#strange pilgrims

[elodieunderglass]

✅ ⛔️ 😊?

From the fanfiction ask meme!

⛔️ whats something you try to avoid in your work?

In fanfiction I try to avoid political laziness, and the tendency to make background characters all the same kind of person that indicates the writer has a REALLY limited social bubble.

In Strange Pilgrims (Good Omens https://archiveofourown.org/works/19368694/chapters/46082842 ) I needed some disposable demons for a chase scene. The source material TV adaptation took the fairly-lazy route of making disposable demons recognisable stereotypes of British “lower classes” or had them be ugly little disposable creature things. I deliberately decided to avoid that, so I had to think about what kind of person I am instead, and what I should say instead. So that’s why I decided my disposable demons would be horrible rich people/ landlords/ irl scum. I got a sly dig in at what I perceived as perfectly avoidable laziness in the adaptation, and an easy route into their descriptions;

A stereotypical mental image of "a group of menacing people and a dog, following someone in London" might involve shifty-looking people in tracksuit bottoms, and a dog whose rap sheet includes the words "pit bull" somewhere. This group of menacing people is signalling something far crueller. They are white, well-dressed, smirking - they look like Tolly's colleagues. The woman-looking one has long straightened blonde hair, and is genuinely wearing an actual padded gilet. The men-looking ones look like they've never been held accountable for anything in their lives; one looks like he has a portfolio of rental properties, and the other one looks like he has designed a social media platform.

I also liked that this gave me stuff to hang descriptions on! A landlord can be so hateful! What kind of villainous animalistic attribute do we give him? (Demons in the adaptation are given animalistic attributes; Crowley is a snake.) Pfff, no need to malign and stereotype normal animals either! No perfectly good beastie like a toad or fish needs to be put into the position of being shorthand for “vile”, when landlords are obviously black mould.

Under his brushed and shiny property-developer facade, he seems to be a creeping, suppurating mass of black mould, staining and corrosive, the kind that lurks behind paint and smirks back to the surface when you've committed to another year on the lease. The destroyed eye socket is already healing inside, filling up with fungal growths.

There. Everyone hates him, our politics are funny and cutting, we got some great inspiration, no animals were maligned, landlords were maligned, it all goes nicely and shows off a bit. All that from avoiding a lazy choice!

😊✅

relatedly I liked this continuing choice, that the people who help the heroes throughout the Strange Pilgrims are working-class folks with their own lives. Bus drivers and barefoot ghosts and marching bands and security guards and protesters and librarians, and even the sparrows. They all have voices and value, to me at least, despite being throwaway characters in a fanfic for a forty year old book.

[cdrewind]

There’s no audience for Strange Pilgrims memes but nothing is funnier than when I lost my mind reading it months ago.

[fabledshadow]

As always, quoting Strange Pilgrims:

“Something terrible is coming!”

“Yes. Me.”

1.06 // 2.06

[feralforpineapplewomen]

Pricefield❤️

Scott pilgrim but as life is strange (I'm a little late in this trend 💀)

[78miu]

roller derby chloe

[chasefieldfan]

It simply cannot be overstated just how much Max Caufield means to me.

[elodieunderglass]

Oh my goodness thank you for recommending Strange Pilgrims, that’s so kind!

Crystal, I feel like you mention a cool fic that I've never heard of every episode; would you be willing to make a rec list?

HIII YEAH SURE. the funny thing is that (given our recording schedule) grey finished ep6 three days ago and i'd been compiling a post-s1 fic rec list for him so i'm just gonna repeat some of those. this is NOT comprehensive it's just what's been on my mind recently and isn't on like the first 3 pages of the sort by kudos for a/c

Strange Pilgrims: Being the Account of a lost Angel, the Journeys of a Demon, the meaning of Free Will, of the Unravelling of a Prophecy, and of Being Unravelled by it in Turn by sousverre (T, 127k words)- love the writing style love the lore cried both of the times i read the epilogue chapters. p canon divergent i feel but it's like its own creature to me

gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder, I gained my freedom by noodlefrog (E, 10k words)- i call this one the vagina dentata fic that invented love due to how it's the vagina dentata fic that invented love

The Best of Times by indieninja92 (T, 2k words)- they have a Moment in 192 AD and it's very augh. have enjoyed other fics by this author also

Love's Such an Old-Fashioned Word by Lavellington (G, 2k words)- it's just nice

Not a Human AU by maniacalmole (G, 34k words)- makes me wail makes me ache. there's a ring also. i recommend checking out other fics by this author also

A Shifting Spectrum of Grey by PenroseSun (E, 21k words)- the premise is "two asexual immortal beings bumble their way into a friends-with-benefits relationship that neither of them actually wants" and it's very good

help me to say by dotsayers (T, 3k words)- i reread this one today and it's cute. they meet up in a nunnery

Live In Thy Heart, (Maybe?) Die In Thy Lap by larkthorne (E, 33k words)- ace crowley and allo aziraphale make it work

Coitus Interruptus with Paperwork by mountagrue (E, 4k words)- pwp marathon sex that is also so funny and so trans wish fulfilment

for the line is thinly drawn 'tween joy and sorrow by malicegeres (G, 2k words)- what if hanahaki was so funny

and three s2 ones

I would not ask (and neither should you) by mercuryhatter (M, 2k words)- GENDER. also they kiss in edinburgh

affection and other cravings by JustStandingHere (E, 29k words)- hellooo aziraphale and appetite

long distance by thingswithwings (T, 4k words)- I LOVE MISERY

also, the ones that i recall mentioning on podcast

a German song famously covered by 21 year old Wayne Newton in 1963 by spocklee (Not Rated, 13k words)- "Didn't Sisyphus ever get to fuck that fussy old boulder?"

follow me in merry measure by larkthorne (G, 2k words)- lesbian a/c dancing in 1946

A Glittering Instrument by malicegeres (T, 91k words)- crowley has a daughter kidfic

have a good day!

- Crystal :)

[cryptiiid]

hey…you like dr who?

finally got around to watching scott pilgrim takes off and had to hop on this redraw trend asap

[elodieunderglass]

Thank you @sweetlyfez for tagging me!

rules: give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the fewest words.

First Most Hits: Strange Pilgrims (Good Omens) / complete / 127k words. A large and ambitious fic about a lot of things and - alarmingly - having an actual plot, but it excuses that by also having jokes in it. 55,424 hits.

Second Most Kudos: His Delicious Materials (Dungeon Meshi / Delicious in Dungeon, daemon AU) / WIP / 59k words. Winnie the Pooh by way of Nona the Ninth, narrated by a large dog. 1500 kudos.

Third Most Comments: Weasel Heart in Defiance (Dungeon Meshi / Delicious in Dungeon, daemon AU) / WIP / The Hobbit by way of Night Watch, narrated by a guy who is NOT a protagonist. 610 comments (367 comment threads)

Fourth Most Bookmarks: The First Great Poem (even the furies would weep) (Mad Max: Fury Road) / terminally unfinished / a really pretty concept and strong voice, but I just didn’t have enough of a plan to pull it off! 39 bookmarks (30 public + 9 private.)

Fifth Most Words: Odds Abridged (Dick Francis, Sid Halley series / complete / content warning for horselessness. this is literally just a parody that I wrote this week in a fever dream hahaha. 4,816 words

Fic With Fewest Words: Sharpe’s Daemon (Sharpe, daemon AU) / complete / my precious and most stupid baby I love you so much. What is Richard Sharpe’s daemon and how would you win a fight with it? (2,265 words)

——————

Regarding public and private bookmarks - if people tick the “private” option when they bookmark, you won’t see the count on the fic page, but you can still see them on your Statistics page. Find your Statistics page on your ao3 main dashboard.

Here you can see on the fic’s public page that His Delicious Materials has 410 public bookmarks.

But if you look at your Statistics page - you’ll see that if you count a different way, it has 567 bookmarks - they just did so privately!

This tabs also separates comments into “comment threads.” So if you reply to all comments, or if people have wonderful conversations in the comments, you can see the different data patterns!

It’s also where subscriptions are, which can also be interesting. Subscribers are people who have signed up to get an email when you update, which is a different mechanism from bookmarking (and IIRC, doesn’t require an Ao3 account.)

Anyway!!

Tagging @girlmercury @andlightplay @skydaemon @kedreeva @gallusrostromegalus if you’d like to play!

[lakesparkles]

Some of my favorite women together because I clearly have a type,,,

[cynosurus]

I immediately reread the ending of Strange Pilgrims which to me has become *the* post season 1 resolution tbh.

I've finally just finished season 2 of Good Omens so now I can join everyone (I assume) in saying wtf???

[catszipp]

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ    ⠀ 𓊆 viados cinéfilos 𓊇 

[hotchocolatebeforebed]

diversity wins the worst person you know is bisexual

[staincastle]

⠀⠀⠀ ★ rina's message is here! minimalist headers

[elodieunderglass]

I was trying to find a post about Strange Pilgrims and found this. Thank you so, so much for this kindness and for sticking through a fic that took so very very long to finish.

this is maybe my favorite good omens fic i’m currently subscribed to, which is frankly stiff competition! but like:

(1) i love this crowley fiercely for his deep well of awkward, resentful, heartfelt sweetness and unexamined yet inviolable conscience, and then of course i’m hugely fond always of snake!crowley, of whom this fic presents a particularly delightful instantiation; (2) for reasons you will rapidly discover if you read this fic, which you should, crowley has three distinct concurrent relationships with aziraphale, and the intertwining complexity of those is hilarious and poignant and compelling; and (3) this fic has a real plot, it has a hell of a plot (pun not intended), and while, don’t get me wrong, i am endlessly willing to retread the fertile ground of ‘our beloved fools have yet to define their relationship! with what exquisite agonies of hesitant misunderstanding will they stumble from point A (for Apocalypse) to point B (for Bliss, comma Domestic)!’ after an overwhelming parade of sweets it’s indescribably satisfying to have some real, rare meat set before you.

[note: this fic does portray a really toxic, coercive relationship (though not between Our Darlings), and while it’s not described in technicolor detail, the shape of it is very clear and very chilling. this is warned for, but seemed worth explicitly reiterating.]

[thevaudevilledemon]

I made a small, incomplete, and ultimately useless timeline of Comics... enjoy