Anthony J. Crowley (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vaguelysauntered) wrote2012-02-29 10:14 pm
vaguelysauntered) wrote2012-02-29 10:14 pm
Entry tags:
Sirenspull Application
Player Information
Name: Crystal
Age: 19
AIM SN: scaresplants
email: crystalreport18[at]yahoo.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes, I've been playing in LJ based games for around two years, now.
Currently Played Characters: None!
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Good Omens
Canon Format: Book/Novel
Character's Name: Anthony J. Crowley, though once went by Crawly. Original angelic name never stated in canon.
Character's Age: Appearance-wise? He looks like a young man, certainly young enough to get away with wearing sunglasses everywhere, including indoors. However, his real age is much, much more older- though it is never stated exactly how old he is, considering it is stated that he was present before the Earth was created, which is put at around 4004 B.C, we can assume that he's well over six thousand years old. The reason for this is because he is a demon, and demons in his world are immortal and never fall risk to old age at all.
What form will your character's NV take?
"Crowley glanced at his watch, which was designed for the kind of rich deep-sea diver who likes to know what the time is in twenty-one world capitals while he's down there. It was custom-made for Crowley. Getting just one chip custom-made is incredibly expensive but he could afford it. This watch gave the time in twenty world capitals and in a capital city in Another Place, where it was always one time, and that was Too Late."
That very same black watch will be Crowley's NV in Siren's Port, mostly because a) it's one of the only things he actually carries around with him at all times, and b) cell phones and portable communication devices weren't exactly very common in the 1990s. The ones that were available were large and clunky and rather hard to carry around conspicuously. Therefore, the watch that tells the time from all over the world will now carry the necessary functions to create posts and such on the network- just press a few buttons and twist the rim a few times, and a hologram will pop up with buttons and even a keyboard which he can use to send a text message to someone. Overall, a stylish, easily portable device which will be hard to lose and convenient to have.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:
Crowley is a demon and a moderately powerful one to boot. One of his major powers is his control over the reality around him. For example, when Crowley wants to go dine at a very expensive restaurant that has reservations filled for the next ten years, a table will suddenly open up for him the minute he arrives. If he wants to park his beloved Bentley in a spot that is not made for parking, the lines of the road will change and suddenly that spot would be as if it had been for parking all along. If he assumes, let's say, that all jeeps have cassette players, then the one he comes across one will have a cassette player even though it never had any before. He doesn't have a huge grasp on reality as, say, the Antichrist does, but its useful enough to make his life a lot easier. Also, his will is the driving force behind this power- for example, at the end of the book, it takes all of Crowley's will to imagine that his car is still a car after he drives it over two hundred miles an hour in order to get to the place where the Apocalypse is happening. (At one point, Crowley actually forgets that the car is supposed to have wheels, and the wheels suddenly disappear as if they were never there in the first place).
Also, Crowley can make things appear from thin air or change the nature of things without even wasting breath- for example, in the beginning of the novel, Crowley's car is being chased by the police due to the fact that he's speeding. All Crowley does is simply turn around, perform a complicated gesture with his hand, and turn the engine of the police car into something...well, horrible. He can wish up things like clothing out of nowhere, and can do things like changing an ordinary bottle of wine into one that is extremely rare that people would die to have their hands on.
Crowley also can walk through fire without flinching or getting burnt, can heal others and himself to a certain extent, and can't get wet when he stands in the rain. He can also perform miracles (even though he's a demon, he's still of angel stock and all) and can sense the innate desires of the human beings around him without even talking to them. He can hypnotize people with a snap of his fingers, can get smashingly drunk and then magically sober up within a minute, and can see in the dark without any trouble. He can also change himself into various forms, as "for those of angel stock or demon breed, size, and shape, and composition, are simply options.", and has been known to make himself tiny enough to zip through telephone wires and has also turned into something horrible enough to make a grown man faint in canon. Also, he has hidden wings which allow him to fly around freely.
However, Crowley's major weakness is holy water, which has been shown to horribly burn demons to the extent that they look like puddles after its done. This also extends to holy and blessed objects, like rosaries or artifacts of saints. Technically, Crowley can't die, but his human body can, and back at home it takes a long time in order to get a new body to use, due to the fact that one has to explain what happens with the body in the first place. Overall, Crowley has a lot of tricks up his sleeve that he uses in his everyday job of tainting people's souls.
Weapons: Although Crowley has no weapons on his person usually, would it be alright for him to have the tire iron he was planning on using against Lucifer in the final stand against him?
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
In the beginning, there was Adam and Eve. They both lived in a beautiful place called the Garden of Eden, which contained wonders of all kinds, as well as the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge.
A snake named Crawly was ordered by the King of Darkness to tempt the two human beings to eat the Forbidden Fruit of the tree.
And Crawly did so. He still thinks to this day that God overreacted a bit to what he had done.
Anyways, not soon after, he met an angel named Aziraphale who had lent his flaming sword to Adam and Eve to keep them warm on cold nights. They struck up a conversation about what had just happened, and Crawly believed that what he had done was a good thing. Being an angel, Aziraphale disagreed.
Also, at that point, Crawly decided to change his name to Crowley, because Crawly just didn’t suit him.
Fast forward to 1996. Crowley lived on Earth ever since that fateful day, and spent most of his time finding new ways to tempt human beings and generally spread evil. Though, he really couldn’t do much because human beings could tempt themselves through ways even he couldn’t come up with. He still kept up relationships with the angel Aziraphale- even though they were technically enemies, good vs. evil and all, they found that they really had much in common.
Crowley then got the word from his boss, the Ultimate Evil, that the Antichrist was born and that Crowley had the job of keeping an eye on him and making sure he would make the world end by the time he developed all his powers. He also had to travel to a local nunnery and switch off the Prince of Darkness so he would be raised by normal parents.
Okay, said Crowley. Sure, I’ll do it.
He headed over to the hospital run by nuns, gave them the child to switch up with another family, and proceeded to try to tempt the boy through subtle ways as he grew up with his ordinary family. Though, deep down in his inky black heart, he really wanted the boy to be good. He had grown to, dare he even say it, like humanity and all it had to offer. He wasn’t so keen on watching it all end.
But a job was a job, and by the boy’s eleventh birthday, Crowley was ready to see him develop all his powers and destroy the world, just as planned.
Except the real Antichrist was not the boy he had been watching over. In fact, the boy he had been trying to tempt was, in fact, a perfectly ordinary eleven-year old. Apparently the nuns at the hospital had switched the babies up too many times by accident, and therefore the Antichrist had been given to an ordinary family and had not been subject to influences of any kind from Heaven or Hell.
With the Apocalypse occurring in several days, Crowley had to act fast. He joined forces with his friend Aziraphale and they went off together to find the real Antichrist and stop Armageddon before it happened. It didn’t particularly help that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had started to gather and were prepared to make their way towards the Prince of Darkness and end the world with him.
So, through a series of circumstances involving a flaming Bentley, a curious book of prophecies that was completely accurate, a witch hunter, angelic possession, a burning library, and the nature of ducks when they’re fed by secret agents, our two main characters finally found the eleven-year old boy named Adam who was destined to bring on the end of the world.
But Adam decided not to end the world. He defeated the Four Horsemen with the help of his grade school friends, and both Lucifer and the Man Upstairs both realized that Adam was too human. He wasn’t good, and he wasn’t evil. Confused with this predicament, the two powerful entities held off the Apocalypse. Even when Lucifer himself tried to do it himself, Adam stopped him with his powers and returned everything back to the way it was, with a few changes.
So, Crowley and Aziraphale saw Earth live another day. And all was well.
Until Crowley wakes up in a place called Siren's Port, of course.
So, it seems like the Apocalypse isn't going to happen at all. Crowley and Aziraphale have, along with the help of Adam and his friends and the trio of humans who have come along for the ride, have convinced the representatives of Heaven and Hell that the Apocalypse shouldn't begin anytime soon- after all, Adam proved himself to be not Evil Incarnate or even Good Incarnate- just simply Human Incarnate, perfectly balanced between good and evil.
But what all of them don't realize is that they've actually jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire- the grounds starts shaking, and Crowley realizes with horror that Lucifer is going to try to end the world even if the Antichrist won't. As the ground cracks and lava seeps through, Crowley tries to escape, but is stopped by the firm hand of Aziraphale. There are humans here, Aziraphale says. Shouldn't they try to protect them?
Crowley hesitates, but nods and realizes that running is never going to help. Fetching a tire iron from underneath the front seat, he joins Aziraphale to fight against the King of Hell himself. They both even reveal their true forms, having wings unfurling towards the sky, ready to go out to save the world that they both love. Shadwell, the cranky old leader of the Witchfinder army, even joins them as they progress towards their fate.
But then Adam simply smiles and waves his hand, and then everything just stops.
No Lucifer. No world shattering underneath their feet. No danger. Adam reversed it all. And Crowley and Aziraphale were left to wonder on about the Apocalypse That Didn't while the world returned back to the way it had been for hundreds of years.
And the moment right after this sudden anticlimax in events is when Crowley suddenly wakes up in Siren's Port.
Character Personality:
When people first meet Anthony J. Crowley, they quickly realize that he's quite the bad apple.
For one, he's sly and smug, overly confident in himself as he goes around doing his business of tempting people down on Earth. He seems to not care about the others around him, and will happily jump at a given opportunity to make people's lives worse, even going so far as to troll people individually just because Crowley is Crowley and Crowley does what he wants. Why should he care about the people around him? It's not like anything they do will effect him in any way. So, Crowley exudes an aura of selfishness and arrogance, even delighting when he rubs someone the wrong way.
But when one takes a step back and looks at the bigger picture, one might be surprised to find that a person with so many jerk-like traits is not, as suspected, sitting behind a desk stroking a white cat, laughing evilly at the heroes trying to stop the Apocalypse. He's actually helping them as much as he can.
Because, in reality, Crowley is horrible at his job as a demon for the singular reason that he, behind all the snark and smugness, actually likes humanity. Being the only demon to stay on Earth ever since the Eden fiasco, he's gotten used to the world and has, as his coworkers say "gone native". For in Crowley's mind, human beings are special in the fact that they do two things: 1) they do an angel's job much better than an angel can do it, and 2) they can also do a demon's job much better than any demon can do it. So, in this way, humanity is a constant source of fascination for Crowley. I mean, these are the same people who performed such vile acts like they did back in the Spanish Inquisition (an event which Crowley has still yet to get over- he was sent to the place at the time and even gotten a commendation for what had happened even though he had no part in it at all- it took many nights of drinking to get over what he saw), and yet these are also the same people who go and save orphans from burning buildings, for crying out loud. So, unlike the other demons, Crowley actually likes sitting and thinking about what exactly good and evil means- maybe there isn't even a defined line at all. Maybe good and evil are just names for sides, but they don't necessarily describe what each side is.
Since Crowley has "gone native", he's also a lot more crafty than his fellow cohorts in tempting- while his fellow demons may go and tempt a single person to taint his soul, Crowley goes all out and does things like tying up all the phone lines around lunchtime. Hey, it doesn't tarnish people's souls as much as one would do on an individual basis, but it effects a lot more people at once. Crowley always strives to do bigger and better in his ways of injecting bits of evil into the general population, creating things like Welsh television and Manchester and the shape of the M25 Motorway. This want to make more of a mark on humanity also is tied to his love of all new-fangled gadgets and electronics- Crowley will always stay on top of the most recent advances of humankind, even though that doesn't mean he will ever use them. He just likes having things around for teh sake of having them around, like the top-notch computer he has back in his apartment.
But underneath all the tempting and all Crowley's efforts to make himself look like a big bad demon who laughs at people's misery, there is a soft spot that may have remained after his Fall from Heaven. Because what people may not realize is that Crowley was once an angel who just hung out with the wrong people and was subsequently kicked out of Heaven for that. And this soft spot does show itself when Crowley goes around doing what he does- for example, Crowley never does anything that will hurt or kill everybody else. In one part of the novel, Crowley and his angel colleague, Aziraphale, come across a group of vicious paintball gunners, and Crowley, without anyone noticing, turns all their paintball guns into actual guns simply because "the desire for a real gun" was already in their heads. However, no one dies as a result of this incident, and Crowley even partially admits that he wasn't planning for anyone to get hurt anyways. This weakness towards humanity (for Crowley does see it as a weakness that he tries to hide like nothing else) is one that sets Crowley apart from the rest of Down Below, and it is part of the reason why Crowley, against all odds, tries to stop the Apocalypse from happening simply because he doesn't want to see the world he's grown to like so much end. He also cares for Aziraphale, his angel colleague, simply because he's the only being who has been around to thwart his wiles for the last several thousand years- even though Crowley would never admit it, he considers the angel a true friend and is shown to feel worry when the angel is in danger.
So, overall, Crowley is a jerk and a pain and an arrogant being who laughs at other people's pain, that much is true. But the demon is much more complex than he lets on, because as Aziraphale says at the very end when they face Lucifer, "...I'll have known, deep down inside, that there was a spark of goodness in you."
Character Plans:
I would love to have Crowley, at some point, open up a business in the Underground that focuses on making people's lives a lot worse. For a price, Crowley will go and do things like have all their electronics suddenly malfunction or have everything they touch turn into salami or anything else equally embarassing and annoying. He wouldn't do anything that will hurt or kill anyone else, but hey, getting petty revenge on someone that you hate is a service that Crowley would love to provide- because even if he is not the best at his job, he still loves finding ways to make people's lives worse.
In general he would be hanging around the angels and demons and such that are already around Siren's Port and annoy them to no end (though he is not going to react very well when he sees Lucifer, that's for sure). And he would try to be the biggest pain in people's sides while he stays in the place, not joining either SERO or Afterglow because Crowley does not particularly care about sides- after all, Crowley does what he wants.
Appearance/PB:
Crowley is one of the rare characters in Good Omens whose physical appreance is actually described in the book. As described, Crowley looks like a very young man with prominent cheekbones and short dark hair at first glance, though one might notice a number of snake-related traits that remain from his period as the Serpent of Eden. One, he wears snakeskin shoes (which are shoes...presumably), two, he can do weird things with his tongue, and three, he tends to hiss when he forgets himself. Other than that, he looks like the type of person who is a jerk and knows it- he wears very expensive-looking suits and ensembles of clothing, as well as a pair of shades which he keeps on his face at all the times, even indoors. The reason for this is because his eyes aren't exactly normal- they're yellow snake eyes, presumably left as a sort of curse or reminder of what he did back in the Garden of Eden all those years ago. So, Crowley hides them under his sunglasses, never wanting to reveal them. He also has very well-groomed wings which are part of his true form, but he will never reveal them unless the going gets tough.
I will be using Good Omens fanart of him for his appearance, as well as some icons of a character from the X-Men comic universe by the name of Pete Wisdom who I believe matches Crowley's physical description to a T.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[The camera turns on to catch the bustling and lively interior of the Lion's Gate as one Anthony J. Crowley sits at the bar, swirling some very expensive-looking cocktail in one hand as he grins. Crowley already dressed with class and style to fuel a fashion company, so getting into the place was as easy as stealing candy from a baby.]
[He speaks, his British accent so smooth you could lay a carpet on it:] You know, the longer I've stayed in the place, the more I've realized that no matter where you go, people never change. I mean, even with powers and bloody monsters coming out of the Darkness to attack you, people are still just, you know, people.
[He turns the wrist with his NV watch to show the people behind him mingling in the club, starting to point out particular people standing around with a finger.] You see, that guy over there with the funny little beard wants to become the most powerful man in town- he's just hanging around here so he can get connections, but he's failing horribly at it. The woman next to him in the blue dress wants all the money in the world so she can buy all sorts of pointless luxuries for herself.
[And then he points over to a couple flirting by the bar, smirking widely.] And that woman wants nothing more than to take that man on the bar and do all sorts of nasty and unspeakable sexual things to him, I mean really, just hearing about them would make your ears curl.
[He then turns the NV toward him as he shrugs.] But what I'm trying to say is that people always want the same things in life. Power, money, sex...you could drop these people in, I don't know, a place where the sky is green and flowers eat people and they'd still have the same wants and the same needs.
So, let's play a little game. Tell me your most innate desire and try to surprise me. If you have a desire like everyone else, congratulations! You're painfully ordinary. And if not, well, maybe I'll get some amusement out of it. I could always use a little entertainment in my life.
[Crowley smiles like a snake.] Just try me.
Third Person Sample
When Crowley woke up, it felt like he had been hit by a train.
Not that Crowley had even had the pleasure of being hit by a train in his lifetime (though once he had almost been trampled by a horse back in Eden, which was an event that forever fixed horses as one of the world's most terrible creatures in Crowley's mind), but still, it felt like he had been crumpled up like a piece of paper and thrown into a black hole, just for kicks. He groaned and pushed himself off the ground, blinking wearily at the signs hung around the large baseball field he was sitting in.
"Welcome to Siren's Port!" read a nearby sign, a drawn smiley face beaming brightly underneath the words. Crowley frowned at it. The smiley face did absolutely nothing to alleviate his spirits- in fact, it did quite the opposite. The demon turned away from the sign, grumbling to himself as he got to his feet, the dirt and dust suddenly disappearing from his clothes as if they had been never there.
He realized that the tire iron which he had dug out of the Bentley in order to use against Lucifer was still laying on the ground, none the worse for wear. Crowley reached down and picked it up before examining his surroundings warily. This was all very strange. What was going on? The last thing he remembered was Adam putting an end to Armageddon for good...
And the angel wasn't here, which worried Crowley quite a bit. Neither was the Bentley, or the trio of humans who had been standing nearby, or even Adam himself. He was alone. Crowley was suddenly conscious of how silent it was. It was like he had been cut off from everything that was familiar to him- a sudden thought sent Crowley's heart plunging down to his stomach. What if this was all his punishment for trying to stop the Apocalypse? I mean, surely, Adam would have made it so that it wouldn't have happened, but it's not like his superiors Downstairs would stop at trying to punish him for being such a rebel. But, Crowley thought, sending a trouble-making demon like him somewhere strange wasn't exactly the usual punishment. Maybe this had nothing to do with his superiors at all.
As he turned, he noticed somebody waving at him near a door at the edge of the field. Whoever it was was beaming genially, like those people on the television who sold people useless objects that later broke down in a couple of weeks and were left to gather dust in the far corners of the garage for years to come.
"Oh, bugger," Crowley muttered. He had a sense that he was not going to like what he was going to be hearing from this overly cheerful person. Not one bit.
Name: Crystal
Age: 19
AIM SN: scaresplants
email: crystalreport18[at]yahoo.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes, I've been playing in LJ based games for around two years, now.
Currently Played Characters: None!
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Good Omens
Canon Format: Book/Novel
Character's Name: Anthony J. Crowley, though once went by Crawly. Original angelic name never stated in canon.
Character's Age: Appearance-wise? He looks like a young man, certainly young enough to get away with wearing sunglasses everywhere, including indoors. However, his real age is much, much more older- though it is never stated exactly how old he is, considering it is stated that he was present before the Earth was created, which is put at around 4004 B.C, we can assume that he's well over six thousand years old. The reason for this is because he is a demon, and demons in his world are immortal and never fall risk to old age at all.
What form will your character's NV take?
"Crowley glanced at his watch, which was designed for the kind of rich deep-sea diver who likes to know what the time is in twenty-one world capitals while he's down there. It was custom-made for Crowley. Getting just one chip custom-made is incredibly expensive but he could afford it. This watch gave the time in twenty world capitals and in a capital city in Another Place, where it was always one time, and that was Too Late."
That very same black watch will be Crowley's NV in Siren's Port, mostly because a) it's one of the only things he actually carries around with him at all times, and b) cell phones and portable communication devices weren't exactly very common in the 1990s. The ones that were available were large and clunky and rather hard to carry around conspicuously. Therefore, the watch that tells the time from all over the world will now carry the necessary functions to create posts and such on the network- just press a few buttons and twist the rim a few times, and a hologram will pop up with buttons and even a keyboard which he can use to send a text message to someone. Overall, a stylish, easily portable device which will be hard to lose and convenient to have.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:
Crowley is a demon and a moderately powerful one to boot. One of his major powers is his control over the reality around him. For example, when Crowley wants to go dine at a very expensive restaurant that has reservations filled for the next ten years, a table will suddenly open up for him the minute he arrives. If he wants to park his beloved Bentley in a spot that is not made for parking, the lines of the road will change and suddenly that spot would be as if it had been for parking all along. If he assumes, let's say, that all jeeps have cassette players, then the one he comes across one will have a cassette player even though it never had any before. He doesn't have a huge grasp on reality as, say, the Antichrist does, but its useful enough to make his life a lot easier. Also, his will is the driving force behind this power- for example, at the end of the book, it takes all of Crowley's will to imagine that his car is still a car after he drives it over two hundred miles an hour in order to get to the place where the Apocalypse is happening. (At one point, Crowley actually forgets that the car is supposed to have wheels, and the wheels suddenly disappear as if they were never there in the first place).
Also, Crowley can make things appear from thin air or change the nature of things without even wasting breath- for example, in the beginning of the novel, Crowley's car is being chased by the police due to the fact that he's speeding. All Crowley does is simply turn around, perform a complicated gesture with his hand, and turn the engine of the police car into something...well, horrible. He can wish up things like clothing out of nowhere, and can do things like changing an ordinary bottle of wine into one that is extremely rare that people would die to have their hands on.
Crowley also can walk through fire without flinching or getting burnt, can heal others and himself to a certain extent, and can't get wet when he stands in the rain. He can also perform miracles (even though he's a demon, he's still of angel stock and all) and can sense the innate desires of the human beings around him without even talking to them. He can hypnotize people with a snap of his fingers, can get smashingly drunk and then magically sober up within a minute, and can see in the dark without any trouble. He can also change himself into various forms, as "for those of angel stock or demon breed, size, and shape, and composition, are simply options.", and has been known to make himself tiny enough to zip through telephone wires and has also turned into something horrible enough to make a grown man faint in canon. Also, he has hidden wings which allow him to fly around freely.
However, Crowley's major weakness is holy water, which has been shown to horribly burn demons to the extent that they look like puddles after its done. This also extends to holy and blessed objects, like rosaries or artifacts of saints. Technically, Crowley can't die, but his human body can, and back at home it takes a long time in order to get a new body to use, due to the fact that one has to explain what happens with the body in the first place. Overall, Crowley has a lot of tricks up his sleeve that he uses in his everyday job of tainting people's souls.
Weapons: Although Crowley has no weapons on his person usually, would it be alright for him to have the tire iron he was planning on using against Lucifer in the final stand against him?
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
In the beginning, there was Adam and Eve. They both lived in a beautiful place called the Garden of Eden, which contained wonders of all kinds, as well as the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge.
A snake named Crawly was ordered by the King of Darkness to tempt the two human beings to eat the Forbidden Fruit of the tree.
And Crawly did so. He still thinks to this day that God overreacted a bit to what he had done.
Anyways, not soon after, he met an angel named Aziraphale who had lent his flaming sword to Adam and Eve to keep them warm on cold nights. They struck up a conversation about what had just happened, and Crawly believed that what he had done was a good thing. Being an angel, Aziraphale disagreed.
Also, at that point, Crawly decided to change his name to Crowley, because Crawly just didn’t suit him.
Fast forward to 1996. Crowley lived on Earth ever since that fateful day, and spent most of his time finding new ways to tempt human beings and generally spread evil. Though, he really couldn’t do much because human beings could tempt themselves through ways even he couldn’t come up with. He still kept up relationships with the angel Aziraphale- even though they were technically enemies, good vs. evil and all, they found that they really had much in common.
Crowley then got the word from his boss, the Ultimate Evil, that the Antichrist was born and that Crowley had the job of keeping an eye on him and making sure he would make the world end by the time he developed all his powers. He also had to travel to a local nunnery and switch off the Prince of Darkness so he would be raised by normal parents.
Okay, said Crowley. Sure, I’ll do it.
He headed over to the hospital run by nuns, gave them the child to switch up with another family, and proceeded to try to tempt the boy through subtle ways as he grew up with his ordinary family. Though, deep down in his inky black heart, he really wanted the boy to be good. He had grown to, dare he even say it, like humanity and all it had to offer. He wasn’t so keen on watching it all end.
But a job was a job, and by the boy’s eleventh birthday, Crowley was ready to see him develop all his powers and destroy the world, just as planned.
Except the real Antichrist was not the boy he had been watching over. In fact, the boy he had been trying to tempt was, in fact, a perfectly ordinary eleven-year old. Apparently the nuns at the hospital had switched the babies up too many times by accident, and therefore the Antichrist had been given to an ordinary family and had not been subject to influences of any kind from Heaven or Hell.
With the Apocalypse occurring in several days, Crowley had to act fast. He joined forces with his friend Aziraphale and they went off together to find the real Antichrist and stop Armageddon before it happened. It didn’t particularly help that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had started to gather and were prepared to make their way towards the Prince of Darkness and end the world with him.
So, through a series of circumstances involving a flaming Bentley, a curious book of prophecies that was completely accurate, a witch hunter, angelic possession, a burning library, and the nature of ducks when they’re fed by secret agents, our two main characters finally found the eleven-year old boy named Adam who was destined to bring on the end of the world.
But Adam decided not to end the world. He defeated the Four Horsemen with the help of his grade school friends, and both Lucifer and the Man Upstairs both realized that Adam was too human. He wasn’t good, and he wasn’t evil. Confused with this predicament, the two powerful entities held off the Apocalypse. Even when Lucifer himself tried to do it himself, Adam stopped him with his powers and returned everything back to the way it was, with a few changes.
So, Crowley and Aziraphale saw Earth live another day. And all was well.
Until Crowley wakes up in a place called Siren's Port, of course.
Point in Canon:
So, it seems like the Apocalypse isn't going to happen at all. Crowley and Aziraphale have, along with the help of Adam and his friends and the trio of humans who have come along for the ride, have convinced the representatives of Heaven and Hell that the Apocalypse shouldn't begin anytime soon- after all, Adam proved himself to be not Evil Incarnate or even Good Incarnate- just simply Human Incarnate, perfectly balanced between good and evil.
But what all of them don't realize is that they've actually jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire- the grounds starts shaking, and Crowley realizes with horror that Lucifer is going to try to end the world even if the Antichrist won't. As the ground cracks and lava seeps through, Crowley tries to escape, but is stopped by the firm hand of Aziraphale. There are humans here, Aziraphale says. Shouldn't they try to protect them?
Crowley hesitates, but nods and realizes that running is never going to help. Fetching a tire iron from underneath the front seat, he joins Aziraphale to fight against the King of Hell himself. They both even reveal their true forms, having wings unfurling towards the sky, ready to go out to save the world that they both love. Shadwell, the cranky old leader of the Witchfinder army, even joins them as they progress towards their fate.
But then Adam simply smiles and waves his hand, and then everything just stops.
No Lucifer. No world shattering underneath their feet. No danger. Adam reversed it all. And Crowley and Aziraphale were left to wonder on about the Apocalypse That Didn't while the world returned back to the way it had been for hundreds of years.
And the moment right after this sudden anticlimax in events is when Crowley suddenly wakes up in Siren's Port.
Character Personality:
When people first meet Anthony J. Crowley, they quickly realize that he's quite the bad apple.
For one, he's sly and smug, overly confident in himself as he goes around doing his business of tempting people down on Earth. He seems to not care about the others around him, and will happily jump at a given opportunity to make people's lives worse, even going so far as to troll people individually just because Crowley is Crowley and Crowley does what he wants. Why should he care about the people around him? It's not like anything they do will effect him in any way. So, Crowley exudes an aura of selfishness and arrogance, even delighting when he rubs someone the wrong way.
But when one takes a step back and looks at the bigger picture, one might be surprised to find that a person with so many jerk-like traits is not, as suspected, sitting behind a desk stroking a white cat, laughing evilly at the heroes trying to stop the Apocalypse. He's actually helping them as much as he can.
Because, in reality, Crowley is horrible at his job as a demon for the singular reason that he, behind all the snark and smugness, actually likes humanity. Being the only demon to stay on Earth ever since the Eden fiasco, he's gotten used to the world and has, as his coworkers say "gone native". For in Crowley's mind, human beings are special in the fact that they do two things: 1) they do an angel's job much better than an angel can do it, and 2) they can also do a demon's job much better than any demon can do it. So, in this way, humanity is a constant source of fascination for Crowley. I mean, these are the same people who performed such vile acts like they did back in the Spanish Inquisition (an event which Crowley has still yet to get over- he was sent to the place at the time and even gotten a commendation for what had happened even though he had no part in it at all- it took many nights of drinking to get over what he saw), and yet these are also the same people who go and save orphans from burning buildings, for crying out loud. So, unlike the other demons, Crowley actually likes sitting and thinking about what exactly good and evil means- maybe there isn't even a defined line at all. Maybe good and evil are just names for sides, but they don't necessarily describe what each side is.
Since Crowley has "gone native", he's also a lot more crafty than his fellow cohorts in tempting- while his fellow demons may go and tempt a single person to taint his soul, Crowley goes all out and does things like tying up all the phone lines around lunchtime. Hey, it doesn't tarnish people's souls as much as one would do on an individual basis, but it effects a lot more people at once. Crowley always strives to do bigger and better in his ways of injecting bits of evil into the general population, creating things like Welsh television and Manchester and the shape of the M25 Motorway. This want to make more of a mark on humanity also is tied to his love of all new-fangled gadgets and electronics- Crowley will always stay on top of the most recent advances of humankind, even though that doesn't mean he will ever use them. He just likes having things around for teh sake of having them around, like the top-notch computer he has back in his apartment.
But underneath all the tempting and all Crowley's efforts to make himself look like a big bad demon who laughs at people's misery, there is a soft spot that may have remained after his Fall from Heaven. Because what people may not realize is that Crowley was once an angel who just hung out with the wrong people and was subsequently kicked out of Heaven for that. And this soft spot does show itself when Crowley goes around doing what he does- for example, Crowley never does anything that will hurt or kill everybody else. In one part of the novel, Crowley and his angel colleague, Aziraphale, come across a group of vicious paintball gunners, and Crowley, without anyone noticing, turns all their paintball guns into actual guns simply because "the desire for a real gun" was already in their heads. However, no one dies as a result of this incident, and Crowley even partially admits that he wasn't planning for anyone to get hurt anyways. This weakness towards humanity (for Crowley does see it as a weakness that he tries to hide like nothing else) is one that sets Crowley apart from the rest of Down Below, and it is part of the reason why Crowley, against all odds, tries to stop the Apocalypse from happening simply because he doesn't want to see the world he's grown to like so much end. He also cares for Aziraphale, his angel colleague, simply because he's the only being who has been around to thwart his wiles for the last several thousand years- even though Crowley would never admit it, he considers the angel a true friend and is shown to feel worry when the angel is in danger.
So, overall, Crowley is a jerk and a pain and an arrogant being who laughs at other people's pain, that much is true. But the demon is much more complex than he lets on, because as Aziraphale says at the very end when they face Lucifer, "...I'll have known, deep down inside, that there was a spark of goodness in you."
Character Plans:
I would love to have Crowley, at some point, open up a business in the Underground that focuses on making people's lives a lot worse. For a price, Crowley will go and do things like have all their electronics suddenly malfunction or have everything they touch turn into salami or anything else equally embarassing and annoying. He wouldn't do anything that will hurt or kill anyone else, but hey, getting petty revenge on someone that you hate is a service that Crowley would love to provide- because even if he is not the best at his job, he still loves finding ways to make people's lives worse.
In general he would be hanging around the angels and demons and such that are already around Siren's Port and annoy them to no end (though he is not going to react very well when he sees Lucifer, that's for sure). And he would try to be the biggest pain in people's sides while he stays in the place, not joining either SERO or Afterglow because Crowley does not particularly care about sides- after all, Crowley does what he wants.
Appearance/PB:
Crowley is one of the rare characters in Good Omens whose physical appreance is actually described in the book. As described, Crowley looks like a very young man with prominent cheekbones and short dark hair at first glance, though one might notice a number of snake-related traits that remain from his period as the Serpent of Eden. One, he wears snakeskin shoes (which are shoes...presumably), two, he can do weird things with his tongue, and three, he tends to hiss when he forgets himself. Other than that, he looks like the type of person who is a jerk and knows it- he wears very expensive-looking suits and ensembles of clothing, as well as a pair of shades which he keeps on his face at all the times, even indoors. The reason for this is because his eyes aren't exactly normal- they're yellow snake eyes, presumably left as a sort of curse or reminder of what he did back in the Garden of Eden all those years ago. So, Crowley hides them under his sunglasses, never wanting to reveal them. He also has very well-groomed wings which are part of his true form, but he will never reveal them unless the going gets tough.
I will be using Good Omens fanart of him for his appearance, as well as some icons of a character from the X-Men comic universe by the name of Pete Wisdom who I believe matches Crowley's physical description to a T.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[The camera turns on to catch the bustling and lively interior of the Lion's Gate as one Anthony J. Crowley sits at the bar, swirling some very expensive-looking cocktail in one hand as he grins. Crowley already dressed with class and style to fuel a fashion company, so getting into the place was as easy as stealing candy from a baby.]
[He speaks, his British accent so smooth you could lay a carpet on it:] You know, the longer I've stayed in the place, the more I've realized that no matter where you go, people never change. I mean, even with powers and bloody monsters coming out of the Darkness to attack you, people are still just, you know, people.
[He turns the wrist with his NV watch to show the people behind him mingling in the club, starting to point out particular people standing around with a finger.] You see, that guy over there with the funny little beard wants to become the most powerful man in town- he's just hanging around here so he can get connections, but he's failing horribly at it. The woman next to him in the blue dress wants all the money in the world so she can buy all sorts of pointless luxuries for herself.
[And then he points over to a couple flirting by the bar, smirking widely.] And that woman wants nothing more than to take that man on the bar and do all sorts of nasty and unspeakable sexual things to him, I mean really, just hearing about them would make your ears curl.
[He then turns the NV toward him as he shrugs.] But what I'm trying to say is that people always want the same things in life. Power, money, sex...you could drop these people in, I don't know, a place where the sky is green and flowers eat people and they'd still have the same wants and the same needs.
So, let's play a little game. Tell me your most innate desire and try to surprise me. If you have a desire like everyone else, congratulations! You're painfully ordinary. And if not, well, maybe I'll get some amusement out of it. I could always use a little entertainment in my life.
[Crowley smiles like a snake.] Just try me.
Third Person Sample
When Crowley woke up, it felt like he had been hit by a train.
Not that Crowley had even had the pleasure of being hit by a train in his lifetime (though once he had almost been trampled by a horse back in Eden, which was an event that forever fixed horses as one of the world's most terrible creatures in Crowley's mind), but still, it felt like he had been crumpled up like a piece of paper and thrown into a black hole, just for kicks. He groaned and pushed himself off the ground, blinking wearily at the signs hung around the large baseball field he was sitting in.
"Welcome to Siren's Port!" read a nearby sign, a drawn smiley face beaming brightly underneath the words. Crowley frowned at it. The smiley face did absolutely nothing to alleviate his spirits- in fact, it did quite the opposite. The demon turned away from the sign, grumbling to himself as he got to his feet, the dirt and dust suddenly disappearing from his clothes as if they had been never there.
He realized that the tire iron which he had dug out of the Bentley in order to use against Lucifer was still laying on the ground, none the worse for wear. Crowley reached down and picked it up before examining his surroundings warily. This was all very strange. What was going on? The last thing he remembered was Adam putting an end to Armageddon for good...
And the angel wasn't here, which worried Crowley quite a bit. Neither was the Bentley, or the trio of humans who had been standing nearby, or even Adam himself. He was alone. Crowley was suddenly conscious of how silent it was. It was like he had been cut off from everything that was familiar to him- a sudden thought sent Crowley's heart plunging down to his stomach. What if this was all his punishment for trying to stop the Apocalypse? I mean, surely, Adam would have made it so that it wouldn't have happened, but it's not like his superiors Downstairs would stop at trying to punish him for being such a rebel. But, Crowley thought, sending a trouble-making demon like him somewhere strange wasn't exactly the usual punishment. Maybe this had nothing to do with his superiors at all.
As he turned, he noticed somebody waving at him near a door at the edge of the field. Whoever it was was beaming genially, like those people on the television who sold people useless objects that later broke down in a couple of weeks and were left to gather dust in the far corners of the garage for years to come.
"Oh, bugger," Crowley muttered. He had a sense that he was not going to like what he was going to be hearing from this overly cheerful person. Not one bit.