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[pocketfulofsouls]

PLAYER INFORMATION
Your Name: Effy
OOC Journal: terrabelle
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: I'm over 18!
Email IM: Still upon request. It's easy to contact me by PMing my journal or finding me on Plurk!
Characters Played at Ataraxion: John Watson theblogger

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Crowley
Canon: Supernatural
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: Season 7 "Time for a Wedding!"
Number: Random me, bb!

Setting:
Supernatural is set in what is basically modern Earth. Now add a bunch of monsters that are mostly able to disguise themselves as humans (for the convenience of the show's CGI bill) that tend to like to eat humans. Angels, demons, werewolves, vampires, fairies... You name it, Supernatural has almost certainly done some sort of episode regarding it.

I suppose it's also important to note that Supernatural's world features a Heaven, a Hell, and a Purgatory. We haven't been given much on Heaven aside from the fact that a bunch of angels and dead people live up there and are allowed to pretty much live as they please in separate worlds specific to them. In Hell, it is currently shaped to be a long corridor of people waiting in a line they will never reach the front of. Purgatory, apparently, is where all the monsters on Earth go when they die. We haven't seen it yet, but we've seen a lot of nasty things from it.

More information about Supernatural and its lore can be found in its personal wiki here.

History:
Crowley was born Fergus MacLeod in 17th century Scotland. He had a son who he hated (enough that the boy ratted out Crowley's deets when he was raised as a ghost) and worked as a "two-bit tailor". One fine day (well, we don't know if it was actually a fine day - it was probably a dark stormy night, knowing Scotland), Fergus decided that he needed a bigger package and sold his soul to a cross-roads demon for "three inches below the belt" (just trying to hit double digits). After ten years was up, he was dragged to Hell by hellhounds.

Twisted by his time there and what was likely a long course of torturing other imprisoned souls, Fergus was warped into the demon Crowley. The stretch of time between Crowley's past and the current day is not extended upon, but he earned himself the title "King of the Crossroads", meaning he was essentially the head manager for all the demons who dealt in selling miracles for souls. It's suggested that he was involved with Lilith, the essential Queen of Hell, though Crowley never gives any true indication of this himself. So whether he was her lover or just her right-hand man is unknown.

But notice of him is brought to the Winchesters first through a prophetic book that says that Bela Talbot took the Colt (a legendary gun that can kill anything) to Lilith, who then gave it to Crowley for safekeeping. Lilith died (and in doing so unleashed Lucifer from his Cage) and the Colt was the boy's first idea to putting a stop to Lucifer, so they rolled over to pay Crowley a visit (and prepare to kill them). Not only does Crowley know they're coming, but he gets them good and trapped... before using the Colt to kill his own demon lackeys. Turns out Crowley's not too happy about Lucifer getting out and about either; Lucifer's going to fuck up Earth and Crowley sort of likes living there. He's says he's going to give the Colt to the boys on the condition that they empty every bullet into Lucifer's skull so Crowley can go on living his life of luxury. The boys naturally take the Colt then shoot at Crowley... only to find the gun has no bullets. After tossing them some ammo, Crowley disappears.

Later, it's discovered that the only way to reopen Lucifer's Cage is to acquire the rings of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Crowley helps the boys figure out where these Horsemen are, first by torturing a demon from Sam's past to find Pestilence, then by divining Death's location from the transaction of Bobby Singer's soul. On top of giving them Death's location, Crowley seems to show a rare moment of good will and gives Bobby back his ability to walk (the man had been invalided from a fairly recent injury). He says he'll give Bobby back his soul once Lucifer has gone back into his cage.

Well, Lucifer gets back into his cage, essentially. Crowley gets the title King of Hell in Lucifer's absence, essentially adopting the position of head hauncho for all of Hell's deals and demons. However, not all is right. Crowley's position is shaky and, with Michael gone in Heaven, Castiel is having a similar problem. Castiel is being picked on by his older brother, Raphael, who wants to free Michael and Lucifer so they can get back to bringing the world to an end with their fighting, and can either die or kneel to Raphael's wishes (because Cas is just an angel and Raphael is the last archangel in Heaven - big power difference). Knowing this, Crowley appears to Castiel when the angel is creeping on Dean and Dean's new life from afar. Crowley proposes a deal to Castiel: he will give Castiel a ton of souls (which are pretty much pure power, apparently) from Hell in order to beat Raphael. In return, Castiel has to help Crowley search for Purgatory, which is basically an untapped well of monster souls. Crowley wants those souls to secure his position as the King of Hell, where Castiel wants them to secure his position as the ruler in Heaven. The two decide to split the souls down the middle and devise a scheme to get to Purgatory.

Crowley raises Samuel Campbell (the Winchester boys' maternal grandfather, who is also a hunter) from the dead, promising him that he will return Samuel's daughter (the Winchester's mother) to life if Samuel will work for him. Castiel, meanwhile, plunges into Hell and pulls Sam Winchester's body (but NOT his soul) from Lucifer's Cage and adds him to the team. Crowley sends Samuel and Sam on a mission to find the alphas (the very first of their kind) of each monster on Earth, because he believes one of them will know where Purgatory is if they're tortured enough.

This is what actually happened. What Crowley TELLS the Winchesters is a different story. Castiel is not a known factor to this scheme until the very end of the season. So what Crowley TELLS the Winchesters is that, as King of Hell, he was powerful enough to resurrect Samuel and Sam. He agrees to get Sam's soul from Lucifer's Cage if the Winchester brothers will help him get alphas. This bit of information is only revealed later, after it is discovered that Sam has no soul. The actual first time we see Crowley after Lucifer's fall back into his cage is at Bobby's.

At some point here, Bobby Singer gets pissed off because Crowley hasn't returned his soul yet and summons the demon to tell him to hold up his end of the bargain. At first, Crowley essentially thumbs his nose at Bobby and points out the contract never said he HAD to give back Bobby's soul, and he manages to threaten his way into getting Bobby to free him. His friend Rufus and the boys help him figure out that, if one burns the bones of a demon, it will kill them. This is how Crowley's human life was revealed, as a demon gives up Crowley's true name (as she's being tested for this burning bones deal) and Rufus, in turn, digs up information and a piece of Fergus' son, Gavin. Gavin tells Bobby where Fergus' bones are burried. This time, under the threat of having his bones burned, Crowley agrees to give Bobby his soul back. Crowley takes his bones back and leaves.

Dean and Sam (Sam now with magic amnesia) find out what Samuel is doing, and who he is working for. It's revealed that Sam has no soul. Crowley makes the aforementioned reveal and deal regarding Sam's soul (Cas is still not a known player in any of this). Dean and Sam team up with Meg, a Lucifer loyalist who would like to see Crowley dead, and go after him to threaten Crowley into getting Sam's soul anyway. They trick Crowley into a Devil's Trap. Crowley beats the crap out of Meg in a Devil's Trap cage-match and gets out of it only to run into Castiel, who has magically appeared with Crowley's bones in a sack. He makes Crowley reveal that he was, in fact, lying about being able to get Sam's soul back from the Cage. Castiel burns the bones and Crowley burns and dies.

Except it was all a trick. Castiel helped fake Crowley's death to get him off of the Winchester's radars and back to business.

The Winchesters start fucking things up royally for Crowley without even knowing Crowley is still alive and Crowley asks Castiel to get rid of them. Cas says no, Crowley sends demons to try anyway. Castiel kills those demons, Crowley gets the message that he can't touch the Winchesters. Except the Winchesters have now figured out that Castiel is working with Crowley and trap the angel in holy fire. Crowley saves him and leaves. Crowley then kidnaps Ben and Lisa, Dean's family for the year he was off of hunting, and uses them as bargaining chips to get the Winchesters to lay off fucking up Crowley's plans because clearly nothing else was working. Dean manages to save them anyway, but Crowley doesn't give a shit. He just needed Dean distracted long enough to start a ritual that would finally open Purgatory.

Well, Castiel shows up to the ritual and, turns out, he's not going to let Crowley have any souls at all. At that point, Castiel is still powerful enough to kill Crowley, so Crowley runs. He comes back with Raphael and takes back the blood to the ritual. Except it wasn't actually the right blood - Castiel switched them and did the ritual on his own, basically allowing him to suck up every soul in Purgatory. With as much power as he has, Castiel is basically God. Castiel kills Raphael and lets Crowley escape. Later, Castiel prepares to remake the world as he sees fit. He visits Crowley where the demon is hiding from him, in a run-down trailer in some camping spot. The deal is this: Crowley gets to remain alive and King of Hell, because Castiel still needs Hell to hold up as a threat to the humans. However, Castiel gets to decide who goes to Hell and who doesn't. Crowley has no choice but to agree.

Castiel essentially dies the next episode as the amount of souls in him become too much for an angel to carry. Dean and Bobby help Castiel spit up all those souls back into Purgatory, trying to save him. A group of monsters called the leviathans cling to Castiel, though, and take over the angel's body, claiming that Cas is 'gone'.

With the leviathans released into the world, and making a huge mess of it, Crowley approaches their leader, Dick Roman, to propose a partnership. Dick is pretty much a dick and tells Crowley he'd literally rather swim in garbage. Crowley gets the hint and fucks off, but he is pissed. His mission, therefor, is to kill all the leviathans because they are clearly a threat against whatever Crowley's plans for the world are. Can't work with them? Kill them all.

In his canon pull point, "Time for a Wedding!", one of Crowley's workers is trying to cheat the system by making contracts, then having a partner kill those people who made them in order to collect souls early. Crowley shows up because someone blew the whistle on this demon and the Winchesters just happen to be there at the same time. Crowley reveals that he's been keeping demons from fucking with the Winchesters because he'd like if the Winchesters killed all leviathans. Then he asks for the Winchesters to hand over the demon to him, because he wants to make an example of him to the rest of Hell. According to Crowley, there's an integrity to be had in crossroads deals and this worker of his has seriously fucked up. The Winchesters hand said demon over and Crowley disappears.

Personality:
Crowley is a self-made demon that has been around for a long, long year. He has kept his head down when he had to, served who he had to, killed who he had to in order to climb the ladder of power and make himself a niche in Hell’s staff of iniquity. Survival is a concern inherent to most long-lasting demons, but few have, arguably, done it with such finesse.

Though he might wish to come off as unpredictable, Crowley is largely levelheaded when it comes to making his decisions and taking action. This is something that sets him apart from most of his fellow demons and is likely the primary reason for how he’s gotten so far. True, he has a certain charisma to him. He knows perfectly well how to construct an offer one can’t refuse, and how to prod a person exactly where it hurts, but such skills have taken him time to perfect, and by extension a certain amount of patience. He can be quick to irritate, but enraging Crowley is a difficult (not to mention dangerous) feat to accomplish. Just because he’s practical, however, doesn’t mean he has to be a stuffed shirt.

Anyone meeting Crowley for the first time will probably meet someone who is polished, but casual. His meatsuit is average at best so far as looks go, but the pure smarm that pours off of the demon is a force of its own. He’s quick with a joke, or sarcasm, and casual insults weave themselves into his conversation like veins are prone to weave through a body, but he can be entertaining, if he feels like it. He can even be useful, for a price. What that is and what it costs is all up to circumstance.

It’s not surprising that Crowley is very self-serving. After all, no one has ever done him any favors. He has helped to divert fate purely because it would be an inconvenience to him, and has condemned what was supposed to be his boss to spend the rest of their days in a small box. This would put Crowley between a rock and a hard place, Hell having no leader and certain demons being aware of his involvement in squaring the Devil away. It’s questionable why Crowley chose to put the responsibility on his shoulders – was it his plan all along, or a necessity he was willing to cover? Crowley isn’t saying.

Typical of a demon, Crowley is quick to give his word then find a loophole out of keeping it. He is a magnificent liar and a decent actor. At the same time, however, he does show a certain reverence for the contracts he makes and will follow them to the letter (one just has to pay careful attention to the fine print). Also atypical of a demon, he’s aware of how to be diplomatic when it’s opportunistic. He would rather talk his way out of a fight then involve himself in one, but when the need arises, he will strike an opponent down without pause, or torture them until he gets what he’s looking for. It’s unwise of anyone to put faith into Crowley; he’s a manipulative and spiteful bastard, and with a future of nothing better to do, he’s prone to start experimenting.

Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:

Abilities
Crowley tends to be discreet about showing his power, but holds a position over most of his peers in the series.

Selective Invulnerability – Demons are essentially nasty, powerful souls possessing the bodies of some poor human being (their ‘meatsuit’), so any damage by gunshot, stabbing, etc, damages the body but does not actually harm the demon. They can be hurt, however, by holy water. They can be contained in a Devil’s Trap. They can be exercised. However, the only known ways to kill a demon is by shooting them with the Colt, stabbing them in the heart with Ruby’s blade, burning the bones of their original body, or by angelic power.

Telekinesis – The ability to send objects and people flying with a flick of his wrist. In the canon, Crowley claims to have taken on a whole nest of other demons on his own.

Teleportation – Anywhere around the world and down to Hell itself. This seems as effortless to Crowley as walking. He's probably too wary to use it to try and get out of the Tranquility.

Pyrokinesis – Crowley has shown control over fire by snuffing out holy fire (a ring of fire that can hold even an archangel) and starting his own with only a thought.

Invisibility - Shown when Crowley made a deal with Castiel while Dean derped nearby raking leaves, unknowing of both angelic and demonic presences.

Magic - It has been revealed that Crowley uses the power of a soul in order to preform small miracles for that person or on behalf of them; ie. making them famous, bailing out their bank, giving a quadriplegic man the ability to walk again, and predicting the location of cosmically powerful entities. Crowley also seems to be learned in Latin and Enochian, allowing him to perform rituals or ward his home against angels.

He has also shown himself to be deft hand in the way of torture.

Weaknesses
See Selective Invulnerability under the Abilities section for physical limitations.

Crowley is inherently very selfish and not above stepping on others to get what he wants, or trying to destroy whoever gets in his way. He's a liar, arrogant, diabolical, and easy to irritate if you happen to be an idiot. While he's possibly one of the most diplomatic of demons, and charismatic, he's still got an inclination to say something condescending/snarky whenever possible.

Craig scotch, aged at least 60 years, and fine suits.

Inventory: Cell-phone, wallet, magic coins (allow him to hear anything around the coin and acts as a tracking device), suit jacket, slacks, shirt, shoes, tie, overcoat.

And one Hellhound puppy? Hellhounds are essentially invisible dogs that grow up to monstrous sizes and come to collect human souls for Hell when their contracts have run out. Once they have a scent, they will follow it until they have found and killed the person, unless they are called off by their masters or killed. They are Crowley's signature lackey and it would quite suit him to have one to raise. Being still a little thing (probably about the size of a bulldog), it's possible to easily kill or capture it. If not, it could probably be used as a plot point later, with mod permission. At this time, it'd more or less be a lapdog.

Appearance:
A middle-aged man with black hair and dark eyes. He's about 5'8 (174 cm) tall, actually a broad-shouldered, trim physique. He likes tailored suits for his apparel.

Age: Earth years, 400. Hell years, 48,000 (1 month Earth = 10 years in Hell)

SAMPLES
Log Sample:

Taking the final step to becoming a demon was, quite literally, a shock to the system. While being dragged to Hell wasn’t exactly peaches and cream, there was nothing in his existence, before or after he was technically living, to prepare him for that particular metaphysical agony. Of course, when it came to genuine art of inventive, forceful persuasion, the Cult of Eternal Damnation featured only the cream of the crop. After being yanked from the frayed ribbons of his body and worked over by Hell’s Finest (most probably ditch-diggers and jilted women in life) for what seemed like twice the time he had spent in actual meat, Fergus was ready to prostrate himself before the Devil himself, if it meant a pint of lukewarm rotgut. Getting a membership jacket seemed like the permanent reprieve.

He did what he had to, to whomever he had to, and helped strip himself bare. When there was almost nothing left, the soul of Fergus McLeod unraveled. He doesn’t remember quite how they put him back together after he was unmade, only that the breath of life was fire and brimstone. Hate was like hot, liquid metal, poured in and in until all the gaps were sealed, until he was filled to the brim and overflowing. Out of the eternal flame, he was born again, a new creature built around the scraps of another. Hell had successfully retailored the tailor, so to speak. Of course it was only right, then, to take a new name.

Every day after that was a summer Scotland could never give him. Each calendar date marked another chance to give the Devil his due. Crowley, full of flame and promise, would indeed prove to be a demon that managed to break the mold in latter days.

Still, for the lion’s share of the first few centuries after his rebirth, he couldn’t stop spitting fire.

Comms Sample:

[ A bit after the pell-mell ordeal of waking up in a strange place with no clothes and no real knowledge of what is happening, this man shows up on the communicator. He's settled in what appears to be the common room of one of the passenger docks. If he's as tired as everyone else is feeling, he doesn't show it. He's actually regarding the camera with the disdain of someone coming across something unsightly, like a rat or a mysterious stain on the upholstery. He's dressed in black, but it's not the typical jumpsuit, oh no. This is an actual suit, matching tie, jacket, and shirt, all coal black. ]

So. Space, the final frontier, in a galaxy far, far away. I don't think a Rocket Man reference would be sorely amiss right about now - I think it's going to be a long, long time til touchdown brings us 'round again.

Tranquility...

[ There's a typical South London accent here.

The man squints appraisingly. ]

I like it. The irony, that is - the ship's sort of boring, isn't it? Too much room, a lot of strange echoes... Good thing I've got you lot.

[ A close-lipped smile, perhaps a twinkle in those dark, dark eyes. ]

I'm sure everyone's quite busy getting settled into their denial, so I won't waste much time. Let's start with a practical question for the oldbies: Where's the liquor?

For the whole of you, I've got something of a philosophical question: What would you be prepared to do in order to get back to where you belong?

Don't be shy, duckies, it's only hypothetical.