#they're all just people except for sea eater

[leederpfucker]

I think I'm the only person who cares enough about those ocean cryptids to think about gijinkas for them

[neonmetro]

I just want to say that I LOVE DECO AND EVE SMM AND I'M GLAD I'M GOING TO SEE MORE OF THEM AND THE APOCALYPSE HORSEMEN LOOK SO BADASS, THIS OC WORLD LITERALLY HAS ME IN HEADLOCK

Also, Ulysses, my baby, he needs all of the love in the world. I feel so bad for him, WAHHHHHH.

-Ulysses loving anon(Ty I am SO well fed)

WAHOO !!! i've got a few horsemen pieces that are wips at the moment... when i finish them i'll post em here :))

don't let his never ending misery and torment fool you he is still an bitter old asshole... actually. here's the timeline for the ilium war below (half of it is just from discord messages lmfao)

BG INFO the founding are all the roman olympians but as just The government its essentially just a bunch of old money nepo babies who mainly menelaus and agamemnon thought if they just killed them the problems with the current government would be solved because all the members of this one particular family was involved with the gov, and they had ampules that made them effectively immortal because they just used soul gems to repair their own bodies

idk what is Going On With troy yet but during the founding it was pretty fucked with laws (absolutely having no regulations with contracts/magical girls/vagabonds) and even though there was a central government, essentially every district was for themselves because of the major language and cultural barrier.

1st 5 years of the illium war was just general destruction in an attempt to harm the founding (didn't really work), 2nd 5 years was espionage and trying to find ways of killing the founding (events of the odyssey), and last 5 years was erasing any memory of the founding (destroying every statue, memorial, and work depicting them) + trojan horse was let into a section of the city that housed solely government buildings and it turned all the founding into vagabonds and provoked them into killing each other with no thought of using those ampules

i did adapt almost all the monsters so when you see that. they're all just vagabonds (though kalypto is not included)

lotus eaters are eta vagabonds, though just a hivemind trying to recruit more people into their hivemind peacefully

cyclops is a herder and still the son of neptune (who controls the sea mechanically with like. tuning forks)

land of the giants is just. giant vagabonds

circe permanently turns a few of ulysses' men into vagabonds and feeds them to him (including polites), perma killing them

ulysses shoots with his gun to get the herb moly from the ground instead of mercury giving it to him, circe tells him to go talk to the former magical girl tiresias, which she heard that some of the souls revived so they should probably go check up on that

hades is just a part of the chastise district where through all of the achaean's destruction, has actually led some of the dead souls buried to revive and turn into vagabonds (later novaturi government fully prevents this by having undertakers at its graveyards) tiresias is the one who tells him the only real way to prevent the founding from reforming their flesh with souls is to hurt the souls directly and ulysses interprets that as MAKE A TOY HORSE AND MAKE THEM GO ALL INSANE.

tiresias recommends he listens to the calls of the siren to get a feel of how he should create the silly little horse and so he does. hallucinates penelope and is fucking losing it while tied to the mast

SCYLLA AND CHARBYDIS. VAGABONDS AND JUST MORE DEATH. (similarly to the odyssey he tries to fight scylla but fails regardless and almost gets another 6 men killed)

they drop off to get some supplies, turns out the village is cursed and every one who ate beef fucking burns alive right in front of him and all his remaining crew die. tragic

he skedaddles on his own, meets with kalypto who saves him from the shore and he stays for 7 weeks before returns to the main military base and they start planning on erasing the founding entirely

he doesn't get the same help he does in the odyssey, with the exception of minerva, but she kinda. always thought he was her little guy and while she did help him, she didn't fully understand his intentions was to fully wipe her and her family out. like, she's the person that got him into the high military position he was in, and she was actively helping him out of sticky situations with her family and he still indirectly killed her

[windupaidoneus]

just, rahhh. post shb shit that makes me get so sad. in my mind after the fight w hades hildegarde just gets a lot of nightmares, every night, where he ends up turning into a sin eater, right. & in every single one of them emet is there to taunt him. except. the intensity of his nightmares is such that it somehow forces emet to pull himself from the aethereal sea & into said nightmares so he can act his part in them. because if he lets hildegarde's version of him play the part hildegarde is very likely to hurt himself fatally in his sleep. They're Violent Nightmares, he wakes up clawing at his skin & just. hurting himself a lot. but it would be worse if emet wasnt there to be in control of his actions, playing along for a bit then forcing him to wake up because. i mean. he doesnt want him to get hurt. but breaking the immersion entirely would probably make things worse.

over time though the nightmares become less & less excruciating. & they can spend more "normal" time together, though of course hildegarde thinks it's just his dreams haunting him with thoughts of someone he wishes he could've saved & feels such a deep connection to he can't seem to understand. & the last night he gets to sleep before seat of sacrifice i think he ends up talking to emet very earnestly. about how he wishes things were different. about how he doesn't understand why but he misses him so much it feels like a hole is being torn in his chest at the mere thought of him. & he thinks, again, that it's just a dream, so it's completely safe to say all this without repercussions. but it really reaches emet. in the end this "incomplete" human who he claimed to have such disdain for, to have been so disappointed by, it's still his old friend. his old lover. one of the people he'd lost who were dearest to him. & he can't really pretend he doesn't care any longer, especially when he's been saving hildegarde from his nightmares this whole time.

& i think. when hildegarde gets his hands on the azem crystal again while freeing g'raha from the tower. emet has imparted his soul unto the crystal, as a means for him to more easily communicate with him & just Be with him. what this translates into in practice is emet is now one of hildegarde's headmates & hildegarde cries real big tears about it while ardbert looks on quizzically (though realistically ardbert also has to have complex feelings about emet. Due to also being a lachesis fragment. You understand)

[garbage-empress]

It was only a matter of time before I introduced actual nudibranchs to my tank - these two cute little Berghia!

Not all sea slugs are actually nudibranchs, and a lot of people call herbivorous sacoglossans "lettuce nudibranchs," even though they're technically not. All nudibranchs are carnivores, and most are specialized predators that only will eat live prey of a small number of species. They're really cool but most aren't ethical to keep in an aquarium because you can't meet their food requirements. (Doesn't stop dumb or disreputable online vendors from selling "spanish dancer" nudibranchs as algae eaters though.)

Berghia are the exception because they only eat a pest anemone genus called Aiptasia. Aiptasia is essentially ubiquitous and reproduces quickly, so as long as aiptasia is readily available, the Berghia don't starve. Berghia actually can steal the stinging cells out of Aiptasia and use them for defense against predators. They also can steal the Aiptasia's photosynthetic symbionts and eat some of the sugars they synthesize for like a week. My initial plan when I was looking into saltwater aquariums at the beginning of the year was to actually just grow Aiptasia and Berghia, but at the time that seemed daunting and having a tank full of Aiptasia would mean that anything else I put in there risked getting stung to death by the anemones, including coral. Fortunately/unfortunately, my general tank has slowly gotten a decent aiptasia infestation. Which literally from a singular anemone months ago. I'm now setting up a separate little tank to grow Aiptasia in also in case they run out in my main tank. So now I've come full circle.

[calabria-mediterranea]

These pretty Italian villages in Calabria want to pay you $33,000 to move in

(CNN) — Ever dreamed of opening an artisan boutique and settling down for good in an idyllic village in Italy's deep south where it's warm almost all year-round -- and get paid to do it?

For those willing to take the plunge, it could soon no longer be just a dream.

The region of Calabria plans to offer up to €28,000 ($33,000) over a maximum of three years to people willing to relocate to sleepy villages with barely 2,000 inhabitants in the hope of reversing years of population decline.

These include locations near the sea or on mountainsides -- or both.

This isn't money for nothing, however. To get the funds, new residents must also commit to kickstarting a small business, either from scratch or by taking up preexisting offers of specific professionals wanted by the towns.

There are a few other catches, too.

Applicants must take up residency and -- sorry boomers -- be a maximum of 40 years old. They must be ready to relocate to Calabria within 90 days from their successful application.

It's hoped the offer will attract pro-active young people and millennials eager to work.

Gianluca Gallo, a regional councilor, tells CNN the monthly income could be in the range of €1,000-€800 for two to three years. Alternatively, there could be one off funding to support the launch of a new commercial activity -- be it a B&B, restaurant, bar, rural farm, or store.

"We're honing the technical details, the exact monthly amount and duration of the funds, and whether to include also slightly larger villages with up to 3,000 residents," he tells CNN. "We've had so far a huge interest from villages and hopefully, if this first scheme works, more are likely to follow in coming years."

New life

Dubbed "active residency income," the project aims to boost the appeal of Calabria as a spot for "south-work" -- the rebranded southern Italy version of remote working -- explains Gianpietro Coppola, mayor of Altomonte, who contributed to the scheme.

He says it's a more targeted approach to revitalizing small communities than the one euro house sell offs that have recently hit headlines.

"We want this to be an experiment of social inclusion. Draw people to live in the region, enjoy the settings, spruce up unused town locations such as conference halls and convents with high-speed internet. Uncertain tourism and the one euro houses are not the best ways to revamp Italy's south," says Coppola.

The "active residency income" project -- and application process -- are expected to be launched online in the next few weeks. The region has been working on it for months and has already earmarked more than €700,000 for the project.

The region of Molise and the town of Candela, in Puglia, have adopted similar schemes in past years as an alternative to selling crumbling homes for the cost of an espresso.

Over 75% of Calabria towns -- roughly 320 -- currently have fewer than 5,000 residents, leading to fears that some communities could die out completely in a few years unless regeneration occurs.

"The goal is to boost the local economy and breathe new life into small-scale communities," adds Gallo. "We want to make demand for jobs meet supply, that's why we've asked villages to tell us what type of professionals they're missing to attract specific workers."

As global travel resumes and Italy welcomes back tourists, visiting the region this summer might be a good way to get a feel of the Calabrian village life.

Santa Severina

This village rises on a tuff rock cliff overlooking the Neto River. It's built in layers depending upon wealth: palazzos belonging to the richer families are at the top of the hill, the humble dwellings below, dug into the rock.

There's a Greek and Hebrew district with palm trees.

The baptistery here is the oldest Byzantine monument in Calabria, while the impressive well-kept castle features frescoed undergrounds and stables.

Santa Severina is known for its oranges. Villagers are dubbed Aranciaru, meaning "orange-eaters" in local dialect. Oranges grown here are the pride of Calabria, due to the fertile soil and exceptional nutritional qualities. They're sought after in top restaurants and fruit shows.

San Donato di Ninea

Dating back to before Greek colonization, this charming village lies in the deepest area of Calabria's Pollino national park.

It's so remote and tucked away on the hills that barely anyone outside of Calabria knew it existed up until the 1970s.

The view from high up on the peaks takes in the region's two seas: the Ionian and Tyrrhenian.

This untouched and pristine location is home to many wild animals and plants and is considered one of Italy's top wilderness reserves.

Orchids grow along mountain trails unwinding to panoramic huts. It's a chestnut heaven with popular food fairs.

Civita

At first even Italian speakers might feel a little lost here. Locals speak a weird-sounding slavic dialect called Arbereshe.

The community was founded in the 1400s by Albanians fleeing the Turkish empire.

Perched on a rocky cliff within the wild Pollino national park once inhabited by bandits and outlaws, this tiny hamlet of barely 1,000 people is what "authentic" Calabria is all about.

The Raganello river gorge, Italy's largest canyon, is dotted with human-shaped rocks.

A serpentine path goes down to the "Devil's bridge." Old traditions, Byzantine rituals and peculiar foods live on.

Old houses are connected by circular narrow alleys dubbed "wrinkles" and have scary-looking chimneys believed to keep evil at bay.

Samo and Precacore

You'll get the thrill of living in two ancient hamlets at the same time here. Samo was founded by ancient Greeks looking for shelter on the hills but not too far from the shore, turning the village into their "harbor."

Time stands still.

In the morning the smell of newly baked bread and fresh cheese wafts over the village as women leave their low-cut peasant stone houses carrying baskets of food on their heads, just like in the old days.

The best part of Samo is its sister-ghost hamlet of Precacore, rising right in front over the valley. From Samo's main piazza a little winding road departs uphill to the abandoned district.

Locals fled following a series of quakes but today Precacore has been brought back from the grave and comes to life during summer.

Hikers, tourists and descendants of former families flock here to admire the Greek-Byzantine ruins.

Aieta

Founded on the ashes of a Greek settlement, the village lies close to the cozy beaches of Maratea and Praia a Mare.

It's tiny but elegant. Dwellings with red tiled roofs are clustered at the feet of a majestic fortress with panoramic loggia.

Renaissance palazzos and lavish stone portals offer a glimpse of Tuscany in Calabria.

Eagles and wolves inhabit the woods. Trekking routes lead to the nearby villages of Papasidero, Laino Borgo and Laino castello.

Bova

Legends says an Armenian queen built this village on a hill where cows grazed -- hence the name which nods to the term "cattle" in Italian (bue).

Known as the region's "natural balcony" for the mesmerizing coastline scenery, it's located right on the tip of Italy's boot close to Sicily, in the heart of "Greek Calabria" which flourished with settlers from ancient Greece.

Noble stone mansions with elaborate portals are situated below the cliffhanging ruins of a Norman castle.

Strolling through the narrow alleys you can still hear the clacking of old looms. Weaving tradition dates back millennia, and the unique fibre broom plant is still picked on the peaks of the nearby Aspromonte mountains.

Fresh goat milk is on sale each day. Ethnic music festivals, a Byzantine Easter party with fruit decorations and a picturesque carnival are top events.

Caccuri

This spectacular hilltop castle, built as a lookout post against pirate raids, overlooks a maze of alleys, stone homes and tiny piazzas with private entrances.

Across centuries powerful feudal families ruled over the village, killing and poisoning each other.

Olive groves dot the hills and produce a premium extra virgin olive oil. Part of the fortress, featuring high walls and a loggia tower hiding inside a cistern, has been turned into an elegant designer resort.

Albidona

Set at an altitude of 850 meters but with territory stretching all the way to the sea, this community enjoys an enclosed pinewood and a cozy beach featuring a Saracen tower.

It's close to the border with Basilicata and Puglia, making it an ideal spot for touring all three regions and getting the most from the Pollino national park and the warm sunny coast.

With a 10-minute car ride locals can hop downhill for a swim or uphill for a refreshing yoga or trekking session.

Legend says it was founded by a blind seer fleeing from burning Troy. Ruins of a crumbling castle overlook cherry, almonds, and wild apple orchards. The terrain is made of the same stuff as that of the Ionian Sea in Greece.

Sant'Agata del Bianco

A rural vibe survives in this collection of humble peasant dwellings where thick yellowish stone walls and painted green doors whisk tourists back into the past.

The entire village and its rough cobble alleys have been neatly restyled. The local "Palmenti Route" trail takes in a network of old wells cut into the rocky ground and once used to make wine.

Keep an eye on the region's website for news of the project.

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