OOC: Application

[poorexample]

Series: Supernatural
Series' Medium: Live-action television show

Character: Castiel
Age: Technically he's thousands of years old (somewhere in that beyond-human-comprehension range), but at the institute he'll be listed as 36 (the actor's age).
Sex/Gender: Angels are technically genderless, but it seems that they do have preferences when it comes to picking vessels, and Castiel spends most of his time in a male one. When he is in a female vessel for a short period of time, it hardly seems to bother him, but the vessel he'll be in at Landel's will be male.
Canon Role: Originally he comes in as a mysterious informant kind of character, but he slowly becomes closer and closer to the two protagonists until he's on their side as a sort of third wheel/part of their group. At this point, he's definitely a protagonist.
"Real" Name: Michael Collins

How long have you roleplayed your character, if at all?:
I have been periodically tossing him out into random threads over at fountainofcod for practice, and have been doing that for a good while now; it's actually been off and on (more off than on, admittedly) for about a year or so at this point.

Where have you roleplayed in general and/or with this specific character?:
I play Sora, Guy Cecil, Peter Petrelli, Harvey Dent/Two-Face, and Zack Fair at damned. That's all there is for the moment!

Are you personally familiar with your character's canon?:
I am! I have seen the whole series up until the end of season 5 (where the show has left off for the moment) and have seen the first three seasons of Supernatural multiple times. I've also watched the episodes with Castiel in them multiple times, and reviewed them closely for the purposes of this application.

Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
Earth, as it exists in Supernatural, is full of (as would be expected) supernatural creatures. These range from ghosts to zombies to vampires, and even include angels and demons. The angels loosely follow Judeo-Christian lore, which means that they are righteous, driven by fate and God's orders, and concerned with the bigger picture. For over two thousand years, Castiel was a loyal soldier who never questioned his Father's orders, though he had never seen God face-to-face. But being an obedient soldier was the entirety of Castiel's existence, and he was skilled at it, though he might be considered a grunt in the grand scheme of things. He served in a garrison, under another angel named Anna, until she chose to fall from grace, whereby Zachariah became his superior.

However, life as Castiel knew it changed due to a human named Dean Winchester. Dean sold his soul to a demon in order to save the life of his brother, and as a result ended up going to Hell. This was dangerous, because if he was tempted into torturing souls while in Hell, it would break the first seal on the cage that was keeping Lucifer -- Satan himself -- locked away. Unfortunately, the angels did not make it to Dean in time, and the first seal was broken. However, the one who breaks the first seal is also the only one who can stop the rest from breaking, and so Dean was still of importance. Castiel was chosen to go down into Hell itself and pull Dean out, returning him to Earth.

Needing to possess a human vessel in order to walk the earth, Castiel found his (each angel has a bloodline of humans who are their "true" vessels): a man named Jimmy Novac. He worked on convincing Jimmy to give consent to being possessed, as that's necessary before any angel can inhabit a body. While working on that, Castiel tried to get in contact with Dean, but without a vessel to hold him, his voice shattered glass and his form burned out human eyes. Castiel was lucky in that Jimmy was a very religious person, and it wasn't much longer before Jimmy said "yes," allowing Castiel to claim his body. He was then face-to-face with a human for the first time: Jimmy's daughter. Unaware of how to deal with humans, he simply told the girl he was not her father and then left, off to where Dean had made an attempt to summon him. He told Dean only what he was and that Heaven needed his help, before taking his leave.

Luckily, Dean and his brother, Sam, grew up knowing about supernatural creatures; it ran in the family, and so they were well aware of demons and everything else. Angels were new to them, though, and so when Castiel came to explain -- after another seal had broken -- that if all sixty-six fell, Lucifer would be free, Dean was disrespectful, demanding more help. Castiel showed him true divine wrath by saying that if Dean did not learn that there was a bigger picture and that life did not revolve around him, then he would throw him right back into Hell. He continued to put Dean in his place when he sent him back to the year 1973, at the moment when a certain powerful demon, Azazel, had started a chain of events that would lead to Sam being tainted with demon blood as a child. Castiel did this both to show Dean that fate was unavoidable and to warn him that Sam was potentially dangerous, so Dean would need to keep him in line.

Some time passed, and then another important seal came up: on All Hallow's Eve, if Samhain (a powerful demon) was summoned from Hell, then another seal would be broken. Castiel's orders were to go to Dean and Sam with the intent to destroy the town (along with the witch who was attempting to summon Samhain), and then see how Dean responded. Castiel did just that, taking his partner, Uriel, with him. In fact, Castiel went into it hoping that Dean would elect to save the town. Even though he could understand making sacrifices for the greater good, Castiel still admired humans in a way that many of his fellow angels -- Uriel included -- did not. Castiel played the part of the just warrior of Heaven while Dean fought tooth and nail. Castiel also met Sam at this point, but didn't have much to say to him other than that he was glad he'd stopped using the abilities that came along with the demon blood. The Winchesters weren't able to prevent Samhain's revival, but they did stop him before he took too many lives. Afterward, Castiel went to explain the test to Dean, and even went so far as to tell him something he hadn't shared with anyone else: that sometimes, he had doubts about his orders, about what was right and wrong. It was around this time that Castiel started to really take a liking to Dean, as Dean was slowly teaching him more about humans and what made them God's most treasured creations.

More trouble surfaced when Anna, Castiel's previous superior who had fallen to Earth to be reborn as a human (without her memories), suddenly started to tune in to what the angels were saying. As Anna was seen as something of a criminal in Heaven for what she'd done, Castiel and Uriel were ordered to find her and kill her. The Winchesters tried to protect her, obviously not approving of the murder of someone they saw as an innocent girl. Uriel ended up threatening Dean in a dream to get Anna's location (something Castiel did not seem to approve of), but by the time they'd track her down again, she'd regained her memories. Castiel got to see Anna as an angel who knew what it was like to be human -- she even kissed Dean, and when Castiel apologized to her for their treatment of her, she told him he didn't really mean it, which forced him to further consider the difference between human and angel. They were interrupted by Alastair, a powerful demon, who roughed Castiel up pretty badly until Anna regained her grace (which is a physical object) and used her new powers to banish the demon before escaping. With no way to get a hold of her, Castiel and Uriel returned to Heaven.

Castiel left the Winchesters to their own hunts for a time, but then a seal came up that the angels weren't able to handle on their own. The demons were attempting to kidnap two reapers (literally, beings that help dead souls move on) and kill them under the solstice moon, but they had barred the building where they were performing the ritual from angels by using Enochian symbols. Castiel therefore called Dean and tipped him off while posing as the brothers' mentor/father figure, Bobby, as he believed that the Winchesters wouldn't listen to him if he contacted them as himself. Through a complex process where they temporarily became ghosts, the Wincesters prevented the breaking of the seal. Castiel swooped in right as Dean was being antagonized by Alastair, and the demon was successfully captured. Castiel thanked Dean for his help, explaining his involvement before taking his leave.

Soon after that, the angels needed Dean's help once again. Angels had started dying at an alarming rate, and they needed someone to torture Alastair and get answers out of him about who was responsible. Dean was the perfect person for the job, and while Castiel knew that it was a lot to ask, he had no choice. His superiors had started to suspect that he was getting too close to Dean and that it was impeding his judgment, and so all he could do was apologize and make it clear that he would give anything for Dean not to have to do it. While Dean tortured Alastair, Anna suddenly appeared to Castiel and tried to convince him that God would not have been giving orders like that. She went as far as to try and get Castiel to join her side, but he lashed out, scared of his own doubt and the thought of what Heaven would do if he rebelled. Meanwhile, Alastair had managed to break free; he badly injured both Dean and Castiel, but Sam then showed up and used his demonic power to kill Alastair. Castiel left the brothers to sort through his own thoughts, and even called for Anna to help him decide what the right path was. She refused to help him, saying it was a decision he had to make on his own. Castiel also started to suspect that it was Uriel who was responsible for the angel deaths, and upon confronting him, Uriel admitted to it, explaining that he agreed with Lucifer, who he saw as a new God: humans were a mistake and needed to be purged. He tried to get Castiel to join him, but this only resulted in a fight. Then Anna showed up and killed Uriel herself. Castiel then went to see Dean, hospitalized due to Alastair, and found him distraught over having heard about how he was the first seal from the demon. Castiel unfortunately had no real way to comfort him, other than saying that it was fate that caused it all to happen, and that he was still the only one who could stop the Apocalypse.

When the Winchesters ended up running into a prophet of God some time later, Castiel was sent down to prevent them from harming him. The prophet, Chuck, was actually writing the lives of the Winchesters down in novel form -- a sort of weird pseudo-gospel. Because of this, Chuck could partly see into the future, and signs pointed to Lilith herself (the highest-ranked demon who was in charge of breaking the seals) approaching Sam and the result being some sort of sexual encounter. While Dean wanted to try and avoid this, Sam was certain that it wouldn't actually happen. As a result, Dean ended up praying for help. Castiel came to see him and told him there was nothing he could do, but when Dean put his foot down and said he deserved this one thing after all the crap he'd taken, Castiel was able to exploit a loophole by informing Dean that if a prophet was put in danger, a powerful archangel would come down to dispose of the threat. Getting Chuck near Lilith therefore solved the problem.

Things went south when finally, Castiel was made aware of the angels' true plan. They wanted the sixty-six seals to break, since they believed that they would be able to win against Lucifer and Hell, and as a result of that victory, achieve paradise. Castiel balked at this and went to Dean in a dream, informing him of a place where they could meet so he could properly warn him. Unfortunately, the angels tracked Castiel down before Dean showed, and they forced him from his vessel and dragged him back to Heaven. They put the fear of Heaven into him, forcing him to renounce his doubt, and so Castiel became solid in the belief that he served Heaven -- not humans, not Dean. Down on Earth, demons were terrorizing Jimmy and his family, and Castiel chose to possess Jimmy's daughter to dispose of the troublemakers. He was willing to stay in Claire's body, as Jimmy had been shot and Castiel believed he deserved peace, but Jimmy begged him to take him instead, not wanting Claire to suffer. Castiel complied, but left as soon as he had his true vessel back, with no words of comfort for Jimmy's family and no information for Dean.

It took two and a half hours of Dean screaming for Castiel to appear to him again. Sam had been locked up due to the fact that he'd been drinking demon blood to boost his abilities, but what Dean wanted to know was if Sam could really kill Lilith if he kept it up. Castiel told him yes, but that he'd likely become a monster in the process. In order to get Dean to cooperate, Castiel lied and told him that Dean would be able to do it if he pledged himself to Heaven, which Dean agreed to. Castiel was then ordered to free Sam, as what Heaven really needed was for Sam to succeed, because it was Lilith's death that was actually the final seal that would unleash Lucifer. After this, Castiel was left to brood over his hand in starting the Apocalypse, which was when Anna found him and scolded him for what he'd done. Unfortunately, this was a set-up by which Heaven captured Anna for good, leaving Castiel even more conflicted.

Castiel then brought Dean into a limbo area so he would be trapped while Sam went forward with killing Lilith. Zachariah showed up and attempted to keep Dean calm, whereas Castiel had to stand by, knowing the truth and yet being unable to tell Dean a thing, something that was making him increasingly uncomfortable. Dean insisted on being let out to see Sam, but Castiel was forced to refuse him. Eventually, Zachariah revealed their whole plan to Dean, which Castiel tried to apologize for afterward. Dean shoved all of Castiel's platitudes about destiny in his face, saying that the pain of the real world was far better than the mindless bliss of paradise. He called Castiel on the fact that he'd tried to help before, begging him to do so now. Castiel argued back that if he did so, they'd all just end up dead, and Dean countered that if there was anything worth dying for, this was it. Castiel left to think it over, but in the end he knew that Dean was right, and finally took the plunge into rebellion. He helped Dean to escape, taking him to Chuck so they could ask him for Lilith's whereabouts. (Chuck told them that their appearance was outside of his prophecy, meaning that Castiel literally defied fate by rebelling.) An archangel showed up almost immediately, and so Castiel teleported Dean to Lilith and then attempted to fight off the archangel, which quickly resulted in his death.

And yet, he didn't stay dead for good. Castiel found himself miraculously revived (though with his angelic powers reduced due to being cut off from Heaven), and the only explanation he could come up with was that it was God's doing. Unfortunately, his rebellion had been for nothing, since Dean had been unable to stop Sam from killing Lilith. Nonetheless, Castiel caught up with the two when they were being terrorized by Zachariah. As it turned out, Dean was Michael's vessel, and Michael was the only one who could actually kill Lucifer. However, their fight would lead to the death of millions, and so Dean was unwilling to say yes despite Zachariah's bullying. Castiel ordered Zachariah away (pushy rebel angel!) and then carved a symbol into Sam and Dean's ribs that would hide them from angels before leaving just as quickly.

Castiel acquired a cell phone, as he was going to need it to get a hold of the Winchesters from then on (the ribs thing hid them from even him), and then tracked them down at the hospital; Bobby had been badly injured to the point that he was confined to a wheelchair. After explaining that he no longer had the ability to heal and therefore couldn't help Bobby, Castiel told them about his plan for stopping Lucifer: finding God. Dean called this a pipe dream, insisting that God was either dead or indifferent, which caused Castiel to lash out at him, saying that Dean had no right to judge when he'd given up everything for him and gotten nothing out of it. He then asked for Dean's necklace, an amulet that should burn hot in the presence of God, and Dean reluctantly handed it over.

When Castiel tracked Dean down again, he and Sam had decided to part ways due to Sam being scared of himself after causing the Apocalypse. Nonetheless, Castiel needed Dean's help in in trapping the archangel who'd killed him, Raphael, as he believed he would know something about God's location. Castiel got Dean to agree by admitting that he had no one else to ask. Castiel subsequently blundered his way through questioning some humans for information (with Dean's help), but when tracking down Raphael's vessel turned out to be a dead end, they planned to perform a ritual to summon him instead. As Castiel was fairly sure he wouldn't survive the interrogation, Dean decided to take him to a strip club to expose him to alcohol and get him laid before he died. This ended in failure (read: the stripper freaked out on him and then stalked away), but it did give Castiel another lesson about humans. Then they finally captured Raphael, who insisted that God was dead. Castiel refused to believe this and left Raphael there to rot. Dean told him that if he truly believed God was out there, then he should just continue to believe and forget everyone else. However, a few misplaced words from Dean then convinced Castiel that his presence was not wanted, and he left for a time.

Castiel's next idea about how to kill Lucifer was to use the Colt, a famous gun that supposedly can kill anything. However, he was distracted from that by a phone message from the Winchesters (they decided to start working together again, of course) about a child they'd found who was half-demon, half-human. Realizing that this child was the antichrist, Castiel rushed to them to explain that the boy must die. If not, he'd be manipulated by Lucifer into causing mass destruction. The Winchesters tried to find another way, but Castiel wasn't having it and went to the boy's house to kill him... only to be turned into an action figure by the kid. By the time he was put back to normal, the boy had disappeared to a place where no one would be able to track him down, thereby subverting the crisis.

When the Winchesters then ended up missing for days, Castiel tracked them down into... a Japanese game show. It was actually the construction of a very powerful monster/demi-god called a trickster, but after Castiel was warped away multiple times by the thing (something a trickster should not have been powerful enough to do) and then later greeted by him with a strange familiarity, Castiel started to piece together the truth. He was not a trickster, but the angel, Gabriel, who had decided to leave Heaven eons ago. The other angel gave a long speech about how it was Sam and Dean's destiny to say yes to Lucifer and Michael (unsurprisingly, it turned out that Sam was Lucifer's true vessel) and got in a dig about Castiel's futile search for God, but the three took their leave soon after that.

Later on, the Winchesters managed to track down the Colt. It was in the possession of a demon named Crowley, so Castiel got his location for the brothers, who managed to get a hold of the gun along with some intel on Lucifer's location (it turned out Crowley was on their side). The Winchesters, Castiel, and a mother-daughter hunter pair (Ellen and Jo) all went into the town together, but it was deserted -- except for the reapers, which Castiel saw wherever he looked: a very bad sign. He went off to look around on his own, but ended up trapped by Lucifer, who tried to convince him that they were on the same side, which Castiel of course rejected. Lucifer then left to perform a ritual to call up Death, one of the Four Horsemen. (Hence the reapers.) Castiel was left under the guard of a demon, who he eventually used, quite literally, to free himself (by throwing her body onto the ring of fire which was entrapping him). By the time he made it to the Winchesters, it was already too late. The Colt hadn't worked on Lucifer and the ritual was completed. More than that, Ellen and Jo had given their lives in the process.

Time passed, and then Castiel heard from Dean that Anna had contacted him in a dream. Castiel thought this was suspicious, and convinced that she had been sent to do Heaven's "dirty work," he went to see her himself. While he tried to apologize for having a hand in her being caught, he refused to believe that she was there to help, and eventually got her to admit her purpose: she was out to kill Sam, since he was Lucifer's vessel. Castiel was not willing to accept this plan, as he saw Sam as a friend; in fact, he even threatened to kill Anna if she went near Sam. He went back to the Winchesters and convinced them that they needed to kill Anna, as she wouldn't give up on taking down Sam. When he performed a ritual to find her, he realized she'd gone back in time to try and kill the brothers' parents. The Winchesters convinced him to take them back, but the process severely weakened him (to the point of coughing up blood), and so he was laid up in a motel. By the time he came to, the Winchesters were already back in the future, and so Castiel also returned -- and passed out again, though he eventually got the news of what happened. No one had managed to change the past, but Michael had showed up to kill Anna and tell Dean that no matter what they did to try and stop it, fate would still take its course. Castiel, Sam, and Dean thus became the opposition to this: "Team Free Will."

Castiel next got a call from the Winchesters about a series of strange cases of double suicides between couples. Castiel examined a symbol they'd found on the hearts of the corpses, and realized that it was a cupid's binding spell. They tracked the cupid down, but all he had for them was awkward naked hugs and the insistence that he had nothing to do with the deaths, only the initial attraction. As more clues piled up, and as Castiel suddenly developed a strange craving for hamburgers, he started to piece together the puzzle. Famine, one of the Horsemen, was in town. Famine fed on souls, so demons were collecting the souls of the victims for him. Team Free Will planned to track Famine down and take his ring (the source of his power), but were forced to leave Sam behind, as he'd developed a renewed taste for demon blood. Castiel and Dean waited near one of the victims for a demon to come and harvest his soul, and then followed the demon to where Famine was: a diner. Castiel planned to go in alone, but Famine made him ravenous for raw meat, rendering him useless. In the end, it was Sam who showed up (having given into his bloodlust, he had the power to fight the demons) and saved the day. They got the ring, but had to put Sam through detox afterward.

Some time later, Castiel realized that Sam and Dean had died. He wasn't worried -- since they were important vessels, the angels would revive them. Instead, he saw an opportunity: with them in Heaven, they could get a hold of Joshua, the voice of God. He contacted them to explain what they had to do -- to plead with them, even, as God was his last hope and the one he was relying on. Sam and Dean found Joshua, but they returned to Earth with bad news: Joshua had told them that God was already aware of what was happening and just didn't see a reason to interfere. The news crushed Castiel more than anything thus far, as he'd been abandoned by his father figure and had no other ideas for how to save the world. He returned Dean's necklace and then took off to go on a bender... by a drinking an entire liquor store. Literally.

Post-bender, Castiel got a message on his phone from Sam asking for help. He made his way to where they were, and Sam explained that the town had been heavily attacked by demons, but that a prophet had been instructing the townspeople in how to fight. Castiel knew right away that the woman was not a prophet, but the Whore of Babylon, a creature that posed as a prophet and spurred people to spill blood in God's name. Castiel knew how to kill her, but a servant of God had to be the one to deal the blow, and none of them qualified. He went to secure the pastor of town, and they managed to convince him to help. Dean also found the time to give Castiel some pain medication for the hangover and to comfort him about what had happened with God in his own weird way. During the encounter with the creature, Castiel was quickly put out of commission by a powerful incantation. When he came to, he found out that Dean had been the one to kill the Whore of Babylon, as he was considering saying yes to Michael. More than that, Dean had ditched them, forcing Sam and Castiel to track him down.

Dean in tow, they went to Bobby's. Castiel was rightfully angry at Dean for even entertaining the thought of saying yes, considering all they'd done to avoid "fate." Castiel let Bobby and Sam argue with Dean until he sensed that something was wrong. Dean and Sam's half-brother, Adam, had been revived, and Castiel immediately went to find him, having to fight off two angels before he could bring the young man back. Adam explained that he'd been chosen to be Michael's vessel, which actually seemed possible, since he was part of the bloodline. After failing to convince Adam to not go through with it, they kept him there against his will right along with Dean. After watching over Adam for a bit, Castiel went to see Dean, who had set up a blood sigil to banish Castiel so that he could escape. Castiel recovered and managed to track down Dean in order to beat the crap out of him and give him a piece of his mind about how Dean was throwing everything Castiel had sacrificed for him in his face. He eventually took him back to Bobby's, only to find out that Adam had been taken by the angels in their absence. Castiel figured out where he'd been taken (that same limbo room that Dean was once taken to), but the place was well-guarded. Castiel decided to carve a sigil into his own chest, preparing to possibly sacrifice himself in order to clear the way for Dean and Sam to get to Adam. He told Dean that he'd rather die than have to watch him give in, and subsequently took out a whole group of angels with him. Amazingly enough, Castiel survived this, but instead of ending up on a shrimping boat, he'll be going straight to Landel's.

What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
Castiel will be taken from the end of season 5, episode 18, "The Point of No Return." He carved the sigil onto his own body in order to take a large group of angels out with him, and he actually spends the next two episodes of the show MIA. When he shows up again, he's in a hospital bed and almost completely powerless, so the blow did a number on him. I've chosen this time because the long absence seems like a good point from which to take him, and also because it did take away so many of his powers. If I took him from the end of the season, he would have had some time to adjust to being powerless, but I want him to come into Landel's brand new to it. That'll also cause some confusion over whether he did it to himself or if Landel's is partly responsible. Also, taking him from the very end of the season would mean that most of the loose ends were tied. He would know whether or not they'd been successful, and there wouldn't be such an urgency to him. Castiel is shown to be at least partly at peace by the end of the season, which would make him less interesting to play. From the point I've chosen, he'll be struggling with a lack of powers, unsure of whether or not the world is going to end, and still dealing with the fallout from Dean's betrayal of him. He won't know for sure whether or not Dean chose to say yes, which would also cause some tension at first.

Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
Being an angel, Castiel experiences and views the world in an extremely different way when compared to a human. While he's slowly been learning, that doesn't change the fact that for thousands of years, he had very limited contact with Earth and spent all of his time either following orders or waiting for said orders. More than that, as angels are important not for who they are but for what they can do, their emotions are either extremely stunted or nonexistent. This is something that Anna makes clear when she calls Castiel on how his apology is not genuine. He can sometimes grasp emotions on a basic level, but he can't necessarily feel them as deeply as a human would. This has been changing, though, mainly due to his exposure to Dean and Sam. The fact that he came to actually care for them (in his own way) meant that he was forced to question a lot of the callous orders that he was given. Unfortunately, it seems like the negative emotions are the ones he's been able to access more readily. He now knows what it's like to feel abandoned (by God) and betrayed (by Dean), and he feels these emotions surprisingly strongly. However, a lot of the time he can't really define what he's feeling, which can lead to a lot of confusion and uncertainty.

There are many things that Castiel is on very solid footing about, however, and one of those things is loyalty. Originally this was to Heaven, where he always did his best to carry out his orders and be a good, obedient soldier. Even as he found himself filled with doubt, he held on to his duty for a long time, despite both Dean and Anna's attempts to convince him that he should rebel. But when Castiel makes a decision, it's one-hundred percent, and so when he chose to leave Heaven and throw his cards in with Sam and Dean, he kept to it without faltering. As the Winchesters are really his only friends (and he explicitly refers to them as friends), he is very much concerned with their safety and refuses to betray them. This is shown when Anna wants Sam dead, and Castiel tells her that he'll kill her if she gets near him. Even though he and Anna have a history, Castiel has decided that he's on Sam and Dean's side, and so he'll do whatever it takes to protect them. That being said, he does feel guilt and regret for some of the things he's done, such as when he allowed Anna to get captured, and probably also for some of the things he put Sam and Dean through while in Heaven. He just has a difficult time expressing any of that.

A lot of Castiel's expressiveness comes after his rebellion, as he spends more protracted periods of time around humans. He is very obviously nervous and out of sorts when Dean takes him to the strip bar, for instance -- though he doesn't take the stripper's rejection of him too personally. He's very awkward around women, at least if they're trying to come onto him, because sex is very much off of his radar. (He does express embarrassment over being a two-thousand-year-old virgin, though.) When he's under the effects of Famine, he's so taken with hamburgers that he breaks into a grin and says "these make me... very happy." It's one of the happiest he's been outwardly, actually. When he's drunk, he's very disgruntled and short-tempered. He tells Sam that his voice is grating, for instance. In this way, he's been getting a bit more in-touch with his own feelings and desires, but he's usually so stiff that a lot of the time they come across as awkward or out-of-place. He's got a long way to go in that respect.

Castiel's views toward humans in general are pretty different from the normal angel. While a lot of the angels seem to see humans as either a means to an end or as less than scum, Castiel remarks that they're "pieces of art." In fact, even when he was working for Heaven, it seemed clear that he was unhappy with the uncertainty of whose orders he was following and what they were requiring him to do, even if he refused to acknowledge that at first. Very early on, Castiel admits his doubts to Dean, and in many of the scenes where he's passing on Heaven's orders, he seems uncomfortable with what he's doing. He mainly expressed this by physically removing himself from the conversation (standing at the edge of the room while Uriel was all gung-ho about exterminating a town) or just staying quiet (he doesn't make a peep while Zachariah torments Dean). Anna's humanity caught his eye and intrigued him almost immediately. Castiel is fascinated by humans and willing to learn from them, which is why he's picked up drinking and even swearing (when the situation calls for it, of course) from Dean. On the other hand, he's also been exposed to just how terrible humans can be to each other, so his somewhat rose-tinted view has been cleared up since he's rebelled.

Something humans have taught him (and which he now takes very seriously) is that there is no such thing as fate. Before rebelling, he thought that there was a set path and a reason for everything; believing that the orders came from God made that a simple thing to reconcile in his mind. Witnessing Sam and Dean's attempts to fight against their so-called destinies had made him realize the importance of free will. He became pretty disillusioned about Heaven the moment he realized that his superior had actually planned for the Apocalypse to happen. It's not quite as easy for Castiel to say that the death of millions is okay, not anymore. Now that he's gotten personally acquainted with humans, wiping them off the map like that just isn't acceptable for him.

At the same time, Castiel is extremely practical. He was willing to kill a child by his own hand because the boy was the antichrist and had the potential to cause countless deaths if he was manipulated by the wrong person. Once again, Dean and Sam had to show him that there always has to be a better way. Castiel doesn't completely understand this yet, and that's due to the fact that he's very goal-oriented. Due to living a life that was exclusively about completing tasks and following orders, he always has to have something to focus on or accomplish. More than that, he's very insistent on doing it the right way, and he won't hesitate to argue with Dean and Sam on this point. In fact, he often doesn't even bother to argue; he'll simply warp in, grab them, and set them to work with only a minimal amount of information. A lot of this has to do with the fact that for so long, he was set in the belief that his orders were correct and just. Even after his rebellion, he tends to believe that he knows the right way to go about things, which is why he usually will go ahead with them and not even listen to the alternatives until Sam and Dean force him to. In this way, he can be a grade A jerk about things, and the bluntness doesn't help. Castiel is all about getting things done, which makes him pretty awkward when it comes to things like small talk. He also doesn't understand things that would come easily to a socialized person, such as what counts as proper personal space.

Castiel is very straight-forward. If he wants answers about something, he'll simply ask without any sugarcoating. Before Dean set him straight, he was prepared to go up to a deputy sheriff and ask him where the archangel Raphael was, just like that. He also hardly ever lies, which leads to him being uncomfortably blunt at times. If he thinks there's no hope in a situation, that's exactly what he'll say. He's also not up on pop culture, which leads to a lot of blank stares when Dean starts going on about this or that. (Dean is the king of making references to TV shows/movies/what-have-you.)

Due to his issues with emotions, a lot of the time he can come across as extremely cold. He doesn't really know how to comfort people, and he can also misread someone's words or intentions. Because of this, a lot of the time he'll simply leave a conversation rather than trying to figure out how to respond. A good example of this is when Dean was in an extremely bad spot after finding out that he was the first seal. Reduced to tears, Dean told Castiel that he wasn't strong enough to stop the Apocalypse, and Castiel really didn't have a good reply for him. When he gets into a spot like where he has no good response, he'll often just leave. While he has improved a lot -- he let Dean take him to a strip club and also heard him out when Dean tried to connect with him about their shared daddy issues -- he is very much still in the middle of the learning process when it comes to things like this. He is curious about humans and how they interact with each other, but most of the time he's too busy on what has to be done to really read up.

Some of Castiel's vocabulary is a bit antiquated, a severe example being "I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition" -- one of the first things he says to Dean. The way he speaks is probably one of the first things that would stand out about him to someone. As mentioned before, he has picked up a few more colloquial things, though he botches it up from time to time. (While it's from after I'm taking him, an insult he comes up with is "assbutt." No joke.)

Because it's a prerequisite for being a main character on Supernatural, Castiel also has severe daddy issues. He looked up to his Father as the one who would guide him, the one who knew what was truly right. God -- or Castiel's view of him, anyway -- gave him a security where he didn't have to decide for himself what was just and what was unjust. Even after he left Heaven, Castiel assumed that God was out there somewhere. He continued to believe this despite every indication to the contrary, up until he heard from the voice of God himself. Once Castiel realized that God didn't care about what he (or anyone else) was going through, it shook him to the core far beyond anything else -- enough to spur him to go get really, really trashed. He's still dealing with the knowledge that there's really no one out there who might be looking out for him, although the fact that God did bring him back to life gives him certainty in the fact that he's doing the right thing.

The other person who Castiel is attached to is Dean. Dean was his first contact with humans. While he originally spoke to him only because his orders dictated it, Dean ended up teaching him more than Dean probably realizes about what it means to be human, and what it means to have convictions and morals and so forth. Dean is, despite his efforts, very much a heart-on-his-sleeve type of guy, and so Castiel was able to pick up on a lot of his raw emotion. He saw a genuine quality in Dean that spoke to him, and as a result, Dean is probably the most important person to him at this point. It's precisely because of this that Dean's decision to try and say yes to Michael hurt so much. As Castiel tells him, he gave up everything for Dean, and to have Dean turn around and give up was a huge slap in the face.

Castiel has also made close friends with Sam, of course. What is interesting about Castiel is that he can be very non-judgmental. Even though Sam was the one who started the Apocalypse in the first place, Castiel doesn't hold a grudge about this. He is very much willing to put people in their place and be completely honest about their faults (he calls Sam an abomination at one point, though it's done in a very matter-of-fact way), but he won't refuse to associate with someone because they did something sinful. He also doesn't seem to judge Dean for the fact that he tortured souls in Hell, for instance. Part of this could be due to the fact that he still has some lingering guilt about his own rebellion. He refers to himself as a "poor example" of an angel at one point, for instance. In fact, due to being nothing more than a soldier who followed orders for so long, Castiel very much judges himself by how helpful he is. Without his powers, he's quick to call himself useless, and that can leave him feeling lost. This is seen both through a future version of him who's almost entirely human, and also through an instance in the current timeline where he becomes powerless. Seeing how he'll have barely any power at Landel's, this is something he's going to have to work through.

Please give us a physical description of your character:
Castiel (when he's in his vessel, at least) stands at about 5'11" tall -- and he usually stands rather stiffly, at that. He's got short dark-brown-almost-black hair that has a tendency to curl upward at the front, and piercing blue eyes. He's fair-skinned and usually sports a bit of stubble. He's grown a bit more expressive over time, but he generally has a very neutral expression and a formal bearing to him. When he puts his mind to it, though, his looks would rip someone's head off if they could. His build is average, and he's almost always seen wearing the same outfit (beige trenchcoat over a rumpled suit), so being in the Landel's uniform will be a big change for him.

What kinds of otherworldly abilities does your character have, if any?:
As an angel, Castiel has a ton of powers, even when he's cut off from Heaven and limited. He's going to be almost powerless at Landel's, though, so I'm only going to give a quick overview of what he's capable of rather than going into detail about everything. In his true form, Castiel is so powerful that a human who sets eyes on him will end up with them burned out; if he speaks, it shatters glass. In a vessel, he's still very powerful. Angels often burn out lights and cause static on TVs and radios when they come and go -- and yes, they do teleport. It's unclear whether or not it actually involves flying (there's a wing-flapping noise whenever they warp), but the point is that they can zap from one point to another in a second. That being said, Castiel definitely does have wings, though they're invisible -- it's likely they exist on a different plane of sorts, since they seem to be huge and yet the angels can get through doorways and move around without a problem. Castiel can also move through time, as he goes to the past twice. He's impervious to knives, bullets, pretty much anything, and he's got inhuman strength. The only thing that can kill an angel is a special knife that only other angels usually have access to. He has some form of telepathy, can make people pass out and exorcise demons with simply a touch, and can warp his voice (he imitates Bobby over the phone at one point). He also has telekinesis (he twists the knife that he stabbed Alastair with from a few feet away, and can open/close doors with a swish of his hand). He can also sense things about people, such as what they are (demon, angel, etc.) and if they're from a different time period, or just if... something is off about them in general. He usually doesn't need to eat or sleep or anything, either.

If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
First of all, Castiel is going to be almost completely human at Landel's. This means that his wounds will heal at a normal rate (normal for Landel's, at least) and that he'll get hungry and tired. Everything else will also be gone, except for a few things:

- I'd like for the shadows of his wings to show under special circumstances. In Supernatural, the only time an angel's wings are shown is when they die or when there's a flash of lightning. Another time that we catch a glimpse is when Anna banished Castiel, but that was only for a split second. However, since the suggestion seems to be that they show when the angels are in serious distress, I was thinking that maybe the shadow of them would show up when Castiel was severely injured. It couldn't just be a scratch, though, clearly -- he'd have to be almost incapacitated and probably unable to move around on his own before that happened.

- Castiel would still be able to sense if a patient was a demon, an angel, or a human. If they didn't fall into any of those categories, then they'd just be a big question mark in his mind. If this came up in a thread, I would definitely ask the other player before Castiel brought it up. He would need to actually concentrate to figure this out, though. It wouldn't just be immediately apparent to him. Also, while this would only work with canonmates, he would be able to sense if someone was from a different time. In other words, if he concentrated on it, he'd be able to see that Sam and Dean were both from his past. He wouldn't know the exact amount of time or anything. The reason I'm keeping this one is because he's shown to be able to do it even in an episode where it's the future and he's almost completely human.

- As a final thought (and this one can be tossed out if it seems unreasonable), I was thinking that Castiel could cause a small reaction when he goes near radios. This would only be when he first approached them, so, for example: if he walked up to someone who had currently had their radio on, the static on it would worsen for a couple of seconds and then it would normalize again. This would also happen when he turned on his own radio. Once again, though, it would only be when he first got near it and then it would go back to normal.

Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
Seeing how Castiel is a soldier, the one thing he's really good at is fighting. This is only shown when he's in a vessel, though (and that's obviously the only way it would apply at Damned), so it boils down to fist fights, hand-to-hand, and some skill with a special sword. He adapts quickly, though -- he learned how to shoot a gun without much guidance, for instance (point-blank range makes it fairly simple). So whether it's fighting with his hands, using a knife/sword, or shooting a gun, it can be assumed that Castiel can pull it off. He's been bested in the past (more than once), but he's also taken out a lot of angels and demons over the course of the series.

Other than that, he is, of course, knowledgeable about everything having to do with Heaven. The hierarchies, the names of all of his brothers and sisters, names of prophets, and so forth. This is a bit tricky since oftentimes Supernatural canon will deviate from both the Bible and any other lore. (The antichrist isn't Lucifer's son, cupids are a type of angel, etc.) I'll attempt not to have him make any claims that might be proved wrong later, but hopefully it isn't a subject that will come up too often -- and if it does, I'll try to mainly pull from things that are already established.

He knows a whole lot about how to kill/banish/harm his own kind, strangely enough. This ranges from using that angel-killing sword to drawing out blood sigils to banish other angels. He knows the rituals to summon angels and he also knows how to trap one (a ring of fire burned from holy oil). He is also fluent in Enochian, the angelic language, and probably many others, although Enochian is the only one that's said for certain.

Castiel is also very good at creeping on people and making them uncomfortable. I think that counts as a skill.

What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
The biggest change that Castiel is going to have to adapt to upon arriving in Landel's is his loss of power. As mentioned before, he judges his own worth on how useful he can be, so having to adjust to being normal will be tough. He'll be constantly looking for ways in which he can be a help instead of a burden, especially in regards to the Winchester brothers. Of course, that brings up another problem, as neither Sam nor Dean will know who he is. That is going to be very, very hard on him, especially if they refuse to believe that he's an angel. He doesn't have many ways to prove it except by telling them all of the things he knows, which could quickly become problematic for different reasons. However, I'm willing to work with both Sam and Dean's players to make certain that Castiel doesn't say more than they're comfortable with him saying, and I'm sure we'll be able to work out an IC way to do so.

The other thing that is going to be weird for him is that he's going to have to get to know more people. While he's going to try to spend as much of his time as possible planning an escape or figuring out what the next step should be in terms of finding information, there are clearly going to be times when he won't be able to do this. He'll have to learn how to not just drill people for information, but to just talk to them. And he won't be able to just leave with a flap of his wings here, which means that he'll end up in a lot of uncomfortable situations where he won't know how to respond. Hopefully he'll start learning a little more about what it is to be human, but it would definitely be a rough ride.

As far as being told he's crazy, that's not likely something that will get to Castiel too much, actually. Mental disease is something that afflicts humans, not angels, and there is no way that he's not an angel, even without his powers. He has 2000+ years of memories to back it up, and it's just not something he would falter on. Similarly, the monsters won't be a huge deal to him. While a lot of them are going to be new and unexpected, he's used to fighting. What he isn't quite as used to is not recovering from his wounds after a day at the most, but he'll soldier through that nonetheless.

He would very much be focused on getting out -- there is an Apocalypse going on, after all. He will attempt to work with Sam and Dean on this, since he's on their side before anyone else's, but he would not be opposed to running off on his own to look into leads and so forth. (He's going to have to learn that this is a bad idea the hard way.) As for working with people other than the Winchesters, that's something that might take some pushing (or incidental situations) before it actually happened. It'll end up happening one way or the other, though.

Honestly, it would take a while for Castiel to admit that they are good and trapped, since the only thing that should be able to hold him is a Heavenly prison or something like that. It takes him a good, long while to give up on things, though, and so he'll work at escaping pretty tenaciously. He might have moments of hopelessness (he's shown to have them in the show), but he'll pick himself back up and keep going, especially if he thinks that Sam and Dean need his help.

So adjusting to being human, learning how to have normal conversations with people, and his own uselessness will be the biggest roadblocks for him, and he'll have to work through them at his own, sometimes slow, pace. The one good thing is that he'll have far more chances to study humans than he usually gets, and there is a possibility that he'll focus on that as a very thin silver lining. He'll be curious about the people he meets, once he slows down long enough to listen to them.

Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Considering the series that Castiel comes from, this is a no-brainer. While he never actually goes up against a ghost or a monster along those lines on the show, he does fight against powerful and dangerous angels and demons a lot. Castiel has stared death in the face multiple times by this point; when he was captured by Lucifer, he kept his cool and didn't even break a sweat. He's pretty fearless in that sense. Even when he's aware of the odds that he's working with (they're usually not in his favor), he can almost always keep it together. He'll lose hope or give up, but it doesn't usually last. Physically, even as a human he's got the skills to defend himself, and he'll get armed quickly, even if it's only a baseball bat or a metal pipe or something like that. Mentally, Castiel is pretty solid in that, even when things get really bad, he eventually deals with it in his own way. While a lot of it is probably ignoring his own emotions because he doesn't understand them (which is hardly healthy), the fact that he's not as in touch with his feelings does mean that he isn't the sort that's ever reduced to sobbing into a pillow or anything like that. There are a lot of things about Landel's that will throw him for a loop, but none of it is beyond what he can handle in one way or another.

Third-Person Sample:
Despite the warnings from both Sam and Dean about not venturing out alone at night, Castiel had decided to ignore them and spend the night inspecting the interesting areas marked on the map his roommate had given him. They both should have known that he was not the sort of person who needed protecting or a helping hand for something as simple as reconnaissance, but they didn't, and so here he was. He shouldn't have needed to prove himself to them, but when he couldn't even manage something as rudimentary as moving a cup across a table to show them what he was capable of, this was all he had left.

If he brought them information that he had managed to secure with no aid from them or anyone else, then they would surely have to take him seriously. Or start to, at least.

Castiel strode down the second floor hallway, strangely aware of the absence of his swaying trenchcoat. An attachment to clothing was a purely human construct, and yet he had spent over a year in those garments. The uniform he had now felt scratchy on his skin, but that could also be a side effect of feeling more tethered to his vessel now that his abilities were almost completely gone.

He had already studied the map multiple times in order to be prepared, and therefore found the door that led into the morgue without delay. When he grasped the knob and it stuck in place, Castiel felt a brief bout of aggravation. Normally, he would have never had to bother with something like this -- he'd often worked around obstacles like this to let Sam and Dean into places without having to wait for them to pull out their lock picking tools. Now he'd have to do it the hard way.

The past few days, he'd used either his fists or his flashlight for a job like this, but having picked up a metal pipe from a supply closet the night before, the job would be much easier this time. Castiel wasted no time in smashing the pipe against the lock. It took three times and then it gave in. Not bothering to catch his breath, he stepped inside.

The change in temperature surprised him, only because he felt it more sharply now than he had in the past. He hadn't thought to take that coat out of his room's closet, but it was something he'd have to keep in mind for the future. For the moment, he crossed the room and opened the first drawer that he reached. When it was empty, he moved on, opening each drawer methodically so that he could be absolutely certain that there were no bodies being held here. At the moment, at least. It made no sense to have a morgue if it wasn't going to be used, but Castiel had come across a multitude of things in this institute that made no sense -- even less sense than Dean Winchester.

Forcing that thought away, Castiel promptly turned to the other two doors in the room. Those led into autopsy rooms, which would probably contain something of material use. The first door he tried opened without protest, and he strode into the room, immediately remembering the times that he'd held conversations with Sam and Dean in places like this. He directed his flashlight across the area, and then suddenly caught sight of gleaming eyes in the corner.

Castiel immediately sprung into action, readying into a combat stance and adjusting his grip on the pipe so that he could bludgeon the creature, but it was too fast for him. The monster (which had vague feline characteristics, but it had been severely warped) leapt for him, the weight of it pressing down on his chest as claws tore through the smiley face and drew blood. Castiel struggled to keep his balance, stumbling backward until his back collided with the counter at the side of the room.

Without thinking, he reached up for the closest cabinet, searching for something he could use. His hand fell on cold metal and he jerked it out, fist closed around what turned out to be a scalpel. Using his other hand to keep the beast's snapping jaws at bay, he reached forward and sliced the blade across its neck.

Blood spewed, but eventually the monster's body fell slack. Castiel shoved it off of him, watching as it collapsed to the floor. He let out a breath, straightened off of the counter, and then silently wiped the creature's blood from his face.

While he'd planned to continue his search in spite of the pain that was burning through his chest, in the next moment the door he'd just come through opened and two other patients walked in -- a man who looked to be around Sam's age and a younger girl. Not as young as his vessel's daughter, but not full-grown, either.

They both looked at the monster's corpse and then at him, noticing the blood that was now staining his front. "What happened?" the girl asked with disbelief in her tone.

"It attempted to rip out my throat and failed," he responded in a monotone as he wiped the scalpel off on his pants and then turned toward the cabinets again.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on," the man spoke up from behind him. "You really shouldn't be around here on your own."

Castiel resisted the urge to slam the cabinet door closed. Here was clear proof that he could handle the dangers of this place single-handed, and yet he was still being treated as if he needed someone to guide him through it all. Even after spending a significant amount of time with them, humans still made no sense in the way they handled most circumstances.

"I'm aware of the dangers and am capable of dealing with them," he said with a clipped tone as he continued to face the cabinets. He pulled out a whole box of scalpels and tucked them under his arm. The more of these that he had, the better, since he was likely to be attacked again now that he was covered in that animal's tainted blood.

With that in hand, he closed the cabinet and faced the two patients, looking them over again. Neither appeared too bothered by the corpse, which meant that he had no obligation to offer them aid. He needed to get moving, then, before they tried to issue more warnings.

"We're just trying to help," the girl said with a shrug of her shoulders as she started to maneuver around the corpse.

"Focus on yourselves," he said, half an order and half a dismissal as he strode past both of them. He decided he'd look into the second autopsy room, as there might be more useful supplies there. While one of the patients tried to stop him with a hurried "hey--," he ignored it and stepped through the door, closing it solidly behind him.

First-Person Sample:
[Castiel really isn't the sort that would write in a journal. He'd see it as something humans do in order to hold onto memories, but wouldn't feel a need to himself. He's never had reason or occasion to express his own thoughts and feelings, let alone record them, so he wouldn't bother. He probably wouldn't take notes, since he would trust in himself to remember everything without relying on that. That being said, he would use the bulletin to get information and to organize meetings, since he sadly won't have a cell-phone at Landel's. So here's an example of something he might write:]

Dean, there is something we need to discuss. I'll be waiting in the room with the musical instruments.

- Castiel