buc-ees is planning on building a large location in north carolina that will detroy 32 acres occaneechi saponi land, the proposed location is in the middle of the historic occaneechi trading path that is part of a larger network historic trade routes in the south eastern US, and additionally has traditional ceremonial grounds and burial grounds in the vicinity. there is no contingency planning happening on buc-ees part for if a spill were to happen, potentially harming the wildlife in the area, and contaminating water.
Hey do you want to hear all about the Virginia class nuclear submarine and how it can carry 12, five megaton nuclear ICBM’s with a range of 7,500 miles while traveling at 34 knots submerged and comes with our new underwater stealth and soundproofing technology? Because if you do, you’ll have to go ask Angela in accounting to tell you all about it. I’m not allowed to anymore
theres actually a federal regulation saying that 34 knots is the fastest a nuclear submarine is allowed to travel, google "rule 34 knot sub" to learn more
are you fucking kidding me the red line beads are a FAR more compelling texture than the blue line. “oh but the red line is booring.” the appeal is in how it interacts with and highlights the other lines you philistine. without the red line there’s no cohesion at all. read a book.
Literally hop off. Red doesn’t even use gravity as an element in the main route. Orange is one of the only three lines (with green and yellow) to actually use gravity to add complexity to the route, and is honestly an underrated pick. Have fun playing “push left” simulator with red. Idiot.
Frederick and Erranea currently don’t have kids, and won’t until after 7.0, probably won’t canonically happen until after 8.0. But it will happen eventually, and they have twins that they name Thes and Sero.
Thes is her father’s daughter, inheriting Frederick’s sense of duty, justice, and investigative tendencies. Studying Red Magic from Alisaie and the Paladin arts from her father, she’s a natural born leader who gives herself the name Valour. Her Echo manifests a lot like Frederick’s in the “delve into memories” way, but she is also possessed of an unwavering spirit of determination, and is able to inspire those around her with it.
Sero is closer to Erranea, being very quiet and emotional as a child. Being the only twin who inherited the Garlean eye from mom, they spend much of their childhood hiding behind others. This combined with a natural empathic tendency leads them to study Scholar arcanima from a young age, taking the name of one of its spells as their own: Broil. Their Echo allows them to perfectly recall their own memories, and to sometimes remember bits and pieces from their Ancient self’s life.
And then it goes one layer deeper: Valour and Broil’s kids.
Valour marries a woman, a Doman shinobi named Tsubaki, but they end up adopting two kids from Othard.
Kasumi is an Xaela, lost child of the Tumet tribe. The tribe’s culture demands that children must be tied to a specific sacred tree and forced to find their way to where the tribe relocated to in order to be worthy of a place and name within it. Valour and Tsubaki find this small red child face down on the ground, lying 15 feet from a tree and dying of thirst. Upon hearing what happened and determining that the girl doesn’t feel she can ever return, they offer to take her in and give her a name.
They also find a lop-eared Viera child stealing from the bucket of caught fish they were keeping, and Tsubaki was impressed by their ability to sneak up on all of them. Thus was Mizuho brought into the family as well, being an orphan like Kasumi.
Kasumi has a anger streak to her, but never acts out of hatred towards her new family. Just, her passion can lead her to say things she doesn’t truly mean. This leads her to learn the trade of a Warrior, as an outlet to all of that, as well as learning Red Magic from Valour.
Mizuho on the other hand, you’d be hard pressed to find someone more calm. They’re by no means a saint, but anger is not an emotion they’re in regular contact with. They learn the art of the Shinobi from Tsubaki, as well as Samurai from Broil. Neither Kasumi nor Mizuho are known to have the Echo yet, though this may change once I figure out something cool for them lol
Broil marries a Viera woman named Cordelia, and together they have a child named Nefra. The specifics of Nefra change depending on the timeline, so I’ll reblog this with a followup. But I gotta have a pic of Broil and Cordelia because I am very normal about them.
Oh there’s a few among the OCs I have but I’ll stick to the most fleshed out one: Frederick and Erranea. Childhood friends separated for 15 years, finally able to be together.
History
Both were born in Sharlayan, met in class, bonded over a love of botany and being mostly ostracized by all the other kids: him for being a Viera who insisted they were a boy, and her for being more emotional, lankier, more uncoordinated, on account of her half-Garlean heritage. Frederick protected Erranea, and Erranea made Frederick feel less lonely.
Over time he would try to write a poem that would express how he felt about her, but could never find the right words. The Exodus would split them apart before either could admit it, with Frederick’s family staying behind and Erranea’s mother taking her away. With no way to contact each other, and Frederick’s own struggles against the impossible weight of the duty imposed on him, the wound on the heart grew larger and larger, until The Calamity made it seem like a mere inconvenience in comparison.
He mostly thought of her the way you would a deceased relative from that point on, something always in the past. But over the course of the campaign for Ala Mhigan liberation, his struggles against the darkness within dragged his feelings into the present, forced him to recognize that he missed her still.
So when Krile told him that she was attending business in Old Sharlayan, Frederick couldn’t ask her to look for Erranea fast enough, to tell her that he was coming, and that he wanted to see her again.
Endwalker
Not even before taking 10 steps out of customs did Erranea beckon Frederick over. Within the conversation they hugged each other. That night they had dinner together, talking for hours about the lives they had lead since their separation and the journey Frederick had undertaken thus far. Before the night was over, they had fallen in love all over again.
Any chance he could get between steps of the story, Frederick visited Erranea. But for all the love they shared, it seemed like it couldn’t last. He hated Sharlayan, hated the forum and their secretive plans and their deception, hated the people who abandoned his homeland. He could never remain among them, and she didn’t know if she could bear to leave. And with the danger inherent to the Ragnarok’s destination, it was unknown if that choice would ever have come up.
But she drove him to keep going. When everything was crumbling, when the scions he considered friends, the twins that he considered himself a father to, and even his twin brother all fell to the Meteia, his promise to return to her kept him moving forwards.
Not even despair itself would keep him from her.
Post-EW and beyond
As of 6.4 MSQ, they’ve yet to officially become married, but Erranea would say yes in a heartbeat if Frederick were to ask. Personal anxieties keep him from doing as much, but one day it will happen.
And though they are of 2 different peoples, the odds line up for them to have kids, twin Viera named Thes and Sero initially. Frederick insisted on giving them more traditional names that they could change later, as both ended up doing. Thes grew into Valour, while Sero took the name Broil and rejected gender norms for themselves. They end up starting their own team, The Echoes of Light, but that’s a story for another time.
Ancients and The Pandæmonium Incident
Frederick is the shard of Azem, whose history ended with a man named Tyflos, a poet whose sight was functionally nonexistent for most of his life, until he was able to approve a concept for stronger spectacles than had previously existed.
Tyflos had one sole friend, a fellow Ancient named Ánthisi, but they felt strongly that Tyflos could use another person to look forward to visiting upon their returns to Amaurot. Thus resolved and in conspiracy with Hesperos, the two of them lead Tyflos into meeting Agdistis, keyward of Tartaros. Through a mutual interest in botany and Tyflos’s rare ability to find joy in Agdistis’s cruel sense of humor, they hit it off immediately.
Through the many years that followed their love would only grow, to the point of even soul bonding. But her fate is well known to the players, and Frederick as Tyflos’s chosen representative, was the one to help put her out of her misery.
The battle nearly killed him; Agdistis forced her memories of Tyflos and herself onto Frederick, relieving herself of a painful burden while driving Frederick to crumple to the ground and weep. When the fight ended, she came to reason long enough to recognize Tyflos in this familiar, and realized what she had become shortly afterwards. The sight of her forcibly disincorporating herself will haunt him to his dying day.
But with confirmation of showing Themis the writing she put in his journal, the Emissary confirmed that the author must be to Agdistis as he was to Azem.
The irony was not lost on the lingering spirit of Agdistis, who mused on her constant debate with Tyflos on the nature of soulmates and their existence, one she never believed in and that he was adamant on the potential of.
Ever since then, Frederick holds Erranea just a little bit tighter, hugs her for just a moment longer. To honor those that came before them, who set up the events that would bring them back together again. To honor Tyflos’s promise to Agdistis, one of many things implanted in his mind.
“There was never anyone for me before, and I know that should the worst occur, there will never be anyone after you. None can match you in my eye, in this life or any other. And if you feel not the same, I will not condemn you. But I know my heart and what it says.
No matter the age, nor the place, nor the time. I know that I will always love you.”
Frederick’s journal is his most prized possession, the thing he couldn’t live without. Originally it was made by his best friend Erranea and left for him when she and her mother left Sharlayan in The Exodus. Unfortunately it was ruined in the Calamity, surviving to this day as a mass of torn paper and faded ink surrounded by a blackened and ruined cover.
The current version is one he recreated from memory, specifically remaking the cover: a boarskin binding inscribed with his last name Makalt, adorned with a small chain and emblazoned with the symbol of Halone, Azeyma, and Nald’thal. Representing Frederick, Erranea, and his twin Einr, and the bond that kept them all together.
Within its pages Frederick keeps his records of the journey so far, ideas he randomly comes up with, but mostly it’s a lot of poetry. Things he’s written, read in other places and transcribed into it, etc.
While he felt guilty for years for it not being the original that Erranea made for him, she resolved said issue by adding her own touches on during EW: before the journey to Ultima Thule, she created and attached a chain with a metal heart at the end to the spine of the journal to act as a bookmark, as well as a note on the flyleaf.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I added this little memento, that you might never lose your place, and always been reminded of my love. Wherever you go, keep this book with you, and I’ll be there. But you knew that already, didn’t you?
hey science side of tumblr, if you’re not on your union mandated lunch break, a question for you
when these resin casts are made and the top is sorta like, opaque (if that’s the right word) how come when the liquid resin is poured on top and then sets, that it becomes perfectly clear
Because of light refraction! Basically when you sand Resin casts (or in this case, from sanding the pinecones down) you wind up with an absolute fuckton of tiny scratches in the surface, and light that hits it bounces in all kinds of weird directions. But, since liquid resin can still bond with set resin, pouring a *very thin* layer of it over the top fills in the imperfections and makes the surface smooth like glass, so the light travels in a normal pattern again
Stepping off the boat for the first time in Kugane. He’d fled from his home for many reasons and hadn’t thought about when he’d return. When the plan to return to the East to fight the Garleans on a two side front came up he didn’t think much of it. Even on the ship ride over it didn’t sit in. But when the jade tiles rooves and ruby wooden gates of the city came into view, lit by the glowing paper lanterns which lit his youth, suddenly every emotion he’d choked down hit him all at once.
He and Lyse had incredibly strong bonding. She was with him as they returned to Kugane and he stood by her side when she returned to Ala Mhigo. They shared each other’s pain and joy losing and returning home.
(As a player’s note, I’d gone through the story one or two times before already and Stormblood was probably my least favourite expansion. Nothing really stood out to me, other than the Japanese/Korean aesthetic. But having a character whose origin was in this area and a friend he could share the experiences with really opened my eyes to the more subtle things in the story and I got feels where I never thought I would.
Well, for multiple Twitter reasons, some not even localized to exceeded rate limits, I feel the need to make this.
Hi, I’m DB, AKA the very model of a modern village idiot, and this account will be primarily dedicated to FF14. Most specifically my main OC, Frederick Makalt.
Along with his half-Garlean wife Erranea, their twin kids Broil and Valour, and the twins’ own party, The Echoes of Light (though only half the characters within it are my own)
I’ll also be answering QotDs, sometimes in character, probably with myself as narrator most of the time <_<
Regardless, I hope you enjoy. Or don’t, that’s fine too. You don’t need my permission to be a hater, I’m not your Mothercrystal.
It’s sad that toxic game culture is so prevalent cuz like. As someone who has ended up in random matches with kids before, I can attest to how fucking easy it is to reverse and un-teach shitty attitudes in kids.
Example: I downloaded Friday the 13th because it’s free on psn. I dunno how to play, so I just enter quick play and I’m matched with 3-4 kids on mic. Immediately on mic they’re shitty and disparaging to each other. They laugh at each others deaths, they actively work against team mates and self sabotage, they call each other “fags”, etc. From the sounds of the voices they cannot be older than 13-14.
I put on my mic and just decide I ain’t havin it. I am nice. I thank them for barricading doors or leaving me items. When they break free from Jason’s grasp I say “good job!” or I try to help them. One kid survived for most of the match by himself. When he dies, I tell him he did a fantastic job.
The mood shift is practically INSTANT. These kids almost immediately stop being dick heads. They start encouraging each other and being kind. After the match all of them try to friend request me. Which should tell you a couple of things:
A) kids want to be kind, and they want to have a nice time playing games. But encounters with adults like me or so rare that they’ve trained themselves to instantly put on a toxic, shitty, defensive veneer when encountering any new person online. It’s literally just THAT EASY to not groom a horrible gaming community, it’s just that NO ONE does it.
B) the speed of which they all tried to friend me was cute, but paints for me such a sad picture? Like these kids are SO desperate to find people to play with who aren’t crappy jerks. They played with me for 10 minutes TOPS and all instantly tried to reach out to me.
tl;dr: The kids are alright. Adults are shit heads.
I witnessed something similar with my younger brother (this was when he was In fifth grade so bear with me here) and his friends. The teacher assigned for them to build a somewhat accurate spanish mission in Minecraft because their school had gotten some iPads and she needed to assign them something other than a PowerPoint.
Now here’s the thing. Most of these boys, my brother included, have ADD/ADHD. About a week into the project all they had in their shared world was chaos. Somebody filled the place with tnt and lit it up. Holes everywhere. Whenever one would attempt to try and build something (mostly wood huts and not the actual project) it would be destroyed within minutes as the boys began to insult each other heavily and complain that the design was ugly.
I brought my own ipad with me and decided to sit with the boys while they continued their reign of terror. I joined the world and built a hallway out of brick at the very center of this war zone. Immediately one of them tried to destroy it under the impression that “it looks bad”.
“Well, what should I make it out of?”
“Diamond.”
The ten year old mind is a mystery to me…
Anyway, then I showed him some pictures similar to these:
I reasoned that it would be easier to sway this kid toward another pretty block than trying to get him to stick to the materials of the time, so I asked him if he would like to help me replace my brick design with quartz (eh, it’s white).
Bam! One of the ten year old anarchists is dutifully building me a glittering gem hallway for our insanely rich monks.
The other three are off somewhere still yelling at each other and setting off explosives, but we have something built. Much to my surprise the kid asked if he could build the church next because he “wanted to build the most important part”.
Here’s where I learned something important. I don’t have ADD or ADHD but as I said before my brother does. When he gets fixated on something, he’s really gets into it. Once a few minutes had passed and this kid already had four walls up I decided to grid up the entire mission. One gets the church, one gets the farm, etc.
After playing the game with them for an hour, I had a pretty good idea of where each kid should go.
Church kid, I found, was very particular about materials and shape(hence his hangup over the brick). I gave him free reign over the outer walls of the mission and showed him the reference pictures to get him started.
My brother liked the farms most (he was building dirt domes over the cows don’t ask me how I made this connection it just worked, okay), so he was in charge of building pens for the animals.
Another kid was, at first glance, very loud and bossy when it came to decorating (constantly said we were making chairs wrong). Turns out he likes interior design, like putting benches and beds in the little rooms, so his bossiness was just frustration with my brother’s artistic sense I guess.
Another was very good with placing trees and plants around the exterior (I guessed this because he covered the place in a ridiculous amount of trees and I asked him if he would like to know where they are supposed to go). He got to make a vineyard for us and organized how the crops should go.
So how did it turn out?
Actually very nice!!
So what did we learn? Kids actually like to play games and be praised for their creativity and intuition. If I had just told them to stop messing around rather than direct their attention to areas within their interests, they never would have gotten anything done.
After an hour of gaming they:
Mirrored my language; “thank you!”, “which part are you working on?”, “I like this block.”
Realized each other’s strengths; “hey [kid name] can you help me with the roof?” “How do you make the big trees [kid name]?”
Were able to articulate exactly what they did or didn’t like without using force; “that looks good!”, “how about we put it there?”, “I don’t like that block, how about this one?”
On the plus side, since we moved the game file to my device for safekeeping, I now have a cute little souvenir of the time I played Minecraft with four ten year olds.
This is a really long post, but it’s super important. In games like Fortnite where you’ll find lots of kids, it’s important (if you can) to steer them away from toxicity. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run into kids who talk like toxic adults and the act of just being nice to them completely turns them around.
