Piper 90 App | OOC

[heterochrocatic]

APPLICATION

Player Name/Handle: Emmy
Plurk Handle: gravenrose
Player Status: New Player
Other characters: N/A
Invited by: Korel

Character Name: Catra
Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Character Journal: heterochrocatic
Canon, AU, CRAU, or OC?Canon
Canon point: End of S4
PB: N/A

SETTING BACKGROUND
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is about Adora, the titular She-Ra and hero of the Princess Alliance which seeks to drive the evil Horde and their leader, Hordak, from their home and restore peace to the planet. Etheeria is a magical place full of all kinds of different people and creatures. Catra was Adora's best friend growing up in the Horde, but the sense of betrayal and hurt that she felt when Adora defected to the Rebellion drove her away. They fight each other alongside their allies, both good and evil.

HISTORY

• Catra is either born or brought to Etheria around the same time as Adora (roughly 18-19 years ago). She is inducted into the Horde and put under the tutelage of Shadow Weaver.
• Adora is made responsible for Catra's behavior in a classic abusive method, with Adora being the golden child while Catra is made the scapegoat and blamed for all faults, real or imagined.
• Adora and Catra promise to always be there for each other and to support each other during their life in the Horde.
• Around age 18 or 19, Catra becomes a Horde cadet and continues training with Adora, who is eventually made Force Captain.
• Adora discovers the Sword of Protection and takes up the mantle of She-Ra. She defects to the Rebellion
• Catra attempts to convince Adora to return to the Horde and is deeply hurt when Adora insists that she cannot go back. This awakens a sense of abandonment in Catra.
• Catra makes it her mission to thwart Adora and bring victory to the Horde, despite antagonism from Shadow Weaver.
• Catra is made Force Captain in light of Adora's betrayal
• Catra attempts to attack Brightmoon, but is repulsed by the combined forces of the Princess Alliance and the power of She-Ra.
• Catra's scheming continues. She attempts to win victories over the Rebellion but constantly finds herself thwarted, despite recruiting Entrapta and her bots for the Horde.
• Catra inadvertently aids Shadow Weaver in her escape from Horde custody.
• Catra is temporarily effectively banished to the Crimson Waste by Hordak. While there she seizes control of a gang and captures key members of the Rebellion.
• Catra returns to the Fright Zone to continue fighting Adora despite the fact that she hates the Fright Zone. Defeating Adora has become more important than her own mental and emotional well-being.
• When Hordak attempts to open a portal to allow Horde Prime access to Etheria, she insists on it going forward despite the dangers and lies about Entrapta being a traitor when Entrapta objects that continuing may destroy Etheria. This results in Entrapta being exiled to Beast Island, a horrible place from which none return.
• Catra wants Adora to lose more than she wants herself to win at this point
• Catra effectively seizes control of the Horde, becoming the power behind the throne as Hordak's physical condition prevents him from being a danger to her personally.
• Catra recruits Double Trouble to act as a double agent for her within the Rebellion and uses them to inflict several defeats on the Rebellion before they are discovered.
• Catra begins a slow mental and emotional collapse as genuine guilt over what she has done to Entrapta begins to take hold. She progressively pushes others away further and further, including the every-loyal Scorpia. Alone, she is betrayed by Double Trouble who exposes her deeply rooted psychological and emotional damage to her: her heart is not truly in being a villain. She just doesn't want to be abandoned. She is angry at Adora and the fact that she is alone is all Catra's fault. She becomes despondent.
• Catra and Glimmer are captured by Horde Prime, to whome she suggests that Etheria can be used as a weapon. Whether this is a ploy to buy time for Etheria or a further descent into callous villainy is not yet certain.

PERSONALITY

• Callous - Catra acts with a casual disregard for others feelings on multiple occasions, even mocking Glimmer, Adora, and others for caring about others or attempting to stop the Horde.  She has an open disregard for the effect her actions as a Force Captain and member of the Horde have on innocent people caught in the crossfire.  This extends to other members of the Horde. When Kyle, Rogellio, and Lonnie are trapped by a dangerous weather phenomenon, Catra derides their predicament and orders them to simply get done with their job even if it means placing one or more of them in great physical danger. This is, in part, an affectation. She deflects concern about others in order to shield herself, as she has a deep fear of abandonment. This is in part to her history of abuse within the Horde, where she learned that no one (except Adora, at the time) would protect her or care about her.  
• Loyal - This seems a bit counter-intuitive considering the way in which Catra aggressively pushes others away and the way in which she shows a casual disregard for her allies like Hordak and Entrapta, but Catra is loyal, maybe to a fault. It's just that the person she was most loyal to abandoned her, at least as she sees it (or saw it).  Catra is ultimately, not someone who wants to be a leader--in her perfect reality during the portal incident at the end of S2, she is not a Force Captain or in control of the Horde--instead she is back to being Adora's friend and sidekick. She would rather support someone she cares for than be the one in command.  
• Defensive/deflective - Catra seeks to defend herself emotionally and psychologically from further pain and abandonment by keeping others at arms reach as well as by blaming others for things that are, ultimately her fault.  Adora leaving the Horde, and by extension Catra, seems to have served as a catalyst for this behavior as prior to Adora leaving, Catra is prickly and moody but doesn't seem inclined to necessarily distance herself from others. She has desperately sought approval from Shadow Weaver (despite hating her) and when Shadow Weaver seems to give it, Catra warms up, even retrieving the material Shadow Weaver will need to escape from the Horde, only to be betrayed again. It's at this point that she really starts pushing. She refuses to get closer to Scorpia, treating her friend horribly in order to keep her from being close enough to hurt Catra despite coming to rely on her presence to keep herself on an even keel. At the same time, she desperately wants/needs Scorpia (and others) to support and validate her ("Everything's not okay. If it were okay, Scorpia would be here!").   She lashes out against others for what she perceives as attacks on her and ends up becoming obsessed with beating Adora to the point that she nearly destroys the world just so she can "win."  She also shifts the blame for her actions that hurt others onto Adora, making it somehow Adora's fault that Catra is doing bad things (likely due to seeing this in action with Shadow Weaver and Adora, where even when Adora was at fault, Catra would be punished if not outright blamed for the mistake or action involved). 
• Kind of a slacker - Catra is shown to not really like doing work.  She is not a punctual or attentive trainee early in Season One, and even when she becomes a Force Captain she tends to delegate things like paperwork and other boring/dreary tasks to underlings like Scorpia instead of taking them on herself. 
• Wants to be loved/Lonely - Catra is ultimately a super lonely young woman.  She grew up in a place that hurt her constantly simply for existing. In flashbcks, we see that Shadow Weaver essentially tortures her for the crime of existing in the same space as Adora.  For most of her life, the only person she felt really safe around was Adora, who had made a promise with her that would always be there for each other when they were children.  While Shadow Weaver heaped abuse on her, Catra feared her while simultaneously desperately wanting some of the maternal affection that the woman seemed to pour onto Adora. In her 'perfect' version of the world that she saw in the portal, Shadow-Weaver was affectionate and loving. Shadow Weaver even uses this desire to be loved to manipulate Catra into helping her escape the Horde's prison.  Catra wants connections with others, even though she fears being hurt by them.

CANON POWERS 
Note: this is copied from the She-Ra and the Princesses of Power wiki, here.

Cat Physiology: Due to her physiology, Catra possesses many cat-like traits such as sharp claws, enhanced strength, and agility.

• Enhanced Strength: Catra appears to be stronger than the average Etherian.
• Enhanced Agility: Catra is able to jump, run and climb much better than a typical Etherian like Adora. Her speed is her main advantage. She can also block arrows in flight.
• Enhanced Senses: Catra can see, hear and smell much better than the typical Etherian. As shown when she was able to pick up Entrapta's scent through the ventilation.
• Claws: Catra's fingernails are retractable claws sharp enough to cut into metal.
• Balance: Catra has a great sense of balance, as shown in her battles with Adora.

POWER SELECTION
Canon powers. I do not believe that Catra is powerful enough to require a nerf. 
ABILITIES
Note: this is copied from the She-Ra and the Princesses of Power wiki, here.

Master Strategist: Catra has, time and again, shown to have a brilliant strategic mind; outwitting, outmaneuvering and physiologically exploiting Adora, the Princess Alliance, and even Hordak. In fact, most of the victories won by the Rebellion have been due to the overwhelming power of the Princesses, as opposed to any sort of strategy. When facing off against a stronger opponent, Catra does not meet force with force but rather attacks their weak point.

SETTING/SUITABILITY
Please answer all of the following. Keep in mind that if a character is not suited to a stressful intrigue and action setting, or if a character is aged 11-15, you will have to work extra hard to justify how they can function in the game as an equal (or learn how to quickly).

➤ How do you expect your character to respond to the setting? Even if they plan to rebel in the long term, will they be able to at least obey enough to not get shocked to death?

Catra is already an expert in walking the fine line between bellyaching and outright insubordination. This was something that she had to do in the Horde. While she wasn't always perfectly pliable or obedient, she knew how to toe the line and avoid getting in more trouble than she could handle. She will likely do much the same in game. 

➤ What do you hope to do with your character long-term?

Have her make some genuine connections with people who care about her and can show her that she doesn't need to shove others away to be safe and that what happened to her as a kid isn't her fault. Also get her to admit that she fucked shit up with her reaction to Adora leaving. 

➤ Does your character currently have skills that would allow them to adapt, survive, and do the heroic things being asked of them? If your character doesn't, do you think they'd have the capacity to learn quickly?

Yes.

➤ If they're not used to cooperating with others, what makes you think they'll be able to adapt to cooperating with the group?

In canon, Catra acts as something of a loner or leader figure, but all signs point to her being able to work in a team environment when required even if she's going to be to prickly about it. 

➤ Will your character have long-term plans to rebel against Jorgmund? If so, how? Will they betray the other PCs and cooperate with Jorgmund? If so, how do you plan to handle the negative CR that might arise?

My plan is for her to rebel eventually.  She will chafe against being ordered around and without the motivation of getting back at Adora and with her canon point at arrival, she is more likely to want to get out from under the goons who have her trapped here so she can go home. Catra is a villainous character and so I come into ame expecting at least some negative CR, since she will undoubtedly rub some people the wrong way. The best way to deal with it is clear comm

SAMPLES

Network Sample
Links to RP samples at other games are not accepted, you must use this network prompt, but you may use samples at other games to supplement your samples. Since the test drives rarely use network format, you cannot use a test drive thread for the network sample, only the prose sample.

After they get the welcome spiel and see the slideshow, your character is put in front of a camera for an interview and attached to a polygraph. The polygraph may not be accurate, and can potentially give false positives and false negatives, so players can play with that all they want. If the Jorgmund staff interpret a response as a lie, they'll demand a different answer, causing characters to potentially need to respond honestly, craft a "creative" truth, or tell very good lie.

They'll be made to answer any (5) of the following questions of your choosing:

- If you were a kitchen appliance, which kitchen appliance would you be and why?
- Are you more of a hunter or a gatherer?
- What is your least favorite thing about humanity?
- If you were on an island and could only bring three things, what would you bring?
- If you were a plant/animal, what kind of plant/animal would you be and why?
- You’re a new addition to the crayon box, what color would you be and why?
- On a scale from 1 to 10, rate me as an interviewer.

Uh, one.

[ Catra looks at the interviewer as if that's the only possible answer to be given, her voice practically dripping disdain. ]

These questions are stupid. They don't mean anything. You're just trying to get inside our heads and mess with us. I'm not stupid.

[ She scoffs, then glares at the polygraph as it starts to beep and make noise, apparently concerned that she's not being truthful. ]

Your technique needs work. Find someone else to practice on. Not interested in hearing it beep at me. Or whatever it's doing.

- What is the one thing that you believe to be true that very few others do?
- What are the qualities you like least and most in your parents?

Uh, the least? Probably the fact that they weren't there.  I didn't have parents.  Hard to like something about someone when they don't exist.

- If you could get rid of any one of the US states, which one would you get rid of and why?
- What are three positive character traits you don't have?
- If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
- What is your biggest regret and why?

I'm not answering that. You think I'm going to sit here and just spill out my life's story to you because you asked? No.

That's not happening.  Even if I told you about it, you wouldn't get it, so let's move on to the next pointless question.

- Do you think a leader should be feared or liked?
- What was a time when you had to work as part of a team?

I was a Force Captain in the Horde.

[ Instead of pride, she seems to radiate unease, her knees drawing up to her chest in a manner that's almost protective. ]

I had to be in charge of a bunch of Horde soldiers and direct our war effort against the Princess Alliance. It was a whole thing.

[ Her voice has a sarcastic tinge at her last remark, then the sassy attitude drops away into someting a touch more serious. ]

So that was pretty much a team thing, right? I had to just keep things organized and try to make plans that would let us win but no one ever seemed to get it right without me babysitting them. Except for Double Trouble. And even they--

[She sighs, then shakes her head and lets it drop forward against her knees. ]

Well, I lost. So I don't know if that's what you want to hear.  Can we just go to the next one now?
 
- What's your biggest personal flaw?

- You’re on your way to your best friend’s wedding and your boss calls and says a client needs something, what do you do?

It'd depend on the boss.

[ She laughs.  It's not really funny, but she has to do something to release some of the tension thinking about her bosses. ]

Actually, no it doesn't I'd tell them that that sucks, but I'm not working right now.  So maybe they should find someone else to do whatever it is they want. Sorry. I'm not giving up what,y personal time just because some jerk calls me and needs something. 

Not that my best friend would invite me to her wedding. If she had one. This is stupid.

[ Catra scowls, her mood taking a sudden downward turn. ]

Are we done yet? Because I'm feeling pretty done.

- Success, integrity, or friendship, pick two and explain why?

Please treat this like a normal network post so instead of just answering in just dialogue think about things like expression, body language, and other things you'd normally put in a network post.

(200 word minimum)

Prose Sample
You may use a test drive thread, use the following prompt, link to a sample in another game or public psl, or make up your own. If you use a Test Drive thread, at least one post made by your character in the thread must meet the 200 word minimum.

Link to a thread on the TDM. 

ADDITIONAL INFO
Any additional info you think it's important to include. You can use this space to ask the mods if certain weapons, gear, belongings, or animal companions can be brought into the game with the character.

FINAL QUESTIONS
The players won't know what the mods are doing with these questions until sometime later.

➤ Will your character suspect some kind of guiding intelligence has brought them to the game? Or will they think it was random or done by Jorgmund?
Catra will likely think of it as some random event, perhaps as a result of some kind of portal nonsense. 

➤ If they think it was something other than Jorgmund, like God or some other force of fate, what character traits do they think of that intelligence as having? Is it cruel or kind? Capriciously punishing them or doing it for good reason?