000 🌑 Application
May. 5th, 2021 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyfrownsalotUser Name/Nick: Naomi
User DW: N/A
E-mail: asyndeta @ gmail
Other Characters: Rita, Merlin, Double Trouble
Character Name: Cassandra
Series: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure
Age: 24
From When?: Cassandra's final showdown against Rapunzel in the series finale, 'Plus Est En Vous'. Canonically she survives the fight, but they both had the gloves off at this point and it could have happened.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Cassandra allows her inferiority complex to rage out of control, to the point where she's hurting people, engaging in mind control, attempting murder and assorted other Bad Shit in order to claim what she thinks is owed to her.
Arrival: Arrives against her will. Booo.
Abilities/Powers: Having been trained since the age of six, Cassandra is highly skilled at riding, archery and various other combat skills appropriate for the time period (a cleaner, less religious magical-steampunk variation on the 1780s). She also had to relearn how to do all that with her left hand after the right was badly damaged by magic.
At her canon point, Cassandra is holding and seems to be partially bonded with the Moonstone Opal - a dark counterpart to the Sundrop Flower which gave Rapunzel her powers. It can be used to summon and control shards of black rock (unbreakable by conventional weapons), including her sword. She's also used it to build a fortress. As you do. The black rocks respond to emotions. She needs to tap into her rage to use them for combat; when she's afraid, they turn red and begin to show people their deepest fears, up to the point of them becoming paralysed with terror. The body-covering armour generated by the Moonstone is basically impervious to attack.
It's implied, though not seen in canon, that she could also use the Decay Incantation which just...slowly kills everything.
For game purposes, all the above Moonstone stuff will be nerfed out and the stone itself absent, with the possibility in place for her warden to request it back at a power level of their choosing.
Personality:
Cassandra's outward affect is pretty much Sassy Cartoon Antiheroine down to a T, throughout the series. She's described as cold, even heartless; while this isn't completely true, it gets more accurate the less well-acquainted she is with whoever she's dealing with. She's quick-witted, cynical, sarcastic and pragmatic, the perfect foil to her BFF Rapunzel's more carefree and impulsive nature. Rapunzel's boyfriend Eugene is the most frequent target of her sharp tongue; she rarely manages more than grudging respect for him, and most often sees him as a purposeless freeloader who doesn't deserve his position either in the castle or with Rapunzel. Season 3, after her bonding with the Moonstone, ramps all this up to 11; while previously her cold affect was rarely backed up by action, she becomes increasingly ruthless. Softening that is her treatment of Rapunzel; almost until the very end, she can be affectionate with her. She's either deeply protective of her or outright trying to kill her the whole way through the show - no half-measures. It's absolutely a love-hate relationship from her perspective.
This protectiveness, combined with an upbringing from the Captain of the Royal Guard, makes her one of the show's most cautious characters. In earlier seasons, she's the one who - much like her mythological namesake - is warning her companions of potential danger, only to be ignored and then vindicated. This comes into particularly sharp relief when she tries to stop Rapunzel using a dangerous magical incantation, only to seriously damage her right hand as a result - something for which she clearly blames Rapunzel, though she never really talks about or resolves this with her. Cass is also deeply untrusting of strangers, best seen in her interactions with Adira, a character who genuinely wants to help Rapunzel but doesn't explain why until pretty late on. However, this doesn't make her a homebody or a stickler for rules; very early on, she's willing to sneak Rapunzel out of the city so she can go exploring beyond the walls. Similarly, when she ends up being dragged along on adventures, she does genuinely enjoy herself. Essentially, she's the character in a horror movie who'd grudgingly agree to go into the haunted house with her friends if they don't split up.
In Season 3, her sceptical nature extends to Zhan Tiri, an ancient sorceress with whom she has an alliance of sorts. However, she still goes along with her 'advice' almost word for word - not because she trusts Zhan Tiri's counsel, but because she believes it serves the fulfilment of her destiny. This strong belief that everyone has a destiny, and that she's yet to uncover her own, is one of her two key motivators. She's always felt that she's been waiting for something - an opportunity to show the world that she's meant for great things and has the ambition, drive and talent to follow through. This turned toxic when she discovered that her birth mother was Gothel, a sorceress who abandoned her in favour of Rapunzel and her magically youth-restoring hair. This fed a belief that Rapunzel's destiny was truly hers to claim, and therefore so was the Moonstone and its power. Almost immediately after taking the stone, Cassandra comes close to having a change of heart, but it's Rapunzel's plea for her to stop and wait that hardens her resolve - she very much sees this as her moment centre stage, and being asked to wait and step back is inconceivable.
Inevitably, Cass' second driver is a sense of inadequacy. It comes out early on that she's never fully made peace with her status as an adoptee; when she becomes Rapunzel's lady-in-waiting, she keenly feels their difference in status despite their friendship. (Rapunzel herself doesn't help, often failing to notice when Cass is trying to distinguish herself somehow, and is usually late to make amends.) Finding out that her biological mother essentially used Rapunzel to replace her absolutely inflames that inferiority complex. Underlying all this is something of a sense of frustrated entitlement; Cassandra firmly believes that she's owed a better life, but seems a bit fuzzy on the 'why'. She's certainly a hard worker and (initially) isn't a bad person, but that's true of a lot of people. It appears that spending a long time in the corridors of power - where that power is hereditary and people get it without doing anything to deserve it - has given her the impression that she should be due the same. And then she does some pretty shitty things to make that happen.
These beliefs are encouraged and enabled by Zhan Tiri, who claims at one point to have Cass 'under [her] complete control', but that was never really true. While Zhan Tiri certainly had her own agenda and manipulated Cassandra to suit it, she rarely did more than just manage the flow of information and affirm what she already believed. Yes, Cassandra was always going to be overshadowed by Rapunzel; yes, Cassandra would be unable to claim the Moonstone's full power until Rapunzel was dead; yes, Rapunzel actually did sign off on an alchemical weapon that could have killed her. Zhan Tiri massaged the truth, but the conflict between Cass and Rapunzel had been long since bubbling under. While Cassandra would never have gone to the lengths she had without Zhan Tiri pushing her along, it's a moot point - it's just as true that she never would have reached that edge without Rapunzel's presence in her life. Moreover, when Cassandra understands she's being manipulated and completely loses trust in Zhan Tiri, she keeps going regardless, so set on destroying Rapunzel and claiming her power at that point that it doesn't even occur to her how this might serve Zhan Tiri's plans.
Barge Reactions: The existence of prison barges is canon in Tangled, so that won't come as any surprise, for one thing.
Due to the potion-of-the-week format of some episodes, the floods and (to a lesser extent) the breaches will be, if anything, a step down from what she's used to. Turned into an animal? Been there. A child? That too. Revisited old memories? Pssht. Core personality traits reversed? That was last Thursday. If anything, the fact that floods simply come and go - without any intervention or any risk of sticking permanently - will be what comes as a surprise.
The technology will take more adjustment. Science and magic have a degree of overlap in her world, and it'll take her a while to understand that there are some worlds which have no magic at all and yet manage to create comparable wonders.
As for the people, well, she doesn't like strangers. Making friends will take time.
Path to Redemption: tl;dr: Cassandra needs to learn some damn agency.
In canon, after the point she'll be taken from, she....doesn't get much in the way of redemption. She's stripped of her powers, has a minor breakdown, and after a pep talk by Rapunzel she rallies enough to help prevent the destruction of their kingdom. But she doesn't seem to resolve any of her issues and certainly doesn't atone for what she's done, instead simply being allowed to leave the kingdom to go travelling and find 'her own destiny'.
Even her last-minute change of heart doesn't really say anything about Cassandra; it's more that she trusts Rapunzel, which is part of the problem. Increasingly through season 3, she's following advice from Zhan Tiri and framing it to others as decisions she's made alone. Inevitably, she'll have a post-'death' crash and realise the full consequences of what she's done, which will do a number on her self-confidence. Actually having the opportunity to face her demons, heal, and learn to choose her own path is likely to make her happier.
That's tied into another point, which is that she needs to learn destiny as a concept is damaging at worst and unhelpful at best. Nothing that happened to Rapunzel, or to anyone else in her canon, can be attributed to 'destiny'; everything comes down to individual choices, their consequences, and how others respond to them. If she wants to become more than she is, she can't go out looking for an opportunity granted by some external force; she has to make a plan and execute it herself, while balancing that execution against the impact it'll have on others.
History: Link!
Sample Journal Entry:
So that was one of those 'floods' I was warned about?
I'm seriously asking. Is that all it is?
Because I'm sure you guys love scaring the new kids with all that scary talk about losing control or whatever, but it really wasn't that big a deal. And it just stopped. On its own. Nobody had to do anything about it except just wait for it to be over, and you knew it was going to be over before it even started. Did you warn visitors that it might rain, too, back home?
If this is all you have to deal with in exchange for not being dead, maybe this place isn't even that bad.
...No, I'm not serious about that last part. This place is terrible.
Sample RP:
If Cassandra knew what a rodeo was, she'd be able to tell you that this wasn't her first one. Finding herself somewhere familiar but wrong, disarmed and discombobulated? Not that unusual, in the grand scheme of things. It's happened before.
But never like this. Never without doing something to make it happen, when just moments ago she was in the middle of what was promising to be a fight to the death. And now? No Moonstone. No armour, no power crackling at her fingertips, no shards of black rock springing to life at the smallest gesture. Not even - she rushes to the wardrobe and throws open the doors - not even her beloved armoury.
But the anger? The anger is there, cresting, bubbling. She reaches for the closest breakable object, a chair, and throws it against the stone wall with a howl of rage. The wood splinters and she grabs two of the longest pieces, shoving one into her belt, grasping the other in her one good hand.
She had been so close. Moments, inches from victory, from claiming everything she ever wanted -
Whatever this illusion is, whoever cast it over her, it's a distraction. And it's temporary.
User DW: N/A
E-mail: asyndeta @ gmail
Other Characters: Rita, Merlin, Double Trouble
Character Name: Cassandra
Series: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure
Age: 24
From When?: Cassandra's final showdown against Rapunzel in the series finale, 'Plus Est En Vous'. Canonically she survives the fight, but they both had the gloves off at this point and it could have happened.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Cassandra allows her inferiority complex to rage out of control, to the point where she's hurting people, engaging in mind control, attempting murder and assorted other Bad Shit in order to claim what she thinks is owed to her.
Arrival: Arrives against her will. Booo.
Abilities/Powers: Having been trained since the age of six, Cassandra is highly skilled at riding, archery and various other combat skills appropriate for the time period (a cleaner, less religious magical-steampunk variation on the 1780s). She also had to relearn how to do all that with her left hand after the right was badly damaged by magic.
At her canon point, Cassandra is holding and seems to be partially bonded with the Moonstone Opal - a dark counterpart to the Sundrop Flower which gave Rapunzel her powers. It can be used to summon and control shards of black rock (unbreakable by conventional weapons), including her sword. She's also used it to build a fortress. As you do. The black rocks respond to emotions. She needs to tap into her rage to use them for combat; when she's afraid, they turn red and begin to show people their deepest fears, up to the point of them becoming paralysed with terror. The body-covering armour generated by the Moonstone is basically impervious to attack.
It's implied, though not seen in canon, that she could also use the Decay Incantation which just...slowly kills everything.
For game purposes, all the above Moonstone stuff will be nerfed out and the stone itself absent, with the possibility in place for her warden to request it back at a power level of their choosing.
Personality:
Cassandra's outward affect is pretty much Sassy Cartoon Antiheroine down to a T, throughout the series. She's described as cold, even heartless; while this isn't completely true, it gets more accurate the less well-acquainted she is with whoever she's dealing with. She's quick-witted, cynical, sarcastic and pragmatic, the perfect foil to her BFF Rapunzel's more carefree and impulsive nature. Rapunzel's boyfriend Eugene is the most frequent target of her sharp tongue; she rarely manages more than grudging respect for him, and most often sees him as a purposeless freeloader who doesn't deserve his position either in the castle or with Rapunzel. Season 3, after her bonding with the Moonstone, ramps all this up to 11; while previously her cold affect was rarely backed up by action, she becomes increasingly ruthless. Softening that is her treatment of Rapunzel; almost until the very end, she can be affectionate with her. She's either deeply protective of her or outright trying to kill her the whole way through the show - no half-measures. It's absolutely a love-hate relationship from her perspective.
This protectiveness, combined with an upbringing from the Captain of the Royal Guard, makes her one of the show's most cautious characters. In earlier seasons, she's the one who - much like her mythological namesake - is warning her companions of potential danger, only to be ignored and then vindicated. This comes into particularly sharp relief when she tries to stop Rapunzel using a dangerous magical incantation, only to seriously damage her right hand as a result - something for which she clearly blames Rapunzel, though she never really talks about or resolves this with her. Cass is also deeply untrusting of strangers, best seen in her interactions with Adira, a character who genuinely wants to help Rapunzel but doesn't explain why until pretty late on. However, this doesn't make her a homebody or a stickler for rules; very early on, she's willing to sneak Rapunzel out of the city so she can go exploring beyond the walls. Similarly, when she ends up being dragged along on adventures, she does genuinely enjoy herself. Essentially, she's the character in a horror movie who'd grudgingly agree to go into the haunted house with her friends if they don't split up.
In Season 3, her sceptical nature extends to Zhan Tiri, an ancient sorceress with whom she has an alliance of sorts. However, she still goes along with her 'advice' almost word for word - not because she trusts Zhan Tiri's counsel, but because she believes it serves the fulfilment of her destiny. This strong belief that everyone has a destiny, and that she's yet to uncover her own, is one of her two key motivators. She's always felt that she's been waiting for something - an opportunity to show the world that she's meant for great things and has the ambition, drive and talent to follow through. This turned toxic when she discovered that her birth mother was Gothel, a sorceress who abandoned her in favour of Rapunzel and her magically youth-restoring hair. This fed a belief that Rapunzel's destiny was truly hers to claim, and therefore so was the Moonstone and its power. Almost immediately after taking the stone, Cassandra comes close to having a change of heart, but it's Rapunzel's plea for her to stop and wait that hardens her resolve - she very much sees this as her moment centre stage, and being asked to wait and step back is inconceivable.
Inevitably, Cass' second driver is a sense of inadequacy. It comes out early on that she's never fully made peace with her status as an adoptee; when she becomes Rapunzel's lady-in-waiting, she keenly feels their difference in status despite their friendship. (Rapunzel herself doesn't help, often failing to notice when Cass is trying to distinguish herself somehow, and is usually late to make amends.) Finding out that her biological mother essentially used Rapunzel to replace her absolutely inflames that inferiority complex. Underlying all this is something of a sense of frustrated entitlement; Cassandra firmly believes that she's owed a better life, but seems a bit fuzzy on the 'why'. She's certainly a hard worker and (initially) isn't a bad person, but that's true of a lot of people. It appears that spending a long time in the corridors of power - where that power is hereditary and people get it without doing anything to deserve it - has given her the impression that she should be due the same. And then she does some pretty shitty things to make that happen.
These beliefs are encouraged and enabled by Zhan Tiri, who claims at one point to have Cass 'under [her] complete control', but that was never really true. While Zhan Tiri certainly had her own agenda and manipulated Cassandra to suit it, she rarely did more than just manage the flow of information and affirm what she already believed. Yes, Cassandra was always going to be overshadowed by Rapunzel; yes, Cassandra would be unable to claim the Moonstone's full power until Rapunzel was dead; yes, Rapunzel actually did sign off on an alchemical weapon that could have killed her. Zhan Tiri massaged the truth, but the conflict between Cass and Rapunzel had been long since bubbling under. While Cassandra would never have gone to the lengths she had without Zhan Tiri pushing her along, it's a moot point - it's just as true that she never would have reached that edge without Rapunzel's presence in her life. Moreover, when Cassandra understands she's being manipulated and completely loses trust in Zhan Tiri, she keeps going regardless, so set on destroying Rapunzel and claiming her power at that point that it doesn't even occur to her how this might serve Zhan Tiri's plans.
Barge Reactions: The existence of prison barges is canon in Tangled, so that won't come as any surprise, for one thing.
Due to the potion-of-the-week format of some episodes, the floods and (to a lesser extent) the breaches will be, if anything, a step down from what she's used to. Turned into an animal? Been there. A child? That too. Revisited old memories? Pssht. Core personality traits reversed? That was last Thursday. If anything, the fact that floods simply come and go - without any intervention or any risk of sticking permanently - will be what comes as a surprise.
The technology will take more adjustment. Science and magic have a degree of overlap in her world, and it'll take her a while to understand that there are some worlds which have no magic at all and yet manage to create comparable wonders.
As for the people, well, she doesn't like strangers. Making friends will take time.
Path to Redemption: tl;dr: Cassandra needs to learn some damn agency.
In canon, after the point she'll be taken from, she....doesn't get much in the way of redemption. She's stripped of her powers, has a minor breakdown, and after a pep talk by Rapunzel she rallies enough to help prevent the destruction of their kingdom. But she doesn't seem to resolve any of her issues and certainly doesn't atone for what she's done, instead simply being allowed to leave the kingdom to go travelling and find 'her own destiny'.
Even her last-minute change of heart doesn't really say anything about Cassandra; it's more that she trusts Rapunzel, which is part of the problem. Increasingly through season 3, she's following advice from Zhan Tiri and framing it to others as decisions she's made alone. Inevitably, she'll have a post-'death' crash and realise the full consequences of what she's done, which will do a number on her self-confidence. Actually having the opportunity to face her demons, heal, and learn to choose her own path is likely to make her happier.
That's tied into another point, which is that she needs to learn destiny as a concept is damaging at worst and unhelpful at best. Nothing that happened to Rapunzel, or to anyone else in her canon, can be attributed to 'destiny'; everything comes down to individual choices, their consequences, and how others respond to them. If she wants to become more than she is, she can't go out looking for an opportunity granted by some external force; she has to make a plan and execute it herself, while balancing that execution against the impact it'll have on others.
History: Link!
Sample Journal Entry:
So that was one of those 'floods' I was warned about?
I'm seriously asking. Is that all it is?
Because I'm sure you guys love scaring the new kids with all that scary talk about losing control or whatever, but it really wasn't that big a deal. And it just stopped. On its own. Nobody had to do anything about it except just wait for it to be over, and you knew it was going to be over before it even started. Did you warn visitors that it might rain, too, back home?
If this is all you have to deal with in exchange for not being dead, maybe this place isn't even that bad.
...No, I'm not serious about that last part. This place is terrible.
Sample RP:
If Cassandra knew what a rodeo was, she'd be able to tell you that this wasn't her first one. Finding herself somewhere familiar but wrong, disarmed and discombobulated? Not that unusual, in the grand scheme of things. It's happened before.
But never like this. Never without doing something to make it happen, when just moments ago she was in the middle of what was promising to be a fight to the death. And now? No Moonstone. No armour, no power crackling at her fingertips, no shards of black rock springing to life at the smallest gesture. Not even - she rushes to the wardrobe and throws open the doors - not even her beloved armoury.
But the anger? The anger is there, cresting, bubbling. She reaches for the closest breakable object, a chair, and throws it against the stone wall with a howl of rage. The wood splinters and she grabs two of the longest pieces, shoving one into her belt, grasping the other in her one good hand.
She had been so close. Moments, inches from victory, from claiming everything she ever wanted -
Whatever this illusion is, whoever cast it over her, it's a distraction. And it's temporary.
