#sanfte

[drosenkatzen]

Sanfte, liebevolle Emmely 😻😹😹😹😻

[patricianandclerk]

How do you think it would have gone if Aziraphale had been the demon and Crowley the angel?

Hello, Anon! I actually have a short fic on this premise, In The Beginning, and plan to write more in that continuity. It’s a fusion of canons, with more of their “canon” appearance in my head from the books (i.e. Aziraphale is short and round, his hair is longer and lankly blond rather than white-blond, he’s more red-faced, shows his “age” a bit more; Crowley is lithe and moves like he actually knows what his hips are for, dark hair, snakey features other than just the eyes) and some of their book characterisations, but with a lot of the background from the TV show. 

I have a lot of headcanons kind of knocking around already, but like... So, as an angel, Raphael is just... Better. He feels better. He’s not as anxious all the time because he doesn’t have to freak out or worry about being “bad” enough, and because he’s been asking questions all his life, he doesn’t worry about asking questions either, as they’ve obviously done okay up ‘til now. With that said, though, he does question the Ineffable Plan, and generally is just... not that confident in it, and that’s a bone of contention between him and the other angels.

That aside, Raphael does... great with the angels. Gabriel and Raphael get on like a house on fire - yes, Gabriel is the infuriating little brother who tries too hard and is just a little slow, but Gabriel is super encouraging all the time, and that’s great for Raphael’s work style, and is wonderful when he gives a presentation, for example.

For Sanfte*, it’s... nice being a demon. He doesn’t actually feel that he has to worry about anything, because the worst has already happened, so he’s disgustingly hedonistic, he’s deadpan, dry and as snarky as you like, but doesn’t feel guilty about it, and also doesn’t like... feel the need to justify it in his own head? But he does do those little justifications when he chooses to be kind - he has to justify being kind as him being Selfish and Hedonistic, and that being kind gives him pleasure; moreover, Sanfte actually... does have faith in the Ineffable Plan, but just in the sense that it’s “oh, not my problem, someone else has done the thinking for us, I’ll just let it happen as it happens.”

So even in this universe, Raphael has to convince Sanfte to join him, and in many ways their relationship dynamic is still very similar. Sanfte’s dynamic with Hell is very hands off, and most of the other demons find him pretty terrifying, and just... avoid the fuck out of him.

Rather than putting him with a snake, he’s a dinosaur-like bird - talked about here.

Raphael and Sanfte’s relationship is... Honestly, they’re much as they are in their original forms - they meet up together, they make fun of one another and banter, but generally are an old married couple. I definitely see their dynamic as more along the book lines than with the silly pining stuff from the TV show. 

Raphael still steals little bites from Sanfte’s full plates (because why shouldn’t he steal from the mouth of evil?) but also only eats little bites of his own meal and then pushes the rest to Sanfte for him to enjoy (because he can’t be too gluttonous, can he?); Raphael dresses slick, smooth, sexy, miracles up all his clothes and loves cool new gadgets; Sanfte is old and traditional and likes comfortable clothes, and couldn’t give a toss about Raphael’s James Bond fetish unless it suits him to make use of it. 

But there’s new little things too - Sanfte goes out of his way to be blasphemous because he thinks it’s funny, and he’s perfectly capable of making Raphael giggle and squirm by being heavily blasphemous in his direction, but Raphael will respond in kind by dragging Sanfte along to something so sweet that Sanfte just melts over it, but won’t admit it because He’s A Demon, For Good-- For Badness’ Sake.

The Apocalypse I do envision as going very differently, because the thing is... Raphael is popular and well-loved in Heaven, even though people think he’s a little bit odd; Sanfte has a good deal of clout in Hell, and he’s very well-respected, and actually swings his rank around.

Instead of it being an angel and a demon against Heaven, Hell, and God, I see it more as just...

An angel and a demon get Heaven and Hell on their side, and say, fuck the apocalypse. 

* coming from a German word for soft, as in gentle, Sanft

[patricianandclerk]

Wicked

“I cannot believe you,” Raphael hissed across the table, and Sanfte leaned back in his seat, sipping idly at his glass of rich, red wine. It was late evening, and the summer air settled pleasantly on Raphael’s skin, making him want to curl up somewhere warm and sleep. 

“Of course you can, my dear boy,” Sanfte said pleasantly, watching Raphael with half-lidded eyes. “I don’t see why this should be so unusual.”

“A priest, fiend? Really?”

“How better, my darling angel, to tempt the masses?” Sanfte asked, his tone sage. He was wearing a black cassock, the buttons tightly fastened over his chest, the robes coming down to his ankles and showing his weathered black boots, a pair that the demon had bought in 1821 and had not yet been convinced the part with. He sat very primly, and Raphael couldn’t help but squirm. He looked so... priestly. With his hair tied up in that messy little bun, with his glasses laid on his face, he looked precisely like a priest, and it was infuriating. Twice, passers by had nodded to him and greeted him with a polite, “Father.”

“But Roman Catholic? Really?” Raphael asked. It wasn’t that he was offended. Any of the other angels would be offended, he thought - Uriel would be incensed, Michael would be furious, Gabriel would be... Well, Gabriel would be confused, but if someone explained it, he’d be angry. It wasn’t that.

It was that it was-- 

Well.

It was funny. Sanfte was funny. He had a cutting sense of humour, when it suited to have them, a rather wicked irony, and it made Raphael feel... Well. Rather unangelic feelings, actually.

“You must admit, is rather is the funniest choice,” Sanfte murmured, and Raphael, who had been sprawled out in his own chair, had to restrain himself from jumping into the air when Sanfte’s foot rubbed playfully at the side of Raphael’s own under the table. It tickled. It was-- It was nice. It was a little bit more than nice. “Oh, goodness me, Raphael, would you look at that blush? Is this all it takes to tempt an angel into bed with me, a cassock and a dog collar?”

“Shut up,” Raphael hissed, and Sanfte chuckled.

“You might sit in my lap, if you like,” he said in a soft, delicate purr, his glittering gaze fixed on Raphael, nodding politely to the girl who murmured a soft “Hello, Father,” as she passed. “Tell me what you’d like for Christmas.”

“You’re thinking of Santa Claus,” Raphael muttered, glancing at his expensive watch for the time and trying to ignore the way Sanfte’s toe was playing against his ankle, just under the hem of his trouser leg. It made him want to tremble. It made him want to take Sanfte up on his offer, and sit on his plush thighs, feel Sanfte’s hand play over his back.

“My dear,” Sanfte murmured, his tone full of pleasant intent, “I can assure you I’m not. What would you do, I wonder, were I to move my foot just a little higher, and--” Raphael’s hand whipped to grab hold of Sanfte by the plump, warm ankle, stopping his foot before it could press between Raphael’s thighs.

“We’re in the middle of the street,” Raphael said. 

“So?”

“So people will see you. And you look like a priest!”

“Well, precisely. They’ll hardly be surprised, will they? Footsie over wine is rather tame, dearest boy, for a padre.” 

Raphael couldn’t hold it back. A rather undignified giggle crept out of his mouth, half-snorted, and he looked down, making sure Sanfte couldn’t see his eyes as he shoved the demon’s foot back onto the floor.

Sanfte was watching him. There was a little smile on his curved lips, and his eyes were bright,  the expression... Surprisingly unsalacious. There was barely any filth in it at all, actually.

It was-- Well, for lack of a better word, it was fond.

“You’re detestable,” Raphael murmured.

“My darling creature, I am decadence itself. How could one detest me?”

“I detest you.” He smirked as he said it, rather enjoying the excited thrill at saying something so unkind, and with no guilt at all, because it was to Sanfte, and he could be as mean to Sanfte as he liked--

Sanfte gasped, his eyes comically wide. “A lie! From an angel! Heavens, call the presses!”

“I’m not going to go to dinner with you if you’re going to wear that,” Raphael said. “I’ll go alone. And I’ll go to one of my restaurants, where they serve those artistic little portions on a gigantic plate, and it’s three mouthfuls for a ridiculous price.”

“Oh?” Sanfte asked, arching a silver-dashed eyebrow. “Alone?”

“Alone.”

“You’d rather eat alone than with a priest? That’s not very holy of you, dear.”

“You’re not a priest, Sanfte. You’re a bastard.”

Sanfte beamed, giving a little shift of his shoulders as if Raphael had given him an unspeakably kind compliment. “Oh, you do flatter me, and with such implicit sexuality. Are you sure I can’t sup on you?”

“Sanfte!”

“Oh, fine, fine... I’ll pick a restaurant, shall I?”

“Please.”

“And you’ll pluck things off my plate?”

“Well, can’t let you be too gluttonous. I’d only be helping, if I took a little from your plate.”

Sanfte considered this for a moment, frowning slightly. Little lines shifted to furrow his brow, to tighten about his eyes, his mouth. “And-- pray forgive me, dear, if I misunderstand you, but are you not then encouraging my gluttony, when you eat two bites of your meal and then push the rest over to me?”

“No,” Raphael said confidently, “because then I am sharing, which is, of course, a very angelic thing to do.”

“Oh, very angelic indeed,” Sanfte murmured. “And if I remove the cassock--” Raphael glared at him over his pushed down sunglasses, holy fire shining from his eyes. “--and put on other clothes, dear, do calm down, will footsie be back on the table?”

“No!” Raphael said, full of indignation.

Sanfte waited.

“Under the table, surely,” Raphael mumbled, hastily shoving his sunglasses back up so that Sanfte couldn’t see them flare. 

Sanfte laughed, and it was a belly-deep rumble that made Raphael squirm. 

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[patricianandclerk]

So, for Sanfte, demon!Aziraphale...

NOT a snake. instead, he's a big bird, but not ACTUALLY a bird... a dinosaur. you know the dinosaur joke? that's demon! aziraphale.

big, fat, scaley bird with plenty of soft feathers in tawny colours and drab almost-gold, with a big serrated beak, black round eyes that shimmer, plump and round with all these soft feathers, hollow bones, BIG FUCKING TALONS... and here and there you can see the scaley bits underneath

and he SHOULDN'T be scary, bc he's a soft bird angel, but looking him in the face is fucking terrifying, ESPECIALLY for all these demons whose animal counterparts (frogs, lizards, insects, fish...) are prey animals for a beastie like demon!aziraphale

[patricianandclerk]

every time I see a gifset of michael sheen in all his gray-haired bearded glory I think "that's it, that's aziraphale as a demon. that's sanfte." and then I remember all the gifets going around of him in bright young things and it's just... so much... to think of him tempting raphael - raphael who's learned to compartmentalize like the world's #1 middle manager, because otherwise how is he ever supposed to get any work done, honestly

YEAH I DIE BIG TIME OVER SANFTE TEASING RAPHAEL

Like... tickling his ankles under the table, or even reaching out and touching Raphael’s knee, and the way Raphael jumps and gasps and giggles and then says, “Stop it!!!” 

But equally, the other side?

Raphael who perches in Sanfte’s lap and praises him for how soft and warm and comfortable he is, how light and warm and wonderful, playing with Sanfte’s hair, laying kisses on his forehead

and Sanfte is like “look how i’ve tempted an angel into fussing over a beast like me! i’m going to be smug!”

and Raphael like, oh, be as smug as you like, but I’ve tempted you into loving me~ in his sing-song

[patricianandclerk]

Out of curiosity, what's with the Sanfte/Santfe name? How did you choose it? Because every time I read it, it jams my German primed brain somewhat badly, it just doesn't parse well grammatically in whichever way (similar like Pratchett's Bad Schüschein will never not be nails-on-chalkboard wrong). I still enjoyed reading the fics a lot, but please, is there a nice explanation for the name choice to soothe my confusion, or just something I can tag to it to understand it?

It’s just from the word Sanft, as in mild/gentle, but which is one of the words that contributes to the word Soft in English. 

Crowley’s initial name, Crawley, is meant to be evocative of what he does/how he moves - he slithers on the ground, he crawls in the dirt, he’s creepy, and I wanted to have the same for demon!Aziraphale, a word that evokes, you know, something fluffy and gentle, but is kind of the opposite of what the guy actually is, most of the time.

His demon form is of a dinosaurish, very soft and feathery bird. 

[patricianandclerk]

please please tell me you have more in mind for the raphael and sanfte stories!!! i love them!!

I do!! I just haven’t been working on the long stuff because I’m l a z y, but suffice it to say I do have an apocalypse plot which is very different to the canon, which involves the fact that Raphael and Sanfte are actually quite popular with their respective sides. 

[patricianandclerk]

more raphael abd sanfte. bleas. my crops. they are feeble. i lov they

<3