#nahautl

[kirbyskisses-main-moved]

as an afro-latina living in a new place with basically no latino population, hearing spanish and nahautl/maaya taan on a big screen from nakia and the talokanil made me sob.

so many afro-latinos/afro-indigenous people get to feel at home in both wakanda and talokan - this movie really is a gift.

also can we appreciate the fact that the representation is prevalent on the premiere tour too?? look at how much joy is in this dance alone??

#black panther #black panther wakanda forever #tenoch huerta #namor #lupita nyong'o #namora #nakia #mabel cadena #representation matters #marvel #latina

[hotshotblackburn]

On the People of the Third City, and the power of transformative fandom

Warning: self-indulgent rambling, reflection, and hope for writing spurred by the desire for writing that is not present.

I'd been an amateur scholar when it came to Mesoamerican history: just enough to know how much I didn't know. I knew the Third City was Mesoamerican, though I knew not where. I believed, as many, that it referring to a city called Hopelchen (nevermind that Hopelchen was named several centuries after the Third City was supposed to have fallen, and that it was only proposed as a candidate because of the "five wells" sidebar snippet). I personally have interpreted it as Chichen Itza in the past, but I have also heard compelling arguments for Tikal and even perhaps a pre-Nahautl Teotihuacan (and to this day, I still find it amusing, in a frustrating way, how much we know the identities of the Second and Fourth Cities and yet the Third, the one New World city, is still the subject of debate). I knew it was associated with the God-Eaters, and the story of Seeking Mr Eaten's Name.

But as a fan, this was the text that grabbed me first and foremost about the Third City:

Rebels who will not rise The revolutionaries of the Third City sleep here, fifty-five of them. They would have made their republics in the tomb-colonies. It was not permitted. Their enemies must have hated them, to lay them here to rest where they would never be remembered - The Catafalquerie, Cave of the Nadir

From this text, interest: what were the revolutionaries of previous Fallen Cities like?

And then, 2016: Election 1894, the first of it's kind. If you chose to back the Jovial Contrarian - and as a revolutionary character, of course Hotshot did - you could choose a Reactionary Tomb-Colonist as your free item for the election. And if you did...

Something old His bandages run black with ink. Words are scrawled over his wrappings, like the husks of spiders. Not all of it is English. Giddily, he points out choice fragments – "Here, the schematics for a Fourth City catapult we never got to use. This one's the lessons we learned from the Galleries. And here – everything the Contrarian has ever published. I have made a study. This time, for sure." Between the bandages, his dessicated eyes smoulder like spent coals. "Things shall be as they were once and should be again."

Words not all in English? Mentions of the Fourth City weapon "we never got to use"? Evidence on how old this colonist was?

In retrospect, the text was more likely just referring to an old tomb-colonist of the Fifth City. But at the time, to me, it felt like it could point to something else: a rebel who escaped the fate of his colleagues, a revolutionary who continued to fight the Masters and the God-Eaters even long after his city was submerged into lacre.

And from this, Itza Matul was born.

I share the sentiment that the Third City, in canon writing, is almost entirely tied to the God Eaters and Seeking like an albatross around it's neck. What little we get of the one New World city in the Neath, a city from a place whose peoples were horrifically genocided and colonized and thus from which we have enormous holes and gaps in the histories, and it always seems to be related to this one story of betrayal, sacrifice, hunger, and monstrous priest-kings.

I am still not impressed with the idea that the one example of a tomb-republic we have in lore, the same kind of republic as mentioned in the text above, is Tanah-Chook. A Third City tomb-republic, named after a fictional English character whose creator backed at a high enough kickstarter tier.

I have tried my hand at alternatives, using what Yucatec dictionaries and sources I could find that seemed at all reliable for tomb-colony names, people's names, an equivalent to "free citizen". I have tried light speculation on what it might have been like for the people of the Third City, what kind of Neath they might have lived in, how the survivors have adapted as their City was drowned and their peoples displaced and the eventual realization that on the Surface, the place they once called home was overrun centuries later by the colonial empires of Europe. It is not sufficient, but it was what I could contribute.

And all of this is to say...you can do that too. It may not be canon. But it can be something beyond canon. To write in a version of the Neath where the Third City is more than the God-Eaters and the Betrayal, where people lived and struggled as more than just fearful subjects to a monstrous priesthood. And if in the effort to do it justice, you are driven to read more, learn more about the people whose descendants still live in the world, realize how much has been lost and yet how much has not been lost...

I have never regretted realizing I wanted to know more.

#fallen london #failbetter games #the third city

[the-eldritch-it-gay]

Does anyone have resources on learning Nahautl? Resources that are you know, from native speakers.

[speaknahuatl]

Ica Nahuatl

[paratopaxi]

“Welcome to another edition of Call it a Lesson: Topaxi. This time it will be a miscellaneous edition! Take it away.”

We’re covering four topics today: Lingua Franca, Alphabet, Branding, and Lino’s Bastion.

The official writing system of Topaxi is based on the glyphs used in the Nahautl codices, simplified into a consonant-vowel featural writing system, similar to Hangul. Each character equates to a certain consonant, vowel, or consonant-vowel combination. While each character also has an origin in a glyph with a specified meaning, they primarily represent the sound being produced and a combination of characters in a string creates the word.

The alphabet is here.

Though the official writing system is based on Nahuatl, a majority portion of official documents are Spanish in origin, many of the family names of nobles are Spanish, and a majority of the population speak it as a second language. This being that in its history, Topaxi was visited by Sphaniam traders, who first sought to establish an outpost by force before such action was quelled by the standing armies of the empire. Afterwards, peaceful negotiation was instead established. In creating trade relations with Topaxi, Sphaniam agreed to give Topaxi direct control of its traders, which involved the traders and merchants becoming spies for Topaxi along its trade routes as was traditional with Topaxi. In doing so, many traders and their families became slowly integrated into the nobility, including even the Imperial family itself. Spanish, as the lingua franca of the traders and soon the nobility, became an official second language, slowly turning into a commoner language while Nahuatl remained the established ‘sacred’ language.

“With that out of the way, let’s get into some fun stuff: branding.”

Is it fun, though? Throughout Topaxi, there are many establishments that consolidated enough wealth to spread throughout the districts and to the empire proper, becoming ‘chains’ that are operated by a guild.

One of these is Waffle House. Established during the last decades of AM, it became popular for its offerings of relatively cheap Eastern food while remaining open all throughout the night. It’s since spread through the empire. Because they’re open so late into the night and are relatively cheap, the diners became known as a ‘pvp zone’. Instead of weaning off this reputation, the guild decided to lean into it: to become a cook, one must pass a ‘boxing exam’ which is a 23 second sparring match with another cook. If the prospective worker goes zerk on the cook, they are assigned the night shift. If the cook paps them out, they work the day shift.

Waffle House is seen as a guild of very strong fighters who cook great food. Every violent faction in Topaxi considers them a neutral zone: any violence started in their diner will be ended by them, without question.

“You can call it a waffle.”

Finally, some may wonder why Lino was defeated by Yunuen, if Yunuen had even less experience fighting than Lino did.

Lino’s Bastion is Field of Ilhuican, which creates its bind as the legendary field where all great warriors rest. Its effect is to temporarily heal all within its field and to equalize the magic and strength between them, creating the perfect environment for a true, honorable duel. Thus, skill becomes the only means by which a winner is established.

If Lino had defeated Yunuen, Lino would have survived. Whether Yunuen was more skilled or if Lino let herself get defeated, is up to your interpretation.

#a special bulletin

[nobertsales]

Happy National Guacamole Day! First known as ahuacate, the origins of avocado can be traced back to 500 BCE. It was cultivated in Mexico, Central, and North America.   Spaniards get the credit for discovering the now much loved #Guacamole. They found Aztec sauce called ahuaca-molli; molli was the Nahautl word for “something mashed or pureed.”   There are over 450 varieties of avocado grown around the world, but the Hass is popular, It is predominately cultivated in Mexico and California. Interestingly Rudolph Hass – a postal worker from California owns the patent for the seedling since 1935.   California is known as the ‘King of Avocado’ in the United States and accounts for over 90% of avocado production in the country. 🥑 #NationalGuacamoleDay #FoodSales #WeKnowFood #FoodConsultant #FoodDude #FoodService #Food #FoodServiceSolutions #FoodOfTheDay #NobertSales @NobertSales (at Germantown, Tennessee) https://www.instagram.com/p/CikjCPcgWKT/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#guacamole #nationalguacamoleday #foodsales #weknowfood #foodconsultant #fooddude #foodservice #food #foodservicesolutions #foodoftheday #nobertsales

[yukimurakalashnikov]

Nahuatlismos

Itacate – Itacatl, los hombres salían de la casa con su itacatl (colación o alimentos) para la comida del medio día.

Totopo – Tlaxcaltotopochtli (tortillas fritas comidas en las campañas militares).

Petaca – Petlacalli, lugares para guardar que se trataban de cajas de cañas y cuero.

Petate – esta palabra viene de Petatl que ricos y pobres lo usaban para dormir. De hecho la palabra petateo viene de la tradición prehispánica y colonial de envolver al difunto con un petate.

Guajolote – Uexolotl, macho de esta especie de ave que era fuente básica de proteínas para los mexicas).

Mole – del náhuatl Molli, una salsa de chile y especias espesada con masa de maiz, aunque también se dice que originalmente hacia referencia a cualquier salsa.

Achichintle – viene de Aachtli que significa: criado, paje o servidor de alguien.

Jacal – del nahautl Xacalli, choza con techumbre redonda, pajiza.

Tamal – Tamalli quiere decir envuelto. Este platillo que existe desde el 100 aC se preparaba con carne de guajolote.

Aguacate – de Ahuacatl en náhuatl, quiere decir testículo por la forma y textura de la fruta.

Chocolate – Xocoatl, bebida de tiempos prehispánicos, viene de Xococ, amargo y Atl, agua. Se obtiene de la mezcla del azúcar con la masa y la manteca del cacao.

Tejocote – del nahuatl Xocotl fruta y Tetl piedra «Fruta dura como piedra».

Chicle – Tzictli es el origen náhuatl de la palabra y proviene de la goma del árbol de zapote.

Chamagoso – viene de Chamactic que deriva de chiamahuilia que significa ungido con aceite de chía.

Huitlacoche – Cuitalcoche significa en náhuatl excrecencia. Cuitlatl que dormita Cochi dormir.

Pozole – Tlapozonalli que significa espumoso o hervido.

Tlapalería – viene del náhuatl Tlapalli que significa color. Dicha palabra viene del verbo Tlapaloa que significa colorear. Esto porque en dichos lugares se vendían las pinturas de colores entre muchas otras cosas como clavos, herramientas etc.

Cacahuate – su nombre original era Tlalcacahuatl y significa «cacao de la tierra». Tlalli, tierra y Cacahuatl, cacao que deriva del verbo cohua (comprar). Recordemos que el cacao se usaba como moneda.

Escamoles – Azcamolli, la palabra viene del nahuatl Azcatl hormiga y Molli, guiso, salsa, mole. Era el caviar prehispánico, un platillo hecho a base de las larvas de la hormiga guijera.

Chapulín – significa «el que rebota como pelota de hule». Chapania, rebotar y Olli que significa hule.

Epazote – Epazotl, se deriva de Epatl, hedor o zorrillo y zotl que significa sudor. Era llamada la planta zorrillo en el pasado por el fuerte olor que despide.

Chamaco – Chamahuac signfica rollizo, grueso. Ahora se les dice así a los niños traviesos. Escuincle viene de la palabra perro, itzcuintli.

Chichi – del nahuatl Chichihuali era el paraíso al cual iban los niños muertos para alimentarse de un árbol de senos se llamaba Chichihuacuauhco.

Chipi chipi para decir que esta está lloviendo ligeramente, Xipini quiere decir gotear y de Xixipini, llovizna.

Apapacho – tiene su origen en el náhuatl Papatzoa que significa apretar o abrazar.

Chilaquil – viene del nahuatl Chilli, chile y Aquili, del verbo aquia que significa “estar metido”. Por lo tanto significaría “metidos en chile”.

Ajolote viene del náhuatl atl agua y xolotl monstruo haciendo alusión al hermano gemelo de Quetzalcoatl.

Tianguis – del náhuatl Tianquiztli, antes de la llegada europea se realizaba cada cinco días la jornada de Mercado por lo que se llamaba Macuil tianquiztli. Esto fue modificado por los frailes para evitar que el día de mercado cayera en los domingos..

Tequila – Tequitl que significa trabajo y de Tlan, lugar. Tequitlan, hace alusión a las labores agrícolas que realizaban los indígenas para pagar su tributo a través del trabajo.

Titipuchal – Tliltic que significa color negro o azabache y de Potzalli “montón de tierra “. Originalmente se diría Tliltipotzalli. Se usa como sinónimo de “muchas cosas, muchedumbre”

Paliacate – viene de una mezcla del náhuatl y el español, de para y yacatl o sea nariz.

Huauzontle – proviene del náhuatl Huauhtzontli, Huauhtli que significa bledo (amaranto) y tzontli que significa cabellera o cabello. Por lo tanto significaría “cabellera de amaranto”.

Chipotles – del náhuatl Pochtli que significa ahumado y Chilli que significa chile. En tiempos de lo mexicas se le llamaba Pochchilli.

Esquite – del náhuatl Izquitl, que significa botana de maíz.

Comal – Comalli, se refiere al objeto donde se cuecen las tortillas de maíz.

Jícara – Xicalli, significa vaso elaborado de la calabaza. Hoy en día estas jícaras se utilizan para tomar bebidas tradicionales como el pozol o el tejate.

Wey – del náhuatl Huey, que varía en significados entre ellos grande, gran, venerado, honorable, y que los españoles equipararon a “buey”. Al máximo gobernante de Tenochtitlán se le nombraba Huey Tlatoani.

Mezcal – Mexcalli, palabra compuesta por Metl (maguey) y Xcalli (cocido).

Popote – Popotli, se refiere al tallo seco y hueco de las gramíneas, que crecían con abundancia alrededor de la Gran Tenochtitlán.

Tomate – Tomatl, que significa agua gorda.

Papalote – Papalotl que significa mariposa.

Mitote – proviene del nahuatl Mitoti, que significa bailarín. Asimismo era el nombre de una danza ritual mexica.

Guacamole – Ahuacamolli formado por Ahuacatl (aguacate), y Mulli (salsa).

Elote – Elotl, que significa mazorca tierna de maíz.

#IMPERIVM

[iamwinklebottom]

ORIGINAL Art for SALE | “Waiting” x “Chiltic” 8x10in. Acrylic Paintings (SOLD SEPARATELY)

https://youtu.be/Z6qv7jLsb-o

#hoodoo #artist #ancestors #artwork #Native American #nahautl #melanin #acrylic #acrylic paint #acrylic painting #painting #art for sale #zodiacs #zodiac #spirituality #witch #witchcraft #ritual #spells #hacks #original #og #original paintings #sketchbooktour #canvases #canvas #make up

[ranger-rizeth]

WIP to try out dramatic lighting. Hoping to finish it this month between commissions and con prep.

#dnd character #tiefling #warlock #Nahautl #ranger-rizeth #digital art #wip

[rutheir]

Inspired by @artistveronicaperez of the @colectivanopalera #day1 #inktober2018 #ceramica #Mayanist #puzzles #xochitzin #share #inktober #ink #ceramicateco #anthropology #anthropología #cultura #chicanoart #yancuic #archaeologist #archaeologia #partes #nawa #nahautl #nahua #náhautl #nahuan #nahuatlahtolli #mexico #guatemala (en Salt Lake City, Utah) https://www.instagram.com/p/BocUsbIFHMP3M1T_LXCJtAc3UFS1Yl94KBgFvg0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=3yd2cpb5mgib

#day1 #inktober2018 #ceramica #mayanist #puzzles #xochitzin #share #inktober #ink #ceramicateco #anthropology #anthropología #cultura #chicanoart #yancuic #archaeologist #archaeologia #partes #nawa #nahautl #nahua #náhautl #nahuan #nahuatlahtolli #mexico #guatemala

[atwotonedbird]

Just wondering. Shouldn't the cast of Maya and the Three be speaking Nahautl/English instead of Spanish/English?

#maya and the three #shrug

[elejahfanfic]

The Vampire Files/3

Fanfiction

Part 3

AU crossover story with tvd characters

Elena  Gilbert and Nick Amaro

are FBI agents, investigating paranormal activity and all different strange cases involving demons, witchcraft, vampires.

There will be other tvd/to characters in it, as well as characters from other fandoms -

ft. Joel Goran from Saving Hope

warning: smutty, 18+

ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ✩‧˚

_gifs are not mine *

tags_ @miguelsbrat​

thanks so much for reading. I hope you like it. xoxo

✽-( ˘▽˘ ❁)/✽

Days after

Whitmore

Bonnie Bennett finished with her report, sending a copy over to the FBI. Elena's remark about the amulet and mentioning the name of the monster that was out there killing women, who were not random women, but fellow witches, rattled her. This was not just an Agent, Bonnie thought.

****

FBI Headquarters

Washington, DC

Was Elena just an Agent? Nick wondered. He now took his tablet and opened the Elena’s PhD-'Vampires and Folklore'. Such a simple title to a very extensive read.

He read, 'Throughout history, these beings have resided alongside man. Myths and folktales from all points of the globe speak of beings that feed on the living. From the Japanese Kasha to the Irish Dearg-Du and the Tlaciques of the Mexican Nahautl Indians and the Arabic Algul they exist.

... In closing, the interesting thing to note is that although the creatures of mythology largely contradict the popular view of vampires, they do exist. They exist at all corners of the world and in nearly every culture known to man. Although they exist as superstition and folklore, they persist in appearing in the dark shadows of humanity.’

Nick put the tablet down. This definitely gave him a further insight in his new partner. To Elena this world was very real. They were not catching ordinary criminals.

Although he didn' believe in demons, vampires, curses or any of the superstitions, he had to admit all was very intriguing. She clearly resented the fact that he was assigned to be her new partner. Their effort to bond over pie and coffee didn't go all too well, but it was a step forward in admitting they had a job to do and that was enough. He poured himself a glass of Bourbon.

Flashback

"I guess they assigned you there because she needed someone who is cool-headed," Camille said to him as they talked earlier on the phone,"maybe they are testing you-"

"Or- they are testing me, all right! And the cool-headed thing- you are too generous- I shot the deputy."

"And you were cleared. He happened to be in the line of fire. Shall I come over?" Camille reminded him.

"No. I have tones to read. Familiarize myself with the demon files she has given me as homework."

"Have fun." Camille said hanging up.

He had no desire to read anymore so he took his car keys and got out of the office.

*********

Elena waited for a man in the Rock Creek Cemetery

"Do you have it?" she said as he finally got to the .meeting point

"Here" Klaus passed her a little box.

"When is the Initiation ritual?"- Elena asked.

"March 23rd- full moon" the attorney said.

"Right" Elena said.

"You think this is connected to Jackson's murder?" Klaus said.

"Yes," Elena said putting the box in her bag,"and it had nothing to do with the investigation we were on. The witches wanted him dead. And they will cover it up."

"Why do you what you do then?"

"Why are you?" she posed a counter question.

"Maybe there is no real answer." Klaus said.

"Maybe to brings some order in all disorder?!" Elena said and without any goodbyes she walked away.

Klaus took his phone and dialed a number.

******* At Rebekah's house, that evening

Rebekah and Caroline sat down for supper.

"No answer" Caroline said trying to get hold of Elena again.

"Have some more wine," Rebekah offered,"She told me she will come"

And not long after, Elena rang the doorbell. And so the three friends sat down for meal, to chat and unwind. All of them had several crappy months behind them. And this little get-together was to give one another wind beneath the wings.

"Joel has accepted to work at Jeffersonian" Rebekah said looking at Elena. Namely, Joel was her ex-boyfriend.

"Good for him" Caroline said taking a sip of the cocktail, her eyes also swaying at Elena. Caroline noticed that yet again she was there physically, but mentally she was somewhere else.

"So, how is he really?" Caroline asked Elena.

"How is who really?" Elena looked at her friend somewhat absent-minded.

"Your new partner. Come on- spill!" Rebekah said impatient to hear what Elena had to say about Nick.

"Ok. He is different, that's for sure. He is very text-book. We have a job to do. Catch the twisted criminals!"- Elena said in a sarcastic under-tone.

"This doesn't sound like you're a match made in heaven" Caroline then said.

"We don't have to be. We just need to be focused on the one thing and apply team-work," Elena said,"ok- now what is this thing with you and Stefan?"

"Didn't you say you are never going back there?" Rebekah now looked at Caroline.

" I know I said - and it was just sex" Caroline said following a deep sigh.

"Why are you doing this to yourself?" Rebekah didn't understand why she could not draw the line once and for all. "He is never going to give you more- he said so- he is in love with this -whoever she is"

"Don't I know that" Caroline said taking a sip of the drink again.

"Love- who wants it- so overrated anyway," Elena said thinking of Joel.

Rebekah now gave her a look that would kill. "You're not helping!"

"Come on- seriously. Look at us. When do we have time for love? And then if maybe we find the guy- it all just goes to blows" Elena suddenly stood up.

"Where are you going?" Rebekah said surprised she was acting like nothing mattered at all to her.

"I don't know. I just can't sit here and -everything inside of me feels like a ticking bomb- and I can't talk about it with you cos of the investigation." Elena said quite agitated.

"Is it that bad?" Caroline now stood up as well.

"It is that bad," Elena confirmed," I might get suspended or even worse- lose my job."

"It is only a job!" Rebekah then said,"and a wretched one. Dealing with such difficult cases all these years no wonder you are breaking."

"I am not breaking! I am good at what I do. I love this job. I- sorry guys- but I have to go-" Elena took her coat and went out.

Rebekah and Caroline stayed behind speechless for a moment.

"I have never seen her like this. She is always so -" Caroline said not knowing how to label Elena’s behaviour.

Rebekah finished her sentence, "Messy."

Messy, maybe was right, but much deeper, Elena felt like her other life was consuming her entirely. And she was on the brink of spilling it all out to them. I am not the person you think I am. I, Elena Gilbert am a demon hunter. My family. My mother was a demon hunter. My grandmother. My life....my life is not my own. Elena's head throbbed with a horrific sensation that she might fold.

And why was she on the breaking point right now and not before?

Flashback

A couple of months ago

In Alabama

Jackson came to the designated place Elena had gave him directions to. She hopped into the SUV and they took off for Washington.

"So, you found it?" Jackson asked.

"Yes." Elena unfolded the cloth and showed him the dagger.

"Are you sure this is the demon soul dagger we are looking for?!" the Agent asked.

"Positive," Elena answered,"you know that my dreams are not just peachy dreams of walking down the beach."

"What about the curse?"

"That is something I still need to figure out."

"The lawyers released the shaman." Jackson said.

"Well, with this, they will lock him up forever and throw away the key."

With the thoughts of that night, Elena drove to her apartment building. As she got into the garage, she got her phone out.                  

"Nick?" she said as he answered the call,"can you come down to "George's?- yeah- see you-"

She got out of her SUV and walked into the bar she would frequently hang out. Nick arrived some fifteen minutes later.

"Hey" he said as he sat down next to her on the bar.

"Hey-" Elena said back.

He played it cool, but he was amazed that she called him out so out of the blue, and it had nothing to do with a case.

The bartender asked him what he wanted- and he saw Elena drinking beer, so he ordered the same.

"So, after hours, beer?!" he joked a little.

"Hate the stuff, but sometimes, I need its bitter taste to make the sweet taste better." Elena said.

"Right" Nick uttered. More weirdness, he thought. Head she summoned him to share something or just to hang out? Whatever it was, he was ok with whatever. They can just drink beer and she could just be silent. Or they could play a game of billiards, which he suggested.

"Yeah, haven't played like in forever, but I have to warn you- I used to kick ass at the Academy" Elena said.

"Well, I did the same."

They ordered a couple of more beers.

Nick, as well as her were playing as if it was some kind of competition. And he won. Twice. Just barely, but still he won.

"I am really out of practice" Elena said putting the cue stick aside.

"You really hate to lose?!" Nick remarked.

"Well, yeah. But I am not a sore loser. Really, I am not." she walked over to the bar asking for another beer.

"Ok, so - are we going to talk about it now or tomorrow?" he said wanting to know why she had actually called him out.

"I don't feel like talking. Can we just hang and drink beer?"

"Of course we can." Nick said.

"I need someone who will be there and not ask me questions," she now looked at her partner curling a sour smile on taking a silent breath," I ran away from my best friends tonight. People, who care. I don't know why at one moment- I just could not stay there with them.And they have always helped me go through anything. It's just that I want to spare them from dumping my pain on them. They already have enough of their own shit making their lives miserable."

"But- isn't that what friends are for? Tell them any shit?" Nick said.

"Yeah- you're right. And it's true. But, ahm- I just didn't want to suck them into my darkness." Elena tried to reason about her decision to abandon the party.

"But a partner can suck up anything?!"

Elena gave him another serious look, which confirmed what he had said.

"You are also in the darkness with me," she said to him,"sitting in the shadows"

Nick was quiet. The way she said it was like she reached down his soul reading it like a book.

"Don't mind me. Just get so morbid at times. Tomorrow, the sun will be up again and I will be ready for anything, partner," the brunette then said,"I’m gonna head home.”

"Me, too” Nick said getting up.

"See you tomorrow," Elena said,"thank you. And I want a rematch!"

"Anytime, partner," Nick said,"see you tomorrow."

Jumping into her car, she drove off to the University Hospital. She was too weary, and home was the last place she wanted to be.

“Hey, Sophie” Elena said as she walked in the special ICU where the coma patients were held.

“I so need you to wake up - things are not good,” Elena muttered to the witch inhaling deeply,“I need you. They killed Jackson. But to kill it, I need the angel blood. And even when I find it, I can’t do it without you. There is one good news. I have found the Salem witch.”

Elena now went to tell her friend and curator of the Smithsonian museum a little bit about her new partner, as well as her current state of mind. Some half an hour later, she made her way to the car, stumbling at her ex, the dashing doctor, Joel Goran at the elevator.

“Working late” he said.

“I - went to see Sophie.” Elena said.

“Ah” Joel uttered adjusting his backpack, keeping to his side of the elevator.

“I hear that you are going over to the Smithsonian? Had enough of being a rock star surgeon?”

“No - my hand is - I can’t do surgeries anymore. My hand still has tremors and - yeah. So, I’m going to join the Bones team.” Joel replied.

“Right - sorry about your hand” Elena said.

“I’m sorry about your - partner.” Joel said sympathetically.

“Thanks” Elena nodded a little.

And then there was the look. The one that spoke more than words. The one that blurred all the lines.

Half an hour later, in Joel’s apartment, the blurred lines became even more blurry.

Elena pushed him back on the bed and straddled his hips and sank down on his cock, taking him as deep as he would go.

His hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her down, with a hoarse groan.

She melted against him, taking him inch by inch until, at last, she had accepted all of him.

“You feel so good,” he whispered, looking up at her through heavy eyelids., 2so good.” His fingers traced paths up and down her spine, coaxing soft moans from her. Lifting her hips and grinding downward, gyrating to stimulate her nub. She used him for her pleasure, ignoring his needs. She just wanted to get off, and he didn’t seem to mind. She took him faster, rotating slightly with each downward stroke. His hips rose off the bed to meet her strokes. He bit his lip, his head tossed back.Watching his expression was almost better than the waves of pleasure coursing through her own body. He could feel her trembling, and the way she arched back, he knew she was nearly ready to crash. He now flicked over her nub with her thumb, making her orgasm spiral out with a shuddering cry. She fell down on him, breathing against his mouth, “I so needed this.”

She pulled away from him off him and rolled her onto her back in the center of the bed, taking a small breather.

Elena was not a selfish kind, and she now pulled him to her, streaming her hands down his abs, wrapping her hands around his cock. She sat up, ready to take him int his mouth, but Joel stopped her. “I want to feel you - I need to be inside you “

She had not objections. Kissing her, he pushed her soflty back onto the mattres, he climbed on top of her and slid inside her. Her eyes drifted closed. Her back arched, rubbing her belly against his. He grunted under his breath, latching his lips onto hers as he pushed in slowly. The brunette closed her eyes and concentrated on the perfect rhythm of his long and deep strokes.

His quiet gasps in her ear sent her lust spiraling out of control yet again. Her hands moved down his back, digging into his flesh as she bucked her hips against him. His strokes shifted, becoming faster and harder. She felt like heaven and he lost himself now completely. Wrapped up in her warmth, he quivered and shook against her.

His gasps grew shaky and punctuated. Moaning softly his name, she soon brought him over, and he shuddered violently, groaning hoarsely against her shoulder, holding tight, till his spasms stilled.

Pulling out, he collapsed beside her, eyes closed, breathing hard. “This was - so amazing. I missed this -”

“It was.” Elena said getting up from the bed.

“Where are you going? Come back.” Joel sat up.

“I can’t stay” Elena said and disappeared into the bathroom.

Joel crashed back on the bed, taking a deep breath.

_to be continued

#elena gilbert #nick amaro #nicklena #fanfiction #fanfiction crossover #joel goran #au fanfiction #alternative universe #tvd au fanfiction

[atthegatesofdelirium]

While sitting before a statue of the Virgin and Child in the garden, I realized that there is something deeply pagan about Roman Catholicism. It’s common knowledge that the pagans, whom Rome was trying to convert, often worshiped a female goddess so Rome gave them Mary. They tried to downplay Mary’s role and make her just a vessel for God’s progeny.

But she must have been quite a woman. At age ~15, she accepted the Immaculate Conception. (What would pagans have said?) She was approached by the angel Gabriel, and how glorious and terrifying he must have been to a 15-year-old girl. She then convinced Joseph and her family that she is carrying the child of God. So strong is her “faith” that Joseph accepts it as truth and raises the boy as his own. Mary not only nurtured and protected Jesus, she cropped and tended him on his growth to Messiah. She knew him for what he was.

Her role in the story is terribly important. Without her, there is no story. What does it mean that the Virgin Mary appears to people? The Virgin of Guadalupe, Fatima, Lourdes and others. She is the fertility goddess. She is the mother of the world.

I thought I’d taken a picture of the statue at the retreat, but apparently not. The one above is much grander, but it shows the basic elements of Mary and Jesus with her standing on the world with her foot on the serpent.  Presumably this represents how bringing Jesus into the world will lead to the original sin being overcome through Jesus.

I wanted to read more on Mary so I went to the abbey library and came across a book The Great Apparitions of Mary.

The very first instance he writes of is that of the Virgin of Guadalupe. He went into detail about how the violent invasion of the Spanish had led to an impasse with the Aztec people. The two were about to engage in a bloody struggle in part because of the Aztec’s human sacrifice and cannibalism and the greed and violence of the Spanish who among other things enslaved, raped, maimed and slaughtered the Aztecs. It was then that an indigenous man who had been converted to Catholicism saw an apparition of the Virgin on Tepeyoc hill.

“She advised that she was the merciful mother of all united in this land of all inhabitants on this earth, of all those who lover her.” (p. 28) She wanted a teocalli (temple) built at Tepeyoc “where she would  hear the weepings and sorrows of all, and she would remedy sufferings, deprivations, and misfortunes.”

Although she wore a mantilla like a Spanish lady, she spoke Juan Diego’s native language of Nahautl. Long story short, in order to convince the Spanish leader of her authenticity, she made flowers grow on the hill and wrapped in Juan Diego’s cloak, she had him deliver them to the governor. When the flowers were unwrapped not only were the Castilian roses among them, her image was impressed upon the burlap-like fabric of the cloak.

The apparition did indeed result in the building of a chapel on the hill as well as the conversion of thousands of Aztecs, which the Church had been striving for. Do you see what Juan Diego did here? He was a Catholic convert, but his recounting of the apparitions words holds no mention of God or Jesus.

Interestingly enough, on the hill at Tepeyoc, once stood a temple of the great Aztec mother god Tonantzin. There was no G or D in Nahautl, so Guadalupe was a misinterpretation by the Spanish for tecoatlaxopeuh, which sounds similar. The apparitions name meant “Entirely Perfect Virgin, Holy Mary, who will crush, stamp out, abolish, and eradicate the stone serpent.” And who was the stone serpent? Quetzalcoatl to whom the Aztecs had been sacrificing humans. After news of the apparitions words got out, the sacrifices stopped and thousands converted.

Is she Tonantzin taking of the name and image of Mary in order to save her people from further slaughter by the Spanish. The Aztec people seem to have thought so since they left votive offerings in her image for more than a hundred years at the temple of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

#Virgin of Guadalupe #tonantzin

[kaseylynnwriting]

CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS- COYOTL ↬ＡＧＥ: 19 ↬ＴＩＴＬＥ: Prince of Raevale ↬ＭＡＧＩＣ ＳＰＥＣＩＡＬＴＹ: Deception ↬ＴＲＡＩＴＳ:

Gullible

Obsessive

Accepting

Sincere

↬ＦＬＯＷＥＲ ＳＹＭＢＯＬＩＳＭ: Alstromerias symbolize devotion and friendship ↬ＥＸＣＥＲＰＴ: Then again, I do suppose there are the rare exceptions that birth miracles instead of monsters.

"If you're ready, come with me,"

He took us around to a set of gilded doors. My first assumption that they'd been painted in gold- but no. Made of gold. How could I've been surprised?

"Enter," He instructed, pushing one of the doors open with his hand. I had expected a thunderous announcement, but we were met with an odd silence.

Two people sat on guilded, dressed in nearly identical robes, though each had one distinguisher. Ichtaca's robes bore a panel of crimson down the front, while Nahautl's had a stripe of pale orange,"

"These travelers have come from Yuveron to seek an audience with you, Ichtaca, and you, Nahautl. Will you grant them this?"

The first raised their head, almond eyes fixed on mine. They spoke in a middle register tone that made it impossible to guess their birth sex from the pitch.

"Coyotl, good Son-"

Son.

Lily mouthed, oh my fuck-

"-Mother, just here them out. Lapis sent them,"

"Since when do you care what Lapis does? You call him stupid, do you not?"

"Lapis might be a fool when it comes to his money," He said, taking a step closer to the throne, "But his mother is not. Femi is a good judge of character, you know that,"

#Writeblr #writing #characters #character introductions #Character: Coyotl

[nochiquinn]

book 2 part 2: eat the f u c k i n g apple

(hey I do these for fun and they’ll never be behind a paywall or anything but they take a LONG TIME and if you like them and want to throw a dollar my way I would be very appreciative. paypal.me | ko-fi)

So while Illa’zhi had been the boy’s stepfather since the age of eight, there were constants in the universe, and one of them was that young men and their fathers argued and pushed one another.

I mean, they don’t HAVE to, unless you’re really dead-set on perpetuating toxic tropes

I have never created anything before. I am a spirit of destruction. I … did not even think that we would succeed, until now, in even this much.

Zhi ♥

He put a hand on her hair, which was so dark a garnet as to be almost black, but shot through with blond strands. Like living fire. The only mark of her heritage on her.

Somehow in all the times I’ve read this I missed that detail. That sounds gorgeous.

Propraetor Antonius Valerius Livorus (Ret.) … Assassinated in his home

“Oh, do put Livorus on. Sigrun won’t let me tell him not to shake hands with the man who hates his roof. He’ll boil the blood in his veins if he does.”

Her psyche, fragile and unformed at the age of ten, might have been resilient enough to stretch around the gift of prophecy … but she’d simply received too much of it. It had broken her mind—Lassair called her a broken mirror, reflecting truth, but in shards. And it was true.

:(

Of course, when have the gods ever been merciful to me? Oh, sister, how I wish this gift had never come to me. That I could turn it away, make it sleep. Encyst it within myself. But I cannot. I have to keep looking. Deeper. Further. Because I have tiny reasons for hope. I know you’ll live. And if I keep true to the path, I’ll … get to see it, through you. That’ll be enough, won’t it? Tears ran down her face. Why don’t I get to be one of the ones who will live? Have I not done everything that could ever be required of me? Why must I taste only of the bitter cup of poison, and never of the sweet?

Sophia Deserved Better

He loved Sigrun, for all her prickly nature and cool demeanor, and he knew Lassair and Saraid did, too, but he didn’t think Adam had thought through some of the underlying implications.

poly

Now, the whole world explodes, and she’s somehow the only survivor? I think anyone would have problems then.” Trennus chuckled, but sobered, watching Adam’s face shut down a bit. “Hey, come on. Sophia’s prophecies haven’t come true yet. And, gods know, as long as Loki’s curse on Sig persists? I’m not going to worry about the world ending.”

🤔

Also? Literally every single thing she has ever told you has come to pass. Literally everything. You all just lack an enormous amount of foresight.

“Sophia told me, the first time I spoke with her on the phone in Nahautl, that Lassair used to be a fertility goddess, and that she wanted to tell Kanmi she was sorry about his wife.” Adam’s expression was grim, and Trennus’ cup slipped in his hand, spilling coffee on the conference room table. “Admittedly, I just don’t see the whole ‘your wife will be your widow before you meet her again’ thing coming true, but … better safe than sorry.” 

Trennus mopped up his spilled coffee before any of it could reach Adam’s stacks of papers. “Morrigan’s mercy.  … What else did she say?” 

“That she wanted to tell Livorus not to shake hands with the man who hated his roof. That he’d have his blood boiled, if he did.”

🤔

Flip through my list of contacts, and find Sophia Caetia’s number. Should be under the heading of either ‘Oracle of Delphi’ or ‘pain in my ass.’

adam 

I’m not quoting it but I just wanted to state for the record that Caesarion IX’s eulogy always makes me cry

“No one ever said it was real,” Kanmi told her, calmly. “It’s just religion, after all.”

kanmi be nice it’s a funeral

“One small point. My father’s sword.” He looked at the four lictors who’d been with Livorus until his retirement. “He always carried it with him. It’s not … I’m sorry to ask this, but it’s not in his effects.” He sighed. “I thought I might carry it, to remember him.” 

“It’s in Fennmark,” Adam told him, simply. “Pushed into the ground to mark the spot where a god died.” 

Marcus’ blue eyes widened, and then he nodded to Adam, who’d been his father’s chief body-guard for most of his life. “Good enough,” he admitted. “Thank you for telling me.”

I mean if you can think of a better memorial I’d like to hear it

Duilus attempted to stare him down. “Let me ask the questions here.” 

“Oh, by all means. When you get to one that’s interesting, let me know.” Kanmi couldn’t help the goad.

kanmi be nice he’s a baby

The one thing he’d been careful not to explain to the young and paranoid Agent Duilus was that when dealing with the five percent of the world’s sorcerers, ley-mages, and summoners, who played the game at his level … it was very, very unwise to anger them.

This is in response to Himi getting shot in the spine during a riot in Carthage, so add messing with kanmi’s kids into the mix…

“I’m not a god-born. I yell into the wind, I get a face-full of saliva.”

gross. accurate, but gross.

“A god is missing, yes?” He paused. “Yours, by chance? I hear rumors that he’s very quiet.”

yes but we don’t talk about it, kanmi

“So you want me to research this CLP group more intensely?” 

Adam closed his eyes. “No. I want you to join them.” 

Kanmi froze. “What did you just say?”

w e l p

Why is it always me? Why is it never Matru or you, ben Maor?

Please picture for a moment, Trennus Matrugena, the enormous, ageless barbarian with the tattoos and the purple eyes…undercover.

Also Adam’s a tool.

Unfortunately, that was the last time any of them saw Kanmi Eshmunazar for three years. 

After two weeks without word from him, Lassair stretched out her feelers of attention, trying to find a familiar mind, to no avail. Saraid, likewise, could not find the Carthaginian sorcerer anywhere. 

It was as if he had vanished into the deserts of northern Africa, and had not even left behind a ghost.

:(

Sigrun had seen the joy in Trennus’ face at holding his newest children from Saraid … and a week later, tightness around his lips, and worry in her old friends’ eyes, as Lassair had presented him with another pair.

lassair

But it wasn’t her business, so Sigrun kept her mouth firmly shut. But she did hope that Trennus would open his own, at some point.

trennus talk to your wife challenge

I am grandmother to the entire damned world, Sigrun occasionally reflected. If Fritti is the maiden and spring, Saraid is gentle summer and new life, Lassair is the mother and the harvest, then I am the crone. I am death and winter. But then again, that’s hardly anything new.

yeah about that

Looking at the broken pieces of mirror reminded her of … something. Sigrun stared at the floor, as if expecting to see the rest there, then down at her hands, half-thinking that she’d see blood welling from her fingertips. She couldn’t quite understand the sensation of panic that expanded up through her chest, the tightness to her own breath. There was a memory, but she couldn’t bring it forwards in her mind. Something a very long time ago. Wearing a very long dress, and broken glass everywhere … .

that’s a ptsd right there

I’m sorry, Truthsayer. The good news is, I can tell you when you’ll see him again. Your future stays easy to read, all the way to the end. And though you’ll carry a piece of the sun inside of you, you won’t be … eclipsed by it, or burned alive by the flames, as the Archmage is and will be.”

actually one of sophia’s less obvious prophecies, to be fair

Sigrun rather thought that Sophia was trying to be comforting. Trying to express her vision in words that they could understand, for a wonder.

You not understanding her isn’t her fault, Sig, it’s you not trying to understand. Like put in the .5 seconds of work to put together the clues she is trying to give you, or at the very least try to remember them so you recognize them when they show up.

A tear rolled down her face and splashed on the page. “It’s so hard, Sigrun. It’s so hard to know … all the things that I know.”

sophia ;-;

“I’m so sorry. For everything. I love you, sister. I might not … I might not always be able to tell you that. But I do.” 

Sigrun sighed. “I love you, too, Sophia.” 

“Do you know … what the difference … between a servant and a slave is, Sigrun?” The words were barely audible. 

Sigrun considered it for a moment. “A servant can say no.” 

“And you do, Sigrun. You say no every single day. Oh, how I envy you that word.”

Sophia. Deserved. Better.

“His terror is what’s filling you. And he’s not protecting you from it, out of spite. Like he cursed Cassandra for refusing to share his bed, permitted no one to believe her prophecies.” Rage at the injustice filled her. What can you expect of a god whose primary hobby was chasing dryads, nymphs, and young men and seducing or raping them? And I cannot call him to account for it!

apollo deserved worse

Somehow, the day had gone from bright and sunny, somewhere around eighty degrees, to the miserable kind of cold drizzle that usually only appeared in Hellas in midwinter.

🤔

Sigrun blinked. “My winds are used for defensive purposes,” she objected, rapidly, as the two columns came closer. “I can bat away projectiles. I cannot use them for offense!” 

Learn, valkyrie. And learn quickly, would be my advice.

zhi understands. zhi gets me.

Black and red burns laced her skin, and she ached, but a sudden downpour of rain coursed over her body, and a howling wind forced water into all the efreet on the battlefield.

hey look at that

“I’m not doing that!’ Sigrun shouted back. “Weather is weather. Gods influence it, but it’s a confluence of natural events, highs and lows spread out over thousands of miles. I can’t move that much air, let alone summon water. Lightning, yes! Localized winds, yes! Rain, no!” 

Zhi’s enormous, fiery eyes regarded her. Just as you say, Stormborn. The sensation of barely leashed rage dissipated.

goddamit sig

Sigrun wanted to object. The usual rule of spirits being the only things that could truly kill other spirits rushed to her lips, and then she remembered Hel sneering at Brandr, You think that we would give to a mere god-born, a weapon capable of defeating one of us? How foolish. 

We … can. Of course we can. I’ve killed a god, however … lucky the circumstances. Of course I can … truly slay a spirit. Brandr probably could have killed Hel, if he’d been stronger, or if he’d had a more powerful weapon to hand. And Nith did kill her … and he’s as much a god-born as any I’ve ever seen. We’re half-mortal, half-spirit. We can reach them, so long as they are manifested. And that is, of course, why Zeus wished to kill all his mortal descendants. How foolish I was, not to understand that sooner. I had all the pieces, but  … didn’t apply them. And the gods keep very quiet about this … and bind us very tightly, in these days, so that we do not have random traitors killing gods.  No wonder they have kept such close tabs on me, over the years. They want to ensure that I do not tell others of this. That the god-born are well-suited to being godslayers.

you rationalize that denial, sigrun. you rationalize the hell out of it.

“Your other choice is to continue as you’ve been going along—and I am certain there has been some going along going on—and wait until one or the other of you slips.” She raised her eyebrows at them. “Want a cookie?”

everybody’s grandmother

A hissing sound, that she’d come to associate with laughter. “We must come up with a better system of communication than my asking questions, and getting yes and no answers. Perhaps I could teach you to write?”

where I am now in the books, nith is talking, and it hurts to go back to him being mute :(

Adam, however, required almost nothing to make him anonymous.

a bland tool

I can barely see him, Lassair replied, in a tone of perfect horror and anguish. His spirit is barely visible. It is like looking at someone who has endured horrific suffering, and has locked themselves away inside of themselves … or one who has been bound. Unwillingly.

:(

Kanmi went rigid behind her. “Himi married one of Tren’s brood?”

1. yeah he did 2. I am torn between hating the “main cast’s kids all marry each other” trope and finding it appropriate in this case. like there are very few people who understand being spiritborn or raised around magic or both, so it makes sense they’d be drawn to each other that way. Also the fact that 95% of their childhoods are classified.

Kanmi put his head against her throat again, and she could feel something hot and wet streak against her neck.

:(

Another hot, wet drop, and then Kanmi whispered, “I’m going to kill Trennus. Just for the record. And possibly his son, too. It may take me a while.”

lassair is right there, kanmi

“And one of the ways they ensure loyalty?” His voice was sick. “They took me from the conference to an old shrine in the desert. And they held me, blindfolded and bound, with a gun to my head … and cut my hands open, so I bled into a fire. Blood sacrifice, Min. They fucking blood-bound me to Baal-Hamon.”

:(

“Doesn’t that mean that Baal-Hamon knows you’re … ?” 

“Faithful to the Praetorians? Yes. But he doesn’t care. That’s the … really strange thing. He’s … in my head, sometimes … “ Kanmi sounded sick. “But he doesn’t seem to care why I do what I do, so long as I do it.”

Honestly this whole storyline makes me feel awful and the only reaction I have is :( (Min says some of it, about how Kanmi refused to be bound by anyone or anything, and then was forced into a contract with a god he’s eschewed all his life. It’s devastating for both Kanmi and the people who love him and know how much this is opposed to his very nature.)

But … he might understand … that I’m not necessarily a traitor to my people. That the CPL themselves might be, instead. He listens to them. But he … does hear me.” Kanmi looked up, his face gray with tiredness. “I’ve had worse bosses.”

see, everyone likes kanmi eventually.

And at the moment, his thoughts were clearly scattered to the four winds. Possibly because the god that bound him was … in and of himself … scattered. This infuriated Minori. Her husband’s mind was a bright flame, a beacon, and seeing him so … distracted, degraded, by circumstances and a god’s touch hurt.

hits ba’al hamon with yang’s motorcycle

…if you think I’m being taken over … then Adam takes his gun and he shoots me in the head. You understand? Two shots, Adam ben Maor. Make sure the brain is gone.”

:(((((

“Fuck that. I’m not doing this to be a hero. I’m not doing this for the good of the fucking Empire. And while I wish I could claim that I was doing it to save innocent lives, that’s not why, either. I’m doing it because a good man asked me to. A man I know is better than I am myself. And I trust Adam’s opinion more than I trust my own.” Kanmi’s voice was miserable. “I’m compromised. I know it. But I’m coming home. Or I’m going to die trying.”

1. literally way 2. kanmiiiii

Is it too much to hope for, that if I ever happen to be there when a god is slain again, that it might be Apollo of Delphi’s death that I witness?

kick him in the dick

“Don’t cry, Zaya. It’s just important to realize that we never get anywhere entirely on our own.

Zaya is honestly my favorite of the next-gen kids, bc she’s one of like four that gets any development outside of “married another one of the kids”

Lassair assured Minori, calmly, folding her hands over her pregnant belly.

lassair NO

What else am I going to do with all these illusions? Special effects for the cinema? Play games while the world burns around me?

I get it, but…don’t underestimate the power of fiction and escapism in difficult times

Fritti watched, in amusement, as the seeds with which they’d pelted the couple began to grow around Inghean’s bare feet, sprouting into an abundance of flowers around the bench on which they sat.

inghean is cute

She’d only seen his true face once. But it had haunted her dreams for over two decades now, first in anger, and then in regret. Radulfr. Loki.

“Here’s where Rig and Inghean are going to get married, in 1985. His father will be there for the ceremony, you know. Fritti’s going to see Loki, like a ghost at the feast, and cry on your shoulder when she can’t find him.“

I will … endeavor to be ready. I may not be able to stand with my brethren. But I can, at least, stand with humanity. And with you.

loki deserved better. (it gets better. eventually.)

An individual person could be deeply intelligent. But put that intelligent person in the middle of a crowd and subject that person to the mob mentality, and all vestiges of intelligence would drain away, being replaced with social dynamics, really.

"A person is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals.”

He still wasn’t sure if he should be vaguely threatened by her obvious attachment to the beast…

oh my god, Adam. at his point in time nith is little more than a particularly expressive mount, as far as either of you know, and you are a paranoid tool.

“True. But … you get used … to being around someone … all the time.” Her words grew further and further apart. “You grow into them … like two trees, leaning on each other. And when they’re gone … there’s no one to help you … hold yourself … up.” She moved her fingers in his. “You helped … hold me up,” she told him. “You’re a … good son.” Abigayil sighed, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “I wish you had been able …  to have children … of your own.”

hey look now that I’m in a long-term relationship for the first time this bit (abagayil on her deathbed talking about missing her late husband) is fucking devastating

“But I am powerless.” 

“Nonsense. I am arming you with the most powerful weapon in existence.” “What’s that?” 

“Knowledge.” 

Zaya thought that was possibly the stupidest adult thing to say, ever, but couldn’t say that to her mother, of course.

give it time, zaya

I had something better in mind. I will move the whole house.

just the whole thing. it’s fine.

A few of the servants, including her pedagogue, were sitting on the ground, rocking back and forth and holding their heads, and moaning. Some of the servants just shrieked and ran into the woods, and some of them … were just plain missing. They usually had a staff of twenty people. Zaya only saw twelve.

the veil isn’t kind to mortals, and zhi had priorities on who to protect

A swan preened itself in a vast lake,

🤔

Jerusalem, her father said. His form was flickering in and out of existence, to her horror. An empty lot your mother purchased, years ago. Shadeslore … .

“Go!” her mother cried. “Go rest!” 

Her father winked out, and Zaya reached out for him again, crying in earnest now. “Father!” 

He didn’t reappear for two weeks.

1. zhi :( 2. “shadeslore” is just a really cool name

One of the houses was completely covered in vines. Flowers, grapes, everything. It was just a mound of green that happened to have doors and windows.

That’s Our Matrugenas

The course of history would have been different if the empire had fallen two thousand or fifteen hundred years ago, but Kanmi couldn’t even imagine what a map of the world would look like without Rome. A mosaic of tiny, petty kingdoms, all squabbling for scraps to survive, he thought, and buried the thought.

get off the fourth wall, kanmi, it’s fragile

You want something from me in sacrifice? You take my life. Not my son’s. You understand me?”

:(

If this doesn’t work, Min, don’t come looking for me too soon. If there’s an afterlife, I will kick your ass if I find you there before your time.

always the romantic

“Syphilis. I caught it off this Nipponese prostitute. Looks just like you.”

1. Kanmi you little shit 2. Why is it always syphilis 3. Why does that make me miss Mollymauk

When my time comes, bury me in Jerusalem. A notable Pythia of Delphi once told me that this was important to my continued survival. I have no idea how this is even possible, but fine, pop me in the ground there like a seed. 

Maybe I’ll sprout. 

—Kanmi Eshmunazar

I don’t have a note, this is just so Kanmi it hurts

He almost wished he could fly with her, but after having seen what had happened to Erida’s fully-human servants on being pulled through the Veil? Adam would really rather pass. Though he did have an itch of curiosity about Trennus’ dream-realm there.

you should go. maybe stay forever.

Hissing laughter, and then he launched himself skywards again, and Sigrun headed for the main doors, resigned to the fact that Nith, after two thousand years as Hel’s lackey, had clearly decided that he was not about to be banished to the shadows again now that Hel was dead. Or perhaps, he’d decided that he wasn’t going to let Sigrun lurk there, herself.

Nith ♥

You’re expected, Sigrun Stormborn, the dwarf greeted her without preamble. Tyr, Odin, and Freya. Quite an audience. Mind your manners. We don’t need any more thunderstorms in the area.

Dvalin gets it. (Dvalin gets pretty much everything.)

We’re all rather fascinated. A mortal, building a constructed realm in the Veil. Never been done before. I’d personally like to visit, if he’d give me permission. You will ask him, won’t you? I like to see how other people have surmounted the technical challenges I encountered in designing this place with Odin. 

Sigrun blinked, rapidly, as her worlds collided inside of her head. After a moment, flummoxed, she replied, “I will ask him if he, Asha, and Sari might be inclined to receive you as a guest.”

in over your head yet, sig?

Why this insistence, that god-born are what they are, and nothing more? You will not remember, but I will have your thoughts, Sigrun Stormborn.

tfw your own gods call you out

… she’d found her dead mother’s clothing, locked away in a chest, and pulled them out. Scattered them all over her father’s room. Sigrun pulled on a fancy silk dress, peacock blue and shimmering … .

… She laughed, knowing she was getting away with something, but prune-faced Medea was out in the front yard, talking with the neighbors. Sigrun had time, and she danced in front of the mirror in her father’s room, another relic of her dead mother. A perfect oval, twice her height, balanced on swinging hinges. She undid her braid and floated up to grab her mother’s old brush off the dresser and swept it through her hair, letting it ripple down over her shoulders, and flew back over to hover in front of the mirror, well-pleased by what she saw there. If I fly up a little higher … yes! That way, the dress doesn’t drag on the ground. This is what I’ll look like when I grow up!

She peeked over her shoulder and out the window. She didn’t see Medea still out there, talking to the neighbors. Uh-oh. She flew over to peek out the window more carefully, and that was when Medea found her. Dressed in her dead mother’s clothing, and the very image of the dead woman. Sigrun’s eyes had widened, and she’d babbled apologies, but Medea had been merciless. You worthless little wretch. You don’t need to look in a mirror. It’s a good thing you’ll never be beautiful. After all, you’re nothing but a weapon for these brutish northern gods, do you hear me? You’re going to be covered in scars. Better that you learn that early. All you are is a crow capering around in peacock feathers …  .

… the mirror shattered, even as Sigrun stared at herself in it, pieces clattering to the floor. Medea had ripped the brush out of Sigrun’s hands and thrown it at the mirror. Now, almost spitting down into Sigrun’s face, the formal slave’s collar at her throat with its small silver tag indicating Ivarr’s ownership of her services glittering in the light coming in the window. You think an accident of birth makes you better than everyone else? It doesn’t! It makes you a slave, the same as me! Get that through your head! You’re nothing but a slave, and you’re going to learn your place … .

… Weeping on the floor. Picking up the pieces of broken mirror, one at a time, each slicing her fingers open. The cuts healed, but the blood stayed on the floor, soaking into the wood. Seeing her face in fragments and pieces, jagged and broken, a hundred tiny images, and every one of them promised pain. And when her father got home, Medea told him that Sigrun had been playing with her mother’s things, and that Sigrun had broken the mirror, in her carelessness. Her father’s disappointment, particularly since Sigrun refused to tell the truth and confess her crime. His spanking hurt worse than every caning Medea ever dished out, because he believed Medea, and not her. And Sigrun knew, looking into Medea’s eyes, that the woman had won. Her father would always believe her pedagogue. It would do no good to tell him about the canings. It would do no good to say anything at all. Oh, she’d finally told him. Twenty-three years later, as she protected Sophia from Medea’s wrath. In all the years between that moment, and Ivarr’s death, he’d never raised the subject again. Had stayed married to Medea until the end. And thus Sigrun had known, though he often had questions in his eyes, that her father had preferred Medea’s lies to her truth. Comfortable, familiar lies. Or at least, a comfortable, familiar life … .

 For the young valkyrie, there was nothing for it, but to try to avoid the behaviors that triggered Medea’s rage. No mirrors. Nothing that hinted at vanity. No pride. But when Medea was wrong, and Sigrun’s sense of justice flared, she held fast. She was a valkyrie. The bruises would heal. She learned not to turn her head and not to flinch. Valuable lessons for later. But the harshest lesson of all, was the inner understanding of human jealousy. Medea had not had a hard life, for a slave; she was included in the family, given respect; Ivarr had even paid her a wage, though he had certainly not been required to do so. In no way had she been treated as a slave, except that the law required her to wear a collar, and did not permit her to leave Ivarr’s service until he manumitted her or sold her contract. But Medea had envied a child. She’d envied Sigrun her freedom, which Medea’s parents had taken from her when they sold her to pay off her father’s debts. She’d envied the girl the loving relationship with her father, and had introduced distance between them, though probably not consciously. She’d envied the god-born child her bright future and her powers.

I am as human as I can be. I choose mortality. This, and nothing more, or everything will fall apart, and I’ll be destroyed. Crow in peacock feathers … .

This is pieced together in and around other scenes of Sigrun being told she was trying to be too much, taking responsibilities and powers that were too good for her, but this was the important bit. Her whole THING, the avoidance of mirrors, the insistence that she could never advance past what she was at the time…all because Medea was jealous of a child.

Medea deserved worse.

You do not wish even a bite? Freya asked her, mildly. 

Sigrun blinked. She felt as if she’d been asked that question before, just … some other way. “Ah, no. Thank you.” The apples supposedly gave the gods eternal health and youth. Sigrun suspected that they were actually some kind of a physical analogue or conduit for raw Veil energy. Eating one seemed … unhealthy.

the fabled apple

Muninn flapped away, leaving behind a caw that sounded slightly mocking. As if to say that memory would never let her have peace.

I mean he’s not wrong

“We’re about to have a really public fight.” Minori grimaced. “The kind that destroys property.

the best kind

Minori’s smile was only in her voice as she stood, glaring at him, and with a surge of power, threw the table at him.

(that’s not the gif I wanted but it’s cute and I can’t find the one from bleach I want)

Except, she left enough oxygen and pressure in the sphere that Kanmi had to pop the blood vessels in his own eyes—

D:

They’ve been offering sacrifices and blood-bindings to Baal-Samem, and some of the summoners have been sacrificing to Dagon, too.

(it dagon)

“There have been times in my life when I’ve wished people would just invent a way for me to get by without sleep.

it’s called cocaine

“In the end, it is your call, Adam. Whether or not we trust that local gardia have not been compromised, and whether or not we call for backup from local Praetorian offices.”

this is one of those netflix CYOA things isn’t it. like telling bear grylls whether or not to eat worms.

“The gods said that I was not here as their agent, Niðhoggr! Your presence here could start a war between the gods themselves!”

too late

Infinitely preferable, Trennus had once told Adam, with a hint of a smile. I’m not the sort of man who should ever try to look like a woman. At my height and weight, it’s fairly ridiculous.

support tall trans women

If it was a firearm, and inside her sixty-foot range

those moments you can really tell the author plays d&d 

“Dagon!” the summoners cried out, as one. “Dagon, Dagon, Dagon!”

“THE FUCK Y’ALL WANT”

Though these limbs were no longer intended to bear his massive weight in any bipedal fashion, he still managed to rake his talons along Nith’s side as the dragon sped past, and Nith’s razor-barbed tail, long and sinuous, whipped out, thought-fast, and caught the creature across its armored snout.

NITH used TAIL WHIP

(that is not what Tail Whip does)

Lassair felt the child’s last flickers of thought. Vague, incoherent gratitude that the pain had gone away. Love of the father, bewilderment, what did I do that was bad?

look. I got kids. this is Bad for my Psyche. 

(normally senseless child death is a good way to get me to drop a series BUT this isn’t done in a “look how edgy I am, look how far I’m willing to go” way. looking at you, game of thrones. and the walking dead. and the strain.)

She looked at the father, still on the floor, but staring now at his son’s body, his eyes wide. She couldn’t read his emotions. And they didn’t matter. Lassair rose out of the tiny body, fighting for a form that somehow expressed the full fury of her rage, her desire for vengeance, and knew, dimly, that she was teeth and claws and flame, all at once, as she fell on the man, who rolled away, putting up his arms and a sorcerous barrier of some sort, meant to hold away fire. You shield yourself from the flames? Her claws skated over the shell of energy, and she could feel some of her power drained, blunted, taken away from her. It only enraged her further. You, who threw your own child to them? She pounced on him, dropping him with her weight, seeing the shocked eyes go even wider. You dare? You who should have protected him from the flames? She settled her weight onto her front claws and brought up her rear ones, kicking and raking at his belly and shields. Who should never have brought him here! You dare!

lassair is me in this moment

You know my servant, fireling … I have felt your presence in his wife before … . 

Have known him and loved him longer than your Name has meant anything to him than something to swear by. Lassair’s lips curled back from her teeth, and she wondered what would happen if she shattered the god’s damnable statue. Could I kill him? Could I free Emberstone, so?

do it

Saved by a god. How the mighty have fallen.

kanmi I get you but also maybe be a little grateful

“I am a battle-maiden of Tyr,” Sigrun taunted softly. “You will find that I dare many things. Perhaps you should test yourself against me, instead of against fertility spirits and mortal children.”

Lots of grounding points, I suppose. Either that, or Caetia ate Baal-Samem raw and whole.

yeah about that

Require safety/succor/harbor/body/AVATAR!

this doesn’t end well

A memory, over fifty years old, surfaced. Being held down beneath the water by his brothers, his lungs burning with the need to breathe. It had been just as hard then, to cling to consciousness. It had been just as hard to fight against an infinitely superior force. I will not give in, I will not give up, I will not give in, I will not give up, I will not give in, I will not give up … . Minori’s face flickered in his mind, and Kanmi clung to that, too, old, young, in between. Masako’s. Bodi’s. Himi’s. I will not give in! I will not give up!

I will not bow I will not bend I will not break

Kanmi turned, and Adam was stunned to see that he still had sun-shards in place of his eyes. It was worth a try, Kanmi told them all. Adam didn’t realize, until much later, that the words had been in his mind. Too much Baal. Too many of them.

:(

My choice this time, valkyrie. Not yours. Now get out of here, all of you.

I’m remembering why I don’t reread these books often

Stay, Min, he told her, gently, the words echoing in her mind, like a spirit’s, and tears began to roll down her face. This is mine to do. And if there’s a way. If there’s any way at all … you know I’ll come back to you. Bury my bones, assuming you can find any of them, in Jerusalem. And live.

maybe he’ll sprout

Minori didn’t look away from the explosion. The brightness should have seared her eyes to blindness, and in her despair, she wanted that. She wanted the last thing she would ever see to be the funeral pyre that claimed her husband, but he’d wrought his protective spell around them too well for that. The fireball lifted off, and cloud convection formed a towering mushroom cloud that went up probably into the stratosphere, and all Minori could do was stare up at it in anguish. Because Kanmi’s mind no longer touched hers.

dramatic ass

No bodies. No humanity. Just the last, twisted remnants that had been Baal’s fragmenting consciousness. Given perhaps a little direction by the remaining human minds that had melded with the god. Minori was aware of … mad laughter. Glee, really. And then all of them rose into the sky, and fled, leaving only their laughter in their wake.

off to form the plot of the third book

A dozen or more vortexes of power that had once been human, but now were gods had just taken to the sky—the very thing that Kanmi had given his life to prevent.

“He’ll die saving you. All of you. He’ll be a hero. Admittedly, it won’t help in the end, but …” She shrugged. “Nothing really will, now will it?

When we were lictors under the late propraetor, Antonius Valerius Livorus, we often joked that the four of us were the fingers in Rome’s fist, or its extended hand of friendship. Eshmunazar, no doubt, was the digit most often responsible for rude gestures…

#kanmikin

“Besides, the last time your mother sent the car, your butler said something about finding dog hair in the back seat. And I didn’t even change.” [Maccis] shrugged.

eat him

Zaya flopped down into a hammock

Bullshit. No one flops into a hammock without ending up on the ground.

In Hellas, Sophia Caetia had awoken this morning, and didn’t see herself taking any appointments. For once, she knew precisely what day it was

I don’t want it

I can already see her, the swan-maiden disguised as the swan. Red eyes and black hair, replacing blue and white. You’ll be coming home soon, won’t you, lost one?

🤔

The small woman pushed away from her escorts, and slipped and slid her way to the pillar of salt. She wrapped her arms around it, and pressed her lips to its cold surface … and it began to crumble away, revealing what was trapped inside. Bones. Carbon-black, as from being burned, but perfectly preserved, when they should have been vaporized by the blast wave … as, indeed, all other flesh in the immediate vicinity had been.

plant my bones in Judea…

It seems to me, from your records, that any time that you are sent somewhere, the result is nothing but destruction.”

hey. rude. kind of true, but still rude.

Agent Duilus poked his head in

“Hear me,” he said, and the back of his mind told him that he probably shouldn’t enjoy this, as he caught the back of Duilus’ head in his other hand, and, with two points of contact and a side-step, brought the other man’s face down on his desk.

I shouldn’t have enjoyed that this much, either.

However, she hadn’t slept at night, since Kanmi’s death.

🤔

When I was a child, he told me, that there are monsters in the world, and that there are people whose responsibility it was, to go out and fight them, so that other people didn’t have to do so. I wanted … nothing more, than to be as good a man as he was. To be a sorcerer, if I had the gift, and to go fight monsters, as he did.”

bodiii

He threw back his head, and howled, and for miles around, all across the city, fenris paused in their tracks and echoed him, an homage that went on for fifteen full minutes, in spine-tingling intensity.

laruuuuus

And that if we kept up with this long enough, he might well come back as a god.”

I mean….

If anyone… if anyone has enough strength of will… and he knew his Name… it would be him.”

“He’d do it just to piss people off,”

spite is an excellent motivator

“Tired again? You should try sleeping, Caetia.”

“I would love nothing more.” She yawned.

relateable

This is the fun of being seventy-eight years old, she told herself. No one gets your jokes without ten minutes of explanation first. What’s the point?

it’s a joy of being thirty tbh

She’s resisting it. She’s encysted it. It wouldn’t cause her so much pain, if she accepted it into her. Let it suffuse her. But she sees it as an intrusion, a wound, a foreign object violating her body and mind, and so she resists. […]Concentration, now, trying to see what the darkness meant, and the world around Sigrun faded. The chairs, tables, food … replaced with night. The dark of the void, and stars, here and there, twinkling faintly. And she resists that, too.

that’s it, that’s the trilogy

A shrug. “True enough.” A pause. “You’re sure he can’t change forms?”

yeah about that

People with enough strength of purpose to shape their own lives, survived, and even thrived in the transformations. People who drifted through life aimlessly, with no more ambition than seeing what was on the far-viewer at night, died or went mad.

stop

“It’s about making the game last as long as we can, and saving as many people as possible, in the end. Good-bye, Sigrun. The next time we meet … I might not be able to tell you. But I do love you, my stubborn, stubborn sister. Good-bye.”

I Don’t Want It

The rest of the lesson practically flew after that, as Zaya suddenly found herself highly motivated to learn everything she could about device-based magic. This was something she could use.

congratulations, you’re batman

Zhi continuously put forth the notion that he had no virtues, and that while love was definitely an emotion worth experiencing, other human emotions were inherently weak, and that he did not experience them—pity, compassion, tolerance, and forgiveness. She suspected that he did experience them, in varying forms, and usually simply tamped down on them, when they did not directly concern his family.

zhi ❤

Illa’zhi’s mortal form had been patterned off the males he saw around Erida, and those he saw most often in her thoughts. […] Maybe a hint of Carthaginian, for flavor.

erida and kanmi hooked up and I will not hear otherwise

Are you saying that you have a stomachache? Erida rubbed a hand between his shoulder blades, trying not to smile. 

When you next consume a mad god, I will not laugh at you, Zhi informed her with hauteur. I may ask, instead, if you require a glass of water with bicarbonate of soda, but I will not laugh at you.

I love these two

Shiori was a mutt, in other words,

I am really looking forward to this terminology dying out as mixed-race families become more common

But he did poke Sigrun in the ribs about it. “Not even a bite for yourself?” he teased, as she cut another one into thin slices, one for each of the children currently playing in their backyard. 

“No.”

eat the fucking apple

But what Argos had, or claimed to have, was the last resting place of the Fire-Bringer.

8D

She was affiliated, too, with the crossroads, the places between.

eluvians

One path led him to power. The other, to knowledge. And faced with that kind of a choice, Prometheus could only make one decision. He chose knowledge.

I’m standing at a crossrooooooads

“I’m afraid I’m not conversant with the etiquette of the gods,” she said, her eyes only slightly wide as she beckoned a servant in with a silver tray. “However, it’s difficult to go wrong with tea and cakes.” 

Ahh, the laws of hospitality have not changed much, then. Excellent.

look I just love prometheus a lot

Zaya stared at Prometheus. This was nothing like she’d thought meeting a god or demigod would be. He was as filled with wonder, in a way, as a caveman might have been at the modern world … but he was also not overwhelmed by it. He clearly understood the principles behind some of the technology. And he was delighted by it.

I love him

He was also the only adult she knew, other than servants and teachers, who had no powers at all. He wasn’t a sorcerer, ley-mage, summoner, or god-born. And he’d worked with people who were, for over thirty years, and remained, somehow, integral and respected.

debateable

She patted her burgeoning waistline and smiled. Zaya caught the tired expression that flickered across Master Matrugena’s face like a shadow at Lassair’s words. The expression of mild annoyance that flickered across Mistress Caetia’s. But she didn’t understand either.

lassair

And you … are servant to this Tyr? 

“If they are the same entity, then yes.” 

A servant. He repeated the word carefully. 

Mistress Caetia appeared puzzled, but nodded again, politely. “It is my duty to stand as intermediary and intercessor between my gods and humanity. To provide the power of the gods, as needed, to administer justice, to protect humans, and to serve the gods.” 

If you are the servant, I shudder to meet the masters.

sig he is trying to tell you something

Zaya scribbled notes and periodically had the pen slip from nerveless fingers as the people she’d known as prosaic individuals … revealed themselves. Maccis’ father, a counter-summoner working in law enforcement? His neighbors,  the retired Praetorian and the valkyrie, the ones who taught martial arts and had a bottomless cookie jar? Her mother’s colleague, the college professor? They were figures out of legend.

hear that, babe? we’re legends.

That would be a massive amount of water to release back into the oceans

climate change is a qin conspiracy

Minori frowned. Apparently, young people in her homeland weren’t being raised properly these days.

[waves cane]

The old woman shook her head and sighed. “The world has become a suspicious and untrusting place, with no appreciation of the mythic”

back in MY DAY

Your summoner friend really must teach you to bargain better.

I don’t know why this is so funny to me. Amaterasu asked for a conduit, promised not to get weird with Minori’s body, and Minori was all for it.

So, I’m never going to be alone again, am I? 

Is that a bad thing? 

On the whole, Minori didn’t think that it was. It was, in fact, somewhat comforting, and soothed the raw ache that had been a part of her soul for two years now.

:(

Minori thought about it, and realized, Forgiveness is … irrelevant. She brings nothing useful with her. No knowledge. No skills. And that has been the focus of everyone you have had me … recruit. Useful people.

The context is Minori seeing the woman who sexually and emotionally manipulated her begging to get on a plane out of Nippon. Normally the “useful people” line would make me roll my eyes, and it kind of does, but also fuck that lady

He knew his Name. He was a sennin, a sorcerer and summoner, not just a poet. And he had strength of will, and a family who believed in him. He never truly died. His spirit had just enough power to stay, and their belief sustained him … he became a god. Truly? 

Truly, Amaterasu replied. 

A whisper at the back of her mind told her, That means there’s hope for Kanmi. There really is.

And he shall be unto a god. A cranky, cynical god.

Minori stirred in her chair, opening her eyes briefly to realize there were tears running down her face. Her father had not looked away. He had wanted to see the goddess of the sun in all her glory. He had. The radiance had blinded him, and had proven so agonizing, that his heart had stopped … but he had, somehow, died with a smile on his face, and his sword in his hand, prepared to fight against whatever his gods battled in the sky. A good death for a samurai, she thought, and covered her face.

I will fight the sky or die trying

He was something different from almost every other spirit, proof that the human could become the divine, and yet, remain active in the world.

🤔

He’d suggested, about five years ago, that perhaps they should stop having children at all, at least until all of the current ones were out of the house, and added, I’d kind of enjoy having you and Saraid to myself again. Sometime before the turn of the century. Lassair had looked struck, but had hedged.

good for you, trennus

He made a point of talking to everyone in the house, every day. Every child got a little time, even if it was just a word or two before bed. A chance for them to tell him anything at all that happened to be on their minds.

tren is a good dad

“Uncle Adam says all he’s ever needed is a gun, his hands, and the wisdom to know when to use them.” 

“Uncle Adam doesn’t know everything.

uncle adam knows very little

No clutter, beyond a single glass perfume bottle that Trennus had been told had belonged to her mother. Part of a set, with a hairbrush and hand mirror that had been lost, decades ago.

:(

But none of the things you mentioned are actually art.”

trennus. be better.

It’s very far to travel. I can’t be there and here at the same time. She hesitated. Also, the Qin gods may … take it amiss if I go there. 

He raised his eyebrows, and Lassair winced. I have grown too much, she admitted, softly. So has Saraid, but Saraid is … quieter, for all that so many now believe in her. The harpies and the dryads call her name now, before they speak that of Artemis, did you know that?

and that’s how you steal a nature god

Saraid seemed to prefer that half of his name, and he didn’t blame her; Flamesower made him sound like Lassair’s property.

I mean

This sounds like the physicists’ talk of other quantum universes. Ones in which causality and decisions made, have led them to fragment off. But the Veil cannot fragment, because it is eternal. And it cannot open onto every one of these quantum universes. If it did, spirits could travel between them, freely. And they would remember. They would remember everything that they saw and experienced in other worlds, and would be able to tell the differences, because the memories of one realm would not match the memories of other realms.

They’re standing in what is for all intents and purposes alternate London (maybe ours, but I’m not familiar enough with it to recognize the statue that’s described) and I just picture it in the glitchy, grainy monochrome of Elizabeth’s tears in Bioshock Infinite

It was overwhelming to think that Saraid had known it all, in advance. Then why … he floundered. Why did you wait until after Lassair… ? 

Because you were not ready for me, and you had so much more to do and see and experience. And then you found her, and chose to keep her alive, and events progressed. In the end, it does not matter. You will protect my woods and my people, when the time comes. I do not know how, but all I see is fire and smoke in the future. And you love me now, as I have always loved you.

saraid :(

(also all narration in the veil is in italics and it is the fucking worst; the narration is in italics and the dialogue is thought-speech so it’s differentiated by being in italics and underlined, but none of that helps, it still gives me a headache)

Wild-heart … I’m sorry. I did not know. I was a fool when I was young. 

That is, as far as I can tell, the purpose of being young, for humans.

she’s not wrong

“I’m not leaving without you. Kanmi would jump up out of his grave and strangle me if I did, and Asha will kill me if I’m not home to help with the children by dinnertime. Please don’t make me choose between which horrible fate I’d rather face, and just come along quietly.”

I don’t have a comment, tren is just cute

And she knew, with sudden acuteness, that Trennus had that same sensation of … missing a wheel in his own mind. Kanmi had brought much to them each, which now was lost. “I know,” she finally said, her throat aching, and he squeezed her hand, tightly.

poly

“Carrying a piece of the sun,” Minori said, very quietly, her eyes downcast. “Just as Sophia once told me I would.”

wow imagine if you had listened to her

She put the pictures on the table, and put a little incense burner between them. Lit the sweet substance, and let herself focus on the twirling, swirling veils of smoke. I believe in you, Kanmi, she said, silently. I believe in you. You’ll come home to me, someday. But know, that for the moment, I’m … all right. I’m not alone. 

It might have been her imagination, but she thought a breath of wind caressed her face.

❤

“Reginleif!” she said, frowning slightly. 

The harpy’s eyes widened, and she hastily put a few coins down on the table and excused herself from her companions.

She has power beyond her own reckoning, but she will not embrace it, because to do so, would be, in her mind, to betray him.”

I apparently highlighted this on a previous read-through. I assume because it made me angry, as it does now

Hokkigai, or raw fresh clams, maguro, or raw tuna, and a little tako, or cooked octopus,

Literally just tell me what it’s made of. Having the names and then the translation just makes it look like you’re celebrating your ability to use Google

What we have always done. We go solve problems.” 

“Yes, and the last several times we went to solve problems, we made them worse.”

she’s….not wrong

But she could reach out and slide whips made of wind along its body, scything off its scales and armor.

She and Sig are riding Nith against a kraken and I have never wanted fanart of a scene so badly in my life

Sigrun turned in time to see Minori, her face a mask of concentration, let herself fall from Nith’s back, a sword that looked like a piece of the sun in one hand.

Again: art pls

“There’s half of some old statue sticking through the hull down here. That’s the source of the hull breach. The creature must have found it on the bottom and used it as a weapon—”

wuhoh

I wished for the first words I spoke in millennia to be for her ears. And I speak to her. She could hear me if she chose to do so. But she fears to understand me.

nith :(

For that she is mine, and I am hers. We are bound, we two. We are … the same. Night. Death. Ice. Darkness. She has always smelled like home to me. When she understands herself, she will understand me. Though I wonder sometimes, if she ever will.

eat the apple so nith will be happy

Sigrun slipped off the dragon’s side, and landed, lightly, beside Minori, clearly not hearing the exchange. “Understand myself?” A faint, bitter laugh. “I know precisely who and what I am, Minori. I am god-born. I stand as intercessor, the intermediary between the gods and humanity, much as Trennus as a summoner stands between humans and spirits. I serve both gods and humanity.” She held up a hand, as Minori’s lips parted, stilling the words on her lips. “I am, more specifically, a valkyrie and a battle-maiden of Tyr. I was born to fight lost battles, and I carry over a thousand scars. I serve Rome. I defend its laws and its people. I am the wife of a mortal man, mother of none, sister of a mad prophetess, and grandmother to everyone else’s children. How can I understand, more fully, who I am?” Exasperation in Sigrun’s voice, and frustration, and Minori saw her look up at the dragon for a moment.

I am going to scream

(I’d like to point out that even though this is my third or so readthrough, this shit has bothered me from the start. Just the whole time. Forever.)

Aprilis 10, 1991 AC

no

But it’s the only thing I can do. If I don’t go, if I … stay right here, where I am, safe in my room … the future breaks. I don’t know what will happen then. I know what will happen if I do. I’ll go insane. Truly insane. I’ll still have my Name. I’ll still be Trueseer. But I’ll be broken till the day I die, and maybe even after that … but it’ll be all right, because … at least a few people will survive. The world can be renewed. Reborn.  She wiped the tears from her face. Certainty—knowing Sigrun and Judea and those there would survive, and that some tiny spark of her own awareness might pass on, into her sister, as well—was better than the howling abyss of uncertainty.

sophia deserves better

“I’m scared, Sigrun. I don’t want this.”

me either

Her hands froze as she pulled on her sandals. And then, shaking, she took them back off again. Threw them across the room. And pulled on her boots, instead. It wouldn’t matter. It didn’t change the images in her mind. But at least her feet wouldn’t bleed. Fuck the future, Sophia thought, in despair. And fuck Apollo, too.

sophia is more badass than you

Her own daughter was too good for her, apparently, the daughter she’d loved and cherished and made so much of.

no, you’re just a garbage person

For ten years, she’d been able to spoil the girl, and then Sophia, too, had turned out to be god-born. And of course, it was Sigrun’s fault. If she hadn’t come home that night … .

fuck all the way off, medea

It all came down to Sigrun, again. She’d turned Medea’s sweet Sophia against her.

fuck oooooffffff

She had to make her sister see. And behind and over her, she could feel … something bigger than herself. Something that burned as brightly as the sun, and it was paying attention to her, and it recognized her. And it hated her. Sigrun could protect her, though. Sigrun would always protect her. That’s what her sister was for.

This is ten-year-old Sophia, the night she told Sigrun she was godborn, and I am going to cry

Even at ten years of age, Sophia already knew her own Name: Trueseer … and the god to whom she was bound had just awakened to the fact that she existed. That the girl he remembered at the end of the world had awakened to him. And he reached out and shoved his memories into her mind, encysting them there, because he remembered what would happen, and she dared to be better than a god … .

Apollo can fuck off too

The central tragedy of a life lived in reverse was about to play out.

no

Realizing that the god was coming for her. Apollo of Rome was dead. She was his last conduit to the mortal realm, and the doctors were going to euthanize her. He knew it. She knew it. He was coming to take her body as he’d raped her mind daily since she was ten years old … no, no, no, no, I am done with you, Apollo, I am done! 

Sigrun, telling her that there were always choices, that even choosing not to choose is a choice, damn it … . 

Looking down and seeing hiking boots on her feet. 

Looking ahead and seeing Sigrun striding out into the unknown along that black road that was the Styx … . 

Faces above her own, lovers past, for once not decayed, for once, no futures …

Oh, to be unaware of the blood and the sweat and the shit and the pain … . 

Seeing Maccis and Zaya trading bites of apple and kisses … . 

Seeing Sigrun flying towards her on death’s own black wings … . 

Seeing the world end … . 

Seeing a summer garden, and Adam taking down an apple from the tree. Seventy years old, and finally willing to defy everything … . 

Fuck you, Apollo! I die free!

Long quote but also one of the most powerful parts of the series, imo. Sophia is diving into prophecies in an attempt to escape, mentally, being raped by five centaurs. (Stop giving your female characters rape backstories.) But they’re all a little bit different now, because she put on boots instead of sandals. There’s a sixth centaur now, one she never saw in her visions, who tried to stop the others (and got similarly assaulted for his trouble). She broke free of Apollo’s future-memories.

Fuck you, Apollo.

Her phone vibrated in the poke tied to her belt, but she didn’t feel it. She had yet another fight ahead of her, Adam wasn’t due to call her for a few days, and she had the damnable thing silenced for a reason. She was already the servant of her gods and the servant of Rome. She did not need a tiny electronic master now, too.

sig you really wanna take this one

Her own body became the spear, and she landed, boots-first, on the back of the centaur behind Sophia. A hundred and seventy pounds of body-weight accelerated to her top speed, applied to the equine’s lumbar vertebrae resulted in a pulverized spinal column.

I feel like sig should weigh more than that, but then I also feel like she should be taller than adam so what do I know

Another impact of hooves, and Nikolaos reflected, bitterly, that he’d have been better off dying beside some lake or stream, long before this. They were torturing the woman to death, and then they’d progress to him. But he couldn’t participate in this. Not even if it meant his own life. A line had to be drawn.

The sixth centaur. He had a choice between “join this group” or “get eaten by harpies” and I think he’s starting to miss the harpies

Nikolaos could just make out the confusion on his erstwhile companion’s face as the woman’s glowing body dissolved into shadow, moonlight, and wind, and blew through him.

I forgot about this! Sig unconsciously using her god powers while in a murderous rage

Their disbelief that she’d managed to travel from Germania to Hellas to Judea inside of an hour was mitigated somewhat as Niðhoggr leaned down and impatiently snorted ice crystals on them.

dragons mean never having to answer questions

Adam found it even more unnerving than usual to be around her, for she always greeted him with a single word. “Godslayer!” And she never met his eyes. Just looked up, whenever she had to address him, above the level of his head.

you know what I’ll give him that one

The first, was an image of a small girl, long, pale blond hair, just hints of red to it, Trying on clothing too big for her as she stood beside a free-standing mirror. Innocence and joy in the loose lines on this page. Then the next page … a woman in a black dress loomed over the girl in the next image, the mirror shattered, and the girl’s hands bleeding as she picked up the pieces of glass, tears streaking down her face. Medea? Sigrun broke a mirror when she was a child? This … well, it might explain why she doesn’t like mirrors, but I have no idea what it means.

it means child abuse

“Actually,” Zaya whispered, softly, “I have a ring that might help. It works like a soul-trap. Get close to a spirit, push the button, and it should bind the spirit into the gem in the housing.”

what kind of skyrim bullshit

It was one of the woodcuts from their textbook, and showed the ass, Lucian, mid-copulation with the rich woman who had fancied him. That didn’t bother her. The fact that the woman had been labeled as Zaya, and the donkey had been labeled as Maccis, however, did.

children are terrible

 “You don’t have to talk to Spiro,” she told him. Touch made her a little bolder than usual. “I don’t mind if people think … I mean, I wouldn’t mind … I  … damn it.” 

Her cheeks burned, but he’d already moved on, his mind intent on the subject of his anger. “No, he doesn’t get to talk that way to you, or about you or …” Maccis rocked to a halt and looked down at her, his brain apparently catching up with the rest of the conversation. “I … you what?” 

Zaya swallowed, hard. “I said I don’t care what people think we do or don’t do, and I wouldn’t mind if we were, actually … you know.”

still smoother than any confession I ever made

Zaya’s mouth opened and closed again as she rapidly reassessed how sheltered her world was.

honestly relateable

“You don’t have to wait with me—” 

“Have to, no, want to, yes.” He grimaced, and ran his free hand over his hair. “It’s probably going to take me a little while to get over what I saw and smelled last night, Zee. I don’t think I could actually let you wait for the bus alone right now.”

He was there when Lassair was trying to heal Sophia. Another reason the woodcut thing bothered him so badly.

I’ll ensure that he and Saraid and one of Lassair’s … selves … are on the guest list, too, so that you need not fear I am about to cook and eat your young man.”

I enjoy Erida

“You didn’t notice the additional three digits of coding on the card catalogue entry. Godslayer-related. Not for general distribution. You take it at face value, because Prometheus lives in a room of our house.”

that’s a sentence

“Is there … anything I could do?” Zaya asked. “I mean, I don’t know her. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want strangers visiting me if I were in that … condition.” 

Erida had left her desk to give Zaya an unexpected embrace. “I doubt there’s anything that you can do, besides to be kind to Sigrun when you see her. But you have a good heart, little one.”

Zaya’s a good egg.

Today, he met one of the rarest creatures: a centaur who’d never actually lost his mind. “I came close a few times,” the male admitted tiredly. He was covered in fading bruises and healing scabs. “Name’s Nikolaos. Nikolaos Dmitrou.”

this guy

But the centaur’s scent was … definitely not one of the ones he’d caught on Sophia’s body. He wasn’t entirely sure what he’d have done if it had been. Tearing out someone’s throat in the middle of the welcome area, with hundreds of people around them, in chairs and in lines, all filling out forms, didn’t seem a good option, but it had  flashed through his mind for a moment.

“I prevented a murder today!” “How’d you do that?” “Self-control.”

“I’m sorry, but that wasn’t a goddess,” he said, politely. “That was a valkyrie. Sigrun Caetia. Saraid’s not a goddess, either.”

false and false

Hand-fasting, in the Gallic and Gothic fashion, was a one-year agreement to live as husband and wife, which could be extended at the end of the first year,

or if you’re turian, manus rites

For most Gauls and Goths, it wasn’t a real marriage until a child was born.

wait fuck is that what that part of sophia’s prophecy means I never noticed that before now

He’d always assumed that his father’s children with Lassair held more of Trennus’ heart. In a flash, he suddenly realized that while his father loved Lassair, she was a demanding mate. Saraid was a giving mate, and his father had, over the years, perhaps come to cherish her the more for it.

remind me to complain about how this author treats poly relationships

Do not put your own joy entirely aside in your dealings with Fireflower, my son. I beg of you. I have watched those dear to me do precisely this for far too many years.

eat the fucking apple, sigrun

“Fireflower is new. I didn’t see her here before. Never in the asylum. She must be here because I put my boots on. And that’s different, and the difference frightens Apollo almost as much as seeing two godslayers in the same room!”

It’s dark as fuck but I’m going to start blaming every unforseen occurrence on my boots

Also fuck Apollo

they’re going to write in my chart that unlike the centaurs and the harpies, my madness isn’t caused by a god, so I should be able to become healthy again. Isn’t that funny! They won’t think it’s caused by a god!”

fuuuuuuck apollo

Adam lowered himself, slowly, to a crouch in front of Zaya, and she could hear his knees pop as he did so.

I read this and all I can picture is my dad 

My way of killing is too personal and horrifying, and it’s not terribly efficient. Not unless I rip the earth open and start burying a platoon at a time. His father had given him a look as Maccis had swallowed. Which I could probably do these days. Thank the gods, Maccis, that you’re probably never going to fight someone like me.

“What’s the best way to fight someone like me?” “Don’t.”

Fireflower informs me that you are under the impression that I could, and I quote, ‘throw you so far into the Veil that your father couldn’t find you with a radar telescope.’ 

Oh, thanks for mentioning that, Zee. “That has been my general assumption for years, sir.” Maccis grimaced. “Of course, if you were to do so, my father would probably try to bind you, Lady Erida would try to remove my father’s skin, and my mother and Lassair would try to tear her apart. It’s just best if I don’t do anything that might start that unfortunate chain of events.”

I want to say Maccis is a good boy but I don’t know if that’s offensive.

“You … just made me bloom? Wait. I’m not a tree.”

It’s a fertility night. My mother’s a wilderness spirit. I don’t know if it’ll happen every time I concentrate on you like that, but you only smell like you do now once a month.

They’re talking about ovulation, not menstruation, which took me a couple of passes to realize. Also, there are other things y’all can do. Just saying.

It was a particularly ancient-looking and ugly statue. Mesopotamian, certainly, and over fifteen feet tall, the creature depicted had the mouth of a scorpion, a scorpion’s claws in place of hands, and enormous, folded wings. Various professors of archaeology were interviewed, all in varying stages of eloquent excitement. Apparently, finding such a thing at the bottom of the Mediterranean, so close to Cyprus, was highly unusual. The statue had surely weighed over a ton, an enormous weight to be carried by ships of its evident era. Some were apparently calling it a fraud or a hoax, while others seemed to wish to maintain an open mind, until they could get a team down to translate the writings chiseled into its sides, which years of coral growth and silt had largely obscured.

uh oh

But in his darker moments, he had to wonder if he’d brought anything to Sigrun’s existence but the promise of pain to come.

in which adam realizes he only exists to make other people miserable

Adam ben Maor raised his eyes once more. 

And once again, there was no answer. 

He sighed, and stood. You make it terribly hard to believe in you.

upsettingly relateable

“Aha. A thief. A miscreant.” Aunt Sig’s voice was lightly mocking, and Maccis jumped a little.

I love Sig with the kids. They…I don’t want to say “humanize” her, but they give her a chance to be something other than miserable

Maccis thought for a moment, and then tossed an apple at her. “These always make me feel better,” he told her, cheerfully. “You should eat one.”

“eat the fucking apple, aunt sig”

Her shoulders, usually pulled back, sagged. Her head drooped. And Sigrun took a cautious bite.

fucking THANK YOU

The scent swirled around her like smoke, teasing and pressing in on her consciousness. Reminding her of … things past. Flashes of memory. A clear image of her mother, smiling at her father. Riding on a boat with them, floating down the Aeturnus River, the golden light of sunset turning the rippling waters into molten mercury. Sigrun pushed the memory away, and stolidly ate another bite. There were undercurrents to the taste. Cinnamon. Clove. Wine. Honey. Snatches of music, melodies she hadn’t heard in years. Another bite, and a starfield flickered behind her eyes.

soon….soooon

Zaya was never sure if she should thank the apple for it, or years of dance training, but there was also no pain.

that’s a myyyyyth

The world was falling apart around them. In less than a year, he’d be off and fighting in the same war that was consuming the lives of almost everyone else they knew. It didn’t seem such a bad thing, to reach for happiness now, when it could all be taken away, in a heartbeat. And while she had been raised to consider Marduk to be her god, at least nominally … Marduk was dead. There was a sense, Zaya felt, that this was a new age, with new rules, and few debts to the strictures of the past. Why not seize happiness when it lay before her?

danged millennials

A massive head, as big as a five-story building, surged up, and eyes the size of doors, and ember-red, glared down at them. Every scale on the creature’s body was obsidian black, but limned with an ember-glow. Jormangand, Illa’zhi said, softly, and in a tone of actual reverence.

wuhoh

You really must learn how to run, efreet.

but he has no efeets

I’ll show myself out

But not Nith. Nith has attached himself to me, for some reason.

“some reason”

Sigrun hesitated. Freya had, arguably, manipulated her.

she TRIED to teach you how to control the power you’d inadvertently gained before you went off like a fucking magic nuke, but you were so bullheaded about it she had to program failsafes into you since you wouldn’t fucking control yourself 

I HAVE OPINIONS ABOUT FREYA

That … does sound Olympian.

Is he, y'know…[mimes being an enormous infant who shattered an innocent woman’s mind for being prettier and better at prophecy than him] Olympian?

The room was very still, and Sigrun could feel Tren’s big, warm hand suddenly on her shoulder, and she turned slightly towards her old friend, like a plant towards the sun.

The knowledge Freya gave you was to prepare you for a possibility she foresaw. She did not give you seiðr. You know this, in your heart. You only choose to forget what you already knew.

YEAH. YEAH WHAT HE SAID.

Emberstone—the Archmage of your sister’s visions—performed calculations. Some of Tlaloc’s energy did not disperse into the earth, nor was consumed by Lassair, and Saraid absorbed only a trace. Where could it have gone, but into you?

He was a god of grain and plenty. You give of bounty, as well, but in small ways. Unconsciously.

justice cookies

Her throat was tight, and she was doing her best not to let any tears fall. The fact that there was a rumble of thunder in the distance only distressed her more.

finally she fucking notices

Oh, gods, what about Adam … .?

what ABOUT adam?

Leave no ripples. Do what is necessary, but pass through life like water through water. No traces. Just do your job and then disappear.

sigrun go to therapy challenge

Prometheus’s sense flickered. Loki remains the best chance. However, the odds are better if a goddess, who seems to be as much of Loki’s heir as his own son, and is backed by Niðhoggr, made overtures to the world-serpent …  than if a handmaiden of Tyr made the case for alliance. 

It actually took Sigrun a moment to register what Prometheus meant.

welcome to the pantheon

In the drawing room, Prometheus sat down, and picked up his cup of tea. And now you understand why Zeus hated me so, he said, simply.

truth hurts

I have rarely encountered so much self-loathing in one person before, but I think it largely stems from the self-deception. As I said, it conflicts with her basic self. With the deception removed, she can uncontort herself. In time.

the truth is vicious and you owe it something

My sister grieves. Saraid’s voice was tight. The heavens grieve with her. There was, indeed, rain drumming on the roof. She feels as if her life is at an end. I have tried for so long to show her … She put her head against Trennus’ shoulder. I have tried to show her that being what we are, is not … a bad thing. To be at peace. She is my sister, and I love her. She loves me. She accepts Lassair. She accepts us both without question or hesitation. And yet she cannot accept being … what we are. Honest grief in Saraid’s voice, as if Sigrun’s rejection of herself, was also somehow a rejection of the quiet forest-spirit, but also grief for Sigrun, as well.

:(

Sigrun rubbed at her face. Night. Death. Ice. Storms. All things associated with evil. But I can’t escape my nature.

dark is not evil, SIGRUN

She’d gotten better at tolerating the touch of others, over the years. Lassair she put up with, Saraid she could accept, and Trennus had held her in the Veil while they regained their strength to return to the mortal world after Loki’s exile. It had formed a bond of which Sigrun had never spoken, never acknowledged, but was nevertheless there.

sigrun join the matrugena poly challenge

Saraid’s voice was quietly horrified. Stormborn, my sister, the power is … what you make of it.

yeah, what she said

How much better and easier would my life have been, if I’d had the great good sense to fall in love with you, Trennus?

who says you didn’t?

“That was then. Since we moved to Judea, he hasn’t so much as gone to the solstice bonfires. Oh, he approves of them, for Goths, but he won’t go, and I’ve never asked. I’ve never permitted there to be conflict.”

that’s 👏 not 👏 a 👏 healthy 👏 relationship 👏

Sigrun turned slightly at the anguish in Saraid’s voice, and just wept for a moment, aware as Trennus stood, and once more stroked her hair, lightly. Sigrun wanted, desperately, to accept their comfort. And for a moment, she let herself be weak enough to do so.

accepting 👏 comfort 👏 isn’t 👏 weak

But in the end, using them was, apparently, required of her. And her gods would have her obedience in this, as in all things.

Sigrun how do you finally do what is healthiest for you in the least healthy way possible

You … heard me. Shock and joy in the dragon’s voice. You hear me! You hear me at last!

niiiith

I had best get that under control before I see Adam again.

that’s fine, that’s healthy and normal, it’s fine she’s fine

#reaction post #edda-earth #liveblog #long post #edda earth

[chexawe]

Reposted from @earthsuntaje - Via: @negusnetwork ・・・ Nagas / Niggas, and all derivatives of, refer to the 'Serpent' (metaphor / no spook) people who had or still have full access to the Kundalini energy. The Kundalini is a serpentine force & throughout the world, to be honored with being called a Naga is to be WISE as the serpent. Let me remind the Christians that in Matthew 10:16, it states... “Be ye therefore wise as SERPENTS...”. The Serpentine Spirit is a symbol of wisdom, coinciding with the wise Serpent in your Holy Bible (Helios Biblos / Sun Book), offering the fruit of knowledge to Adam & Eve. By now, you should overstand that Adam & Eve were nothing more than a metaphysical allegory. Nagas / Negus is also associated w/ eternal healing, mystery, magical power, and holiness, which is in conjunction w/ Shaman/ism, hence their serpent representation. The Nagas / Nacas / Naka / Nakis (not no AnuNaki), have set foot on every inch (yes every inch) of land mass on this PLANE(t), and has left an over-abundance of clues for you to puzzle... validating their global presence. The NAGA / NIGGA serpent is found in every language / culture from the 'Aztecs' -Naghual & also Nahua (Nahautl), to the Naga-Saki in Japan, all the way back to Hebrew: Nachash, Naggai & NakiEl. As stated, in my previous posts... TWO words (& all derivatives of) will always be found in EVERY ancient culture: MuUr & Naga. Peep the hashtags, for each one from every different language/culture, links to the serpent. #Naga #Naca #Inca #Naacal #Nagal (Naacal Tablets) #Naka #Naki #Nagi #Nega #Nagar #Nagas #Negus #NegusNetwork #NagaSaki #Nachash #Negast #NegaNegast #NagaRaj #NagPal #Niger #Negger #Ngu #Netjer #NagHammadi #Nergal #NakiEl (Hebrew Serprent of God) #AbeNaki #Nugarmarta #Nahua #Naghual https://www.instagram.com/p/BwCzhw7nAr_Zi2yT6kNJziXGw2iU2wX64qoCbk0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1crqci2vjxttl

#naga #naca #inca #naacal #nagal #naka #naki #nagi #nega #nagar #nagas #negus #negusnetwork #nagasaki #nachash #negast #neganegast #nagaraj #nagpal #niger #negger #ngu #netjer #naghammadi #nergal #nakiel #abenaki #nugarmarta #nahua #naghual