0~ Information
User Name/Nick: Naomi (asyndeta )
AIM/IM: Metonumia
E-mail: asyndeta@googlemail.com
Other Characters: Pavi Largo
Character Name: Aziraphale
Series: Good Omens
Age: 6000, give or take a few decades. He appears to be a well-groomed, middle-aged blond Englishman.
From When?: Shortly after the events of the novel.
Inmate/Warden: Warden
Item: A book - specifically a mint first edition of 101 Things A Boy Can Do, from his bookshop.
How Long Have You Been Here?: Briefly - long enough to understand the system, but not long enough to lose his sense of optimism about its efficacy.
Abilities/Powers: Being an angel, Aziraphale has a tremendous array of abilities, although he tends not to use them unless it's absolutely necessary and/or won't cause any real damage. He was once given a flaming sword with which to protect Eden and could still potentially use it thousands of years later, although it's no longer in his possession. As you would expect, he has wings, although they stay hidden from day to day. He only seems to have let them show once in a very long time - when he thought he was about to die.
He is technically a Principality, the official role of which is to bequeath blessings to the material world, and to inspire mortals (see History). As such, he has a certain level of mind control ability - which he also uses to keep potential arsonists away from his bookshop - but again, he wouldn't use it unless there were lives beyond his own at stake. He won't even use his divine powers to clean his shirts. If this all needs toning down, let me know - I have some ideas to that end.
Personality: To an outside observer, Aziraphale gives the impression of being English, gay, and very intelligent, of which only the latter is true. In conversation he is amiable, courteous and well-spoken, and sometimes a little snippy if very annoyed. He will swear only in times of mortal peril and would never lash out physically, especially since he doesn't often need to - see Abilities. Much of his personality revolves around doing good in the service of both God ('Upstairs', or simply 'his people') and humanity, either by example or by direct action. He can, sometimes, go slightly overboard in his do-gooding to the point of it being suspicious by human standards - for example, 'fixing' a stranger's bike to an extent that's as good as replacing it.
Although his faith in general has been swayed by recent events, he has a near-unshakeable belief in the ineffable divine plan for humanity, the Earth, himself and pretty much everything else. It gives him something of a get-out-of-jail-free card for personal responsibility - since he is God's creation, everything he does is inevitably part of the plan and hence, he can't really do anything wrong (which incidentally would be his justification for leaving Earth to become a warden). His definition of 'doing good' has slid somewhat after thousands of years on Earth - he considers himself to be doing everyone a favour by making a traffic warden's notebook catch alight, for example. On top of this, there are certain human unnecessaries he's grown accustomed to such as classical music, sushi, alcohol, the cinema and (in particular) rare books.
On the whole, he is still a genuine angel with genuinely high hopes for humanity, but - as his demonic counterpart puts it - he is also 'just enough of a bastard to be worth liking.'
History: Originally, Aziraphale was set over Eden's Eastern Gate with a flaming sword - which he gave to Adam and Eve, to defend themselves, when they were exiled. It's unknown what he spent the consequent few millennia doing, except that he spent much of it with the demon Crowley, with whom he maintains an awkward friendship and (for the last thousand years) an 'Agreement', whereby they sometimes do a little of each other's work. Aziraphale's time as a Principality seems to have been spent mostly in England, where he is cited as being responsible for the county of Shropshire and the city of Edinburgh (whereas Crowley claims Manchester and Glasgow as his own). At the time of the novel (presumably the late 1980s/early 90s), he runs a small bookshop in Soho, although it is more of a private collection than a shop; he goes to great lengths to avoid actually selling anything.
By the time of the novel's events, which revolve around the Apocalypse being brought about by the Four Horsemen at the command of the Antichrist, Aziraphale has been reluctantly brought around to the idea that despite the Great Plan willing it so, he wouldn't enjoy the Apocalypse very much. He and Crowley's attempts to prevent it are well-meant but mostly ineffective. After the Antichrist himself - a very sensible 11-year-old boy - decides the Apocalypse isn't going to happen, Aziraphale manages to convince the angel Metatron not to push the issue. After the situation cools down, Aziraphale's 'people' choose to leave him alone; the sense of unfulfilled duty and not-having-quite-done-the-right-thing that this leaves Aziraphale with would act as a motivation for him to join the merry crew of the Barge.
AIM/IM: Metonumia
E-mail: asyndeta@googlemail.com
Other Characters: Pavi Largo
Character Name: Aziraphale
Series: Good Omens
Age: 6000, give or take a few decades. He appears to be a well-groomed, middle-aged blond Englishman.
From When?: Shortly after the events of the novel.
Inmate/Warden: Warden
Item: A book - specifically a mint first edition of 101 Things A Boy Can Do, from his bookshop.
How Long Have You Been Here?: Briefly - long enough to understand the system, but not long enough to lose his sense of optimism about its efficacy.
Abilities/Powers: Being an angel, Aziraphale has a tremendous array of abilities, although he tends not to use them unless it's absolutely necessary and/or won't cause any real damage. He was once given a flaming sword with which to protect Eden and could still potentially use it thousands of years later, although it's no longer in his possession. As you would expect, he has wings, although they stay hidden from day to day. He only seems to have let them show once in a very long time - when he thought he was about to die.
He is technically a Principality, the official role of which is to bequeath blessings to the material world, and to inspire mortals (see History). As such, he has a certain level of mind control ability - which he also uses to keep potential arsonists away from his bookshop - but again, he wouldn't use it unless there were lives beyond his own at stake. He won't even use his divine powers to clean his shirts. If this all needs toning down, let me know - I have some ideas to that end.
Personality: To an outside observer, Aziraphale gives the impression of being English, gay, and very intelligent, of which only the latter is true. In conversation he is amiable, courteous and well-spoken, and sometimes a little snippy if very annoyed. He will swear only in times of mortal peril and would never lash out physically, especially since he doesn't often need to - see Abilities. Much of his personality revolves around doing good in the service of both God ('Upstairs', or simply 'his people') and humanity, either by example or by direct action. He can, sometimes, go slightly overboard in his do-gooding to the point of it being suspicious by human standards - for example, 'fixing' a stranger's bike to an extent that's as good as replacing it.
Although his faith in general has been swayed by recent events, he has a near-unshakeable belief in the ineffable divine plan for humanity, the Earth, himself and pretty much everything else. It gives him something of a get-out-of-jail-free card for personal responsibility - since he is God's creation, everything he does is inevitably part of the plan and hence, he can't really do anything wrong (which incidentally would be his justification for leaving Earth to become a warden). His definition of 'doing good' has slid somewhat after thousands of years on Earth - he considers himself to be doing everyone a favour by making a traffic warden's notebook catch alight, for example. On top of this, there are certain human unnecessaries he's grown accustomed to such as classical music, sushi, alcohol, the cinema and (in particular) rare books.
On the whole, he is still a genuine angel with genuinely high hopes for humanity, but - as his demonic counterpart puts it - he is also 'just enough of a bastard to be worth liking.'
History: Originally, Aziraphale was set over Eden's Eastern Gate with a flaming sword - which he gave to Adam and Eve, to defend themselves, when they were exiled. It's unknown what he spent the consequent few millennia doing, except that he spent much of it with the demon Crowley, with whom he maintains an awkward friendship and (for the last thousand years) an 'Agreement', whereby they sometimes do a little of each other's work. Aziraphale's time as a Principality seems to have been spent mostly in England, where he is cited as being responsible for the county of Shropshire and the city of Edinburgh (whereas Crowley claims Manchester and Glasgow as his own). At the time of the novel (presumably the late 1980s/early 90s), he runs a small bookshop in Soho, although it is more of a private collection than a shop; he goes to great lengths to avoid actually selling anything.
By the time of the novel's events, which revolve around the Apocalypse being brought about by the Four Horsemen at the command of the Antichrist, Aziraphale has been reluctantly brought around to the idea that despite the Great Plan willing it so, he wouldn't enjoy the Apocalypse very much. He and Crowley's attempts to prevent it are well-meant but mostly ineffective. After the Antichrist himself - a very sensible 11-year-old boy - decides the Apocalypse isn't going to happen, Aziraphale manages to convince the angel Metatron not to push the issue. After the situation cools down, Aziraphale's 'people' choose to leave him alone; the sense of unfulfilled duty and not-having-quite-done-the-right-thing that this leaves Aziraphale with would act as a motivation for him to join the merry crew of the Barge.