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Subject: "Gallian Gothic Book 2"     Previous Topic | Next Topic
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"Gallian Gothic Book 2"
 
   LAST EDITED ON Nov-06-20 AT 05:22 PM (EST)
 
Act I: "En Famille"

"En Famille" - "With Family".

the débâcle of 10 Floréal - The assault on Scarlet Mansion that cost Remilia and Flandre's parents (among others) their lives took place on the night of 10 Floréal, Anno II, on the (very strange, and short-lived) Gallian revolutionary calendar. To the rest of the Western world, it was April 29, 1794.

KRAFTSTOFFLAGER - Because the best jokes keep on coming back.

mon vieux - Literally "my old", this is an expression that is used as an affectionate tag for men, as in the English appellation "old man". She's teasing him about his "in my old age" quip, as well as the fact that, even as an immortal time traveler, in absolute terms he's still about five years younger than she is.

We'd just managed to save a lot of lives - The occasion in question was the celebration of having driven the Blue Suns away from Goodyear in Star-Crossed.

a ruby, or perhaps a garnet - They're both red garnets, which tend to be rather more blood-colored than rubies (they're usually a bit pink).

unmistakably a mausoleum - The first draft of the proposal scene from Book 1, Act VIII took place here, but ultimately I decided it was too formal and rewrote it in the more intimate setting that appeared in the finished story. Still, it meant we'd already built the set. ;)

carved bas-relief of... a rose, the other a tulip - White roses were Victor's calling card throughout his adult life, while the black tulip was the family emblem of the Teerlincs and part of the insignia of Teerlinc & Brouwer.

The food changed - This scene was contributed on these very forums by long-time reader Cassie "The Traitor" Heath—spontaneous, and far too pretty not to use.

mon grand frère - "My big brother," rather more formally than she usually says it.

Act II: "La Grande Rencontre"

La Grande Rencontre - "The Great Meeting".

Gut. Alles in Ordnung. - "Good. All in order."

c'est fini - "It's over," as in "Period, end of story, I will not discuss this further."

You smell nice - Erica's familiar is a dachshund—part terrier, part scent hound. The nose always knows.

roses and candle smoke - The rose scent comes from the soap used to clean both persons and laundry at Scarlet Mansion.

reading Simenon in the original - The most recently published Inspector Maigret novel at the time this scene is set was probably Maigret à New York.

Bon soir, mon amour! - "Good evening, my love!"

Won't you come in? - Gryphon was not entirely sure this would work; after all, he doesn't own the castle. But apparently however the mystic provision against vampire entering dwellings uninvited works, he's close enough.

now our marriage needn't be morganatic - A morganatic marriage is a form of marriage that used to be relatively common among European aristocracy (and especially royalty, and particularly German-speaking royalty). They were concluded when the parties getting married were of differing social strata (e.g., one a royal and the other of the lesser nobility, or one a noble and the other a commoner), and generally what they entailed was that the party from the lower caste would not gain parity with the higher-ranking spouse from the marriage, nor be treated as an equal by the higher-ranking spouse's peers in social situations. Any children of a morganatic union, while not considered illegitimate for other purposes, could not inherit their higher-ranking parent's titles or any assets entailed to said titles.

Remilia is being very sarcastic here, obviously. All of the aristocracies from which her title stems, those of medieval Cisbelvia/the Sacred Romagnan Empire and the Gallic ancien régime, are long exinct by 1946. Cisbelvia hasn't been a country since the 1200s (it was annexed by Magyarovia), the Sacred Romagnan Empire dissolved in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars, and the Gallian aristocracy, much battered by the 1789–99 revolution, was abolished altogether at the end of the Second Gallian Empire in 1870. Although she would still be afforded the title "Countess" by address in modern Gallian public life, it would only be as a social courtesy. (Compare the way IRL descendants of the abolished gentries of, say, France and Germany often still have their titles in their names, but they have no legal meaning.)

(Ironically, Karlsland's aristocracy is still a going concern, so when she marries Count von Katädien over there, suddenly she'll be a "proper" countess again!)

Fahnenjunker Barkhorn - Fahnenjunker is a German term for an officer candidate. It was historically prepended to whatever enlisted rank the aspirant officer held, usually that of a non-commissioned officer. For instance, at this stage of her career, Chris holds the full rank of Fahnenjunker-Oberfeldwebel—roughly, Senior Flight Cadet or Acting Pilot Officer, on top of an enlisted rank equivalent to master sergeant. (She doesn't know it in this scene, but she's soon to be commissioned and promoted to leutnant on the basis of her performance in Freiburg. That would have happened fairly soon anyway, as she completed her officer candidate training, but her battle record moved it along. Her name probably doesn't hurt either, to be fair.)

Academie van Brugge - The Dutch/Flemish name for the Academy of Bruges, formerly one of the foremost schools of witchery in that part of Europe, which is in the process of being re-established at the time of this story.

Benjamin, mon amour, tu essaies de me faire peur à mort?! - "Benjamin, my love, are you trying to scare me to death?!"

C'est le vingtième siècle. - "It's the twentieth century."

You heard me, young man. The twelfth August, 1503... - Remilia's birthday, as mentioned here, is not canonical; as far as I know, Touhou characters don't have officially established birthdates. I arrived at this date solely because while I was writing that scene, I was listening to "The Eve of the War" from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds—in which the Journalist mentions that the first Martian cylinder was launched "at midnight on the twelfth of August".

mon cheval - "My horse". Not mon chevalier, "my knight", which would be a more typical Gallic endearment.

bouillabaisse - Provençal fish stew, traditionally served with the fish plated separately from the broth, and accompanied by a cayenne-pepper mayonnaise spread on bread. As the text suggests, it originated in the southern fishing port of Marseille, and like many modern-day delicacies that sprang from fishing ports, was originally a way for the locals to get some use out of unsalable trash fish.

the film they saw was a comedy - Gilles Grainger's Leçon de conduite (Lessons in Conduct), starring Odette Joyeux and Gilbert Gil.

the last thing we need in this place is a door guard - In The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, Meiling is the gate guard for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and a lot of fan works portray her working conditions as appalling—she's often depicted without shelter of any kind, nor even a place to sit. This has led to a second fan works convention wherein she's usually standing there asleep (as part of the overall "lol incompetent Meiling" trope).

Ich werde das notieren - "I'll make a note of that."

Act III: "Déclaration de Position"

an altogether more violent path - If this were an animated medium, you'd be able to tell pretty readily that it's some form of kung fu.

"Déclaration de Position" - "Position Statement". (Admittedly, this one's... not hard to figure. :) As in "a collect telegram to the Right People explaining my position."

Académie Gaulois - A learnèd body dedicated to the accumulation and distribution of arcane and scientific knowledge, similar to Britannia's Royal Society. Not to be confused with the Académie Gallique, which is the regulating body of the Gallic language.

more like an outpost - This was, at the time, one of the farthest-outlying farm communities of the still-fairly-recently-established colony of Zipang, a hundred miles or more from the nascent capital city of Saikyō.

Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk - The Church of Our Lady and the Burg (in this setting, our lady of what is not entirely clear), built between the 13th and 15th centuries, boasts the second-tallest brick tower in the world. It's not the oldest or the most ecumenically important church in Bruges (those honors go to the Chapel of St. Basil the Great in the Basilica of the Holy Blood and St. Salvator's Cathedral, respectively), but it is by far the grandest, and would have been the only acceptable place in town for the eldest daughter of Cornelijs Coenraetszoon Teerlinc to be wed.

pot-au-feu - Traditional Gallian beef stew. Customarily served, like bouillabaisse, with the broth separated and served as soup, then the meat and vegetables as the next course.

Vittorio Monti's "Csárdás" - The presence of this piece in this scene is a slight anachronism; Monti's interpretation of the csárdás (a traditional Hungarian dance) was published in 1904, during the period when Remilia had abandoned the music room and never left the house, so by rights she oughtn't to know it. But it fits the visual I had in mind for this scene so perfectly, and is such a beautiful piece of music, that I couldn't resist the temptation to apply a little poetic license. Remilia is particularly drawn to Hungarian (in her world, Magyarovian) music anyway, perhaps because of her family's ancient roots in the region.

Boccherini's String Quintet in C Major - This has been the end titles music to Our Witches at War all along! The spontaneous duet between Remi and Sakuya is inspired by the final scene in the motion picture Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, which features the film's two protagonists doing the same.

erhu - A Chinese bowed string instrument, sometimes called a "Chinese fiddle", although the technique for playing it is nothing like that of the Western violin. In the world Meiling comes from, it's native to the Earth Kingdom.

tsungi horn - A fictional wind instrument from Avatar: The Last Airbender, originating from the Fire Nation. It looks like a small sousaphone or marching-band tuba, but sounds more like a woodwind.

mieux aimé - "best belovèd".

the "Hornpipe" from Händel's Water Music - Similarly to the above, it's anachronistic for Remilia to know this specific much more modern organ arrangement for this piece, but we may assume that in the context of the story, it's her own arrangement and not one transcribed by an English organist in the year 2019. I probably didn't need to spell that out, but what the hell. As an aside, Remilia and her parents were alive during Händel's lifetime (1685–1759), and it is not entirely out of the question—given Count Victor's love of music and his established correspondence with other European expat luminaries in England—that she knew, or at least met, him.

the Honorable Vincent Auriol - Based loosely on the real-life French statesman (1884–1966) who was the first president of the Fourth French Republic from its establishment after World War II until 1954. Our version should not be taken to resemble the real person except superficially.

Prime Minister Ramadier - Paul Ramadier (1888–1961), the first of the thirteen different heads of government the Fourth Republic had during Auriol's presidency. (The real-life Fourth French Republic was not a great success, which is why we now have the Fifth Republic.) Under the Fourth Republic, the head of government's actual title was President of the Council of Ministers, but since this was easily confused with the office of President of the Republic, in practice the term "prime minister" was virtually always used in English to describe the office (premier ministre or just premier in French). Under the present Fifth Republic, the same office is officially called premier/prime minister.

Commander of the Royal and Military Order of Saint-Louis - The Order of Saint-Louis was the principal dynastic chivalric order of the ancien régime. It has been replaced in the modern French Republics by the Legion of Honor. "Commander" was the middle of the order's three ranks, above Knight but below Knight Grand Cross.

get me Septième Bureau - To give its full title, le Septième Bureau du Ministère de l'Intérieur ("the Seventh Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior") is the Gallian civilian government's principal agency for managing, coordinating, and recording non-military matters to do with magic and the supernatural—compared to, for instance, the Liberion federal government's Department of Paranormal Affairs. (Matters of military magic are handled by the appropriate department within the Ministry of the Armed Forces.)

It should not be confused with the former Gallian military intelligence agency, le Deuxième Bureau de l'État-major général ("Second Bureau of the General Staff"). Deuxième Bureau was the intelligence arm of the Third Republic's Army General Staff, which perished along with the Third Republic itself when the Neuroi occupied Gallia, and was not reconstituted by the Fourth Republic (at least not under that name). In its day, Deuxième Bureau was notable mainly for wildly underestimating the potential threat posed by the Neuroi in both twentieth-century Neuroi Wars and blithely assuring President Pétain that Ostmark and Karlsland fell because their armed forces were insufficiently patriotic.

Act IV: "Magie Domestique"

molto bene - Italian: "very good". I don't know why he said it in Italian either.

Magie Domestique - "Household Magic".

a tragedy worthy of Sophocles - Sophocles of Attica (ca. 497 BC–ca. 405 BC) was a Greek tragedian, one of only three a handful of whose works have survived to the modern day. He is believed to have invented the theatrical concept of scenery, as well as the dramatic technique of breaking the action up into scenes. Sophoclean tragedies revolve around a strong sense of fatalism, the characters being caught up in events beyond their control (or even, sometimes, their understanding). His plays are notable for their character development and a reduced reliance on the chorus to explain what's going on; the most famous surviving one is Oedipus Tyrannus (also known as Oedipus Rex), a retelling of the legend of Oedipus (the Greek king who unwittingly murders his father and marries his mother, from which the modern psychological concept of the Oedipus complex takes its name).

an outbreak of jiangshi - Sometimes called "Chinese vampires" in the West, jiangshi are, as Remilia notes, really more like the Western conception of zombies: animated corpses that go rogue and feed on the delicious braaaains lifeforce of mortals.

whether they had notes stuck to their faces or not - Depending on the pop culture interpretation, jiangshi are often described as being either animated or controlled by paper talismans attached to their foreheads.

the Pas de Calais - As in, the Gallic name for what the English-speaking world knows as the Strait of Dover, the narrowest point of the English Channel (la Manche to the Gallians).

Incidentally, though it doesn't come up in the text, flying across the Pas de Calais is something that vampires of Remilia's line can only do at slack tide. When the tide is running, it counts as a river for "cannot cross flowing water" purposes. Fortunately, it's narrow enough that if they time it right, they can easily get all the way across before the tide reverses and starts running the other way, but it's not a trip to be undertaken without planning and care.

what, for instance, was a "dogwatch"? - In Age of Sail vessels, the dogwatch was a watch that was two hours long instead of the traditional four, and was usually timed around the evening meal, so that the watch schedule would be slightly staggered (meaning that the same watch crew wouldn't always be stuck on the graveyard shift) and more of the crew could be fed together at once.

The standard joke about dogwatches, which is repeated several times in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels, is that they are so called because they are curtailed.

the job of replacing Meiev - Remilia's previous lady's-maid, who resigned to get married, as female domestic servants generally did in that era. "Meiev" is an Alsatian nickname for women named Marie-Eva.

Divine Flash Donnerwetter - The spell cards shown here are not as they are in the Tōhō games, since magical combat in the world of Our Witches at War is not danmaku. In the games, I gather, they're mostly ways of varying and powering up bullet hell patterns; here, they're more like canned Evocation spells. This one being a thunderbolt, it's named Donnerwetter after the German word for a thunderstorm (literally "thunder weather"). The naming pattern ("descriptive phrase, keyphrase") is meant to be reminiscent of the way the cards are named in the games, though (compare, for instance, Illusion Sign Killer Doll, one of Sakuya's canonical spell cards).

Act V: "Une Inconnue Bien Connue"

"Une Inconnue Bien Connue" - "A Well-Known Unknown" (or "Stranger").

my little sister is a naturist - "Naturist" is an earlier, more euphemistic term for what we would today call a nudist. Not to be confused with a naturalist, which is a person interested in the science of the natural world. I once saw a poorly translated document which claimed that President Theodore Roosevelt was "a famous naturist before entering politics," which would be an... interesting alternate reality, but, uh, no.

Fusōnese witches get things done - They're not always things anyone else particularly wants to get done, but that's another story.

Don't get in my face and you'll get to keep yours - Also sometimes translated, "Don't start none, won't be none."

a little smitten with Emanuel - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788), known to personal acquaintances by his third name and better known to subsequent generations as C.P.E. Bach, was the second of Johann Sebastian Bach's sons to survive to adulthood. A noted composer, performer, and teacher of keyboard instruments in his own right, he bridged the Baroque and Romantic periods of Western music both chronologically and musically. In the summer of 1730, he would have been 16 years old.

I'm not giving you an open license to make love to anyone who may wander up and ask - Please note that Remilia is using the phrase "make love to" in an older, broader sense than we usually think of it nowadays. In Victorian English, it connotes the whole range of amorous behaviors—verbal professions of love, kissing, petting, what might now be summarized as "canoodling"—rather than merely being, as it is today, a euphemism for sexual congress.

(Compare the way, if you're not familiar with Victorian conventions of word usage, the Sherlock Holmes stories may be startling in re the frequency with which Dr. Watson ejaculates, and the context in which it often happens. :)

do we really need electricity, though? - A question confronted by the proprietors of every stately home in the Western world when electrification started coming in. Some held out for decades. William H. Vanderbilt's house was electrified by Thomas Edison himself circa 1880—and almost instantly DE-electrified by Thomas Edison himself when the wiring caused a fire and Mrs. Vanderbilt demanded the whole system's removal.

wish I hadn't lost my JJ200s - Exactly when and why Meiling owned a pair of Joo Janta 200 super-chromatic peril-sensitive sunglasses, and of what use they were to her, is a mystery for another time.

immortalizing a mere lady's-maid - Not literally. If Sakuya is immortal, it's not because of the painting. It's just a painting, not, like, the Picture of Dorian Gray.

Aw, jeez! My gazebo! - I never imagined I would ever have occasion to give a character this line, but here we are.

a pair of stamped tags - The wartime British forces' equivalent of American dog tags, these were made of pressed fiber rather than metal.

Oxton, L. RAF. Flight Lieutenant. U. 3263827. - These five items were recorded on all British identity tags of the period (oddly, they didn't include blood type as American tags did). They are the serviceperson's name, branch of service, rank, a code denoting religion (and thereby preference of chaplain), and service number.

In Lena's particular case:

- "Flight Lieutenant" is an RAF rank that, a bit confusingly, denotes a company-grade officer equivalent to a captain in forces that use army-style ranks (such as the United States Air Force). What other forces would consider a (first) lieutenant is a "flying officer" in the RAF—even the ones who aren't pilots.

- "U" is the code for a Unitarian, that is, someone who believes in a unitary divinity and/or cosmic creator (as opposed to the trinitarian belief common to many branches of Christianity). IRL, non-Universalist Unitarians are still a flavor of Christian; in (this variant of) the World Witches setting, where Christianity is evidently not a major religion if it exists at all, Unitarianism instead stems from a streamlining of the older polytheistic religions, and functions more or less like deism (the belief that a singular, omnipotent Creator set up the universe, but has since buggered off and left it to its own devices).

English Unitarianism, as described above, should not be confused with Unitarian Universalism, which is no longer inherently Christian, although I gather individual followers of same may still decide that they are.

- With the right reference materials, it's possible to work out from an RAF member's service number precisely where and roughly when they joined up (sort of like decoding the VIN of an automobile). Lena's service number comes from a block of real RAF service numbers that, for one reason or another, were never assigned to anyone.

unless you've done some reincarnating - Technically, what Lena's talking about isn't reincarnation so much as parallel incarnation. In essence, the mishap that gave her her time-manipulating powers also fragmented her into infinite aspects, each of whom inhabits a particular spot in a particular timeline, but they're all also the same person. Or, put more succinctly, in the EPU multiverse, all Tracers are the same Tracer. :)

I was born in Seven Dials in 1930 - Seven Dials is a neighborhood in central London, part of the St. Giles district of the Borough of Camden. It's so named because its central feature is a seven-way road junction, in the middle of which stands a column with six (yes, six) sundials on it (because the junction was originally meant to be only six roads). Today, it's a heavily gentrified upscale shopping area with boutiques and fancy restaurants, but in 1930 the area was still, as it had been for at least the previous century, a notoriously poor and rough part of town.

à la mode suburbain - "In the suburban mode", i.e., served on individual small tables in the living room. TV set not required.

unlike certain vampires I could name, I can control myself - She's throwing shade at the Draculs again, not Flan.

Act VI: "L'Intérêt d'une Divulgation Complète"

L'Intérêt d'une Divulgation Complète = "The Interest of Full Disclosure".

the waffle story - This is true!

requiescat in pace - Latin: "[may] they rest in peace."

made on a base of troll fat - As you might imagine, given how rare and hard to kill trolls are, this is a very expensive ingredient.

Remicciatola - An Italian-language affectionate diminutive made by adding a suffix (compare, e.g., the (O)Russian -ochka).

the medieval Latin original - Funnily enough, he'd have had much less trouble with this than the Middle Gallic version.

awake and alive... - Gryphon quoted this passage in Mio's formal Force initiation back in New Tricks.

Uu~! - A comedy sound effect which is something of a trope in Touhou fandom as a noise uttered by the more cutesy and comedic interpretations of Remilia. Occasionally spelled "Uu~☆!" just to make it even harder to guess how it's pronounced.

contrefilet et frites - This is one of those French dishes that sound really fancy, but are in fact just regular food. It means "steak and fried potatoes".

Ausgezeichnet. Ich werde mich darauf freuen, meine Geliebte. - "Excellent. I shall look forward to it, my belovèd."

Act VII: "Le Départ"

rich as Croesus - Croesus (595 BC–546? BC), king of ancient Lydia, was so renowned for the wealth of his kindgom that his name remains a proverbial byword for a holder of great riches today. In part, this mythological status derives from the fact that Lydia under Croesus issued the first known gold coins of standardized quality (and therefore value).

chicken fricassée - A dish in which chicken is pan-browned, like a sauté, but then simmered in a sauce or broth, like a stew. Sakuya's particular version of it involves a cream sauce, which is a bit unusual by classical fricassée standards.

Le Départ - Literally means "the departure" in French, but also connotes a beginning.

What do you care what other people think? - The title of the second volume of physicist Richard Feynman's memoirs, taken from a catchphrase his first wife, Arline, used to taunt him with whenever she felt he was getting too timid about some social custom or another.

the Karlslandic city of Cheeseburg - Not to be confused with Cheeseberg, the Cheese Mountain, which is located in central Thuringia.

(this is not true either)

I'll put you down as my huscarl - As Gryphon notes, the huscarl (in modern English, housecarl) was a sort of bodyguard in high-placed medieval Nordic and Germanic households. Housecarls were freemen, not slaves or serfs, and were paid for their services, but tended to be better-trusted and more loyal than simple mercenaries. Over time, as with many medieval jobs, their role became less practical and more ceremonial, and they more or less went out of style by the twelfth century.

As a land right on the edge of the Karlslandic territories, Alsace wouldn't have been too strange a place for the higher households to have housecarls in Count Victor's early tenure there (although they would have disappeared long before Remilia's own time).

In the more serious interpretations of Meiling's canonical job (i.e., the ones where she's responsible for security in general, not literally for just standing next to the front door and getting beaten up by every random joe who wanders by), she could easily be described as Remilia's housecarl.

pieces by [Couperin] other than "Les Barricades Mystérieuses" - Such as "Le Tic-Toc-Choc ou Les Maillotins", Ordre 18 from his Third Book of clavecin pieces ("Les Barricades" is from the Second).

The Prince of Denmark's March - The Wikipedia page for this piece notes that it was played at the wedding of Prince Joachim of Denmark in 1995. I guess if you are literally the Prince of Denmark, it's kind of obligatory. As it was composed by an Englishman circa 1700, its title probably refers to Prince George of Denmark (1653–1708), who was Queen Anne of England's husband.

unless I'm loading silver hollowpoints - For the record, he isn't. Hollowpoints don't feed very well in 1911s anyway.

she noticed that the safety was on - Flandre doesn't check, but if she had, she'd have found that there wasn't even a round chambered. Why would there be? It was only a show duel, and Gryphon comes from an age that is much less casual about carrying loaded handguns than they were in World War II.

I intended to wear this for our wedding day - It may say something about Remilia's attitude to these things that she considers what any twenty-first-century woman would consider perfectly ordinary underwear outrageous enough to be suitable for the first use of one's marriage bed, as it were.

did you join the Barovian Navy - Being a landlocked country, Barovia (one of the many tiny Carpathian principalities in the vicinity of the Belv River valley, and one of the few never consumed by Magyarovia or Dacia) has no navy.

Luna Moth night trainer - The Luna Moth is a variant of the venerable and much-loved de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth biplane trainer, optimized for night flying. Britannian and Farawaylander Night Witches learn to handle themselves in the dark on Luna Moths, after having learned basic daytime flight with Tiger Moths. Lena borrowed this one for her ferry flight to Ribeauvillé because taking her experimental, ultra-high-performance Hornet seemed like overkill—and it's fortunate she did, since a crashed Hornet would have been a lot harder to repair.


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  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
  RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 DaPatman89 Sep-25-20 1
     RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Gryphonadmin Sep-25-20 2
         RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Star Ranger4 Sep-29-20 4
  Act III background note Gryphonadmin Sep-28-20 3
  A Note I Missed Gryphonadmin Oct-08-20 5
     RE: A Note I Missed The Traitor Oct-08-20 6
     Two More Missed Notes Gryphonadmin Oct-16-20 7
         RE: Two More Missed Notes StClair Oct-17-20 8
  RE: Unitarians and Universalists Proginoskes Oct-17-20 9
     RE: Unitarians and Universalists Gryphonadmin Oct-17-20 11
         RE: Unitarians and Universalists Proginoskes Oct-17-20 17
  RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 BlackAeronaut Oct-17-20 10
     RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Gryphonadmin Oct-17-20 12
         RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 BlackAeronaut Oct-17-20 16
  note on the Act V lost paragraph Gryphonadmin Oct-17-20 13
  RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Zemyla Oct-17-20 14
     RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Gryphonadmin Oct-17-20 15
  RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Terminus Est Oct-17-20 18
     RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Gryphonadmin Oct-17-20 19
         RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Terminus Est Oct-17-20 20
  RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Zemyla Oct-29-20 21
     RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Sofaspud Oct-29-20 22
         RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Astynax Oct-29-20 23
             RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Gryphonadmin Oct-29-20 24
                 RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 The Traitor Oct-29-20 26
                 RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Verbena Oct-29-20 27
             RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 rwpikul Oct-29-20 25
                 RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Mephronmoderator Oct-29-20 28
                     RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 rwpikul Oct-31-20 30
     RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2 Peter Eng Oct-30-20 29

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DaPatman89
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1. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #0
 
   >Won't you come in? - Gryphon was not entirely sure this would
>work; after all, he doesn't own the castle. But apparently however
>the mystic provision against vampire entering dwellings uninvited
>works, he's close enough.

I once read a Discworld fanfic where a vampire needs to meet someone in the hotel where they're staying, but the proprietor refuses to invite her in. She gets around it by getting the person she's meeting to invite her into their room directly through the window - since the guest has paid for the room, they have therefore taken (temporary) ownership of it, granting them the ability to offer the invitation. As Gryphon is inviting Remilia into his own room, I would presume something similar is going on here.

---

"Things in life aren't always quite what they seem,
There's more than one given angle to any one given scene.
So bear that in mind next time you try to intervene
On any one given angle on any one given scene."
Angles - dan le sac vs. Scroobius Pip


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Gryphonadmin
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2. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #1
 
   >As
>Gryphon is inviting Remilia into his own room, I would presume
>something similar is going on here.

Could be, but she's subsequently free to go and wander with him around the whole building, so evidently being let into one room is enough—unless it has something to do with having been tacitly welcomed by Hannelore once she was inside, I suppose.

As G said back in TTW, "vampire rules are weird." :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Star Ranger4
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4. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #2
 
   >
>As G said back in TTW, "vampire rules are weird." :)
>
*SNERKS* No, Really Rl-G????

*falls over laughing*


Of COURSE you wernt expecting it!
No One expects the FANNISH INQUISITION!
RCW# 86


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Gryphonadmin
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3. "Act III background note"
In response to message #0
 
   The entire "flaming fire flakes" scene sprang from this adorable fan art, after I linked to it in the studio because it's so dang cute and Philip said, "Flaming fire flakes, my favorite!"

(SFW, other things on that site—and indeed, by that artist, featuring those characters—are not, you know the drill by now.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Gryphonadmin
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5. "A Note I Missed"
In response to message #0
 
   From the Colmar mairie scene in Act II:

You heard me, young man. The twelfth August, 1503... - Remilia's birthday, as mentioned here, is not canonical; as far as I know, Touhou characters don't have officially established birthdates. I arrived at this date solely because while I was writing that scene, I was listening to "The Eve of the War" from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds—in which the Journalist mentions that the first Martian cylinder was launched "at midnight on the twelfth of August".

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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The Traitor
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Oct-08-20, 07:17 AM (EST)
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6. "RE: A Note I Missed"
In response to message #5
 
   The chances of Neuroi all coming to France, are a million to one, they said...

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

i'd like to say i'm sorry but my parents only raised me to lie to them, and only about being male. =]


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Gryphonadmin
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7. "Two More Missed Notes"
In response to message #5
 
   from Act IV:


a tragedy worthy of Sophocles - Sophocles of Attica (ca. 497 BC–ca. 405 BC) was a Greek tragedian, one of only three a handful of whose works have survived to the modern day. He is believed to have invented the theatrical concept of scenery, as well as the dramatic technique of breaking the action up into scenes. Sophoclean tragedies revolve around a strong sense of fatalism, the characters being caught up in events beyond their control (or even, sometimes, their understanding).

His plays are notable for their character development and a reduced reliance on the chorus to explain what's going on; the most famous surviving one is Oedipus Tyrannus (also known as Oedipus Rex), a retelling of the legend of Oedipus (the Greek king who unwittingly murders his father and marries his mother, from which the modern psychological concept of the Oedipus complex takes its name).

the job of replacing Meiev - Remilia's previous lady's-maid, who resigned to get married, as female domestic servants generally did in that era. "Meiev" is an Alsatian nickname for women named Marie-Eva.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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StClair
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Oct-17-20, 01:56 AM (EST)
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8. "RE: Two More Missed Notes"
In response to message #7
 
   re the Sophocles note: on some abstract level I know this, of course, but it's still strange and rather wild to be reminded that all these little bits of storytelling and stagecraft that have been standards for hundreds or thousands of years, and which we take completely for granted, had to be invented by someone.


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Proginoskes
Member since Dec-3-09
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Oct-17-20, 12:13 PM (EST)
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9. "RE: Unitarians and Universalists"
In response to message #0
 
   A distinction needs to be drawn between Unitarianism the Christian doctrine, and Unitarianism the religious community that developed from it. At least as far back as the Second World War, it was no more correct to call Unitarianism a Christian sect than it would be to call Christianity a sect of Judaism.


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Gryphonadmin
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Oct-17-20, 04:40 PM (EST)
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11. "RE: Unitarians and Universalists"
In response to message #9
 
   >A distinction needs to be drawn between Unitarianism the Christian
>doctrine, and Unitarianism the religious community that developed from
>it. At least as far back as the Second World War, it was no more
>correct to call Unitarianism a Christian sect than it would be to call
>Christianity a sect of Judaism.

Christian Unitarianism still exists, y'know, it wasn't replaced by Unitarian Universalism. (Although just to muddy the waters further, there are also Christian Unitarian Universalists! Religion. What're you gonna do.)

Anyway, if you dig deep enough, every religion is a renegade branch of an earlier one. That's how it works!

That said, I will clarify that the note is talking about this dimension's version of English Unitarianism, not Universalism.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Proginoskes
Member since Dec-3-09
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Oct-17-20, 09:03 PM (EST)
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17. "RE: Unitarians and Universalists"
In response to message #11
 
   Fair! I tend to think of modern Christian Unitarianism as a creature mostly of central and Eastern Europe, but a very brief bit of research shows how wrong I am. It doesn't help that Canada's equivalent to the UUA is the Canadian Unitarian Council. And that's not touching on the fact that a portion of any UU congregation's membership would self-describe as Christian (as opposed to Unitarian Pagans, or Unitarian Atheists, etc.).

Just to muddy the waters further still, there is (or at least was) also Universalism as a Christian sect! Core message: Christ died to redeem all humankind (universal salvation), so stop worrying about saving your soul or anyone else's, and get on with following his actual teachings.

On another note, the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists, to which both the UUA and the CUC belong, admits explicitly-Christian member organisations. (As does the UK's national equivalent, going so far as to include "Christian" in its full name.)

Religion! It's generally a mess, but Unitarian-Universalism is extra muddy.


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BlackAeronaut
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Oct-17-20, 01:30 PM (EST)
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10. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #0
 
   LAST EDITED ON Oct-17-20 AT 01:33 PM (EDT)
 
>Act V: "Une Inconnue Bien Connue"
>
>"Une Inconnue Bien Connue" - "A Well-Known Unknown" (or
>"Stranger").

Although not well known for some of us, it turns out. :P

(I don't really play Overwatch. They lost most of my interest when it came out there'd be no story mode when there's obviously a really fucking interesting story going on!)

>my little sister is a naturist - "Naturist" is an earlier, more
>euphemistic term for what we would today call a nudist. Not to be
>confused with a naturalist, which is a person interested in the
>science of the natural world. I once saw a poorly translated document
>which claimed that President Theodore Roosevelt was "a famous naturist
>before entering politics," which would be an... interesting
>alternate reality, but, uh, no.

Regardless, I think there is one telling take away that Flan has from her period of insanity: she now has a very much zero-fucks-given attitude. Albeit the happy variety. Azalyn is gonna eat her up.

>Fusōnese witches get things done - They're not always things
>anyone else particularly wants to get done, but that's another
>story.

Not quite following here, but I've always been kinda dense that way.

(Usually it's just because I *can* come up with the correct inference... It's just that I can also think of about ten or twenty other inferences as well. Trust me, you don't wanna know 'why' I do that.)

Aside: it could be said that this is an aspect of Japanese culture that isn't usually touched on. Basically, it has to do with gender roles within a Samurai household. Yeah, the man of the house sets policy and goes and makes bacon and all... But it's the lady of the house who makes the magic behind the scenes happen and generally ensures that the household operates like a smoothly oiled machine. Rightfully so, the wife of a Samurai is herself considered Samurai.

So it's no surprise that it'd be the Fusonese witches that are the stone-cold killers when it comes to the "Honey Do" lists at various JSF Squadrons.

>a little smitten with Emanuel - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
>(1714–1788), known to personal acquaintances by his third name and
>better known to subsequent generations as C.P.E. Bach, was the second
>of Johann Sebastian Bach's sons to survive to adulthood. A noted
>composer, performer, and teacher of keyboard instruments in his own
>right, he bridged the Baroque and Romantic periods of Western music
>both chronologically and musically. In the summer of 1730, he would
>have been 16 years old.

At first when I had read through the relevant bit, I had at first thought that Remillia was speaking of the father and not the son. Thing is, many historians suspect that, due to the content of letters between Bach and the rest of his family, that he had a form of Tourette Syndrome. It really does do Bach credit, though, that if he was indeed afflicted with Tourette Syndrome, that he was able to make the social connections that he had made despite that.

>wish I hadn't lost my JJ200s - Exactly when and why Meiling
>owned a pair of Joo Janta 200 super-chromatic peril-sensitive
>sunglasses, and of what use they were to her, is a mystery for another
>time.

I can almost see her dressed up as an MIB, and saying as she slips on her JJ200s, "You know the difference between you and me? I make this look good."

>immortalizing a mere lady's-maid - Not literally. If Sakuya is
>immortal, it's not because of the painting. It's just a painting,
>not, like, the Picture of Dorian Gray.

Well of course! Sakuya didn't suddenly keel over and turn into dust when she saw it! ;)

>Aw, jeez! My gazebo! - I never imagined I would ever have
>occasion to give a character this line, but here we are.

I don't think I've seen this used anywhere else in particular, though...

>unless you've done some reincarnating - Technically, what
>Lena's talking about isn't reincarnation so much as parallel
>incarnation. In essence, the mishap that gave her her
>time-manipulating powers also fragmented her into infinite aspects,
>each of whom inhabits a particular spot in a particular timeline, but
>they're all also the same person. Or, put more succinctly, in the EPU
>multiverse, all Tracers are the same Tracer. :)

Innnnnteresting. I'm somehow reminded of Jenny Everywhere.

>unlike certain vampires I could name, I can control myself -
>She's throwing shade at the Draculs again, not Flan.

And few people can sass like the French can. It's practically an art form.


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Gryphonadmin
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12. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #10
 
   >>"Une Inconnue Bien Connue" - "A Well-Known Unknown" (or
>>"Stranger").
>
>Although not well known for some of us, it turns out. :P

In this instance, it specifically means well-known to Gryphon.

>(I don't really play Overwatch. They lost most of my interest when it
>came out there'd be no story mode when there's obviously a really
>fucking interesting story going on!)

Yeah, I don't either, for largely the same reasons (well, that and I just don't think multiplayer-only games are fun), but the lore has always interested me even if (or, well, it's me, so maybe because) the actual game's developers are almost entirely wasting it. Also (as we have seen elsewhere on the Forum recently), BZA is big into it. Including a witch version of Tracer in OWaW was originally her idea, and dropping her into this particular plotline started as a set of jokey Twitter DMs between us that eventually reached that magical "y'know, actually, I think we have to do this now" critical mass.

>Regardless, I think there is one telling take away that Flan has from
>her period of insanity: she now has a very much zero-fucks-given
>attitude. Albeit the happy variety. Azalyn is gonna eat her up.

Well, she'll certainly want to. Whether she'll get the opportunity... no data at this time. :)

>>Fusōnese witches get things done - They're not always things
>>anyone else particularly wants to get done, but that's another
>>story.
>
>Not quite following here, but I've always been kinda dense that way.

Just that they have a reputation for being decisive and proactive to an extent that might be described by members of other cultures as "precipitate", "headstrong", or occasionally "mad". The received wisdom is that if a witch from Fusō sees something she thinks needs doing and it isn't getting done, she'll just go and do it, generally without consulting anybody first. Granted, a lot of this reputation was established singlehandedly by Mio Sakamoto, but not all of it. :)

>Aside: it could be said that this is an aspect of Japanese culture
>that isn't usually touched on. Basically, it has to do with gender
>roles within a Samurai household. Yeah, the man of the house sets
>policy and goes and makes bacon and all... But it's the lady of the
>house who makes the magic behind the scenes happen and generally
>ensures that the household operates like a smoothly oiled machine.
>Rightfully so, the wife of a Samurai is herself considered Samurai.

IIRC, they were also expected to be able to ruin somebody's day if they had to.

Medieval English society kind of worked that way, too. Less with the "ruin somebody's day" part, but in a well-off medieval household, the man of the house, for all that he was legally master of his demesne, owner of all within it, and so forth, customarily did not possess the actual keys to the house or any of the rooms, lockable containers etc. within it. His wife had them.

(This is not necessarily just a medieval thing. Theodore Roosevelt famously had no idea how much money he had or where it went much of the time, so he mostly wasn't allowed to spend it himself. Edith handed him $20 each morning, and in the evening he couldn't have told her what became of it if his life depended on it, which is why she only ever gave him $20. That was substantially more money in 1904 than it is today, of course, but the point remains. :)

>So it's no surprise that it'd be the Fusonese witches that are the
>stone-cold killers when it comes to the "Honey Do" lists at various
>JSF Squadrons.

This also partly stems from the culture of the Fusōnese armed forces, which places great emphasis on officers' initiative (particularly the Navy). "If something needs to be done, don't whine to your superiors about it, just get it done" is drilled into IFN officers at Etajima.

>At first when I had read through the relevant bit, I had at first
>thought that Remillia was speaking of the father and not the son.

They both visited, but it was the son she was a little sweet on.

>Thing is, many historians suspect that, due to the content of letters
>between Bach and the rest of his family, that he had a form of
>Tourette Syndrome. It really does do Bach credit, though, that if he
>was indeed afflicted with Tourette Syndrome, that he was able to make
>the social connections that he had made despite that.

In his era, a man could get away with a lot of social faults if he was a big enough damn genius. :)

>>Aw, jeez! My gazebo! - I never imagined I would ever have
>>occasion to give a character this line, but here we are.
>
>I don't think I've seen this used anywhere else in particular,
>though...

Well, true, but I still never imagined anyone would ever have occasion to say it before it happened.

>>unlike certain vampires I could name, I can control myself -
>>She's throwing shade at the Draculs again, not Flan.
>
>And few people can sass like the French can. It's practically an art
>form.

REMILIA
Now go away...

(readies Gungnir)

... or I shall taunt you a second time.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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BlackAeronaut
Member since Apr-15-15
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Oct-17-20, 07:03 PM (EST)
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16. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #12
 
   >>Regardless, I think there is one telling take away that Flan has from
>>her period of insanity: she now has a very much zero-fucks-given
>>attitude. Albeit the happy variety. Azalyn is gonna eat her up.
>
>Well, she'll certainly want to. Whether she'll get the
>opportunity... no data at this time. :)

"C'mon Kaitlyn! Lemme go! Just five minutes with her alone! Pleeeeaaaaase?"

Flan would be anything but freaked out. She'd probably be giggling hysterically at the sight, while passively musing over what Azalyn would taste like. (Not to say that Flan would do it without asking first. And knowing Azalyn, she probably wouldn't mind at all, as long as it was just a little taste.)

>>>Fusōnese witches get things done - They're not always things
>>>anyone else particularly wants to get done, but that's another
>>>story.
>>
>>Not quite following here, but I've always been kinda dense that way.
>
>Just that they have a reputation for being decisive and proactive to
>an extent that might be described by members of other cultures as
>"precipitate", "headstrong", or occasionally "mad". The received
>wisdom is that if a witch from Fusō sees something she thinks
>needs doing and it isn't getting done, she'll just go and do it,
>generally without consulting anybody first. Granted, a lot of this
>reputation was established singlehandedly by Mio Sakamoto, but not all
>of it. :)

Ah yes. She is quite the force of nature, isn't she?

Hah. Someone could give her the epithets of Vash the Stampede and it'd fit perfectly.

Mio The Stampede, The Humanoid Typhoon.

>>Aside: it could be said that this is an aspect of Japanese culture
>>that isn't usually touched on. Basically, it has to do with gender
>>roles within a Samurai household. Yeah, the man of the house sets
>>policy and goes and makes bacon and all... But it's the lady of the
>>house who makes the magic behind the scenes happen and generally
>>ensures that the household operates like a smoothly oiled machine.
>>Rightfully so, the wife of a Samurai is herself considered Samurai.
>
>IIRC, they were also expected to be able to ruin somebody's day if
>they had to.

Oh, for certain. The really interesting part there is that while they could be armed, they had to do so in a way that the weapon is not readily visible on their person. Although picking up a readily available weapon was just fine.

>>So it's no surprise that it'd be the Fusonese witches that are the
>>stone-cold killers when it comes to the "Honey Do" lists at various
>>JSF Squadrons.
>
>This also partly stems from the culture of the Fusōnese armed
>forces, which places great emphasis on officers' initiative
>(particularly the Navy). "If something needs to be done, don't whine
>to your superiors about it, just get it done" is drilled into IFN
>officers at Etajima.

In this case, it probably didn't take very long for the Brass to make sure there was at least one Fusonese witch with officer training at each JSF squadron. :)

>>>unlike certain vampires I could name, I can control myself -
>>>She's throwing shade at the Draculs again, not Flan.
>>
>>And few people can sass like the French can. It's practically an art
>>form.
>
>REMILIA
>Now go away...
>
>(readies Gungnir)
>
>... or I shall taunt you a second time.

Pffft. Oh man. She would become a fan of Monty Python and the Flying Circus, wouldn't she?


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Gryphonadmin
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Oct-17-20, 05:59 PM (EST)
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13. "note on the Act V lost paragraph"
In response to message #0
 
   I'm not giving you an open license to make love to anyone who may wander up and ask - Please note that Remilia is using the phrase "make love to" in an older, broader sense than we usually think of it nowadays. In Victorian English, it connotes the whole range of amorous behaviors—verbal professions of love, kissing, petting, what might now be summarized as "canoodling"—rather than merely being, as it is today, a euphemism for sexual congress.

(Compare the way, if you're not familiar with Victorian conventions of word usage, the Sherlock Holmes stories may be startling in re the frequency with which Dr. Watson ejaculates, and the context in which it often happens. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Zemyla
Member since Mar-26-08
206 posts
Oct-17-20, 06:30 PM (EST)
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14. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #0
 
   >I once saw a poorly translated document
>which claimed that President Theodore Roosevelt was "a famous naturist
>before entering politics," which would be an... interesting
>alternate reality, but, uh, no.

I mean, I've heard of some presidents doing daily or weekly constitutionals in the Potomac, before the White House had a pool of its own, It's hard to verify, though, because the other meaning of the word "constitutional" shows up a lot more when talking about presidents.

Roosevelt is enough of a health nut to follow that tradition, and unlike, say, Taft, he definitely wouldn't be difficult to watch naked.


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Gryphonadmin
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Oct-17-20, 06:41 PM (EST)
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15. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #14
 
   >I mean, I've heard of some presidents doing daily or weekly
>constitutionals in the Potomac, before the White House had a pool of
>its own, It's hard to verify, though, because the other meaning of the
>word "constitutional" shows up a lot more when talking about
>presidents.
>
>Roosevelt is enough of a health nut to follow that tradition, and
>unlike, say, Taft, he definitely wouldn't be difficult to watch naked.

TR did a lot of things while president that would be startling nowadays, including deliberately ditching the Secret Service while galloping a war horse through Rock Creek Park, practicing single stick fighting so vigorously that his sparring partner all but blinded him in one eye, boxing with the ambassadors of foreign powers (imagine all the falling out of monocles if something like that happened nowadays), and making no secret of the fact that he carried a gun himself rather than leaving that sort of thing to his armed security detail, but I've never heard of him swimming naked in the Potomac. Not that I wouldn't believe it if I did! As you say, he was That Kind of Guy. But I haven't heard of it. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Terminus Est
Member since Nov-5-04
510 posts
Oct-17-20, 09:04 PM (EST)
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18. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #0
 
   >throwing shade at the Draculs

One wonders if, in this timeline, Vlad III has a son named Adrian who decided to give his father's ways the proverbial (and literal, if you follow the animation) finger.

Or perhaps... a daughter? Hmm.


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Gryphonadmin
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Oct-17-20, 09:07 PM (EST)
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19. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #18
 
   >>throwing shade at the Draculs
>
>One wonders if, in this timeline, Vlad III has a son named Adrian who
>decided to give his father's ways the proverbial (and literal, if you
>follow the animation) finger.
>
>Or perhaps... a daughter? Hmm.

I can't address the clan's current standing, but I will say that we'll hopefully be learning a bunch about the origins of the Scarlet-Dracul feud shortly (for which read, in Act VI).

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Terminus Est
Member since Nov-5-04
510 posts
Oct-17-20, 09:09 PM (EST)
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20. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #19
 
   You may consider me intrigued, good sir.


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Zemyla
Member since Mar-26-08
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Oct-29-20, 02:22 AM (EST)
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21. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #0
 
   >made on a base of troll fat - As you might imagine, given how
>rare and hard to kill trolls are, this is a very expensive
>ingredient.

I would have thought that killing a troll would remove some of the magic in it, and thus troll fat would be harvested from a living specimen, sort of a "catch and release" operation like gathering blood from horseshoe crabs.


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Sofaspud
Member since Apr-7-06
331 posts
Oct-29-20, 05:27 PM (EST)
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22. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #21
 
   >I would have thought that killing a troll would remove some of the
>magic in it, and thus troll fat would be harvested from a living
>specimen, sort of a "catch and release" operation like gathering blood
>from horseshoe crabs.

Oh, well, that's horrifying.

--sofaspud
--either one


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Astynax
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Oct-29-20, 05:33 PM (EST)
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23. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #22
 
   >Oh, well, that's horrifying.
>

It certainly would be for the troll, since they are usually depicted as at least semi-intelligent if not fully sentient but wicked beings.


-={(Astynax)}=-
"This Space For Rent"


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Gryphonadmin
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Oct-29-20, 05:41 PM (EST)
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24. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #23
 
   For the record, my thought at the time was of the "troll fat" crafting ingredient from Skyrim, which is in fact a drop from dead trolls. On the other hand, the other scenario presented here would probably make it even more expensive.

(Remilia the Elder also used troll blood in her healing potions, assuming what she told Remilia the Younger, and she in turn told Gryphon in TTW Act VI, was true. It's like using the whole buffalo, I guess.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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The Traitor
Member since Feb-24-09
1015 posts
Oct-29-20, 06:55 PM (EST)
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26. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #24
 
   Now this makes me think of some poor sod who's working as an Itinerant Troll Liposuctionist. Just some stumpy little bloke in a brown suit and bowler hat with a squashed nose and the kind of thousand-yard stare of a man who has had A Worse Day Than You. His name is Hubert, because of course it is. He has seen things and done things with gigantic, foul-smelling trolls that defy description. He made his own special extractor out of a fluted biscuit cutter, a length of garden hose, and a bicycle pump. He speaks twelve languages and can tell doctors where it hurts in a further twenty-six. He has broken literally every bone in his body at one time or another, including the little ones in the ears which are quite difficult to do. He drinks for free in every public house (at least those frequented and run by people who are, shall we say, in the know about supernatural affairs) from Arbroath to the Crimean peninsula, mostly because every barman in the know knows that people like Hubert have suffered enough. Then he tells them he deals especially with troll parts, and then the barman takes down the really expensive bottle of something pungent and brain-destroying and also asks if he would like a hug.

...

I think this got away from me a bit.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

I don't know what Gryphon would do upon meeting someone like Hubert. Possibly apologize.


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Verbena
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Oct-29-20, 07:40 PM (EST)
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27. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #24
 
   This reminds me of a super obscure reference. The Rings of Regeneration in one of the D&D games, I want to say Baldur's Gate 2, have a description saying they're hollow and have troll blood or somesuch inside.


------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge


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rwpikul
Member since Jun-22-03
207 posts
Oct-29-20, 06:44 PM (EST)
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25. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #23
 
   >>Oh, well, that's horrifying.
>
>It certainly would be for the troll, since they are usually depicted
>as at least semi-intelligent if not fully sentient but wicked beings.

In the Pathfinder setting there are troll diviners who use self-aruspicina to tell the future. That's right, they disembowel themselves and look at how things fall out.

It wouldn't shock me for some settings to have trolls who are all "you'll give me 100 gold crowns for my liver? You're on, how many do you need?"

--
Chakat Firepaw - Inventor & Scientist (Mad)


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Mephronmoderator
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Oct-29-20, 08:21 PM (EST)
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28. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #25
 
   LAST EDITED ON Oct-29-20 AT 08:21 PM (EDT)
 
>It wouldn't shock me for some settings to have trolls who are all
>"you'll give me 100 gold crowns for my liver? You're on, how many do
>you need?"

I started writing a D&D gameworld where trolls were bred by illithids for two purposes: porters and trail rations.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"


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rwpikul
Member since Jun-22-03
207 posts
Oct-31-20, 03:51 PM (EST)
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30. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #28
 
   >>It wouldn't shock me for some settings to have trolls who are all
>>"you'll give me 100 gold crowns for my liver? You're on, how many do
>>you need?"
>
>I started writing a D&D gameworld where trolls were bred by illithids
>for two purposes: porters and trail rations.

Canned troll, just remember to eat the whole thing once you open it. 100g, serves up to 8, 12 if you are fast with a knife.

--
Chakat Firepaw - Inventor & Scientist (Mad)


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Peter Eng
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1729 posts
Oct-30-20, 03:03 AM (EST)
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29. "RE: Gallian Gothic Book 2"
In response to message #21
 
   LAST EDITED ON Oct-30-20 AT 03:04 AM (EDT)
 
>I would have thought that killing a troll would remove some of the
>magic in it, and thus troll fat would be harvested from a living
>specimen, sort of a "catch and release" operation like gathering blood
>from horseshoe crabs.

The problem is that gathering blood is relatively non-invasive, and horseshoe crabs are not generally capable of ripping out a human's guts with their claws. In comparison, gathering troll fat is going to be invasive, and trolls are not only capable of disemboweling a human, they consider it to be a reasonable action.

Peter Eng
--
To be fair, some trolls prefer decapitating humans to disembowelment.


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