application to capeandcowl

[wingedcrown]

[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Kal
AGE: 22
JOURNAL: queensland
IM: walkthedawn @ AIM
PLURK: onlydawn
E-MAIL: otherpromise@gmail.com
RETURNING: N/A

[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Danielle Baptiste | The Angelus
SERIES: Top Cow Comics
CHRONOLOGY: After the Angelus mini-series
CLASS: Hero

BACKGROUND:
Long ago, there was constant battle between the two major opposing forces of the universe: the Angelus and the Darkness. The Angelus was the light, creatures that looked like angels, and who would stop at nothing to reclaim the universe in their own image. The Darkness was much the opposite, the army amassed by demons and other hellspawn equally craving the same power. These two forces were at war for generations until at one point in time, when the Earth was fairly young, the Angelus and Darkness hosts coupled and gave birth to a counter measure of their power called the Witchblade. This object was dropped to Earth and collected by a young woman who bonded with the artifact. It gave her immense power and protection, though it was both a blessing and a curse.

The universe continued in this way, with the Light and the Darkness always fighting, and the Witchblade being the balance to it all. So it was for thousands of years.

The Witchblade passes itself throughout the generations, only taking one bearer, and almost always a woman. Eventually, in the present day, this artifact passed to Sara Pezzini, a New York cop. Mortally wounded in an attempt to save her partner, the Witchblade bonded to her and saved her life. She spent years coping with its power and trying to make it her own. She harnessed it, but not before countless other people died in its wake, both friend and foe alike. Eventually, Sara became pregnant by an unknown source, and she decided to protect her child by passing off the Witchblade.

This is where Dani comes in.

Dani was raised in New Orleans with her parents, both part of the police force. At a young age, she watched ballet and other dances and fell in love with the art. When her parents divorced, she moved with her mother to New York in an attempt to become a dancer. She earned her degree at New York University and graduated, many telling her that she was a special dancer and wonderful. However, she felt lost and unsure of the path she wanted to take in life. She was living on her own with little to do, restless. On her walk home one afternoon, she encountered an antique shop and went inside to be greeted by an old man who riddled her about her role in the future of the world. She started to leave and ran into Sara Pezzini, who was just coming to the old man to speak with him about passing the Witchblade now that she was pregnant. The Witchblade responded to Dani almost immediately.

After some talking, Dani agreed to take the Witchblade for herself. If she had no direction in life, maybe this was what she needed. Sara reluctantly agreed, passing the artifact off with a warning. Dani spent the next few weeks trying to harness it and bring it under her control, but she received a call from the hospital in New Orleans that said her father had a heart attack. She rushed back to New Orleans to see him, and there she had her first encounter with the supernatural.

A fortune teller in an alleyway drew her in to speak to her about a haunted manor in the city. Hundreds of people had been murdered by the woman who once lived there and they sought retribution. Dani, confused, tried to help them. While she succeeded, she had a near brush with death at the hands of the undead. Frightened, she went back to New York to give the artifact back to Sara, who refused to take it. After some prodding, Sara agreed to rethink it, but she was attacked by Celestine, an old enemy of hers. Dani took control of the Witchblade and fought Celestine twice (losing the first time) and saving Sara. Celestine was sent to prison where the Angelus host took control of her some time later.

Plagued by dreams of the Witchblade and its former bearers, Dani tried to alleviate her worries and concerns by spending time with a friend. The Witchblade went crazy and she left in an effort to hide her secret, but Celestine as the Angelus appeared. She informed Dani that Sara was close to having her child and that the Witchblade and the Angelus should join forces, as the child was a product of the Darkness and had the potential to tip the scales. Refusing to betray Sara, Dani fought the Angelus and her army, but soon broke away and ran off to find Sara and warn her.

Jackie Estacado, the host of the Darkness, was already telling Sara what he knew about the Angelus and his role in Sara's pregnancy when Dani showed up. The Angelus warriors stormed Sara's home, forcing her to flee while Dani and Jackie fought them off together. They eventually collected Sara and took her to one of Jackie's hideaways so she could give birth in peace. As she went into labor, the Magdalena appeared to offer her services. Going by the name of Patience, the Magdalena was long time friends with Sara and had been summoned by the Darkness to aid in the birth of her child. Celestine dropped in shortly after.

While Dani stayed to help Sara give birth, Patience and Jackie engaged the Angelus warriors. Sara gave birth to a baby girl named Hope with the battle still raging outside, but the strain was too much on her body and she began to slip away. Dani urged the Witchblade to save Sara, and so it split in two in order to heal Sara and protect both her and Dani. The two women joined the fight to protect Hope, and though they fought well, Celestine finally got her hands on the child. A light surrounded Hope and all of the warriors were destroyed, leaving Celestine weak. Sara and Jackie let her go with a warning.

With both Dani and Sara possessing a half of the Witchblade, they both felt this would make their lives easier. They shared a bond deeper than their already close friendship and they looked out for one another. Dani would come over to look after Hope often but, though she was happy, she still felt lost in life. One day, she met a young man named David who tried to protect her from some thugs and Dani, charmed by his kindness, went out with him. Desperate for a friend and a welcoming ear, she explained the Witchblade to him, and David was surprisingly open to the object and to Dani's plight. He made it clear that he wanted to see her again and to get to know more about her.

They went out a few more times before Dani eventually made it into the bedroom with him, where the Witchblade reacted violently to his presence and nearly tried to kill him. Frightened, Dani offered to go, but David convinced her to stay. As things were about to heat up once more, a crossbow bolt flew through the window and nearly hit them. David recognized it and told Dani that it was someone he knew long ago who wanted his life now. He assured her that he would deal with it.

Before they went on another date, Sara asked Dani to babysit and she agreed, though she brought David with her. Distracting her by kissing her, David then took the Witchblade and possessed it for himself. He struck Dani down and waited for Sara to come home, where he attempted to join the other half of the Witchblade to what he had. He revealed that his name wasn't David, but he was instead the son of Sara's former enemy Kenneth Irons, and that he was immortal. They fought and he was incapable of taking the Witchblade. Dani went with Sara to hunt him down and he was thrown off the side of a building, where he broke all of his bones but still lived. Dani took back her half of the Witchblade.

Aggravated at being used, Dani went out to dance one night and a man at the club flirted too much with her. She entertained his advances only to hurt him with the Witchblade. Angered, he attempted to hurt her, and Sara stepped in to help her. Dani left with Sara and expressed her frustrations over what had transpired with "David" and with her other old relationship problems. Some time later, Dani was offered a teaching position at her dance school which she gladly accepted. It was there that she met Finch, a young woman who was being used by her boyfriend. He wanted to push her around for sexual favors and to work her like a whore. Dani offered to help her; Finch kissed Dani and then ran off.

Keeping good to her promise, though still confused about her feelings regarding Finch, Dani went to visit Rock, her boyfriend. Enraged at his behavior, especially when he tried to force himself on Dani herself, she confronted the man and tried to threaten him with the Witchblade. His friend, surprised at the artifact, pulled a gun on Dani and tried to shoot her; the Witchblade moved Finch's boyfriend in front of the bullet and he was killed.

Sara was immediately visited and Dani told her all of what happened. Sara reacted uncharacteristically cruel, screaming at Dani, though she offered to help cover it up. She had been working an unsolvable case and now they could use Rock's death to their advantage. Once the scene was staged, Sara told Dani to leave and never speak to her again, calling her useless and a nuisance. Hurt, Dani went home, where Finch had taken up residence so she would not be implicated in her boyfriend's death. Dani told Finch about the Witchblade, confided in her about Sara, and expressed her confusion over whether or not she liked Finch, as she had never had a girlfriend before.

Sara's behavior worsened and Finch was visited by a fiery spirit who resembled the Angelus host. Dani spoke to the Curator and was told that he did not know what the host wanted, but that Sara's behavior was due to the splitting of the Witchblades. Sara had the dark half of the Witchblade, the half governed by the Darkness. She needed to be cleansed of this darkness, but that could only be done by Dani taking Sara's half. Gleason, Sara's boyfriend, contacted Dani to have her come over and take care of Hope. Sara returned home and, upon seeing Dani, attacked her and tried to take back the other half of the Witchblade. Sara struck Dani down and off of a building, wounding her.

It was here that the Angelus' lieutenant, Sabine, and the army of Angelus caste warriors stepped in. Since Celestine's defeat, the Angelus host had been missing and Sabine was leading the charge. She stabbed Sara and left her for dead, collecting Dani. She awakened on top of a construction site's highest point, too high for her to fly to safety, and Sabine gave her an offer. She could allow the Angelus to help her defeat Sara and take back the Witchblade...or she could fight Sara alone and lose once more. Dani agreed to the help.

Dani confronted Sara at the Brooklyn Bridge, now contorted into a mechanical, dark monster. Sara wielded the darklings, a sign of her descent into the darkness, and began to tear into Dani. The Angelus warriors descended into the fray to help her. Eventually, however, Sara took back Dani's half of the Witchblade and stabbed her. As she went in for the final blow, the Angelus herself appeared, having taken a new host in Finch. She retrieved Dani and passed her power to her, changing her into the Angelus. Dani, unlike Finch and all of the previous hosts, was allowed to keep her free will and so she attacked Sara with every intention of saving her. She used the light to cleanse Sara of the darkness and to bring her back to normal.

In the aftermath, Sabine pledged her loyalty to Dani and the Angelus caste warriors followed suit. As the new Angelus, Dani decided she needed to leave New York and go elsewhere to try and figure her life out. She said her goodbyes to Sara, promising to return to aid Sara if she ever needed her and thanking her for all she had done. Finch decided to go with Dani and they left to New Orleans.

Dani and Finch moved into the upper floor of a manor and lived fairly comfortably while Dani tried to figure out her sexuality, her role in life, and her new purpose as the Angelus. After a chimera attacked her and Finch, Sabine came to her rescue and attempted to teach Dani about her new calling. She showed her the Angelus' plane, a realm in the sky that closely resembled Heaven. Here, the caste warriors fought for supremacy among their ranks and bowed to Dani as their new leader. Sabine showed her where they kept the chimerae (funny thing, since one attacked her earlier) and the throne room, where they kept the bones of the one Darkness host they managed to destroy.

As the Angelus gathered excitedly around Dani, eager to hear her plan to take down the Darkness host Jackie Estacado, she made it clear that she considered Jackie a friend after all he had done for Sara. The warriors, flabbergasted, began to question her authority, as did Sabine. Before things got out of hand, Dani asserted her authority as the Angelus; she may have her own free will, but the Angelus chose her for a reason and had been waiting for quite some time to do so. If they were questioning her, then they would be punished. Sabine relented and let Dani return to Finch.

Dani took Finch to meet her father, who had just become a private investigator after his heart attack. Though the dinner went well, Finch and Dani were both on edge, anxious that her father would suspect their connection. He didn't and left amicably. Jackie Estacado, however, had decided to drop into New Orleans unannounced to corner Dani and to kill her before the Angelus had time to use her as a puppet. Dani pleaded with him to stop, that they were friends, but her words fell on deaf ears. Eventually, she fought back and Sabine finally joined her to help, though she wanted to see if Dani could handle things on her own first. Dani struck Jackie down and ordered him to leave, to which he acquiesced under the agreement that they would leave each other alone.

In the ensuing battle, Dani suffered injuries, and, not knowing how to heal yet, she went home with Finch to be tended to. They discussed their relationship and Dani expressed her uncertainty; the Angelus always took female lovers. Maybe her feelings for Finch weren't real. But the two of them attempted to act on their sexual connection...and then her father walked in. She explained to him that she still wasn't sure of her feelings, that she wasn't ready to have the talk yet, but he assured her that he just wanted her to be happy. They would talk when she was ready.

Finch and Dani went on to have sex, and while they were distracted, Sabine's plans finally fell into place. Ever since Dani had taken the throne as the Angelus, she had been plotting to overthrow her, destroy her, and take the Angelus host for herself. Sabine had been Celestine's - and the former Angelus hosts before her - lover and lieutenant, and she was certain the host would choose her once Celestine was killed. When this didn't happen, she worked to ensure that Dani would fall, but she needed an advantage over her. She sent a small faction of warriors, her strongest, down into Hell to retrieve another artifact called The Wheel of Shadows. Once bonded to its wielder, it would allow them to manipulate time and travel through it, as well as manipulate the passage of time for individuals, making them younger or older.

Now that she had it, she would confront Dani with it. She had her warriors restrain Finch and she took several years off of her life, bringing her to the point of near-death. She challenged Dani for the Angelus power and she accepted. Dani struck down the warriors, killing them instantly, and the two of them fought on the ethereal plane. Dani's caste warriors stood back, uncertain of where they stood in the battle, and Sabine eventually overpowered Dani. Wrapping her in the Wheel's power, she dragged her to the throne and tried to remove the Wheel from her so she could take the Angelus' power. The Wheel, however, had bonded itself to Sabine; it could not be removed. Dani took the advantage and retrieved the Angelus' spear from its resting place, plunging it into Sabine and nearly killing her. She forced her to save Finch in exchange for Sabine's own life, and the defeated angel reluctantly agreed.

Finch was restored, Sabine was banished, and the two of them settled comfortably together while Dani began to take back her throne. She revamped the entire Angelus system, giving her warriors new armor and tasks to complete while she was away in the mortal realm. She learned to use her powers better and she eventually enlisted her warriors to protect Sara's baby, Hope, in tandem with one of the Darkness' minions.

Sara called Dani one day to warn her of an entity named Tiamat, an immortal who wanted revenge on the Witchblade and Angelus bearers from the past. Being in New Orleans, she was mostly safe, but she worried for Sara's well being. She eventually teleported to New York just in time to save Sara from Tiamat. She took her elsewhere to recover and the following day, they went out to the beach to launch an attack on Tiamat. As the battle grew, with Tiamat summoning hundreds of minions, Dani called upon her warriors to aid her in the fight. They won, banishing Tiamat for good, and Sara and Dani parted ways once more with the promise that they'd always be there for one another.

-----

Here's where things get a little sticky.

Top Cow has recently gone through a reboot. However, the past still counts, as the reboot is more of a plotline that may or may not be reverted back to normal. As such, this is where I'll be cutting the history to separate these parts until more information is given and in case I ever canon update.

As mentioned before, there are thirteen known artifacts in this universe. Each has its own bearer. These artifacts are never allowed to be brought to the same place for fear that the universe will collapse in on itself. One person in every "universe" is born with the codex to that specific timeline/universe. A man known as the Survivor, a man who was once the codex of his own universe. When it was destroyed, he came to this new universe and swore to recreate his own in the ashes of the current world. To do this, he was to gather all of the artifacts and their bearers, but he also needed the codex of the universe.

That codex was Hope Pezzini, Sara Pezzini and Jackie Estacado's daughter.

Hope was taken by Aphrodite IX, an android with one of the artifacts. She killed Sara's sister Julie and destroyed the Darkness and Angelus' guards who were watching over the child. Informed of this, Dani rushed from the Angelus' realm to aid her friend, despite Jackie's appearance. They encountered Tom Judge, bearer of the Rapture, who brought them to a church and explained the trouble with gathering the artifacts, and how the lines had been divided. Six bearers would be on their side, six on the other. One group would want to save the world and the other would let it be rewritten. The final artifact bearer would be the deciding factor, though they did not know where to find him yet. Tilly Grimes, Judge's friend and a numeromancer, set to work trying to figure out where he was.

The pieces came together: the Angelus, the Darkness, the Witchblade, the Spear of Destiny (wielded by the Magdalena), the Rapture, and the Glacier Stone stood on one side. The Ember Stone, Solomon's Coin, the Blood Sword, Pandora's Box, and the Wheel of Shadows stood on the other. The wielders of the Heart Stone (the Necromancer named Abby and the demon Mali) were divided between the sides. The war began.

Aphrodite attacked the group and enlisted the help of Cyberforce and Hunter/Killer (two factions of superpowered soldiers) on her side, though she had tricked them. When Sara revealed that Aphrodite was lying, then ripped into the android and destroyed her. ...Or so they thought.

The group was welcomed aboard Hunter/Killer's craft. Sara and Jackie figured out where Hope was using Aphrodite's data and they left to find her. Aphrodite then pieced herself back together and opened a rift so her other soldiers could flood the craft and take the artifacts. Glorianna Silver, wielder of the Ember Stone, led the charge. Tilly discovered the final bearer's whereabouts and enlisted Judge and Dani to help, though it meant leaving their allies and allowing them to be captured.

The three succeeded in convincing the Thirteenth - Ji Xi - to aid them. Dani teleported herself and him to the final battleground, leaving Judge and Tilly behind. No matter what, one of the artifacts had to stay behind or the universe would unravel. Aphrodite's army ambushed Judge and Tilly and took them anyway.

By the time Dani and Ji Xi arrived, it was too late. Michael Finnegan, bearer of the Glacier Stone, was killed. The Heart Stone was fused together and the Necromancer reclaimed it, destroying the demon Mali. Tom Judge saved Hope and gave her to Sara, hoping to bide her time to run away with the baby. The Survivor surfaced and revealed himself to be the Curator, the man who aided Dani and Sara for so long. He had manipulated them and everyone there to come to this point.

With all of the artifacts and Hope in his possession, he started to unravel the world. Jackie interrupted the "ritual" by tearing into the man's face...and the world dissolved into white.

What happened then was somewhat unclear. Sara and Jackie realized that, in order to save this universe, they needed to kill Hope. Sara, though distraught, knew it was their only hope. But Jackie, finally satisfied with their "family", refused to let her do it. He grabbed Hope...and the universe disappeared.

The new universe is both similar and different, and they're still fleshing everything out. What IS known, however, are these facts:

Jackie found a way to rewrite the universe. He revived his old love Jenny and aged Hope up to be eight years old. Hope would now be "their" child, though it was clear that she was Sara's (since Jenny and Jackie have black hair and Hope looks exactly like her real mother). Jackie destroyed the Curator himself with the Darkness and he would be the only one to remember the old universe. (Hope might but that's to be seen.)

Sara left New York to be a private investigator in Chicago. She had no memory of Hope, though she still seemed to remember her old boyfriend Gleason, her sister Julie, and most of her old life before the battle of the artifacts (for the most part).

And Dani Baptiste? Dani was no longer a dancer. Instead, she had Sara's job as a detective of the special investigations unit with Patrick Gleason as her partner. She did not, however, possess the Angelus.

During an investigation following the Curator's death, she encountered one of the artifacts on a woman's neck and claimed she had "deja vu". Tom Judge dropped in to the crime scene and, though he did not remember Dani herself, he recognized the crime as something Jackie Estacado would do. Without the Rapture, Judge was now a man with a little supernatural power and a terrible scar on his chest. He reunited with Tilly Grimes, who DID have the Rapture, and in touching the artifact, he remembered his old life. Now with two separate memories, he had a hard time telling them apart, but he distinctly remembered that Dani should have the Angelus. After calling her up and confirming that she didn't, he and Tilly were attacked by the Angelus warriors. Dani went to bed and dreamed of a dove merging with her until she sprouted wings. Frightened, but putting the pieces together, she rushed off to find Judge.

Judge took hold of the Rapture and attempted to fight them off, succeeding for the most part, but none of them appeared to be the Angelus host herself. Dani interfered and shot down one of the warriors, forcing them to flee. Judge explained the past to her and, though skeptical, Dani seemed willing enough to listen to what he had to say. He made it clear that this was Jackie's fault and he was eager to get answers. Judge went to Jackie's estate and forced him out to fight.


PERSONALITY:

Danielle Baptiste is a young and somewhat immature young woman when she first makes her appearance. She's a little snobby and sarcastic, mostly due to her upbringing and her time in New York. Her father and mother are both involved in law enforcement and, even though they're separated, it's clear that they both love her dearly. Her father, in fact, spoils her whenever he sees her. Though her financial situation during college is unknown, it's clear that she has a good enough head on her shoulders once she leaves that she probably provided for herself for the most part, possibly through a scholarship and a job. Her mother, who lives in New York near where Dani lives, is extremely responsible and authoritative. She has to be, after all, as captain of her squad. Her father is much more relaxed, which is why he stayed in New Orleans after the separation. This gives us a pretty good idea of how Dani was raised and it shows where she's gotten her sometimes lackadaisical habits combined her innate sense of responsibility. She's also still fairly young at the start of the series and so her immaturity simply stems from her lack of experience in the real world, though this changes fairly quickly.

Dani's story revolves around her uncertainty in life. Young, fresh out of college, with a degree in dance, she has next to nothing to get her started on her journey. She has to check in with an uptight mother and she's far away from the parent who would tell her to take it easy. Despite all of this, she's a very active and social creature, often going out clubbing and dancing with friends, going to the gym every now and then, and also going to the dance studio several times a week to practice. She's outgoing and friendly towards her friends and acquaintances, offering to help them out and lending an ear to their troubles. She also likes to dance on the wild side and has a taste for bad boys: she talks to Sara about how this seems stereotypical of all girls at one point and that she's had her fair share of troubled men. She mentions that she's had to deal with every sketchy boy on the block in college. She doesn't like to be committed to many responsibilities, romantic or otherwise, and this contributes to her feelings of uncertainty in regards to her future.

The Witchblade changes all of this. Dani has a dream about the artifact and about possessing it and when she finds Sara wants to give it up, she flings herself on the opportunity. Recklessly desperate and simply wanting to find change in her life, she takes it without a thought (though the Witchblade MUST choose its bearer and it did choose her), but then finds that she doesn't know what to do with it. In fact, Dani's first instinct is to simply wear it around as jewelry and wait for things to happen. She doesn't like to chase after work if she doesn't have to and she certainly isn't prepared for the responsibility. She eventually comes around to it, fueled by her innate sense of justice that she's received from growing up with two cops for parents.

It should be important to understand that the bearers of the trinity don't consider themselves heroes in any way. Sara, back when she first began to wield the Witchblade, saw herself as an "angel of life". Jackie's always used the Darkness for his own means. Dani, too, sees the Witchblade as simply a responsibility, which is why she's often turned off from the idea of outwardly seeking trouble. Jackie's a hitman and runs into trouble anyway. Sara's a cop and encounters bad guys on a regular basis. But Dani? Dani's just a dancer. What does she gain from looking for the creepy-crawlies that lurk in the dark? Sure, she wants to help, but it's not really the same as someone from Gotham, who takes their role as a hero very seriously. The bearers - all of them - have no intention of exposing themselves or what they do to the public in the interest of getting backpats. Instead, they work in secret simply because it'd be too much hassle to bring everything to the light. Most people shrug off the "supernatural" cases as just being weird and nothing else. It works, too, and all for the better. But even when she becomes the Angelus, an angel, Dani never thinks of it as heroic work. It's simply her duty.

Despite her conflicted feelings about the Witchblade and her role as the balance, Dani never backs away from a challenge or from a problem. She even reaches out to help others in their time of need, like with Finch, Sara, and even with David to an extent. These, at first, go terribly wrong because Dani lacks the proper discipline to understand what she's doing. In fact, she pushes herself to be intimidating because she believes she can take the easy way out and simply scare the problem away. When this doesn't work, she's forced to confront the issues head-on and this just shows how strong she is when she stops doubting herself and what she's capable of. The Witchblade and the Angelus would not choose her if she wasn't powerful in her own right. She just doesn't want to believe she's special. In fact, for most of her run as the Witchblade wielder, she just wants to be normal. She thinks the Wtichblade will bring a spark of excitement into her life and nothing more. She's very, very wrong about this.

As Dani encounters more and more of the supernatural, she begins to grow and flourish into a determined and brave young woman. She's resourceful and quick on her feet, though she's not as street-savvy and experienced as Sara. She puts the needs of others before herself and she refuses to give up in the face of battle. When she fights Sara, she's more concerned about her friend's safety than for herself and this causes her to lose; instead of being brave enough to kill Sara or to cripple her, she pulls back and this is her undoing. She learns to control herself and her snarky attitude, which continues to crop up even when she takes on her role as the Angelus. Her time with Sara serves to bring real discipline into her life, but even as a Witchblade bearer, she feels like she's not doing enough and that this isn't the place for her.

When she receives the Angelus, she immediately feels much more comfortable in the role. She isn't the tough-as-nails cop that Sara is and she isn't the jaded mafia hitman that Jackie is. Dani wants to make the world livable for other people without having to resort to tearing people's heads off (though, to be fair, she does understand that this is sometimes necessary). She strives to bring light into the world and to defeat the monsters who threaten the balance and the people in the universe. That is why her role as the Angelus is more fitting to her personality. The Angelus, once wrapped up in Celestine Wright, withdrew for a time once she discovered that there was something special about the humans. She questioned her role in the universe and she wondered why the humans were allowed to flourish while she was constricted to her place as the Light. Dani is her key to understanding all of that and that is why she's allowed to keep her free will and her personality.

Dani's role as the Angelus quickly teaches her many things about her new life. Within a matter of days, she's betrayed by her lieutenant and forced to come to terms with what she wants to do as the Angelus. Instead of shrinking, she proves her worth by striking Sabine down, punishing those who stood with her, and cleaning up the mess with minimal fight. However, it's clear that this changes her. When she's next seen in Artifacts, her words hold authority and weight to them. She's much more careful and measured about her decisions, though she still loses herself to the impulsivity of her emotions, just like anyone else. She comes to Sara's aid in the wrap-up of Witchblade without being asked and she asserts her authority as the Angelus host to Tiamat. She even calls upon her warriors and they gladly come to aid her in battle. She's gone far and above to prove that she may be a new breed of Angelus but that she's necessary to balancing out the light with the darkness, and she is a welcome addition to the host of angels.

Still, outside of the wings and the armor, Dani strives to just be normal when she can. She goes out on dates and dances, she goes on picnics and keeps in touch with her friends and family. She's a free-spirited individual, still taking risks and living her life to the fullest. She indulges herself when she can and she protects what's hers, whether those things are people or objects. She will not be cowed or controlled. She's finally comfortable in her own skin and believes that she can make a difference in the world around her.


POWER:
Hoo boy.

As the Angelus' host and still possessing free will, Dani suddenly has a lot more than she could do with the Witchblade when she had it. The Angelus is the force of true light in the universe (though this doesn't always equate with goodness). As such, the Angelus host has an entire army of warriors at the snap of her fingertips, as well as all the perks of being the host of the light itself. Obviously, in-game, she won't be able to call her Angelus warriors (as she must create new ones). However, she does have some actual powers:

Heightened Strength/Speed: Self explanatory.
Armor: Dani will be coated in gold and red armor, fitted perfectly to her body. This allows for some extra protection.
Flight: Dani gains red wings with her Angelus form.
Caste Call: Dani can call upon her soldiers to aid her in battle. (As she will not have her warriors, this will not work in The City.)
Warrior Creation: All Angelus Hosts can create more warriors from the Light and turn them into sentient beings.
Teleportation: Like the Darkness, the Angelus can pass through the light and teleport herself anywhere she pleases. (Dani will be incapable of teleporting herself out of this...universe.)
Fire/Light-based Attacks: The Angelus Host is capable of using fire and light to her advantage, generally as blasts or fireballs against her enemies. This also includes creating weapons for herself created from the light or fire. Dani dual-wields two swords made of this light.
Cleansing: The Angelus can cleanse a host of its darkness and evil if she can get close enough and is strong enough to overcome its power with her light. This only works with corruption; if someone is just plain evil, then this isn't going to work. This sort of power would be more beneficial if, say, someone was putting darkness seeds in people or something.
Sensing: The Angelus appears to know when there's a shift in the Force "balance" in her universe. Again, this isn't going to really work in The City because it's not the same world as hers.
Healing: Using the light, Dani can heal herself, but this takes time and energy.


Finally, Dani can teleport/travel to the ethereal plane in which the Angelus warriors exist. This will not work in The City but I figured I'd mention it since it's important. The ethereal plane is basically Top Cow's version of Heaven, though it's not called such. This is where the Angelus' throne is.


[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE: How your character will be addressing the game at large. This sample should follow the same rough format as Cape&Cowl proper — a first-person, text/audio/video-based, intentional post to an internet community. Preferably more than a paragraph in length, this sample is to show us your character's unique voice. If you can make us laugh or outright scare the pants off us, you’re doing a good job!

LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE: The name of the game is introspection, folks. This sample will both showcase how you will play in the logs community, and how well you understand your character’s motivations, hopes, dreams, quirks, etc. This sample should be a bit longer than your first, and, again, make us cry, make us laugh, or make us never want to meet your character in a back alley and you’re doing a good job!

A note: In the cases of both first person and third person samples, we do NOT accept links to samples written at other games. If, however, you are a returning player applying for a character that you have played previously at Cape&Cowl, you are allowed to link to posts made by that character in this game.



FINAL NOTES:
Is there anything else about your character that you feel we should know, that isn't covered in any of the earlier sections? Inventory, status of health, etc? This field is optional.