In love's great beauty is there a darker side/In God's grace does the Devil hide

CASTIEL

FULL NAME: Castiel
NICKNAMES: Cas
CURRENT AGE: Eons
DATE OF BIRTH: Before time
PLACE OF BIRTH: Heaven

MARITAL STATUS: Single
SEXUALITY: Variable
OCCUPATION: Guardian Angel
CURRENT RESIDENCE: the Castle

angel of thursday,

IN LOVE'S GREAT BEAUTY, IS THERE A DARKER SIDE? IN GOD'S GRACE DOES THE DEVIL HIDE? THERE'S AN ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER, A DEVIL ON MY BACK. SOMETIMES GOOD PEOPLE JUST GO OFF TRACK ------------------------------------------------------------

Technically, Castiel is a ball of bright energy. But that would be boring. Like demons, angels need a human host in order to interact in the mortal world. Unlike demons, angels cannot take just anyone. Their hosts have to be devout people, who accept the offer. Castiel's host was a man called Jimmy Novak, a man of average height and fairly slim build, with dark hair and blue eyes that can look disturbingly pleading and puppy like when he wants to. He often has the appearance of a slightly rumpled tax accountant, with the ever present trench coat. However, Castiel can also show his unquestionable angelic side when he wants to reveal his wings, like huge black shadows extending from his back.

PERSONALITY & DEMEANOR
Even an angel can make mistakes

Despite being as old as the universe, Castiel was quite naive when he first took a mortal host, finding a great deal of confusion in human behavior, culture and especially the humor. He was quite literally minded, taking what people said at face value at first.

However, contrary, to popular belief, he did actually have a sense of humor. It wasn't his fault no one else understood it. Quite dry and straight faced, it often went over other people's heads. Castiel was often frustrated by the limited minds of mortals, of the short sightedness, and arrogance. These people were mere infants in comparison to the universe, and yet thought they understood everything they needed to.

It took years, and the influence of people like the Winchesters, but Castiel began to mellow some, his love for humanity shifting from the affection one might view a pet to a love of equals. His humor became more obvious, and his playful side showed through, especially around Ben. One trait that remained above all else was his loyalty, intense and fierce, to those he considered family. Again, mostly Winchesters, though a few others gained that honor as well. The longer Castiel spent around humans, the more he started to appreciate the full range of their emotions, both the good and the bad, experiencing them all at various times.

PERSONAL HISTORY
Every fight we win just brings another one

Castiel was created, rather than born, an angel of the Lord. Serious and loyal to a fault, when Lucifer rebelled, it broke Castiel's heart to see his brother's fighting their war, but he remained a loyal soldier to his Father, doing whatever needed to be done. He was considered a promising young angel, with a true dedication to his cause. It saddened him further when, after Lucifer was cast out and Michael retreated into himself to cope with his 'victory', Gabriel vanished as well. Castiel never knew what happened to his brother, who had in reality gone into a divine 'witness protection', and taken on the persona of the Pagan God, Loki the Trickster. Castiel could sympathize with Gabriel's choice, it had been hard enough for him to cope with the war, it had been even worse for the archangel closer to the warring brothers. Raphael tried to be the bossiest of the brothers with Michael being so quiet, something which grated quietly against Castiel.

Nevertheless, he stayed at his post, with the others of his garrison, including his subordinate, Uriel, and his superior Amitael. When Amitael defected and fell to Earth to become the human, Anna, Castiel became the leader of their garrison, disagreeing with her feelings that being an angel was a miserable experience compared to being a human.

When the chosen one, Dean Winchester, was sent to hell by Lilith, Castiel was among the legions of angels that laid siege to hell to free him. At that time, Castiel did not know why Dean was so important, simply that he had to be saved. Of all the angels who battled Lilith's forces, Castiel was the one to finally reached the Winchester- after four months of Earth's time and forty years of hell's- and gripped him tightly, raising him up to return to Earth, and leaving his handprint forever burned on Dean's arm. The orders then were for Castiel to find Dean, and help guide him, to stop Lilith from breaking the 66 seals needed to free Lucifer from hell. Unknown to Castiel, the actual plan by the angels was not to stop Lilith, but to ensure that the Apocalypse happened on their schedule and not the demon's. All Castiel knew was that Dean was important, and was to be protected at all costs.

Castiel arrived in Los Angeles, not long after he first raised Dean Winchester from hell. Confused, and frustrated, he immediately set about finding his charge, and trying to make sense of this new place, with all kinds of bizarre people, and a Dean who seemed to want nothing to do with him, at least at first. Arriving on the same day as Castiel was the demon, Ruby. The two immediately butted heads, before realizing there was nothing they could do about the other's presence, and so the wary circling began. Both considered the other a bad influence on the Winchester family, and both barely tolerated the other one, watching closely every move they made. Castiel's intentions were clear from the beginning, he was the guardian angel, sent by God. Ruby's was more murky. She claimed to want to defeat Lilith, that she was different from other demons. Without any proof otherwise, Castiel had to accept it.

That didn't stop the sniping at each other though, snide comments and even heated discussions. Somehow, bubbling under the surface if this, an attraction was actually building, until it finally exploded, somewhat literally, in a warehouse in downtown LA. The pair of them ended up having sex, while creating a thunderstorm of fury and making everyone in LA remarkably uncomfortable.

After the guilt of that died down (which took a while for the angel), they realized that maybe there was something there between them, and they tentatively began an actual relationship. An angel and a demon. Together. A lot of people found that remarkably disturbing. Including some of the other angels from other dimensions who had shown up, such as Eve, Loki and Bartleby.

Things could never remain calm, and Lilith and God both actually turned up in LA. Lilith, of course, bringing the chaos and destruction and God, well, She caused quite a few disturbances as well. Furious at Castiel, She ordered him to look at the bigger picture, at what was important. So Castiel did. Turning his back on God, he walked out, kissed Ruby, and tore out his Grace, making himself human. Because the big picture was that angels were replaceable, but his love for Ruby was unique. God was devastated, but let him keep the swirling pendant that was his Grace.

Castiel relished being human, and was even mothered a lot by Mary Winchester, and taken under the wing of John Winchester. But the dangers were still great, and as a human he was still weak. Castiel tried to be strong enough as a human, but after some time, it became clear that in order to defeat Lilith, and more importantly save the children she had captured, including Ben, he would have to take back his Grace.

Even so, he still refused to give Ruby up, and finally accepting that Her angel was determined, God gave the relationship her blessing. Mostly.

Despite being an angel again, Castiel maintained the closer relationship with the Winchesters, developing a special bond with Ben. There was just something about the kid that Castiel enjoyed, taking him to batting cages, and spending a lot of time with him, while enjoying a growing friendship with Dean and Sam, and his deepening relationship with Ruby.

Or so he thought. Unknown to him, Ruby had in fact been working for Castiel's brother, Lucifer, the entire time, and was getting Sam more and more addicted to her blood, in what was essentially an affair. It took many months for the deception to be exposed, but exposed it was, devastating the entire Winchester family and crushing Castiel and Sam's girlfriend, Faith Lehane. What hurt Castiel the most was that he had turned his back on GOD for Ruby, and yet Ruby could not walk away from her blind faith in Lucifer for him.

The relationship ended, at least for a while, as everyone tried to get over the pain of what had happened. Sam went through detox, the other Winchesters tried to come to terms with it, and Faith retreated into her own angry world. It wasn't until Ben lashed out with the pain of it all that Castiel allowed himself to feel his own grief at the betrayal.

Some time later, realizing he still desperately loved her, Castiel took Ruby back, albeit warily. They tried to work through the issues they had, because despite everything, Ruby really did love her angel. It was a painful process, and a hard road for them both. After many, many months, Castiel began to accept that no matter how much they did love each other, her obsession with Sam, as much as she tried to control it, would never truly leave her. With much regret and pain, he ended the relationship for good.

It was thanks to the support of Dean, his wife Claire, Ben, John and Mary that he managed to get through it. John and Mary had had another child, and Castiel was godfather to her. This helped him remember who he truly was, what was important. It took him a long time to truly get over Ruby, and he nearly wavered many times, but eventually, he found a new sense of peace and acceptance within himself.