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metamorphesque · 1 year

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These images of circles and circling, revolving around a great center he names God, it makes me think of the cathedral labyrinths of Europe. Or the ancient spiral glyphs carved into rocks and cave faces. I see the circling pathway around some secret center. The road can be bewildering, twisting and turning, keeping us disoriented and uncertain of how near we are, but ever moving inward.

And that courageous line –

I may not ever complete the last one, but I give myself to it.

We walk the winding path, not out of certainty, but because it is the only path worth walking. Walking that road, quietly, with attention, one foot in front of the other, becomes meditation. It becomes worship. Each ring, whether near or far, is a layer of our lives that is blessed by our passing through it.

Walking the circling path is not only the way to the center, it is actually part of the center. We learn to participate in the center by first walking the path. Obsession with the destination becomes an impediment to reaching it. Instead, by patiently inhabiting each step, we discover the center in ourselves... and our feet naturally end up there, as well.

We walk with our whole selves –

and I still don't know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song?

On this roundabout road to God, we question our own nature. We encounter the mystery of self. Who and what are we really? Ultimately, it is in that questioning of a self that eludes definition where we find the still center.

The quieter we are, the more patient and open we are in our sadnesses, the more deeply and serenely the new presence can enter us, and the more we can make it our own, the more it becomes our fate; and later on, when it "happens" (that is, steps forth out of us to other people), we will feel related and close to it in our innermost being. And that is necessary. It is necessary - and toward this point our development will move, little by little - that nothing alien happen to us, but only what has long been our own. People have already had to rethink so many concepts of motion; and they will also gradually come to realize that what we call fate does not come into us from the outside, but emerges from us. It is only because so many people have not absorbed and transformed their fates while they were living in them that they have not realized what was emerging from them; it was so alien to them that, in their confusion and fear, they thought it must have entered them at the very moment they became aware of it, for they swore they had never before found anything like that inside them. Just as people for a long time had a wrong idea about the sun's motion, they are even now wrong about the motion of what is to come. The future stands still, dear Mr. Kappus, but we move in infinite space.

Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen, die sich über die Dinge ziehn. Ich werde den letzten vielleicht nicht vollbringen, aber versuchen will ich ihn.

Ich kreise um Gott, um den uralten Turm, und ich kreise jahrtausendelang; und ich weiß noch nicht: bin ich ein Falke, ein Sturm oder ein großer Gesang.

I live my life in widening circles (set me free)

Starry Night (Vincent van Gogh), Widening Circles by Rainer Maria Rilke (tr. Joanna Macy), Commentary by Ivan M. Granger, The Chartres Cathedral Labyrinth, Ouroboros, 1760 (a photograph by Granger), question mark symbol in Armenian, 지민 (Jimin) 'Set Me Free Pt.2', Letters to a Young Poet (by Rainer Maria Rilke), Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen (by Rainer Maria Rilke)

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beebopboom · 4 months

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The Second…….Ball?

A bookshop, Eden, and something more?

In part 1 we discussed

the structure of the bookshop being similar to 17th century French gardens, a maybe hidden Tree of life, the idea of timestreams relating to the roads and rivers, and all that to just say the bookshop perhaps all of Wickber Street is their version of Eden

Part 1.5 was just a couple theories that have been floating around my head concerning

the book of life

the rings and a fly

the bookshop

a coffee

honestly I'm probably going to do a little editing. It’s not a necessary reading

But finally made it to part 2 where I'm going to dive into some out of order events and two different parts of the same story being played out at the same time plus the actual main plot, specifically in the last two episodes - though there is probably more earlier in the season

you can imagine the jumble that has been brain and why it took longer than I wanted to get this out.

Background Info

In part 1 I mentioned that the Tree of Life was mentioned in two particular books in the Bible - Genesis and Revelations. Now we’ve discussed the Genesis part - Eden - and now we are going to talk about Revelations - New Jerusalem

The Book of Revelation is the only apocalyptic book in the New Testament and it's where the Second Coming comes from - written by a John. It was mentioned in season 1 and I’m going to be making a lot of references to it throughout this.

New Jerusalem is the place where all true believers will spend eternity with God and is said to have pretty similar features to Eden - the rivers, the Tree of Life, the wall, and a square shape. Something that this place is also said to have is 12 gates.

The New Jerusalem. Armenian manuscript by Malnazar and Aghap’ir in New Julfa bible, 1645

Oh lookie there mighty similar design to 17th century french gardens

But anyway want to take a guess at what has 12 windows?

*I used the fire to show what windows are connected to the bookshop*

Ok but let’s get into the actual point of this I’ve talked enough about set design

Have we already seen a version of the Second Coming? Why yes we have

In episode 5 we are following two different stories cutting back and forth between the two - Aziraphale’s and Shax’s

Now before I get into this I’m just going to say that I know Good Omens is a parody to actual Biblical events and who knows what is actually going to happen in season 3 besides the man himself. We do know that this season was setting up for the next and that parallel scenes are a favorite. So these are just some parallels I noticed if you place some characters into the roles of others and it could very well turn out to be wrong

Shax’s Siege

The thing about Shax’s character is that she is always looking for opportunities to get ahead and make connections that could benefit her later. We see it in 1941 and between then and now she has worked her way up from desk duty to Hell’s rep on earth.

And when she finally gets permission to attack the bookshop she actually takes up another role. Or shall I say multiple.

It is very obvious that once Shax gets to Earth she is out of her league - bitten off more than she can chew so to say - and yet she still wants more and is very good at manipulating beings to get there.

So she wants to storm the bookshop with legions of demons but only gets about 70. The thing that is interesting about there approach is you have demons coming from all four roads and she arrives last. And this is where we jump into Revelations.

In chapter 13 it talks of two beast - one from the sea and one from the land. The beast from the sea is said to have 7 heads, 10 crowns on the horns, is like a leopard with feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion, and one of its heads is said to have a mortal wound that is healed. This description has been likened to the four beast in the Book of Danial chapter 7 which were symbols of the four kingdoms - Babylon, Medes-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Some say this beast is the Antichrist as it is empowered by Satan to persecute Christians, blasphemy against God, and cult-like worship.

But all that to say I think that the arrival of the demons from all four sides was meant to kind of represent this. With the four beast representing the four kingdoms arriving on our four rivers roads. It’s not a perfect parallel but it is not meant to be - it’s meant to be a shitty rendition of what is basically Armageddon.

Now the second beast is mainly referred to as the false prophet. The only description is that it comes from the ground, two horns like a lamb but having the voice of a dragon. It has all the authority of the first beast and makes the inhabitants of earth worship the first beast, it breathes life into the first beast. It performs great signs like making fire come down from the Heavens to the Earth and causes all to be marked with the mark of the beast. Some call this beast the antichrist because it is performing miracles similar to that of Jesus.

This is the role I think Shax is trying to play - somewhat successfully. She arrives coming up out of the lift and through actions we see later kinda fulfill some of the rest of these points.

She also kind of jumps back and forth between these two beast with her authority - almost like she is not actually meant to be here, that they are all out of order. Mainly trying to be in the Antichrist position.

Shax is working the best with what she got.

But let’s switch over to our other story before we get to the confrontation

Aziraphale’s Ball

In his part of the episode we have been following him around as he invites people to this “meeting”. Crowley is also there for a little bit until he is brought back to reality so to say by Nina and eventually goes to confront Gabriel.

But back to Aziraphale who is going shop to shop in alphabetical order as is on the list on his clipboard. And this is where we start to get some Revelation parallels.

Whereas the Shax parallels started in chapter 13 Aziraphale joins in at the end of chapter 20 with the mention of the Book of Life - or in other words the list of names that are let into this New Jerusalem, that were God’s people.

Aziraphale having a list of people that he is inviting into his bookshop, a notorious place where he doesn’t want humans I feel is pretty significant. But all doesn’t go smoothly and he has to convince some people to come - I could go into each person he talks too but mainly he is using books and christmas lights to convince the people who don’t want to come. But what could those represent?

Books - eternal life for authors

Christmas Lights - the light that Jesus brought back into a world of darkness

Giving out the books/fruit of the Tree of Life so people will come to the ball/paradise hmm Aziraphale?

Interesting that we don’t see Mr. Brown’s shop on this list isn’t it? Keep that in mind.

But we continue on to Aziraphale decorating the Bookshop. With two scenes of him doing this one - moving the bookcases, or interior walls, and two - bring the chandelier down

In chapter 21, John is said to have seen New Jerusalem and New Earth descend from the Heavens - noting that there was no temple,

This could be paralleled to the scene where Crowley is looking into the Bookshop watching as Aziraphale has a chandelier descend from the ceiling.

It’s also important to note at this point that Gabriel arriving quite literally upended their lives and inadvertently set off the very same events he didn’t want to happen, The Second Coming. With him acting as a Jesus parallel.

But back to what is happening with Aziraphale. People are starting to arrive!! And he is changing their clothes?

Revelation 22:14 - Blessed are those who wash their robes, so they may have access to the tree of life and they may enter the city by the gates.

Washing their robes is meant to symbolize a full cleansing from sin that they must be free from to enter New Jerusalem

So Aziraphale is changing (washing) their clothes to make them acceptable for the ball (New Jerusalem)

Now you may be wondering how would you even prove that it happened? The seamstress conversation is how.

On one side it probably was how people from the time period Aziraphale is trying to create talked but it’s also removing the nature of the “sin”

Aziraphale does not even know what she technically does and yet it is still changed. When Mrs. Sandwich later tries to say what her job is she can’t actually say it and has to describe it - all using sewing terms. She even calls out at one point that the “devil may take it.”

But why? Aziraphale doesn’t even know and if he did I doubt he was care very much - unless something else was at play here.

Heavens standards - which in this universe includes adultery as bad, as a sin. We see examples with the references to Solomon and Gomorrah and “Thou shall not commit adultery Pulsifer”

The way she describes it as well leans towards this angle as well. With the “in want of the tender attention of a wife”

But back to Jim though who throughout all of this has been our Jesus parallel - he is out mingling with the people for the first time dressed in a wonderful blue suit.

Revelation 22 - The throne of God and the Lamb are in the city, and His people worship Him. There is no night and no need for other sources of light, for the Lord Himself gives the light, and they reign forever.

God and Jesus finally walking among and interacting with their people - and Jim seems to be having a grand ol time

yes i’m putting Aziraphale into Gods position- tricky business there i know

There is also some more references with the Candelabra’s that are around the shop - both the 3 and 7 versions. These guys have a bunch of different meaning but the ones that really stick out is The Holy Trinity and the Seven Angels or the Seven Churches

(I also had this whole bit planned about the temple which is said to be destroyed in the Second Coming of Jesus because it now holds no place in Jerusalem because God and Jesus are now among them and relating it to the Second Temple. I’m a bit iffy about it though just with some of reasoning but that was the basics of it - I might end up coming back to this at some point)

But all this to say that Aziraphale has basically made his version of paradise - unintentionally mirroring what is said to be the real one

The Collide

And our two stories meet….somehow. We left off with Shax in chapter 13 and Aziraphale in chapter 22 so quite a bit has to happen to get them to the same place - and it does a little bit out of order

Things come crashing to a stop quite literally when the demons throw the brick? wall piece? through the window. Shax makes her threats particularly to the humans. Perhaps because they don’t have the Mark of the Beast? Which they would need to buy things and as we know from Jim earlier, they aren’t selling

But the next big event is Jim walking out of the bookshop

which has been linked to this pose

and continues Shax’s story into Revelations 14

Revelation 14:14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man

but he is also start Aziraphale’s story back up when he goes back into the shop - just going backwards now

Revelation 20:5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. How fortunate and holy is the one who has a share in the first resurrection!

Mr. Brown then gets grabbed and thrown out of the shop, remember how his shops name wasn’t on the list? His name is not in the Book of Life therefore he is thrown into a Lake of Fire

Crowley then brings the humans back outside telling them to go back to their shops thus removing them from New Jerusalem and reversing judgement

and then he exits the stage as well and our jumping around really begins with episode 6 - so quick-fire

Shax gains confidence in her attack as soon as she notices Crowley has left and while this is happening Aziraphale put the chandelier back…. from wherever it came from. Effectively undescending New Jerusalem and putting that behind them as they work to meet up to where Shax is at in the story.

Aziraphale starts setting up the portal and tells Shax she is not welcomed here

Revelations 14: 9-11 - Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”

Demons throw trash into the bookshop and Aziraphale runs off to tell Jim to hide leaving Maggie and Nina to deal with Shax

Revelation 14: 17-20 Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.

Maggie is then manipulated by Shax to let the demons in the shop

By this point I think the true role of Shax has come into play and it’s a nod back to Madam Tracy. The role is in Revelation 17 - The Whore of Babylon - the epitome of sin, ruler over 7 kingdoms, quick with her tongue and good with her words, draped in the finest clothes of purple and scarlet

Demons start to enter the shop and Aziraphale activates the portal - Shax discorporates Eric and we see Jim’s position on the stairs above everyone

Revelation 15 - The Seven Plagues - yes I know they haven’t quite got to anything else besides the portal and even then they don’t use seven different things but this chapter really is just setting up for the next and I wanted to mention one thing before moving into the next

Revelation 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed

the smoke coming from the demons discorporating and the fire extinguishers while Jim is absent

Demons start stepping into the portal - Maggie, Nina, and Aziraphale have to come up with another plan - Demons push book selves over and Maggie and Nina start with the fire extinguishers

They have now gone up the stairs to the second floor of the bookshop for the first floor has been over taken by the demons - Aziraphale charges Shax to leave this place - Shax starts to insult Aziraphale

Revelation 18:2 With a mighty voice he shouted: “ ‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.

Jim is sent away after asking if anyone wants hot chocolate

I don’t have anything to compare this to. I just think it’s interesting that Aziraphale(and Maggie and Nina) were offered hot chocolate and declined, especially with all the talks about coffee vs death

Maggie and Nina continue with the fire extinguishers - and then they start with the books - no more fire extinguishers or books and Aziraphale pulls out the old Halo trick

Revelation 16 - Bowls of Wrath - now the chapter with the actual description of the seven bowls. By now we have seen all of the moves Aziraphale, Maggie, and Nina pull but I really wanted to point out the comparison of the last bowl particularly what happened afterwards and the Halo so,

Revelation 16:17-20 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!” Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.

All demons are discorporated with Shax unconscious on the couch

Revelation 19:2 for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.

Revelation 19:20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

and with that it is over

so yeah that was a lot and it’s not perfect but remember when it was mentioned back in season 1 it was among prophecies that were not entirely accurate and that it was a rushed, only kinda planned attack. So really I just view this as very quick run down version of the Second Coming where there is not enough players

plus you have Crowley’s side to this story which seems to be the reality - dealing with the actual problem that has been going on throughout the season (Gabriel) instead of hosting a Ball or trying to make a power play

but if you made it this far have a little treat in the spirit of the holiday season, or if you don’t celebrate anything than just for getting to the end of this

New Jerusalem was also described as "the bride, the wife of the lamb” - and we all know that Ball was for Aziraphale and Crowley, as much as he may deny it, so really Aziraphale was saying “let’s get married, I’m your wife now”

#good lord this got long #I tried to interpret things the best I could #but I had like no background knowledge #my brain is mush #good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #good omens analysis #good omens theory #aziraphale #crowley #good omens shax #good omens maggie #good omens nina #good omens gabriel

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sgiandubh · 7 months

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What do you think about the ring?

Dear (insisting) Ring Anon,

I see the topic itches. I have answered this question three days ago, but somehow kept receiving Anon upon Anon upon Anon about it and, to be honest, I was surprised to be thinking about it, too.

Which is exactly the intended - and achieved - effect of this new plot device.

Mordor went berserk, including Meow Kabob's Gay Clique. The Shire hummed and buzzed with DMs. Lasagna Lady could have testified before a Grand Jury it was gold. Another halfwit joked on X about giving it to Desi, then retracted when things went completely out of control. A perfectly executed spin for a drier, longer Droughtlander.

If all this hullaballoo were happening at the Olympic Games, I'd give Desi a Comăneci 10.

This ring is all about using very useful and cost-effective props. It will fuel endless speculation, vanishing and reappearing whenever convenient, with no further need for painful pap walks, Flukenzie Floozy clones or a new round of The Matrix Bikini Game.

And that brings along another thought. We often use the expression going down the rabbit hole, when we talk about how this charade started for anyone in this fandom. But I begin to wonder if we didn't go down a funnel: at first wide open and then narrower and narrower (IFH, EFH, Remarkable Week-End, etc). Then COVID, followed by this strike made it even narrower, if at all possible, because now we don't even have the customary promo/banter periodically thrown in to keep the sacred fire alive. The Vestals are bored and already yawning.

But there is also a new book and some more booze to be sold. He knows - because he reads us, make no mistake- this fandom's documented obsession with rings (his or Lucy's, for that matter), so let's assume he indulged us. Yeah, I am grinning as I write it. Desi is trolling us big time and let's be honest: we love every single second of it.

As an aside, allow me to share a little something about me:

This is my left hand, of course. And that is a beloved family heirloom madame Mère gave me on my eighteenth birthday. It belonged to my Armenian great-grandmother and I never took it off. Not even when doing the dishes, swimming or walking around Phnom Penh's slums. I am not married and I am not especially looking forward to, for personal reasons.

In Desi's case, The Ring appeared at Starbucks (who the hell shows an 'engagement ring' while staying in line for covfefe?), on one of those very hot & humid end of summer days when NYC turns into a giant sauna. Understandably, he was dressed to suggest he casually went to record that book at Hachette's after a workout session: but if also weightlifting, why bring The Ring?

So read my lips, Anon: it means nothing and also anything you want it to mean. Yes, at the same time. This is OL, after all.

We didn't even start to see the end of this, mark me. It's way too juicy and the night is young.

PS: The good thing about going down a funnel is that at the end of the day you know you'll be out of it, somehow. That moment will come. Not a single doubt or worry in the world about it.

#Anon

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mapsontheweb · 1 year

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Meaning of the stems of the words for "rainbow" in the languages of Europe.

by u/nickanc

'Rainbow' is typically a compound word in most European languages. Generally, speaking, a part of the word comes from words meaning bow, belt, ring, circle or arc in their respective languages or ancestor languages. The other one varies and is the main concern of this work.

Some incomplete notes on the meanings and the etymologies I gathered while making the map:

'sky god' + 'arc/bow':

Arabic from Quzah, a pre-islamic deity of weather

Maltese from Maltese alla 'god', from Allah, the islamic deity,

Karelian from Ukko, Finnic sky god

Lithuanian from Vaiva, goddess of Baltic mythology

Armenian is uncertain, supposed to derive ultimately from PIE *dyew- 'shine'

from PS *dǫga "bow". they all are not compounds, except maybe for Russian

'rain/flow'+'bow/arc':

Germanic ones but faroese from PG *regnaburô 'rainbow' obvious compound, *burô comes from PIE *bhewgh-

Faroese æla means shower (as in weather), formerly "flow quickly", from PG *ēlaz "eel"

Finnish from Proto-Finnic *satadak "fall, rain"

Irish and Scot Gaelic are compound words in their very language, there are many other interesting Irish words.

'arc of the old lady' and 'circus bibit', 'arcus bibit'. In some ancient folklore tales, that appear in various IE families, various weather phenomena are especially linked with magical or religious figures that assume the form of old ladies. In Italian and Romanian folklore there are the 'giorni della vecchia'/'zilele babelor' that are the days 29th-31st of March, when the cold is expected to return. In Romania an old lady is Baba Dochia that brings forth the spring and various other Babele populate the Romanian folklore; in the Gallo-italic folklore of Italy there is a folklore fog spirit named Borda that is an old lady personifying the fog, Gaelic mythology has its weather old lady Cailleach, the Indian summer is called in German Altweibersommer lit. 'old women's summer'. The rainbow is no exception: Plautus in the Curculio hints at a folktale of an old lady that drinks "like" the rainbow does or maybe is the rainbow itself, hence also other etymologies for rainbow related to expressions like "circus bibit", "arcus bibit", "arcus imbibens" etc.that give etymologies in various languages. Venetian arcombé and Ladin ergabuan come from arcus imbibiens (source), whereas Romanian curcubeu likely from curvus bibit and Neapolitan arcovevere from arcus bibit. Note that expressions containing the rainbow and the old lady or the act of drinking exist in many languages in this map and their dialects, just they are not the common word for rainbow. For example, in Moldovan there is brîul babei that means 'rainbow' (source), Slovenia has the dialectal word pijâvka 'rainbow' from PS *piti 'to drink', while in Spain and Portugal dialectal expressions that are cognates of the Galician one are apparently common, in Czech there is an idiom pije jak duha that means 'drink like a rainbow', i.e. being a drunkard. Ultimately all what I found points to a 1952 article of Gerhard Rohlfs, Romanischer Volksglaube um die Vetula, which however I was not able to find. EDIT: The Hungarian word is linked to the image of drinking the rainbow too, see below.

'thunder'+'arc' or 'arc'+'thunder':

Estonian is apparently cognate with Livonian pit'kiz kor(?) 'rainbow', lit. 'thunder bow', according to this source, though this comment offers more insight on the origin of the word.

Italian arcobaleno where baleno means flash, thunder, apparently from balena, 'whale', due to a popular habit to make many phenomena zoomorphic or anthropomorphic (the map I posted for fog in northern Italy presents a similar case with she-wolves). Alternatively, there is an article supposedly connecting the words of the 4. with arcobaleno: they suggest that, at some stages of the languages and the sociocultural development, the old lady was an old lady of the sea, thus a whale and their witness would be Galician vella 'old lady' which - according to that article - is a word that could mean also whale. The article is aimed ultimately to strengthen the Paleolithic Continuity Theory, so probably there is little to no scientific consensus on it, though at least I hope their examples are not as disputed as their conclusions.

color: teal. from word meaning "rain":

Polish from(?) OCS тѫча 'rain' and cognate with Russian ту́ча 'rain cloud'

Northern Sami related with Northern Sami arvedálki 'rainy weather'

Basque: 'horn of the sky' or 'sky god's horn', from Basque Urtzi

'arc'+figure of Christian religious figure (Saint John, Saint Martin, Saint Mark, Noah, the Virgin). The choice of the figure seems related to the days of these saints (St. Martin is during the Indian summer, related to 4.), though I have not that much experience on the topic to ascertain that. Noah is clearly linked with rain.

color: green. literally 'arc'+'holy woods', from Proto-Celtic *nemētom, cognate to Latin nemus 'wood' from PIE *nem- 'give, take' source, apparently suggesting a sacred role for the rainbow in Celtic traditions.

Curiosity, not sure if or how it is related to 9. and the other words conveying a sacred meaning for rainbow: in southern Italy, the rainbow was superstitiously considered the cause of jaundice, as màlë du uàrchë is jaundice (source]

#maps #words #nickanc #rainbow #europe

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kckramer · 10 months

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Writeblr Introduction

Hello! It's time to properly introduce myself to the writeblr community. You can call me KC if you want. I am a full time specialist as my local library system and I have a Master of Letters in Fantasy Literature from the University of Glasgow. For now, this is my writing website, until an agent/editor tells me to build a WordPress or something. (I honestly hate traditional blogs. Weird quirk, don't know why. Also, links are underlined). If I get tagged in things, I will do my best to respond to them and share it forward.

Published Works- This includes my self-published 5e adventure and the two anthologies that include my stories. It will be updated and kept current as this develops.

Works in Progress- The main projects that I've been bouncing back and forth between. Most are world-oriented, meaning they have numerous interconnected stories within a single world.

Where to Find Me: Some of my other internet homes, including World Anvil, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook.

More Details Below...

Here are some more details on the different things I linked above:

Published Works

"Sofia Serrento's Flying Circus and the Sky Pirates of Shanghai" is published in the anthology Hell Hath No Fury: New Pulp Heroines. It's a New Pulp story set in 1930s Shanghai, featuring Sofia Serrento and her all-women aero-circus/spy ring.

"The God-Kings' Tomb" is published in the anthology Futures That Never Were, an anthology of original sword & planet short stories. This one is in the same universe as Sofia Serrento, so the two stories are... technically connected. This one involves an SOE advisor specializing in the occult and arcane who finds herself transported to a different planet in the solar system.

Siege at Oasis Butte is a standalone 5e adventure published through the DM's Guild featuring a desert town under siege by mercenaries with mysterious motivations.

Works In Progress

Iron Horizons/The Pilgrim's War: This was a NaNoWriMo novel from a few years ago that has since... grown. I've been calling it a Dieselpunk space opera, but alternate history/retrofuturism is also apt. Basically, humanity rapidly developed space flight in the 1920s based on some MacGuffin physics nonsense leading to the second world war happening on a solar system level using extensions of 30s aesthetics. Pilgrim's War is set roughly 400 years after that war ended, with the extensive resources from space maintaining the colonialist expansion into the stars and focuses primarily on a sort of... War of 1812 situation between a well-established independent government and their recently independent colonies.

The Centurion Club: My published short stories are set in this universe. Ironically, this is also an alternate history. It's the primary setting for my "New Pulp" fiction. It's mostly short fiction, with some longer projects in the brainstorming phase, and it focuses on the fictionalized city of Weymouth in New England and the members of the illustrious Centurion Club, a scientific society for explorers, scientists, freedom fighters, reformers, and others who push the boundaries of human society. Beyond that, a sword and sorcery setting in Mesolithic Doggerland, some privateers/mercenaries in the 17th/18th centuries, and a contemporary CGIS special agent in a Clive Cussler vein, plus a great many vigilantes and adventurers in the 1930s.

Sigil of the Sea King: A heroic fantasy which, also a NaNoWriMo project, is self-indulgence, where I throw together everything I've really enjoyed but could never fit in elsewhere. So there's an island kingdom ruled by merchant sea princes, flying air whales, nomads whose wagons are pulled by sails, cozy Forest Folk, a lone surviving heir to a crumbled kingdom, and lots of influence from Georgian/Armenian/Caucasian culture, mythology, and history.

Flintlock Fantasy: This is just the earliest stages of development, mostly just simmering, but somewhat Napoleonic secondary fantasy world. The main character is an elf named Lark, and I think she's sort of a janissary-type sent to work covertly in a border region between two empires. Random, Personal Information

You may have once known me as NovelistSpaceRanger, but that was like 8 years ago.

I'm a certified open-water diver and I'm working on my advanced open-water diver later this summer.

Also a whitewater rafter, backpacker, mediocre yogi, and rock climber.

I've been to 14 countries and spent a year and a half living in Europe.

#writeblr #kckramer #writing community #my writing #writeblr intro #short story #new pulp #writing blog #novelistspaceranger #dieselpunk

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talesofsorrowandofruin · 1 month

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OC in Three Tag

Thanks for tagging me, @blind-the-winds! :D

Rules: find three pictures that you believe fit the aesthetic of an OC! Please cite where you got the pictures and include image IDs/alt text!

I'll do this for Rusudan Lajareshvalë from Like Snow on Hungry Graves!

(ID: a photograph of a ring. The ring itself is out-of-focus. The decoration is in the shape of a rose, coloured rose-gold and with circular diamonds(?) on the petals. In the centre is a pale-blue gem. A out-of-focus blue decoration, possibly a butterfly, is at the left side of the ring.)

(ID: a photograph of a woman. The top three-quarters of her face aren't in the photo. Her mouth is visible. Her hair is brown and in two braids hanging on either side of her chest. Both of her hands are visible. She is wearing a deep-red dress with golden decorations, possibly metal, stitched into the centre of the bodice. She is wearing a narrow metal belt. The dress has long sleeves. She is holding her right braid in her right hand, and her left arm is held in front of her body at her belt.)

(Incidentally this is a Circassian dress, not a Georgian one. Pinterest has an irritating tendency to lump all Caucasus national dresses together, and I don't know enough about the subject to identify them all. I'm almost certain most of the "Georgian" dresses Pinterest showed me were actually Armenian or Circassian. Finally I gave up and went with this one.)

(ID: a photograph of a fountain. A large assortment of red, pink and white roses are floating in the water.

(Source: Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest.)

Tagging @ashen-crest, @toribookworm22, @tabswrites, @sleepy-night-child, @euphoniouspandemonium, and anyone else who wants to do this! :D)

#tag game #writing #my characters #my WIPs #WIP: snow

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mockva · 3 days

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Moscowabad. After the Armenian MMA fighter Arkady Osipyan defeated the loyal Mujahid Ali Heibati (Persian Dagestani) in the ring, a crowd of wild Dagestani Wahhabis shouted “come here alone, we will come alone too!” and began beating Arkady and his trainers.

#russia #2024 #Moscow #sport #MMA #mockva #fighter #wahhabis #mujahid

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maranull · 2 years

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I didn't know invasions give you red eyes, that's cool.

They fit her (and actually look better) but I have a cosplay character that needs to keep his eye color, does that mean no invasions with him?

#elden ring #i mean i don't mind keeping him for co-op only #i'm just wondering #btw her name is zepour (means breeze in armenian) and she's a beast incantations based build #she also wields a partisan and i think she's cool

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blueiskewl · 1 year

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Archaeologists in Armenia Discover an Ancient ‘Golden Tomb’

It's the latest find from a joint Polish and Armenian excavation effort begun in 2013.

Archaeologists at Metsamor, an ancient necropolis in Armenia, have discovered a tomb filled with gold pendants and more than a hundred amber and carnelian beads. Dating to the late Bronze Age (1,300 to 1,200 B.C.E.), the grave also held the remains of a man and a woman, who appear to have be buried at the same time.

“Their death is a mystery to us, we do not know the cause, but everything indicates that they died at the same time, because there are no traces of tomb reopening,” Krzysztof Jakubiak, an archaeology professor at the University of Warsaw, said in a statement.

Laid to rest in an eternal embrace, the couple was buried in a cist, a stone-lined chamber dug into the ground. Believed to have died in their 30s, one wore bronze bracelets, the other a tin wire ring.

The grave also included a wooden burial bed, a faience flask, and about a dozen ceramic vessels. According to researchers, the beads and pendants were originally part of three necklaces, and the flask would have been imported from the Syrian-Mesopotamian borderland.

The research project at the Ararack Valley is a joint effort the Polish Center of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw and Armenia’s Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reserves, led by Jakubiak and Ashot Piliposian. The partnership has been ongoing since 2013, according to the Greek publication Archaeology; an exhibition of their findings opened last fall at the Armenian History Museum in nearby Yerevan.

To date, archaeologists have discovered about 100 graves in the cemetery, but the newly found golden tomb is one of the few that were not looted prior to the start of excavations in 1965. The cist graves would have been covered with burial mounds of earth that have eroded over the centuries.

Because the ancient Armenians do not appear to have been illiterate, and left behind no written records, archaeologists know little about Metsamor society. The walled settlement was at its height from 4th to the 2nd millennium B.C.E., with temple complexes surrounding a central fortress.

“It was a very large settlement. Even fortifications made of huge stone blocks have survived to our times, encircling the so-called citadel on the hill,” Jakubiak said. “There was no other settlement in the region that could be compared in terms of importance and size.”

By Sarah Cascone.

#Archaeologists in Armenia Discover an Ancient ‘Golden Tomb’#Metsamor #ancient tomn #ancient grave #ancient necropolis #ancient artifacts #archeology #archeolgst #gold #gold jewelry #history #history news #ancient history #ancient culture #ancient civilizations #bronze age

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shummeshaet · 1 year

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OK, WELL...

☆Big mouth headcanons part 1.☆

☆Jay:

• He's Armenian, Greek and he has Brazilian roots.

• Also he's polyomorphic bisexual, and perhaps he could use any pronouns.

• He has signs of autism, and one hundred percent has ADHD.

• Issues with accepting love as not a physical interaction, but an emotional one.

• He may have schizoaffective disorder prerequisites, and is trying to repress his trauma by interacting with inanimate objects.

• He has trouble expressing love and words of support in principle, but he tries very hard and always asks his partner if something is wrong.

• He has a temper sometimes, but tries to stay calm even when he has a mental breakdown.

• He doesn't know how to say "I love you" to anyone so he uses his metaphors for it, which more often than not are misunderstood.

• He also has a lot of scars, bruises and abrasions due to the fact that he really likes to spend time in the woods surrounded by wild animals.

• He is Jayzarian RicFlairian Bilzerian-Birch now.

• Wears wristbands, just because it's cool.

• He also wears a ribbon with a bisexual flag and a polyamory symbol.

• He has heterochromia. His right eye is a lighter shade of brown than his left eye, and he also has a lot of black dots.

• He has very sharp fangs and wears braces (just because of the fangs, because they shift the top row).

• He goes to bed quite early.

• He prefers to sleep with someone/something in his arms.

• He likes dogs and squirrels.

• His room is a mess, but it is cozy.

• He has rings on his fingers that he twists very often.

• And he got his ears pierced in the bathroom.

#big mouth #big mouth netflix #jay bilzerian #big mouth headcanons #jay bilzerian headcanons #headcanon #ida what is this

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lizarova · 1 year

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Hi Tumblr! It’s been a while (huhu) so I’ll do a little introduction: My name is Liza & I am an Armenian/Ukrainian/Russian immigrant that grew up here in the Midwest (Слава Україні!). I’ve recently reached my first anniversary milestone of going freelance as an animator and illustrator and I feel really fortunate for all of the support and relationships I have made along the way in my career. I love seeing all the #artists who’ve been on this platform & away for some time, reviving this community! I haven’t been posting on Instagram lately (doesn’t help that every time I try the app crashes), but I’ve been slowly rebuilding my passion for art outside of work over the last several years and I am hoping that Tumblr can be one of my art outlets. As an immigrant, there have been a lot of pressures to succeed and profit and grow in my career where my family could not. And fantasy has always felt just a little out of touch, even though I really loved a lot of it. Fantasy only felt allowed if there was some grounding in reality. As someone who saw the movies but never really “watched” them, mostly because I never had the context and understanding of the lore and what was going on (I was always embarrassed I didn’t know what was going on and was too afraid to ask, and even when I did ask the answers didn’t make a whole lot of sense). I always felt a bit ashamed of that and like I wasn’t allowed in the “fantasy” club. But the fantasy space has become more and more accessible for people like me and I’ve been really thankful for my friends @brightbirdart @blistermonster (they are amazing artists please check them out!) help make it feel accessible over the years. I’ve finally been able to listen to the audio books for the Hobbit & LOTR, re-watched all the movies again understanding the context, and got excited about how much finally was making sense in Rings of Power. I’ve been absolutely mesmerized by how much context I was missing and how rich the world and story really is. It’s been one of the biggest sources of inspiration recently as it’s given me boost I needed to truly fall in love with the fantasy genre all over again. I am reforging my own path and am excited to see where it takes me.

#lotr #aragorn #elessar #fellowship #two towers #return of the king #lord of the rings #narsil #andúril #the rings of power #illustration #fanart #fantasy

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the-real-housewives-of-waterdeep · 5 months

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Chapter 4: Mushroom Stew

Summary: As the heiress apparent to House Selemchant of Amn, Dulcinea is used to getting her way. At 28 years old, she has never had to lift a finger unless it was to cast an evocation spell. That is, until she woke up on an unknown beach with a tadpole in her brain.

Rating: MA

Category: F/M

Relationships: Tav/Gale

Chapter 4/?

Word Count: 1.9K

A/N: Dulcinea is meant to be Armenian-coded. Snkapur, a traditional mushroom stew, is the first of a handful of Armenian cultural references sprinkled throughout the story. I’m not Armenian, but it’s a culture that I really appreciate and want to highlight since I don’t really see it talked about often, in my experience. All of that said, I hope I’m doing it justice.

Dulcinea knelt on her bedroll, legs tucked primly beneath her. She wore only her chemise which was, for now, unscathed by the dirt, blood, and dust of her travels.

Her dress had not fared nearly so well. Its skirt bore scratch marks from being attacked by an intellect devourer earlier that day and was splattered with the white matter remnants of that same intellect devourer. Her dress was folded with care and tucked away in a burlap sack that Shadowheart had found. While Dulcinea was deeply reluctant to sully her dress further, she had no other option but to store it in the dusty sack. Eventually, she realized, she would need to wash and mend the dress however, doing her laundry or her clothing repairs was a foreign concept. Clothilde or someone else always dealt with such matters for her.

She studied her hands which were once soft and spotless but were now marred by fresh scrapes and scratches incurred while climbing through brush and bramble. She looked to her right ring finger, rubbing the spot where a diamond ring once sat. Even a year after her engagement to Darius ended, Dulcinea still felt naked without the ring.

She blinked hard, trying to divert her thoughts from Darius. Nothing good came of those memories. She stole a furtive glance at Gale who was tending to a mushroom stew with the watchfulness of an overprotective parent. Upon his arrival, Gale appointed himself to cooking duties. Somehow, he had managed to make dinner out of seemingly nothing but mushrooms, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and garlic. The rich and comforting smell of the stew wafted in her direction, drifting on a gentle breeze. It was an unpretentious meal, a far cry from what she was used to eating, but far better than anything she could’ve concocted.

“Dulcinea!” Gale called. “I must ask for your assistance.”

Dulcinea swallowed hard, rising to her feet. She slipped on her boots, lacing them quickly. The thought of getting her feet dirty was repugnant, no matter how ridiculous she looked in a chemise and a pair of muddy boots.

“I’m sure you’re aware I have absolutely no cooking skills, yes?” she asked as she approached Gale.

He snorted. “I have no use for your cooking skills or the lack thereof. No, what I require is your palate.” He beckoned her closer. “I need you to taste this. Tell me what you think.”

Dulcinea knelt down next to Gale. “Try this,” he instructed, taking a spoonful of stew. Dulcinea began to reach for the spoon, but instead, Gale brought it to her mouth. Hesitantly, Dulcinea opened her mouth, allowing Gale to pour the soup into her mouth. She felt a flutter of excitement, that old twist of her insides. The moment conveyed a tenderness that she did not anticipate.

Gale stared at her expectantly as she quietly evaluated the stew’s flavor and texture. “It’s nice,” she replied. “It’s not an Amnian snkapur, but it’s nice.” Her mother’s snkapur was a generations-old recipe for an indulgent roasted mushroom soup seasoned with Selemchant bard’s toe peppers grown only in the family garden. Tasting Gale’s mushroom stew made her slightly homesick. She furrowed her brow. “It needs more garlic.”

Gale snorted. “You’re not wrong, although I was hoping for a cut above merely ‘nice’. Were I back home in my tower in Waterdeep, I would have a vast array of spices from across Faerûn to choose from. Alas, I must do the best with what is available at hand.”

“It reminds me of home,” Dulcinea said, attempting to assuage having called Gale’s cooking ‘nice’. “And most food could use more garlic.” Knowing how proud Gale could be at times, she regretted having been so frank with him, although he had asked for her opinion.

“You know, some people are allergic to garlic,” Astarion called from across camp, audibly irritated by Dulcinea’s desire for more garlic.

“Athkatla: The City of Coin,” Gale said with reverence. “It’s been many a year since I visited. When I was a much younger man, my colleague Zeredahn Behlsahn invited me there to be a groomsman at his wedding. I spent an entire ten-day drinking wine, reading rare Calishite tomes, and basking in the sun. If the use of magic by outsiders wasn’t illegal within the city, I would have considered taking my sabbatical there, but to have gone even a ten-day without magic was like depriving myself of water for just as long. Athkatla is certainly no Waterdeep, but it is a place of splendor in its own right.”

Dulcinea scoffed. “The wine in Amn is far better.”

She could think of a much more comprehensive list of reasons why Athkatla was superior. Athkatla’s reputation as the City of Coin was a tribute to its wealth that came as a part of its role in the Sword Coast gem trade. The city’s reputation drew in people from all over Faerûn. As such, nearly anything Dulcinea’s heart desired was readily available; gemstones, silk robes, or cosmetics that were only available in the farthest reaches of the continent.

While Waterdhavian society hosted its fair share of galas and events of the season, parties never seemed to end or be in short supply in Athkatla. Her father frequently hosted gatherings of his own, which boasted a menu ranging from elevated traditional Amnian food to exotic delicacies, such as Zakharan rosefish marinated in Athkatlan lime.

Dulcinea spent much of her childhood in the courtyard of the family home, a rectangular garden containing mint, basil, licorice, marjoram, and her family’s pepper cultivar. When she wasn’t sparring with her brother, studying, or taking her music lessons, she could be found stretched out on a rattan chaise in the courtyard, warming herself in the southern sunlight.

“You are a tough woman to please, Miss Selemchant,” Gale remarked, still sounding a touch miffed by Dulcinea’s earlier comment. “And here I thought my expectations were lofty.”

Dulcinea crossed her arms, looking at Gale out of the corner of her eye. “My pedigree as a Selemchant is not my fault.” She flipped her thick curls over her shoulder primly. “It’s my privilege.”

“And your engagement to Darius Tarn has only contributed to such tastes.”

Dulcinea recoiled at the mention of her ex-fiancé. “Darius has nothing to do with it,” she spat, once again rubbing the spot where her diamond ring once sat. She turned from Gale, her throat feeling tight. He must have either not heard about or had forgotten the explosive end of her engagement.

She stood, dusting the dirt from her knees. “Hmph,” she snorted, walking quickly back to her tent. She crawled inside, casting a cantrip to seal the tent flap. She had yearned after Gale for a decade now, even through her engagement to Darius. Dulcinea always got what she wanted, yet Gale was the one thing she wanted but could never have. Loroakkan said it best: he was out of her league. Even after his fall from grace when he lost Mystra’s favor as her Chosen, he was still tenfold the mage she could ever dream of being. That moment by the fire with Gale feeding her stew was the closest she had been to Gale and the most they had interacted beyond formalities and small talk. After all of that, she managed to alienate him and offend him in one fell swoop.

More than that, she felt ashamed of herself for behaving the way that she had. She had gained a reputation in the arcane community of Waterdeep for being a spoiled bitch. Being called “the princess of Athkatla” was cuter when she was 18, but had lost its charm significantly by the time she hit her mid-twenties. Even her father, who cherished her above all of the precious gems in Athkatla, was growing impatient with her entitlement. When she ended her engagement to Darius, she was thwarting her father’s plans of gaining political clout outside of Amn and he was now threatening to have her brought home to Athkatla. Yet, here she was pouting in her tent after once again proving her moniker to be correct. She was a spoiled bitch and a princess with no kingdom to speak of.

Dulcinea was too embarrassed and frustrated with herself to come out of her tent that night, foregoing dinner in lieu of solitude. Even as hungry as she was, she would rather starve that night than face Gale again.

In the morning, Dulcinea awoke to the smell of coffee brewing outside. She sat up slowly, her tailbone still hurting from when she fell on it the other day. Every joint in her body cried out in protest from a night of sleeping on the ground with nothing more than a bedroll to comfort her. She was loathe to leave her tent, but she would have to go outside eventually. She produced her dress from its burlap sack and pulled it over her head. She ran her hand over her curly hair, feeling equally distressed and grateful that she didn’t have a mirror handy to see the state her hair was in. Dulcinea drew in a deep breath and untied the tent flap.

By the looks of it, she was the last one in camp to wake up. Shadowheart, Astarion, and Gale were already awake and drinking coffee from a percolator that Astarion scavenged the other day.

Astarion looked over his shoulder at Dulcinea. “Ah, the princess has decided to grace us with her presence,” he said snarkily.

Dulcinea said nothing but joined her companions for coffee.

“There’s still some left if you’d like the rest of it,” Shadowheart said, offering Dulcinea the percolator and a dented tin mug.

“Thanks,” Dulcinea replied, accepting the coffee and pouring it into the mug. The coffee was still warm, albeit exceptionally bitter. Ordinarily, Dulcinea wouldn’t take her coffee black but under the circumstances, she felt that she had lost the right to complain.

“We ought to visit the druid’s grove again,” Shadowheart suggested. “We’ve not found Nettie the healer yet. She could be the one to rid us of our tadpole friends.”

“It would be quite fortuitous to find a healer of that acumen so quickly. The sooner, the better, I say,” Gale said. “I concur with that plan.”

Astarion considered this suggestion for a moment. “Perhaps she may be able to control it…”

“Again with controlling the tadpoles,” Dulcinea groaned. “We need it removed. Removing it does not equate with controlling it. That said, I’m in agreement to go to the grove today. It’s about an hour’s walk northwest of camp. We should get there before midday.”

“We’re all in agreement, then. We should all be ready to depart in half an hour,” Shadowheart said, standing up. Between her and Astarion, they would need to gather their melee weapons and Shadowheart would need to don her armor and ready her shield.

That left Dulcinea and Gale. Gale sighed. “I suppose I should be the one to break this steely silence. I clearly hit a nerve last night when I brought up Darius and I apologize for that.”

“It’s… it’s fine, really. You wouldn’t have known about what happened between him and me,” Dulcinea replied. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I insulted your cooking and then hid in my tent like a coward over it. So… I’m sorry.” Apologizing was never Dulcinea’s strongest suit if it was a skill she ever used.

Gale shook his head and smiled. “I did ask for your opinion and you certainly gave it. You were right though; it could have done with more garlic.” Both of them stood, now facing each other. “I’ll remember that for next time, though. Perhaps I’ll impress you yet.”

#bg3 #bg3 gale #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 fic #baldur's gate

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