ANONYMOOSE

We will sing for any freaking reason, or no reason at all, and Shanties are FUN to sing.

Deep Space is a lonely place and recruiting people suited to long periods of isolation might be a good idea.  People from Newfoundland/Labrador, for instance.

SPACE WHALES

THEY’RE DEFINITELY REAL I FEEL IT IN MY SOUL

If the timeline branches one way I’m alive and he is dead But if we go the other Then it’s me who croaked instead

in a sense, crowley keeping quiet about the specifics of his feelings for aziraphale is another protective move in a long line of protective moves. crowley’s silence protects aziraphale’s status quo with regards to right and wrong v Right and Wrong as heaven denotes it, and instead crowley allows aziraphale the time and space to work up to challenging it himself. crowley lets aziraphale do it himself, he lets aziraphale come to those conclusions himself. and aziraphale does do this work! just very slowly. he agrees to the arrangement. he understands that he and crowley are in something that both heaven and hell would disapprove of. he doesn’t want crowley to be able to destroy himself, and then he decides he trusts crowley enough to not destroy himself (thereby leaving aziraphale behind). he gets involved in the raising-warlock scheme and doesn’t disclose every part of it to heaven. he goes slow - crowley sees that. 

crowley allows him that. if the world weren’t ending, crowley would’ve waited even longer. but aziraphale is still clinging to heaven - he hasn’t given up on that blind faith. he still wants heaven to be good. he’s giving heaven every chance to prove itself as good so he doesn’t have to upset that status quo.  

which is why it all blows up when crowley says he wants them to run off together. crowley can’t give aziraphale any more time; there is no more time. crowley submits himself to the mortifying ordeal of being known in a last desperate attempt to get the reward of being loved, but aziraphale isn’t ready to realign his worldview yet. he isn’t ready to acknowledge all the things about heaven and about crowley that must be true for what crowley is saying to be true. aziraphale is in fact flat out startled, and because he isn’t ready, he lashes out and rejects it. and actually, aziraphale in a very real sense has already betrayed crowley - he knows where the antichrist is and he’s already told heaven, and he’s lied to crowley about it. even though aziraphale wants heaven to do the same thing crowley wants - which is to stop the antichrist and the coming armageddon - he is keeping crowley out of it. he’s already put all his eggs in heaven’s basket, and then crowley shows up and submits himself, wholly and completely, to the mortifying ordeal of being known, and aziraphale basically goes, what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what am I supposed to do with that. it’s no mistake that crowley’s unforgivability v aziraphale’s holiness is a part of the arc in this conversation - aziraphale is thinking about it, and crowley is deliberately telling him, you know me better than to define me by that. but how can crowley be right over heaven? only if heaven is wrong. aziraphale can’t let go of that, not yet.

 and for the first time really, crowley is storming away: he’s submitted himself, and aziraphale hasn’t known him. he’s rejected him.

but crowley doesn’t give up. he comes back: he submits again to the mortifying ordeal. aziraphale is listening to him. this is so important. aziraphale isn’t rejecting him easily the second time. he tries to tell crowley - he tries to let crowley into his plan now, but it comes down to asking crowley to trust heaven, and crowley knows better. the conversation about crowley’s forgivability comes back, and aziraphale is telling him that even if heaven won’t, i will, and that’s what matters between them right then. but it isn’t until aziraphale comes to the conclusions about heaven on his own in his conversation with the metatron that he fully understands what crowley was really telling him, and he understands. when aziraphale goes to the bar, he understands everything crowley is telling him, everything crowley has told him, and when he says “I’m sorry to hear that” in response to “I lost my best friend,” it’s what it says on the tin!! he’s sorry!! he didn’t trust crowley and he should have!! he’s sorry for the rejection he’s sorry he didn’t understand he’s sorry he betrayed crowley he’s sorry he let crowley leave. 

and then he asks crowley for help. this isn’t a skip by the apologies they need - this is direct action apology. aziraphale undoes his betrayal. he came to tell crowley where the antichrist is. he came to tell crowley how to stop him. they are back on plan-anti-antichrist. actually crowley says, “i’m not going there,” but he’s going to go where aziraphale is, and they both know it. aziraphale is saying, i believe you. i understand you. i know you. but there’s one more step for them before they achieve the reward of being loved: they have to save the world, or it will all be over. aziraphale doesn’t actually need crowley in order to do this, but he wants him there. this is aziraphale’s alpha centauri, but we don’t just save ourselves. we’re better than that. we save everyone. and crowley says, tell me where to go. 

So, I am learning about color perception in one of my classes, and it turns out the ability to see and understand color is more complex than we often think despite the limited range on the electromagnetic spectrum between 400-700 nanometers. So, I thought I would write a little story about how human color vision is weird.

  The war with the Gnar’lack had reached a critical turning point. The Finnerian council was at its wits end. They were losing the war, and badly. The Unified Galactic Assembly had sent aid in the form of additional troops to supplement their own, but all efforts had been for not, and the assisting soldiers had been withdrawn home at the order of their home worlds.

               The Finneri were on their own with no chance of aid left in the galaxy and their spirits broken. Soon the last transport ship would be sent off world with their children in an attempt to preserve their species.

The likelihood of which seemed slim.

               General Lin-Ar was camped with what was left of his men along the southern polar border waiting for, what was likely to be, their last and final battle.

               If this last ditch plan didn’t work, they were doomed to extinction at the hand of their greatest enemy. The world would be overrun by the Gnar’lak and they would become only a memory in distant histories.

               “General?” The radio signal intercepted him on his posterior receptors, and he turned to face the speaker. Infrared and thermal sensors within his eyes picked up the spot as a glowing radiant beacon of heat.

               “Commander.”

               “Are we ready?”

               “We have to be.”

               The two turned themselves to the command’s last interstellar communication tower and began the process.

               “What happens if none answer?”

               “Then we give up our last hope.” There was a long silence as the two contemplated those words before

               “How do we know the stories are even true?”

               General Lin-Ar paused to think about that for a moment. Truth be told he wasn’t really sure if the stories were true. This far out on the border of the galaxy, stories of humans were still more myth than fact, but what other choice did he have. It he had to choose between a long shot and giving up, there was only one option.

               “Send the transmission.”

               The commander gave a nod stepping up to the tower to input the message, and there they waited with bated breath. The infrared monitor on the far wall remained silent for a horrible moment before bursting into an array of blinding intensity.

               The shape sitting there was so blinding, the cameras were having trouble adjusting to the signal.

               “This is Captain Vir of the USS Stabby responding to an urgent SOS from the planet…. Uh…. Gnf…. I can’t pronounce that.”

               Relief washed over the general as he moved to the screen. The translator was working.

               “So the stories are true.” Came the static response.

               “True and serious as a heart attack, General…. Anyway what can I do you for?”

               The human spoke oddly. From what he heard they were supposed to be a barbaric and warlike race, but as far as he could tell the human was on the far side of nonthreatening even a little spacey. His hopes began to dwindle.

               “We are the Finneri, and we are close to extinction. For over millions of years we have been at war with the Gnar’lak. Despite all of our efforts, we have failed to hold them back. I represent what is left of my race begging you for assistance. You are our last hope.”

               “Well S***, that does sound bad. I warn you, General. I represent only one ship. I don’t know if there is much we can do.”

               “If all the stories I have heard are correct, than I would rather take that chance.”

               “Hm…. Well, how could I say no to that? Give us a day.” The com went dead

               General Lin-ar paused in confusion, “He had expected a measure of resistance. Any race would have. To help a people on the brink of destruction against overwhelming odds was reason for concern, but the human had agreed almost out of hand recklessly agreeing to a suicide mission without knowing anything about the situation.

               Why would anyone do that?

               What had they gotten themselves into?

               Perhaps the quick agreement had just been a cultural construct. Maybe the humans would never show up, but personal discussion required that they agree in order to avoid offending. Only time would tell.

***