Aungier house app

[ineffablytartan]

OOC Information

Name: Gil
Age: 24
Characters already in game?: N/A
Contact: PM to Aziraphale’s account or purplefluffychainsaw @ plurk

IC Information

Name: Aziraphale / Ezra Fell
Canon: Good Omens
Canon Medium: Novel
Age: Physically mid/late 20s, actual 6000+
Gender/ Sex: Male/male (canonly he’s non gendered physically, but he still has a male appearance)

Canon History: Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Omens
More specifically: http://goodomenslexicon.org/articles/aziraphale/
Canon Point: End of the book/sometime around the same time as these http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorextra.aspx?authorid=7848&displaytype=essay

Powers: Aziraphale is an angel, and as such has almost unlimited powers. He’s more than capable of wishing anything he wants out of thin air, from a shirt to a bottle of wine to a new (tartan, naturally) bike rack on the back of a classic Bentley. He can cure almost anything by the touch of a hand, although that doesn’t mean that he always will do. To a certain extent he also has mild powers of suggestion, which he uses to encourage good in people, as well as divine ecstasy.

His major limitations are using any of his powers on anyone else with any form of magic. There’s no way he could use what little powers of suggestion he has on anyone weary enough to look out for such things. His morality prevents him miracling things into existence when he can afford to buy them, but cleaning things by magic is another matter entirely, as is transforming one thing into another, like a cheaper bottle of wine for a good one.

Personality: Aziraphale is in many ways every stereotype of angels and Englishmen combined. He’s an affable, personable man, polite even in extreme circumstances, and he never misses the opportunity to do good (especially if Crowley is there to see). He’s quick to reprimand Crowley for sinking ducks, attempts to protect Shadwell even while the man is trying to exorcise him, and polite to the people he ends up possessing once he’s been discorporated. He speaks in a BBC English accent, and in a book set between 1990-2000 it stands out. He still hasn’t worked out how to use ansaphones, but he has worked out computers, which he uses to complete his tax records perfectly. Most people assume that he’s gay when they meet him, but don’t think of the camp, limp wrested stereotypes of today. Instead he uses affectionate terms in his speech and some has feminine mannerisms (such as his manicured hands), but still maintains a very dignified appearance. He is also assumed to be intelligent, but this opinion of him is true. Not only was he smart to start off with, he has the wisdom of someone who has lived for more than 6000 years, and he has continued to expand and indulge his knowledge. His continuous questioning of Godly ineffability throughout the book culminates in him using it to ward off both Beelzebub and Metatron, while giving Adam, the antichrist, time to gather himself.

However, just because he’s an angel doesn’t mean that he’s a pushover. He very firmly shows the various salesmen that come to try and buy, bribe, or threaten his shop away from him the door and more importantly ensures that they don’t come back. He was once the angel of the Eastern Gate of Eden, and he wielded a flaming sword with ease. He still wields it with ease 6000 years later when he picks it up again to defend his assorted allies in preventing the end of the world against Satan.

There’s also the 6000 years that he’s spent on earth, separated from his kin, to consider. Aziraphale has been influenced not only by humans, but also by Crowley, with whom he has formed an Agreement over their long years isolated on earth together. By not interfering in each other’s work, they have given each other the opportunity to excel, but they’ve also done each other’s work for each other. The book passes it off in a single line, but the fact that an angel will tempt someone so that Crowley doesn’t have to make the trip, just because he’s in the area and it would get done anyway, is important. It’s quite a big step from the angel in the beginning who doesn’t think that it’s funny that he might have done the wrong thing in giving his sword to Adam and Eve to keep them warm and Crowley the right thing in tempting Eve to take the fruit of knowledge to this. When he finds out where the antichrist is he deliberates whether to tell Crowley or heaven first, and while he does in the end tell heaven first the fact that he debated telling Crowley at all says something for their relationship.

6000 years is a lot of time to fill even with angelic duties to complete, and Aziraphale has filled his with a range of hobbies that act more as distractions. He learnt slight of hand (despite the fact that he can do magic) and the gavotte, he collects silver snuff boxes and enjoys feeding the ducks in St James’ Park. His biggest and most lasting weakness is books. His bookshop is more of a place to store his collection rather than any functional workplace, and he goes out of his way to protect them. The place is a maze of shelves, the books are disorganised, and he uses any method short of violence to discourage customers. Occasionally it doesn’t work and he’s forced to sell something, but his back room is full of special editions and the more prized pieces of his collection. He has a weakness for first editions, usually signed, and for books of prophecy (also usually signed). He also has a complete set of bible errata.

AU Role: Tutor. If both tutor roles are taken, then family friend (and history wise, he'll have more savings and be living off them).
AU History: Ezra was born to an upper middle class family, rising through social status in recent history through some shrewd purchases and clever marriages. He had the best education that money could buy, taking to books like a duck to water, and there wasn’t much surprise when he went to Oxford to study theology. It was Oxford that he met Crowley, and after an initial rivalry, they went on to become friends, maintaining contact through letters and occasional meetings after Crowley left.

Ezra completed his degree and followed it up with a masters before joing the clergy. Even before he was ordained it was clear that his real love was for books but it was still a surprise to all who knew him that following the death of his parents he left the clergy and sunk his inheritance into a bookshop in Soho. He was happy there, even if the shop was little more than a front for his book collection. It only lasted for a couple of years, though, before a fire caught in the next building and spread, completely destroying his shop and all of the books inside. Homeless, and having only enough savings to let him survive for a few months, he had to find a new job and fast. A letter from Crowley and a distant aunt’s connection with the Valdemar family gave him hope, or at least the hope of a place to stay and a wage while he got his life together and decided where to go from there.

Samples

It wasn’t the loss of his home and his livelihood that hit Ezra hardest; it was the loss of his books.  Years of collecting.  An almost complete set of bible errata.  First editions.  Signed first editions.  All completely priceless and some utterly irreplaceable.  It was a lifetime’s work up in smoke and it left him lost and bewildered.  What now?  Although he had some money in the bank – enough to live off for a few months at least – it wasn’t enough to buy another shop and start over.  He could go back to the clergy; he was ordained, that wouldn’t change, but after so many years it felt odd, like a man in his first suit that doesn’t quite fit him any more.  He left God for his books.  It was a bit like the end of a relationship, one that he couldn’t quite bring himself to go back to.

He read over Crowley’s letter again, and glanced at his half written response.  Had he considered being a tutor?  Ezra was well educated, having graduated with his masters from Oxford.  It seemed ideal – it would give him somewhere to stay and a wage while he considered what to do next.  Something for the interim.  But he had never taught before, never had much contact with children either.  He was an only child and while he had many friends he didn’t involve himself in their family lives.  He didn’t even have cousins that he was in contact with.  It would be an entirely new world.

Pulling forward his response once more, he prepared to reassure Crowley that he’d find something to occupy himself with, some way of restoring his income, but he paused on the same sentence he’d frozen on before, ink dripping onto paper.  He’d be all right.  Of course he would, it was ridiculous to say otherwise.  He’d lost his books, but he hadn’t lost his life.  And yet.  There was something so heartbreakingly raw about the whole thing.  Ezra was a religious man, and he prayed every day, but that didn’t prevent him from also worshipping books.

He pulled out a fresh piece of writing paper from his set and set about writing in the date and address of his temporary lodgings, ready to rewrite what he’d been writing before without the ink smudges.  He got as far as the greeting though, before he paused again (although this time he at least has the presence of mind not to hold his pen above paper).  Then, slowly, he set it down again.

“My Dear Crowley,

I’m glad to hear of your new position.  Thank you for your concern, and for your recommendation.  I’ve considered it, and it does seem like an ideal solution.  As it happens, I believe one of my aunts attended the same school as Lady Valdemar and it may be possible for her to put in a good word for me.  Even if not, perhaps it would be a good idea for me to leave London for a little while anyway.  I love the city, but without a place of refuge and a home of ones own it does seem to crowd one a little.

If I am to apply it will likely take a while for anything to happen, so I have no doubt that you’ll start before I get anywhere near knowing what will happen to me.  Let me know how it goes.  If God wills it, I may see you there soon!

God bless,

Ezra.”

Ezra frowned at the paper, still undecided, watching as the ink dried.  Then he sighed, and folded the letter, slipping it into the envelope that he’d prepared earlier, before pulling out another sheet of paper.  If he was going to go for this then he’d have a lot of other letters to write.