#pouring cold water over that fan-favourite moment for the lols

[shipaholic]

Good Omens/SU crossover - The Prologue!

Day 19, 2020: already behind on my writing schedule, lol.

It’s angels and demons with gem powers y’all! I’ve decided to post scenes from the fic on tumblr as I go, and then do a big edit at the end before putting it on AO3.

Prologue: three days after Adam and Eve leave the garden, Crowley reforms for the first time.

Link to next part at the end.

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Prologue

4004 BC

There was an angel in the garden of Eden.

The others had left already after the business with the apple, muttering about cock-ups (but more politely, being angels). Strictly speaking, there was no reason for any angel to still be skulking around the garden. A cloud of embarrassment hung over the place. In a few hours management was due to turn up and sweep it, before returning to head office and drafting an official statement. The garden couldn’t remain on Earth, obviously. There had been talk of archiving it.

A twisted black sigil, the size of a rook’s feather, lay on a flat rock. It looked as though it should have only had two dimensions, but had been press-ganged by physics into manifesting an extra one. It was wrapped in a little nest of white cloth and placed in a sunbeam. The angel hovered nearby, trying not to break into out-and-out looming.

The black object on the rock finally did something. It glowed pure white and rose out of its nest to float in the air two feet above eye level. It made a noise that would be identifiable, many, many years from now, as a laser beam charging up [1].

The light became blinding, and a shape grew out of it - more shapeless than shape, its borders wobbling like a giant soap bubble. Then it compressed and became human-shaped. Limbs sprouted in every direction. The blob at the top decided to be a head. It was like watching dough being rolled out and reformed into an unsettlingly realistic gingerbread man.

Long curls unspooled from the head. Swathes of cloth burst into existence and draped around the figure, similar to that worn by the angel. It then changed its mind, and the loose toga pinned over one shoulder morphed into a cowl and hood, wrapping around the head and leaving only a few loose strands of hair.

Features popped out of the smooth face. Colour suffused it down to the fingertips. There was a final burst of wind and light, like a celestial flourish, and a pair of gleaming white wings unfolded from its back. Immediately, they turned black, like a forest scorched to ash. They fluttered once, and the figure gently touched down on the grass of Eden.

It opened its eyes. They were still golden.

Then it squawked and fell over.

“Ack,” it said.

It kicked a few times at its robe, which was not especially tangled around its feet, but that seemed less embarrassing than acting as though it had fallen over because it still hadn’t got the hang of having legs.

Then it caught sight of the angel hiding behind a rock.

“Gnn!” it said, and grabbed for something to throw at him. [2]

“Um!” The angel held up his hands. He tried to stand up without looking intimidating, and ended up in a kind of hunch. “I come in peace. Erm.”

The figure pulled a face, as if remembering the distant present. “Peace? You killed me!”

The angel grimaced. “Well. I suppose I did, technically. Sorry about that.”

“You whacked me over the head!”

“I know how that must look -”

“I thought we were having a nice moment up there, with the sheltering from the rain and so on, and two seconds later you karate-chop me with your blessed wing!”

The angel’s face was two notches guiltier than his gave-away-my-flaming-sword face. “It really was an ac -” He paused. “Well. Not quite an accident, to be quite honest. Not in the sense of not meaning to do it. But I really didn’t mean to k- discorporate you. I feel terrible about the whole thing.”

“Oh, you feel terrible! I’ve got a ding in my skull. Brand new skull and everything.” The demon tapped its own head, but found it undamaged. It frowned. “Huh. That’s useful.”

“You seem fine now,” said the angel. He already sounded far less sympathetic.

“Yeah, ssssuperb.”

“You’ve even redecorated yourself a bit. I like the, erm.” The angel gestured vaguely. “Belt.”

“Yeah. Well. Why not.” The demon preened a little. It was quite a nifty trick. The angel was a fan of his new, cinched-in waist look, but thought it a bit of a shame the demon had covered his long red hair. His gem - the winding black sigil just under his ear - was also half-hidden under his hood. The angel had a few further thoughts, but it seemed impolite to comment.

“What are you hanging around for, anyway?” said the demon. He was still sprawled on the ground with a clump of grass in his hand. “Planning to stand over me and just… finish me off whenever I reform?” He blanched. He’d just said it off the top of his head, but it was actually a disturbing thought. “Because that sounds, uh. Boring.”

“Of course not!” said the angel. It did sound boring. Also, horrible. He’d got through the entire War in Heaven without engaging in what might technically be called combat. Given the option, he’d prefer to keep his kill-count at zero. Who knew their human forms would… explode into smoke clouds from one tiddly knock on the head? Someone upstairs might have told him. “I wanted to see you were all right, that was all. You gave me quite a shock, you know.” He gave an embarrassed cough. “Look, I really wasn’t trying to trick you - back on the wall.”

“Oh, ‘course not. You were just doing me a favour, keeping me dry, nice and neighbourly, only by sheer misfortune an overwhelming blood-lust came over you, and there was nothing for it but to smite me off a sixty-foot wall. That’s a comfort. I feel much safer now.”

   The angel, unlike most of the others, understood sarcasm. [3] He kept what had really happened up on the wall to himself. It had been a loud clap of thunder - the first ever produced on Earth - and it had been startling and unpleasant. Usually a sound like that heralded the appearance of Upper Management, who would have had Questions about him chatting to a demon, of the kind that ended in Meetings with Clipboards. Getting the demon out of sight chop-chop had been the word of the day, and - well. Turned out these new, corporeal bodies were less resilient than one might hope. Bit of a rush-job, the angel regrettably suspected.

“How long was I out, anyway?” The demon peered around the sun-drenched garden. “I see this place has had time to dry out.”

“It’s been three days. I’m not really supposed to be here anymore. I’m going to be terribly late to the staff meeting.” The angel looked at him sidelong. Politeness lost a skirmish with curiosity. “What… exactly was it like?”

“What, getting my head stoved in? Or just the general feeling of betrayal?”

The angel was a being of heavenly love and he did not roll his eyes. “What were you doing in there? While you were, er, recharging?”

The demon’s yellow eyes went blank. “Hnn.” He scratched his cheek. “Just. Hanging about, you know. Think I was in contact with one of my people. Sort of felt like someone was talking to me. And like I was filling in forms. And having a nap.”

The angel frowned. “A nap? Never heard of it.”

“Oh, it’s going to be big.” The demon smiled. He had high hopes for sloth. At the very least, he suspected he was going to like it.

The angel gave a tentative smile. “So it wasn’t too unpleasant?”

The demon huffed. “Fine, no, it wasn’t torture. It was just weird. No harm done, and I got a new look out of it, so don’t be too hard on yourself. Not that you were being all that hard on yourself. Scratch that, be harder on yourself, softer on me.” He clambered to his feet. He definitely hadn’t got the legs down yet. Rebooting his body had set him back, he was sure of it. “I’ve got turned around. Where’s the exit?”

The angel pointed. There hadn’t used to be an exit [4], but now that Adam and Eve had departed, there was. “I’d move quickly if I were you. Head office is sending some of my lot down to check the place over. Could be any minute now.”

“Thanks for the warning,” the demon said gloomily. He spread his wings for balance and started to wobble away on newborn legs.

“Sorry again!” the angel called out.

“Not like anyone died. See you, angel.”

The angel waved, then felt foolish since the demon was facing away. “Aziraphale. Don’t think I said.”

“Goodbye, Aziraphale.”

“Goodbye, Crawly.”

The angel watched him stumble towards the exit of the garden, until he started to feel peculiar and unsafe and guilty about something he couldn’t put his finger on. Time to leave and avoid running into management.

Aziraphale the angel turned and strode eastwards, and Crawly the demon continued west, and they wouldn’t meet again for six hundred years.

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[1] But only in certain B-movies.

[2] There were no deadly weapons in Eden, even if you improvise. The figure grabbed a handful of grass. He inconvenienced himself more pulling it out of the ground than he would have done to the angel by throwing it.

[3] After a fashion. At least, when it came draped in a neon flag with ‘I am being facetious and mean to you’ scrawled across it.

[4] An exit for humans, that was. The four Gates at the North, South, East and West were guarded by angels and they led to less Earthly destinations.

---

(Chapter 1, Part 1)

[mychakk]

From a Joke to the End Game - The Evolution of Molly Hooper: Molly the Tool: The Great Game - part one.

Hello!

It’s time for The Great Game. I’m so excited! :D

Once again thank you to all who has read and enjoyed the previous parts of this meta.

As it is no surprise to anyone, Molly’s role in The Great Game is to introduce Jim from IT aka James Moriarty. This scene of course has been over-analysed many times before. But I want to do my own interpretation as it is slightly different than the general consensus amongst the fans and shippers. If you notice something you’ve created and want me to credit you, please let me know.

Rest is under the cut, as it’s a long post with captions. I have also decided to post this meta into two parts. Second one can be find here.

Please remember that I write this meta with the view, that the aired episodes we’ve been given are a sum of Moftiss’ initial ideas, their screenplay, the director’s interpretation, the actors’ portrayal, music composers’ creations AND the editing crew’s choices. All of that created the show as we know. And it got Moftiss’ final approval to be aired as something they wanted to share with us. I analyse the final result as we got it.

Molly’s little foray into acting (and experimenting)

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Molly has been involved one way or another in setting up this “cute meet” for Jim from IT and Sherlock Holmes. Why she has done it remains a mystery. We do not know if it was her idea or Jim’s to have him meet the (in)famous Sherlock Holmes. Had Jim asked her timidly to introduce him to Sherlock, his hero, and poor, golden hearted Molly couldn’t say no to those pleading, shy, dark (cunning!) eyes? Or had she planned it herself to introduce him in order to make Sherlock jealous? It can be either of those or both at once. We don’t know for certain. The fact remains, that the moment Jim enters with his:

JM: Oh, sorry. I didn’t ...

Molly starts her performance in being surprised worth of A Golden Raspberry Award. LOL.

MH: Jim! Hi! Come in! Come in!

Interestedly, what we do learn from Molly’s little stunt is that she actually doesn’t pine helplessly after Sherlock. She might be interested in Sherlock in general and in his reaction here in particular but the fact still remains: sometime since we saw her last she has found herself a new beau. This of course fits perfectly with her portrayal in episode one, when after Sherlock’s rebuttal to her asking him for coffee she had just whipped her lipstick off and brightly brought him his order. Here, we learn she had met a guy interested in her and she had given it a go. As I mentioned already in my Study in Pink meta, Molly is not defined by her crush, she doesn’t allow it to consume her. She might be interested, but she won’t waste her life on someone who isn’t interested in her in return, even if she still tries to remain their friend.

While Molly introduces Jim from IT it is revealed she doesn’t seem to know John at all. This is a very interesting titbit. We’ve already seen them briefly together when their paths crossed in the same room in A Study in Pink, but apparently neither one had taken any notice of the other back then. Curiously, John does seem to be familiar with her somewhat but she’s completely oblivious to him to the point of asking about his very name. Why is that?

Firstly, she might be so totally and completely focused on Sherlock whenever he’s in the same room with her, that she ignores everyone else present with them. This means they might have been properly introduced already but she had forgotten him. It’s possible, Molly’s crush on Sherlock is huge. But at the same time it seems highly improbable as Molly simply doesn’t seem to be the type to forget someone she has already been introduced to.

This makes me think that Molly hadn’t actually met John since that little glimpse she had of him in A Study in Pink. The Blind Banker collaborates it, as Sherlock visits her at Bart’s on his own to check the connection between the two dead bodies. Her inquiry about John’s name also implies that Sherlock had not been talking with Molly about his new flatmate, be it either because he hadn’t had the opportunity or inclination to do so. If Sherlock had mentioned John to her, Molly would have remembered him simply because she has a crush on Sherlock and would be involuntarily predisposed to remember anything and anyone he mentions. (I’m sure we are all familiar with this when we remember every tiny detail our crushes mention.) Furthermore, if Molly knew of John on some level she would have asked something along the lines of “And you must be John?” but she has no clue whatsoever who he is. Ergo, Sherlock definitively hadn’t talked about him to her. At the same time, as John seems to be somewhat familiar with Molly it’s highly probable that Sherlock had actually talked about her to John before the meeting in TGG. Which is interesting on its own (and opens lots of shippy possibilities), but can be easily explained by Sherlock simply mentioning Molly as he goes to Bart’s for either experiments or to procure body parts.

The fact remains that this scene here seems to be the very first real introduction between Molly and John.

As the scene progresses, the camera doesn’t really focus on Molly, but we can still hear her explanation about how she and Jim met. She’s cheerful and giggly describing her office romance. Her voice sounds happy and pleasant, and …a little expectant. No matter whose, either Molly’s or Jim’s, idea it was in the first place to introduce Jim to Sherlock, at the moment of the introduction Molly is definitely ready to use this opportunity to see how Sherlock’s reacts to her potential boyfriends/male friends. She may be trying to engage everyone in her little performance, but it’s clear she is mainly interested in Sherlock’s reactions. She is expectant to see how Sherlock will interact with her new (boy)friend. We can clearly pick on it even though her face is mostly blurry. Her eyes, her face, her sole being is exclusively focused on Sherlock. Molly is clearly absorbed in Sherlock’s reactions and those are the most important things to her in that moment.

Interestingly though, Molly doesn’t seem disappointed when at first Sherlock acts more indifferent than anything else. She doesn’t falter in being her happy, bubbly self throughout the first part of the introduction no matter Sherlock’s reaction (or lack thereof). It isn’t until Sherlock calls Jim gay and Jim knocks the dish, embarrassing himself and in the process her, that Molly’s mood falters noticeably. So why is she not disappointed in Sherlock’s lack of any reaction (possibly the preferable jealousy) at first? Maybe because, while she is interested in Sherlock’s reaction, it’s more to do with actually seeing what it might be in the first place than inducing any preconceived ideas of it (aka jealousy). 

Molly is a scientist. She is curious about Sherlock reactions. So when the opportunity came to introduce Jim, she grabbed the chance. Of course, if Sherlock turns out to be a hopefully jealous potential mate, good. Fantastic even! But Molly doesn’t seem to have much expectations in those regards here. She doesn’t really expects Sherlock to be jealous. But she is very interested in his reaction, and so she observes. If so, then what is she up to, right? I think Molly may be actually experimenting on Sherlock with Jim. To see how he reacts. She is curious but she doesn’t expect much of a result and seems to be validated in her expectations. (That last part will actually come up again in ASiB, so keep this in mind!)

I also think that Molly’s behaviour in this scene fits a person who wants to be a little more than a mere acquaintance; she wants to be Sherlock’s friend. And being one means sharing all parts of your life with each other, not just the one that is work related. If she and Sherlock spend time together at Bart’s and if Sherlock talks to her about his life (as we learn later on in ASiB during the Christmas scene), then it’s logical that Molly want to include Sherlock in her life as well. Hence, the introduction of her new (boy)friend. Her being all smiley and expectant of Sherlock’s interactions with the newcomer seems to confirm this as well. She just want to see what her friend would say about her new beau.

And then Sherlock calls Jim gay.

MH: Sorry, what?

As I noted a few paragraphs above, despite being interested in Sherlock’s reaction, Molly’s quite happy to introduce her new (boy)friend. She seems to be quite happy with having someone in her life, someone who is nice and timid and interested in her. And that’s why Sherlock’s off-handed comment pours a bucket full of cold water over her happy warm bubble. Her whole sunny appearance disappears instantly. But she likes Jim and so she won’t disregard him so easily. Notice, that even though she’s clearly embarrassed by Jim’s clumsiness, she still have it in her to smile brightly at him as he asks her to confirm their date at The Fox:

Although Sherlock’s comment startled her, she won’t allow it to take away her happiness and plans for the evening. Sherlock Holmes may be her favourite chocolate, but she’s willing to try other flavours in the box to see what else may work for her too. I think I hadn’t mentioned it yet in this post but Molly Hooper is awesome :)

Curiously, Molly is not happy with Sherlock after his callous comment, for her smile actually fades the moment her eyes lands on him:

Clearly, she’s already preparing herself for the interrogation she’ll give him after Jim leaves. And Sherlock’s blatant ignorance of them at the end of their interactions only fuels her more. There is no surprise then, that she confronts Sherlock almost immediately after they are left alone (John may very well be a furniture here).

MH: What d’you mean, gay? We’re together. SH (looking across to her): And domestic bliss must suit you, Molly. You’ve put on three pounds since I last saw you. MH: Two and a half. SH: Nuh, three. JW: Sherlock ...

It’s interesting that Molly is determined to confront Sherlock right away. She had her own view on things, and since he disregarded it and has shown her a different interpretation of the reality, and a disparaging one on top of that, she demands an explanation. She’s not afraid to ask him for a clarification, she’s not afraid to call him on his bad behaviour. She may be taken aback a little by his deductions but she’s not afraid to meet him face to face when he’s being obnoxious and unkind to her.

MH (angrily): He’s not gay. Why d’you have to spoil-? He’s not.

This little sentence is one of the biggest enigmas about Molly and Sherlock’s relationship. Molly’s accusation of Sherlock spoiling everything for her comes in an angry voice as if she had it enough of him doing this to her all the time. This indicates he’s doing it a lot and probably on a regular basis and Molly might be nearing her breaking point with his behaviour. The accusation burst out of her but she quickly contained it, apparently not wanting to discuss it in the here and now of their confrontation. That’s quite interesting because she cut herself off as she glances at John. What is she trying to hide? What does she not want this new acquaintance of them to know about herself and Sherlock? Is there something in their past that needs to be kept buried? Also the way she says the accusation makes one wonder what else Sherlock had spoiled for Molly before now. But because she cuts the sentence off, we do not know what exactly it may be. Still, so many possibilities.

Molly may not reveal the reason for her aggravation with Sherlock but considering the context of the scene (introducing a new boyfriend), the most probable interpretation about the spoiled thing is that Sherlock screens Molly’s potential boyfriends and deems them unworthy thus spoiling everything for her. Or maybe he even does it with all other people in Molly’s life? Nevertheless, we definitely learn here that he sabotages something in her life. If it is indeed Molly’s love life then, I think, Sherlock’s actions are deeply rooted in feelings of protectiveness and possessiveness that he feels for and over Molly than anything more (why I think so will be explained more in the second part of this meta). Is there jealousy on his part? No, not at this point in their relationship. It’s not that I think Sherlock doesn’t have feelings for Molly already. Actually I think he does. But those feelings aren’t yet realised or even properly internalised. They are just there way back in the background, dormant, ignored, or more like completely unnoticed, but they still start to manifest in protectiveness that is slowly evolving into possessiveness. Additionally, Sherlock doesn’t feel jealous over Molly yet for I think up to this point in time he hadn’t felt really threatened by any of Molly’s love interests, and that includes Jim (more on that in the second part of this meta). At this point in time there is no reason yet to feel really jealous of Molly’s affections. But! As we know, this reaction will come and not long after, but right away in ASiB.

Back to Molly. As Sherlock does his deductions of Jim, Molly stands kind of stupefied watching him with wide eyes. She seem to be unable to believe her ears as she listens to his evisceration of her potential new boyfriend. No surprise then that when Sherlock concludes his monolog with his advice Molly gives him this look:

She is looking at him as if she saw him for the very first time. She’s speechless and hurt and feeling incredulous. And I think a little disillusioned by him. It’s as if you could hear the “I can’t believe you just did this to me!” thought going over her mind. She doesn’t have anything to say to him. Nothing good at least. I think she might have said some very unsavoury things to him if she stayed a minute longer for her look changes minimally to this one before she leaves the lab:

The change here is really subtle, but her looks hardens, eyes narrow, mouth sets. A micro facial reaction of disgust fleets her face before she leaves. I truly need a gif of her face here. It’s all there for a brief second. In that short blink of a moment you can already see the woman, who will later slap Sherlock thrice for his transgressions, lurking inside.

At this point in their association Molly sees them probably still more as acquaintances than real friends. From her point of view their relationship hasn’t evolved yet to the point of trust and expectations that TRF brought upon them. Because of that I think Molly decides to retreat here instead of confronting Sherlock some more about his appalling behaviour. I also think Sherlock had shocked Molly a little. I think, no matter his treatment of her before, he hadn’t been yet this difficult with her and her acquaintances. And in that moment part of Molly has stopped seeing him in a wondrous light. Her crush is still there, but Sherlock slowly becomes a faulty man in her eyes instead of the marvellous creature haunting her Morgue. And this change starts right here.

I do believe Molly left not to cry over Sherlock’s hurtful actions but both to give herself some space (otherwise she’ll just slap him silly for his abominable behaviour) and to take a step back and internalise this new aspect of Sherlock’s behaviour she had just witnessed being aimed at her.

To sum up, in this scene we’ve seen Molly as a strong woman not afraid to confront a person if they did her wrong. A woman who, despite having a crush, is willing to put herself out and try to find happiness somewhere else. Molly here is also her happy cheerful self, being kind to all her friends, including Jim from IT. Finally, she is slowly revealing the strong, BAMF Molly that we see later on in the series.

Now let’s take a look at Sherlock’s side of this scene in the part two.