#az : love you too

[yarrow-leaf]

A kindling of a swordless bloodshed,

The creaking of a voiceless door —

Another piece inspired by something @mincemeat-the-warforged said that absolutely altered my brain chemistry (the same 1 am conversation that sparked this in fact!)

[ater-love]

ELAIN ARCHERON prettiest girl in Prythian

Art by faelis_01 on instagram

[acourtoflight]

“She looked up at him, her face so trusting and hopeful and open that he knew she had no idea that he had done unspeakable things that sullied his hands far beyond their scars. Such terrible things that it was a sacrilege for his fingers to skin, tainting her with his presence.”

[kuruna]

AZ was unhealthily attached to Floette in the same way Xan was unhealthily attached to AZ 💔 it just happens to be easier to tell when you're on the receiving end of this behavior vs. when you're the one perpetrating it 😔

[agentc0rn]

I finally did it!! I composed my first cover online with and on my computer ever... (+ LOUD SOUND WARNING for headphone users, the ending especially gets loud...my apologies in advance!) -> AZ's what-if battle theme

[popcorn-plots]

I'm going on a cruise without service or wifi, so I'll probably be offline for a while. This is my last will and testament.

to @azrail-has-a-vendetta I leave my blog and all my crime books

to @hithertoundreamtof23 I leave all my doctor strange stuff

to @invye and @ryu6171 I leave my Ao3 accounts

July 12, 2024

--Toby Strange

[flowerflamestars]

Another alternative Effloresce pov. Azriel, as the slow moving shitshow train wreck his life is is quickly becoming a fast moving shit show train wreck.

I cannot tell you how much I love this one!

So, I would say across all my fics Azriel is a character who is the most consistent? Especially since almost all of them were written before acosf TERRIBLY let us in his actually creepy little headspace, and I've additionally chosen to keep my made up shadowman as he is.

Effloresce Az is basically Starlight Az but SADDER. He's Daylight Az without a kiddo and husband, Shoreless Sea Az without the absolutely beneficial retirement, and man is he TIRED.

You're Azriel, and your job sucks. Your inborn skillset leaves you zero other options, and you know this. It's better to be the left hand of power than in a cell for life, but you know what? Sometimes you can only do so goddamn much.

You're Azriel and that's kind of all you've got. You're one of a kind, literally. Alone forever in that. But you love Cassian. You play the little games with Mor for harmony. You respect- alien, ancient, different, probably what you'll feel like in a thousand goddamn years if you live that long- Amren.

You see the good in Rhysand, limited as it is to personal things, but you also see the vast potential for failure.

You see him listening to this CHILD OF A GIRL- who seems nice, yeah. You're worried about her, frankly. The Courts of Prythian revived her and will not just let that go- but that doesn't mean you think she has, shall we say, good ideas.

You watch Cassian spend days arguing against this.

You rock up over the wall and realize these two mortal, innocent women have probably been taken captive by Spring. Your orders are a mistake, you have a war to fight that has nothing to do with these people, but you're here, and you might as well do some good.

You move to neutralize the threat.

Lucien Vanserra does not act like a vassal of Spring. No, not even at Autumn prince. You can drown fire in the dark, but you can't swallow the sun or an ocean of flame without end.

That doesn't matter either, because this determined little slip of blond sunshine just fucking stabbed you. And for the first time in maybe decades, you just want to laugh. You've fucked up, clearly, but you're okay. (You can live through so much worse than letting a human woman stab you to feel safe.)

You hear Cassian coming, and you know.

It doesn't matter what Feyre is saying. Has said. You're Azriel and you can't not know or not hear- she's wrong or she lied. You have a High Lord sweating blood to protect a stunningly, dangerously charming woman and you have her sister, who feels less like delight and more like a dream.

You're a shadowsinger, whose providence is secrets and these two woman are shrouded.

You're fucked, essentially.

You know they're not really human.

You know they're hiding, and Feyre is going to break that right open if Rhysand has his way, no matter how many times you point out that the Queens want nothing to do with Prythian's fae.

You're Azriel, and you've always been smart enough to stay quiet when you have no orders forcing you to do otherwise. You're polite. You're frankly, horrified. You have no idea what to do with the Archeron sisters acting like you're nothing to be afraid of.

You know, before Cassian knows, that every wind that has ever carried him had lead him right here.

(You remember what that felt like. The fear, the euphoria. You were young and stupid enough to consider it simple rightness, your extra senses on your side, pulling you toward the correct choice in fealty. You didn't know what it was until too late. You didn't know and you never even got to know or got to mourn. You didn't have the right to mourn a girl dead too soon, who would have never been anything but your queen had she grown old enough to wear a crown.)

(Dead before the start, just like you.)

You decide, immediately, you cannot let what happened to you happen to Cassian. Nesta Archeron might be a compelling power, might be a fighter with ash in her hair and a cunning mind, but Shahar was a High Lady born. Not even that could save her.

You understand the instant way you like Elain is magic, whether she knows it or not. (She does not). Real affection follows quickly, you are, despite all magic to the contrary, as Illyrian as Cassian. You cannot not know. You like Nesta too- if only for her ferocity. Her bleeding, present fury.

They treat you like a person.

Fearlessly.

Easily.

You watch as their sister breaks their hearts, cracks already laid. You watch Rhysand act more and more territorial, and of course you know why too. You watch Lucien Vanserra safeguard the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of humans and you understand this, here, is a Court too.

A better one.

You quietly, a secret, kill their father.

You bind yourself in blood to a favor, and use it to unshackle the Archeron bloodline and their vassals from the Queens.

You watch Nesta Archeron kneel in the snow, watch Elain Archeron pull a knife on a High Lord of Prythian over human lives, and think, with dread and barren exhaustion, you're making the right choice.

The hard choice.

(How many noncombatants died in Sangravah? In every city Amarantha occupied? How many servants in the Hewn City every year? How many Illyrian children in the starving north? How many deaths were Azriel's fault, because Rhysand didn't care?)

(The Archerons would rather die with their people than live. Were educating their maids. Sending their kitchen boys to university. Taking in the orphans of other estates, having never forgotten what it was to be forgotten, hungry and alone.)

You're Azriel, and you can't not know how badly this is going to hurt.

[sanguinewolves]

hey you faggot. you think you're soooooo cool with your boyfriends and your ugly twinks well guess what. YOU ARENT. you are wayyyy ytoo pretty and your voice is soooo nice and your room fits your personality so well and yours so pretty and youre such a tranny and you want to suck mcdonalds dick and you're gorgeous and i love youuuuuuu FUCK I MEAN I HATE YOU you're the worst and go kill yourself AND WORST OF ALL YOUR HOUSE ZILLOW LISTING ISNT EVEN ACCURATE

anyways goodbye prettyboy im gonna kiss you faggot

wow i wonder who sent this. what a mystery

[ghostboy-art]

I love Aziraphale. He is an amazing marshmallow of a character and deserves to be protected at all costs.

He is also a little bitch.

I love him for this and I assume everyone else does too.

The little details and micro expressions Michael Sheen puts into his performance of Aziraphale is beautiful.

A small collection of my favorites.

Anyway Aziraphale is amazing and I don't think his bitchy moments get enough credit.

Off to watch the show for the 800,000th time!!!

[clockwork-windmills]

something I've noticed from theory posts going around is that people seem to think that Aziraphale's actions at the end of the season are very out of character. I, to put it lightly, entirely disagree. Aziraphale's character arc in season 2 was beautifully and subtly written and the season HAD to end the way it did to let both Aziraphale and Crowley develop.

The flashbacks this season served narrative purpose beyond "haha let's see what AC got up to all that time ago". The way I interpreted the show was that these were specific memories Aziraphale was recalling throughout the season as a result of all the shit going on with heaven and hell and gabrie- i mean Jim and vinylatte and everything. Aziraphale went through a character arc known as a Fall Arc (coincidence? who knows):

Character believes lie

Character clings to lie

Character rejects truth

Character clings to worse lie (in this case, a more extreme version of the original)

This is shown not only through Aziraphale's present-day actions, but through the flashbacks.

All through the series we see how Aziraphale wants to do good. He likes doing the right thing and he - though he has moments of doubt - ultimately believes in the goodness of heaven and the evilness of hell. He hasn't had that same rejection of it as Crowley has had. That isn't a sign his mind has been tampered with or anything. That's just how he is as a result of all of heaven's manipulation and his genuine desire to do the right thing.

The apparently stark change in attitude after his conversation with the metatron isn't really as stark as people think. Aziraphale loves the idea of what heaven could be. His initial image of heaven has been shattered through millenia of being failed by them (especially recently with Armageddn't), but I think that he genuinely believes that with himself in charge, he could make that image real again. What he thinks he wants is what we saw at the beginning: him and Crowley side by side doing good. His arc in season 3 is going to be him joining Crowley in the recognition that the whole system is fucked up, and finally choosing Humanity (and Crowley of course) over heaven.

ALSO REMEMBER THAT HE ACCEPTED THE OFFER WITH THE IDEA THAT CROWLEY WOULD COME WITH HIM. Heaven are SO manipulative.

The fact that his actions are so in character for him at this point in the story is what makes "fix-it" fics so hard. It doesn't need fixing. This is literally how it has to go before they can converge their paths again and be happy. It's sad, and I love happy endings, but we need this sad ending first to give both Aziraphale and Crowley the opportunity to grow.

I may add to this some other time because this is a rambly mess but I just had to say this. thank you neil gaiman for writing such a well thought out transition season that stands on its own wonderfully. fingers are crossed for season 3 :)

[tadpolesonalgae]

Hiiiii I have just binged a couple of your series, cbmthy and two birds 🐦 🐦‍⬛ and some of your steamy one shots 😈

I love both series so much! Are you planning on updating two birds again? the cliffhanger is rough 😂 but I love a story of azriel being in love with an older woman hehe

Hiya!!! Yeah, sorry about that cliffhanger 😭

I finally logged onto tumblr through my computer the other day and started rewriting Two Birds since I’ve outgrown whatever writing style I had at the time—it’s also in desperate need of some cleaning up, since I feel like so much of it is just saying what’s happening and I intensely dislike the bullet point format 😭

I’m a bit short on time for fanfiction writing due to all the wips I want to complete before I forget the ideas, as well as getting through cbmthy and finally writing the first chapter of colcov too, but it’s slowly being added to!

(Also thank you so much for expressing enthusiasm for it—I’m struggling with it since it’s been so long (don’t worry, I still remember all the plot points) so hearing someone still have in interest in it is incredibly heartwarming and motivating so thank you 🫂🫂🫂🧡💛)

[ronithesnail]

Girl help why is top/bottom discourse so big on twitter rn holy shit

[remythologise]

the thing about aziraphale learning french poorly instead of knowing french angelically. is. they are going to have sex with Zero miracles so much like the confession. it’s going to be very awkward. and human!!!

[kuruna]

Waiting out the rain

(Another scribbly Xan and AZ comic 😭 I thought of this dialogue and wanted to sketch it out, though I may return to this and refine it later on...)

[agentc0rn]

[aragarna]

Because I just started watching it 🥰

Character—aziraphale

#2 , #6

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

The way he looks at everything and everyone around him with love and kindness. And how he marvels at everything. He appreciates every single little human things in life.

How he wants to believe in the best in everyone. His earnest goodness. Goodness is often overlooked or mocked by more edgy characters (including on this show, but also in a lot of shows) but the will and need to do good, to help others, it's a soft spot of mine (see also, Peter Burke ;-) )

Also, his fluffy little hair. His occasional badassness. His quiet rebellion against what he sees as immoral, even if it comes from his own side. How he sees right through Crowley and knows he is, deep down, a nice person.

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

I think, without reaching Azi's level of goodness, I do share his "lawful good" tendencies. Like him, I'm not against a little rebellious act every once in a while - especially if it's to do *good* - but I also tend to believe in the system. Yes, it's been run by people who are corrupting it, making it something it shouldn't be, something bad. But it's them the problem, not the system (Heaven/democracy/whatever).

Oh and we both love crêpes. :-)

Thank you for asking! <3