#sorry I forgot to include a few so I deleted the original

[chalamet-chalamet]

Timothée playing the harmonica 🎶 🎶 🎶

[pokemonpo]

pmmm vtuber au ramble (apologising in advance if its really incoherent)

I got encouraged to brainrot jnfajkgnj (this is directly copied from my google doc so its really messy sorry ;;)

Mami, sayaka, kyouko and madoka all vaguely knew each other in their streamer past lives

(all youngish adults in college, Mami has graduated tho) 21-23

Sayaka and madoka are childhood friends

Madoka used to run a youtube channel called KNM Ch, where she would post vlogs and challenges (mild ones). She would also occasionally try to do advice videos. She got fairly popular (kind of), then started to do craft videos with Sayaka and Hitomi occasionally making guest appearances. She later sold these online for her 2k celebration. She starts streaming after entering highschool, but stops uploading and streaming entirely to take entrance exams, after which she announced that she would no longer be uploading. 

The vtuber agency KYUBEY inc. has had several waves before Magia Quartet, including an earlier food themed wave, with a few members, who unfortunately ended up graduating due to real life commitments. The only one left being Charlotte.

Magia Quartet debuted when Madoka entered college, with Candeloro, Ophelia, Oktavia von Seckendorff and Kriemhield Gretchen. The next wave, Homulily debuted alone, but had lore so tied to the Magia Quartet that most fans consider them the same wave. It reached the point where the company ended up officially combining both waves, renaming them to Holy Quintet. Homura is a long-time fan of KNM Ch, and started watching Madoka since she only had about 20 subscribers. She found Madoka at a low point in her life and this kept her keep going. To donate to Madoka, she used the online name devil_AKM, and this name became widely known as Kaname’s insane fan after Madoka started streaming for a week, and they kept donating max supas. Homura’s grades dropped drastically after Madoka announced her departure from the channel, but she somehow managed to bring them back up before it was too late.

While Madoka released several pieces of handmade merch for her 200k celebration, Homura ended up only getting like 2 pieces of jewellery. She wears one religiously, and the other is kept safely in a ziploc bag at home.

Homura still has poor health in this au. Alot of the wishes made in the original PMMM dont come true, except for Mami’s. So she’s still very much an orphan, but she isn’t as lonely due to the support of her online friends. 

Kyouko and Mami are longtime online friends due to being in the same content creator circle. They later broke away due to some disagreements, but did tell each other that they were probably going to stop creating content on their current accounts due to reasons.

They later met during a zoom call, and after a while they reconciled. 

Homura applied for the role of homulily after seeing Kriemhield Gretchen’s debut. Her own cute ditzy debut left a big impression.

After sayaka’s debut alot of people would frequently put ‘hazukashi.. Low hp’ in the chat whenever she dies in a game. She later made an emote with this. 

When they had their first off collab, they ended up showing each other’s faces beforehand so they would be able to recognise each other in public. Homura has an awful sleeping schedule, so she only ended up sending one in at around 12, but forgot to remove her KNM Ch earring. She quickly deleted it but Sayaka saw it and immediately cornered her. They got weirdly close after that.

Sayaka streams alot of rhythm games and occasionally plays music. She plays other games too, but once in a while she does mixing streams for fun. In the beginning, Madoka and her collab alot, occasionally doing handcam streams together, but after getting close to the rest, Kyouko and her end up streaming together alot more.

Mami does alot of handcam baking/cooking streams, as well as cake and tea reviews, to the point where alot of people are like you might as well be an irl streamer instead. Afterwards, she started playing games like cooking mama, and more mainstream family games like mario party, but alone. She streams at weird times due to her full time job, and it makes it difficult to coordinate with the rest of the girls. She ends up streaming alot with Homura after the official merge.

Homura and Madoka are both variety streamers, in that you can never predict what’s going to be on their schedules. Homura starts off tame at first, but alot of her streams end up being wild as time goes on. Once, she started giving such detailed information about bombs, her manager ended her stream immediately and took it down. Plays fps with Mami alot. Once, Sayaka and Homura had an off collab guerilla cooking stream together for cream stew. Madoka joined and said wow cream stew my favourite! The stream’s audio then immediately cut out for 10 full minutes, and then ended. It later came back on and neither Sayaka or Homura addressed it, and the vod was later heavily edited. Till today some people still bring it up, some people assuming they’re lying due to the low amount of concurrent viewers at the time.

Alot of the content of Madoka’s streams is very similar to what she did for KNM Ch, but now equipped with a bigger budget, she does even more stuff. Her main content is still craft streams though. 

Kyouko does alot of just chatting streams, and alot of food reviews. She gives alot of good advice, but most people don’t realise because when you open her channel all you see are fighting game streams and food reviews. Plays alot of two player games with sayaka like we were here, and river city girls. They bicker alot. 

Sayaka and Homura hang out alot offline secretly after the earring incident. They often go to arcades and do karaoke together. Once Sayaka uploaded a pic of their maimai scores accidentally onto her Oktavia von Seckendorff account instead of her sub account and the rest of the quartet replied with stuff like damn yall hanging out without us? + fans went wild Sayaka tried to play it off because too many people saw it and said she was hanging out with another friend, but opened her discord and got bombarded. Homura bought another aime card after that, but it didn't change much. 

Timeline of events is as follows 

Magia Quartet > Mami and Madoka both hit 100k subs > Magia Quartet off Collab > Domain of the Devil solo wave > Plans for a MQ + DD off Collab, along with Nagisa > Plans fall through, second MQ off Collab > Homura is free, they plan another meet up > Homura hits 100k > Homura second lore video drops > Company announces merge, Holy Quintet is formed > Homura sends the wrong photo > off Collab > Homura passes out at the end of the day after everything

In a wild turn of events, Kyouko ends up moving to the same city for uni. After the first year, Sayaka and Madoka end up rooming together. They realise they all live in the same city after planning the first HQ off Collab. 

Sayaka calls Homura transfer student after the merge.

Sayaka and Homura play project sekai and taiko tatsujin together at some point, and they start hanging out offline to go to the arcade. Homura starts to destroy sayaka's sleeping schedule. At some point, Madoka goes over to Mami's house for a tea time cake baking off Collab, and Sayaka mentions something along the lines of Yea Madoka loves cream stew, and Homura goes over to Sayaka and Madoka's house to learn it. Sayaka off-handedly mentions it would be good content and so they stream it.

It was both their first handcam stream, and it was extremely terrifying for everyone watching. There were multiple times where parts of Homura and Sayaka's hair and arms got into frame, but they got the hang of it by the middle of the stream. 

Some more intense fans caught a glimpse of Homura's earring, but most people didn't know where it was from due to Madoka not keeping up the 2k merch announcement after everything got sold, and the fact that Madoka used to be an irl cc.

Homura wears the earring accidentally to the first day of the offcollab, but her hair is so long Madoka doesn't realise. She takes it off after Sayaka teases her about it.

Homura appears in Madoka's chat all the time, but in reality they don't collab much or talk much. Once, Madoka invited Homura over for an off Collab zatsu. Homura was so nervous she came off as super stiff and awkward, to the point where alot of people stopped watching an hour in, and several fan theories came out that they hated each other. Most people missed the little chat they had after saying their goodbyes where they hadn't realised they were still live and had a heart to heart, and the vod was later taken down. Since then Homura has been genuinely in love with Madoka.

They start talking more after Sayaka posts the maimai photo on the wrong account.

There are multiple Oktavia bickering compilations on YouTube. Oktavia's top shipping tags are ChurchPiano/Oktphelia and Lilvia , especially after the wrong photo incident, and how much they collab. Alot of people theorise that Homura and Sayaka are together

This changed after Homura, Kyouko and Mami's drunk zatsudan though, where Homura got super hammered and started rambling about a super cool YouTuber she used to watch that changed her life and how much she loved her. Kyouko said something like lol parasocial and Homura said it's not if we are friends. This vod got taken down and edited shortly after, but it was clipped to hell.

They have an offline meetup to go to a dessert buffet together with Kyouko, and Kyouko has never felt more like a stranger than in that moment. 

Unnecessary detailing

KYUBEY Inc. calls their talents Puella Magi. Originally marketed similarly to hololive in that they’re supposed to be idol type characters. The theming started to change overtime as the company got bigger, so now the idol rules aren’t as enforced anymore. Magia Quartet was originally advertised as a 90s weaponry branch, but this was never fully confirmed. Magia Quartet is the second branch to no longer require the members to be able to dance and sing, though Connect was released a month after Holy Quintet was announced.

The company prioritises efficiency over effectiveness, and started releasing waves closer to one another after the initial success of the Kamihama branch. They later stopped this after the Holy Quintet merger.

Each branch is separated by city.

Following nijisanji type rules, on their anniversary the girls get second outfits, which are usually their witch forms. A few exlivers have come out to say that usually after receiving them, they don’t know when to use them due to them being so different compared to their first outfit. Due to this, competition for a third outfit is rough. Every graduation from this company has always come at least in pairs. A few exlivers have offhandedly mentioned working for a black company after leaving, but this has never been confirmed. There’s never been a termination. Once, they released a limited edition line of energy drinks themed after certain livers. The backlash was immense, but they went through with it anyway. These drinks are now heavily scalped online for thousands of dollars. The taste has been said to be indescribable.

Live interactions between full waves (with most members still active) are rare. However there’s an annual competition between all waves held at the end of the year. After the Holy Quintet merger, due to Nagisa’s wave only having her left, for the first Holy Quintet 3D live performance Nagisa was considered part of their wave. The reception was good, and collabs between the Holy Quintet members and Nagisa increased.

[datura-meloxia]

This is so wonderfully kind, thank you so much!! I’d love to talk a little more about my cosplay (this ended up being very long, sorry in advance haha!) ☺️

So in total honesty, I still very much consider myself a cosplay newbie - Wylan was my first cosplay that I put together back in October for comic con!! It was something I always knew I wanted to try out and have a little bit of fun with, and I think I’ve definitely found a new passion!

Given I’m so new to everything, I haven’t had much time to develop many new skills just yet - I’m also a uni student, and so my budgets are pretty small, and things like craft supplies or even a sewing machine can seem quite intimidating and a bit out of reach! That being said, one of the brilliant things I’ve learned about cosplay is how you can still create something really wonderful from things you find or already own, and I’m such an advocate for things like casual or closet cosplay!!

Most of the base pieces of the costume are things I found in charity shops or online marketplaces like Vinted - even the tie! Not everything is completely screen accurate of course. This was kind of a push back for me at first being such a perfectionist - I really wanted to get every little detail to match how it was in the show until I realised that it was really taking the fun out of things for me. So I honestly just went for vibes!! Still trying to get the general look and silhouette for Wylan, the colour palette etc. but being a little more relaxed about the details.

I think the waistcoat and jacket are both great examples of this - whilst they’re not totally show accurate, they still *feel* very Wylan and look like something he would wear, and once I saw it all put together, I realised how much I actually liked the look of it all and how recognisable i actually was as him!

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love the little details, and so for me this is what really pulled my Wylan cosplay together. Again, although these aren’t necessarily things he had on him in the show, the bunches of flowers and the chemical bottles I had attached to my belt all felt very Wylan-esque. He’s our demolitions man, so of course he’d have some explosives ready at hand! The little vials of powder are just old crushed up eye shadows I had laying around - I wanted red and white to represent the Red Phosphorus and Potassium Chlorate that Wylan buys in Shu Han, and the other two are just there for a bit of fun! The flute also felt like a must have - that was one or the few things I found online, it was very cheap but did the job perfectly!

The flowers are of course a reference to the Datura Meloxia flowers from season 2 of the show, and I knew I wanted to include Cyan Morpho butterflies somehow but worried they’d be too overwhelming. So, I managed to find these teeny little butterfly hair clips that I attached to my waistcoat, goggles and the flowers in my bag! I think they work just perfectly, they don’t overpower anything, but are still a cute little detail for anyone who gets the reference!

(Edit to original post because I just completely forgot!): Another very small detail to this cosplay that no one has actually seen yet is one of my favourites - in the little pocket of my waistcoat, I keep a small bronze key. This may seem quite random, but the key is meant to be the one that Jesper gives to Wylan in the deleted scene from Season 2. The key represents so much about their dynamic, and the ways in which they've both had to navigate their worlds up until that point, and it's a truly special moment for me that I wanted to make sure I could represent. So, that little key is always in my pocket, right by my heart, just as I think it would be for Wylan.

I think something I always worried about with cosplaying Wylan was that I wouldn’t do him justice. That I wouldn’t portray him the right way or people wouldn’t understand who it was meant to be. But once I let loose and just enjoyed myself with it, I knew I had nothing to worry about!

All of the feedback I’ve had on my Wylan has truly meant the world - never would I have expected people to like my rendition so much, let alone the cast voting on it as their second place winner in a competition?! Having everyone tell me afterwards just how happy Jack looked, how much he was cheering and up on his feet for me was the most heartwarming thing. Hearing from Freddy just how much Jack had paid attention to all of my little details and mannerisms and poses, and how enthusiastic and excited he’d been to see it was just the most surreal experience. Even Archie telling me he’d wanted me to win the whole thing felt like a fever dream!

It’s been such a wild journey, and I think Wylan will always be my favourite cosplay to do. I’m sure I’ll be wearing him again very very soon.

Much love from your favourite demolitions expert ;) 🧪💣

Into The Fold this last weekend was so unbelievably incredible - I had the most amazing time, met some truly wonderful people, and managed to come away from it all winning second prize for my Wylan cosplay??

Hearing everyone say how much they loved the cosplay was already magical enough, but to hear it directly from the cast - from Jack!!- took my gratitude to a whole new level. I had so many people tell me afterwards just how wild their reactions had been, and I’m just so happy that I could do Wylan justice!

[robotnuts]

Hi sorry if you’ve answered this before but do you know the “correct” way to watch all rvb content? I recently found out there’s like, bonus episodes outside of the main seasons and have no idea what order I’m supposed to be watching everything in. I’m doing a rewatch soon with my partner and just wanted to know if you knew, no worries if not!

yeah sure!

so what i'm guessing you're probably asking is about is the miniseries. the first two pretty much need to be watched for the plot in my opinion

seasons 1-4

out of mind miniseries

season 5

recovery one miniseries

season 6

relocated miniseries

seasons 7-9

MIA and WTAWTAW miniseries (two of them!)

season 10-onwards

there's also the chorus journals that take place before season 11 (these are technically a miniseries i think). bonus points if you include journal #4 which rt lamely left out of the compilation

if youre ever confused i recommend just looking up your current season on the rvb wiki, and the bottom of the infobox will let you know if theres a miniseries to be watched next

NEW EDIT: THERE ARE ALSO TRAILERS FOR THE SEASONS THAT INCLUDE ADDITIONAL CONTENT. These are like, dubiously canon, the RVB9 one in particular gets retconned pretty heavily, but should still be watched before their seasons. Here’s the ones that actually have original content and aren’t just montages of moments from the season. 

reconstruction trailer (rvb6) / recreation trailer (rvb7) / rvb9 trailer / rvb12 trailer / rvb13 trailer

(also because i am so autistic: there’s also the original trailer that, iirc, was made like 6 months before they actually started making the series. it doesn’t really have a ton to do with what rvb would become but it’s definitely a cool artifact.) 

(there’s also this rvb10 trailer which doesnt have anything new but is charming enough i want to save it on this post anyways, as well as this fanmade rvb13 trailer set to the chain by fleetwood mac that im obsessed with). END EDIT

the next layer of interpreting "all" rvb content includes the psas. psas are extra canonical content where the "actors" from the popular webseries red vs blue talk to the audience about a given subject. there's a few psa videos that were created alongside each season, but they can be watched whenever since they have no effect on the plot. i dont actually know of a good playlist for these this one seems to have the most videos. i think some psas might actually be lost media rn last i checked i should see if i can do anything about that

finally there's also deleted scenes and general rvb bonus content exists (like the end of season 5 which had several alternate joke endings) if you're interested in watching that. the person who uploaded journal #4 seems to have uploaded a lot of that and (sighs) hopefully i'll have some of that stuff up myself soon in a google drive or something

EDIT: forgot that i’d also consider this deleted rvb scene mandatory content. it was only cut because burnie made the decision that he didn’t want to mention tex too many times in season 6 in order to make it a better entry point for new fans. i think this was a horrible idea honestly and the added context about why church changed his mind at the end of the season is fantastic

[electrosawggyma]

I cried for several hours yesterday, I'll cry for twice as many today I forgot to record a video of the experience that was using Lovestruck, what it was like to go in and see the new updates, to use your tickets and hearts, to see what your favorite routes were and reread them. What was Lovestruck in general.

I will not delete the application from my tablet, it brings me pain that its services do not advance, but I cannot. I will never try to do it. I'll probably be sad for a few weeks, then nostalgic, but the real shit is not being able to see an app and fandom grow that had incredible potential. I imagine the good memes and writers that time would generate! The people who would cosplay the characters, beautiful fanfics. It would help a lot of people as it once did. To feel company, to feel fill that incomplete feeling that you couldn't find anywhere else, or with anyone else. It would help queer little ones to be more open about their sexual orientation, wow, I don't doubt it might encourage some of them to come out to their parents or siblings! It would have been amazing if eventually the app became world famous and we got what we were so close to getting! Maybe they'd probably made a route for those characters we asked for and they had them on the "list for". It actually helped me see my preferences! Now I know what I like goofys, lol New routes, new characters, new feelings. We couldn't get it, but I'm thankful for what it was. If I hadn't known about this app, I really don't know where my mental health and open mind would be right now. It's what made me want to come back from work and school so I could read the new updates or read the routes that I left pending. I won't be able to fill that void. So many dead stories, so many good characters in the past, so much to come that never came. All that no longer exists, and I already miss it with my being. Now, I'm so sorry to all those wonderful writers, artists and designers who are now suffering from an incredible heartbreak. The time of their lives spent writing, drawing, designing (I don't know if the soundracks are taken from somewhere or original to the game, but if so, the musicians are included here) for us, for Lovestruck. It must feel like hell watching all of that die and just being able to say goodbye. Some will feel guilty and shouldn't.

Now I go out on the streets and see people walking, being happy, probably without knowing the app and I wonder if that would be me if I hadn't accidentally fallen in this?What will happen to people who accidentally see these posts or fall on Lovestruck's social networks? Sorry, in advance.

I can see myself in my 30s, in my 40s, in all the years to come, decades of my life remembering this app every time someone mentions "Lovestruck" and not being able to talk about it so as not to dig them into something beautiful that no longer exists. Better to prefer get them out of that infernal doubt.

I always wanted to have someone to talk about Lovestruck, to get excited about the new updates together, to be reading the routes with a bowl of popcorn and boba tea and laugh at the nonsense, cry at the moments of anguish, get angry to see that the villain beats our LI or who kidnaps our MC, jump and squeal with joy for the happy ending where they love each other. I couldn't have it because I'm still afraid to come out of the closet, and I regret it. Maybe if I had told someone at my school I would have been able to vent to them in person. It hurts a lot not being able to express yourself openly about it with an audience that I wish it had. I don't want to have to live an anniversary of this, I don't want time to pass, I want this to come back and it won't be able to.

Remind you that if you have a lot of emotions from this, they are totally valid and you are totally welcome to seek help from this. Don't be ashamed about it.

I will look forward to my vacation for a while. I want to lie in bed and feel dead for a few days.

Goodbye Lovestruck.

[simminggiraffe]

Mix-n-match medieval men

Time for a default dump! And an ungodly amount of rambling! You’re welcome!

Elders use the adult shape for everything. This is a general rule for anything related to elder men by me.

cutopshortsleevecollar (set to M only), tmtopshortsleevecollar,   amtopshortsleevecollar, amtopshirtpolo and emtopshortsleevecollar replaced with Andravi’s Ren, Tate & Blake as tops by Winter on Silivain’s top-only alpha tunic. Most ages get 15 recolours, am gets 17. The extra 2 are the only 2 tops in the ‘Blake’ style. I combined some duplicate textures to reduce the file size, beyond the usual texture referencing I always do. (Actually now that I think of it, I haven’t released any of those... I have a backlog because I’m lazy with previews, but I want you to at least see what you’re getting.)

There were quite a few unused recolours so get more of em here if you wanna :)))))

More previews of the defaults under the cut + the download.

tmtopnaked,  amtoptanktop and  emtopdressshirt replaced with some of AlmightyHat’s Aelia Autumn recolours of FantasyRogue’s top-only tunic. There’s 9 recolours for am, 8 for em, and 6 for tm. I’ve also included a ‘completer’ for tm, meaning the 3 recolours I didn’t use in the defaults, plus the corresponding child recolours since they’re repository. I recommend checking Hat’s post out for even more colours if you like an abundance of choice!

tmbottomboardshorts,  tmbottomkneeshorts,  ambottomlongshorts and embottomlongshorts, also known as “all shorts” for tm-em replaced with @vampirekiss6661′s multi-boot bottoms, specifically the ArisSkirt recolours. All ages get 9 recolours.

FYI, @asimplevampire​ has already defaulted ambottomlongshorts over here. I do like them, but I like the idea of having all the shorts defaulted together better. Also I straight up forgot.

tmbottompantscuffsboots,  tmbottomtightpantspointytoe,  ambottompants,  ambottomwillpants and embottompantssocksshoes replaced with @vampirekiss6661′s multi-boot bottoms, this time the Rogue version. All 6 original recolours get used, and all ages get 6 recolours. Thanks to rudhira for the default package I used as a base.

tmbottomcargopants and ambottomcargopants replaced with (you guessed it!) the final version of @vampirekiss6661′s multi-boot bottoms - ArisJacket. 4 recolours for am (enabled for em) and 5 for tm - they get Gold as the extra.

DOWNLOAD LINK: SFS (19.2 MB)

Delete the “unmerged” folders if you want all the defaults. There can only be one! Which are unmerged are a bit random but make sense to my scatterbrain. I use the merged packages but figured that since they exist I might as well let you have the choice.

The files are compressorized, there are text files with info (chaotic info, but still), and even previews included (gasp!). I decided to keep the meshes in separate packages, but they’re included.

I used at least @ello-sims, @rudhira and @lottie-sims‘ default packages as a base for mine, but I didn’t think to note down exactly whose packages I uses for which until literally the last one I did. Sorry. I didn’t extract any resources for this project. Just a buttload of clicking and double checking my progress and making sure everything works. I also colour coordinated the shortsleevecollar defaults for some reason. I think I did it so I wouldn’t be lost, but who knows honestly. What am I, a mind reader?!

Yeah thanks to everyone whose work I relied on, one day I hope to be able make my own meshes and textures. That day is far away.

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

The Mask 1994

*I finally wrote the whole thing. I finally watched the movie that involved something I’ve been talking about A LOT. I think this took about an hour since I finished the movie. Forgot to mention Charlie.*

I wanna make this clear, even before I watched movie or ever writing this. I am legitimately a stupid and lazy person. Because my mom told me about this, and last week, my dad rented A Quiet Place Part 2. When I was trying to go to sleep but was looking up movies...I literally forgot my tv can do that too...and that I can rent or buy a movie...I rented the movie this morning, and deleted it afterwards...after all that talk...I could’ve done that...wow. I should do that more considering some movies I wanna see or like. Not too much though. My tv has DirecTV. Just a heads up.

But a few or couple of minutes ago, I finally watched The Mask film from 1994. This post is gonna be filled with spoilers and it’s gonna get long. Gonna be kind of a review. My overall thoughts on it. This was my first reaction to the whole movie.

I’d just wanna talk about this too. I like comic books, I like comic book movies. Mainly my favorites are ones like all of Zack Snyder’s DCEU movies, Spider-Man 1 & 2, The Suicide Squad 2021, Wonder Woman 2017, The Dark Knight(Despite whatever issues I have with it), and Joker 2019. Yeah, those are mainly DC films and two Marvel related ones. I don’t even mind Spider-Man 3 as well. I also forgot Dredd 2012 is another one of my favorites. Along with Batman 1989.

I was hoping The Mask could make that list of favorites. Because I read the comics first. I don’t think I ever watch the movie fully as a kid MAYBE. I’m a fan of the comics, I know this movie was gonna be a lighter take on the series. 

In a nutshell...I liked it. It’s possible it will be on that list of favorite CBM’s...but I want to talk about it. I’ll also admit I think what got me interested in seeing this film and this series was me liking Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura...now, let’s get to the point.

Yeah, I liked it. I thought the movie was genuinely entertaining. Despite seeing some clips before. But also Ryan Hollinger’s video about it. Revealing the ending, the twist, and other stuff. But I didn’t wanna watch more more that I haven’t seen yet.

I will be honest, it still made me laugh. Even some scenes I already have seen. I will admit, the Cuban Pete scene is actually one of my favorites. XD But what also surprised me is that at times, despite being a funny film. It can genuinely be touching in a way. And I am mainly talking about the developing relationship between Stanley and Tina.

I just wanna talk about the characters right now. I’ll just admit unless I haven’t already. I’m a Jim Carrey fan. Mainly because of his more goofier roles. Particularly his roles from the Ace Ventura movies, Liar Liar, and especially Sonic The Hedgehog. I also will admit this, Jim Carry nails playing Big Head or who they call...The Mask in this movie...I’ll nitpick about that later.

But yeah, Jim’s entertaining as Big Head in this film. He does make me laugh. But I think another role he does well despite there are some sillier moments, which is fine. I feel like in a way, Stanley Ipkiss in this version, is maybe one of his more normal roles. But I know I’m wrong considering whatever other roles he’s in. He portrays a likable good guy who’s sadly mainly pushed around. Which is quite the difference from the comics, except being pushed around. But that’s another topic. Yet for this story, even if maybe Stanley’s name could be changed. But him being a genuinely kind guy works for this story.

Even before I saw the movie, learning more about this version about the character. I can relate to Stanley in some ways honestly. Which is something that I like. He basically shines as a protagonist. 

He portrays both sides well. Despite at times...honestly, this Stanley is wacky. I shouldn’t be judging. Jim does a good stuff with what he played, and he’s the highlight of this movie. He also delivers possibly my favorite Jim Carrey line of all time now. Sorry if I get this wrong. I was looking for a clip of it to help me.

“Daddy’s gonna go kick some ass”. A literal line from Jim Carrey in this movie and I love it. He even brings a pistol with him.

I also wanna admit Peter Greene as Dorian is pretty good as a villain. The dude can be threatening and he works with what he is given. And he’s effective as an antagonist. I just wanna admit that I swear, one of these guys. One of them could’ve Walter in a way and I just think that could’ve been possible. But I’m not sure. Just one of Dorian’s henchmen looked like a huge guy. It just got me thinking about Walter from the comics.

Will admit, I think Kellaway is fine. And I just found out Christopher Reeve was one of the actors considered for the role...damn. But again, Kellaway was fine. He’s more like a supporting character and again, this is like an origin story. I do feel bothered Lionel Ray wasn’t added but replaced with this Doyle character. I will admit that Doyle is silly, which is the point of his character. I guess the writers and director didn’t want two sensible cops or something. I like Kellaway alright, but I’ll always dig Lionel too.

I really wanted to get this point. I thought Cameron Diaz was good as Tina Carlyle and Amy Yasbeck as Peggy Brandt. I will admit, I do strangely like the subversion with Peggy in a way with it’s twist. I get the idea if that it was going for that theme of, “We all wear mask” and Peggy turning Stanley into the mob said a lot about her character. While Tina was genuinely the one that truly supported Stanley.

I think was surprised me more was the fact despite Peggy turned in Stanley for selfish purposes such as paying for her condo. Yet what surprised me more was she was actually concerned for Stanley being killed, and didn’t want him hurt...which explains even more why she stuck around in the cartoon. And honestly, it makes me glad the director took out that deleted scene of her getting killed. So she wasn’t that heartless.

Also...it made me think that...my ideas and changes towards her character...maybe hold some weight.

I’ll just put this out there too. Milo is great, one of my favorite fictional dogs maybe. Good dog.

Trying to think what else, the score was fine. But the licensed music was good or something. Overall, I think my negatives could be just...nitpicks. Such as the Big Head part I wanted to talk about. Listen, I understand this is a different version. I just feel it’s weird to call him, “The Mask” instead of Big Head. I know other characters mask in their name or something. But...some reasons, the name Big Head is there. I guess it’s because of the title or something.

Honestly, I think my negatives are more that it feels short. And maybe Stanley becoming Big Head a bit too early. I sound kind of stupid, I know. But this was the 90′s and whatever else. This was a different take on the comics. But I did genuinely like it. Maybe I’m just a bit attached to those comics. Despite knowing the changes they did.

But I will admit, considering the development for this film. And learning that it was meant to be a horror film. But the director Charles Russell found the violence in the source material to be off putting. So he made it less grim, and more fun. I’ve also read somewhere that trying to make comedy with that violence was difficult.

Back to the point, to be honest. I feel like for that time and age. A more light Mask film was maybe the best choice to go. And we wouldn’t have Jim Carrey in it. I do also wanna say, I feel like The Mask series, you can do a lot of it. You can have something dark with it, or maybe more lighter.

There are still some of those darker elements. Mainly considering the moments with the gangsters and all that. But I will admit, learning that Charles mostly directed horror films. I think it’s impressive he made a more family friendly film and it worked. 

I liked it, despite my love for the comics. I thought when writing this, maybe some folks reading this may think I sound like fans who read the comics who first experienced this movie. But the film isn’t bad, it’s just a different take and a pretty nice one at that.

And to be honest, as much as I would of loved to see an actual sequel. And not that bad film known as Son Of The Mask. I understand why Jim Carrey dropped out, and I would’ve loved to see Peggy back because the director planned to bring her back reformed. But I feel like this film works as a one off in a way. And there’s also the cartoon, which works fine as a sequel despite some differences. Yet...I’ll admit, I would’ve loved The Mask 2 if we got Jim Carrey as Stanley again fighting against maybe someone like Walter.

The Mask 1994 is a good film. Despite changes from the source material, but the changes for this vision work. It’s cool this film has a cult following, and the fact I have used elements and story beats from it for The Mask Rebirth stuff I’ve been talking about. Even before watched this whole movie.

It’s a genuine fun flick. But I’m hoping down the line, if Warner Bros stops being fucking stupid with how they run things. Maybe we’ll get a reboot or how about an animated film that seems more true to the source material. 

I know The Mask/Big Head doesn’t have a big legacy such as the likes of Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man. But I do think this series could be reimagined and expanded upon. Using elements not only from the original comics, but even the movie and cartoon. 

And...despite it was because of Ace Ventura...I would like to thank @kaijuguy19 for being such a supportive dude, and talking about this franchise with me. Including wanting to talk about this movie long ago when I haven’t seen it. But I want to say...no...he’s one of the big reasons why I’m a fan. Because he’s one of the only guys I know who’s a fan. It started with Ace Ventura, but it was because of talking with Kaijuguy that I guess things started to escalate. So thanks man for talking about this stuff with me.

Also, Charlie was silly and he was fine as a character. I forgot about that dude despite wanting to talk about him. Gonna tag him too in case. Charlie schumaker

[captain-aralias]

Fic’s finished - here’s some trivia!

Includes: 

References to 90s RomComs

Writerly ephemera

Baz’s wardrobe / Simon’s wardrobe

A deleted scene

90s RomComs

In the prompt, Liz mentioned Four Weddings and a Funeral and My Best Friend’s Wedding. (And The Proposal, which honestly I’ve never seen, even though now I’m thinking I should.) I didn’t really go with the vibes because I wanted to do a break up, but I put at least one reference to these films in every chapter. For fun. 

He was the love of my life. My North, my South, my East and West. (Chapter 1) 

It also, horrifyingly, sounds a lot like that awful song Daphne made us listen to earlier. I can’t laugh, and I can’t sing. (Chapter 2)

The whole ‘forgot the rings’ thing is reference enough

I like him dressed for weddings. (Chapter 3)

He crosses his arms. Pretends to be unmoved, even when half the bar joins in (I tipped Shepard off) (he thought the plan was brilliant) even the lobsters. They’re waving their claws in the air. (Chapter 4 - the only reference to My Best Friend’s Wedding)

“The boy’s a liar,” someone barks from behind me. “Tyrannus Pitch has been dead sixty years and good riddance.” (Chapter 5) 

“Simon,” I say. “I do.” (Chapter 5) 

Writerly Ephemera  

Amy had this lovely idea a few months ago: Find bits of yourself that you gave to your fiction (memories and places and phrases and things into our stories).

Usually, there’s hardly any of my life in my fic, but I stole a few bits and pieces for this fic: 

My father got re-married when I was at university. I like his wife, but I barely knew her then - I just knew, she’s the woman my dad left my mum for! He asked me to choose a reading and I had literally no idea what to pick. Retrospectively, I should have said no, you choose, but anyway. I chose a bit of Jeeves & Wooster where Bertie talks about wanting to get married for some reason - both my aunts loved it, the married couple were completely bemused. No idea what I was on about. 

Also, their recessional music was Whitney Houston. The theme from The Bodyguard. I’d originally written this as the Spice Girls, since Daphne would have grown up in the 90s, but then I thought of the end of Chapter 2 joke, and I was like - going to troll my father from this gay fanfiction, I guess. 

It was really hot when I was writing Chapter 3. That’s why it’s very hot in this chapter.  

Simon and Baz choose not to get married at the end of this fic - not yet anyway. In part, because I didn’t want to re-do Golden Years, in part because that’s the end of Four Weddings, and in part because I feel a bit like I’ve written Baz in this fic. I thought I liked weddings, until I thought about it properly ... (N.B. I think actual Baz totally wants to marry Simon, btw, and Simon longs for an official family. But I had to get to my ending, so here we are.) 

Baz’s wardrobe

You can still buy a very similar McQueen blazer if you like. Which I like even more. It’s completely not my vibe - unlike the Harry Styles Gucci below, which definitely is – and it’s a thousand pounds, but several times during this fic, I thought... I mean, maybe?

There’s no reference for the burgundy suit - I just wanted it. 

Simon’s wardrobe

He’s wearing the Leaver’s Ball outfit at Jamie & Beth’s wedding, followed by a suit that has no reference, but is based - in my mind - on one from RooBadley’s Use Your Words 

I consulted Roo about Simon’s wardrobe for this fic - for one summer wedding, one winter wedding. They gave me these: 

I really liked this second suit for Simon - so much that when I remembered Simon was the best man in Chapter 5 and should probably be wearing some sort of matching outfit with Shepard, I was like... to hell with it. He’s wearing this!!!

I switched the green for undyed linen. Roo and I also had this conversation, which I wanted to use in the fic but never managed to fit in.

aralias i'm just reading in the gentleman's gazette that it's actually OK for linen to be creased

RooBadley

I would very much love for this to be a fact that Lady Ruth reassures Simon with and Simon then repeats to Baz his one bit of fashion knowledge

aralias "the really pronounced characteristic wrinkles of linen are a sign of a sophisticated casual style, actually, Baz"

RooBadley Baz: Shall I spell those wrinkles out for you, Snow? Simon: Actually, creasing is fine and acceptable when wearing linen, Baz. Though'd you'd have known that. ~smirk~

aralias i like the way this dude has rolled up the trousers too - it's not a safari, it's hipster

Deleted scene:

After the success (I think) of the end of chapter 1, I started to think ‘maybe every chapter will end with some texting!!!’ 

I started writing this conversation for the end of chapter 2 before I’d finished it - almost unheard of - but then I decided I hated it. Very info-dumpy. I kept the homo-positive joke, as you can see, even though I’m not sure it deserves to be kept. 😂

“HOLY MORGANA. penny just told me.”

“I know. She called me as well. It’s some sort of visa thing, I think. And she thinks it will be helpful in negotiating back all the children he’s bartered away, if she can tell people she’s his wife and has a claim on them.”

“it was more romantic when penny told me about it. shepard asked me to be his best man.”

“Oh dear. Are he and Bunce going to fight over you?”

“obviously not. penny’s a woman.”

“So? I’m going to be Fiona’s Best Man. Or Man of Honour – whatever the term is.”

“yeah, but that’s different.”

“How? Choose your words carefully, Snow.”

“I mean, because fiona doesn’t have any other friends & her sister is dead (sorry). who the fuck would she pick if not you? penny asked her sister.”

“Oh. I thought you meant because I was gay. And like to wear flowers.”

“wtf. no. i’m not homophobic. i’m LITERALLY homo … positive. (is that a thing?)”

“I think you can just say gay.”

“i’m not gay, tho”

“Right. Well, this is awkward.”

“why?”

“baz? you know i don’t know what i am. and you know it doesn’t matter, because the only person I want to be with is YOU. even tho you’re a touchy bastard.”

“man of honour suits you. you should go with that.”

“Best man doesn’t suit *you* at all.”

“fuck off.”

“are you going to come to penny’s wedding?”

“Yes. Even now I know you’re helping organise it. Do you want to come to Fiona’s?”

“fuck no. she tried to kill me. unless you want me to. i’ll go if you want me to. i’ll even buy her a gift”

“I would like you to be there.”

“all right. send me the invite.”

that’s all, folks!

Four Funereal Weddings and an American Stag Do

[supernatural-bias]

okay good bc my tumblr kept on reloading and glitching so it would delete my post and rewrite it and i think I forgot to flip the little anon switch but I think it glitched so much it didn't send it in so that's really good then. but anyways I'm here for like the millionth time in the past few hours (sorry lol). I saw the emoji-ask-you-questions thingy (idk what to call it) and was wondering about 🍩, 🦄, ❄️, and 🎶 if that's alright! I also wrote and posted my first fanfiction like 30 mins ago so that's cool I guess! Super glad it didn't send originally and I could just copy and paste it into here. Also, be sure to drink plenty of water and eat enough food because we care about you, including me /p :)

-plant anon

I shall never eat. Don't worry I'm gonna live forever/lh

🦄- how do you perceive yourself?

Mostly negatively but I will admit that I have a bit of talent when it comes to writing and making jokes!

🎶- favorite song right now?

Probably "Lets Kill Tonight" "A Good Song Never Dies" or "The Haunting"

🍩- current mood?

I'm sore and hurt all over and so fucking tired. A bit worried about my partners too but they swear they're okay heh

❄️- what is your favorite season?

Winter all the fucking way babey

[purplealmonds]

Hey, remember when I said this Rusty Quill Streams sketch would be shelved for a while longer? Just kidding – this was too fun and self-indulgent not to work on! Not mention, RQS just got partnered on Twitch so it was good timing that I finished this in the nick of time! 

I sifted through the social feeds to cram the games they’ve played thus far and as many references as possible into this piece. Random trivia/commentary, and full list of cameos below the cut! 

Trivia:

This was originally gonna be a simple piece with the prompt “something using Mike and Anil’s favorite colors”. Mike likes electric blue, and Anil likes purple, burgundy, and yellow (there are a probably a few more, but I threw away the post-it not I jotted it down on). 

That said, I don’t think Mike owns an electric blue shirt, or the jacket. I just thought it looked neat! His jorts are something of an inside joke though, according to some regulars in the stream.

Anil’s blue shirt is definitely taken from reference, though I forgot to paint in the headphones...whoops! 

Things just...spiraled out of control when I got it in my head to add game cameos. Much of the playthroughs were not uploaded to Youtube yet, or deleted after 14 days on Twitch VODS, but I tried my best to include whatever inside jokes there were in the streams I did make it to! 

Since I already invested a lot of time in this thing, I decided to go the whole 9 yards and make this look like a design for a neat vintage poster!

I was unfortunately unable to include the Euroquill and Donut County though, since the composition was getting real crowded by the time those playthroughs came around. Sorry!! :(

The abstract halo/sunburst pattern used in the background was borrowed from a Rusty Quill banner I saw in Anil’s earlier streams. 

Mike’s hair was altered to blue at the last minute since he dyed it this past weekend.

The ship for Tharsis and house for Gone Home were modeled in Sketchup from scratch! The gears/cogs were initially cylinder placeholders, but I swapped them out with actual models I found in the 3D warehouse so I didn’t have to map out all the teeth in perspective.

Cameos (listed from top center, moving clockwise):

Gone Home

Tharsis 

Hatoful Boyfriend 

No Man’s Sky 

Geography trivia quiz

Anil’s cards 

Lego Batman 2 

West of Loathing 

Valorant 

Cult Simulator 

Dishonored 2 

Witcher Wild Hunt 

Flower 

Rusty Quill/The Magnus Archives

Casper (Alex Newall’s Cat)

Hamid (Rusty Quill Gaming)

SOMA

F.E.A.R.

War Thunder

Sid Meier’s Colonization

My Time at Portia

Mike’s snacks & mug

Mike’s salt lamp

Derek the comfort camel

Good Cows (TM)

FTL

Cities Skylines

[mellindi]

Hi India! sorry to be asking you a stupid question, I dont know who else to ask. I downloaded your summer and did everything right including the MultiLut stuff but it looked really weird for me, it gives my game a weird colored tint. Its the first time that happened to me! I asked the creator of multilut but they haven't replied which is understandable! So I thought I'd ask you instead 😅

Hey!! It’s not a stupid question at all 😊 So a few questions:

1. Do you have more than one MultiLut shader installed? I had something similar to this happen to me a while back and it was because I forgot to delete the duplicate shader.

2. When you downloaded MultiLut from pictureamoebae’s site, did you delete the original shader and replace it with theirs? Things get weird if you don’t (made this mistake before lol) Also be sure you have the right texture file too (also included in the download).

3. Which version of Reshade are you using? I believe I’m using version 4.8.2 and even tho I think the preset should be compatible with other versions, I have noticed myself that sometimes presets (not just mine but others) don’t translate over well.

If none of these seem to be the problem, please send me a DM so we can figure this out!

[rrrawrf-writes]

lordy lordy loo it’s been a hot minute since i’ve made an original post, i forgot where the button was

so. some of you may have seen the stuff running around about violetvineyard and mvcreates, some of you may not have. i’m just gonna lay out my experiences here, now that other people are talking about it and now that the server has been deleted. i’m gonna try to present a fair and nuanced version; i’m not gonna include screenshots (right now) bc i’m lazy, mostly.

there are several other people who are putting up way better breakdowns than i am. i just figured i might as well toss mine onto the pile bc why not? but if you’re hoping to hear from me a story about how i’ve been wronged, per se, you won’t find much of one, because i played mainly a spectator role, and never had much trouble there. i will have a vague, lukewarm defense of some of the people involved that other people may not agree with, but again, this is all just the whole VV deal from my point of view.

@nuwuhorizons (i haven’t said how dang much i lOVE your url) and @sapiencenotes have very good receipts and breakdowns. if you want a more in-depth (and dramatic, forgive me for using the word, i’m not trying to downplay this), check them out. @time-to-write-and-suffer also has some great stuff on their blog about all of this.

all righty. so. i joined VV not right at the beginning, but soon after it was started. there was an application process, i got accepted, i was looking for a community to help me start writing more. (it didn’t help, but that’s not their fault, that’s mine.) the person who owned the server was called mina, and on tumblr, mina’s url was mvcreates. mina is a nonbinary Muslim woman of color, a professional who i believe works at harvad and deals a lot with things like infectious diseases, iirc. she was doing a whole lot of work when the pandemic came around, and so the past few months wasn’t quite as active as she had been at the start, both on the server and tumblr. 

the very first time mina came on my radar, before i joined vv, was because she had corrected someone’s typo on a post, and it stirred up a minor drama about “don’t give unsolicited criticism” and “is pointing out minor errors like that okay” and blahblahblah. i ran across that on a friend’s dash, and also ran across the promo for vv from that friend’s dash, as well, and joined bc y not.

everything was p cool for a while. it was nice to meet some new people and some of my mutuals on there. mina seemed like a fun person. she was about a year, year and a half, maybe, older than i am. the first things that kind of started rubbing me wrong at the start was how she would kind of dismiss suggestions for the server than i and a friend had, and how she kept bringing up her age - she would often say things like “well i wouldn’t do that but i’m an Old(TM) so maybe i just don’t get it” and i can’t really explain why that bothered me. i think it felt dismissive, like Younger Folks Don’t Know How Things Should Work. also, like. she kept bringing it up. as if it meant something, as if plenty of us on that server weren’t actually around her age. there was a convo on vaccinations where i wanted to make the point that a lot of anti-vaxxers should be educated instead of ridiculed and shamed, but i never really got to making that point bc she jumped in very sharply and explained that anti-vaxxers all come from a class of people who are generally educated. i didn’t bother saying anything else. 

at the start, it was tiny little things like that. i chalked it up to her personality and mine just not quite matching up. i sat down a lot and examined my own internal biases, bc i knew something was bugging me, but i couldn’t tell if it was legitimate, or if i was jealous and petty, or if i was being discriminatory towards her identity. i still wonder that a lot; i want to be careful that i’m examining her actions here, and not the person who made those actions.

because the other thing that bothered me was that she was perfect at pretty much everything. she was a decent, if not good, writer, from what i read. i thought her “art”/edits were neat, even if sometimes i looked at them going “that just looks like an edit, not your own art, but u kno, edits are art too, so i’m not gonna say anything.” she had a lot of motivation, a lot of ambition. soon, this kind of transferred over into me feeling like she acted like she had to be perfect at everything. i think this is probably one of the more “lisa is just being petty” things, rather than a judgement on her character, but she seemed to flaunt her own skills and accomplishments a lot. not that no one is allowed to brag sometimes! but it was just another layer of “this bothers me.”

then there was the hero worship.

people in the server loved mina. i liked her. i had no problems with her, even if there were a few things i was a little “ehhhh” about. vv got pretty big, pretty quickly, and i assume there was a decent amount of turnover and people who just joined to lurk or sometimes share things in the promos channel or elsewhere. but the most active folks just. they adored mina with every fiber of their being. mina could do no wrong. no one ever called her out on anything; everything she did was hailed as fantastic and wonderful. and honestly, for the most part, it wasn’t like she was doing crappy stuff. some of the praise was well-deserved, imo, but it just bordered on embarrassing for some of these people, how much they just worshipped the ground she walked on.

and she didn’t really like, discourage it. like, at the start, i think i remember her being more modest, but in general, she just let it go, and so did i, bc like. i aint that kinda jerk.

the stated purpose of violetvineyard was to have a community that valued reciprocity. reciprocity was mina’s biggest thing. there was a channel for people to post their stuff on, so the rest of us could browse and read and reblog. i, admittedly, didn’t do as much of that as i wish i did, but part of it was because i do have a life outside of the internet, a memory and attention span the size of a gnat, and because like. 90% of the stuff that people put in the promos channel were things like edits, writeblr intros, wip intros, etc etc, when all i wanted was to just read some actual writing. but that’s neither here nor there. what got hilarious to me, though, was whenever mina’s fervent admirers would talk about how mina was, quote, a pillar of the community. how vv was doing something No Other Writeblr Group Had Done Before. how Important and Special this server was.

folks. i’ve been on here for several years now. we don’t have a community. we have a bunch of little cliques who reblog from their friends and complain about people not reblogging them. noah fence, but come on. vv got pretty dang big, but it was still a small corner of a small section of tumblr. like. sorry, all y’all, but them’s the breaks.

also, this was hilarious to me bc there are several big writeblrs who have been running around long before mina and vv showed up. yet, according to these people in the server, mina had Single-handedly Brought Hope To This Desolate Wasteland.

in the end, vv became just another little clique whose members reblogged from their friends. i don’t want to devalue the good that did come out of vv. a lot of the picture being painted rn was that the majority of the server were scary dog-piling people. the majority of the server were just writeblrs looking to promo their stuff and talk about their writing. unfortunately, few bad apples, bad rep, negatives outshine positives, etc etc. but i think it did do some good re: exposure for a few folks, even tho it didn’t turn into what it could have been. 

another one of the things that was a minor irritant to me was that they eventually started archiving the vent channel, which was probably the most-used channel. that didn’t sit right to me, but as always, i was a coward had nothing to say about it, so i didn’t. the reason given was that there were often things in the vent channel that people might regret being there, so it was periodically archived and a fresh channel started.

so i’m rambling a lot about stuff that’s probably boring and inconsequential. that’s 90% of this whole vv thing, tho, you need to understand that. 

the biggest thing that bothered me about mina, i think, came about from the constant hero worship from her adoring fans. and i know there’s a whole argument to be said about expecting labor from people with marginalized identities, which is an argument i agree with - don’t expect someone of a minority group to educate you or to face trauma or to shut down bigots, etc etc. but by now, mina had a lot of followers in general, and in specific, she had quite a few people who would defend her at every single perceived slight.

she made a lot of those fun writeblr reblog games, like “send me a fruit that says this about my writing.” those were cool, i’ll admit that. but she was super into “you have to send an ask to the person you reblog from, RECIPROCITY!!!!!!!!!!!” and seemed to struggle with the fact that sometimes, people don’t follow her established rules on her posts for these games. she’d complain about it every single time that happened in the vent channel, which, again, that’s fine? that’s what vents are for, it’s annoying to not get cool fun asks when you do these games, but also, that’s life for you. she could depend on her fans to send her plenty of asks, whereas the much smaller blogs who reblogged these games would probably get f-all, half the time. if you’ve gone through nuwuhorizons or one of the other blogs i mentioned earlier, you’ll have run across the incident where mina’s friends harrassed an 11 year old for not doing her ask game right.

an eleven year old. 

and this is my biggest grief with mina. she only stopped her friends from dogpiling people... once? maybe twice? that i remember. and not only that, but there were SEVERAL occasions where she would get on the vent channel, complain about someone who had said something wrong on one of her posts (and sometimes, again, these were legitimate!), and then ask if someone in the server wanted to reply to them. reasons for such ranged from “i’m too busy rn” to “they would probably listen more to a white person than me.”

again. this, on occasion, is not necessarily a bad thing. we cannot expect labor and response from minorities. my issue was that she kept doing this. and sometimes it was fine, just someone who would drop a note on the post or send a polite anon. but this, to me, the whole asking someone else to fight your battles for you? that really bothered me. mina is a grown adult. either ignore it, like the rest of us chumps, or deal with it yourself. having friends support you is not a bad thing - if i was attacked on tumblr and my friends jumped in to defend me, i’m cool with that. but i wouldn’t ask them to, and then not do anything myself.

to me, this attitude just encourages dogpiling. this felt like she was taking advantage of the people admiring her so whole-heartedly, and using them to deal with minor grievances. (again, i don’t want to downplay some of the actual racism and xenophobia she experienced on this website, because there was some pretty sketchy stuff that did need someone else stepping in to object to. but then there was “ugh this person asked me what program i use to make my music and i don’t want to answer them bc that’s rude,” and stuff of that caliber. like, mina, you built yourself a pretty big following here on tumblr, you don’t get to complain when people are trying to ask you questions and engage with you when you set yourself up as a knowledgeable person on a subject.)

i’m going to mention @gingerly-writing because she already made a post on the subject, but there was an instance where we were in the vent channel and watched a lot of mina’s friends send anons and reblogs of a hurtful nature to one person. eventually, ginger stepped in to say “hey, i don’t think we need to keep doing this, they are a minor,” and after she did so, i also jumped in, saying something along the lines of, “yeah, i’ve seen this kind of stuff blow up in another server and end in a really regrettable situation where no one was happy, can we stop.” both ginger and i received a private message from the mods (individually) saying that we shouldn’t police the chat, etc etc. not during that message, but on the vent channel, another mod jumped in to say that the people dogpiling the blogger were also minors. as if that makes it okay, and isn’t actually extremely worrying in its own right.

after that, i pretty much took a stance of “all right then i just won’t say anything at all.” i stuck around vv because i hated myself actually really liked a few of the others in the server, including a couple of the mods who are actually really cool people, not all the vv mods are sketch, and because honestly? i lowkey knew that vv was going to crash and burn sometime, and i wanted to be there to watch what happened. due to the pandemic, and her line of work, mina became less active, and the whole server died down a bit. 

then someone reblogged one of mina’s ‘art’ posts and accused her of tracing. mina’s admirers immediately jumped into action. nuwuhorizons has it pretty well documented on their blog. there was nothing in the server about it, except one of the others said “oh man i saw that and it pissed me off,” there was some minor chat, and then i woke up and wanted to know what had happened, and was told “don’t worry about it.”

so, naturally, bc the only thing i thirst for is water and Drama(TM), i went looking for it.

found it on some of mina’s friend’s blogs, where i found who had reblogged and said mina was tracing, and followed those reblog chains, where several of mina’s followers attacked the accuser and made fun of their name and age and defended mina, pulling out progress videos and stuff of mina’s work. the accuser was trans and still a teenager, even if technically an adult, so that made things a lot worse. mina eventually posted something explaining that she was pencil tracing and had a very cheery, false-positive tone to the whole thing.

things sorta ended at that, but then maybe the same day, or the day after, user hyba made that big ol post about the Big Scary Tumblr Mirror Website Copying All Your Good, Hard Work. mina and her friends jumped on this. they threw it in the server and talked about things like intellectual property rights and “i don’t like how this makes me feel :(” and from there, went in to how tumblr was a terrible garbage site and then mina and most of the mod team decided that it was time to pack up VV and leave tumblr completely. 

pretty much everyone i know were mina’s besties have vanished off tumblr. mina made an announcement that VV was “migrating” off tumblr and discord(???) and dropped another application to join the great vv migration. i did not apply bc i just have too freaking much going on in my life and needed to get out of this for the sake of my own mental health. it was tempting as hell, tho, i will say that. 

a couple things about this - at the time, mina is also having some pretty bad things going on in her family. she was very vague on the details, but i think that really contributed to wanting to leave; on top of the pandemic and everything else, she was probably heckin stressed. but also like. she never called out her followers for attacking her accuser. she never made any sort of post talking about it. she never told her friends on the server “hey don’t do that.” she never took accountability for it, or, honestly, for anything else she or her friends have done that didn’t feel too good. the mirror sites aren’t really a big deal. 

after the server was archived, it was left up a couple days so everyone could grab contact info, etc. during this time, i was checking the ‘violetvineyard’ tag and saw someone post “what happened to mvcreates they haven’t answered my application to vv,’ and i responded with “oh, the server closed down bc of the copy cat sites.”

the same day, i got a tumblr DM from one of the former mods asking me not to give away any details about vv leaving tumblr. it was very politely worded and everything, but it was still just like

okay? vv is over? why are you asking me not to say anything. and it wasn’t like i was even spilling any hot goss, i was just repeating the excuse (and i do mean excuse) mina gave us. 

anyway, that mod is off tumblr, too, as far as i know, or else they stealthin. which is fine, u do u, buddy.

uhh conclusion time, i guess? i have a few scattered screenshots of things, but i’m not posting em bc i’m lazy and also running late for a thing. but really, for me, i didn’t have a whole lot of beef with mina or pretty much any of the other folks on vv. i thought that mina and her friends were a bit too eager for blood, and that really bothered me. i’m annoyed they shut down vv completely, because it could actually have been something great. if mina wanted off writeblr, i wish she had given the whole network over to people interested in running it; instead, what was a good thing for a lot of people is now completely gone, with no existing framework for people to build on. sure, anyone can go make their own network/family for writeblr, but now it’s just going to splinter into a bunch of different, smaller groups, and we’re all back to square one.

but whatever. i didn’t get to see the server go down in flames, instead it just ended with a hasty retreat and a few whimpers, and quite honestly i wished my staying in had paid off.

i do want to reiterate - there were quite a few people in vv who i think are great, and this does include some of the mods themselves.

i’ve also gotten a couple messages from a few other folks who had been in vv who have their own real, real sketch stories, which are making me rethink how i feel about mina and her friends, and all the good credit i gave them. i just wanted to present this bc it’s my blog and i do what i want, fight me.

and if anyone wants to chat about vv, hit me up. i keep things as private as you want them to be, and i love love love talking about this nonsense. Give Me The Deets.

[yume-fanfare]

hi i am that anon from like 29th Dec (last dang year) who said i read ur tsuki no hime and loved it and that u understand Aizou. i have read more of ur stuff since then and now i NEED to ask you for writing advice, on both characterization and general writing tips since I didnt mention it before. Sorry about that! i just forgot i sent an ask and i do not get notifs at all (or does anon asks not get notifs?) Also, ART STUDENT! That's why the nice art and art leaning!! I feel smart for sensing it

oh yup, tumblr doesn't send notifs for anon asks! but i'm glad you did see the answer anyway

this post is hideously long, so answer under the cut!

so, on characterization: it is mostly a matter of what would they say, rather than what you want them to say. the joke about "the characters do what they want to" instead of what the writer wants is pretty much true if you want them to be in character lol (that's why sometimes a little bit of OoC isn't too bad)

checking the source material is the most important thing: look at prior similar interactions the characters have had and how they reacted

this is kind of hard with LIPxLIP, as there aren't that many translated texts about them but with honeyworks the most canon and reliable thing to use as reference are the mvs. the mvs are drawn in a way that can pretty much be understood even if you don't have the lyrics, and sometimes it's even better if you can't read them, to properly focus on the images better

look at their expressions closely: while aizou is always explosive in his anger, yuujirou often has a more indifferent expression. so, when they fight, aizou is probably the one to blow up first while yuujirou maintains his composure better. it's kind of the classic "this was only a brief passing panel but i am going to expand on it" www

but the thing about fanfiction is that it's always a bit of a character analysis in itself. you don't start writing having already a color-coded folder of possible situations and reactions a character would have for each setting. you just throw the characters in a scenario and then think from there onwards, and eventually you'll be able to have the folder of situations and what you think their reactions would be like. (though, this links back to the prior point, if the characters have gone through a similar situation in canon, use that as guide! plus, finding little references to canon when reading is always fun)

for general writing, i'm going to mostly talk about my own experiences and process! i'm in no way a professional though

the basic is reading a lot. not just books but also fanfic. in fact, since you're writing fanfic, i Encourage you to read fanfic. even if your story ends up novel length, the way of treating the story is different from that of an actual novel. for example, because you're working under the premise that everyone knows the characters already. the general style of fics is different as well.

in fact, the style is the main reason i'm saying this slfkslfkslkf

read a lot of stuff and find a style you like. think of it as sewing together pieces from here and there to make a frankenstein amalgamation: this person's metaphors, the comparisons from here, the descriptions from there

personally, i adore the "long one-shot with a long title formatted (like this)" fics that are mostly feelings and descriptions and as little dialogue as possible, and some that occasionally play with the "show don't tell" rule, and some months ago i read a book whose descriptions amazed me because you could feel what the character was focusing on the most, rather than being general descriptions of the situation (i actually have a lot of thoughts about descriptions but that's a post for another day). but also i really like dialogue and plot-driven stories, descriptions can get boring and before trying to break rules, you have to be really good at following them

but, let's go step by step: developing an idea

for this i'm going to mostly reference the multichap i finished a while ago as an example

i started with just a few vague concepts in mind: non-idol au with aizou who does some sport and likes music but is insecure about his singing and yuujirou who does some music related thing and encourages him to sing in a way that's somehow related to the hozier song to noisemaking (sing), because it's what inspired me to write in the first place

then, from then onwards i wrote down what would happen in the first chapter of the story bullet-point-list-style, including things like the roommates part or the clubs the boys were in (at first yuujirou was in the choir club lol the change was a last second decision that idk why i took) and then bits of dialogue here and there that would be The Turning Points. those first dialogues were for the fight at the end of ch 1, the apology-date in ch 3 and then some vaguely unused ones for the "yuujirou encourages aizou" part, as those were the first key moments i thought of

because, since it's enemies to friends to lovers, an important aspect was character development

not all fics have character development bc not all of them are long enough (if you're aiming for short and sweet then there's no need). but if they do, i recommend you write down how the character was at the beginning of the story and then how they were at the end and then fill in the middle later, think of what those key turning points that made the character change were (the more little things you add, the more gradual it'll be)

samishigariya illustrates this very nicely: the song starts and finishes with the same lines, but the ending ones feel more light-hearted. the beginning has pre-arisa ken and pre-getting-along-with-yuujirou aizou, when they were the lonely people the title mentioned, and the ending, when they're not lonely anymore. the in between can be seen in depth during the other songs: ken before arisa was a playboy who didn't take love seriously, but after meeting her he realized that games were not all there was to love; and aizou used to be quite cranky and high-key a loner, but then he "meets precious things and knows of love". i will not elaborate on that because this isn't an aiyuu post but Oh You Know

for the fic, aizou would go through that same process, more or less: someone who doesn't really form meaningful connections with people but who, in the end, would end up having quite a bunch of people who care about him as his relationship with yuujirou advances too

since the relationship was the main focus, i wrote a very simple outline for how it would develop throughout 5 hypothetical chapters that was just: 1. civil w each other but mostly bad > 2. bad > 3. half friends > 4. pining > 5. date

and then with that in mind and the bullet point list, the final basic outline ended up like this:

there were scraped ideas and ideas that made it in later, but i believe having a simple outline, a bare skeleton to add things to, is important. stories need continuity, development requires a prior buildup

it's especially important in multichapter fics where you post as you write, you need to have a more or less clear idea of what's going to happen because you can't ignore scenes you've already posted

shorter stories don't need it as much, you can think as you go, but it's still helpful to know where you're going with things to avoid getting stuck

and, on getting stuck: don't be afraid of deleting things. if you can't figure out how to continue things, then delete the situation and start again. it might feel like you'd be wasting time but in the end, it is so much better than being stuck on the same scene for weeks

in fact, you don't have to write in order. jump to the next scene and you'll figure it out later. you Can write the scene you want to write and then build everything else around it

it's normal to write a scene and then realize it would make more sense later in the story, or that it would be better if you added another scene earlier, or sometimes you just find it easier to jump from one part of the story to another. rely on your outline to keep track of what you've written, what you have left to write and what's the best way to arrange your story. make your story understandable

which bring us to editing

there's a lot of much better posts on editing stories, but yeah ctrl+f is your best friend: don't repeat yourself too much. and be sure to vary sentence and paragraph length, as well as sentence structure, to give dynamism to the writing

now, i've mentioned before the show, don't tell rule, but i'm going to talk a bit more about it because it's quite important

once again there's a lot of posts that explain more in depth what it is, so i'm not going to expand too much on that, but, very basically, try to avoid things like "then some time passed and they became friends". explain it: what happened exactly? how did they become friends? if it's important, show it to us, instead of summarizing

since things like these make the story longer, it also gives room for more development and proper explanation for things that happen

for example, the fic was originally going to start with them already in the room, and the whole situation would have been explained in a single paragraph somewhere, but by actually adding the scene where they first arrive to the dorms and argue with the lady at the main desk, the story flows better and it let me actually describe their first meeting

and uuuhhh i think that's all? this took super long to write i hope i didn't forget any super basic stuff lol

i want to add that for enemies to lovers i greatly recommend this post bc it's super good but yeah i think that's basically it, if you have any more specific questions just shoot me an ask

[elphenfan]

All Hallow’s Eve Party (Good Omens)

Posting relatively early in the day because otherwise I’ll forget to put it up in time. Happy Halloween, everyone! Something sweet for you that might still rot your teeth. :)

-------------------------------------------------------------------

It turned out, when Crowley asked about it afterwards, that it had been Adam’s idea.

He should have known that if it was anyone’s, it would be Adam’s idea.

It had started ever so innocently, really, a fact which ought to have clued him in straight away that something was fishy enough to be seafood-y.

They had received invitations to a Halloween party, hosted by the Young family – to call them ‘The Youngs’, even in his head, made them sound like a forgotten sixties band and honestly, living through the sixties had been quite enough, thank you.

It had been an actual, physical invitation, too, in an envelope and everything, which was probably just as well, given Aziraphale’s track record with modern technology. He didn’t have an email address or even a computer that could hook up to the internet. Not even a modem, for all that he claimed it was more than enough for what he needed.

To be perfectly honest, Crowley would in hindsight have been quite happy to make sure that the angel didn’t receive any invitation at all, physical or digital – his own he could’ve easily deleted or ripped apart, solving the issue before it had time to manifest. Though that would have resulted in an undoubtedly disappointed Antichrist, seeing as he’d sent the invitations special, and a cross angel once he found out what the demon had done – and Crowley was in no doubt that he would find out, sooner or later – so perhaps not.

The question of how exactly Adam had known where to send the invitations, both to Crowley’s flat and Aziraphale’s bookshop was easier answered than the why of it. After all, the kid had known enough about them to restore to them what had been lost…with a few tweaks, admittedly, but still. Compared to that, and the rest of it, knowing the addresses of two supernatural being were rather small potato, wasn’t it?

No, the why of it was what puzzled Crowley more. It wasn’t as though they’d exactly gotten to know each other that very brief time they’d spent together. The priorities had sort of been elsewhere, as it were.

Granted, he had said he knew all about them when he’d first noticed them out on the airfield and the demon could easily believe that. But that did not translate to wanting to spend time with them afterwards and especially not inviting them to a dress-up party

Aziraphale seemed slightly confused but mainly delighted when he opened the invitation and saw what it was.

“Well, now, would you look at that?” he said out loud as his eyes scanned the page he was holding.

“What’s that?” Crowley asked, sauntering over from where he’d been messing with the order of the books.

He might not be on Hell’s side anymore and didn’t need to inconvenience anyone on a small or grand scale, but there were such things as habit. Besides, it got him a grumble from the blond and possibly a stern look, which was more adorable than anything.

“I have been invited to an All Hallow’s Eve party.”

Crowley fitted himself to the back of the blond, resting his chin on the other’s shoulder, pushing his hand into Aziraphale’s coat pocket. “Halloween, angel. They call it Halloween these days. It’s mainly costumes and candy, having a bit of fun. Not very religious at all.”

Bloody hell, imagining Aziraphale turning up expecting quiet reflection or the like and getting a group of kids hyped up on sugar instead…actually, that was a not unamusing thought but no, best not.

“As I recall, the antics that surround that particular holiday has never been entirely…pure, much as their current iteration, in this country as well as abroad, likes to pretend that it was,” Aziraphale returned, seemingly not bothered at all. “But then again, it seems like that was the case for any holiday. People will take any excuse for a bit of revelry, won’t they?”

“And the rest. Human nature,” Crowley agreed.

There was a pause that seemed to stretch between them. The beginning of a song, half-forgotten but not quite gone, glided its way out of Crowley’s mouth.

Soul Day, Soul Day, we be come a' souling. Pray, good people, remember the poor, And give us a soul cake. Soul, soul, a soul cake!

Please, good lady, a soul cake! An apple, a pear, a plum or a cherry, Any good thing to make us merry. Soul, soul, a soul cake! Pray we for a soul cake! One for Peter, two for Paul, And three for Him who made us all.

It wasn’t intentional and certainly had no ulterior motives, it just kind of slid out from his memory, all on its own. Out of the corner of his eye, even hampered a little as it was by the metal guard and the position of his head, he could see a pained expression flitter across the angel’s face, and he felt like kicking himself.

“Sorry, didn’t mean – “

“No. No, of course, you didn’t. That isn’t – is that the original song?”

“Dunno if there is such a thing, different versions and all, but I think that one is old, at least. Seem to recall it was collected by some bloke, they did that in those times – you’ve probably got that somewhere around here.”

Crowley was of the belief that Aziraphale must have pretty much everything ever published stashed onto some shelf somewhere and was unshakeable in it no matter how the blond claimed that the idea was ludicrous.

Aziraphale’s expression went from pained to thoughtful. “You know, I do believe I might – what was the man’s name?”

“Can’t recall. Holmes? Or Chesterfield? Does it matter?”

“Not really, no.”

The silence returned, but it settled into something more…relaxed than before as they stood there, looking down at the piece of paper held in plump hands. Crowley did at some point slid his arm around the other’s waist and Aziraphale’s hand moved down to cover his.

“Then the ginger asked, “So?”

“So what?”

“Are we going?”

“We?” It might have been hurtful to have Aziraphale question it like that, but Crowley didn’t take it as such, among other things because he knew the other and could hear the honest confusion in there.

“Yeah, both of us. Look, it says both our names on it.” Crowley pointed with a finger. “Mind you, mine does as well.”

“Yours? You mean he’s sent it to both of us? Why?”

“Dunno. Suppose he wanted to make sure one of us got it.”

“Yes. Perhaps so.” Aziraphale smiled softly. “Oh, he is rather sweet, isn’t he?”

But Crowley was focused on something else. Something that he hadn’t clocked on his own, for whatever reason.

“He’s asking us to come in – in fancy dress?” He didn’t splutter. He did not. “Us?”

“Well, guising is the custom for such things, I understand, even nowadays, and we have been quite specifically invited. It would hardly be entering into the spirit of the thing not to do it.”

Crowley made a face at that, which Aziraphale couldn’t see.

“We could always just not go.”

Aziraphale turned his head to look at him. “Most certainly not. We have been invited and we are going. End of discussion.”

“Oh, yeah? And you don’t wonder why the kid wants to have anything to do with us after the last time he saw us?”

“We did help.”

Crowley made a noise that might’ve been agreement and might’ve been non-committal. Had they really? He supposed, in a way, though it was undoubtedly Adam doing the heavy lifting, as it were. And his friends, of course, defeating the Four Horsepersons.

“Still doesn’t mean he’d want to see us again – and that’s not even counting the apparent fact that he remembers us, after he said it was best if everyone forgot.”

“He was the Antichrist.”

“Still is.”

“Didn’t he rewrite that?”

Crowley’s grimace at that quite eloquently expressed ‘I don’t know’.

“Of course, he might not have included himself in that,” Aziraphale mused. He then sighed. “Whatever the case, it seems he does remember and does want us to be part of his celebration. I’d say it’s the least we can do after everything he’s been through, at only eleven.”

“We didn’t make him the Antichrist.”

“No, but we did have a hand in it all.” A pause. “Even if it was mainly because we got it wrong.”

“Eh…yeah.” A longer pause. “Alright, fine, we’ll go. I am not doing fancy dress, though.”

He said the last part with firmness. With finality. He was not going to dress up like some silly creature either out of history or fantasy. The former kind of lost its appeal when you’d been part of history and as for the latter…that got a bit too close to his real nature, so no thanks.

It was only a few moments afterwards that he noticed Aziraphale hadn’t answered beyond a noncommittal hum. In hindsight, that should’ve worried him, but right then and there, all he did was press a kiss to a soft cheek, which got him a pleased hum.

He then wandered off to finish what he’d started. After that, he figured he would spend an hour or two stretched out on the sofa, just to wind down. Maybe after that, he’d take Aziraphale out for dinner.

Being able to do what he wanted, without having to consider whether Hell would pop up and interrupt him…that was still a novel enough experience that even the smallest things were wonderful.

He didn’t notice that Aziraphale, who had brought the invitation with him when he sat down at his desk, was quiet for a long time, worryingly so. Consequently, he didn’t see it when something else fell out of the envelope, something that most definitely hadn’t been in his.

Had he known what had been on that extra piece of paper, he might’ve been able to intercept what happened. At the very least, he wouldn’t have been so unprepared for it, which would’ve been something, too.

 This was at the end of September. It would be plenty of time until the party at the end of October, even for acquiring some costumes.

Or rather, it would be more than enough if someone wasn’t given an idea of what he and his partner could turn up for the party as, an idea that had at first puzzled him. Then, once he had managed to find out what was meant – which meant quite a roundabout search as he had no idea what to search for or where to do it, but in the end he pulled it off – he had been quietly intrigued and delighted at the outcome.

To get that done in such a small amount of time, though…one was quite elaborate, wasn’t it? It was rather nifty, he thought, but it would require a lot of time, he would’ve thought. Certainly, it would take more time that they had available.

Not that he planned on doing it himself. Good grief, no. He kept his clothes in tip-top condition, that was true, but he did not go around darning them and as for making them, well…he had always bought his clothes at a tailor or whatever equivalent had been available. That wasn’t going to stop now.

He could miracle it into existence, of course. That was a definite option. It was probably the quickest and easiest, too, and would make it much easier to hide it from Crowley until the day came. Indeed, that way he could even miracle it onto him when they were in or getting out of the car as they arrived, leaving the demon with no option but to stick with it, lest he disappoint the ones who saw him in costume.

That would not be fair on him, though – and besides, Aziraphale had other ways he could persuade his demon if need be, didn’t he?

And the angel very much wanted to have it made by actual humans. Perhaps he might alter and tweak a few things, especially given he hadn’t got the exact measurements of the lanky figure – he had a good eye but didn’t know how that translated into sewing terms – but he had not miracled clothes into existence ever before and he was not going to start now.

Well, that didn’t necessarily need to be a problem, did it? All he needed to do was apply a little…persuasion round the right shop or two and Robert was his uncle. Or something.

He gave an excited wiggle where he sat, forgetting entirely that he wasn’t alone in the shop.

What’s with you?” Crowley asked, looking over at him from his position sprawled across a chair, his head resting more on the ground than the chair. Somehow, the sunglasses stayed on.

“Honestly, dear, chairs are there for a reason. You might sit up properly.”

“Don’t see why,” Crowley drawled, stretching where he ‘sat’. “Answer the question.”

“What question would that be?”

“You heard me. You were wiggling. You only do that when you’re excited about something.” There was an edge of suspicion in the voice.

Oh, dear. I’d best come up with something plausible, hadn’t I?

“I thought I would go and try this little Spanish restaurant that’s just opened, it looks quite simply delicious.”

He must’ve gotten away with it since there was a moment’s silence then a grin from the serpent.

“Really?” he asked as he sat up in one movement that should’ve made him grasp something for balance. “Well, then, best get going then, hadn’t we?”

“Oh. Yes. Of course. Thank you.”

“No need to thank me yet.” The hint of a smugness edging into the grin made Aziraphale huff but then he smiled.

Oh, yes. He had a plan now. All he needed to do was run a little errand once Crowley was busy with something or other. He was sure that if you explained the situation and explained it…well, they would be very receptive to his commission.

They were going to look absolutely, utterly wonderful. He knew it.

He could hardly wait.

 ------------------------------------------

Something was amiss. Seriously amiss and he couldn’t figure out why that was.

Not that it was bad. The energy that had vibrated off the angel in the last week or so, halfway through the month of October, was anything but bad, but that was actually what clued him in that something was off.

Of course, Aziraphale was more than allowed to be happy and Crowley was happy in turn when he was, but there was something to this particular happiness that reeked of something being plotted. Something that he thought he was being clever about hiding.

It was in the small but pleased smiles that broke out for seemingly no reason. The twinkle in his eyes at times when he obviously thought Crowley wouldn’t catch it. It was decidedly in the small absences that were hidden as errands of some sort or another. Never the same one twice.

He did go out otherwise, of course, with or without Crowley, much as the demon did – however much time they now spent together, it would be a bit too much just yet to be joined at the hips, metaphorically speaking – but the same little air of satisfaction hovered around him whenever he had been on these particular errands. At least once that Crowley saw, he brought something home with him, too, which was decidedly not a book but was squirreled away as quickly as possible.

Crowley waffled on whether to ask him or not and eventually decided that he would.

“What’s got you in such a good mood?”

Aziraphale stilled in what he was doing for just a moment. “Am I not allowed to be in a good mood?” he said and though Crowley listened for it, he didn’t think he could detect any edge of guilt or self-consciousness.

“‘Course you are. That’s not what I meant. It’s just – nothing specific has happened to cause it so I’m just wondering what the reason could be.”

The demon got up from where he’d been contorted onto the sofa.

“Is it anything to do with what you brought home the other day?” he asked as he walked up to the other, coming right to the point.

Which turned out to be the wrong move.

Aziraphale stiffened where he stood. Not hugely so but the fact was certainly noticeable to someone who’d spent as much time around him, however long between it had been, as Crowley and he felt like an idiot for choosing wrong.

Though to be honest, he wouldn’t have thought that a question like that would illicit such a reaction. It was just an innocent inquiry, after all, and on something positive, too.

He opened his mouth to…to what, exactly? Ask further questions? Apologise? Pretend that he hadn’t asked the question at all and change the subject to something far safer?

Before he had the chance to do any of those things, or even none of them, however, Aziraphale gave a tight, yet wobbly smile, his good mood battered. Crowley still didn’t understand why that was, though.

Nor did he understand why a look of uncertainty sprinted lightning-fast across the angel’s features.

I really don’t see how that’s – “

“Let’s go have some lunch,” Crowley blurted out, hoping that Aziraphale would hear the apology and the subject change in that one suggestion without him having to explicitly state it. That would just have been…embarrassing, to say the least.

Aziraphale turned to look at him and for a moment, the demon thought that he might refuse.

Then he nodded and Crowley breathed an unconscious sigh of relief.

As he led his angel out and made sure to treat him to the best running sushi in all of London, he couldn’t help but wonder about what exactly that had been all about.

But though Aziraphale clearly didn’t want to tell him, Crowley was sure that it was more of a case of not wanting to tell him then than not at all. At least, he hoped so.

He was right, of course.

 -------------------------------------------------------

“No.”

The word was out of his mouth the moment he saw what had been laid out for him to put on. It came out with the same firmness and finality, for the same reason, that he had initially displayed when they’d talked about the possibility of costumes.

The costume that was lying in front of him.

“No,” he repeated. He turned to look at the angel who stood beside it, hands clasped over his middle as usual and with a smile on his lips, but with just a smidgeon of worry and uncertainty lurking in his expression. “I am not wearing this. I said, no costumes.”

“But we can’t go without costumes,” Aziraphale said. “I’ve written and said that we would be there – “

“Yeah, of course we will.”

Despite what he’d said when they’d first discussed it, Crowley had no intention of not going. He’d liked Adam, for as much as he’d seen of him, and if he wanted to see them, at least this once, well…Crowley could do that, no problem.

“– and you cannot turn up to such a party without a costume. There are…” a muscle twitched somewhere, “…conventions to follow, social contracts and so on.”

The ginger pursed his lips and then made a face. “I’ll go as annoyed demon, how about that?”

The angel looked a little dejected by still hopeful. “Please, dear. It’s only for the one night – and you’ll look good in it. I had it made to your measurements.”

“You what?” Behind darkened glass, the yellow eyes widened, and his eyebrows shot upwards.

Aziraphale made a gesture with his hands which was halfway between waving and wring them. “Well, as near as I could get from personal observation and estimations, of course. I don’t know or can’t recall the correct terms, but I do recall some practices from the last time I had something made and the dear boy at the tailor was incredibly helpful. He did say it was made easier by the fact that apparently, your measurements are rather close to that of the original actor and that it was a fairly normal suit.”

“You – you had it made?”

Well, yes?” Aziraphale looked rather puzzled at the question.

“You – actually had it made? With needle and threat and everything? You didn’t miracle it into existence?”

“If I had, I would’ve said, wouldn’t I?” Aziraphale countered, sounding just a tiny bit sniffy at that.

“But – why?”

Why go to all that trouble to have it made when he could just snap his fingers and it would be there? He could even miracle straight onto Crowley’s body, if that was what he wanted.

That felt quite invasive, though, to do that to another supernatural being, let alone your partner, and Crowley knew for a fact, a comforting fact, that Aziraphale would never do that to him. It also proved that for all that Aziraphale had organised for him, he respected his demon.

“Because…well, I thought that…” Now the hands were most definitely wringing together, and an expression of apologetic guilt was on his soft face. It seemed genuine, too. “I suppose I thought that you might be more amenable to the idea if…and I did rather enjoy having it made for you. I even found you some appropriate footwear and glasses.”

He flashed a smile, one that was a little stiff but also flickering. When it faded, he sighed.

“Of course, if the idea is that abominable to you, you shouldn’t have to wear it. I’m sure they will understand if I explain it to them when we get there. I am sorry, dear, I shouldn’t have gone over your head like that. I just…oh, never mind, it doesn’t really matter what I thought, does it?” His gaze flickered down, dejected.

Crowley stared at his partner, not quite comprehending what had just happened.

And what was his objection really? It wasn’t as though he would be going as something outlandish or ridiculous, was it? The costume certainly wasn’t historical, inasmuch as the suit wasn’t…well, as a product of its supposed time it could’ve been worse. Heaven, he’d worn worse over the years, hadn’t he? The collars and lapels of the seventies and the shoulder pads of the eighties – and that wasn’t even accounting for the colours. Mustard yellow sprang to mind, as did pastel rainbows.

Compared to that, a blue suit with a red tie and a white shirt was practically mundane and decidedly not historical. Especially not with – were those sneakers? And a long brown coat?

It wasn’t fantasy, either, and in fact, he could possible see himself wearing it afterwards with a few alterations, what with the care and work that had obviously gone into the making of it all – and at such a time pressure, too. Crowley didn’t know much about tailoring, either, but he did know it took time to make to any kind of good standard, and three weeks or however long since the invitation had arrived wouldn’t be nearly enough.

So…Aziraphale had, if he had indeed had this made – and why would he lie about it – gone out of his way to ensure that it would be ready for what was essentially a kids’ party.

All to make one kid happy. A special kid, true, and one that they did rather owe quite a bit, if not everything, really, come to think of it, but still, it was just the one kid. In the grand scheme of things, how much did it matter whether he was disappointed?

But that wasn’t how Aziraphale thought of it.

Granted, there was probably something to the idea that he must feel incredibly guilty about trying to get Adam killed. They hadn’t discussed it, which was hardly a surprise, but whenever things had veered in that direction, Aziraphale’s expression had gone strange and…pained.

Still, it would pass, as did everything else. Thanks to Adam and his prevention of the Apocalypse, there would be time and place for it to pass. But to Aziraphale, it evidently mattered here and now and so did making up for it, to whatever degree it was possible for him to.

In that light, it certainly made sense why he would in fact go to such trouble for that one kid and in that same light, how could Crowley be that against wearing what basically boiled down to a suit, odd shoes and a long coat?

Wait, hang on – just like that? That’s all it takes to make you do a one-eighty on this whole stance? So much for back bone.

As though it was about that. Besides the fact that he had a very…flexible backbone at the best of times, this was about making a, really relatively small, concession to something to make the person he loved happy. If he couldn’t do that…

“Oh, give it here,” he grumbled, because there still wasn’t any reason to just give over and concede entirely, was there. He reached out and grabbed it off the desk it had been lying on.

Aziraphale looked as though he had guilted him into doing it and felt bad for it. “Crowley, you really don’t have to – “

“I know that, don’t I? Not as though I’m deaf or stupid,” he said, still grumbling a little.

Holding up the set of clothes in question, he contemplated whether to bother with undressing and redressing. There would be the charm in that of giving a bit of a show, but it wasn’t the time and neither was there time to really get enjoyment out of it, not if they wanted to reach Tadfield without Aziraphale having a nervous breakdown about the speed. So, perhaps not there and then.

Especially not given the fact that it would be the first time he did get undressed in front of the angel, too, and not only shouldn’t that be a rush-job to put something else on, he wasn’t entirely certain how Aziraphale would react.

No, snapping his fingers was the far better option in this case and so he did, the outfit he’d been wearing now hanging neatly off the thick, wooden hanger in place of the ‘costume’.

He could’ve altered the outfit when he’d snapped, too, but he honestly hadn’t thought of it and was therefore quite surprised to find just how well the whole ensemble fitted him. Perhaps a bit too well, and he suddenly struggled not to think of how it was either a case of him matching the proportions of the ‘original’ a little too much or Aziraphale having a far better knowledge of his body and measurements than he would’ve ever credited. Something which was both sweet and a little unsettling, not to mention just a bit…hot, to be perfectly honest.

To cover that up, he asked, trying for nonchalant as he looked down at himself, “Who am I even supposed to be?”

He looked back up and wasn’t quite prepared for the uncertainty on the other’s face and the way it melted away into almost a beam of pride and delight.

No, scratch that. He wasn’t prepared at all.

“You look utterly brilliant in that, my dear,” Aziraphale said and the delight was abundantly evident in his voice as well. “Far better than I could’ve ever hoped for. Really embody the part, I think.”

“I – ah, ehm – thank you,” Crowley more or less spluttered, caught off guard by the compliments and the smile that was now unquestionably a beam. He decidedly didn’t turn slightly red, though. Most certainly not. He was a demon, he didn’t blush.

“What am I supposed to be?” he repeated, trying to divert the attention and save himself just a little.

He shoved his hands in the coat pockets and had to admit that it not only felt like genuine craftmanship, they were rather good pockets – and there was something to having his hands actually go properly into said pockets in comparison to his current jeans.

“Oh, ah – I thought you would’ve known. It’s the Tenth Doctor.”

That rang absolutely no bells with Crowley. Frowning, he picked up his phone from where he’d left it on the table and searched for that name.

Up popped a whole series of photos of the same man, some of them with him in a brown suit and some in the blue he was wearing.

What he focused on more was the rather uncanny resemblance to his own face, though this was far younger-looking than Crowley’s own had ever been.

He looked back up at Aziraphale, whose beam was now tinged with slightly uncertainty at the corners again.

“How the heaven did you find someone who looks so much like me? Why this costume, Aziraphale?”

“Well, I was browsing – “

“Don’t give me that. You’d never browse for something like that. That’s apparently sci-fi, you could never be bothered.”

“That’s not true!” Aziraphale looked almost offended. “I have first edition Le Guin and Aasimov and Verne. But yes, alright, it was suggested to me.”

“Who by?”

“By whom,” the angel corrected, almost automatically, and the resulting grimace from Crowley was as automatic. “But I thought – well, I didn’t know, to be honest. They just suggested it and the description sounded perfect – and you really do look absolutely smashing in it, dear. It really suits you.”

Crowley rolled his eyes. “That was a seriously awful pun, even by your standards.”

Aziraphale blinked, not comprehending. Then it clicked. “Oh. I…well, I didn’t intend that. Does that help?”

“Not really.” Crowley paused then decided to take a bit of pity on his poor angel. “It was a good pick, though. Can’t say I would’ve ever gone for it but as a costume, it’s pretty cool.”

The beam slowly broke through again and the demon would have to admit, if only to himself, that he was a sucker for it.

“Good. I’m so glad to hear it. Thank you.” There was a pause wherein Aziraphale stood and just, it seemed, took Crowley in. Then he apparently shook himself and gave a nod of decision. “Well, we had better be going then, if we’re to make it in time. It is quite a bit of way to Oxfordshire, isn’t it?”

He walked forward, presumably to head out of the shop, but Crowley stopped him when he reached his side, a hand on his arm to prevent him moving further.

“Hang on. Where’s your costume? You can’t say that we need to wear costumes and then you weasel out of wearing one yourself.”

“I do not ‘weasel’ – and you are right, we do need to.”

Crowley gave him a pointed look up and down, raising his eyebrows over his sunglasses. The angel wasn’t fazed, though.

“I will put mine on when we get there.”

“Uh-huh. I’m not that stupid, angel.”

Aziraphale stared at him for a moment, a complicated expression on his face that Crowley couldn’t decipher, then pulled free and went over to the hat stand where a garment bag hung next to the hat and scarf that had been left by a customer and never retrieved, unfortunately.

He took the garment bag down, the apparent weight of it selling that there was something in there. As the bag was white, because of course it would be white, and very opaque, it was impossible to see what exactly that something was, however.

“There,” Aziraphale said, folding it over his arm. “Do you see?”

Crowley sauntered over to the other, hands deep in lovely pockets. “All I see is a heavy bag over your arm, that’s not conclusive. Why don’t you show me?”

He reached out a hand to sneak a peek but Aziraphale moved it out of his immediate reach.

“Because it is meant to be a surprise.”

“What, you gonna dress up like Shakespeare or something? Or a ‘demon’?” the ginger asked, unable to help the slight grin.

“Not…no. You’ll see. Now we really do have to hurry if we’re to make it in time.”

“I can just speed up a bit,” Crowley said with a shrug. He would have to hand it to Aziraphale, these clothes really were comfortable.

Yes.” That one word communicated quite a lot.

The blond moved towards the door again then, but Crowley stopped him.

Crowley – “

“Just hold on a second, would you?” he asked.

He planted a kiss on a soft cheek, chaste but lingering. Even so, a faint blush crept across said cheek and its partner.

“Oh,” Aziraphale said. When Crowley pulled back, without a word, the angel raised his free hand to touch the cheek in question.

It wasn’t that this was the first kiss between the two of them, though all of them had been on similar spots and of a similar chasteness, but it was one of the very few ones Crowley had been the one to instigate. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but though he wanted there to be more, as much as he was happy with this state of affairs, he was scared of ‘going too fast’ and would therefore be happy to stay where they were or move forward at glacial speed that would be acceptable.

Anything that didn’t scare off his angel.

He wasn’t quite prepared for Aziraphale to then reach out himself, to not just reciprocate the kiss on a bony cheek but to grab Crowley’s hand with his, pulling it out of its pocket and squeezing it momentarily before letting go.

“Would you be so kind as to pick up the paper bag over on the table?” Aziraphale asked. “I thought we’d better bring a few things, too, just…you know.”

Crowley had to blink at him a time or two for the words to settle in. Then, ignoring the desire to grab the hand again and perhaps interlace their fingers, he nodded quickly and went to retrieve what he was asked for.

When they got out into the car, Aziraphale put the garment bag in the back rather quickly and then settled into the front passenger seat as though nothing was out of the ordinary. He even chatted and smiled as he normally would – and made scared noises and admonishments when Crowley sped up or otherwise ignored road safety rules.

To be honest, it wasn’t all because old habits died hard, he was being true to his demonic nature or even because he liked it. All three were true but they weren’t the whole truth.

Part of it was that, when he was driving with Aziraphale, he did it because well, it was kind of cute and sometimes the angel would, in his nervousness, reach out to grab something to hold onto and that would be Crowley’s knee more often than not.

Sadly, the roads were rather clear once they made it out of London and so, while he was free to floor the acceleration, there was nothing to swerve around. Not even a ruddy deer, which was something of a miracle in itself – but not one of ethereal or occult origin, he would hazard.

But despite the seemingly amiable normalcy of the trip and Aziraphale’s behaviour, there was an edge of nervousness, or at least tension, to the angel’s demeanour, which didn’t fit. It wasn’t unlike the one he’d had when he’d first showed Crowley his costume but not quite the same.

It was clear, however, that he wasn’t intending to divulge and though the demon could needle him, he didn’t really want to start off a whole evening of having to be sociable with humans – though the fact that there’d be kids there did definitely lighten the thought – with Aziraphale being cross with him.

They were in fairly good time when they made it to Tadfield. Aziraphale swore he knew the way to the right house but nevertheless, they ended up driving around a bit, on roads that hadn’t been built for the size of a car, or carriage, like the Bentley. Not that it mattered, they got through fine and whatever scratches were on it, Crowley took care of the moment they stepped out.

Once they were out, Aziraphale looked the demon up and down and it was clear he couldn’t help the beaming smile, even though the tension hadn’t left him.

“You really ought to have the glasses on,” he said, in a thoughtful tone of voice, “but I don’t think that would be – “

“Nah, probably not the brightest of ideas, really. You gonna go in like that?”

“No, of course not. I said, I’ve got the costume and I’m going to wear it.”

“Don’t see why you didn’t put it on before we left,” Crowley remarked in a bit of a drawl, leaning against the parked car opposite the blond. “Not as though it would’ve taken a lot of time or anything.”

Busy with opening the door to the backseat, Aziraphale didn’t answer him. When he re-emerged, he was almost clutching the garment bag to him, which was odd.

“I, ah – why don’t you go on in ahead of me, dear?” he asked, in an evident attempt at making it seem light and inconsequential. “I’m sure they’d like a bit of help with the setting up, if there’s any left to be done.”

An eyebrow shut upwards, visible over the rim of the sunglasses.

“Do I look like I ‘help with the setting up’, angel? Since when – “

“No, I suppose not,” Aziraphale sighed, looking down.

That sent Crowley’s alarm bells to gently start ringing.

“Angel, what are you – why are you so reluctant to let me see your costume?” he asked, pushing himself off the car. He walked around it, so he came to stand in front of the angel, blocking his path.

“I’m not. I just…am a little nervous, I suppose.”

“About the costume?”

The blond shook his head, smiling. “About the night. Oh, I do hope we won’t mess it up.”

It wasn’t terribly convincing, but Crowley decided to let it slide. For now.

He placed another soft, chaste kiss, this time on the angel’s forehead and noted with a continued sense of surprise, not to mention delight, that Aziraphale leant into the contact.

“See you inside,” the demon said softly, giving the other the out he so clearly wanted. “But don’t disappear on me.”

It was meant as a joke, something light-hearted. What it came out as, however, was something tighter and more strained, despite his efforts. It wasn’t helped by the fact that his mind decided to flash through some of the images that had seared themselves into his mind when he had, thankfully only temporarily, indeed lost his best friend.

He tried to keep them under control, keep himself in check and push them back to where they’d surfaced from, but it was hard, to say the least.

His hand was grabbed again and squeezed, still briefly but longer than when it had been done in the bookshop.

“I promise you I won’t, dear,” Aziraphale said, his own voice soft and warm, but with an edge that said, ‘I hear you, I understand, and I am sorry’. “I’ll only be a few minutes.”

“Right.”

With that, Crowley strolled towards the front door, expecting it to open for him before he got to it.

It did but that was because someone was on the other side and had, apparently, been waiting for him so they could open the door when he walked up.

That someone was Adam and for some reason, that felt better than it being anybody else but especially Mr. Young himself. Perhaps it was just that Crowley could do without being asked any awkward questions about his profession, just in case that particular bit had somehow survived the last eleven years and whatever wipe of memories Adam had bestowed. Maybe it was something else entirely.

Whatever the case, the demon felt a small sense of relief at seeing the curly-haired pre-teen.

Adam didn’t grin or anything, but he did smile a little and, when Crowley got close enough to the light coming from the lamps at the front door, his eyes evidently lit up at the sight of the ginger in his outfit, his eyes moving up and down the length and taking it all in. Which, to be honest, not only removed whatever lingering doubts and degree of…well, animosity but not quite, that he still held, but also filled Crowley filled some of the pride that Aziraphale had exhibited earlier.

“Hi,” Crowley said when he finally made it to the front door. He didn’t say anything more, just looked at the kid through his glasses.

Adam didn’t seem particularly perturbed by the slightly lacklustre greeting but perhaps he hadn’t expected anything else.

“Hi,” he replied, hands in his own pockets as he looked up at Crowley. He then tilted his head and body in something of an effort to look past the lanky figure, as if he was trying to catch a glimpse of something.

Then his smile widened and the light in his eyes brightened, visible even in the bad lighting.

Curious, Crowley turned to see who or what had managed to brighten up their young host like that.

Then he had to do a doubletake, sure that what he was seeing was an illusion or at least a trick of the almost-gone light. But no, it was true enough and real enough. Not even pushing his sunglasses up briefly – if Adam saw, it didn’t really matter, did it, all things and events considered? – to get a better look unobscured by the dark glasses really did anything to improve matters. Some might argue quite the opposite.

It was someone walking up towards the house. Or rather, it wasn’t just someone, though it was hard to recognise him in the, to put it mildly, vastly different outfit. To put it very kindly, too.

The proper word for it was…what exactly? Loud, perhaps? Yes, definitely loud. Screaming, even.

If only there had been a theme or a grouping of colours. Even a rainbow flow from one colour to the next would’ve been something, if it needed to be that…colourful. But no, it was a kaleidoscopic calamity of a hodgepodge, not at all helped by the fact that they weren’t all solid blocks of colour, either. There were patterns in there, including, Crowley squinted to be sure…oh, opposition, no, please no.

But yes. It was true. There was unquestionably bloody tartan in there, too, and quite a significant amount, too.

He could admit that he was staring as the angel drew level with him. Aziraphale’s expression told him that he was aware that Crowley was staring, was conscious and unsure about it but didn’t want to let their host know that he was – and there was, too, more than a smidgeon of what Crowley would term pride in there.

The words, the question of ‘what is that?’ sprang to his lips but he managed to bite them back before they could leave said lips. It would only make Aziraphale more uncertain and really, in front of the kid wasn’t the place to argue about it.

Oddly enough, Adam’s expression didn’t alter when the angel came up close. Well, it did but it didn’t falter. Instead, it became something close to a grin.

If Crowley didn’t know better, he thought he heard the exclamation ‘wicked!’ fall from the boy’s lips as he looked between them, which puzzled him a good deal.

“Well, hello,” Aziraphale said with a smile, looking at Adam rather than at Crowley. “How lovely to see you again.”

He didn’t mention anything about the circumstances in which they’d met last, which was probably just as well.

“Hello,” Adam replied. Then, quite incongruously, or so it seemed to Crowley, he said, “Thank you.”

The smile of the blond grew, both in width and in stability. “You are very welcome. Thank you for inviting us.”

Adam shrugged his shoulders in a sort of noncommittal way, but at the same time he was still smiling. Then the light from the doorway was blocked by a figure, though, to Crowley’s annoying relief, it was Mrs. Young rather than her husband.

Oh, hello,” she said as she looked between the frankly odd couple on her doorstep and for a moment, the demon wondered whether the invitation they’d gotten had actually been approved of by either parent. Not that it mattered, really, but it did make navigating this whole affair a bit more trick.

But then she asked, “You’re a bit early, aren’t you?”

”Ehm, yes, well, you see – “Aziraphale began.

“I asked them to be, Mum,” Adam said, looking up at her, earnest and innocent. “In case they had trouble getting here.”

“Oh. Yes, of course, dear, that’s quite sensible thinking,” she said, smiling softly. Every inch the parent that Adam ought to have. “Well, do come in, then. We’re just getting the last things ready – Arthur insists that there ought to be napkins everywhere because they’re bound to make a mess but, well, isn’t that supposed to be part of the fun?” She continued talking as she led the way inside.

Adam followed but turned to look at the two supernatural beings for a moment before smiling again. Then he was distracted by Dog deciding toad-in-the-hole made to resemble fingers poking out through earth was intended for dog food and trying to stave off his father who was not, to say the least, pleased by the turn of events, though he was also somewhat resigned to it at this point.

“She didn’t ask our names,” Aziraphale murmured to Crowley as they followed at a slower pace. “Never as much as questioned it.”

“Why would she?” Crowley asked, pursing his lips as he spoke. “If she didn’t question why they sent out the invitations – and I checked, there was a stamp on mine – she isn’t gonna question us showing up, is she?”

“But why not ask our names? We could be anybody.”

“Really, angel? In these getups,” he waved a hand between them to indicate their clothes, “are we really going to be random people just showing up?”

He didn’t mention that Adam had come out to greet them first, which sort of ensured that they were accepted by his mother. It was rather obvious, wasn’t it?

“Technically, yes, we could be.”

“Now you’re just being pedantic for the sake of it.”

“I am – oh, hello.”

They’d reached the living room where three other children were sat waiting, all in their own costumes. Well, to be honest, they were arguing about something or other but then again, the day the Them didn’t bicker and argue about something or other, something was very wrong indeed.

Once they saw the two supernatural beings, though, they too lit up.

From one of them – the somewhat larger on who’d somehow managed to get chocolate smears several place, among others underneath his ear and could’ve done with a good scrub…of indeterminate length – came a rather loud and enthusiastic exclamation of “Brilliant!”, accompanied by a huge grin.

From the boy in glasses there was a very serious, contemplative expression behind them, but the smile was undeniable.

The girl soon frowned, though, looking the demon in particular up and down.

“That’s wrong, though – the Doctor isn’t ginger,” she said, her own red hair, which had been tied up in a ponytail, swinging behind her. “And he doesn’t wear sunglasses.”

“Yes, he does,” the boy with the chocolate stains interrupted. “When he’s got that flower necklace and the straw hat on.”

“Not just then,” agreed the boy in the glasses, then turned towards the taller boy, “and that’s called a Leila, Brian, not a flower necklace.”

Crowley could see Aziraphale open his mouth, presumably to correct that it was in fact called a ‘lei’, and, catching his eye, shook his head. It didn’t really matter what the thing was called and if the boys wanted to bicker, what was the harm?

“Whatever. That’s brilliant, though.” The kid grinned even wider, if that was possible.

“Who are you, though?” the smaller boy asked and apparently, he was addressing Aziraphale.

Before the angel had a chance to answer, the girl scoffed, putting her hands on her hips.

“Don’t you know anything? He’s the Doctor too, just an earlier one than him.” With her head, she indicated Crowley. “My mum’s got a few tapes with him from back when it was on telly.”

“It’s still on telly.”

“No, it’s on telly again.”

“Which Doctor is he, then?”

“The…seventh? Or was it sixth?”

“He’s the sixth.”

That came from Adam, who’d finally joined them in the living room, Dog in his arms. The former Hellhound was flopped out on his back in the boy’s arms, head twisted around so that it was the right side up and resting again an arm as the dog gazed out at the little assembly.

You wouldn’t have guessed that he’d been badly behaved earlier from the look of him, but in the few months since he’d become a Dog rather than a Hound, he’d quite perfected the art of small dog innocence.

“Yes. Quite so,” Aziraphale agreed, smiling at the children while trying to avoid Crowley’s gaze. “I must say, you all have got the most tremendous costumes, too. Have you been out already?”

The children shook their heads. “Adam wanted to wait.”

“Oh. Whatever for?”

“You,” Adam said simply, to both Crowley’s and Aziraphale’s surprise, letting Dog down onto the floor. “Now, Dog. Behave.”

The dog obediently sat itself down at his master’s feet, its head cocked as it took in the odd couple that it recognised. Not purely from the day on the airfield base, though whether Adam’s decree that it was better if people forgot applied to animals as well wasn’t clear, especially not when the animal’s origin wasn’t quite…earthly.

But though it no longer knew why it should recognise the ethereal and especially the occult creations masquerading as humans, quite apart from their current attire, a flicker of recognition did surface and therefore it growled softly at the nearest of the two, which happened to be Crowley.

The demon decided to hiss in turn, though under his breath.

Aziraphale grabbed his arm to stop him without saying anything as the growl intensified.

Dog. I said, behave.” The change in tone wasn’t harsh and probably nobody else would’ve clocked that it was anything other than a human giving a dog a command. The two supernatural beings, however, both heard a soupçon of power in there that they recognised.

Ah. Well, that answered that question, didn’t it? To the extent of knowing that he hadn’t made himself entirely human, at least, when he’d rewritten the world. Though to what extent that exception ran, that wasn’t clear at all. Which was possible entirely on purpose.

Dog’s growl instantly became an apologetic whine.

Aziraphale squeezed the arm he still held, with more emphasis, and Crowley made himself stop hissing, too.

“Why would you want to wait for…for us?” Aziraphale asked Adam, sounding genuinely perplexed.

Adam shrugged. “Thought it’d be fun.”

“But why not – your parents.” Aziraphale waved a hand – the hand that wasn’t still on the ginger’s arm, something which Crowley most definite was aware of – in the direction of the kitchen. “Any of your parents, really.”

“Parents aren’t fun,” the girl countered, speaking as though he’d suggested that algebra was exciting. “They’re grownups.”

“As are we,” Crowley pointed out. Far more grownup than any human that had ever lived. Or at least, far older, which as far as many humans were concerned counted as the same thing.

Adam looked at the two of them again for a moment, that penetrating stare he had suggesting he saw and understood far more than a boy of his age should. More than any human should, really, and the angel wasn’t entirely sure that was wholly to do with his biological parentage.

“You’re different,” he said at last. He didn’t elaborate further, and the three other kids didn’t seem to need an elaboration, either.

For a moment, Crowley was then convinced that Adam had told his little gang about him and Aziraphale and what they were. It would make sense, since it had clearly been demonstrated that what they did when they didn’t know something or didn’t agree was ask questions and argue, not meekly accept it.

Well, perhaps they weren’t meekly doing it but there was nothing to indicate they would challenge Adam’s claim.

On the other hand, though, if they did know…well, they were unlikely to be scared of them even if they knew but they wouldn’t be sitting there, either. They’d ask questions, verify theories and exhibit scepticism.

Not adult scepticism, which was prone to a need to reject and mock what didn’t gel with their understanding of the world, however wrong it was, but the scepticism of childhood. One which more resembled a need to be sure that the piece they had was for the right puzzle rather than just the right way up, making it fit into the jigsaw they were assembling of the world. Their scepticism was a bit more…natural, for lack of a better word, and certainly more equal.

But it wasn’t here. Not even remotely. They’d asked questions about the costumes and if they knew they were an angel and demon, respectively, surely, they’d have better questions to ask than that?

Though given that it was children, maybe this Doctor character, whoever he was, was more interesting than a literal demon who could snap his fingers and perform miracles, both of the good and the bad kind. After all, just because something wasn’t nice didn’t mean it wasn’t miraculous, did it?

“I know my father wouldn’t ever have chosen to wear a costume like that,” the boy in the glasses said and oddly, he didn’t seem to be referring to Aziraphale’s tailor-scrap challenge of an outfit but Crowley’s. “Not without getting it all wrong.”

“He got it wrong,” the girl pointed out.

“No, he didn’t, Pepper,” the bespectacled boy said.

“The Doctor isn’t ginger.”

“So? Just because you picked a costume where the character had the same colour hair as you happen to – “

“Everyone, shut up,” Adam said, mainly calmly but just a tiny bit annoyed.

There was no soupçon of…well, anything this time, though – Crowley was listening for it, as he was sure Aziraphale was, and could not detect anything at all – just Adam knowing how his group worked and that they’d listen.

“We’re going out trick-or-treating now or else we won’t make it back in time,” he said, though he didn’t explain what they needed to be in time for, however. He looked down at the pedigree mongrel at his side and smiled. “Come on, boy.”

The Them followed him automatically, keen to see what their leader had planned for them to do now.

One angel and one demon were left behind for the moment. They looked at each other, not quite certain what had just occurred.

“We’re not going with them, are we?” Crowley asked.

“Would you rather they went out there on their own?”

“It’s a small town, it’s hardly going to be dangerous for them.”

Aziraphale didn’t reply verbally. Instead, he just made a face that communicated quite well the sentiment that while that might be the case, he wasn’t going to take the chance. Not when the Antichrist still held power.

Crowley grimaced in turn at that, understanding exactly what was meant, and so they followed. It wasn’t as though they had other things planned, was it? Who knew, it might even be interesting, if he went about it the right way.

 “So…you gonna tell me where the fuck you really got this whole idea from?” Crowley said as they stood off to the side, observing the Them as they rang the doorbell on the fifth house since they’d started their little journey out to trade a look at costumes for sweets.

Mrs. Young had smiled when Adam had said they were going out and wished them good luck. She’d even handed out few buckets, though thankfully nothing orange.

As for Mr. Young, he’d considered them all for a few, long moments, then harrumphed – the demon had been a bit surprised, as he hadn’t heard someone genuinely do that since at least the 1950s – and said that he expected them to take good care. Crowley presumed he meant Aziraphale and he.

In any case, they’d been allowed to go out.

“Crowley, language!” Aziraphale scolded in a low hiss, hoping the kids hadn’t heard. It was highly unlikely given their distance, quite apart from the fact that at their age, they would have heard someone using swearwords. “And I told you that it was suggested to me.”

“Yeah, but you never said who did the suggesting. If there are ten professors – “

“Doctors and there are thirteen, apparently.”

“Whichever. If there are thirteen of those, why did you, or whoever suggested it to you, pick these two?” He paused then pursed his lips. “Nah, wait, hold on, think I can guess why on yours. Of course, you’d pick the one that was smothered in tartan.”

“Tartan is stylish,” Aziraphale claimed but even though it held the same conviction that his assertion on the subject always did, it was more than clear that he’d grown rather less confident, to say the least, about his choice since he’d gotten it. For one thing, he kept fiddling with it and for another, his smile was slightly wavering.

In fact, Crowley could, when he paused to consider it, actually trace a downward trajectory in Aziraphale’s confidence about his costume each time it had been brought up. It had been somewhat mitigated by the reaction the Them had had to it, especially Adam and his obvious enthusiasm, but even so –

Aziraphale suddenly frowned as he looked over at the children at the door. It had taken some time for it to open and though it should’ve been a relatively quick thing once it was open, they were still there – and it wasn’t because they were being inundated with sweets, either.

In fact, it seemed as though the only thing they were getting a lot of was reprimand.

The angel’s expression, which had been a mixture of hurt, slight embarrassment and just a bit defiant as well, changed almost instantly to one of resolve and indignation – to call it righteous indignation give it the wrong air entirely – as he registered what was going on. Not indignation towards Crowley or the children; his gaze was fixed firmly on the adult in the doorway, gesturing and angry.

“Will you excuse me a moment, Crowley?” he said, straightening up and adjusting the coat with resolution.

“Nope,” was the ginger’s answer, which earned him an odd look. “You don’t really think I’d let you deal with that alone, do you?”

“I am perfectly capable of handling it.”

“Not saying you aren’t. Just saying that you won’t be going alone.”

“Crowley – “

But the demon was already walking towards the children. However, he was deliberately walking slowly so that it was easy for the angel to catch up to him. Not that Aziraphale couldn’t move fast when he needed to, for all of his softness, but Crowley hoped that the gesture would be appreciated.

When he felt a soft shoulder brush against him, just a little, he couldn’t help his smile.

Then a hand reached out again and disappeared down into the coat pocket to grab his hand. This time, though, it did not squeeze and let go almost immediately, and Crowley’s heart did…not so much a somersault as a short gymnastics routine in his chest.

By the time they reached the kids, the front door was about to be slammed on them.

In an odd way, Crowley was actually impressed that the people living in the house dared to do that, considering. But then again, humans weren’t always very good at seeing what was actually in front of them rather than what they expected.

The demon cleared his throat and snapped his fingers and the woman suddenly found that her foot was stuck in the door and that she couldn’t pull it away.

She glared at the kids, completely failing to see the couple coming up to join them.

”It’s you, isn’t it?” she snapped. “It’s you who done this. It’s always you, Adam Young. You and your little gang. Always making trouble and bothering people. Not even the common sense to know when you should go away and leave decent people alone.”

“I’m sure they will,” came Aziraphale’s voice, pleasant and apparently congenial.

“Once we actually locate someone decent,” Crowley chimed in. “Might be a struggle here, though.”

That was hardly true. The whole village of Lower Tadfield was almost sickening in its wholesomeness, a relic of a never-was time, quite apart from the aura of love that still emanated from the place, according to Aziraphale’s comment when they’d driven down here. But the woman didn’t know that and didn’t need to know it, either.

“And we don’t make trouble,” the glasses-wearing kid added. “Not on purpose, anyway – and you can’t blame your foot getting stuck on us. We’ve just been standing here.”

“You did something before then, obviously.”

The angel exchanged a quick, but meaningful glance with the Them, who all looked back solemnly. Then Adam nodded, imperceptibly.

Change of tactics. Understood.

“And to what end would they do that, Madam?” Aziraphale then asked, turning his attention back to the woman.

Her head almost swivelled in the direction of his voice, finally seeming to take notice of the odd couple coming to a stop just behind the group of children. Crowley could tell the moment she took them in properly. Not that that was hard, given how she curled her lips, but he had to give her credit; that could as well be because of their, in context, outlandish costumes as the fact that they held hands.

It would just figure that that was more offensive to her.

“Excuse me?” she asked. “Who are you?”

Crowley opened his mouth but Aziraphale got there before he could say anything.

“We’re Adam’s…godparents.”

Well. There was a thing. It was not what he would’ve ever suspected he’d say, not after the whole incident with Warlock, but he supposed that they were.

Warlock. Now there was someone they ought to check up on. Or perhaps more accurately, Crowley just wanted to…to see how he was doing, really.

Granted, there had been a period of time in which their check-ups had to be somewhat more…sporadic than at the start, as they hadn’t stayed nanny and gardener right up until Warlock’s eleventh birthday, but it still…it hadn’t quite felt right, after everything, to just abandon him like that.

And Crowley could admit, if only to himself, that he missed the little bugger, too, just a little.

Maybe more than a little.

He thought he felt eyes on him and when he located their owner, it turned out to be Adam. It was only for a moment that their eyes met, but in that moment, Crowley had the distinct sense that the former – was it former? – Antichrist knew exactly what he’d been thinking about.

It was an absurd thought – or rather, it would’ve been, had it not been for the fact that this was…well, who it was. In that context, it was almost normal.

Then Adam smiled before he turned his attention back to the problem at hand. The whole incident was over before anyone else registered it.

Was that – had that been a smile of reassurance? It must have been but that wasn’t the odd thing. No, what was odd was that the demon actually did feel reassured.

Mentally shaking himself to clear it, he focused back on the scene unfolding in front of him. Where the woman was just about to kick into another gear of haranguing, with an ease that spoke of familiarity.

“Well, as godparents, I must say you could’ve set a far better example than what you have so far. The boy is – “

“A perfectly normal boy of his age,” Aziraphale cut in, calm as anything, smile firmly in place. He ignored the suppressed noise, which was a strange halfway point between a snort and a snigger, from Crowley, “and I do not see how we are anything but positive influences.”

He took a breath he didn’t need, the smile turning up just a little, a sharpness and steel to it that only Crowley actually saw but was evidently felt by the woman, judging by her expression.

“You, however, Madam, are teaching them that what they can expect from the world, from the adults who are supposed to guide them through to their own adulthood, is that you are reprimanded and treated with suspicion on the basis of what appears to be very minor past offenses, all things considered. That there can be no chance of forgiveness for past misdeeds and that you are always doomed to forever play the role that your local community has decided to cast you in.”

Though it was not in any way, shape or form intended towards Crowley, the demon couldn’t help but feel it down in his core. Not purely in relation to himself, either, though admittedly that was quite a significant part of it.

He felt his heart stutter and dance as it swelled, something which he would’ve foresworn, once upon a time, that he would ever experience. But when it came to his interactions with humans and in particular the angel Aziraphale, it seemed that the unlikely or even the impossible was feasible.

Soft hands were placed, carefully, on smaller shoulders, one on Adam’s and the other on Pepper’s. Neither pulled away, facing down the woman with quiet defiance.

For the briefest of moments, something flashed in those green eyes. The smile didn’t go away or diminish, which only added to the overall effect.

“Each human being has the potential for…for so incredibly much that it’s almost mind-boggling. Of course, that means it can be scary, even horrifying as well, but that is part of the beauty, isn’t it? It is certainly heart-warming, not to mention fortifying, all things considered, and I will not allow your small mind and petty ways to ruin things for these young people.”

All through this, the kids didn’t argue or ask questions, though Crowley, as the sort of side-line observer that he currently was, as well as a bit of extra intimidation, for what it was worth, could see that they wanted to. Very much so. But they’d had an agreement, hadn’t they?

Aziraphale wasn’t quite done. The woman seemed to wish to be anywhere else, her attempts to pull her foot free starting to get just a little frantic.

“Now, I do suggest you give them the sweets they have, I believe, more than earned. Then go in and try to make something good of your day and your life. It can only improve, can’t it?”

She nodded, reached inside for the, rather small, bowl and held it out. The kids took a piece each but Aziraphale reached in and grabbed another eight.

The woman opened her mouth to argue but shut it again the moment she made eye contact with the angel.

“Thank you,” he said, his smile cuttingly sunny. “Have a most pleasant evening.”

Crowley discreetly snapped his fingers again and the woman’s foot was free. He’d managed to time the snap just as she was trying a particularly spirited tug and as a result, she stumbled backwards as she closed the door, the remaining sweets in the bowl describing if not an arch, then at least a quite pretty fountain.

Once the door was closed, the little group looked at each other. Then, as one, they grinned, the mischief sparkling in twelve pairs of eyes, though one set was hard to see.

“Right,” the angel said as he distributed the sweets, then bent to gift Dog a biscuit that couldn’t have been in the pocket he pulled it from, “where to next?”

 There was a surprising number of houses to go to, considering the size of the village, but neither the kids nor Aziraphale seemed to mind and really, Crowley could admit it was alright. More than alright, but nobody needed to know that.

Regardless, though, it seemed that the blond did spot it.

After they’d finally exhausted the supply of houses within reasonable walking distance – Aziraphale had vetoed the suggestion that they ride their bikes further out, even when the larger boy, Brian as it turned out, had said it was no problem, they could sit on their luggage carriers, a veto Crowley had at that point wholeheartedly agreed with – they headed back towards the Young house.

“This has gone over incredibly well,” Aziraphale said quietly as he fell back a little to keep pace with the ginger, a small but evident feeling of delight and satisfaction in his voice and, when Crowley glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, in his expression.

“Yeah,” he agreed easily. He moved a little closer to the other, just to feel his warmth. Certainly not so that he could more easily slip his hand back into a plumper one at some later point, just to test whether it was the situation that did it earlier, if nothing else then in terms of duration, or something else. Most definitely not.

“You had quite a lot of fun, too, I think, my dear.”

“I suppose.”

“Suppose? They were almost besides themselves at your costume at one house – and don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy that other thing.”

“What other thing?” Crowley asked, trying to sound innocent and deliberately failing.

“You know perfectly well what I mean. The decorations you turned into living beings.”

“If you don’t want a giant spider, then you shouldn’t decorate with it.”

Aziraphale gave a slightly beleaguered sigh. “It’s only a mercy it didn’t bite anything.”

“It didn’t have any venom in it,” Crowley said after a few moments, only a little begrudgingly. “They’d have been getting a rash in funny colours at most – and don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Say anything.”

The angel smiled at that, a soft, warm, quiet smile that nevertheless somehow managed to be a beam, if a concentrated one.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, softly.

Then, putting his hand on the demon’s arm to halt him rather than for a hold, he leaned up the difference in height and planted a kiss, not just on Crowley’s cheek but on his tattoo. Which shouldn’t really make a difference, all things considered, it was a tattoo, after all, not something magical, but even so, Crowley felt the difference the moment the soft lips met his skin.

It felt…

Oh.

A hand then found its way into his as Aziraphale pulled back and this time, he clung to it as though it was a lifeline.

Oh, angel.

They walked on for a while in silence after that, just enjoying each other’s company.

Once they got back to the house, quite a few other people had turned up in the meantime and…well, it was a party, wasn’t it?

Newt and Anathema was there, in costumes of witch and witchfinder and didn’t Newt make the cutest witch, along with a few friends and family members, both from Adam’s family as well as the rest of the Them. But though it was crowded and not really his thing, Crowley would have to admit it wasn’t…alright, it was quite…alright. Alright?

The fact that Newt actually let out quite the high-pitched noise, flailed a bit and grinned like an idiot when he saw the two supernatural beings in their costumes…well, it was embarrassing. For him, not for Crowley. Why would he be embarrassed about something like that?

He might have suspected that there was something more to his particular costume, just given the number of photos even the most casual search provided. Different photos, too, and they looked relatively recent. By human standards, too, not just in the context of what a millennia-old occult entity might term ‘recent’.

What he hadn’t been quite as prepared for was the reception Aziraphale’s costume got from the adult humans.

Pepper’s mum demonstrated why she still held onto old VHS recordings so that Pepper could know about them, making a noise and gestures much like Newt.

There were also a few questions along the line of ‘why pick that one?’ but mostly, the response was positive, with the refrain among the adults mainly being that really, the poor man hadn’t had a fair shake of the bag, had he?

More than one person was quite complimentary about the quality of the costume, remarking on the fit and accuracy as well.

By the time they were heading out, quietly so as not to attract attention – even in the most gaudy collection of colours and patterns, Aziraphale knew how not to draw attention when he didn’t want it to and Crowley beat him flat on that score – you wouldn’t have been able to tell Aziraphale had ever felt embarrassed or unsure about his costume.

His pride was one you could warm your hands on without getting burned and Crowley was proud and delighted on his behalf.

Even so, when they’d gotten into the car and out of Lower Tadfield, Crowley couldn’t help but break the silence, feeling bad.

“Sorry,” he said, looking out at the road even though at this time of night, he didn’t exactly need to. This was still Lower Tadfield, after all – all that was needed was lashings of treacle. Not that he ever needed to, of course, but that was hardly the point, now was it? The blackness outside the car was quite fascinating to look at, thank you.

He could hear and feel Aziraphale turn in his seat to look at him, even though he was studiously not looking back.

“Whatever are you apologising for, dear?” He could most definitely hear the puzzled frown.

“You know.”

“I’m afraid I don’t.”

“You do.”

“Quite honestly, I have no idea.”

He was going to make him say it, wasn’t he? Bastard. The word was ruined by the fondness it was heavily tinged with. “For making you…for making you doubt your costume, alright? Feeling miserable about it and stuff and I just made it worse.”

“What? Oh.”

“Yes, ‘oh’. I didn’t mean to – “

“No, I know that.” Crowley snorted in disbelief. “I do. And it is quite garish, really, but the moment I saw it, I just…well…” He trailed off though it was hard to categorically decipher the reason.

“You don’t have to justify it, angel. You liked it and that’s all the justification you need, if you need any at all. I was being a berk and I apologise.”

“You weren’t, dear.”

“Just let me apologise, would you?” Crowley snapped, finally turning his head to look at the other – who looked a little taken aback at the outburst. but then he smiled.

“Thank you,” he said, his voice tender. “I suppose I shouldn’t have cared what others thought, either, if I liked it.”

“Damn right,” the ginger said, turning his attention back to the road.

“Crowley.”

“What? I’m still a demon, you know – and you know what I mean.”

“I suppose, yes,” Aziraphale agreed with a sigh. His voice was still mainly warm, though.

Then, after a few moments of much more comfortable silence as they wooshed along country lanes and b-roads that would eventually take them back to larger roads and London, Aziraphale spoke again.

“Would you…would you mind terribly if I…if I kept the costume?”

Ah. Right then. Nub and crux now, was it? Sort of, anyway.

“Not my decision to make, is it?”

“No. It’s not.” There was a bit more certainty back.

“Not as though you haven’t worn something equally ludicrous over the years, anyway – that outfit at the Bastille, for one.”

“I’ll have you know that that was the height of fashion!”

“Twenty years previous at least, yes,” Crowley said, unable to keep the grin off his face and out of his voice. There it was, that was better. That was more Aziraphale.

Keeping only the one hand on the steering wheel – it wasn’t as though he was going to crash into anything, one hand or no hands, was it? – he reached the newly freed hand over and, not hesitating this time, reached over and placed it on a knee. However, he almost immediately slid it up a little to rest on top of a plush thigh.

He thought he heard a small intake of breath at that but didn’t pull his hand away.

When he felt a hand cover his gently, caressing the length of bony fingers before plumper ones slotted between them, curling around them.

“Thank you, dear.”

“Don’t mention it, angel. Should be able to fix my own bloody cock-ups, shouldn’t I?” He managed to squeeze the hand in his and the thigh beneath his hand at the same time. “This alright, though?”

“We have held hands before.”

“Yeah, but not like – you know what I mean!” Crowley said, almost cried in sudden exasperation. He turned his head, willing the Bentley to keep moving them towards home, safely, while he dealt with other things. “The – the going forward. Escalating things. Just a little. Like – that I can kiss you. Not just on the cheek. Other places. Touch you more. I know I go too fast, but – “

And he’d said too much, hadn’t he? Pushed far too far all in one go. ‘Gone too fast’ and now Aziraphale would tense up and backtrack.

Bless it, this was why he kept his mouth shut. Kept cool. He had to not to break over the years.

His hand was lifted, still interlaced with Aziraphale’s, turned and kissed on the palm, gently, ever so gently.

“I’m sorry,” the angel said, quietly, almost inaudible in the car.

“Don’t you apologise. Not after – don’t apologise.”

“But I should’ve been clearer.”

Let me have this. Don’t take it from me.

“Aziraphale – “he began, pleading in his voice. He hadn’t noticed the car had stopped.

The angel interrupted. “I would like all of that, and more besides. I just…I suppose I was…unable to shift gear, as it were. Scared to, really. But I thought that maybe…maybe if I was in the clothes of someone else, if I could, just a little, that I might have the courage to change. Someone who’s known for change and…adaptability, even when it takes a while for him. Or so I was told. I could, perhaps – “

“And then I go and fuck it up.”

Aziraphale, who had been looking down at and fiddling with the ridiculous bow that was the neckpiece, looked up at the demon, eyes wide. “I didn’t say that.”

“Didn’t need to, did you?” Crowley paused and swallowed. Then he wet his lips. “I’m so sorry. Okay? I should’ve – “

In a sudden move, Aziraphale leant forward and kissed him. Not on the cheek or the forehead. On the lips.

It was just as chaste and sweet as before, more a press than anything, but even so, Crowley was staring at him, his whole face registering surprise, even despite the glasses.

“I – “Aziraphale began as he pulled back. That was about all he got out before he was grabbed by said ludicrous bow and pulled in for a proper kiss.

When they pulled apart, a good long while later, Crowley’s sunglasses were fogged and Aziraphale’s cheeks were a lovely shade of red.

“Crowley?”

“Not too fast?”

“No.”

“Good. Come here.”

[aethelflaedladyofmercia]

WIP Wednesday - “Someplace You Belong”

Wow so Aziraphale clearly has the best home and I want to move in there. I bet he wouldn’t even notice, he’s super distracted with Crowley these days, right?

So I’ve already mentioned my newest fic, “Someplace You Belong.” I have mentioned it’s a sequel to the bookshop deleted scene. And I’ve talked about how it was inspired by the line of description, with Aziraphale being “as content as it is possible for him to be.”

When I read the bookshop scene, I just immediately needed to write something to process the many feels it gave me. I had already written two Crowley-centric stories from this approximate time period (this Saturday’s “Three Little Words,” set in 1849, and next week’s “In Love With My Car,” set in 1933), and I’d wanted to include a story with Aziraphale from around this time, too. My first idea was a story set in 1967 about his feelings before giving Crowley the holy water. I’m still going to write that one, but turns out HE HAD A LOT OF FEELINGS and I’m not ready to tackle that one quite yet.

Soon.

There’s other possibilities, including something set closer to the church scene, something right after the fight itself, or something in the interim. Also there’s the option for Crowley-centered stories at each of those points as well...

What I’m getting at is, there’s probably going to be another series of stories down the line where I look more directly at the Argument, whereas this set of three is more tangentially around it.

Fortunately, I read the book shop scene, and immediately had lots of ideas!

Unfortunately, this scene came with a couple of big surprises.

First surprise: Crowley showing up with pastry. In the deleted scene he has chocolates, although someone pointed out hard chocolates wouldn’t be available for a few more decades, and much as I could see Crowley convincing some German confectioner to create a never-before-seen sweet for Aziraphale, I also wanted something more period appropriate.

Cue two or three weeks of insane research into Regency Era pastry recipes desperately trying to describe the flavor some mille-feuille because, damnit, the version that existed in 1800 isn’t the version we eat today and that would be like 15 years out of date, and it says icing but not what kind of icing and my God I’ve never been so consumed by a research project!

(If you’ve read the story, y’all now have some inkling of the amount of work that went into those, not even joking, five sentences.)

Second surprise: I expected Aziraphale to talk about his sense of connection to the bookshop, and instead he starts talking about the War! This was a pleasant surprise, because it had been over a month since I’d written “Obedience” and I was ready to revisit his backstory, this time touching on some themes of identity. But I had to kind of pull things around a lot to get us back to Aziraphale feeling like he belongs in the shop. I think it worked out in the end, though I did have to drop one or two details about the shop itself that I’m not sure where to weave in now!

Third surprise: Aziraphale starts talking about his old friends by name. That shouldn’t have been a problem, as I’d written down some backstory notes on them ages ago, but turns out they needed some personality, too, just enough to make the scene work. So I did a lot of research into angels - looking for angels with appropriate specializations, replacing almost every name from the original list in an attempt to strengthen the knowledge connection, even adding some notes on their appearance as needed. Again, a ton of research for just a couple of sentences, but honestly, when I read that part of the flashback it’s a real punch in the gut to me. Now these aren’t just names in a book, they’re characters I know.

Fourth surprise: once I realized I was apparently writing a hurt/comfort, my brain panicked and I forgot how to do the comfort side. Or, more accurately, I couldn’t find anything Crowley could say that would be real comfort given how much Aziraphale had lost - especially given that Crowley only knows part of the story. Aziraphale kept all the most painful parts to himself. And so I could only have Crowley offer a partial comfort, and Aziraphale partially comfort himself, and leave you all with the hope that some time after the Apocalypse, they would finally, really talk about this. (I’m now starting to think of the whole of “Sawdust of Words” as a 6,000 year slow burn hurt/comfort, with me writing all the hurt stories now and just REALLY PROMISING we’re going to get to comfort some day.)

Fifth surprise: all through the first draft, the thing that bugged me was, what does Aziraphale think their relationship is right now? I mean, the Angel has many layers of denial going on, but what was the story he told himself? When the answer hit me, it hit really hard and I had to sit an process it for a bit. I don’t spell all of it out explicitly in the story (I did, but then deleted that line), but you can at least get part of it: that Aziraphale knows what their relationship looks like, but he doesn’t think it’s real.

It’s an elaborate act they go through - Aziraphale gets to pretend he has companionship after being denied it for thousands of years and Crowley, well, if you look closely there’s a few hints what Aziraphale thinks Crowley gets out of the relationship. (While you’re at it, try to spot how many times Crowley attemtps to say ‘I like being around you, you’re genuinely my friend, please don’t feel lonely, I love you’ but something else comes out instead.)

Wow this is a lot of surprises.  And there was one more.

Sixth surprise: there was actually supposed to be a long story (probably another 5-chapter story) before this set of 3 shorts. But I wasn’t ready to write it. So I started writing a different long story. That one got way out of hand with some deeper Crowley characterization stuff, and I can’t finish it. So these stories got bumped way up. The only real issue was it put the two Aziraphale backstory fics back-to-back, but now Crowley feels a little neglected.

Don’t worry. So much Crowley coming up in the next stories you may be sick of him. I’ve been using him as an emotional pinata, sorry not sorry. :p

(Also I’m tired and I think I just cracked a scene I was stuck on so I’m just gonna toss this into the void without even spellchecking so I can get back to that. I’m living on the edge!!)

[angelholme]

May, Myself and I

Day 24 & Day 25 - Luck & Apologies

So yesterday  I learned that the people at...... whoever wrote Civilisation finally got round to issuing a patch to Civilisation 6 so that the entire play area fits on the screen. 

You would think they would have done this when they released the game originally, but apparently not. However now that they have I ended up spending most of last night playing Civ VI and starting my attempt to conquer the world.

Which meant that I forgot to write about “LUCK” so apologies for that. 

Around once a week or so the entire world - or quite a part of it - gets together to watch Doctor Who. A very enterprising woman named Emily Cook had the idea of staging a “global rewatch” of various episodes, and inviting people who were involved in them to tweet about them. So far it has involved such luminaries as Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat, David Tennant, Katherine Tate, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darville, Sophia Myles, Noel Clarke and a host of others (who I admit I have forgotten because I am kind of hungry and need food). It is actually a lot of fun and you learn a lot. 

There are other things going on as well - my little brother has been taking part in a multitude of quizzes and someone at work has been taking part in virtual horse race meetings (or his daughter has at least). 

Zoom is taking over the world - people who can’t see each other in person are using it for virtual meetings. It’s being used for news reports, for virtual gameshows, for D&D meet ups and a myriad of other reasons. 

Businesses are using all sorts of other interfaces, but in the world of lock down Zoom seems to be master. 

To the point where a few weeks ago the Wales Comic-con was cancelled - because forcing several thousand people into a small enclosed area was considered a very bad idea at the time (gods knows why!) - and it was replaced by an entirely virtual Comic-con. 

Guests from all over the world joined in on zoom to talk for half an hour to an hour in aid of the NHS, interviewed by another person on zoom. It was pretty astounding to see how well it was organised and how well it was handled, given how quickly is must have been organised.

There was Buffy, Supernatural, Gotham and Harry Potter - and including a woman I first saw playing Lady White Adder several decades ago.

Because not only do you need skill and organisation to run a virtual Comic-con you also need something else - something that was almost her last word on Blackadder

Because her appearance on Blackdder ended with a truly fantastic phrase.

“Luck? Woohoo! Get it?”

“No?”

“Oh come on! Luck - sounds almost exactly like F------”

But anyway........

Nearly swearing loudly brings me on to the topic of saying sorry.

Because over the past two days the UK has been awash with people not saying sorry - not saying sorry for their behaviour or expressing regrets about someone else’s behaviour or just making excuses for some truly appalling behaviour. 

Not once have we heard the word “sorry” for any of the behaviour we have heard about. 

You know how grown up’s behave?

When grown up’s make a mistake - when they do something wrong, whether it is a huge stonking mistake or a tiny little mistake - they say sorry. 

A few months ago a presenter named Evan Davies totally misgendered someone on the air on Radio 4′s PM programme. And instead of ranting about how political correctness is ruining the modern world, he admitted his mistake, apologised, said sorry, corrected his mistake and moved on. 

Because that’s how grown ups behave. 

When I deleted a table in a development database that I really should not have deleted (because it kind of screwed up the work someone else was doing) then I said sorry and tidied up after my mistake.

Because that’s how grown ups behave.

If you screw something up - you apologise. You say sorry. You admit to your mistake and you try to make it better. And if you can’t you just accept the consequences. 

Because that’s how grown ups behave.

What we haven’t seen in the past two days is anyone admitting to their mistakes. What we haven’t seen is anyone apologising. What we haven’t seen is anyone saying sorry.

What we have seen is people lying. What we have seen is people gas lighting an entire nation. What we have seen is people telling us we don’t know what we know. What we have seen is people treating us like we are beneath contempt.

What we haven’t seen is anyone behaving like grown ups.

Just once I would like to see someone in government take responsibility for their mistakes. 

Just once I would like to see someone in government say sorry. 

Just once - from government - I would like to see some apologies.