Anthony Croce

should've gone to art school (major character)

Cyrus Hecate refers to him exclusively by his full first and last name because of an inside joke between the two, but she says it so seriously most people whom she introduces him to just follow her lead. Dallas Dame always calls him Ant or Detective; Quill Cardenas calls him Mr. Croce.
His surname is pronounced "KRO-chay", with a tapped R sound.

Male (he/him, cisgender)

26

Gay and somewhere on the asexual spectrum

Anthony has the general vibe of a mildly unhinged professor in a classic sci-fi novel that encourages the protagonist to seize the day so hard they accidentally kill a man. He wears nice-looking, dark academia-adjacent clothing, but it's always slightly mismatched and never suits the weather. He constantly looks like he was just caught up in a strong wind.

A little above average for his age/height

5' 9" (175 cm)

Dark brown, with a few grey hairs

It’s wavy and falls to just below his shoulders, and it’s usually in a bun that looks like it'll fall apart at any second.

Grey

Human

White; first generation Italian-American

Stocky and square-ish

Big sweaters, plain button-up shirts, long wool jackets, etc., all in dark or muted colors -- but he'll also often wear brightly patterned scarves or ties.

He has mostly faded, but still visible, self harm scars on both his wrists.

He almost always refers to people by their last names, without any sort of honorific like Ms. or Mr. in front. Dallas Dame is just "Dame", etc.
He smokes cigarettes (don't smoke, kids). He tries not to smoke around other people, especially not around Quill Cardenas, so when he’s with others he chews cinnamon gum to keep himself occupied instead.
Draws on his arm when he’s anxious or lost in thought. With a pen or marker if he has one, but usually just tracing with his finger.
Has a habit of either staring very intensely at people or focusing on a spot around their head the whole conversation without directly looking at them once, no in between.
He gets very animated when he's agitated or excited about something and gestures with his hands a lot.
He has no aversion to swears that might be considered more offensive than these, but when he curses, he normally uses the ones that stem from Christianity or other Abrahamic religions--"damn", "hell", "Jesus Christ", etc. When he's really angry, he swears in Italian.
Prefers pacing to sitting down or standing in one spot.
Always a little hunched into himself with his shoulders bunched together.

To find some sort of deeper meaning in his life. He likes his job, but he still feels as though he doesn’t have a true purpose.
To be a "good" person. He tries incredibly hard to be good, but it seems to him that he always lands himself in the murkiest of moral greys, and that really eats at him.

His work is his whole life. He feels lonely and doesn’t want to be, but does nothing to change it.
He’s scared of change in general. He’s not completely happy with his life right now, but what if he takes a risk and makes it worse? It’s very difficult for him to take opportunities and get out of his comfort zone.
He has a very difficult time expressing affection. Or pretty much any other emotion besides annoyance. To be blunt, sometimes he’s just a sarcastic asshole.
Raised very religiously, which isn’t inherently a bad thing, but still struggles with a lot of guilt and internalized homophobia because of it.
Guilt complex. He never thinks of himself as a good person no matter how hard he tries to be one and thinks he only has value if he's helping other people. He thinks of himself sort of like a kitchen sink--permanently stained and tainted, but maybe, at the very least, he can help to wash the blood off other people's hands.
Trust issues. He’s a naturally cautious person, but when he’s stressed he can become very paranoid.
Overly self-conscious. Pretty much always feels awkward around people and so puts on a cold demeanor to counter that.
He feels almost as if he doesn't deserve love; he doesn't understand what good people possibly see in him. Often has to be reassured that no, his friends don't secretly hate him, they actually do like him as a person. He has a hard time wrapping his head around the idea that his friends actually like being around him.
Almost always thinks with his head, ignoring his heart. His ability to look at things objectively can be helpful in his job, but he applies it too much to his personal relationships.
He almost always thinks he's right and has a hard time following any plan that's not his.

He's a little prejudiced towards anyone with a criminal record. But he kind of has to get over that, since his own job isn’t exactly the most legal thing in the world.
Prejudiced towards super religious people (see History).

Drawing and painting. He almost went to art school instead of becoming a detective.
He's also a pretty good detective, mostly because of how observant he is and his scrupulously accurate note-taking (he has been investigated more than once because of how perfect his tax records are; the authorities figure he must be getting away with massive fraud somewhere). He doesn't have a photographic memory by any means, but his memory is unusually strong and he actively works to make it more precise; he can memorize lists and information very quickly and can recite conversations that happened a week ago almost word for word.
He got really into the evolution of language and accents in high school while he was learning Latin and became very skilled at mimicking accents. He's really not sure what to do with this skill now that he has it.
Not a half-bad singer as Dallas Dame points out whenever he sings along to the old radio in his office, much to Ant's embarrassment.

Reading, drawing, sometimes journaling, researching cults and conspiracy theories, especially local ones, hiking

Anthony is often blunt, cold and sarcastic, but it’s really because he’s painfully shy. He hasn’t made a new friend in a long time. He takes a very long time to warm up to people, even if he doesn’t dislike them. Like a cat!
He has a hard time verbally expressing affection, and so will often just do little thoughtful things for people he cares about instead.
He doesn’t like being lonely, but he’s very introverted and does like spending time alone.
Though he's generally a quiet person, he's easily excitable/agitated and gets very animated when explaining something he's interested in or arguing a point.
His brain's always going a million miles a minute and he'll often stop a conversation in its tracks by saying or doing something completely out of the blue, then having to backtrack and explain the bizarre train of thought that led him there. People often have to ask him to explain things in general since he tends to assume that everything he knows is common sense.
Sometimes, when he's particularly distracted or occupied with something, he'll switch to Italian without noticing that the people around him have no clue what he's saying. When he's really angry, he sometimes says curses or makes gestures that would be very offensive in Italy but generally completely fly over other people's heads.
(A detour to clarify: Anthony has never actually been to Italy. His parents emigrated from there to the US a little before he was born, and he grew up in a community that was primarily made up of Italian, Roman Catholic immigrants. So though he's never been to the country, he grew up with a lot of the mannerisms and cultural background that someone living in Italy might have.)
He's very organized when it comes to paperwork and otherwise keeping records of things, but that's about as far as his methodicalness extends; his office looks like a library might look directly after a tornado blows through it. He insists that there's a method to the madness, but no one can figure out what the hell it is, him included.
Tends to see regular friend things as big deals; he’s really not used to affection. He’s surprised and genuinely touched when his best friend remembers his birthday. Every time.
Though he’s distrusting of others and their intentions, he’s very honest himself. He hates lying and usually doesn’t see a reason to hide the truth unless not doing so could bring harm to someone. As mentioned in his talents, he's so flatly honest that it sometimes makes people suspicious of him rather than making him appear more trustworthy.

Anthony is bipolar, and has both depressive and manic episodes. His manic episodes usually manifest as paranoia and delusions where he sees death omens everywhere. He also suffers from red-green colorblindness and being Italian 😔💔

Extremely distrustful of Jacques Device.
He and Felix Fairbanks might be considered friends, but certainly not of Anthony's own volition.
Sees Quill Cardenas as a little sister.
Lucia Croce is his actual little sister. Though she has no ill feelings towards him and was very young at the time, he still feels incredibly guilty over having to leave her with their parents when he cut himself off from them.
Has complicated feelings for Dallas Dame. He's maybe, kind of, definitely a little bit in love with him but Anthony also sees them as sort of rivals. Dally tends to get to crime scenes before he does and sometimes mucks them up on account of his job. Also, Ant has a huge bounty on his soul for reasons neither of them understand which adds an extra fun layer of rivalry? homoeroticism? both? to their dynamic.

The hate he grew up with around his family has left him with very confusing and often contradictory views on religion. He himself would not be able to tell you if he's Catholic or ex-Catholic.

Grew up learning English and Italian alongside each other and is fluent in both. He can speak pretty solid Latin as well, though he's not totally fluent. He also picks up a good amount of French from both Dallas Dame and Jacques Device throughout the course of the story (though mostly from Dally, so his French is more Québécois than continental).
He has a bit of a New England accent that becomes apparent when he says certain words (aka anything with an 'r' sound. If you don't know what I mean ask your nearest New Englander friend to say "I parked the car in Harvard Yard").

Left-wing on human rights issues but doesn't know enough about the economy to form a solid opinion on it. He's too worried about his job and immediate problems to pay much attention to politics. Isn't necessarily pro-gun, but owns a pistol out of (somewhat justified, considering his job) paranoia. Somewhat anti-surveillance and goes so far as to only use a really old flip phone, though this is partially political, partially due to delusions he suffers during manic episodes and his general paranoia, and partially just because he has given up on technology completely. He's adamant about separating politics and religion as completely as possible.
Also, he doesn't believe in ghosts. Which is pretty out there in this world.

Runs a PI agency called Cross and Co. (whom the "Co." is he cannot say). He has a license to be a private investigator and the agency is perfectly legitimate on paper, but since their clients are mostly people who don’t want to go to the police because they’re criminals themselves, it’s not the most legal operation.

Yellow

He's pretty apathetic about food and only eats because he has to in order to, y'know, live.

Cats, specifically his own cat.

January 14

Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice from a fairly academically average college

Note that this section contains brief/nongraphic mentions of abuse and hospitalization due to attempted suicide.

Anthony is a first-generation American--his parents are from Italy--raised in a middle class, deeply religious Roman Catholic family. Not inherently a bad thing, but his family in particular was also violently homophobic, and his parents fought regularly, which weared on him a lot growing up.
Anthony did not spend a whole lot of time in confusion or denial over being gay--it was never a question in his mind, but he was pretty terrified as a kid that'd he go to Hell or something because of it, and that fear has lasted into his adult life despite his best efforts to crush it. The way his parents acted has left him with very conflicting thoughts on Catholicism. He himself isn't sure whether he actually believes anything or is just going through the motions that have been ingrained in him (it is, in fact, a little bit of both).
After graduating high school, he moved from Rhode Island to Colorado to attend college. He didn't choose the state for any particular reason--moving to the middle of nowhere hundreds of miles from his parents just seemed very appealing. As soon as he was no longer financially dependent on them, he came out to his parents. They haven't contacted him since, and he hasn't tried to get back in touch.
Though no longer being held to the standards of his parents was a relief, having absolutely no support system took a toll on his already pretty awful mental health, and towards the end of his freshman year in college he attempted suicide and had to be hospitalized for weeks. He did eventually recover physically, but by the time he was released from the hospital he was feeling as lost as ever.
A few years after graduating college, he moves to the town of Helston and starts a PI business there, which is about when the story begins.

He has a scrunch-faced cat named Colonel Mustard. Anthony is the only person he likes; everyone else who has ever met the Colonel thinks he is downright diabolical. Ant refuses to believe he's anything but a perfect angel and fusses over him constantly.

Neutral good

Trevor van Winkle, specifically them voicing Sam Bailey in The Sheridan Tapes (a very underrated, very good horror podcast! I highly recommend it, especially if you like The Magnus Archives)

He has a whole Spotify playlist if you want to check it out! Below are the songs that remind me the most of him, in no particular order:
- The entirety of Dear and the Headlight's album Drunk Like Bible Times, but especially the songs "Saintly Rows (Oh Oh)" and “Carl Solomon Blues”
- "The Gardener" by the Choir Vandals
- "Self Esteem" and "Let Us Get Murdered" by AJJ
- "Satin in a Coffin" by Modest Mouse
- "Pneumonia" by Me Like Bees
-"Cotard's Solution (Anatta, Dukkha, Anicca)" by Will Wood and the Tapeworms

Anthony's Pinterest board

Gallery images drawn by me :) The guy on the left in the second image is Dallas Dame and the girl in the third and fifth is Quill Cardenas

Anthony is autistic, but has never got diagnosed for it. He has, however, been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and takes medication for it.

His most secret, close to heart, long-held dream is to one day write and draw his own childrens' books. He owns every book in the Frog and Toad series. All of them.

He's left-handed!

5/24/22: Anthony's surname has been changed to Croce! When I first came up with Anthony I didn't have any particular nationality in mind for him, but since he's now canonically a first-generation American from Italy, I figured it'd make way more sense for him to have an actually Italian surname :)