#road to Paloma

[dreams-on-silver-screens]

Road to Paloma (2014)

[terebelli]

Jason Momoa Road to Paloma

[momoamadness]

Road to Paloma Part (2/2)

[venessaclaud]

In Road to Paloma, I love how Jason Momoa revealed his character through his relationships with other people and how they saw him. We rarely got a glimpse of his inner world or him when he was alone. His story was a man on the run destined to be alone but he wasn’t that at all. He was LOVED and liked by everyone he came across even when he did wrong, even when his circumstances made him a nuisance. We saw who he was not by an inner monologue or his own thoughts or words but how people in his life reacted to him, new and old relationships. The kids surrounding him and jumping on him when he went to visit family. The women in his family joking and happy to see him. His grandmother very emotional and maternal, saying her heart was happy to see him. Lisa Bonet’s character emotional and sad to let him go after only knowing him for a night. His sister and her husband naming their child after him. Specifically her husband literally jumping in Wolf’s arms kissing his forehead overjoyed to see him again. Risking his family and their safety to protect Wolf. His sister emotional at the thought of her brother leaving. These things might seem obvious but the intensity and the warmth is anything but typical. The bounty hunter helping find Wolf literally feeling a kinship to Wolf and being apologetic having to do what he had to do. Cash’s intense love of Wolf after only knowing him such a short period of time.

But I think Cash’s character out of everyone is like the audience, he sees everyone’s reaction to Wolf in real time and puts together the pieces like us that Wolf is a GREAT man. Cash is also a kind of the opposite to Wolf. His character shows the audience what a typical broken man looks like and shows Wolf is not that. Everywhere Cash goes, he has problems with people. He gets into fights often whether it’s with people at a bar or his ex wife. He doesn’t invoke warmth like Wolf does. He’s likeable and at his core he’s a good guy. He just doesn’t have the maturity or emotional intelligence and his circumstances reflect this. Cash is the typical broken man who creates these problems out of fear and lack of emotional intelligence where Wolf is this loved, warm, respected man whose circumstances have hindered him. People understand what he did and why and now he’s forced to live with the consequences no matter how unfair they are. No matter how much he loves and is loved.

[myoldsox]

Damn good movie

Road to Paloma (2014)

[tight-frame]

Mar 2024

[moviemosaics]

My picks for the 15 best films of 2022

1) The Banshees of Inisherin (dir. Martin McDonagh)

2) Everything Everywhere All at Once (dir. Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert)

3) No Bears (dir. Jafar Panahi)

4) The Eternal Daughter (dir. Joanna Hogg)

5) Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (dir. Junta Yamaguchi)

6) Hit the Road (dir. Panah Panahi)

7) Women Talking (dir. Sarah Polley)

8) The House (dir. Emma de Swaef, Marc James Roels, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, and Paloma Baeza)

9) Argentina, 1985 (dir. Santiago Mitre)

10) Skinamarink (dir. Kyle Edward Ball)

11) Prey (dir. Dan Trachtenberg)

12) Triangle of Sadness (dir. Ruben Östlund)

13) The Innocents (dir. Eskil Vogt)

14) Broker (dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)

15) The Wonder (dir. Sebastián Lelio)

Read my thoughts on these films and 15 more here!

[mhedusard]

Backstory :

Paloma is born to Travel. That's only a natural conclusion for the 9 years old child who traveled accross her original World as for long as she Can remember. It was Always the same routine.Arriving to a city or into a place with nobody living. Playing with the kids she encounter or arguing with them before never seeing them Again a few days After and going back to the road.

One of the big advantage to have both of her parents being passioned archeologists who didn't minded bringing their daughter to their Big expedition.

This with one of those Big expedition where began her biggest adventure.

It began like any other day. Moving away from her parents too busy talking about some Tower to notice Paloma's disaperence. The kid having fun as Always,exploring the forest while playing around with a stick as if it was her mighty Sword. Until she noticed that she was gone too far, had no idea how to go back and that the only thing close to her was a tower.

The biggest tower she ever Saw. It was the type you Saw in those Epic story she liked where a heroic knight in shining armor was ready to slay the scary dragon that kept a helpless princess and a gigantic treasure inside. The kind of story where Paloma Always Saw herself as the héroïne.

However she didn't realize that she was actually gonna encounter an actual dragon of steal.Nor that while trying to escape she would trigger a dusty old mirror that would transport both of them into a Magic realm.

Personality :

Paloma is a free spirit. She likes to think that everything Can be turned into an adventure where she’s the heroine.

This Can be entering into a cave she found in a forest to see if a treser is hidding in the deepths or running After a random cat she saw near a shop to see if it will lead her to a spooky place with a Monster to slay.

Sometimes she Can be so focused in her little adventures that she would often forget to take mind of other people's emotion, reflecting her general lack of empathy.

She has a strong dislike of people in twisted wonderland trying to order her around or betitling her games. She will let none of those wizards thinking that they Can tell her what to do and is determined to show them who the true boss is!

But at the end of the day she IS a kid.

A kid propulsed in an unknow World

A kid that try to hide behind her obnoxious attitude that she is as much scared as she is amazed by this New world.

A kid who sometimes wander if her parenrs are still waiting for her in the woods where they lost her.

A kid trying to act like a mighty hero because she Seek this strenght and bravery that they have

Relationships:

Hydris:

Her Loyal sidekick as she likes to call them. They are the first one to actually take her seriously despite her young age and listen carefuly to what she suggest. They even agree to play along her little game even when they are Bad at pretenting.

Other infos:

She is based on Pascal from tangled

Nicknames: Shrimpy(Floyd), Petite Filoute (Rook), Toad (Ruggie)

Talent: hide and seek + multilingual

Best subject: Music

Club: Horse ridding club

Hooby: Sewing, music, Cooking, adventure , playing Chess.....

Likes: Travelling, Exploring

Dislikes: Orders, not being taken seriously

Pictures:

Sorry if some sentences are weirdly phrased!

Credit templates: @/ai-kan1

Tags: @twtysevapr

[newrochellechallenger2019]

Paloma was married for like 10 years and a had a boyfriend of 6 years (polyamorous), but she got permission from her partners to go method with dating Mike, too. She was back at Moulin Rouge after wrapping WSS with all Mike's pictures in her dressing room (some kissing), but none of her husband or bf. They were even in Ohio together during the pandemic after she left her husband and bf after WSS wrapped. He even was using her bow and arrow to practice archery during lockdown- she was with him and got to know his sibling. Things fizzled out though in the second half of 2020 and he left on his road trip with his dog. She soon after moved to California finally as a single woman.

☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️

dude wtf this goes way deeper than i thought 😭😭

[thorns-and-wilted-petals]

no one believes in you, you lost again and again, a silent chorus of empty rooms, echoes of failures you can’t outrun.

they tell you it’s pointless, that hope is just a worn-out lie, and maybe they're right maybe the light you chased was just the sun sinking low, falling behind the hills of everything you’ll never be.

each step is heavier now, each breath a reminder of the weight, the promise that slipped through your hands, the dreams that withered before they bloomed.

they’ll say you tried, but not enough, they’ll say you fought, but you fell and you’re left with nothing but shadows, and the hollow space where hope once dwelled.

so you sit with the silence, with the ache that never mends, and wonder if this is all there is an endless road that twists and bends, until it disappears.

@cheekyboybeth @monarch-of-weird-girlboy-nation @fangirlghost-19 @idk-here-for-the-escapisim @briannaswords

@hijabi-flavored-nerd @paloma-ascends-into-hellfire @thishumanformislimiting @hungergameswho @permetutotheworld

@bookisposts @andromeda-en-stella

[nightcolorz]

loveee the armand music discussions i feel the need to talk about some of my most armand songs of all time (no mitski this time as we’ve already discussed that ^^)

- notre dame by Paris Paloma (literally any paris paloma song tbh esp the fruits and labour but notre dame isn’t appreciated nearly enough) Very very religious guilt armand, angel symbolism heavy, also very cult era armand in paris. I would put lyrics here but oh its the whole song. its the entire song.

- Abstract (Psychopomp) by Hozier. again impossible to put specific lyrics but the song being about painful memories, getting past traumas with new loves, and heavy symbolism of a hurt animal in the road and the singer feeling kinship with it is just so SO armand imo its impossible to explain. i always think of a deer being the “poor thing in the road” in the song though it is left to interpretation, and armand’s doe eyes very much come to mind with that.

- Spellbound by Siouxsie and the Banshees (Following the footsteps of a rag doll dance, we are entranced, spellbound) Both these lyrics and the intense sound of the song bring to mind Armand’s heavy use of and skill with the spell gift, especially in TVL (for books) and s2ep5 (the show) You do feel entranced by his spells even if you don’t realise it and this song captures it perfectly (also i think S&TB are very armand overall so honourable mentions to Cities in Dust, Arabian Knights and Melt which are all sooo armand as well i just didn’t want to make this so Siouxsie-centric)

- Devils Don’t Fly by Natalia Kills (Angels were never meant to fall, and you were the loveliest of all) This song reminds me so much of 2018 YouTube but oh the lyrics are so very armand. Always called an angel, even referred to it as shorthand, but so torn religiously that he could never be holy, never be more than a demon with what he is and has been through. But being made so young and so beautiful, its very fallen angel of him.

- speaking of angels, Not Strong Enough by boygenuis (Always an angel, never a God, I don’t know why I am the way I am) I don’t feel like i need to explain this one it just Is

- Teen Idle by Marina (I want back my virginity so I can feel infinity, I want to drink until I ache, I want to make a big mistake, I want blood guts and angel cake) & (Adolescence didn’t make sense, a little loss of innocence, the ugly years of being a fool, ain’t youth meant to be beautiful?) Just something about Armand finding his worth through his beauty and physical desire, not to mention the utter horror of having to be a teenager forever, seen as that same sort of obscene beauty forever. The line about drinking and making mistakes feels very Venice-era as well, with Amadeo’s main coping mechanisms being getting blackout drunk on the daily and sleeping with people he knows he shouldn’t because he doesn’t feel like he’s good for anything else or even able to do anything else (which of course also leads to his death eventually)

- Jolene by Dolly Parton (Your beauty is beyond compare, with flaming locks of auburn hair) Definitely sillier but reminds me a lot about how people in the books (especially lestat) wax poetic about how beautiful Armand is and fear it somewhat in a mix of jealousy and insecurity.

- Dominion / Mother Russia by Sisters of Mercy. this one is much more vibe based that lyrical but there is the detail of armand being described as russian in the books and also the lyrics being very repetitive and prayer like (as well as the ‘some say prayers’ line) very much remind me of his repetitive prayers both when young and in the cult

- Swan Upon Leda by Hozier (One more sweet boy to be butchered by men, But the gateway to the world is still outside the reach of them, Would never belong to angels, Had never belonged to men) This song is overall about sexual violence and reproductive rights, but these lyrics deeply remind me of Amadeo’s abuse as a child and young man, and of men feeling a right to him and his body because they found him beautiful, angelic.

I have about a million more but I won’t go on too much. Hope you like my choices and give them a listen if you’re unfamiliar with any (to anyone reading this <3)

AHHHHHHH THANK U FOR THIS IM OBSESSED!!!! GONNA ADD THE ONES THAT ARENT ALREADY ON MY PLAYLIST RNN!!! (I already have got not strong enough, Jolene, devils don’t fly, teen idle, and Notre Dame, we r the same person). U get Armand like no one else mutual kittenbradensgf. Devils don’t fly made me laugh because it’s also on my Armand playlist because 2018 AMV YouTube songs r always so Armand to me 😭 !!! Ur so right the lyrics r so him. angel of darkness is on mine and I can’t stay it’s entirely ironic, lmao. Ugh this is my favorite I’m gonna run in a room and listen to these forever, ur analysis is so good

[erasine]

Alicent Hightower's playlist 🕯️

★ Pyre - Mel Bryant & the Mercy Makers

★ Becomes The Color - Emily Wells

★ The Worthy Wood Carol - Jackie Oates

★ Old Churchyard - The Wailin' Jennys

★ Can't Find My Way Home - Ellen McIlwaine

★ Down to the River to Pray - Thula Mama

★ Girl With One Eye - Florence + The Machine

★ Brutus - The Buttress

★ Emotions - Brenda Lee

★ Funeral - MEG MYERS

★ I Bet on Losing Dogs - Mitski

★ labour - Paris Paloma

★ Tongue-tied - Emily Portman

★ Sheep Song - Odie Leigh

★ The Lost Words Blessing - Spell Songs

★ Protection Chant - Lisa Thiel

★ Better Than I - Marleta Fong

★ Eastward of Eden-Acoustic - Amelia Day

★ What We Leave - Nadiiife

★ Anywhere on This Road - Lhasa de Sela

★ As I Walked Out One Evening - Susanne Sundfør

★ The Kingdom - Jescs Hoop

★ When The Lord - Susanne Sundfør

★ Kronos/Rhea - Aidoneus

★ Pawn to Queen - Humanwine

★ Girl - Eliza Rickman

★ Over Cold Shoulders - Eliza Rickman

★ Susan Smith - wych elm

★ They Are Bastards - Rockettothesky

★ Invocation of the Graces - Lisa Thiel

[kings-highway]

since we are now admitting to our drabbles and stuff, i must share my old wip, 288 words, that will probably never get completed, should i keep tredding the road i am on. i called it screaming birds sound an awful lot like singing (from "the fruits" by paris paloma), and it goes as such:

He doesn’t have a mattress. His futon is bitten through by moths and rats, his fridge is never a quarter full, and he’s sure he’s going to become diabetic if he doesn’t stop eating so much goddamn ice cream. But, he repeats as he eyes his gaunt reflection, it can always be worse.

the plan was always this: oikawa is arrested and convicted of murdering his father in his family home with a simple pistol at age 17. though tried as a minor, he is sentenced to adult prison for twenty years, a light sentencing in light of the situation of the murder. he is released on good behavior and an agreement of a five-year parole; house arrest.

his dreams are effectively destroyed. he never went to argentina, and he can't play recreational volleyball per the parole. he isn't in contact with anyone he once knew, not even his family, who he is court-mandated to stay away from. he works at ben & jerry's since they are the only company that would hire him that isn't construction or trucking and is at a suitable distance from his shoddy, run-down apartment building in the middle of the poor, criminal enclave of miyagi. everyone on the floor is either impoverished or previously incarcerated.

he tells himself that it's okay that he doesn't have any food in his fridge; all of his earnings go to the monitor, the apartment, and his parents. he saves nothing for himself. he tells himself it's okay that he's emaciating because at least he isn't addicted to drugs like half of the other tenants on his floor. and, he has daichi, his parole officer! diachi is kind to him; he brings a hot meal and stays for longer than necessary to chat. the interrogation on his personal life is always a little uncomfortable, but prison taught him how to live with the uncomfortable.

anyway, he works the long day at ben & jerry's. and then he sees him through the window. iwaizumi. he freaks out, ducking behind the counter and praying his coworker will come and save him. well, his coworker is a bitch, and oikawa is forced to reunite with his childhood best friend, it being well into nine years since they last spoke; since iwaizumi went to university to study criminal law and justice, devotedly; since oikawa never returned iwaizumi's letters and always rejected his requests to call and talk.

it goes well, actually. life goes on after they reconnect, and life starts to actually improve for oikawa. then, the surprise happens: kageyama comes to visit oikawa's apartment, having gotten oikawa's address through iwaizumi (and iwaizumi, who thought it could be a good idea). their meeting goes... somewhat well, if not awkward. kageyama thanks oikawa for inspiring kageyama to be successful, that he is sorry that they cannot share the court as teammates nor competitors, and oikawa brings it in him to apologize. they share a cup of tea, and kageyama goes home.

the police break down oikawa's door the next day while iwaizumi is visiting. they shove him on the counter, bind his hands, and tell him that he is under arrest for the poisoning and murder of kageyama tobio.

and oikawa didn't do it. he is freaking out, but he now has a lawyer. a lawyer very willing to bring oikawa justice and keep him from being convicted of murder twice. to save him from his current humiliation of house arrest, and to preserve their life going forward.

iwaizumi hajime, 27, criminal defense lawyer, oikawa tooru, 27, murder convict and ben & jerry's eomployee, and sawamura daichi, 27, miyagi police/parole officer. that is the story.

i NEED someone to see the vision here. i need it injected into my VEINS. and i need to inject it into everyone else's, too. however, i am no good at writing criminal and court law, and i fear this will forever be pinging around in my head like a pinball machine. i figured i would infect you with it, too. you seem to enjoy it, just a little bit. hopefully i haven't misread.

First of, this is absolutely ‘send your drabble concepts to King hour’ it’s a pleasure doing business with you

secondly, I’m so proud of you for going from “barely reading Daichi fics” to including him as a third lead in your own fic outlines. Are you pandering to me? Absolutely, but I’ll take it as a win. 

Now it would be easy for me merely to expand upon this idea, to throw in my 2 cents and a chicken sandwich and just see what i could spitball. But this is your story, and if you so choose to write it, i don’t want you to feel like i’ve tried to co opt it or think i know best. Who needs to hear me ask questions about whether or not oikawa actually did intentionally commit murder that first time, or who framed him the second time, or whatever have you, i’m sure you’ve already got your ideas. What I am going to do, in true me-you-fashion, is tangent into something only vaguely related that i want to talk about - the use of volleyball in haikyuu fanfictions. 

Total Mania-Sama Response Word Count below the Cut: 1599. Proceed at your own damn risk. 

fanfiction in general is a pretty weird thing, I think. Everyone has their own reasons for writing it. If you’re like me, however, the fan part of fanfiction tends to come secondarily. I don’t think anyone would be surprised to learn that “Time Enough” was written to satiate my desire to talk about and engage with time loop based philosophies, or that “This Is Not The End” is actually a really old concept I’d drafted as an original novel and then merely plonked the haikyuu boys down into when I decided I wanted to share it. No, although I love the show, with all my heart, this is merely my particular avenue for sharing the broader stories that I want to tell. Most authors will never be published - i am beyond lucky to be able to share my stories with the small community I have gathered online anyway. (of course, I do write more fanfiction-y fanfictions, of course, of course, that’s not up for debate, but my point is that there is a reason I don’t publish fanfiction for any of the other numerous pieces of media i adore. I just don’t need to. Haikyuu has me covered)

And one of the ways haikyuu has me covered is the sheer volume of stories available to be told - ie, so many canon characters that cover a wide array of archetypes, for pretty much any need. But one of the things that is inescapable when you write fanfiction - or, I suppose, when you write fanfiction well, is that the characters are always going to be the characters. (i’d like to think at this point I don’t need to feign hyper-modesty and I can admit I think I write well)

The haikyuu boys are always going to want to play volleyball. 

“Soulmake Adventures” was conceived with complete disconnect from the broader haikyuu canon and instead was meant to entertain the idea of a Under 30’s Singles Club in a soulmate Au. And I could not prevent the characters from playing volleyball, rather significantly - Oikawa himself! Placed merely as the receptionist as a fun balance to the theme of the story, still ends up having a personal arc revolving around the recovery of an injury, moving to Argentina and getting back into semi-professional volleyball. The Adlers are still the Adlers, and MSBY is still MSBY - Tsukishima is still on the Frogs, Iwa is still a personal trainer. 

“Paranormality” by all accounts should not have ended as it did. If this were an original novel, the boys would be the scooby-doo gang. But I presented myself with an impossible task. I gave Oikawa a personal plotline that revolved around belief in oneself, about belief in others, about the power and strength that you can grow simply from the conviction that you, yes, you, can do more than you think, that there is more to the world than you think, and I expected Oikawa Fucking Tooru to not use that to persue volleyball? There was no natural way to have Oikawa end Paranormality in Japan. He had to be who he was, that’s the point of the fucking story - Even if the narrative tells me that his character, his Sherlock to Daichi’s Watson, should have ended with them teaming up and taking the world by storm. But it didn’t work. Because Oikawa isn’t that character, Oikawa is more selfish, he’s arrogant, and he wants what he wants and he believes that he belongs on the volleyball court. It is his greatest love, first and foremost… even in fanfictions in which volleyball is supposedly merely an afterthought. They discovered that monsters and aliens are real, and Oikawa still chooses to go to Argentina to play volleyball.

So why am I telling you, someone who already loves Oikawa, about his character? Well, because you said in this story that a feature of it is Oikawa’s life being destroyed at 17 - never getting to make those big choices, never getting to go overseas, never playing professionally, hell, probably never playing again at all. And a part of me - the part of me that has used volleyball as a metaphor for hope and society in “The End”, the part of me that knows that Oikawa would rather chew off his own arm then give up volleyball, wants to admit that it would be easy, in your criminal law haikyuu fanfiction essay, to have Iwa and Oikawa reconnect with or through volleyball. To have scenes of them tossing that ball back and forth, to feel their old selves reignite through the game, that first toss after ten odd years to that first spike. It would be easy. And yet, and yet, I would daresay if I am to try and inflict my influence upon you and your writing, I would caution against it. Volleyball to a haikyuu fanfiction is like a torch for canon, it pulls the characters in and makes them make sense, and it’s easy to use it, then, as a way to say “hey, look, these characters are healing, these characters are returning to how they’re supposed to be.”

But that feels antithetical to the things that are great about what this is supposed to be. Yes, a story of a broken, rundown Oikawa suffering and slowly regaining his identity through the sport that he onced loved works, very well, but you know what works even better than that, in my not-so-humble opinion? Oikawa slowly realizing that he doesn’t love the game anymore, but has been grieving the loss of “who he was supposed to be” so severely that he has hindered himself from feeling or being anything more than just “someone who failed to be who they were meant to be.” Nobody is meant to be anything, we are all merely following passions or desires and what makes us feel good. And I feel, for a story like this, to watch Oikawa grasp at straws when we all know it is far too late for him to ever go professional, would feel miserable more than anything else. To have him play that game with Iwaizumi, as if to say “hey, weren’t we better when we were 17?” instead of letting him connect to Iwaizumi as adults, to fall in love as adults, to be whoever they damn well fucking want to be, “supposed to have been” be damned. 

I love the idea of an Oikawa realizing that, although it was or is natural to wish things had been different, to hate where he is, that there isn’t any joy for him in volleyball anymore. Not in an angsty, horrible, “your life peaks at 18” sort of way, but in the “I need to move on and be better than I was” sort of way. I do not think, for the purposes of your story, that there is any great tragedy in an Oikawa who heals by learning he is more than the stuff he had lost, more than the person Iwaizumi had once thought he was going to be. Iwa, after all, in this au, has given up the sport as well to help Oikawa, and I’d like to imagine that he does not miss it either. It does not dominate their identities. 

perhaps, partially, this is inspired by the fact that I recently got ahold of some translations for a few chapters of the haikyuu light novels, one of which includes post timeskip Daichi, Suga and Asahi reconnecting after some time, and has a very… very fascinating few paragraphs written by what had to have been an adult, of Asahi mulling over the fact that he does not, actually, care much about not playing volleyball anymore, and that it probably wasn’t as beautiful as the rose-coloured glasses he wears are. He talks fondly about how Suga is changing the world for the better as a teacher, how Daichi is protecting people as a cop - he laments that he is not so obviously beneficial to society. He talks a little bit about how it felt to be an ace, but only because he feels good to be good at something. He does not - none of them - miss it in a way that matters. 

Volleyball is so easy to write into haikyuu fanfictions because the characters seem to crave it like they need air, their very core is built around this sport and the impact it has in their lives. But I just really am passionate about this, that this story you’ve presented, as lovely and complicated and interesting as it is would not benefit from backsliding Oikawa into who he was at 17. You just don’t need to. 

that being said, I would also like to see it be done more Criminal Minds than James Bond - I’d like it to be political, to be legal, to take place in courtrooms and over paperwork, where most actual criminal cases occur. As much as I would love it to also include a scene in which Daichi (swayed by Iwaizumi’s argument?) follows their lead and gets to chase down some fucking assassin (who the HELL wants Kageyama dead?), I think the story would be much better served in courtrooms and police stations, with Oikawa and Iwaizumi pouring over defense arguments and scouring security footage to prove his innocence, for Oikawa to learn to fight for himself through the quiet and methodical practices of a criminal attorny. Or whatever the hell it was you said Iwa was, I don’t have the ask in front of me as of the time of writing.

Anyway that’s all thanks for the ask 😘

[momoamadness]

Road to Paloma Part (1/2)

[repmet]

his gaze always evades me doesn’t know he is paving the road for my escape way

drywall - paris paloma

[kotias]

GOSP Exchange gift - Though This Be Madness

Happy Gift Day to @therainbowsaltsblog !!

In the context of the @gospexchange event, I have received the following prompts:

Broken Crown by Mumford & Sons

the fruits by Paris Paloma

It's Alright by Mother Mother

And have written a songfic based on Mumford & Sons' Broken Crown!

Enjoy!

Title: Though this be madness

(from Hamlet's line "Though this be madness, yet there is method in it")

Rating: Mature

Word count: 8,596 words

Tags: Season 3 plot; i swear it's canon i talked to Neil about it; apocalypse that will be; crowley is having a long nap; Supreme Archangel Aziraphale; Prince of Hell Crowley; Muriel is a Sweetheart; Crowley Loves Aziraphale; Aziraphale Loves Crowley; Aziraphale's Bookshop; Crowley's Bentley; Blood; Violence; War; Song fic; mumford and sons: broken crown

Beta shout-out:

Many thanks to DaneeCastle,  Olfactory_Ventriloquism  and  MISinformation,  Naty  and Contritecactite , who have all been excellent beta-readers on the piece!

Summary:

Crowley and Aziraphale split up; Aziraphale went to Heaven, and Crowley drove away after that godforsaken kiss. Muriel takes over the bookshop, and discovers a world that they had never been aware of before. Something is afoot, something is brewing; the world is coming to an end, and They Are Not Talking.

Excerpt:

Muriel had gleefully accepted the keys that Aziraphale gave them as they crossed paths. But their greatest joy at the moment was continuing The Crow Road, which had them fully invested. They would have plenty of time to discover the bookshop later on, after all. And they were a fast reader, they would be done with this one in no time.

And indeed a fast reader they were; by the time the humans were leaving their jobs for the midday break, they had reached the last page. They raised their head from the book and smiled.

The bookshop was absolutely lovely. It was overflowing with novels, short story collections, history books, notepads, disks, manuals and atlases. It felt ancient, and yet welcoming like the smile of an infant. Their fingers roamed across a single bookshelf, brushed the spines, felt for each crease that had formed into them and how many times they had been touched, opened, cherished. They noticed the nonsense categorisation, and took note of it as their first project for the place.

There was no dust settling, no trace of decay. Each record present in the bookshop was in near-perfect shape.

It felt lived in.

It felt like a collection of humanity.

It felt like a home.

But most of all, it felt loved.

Muriel beamed. This was a staggering experience. Each book they touched sang to them. Each disk that grazed their fingers whispered the story of an angel who adored them so much he would never part from any of them.

They chose a novel, A Tale of Two Cities. It grumbled about never being left alone. They chuckled. So beloved indeed. They plopped into one of the armchairs and opened it.

Continue reading on AO3!