Crowley: What's all this about? Build a big boat and fill it with a traveling zoo?
Aziraphale: From what I hear, God's a bit tetchy. Wiping out the human race. Big storm.
Crowley: All of them?
Aziraphale: Just the locals. I don't believe the Almighty's upset with the Chinese. Or the Native Americans. Or the Australians.
Crowley: Yet.
Aziraphale: And God's not actually going to wipe out all the locals. I mean, Noah, up there, his family, and his sons, their wives, they're all going to be fine.
Crowley: But they're drowning everybody else? Not the kids? You can't kill kids.
Aziraphale: Mm-hmm.
Crowley: Well, that's more the kind of thing you'd expect my lot to do.
Aziraphale: Yes, but when it's done, the Almighty's going to put up a new thing, called a "rain bow", as a promise not to drown everyone again.
Crowley: How kind.
Aziraphale: From what I hear, God's a bit tetchy. Wiping out the human race. Big storm.
Crowley: All of them?
Aziraphale: Just the locals. I don't believe the Almighty's upset with the Chinese. Or the Native Americans. Or the Australians.
Crowley: Yet.
Aziraphale: And God's not actually going to wipe out all the locals. I mean, Noah, up there, his family, and his sons, their wives, they're all going to be fine.
Crowley: But they're drowning everybody else? Not the kids? You can't kill kids.
Aziraphale: Mm-hmm.
Crowley: Well, that's more the kind of thing you'd expect my lot to do.
Aziraphale: Yes, but when it's done, the Almighty's going to put up a new thing, called a "rain bow", as a promise not to drown everyone again.
Crowley: How kind.
"A very wicked thing is going to happen to-day," said Lilio. "I overheard the elders of our village talking last night, and this is what they said: 'Let us pierce the dyke along the River Banewater. The river will widen the hole, the dyke will fall, and the water will flood the enemy village; it will drown men and women, flood the graveyard and the fields, till the water will be level above them, and nothing but a lake to show where the enemy village has been. But our fields are higher, and our village lies on a height, and so no harm will come to us.' And then they really went out with a great ram to pierce the dyke secretly and at dead of night. But, daddy," continued Lilio, "I know that our fields are not so high, and I know that the water will overflow them too, and before the night is over there will be a lake where our two villages used to be."
— "Reygoch"
But they had scarcely gone a very little distance, when the whole pond rose with a frightful roar, and streamed out over the open country. The fugitives already saw death before their eyes, when the woman in her terror implored the help of the old woman, and in an instant they were transformed, she into a toad, he into a frog. The flood which had overtaken them could not destroy them, but it tore them apart and carried them far away. When the water had dispersed and they both touched dry land again, they regained their human form, but neither knew where the other was; they found themselves among strange people, who did not know their native land.
28 days of rain
Flashfloods in February
Back in our boats again
While all the world is sinking
Flashfloods in February
Back in our boats again
While all the world is sinking
— Tears for Fears, "Closest Thing to Heaven"
At this point, some of you may be thinking: Hey, a guy escapes a big flood and floats to safety while the rest of the wicked human race drowns. Wasn't there another story like that? Some dude named Noah?
Yeah, well, every ancient culture seems to have a flood story. I guess it was a pretty massive disaster. Different people remembered it different ways. Maybe Noah and Deucalion passed each other on the sea, and Deucalion was like, "An ark! Two animals of every kind! Why didn't we think of that?"
And his wife Pyrrha would be like, "Because they wouldn't fit in this chest, ya moron!"
But I'm just guessing.
Yeah, well, every ancient culture seems to have a flood story. I guess it was a pretty massive disaster. Different people remembered it different ways. Maybe Noah and Deucalion passed each other on the sea, and Deucalion was like, "An ark! Two animals of every kind! Why didn't we think of that?"
And his wife Pyrrha would be like, "Because they wouldn't fit in this chest, ya moron!"
But I'm just guessing.
—Percy Jackson hangs a lampshade on the trope, Percy Jackson's Greek Gods
God: Noah, what's de mos' rain you ever had 'round dese parts?
Noah: Well, de water come down fo' six days steady last April an' de ribber got so swole it bust down de levee up 'bove Freeport. Raise cain all de way down to de delta.
God: What would you say was it to rain for forty days and forty nights?
Noah: I'd say dat was a complete rain!
Noah: Well, de water come down fo' six days steady last April an' de ribber got so swole it bust down de levee up 'bove Freeport. Raise cain all de way down to de delta.
God: What would you say was it to rain for forty days and forty nights?
Noah: I'd say dat was a complete rain!
