Carbohydrate Incarnate

A Bit of a Lurker – GO Fic Writer – Reading Is My Entire Personality – 32yo – He/Him 🏳️‍⚧️ – 🇮🇹 – INFJ – Silly

[dcocca]

✨ Hello! ✨

I’m D_Cocca (call me Carlo), Professional

Gremlin, Semi-Serious AO3 Writer!

This is a Master Post where you can find info about the fics I have published on AO3 so far! They’re not many, but they’re all written with love 🫶 (and sweat and tears, occasionally).

On AO3, you will find:

Pages About You, Pages About Me (M), 234K words, COMPLETE

Summary: There's a new shopkeeper on Whickber Street! The newcomer is a comic book seller named Anthony Crowley, a flamboyant character who blasts heavy metal music at full volume, and whose shop is a chaotic mess. Far too boisterous for Aziraphale's delicate nerves.

Their two worlds will clash in the eternal battle between books and comic books. Aziraphale is determined to convert Crowley to the world of literature, a glaring gap in his life; Crowley, on the other hand, is set on broadening Aziraphale’s horizons by introducing him to the world of graphic novels. Will they manage to win each other over?

Relevant Tags: #Fluff #Hurt/Comfort #SlowBurn #ReligiousTrauma #EventualSmut #NotBetaRead

There’s also a Reading List related to this fic! 📚

Even if Werewolves (M), 25K words, WIP

Summary: Azlan meets Ant on a summer evening and is mesmerized by the sweet music coming out of Ant’s bari sax. Azlan’s instinct tells him that this is not just love at first sight—it’s destiny! But how can Azlan find the courage to tell the enchanting sax player that he’s a werewolf?

This story is a Werewolf AU of a GO Human AU! The original fanfic is In His Hand a Burning Coal, by our beloved @klikandtuna! If you haven’t read her work yet, check it out! It’s amazing. And make sure to check out the profiles of the other authors who have joined forces to bring this baby to life!

Relevant Tags: #FanfictionOfFanfiction #Fluff #CrackTreatedSeriously #MultipleAuthors #Collab

Painted in the Margins (E), 548K words, WIP

Summary: Anthony runs The Serpent’s Spine, a radical bookshop tucked into a corner of Dalston—a haven for anarchists, queer kids, and anyone who still believes in fighting back. Locals call him “the Serpent of Dalston”: sharp-tongued, fiercely independent, and just dangerous enough to be left alone.

Ezra paints in the quiet hours of the night under the name “Aziraphale”—an anonymous street artist known for breathtaking murals of angels and half-remembered Edens. His work has gone viral more than once, but no one knows his face. He plans to keep it that way.

One speaks in sharp truths, the other in silence and brushstrokes. Neither of them is looking for connection—but their two worlds collide when Ezra enters The Serpent’s Spine looking for books about art.

A story about resistance, hidden identities, and falling in love in a world that keeps trying to tear you apart.

Relevant Tags: #SlowBurn, #Angst, #Hurt/Comfort, #PTSD, #PoliceBrutality #TransCharacter, #EventualSmut

There’s also a Reading List related to this fic! 📚

Becoming Real (G), 30K words, One-shot

Summary: When Tony Crow retreats to a small town to outrun a crippling writer’s block, he doesn’t expect to find himself drawn into the quiet orbit of Ezekiel, Mitford’s steady, gentle priest—or into the life of James, an eight-year-old boy waiting out a bureaucratic impasse before joining his new family.

Over ten winter days, Tony discovers that children don’t arrive alone—they arrive with storms. And sometimes, if you’re very lucky, they leave behind something that makes you Real.

A soft, Christmassy AU about chosen family and finding home where you least expect it.

Relevant Tags: #Fluff #Christmas, #FoundFamily, #Kidfic, #TransCharacter, #NoSmut, #InspiredByHallmarkPlot

That’s it! As you can see, I’ve got a thing for books, art, activism... and Christmas, apparently. Oh, and I do love some trans rep. 🏳️‍⚧️☺️

If you ever happen to read one (or more) of these, I’d be thrilled to know your opinion! Feel free to reach out here or leave a comment on AO3! 💬

[golswia]

don’t disturb them

[good-omens-gallery]

June's Featured Header Artist!

Artist: Lonicera

tumblr: @lonicera-caprifolium

Where to find you: Loni-capri.caard.co

Something you love to illustrate in Good Omens art: Love! I love drawing their love SO much, that is THE most important part of every single piece I create for them

Lonicera, thank you for the incredible PRIDE art that will grace our banner for all of June! 🌈

[lonicera-caprifolium]

Thank YOU!! I was so excited to get June! 🥰🌈

I actually made two versions of this one--

[t0rrentc]

Aziraphale must be a triangular prism🙌🙌🙌

[dcocca]

Happy Pride Month, everyone! 🏳️‍🌈

[dcocca]

Painted in the Margins

👉👉👉 Read Chapter 49 👈👈👈

Happy Monday, everyone! 💗

After some weeks where I just wanted to let these boys breathe and heal properly (thank you so much for the lovely comments under the latest very indulging chapters, by the way), we go back to Plot Plot Plot! So much Plot.

Oh, and as for the Content Warnings: we have smut, yet again! I know what y’all are thinking: “What?! Smut?! Again?! Really?! Is it Christmas?!”

Well, maybe. Or that’s just the June air that inspired me. ✨🏳️‍🌈 (Happy Pride Month, everyone 💗)

An excerpt 👇

Anthony adjusts the same stack of books for the third time in as many minutes.

They don’t need adjusting—he knows that. Knows the edges are already lined up, the covers angled just so to catch the eye—but his hands keep finding something to do anyway. A thumb nudging a spine into place, fingers smoothing over a cover that’s already flat, a quiet, restless energy with nowhere else to go.

It’s not nerves, he tells himself.

It’s not the heat, either. The canopy above him does its job well enough, a square of shade cutting through the heavy July sun, even if the warmth still presses in from all sides—rising off the tarmac, caught between bodies, thick with the smell of sweat and dust and spray paint that never quite left the place. The air feels alive, vibrating with anticipation.

Beyond the stall, on the opposite side of the street, St Jude’s looms. Even covered, it dominates everything. The tarpaulin stretched across the façade ripples faintly in the breeze, its vast surface pulled tight over the mural beneath. It hides the details, the colours, the work—but not the scale of it. Not the presence. It turns the whole building into something expectant, like a held breath made solid.

And in front of it—

Anthony exhales slowly, his gaze drifting out over the crowd.

Thousands.

It still hits him, even now. The sheer volume of people packed into the forecourt and spilling out into the streets beyond. Banners ripple overhead in uneven waves—hand-painted slogans bleeding red and gold across white sheets, cardboard signs held high, flags from neighbourhood unions snapping in the heat. The noise rolls and dips, never quite settling—chants rising in bursts, laughter cutting through it, the metallic rhythm of something being struck further back.

It’s chaos. Familiar chaos. And Christ, he’s missed it.

His chest tightens—not with pain, for once, but with something sudden and bright that settles just beneath his ribs. Excitement, maybe. Relief. Something that edges dangerously close to joy.

He shifts slightly in his chair, careful, adjusting his weight so the dull pull along his side doesn’t flare into anything sharper. He’s trying to sit upright, composed—somewhere between aloof and not completely rigid. The pain’s still there, threaded through everything, but he’d put up with worse for the adrenaline buzzing through him now.

He thinks, mildly, that he’ll probably regret this little stunt tomorrow. But it’s worth it. Completely worth it.

“Mate, if you rearrange those one more time, I’m charging you rent for the table.” Eric’s voice cuts in from his left, dry as anything.

Anthony snorts, not even looking at him. “You’d have to prove ownership first.”

“I will find a way, if you keep foreplaying with that Traven,” Eric mutters, arms folded across his chest, stance loose but watchful.

Tagging @goodomensafterdark 💙❤️

[mizgnomer]

Crowley’s hairstyles/looks - down through the ages

See also: The 2019 [ Season One ] version The 2023 [ Season Two ] version

Bonus: Professor Anthony J. Crowley, Physicist

[mrghostrat]

Aziraphale paused when his eyes fell on the drink in his hand. He stared at it. The golden blond wine refracted through the glass and cast a halo of yellow light over his table setting. He frowned. “I’m sorry,” he sputtered at Crowley. “Did you just—” [ MON HORRIBLE CHÉRI ]

i may be stuck in housemove limbo but i will drag myself out of the grave for these cartoomens requests

[joyandotherstories]

You know who would love it if we became a fractured-beyond-repair fandom? If we became a fandom who harasses people?

That Fucking Man.

So. Hate the finale, love the finale, be somewhere in the middle about the finale, headcanon the finale away—

But be kind to each other.

And be kind to the cast, crew, and other people who worked under VERY tough circumstances with what they were given. Or at the least, simply avoid interacting with those folks.

(The only one we don’t need to be kind to is That Man)

Please, please, speak kindly and respectfully to, and about, each other. Everyone who’s not harassing someone has some kind of valid point. Everyone feeling strong emotions is valid in those feelings. Avoid content that throws off your equilibrium, but comfort each other whenever you can.

The real Good Omens always were the friends we made along the way. Let’s stay that way. To our world. 🤍🥂🖤

[soloorganaas]

Something about queer people refusing to let institutionalised Christian morality the world determine their story for them

[dcocca]

I’m sorry, I’m truly feral about S3 Crowley.

[plumebeat]

💕were you good💕

[dcocca]

Baby 🌱

[dcocca]

Painted in the Margins

👉👉👉 Read Chapter 48 👈👈👈

[Art by @klikandtuna]

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope your week has been nice (nicer than the last one, hopefully). 💗

BEWARE! THERE’S E-RATED SMUT IN HERE!

Yes, after 6000 years! I think the last time we had smut was back in… I dunno… Chapter 32? 👀 How time flies! 🤣

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. 💗

An excerpt 👇

“I was thinking,” Ezra says at last, voice softer than usual, almost tentative in a way that doesn’t quite sit naturally on him.

Anthony glances up from where he’s adjusted against the cushions, one arm draped loosely over his middle. “That’s always dangerous,” he replies, though there’s no real bite to it—it’s practically a running joke at this point.

Ezra’s mouth twitches faintly, but his gaze doesn’t move. “I mean it,” he says. A small pause. “I’ve been thinking about… this.” He gestures lightly with the pencil—towards the bruises, the fading marks, the places where the body’s still telling the story. “And I was wondering if… I could draw you. Like this.”

Anthony stills, attention sharpening.

Ezra exhales softly, fingers tightening briefly round his phone before he sets it down properly on the nearby coffee table. “The photos—” he gestures again, vaguely, to the space between them where he’d been standing moments ago, “—they’re necessary. I know that. But they feel…” He searches for the word, brow furrowing. “Clinical.” His gaze flicks up to Anthony’s face then—open, earnest. “I hate it,” he admits, quieter. “It makes you feel like—like something to be examined. Measured. Reduced.” He shakes his head faintly. “And you’re not. You’re—” He stops himself, breath catching a little, like the word’s too big to say outright. “You’re not that. I don’t want to look at you like that.”

There’s no artifice in it. No dressing it up. It’s just Ezra—honest, a bit raw, trying to make sense of something difficult in the only language that’s ever really made sense to him.

Anthony watches him for a long moment, something soft and warm unfurling low in his chest. It’s not surprise, not entirely—but there’s something about hearing it said plainly, about the way he cares about the shape of it, that still catches him off guard. “You want to make it human again,” Anthony murmurs.

Ezra nods once. “Yes.” A beat. “If that’s all right with you.”

Anthony lets the silence sit a moment, feeling it settle properly. Then a crooked grin tugs at his mouth, easy, familiar. “Yeah,” he says. “All right. Go on, then.”

Ezra’s shoulders ease—just a fraction.

Anthony glances at him, grin still lingering. “Draw me like one of your French revolutionaries, yeah?” he adds, dry as anything.

Something brighter flickers through Ezra’s expression—amusement, fondness, relief. “You are insufferable,” he says, warmth threaded through every syllable.

“Mm,” Anthony hums. “You love it.”

“I do,” Ezra says, a trace of amusement still there. “I’ll… do my best,” he adds, more quietly. He shifts in the armchair, toes curling slightly against the floorboards, sketchbook settling properly against his thigh now, pencil poised with more certainty. His posture eases into something focused, grounded—familiar. This is where he’s at home. Where everything else drops away.

Anthony adjusts on the sofa, nudging the cushions behind him until he’s half-reclined, propped just enough to stay comfortable. The throw is warm beneath him, the air in the flat warmer but not stifling, the distant hum of the city threading faintly through the open window. The afternoon light stretches across the room in long, golden slants, catching along the lines of his body—across his shoulder, the curve of his chest, the softer shadows dipping along his side.

“Comfortable?” Ezra asks, already sketching the first light lines, his gaze flicking between the page and Anthony.

“Living the dream,” Anthony says dryly. Then, after a beat, softer, “Yeah. I’m good.”

Ezra gives a small nod. His first strokes are light—barely there. Mapping, not defining. His eyes move between the page and Anthony’s body, measuring, translating. There’s a rhythm to it almost straightaway, quiet and steady, like breathing.

Time stretches, inevitably. Not in that restless, dragging way Anthony’s grown used to these past couple of weeks—but in something slower. More deliberate. The kind of quiet that feels full rather than empty.

Tagging @goodomensafterdark 💙❤️

[liquidlyrium]

Messing About, Stacking the Deck, and Free Will - Why the themes of Good Omens Season 3 Worked for me

Hey all, it's been a bit of a rough time for us, hasn't it? I really enjoyed the finale, compromises, heartbreak, and all. I don't want this to come off as scolding or telling anyone they are wrong to feel the way they do, or that they don't 'get it,' because the finale allows for a multitude of valid and contradictory readings. But I haven't seen too many people talking about the things I've been mulling over for several days now?

I think part of the divide here is cultural, philosophical, religious, etc. Like, we're over here as a fandom trying to settle the longstanding question of Predetermination vs Free Will (among other things) in the space of four ten days!!! These are NOT trivial questions being brought to the fore!

It's been so interesting too, to see people so split on whether this ending is a Pratchett ending or not. There is also a divide on whether it is true to the themes of the book and the show* and I have to say........ yes???

It is, at the very least, explicitly engaging with the text of the book and the show--a lot of the dialogue at the end is in the book itself!!--and I can see how you could tease out these ideas in a hypothetical sequel and come to where we ended up. Did we get the only or the best execution of these themes? Assuredly not. We certainly got a truncated, compromised execution of these ideas, and I can almost see the shape of where some of them could've branched out in a full season.

*The problem is that the text *is* so dense, and wide-reaching, and philosophical, and weird, and zany, is that S3 also *ABSOLUTELY* dropped other themes too. And Good Omens isn't just a few ideas!!

We have known for a long time that we were going to get a compromised product, but I'll tell you why S3 still worked for me.

This is quite long, so I will break this up into a few separate pieces.

[liquidlyrium]

Part 1: Messing About

I was really excited by season 2, I loved it, I think it is probably still my favorite? S2 E2 is perhaps the best television I've ever seen. And yes, season 2 focuses on the romance and relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley, but it also focuses on their relationship to *humans*.

The thing I was so excited about when season 2 first aired was in direct relation with something Adam says towards the end of the first book:

And after watching season 2 I was stoked!! "OH!! They're going to address that point in the final season!! I see now!!"

[Side note: I don't think it was wrong of them to drop this whole line of thought from the first season. The ending sequence works well enough without it, and it's not critically load bearing if S1 is a standalone product, and there's enough supernatural meddling to justify underlining it later, as they ended up doing.]

In Season 2 especially (though in S1 as well) we explicitly see *Crowley and Aziraphale* "messing people about, not just Heaven and Hell, but our beloved protagonists.

Crowley and Aziraphale "mess about" with Job and his family. Now they are being told to do it by their head offices, but they are "messing around" with Job. Explicitly for capricious, fickle whims between Satan and God, but messing about nonetheless! It's CRUEL, it's a cruel story in the Bible that has bedeviled scholars for thousands of years in the examining and interpreting thereof. What is the nature of God, does God contain Sin and Evil as part of being all things?? How can cruel things happen in a universe with a caring, loving God? Why does God allow bad things to happen to us? Can we do anything to appease God to end our suffering? It asks a lot of hard, hard questions of us, unfair ones in an unfair universe whether you believe God exists or not.

And the episode beautifully points all this out, and subverts the ending with quick thinking from our heroes. So it does, ultimately, have a happy end, but the misery Job and his family experienced was still real. They were still used for cheap entertainment for higher beings with far more power than they could ever hope to have.

There's also Elspeth and Wee Morag. By waffling on the complexity of human morals, Crowley and Aziraphale inadvertently end up getting Wee Morag killed. Elspeth's suicide attempt is averted by their actions (and presumably she goes and runs a farm and is good, given that Crowley gets dragged down to Hell for punishment) but that's still a high cost to pay, all around. All for 'messing about.' It's true, Crowley and Aziraphale are not perfect beings, they do make mistakes, they are like us, but far more powerful than us.

And of course, in the present day, they are using Maggie and Nina to try and fix a problem of their own making. They disregard the fact that Nina has a partner, and are doing their best matchmaker routine.

Now I say this as someone who enjoys Maggie/Nina and I hope that they went off into the sunset together after an appropriate amount of time for Nina to get herself sorted. Also, it's part of the premise! It's FUN to watch our angel and demon swan about and do ridiculous things and give people things they deserve or want. But...

Nina and Maggie take Crowley to task at the end of the season, right before the final fifteen. I don't see enough people talking about it.

Nina: "Where's the other one? We need to talk to you." Crowley: "He's out. Not a good time." Nina: "I wasn't asking. There are things you need to hear. You and your... partner *have been messing about in our lives*." Maggie: "We're not a game. We're real people. You can't just pair us up for your amusement."

Nina even uses the same phrase! "Messing about!" It's SO important it's in the book 6 or 8 times in that final confrontation scene in some form or another.

And you can see in the book that Crowley takes it to heart quite quickly!!

And he's trying to impress that importance to his angel!

Crowley, the purported architect of Free Will (possibly, let's call it Schrodinger's Free Will for the moment), realizes he's been party to meddling in people's lives, and I don't think he cares for it.

And I think Adam's words to Anathema are critically important here for the final bit of groundwork for this theme. In the book she approaches him and tells him he could do all sorts of good things like saving the whales etc and Adam shuts her down:

I think this is crucial for understanding the ending of season 3. I think it is there in the text and subtext throughout the show to get there as well, though not stated quite so explicitly.

Aziraphale and Crowley are supernatural beings! Even without explicitly using miracles, they are often shown to influence reality around them, just from their expectations alone! A lot of what happens during *The Ball* was as eerie as it was fun, and I don't believe that Aziraphale is playing anyone like a puppeteer, but his hopes and expectations are so strong, they are clearing having a huge influence on the proceedings. We also see it in Season 3. Without its protector, Whickbur Street fell into a terrible state while our angel was gone.

Aside from the power of their expectations, they have been living their way with their powers for thousands of years, are they really going to let the mundanity of waiting for a reservation to open up at a fancy restaurant happen to them? Are they going to meekly submit to the parking meter enforcer? Again! We LOVE seeing them banish those mundanities, and it's part of the fun and the premise, but I can absolutely see the path to a hypothetical sequel novel where the narrative hooks them by the collar and says "No, actually, it's not okay for you two--or any supernatural entity--to have this much power over humanity! It's not fair!" And I can see the seeds for Crowley coming around to this thought with what Adam said/what Nina told him in season 2.

[liquidlyrium]

Part II: Stacking the Deck

I have seen quite a few folks bemoaning the gambling subplot and complaining that it takes up too much time but, in my opinion, it is *thematically* load bearing, and you really can't remove it because it is the bridge between "messing about" and the question of Free Will.

Good Omens starts with the analogy of games of chance (the show borrows this essentially word-for-word):

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players,* to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

This also comes up near the end of the Armageddon that Almost Was, where Gabriel (or the Metatron in the book) tries to claim that God does not play dice with the Universe/His Loyal Servants. ("Where have you been!?")

And returning to Job (briefly), that was framed as a wager, a bet, between God and Satan.

All over the series you have wagers, chess, games of skill and chance, cards, and gambling as a running motif:

Hell wasn’t a major reservoir of evil, any more than Heaven, in Crowley’s opinion, was a fountain of goodness; they were just sides in the great cosmic chess game. Where you found the real McCoy, the real grace and the real heart-stopping evil, was right inside the human mind.

Crowley reminds us of the Three Card Monte analogy used in S1 when he is drunkenly talking to Jesus. And when he tries to win the Bentley back. The thing to remember about the Three Card Monte is that it's a confidence game at its heart. The dealer will always win in a well-executed game. They don't even have to deal in order to win in the best-laid of plans. And we know that God plays some kind of ineffable card game of her own devising, so why not Three Card Monte? "Nobody ever finds the lady unless she wants them to." Does God play sleight of hand tricks with the Universe as well?

The other thing that the Three Card Monte usually employs is a shill to sell the validity of the game. We'll come back to that idea.

Crowley's early triumphant run at blackjack, followed by the inability to "find the lady" is put there specifically to put us in mind of unfairness, stacked decks, and playing in a rigged game. Just as BC's high-pressure ambush on Crowley when he lost the Bentley is.

Crowley even says it, out loud when he and Aziraphale are in the Bentley looking for Jesus:

"It's all rigged! The entire universe! [...] But you're not [the boss] and you never will be! There's always someone above you stacking the deck."

Aziraphale also mentions that the Metatron is missing during this exchange, but of course we can infer that Crowley really means God here when talking about who the real Boss is.

And if we understand God to be omnipotent, omnipresent but also playing Her own personal game with the Universe… where does Free Will factor in?

[liquidlyrium]

Part III:  Free Will

Free Will in Good Omens is a bit of a sticky wicket. It is said that angels and demons do not have Free Will, but that humans do, that they get to choose, but... do they?

I am not remotely qualified to talk about the myriad of ways people try to reconcile this question (or don't, looking at you, Calvanists), but Good Omens as a whole seems to be mostly operating on a binary of an either/or. Maybe you can make an argument that God lets humans choose the little things or, conversely, maybe she lets us choose the big things, but I don't know that it is fully settled that Free Will is as real as we think it is.

Throughout the show and the novel, at critical junctures Aziraphale and Crowley turn to each other and ask: "Did the Almighty Plan it this way all along?" Now we could make the argument that as beings without Free Will, this may just be their default position. After all, they are much closer to Her than we are, even if humans are made in God’s own image.

But it happens multiple times in the book at the show, and most of these exchanges are nearly identical to the book.

Their meeting in Eden starts with them contemplating God’s plans. Practically page 1 of the book!!

“You’ve got to admit it’s a bit of a pantomime, though,” said Crawly. “I mean, pointing out the Tree and saying ‘Don’t Touch’ in big letters. Not very subtle, is it? I mean, why not put it on top of a high mountain or a long way off? Makes you wonder what He’s really planning.” “Best not to speculate, really,” said Aziraphale.

Or again, later, 11 years before Armageddon:

“I can’t interfere with divine plans,” he croaked. Crowley looked speculatively into his glass, and then filled it again. “What about diabolical ones?” he said. “Pardon?” “Well, it’s got to be a diabolical plan, hasn’t it? We’re doing it. My side.” “Ah, but it’s all part of the overall divine plan,” said Aziraphale. “Your side can’t do anything without it being part of the ineffable divine plan,” he added, with a trace of smugness.

The biggest difference in the book when deciding to become Godfathers, is that Aziraphale throws in a dig that everything that Hell does is part of the overall Ineffable Divine Plan. A sort of smug ‘neener-neener’ that always lets him have the upper hand.

But it cuts both ways, doesn’t it? We see Aziraphale struggle in the book and the show with the idea of ineffability and trying to intuit what God actually wants (see The Flood and Job) and reconcile those wants that with his morals.

And as Aziraphale contemplates in the book: Sometimes you really had to hope that the ineffable plan had been properly thought out.

And then of course, after Adam et al avert the Apocalypse, in the book as in the show, Aziraphale and Crowley ask themselves—again—if God had really planned everything out this way (on the page and onscreen).

The last time they really talk about God’s plans in the book was left out of season 1, but transplanted into season 3. It is adapted, of course, for the screen and to account for different characters being present, but just about everything said on screen for much of that scene is directly from the book:

With the understanding that we can’t really fathom the Ineffable—is God playing Solitaire or Three Card Monte?

Indeed, Crowley asks a fantastic question in his little tirade. Why would God let the rebellion and good and evil happen? What if Satan’s role in the cosmic game is to act as a shill? Whether Satan knows it or not*, he and Hell are there to sell humans on the idea that we have Free Will.

*(I’m not sure he does, but Crowley implies that he might be in on the grift with his assertion “You knew we couldn’t win!”)

Because that’s the problem, with having an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-present deity that is playing some kind of cosmic game with the Universe. It’s that, fundamentally, They could be manipulating everything. They do have the power to exert control or lay out plans within plans. It’s nearly a paradox, isn’t it? If God knows all, and sees all, and has all power, do our choices even matter if we do have Free Will? If God can anticipate our every choice and action and build a game around it, is that still Free Will? Or is that stacking the deck? If we have the Free Will to exert our own choices and thwart Her plans, then wouldn’t that make us more powerful than the all-powerful God? Doesn’t She always have the upper hand on us?

With Satan and the illusion of Free Will the Universe becomes a blind test (it could never be double-blind, with one party all-seeing). With Heaven and Hell being the same sides of one coin (or two floors in the same building) that gives humans an illusion of choice in where we are going, when it is all the same destination. Maybe we all get shuffled back into the deck after everything is said and done.

As I have said, this is a question that has bedeviled humanity for thousands of years. I don’t have the answer, but I feel like the text really encourages us to think about the ultimate authority and power of God, and the structure of the Universe according to Their ineffable whims.

[liquidlyrium]

Part IV:  Putting it All Together

So, at last, we come to the final sequence. In the show Aziraphale and Crowley are alone with Satan and God, and almost the whole of Creation destroyed.

I will risk a bit of speculation in this part, on how the sequel-that-never-was or what-a-six-season-arc would have looked like, but I will try to minimize this, but I feel like that is equally important to explaining why this worked so well for me, because I feel like you can see the shape of greater things in what we got.

I think, if you take the ideas from the book that did not make it into season 1, and the ideas that were seeded in season 2, you could absolutely find your way to a sequel that asks the question: Is it right or just or fair for humans to live under the yoke of beings so much more powerful than us? For them to use us so cheaply like cards in a deck? And the answer is, of course: no.

And I do believe it when the team says that this was the intended ending all these years, so I do think it’s right and natural that A&C would get elevated roles in a sequel anyways, given that they’d probably be the most major (if not only) repeat characters in the sequel that never was. The Pratchett estate could have let this go. They fought tooth and nail to claw this out of cancellation. Rob is an executive producer on the project. He and Terry’s daughter (and, yes, even certain disgraced other parties) have all insisted that this is where we were going to end up. The ending was the thing that everyone involved in was the most protective of.

But we got an imperfect ending. It would have been nice, and an obvious bookend, for example, to get Jesus facing down his Mother as we got Adam facing down Satan. I think we definitely would have gotten something more there in a full season. But the writing is already so tight, there wasn’t enough time to fully develop both story lines in full, and they absolutely focused on the themes I’ve already talked about up to this point. And because Aziraphale and Crowley are our protagonists now, from Season 2 on, they are the ones to make this choice in the end. And I think that is right and proper in this instance. Because they are ultimately deciding what happens to the supernatural world.

Aziraphale and Crowley get some time to themselves in a garden, and Aziraphale asks Crowley what he wants. (Because he knows he is too selfish in this moment, he just wants Crowley). And Crowley—the demon who thought this whole time (and yet also doubted) that he gave humanity Free Will, wants to do it all over again. Only this time, he wants to do it right. He wants it to be real.

And he and Aziraphale do it. For us.

Because they know, even if they banished the rest of Heaven and Hell, they themselves would always be prone to influence the world around them with their powers. Once you start messing around, you can’t really stop. Even if God put the Universe back how it was, you could never get away from that kind of interference. It’s embedded in the very bones.

Now was this a test from God just to see what they choose? Or does She actually cede control for a change? Or is it another one of Her Plans?

Let us ask ourselves, why is Satan really here? Is Satan there to sell the image of Free Will to Aziraphale and Crowley as he was to humans? His place in the ending seemed strange to me until I thought of his role as the shill in Three Card Monte. (And how quick he is to tell us that The Satan was just a role, a job title!)

Because if Satan is in on the grift, not just an unwitting tool, he seems genuinely shocked by Her acquiescence. He didn’t think they’d get their way, that She would enact whatever Her real plans were.

And I think they did it. I think Aziraphale and Crowley, impossibly, Found the Lady with the decision they made. (Whether or not God wanted them to). They did the impossible and asked for the impossible in return.

It is a difficult ending open to a MULTITUDE of interpretations, but I think they were also able to vouchsafe the universe from any undue interference from Her in that moment.

They asked for a Godless universe. They birthed a Universe with their love (didn’t we see how powerful they are when they work miracles together!?). They asked for our choices to matter. Wouldn’t their choice—having a true, real decision—make them more powerful than God in that moment!?

And if we make choices in this Universe for good or evil, at least it will be us making them. If the Universe is unfair, then it is unfair to everyone in the same way. There is no favoritism or predetermined fate. No special providence in the fall of a sparrow.

This is a bit more of my own interpretation (or at least one of them, I hold multiple readings of the ending at the moment, and I'm still developing some of these ideas), but I think the similarities we see in our history are implied to be the echoes of what happened. The echoes of Aziraphale and Crowley’s memories ripple through our Universe and our Earth.

As Adam says in the book:

Spirited Away has a lovely companion to this idea: Nothing that happens is ever forgotten, even if you can't remember it. || Once you've met someone you never really forget them. It just takes a while for your memories to return.

I like to think that Aziraphale and Crowley quantum entangled themselves in that moment. That they know, underneath, in their souls who they are and everything that happened, even if they don't always remember. But now they get to be just like us, through a multitude of lifetimes, finding each other over and over. Soulmates by choice.

Winners in a cosmic game of Solitaire versus God.

[dcocca]

Oh yes, this whole thing gives me so much joy!

[the-fucking-cannibal]

Aziraphale and Crowley's last kiss explained (by a European) ✨❤️

I shall jump straight to the point: people online did NOT seem pleased with Aziraphale and Crowley's last kiss. However, unlike them, i believe this was a deeply meaningful, touching and romantic moment for us to see and i thought I'd give my two cents about it too.

For starters: this was an APOLOGY kiss. That's right people, not a simple "I love you" or "I like you back" kiss but a PROPER apology kiss. Aziraphale reaches for it first, it's the first thing that comes to his mind when he realizes this might actually just be the last time they ever get to see each other. He wants to start over, do it better, and in order to do that he needs Crowley's forgiveness for everything that has happened in the past few years for things to finally be RIGHT.

He also touches his lips the same way he did when he first got kissed by Crowley at the end of season 2, except this time he does it to "give it back". It simbolizes Crowley's feelings being reciprocated, a tender act of apology for not kissing him back the first time but finally doing it right this time. He no longer thinks of that touch to his lips with sorrow or hatred or confusion, but rather as an answer, as something beautiful, as the love he's always felt but could never find the courage to openly reciprocate until now.

As for a possible additional meaning, here in Europe a kiss given by the fingertips can symbolize many things. One of them is "farewell" (and given the context of this scene i might add this kiss was the perfect choice), it's a sign of respect and profound admiration, it's a tender act to say goodbye in a polite and innocent way: it's pure, just like them.

Additionally, in my country, a kiss by the fingertips is most commonly known as a religious act, a sign of devotion and adoration done to the feet of sacred statues and holy sculptures; it symbolizes complete submission to our deepest love for the holy and to surrender to the greatness of the saint we behold, to give them our complete and undoubted faith.

it's loyal, It's devoted and faithful, It's endlessly filled with love and respect, it's playful and innocent but also clever and bold: it represents Aziraphale PERFECTLY. ❤️

i believe we were very lucky to be able to see the different ways these two characters express their love for one another, we get to see how Crowley expresses his love through a kiss and we get to see how Aziraphale does it in his own way. They both come straight from the heart, both dripping with need and affection and love, but each in their own, unique ways.

Their kiss is THEM, it's a reflection of what they think of one another, how they see each other, and how they perceive their relationship. And i think it's the single most beautiful thing I've ever seen in a very, VERY long while.

[hatterama]

Hi!!!! I have been obsessed with this fan fiction by @dcocca, called Painted in the Margins, so I decided to doodle Crowley and Azi how I imagined them from the fic. Amazing read, and is ongoing! Updates every Monday, so go check it out! (Also first tumblr post yippee)

Crowley is an anarchist bookseller running a small shop where he sells banned books, and Aziraphale is an anonymous street artist operating under a pseudonym. And yes, they fuck, though it is a bit of a slow burn and they are bad at communicating lol

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66818236/chapters/172431835

[dcocca]

Some Painted fanart, y’all!

This is @hatterama ‘s take on the characters. Love them so much. 😍

[metalmiez]

✨Under an Apple Tree✨

Chapter 2 of “We‘ll meet Again“ is here ♥️

The former angel remembers the bright man with the radiant ginger curls who had worked in the castle’s stables and had rather violently fallen in love with the head scribe. Evenings spent in dim sitting rooms and Bruder Franziskus reading him all sorts of stories about the sky and the moon and the world beyond. How often the monk had tried to teach young Anton to read, but the man always just wanted to listen and ask questions.

God, how much i loathe Azi‘s tonsur in this drawing 😂💀 Crowley makes up for it with gorgeous long hair tho♥️

[gleafer]

Sorry! Can’t see the glaring red flags over my oddly enthusiastic arousal!

Or

Their romance is as messy as a plate of ox ribs in ALL universes.

[kartatchk]

"Mom, where do universes come from?"

"Um well, you know, honey, when an angel and a demon love each other very, very much..." 🤭

[dcocca]

Too soon?