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I've been thinking about this scene a lot and how kind Crowley is to Aziraphale, being a safe harbor for Aziraphale, something heaven was supposed to be to Crowley but never was.

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fun little after-show

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Tattooed forearms anyone?

Here's a little something I was inspired to draw after writing Poetry Carved in Flesh chapter 6 (I'll update it soon I promise 🤍).

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Please give this lovely piece of angst and smut (and quite beautiful writing) a read, I promise it's worth your time. @springofviolets is working with the subtleties of a new relationship, the wants and desires that can often clash with our need to be alone, to have space. This piece validates that confusing headspace that may exist when the honeymoon period begins to wane, and the understanding of how to dance not only together, but also alone, takes its place.

Water into Wet Clay: Chapter 2

CW: Rated E for graphic sexual content; angst

Word Count: 3.7k

Summary: Aziraphale and Crowley escaped Armageddon Round Two 5 days ago, and they’ve spent nearly every minute in bed since then. How do two occult beings with millennia of trauma and repressed desire navigate their new freedom together?

Review for this chapter: “You are joining the ranks of people who give me hot but also disturbing all at once, so thanks for that” – @rofell

Excerpt:

“Can’t wait till we get home. Got to have you now,” he whispered into Aziraphale’s ear, squeezing his hand and looking at him with pleading urgency. A response was given by way of a playful smile, coloured with a touch of worry that Crowley didn’t miss but was disposed to ignore right now. With quick, light steps, he led Aziraphale out of the gallery and towards the stairway, past idle docents scrolling through their phones, security guards staring into nothingness, and silent patrons nodding at one another as if speaking some wordless language that conveyed the deepest secrets of abstract art, when suddenly he veered off into the lavatory.  “Really? In here?” Aziraphale gasped, barely concealing that his scandalised tone was a farce.  

Continue reading on ao3

Deepest appreciation for my marvelous beta readers of @whickberstreetwriters: Ro_Fell, @playdohangel, @the-literal-kj, Azeutrecia, and @secretlywingedphantom for talking me off the ledge with this chapter and giving me so, so much value feedback.

Special thanks to @angie-words, the_literal_kj, Mrs_Seamstress, and MeinirRhos for on-the-ground location scouting assistance in London 😉

[secretlywingedphantom]

Why are there Infinity Loops or Möbius Strips in Good Omens?

The infinity loop, it's the idea of something that is unlimited and endless, you know...

In this post, I'm going to explore some of the symbols in the show that I think relate to this concept of eternity. For example, have you noticed that the infinity loop shows up amongst the symbols at the start of Season 1? While God's narrates about her "ineffable game" of her own devising, here it is on screen:

Why do we see so many infinity symbols here? Where else can we see this same symbol?

Read on for the places I've spotted it in both S1, S2 and the book. I’m hoping you’ll let me know if I missed any, and what you think it all means!

Eternity in Good Omens

In the book, when Crowley is explaining the concept of eternity to Aziraphale, he uses the idea of a bird which flies every thousand years to the same mountain to sharpen it's beak. Here's the conversation, with Aziraphale's interruptions edited out (pg. 55 - 56 in my hardcopy):

“Just you think about it," said Crowley relentlessly. "You know what eternity is? You know what eternity is? I mean, d'you know what eternity is? There's this big mountain, see, a mile high, at the end of the universe, and once every thousand years there's this little bird—” “Okay. And every thousand years this bird flies—" "flies all the way to this mountain and sharpens its beak—” “Sharpen its beak on the mountain," said Crowley. "And then it flies back—” “And after a thousand years it goes and does it all again," said Crowley quickly.”

This story originally came from a folk tale called the Shepherd Boy. It's very short and you can read the Brother's Grimm version here.

If we take Crowley at his word, then eternity in Good Omens is represented by repeating the same thing over again, whether that's flying forever to the same mountain, or having to watch the Sound of Music "over and over and over and over and over and over and over" into infinity.

The Infinity Loop

The common symbol for infinity, ∞, was invented by the English mathematician John Wallis in 1655. Being an extremely popular symbol, it shows up in a lot of places, including the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. Several other uses are detailed on the wikipedia page.

So, where does it appear in Good Omens? In addition to God's monologue, we also see it during the S1 baby swap sequence as part of the Satanic nun's costumes. Here it is on the upside-down watches they wear:

Here it is again on Newt's belt buckle in S1:

Here's another possible infinity symbol on Newt's computer screen, when he's working at United Holdings:

Outside of the show, it also appears on the merch released post-S2 (though a little bit disguised in the form of the snake wrapped around them). Included is the tagline of "The end was just the start".

There are also two references to infinity in the book. Here's the first very near the start (pg. 14 of my 2015 hardback edition):

“He [God] plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, [ie., everybody.] to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.”

And here's the other, closer to the end, at the airfield (pg. 363 of my edition):

“Adam glanced up. In one sense there was just clear air overhead. In another, stretching off to infinity, were the hosts of Heaven and Hell, wingtip to wingtip. If you looked really closely, and had been specially trained, you could tell the difference.”

So, Good Omens makes a few references to infinity, which I find interesting in itself. But wait, there's more!

The Ouroboros

There is another symbol which also appears in Good Omens and also suggests a form of repetition - the ouroboros. The ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail and depicts an eternal cycle of renewal - an end which comes back to the start again. I recommend taking a look at the whole wikipedia page, which is quite fascinating:

Now, this would be a rather abstract representation, but I think this appears on the wall of Nina's cafe. Unfortunately, in my image Terry's name has been cut off, but it does say Terry and Neil within those segments of the loop:

So we have the infinity symbol, the ouroboros... anything else? Well, yes, there is a third symbol for us to ponder over.

The Mobius Strip

Closely related to the idea of the infinity symbol is that of the mobius strip. To oversimplify things, the mobius strip is a object which is a continuous surface in a loop. At first glance, it appears to have two sides, but these are indeed all part of the same side (maybe we should call this "our side"?). As shown in the below gif, an object traversing the surface of the strip can repeat in a continuous loop.

Where does the mobius strip appear in Good Omens? Well, it appears in the book. Here it is being used to refer to Anathema's broken bike wheel (pg. 92 in my 2015 hardback edition):

“Behind the Bentley a bicycle lay in the road, its front wheel bent into a creditable Mobius shape, its back wheel clicking ominously to a standstill.”

And again, describing the discussions of the Them, while Adam is coming into his powers (pg. 229 in my hardback):

“Serve everyone right if all the nucular bombs went off and it all started again, only prop'ly organized," said Adam. "Sometimes I think that's what I'd like to happen. An' then we could sort everythin' out." The thunder growled again. Pepper shivered. This wasn't the normal Them mobius bickering, which passed many a slow hour. There was a look in Adam's eye that his friend couldn't quite fathom—not devilment, because that was more or less there all the time, but a sort of blank grayness that was far worse.”

Not only does the word "mobius" appear twice in the book, but Neil has continued to be interested in such ideas, releasing the song Mobius Strip in April 2023 (as brought to my attention by @embracing-the-ineffable). The song is a meditation on the nature of time, magic and how things tend to repeat. In the song, the grandfather shows the boy a trick to creating a mobius strip using paper, tape and some scissors. Here's how the song concludes:

"I'm... Somewhere on the strip We all are, walking the sign of infinity into the darkness And I'm looking for signs of a life, in a memory Reflected in the mirror I'm a mobius strip We all are We only ever see one face It's the twist that brings you back where you started"

If you're unfamiliar with the idea of creating a paper-based mobius strip, here's a video on how it works:

Is the loop Aziraphale and Crowley?

To form a mobius strip, you need to cut the paper first, flip it, and then join the ends back together.

To me, this reminds me a lot of the S2 opening sequence, when we see the bridge disconnect, separating Aziraphale and Crowley on either side, only to then reconnect at another place.

Does this mean the bridge, and perhaps the loop, represents our ineffable duo? This merch sure seems to suggest so...

That could be one interpretation of this sequence, though I'm sure there are others. What do you think? Does the loop say anything about Crowley and Aziraphale's relationship to one another?

Put it all together and...

In summary, we have at least three different symbols signifying some sort of repetition in Good Omens - the infinity loop, ouroboros and mobius strip. So, what might they mean? Why do you think it's been included, and so often? Even more importantly, have I missed any? There's endless details to be mined from this show, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are more.

I have a few theories, but nothing concrete yet, so I'm really interested in hearing everyone's ideas!

[secretlywingedphantom]

communicatio in sacris by @voluptatiscausa

more art for vol, because these fics changed something in me okay!!

[secretlywingedphantom]

We never go to the pub.

@lookingatacupoftea asked, Why do Crowley and Aziraphale go to the pub? Everything they talk about in the pub scene is stuff they have discussed in front of Jim already, why do they need to discuss anything away from the book shop?

I wrote this theory week ago or so -- and then I re-watched with this theory in mind.

AHA!

They go to the pub because they AREN'T talking about Jim, or the miracle, or making Nina and Maggie fall in love, or Heaven checking up on them. They are talking about whatever Crowley is meeting up with Saraqael for!

When Aziraphale tells him "Our 'Gabriel Miracle' set off alarms in Heaven," he sort of raises his eyebrows and says it in air quotes, just without the fingers on either side of his face. He means that their little miracle is being blamed and used to cover up whatever BIG thing happened at around the same time, and he had to take responsibility for it. But he also didn't want Heaven to know they had done a Gabriel-hiding miracle, so he had to lie about that, too. That's why Crowley groans -- they are hiding something, something that Saraqael is in on, something that we don't even know about, and now they have to hide their half-a-miracle-each that's being used to hide the original something. I would groan too! That's a lot of layers of lies to keep track of. It also means they don't want to be overheard and possibly understood by ANYONE involved -- thus, the pub for privacy, but the code-speak for insurance.

I do believe our husbands are speaking in code a LOT more than we think they are throughout season 2.

WHAT ARE THEY HIDING???

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The Provensen Book of Fairy Tales compiled and illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen (1971).

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Oh. My.

This is something special.

Earlier this year i participated in a fun sexy fan zine and now i can post the small comic i did for it! It has really weird colors because it’s me. Rated M. Under cut: 

Keep reading

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Fright Night (2011) // Good Omens (2019 - )

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💛 beautiful tomorrows 💛

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Drinks offered, accepted and turned down

The Metatron’s coffee (oat milk latte with unknown amount of almond syrup), as well as the whole business about it, is symbolic, I think most fans have agreed on that. It seems to me not only the drink itself is important, but the ceremony of offering and accepting/turning down a drink means a lot as well. When I think of it something archaic comes to mind: accepting a drink creates a connection and builds trust between people, and such exchanges have been symbolic in many cultures for thousands of years.

I’m not very good at drawing conclusions, but I would like to sum up all the cases when drinks are offered in season 2. So that someone more analytical than myself might have clever ideas. And I love making lists, they give an illusion of some control over this complicated narrative.

Aziraphale offers Jim some gross matter hot chocolate. Everyone remembers similar moments in  s1, right? Only this time Gabriel/Jim accepts, and it changes him, becomes an important element of his new personality.

Nina offers Maggie some wine and she turns it down in the weirdest way possible. ‘No judgement’ is already a judgement!

In the Job minisode Crowley offers Aziraphale wine and he turns it down. 

Aziraphale offers Muriel a ‘cuppertea’, and they do the most remarkable thing: they neither accept, not turn it down. They find a third way to go about it, and I absolutely love it. This is yet another small detail about Muriel which makes them so special and sets them apart from everyone - humans, angels, demons.

The barman in the Resurrectionist asks what Aziraphale will be drinking, and he doesn’t order anything. Baffles me every time, it's so not in his character and completely illogical in this situation. Everything is wrong and upside down in this episode. 

I mean, even Gabriel had enough wits to BUY drinks in the pub. Obviously later he tells Beelzebub  ‘You don’t actually have to consume it’, so it makes the drinks accepted but not taken - almost like Muriel's.

Crowley makes hot chocolate for Jim

The ’smitten’ conversation at Justine’s. Aziraphale turns Crowley’s wine down, AGAIN

Metatron’s coffee

May have missed something, but even like this it seems a lot. 

Not sure about the scene with Crowley and laudanum, it it definitely meaningful, but there was no offer. Another special case is Jim making his own hot chocolate. Precious 15 seconds of screen time are wasted devoted to an extremely informative scene where Jim makes the drink, drinks it and says ‘Ah!’. Whatever for?

More questions than answers as usual.

[secretlywingedphantom]

the sillies

•

I’m so excited for season 3 its not even funny

[secretlywingedphantom]

I just think that it'd be funny if, after all this speculation about how horrible Crowley's Fall was and his drunken rambling of "a million-light-year freestyle dive into a pool of boiling sulfur", it turned out he just had the longest most boring elevator ride ever down to basement Hell and then stepped in a very small puddle of warm sludge of questionable origin when the doors opened.

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some crowley studies I did. :)

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What if... something did pass between our ineffable duo in the final fifteen?

Well, I wrote a one-shot about it, and it's a bit of a silly fic, really. It's about an angel and a demon preparing for the worst, but in the most delightful and delicious of ways 👀.

Here's a sample, and if it makes you smile please consider giving the full thing some love over on AO3!

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“Do you like it?” The angel’s voice was lower than usual, but if the demon noticed, he didn’t acknowledge it.

“Mmm. Not bad, actually.”

“They aren’t that bad, you know,” Aziraphale said quietly, “once you get used to them.” He met Crowley’s gaze and coquettishly batted his eyelashes.

Crowley sputtered and began coughing, and whether it was from the unfamiliar sensation of acidic juices rolling down his throat or his shock at the angel’s blatant flirtation, he didn’t know. But he did turn a very bright shade of crimson.

He pulled himself together, turning the sweet over again in his mouth and licking his lips. “This isn’t about enjoying a travel sweet, angel,” he scolded.

“Is it not?” Aziraphale had a satisfied smile on his lips. He was back to looking out the front dash, busying himself with a new star that had appeared in the night sky. He was trying to make out which constellation it belonged to. “So. What is it about, then?”

“Has to do with an old friend of mine. A magician.”

That got Aziraphale’s attention. He whipped his head back around, eyes wide as saucers. “A magician?”

“Yeah,” Crowley said casually, holding back his grin, “Harry was his name. Ring any bells?”

Aziraphale gasped, his eyes now bulging like overblown balloons. “You were friends with Harry Houdini?!?”

“Ehhh, ‘friend’ may be stretching it a bit. But yeah, we ran in the same circles. His entire schtick was based on deceit, so of course he was on my radar.”

“Of course he was,” said Aziraphale dryly.

Crowley ignored the snark and continued. “He was a fantastic magician, yeah. But! He was a lot of other things, including a brilliant inventor. He and I had... an agreement.”

Aziraphale cocked an eyebrow. “An agreement?”

“Yeah.”

“What sort of agreement?” Said Aziraphale, slowly.

Continue reading on AO3!

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Word Count: 6.1k

A big ol' bucket of thanks to my lovely betas of @whickberstreetwriters: @springofviolets, @azeutreciathewicked, @rofell, @westwardly, @ines2925 and MisterScruffyPoo. Mwah. You're the best.

@goodomensafterdark thank you for the reblog!

[secretlywingedphantom]

Man you guys, you have got me on a thinking kick. May I present to you another unhinged bit of something that has been tickling my brain?

We all think something is UP. Something stinks, something is fishy here. Coffee theory, Metatron stuff, memory wipes, Book of Life, Something Hidden in the Bookshop, the Bullet Catch theory (that is wildly entertaining to me) etc, etc.

(And ps while I don’t 100% agree with any of these, they are so cool and neat and I love all the theories and will be very happy if any of them shall come to pass in the show. Wait and see, right?)

Okay so. What if all those weirdness, all these strange little things that are subtly rubbing us the wrong way, is Adam’s doing?

He was 11 when he put everything in the entire world back together—he re-wrote existence for goodness sake that’s a lot. But he was still only a kid even with all his powers, and we know that he added and changed things. It’s canon that things are just a little different.

Maybe weird happenings are related somehow?

And! He told them stop messing people around.

What are they all doing?

Heaven has wiped a memory. That’s messing someone around.

Hell is hunting for Gabriel and gets a little too into it and involves humans. Messing them around.

Aziraphale is so feral in this in such a weird way. The dance scene: the humans will dance. They will speak and act a certain way. They will dress a certain way. That is so very weird to me that he did this. So out of character to me! Messing around.

Not a fully developed theory, just a fleeting thought.

(And I really hope that one of the characters we see again in S3 is Ligur (with Hastur tagging along). That would be great if Adam had brought him back too.)