#Dick Tracy Forever

[therealcocoshady]

Recovery - Chapter 29

Eminem x FemReader Fanfiction

Summary : Em explains the situation with Tracy to Y/N.

Tags : Fluff - Angst

MARSHALL’S POV

Marshall’s brain instantly froze when he realized that Y/N had heard his conversation with Tracy. Of course that had to happen. Why wouldn’t his girlfriend walk in just as another woman was mentioning sucking his dick a few days ago ? The universe definitely had a weird sense of humor. He wasn’t sure just how much of the conversation she had heard but, judging by her face, it was bad. She was staring at them in shock, an awkward expression on her face. 

I… Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb, she said. 

He knew she was trying to keep a straight face, but he knew her too well. He could see her bottom lip quivering and the upper part of her face crumbling with sadness. All he wanted was to push Nicole out of the way and take his girl in his arms, telling her it was all a big misunderstanding. Because it was. Well, kind of. To be fair, Tracy had indeed been in his hotel room but it was a little more complicated than what she had implied. Y/N was starting to walk away but he was unable to move. Fuck. He needed to think and think fast. 

Babe, he said. 

I’ll let the two of you talk, she said as she ducked her head down. I just needed the key to your room but I… I’ll go to mine. 

What ? No, he said immediately. Babe, let me explain, ok ? 

You have nothing to explain, Marshall, she said as she could see the sadness take over her beautiful face. I didn’t mean to intrude. 

With these words, she headed to the reception desk and he heard her ask for a keycard to her room. He quickly looked at Tracy who was facepalming herself. He excused himself and ran to catch Y/N. She was already in the elevator but he could not be bothered to wait so he decided to take the stairs. He thought he had gotten in shape for the tour, but running up four flights of stairs proved him wrong. Or perhaps it was the anxiety and the terrifying perspective of losing her. She had left the country when they broke up, God knows how little she would need to walk out of his life again. He banged on the door to her room. He could already see her packing her suitcase and running away from him forever. When she opened, she had tears streaming down her cheeks. He tried to hug her but she avoided his touch. 

Y/N, please let me explain, he pleaded. It’s not what you think. Please don’t hate me. 

I don’t hate you, Marshall, she said with a hint of sadness. Two days ago… I wasn’t here. You don’t owe me any kind of explanation. I heard that you weren’t doing too well while we were apart so it didn’t cross my mind that you could have… you know. But it was stupid. I’m not mad, I just need a minute. 

She stared at him and he could see the deep sadness the thought of him with Tracy caused her. To be fair, the many times he had thought of her in the arms of other men, it had crushed him too. He could absolutely see where the sadness was coming from. 

Can we talk about it ? He asked softly. 

I’d rather not, she shrugged. 

Please, he pleaded. It’s important. 

She sighed as she looked at him but she nodded eventually. They sat on the bed and he took her hands in his. He took a deep breath before talking to her. 

So, hum… I think I should start by explaining what the deal with Tracy is, he began. 

Well I think I know what the deal is, she said as she rolled her eyes. You don’t need to spell it out for me, she just did. 

It’s more complicated than that, he tentatively explained. Tracy and I have known each other for… Over twenty, twenty-five years. She was there when we started Shady Records. She was one of the first people we hired. She’s part of my team and she does a bit of everything. She’s basically Paul’s right-hand woman. She’s known me since the very beginning of my career and she’s a friend. 

Friend ? His girlfriend asked with a raised eyebrow. That’s really the narrative you’re going with ? 

He looked at her patiently. He knew she could have a bit of an attitude when she was hurt. She was entitled to her own feelings, he wasn’t going to deny that, but it didn’t really make it easy for him in that instant. 

She is, he assured her. She’s been with me through thick and thin, at the height of my addiction and when I recovered, when I was on and off with Kim… She is important to me. 

Marshall, I already told you it was fine. You don’t need to express her many professional and personal qualities to justify why it’s ok that she slept with you, Y/N said. I don’t need her resume. In fact, I don’t need this conversation. 

She started getting up but he quickly grabbed her arm and forced her to face him. 

Baby, I have a point, he said sternly. Please let me make it ? 

Fine, she said. Sorry.

He sighed and took her hand in his as he continued his explanation. 

After I got sober, she was one of the first people I dated, he explained. We were together for about a year but it didn’t work out. We were good together on paper but that wasn’t it. So we decided to remain friends and collaborators. But I’m not going to lie, through the years, we’ve slept together a bunch of times. Not because of feelings, but because it’s comfortable and easy. It’s basically a friends with benefits arrangement. That being said, I haven’t slept with her in years. 

Until two days ago, that is, she sighed. 

No, not even, he said. What happened is… I was heartbroken over you. I was considering flying to Paris to see you after the tour, but at that point, I was pretty sure you were with someone else already and making plans to have babies with him or whatever. So I had no hope whatsoever. I managed to keep to myself for the most part of the tour but two nights ago, I don’t know if it’s because I was tired, or my birthday was coming up, or I was stressed out or what, but I was in a bad mood. It was right after the show in London, before we had to fly to Amsterdam in the morning. Tracy came to my room to make sure I was alright. We talked about her divorce and well… she was lonely, I was lonely and… we kissed. That's all that happened. 

Don’t sugar coat it, his girl groaned. She said she sucked your dick. 

Well she attempted to, he admitted nervously. But I… uh… wasn’t really in a state to. 

Meaning ? She asked. 

I couldn’t get it up, he groaned. 

Obviously, he wasn’t too keen to admit that he hadn’t been able to perform sexually. No man ever wanted to say that out loud, especially to his woman. However, he realized that, for once, it could actually play in his favor. 

So, technically there was some… action in that department, I guess, but not that much, he said. 

I’m sorry, she said sheepishly. 

You don’t have to be sorry about anything, he said. We did what friends do. We shrugged it off, talked for a bit and went to bed. In separate rooms. 

Ok, she said softly. 

So… Are you alright ? He asked. 

I am, she said. I mean… It makes me feel less bad that I slept with my ex before the flight that brought me here. 

You did what ?! He almost yelled. 

He was staring at her with big eyes. Now the shoe was on the other foot and he was livid. He had no idea who that dude was but one thing was sure, if he ever found out, he would beat his ass. He looked at her and saw a grin form on her face. That’s when it hit him : she was messing with his brain. 

You didn’t ? He asked. 

I didn’t, she said. I just wanted you to experience how I felt for a second. Sorry, that was a little petty. 

A little ? He chuckled. I’m supposed to be the petty one, here. 

Sorry, she giggled. I guess you’re rubbing off on me. 

So… No one else ? He asked, just to make sure. I mean, I won’t be mad if there was. As you said, we were broken up. I’m just curious, I guess. 

No one, she assured him. The idea of anyone else was just preposterous to me. You’re the one I want to be with. 

He pulled her in for a hug and kissed her softly. She wrapped her arms around his neck. 

How about you ? She asked. 

You know everything, he said. You’re my one and only. 

So… No date ? No nothing ? You mentioned something about Tinder selfies this morning and it freaked me out a little… 

That was years ago, babe, he chuckled. And believe me, that was short-lived. People kept on reporting me because they thought my account was fake. But lately, no date, no nothing. I wasn’t in the mood to date and I had too much work anyway. 

Ok, she said. 

He kissed her again but she seemed a bit absentminded. 

Everything alright ? He asked. 

I’m just… I have questions, she said. About Tracy. 

I just told you everything, he said. 

Yes but you said you were together before, she recalled. 

I did. We dated for a brief period of time, but we broke up because I wasn’t available, emotionally, he explained. 

What if you guys still have feelings for each other ? She asked nervously. You just said that you kept on sleeping with her for years. 

I said we slept together a few times, he corrected. But it’s not like she was in bed with me every night. In fifteen years, we have probably slept together ten times, tops. And it was always just sex. Nothing more. 

Do you think she has feelings for you ? She asked. 

Pretty sure not, he shrugged. If she’d had feelings for me, she would have had every opportunity to tell me a while ago. Plus, she knows more than anyone that I’m a burden. I’ve been a lousy partner to a lot of women and she’s part of the list. 

You’re not a lousy partner, she said as she rolled her eyes. 

Not to you, he said. At least, I try not to be. But you have to understand that I’m not the same person I was a while ago. I have changed a lot over the years. Believe me, I’ve been an asshole when it comes to dating. Kim and Tracy are prime examples of that. If you women had a  collective black list of men you shouldn’t date, mine  would probably be the first name on it. 

I’m sure it’s not that bad, she said. 

I have lied, I have cheated, I have been manipulative and sometimes violent, so yes, he said in all seriousness. And even when that got better, I was emotionally unavailable. So, believe me, I’m no prize. I probably shouldn’t say that, anyway. The goal is not to convince you to run away when you just came back to me. 

She hummed and stared at him, taking in everything he said. 

So, believe me, no feelings between Tracy and I, he said. And even if she had feelings for me, it wouldn’t matter. You are everything I want and need. And I’m happy nothing more happened with her that night because as much as I needed to get laid and would have probably enjoyed it, you are the only woman I want to sleep with. 

Right, she said as she gave him a side-eye. 

I’m dead-serious, Y/N, he said. And even if I had slept with other women, which I haven’t, it wouldn’t matter one bit. Any other woman, I would fuck her. You are the only person I make love to. I am in love with you. For fuck’s sake, I introduced you to Dre and Curtis, tonight. In my book, it means more than introducing you to my mother. You’re my girlfriend, everybody on my team knows it now. Not to mention my family. We’re going on vacation with my kids. I’ve never done that with any other woman. There’s only you. 

Ok, she said softly before kissing him. 

I need you to know that I am absolutely serious about us, he said sternly. I lost you once and now that I have a shot with you again, I will do everything in my power for our relationship to work out. If you ask for the moon as backyard decor, I will get it for you. 

I’m serious about us too, she said. 

He rested his forehead against hers. Prior, he had absolutely no intention of telling her about Tracy or his past experiences with women. There was nothing glorious there and he wasn’t fond of these memories. And, obviously, when she came back to him, he didn’t feel like telling her about what had happened shortly before. He was so scared to lose her again. However, it felt good to be honest with her. He meant every word he said when he told her he would do anything for her. As far as he was concerned, she was the only woman in the world. He got up and took her hand. 

How about we go back to our room ? He offered. 

We can stay here, she said. I don’t mind. 

Come on. The penthouse suite is bigger, the bed is more comfortable and all our stuff is there, he argued. 

She shrugged and they left the room. All he wanted was to climb in bed with her and cuddle while she wore one of his tee-shirts. She was the only thing he was interested in. However, he was brought back to reality when they saw Tracy in the corridor. Putting all of the team on the same hotel floor had its advantages but also its drawbacks. 

Hi, Tracy said. 

Hey, he said. 

Are you alright, dear ? Tracy asked Y/N while she grabbed her arm. I am so sorry you had to hear that. Really, I am mortified. 

Don’t worry about it,  his girlfriend said with a smile he knew for a fact was fake

Marsh, I’ll need to see you before I leave, Tracy said. We’ll need to go over your schedule for when you get back from your break. 

Sure, he said. Can that wait ? 

Of course. I’m leaving tomorrow night. 

Good then, he said. Goodnight Tracy. 

They went back to the room and, as soon as they closed the door, his girlfriend looked at him with a deadpan expression. 

I swear to God, Marsh, if that woman talks to me like a child and grabs my arm one more time, I will make sure it’s the last thing she ever does, she said. 

She meant no harm, he assured her. She’s like that with everybody. 

Not with me, she assured him. I will not have it. I swear I will go all BTK on her. 

I’m starting to regret all the times I showed you true crime documentaries, he muttered. 

She called you Marsh in front of me and was batting her eyelashes at you, she pointed out sternly. 

She was not, and everyone calls me Marsh, he chuckled. But I do like that you’re jealous. Now, how about you let me prove to you that you are the one and only woman I care about ? 

He spoke seductively and pulled her to him before kissing her passionately. She laughed softly into the kiss, making his heart melt. He ran his hands underneath her dress, gently grabbing her butt. She moaned softly and he could not resist kissing her neck, sucking on her sweet spot before carrying her to the bed. 

We still don’t have condoms, she reminded him. 

Jesus fucking Christ, he groaned. I don’t suppose we can call the front desk ? 

Probably not, she giggled. Why don’t you send your assistant to the nearest pharmacy ? Maybe she’ll get the message. 

You are the pettiest woman ever, do you know that ? He chortled. 

And you love it, she said with a smirk. 

I probably shouldn’t, but I do, he admitted. God, you’re fucking perfect. I want you so bad, it’s frustrating. 

Maybe that’s karma, she said. 

He gave her a playful side-eye. It was clear that, even though she had acknowledged that they weren’t together and that he could technically do what he wanted with Tracy, she was jealous. It made him smile though : it meant she cared. Plus, she was way too cute for him to think it was annoying, not to mention the fact that she was probably too nice for it to become an actual problem. 

I think Karma was when I had the opportunity to get some and the universe wouldn’t let me, he pointed out. 

Maybe she’s just bad in bed, his girlfriend shrugged with a smirk. 

No, that’s not… I mean, yeah, probably, he said as he caught himself. 

They chuckled and he kissed her forehead. At least, they were able to laugh about it. He got in his boxers and she put on one of his tee-shirts before getting under the covers. She curled up on his side as they watched a movie. He could feel her falling asleep and it gave him peace of mind. He breathing was slow and steady against his skin. He closed his eyes and muttered a few love words. He was about to fall asleep when he felt his phone buzzing next to him. He quickly grabbed it and saw a text from Tracy. 

From Tracy : Can we talk ? 

He glanced at Y/N to make sure she was asleep before replying. 

To Tracy : I’m in bed. What’s up ? 

From Tracy : Can you come to my room ? I’d like to finish our conversation.

[evidenceof]

RPF Services Edition Fic Rec:  amazing real adventure stories, vol. 46 by @sea-changed (foxlives on AO3)

Peace, justice, freedom, and other lies your country taught you.

Fandom: Band of Brothers Character: Joe Liebgott

Read this incredible character study of Lieb waaay back in June, haven't stopped thinking about and revisiting it since. War is hell and time is cyclical. Joe is right in the middle of it all, refusing to take off his dog tags. So painfully grounded in historical context, you will look at it through the eyes of this Joe Liebgott. The scratched up latrine walls that read the same way as Guarnere's, "that prick's a son of Abraham." Critiques the camaraderie/brothers-in-arms/as-long-as-we-have-each-other narrative by putting focus right back into the war and who suffers for it. Winters is not the golden boy. Instead we have Joe, a scab constantly picked and never quite healing. The writing is incredible, but godd GOD the context. Everything is destabilized and Joe Liebgott can't seem to resurface. I love this fic so much.

“You will always be at the camp. You will always be on the plane. You will always be in the foxhole. Time, which before the war had always run straight, has come off its tracks. Nothing stays where it's supposed to. The war is then; the war is now; the war is forever."

Art featured is a mock up I based off of Armed Services Editions. I used elements from the original book cover for Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the mini book cover detail a tiny illustration of Liebgott in my attempt at Dick Tracy style).

[a-little-bit-of-tradition]

Two years after his departure from Chicago P.D., Jesse Lee Soffer is staying within the Dick Wolf universe for his big return to series television. As the new team leader of CBS' globe-trotting police procedural, FBI: International, Soffer officially moves on from Detective Jay Halstead, the character he played from 2013 to 2022, and begins a fresh chapter as Agent Wesley "Wes" Mitchell.

Discussions did take place between Soffer and showrunner Matt Olmstead, who oversaw the first five seasons of P.D., about whether Jay could feature prominently on FBI: International. After all, the One Chicago and FBI franchises are invariably linked, thanks to a P.D.-FBI crossover episode in 2020. "We joked about it," Soffer told TV Guide. "It was never out of the cards to come back one day." While viewers won't be seeing him flashing his badge as Jay in the streets of Budapest, there is plenty to discover about Wes, whom Soffer describes as unconventional, unaffected, and playing by his own rules.

Ahead of Soffer's debut on FBI: International, the actor opens up about why he signed on to lead the CBS procedural after Luke Kleintank's exit, the differences between Jay and Wes, and why he's okay with forever being associated with his P.D. character.

TV Guide: Did you ever imagine that you would find yourself leading another Dick Wolf series?

Jesse Lee Soffer: It was never out of the cards, even when I left P.D. It was not out of the cards to come back one day. I love that character and he's always going to be in my bones, and I was really grateful to Dick, Peter Jankowski, Anastasia Puglisi, and everybody at Wolf for the opportunity to direct P.D. And then I was like, I kind of want to go back and start acting again. So it wasn't a huge surprise. The surprise was that it was in Budapest.

What led you to say yes to FBI: International and decide that this was the show you wanted to come back for?

Soffer: It's a really fun show. It's really cinematic. I played a cop for so long on [P.D.], and Wes is another cop but he has less baggage than Halstead. It just seemed like a great fit. [Showrunner] Matt [Olmstead] called me after I got the offer and we talked about it. I get to bring a veteran vibe of a guy who knows what he's doing and does things his own way. And I get to bring that energy to this team and that was a fun opportunity.

It's been established that the One Chicago and FBI franchises exist in the same universe after Tracy Spiridakos' P.D. character appeared in an FBI episode in 2020. You're playing a completely new character here. Was there ever a discussion — even a fleeting one — about whether you would play Halstead again?

Soffer: Am I allowed to talk about this? [Pauses] We joked about it. And Hailey Upton's character did a crossover on FBI, so hypothetically her character exists in this universe. But the other joke is that, if she ever showed up on International, Wes would be like, "Do I know you?"

How vital was it for you to familiarize yourself with FBI: International before stepping onto set?

Soffer: I watched a lot of episodes. I watched almost the whole run of the show, I think.

How do you describe Wes? How do you want to introduce your character to audiences?

Soffer: Wes is an ex-cop who's been an FBI agent and was Vo's training officer, so they have an interesting dynamic. He was hard on her, which comes full circle because now she's grateful for that tutelage and she's the one that brings him in. He does things his own way. He doesn't always follow procedure, which gets him into trouble, but his attitude is there's no trouble you can't work your way around. He's always going to, unconventionally, get the job done. I love how carefree he is and his easygoing attitude of, "We're just gonna keep moving forward and get the job done." I'm used to brooding a lot and carrying a lot of baggage, so it's a breath of fresh air.

You alluded to it, but how does Wes compare to Halstead in terms of mannerisms, personality, and how he approaches work?

Soffer: They might hold a gun the same way. But I think their attitudes are really different. I think Halstead was more aggressive, more brooding, had darker thoughts, and Wes is more unaffected and enjoying himself a little more.

What kind of leader is Wes since he's coming in to eventually lead the Fly Team?

Soffer: He's a lead-by-example guy. He's doing his thing and he's going to get the job done. You might like it, you might not like it. But this is how it's going to go.

How would you describe the team dynamic?

Soffer: There's apprehension, there's uncertainty. Smitty is like, "Oh god, he's gonna get us in so much trouble." There are a lot of different dynamics to play out. And the Vo dynamic because there's a backstory and a history there. That ends up being an interesting partnership.

That leads me to my next question. Because he was Vo's training officer, is that a relationship or a partnership people should keep an eye on as it evolves?

Soffer: Yeah, it's definitely something to keep an eye on. She keeps him in line. But because he operates by his own set of rules, sometimes she's got to talk some sense into him and he lets her. He respects her. He respects the agent that she is now and if she tells him he's out of line, he'll go, "OK, I'm out of line. Got it." It's kind of like a big brother-little sister [dynamic].

Are there any other interesting dynamics that develop in the early part of the season?

Soffer: There's a budding friendship with Raines. There's constant frustration with Smitty trying to hold him back. Wes is a bull in a china shop and she's like, "Put a leash on this guy." But I think she likes him and respects that he gets the job done. There's a fun episode where Tate goes undercover and he promotes her, not literally a promotion, but she gets to do some field work.

How have you adapted to filming in Budapest?

Soffer: We get to film in locations where I'm sitting [somewhere] having lunch, or I'm doing lines with a friend, and we're in this beautiful setting. But the tricky part is I can't find the right protein mix. Like, I can't find my brand and that's the hardest part about the job.

Which locations have stood out to you so far?

Soffer: We were in Portugal. We're going to Paris. There are rumors of various places in the U.K. we might go. It's such a fun adventure. Two episodes from now, you're like, "Wait, where are we going to be?" It's really cool.

Another perk of this job, right?

Soffer: And really good coffee. Really good coffee in Budapest. I live above a coffee shop so it's a nice perk.

For people who watched you on Chicago P.D. and are now tuning into FBI: International, they may still associate you with Halsted. Are you OK with that?

Soffer: This is a different thing. Of course Halstead is always going to be in my blood and my bones, and there will always be an association with that [character], I'm sure, for some people. But I hope that the fans watch this and [realize] it's a new attitude, it's a new energy, it's a new vibe, and that's what this is.

Lastly, what do you want people to know about your introduction?

Soffer: I hope they're excited. The one thing I'll say is, I want people to tune in. More eyeballs, that's what we want. The first few episodes are high intensity, action-packed. It's exciting and this new character, Wes, is carefree, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants, and doesn't do things by the book. He's carefree about procedure and unaffected in that way. Tragedy strikes and he's even more carefree [moving forward]. It's going to be a treat for the fans.

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

Round 4 Match 15

propaganda below the cut! (massive wall of text warning)

Tracy Chapman:

"I can’t think of anything clever to say because I’m too busy sighing dreamily"

"GUYS ITS FUCKING TRACY CHAPMAN VOTE FOR HER OR ELSE ILL EAT PLAYDOUGH"

"Tracy Chapman made the best song of all time (fast car)"

"ik im the hope sandoval guy but if hope doesn't make it tracy has to she made me realize i was a lesbian i just thought i was bi then i listened to her and now im a lesbian she is powerful she is strength if you looked at her and looked at my art you would see 20 years of inspiration from one single woman"

"she's too good to commit atrocities to me but im the gore guy and you aren't for that. i would let her take out my vocal chords and use them as floss. i would have her saw down my bones to make a vinyl of her music. i would go on all fours and let her slaughter me like a pig. i want to be her cat"

"The most powerful written and performed voice of the 90s. Everyone, of any nationality or belief system, could feel the words Tracy Chapman sang. She gets her dues but deserves even more."

Stephen Malkmus:

"i can't even stand stephen malkmus but there's a very special girl out there who needs this win"

"My perpetually stoned, nonsensical girlfriend...if we don't invent the time machine soon I might die. He's like 6 ft tall so unfortunately I'd be like one of those birds that ride on giraffes and eat bugs out of their fur. And then I'd die in a weed accident during the recording of Wowee Zowee? Before that though I'd spend 25 hrs a day in bed with him. Alright thanks"

"Stephen Malkmus chronically addicted to moaning and gasping in Pavement songs like he’s getting the best dicking down of his life in the back of the tour bus while everyone else is asleep"

"This is the indie-label match, right? Then it has to be Malkmus, he *made* the scene. And he's still releasing excellent music today. He's just the most influential rockstar of the 90s."

"my gay pavement fan uncle gets out of prison tonight and he knows you ratted him out in '06. the only way to make this right is to vote for stephen"

"Pretty please vote for him, my friend loves him and he really wants him to win"

""There were times he refused to speak to his bandmates, pulling a jacket over his head and referring to himself as "the little bitch"." I have also heard him refer to himself as a brat, a queen, a primadonna, a sociopath, and a narcissist. All of these descriptors have made me want to slam him against a wall and turn his neck fun new colors."

"I mean, Pavement is THEE indie band of the 90s. The lowkey snark, Koreaaaa, so much style that it's wasted. And Malkmus is an understated cool rockstar: the hair, the face, Silver Jews! He never ever sold out. He's the 90s."

"the most beautiful man ever he looks like a gorgeous fairytale prince. he has been hot since he emerged on the scene and continues to be so as their reunion tour comes to a close. stephen forever"

"we have to consider the autism swagger. find me a pavement write up that doesn’t spend three paragraphs waxing lyrical on his inability to make eye contact. find me a YouTube comment section that doesn’t have hoards of moms swooning over his flat affect. his refusal to wear anything more formal than a flannel for the first decade of his career? genuinely culturally influential. 30 glorious years of expressionless performances. sunglasses in the dark. so many straight men falling over themselves for him they made a joke about it in the Barbie movie. raw tbh sex appeal. and he’s got a great nose"

"he had a couple of unfortunate haircuts during this period but highkey i would break both of my arms to just be able to make out with him. please vote for SM my life is in danger if you don't"

[beardedmrbean]

“The founding fathers wouldn’t want this”

“The founding fathers meant something different”

The founding fathers thought women were sex toys and black people should be enslaved forever

Who gives a fuck about what the founding fathers want? They’re ll racists and rapers and are burning in hell for their crimes against god

But sure let’s let those horrible founding fathers guide us through our civilization because they sure know about machine guns/tanks/Facebook/phones/cars/anything at issue in the world

They gave us a framework, one they knew wasn't perfect so they also included a way to change it but made it so changing it would be difficult so it couldn't be done a whim.

As for firearms they likely saw repeating arms becoming a thing as well as many other things, consider some of their ages when they put pen to paper.

My grandfather was born before commercial radio was a thing, when he died he'd seen us go land on the moon and have Dick Tracy's watch radio become reality in the form of smartwatches.

His father saw the birth of the automobile and airplane, electricity put to wide use, served in both world wars, saw man land on the moon, and all kinds of other innovations. Mother much the same except the world wars bit.

I've been around since before the CD, home computers, and the internet and look where we are now with all of that.

Foolish to think they wouldn't anticipate improvements in all walks of life, also several of them were abolitionists just not enough of them sadly.

That sex toy bit is untrue as well, as a blanket statement at least Franklin was a manwhore, but women were partners back then, there was tons of sexism and sexist laws and all that (not so) good stuff, really though who wasn't.

Like I said they left us a mechanism for change and if you can convince enough people that your position is the good one that change can happen.

Good luck given that there's only been 17 after the initial 10 needed to get the states signed on post revolution and one of those was there to cancel out the other (prohibition was a dumb idea)

I see that crimes against God thing there too, got bad news for you about a lot of the people involved in the major world faiths from when they were formed.

Whew lads.

But hey, most of them have abandoned the majorly bad bits, don't stone children for cursing their parents anymore and such, slavery is strongly frowned upon by most of the 10 global religions with the most adherents.

Buck up buttercup, things get better, takes time is all.

[saltlickmp3]

hi mack i have not seen or read good omens but here’s 002 for aziraphale so you can be matchy matchy :))

hehe thanks murph <33 appreciate it

how i feel about this character -

HOO BOY do i have feelings about this character. ofc Aziraphale is so loveable and wonderful & i do love him so much BUT he's complex in a way Crowley isn't. there's this bit of fic that sums it up really really well uhh here's the fic if anyone is wondering

he is so full of contradictions and thinking multiple things at once and mentally tying himself in knots to get himself to do things he Knows are the right thing to do (or even just. something he likes doing) which is such a fascinating thing to watch but also really heartbreaking if i think about it too much. like i love aziraphale and want to give him a big hug but also i want to argue with him sometimes. like in the 1827 minisode he is kinda a dick and absolutely zero-nuances the whole situation, but it's even worse because you can see exactly how he thinks what he's doing is right. i will defend his decision (key word decision!!) to go back to heaven forever because He Is Doing What He Thinks Is Right. he's also such a sweetheart, i too would like to live in a bookstore full of dusty old tomes & wear the same waistcoat for ~200 years.

all the people i ship romantically with this character -

can only be Crowley. there's a fun theory Aziraphale had an affair with Oscar Wilde while Crowley was sleeping through the 1800s but lets be real here he's saving himself for marriage (/JOKING OKAY) it was flirting for fun at most

non-romantic otp for this character -

i really had to think about this one but i think Madame Tracy. i mean there's a reason that of all the psychics in london he ended up in Madame Tracy's head, i just think they'd get along fairly well. they'd have high tea together. scones. but in reality i think he'd mostly rather be reading than making friends. ooh and he'd get along with Newt too i think.

[while typing this i realised that in the Crowley one i missed that Crowley & Anathema would get along Excellently hehe]

unpopular opinion about this character -

people like to paint him as being completely brainwashed by heaven HE'S NOT STUPID. HE KNOWS WHEN HE'S REPEATING A PARTY LINE WHEN HE DOESN'T MEAN IT. CROWLEY KNOWS THIS TOO. HE SAYS SHIT HE DOESN'T AGREE WITH ALL THE TIME. JUST COS HE FEELS LIKE HE HAS TO SAY IT DOESn'T MEAN HE'S BRAINWASHEDDDDDDD AHHHHHHHHHH sorry i just really hate that one. re: contradicting ideas in his head!! working himself into loopholes for right and wrong!! people like 'ohhh he's so distant in *whatever time period* it's cos heaven brainwashed him after they found out he was seeing Crowley!!!1! HE'S BEING NORMAL HE'S JUST EXTRA TOUCHY FEELY IN 1941 & S2 THAT DOESN'T MEAN HE'S BEING AWFUL EVERY OTHER TIMEEEEEEEEE augh. sorry. anyways. moving on

one thing i wish would happen / had happened in canon -

ough it would have been fun to see him fem presenting. i think he would have a really fun time gossiping with rich noblewomen & getting into court drama heheee

otp -

literally can only be Crowley <33

crossover ship (platonically) -

i think he'd be good friends with Zachary from the Starless Sea - for one they'd hide at opposite ends of the bookshop and read in silence and just peacefully coexist. but they woudl not so much get into situations as try very hard to avoid every situation ever cos they're in the middle of a chapter and don't want to talk to anyone other than like. three specific people. & they both know what it's like to just be someone else's part in the plan/story & have to find your own role in it.

Aziraphale & the Eleventh Doctor was the first thing i thought of but honestly they're too similar they'd drive each other up the wall half the time. the other half they'd be good but the slightest annoyance & they'd be at eachother

headcanon for them -

we already know he can draw really well FROM MEMORY so i reckon he has pages and pages of drawings of Crowley in every ridiculous outfit he's ever worn, smiling and sulking & sleeping & drinking & sprawled over on the couch & he hides them away in a drawer so no one ever finds them but he has them.

baby angel :D

[quoththemaven]

2023 Favoritest Book Reads

Vineland - Pynchon, Thomas

Prophet - Blaché, Sin & Helen Macdonald

And the Ass Saw the Angel - Cave, Nick

Lou Reed: The King of New York - Hermes, Will 

The Color of Magic (Discworld, #1; Rincewind, #1) - Pratchett, Terry

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative - Kleon, Austin 

Sonic Life: A Memoir - Moore, Thurston

The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1) - Jemisin, N.K. 

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law - Roach, Mary

Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too - Sun, Jonny

The Night Masquerade (Binti, #3) - Okorafor, Nnedi 

Home (Binti, #2) - Okorafor, Nnedi 

Binti: Sacred Fire (Binti, #1.5) - Okorafor, Nnedi 

Binti (Binti, #1) - Okorafor, Nnedi 

Black Paradox - Ito, Junji

David Bowie's Low (33 1/3) - Wilcken, Hugo

Faith, Hope and Carnage - Cave, Nick

The Sirens of Titan - Vonnegut Jr., Kurt

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth - Aslan, Reza

Smashed - Ito, Junji

Time Shelter - Gospodinov, Georgi

Brian Eno's Another Green World (33 1/3) - Dayal, Geeta

Armageddon in Retrospect - Vonnegut Jr., Kurt

Neverwhere (London Below, #1) - Gaiman, Neil 

The Committed (The Sympathizer #2) - Nguyen, Viet Thanh 

Into the Great Wide Open - Canty, Kevin 

Mongrels - Jones, Stephen Graham 

DisneyWar - Stewart, James B.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex - Roach, Mary

The Left Hand of Darkness - Le Guin, Ursula K.

My Bloody Valentine's Loveless (33 1/3) - McGonigal, Mike 

Suttree - McCarthy, Cormac

Life's Work: A Memoir - Milch, David

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - Schwab, V.E.

Against the Day - Pynchon, Thomas

Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood - Ryan, Maureen 

Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA (33 1/3) - Himes, Geoffrey

La Moustache - Carrère, Emmanuel

Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid (33 1/3) - Favreau, Alyssa 

Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea - Pinsker, Sarah 

The Man Without a Shadow - Oates, Joyce Carol

The City & the City - Miéville, China 

Mem - Morrow, Bethany C. 

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Harari, Yuval Noah

Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs (33 1/3) - Eidelstein, Eric

Gutshot - Gray, Amelia 

The Price of Time (Watch What You Wish For #1) - Tigner, Tim 

The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers and Slayers Who Changed TV Drama Forever - Sepinwall, Alan 

Just Kids - Smith, Patti 

Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir - Hindman, Jessica Chiccehitto 

Flicker - Roszak, Theodore

Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers - Miller, James Andrew 

Flashback - Simmons, Dan

Flaming Lips' Zaireeka (33 1/3) - Richardson, Mark 

The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer #1) - Nguyen, Viet Thanh 

Pavement's Wowee Zowee (33 1/3) - Charles, Bryan

Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1) - Gibson, William

Invisible Cities - Calvino, Italo

Don't Fear the Reaper (The Indian Lake Trilogy, #2) - Jones, Stephen Graham 

The Wes Anderson Collection - Seitz, Matt Zoller

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said - Dick, Philip K.

Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly (33 1/3) - Maner, Sequoia

The Nineties - Klosterman, Chuck

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Zevin, Gabrielle 

Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age - Mitenbuler, Reid

A Heart That Works - Delaney, Rob 

Imago (Xenogenesis, #3) - Butler, Octavia E.

Cryptonomicon (Crypto, #1) - Stephenson, Neal 

Blacktop Wasteland - Cosby, S.A. 

Pearl Jam's Vs. (33 1/3) - Brownlee, Clint

Tracy Flick Can't Win - Perrotta, Tom

Devil House - Darnielle, John 

Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis, #2) - Butler, Octavia E.

Heat 2 - Mann, Michael & Meg Gardiner

Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures (33 1/3) - Ott, Chris

Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1) - Butler, Octavia E.

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Stephenson, Neal 

The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3) - Lynch, Scott 

The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam, #2) - Atwood, Margaret 

[idkaguyorsomething]

Shitty Superhero Tournament Rules and Bracket

Finally, ¡the tournament is about to begin! The bracket will be posted under the cut, but first let’s get some clarifications and rules out of the way:

The movies here have been selected (with two exceptions*) based on their Rotten Tomatoes movie scores and do not reflect my opinion of their quality. The tournament will be divided into six rounds.

Each movie will come with a quick summary of some of its highlights (or lowlights, depending on your point of view) but feel free to create and submit your own propaganda.

You may vote in any way you want, rooting for whatever gives you the most entertainment in a train wreck sort of way, the movie that’s the most incompetently made, a film you feel is actually really good, or however you want to interpret what the winner of a Shitty Superhero Movie Tournament entails.

Personal attacks/bigoted comments and propaganda WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. If you are here looking for an excuse to be racist/sexist/homophobic/anti-semitic/body-shaming/a dick to people trying to collect a paycheck under the corporate grindstone, fuck off. Just because these movies may be shitty doesn’t mean you should be.

If I make a factual error, feel free to correct me on it. Reblogs are encourage, ofc.

¡Have fun and be kind to each other!

THE BRACKET:

Superman III (1983) vs Green Lantern: First Flight (2009)

>

Fant4stic (2015) vs Ghost Rider (2007)

>

Black Adam (2022) vs Man-Thing (2005)

>

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) vs Dick Tracy (1990)

>

Constantine (2005) vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

>

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) vs Morbius (2022)

>

The New Mutants (2020) vs Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

>

Catwoman (2004) vs Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

>

The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) vs Batman and Harley Quinn (2017)

>

Elektra (2005) vs The Amazing Spider-Man (1977)

>

Howard the Duck (1986) vs The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988)

>

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) vs The Amazing Bulk (2010)

>

Man of Steel (2013) vs Spider-Man 3 (2007)

>

Blade II (2002) vs Captain America (1990)

>

Blade: Trinity (2004) vs The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

>

Batman Forever (1995) vs Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (2008)

>

Supergirl (1984) vs Superman: Doomsday (2007)

>

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) vs Punisher: War Zone (2008)

>

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) vs The Fantastic Four (1994)

>

Justice League (2017) vs Tank Girl (1995)

>

Jonah Hex (2010) vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)

>

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) vs Eternals (2021)

>

Daredevil (2003) vs Dark Phoenix (2019)

>

Steel (1997) vs Super Buddies (2013)

>

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) vs Iron Man: Rise of the Technovore (2013)

>

Fantastic Four (2005) vs Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)

>

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) vs The Punisher (1989)

>

Suicide Squad (2016) vs Hellboy (2019)

>

Green Lantern (2011) vs The Flash (2023)

>

X-Men: Origins; Wolverine (2009) vs Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

>

The Punisher (2004) vs Venom (2018)

>

Batman and Robin (1997) vs Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010)

[whyihatemidou]

I forgot about this Dick Tracy genderbend I made for class forever ago... what was even the assignment

[brookston]

Holidays 10.4

Holidays

Assault on Friedrichstadt Day (Denmark)

Blessing of the Animals at the Cathedral Day

Cable Street Day (UK)

Carrying in the Pudding (London, UK)

Crew Appreciation Day

Ctenophore Day

Day of Peace and Reconciliation (Mozambique)

Day of the Space Forces (Russia)

Dick Tracy Day

eDay (New Zealand)

Forever Alone Day

Get Your Friend Day

Global Work From Home (WFH) Day

Golf Lovers Day (a.k.a. National Golf Day)

Hug a Non-Meat Eater Day

Improve Your Office Day

International Dakota Johnson Day

International No Disposable Cup Day

International Sputnik Day

International Toot Your Flute Day

International Walk & Bike to School Day

International Wound Hygiene Day

International Zookeeper Day

Kids Music Day

Kindness to Animals Day

National Capicola / Capocollo / Gabagool Day

National CB Radio Day

National Clothespin Day

National COVID-19 Remembrance Day

National Day of Action for Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls & Two-Spirit People (Canada)

National Day of Chilean Music (Chile)

National Day of Life (Colombia)

National 4-H Spirit Day

National Laura Day

National Mask Exemption Awareness Day

National Ship in a Bottle Day

National Side Bae Day

National Sisters in Spirit Day (Canada)

National Talk Like a Trucker Day

National Teach German Day

National Trucker’s Appreciation Day

Odd Socks Day (Australia)

Peace and Reconciliation Day (Mozambique)

See the Light Day

Snoopy Day

Space Forces Day (Russia)

Territory Day (Christmas Island)

Thanksgiving Day (Saint Lucia)

Thimpu Tsechu (Bhutan)

Ten-Four Day

What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? Day

Winter Squash Day (French Republic)

World Animal Day

World College Radio Day

World Day of Bullying Prevention

World Pet’s Day

World RBD Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Canadian Beer Day

Cinnamon Roll Day (Finland)

Kanelbullens Dag (Cinnamon Bun Day; Sweden)

National Frappe Day

National Taco Day

National Vodka Day

Sardines Day (Japan)

Independence & Related Days

Belgium (from the Netherlands, 1830)

Constitution Day (Vanuatu)

Lesotho (from UK, 1966)

1st Friday in October

Bandcamp Friday [1st Friday]

Barrel-Aged Beer Day [1st Friday]

Byte Night (UK) [1st Friday]

Cerrado Mineiro Day [1st Friday]

Children’s Day (Singapore) [1st Friday]

College Radio Day [1st Friday]

Comfort Food Friday [Every Friday]

Fast Food Friday [1st Friday of Each Month]

Five For Friday [Every Friday]

Flashback Friday [Every Friday]

Freaky Friday [1st Friday of Each Month]

French Canadian Heritage Day (Michigan) [1st Friday]

Friday Finds [Every Friday]

Fry Day (Pastafarian; Fritism) [Every Friday]

Kids Music Day [1st Friday]

Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest begins (Canada) [Friday before 2nd Monday thru 10.19]

Manufacturing Day (a.k.a. MFG Day) [1st Friday]

National Beep Beep Day (Ireland) [1st Friday]

National Body Language Day [1st Friday]

National Denim Day (a.k.a. Lee National Denim Day) [1st Friday]

National Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) Recognition Day [1st Friday]

National Diversity Day [1st Friday]

National Potato Day (Ireland) [1st Friday]

National Tree Planting Day (Jamaica) [1st Friday]

Plaidurday [1st Friday]

TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) [Every Friday]

World College Radio Day [1st Friday]

World Multiplication Table Day [1st Friday]

World Smile Day [1st Friday]

Weekly Holidays beginning October 4 (1st Week of October)

Cleveland Beer Week (Cleveland, Ohio) [thru 10.13]

Milford Restaurant Week (Milford, Connecticut) [thru 10.13]

National Manufacturing Week (thru 10.10) [Begins 1st Friday]

National Storytelling Week (thru 10.6) [1st Full Weekend]

World Space Week (thru 10.10)

Festivals Beginning October 4, 2024

Alabama Butterbean Festival (Pinson, Alabama) [thru 10.5]

Alabama National Fair (Montgomery, Alabama) [thru 10.14]

Anacortes Bier Near The Pier (Anacortes, Washington) [thru 10.5]

Applefest Celebration (Franklin, Pennsylvania) [thru 10.6]

Apple Harvest Festival (Southington, Connecticut) [thru 10.6 & 10.11-13]

Arkansas Apple Festival (Lincoln, Arkansas) [thru 10.6]

Art & Wine Walk (Chico, California) [thru 10.6]

Austin City Lights (Austin, Texas) [thru 10.13]

Bayfield Apple Festival (Bayfield, Wisconsin) [thru 10.6]

Beaufort Shrimp Festival (Beaufort, South Carolina) [thru 10.5]

Berlin Festival of Lights (Berlin, Germany) [thru 10.13]

Berwick Riverfest (Berwick, Pennsylvania) [thru 10.6]

Bloomfield Apple Festival (Bloomfield, Indiana) [thru 10.6]

Brews and Brats Oktoberfest (Kingman, Arizona) [thru 10.5]

Brunswick Pecan Festival (Brunswick, Missouri) [thru 10.6]

California Avocado Festival (Carpinteria, California) [thru 10.6]

Cedaredge Applefest (Cedaredge, Colorado) [thru 10.6]

Clayton Oktoberfest (Clayton, California) [thru 10.6]

Colisium International Music Forum (Moscow, Russia.) [thru 10.5]

Ertel Cellars Winery 18th Annual Festival (Batesville, Indiana) [thru 10.5]

Fall into Tupelo featuring Chili Fest (Tupelo, Mississippi) [thru 10.5]

Great Highwood Pumpkin Festival (Highwood, Illinois) [thru 10.6]

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival (San Francisco, California) [thru 10.6]

Harrisburg Wine and Fine Spirits Festival (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)

L.A. Comic Con (Los Angeles, California) [thru 10.6]

Lebanese Food Festival (Lewisville, Texas) [thru 10.6]

Lincoln Park Wine Festival (Chicago, Illinois) [thru 10.6]

Lone Star Gourd Festival (Dripping Springs, Texas) [thru 10.5]

Louisiana Cattle Festival & Fair (Abbeville, Louisiana) [thru 10.6]

MagicCon (Bonn, Germany) [thu 10.6]

The New York Coffee Festival (New York, New York) [thru 10.6]

North Carolina Seafood Festival (Morehead City, North Carolina) [thru 10.6]

Ohio Gourd Show (Delaware, Ohio) [thru 10.6]

Oktoberfest (Amana Colonies, Iowa) [thru 10.6]

Oktoberfest (Fredericksburg, Texas) [thru 10.6]

Oktoberfest (Lava Hot Springs, Idaho) [thru 10.5]

Oktoberfest Northwest (Puyallup, Washington) [thru 10.6]

Ozark Fall FarmFest (Springfield, Missouri) [thru 10.6]

Pumpkinfest (Zeeland, Michigan) [thru 10.5]

Pumpkinfest (Webster, South Dakota) [thru 10.5]

Republic Pumpkin Daze (Republic, Missouri) [thru 10.5]

Sorghum Festival (Springfield, Kentucky) [thru 10.5]

Squealin' on the Square (Laurens, South Carolina) [thru 10.5]

Springs Folk Festival (Springs, Pennsylvania) [thru 10.5]

St. George Antiochian Orthodox Food Festival (Phoenix, Arizona) [thru 10.6]

Twin Cities Oktoberfest (St. Paul, Minnesota) [thru 10.5]

Unicoi County Apple Festival (Erwin, Tennessee) [thru 10.5]

West Point Crab Carnival (West Point, Virginia) [thru 10.5]

Feast Days

Amun (a.k.a. Ammon; Christian; Saint)

Anne Rice (Writerism)

Aurea (Christian; Saint)

Beethoven (Positivist; Saint)

Buster Keaton Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Buttering-Up Final (Shamanism)

Chong Yeung Festival (Festival of Ancestors; Macau)

David & Dickory (Muppetism)

Day of Victory of Heaven (Unification Church)

Double Ninth Festival (China) [9th day of 9th Lunar month]

Edwin, King of Northumberland (Christian; Saint)

Elder’s Day (China) [9th Day of 9th Lunar Month]

Feast of Hathor (Egyptian God of Drunkenness)

Fortified Wines Day (Pastafarian)

Francesco Solimena (Artology)

Francis of Assisi (Christian; Saint)

Frederic Remington (Artology)

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Artology)

Jejunium Cereris (Fast of Ceres; Ancient Rome; Everyday Wicca)

Jean-François Millet (Artology)

Jejunium Cereris (Feast for Demeter; Pagan)

Kazuki Takahashi (Artology)

Lucas Cranach the Younger (Artology)

Marcus and Marcian (Christian; Martyrs)

Martyrs of Triers (Christian; Saint)

October Winds Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Petronius of Bologna (Christian; Saint)

Pietro Consagra (Artology)

Robert Lawson (Artology)

Roy Blount Jr. (Writerism)

Wolf Kahn (Artology)

Hebrew Calendar Holidays [Begins at Sundown Day Before]

Rosh Hashanah, Day 3 (Ends at Sundown; Judaism) [29 Elul-2 TIshrei]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Prime Number Day: 277 [59 of 72]

Unfortunate Day (Pagan) [46 of 57]

Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [46 of 60]

Premieres

ABC After School Specials (TV Series; 1972)

Alice in the Wooly West (Ub Iwerks Alice Disney Cartoon; 1926)

All the Right Reasons, by Nickelback (Album; 2005)

An American in Paris (Film; 1951)

Around the World (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1931)

The Batman Superman Movie: World’s Finest (WB Animated Film; 1997)

Beverly Hills 90120 (TV Series; 1990)

Blackboard Jumble (Droopy MGM Cartoon; 1957)

Bound (Film; 1996)

Bridge of Spies (Film; 2015)

Commando (Film; 1985)

Dolemite Is My Name (Film; 2019)

The EGGcited Rooster (WB MM Cartoon; 1952)

Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective, by Donald J. Sobol (Novel; 1963)

Extraordinary Machine, by Fiona Apple (Album; 2005)

The Flintstones: Wind-Up Wilma (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Special; 1981)

Goldie Locks and the Three Bears (Ub Iwerks Laugh-O-Grams Cartoon; 1922)

Gravity (Film; 2013)

How Wet Was My Ocean (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1940)

Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby, by Louis Jordan (Song; 1943)

Joker (Film; 2019)

Jumping with Toy (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1957)

Knight Templar, by Leslie Charteris (Novel; 1930) [Saint #4]

The Last Emperor (Film; 1987)

Last of the Curlews (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Special; 1972)

Leave It To Beaver (TV Series; 1957)

The Longest Day (Film; 1962)

Lost Horizon, by James Hilton (Novel; 1933)

Lovesick (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit; 1937)

The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick (Novel; 1962)

The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, by Albert Camus (Essays; 1942)

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Japanese Anime; 1995)

Notes on Democracy, by H.L. Mencken (Political Book; 1926)

River Ribber (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1945)

The Saint, starring Roger Moore (TV Series; 1962)

Showdown (Fleischer Cartoon; 1942) [#11]

Spree for All (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1946)

That Thing You Do (Film; 1996)26)

Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! (WB Animated Film; 2022)

200 Motels, by Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention (Soundtrack Album; 1968)

Walls & Bridges, by John Lennon (Album; 1974)

Today’s Name Days

Aurea, Edwin, Franz (Austria)

Franciska, Franjo, Franka (Croatia)

František (Czech Republic)

Franciscus (Denmark)

Randel, Rando, Randolf, Ranno (Estonia)

Frans, Saija, Saila (Finland)

Aure, Bérénice, François, Frank, Orianne, Sarah (France)

Aurora, Edwin, Emma, Franz, Thea (Germany)

Ierotheos, Kallisthenis, Verina (Greece)

Ferenc (Hungary)

Francesco, Petronio (Italy)

Francis, Modra, Zaigonis (Latvia)

Eivydė, Mąstautas, Pranas, Pranciškus (Lithuania)

Frank, Frans (Norway)

Edwin, Franciszek, Konrad, Konrada, Manfred, Manfreda, Rozalia (Poland)

Ierotei (Romania)

František (Slovakia)

Francisco (Spain)

Frank, Frans (Sweden)

Damara, Damaris, Berenice, Bernice, Bonita, Bonnie, Bunny, Fannie, Fanny, Frances, Francesca, Francesco, Francine, Francis, Francisco, Frank, Frankie (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 278 of 2024; 88 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 5 of Week 40 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Gort (Ivy) [Day 6 of 28]

Chinese: Month 9 (Jia-Xu), Day 2 (Xin-Chou)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 2 Tishri 5785

Islamic: 30 Rabi I 1446

J Cal: 8 Orange; Onesday [8 of 30]

Julian: 21 September 2024

Moon: 3%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 26 Shakespeare (10th Month) [Weber / Rossini]

Runic Half Month: Gyfu (Gift) [Day 13 of 15]

Season: Autumn or Fall (Day 13 of 90)

Week: Last Week of September/1st Week of October

Zodiac: Libra (Day 12 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 10.4

Holidays

Assault on Friedrichstadt Day (Denmark)

Blessing of the Animals at the Cathedral Day

Cable Street Day (UK)

Carrying in the Pudding (London, UK)

Crew Appreciation Day

Ctenophore Day

Day of Peace and Reconciliation (Mozambique)

Day of the Space Forces (Russia)

Dick Tracy Day

eDay (New Zealand)

Forever Alone Day

Get Your Friend Day

Global Work From Home (WFH) Day

Golf Lovers Day (a.k.a. National Golf Day)

Hug a Non-Meat Eater Day

Improve Your Office Day

International Dakota Johnson Day

International No Disposable Cup Day

International Sputnik Day

International Toot Your Flute Day

International Walk & Bike to School Day

International Wound Hygiene Day

International Zookeeper Day

Kids Music Day

Kindness to Animals Day

National Capicola / Capocollo / Gabagool Day

National CB Radio Day

National Clothespin Day

National COVID-19 Remembrance Day

National Day of Action for Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls & Two-Spirit People (Canada)

National Day of Chilean Music (Chile)

National Day of Life (Colombia)

National 4-H Spirit Day

National Laura Day

National Mask Exemption Awareness Day

National Ship in a Bottle Day

National Side Bae Day

National Sisters in Spirit Day (Canada)

National Talk Like a Trucker Day

National Teach German Day

National Trucker’s Appreciation Day

Odd Socks Day (Australia)

Peace and Reconciliation Day (Mozambique)

See the Light Day

Snoopy Day

Space Forces Day (Russia)

Territory Day (Christmas Island)

Thanksgiving Day (Saint Lucia)

Thimpu Tsechu (Bhutan)

Ten-Four Day

What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? Day

Winter Squash Day (French Republic)

World Animal Day

World College Radio Day

World Day of Bullying Prevention

World Pet’s Day

World RBD Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Canadian Beer Day

Cinnamon Roll Day (Finland)

Kanelbullens Dag (Cinnamon Bun Day; Sweden)

National Frappe Day

National Taco Day

National Vodka Day

Sardines Day (Japan)

Independence & Related Days

Belgium (from the Netherlands, 1830)

Constitution Day (Vanuatu)

Lesotho (from UK, 1966)

1st Friday in October

Bandcamp Friday [1st Friday]

Barrel-Aged Beer Day [1st Friday]

Byte Night (UK) [1st Friday]

Cerrado Mineiro Day [1st Friday]

Children’s Day (Singapore) [1st Friday]

College Radio Day [1st Friday]

Comfort Food Friday [Every Friday]

Fast Food Friday [1st Friday of Each Month]

Five For Friday [Every Friday]

Flashback Friday [Every Friday]

Freaky Friday [1st Friday of Each Month]

French Canadian Heritage Day (Michigan) [1st Friday]

Friday Finds [Every Friday]

Fry Day (Pastafarian; Fritism) [Every Friday]

Kids Music Day [1st Friday]

Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest begins (Canada) [Friday before 2nd Monday thru 10.19]

Manufacturing Day (a.k.a. MFG Day) [1st Friday]

National Beep Beep Day (Ireland) [1st Friday]

National Body Language Day [1st Friday]

National Denim Day (a.k.a. Lee National Denim Day) [1st Friday]

National Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) Recognition Day [1st Friday]

National Diversity Day [1st Friday]

National Potato Day (Ireland) [1st Friday]

National Tree Planting Day (Jamaica) [1st Friday]

Plaidurday [1st Friday]

TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) [Every Friday]

World College Radio Day [1st Friday]

World Multiplication Table Day [1st Friday]

World Smile Day [1st Friday]

Weekly Holidays beginning October 4 (1st Week of October)

Cleveland Beer Week (Cleveland, Ohio) [thru 10.13]

Milford Restaurant Week (Milford, Connecticut) [thru 10.13]

National Manufacturing Week (thru 10.10) [Begins 1st Friday]

National Storytelling Week (thru 10.6) [1st Full Weekend]

World Space Week (thru 10.10)

Festivals Beginning October 4, 2024

Alabama Butterbean Festival (Pinson, Alabama) [thru 10.5]

Alabama National Fair (Montgomery, Alabama) [thru 10.14]

Anacortes Bier Near The Pier (Anacortes, Washington) [thru 10.5]

Applefest Celebration (Franklin, Pennsylvania) [thru 10.6]

Apple Harvest Festival (Southington, Connecticut) [thru 10.6 & 10.11-13]

Arkansas Apple Festival (Lincoln, Arkansas) [thru 10.6]

Art & Wine Walk (Chico, California) [thru 10.6]

Austin City Lights (Austin, Texas) [thru 10.13]

Bayfield Apple Festival (Bayfield, Wisconsin) [thru 10.6]

Beaufort Shrimp Festival (Beaufort, South Carolina) [thru 10.5]

Berlin Festival of Lights (Berlin, Germany) [thru 10.13]

Berwick Riverfest (Berwick, Pennsylvania) [thru 10.6]

Bloomfield Apple Festival (Bloomfield, Indiana) [thru 10.6]

Brews and Brats Oktoberfest (Kingman, Arizona) [thru 10.5]

Brunswick Pecan Festival (Brunswick, Missouri) [thru 10.6]

California Avocado Festival (Carpinteria, California) [thru 10.6]

Cedaredge Applefest (Cedaredge, Colorado) [thru 10.6]

Clayton Oktoberfest (Clayton, California) [thru 10.6]

Colisium International Music Forum (Moscow, Russia.) [thru 10.5]

Ertel Cellars Winery 18th Annual Festival (Batesville, Indiana) [thru 10.5]

Fall into Tupelo featuring Chili Fest (Tupelo, Mississippi) [thru 10.5]

Great Highwood Pumpkin Festival (Highwood, Illinois) [thru 10.6]

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival (San Francisco, California) [thru 10.6]

Harrisburg Wine and Fine Spirits Festival (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)

L.A. Comic Con (Los Angeles, California) [thru 10.6]

Lebanese Food Festival (Lewisville, Texas) [thru 10.6]

Lincoln Park Wine Festival (Chicago, Illinois) [thru 10.6]

Lone Star Gourd Festival (Dripping Springs, Texas) [thru 10.5]

Louisiana Cattle Festival & Fair (Abbeville, Louisiana) [thru 10.6]

MagicCon (Bonn, Germany) [thu 10.6]

The New York Coffee Festival (New York, New York) [thru 10.6]

North Carolina Seafood Festival (Morehead City, North Carolina) [thru 10.6]

Ohio Gourd Show (Delaware, Ohio) [thru 10.6]

Oktoberfest (Amana Colonies, Iowa) [thru 10.6]

Oktoberfest (Fredericksburg, Texas) [thru 10.6]

Oktoberfest (Lava Hot Springs, Idaho) [thru 10.5]

Oktoberfest Northwest (Puyallup, Washington) [thru 10.6]

Ozark Fall FarmFest (Springfield, Missouri) [thru 10.6]

Pumpkinfest (Zeeland, Michigan) [thru 10.5]

Pumpkinfest (Webster, South Dakota) [thru 10.5]

Republic Pumpkin Daze (Republic, Missouri) [thru 10.5]

Sorghum Festival (Springfield, Kentucky) [thru 10.5]

Squealin' on the Square (Laurens, South Carolina) [thru 10.5]

Springs Folk Festival (Springs, Pennsylvania) [thru 10.5]

St. George Antiochian Orthodox Food Festival (Phoenix, Arizona) [thru 10.6]

Twin Cities Oktoberfest (St. Paul, Minnesota) [thru 10.5]

Unicoi County Apple Festival (Erwin, Tennessee) [thru 10.5]

West Point Crab Carnival (West Point, Virginia) [thru 10.5]

Feast Days

Amun (a.k.a. Ammon; Christian; Saint)

Anne Rice (Writerism)

Aurea (Christian; Saint)

Beethoven (Positivist; Saint)

Buster Keaton Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Buttering-Up Final (Shamanism)

Chong Yeung Festival (Festival of Ancestors; Macau)

David & Dickory (Muppetism)

Day of Victory of Heaven (Unification Church)

Double Ninth Festival (China) [9th day of 9th Lunar month]

Edwin, King of Northumberland (Christian; Saint)

Elder’s Day (China) [9th Day of 9th Lunar Month]

Feast of Hathor (Egyptian God of Drunkenness)

Fortified Wines Day (Pastafarian)

Francesco Solimena (Artology)

Francis of Assisi (Christian; Saint)

Frederic Remington (Artology)

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Artology)

Jejunium Cereris (Fast of Ceres; Ancient Rome; Everyday Wicca)

Jean-François Millet (Artology)

Jejunium Cereris (Feast for Demeter; Pagan)

Kazuki Takahashi (Artology)

Lucas Cranach the Younger (Artology)

Marcus and Marcian (Christian; Martyrs)

Martyrs of Triers (Christian; Saint)

October Winds Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Petronius of Bologna (Christian; Saint)

Pietro Consagra (Artology)

Robert Lawson (Artology)

Roy Blount Jr. (Writerism)

Wolf Kahn (Artology)

Hebrew Calendar Holidays [Begins at Sundown Day Before]

Rosh Hashanah, Day 3 (Ends at Sundown; Judaism) [29 Elul-2 TIshrei]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Prime Number Day: 277 [59 of 72]

Unfortunate Day (Pagan) [46 of 57]

Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [46 of 60]

Premieres

ABC After School Specials (TV Series; 1972)

Alice in the Wooly West (Ub Iwerks Alice Disney Cartoon; 1926)

All the Right Reasons, by Nickelback (Album; 2005)

An American in Paris (Film; 1951)

Around the World (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1931)

The Batman Superman Movie: World’s Finest (WB Animated Film; 1997)

Beverly Hills 90120 (TV Series; 1990)

Blackboard Jumble (Droopy MGM Cartoon; 1957)

Bound (Film; 1996)

Bridge of Spies (Film; 2015)

Commando (Film; 1985)

Dolemite Is My Name (Film; 2019)

The EGGcited Rooster (WB MM Cartoon; 1952)

Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective, by Donald J. Sobol (Novel; 1963)

Extraordinary Machine, by Fiona Apple (Album; 2005)

The Flintstones: Wind-Up Wilma (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Special; 1981)

Goldie Locks and the Three Bears (Ub Iwerks Laugh-O-Grams Cartoon; 1922)

Gravity (Film; 2013)

How Wet Was My Ocean (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1940)

Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby, by Louis Jordan (Song; 1943)

Joker (Film; 2019)

Jumping with Toy (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1957)

Knight Templar, by Leslie Charteris (Novel; 1930) [Saint #4]

The Last Emperor (Film; 1987)

Last of the Curlews (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Special; 1972)

Leave It To Beaver (TV Series; 1957)

The Longest Day (Film; 1962)

Lost Horizon, by James Hilton (Novel; 1933)

Lovesick (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit; 1937)

The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick (Novel; 1962)

The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, by Albert Camus (Essays; 1942)

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Japanese Anime; 1995)

Notes on Democracy, by H.L. Mencken (Political Book; 1926)

River Ribber (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1945)

The Saint, starring Roger Moore (TV Series; 1962)

Showdown (Fleischer Cartoon; 1942) [#11]

Spree for All (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1946)

That Thing You Do (Film; 1996)26)

Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! (WB Animated Film; 2022)

200 Motels, by Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention (Soundtrack Album; 1968)

Walls & Bridges, by John Lennon (Album; 1974)

Today’s Name Days

Aurea, Edwin, Franz (Austria)

Franciska, Franjo, Franka (Croatia)

František (Czech Republic)

Franciscus (Denmark)

Randel, Rando, Randolf, Ranno (Estonia)

Frans, Saija, Saila (Finland)

Aure, Bérénice, François, Frank, Orianne, Sarah (France)

Aurora, Edwin, Emma, Franz, Thea (Germany)

Ierotheos, Kallisthenis, Verina (Greece)

Ferenc (Hungary)

Francesco, Petronio (Italy)

Francis, Modra, Zaigonis (Latvia)

Eivydė, Mąstautas, Pranas, Pranciškus (Lithuania)

Frank, Frans (Norway)

Edwin, Franciszek, Konrad, Konrada, Manfred, Manfreda, Rozalia (Poland)

Ierotei (Romania)

František (Slovakia)

Francisco (Spain)

Frank, Frans (Sweden)

Damara, Damaris, Berenice, Bernice, Bonita, Bonnie, Bunny, Fannie, Fanny, Frances, Francesca, Francesco, Francine, Francis, Francisco, Frank, Frankie (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 278 of 2024; 88 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 5 of Week 40 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Gort (Ivy) [Day 6 of 28]

Chinese: Month 9 (Jia-Xu), Day 2 (Xin-Chou)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 2 Tishri 5785

Islamic: 30 Rabi I 1446

J Cal: 8 Orange; Onesday [8 of 30]

Julian: 21 September 2024

Moon: 3%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 26 Shakespeare (10th Month) [Weber / Rossini]

Runic Half Month: Gyfu (Gift) [Day 13 of 15]

Season: Autumn or Fall (Day 13 of 90)

Week: Last Week of September/1st Week of October

Zodiac: Libra (Day 12 of 30)

[ulkaralakbarova]

Three children are accidentally transformed into fish after consuming a potion made by an eccentric scientist. The kids end up in the sea, with one problem: they must find and drink the antidote within 48 hours, or forever remain as fish. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Svip (voice): Sebastian Jessen Stella (voice): Pil Neja Plum (voice): Morten Kerrn Nielsen Professor Mac Krill (voice): Søren Sætter-Lassen Joe (voice): Nis Bank-Mikkelsen Shark (voice): Dick Kaysø Sasha (voice): Louise Fribo Crab (voice): Ulf Pilgaard Father (voice): Peter Gantzler Mother (voice): Paprika Steen Anna (voice): Ghita Nørby Bus Driver (voice): Zlatko Burić Sea Bass (voice): Martin Brygmann Film Crew: Executive Producer: Christoph Sieciechowicz Screenplay: John Stefan Olsen Editor: Per Risager Director: Stefan Fjeldmark Producer: Anders Mastrup Screenplay: Karsten Kiilerich Producer: Russell Boland Original Music Composer: Søren Hyldgaard Producer: Eberhard Junkersdorf Additional Dialogue: Tracy J. Brown Executive Producer: Gerry Shirren Executive Producer: Harro von Have Director: Michael Hegner Director: Greg Manwaring Animation: Padraig Collins Visual Effects: José Antonio García Villameriel Storyboard: Dan Harder Animation Manager: Carlos Zapater Sound Designer: Stig Sparre-Ulrich Sound Designer: Friedrich M. Dosch Foley: Julien Naudin Foley: Andreas Kongsgaard Sound Editor: Christoph von Schönburg Sound Editor: Christoph Merkele Movie Reviews:

[jodilin65]

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1990 Last night I had a pretty good night with Andy at Denny's, and Andy's got a great possibility of being rehired now that Crosby's gone. I'm not sure if I'll ever be rehired, but I sure could use just 2-3 nights a week so I'm not always so broke and could afford to shop here and there and to go to the beach this summer.

Andy doesn't want to be friends anymore with Fran and Tracy cuz he's just as sick of their lies as I am. They tell lie after lie, and Fran stirs up so much trouble for me and Andy, and Tracy lets him cuz she's so afraid of what this guy Mike, who she claims is the greatest guy, is gonna say or do to Tracy when Fran repeats things Andy or I tell Fran. It's all such petty bullshit. Neither Andy or I need or want any hassles from people who are so screwed up and lie, and Tracy's a major con artist. We don't hate them at all, though, and I'll just continue to be friendly if they call. I can relate to them somewhat, of course, cuz I was once as fucked up as they are, but Andy and I are not gonna put up with any hassles, and we're certainly not gonna keep running round and round in circles with them forever. That's for damn sure.

I'm gonna go get a bite to eat, cuz once again I feel slightly feverish and on the verge of a cold cuz of these extreme temperature changes that never quit.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1990 Before I get to the most important things I want to write about, I have some things to say about Fran and Tracy. They are so Goddamn unpredictable! One minute they're all lovey-dovey, then next they're one fucking explosion! A few weeks back, Fran was off his rocker big time, and I mean big time. He could not take the slightest joke or tease. He'd scream at Andy or Tracy or whoever about such petty bullshit. I'm not sure if it had to do with the fact that he was off his medication or just tired, but sure enough, just as things were going pretty well between me, Mom, and Dad, Fran had to go and fuck it all up. He called down there saying I was prank-calling him, and of course, Ma believed him. Andy told good old Dureen all about Fran to defend me, and he also spoke to Tammy. Even so, the bitch wouldn't speak to me for a few weeks, and when I called there she was rude, saying things to Dad in the background, so finally I just took the blame and said it was all my fault to make things easier, but Kacey said I should've never done that and that she'd never do that.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1990 Last night I had a blast! I mean, I had the time of my life with Andy and Tracy. First, we went to Denny's and were waited on by Sue and we saw Jayke. A few nights ago we went there too, and saw Bonnie.

Then after that, we went to Nervous's. At first, we were slightly obnoxious, then Tracy got him alone in the bathroom to try to con some money out of him, but it didn't work cuz he has no money right now cuz he just finished paying his rent. He's working now at Feinstein's Leather with a guy named Dick S. I went to school with his daughter Jamie.

So anyway, Tracy's a great con artist. She's from Philly which she has to go back to tonight cuz she has a court case dealing with a woman she conned into giving her her bank card and PIN. Guess she stole a few hundred bucks from her. It took Andy and I a little time to trust her, but we now know for sure she'd never fuck us over. Not the people she really cares about. Only the suckers like Nervous.

While she was in the bathroom with Nervo, me and Andy went through his stuff and Andy re-arranged the pictures on his walls, then stuffed one of them under his loveseat. I wonder if he found it yet. Then, Andy went to open one of his desk drawers and it went crashing to the floor. Nervous came flying out of the bathroom like a bat out of hell and then kicked both me and Andy out saying we broke his drawer which is true. Well, actually, Andy did. I was nowhere near the drawer, but it was so fucking funny! Andy was trying to blame it on Sasha, saying she got scared and jumped under the desk and he was just trying to help her, and I'm thinking to myself, "What a great excuse, M."

So while Tracy was still up talking with Nervo, me and Andy were going through some papers we took in the car, but it was complete junk. I still haven't found anything yet like phone bills with long-distance numbers on them. Only statements to remind him of how much he owes, but he says that by the end of the month, he'll have a phone again, which I won’t believe till I see this happen.

Kacey's home. Bye.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1990 This week Kacey's shift is midnight-8am, and I've been at her place all night after we had a romantic dinner by candlelight of fettuccini noodles, London broil steak, sautéed mushrooms, and baked scallops. Then after that, we took a bath together, also by candlelight.

"For once the romance hasn't been wasted," she said. As mature and as decent as she is, she's had her share of jerks, too. In fact, due to our only getting jerks for so long, we broke up for a few days out of pure fear and shock. We just caught each other totally off guard.

Suddenly, though, all of my fantasies are coming true! Everything I've always wanted to do or the person to be like in my fantasies has come true and is here in this woman! It totally blows my mind. And I am very attracted to her sexually. She's proportioned beautifully, has beautiful hair, does her makeup nicely, and has the attitude, maturity, and stability I've always wanted. My background and music are no problem at all.

She's had some problems with her family too, as a kid, and her two best friends Jules and Cathy, who are lovers, work in a group home for adults. Jules and Cathy look like typical lesbians but seem super nice.

Kacey's the type that you feel so relaxed with and like you can just be your fucking self, she's very understanding of all kinds of people and a great judge of character like I am, but you're out of her life if you fuck her over. She knows I would never do that to her and I feel she'd never do that to me either.

Tomorrow I'll write more and God knows I've got tons of shit to write about which is both good and bad, but mainly good for once. It’s about Andy, Jessie, my family, more about Kacey, and this 38-year-old, wild but funny woman named Tracy. And Fran and Nervous, of course.

[cheese0spider]

Goodnight everyone tomorrow is New Xmen 97,Star Wars The Bad Batch,Ultimate Spiderman,Amazing Spiderman,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 150,Avengers,Xmen Forever,Daredevil,GODS,Spider Punk Arms Race,Harley Quinn,Scarlett Witch Quicksilver,Batman Dark Age,Wolverine Madripoor Knights,Jackpot and Black Cat,TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures,Power Rangers,Dick Tracy,plus Rick And Morty Kingdom Balls :D

[vidavalor]

@fuzzygoblin Sorry that it took me forever to respond! I wrote a whole sequel meta in apology 😊 and also because we all know that I never grow tired of talking about Gabriel, apparently. You are correct that I am remiss in having left out "shut your stupid mouth and die already" so let's talk about the greater good, sunshines.

It's part of Gabriel even when he can't remember his own name...

In GO-- especially in S1-- there is a question of whether or not acting in an interest of what you perceive to be the greater good is a good thing or not. Crowley and Aziraphale's plot has them considering whether or not killing one boy would be a lesser evil if it prevented the deaths of billions and the destruction of Earth. Aziraphale actually almost goes through with killing Adam before Madame Tracy stops him. They are not the only ones making a choice like this.

Gabriel and Beez are, too. While Crowley and Aziraphale's choice is one kid versus everyone on Earth, Gabriel's choice is one angel versus the thousands under his protection. Beez faces a similar choice. If they don't kill Crowley, Satan will kill them along with Crowley. Neither Beez nor Gabriel are wrong about the fact that if they aren't in charge, everyone else is basically fucked. It's not until their relationship with one another turns romantic that they both realize that there can be more to them than the roles they play in Heaven and Hell. In S1, though, all they really fundamentally have are identities built around how they see their roles in Heaven & Hell and Gabriel? He isn't just The Supreme Archangel in terms of job title. He sees that as his *purpose.* He sees it as his sole reason for existence.

Everyone remembers the Gabriel that haunted Crowley's nightmares for years. This mean and violent asshole:

I'm not excusing him. He's a total dick sometimes. I do think, though, that this scene needs more context than we sometimes give it so let's look at it from his perspective instead. To do that?

We have to look at the scene that's equally important but that no one ever talks about, which is the one with Gabriel that came before it. That is the scene where we last left Gabriel in Tadfield: "Head Office."

Gabriel is shaking here. This isn't anger-- look at his eyes and his hand. He's trembling with fear. He's terrified. When Gabriel pulled Beez aside on the tarmac, they-- and us-- were the only ones to see his fear-- which was by design for him. It's part of what led a lot of us to see the potential of Ineffable Bureaucracy because here are these two who have to keep their defenses up all the time but who already have a connection of sorts that allows them to view each other as someone they can trust, right?

This scene showing us Gabriel's anxiety is especially shocking, though, because Gabriel, up to this point, is shown to be an extremely self-controlled individual. We can tell he's putting on airs half the time but he's well-practiced in making that kind of smug jerk persona look powerful on himself as a means of self-preservation. It's part of what makes Jim so fun in S2, I think-- he's just the complete opposite of Gabriel's S1 behavior in so many ways. We hadn't seen too many cracks in it up to this point in S1, though. The moments we looked at in the original meta here at the start of "Saturday Morning Funtime" show a Gabriel that is more complex than we might have initially thought but we've never seen him be so vulnerable as to be visibly afraid the way he shows Beez he is in Tadfield.

What is Gabriel afraid of? Head Office.

Who is Head Office? The Metatron.

A couple of asides here... Gabriel is clearly referencing The Metatron in this scene and not God. This is a major, major, major clue in support of the theory that some of us have that none of these characters can actually talk to God and that God is not in charge of Heaven-- The Metatron is. Even over Armageddon, Gabriel-- The Supreme Archangel-- has no expectations here that he's going to get to communicate directly with Frances McDormand which means that the being giving Gabriel directives is The Metatron-- and *only* The Metatron.

Without turning into this a "ok, but where is God??" meta, the short version of this idea that we're talking about is free will vs. determinism. For anyone unfamiliar with this, it's a question very familiar in Good Omens: Is there a Great Plan, a Divine Plan, an Ineffable Plan? Or are we freewheeling it here? God explained this to us at the start of Good Omens: there is no Plan, there is a Game.

The Ineffable Game requires players-- active participants. It means that everything isn't pre-determined. All actions aren't just to fill a role in a kind of play that God wrote. Her creations have free will. They make their own choices. Did God make them in a way so as to stack the deck in Her game a bit? Maybe. But it's unknown because how it will all turn out is not something God controls-- it's something God's creations control.

God's creations-- all living beings-- have dominion over the universe. God does not intervene to stop bad things from happening because to do so would mean She is undermining the free will of Her creations and forcing them all to act in accordance with a plan that is designed by *Her* and not by *them.* This is unacceptable to God. She wants her people to be free. This means She cannot directly intervene. It means that, from the creation of The Universe on, God has basically disappeared for the good of Her people.

It means it's up to Her creations to free themselves and each other.

But what else happened in the wake of God giving Her creations dominion over The Universe?

The Metatron happened.

The Metatron is one of God's creations, too, and one of the worst of them. He takes over Heaven by never telling anyone that God isn't actually in charge-- just that God is super busy being God and can't take their calls and who are they to believe they would ever earn an audience with Her anyway? He tells them that God has appointed him Her voice. According to him, what he says is what God says.

There's quite the parallel to this in S2 that I think hints at this being the case with The Metatron and God: Michael and Uriel's "duty officer" back-and-forth.

Michael knows what's happened to Gabriel but doesn't ever tell Uriel anything other than that Gabriel has "disappeared." They insist that there's only ever one Supreme Archangel, of course. He can't be replaced. But... well, in his absence, someone's got to give the orders. and have all the power... and they are the Duty Officer...

This is actually exactly what The Metatron did to take over Heaven, really-- only successfully.

He convinced everyone around him that he is the only one who can talk to God and then he gives the orders, claiming that they came from God.

Every totally shit thing that Crowley and Aziraphale and others have been blaming on God this entire time? It is really the fault of The Metatron.

The Flood? The Metatron. Sodom and Gommorah? The Metatron. A bet with Satan that was to murder animals and human children? The Metatron. Jesus? Letting him suffer and die for the "great story"? The Metatron.

Every single demon that got tossed to Hell, including Crowley and Beez? The Metatron.

How has he gotten away with all of this for so long? Because he's convinced the angels that they are soldiers in a holy war. He's convinced them that they are the righteous and that they are doing all of this in the name of God. That this is what they were created for. That this is all they exist for.

He created the concept of the demon-- striking a deal with the equally psychotic Satan to let Satan have his own dark kingdom by allowing him Hell-- because it served The Metatron's own purpose of being helpful to keep angels in line. It's hard to get a group of people to follow a leader and a set of teachings without giving them an example of what not doing that looks like; just as it's harder to motivate an army without an enemy. The concepts of Hell and demons is an invention of The Metatron to "other"-ize rebellious angels and hold them up as warnings to the angels to toe the line or face the same, miserable fate.

There are a few reasons why Frances McDormand is credited as The Voice of God and I think one of them is to establish that her character really is God-- in contrast to when The Metatron first shows up in S1 and claims to be the one who can speak for God.

Gabriel, like the other angels, may well believe that The Metatron can talk to God. It's unclear at this point. He may also doubt it and not know for sure because he, like a lot of the other angels, are afraid to demand an audience with God. (I wouldn't be surprised if that changed in S3.) Either way, who he's really afraid of in 1.06 is The Metatron.

In the S1 finale, Gabriel thinks this is it for him-- Armageddon is The Big Damn Thing they've all been working towards for thousands of years and it just fell apart on his watch. He's completely fucked and shaking with terror at having to be the one to go tell the floating head that the war is off.

Crowley and Aziraphale and everyone else were obviously correct that stopping Armageddon was a good thing but it is something that puts Gabriel at risk. (The reverse is sort of true in S2-- Armageddon arrives again out of events that stem this time, in part, from protecting Gabriel.)

It was just earlier that morning in S1 that we saw in "Saturday Morning Funtime" that Michael was gunning for Gabriel's job harder than ever and failure to start Armageddon is something with real consequences. What Gabriel doesn't understand in S1 quite yet-- but will start to learn basically as he's falling in S2-- is that the reason why he's been able to get away with more than he might think over the years is that he has the one job that The Metatron can't easily replace without the whole regime collapsing. Gabriel in S1 doesn't yet realize that, though, so he's shaking like a leaf because this is like going to give Really Fucking Bad News to a supernatural Vladimir Putin. Gabriel fully expects he's getting tossed out a window. He's like I'd say goodbye, Beez, but I'll probably be seeing you in Hell soon... tell me who I am when I don't know you by nightfall because he killed me first.

What makes The Metatron terrifying isn't actually *just* The Metatron-- it's the number of angels who blindly follow him. The ones who, even if they've ever had doubts, don't have the imagination for anything else or who prefer the power they have with the known way things are to the scary vulnerability of what would happen if it were all to collapse-- the "Nazi Zombie Flesheaters" of Heaven.

Gabriel does not have a single ally among the top-ranking angels that we've met in the first two seasons. Michael might ultimately be redeemable but, at present, they've been pretty untrustworthy and power-hungry for two seasons now. Uriel is cold and violent. Sandalphon is basically Bigotry: The Character. He's so awful that he doesn't just have the angel's usual variety of bigotry-- the otherizing of the demons being a metaphor for different forms of prejudice-- but is so hateful that he has human hate, too. Most of the angels and demons have a different perspective on things like gender and sexuality that makes that kind of hate more rare in the supernatural world. Rare-- but not non-existent. Sandalphon hates Aziraphale because Aziraphale is queer-- and we know who went to the bookshop and didn't let Sandalphon out of his sight, rather than allow Sandalphon to be alone with Aziraphale:

Gabriel.

Gabriel would've done so anyway but there's also the fact that Gabriel is queer, too. He doesn't have a ton of opportunity for much resembling a personal life at this point in the story but he already knows and has a thing for Beez. He's aware that that's information that would already be problematic to many angels because of Beez being a demon but that it would be also be a problem in another way to Sandalphon and the angels he has in his corner. Gabriel and Aziraphale are in the same boat in that way, even if Aziraphale doesn't totally yet realize it in S1.

Look closely at that scene and you'll notice that Gabriel had not a single, other reason for being there and, while he was there, he rather deftly deflected Sandalphon's attempts at harming Aziraphale by distracting him with fake flattery. He quite literally shrugged off and did fuck all about Sandalphon insinuating that Aziraphale has a lover... especially funny when it's pretty evident from 1.01 that Gabriel knows about Crowley and Aziraphale... and even did great at his first day of being an assistant bookseller by hyping the bookshop's cookbook section to the customers.

"Shut your stupid mouth and die already!" Gabriel is also the Gabriel who was keeping Sandalphon and the other angels in check. Without him, we are shown that Michael, Uriel and Sandalphon are a band of hateful thugs.

Aziraphale getting jumped in the street isn't Gabriel's doing in S1. He is excluded from this plot to show how he is different from the other angels in power in Heaven. The show makes sure that we know that the angels, led by Michael, are going around Gabriel here:

Instead, they take pains to show us that this is Gabriel in S1-- someone using his power to protect Aziraphale, not to harm him:

The amusing part is that Gabriel distracts Sandalphon from noticing that they are going to leave without busting Aziraphale by flattering Sandalphon into submission by basically fawning all over "you can't have a war without War" like it's great poetry. Sandalphon, of course, doesn't get the joke. He thinks that it was clever to use 'war' twice in the sentence-- to say you can't have a war without War: The Character and that's why they had to summon The Four Horsepeople. Sandalphon is using completely literal language while Gabriel (and Aziraphale, of course) can see the comment in the figurative way in which Sandalphon didn't intend it but which is actually much deeper and a much more reflective comment:

You can't have a war without war itself. Meaning: if enough people refuse to fight a war, war will not be had.

Gabriel is joking with Aziraphale when he tells Sandalphon that he might use Sandalphon's comment one day but he actually kind of does-- just in the deeper way and not in the way Sandalphon meant it. In S2, he literally starts the path to no war by voting against Armageddon and defecting from Heaven over to the independent side of Crowley and Aziraphale by going to their bookshop embassy.

But, yeah, paralleling Crowley and Aziraphale trying to hide their forbidden romance in the supernatural world while also trying to stay safe for millennia in the human world that has always been dangerous for people like them is Gabriel and Beez not only having to hide their growing affection for each other from the other angels and demons because of them being an angel and a demon but for "human" reasons related to the high-ranking Sandalphon and his queerphobic faction of Heaven.

How much of Gabriel's toxic masculinity posturing is the exact same thing as some human men in societies with binary views of gender doubling-down on everything macho when in hostile environments because of how these societies are built to perceive that sort of behavior as positive for a man (and to align it with heterosexuality) and to have that idea of what a man is as their idea of what strong and powerful looks like?

I am in no way saying that the body shaming scene with Aziraphale, for example, was at all justified but I think if you look at it as Gabriel actually trying, in his own way, to help Aziraphale survive, it takes on a different meaning.

Gabriel likes Aziraphale but Aziraphale is a nightmare, in a way, because Aziraphale doesn't know how to play the game, politically. He's not power-hungry and he's not great around people who are. Office politics are not Aziraphale's strength and that genuineness and honestly makes Gabriel both like and trust him but it also makes him want to ring Aziraphale's neck sometimes. The same things that make Gabriel feel like Aziraphale is as close to trustworthy an angel as Gabriel knows-- that he's honest, that he's kind-- are the same things that cause Gabriel to need to try to protect him.

So, sometimes, he tries to tell Aziraphale how to make it easier on both of them and it doesn't mean Gabriel's correct in doing so but it does mean that, in his own way, he's trying. They come from nowhere, they don't have any family, and neither of them have friends in Heaven, really. In his own way, Gabriel is trying to be like a friend or a brother to Aziraphale. He's basically saying: we have to be soldiers, Aziraphale. We don't have a choice. We're trapped. These wolves will kill you if you don't man up.

Is this true? Maybe. Is it toxic? Definitely. Is it all Gabriel knows about surviving? Yes. Is it something that he's willing to share with Aziraphale, like a friend or a brother would? Yes.

Isn't it also underlining the fact that Gabriel's own self-image is not the healthiest thing in the universe? His body is a focal point of many of his scenes because he's held up as the ideal that all of the angels should aspire to be but he's actually, secretly, not that healthy. He's a little too focused on maintaining the celestial temple of his body but that is in large part because he's The Supreme Archangel. He's been told he's the standard-bearer for all of the other angels. That's a lot of pressure. Beez realizes just how much pressure that is when he takes them to see his statue in Edinburgh and gives him a pass on his choice of date locale because they see through what others see as pure vanity and ego to the loneliness and anxiety that lives underneath it.

One thing that strikes me is the parallel the body shaming scene creates, which is related to the contrast of the kind of touch. Sandalphon punches Aziraphale in the stomach. He causes him physical pain. It's one of the only times we've ever actually seen Aziraphale in pain. It is in direct contrast to Gabriel, though.

Gabriel might need serious work when it comes to friendly conversations lol but ever notice how his whole fake-punching thing is ridiculously gentle? Not even human guys messing around to sound "macho" are that gentle, actually. They'll actually throw a light, semi-joking punch. Gabriel doesn't. One of his knuckles brushes Aziraphale's vest. The other hand doesn't actually touch him at all. There's a lightness to it that makes the comments, in Gabriel's mind, affectionate.

This is as fond as Gabriel can get here in public while he's still got to put on his Supreme Archangel airs and can't let himself slip up and trust someone because, in his mind? If he gets it wrong and trusts the wrong person, he's done for... and so is everyone who relies on him.

This is what Gabriel means when he says this to who he thinks is Aziraphale:

Gabriel knows that he's the only one with any power in Heaven who thinks like he does. He knows that all these angels only really have him standing between them and even more of a total fucking horror show. Just as Aziraphale feels that being an angel is his species and his vocation and should be at least something of his purpose for being, Gabriel takes this Supreme Archangel job thing seriously.

To him, every angel-- whether he likes them or not, whether he agrees with them or not-- is his under his leadership. They're his people. It's not just his job to protect them-- it's his entire reason for existence. In S1, it's all he is.

It's why he didn't abandon ship years ago. He's endured millennia of day after day after endless day of The Metatron, Michael, Uriel, Sandalphon, etc.. because this is What He Is Supposed To Do. He's their protector.

Gabriel is a martyr-- he's a self-sacrificer-- to a point that is seriously unhealthy. This is so deeply ingrained in him that while he can't remember his own name in S2, he is still tortured by emotions related to this.

That is what is really bothering him on an unconscious level that he and Crowley wind up talking a bit about while Aziraphale is in Edinburgh. He's not truly upset about the books but he can't remember enough to know that his mind has made the books a metaphor for angels.

Why don't the angels books stay where I put them, Crowley? Why do they all keep falling, when I'm trying to make them stay Up in the air, where I want them all to be because it's safe? Why are these books bothering me so much?

Or, how about the fact that Jim doesn't remember who he used to be and doesn't remember who the demons are or why they might want him... but none of that matters when they show up at the door, demanding him and threatening violence and death for everyone in the bookshop if they don't get him?

Jimbriel throws himself on his sword for everyone in the shop without a single thought.

This straddles the line between heroic and suicidal, right? Just zero self-preservation happening here lol. Jim's only real comprehension of this situation is that it's dangerous-- that the gang of people outside want to hurt the people inside the shop and this all has something to do with him. He doesn't know what or why. All he knows is that he can keep blood from being shed if they can have him. That's enough for him to make the decision to give himself up for them.

To Jim, he's known Crowley and Aziraphale since Monday morning and it's only Thursday night. He just met basically everyone else, like, an hour beforehand lol. They're all he has and if he can protect them, he will. It doesn't matter that he could be harmed or die-- the only thing on his mind is to make sure that no harm comes to his people.

Jim is who Gabriel really is. They're the same person. Jim is not a separate person from Gabriel; he is Gabriel distilled down to the core.

He is who you get when you extract Gabriel from the violent, loveless world he's been trying to survive for thousands of years, literally wrap him up in a blanket, and give him a hot chocolate, a protected space, and people with whom he feels safe enough to be real.

Beez shows us that. The Gabriel that we see Beez fall in love with is Gabriel, in the sense that he has all his memories intact, but there is a lot of Jim in that Gabriel because they are one in the same.

That Gabriel is more emotionally available, more curious, more openly loving in a way that is more akin to Jim than to the Gabriel we saw before. No matter what name he's going by, Gabriel postures snarkily around people he doesn't trust but, underneath, he's a big, gentle marshmallow. He and Crowley have that-- and more than they'd like to admit-- in common.

But Up in Heaven in S1? Gabriel isn't allowed to be his more Jim-like sweet self around The Metatron... or any of the angels in The Metatron's corner, which is most of the top ones. We saw him terrified that he wouldn't survive talking to Head Office when he left Tadfield-- and in the next Gabriel scene after that?

He's as nasty as we've ever seen him, right?

And he's angry. He's so fucking angry.

Because The Metatron has told him to kill Aziraphale-- to punish the traitor and set an example-- and Gabriel can do nothing but that because his choice is Aziraphale vs. the thousands of other angels he exists to protect.

One life versus The Universe, with Gabriel's Universe being the angels of Heaven that are under his care. Aziraphale happens to be Gabriel's favorite angel and the only one that he considers anything remotely close to a friend and now he's been given this impossible choice as a result of Aziraphale's rebellion: kill Aziraphale or be killed with him and doom thousands more as a result.

Gabriel's been subtly trying to protect Aziraphale for thousands of years but it wasn't enough. Gabriel's anger is directed at Aziraphale but it's really as much at himself because he feels like he failed at his job here to keep Aziraphale from harm. He's failed and so has Aziraphale; Aziraphale has failed to protect himself enough, to play the game enough, to survive, but Gabriel has failed Aziraphale, too. Failed the one he's most fond of. Failed one of them that is what an angel should be.

Aziraphale is going to die and Gabriel is going to miss him.

Gabriel can't simply refuse to do this or else he's going into the Hellfire with Aziraphale-- and then what would happen to the other angels who would be left with just The Metatron and no one looking out for them?

So, when who Gabriel thinks is Aziraphale starts arguing that he shouldn't do this because angels should think of the greater good, well...

...pretty understandably, that sets Gabriel off something fierce:

Don't talk to Gabriel about the greater good-- that's all he is.

He's not Gabriel-- he's The Archangel Fucking Gabriel.

In S1, he feels he is not allowed to be a person in his own right-- just a title, just a leader-- because they all need him, whether they know just how much they do or not.

Notice who is flanking Gabriel when he casts who he thinks is Aziraphale into hellfire: Uriel and Sandalphon.

The two most violent and least redeemable angels. Pets of The Metatron. Michael? They got sent to bring the holy water to Hell. They got what The Metatron considered a fairly prominent role in all of this-- one that indicated The Metatron trusted Michael more than Gabriel. Gabriel was given two fascist Metatron lapdogs to watch his every move and make sure he did as he was told.

A big part of why Gabriel is so nasty to who he thinks is Aziraphale in this scene is that he's putting on a show for Uriel and Sandalphon, knowing that they'll report it if he shows any sign of being sympathetic towards Aziraphale.

He's in trouble with The Metatron and anyone else would have already been killed by now but he thinks he needs to seem like a team player to make it through this so he's acting as they think he should act rather than how he truly feels.

And, still, what did The Archangel Fucking Gabriel-- who really personally can't stand either Uriel or Sandalphon-- do when Crowley-as-Aziraphale spat hellfire at the three of them?

He protected them.

He grabbed both of them without a second thought and pushed both of them behind him as they all backed up.

And those two-- Uriel and Sandalphon? What did they do?

They let him. They knew he would.

Awful as they are, they know what Gabriel is about. They both get behind Gabriel physically without a second thought-- Uriel even reaching for him to help her-- because they both know he will protect them, no matter how garbage they are as people.

That's all well and fine but consider that if Crowley had been actually trying to kill them... which he was not for a variety of reasons, including not wanting to start a war and just wanting to get out of there... but, if he had been... Gabriel would have been the one hit with the hellfire. He would have died for those dirtbags lol and he did it instinctively. It shows that Gabriel believed that this is who he is and what he needs to be.

While wanting to protect people is noble, no one person should ever be carrying the weight of feeling like they must save everyone around them. No one needs to sacrifice themselves entirely for the sake of others-- if we all protect one another, no one person needs to feel like they have to martyr themselves for everyone else.

There is nothing at all wrong with trying to be as kind and generous to others as possible but when that tips into a level of self-sacrificing where it means your own needs as a person aren't being met? When you shut out who and what you need and concern yourself only with others, believing that is how you try to be a perfect, righteous person?

That's how The Devil gets good people.

The pain, anger and depression that comes of not thinking of yourself as a person who needs a life of your own, too?

Oh, Gabriel's not the only one with those sort of issues...

The scene that parallels Gabriel throwing himself in front of two of the worst characters on the show to protect them without a second thought-- reaching for their hands to do so?

This one:

Crowley and Aziraphale-- polar opposites of/contrasting parallels to Sandalphon and Uriel-- literally centering Gabriel between them. Standing side-by-side with him, holding his hands, as they work together to encircle him with their protection.

The three characters who protect Gabriel-- Crowley, Aziraphale and Beez-- all do so in the fundamentally the same way, even if the types of relationships are different. They treat him like a person and not a general or a symbol of righteousness. In doing so, they are acknowledging that there is a Gabriel who is not The Supreme Archangel but just Jimbriel and that Jimbriel, like everyone else, has needs that need to be met and wants of his own that exist independent of his job.

Beez's response to Gabriel basically having a form of an anxiety attack in front of them on the tarmac in Tadfield was to check on him afterwards and, when he survived Armageddidn't, have him meet them in a bar on Earth. All of Ineffable Bureaucracy's dates are in restaurants, bars and pubs around the world and that's by design but it started, we see, with the first time being Beez's idea. Why?

Because they knew it was good for them both-- and Gabriel, in particular-- to be around humans. Even if they barely interacted with them. They knew going on little dates to the pub like humans would help give Gabriel some time in a world where he's just like everyone else. He's just a guy on a date in the pub. The two of them could become like human couples. In doing so, Gabriel's journey to being his own person is aided because now, he has personal memories that have nothing to do with Heaven and his role there. He's had some adventures that are just theirs-- his and Beez's. Some memories of his own. He gets to just be Gabriel with Beez and not always The Archangel Fucking Gabriel.

How Beez chooses to tell Gabriel that they have feelings for him is actually through expressing a personal opinion-- they like the song that's playing.

Gabriel gets his first opinion about non-celestial harmonies from choosing to listen to a song Beez says they enjoy and deciding that he, too, enjoys it. It's their song because it's the moment there there was a them. They are just like other people now-- couples who get a song from hearing it play when they were on a date. They both exist in a world outside of Heaven and Hell that is their own.

I think that Gabriel figured out the body swap when "Aziraphale" survived the hellfire. He's pretending to have no idea here:

Gabriel's initial response was just "it might be worse than we thought" to the other angels-- instantly, managing their confusion into a response that was going to result in him saying that Aziraphale was too dangerous to contain. Like Beez, he seemed happy to have a reason to let them go. Neither of them really wanted to kill Crowley and Aziraphale. I'm pretty sure that Gabriel knew he was really looking at Crowley after the hellfire. Even if he hadn't figured it out, though, he still just lets "Aziraphale" go right away because now he has an excuse-- oh, well, we tried to kill him but he's weirdly immune to hellfire too bad moving on...

If you notice, though, from the second that Crowley and Aziraphale survived the attempts on their lives because of the body swap, both Beez and Gabriel let them go without so much as a blink-- and then did nothing when it came to pursuing them further afterwards between S1 and S2.

Gabriel and Beezlebub know that Crowley and Aziraphale are a couple and that they're the only ones from Heaven and Hell, really, who are like they are. They feel badly about the end of S1 and being forced at gunpoint, basically, to try to kill them. As a result, they stay away from them after S1, thinking it the best way to protect all four of them.

When Beez takes Crowley to Hell in S2, they are still in intimidation mode and they tell Crowley that they could "put a price" on his head anytime they wanted to. Yes. They could... but... they haven't in four years, even though Crowley is top of Hell's Wanted List.

They just haven't wanted to because they're fond of him and they have no actual wish to harm him or Aziraphale.

So, when Crowley tells an amnesiac Gabriel how he felt about "shut your stupid mouth and die already", we understand because it was truly shitty and Crowley is within his rights to be upset about someone having treated who they thought was the person Crowley loves that way...

...it's just that Crowley was (drunk lol and also) not quite yet ready to admit that S2 had been leading him to believe that he might have been missing a lot of context about Gabriel.

I was wondering if you've talked about why Gabriel was on a jog in season 1 episode 4. It always felt off to me since it's such a human activity

Hi @anxious-al! 💕 Hope you're having a nice week so far. *gets the mugs* as there's always hot chocolate available for Gabriel-themed questions. 😊

What a time to be going for a "human" jog, eh? This takes place on the morning of The Last Day of The World:

Gabriel is supposed to destroy this planet later that day and he's down on it, alone, jogging in the park... why?... and what of the human woman dressed as an angel at the edge of the park?

The scene wherein Aziraphale interrupts Gabriel on a morning run in the park begins with one of the strangest moments in the series-- Aziraphale being distracted by a human woman dressed in head-to-toe gold with harp-like angel wings. She is a performance artist and her art is that she is dressed as an angel. She stands there, silent, sending her artistic message for both the characters in the story who notice her and for us as the audience to interpret. This makes her a bit meta for the story of Good Omens as a whole.

What message is The Angel Woman saying to her fellow humans with this? is a question that leads us to another one as a result:

What is Good Omens saying by using angels and demons in their story written for us humans?

Perhaps that there is divinity in humanity? Perhaps that we spend all this time glorifying holy beings that we can't prove even exist when, really, we humans embody the angelic and the demonic and everything in between? That we're really the magical ones?

The Angel Woman is a character in a story written by humans who are using angels and demons to make points about human living... and who are the other characters in this scene? Gabriel and Aziraphale... a pair of angels on Earth and who are both engaged in aspects of what they might see as "human" living.

This scene is one in the story pointing out that "human living" is really just living, period.

Aziraphale stops and contemplates the angel-dressed performance artist and that is the start of the scene. The "human cosplaying" Gabriel then jogs by them-- paralleling both the angel who lives like a human and the human who is dressed as an angel. Here's The Supreme Archangel of Heaven on the last morning on Earth and what is he doing?

He's jogging in the park. Like a human.

The episode is called "Saturday Morning Funtime" and has more Gabriel in its front half than any episode prior to it, as we begin to see that he's actually who it's named for. Everyone is miserable ahead of Armageddon but the one who has a Saturday Morning Funtime routine is Gabriel. This guy who is the commander of the armed forces of Heaven and entrapped by a supernatural fascist regime hellbent on destroying this place?

Yeah, he secretly kinda loves Earth.

Gabriel is keeping himself from going mad by carving out some escape time on Earth where he does some moderate exercise in the fresh air and clears his head. No one knows who he is down there. He's just another hot dude running in the park. It gets him away from the other angels always circling him like vultures and gives him some precious alone time.

There are other scenes that indicate that, as Earth has gone on, Gabriel has been using the power of his position to escape to it from time to time. Gabriel's only possessions until S2 are his custom-tailored clothes and they were made on Earth. He shows a curiosity about how Aziraphale chooses to live in the sushi scene in 1.01. Yes, he's judgy about it but he's judgy to hide the fact that he's asking out of interest-- rather than using the power he has to order Aziraphale not to make his own choices over it.

Gabriel is shown to be a lot more "live and let live" than he might initially seem to be. He is one of the only angels who doesn't view the demons as beneath them and he covers for Michael's relationships with them. Several scenes suggest pretty heavily that he's known about Crowley and Aziraphale for ages and has been keeping that knowledge from The Metatron. He doesn't care that Aziraphale does human things on Earth like eating or that he wants to live a more human-like existence. He doesn't totally understand all aspects of it but that doesn't stop him from being more fundamentally curious about it than anything else.

Gabriel actually doesn't care that Aziraphale's in love with Crowley. Gabriel can get the appeal, actually. Gabriel knows how it goes anyway... he's got a bit of a thing for the "informant" he references to Aziraphale in 1.01-- Lord Beezlebub, the only being he feels like he really be anything close to his true self around, who also happens to be a demon. The demons are supposed to be the angels' mortal enemies but Gabriel thinks that's kind of bullshit. They're just people and he remembers what a lot of them were like before Hell became a thing. They were smart, creative people, most of whom did little wrong but for asking the same questions that Gabriel privately asks himself daily.

So, he's been coming down to Earth to check it out for awhile, when he can come up with an excuse to escape his prison. Sometime pre-S1, he started to do more than observe and basically got himself a hobby in jogging, like a human might do. Something for him and him alone. This is a big deal because Gabriel has virtually nothing else that is own.

Gabriel doesn't own a single, non-clothing material object in S1 and never has at this point. The first present he'll ever be given is the fly in the matchbox from Beez. His clothes are his only possessions, which is partially why he's so vain about them. They are the only way he's allowed to express a sense of individuality in Heaven-- and he made that happen.

This is related to the jogging and is a much, much bigger deal than it might initially seem...

In S2, when we go back to the Job minisode era, we see that all of the angels used to dress in, more-or-less, the same thing. They all look like what they are-- members of a cult. Even The Supreme Archangel is wearing basically a white sheet roped off in gold. The homogeneity of the look is the point.

There's a psychological reason why cults of all sorts-- and armies of all sorts-- have an uniform. It's to reinforce a sense of negative groupthink over a sense of individuality. When you are allowed to dress as you wish, you have freedom of expression, and this obviously causes you to consider how you wish to express yourself to others. It gives you the free reign we all should have to be who we are-- and to be able to consider who that is and evolve our sense of self over time. This is absolutely against the mindset of dictatorships and cults and anything in that vein.

The last thing they want is for people to see themselves as individual people because that stuff gets dangerous. They might get ideas. They might form their own opinions and start to act on them. It makes people harder to control. This is why Gabriel and his clothes are so important.

The only way the whole 'everyone is basically wearing a table cloth' situation changed for the angels sometime post-Job is if The Supreme Archangel okayed it. He's the only one with just enough power to have made this happen, if not enough power to overthrow The Metatron on his own. Gabriel saw Aziraphale begin to wear different things on Earth with the built-in excuse of Aziraphale having to blend in with the humans and white robes were no longer a style that would work.

Aziraphale, as a result, became the first angel to have an excuse to express himself as an individual because he got to choose what he'd like to wear while he was on Earth. Gabriel noted this and basically said to himself that looks fun. Our dude was very tired of this white robe situation and seeing Aziraphale get to play made Gabriel want to as well so he went to Aziraphale at some point and basically said teach me about what the humans are doing about clothes.

Gabriel had an excuse to change his look, too-- he'd have to go to Earth sometimes to do Supreme Archangel Checking Up On Stuff Things. He'd have to look like a human, too. He loved it. Playing human dress up was super fun and brought all new kinds of thoughts. What fabrics he liked, what looks he liked, what he thought about how the different clothes looked on him, what made him feel different ways about himself. Clothes are self-expression, after all-- they reflect how we feel about ourselves and support the image we are trying to project. Gabriel got into this, big-time, and then turned around and asked the dangerous question to himself:

What if we did this in Heaven, too?

What if he used what power he had to change the rules about what the angels wore? What if he told everyone they could wear whatever they wanted? The army would still have an uniform for when they were running drills or whatever and maybe there'd be a color-scheme because Gabriel knew The Metatron was going to lose it about this so he came up with some parameters but he basically overthrew the tablecloth tyranny and told every other angel that they were free to express themselves the way they wanted and, if you ask me? That's why he and The Metatron are snarking about Gabriel's suit during his trial.

The Metatron never got over the fact that Gabriel pushed the clothes thing and knew how to get just enough of what he could without making it more trouble than it was worth to kill him over it. The Metatron takes some evil delight in telling Gabriel that "appropriate raiment" will be provided for him-- he'll have to wear what The Metatron dictates, in other words-- now that he'll be a bottom-of-the-barrel junior recording analyst. Gabriel, though?

He got the last laugh. He used taking off his suit as a reason to leave, along with clearing out his non-existent desk, and fled Heaven buck ass naked rather than put up with The Metatron's bullshit for another minute.

The moment Crowley fell in love with Gabriel was when he saw just how much Gabriel loathes The Metatron in these just take me out back and shoot me ffs faces he was making during his trial:

Anyway, the point is that all the angels are following Gabriel's lead and that's probably half the reason why almost everyone in Heaven dresses in a variation of Aziraphale or Gabriel's styles. (Ever notice how Michael and Uriel look like they're in some kind of suit battle and both of them are trying to emulate Gabriel a bit?) While many of the angels aren't really reinventing the rules of fashion up there, the idea worked: they all look different from one another. They all can express themselves as they desire when it comes to how they look. They've all had to think about themselves for at least long enough as it takes to come up with outfits and view themselves as an individual person to do so.

It's perhaps worth noting in here then, too, how funny it is that The Metatron is a floating head... that's how he presents himself. He's the one character who doesn't have a body. It's symbolic of how he feels he's above even the idea of having anything like the pesky needs of human corporation. The ideal of Heaven is him, in his eyes, and he is above the vessel through which all living beings actually live...

...and the one challenging him every step of the way as much as he can is The Supreme Archangel...

...who, amusingly, happens to have a rather pleasing physical corporation appreciated by many, many different sorts of beings.

Looked at that way? Gabriel's peacocking about his clothes is not pure vanity but just the best example of what little rebellious fires he's been able to start Up there. A focus on clothes is also a focus on your body-- for better or worse-- and so it's not really surprising that Gabriel's Earthly hobby is looking goooood in some grey sweatpants while he escapes a little from the pressures of his world.

There's something kind of delicious about Gabriel deciding that he has some Saturday Morning Funtime now-- he has an exercise routine. He's like peace out, MetaT-- I'm going to take my fantastic corporation *jogging*. Rot in Hell, you fascist Mr. Potato Head...

Aziraphale is interruping Gabriel's alone time in 1.04 and if you look closely, you'll notice that Gabriel actually looks upset as he's running before Aziraphale sees him. He doesn't actually want to destroy Earth. He feels he has no choice and he's terrified of The Metatron but he likes Earth. He doesn't fully understand of it-- to be fair to him, no one really does lol-- but he likes it enough to have been escaping to it for awhile now.

By S2, in a parallel scene to the jogging one, Aziraphale will be beginning to get the idea of him and Gabriel both having versions of the Heaven-induced perfectionism and anxiety a bit more, though... and about how that's not any different from humans who go through the same thing.

The angel human doing performance art (complete with foreshadowing the discus halo) in S1:

The art of the Gabriel statue in Edinburgh in S2:

In S2, the art is a human-made sculpture deitifying Gabriel. It causes Aziraphale to further consider what life might have been like for a being who is, really, just some dude, but who has been held up as a holy symbol in this way by angels and humans alike.

Adding to this is that the statue of Gabriel is in the middle of a human graveyard. While this has a really eerie layer in S2 considering that we see it after Gabriel has fallen, which is a kind of death, and now lives among the humans, there's a way of looking at it that is also in keeping with what S1's human performance artist angel was talking about-- there's not this big line between these kind of beings.

Emphasizing this? The Angel Woman isn't just dressed as an angel-- she is also wearing a dress and a human sun hat. She reflects how having a halo hanging over your head symbolizing your need to be perfect in a way that causes you to see yourself as someone who should be above humans is not just an angelic thing-- it's a very human thing, too. That's the point of these angels and demons in Good Omens. They're just like us in every way that really matters and their stories are no different at the core from what we experience.

Crowley and Aziraphale actually have it a lot better than most of the angels and demons. They have been able to live on Earth since the beginning. They aren't completely free of the regime that threatens them but they've found a way of escaping it as much as they can. They've been free to learn and explore and experiment and enjoy much more than the others have. They've been free to have a relationship with one another-- to have a friend they can trust and talk to-- which not all of the angels and demons do. (Not all humans do, either.) Of all of the less fortunate characters? Gabriel, despite having some power in Heaven, might have actually been one of the worst off.

Why is Gabriel jogging in the park on the morning of the last day of Earth? Because Gabriel likes to go for solo jogs in the park...

... just like many humans who have stressful jobs and like to wake up on Saturday morning and throw on a sweatsuit and sneakers and get outside to get some fresh air, move, and try to quiet their thoughts.

That Gabriel is already in this place in S1 is a surprising twist thrown into 1.04 that actually makes us kind of want to scream at Aziraphale 'ask him why he's fucking jogging, Az!' Aziraphale is trying to make the point that they don't need to destroy Earth but the one thing he fails to point out is that Earth is the planet that they're currently both standing on and which Gabriel seems to really be enjoying.

Gabriel couldn't agree with Aziraphale in the jogging scene, though, even if he wanted to, for the most ironic reason possible. This one:

Crowley and Aziraphale don't realize it because they're afraid of Gabriel until S2 but he's as trapped as they are. He's as watched as they are. Ducks have ears-- there's always someone listening in the fascist regime of this Heaven/Hell system. Gabriel couldn't say in a public park anything that sounds outside of what he's supposed to say, even if he wanted to, or he'd be in danger for it.

Gabriel is wearing human clothes that are appropriate to the time period he's in while he's jogging. He has a preferred park and route. He's gone through a whole thing to get to this point-- seeing this activity, learning about its benefits, deeming it appealing and something he'd like to try, getting what he needs to do it, finding a time to do so, trying it out and getting good at it... he's done all this already by this scene, showing that he's already subtly rebelling.

There is also that a lot of humans jog, at least in part, to manage mental health issues. It's prescriptive for depression and when we see Gabriel in the post-S1/pre-S2-set flashbacks, he's exhibiting signs that would have gotten him instantly diagnosed with depression had he been a human. It was not new-- more like his default state-- before talking more intimately with Beez started to help him manage it.

This might indicate that Gabriel was already in a place pre-S1 where he viewed humans as having knowledge that could benefit him and other angels-- a point of view that Crowley and Aziraphale also share. To get there, he'd have to have stopped seeing himself as superior to humans-- if he ever did in the first place, which isn't really known. Gabriel does show a surprising aptitude for subversive thinking so it's possible he never really bought the idea that they were superior beings but, even if he did, he doesn't by sometime prior to S1 because the human activity he's gotten for a hobby is one known for helping humans manage the anxiety and stress he knows he also feels.

It's also an activity that Gabriel can get away with doing because it's physical and he's The Commander of The Heavenly Host, Heaven's armed forces. No one can question why he wants to go to Earth to work out because it seems like he's just a devoted soldier when, really, he's doing it to get away from everything for a bit. Jogging gives him time and space to think and to be alone, away from Heaven. It's peaceful when he knows precious little peace. He's also quite literally running from Heaven lol and this was already happening for awhile before S1 happened, let alone S2.

You might say: ok, but Gabriel doesn't *need* to jog... he's magical!

Yes, he's magical... which seems to be like having an extra-long, somewhat-eternal backup battery. It doesn't actually mean that Gabriel doesn't need to exercise. Living beings can go a surprisingly long time repressed from what it is that they need to survive and being magical is suggested to have caused some of these angels and demons to remain alive so long without what it is that they truly need to thrive as people that they've convinced themselves that they don't actually need these things.

Sure, the angels and demons have superhuman powers but they are also very human at the same time...

In S2, Gabriel will describe having what we might call human physical sensations on his way to the bookshop. His arms got sore from holding a box at a weird angle for awhile on his walk-- just like ours would. He was cold from being naked until Aziraphale gave him a blanket. Aziraphale was winded trying to jog with him in this scene in S1. Crowley has basically developed a human sleep schedule over the years to a point that while he can survive missing a night of sleep, he feels the effects of it, as he was mentioning in S2.

To say that these characters being magical means that they're "flawless" would be to get a little "master race" gross, right? And the show does not. The angels and demons have human corporations in all shapes and sizes. Human corporations are just one option for them, even if also the most common, and those options are not built to be without any challenges-- they're built to be human.

Crowley, for instance, is basically a god in terms of power and he's also canonically far-sighted. He built the known universe but he also can't read the paper you just put in front of his eyes without his reading glasses. He can make it rain with his fingertips... and he also has an anxiety disorder. All of this is a story that is using angels and demons as metaphors for human living. We humans have more power than we think, as shown through how the magical angels and demons in the story are more "human" than many of them have been led to believe.

All of the angels and demons might not be at risk from most major human disease, for example... but that's if you're talking about things like Covid and bubonic plague... not if you're talking about the most common ailments plaguing humanity. The major supernatural characters in this story have things like anxiety disorders, depression, and PTSD. Many of them have complicated relationships with food and insecurities about their corporations. They deal with issues of loneliness and the effects of different kinds of trauma and abuse. Every one of them has trust issues for days. Aside from the main four, most of the angels and demons have no idea how hungry, tired, lonely and unfulfilled they are because they think they aren't actually supposed to want things like food, rest, creative outlets, and friendship. If they do feel a desire for these things, they think there's something wrong with them because they've been told they not to want or need in this way.

The few of the angels and demons that can get beyond the b.s. they've been taught and consider that they might not be superior to humans and might have some things in common with them? They break through and start to learn from humans.

Even though they both see each themselves as not fully human and as basically living amongst-- rather than with-- the humans, both Crowley and Aziraphale have experienced enough of the world to know that they're not terribly different from humans. They don't see a lot of their own challenges and experiences as different from that of humans and they actively seek out human knowledge and thoughts on how to manage their way through life. They recognize that their full range of emotions is not any different from that of the humans-- whether the emotions in question are the love they feel for one another or something they have to deal with, like anxiety.

As we see in S2, the choice of corporation for a supernatural being can have consequences that can affect them as a whole. Yes, these beings are more protected than humans, as they can morph into whatever they want and they have miracles that they can use to protect themselves in most situations... but they can actually die if they get into a situation dangerous to them enough, like what The Bullet Catch could have been.

Furfur said that if Crowley had missed and Aziraphale had been shot in the head, that "they might not have been able to put him together again"-- meaning, that Aziraphale could have actually died from a bullet to the head... just like how humans can. While in human form, the angels and demons' minds really are contained within their brains, like is the case with humans. Supernatural beings have a mind-body connection to their corporations of choice-- just as we do with our bodies-- and they're basically all out here choosing human bodies as a default option, right? So, how different are they from us, really? Not that much.

This would mean that their corporations do need the same things that human bodies do. The difference is that, being magical, they can go for eons without addressing these needs, whereas most of us who are only human over here get hangry after four hours without a snack and need to sleep for several hours every day in order to function.

They do need to breathe to be healthy, if not to completely stay alive, because their corporations prefer oxygen and breathing causes the human body to function properly. They can go for millennia without eating... but that doesn't at all mean that they should. When they finally do, they can eat an entire ox without a second thought and why? Because they're starving. They can magically last an absurd amount of time in their repression but they're unnecessarily suffering in doing so.

Crowley and Aziraphale know this. They've learned it themselves. That's why they're giving out warm beverages and sarcastic masturbation tutorials to whatever interested supernatural beings shows up at the door for much of S2.

This is Gabriel's office, shown to us moments after his jog in the park:

That is where he's spent thousands of years. This is his office and what counts as his home. This dude doesn't even have a chair. Look at how huge that space is and how small he seems in it. He can't go out on that balcony. This isn't an office or a house so much as it's a prison cell. This scene shows us why he jogs in the park-- it's his time in the yard during his prison sentence, basically.

Look at how we and Michael come into the scene and see that Gabriel is just staring out the window at the world, tapping his finger against his mouth, lost in thought. This is not a being who is super jazzed to destroy this place later in the day. He's up there like a damn fairy tale princess, trapped in a glass tower in the sky, looking down at the human world and wondering why it is that it's only humans can have it when they really don't seem that different from the angels and demons.

All of us humans with terrible jobs and other stressful situations can usually find a way out of it, except for maybe those of us trapped in an active war zone. What do we humans do? We sleep, we shower, we do some yoga or meditate, we enjoy stories, we make art, we have some good food, we find things that make us laugh and share them with friends and loved ones. Some of us also seek other kinds of connection as well-- a sexual and/or romantic partner. S2 shows us that Gabriel is not aromantic, as he's fallen in love with Beez-- which just emphasizes that, for thousands of years, this sort of thing was never an option for him and another need that was not being met.

Michael is correct in S2 that Gabriel doesn't have a desk to clean out. He has a single, white pedestal without any drawers onto which the occasional file folder can be placed if someone has a meeting with him. (One wonders if Heaven only even has physical file folders as an excuse to have the occasional barely-there table just to break up the expanse of empty space to keep them all from going mad.) Aside from his clothes, he does not possess a single material object, as he's not allowed to.

Imagine not owning a single book. Not having a favorite blanket. Not having a favorite mug. Not having lost these things but having never had them before at all. No presents because you have no friends. The first person to ever give Gabriel something is Beez and that hasn't happened by this point in the story.

We know Aziraphale understands this. Aziraphale wanted a home with a door he could lock and privacy enough to try to live a life of sorts with his partner and a place to store the material objects that he owns. His own, cluttered desk with a million little nooks and shelves. A chair, books, a bed he can be in with Crowley without Head Office finding out and killing them for it. That's the genius bookshop embassy that Gabriel will run to when he finally cracks but Gabriel himself?

He's had almost none of that kind of freedom for himself.

Aziraphale knows what it is to have nothing of your own and that's why he gives Gabriel his angel mug. He's literally writing Jim's name on everything that Jim owns because he knows that while it's not about material objects, Gabriel doesn't have anything of his own. It's about choice-- down here on Earth, Gabriel can choose to call himself something different. He can have a more peaceful and satisfying job and books to read and a favorite drink and a mug of his own and friends to talk to. He can try the hot chocolate and the tiny dinners if he wants without anyone judging him or trying to kill him for it. He can be free to be his own person on Earth.

Consider the contrasting shots of Gabriel in 1.04, shown staring out the window of his prison walls at the Earth he was supposed to destroy... and Jim waking up on Earth, in cozy pajamas, to look out the window of the bookshop while making himself a warm, morning drink in his own mug.

Kind of makes you want to hug him, doesn't it?

Back in 1.04, though? The scene in Gabriel's office showed us what he's up against Up there and just how isolated he is at that time. Michael is the one angel you'd think he'd be able to trust, as they've been through it together for thousands of years, but we see very clearly why Gabriel does not trust them.

Michael is a hypocrite. They talk to the demons unofficially and Gabriel has been protecting them for it from The Metatron. Yet, at the first opportunity, Michael throws Aziraphale under the bus by reporting him for doing the very same thing they are. After S2, we see that this is also a swipe at Gabriel himself-- Michael knows that Gabriel knows about Crowley and Aziraphale and has never done anything about it, even though he "should" by the rules of Heaven. This isn't just Michael selling out Aziraphale-- it's Michael taking a shot at Gabriel himself. It's a reminder that there's always someone who seeks favor with The Metatron watching and Gabriel is completely trapped-- more so, even, than Crowley & Aziraphale.

He doesn't have any choice but to tell Michael that they can pursue it but he's gloriously bitchy about all of it. He doesn't so much as blink in telling Michael that he's sure there's "a perfectly innocent explanation"-- meaning: sure, go ahead, take a shot, but I am in charge and I will continue to be doing fuck all about Aziraphale boffing Bildad the Shuite, Michael.

He also is sly as all hell when he reminds them that "there are no back channels"-- by 'back channels', you mean you're calling your demon boyfriend, have I got that right, Michael? The one I happily pretend you don't have? God, you're awful...

Michael wants Gabriel's job and the brownie points with The Metatron so they're pursuing Aziraphale to show that they're willing to go after subversive angels and they're threatening Gabriel with exposing that he's known for ages about Aziraphale and did nothing-- which makes him an accessory to it. Gabriel has no other choice but to tell Michael to keep pursuing it but it's an example of how the wolves are always circling for Gabriel and how trapped he really is. His only defense is his you're going to regret fucking with me attitude.

As Michael leaves, the scene ends on Gabriel picking up one of the pictures of Crowley and Aziraphale. He's drawn to the one of them sitting together where?

Where Gabriel himself just was.

In the park.

What would it be like to live like they do? he seems to be wondering, for probably the millionth time. How much longer am I going to be able to keep them alive? Am I going to go down with them?

Nah. It's their turn now, Gabriel...

[texasthrillbilly]