theriverspath

[theriverspath]

I drew it upon the request of @doraminatook in this post👇🏻

So, yeah, that’s our little damsel (in distress, I presume🤣). Angel, oh Angel, where are you? Come and give her a kiss 💋

[theriverspath]

gold rush

Soho, 1800.

“Did they say why?” said Crowley.

“Change of plans,” Aziraphale replied around a mouthful of chocolate. “I’m apparently needed here, in the bookshop. Battling the, ah.” He swallowed, looking away. “The forces of evil, and what have you.”

“Hungry work,” Crowley said solemnly, offering up the chocolate tin again.

Aziraphale feigned indecision for only a moment, practically wiggling as he leaned in to inspect the array of sweet morsels. “I really shouldn’t,” he said, selecting one from the middle. Crowley watched from behind the relative safety of his glasses, unblinking, as the angel took a bite.

“Mm.” Aziraphale tipped his head back, eyes fluttering half-shut. “Oh, that’s divine. I could eat every last one of those, right here.”

Crowley made a mental note to thank his friends at Debauve & Gallais for their suggestion to present the sweets in alluring little rows. “Well, don’t stand on ceremony,” he said, giving the tin a shake. “Lots to celebrate. It’s not every day you dodge a promotion at work.” 

“They would’ve given me Sandalphon’s old office, I’m sure of it,” Aziraphale muttered darkly, and he plucked another chocolate from the tin with even less hesitation than before.

Crowley sat back and let himself stare. Sugar and cocoa gave way between Aziraphale’s teeth; his tongue flashed pink, licking any remnants clean away.

So he’d indulged a bit of skullduggery. Pulled a few demonic strings. What was the alternative? Crawling back to his lodgings, sleeping off the reality of the situation for the next six months or so, waking up to find an angel who wasn’t Aziraphale installed here instead? They'd gone years without crossing paths before, decades. Longer, even. Somewhere in there, Crowley had gotten a bit too comfortable. Upper management checking in from time to time was one thing; being whisked Upstairs or Down with nothing but a ‘You’re being promoted, indefinitely!’ for warning was another box of snuff entirely. 

“You’re really doing it, then,” Crowley said, halfway between a question and a statement of pure fact. Aziraphale was here; Aziraphale was staying. “Selling your books to the humans.”

Aziraphale drew himself up slightly. “Certainly.” There was a brief pause. “Or at the very least, letting them look at the books.”

“Ah.”

“Oh, don’t you start.”

Crowley felt the stirrings of a smile tug at his lips. “I’m all for it, angel. People wanting what they can’t have? Coveting? You’ll be doing my job for me.”

“Yes, well—” Aziraphale’s eyes flicked upward. “The shop isn’t officially open yet, so if you could sheath your fangs until then, it would be much appreciated.”

“Sorry, sheath my—”

“And besides,” Aziraphale plowed on, “I still haven’t decided on a color for the backroom. I was rather hoping I might get your opinion on the matter, if you can spare a moment from delighting in the prospect of tempting my future patrons down a path of sin.”

Crowley made a show of pondering this. “No promises, but I’ll give it an honest go.”

“Good,” Aziraphale said, all too proud of himself, and Crowley’s insides did something vaguely acrobatic in response. Keep him here. Keep him looking at you like that. An old mantra, the only one he lived by these days.

“What do you think of yellow?” said Aziraphale. “For the walls?”

“Yellow,” Crowley echoed, nose wrinkling. “No, it’s fine,” he amended as Aziraphale gave a weary sigh. “Brings to mind all things pestilent and diseased, but what bookshop doesn’t?” 

“Horrid serpent. I should’ve known you’d be of no help.”

“And yet you asked anyway,” Crowley sing-songed. 

“Yellow,” Aziraphale said, ignoring this, “is a perfectly lovely color. Cheerful, warm.” He surveyed the room, face softening as he did so. “All the things a home should be.”

Home. Not Heaven, but here, the backroom of an unfinished bookshop, this dusty, dirty sphere of a planet, a speck in the grand cosmic backdrop. The perfect absurdity of it struck Crowley between the ribs.

He played it off with a shrug. “On your head, then.”

“You’ll come around,” said Aziraphale. His lips pursed, a not-quite smile. The pressure in Crowley’s chest swelled to a degree that would have warranted a trip to St. Bart’s, were he human. “You always do. And in the meantime—” With a small flourish, a sleek bottle of something red and expensive-looking appeared alongside the chocolate tin. “You might take those glasses off and stay awhile.”

“Twist my wing, why don't you,” said Crowley, and did.

[theriverspath]

i’m ready for a happy ending

[theriverspath]

A moment from the book that I really wanted to turn into a comic page :D

(Book Good Omens are taking over my life, I love them so much)

[theriverspath]

*farquaad point* he bewitched him body and soul

[theriverspath]

This needs to be remade with Crowley.

Your assignment, Artists of Tumblr, should you choose to accept it.........

[theriverspath]

Crowley’s hand crank reliquary, sterling and fine silver with red brass and crystal quartz.

[theriverspath]

Bentley's shadow

Music&Inktober

3/10

🎧The Mamas & the Papas - California dreamin'

[theriverspath]

“and he could do really weird things with his tongue.”  

[theriverspath]

Well, it's been 0 days since David Tennant made me ugly cry.

My birthday is coming up, and I've treated myself to a month of Marquee TV as a little gift. I was particularly looking forward to David's Richard II. I've never seen a production of it, nor read it. So, I was going in fairly blind. But, I'd seen clips of The Kiss on youtube, and even an interview or two about it. So I thought I was ready for the level of heartache it would evoke.

I was wrong.

Y'all. That scene within the greater context of the story ripped my queer little heart right out of my chest. First of all, David's delivery of

I live with bread like you, feel want, Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus, How can you say to me, I am a king?

in a previous scene floored me. Here is a individual struggling with the isolation and loneliness that comes with power. They have the natural human need to be seen, to have honest emotional connections, to have a safe space in which to be vulnerable. But, they are at the top of a social structure that does not reward vulnerability with safety. In order to be king, they have had to sacrifice a measure of their humanity.

It's only when Richard comes to accept that the end of his reign will also mean the end of his life, that he affords himself the freedom to reach out to someone he obviously cares deeply for. I mean, he's asking the man if he can lay by his side in death. There's no mention of wanting to be with his wife for all of eternity. It's Aumerle that he trusts to witness his anger and fear about his impending death, and it's Aumerle that he turns to for comfort.

And, The Kiss is lovely. It really is. The longing on Richard's face, the hesitation as he decides whether or not he's really going to go through with it, the tenderness of it all. It's beautiful.

It was what Richard did after The Kiss that opened up the ugly cry flood gates for me, though. It's when he places the crown on Aumerle's head. It's played for a little laugh, to break the tension of The Kiss. And again, I'd seen it done on youtube, but it hadn't made sense to me. It had seemed like an odd gesture, and I didn't understand the motivation behind it. This time, the meaning of it came crashing down on me.

In this play, the crown is the focus of everyone's love, devotion, and desire. The one who wears it is the most powerful, the most precious person in the land. And for one brief moment, Richard crowns Aumerle. Richard cannot say aloud that Aumerle is the king of his heart. But, that almost playful exchange says it for him.

And then Richard begins to fold all of that back inside of himself. The crown returns on his own head. His face starts to set into the stony mask of the divinely appointed ruler. But before it's done, there's The Look. It's all there: pining, hope, confession, regret, grief. A wistful sigh and brief brush of fingers against Aumerle's face and he walks away, not human but king once more. It broke me.

If this isn't an analogy for the closeted experience, then I don't know what is. Historically, if someone wanted financial and social stability, then they had better act straight. Their true feelings were a real danger to themselves and to those they loved.* Add the fact that David has said in an interview that they were going for a "slightly androgynous quality" just piles a whole 'nother layer of gender stuff on top of the sexuality stuff. Like, I could write a paper on this.

*I wrote that in the past tense, but it is still true for the majority of the people on the planet.

I know I'm a million years late to this play, and there's probably already a ton of analysis from the queer perspective floating around out there. But, I just had to get all these feelings out somewhere. Thanks for reading.

[theriverspath]

Ooo, a challenge! Ask me to make a choice about some of these and watch me turn into the "both is good" Road to El Dorado meme. And, there's at least one of these where neither scenario speaks to me. But, here's my best shot at this that doesn't involve a nuanced explanatory footnote for every single option.

coffee shop or flower shop | au or fix-it | enemies to lovers or childhood friends | angst or fluff* | love at first sight or pining | modern au or historical au | break up & make up or proposal & wedding | get together or established relationship | soulmates or unrequited^ | fake dating or secret dating | obvious pining or domestic fluff | hurt/comfort or crack | meet the parents or meet cute

*Asking me to choose between these two is impossible. I need both in my life, preferably in the same fic.

^Neither of these appeal to me, really. The older I get, the more I prefer to read about the challenges and work it takes to grow and maintain a relationship from attraction to affection to love. (No shade on folks who enjoy love at first sight or soulmates, though. To each their own.) And, unrequited love just breaks my heart a little too much.

no pressure tags gathered from the lovely mutuals in my activity feed: @cottagecore-raccoon @electricarpeggio @clacomat @dorian-they @haemey @rcreveal

Pick your favorite tropes!

Thanks for the tag @friendly-jester ^^

coffee shop or flower shop | au or fix-it | enemies to lovers or childhood friends | angst or fluff | love at first sight or pining | modern au or historical au | break up & make up or proposal & wedding | get together or established relationship | soulmates or unrequited | fake dating or secret dating | obvious pining or domestic fluff | hurt/comfort or crack | meet the parents or meet cute

No pressure tagging: @lost-in-derry @foxxxtransformer123 @sunatsubu @may-be-a-plant @heart-0f-a-rebel16 @astudyinpanda @fulcrum-021 @loth-creatures @death-by-ladybug @thatonegreyghost @zebsfloppyears and anyone else who wants to play

[theriverspath]

I thought it would be fun if i started drawing the ineffable husbands in famous paintings! i'm probably posting it weekly, on sundays (not sure tho)

[theriverspath]

A moment from the book that I really wanted to turn into a comic page :D

(Book Good Omens are taking over my life, I love them so much)

[theriverspath]

Good Omens 🥹

Clip Studio Paint

[theriverspath]

Another coloring page from my GO fanart calendar - number 5.

For me, it's a breathtaking scene. Since I was interested in mythology and the ideas of different religions, the fact that Crowley came to save the angel in the church is quite extraordinary for me. . Not only in Christianity, but also in other faiths, according to established ideas, a demon or some evil spirit cannot enter the temple, cannot cross the threshold. And Crowley entered the church, yes he suffered, he was burned by the consecrated ground, but he was inside. Only LOVE and a completely pure intention - to save a life - could allow him to do this. At that moment I knew that he loved the angel. And despite all the magic, it's also comical -  demon makes guardian angel - for an angel.

[theriverspath]

that's... not how it works. you can't guarantee that your work definitely won't squick anyone. what do you think you're saying?

[theriverspath]

“I think I understand a whole lot better than you do”