Grrl Power #1182 - The dark, luxurious arts (Patreon)

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Black honey with gold in it is totally something I can see being put on, I don't know, upscale baklava. Maybe even the saffron, (a subtle earthy-sweet flavor profile with a tinge of bitterness on the tongue with delicate floral and honey notes), and the frankincense (an orange-lime taste.) The myrrh? Maybe not so much. It comes from the Arabic word "murr" for bitter. A tinge of bitterness is okay, especially if it's swamped in sweet. If it tastes like you're chewing on a non-chewable tylenol, then probably don't eat it.

I like Sydney's logic of "it didn't say, so it probably doesn't matter." I mean, maybe? But more likely it's like a recipe for fried eggs not mentioning that you need eggs because everyone knows you need eggs. But honey, to me, does seem like it might have that biological/possibly mana conductive property that occultists seem to get out of blood. But if "it came from a living thing" is the only requirement, then presumably any bodily fluid would work, as well as tree sap or grape juice. Presumably the material used, as Sydney posits, has some effect on the nature of the summoning, and you wouldn't want to summon an Opulence Demon using diaper squeezings. Still, that's a pretty wild swing for Sydney, going all in on those materials without asking anyone about it. I figure that's like a... $2,500 to $3,000 summoning circle, minimum? I have no idea how far you could stretch an ounce of powdered gold mixed in with honey.

Oh, and if you've ever wondered why Sydney's pop culture knowledge extends well beyond her generation, this is why. Honestly it's a little hard to get kids born these days interested in proper, old-ass sci-fi. Some of it holds up, sure, but like O.G. Doctor Who? Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of solid writing, but so much of that stuff is shot like a stage play, with a long segments of dialog shot with minimal cuts, and the special effects are not so special anymore. Especially the chroma-keyed matting. Yikes. Some of that stuff looks like they cut out the matting elements with scissors made of static. That's why Sydney Sr. knew to start Jr. off early on the classics so she didn't grow up spoiled on made for streaming series that cost $58 million per episode. Imagine showing a kid who grows up on stuff like that something like the BBC's I, Claudius. Fairly stellar performances across the board including Patrick Stewart, Brian Blessed and Derek Jacobi, but it's basically a play with a camera aimed at the stage. Yes, the camera is fairly mobile, but you get my point. No "flying on a dragon" POV shots, armies of thousands massing for attack, or for that matter, backgrounds that aren't literally theater backdrops.