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theroadpaved) wrote2026-03-04 06:39 pm
Opt-In (Powers)
Castiel has a handful of powers that can cross over into godmodding territory without a player's express permission. For the sake of consistency and my own accountability, I'm going to assume the below powers will not work on a character, unless that player has opted into using the form below. (Since some of his powers will be nerfed anyway, this will be easy to explain away ICly, so no issue if you don't want to opt in and/or if you only want to opt in partially).
A full list of Castiel's powers can be found in his application here, for reference. The potentially godmodding powers referenced in this post are as listed below:
Angelic Perception - Castiel can identify someone's species and get a general read on their health, and whether or not they've got any wild magic stuff going on. With some more exploration (scent, physical touch, etc) he can get even more specific with the identification, to the point of diagnosing diseases or determining whether or not they've recently traveled through time.
I would play this power out by, essentially, metagaming. I already tend to read up on characters I'm threading with (if I'm not familiar with them) anyway, but for characters who opt-in, I'll use knowledge of their canonpoints, their personalities, their thoughts and feelings and character, to filter into Castiel's tags as mild observations. He may also sometimes say things aloud that seem a little too perceptive or on the nose, or I can keep those to a minimum if preferred.Telepathy/Soul Reading - Castiel can read minds and souls to a degree; it's more of a production if he's trying to really look for something and comes at great risk to the one being read. He can also jam his hand right into someone's soul and get an idea of what it's like on a much more detailed level (it hurts like a motherfucker, and he can also siphon power off of a soul to heal himself/get stronger, but it's very dangerous. He can also do some mild mind-control stuff (suggestions, gentle coercion, implanting/removing thoughts or memories), but he utilizes it very rarely. I'm also going to shelve Prayer under this header; anyone who prays in his name specifically can deliver their words to him as if sending out a telepathic message.
I would play this power out by obviously just straight up writing Cas reading their minds. I'd use commentary or narrative flavor in received tags as cues and have Castiel pick up on surface thoughts where appropriate (to confirm, he doesn't do this very often as he's come to understand it's an invasion of privacy). Anything more forceful (soul-reading or siphoning, mind control, etc) will be specifically plotted out beforehand. As for prayer, I'll leave that to the other player's discretion, since Castiel can only receive prayers.
If you would opt into (fully or partially) Castiel being able to use these powers with your character, please fill out the below!
Thank you so much!
EDIT: If also, the form is too much and/or not necessary and you wanna just put a comment down there (like imhilarious) with a carte blanche permission, feel free!
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Angelic Perception: Castiel may absolutely perceive things about Jiaoqiu, go hogwild. Things of note:
🔥 Jiaoqiu is a pathstrider of Nihility. This means that he walks the path of the god/Aeon of Nihility, IX, and in turn receives some of IX's power, a tiny fraction, like a single drop in the ocean. IX is all about the futility of everything and how everything is inevitably going to become nothing.
🔥 He is most likely a Self-Annihilator. In HSR verse, sometimes if people witness an act of an Aeon they can become so soul-deep affected by it that they start losing parts of themselves. Some lose colour, literally, others lose memories, or senses. Jiaoqiu lost his sense of taste. Likely this would manifest as his soul having a degraded, colorless quality, like it's fading from reality.
🔥 His war trauma ⸻ being a war medic and having to heal people only to send them out onto the battlefield to get killed ⸻ is incredibly obvious and probably can be read like a book.
Telepathy/Soul Reading: Castiel is free to read whatever thoughts he likes! If Jiaoqiu ever learns of the whole prayer thing, he will almost certainly use it in times of emergency, ie, if someone needs medical treatment.
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in the meantime i will simply say cas as always has his 100% all-access lifetime pass to dean's soul and thoughts and prayers and stuff. the natural order finally restored. "he can do whatever" -- dean winchester circa 2026, etc
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Angelic Perception: Cas can perceive anything you like about Elster! I would posit that Elster does have a soul, however, it's been severely sandblasted by all kinds of things. Deep down, she's a psychic copy of a wallflower war veteran, whose memories were suppressed. However, Elster has definitely had pieces of that old life resurface. The big thing here is copies and copies and the way some things are lost or changed but other things remain constant. There's also a big ol' psychic fingerprint in there that she needs to wake up and keep her promise.
Telepathy/Soul Reading: Elster's not the praying type but Cas 100% can read her. She's often messy, traumatized, and confused in there.
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Angelic Perception: Absolutely, go ham! Firstly, feel free to take anything from meta or ooc discussion; that's always up for grabs. No limits on any of that! But in terms of what would normally come through, Noctis sure does have a soul and is described as "pure of heart", so his vibes are definitely both kind and a bit naïve. There are also pretty strong indications that he suffers from depression, however, and his loneliness/anxiety/feelings of being controlled and burdened are central to his character. Finally, power-wise, Noctis pulls all of his magic from his connection to a giant crystal back on his home planet, which is more or less the planet's soul. That magic allows him to craft healing items, passively heal himself, suck elemental energy out of stuff to basically make elemental grenades, summon a whack of weapons, and cart around his own personal hammerspace.
Telepathy/Soul Reading: Noctis would definitely pray to him if he knew about the mechanic and that he could reach him in a pinch that way! And I am 100% a-okay with telepathy and soul-reading as well. Happy to put stuff in brackets that can be used in any scenes. Quick question for my own sake -- is this active over text as well or does he need to be with the individual in person?
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Journal Name: justamobster
Angelic Perception: Perceive the heck out of him. He won't like it but I will adore tormenting him with the fact that someone sees so easily through the disguise he's managed to maintain for years. Here are some key points:
1.) He's a dragon. Duh.
2.) He's specifically a storm dragon... and when he gets upset, his storm builds up inside. This manifests in basically emotional and mental turmoil and him shutting down. It looks a lot like human PTSD, because it's basically dragon PTSD. He has feelings about this since he's pretty sure a storm destroyed his world.
3.) He can see and manipulate ley-lines. He mostly does so by pulling them out of people. He has guilt about this because he's basically robbing them of their Talent/magical power, and this can really fuck with people. The most recent fella he neutralized wound up walking into the ocean.
4.) He doesn't have a ley-line himself. So when he calls his lightning magic his Talent, it's not entirely true. It's more a part of him than an outside force he can wield.
5.) His brother is the most important person to him and everything else pales in comparison.
Telepathy/Soul Reading: Castiel can totally read his thoughts. He's not the praying type but does out of habit say things like "thank God and Arthur both." So use that as you see fit ♥
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Angelic Perception: carte blanche—go wild. castiel will find that jonas is actually just a raw soul without a body, but due to game shenanigans, he has one. in this sense, he's touched by magic; he's been possessed and ravaged by "ghosts" for five physical years, but this is likened mentally to "watching the universe fly to its extinction" multiple times. his soul is oooooooold. he hears things, he sees things, and he's afraid a lot. jonas is, however, a kind boy and doggedly loyal, despite all of this. so, he's had it rough, and he's been damaged to the point of constantly being strung out, but he's happy he's alive.🥹
Telepathy/Soul Reading: carte blanche here too. jonas will 100% pray to castiel, and in earnest. his mom was methodist, and he is by extension; he's very familiar with religion, and he became more devout as time passed and his life became worse and worse. i'd love for castiel to hear his prayers!
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and got it, understood. i think i would agree that she has a soul, but that yeah, it's probably a fucking wreck as a reflection of her mental state (and patchwork origins, for that matter).
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carte blanche means i get to go find a video essay that explains his entire canon!!! (genuine excitement, i need material for work "background" noise/distractions)
i am very down for cas hearing jonas's prayers; he'll only be able to hear those directed right to him, not any general praying to god or to heaven or to angels as a whole
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this is a pretty good walkthrough of the first game, and he's barely in the second game
since he knows castiel is an angelman, he will DEFINITELY pray directly to him jkDNKSAJNDAK... especially if he knows cas can hear him... then he'll do it constantly because he's an embarrassment
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and oh my god, jonas...... feel free to drop a prayer into cas's inbox at any point LMAO, or even a general "jonas talks about what he ate today and whether or not he'll go to hell for it" update LMFOAVOSUF
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BUT THAT SOUNDS AMAZING and i love dropping randomly into people's inboxes... i will Be There JKGNERWKJN just uses cas' inbox as a confessional
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Angelic Perception: Does A2 have a soul? Hard to say. Instead of a heart, she has something called a black box, which contains her AI, consciousness, and a mini fusion reactor that powers her. The black box is created from a reconstituted machine core, which is described as having a structure similar to that of a plant cell. Castiel can likely perceive a lot of data from A2 — the final transmit of the machine lifeforms she's slain, A2's own data, and that of another android. She also contains a set of human memories/human consciousness, that of a girl who used to live with her grandmother.
Given A2 can think, feel, grieve, feel guilt, and act independently, I'd say she has a soul or at least the beginnings of one. War trauma, survivor's guilt, and ptsd feature heavily in her consciousness, and everything is a lot more fragmented than she'd like to present. She lives in a near constant state of hypervigilance and is plagued with existential angst. Why do I exist? What is my purpose? Why am I allowed to live when everyone else dies? You know, super cool mentally stable things.
Telepathy/Soul Reading: He's certainly allowed to read her surface thoughts, though depending on how he pokes around she might know. That YoRHa firewall is nothing to sneeze at. I... HAVE NO IDEA IF SHE'D PRAY probably she's the most Catholic guilt having lil android ever.
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As for reading her thoughts/memories/etc, I think he'll probably be able to pick up electromagnetic 'noise,' but maybe wouldn't be able to understand it since I imagine her EVERYTHING is computer code. (It makes the soul thing even more intriguing.)
WE SHOULD DEF GET HER PRAYING, we'll figure it out somehow!!! maybe dean can tell her
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lmk if you need me to explain anything; his situation is fuckin weird and the wiki is frankly not great 🥲
Character Name & Series: Ghost Boy / Shion | The Hundred Line
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Angelic Perception: Please do, take whatever you want from bracket text, etc. He canonically isn't great at lying and the only reason he's gotten away with what he has in Theorem, for as long as he has, is bc everyone else is being nice, tbh.
2nd scenario spoilers
Telepathy/Soul Reading: Go ahead. He doesn't have any defense against telepathy in Theorem, but he has some level of sensitivity since he also used to use telepathy to communicate, so he might tell him politely
yet firmlyto leave if he manages to catch Cas poking around in his head.For the prayer thing, he's probably??? too culturally Japanese to be the devout praying type. He prays for the dead and likes to believe in a next life, yada yada but in the spiritual way yk. If he learns about it, he'd be far more likely to use it as a telepathic phone call for emergencies and whatnot.
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i'm sorry for tl;dring. i am just like that but also i figure since you are unfamiliar with hsr i might as well be overly-detailed. plus like... the hsr wiki sucks if you want to try and get a brief overview of things?
Angelic Perception: Sure! Things of note that I can think of:
♫ Physical (?) notes: With his expanded perception, Castiel should be able to tell that Sunday's halo is in some ways basically a sensory organ / antenna. Although it glows / flickers when Sunday channels his powers, the halo is an amplifier more than source. It also isn't entirely physical/material and seems to be composed partly of solidified energy of some sort and have a strong vibe of The Harmony (see below). Also he has additional ephemeral wings that materialize sometimes when he's channeling power. This is never explained and I really don't know why Sunday's extra wings are on his head, while his twin sister has an extra pair on her back. Is this typical for halovians? Are they just weird and special? Can they each manifest them wherever and just choose to do it this way? Is this an example of weird sexual dimorphism? Who knows! I only bring it up because idk it's a weird not immediately apparent thing that Cas might be able to detect idk man it will probably never come up???
♫
not to plagiarize cosmo with my phrasing here but sdjkfljfSunday is a pathstrider of the Harmony, walking the path of Xipe, the god/Aeon of Harmony and receiving a smidgen of THEIR power in exchange. Xipe is all about the joy of living in harmony - overcoming the brutality of the universe by giving up selfishness and joining into one singular choir singing in tandem. There is a lot of emphasis on the strong defending and helping the weak.♫ Notably, Sunday also used to be a pathstrider of the Order, once governed by the dead Aeon Ena, and while he no longer is a follower of the Order, it's likely that traces remain - if not because of the pathstriding itself then because he briefly became Ena (put a pin in this). The Order is more or less what it sounds like on the tin - the path of ensuring order in the universe, suppressing or eliminating chaos and strife.
( ♫ This is (reasonably supported I feel) speculation on my part going off of the direction the story & his character development seems to be going, so take this with a grain of salt b/c lol lmao imagine rping from something still being written. Couldn't be me. Anyway, Sunday also might have some hints of starting to tread upon the path of the Trailblaze. But the Trailblaze, once overseen by the god Akivili (who has vanished and is presumed dead), is the path of exploration, understanding, establishing connections, and, apparently, salvation. )
♫ hokay so going back to that pin, several months to a year before turning up on the Theorem, in an effort to restore Order and create a paradise for humanity, Sunday briefly revived and became Ena, though he was stopped from completely ascending and returned back to essentially the embryonic state of an Aeon. In the wake of this, still trying to achieve his vision (and indeed, Order was never really his vision anyway but rather the path he was set upon by his guardian), he tried forging a new Path and ascending into an entirely new Aeon. He was once again stopped before he could fully ascend, and after that he was fully knocked back to his mortal self. And like, while he is human again (species neutral), I'm sure this kind of thing leaves its marks on one's soul.
♫ Slightly more recently, he temporarily severed his halo from himself (inside the dreamscape) and then later reforged it. Unrelated but occurring at about the same time, his psyche was split in two (essentially him and the him that could've been if he didn't repress so much of himself) and then fused back together. Do those things leave discernible metaphysical scars behind? I have no idea.
♫ Sunday tends to hide / bury his trauma - or at least try to, though it has woven itself into the fiber of his being inextricably. He's been working on being less repressed and learning how to live a little and that maybe it is okay to want things for himself instead of setting aside all his personal desires, even things like hobbies etc., so there are probably signs of healing? Like a caged bird whose wings have been kept clipped its whole life that has molted and is growing new, whole feathers but hasn't yet worked out how to actually fly and is still building up the muscles and knowledge to do so.
Telepathy/Soul Reading: grasps your hand let's play with weird psychic bullshit! owo
On the telepathy / soul reading / mind control front: If Castiel is just reaching out for the purposes of telepathic communication, Sunday will be okay with it. But Sunday is used to both checking for intrusions into his own mental space and fortifying his mental barriers, so to speak. Consequently, his surface thoughts are probably more difficult to skim than the average person, and I imagine unless he was very distracted or out of it in some way he would be aware of another mind brushing up against his. Moreover, if he feels someone trying to dig around in his mind without warning, he will probably react by actively trying to push back. That said, right now he is very much mortal and has only himself to draw upon, so I don't think he could actually keep Castiel.
Uh all of which is to say, I think at first he will bristle against anything more than telepathy, but if they have a chat about it / once he realizes it's Castiel, he'll be chill and actually maybe even a bit relieved that there's someone else Like This around because tbh I imagine it has felt rather Quiet for some time.
Wrt praying: If Sunday ever learns about this, he might consider saying a quick prayer to Castiel directly in an emergency. But he certainly won't bother Castiel otherwise.
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