#twisted gold

[icaroif]

Chapter 2 is out!

Chapter two is out! Exactly a year after the first, which at the very least is an amusing consistency. This update adds over 40,000 words, doubling the length of the demo!

 I’ve stared for what feels like decades at the words on the screen so I could really use some help spotting inconsistencies (especially with characters!), issues with pacing, places of confusion. I am absolutely overwhelmed with this for a first project, but I am equally determined to continue. I’m a little desperate for feedback so please tell me what you think! If you liked it, tell me why. If you didn’t, tell me what. If you gave it a shot but it failed to grab you attention let me know where and why if you can!

 I hope things start to come together strongly for this chapter and you enjoy it as much as I did writing it.

I’ve a few more in-depth thoughts about a few things I could use suggestions and help with and I’ll post those in a little while.

 In the meantime I hope you have had a happy new year and enjoy the story!

-Icaro

DEMO

Things to expect in this chapter: Two (2) fights. Three (3) new ROs. A lot of walking. The calasso being cute. More worldbuilding! And more!

[ryllen]

"Don't u know what u're asking me with these?

'Abandon the sea, and stay on land'"

"Are you sure you know~ what u're getting into, Trey-san?"

[x] [x] [x]

[marrr444]

Some of you have never married a girl you thought you didn't love to protect her reputation then realized you were actually always madly in love with her but she had run off to Paris with your best friend who was also in love with her and your dad didn't let you go to Paris because your little sister had run off to bring back from the dead her ghost boyfriend with the help of a crazy-looking immortal purple-eyed man and it shows.

[marzipanandminutiae]

giant bags of thread collected by old ladies over their lifetimes and never used, then donated to antique shops or sold on FB Marketplace, save me

image source

protect and preserve me, immense ziplock bags full of 50 years' "oh but I have to have the EXACT SHADE of this fabric even though I'll never use 300 yards of thread!"

("Marzi why not buy new thread?" 99% of it is plastic and finding more than a handful of colors in cotton thread is incredibly rare in brick-and-mortar stores. let alone thread in fibers besides polyester and cotton, or buttonhole twist)

("come on, now, Marzi- THREAD can't possibly make you sweat more or catch fire and stick to your skin while burning, and isn't that your reasoning for using only natural-fiber fabrics?" listen. Irrational Brain Like When Zero Plastic. don't @ me)

[skittikyu]

what a jax@$$

[rakiah]

Funny fic prompt: the teachers using Vil to lure Leona into good grades.

Essentially the teachers realize that Vil is the one person who can get Leona to do shit with minimal complaining and Trein, the guy who vowed not to retire until Leona's graduates, starts plotting.

Cue surprise third year class reorganization where Leona and Vil conveniently end up in the same class.

Leona is so smitten with Vil that he forgets to suppress the lion instinct of following his queen around and ends up in the classrooms where he needs to be. Vil also constantly nags Leona to do his work and, once again, Leona loves his queen too much to say no.

The pair catch on real quick curtesy of Trein's knowing smiles sent their way. Vil is absolutely for this plan while Leona is cursing his cat instincts. Though it comes at the cost of Vil being trapped as a pillow for hours on end constantly pampering Leona once class is over.

This is a wonderful and funny prompt that I’ll be glad to put in a full long comic! So, maybe the next one after my ongoing (о´∀`о)

[oryou-condred]

robes

[suntails]

🐺⚔️

[mellosdrawings]

Ok, another self-indulgent coz I'm weak to some meme redraw and this one was fun.

[glitteringstardust]

👑 evil queen/pomefiore-inspired cookies by yuyu's sugar art

[bowtiesarecool11]

The Devil's Chord

S14 E02

[icaroif]

Found a bug when the caravan bandits show up. Choosing "protect your friends" keeps looping back to the same choice

Fixed! Thank you!

[dinoari]

Your left hand or your right?

[letitbehurt]

Love a Caretaker who is technically awful, and about to do something undeniably illegal or amoral, but comes across an injured Whumpee instead.

Maybe Whumpee’s just run from a fight they couldn’t win and they’re bleeding out, hardly able to stand up on their own, and Caretaker is a lot of things but they’re not a monster, they won’t just leave Whumpee there to die. But they will be complaining about how heavy Whumpee is all the way to the hospital.

[nocturnal-stims]

🦋 zarin.artist on IG

[youryurigoddess]

Maggie’s pendants and good omens

Yes, you’ve read it right. This post is going to deal with some literal good omens, not just title drop! But first things first, let’s take a closer look at the topic of this analysis.

A toucan

The top necklace is a lovely design involving a crowned toucan — believed to be a messenger of gods able to travel between the spiritual and the physical world, often associated with rain and rainbow (a Christian symbol of divine love, grace, and mercy, a reminder of the covenant between God and humanity to spare the latter from future trials like the Flood) — encircled by a gold band (a symbol of infinity, eternal love and promise) spun by a small butterfly (a symbol of transformation, hope, and rebirth). All three symbols combined seem to deliver a divine message of hope for rebirth, possibly resurrection, and the eternal life. Very fitting in the context of the Second Coming.

The fact that toucans were revered by the native South Americans as rainbringers strengthens the symbolic meaning of another type of bird we can spot on Maggie’s clothes in the very first episode, as her character introduction — a swallow. Swallows flying low are also believed to be harbingers of rain and bad weather. If you see one close to Earth or a building, it means that there’s a storm — or a certain biblical tempest — on the horizon.

In Ancient Greece and Rome swallows were representing Aphrodite, goddess of love. In Christianity they were considered to be of God and symbolized hope, awakening, and revival of life as messengers of spring and protectors from winter colds. Also helped Jesus on the Cross — according to a Christian legend, a group of swallows was supposed to take out the thorns from the Crown of Thorns and alleviate His Passion on the Cross. Humans banding together in the name of good have been a big theme in the series ever since The Them made an appearance, and from what we already know about the unpublished Good Omens sequel, we can assume that Jesus is going to take the spotlight in the upcoming season.

Maggie definitely attracts sudden inexplicable weather changes, like a thunderstorm with weirdly localized lightning strikes or a sudden downpour. And we’re still waiting for some vavooming (and the following happy ending) to happen in S3.

A heart with an eye

Now, the more nuanced clue hidden in the bottom necklace. I know that some of us were trying to tackle the concept of Maggie’s eye in a heart pendant suggesting her Masonic connotations, but this symbol (or the Eye of Providence in general) isn’t strictly Masonic, it isn’t even limited only to Judeo-Christian art. And while it is used a lot in Christian iconography, we should focus on a very specific example of it already referenced in the show.

Buckle up, we’re making a parachute dive into S1.

It seems like our old friend, Agnes Nutter, still has our backs.

Prophecy 4020:

Let the wheel of fate turne, let harts enjoin, there are othere fyres than mine; when the whirl wynd whirls, reach oute one to another.

If you look closely at the bottom right corner of this frame, you will see that as an illustration for the above prophecy the production team chose a 1611 engraving titled The Minde should have a fixed Eye On Objects, that are plac’d on High first found in Gabriel Rollenhagen’s Nucleus emblematum selectissimorum.

In 1635 it was published in A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne Quickened With Metrical Illustrations, both Morall and Divine, Etc by George Wither with the accompanying hymn:

A Heart, which bore the figure of an Eye

Wide open to the Sunne; by some, was us'd,

When in an Emblem, they would signifie

A Minde, which on Celestiall Matters mus'd:

Implying, by the same, that there is nought

Which in this lower Orbe, our Eyes can see,

So fit an Object for a manly thought,

As those things, which in Heav'n above us be.

God, gave Mankinde (above all other Creatures)

A lovely Forme, and upward-looking Eye,

(Among the rest of his peculiar Features)

That he might lift his Countenance on high:

And (having view'd the Beauty, which appeares

Within the outward Sights circumference)

That he might elevate above the Sphæres,

The piercing Eye, of his Intelligence.

Then, higher, and still higher strive to raise

His Contemplations Eyes, till they ascend

To gaine a glimpse of those eternall Rayes,

To which all undepraved Spirits tend.

For, 'tis the proper nature of the Minde

(Till fleshly Thoughts corrupt it) to despise

Those Lusts whereto the Body stands inclin'd;

And labour alwayes, upward to arise.

Some, therefore, thought those Goblins which appeare

To haunt old Graves and Tombes, are Soules of such,

Who to these loathsome places doomed were,

Because, they doted on the Flesh too much.

But, sure we are, well-minded Men shall goe

To live above, when others bide below.

And hey, guess what 4020, i.e., the number of the prophecy, symbolizes in Strong’s Concordance? Periergazomai, a Greek word meaning “to waste one's labor about something” — to meddle, going beyond proper boundaries (where a person doesn't belong); to fixate on what others are doing, instead of doing what the person himself is supposed to do.

It appears only once in the Bible:

2 Thessalonians 3:11: We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.

To make things slightly more interesting, in the Hebrew version of Strong’s Concordance 4020 has another meaning — migbaloth, meaning “twisted things, i.e. cords”. Which doesn’t make much sense until we read the actual passage:

Exodus 28:24 and two chains of pure gold, twisted like cords; and you shall attach the corded chains to the settings.

And compare it to the most recent post on the topic published directly by Word of God:

What if all these clues didn’t apply to Maggie and Nina, but Aziraphale and Crowley instead? What if Maggie served as a messenger — consciously or not — just like the toucan, delivering the prophecy to those who need it most?

“When the tempest comes and darkness and great storms, and the dead will leave their graves and walk the Earth once more and there will be great lamentations for the end is near, don’t lose hope, hold hands and look up.”

Basically what Aziraphale and Crowley already did when they performed the 25 Lazarii miracle, only with no interference from Gabriel this time around.

And, if both Strong’s Concordance and Maggie’s personal addition to her second pendant are to be believed, with a wedding band somehow involved in the process.