application for alteredstates

Character Information Character Name: Katherine Houghton Beckett Canon: Castle Canon Point: Towards the end of the season 5 finale "Watershed," as Beckett leaves the precinct to meet Castle at the park. Character Journal: themuse Appearance: Kate is tall and svelte, with distinct sharp features. She has brown eyes and long brown hair that is naturally very curly, but she tends to wear it down in looser, more manageable curls. She prefers to dress in jeans and simple tops, usually paired with some kind of stylish leather jacket. She also is rarely seen in anything other than heels that are a completely inappropriate height for a law enforcement officer. She has a scar over her heart from when she was shot, and a surgical scar on her left side, and a tattoo on an undisclosed part of her anatomy. This lady is all bad ass okay. The happy couple. Age: 33 History: An overview! Or, if you'd rather, everything you never knew you needed to know about Beckett until you decided to app her to an RP game. Personality: Kate Beckett is a serious and devoted homicide detective, and she's dedicated to her job and her team. She also has a pretty harsh “origin” story; her freshman year of college her mother was murdered, and the killer was never caught. Saddled with grief, Kate put any previous plans on hold and joined the police force right out of college, desperate to find justice and closure. After her mother's death, her father's choice addiction became alcohol; Kate's addiction was the case. Due to Kate's obsessive personality - while often an asset in terms of her ability to solve murders and close cases - caused her to dwell on her mother's murder, and her entire being was driven by her vendetta. As a beat cop, she wasn't even allowed to look at the homicide files, and she was caught digging through her mother's file by Captain Montgomery. He saw her fierce potential as a homicide detective early on and later on became her boss. While her drive did allow her advance of her career path quickly, leading her to become the youngest woman to make detective in the NYPD, it was also had its negative side-effects. Although she let it take her over for a while, Kate eventually went into therapy, read a bunch of books by this author named Richard Castle, and forced herself to finally put the case away and move on. In her initial years as working as a homicide detective, Beckett coped with the pain of her mother's death and the impossibility of finding the killer by compartmentalizing her life completely. Her work life and personal life were kept so fiercely separated that she, in essence, became a different person. Confronted with the choice of shutting down completely or changing her personality to cope, Beckett made a conscious decision to change herself. She came off as a prickly ice queen to the people she worked with; a control freak who yearned who kept tight reigns on her life so that it wouldn't blindside her ever again. Castle often accused her of being unable to have fun, and his belief was only supported by the fact that Kate rarely chose to share her personal life with any of her workmates. More than anything, Kate comes off as deeply dedicated to her job. She takes her position as a law enforcement officer to heart and upholds a sense of honor and justice, and her desire spans beyond her initial need to solve her own mother's murder. This is made apparent on occasion, especially in the first season, when Castle questions the gap between her moral beliefs and her duty to the system. For example, they uncover a revenge murder that was committed by a man avenging his daughter's death. The case hit Kate close to him specifically because the victim was a mother. When faced with the choice between turning a blind eye to the father's action and bringing him in for questioning to expose his crime, Castle encourages Beckett to let the man go. Beckett tells him that's the difference between a story in the real world - "The cop doesn't get to choose how the story ends." Even though in this case it obviously pains her to do so, Beckett chooses her oath of honor over her own personal belief that the man's actions should go ignored. Even though her mother's death is what drove her to be a cop, Kate is compassionate and sympathetic for the losses of others, and she works to help at least soften the pain of loss of the families of the victims; granting them a solace and closure that she has been denied. When it comes to temperament, Beckett is generally non-violent, although she has gone over the edge on occasion. However, her violent outbursts seem directly related to protecting her own life or the lives of those around her. She has killed to protect Castle's life, and attacked and wounded people to secure her own safety and the safety of her loved ones. And while she does enjoy physically sparring with her equals, outside of protecting the people in her life, she never leaps to the use of excessive force. She does lose her temper on occasion, but it is usually constricted to situations involving her mother's death; after all, for a long time, that loss was the only thing Kate allowed herself to feel emotion for. For the most part, however, Kate keeps her temper in check and tends to hold in her feelings rather than express them. Kate's life - and, in turn, personality - begins to evolve when Castle enters the picture. Once a fan of his, their initial encounter was strained, leaving Kate feeling frustrated and holding onto a dislike for the handsome playboy. But there was an attraction between them, one that Kate worked hard to deny. They spend the first few seasons passing each other like ships in the night; just as one is at the point of opening up, the other becomes unapproachable. By the end of season three, Kate is at the point of overcoming that hurdle. But the death of Captain Montgomery and an attempt on her life - resulting in her being traumatized after being shot by a sniper - shuts her down once again. Castle admits he loves her while she is dying, but her instinctual urge to hide away from her real feelings for him results in a distance that forms between them. It takes a whole season and another near-death experience for her to finally admit her feelings for him. Due to Castle's close association with her work life, the two were determined to continue to work together and have to keep their relationship a secret. Kate does her best to compartmentalize her affair with him and their work relationship, but there are multiple occasions where their secret is nearly revealed, usually in a comedy of errors. Eventually, everyone in the main cast becomes privy to the relationship, but it is met with support by all parties. Kate also seems to embrace her personal life more readily; going on vacation with Castle to the Hamptons, for example, and giving him a drawer in her dresser at her apartment. Castle's constant presence in her personal and professional life has forced them to fuse, and often her care for him outweighs her previous priorities. They choose to continue their relationship, even thought it means Kate has to lie to her boss and knowingly break NYPD regulations concerning fraternization, something Kate is shown to have guilt over. When Castle's daughter was kidnapped, Beckett allowed Castle to assault a suspect under her watch in order for him to get additional information. She did this knowingly, showing that her welfare for him and his family is the first thing in a long time that has outweighed her once before steadfast dedication to right and wrong. While Beckett's world was once very black and white, her relationship with Castle has made her see the shades of grey in-between. Her teammates, Ryan and Esposito, are also very dear to her; Esposito is very much her right hand man, and he never hesitates to tell her how he feels about a situation, and she generally listens to him. Ryan is the quieter of the two, but she seems to have a fondness for him akin to a little brother, and is often seen looking out for him and taking an interest in his relationship with his wife, Jenny. Lanie Parish, the medical examiner, is established as one of her best friends; she is often seen as Kate's inner monologue, offering suggestions and enlightenment, especially when it comes to her relationship with Castle. While in the beginning, Beckett often rebutted Lanie's attempts at forcing Beckett to open up to Castle, she softens to the idea and begins to listen more to her friend's suggestions. Castle is the most significant influence in her life, however. Although she's never admitted her love for him on screen, in so many words, her bond to him is apparent. She still has her doubts, however; she is very jealous of his old playboy ways and is often seen second-guessing if their histories and social status will cause them to drift apart. Over the course of their relationship, she does take steps to allow him closer to her, such as the gesture of giving him his own drawer in her bedroom; a huge step for her, as it is an indication that she had finally allowed herself to believe that they have something that will be long term. However, Kate often still does not show her whole hand and is renowned for hiding her concerns and many of her feelings from Castle, and also voices concern at the fact that they have never discussed their future in the long term. While she is working to open up to him, the finale especially shows her reluctance to throw herself in. When offered a job in Washington, D.C., Kate makes the decision to take it, knowing that it might mean the end of her relationship with Castle. Her unsurety of the status of their relationship seems to be a major factor in her decision, which is made particularly obvious when her father reminds her that when she gets scared, she hides herself in her work. But choosing the job over Castle without talking to him about it, Beckett exhibits her fear of what discussing a long term relationship with him might mean. Beckett also has a unique relationship with Castle's family. Alexis, his teenage daughter, is someone Kate deeply respects. She sees herself - at least, the Kate that existed before her mother died - in the level-headed child who is so very different from her father. She illustrates this by often taking Alexis' side in conflicts, or justifying Alexis' actions based on Kate's own experiences. Alexis, in the earlier seasons, often came to Kate for guidance and advice. While that dynamic has seemed to fade since Castle and Beckett became romantic partners, Kate's affection for the girl remains. When Alexis was kidnapped, Kate allowed Castle to pursue every avenue he needed to save her; and in turn, when Castle is in danger, Kate does everything in her power to ensure that Castle will make it home to his daughter. At the same time, it does seem like Kate keeps Alexis at a safe distance, and had not attempted to fill any mother-type role for the young woman beyond her affection for her father. There is also Martha, Castle's mother. Kate finds Martha to be eccentric and amusing, and the woman contextualizes a lot about Castle that Beckett doesn't quite understand. Kate feels that Martha has a better grasp on life than any of them, being that she is the matriarch and has a history to backup her outlandish personality. While they are not exactly close, Kate appreciates Martha and the loving family she heads. Finally, there is Kate's dad. While Jim Beckett only makes infrequent appearances in canon, there is an implication that they are incredibly close. Although Kate's wild child years put a wedge between them, she came from a loving home, and if they weren't close before her mother's death, that event certainly brought them closer together. She helped him fight to overcome his alcoholism, and has since been there for him when he is in need. She left her education at Stanford to come take care of him after her mother's death, and Jim is, clearly, the only one who really knows Kate. She tells him enough about her life that he was even pretty clearly keen to Castle and Kate's feelings for each other before they could even admit it, illustrating that she probably opens up to him in ways that she never will to anyone else. But, he is her father, after all. Since her mother's death at 19, Kate's decision to become an entirely different person emotionally handicapped her for years to come. Her entire existence was defined by the death of her mother, causing her to stop the discovery of who she was independent of it. When Castle meets her, he sees a tough-as-nails cop with little personality; however, as Kate grows accustomed to his presence, he begins to catch glimpses of who she was before the death of her mother. As their relationship progresses, he begins to see sides of her that he never even imagined existed. Although serious, haunted, and extremely dedicated to her job, Kate is still full of personality and fun when the mood strikes her. She has a lot of hobbies; she a voracious reader, very well-versed in comic books, apparently enjoys going to the theater, and has a motorbike that she worked through school to pay for. She's a kickboxer, and Castle implies in his books that she loves animated movies. Castle also discovers that, as a teenager, she was a rabid fan of the short lived sci-fi show Nebula 9, and frequented science fiction conventions and cosplayed a character from the show. She has one hell of a sweet tooth, and her favorite foods consist of coffee, Chinese, hamburgers, and bear claws. She's the type who keeps M&Ms on her desk at work and popcorn in the break-room. And she's a little bit of a tomboy, although Kate also proves pretty early on that she can clean up very nicely, and she loves a quiet evening with wine and a bubble bath. She's also snarky. So snarky that she can even troll Castle, who is, basically, the king of trolls. Because of her usual serious facade, Kate seems far too straight-laced to be the type who could take on a personality like Castle but when she does, she leaves him speechless. Even if she is all prickly and off-putting on the outside, Castle brings out a childish side of Kate, and she even laughs at his jokes and finds his childish mannerism to be endearing. Kate is a lost little girl, and has been since her mother's death. Her fears often outweigh her confidence, but she has learned to compensate for that by stifling them into submission. Often unclear of her wants, and even less knowing of her needs, Kate has spent years stumbling through life, trying to figure out where she stands. But she has a loving family that has built itself around her, and even thought she is strong enough to fight her own battles, she is learning to reach out to the people around her for the support she needs to keep fighting. Powers/Special Abilities: Beckett is a homicide detective through and through. Tenacious, intelligent, stubborn, and with an obsessive attention to detail, she's a staple in the force, having even gone as far to be the youngest woman in the NYPD to make detective, because she's awesome like that. And she's way more awesome than Castle. She can also shoot guns better than Castle, beat up suspects better than Castle, get confessions better than Castle, and she looks better in a dress than Castle. Did I mention she's better than Castle? At everything? Well, everything except making up insane stories about murders based on no evidence, but that's why she's the cop and he's the writer. Also, she's really good at running in heels. River Power: Pyrokinesis Reason for Character Choice: I started watching Castle back when it started airing and it's the only show I've ever watched from day one and actually remained invested with. I was always drawn to Beckett because I tend to be drawn to really strong, emotionally damaged brunettes who have badges. I considered picking her up during season 2, but there was already a Beckett in the game I played in and I already played a cop. The season 3 finale really got me more invested emotionally, however, and while joking around with one of my friends about characters we've thought about apping, I made a Beckett journal and she stuck. Also, I feel like she'd be a really good fit for this game because she's a native New Yorker and I've yet had the opportunity to play her in a familiar setting. Additional Information: HEY GUYS. YOU ARE AWESOME FOR MAKING THIS GAME I'M JUST SAYIN. Writing Samples First-Person Transmission Sample: First person sample from a previous game. Third-Person Log Sample: Log from a current game.