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edosianorchids901 · 4 months

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When You Fall Asleep

Ace Omens Hugfest prompt - "an accidental hug"

Rome, 41 AD

“Would you like any more oysters?” Aziraphale asked, leaning forward to acquire a bowl of grapes. “Or are you all set?”

“Nnnh, this m’ set. I don’t, er. Eat big meals all that often.” Blinking slowly, Crowley pushed his tiny dark glasses up onto the top of his head. They knocked into his silly silver laurel wreath, and he hissed in irritation. “Guh. Here, hold this.”

He wrenched the wreath off and put it on Aziraphale’s head. It slid to one side and bumped into his ear, threatening to topple off.

With a chuckle, Aziraphale adjusted the wreath and fluffed his hair up to accommodate it. “Very stylish. What is with your outfit, anyway? I don’t think togas are supposed to be black, are they?”

“M’ not gonna be caught dead in white, am I?” Crowley snapped, snatching the jug of wine. “Probably literally caught dead. D’ya have any idea what Hell would probably do to me if I showed up wearing white? Besides, blood shows on white. S’ not exactly a good thing for a demon to be wearing.”

Aziraphale frowned, confused by the sudden outburst. “I know you’re a demon, but it’s not as if you’re running around stabbing people. Are you?”

“No! I’m the one getting stabbed, usually. And beaten, cut, whipped, whatever.” Crowley’s irritated expression slid to deeply glum. “It’s better when I can stay on Earth. I like Earth, even when I’m having to deal with bastards like Caligula. At least it’s not… I can get away from it all, up here.”

“Ah.” Unsure what to say, Aziraphale twisted his hands together. He eyed Crowley, suddenly quite chilled. “And you had to go to Hell recently?”

“Whatever gave you that idea?”

Even Aziraphale, who sometimes struggled with such things, couldn’t miss the heavy sarcasm in Crowley’s voice. Swallowing hard, he slid a little closer on the dining couch. “I’m sorry. Is there, um… anything I can do to help?”

Crowley shrugged and poured his wine. He largely missed the cup, pouring wine all over his leg. “Shit. M’ not very coordin… whatever. Maybe had too much to drink.”

He drank more anyway, then clumsily topped off Aziraphale’s cup as well. Aziraphale drank, a trifle lost. He was quite intoxicated himself, and that made it rather difficult to determine the right course of action. But there must be something he could do.

“Are you injured anywhere?” he asked, leaning to look at Crowley’s toga. He didn’t see any bloodstains, but it was black, after all. Much harder to see blood, indeed. “I could heal you.”

“Nuh. Not hurt anymore.” Crowley swayed, reaching for the jug again. He let out a derisive snort. “Too bad we didn’t run into each other yesterday. Coulda used it then.”

“Oh! Oh dear.” Stricken, Aziraphale clutched his hands together again. “Oh, I didn’t realize you’d been hurt so recently. I’m sorry. You really ought to be resting, rather than me pestering you to spend time together.”

Something odd tugged at Crowley’s expression. He took another drink, then set the cup down and leaned back. His dark glasses fell off his head and vanished amid the pillows. “Nah. This is, er. A good distraction. Hanging out and everything. It’s loads better than just sitting around being all blah. And we can argue and stuff! I like when we get all…”

He did some sort of complicated flailing gesture with both arms, as if trying to demonstrate the enthusiastic verbal sparring they’d engaged in earlier. Then he overbalanced, toppled over, and slammed into Aziraphale’s side.

“Oh!” Aziraphale automatically caught him, pulling his limp body closer. “Crawley— Crowley, are you quite all right?”

“Nnnnyeaaah,” Crowley mumbled, eyes closed. “I just. Just. Er. Drinking.”

“Yes, you certainly have been drinking.” Concerned, Aziraphale hugged him closer. Then he realized he was hugging a demon, and wondered if he ought to stop.

But no. He didn’t want to stop. And Crowley was certainly too drunk to straighten up. Really, Aziraphale was more than slightly drunk, and therefore possessed lowered inhibitions. It was quite reasonable to hug a demon, under those circumstances.

Crowley had been rather tense all day, a fact Aziraphale had noticed earlier without realizing the cause. Now, though, Crowley went quite liquid in his arms, like a cat fitting into an oddly shaped container. “Oh. Wow. You’re really ridiculously warm, you know that? S’ like. Like. Sunning on a really soft rock or something.”

“Quite a compliment,” Aziraphale teased softly. “And you look rather thoroughly intoxicated and on the verge of dozing off.”

“Nnnhrgnmph.”

Smiling, Aziraphale cradled the demon to his side, Crowley’s head on his shoulder. Crowley had somehow gone even more liquid now, his lips slightly parted, eyes still closed. His breaths slowed, deepening. Perhaps he really was falling asleep.

Remarkable, that Crowley could feel safe enough to sleep here after being hurt so recently. The trust was quite an honor, really, and Aziraphale gladly settled in to watch over him.

#good omens #ineffable husbands #crowley #aziraphale #art #Ace Omens Hugfest 2024

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gaiaseyes451 · 9 months

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Surprise! Of Kings and Kids - Epilogue

The lovely @vavoom-sorted-art and I simply weren't ready to end Of Kings and Kids so we took some time over the end of the year to add an Epilogue! Come over to AO3 to catch up with our ineffables a few years after Christ's birth and to see more, beautiful illustrations!

Again, a huge thanks to everyone for the excitement around this project. Happy New Year!

----

Excerpt from the Epilogue: Continue Reading on AO3

Crowley sighed and softened his tone, beseeching him to understand. “Aziraphale, there wasn’t even a real choice here.” He continued to wear tight circles into the grass. “There was no plausible world where you chose the innocents over the Messiah. Hundreds of lives over, eventually, billions? I know you, making that decision would eat at you,” but I’m a demon, I condemn souls regularly. “Even if it was the right choice by Heaven’s standards, there wasn’t a good choice.” So I took the difficult part, so you wouldn’t have to hold the guilt. “I think this is as close to ineffable as you get.”

“That’s deceitful! You came to me under false pretenses!”

Crowley stopped abruptly. “Oh come on, do you really believe that?” Aziraphale’s fists clenched when Crowley spat the words at him.

“We’ve been working together –” Crowley paused, fluttering his hands in a vague circular motion between the two of them, looking for the right term for this. “Well, not together but, but with each other-”

“Around each other.” Aziraphale was scowling, but couldn’t help but interject. “Orbiting one another, in a way.”

“Yes, exactly!” Crowley strode toward him, “we’ve been orbiting one another for millennia and you still don’t trust me?” He made no effort to disguise his incredulity. “For Satan’s sake, Aziraphale, I helped you with your Messiah. I got a Satan forsaken commendation for the massacre of children and I haven’t said shit about it to keep it a secret- to-!” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s just like you spying on me with the magi. I understand, Aziraphale, I know what I am, but what more can I do to prove you can trust me?” He threw his arms out wide and dropped down onto the boulder, exasperated.

Across from him, Aziraphale seemed to be wrestling with his thoughts. “A commendation? Hell gave you a commendation for the massacre?” Crowley kept silent and listened as Aziraphale stammered half-formed thoughts. “I know – even Hell must know how you are with children – you would never – why would they….”

Understanding crept across Aziraphale’s face and he refocused his eyes on Crowley. “They suspected,” he whispered, his anger smothered by the weight of the risk Crowley had taken.

Crowley made no reply, keeping his eyes stubbornly focused on the fields. Aziraphale sat on the boulder next to him. As Crowley stared at nothing he could feel Aziraphale’s eyes on him, after a few moments a timid question broke the silence.

“Did you use any miracles on the magi, that night?”

Crowley jerked his head to look at Aziraphale. He had expected any number of questions about what Hell had wanted to know, why he’d accepted the commendation, maybe even a bit of sympathy. The question about the magi, about his methods was deeply personal, an unspoken boundary. “...What?”

Aziraphale, to his credit, didn’t look away. “Just answer the question, please.”

Crowley narrowed his eyes behind the lenses. Aziraphale had never been present to witness Crowley at work, at least as far as he knew. While he did take a certain amount of pride in his skills he didn’t like talking about them – especially with Aziraphale – but now he didn’t feel he had a choice. Well, here we go.

*~*~*

A huge thank you to @goodomensafterdark for supporting this collaboration and a special thanks to @sohoscribblers

#good omens #good omens fanfic #good omens fanfiction #good omens fic #good omens christmas #good omens 2 #crowley #aziraphale #aziracrow #first christmas

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goomens · 1 year

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I've had an idea but I won't get around to writing it think.. I imagine Crowley being drunk on wine, taking to Nina after *the event* and just word vomiting, telling her everything about who he is. And then Nina ist like "so when you said 'angel' you actually meant..." maybe you can do something with that? 😂

such a cute idea!!! fic under the cut <3

It’s nine in the morning and Nina is jolted from her sleepy reverie by the violent tinkle of the front door bell; a figure in black slithering into a nearby seat and thunking his head down onto the table. Crowley, she thinks, watching him carefully from behind the counter. Without Mr. Fell in tow, tense around the shoulders, and creating quite a sad display, she feels a pang of something like pity inside her chest.

“Gretel,” Nina calls quietly to one of her newer baristas after a moment of consideration, “Take over for a bit, please?” And she makes her way over to Crowley, not bothering to say hello as she pulls out the other chair and sits down in it. He doesn’t lift his head. By all means, he seems lifeless. Completely still. Eerie, like he isn’t breathing. Her heart stutters in fear for a second, thinking he’s just up and died in her coffee shop, but—

“Oh, calm down.” Crowley retracts his forehead from the cold plastic table with a grunt and glares at Nina—she thinks, at least—through the impenetrable black lenses of his sunglasses. “I would like a mug of coffee with four measures of vodka, please and thank you.”

“It’s not even half nine yet, you know,” She scolds him, not really meaning it, but not willing to serve him alcohol so early either. He’s a bit of an odd fella (or, whatever) but Nina draws the line at serving a customer four units before noon. “No boozy breakfasts here. You’ll have to wait ‘til later—on Saturdays we have a boozy brunch. There’ll be cocktails.”

Crowley doesn’t speak for a moment. Then, “Pity.” He sighs. Snaps his fingers for some reason. He reaches into his blazer, pulling out an entire litre bottle of ABSOLUT and uncapping it. Nina opens her mouth, ready to tell him off, but he holds a finger up and guzzles down half of it before she can get the words out. When he sets the bottle down, she raises a questioning eyebrow.

“Thirsty?”

He ignores her, choosing to scowl instead, and looks off out the window of the shop looking a bit lost. “Your advice was shit. You and that—that vinyl seller. Thought you should know. Don’t go trying to influence anyone else’s ‘love’ lives, eh?” His words are full of forced humour, but his voice shatters a bit at the end, and suddenly Nina feels like some kind of villain. She looks at Crowley and sees someone in mourning. He’s grieving. He’s heartbroken.

“Fuck,” She says with feeling, and motions for Gretel to bring over two mugs.

Hours later—in the midst of Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death’s boozy brunch—Crowley is drunkenly taking Nina step-by-step through his and Aziraphale’s extremely long history. They go back much, much further than she ever thought. Than she ever thought possible, actually. It’s all quite strange. And sweet, and sad, the way he talks about Aziraphale. “He’s so smart,” He says. “He’s good. He’s lovely. He’s the one I love. He’s only gone and returned to Heaven and left me on my own.” He also says, “I’m a Demon, I know I don’t deserve him,” and “He’s an Angel, he doesn’t want me. He could never want me.” And Nina is suddenly putting the pieces together, making sense of it all, her stomach—full of the buttered bagel she’d had for breakfast, half a bottle of vodka, and not much else—turns and swoops, threatening to expel its contents.

Crowley watches her then bursts into a startling laugh. It’s low and surprised. “There’s no way—no way—you’re just now realising what I am. What he is.” She just blinks and stares, and his laugh dies down but the lines of amusement remain etched on his face. “Oh, brilliant. You humans are brilliant. So bloody obtuse.”

“Oi!” She protests, reaching out to push at his shoulder. But she misses on account of being a bit more tipsy than she thought, and he laughs at her again. “I am not obtuse! ‘M quite clever, actually.”

There’s a smile on his—the Demon’s—face now, which is nice, much better than the frown he sported earlier, but when he gestures to his face and grins fiendeshly, she only stares confused for a second before realising that, ah, maybe she is a bit obtuse. His eyes are bright and a little bit playful, without the sunglasses. Big and yellow and snake-like, and oh, that’s what the Eden story had been about. It hadn’t been a metaphor or a weird figure of speech, but the truth. She’d been so busy listening to him she hadn’t noticed the moment he’d pocketed his sunglasses.

Instead of crippling fear or mortal terror, Nina just laughs and laughs. She orders them both a creamy coffee and some malt biscuits, even at his weak protests, and she lets him tell her all about the planets and the stars, Mesopotamia, the crucifixion, the Seven hills of ancient Rome, the burning of witches in the fifteenth century, the Armageddon-That-Wasn’t…

#hope this is cool i just typed it out in my notes app #thanks for the prompt cause like. i needed it lol #no inspiration to be FOUND #asks #good omens #go2 spoilers #crowley #aziraphale #goodomens #nina #aziraphale x crowley #crowley x aziraphale #ineffable husbands #fic #fanfic #good omens fanfiction #good omens fic #ficlet #short

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thelesbstrosity · 1 year

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MY GOOD OMENS 2 LIVE REACTIONS FOR EVERY EPISODE

So ofc spoilers

Good Omens 2

Episode 1:

- THEY KNEW EACH OTHER AS ANGELS

- Crowley is so proud of his universe and nebulas

- STILL NOT GETTING HIS PRE-FALL NAME

- the reverse wing cover in comparison to season 1

- maggie is a gay disaster

- gabriel walking naked through town to the bookshop had me cry laughing

- crowley living in his car? the plants in the back seat

- myself vs ourselves 😩

- the husbands™️ are fighting 😭

- FORCED PROXIMITY LESBIANS?!

- DISABLED ANGEL I LOVE IT

- the apology dance

- them treating Gabriel like a pet you’re hiding from your parents

Episode 2

- HIS CHILDREN?!

- MORE MURIEL

- Gabriel’s hair in the past 😂

- Heaven takes part in the bystander effect fr fr

- Crowley sleeping in his Bentley

- A JUKEBOX THAT BUDDY HOLLY’S RECORDS LIKE THE BENTLEY

- Greetings “I’m Jim”

- THE FLY

- Plan “Get the lesbians together”

- STANDING IN THE RAIN LIKE IN SEASON 1, EPISODE 1

- A CLUE

- my head can’t hold all that

- “Bildad the shuhite” “sure”

- “i know you” “You don’t know me”

- HE COULDNT KILL THE GOATS

- Ennon’s a little fruity

- “I’m a demon. I lied”

- “He has a permit”

- CROWLEY IS WHY HE LIKES HUMAN FOOD

- THE LET ME TEMPT YOU vs “ARE YOU TRYING TO TEMPT ME”

- shoemaking and obstetrics

- “our car/ our bookshop”

- GOOD OMENS THE BOOK IN GOOD OMENS

- “I’m a demon. I lied” pt 2 😭😭

Episode 3:

- Jim’s mug”

- MURIEL POLICE OUTFIT

- I love her 🫶🏻😭

- HIM BRINGING HIS PLANTS INTO THE BOOKSHOP

- “For like 200 years”

- LAZURI MIRACLE SCALE FOR LAZURUS

- AZIRAPHALE DRIVING

- HIM WRITING ABOUT CROWLEY IN HIS DIARY

- David getting to be really Scottish but like pretending to be bad at it

- Crowley can feel his Bentley

- ITS YELLOW

- them fighting over the car/ Book selling threat

- gravity

- he gets drunk on poison skshsksj

- HE TURNED SMALL

- KAIJU CROWLEY

- “stunning view”

- crowley tossing books

- “we probably don’t have what you’re looking for and we wouldn’t sell it to you if we did”

- AND GRINDR

- “you have no idea”

- ARMAGEDDON 2???

- Shax must be invited in

- SHAX HAS HIS OLD APARTMENT

Episode 4

- FLASHBACK TO THE WW2 SCENE

- OMG LADIES OF CAMELOT FROM THE OPENING CREDITS

- THEY’RE BACK 😂 AND IN HELL

- “I’m fu -*piano*”

- MAGICIAN AZIRAPHALE AGAIN

- ZOMBIES

- SPIDER PUNISHMENT 😳

- that’s what…friends…do

- “Wow me with your miracles”

- the way crowley supports his little magic act

- AZIRAPHALE OWNS A GUN

- “someone you can really trust” *immediately looks to crowley*

- Same legion 😂

- HE SLIGHT OF HANDED HIM

- “you said trust me” “and you did”

- Crowley’s pet

- THE CAR FOLLOWS AZIRA

Episode 5

- Good omens is Anti-HOA

- THE FEZ

- okay shax we see your war fit

- the french

- HE DIDNT TELL HIM ABOUT SHUT YOUR STUPID MOUTH AND DIE ALREADY

- Muriel is so pure i love her istg

- you’re weird

- JIM’S SUIT

- THE DEMON LEGION IN MASKS

- a seamstress

- the dancing

- ELEVATOR TO HEAVEN AND HELL

- THE ANGLE

- ALSO NOT THE BOOKSHOP

- THE COAT

- him lining them up with the buddy system

- nina and maggie staying

- RESCUING ME MAKES HIM SO HAPPY

- Arrest me

- ah shit here we go

Episode 6

- Badass Azira has entered the chat

- Crowley’s fit change and little run

- MAGGIE NO

- Shax really said “leave and i’ll smite you”

- A THRONE OR A DOMINION OR ABOVE

- They never change their passwords

- HE WAS IN THE HIGHEST RANKS?!

- gabriel was on trial

- THE CANDLES! THE EXTINGUISHERS! HE HAS TRAUMA FROM THE FIRE

- EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANGEL

- HE WAS REMOVED FROM OFFICE

- FOR ONE PRINCE OF HEAVEN TO BE CAST OUT…THATS DEFINITELY HIM SAYING CROWLEY WAS AN ARCHANGEL HOLY FUCK

- That’s why he showed up naked..holy shit

- OMG HIS HALO

- “I MAY HAVE JUST STARTED A WAR”

- the awkward elevator

- HIS MEMORIES

- MICHEAL AND BEELZEBUB CHATTING

- THEY LIKE EVERYDAY SO HE MADE SURE THE RECORD IS ALWAYS EVERYDAY 😩

- THEY GAVE HIM A FLY

- NEIL DELIVERED THE SHIP

- “No one’s ever given me anything before” 😭😭

- “You. Thank you”

- “I FOUND SOMETHING THAT MEANT MORE TO ME THAN CHOOSING SIDES”

- THEY SANG TOGETHER SKSJSK

- METATRON THE VOICE OF GOD

- Crowley putting the bookshop back together

- Nina saying she’d hope Maggie will be there when she’s ready

- “YOURE NOT HELPING, ANGEL” Nina pls the parallel

- “Nothing lasts forever” 😭😭😭😭

- him crying as he puts on his glasses

- “NO NIGHTINGALES “

- “WE COULD’VE BEEN US”

- THE KISS

- “I forgive you” “don’t bother”

- Muriel getting the bookshop

- THE SECOND COMING

- NOT “A NIGHTINGALE IN BERKLEY SQUARE”

- they’re both so clearly unhappy and heartbroken

#good omens #aziracrow #aziraphale #good omens 2 #crowley #good omens reactions #neil gaiman #gabriel x beelzebub #micheal sheen #david tennant #go spoilers

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ravencp86 · 1 year

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Right, finally weighing into the public sector with my opinions for Good Omens 3. Not seen any posts that say these things, but if there are, then awesome!

On the reunion:

1) one day, whilst Crowley is in the bookshop with Murial, Nina and Maggie, Aziraphale walks through the door. They just stare at each other and Crowley gets up, takes one step forward and folds his hands the way Aziraphale did in Se2ep1 and just ever so slightly cocks his head. Without blinking or sighing, Aziraphale does the apology dance and the corner of Crowley's lip gives the tiniest twitch and then before he realises what's happening, his arms are full of angel and Aziraphale kisses him. Crowley doesn't even hesitate to kiss him back. They just cling to each other. Meanwhile, Maggie, Nina and Murial all roll their eyes and carry on with their book club meeting.

2) The camera starts in the bookshop and the tinkling on a bell pans the camera to the door opening and it's Aziraphale. He calls for Crowley, as he walks around to look for him and gets no answer/can't see him, looking sad, he steps into the street and looks over to Nina's coffee shop and he stops in his tracks as Crowley walks out of Nina's (his usual 6 shots of espresso in a big reusable cup, in his hand) and as Crowley spots him, it starts to rain. They all but run to each other, crashing into each others arms, just hanging on for dear life. Then Azi pulls away a little so he can cup Crowley's face in his hands and he very gently says, "I'm sorry, I never should have left," and he kisses him. Crowley grabs on to Azi's coat and returns the kiss. Then they slowly break apart (traffic be damned), smiling at each other, then Crowley clears his throat, takes a step back and says, "not good enough, I want a proper apology," and a tiny smile lifts the corner of his mouth as Azi sighs, rolls his eyes and does the apology dance in the middle of the street.

3) The idea that Azi just turns up being like, "Babe, I need you to help me raise our kid, cause quite frankly, I'm exhausted and it's your turn." Crowley looks on, dumbstruck, as Azi picks up Junior and hands him to Crowley (who takes him on instinct) and says, "This is your Papa. Daddy needs a break, so behave yourself." Then he walks across to Nina's for an Eccles cake and then to Maggie's to listen to something that isn't a nursery rhyme/shit kids version of good pop songs.

I just feel like Azi would be all like, "Right, you can do this, Aziraphale. Tell him you love him and you're sorry and would he please help you raise Christ 2.0." Then when Crowley actually answers the door, he forgets that plan, panics and a louder part of his brain just screams, "FUCK I LOVE HIM SO MUCH BUT I'M SO DARN TIRED RAISING THIS CHILD I NEED A BREAK!!!"

It's Maggie and Nina that drag him back to the bookshop to sort it out, but as they walk in, they find Crowley sitting cross legged on the floor staring at the child, as said child is pulling books off the shelves, looking for a picture book probably, and telling Crowley all about how he "didn't really like Heaven, but Daddy is very nice and plays games with him and tells him lots of stories. His favourite is the story about a magician who decides to play a scary game called 'bullet catch', but it's OK because his best friend is the one who holds the gun and he knows that his friend would never let anything bad happen to him. He also really likes the story of how a bookseller and his best friend danced together at a party and how it felt like real magic when they held hands."

Crowley is just staring in disbelief at this tiny, blue eyed, black haired child rattling off "stories", whilst his heart is still trying to catchup.

..........................

On the ending:

The only ending that I think any of us will accept will be Aziraphale and Crowley retiring to a little cottage on the south downs where Crowley can keep bees and a beautiful garden and Aziraphale makes honey and sits in the sun reading, watching Crowley tend their garden.

#good omens #aziracrow #aziraphale #crowley #nina good omens #maggie good omens #happiness

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give-soup-please · 1 year

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hi! I was wondering if you had any writing advice? Im currently collecting it to find something that works for me and im just wondering about other peoples processes when it comes to plotting out a story.

(i'm not sure, but this may be the first time someone on anon has asked me for writing advice. i feel like this is a milestone dslfkjdslkf)

so! i am very much a 'write by the seat of your pants' style kind of guy. i don't do big outlines, i don't do summaries to keep track. but, there are a few things i do which help me stay focused. and there are a few things i do to help the creative process in general.

and this got long, so it's going under a cut lol

first things first, when i get to the end of a writing session (which for me lasts between 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on how much the hyperfixation has a choke hold) i make sure i know where i'm headed next, by putting the next plot point into a bracket. i'm never very specific until the words for the first draft are actually typed out, but just the next broad idea that i want to bounce off of. here are a few from my older GO fic, 'bookstores, bentleys, and everything between'

this is what an average thing looks like, though i have been known to get very shitposty with them as well. the shitposting type happens when i have been writing for far too long, and am in desperate need of a break.

if no one else is going to see these, then have fun with them.

here's another, longer version with details.

i'm glad i do stuff like this when i reach a stopping point, because i've lost so many good ideas over the years assuming i'd remember where i was going when i get back to the doc. and i never do.

the other main bit of advice i have for story construction might be a bit controversial. i call it, 'chase the fun'.

very simple. very complex. it's both. it's a thing.

basically! i don't write in chronological order if there's something exciting too far away. i despise moments where i think to myself, 'oh, there's going to be a kickass moment in chapter 12 where there's going to be this cool action scene, but i'm only two chapters in. i guess i'll have to write all that other stuff before i get to the cool scene :('

don't do that shit! it'll eat at you, and you'll find yourself losing enthusiasm and getting frustrated with your project. i dislike writing in chronological order of a story because it's extremely limited. so!

chase the fun!

write the cool scenes, the action scenes, the self indulgent stuff. get it out of your system, and then after you've written the stuff that surrounds it, stitch it all together during the editing process. not only does it feel great to write all the cool things, you can often get inspired with new ways of going, 'how do we get here'? when you head back in. and you can add ass kicking foreshadowing and all that groovy stuff people like. stitching together everything and making the timeline correct during the editing process is mildly irritating, but i'd rather do that than plod along, desperately wanting to get to the coolest parts. go with the flow, let the inspiration take you where it takes you. don't hold off on it because you want to write everything in order the first time around.

'writing by the seat of your pants' also allows for 'idea stacking', which can be an important part of the process for more complex works. take, for example, my latest GO fic. i'll be brief and avoid spoilers, but i think it gives you a pretty good idea of how i plot my stuff out.

concept: i would like crowley and aziraphale to be my godfathers, so i can have some found family/comfort vibes. but we need a few roadblocks in the way, so it can be on the slower side, and not rushed. what can i do with my character that will add difficulties to their relationships?

idea stack 1: maybe he had a godfather before they came along, but he's missing.

sub idea 1: that would be a great source of angst for my character, actually. imagine not being able to find someone you love. loads of grief, there, and uncertainty.

idea stack 2: well, if my godfather is going to be a counterpart to aziraphale and crowley, maybe he should have powers too!

sub idea 2: my IRL godfather who i am referencing in the story practices magic. let's throw that in there, but make him much more powerful.

idea stack 3: how would aziraphale and crowley know that my fictional godfather can do powerful magic? well- maybe he left something that jay has. a necklace, perhaps. and it's very enchanted.

sub idea 3: of course, now we have to work out how my godfather knew how to enchant necklaces, and why he has special powers. and if he has special powers, where the heck is he now?

idea stack 4: so! new plot thread unlocked. my character's godfather has vanished without a trace, leaving behind a powerfully enchanted necklace. aziraphale and crowley are trying to work out whether or not they should be concerned about this, and what heaven or hell is doing interfering with this character's life to such a major extent. mystery abounds!

sub idea 4: so, is my fictional godfather of heaven or hell? he must be high ranking if he can enchant a necklace to such a crazy extent. i'll do research into angelic and demonic hierarchy, and make a few decisions on where everyone is placed.

idea stack 5: (REDACTED BECAUSE OF SPOILERS)

and so on. this is one grouping of ideas that spitballed because i thought about the implications of the previous idea. if you do this a few times in the right places, you've got yourself a nuanced and complex story. keep in mind, all this above developed over the course of a few weeks, and wasn't all immediate. still fun though. ideas shouldn't be isolated, i think they should connect to other story elements.

hope this helps!

#personal #answered ask #writing advice #long post

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ace-fandom-dumbass · 1 year

Text

Hoo boy I have so many thoughts about Good Omens Season 2, hold on let me google how to put a read more on mobile again

Spoilers Below

Okay so immediate gut reaction to the end was obviously "he fucking wouldn't don't you dare" but honestly? He would. He wouldn't want to return without Crowley, but this is Aziraphale, he's really only been doing what he wants with no regard for heaven and what he's "supposed" to do for what, four-ish years? He wouldn't have even thought to try stopping Armageddon if it weren't for Crowley. He's always been the one with the most reservations regarding, well, everything. Talking with Crowley, the Arangement, stopping Armageddon, Aziraphale has always been less certain about those then Crowley, he's always been the one to hesitate or say something is a bad idea. Hes always the one pointing out that their respective head offices wouldn't like this. Of course he'd choose Heaven here, it's what he believes he's supposed to choose. But both of them are rubbish at communicating so he thinks "oh good, things can go back to normal and I can even bring Crowley with me, everything will be fine" and doesn't even put together that this is so, so far from what Crowley would want. Meanwhile Crowley thinks they're on the same page with Their Side and rejecting Heaven and Hell to have that and doesn't even realize that Aziraphale still thinks he's supposed to choose heaven. He's looking at all this and figuring that they can head off like Gabriel and Beelzebub or just stay here with the bookshop and everything will go back to the normal of the past few years, so Aziraphale's choice pops up and smacks him in the face with how wrong he got it

Also, to get side tracked for a moment, Gabriel and Beelzebub. Saw the shippers after season 1, didn't expect it to become canon, very sweet, don't really ship it myself but it's fine, nice enough. Very sad they get a happy ending after what, four years max? and we can't even get these two idiots to communicate properly after 6000 but anyway. Didn't like the fly climbing into Gabriel's eyeball, that was kinda gross and unsettling and ick. All in all, not enough time for me personally to get attached to the idea of them together, but its a fine ship.

I want Crowley to take over the bookshop. I want him to be halfway to his old flat before cursing and turning back because he knows Aziraphale isn't going to like leaving the bookshop and he (Crowley) would sooner return to Heaven then let something bad happen to it again because what if Aziraphale changes his mind? He walks back in and sees Muriel sitting there is Aziraphale's chair reading a book and just freezes like "what are you doing in his chair? Why are you still in his shop?" He lets Muriel stick around because he's been friends with Aziraphale for 6000 years he know what angels are like about jobs they've been given but hes not just going to leave some random angel he barely knows with Aziraphales's shop. I kinda want him to end up sort of adopting her, Aziraphale shows back up and Crowleys like Oh hello Angel didn't expect you back thought youd abandoned your shop and us and Aziraphale's like us? Who is us-oh my I forgot they left someone here wait why are you (crowley) still here

I expected Nina and Maggie to be this seasons Newt and Anathema, which they sort of were, but specifically I expected to spend most of the time thats focused on them waiting for it to go back to the bit i was more intrested in and i was pleasantly suprised, they were far more intresting than newt (i'll be honest he was the boring bit in season 1, anathema's bits only got boring when it was her with newt), plus them calling Crowley out on his and Aziraphale's plan and also on being obviously in love with Aziraphale was great.

I need the studios to get their shit together, I've already got a list of things I was excited for that are now on hold and now I need more of this, so, you know, come on. Studios need to get their shit together and actually work with the writers and actors on a reasonable deal so I can have more of these dumbasses. Stupid studio executives.

Will probably edit with more of my thoughts once I remember them, anyhow

#good omens #good omens spoilers #good omens season 2 #good omens season two #rambling thinky thoughts #pretty much just spewing

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antikate · 3 years

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Crowley was pressed into the corner of his bedroom, his hands clamped over his mouth.

“Crowley!” Aziraphale dropped to his knees beside him. “What happened? Why didn’t you come to dinner?”

Crowley shook his head, and glared. He didn’t seem hurt, although he looked… dreadful. Dishevelled, but not in his usual artful way. He kept his hands over his mouth, but jerked his head towards the door.

“I don’t understand, what’s happening? Why aren’t you speaking to me?”

Crowley’s eyelids fluttered shut, and his shoulders heaved, and then he dropped his hands. “You need to go Aziraphale, right now, before I start talking and I can’t stop, but you’re not going to listen to me, are you, of course you aren’t, you’re the most stubborn bloody thing She ever created, it’s probably your third most endearing trait—”

He clapped his hands back over his mouth, horrified.

“This would be much easier if you’d simply explain to me what the problem is,” Aziraphale said, with a calm he didn’t feel.

Crowley shook his head, again.

“My dear whatever it is, I’m sure I can help you—”

The next headshake was even more emphatic, but Crowley’s eyes darted sideways this time to the bed, and a strange lizard-like statue, with a wide open mouth, on the dark duvet. It was clearly cursed.

“Truth-telling curse. Please, angel, just leave, it’ll wear off soon enough.” With what seemed like a superhuman effort, Crowley shut his mouth again.

“My dear boy, whatever you tell me, I’m sure it will be completely fine.” Aziraphale put a hand on Crowley’s knee.

“Oh shit.” Crowley scrabbled further into the corner. “Don’t touch me, I mean yes, please, touch me, anytime you want, I’m open for touching, twenty-four-seven touching hours, shit shit shit this is bad, this is bad—”

“All right, I won’t touch you, I’ll just… sit here, and we’ll just wait it out together.”

“No, now I just have to look at you and think about you and that’s even worse, please just leave before I start talking about how your thighs look, the fabric’s all stretched over your legs! It’s obscene, you shouldn’t be allowed to walk around in public with thighs like that!”

Aziraphale looked down at the beige cashmere of his trousers. “A glass of water perhaps? Are you thirsty?”

“II’ve been thirsty for six thousand years, and you’re the only thing I want to drink,” Crowley let out a high manic giggle. “Oh no, I can’t deal with that puppy dog expression, now I can’t stop thinking about kissing you, please just say something else to distract me, will you, why don’t you start telling me about Sandalphon’s underwear or snuffboxes or—”

Aziraphale rocked back and considered Crowley carefully. He knew he should go but there was something horribly compelling about the river of words tumbling from Crowley’s unwilling mouth.

“--I’m willing to do anything, within limits obviously, not super into the idea of whipping and what-not, I’m getting ahead of myself, but I’d really like to suck your cock—” Crowley was saying “—and bury my face in your arse and make you scream, Aziraphale, angel—it’s not about sex, of course not, I’m not a monster, and I just want to be with you, and we could do that picnic—”

“Crowley,” Aziraphale said softly.

“I know,” Crowley continued desperately. “I go too fast. But I don’t have any expectations, it’s not about expectations, or obligations, but I can’t not say it. I love you. You don’t need to… reciprocate. Just so you know. But I do. It’s humiliating, I’m pathetic; but I’m yours.”

There was a moment of blessed silence, and Crowley stared at him, wide-eyed and stricken.

Aziraphale took a deep breath, and reached, not for Crowley, but for the huge-mouthed statue on the bed. As soon as his fingers touched it, he felt the curse take hold, and knew he was hopeless to do anything but tell the truth. He gave Crowley a small smile. “Any questions?”

#ficlet #good omens #cursed object #666let #666 words #nsft

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ofpineapplesanddawns · 2 years

Note

Haven't seen you posting anything about your celestial harmony park au i a while. Something cute with them if you're feeling it? Aziraphale showing Crowley cool rare plants because he's lived there forever, and he's just a nice guy like that?

I really need to update the fanfic itself, but I have no idea what to write next for it, haha...

But I can write this! :D

On with the fic!

"You're going to love this! Do you have equipment for documenting your findings?" Aziraphale asked, walking down a not-really worn down path.

"Yeah, I've got a camera and my notebook." Crowley replied, more distracted by Aziraphale's warm hand in his than anything else.

He was actually surprised that Aziraphale was keeping his human form right now. Normally, when they were well out of the eyes of the public, Aziraphale took on his true form, typically a smaller size so he didn't intimidate Crowley or get any attention. Maybe he just wanted to have a nice, normal walk with his boyfriend today?

"Excellent! You'll want to record all of these!" Aziraphale said as he approached what looked to be large trees, covered in so many vines. Those vines appeared to be covered in flowers that Crowley could not identify, they looked like tiny birds, reminded him of orchids.

He pulled out his camera from his bag, taking a few pictures. "If you like those, you're going to love these." Aziraphale chuckled and pulled him along, to where they seemed to be in a small patch of greenery filled with all sorts of flowers.

It was... it was beautiful, and amazing, and just... impossible!

Crowley saw flowers of all shapes and sizes that shouldn't exist in this sort of environment. He saw colors that were not common for flowers naturally, lots of blue and even actual black! Real black flowers! Not dark purple or red! And green flowers as well!

"This is... insane!" Crowley found himself smiling, looking around in a circle. Then he stopped, sniffing. "What's that smell?"

"Ah, well," Aziraphale reached down, picking up some grass and holding it out for Crowley to sniff, "banana grass."

Crowley laughed at that. "Holy shit, angel. Every day this park surprises me."

"Well, it is the most unique place in the world." Aziraphale smiled. "Come, let me show you about! This is my little hideaway from the world, where I come to just sit and relax, enjoy nature and the sun, and whatever delicious fruits are in the trees."

The human looked up, and he saw fruits above his head, fruits that didn't naturally grow in places like this, or together on the same tree. "That's... I have no idea what to say." He reached up, taking an apple, and biting into it.

It was sweet, crisp, and with just that little bit of tartness that an apple should have. Aziraphale smiled at him, a glow behind his head that brightened at the smile that came to Crowley.

The angel changed form, becoming his natural appearance, but not huge. Just big enough to wrap himself around the area, like a fence. He rested his head on his arms, deciding to just watch as Crowley went about, taking pictures.

Crowley took photos of many of the plants he recognized, and of all the ones he didn't. He found pitcher plants, watching as one caught a weird looking beetle and just... swallowed it, like something in a cartoon.

He found flowers that smells like all sorts of things, from fruits, to laundry soap, to meat, but he already knew those existed, but it was still strange to find one that smelled like cooked meat rather than rot.

"This place is amazing, angel." Crowley said as he worked on taking notes. "No one is gonna believe me though."

"Well, humans are already discovering new things here, so someone will believe you." Aziraphale said, rolling onto his side so he could talk.

"That's true." Crowley sighed and laid back, looking up at the canopy above his head, at birds and bugs fluttering about. "Was Eden really like this? Strange, and unusual, and beautiful beyond comprehension?"

"Well..." The angel moved closer, hovering over Crowley, looking down at him with dozens of eyes. "It was certainly a lot like this, impossible to explain really. Even after six thousand years or so, I still don't know if I could ever tell you everything that was there, everything that I saw."

"But is this close?"

"Oh, very much so, and I think even more interesting than the original?"

"Really?" Crowley blinked. "How?"

"Because you're in my garden this time around." Aziraphale said, smiling down at him.

Crowley felt a warmth pool in his stomach and he motioned for Aziraphale to come closer. The angel shrunk down, being more human-size, but not human. Still, that didn't stop Crowley from kissing him on his lipless face. "You're so damn cheesy sometimes, you know that?"

"I'd rather think I was being romantic, considering I've taken you to a beautiful location and told you something very sweet."

"Well, of course, but still, cheesy." Crowley kissed him again, feeling lips growing under his own. Still... getting used to Aziraphale's weird angelic abilities, but this was nice. This was lovely, and he didn't want it to end.

#celestial harmonies national park au #good omens #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #anthony j crowley #crowley #john's drabbles

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aethelflaedladyofmercia · 4 years

Text

The Quarantine/Awake-the-Snake/2020-Stress fic no one requested but I had FEELS, ok?

Crowley rolled over and opened his eyes for a second, then jerked awake to see a ghostly figure standing next to his bed.

“For Sssssssssssssomeone’s sake, Aziraphale, don’t do that!”

“Ah. Good morning, Crowley.” He stood a bit back from the bed, hands folded. Very subdued, even compared to their last conversation. “I, ah, I rather thought we could…perhaps…talk?”

“Alright, fine.” Crowley shoved his hands into the mattress pushing himself into a sitting position. “Gimme…just a sec…” These long naps didn’t end easily. He rubbed at his eyes, raked fingers through his hair. It had gotten a bit long, and there was stubble on his chin. Blast. He’d slowed down his hair growth, but clearly not enough.

Couldn’t even imagine what his breath smelt like.

“Rrrrrrgh, Angel, can’t you – get me a glass of – oh.” Three cups appeared on his bedside table: Water, tea, and a second, smaller glass of water. Crowley picked up the last and sniffed it. “Vodka? Really?”

“It was the strongest alcohol I could find. Would you prefer rum? Bourbon?”

“Ngk.” He decided to start with the water. “So how long did I sleep? Is it 2021 yet? 2030? The collapse of western civilization?”

“Please don’t joke.” Aziraphale’s hands twisted, tugging on his waistcoat. “I’m sure…it’ll all be fine…soon…Any day now, things will…everyone will pull together and…”

“Shit, Aziraphale.” He finished off his water, running his tongue over his teeth. Demonic morning breath could be…a lot. “What did I miss?”

“Halloween, mostly.” A flicker of a smile. “It, ah, wasn’t much to speak of this year, anyway. I imagine Christmas will be much the same, not that…well…”

“You know me, I love a commercial holiday.” Crowley shifted again, plumping up a pillow to rest his back against. “Things already sounded bad a month ago. How much worse did they get?”

“Oh. Oh, I’m sure it’s not – not worse. Just, you know, the dark before the storm. Er. The calm before dawn. No, no that isn’t…” Aziraphale turned away, blinking furiously. “Never mind, Crowley, I don’t know why I came, just go back to—”

“Aziraphale.” He waited until the angel turned back to look at him. It took a long time. “What did they do now?”

A quick, nervous flash of hands. “Politics. You know. Always – always doing foolish things when they’re worried, and – and I know they’ll…come round. Humans always…always surprise you in the end.”

“And not always in a good way.”

Aziraphale cringed back at those words. Must be bad. Crowley sighed and threw back the side of his duvet, sliding over to make room.

The angel stared at him, uncomprehending.

“Well? Hurry it up, I’m getting cold.”

With a heavy thud, Aziraphale dropped onto the mattress and moved close to Crowley, right into the curve of his arm, right up against his side. Crowley quickly tucked the blanket around them, then pulled Aziraphale closer, head resting on his chest. Soft, shaking fingers clutched at the front of his black shirt.

“Hey. Shhhh. S’alright. Whatever it is, it’s gonna be alright. We’ll get through this. Humanity will get through this. They always do.”

“But not before – so many people – get hurt.” His voice was thick now, on the edge of breaking. “I can’t just…stop caring, Crowley!”

Neither can I. Big failing in a demon, that. To look at the suffering of mortals, the pain they inflicted on each other, and feel it, down in the parts of him that were supposed to be atrophied and gone. Easier to sleep it off, because at least then he didn’t need to feel it.

“No one’s asking you to, Aziraphale.” He rubbed his angel’s arm, holding on tight. “No one will ever ask that of you again.”

“I wish…I could help…”

“I know. But we agreed. No more interfering. They have to figure these things out for themselves.”

“I hate it.” His voice was just a trembling whisper. “I hate this so much.”

“Here.” Crowley tugged at Aziraphale, shifted him, until the angel’s legs stretched across his lap, until Aziraphale was properly curled against his chest. “That’s better. You stay close, yeah?” He swayed, rocking Aziraphale as he held him. “Just stay close.”

“I – I know I’m…the hopeful one. I’ve been trying…so hard…to bring just…just a little cheer to London, to Soho. Keep up the spirits.”

“Yeah. Pastries for burglars. Nice little charity you got there.”

“It was a bit more than that!” A high-pitched noise. “But…I don’t think…I can…”

“Shhhh. S’fine. You’ll be fine.” Crowley pressed his lips to Aziraphale’s forehead. “Let me be the optimistic one for a few hours. You rest. It’s your turn.”

“I really don’t…that’s not how it works.”

“S’our side, Angel.” He shook out his wings, wrapping them around Aziraphale. Privacy. Warmth. Darkness. Everything he had to offer in the ring of his arms. He pressed another kiss to Aziraphale’s forehead. “Our side. Means whatever we want it to.”

Slowly, Aziraphale closed his eyes sinking against Crowley, nestling into his dark feathers. “Don’t think I can sleep.”

“Don’t sleep, then. Just rest. Breathe. Get your strength up. They’ll probably need you again soon.”

A small smile crept across the curve of his cheek. “I thought we weren’t interfering?”

“Welllll, I know a certain bastard who never follows the rules.” Crowley rested his cheek in Aziraphale’s soft white curls. “The world can get on without you for a day. Just rest. I got you.”

#good omens fanfiction #good omens prime #emotional h/c #bed cuddles #anxious aziraphale #soft crowley #we all need a hug today #My writing

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sleepymccoy · 4 years

Text

Aziraphale’s demon aspect

As voted by 246 people!

The winner is

Owl

with nearly 26% of the primary vote

many people added in their free form answers that they were imagining a barn owl specifically

Owl was the front runner the whole way through this survey, but most of the time by a very beatable margin. The 40 or so people who voted in the last night really tipped it over, it was a tight race! And the results are crazy split imo, a quarter of votes constitutes a win! I love the different opinions and ideas we all have so so much

Ram/sheep came in a hearty second with 16.5% of the vote

A very regal demon there.

After that it gets a little murky, so I’m going to share the second graph I made when is every animal that got more than 1% of the vote. So it’s the top six animals

Magpie and Lion holding strong! Then Moth and Goat looking very good

The second question let you vote for as many options as you thought were appropriate for Aziraphale! So, there were a lot more write-ins! It’s crazy!

I’m using google sheets so I can’t get it to show you every name, but the raw data will be in a read more so you can scroll through everyone’s beautiful imagination there

Again, Owl winds with a solid 20% of the vote. Ram/Sheep coming in with about 15%, followed by Moth, Magpie, Goat, Lion, then Tortoise.

Tortoise was 11th in the first round, tied with Snake (but pale), and managed to surprise me by coming through so strong in the second. Slow and steady, baby.

Nearly everyone who wrote in about Magpies told me that Magpies hoard stuff, so it’s nice to see the hive mind at work there!

Five people told me they were voting goat because of that one piece of art by @hollow-head that shows Aziraphale scaling a bookshelf like goats do cliffs. As an artist myself I found it legitimately moving that this one image had stayed with people so strongly. That’s just beautiful. Here’s an example of just one person’s comment

idk dude i just remember one person posted art of him scaling the bookstore shelves like those goats scale mountains and just eating his clothes while he reads it was so fuckin funny but anyway goat eyes are great or he could have lil stubby horns that r covered by his hair

One moth enthusiast took the time to give me a short essay on their choice of moth. I have included a portion of it, cos it was so great

So if I had to choose an insect, it would be a moth, preferably a Megalopygidae, also known as the Flannel Moth. They are fluffy, white-beige and look innocent and fluffy, but their larvae can cause painful inflammations. A poodle moth would also fit because it's almost pure white.

Here’s a flannel moth for everyone

and a poodle moth, which i honestly thought was a hoax but i looked into it just now and it seems legit? There’s not a tonne of proof, but the og pictures are from a scientists who stands by them, so like, wow

And then a DIFFERENT PERSON put this in;

the moth i had in mind is Acherontia atropos, in polish called Zmierzchnica trupia główka (meaning more or less "dusk death's head"). i have a whole symbolism planned out and stuff

Fucking, moth fandom come through!!

I’m vaguely scared of moths, fun fact. I don’t like the thick thunking sound they make when they hit stuff.

Here is the second round but with all the animals that got four or less votes removed for ease of viewing

the one segment there at 12 o’clock that google hasn’t labeled for me is Swan at 0.9%

I cannot believe I didn’t put swan in as an option, that’s all write-ins

So, to summarise, I suggest you take a lot of this with a grain of salt. It is not meant as an instruction to fandom or to railroad creativity. I have a narrow corner of the Good Omens fandom that I interact with, and while this quiz was up for a week I’m not sure it reached a great variety of people. About 250 folks filled it out, which was tonnes more than I expected and I love each and every one of you for filling it out!! But I have noticed that Owl was first on my list and in the free form answers the example prompt I gave included, “such as a breed of owl that specifically speaks to you,“ so I think it’s possible I did that unknowing bias thing that practiced survey folk know now to do. So, grain of salt.

I also think that if animals like Swan and Cat were in the list of options they’d’ve gotten more votes because the people who voted for those were coming up with it fresh themselves. I suspect people would’ve voted for them, but it just didn’t occur to them in the moment. In much the same way it didn’t occur to me in the moment I was writing this survey.

So people know, I got the ten or so animals that I put in the survey from searching the demon!aziraphale tag on tumblr, so it was all stuff that other people had come up with. I was trying to avoid my own bias, but i think in hindsight i could’ve done better!

Having said all that, this was all so much fun and the results are clear!!! Love a good owl!aziraphale

Imma continue to draw my boy as a ram, though. Cos this was all just for a laugh <3

numbers and a few more things under the cut

So some of these have half a vote ascribed to them. That’s for people who in their freeform answer said things like this;

ngl, that one post about him being a swan still makes me laugh

Mourning Dove. Though that Scallop answer was fucking brilliant

And I kinda made a judgement call that that wasn’t a vote, but it was kind of a vote. So I gave them half a point.

There were a few situations where people would write in a specific species. If I got more than one vote for the root animal I just grouped them together, but if it stayed the only vote then it kept the species. Cat got the most specific species mentioned, and in the second vote Bat had a few species mentioned (albino bat being my fave), but I ended up grouping them all just under Cat and Bat to give them a better chance of getting on the graph. There were probably a few other examples but I can’t think of them. The one exception to this is the person who wrote-in Duolingo Owl specifically. For that one I figured Owl is already pretty solid, and that’s just fucking funny, man

I was also pretty generous about some stuff. So, this person didn’t vote for Moose but they clearly regretted it so I added a vote for Moose in the second one where you could vote for multiples. They kept their Ram and Goat votes, of course, but I added Moose for them

I get very bastard energy from my demon az headcanons. Like f-ing shit up for a laugh more than anything, but otherwise indifferent. That's kinda why I like the ram/sheep/goat thing so much because it reminds me of indifference and random chaos. Or a moose. Shit, I should have written in moose

So yeah, it’s hardly a double blind study that’d stand up to any real criticism, but it was fun and I think the essence of it is fun!! Scroll through and have a read. Imma pull a few more of my fave write-ins and put them down the bottom cos it’s great. Esp the ones that only got one vote, the reasonings were stellar on some of those

Here is the first vote results, where everyone could only vote for one animal each

Owl 63 Ram/Sheep 40 Magpie 28 Lion 26 Moth 21 Goat 17 Swan 4 Eagle 4 Dove 4 Cat 4 Tortoise 3 Snake 3 Scallop 2 Rat 2 Rabbit 2 Mongoose 2 Badger 2 Shima Enaga 1 Shark 1 Porcupine 1 Orangutan 1 Mouse 1 Long Furby 1 Hippopotomaus 1 Goose 1 Duck 1 Dragon 1 Cow 1 Cereberus 1 Boar 1 Bee 1 Bat 1 Alpaca 1

Second Vote results, where everyone could vote for as many as they wanted

Owl1 82 Ram/Sheep 136 Moth 108.5 Magpie 98 Goat 96 Lion 72 Tortoise 61 Snake 37 Eagle 33 Cat 9.5 Swan 7.5 Lizard 4 Rabbit 4 Badger 3 Mongoose 2 Dove 2 Mouse 2 Squirrel 2 Bear 2 Raccoon 2 Capybara 2 Dragon 2 Bat 1 Long Furby 1 Rat 1 Boar 1 Goose 1 Peacock 1 Pangolin 1 Lindworm 1 Moose 1 Chinchilla 1 Duolingo Owl 1 Cackatoo 1 Crow 1 Cow 1 Alpaca 1 Dodo 1 Shark 1 Big Dog 1 Snow Leopard 1 Scallop 0.5

All voting was optional. To help explain how scallop lost 1.5 votes from first to second, I believe the people who voted for it in the first question just skipped the second cos they’d said their bit.

In terms of how many people engaged with the questions, Q1 had 245 answers and one skip. Q2 had 241 answers and 5 skips, and Q3 where I just let people talk at me if they wanted to had 84 answers and 162 skips.

So please enjoy my selection of free form answers. They all made me smile but putting all 84 in seems excessive to me, so I’ve chosen the ones that are either full blown mini essays or that make me laugh. It’s still a lot, this project brought me so much joy

Shima enaga - It's the hair man

Cow (aka golden calf)

Scallop. He is a snack.

Swan. Elegant but very capable of fscking you up. Mates for life.

basically anything that is both gentle in nature and fiercely loyal, territorial and protective (but prone to anxiety). Also hedonistic esp. with food. For all of these reasons, I think a dog would be the best choice.

Dragon with his hoard of books

it’s about the teeth. just too sharp and too many to be human. (comment from op here, this person voted for shark, just for context)

Turkish Angora cat. Magnificently fluffy, incredibly intelligent, love heights and will jump off crazy high things and land on your head, gloriously dignified until they see a string and run into a wall, love one or maybe two persons to distraction and want everyone else to fuck off, will drape themselves over their person’s shoulders and go to sleep, range from “will jump in the sea to hunt fish and has a murder pit full of seagulls they’ve massacred” to “will fall over at the sight of a baby bird”, very particular about food and will yell at you if you get it wrong. Also the breed that some asshole took three cats from and bred parent to child to make Persians. The cautionary tale has been acknowledged and we love our crazy smart, single braincelled children.

I usually imagine him as an owl because they are nocturnal (and we know that Aziraphale can easily stay awake the whole night reading). Also the image of an owl puffed up is kind of ridiculous and reminds me of him, of how an annoyed Aziraphale would look. However the options above have made me think that a lion would suit him very well, too. A lion or just a very BIG cat. I mean, he makes pleading eyes to get what he wants, likes to be confortable, is a bit of a bastard and often puts himself in awkward situations from which he needs to be rescued. He just... acts very cat-like in my opinion. Also owls and cats are both predators, but are usually imagined (or, at least cats are) as cute little creatures, just like Aziraphale is an Angel of the Lord (a Warrior, actually) but looks all soft and cute and huggable. I dunno. Maybe I just want to pet an Aziracat.

I love all the other people's thoughts about demon!Aziraphale, but what about the honey badger? I try to explain why I have it in mind for demon!azi: its name (I think it's funny, expecially in English because 'honey' can make you imagine it's something sweet (it is for me), while the 'bad' in badger can be an alarm bell (like 'be careful! It is not like it seems!')); its face (ok, who can say its face isn't cute? I think, and hope, nobody can, and like the name, it is a misunderstanding: as always, be careful, it's not like it seems!, I think demons can say something about demon!azi as like "you don't seem like a 'good' demon, you can't be, your face (animal and human) is too f-ing disgusting sweet to be a demon!", I think maybe even angel!crowley, at the beginning, can think something like this ("how in the world somebody so cute like you can be a demon?"), then he discovered how demon!azi can be a very talented demon sometimes, but in Crowley's mind azi is still his little cutie angry furry); its furry's colour (black=demon, white/grey/silver/idkitsname= color of demon!azi's wings, because even if he fell, I can't say no to his white wings 😭); it is a snake's predator (and in my mind angel!crowley is still a snake); its solitary life (demon!aziraphale is alone and he doesn't mind it, unless it's angel!crowley we're talking about, then our cute demon minds it); its behaviour (demon!azi, even if he's cute, can be a really very talented demon: honey badger is fearless and dangerous, it can fight bigger animals if there aren't other chances and it can't escape); its skin is very tough (except for a soft/safe spot, behind its neck if I remember well, that only angel!Crowley knows and sometimes he uses it to calm demon!azi down or make azi do some good deeds); its diet (it has a sweet-thooth, for honey in primis, but it can eat everything it wants... Doesn't it resemble demon!azi?); it's smart (search for Stoffle on your browser if you don't know)... Ok,I think I finish, sorry for the novel 😅

I tend to think of animals that meet three criteria: (1) they exemplify “faults” in his character exaggerated to “sins”—gluttony, greed/hoarding, sloth, (2) they are species that favor fawning or flight as a defense mechanism but can also be bold on occasion, and (3) blend very well or have a keen affinity with human society, specifically thriving in urban (i.e., city) environments. This is mostly because I can’t see “Aziraphale” in a reverse AU that doesn’t preserve some of his core traits as an angel (a little hedonistic, hoarding, anxious, etc.). So I like city-dwelling bastard animals with bonus points for relation to scripture, like a rock dove or a fox or an owl.

Owls aren't smart, and the pedant in me says not an owl. But, thinking on it, demon aspect, owls are perceived as smart, but designed as deadly silent predators, patient and solitary. So actually demon Aziraphale could take on more owlish aspects. I just like cockatoo better, since they are smart, and showy. Or a crow, although that does amusing things with Crowleys name.

god imagining him as a chimera is !!! (comment from op, there was this odd flurry of mythical animals being voted for one night. i think the survey hit a corner of fandom that leans that way. there was also dragon, another chimera, a griffon, and a lindworm all at the same rough time)

Magpies are great because they’re cute and fluff themselves up (go look at Sophie the magpie) and like hoarding their favorite things but also I’ve watched one just straight up kill another bird before because corvids are sneaky little bastards with no lack of a mean streak if they’re crossed

It’s the duolingo owl, I’m so sorry op but it just is. I genuinely don’t mean to clown on your post, but this take was delivered to me in a sleep induced haze and I believe it’s the god given truth. Demon Aziraphale WOULD try to make you learn a dead language and he’d go about it in a vaguely threatening way (comment from op, you’re so fucking right dude. also, shit like this is made for clowning, i’m with you 100%)

When choosing a demon aspect for a Aziraphale, I usually tried to keep in mind the artistic tradition of which animals are linked with demons. The Good Omens team seems to have drawn inspiration from that source because all the animals we do see are either reptilian or insectoid. Those species were often shown inhabiting hellish landscapes in Renaissance and Baroque paintings. However, Aziraphale never struck me as cold or slimy or hard like an exoskeleton. So if I had to choose an insect, it would be a moth, preferably a Megalopygidae, also known as the Flannel Moth. They are fluffy, white-beige and look innocent and fluffy, but their larvae can cause painful inflammations. A poodle moth would also fit because it's almost pure white.

Ok so the only reason I pick magpie is because those bastards are smart as hell but also know how and when to inconvenience the shit out of you, and if you gain their trust then they're absolute darlings but if they decide "nah, dont like ya" then you're basically done and you'll wake up every morning with shit on your car window. I also chose sheep/ram cuz I mean... idk it suits him. I don't remember my other choice but I'm sure I had a good reason.

I feel like a barn owl would suit him well but I'm not really sure why, I also think that a moth would suit him really well because of the whole "moth to a flame" thing and as a demon he would have gotten burned because of that attitude.

I write a reverse AU fic called Lambs to the Slaughter where Aziraphale's demonic aspect is an albino sheep! I imagine him as a mix between a wild Argali ram and the first woolly domestics. I chose an Argali because they're the largest species of wild sheep, but I wanted him to have traits of a domestic breed because he obtains his animal aspect from a sheep in Abel's flock which would be several generations down from the original wild species in Eden. I really think a sheep suits Aziraphale! They're an incredibly common animal and have been since they were first domesticated. Likewise, since the start of human history, Aziraphale has been living side-by-side with humans, providing for them, and protecting them. Due to how common they are, sheep are often unnoticed, which Aziraphale leans into. Crowley wants to stand out. He has a dedicated aesthetic and an obsession with human invention, where Aziraphale leans more towards simpler, known things and creature comforts. He fades into the background, and that suits him fine. He doesn't have to be outstanding to Heaven or to humans or even to Crowley -- it's enough to do his part, to trust in a bigger plan. People associate sheep (especially lambs) with innocence or ignorance which foils nicely to Crowley as the serpent tempting with knowledge, as well as with Aziraphale's own sharp mind and ongoing embers of faith in a system that is failing him, Crowley, and all of humanity. Sheep are, like Aziraphale, soft, cute, and hiding a hard-headed stubbornness and a surprising strength that makes them absolutely fearsome. Aziraphale is very much the sort to put his head down and push relentlessly forward regardless of the pressure and strain. Rams in particular have thick skulls to withstand the brutal force of headbutting one another in displays of dominance. While Aziraphale is clever, he's not above rolling up his sleeves and getting the job done, as messy and unpleasant as it might be (see: pulling a gun on the Antichrist). Also sheep are associated with Pan, a god associated with food, music, theatre, and the criticism thereof, which hit many of Aziraphale's personal interests and hobbies! I like the idea that in a reverse AU, the demon formerly named Aziraphale might be the original basis for Pan!

I wrote in Orangutan for the first question because if I remember correctly they are some of the most violent apes. Although I'd accept bonobo for him too. They fuck alll the time.

mothman aziraphale,,,,, thats it

Snowy owl, speremint's tortoise, and I just adore the goat.

moth - dusty and eats books

Long Furby the way Loni-Capri draws it.

I keep thinking about that Black Philip quote "doest thou wish to live deliciously" because... it fits so much with the general epicurean/hedonism vibe the Fandom has for him ... but in a demonic way and also I think a lot abt that art piece (already referenced many times probably but what the hell) of him climbing his own bookshelves, it's just so good!!

Albino Lion/white lion (matches his hair). I feel like maybe I should explain why I think Lion would fit him best, lol. Lions actually are rather sedate, inactive for 20 hours of the day (see: Aziraphale reading and unmoving- yes I pulled wiki for this to make sure I didn't spout anything terribly wrong, shhh) but also there's nomad lions. Lions that range widely and move around sporadically either alone or in pairs (*looks at Crowley after apoconope*) (pairs are more frequent among males who have been excluded from their birth pride) but also I think of lions as protectors, defenders, and what is Aziraphale if not that? If not an angel who fiercely protects humans, crowley, earth? (When he finally overcomes heaven and it's abuse) lions don't hunt unless they're hungry, don't attack unless they're defending. They've been known to sit directly next to jeeps full of people and just watch them, not attacking or being aggresive.

I saw art once (I have no idea who the artist is) of Demon!Aziraphale climbing his bookcases like a goat and absentmindedly chewing on his sweater while he reads. I felt like the goat aspect suited him perfectly.

Honestly I wrote Az with a rat aspect because, well, it fits who I see demon Az as. He's not super powerful but he is very consequential, like rats carrying plague fleas (this also describes how I see Az tempting). He tries to blend into a crowd, which is arguably one way rats survive, and can get himself into places/situations that should be impossible or super difficult. Like snakes, rats have been unfairly maligned by our culture for a long time, even though they are very social with their colonies, smart, affectionate, and generally good beans. Finally, male pet rats are known far and wide as the lazier of the sexes while the girls are super curious and adventurous.

Somehow his tartan pattern becomes either his colour scheme or his coat/feather pattern.

Eurasian eagle owl. A big, unapologetic grump of an owl that is soft as soft can be underneath. Possessor of the glare to end all glares to be used in such dire situations as being interrupted when reading or being told one has "had enough cake".

#demon!aziraphale #reverse omens #sleepy speaks #fandom vote #aziraphale's demon aspect #this was so fucking fun you all

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prettybirdy979 · 4 years

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Fic: Aziraphale/Crowley ‘Well it’s a good thing I don’t plan on doing that.’

ONumber 32 from this list - feel free to send me any other prompts from it or any of the ones in this tag. Thanks to the Ace Omens Discord for picking the prompt!

Aziraphale doesn’t knock when he arrives at Crowley’s place, miracling himself through the door like it’s not even there. A part of him bristles at his own rudeness but he’s not seen Crowley in three months and now the silly serpent isn’t answering his phone.

‘Crowley!’ he calls, pacing through the flat. ‘Crowley!’ He knows his voice is a little frantic but it’s been three months and he hopes if something had happened, Crowley would have called or he would know but what if he didn’t and he doesn’t and-

‘Aziraphale?’

Aziraphale turns, relief flooding through him as he sees Crowley standing in his bedroom doorway with a frown on his face. He doesn’t look tired or newly woken - in fact he’s fully dressed and frowning.

‘What are you doing here?’

‘I was worried,’ Aziraphale says with a sniff as he stalks towards Crowley. ‘You weren’t answering your phone.’

Crowley looks around, shifting in place. ‘I wasn’t?’ he lies.

‘You’re still as poor a liar as you were in Spain,’ Aziraphale snaps. ‘Yes, you weren’t! I thought... well. I thought terrible things.’

‘Well as you can see, nothing terrible here.’ Crowley gestures at the door. ‘Now you’ve checked up on me, you’re welcome to leave.’ There’s a tension in him, in the way he’s almost vibrating in place.

‘No.’

Crowley blinks. ‘No?! Angel you’ve not talked to me in years and now you’re pissy about a few months? Just leave me alone, give me time...’

Aziraphale steps back, something sharp lodged in his heart. ‘Oh, I’m sorry my dear. I’ll... I see. I understand. I’ll go.’

‘Keep it together demon,’ Crowley mutters, in a voice Aziraphale only hears because he’s deserpately listening for anything from Crowley. ‘You can’t go too fast for him.’

Aziraphale freezes. ‘What?’

‘...Shit. Angel, go.’

The desperation in Crowley’s voice is nearly enough to get Aziraphale to leave but he can’t. Not when Crowley is sad, not when he thinks Aziraphale is leaving because he wants to, instead of because he’s trying to do what Crowley wants, for once.

‘And if I want to stay? To be with you at your side?’

Crowley looks like Aziraphale just drove a knife into his heart. ‘I go too fast Angel,’ he says with a finality. ‘You’re going to leave eventually... I just have to restrain myself for a bit until you’re fine, or you’ll plan to leave.’

‘Well it’s a good thing I don’t plan on doing that.’

Crowley blinks. ‘What?’

‘I’m not leaving you. Ever.’ Aziraphale moves forward and hovers his hand over Crowley’s human heart. ‘I broke this that night, didn’t I?’ he asks, not looking Crowley in the eye. ‘I was trying to be kind, to give you hope, but you can break a heart with hope just as easily as you can help it.’

‘I don’t have a heart to break,’ Crowley lies as he leans in, letting Aziraphale’s hand rest on his chest. He lowers his head so their foreheads are touching.

Azirapale snorts. ‘Yes you do. I think you gave it to me at some point and I have been so utterly cruel with it.’

‘Angel, no.’

Looking up for a moment, Aziraphale meets Crowley’s glasses-free eyes before looking down again. ‘I have. It’s not much, but I can offer you mine in return...?’

Crowley pushes at Aziraphale’s chin, so they end up looking at another. ‘Angel, your heart is worth a thousand of mine, the most precious of treasures. You don’t have to give it to me, I’m not... It’s too good for me.’

‘And if I want to give it to you?’ Crowley looks dumbfounded and Aziraphale finds he likes the expression, and the blush on Crowley’s cheeks. ‘Your heart is the most precious, beautiful thing I have ever known or had, and I’ve mistreated it. Getting to hold it for even one moment more is worth more than my heart could ever hope to be.’

Leaning in again, Crowley laughs. ‘We clearly don’t value our own hearts.’

‘That’s easy then,’ Aziraphale says with a smile as he leans back in. ‘You can have mine and I’ll treasure yours.’

‘Sounds like a deal,’ Crowley grins and they seal it with a kiss.

#good omens #ineffable husbands #My Scribbles #My Story #i lost the plot for this a dozen times #so if it makes no sense i'm sorry

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justkeeptrekkin · 5 years

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A gift to all my followers!

This is something I whacked out a couple of weeks ago- just a thank you to all my followers who’ve stuck around, or who have just found me within the Good Omens fandom! It means the world to see you guys enjoy my fics. This is my gift to you guys, now that 2019 is coming to a close!

Enjoy! x

***

It’s hard to keep track of time when they're together on a good day. It’s even harder on the best of days.

The Ritz is busy. The lunch table is inappropriately large for just the two of them. They’re sat right next to each other. Champagne is bitter-sweet on Crowley’s tongue and he could watch Aziraphale for hours, listen to him talking for hours. He measures the way Aziraphale leans towards him with a hand stretched across the table, sharing a story. Eyes bright, typically taut posture unusually relaxed. Entire aura relaxed. The feeling in his own chest, relaxed.

And so it’s harder than usual to keep track of the time. People leave after tea; people arrive for dinner; people leave after dinner. The waiters stare at them from the kitchen doors, waiting for them to ask for the bill, which they don’t. Crowley barely has it in him to glare at them.

Their knees touch for almost the entire time.

For Crowley and Aziraphale, time has only ever been a construct. However, it has also, always, been bound by celestial responsibilities. Now, they have no such responsibilities. And they are no longer being watched.

The sky is darkening just a little when they finally leave. Green Park remains busy at-

Crowley checks the time on his phone.

-Greek Park remains busy at five thirty on a Tuesday night. People line up at the bus stop, heading home from work. Tourist stands filled with union jacks litter the streets outside the park. The colonnade of The Ritz shelters them from a light bit of drizzle.

Crowley slides his hands into his negligible pockets and considers what comes next. Dining at The Ritz has always comes with a time limit, and somewhere to go immediately afterwards. Some sort of agenda. He doesn’t know what that is now.

He looks over at Aziraphale, who hovers. Hovers and fiddles with his hands. Gaze flitting about as if he’s nervous, smile flickering on and off as if he doesn’t want Crowley to notice. He makes a feeble attempt at smiling again and gestures to the rain with a small nod. “Lovely weather we’re having, eh?” he says. It’s followed by a shaky half-laugh.

Crowley frowns at him, the bottom half of his face forming a smile. He feels as if he’s watching the Angel of the Eastern gate, introducing himself at Eden. And something about the sudden awkwardness fills him with intrigue- more than that, anticipation.

He leans back against a column, hands in pockets, and surveys Aziraphale’s anxious flapping.

“Well, go on, then,” Crowley prompts. “Something’s on your mind.”

“Not on my mind, per se,” Aziraphale concedes. His eyes darting up to the roof of the colonnade, to Heaven- a habit that may take some time to kick. “An idea of sorts.” “You’ve intrigued me,” Crowley drawls.

“Nothing exciting. Only.”

The look Aziraphale gives him in the brief moment of hesitation is heart-breaking. It’s filled with hope, and a healthy dollop of apprehension, too. As if Crowley would ever deny him anything. Crowley has experienced these moments of heart-shattering, heart-squashing, heart-pummelling love many times before, and he very much hopes that he’s done an alright job of concealing it from his expression.

He raises his eyebrows at Aziraphale and waits.

Aziraphale sighs, looking uncomfortable and apparently having no intention of expanding. He expects Crowley to make the move. Unsurprising.

“I could…” Crowley starts. Aziraphale looks at him in hope again. Christ on a bike I’m a pushover, he thinks. “I could. Invite you round to mine for a drink. If… you were thus inclined.” A great beaming smile. “Oh, you took the words right out of my mouth.” Crowley huffs an almost-laugh. They look at each other. And they both let the weight of that sink in. Slowly, like the rain that’s currently seeping into the stone pavement beyond the Ritz’s colonnade.

“Right,” he announces quickly, before thoughts can escalate any further. “Off we go, then?”

“Yes, just so. Tip top.”

Crowley conjures an umbrella. It’s not as if anyone would have noticed, he tells himself, though he sees the doorman at the Ritz recoil a little in shock. They share its shelter until Aziraphale miraculously hails a cab.

***

“Best idea you’ve had all week, angel- and that includes the body swapping nonsense.”

Aziraphale is sat on Crowley’s sofa. He has been handed a glass of wine. He holds it between cupped hands like he plans to take communion. His legs are hidden behind a tartan blanket. (Crowley will never admit that he conjured such a thing long, long ago, just in case something like this might happen. Something like Aziraphale staying for a movie night, or even, staying for the night. It had always seemed so unlikely. In fact, the moment he’d created said blanket, Crowley had been so infuriated by his blind hope of ‘having Aziraphale round’ that he’d burned it.

He’d restored the ashes to its original, tartaned form just a couple of hours later.)

“It seemed like the next logical thing,” Aziraphale explains pensively, brows raised and peering down into his Malbec. “If I had a ‘to do’ list, this is what I would put on it. I haven’t sat down and watched a movie all the way through in such a long time.” This may well be true, Crowley considers, as he rifles through his DVD collection, knees against polished concrete and painted nails tapping the spine of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Meanwhile, he’s simply marvelling at the fact that they’ve never sat down and watched a movie all the way through together, the two of them, ever. They’d always had more important things to be getting on with, like saving the world or performing miracles or negotiating the terms of their Agreement. And now. Now they can-

Now they can what?

He looks back over his shoulder at Aziraphale. Aziraphale is looking at him. The angel’s gaze flicks away instantly, staring back down into his wine. It hurts something in his chest. A nice kind of hurt, like a dash too much wasabi.

Crowley takes a moment to recover from this. Then- “You. You still haven’t given me any clues. What you in the mood for, angel?”

Aziraphale’s eyes widen for the briefest moment as if he’s alarmed by this question, for whatever reason. Then he frowns to himself, purses his lips in thought. Casts his eyes around the room, for inspiration. “Something…” “If you say nice,” Crowley warns, knees hurting a little on the hard floor.

“I wasn’t going to,” Aziraphale retorts. He pauses. He adds, more quietly, “I was going to say fun.”

Crowley groans. Turns to the DVD cabinet.

“I don’t do fun,” he says slowly, emphatically.

“Alright, well. Something at least a bit light-hearted. I think saving the world rather calls for it, don’t you?” Crowley tilts his head from side to side in consideration. “It’s a fair point,” he concedes to himself more than Aziraphale. Pouts. “Don’t want to bring the mood down. Not sure I’d want to…”

The reason he doesn’t finish his sentence is because he’s just been, unfortunately, reacquainted with the more mushy end of his DVD collection. He’d forgotten that he has several Audrey Heburn films, as well as a couple of Julia Roberts classics. He glares at them. Hidden amongst the arthouse silent movies, they’re betraying just how soft he is. And Aziraphale’s watching.

The DVD boxes quiver under his stare.

“How about we start with discussing what you have,” Aziraphale tries, reasonably. “Since we can’t reach a consensus. We don’t even have to watch a DVD if you don’t want-”

“Netflix,” Crowley remembers, standing up abruptly and immediately closing the cabinet. Then, “Netflix! That’s a thing. That’s a thing that we can do.” “Oh yes- I’ve heard of that,” Aziraphale says chirpily.

“Oh, yes, well done, angel.”

Aziraphale glares.

And so the Netflix loading screen bongs into life, Crowley collapsing onto the sofa beside Aziraphale. The red wine is jostled; Aziraphale tuts. Crowley props his heels on the coffee table.

“Do you mind. I almost spilled Malbec on my shirt.” “Lots more choices now,” Crowley ignores him and begins flicking through. “Look, it’s all organised nicely in rows of genre. Love how tidy this is, look. And the search function is so much easier. Have you tried the search function on Amazon Prime, lately? Nightmare.” “I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Aziraphale replies lightly, spinning the wine in his glass like a whirlpool.

“Look, ‘s’got a whole section called ‘light-hearted movies’.”

“Very helpful.”

They flick through the row. They go through all of them without choosing, and end up at the beginning of the loop again. Crowley growls and hangs his head off the back of the sofa.

“Oh, pass it here,” Aziraphale sighs, putting down his wine with a decisive clink and picking up the remote. He holds it with one hand and presses the directional buttons with his other hand, as if it’s far more complicated and delicate a process than it actually is. Like an octogenarian trying to use an iPhone.

“How about this lovely looking Christmas film.“

"N- no. Anything but that. It’s October. And more importantly, no.”

“It looks ever so sweet, though. How lovely and romantic-”

“We are not watching The Christmas fucking-well Prince.”

He’d had a hand in inspiring that, and he’s too embarrassed to admit it even to himself. His evil deeds really are shit.

“No need to snap,” Aziraphale mutters.

“If you’re determined to watch something romantic and seasonal, I will accept The Holiday. If I must. Jack Black makes it bearable.”

Aziraphale lets the screen rest on the thumbnail of the movie. Then, quite thoughtfully, he says: “I like Kate Winslet. She seems like a nice woman.”

“Mm. Yeah, that’s. OK. I’m sure she is, angel.”

In all honesty, the idea of watching a rom-com with Aziraphale is border-line torture. It’s not quite as bad as waterboarding, but it’s close. More on the same level as those nightmares you get where you have to do a maths exam in your underwear, on stage, and all of your exes and crushes point and laugh at you. Not only are rom-coms pretty hit and miss- some influenced by Heaven, some by Hell, you never know what you’re going to get- they’re also a fantastic way of making Crowley feel incredibly exposed. Incredibly hot in the face from second-hand embarrassment. Incredibly aware that he’s meant to be sneering and heckling, when he’s just trying to concentrate on holding himself together. Stop the feelings from spurting out of his heart like water in a dam: feelings that he thinks are, embarrassingly, rather a lot like longing.

And yet, because it is Crowley, and this is what Crowley does, he lets Aziraphale select the movie and they watch The Holiday. They remark on the general cheesiness, the (at times) witty dialogue. The staggering amount of disbelief that has to be suspended for the plot to work. How nice Jude Law looks in glasses.

Crowley’s only sort of watching. He’s concentrating on Aziraphale. Not outright staring at him (although he does often do that, it’s a wonder he hasn’t noticed and told Crowley to sod off). Rather, letting his brain tick over the knowledge that he is right beside him. Too much of his daft, devil mind is unable to ignore the fact that Aziraphale is there.

Sometimes, it sends unhelpful thoughts his way. Like, you could touch his hand. Or, imagine feeding him popcorn- wouldn’t that be interesting. Or simply, there he is. He’s here. He’s with you. He’s chosen this.

About half-way through the film, Aziraphale starts with those sad sighing sounds, making woebegone eyes at the television- which tells Crowley that he’s getting peckish but doesn’t want to bother Crowley with it. So, Crowley casually announces that he’s heard there’s a good new Chinese restaurant around the corner, and Aziraphale brightens up again immediately. And they have to pause the film to choose what to eat, because Crowley reckons he might actually order something for himself this time, and Aziraphale ums and ahs about these things for hours anyway. And once they’ve ordered- over the app, thank God for avoiding human interaction- the food arrives, quite miraculously, three minutes later.

And once the food is gone, the film is almost finished. And Netflix seems to have decided what they should watch next, because it puts on the first episode of The Crown without asking them. Which they watch, although Crowley’s not really watching. And Aziraphale is complaining about the inaccuracies.

And at some point they end up sitting very close.

No. That makes it sound as if Crowley has no idea how they ended up that close. He knows exactly when this happened, because he hasn’t taken a breath since.

It happened like this.

They’re halfway through the first episode of The Crown, and Aziraphale has returned from the kitchen with a new bottle of red- a Pinot, this time- and he pours for both him and Crowley. Aziraphale has been sat on his own side of the sofa, and Crowley has been on his, draping his arms and legs wherever he sees fit. Now, as Aziraphale resettles on the sofa, he sits right beside him. The way Crowley is angled, his legs dangling off the arm of the sofa, means that he’s leaning in Aziraphale’s direction. Very obviously.

So he’s using all his (very little) core strength to keep himself sitting upright enough not to fall into his lap. Even if it would be very nice to let his head rest on Aziraphale’s lap. And even if he’d really like to relax a little bit and lean his shoulder against Aziraphale’s.

And for Heaven’s sake, it shouldn’t be an issue for a couple of six thousand year old beings to sit side-by-side on a sofa, and yet, here’s Crowley, having a crisis about it. It’s not as if he thought twice about pinning him against a wall.

Although he probably should have. That was a lot.

His eyes follow the way Aziraphale’s legs stretch in front of him, crossed over at the ankles. A little slouched on the sofa, shoes off. It’s about as relaxed as Crowley’s ever seen him.

“Why do you think they decided to make this TV series now, when the Queen is still alive,” Aziraphale remarks. It almost makes Crowley jump a little, so deep in thought that he’d forgotten time hadn’t stopped entirely.

“Whassat?” “Well, why do you think they’ve made the series now? It seems a bit-”

“Right,” Crowley says brain finally processing the question. “No- dunno, angel.” They both go quiet. Crowley’s hand grips the back of the sofa. The fear that he’s going to slip and lean against Aziraphale is too real. As nice as it would be-

Perfect. Miraculous. Wonderfully human.

-It would also be mortifying.

He can hear Aziraphale’s breathing. Slow. Precise and even, like he’s measuring out ingredients for a recipe. It makes Crowley’s mouth go dry with painful self-awareness.

“Do you remember,” Aziraphale starts quietly, “when you and I bumped into each other in Camden Town?” He takes a few seconds to pretend to think about this. “Yeah, ‘f course. Nineteen seventy-seven. What made you think of that?” Aziraphale shifts a little, looking at Crowley. Crowley doesn’t look back, watches the screen. If he turns towards Aziraphale, they’ll be-

“You were wearing that awful t-shirt.” That makes him laugh. A tipping-the-head-back laugh. “Oh yeah- my God Save the Queen t-shirt. Sex Pistols. Yeah, those were the days. Don’t knock ‘em, they were a good band.” “I’m sure they were.” “Don’t use that voice, they were. Anarchic music at its finest.” “I believe you, but bebop is still a little too baffling for me, I’m afraid.”

Crowley doesn’t expect it. He doesn’t know where it comes from- he thought he knew himself quite well at this point, but apparently not well enough. He feels something take over from out of nowhere. Rather, feels something erase everything else- a whiteboard rubber cleaning all the bullshit away.

And now he’s turned to Aziraphale without the babbling voice of anxiety in his head.

“It’s punk music, not bebop. And. I reckon you’d like it.” His voice is a murmur and his eyes are looking at Aziraphale’s lips. Thank Christ for sunglasses.

When he looks back up and meets Aziraphale’s gaze, he’s watching Crowley. Looking for something.

He feels his lips part, hears himself take a breath through his mouth.

“Oh, really?” Aziraphale asks weakly. A small quirk in one eyebrow.

“Y-” Fucking Hell. His throat’s all dry and he’s forgotten what words are. And now Aziraphale is definitely looking at his mouth. Fuck fuck fuck fu- “Yeah. You’re a rebel now, after all. Sort of. Breaking all those rules.”

“Yes,” Aziraphale replies in a whisper. Then, regaining his voice, “I suppose that’s true.”

“S- uh- mm- w- some of the songs, anyway, not all of them. You’d uh- h- some of them are a bit explicit than others and you’d probably not. Not get on with those ones.”

“Crowley…?” That’s all it takes. Thousands of years of keeping his feelings to himself and taking it slow, and all it takes is that little inflection in Aziraphale’s hushed voice. That hesitant request, draped over the sound of his name. Crowley leans in and presses his lips gently against Aziraphale’s.

There’s that horrible moment when it stops, and everything else seems to stop, too. The what next? hangs in the air and Aziraphale stutters a shaky breath against Crowley’s skin.

“Too fast?” is what Crowley ends up asking. Just to break the pause.

And then the most dazzling, drunken smile spreads across Aziraphale’s face. Brows knit together. An expression that looks a lot like “To the world.”

“No,” he half laughs, shaking his head infinitesimally. “For once, no. We… we saved the world, I rather think we deserve this.”

Something in Crowley relaxes, unhinges, collapses. It lets all the feelings free and they flood him till he swears he almost goes blind. And that is how they both end up falling asleep on the sofa, still wearing the days’ clothes and kicking off a tartaned blanket. Wrapped up in each other- starting this new era as they mean to continue.

***

Crowley wakes up and finds his head on Aziraphale’s chest. He’s splayed on top of him, arm hanging off the edge of the sofa. He feels Aziraphale’s hand, warm between his shoulder blades.

“What would you like to do today?” Aziraphale asks with a smile in his voice.

That is how it starts. They think of the things they were too scared to do together, the things that they never found the time to do together, the things they always liked to do together.

They go for a walk through Hampstead Heath, just as the weather’s beginning to turn- their breathes steaming in front of their faces as they walk. They haven’t been here since 1815. They both try to avoid the muddy parts and fail spectacularly. They make fun of each other for the mess they’ve made of their shoes. They begin by hooking their fingers together, until they’re brave enough to hold hands completely.

They go home and cook together. It goes disastrously.

“What are we doing today?” Crowley asks the next morning, when they wake up on Crowley’s sofa again.

They go to some hipster bar in East London- Tobacco Docks, it’s called. They find that there’s good food, lots of good booze and an ice rink- which Crowley absolutely point-blank refuses to go on until Aziraphale makes that wide-eyed, pleading face. They have a tipsy and very clumsy skate around the rink before returning to their drinks. Crowley’s better at wine than ice rinks.

“What are we doing today?” Aziraphale asks, when they’ve woken up in Crowley’s bed. His white hair against his white sheets. A new part of the landscape of his room.

They end up doing very little. They read together on the sofa and make tea. Crowley introduces Aziraphale to the best music ever created- disco, of course. They dance in the living room in bare feet and laugh till they can’t see through the tears.

“What are we doing today?” Crowley asks the next morning.

“What are we doing today?” Aziraphale asks the next.

They’ve saved the world, and that still seems surreal. But there’s waking up on Crowley’s sofa after a movie marathon, too. A dinner date, or a night in.

And that feels perfectly real.

#good omens #ineffable husbands #crowley #aziraphale #my writing #fan fiction #fic prompt

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eurhyic · 4 years

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Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship

Over the years, I have been apart of many, many fandoms. Each of those fandoms has had its flaws, and each has had its strengths. However, I feel that it is important to not only focus on the amazingly good stuff but also acknowledge the not-so-good stuff. In the Good Omens fandom, there is an overwhelming amount of good fandom stuff, but I also feel that there are some misunderstood things that we believe as a fandom. And there is no bigger misunderstanding that I’ve seen than of Aziraphale and Crowley themselves.

There have been having endless debates on twitter that are completely pointless in my opinion. I feel that these arguments start because people interpret Aziraphale, Crowley, and their relationship in completely different ways, and today, I just simply wanted to come on here and reinstate what is canon and what is sort of… changed or twisted… in fics and fandom.

Just as a disclaimer, I don’t actually care what you do. If you want to write fics with soft and insecure Crowley or Aziraphale comforting a crying Crowley after the Apocalypse, go ahead. This is the internet and I can’t stop you from creating. Hell, I would love to see some of those tropes! I simply want to remind everyone what is actually canon for my own wellbeing. Just to say quickly, I will specifically be referring to the TV adaptation of Good Omens in this analysis(?). If you don’t care to read this or you think you won’t be able to hold back from commenting something rude, you are completely free to click away right now. I am not responsible for your reactions to this post and I will not appreciate someone attacking me because I call Crowley an asshole. Don’t leave rude messages on the internet when no one is asking for them. Grow up.

Now, back to the matter at hand.

Aziraphale and Crowley both suffer so so much throughout the entire story. They overcome so much, together and on their own. However, I feel that their characters have been warped in some ways. I am simply here to reinstate in everyone’s minds that these things do exist and are canon.

What I came here to say is that people in the Good Omens fandom seem to forget that Aziraphale is a literal victim of abuse and that Crowley isn’t actually a “good person”.

I would first like to discuss the brainwashing and abuse that Aziraphale has had to go through on the regular when he associated with Heaven.

Aziraphale is led to believe that anything that he does is wrong and should be second-guessed. We are meant to understand this even in the first scene we see him. He is worried about getting reprimanded by his superiors for giving his sword to Adam and Eve, and when Crowley comes up on the wall, he teases Aziraphale, all of which fly right over his head. Aziraphale just simply cannot stop thinking about what he did, and from my interpretation, I assume that his body language and nervous responses, him stuttering and looking up and wringing his hands together, means that. But then when Crowley gives him a sarcastic compliment, not even a real one, we see Aziraphale so relieved that at least someone thinks the way he does. He is so relieved he doesn’t even pick up the ever-present sarcasm.

Later, throughout history especially, we see Aziraphale relishing in his time on earth. If we go by the scenes when Aziraphale and Crowley go to head office in around the early 2010s and we assume that Aziraphale has been going for regular check-ups unlike his Radio and Book counterparts, then we get more insight into his official relationship with Heaven.

I’m just going to say this now because I don’t wish to drag this post out. Gabriel is an abuser.

Gabriel brainwashes Aziraphale and puts him down constantly. It isn’t him just telling Aziraphale that he needs to "lose the gut", it's the canonical way that he tells Aziraphale that his ideas aren't worth anything and that he’ll fail at anything he tries (we see this when Aziraphale tries to report on the antichrist). Or telling Aziraphale just how he should feel about a situation (we see this in the deleted bookshop scene).

If Aziraphale is constantly and constantly hearing these things, it makes sense that he would be scared and insecure of anything that he would see as “stepping out of line”. He wants to be good. Aziraphale is a rule follower at his core, and the way that he is constantly put down hurts over so long.

The only way that Aziraphale is able to rebel in his own little way, is through Crowley and his spending time on earth.

The earth is something that he genuinely loves. It is a comfort to him throughout his nervousness and his situation with Heaven. And Crowley is the same. Crowley is associated with the earth to Aziraphale, and because of that, he simply cannot not love Crowley. Completely and wholeheartedly.

I have seen quite a few people saying that every time Aziraphale cut Crowley off, or “bit back” (ex. Saint James, the bandstand, and final breakup in front of the bookshop), is selfish. I think that is so far from the truth. He does all that to protect Crowley.

Aziraphale does so much for Crowley throughout their time together. While Crowley is jumping for opportunities to be with Aziraphale, Aziraphale is the one that takes a step back to see what the consequences could be (ex. the Globe).

I can assume that the main reason he does this is because he is afraid that something will happen to both himself and Crowley. Even in the Saint James and the Globe scenes, he is frantically looking around and at one point, softly utters that “…they [Hell] won’t just be angry, they’ll destroy you”.

After the Apocalypse, these habits would still be hard to break. He would hardly be in the mental state to comfort Crowley. He will still be looking around and making sure he isn’t being watched for ages. Not because a part of him thinks that Heaven is going to come for himself and Crowley, but because it has been wired into him to practice those behaviors over millennia.

Aziraphale acts like a victim of abuse, constantly overthinking every scenario and decidedly going with the one that he believes will have the least amount of repercussions.

Crowley on the other hand doesn’t.

I just want to start off by saying that Crowley is a bad person. He is a complete asshole. He is mean, and while he is meant to be likable, he is still a literal demon.

Yes, he is “just a little bit, a good person”, but the keyword is right there. “A little bit”.

Throughout the show we see Crowley doing terrible things. Now, he isn’t the type of person to think that genocide is a good idea, etc. Most demons, canonically don’t have an imagination. Crowley is the only one we know of who does, and even he admits that some of the things that the humans think up could never be thought up by a demon.

He mentions this in the book and in the first episode where he states “..the humans beat me to it”.

But besides that, I feel that so much of that fandom forget that he actually does not give a single shit about humans.

Yes, he thinks that humanity and their inventions are so fun and nifty, but I feel that so many people in the fandom forget that he isn’t nice to others and that he’s only nice to Aziraphale.

He gives people guns to kill each other in episode two, he hypnotizes Sister Mary a few minutes later, and he genuinely goes out of his way to make people’s lives harder just for funsies.

He is even mean to Aziraphale on multiple occasions. He asks Aziraphale to kill a child. And while he does so much good for Aziraphale too, stopping time for him, driving through fucking fire for him, and everything in between, he still is a nuisance to Aziraphale.

Crowley isn’t a good person, he is a demon. He is meant to be like that. He is from Hell and he knows what he’s dealing with — to an extent. Crowley has been treated terribly, but the worst we see from his ‘employers' are vague threats and raised voices, and while that could be a form of abuse, it isn’t exactly what Aziraphale has had to go through over his years with Heaven.

However, throughout all of this, one thing that I think mostly everyone can agree on is that Aziraphale and Crowley know these things about the other, and they’re still completely in love with each other. Their relationship is the first relationship in the world alongside Adam and Eve, and I just feel that it’s so wonderful how that is portrayed through the wonderful little love story that we have.

#i am tired #I wrote this at 2am last night and I am posting it #for some reason #listen #I probably explained this all terribly #but ya know #i don't want to bother my beta reader with it lol #please i love them so fucking much #and please ask if you have literally any questions just pls don't be mean to me lol #good omens #aziraphale #crowley #ineffable husbands #aziracrow

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