#edinburgh 1827

[crowleyissnek]

Tiny smooch on the fingie.

Goodomens #goodomensart #goodomensfanart #Crowley #Aziraphale #aziracrow #Edinburghgoodomens #edinburgh1827 #goodomens1827 #kiss #smooch #smallcrowley #tinycrowley #digitalart #nonbinaryartist

[ilove80z]

Somewhere in Edinburgh, 1827... 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Frame 439 for the #EveryFrameAgainstTheWall project!!

@gomensframes

[carnival-of-vanity]

Kinda realized I never shared this here. But, yeah, Crowleys iconic 1827 look just screamed at my inner historical fashion nerd. So why not try to replicate a costume that has a added up screentime of maybe half an hour, pretty much all of them shot entirely in the dark? I don't know how much I peered over grainy scaled up screenshots to find out exactly what layers made up the outfit. Shirt, waistcoat, tailcoat and overcoat are all made up by me. Using a variety of commercial historical and selfdrafted patterns.

Creating this cosplay took me the better part of two months at the beginning of this year, but someone reminded me to enter it to TIC5 cosplay competition, even if I was only attending virtually. Well, thanks to all the lovely people over there!

I hope I get to wear it in person to a convention one day (I do get a lot of use out of the coat in my everyday wardrobe though)

(Also, since I can't keep myself brief on the details about the creation process - those have been moved to a rather long article over here: https://www.carnivalofvanity.com/costumes/a-devilish-dandy)

[antiseptictrash]

Laudanum and Rosewater

This is set during the in-between section of 'I Know Where I'm Going' when Crowley is drunk on laudanum after Elspeth leaves. A silly idea I came up with.

“There you are then hen, off you pop.” Crowley says to Elspeth before she runs out of the crypt, leaving Aziraphale behind with him. 

Aziraphale watches her go before he turns and looks up at Crowley, a hint of a smile on his face. “That was… something, Crowley.” He calls up to the now giant demon. 

Crowley grins, clearly very satisfied with himself. “Aye, it was, wasn't it?” Clearly the effects of the laudanum were still running rampant within his system. 

“Mm… well, you’ve done your bit, now you can…” The angel gestures with his hands for Crowley to shrink down again. “And we can leave here.” He looks at Crowley expectantly. 

The demon, however, isn’t playing ball. “Why? I’m having fun!” 

Aziraphale’s brows rise, almost meeting his hairline. “Crowley, you can’t be serious! You’ll draw attention to yourself… and not all of the humans will react the same as Elspeth.” 

“Ack, they’ll be shakin’ in their boots. Thinkin’ the devil’s come to pay them a little visit.” Crowley slurs out. 

“Precisely. That’s not what we need right now. Now if you’d kindly return to your normal size, we can be done here.” Aziraphale tries to reason. 

“And what if I refuse, Dr. McFell?” The other mocks. 

Aziraphale’s face becomes stern and he huffs. “Crowley that is quite enough! You can’t stay this size. I won’t allow it. Now shrink back down. Immediately!” 

“Fine.” Crowley rolls his eyes behind his glasses and gives it a try, being met with failure. “I… can’t.” 

“What do you mean you can’t? You had no trouble shrinking to the size of a mouse before.” 

“I wasn’t in control…” Crowley admits. 

“Not in control?” 

“Laudanum… hell of a thing, isn’t it?” 

Aziraphale’s eyes scrunch shut exasperation. “Oh no. We need something to counteract it then. Any ideas?” 

“I dunno. You’re the angel, you figure it out.” Crowley shrugs. 

Aziraphale sighs. “Why must I always be the one to fix your messes?” He thinks for a moment. “Mr. Dalrymple! He was the one Elspeth stole the Laudanum from. Perhaps he has something to help?” 

“Perhaps he does.” 

The angel’s gaze flicks back up towards Crowley, holding his hands up. “Stay here. The last thing we need is you wandering around Edinburgh like this. You’ve done quite enough damage already.” He says as he glances around at the ceiling of the crypt which has a huge hole in it where Crowley broke through. 

“Can’t exactly go anywhere, can I? Besides, not like you can lose me like this, eh?” Crowley flashes the angel a grin. 

“I’ll be back soon. Just… try not to cause any more trouble.” Aziraphale says before he strides off towards Dalrymple’s place. 

Once there he knocks the door and waits anxiously, glancing around. The door opens moments later, revealing the man himself. “Ah, Dr. McFell was it? What can I do ya for?” 

“You’re here, good. I was rather hoping you could help me with an incident involving laudanum. You wouldn’t happen to have an antidote lying around, would you?” Aziraphale babbles out, acutely aware of the time he has.

“Laudanum? Y’know, I’m missing a bottle of that… you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?" Dalrymple questions. 

Aziraphale’s eyes widen slightly before he shakes his head quickly. “Me? Oh, no, not at all. Um, but… the antidote. Do you have one?” 

Mr. Dalrymple frowns for a moment before he walks inside, muttering about Elspeth. When he returns he’s holding a small glass vial of murky liquid. “This should do the trick. Just not too much. It’s rather powerful.” He cautions as he hands it over. 

“I doubt that will be an issue.” The angel mutters as he pockets the vial on the inside breast pocket of his jacket, patting it twice. “Thank you. You’ve been most helpful. Have a good evening, Mr. Dalrymple.”

Aziraphale breathes a small sigh of relief as he heads back to the graveyard and straight to the crypt. “Crowley… ah, you’re still here, good.” 

“Where else would I be, angel?” 

The other ignores Crowley, rolling his eyes before he reaches into his jacket and pulls out the vial. “I have the antidote. Mr. Dalrymple did warn against drinking too much, but I don’t think he quite realises the scale of the problem I’m dealing with.” He says as he gives Crowley a look up and down. 

The angel holds the vial up and Crowley snatches it, looking at it closely. “Wee bit small, isn’t it?” He mumbles, forgetting his own size for a moment before he shrugs and downs the entire thing in one. 

He almost immediately scrunches his face in disgust. “Ugh, that tastes vile!”

“Hm, yes, well, that serves you right. Perhaps you should have thought about that before you consumed laudanum and got yourself stuck like this.” Aziraphale chides and straightens himself up. “Now… Can you try to return to something close to normal size? It’s rather a pain craning to look up at you like this, you know.” 

Crowley cracks his neck one way and then the other before he begins to concentrate.

At first nothing seems to happen and Aziraphale is almost worried, but then he begins to rapidly return to his normal height, pausing at the exact inch. He still appears to be drunk on the laudanum, though the effects are quite dulled down now. His accent returns to normal as well. 

“Good. That’s better, isn’t it. Nice when we can see eye-to-eye.” Aziraphale jabs before he turns to leave the crypt. 

Crowley smirks, following him. “Oh, come on angel, you talk like you’ve never been drunk on it before.” 

“Certainly not! It would kill me.” 

“Really?” Aziraphale just nods at him as he walks, hands clasped together. “Then… What makes angels drunk?” 

Aziraphale gives him a look. “Rosewater.” He mumbles. 

“Rosewater?!” Crowley practically bursts into laughter. “And… have you ever-?” 

“No! Not at all. It’s a sin to get drunk. You know this.” The angel protests, but his body language suggests otherwise. 

“You have! Oh, go on, do tell.” The demon’s voice comes out like velvet as he speaks into the other’s ear. A sly smirk rests on his lips. 

Aziraphale tuts at himself before he sighs in defeat. “It was a long time ago. Once. That’s all.” 

“Mmm… and? How did it affect you?” 

“Hm? Oh, much the same as you. Except I got stuck in a matchbox.” 

“You what?” Crowley asks with mirth in his voice. 

“I got stuck in a matchbox.” The angel repeats, giving Crowley a side glance. 

Crowley’s tongue rests on his top lip. “And how, pray tell, did you manage that?” 

“Well… like you I lost control and ended up very small. And Muriel, bless them, thought I looked cute inside the matchbox… and then they forgot about me for… three days.” He muttered the last part. 

“Three days? But wouldn’t the effects-” 

“Wear off? Mhm, oh they did.” Aziraphale nodded with an annoyed tone. 

Crowley chuckles. “And what did that look like?” 

“Well, all was fine… until I suddenly and quite unceremoniously burst out of the matchbox, frightening everyone, including poor Muriel, half to death. That was the first and last time I let someone talk me into getting drunk. I didn’t enjoy it and neither did the matchbox as pieces of it flew everywhere.” 

This is when Crowley completely bursts into laughter. “Oh, what I wouldn’t pay to have seen that.” 

“Mm, I can imagine.” Aziraphale mutters, raising his eyebrow.

“Don’t pout, angel. It’s not that embarrassing. Sounds rather adorable.” Crowley grins as he saunters off in front, leaving Aziraphale behind with pink tipped ears and rosy cheeks. 

[gavotte-paradisio]

"David Tennant being aggressively Scottish is not something I knew I needed today."

August 3, 2023

[drconstellation]

Stocktaking in the Basement

Aziraphale's Edinburgh Journey: Part 3

Usually one would think of going through their memories as a learning experience as more of a "rummaging around in the attic" metaphor, since the brain, the keeper of memories, is in the highest part of our bodies. But one of S2's underlying themes is the looming Second Coming and the resurrection of the dead, so its underground that we need to head - to the basement.

Aziraphale does a great deal of "stocktaking in the basement" during his trip to Edinburgh. He recalls the encounter with the body-snatcher Elspeth and her companion wee Morag in 1827 on the way up, has his memory jolted by the statue of Gabriel to something more recent, then thinks about what happened in 1941 on the way back. We are largely going to deal with aspects of the 1827 minisode in this meta, and some possible implications for S3.

Lets have a look at why this year, 1827, was chosen for this minisode. The Anatomy Act of 1832 gave doctors and medical students legal permission to use donated bodies for research and educational purposes, and was made so to stop the distressing trade of body snatching that was occurring at the time. But this minisode isn't necessarily about stopping that activity, rather the reasons for doing it in the first place. Looking at Strong's Concordance, as we must, in the Greek, 1827 gives us "convince" or "prove to be in the wrong." This sounds about right for this minisode, which includes the conversation about poverty inducing more opportunities to be wicked, which somehow leads to holiness, from the book. The minisode shows how Aziraphale has this idea turned around for him - he's convinced otherwise, and shown how his initial beliefs about the practice turn out to be wrong.

Also, around 1827 is the time when the building of private mausoleums was at its peak. A mausoleum was (and still is) a display of wealth, so featuring one here plays into the story in the minisode of the virtues of poverty versus the rich. (It's also a call back to the origin of the Bentley's number plate, which was written on a mausoleum in a Monty Python sketch.)

Digging Up the Past

Shax does her own stocktaking when she receives the above push-back from Crowley, and realizes that Aziraphale is not in the bookshop at all at that moment, and goes looking for him. Later, she digs up his own dirty past to taunt him with, in an effort to make him crack and give up Gabriel.

But why is Aziraphale digging up this particular memory at this time? We know he is fond of Edinburgh and has visited many times, so this particular memory must contain something of importance for us to see.

There is the title of the minisode, some Masonic symbology and the metaphorical act of the snatched bodies as the dead rising from their graves which all point us in the direction of the Second Coming and Judgement Day, which we will cover in Part 4, so we'll put that to the side for the moment.

Changing Sides

Let's have a look at some of the blocking of the scenes in the Resurrectionists minisode. This wont cover everything, so if you do go back to have another look at it yourself, do pay close attention to who stands where.

When we first meet Crowley and Aziraphale in 1827, they are standing on what we think of as their "normal" sides, angel on the right and demon on the left. Elspeth, caught in the act of body snatching, is even further to the left, the real demon on the scene, which actually pushes Crowley back to the middle ground.

Straight afterwards, we see all three of them walking together through the streets of Edinburgh. Crowley is still in the middle, but now Elspeth is in the angel's position and Aziraphale on the far left as a demon, as they all discuss the virtues of poverty. Oh dear, Aziraphale, you're losing the argument here, and losing badly!

Inside Mr Dalrymple's rooms, Aziraphale decides to take matters into his own hands, where he thinks he is doing the right thing, and miracles the first body into soup. Elspeth is caught innocently in the middle of this, and Dalrymple is on the demonic left.

A conversation is had with Dalrymple following this. Crowley is hidden in the right-hand chair, Aziraphale, who needs to be swayed, is in the middle, and Dalrymple is still on the demonic left.

After heading back to the cemetery for another body, Crowley and Aziraphale inspect some of the protective measures set up to guard the graves. Crowley is still on the moral right, questioning if the rich are more worthy of being protected from body snatchers than the poor.

Despite changing his mind about body snatching, Aziraphale still ends up on the wrong side of the argument in the end. As a giant Crowley looks down on the two of them, its Aziraphale standing on the demonic left side as the virtues of poverty lose out once more.

Timely Lessons

Back to the fireside chat with Dalrymple. We have this heartfelt reaction from Aziraphale when he learns the preserved specimen he is holding came from a seven-year-old boy.

AZIRAPHALE: [takes the jar] Well, that's a foot. So it's definitely not a foot. [laughs] DALRYMPLE: That's my point. If you two smart gentlemen can't identify it, then what are my students to make of it? I removed this tumor from a seven-year-old boy. AZIRAPHALE: Oh. Oh dear. And… Is he…? DALRYMPLE: [shakes head] And that is why we need a steady supply of cadavers. We need to cut. If we can't cut, we can't learn. If we can't learn more, a lot more, then how on earth are we going to win the battle against monstrosities like this one? I'm just trying to save lives and teach students. I either end up with a knighthood or condemned as a resurrectionist and hanging from a rope.

This, I feel, is an important lesson for them, and it seems for Aziraphale in particular. Why? This part focuses more on his reaction to the tumor, rather than Crowley's, and when we focus on Aziraphale it has ramifications for the future.*

A physical problem is usually easily identified (such as the foot). But what if the problem is invisible, because its on the inside? How do you see into a body, find a problem and make it visible, if you have not been presented with this problem before? Or perhaps you know something is wrong, but don't know what to call it?

It doesn't even have to be physical, it can be a mental, or a psychological problem. One still has to learn how to "see" the problem, to identify what it is (such as a particular pattern of behaviour) and to know the best course of action to overcome it.

Crowley wishing for more murderers to facilitate Dalrymple's research is one thing, but not being able to save a 7 year-old boy...this is the theme of the death of innocent children we've seen repeated throughout the series (the Flood, Job's children, the aborted attempt on Adam, the Crucifixion, and the implications around Crowley's Fall, to name a few.)

This also plays into the "representation matters" theme from the end - you can't be what you can't see.

This is not a lesson about the fact that they care, because they do, but how they learn to see the real problem in the first place.** I'll be interested to see the matching scenes/parallels to this in S3.

The Two Dalrymples

It has not gone unremarked that there is a Dalrymple mentioned in S1 as well - Witchfinder Colonel Dalrymple, who made the fancy Thundergun that was taken to Tadfield to shoot the antichrist with.

Now we can talk about the connection between the two Dalrymples - they are both about removing "monstrosities" from humanity.

Take the line in the passage above: "If we can't learn more, a lot more, then how on earth are we going to win the battle against monstrosities like this one?"

As I've mentioned before, the root of the word monster is from the Latin for monstrum, "a divine omen (of misfortune)," but also monstrare, which means "to point out," which bring us back to this scene in S1, on the tarmac of the Tadfield Airbase:

Aziraphale took Witchfinder Colonel Dalrymple's Thundergun to remove the monstrosity that was Adam the antichrist to save humanity, and Mr Dalrymple the surgeon is trying to learn how to remove and save humanity from the monstrosity we know as cancer. I'm just making a spot now on my S3 bingo card for a third Dalrymple mention, that will no doubt have some connection to the removal of monsters and/or monstrosities from the world.

Balancing the Books

The final bit of stocktaking might just be the coldest part of the whole recall process.

When Aziraphale calls from the cemetery in Edinburgh, he mentions Dalrymple's fate to Crowley:

AZIRAPHALE: Oh, do you really think so? Um, Crowley… Do you remember Dr. Dalrymple, The one who bought, err… CROWLEY: Wee Morag's body. Not a doctor… A mister, yes! Yes, whatever happened to him? AZIRAPHALE: [reading pamphlet] He left Edinburgh in disgrace. And then he killed himself. CROWLEY: Mmm.

Mmm, indeed. They might have saved Elspeth from Hell to meet up with wee Morag again, but the count of souls was still balanced out in the end, with Dalrymple heading the other way. The last time we see him he is still on the demonic LHS of the screen in blocking as he pays for wee Morag's body. Hell had him marked well in advance of his demise.

Time to move on to Part 4: Judgment Day, where we look at all the signs that the End Times are approaching. Again.

Thanks to @vidavalor for the thematic inspiration for this post.

For further reading:

You Say Potato, I Say Excellent! Or blocking, accents and legacy of morality tales in ‘The Resurrectionists’ minisode PART II by @pommedepersephone

The linked post at the beginning Historical Analysis: class and injustice in 'The Ressurrectionists' minisode by @bowtiepastabitch is here.

An intro to Elspeth and wee Morag being parallel characters to Aziraphale and Crowley by @good-soupmens I'm going to follow up on this in Part 5.

*I explained in Part 2 that I believe we are being shown the future through Aziraphale and his parallel characters, Beelzebub and Maggie. Another reason for this is that in S1 is that Anathema is one of his parallels, and she is also caught up with living in the future through the prophecies of Agnes Nutter. In contrast, Crowley's story, and that of his parallels, such as Gabriel and Newt, are about the past and trying to live the life you want that isn't bound by expectations. Urrgghh, I can see I might have to expand on this somewhere later.

**Crowley, with most of his story in the past, shows us an example of this with his "looking where the furniture isn't" comment.

The other posts in this series can be found here:

Part 1: Detective Aziraphale Part 2: Aziraphale-Beelzebub Parallels Part 4: Judgement Day Part 5: I Know Where I'm Going

[yicketydah]

forgot to post it hdghfg— day sixteen: 1827!!! 🫨🫨

[rotwuzgone]

off my head on laudanum

final drawing & process ! this minisode is my favorite