Send these around to your fellow RPers at any time :)

______________________________________________________

Table of Runic Futhark, Latin Ciphers and Cryptic Alphabets MS 17 folio 5v St. John’s

The Glavendrup stone ship and the runestone which forms the end of it. Dating from after 900, the Glavendrup stone ship and runestone is located on the island of Funen, Denmark.

The runestone ends in a curse to discourage any tampering with the stone, and is accompanied by a series of standing stones laid out in the shape of a ship. Thought to reflect a belief that the deceased had to make a voyage in the afterlife, this practice goes back to the Iron Age.

Here is a translation of the runestone (DR 209) via the Scandinavian Runic-text Database:

"Ragnhildr placed this stone in memory of Alli the Pale, priest of the sanctuary, honourable þegn of the retinue.

Ragnhildr placed this stone in memory of Alli, priest of the Sølve, honourable þegn of the sanctuary-retinue.

Alli’s sons made this monument in memory of their father, and his wife in memory of her husband. And Sóti carved these runes in memory of his lord. Þórr hallow these runes.

A warlock be he who damages(?) this stone or drags it (to stand) in memory of another.”

“What of it?” he spat. Fabian’s immediate defensiveness only riled him up further. “You knew and you never thought of telling me? Why? And don’t say it was because you didn’t think it was important. That’s fucking rubbish!”

Gideon wasn’t someone to get angry too easily. That was usually Fab’s job. Gid was the more level-headed twin (if only by comparison) but if he did get upset it was bad. Especially when it involved his twin. They only really fought about once or twice a year but those fights were always the worst. They’d yell and occasionally even hex each other. There were always one or two pieces of furniture that paid the price.

As he accused his brother of keeping things from him, it suddenly occured to Gideon how ridiculous this was, how hypocritical. How many things hadn’t he told Fabian? ‘I was this far from obliviating you. From erasing every single memory of me from your mind, just so you could be safe. But I was too selfish to go through with it. I pretend to be fine, but really, I’m not. I had a baby, Fab. I was going to be a dad but some cruel higher power decided that it wasn’t meant to live. I never told you about that. Why the fuck didn’t I tell you?’

He also realised that the article was only a small part of why he was angry at his twin. It had merely been the last straw that finally got him to lose it. This was about something else entirely, something that hurt way more than Fab not telling him that his ex-girlfriend was getting married.

"Why do you care, huh? If you were meant to be together, she wouldn’t have chucked you, would she?"

It was a testament to how angry he was that he didn’t even regret it. He almost felt vindicated…satisfied by the flash of pain on his brother’s face. He was sick and tired of being the culprit. Of making himself the scapegoat for everything that went wrong, of the guilt he tried to handle. Of his brother adding more. Gideon was acting as if it was his bloody fault! As if telling him about this stupid announcement would’ve somehow reverted time, sent them back, stopped the wedding. Bollocks.

“But no! No, I’m obviously the villain here, for Merlin’s sake! How dare I hold off, try to think of how to tell you? Spare my brother’s feelings? But fine. You want honesty? Here it is. She’s married. There! Happy? You spend years pining over her, pretending you didn’t, doing fuck all about it…what’d you expect? Yes, I knew! I’m your twin, you wanker, of course I saw it! I saw how much you loved her! What should I’ve done? Hmm? I’d cut out my own heart, Gid, before breaking yours. So pardon me for shutting up and hoping for the best.”

And then came the name-calling.

“I’m the liar? Really? ‘I’m fine,’ yeah? The lie cuts both ways, you hypocritical prat.” Fabian was done with this. Pretending to be something he wasn’t to spare his brother’s feelings. “But yeah, fine. I’m depressed! There. I said it. Is that what you want to hear? I can’t sleep. I rarely eat. I smoke as much as you do. And I drink. I drink like a bloody fish, just to get through the day! I’m a failure and a disappointment and complete and utter rubbish as a brother, yeah. But at least I don’t waste my life shagging anything that moves, suffering in silence over someone I’ll never have. You could’ve got her back. Done something! But you didn’t. Consistently and constantly you nagged over me, pressing me on my life, hovering over me and Molly like a Beater over a Bludger. And here we are, and there she is. You blew off your own life, for what? For an alcoholic brother? What do you want me to say, Gid? I'm sorry I'm so fucked up? That I ruined your life?”

He could feel the words coming, wanting to choke them down before he passed the point of no return. Everything he’d ever done, he’d done to spare Gideon’s feelings. Hide his suffering to spare his brother the blame and the hurt he knew would follow. But forced sobriety hadn’t set him up well for this moment. Between the unexpected attack, the weight of everything he’d been hiding up until that point, and the realization that even Gid, the one person who’d always had his back, saw him for what he was, he couldn't bring himself to hold back. His brother prided himself on keeping his family intact. On pushing him back on course, back on the broom whenever he had to. But Fabian’d fallen too far this time. He’d failed his brother, like his brother’d failed him. And as he shouted at his twin, his other half, his best friend and unconditional support system, he knew there was no going back.