restingglass Mound and Racist Bugs)

Soul: N/A (For reasons)

Spiritual Abilities: 3/10 (Note: Must have at least 6/10 to become a Shaman)

Nail Skills: Master of the Crystal Nail Style (Restingglass Mound), Master of Misting Doubles Nail Style (Misting Mound), Master of the Grass Cutter Style (Evergreen Mound) (Note: To be a Nailsage, one must Master 5 Nail Styles, create your own Arts, and then pass them down.)

Witch Doctor: Accomplished (basically, 10/10)

Spellcasting: 9/10 (At 10/10 can multi-cast; all Gods can do it naturally, the cheats) (Felix is great at casting spells; creating them, not so much)

Family and Friends:

Gemshell and Lime: Mothers

Lute: Older Brother (Eldest)

Green: Older Sister (Middle)

Tale: Youngest Sibling (Still young and doesn’t care yet)

Ancestral Mound Leader Snail Shaman Fossil (Teacher, Uncle)

Evergreen Mound Leader Snail Shaman Song (Teacher, First Cousin Once Removed) (Note: they are the Overgrown Mound Shaman)

Misting Mound Leader Snail Shaman Mist (Teacher, Great Uncle) (Note: they are the shaman in the Soul Sanctum)

Restingglass Mound Leader Snail Shaman Jade (Teacher, Great Aunt) (Note: they are the Shaman in the Crystal Mound)

Spellcrafter and Shaman Apprentice Lee (Friend)

(Putting the rest under the read more, as this is getting long)

Appearence: Height is about eye level to THK waist, his shell making him appear a little taller. (He is indeed taller then Hornet). His shell is like one of these shells:

Just a creamy white with some grey instead. It doesn’t have a lip, but in the future he will make himself a little visor to help him with that (snails are sensitive to light, some worse then others).

He has wet black skin like all snails, though his is dotted with scars from training accidents and practice from Nail fighting and Potion making. (as well as from an incident when he was young.

Felix has a few regular burns and acid burns along his hands and his arms from that, not to many, as Felix has an incredible healing factor that makes most minor ones disappear fast. Same with Nail scraps, only some of the deeper ones have remained around his legs and torso.(There is one really dark spot over where the top of their chest is, it looks like a really dark blue in some lights if it hits just right.)

Felix wears a green traveling cloak he got while he was in Greenpath, so it is made of a sturdy, waterproof hemp that does have a hood that can cover him. He also has a dark colored messenger like bag with him, which carries all his things on his journey. He now wears two silk-like bands around both his arms, covering two glowing tattoos gifted by the Pale King and the White Lady.

He also has a staff made from bone wood, a pale colored wood that can be harder then bone at times, it has been carved at the top in a shape of a curved spiral, almost like a shell but more jagged. It’s end is nail sharp, and usually died a color from poison that rests on the end, giving it a darker coloring there as well as a slight smell, depending on just what poison was applied.

It can also detach into two pieces, as well as reattached, allowing Felix to fight with two weapons in hand.

Well, that is all I can think to be honest: hope you all enjoy reading about my boi!

#Hollow Knight #Hollow Knight OC #HK OCs

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pokemonapex · 4 years

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Pokémon Apex Build 9 Now Available!

That's right! The wait is now over. Apex Build 9 is available now! The story continues into Chapter 4, with all sorts of goodies.

Here are some things you can expect in this build:

A brand new dungeon, complete with battles, puzzles, and plenty of lore and story.

Two mini dungeons! Explore these smaller temples alongside Sayaka and catch legendary Pokémon!

Big new maps! The Shrieking Cliffs, a perilous cliffside, is now available to explore. Find connections to old areas and new perils! The map screen has also been updated to showcase everything.

New sidequests! New Puzzle House and TM Kid sidequests will keep you busy after you complete the story!

Acacia Daycare! Leave a Pokémon at the daycare to quickly raise their level while you're off doing other things.

New PC app! This handy app will allow you to log into your storage system while on the go! Available starting in Chapter 3 from the Dark Sands Development Studio in Jul'far!

New setting allows players to toggle Day/Night shading for better visibility!

Loads of balance changes, tweaks, smaller additions, and more!

Read the full changelog below for complete list of changes!

New Launcher Version and Distribution Method

So as the game gets bigger and bigger, the filesize starts to drastically increase. As of right now, the audio alone for the game is about 800MB out of a total 900MB. That's why from now on the audio files will be distributed separately from the game files. This will slightly change how the game is installed. The Installation Instructions page on the Wiki will be updated shortly, but here's a rundown:

If using the launcher

Before downloading Build 9, please update to the newest version of the Launcher, v1.5.0. This version will automatically take care of audio downloads. The new version will also ask you if you want to download new audio versions. If you use an older version of the launcher, you will download the game files as normal, but will be missing audio.

If using manual downloads

When using manual downloads, download the most recent audio package separately and extract into the game files.

Discord Updates

Lastly, I want to talk about some recent updates to the Discord server. The Apex Discord Server has become the IAMVISHNU Media Discord Server! While it is still the official home of Apex on Discord, it is also home for my other projects and works. You can check it out here! Come hang out and chat with the community!

That's all for now! Check out the changelog below!

Additions

Most urns now have a random chance to drop prizes, give money, or cause a battle. Most existing urns have been updated to use this system.

Filled in the unfinished area in the east of the Amon Desert.

Overhauled the ancient runes system to use a new character set.

Added a new PC App to the phone that allows remote access to your storage system. Available starting in Chapter 3 from the Dark Sands Development Studio.

Added an option to disable Day/Night shading for improved visibility.

Added a single-Pokemon day care in Acacia Outskirts. Every step, all Pokemon at the day care will get either 1 EXP or 0.1% of the EXP required to level up, whichever is higher.

Balance

Raised power of Snarl (55 -> 65).

Lucario's base Attack raised and Sp. Attack lowered (110 -> 135, 115 -> 90).

Added starting moves to Chandelure's moveset.

Flame Burst splash damage increased from 1/16th to 1/8th of target's max HP.

Shell Bell buffed, now heals 1/4th of damage dealt instead of 1/8th.

Tweaks

Forest cave maps now use black for out-of-bounds areas

Jumpable ledges in Sagaxis Forest maps are now grey to match color scheme

Artifact animations now only show once per map

Added a hint for the Jagged Tunnel sand puzzle item

Added some examination text to the mural in the Tunnel Exit house in Jul'far

Changed sample female names used during character creation

The female rival name is now Sarah. This will only affect new save files and not existing ones.

Added a navigation sign to Sagaxis Forest to help navigation towards the Deep Wood.

Increased Shiny rate and Pokerus rate, since trading is not a thing. (From ~0.01% to ~0.1% and from ~0.005% to ~0.07%, respectively)

The region map has been updated to reflect new areas and adjust positions of old areas.

Minor tweaks to desert tileset

Minor tweak to Aegis Foundation B1F layout to prevent players from getting temporarily stuck after breaking a smashable rock and make B1F rooms accessible before acquiring the Quantum Mirror

Raised volume on Ski Lift SFX

Ambrosia Crystal EXP to HP conversion rate lowered from 5% to 2.5%.

Lowered money lost when losing a battle from a flat 10% to 2% for each artifact acquired.

Spelunker Amber's Cryogonal's level lowered.

Added minor sound effects to the Scratch Card

Improved Essentials's encounter generation to have more guaranteed safe steps between wild encounters.

Added a hint to the Dajjal Temple optional dial puzzle

Added examination text to missing bookshelves in the Puzzle House

Reduced price of Great Balls and Ultra Balls

Repels and Dung have been buffed, now lasting longer.

Fixes

Removed map connection between Sawsbuck Lodge and Delibird Mart

Fixed a misplaced tile in Granny's House

Removed Out-of-Battle handlers for most moves

Fixed a typo in the cutscene with the Fossil Maniac

Fixed incorrect text coloring in a cutscene in the Unknown Dungeon at the end of Chapter 2.

Fixed inconsistent BGM volume in XENO Corp.

Fixed discrepancy in light radius in dark maps when using a glowstick between initial use and on map reload.

Fixed a few cheeses in Crystal Channel Lower main ice puzzle.

Fixed players sometimes not sliding after using the Quantum Mirror on an icy surface.

Fixed being able to save upon quitting in Hard Mode.

Improved tile offset issue in fullscreen. Should be less noticeable now.

Fixed a spot on Mt. Belial Upper where players could get stuck sliding on ice near a snowman.

Fixed a spot in Crystal Channel Upper where players could get stuck sliding on ice on water.

#pokemon #gaming #build #release #pokemon apex

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mitsybubbles · 3 years

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Fun Facts about Ramona (cause I need to talk about her more and I’ve been thinking about her a lot as of late)

She loved western holotapes when she was little and now she bases her aesthetic off cowboys. She also likes pirates lol.

She likes paleontology and wants to write a book about fossils she found. She’s trying to see if she can find more pre/post war books on the subject. River sometimes sends her what he could find in the mail. She’s currently keeping a photo collection of fossils (since it’s not very practical to carry a ton of bones with you when you’re a caravan guard).

She’s very protective of her twin, she’s been the protector of the two since they were very little. She’d do anything to make sure River is safe. A situation where she truly felt that he (or any other family members if you count post-game canon) was in danger and that she couldn’t do anything about it is where the worst parts of herself would show. She’d absolutely cut moral corners if she was pushed to that extreme to protect her family.

She has some anger issues/builds an emotional shell around herself because she’s scared of being hurt. This makes her come off as rather mean esp to people she just met and doesn’t know if she could trust. It takes a while for her to trust someone.

Her voice claim is Melanie Lynskey!

She’s really smart! She could match Arcade in terms of wit. She thinks that learning latin outside of scientific terms is stupid, rip. Hers and Arcade’s relationship was pretty rough at first because of their personalities not exactly vibing with each other but they eventually warmed up to each other.

Thinks the entire concept of the Legion is ridiculous and doesn’t want to know what Caesar was on to come up with that. She doesn’t like the NCR’s government much either but she doesn’t talk politics very often because when she does she ends up getting angry and yelling about it until she gets a migraine fghjjgd.

She sometimes stress snacks on things, like she feels the need to eat or drink something when she’s wound up. Stress made her hair grey/lighten a little faster than River’s rip.

She’s really good at sharpshooting! She likes to use pistols and sometimes if you ask her very politely she’ll show you a trick or two.

She’s far sighted like her sibling. Unlike River, she actually wears her glasses lmao.

She smokes. Started after she ran away from home with River, that was when they were like 17.

#Ramona #misty rambles #sorry if this is a little long lol

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weirdponytail · 4 years

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How modern is everything in MIC? Like what technology do they have? Plus, what does dragon armor look like in this universe, I’m really curious, lol?

Haha, once again that’s a sort of difficult question that needs to be answered!! Buckle in, folks. Sorry the post got so damn long!

Modern Inheritance Cycle is a bit of a misnomer, really. Technology varies pretty widely, so I can’t point to a chunk of our history and say ‘iz like that!’ for MIC. I’ll do my best to give a general overview.

Big things are that fossil fuel engines do not exist. Planes, automobiles, etc, do not and will not exist in MIC. Horses and walking are still the main travel methods. Both swords and guns are used. In the Broddring Empire, the most technologically advanced computers are those box computers from the late 90s early 2000s. Somehow, MP3 players exist, but not the sleek ones we know now (Eragon has one that he keeps on his person at all times). There is some difference between the level of computer tech humans have when looking at the Empire and Surda. Elves and dwarves have their own levels of tech that are more advanced. Radios are a thing, but for communication and entertainment/news, and again differ somewhat between races.

Also, big note that my friend Cor brought to my attention: My dumbass completely forgot about the Urgals and figuring out their levels of tech. It’s low, mostly due to combat focused and rather secluded (iirc) lifestyles.

Alright, let’s get down to specifics.

Handheld Weapons: While guns are a thing (modern, right here, right now guns), they haven’t taken over swords and other bladed weapons completely. Heck, swords are still a major part of the series! Close combat is done with swords, while guns are usually pistols, rifles, etc, used mid to long range. Things like AKs and very large magazine automatics aren’t very common, but burst fire and semi auto are okay. Examples: Arya and Brom both carry pistols and occasionally a long gun or combat rifle of some sort, while Murtagh has a specialized rifle he uses. Fäolin was a trained sniper. It’s sort of up in the air really. I add them when I feel like it.

Large Weapons: As mentioned in my MIC Dwarves post (LINKED), dwarves developed some artillery type weapons and small tanks (WW2 levels at the highest), run on magic energy. This energy is usually stored in mid to low quality minerals and crystals and can be replenished either via putting your life energy into it, or (and this is something new, I’m not sure if it’s going to stay or not) channeling the resulting energy release from basic exothermic chemical reactions into the crystals, though this is only a thing that dwarves know how to do and they are NOT sharing that information.

Armor: Oddly enough, Kevlar isn’t really prevalent. There’s still enough of a focus on hand to hand sword fighting that there’s mixes of other materials that could deflect sword blows with materials that can dissipate the impact of projectiles. Dwarves are the best to look to for their lightweight metal alloys for this purpose, and Saphira’s armor is the pinnacle of that technological achievement. I’m rusty (HA!) on my metallurgy and aramid fiber applications info, so you’ve sparked my urge to do some research. I’ve not figured out a good dragon armor design yet, but when I do I’ll definitely draw some up!

Oh, more armor! Elves have perfected spidersilk armor, and when properly mixed with metals or aramid weaves it creates fantastically resistant cloth and plating. Arya’s jacket, mentioned plenty of times in MIC stories, is made of this spidersilk cloth mixture. It’s stopped bullets before, and is pretty resistant to cutting from nearly everything but a Rider’s sword or other crazy rule breaking/bending magic. Arya’s armor in my original ‘The Soldier’ drawing is also spidersilk, though it’s more spidersilk alloy plate. If you see anything that’s a mottled texture, mottled blue or blue grey in my MIC art, that’s had spidersilk added to it. Elvish armor (and even some weapons) relies on it heavily.

Elves tend to have the ‘highest’ level of tech, but it’s mostly due to an abundance of magic, time, and knowledge in other fields that lead to strange new inventions. They don’t develop it often, as it’s mostly a fleeting hobby, but when they do implement it with their magic it can be pretty dang cool. Glenwing studied, among his mental health and medical training, electrical engineering type things and thus knows how to rewire both nerves and devices. Rhunön is quite adept at working magic into her forging, as well as mechanical and electrical (sort of) work. When Glen loses his arm in the ambush, Rhunön is the one that makes a prosthetic for him that sort of ends up being like Fullmetal Alchemist Automail, but without the painful surgical requirements. It requires only the same amount of energy that movement and actions with muscle and tissue would require with his real arm, so it is linked to his own energy. Arya, meanwhile, picks up a lot of mechanical engineering from bothering Rhunön as a kid and gets even more experience with it via dwarvish tech, weapons sabotage, and ‘use everything till it falls apart’ forced rationing with the Varden, leading to a combination of her and Glen’s skills to create their squad’s special radios that are mentioned in a few of the MIC stories.

Dwarves are the most mechanically inclined and, again, use energy storing crystals very frequently in their creations. I think it’s mentioned in my dwarf post that many many households have items and tools that house these crystals. I go more in depth with the post I mentioned so that’s probably where you’ll get the most info.

Humans are kinda stuck. Galbatorix tends to draw from things reported on/seen while fighting against other forces and has his people develop from those. Military weapons have been the main focus, so there’s not much in the way of computers or that kind of stuff. Those old box computers are usually only used in businesses that can afford them for finances and the like. As for artillery, the Broddring Empire has developed ‘cannonbombs,’ artillery shells that are clusterbombs inside an outer shell that can be on a timed fuse for detonation before impact or explode on impact and releases several more explosives (If you want a better explanation, check out MIRV grenades from from the Borderlands games). They’re the bane of trench fighters.

Meanwhile, in Surda, computers are a little smaller! Due to the hot climate, Surdans learned to make more efficient cooling systems and were able to make them smaller and more compact, leading to an explosion of research into making the rest of the equipment smaller as well. They’ve moved on to tower+flat monitor type computers. Surda is more interested in chemical engineering and tech towards the center of the kingdom, while defensive tech and development takes precedence along the border for obvious reasons.

Even though humans seem to have gotten the short end of the stick, I always want to mention that in MIC, humans are the most ingenious, able to use, reuse and repurpose due to their ‘limitations’ when side by side with other races. They think outside and all over the box, occasionally cutting the material of the box to see if they can make something out of that. It’s something that most dwarves and elves just don’t understand, and thus often overlook or underestimate.

That’s...all I’ve got at the moment. I hope that helped a bit! Please, if you have any more questions, ask! :D I love world building!!

#modern inheritance #modern inheritance cycle #eragon #inheritance cycle #The Inheritance Cycle #modern inheritance lore #mic lore #mi lore #enjoy the exposition #technology in mic

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fistfulofgammarays · 4 years

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yellow: name of an artist you think is underappreciated, grey: how many languages do you speak? do you want to learn any more?, emerald: if you had the option, would you choose to move and live in another country? which one?, amethyst: do you collect anything?

yellow: name of an artist you think is underappreciated

Listen, I think Aether Realm are the best thing to happen to melodic death metal for literal years.

grey: how many languages do you speak? do you want to learn any more?

(I’m sorry, this is extremely long-winded because languages are one of my favorite things.)

Anyways, I learn languages for fun, so this looks like a lot, but I am definitely not good at most of these!

I’d only call myself fluent in English and Spanish. I’m pretty decent at Mandarin Chinese (I’ve got a roughly middle-to-high school level character vocabulary and I can stumble my way through a spoken conversation on everyday topics) but I’ve never really been in a sink-or-swim situation with it.

I’ve put serious time into formal study of ancient Greek and classical Chinese and I can very slowly translate texts with heavy use of a dictionary, but I’m definitely not proficient.

I’ve been using Duolingo for less-serious study of Swedish, German, Welsh, Vietnamese, Finnish and Danish. It’s definitely not the same as classroom study or actual practice, but I think I’m starting to hit reading proficiency with German and Swedish (and by extension Danish) at least!

I would love to learn more languages! (Ideally, someday when I have infinite free time.) I keep wanting to try Hungarian and Thai, and I’d like to take a shot at Korean too one of these days.

emerald: if you had the option, would you choose to move and live in another country? which one?

Not to get serious, but this is something that is, uh, currently on the table for me when it becomes feasible. Canada and Denmark are possibilities. Spain’s also on the list, though I think I’d have a much harder time with culture shock as an adult there than I did as a kid.

amethyst: do you collect anything?

I collected shells as a kid, and I kind of low-key collect rocks and fossils now, but I’m not super-serious about it. Also carnivorous plants maybe? I dunno if five of a thing counts as a collection, but it’s probably more than the average number of carnivorous plants per apartment.

#asks #thank you for the ask!#I'm sorry I will never shut up about languages #otterknowbynow

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peapodcrossing · 4 years

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Updated 7/9 7am GMT

Now that my island is almost dream ready I've actually used up the space where I used to do T1L1 diys, mystery giftbags and spare fossils so I've made a list of everything I've got going spare for you all to peruse.

DIY's

Simple DIY bench

Log decorative shelves

Bamboo sphere

Music stand

Leaf mask x2

Cabin wall

Blossom-viewing lantern

Document stack

Ironwood clock

Armor shoes

Wooden block stool

Traditional balancing toy

Shell wand

Shell bed

Tiki torch

Natural garden table x2

Pot x2

Shell wreath x2

Wooden simple bed

Boomerang

Underwater flooring x2

Tropical vista

Birdhouse x2

Large cardboard boxes

Traditional strawcoat

Shellfish pochette

Stack of books

Log chair x2

Paw print doorplate

Orange hat

Iron frame

Wooden mosaic wall

Wooden knot wall

Pitfall seed

Log stool

Terrarium

Ironwood table

Wooden mini table

Kettlebell

Clothesline

Peach surprise box

Giant teddy bear

Deer decoration

Wooden chair

Golden dung beetle

Windflower fan

Items

Natural garden chair x4

Diner sofa (yellow)

Golden seat

Wooden block bench

Imperial low table (red)

Pear bed

Drum set (green)

Retro gas pump (red)

Foosball table

Barbecue (yellow)

Golden candlestick

Homework set

Boardgame

Sea globe

Snow globe

Potted ivy (yellow)

Light switch (grey)

Rocket lamp (green/blue)

Mama panda

Wallpapers/Floorings/Rugs

Brown hallway wall

Paintball wall

Cute blue wall

Magma cavern wall

Pastel puzzle flooring

Train station flooring

Simple medium blue mat

Green checked rug

Iron entrance mat

Cherry rug

Pear rug

Shell rug

Clothes

Baggy shirt (grey)

Heavy duty shirt (orange)

Kids smock

Sweater on shirt (white/pink)

Simple parka (red)

Quilted jacket (pink/blue)

Oilskin coat (grey)

Down skirt (Black)

Baby romper (pink)

Oversized sweata dress (orange/green)

Cherry hat

Chic tulip crown

Do rag (pink)

Gold rose crown

Labelle sunglasses (brown)

Masquerade mask (red)

Mermaid shoes

Sasoche bag

Apple umbrella

Black lace umbrella

Eggy parasol

Paper parasol

Maid outfit (pink)

Fossils

Amber

Ammonite x2

Ankylo tail

Archaeopteryx

Archelon skull

Brachio chest x2

Brachio pelvis

Brachio skull

Deinony tail

Dimetrodon torso

Dinosaur track

Diplo chest x2

Diplo neck x2

Diplo skull

Diplo tail

Eusthenopteron x2

Megacero torso

Myllokunmingia

Pachysaurus tail

Parasaur skull

Parasaur tail

Parasaur torso

Spino skull

Spino tail

Stego torso

Tricera skull x2

Tricera tail x2

Trilobite

If you would like to tip that would be amazing, however it's not necessary at all. If you do chose to, ideally I'd love some regular wood, pinecones or acorns, or anything from my wishlist if you're able to help 😊

Also if there is anything in particular you're looking for, items, clothes, even resources, let me know. I might have things you can catalogue or extra resources I'd be happy to share!

-------------------------------------------------------

On hold

Campfire diy - @craitcrossing

Garden bench diy - @morgynembers

#acnh #animal crossing #animal crossing new horizons

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gameofdrarry · 4 years

Text

Ides of Drarry: Introducing Team Dragon

TEAM ACTIVITY [ ONE ]

As you may well be aware, Gringotts takes great pride in protecting your currency and valuables. To do this, we employ the services of creatures best meant for protecting your artefacts. As we value diversity among our patrons at Gringotts bank, we allow patrons to choose their own creatures to protect their vaults. However, due to downsizing, we must have patrons share creatures. Please choose a creature you would like to protect your vault.

We will later use this creature to identify your vault categorization.

CHOOSE A CREATURE OF PROTECTION TO REPRESENT YOUR TEAM

NAME YOUR PROTECTOR AND SUMMARISE ITS LIFE HISTORY 200-500 WORDS

CREATE AN IMAGE OF YOUR PROTECTOR

TEAM TWO [ TEAM DRAGON ]

Misty is an Antipodean Opaleye Dragon. She began her life as an egg in New Zealand. Before she was hatched she was taken from her nest by a curious muggle, who mistook her egg for a fossil while her mother was away.

She was brought far from her nest and her homeland and was deposited in a thing called a “museum”. Without the warmth of her nest and her mother, she coiled up in her egg and refused to come out. But at night when all of the lights went out and the sounds stopped, she heard a tiny scratching at the edges of her egg. She tried to ignore it, but then there was a tiny warmth near the base of her egg. Day after day she stayed in her egg, refusing to come out. And night after night there was a scratching at her egg and an odd warmth against her. One night, even after all the loneliness and fear she felt at being in her egg, she decided that the risk it took to remain there was more frightening than the risk it took to go out. In the end, whatever was out there was unavoidable unless she planned on staying in there forever. So that night, when the scratching happened, she scratched back. She used her head to push at the shell and when she broke through, she found a tiny creature looking back at her. Grey, covered in fur and with big ears and whiskers. She climbed out and shook off the slime that had sheltered her in her egg. He licked her face clean and stared at her. After a moment he seemed to make a decision and headed toward an opening in the case she was put in. When she stayed in place, he turned around and licked her face again, clearly intending that she follow. She did without question.

Months passed, and they grew together. Well… Misty grew a bit more than her friend did. She grew a LOT more than her friend did. But they always protected each other. She was not the sort of creature that could hide easily, but Spencer was. He was clever and small and able to get into small spaces and open back doors so they could sneak food and open rooms to sleep in when it was cold.

Once her wings grew large enough, she began to learn to fly. She careened about, with Spencer on her neck holding on for dear life as she crashed into things and tried to understand her own coordination.

One day as she was trying to land she fell headfirst into a rubbish bin in the alley she and Spencer had been nesting in.

The sound drew the attention of the two-legged things that they were hiding from. There was a lot of sound and she put Spencer under her wing and curled up tight, trying to keep them both safe as they were crowded by all of the thundering frightening creatures. She snarled, and something hot came out of her nose. It scared her. She’d never done that before… But the things backed away.

Then one stepped forward slowly. He held out his hand. Misty didn’t move. She kept curled up as tight as she could.

But then Spencer popped his head up from under her wing and looked at the other creature. It made nice sounds, and Spencer ran down her back to go and look at it. The thing picked Spencer up and petted him.

Misty was confused, the thing didn’t look like it was trying to hurt her. It didn’t hurt Spencer… She sniffed and looked at it. Its top part was bright red and its eyes were blue. It seemed nice enough... It made sounds that sounded like CHARLIE.

Charlie became her friend too. He took her and Spencer to a nice place where there were other dragons. He fed her and took care of her and he never tried to take Spencer away.

One day he showed her a new creature that looked just like him! He also had a red top part. Charlie let the other one pet her head and he said BILL.

She liked Bill. He was also nice. After a while, Bill took her and Spencer with him to new places. She was important. She and Spencer looked after Bill while he went to dangerous places.

Eventually, Bill met a nice lady with a white top part and he stopped going on adventures. He brought Misty to a big white building, where he made a big nest for her underground. It had everything! Plenty of space to sleep and lots of food and a little hole in the wall just for Spencer to sleep in. It even had a big hole in the top where you could see the sky.

Misty could fly up and out and smell the air. All she had to do was protect the things behind her. That was important. That was her job.

Bill and Charlie came to see her and fly with her and Spencer almost every week.

She didn’t know who took her from her home when she was an egg, but she felt very lucky that they did because if they didn’t, she would never have made these new friends and have

this very important job.

#ides of drarry #drarry #gameofdrarry #team dragon

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bhandarimarblekishangarh · 4 years

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We assure you of excellence in quality

From the shimmering aura of the Taj Mahal to the humble floor of your home’s bathroom, marble is one of the world’s most revered and useful natural materials. Marble is Michelangelo’s David, the Washington Monument, and the Duomo of Florence. It is also the primary ingredient in Tums antacid.

Tune into any kitchen design message board and you’ll encounter a sharp divide over the utility of marble. Some people wouldn’t dream of designing a kitchen without marble. Others decry that choice, citing marble’s imperfections and fragility. Many are caught somewhere in the middle: in love with marble’s irresistible appeal, but uncertain if it’s the right choice for their circumstance. In an attempt to create the “perfect” material, legions of synthetic products claim to look “just like marble,” but marble enthusiasts aren’t swayed. Few stones can match the warm glow, the softly flowing colors, the timelessness, and the authenticity of marble. There’s good reason this stone has been used for over 5,000 years.

A seabed, transformed

Marble is a metamorphic rock; it once was a different kind of rock, and was then transformed by a change of circumstance. Before marble becomes marble, it is first limestone, which forms on the shores and floors of tropical seas. Limestone is an accumulation of shells, shelly fragments, microscopically tiny shells, and dissolved shells. Depending on the conditions at a particular beach or sea, limestone’s shelly sediment may be punctuated with occasional layers of clay or lenses of sand. But by and large, limestone is an assortment of shell-remnants, which are made of the mineral calcite.

The tropical shoals that give rise to limestone do not stay peaceful indefinitely. Oceans are basically geologic conveyor belts. The ocean floor slowly spreads apart from the centre and slips underneath continents at the edges, gradually rearranging the map of the world.

When a limestone seabed gets dragged down into the Earth’s crust, the additional heat transforms the calcite grains and fuses them together tightly. The dynamic action of rock layers as they become buried, twisted, and shoved around causes the original flat-lying layers to bend, buckle, and swirl together. A rock in this heated state doesn’t melt. It’s simply warm and flexible, much like a chocolate bar left in your pocket. This process of heating and warping is responsible for marble’s trademark aesthetic of gracefully flowing bands of color. The grey swirls in marble are simply clay layers that got folded, smeared, and re-folded into the marble like a ribbon of chocolate infused throughout fudge ripple ice cream.

Patterns and color-ways give marble versatility and character

Part of what makes natural stone so appealing is the huge range of colors and variations expressed in solid rock. On one hand, these patterns tug on our heartstrings and offer aesthetic possibilities. On the other hand, each of these variations has its root in some sort of geologic process.

Most marble is white. The classic, white marble is pure calcite, without intervening minerals to lend it color. Yule and Thassos marbles are well-known examples of pristine white marbles. Marble can take on a delightful range of hues and textures. Pink marble is tinted by iron oxide, as is golden marble. Green marble and deep red marble contain serpentine, rich in magnesium. Fossil-rich limestone becomes graphite-infused marble, as the carbon in fish, algae, or seaweed reverts back to the elemental carbon in graphite when the rock is heated. Graphite-rich marble is steely grey with a metallic glimmer.

A marble breccia is formed when the stone fractures underground, which can happen if a stone lives in a fault zone. Mineral-laden groundwater comes to the rescue, filling in the voids and patching the fragments back into a solid mass, while creating a spectacular pattern at the same time. Arabescato is a beautiful example of a marble breccia.

It’s important to understand the properties of marble

The mineral content of marble is the same as the limestone it came from, and both of these stones are made of calcite, AKA calcium carbonate, AKA CaCO3. Calcite is one of the more common minerals on Earth’s surface; in addition to limestone and marble, calcite is the primary ingredient in travertine and onyx.

Calcite has a few properties that you should know about before you fall head over heels in love with a stunning marble slab. Calcite is 3 on Mohs hardness scale, which means it will get scratched by knife blades, ceramics, and a cast iron skillet accidentally slid across the kitchen island.

Calcite is also chemically reactive with common acids, such as those found in lemonade, wine, and colas. When acidic liquids land on a marble slab, a tiny amount of the stone is dissolved, or “etched.” This doesn’t affect the integrity of the stone, but it does leave a slight change in the color and/or lustre of the stone. On a polished stone, an etch looks like an unpolished area.

Etches can be polished out, or they can be left alone and considered part of the natural patina that marble will acquire over time.

Marble is ground up into antacid tablets because calcite neutralizes acid, which makes your stomach feel better. That also explains why acid makes a mark on marble. The marble reacts with the acid, neutralizing the acid, but damaging your countertop in the meantime. Ironically, when your teenager dribbles pickle juice on a brand-new countertop, you may find yourself reaching for the antacid, triggering the same chemical reaction both on the countertop and in your digestive tract.

The last piece of potentially bad news is that marble can form “star cracks” or “stun marks” if a heavy, hard object falls on it. Star cracks look like small, light-colored areas where the impact occurred. This is usually an aesthetic issue, not a structural one, but if an impact occurs at the edge of the stone, it can chip or flake.

A common misconception is that marble stains easily. However, this is actually quite rare. The metamorphism that bakes the stone also knits the minerals together tightly. Porosity for marble is similar for that of granite. That said, the porosity of all stones varies, so check the stone specs and do your own tests with a sample of stone. Marbles are typically sealed to reduce the likelihood of staining. Alas, sealing does not make marble any less prone to etching, I’m sorry to say.

Now you can see why some people love marble while others think that marble-lovers are crazy. To some, the nicks and etches on a marble surface add character and mark the passage of time in a busy household. To others, each blemish resonates as a personal loss. Which way do you see it? This is an important question to consider before you head to the slab yard. [Check your stone personality to see what stone suits your temperament.]

Marble with magnesium = Dolomite

Dolomitic marble is a close relative of regular marble. Standard marble is made of calcite (CaCO3), and dolomitic marble has a little magnesium in the mix (CaMgCO3). There is not a huge difference between the two variations, except that dolomitic marble is a little bit slower to etch. You’ll have a moment to wipe up a spill before the chemical reaction takes place.

Marble with quartz = Confusing

While marble is primarily made of calcite, it’s possible for the original limestone to have occasional layers of sand or chert (chert is a marine rock made of pure silica). These interlopers turn into areas of quartz as marble undergoes metamorphism. The end result is a stone that is mostly calcite with some quartz. This combination of ingredients has kicked off industry-wide confusion, because calcite and quartz have distinctly different properties but they look alike.

Unfortunately, marble that contains minor amounts of quartz is sometimes labelled “soft quartzite,” which is both an oxymoron and a misnomer. There is no such thing as soft quartzite, and that term should be avoided by dealers, designers, and customers alike. Marble that contains small areas of quartz is still marble and should just be called marble. Super White is one well-known example of a mislabelled stone. Super White is a dolomitic marble with occasional bits of quartz. Super White is neither quartzite nor “soft quartzite.” It’s marble, and a gorgeous one at that. [Learn more about the quartzite/marble labelling problem in The Definitive Guide to Quartzite,

Limestone is sometimes classified as marble

The term “marble” is often applied broadly rather than literally. Many stone restoration professionals categorize marbles, limestones, and travertines together as a family of stone because they require similar maintenance and refinishing techniques. Polished limestone is sometimes called marble. While there’s not a huge difference between the two, marble is much denser and therefore is resistant to staining. If a slab has fossils, shell fragments, or has open pockets within the stone, it is limestone.

Many stones classified as black marble are actually black limestones. This is particularly true for dark colored stones with stark white veins, like China Black, Dynasty Brown, or Nero Portoro. Because marble has origins as a fluid, heated rock, its stripes and veins are usually soft, flowing, and curved rather than angular.

Many ways to bring marble into our lives

Marble remains a popular choice for countertops, backsplashes, bathrooms, tabletops, flooring, and cladding. Marble’s versatility makes it at home in an ancient Greek sculpture, in a lavish hotel lobby, or on a hardworking kitchen island. Marble also finds its way into our lives as household objects like cheese boards, rolling pins, vases, and lamps.

Despite the emergence of marble lookalikes, there’s nothing quite like the real thing. Real marble has qualities that cannot be replicated in a lab. I recently visited the 9/11 Memorial, a sobering space of monument, museum, and reflection. Next to the footprint of the fallen towers, rises the one part of the site that inspires optimism. Called the Oculus, it is part transit center, part shopping mall, and its soaring white ribs beckon investigation.

Visitors who step inside are rewarded with a vast, cathedral-like space, covered in pure white marble. The combination of natural light, natural stone, and creative architecture transform the sombre mood into a hopeful one. Wandering around the expansive structure, I finally put my finger on my favourite quality of real marble. Light penetrates into the white stone, then radiates back out in heavenly luminosity, filling the room with a warm, soft glow. Leave it to a stone like marble to completely alter the mood of a building. Marble has been a metaphor for worship, reverence, and beauty for millennia. Its ability to do that is all the more appreciated

Add by expert and Export team of Bhandari Marble World, India, Rajasthan, Kishangarh -305801

#BHANDARIMARBLEWORLD GRANITE GRANITECOUNTERTOPS MARBLE MARBLECOUNTERTOPS GRANITEDEALER GRANITESUPPLIER GRANITEMANUFACTURER

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