#jane_potter

(For Project Love Up Fanfic Writers)

I almost didn’t post a rec tonight. But I decided, why not just choose a random one from my bookmarks and see if I feel inspired upon rereading it? And lo and behold, I want to share it with you. Today’s rec:

“Future Imperfect” by @jottingprosaist (jane_potter on AO3; I had to do a bit of sleuthing to find their tumblr pseudonym!); Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley, teen

The bookmark of this I have on my computer is an old dreamwidth Porn Battle thread from 2011, saved from goodness knows how long ago. It’s possible that I read it much more recently than when it was posted, or I could have found it back then- I can’t really say, because I don’t remember when I first sought out Aziraphale/Crowley fanfiction. But my first exposure to it was probably on prompt threads a bit like this, before I had AO3 to comb through.

Very few fandoms write their characters with as much love and gentleness as the Good Omens fandom writes Aziraphale and Crowley. This story is no exception. As with so many of the talented writers in this fandom, the story feels like a natural offshoot of the canon- jane_potter’s Adam in particular made me smile with how perfectly he resembled his Gaiman-Pratchett canon counterpart. The fic doesn’t belabor any one element, and I admire it for how it communicates everything it needs to without a moment wasted. I just want to hug Crowley for how neck-deep in love with Aziraphale he is, and the way they fall into the same closeness they always have when reunited, even before they realize their true feelings, is beautiful.

And I know I’m prone to doing this myself- but if the last line doesn’t make you curl up into a ball and sigh happily into your pillows, I don’t know what will.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

"Distance is a challenge, and all living beings have a desire in some form or another to overcome challenges. So humans-- and Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, Betazoids, Klingons, Romulans-- shrunk the universe, or what little they all knew of it, anyway. They cast out their ships like fishing nets and hauled in lightyears and galaxies worth of stardust, linking everything in together tight with outposts and starbases and satellites and colonies, reeling in the universe little by little."