gobacktobakerstreet

[gobacktobakerstreet]

Hi!

I was wondering if there are any fics where the ending is still the same (aziraphale goes to heaven, crowley stays on earth) but they properly discuss it and understand each other’s choice? This may be a bit too specific so no worries if you don’t know any.

Thank you 💕

Hey! Here are some fics where the ending is the same, but they take some time to talk a little more first...

The Other Side of Forgiveness by JazzRazzberry (NR)

Crowley should leave. He should really go now, before he does anything worse than what he’s already said and done. Before he gets forgiven again. He should go, the Bentley is outside, he can drive and drink until he forgets. Before he does something stupid. Before he kisses Aziraphale again. He should just go. Although. Might as well bare everything to his angel before he’s gotta leave forever, right? Aziraphale is still looking at him with those eyes, those damned eyes.

A tight embrace to say goodbye by yellowdaisy2023 (G)

Aziraphale can feel the lump forming in the back of his throat. His eyes sting with unshed tears as he turns, looking away from Crowley. His whole body is turned away from him, almost as if he’s closing himself off. It breaks Crowley’s heart. In all the years they’ve known each other, after all the fights, they’ve never done that. They’ve never closed each other off. Crowley takes a step back, ready to leave his angel forever, when he sees the slightest shudder in Aziraphale’s shoulders. Crowley pauses, watching carefully. It happens again, a small shake in the usually tense shoulders. He’s crying. Or Someone on TikTok pointed out that Aziraphale was about to sob before Crowley kissed him and I ran with it

This is Not an Apology (This is Not a Goodbye) by ThisIsWhyILoveReading (T)

After watching Aziraphale leave for Heaven, Crowley drives to his newly-reacquired flat and decides to sleep his pain away for the next few centuries, at least. Unfortunately, a certain angel shows up at his bedside and they are forced to try and Talk Things Out.

the choiceless hope in grief by Addicted2Demons (T)

"Don't go." The words are ripped from him involuntarily, a swelling need rising behind his breastbone and expanding like a balloon at a rapid pace, terrifying him in its intensity. He wasn't going to say that; it hadn't been a conscious thought, but there the words are anyway, writhing in the air between them, screaming out. Crowley stops, but doesn't turn, hand poised to turn the knob of the bookshop door, shoulders pulled up to his ears. Guarded. Hurt. Tender, inside, Aziraphale knows. He's always been so tender. A heart he was never supposed to have torn and bleeding in his ragged chest for centuries, possibly millennia. -- or -- Aziraphale has just been kissed by his demon for the first time. He suddenly, desperately, can't let him leave the bookshop without doing it again.

Things Left Unsaid by very_normal_abt_this (G)

S2 finale compliant fix it fic. Aziraphale decides that the first conversation with Crowley about going to Heaven was terrible, and that there are other things he needs to say to the Demon. Before he leaves.

one last nightingale by blackeyedblonde (E)

“Listen,” Crowley says abruptly from where he’s standing by the door, pointing above their heads. “Hear that?” They’re running out of options, he’s running out of time to make Crowley listen, and in his mounting panic somehow all the angel can do is bluff. “I don’t hear anything!” he says in huffed exasperation. The true weight of that silence wedged between them slugs Aziraphale somewhere beneath the breastbone when he realizes, dazedly, that the grandfather clock behind him has stopped ticking for the very first time in more than three centuries. “Nothing…at all,” Aziraphale breathes out, eyes widening as he whips his head around to gape at the forestalled clock. Upon turning again he searches Crowley’s face for some sort of affirmation, for any kind of clue that this is the trapdoor he’d been haplessly hoping for. “My word. Did you just—?” “Sure did,” Crowley retorts, lowering his arm so it slaps against his side like a limp fish. Outside the world continues, Soho going about its business as usual, but even the old metronome across the room on the angel’s desk has stopped its waving arm mid-air. “Now start explaining, we haven’t got all day.”

- Mod D

[gobacktobakerstreet]

I've seen a post string that Aziraphale's way of dealing with problems has been to fix things while Crowley has been taking the avoidance route.

I wanna note tho:

In the beginning - or rather, before the Beginning - it was Crowley who wanted to fix things, make suggestions, and he got eternal damnation for it.

Even despite his status as, what we currently assume (right?) an Archangel he was cast out for trying to make the humble suggestion not to end the universe.

Aziraphale, at the same time, went all "best not get in trouble", didn't ask questions.

Of course Crowley doesn't wanna fix things anymore! He learned the hard way that good intentions actually lead to hell, that you'll be punished for it.

And now Aziraphale has accepted the bloody job offer, thinking he can change things, but Crowley KNOWS he can't, because he's been there, and it's heartbreaking

[gobacktobakerstreet]

Hello, hello, hello, Mr. Gaiman. I was thinking: at the beginning of S01E01, Aziraphale asks Crawley's name to complete his line 'Well, it must be bad...'. Can we consider this as an introduction, I guess... 🤔 Then, in S02E01, we see Aziraphale introducing himself to Crowley before the beginning of everything: 'Hello! I'm Aziraphale'. So, if they met each other at this moment, why doesn't Aziraphale remember Crowley when they meet in S01? Is it because he is now a demon? Maybe, because he changed his name? Or can we consider S02E01 as a retcon? Best regards from a brazilian fan. Can't wait for season 03.

Why don't you feel that Aziraphale doesn't remember him? He doesn't know what name the demon who is now calling himself Crawley is using, though. It's not the name he used when he was an angel.

[gobacktobakerstreet]

Good Omens season 2 ending and Crowley's (probable) Time Stop

When it comes to the Good Omens season 2 ending, I'm firmly on Team Time Stop, which is to say that I think Crowley has this spectacularly useful skill for moments of extreme duress, when there's intense pressure and huge stakes and no time to think or privacy to talk. He used that power to great effect towards the end of season 1 when he and Aziraphale stepped out of time in the middle of the panic of Armageddon to take some deep breaths and help Adam prepare to confront His Father.

So, in the emotionally fraught bookshop scene at the end of season 2, when Aziraphale is acting strange and trying to communicate something unspoken and urgent, and they're each full of strong emotions and feeling like there's no time to listen to one another or process what's happening, and there's no privacy (hello, Metatron and Muriel at the window), and maybe they're splitting up for who knows how long to take on very dangerous tasks, and they're angry and hurt and frustrated with one another, and they both have SO MUCH they want to say, how could Crowley NOT use his power to stop time so they can breathe, talk, think, and plan?!

When did it happen? Right after Crowley says "no nightingales" seems like the most likely time. I think Michael Sheen responds to "no nightingales" by doing something with his face - his expression and his jaw - that reflects something extra but unknown to us has just happened. It might only be that "no nightingales" has extra meaning to them that we don't know about yet, but I do think a time stop here is very likely.

Still not sure? Here's what convinced me that a time stop was likely: First, there's all the symmetry, or repetition, between seasons 1 and 2. From small things like ducks and "have a gold star", to big things like magic and the 1941 minisode and Aziracrow sheltering one another with their wings and holding hands with someone who is between them. Gifs of some parallels are here, thanks to @mizgnomer. It seems very possible that Crowley stopped time again as another kind of symmetry/repetition.

And if you need more? The movie poster for Stairway to Heaven features in the s2 opening credits and in Maggie's store, and that movie uses a lot of time stopping so characters can talk, out of the moment.

And the promo "poster" for season 2 features the main bookshop clock, prominently watching over Aziraphale and Crowley.

And there's this: the "Life After Death" leitmotif plays in s1 ("we're on our own side", moments before they swap appearances), and again in s2 ("I don't think you understand what I'm offering you" … moments before a body swap? Or maybe a time stop.) That conversation, "I don't think you understand / I understand a whole lot better than you" could have been the catalyst for Crowley to realize they need to TALK and have time to LISTEN. Maybe Crowley finally tells Aziraphale what he learned in heaven, and maybe Aziraphale tells Crowley the truth about his conversation with The Metatron. And then they will both actually understand more than they did before...

And, one final Clue: the TWO clocks in the bookshop, which both display the SAME "continuity error" during the Aziracrow conversation and kiss, where 15 minutes seems to pass unaccounted for. Maybe it's an in-universe character's continuity error, and not an accident of the production team.

Details for the two clocks including screenshots, and info about Stairway to Heaven as it relates to GO, are here in the reblog comments.

(And there are lots of other interesting links to support this and other theories in my collection of Clues and metas.)

So while there's some question about what happened when they stopped time (more on that in a bit), I'm definitely on Team Time Stop as part of the ending of season 2!

[gobacktobakerstreet]

Every piece by this amazing artist is a delight!

In season three, I’m gonna need their first meeting’s ‘gorgeous’ line to happen again, except this time it’s *actually* aimed at Aziraphale.

[gobacktobakerstreet]

One thing I love about Crowley --never stated, but consistently shown-- is that he is, at heart, an engineer.

I have a few different things to say about that. Let's unpack them.

As the Unnamed Angel, we see his designs for the Pillars of Creation are millions of pages long, comprised of cramped text, footnotes, diagrams, schematics, etc. It's very...Renaissance polymath, in the way it implies a particular intersection of artist and inventor.

Also: in the naked romanticism with which he views his stars.

We already knew he made stars, but in s2 we learn that he did NOT sculpt each of them by hand. He designed a nebula ("a star factory," he says) that will form several thousand young stars and proto-planets, and all --aside from getting the 'factory' running-- without him lifting a finger. We also learn that these young stars and proto-planets stand in contrast to those made by other angels, which are going to come 'pre-aged.'

...I'm reminded of Hastur and Ligur's approach to temptations. Damning one human soul at a time, devoting singular attention to it over the course of years or decades, and how that stands in contrast to Crowley's reliance on, quote, 'knock-on effects.'

Ligur: It's not exactly...craftsmanship. Crowley: Head office don't seem to mind. They love me down there.

Hm.

I'm also reminded of the M25.

The M25 may not be as grand as a nebula (sentences you only say in GOmens fandom...), but LIKE his nebula it's an intricate, self-sustaining engine that does Crowley's work for him, many times over. Again.

That's some pretty neat characterization --and so is the indication towards Crowley's disinterest in victimizing anyone tempting individual people. It takes a considerable amount of planning and effort (and creeping about in wellies), but in accordance with his design the M25 generates a constant stream of low-grade evil on a gigantic scale.

Cumulatively gigantic, that is. Individually? Negligible.

But no other demon understands human nature well enough to parse that one million ticked-off motorists are not, in any meaningful way, actually equivalent to one dictator, or one mass-murderer, or even one little influential regressive. That's the trick of it. Crowley gets Hell's approval (which he NEEDS to survive, and to maintain the degree of freedom he's eked out for himself), and at the same time ensures that any actual ~Evil Influence~ is spread nice and thin.

It's some clever machinery. And he knows it, too:

The Unnamed Angel and Crowley are both proud of their ideas.

(musings on professional pride, Leonardo da Vinci, the crank handle, and 'the point to which Crowley loves Aziraphale' under the cut)

In the 1970's Crowley gives a presentation on the M25, projector and all, to a room full of increasingly impatient demons. Maybe the presentation was work-ordered; the 'can I hear a WAHOO?' definitely wasn't.

Before the Beginning, the Unnamed Angel can barely contain his excitement about his nebula. Aziraphale manages a baffled-but-polite, "....That's nice... :)"

11 years ago, Hastur and Ligur want to 'tell the deeds of the day,' and Crowley smiles to himself because (according to the script-book) he knows he has 'the best one.'

(Naturally, his 'deed' has nothing to do with tempting anybody, and everything to do with setting up a human-powered Rube-Goldberg machine of petty annoyance. Oodles of 'Evil' generated; very little harm done.)

Hastur and Ligur don't get it, of course. That's also consistent.

Nobody ever knows what the hell he's talking about.

It didn't make it on-screen, but, in both the novel AND the script-book, Crowley was friends with Leonardo da Vinci. The quintessential Renaissance polymath. That's where he got his drawing of the Mona Lisa --they're getting very drunk together, and Crowley picks up the 'most beautiful' of the preliminary sketches. He wants to buy it. Leonardo agrees almost off-the-cuff, very casual, because they're friends, and because he has bigger fish to fry than haggling over a doodle:

He goes, "Now, explain this helicopter thingie again, will you?" Because he's an engineer, too.

(It is 1519 at the latest, in this scene. Why the FUCK would Crowley know about helicopters, and be able to explain them, comprehensively, to Leonardo da Vinci?

...Well. I choose to believe he got bored one day and worked it out. Look, if you know how to build a nebula, you can probably handle aerodynamics. And anyway, I think it's telling that this is his idea of shooting the shit. 'A drunken mind speaks a sober heart,' and all. He probably babbled about Aziraphale long enough to make poor Leo sick)

Apart from Aziraphale, Leonardo da Vinci is the only person Crowley has any keepsakes or mementos of.

Think about that, though. Aziraphale's bookshop is bursting with letters, paintings, busts, and personalized signatures memorializing all the humans he's known and befriended over 6000 years (indeed: Aziraphale has living human friends up and down Whickber Street. He's part of a community).

Crowley doesn't have any of that. It's just the stone albatross from the Church (for pining), the infamous gay sex statue (for spicy pining), the houseplants (for roleplaying his deepest trauma over and over, as one does), and this one piece of artwork, inscribed, "To my friend Anthony from your friend Leo da V."

To me, at least, that suggests a level of attachment that seems to be rare for Crowley.

...Maybe he liked having someone to talk shop with? Someone who was interested? Someone engaged enough to ask questions when they didn't immediately understand?

...Anyway.

There's also the matter of the crank handle.

This thing:

This is one of the subtler changes from the book. In the book, Crowley knows Satan is coming and, desperate, arms himself with a tire iron. It's the best he can do. He's not Aziraphale; he wasn't made to wield a flaming sword.

The show, IMO, improves on this considerably. Now he, like Aziraphale, gets to face annihilation with what he was made for in his hand. And it's not a weapon, not even an improvised one like the tire iron.

He made stars with it.

[both gifs by @fuckyeahgoodomens]

If you Google 'crank handle,' you'll get variations on this:

Crank handles have been around for centuries. Consisting of a mechanical arm that's connected to a perpendicular rotating shaft, they are designed to convert circular motion into rotary or reciprocating motion.

Which is to say they're one of the 'simple machines,' like a lever or a pulley; the bread and butter of engineering. You'll also get a list of uses for a crank handle, archaic and modern. Among them: cranking up the engine of an old-fashioned car... say, a 1933 Bentley. That's what Crowley has been using his for, lately. But he's had it since he was an angel and he's still, it seems, very capable of it's angelic applications.

Stopping time. For instance.

(This is conjecture on my part, but, I like to imagine that Crowley has the ability to stop time for the same reason I can --and should-- unplug my computer before I perform maintenance on it. Time and Space are a matched set, after all, and in his designs in particular, one feeds into the other.)

I know everyone has already said this, but: I REALLY LIKE that when he needs to channel the heights of his power, he does so not with a weapon but with a tool. Practically with a little handheld metaphor for ingenuity. One from long-lost days when he made beautiful things.

(And he loved it. Still loves it --he incorporated that metaphor into the Bentley, didn't he?)

Let Aziraphale rock up to the apocalypse with a weapon: he has his own compelling thematic reasons to do exactly that. Crowley's story is different, and fighting isn't the only way to express defiance. And if you've been condemned as a demon and assumed to be destructive by your very nature, what better way than this?

He made stars. They didn't manage to take that from him.

Neither Crowley nor Aziraphale are fighters, really --they have no intention of fighting in any war. They'll annoy everyone until there's no war to fight in, for a start. But between the two, if one must be, then that one is Aziraphale. Principality of the Earth, Guardian of the Eastern Gate, Wielder of the Flaming Sword... all that stuff. Even if he'd prefer not to, it's very clear that Aziraphale can rise to the occasion, if he must.

Crowley was never that kind of angel. He wasn't a Principality. He doesn't have a sword.

...And yet.

It's Crowley who protects. He's the one who paces, who stands guard, who circles Aziraphale and glares out at the world, just daring anyone else to come near.

In light of everything else I've said here, I think that's interesting.

Obviously part of it is that Aziraphale enjoys it and, you know, good for him. He's living his best life, no doubt no doubt no doubt. But what about Crowley? What's driving that behavior, really?

Have you heard the phrase, 'loved to the point of invention'? Well, what if 'the point of invention' was where you started? What if where you end up involves glaring out at the world, just daring anyone else to come near? What is that, in relation to the bright-eyed thing you used to be?

What do we name the point to which Crowley loves Aziraphale?

...Thinking about how an excitable angel with three million pages of star design he wants to tell you all about...becomes a guard dog. Is all.

[gobacktobakerstreet]

This is gorgeous!

Made this 2 months ago and forgot to post but here🤲

[gobacktobakerstreet]

Thinking about how during the confession, Crowley was trying so hard to hold back his tears. He looks up, to the side multiple times to prevent any single tear from falling. He's choking on his words, breaking apart because he knows it's too late by this point. But he's pushing through it, just to tell Aziraphale he wants to spend the rest of his life with him, because maybe it'll change his mind.

You can see the moment he can't hold it back anymore. The moment he realizes they're not on their own side because Aziraphale chose heaven, and has to get out of there, has to put up his defenses.

It's so very human.

[gobacktobakerstreet]

1000 likes!

[gobacktobakerstreet]

Neil Gaiman Tumblr FAQ: Good Omens

Tumblr questions that Neil Gaiman has already answered. Yes, it does have some Neil-provided info of S2. But, it is spoiler leak-free! (It also does not have spoilers from early screenings of S2.)

Docs Version: Here Spreadsheet Version: Here

I’m excited about Good Omens 2 and I was already going through Neil Gaiman's blog ( @neil-gaiman ). I initially made it for me and my friends for reference, but then decided to go ahead and throw it out into the Tumblr void, too. I hope it helps.

I made my own FAQ about this here (please check it before messaging me): OrpiKnight's FAQ FAQ

[gobacktobakerstreet]

Crowley in the bookshop

Took a break from needlepoint, and drew this...ink, watercolor, and gouache on toned paper.

[gobacktobakerstreet]

Hear me out: lapels are wings

I’m going to sound like a mad conspiracy theorist here, but I can’t stop thinking about some very subtle costume design patterns in Good Omens.

First, let’s have a look at the angels. All of the angels have nice, spotless, crisp suits in pale colours, as we know. Let’s have a look:

Specifically, let’s have a look at the lapels on those expensive-looking blazers:

All of them are wearing a peaked lapel that points up. But that’s fine - peaked lapels are more formal so maybe Heaven’s just a fancy place. How about Hell’s emissaries?

Great big overcoats with floppy collars that point down. Style choice, right? Well, let’s have a look at our two favourite ineffable idiots.

How odd - they seem to have got it backwards.

Now admittedly, through many of the scenes that involve lapels, Aziraphale is wearing the same coat - but Crowley is remarkably consistent through time:

(No picture from the Odegra presentation or church scene, because I can’t for the life of me get a clear screenshot bright enough to tell.)

Aziraphale, on the other hand, varies a bit. Just after the duck and top hat scene, where the two had a mini-breakup, Aziraphale is doing good deeds and is back on the side of the angels, as it were:

When he’s figured out where the antichrist is, and lies to Crowley about it, and is trying to figure out what to do, he’s wearing this, which is arguably neutral:

But when he’s discorporated and makes the decision to return to Earth to help, having finally learned that no one in Heaven wants to stop the war, he’s in his old coat again and back on side:

So, what does this (probably not actually) symbolism mean? Well, first you could suggest that peaked lapels are fancier than notched or floppy ones, so may Heaven is just stuffy and overly formal and Crowley really is a flash bastard, while Aziraphale just enjoys comfort. 

I prefer the second, more allegorical option, which is that the lapels indicate their allegiance. The angels up towards Heaven and the demons down towards Hell make sense. For Crowley and Aziraphale, though, the up from Hell and down from Heaven are…well, Earth, Humanity, in the middle. (Or, for those with a romantic streak, their attachment to each other.) 

If you want more evidence (and I use the word evidence with extreme disregard for semantic accuracy here), this vertical alignment is replayed in their wings when Crowley stops time. When they first appear, their wings show their original alignments (Aziraphale up, Crowley down)

Then as they relax, they take on each other’s arrangement, reflecting their change in priorities (Aziraphale down, Crowley up):

And finally, as they prepare to speak to Adam, they settle into the same position: both horizontal, both neutral, both aligned with humanity:

It seems likely that this is style and not substance, and there are plenty of counterexamples (e.g. Gabriel wears a “neutral” lapel at Aziraphale’s trial, and Michael none at all at Crowley’s = subtle hint that they are deviating from their allegiance to Heaven by willingly associating with Hell?; Beelzebub wears an “up” peaked collar but doesn’t seem too heavenly to me; etc.). So maybe I’m just seeing things that aren’t there. But there is one final possibility why Crowley always puts on a fancy peaked lapel every time he sees Aziraphale (quote from this same site):

Maybe he just lives in hope.

[gobacktobakerstreet]

Do not remove LGBT content from the Relationships Education curriculum - Petitions

There is currently a petition with a truly scary number of signatures demanding that the UK government remove LGBT+ content in educational situations because parents might not want their children exposed to such information. What, that LGBT+ people actually exist?! Scary stuff! If you are in the UK, please sign this counter-petition. LGBT+ people are valid and shouldn't be made invisible. Please sign and reblog!

[gobacktobakerstreet]

Older GO asks (and answers!) from Neil Gaiman’s inbox

SO, I have been wading in Good Omens meta for months now, and I often see things come up that Neil has actually addressed in asks. Trouble is, his ask box is deep and intimidating, and since season 2 was announced all the pre-season 2 asks have basically been buried. But I went hunting long ago for basically anything GO-related and I took screenshots of a bunch. So I thought I’d present them here, roughly organized, in text form, for the benefit of anyone else who’s curious.

Of course, none of this is meant to invalidate headcanons or whatever; Neil himself is firmly against doing so. But I’ve personally had no issue accepting author’s word with this series, since Neil has not, as yet, done anything that made me want to shout at him or eat a couch in frustration, which is a refreshing change from the writers in most of the fandoms I’ve ever been part of. So, for what it’s worth, here are the answers. At least some of them; I know I’ve missed a lot.

(And yes, they pretty much all relate to the angels and demons, Crowly and Aziraphale specifically. There were very few asks that DIDN’T concern them, and none that I have saved. Of course, the ask box is still open…)

Keep reading

[gobacktobakerstreet]

[gobacktobakerstreet]

MAG-FUCKING-NIFICENT!!!

[gobacktobakerstreet]

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”