#rereading good omens

[crikey01]

rereading good omens - no idea if it's even related or relevant, just a little thing that i noticed

made me think of

[purenonsens]

A matchbox label fit to spark joy, er I mean fit to light restaurant table candles on your own (not necessarily at Ritz). (inspired by vintage matchbox labels and actually fit to print and decorate your own tiny box after a bit of resizing~)

[loosethreadsofyoursoul]

how does it feel? to know that because of fandom, we get to create infinite universes in which our favourite characters find each other and love each other over and over again?

[minervas-hand]

Right to fear, wrong to believe

Just had a horrible realization and needed to meta it out.

How different they were before Edinburgh, when Crowley was sucked down into Hell.

Look at this flirty babygirl in the Bastille:

I mean could he climb that tree any faster?

(This is why I really like fics that place a more physical relationship here, pre-Bastille or just post-Bastille, because c'mon look at them. )

In S1 the next thing is 1862 and Crowley asking for insurance (with a cane ffs). And Aziraphale freaking out with his "fraternizing" BS. It's jarring, until we get 1827 filled in for us in S2.

@takeme-totheworld notes in this post:

Crowley sure went from "our respective head offices don't actually care how things get done" and "nobody ever has to know" to "walls have ears" FAST after Edinburgh. And Aziraphale went from looking at Crowley with hearts in his eyes to "I've been FrAtErNiZiNg" just as quickly. I'm more convinced than ever that Edinburgh was the first time Crowley ever actually got caught and punished for fucking around with Aziraphale/doing good deeds/whatever it was they yanked him back down to Hell for, and it scared the absolute shit out of both of them and changed the whole tone of their relationship after that.

Yes! - it's clear to me as well that the Edinburgh graveyard was a very bad turning point, where they both saw that Hell was listening and would intervene. And it did change their relationship drastically, for over a century and a half (really, until looming Armageddon loosened up the stakes for them).

But what about Heaven?

See the thing is, we know Azi's been worried about Heaven watching him for the past 6000 years.

But they haven't.

[GIFs posted by starrose17]

All this time, and Heaven had not seen them together. Hadn't noticed. Had not even LOOKED.

I want to mention what @starrose17 says about this here in this post:

What I love about this is her choice of words, “went back through the Earth Observation files.” This implies that these photos were already filed somewhere meaning somebody had to have been watching them which meant somewhere in the depths of the bureaucratic heaven there’s an underpaid angel clerk tasked with watching angels on Earth, and he’s been hording photos of his favourite Angel/Demon couple not reporting them to Michael because he wants to see what happens.

And that's exactly what this fic covers!: Spying Omens by @ednav

(Give this a read, it's fabulous.)

While I am here for this being exactly how that happens, the other scenario is colder and worse - there's no one watching, at all. It's just filing automatically and never seen until some Scrivener is called to pull a file.

From @fuckyeahisawthatat's comment here :

I found this scene to be quite chilling, actually. Not only is the idea of Heaven as a surveillance state brilliant (way to make “God is always watching” sound way more ominous) but this is exactly how modern surveillance states work. They don’t actively watch everybody all the time. That’s not physically possible for humans, and even if it is metaphysically possible for Heaven, it’s not a very efficient use of resources. Surveillance states watch people they deem “suspicious.” And once you’ve been put in the category of “suspicious,” they have massive amounts of data that they can comb through to collect a lot of information about you–to retroactively build a case justifying why you’re suspicious, to collect information about where you go and who you associate with, etc.

Yes.

So we either have secret collusion in the rank and file, or we have a surveillance state that is constantly reinforced to its subjects for fear's sake, for control.

(Well, it obviously could be both.)

BUT my point is… Up until Edinburgh, Hell has not been watching (or caring at least). And up until near the end of Armageddon't, neither has Heaven.

Oh, my poor Angel. Thousands of years, of denying yourself, of pushing Crowley away, of carrying around a tension that is it's own constellation.

After 1827 you might have reason, but for the 5000+ years before that?

Thousands of years and Heaven was not watching nor cared.

You were right to fear. And you were wrong to believe.

And that just breaks my heart.

[ineffabildaddy]

how am i supposed to explain to my curious coworkers when i go back to work tomorrow that i spent the best part of my 6 week top surgery recovery period reading, writing and discussing good omens erotica

[luppiart]

I did it to see the colors

Just started an immense procreate file for an immense A Diamond Sky Above Titanic art with a lot of scenes merging in a long panel this might take forever so have a wip now and watch me disappear for days

[ninvic-art]

I've had this scene from @isozyme's you're not a religious person (but) since I read it a couple of months ago...

(Tagging @goodomensafterdark)

[queerfables]

This came up in my recent discussion with @indigovigilance, but for my own reference, I wanted to make a dedicated post about it.

Fandom speculation in the wake of season 2 has pointed to the themes of deception, sleight of hand and memory tampering to suggest there's an unsolved mystery woven through the season that we can piece together with the right evidence. I think there's a solid case for this, but I also think it's possible we've been deliberately lead into overthinking things.

Crowley and Aziraphale's conversation about Clues-with-a-captial-C is a reference to Terry Pratchett's iconic Discworld detective, Samuel Vimes. Vimes is skeptical about Clues. He considers assembling a singular, intricate explanation that accounts for every available piece of evidence a great way to end up with a theory that is enormously clever and completely off base.

From Feet of Clay:

Samuel Vimes dreamed about Clues. He had a jaundiced view of Clues. He instinctively distrusted them. They got in the way. And he distrusted the kind of person who’d take one look at another man and say in a lordly voice to his companion, “Ah, my dear sir, I can tell you nothing except that he is a left-handed stonemason who has spent some years in the merchant navy and has recently fallen on hard times,” and then unroll a lot of supercilious commentary about calluses and stance and the state of a man’s boots, when exactly the same comments could apply to a man who was wearing his old clothes because he’d been doing a spot of home bricklaying for a new barbecue pit, and had been tattooed once when he was drunk and seventeen and in fact got seasick on a wet pavement. What arrogance! What an insult to the rich and chaotic variety of the human experience!

From the Fifth Elephant:

Mr. Vimes had told him never to get too excited about clues, because clues could lead you a dismal dance. They could become a habit. You ended up finding a wooden leg, a silk slipper and a feather at the scene of a crime and constructing an elegant theory involving a one-legged ballet dancer and a production of Chicken Lake.

Coupled with the conspicuous barrel of red herrings in the opening credits, I have to wonder if the show, while teasing the possibility of a mystery, is explicitly telling us not to look too hard. I'm not ruling out some kind of twist, but I'm inclined to think that for this story, theories are strongest when they rely on only a few pieces of evidence and follow a clear, straightforward narrative. If there is something still hidden in season 2, maybe it's not an elaborate puzzle but a simple misdirect.

[inevitablyineffable]

Parallels of Crowley in Aziraphale’s Bookshop

SATURDAY | The Last Day of the World and SUNDAY | The Very First Day of their Lives

[official-lucifers-child]

let’s be real, if any of us actually ended up in a fandom universe (you know those stories, where some modern girl obsessed with the latest and greatest queer ship gets sent to hogwarts or whatever and tries to save the world) we’d fuck it up SO QUICKLY. at least i know i would, i would take one look at the new universe and ask “is anyone going to make things worse?” and not wait for an answer. oh no i cant use my real name for reasons? yeah now i’m ebony dementia darkness raven way and no one can stop me. i’m mysterious and unknown. i speak in riddles. i can and will kill people for fun. fixing the timeline? no, fucking the timeline.

[seefasters]

good omens 2 + the book

[onlylurkingreadingstuff]

I am once again coming to tell you that Strange Moons by @racketghost is the best of all. I am a Strange Moons Evangelist, kicking down your door to tell you the Good News that is Strange Moons.

It is the best GO fic, and that’s (just) a hill I will die on. 🫣

Start with Exit Wounds.

[dorliart]

Crowley sat atop the stone, staring out where the horizon met the tops of trees, and where the chalk hills rolled beyond them. An unlit cigarette rolled between his fingers, as if he couldn't decide if he wanted it or not.

When he was close enough, Aziraphale cleared his throat. "Hello," he started, throat going tight at the sound of his own voice amidst the quiet fields and trees. "It's me."

"Hi, angel. He looked back at him, noting the plate, and hesitated a moment before he tapped the spot at his right. "Sit for a minute?"

Sometimes there's moments in stories that just stick in your brain because they're so good. This was one of these moments.

From the incredibly lovely Divine Restoration and Repairs 🌿

by @sylwritesstuff and skimmingthesurface

Also I thought this would lend itself well to being a picture they hung up at some point, writing notes under it and of course, bickering.

Also hi, if you see this skim, yes I referenced your sims build as closely as I possibly could and tried to get all the details I could find. It’s very lovely.

[shrublub]

pshaw! but thanks. i think you’re pretty, too.

[p4nishers]

random hc but. crowley being a plague doctor in the 16th/17th century bc he's supposedly "tempting people into death" but he can never, ever bring himself to actually do that so he ends up soothing their pain as best as he can and comforting them in their last moments. one night, after he held a little girl's hand as she passed away, he sits down at the banks of the river thames, with his plague mask discarded on the dirt, and he starts out over the water with tears in his eyes, wondering what the fuck is actually the point? it's not the first time he's asked himself the question nor the first plague he witnessed but, here, now after personally witnessing hundreds of deaths every day, he really wonders what actually is the point of him? why does he exist and why should he keep existing. why does he get to live when so many others don't? how is that fair? how is any of it fair? that's how aziraphale finds him, as he just got back from an assignment somewhere or other and hears crowley is in town, so he discreetly looks for him and finds him there, sitting in the dirt, now with his head in his hands, his shoulders silently shaking and is obviously immediately worried but doesn't know how to comfort him or what's allowed so he just sits beside crowley and watches him try to pull himself together. aziraphale's heart breaks, he put what happened together from the mask and the robes and he obviously knows about the bubonic plague but was convinced it was hell's doing and couldn't have even imagined crowley was out there everyday, helping people under the guise of hurting them. is he surprised? no, of course not but it still hurts to see crowley like this. but he's afraid to cross their unspoken rules so he quietly waits crowley out. he watches the water and doesn't dare look at crowley as he lifts his head and takes a few shaky breaths in. after a few minutes of breathing, crowley croaks out "her name was mary" and nothing else, and aziraphale understands, god he understands. it's one of the things they never speak about after it happens but aziraphale can't forget the night he sat with crowley for hours, till the sun came up, as he cried about a death of one little girl. he holds it close to his chest and never, ever forgets.

[frogguchi]

hell is supposed to be the evil ones, right? but crowley doesn’t really feel that he’s being hurt there in any sense. because hell is supposed to be evil, they’re supposed to hurt, so crowley doesn’t feel any different because that’s in their nature already. crowley is already used to hell’s ways, it’s their life, and he just goes on with his life normally. they have the sharp tongues and hands that can cut, but why blame a demon for its purpose?

so heaven is supposed to be the good ones, right? so why does it hurt? why does aziraphale feel the burden and weight of their hands on his, that uncomfortable, uncanny feeling of their grip on his entire existence. why do their words hurt him when it’s not supposed to because they are good? they’re supposed to be the good guys, so why doesn’t it feel like it, and why does it look like he’s suffering more than his demon?