rraaarr

[rraaarr]

#rebloggingsoicanreadthese

q's queliot ficlist ^_^

(mostly 2019, mostly s3/4)

my favorite bookmarks:

Imagine being loved by me. by destielpasta (E, 11K)

Eliot is saved and the monster is gone, but the body he's left with is far from healed. The aftermath of his possession leaves him feeling overwhelmed and unable to process the world around him in the same way. or Eliot is touch-starved but can't be touched, and just when he really wanted to be touched by Quentin. But where there's a will there's a way, and they have the will in spades.

In the Woods Somewhere by pineapplecrushface (E, 15K)

Quentin has a list of chores, listens to some Queen, and adjusts a bar graph. Or: Alice being unable to wipe younger Quentin's memory during the timeshare spell had a ripple effect.

You're a Story (I Can Follow) by Page161of180 (M, 19K)

The Monster's been defeated, Quentin is dead, and Eliot has a quest of his own--if he can trust himself to complete it. An Orpheus and Eurydice remix.

The Honor of Your Presence by Page161of180 (M, 18K)

Eliot and Quentin are getting married. A story in three acts, as told by three of the somewhat less dearly beloved, gathered here today. (Or: the best thing about true love? It doesn’t need to make sense to anyone except the ones in it.)

All the World in Time by Giddygeek (M, 35K)

Quentin and Eliot go home to meet their family.

don't ruin this on me. by milominderbinder (E, 133K, the only fic i subscribed to)

The beauty of all life can mean a lot of things. In this world, Quentin and Eliot accidentally stumble across the mosaic’s solution two years in, and are sent back to the present to find the rest of the keys with their friends. The only problem is, in those two years, Quentin and Eliot have started sleeping together, and also fallen madly in love — but neither will admit it. And when they come crashing back to real life, they have to try to keep hooking up, hide it from their friends, hide their real feelings from each other, and finish the Keys Quest to bring back magic, all at the same time.

Fragments by Rizandace (NR, 23K)

Quentin Coldwater is not losing his mind. Probably. Maybe. Or if he is, it's definitely magic's fault. Q is forced to watch his worst nightmare unfold right in front of him, and it's up to him, Eliot, and their friends to figure out why.

to be unbroken or be brave again. by milominderbinder (T, 14K)

A loosely 10 Things I Hate About You inspired AU.

To Learn to Be Again by portraitofemmy (E, 18K)

The Monster is gone, but that doesn't mean everything's okay. It's not. But maybe Quentin and Eliot can learn to be.

The Future Says Now by Page161of180 (NR, 72K)

Or: Alice saves Queliot, and saves the world. And just maybe figures out who she's always been.

something richer by wayfarer (NR, 16K)

Dear Q, the letter reads. This is going to sound insane, but I'm writing to you from the future.

Unwish by waveleafcloud (T, 72K)

Quentin’s back from the dead and recovering and everything’s fine. Of course, no one seems to know exactly how he made it back, and he can’t shake the feeling that he’s forgotten something important, and he’s really not sure what’s going on with him and Eliot lately…

All the Comforts of Home by Hth (E, 75K, recent favorite)

The last place he moved into with Eliot was Whitespire, and the place before that was the Physical Kids' cottage, and – third time's a charm, isn't it? Isn't that how the stories always go?

all the way home I’ll be warm by portraitofemmy (E, 15K)

Surviving the Holidays, featuring depression, love, magic, sex, dogs, and family both new and old.

smaller fics i enjoyed:

Softly Coursing by keepingthecloudsaway (rainydayrambling) (E, 8.9K)

They had been here -- living here, Quentin was finally starting to understand -- for one year, three weeks, and four days. # An exploration of how Quentin and Eliot's relationship might have grown and progressed over the years in Fillory, and how Quentin is dealing (and not dealing) with that now.

flowing all this time by mtothedestiel (E, 5.4K)

Three years into the mosaic Eliot takes everything he thought he knew about the normal course of things, packs it up into a metaphorical box, kicks the box off the edge of a cliff, and never looks back.

Scenes in the Life by MermaidMarie (T, 2.1K)

In which Quentin and Eliot live an entire life together. (collection of missing scenes from 3x05)

Tessellate by TenaciousMe (NR, 3.7K)

Everyone's run a bit ragged after this whole Monster business. Quentin catches a cold, and Eliot takes care of him. Some friends visit to raise Quentin's spirits.

The Long Way Around by adjovi (NR, 5.5K)

The monster tries to restore Quentin's memories, but mistakenly throws him into another timeline.

On The Way Down by hoteldestiel (T, 5.7K)

Dying was one thing. Dying to save your best friends and defeat the oppressive Librarian Overlords was another, much more noble thing. But dying to save your best friends, defeat the oppressive Librarian Overlords, and winding up stuck on a seemingly never-ending elevator ride down, down, down to the Underworld with both of your exes and Margo Hanson wasn't exactly the hero's death Quentin had been expecting.

[rraaarr]

it appears I have been summoned.

OK, so neither because neither Crowley nor Azi have the same motivations as Macbeth or Lady M. They were both motivated by ambition ("o'ervaulting ambition for Macbeth) and Lady M doesn't have as direct a line, so you Could give her a different motivation if you like really want, but she absolutely wants to be Queen. BOTH Azi and Crowley avoid responsibility or doing work in general (except for the last 15min of S2 w azi) hence the arrangement.

Honestly Azi is more audacious and stubborn than ambitious.

But i digress.

Now, if you look at it in terms of Temperment, Azi is more Macbeth (the soldier, the one who tales the lead, the one who is, as Lady M sags, "too dull of the milk of human kindness"), and Crowley is Lady M (the one who "tempts" Macbeth into the deed.and then Macbeth takes it farther than Lady M ever thought he would)

In the sense that the guilt gets to them and drives them to insanity as it does Lady M....well I suppose you could go either way

[rraaarr]

What a great analysis! Also, I love that this post has a bibliography

The Constellation of Crowley's Nebula

It's 10th of May, the birthday of Good Omens (book), which is a perfect opportunity to share a Good Omens (show)-related fun fact from your friendly neighbourhood astronomy nerd. I already wrote about this somewhere else, but I want to give you more detail, as I found out more in the meantime.

In the "Before the Beginning" sequence in season 2, Angel!Crowley creates a nebula. As you probably guessed, it's not just a random nebula, because nothing in this show happens by accident.

This thing is known as Eagle Nebula, or M16. The most famous thing about it is a small but beautiful part called Pillars of Creation, which by itself makes a perfect choice for a scene where a nebula is created. M16 has star-forming regions, so the idea that more stars will be made thanks to it is accurate. But wait, there's more!

Just so we're clear: a constellation isn't a picture formed by some random stars. That's an asterism. Constellations are areas of the sky, they have official borders and names and everything. It's 88 of them. Think about them like regions on a map.

Why do I bring it up? Well, M16 is located in the Serpens constellation.

Basically, a Sky Snake.

Angel!Crowley created his beloved nebula in a place in the universe that humans would later call Awesome Giant Sky Snake. that's how I chose a name for this blog

You know. Crowley. Who later became a snake.

Now, I must point out that Serpens is a bit unusual, because actually this constellations is made of two areas of the sky separated by another constellation, Ophiuchus, the Snake-Bearer. Halves of the area are called, reasonably, Serpent Head and Serpent Tail. M16 is located in the Tail. I find it interesting that this particular constellation is broken in half. You may interpret it as you wish, I like to connect it to the fact that ineffable husbands are a set and should not be separated.

While writing that I also noticed that on British coins the sides are called heads and tails. When Aziraphale and Crowley tossed a coin for who's going to Edinburgh (the Shakespeare scene in S1E3), Aziraphale chose heads and Crowley chose tails. I think that it's because angels are typically shown with halos above their heads, while demons are often shown with tails. The fact that Crowley's nebula is located in the Sky Snake's tail fits nicely with that.

Additional fact for you: M16 is located around 7000 light years away from us. Sources vary a bit, the NASA site tells me it's 7000 ly, and Stellarium agrees with it. Meanwhile Wikipedia claims that it's 5700 ly. I choose to trust NASA and Stellarium. But why is that important?

Well, astronomy is like time travel. The speed of light isn't infinite, so it takes time between "light leaves M16" and "we see light from M16 on Earth". The bigger the distance, the later we receive information. Imagine light as people spreading information through running with constant speed. When two of them reach you in the same moment, but one of them had a much longer way to run, that means he had to start running earlier, so his information is more outdated than the other one's.

The distances in space are very conveniently measured in light years, literally "how far can light go in a year"s. The Alpha Centauri binary system is 4 ly away from us, so when we look at it, we see what was there four years ago. Betelgeuse (one of my favourite stars) is 640 ly away, so we see it the way it looked like 640 years ago. It gets a bit weird when you run the numbers and find out that the Moon is one light second away from Earth. We don't see the Moon right now. We see the Moon one second ago. That's also how astronomers observe the beginnings of the universe, they look very far away and they get very old data. It's almost literally time travel.

Circling back to M16. It's 7000 ly away from Earth. Which means that what we don't see it; we see what was there 7000 years ago. This number fits the "universe started 6000 years ago" narrative in the show really nicely, as there must have been a delay between creating it and starting the human stuff. Okay, that last part might have been a bit of a stretch, but I really like talking about light years and astronomers looking at the past, it's so fascinating.

I hope you learned something new while reading that.

Sources of information (some of them are in Polish): NASA, "Messier 16", checked on 10.05.2024 https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-16/ Wikipedia, "Eagle Nebula", checked on 10.05.2024 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Nebula Paweł Sieczak, AstroNET, "Śladami Messiera: M16 - Mgławica Orzeł", checked on 10.05.2024 https://astronet.pl/wszechswiat/sladami-messiera/m16/ Matylda Kołomyjec, AstroNET, "Mity wśród gwiazd: Gwiazdozbiór Węża", checked on 10.05.2024 https://astronet.pl/autorskie/mity-wsrod-gwiazd/mity-wsrod-gwiazd-gwiazdozbior-weza/ Wikipedia, "Serpens", checked on 10.05.2024 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpens

[rraaarr]

Crowley misunderstood Nina and Maggie

Im sure this has been discussed, but I haven't seen it, though to be fair, I dropped off the site for a few months, but hey I'm back on my bullshit lol.

I think perhaps the open honesty and romanticism of Crowley's confession distracts us from the fact that Crowley doesnt actually take Nina and Maggies advice. Nina and Maggie's advice was to Talk, as in to discuss. And Crowley, honestly love them, but they didn't open with a Discussion. They opened with a Confession. They even say they should do all the talking.

And of course, Aziraphale makes the same mistake.

The thing is they Don't DISCUSS, Neither of them ever tries to, they're kind of like....pitching romantic ideas at each other as opposed to either of them doing anything that Maggie and Nina suggested (which Aziraphale didn't hear, but still)

Maggie and Nina suggested having a conversation to see where the other person is at. Like in their example conversation, Maggie and Nina discover that now is Not a good time for Nina to be in a relationship and that Nina can't expect Maggie to wait for her, but Maggie assures she will.

Thing is while the future for the couple of Maggie and Nina looks promising, They Don't End Up Together.

And Both Crowley and Aziraphale WANT to end up together, but they have No idea where the other one is at emotionally. They're making guesses based on the fact that they know each other so fantastically well. But Neither of them ever actually Even Tries to have a conversation to see what the other one wants from their relationship, what they want the future to look like what their concerns and hopes are. They just....sort of advertise a commercial of their own personal vision of a romantic future at each other and then they both go all Pikachu face and take it personally when the other doesn't accept.

(Obviously there are other aspects to the iverall analysis of this scene/their characters, I just wanted to point out this one aspect that has been on my mind for awhile)

[rraaarr]

Aziraphale, Crowley, The Cold War and Other Possible Lenses

First, I just want to say that there Is NO Wrong way to interpret literature and this post is not meant to invalidate anyone's interpretations. But I want to talk about the final 15 from a different perspective. Again, not saying other interpretations aren't there or valid or baked into the show, just that I want to see what we discover when we look through another lens. And the lens I wanna look through is what I personally think is the lens the Book was actually written through. Now, I know there are a lot of differences from book to tv (for example, how much Crowley is invested in duck health)

But in the book,it's relatively clear that one major interpretation is that it's an Allegory for The Cold War (Two sides that go to war and don't care about the casualties of who gets caught in the middle,as long as their side wins) The First thing when Armageddon goes down that both Azi and Crowley try to get out of trouble is they Both ask each other if they can defect to their side. It is important to note this is Not in the TV show, but I do believe (correct me if I'm wrong) it's in the script book. (The scene in the book takes place in The Bentley I believe)

This is important for Azi's ask at the end of S2. We Know that whatever the convo with Metatron was, Azi could tell Something was up. He doesn't know it's specifically the second coming, but he knows it's Something. Remember, at the end of S1, Crowley says they bought themselves breathing room for "the big one". And Azi is probably pretty sure that this project Metatron is talking about is exactly that. Keeping in mind the first move both Book Azi and Crowley make in the ApocaNot is to try and defect, it makes sense, from that lens, that Azi would Jump at the chance to offer Crowley the safety of defection. Keep in mind, In -The S1 scene at the Globe -The WWII magic show scene And -The Victorian Body snatcher scene Azi isn't worried for what Heaven will do to Crowley, but what Hell will. Afterall, it's Hell that collects or threatens to collect Crowley in the flashbacks, and it's Hell Azi is concerned will destroy Crowley "If hell finds out, they won't just be angry, they'll destroy you", Aziraphale says. He's worried about what Hell will do to Crowley, not Heaven. (well that and holy water)

So, given that background, it stands to reason that Azi feels he and Crowley are Safer with Heaven than Hell. Yes, Heaven tried to kill Azi, but that was once. Afterall, Hell doesn't write "rude notes".

And look, we don't know what exactly Azi goes through with Heaven,but a lot of Heaven's ab*se seems to happen from Azi's superiors, but if he's Surpreme Archangel, Azi will be the superior and in a high enough position to Protect Crowley, or at least I imagine that's Azi's rationale. So, again, it stands to reason that 1) Azi would assume they'd both be physically safer in Heaven and 2) That Crowley wouldn't take it personally,as, per the book, they've Asked to defect to Heaven before. Now, to be fair, this is Book Canon, not TV Show canon. So, let's discuss (briefly, because this could be another post) Aziraphale and Crowley's view of Angel/Demon as identity, or at least what AZI would know of it. Azi doesn't hear Crowley discuss being a demon very often other than to

1) tell Azi that they didn't mean to fall or some variation

or

2) Tell Azi that they're a demon, and, thus, they're not nice (an assertation that is usually, immediately, proven Wrong, ala the Job episode, but we see it elsewhere as well)

And, based on that, I also think another lens we can look at Azi's offer is one of a Restoration, The Righting of an Injustice. Hell and being a demon is an allegory for a kind of criminal punishment. Crowley was kicked out because he was "bad", this was unfair, and now, the error or the judgement is being recognized and fixed. This is obviously a VERY LOADED concept, but it is very possible Aziraphale views this offer as Righting a Wrong, Correcting an Injustice that was Done TO Crowley. I'm not saying these are definitive lenses to look through, just alternate ones that can help us understand what Azi is thinking when he offers Crowley to be an Angel.

[rraaarr]

I think Aziraphale should at least get a little credit that the Only Line Crowley couldn't, and most ppl seem to agree(including me) Shouldn't have crossed to be with Aziraphale is the Same Line Aziraphale was Constantly risking by socializing/making heart eyes at/associating with Crowley for 6000 years

And I want to be clear, it seems pretty obvious that Crowley most likely suffered very real and terrible consequences from hell bc of his relationship with Aziraphale. We see a very concrete example with the Wee Morag and Elspeth situation (though we don't actually see what happens, but I feel that it's implied that it's very awful). And Crowley Should and often Does get credit for this. So, this isn't a "who risked more" post, because the Whole Point is that they both risked basically everything to just...hang out together. This is more about What Exactly Aziraphale Was risking in light of the S2 breakup scene, and that thing is Identity.

Because the S2 breakup scene, and really the audience's reaction to it, shows us that Aziraphale is out of pocket for offering Crowley to become an Angel because (whether or not Aziraphale realizes-I say not- but that's another post) it Fundamentally Changes Who Crowley IS. And this heavily suggests that Angel and Demon function as a kind of identity (as opposed to a job, which is, in my opinion, slightly more the book's take). And if we are looking at Demon and Angel as at least Some Kind of form of identity, then I think it is relevant to recognize that Aziraphale was Always risking his identity for the better part of 6000 years. {And It is very important to Also recognize that it is Crowley who spares him this in the Job episode (perhaps in a way Aziraphale Doesn't in the breakup scene. But here is where I would like to point out that Aziraphale was possibly Excited about being together as Angels with Crowley, but he never actually made that decision for her, as Aziraphale never actually made a decision at all. Crowley is possibly upset that Aziraphale didn't know them well enough to understand that Demon is a functionality of their identity and to say No Immediately.....and this is another post,lol)}

The worst that could happen to Aziraphale is Fall, to have his identity stripped from him. (which, arguably, Crowley did have their identity stripped from them when they fell, though Probably not because of Aziraphale-or who knows-,but I feel this really convolutes things, OR clarifies, because, I guess it makes a lot of sense if you view Angel as an identity that Crowley had stripped from him, then it would Make Sense that Aziraphale would Want to Restore that, but then it also means that Aziraphale is losing sight of the 6000 years of identity as Demon, so restoring would perhaps Erase those 6000 years, as opposed to what Aziraphale is possibly thinking, which is that he can give a piece of Crowley's identity Back to them, not really realizing that having that piece of identity Removed is Part of their identity now...and it gets complicated)

I just think that if in the Good Omens show universe, If Heaven and Hell are The Same (as the show frequently points out), and If Angel and Demon are viewed as forms of identity, then I don't think Aziraphale falling is any better than Crowley becoming an Angel. And I just think Aziraphale should get Some credit for risking his very identity this whole time.

[rraaarr]

Crowley and Aziraphale learned different lessons in S2

I think throughout the events of the season And what appears to be Aziraphale remembering with the minisodes, that where Crowley realizes that they're relatively Safe to be together (particularly after the convo with Nina, realizing how obvious they've been this whole time that Nina can see it!) Aziraphale realizes how much Danger they're in.

So Crowley's arc basically goes from We Are In Danger to We Might Be Able to Have This Actually and Aziraphale goes from We Are Safe and In Love Because We Fooled Heaven and Hell to Oh No We Are In Danger Actually

And I think this explains One of several reasons why they miscommunicate So Badly in the final scene is because while they've Always been able to talk through subtext at least a little, like with Job, but then again, they've always known the risks and were on the same page there at least.

[rraaarr]

I so agree with this. I think that it's also important to remember Aziraphale is acting as he believes Crowley would.

To Aziraphale, Crowley is cool and brave. Crowley wouldn't show an ounce of fear, they'd be suave and confident, Crowley Would put on a bit of a show.

And Aziraphale isn't one to go back and Talk about how he felt. We only know about Crowley's reaction as in depth as we do, not because they Talk about it with Aziraphale, but because the story confronts Crowley dead on with Gabriel. Crowley uses the description of events as a persuasion tactic with Aziraphale and then we see them spell it out for Jimbriel later. But it isn't like Aziraphale gets a chance to tell off Beelzebub

And as OP says, Aziraphale sweeps his feelings under the rug, he isn't about to Revisit anything unpleasant!

we talk a lot about how terrified and angry crowley was when heaven tried to execute aziraphale via hellfire and gabriel told him to shut his mouth and die already, and how aziraphale seemed to be having the time of his life in the holy water bathtub down in hell, asking for rubber ducks and making michael miracle him a towel. we know that crowley was traumatized by the whole appearance-swapping experience by how he reacts to gabriel in the bookshop. and while i wholeheartedly agree with everyone's thoughts about crowley, i'm wondering if we haven't gotten it a bit wrong on az's end. we know that aziraphale tends to shove things under the rug when he's nervous or afraid. he puts on a brave face and tries his best to soldier on through whatever difficulty he's facing (see the whole bit with the metatron at the end of S2). don't let them see your fear. but we also know (per neil) that when crowley's pupils go full yellow it's a sign of extreme stress. and throughout the bathtub scene, aziraphale-crowley's eyes are blown wide to yellow. i feel like aziraphale was much more terrified (for both himself and crowley) during this scene than he let on during his later recounting of the events to crowley in the park. just something to consider.

(the nose scrunch clearly says 'i'm fine, this is fine' to all but the most attuned observer)

[rraaarr]

Been assuming that "Like Old Times but even nicer" referred to their time in Heaven...

But what if Aziraphale was literally just referring to their relationship on earth.

Like think about it, the last few years they've been essentially unemployed/retired, and Aziraphale (and Crowley to an extent!) really did like helping out the Humans. (so much so, they try to project onto a couple in order to help them)

And in several flashbacks we see Aziraphale and Crowley hanging out together and helping the humans (not so much in the Blitz one, but they did help out the woman who ran the Ladies of Camelot show) And in those flashbacks, they both, usually together, often make judgment calls about what Heaven and Hell should be doing (like with Job).

So Aziraphale could basically just be saying let's go do all the good stuff we used to do together on earth except this time, we can make those same decisions and judgment calls we've Been making for millennia BUT we won't have to worry about being caught or getting into trouble, we'll actually have to be listened to, we can still find time to socialize, and we'll be Safe.

[rraaarr]

There's a line that I feel is important and doesn't get discussed very often

Crowley comments "I don't know how you lot have stayed in charge all these years"

To which Aziraphale responds "I don't think we have" I don't know why, but it feels important

[rraaarr]

I'm dead

I will never be over the fact that for all the confusion and fear and panic and anger that goes through Aziraphale's face in the seconds after the kiss, for all the repressed feelings and the idiocy of his 'I forgive you', when Crowley walks away from him for what he thinks could be the last time he stutters out the softest, most desperately pleading '...no...'

[rraaarr]

One important aspect of Metatron's offer to Aziraphale is that I don't think he cares if Crowley becomes an Angel or no. Or maybe he does, msybe he knew Crowley would say no ,but I think speculation should at least account for the Possibility that both outcomes were favorable to Metatron.

[rraaarr]

there relationship and love is So earthbound and I think they really need to understand that themselves.

Love how it was made clear that beelzebub and gabriel explicitly don’t want to “consume human food”, and while they like music and clothes, and their love for each other is real and deep- it’s also otherworldly. They are devoted to each other- but they are each others heaven and hell.

Whereas our friends Aziraphale and Crowley love: eating, sleeping, drinking, reading, film, driving, dancing- and also kissing. Their love is steeped in humanity. Because they aren’t each other’s heaven and hell, they said as much in S1. When they toasted to the world.

[rraaarr]

in the middle of working out the complexities of Aziraphales character like a normal person

and I'm currently trying to figure out what exactly it is that Aziraphale isn't confronting regarding Heaven. Is it just his optimism? Hope for change? I don't think it's even black and white thinking because I struggle to accept that an Angel that did a demon's temptations for Centuries is a black and white thinker. That's At Least a black, gray, and white thinker.

Is it a reflex? Is it that Aziraphale struggles with the idea that Angels and demons are just as capable of Choice as humans? Is it about Crowley and seeing Crowley's fall as a harmful act that demands repair?

Like what is it?

Aziraphale just doesn't say what he thinks, I feel, in the same way that Crowley does, and he can be a hard read sometimes. And I'm really just trying to figure that out.

[rraaarr]

I love how beautiful and succinct this is, don't sleep on ops tags

Aziraphale “I will bear the loss of the world’s delights to prevent it from being destroyed so that crowley can live freely in it” VERSUS Crowley “I will carve out a place for aziraphale in this universe and defend it with my life so that he will be safe” FIGHT!!!

[rraaarr]

I strongly disagree with the people saying that Aziraphale asking Crowley to come to heaven was choosing "angel Crowley" over "demon Crowley." Because to Aziraphale, there is no difference. He knows that Crowley has always been good, that he never truly deserved to be a demon. He believes that heaven made a mistake casting Crowley out in the first place. He wants to fix that mistake, to restore everything that Crowley lost and give him the stars again. He wants to make a difference: to make up for all of the mistakes that heaven has made, and turn it into somewhere that they can be together and happy and safe.

He really does need Crowley and he believes that this is how they can finally be an "us."

[rraaarr]

Crowley's 'i want you to be happy' means 'i want to get you away from the people who have hurt you' and Aziraphale's 'i want you to be happy' means 'i want to restore everything you've lost', and they both dont understand this isnt what will make the other happy