Polynices Crawford

"I'll like to let you know that your demons don't define you."

- Polynices in Branches, Birches and Junipers

Polynices Crawford [he/him] is a 19-years-old demon who currently holds a position as a librarian in Ever After High. He also works as an entry-level employee in Inferno, and his job is to make deals with overemotional teenagers.

Originally an ordinary human with no destiny, Polynices found himself on the Seventh Circle of Hell after his death at 17. Annoyed by this turn of events, "Nick" immediately demanded the demon in charge to complete his education and/or get a job. Thus, he was given the opportunity to become a so-called "deal demon".

After the events of Branches, Birches and Junipers, Polynices gets promoted to taking the role of the Devil in the Juniper Tree, and is allowed to fill a position at Ever After High as the librarian.

Personality
Polynices acts like he's suave, calm and collected. Unfortunately, he's not.

Basically, Polynices is a high-strung dork who's prone to superfluous speech. There's often never a time when he's not talking, and when he's silent – look out, since he's probably contemplating something.

A huge literature nerd, Polynices likes to drop big words and complex vocabulary almost everywhere. He's like a walking SAT Reading question. Like, that terrible. Aside from his ostentatious diction, literature references are frequent in Polynices' speech. Classical references are probably the biggest victim, with the one exception being any Sophocles' plays because Polynices was never really fond of his namesake. Outside of Greek and Roman literature, Polynices has a fondness for 19th century and 20th century novels and poetry. If you mentioned a mildly influential book to him, Polynices is likely to known it, and have read it, and will probably end up going on an excited ramble about the book. He's a huge dork, basically.

Despite the ever-growing pile of books he reads, Polynices is clueless about the world. Book-smart, but hardly people-smart or street-smart, Polynices is, at his core, innocent. He lives in a world dictated by his books, and hasn't pulled his head out of them enough to assess and live in the real world. (Not that he wants to live in the real world, mind you, since he hated reality to the point where he brought himself out of it.)

Selectively forgetful, Polynices only cares to remember the things he likes and forget the things he wouldn't mind sacrificing to hell. All the little details in Thomas Hardy and George Elliot novel? All the nuances of WH Auden's poetry? Every word, every groove of idk some pretentious classic here? Yes, yes, yes. His own birthday? His cellphone number? No. There's one exception, and that is Polynices can never move on from his past, which is what he calls "the incident". He's forever tied down by what he regards as "his greatest mistakes" and doubts he can ever get over that.

Because of that, Polynices is self-conscious. He tries to disguise that with a false air of self-confidence. Although he tries to "fake it until he makes it", Polynices really really doubts that he'll ever make it. What is this "it"? Overcoming his past, gaining a sense of purpose in life, and maybe even a little bit of self-love.

A little bit arrogant, Polynices has a very classist view of the world. Coming from an upper-middle class family, Polynices preaches how he was never handed anything on a silver platter, being a non-legacy and not wealthy. However, despite those factors, he's still in a privileged state and has a tendency to frown at others he sees as lesser.

Overall, Polynices is a flamboyant young demon stuck in the past, who tries to get past that by being sympathetic and empathetic to the people he meets in the present.

Appearance
Although physically he's 17, and will remain physically 17 forever, Polynices is often mistaken for a 15-year-old, and sometimes even younger. With a youthful face, boyish hair and his small figure, Polynices looks very much like an overgrown child.

Often, the young demon is surrounded by a light blue glow of light. It's very faint, hardly noticeable, but it essentially serves as an aura to define him as different from a typical human being. He is also seen floating, rather than walking on the Earth normally.

Polynices is pale. In fact, he's so incredibly pale that he can't take selfies with the flash on. Never a sportsperson, and never someone who liked to do anything other than read books and look after his sister, Polynices' skin had never darkened since the day he was born. His skin is also dotted with freckles. Lots of freckles.

His body is short and skinny and awkward. Think Hollywood-sque high school nerd, except less tall.

His hair is an odd mix of different sorts of brown. At the tips, his hair is a pale straw-colour, but near the roots, it's more dirty, like mud. Generally, he describes it as "mousey". It's cut neatly and well-kept, making Polynices appear very seemly. He also tends to comb his hair forward, giving himself fringe that sticks out.

Eye-wise, Polynices is nothing to behold. They're a pale blue, and hardly noticeable. In fact, they shouldn't have even deserved a mention in this appearance section.

Appearance-wise, one of Polynices' greatest regrets is not being able to develop physically, to have his body be anything other than 17. It's something that makes him uncomfortable, as he always envisioned himself finally being able to get out of his embarrassing teenage phase, finally get a more attractive face, finally be taller (and not have his little sister tower over him), and finally be comfortable with how he looks and acts. Unfortunately, Polynices will forever lean on the edge between adulthood and his awkward teenage years, during the time when he feels most uncomely.

As a result, he will tend to joke about how "handsome" and even how "hot" he looks, even though he will most likely not agree with his own sentiments, ever.

Backstory
'''Please note that Polynices' backstory is not intended to be "shock factor". His backstory is something very real to high-achiever students and can be seen as addressing certain issues with society/the education system. In a sense, this backstory could have been written as some sort of coping mechanism. There's certainly a purpose as to why this is his narrative.'''

Childhood
had an okay childhood

School
went to grammar school. established himself as relatively smart, but school stress kept building up on him and things happened and everything spun out of his control. he failed his exams, lost all self confidence and worth, and didn't know what to do with himself

The Turning Point
he felt utterly, utterly useless. like everything he built up his life for was now just gone. things happened.

Demonhood
And that was how Polynices ended up on the seventh circle of Hell.

it wasn't like he was innately sinful or generally bad. the rules just dictated that he should go to seventh circle.

Nick was honestly kinda irritated since he STILL didn't have a purpose for his life and now he had to spend eternity purposeless

so he threw a fit at the demon on shift at that time and ended up spewing so many technical words that the demon just gave up and gave Nick a job. an entry-level, minimum-wage job, but Nick appreciated that job and tried to do his best at it

eventually got promoted to a deal demon.

he still feels a perpetual sort of emptiness and his paranoia still trips him up and talking about his past is incredibly difficult. isn't sure how to amend that emptiness but now, he has a slight sliver of hope.

Antigone (sister)
Antigone is pretty cool, I guess. The coolest person in Nick's life, at least. The only reason he managed to live to his 17th year was because of how much she inspired him, and Nick's greatest regret in life was making his sister fret over his death.

Throughout demonhood, Polynices always considered visiting his sister and telling her, 'hey, my life is alright now', but he never got around to it. And he doesn't want to get around to it, because he fears what she might say. Would she be pissed that her darling elder brother never bothered dropping by to reassure her? Would she be over his death, and would talking to her bring up bad memories? Polynices isn't sure, and he definitely doesn't want to find out.

Parents
The Crawfords were a family of ordinary citizens who always held lofty dreams of her children becoming fairytale legacies.

Avian Juniper
Avian was one of the overemotional teenagers that Polynices often makes deal with. Nick treats Avian like a child, often calling him "kid", and saying parental things like "be careful", "don't do drugs", and "eat your vegetables". They get along well in a brotherly fashion ( or should I say, a brother-in-law fashion? )

Now that the Branches arch is over, Nick doesn't really hang out with Avian as often. The two only really run into each other at the library at this point.

Icarus Juniper
Icarus Juniper is aware and irritated by Nick's existence. Polynices is too eager and loud, which makes him hard to get along well with Icarus, but the two do trade commentary on poetry & other written works.

Friends
Since Polynices Crawford is a faculty member, he doesn't really make friends with students. However, there are a few that he is on decent terms with.

Trivia

 * The name Polynices comes from a figure in Greek tragedy. "Polynices" a prince of Thebes, brother to Antigone. When their father Oedipus (aka the motherf–er) died, Polynices and his brother Eteocles argued over the throne, and Eteocles slew Polynices. Antigone wanted to bury her brother's body but could not do so under the law of Thebes.
 * This parallels the Juniper Tree. Two relatives are stuck in a fight for an inheritance, so the elder kills the younger. A sister is heartbroken, and wanting her brother's soul to rest, she seeks to bury him.
 * Anyway, Nick died pretty young and his sister (named Antigone) had to deal with that.
 * Their parents really did not think their names through.
 * Crawford is a British surname meaning "Crow ford" in Old English. This is relevant because he's English and the name is related to birds.
 * Despite his (and his sister's) name, Polynices is not actually from Greek mythology. In fact, he's simply an ordinary British guy who was raised by pretentious parents obsessed with the Classical world.
 * Polynices was initially designed to be a parody of popular humanisations of non-human characters like Wheatley, Bill Cipher and Cecil (WTNV): dapper-dressing, skinny, blond white guys.
 * Polynices thinks memes are cool, because all the other demons in hell make fun of him by trying to convince him that memes were cool and referencing them made you popular. Therefore Nick has become meme trash. Save him.