#asexual ineffable husbands

[vvanillavveins]

I'm just going to say it: i love Good Omens for its ace-coding (and/or potential aro-coding, too). And, i think that it's very easy to view Crowley & Aziraphale as queerplatonic. When i say that, i don't mean that people are wrong for seeing their dynamic as purely romantic, i'm not at all dismissing the pair's obvious love and care and devotion towards one another. All i mean is that, if you want to, it's easy to read that love and care and devotion as platonic, i.e., a love for the other person's soul, above anything else. And that aspect of it heals a little part of my own soul every time i watch it.

Idk, it's just something about all of their little rituals, the thoughtful compliments, the favours and the gift-giving- done out of genuine kindness, not expecting anything in return except for getting to watch the other smile. Every interaction is full of symbolism and meaning, yet without being based on overt romantic love. It's also about how they can admire each other without touching- not because they don't love each other exactly- but because they are already so aware of their inherent togetherness that there is no real need to prove it through touch. Their relationship transcends physicality in the same way it seems to go beyond the boundaries of traditional romance. Even with the kiss in season 2, we know that it is not part of their established ways of showing affection, and we are shown that neither of them are comfortable with it because of that.

They've spent 6000 years cultivating their own unique love language, and the show goes to great lengths to keep expanding on that- not just throw it away or completely change it once Heaven and Hell are less involved in their lives on Earth. Crowley & Aziraphale's development together really is a beautiful thing to watch- and idk about any of you- but positive or even just neutral portrayal of non-traditional, sexless relationships feels like a rareity, especially when it comes to television. That's why this show is such a big source of comfort for me personally.

I'm autistic- so this might just be yet another case of me just not 'getting it', since i can't read faces or tones of voice- and therefore i'm just not seeing what everyone else is, but i'm hoping at least one other person out there interprets it this way too.

...

[I am talking about the TV show here; their asexuality felt a lot more overt in the book]

[yeahthatswhatimtolkienabout]

I swear I put up a post about me fic but I cannae find it. Ah well I was borderline delirious last week.

Hi. Yes I know its been two Fridays and there havent been any chapters! I have been very distracted bc it's Christmas and i just have not had the time to write. Updates over the next few weeks may be sporadic - but now we've had the S3 announcement we've been waiting for - I wanna crack on and get this wrapped!

Also I was at a hozier concert so was incredibly very like distracted.

Also I've put an offer on a house so I am living my life as an #anxiousmess.

Thank you for your patience this has been a PSA from YTWITA. Much love! 🥰

Tumblr doesn't want me to share my hozier pics with you - I've tried uploading them soo many times!

[thatskindarough]

HAPPY GAY

[yeahthatswhatimtolkienabout]

Fuck yes.

Thank you.

Why ace related stuff in Good Omens is important to not lose (obviously ppl can have their headcanons but sometimes the way ppl discuss this stuff alienates asexual ppl).

So, I really DONT want aziracrow to have a sex scene (which I doubt will actually happen but a lot of ppl in the fandom seem to be very keen on the idea) not because I think they HAVE to be ace because they’re not human (that logic can accidentally dehumanize asexuality), nor because old ppl can’t have sex (that is rooted in a harmful way we look at aging).

I don’t want them to because nothing in their relationship thus far (which is 6000 years) has ever, ever, been sexual. And I don’t want something kinda out of character to happen just for the sake of it. They just have loved each other and that’s that. That’s enough. And that’s beautiful.

I DESPISE it when characters confess their love for each other and the IMMEDIATE thing that occurs is a sex scene. Because it implies that sex is UNANIMOUS with romance and that the only way to truly validate a romantic relationship is with sex. It creates this underlying message that sex is just what ya do when you are in love. Which is absolutely NOT true.

Additionally, most of the time the sex scene just happens for the sake of it happening, when it adds NOTHING TO THE STORY. It is just there because people think sex NEEDS to be there when ppl fall in love, WHICH IS SO UTTERLY UNTRUE.

But this sort of thing is very common in television. Thus far, good omens has done an excellent job of portraying aziraphale and crowley’s relationship without anything inherently horny or sexual which is wonderful because society already places too much unnecessary emphasis on sex. And this alienates ppl on the aro/ace spectrum.

Good Omens has already been portraying aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship in a way that doesn’t alienate asexual ppl and I don’t want that to be lost by forcing sex into aziracrow’s relationship because that is what happens with SO MANY couples on tv (with the end result ALWAYS being alienating asexuality because the sex doesn’t add anything to the story).

Aziracrow has so many other interesting things going on than sex so I think putting it in there when they reunite wouldnt add anything and would be a MUCH less satisfying/heartwarming conclusion than them going to the ritz or the bookshop or something because those things already have emotional value.

Adding a sex scene would just be doing the same thing all shows do. Now obviously it’s important that queer representation is seen as equal to as straight rep so “why shouldn’t we be able to do the same stuff” which I kinda get. BUT the whole “sex always happening after a love confession, implying that the only way to truly express love is sex” is dumb and it’s something I don’t want to see ANYWHERE. Especially in Good Omens which has already handled queer rep in a way which doesn’t alienate asexuality.

[sbarrysncream1]

Hey, I know everything sucks ABSOLUTE ASS right now, (although, I'd honestly prefer sucking ass to this) but please know that there are still good people in the world. I'm not great with words, and I dont know how good I am at making people feel better, but just know there ARE people out there who love you and support you, even if you dont know them.

Please don’t go away. I know everyone thinks they won, but the only way they could completely win is if you disappear. And you’re still here!! You beautiful, gorgeous human being thing, you!! So please keep going and keep fighting

also, if there are other flags that were not included in this post, please reblog or comment with the flag you'd want and I'll happily make one and tag you in the post! It literally takes 5 seconds, so I'd be more than happy to!

anyways, we will be okay, and just know that I am so proud of you for still being here ❤️

(and so are they ⬆️)

We'll be okay.

[vroomvroomwee]

Lgbtq people saying it's queerbaiting because two people didn't kiss or fuck on screen has the same vibes as cisgender heterosexual people saying two characters aren't gay and completely missing romantic undertones just because the two didn't kiss or fuck on screen

Aphobia is just recycled homophobia

[7upslut]

when I read good omens I fully interpreted ineffable husbands as an asexual couple because like.... they're supernatural beings that don't really jibe with human sex

but in the show they have so much sexual tension and I think that's because Michael Sheen always looks like he's ready to jump David Tennent's bones at any given moment and he's so real for that

[ace-loric]

My collection of ace characters has grown to 2 demons, an angel, and 2 pirates!

[gryffindraws]

butch aziraphale and her cool, mysterious goth partner

bonus pin close up cus its too blurry to see

[aroaceqoutes]

Yes they're my favorite character, no I don't think about their genitals. (They're all barbies and kens in my mind, just plain ol nothing down there)

[inezrable]

In canon, I think Crowley and Aziraphale are asexual.

In fanon, I want them to -- [COMICALLY LONG BLEEP COMPLETE WITH GRAPHIC, INCREASINGLY STRANGE HAND GESTURES]

[larkbunny]

My artwork from Ace Omens Vol. 2!

[inhonoredglory]

Defining Ineffable Love (or, Aziracrow Learn the Rules of Romance)

(In response to this ask about ineffables and asexuality)

One of the major threads this season was Aziraphale and Crowley asking themselves what exactly is their relationship. Not what it is in terms of how much they love each other. (That's a given.) But what it is in terms of the human implications of their love.

Crowley and Aziraphale definitely come at the relationship with different perspectives, in terms of what they’re willing to admit to the relationship being. I don’t think we can entirely interpret it in human terms. –David Tennant (source)

For 6000 years, they’ve never put a name on their relationship. They didn’t, because they’re inhuman, genderless, sexless beings and they didn’t grow up (as it were) with labels. And even when they did learn them, they couldn’t say it was love, because admitting that was a death sentence.

All of Aziraphale’s heart eyes and pining could live comfortably in his mind if he never admitted what that said about him as an angel (trauma compartmentalization). Crowley tries desperately to be cruel and nasty to add white noise around the blatant reality of his constant loyalty to Aziraphale. If you don’t put a word to it, it’s not real and they can’t punish you.

After the Not-pocalypse, for all rights and purposes, Aziraphale and Crowley chose humanity as their identity. We see Aziraphale “playing house” in various human roles (as a landlord, a private eye, a magician).

We even see Crowley intentionally taking on human behavior to handle emotional issues: “Just breathe, that’s what humans do.” They’re slowly and intentionally enculturating themselves into the world they want to belong––earth.

Yet it’s setting up Maggie and Nina that makes Aziraphale and Crowley start thinking about their relationship as a human construct.

Because fundamentally, Aziraphale and Crowley are not human. Like Neil Gaiman tells us constantly, they can’t be defined in human terms when it comes to gender and sexuality. They can shift and move through each and any of those markers at will, purely for the pleasure of the thing: “angels are sexless unless they really want to make an effort.”

IMO that makes them originally asexual, in the sense they were created without the need for sex. And it makes them fundamentally transgender and genderfluid, because while on earth, their sexless, eldritch spiritual bodies take on human, gendered forms and clothing. What gender (and sexuality) they identify with while on earth varies through the eras. Crowley definitely has a fluid gender identity, while Aziraphale appears to have settled on gay man (aka THE southern pansy) for his internal typology (although all of these identities are subject to change).

In the midst of all this fluidity, it’s no wonder Aziraphale and Crowley haven’t thought of their relationship in human terms before. There’s just so much different in them and their bodies than what they see in humanity. And there are no books and songs that show the kind of love they have, in the malleable, sexless bodies they have, with the background they have; it’s all ineffable.

Aziraphale and Crowley didn’t start out thinking they were in a romantic relationship. Whatever feelings they had were long repressed, redefined, and shuttled away. But they did love each other, without question. And it was that love which scared them, because it was bigger than anything they saw among humans, a love that was beautiful and blasphemous and unfathomable.

Kinda like what David Duchovny said about Mulder and Scully in The X-Files, “I don’t know if they’re in love. In a way, their relationship is deeper than that, because they cannot live without each other.”

Now take this profound, ineffable love and drop it into the little boxes and labels human culture has created for itself.

Full disclosure: I’m an asexual demiromantic person in a queerplatonic relationship, so I’ve done a fair bit of research on what romance is and how the rituals of romance are, in many ways, social inventions that vary from culture to culture. There’s love and then there’s romance, and they don’t always overlap. So my interpretation of Aziraphale and Crowley comes through this lens and the fact that Neil Gaiman has affirmed the validity of an ace-spec reading on our ineffables.

Which brings me back to my thesis: That only now are Aziraphale and Crowley thinking of themselves as a romantic couple, precisely because they are interfacing with humans and taking on their social rules.

I like this one asexual person’s description of their experience, which feels very much like our ineffables (from a very good article, I def recommend):

If there is a border between friendship and romance, then in my internal landscape, it goes right through a misty forest where no one has ever bothered to place signs.... Neither of us had intended to start anything even vaguely romantic, but the activities we did and the intense kind of immediate connection we had was coded as romantic in our culture.

That’s what Crowley realizes when Nina confronts him about his relationship to Aziraphale.

“It looks like that from here.” What Crowley and Aziraphale share is beyond definition, but Nina cannot imagine the anything beyond the human labels she was taught. The tragedy of an everlasting love is that it can only be conveyed properly to other humans if it is cast in such small human words––partner, boyfriend, husband.

Because when Crowley denied those human roles for Aziraphale, Nina slid down the path of thinking Aziraphale was just his “bit on the side,” because there were no labels left she could imagine for them. If you don’t put a word to it, it’s not real.

That’s the purpose of labels, to culturally validate a person's identity. Labels, of course, DO NOT create reality; people's experiences are always real, in all their varied ineffability. But labels allow a space for culture (ie other humans and political and legal society) to recognize formally your lived reality.

So Crowley started really thinking about him and Aziraphale, about the ineffable love between them and realized that in human terms, those would be the things he’d call Aziraphale, because those were the words that gave Aziraphale that place of importance in his life.

But with that realization comes all the human trappings and behavioral patterns around those words (the candlelit dinners, dramatic rescues, drinks at the Ritz, etc.) which Crowley had never thought of before, and yet… maybe romance is what he and Aziraphale have been doing all along.

That’s why this season centered so much around Aziraphale and Crowley using cultural artifacts (film and literature) to understand romance, because romance is so deeply socially-defined.

Aziraphale himself has been leaning hard into the romantic social cues (he’s more well-read in the cultural trappings of romance than Crowley is), especially post-Blitz. But when he watches Maggie and Nina dancing, he works up the courage to do something with Crowley that’s even more explicitly loaded as “traditionally romantic” than anything he’s done up to that point.

Because while risking their lives for each other and defying everything for each other is love in its purest form, dancing (specifically in Jane Austen’s world) is a public performance coded for potential marriage partners. It's an intimate ritual of the entire body. (And in British slang, dancing has been used as a euphemism for sex.)

Crowley's "We don't dance" is really telling, because it shows Crowley’s awareness of the unknowable devotion between them vs the human roles Aziraphale is asking him to fill, specifically its physical aspects. Aziraphale is asking to make their relationship more public, more physically explicit, more coded as romantic in a setting specifically intended to couple individuals.

While Maggie and Nina inspired Aziraphale to progress their relationship into a publicly physical direction, Maggie and Nina inspired Crowley to think of the emotional implications of their human roles: the commitment, security, and monogamy of a husband, a partner, an us.

That’s what he decides after Maggie and Nina confront him in the end. “You never say what you’re really thinking.” He wants to codify his relationship so they each become responsible to one another. Aziraphale has always been his soulmate, the one he could always rely on. But he wants to place a word and a role to their love that will bring with it Aziraphale’s commitment and dedication to him.

And that's another reason why Crowley kisses Aziraphale, because he knows Aziraphale was willing to make their relationship physical, and he wants that, too. To consummate this bond in the way humans do.

But Crowley doesn’t really know how to kiss; he’s not as worldly as he makes out to be. (It’s Aziraphale who owns the gun, and Crowley who’s never fired one.) He uses the kiss as a tool to get across to Aziraphale what he wants for them, in the physical language Aziraphale has been using, because "one fabulous kiss and we're good," right?

But it doesn’t work, because real life and real emotions don’t work like that; life and love don’t follow a script, despite the novels and plays and songs.

Aziraphale and Crowley spent this entire season trying to figure out what their relationship is and what they wanted out of it, trying to make sense of the unfathomable thing they share and the human implications of it, and not quite landing on the same page.

Part 2 of this Analysis, covering a correction in Crowley’s statement (“You don’t dance”) and the further implications of dancing/sex.

[devils-sacrament-catering]

I am the horniest asexual I stfg I need there to be sex all the time thinking of it looking at it reading it writing it just pls I don't want to be involved

[trebol-negro]

Charity poster art reveal

My full piece for the @goodomensafterdark pride poster raffle

The final piece by @wingsofopal @gleafer @ineffablecrankshaft @bea-n-art @and-his-hands-were-24-crows @vavoom-sorted-art @daneecastle @afterdarkchef @saucysmutpigeon and me!

Thank you to everyone who donated! Again, everything donated goes towards the Trevor Project. The raffle is closed but donate here

• • • • • •

My Ko-fi

[aethelflaedladyofmercia]

Oh man this fic is amazing 😻 everyone check it out!!! (And huge thank you!)

To Creep Under His Gaberdine (1578 words) by larkthorne

Chapters: 1/6

Fandom: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens (TV)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)

Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens)

Additional Tags: Sharing a Bed, Canon Compliant, Getting Together, Mutual Pining, Pre-Canon, Post-Canon, Aziraphale and Crowley Through The Ages (Good Omens), 5+1 Things, Pining, Huddling For Warmth, (and pretending to), Cuddling & Snuggling, Historical, Historical References, Historical Inaccuracy, (we contain multitudes), Asexuality, (okay not in so many words.), (but it's a vibe.), (there is one reference to them having sex once but it's in an Ace way.), Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens)

Summary: Sharing a sleeping space used to be much more common, historically. It didn’t mean that Crowley and Aziraphale had (literally) slept together very often…but they had done so. By the middle of the 1800s or so that practice had fallen out of fashion, and it began to feel like a shocking sort of intimacy. Basically: five times Crowley and Aziraphale shared a bedtime before the Apocalypse, and the first time they shared a bedtime after.

Read it on AO3.

Good Omens Holiday Exchange 2022 fic for @aethelflaedladyofmercia! Thank you for the prompt!