I do love that Ira's M.O. is consistent. Use people in order to get resources to do fucked up magic science, say some maddeningly vague shit, teleport out when they're like "wait a minute", repeat.
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𝗟𝗩𝗟 𝟯: 𝗔𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗦
Vera: Morning Director.
Argent: Good Morning 005.
𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝟬𝟬𝟵'𝘀 𝗔𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Both the title and the flat had been handed down to him by his Father, the previous Number 9.
There's a lot to be said about the weight sitting on a person's shoulders with shoes like that to fill; but 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘆 was more concerned at the moment about the one bearing down on his ass.
Until that is, he was interrupted by three curt knocks at the door.
Chad: Either my Zoomers guy finally figured out how to get past Poppy at the Front Desk, or I've missed the memo for some very important meeting.
Remington: Should I stop?
Chad: Now there's a terrible idea. Unfortunately, if we keep her waiting any longer she might fire you and I don't think I can afford that kind loss right now.
Three more short knocks, somehow more irritated this time around came from the door.
Chad: COMING!
Remington: Me… Too…
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I'm seeing some confusion out and about over the title A Companion to Owls (generally along the lines of 'what have owls got to do with it???'), so I'd like to offer my interpretation (with a general disclaimer that the Bible and particularly the Old Testament are damn complicated and I'm not able to address every nuance in a fandom tumblr post, okay? Okay):
It's a phrase taken from the Book of Job. Here's the quote in full (King James version):
When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
--(Job 30:29)
Job is describing the depths of his grief, but also, with that last line, his position in the web of providence.
Throughout the Old Testament, owls are a recurring symbol of spiritual devastation. Deuteronomy 4:17 - Isaiah 34:11 - Psalm 102: 3 - Jeremiah 50: 39...just to name a few (there's more). The general shape of the metaphor is this: owls are solitary, night-stalking creatures, that let out either mournful cries or terrible shrieks, that inhabit the desolate places of the world...and (this is important) they are unclean.
They represent a despair that is to be shunned, not pitied, because their condition is self-inflicted. You defied God (so the owl signifies), and your punishment is...separation. From God, from others, from the world itself. To call and call and never, ever receive an answer.
Your punishment is terrible, tormenting loneliness.
(and that exact phrase, "tormenting loneliness," doesn't come from me...I'm pulling it from actual debate/academia on this exact topic. The owls, and what they are an omen for. Oof.)
To call yourself a 'companion to owls,' then, is to count yourself alongside perhaps the most tragic of the damned --not the ones who defy God out of wickedness or ignorance, and in exile take up diabolical ends readily enough...but the ones who know enough to mourn what they have lost.
So, that's how the title relates to Job: directly. Of course, all that is just context. The titular "companion to owls," in this case, isn't Job at all.
Because this story is about Aziraphale.
The thing is that Job never actually defied God at all, but Aziraphale does, and he does so fully believing that he will fall.
He does so fully believing that he's giving in to a temptation.
He's wrong about that, but still...he's realized something terrifying. Which is that doing God's will and doing what's right are sometimes mutually exclusive. Even more terrifying: it turns out that, given the choice between the two...he chooses what's right.
And he's seemingly the only angel who does. He's seemingly the only angel who can even see what's wrong.
Fallen or not, that's the kind of knowledge that...separates you.
(Whoooo-eeeeee, tormenting loneliness!!!)
Aziraphale is the companion.
...I don't think I need to wax poetic about Aziraphale's loneliness and grappling with devotion --I think we all, like, get it, and other people have likely said it better anyway. So, one last thing before I stop rambling:
Check out Crowley's glasses.
(screenshots from @seedsofwinter)
Crowley is the owl.
Crowley is the goddamn owl.
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