Adam Crowley
Adam Fletcher Crowley
Physical Description
Body Features
Many star or sunburst shaped scars of varying sizes across his body from his bug curse - which is why he keeps covered-up except face or hands.
Facial Features
Adam has a narrow, heart-shaped face with large, almond eyes, a 'McMurran' nose, and full lips. With enough sun, he gains a sprinkling of freckles across his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose.
Identifying Characteristics
Big green eyes.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
EARLY CHILDHOOD
Adam was born to Jessica McMurran as his father, Daniel McMurran, passed away. The third child of a third child, Adam is a High Riser - one of a long line of reincarnations of the Entity Fate. His father died being sacrificied to resurrect the Demon Lucifer, a rather unfortunate use of High Risers. To prevent Adam from meeting the same end, he was sent as a newborn, along with his older brother Elijah, to live in America with paternal Uncle Eric and Aunt Bridget. At the age of four, Elijah began bringing Adam with him when he went to visit their family friend, John Crowley's house. While initially frightened by the man's intimidating exterior, Adam quickly grew to like John. A precociously intelligent child, John was one of the few people who took him seriously and didn't laugh at the odd things he said.
HOMECOMING
The updated Castle defenses now complete, Adam and Elijah returned home to Atlantis. Adam was delighted when his mother began dating John, and broached the topic of adoption with the man. Naturally hesitant to adopt the child of a woman he had only just started seeing romantically, John asked Adam to wait and see. Meanwhile, the return to Atlantis had marked some strange changes in Adam. He began to have frequent and vivid nightmares, would hear voices, and see people who weren't there. Jessica and John feared he was mentally unwell except for one proof - a supposed metal bug that lived underneath his skin. They could feel it and it moved when they touched it. They went to Hana Tanek, an anthropologist who studied the races of Atlantis, for some explanation.
CURSED
Hana explained that the bugs were a sort of disease, bioengineered by the Elves and Demons long ago, during the genocide of the Risers. The cause of the disease was like a curse, due to Adam being a broken link in the chain of High Risers - his father never held him to create the link. To cure it, Adam would have to relink by having and holding his own third child - the next High Riser. The bug's purpose was to find or create wounds, causing constant bleeding. This would kill a normal human, but a High Riser's blood regenerates faster, weakening, but not killing him. As the bug collected iron from the blood, it would create new bugs that would spread throughout the body as Adam aged, weakening him further. Eventually, the bugs would cause loss of senses, brain damage, and ultimately death. The wounds could not be healed by magical or practical methods and trying to remove the bug would result in a frenzy feed, killing its host. Jessica and John were horrified at this prognosis, but since Adam was so young, little could be done to help him.
CHOSEN
In better news, John married Jessica after an accidental pregnancy and he adopted Adam as promised. With the death of Daniel - The King of Gaulsabis, the obliteration of Julius - The High King of Atlantis, and the suicide of Gwendolyn - The Queen of Arudis, Jessica - The Queen of Malais, was left running the continent alone. In this situation, a child of one of the previous Kings and Queens is chosen by a council to be trained as a potential Regent. Noting his intelligence, Adam was chosen for this task. Not even really needing an incentive to learn, Adam poured himself into the role, learning anything and everything he may need to know someday as Regent. He often poured too much, falling ill and fainting on occasion with the strain of his studies.
CAPTURED
When Adam was 13, his brother Elijah returned to the castle, having disappeared since the war with Demons. With him, was his spurious wife, Bara, who the Demon Price manipulated into allowing him into the Castle. Price kidnapped Adam, holding him ransom in exchange for the return of Elijah. Not about to stand for that, John and Elijah set out on a rescue mission with help from the double-agents Daphne and Nekka. They successfully retrieved Adam, but not before he received mental, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of Price. Adam remained broken for sometime after that, disassociated completely and, when he finally came to, flirted with the idea of suicide by removing a bug. He felt the future held nothing in store for him but more pain and misery. John was thankfully able to talk him back from the edge. However, the mental strain from the trauma and his continued illness left him reclusive and depressed.
CURE
At 18, his mother fell pregnant and ill at the same time and Adam took over for her as Regent. Unfortunately, he was not in the best shape himself and the additional responsibilities led to him becoming gravely ill and dying. Being a High Riser, that was not the absolute end for him and he returned to life minutes later. Minutes enough for his bugs to die due to lack of constant blood supply. His wounds were able to heal and he was able to recover - feeling better than he had in 14 years. Years he had spent cooped up in his room with books, in study halls with old tutors, and meeting with foreign dignitaries. He suddenly realized he didn't have a single friend outside his family. He set out to change that rather awkwardly, asking a random girl he met in the hall to the Autumn Ball.
HOPE
Said random girl was the new nurse hired at the infirmary. A one oddly named Trajedie Remourna. She didn't mind Adam's awkwardness and inexperience, being rather the same way herself. They hit it off discussing literature in particular. Adam found himself dropping into the infirmary regularly, not for illness, but to ask for her after work. He soon was experiencing all the firsts he had missed out on within a month or two: date, kiss... and then the bases... To say they were stupidly in love with one another would be an understatement. They promised their whole lives to each other in a whirlwind romance. Then Adam's bugs returned. They weren't gone, just had a temporary set back. He realized how selfish he was to ask a young healthy woman to essentially be his nursemaid and he attempted to break up with her. Trajedie refused to let that happen and they ended up engaged instead. Knowing that Adam could be saved by having three children, she stopped taking her birth control without telling him and got pregnant in an attempt to rescue him from his fate. They were married that winter.
TREPIDATION
Trajedie, being a petite 18-year-old girl, did not take well to pregnancy and nearly died giving birth to her and Adam's first child: Jericho Crowley. Terrified of losing her and making her go through that ordeal again, Adam made sure to use protection himself for every other amorous encounter after. He opted instead to go with his doctors' plan of artificially 'killing' him each month to kill the bugs. This worked for a number of years but left Adam in a similarly weakened state. He began to lose so much weight, the doctors could no longer in good conscience perform the procedure, and the alternative was his bugs coming back with a vengeance. Trajedie worked hard to convince Adam that she was healthy enough for another child, but that was difficult with the doctors wanting to give her fertility drugs to encourage twins. If she could barely handle pregnancy with one, he didn't know how she could manage two. Reluctantly, he finally gave in.
A FUTURE
Although Trajedie's second pregnancy was by no means easier, she survived the duration and the birth, giving Adam two more children: a girl they named Petra and a boy named Everette... the next High Riser. As Hana had predicted 20 years ago, Adam holding Everette for the first time relinked the chain back to Fate, killing the bugs for good. However, Adam himself was close to death at that time and took awhile to convalesce even in the absence of the bugs. Meanwhile, word that new Kings and Queens of Atlantis were about to be chosen was circulating throughout the kingdom. Adam was unsure how he felt about this, having trained his whole life to be Regent, to give up the position. It turns out, he didn't really have to, as he was chosen as High King of Atlantis and his father, John, was chosen as King of Gaulsabis. Healthy now, with a wife and three beautiful children, working a job he was wholly dedicated to, with his beloved father as a coworker... Adam was finally truly happy.
LONG LIVE THE KING
Adam was renowned as one of the most beloved High Kings in Atlantian history. He was fair, put the struggling and downtrodden first, permanently ended the Demon War, and was an advocate for education throughout Atlantis. Still, all reigns must come to their eventual end. This time, caused by an oversight on Fate's part in trying to rebuild his race of Risers. Too many High Risers alive at one time split the soul too greatly. After the births of his great-grandchildren - twin High Risers, Adam died... and stayed dead... Or did he? Because he recently found himself alive back on Earth in the woods with his also deceased niece Vladora. Unsure of what to do or where to go, and not wanting to be recognized, he grew out his hair and a beard and is acting as a ranger named Fletch.
Education
- Pre-K in the United States
- Tutored
Employment
- Regent of Atlantis
- High King of Atlantis
- Ranger
Mental Trauma
- When Adam returned to Atlantis at the age of four, he developed a 'curse' that resulted in his body using its iron stores to produce metal bugs. These bugs created wounds that would never heal, resulting in constant bleeding, chronic pain, fatigue, a weakened immune system, and the promise of loss of senses and eventual death. This caused:
- Phobia of bugs, especially beetles - resulting in feelings of severe nausea and becoming lightheaded
- Clinical depression, especially between the ages of 13 to 19
- Adam was kidnapped by the Demon Price and brought to Die Insel Holle at the age of 13. For the duration of his stay, he suffered mental, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of the Demons. This caused:
- Post-traumatic stress, dissociation, suicidal ideation, and later sexual hang-ups
Intellectual Characteristics
Incredibly intelligent, though he himself would deny being any kind of 'genius'. Adam displayed a precocious love of learning from a young age - once he learned to read independently, it was hard to stop him. Intrinsically motivated, his tutors were subsequently challenged keeping up with him in rigor. Even as a child, he was thoughtful and open-minded, looking at situations from multiple viewpoints. His emotional intelligence is also quite strong, being a deeply loving and empathetic person rather than 'coldly logical.'
Social
Hobbies & Pets
A turtle.
Relationships
Nicknames & Petnames
Adam calls Trajedie 'Lovely' as a pet name.
Comments