knights of legend } { application

[killmypatience]

Player Name: Emily
Player E-mail: iluvroadrunner6@gmail.com
Instant message contact (AIM/MSN/etc): iluvroadrunner6
Plurk (if applicable): iluvroadrunner6
Is the player at least 18 years of age? Yes

Character's Full Name: Kate Beckett
Canon Castle
PB/Actor: Stana Katic
Character's Starting Level: 1
Character Age: 33
Physical Description: Kate Beckett is a rather statuesque woman, standing at 5’9”. She usually wears stiletto heels on top of that, giving her that much of an advantage over the rest, even if they’re a bitch to run in. She has long, wavy dark hair that she usually wears loose or pulled back in a ponytail, along with dark eyes and olive skin. She usually dresses professionally, in slacks and solid colors, but she has been known to have a fashionable edge.
Character's Species/Race (aka human, elf, dragonblood human, etc): Human

Character History (Pre-Veil): Here have a wiki link.
Post Veil History:

So Kate falls through the Veil after leaving her psychiatrist’s office and suddenly finds herself very confused in New York City. With nothing but very violent memories leaving her somewhat confused about her usual calling and no one around to really point her back in that direction, she decides that she wants to get as far away from all of that as possible (was she an assassin? Is she Jason Bourne? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?) and kind of goes on walkabout.

Basically she travels around without attracting too much attention to herself as a Shadowkind, because she learns about this after a while and learns that people don’t really like them too much. It sucks. She tries to get job after job in different places, and while she manages to find some people who are willing to pay her under the table, without the right paperwork, she finds that a lot of people are hard pressed to hire someone who a) doesn’t exist in this universe legally and b) doesn’t remember most of her life up until this point.

Regardless, she goes, she travels, she explores and slowly learning more and more about these skill sets she has but she doesn’t entirely know what to do with. She sees national landmarks that she’s probably seen before but doesn’t remember. She gets addicted to whatever version of Firefly happens to exist in this universe and curses the network gods when it’s cancelled after half a season. And eventually she runs into a crotchety old bail bondsmen who needs a little extra muscle because he can’t chase those bail jumpers the way he used to, and for some reason, she seems to be able to run really well in killer heels.

She spends her time working for him, making some money so that she can stay above board, and that’s where she is when she runs into a knight who happens to think she might be a good fit for the Order.

Chosen Canon Point: 409: Kill Shot

Personality and Psychology:

Kate Beckett is a pitbull.

She’s driven, focused, and when she latches on to something, she doesn’t let go. She’s not a cop you want to get in the way of, because she will chase down every lead she has until there is nothing left and she has her man. It isn’t all she is as a person, but it’s how she’s allowed herself to be defined, both in her personal life and her job, and for a long time, it’s been a persona that she’s comfortable with carrying. A lot of this aspect of her personality has to do with her mother’s death and the fact that the case itself was never closed. She had spent the better part of her career with the NYPD searching for answers to that case, and she’s let it consume her in a way that doesn’t really leave much room for anything else. Her personal life is placed as more of an afterthought, and nearly everything else gets pushed to the side for the job. In the end, it makes her a better cop. She rarely has a case that she can’t close and she fights for answers on every case she has because she knows what it’s like not to have them.

It’s that kind of dedication to closure and protecting victims of violent crime that makes her so good at being a local cop, but it’s hard for her to work with on a national scale. While she hasn’t come to realize it yet at this particular canon point, trying to work for an agency that focuses on more of the bigger picture came with a lot of conflicts. Her compassionate and caring nature, and her urge to protect the victim caused her to make moves to do so against orders, and in the end wound up getting her fired. She understood the importance of the work, and while she loved it, she couldn’t bring herself to detach herself that much from the people involved. Looking at things simply as case numbers is not the way she does business, and it will be interesting to see what not remembering her life specifically as a cop will do to impact how she treats the people she deals with on cases.

The problem with this, however, is sometimes she can get such tunnel vision in terms of a case and getting answers, especially in terms of her mother’s case. Over the course of the series, she’s gotten so close to her killer, and every time that opportunity has been taken away from her. Regardless, she continually refused to back down, solving each piece of the puzzle, regardless of the things it’s cost her—relationships, standing as an officer—because she didn’t want to let her mother down by not finding her killer. She didn’t know how to let it go, and in the end, it nearly cost her her life. During the funeral of her mentor and captain, Roy Montgomery, the man responsible for killing her mother attempted to kill her in order to keep Beckett by finding out who they were. She was shot in the chest by a sniper and nearly died, but that only proved to bring her back more determined than before. If it weren’t for Castle trying to talk her down and some help from her psychiatrist, she probably would have wound up dead again.

This isn’t to say that that near death experience didn’t affect her. She still has physical limitations due to her injury, mostly in her upper body strength. There are also some psychological side effects as well—she has post-traumatic flashes which were exasperated during a sniper. She was carrying so much anxiety as a result of the shooting, that she almost has a full blown mental breakdown in the process of working the case. Over the course of the investigation, she—with some help from her good friend and colleague, Javier Esposito—learned to take control of that anxiety and use it, rather than letting it control her. It isn’t a perfect fix, however, and she knows that she needs to let go of more than the fact that she almost died. She needs to let go of all of it, and while her psychiatrist agreed to help her with that, due to falling through the Veil shortly after that scene, which means that she hasn’t really had a lot of time to work through that yet, and will be one of the things that she will have to deal with by getting back in the field. The Veil may take your memories, but PTSD doesn’t go away quite so easily.

Underneath all that, Kate is warm, witty, and intelligent. She puts up a lot of walls, and keeps people at arms distance for various reasons, but when people do manage to get under them, they’ve pretty much earned a friend for life. She takes care of the people closest to her, protecting them above all else, and having their back whenever they need it, because that’s what she feels they do for her. Though, just because she cares about you doesn’t mean you’ll get left off easy. She’s extremely devious, and loves to surprise people whatever chance she gets, but she’s mischievous out of love, more than anything else. No one gets off easily with her.

Especially if your name is Richard Castle.

Memories Retained or Lost:

Beckett is losing … pretty much everything, at least related to her personal life. She will be remembering her tactical training, though not in relation to her job as a cop – most of it will be coming from muscle memory and things she picked up along the way. She will also be remembering exact details of a series of gruesome murders – some real, some fictional. Everything else? Pretty much gone.

Powers and Abilities: Kate is super human, but she’s also a highly trained police officer, with skills in firearms, martial arts and tactical experience. She also possesses the insane ability to run in five inch stiletto heels. It, and her fantastic hair, are two signs that she may just be supernatural, but that has yet to be shown in canon.

Roleplay Samples

Link to a sample of your character in action: This is mostly a sit down and chat log but if you need something more action-y I can provide it.

Link to a sample of your prose writing style: This is way before her canon point but still.

Any other important information (including special inventory items in their possession): N/A

Why do you think this character would join/work with the Knights?

Because above all else, Kate needs purpose. She needs to be able to feel like she’s doing something to help people, and while normally her instincts would be to become a cop, here her Shadowkind status won’t be as big an issue. She can investigate cases, go on missions and be an asset to someone other than the lovely bail bondsman who’s been employing her.

Also, she’s frustrated by the number of blockades for Shadowkind in this world, and how many brick walls were placed in front of her because of it. The idea that Wynn welcomes Shadowkind characters without shady means behind it would mean a lot to her and motivate her to work harder to prove that she’s worth the opportunity.

Do you have a preference for which NPC brought in your character? Not particularly. Whoever works best for this particular backstory.