Oh man I love that scene where this immortal agender sexless being contact their otherworldly leaders, still foolishly believing that they can convince them to spare the earth by explaining themselves calmly and rationally - only to be disillusioned with the society they once defended, realizing the pettiness and cruelty goes all the way to the top.
There’s a way Aziraphale looks sometimes. Crowley has known that look since the very beginning, since the garden. It’s a look he wears when he finds himself a little unmoored, when he finds himself a little directionless. It’s a look he wears when he begins to doubt himself.
He’s wearing it now, sitting across from Crowley, half-drunk on Chateau d’Yquem, paused midway through a ramble on books adapted into films. He blinks at Crowley once, twice; his brow furrows.
“Angel?” Crowley asks, sitting up. “S’wrong?”
“Do you know,” Aziraphale says, quite wonderingly, “I think I’m an idiot.”
Crowley can’t help it - he laughs, snorting through his nose. “You’re not,” he says. “You’re the cleverest–the cleverest clever to ever clever.”
“See, that, right there!” Aziraphale says, pointing at Crowley. “That’s it! That’s why I am idiot.”
Crowley laughs harder. “What in the world are you talking about?”
“You!” Aziraphale half-shouts. “You’re in love with me!”
There’s a ringing silence in the bookshop as Crowley’s laugh cuts out. They stare at one another.
“Fuck’s sake, angel,” Crowley says quietly, rubbing a hand over his face. “Sober up.”
There’s a soft shimmer of a miracle being performed, and then they’re still both looking at each other in the silence. Aziraphale’s hands twist and curl together.
“I’m sorry,” he offers, cringing at himself. “I don’t know–I didn’t know.”
Crowley heaves himself up off the sofa, gathering up his jacket. “Nothing for you to be sorry for,” he says amicably. “I’ll just, er, see myself out, I think, call it an early night.”
“Wait–” Aziraphale’s hand catches in his elbow, and Crowley can feel him stepping up close behind him, though he doesn’t turn to look. “Wait,” he repeats. His voice is soft, like unbearably tender. Crowley closes his eyes against it. “I didn’t know.”
“I didn’t tell you,” Crowley says, as calmly as he can. He can feel himself shaking under Aziraphale’s hand, just like one of his plants. “It wasn’t supposed to–it’s not a big deal, angel.”
“It is a big deal,” Aziraphale tells him softly. “Look at me.”
I’m sorry, Aziraphale will say. I didn’t know, he’ll say. It’d be better if you didn’t, he’ll say. Couldn’t you just - miracle it away?
Crowley looks, though. Aziraphale asked him to. Of course he looks.
There’s a way Aziraphale looks sometimes. It’s a look Crowley’s known since the very beginning, since the garden. It’s a look he wears when he offers a wing to shelter under in a storm. It’s a look he wears when he holds out a hand before the end of the world. It’s a look that looks a lot like love.
“Leave it,” Crowley says. It’s a demand because he can’t bear for it to be plea.
“I’m sorry,” Aziraphale says again. “I didn’t know. I thought it was just–I thought it was just me.” There’s a wobbly sort of grin spreading across his face. “I thought it was just me, reflecting back. I’m such an idiot.”
Crowley stares at him. Doesn’t flinch away when Aziraphale touches his cheek. “You mean to say, you–?”
“Yes,” Aziraphale says. “How could I not?”
And it’s true. It’s true because Crowley would feel it, if it were a lie. It’s true because Crowley would see it, if it were a lie.
It’s true because Aziraphale would never lie to him about love.
“Oh my God,” Crowley says, for the first time in six thousand years. “We’re both bloody idiots.”
It doesn’t matter, not right now. Right now, Aziraphale is kissing him, and Crowley has already spent too much time not kissing him back to worry about it any longer.
When we break down, it all breaks down. That’s just how it works. You can bend it, and if you make it hot enough you can bend it in a circle, but you can’t break it. When you break it, it all breaks down until there’s nothing unbroken. It starts here and now.
I don’t need your praise to survive. I was here first, before you were here, before you ever planted a garden. And I’ll be here when only the sun and moon are left, and the sea, and the wide field.
He spotted several more gargoyles on the way across the bridge to Pseudopolis Yard. Every single one of them turned its head to watch him.
-The Truth, Terry Pratchett
(Photo: Gargoyle #3 by DeepLightPhotography. Description: photo of a gargoyle on the Notre Dame cathedral. It is carved in stone, with wings and small horns. It has its chin in its hands and its tongue stuck out. The city of Paris is visible behind it and a slightly overcast sky. )
On July 2, 2019, a total solar eclipse will pass over parts of Argentina and Chile.
Solar eclipses happen when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and Earth, casting its shadow onto Earth’s surface. Because the Moon’s orbit isn’t perfectly in line with the Sun and Earth, its shadow usually passes above or below Earth. But when it lines up just right, we get a solar eclipse!
People in the inner part of the Moon’s shadow — the umbra — have the chance to witness a total solar eclipse, while those in the outer part of the shadow — the penumbra — experience a partial solar eclipse.
The path of the total solar eclipse stretches across parts of Chile and Argentina. People outside this path may see a partial eclipse or no eclipse at all.
During a total solar eclipse, the Moon blocks out the Sun’s bright face, revealing its comparatively faint outer atmosphere, the corona. The corona is a dynamic region that is thought to hold the answers to questions about the fundamental physics of the Sun — like why the corona is so much hotter than the Sun’s surface and how the Sun’s constant outflow of material, the solar wind, is accelerated to such high speeds.
Image Credit: Miloslav Druckmüller, Peter Aniol, Shadia Habbal
Our Parker Solar Probe and the upcoming Solar Orbiter mission from the European Space Agency are exploring these questions by flying through the corona itself and taking unprecedented measurements of the conditions there. Plus, our newly-chosen PUNCH mission will create tiny, artificial eclipses in front of its cameras — using an instrument called a coronagraph — to study structures in the Sun’s corona and examine how it generates the solar wind.
Watching the eclipse
It’s never safe to look directly at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed Sun – so you’ll need special solar viewing glasses or an indirect viewing method, like pinhole projection, to watch the eclipse.
For people in the path of totality, there will be a few brief moments when it is safe to look directly at the eclipse. Only once the Moon has completely covered the Sun and there is no sunlight shining is it safe to look at the eclipse. Make sure you put your eclipse glasses back on or return to indirect viewing before the first flash of sunlight appears around the Moon’s edge.
No matter where you are, you can watch the eclipse online! The Exploratorium will be streaming live views of the eclipse with commentary in both English and Spanish starting at 4 p.m. EDT / 1 p.m. PDT on July 2. Watch with us at nasa.gov/live!
Para más información e actualizaciones en español acerca del eclipse, sigue a @NASA_es en Twitter o vea esta hoja de hechos.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
When you’re Done for the day and trying to straighten your back out, but you’ve still got more shovel tests to get done and the rain and the mosquitoes won’t quit.
(Photo of me today by my co-worker. Title: “Done” Circa 2019.)
listen i KNOW gabriel/beelzebub is bad and i'm forfeiting my gay card if i publish this post but molly decided to hit me with an au where they were like, a Thing pre-rebellion era before they were irredeemable pieces of shit but parted on bad terms when their paths diverged and now are nemeses with History™️ so that's what i'm feeling emotions about today against my will
molly: "what if after she Falls gabriel tells beelzebub he doesn't know who she is and the other angels assume that he literally doesn't recognize her because she's become such a hideous demon but he actually means that he doesn't want to acknowledge that there was a darker side to her that he wasn't aware of because he willingly blinded himself to it and both she and him know this and it's what drove them apart"
coworker told me he “hates all mollusks” today. and to each their own obviously but like… theres 100k species of mollusk… you really hate all of them bro? nautiluses and oysters and snails and nudibranches and chitons and thousands of animals youve never even heard of???? what did ammonites even fucking do to you
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terrypratchettappreciation
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weyoun-five
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nasa
archaeologistproblems
asparklethatisblue
fishyfishyfishtimes
