Application: Charlie (Power Rangers); Glass Tower

Feb 28, 2008 23:20

Character Basics
Carlota "Charlie" Santiago
from Power Rangers: Space Patrol Delta
Female
Age 24
Human

Canon History
Small note: I have filled in and fleshed out a number of plotholes in the following. Regarding Charlie, nothing before 2024 is given as canon.

Although supernatural heroes have appeared throughout human history to protect the earth from the forces of evil, the modern tradition of superheroes began in the 1990s. Earth is possessed of vast resources and a strong connection to the ambient energy of the universe-the universal morphing grid-but its youth as a planet lead to its being virtually unnoticed through history, except by a select few aliens seeking either to cultivate or conquer it.

In the 1990s, a moon mission unleashed one such entity, Rita Repulsa. In response, her perpetual enemy, the alien Zordon, summoned five teenagers of notable character. He imbued them with the powers and spirits of the dinosaurs who lived when he first arrived--all present in the morphing grid. Using that power, they were able to summon suits of armor that empowered and protected them, becoming the very first modern Power Rangers. These noble rangers eventually triumphed over countless evils, all under the command of Dark Spectre. When Dark Spectre was destroyed by Zordon’s noble self-sacrifice, it was thought that all evil in this part of the galaxy had been destroyed. However, this was quickly proven wrong, and an average of one evil threat a year, alien or otherwise, threatened the earth. An equal number of teams of Power Rangers, drawing their abilities from different systems and spirits, rose up to combat these enemies. (As an interesting sidenote, Rita and another Dark Spectre servant, Lord Zedd, were made into good beings, and Rita ultimately became a maven of good magic on Earth, the Mystic Mother).

But something strange happened in 2001-and 3001. A band of mutant criminals from the latter year and traveled back in time to the former, and were followed closely by the Time Force Power Rangers. The leader of the Rangers was killed in action, and without him, the others’ morphers could not be activated. However, the team managed to locate a genetically identical young man named Wes and used him to activate their morphers and fight the mutants. They dismissed him, but he chose to continue on with them. His father, a rich entrepreneur, managed to create morphers based on those of the Time Force: The Silver Guardians. Eventually, the rangers triumphed over the mutants and all was well.

Meanwhile, across the galaxy, another war was being fought. The Troobian Empire, a conglomerate of mercenaries and black market dealers ruled by Emperor Grumm (and HIS boss, Omni) and possessed of thousands of robot stormtroopers called Krybots. Every planet that faced them fell, and Grumm more often than not used his ship, the Terror, to destroy planets once their resources had been harvested. Whole races were destroyed in short order; it was a galactic Holocaust. One organization stood to fight these monsters: Space Patrol Delta. Founded on Sirius, a planet orbiting a star of the same name, S.P.D. was a military force aimed at enforcing galactic and local laws and defending the galaxy against threats. But eventually even Sirius fell to the Troobians (leaving one known survivor, Anubis “Doggie” Cruger), and SPD was reduced to a series of loosely allied paramilitary forces located on a number of planets, unified by a central command.

Meanwhile, the Troobians continued their reign of terror, using terrorism and carefully calculated psychological warfare, and catastrophic doomsday weapons, to lay waste to planet after planet. In late 2001, S.P.D. Central Command contacted the Silver Guardians and the organizations merged; The Silver Guardians became S.P.D. Earth. The Silver Guardian scientists, along with S.P.D. personnel (including the renowned Dr. Katharine Manx, a survivor of the Troobian War) began working on morphers for Power Rangers. They had one set in the works to hold the organization over, but a special team was set aside to work on the Delta morphers, a powerful set of morphers that would be ready for the Troobians. There was an accident in the creation of these, however, and the prolonged exposure to cellular enhancers endowed the human team with mutations that would later be passed on to their children.

Also in late 2001, Charlie Santiago was born in New Tech City. Although Hispanic by heritage on her father’s side, Charlie was raised in an affluent, mostly white, upper-middle-class community by her mother. However, the family was constantly in debt and her mother was childish and demanding, leaving Charlie with a sense of insecurity about power and money in addition to her valley girl accent. The family expected Carlota to be both successful and feminine, but she was Charlie to her friends, with all the tomboyishness that entails. Rough and tough, Charlie craved adventure, power, and action. She was a star athlete throughout school. Her family pressured her to go to college on a sports scholarship and pursue a career as a pharmacist, but Charlie had other plans. Wanting to see the universe and protect it, to take revenge on the forces of corruption that made her childhood so miserable from afar... on her eighteenth birthday, Charlie enlisted with Space Patrol Delta.

When Charlie was just a little girl though, other children with whose destiny hers was intertwined were born-the children of the Delta scientists. These children-six in total-all possessed mutant powers, mostly focused through their hands. To protect the children from the taboo of being a mutant, likely stemming from the Time Force incident, the families went into hiding. Three of the mutant children, from families with at least one surviving parent, joined S.P.D. as teenagers. The others, due to parental deaths or hellish bullying in school, fell through he cracks. The three mutant cadets almost never saw Charlie, however...

Over time, Charlie became a decorated soldier and was promoted to S.P.D.’s A-squad, the highest rank team of elite soldiers on Earth. Not only that, she was chosen as Red Ranger-the team leader, a rank and color that no other woman had ever held on Earth before. Charlie got on wonderfully with her Commander, Doggie Cruger, but sometimes she felt he was too protective of her, echoing her old feeling of being coddled because she was a woman. Charlie eventually got Dr. Manx, Cruger's most trusted friend, to tell her what had happen--Cruger had lost his wife in the war, and his concern over the psychological torture he experienced, plus what was said usually happened to women, made him reluctant to put female rangers in positions of power openly. She, along with her team, defended the earth and prepared for the eventual arrival of the Troobian forces, who were being held at bay by a series of energy barriers on the warp gates. Meanwhile, the three mutant children of the Delta Scientists were promoted to B-squad, the next-ranked group of cadets, who were in charge of terrestrial disturbances and support duties.

However, being A-squad was not all fun and games. When received her morpher, she discovered that her voice was disguised in morph. Angered, she confronted Cruger and he explained his concerns about Troobian misogyny and psychological warfare. By disguising her sex, he intended to protect her from undue risk. Although Charlie argued that she was already a target anyway and she didn't like to hide her identity, the stubborn old Dog could not be moved. So Charlie accepted her role as the most powerful woman and second most powerful person on Earth… disguised as a man.

In 2025, the B-squad brought in two mutant criminals who used the spoils of their thefts to feed and clothe the poor. The individuals were offered amnesty in exchange for service as rangers. Their attempt to investigate a proton accelerator through one of their shady informant contacts, Piggy, lead to the Troobians disabling the last barrier between Earth and themselves. Grumm lead his troops into orbit just out of sensor range of Earth and began his slow siege of the planet, mostly through terrorism. Their first major move, of course, was to start a battle away from Earth. Cruger predictably sent the A-squad to fight them. Charlie and her team did not return. The B-squad became active rangers and put up a valiant fight against the Troobians on earth, discovering their heritage and stopping the Troobian
general Mora, a pictomancer in the form of a little girl, from manipulating the mind of the last of the Delta Scientists’ children.

When the Troobians captured her, Charlie was terrified. It wasn’t the special problems of a woman in war that bothered her-she knew for a fact that men got raped too, for instance. It was that the Troobians were the most fearsome force known to the Galaxy. Imagine her surprise when she was greeted by a little girl who introduced herself as a General-Mora. Mora revealed (quite truthfully) that she was the Second-in-Command to Emperor Grumm, despite her age (although she wasn't actually eleven), stature, and sex. The Troobians didn’t care if you were male or female, old or young, alien or human, white or black or red or yellow, as long as you were successful, the little girl explained. And Charlie was successful, the single most decorated person of her rank. And yet she wasn’t appreciated, the Troobians pointed out. The B-squad had taken over their duties as if nothing had happened, and Charlie wasn't even allowed to show her face as a woman as she lead the team. Clearly, a team lead by a Latina, whose second in command wasn an alien, wasn't worth as much as a team that was half white kids, even though they were all mutants. In fact, their mutant powers, powers that would have made them outcasts in the real world, made Cruger like them more than the disciplined, hardworking A-squad, who had fought for their ability...

Grumm and Mora offered Charlie and her team a deal, and after a great deal of consideration, Charlie accepted. She and her team would administer a safe Earth in exchange for delivering it into Troobian control. If they didn’t cooperate, the planet might have to be razed to destroy opposition, after all. So, out of condition after being imprisoned, the A-squad began conquering other planets for the Troobians. "They're not the Troobians!" one of their victims had tried to warn SPD, but Charlie shot him before he could finish his sentence.

Just as the B-squad rangers believed they had figured out the Troobians’ plan, they received a distress signal from a planet orbiting Gamma Orionis-Bellatrix, the Lady Warrior star. When the B-squad investigated, they were shocked to discover that the A-squad was alive-and moreover, that its leader was a beautiful woman. Jack, the red ranger, was especially struck by Charlie, having just mistaken the girl who would become his girlfriend for a male thief not long before. The tension between Charlie and Jack was thick, but it didn't last.

Cruger welcomed his team back and dismissed B-squad and Dr. Manx quickly. Once it was only the Commander and A-squad in the Command Center, they took Cruger hostage. Turning him over to Emperor Grumm, the A-squad then kept the B-squad busy, engaging them first in morphed combat, and then in a giant robot battle, while Troobian General Broodwing took over Delta Base and complicated matters. The A-squad was able to destroy one of the B-squad’s zords, but the B-squad produced another-the SWAT Megazord. Ultimately, despite having superior training and skills, the B-squad triumphed and the A-squad were imprisoned. Broodwing was also taken into custody. Piggy offered to help the B-squad rescue Cruger, but he betrayed them instead, delivering them into Grumm's custody.

But then Piggy had a change of heart and released his friends. The B-squad freed Commander Cruger, and together, the rangers destroyed the Terror and ended the Troobian War once and for all. Cruger would later move on to the role of Galactic Commander. The red ranger Jack, his girlfriend Aly, and Piggy started a successful charity, giving to the poor as Jack did before he was apprehended by S.P.D. The B-squad blue ranger, Sky, ultimately became Commander of S.P.D. Earth. Its Green ranger, Bridge, was promoted to Red and traveled back in time to assist the Operation Overdrive team of 2007 in fighting Thrax: the bastard son of Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd. Female rangers Z and Syd moved up the ranks within B-squad, with Z presumably becoming the first “dark” blue female ranger-as all previous female blue rangers’ uniforms had been light in color.
Deviation
Due to issues with SPD’s policies on refugees and immigrants to earth, an alien named Norg was killed and a riot broke out in the poor quarter of New Tech City on a simple, normal day. Rather than sending the B-squad, who was officially designated for such assignments but not yet ready for such a political assignment, Commander Cruger sent his A-squad along with a full riot team from New Tech City PD. He wasn’t willing to take chances with his rangers. But as that chaos happened, so too came the request for soldiers from afar. Cruger would have sent the A-squad, as he did in canon, but they were too busy putting down the riot, and only barely in radio contact. Having no choice, he sent the B-squad.

The mutants didn't return.

After a while, the C-squad was promoted to B-squad’s duties as the more investigative arm of SPD, and they, along with A-squad, protected the Earth. A-squad managed to protect the diamonds of New Tech City, a task B-squad failed in the canon universe, but eventually the Troobians stole diamonds from other locations on the tiny planet-S.P.D. couldn’t be everywhere at once. They brought in a number of criminals through the year, but some of their cases went differently. The case of the New Tech City bank robber, for example, went unsolved, although suspect Trilondonian was eventually cleared. They were forced to contain and imprison a ten year old boy--a Delta Scientist's child, oddly enough--because he chose to work with Troobians. In the canon universe, friendship with fellow mutant Z lead him to join the side of the good guys, but somehow the three non-white human members and one alien on B-squad could not appeal to him that they were different too: there was a particular stigma attached to mutants.

When Commander Birdie fired Commander Cruger for refusing to split his team, Charlie, dissatisfied with what she perceived as the sexism of Commander Cruger, initially supported it. However, when he attacked her position of power due to her gender, she personally retrieved Cruger to have him defend Birdie from Grumm in the upcoming grudgematch. Fowler was far too humiliated to have her court-martialed for her disobedience. The team also managed to defend itself against Shorty and Devastation, but not against the trio of robots that would attack not long after. They lost the Deltamax Megazord in that encounter. All told, there were far more casualties in the world where A-squad was safe, due to the unique investigative abilities of the B-squad.

After a while, however, the team would receive an S.O.S. signal from the B-squad. Charlie and her team found them on a distant planet, tired and confused but alive. She was surprised to find that the B-squad red ranger, Jack, was a minority like herself-he was black, and he was angry about the way he had been treated in his life. Jack, on the other hand, was surprised-pleasantly so-to see a female red ranger. In the little time he’d been with SPD, he’d always thought Charlie Santiago was Carlos, not Carlota. Sparks instantly flew between them, despite Charlie’s age and Jack’s apparent exhaustion. However, once they returned to S.P.D. base, before the B-squad could even get its medical evaluations done, Commander Cruger thanked A-squad curtly for its help and dismissed them. They left confused. No fanfare? No celebration? Charlie was furious. Clearly a squad with a male leader was far more important than hers. Clearly the B-squad was valued over them all along. She sat down in the lounge and began to type up a letter of resignation, to be delivered as soon as the war was over…

When Jack delivered a message to the A-squad electronically: “We have Cruger. Come get him.”

When they went to confront the B-squad, Charlie and her second in command, the alien Blue Ranger Beevor, exchanged looks, and Beevor motioned, with his eyes to the three “middle” members of B-squad, rangers 2-4. Charlie could see a blankness on the blue ranger’s face, and she remembered who he was: Sky Tate, the late Officer Tate’s son. She remembered seeing him on the news when she was little kid, and how he had been killed by a criminal named Mirloc-a criminal that the A-squad had stopped again not long before. She saw the green ranger, who had a reputation for being psychic, practically drooling on himself. And then the yellow ranger, one of those street urchins, who looked intent, but notably uncomfortable.

Charlie nudged Beevor.

“I surrender!” the Blue ranger called, stepping forward. “But only… if I’m taken in by Bridge.”

“Beevor, no!” Charlie barked, faking shock and horror.

Jack raised an eyebrow, but nodded to Bridge, who wandered forward to take Beevor’s outstretched hands. But Beevor grabbed Bridge’s hands, ripped off his gloves, and squeezed them. The green ranger yelped, shocked by the brightness and closeness of Beevor’s aura, long enough for Beevor to grab the morpher off his belt and toss it to Charlie. Charlie, unwilling to have it stolen back by the B-squad and not trusting her belt and holster, slipped it into her sports bra, the one time she was grateful for her sex.

And then they morphed: “S.P.D. Emergency!”

Five to Four, the A-squad easily defeated B-squad. Yellow Ranger Ivan and Blue Ranger Beevor were able to easily contain their counterparts, Z and Sky, while pink ranger Sydney was eventually defeated by green ranger Cliff and pink Rachel. Charlie and Jack faced off, and Jack forced Charlie to power down and to the ground… but unwilling to be dominated by a man, Charlie pulled her blaster and fired a shot point blank into Jack’s chest, forcing him not only out of morph, but against a wall. The battle turned in her favor. Of course, without the B-squad, the ensuing battle was more difficult. The rangers never ended up on the Terror, and without their moral support, Commander Cruger was unable to get out of the ship on time when it was destroyed. It was Charlie, not Cruger, who ultimately defeated
and contained Emperor Grumm, using Cruger’s Shadow Saber, which would become hers.

Charlie was near instantly promoted to head of S.P.D. Earth, and Beevor, her blue ranger and second in command, to red ranger. Accordingly, Cliff became Blue and Ivan became Green. Rachel
chose to remain the pink ranger. The three members of the B-squad who were determined to have been under mind control were rehabilitated when Omni was destroyed, and two of them rejoined
the ranks of S.P.D., Sky Tate as B-squad red ranger, and Z Delgado as his blue Ranger. Bridge Carson, the psychic, scarred by his experience with mind control, received a medical discharge
and became a contractor for S.P.D., creating technology for them while simultaneously acting as a hermit. The remaining two members of B-squad were found to have been acting of their own
accord-Jack out of bitterness toward society on Earth, and Syd motivated by offers of great wealth. To preserve the heroic image of the Power Rangers within and without of S.P.D.,
Supreme Commander Birdie had them committed to maximum security mental hospitals, saying what the brainwashing had damaged them too completely to rehabilitate them. Of course, Bridge
Carson revealed the truth in his suicide note in 2027, causing massive scandal and leading to Birdie’s removal.

When Supreme Commander Birdie “resigned”, instead of accepting a promotion to head of S.P.D. Galactic command, Charlie instead recommended Beevor, preferring herself to stay on the front lines. This move was exacerbated by the intense criticism Charlie took for the number of casualties in the war, and concerns about Charlie’s sex. As none of her A-squad wanted a leadership position, fearful of not living up to the legacy of Charlie and Beevor, B-squad red ranger Sky was instead tapped, promoted to A-squad red ranger. The former racist and misogynist had been inspired by the woman Charlie and alien Beevor, and lead his largely non-white team without prejudice. When he was tapped by the Sentinel Knight to go back to 2007, Sky’s guidance allowed Operation Overdrive ranger Mack Hartford to dramatically shorten that conflict: Sky told Mack about how Charlie and Beevor had won the war practically out of morph. The crisis resolved at an innopportuned time, Norg, the servant of Operation Overdrive villain Flurious, moved into the slums of New Tech City where other alien refugees lived. His death would ultimately cause a riot in 2025...
Personality
Charlie is a very private woman, keeping a great deal to herself, but she is very open about her feminism. The face she shows to the outside world is always one of strength and attitude: she always seems cocky. Ever the brash action hero, Charlie is willing to charge in and do whatever needs to be done. She can be ruthless and crafty, but it is always for a cause she feels is good (although she allows her anger to cloud her judgment very easily). Charlie is prone to fits of rage, but they are always carefully controlled. Charlie is passionate, driven, toward what she feels is right… but she also has a sense of entitlement and the sort of greed that comes from never having quite enough.

In her heart of hearts, Charlie is insecure and sad, always craving more. She is lonely and feels alienated, torn between her natural inclinations, what is expected of her, and what she expects of herself. She craves love and attention, but cannot stand to be dominated, especially not by other masculine figures. She especially resents attempts to protect her because of her sex, or implications that she's less capable than men.
Appearance
Charlie is about 5’7”, but she seems taller due to her military stance andimposing strength. The first thing that stands out about Charlie is her muscle, her strength;her arms and legs are chiseled without reaching body-building proportions. In spite of, orperhaps because of, her strength, she is still beautiful: She is reasonably endowed and has anattractive figure. Charlie’s skin is a light tan color, reflecting her heritage. Her eyes arebrown and intense, and her long, straight hair is the same color. She usually wears her hairback, if she can, often in braids but sometimes just in a ponytail. Her face is just aschiseled as her body, with prominent high cheekbones and a strong jaw, balanced by small,delicate-looking lips and a dainty, rounded nose. Despite her resentment of traditional genderroles, she still prefers to wear makeup, specifically dark eyeliner.
Abilities
Charlie is very clever, disciplined in the military sense, and ruthless. However,her only notable ability is her athleticism. Years of training, sports, and lifting weightshas given her incredible strength, endurance, and speed, although not outside the realm ofnormal human possibility.
++++++------
  • Brave
  • Determined
  • Somewhat clever
  • Cunning
  • Fast
  • Strong
  • Good Aim
  • Excellent with Gun Combat
  • Decent with most computer systems
  • Decent with simple computer troubleshooting

  • Brash
  • Stubborn
  • Slightly Gullible
  • Ruthless
  • Accelerates slowly
  • Poor arms strength
  • Not good with close range weapons
  • Not good at hand-to-hand combat
  • Bad with higher order computer systems
  • Can't troubleshoot unusual computer problems.

What I Hope Charlie Gets out of Her Stay
I hope that Charlie can come to terms with her gender issues.

About the Player

Typ: onlytalewetell
turbinesmine69@yahoo.com
AIM: GiftOfWily1226
Eastern Standard Time (-5)

Samples

Journal:

To whoever is responsible for this:

You are in violation of the Intergalactic Human Rights convention of 2023 regarding kidnappingand the Galactic War Convention of 2025 regarding treatment of prisoners of war. Whoever you are, I demand that you return me to my base now, or prepare me for pickup by my rangers. If you don’t release me, they WILL rescue me, and my boss won’t negotiate with you. And if you give me my clothes and morpher back, or give me something clean and warm to wear, I might just recommend that you get paroled after a few decades.

But either way? Once my team finds you, you’re going to pay. My red ranger doesn’t take lightly to people kidnapping his team.

To the other captives:

I see you on these blog things. Who are you? Do you know who kidnapped us, and why? I’m Commander Charlie Santiago, of Space Patrol Delta, Earth Base. I’m also the Shadow Ranger,and I was the Red Ranger during the Troobian War. If they’re hurting you, I’ll try my best to stop them.

[private, hackable]…Maybe Doggie was right. Not even any underwear... I’d better find some clothes before anyone gets here. I hope they have some pants. [/private]

Roleplay:

Charlie looked down at the casket, pushing back the tears in her eyes.

Commander Cruger had meant he best-she saw that now, now that he was gone. He had only been trying to protect her, protect her from the Troobians. Cruger had been right-they would havetried to rape her, to destroy her, to rip everything about her apart. Only he had been wrong, in a way-they wouldn’t have raped her body. They would have raped hermind.

She looked across the casket, to the three rangers huddled on the other side, still cuffed for the safety of those present. The girl who had been yellow sobbed loudly into the shoulder of the one who had been blue, who sobbed back, softly but without hiding himself. He rose in Charlie’s estimation there; men who cried made room for women who didn’t. And the green ranger, the one whose weakness had let them save the world… he was being held up by Dr. Manx, weeping loudly, unable to contain himself, no doubt blaming himself. They must all have blamed themselves.

Charlie shook her head a bit, with a faint smile. They would realize, eventually, that Cruger would have sacrificed himself anyway. While she despised their weakness, they were stronger than their fellows had been, and there wasn’t any more need for tears. But she couldn’t help but cry either, although silently. The only father she’d ever known was gone, and soon she would be raised in his place. Soon, she’d be Commander over the whole earth. She’d get a pay increase and a better room in the base, and that was always nice-it’d definitely shut her mother up, for one-but she’d also be protecting the whole world. Part of her resisted the thought on how gendered it was, but she would be Mother Earth, protecting the planet like a mama bear, fierce and unstoppable. She would be its knight, no, its paladin. The Power and the Glory, the Pride and the Security, they would all be hers. And unlike Doggie, unlike the man-Dog who almost made her quit, Charlie would make sure that all rangers were treated equally under her. Color, gender, background, species, sexuality, religion, nothing would bring her to discriminate against her rangers… except weakness. Charlie would tolerate no weakness. The mind control couldn’t be helped-after all, the Troobians had used it against Rachel that one time, and that was fixed easily enough-but rangers who would give into their personal agendas like Landors and Drew did wouldn’t be tolerated.

Charlie threw a rose onto the casket and walked away. “How’d that old quote go?” she thought to herself. “Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.” She murmured aloud, sighing. Charlie wondered if there were any way she could have stopped them from slipping.

Application Questions

1. Do you have any other characters in the Tower? Yes.
2. If you do, which ones? Gengar.
3. Have you read the rules and FAQ thoroughly? Yes.

Personal Interest Questions

1. Is this your first time RPing? No.
2. If not, where have you RPed before? CW, here, betweenzones, and recently, entranceway.
3. Who have you played before? A ton of characters, whom I have already listed. I’ve added Dr. Daniel Schreber from Dark City and the Ninth Doctor from Doctor Who to my repetoire since last app, though.
4. Who would you like to play in the future? I’m not sure. I’m considering a Time Lord from Doctor Who, or maybe Frank Poole, David Bowman, or Walter Curnow from 2001: A Space Odyssey or 2010: The Year We Make Contact respectively. Or maybe a Sonic character.
5. Which came first: Fandom or Fanfiction? LLAMA!
6. What do you hope your character can get out of their stay in the Glass Tower? I hope that Charlie can come to terms with her gender issues.

application

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