#Aziraphale Cosplaying a Reporter

[shoemakerobstetrician]

When Crowley is tending the bookshop while Aziraphale is in Edinburgh HE IS WEARING A CARDIGAN! It’s lightweight fabric and a tight fit but IT’S A CARDIGAN - beloved by fussy pedantic booksellers everywhere. 😁

It’s most clear in the scene at the window with Jim where he’s talking about getting Maggie and Nina together and says Vavoom! (Apologies for the crappy photo above.)

He also has some strange bands on over the sleeves at his biceps. My guess is that they’re something Aziraphale wore a century or more ago to keep his sleeves out of the ink when he was writing at his desk without rolling them up and creating a lump. I know they had faux sleeves with elastic at both ends to put on over your sleeves for that purpose. If this is the case

HE’S BASICALLY COSPLAYING AS AZIRAPHALE!

Or as much as one can Cosplay Aziraphale while wearing all black and skin tight clothing. He does have standards!

And while he’s doing this Aziraphale is in Edinburgh cosplaying as a reporter. 😁

I’m not sure what the yellow Bentley is cosplaying as.

ETA much better pic of the cardigan under his suit jacket:

[melbatron5000]

Things that can be explained by POV switches

If you haven't read this analysis, you should start with that!

A list:

Crowley's hair and sideburns changing.

2. The Bentley changing. When it's Aziraphale's perspective, it's a four-door. From Crowley's it's two-door.

3. Gabriel's statue and the disappearing cross. From Gabriel's perspective, there's a cross. From Beelzebub's there is not. I wonder if it's because Gabriel sees himself as bearing some sort of burden?

4. Honolulu roast sign in Nina's shop. I wonder if that's because we switch to Nina's perspective, she knows the sign is there, she hung it. But someone notices it and someone doesn't.

5. Differing title/location cards? I bet they will give us a clue as to whose perspective we're about to see through if we pay attention to how they change.

6. The drawing of Gabriel being different when Aziraphale draws it versus when he shows it in the pub. When he draws it, we're seeing through his eyes, but when he shows it, we're seeing through Crowley's.

7. Possibly the Resurrectionist pub sign -- one of Mr. Dalrymple with a cleaver, one of him with a scalpel. Someone remembers him as a butcher, someone remembers him as a surgeon. I think we can tell who.

8. The vanishing/reappearing storefront signs in Whickber street. Someone knows exactly what shops are where, someone doesn't notice.

9. The streets and castle in Edinburgh when Aziraphale visits -- cobblestones versus paved; the castle in the background in every shot from every angle.

10. Several of the weird background noises can be explained by POV, but I don't think all of them.

11. Crowley's sunglasses changing? That one is iffy to me. Because they're silver for half the show, then black for the second half. If that were a POV switch, you'd think they'd change back and forth more often.

12. Crowley throwing books. And being nice to Jim. And wearing sleeve garters. He's telling Aziraphale on the phone what's going on, and we're seeing Aziraphale's image of it in his mind. That's almost certainly not what happened, but the gist is close enough.

13. Aziraphale's over-the-top reporter cosplay right after he is gently amused at Muriel's over-the-top constable cosplay. He's telling Crowley on the phone what's happening, and Crowley is imagining how it's going. Aziraphale's reporter persona is probably not as inconspicuous as he thinks, but it's probably not as cute and silly as Crowley imagines.

14. Gabriel not coming down the lift in the Dirty Donkey. Maggie and Nina see him first, they don't know about the lift, so they see him just walking down the street, not getting off a Heavenly elevator. He probably wasn't wandering around anywhere else -- but he does say he had to carry the box for soooo long, so maybe he was roaming around . . .

15. The high number of queer couples in the show. Both Crowley and Aziraphale are more highly tuned to humans who present as they do when in human form. It's probably not that there are more queer couples around, just that A and C take more note of them.

That's everything from my Murder Board that I think POV can explain. If anyone has other weird things that can be explained by seeing them through various character's eyes, I'd love to know!

And there is still PLENTY that can't be explained by POV. PLENTY. AND the POV changes mean we're not only seeing what they think is happening rather than what is, we're also NOT seeing anything they don't want known. We have to look where the furniture isn't.

[drconstellation]

Detective Aziraphale

Aziraphale's Edinburgh Journey: Part 1

This is the beginning of a series of posts focusing on Aziraphale's trip to Edinburgh in S2. Several times people have asked why he even had to make the trip - why didn't he just email the pub to ask his questions? Ah, thinking like true child of the 21st century, you are! In a narrative sense, its not that simple, especially in the GO narrative where there are always parallels to be found to enhance the story. And I think there a couple of other reasons why its been hard to understand the reason for this drawn-out and apparently dead-end investigation, which haven't really been explored or talked about much yet. We will start to look at one of them in this meta.

I mentioned a while ago when I was putting together the S2 Chiastic structure that I was hoping to find some hints to the purpose of the trip to Edinburgh. What it did reveal was that the trip was a larger parallel to Crowley's trip to Heaven with Muriel in S206. This is pair S; where the publican in the Resurrectionist asks Aziraphale if he one those investigative reporters in S203, matched with Crowley bounding up to Muriel at the end of S2E5 and declaring "Officer, I need to report a crime."

Both Crowley and Aziraphale have fantasy alternative personas. Most of us are familiar with Crowley's James Bond role-playing from time to time and other hints of tough masc characters he sees in films.

When he dons the "tactical turtleneck" we know there is some kind of super-spy power cosplay going on (and it also extends to other characters, such as Gabriel and Saraqael, if you pay close attention.) Hence why it's part of his costume when he infiltrates Heaven.

But we don't often see this wishful side of Aziraphale's, other than his dream of being a magician. According to Neil, he also sees himself as a journalist, a detective and a "man of the world." *

The publican asks Aziraphale if he is one of those "investigative reporters" when he arrives at the Resurrectionist, and sometimes that is the dual role of a journalist, to be both a detective and a reporter.

Crowley has gone upstairs to gain access Gabriel's record, the one place he can do that.

Aziraphale also gets hold of Gabriel's record...er, recorded song.

Hang on, no. That's not right way to look at it, actually.

While you might think the focus is still on finding out about Gabriel in Edinburgh, Aziraphale's mirror in S2 is Beelzebub, so there is a slight twist in the way we need to consider various aspects here.

Perhaps this should be "Aziraphale gets a hold of Beelzebub's music" instead, because he's really going to Edinburgh to find out more about Beelzebub, he just doesn't realize it.

Yep, you heard me right. The trip to Edinburgh is not a fact-finding mission about Gabriel, its actually a fact-finding mission about Beelzebub. And he doesn't get the answers he needs.

Neither does Crowley, by the way.

GABRIEL: I told you you could ask. However, I am the only First-Order archangel in the room, or, you know, the Universe, so I'm not gonna answer so much. But you feel free to knock yourself out with all the asking. Anyway, Armageddon the Sequel, that's a nah.

Crowley wonders out aloud why Gabriel changed his mind about starting another Armageddon, but the trial doesn't really answer that either. Nothing is really answered until Gabriel regains his memories, in the end.

To round out this post about the parallel investigations, each of them take an opposite with them, that they couldn't have got there without: Crowley takes an angel (Muriel) and Aziraphale takes a demon. Well, something demonic, anyway. **

Thank you to @komorezuki for pointing out that the trip to Edinburgh was really about Beelzebub. While you could still do this post making it a full Gabriel parallel, in the long run it makes more sense to look at the other way, as I hope to show you in the forthcoming posts.

*I thought I had a link to the post that this came from, then lost it. I've spent several hours trying to find it again with no luck, so if you know the post I'm referring to please let me know so I can link it!

**I've read that Aziraphale could have taken the train in less time it would have taken to drive, and that the train station is only a short walk from the pub etc. But this wouldn't have driven the narrative!

This series continues in the following posts:

Part 2: Aziraphale-Beelzebub Parallels Part 3: Stocktaking in the Basement Part 4: Judgement Day Part 5: I Know Where I'm Going

[ineffableigh]

MIGHT have found the perfect fabrics for the waistcoat and frock coat for my historically accurate Aziraphale cosplay! Gonna order samples to make sure and try to find the fabric for his pants as well... should have the glasses today, will report back later!

[morwennastower]

EasterCon 2023 Con Report - Cosplay

On the Friday, we were dressed as the Demon Crowley and Angel Aziraphale (as seen in my new avatar), so we had to go to the panel entitled The Adaptable Gaiman. A lot of his work has been adapted from books and graphic novels into TV, film and radio, and it seems that the more he is personally involved, the better the adaptation is (cough: American Gods: cough). Very little mention of Anansi Boys, but that's probably because it's been so overshadowed by Good Omens and Sandman recently.

EasterCon isn't really a costume wearing kind of Con, but I have always worn costume at Cons, since before the word cosplay existed - I was an Andorian Starfleet officer at Star Trek Cons in the 1980s - at least one of which was at this very hotel!

There's always a small minority who cosplay - the chap in the red wizard's hat and kilt was quite noticable, and over the weekend I noticed a couple of Starfleet uniforms. A youngster dressed as the Tardis (complete with top hat) asked about aro/ace representation in books at the No Simple Binaries panel. No-one in the room could think of anything, but someone on Discord mentioned Portal Books in York, which compiles lists of any Queer representation a customer asks for.

On Saturday I was going to be 1940s Crowley, but it wasn't terribly successful - the short red wig made me look more like Ron Weasley! Sunday was a lot better - I was a UNIT sergeant from the 1970s, and my partner in crime was a UNIT scientist. A group of soldiers from the Royal Signals were also staying in the hotel, and one of them did a double take as he passed me - so I had to say: "Not a real soldier!"

This was a very comfortable costume, and I had great fun asking other Con goers if they'd seen any evidence of alien infiltration!

[melbatron5000]

Oh! Oh! I think I know why!

So our POV character switches throughout this season. Sometimes it's Crowley whose eyes we're seeing through, sometimes Aziraphale's, sometimes other characters like Maggie or Nina.

This sequence is shot with the lens usually used for Crowley's point of view. But Crowley's not here, right?

I think we're seeing Aziraphale tell Crowley about his trip, and Crowley imagining his silly angel doing his "investigation."

The truth about the reporter outfit is probably somewhere in between silly cosplaying angel and totally unsuspicious human reporter looking for a curiosity piece. Aziraphale can probably fit in a little better than what we see, but probably not as well as he'd like to think.

That's my theory, at any rate.

So on my last rewatch I noticed how Aziraphale is gently amused (though never condescending) to Muriel and their "I'm a human police officer" routine.

But then, in the very same episode, without a trace of irony or self-awareness, our sweet angel dons his very best 1949 journalist cosplay and announces "I'm what's known as a newspaper man!"

He is just as excited, and almost as naive, as Muriel here -- down to not reading the big THE RESURRECTIONIST sign on the wall of the pub. "Gimme the facts!" He quips giddily. Might as well be saying "Wot's all this then?"

He's been here six thousand years but he is still an Eldritch being in a human suit and a giant goofball with no interest in keeping up with the times and it is fascinating and lovable that he can recognize Muriel's ridiculousness and not see his own.

How very like all of us.

[semiverbalmuppet]

Plushies-and-petrichor Sideblogs:

**This is a list of all the sideblogs I currently run and will be updated any time I create any new blogs or delete/retire any of these.**

@labelhoardinggremlin (label hoard)

@adventuringslimerancher (Slime Rancher)

@maybepossiblyghostkin (ghostkin)

@foghornleghorndrawl (Knives Out)

@undergroundmusicbox (Undertale)

@memoirsofalibraryghost (English lit/linguistics)

@sowibblywobbly (Centaurworld)

@pinkminnieisbestminnie (pink Minnie Mouse)

@i-steals-so-i-can-feels (kleptomania)

@zfiend (Report! the Genetic Opera)

@onepagetorulethemall (Lord of the Rings)

@innerchildofwoe (gothic agere/Wednesday kin)

@mummyofnightmares (agere CG/Sally kin)

@b00tyyyshaker-9000 (TMNT)

@angeldustedantics (Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss)

@ittybittymerkitty (pink agere/kitty mermaid petre)

@sibbydonteatthat (pica/Sibby says I'm a "puts everything in my mouth" autistic xD)

@longlostpevensie (Chronicles of Narnia/Lucy Pevensie kin)

@muppets-r-us (Muppets)

@plussizepinkiepie (Pinkie Pie cosplay)

@genewilderwonkasupremacy (Willy Wonka)

@wheeling-to-disney (Disney spoonie)

@welcomehomeyou (Welcome Home Puppet Show OC/fandom)

@celestiallyineffable (Good Omens)

@weebabyangel (Aziraphale-kin agere)

[yourfandomfriend]

Silhouettes in Good Omens

So I’m seeing on my dash some posts about a reporter asking Michael Sheen if he wore a fatsuit to play Aziraphale. There are all sorts of very astute comments on why someone would assume Sheen was heavier in the role than he actually was -- Hollywood’s unrealistic body standards, him wearing a lot of layers and standing next to a snakey fellow, etc and so forth -- but one of the biggest the fans are missing is deliberate costume design.

So for the sake of artists and cosplayers (or more likely, people who just like to read blog posts) here’s some shaping hacks that trick the eye in Good Omens. PS, these hacks tend to be geared toward traditionally masculine body types:

In the present day, Crowley wears modern slimming clothes in dark colors. The shoulders and overall body length are emphasized. He wears a structured jacket with wide, angular, straight shoulders. It’s short to make his legs look longer, but the waist is lower to make his torso look longer and his belly look smaller by suggesting his waist doesn’t start until his hip sockets.

Tight jeans, obviously, because unlike other kinds of tight pants, jeans have enough structure to be slimming. 

His jacket collar points sharply upward and creates a downward arrow-shaped, along with his v-neck cardigan and long, narrow, loose tie-thingy that all lead the eye downward, tricking us into thinking there’s more length and less width. The fabric is cut close but hangs, doesn’t cling, from his midsection.

Meanwhile, Aziraphale is dressed in a very old fashioned style -- that is to say when clothes were designed to make one look fatter wealthier:

In addition to oft-mentioned layers, he wears light-colored clothes in bulky fabrics. His frock coat is long, making his legs look shorter, but his waist is higher, firmly holding the eye higher on the body and drawing attention to the widest part of the stomach. His coat has large pocket flaps and its shoulders are on the narrow, round side, which not only makes his arms seem plumper but deemphasizing his shoulders makes his middle look wider. The coat has a wide, rounded, downward-pointing collar that tricks the brain into thinking the wearer is wider in the middle.

He wears a snug waistcoat with lots of buttons and a watchchain across his tummy that draws your attention. His clothes are rumpled and unstructured and tend to be baggy in the legs and back. Lastly, he wears a bowtie instead of a necktie, directing the eye once more toward width rather than length.

If you’re interested in drawing or cosplaying Aziraphale, you can use all the above information to get that soft angel look at any weight. You can even see some of it working for Crowley in his Elizabethan doublet.

[ineffably-good]

Prompt: Cursed

Just a little Pirate cosplay with our two favorite ethereal beings. :)

This is for the Good Omens 30th Anniversary Celebration prompts! 

Read all the ones I’ve completed on AO3!

_______________

Aziraphale, dressed in high black boots and tight breeches and a billowing white shirt that was much too clean for his current role as a brigand of the high seas, knelt down to open the first of the chests they’d dug up from the sea cave on the eastern Canadian coast. Inside was a heap of silver and gold coins, badly tarnished, velvet bags of jewelry that would need to be sorted through to see if the items they were looking for were amongst them, and, interestingly, a small black box, on the very top of the pile.

The box was about six inches square, lacquered to a high shine, with a large, heavy looking clasp and no further decoration. It was oddly enticing. Aziraphale forgot what he was doing and made a noise of fascination as he reached for it, picking it up to examine it in the firelight.

“Don’t touch that!” Crowley shouted from beside him.

Something in his tone frightened the angel into immediately dropping it to the ground.

Aziraphale brushed his breeches off in frustration and stood. He flipped up the stupid eye patch from his left eye so he could focus more clearly.

“What is your problem?” he said acerbically. 

Crowley paused to wipe the sweat off his face and lean on the shovel handle with his arms. Crowley had been doing most of the digging and the puffy white shirt and red bandana he wore were wet and filthy with sweat and exertion.

“Bad feeling,” the demon said. “I don’t think you should be touching that.” 

Aziraphale raised an eyebrow but complied. “Pirate curse?” he asked.

“Something cursed it. Might not’ve been pirates who put it there,” Crowley replied. “Perhaps that’s why they never came back for their treasure, you know? Picked up some cursed loot somewhere, sank to the bottom of the sea.”

Aziraphale uncapped a wine cask that was slung at his side and took a long swig. “Why are we digging up these chests, anyway?” he asked for the fourth time. “We could just – you know – miracle them up.”

“Oh, come on, angel,” Crowley said with a grin. “Where’s the fun in that? We went to all the trouble of disguising ourselves as pirates and getting a ship and hiring a crew all to bring us out here to this god forsaken northern island to follow this ridiculous map and try to retrieve the Queen’s jewels, and you want to just cheat on the last step and miracle the booty up out of the ground?”

“Oh sure, now you become a stickler about verisimilitude,” the angel groused, but halfheartedly. He knew Crowley had always wanted to be a pirate. When they’d both gotten orders to retrieve a certain set of stolen jewels for different aims, it seemed like the ideal time to indulge the demon’s long-held fantasy. He hadn’t even made Crowley work that hard to convince him. The 17th century had been rather boring so far, his responsibilities were at a natural lull, and it seemed like a good time for a quick maritime adventure. That said, that didn't mean he was about to shovel.

“So, what’s in the little black box?” Aziraphale said, nudging it with a foot towards the demon.

Crowley poked at it with the shovel. “Not sure,” he said. “Feels demonic. Not entirely sure we should open it.”

“But you’re a demon,” Aziraphale said, frowning. “Surely it’s safe for you.”

“Possibly,” Crowley said, “but you’re here. And I don’t want to let anything in there harm you.”

Aziraphale smiled. “Very thoughtful of you,” he said. “But we’re pirates. We can handle it.”

Crowley frowned and then pointed Aziraphale towards the mouth of the cave. “Stand over there. I’ll raise a shield.”

Aziraphale moved to where he was pointed and watched as Crowley unfurled his wings from the ether and raised a shimmering strip power that acted as somewhat of a barrier between them. He placed his own body between the angel and the cube, and then prodded at its clasp with his shovel until it sprung open.

A howl filled the cave, along with an amorphous, whirling cloud of vapor that appeared to be screaming. Crowley stepped back, shovel held out defensively and his attention split between the cloud in front of him and the angel behind him. The cloud whirled and began to condense into the size of a figure, and after a moment it settled down into the recognizable shape of a man.

A man who appeared to be dressed in drab, tan-colored robes, grimy and in poor repair, with gloved fingers riddled with holes and his white shock of hair standing up in spikes. Aziraphale blinked in surprise – he’d seen this person before, he was sure of it. It wasn’t until the face came into focus with its smear of boils and the grubby toad on his head that he knew for sure who it was. It was the demon who he’d run across once or twice in the last few centuries – what was his name? He knew it, it was right on the tip of his tongue –

“HASTUR!” Crowley shouted. “What in the name of – what were you doing locked up in a box?”

Hastur rolled his unkempt head around on his shoulders, producing a series of surprising loud crackles and pops as various muscles and bones clicked back into place. He took a deep breath and looked around him, obviously working to bring his eyes back into focus.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he said. “Crowley? You’re my rescuer?”

Crowley laughed. “You got yourself captured? How does a Duke of Hell end up locked in a little black box and how did I not hear that you were missing?”

Hastur scowled. “What year is it?”

“1680 something,” Crowley said. “When were you taken?”

“About a decade ago,” Hastur said. “Idiot magician in the court of Spain accidentally did something right. Put me in that box, laid a curse on it so it couldn’t be opened by mortals. If you hadn’t come along…” He looked around and noted Aziraphale by the cave entrance. “Oh great. An angelic witness. What are you doing consorting with the enemy here? I’ll be sure to report about your bad habits of fraternizing with the enemy when we get back home.”

“Seems to me,” Crowley drawled, “that if we hadn’t come along, you’d still have been stuck in that box for a long time to come. Possibly centuries. The tides here are brutal – no human could have been in here long enough to dig you up without drowning. You owe us.”

Hastur hissed and clenched his fingers into and out of fists, clearly wanting to smite something. A few maggots dripped from one of his hands and burrowed into the sand. “Don’t think you’ll get any favors from me, you colossal moron.”

Crowley grinned. “Well that’s all right then,” he said, picking up the black container. “Let’s just take this box –” he stopped and sniffed it dramatically. “—which, by the way, is full of your psychic residue, absolutely confirms that you were locked inside for a decade. So, let’s just take this and pop back to Hell and update Beelzebub and the council about where you’ve been and how you were stupid enough to get locked in a box by a magician, shall we?”

Hastur paled.

“I’m sure they won’t be too angry,” Crowley continued, syrupy sweet. “Probably only send you to the pits for a few years at most. Been a while since you’ve been flayed, hasn’t it?”

“Fine!” Hastur shouted. “What do you want?”

“I want you to forget that you saw either of us here, and I want no reports made about the angel’s presence. We are both here simply pursuing the orders of our direct superiors, who each have an interest in the contents of these chests. There’s no fraternizing going on.”

“No indeed,” Aziraphale said primly from the entrance. “I don’t care for him at all. He’s quite an arse.”

Hastur smirked. “You’re right on that front.”

Crowley made a feint at Aziraphale with the shovel, just for effect, and snarled convincingly. “Please. Like I’d hang out with him. He’s a total drip.”

Aziraphale looked up towards the heavens in his best long-suffering manner.

“So?” Crowley said, flourishing the box. “Are we heading to the dark council right now, or do we have a deal?”

Hastur sighed. “Yes, fine, I won’t say a word about the suspicious circumstances I found you in. In return, you give me the box.”

“Ohhhhh no,” Crowley said, “I don’t think so.” He made a hand motion and the box disappeared, tucked neatly into a small pocket dimension where he kept one of his stashes of valuable things. “I’m keeping it for insurance. Because I don’t trust you, Hastur. Not for one second.”

“That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said all day, Crawly,” Hastur sneered. “Should never trust another demon. Stay away from me from here on out, all right?”

He stood up more fully and brushed off his clothing, assembled his tattered robes into something approaching order, and offered them both an insincere and disturbing wave, and melted into the ground.

The last thing they saw was his toad, eyeing them suspiciously, and then that too was gone.

Crowley whacked the ground where Hastur had disappeared with the belly of the shovel. “Good riddance,” he muttered. He dropped the wings and his power and turned to Aziraphale. “Safe now, you can come back in.”

“That was… surprising,” the angel said mildly. “Thanks for stopping me from setting him free myself. One of us would have ended up smiting the other, for sure.”

“Wouldn’t have really minded if it was you smiting him,” Crowley said with a grin. “As long as it didn’t start some long, drawn out war.”

“Well,” the angel said, “shall we get back to it? The crew is probably near onto mutiny by now; if we take much longer we will be flying home.”

Crowley picked up the shovel again and spaded it down into the sand. “On it, angel,” he said, flinging a shovel-full of sand into the corner. “Just a few more feet and we’ve got the second chest. We’ll take them back to the ship and sort it all out there.”

“On the way home, perhaps we can stop at that former Viking colony on the big island up north? I hear there are mermaids about!” Aziraphale said. “Oh, and perhaps we can magic up some proper tea and some little cakes for the trip?”

“You’re a horrible pirate, Aziraphale,” the demon said. “Just the worst.”

[vidavalor]

Hi @somebebop 💕You have pointed out really well how complicated Aziraphale is and how he and Muriel are paralleling characters. What you're talking about, though, with how Aziraphale responds to Muriel's arrival vs. how he acts in Edinburgh in the pub-- these are not necessarily contradictory behaviors, imho. When Muriel arrived at the bookshop, Aziraphale observed in them several different things at once-- including that they had absolutely no idea what they were doing when it came to behaving on Earth lol but also that they are a wonderfully curious and upbeat person who has an enthusiasm for human life that Aziraphale shares.

He can absolutely be all "omg they're kind of a disaster" about Muriel with Crowley and then turn around and be just like Muriel in a lot of ways because he's a complicated, well-drawn character. I think you might be mistaking naivete and enthusiasm. Muriel is both enthusiastic and naive about Earth; Aziraphale is less naive but is a very earnest person and still every bit as enthusiastic as Muriel is. He knows more about human life but he also feels like he's cosplaying at being human all the time. He doesn't fundamentally feel that different from Muriel. Like Muriel, he wants to blend in and fit in-- so do a lot of characters. That's Maggie's story, too. She feels socially awkward and wants to be liked and loved.

Aziraphale loves being a part of the world, even if it terrifies him, so he was nerding out on being an investigative reporter the way that he also does about donning a magician's costume. As for why he is actually shit at investigating anything lol and why he goes to the graveyard... I think Aziraphale's motivations for doing things in S2 are often one thing on the surface, another thing really driving it.

The Meeting Ball is technically for Maggie and Nina to help with the Gabriel miracle mess but it's really an idea he's come up with for Crowley that is covered up by the Maggie-Nina-Gabriel situation. Going to Edinburgh to investigate the "Everyday" record mystery? Ask yourself this: would it not have made more sense to explain the mystery to Crowley (as Aziraphale did), give him the record, and send him to Edinburgh to get more information? Crowley drives more and he really didn't want to be anywhere near Gabriel, right? Instead, what Aziraphale did was combine a couple of things together.

Giving Crowley control over the bookshop and taking the car is one way of apology dancing for the fact that he didn't make having Gabriel stay in the shop more of a joint decision. It also meant that Gabriel and Crowley might get to a point of talking to each other, which Aziraphale knew would be good for both of them, as they are a lot alike and have gone through similar things. Going to solve the mystery himself also gave Aziraphale a reason to go to Edinburgh alone and to go back to the graveyard spot for the first time since 1827 and work on his PTSD from what happened there. It's why, when he calls Crowley from the graveyard, Crowley eventually has to actually prompt Aziraphale into telling him what he learned about Gabriel-- because that's really just one, lesser reason why he went there. The graveyard was the bigger reason. Dealing with 1827 and the trauma he has over Crowley being taken in front of him is really why Aziraphale went himself to Edinburgh. We see Aziraphale standing in the graveyard, looking at that spot first. It's only after that when he turns and looks at the statue, considering his opinion of Gabriel with a new perspective after having a more vulnerable Gabriel in the house for a couple of days. He has to call Crowley from the graveyard immediately so he can hear his voice. He's in the graveyard because of Crowley, not because of Gabriel.

Are there people watching Crowley & Aziraphale? Definitely. Ducks have ears, as Crowley said in S1, and he wasn't wrong. There are people following them at different times. I don't think that's why Aziraphale behaved with enthusiasm for cosplaying a reporter, though. His enthusiasm was genuine but also tongue-in-cheek at once-- it felt a little intentionally self-parodic at moments-- because he's basically a Muriel, just one that has been on Earth forever. He is less naive but no less full up on the unjaded joy that he feels at thinking he's blending in with the group.

He was a terrible fake reporter lol because he was really focused more on 1827 and how it related to his issues than he was on Gabriel, imho. Would it have been helpful if Aziraphale had bought a drink to butter up the bartender for further details? Yes, for sure, but Aziraphale is a stressed out introvert who didn't actually want to have a drink alone in the pub because as much as he wants to be part of the sea of humanity, he also hates the pub lol, and that took priority in the moment (further showing how much he was thinking about his own stuff over really solving the mystery.)

Would it have been a good move if he had asked the bartender to describe the person that Gabriel was with? Oh, for sure. The bartender clearly remembered Gabriel and Beez and Lord Beezlebub is not exactly someone whose identity would have remained cloaked to Aziraphale for very long had the bartender started describing Beez and what they had on. But do people always ask the best questions when they're anxious and full of thoughts of their own conflicts? Not really. Aziraphale's more like the rest of us than he realizes, especially in that way.

A secret observer?

PLEASE DO NOT ASK NEIL ABOUT FAN THEORY.

This idea first came to me when I was going through the fantastic ‘filters as POV markers’ meta by @somehow-a-human

The inconsistencies in the way the filters are used made me think that some parts of the narrative may be shown from a yet unknown POV. Let’s be honest, someone spying on our ineffable boyfriends is not a novel idea. It has been done before:

And there is an episode which finally started to make some sense to me when I applied this idea.

There is nothing I find as frustrating  in s2 as Aziraphale’s trip to Edinburgh. The point is, I really really don’t think this angel is an idiot. And neither does Crowley, whose POV is supposedly what we see here. Yet the way Aziraphale behaves in the pub appears to be terribly stupid or at least devoid of logic. 

Just think, mere hours ago, when Muriel arrived to his bookshop, Aziraphale smirked and exchanged glances with Crowley about all the constable and cuppertea silliness. And then here he is, our Nefertiti-fooling fellow, who has been living on Earth for 6000 years - acting as if he’s just stepped out of the elevator from Heaven. 

These two conversations really start in a similar way:

Even their excitement to be considered convincing in their roles looks the same.

And further on in the pub Aziraphale just gives us a vivid demonstration on how to NOT convey an investigation.

He came, made an IMPRESSION, refused a drink (which could’ve helped to chat up the pub owner), asked some questions, interrupted the speaker, found out ONE small detail, grabbed the booklet and left. After all the detective novels he ever read, seriously?

For me this looks like a performance, a show, just like the one with the bullet catch. Or the one with Job, when even the most awkward lies were swallowed by a perceptive audience. I think Aziraphale knows there is a similar audience in the Resurrectionist (and possibly elsewhere in Edinburgh). He is playing a part for an observer we have no idea about.

What he actually found out, what happened to the briefcase, why the trip was necessary, why Aziraphale went to the graveyard - maybe we would know it all, if we saw this trip from Aziraphale’s actual POV.

[asgardian--angels]

Hey guys, I had a great time at Fan Expo Boston today! I am glad to report that Aziraphale and Crowley were popular cosplays this year! I attempted to tally every one that I saw, and came up with 15 Crowleys, 11 Aziraphales, 1 Beelzebub, and 1 Anathema. Hats off to the Beelzebub and Anathema, who I saw in the entrance line and couldn’t find again, but whose cosplays were SUPERB. I didn’t manage to get photos of most of them, but at least two Crowleys were wearing contacts (props!!) and this Aziraphale had wings AND a copy of Nice and Accurate Prophecies!!

If this is you, or you know this cosplayer, please feel free to comment or reblog with their info so I can credit them!

I’m real happy to see so many cool Good Omens cosplayers! I hope there will be even more next year, and personally, I want to see some historical Crowley outfits - Globe Theater, anyone?

I may just try to do Beelzebub next time...

[coffeetailor]

Writing Goals Progress Report

Hello again! Checking in on my writing goals so far this year and I'm proud to say that I've been making my four hundred words every day so far. Some have been mighty close, including a few I've had to fudge on 4thewords because I didn't make the midnight line, but did before bed. And I count bedtime as the end of the day for the goal. (It would be easier to do that if I didn't live in one of the latest time zones. Grrr.)

Out of all those words so far, I've written two blog posts, an unposted rant of frustration at a present sewing project, a couple of unfinished short stories, and a new chapter of Emergence, one of my Gundam Wing fanfictions. Overall, not too bad for less than a month's work. And most importantly it's becoming more of a habit than I've been able to keep before.

I have been working almost exclusively on 4thewords, those little monster battles really working as a great form of motivation so I actually get to writing instead of opening the document and switching over to youtube. We're all guilty of that, admit it. On the downside, that can make it hard to write at work, unless I longhand it and then type it afterward. I've done one night's writing on my phone, and it was less than fun. Getting a Bluetooth keyboard may have to be in the cards for me if I keep doing that. Either way, I'll be keeping at that daily goal count and keeping folk up to date on my progress!

My upcoming plans for writing are to work on chapter seven of Emergence of course, and also to get myself back into chewing on some of my other fanfictions such as "Dragon in my Hand" and "Dragon and Phoenix." Not promising updates on any particular dates though, just that I want to get back to working on them. So hopefully soon. I also have multiple original projects I'm working on at the same time, and lots of other activities off the keyboard.

Unrelated to writing, I've also been working on my Aziraphale cosplay and finally got the stays mock-up fitted and comfortable. Next is to make the real thing using the new measurements and the same boning since it's all been cut and fit. I'll have pictures up once I have more done, and certainly once it's all done! Cannot wait to see how it all comes together.

[ditsy-pink]

good omens as stuff my friends say!

inspired by @broken-records-cosplay ! hope u like this bb (also this is long sorry jsjsj)

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Anathema: you gave me flower, so here’s a rock

Newt: ʸᵒᵘ���ʳᵉ ᵐʸ ʳᵒᶜᵏ

-

Crowley: *throws rock in lake*

Aziraphale: oh my, i wish i’d get thrown like that

Crowley: you are such a fucking bottom

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Wensleydale: can I admit something?

Adam: oh of course

Wensleydale: sometimes when I see Adam typing for a prolonged time, I think he’s just trying to perfect his key smash

Adam: ... no comment

Wensleydale: alright

-

Brian: *talking about his future racoon* Big Sexy is gonna fuck up the neighbourhood kids

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Pepper, out of nowhere: lesbian corn

Adam: thank you for the reminder

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Adam: all hail the watcher

Wensleydale: all hail the watcher!

Pepper: all hail the watcher

Brian: all hail the watcher

-

Shadwell: aziraphale is the goblin friend

Aziraphale: I would NEVER wear sweatpants

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Zira: okay i mentally need to take a break from looking at boys

Crowley: yeah bitch, like take a fucking you whore!

Zira: ... “take a fucking”?

Crowley: ... I forgot to add a word, “take a fucking breather” is what I meant to say

-*continuation of last convo*

Zira: there’s no one around to give me a fucking

Crowley: Get Your Own Dick, Go Fuck Yourself

Zira: I’m getting tired of that, I need change

-

Crowley: the moment you get the card number I’m “loosing” my card and getting a new one

Crowley: man, dolphins are scary

Crowley: well, goodnight! Don’t let anyone steal your sparkle and don’t forget to nutter(*yes that’s what they said) your pets

-

Mme Tracy: I know break ups are hard sweetheart, are you feeling okay?

Aziraphale: oh definitely! Don’t worry about me one bit

Aziraphale: anyways, I’m gonna go eat my feelings haha

-

Mme Tracy: getting dick soon!!!

mme Tracy: also how do you like your tea

-

Adam: I’m not telling you that I love you until you take a shower

Brian: *keeps pouting, talking and not going* :(

Adam: you’re an angel and I love you but-

Brian: oh okay that’s all I needed to hear :)

Adam: ... wait a fucking second

-

Crowley: *writes cursed fic cause he thinks he’ll be able to laugh at his friends’ scared/“wtf” reactions* for you

Anathema: first of all, I can’t read this

Anathema: legally

Anathema: It has no paragraph breaks, I will actually have an aneurysm without proper structure.

Crowley: are you really going to critique something that is extremely cursed and was souly made to piss off Shadwell?

Anathema: yes, yes I am. So sorry person who wrote that but I can’t read fics that aren’t properly structured.

Crowley: I wrote it

Anathema: then bitch improve your writing

-

Aziraphale: *bad pun*

Crowley: blocked

Aziraphale: Wait unblock I have something to tell you!

Crowley: ... unblocked

Aziraphale: ᴵ ˡᵒᵛᵉ ʸᵒᵘ

Crowley: ... followed, liked, shared

-

Crowley, giving his report to hell: well, later sluts I’ve entered the city

Beezulbub: bye slut, hope you die in the woods

Crowley: thank you!

-

Anathema: *about not telling zira something and trying to convince him they’re messing with him instead of telling him* What if we were picking on the most gullible one?

Crowley: wouldn’t that be something

Aziraphale: this is heaven all over again

Anathema: That’s the thing about snakes. They scare and entice you until you get bit.

Aziraphale: what are you gonna do, huh??you gonna call me a cry baby bitch??? gonna become an authoritative figure of mine and tell me I’m the most horrible angel you’ve ever known??? gonna undermine me???

Crowley: i love snakes homies

-

Anathema: what are 11 y/o boys even ON

Anathema: like bitch you are a BABY you can’t be the antichrist

Newton: They’re on pure testosterone and Gatorade

Anathema : I would like you to look me dead in my eyes and tell me that about Adam Young

-

Agnes Nutter, witch, in a prophecy for a few days before the Apocalypse-That-Wasn’t: Goodnight spirit of fae. Lest ye have a nice rest.

Anathema, reading that on that night: :,)

-

Adam: *in reference to the Sanders Sides* you would be Tired Dad Deceit™️

Beezulbub: true... I do own a lot of hats....

Adam: begrudgingly in charge of two unholy gremlins

Beezulbub: more like 10 million but continue

-

Brian: we should plan something, but not right now cause I’m surviving off of one (1) brownie, pink lemonade and the smell of chlorine at the moment

-

Brian: We love you!

Pepper: do you?

Wensleydale: yeah we do!

Adam: with every single one of our heart shaped brain cells

Pepper: so just the one then

The boys: *varying degrees of D:*

-

God, about Crowley: he’s lived his devious life for more than 6000 slutty, slutty years

-

Adam: God put me on this earth solely to make you mad

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Aziraphale: I’m trying to get Crowley to open up. He’s tomato soup and I am but a broken can opener

-

Anathema, as a joke to the rest cause Wensleydale’s on his phone: he’s on the twilight forums

Wensleydale: only for Robert Pattinson

-

Shadwell: You know I used my pocket knife on my shoelaces at work. It was a lifesaving situation. Almost died

Newt: it wasn’t

Shadwell: It absolutely was

[happywanderingalbatross]

"cosplaying as human certainly sounds more whimsical and fun than masking"

right?? Like Muriel is a struggle bus, they are NOT having a great time in this scene, they are doing her best to tread water and survive the social situation .... and Gabriel THINKS he knows what he is doing, but he absolutely does not...

But Aziraphale has been at this long enough that he is DELIGHTING in getting to create a new character for himself (the newspaper reporter). He's always had to adapt to his surroundings based on other people's expectations for the time period and culture; even the "normal" Bookshop Aziraphale that I think of as the default is just one in a series of many characters he's played over thousands of years. Nothing lasts forever .... and the other humans around him will never truly know who he is ... but he has learned how to have fun with it, and to design his life based on his own preferences.

That neurodivergent mood of feeling like you're just cosplaying as a human

[lalalunamoth]

Just a silly little guy 😇 is also how I would describe Aziraphale and now I am suspicious about what you are capable of...

Speaking of the angel, I recently switched jobs to become what he would call a "newspaper man," so let me give you the facts*:

Sources** are saying your blog is a fun and silly place and your thoughts are resolutely not hated. They also allege that the use of tumblr and ao3 as outlets to hornypost is a deeply respected tradition and, in many cases, even a public service. A witness to the posts in question further claims that the posts are not evidence of anything other than exquisite taste.

*please picture I am saying this while wearing Aziraphale’s old timey reporter cosplay complete with an empty briefcase and a notepad filled with doodles

**is me I'm sources

Sam. My tumblr notifications from your blog lately have been unhinged. The short stocky derringer... The buttons... The collaring... I just have to ask:

How does it feel to have entirely correct nice and accurate banger opinions 24/7???

dkdfkk pls it makes me happy that u care about what i have to say, i’m literally just a silly little guy!!! the fact that my opinions are correct in ur world has made my day thank u😌🥰

i know i seem like i have a one-track mind bc i hornypost all the time and basically only write fic with porn in it but. i promise that’s not the case, elsewhere in my life i’m basically not a sexual being at all (partly by choice bc trauma and partly bc i’m waiting for a man who isn’t terrible to come along lol) and this is my outlet as a lonely trans individual so. thank u for not hating the things i say🫡

i hope i continue to churn out nice and accurate banger opinions ehehe

[reloha]

And Aziraphale goes off to cosplay as a 1940s movie reporter right after this.

It's so silly that Aziraphale and Crowley make fun of Muriel for not knowing a Constable from an Inspector, and that therefore they know nothing about blending in with humans on Earth. Like...my guys... you haven't changed your clothes since at least 1987 who are you to talk