#it would've given them more of their own time to shine and a proper end to their arc i suppose

[random-kido]

Hello, hi, it is once again "the scavengers should have verbally ripped Megan a new one when they ran into him again!" hour with Kido Al, and I am once more losing my fucking mind over a bunch of hypotheticals 🥳

[riririnnnn]

ngl as much as i like isagi it gets boring when he's winning too much 🤷‍♀️ i still hope he wins tho lol but he needs to lose sometimes idk wtv i love kaiser

Hm, I agree with you, but at the same time, I don't too—Isagi isn't winning 'too much', he is, simply, reaping what he sowed.

So, let's start from the start:

Isagi's initial ranking was 299 which is HELLA low, but, you know, that ranking was, somewhat, pretty.. false.

In short, there were 5 strata and EVERY team in each stratum was named from V to Z and EVERYONE, initially, held a ranking from 241 to 300, so we have no way to truly calculate Isagi's true ranking out of 300.

One more reason why I don't trust that ranking is because Ego is one hell of a cunning man—I bet there were more than just 'skills' as a criteria to rank them because I can never in my whole life accept that Niko ranked above Kunigami.

And in the first selection he LOST to Barou—he did NOT win right away. He did NOT score ALL the goals in their subsequent winning matches too—Bachira, Chigiri, Gagamaru, Kunigami, even Kuon shined in their own times. Isagi did NOT have the spotlight onto him all at once.

Skipping towards Second Selection, we remember him getting praised by Anri that, "Ooh, that kid is improving so fast," and it was, by no means, a protagonist point because, my brother in Christ, one of his abilities is literally adapting!

And after we get his new ranking of 15, and as said by Ego, it's a true ranking rather than a false one like earlier.

Then the story proceeds and he challenges Rin, and guess what?

HE LOSES TWICE AGAINST RIN!!

And then.

HE LOST AGAINST THE WORLD FIVE TOO!

HE IS THE LITERAL PROTAGONIST AND HE HAS BEEN SHOWN LOSING SO MANY TIMES ALREADY!!!!!!!

If he really had an actual plot armour, then he would've won against Rin the second time and would've gotten VERY close to winning against the World Five too.

You getting me?

And then he doesn't even have a ranking in the Top 6!?! His ahh wasn't even the runner-up of it—Bachira was!

And trust me when I say it, if it would've been any animanga other than Blue Lock, then that protagonist would've been the CF during the U-20 because WE ALL KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THAT MATCH WAS SINCE BLUE LOCK'S LIFE LITERALLY WAS DEPENDENT ON IT!!!!!

I'm so sorry. I promise I'm not angry or yelling at you. Please don't be mad at me, I'm just being passionate.

Now comes the current arc: NEL

I've already made a post about why Kaiser chose Isagi to be his rival (it may differ once we get Kaiser's backstory revealed), so keeping it aside, I want to say that Isagi is THE pacifist because if Kaiser did all that to ME, then I would've swung so fast like who tf you calling a clown, huh? You wanna catch these hands? Guess what, I'll give you these legs too.

Well, now focusing on FC Barcha match, remember that Isagi didn't score. He PASSED. How can people even forget that? Yukimiya nearly threw hands because of that only!

And then came Manshine City—bro, he literally got blocked by Kaiser and then he PASSED again and then he FAINTED!?!?!?!?!

All this time he was SLOWLY building up momentum and that's what we low-key saw in Ubers match and are seeing in PXG match.

He EARNED everything.

He wasn't winning everytime.

He has lost many times too.

We just have too many characters who are given proper amount of character developments which sometimes reduces Isagi to being just a protagonist—God! Us Fandom is so spoiled, aren't we? We are so well fed that we have become bratty, LMFAO.

And yes, I love Kaiser a lot too.

But in the end, the Roman Empire fell too, right?

[organic-guacamole]

I've got a lot of thoughts on this finale.

starting with the length.

27 minutes? really?

I'm not asking for a 2 hour episode but cmon, at least give us something closer to 40 minutes.

next, the characters

the characters just didn't feel like themselves, especially portwell.

all season long we saw how much potential they had, how well communicated they were, how good they were at being a proper, healthy couple, and now they just can't talk to each other?

it doesn't feel like them.

portwell had arguably the best set up of all the other ships, they showed us how good they had the potential to be only to throw in a cheap plot to wrap it up? I would understand that they want some angst to make the ending all the more satisfying, but this was pathetic.

there I said it.

of all the ways to add drama in a ship, don't use the one that completely contradicts their entire development.

paired with the length of the episode, it seemed even more poorly written.

here I made a lovely, handy dandy homemade graph to represent how I see portwell's storyline:

as i said before, we saw the build up being nearly perfect. they peaked during episodes 9-11 because they just had the chemistry, the communication, and the most potential to be the endgame couple.

they just got eachother.

then we get Jamie popping in for 10 seconds and erasing a lot of that, only for mediator Ashlyn to jump in and solve their problems.

then there's the "kiss".

I know that Sofia is underage and that even if she/her legal guardians consent to the kiss, the writers can still decide not to show it, but still. In my opinion, if you're not going to show the kiss, then don't bother.

there are other ways to establish a relationship that would work better in this situation. Of course if they get together they'll have to kiss sometime, but one way they could postpone it is by having Gina be a bit more reluctant to give away her first kiss like that. it could also show how accomodating EJ is.

I like to think that Gina is very meticulous when making decisions so she'll probably want to be very sure of the relationship before giving him her first kiss. perhaps she'd stick to cheek kisses until she's ready, and then she kisses him and he's surprised.

that would've been, in my opinion, a sufficient way to hold off the kiss while still wrapping up portwell until season 3 when Sofia would be 18 (assuming they get picked up for S3 this summer then start filming fall-winter. Sofia will be 18 in January).

as my friend @rtcosley (idk why it's not letting me tag them, so their page is linked) said,

"They created like 10 plots

And instead of wrapping it up

They added 4 more"

there's just so much more they could've done...it's the season finale for crying out loud.

I get that seblos already had (what I assume is) their storyline for the season, the fight and resolution. Ignoring the fact that that only lasted for 2 episodes and didn't have anything to do with what we were expecting, (i.e.the financial differences between their families, as mentioned in episode 1, the fact that everyone treats seb like he's stupid, this being carlos' first show and the drama that the stress of that caused, etc.), seblos had to purpose this episode than to stand next to eachother and be gay.

I get that they're not part of the core four or anything, but the poster for season 2 has all of them, as opposed to season 1 just being the core four.

They deserved better, just like redlyn and kowie.

redlyn's arc was pretty early in the season compared to the other ships. they had Ashlyn confessing her insecurities in episode 3, antoine stirring the pot of confusion and causing a bit of distance between them briefly, and then big red confessing his goals and plans for the future in episode 8 and for the rest of it, we just see them getting closer and more comfortable with each other and caring about each other more and more.

they had a good arc together.

but that's just it. I wanted to see them have their own arcs. but then again, this show can't seem to balance multiple storylines. I think it is possible, but not when they keep adding new characters that don't contribute anything much to the story(more on that later).

kowie's storyline is... confusing.

I really like their dynamic, how carefree and happy Kourtney gets around him, how she's remaining true to herself and managing a million and one things, plus a relationship in her own without losing herself to it all.

but the main issue I have is that the entire development was never shown.

we went from strangers, to coworkers, to friends that flirt, to lovers that text constantly and went on numerous dates (and Howie met her mother at some point). but all of that, was off screen.

it's like the writers made every episode with them in it kind of thrown in at a new stage of relationship progression and said "here, accept this, no questions asked because we don't have answers"

I just wish we could've seen more of howie trying to get in her good side again after episode 7 because it seems like that's when a lot of it happened.

I appreciate the Rini scene in this episode, seems to be the very end of them, for good this time.

i'm happy about that.

Ricky especially deserves to be free for a while to focus on his development, and Nini has the chance now to really shine through her talents and make a name for herself.

The Rini storyline is the only one I'm fully satisfied with.

now, that being said;

what the heck are they trying to pull with Lily and Ricky rn???

just like that.

after lily being the villain this whole season, they're just gonna not redeem her and then have her confess her feelings to Ricky, a guy she barely knows and only talked to to harass and intimidate, and for him to reject her publicly then call her afterwards?

please I hope it's just to say "you dropped something, here it is and never contact me again, thanks." /hj

speaking of the villains, this season was promoted as the season of rivalry between North and East High right? so why did that plot idea only progress in about 3 out if 12 episodes?

we got Zackey Roy in there for a few episodes then he disappeared, Lily just caused Gina to stay true to her friends in episode 2 and 7 and then basically did nothing else?

this is what I mean by the new characters providing nothing to the show.

the writers can't manage having so many characters and plots at once so they start so many promising arcs, only to kick them aside later on.

we already know that the first half of the season felt like filler episodes, so I think they could've cut those down to leave room for the more important plots to take root, rather than have them pop up and get rushed at the end of the season.

all that, and they just add 4 more plots at the end of the season.

this post sounds very negative looking back...but if I'm being honest with myself, I'm just very very disappointed.

I love this show so much and I really expected better for the season finale, especially if they don't know if it's getting renewed or not.

given the IMDB ratings of this episode so far, I don't have very high expectations for the renewal, but I'm still hopeful because this show is a great thing, one of the best things that happened to me over the course of this quarantine. I've become so attached to this show, the cast and the friends I made through it, that I don't know what I would do if it just ends like this. writing these reviews and posts about this season has been so fun for me to do and thinking that this may be the very last one is a painful thought.

I'm sorry if you were expecting this post to be as light-hearted as my other posts about the episodes, I just had a lot to say about this episode in particular.

all my episode posts are tagged with "#guac's episode text blocks :)" in case you wanna read through and reminisce the simpler times🥲

[mc-critical]

1./ I have a problem with şehzade Mehmed (from MC) and to a lesser extent şehzade Mustafa - which is to say I couldn't care less about any of them as people. Mehmed has absolutely no personality and every time he's on screen I am like, than God you're pretty, or else I would've turned off long ago. He only contributes to other character's drama and character development, he himself doesn't have one. What do you, as our resident meta goddess, think about him?

I totally agree about Mehmet. His character is such a wasted potential and it's not as if they didn't have time to flesh him out - they had a whole entire season and did absolutely nothing with him at the end of the day. He felt more like a background character than a part of the main ensemble cast.

His interactions are all set up, no pay off. His most developed dynamic was with Süleiman and I talked about it more in depth here, but we saw why he's SS's favourite prince more "in between the lines" than anything and their scenes, a few exceptions aside, lacked proper depth writing-wise and they didn't allow his character to shine at all. His dynamics with Mihrimah and Hürrem are okay, but they weren't enough for me, either. And while with Hürrem we got her favoring and advicing him, with Mihrimah we got his passiveness and blind trust of her (the Nurbahar situation; btw, this blind trust is something I don't really get, if we put little Mehmet's characterization into the mix. Mihrimah had deceived him before during the whole "breaking Hürrem's crown" incident and him trusting her now to the point he didn't see how Nurbahar was after the supposed abortion of the baby..... This is more of a writing problem than a character problem, but oh my, does it speak volumes....) and with Mustafa we got a glimpse of his love for his brother to the point he would in no circumstance whatsoever believe he would ever kill him (and he's technically right, if we consider only Mustafa as a factor), it's as if these dynamics were never given the focus necessary for them to feel more organic. He had plenty of scenes with these people, but they don't reveal much about him and we are left with a tiny grasp of his character, not the actuality of it.

The screentime he was given wasn't enough to make his character exceed its foundation. I believe season 3 and especially, its first half, tried its best to balance the plot-lines of its ensemble cast - Hürrem dealing with Firuze, the build-up to Ibrahim's death, Mustafa's arcs, Hürrem's fondations, Mihrimah's love story with Taşlıcalı, Süleiman and Ebusuud Efendi, the aftermath of the Ibrahim/Nigar affair + Esmanur, Hatice's reactions etc. and to me, it did at many points look like that all these plot-lines had equal time in the episodes and in the story. That's all well and good and I loved it, but there wasn't enough time for Mehmet, as a result and he turned out to be very underwritten because of this "equalness" in screentime. That apparent balance of plot-lines becomes a problem when these other characters and plot-lines had their time in the oven (even Mihrimah was set-up in S02B and after Bali Bey left, it was logical for her to find a new love. Little Mihrimah was a character in her own right before S03 and with her growing up, we get to see what exactly has changed.) and that previous build-up made them flow naturally without simplifying the characters in them, but Mehmet's personality had yet to have its time in the oven (little Mehmet was similarly only set-up and grown Mehmet never went beyond that setup.) and he just gets lost in all the material.

He indeed has no arcs of his own. Nurbahar? That wasn't even about him, it was about Mihrimah, because she took the final decision and that's one of the first moments of action of her character in S03. The arrow incident? Used as a plot device to enforce even further Süleiman's distrust for Mahidevran and Mustafa. Them waiting until the 3 last episodes of the season for Mehmet to go to the province harmed his character in many ways, because not only did it underline how stale the lack of any plot-line about him made him, it also showed that it could actually be much better if he had gone there at least a little earlier. He had his 15 minutes of fame only in the season finale and that was the smallpox plot and his tragic death: far too late. The episode itself is amazing as a death episode and has Mehmet's best moments as a character, with him finally actively doing something important where you can drive conclusions about him at last, but that felt more like a copout than anything, with a nearly whole season of meandering otherwise. The thing about him that impacted the narrative the most is precisely his death, with it becoming a strong motivator of S04 Hürrem and a focal point in Mahidevran's whole arc and while I appreciate that, it doesn't exactly do Mehmet many favors in his own right.

Thing is, many problems with Mehmet would be fixed if they just.. married him to Esmahan. (I wrote a whole post about that years ago and I stick by it.) If they turned this into a plot line with lead up and aftermath, it would not only enrich S03B as a whole and show a variety of reactions of the characters that are somehow involved, it would also go out of its way to develop both Mehmet and Esmahan and would flesh out Mehmet a little more in the process. If they deal with them trying to marry for the most amount of S03B, it would show Mehmet consistently stick up to something and develop his feelings for Esmahan. I know the show set up a little crush of Esmahan's with Mehmet not being as interested, but if they turned this the other way around or slowly have Mehmet gradually fall in love with her, we would have at least one plot arc about him before his last moments, we would have seen some improvement. And I know that a love story of sorts is perhaps the "safest", most effortless way to deal with Mehmet and wouldn't give him as much agency as say, get him earlier in the province, people!, but it is a way, regardless, and I could see it happening in the show. I'm a little sad that it didn't.

For me Mehmet, not Mustafa, was always the nice guy that is also loyal to his majesty and that's about it. He had some stronger reactions when his loved ones were offended, but once again, these are more hints of who he is and what he could've been as a character and they were too sparse to be an active part of his personality. They were strong in the context of the scenes they were in, but as a whole... they don't do much for me. Mehmet in his entirety also doesn't.

(that's why I don't get it when someone tells me that Mehmet in the show would be a better padişah than Mustafa. Not that I discard the possibility that there could be a better heir for the throne than Mustafa or something, but in the case of Mehmet, it wasn't directly shown how he was better. Their circumstances are inherently different and Mehmet wasn't really given the chance to act in more dynamic situations and we don't really know what decisions would he make. As I said, we don't get much of him managing a sanjack, he's spent almost the entirety of his screentime in the castle, interacting with Mihrimah or Mustafa, Hürrem giving him promises and Süleiman praising him. He has his loyalty to SS, but that goes so far, no matter that SS thinks otherwise and there isn't a proper exploration of how he wants to rule, what does he think of the throne war besides hints, how would he approach, so forth.)

Mustafa is another case. I get why he might not appeal to you - he fits, too well maybe, the righteous hero role, but he's a tad more complex than that.

Possible problems about him may come from a different place than Mehmet. Mustafa's whole character is built around his ultimate fate: the entire basis is there from the get go, literally from his first scenes. His independent spirit, for example, is introduced to us when he was very little and is there much before it turns into an out of the box mindset. Mustafa's death was more or less the thematic climax of the show and I always had the impression that the writers wanted to use every single chance they could to build it up, starting even from when he was a child. (6-year old Mustafa saying that he'll "lose himself in the castle" and Valide's speech to Mahidevran in E01, that infamous SS and Mustafa scene in E02 where SS jokingly tells the guards to execute him etc. The examples are far too many, since I find build up for his death in almost every scene of his.) The traits of his that may possibly set SS off are something he has always had (see: E29) and that gives off an impression that Mustafa doesn't have all that much to develop outside of his already established character. And yes, that is somewhat true, in part, because in contrast to Bayezid and Ibrahim, Mustafa's death isn't made fact through a character arc for Mustafa, but more through a number of seemigly quite formulaic situations between father and son that pile in incessantly until the inevitable conclusion. The one that changes is only Süleiman, Mustafa doesn't have to change anything about his strengths and flaws, because they are already, in concept, sufficient for the message the writers want to deliver with him and his execution. And while I find the long thorough build-up to his death to be one of my favourite things about the show, because the situation-based nature of it that starts and stops and then starts again, succeeded to give many nuanced reasons as to why it happened, but the build-up still is a double-edged sword that may make Mustafa himself and all around him "boring" and repetitive at first glance.

The central part he plays in the story, however, prevents me from seeing him like that. It may look like nothing new is happening around him, but the people dedicated to him and his dynamics with them create an impression of three-dimensionality. His qualities remain intact, but everything else connected to him changes. He has many plot arcs and none of them happen in a vacuum. Time passes everywhere around Mustafa.

Mustafa has a pretty well-defined personality. He's not only good and nice, he's also altruistic, brave, courageous, intuitive when it comes to right decisions and a seeker of justice. Meanwhile, his core trait is presented through his character establishing sentence in E46: "I have no other wishes than being your son.". The line says so much in so little words: it hints of both Mustafa's innocence and his wish to prove his worth to his father. That perhaps does make him "the perfect prince", the one being ready to make every decision, the one maintaining his morality, the one letting his senses guide him and making him value his loved ones. It does make him set an example for everyone. However, this exact desperation eventually becomes a flaw - everyone around Mustafa is assuring him of his fate and yet, Süleiman never seemed to be "won over", something was missing from the start. (little Mustafa wanted to visit his father everytime, as if he was lacking his presence.) And that only amplified when he got older, with him, there it is, acting impulsively and rashly, which lowered SS's trust in him more after each time. And while he made the right thing most of the time, like when, yes, he disobeyed SS's orders, but found evidence that the person about to be executed was innocent and the actual traitor, there were also times his rashness caused harm to people around him, i.e the whole arrow incident that was caused by Mustafa taking Helena to the harem. That could've killed Mehmet, his own brother and that would've destroyed not only his relationship with SS, but Mustafa himself. And then that rashness turned into stubbornness - he wanted to marry Helena to prove himself to his father, which only dashed the girl's hopes of a good, almost normal life with him. He didn't only because Ibrahim stopped him, and a season later, he managed to marry Mihrunnisa, in spite of his father. (in this case, however, he decided to disobey him because he loves her, too, and in his words, wanted to listen to his heart.) He almost always takes his own judgement and he was correct when he, say, spared Bali Bey's life, but he wasn't when he refused to take people's pragmatic advices that would've saved his life like Mahidevran's advices in S03 and S04. He is usually willing to learn, but these attempts to prove his worth leave him stuck in the same limbo, the same cascade of events with his father. Mustafa is not usually naive, he's quite perceptive when it comes to choosing a side or solving problems, but he not only wants to prove his worth to his father, he trusts him. He notices he's losing his favor, but he trusts him. BLINDLY. He notices flaws of his in his head (like listening to Hürrem and Rüstem's words too much sometimes), but he hasn't truly realized the extent of SS's ego-inflating downward spiral. He would never believe that SS could ever kill him, despite of everyone telling him otherwise. Okay, he had.... 0,00000000000001% suspicion given him writing him the letter, but that was after Cihangir told him about SS's promise and he still turned himself in anyway, without a second of hesitation. He always thought of him as his father, not that often as his padişah. His attempts to prove his worth render him ignorant. They were the last nail of the coffin in Mustafa's death. It wasn't the strongest factor due to the fabrication of the letter, but it was the one that ended everything. His tremendous love and respect and loyalty for his father was both his biggest strength and his biggest flaw.

Mustafa may not get too much in the way of character development, but I wouldn't say it's completely lacking. Mustafa's relationship with Hürrem evolved over time: I don't think he hated her, per say, but he grew resentment for her after all the attempts on his life. In S03 he didn't want to suspect her about the spy and he told Taşlıcalı that it would be worry him if she was the one behind this, but in S04 he directly sent Fatma to oppose her in the harem. He respected her, but in S04 he refused to believe she didn't set a trap for him in E121 when until S04 he didn't blame her for everything so easily. He also told her in E104 that he wouldn't show mercy to her and Rüstem and I doubt he would say so before then. Once again, he was slowly realizing that his father was drifting further and further away from him, no matter how much he denied that in his head. (the scene about the 40 candles in E101)

I personally can see him as a real person, even though there is certainly a line between his trope and his depth. His dynamic with Mahidevran is especially human: as he sees through her struggle, then wonders why she fell out of love with SS and then they support each other and begin to be everything for each other. They give each other emotional strenght and it's very touching. He has a fair share of mistakes; and questionable actions he's shown to do when he's put out of his limit like when he was ready to use Hürrem's kids to threaten her after Efsun died, which definetly provoked Hürrem. His goodness and unwillingness for more ambiguous actions is a fact, but there pops us another side of Mustafa that shows he could get dangerous when he wishes. That's why I love the whole "poisoned kaftan arc" in S04. He shows his strength of character in a different way: he wants to set things right with his father, but won't back down until he finds out what is going on, going in the castle along with his own army (and the jannisary later). The prospect of his father possibly trying to kill him in such a way made him reach this breaking point. (but when SS swore he would never sacrifice him, he started trusting him again, ofc) It was a showcase that he can set a rebellion but choses not to. That he can get very threatening (the whole castle feared what would happen next), but choses not to.

His relationship with his brothers isn't as fleshed out as say, his mother and father, because his arc was more about Süleiman than them and I would've loved to see more scenes with the brothers together overall, but I think enough reason was given for them to respect him the way they do. It was also shown that Mustafa loved them a lot and he had many good scenes with all of them.

[And I'm totally with you on Cihangir! His character is much more than his love for Mustafa and he was fleshed out perfectly fine for the time he was in the show. He's such a sweetheart with profound scene after profound scene in the span of a half-season. I can say for sure that I found what was done with him enough for him to be, as you said, a real person and a very sympathetic one at that, too!]

Don't worry about the rambling at all and I also hope you're having a good day! <3

[alysmarylin]

The war is over, my love is not

The second part of a fic about Crowley and Aziraphale during World War II, the first part is here (sorry, don't know how to insert proper links):

In this fic Aziraphale and Crowley meet for the first time since 1941 among ruins of Berlin. I'm a Russian myself and I entertained a thought that Crowley made friends with Soviet soldiers.

Aziraphale could smell the scent of Death in the air. He'd been on Earth since the very beginning of time, and he'd seen just as many deaths as anyone could. But it was different there, in ruins of Berlin, where bodies piled up among rocks and metal and ragged cloth. He knew, reasonably, that if the world was about to end, he'd be notified. It wasn't a horseman on a paled mare whose name was Death, not yet - it was nothing but works of Man. And yet, if felt like the end of the world. He was an angel, but even he started to fear that God wasn't there anymore.

Aziraphale came there by the end of April, out of his own will, wishing to help as many souls reach Heaven as he could. He filled those dying of despair and dread with hope and forgiveness, he eased the pain of children he couldn't save, he gave heartbroken mothers' souls respite, he healed festered wounds of those whose flesh was torn apart and rotting.

He wished he could've ended it all, long before it came to that, but one angel couldn't stop the madness of a Mankind, and God... God was silent.

"Animals don't kill each other with clever machines, angel, only humans do that" - he heard Crowley's words inside his head. Oh, to think he believed the guilliotine was the worst they could do... Crowley always turned out to be right. Aziraphale would get angry at him, but in the end, he'd always be right. Last time he saw Crowley, in 1941, they both thought they've already seen butchery and unmatched atrocities. That was before Auschwitz. He wondered, what Crowley would've said about Auschwitz. He wondered where Crowley was.

"Maybe I should've told him".

He often wondered if it was his love for Crowley that kept him going for past 4 years. He'd seen a lot of things that made it hard to still love humanity, or trust God with his ineffable plan. But his will to see Crowley once again - to take him for a long walk or to a dinner out, or just to look at him from afar, made it all worth surviving. Even what he'd seen in Poland. One could never forget those kinds of things...

His eyes filled with tears, despite his best efforts. If only tears of angel could heal the humanity, or just one single human soul.

He walked further from the ruins towards the street, when he hears a sudden noise that broke the silence. Aziraphale stopped.

That was a tank driving down the street, men speaking and laughing in some foreign language. Russians? Might be. It was a time for their victory, after all. It was their time to celebrate and laugh, before they come back to their ravished homes to cry once again.

Suddenly, the tank stopped and one man took off and walked down the street. Other men waved him goodbye as they moved forward.

The man seemed healthy enough to walk, and as far as Aziraphale could see, there was no blood on his face or his clothes. He was dressed in grey or dusty black, and his clothes seemed ragged and dirty, but so was everything else - there was nothing but dirt and blood and ashes around them. The man was walking towards him. His face was covered in dirt as well. And then, as sun came out from the clouds and lighted the entire street, the man's hair shone with flaming red tounges of fire underneath all the filth that covered it.

"A redhead", Aziraphale thought. "It's well past time I stopped shivering at every readheaded man I see". But he couldn't help it. He couldn't take that picture out of his head. And then he heard man's voice.

- You really don't change, angel. All that wreckage around and you're all in white.

He didn't want to believe his ears or eyes. He had already been mistaken for a couple of times before, and that bitter realisation had always been way more painful than no hope at all.

But it was unmistakenly Crowley, thinner than ever, in ragged clothes, white teeth shining like angel's wing, as he was grinning mischovously. His red hair was a huge mess, he was covered in dust, but he still managed to wear dark glasses in all this poorest state of affaies.

- Show me your eyes. - Aziraphale mumbled. - I want to know I'm not hallucinating.

- They shouldn't be surprised to see snaky-eyed lad after what they've done themselves, angel. - Crowley took his glasses off, but then put them back within a moment. - But I still prefer my privacy.

- Oh, Crowley! - Aziraphale grabbed him in his arms, unable to hold tears anymore. - I'm so glad to see you. I've seen such horror, I've.... I've been here since April, and I was in Poland before that, and I almost lost my faith...

- Come on, don't be like that. - Crowley gently pushed him away. - I can't blame you for your tears, though. There were things that could make Satan himself tremble. But it's not demonic work, of that I can assure you.

- I know. Works of Man. Our Lord's most beloved creation. - Aziraphale was well past the point when he blamed Hell for human atrocities.

- Well, I guess it's almost over now. - Crowley gently put his arm on angel's shoulder. - I was planning to go home soon enough.

- Home?

- London, not Hell. You wanna go with me?

Aziraphale felt bad for feeling so much joy amidst such destruction, and yet he couldn't help but smile.

- I do. I haven't been there in a while. The place I lived in was destroyed. My bookshop, though - I hope it's alright.

- I'll have to find myself a new place. Maybe you could give me some advice, I haven't been to England since I left in 1941. I left my Bentley in Paris, in some reliable hands. Well, I hope they're reliable. I have to believe car's fine, or else I won't forgive myself.

- I bet there's not a scratch on it. - Aziraphale smiled. He told himself he'd use all his powers if something happened to Crowley's car. - We can drive home together, if you wish.

- I don't think it's safe, angel. We'd better meet in London. At least there IS London to meet in. - Crowley smiled.

They walked past ruins, as sun was setting down.

- Those soldiers, - Aziraphale asked - That dropped you off... You spoke their language? You speak Russian?

- Why act all surprised? - Crowley sounded a bit offended. - I speak a number of languages, I've been there for a while, you know. Not that I'm fluent or anything, but I made it clear I'm not a German, for a start.

- Have you been there? On Eastern front? - One thing Aziraphale knew of Eastern front, is that young boys came back all white-haired from there, if they were lucky, or unlucky enough to survive it.

- For a while. I've been to a number of places. Not that I want to recall it now, when all this is over.

They reached the crossroads, and Crowley stopped.

- You're here to help people find their final peace, aren't you? - Crowley asked.

- I am. And you? I wonder if Hell still has any work to do, given the...

- I'll just make sure right people will make it to Hell. - Crowley smirked. - That's about all I can do now.

- I hope I'll be back in London by September. If my bookshop is still there, I'll be waiting for you to come. If not...

- I'll find you anyway, mr. Fell. Such a neat surname you made yourself - Fell. But you didn't fall, it's me who fell, no? - Crowley asked teasingly.

- I was never as good as you at making up names, Anthony J. - Aziraphale replied - If you're so good at searching for people, then I'll see you soon.

- Bye, angel. See you.

Crowley turned around and started walking down the street, his tall figure looking completely black in setting sun. Before Aziraphale could make himself start walking away, Crowley suddenly turned around and shouted:

- I told you we'd win!

, before disappearing completely.

He was right, Aziraphale thought. The nightmare of war was almost over. He was daydreaming of them, meeting once again in London, when he saw a tank driving down the street in his direction.

"It way be foolish of me, but..."

He took a bunch of flowers from inside his jacket - a miracle too minor to be noted - and threw it to the soldiers sitting on the tank. He didn't understand what they said - unlike Crowley, he didn't know a word in Russian - but they smiled at him, and Aziraphale laughed himself, for the first time in 6 years.