Aziraphale

OOC INFORMATION
Name: Gil
Are you over 15? Yes
Contact: Plurk/poke me irl
Current characters in the game: N/A past characters are Alexander/Akeldama and Gytha Ogg.

IC INFORMATION
PREINCARNATION
Name: Aziraphale
Canon: Canon version. Specifically book, but I'm assuming that TV will not clash given who is writing it.
Age: Apparent age – somewhere roughly upper middle age. Actual age – older than the earth (6000+ years)
Species: Angel. Specifically a Principality. Apparently jokes are made about that these days but I still haven't figured out what they are.
Appearance: Man shaped. We know that his hands are manicured and he has a tendency to err towards tartan but we're never given a full description. However, the general conscientious (which I agree with) is that he is on the plump side, with light, curly hair and reading glasses.

In his 'true' angelic form, he has large white wings.

History: Insert a brief history of the world here.

Azirapahel is an angel. He was presumably created before the world which was, according to canon and the Archbishop James Usher, created on Sunday 21st October 4004 BC at 9.00AM (give or take 15 minutes). His first role that we know for sure was as the angel of the Eastern Gate of Eden, a role that he rather flunked, giving away his flaming sword to Adam and Eve as he 'chased' them away as he felt sorry for them. This came back to haunt him.

He remained on earth, where he found himself repeatedly in close contact with the serpent of Eden, Crawly (now renamed Crowley). Over several thousand years they mutually came to the realisation that they had more in common with one another as close enemies than with their long distance superiors, and around 1000AD came to a mutual Arrangement of tactical non-interference. This allowed Aziraphale to have a free hand in many of his projects, presenting to his superiors the many successes he had had against his cunning opponent, while allowing Crowley the same oppertunities.

By this point they had mostly settled in the UK, although both still travelled around a bit (for example, they both ended up in Paris during 1793). Aziraphale had settled on London as his base as early as 1651, given that he was there to correct the proofs of the Buggere Alle This Bible. At some point he established a bookshop in Soho where he could store his collection of rare books. He remained there until the 1990s when Crowley came to him with the news that the antichrist was on earth and the end was nigh.

Being rather attached to the earth and all the pleasures of it, Aziraphale agreed with Crowley to continue their Arrangement, both working to influence the child in an attempt to neutralise his powers. They worked this way for ten years before discovering that the child that they had been observing was not in fact the antichrist, but the human child of a second pair of parents that were also in the hospital on the evening that the antichrist was delivered. Aziraphale and Crowley rushed to the hospital to try and find the records of the second pair of parents, only to discover that the hospital had been burnt down to cover the deed. On the way, they accidentally hit a woman on her bike – Anathema, the descendent of the witch Agnes Nutter who wrote the rarest and most accurate book of prophecies, the last remaining copy of which Anathema left in Crowley's car.

Upon discovering this, Aziraphale retreated to his bookshop, deciphering the cryptic prophecies until he discovered the whereabouts of the true antichrist. He debated between telling Crowley and telling heaven, and in the end decided to tell heaven, believing it honours his Arrangement with him by allowing heaven to 'deal' with the child and therefore stopping the oncoming war. When he reached heaven, however, he found that heaven was all in favour of war, and had no intention of doing anything about the antichrist. Aziraphale set out to warn Crowley, but was interrupted by the Witchfinder General Shadwell, who saw Aziraphale contact heaven and believed him to be a demon. Shadwell attempted to exorcise Aziraphale, but in the process walked towards the magic circle that Aziraphale used to contact heaven. Aziraphale rushed to stop him, but crossed it himself, and was discorporated.

With no time to arrange a new body, Aziraphale rushed through bodies across the world, temporarily inhabiting them as he attempted to find one close to the action. Eventually he found himself sharing the body of Madam Tracy, Shadwell's neighbour. He managed to convince them that something needed to be done, and Madam Tracy, Aziraphale and Shadwell set off on Madam Tracy's elderly scooter.

Using Aziraphale's angelic powers, they managed to reach the antichrist, Adam, in Oxford in time, only to discover that he, having grown up completely without any influence, had decided of his own accord to stop the oncoming war. He managed to reverse what the four horsemen of the apocalypse had set in motion, but faltered when confronted by the Metatron and Beelzebub, trying to convince him that it needed to happen because it was planned to be so.

Aziraphale stepped in at this point, and pointed out that God, by nature, is ineffable, and therefore so are any of His plans. Crowley realised what he was doing and joined in, confusing the Metatron and Beelzebub and giving Adam a chance to recover and think, and between the three of them they managed to confuse them into retreating for more information.

However, just as everyone thought it might be over, the earth cracked again at the devil's approach. With humans on the line, Aziraphale stepped forward, convincing Crowley to join him. Aziraphale picked up his flaming sword, after it was finally recovered from War earlier. They were also joined by Shadwell. Adam, faced with the appearance of his father, made a choice and shifted the world ever so slightly so that the father who appeared was in the end his human father, allowing everyone to leave safely.

The next day, Adam had restored the world to how it was. Aziraphale and Crowley met up and decided that heaven and hell have retreated for now. Unsure if this was the the plan all along due to ineffability, they continued on with life as before, presumably forever, or at least until the true apocalypse hits.

REINCARNATION
Name: Felicity Angelica Sirrell
Age: 58
Appearance: Despite having a female body in this reincarnation, they look rather similar. They're still roughly the same age, still both have blonde curly hair and reading glasses, still tend towards plump and tartan. Felicity smiles less often than Aziraphale, and also does not have angel wings yet.
History: Felicity was born in the north of the UK to a working class family. She excelled at school, achieving good enough grades to go to university despite her parents being unable to support her. She first became interested in history as a child while on holiday in Mossgate with her family. After a visit to the ruins on the cliff and a subsequent visit to the museum, she became fascinated with them. She studied history at university, and achieved high grades in both her bachelors and her masters, and hoped to do a PHD on the ruins in Mossgate, but was unable to find funding, and in the end had to settle for a PHD on the farming techniques in Yorkshire in the 14th century.

Over the following 20 years, she jumped from university to university in various teaching positions, often working further PHDs on the side. She achieved another 5 in total, and became infamous for the obscure nature of her topics. She slowly gained a name for herself in the academic field, and universities often recommend her to PHD history students studying something a little more obscure than usual. In particular, she is known for being useless when it comes to the usual 'basic' knowledge such as kings and popes and wars, but if you want to know something obscure, such as the common hairdressing techniques in Germany in the 15th century or the achievements of the cousin of the aunt of the King George III she is a likely bet. Needless to say she is killer at pub quizzes.

Both of her parents and her older brother died between 2000 and 2010, leaving her the only remaining member of her family. Between the inheritance of her family home and what she has earned over the years have left her a relatively wealthy woman. She has no family of her own, having no desires there at all. When questioned about it she always references her work as being enough of a distraction.

When the role for the director of the museum in Mossgate came up, Felicity leapt at her chance. She applied for and got the role, and moved down to Mossgate around 2010. While the museum has contacts to the university, she reinforced them, and took up a minor teaching role, teaching one class a term on local history, and continuing to mentor about two PHD students a year. At the same time, she went back to her original PHD on the ruins, and has been writing that on the side, although she hasn't managed to get very far with it.

First Echo: Her first echo came from the original northern lights at the start of the game. She regained the books for general sale from Aziraphale's bookshop – or, rather, began to. The first book appeared at the moment of the northern lights, and the second appeared 4 months later at the beginning of November. With a continued half life going forward, she gained her 9th book on February 28th, at which point they started to appear more than once a day, leading her to finally notice. At first, she assumed that she had just forgotten having brought them as they were all old and obscure and therefore interesting, but she has now reached the conclusion that her memory isn't that faulty (or so she hopes) that she would have forgotten a pile of books that she's sure she didn't leave on the kitchen table this morning. These books will reach critical mass by the end of the month (and also end then) as while she has a reasonably sized house, it is not intended to take an entire bookstore's worth of books on top of her already ample supply.

PERSONALITY
Pre-Incarnation 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 answerphones, 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. 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 not gay, however, as angels are sexless. 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 is brave enough to step forward with it once again to defend the humans against the devil at the end of the book, despite earlier having expressed how long it has been since he last wielded it. He can also be rather careless, and isn't as attentive to other people as he would have you believe. He manages to accidentally suffocate a dove in his sleeve while acting as a magician, and fails to notice Shadwell forcing his way into his shop while he's calling heaven/Crowley after he discovers Adam.

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. The book points out in relation to Crowley that while demons are supposed to have no free will, his hanging out with humans has taught him a thing or two and certainly applies to Aziraphale as well. 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. Crowley remarks at the end of the book that Aziraphale was enough of a bastard to be worth knowing, which also says something about both Crowley and earth's influence on the angel.

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 (therefore being the only angel that can dance on the head of a pin), 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.

Any differences?: Felicity and Aziraphale have two major differences: Felicity is female, and human.

The thing about angels is that (in theory) they have no free will. Aziraphale is compelled, or at least guilted, into being nice to the people around him. Felicity isn't. Which isn't to say that she is an unpleasant person, but it does make her rather less personable and amiable than Aziraphale. She can be short and unapologetically impolite when the situation calls for it, whereas Aziraphale would rather go for the killing with kindness route. She mostly doesn't go out of her way to help people unless she has a reason to. Felicity classes herself as atheist, refusing to believe in a god that she sees no proof for, and therefore uses her own morality as her compass. Aziraphale doesn't define himself as anything but an angel, but he knows that God exists, and is compelled by his nature to do good. Felicity is also less sure of herself than Aziraphale is and less able to stand up for herself. Aziraphale always stands with the strength of heaven behind him, or at the very least his not inconsiderable powers, and his immorality, but Felicity only has the power of a chubby almost 60 year old woman.

Being human also means that Felicity is mortal and ageing, but more importantly means that she has had a hundred times fewer opportunities to collect information. While she is extremely intelligent, she doesn't have anywhere near the breadth of knowledge that he does. Most of the knowledge that she is most known for is really rather obscure (in fact, she's known for how obscure her topics are), and rather less applicable. She still has a talent for languages, but knows considerably fewer: Latin, school-girl French and a passing knowledge of old English/Angelo-Saxon.

While Aziraphale appears male, he is technically sexless. He is aware of gender discrimination, but doesn't notice his own privilege as he doesn't technically compete in human spaces. The privilege that he does have – being able to exist in academic spaces without being questioned is something that Felicity has struggled against for her entire career. She has to check and double check everything that she produces, because she knows that she will be judged more strictly over it based on her gender. She also had to work very hard in her first years of university to replace her northern accent with a BBC British one, as it was holding her back. Less so these days, but back then it was considered to be less intelligent, and on top of her gender as well it made it almost impossible to move forward. Aziraphale has never had to struggle against anything like this. And, semi related, Aziraphale has no sexuality, whereas Felicity does, but she just doesn't devote any time to it. She feels very little drive, and has barely dated in the past.



Abilities:
A lot of these use Crowley as a reference, but canon points out time and time again that angels and devils are perfectly able to do the same things (they just may or may not be willing to do said thing).

To sum up the bulk of his powers as an angel, Aziraphale can perform miracles, with the main restriction being that if he over uses them then heaven will notice and want explanations. This includes being able to:

• Making objects appear from thin air: Shown in canon with things ranging from a shirt, bottles of wine and a bike rack on the back of a classic Bentley. He morally doesn't use this on anything that he can afford himself (or should be able to afford) unless he needs it that moment to help someone. This also includes spontaneous combustion, which he uses against a parking inspector's notebook.
• Making objects disappear: the reverse of the above, shown in canon with cake and other stains on a shirt, or alcohol from a blood stream (although it could be argued this comes under healing, see below). He also makes a person disappear at the end of the book, although he does it in an extreme circumstance and feels rather bad about it (the person appears at home, but Aziraphale is unaware of this and had no control over it).
• Changing one object to another: water into wine, or, more importantly: an inferior wine into a more appropriate one. See also: guns into water guns (Crowley also later turns paintball guns into real guns, and for a less gunny example changes the engine of a police car into something that in the radio play is represented by an animalistic roar)
• Miracle cures: In canon he's shown to mend a broken bone with the touch of a hand. He can also repair objects in this way (shown in the same scene with Anathama's bike).
• Powers of suggestion: Mainly used to encourage good in people, or to create divine ecstasy, but since he also does Crowley's work on occasion he is also capable of tempting people. Crowley is able to snap his fingers and place a woman into a trance where he can ask her what she remembers from ten years ago, but Aziraphale would not do this himself, and takes the time to suggest to her that she's had a dream instead. It should be noted that these powers are relatively weak, being subpowers, and therefore would not affect anyone with any sort of protection against any kind of powers. Aziraphale would never do anything more than a gentle push, as opposed to actual mind bending, in any case.
• Bringing the dead to life: Restricted to animals that have very recently died, and have no major trauma (Crowley revives a dove that has suffocated in Aziraphale's sleeve when he's masquerading as a magician)
• Spiritualism: Azirpahale is able to see ghosts/souls, and to invite them into a host body so that they can speak through them. He is also able to sense when a place is exceptionally loved.

In addition to this, his body is merely a construction for earth, which allows him a few other abilities:

• Flight: Aziraphale has wings, and given religious mythology it can be assumed that he can fly. However, I assume he is rather out of practice, given how long he has lived on earth for. He is able to hide and reveal them at will (although they do tear his clothes when they are revealed).
• Immortality: while his body can be killed/destroyed in all of the normal ways aside from age, which doesn't impact him, his soul is merely unhoused. He cannot generate a new body himself, but needs to have one provided for him by heaven, but he can take over other people's bodies, leading to a two minds in one body situation. He can also move from one body to another while in this state, and travel over vast distances (in canon he goes from Australia, to America, to the UK). However, while inhabiting another body he cannot read the mind of the original owner as that is still separate from him.
• De-corporation: As canon states: “For those of angel stock or demon breed, size, and shape, and composition, are simply options.” Demons (and therefore angels) are not bound by physics, and can leave their body at the drop of a hat to, for example, dance on the head of a pin, or be chased down a phone line. They can be trapped in the tape of an answerphone machine until someone else reaches it. They can also change their bodies into whatever they want – a child, a woman, or something dreadful (although Aziraphale is unlikely to go for the latter)

His more mundane abilities consist of:

• Intelligence: having experienced 6000+ years of human history, Aziraphale has the advantage of time. He is able to completely decode the Nice and Accurate Prophecies in a couple of days, when Agnes' descendent are usually considered achieved if they can manage a few appropriate ones in a lifetime. Unsurprisingly, he has a knowledge of church and religious history that could put an entire university out of business. (It isn't infallible though: see his confusion when trying to place the Johnsonites as an early break off sect).
• Languages: related to intelligence, Aziraphale also has a vast knowledge of languages and alphabets, past and present. This includes, but is not limited to: ancient greek, latin, English (in all forms), French, German, Spanish and Hebrew (both biblical and modern). His reading is always considerably better than anything else.

ROLEPLAY SAMPLES

- 3rd person/action: Test drive sample here.
- 1st person/network:

“Hi, this is Anthony Crowley.”

Hello, Crowley. It's about Thursday. I know you said it was awkward and you didn't want to talk about it, but really, I think we must talk about it.

“Unfortunately I'm not in at the moment – probably off doing something exciting,”

No, listen to me, we really do need to talk about it, I think it's very important that we don't let it lie.

“so leave a message and I'll get back to you at some point. BEEEEEEEEEP”

Oh, do stop making that silly noise! Now, I know we talked about it before hand, I distinctly remember telling you that I would be in Birmingham that day. It was while we were in St. James, don't you remember? Or was it while we were having lunch? Oh, I forget, that's by the by anyway. It was definitely last week. On the weekend sometime. But you asked me to drop by the university and spread a little, um, well, you know. Which was why I was there in the first place, I'll have you know. Anyway, you said –

“Hi, this is,”

Crowley! Don't you dare hang up on me like that!

“Anthony Crowley. Unfortunately I'm not in at the moment”

I said, I know that you don't want to talk about this, but I think it's very important that we don't allow it to happen again!

“ - probably off doing something exciting,”

It's such a daft thing to get embarrassed about in any case, you can't tell me that we haven't--

“so leave a message and I'll get back to you at some point. BEEEEEEEEEP”

Stop making that noise! You're acting like such a petulant child, you would think that it was the end of the world, but really if you would just listen to me in the first place, then it never would have happened! How many times have I told you that we should compare calendars? And there is certainly no need to hide away like that. I know that you aren't embarrassed to be around me normally, and it isn't that different after all. Now, what I think is that –

“Hi, this is Anthony”

Crowley.

“Crowley. Unfortunately I'm not in at the moment”

I'm coming over right now. How dare you hang up on me again!

“so leave a message and I'll get back to you at some point. BEEEEEEEEEP”

I'll be there in ten minutes. And stop making that bloody noise!

ANYTHING ELSE?