Application for Hadriel

[strangelic]

PLAYER
Player name: Reg
Contact: regasssa at hotmail dot com | regasssa on AIM and on Plurk
Characters currently in-game: N/A

CHARACTER
Character Name: Castiel
Character Age: Appears early thirties, but is old enough to have seen humanity's ancestors crawl out of the ocean.
Canon: Supernatural
Canon Point: Season 7 Episode 21; Reading is Fundamental - at the very moment the demon tablet is broken open by Sam and Dean, and Castiel wakes up.
History: here
Personality: Many would say that Castiel is like a child, and while in some ways that's perfectly fair - he's naive, not very worldly, even literally virginal - the fact is that he's really, really ancient. He can't help it that watching over humanity isn't quite the same as getting elbows deep in it, even if - unlike any of his fellows who serve only in Heaven - Castiel has been on Earth far longer, stationed with his garisson to wait for the moment when someone tries to break Lucifer out of Hell.

The show has done everything to demonstrate how exposure to the real world and real people has made Castiel who he is, basically from scratch. So to show how he's been changed by his friendship with Sam and Dean, and the apocalypses that have happened since, it's crucial to examine who he had been since his creation.

Castiel was built by God as a custom made warrior of Heaven, a weapon, and his powers demonstrate that amply. He's effectively a machine, one which can be programmed, and one that can break that programming. Castiel is, as is made clear in later seasons, a tiny bit defective, in this respect. He has a way of not doing exactly what Heaven wants him to do, in that that independent streak, loyalty, his desire to do the right thing by humanity first, and Heaven second, are all ways that he goes to break his mold. The longer he's in play, doing Heaven's work on Earth, the more his experiences have an opportunity to change him, and consequently - like a machine - Castiel has been reset back to factory settings more than a few times.

So when Dean is taken to Hell, it's the job of Castiel's garrison to save him. Castiel enters into this as any other angel: stoic, dedicated to Heaven and focused on the task at hand. He and his fellow angels are all built to be obedient to higher angels, but Castiel has something else going for him: he cares for humanity, while the rest of his kind have become distant from them, and saving Dean gives him a solid connection to the mortal world. As he watches Dean with his brother, watches the Winchesters' dedication to doing the right thing, saving lives, no matter the cost to themselves, his eyes are opened to the faults of his superiors, and - eventually - their outright desire to make the world end. Castiel chooses his side, breaks from Heaven and elects to pick his own path, and for an angel this is an enormous jump. It took a lot of courage, and yes, that boundless independence.

Castiel has many advantages, then. He's a thoughtful warrior, and consequently he's pragmatic. This singular pragmatism, of course, can have ways of getting him into trouble, as he makes strategic choices without troubling himself with empathy. As a warrior, too, he has difficulty connecting with humans almost from the get go. He is cold and sharp with Jimmy's daughter Claire in their first meeting, for example, and it isn't until many years later that he even begins to understand the mistake he made in not watching after his family more strictly, as Jimmy had begged him to do. Another early demonstration of this brutal pragmatism is in the way he treats Dean, early on. He accepts questioning up until a point, but when a line is reached, he lays down his opinion definitively, and with unyielding authority, even leveling threats against him. Once Castiel comes to a decision, he is stubborn to the point of foolishness, and his mistakes come back to haunt him severely.

By the end of the first five seasons, Castiel grows into an angel who is still between two worlds, half of him missing Heaven, longing to go home after he turns rebel for the Winchesters. He's a creature who is capable of making free will choices, based on both intuition and faith, no matter where those consequences lead him. He is strong, defiant, and independent on more levels than he ever was as a servant of Heaven, motivated even to the point of sacrificing himself for the common good. He becomes sneaky, clever, taking on attributes of the Winchesters over time, including affection, but the changes are very subtle. For the most part, Castiel seems to mimic emotion more than feel it, in the beginning, but slowly he does change.

Key to these changes was Castiel being brought back and his search for God, something no lowly angel had ever attempted. It was courage in itself that made him act, but it wasn't until Joshua told Sam and Dean that God would never allow himself to be found, cutting down Castiel's hopes of preventing the fight between Michael and Lucifer, that Castiel really is forced to adapt. He learns disappointment, loss of faith, and his sense of purpose dropping out from under him, and among other things he goes on an angelic bender, drinking an entire liquor store in order to soothe his pain. Castiel learns to truly suffer, learns the perils of independence, but he slowly develops his own ways to cope with them. Despite this, he doesn't give up on God--after God brings Castiel back a second time, after Lucifer's demise, he is inspired with new faith, new determination, all ready for it to fall apart again.

And fall apart it does--not once, but twice. Initially hesitant to guide his former brothers and sisters into forming a new Heaven, Castiel finds himself going to war against the only remaining archangel, Raphael. It forces him to adopt and develop leadership qualities that would come back to serve him during Season 9's war against Metatron; developing his stoicism into a confident stance that no longer required Heaven at its back to support it. Castiel found, to his surprise, a love for his fellow angels, even those who hadn't spent so long beside him stationed at the garisson (they're all dead), such that he later begins to feel every extra death like a weight on his shoulders. He resents any action that Raphael, Naomi, Anna, and later Metatron, force him to make, that ends in loss of angel life.

But he does well, despite being visibly emotional, up until a point, when his inability to judge how far he should go to win the battle ends up in him making choices that later prove him - like a human - fallible. Sam and Dean make mistakes, and Castiel does too, only his are on an apocalyptic level. He defeats Raphael, but absorbs the souls of the Leviathan out of purgatory, and they overpower him. What he does, during that period of time, acting as a new "God", directs his characterization thereafter, but by no means is indicative of his personality at all. Only in his final moments, where he tries to throw the Leviathan out despite what it takes out of him to do so, is indicative of the true Castiel, who sees the death he's caused and seeks to repent.

He returns with his mind apparently lost after the atrocity he's caused, the Leviathan loose on the world, and no longer aware of who or what he is--amnesia. But it is in saving Sam from the Hell inside his own mind, that Castiel truly loses his mind, reappearing as things wind to a close as an angel with all of his powers but none of his courage, overcome with guilt. This Castiel is afraid, almost cowardly, retreating inside the protection that his madness offers him, resisting any responsibility, and outright running away when he's asked to do something that frightens him. He connects more with nature, and while some of those traits hold over to a small degree, they're all largely lost by season 9, after he's forced to claim his identity back by Naomi.

I am drawing Castiel from this canon point (Season 7 Ep 21), as I believe it has scope for interesting CR. This angel, intrinsically, is capable of a great deal of his former power and skills, but he is one bun short of a full dozen. Though Castiel has time to bond with Meg while Sam and Dean are driving to Indiana, this one will find himself in a new world at the moment of his waking; anxiety inducing even for the sane.

This Castiel relies on humor to deflect away from the seriousness of his environment, as well as using facts and various board games to disrupt other people's efforts to focus conversation. Castiel has been damaged by the Hell in Sam's mind, but he's also used it - as he describes - to come to terms with his own pain. He is easily distracted, but wavers between focus and fear, and an inability to properly process and voice his feelings - for example he uses the game "Sorry!" to try and negotiate his guilt with Dean, and his inability to find the right words for himself.

Castiel will come back to himself with enough challenge, and with time, but in Hadriel he won't have the advantage of having spent a year in Purgatory, nor the reassurance - and confidence building - of having at least defeated the Leviathan and saved his world. When he does eventually regain his faculties, he will be affected both by his immense guilt and his need for some degree of punishment regarding his actions, and the deaths that were on his hands when he was possessed by the Leviathan. With God no longer in the picture, he bears the full weight of that guilt himself, and can only blame himself. He puts Dean at risk in Purgatory to satisfy his own need for self-punishment, and considers the place his own rightful prison. Castiel won't feel that way about Hadriel, but he will have to work through things as his mind returns to him naturally.

Furthermore, in time, Castiel will come back to himself in other ways. From this point on I'll discuss things that will show through his insanity, and return in due time, as they are his fundamental personality traits. For example, though much of Castiel's behavior yields serious consequences, such as his pride during the Leviathan engagement, the occasional instance will occur where that same, naive, baseline angel that Dean once baffled with superhero references in early seasons will show through. Jokes are often made about it at his expense, not just by him but by others, who dismiss him as naive and weak, perhaps because he is the most powerful person in whichever room it is he's in. His brothers and sisters have come to see him as a threat, his decisions dangerous, to be kept out of Heaven no matter what. It was his pride and his arrogance in former situations that led him to this point, and now that he has reached it, Castiel's main drive is that of satisfying his guilt.

Castiel is a creature of contradiction as much as anything else. Even though he has this appearance of utter, placid stoicism going into every situation, much goes on underneath the surface. Like a river, Castiel runs deep; the nature of an angel who himself declares that he's a "celestial wavelength". He is a kind, generous sort of soul, and as a friend demonstrates that he's curious, eager to learn and an excellent listener. Of course as a result it surprises his companions that he's such an efficient warrior. Castiel can demonstrate slick brutality, efficiency with regards to carrying out his missions, and capability as a torturer that only demonstrates how far he will go to to achieve his ends. In some ways, Castiel is now the best torturer that Heaven has left. He's also demonstrably capable not only in hand to hand fighting - which survives as a skill even without his abilities, or his mind - but using weapons of all kinds.

Castiel is sensible, he's intelligent, but far too often he overthinks things, or takes things too literally, and as a result ends up getting himself in deeper trouble, or exposing himself to ridicule. His plans are usually sound, but they lack the human element; Castiel is never aware of going too far until he has hit the rocks below, never notices himself actually running over the edge of the cliff. He's always been the kind of being who demonstrates a visible pain in his being; he rarely smiles or jokes as other angels do - except during this period when he's lost his mental capacity, in which case pull my finger jokes are hilarious - and when he begins to recover that will be worse still, eaten up by his guilt, and what Dean sees as betrayal. Castiel will demonstrate that he is sad, and quiet, and consumed with his own regret and need to make things better, but also with his fear that by acting he will only cause things to become worse, as they have with everything he's touched since he gained free will.

Good with children, gentle with animals and all people, no matter whether they're good or bad, Castiel believes in the best of humanity. He continues to keep his faith in God even after all the suffering he's caused, though is far less vocal about it now than he used to be, and believes even in the redemption of all angels except - notably - himself. He misses his family, and idealises them despite their flaws, which he believes are not their fault, but rather a fault of their design, and the distance they've been forced to keep from humanity, who have taught him so much.

Cas is understated, gentle and happy to remain uninvolved unless he has something specific to say, or do. In the cases where he has to act, he will be bold and decisive, well spoken and even defiant--however at heart, underneath what is seen on the surface, he is a complex character driven by pride and insecurity in equal measure, but crippled - at least for some time - by his lost mental capacity, and then beyond that, by his immense guilt.

Inventory: Castiel is always armed, with his angel blade concealed on his person. This is a 14 inch silver coloured blade with three edges and a triangular silhouette. It was forged in Heaven, and is one of the few items which can harm or kill an angel.

Abilities: Castiel is an angel, and in Supernatural that means he has access to a variety of abilities, that are best went into detail on the link. However, I'm going to write them out anyway. Buckle up:

As an angel, Castiel's true spiritual form is impossibly vast and impossible to look upon with the naked eye. Fortunately he doesn't tend to leave his vessel, so his first power is the power that he has to possess the body of a person who has agreed to be his host. Jimmy Novak gave his body to Castiel, and later perished during the fight with Lucifer, and Castiel has possessed his body ever since.

While inside his vessel, Castiel is capable of actually negotiating the human world in a way that he wouldn't be in his own body. He has superb powers, courtesy of his Grace, which is like a reservoir of angelic mana. This can be expelled or removed from him by magic, and in times of great use of his powers can be demonstrated either as a physical presence or the glow of his eyes. Angels can use grace to locate each other at a distance, for example if another comes into the world. Grace can also be used to physically burn things, for example ropes. At his draw point, Castiel's powers will be limited by his mental situation, and his willingness to use them in any kind of conflict or confrontation is based solely in his desire to distract or run away from it as much as possible.

Separating his human form from other humans, however, angels possess a pair of invisible wings, which are a little worn out due to the emotional and physical abuse he's suffered in the last few years. These grant him the power of Flight. Angelic flight resembles teleportation, accompanied with the whisper of wings beating air, and will be limited in relation to the setting's rules - furthermore, I'd like him only to be able to fly within the Cave proper, and into general areas of the city where he's already physically been. He won't be able to move within the tunnels, or fly to the surface.

Castiel has the power to manipulate time, i.e. send people backward through time, or move through the past himself. However I'm going to assume that, cut off from Heaven, he can't actually use this ability. Because time travel is a very unhelpful power to have in a game.

Angels possess a certain level of invulnerability, (this can be limited to fit the setting if needed, please let me know if it's required.) This means that only a handful of things from his universe can actually kill him, such as his blade, which he'll have with him (angels can conceal things inside themselves without causing harm to their vessel). This also extends to immortality that for example means that Castiel survives despite a plague being released on the earth by Pestilence in an alternative future. His vessel is essentially frozen in time for however long he has it. However, he consequenly possesses a healing factor, which feeds off his grace and can leave him exhausted, especially if injured by an angel blade (see weaknesses).

As well as limited telekinesis, which allows him to fight without touching anything if need be (Castiel usually uses his enhanced strength in a fight), angels can use white light - created by expelling grace - to blast things around him, for example doors, or demons, or to simply throw other combatants out of an arena. They're also capable of self destructing, which is a kind of magic that allows an angel to blow itself and its surroundings apart. Angels can inhale the grace of another angel, or have their own grace removed, if a suitable receptical has been prepared.

Castiel can move through people's dreamscapes, using them to communicate. This power works even when his other power of localization is foiled by angel proofing (mentioned in weaknesses below). Localization allows him to spot on anyone and then fly to them, but again, is limited where he can fly to in this setting. He can also mindread, to a certain extent using this ability, by triggering memories, which he can also completely wipe, or alter.

Angel magic is powered by an angel's grace, and allows them to take advantage of spells specific to their own kind, for example the power to brand human bone without affecting their skin, or cause them severe abdominal dysfunction at a snap of a finger. Like witches in Supernatural, Castiel naturally possesses a certain mana, through his grace, to perform most human developed and some Heaven based spells, such as tracking spells. He can harm as well as heal others, and perform minor miracles like granting sight to the blind. Angels can also kill or sedate with a touch, and Castiel demonstrates the latter with friends and the former with enemies. Angel magic typically uses enochian runes and can be used for a large variety of purposes, such as trapping demons.

Castiel can also mimic voices, for example he could make Dean think he was speaking to his father when he wasn't, if he chose to. And he can exist in someone's presence invisible, sitting just outside of their perception. He can hear prayers, even over significant distances.

Angels can collect souls into themselves in order to augment their power. Castiel is unlikely to do this at his draw point, considering what he went through last time he did it, but with enough souls (millions), he would be powerful enough to equivalent God (and has). He will however be able to read souls, via a permissions post to cover this, which lets him get a feel for who a person is and what the state of their soul is, if they have one.

Castiel can ignite and cut out fire, so long as there is accelerant, start/cut out electricity, for example switch on and off car alarms, and softly manipulate reality, such as by setting up a game board just by shaking the box, or filling a vial of blood without touching it. He can speak to animals, for instance cats and bees, although they aren't always helpful.

Finally, it's important to point out that as an angel, Castiel doesn't see or feel the world in the same way as a human does. He doesn't taste or see, more aware of wavelengths and particles and matter and things. He can smell an individual human, overhear conversations at a great distance, and see things that humans can't, such as ghosts and hell hounds, or invisible angels/demons. He can also sense medical conditions, like for example cancer, as well as emotional trauma, etc. Angels don't eat or drink or sleep; grace supports them. He has an augmented intelligence, due to his longevity and perspective on the world, promoting things that would be considered the height of human knowledge to a natural ease, such as quantum physics or advanced mathematics.

All of this is wonderful, of course, but it comes hand to hand with his personality, which can delay or limit his actions, and given what he's just been through, and how he acts when his powers (and freedom of thought) return to him, his powers are indeed tempered by his own emotional weakness, detailed below.

Flaws:

Castiel and personality issues go hand in hand, and seem to have done from the very beginning. As Naomi explains, Castiel isn't lke other angels, he resists his "programming", and his personality flaws (i.e. humanity, individuality, disobedience, etc.) develops little by little as the series progresses. Since he's taken from before his time as a human, Castiel isn't so wound up in a whirl of actual human emotion, but there's enough that he's developed - feelings about the Winchesters, his angelic family, Heaven and Earth and God, and especially his own mistakes - to keep him occupied. Feelings about all of these things have slowed Castiel down before; his friends and family and maker mean so much to him that they can undermine him completely.

Castiel's weaknesses, aside from the present guilt guilt and more guilt, vary from severe things like his inability to connect empathically (he tries), to more harmless weaknesses. None the less, things like the fact that he really isn't human tend to raise their head occasionally--for instance Castiel doesn't differentiate between adults and children if killing them is the simplest solution to their troubles. If torture is the answer, he simply does what must be done, and doesn't bellyache about it. It's a weakness because his inability to connect causes fractures between him and those with less "divine" morality.

Castiel has trouble with his plans as a result. He thinks like an angel, and he thinks about what appears to be best for Heaven, or the people around him, instead of what's actually a good idea. He rushes through with things without thinking about how they might go wrong, and his bad choices haunt him. It's essentially a lack of sensitivity, and of impulse control. Castiel often overreaches himself, but it's something he does in good faith, up until a point, blinded by his optimism. Castiel also thinks the best of people; as an angel, he sees redemption in every human soul, and his hope catches him out every time--except, of course, where the Winchesters are concerned. Of course, it was them who taught him to fight for free will, and it is free will to make his own choices - good or bad - that has led him down the path he's been on. Castiel's faith: in humanity, in God, in his own kind, can easily undermine him. It's a strength in its own way, of course, but really it's the only thing holding him together.

On a less serious front, Castiel also struggles to deal with a variety of typically human things. Sleep, humor, sarcasm, wit, traditions, pop culture references. He's grown a little, even picked up some of the qualities of using sarcasm and humor himself, but he can still be wounded by things that other people would consider an off-hand comment, such as when Dean tells him off for being useless in their fight against Eve.

Castiel, at my chosen drawpoint, is most notable weakened by the trauma of his experience with Sam's memories of the Cage. He absorbed all his torture and pain, and for the first week even experienced the afterechoes of Sam's hallucinations of the Devil himself. He is flighty and bad at facing any kind of conflict, hates it when people are mad at each other, nevermind himself, and abandons them in times of danger. While Purgatory will temper his fear response, forcing him to fight for his life, this Castiel has not faced his fears, and Hadriel will be dropping him in right at the deep end. Castiel adopted Purgatory as a kind of self-flagellation, punishment for the apocalypse he'd almost caused at the hands of the Leviathan. After leaving Purgatory, Castiel is distanced from the people around him - he regrets not having continued to suffer. He is caught up with self hatred and regret, a desire to do more good, but - of course - far less trust for his own choices than he used to have. I will likely gradually incorporate these feelings into my play of him over time, as he develops new armor in relation to the setting and heals mentally.

As well as the above weaknesses, Castiel is an angel, and therefore is subject to a variety of angel specific weaknesses. These include magic made just to effect angels, such as seals, sigils and banishments which can block some or all of his powers, or forcefully send him away, as well as blades forged in Heaven - the only blades except for the First Blade that can actually kill him - and holy oil/holy fire, which can either bind him in a circle for eternity or literally immolate him. Castiel can also be killed via the use of special supernatural objects from the series; Death's scythe and Colt's gun as well as the aforementioned First Blade. He can be killed by another angel self-destructing, ejected from his vessel by exorcism, and he can be tortured/reprogrammed via direct, methodical intrusion into his brain. He can also be possessed on top of his own spirit by stronger creatures, such as for example the Leviathan, who co-opted his body as their own for a short time, or have it possessed on top of his own spirit by a more powerful angel.

He isn't entirely invulnerable. He can be beaten to a pulp, especially by someone stronger than him, and also driven beyond his means. Demi-gods and archangels are capable of utterly destroying him, right down to the molecules.

In terms of why Castiel would be drawn to Hadriel, that's really very simple. The seraph is nothing if not chaotic in his own right. He is the black sheep in the angelic family, the one who doesn't fit the same mold as the others, who has turned out to be the spanner in the proverbial works no end of times. Castiel has literally unleashed chaos on the world by giving it free will, creating a world in which every creature is beholden to its own destiny, rather than something predetermined. He destroyed a great portion of Heaven's Host, both in his battle against Raphael and as a figure of godly powers himself, possessed by Leviathan. Moreover, other divine figures - i.e. God Himself - have seen to bringing him back to life again and again, despite the unfortunate path it leads him down, the more pain and disruption he unleashes. Beyond that, Castiel is chaotic inside as well as out; he's traumatized by his experience with the Leviathan, and the mess that Sam's memories made inside his head. His very coming to Hadriel will cause disruption in its own right, given his present state, his powers and his deliberately cowardly use of them.

SAMPLES
Action Log Sample:

Castiel opened his eyes.

It was clear in his mind. Lucifer, the Cage, Sam; it was as though everything in his chaotic mind had slotted back into place, and given him back his consciousness. The storm outside had awoken him--but there was no storm now, only a vast arena, like the ancient collosseums where the persecutors had slain the persecuted believers, thousands of years ago. Anxiety pressed at him. If there had been a presence beside him at all, these past few weeks, it was gone now, and he was alone; alone, afraid, and vulnerable.

The arena was not unlike the delusions he'd suffered, when he'd first absorbed Sam's memories of his torture. It had ripped his soul apart, but Castiel had no soul to rend. His mind had healed, even though it had taken time. Healed, but not forgotten. Deep underground, the arena represented power being taken away, a monster looming, ready to rip them apart, an unseen ruler choosing life or death from among the baying crowd. There was no crowd here, but there was a monster.

Castiel wasn't staying to fight it. Panic lashed through him like a cold wind, and the angel lifted his wings and let the fear gather him up. It was disorienting to hit the ceiling of the cave the way he did, and the angel crumpled quickly, crashed right down to the ground again, right into the very spot where he'd taken flight.

It seemed cruel and unusual to pin him the way this did, right in the path of this danger. Castiel balked, and stood, feeling it shaking him all the way through to his core, the need to avoid this fight - any fight - avoid the threat not of pain to himself, or danger, but the peril of what his choices might lead to; that he might, once again, make a decision that ended yet more lives. Even just by fighting a monster--especially by fighting a monster.

Taking a wary step backward, Castiel hunted for an exit. If he couldn't fly away, then he'd have to run. The route out of the collosseum was surprisingly easy to find, even for a skittish angel. He fled, and stumbled bleary eyed into the city, lost and confused, freshly awoken, and completely alone.

And afraid. Not so that he'd show it, certainly, but anxious, uncertain--afraid.




Note for the mods: Please bear in mind that I don't intend for Castiel to break the boundaries of the game. He is very internal with the way he uses his powers, and he rarely does anything for anyone, nevermind furthering efforts to escape--he will, by the time he could intend to use his abilities for any positive purpose, probably see the city as his punishment. None the less, I don't intend for any of his abilities or magic to break any plot device or setting configuration now or in the future. It would also be more enjoyable to me if Castiel isn't invulnerable to every monster etc. that comes around. Powerful creatures can fight angels head on and bruise and batter them, so I intend to play him as fallible in that respect too. If it helps to reassure in any way, I have been playing a more powerful SPN angel, Lucifer, at Mask or Menace for more than a year now without any incidents. If you need anything specific more than I've mentioned in my app, please feel free to communicate with me so that I can elaborate.