Here's to the next time.

I drew this several months ago, but I never got around to posting it here for some reason

Rewatched 'Western Energy' and I was thinking Blitz sure would have left in that same van they rushed Stolas to the hospital in, huh?

Aziraphale and Crowley by sandara

finally pinned down exactly how i imagine crowley’s dumb face

Heyyyyyy I’d really like to talk more about the ball, who’s with me.

Because for all its glitter, the ball is dark. No, seriously, it’s dark. It’s eerie, it’s disturbing, and the narrative doesn’t shy away from showing us just how much. 

As in a classic fairytale, mortals are being spirited away into another realm to dance through the night. Here, however, we see exactly who is orchestrating the dance, and why.

And we empathize with him, but watching Aziraphale has never been so painful or so unsettling.

Nina arrives distraught and is immediately hit with the realization that she doesn’t feel distraught, even though she knows she should be feeling it. She confronts Aziraphale and he just tells her: oh yes! :) no long faces tonight! And she is disturbed throughout the ball, thinks she is losing her mind, questions and fights the enchantment… but from time to time, the enchantment still takes hold.

And just—

Aziraphale. Aziraphale, you do know that manipulating people is wrong, don’t you? You… do know that? And yes, of course, neither Crowley’s nor Aziraphale’s approach to morality is human. They are eldritch, they are otherworldly. It was Crowley who changed the paintball guns into real guns in S1, though of course, the humans still had choice in using them.

But the ball is still different.

We’ve never seen Aziraphale do anything quite so disturbing before, or go so obviously deep into his own delusion. There are moments during these scenes when even Crowley, permanently frustrated, is very nearly disturbed. (“Angel! What are you doing?” or “Making it rain is one thing, but a BALL?”)

I fully think that by that point in the story, Aziraphale is not all right. He is in an anxiety spiral, denying reality fiercely, obstinately, disastrously, not listening to any of Crowley’s hissed warnings. Yes, yes, he is giddy, he is in love. It’s so very important for him that everything go RIGHT this night, the night he gets to dance with Crowley. Is he even aware of everything he is conjuring up, of the enchantment he has woven? The humans who step through the doors of the bookshop change: their clothing, their mood, their speech patterns… By this point, is Aziraphale doing this consciously at all? Or is reality conforming to his expectations, forcing everyone into a replica of the nineteenth century while Aziraphale himself, distracted and smitten, works himself up to inviting Crowley to dance?

In the first few episodes, as fear and danger grow, as Aziraphale is faced with the danger specifically to Crowley (I don’t see why he would risk his existence for you, Shax tells him in the car), Aziraphale only denies reality all the more fiercely, only holds on to his plans tighter, only puts more force into them and exerts more control (really, rather like the archangels with their Great Plan).

And the ball, beautiful and otherworldly and eerie as it is, is also a dire warning. 

In the morning, it will be Crowley, not Aziraphale, who will get told off for manipulating Nina and Maggie. Aziraphale won’t reflect on this. He won’t be forced to reflect, and Metatron will manipulate him in turn.

There is a plan to follow. The show must go on.

GOD the ball is so dark.

That scene really stood out to me because... Aziraphale is pulling a bit of an Adam here, isn’t he? Making people speak the way he wants, making them move against their will. It’s all very unlike what we’ve seen of him up to that point. He knows the importance of free will... doesn’t he?

I love all interpretations of Aziraphale but they’re way too light on the tartan nightmare i imagine his wardrobe to be.

A conversation between a Raven and a Snowy Owl.

more stuff on becausebirds.com

It looks like the raven really wants the owl to leave and is trying to intimidate it, but the owl doesn’t care because it knows the raven is all bark and no bite. Or all squawk and no peck. Erm…

Actually, it looks more like the raven is curious about the funny bird and wants to sit next to it, and the owl doesn’t wanna be friends :[ The raven’s body language isn’t aggressive at all — it’s backing down appropriately when the owl displays aggression. Notice the way it’s careful to draw back every time it gets too close to the owl. This is an animal that’s trying to establish it isn’t a threat.

Keep in mind there’s a huge intellect disparity here — ravens exhibit novel tool use and complex communication, whereas owls aren’t even as smart as ducks. We’re sort of trained to view crows and ravens as villainous, but really they’re very playful animals.

“HI YOU’RE PRETTY WANNA BE FRIENDS??”

“HISSS”

This is so cute ‘cause I can imagine the crow being the talkative, friendly one and he’s just like “hi gosh wow you’re pretty I’ve never seen a white crow before! How’d ya get your feathers so white? Do you eat a lot of marshmallows? I eat a lot of marshmallows! This human lady feeds me marshmallows–” and on and on and the owl’s probably just like “What no go away”

Crow-ley pestering Aziraphowl

Now with wings that don’t make me want to scream at myself every time I look at them!

Angel’s Share

The amount of whiskey that evaporates during its maturation process

or how much Zira get’s of the expensive whiskey when they decide to have a snobby drinking party in private

separately:

Good Omens Four Riders by Aviv Or 

Astonishingly close to the characters in my head. Although Pollution’s hair was lighter…

Not to steal your schtick, but this question made me so curious I just had to grab my copy (well, “my” copy anyway) and check out the relevant passages, excerpted here with commentary (under a cut because it’s me quoting and yelling meta at considerable length):

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to be honest I’m pretty chill about hogwarts house headcanons until someone puts AJ Crowley into something other than Slytherin.  I mean consider:

. walk with me

One of the nicest things about spending more time together was that Aziraphale finally had someone able to discuss literature with him on the same intellectual level. More than that, he had someone to hold up the umbrella while he gestured excitedly as he relayed the technique and highlights of the author he was currently praising. His memory was impeccable, so he honestly didn’t need to have the source material in hand, but it made for a fine experience when he could point to each passage. The rain never fell on either of them, regardless of the umbrella, but appearances were important.

Onlookers always smiled as they passed, charmed by the bookish man engaged in conversation with his dark looking companion. They might have been worried, but they were endeared instead by the umbrella always being tilted to better serve Aziraphale than the actual holder of their shelter—and by the slight crook of Crowley’s mouth as the angel managed to lose his train of thought by going off on a completely unrelated tangent.

Snakes against literacy

Inspired by cats

Punctuation is giving me feels

Aziraphale held out his hand. “Nice knowing you,” he said. Crowley took it. “Here’s to the next time,” he said. “And … Aziraphale?” “Yes.” “Just remember I’ll have known that, deep down inside, you were just enough of a bastard to be worth liking.”

I swear, I keep getting new things from this passage every time I read it.

Apparently it’s the part of nightblogging when I get feels from friggin’ punctuation.

But no, seriously, look at it. Crowley asks after him, and then it’s not ‘Yes?’ or ‘hmmm’ or a mere expectant look. It’s ‘yes.’. With a period worth mentioning. It’s not inquisitive in the least, it’s calm and assertive and reassuring.

It’s less an answer along the lines of ‘yes, I’m listening’ and more along the lines of ‘Yes, I am here. Until the end.’

I’d apologise for wasting everyone’s time with this nonsense, but like I said, nightblogging

oh I totally see what you mean, thanks a lot for the feels…and if you don’t mind me adding, the punctuation in the line preceding that one makes it that much more moving.

“And…Aziraphale?” It’s phrased as a question, and a halting one at that. Crowley pauses like this, because he’s still a little hesitant to get into share-your-feelings territory with the angel (who very likely has shut down any such displays of affection in the past).

He doesn’t jump right into his compliment, into his confession that Aziraphale is “worth liking.” Instead, with this pause, he asks for Aziraphale’s permission to continue. It’s a new step in their relationship, one that has the power to turn their business Arrangement into an explicit friendship, and he isn’t going to go there unless Aziraphale gives him a sign that it’s okay. And the angel gives it: “Yes.”

Ohhh well-played. Well-played.

{insp}

when I was little and had nightmares, my mum’s way of calming me down was explaining that monsters couldn’t hurt me when I was asleep because there was an angel who sat on the end of my bed and protected me during the night. I could never quite picture what I thought my angel looked like, but nowadays I like to imagine that aziraphale got assigned to me - because a camp, asexual angel who is overly enthusiastic about books and carries a huge flaming sword is exactly the type of angel I would like protecting me whilst I sleep.