> PLAYER INFORMATION
NAME: Inky
PRONOUNS: she/her
AGE: 32
CONTACT: Plurk: inkcharm | Discord: inkcharm#4573

> CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Castiel
CANON: Supernatural
AGE: Looks to be mid-30s, is actually billions of years old (older than the world)
CANON POINT: 13x04: "The Big Empty"

HISTORY: Castiel @ Supernatural Wiki
PERSONALITY: Castiel is very pragmatic and logical on top of being protective. He will be interested in keeping his loved ones safe - which can be problematic, as he can be self-sacrificing to a fault, choosing to push ahead with the option that seems most direct and efficient in terms of achieving his goal, no matter how much harm comes to himself. At the same time, while he's willing to suffer a lot of mockery and verbal abuse from his so-called charges, he doesn't hesitate to retaliate in kind if he deems it necessary.

It's easy to ignore how old he is, how much he knows and how capable to is, and just dismiss him as weak, naive and peculiar because of his approach to the world around him, the mixture of a lack of understanding and a great deal of curiosity and fondness that unfolds the longer he's separated from Heaven's strict rank system and corrupt regime.

Once he's decided on a path, it's difficult to shake him from it. While he can experience regret and guilt, he often merely internalizes them while he 'soldiers on' - even when he knows he's risking barging down the wrong path at full speed, even if the end result leaves him guilt-ridden, depressed and suicidal. His choices can be crude and cruel to others, when in truth he's merely looking for the most direct and efficient way to solve a given problem.

During his early seasons, we largely see Castiel as a warrior of Heaven, a soldier set on a mission. But the more time we spend with him, the more we begin to see there's more to him than that. He later states "Much of the time, I'd rather be here.", as he does develop a fondness for his Father's Creation - the world, and the humans and animals that inhabit it. Despite still feeling an obligation to Heaven in general, he has come to appreciate his human friends and being among humans in general. He longs to be among friends, among the family he chose, instead of fighting, to the point where for a while, in part due to his shame and guilt, he almost becomes something of a pacifist. He has potential for great development or to regress back into being a foot soldier, depending on how he is influenced and pushed and what kind of choices he makes or tries to make, as well as more importantly, with whom he forges strong bonds. More than anything, he wants his friends to have the peace they fought so hard for, even if their idea of peace comes with the unbearable pain that all humans suffer from for being mortal, and he's willing to go to great lengths to ensure that.

There are quite a lot of aspects to Castiel's personality that unfold as the seasons progress, not so much traits he develops randomly as they are capacities he's always had but was never given a chance to explore under Heaven's strict regime and idea of what an angel should be like. Generally, he does strive to do right by people, even if his idea of it can at times come across rough and even cruel - he'd rather kill the child antichrist than risk it running loose and causing trouble for people. He can be compassionate when he has the time and luxury to be, unburdened by higher purpose and pressing missions. He enjoys nature, animals, heals sick babies and tries to prevent the ruthless slaughter of innocents - while on the run from Heaven, he does not stop until they kill the workers and current customers of a diner he frequents, showing that his own self-preservation stops when those around him suffer for it. He's striving to do things for the higher good, even though he sometimes fails to understand when he's about to cross several kinds of lines.

Castiel canonically has a tendency to give his opinion, often blunt and 'rude', bordering on abrasive, featuring the clipped edge of a being too old to quickly adapt to humanity and its often strange ways, and lacking the patience for trying on occasion. He also tends to be overly literal - and while this is something easily dismissed as him just being daft, sometimes he does it on purpose because he knows it grates on people. He'll be deliberately thick, and it's a way of finding humor, and maybe even of pulling people's legs just a little. It's a fine line with him that's not always too obvious to figure out, and definitely something his closer CR is more likely to learn to live with than actually appreciate.

A popular description of Castiel is him being "dangerously clever" - he is able to bend rules and toe the line of what he's supposed to do in order to help, and is often quick to adapt to new situations or use his surroundings especially if he's metaphorically cornered and has split seconds to think on. He's not prone to panic and getting flustered in combat situations or on other familiar ground, though he will definitely fumble and get utterly flustered if faced with unknown variables far away from his 'comfort zone' - mostly in social situations.

Castiel is socially awkward and can at times be brutally honest, but he does try to offer words of advice. To his friends, he has an open ear and offers emotional support to the best of his rather stunted ability (and sometimes, he considers literally knocking sense into them his best ability). Often enough, this at least allows for them to laugh a little, if it doesn't offer any practical use. He tries, but doesn't always succeed in being sympathetic to others enough to be more mindful of them.

He is also loyal to those he considers his charges, often to a fault, and grows very protective of them. In a canon AU universe we see a post-apocalyptic future in which he still follows Dean despite being fully aware it will lead to failure and death. He will go against what his friends do if he deems that the better path, but it doesn't make him less loyal. He even ends up starting a civil war in Heaven in order to preserve the peace that he and the WInchesters fought so hard for.

It can be noted that Castiel tends to emulate those he likes or admires - at least to some extent. He sees his vessel, Jimmy Novak, sacrifice his own health, happiness and future to spare his daughter Claire from becoming Castiel's permanent vessel, therefore learning about self sacrifice without hesitation. Anna tries to teach him about doubt, choice and free will. Dean and Sam open the door for him to embrace humanity a little more than he could on his own devices. He allows them to share human experiences with him, and while he often disapproves or doesn't understand or see the point, he tends to at least try - to the point where by the current season, we see him as much more human than he used to be, being comfortable sharing a beer with Dean at a bar, or seek out diners to enjoy a coffee or food that he doesn't need as an angel. He's obviously grown more comfortable in his 'own' skin and in partaking in human customs. His time as a human himself has also given him a deeper understanding of all things human - from dreams to art to emotion and even Dean's much beloved pop culture. It doesn't mean he always Gets It, but he at least has grown much less dismissive.

Castiel has a fondness for humanity, that he does express more openly in later seasons. While in earlier ones, he believes Heaven's plans just, as he only sees suffering in the World, he grows to embrace the good of humanity more and more, and be able to distinguish the beauty that comes from them.

CW for depression, suicidal ideation
At his worst, Castiel can be prideful and arrogant, painfully blunt, lack empathy, and be self-sacrificial. He no longer would consider sacrificing anything else withe the same sort of reckless abandon in the name of a cause, but will absolutely put himself in harm's way and certain death to ensure the safety of others. His self-preservation stops where others are affected - or where he's guilt ridden enough and considers the punishment fitting the crime, or considers himself just that expendable.

Over the course of the show, we see Castiel being crushed under the weight of emotions that he wasn't created to handle - feelings are something humans are made to have, but angels aren't meant to be capable of, and yet we see several of them come to terms with them. Castiel himself experiences great guilt for his wrongdoings and betrayal of his friends, for the pain he's caused others, and for his inability to make the right choices alongside the right people that has led to so much more pain and suffering. He's grown deeply empathetic, but lacks that empathy for himself, to the point where for long stretches of time, he deals with crushing guilt, feeling useless, expendable, depressed and borderline suicidal. Nevertheless, he's applied himself to those who matter to him time and again, throwing his life away only when he believes this will aid those he loves, and doing all he can to stand by those who need him otherwise, as proven by his current canon point: Woken up from the eternal sleep that is an angel's death, Castiel is nearly lulled into just giving up, becoming "a fond memory rather than a festering disappointment" as the entity puts it. But whil we see him want to give in - the natural downward spiral he's been on for a long time - he ends up defying the will of his afterlife's eldritch guardian because he believes that his friends and family still need him, and that therefore, he needs to live to stand by their side. In canon, he's hurled back into the world and immediately seeks out his friends. For the purposes of Meadowlark, instead of being hurled back to his own Earth, he ends up in New Amsterdam as a consequence of his strong desire to return to those who need him. Close enough, right?

CRAU: ---

SPECIES: Angel (Castiel's body is technically a human's body that he possessed, however as the body's original owner has passed on and the body has been canonically destroyed and recreated several times, he has come to regard it as his own, and it can therefore keep serving as his body in ML)
APPEARANCE: Image 1 | Image 2
SKILLS:
Hunting Basics
Castiel has gained some basic skills in the life of a hunter as per Supernatural's interpretation of the term, which means he's learned some basic investigative skills as well as an improved understanding of how to track supernatural entities without the use of his powers.

Swordfighting
Castiel wields an angel blade, a weapon that all angels possess and can summon at will. While he won't have access to the angel blade in Meadowlark, billions of years wielding it make it reasonable for him to apply his skills to similar weapons.

Other Combat Basics
Castiel has wielded guns in the past, and even depowered has been seen getting into physical fights. While his powers have not made it necessary for him to gain in depth knowledge at hand-to-hand and shooting guns, he has a base competence there that would put him ahead of untrained civilians, but does not rival trained humans and would have to be expanded upon to make him worthwhile with anything but a sword.

Knowledge: Language
Castiel is implied to know all living/dead human languages in addition to Enochian, the language of angels. He's been seen translating old scripts, identifying languages, and reading spells.

Knowledge: Supernatural/Mythology/Lore
As an angel turned ally to hunters turned hunter, Castiel has a wide variety of knowledge regarding supernatural entities, spells, warding sigils, ancient lore, etc. His knowledge is by no means all-encompassing, and we see that especially regarding very ancient evils that predate angels Castiel lacks knowledge. In a setting like Meadowlarke, of course, when confronted with non-human threats he might have his assumptions about how to handle them based on pre-existing knowledge from his own world, but as a player I'm aware his knowledge or understanding might not hold up to other iterations of supernatural beings and circumstances.

Knowledge: Other
In addition to the above, by nature of what he is, Castiel has a vast knowledge of history, religion (specifically Christianity, though Supernatural implies that from the angels' perspective, humanity got a long wrong about it), quantum physics and other laws of science. Still somewhat mystified by computers, though.

Retail and Other Human Skills
When temporarily human, Castiel has worked as a sales clerk in a gas station and been responsible for operating the till and keeping the place running. He also learned how to drive a car, and can navigate by map (though canon off-hand implies he has an impeccable understanding of direction, it's unclear whether that's tied to him being an angel, or just a regular human level skillset)

Tattoo
Castiel has a tattoo on his left side, beneath the ribs, that acts as protection from being detected by other angels while he himself is human.

NEW POWER: Teleportation
Seed: Prayer Summoning, passive, the power manifests as Castiel teleporting against his will/without his control to someone who prays to him within the same city limits. The prayer has to have a certain formality and intent (i.e., it needs to be spoken aloud, it needs to take the shape of a prayer, it doesn't work to just say his name).

For better judgment on the direction/scope of power I have in mind, these are potential upgrades that he could eventually unlock, with some ideas as to limitations:
Aetherswap: Castiel trades places with another person within line of sight (additional restriction via limited number of uses/cooldown?)
Teleportation: Castiel learns to teleport on his own, but only to people who have Summoned him in the past, otherwise the same restrictions apply (additionally maybe limited number of uses, maybe shares a resource pool with aetherswap?)
Sending: Castiel can touch another person and teleport them instead of himself either to a location within sight, or to a person who has previously Summoned him (cooldown/amount of uses applies as per his own teleportation)
Group Teleportation: Castiel can touch up to two people and teleport them alongside himself (if limited by number of uses, this would take additional "uses" per person taxi'd this way, if using a cooldown it would extend the cooldown proportionally per person transported)

POWER REASONING: While canonically Castiel has non-physical wings that can carry him anywhere, large parts of Castiel's personal conflicts center around being torn between being with the people he cares for in order to aid them, and leaving their side to accomplish other goals but being unable to come back to his friends in time, with Castiel continuously shown in canon to choose people he cares for over other lofty goals - or finding failure and ruin when he deliberately chooses differently. Through this power overall, but specifically through tying it to people rather than locations, I want to lean into the themes of him continuously being pulled away from where he wants to be (with the people he intends to help), and emulate his wings, which in canon allow him practically unlimited teleportation, but rather than let him teleport away from people, I want his power to enable him to teleport towards people he cares for and would trust with the knowledge of how his seed power works. Furthermore, in his canon point he's just woken up in the supernatural version of an afterlife for angels and demons with the sole desire that he has to go back to his friends to help them, leading him to rally against and provoke the dimension's eldritch guardian until it sends him to them, solidifying the theme.

> SAMPLES
SAMPLE ONE: Log Thread
SAMPLE TWO: Network/Inbox Thread (cw for suicidal ideation and mention of mercy killings)