Vasiliki

“Blossoms unseen so many perished in the great tsunami”
― Sonosuke Takahashi

“Let us see,” said Saint Oswald. “A man in black clothes, with powerful magic and ravens at his command, and the hunting rights of a king. This suggests nothing to you? No apparently it does not. Well, it so happens that I think I know the person you mean. He is indeed very arrogant and perhaps the time has come to humble him a little. If I understand you aright, you are angry because he does not speak to you?”
“Yes.”
“Well then, I believe I shall loosen his tongue a little.”
“What sort of punishment is that?” asked the Charcoal Burner. “I want you to make Blencathra [hill] fall on his head!”
― Susanna Clarke, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories

“Fighting monsters is the easy part. Back home is where the really scary stuff is.”
― N.D. Stevenson, Lumberjanes, Vol. 3: A Terrible Plan

“Liza Hempstock, who had been Bod's friend for the last six years, was different in another way; she was less likely to be there for him when Bod went down to the nettle patch to see her, and on the rare occasions when she was, she would be short-tempered, argumentative and often downright rude.
Bod talked to Mr Owens about this, and after a few moments' reflection, his father said, "It's just women, I reckon. She liked you as a boy, probably isn't sure who you are now you're a young man. I used to play with one little girl down by the duck pond every day until she turned about your age, and then she threw an apple at my head and did not say another word to me until I was seventeen."
Mrs Owens stiffened. "It was a pear I threw," she said, tartly, "and I was talking to you again soon enough, for we danced a measure at your cousin Ned's wedding, and that was but two days after your sixteenth birthday."
Mr Owens said, "Of course you are right, my dear." He winked at Bod, to tell him that it was none of it serious. And then mouthed "Seventeen" to show that, really, it was.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book