#and they’re both archangels

[mikashisus]

small hc of mine involving venti and columbina:

columbina randomly shows up in mondstadt and venti is just like… quivering in his boots bc that’s mf columbina the shade of death (theory) and she freaks him tf out. bro’s fight or flight kicks in as soon as he senses her presence (like zhongli when neuvillette was in liyue)

but columbina is all like “barbatos ^o^ !!! i missed u so much how’s my little dove been, omg ur so grown up now look at u, istaroth would be so proud !!!” and just fawns over him like a mother hen but he’s absolutely TERRIFIED of her, like so terrified he can’t even speak, meanwhile she’s hugging him and complimenting every little thing about him 😭

like, columbina LOVES him but he can’t even stand the sight of her and wants to LEAVE 😭

columbina: can i touch ur wings!? ur so cute!! my little pookie bear!!

venti: GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME

i personally just adore the idea of columbina favoring venti and acting like an annoying older sister who hasnt seen her younger brother in years and has older sibling guilt

i may or may not make this a thing in my venti toh au fic…

[twobeesinatrenchcoat]

I am totally normal and definitely not starting a Star Wars x Good Omens AU.

[hypnos333]

My Heavens

Lucifer Morningstar x Ex Wife Reader Gabriel x Wife Reader

Pt 1- left her behind

Synopsis: You moved on and had a kid with another archangel

You gave birth throughout those centuries to twins, Caelum and Kailani. A boy and girl both have your color hair and eyes but your husband personally a shyness. Also both archangels.

You happily watch them grow with you husband as you both teaches them how to guide people into hopefulness and into following God.

Now they’re one hundred and ninety five years old in age and you are proud of them even though there still kinda of teenagers. You and gabriel were still proud but now with the extermination coming up you had to put your family first no matter the cost.

During the meeting with Charlie Morningstar that’s when you started feeling under the weather making you children go with their father instead of you going sick.

Charlie went up to your daughter mistaking it as you, “Woah Dad was right you are beautiful but you looks so young, Oh Right i’m Charlie you must be ___. My dad has been talking about you nonstop” Charlie rambled making Kailani raise her eyebrows.

“Sorry to burst your bubble but ___ is actually my mother” Kailani stated, “Both of our mother” Caelum add making Charlie look at the twins in shock.

“W-What?” Charlie asks as Vaggie approaches her.

“Yep sweetheart, we’re twins, Shocked? You are the only one that is” Caelum said rolling his eyes the princess stupidness. Kailani slapped her brother on the back of his head before laughing it off.

“Haha ignore my brother, it’s just your the only one who doesn’t noticed our similarities” Kailani said more kindly.

Vaggie pulls a still shock Charlie back to there seats but before they even made it Gabriel landed in front of them. “A-Ah Charlie, Vaggie I see you have met my children, my apologies about them they’re about bit of a hand full like they’re mother” He joked making Charlie gape at him.

“You and ___ had kids???” She questions him trying to get answers for her dad.

“Well of course married and have a new child on the way” Gabriel chuckled making Charlie feel bad about her dad not having this future with his first love.

“Ah I see well congratulations” She faked a smile as she congratulated him and his family.

“Thank you Miss. Morningstar and I hope you have the future you want” Gabriel said before flying away to his children.

After the meeting, Lucifer waited impatiently to hear the news from Charlie.

“What did ya hear Charlie? Did she accept me back to her life?” He asked his daughter hopefully making her looked down before grabbing his hand and slowly putting her wedding ring back into his hand. His smile drop looking at his daughter in fear.

“I’m so sorry dad but she’s married to another archangel named Gabriel and had twins the same age as me with another one on the way” Charlie explained to him.

Lucifer tried to hold into his tears but couldn’t as he sobs falling down to the floor. Charlie hold her dad as he sobs in her shoulder. “I-It’s all my f-fault” He cries out making Charlie console him.

[rose-above-dark]

Gabv1el is everything to me. They’re butch lesbians. They’re toxic yaoi. They’re the archangel and their 4’5 short stack machine side hoe, they’re doomed yuri, they’re hopelessly in love with each other, V1 has no concept of love and is remorseless because of their mechanical nature, V1 is hopelessly smitten, they both take it up the ass, Gabriel will far outlive V1 after his fall, Gabriel will die in 11 hours and they have to fuck right now or else they don’t get the chance to again, they will inevitably be each others ends, they’re T4T, they’re star crossed, Gabriel needs that machine dick now, they try to kill each other on the regular, V1 feels loved for the first time, it’s so toxic that this can only end one way, this is the first time either of them have ever felt loved and the best and most fulfilling relationship they’ve had in untold years, they’re divorced x1000 they’re married x1000, their fight changed both of them fundamentally, V1 and its 6’10 angel wife, they garden together as Gabriel teaches them humanity and finds peace himself, the last bits of humanity and a disgraced being meant to be above it, they need to rip out each others guts now,they need each other carnally, they will die hand in bloodied hand.

[biceratops7]

I’m gonna SCREAM-

We’ve already established as a fandom that Metatron could teach a masterclass on gas lighting, but I wanna talk about how he specifically validates the things Aziraphale cares for while simultaneously devaluing them under the surface.

First off, this moment?

Tells us everything we need to know. It sets the scene for exactly the games Metatron is playing. He makes Muriel feel important while openly insulting them (flat out calling them stupid), aka seamlessly reinforcing the idea that they’re less than to both them and anyone else in the room. He knows he can get away with this easily, he knows that Muriel, lonely, overlooked little Muriel, will be completely distracted by the fact that someone so important is taking an interest in them.

This is already horribly clever, but then later on you realize it’s doing even MORE heavy lifting when he appoints Muriel to run the bookshop. “See? What’s important to you is what’s important to me! I’ve graciously taken the time to ensure your beloved shop is looked after by Muriel. You know, the dim one!” …let’s suffice it to say he’s ensnared too birds with one net for this one, and that a pattern is already starting to arise.

So when Metatron says Gabriel came to Aziraphale because he’s a “natural leader” and “doesn’t just tell people what they wanna hear”? Yah he’s full of shit. Aziraphale struggles with his sense of purpose when he doesn’t have someone or something guiding him, and for thousands of years he’s been terrified of sharing his true feelings and opinions to 90% of people he’s known. Completely just trying to butter him up. Wanna know the real reason Gabriel seeks asylum with Aziraphale?

Exactly this. Gabriel just says so point blank. It’s not because Aziraphale is this person for him, it’s because despite knowing nothing, he has this instinct that Aziraphale is the only one who can possibly understand why Gabriel did what he did. He is, I mean as far as we know, the only other angel who has fallen in love. (In general, let alone with a demon.)

But nope, can’t have that. We can throw the promise of restoring Crowley in the mix to sweeten the pot, but we can’t acknowledge why he’d want that so badly in the first place. So now it’s cause they work so well together. We can praise the angel for the fallen archangel Gabriel himself coming to him protection and guidance, give him a gold star. But we couldn’t DARE imply that it was by virtue of Aziraphale’s courage to choose earthly love over heavenly. How Gabriel didn’t need a leader, but a friend who’s truly known the joys of adoring that “particular person” and the pain of needing to hide it.

Cause then Aziraphale would start getting crazy ideas, like that his silly little human feelings have a great deal of worth. That they have the power to inspire, form cracks in the institution, fundamentally weaken what has controlled and harmed him. We wouldn’t want him to know the true value of the cards he holds when he has the ace in a match against you, now would we? After all…

Metatron uses this ingeniously sinister tactic of taking away Aziraphale’s choice while giving the illusion that he’s actually opening up doors. Notice how he tells Aziraphale he would have the authority to do something as extraordinary as turn a demon into an angel, yet he never once puts the much simpler alternative of just working with a demon on the table? The sleight of hand here is that he’s being offered the opportunity to freely be with Crowley… but he’s already freely with him as is, no bargain to be made. In fact he fought to be. Metatron disappears this accomplishment right before our eyes, while seamlessly maintaining the illusion to Aziraphale that he (Zira) is in control.

He sets Aziraphale up for failure by only providing the option he knows Crowley will not only decline but be deeply hurt by. It’s all so cleverly planned. Once this plays out exactly how he wants, he delivers the finishing blow by diminishing Crowley and his “damned fool questions”. Suddenly doing a complete 180 and emphasizing how foolish and troublesome he is. Metatron was offering Crowley by Aziraphale’s side as The Carrot. Now he’s telling Aziraphale it was stupid of him to want The Carrot, un-heavenly.

Aziraphale’s life, love, happiness, it’s all not only a massive inconvenience for Metatron but a liability. He has successfully taken a weapon from Aziraphale’s hands he didn’t even know he had. Metatron sees the writing on the wall, and he wants it contained.

[amuseoffyre]

I’m emotionally ruined by the fact that Aziraphale hasn’t broken out of his heavenly conditioning. He still loves doing good. He gets happy when people tell him he’s an angel and says “it’s nice to tell people about the good things you’ve done now that I’m not reporting to Heaven”. He will literally put himself in harm’s way to make sure he does the Good and Right thing.

It can’t be understated how much Heaven’s influence still impacts on him. Aziraphale has been created, ordained and conditioned to believe it and he can’t just switch it off or walk away. Crowley didn’t get the choice. He was Fallen. He was kicked out and - as per the rules of toxic and terrifying cults - Aziraphale was always told for centuries and millennia, Falling was the worst thing that could happen. If you’re bad, you’ll be forced out. If you’re bad, you’re not one of Us. You’re one of Them.

When he did something he perceived as Right (ie. saving innocent children from death), but knew it wasn’t what Heaven intended, he broke down. Crowley found him a crying, shaking wreck afterwards because he was so convinced he was Evil. He was so convinced he was going to be dragged to Hell and that he was now a demon because he did one thing that saved some children but because it wasn’t a specific directive, it was Bad.

It shapes so much about him and it’s why the whole series looks like he’s having so much fun doing silly human things, but there’s this brittleness to it. He’s happy and excited and he’s doing his human-life things and having a lovely time, but he’s also constantly stressed because of the Need To Do Good. From the moment Gabriel turns up, he’s a nervous wreck and is trying to hide it by Doing Good, by Solving the Problem, by Fixing Things, by being so active and reactive rather than letting himself think about it. It’s a sign of exactly how frantic he is that he starts giving away his books and letting humans touch them.

Watch his face when the Archangels show up unexpectedly: that isn’t joy. That’s blind terror. He’s so afraid of doing the wrong thing in Heaven’s eyes, even though he made the active choice to do so because it was the Right thing to do. He’s a Guardian and he will protect, but he is so very afraid of the repercussions, even now. 

At the end of S1, Crowley said “they’re gearing up for the big one” so Aziraphale’s not oblivious. He knows a big one is coming. He knows something worse than the Antichrist will be on its way. And he’s trying so hard to pretend that everything is normal and fine and if he ignores all the looming bad stuff, it won’t happen. If we don’t say anything about it, nothing has to change.

But then the changes come knocking at his door holding a box and the choice is gone. He can keep trying to blinker himself to it, but then there are angels and demons in the bookshop and he’s had to use his halo and everything is falling apart.

So when he realises that he can get himself into a position where he can guarantee those repercussions won’t happen to Crowley? He will absolutely take it. He says himself “I don’t want to go back to Heaven”, but the instant the Metatron offers him a free pass for Crowley, to take Crowley out of both Heaven and Hell’s sightlines, to keep him safe (Another bee inside the hive, if you will), no wonder he grabs it with both hands.

The tragedy is that Crowley thinks that when they saved the world together, that was the end of Heaven’s influence in Aziraphale. When he was cast out the split between him and Heaven was sharp and clean. He doesn’t - he can’t - understand how deeply it has tangled around Aziraphale. It’s built into Aziraphale’s entire being and unravelling it isn’t that simple. Aziraphale’s trauma is a horrible, terrible Gordian knot and Crowley can’t understand that he couldn’t simply cut through it, because that’s just not how Aziraphale works.

[fellshish]

Michael sheen and david tennant trying to film another good omens kiss when this time aziraphale has the purple archangel eyes so they’re both wearing contacts

[armageddidnt]

Welcome to My Collection of Random Thoughts during my nth* rewatch of Good Omens Season 2

*only amazon prime knows the exact number at this point but I’m fairly certain it’s in the double digits

Episode 1: Gabriel’s fly lurking in the box when Aziraphale first takes it inside 👀

Crowley’s promise of “two minutes” basically means that he’s been homeless and living in his car for the past 4 years strictly so that he can be within 2 driving minutes of Aziraphale at all times in case his angel needs him I’m not crying you are

So here I think the key word is “fragile,” Crowley knows they are ostensibly safe from their respective sides but that could change at any moment so he’s basically spent the last 4 years in anxiety-ridden terror hovering as close to Aziraphale as he can to try and protect him from heaven, hell, and anyone else that would want to bring him harm after all that business they pulled in season 1 with stopping Armageddon

Episode 2: I just happened to pause the episode while Aziraphale is lying to the angels about his miracle and LOL Michael really outdid himself here (Sheen, not the Archangel)

Gabriel trying to swat flies and almost smashing the repository of every single one of his memories

I’m cAckling

So if Good Omens exists in Good Omens, does that mean Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett exist in Good Omens?? Do you think they based their Aziraphale and Crowley characters on Aziraphale and Crowley??

Episode 3: So I’m trying to find any hints or foreshadowing of the Gabriel Beelzebub thing bc tbh I did kind of feel like it came out of nowhere which is really the only issue I have with them. I found this one scene where Beelzebub almost ?? seems to be concerned about Gabriel ?? But it’s blink and you miss it and there could be lots of other reasons why Beelzebub doesn’t want to fail in locating Gabriel (pressure from/leverage over heaven, etc) so idk

More Foreshadowing Fly content 🪰

Episode 4: So here we’ve seen that Shax can just appear inside the Bentley bc she did it earlier to talk to Crowley. Shax only pretended to be a hitchhiker so she could be invited in because Azirpahale was driving so technically she needed permission to cross the threshold of an angel 👀

This scene will never not destroy me the 1941 flashback is the absolute sOFTEST thing ever to happen on this show

We really need more context here I need to see the Crowley-Furfur Monkey Rides

Episode 5: ahahaha thank you google translate for absolutely destroying my sanity this evening

POP goes the Ziraphale

Okay I know you can’t hear it in the gif but just before Nina takes Maggie’s hand, there’s a very quiet miracle noise, like Azirpahale literally MADE Nina dance with Maggie, he said I’m writing a Mina Jane-Austen-Ball-AU and my otp will KISS godDAMMIT

Azirpahale seems lowkey kind of manic this whole scene tho, he’s controlling literally everyone to force Nina and Maggie together and whenever Crowley says anything that pokes holes in Aziraphale’s Magical Jane Austen Ball Fairytale, Aziraphale just straight up denies it. He wants Nina and Maggie to dance and he wants him and Crowley to dance and he refuses to acknowledge anything beyond that.

Is this just Shax insulting Crowley for how much of a nuisance he’s been or a reference to his former status as an angel ???

They’re both completely dismissive of each other when they’re trying to say something important and that’s the main issue they’ve been having this entire season tbh

Episode 6: I think it’s funny that Crowley describes the angels as bees here because in the book, Neil/Terry describe humans the same way. Guess we have more in common than we thought huh?

So the metatron was the one who originally decided Gabriel would be memory wiped and not sent to hell, and he was also the one that decided not to sound an alarm about Gabriel for some reason and said ‘just go find him yourself’ instead. The metatron has definitely got his own agenda and you can bet he doesn’t want Aziraphale up there in heaven because he’s a “leader” and he’s “honest” like that’s exactly what Gabriel was and look where it got him 👀

There’s just something I can’t quite put my finger on about the metatron bringing Aziraphale a coffee from “give me coffee or give me death” and then asking Aziraphale if he’s going to take the coffee he’s giving him…

I have not seen a single person talk about this since s2 came out but Nina literally calls Maggie “angel” because that’s the term of endearment they hear Crowley using for Aziraphale !!!! I’m still going fERAL over this and I can’t believe no one else is eitHER

Something about this part of The Final Fifteen compared to this scene from the first episode is so representative of the entire season. Azirpahale keeps saying “my way or get out” and Crowley finally hits a wall and can follow Aziraphale no further. So he does just that. He goes.

I’m sure a lot of us by now have seen this post that brings up how Aziraphale literally pushes the remains of Crowley into his mouth and swallows and it’s the only thing I see when I watch this now

We still don’t know for certain if Crowley queued up this song to play on their way to the Ritz or if the Bentley started playing it all on its own and it’s driving me insane

Basically how I am doing after my Truly-Alarming-Number-th watch of this traumatizing episode/season. WELP hope you enjoyed this garbage dump of my thoughts and feelings time to go cry for a bit again BYE

[koji-haru]

Misperceptions

[Sorry, I'm late!! But here's your holiday present @evilmenshoe80!! I hope you like it!! I tried my best, but I'm sorry if I made your characters ooc 🙇‍♀️]

There were two great armies of Heaven. The more well known one, The Army of God, was led by none other than the archangel Michael, Prince of the Heavenly Hosts, who defended Heaven from monsters that lurked within the endless void. The other army, The Exorcists, was led by Adam the First Man, God’s greatest creation, and was an army shrouded by mystery and secrecy. Not many knew what exactly the Exorcists did, save for a few higher ranked angels, just that their work was just as important as the Army of God’s.

And while the two armies share a similar role of protecting Heaven from the dangers of the world outside, their public impression could not be more contrasting. The Army of God, just like their leader, were composed of angels trained to the highest of caliber, highly serious and committed to their duties, exuding an aura of pristine excellence as they sport their golden armour. The Exorcists, on the other hand, were composed of only female angels, saved for their golden commander, clad in black and grey uniforms with a menacing devilish helmet to obscure their faces. And unlike the soldiers of Michael, the Exorcists were often found to be quite the lively group with a harsh undertone. However, despite the two armies' differences, both commanded respect and adoration from the citizens of Heaven for their reputation as strong and reliable defenders of Heaven. 

The leaders of these two armies, Adam and Michael, while they both shared a reputation of being strong and capable commanders, appeared to hold no love for one another. With both having a propensity for obstinacy, unwilling to share control to anyone else despite evidence that would suggest it better to let go, the two were bound to clash heads often. Just like now…

“–and that’s why I think the technique you’re teaching them needs more work,” Michael ended his long critique regarding the Exorcists weapon handling skills and techniques as he watched the women train in their barracks, standing beside their commander, Adam. 

A loud slurping noise from a drink that was essentially empty was all the response Michael received from Adam, who remained sitting slack on the bench as he watched his girls train hard for the upcoming extermination. 

“Adam.”

More slurping, an uncouth burp, and then more persistent slurping from the straw before Adam finally gave Michael a glance, one brow raised. “Dude.” 

Michael simply responded with a similar quirk of his brow, a silent dare for Adam to say what he had in his mind.

“They’re my girls,” Adam started, “and they're badasses already.”

“They could be even better,” Michael insisted, arms crossed as he looked down on Adam, a hint of worry in his calm features. “You can never be too careful when dealing with Hell,” he added in a hushed tone.

A snigger left Adam at the archangel’s words of concern as he placed his now empty cup to sit on the bench beside him. An air of nonchalance clinging heavier than ever on him as he waved Michael off, “What can they even do? We’re invulnerable. Calm your ass and tend to your own soldiers instead.”

In a way, Adam understood where Michael was coming from. Hell was a place not to be underestimated, filled with the most vile, filthy, unsalvageable souls in existence; the chaos and madness only exacerbated by their useless excuse for a king. One would be wise to completely avoid that dumpster fire of a place, or even better, cleanse the filth off of existence with an army of deadly skilled angels. And Adam’s army of exorcists were more than capable of doing the job, possessing both the skill and passion required for such a gruesome task. So while he somewhat appreciated Michael’s persistence on impeccability and covering all bases, even the irrelevant ones, the most it did for him was grate his nerves a little since as literal angels, they were already immune to whatever sinners could even hope to throw at them. The concern was sweet, but highly unnecessary. 

“You’ll be the one needing to tend your ass later,” mumbled Michael though Adam didn’t miss a single word that was said. 

“Wha–! You!!” hissed Adam as he swiftly threw his empty cup at the archangel, who easily dodged the projectile.  

Beneath his mask, Adam’s face was a bright gold, the ventilation and cooling system of the mask not helping in any way to calm the heat that was quickly spreading across his cheeks. And while Michael couldn’t possibly see any of this, Adam’s reaction was all he needed to know he had successfully flustered his pretty angel. 

“No?” Michael asked with a slight tilt of his head, pretty blue eyes shining so prettily beneath long lashes, his long golden hair flowing like silk in Heaven’s cool breeze. If it were anyone else, they would instantly fall for the veil of innocence in front of him, believing that the archangel was oblivious to the undertone of his words prior. But not Adam, no. He had known and spent too much time with the Prince of Heaven to know otherwise. Of course, that didn’t mean he had become immune to Michael’s titillating gaze; somehow always finding himself readily falling for it. 

With a huff that lacked any real heat and a golden flush still painted all over his face, Adam muttered, his voice as quiet as the gentle breeze, “...maybe later…”

“But after work!!” Adam immediately added as he abruptly stood up to push and shove Michael out of the Exorcists’ training grounds. “Now, get out! You’re a distraction!”

“Oh? Am I now?” pondered Michael as he let Adam shove him towards the exit. 

“Yes! Now, out!”

While all of their bickering was nothing more than playful banter and shameless flirting when they believed no one seemed to be watching, unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Four sets of eyes lurking just behind some pink bushes watched on as Adam and Michael appeared to be in a heated dispute, with the father of humanity seemingly so aggrieved enough to have thrown his drink at their brother before proceeding to kick him out of the training grounds. Three out of four sets of eyes gave one another a concerned look, while the fourth one, with eyes like plums, simply looked bored and exhausted with a hint of irritation. 

Four archangels pulled away from the edge of the bush, hiding themselves further into dense pink foliage as they mulled over the scene they all had just witnessed.

“That…didn’t look so good,” Raphael remarked, brows creased in concern. 

“No, it didn’t. It seemed that our brother and Adam were fighting. Again,” Jophiel nodded in agreement, her thoughts already skimming through possible causes of their seemingly long standing feud, but coming up with no viable explanation. Yes, Adam and Michael had somewhat contrasting personalities and demeanour, but she didn’t think it was enough for the two to hold such dislike for one another. And yet, whenever she witnessed the two sharing a space in public, they either barely acknowledged each other, or just like she had seen now, engaged in argument with no resolution since neither seemed willing to relent. 

“I don’t understand,” she pondered aloud. “Michael isn’t normally one to persist in such childish behaviour. And Adam…well, he never truly let anyone’s words affect him much.”

“Not everyone has to get along. Sometimes people just don’t like each other,” Uriel added, a little irked at being dragged into a bush to spy on both his brother and the first man, when he was on his way to get some work done. 

“But Michael’s our dear brother and Adam’s our precious friend!” Gabriel asserted, both hands on his thighs as he sat up even straighter as his amber eyes shone with resolve. “We can’t just leave them like this!”

In the background, Raphael placed gentle hands on Gabriel’s shoulders to ease some of the excess energy off of the spirited angel; a quiet request for silence lest they be discovered sneaking around. 

“Okaaay?” Uriel rolled his eyes at Gabriel’s display of what he thought as childish fervour. “But, is all this sneaking even necessary? Why don’t you just ask them both directly? That’ll get the problem solved in no time.”

“Such things require delicacy and sensitivity to solve, Uriel,” Raphael kindly reasoned. “We  can’t just pull them aside and interrogate them.”

“We must find the root cause first,” Jophiel continued with Raphael nodding in agreement.

“Oh! I know exactly what to do!” Gabriel raised a hand, energy quickly returning back to him. 

“Please don’t tell me it’s got to do with mor–,” groaned Uriel, truly tired with this mess. 

“The next we see them fighting, we listen in on what they might be arguing about, then we can go on from there!” Gabriel announced proudly, a beaming smile on his face.

“Ugh…” 

All Uriel could do was groan and rub his temples as his two other siblings, for reasons he couldn’t fathom, agreed to Gabriel’s terrible idea. He didn’t mind so much, really, if only they would keep him out of their inane plan. But deep down, he knew there was no way they would ‘leave him out’. Just the thought of enacting Gabriel’s plan was already giving him a headache, he couldn’t imagine the mental anguish he would have to go through on the day of the plan itself. But siblings stayed together, he supposed.

—-

The day of unveiling the truth had finally arrived. And of course, Uriel just had to be dragged along with his siblings' schemes just when he was on his way to his own office. Currently, all of the archangels, including Michael and Adam, were in their work building. All four archangels, Jophiel, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel, had all finished their lunches a little earlier than normal and were just heading back to their respective offices, when they all caught a glimpse of Adam following Michael into his office. It wasn’t anything particularly unusual, they were both commanders of an angelic army, sometimes there were things they must discuss. However, Jophiel, Raphael and Gabriel were all quickly stopped in their tracks when they heard multiple things hitting the floor from Michael’s office. Even Uriel momentarily took a pause before deciding that he was much too busy to intervene, though he was quickly pulled into it by siblings. 

So now, all four of them were currently by the door of Michael’s office, either crouched or standing, but all trying to eavesdrop on the possible argument inside. 

An irritated scowl formed on Uriel’s face as he pulled himself away from the door. “This is useless. All we hear are muffled voices.”

“Then should we just knock and ask?” asked Gabriel, amber eyes wavering with worry.

“Hold on a second, hmm,” Raphael lightly touched the office door, a faint golden glow emanating from his fingertips. “It seems that Michael had placed a small barrier around his office.”

“So we can’t get in?” Jophiel queried.

Raphael shook his head, “Not really, unless we use force. It’s only a mild barrier, nothing particularly strong.” 

“Well, that’s it for us then.” Uriel clapped his hands as he stood up, ready to head back to his own office, “We can’t really do much until they’re done with whatever they’re fighting about this time.”

An air of resignation surrounded the siblings as they realised their current lack of options. And really, as much as they would’ve preferred to wait outside and confront both Michael and Adam about their conflicts as soon as they’re done fighting, they had no idea when the two would actually come out and they all still had some work to get done for the day. So, in silence, all four siblings agreed to simply catch and confront the two commanders once they were free of their duties. 

All four were just about to separate and head on to their respective offices when they hear another much louder noise from Michael’s office, and then another and another until something seemed to have hit the door and then fall down with a dull thud. Concern and panic swiftly washed over all four archangel’s features as they froze on their tracks with the exception of Gabriel, who immediately made his way back towards Michael’s office with a fiery haste. 

“That’s it! I’m not standing by any longer!”

And with gathered strength, Gabriel kicked the door to Michael’s office, causing it to fly off its hinges and revealing the two commanders…entangled with one another…on Michael’s desk…with Adam beneath him, one bare leg wrapped around his brother. 

“Gabriel! What–” called out Jophiel as she followed suit with both Raphael and Uriel behind her. 

In front of them four was a scene they had never expected to see: both Michael and Adam in a state of indecency, limbs wrapped around each other, their clothes haphazardly half taken off with Michael’s coat at the foot of where the door used to be. Papers, books, cups and everything that used to be on Michael’s desk scattered in a mess all over the floor. Both Michael and Adam flushed golden, their hair in wild disarray, the sweat making it stick to their faces as signs of their passion began to show in small, golden blooms along their necks and chest accompanied with a few lovingly toothed marks here and there. 

“AAAAHHH!!” screamed Adam as he tried to both push Michael off of him while also trying to pull him closer to use him as a shield to hide the scandalous state he was in.

“Ummm…” before Gabriel could even say anything more Michael had already teleported both him and Adam out of his office in a cloud of blue smoke.

“So all this time they weren’t fighting?” Jophiel wondered aloud. “It was just their form of flirting?”

“That…that explains a lot,” Raphael said, still a little shocked at what he had just witnessed. 

Uriel wanted to gouge out his eyes. That was something he never wanted nor needed to see.

—-

“Please, I’m ready to move on into my third life now…” Adam groaned into his hands as he laid on the bed of Michael’s bedroom. A heavy cloud of unconsolable despair hung over him as he felt the weight of shame and embarrassment on his body. Never had he wished to sink into the ground and disappear forever more than ever in both his mortal life and afterlife. 

“It– it’s not so bad,” Michael tried to console Adam, one hand gently patting his head. “People were bound to find out. At least it was my siblings and not someone like Sera.”

“Michael, please, shut the fuck up.” Adam could feel the tears of shame prick his eyes. “I can’t believe they caught us like that!!” screamed Adam into a pillow he had grabbed. 

“Yes, that– that is troublesome,” Michael nervously agreed. For all his confident capability, for the first time in his long immortal life, Michael wasn’t exactly sure how to face his siblings after this…incident. At least without it being painfully embarrassing for both him and Adam. 

Adam whined into the pillow, still refusing to believe what had happened just minutes before, “I want to return to dust now, Father pleeeease!”

[I actually really really enjoyed writing your OCs, might have even fallen in love with Uriel here ahahaha.]

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

SFX Magazine Issue 368, August 2023

THEY’RE BACK – AND THIS TIME THEY’RE IN ALL-NEW TERRITORY. NEIL GAIMAN TALKS RETURNING FOR SEASON TWO OF GOOD OMENS

THE RASCALLY DEMON Crowley (David Tennant) and the neurotic angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) put aside their differences to pull off one doozy of a Hail Mary and prevent an impending Apocalypse in Good Omens’ first season. The task cemented the pair’s unconventional friendship. So what are divine beings, who have fallen out of grace with both Heaven and Hell, to do for an encore?

The answer lies with archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm), who shows up unannounced on the doorstep of Aziraphale’s London bookshop. Suddenly, Aziraphale and Crowley are caught up in a caper of biblical proportions – but also a more intimate tale.

“It’s a mystery,” showrunner Neil Gaiman tells SFX. “It kicks off a story that doesn’t have giant consequences for the universe, even if it does have consequences for Aziraphale and Crowley. We have a lot of the marvellous Jon Hamm, who is the angel Gabriel and turns up at the beginning stark naked, carrying a cardboard box with no memory of who he is. In the same way, it is about Aziraphale and Crowley having to get involved with humanity in a way that they haven’t before.

“They get dragged in slightly against their will to try to sort out the love life of Aziraphale’s tenant,” he continues. “Her name is Maggie [Maggie Service] and she runs the record shop next to the bookshop. You’ll see the coffee shop over the road, which is Nina’s [Nina Sosanya]. The relationship between Maggie and Nina is one that Crowley and Aziraphale try to fix, and mess up, because they are not good at human relationships, even if they can do miracles.”

Truth be told, Gaiman never originally intended this arc to serve as Good Omens’ second instalment. The TV series was based on Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s 1990 novel. The two collaborators had partially hashed out the details for a sequel to the fantasy comedy, late one night in a hotel room. This, however, is not it. Gaiman instead plotted a new narrative that could provide the connective tissue between the first season and a theoretical season three, if it happens.

“Because the hypothetical season three exists, there is a story that is there, and I didn’t feel that we could drive straight from season one into that,” Gaiman explains. “I knew what the stakes were. I knew what the parameters were. I also knew that I had David and Michael. I had the angels from plot number one.

I had demons from plot number one. And with anybody that I wanted to bring back, but didn’t have room for right now, I did not have to bring them back as themselves. “I had absolutely nothing for Madame Tracy to do in this plot, but I would be damned if Miranda Richardson wasn’t going to be in this. She is one of my favourite people in the world. She is hilarious and is so good. And I knew I was going to have a new demon replacing Crowley as Hell’s representative in London/ the UK. Miranda’s demon Shax is the best demon you could want.”

It’s late February 2022 and SFX is in Edinburgh for a set visit. A soundstage in Pyramids Studios has been transformed into a street in Soho. The visible local stores include the aforementioned book, coffee and record shops, as well as a magic establishment. In the middle of them all stand Aziraphale and Crowley, the latter in close proximity to his classic Bentley. It’s close to the end of the six-episode season, so exactly what the duo is discussing constitutes a spoiler. We can say, however, that Aziraphale has picked up the pace. Time is of the essence as Shax marshals her forces to descend on Aziraphale’s store and retrieve Gabriel.

“This is really Shax’s first time out on Earth,” Gaiman explains. “She is working very diligently and very hard in Hell for a long time. Now she is on Earth, trying to figure it all out. She’s just discovering what Crowley has known for 6,000 years, which is that if you’re a demon and come up with a brilliant plan to screw up the lives of humanity, people will get there first and do worse than anything you could have imagined! She’s coming to terms with that.

“She is having to deal with the first crisis on her watch, as well, which is the disappearance of the archangel Gabriel from Heaven. It would be fair to say that by the end of the story, she is leading as much as she can get from Hell’s requisition department – a legion of Hell – in an attack on a Soho bookshop.”

When audiences catch up with Aziraphale again, he’s enjoying his time among humans. He owns most of the block in a Soho neighbourhood, and he’s meddling in Nina’s love life. Meanwhile, Crowley has been living in his car, with his plants sitting on the back seat. He’s grumpy about his current status quo, but frequently hangs out at Aziraphale’s. The duo began as antagonists, but their history and blossoming relationship will be fleshed out in flashbacks.

“One of the enormously fun things I came up with is the idea of minisodes,” Gaiman explains. “They are 25-minute-long episodes within the episode. We have three of them over our six episodes. Each of them is like one of those chunks of episode three [in season one]. Whereas the longest one of those was four or five minutes, if that, these are full stories.

“You get to have the story of [put-upon Biblical figure] Job, and you learn Aziraphale and Crowley’s part in the story. Then writer Cat Clarke takes us to Edinburgh in the 1820s for a tale of body-snatching and attempted murder that the boys get involved in,” he adds.

“Finally, Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman reunite the League Of Gentlemen in a Nazi-period story that takes place very shortly after the episode in the church. That one was the only one I said had to be there, because I fell in love with our Nazi spies in the church. I kept thinking, ‘What would happen if they essentially came back as zombies, with a mission from Hell to try and investigate whether or not Crowley and Aziraphale were actually fraternising?’”

Gaiman admits that one of the greatest challenges has been filming Good Omens simultaneously with his upcoming show Anansi Boys. The two shoot within throwing distance of each other, but are both timeconsuming endeavours.

“If I could go back in time, I would go back to 16 September 2020, when Douglas Mackinnon [co-producer] and I got the phone call from the Amazon bigwigs to say, ‘We have good news for you and interesting news for you,’” Gaiman recalls. “‘The good news is we are greenlighting both Good Omens and Anansi Boys. The interesting news is you are going to have to do them both at the same time.’

“I would go back to then and I would throw myself on the call and say, ‘Neil, don’t! This is unwise.’ That we are doing them both together is great. The amount of sleep I am not getting is monumental and monstrous.

“It’s a little bit like childbirth, in that I managed to forget all the things that drove me nuts about the first one. Having said that, I managed to fix all the things that really drove me nuts making season one, which is great. We just have a whole new set of problems making season two…”

The Odd Couple - David Tennant and Michael Sheen talk character and sets for season two

Crowley and Aziraphale come off as the best of frenemies at times. Where do they stand with one other now?

DT: They are indeed. What’s different in season two is because of what happened at the end of season one, they no longer have head offices that they have to report to. They are in a very different position. Whereas before they were trying to get away with things, now they are kind of free agents.

MS: Although sort of fugitives as well. They are sort of in-between. But this amazing life they have created over a millennia, they are now able to enjoy in a slightly different way. They are not having to put on a front for their respective teams. There is a different kind of freedom.

DT: While at the same time being cut off, so they are also strangers in a strange land.

MS: That kind of connects them in a slightly different way. They have always been the only two beings who could understand each other’s position. Now they are pushed even closer together.

Now that they have the run of the place with no obligations, does that bring its own set of problems, being cut off?

DT: They have this sort of uneasy relationship. They are not entirely cut off from their head offices. Indeed, their head offices are quite keen to exploit that sort of adjacent connection, as we will see as the story unfolds. They exist in this grey area, neither the supernatural nor of the Earth.

MS: By the time we pick up their story in this series, they have appeared in time where they were kind of let alone a bit more. When we pick the story up, they are being bothered again.

The depth and the richness and the detail of what we are seeing on set here in Edinburgh is mind-blowing. How is it for you having it all in one place now, rather than having filming scattered around the UK?

MS: It’s completely changed the experience of doing it. Just being indoors… The Soho set on the first season was freezing cold.

DT: I was in a car park. Even inside the bookshop I was exposed to the elements! There’s a greater percentage of the show set here. There was a practical imperative to making it a manageable environment. If we had been in a car park, the elements might have impinged our ability to film.

Hellraiser - David Tennant is Crowley

You and Michael know these characters inside out. Do you have a shorthand?

It’s a hard thing to be objective about. Although I didn’t know Michael that well before we shot season one, it was always easy and exciting working together. It’s well-oiled now, for sure. It’s certainly fun to come to work. We enjoy bouncing off each other.

How comfortable are they about becoming involved with Gabriel?

I suppose Aziraphale is a much more enthusiastic detective. We are very much voting for the spin-off called The Azirafiles, which will follow this! As with most things, Crowley is reluctant to get involved or to exhibit any kind of energy or enthusiasm about very much. He is dragged kicking and screaming into this. Necessity forces him to get involved, whereas Aziraphale rather likes it.

Where does Crowley hang out these days?

He spends a lot of time in the book shop. He only has one friend. He can only have one friend. That is the great liberation, and also the great prison, that they find themselves in. They have no one else. They have come to rely on each other more than they ever did. And more than they care to admit.

Crowley is a rock star, in a way. Were there any particular musicians that inspired you?

Not consciously, no. The look was assembled accidentally during the first costume sessions. The Crowley of the book is of the mode when the book was written. He is more kind of Wall Street, the way he is described. We just decided that Crowley should always be of the moment he’s in. We were just trying to find a look that we felt fitted.

Divine Being - Michael Sheen is Aziraphale

How has knowing your characters better informed this series?

The first series was the first time we really properly worked together. It feels like we haven’t stopped working together since. Everything that has happened in-between plays into coming back to these characters. I am sure it is all feeding into it. It’s very difficult for us to know how that is informing the characters and their relationships.

With the flashbacks to various points in Earth’s history, is there a period of time Aziraphale enjoys the most?

One of the most enjoyable things for the audience and us is moving through different historical periods. It’s a great source of joy, and people thoroughly enjoyed that episode in the first series, so that has been expanded on in season two. But in terms of which Aziraphale enjoys the most, I think it’s not actually a period of time that we’ve seen him in on this series.

He would have been happiest at the end of the 19th century, in the Victorian era, which is considered the golden age of magic. He would have loved being with the greats like Harry Houdini. He loved the Victorian period. It was a great period of time for philanthropy and doing good works in a municipal way.

How has it been going from something dark like The Prodigal Son to a more whimsical show?

That’s the nature of an actor’s job. You go from one thing to another. In some ways, it’s even more useful to have big differences between the characters. What tends to happen, and I think most actors feel this way, is if you are playing one character for a long time, part of you yearns to play the bits the character doesn’t have. There’s a naivety and an innocence about Aziraphale. But at the same time, underneath that, there is eons of knowledge and experience.

[clioerato]

I absolutely adore that classic Winchester brother dynamic, where they’re literally like:

Dean: I’m freakin’ MacFucker! Three times a night! Boobs! Wait… what’s that sound? Is that the gentle rustle of the Angel of the Lord’s trench coat? Oh God, that heavenly being… his endless eyes… I’m gonna faint—

Sam : Dean! You left porn open on the laptop again!

(passing out)

Sam (five minutes later): Alright, which occult freak of the week am I sleeping with today? A Trickster? An Archangel? Why not both?

[aziraphales-library]

Hi! Do you have any fics where Aziraphale and Crowley are both yanderes or at least possessive over each other? Preferably explicit, but it doesn't have to be. Thank you mods!

Hey. We have a #possessive crowley tag. Here are more possessive fics for you...

An Exchange of Dangerous Goods by rockinellie (E)

Aziraphale overhears Crowley planning to steal holy water and steps in. In exchange for the one thing can destroy him, Crowley gives Aziraphale the only thing capable of doing the same.

but I can't get warm without your hand to hold by sabinelagrande (E)

Crowley thinks the whole heat thing is a rumor. The whole heat thing is not a rumor.

It's Chemical. by millygal (E)

Aziraphale’s face is flaming and his nails are biting painfully into his palms as he grinds his teeth in an effort not to let loose a very undignified growl. The Angel doesn’t believe in overt displays of, well, anything, not in an open forum. He much prefers to purport himself in a dignified and genteel manner. He loves the sound of a well placed growl coming out of Crowley’s mouth, it’s a strangely enticing noise, makes the hairs at the nape of Aziraphale’s neck stand to attention and his stomach flip over, but he himself isn’t the type to present openly feral leanings in public. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Or, the Ineffable Angel gets his knickers in a twist over Crowley being pawed by a pretty human, which pushes him to move their sweet budding relationship into high gear.

The Supreme Archangel by Luna_Polaris (M)

Hamaliel looks out at the group of angels in front of them. “The Supreme Archangel is ordering a meeting. Follow me.” They call out. They march towards the office of the Supreme Archangel, the footsteps of all of the angels echoing through the halls. Two angels guard either side of the office door. They see the angels approaching and open the door, revealing a chair facing away from them. The angels file into the room, the doors closing behind them. Hamaliel steps in front of the angels. “Surpeme Archangel, I have gathered the soldiers.” They state. “Ah! Wonderful.~” The chair spins around to reveal Aziraphale sitting in the chair.

Castaway and Found Again by Yelhsabeech (E)

In a Singles-Cruise gone awry, sweet, bumbling Aziraphale is caught in a storm and ends up washed up on a deserted tropical island. Or at least he thinks it's deserted, until he's rescued by a beautiful stranger and his son. As time goes by, Aziraphale's love for the father and son only grow. But so do his questions; how did Crowley get here? How long was he alone? What happened to Warlock's mother? Could Crowley possible love him back? Most importantly, will Aziraphale have the strength to leave once rescue finally does arrive?

Is Never Too Late For Now by amtm1017 (E)

Lately, his dreams have been... unsettling. But not in the way dreams often are. They aren’t strange or unfamiliar. In fact, they’re painfully familiar. He knows this dream because it isn’t really a dream—it’s a memory. A single, sharp-edged memory that keeps replaying in his mind, night after night. It started the moment he and the angel decided to move to the quiet cottage outside London. And now, it won’t leave him. What is it about that memory that refuses to let him go? He supposes there’s nothing else to do but close his eyes again, surrendering to the pull of sleep—and to that time, far away, that his mind refuses to release. To St. Petersburg. December 31st, 1820. Or Crowley dreams and learns to voice what he wants.

- Mod D

[roguestorm]

the thing about the o5 (as a jean stan) is that jean has distinct relationships with all four of the guys in a way that feels really good for her character.

she and hank have this relationship that you can see in xmso that seems to be about them looking forward to the future of the x men. they both can see different things in charles and obviously they’re not going to discuss those with scott (it’s impossible to talk to scott at this point) so they’re sort of considering the future in a way that neither warren nor bobby really is. and then there’s that time when hank and jean think they’re the only two survivors of the x men so it’s them and charles and that is SO tasty to me. and then there’s the open affection that they show each other in x factor and the nineties. and it reads to me like hank really respects jean’s intelligence even though it’s different from his own.

she and warren have a relationship that i think makes them both feel normal. this is why they’re dating in the silver age, and going back to xmso again, i love that moment when jean is like “your worst problem is that girls want you to take your clothes off on the first date” because obviously warren does have problems but jean helps keep them in perspective. they just like each other in a very innocent way, and that like relationship to normal is super interesting in the aftermath of dark phoenix and archangel because both of them end up witnessing the other during their worst days. and how do you move forward with a friendship based on normalcy when you’re both monsters?

and then her relationship with bobby is cute because i believe she does tell bobby things she doesn’t tell anyone else. bc bobby is easy emotionally in a way none of the others are. maybe it’s because he’s younger, maybe it’s because he’s gay and therefore not fighting for her affection, maybe it’s because bobby is just generally a pretty easy-going guy. and for bobby, she likes and respects him (him! for his personality!) and i think he’s pretty used to people seeing only the image he projects, and so for jean to see him is like nice. especially if he doesn’t have to have a conversation about it. then there’s also those x factor issues where bobby’s like “do you wanna help me with this problem” and jean’s like “absolutely get me away from all my problems” so i think they have fun together.

and obviously i could write whole essays about her relationship with scott lol

[createserenity]

Silliness and why it’s important

Crowley and Aziraphale are so silly and it’s something I really love about them and it’s something I think is really important to them because they can be silly with each other in a way they can’t with anyone else.

Both of them are silly – Aziraphale displays this side of himself much more readily and more often than Crowley does, but Crowley is silly too. Even present day Crowley who often seems to get labelled as dark and jaded and traumatised is actually still really quite silly.

Quick note - this post is part of a series which contains my opinions on Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship dynamics. I already wrote one on what they ask of each other (click to read it!). This one is silliness, by which I mean the funny things they do to amuse themselves and each other and also to a lesser extend the times when they are just a bit weird, because they are both slightly bonkers sometimes, for no other reason than they want to behave like that.

(By the way, if you make it to the end of this post without the word silly becoming, well, silly, then I applaud you!)

Why is being silly with each other important?

Can you imagine them being silly with any of the other demons or angels? There’s no way Aziraphale could display his silly side in heaven, the archangels are serious and wouldn’t understand the silliness, they’d just think Aziraphale was mad. Same for Crowley, the demons of hell just wouldn’t get it, they’d be scornful or dismissive at best, and also probably think he was mad (in fact we know they would because Aziraphale later utilises this idea when they body swap). In addition for both of them silliness around humans is something they can and do indulge in, but they don’t get a lot out of it because humans probably just think they’re a bit odd. Aziraphale for example isn't as socially unaware as he first appears, unless he’s playing a character (for example when he’s the magician or reporter), he tends towards being basically affable around humans, because that’s the sort of persona he wants to cultivate. Crowley generally wants to look suave so silliness around most humans is out for him too. It’s not that they are never silly around humans (see 1601 for just one example) but usually they aren’t. That leaves them with each other.

Crowley’s silliness

Taking them one at a time, let’s look at their silliness and what it says about them. I’m starting with Crowley because his is less obvious. Crowley doesn’t seem to be super silly at first glance. His silly streak is overshadowed by Aziraphale’s and also his tendency not to smile and be so overt whilst doing silly things. It’s partly why he looks like he’s lost a lot of his joy in life, but I’m not so sure that’s true. Crowley is optimistic and continues to be optimistic right up to season two – he also continues to be silly.

Let’s look at some examples of Crowley’s silliness through the ages:

Firstly angel Crowley is obviously a bit inclined towards the ridiculous – look at the weird and wonderful noises and faces he makes whilst creating the nebula. Aziraphale is utterly charmed (and so are we all).

Next another obvious one – Bildad the Shuite. This whole persona is just silly. From the odd facial hair to the weird things he does, Crowley is just having quite a lot of fun here. His ridiculous summarisation of the permit (“hugs and kiss, God”), more weird noises and faces as he fireballs the goats, his over-exaggerated setting everything aflame in the house (here some of his silliness is for a different purpose – to test Aziraphale’s trust in him), and then ending with his farcical cobbler/obstetrician doing a fake child-birth, complete with ridiculous over-acting for the benefit of the angels. For a lot of the Job incident Crowley is indulging his own silliness for a serious end.

After that we have to skip right to 1826 for the next bout of blatant silliness on Crowley’s part. For a start he’s ricocheting through Scottish accents, sometimes changing from one sentence to the next. He’s having fun with the persona he’s created for himself and he really doesn’t care who notices. He also banters with Aziraphale, Elspeth and Dr Dalrymple here in a way I really love, “bet you left your loom on your farm!”, “more murders, I’ll drink to that!”

There’s a lot of silliness in 1941 and I really don’t need to list it all – the middle name that’s just a J, the weird American accent, his very genuine laugh of delight at the snakes in a can trick, and more. This isn’t a demon that’s so jaded he isn’t still having fun.

So then we get to the modern day. There’s limited opportunities for super overt silliness because the situation is serious in both seasons, but there’s still some there:

In series one instead of miracling the guy with the paintball gun to sleep he literally turns himself into a monster and then declares “that was fun!” It’s ridiculous behaviour if you think about it, but Crowley enjoys himself.

The way he drinks the coffee in S2E1. Seriously. Why does no one talk about this? He gulps it down and then hisses/pulls a really stupid face. Maybe it gets overlooked because it’s sort of a bit sexy too, but honestly, it’s pure ridiculousness and he knows it.

From this point on Crowley’s silliness tends towards being more quiet silliness, rather than over the top silliness like Aziraphale’s is (with one notable exception). In the pub scene he orders the drink with a joke about Aziraphale, and then proceeds to intimidate Mr Brown in a not at all normal voice. He later asks Nina stupid questions about awnings and sudden rain – he must know these are silly questions from her perspective, but he does it anyway because he’s got a plan and he’s just a bit daft and doesn’t mind appearing weird around humans if need be. Later in the bookshop he throws the books around – honestly he could just place them down, he will know he’s being silly when he chucks them all over the place, but he does it anyway. In between this we have Muriel, which is a delightful moment of them both being a bit silly together at Muriel’s expense, except they’re both really quite kind about it as well. Then we get the exception - in the magic shop he dons a fez and messes about with a crystal ball – really do I need to say more about how obviously overtly silly this is?

I’m sure I’ve missed plenty of other examples as well (I've not even mentioned how silly the apology dance is!), these are just the ones I can think of right now.

So all this to say that Crowley is silly and most of his silliness is when he’s around Aziraphale. We as the audience don’t see Crowley being super silly very often, but we can extrapolate from what we do see that throughout the history we don’t see he must display his silly side to Aziraphale reasonably regularly. The biggest piece of evidence for the idea that Crowley is a lot sillier than we tend to see him is when we glimpse him through Aziraphale’s eyes. We know he sees Crowley as someone who does funny things and that this is something Crowley continues to do right up to the present day because when they body swap and Aziraphale takes his place in hell what are the two main characteristics of Crowley that he plays up? Sarcasm and silliness.

So what does Aziraphale think of Crowley’s silliness? Well, he doesn’t actually react much to it (see later for one reaction he does tend to give). He definitely seems to expect it though, he takes it as a given part of Crowley’s personality and I think we can safely assume he likes it, since he likes Crowley. Is Crowley aware of his own silly streak? Absolutely. How do we know? Again because of how Aziraphale sees him. The first thing he tells Crowley about on his return is how silly he was: “I asked them for a rubber duck!” and Crowley laughs along with him, delighting in the silliness of it all. This reaction is a tacit acceptance of what Aziraphale has done yep, that’s totally the sort of thing I would have done, angel, I know I’m sometimes silly like that and I’m delighted that you see that and that you are also silly.

Aziraphale’s silliness

Aziraphale’s silliness is so overt that I’m not even going to list examples of it. We all know how silly Aziraphale is, right? We’ve all seen his stupid behaviour in the magic shop and his daft attempts at speaking French because he’s somehow wiped his ability to speak proper French from his memory (anyone got a meta about how he’s achieved this because I don’t think it gets enough attention?)

Basically Aziraphale is quite often as mad as a box of frogs and Crowley adores him for it. Sometimes he teases him about it, but a lot of the time he doesn’t even do that, he just shakes his head a bit and looks at Aziraphale like he can’t believe what he’s hearing or seeing and like he thinks Aziraphale is absolutely insane. This is a massively important part of their relationship dynamic. Aziraphale is silly and Crowley fake rolls his eyes at him – it’s what they do.

Why is this so important? Well firstly Aziraphale’s silliness is something that he gives to Crowley. And he only gifts it to him after he starts to trust him – Aziraphale’s silliness is a symbol of trust and Crowley knows it. If you made a graph of their silliness around each other through time then Crowley’s would stay fairly consistent, maybe even drop off a bit, (as he gets more worried about their situation), but Aziraphale’s would be a massive upward curve probably starting sometime around the arrangement (which is around 1020AD according to the book). This is another reason Crowley falsely looks super morose and jaded by S2. At the beginning of their relationship Crowley is the only silly one and he’s overtly silly fairly often (and probably this continues in meetings we don’t see), whilst Aziraphale is anxious and serious a lot of the time (there’s no real silliness from Aziraphale during the Job incident) because he’s struggling with his own morals and his own place in relation to heaven and God’s will.

Over time though he starts to trust Crowley and once he does he unleashes the silliness and this becomes a basic part of his personality. For the audience 1601 is the first time we see this, but it’s clear by that point that Crowley knows he’s silly and isn’t surprised by it. Once Aziraphale starts being silly around Crowley he does it with increasing regularity and by the time the events of S2 come around he’s silly so often and so wildly ridiculous about it that it makes Crowley look serious and maudlin by comparison (even though he’s more-or-less maintained his original silly streak at least up to the point where he drinks the coffee).

The second reason this is so important is linked to the first. Sometime after Aziraphale starts being silly this becomes how they flirt without flirting. Aziraphale is silly and it delights and surprises Crowley (surprises in terms of he doesn’t know how Aziraphale is going to be silly today, he’s not surprised by the fact that he is silly).

We see this in 1601 with Aziraphale shouting inappropriately silly things to Hamlet and looking at Crowley whilst doing it. He’s offering Crowley his silliness as a sign of trust and something more, the subtext is, You know how to be silly, I’ve seen you be silly, I know you love silly things and I’m silly too. Crowley reacts with a look we will see from him a lot in the future, you’re being ridiculous angel. He knows it’s silly, he knows Aziraphale knows he’s silly and he knows why Aziraphale is doing it. He doesn’t laugh though because they’re already on their way to established roles in their relationship, Aziraphale is silly and Crowley rolls his eyes at it whilst secretly delighting in it (it works the opposite way too – see the fez scene where Aziraphale is the one who reacts, you can just see the start of a, “seriously, what are you doing, Crowley?” expression before the camera cuts away to Crowley’s mad moment).

The dynamic later evolves into more overt flirting. By the time Gabriel turns up Aziraphale is very definitely using his silliness to flirt. The car scene (which I’ve written more about in another post) is the most overt example of this. Crowley isn’t being walked all over here, he’s playing up to Aziraphale very obviously flirting to get his own way, and by doing so is encouraging him to keep doing it. Aziraphale starts the scene off being silly about the clue and “investigating” because he knows Crowley likes it, and then he ramps up the silliness with his voice and hand gestures the more Crowley reacts with grumpiness and refusal. That this is all an act becomes very obvious when it continues inside after Crowley has removed the plants from the car. Clearly the car borrowing is already happening at this point but Crowley continues to protest and Aziraphale continues to flirt over the issue, right up until Crowley playfully pulls the car keys away from him at the last second and turns the tables by indirectly flirting with Aziraphale via his conversation with Muriel.

One interesting question here is, do they even know they are flirting? And you know what, I’m not entirely sure. I doubt they’d describe it like that to an outsider, but what they do understand is the effect their actions have on the other one, particularly Aziraphale. He knows flirting-using-silliness is a good way to get his own way on minor issues and Crowley, possibly sub-consciously, but definitely willingly, falls into his role in that dynamic providing it’s something he feels he can give (see my other post for more on that).

So is Crowley jaded by life in season two?

Tricky one! I can see some evidence of it and I do think he’s drifting a bit aimlessly this season, with no real home, no direction and feeling generally a bit lost about his place in the world. But I also see him being quite silly, sarcastic and generally amusing throughout the season as well, and he’s definitely still enjoying Aziraphale’s silliness, right up until the ball when Aziraphale won’t listen to him because he’s too busy being giddy. Also though he literally shares a joke with Mrs Sandwich when he’s rescuing the humans from the demons and he laughs in delight when he finds out Aziraphale has blown up his halo. He’s fed up about some things, but he’s not so fed up that he’s completely lost his sparkle.

Why does Crowley seem different though? Well, Crowley, whilst definitely very much inhabiting the ‘thin dark duke’ persona in the present-day scenes, still retains a lot of his sense of humour, it’s just changed over the years. He’s more likely now to channel his silliness into sarcasm, which makes total sense – he tends to keep up with the modern world a lot more than Aziraphale does and he’s lived in Britain for a very long time and British humour is very inclined towards sarcasm, which is basically a more grown-up form of silliness. Crowley hasn’t become jaded, he’s adapted his humour to the modern British world, but also still retained some of his original inclination to just behave in bizarre and unpredictable ways (Coffee drinking! Fez wearing!) He also doesn’t need to be as silly himself now because he’s got Aziraphale, who is more than silly enough for the both of them, and Crowley loves him for it. “I say something brilliant, he says something unintentionally funny. It’s great!”

Conclusion?

Yes, sort of! The whole thing can basically be summarised by something @ineffabildaddy said in response to my previous post. “Aziraphale and Crowley don’t just love each other, they like each other, too.” They haven’t hung around each other for 6000 years and fallen in love against their will because it’s fate or some nonsense like that – they liked each other first. They’ve always liked each other from the moment they met as angels and they have grown to like each other more at every meeting since. They like each other’s personalities, conversation, sense of humour, silliness and so much more. These are the things that bind them together.

We the audience only see their big moments, times when something happens that pushes their relationship forward (1941) or changes their sense of who they are (Job). In S1 we see them face a huge challenge together and come out the other side. What we don’t see and so what we can sometimes forget as the audience is that there is a massive amount of time in their history where these things weren’t happening, where they just met up and had normal conversations and hung out because it was fun for them to spend time together. To spend 6000 years hanging out together and still be able to find the other person interesting and funny and just generally worth being around is pretty impressive and show just how strong their relationship really is. I hope that no matter how big and dark things get in season three that we at least get some chance to watch them be silly together some more, I think they deserve it after all they’ve been through!

[cakeebly]

Hello everyone!

Thanks lots for the support for my Cassette Beasts Partner VS Archangel (+ Averevoir) series! It is a lot of fun and I love this game so much. I’m playing the DLC now, so expect something coming out for that!

Anyway, this post is just me rambling about the details I put into each piece. Some have more details than others, but all of them have an equal amount of love put into them!

I’ll go in-order of how I met each companion in game!

———

Kayleigh:

For Kayleigh, Meredith, and Viola I re-used the same bricks from the train station and the background to match how they are in game!

All (except for Barkley’s) have a quote from the archangel overlayed as well. Some are easier to see than others.

But for Kayleigh, all the details are in her posing! Her pose is akin to how battles start, with the characters pointing their cassette players at the enemy before transforming.

But her pose also sort of represents her GIVING. She gives you your first cassette, she always is the one giving (which ties into her story with Mourningstar). You do not take from me, you only give.

Also Dorian’s death splatter in infront and bellow Kayleigh in the foreground haha.

———

Eugene:

The background is Mammon’s lair, of course! And he is in a fighting pose, ready to bash in some landlords!

The detail here I want to point out is how I created Mammon. It was really difficult since Mammon is the most abstract, and I have no idea what’s going on for 90% of him, but I am proud of how I made the face and the nose!

I used USD president / USA figures that are on USD to make the face and the nose! I did cutting and editing so it’s more pixelated. I am struggling to remember which specific notes I used, but they’re from two different USD.

———

Meredith:

It might be hard to tell, but my friend spotted it when I showed him this one, there is a record behind Nowhere Monarch! Since Meredith’s quest is about the record, I thought it was a nice touch. I also used Meredith’s posing ingame for her pose here.

Can you tell I didn’t want to draw the second eye?

———

Felix:

I loved Felix’s story so much, hits home as an artist.

The alter posts are in the background here!

Felix is also the only one not holding their cassette tape, since Felix wanted to apologize to Kuneko. He doesn’t really want to fight her, his hand out to her in apology. Used his sad expression ingame for his expression here.

Also Kuneko has glowing nails / claws just because I wanted to. And multiple kunai cause that’s cool.

———

Viola:

Viola my beloved, the first one I drew!

Her’s is a lot simpler, mostly because I wasn’t expecting to make this into a series and I just wanted to draw her. But I still loved how I drew Goodfellow here!

The book is open, reading their stories from Shakespeare’s plays.

There’s also spotlight on both Robin and Viola’s faces! Since that’s how Robin introduced himself and to show how they’re characters from plays!

———

Barkley:

Barkley is the only one not to fight an Archangel in their quest, so there is not glitching effects here! The background is, of course, the cave the fight takes place in.

There’s bones in the background, a leash and treats on the floor.

And of course, Barkley’s bootleg cassette! Barkley’s cassette is also the only tape I did not draw the fully remastered version of for the sticker. This was an accident both in the drawing, and in my game. I forgot to remaster it before fighting Aleph 😅.

I also didn’t meet Barkley immediately because for some reason I thought he was a captain? For the trial quest? I am not sure why I thought that.

———

And that is all for now! I am planning to do two oc drawings for Cassette Beasts, a DLC drawing, and probably an Aleph / final battle drawing!

But I’m not sure how long that will take.

Thanks for all of the love on the individual drawings!! Means the world

[spn20fest]

Each week has a suggested theme, but you should also feel free to simply post something about the season that corresponds to the week (i.e. something about s3 during week 3), or honestly just post whatever you want, we won’t stop you.

Tag us with @spn20fest to make sure we see your contribution and we’ll reblog! We appreciate it if you can add some identifying tags as well, but otherwise we’ll do our best to make sure things are categorized properly.

This will get long, so please continue below the cut to see the prompts for each week!

Please join us at our Discord if you'd like to chat about your take on the prompts or the show in general: https://discord.gg/Eaxx3dEXVA

1: May 31 Introductions How'd you start watching the show? What made you first fall in love with it? What was the first episode you saw, which was the first one you loved? How’d you get into the fandom? 

2: June 7 THEN

Posts/fics/meta about pre-series, Stanford era, weechesters and more — what happened before Halloween 2005? What was Castiel doing back then?

3: June 14 The Family Business

Saving people, hunting things: what does the job do to a hunter? What’s it all for? What does it mean to be a hunted thing? What about the society and rules built around it? What are your favorite monster of the week episodes?

4: June 21 Two of Us Against the World

Sam and Dean Winchester appreciation — favorite moments, favorite stories for each of them (or both). What are the most interesting aspects about the Winchester brothers to you?

5: June 28 Agents Beyonce & Z

Castiel and Crowley appreciation — favorite moments, favorite stories for each of them (or both). What are your favorite storylines for them? How do you imagine they got to where they were?

6: July 5 Ship Appreciation

SPN has enough ships to fill an armada — talk about your faves! Write a manifesto, share a rec list, comment on some of your favorite stories, etc.

7: July 12 Legacies

History looms large: talk about John & Mary’s joint legacies, the Winchesters and the Men of Letters, the Campbells and hunting society — all the way down from Cain & Abel. Alternately, what legacies do you think the main characters leave behind? What will people remember about them when they're gone?

8: July 19 Family Don’t End in Blood

Celebrate the tangled web of family and friends accumulated over the years: Bobby, Charlie, Jody, Kevin, Rufus, and more.

9: July 26 Heaven & Hell (& Purgatory)

Time to revel in the big hitter angels and demons and critters that populate the supernatural planes — celebrate archangels and the dukes of hell, or your favorite vampires and ghosts. 

10: August 2 The French Mistake

Supernatural’s fourth wall is so flimsy it might as well not exist. Whether it’s the “Carver Edlund” books, in-universe fanfiction, busting through to Vancouver to film an episode, hanging out with high school girls making a musical, Chuck’s “alternate universes” that give us a glimpse at other realities that might exist — talk about meta madness.

11: August 9 Cast & Crew

The show wouldn’t exist without them! What are your favorite things about the actors, writers, directors, showrunners, and general crew? Any technical work you want to shout out? What other projects that they’re involved with do you love? Favorite interviews or wisdom from Word of God you want to share?

12: August 16 Big Hitters

What’s your favorite overall plot arc? What are your favorite episodes? This is a great time to make top five lists — favorite characters, favorite moments, favorite fics. All the love!

13: August 25 Fandom History

Put on your favorite archeologist outfit and go digging — what are some great moments from the sprawling history of the fandom? Shout out some old Livejournal communities and groups you know about and rec some that are still chugging along; what do you remember about the transition to Tumblr and the move to AO3?; what are some of your favorite fandom creators throughout the years?; or, remember how SPN technically invented a/b/o?

14: August 30 #SPNFamily

Have you been to a convention? Have you made fandom friends along the way? Have you been involved in any charity or volunteer work or Random Acts that you want to share? What are some of the biggest ways the SPN Family has impacted you? 

15: September 6 Carry On

We come to the end. Time to talk about the montage period between 15.19 and the end, post-series, Heaven, new gods, new endings. But does anything ever really end? What do you want to see next? What ideas do you have to keep the love going? 

This week ends on Saturday, September 13: Pilot Day. We hope you look forward to celebrating it with us!