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[mansuetus]

Audentes fortuna iuvat.

Does fortune favors us, Tranquility?

Caesar himself was quite devoted to boldness and fortune; alea jacta est he said and the goddess of fortune favored him for many years.

in the end, she did not. it is a tricky thing, fortune and quite a riddle to guess.

[ that aside ]

An assistance is needed! For baking a cake to a friend whom I favor greatly and who, I decided, celebrates his birthday today.

Comments

text;

[mansuetus]

that it is good enough to understand the first is already worth noting.

The die has been cast, that is the meaning. these were the words of Caesar as he entered the land to take Rome.

text;

[thebreakingwave]

I'm not sure I get it, but I'll think on it a bit and see if I can figure out what he meant.

As for cakes, I'm not much help. I've made them from a mix, but never from scratch.

text;

[mansuetus]

do you believe in it? fortune? Caesar believed it is on his side. and if it is, then the fate was sealed and set in stone.

a mix? what does that mean? how does one make a cake out of a mix?

[thebreakingwave]

I'm not sure. I think that maybe fate gives us a certain number of options and that by choosing or not choosing, we narrow those choices further until there's only one course of action. I don't know if that's actually 'fate' because I don't think there's some outside force pushing us to do things.

A cake mix is a box that contains pre-measured parts of flour and flavour and baking powered. Usually you just need to add egg or oil to the powder and then bake it.

[mansuetus]

then if there is fate and if it truly gives us choices, do you think it favors a certain choice over the other?

it is already made? I learn odd things about the art of cooking on the ship. I never quite heard of this concept before.

[thebreakingwave]

No. For something to favour something else, it has to be alive and think.

The powder that makes up most of the cake, all the dry parts, is already mixed up, but the cake itself isn't baked.

[mansuetus]

ah! I suppose that is why Caesar called it the goddess of fortune. and well after him, we pray to God to give us the same fortune.

almost like magic!

[thebreakingwave]

I don't really know much at all about Roman gods, but I suppose so.

It's no more like magic than having bubbles and clean clothing when you mix soap and water. Which, come to think of it, might be more like magic than a box of cake mix. I know how a box of cake mix works, but not how soap cleans things. I know that it does, but now how it is, is what I mean.

[mansuetus]

then perhaps anything that we cannot quite understand is magic to us? but I find it odd to say now that I have seen magic at work, to be truthful. I would never have believed it before.

[thebreakingwave]

Even magic has rules and can be understood.

[mansuetus]

I was told once that one cannot quite make something out of nothing, even with magic.

[ one of the lessons of magic taught to her by one Sirius Black. ]

[thebreakingwave]

It's true. You always need a base for your work.

[mansuetus]

You are able of magic then? of the spell words and the wondrous happenings? Some in my Rome would name it a dark force, a blasphemous one. I have come to know better since my arrival here.

[thebreakingwave]

I'm a wizard.

I can understand why they might not approve of it, but in my experience, magic is just like any other tool. You can use it for good or ill.

[mansuetus]

A wizard! the third one I have met here. Your name?

[thebreakingwave]

I'm Harry. And yourself?

[mansuetus]

Harry. And I am Lucrezia Borgia; a pleasure.

[thebreakingwave]

Likewise.

Good luck with your cake!

[mansuetus]

thank you! if I shall ever find cake mix I shall know what to do with it and it would be because of your help.