#there was a panel i wanted to use with gabriel but i think if i find it again i’ll make it a separate post

[milimeters-morales]

[gabrielleragusi]

For Artists: My Experience with Commission Platforms and Illustration Agencies

Hi there! I’ve been wanting to compile a list of commission platforms that I’ve personally used for the longest time, and I finally did it! I’ve highlighted the still-active commission platforms in bold and struck those that don't exist anymore so you can jump to the sections that interest you without needing to read my entire story.

Let me start by briefly introducing myself.

I’m Gabrielle, a fantasy illustrator. Since 2014, I’ve been working on book covers and illustrations for publishers, authors, and book subscription boxes. Early on, work wasn’t as frequent as it is now. I had to search for opportunities myself, and even small private commissions were important for building my portfolio and earning some money, which I’d spend on materials, books, and online courses. Like many other artists, I started out by trying my luck with the biggest art community available at the time.

DeviantArt

2009-2018

Once upon a time, there was a virtual haven called DeviantArt. To my teenage self, it was a magical place. I signed up in 2009 and thought I’d never leave!

At first, I created an account just to share my work and learn. I didn’t even think about commissions for four or five years. But when that first inquiry finally landed in my inbox, things took off! My mum swears she remembers my excitement when I got my first commission, but for some reason, I’ve completely forgotten about it. I can't remember what it was or how much it paid. It might have been a portrait of a fantasy character.

Commissions on DeviantArt were fairly frequent, especially considering my cheap prices at the time. I used to offer discounts and post my rates in my DeviantArt journal, or in Commission groups that featured artists either monthly or weekly. After checking out my profile, a client could simply send me a private message and from there, we’d discuss payment, deadlines, and other details, and the platform didn’t take any fees, much like how ArtStation works today. Everything happened through private messages or email, with direct contact between artist and client.

The downside of this process was that there was no dispute resolution system on the platform. I had to handle all issues myself, and unfortunately, problems did arise sometimes: there were clients changing their minds about commissions, asking for refunds after work was delivered, refusing to pay, or just ghosting me. These issues didn’t happen because clients were evil, but rather because I was inexperienced and allowed some to take advantage of my naivety.

However, all that frustration helped me develop my commission process through trial and error (mostly error). And despite the challenges, I can say with satisfaction that most of the commissions I received through my DeviantArt profile were positive experiences.

DeviantArt eventually introduced a commission feature for Core (Premium) users, which came with a platform fee, but I didn’t use it much, and I’m not sure if it still exists.

The real beauty of dA, though, was the connections I made. I was able to meet people, both artists and clients, that I’m still in contact with today, and some of whom I still collaborate with.

I closed my account in 2018 or 2019, but by that time, I hadn’t really used it for a couple of years. The new user interface was a bit of a turn-off for me. I had always loved the geeky, and dare I say cozy, look of the old green and grey aesthetic, with its customisable panels that you could move around and personalise with HTML code... But I digress.

Artists and Clients

2013-2016

While taking small commissions on DeviantArt, I discovered Artists & Clients. It was a nice platform for clients to get things like their D&D characters or groups illustrated for relatively cheap. I think my highest price was $50 for a single character portrait, with the platform taking a 15% cut. I used it for about two or three years before the platform started to change.

As more artists with hentai art styles flooded in, the homepage shifted, and so did the clientele. There’s nothing wrong with drawing naked anime girls, of course, but you can understand that if a client is looking for a fantasy, semi-realistic painting of their female orc character, or a realistic portrait of their spouse, it's more than likely that they won't bother sifting through a sea of anime girls to find the style they want, imagining it isn't here. Let's just say that, at the time, the website took a definite direction that wasn't in line with my genre, but this direction didn't make the different, more realistic art styles stand out either.

Soon, commissions slowed down for me, so I closed my account, but by then I was already working elsewhere.

That said, this platform could still be a useful tool if you’re looking to take on smaller commissions.

DreamUp

2014-2015

DreamUp wasn’t an AI generator back then. It was actually a subsidiary of DeviantArt, where clients could post projects and artists could apply. It was a competitive platform that offered well-paid work–very well-paid. I remember seeing jobs posted that ranged from $300 to $1,200. DreamUp was a very professional platform for clients with a mid to high budget.

I believe I landed my very first book cover commission through this website when I was in my last year of high school. I remember getting the job and going to school the next morning, excited to share the news with my classmates. Everyone was super thrilled for me (we were a really close-knit class!), and I felt like I was walking on air.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, that book was never released, but it didn’t matter because I was moving forward, and fast.

I’m not sure when DreamUp was shut down, but I do know that DeviantArt held onto the copyrighted name, assigning it to something so anti-old DreamUp that it still boggles my mind.

ArtCorgi

Now Artistree

2014-2019

When I received an invitation to join ArtCorgi from its founder, I already had a somewhat consistent portfolio. I was painting portraits and fantasy illustrations, and the clients on this platform were looking for both–your typical wedding and pet portraits, as well as book covers, which were what really interested me. To get to the latter, I had to do the former. Over the years, I’ve painted so many realistic portraits that now I have a strict rule for my own sanity not to do them any more. I have great respect for portrait artists, but it’s just not me.

When I first submitted my prices to the person I was in contact with, she kindly suggested that I raise them... a lot. That was a major step forward in my professional career. I went from charging $50 to $100/$200 overnight. And to my surprise, people actually wanted to commission me at those prices!

From 2014 to 2019, I took nearly every commission that came my way. I never spoke directly with the clients; all instructions and feedback went through my point of contact, which helped maintain a level of professionalism, although now that I’m used to working directly with clients, I’m not sure I’d want to go back to having an intermediary.

Sadly, as with all good things, this chapter came to an end. My point of contact eventually left communication in the hands of someone else, and shortly after, the commission fee changed to, I believe, 30%.

Simply put, 30% is an unrealistic cut for a website like this. For an agent that gets you all kinds of big work in the publishing industry, sure, but since this was not the case I had to stop taking commissions. Despite that, my overall experience with ArtCorgi was very positive.

Today, ArtCorgi joined another platform, Artistree. As far as I can tell, Artistree doesn’t take any fees from artists, with clients covering a small cost instead.

Sketchmob (?)

2016-2020

This was probably the platform I used the most. I’ve lost count of how many commissions I received through Sketchmob. Many. Enough to generate a steady income at the time. With reasonable fees and a variety of art styles available, clients contacted me almost daily. Communication was direct between artists and clients, and payments could be split. The review system also worked very well… for a while.

Once I raised my prices, requests became fewer and farther apart. But by then, I was already working with my own clients.

Is this platform still active? Who knows. The website is still up and the chat feature works, but I’ve seen users complain that money available for withdrawal never arrived via PayPal (the only payment method the platform accepted, if I remember correctly). Personally, I wouldn’t risk completing a job through Sketchmob right now, at least not until they release an update.

If you’ve used the platform recently and successfully received payment within the last six months, please let me know, and I’d be happy to update this section!

Upwork

2017-2019

In 2017, I was determined to break into the book publishing industry. After trying out Fiverr and Freelancer.com with no success (the competition was too fierce for someone just starting out), I decided to give Upwork a shot. The platform looked very professional, and while the process sounded a bit complicated, I wanted to land the interesting projects I saw featured in my category. I really wanted to work with a big client… but big clients didn’t seem to want me, despite having the Rising Talent badge.

In two years of bidding for jobs and submitting proposals, I only landed two projects: a small commission from a private client who actually reached out to me, and another project that I bid on.

Don’t get me wrong, I was ecstatic at the time and truly appreciated every opportunity that came my way. But looking back, I can see why Upwork didn’t work out for me. The platform just wasn’t the right fit for my style and niche, which is fantasy illustration. Graphic design, however, was (and still is) in much higher demand.

The commission process on Upwork wasn’t as simple as on other platforms. For instance, at the time, costs were calculated hourly, which was a challenge for someone like me who prefers working with flat fees (having already calculated my average hours spent on an illustration). From what I’ve seen, this has since changed.

One positive aspect of Upwork is its current 10% cut on what artists earn. I don’t recall if this has changed over the years, but 10% is quite reasonable in my experience. Of course, 0% would be even better, but for a platform as large as Upwork, 10% is fair.

Illustration Agency

2019-2021

By 2019, I had built a solid, consistent portfolio thanks to my personal work and commissions. I had a simple website in place, my Instagram following was growing… I was steadily working toward my goal of illustrating covers for big publishers (which didn't happen until two years ago).

So, when an illustration agency reached out to me one day, I was over the moon. I had always heard that artists were the ones who had to approach agencies, not the other way around.

Well, that should have been my first red flag.

I won’t name this agency because, unfortunately, I have nothing positive to say about it. In fact, the word “nothing” perfectly describes my involvement with them. Nothing came of this barely there experience.

The agency invited me to sign up, not on an exclusive basis, but they assured me they’d get me work. That work never came. Once in a while, I’d receive messages saying they were trying to pitch my portfolio to a French publisher or another client, but... nothing.

Please understand that meanwhile I was already working directly with shops and authors, so I don’t believe my portfolio was the problem. The real issue was something I didn’t realise at the time: some agencies do this. They feature talented artists in their catalogue without having actual clients lined up, just to appear more professional and credible to potential clients. Did this strategy work for them? Maybe. I’ll never know.

In 2021, I politely asked them to remove my portfolio from their website, and that was the end of it.

After that, I never actively sought out an agent again. By the time my portfolio was strong enough to approach a serious agency, I just didn’t need representation anymore.

Hireillo

2019-2022

My experience with Hire an Illustrator, or Hireillo, is mixed. At the time, Hireillo was a platform that hosted artists' portfolios, featured artist-submitted news, provided useful articles, resources, and directories of artists and agents. I joined the site hoping to catch the eye of publishers, but I was mostly contacted by authors and one fellow artist for a graphic novel.

Unfortunately, most inquiries didn’t go beyond the first couple of messages due to budget constraints. I did, however, have fun sharing news about my painting process and projects I landed on my own, which were often featured by the website. Additionally, if I had questions about 'complicated' things like copyright, or just needed advice, I could ask the website’s owner and that was incredibly helpful.

Despite these benefits, I didn’t see any real results, which was a little disappointing. The subscription fee was also... odd, for lack of a better word. $5 per week. In the end I just couldn’t justify the cost, so I stopped using the website altogether.

Reedsy

2019-2022

Finally, we come to the turning point.

I remember stumbling upon Reedsy randomly. It wasn’t very well known at the time, and I think it still isn’t. I was nervous when I submitted my portfolio because their catalogue features the best of the best: designers who’ve created covers for bestsellers, THE bestsellers, people who’ve worked on Stephen King covers, or George R.R. Martin's. Designers, editors, and marketers who are veterans. I didn’t have high hopes for my application. So, I was in shock when it got accepted.

I had an introductory Skype call with a representative from Reedsy, who explained how everything worked. Before the call ended, I remember asking if there was a good chance I’d get work through the platform. The rep laughed and said, “Yes.”

A few weeks in, I understood that laugh.

Reedsy has an overwhelming demand for book covers and commercial projects. For every designer there are many more clients. In peak seasons, I was getting requests almost every day. I’m not exaggerating.

Reedsy transformed my portfolio and my pricing structure. Thanks to the income I earned through the platform, I was finally able not to take everything that came my way but be selective and choose only the projects that really interested me.

The commission process is simple: artists pretty much decide how to split payments, what to include in agreements, and the best part, the most beautiful and helpful feature of all, they can request and adjust deadlines. For someone like me who's terrible with deadlines, this feature was a lifesaver. The admins are also very kind and responsive, available via email or chat.

Unfortunately (this is my last 'unfortunately', I promise), my time on Reedsy came to an end for personal reasons. I’ll explain since it’s no secret.

All my images on Reedsy were watermarked with my signature (my full name), which apparently violated the platform’s rules. Why? Because if a client saw my last name, they could contact me directly and bypass Reedsy, which meant the platform lost potential fees. I’ll admit this did happen a few times, but I had the good sense to redirect the client back to Reedsy.

After three years, an admin finally noticed and asked me to remove my full name from the watermark and any text on my profile. It was a simple and reasonable request, but here’s where the problem started. Profiles on Reedsy are public, and images appear in search engines like Google Images, meaning anyone could download my work and use it without permission. Sure, watermarks can be removed, but uploading my work without one in the first place felt like a bad idea. Btw, not only do I use watermarks, but I also use Glaze to protect my illustrations before sharing them online.

Anyway, for this reason, and also because I couldn’t get over the fact that full names were public at the time, something I won’t get into because, believe me, I tried over email, and my reasons went into the void (now, last names are just initialised, like Gabrielle R. Okay. Sure.), I had to close my account–they would have done it anyway because it was already 'flagged'.

Overall, if you’re willing to overlook the last name conundrum, I can’t recommend Reedsy enough. If you have a killer, solid portfolio and a love for books and editorial projects, go for it!

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

I hope you'll find this useful! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask (: Oh, and here's an old article I wrote in 2020, titled:

Tips to freelance illustrators to avoid being screwed over

Who knows, maybe I'll write another 'article' post in four years!

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[crownsandbishops]

Crowns and Bishops Behind the Scenes (part 1)

In today's extra long post, for the anniversary of Crowns and Bishops I will be giving you guys a peak behind the process of creating a comic for the Blog, in this case, Vine's Lore post! The Final one of the main set! For extra long asks like this I always start out by typing up a script, laying out exactly what I might want to say in response to the question at hand! Here's the full typed script for Vine's lore post [it ended up SUPER long, I think because I've had the most time to think about Vine's character and what I wanted for him haha!]

From there I start on the first panel, and as anyone who has seen my wips or just knows how I drew things, every Jir character starts their life as a circle!

I reuse some assets mostly for backgrounds to make the process go easier, such as these pillars and skulls in Narinder's realm!

Because mspaint doesnt have layers, different coloured outlines are used to create what is essentially different layers so that adjustment to one section doesn't affect another!

I kept this one mostly the same but adjusted the legs because it wasn't looking quite right!

for details like the shawl stripes I overlap the lines like this and then paste over it with the red being transparent, so only the details on the red remain!

When I'm happy with the main image I then add the text from the script!

It usually takes 4-5 iterations before I'm happy with placement, clarity and spacing! I also often have to account for the colours i use to make them the most readable against the background of each panel!

I look up reference images for this, like the standard way that a cloak like this one would be held together!

And since the Lands of the Old Faith is a closed-off continent in the preindustrial era any background will be confined to one of the five Bishop's lands! For this one I've chosen a forest like the one in this trailer for the game, but with an adjusted colour pallet!

I decided for the next panel, since Vine's mother's characterization was kind of a messed up allusion to the virgin Mary, that I should reference a biblical painting related to it and found this one

Though the cosmology and relations are different, the Seller was the obvious stand in for the Angel Gabriel in the picture!

Some panels start with the background, others with the character depending on what makes the most sense! Here I have a bit of both worked on but I'm focusing on drawing Vine!

For the ritual sacrifice Vine and his mother created a fake traitor's razor as the ceremonial dagger, and a clasp reminiscent of Gaap's, Narinder's most favoured vessel up to this point, as well as utilizing ceremonial paint and other decorations and representations related to Narinder!

When drawing imprisoned Narinder the hardest part tends to be fitting the veil properly above his opened third eye!

For the next panel, I show the intersection between the three vessels, as though Vine would've been born while Nelly was Narinder's vessel, Acedia does come before him in the order, so I had to square away how that would work!

When I initially decided on the order for Narinder's vessels I hadn't decided on the broad strokes of who they were and how they would've been chosen, so Acedia being before Vine but only for a single year between Nelly and Vine ends up quite silly!

If there's no real room like here, I'll sometimes extend the canvas to add black bars to add the text in.

I asked my chat for a follower form and was suggested Wolf, so the follower Vine is charming here was made a wolf!

I use this wall asset for the cult grounds in the background!

And I have various colour references for other things like Camellias and the outfits for non-cult affiliated denizens of the Lands!

( apparently, I can only have so many pictures so >:3 Part 2 awaits!)

[zoopzaper]

I BITE

realistically i know nc! miguel wouldn’t do this most likely, but i imagine this is how he would ignore his feelings for reader—denial and to ‘protect’ reader. though he wouldn’t want to be harsh—it seems it’s the only way that he thinks would “work” (or the only way he knows.)

also i used @sunsetdoodler ‘s version of reader as a reference! :] so y/n in this is essentially that one !

i also used the SM2099 1992-1996 comics as a reference for the last panel! (the one with miguel and gabriel hugging)

fanart for @greensagephase ‘s nonviolent communication !

AUDIO FROM “Isle of the Dogs” by Wes Anderson! go watch it, it’s super good!!

ANYWAYS EXPECT MORE HAHA I HAVE SO MUCH FREE TIME (aside from work 😞)

[drconstellation]

More Half-and-Half-A-Miracle Thoughts

Part 2: The Dark side of Aziraphale

Updated 10 Nov 2023

Part 1: Miracle Power Ranking is here. Part 3: The Third Archangel is here

There was one that thing that struck me about the miracle working scene: why did Gabriel offer crossed hands to the duo?

Gabriel offers his right, his good, heavenly angel-sided hand to Crowley first, and his left, his sinister-sided demon hand to Aziraphale.

And this is NOT an accident.

Its been observed that Gabriel, in his amnesiac state like this, has reverted back to a more base-state angelic being, one of joy, and love, and curiosity. He's acting on instinct here.

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. The demon has more light in him than the angel, and Gabriel and can feel that instinctively. This really shouldn't be a surprise to us, its been in our face all along. Now don't get me wrong - Crowley is still a demon, and Aziraphale is still an angel, I'm not saying that they aren't. Mostly we talk about how Crowley isn't all that much of a demon at heart, just "going along with Hell as far as [he] can," but we don't really talk about much about that other side of Aziraphale other than wishing to see more of his BAMF! side.

You know what - its a side that thanks to all of the rest you ops and meta-ists out that that I've come to both fear and appreciate. And let me tell you, if I found myself in a dark alley on a bad night I would hope to God it was Crowley I bumped into , because I feel he would at least give me the choice to walk out alive. I don't think Aziraphale would, I would be at the mercy of how ever he decided he wanted to manipulate the situation...and I find that rather chilling.

Crowley might be the charred demon with a heart of gold, but Aziraphale is the two-sided bastard of an angel he loves. All bright light casts a shadow. Its easy for us to be blinded by the shining light of goodness and right and the side of God (er, hang on, isn't the GO God an eldritch horror in disguise...?) and not be able to see what is hiding behind it.

We rarely see the back of Aziraphale's waistcoat, because he is rarely seen without an overcoat on, a covering of social propriety. There is the noticeable occasion in S2E1 when Crowley comes back to do the apology dance then they perform the hiding miracle (see screenshot below, and it was still hard to chose a good angle for all it went on for several minutes!) and perhaps in S1 when he spends all night reading Agnes Nutter's book. Both times its only in the privacy of the book shop, under the cover of night. So its easy to miss that the color of the back panel is a most un-angelic color: a dark viridian green. I know I keep banging on about this, but its important, and in more ways than one.

[Edit: Since I first wrote this, I've written a mega-meta on all the colours in GO, and some of the following interpretation has changed a little - but the significance of the green still stands!]

All the angels wear some form of a pale colored neutral palette, ranging from white to beige to taupe (white, off-white shades and shades of brown,) with dove-grey for the known in-show seraphim, Gabriel, Michael, Uriel and Saraqael. Gold and blue are also associated with Heaven. But Aziraphale is the only angel to wear green and shades of blue-green. He's quite unique in that department.

The colors of Hell are completely different. Black, lots of black. And red, different shades of red. The demons are actually quite a colourful lot, but do tend towards the darker shades. Red is a colour of passion, not just a demonic colour, although it can be associated with the demonic sinister left hand side. The main colour of Hell is actually green - the thick green light that you almost of have to swim through in the crowded halls of Hell, and examples like the green stag on Furfur's sash. It represents chaos, in competition to the rigid lawful nature of Heaven.

So while Aziraphale mostly presents a socially acceptable angelic front, its telling only Crowley has properly glimpsed that dark, shady, bit-of-a-bastard unpredictable side to him - and likes it. (More from Cobragardens about it here in 1793 Paris and 1601 at the Globe.) I mean, come on - this is a being that sent a man to his death so he could go on lunch date? A lunch date he practically concocted just so he could see Crowley. wtf? A being of love who was about to shoot the Antichrist to stop Armageddon? A being who quietly and efficiently discouraged the mafia who threatened to set the book shop on fire from ever returning? (See, told you I didn't want to meet him a dark alley...) Plus we saw him mind-control a whole roomful of people for his Jane Austen-themed ball, just to woo his beloved demon, with no thought of the possible collateral damage. I'm sorry, is this the same "guardian angel" we were all glowing over earlier?

The coat lapel as wings theory adds some weight to this hidden dark side of Aziraphale as well. Aziraphale's lapels always point downwards, towards Hell. Particularly when he has been discorporated and returned to Heaven, where frustrated about being told he has to gear up for war, he instead wonders out loud if he can return to Earth to a possess a body, reasoning that if demons can, he must be able to as well. lmoa! You are so not an angel, my dear! Yet...he isn't a demon either. He's almost...a bit of both. Two sides to a coin. A blend of light and dark. Shades of grey...although he doesn't like to admit it.

Image by lomiel

Back to the shadow-like green panel on the back of the waistcoat.

Actually, on second thoughts, I'm going to put that in Part 3.

[oksanas-sun]

benita appreciation post because she and her relationship with v were one of my fav things about s4

i love this scene for several reasons.

1. the fact that benita took one glance at villanelle and immediately her maternal instincts seemed to kick in

2. v's reaction to being called a good girl🥹🥰

3. her cute lil smile in the last panel, when benita rubs her shoulder :3

this is just so precious to me because it's one of the few times where we actually see v being lowkey nervous and shy. And so genuinely gentle too, like the care with which she cleans benita's wound (couldn't put a gif for that sadly since the limit was 10:,) )

(I also think it shows so much of her growth because this is the first time she actually asks for confirmation instead of just taking it literal & going ahead with the killing, like how she cut off maxi's dick as it was apparently the only reason Anna was still with him, or how she killed gabriel since he said he wanted to be dead. But here she actually asks if it's what benita wants.)

v looks so sad & embarrased here, like a kid who knows they're about to be scolded but benita just... isn’t impressed at all. There's no judgement, not even a hint of fear. And v's tiny smile when she realises that, and that she can actually use her "skills" for something good is just too precious.

again, so many feels. How she's kinda smug (in a very sweet like yeah, i made sure he's gone, you're safe kinda way) but when benita cups her cheek and looks at her so very gently, there's just this immediate switch. This is one of the moments where ~Oksana~ bubbles really closely under the surface, i think. Everything about her just becomes so much softer and smaller in that moment, even tho she catches herself and changes the topic. But just,,, i have a lot of feelings about the way v behaves around benita. It's like this look in her eye, this yearning for the parental affection that she never received as a child.

so yeah, i wish we'd gotten more of benita tbh.

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #68

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 5, The Ball, expert

...

Sideburns Check

The sideburns are short. The magic shop is a human space, and Crowley is taking no particular actions to lengthen them. They will stay short until he confronts Gabriel later.

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

The red streak can most easily be found when Crowley walks over to place his right arm on a panel while looking at Mutt.

...

Hairstyle Changes

Since the last scene gave such a limited view of Crowley's hair, this comparison goes to the scene before that when Crowley and Aziraphale crossed the street toward Maggie's record shop.

In this scene, the front top hair goes up and curves toward Crowley's right. There are also three notable tendrils that curl behind this front top hair and end up curling toward Crowley's left. The left-most tendril of this group is also where to find the more saturated red streak of hair.

...

Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects | The Ball Invitations Checklist)

Now we have reached the second ball invitation to be done on camera.

This invitation is for a human named Mutt and his spouse. Mutt is the shopkeeper for Will Goldstone's magic shop. It's the same magic shop from episode 4's minisode. Much like the music shop, there are no other customers around when Aziraphale and Crowley visit.

Let's check in with the checklist.

Aziraphale does all of the talking, of him and Crowley.

Aziraphale does not talk to Crowley.

Aziraphale most obviously looks at Crowley when they are about to leave and he sees Crowley wearing the fez while playing with the crystal ball. He conceivably looks at Crowley when Crowley looks at him, before Aziraphale starts on his temptation with the book. There's another potential look when he's saying the book is not for sale.

So far as looking for Aziraphale with a possible illusionary touch over Crowley, his coat is obviously over Crowley when Crowley walks behind him. But maybe the game wants something more than that. There is a blurry part of him briefly over Crowley's left jacket sleeve when Aziraphale's suggesting Mutt bring his spouse along. Crowley's blurry right hand does visually pass over Aziraphale's left hand, so that would be an illusionary touch under, instead of over, Crowley.

When Aziraphale spoke, he did not greet Mutt with a hello, question, or number.

For names, he did not say the name of anyone who will be at the ball.

...

Crowley does not talk to anyone.

Crowley looks at Aziraphale just after they enter and before passing behind Aziraphale. He looks again after Mutt says he's taking his spouse out to dinner and again when Aziraphale looks at him while Crowley is wearing the fez near the crystal ball, just before they leave.

Because two humans are being invited, Crowley is probably supposed to have two of each of his assigned touches.

Earthly objects Crowley touches include a panel with his right arm, the rug with his shoes, some beads with his left shoulder, a fez, and playing with the crystal ball the way he does probably counts as a "touch" too. Figuring out which touch goes where is beyond my ability, but I'll still note some guesses.

For instance, the earthly object touches that would be for the sake of having an earthly object touch, my guess would be Crowley visibly walking on the rug and using the crystal ball.

The self-skin-contact touch is, I think, when Crowley visibly has his hands clasped together behind his back. One can hear the beads by his shoulder and see his reflection to confirm that touch. The other closest thing resembling a self-skin-contact touch is Crowley touching his own reflection with the mirror on the door.

The self-clothing touch are the panel with his right arm, confirmed as he moves away from it and his hand brushing up behind his jacket before removing the fez.

For the self-mouth touch, Crowley is making audible noises when playing with the crystal ball, even if he's not actually speaking. He opens and closes his mouth in the process of standing before taking off the fez. As one last extra something that could be the second self-mouth touch, he places the fez on a snake statue within the shop while also ensuring a tassel on the fez touches that snake's body.

Crowley makes pockets with his arms when he places his right arms on a panel. He makes a pocket with his right arm and head when putting on the fez. He makes another pocket when adjusting the fez as he lowers himself toward the crystal ball. He makes a pocket with his right hand and jacket when playing with the crystal ball. There is a self-made pocket of hair as Crowley removes the fez. That's a funny one.

The cross is probably the upper thighs as Crowley walks away from the panel and on the rug.

There are reflections of Crowley everywhere. His short sideburns are reflected in the mirror of the door. He right middle finger touches its reflection on the mirror on the door as he enters. He's reflected in the window panes of something near Aziraphale near a hat rack. His reflection can be found in the mirror behind the skeleton when he's near the beads. His reflection, or shadow—it's hard to tell, can be found in the window panes of something near that skeleton. His reflection can be found in the crystal ball.

Crowley's shadow can most easily be found near his shoes as he walks along the rug.

The best time to look for light in Crowley's sunglasses is immediately after Mutt says he's taking his spout to dinner tonight and again after Aziraphale says, "Card Table."

...

Aziraphale and Crowley do not talk to each other.

They look at each other mainly when they are getting ready to leave.

They have a "correct" sides view as they enter with Crowley even ensuring his Tied Hands and Belt Head are visible. Then he passes by behind Aziraphale to place himself on the "wrong" side. Again, his Tied Hands and Belt Head are visible. The watch becomes visible briefly as Crowley passes behind Aziraphale.

...

Story Commentary

In my previous draft, I noted I have so many questions.

Upon figuring out that his touches are supposed to double for two invitations, I have some answers.

One previous question was, "Why the middle finger on the mirror and only that one?" I don't know for only that one, but I think this part is intended as a self-skin-contact touch.

Another overall set of questions went like the following...

"Why does Crowley brush his left hand against the back of his jacket before removing the fez? What does the tassel of the fez touching the snake statue accomplish? Tassels are thumbs on the Tied Hands, and sometimes one touches his Belt Head. Is it a way to share or transfer the touch?"

I think I was on the right track. The hand brushing on the jacket allows for a self-skin-contact touch. I'm guessing the tassel does indeed allow a share or transfer touch to help with another self-mouth touch.

Another set of questions was, "Why does Crowley get so many reflections here? Does that have to do with his Tied Hands?"

He gets so many reflections here because this ball invitation has an actual match to one of the Threshold Tricks. It matches The Door Trick. The Door Trick is linked to The Door Catch. The Door Catch is a hidden extra Magic Trick among the Threshold Tricks and performed by Aziraphale. That is to say, just as there are two humans being invited here, there are two performers, one for The Door Trick that is Crowley and the other for The Door Catch.

Additionally, while I still lack the words for the significance of the way Aziraphale catches the Metatron's reflection, I do know reflections are quite relevant to both The Door Trick and The Door Catch.

Onto my last previous question from a draft, "Was he actually doing anything with that crystal ball? He's a demon, you know. He's not shifting his supernatural zone in place yet, but that will happen later."

I at least think it was an extra earthly object touch for the extra invitation, but I don't know if this touch and movement did anything else.

...

I've said this before, but it's been edited away or I forgot which post I put it in, but Crowley's antics with the fez and snake statue are cute here, but I've seen too much of his play in these games to think he's just being cute.

...

There's some interesting sound effects just before Aziraphale makes his temptation. Crowley looks at him like, "You have the floor," and wants to see Aziraphale pass this challenge.

Satisfied with Mutt's reaction, Crowley moves on with his own moves, which include him visibly walking across the rug on the floor.

...

As already noted, these two are making sure the humans invited on camera show up to the ball, even if it's their wedding anniversary.

...

Aziraphale's being careful to not give another book away and put Crowley on alert again.

...

That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

...

Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

[topazy]

Teen spirit

Pairing: Carl Grimes × reader, Maggie Greene × sister reader

Warnings: Swearing

Chapter: 5.02

The last twenty-four hours have been hard. Your group was low on ammo, food, and water, and everyone was exhausted. Everyone was on guard for any survivors from Terminus. Glenn told you how messed up the stuff they saw inside when they were taken was. A butchery full of human corpses and a room full of the belongings of the things they stole from the people they killed. It was extremely messed up.

While trekking through the woods, careful not to make too much noise, you hear a man scream for help in the distance. You all freeze until Carl urges his dad to follow him and help. Cautiously, you follow behind, wanting to be extra careful since you were holding Judith.

You find a man clinging to a rock surrounded by walkers. Carl shoots the one, grabbing the man’s foot in the head, while Carol, Daryl, and Rick bash the other walkers' heads in.

You look up at the man who’s shaking in fear; on closer inspection, you can see he’s a priest. You call up to him, “It’s safe to come down.”

Slowly, he brings himself to the edge of the rock and slides down. He still looks petrified as he takes in the appearance of your group. His eyes land on all the blood, and seconds later he’s vomiting, “Sorry, and thank you. I’m Gabriel.”

“Do you have any weapons on you?” Rick asks.

Gabriel chuckles nervously. “Do I look like I have any weapons?”

“We don’t give two short and curly what it looks like,” Abraham says sternly.

“I have no weapons of any kind. The word of God is the only protection I need. I called for help, and help came.”

You hold Judith closer to you as she starts to fuss. “Shh, it’s okay.”

After a brief conversation between Rick and Gabriel, which mainly consisted of Rick informing the priest, he revealed that he had a church, which meant you’d have shelter for the night.

He leads you to a white church built further into the woods. As you check the premonitory outside with Carl, you begin to wonder what the catch was. “I wonder what happened to his flock?”

“What do you mean?”

“My daddy used to take me to church, and priests and flocks are usually tight-nit. I find it hard to believe he’s had this church himself the whole time, and none of his people came to her for sanctuary.”

Carl stops walking and leans his fingers over to touch the wooden panel on the outside of the church. “You see this, claw marks?”

“Walkers?”

“I don’t think so; it’s too deep. It looks like someone clawed at it with their fingernails and knives.”

You spot something almost completely hidden by overgrown plants that makes you let out a small gasp, unintentionally grabbing Carl's arm. “Oh my god, are you seeing this?”

Someone had carved ‘You’ll burn for this’ on the outside of the church. Father Gabriel wasn’t as innocent as he seemed.

—

After Rick, along with others from your group, went to an overrun store and took out the walkers plaguing it, they were able to stock up on trolley loads of food, along with other supplies. With a small kitchen based in the church, you, Maggie, and Carol were able to make a pretty good feast from the selection of pasta and tin foods brought back.

“I’d like to propose a toast,” Abraham says, gaining everyone’s attention. “I look around this room... and I see survivors. Each and every one of you has earned that title. To the survivors.”

“Survivors!”

“Cheers!”

“Is that all you want to be? Wake up in the morning, fight the undead pricks, forage for food, go to sleep at night with two eyes open, rinse, and repeat? You can do that. I mean, you have the strength. You have the skill. The thing is, for you people, for what you can do, that’s just surrender. Now, we get Eugene to Washington, and he will make the dead die and the living will have the world again. And that is not a bad takeaway for a little road trip.”

You had a feeling Abraham’s speech was aimed more at Rick than anybody else.

“Eugene, what’s in DC?”

Eugene gulps down, “Infrastructure constructed to withstand pandemics even of this magnitude. That means food, fuel, and refuge. Restart.”

Abraham smiles at him and says, “However this plays out, however long it takes for the reset button to kick in, you can be safe there. Safer than you’ve been since the whole thing started. Come with us. Save the world for the little ones. Save it for yourselves. Save it for the people out there who have nothing left to do but survive.”

The room is silent as everyone contemplates the redhead's words until Judith makes a loud noise. “What was that?” Rick asks his daughter playfully, “I think she knows what I’m about to say. She’s in. If she’s in, I’m in. We’re in.”

The room fills with laughter and cheers, but you can’t shake the feeling that something is off. Like you’re being watched. Maggie sits down beside you and says, “Hey, did you know Tara was at the prison?”

“Yeah, she told me.”

“How do you feel about it?”

You shrug. “She didn’t know who the governor was, plus Tara and Glenn saved me, so she’s with us now.” Maggie hugs you, but thinking about what happened to your father at the prison makes you emotional. “I’ll just be a minute.”

Not wanting to seem weak and shed tears in front of the rest of your group, you head into the kitchen and begin washing dishes. You enjoy the solitude and focus on nothing except cleaning.

“Hey, you okay?” Carl asks, placing his hand on your back.

“Yeah,” hearing your own voice, breaks your eyes well up. “I’m fine, just tired.”

Carl pulls you in for a hug, wrapping his arms around your back. He holds you tightly and says, “We’re going to be okay.”

[darksideofthemamon]

God in Hellblazer vs Lucifer comics

I have a lot of thoughts on the angel characters from Hellblazer/Sandman/Lucifer (basically the DC/Vertigo comics era). I've had them for a long time but I guess I'm only getting to writing about it now. I have a whole essay to write about Remiel from Sandman, but for now, this should do as a warm up.

Though Hellblazer and Sandman are supposed to be in the same universe, it gets really messy with different writers and storylines going in different directions, more so when you include Sandman's spin-offs, like the Lucifer comics and its sequels.

I think one of the most glaring differences is their portrayal of God. God seems... so much nicer in the Lucifer comics (both the Mike Carey (2000) and Holly Black (2016) runs).

And I think a lot of this is caused by the themes of each story.

Hellblazer has some really strong political themes going on, so much that I can't possibly analyze them all. What I do know is that gods/angels/etc in the story tend to represent people in power and privilege. So for example, look at what John says to the archangel Gabriel in the bottom right panel: "You're the ones that make the frigging rules for us, and you don't even understand us!"

In effect, God, as well as the heavenly hosts, tend to be portrayed as jerks.

The Lucifer comics take a different approach. The story's themes tend to gear more towards family, identity, and free will. The protagonist is a really headstrong guy who wants to be free of his omniscient, omnipotent, dad. In his words (upper right panel): "This face is mine. This scar-- is mine. You may not have them. Not without my permission."

Because of the "messed up family" angle, God tends to come off as more well-meaning, but flawed.

Reading the comics together and considering them in the same universe can get jarring when God is so patient with Lucifer, but so damn harsh towards The First of the Fallen and Gabriel.

(and yes I know the Lucifer spin-offs aren't or are dubiously canon, but for this analysis, just consider them canon)

When Lucifer rebels and causes a whole war, God gives him a domain to rule over in order to give His son what he wants: to be away from Him. (top panels)

But when First of the Fallen and Gabriel even step a toe out of line? They get cast out of Heaven in painful, soul-crushing ways. (bottom panels)

And I guess it just ends up coming off as if God has some pretty massive favoritism towards Lucifer?? XD Like wow the Morningstar gets so much leeway, but FOTF and Gabriel get tossed out so fast??

In the end though, it doesn't bother me. I think the dynamic can even enhance the story in fascinating ways.

The story where these 2 portrayals get reconciled is through Gabriel's character in the Lucifer (2016) run by Holly Black.

Gabriel in this run shares a backstory with his Hellblazer self, and though the specific events leading to his Fall were only briefly touched upon, his treatment and relationship with his Father retains those themes of free will and identity, while also portraying God as harsh and tyrannical.

When a God that turned evil tries to take away his free will, Gabriel cries "Get out of my head! I was beyond your mercy before. Now I am beyond your reach."

God tossed him out so mercilessly the first time, so why does He get to control him now?

Gabriel in Hellblazer is a proud snob who views things through a very self-righteous black-and-white lens. It's revealed however, that his Father's strict rules and harsh punishments have left him anxious, guilty, and afraid (especially following an eye-opening interaction with John Constantine).

When he opens up about his problems to Julie (actually a succubus named Ellie) in Hellblazer, she says: "Look at you. What did he do to make you feel so scared and guilty?"

When it's revealed in Lucifer (2016) that Gabriel killed God, Lucifer says: "Our Father turned His back on you. And you were so angry. You've been angry for so long."

The Lucifer (2016) comic manages to show God through the lighter lens while also acknowledging his harsh treatment of Gabriel.

And we see this in Gabriel's character. In Hellblazer he's nervously looking over his own shoulder, in Lucifer (2016) he's proudly passion's fool.

And while we're talking about Gabriel, his self-actualization arc is one of the main reasons I love Holly Black's run despite its flaws!

I love how they continued his story from Hellblazer. There's a story about a guy living under his strict father's thumb who fell from grace when he was cast out, then got back up with the help of family and friends who support him. It says something that by the end of the story, he no longer works for Heaven but instead for Hell, serving under Mazikeen who acknowledged him at his lowest. He also gains his wings and heart back-- the former from Lucifer and the latter from Raphael, his brothers.

That's all I have to say XD. This was just supposed to be an observation but I ended up talking about Gabriel lol

[armory-rasa]

Gambeson project: cutting out & fitting

Lol, apparently past-Gabriel made this pattern EXACTLY to fit 42" wide fabric. Good job, team.

However, I realized this would put the diamonds oriented horizontally instead of vertically -- which, like vertical stripes, tends to be more aesthetically pleasing on clothes. I would have preferred them vertical, but there wasn't a way to arrange the pattern pieces going the other direction, and I decided it's subtle enough not to worry about it.

Be advised that this fabric is REALLY thin though, for something quilted. Like, so thin that I'm not sure it's going to be functional at all for actual combat. o_O

But that's okay -- the whole reason I picked this color was because I had a vague idea that it could double as the gambeson layer in Eivor's very stupid ""brigandine"" armor in AC:Valhalla, if I ever decided to make that:

(Seriously, just. What is going on there.)

Anyway, I got all the pieces cut out, and then pinned them together to get an idea of the size, with straight pins along the back to mimic a seam, and safety pins along the sides to mimic lacing:

....Put it on, and then promptly took it off and cut 3" out of the back, because I was swimming in it. But better too big than too small.

Still a lot of overlap in the front, but doing better. I proceeded to change the angle of how the pieces meet at the shoulder (to make it less sharply sloped, because apparently I have more muscle there than I used to), and cut the armscythe in another half inch, so it's not tugging when I bring my arms forward.

An arming jacket that fits me pretty alright!

I might use the leftover fabric to add a yoke piece over the shoulders too, if I can figure out how, because that's where most of the weight of the armor is going to be hanging, so it's the part that needs padding the most.

Another consideration, since this is aiming to be functional not just decorative, is where the strain is going to be put on the garment, and thus which parts need to be reinforced. Basically, the ties/buckles/whatever along the front, and the lacing on the sides, are going to need something stronger than just one layer of that quilted fabric to anchor them in, or they're liable to tear right out.

Since I'd been planning from the start to hem this with bias tape (....ugh) instead of folding the hems over, that gives me the option to tuck something stronger in there, like a panel of 3~4 oz veg tan, which I think will work nicely. (Bias tape also means I can keep fiddling with the exact dimensions right up until the last minute.)

TIME TO SEW! or something, idk, if you wanted to watch someone competent at sewing, you'd follow them instead of me. 🤣

......

.......fuck, I don't have blue thread.

TIME FOR THE STORE!

[aziraphales-library]

Heyy, thanks for the reply!!! I read all of the recommendation and loved them all.

I'm here to return the favor and ask for some more. Recently I read "He liked it so he put a ring on it" by aesthetic_warning, it's a 4+1 fic where Zira and Crowley have been married for a while and the rest (anathema, newt and the them) didn't know. — https://archiveofourown.org/works/19379116 —

I was wandering if you know any fic with that same concept? An established relationship where people around them is slowly figuring that these two are, in fact, together.

Ps: this blog is a godsend 💕

Hello. You'll want to check our #secret relationship tag for more fics along these lines. Here are more to add to the collection...

Five Times Gabriel Almost Caught Aziraphale and Crowley Fraternizing and One Time He Did by AtoTimber (G)

The angel didn’t move. He was lost in thought, stuck staring where the Bentley once was. At least they still had the picnic. “Aziraphale?” A voice rang out across the street. It was then that Aziraphale realized he was staring at a pair of gray slacks. “Oh dear.”

between the lines by midnightfreeway (T)

Aziraphale and Crowley are afraid of Heaven and Hell finding out about their relationship. Crowley thinks they should communicate with letters—and burn them to get rid of the evidence. In theory, it’s the perfect plan, so Aziraphale has no choice but to go along with it.

It turns out to be more difficult than either of them imagined.

Would I Lie to You? by FeralTuxedo & TawnyOwl95 (E)

Anthony Crowley and Aziraphale Fell are rival team captains on popular comedy panel show Don't Lie To Me, where they exchange insults and banter to an audience of millions. But behind the scenes, a whole other game of truth and lies is being played.

A comedy panel show AU

Turn of the Fates by KaytheJay & SparklyTears (M)

Aziraphale was born into a very rich family. However, he is the shame of the family for a number of reasons, though the biggest one is that he is a male carrier. Aziraphale had accepted his fate of being married off to some girl in the name of preserving the Fell family legacy until he bumps into someone who changes his life forever.

South Downs by summerofspock (E)

Blackballed from the industry ten years ago, Anthony Crowley jumps at the chance to star in a new Regency romance miniseries with well-known gay actor Aziraphale Fell in the hopes that it will help him restart his career.

The trouble is, Crowley has played all sorts of characters and for the life of him, he can't figure out why he's struggling to play the romantic lead opposite a man.

Bigger Than Us by Caedmon (E)

Aziraphale Fell is the widowed minister of a progressive little church in Tadfield. He's settled into a comfortable life since his wife died six years ago, but his world is rocked on its side when he meets Anthony Crowley, who just moved to town and took over a landscaping business.

And the one you mentioned...

He liked it so he put a ring on it by aesthetic_warning (T)

~"Raise your hand if you didn't know we were together,"

Unsurprisingly, almost every hand in the room shot up. ~

Or:

Crowley and Aziraphale help plan a wedding, and along the way find out something very interesting...

- Mod D

[ceciliasthings]

You're one of the only people I know who write for eugene and I had a fic idea in mind 😭 idk why more people don't write for him he's such a cutie pie BUT ANYWAYS.

Eugene x fem!reader who have been dating since like s5 and Eugene finds out reader is pregnant during his savior era (it's his kid btw) from Gabriel. I imagine Gabriel tells him this like when Eugene was yelling at him when he was in the hospital bed. And Eugene gets all antsy and goes to find her once the saviors are able to get out of the sanctuary and he gets all emotional and crap once he sees she's got a bit of a belly bump. Ty <3

•Moments of Calm Before the Storm • (1/2)

Summary: it's only been a few weeks since the terror that negan put you through, you and Eugene still have memories of those horrible days and if for one night you two forgot everything tonight just for a moment....

It's been three weeks since you saw your friends brutally killed by Negan.It was one of the worst feelings you've ever felt the worst of all was not being able to protect Eugene he was on the other side looking at you with fear you didn't know if he was afraid of you being chosen or of himself being killed,When it was all over you crawled over to where he was hugging him as tight as you could.Things have been weird ever since that happened he's been distant and doesn't want to pick up any weapons anymore,You two were having trouble sleeping every time you closed your eyes you had flashes of Abraham and Glenn Getting beaten up by that bat and you over there next to Eugene not being able to do anything these pictures make tears come to your eyes.

-y/n are you awake?- He puts his hand on your waist over the covers.

- Yes....- you turn to him staring at his face

In all the time you've been together you've never seen him like this,During the day you would focus on the solar panels you would try to talk to him but he would give short answers it worried you but you couldn't force him to talk about it.

- I'm sorry...- He says quietly as he places his hand on your head

- Why are you apologizing? - this snapped you out of your trance you expected him to say anything but "sorry" was the last thing on your mind

- for not protecting you that night...That night when you were with me in the trailer and when we watched the sunset for a whole 35 minutes, It was the best of my life But then the saviors surrounded us and I saw you getting hurt by those guys... I stood there and I couldn't do anything! -He says sobbing he sits on the bed running a hand over his face which is wet with tears.

It gives you a lump in your throat to see your loved one blaming himself like that, your next action is to hug him while he cries you can't help it and shed some tears too.When you managed to calm him down, he was lying on top of you with his head on your chest.

You pat his head, he seems to squeeze you a little tighter you kiss his forehead and then say- Eugene..it wasn't your fault..if I wasn't there who knows what they would have done to you? - your heart stops for a moment thinking about the cruelest possibility that existed for you..- They could have killed you...- As he spoke of this, your eyes filled with tears-If I could go back I'd do it all over again, I'd get in that trailer with you, watch the sunset with you and... I'd get beat up by those suckers with you

As you say that he looks at you with a surprised expression.

- are you serious ? - he asks with wide eyes

- yes dear..i would do it all over again- you say calmly as you caress his face.

He gives a slight smile it was the first time you had seen him smile since that day, and then he brings his face close to yours and kisses you,The feel of his lips touching you was comforting he runs his tongue all over your mouth it seems like he's forgotten what it was like to kiss you..he places his hand gently on your face as he takes your lips, when the two of you break the kiss to breathe you can see that he is flushed,you run your fingers lightly over the stitches you gave him he shudders but soon gets used to it and runs his hand over your wrist.

- does it still hurt? - you look at the stitches attentively.

- A little... - he says softly then he looks at you - but when you touch it it feels like the pain disappears..

You smile and lean down to kiss his spots first you kiss his forehead then his eyebrow and then you kiss the bruise he has on his lip, you give him a peck but then he pulls you away for another kiss with passion..you end up on top of him you get lost in the kiss that when you see you are sitting on his waist..You want him but you're afraid of hurting him you ask him.

- are you sure? I don't want you to get hurt I know you have bruises on your arms and legs

He wraps his hands around your waist you shudder at his touch his hands are warm- i'm sure..god i want you so much..

You smile as you get rid of your pajama bottoms you run your hands lightly through his underwear feeling his bulge he sighs at your touch as you feel his cock get harder, without even waiting you pull it out and position it at your entrance, you hear Eugene's breathing get heavy with it he's looking forward to feel you...You soon start to go down slowly on his member, careful not to be so rough, you let out a moan while doing this..

- God... this feels so good..- Eugene says as he arches his head back now he runs his hands over your thighs- You make me feel so good....

Upon hearing this you go down and up faster, letting him feel all of your insides you place your hands on his chest while you do this the expression he makes is priceless, his eyes are shining his mouth is half open and his face is more like a red band looking like a sunburn, you feel his breathing get heavy because of your hands on his chest.

- oh Eugene...- You arch your head up as you feel his member reach its "happy spot"

You go faster as you feel his member pulsing inside you, you feel that he is close and that it won't last long so you speed up the movements you are getting closer too.

- y/n! I love you so much..- he squeezes your waist while closing his eyes- y/n y/n Y/N!

He screams your name as he comes inside you it makes you reach your point too, you feel him release all his load inside you, when you finish you lie down next to him out of breath and kinda tired,But just thinking about that being the only good memory in three weeks makes you have a goofy smile on your face.

- wow that was good... - you put your head on his chest-I hope I didn't hurt you or open any points in this.

He laughs as he runs a hand through his hair playing with it- you didn't hurt me..in fact I think you did the other way around haha- he kisses you on the forehead,you two cuddle for a long time until you fall asleep Eugene covers you and kisses you on the lips and then settles down to sleep too you two fall asleep in each other's arms.

- Eugene? - you wake up and it's still night but you don't see him by your side, worry soon takes over you.- Eugene?!

After saying that you hear the front door closing and you hear footsteps going to your room when the door opens and he has a serious expression.

- I'm here y/n ..- he lays down on his side and puts his arm around his waist- I went to answer the door ..

- Who was it?- you ask snuggling next to him.

- nobody important I just see that I'm going on a run tomorrow..don't worry I'll be fine..now let's go to sleep it's kinda late..- he says in a calm and reassuring way as he kisses your back.

You just nod your head and close your eyes for the first time the image of Glenn and Abraham being killed no longer appears but happy moments you have with your boyfriend, but who knew that a simple lie could change everything?.

Notes: Sorry if this sucks and if I haven't been very active, unfortunately writing fanfics doesn't get me grades lol but I'll try to be more active here on the blog and for the person who asked for it, sorry for so long and I promise the second part won't take so long :) I hope you like it

[bedrock-to-buildheight]

Hi, I have to ask, who is the otherworlder? Also, have you thought of/designed Lucifer’s existence in Ultrakill, and if so, what would his views be towards humanity’s strife? Would he be more like the snake in Gnosticism, actually liking the mortals, or is the council the angels he used to rebel, and in Ultrakill, they won? Etc.

Oh boy.

The Otherworlder is an OC of mine, it's the sentient gutter space between panels of a story, it controls the composition of the comic, and it does not want to be acknowledged. Apparently, the way I depicted it, as something that exists outside reality and can only be described in terms of what it is not, is how you're supposed to make statements about capital G God in some religions.

I don't know enough about Gnosticism to say anything about it, but my idea of Lucifer, back when it's still alive, is that he's the ultimate logical being. His entire self is dedicated to carrying out commands with no deliberation, hesitation, or question. It does not seek choices. It does not make conclusions upon the data it is given. Lucifer was a machine in everything but the physical meaning.

God made Hell and Lucifer, with his god-given sense of fairness and justice...threw up an error message. And God did not know how to debug so he just deleted the whole thing.

As for when humanity was a thing and Lucifer was around, which is...before Hell? I think? They're just another one of God's creations to him. I don't think it even perceived other angels as fellow beings, they're all just sets of inputs and outputs to him.

In the end, Lucifer might have been God's only successful attempt at making a sentient being with no free will

If it was around for God's disappearance it would probably keep following orders from whoever care to give them and end up taking Gabriel's place as the Council's instrument of force. It has no pride to shatter and no anger to provoke, so not even V1 can save it from that. It's for the best that he wasn't around anymore

[chicgeekgirl89]

Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting

Fandom: 911 Lone Star

Characters: Carlos Reyes, T.K. Strand, Gabriel Reyes, Andrea Reyes

Rating: T

CW: Blood

Summary: When Carlos responds to a call involving a bar brawl, he's surprised to find his fiancé injured and in the middle of it. But that's not the only surprise waiting for him...

For the @badthingshappenbingo​ prompt: Lacerations

For @bluenet13​

Read on AO3

Carlos doesn’t want to be at yet another bar brawl. They’re messy and loud and chaotic and they take forever because everyone is drunk and angry and it’s impossible to get a straight story out of them. 

He’s been watching the minutes tick by ever since a call for assistance at The Driskill Bar came in. A couple other units had responded immediately, but if they need back up, he’s the next closest one. His shift is so close to over, he can practically taste freedom. If he can just make it a few more minutes he can head back to the station and clock out without having any part of tonight’s drunken revelry. 

Ten minutes.

Nine minutes.

Eight minutes.

“Three-six-three H-20 this is dispatch, please respond.”

He sighs and clicks on his radio. “Dispatch, three-six-three H-20.”

“Three-six-three H-20 please respond to a disturbance at 604 Brazos Street,” the dispatcher says.

Damn it. Carlos allows himself a half a second to let his head thunk back against the headrest in defeat. He was so close.

“Three-six-three H-20 responding,” he says, flipping on the lights and sirens as he hits the gas and speeds along through the rapidly darkening streets of Austin.

There are five other cruisers already at the Driskill when he pulls up and an ambulance is rolling in behind him. Shit. This is a big one. He double checks that everything is secure on his belt as he heads inside Drunk people are sometimes more crafty than they look, and he doesn’t want anybody grabbing something they shouldn’t.

The Driskill isn’t what he expected. It’s clearly not some dive bar where drunken locals go to drown their sorrows after a long day. The place is posh and polished, all gleaming wood paneling, leather booth seats, and the floor isn’t even the slightest bit sticky.

That being said, it’s is a disaster. Tables on their sides, drinks and food all over, and people everywhere in varying states of distress. A couple officers are still wrestling with unruly patrons while others are doing cursory checks of anybody who might be injured.

He goes to help a woman who is lying on the ground, her blonde hair all a mess. “Are you hurt?” Carlos asks as he pulls her to her feet.

“No, no I think I’m okay. Thank you,” she says, straightening out her dress. 

“I’m going to ask you to take a seat over there until an officer can talk to you,” he tells her, holding out a hand in the direction of a couple of booths that are untouched by tonight’s violence. “If you find you’re in any pain flag down an officer or a paramedic.”

She nods and carefully picks her way over to the seats as he turns and looks for another place to be useful. 

There’s an officer near him struggling to cuff a burly man who keeps yelling something about, “That little bitch!” so Carlos lends a hand.

“That little bitch! He’s gonna pay for this!” the man continues to yell as they get him to his feet.

“Sir!” Carlos says sternly. “You need to calm down!”

“I’m not gonna calm down! He nearly strangled me!”

Carlos looks at the man’s massive neck and finds that a little hard to believe. “Who?” he asks. “Can you identify your assailant?”

The guy glares at him. “Yeah. It was that little bitch right over there.”

Carlos follows the line of his gaze and feels his stomach drop as he takes in a familiar tousle of brown hair. “Oh…no,” he says slowly.

“What’s wrong?” the other officer asks.

“That’s my little bitch,” he says and then quickly corrects himself. “I mean, my fiancé.”

As if he can feel the weight of Carlos’ gaze, T.K.’s grey eyes snap up and lock on Carlos’, relief flickering through them. 

“You can go,” the officer tells him. “I got this.”

“Thanks.”

Carlos strides across the room, broken glass crunching under his shoes, heart beating rapidly in his chest. When he reaches T.K. he’s shocked by what he finds. 

His lip is bleeding, his left cheekbone red and swollen.“T.K. oh my god,” is all Carlos can manage as he gawps at the damage to his fiancé’s face. 

“Hey babe.” The words are tired and maybe a little embarrassed.

Carlos reaches out and gently cups T.K.’s chin, trying to get a closer look at his injuries. Despite his care, T.K. winces in pain and Carlos recoils immediately. “I’m sorry. T.K., I—are you okay?” 

He’s glad those are the words that come out because what he’s thinking is, “What the fuck is going on and why are you in the middle of it?”

“I’ve been better,” T.K. says wanly, shifting uncomfortably on the barstool he’s sitting on, and it’s then that Carlos realizes he’s cuffed. And also covered in blood. 

“Are you bleeding?” he asks, panic ripping through him, his hands going to T.K.’s shirt, searching for injuries.

“Just a little.” T.K. lifts his right shoulder a bit and Carlos walks behind his back to find deep lacerations slicing their way up his right arm. He swears and fumbles for the key on his belt, hands slipping as he tries to get it into the slot, a combination of nerves and the blood that is oozing from all the cuts.

“Are you allowed to do that?” T.K. asks.

“Shut up,” Carlos growls at him, too frantic to think about things like procedure. Right now he needs to figure out how bad this bleeding is and get it stopped.

He finally gets the cuffs off and tosses them to the floor. T.K. brings his hands around to his front, grimacing as he takes in the damage. “That actually looks worse than I thought it would,” he says, examining his arm. “I don’t think it hit an artery though. Bleeding’s too slow.”

“Who cuffed you like this?” Carlos asks, anger lacing his tone. Because whoever it is, he’s going to rip them a new one. There’s procedure and then there’s common sense. And cuffing a guy who is bleeding this badly is not common sense.

“Babe, it’s okay,” T.K. says as Carlos searches for something to staunch the bleeding. 

He finds a pile of rags behind the bar that appear clean and uses one to firmly apply pressure. T.K. makes a strangled noise of pain. “Sorry, sorry,” Carlos says. “Paramedics should be in here any minute.”

“Great. I was hoping everyone we know would find out about this in the next hour,” T.K. says, his joke about the rampant gossip mill in the AFD falling flat since Carlos is really concerned about the amount of blood he’s losing.

“T.K. what are you doing here?” Carlos asks. 

“Not what it looks like.”

“I am…trying to believe that,” Carlos says, even as images of the last time he saw T.K. looking like this in police issued handcuffs flashes through his mind. “I thought you were going to dinner at your dad’s?”

“Right,” T.K. says, looking cagey. “What I said was I was going to dinner with Dad. I just…didn’t specify whose.”

Carlos is beyond confused. “You only have one dad, T.K.”

“Son, I am telling you, that is not proper cuffing procedure.”

The voice, that combination of outrage and annoyance, that’s the voice that cheered at his baseball games, taught him how to fix a fence post, and bemoaned the Astro’s fate at the breakfast table. Carlos turns around, his already frayed nerves feeling like they’ve caught on fire. “Dad?!”

“Oh, Carlos, hello!” his dad calls from across the room. He’s sporting the beginnings of a black eye and looks like he’s trying to take shallow breaths. “Can you please tell this probie to stop cuffing me for half a second so I can show him how to do it the right way?”

The officer dealing with his father looks young and is clearly nervous. “It’s okay,” Carlos says, suddenly feeling weary. “I’ve got him.”

The officer bolts, probably to find someone who won’t give him an earful about doing his job correctly. Carlos grabs his dad by the arm and pulls him over to T.K. “Okay,” he says, officer persona sliding back into place as tries to get a grip on what he’s seeing. “What is going on here?”

Gabriel frowns at his son. “Aren’t you going to uncuff me?”

“Not until I get some answers.” His dad thinks he’s too soft? He’s about to find out just how not soft Carlos can be when he’s pissed.

T.K. and his dad exchange looks. “We were having a drink,” his dad starts.

“I was having a club soda,” T.K. says quickly.

“Yes, right,” Gabriel says with a nod. “And then that animal over there,” he nods toward the burly man Carlos had helped take down moments ago, “started making some…rather indelicate comments. So I politely suggested he stop.”

“Politely?” Carlos asks skeptically.

Gabriel looks offended. “Of course politely! Unfortunately he didn’t appreciate it.”

“So I, also politely, told him where he could go if he wanted to keep making comments like that,” T.K. says.

Carlos can feel his resolve slipping as he watches the two of them concoct their story. He’s not going to go soft though. No, he’s going to go ballistic.

“Well he didn’t appreciate that either,” Gabriel says with a chuckle. “So he threw a punch. And we punched back.”

“In self defense,” T.K. says quickly. “We didn’t start it. But then a few other people got involved too and then…you can figure out the rest.”

“How did this happen?” Carlos asks, indicating the deep wounds on T.K.’s arm.

T.K. grimaces. “Once things really started popping off, big boy got a little feisty. He smashed a bottle and came at me.”

“That was a close one,” Gabriel says, his face serious now. 

Carlos closes his eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath so he won’t scream. “How did you get him off of you?”

T.K. immediately starts looking shifty again. “Um…your dad wasn’t the only one I was meeting tonight.”

He nods at something over Carlos’ shoulder and Carlos is afraid to turn around and look. When he finally does, he feels whatever shreds of police officer persona he was still holding onto evaporate. In fact, his cop swagger dries up so fast he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to get it back.

“Mama?” he says weakly.

She’s sitting with another officer, her hand on his knee, eyes intent on his face.

“She broke a pool cue over that guy’s head,” Gabriel says, his eyes shining with pride. “Saved T.K.’s life.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Carlos mutters. He turns and looks at the two of them. “Stay here. Do not move.” Then he walks across the room until he’s standing directly next to his mother. 

“You just have to tell her how you feel,” she’s telling the officer. “You can’t expect her to try and figure it out for herself.”

“But what if she doesn’t feel the same way?” the officer asks.

“Well then at least you’ll know.” She pats his knee gently. “And then you can move forward either way.”

This is too much. “Mom.”

She looks up, a smile blossoming on her face as she sees Carlos standing there. “Carlitos! What are you doing here?”

“My job Mom,” he says.

“This is your mom?” the officer asks, clearly confused.

“Yes,” Carlos says. “Apparently it was family night at the bar and no one invited me.”

“Okay, I’ll just…leave you to it then?” the office asks, clearly realizing he’s now in the middle of something.

“That would be great, thank you,” Carlos says. 

Andrea gets to her feet as the officer wanders away. “Is T.K. all right?” she asks. “They’ve kept us all separated.”

“He’s hurt, but he’s okay. Are you all right?” Carlos asks, visually searching her for injuries. Unlike his father and T.K., she doesn’t seem to have a scratch on her.

“Oh yes, I’m fine,” she says, waving him off. “Not my first bar fight.”

Her response spawns more questions than answers, but now isn’t the time.  That’s when she finally spots T.K. and her husband. “Oh there they are!”

She walks toward them, forcing Carlos to follow. “Ay Dios mío, you both look terrible,” she says when she reaches them.

“It would have been worse if not for you,” T.K. says, even though the blood seeping through the rag on his arm indicates it’s pretty bad. 

Carlos is reaching for another rag when the front doors open and paramedics finally start flooding in.

He waits, holding his tongue as the medics examine his father and wrap up T.K.’s arm with something better and more sanitary than threadbare bar rags. “We’ll be ready to transport in a little bit,” the paramedic says as he packs up his things and moves onto the next patient down the line.

“Okay,” Carlos says now that they have some space. “I need someone to explain to me what’s going on here.”

The three of them look at each other and Carlos crosses his arms over his chest. “Anytime now.”

“Your parents invited me to dinner,” T.K. finally says. “We had just gotten to the restaurant when the power went out.”

“We didn’t want to miss out on our time together, so we came here instead,” Andrea tells him.

“We made sure it was all right with T.K. first,” Gabriel says quickly. “We know about his recovery and we would never want to do anything to jeopardize it.”

“I still don’t understand why the three of you were together in the first place,” Carlos says. 

“Can’t your parents spend time with your future husband?” Andrea says a little too innocently. “He’s family. We’re allowed.”

It would be sweet if Carlos couldn’t see right through it. He spears all of them with a look. Surprisingly, it’s Gabriel who breaks first. “Just tell him Andrea. He’s not going to let it go. That’s the same look he had on his face every time he wanted ice cream after dinner.”

Carlos does not appreciate his childhood being dragged into whatever scheming these three are up to, but he ignores the comment for now.

Andrea sighs. “We were meeting to talk about your birthday.”

“Your mother wants to have a party,” Gabriel says. “We were having dinner to plan it together.”

When he’s in less of a state of shock he’s going to appreciate that his parents wanted his future husband’s input and took him to dinner to get it. But right now, all he feels is anxious and mad. “My birthday,” he says slowly, eyes going to T.K., searching for the truth.

“Your birthday,” T.K. confirms.

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” Andrea says. 

Carlos lets out a startled laugh. “Well I am surprised.” His mind is still struggling to put everything together. Half an hour ago he’d been mentally headed home. And now he’s stuck with this mess. “The three of you ended up in a bar brawl because of my birthday.”

“As previously stated, the bar brawl wasn’t intentional,” Gabriel says.

“Okay,” Carlos says, running a hand through his hair, then grimacing when his fingers catch awkwardly on the gelled down strands. “I’m going to go try and sort this out with the officer in charge. Don’t say anything. Don’t go anywhere.”

It takes a long conversation with the commander on the scene, a call to his boss, a call to his dad’s boss, and a chat with the owner of the bar who has shown up to survey the damage, for Carlos to get things straightened out. His dad’s good standing with the rangers and his own good standing with the APD work in his favor tonight, and he promises to have everyone come by the station in the morning to give their statements.

He’d thought that would be the biggest hurdle of the night. He was wrong.

“I don’t need to go to the hospital,” Gabriel protests as the paramedics stand by, waiting to find out who’s riding in their ambulance and who’s not. “It’s just some bruised ribs and a black eye. I’ve had worse from playing with the grandkids.”

“Your ribs could be broken,” Carlos argues. “You need to see a doctor.”

“Boys stop arguing,” Andrea chastises. “You will go to the hospital and I will follow behind in the car.”

“You are also getting in the ambulance,” Carlos tells her.

“What? Me?” She laughs. “No, I don’t think so. The car is fine. Someone will need to drive it there anyway.”

“Okay, to be clear, I am the one in charge right now,” Carlos says, feeling like he’s about to snap. “If you don’t do what I’m asking you to do, I’m going to leave you here with all these other officers to fend for yourselves. Your options are to go sit in a cell for the night or to go to the hospital.”

“I think it’s a good idea if everyone gets checked out,” T.K. says softly.

Carlos can see pain in his eyes, the way his body is sagging a little on the barstool, and he feels a renewed urgency to get his fiancé taken care of as soon as humanly possible.

“Fine,” Andrea say shortly. “But I am not putting on one of those terrible hospital gowns.”

Carlos bundles them all into an ambulance and follows along behind in his cruiser. There are no lights and sirens necessary, and Carlos can’t decide if the silence is better or worse. It’s forcing him to sit in his anger and worry and exhaustion for far longer than he’d like, and he is not in a good mood by the time they get to the hospital.

His mom is completely fine, thank god. His dad does have a broken rib and a minor concussion, but no facial fractures. They’re both seen and cleared quickly and Carlos bids them a somewhat curt goodnight before going back to his fiancé, who is being sewn back together with thirty-four stitches. The wounds are deep and jagged and it takes a long time for the resident to get them all done. 

Carlos holds T.K.’s good hand and wonders for how long this fresh image of T.K. on a gurney is going to haunt his nightmares this time. They’ve been through enough hospital trauma for him to know sleep is going to be hard to come by for a while. He consoles himself with the fact that at least this time his fiancé is conscious. 

“I was going to tell you,” T.K. says as the last few stitches are finally going in, “about the surprise party. I knew you wouldn’t want it, so I was going to tell you and have you pretend to be surprised.”

“It’s crazy that the people that raised me still think surprising me is a good idea,” Carlos says ruefully.

“They’re just excited,” T.K. says. “And I think they’re trying a little extra hard to show that they’re supportive of the two of us. Of the engagement.”

“Well maybe next time they could show their support with a little less violence,” Carlos says, forcing a smile as he rubs his thumb soothingly over the back of T.K.’s free hand.

“Your mom probably saved my life tonight,” T.K. says. “At the very least she saved my face.” A smile tugs at the corner of his lips. “Which is the second best part of me.”

Carlos knows when he’s being goaded, he can see the sparkle in T.K.’s eyes. “I’m not going to ask you what the other one is. There are people around.”

T.K. bites his lip. “He’s a doctor. He knows things. It won’t bother him. Right doc?”

“I have learned not to get in the middle of this kind of conversation,” the doctor says diplomatically as he snips the last thread. “You’re all set T.K. I’m going to get a nurse to come in and go over the wound care instructions with you, all right?”

“Thank you,” T.K. says, turning his arm this way and that to examine the stitching. He waits until the curtain has closed behind the doctor before looking up at Carlos, eyes full of mischief. “The best part of me is my—“

Carlos quickly puts a finger over his lips. “I know what you think your best assets are,” he says, an amused smile on his face. “You don’t have to tell me.”

T.K. pulls back, uncowed. “Can I tell you yours then? It’s your d—“

“T.K. stop!” Carlos says, full on laughing now even as he nervously looks around to make sure nobody is in earshot.

“There you are,” T.K. says. “You’ve looked so stressed all night I thought maybe you’d forgotten how to laugh.”

“This was…not how I thought my evening would go,” Carlos says, reaching over and brushing T.K.’s hair away from his forehead. “And you know I’m not good at changing plans on the fly.”

“Well if it’s any consolation, it’s not how I saw my night going either,” T.K. says. He looks at Carlos intently. “Are you mad at me?”

Carlos does an emotional inspection of himself. “No,” he sighs. “No I don’t think so. Concerned about how many punches you have on your hospital rewards card. But not mad.”

It’s hard to be mad at T.K. He’s so sweet and soft and he looks at you with those Bambi eyes…and it’s extra hard to be mad at him when he’s hurt.

“Are you mad at your parents?”

That’s a more complicated question. “Maybe a little? They’re my parents. I expect better from them.”

“But not from me?” The sparkle is back.

“From you I expect chaos,” Carlos says, throwing T.K. a knowing look. “From them I expect…decorum.”

T.K. snorts. “Yeah I think decorum went out the window when your dad threw his beer across the bar and jumped on top of a six foot dude with skull tattoos.”

Carlos groans. “I’m going to be hearing about this night for the rest of my life.”

“Your mom is actually a lot more like Francesca than I would have thought,” T.K. says, referencing Carlos’ wild child sister.

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Carlos says.

“Hey.” T.K.’s face softens. “Don’t be mad at them for too long, okay?”

The rest of his words remain unspoken, but Carlos can read them in his eyes anyway. You never know how long you have with them. His heart twinges painfully with the few memories that he has of Gwyn and T.K. together. He nods. “I won’t.”

The nurse arrives and Carlos listens intently to all her instructions since T.K.’s eyes are starting to droop a little, the adrenaline of the last few hours finally wearing off.

As they’re passing through the waiting room on the way out Carlos is surprised to see his parents sitting there. “I thought you were going home,” he says.

“We wanted to make sure T.K. was all right,” Andrea says as they both get to their feet. She turns her eyes to him. “How are you doing mijo?”

“All stitched up,” T.K. says. “A couple weeks and I’ll be back to normal.”

“I also wanted to…apologize.” Gabriel seems to struggle at getting the word past his lips. “For my part in what happened tonight. You’d think after all this time I’d learn to keep my mouth shut.”

T.K. shakes his head. “No one should have to deal with that kind of language. If you hadn’t started it, I would have.”

Something about the exchange flares warm in Carlos’ chest. The way his parents are caring for T.K., it’s the same way they’ve always cared for him and his sisters. It’s not perfect, but it’s full of love. 

“Are you heading home now?” his mother asks.

“I have to take the cruiser back to the station first,” Carlos says. “We’ll pick up the Camaro there and then head back.”

“Oh that’s going to take too long!” Andrea says, worry furrowing her brow. “T.K. is practically dead on his feet. No, no. We can drive him back to your place.”

“Your car is at the bar,” Carlos points out.

“I had that nice young officer I was talking to drive it here,” Andrea says, as if this is completely normal. “You go take care of things at work and we’ll make sure T.K. gets home safely.”

Carlos looks at T.K. who seems to be waiting for his cue. “It would get you home faster,” he says. 

“I don’t mind if they take me,” T.K. replies. 

Carlos fixes his parents with a stern look. “No stopping anywhere along the way. Straight home.”

Andrea rolls her eyes. “You give the man a badge and he thinks he can boss his parents around.”

“Ma!”

“We’ll get him home safe and sound,” Gabriel assures him. “Scout’s honor.”

Carlos blows out a breath and turns so that he’s facing T.K. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“I know,” T.K. says, closing his eyes as Carlos kisses his forehead. 

“We’ll take good care of him,” Andrea says, gently putting an arm around T.K.’s shoulders and guiding him toward the door. “Tell me T.K., what kind of soup do you like? I will whip up a batch and bring it to you when we all meet at the station in the morning.”

How is it possible to feel like his parents are the most annoying people in the world right now, and also that T.K. is the safest he could possibly be with them by his side?

His father stops next to him. “He defended me tonight. He’s a good man.” He pats Carlos’ shoulder. “You made a good choice.”

T.K. has never felt like a choice. He’s fate. Destiny. All the dreams Carlos was too afraid to have, made incarnate. Slightly more of a chaos demon than Carlos would have imagined, but a dream come true nonetheless.

But that’s not something he can explain to his father. “He chose me too,” he says instead. “He chose you and mom, our family.” He looks up and meets his father’s gaze. “Thank you for choosing him back.”

His dad wordlessly squeezes his shoulder and follows the other two out the doors.

Carlos watches them go, three of the most important people in his world together and something inside of him cracks. Another little piece of the wall he built up so long ago, the one made of words like broken, unlovable, inadequate…the one he’d created to keep himself safe, falls away.

He’s making a family. And it’s good. 

[drconstellation]

More Half-and-Half-A-Miracle Thoughts

Part 3: The Third Archangel

Updated 10 Nov 2023

Part 1: Miracle Power Ranking is here Part 2: The Dark side of Aziraphale is here.

Before I try to put the full picture of the mighty miracle together, there is one other Archangel I want to talk about first, because yeah, if the "little" miracle had an Archangel x an Archangel x (ex-)Archangel in the equation, all working in synergy, that's some pretty serious potential power right there.

S2 has given us much to discuss about Crowley and his past. We know he is different in that he has an imagination. We know he is the only ethereal entity, angelic or demonic, who can stop time, which is no mean feat. I have a list of at least nine, possibly thirteen clues (it keeps growing! 21 clues And yes, I'm counting,) that he was once a

senior Archangel, one of the seraphim, before his Fall (but not which one in particular, for sure, alas. We can debate that later, its not important here. Really. Don't @ me about it, I'm not going to engage in this post.) They (updated link to a new discussion: the idea of Crowley previously being a very powerful angel) have all been mentioned already, none of them are new. This implies there is a huge amount of potential power that Crowley could pull upon to put into the miracle performed on Gabriel. So he is our obvious ex-Archangel in the equation.

And we already have Gabriel, in the middle.

Which just leaves us with Aziraphale, and his green-paneled waistcoat...

I've led you all on thinking he's somehow connected to Hell? Or been associating too long with Crowley? No. (Or maybe, yes? To hanging around a demon, I mean.) On one hand it does show us he is not like the other angels. On the other, it tells us something else altogether.

For all that I've been recently rabbiting on about dark horses pointing mainly to Crowley and Saraqael, we have perhaps been deftly misdirected from the biggest dark horse of all: Aziraphale as our 'missing" seraphim, Archangel Raphael, incognito.

Now, I'm certainly not the first person to suggest this at all. There have been multiple metas about it, even way back from S1. I agree with them, fwiw.

Why am I saying this now? I think this recent post about Aziraphale being present at Sodom and Gomorrah sealed it for me, especially since I had made a recent note about Raphael being the one to be assigned to escort Lot from Gomorrah. And for all that I've just discussed how dark Aziraphale can be, he is still clearly affected by what he witnessed that night, so long, long ago.

"Oh Lord, heal this bike."

Green is also the color primarily associated with Raphael, the healer. I've seen a few other colors mentioned as well (in fact, the more you search, the more confusing it gets) but mostly the color you'll see mentioned is green. And its the color Aziraphale conceals on the back side of his waistcoat. Plus he did heal Anathema (and her velocipede) back in S1 after they collided with the Bentley.

Finally, in the Islamic tradition, Raphael is known as Israfil, and he is essential to announcing the Day of Judgement, with a trumpet constantly poised at his lips, ready to blown when God so orders.

Guess who just got taken back to Heaven to start the Second Coming?

Edit: Since I first posted this, some additional information has come along to add to this. I finally bumped into a post about the wonderful golden collars in the Job minisode (It's so, so important to put at least one or two relevant tags for meta-writers like me to help find your posts readers! Then you can shit-talk in the tags all you like.) and that lead me to a webpage on basic angel symbology and the major angels, which helped to firm up a few things I'd been wondering about. One observation is angels usually go about bare-footed, but Raphael wears sandals when on Earth, as he is chief of the guarding angels, and is the guardian of the young, and watches over pilgrims and travelers. And who was wearing golden sandals during the Job minisode?

Doing some guarding of the young as well...

And Raphael is assigned to the direction of the East.

Now we have three Archangels, three seraphim, no less, side by side.

That's a mighty shitload of potential miracle power, whichever way you want to look at it. No wonder the ol' Metatrash got a bit nervous about what happened and decided to take a personal hand in things.

If your sitting there going "'Hang on, op, hang on just a darned minute - Aziraphale hasn't even been promoted to Supreme Archangel yet and Crowley could just be a Dominion, you don't know, and Gabriel's a drooling idiot, how could he contribute to it - " Just stop. Take a breath. Go back to Part 1 where I discuss the problems with our knowledge about miracle powers and their potential. Their potential. And its frustrating that in the end we just don't have enough knowledge to be certain.

So take this as my personal head-canon. I may not have really answered why the miracle was so strong. But as I said at the start, I don't think we can. Too many factors involved, too many unknowns. Too much hidden.

Bring on S3, I say!

[bipanicoverthegravessiblings]

Cringe be damned I had a cute idea so I’m being self indulgent tonight-

No Special Occasion | Ashley Graves x OC

Gabriel was strange

Not strange in the ways Ashley herself was, but a different kind of strange…

He was just so- nice?

Unconditionally nice too

So much that when he assumed the Graves Siblings were kicked out of their own home by their parents, he let them stay with him rent free- so long as they helped with chores…..which Andrew held up his end of the bargain for. Ashley not so much

Any normal person would’ve left their asses to rot or freeze on the streets, whichever came first

Not Gabriel though

It freaked Ashley out like crazy

So she kept her guard up around him, she wouldn’t let him in because anyone who wasn’t Andrew would never be this kind to her

Not without wanting something…

Ashley sat cross legged on the couch, looking through the Sunday comics. Even though they were on the complete other side of town, Andrew still insisted on keeping himself updated on anything related to his and Ashley’s crimes. She still didn’t understand why, they had the talisman! And so long as they kept souls coming in, they’d be kept up to date without scanning the faded ink of a newspaper for information.

At least Andrew let her read the comics.

So focused on the 3 panel strip she was reading, she barely noticed something fall next to her in the corner of her eye. Raising an eyebrow, she lowered the paper and looked at the mystery item.

Beside her laid a spinal book with a completely black cover, on top of it were some colored pencils- the good kind too, not the cheap kind she used to steal from general stores as a kid. Both items were tied in a neat pink bow.

Blinking in confusion, she looked over the couch at the benefactor of this gift. She half expected Andrew- but that was wishful thinking. The moment she saw strands of brown hair hang over the couch, she knew it was Gabriel.

Facing Gabriel, he smiled at her with his sickeningly sweet face. Though his eyes were closed, the soft way he looked at Ashley was conveyed to her perfectly. Only Andrew ever looked at her like that…

“Surprise!” He beamed, crossed his arms overtop the back of the couch, “Do you like them?”

Ashley tentatively picked up the sketchbook and pencils, she ran her hand over both items before looking at Gabriel, who was smiling at her expectantly.

“…why?” Was all Ashley could muster. There were many ways she wanted to finish that sentence. Why did you give this to me? Why today? Why did you think I would like this (she did)? Why are you being nice to me?

Gabriel’s expression faltered a little, ugh- even Ashley felt a little bad. Though- it was like a drop of red dye in the ocean, so not much of an impact was made.

“You like drawing, don’t you?” Ashley nodded, “And I noticed you kept taking scrap pieces of paper lying around to draw on, so I got you a sketchbook! And colored pencils.”

Ashley wanted to take these items and throw them out the window. She wanted to dump the pencils into the toilet and flush them. She wanted to see Gabriel’s expression as she took his gift and metaphorically (or hell- even physically) shat on it.

But….she couldn’t.

Ashley took the sketchbook into her hands, removing the ribbon and colored pencils- she opened it up and looked through the blank pages. Gabriel was right in his observations, though- she didn’t think he noticed to be completely honest. Andrew never said anything when Ashley would take the placemat’s from unsuspecting children at restaurants- well he would, but it was usually “hey give that back to them their crying is annoying” and not “damn I should get you a sketchbook”.

Gabriel noticed her scrounging and instead of- telling her to stop or at least ask….he got her something infinitely better than paper wads from his waste bin.

Against her better judgement, she held the sketchbook close to her chest, as if the cold, cruel hands of the world would snatch it from her, roast it, chew it up, and spit it out cause that’s how bad it tasted.

“….why did you get this for me? Do you want something in return?” Her voice became cold and catty like it usually was, “I’m not fucking you cause you gave me a book and some pencils you know?”

Gabriel shot up at her sudden tone shift, his eyebrow upturning apologetically, “What? No- no, no! I’m sorry I gave you that impression-“ god stop apologizing, “I just wanted to do something nice for you is all.”

Ashley wasn’t buying it.

“…no special occasion?”

“No special occasion.”

“No strings attached?”

“None.”

Ashley’s eyes narrowed at him before her gaze darted back to her book.

“….thank you.” Ashley couldn’t stop the smile that formed on her face. If Gabriel saw it, he didn’t say anything. And she’s glad he didn’t.

“Don’t mention it.” Was all he replied with as he retreated to his room.

Ashley almost didn’t want to draw in it

This was a special gift for her! And only her!

Not something for Andrew disguised as a joint gift

No, something chosen specifically for her that only she would like

But the urge to make one of her crude doodles came to her, and Ashley’s impulsivity cannot be stopped

The pages were actually good quality, and it felt weird drawing on them and not some cheap notebook paper

But her final product came out….

Like shit

Yeah good supplies and a fancy new book isn’t going to improve Ashley’s style

But fuck that, it’s her art!

And beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Unfortunately, the beholder is blind

Or just has closed eyes

Because Gabriel loves what Ashley draws…