#it's the same reason why Omen is my favourite arc 5 character

[hellebore-petall]

I feel like I am in my corruption arc because my favourite arc 11 PC has been shifting from Atelut to Foq.

[iamverynormalaboutsge]

I demand justice for the morally grey baby girl/silly goose.

This is a Rafal appreciation post because God knows we don't have enough of them.

So here is a list of reasons why Rafal is my favourite morally grey baby girl and he should be yours too(or at least your favourite silly goose):

1. Despite his sassiness and almost in-sync physical behaviour, like his brother's (both of them got up at the same time to jump at each other's throat. No warning no nothing literally just sprung to their feet while eating sandwiches and tea how does that work?) Rafal very much loves his dumbass brother. Rafal remembered everything with fondness regarding his brother. Sure it's not very wholesome to scare the ever-living hell out of your twin brother making him cry but the fact that he remembered, even after CENTURIES of being 17/immortal kept by the Storian, that Rhian would call him Fala. (For me the moment was oddly wholesome despite the cruelty implications from Rafal's side. I guess the most intensive moments of life are those where you feel more than just one emotion strongly because one gives sparkle to the other and so on.)

2. Rafal has a high sense of responsibility, higher than Rhian's. Now I don't mean to say he is a good schoolmaster. That is FAR from it. Bro mentally tormented his students and said it was their fault for making them miserable and further propaganda that villains have to live miserably and go through extreme pains to become proper villains. Rhian ain't too far away since all he did from what we saw was a parade in the School for Good and ignored all the students that so politely greeted him like he was their life idol excuse me they showed their respects. I know you were trying to hit on Midas because you always gotta hit on the guy your brother hit first(previous example: Hook) but a nod would have suffice? Instead bro just deliberately ignores them while threatening Midas... ??? At least Rafal knew what he was doing and what he had to do to keep the pact/oath to the Storian. Rhian was just oblivious and arrogant to it.

3. Rafal made a redemption arc. Sure maybe not in the true meaning of it but he tried. He got into the lines of his students and tried to see it from their perspective. He gained their trust and loyalty for who he was. He got to hear everything they thought about him, how horrible he was because he was the pain of a schoolmaster. But he also got to see his students admire him and grow fond of him. Even proving that the wicked and evil can be good in their own twisted way. After all, the heroes of a story are the villains of another. Always.

He inspired others outside of himself while he did his growth and that's beyond great from my perspective.

4. As twisted as he was you can not deny that he was rational. Whenever he made up his mind he went with it even if he had his doubts or moments of hesitation, eventually, he carried on with what he had to do because it was what he needed to do. In the process, he indeed has hurt many but he also self-sacrificed himself. Whatever pain we saw him inflict on his victims we can see that it's a direct reflection of his mirrored pain in them. We can go on about how this is accurate or not, the actual extent of it, interpretations, and symbolism, but to me it's pretty clear once you read a book that engages your mind, heart and soul. He torments himself and torments others because it is the only treatment he knows. The love he gives is suffering and torture. The kindness he shows is an eternal curse. The ever-fleeing moments of bravery are a misery to many. He is a walking omen neither good nor bad, with an internalised balance with the outside world through a mirror.

5. I just love him(as a character/platonic). He had his wrongs maybe more than his rights but in the end, he was determined and hard-working. He did whatever he could, he did what he thought was best even if it wasn't the best. He did whatever was in the power of his hands even when the one meant to have his back stabbed him right in the heart. He stood right by his role and side even if it was the wrong one from the beginning. Even if he was fooled to become the perfect incarnation of what others told him he was. Even if he was torn between who he was once or what he must have been and what he became or what he is in 'truth'. He knew he had a role and he did whatever he could to carry it out you could say it's from selfish desires because he would have died indeed so would have his brother. Bit by bit we show that despite the struggle and betrayal Rafal still tries to learn to love his brother, or better said remind himself that he does.

Bless our silly goose. Love him with all of my heart

(I did not make this, I literally walked into this room and saw this. I was re-reading the first book at that time and saw this. It made me immediately think of SGE/Rafal. I call this fate.)

[caffeinechic]

Good Omens Fic Recs 1/?

I went to fix a link in this post and managed to delete the entire thing like an absolute fool. 

But my complete annoyance with myself won’t be bested with my determination to post this lot. So here I go again. I am so sorry if this has shown on your dash a million times. And sorry for the double links / tagging as I honestly went half mad over even the basics. This is where I am with life.

I have about 300 Good Omens fics bookmarked at this point to trying to pull out my absolute favourites sent me down a re-read (and in many cases a re-re-re-re-read) rabbit hole, which was an absolute joy so no complaints here!

These are just some of the ones that have just really stuck with me for one reason or another so I’ve gathered them up under the cut

4 Authors I just need to do like a HUGE rec for as they’re life ruiners. How dare they be this good. HOW DARE THEY.

@princip1914 @princip1914

Yeah I started pulling out the bookmarks I had for @princip1914 and realised it was...everything they’d written. All of it. Just...all of it.

But my particular favourite out of an outstanding batch is the following - which I have read approximately 70 squillion times. It stuck with me for so long in a way that I don’t think many fics have, ever. I actually can’t recommend this enough:

Doubt Thou The Stars Are Fire

“But how,” Aziraphale gasped, agonized and close to tears. “How can you be sure. Crowley, dear, you got thrown out of heaven for questioning everything. How can you be sure about this?”

Crowley loves and Aziraphale doubts. God intercedes. A groundhog day kind of situation ensues wherein Aziraphale has to fall in love with Crowley over and over again as a human until he gets the point. Highlights include: delivering medical care in rural Louisiana, stargazing in Vegas, strangers on a train, and teaching middle school.

@bestoftheseekwill @bestoftheseekwill

Same “problem” with @bestoftheseekwill - READ EVERYTHING. Oh my god, the human AUs, THE HUMAN AUS.

Special shout out to Acts of Service which was the first Human AU I’d read and got me completely hooked and now whenever seekwill posts I immediately read.

Acts of Service

"You seem very familiar to me. I can’t say why that is." As Aziraphale spoke, Crowley turned away from the fire, and Aziraphale was momentarily concerned that the spell had been broken, that he had crossed some invisible line. But Crowley smiled and brought his beer to his lips.

"Maybe we met in a past life. Does your lot believe in that?"

"Past lives?"

"Yeah."

Aziraphale smiled into his wine. He was sure Crowley was poking fun, ever so slightly, but he liked it. "Not strictly speaking. No."

Crowley shrugged, taking another long sip of his beer. “A mystery then."

After receiving direct instruction from God, village reverend Aziraphale leaves his countryside congregation to serve the underserved and in-need at an urban church in London, a transition made all the more complicated by the mysterious and handsome Crowley, who always seems to appear when Aziraphale least expects him.

OH!! but also

That this could be the kingdom

- this one sat with me for a while. Stunning

I have lived my whole life with a wrecked heart. Fr. Aziraphale Fell’s present mirrors his past, as long ago roommate, classmate, and former friend Anthony Crowley reappears in his life in an unexpected and disarming way, challenging Aziraphale’s choices, and bringing him back to the breaking point, when he made a decision he couldn’t take back. It isn’t temptation, it’s revelation.

@mygalfriday @mygalfriday

Ah here, listen - I went to get my bookmark list for @mygalfriday and just ended up re-reading all 12 fics this week.

i can't say the words, so i wrote you into my verse

Aziraphale blinks as it slowly dawns on him exactly what he’s looking at. Crowley has a tattoo. Well, another one anyway. Unlike the small serpent curled just beneath his temple, this one takes up far more space.

And listen if you don’t read the blind date au series then I don’t know how to help you!

I couldn’t find Rend_Herring  Found @rendherring @rendherring on Tumblr but I had to put my phone and my head down after I read both of these.

The Lightness of You

God should not have built them with such discrepancy, made them need for love, and long for wholeness, then left them to their own devices.

This Soul Outstreaming

“Why did you come here?” Aziraphale interrupts. “Why do you keep doing this?” All the saving, he means, all the chasing after Aziraphale he does. It can’t only be that he’s not keen to endure a replacement. That can’t be it, not anymore. He’s going to get himself in trouble, and then it’ll be Aziraphale’s fault.

Crowley’s mouth shuts with a click. He shifts uncomfortably in his seat, reaches for the handle of the fork and taps his fingertips against it before setting his hands in his lap.

When he speaks, it’s very soft. “Don’t you know?” he asks.

Aziraphale, unaccustomed to his heart refusing to translate why it throbs with such haste, shakes his head.

Fics that, to me, are just stunners. I love them so much.

Slow Show - @mia-ugly @mia-ugly Honestly if you’re seeing a rec list WITHOUT slow show...I’d be legit surprised In which temptations are accomplished, grand romantic gestures are made, and two ineffable co-stars only take four seasons of an award-winning television program to realize they’re on their own side (at last, at last.)

Barriers, and the breaking thereof - @cardinaldaughter @cardinaldaughter Ezra Fell has long been comfortable in his loneliness. He’s content to simply run the Soho Public Library and otherwise keep to himself. However, when a handsome stranger bursts in one evening with a baby, frantic and in need of help, Ezra finds those carefully constructed barriers he’s long maintained begin to crack.

Perhaps it’s time to let them fall.

Anthophilia - @fortinbrasftw @fortinbrasftw Anthony J. Crowley's life seems like it's finally falling into place: his floral shop has begun to gain an undercurrent of appreciation in the design elite of London, and he might have even finally found a boyfriend who looks just right lounging on his Tenreiro sofa. Things seem almost perfect, until one day the empty shop across the street is leased to frumpy fellow Oxford alumni, who doesn't seem to remember Crowley nearly as well as he remembers him, which really shouldn't bother him as much as it does - it was ten years ago after all, and it wasn't even that good of a kiss.

The road to rapture has a lot of pit stops - @emmagrant01 @emmagrant01 Five times they kissed over four thousand years, and one time they actually meant it.

Demon and Angel Professors - Ghostinthehouse - not 100% sure that this is also their tumblr handle so if anyone can confirm that would be great! They're professors. They're married. Their students don't realise. Cue shenanigans.

Multiple short arcs with one-shots (and often pauses) between them. Characters continue from one arc to the next. It's marked as complete, because each short arc is complete in itself, but there will be more arcs and one-shots in the future.

The Grinch Who Sold Christmas - @forineffablereasons @forineffablereasons Anthony J. Crowley, a big-time attorney from London, is sent to small-town Tadfield to close a deal before Christmas that would sell out half of high street to a fancy developer and put him up for partner at his firm. The deal will run the local businesses out and change the landscape of the town forever, but that’s none of Crowley’s business; he’s just doing a job.

But as the town invites him to share in their lives and their hopes and their holiday celebrations, and as the enigmatic Aziraphale invites him to share in something more, Crowley starts to wonder: if everything has its price, is he still willing to pay what this deal will cost?

Slow - write_away It started like this: A boy with the ability to warp reality met an angel and a demon and he made assumptions.

You might say it started like this: An angel and a demon found a marriage contract hung on the wall of the angel's bookshop. They didn't question it.

It also could have started like this: Once upon a time, the angel told the demon he went too fast. The demon took it to heart.

Aziraphale and Crowley find themselves somehow married. Crowley fears going too fast. Aziraphale forges ahead. Neither know how to ask questions of each other.

You, soft and only - @thehoyden He hadn’t expected a sudden lapful of angel.

“Very sorry about this,” Aziraphale said, and kissed him.

A Bushel and a Peck- @thehoyden  Sometimes, a family is a demonic nanny, an angelic cook, and a kid who isn't actually the Antichrist.Or: Crowley helps Aziraphale secure a different position at the Dowling Estate.

Long is the way, and hard - Kate_Lear The first time Crawley meets the angel, the celestial being is twisting its shining white robe in its fingers and looking wretched. It hardly spares him a glance as he shifts from snake to human, and Crawley is a touch put-out. It’s taken some practice to be able to do it so fluidly.

A story of Crowley's thoughts about Aziraphale, from the Beginning to the present day.

And also of temptation, and want, and whether - for a Fallen Angel - redemption is possible after all.

the 21st century, in which they finally work it out - @fieldbears @fieldbears This is light speed in comparison to the last few centuries of their relationship, but Crowley is barely holding on to his patience.

A Few More Rescues - @poetic----nonsense @poetic----nonsense 5+1 Times Crowley Rescued Aziraphale According to the Romantic Tropes of the Era, and One Time Aziraphale Turned It Around on Him (plus Prologue)

The Cottage, the Husbands (series) - Dragonsquill A demon and an angel fall in love and decide to take on the monumental task of living together in a cottage by the sea.