#the long weekend was nice

[wistfulvulpine]

As Merlin looses his magic into the air, he wonders. Will his king, bright and gold and warm, one day know all of him?

For @merlintarotfest

Cards from the Light Seer's Tarot: 7 of Wands, The World, 2 of Pentacles

Full img on AO3 (posted for the collection)

[obsob]

the accolade ( the...the cat-olade...)

[lenaellsi]

“Crowley is still an angel deep down” “Crowley is more of an angel than any of the archangels” “Crowley was only cast out because he needed to play his part in Armageddon, he's not a real demon” “Aziraphale wants to rebuild Heaven to be more like Crowley because he’s what an angel should be” no. Stop it. This is exactly where Aziraphale went wrong.

Crowley is 100% a demon. He's not actually a bit of an angel, and he's not cosmically better than any of the other demons we see in the series. He's much less vicious than most of them, yeah, but he's also much less vicious than most of the angels, because how “nice” a celestial being is has nothing to do with which side they're technically on. Crowley's kindness comes from him doing his best to help people despite the hurt he's suffered himself, not any sort of inherent residual or earned holiness. He was cast out just like the rest of the demons, and that's an important part of his history that shouldn't be minimized, excused, or, critically, 'corrected.'

Being angelic is not a positive or negative trait in the Good Omens universe. It's a species descriptor. Saying that Crowley is still an angel deep down because he helps people is an in-character thing for Aziraphale to think, certainly--Job and the final fifteen showed that in the worst possible way--but it's not something Crowley would ever react well to, and it's the main source of conflict in the entire "appoint you to be an angel" fiasco.

We know that Aziraphale thinks Crowley's fall was an injustice, but why? Well, because Crowley is actually Good, which means his fall was a mistake, or a test, or a regrettable error in judgment, or…something. Ineffable. Etc. The point is, he’s special, much better than those other demons, and if they can fix him and make him an angel again, everything will be fine! (So once Job's trials are over, everything will be restored to him? Praise be!) Aziraphale has to believe that Crowley's better traits come from traces of the angel he used to know and not the demon he's known for 6,000 years, because that’s how he can rationalize his incorrect view of Heaven as The Source Of Truth And Light And Good with his complicated feelings about Crowley's fall.

But Crowley's fall was not an injustice because he's actually a Good Person who didn't deserve it. Crowley's fall was an injustice because the entire system of dividing people into Good (obedient) and Bad (rebellious) is bullshit. Crowley is not an unfortunate exception to God's benevolence, he is a particularly sympathetic example of God's cruelty.

And really, Crowley doesn't behave at all like an angel, especially when he's at his best. All of the things that he's done that we as the audience consider Good are things that Heaven has directly opposed. (See: saving the goats and children in defiance of God in S2E2, convincing Aziraphale to give money to Elspeth despite Heaven's views on the "virtues of poverty" in S2E3, speaking out against the flood and the crucifixion in S1E3, tempting Aziraphale to enjoy earthly pleasures because he thinks they'll make him happy, stopping Armageddon.)

Heaven as an institution has never been about helping humanity. And that's not an issue of leadership, as Aziraphale seems to think--it's by design. Aziraphale's first official act as an angel toward humanity was to literally throw them to the lions. Giving them the sword wasn't him acting like an angel, it was just him being himself. Heaven doesn't care about humans. It's not supposed to. It's supposed to win the war against Hell, with humans as chess pieces at best and collateral damage at worst.

Yes, it's easier to think that there are forces that are supposed to be fundamentally good. It's easier to think that Aziraphale is going to show those mean archangels and the Metatron what’s coming to them and reform Heaven into what it "should" be, and that God is actually super chill and watching all of this while shipping ineffable husbands and cheering for them the whole way. And of course it's easier to take Crowley, who Aziraphale (and the audience) adores, and say that he deserves to be on the Good team much more than all those angels and demons that we don’t like. But that's not how it works. People are more complicated than that, even celestial beings.

Crowley is a demon, and the tragedy of his character is not that he's secretly a good guy who is being forced to be evil; the tragedy is that he's lived his whole life stuck between two institutional forces that are both equally hostile to the love he feels for the universe and the beings in it. There are no good and bad guys. There are no "right people." Every angel, demon, and human is capable of hurting or helping others based on their choices. That is, in fact, the entire fucking point.

[julykings]

by candlelight

[raineandsky]

#109

When the doorbell rings, the hero’s kind of hoping it’s the pizza delivery guy.

They open the door to find, tragically, not the pizza delivery guy.

“Uh,” the villain says, “hi.”

The hero isn’t entirely sure what sequence of words would best fit this scenario. “Hi?” is the best they can do.

The villain shuffles on their feet awkwardly. A pause hangs between them, filled by the distant roar of the city beyond. “I thought you’d ask why I’m here,” they say eventually.

“I’m more concerned about how you’re here.”

A smile threatens the corners of the villain’s mouth. “We know where all you heroes live.” The smile fades into nothing again. “Or just I know, now, I guess.”

“Okay.” The hero squints at the villain uncertainly. “I’ll entertain you. Why the hell are you standing outside my door?”

“No one wants to be a villain anymore. Everyone quit.” The villain’s face contorts into some unreadable expression. “It’s just me.”

That doesn’t sound right. From the villain’s slight grimace, they know it too. “Everyone… quit villainy,” the hero repeats.

“There’s nothing to gain from it anymore. We had a vote and I was the only one who wanted to keep going.” The villain’s gaze dips to their hands as if they hold answers. “They left me everything, but… I can’t do it all on my own. So I’m turning myself in.”

The hero stares at the villain for a long moment. “Even [Supervillain].”

“Especially [Supervillain].”

The hero steps aside with a sigh. The villain looks like they’re being invited into a pit of wolves. “You want me to come into your house?”

“My handcuffs are in my living room cabinet and I don’t trust you standing out there. It’s cold, anyway.”

The villain closes the door behind them in an uncharacteristic show of politeness as the hero digs through their drawers. They’re wiping their shoes on the mat when the hero gets back, cuffs in hand.

The villain holds their hands out and the hero clicks the cuffs around their wrists. It’s almost too easy. The question is sitting on the tip of their tongue.

“What’s the catch?”

The villain doesn’t seem surprised by the question. They shrug halfheartedly. “Dunno.” They glance about for inspiration. “All the others have gone into hiding, I guess. You have me, but everyone else will probably evade you for the rest of time.”

“Much like they already do.” The hero manoeuvres them to the sofa in the living room, giving them a nudge to make them actually sit down. “You make it sound like you’ve been left in charge of the entire criminal organisation.”

The barking laugh the villain lets out is entirely fake. Too sharp, too short. “I have.”

“So villany will collapse without you.”

The villain shrugs again, the motion laden with effort. “Not like anyone else was willing to carry that burden—and I’m not either, hence why I’m, y’know…” They gesture vaguely at themself, in cuffs, in the hero’s living room.

The villain goes, villainy is defeated. No more villains, no more big crimes, no more heroes. Everything the agency has worked to be would collapse. The hero would be out of a job. It'd be over.

Yet here the villain is, giving everything up, taking the entirety of villainy down with them. The sole survivor of a shipwreck and wishing they’d gone down with the ship. A ship they don’t seem to realise the hero is on too.

The doorbell rings again, and the hero leaves the villain carefully settling on the sofa to answer it. They return with a giant grin on their face and a giant pizza box in their hands.

“Let’s worry about all this afterwards,” the hero says brightly. They brandish the box at the villain in the hopes of tempting them. “Want some?”

The tempting works; the villain reaches for a slice. “What a last meal.”

The hero sets the box on the coffee table as they flop back on the sofa. “I don’t know, [Villain],” they say with a smile, “I don’t think it has to be.”

[abirddogmoment]

aerodynamic ear in the sunrise

[shadyhouse]

hello!!! i was able to get all my bills paid for this month without overdrafting my bank account, which is amazing 🥹 but my rent is coming up and due on the first, i only have $5 in my bank account but i need $750 to pay rent 😭😭😭 im working my ass off on comms in the coming weeks, if anyone is interested in getting one in the meantime im extremely open! $80 for a single character and $120 for two characters!

and if you cant afford that and just want to throw a few bucks at me that's much appreciated too!!! anything helps at all, anything will help me not be severely overdrafted before my next (very small) paycheck hits on the first of january!

im still on the job hunt and nothing has turned out so far unfortunately :( commissions are my main source of income for the time being since the job market is in shambles

pp: paypal.me/bewearrr

vnm: tobias_leviathan

0/750

[temeyes]

gossip trio,,,,,

[cupcakeslushie]

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share that my first big, two day festival went really well! It was so much fun and the weather was a bit humid but gorgeous! I sold a lot of pieces and made a good profit!

I’m exhausted (both days were waking up at 6 or 7 to get there by 9 and staying til 5), so I’m taking a couple days to chill and rest.

Here’s a couple pics! If anyone’s curious, it’s an old festival that’s been going for 40 years where they cook a giant omelette made of 5,000 eggs! I was able to run over and get a few shots of all the chefs and the big skillet! And they were nice enough to pass around servings to all the vendors!

Definitely doing it again next year! And they had a parade where they threw tiny Tabasco bottles and squishy eggs, so I caught a perfect souvenir!

I’ll get back to drawing turtles soon! And to all my of age, American followers pls go vote tomorrow!

[sentientstump]

For requests: mayhaps your tc deity au? I really liked it :D

Or, if you wish, some of your ocs?

39. tfw river didn't like your fort

also wanted to congratulate everyone with belated new years/summer solstice festival :D yippee!!!

got costumes from these photos of Yhyakh of Olonkho 2024 (i think currently its down or something, site worked two seconds ago lol)

from this post

[deepcutbrotank]

I did shoulders in a thong

[your-unfriendlyghost]

mentally prepping myself for another 9.5 hr shift tomorrow…might end up committing a few minor crimes after but we’ll see

[xoxoemynn]

Every time I have a random day off, all I can think about is how much happier and more put together I'd be if we had four-day work weeks.

And not "sure, you can have a four-day week, but you still need to put in 40 hours in a week."

Just. Four days. Get your work done. Sign off when it's done, don't feel obligated to fill the rest of your day just to say that you did.

Imagine.

[sainz100]

[wassupmygays]

tonights (jan 19th evening) cover board!!

via bethmarie003 instagram

[lilydalexf]

👽 Random X-Files Fic Rec

There is a very captivating story about what could have happened had Mulder, Scully, and William all stayed separated. Except of course none of them can stay separated, not really. This story is captivating but also at times very tense and upsetting because it’s written so well with such humor and such care to every detail and character. It’s always worth a read (or re-read). Title: Dr. Scully's School for Exceptional Boys Author: Prufrock's Love Summary: More than a decade had passed. Mulder had no reason to hole up in his apartment alone, wearing a Three Dog Night T-shirt with dried mustard on the hem and blue jeans that had seen better days. He wasn't "saving himself" for anyone. Especially not Her. Though she remained epically, beautifully, brilliantly kick-A-S-S. Length: 71,467 words Classification: Novel, MSR, Other Rating: R Spoilers: Veers AU after season 7, with a few bits from 8 & 9. Favorite line: As if I'd pick only one. Read the story!