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rhosmeinir · 7 months

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Fictober 2023 #4

Prompt #4 - "Do you even know what this means?"

Fanfiction: Good Omens/The Sandman

Rating: G

Warnings: None

Pairing: Ineffable Husbands/Aziracrow

Other Notes: In which Dream pays Crowley a visit one night. 915 words!

It was a picturesque scene. In the garden of a small cottage, fragrant with fruit-tree flowers and bursting with the colors of their wilder cousins, Crowley and Aziraphale sat at a sturdy, weathered oak table; the kind of table that held as many stories as it had rings, and could bear up under as many plates of cake and dishes of pudding as one could load it with. They were laughing together, Aziraphale chucking behind his serviette so as not to spew crumbs, and Crowley guffawing at his own wit. His eyes were golden-brown and unshaded, and met the tinkling blue of Aziraphale’s without any worry that someone might interrupt them. The weather was perfect: warm and fine, with enough of a soft breeze to stir their many plants gently now and then. A ginger cat was curled up in a vacant chair at the table, but now it yawned, stretched, and leaped lightly into Crowley’s lap. He dropped his hand to stroke the cat, which made its biscuits against his leg as he watched Aziraphale select one from the plate in front of him, and sighed with content.

“Leave me alone, Dream.”

The Crowley standing outside the garden watching the pastoral events within unfold muttered darkly. Next to him, the tall, slight figure all cloaked in black, who had just silently appeared, looked at him mildly.

“This again, Crowley?”

“I said, leave. me. alone.” But Crowley was familiar enough with Morpheus’s silences to know that the Endless wouldn’t vanish just because he said so. He inhaled exasperatedly. “Yes, this again. What, are my dreams not creative enough for you? Not enough variety? Why don’t you go visit Muriel, I’m sure there’s plenty of nonsense there to entertain you.” The faintest of laugh-like sounds escaped Morpheus through his nose, and he shook his head.

“No. Muriel has no need to me tonight.”

“Oh, and I do?”

“Yes.”

Crowley turned away from Morpheus, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. His shoulders hunched of their own accord, and he bit the inside of his cheek hard. I don’t need you you stupid daydream idiot- was the beginning of the stream of profane thought that churned inside Crowley’s mind, but he kept it behind his lips. He did not want to rage. He did not want to fight. And Dream was not stupid. All he wanted was—

“What about this idea occupies you so, angel?”

Like a spooked animal, Crowley jerked around. His face impassive as ever, Morpheus was still watching the scene in the garden. The cat had gone to sleep, and another biscuit had disappeared from the plate.

“Don’t call me that,” Crowley snarled, his fists balling up inside their pockets, “I am not an angel.”

“You were when we met.”

“That was a long time ago, Dream. A lot’s happened since then.” For the first time, Morpheus turned his head to look at Crowley, and meet his eyes.

“I don’t think you ever stopped, really.”

Crowley glowered, but held his counterpart’s void-like gaze. The flickering lights within it reminded him of the stars. They stood like that for a long time, until at last Crowley asked,

“You know what happened to Aziraphale?”

It wasn’t really a question, but Morpheus nodded anyway. Crowley turned to look back at the garden, and its blissfully unaware occupants. It was shortly after Aziraphale had returned to Heaven that Morpheus had begun to appear in his dreams. Not every night, and not every dream, but despite the two beings having known each other since Morpheus had emerged in the Universe, he had never visited Crowley so often before. He was too subtle for it to be a coincidence.

“Well,” Crowley returned uncomfortably to Morpheus’s question, “when I think about what might’ve happened if he hadn’t— if it hadn’t all gone wrong— when I think about what could be, if he came back— …this is what I dream.”

Morpheus was silent again, and this time, it did provoke Crowley.

“Do you even know what this means?!” He burst out, gesturing wildly with an arm at the garden, the cottage, and the cat. The uninterrupted idyll was punctuated by another chorus of laughter from below, followed by the indistinguishable conversation of two voices. “’Course you do,” Crowley subsided, pushing his hands back into his pockets with a slump, “you’ve been around long enough.”

“I have.” Morpheus replied. “I understand.”

Crowley glanced sideways at his companion.

“Yeah, I s’pose you do.”

Silence stretched out again, as they watched the garden together. The wind stirred hair scarlet and black, birds sang, and now and then Morpheus brushed away a fuzzy bee that had become too interested in him. Neither paid any attention to the passage of time, but time did pass in the dream. The air took on a slight chill as the sun began to go down, and below in the garden a lamp was lit, bathing the table in its warmth and light. Glasses were raised, and the ting of glass on glass was unnaturally loud in the twilight. When Crowley spoke, his voice was cracked, and his question encompassed all the questions he yearned to ask, and contained all the multitudes of his joy, pain, and every defiant feeling he had ever felt in the existence he had shared with his lost angel.

“Why?”

Dream of the Endless raised one hand, and laid it on Crowley’s shoulder with the sort of firm, gentle kindness that requires no explanation, and answered.

“Love.”

#fictober23 #fictober #good omens #the sandman #dream of the endless #crowley #ineffable husbands #crowley centric #crossover #gomens #morpheus

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mx-anthony-janthony-crowley · 10 months

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here's my GO2 bingo card!! :D -p&p: pride and prejudice -i got rather carried away doodling the teeny husbands from the opening credits if you couldn't tell -officially @thirteens-pocket-watch approved (plus it helped me with ideas hehe) <3

#good omens season 2 #good omens speculation #good omens tv #good omens #good omens bingo #good omens spoilers #(trying to hit all the tags for anyone trying to avoid this sorta thing before the season dfjhdfhjhfd)#GO2 #ineffable husbands #michael sheen #david tennant #aziraphale #crowley #tumblr really does kill image quality huh #fandom bingo #yes this is very a/c centric but they are consuming my entire brain rn i can't help it 😭😭

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seraphic-sibyl · 9 months

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There are two wolves within you. One of them just came up with a fanfic you desperately need to see, and the other refuses to write it.

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hoarder-of-dragons · 7 months

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Uriel: You know your boyfriend is not going to save you now Aziraphale: Ah well, he's not my boyfriend Heaven, Hell and literally everyone on Earth: HE'S NOT?! Crowley: I'M NOT?!

#Aziraphale: Crowley why are you surprised #Crowley who misunderstood their dates #and literally every interaction b/w them: ngk #good omens #incorrect good omens #good omens spoilers #neil gaiman #good omens season one #season 1 centric #incorrect quotes #ineffable husbands #aziracrow #ineffable partners #aziraphale #anthony j crowley #david tennant #michael sheen #incorrect good omens quotes

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dreameroftheblue · 1 month

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bunch of recent crowley studies + a few doodles from memory; sorting my wing ref folder made me wanna practice some less common poses/angles... so of course they all became God's Favourite Demon™. because he lives in my brain and hands and demands to be released

(listen I know that the wings are meant to be metaphysical/spiritual/etc,, but also. monsterpeople with realistic proportions doing natural sorts of movement will never not be fun lol)

#they each took about an hour except the last one which is more a quick base sketch that I'd like to finish at some point #these guys are so versatile. very enjoy messing with their designs or species or proportions a lil; they lend so well to it ♥#crowley #good omens crowley #good omens #anthony j crowley #wings #feathered wings #fantasy art #art study #winged humanoid #got a few more wing doodles but they're less gomen-centric so I may save those for a study specific post #along with a few featuring Hell's Favourite Angel™ hehe #srsly tho do use references and try out different sorts of poses #it is good for you! 👏👏👏

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aziraphales-library · 2 months

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Hi! I'm very new to reading GO fics and was looking for recs.

I just finished reading "Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach" by Nnm, and it left me on such a fic high I need more. I'd love reading Crowley centered fics with a dash of nutmeg (therapy/emotional introspection), some heart wrenching bits and also a happy ineffable husbands ending. I was wondering if you could point me towards something of the sort?

Thanks in advance, and also thank you for your service to the fandom!

Hello and welcome! If you're new you might want to check out our #fandom favourites tag (of which Demonology and the Tri-Phasic is one). We also have #therapy and #crowley-centric tags, which you may be interested in. Here are some Crowley-centric introspection fics for you that I personally love...

Do You Feel Loved? by mikripetra (T)

Crowley’s smile twists downwards. “So…still in favor of ‘the Great Plan,’ then?” “Exactly!” beams Aziraphale. “She never meant for us to go through with the Apocalypse. She planned it this way from the very Beginning, don’t you see? Everything we’ve done, everything that’s happened- every bit of it was what She intended.” Crowley swallows reflexively. His mouth tastes like ash.

this message is a warning about danger (about love) by darcylindbergh (E)

He knows Aziraphale wonders about it, sometimes. The snake. Crowley’s always careful with it. He’s always careful to make it seem like it should be impressive, to posture and pose and tease; or else he’s careful to make it seem like a joke, to fill it to the brim with bravado and confidence until it’s practically sour on his own tongue, laughing and showing off. He doesn’t ever say that he’s afraid, afterwards, and there’s not really much else to be said.

Sin Pays But Botany Doesn’t by Anonymous (G)

After averting the apocalypse, Crowley is living in his car with a lot of free time on his hands. He posts a YouTube video talking about plants as a joke but finds internet famedom where a punchline should be. Being a YouTube botanist agrees with him, though. He likes talking about plants, and he usually doesn’t find many opportunities to do that outside of YouTube. So, Crowley adopts traveling the world in search of plants to film as a new hobby. Kept in the dark about this new hobby, Aziraphale, who is used to being Crowley’s sole object of attention and is unused to having to compete with anything for Crowley’s time, is curious about where Crowley goes when he’s not in London.

Crowley and His Army of Grandmothers by burnt_oranges (NR)

Crowley had impulsively stopped by Artisan Du Chocolate, the next place on Aziraphale’s meticulously ordered list of chocolatiers to sample, and now Crowley wonders--is it too much? He had bought a hundred fucking pounds’ worth of chocolate, of course it’s too much, but would Aziraphale notice that it was too much? That is the question.

I Only Have Eyes For You by Twilightcitysky (M)

After narrowly escaping execution, Aziraphale and Crowley want to fly under the radar for a while. Worried that performing miracles will reveal their location to their former bosses, they relocate to the country and stop using their powers. Meanwhile, Aziraphale is ready to start moving faster... and Crowley has a secret. Can he keep Aziraphale from realizing what's changed while juggling moving trucks, furniture assembly, inquisitive mediums, attacks of Feng Shui, and the mortifying ordeal of grocery shopping? A fic about moving in together, finding yourself, and finding one another.

- Mod D

#good omens #ineffable husbands #crowley-centric #introspection #mod d

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cannebady · 9 months

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Crowley has a bad habit of being the architect of his own misery.

From what he's sure was Earth's first (and, in his opinion, worst) hangover, to shutting down London's mobile networks only to have to make an urgent call himself, or purchasing the cheapest plant mister and using it in a bluff only to have it leak giving the damn game away, Crowley is frequently frustrated and frequently so at himself.

Now is no different.

He's sitting alone in his car (it still smells like angel and yellow and good lord he didn't know he could be this miserable) with only his plants for company and running through the last few days in his mind and wondering exactly where he cocked the whole thing up.

There was progress, he's sure of it. There were touches, moreso than usual. Hell, he thought he was going to drag the angel off to, well, somewhere, when they were at the pub and he just oh so casually placed his hand over Crowley's useless heart.

He can still feel it, those thick, strong, warm hands that even through layers of fabric felt divine and it made him want things. Tangibly want.

Imminently want.

How was that mere days ago? How had it gone so pear shaped so quickly? He went slow, he did the right things, he tried to protect his angel like he's always done. Well, bugger him for a lark considering how all that turned out.

He knows things now, like the depth of commitment Aziraphale had to the almighty and certainly not to him.

He knows what it's like to love and hate someone in a moment in equal measure. Knows what it's like to have someone awfully close but never further away.

He knows how the angel tastes, the love of his damned pointless, interminable existence, but only when tinged with fury and betrayal and desperation. (It was never supposed to be like that, it wasn't). He knows how soft those lips really are and he knows how those hands would grab him and maybe, in the right circumstances, pull him closer and then maybe-

He wishes he knew less. He'd like to know nothing at present.

But there's nothing for it now, Aziraphale's gone where Crowley can't follow and for the first time in six millenia, Crowley is untethered and entirely alone. Not the kind that protects you but the kind the hollows you out.

He had always promised himself he'd never tell Aziraphale howhe felt, would never break that boundary. Now that he knows how it plays out, he can't help but think he was right, Maggie and Nina be damned.

For the original tempter, the being who brought knowledge to humans and defended that with his entire infernal being, he's currently questioning if this is just one, big, awful joke with him as the natural punchline.

Knowledge, it turns out, is a real heavy burden.

#good omens #crowley #aziraphale #Good omens 2 #Go2 spoilers #Good omens ficlet #My fic #Good omens minific #Crowley-centric #Here be some sad thoughts

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thesherrinfordfacility · 6 months

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LWA: I was reading your conversation with @saryasy, and thinking that perhaps many of the problems we see in the narrative are solved if we ask ourselves, "but why /would/ they have these conversations?" This is not even a matter of character flaws. There are just a number of things that either they have no reason to discuss or they have had no opportunity to discuss, because, in TV!canon, they /have not spent much time together/.

This fandom tends to read Crowley's dialogue assuming that it doesn't contain discrepancies, outright self-contradictions, or ironies--I'm not the first person to notice this by a long shot--resulting in bizarre questions to Gaiman about why, for example, his multiple stories about his Fall don't add up. Answers: a) not as evil as Heaven thinks, not as good as he's making himself out to be, because b) he's an unreliable narrator. Given that S2 makes it canon that, yes, Crowley fought in a legion and wasn't hiding innocently in a corner during the Great War, the arc of the universe isn't bending towards Aziraphale discovering in S3 that Crowley was some sweet boo-boo who got done dirty through no fault of his own, but instead towards Aziraphale discovering that Crowley did something bad enough (hardly epic levels of bad, but bad enough) to disturb his assumptions about Crowley's innate goodness. I would argue that that would be much more important for the final phase of Aziraphale's character arc than "Heaven was unjust to Crowley when he didn't do anything wrong." Aziraphale /already/ knows that Heaven behaves badly; the whole point of his decision to accept the Metatron's offer is that he and Crowley, whom he thinks is good through-and-through, could become the "right people" and remake it to behave well. But what if Crowley really did do something that Aziraphale couldn't reconcile with "goodness"? How would he reconceptualize their relationship going forward?

I go off on that tangent because, as you know from my previous asks, I don't think we are supposed to take Crowley's assertions about their joint past at face value. In S1, Crowley's "How long have we been friends? 6000 years!" can only be taken with a straight face if you believe that Crowley has an extraordinarily shallow definition of friendship. They see each other so intermittently that in 537 AD Aziraphale can't even remember Crowley's name change (even though he flubbed it and then corrected himself immediately in Rome), and their interactions into the nineteenth century, far from being consistently friendly, let alone romantic, are all over the place. Crowley's conversation opener at Golgotha, "come to gloat?", is no better than Aziraphale's "so this is all your demonic work!" later on, and Aziraphale is so cold at the beginning of 1862 that I still wonder if something happened not explained by 1827. Even in 1601, when they've become close enough that Aziraphale can bring out the puppy-dog eyes, it's clear from Crowley's dialogue that their meetings are clandestine--they both expected to hide in the crowd at the Globe--and it's left ambiguous how many of their trade-offs in the Arrangement were arranged in person or by letter. In Book!Canon, where there's comparatively little surveillance, they appear to have had more in the way of casual interaction, but it's telling that the way that Crowley phrases it to himself in free indirect discourse is "an enemy for six thousand years now, which made him a sort of friend" (39). Gaiman's rewrite for the script eliminates the qualifiers and the ambivalent sense of distance, but the historical episodes ironize TV!Crowley's confidence.

And again, Crowley's attempt at a marriage proposal in S2 runs aground on multiple self-contradictions. We have just watched him flub a "Leave it to me/I got this" for the second time, in a way that was much less comical than the first (when the Bentley blew up), and his hyperbolic rewrite of Aziraphale's "we go back a long time" once again projects a consistency to their "team" contradicted by the combination of S1 and S2 historical episodes. As I said above, they don't even manage to be consistently friendly until quite late in the game. Neither of them appears to have an emotional "ah-ha!" moment until the twentieth century (definitely 1941 in Aziraphale's case, arguably 1967 in Crowley's). They haven't been concealing their feelings for each other for "their existence," because the feelings as such appear to be recent. The fandom likes to pity Crowley because Aziraphale took so long to fall in love, but if you start to break down what has been canonically represented about their relationship, a) Crowley wasn't in love either and b) to circle back to my opening point, their actual, one-on-one contacts with each other are relatively infrequent until the birth of the Antichrist. (That lines up with Book!Canon.) Crowley reimagines their relationship in a way that erases the inconvenient gaps, moments of dissension and outright hostility, and so forth. In his narrative, it is not a relationship that he and Aziraphale have to /make/, but something that /always has been/; he invents a stable past that they only need to confirm, rather than an uncertain future that they need to create.

So, here's the thing: even when we /do/ see them together, it's not an occasion on which they can have a serious personal conversation about, say, the Fall (the Flood? the Crucifixion? 1793? either 1862 or 1967? S1 1941? even in 1601, Crowley packs off immediately after they swap Edinburgh for /Hamlet/), or they have entirely different conversations that aren't personal (1827). Only Job and S2 1941 approach more profound personal questions, and S2 1941 still involves a lot of tap-dancing. We know they see each other outside of canon (Aziraphale's response to the miracle chime in the sushi restaurant suggests that there wouldn't have been anything untoward about Crowley appearing), but they don't seem to do so frequently, let alone live out of each other's pockets. Have they even racked up the equivalent of a couple of human years in each other's company before the Antichrist arrives? No wonder they're still in limerence! Moreover, they are still not having the aforementioned important conversations because neither of them thinks they need to. Crowley's whole schtick in their coffeeshop conversation, for example, is that he knows Aziraphale perfectly, and he therefore completely whiffs the thing that they absolutely need to be talking about (Aziraphale using him as a substitute for reporting to Heaven). But since, despite Crowley's protestations to the contrary, their relationship as a developing connection is uncharted territory, they don't know what they don't know until they hit their Mr. Darcy/Lizzie Bennet moment at the end of S2.

LWA hello hi good day to you!!!✨ im not going to pretend that this response is in any way coherent because im now once again firmly ensconced in the deepest depths of GO brainrot where i belong (thanks be to rob wilkins, madman) but lets give it a shot -

(for anyone else, LWA is referring to this rb here)

im not going to repeat everything you've said on how their relationship has developed through time (because let's be honest, it would only be regurgitating what you've already beautifully laid out in this and other asks) but it's so incredibly on point - looking back through their interactions, it's still very much a dance around each other, but one where they're steadily stepping closer and closer towards each other. they do not even start off on the same page as acquaintances, let alone having immediately fallen in love. the pre-fall scene is blatantly one-sided, as is then the eden scene (in the reverse), and then they basically just flit around each other until 1793, hopping in and out of each other's orbit tentatively and inconsistently.

they take digs at each other, snap at each other, and butt heads over their respective points of view on the great plan. as you say, job is arguably the closest they get to any actual cohesion between the two of them, but a) even then, it's done with some air of reluctance and hesitancy, and b) it appears to have sufficiently unnerved them both that they then, once again, break apart for 2533 years until golgotha (as canon shows us, anyway). there are definitely elements of fascination and intrigue between them, i don't think that can be denied, but like i said before - they're barely acquaintances this early on in their journey, let alone romantic interests or even friends.

so yeah - in all of this, where is there even the inclination or opportunity to truly talk to each other about anything personally meaningful? there isn't. and besides that, they conflate knowing each other for millennia with actually knowing the other person. to my mind, they don't - they know what they think they know about the other, the image of them that they have built in their heads, and conveniently ignore or shrug off any instances where they do or say something that doesn't conform to that image. this is crux of final fifteen for me, in terms of why they split apart - not any ulterior, external motive, but because they've been confronted with the fact that they do not know who the other truly is.

and i think a lot of that is a mess of their own individual makings. looking at the fall specifically, and the trauma that crowley is perceived to have suffered as a result. on this, i have a few specific thoughts, because i still do not think aziraphale was ever in a position where he would question the fall where crowley is concerned:

aziraphale does not know how falling works. we see this in job; he genuinely thinks that losing his angelic status is as simple as being escorted into hell by a demon. it doesn't even appear to cross his mind that the act would be more violent or sudden, even if just figuratively. crowley describes to the audience whilst drunk (and therefore id wager is more truthful than not, albeit not the whole truth) that he dived bombed into a lake of sulphur, but the story he gives aziraphale is a complete contradiction of this:

he tells aziraphale in 1862 that he "sauntered vaguely downwards"... !!!!!!!!!!! that is, as far as i can recall in TV!canon, the only thing he reveals to aziraphale about his fall altogether! he hammers home to aziraphale, specifically in 2019, that he wouldnt lie to him, not at least now at this stage in their friendship (ie. he proves in job that he has lied multiple times, but this is at a point where he has no reason to trust aziraphale, plus - in admitting that he lied, he is in fact telling the truth...) so why would aziraphale question this? why would he ever consider that crowley may not be wholly honest? it isn't until the final fifteen, given crowley's vehemence about being restored, that aziraphale would even consider that there is something more personal going on

this is a bit of a stretch, but we know that aziraphale has seen crowley's wings - we know from the book that demon wings are described as not being altogether dissimilar from angel ones, and are in fact better groomed. visually, we see this in the show too; they are black, but are whole and complete. there are no physical indications of pain, torture, or pain in the aftermath of the fall (ie. eden, although there is the caveat to be duely acknowledged that there is an indeterminate amount of time between the two points in the narrative), as crowley in this respect does not appear to bear any physical or indeed metaphysical scars

and lastly, just on a general point. crowley is incredibly nonchalant about hell in general; even when threatened with literal Bad Things in 1941, he brushes it off as if it's nothing. aziraphale knows that hell is bad, and crowley doesn't negate this, but he also outwardly underestimates hell at multiple points, and never gives any* indication, in front of aziraphale, that he fears them. he also never suggests at any point that he feels anything towards heaven other than derision and condescension - he's fearful of gabriel in eps1 and 5, but not in a way that aziraphale would think has anything to do with the fall; only that gabriel is a wanker (true) and would smite him on sight. aziraphale is by accounts rather gullible (see: not stupid, but sees the best in people), and trusts a little too easily; possible noone more so than crowley.

and then yeah, consideration to be paid that it makes way more sense for there to be a reason for crowley's fall that simultaneously is empathetic because whatever he did was meant with the best of intentions/started off innocently, but then devolved to the point that he made a really objectively awful decision that, when aziraphale finds out, it rearranges everything he thought he knew (rip lucifer theory, you are sorely missed). in this respect, i would have loved to have known what happens between the two below points we see in ep6, that conversation would potentially have been a hoot:

but regardless of the potential character development this poses... it's just more interesting? as the audience?

*now, i lie like a rug here, because for me there is only one point where maybe crowley comes close to admitting anything about the fall and how it affected him, or where the topic is even entertained between the two of them; the bandstand.

i will freely admit that i find this particular bit of dialogue difficult to interpret, but let's have a go - to me, from crowley's perspective after aziraphale 'prays' for god's forgiveness over crowley's words, crowley remarks that being forgiven is forever lost to him as a result of his very nature. he's quick to clarify this last bit - that it's as simple as just being a demon, not because he feels that he is unforgivable. there's very little emotion to be gleaned from this; he says it as a statement of fact, with little to no implication of sadness or wistfulness.

from aziraphale's point of view, this is blatantly false - because whilst god herself may not be able to directly bestow forgiveness on crowley, in crowley's estimations, a) he was an angel once, and that has meaning and holds weight (which crowley immediately rejects as being so long ago that it essentially no longer counts), and b) even if god doesn't, won't, or can't forgive crowley... well, aziraphale can. aziraphale will always see crowley as worthy of forgiveness. he utterly disregards any suggestion or notion that crowley doesn't actually want forgiveness, and chooses instead perhaps to see this as crowley not only being deserving of it, because he is good "through-and-through", but also that he is able to give that forgiveness instead (and does just that in s1 ep4 and the final fifteen, even if that forgiveness is layered with a hearty helping of 'fuck you').

but in terms of how this relates to the fall, and whether aziraphale should have questioned it further? well, yeah, it probably is a point where aziraphale should have thought more critically about what crowley was saying; but crowley doesn't come across as necessarily regretting it. he very quickly dismisses, same as in job, any element of having once been an angel, that it could almost be inferred as a point of pride. aziraphale doesn't see it that way, obviously, and in any case - it is hardly an opportunity to suddenly have a deep conversation about crowley's further thoughts and feelings on the matter... and even if it were, could we be certain that crowley would even engage? is it even appropriate at this point to discuss it, both in the context of the plot (i mean, crowley does then immediately launch into resurrecting the suggestion that aziraphale kill the antichrist 💀), and also their arrangement?

look, my end thought process is that aziraphale has no reason to question crowley about the fall, and his reaction/'trauma' from it. not only are they not close enough emotionally for the overwhelming majority of their narrative, as LWA robustly highlights, but crowley literally lies to aziraphale about his experience/doesn't give any indication beyond nonchalance about the whole thing (to the point that, brass tacks, im not even fully convinced that what crowley solely as a character feels about his fall even is trauma - and isn't instead just pure anger, bitterness, and resentment) and there is arguably no good or appropriate time to address it.

to me, that's like saying that if i had a traumatic incident in my childhood, but i told my best friend that my childhood was idyllic and wonderful, and acted accordingly at all points where we interacted, my best friend should still psychically know that i suffered something terrible...? that, imo, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. there are definitely points where aziraphale should have picked up on issues in crowley's life (being homeless, fear around gabriel, loneliness), im not disputing that, but equally if you downplay your life as something uneventful and "just fine", the person that routinely takes your lies at your word because you assert that you do not - in fact - lie to them, and exclusively endeavours to see the best in you, is not necessarily going to think to challenge it... and tbh, they shouldn't be held accountable for that, either. a relationship is a two-way street, sure, and should be built of reciprocal communication, but crowley keeps blocking the way for aziraphale to even consider doing that.

also, because robyn (@teddybearbutchh) once again is so much smarter than me and i will absolutely not take credit for this:

let's move onto 1862 and get the speculation hat on again.

so, to my mind, the narrative only suggests that crowley and aziraphale were overheard in the graveyard in 1827, particularly the comments about crowley being nice, crowley gets sucked down into hell, and then spat back out again going into 1862. crowley is shaken, makes contact with aziraphale, acts suddenly paranoid about being overheard, and asks for holy water. and aziraphale is miffed upon immediate arrival after the celestial equivalent of being ghosted for 35 years, only to be asked for the very thing that would threaten crowley's existence, putting not only crowley but aziraphale at risk too, and being a huge infringement on the tentative friendship they've built by this point.

and i say friendship because in 1827, aziraphale remarks that the only reason that crowley invites him to the graveyard, whilst they both coincidentally happen to be in edinburgh, is to show him the gabriel statue that would amuse him (and crowley was right - aziraphale is immediately tickled by it) - all indicating on some level that since 1793, they have gotten closer. add to this that crowley brought chocolates to his shop opening in 1800, and i think we can firmly say that 1793 appears to have springboarded a Development in their relationship, something that has been in the works since formalising the arenagement in 1601.

but there are things that contradict this slightly - book!crowley sleeping through most of the 19th century, for instance (except a visit to the loo in 1832). so we can surmise that if the show canon follows this too, crowley was indeed not in hell for as long a time as we'd otherwise infer. but for him to act so paranoid, and scared, and all but beg aziraphale for The Weapon, makes me think that whilst it wasn't a long time, it was a recurring issue. was crowley repeatedly brought down into hell, to report in what he was up to, to ensure he was playing by the rules that we now know exist (the internal code)? they presumably do not know how 'deep' his affiliation with aziraphale runs, given the reaction to their fraternisation in 1941 (and evidence of it being worthy of being brought before the dark council), so to my mind it's moreso that crowley isn't being very demonic. this would support why he suddenly has such adverse reactions to aziraphale's compliments from 1941 onwards. (and says more about possible trauma at the hands of hell, than alternatively at the hands of heaven...)

but in terms of how this relates to aziraphale, and why he is so cold in 1862 - if we consider as i said above that they are indeed getting closer by this point, if crowley they hypothetically turned around to aziraphale at some point between 1827 and 1862 and told him to stay away (again... *deep breath* to protect aziraphale without telling fuck all as to why), possibly even saying something deliberately hurtful to push aziraphale away for good, then aziraphale's behaviour would absolutely make sense. and would give even deeper context to "fraternising?!" / "well, whatever you wish to call it."

another thing that i thought of; furfur's little handy field guide to angels that walk the earth:

now to the best of my knowledge, the illustration of aziraphale is a rework of gustave doré's "an angel appearing to balaam"... let's run with the notion that in the canon that that is the same image; ie. that aziraphale was in fact that angel. i can't find an exact date for the illustration, but id tentatively suggest maybe around the 1850s? 1860s? the book goes up to confirming aziraphale as a bookseller, so we know it's definitely as recent as 1800, in any case. and then this excerpt:

which im definitely not the first to have highlighted is suspiciously well spelt, compared to "AVVOID" literally just above it, and refers to crowley by his chosen name (compared to the scribble remarking that it's detestable that he even did). so, we can assume this probably was indeed crowley that wrote it. but did he write it because hell was scheming some kind of harm on aziraphale in the 1800s? and crowley kept away, rebuffed him, to keep them both safe? only made contact with him when he hit his breaking point, necessitating the holy water? definitely plausible.

right, and then to round off: ive debated internally as to what crowley's 'aha' moment is, as to me it's not hugely clear, but tbh... i think you've answered exactly this when talking about crowley's skewed perception of how long he and aziraphale have been friends. as you go on to say, there's no reason why crowley wouldn't think the same when it comes to loving aziraphale, either. so, i think it's potentially a combination of moments - 1941, 1967, bookshop fire, "to the world", and then all culminating in what nina says to him about "love lives" in ep5. it's not quite the logical, cut-and-dry 'aha' moment that aziraphale has in 1941, but after speaking to nina, i also, same as you, think crowley instead scans back through all of their time together (as limited as it is 💀), and instead thinks, "oh, ive loved him all this time.", when objectively that is not the case at all.

and that's even more awful when you consider what he actually says to aziraphale right at the beginning of the confession:

(paying heed that crowley's confession might have been slightly different had he spoken first... but im not sure it would have been at all.)

because... a lot of this? is not... strictly true, not imo anyway. but the fact that crowley believes it, thinks that they have always been this way, and this confession was intended to just be sealing the deal, the "marriage proposal", as you put it (which after last night's Revelations is now giving me heartburn, thanks LWA💕), on what he now considers to have always been the case, is troubling. and it suddenly makes aziraphale dumbfounded expression made so much more sense... because it doesnt make sense. to my mind, crowley doesn't actually have an 'aha' moment, but confuses what he feels for aziraphale now with what he thinks he's felt all along, and i do wonder how much aziraphale knew that.

#good omens #ask #i also wanted to talk about the bit where aziraphale replaces heaven with crowley bc i feel theres a bit of nuance to discuss there #i dont think its as black and white (ha) as that - plus this response was once again very crowley centric so maybe a topic for another ask?

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danceylancey · 2 months

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CW: MCD, demons, supernatural reference 🙀

Lance didn’t know a lot. He knew nothing about how to build a toaster or how wifi worked, nothing about chemistry and he only just got by with math. He wasn’t logically smart, he was more in tune with people and emotions. But even then, psychologist defiantly knew more than he did.

There was nothing Lance knew that no one else didn’t, especially seen as he told his twin sister everything, no matter how embarrassing.

Except…

Lance never wanted to acknowledge what happened when he was nine and his beloved dog Mitsy died. He didn’t want to believe that the man he saw was real, that his eyes didn’t lie about how the others were so inhuman. He remembered the man’s name only because he kept seeing him in nightmares, remembering his words everything something went wrong,

“Just call out and I’ll be there, I’ll give you anything you want. I’m sure you understand.”

Lance didn’t at first, and when he did he denied it and shoved it down as hard as he could.

But then Hunk got hit. Not just with anything, but a giant metal fist from an armoured Galra that broke his ribs so badly they shattered throughout his lungs and… he didn’t even have much time to gasp and feel fear before his heart bailed out.

Lance was clutching his face, begging him to come back, too scared to try CPR if it was broken ribs that out him there in the first place.

Pidge was screaming and sobbing.

Shiro was standing in shock.

Keith was still stabbing the Galrans face despite him being long gone.

The coms were silent.

“Just call my name…”

Would it even still work so far from earth?

“Anything you want.”

The chance of it being real was large, especially when Lance was also such an imaginative child and grief can distorted your reality.

“I’m sure you understand.”

Lance did. It was worth it, right? Surely anything was worth keeping someone like Hunk in the world? Even if what Lance thought was about to happen did happen, and what that could mean about other parts of the world, no Holy Ghost was as bright and warm as Hunk.

It was worth it, for Hunk.

Lance stopped crying and stood up, closing his eyes and forming his resolve.

“Crowley, I want to make a deal.”

Silence followed before a smooth voice spoke behind him, the sound of Pidge’s gasp and the feel of all their confusion not important as Crowley put a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m listening.”

#lance mcclain #lance centric #langst #voltron #hunk garrett #crowley #supernatural references

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apileofducks · 8 months

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I'm told this is life, and pain is just a simple compromise

The first thing Aziraphale realised was that he was falling. Slowly Falling. Almost floating down from the sky. The ironic thing was that it felt almost angelic; peacefully floating in the air.

Or,

Things go badly in heaven. Aziraphale falls, but luckily, Crowley is there to lift him back up

Read on Ao3. word count: 1,376

To put it in Crowley's words: he hadn't meant to fall. He'd just sauntered vaguely downwards. And to make the statement more accurate he hadn't sauntered. Not vaguely nor downwards. Rather he had disagreed with something. It's not to say he said *no* to this thing. Of course not, Aziraphale would never say *no* not to any heavenly plans (well not directly at least). He'd just suggested that maybe, given the state of Earth's recent affairs, that this wouldn't actually work the way they wanted it to work.

Saying that suggestion didn't go well was an understatement. He should have known it wouldn't have gone well. He *should've*. But he's the supreme archangel, they should've at least listened to him. Of course they didn't listen. They never listened. Not to him.

Why would they ever listen to him? He was *soft*. He enjoyed food and books and watching humans. He enjoyed mundane things like sitting, listening to music, hot chocolate, *and dancing*. Though he didn't tend to think about that last one anymore. *Angels don't dance*. Angels never dance.

Except Aziraphale did dance. He loved dancing. He missed dancing. He missed the gavotte and the bookshop ballroom. He missed dancing with… Well that was something he didn't want to think about.

Thinking about that caused him to spiral. Thoughts of dancing spiralled into thoughts of Crowley and then suddenly he was being engulfed by thoughts of what he left, who he left, where he left them. Thoughts of Earth. The Earth that definitely not ready for what heaven had planned for it.

That's what started this. Earth was not ready for their plans. Aziraphale knew that. He thought *they* knew that. And if they didn't understand that yet he thought they would at least try and listen to him. That's what they hired him for; his expertise. But what a naive thought that was he supposed that was. They didn't want his expertise and they definitely didn't want *him*. What they wanted was him *out of the way*. Out of trouble. Within their eyesight. Why didn't he expect that? He could hear Crowley's voice in his head saying "I told you so angel". God did he miss Crowley. But here he was in this mess. He'd disagreed and now he had to reap what he'd sown, what he's done to himself for being so naive.

To Aziraphale the current situation was unfair. Gabriel got a trial for outright saying no to something. Albeit it wasn't the fairest trial. But he had straight up said no. No easing them into it , no assurance that it still would happen. And he ended up getting to spend his time with the person he loved. Aziraphale was polite about it. Aziraphale was merely suggesting they postpone it a little. Aziraphale was going to be cast down to hell for a *suggestion*. A fucking suggestion.

But maybe he had done something wrong. Maybe casting him down to hell was a necessary action. Something that was for the greater good. Maybe he'd missed something and actually he deserved this. Maybe this was them being nice to him. He didn't want to believe that Heaven was this cruel.

Fuck. If they were, that meant Crowley was right. That meant he had only made things worse. That meant he couldn't change things.That he hadn't changed things. He'd left Crowley for no reason at all. Now that was a painful realisation. It spiralled around in his head. And as it spiralled he began to feel numb

Then he felt dizzy.

Next he felt ill.

And finally his vision went black .

The first thing Aziraphale realised was that he was falling. Slowly Falling. Almost floating down from the sky. The ironic thing was that it felt almost angelic; peacefully floating in the air.

This wasn't what he had imagined falling to be like. Crowley always made it sound so metaphorical. Like he happened to walk down the wrong staircase or take a wrong turn. In some ways Aziraphale supposed he had.

The other way he'd pictured was a fast paced drop. One that would shatter all your bones on impact . One that would slowly destroy you. Rip at your skin, or give you friction burns . One that would claw at every part of your body till it just stopped. And then it left you writhing in agony.

But this. This was nice. Pleasant. Peaceful. Aziraphale could almost feel himself drifting off. He didn't normally sleep but this felt like it could be an exception to that. It's not everyday you fall from heaven. He stared blearily down below him, craning neck in a way that almost looked painful. Calmly,almost too calmly, he resumed his original position. Well, there was a long way down, he could always rest for a little bit. Shutting his eyes, Aziraphale began to drift off. Slowly, calmly, peacefully, he let himself fall.

For the moments he was asleep there was nothing. It was cold and silent. Floating down the sky like a feather. With grace and delicacy. And there was silence. Until there wasn't silence anymore. There was yelling. Someone was yelling his name. Screaming at him to "Wake up!" There was a brief pause and then it began again. "GODDAMMIT AZIRAPHALE WAKE UP!" Suddenly,there were soft arms around his waist. They lifted him up. It felt like they were being gentle, as if they didn't want to break him. And at the sudden contact, a little bit of Aziraphale felt normal again. The voice had stopped yelling now. It was just whispering in his ear. Whispering about how he was safe. Whispering how much it loved them. He supposed that last one was a heat of the moment thing. He didn't feel too lovable right now. At some point it had stopped whispering but Aziraphale didn't mind.The quiet was nice now opposed to the deceptively peaceful one on the fall down. As the quiet resumed it started pulling him upwards. As it pulled him up he leaned into its embrace and felt sane again. Keeping his eyes closed, he let it drag him up.

The thing placed him down on something hard and cold which was quite jarring. Staring upwards blearily, Aziraphale had finally fully awoken after the sudden change in environment. A blurry pair of oddly familiar yellow eyes greeted him . Aziraphale loved the colour yellow. As everything settled into place, he realised that he was in fact being held by whatever had caught him. Something warm appeared in his chest, It felt cosy. Safe. Like home. Well, after his vision was back to normal and no longer a blurry haze, he understood that feeling.

Crowley's face was peering down at him. With his de-sunglassesed eyes and soft curls that framed his face similar to that of the year the antichrist was born though this was more unruly. Like he hadn't maintained it properly. To match the unruly hair , his features were sunken. He looked tired, but the kind of tired that wasn't to do with lack of sleep; most importantly she looked relieved. Aziraphale felt a pang of guilt twang in his chest.

"Oh Angel." Crowley sighed.

Aziraphale gazed at Crowley. The Angel still felt rather dazed after his sleep. After his fall. Well could he really call it that if he never hit the ground. He shut his eyes momentarily and giggled at that and then gazed back up at Crowley. The gears were still turning in his head as a realisation dawned on him. With a modicum of pain he sat up and made eye contact with his demon. He began to speak, began to question why Crowley would have done such a thing for him. After everything that had happened. Everything Aziraphale had done to him but before he could let his mind wander any further Crowley interrupted. "Relax angel. Last I checked, demons can't fall twice."

Aziraphale stared at him blankly . "You know that really was a nice thing you did." He watched as Crowley stiffed and went to refute said claim but as Aziraphale gazed into his eyes his face softened. Crowley smiled. "Come on Angel, let's get you back home." And finally Aziraphale smiled back. "Home sounds nice dear"

#good omens #post season 2 #ineffable husbands #azicrow #aziraphale #crowley #aziraphale-centric #sad aziraphale #angst #hurt/comfort #happy ending #man the amount of taylor swift i listened to writing this is ridiculous #first fic

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