PERSONALITY
Castellano’s canonical psychological profile is rudimentary, describing her as “singularly focused” and “driven”, that she does not know how to easily give up on her goals, and that she will do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission in the most seamless and effective way possible.
This only scratches the surface.
Military life runs in Castellano’s blood, and as a former Olympic hopeful, she has an innate competitive drive that is second to none. The men accepted into BUD/S possess athletic capabilities rivaling those of the world’s greatest decathletes, and yet class attrition rates still average out to 80%. Classes numbering close to 200 candidates have often dwindled down to 30 or 40 by the end of the 24 weeks of training. Injuries are commonplace, deaths are not unheard of, and there have even been “blackout” classes - classes where nobody graduated, because everyone quit. Selection for DEVGRU is even more rigorous - only combat-tested veterans of “vanilla” SEAL Teams are permitted into Green Team, and yet attrition rates of 50% or over are commonplace.
This ultra-rigorous pipeline to Black Squadron has pushed Castellano to and past her limits time and again, to the point where nothing fazes her. She is at the top of her game both mentally and physically, and continues to operate in her profession not for respect but because it excites her. Any spare moment she has will likely be spent training and honing her skills, lest she lose her edge. Any satisfaction or pride she takes in her accomplishments is fleeting at best, as she is constantly pushing herself to be better in all that she does.
SEAL operators are held to some of the highest standards in the United States Navy. Because the actions of a small SEAL team operating far from friendly assistance can have far-reaching strategic consequences for American interests at home and abroad, SEALs must be physically fit, self-reliant, emotionally and mentally mature, comfortable with both working as part of a team and on their own, calm and collected under pressure, geopolitically and culturally literate, and experts in a wide variety of combat techniques, from setting a limpet mine on the hull of an enemy destroyer in the dead of night to calling in an airstrike or artillery barrage in the middle of a pitched battle. Many either have bachelor’s degrees or are working on them while on active duty.
Above all else, they are expected to never, ever quit.
The standards for SEAL officers like Castellano are set higher still. Officers are required to have a bachelor’s degree as a matter of course, are expected to lead by example and from the front, and to be smarter, stronger, faster, and tougher in every respect than the men they lead. As such, Castellano’s standards for both herself and others are lofty and uncompromising. She will gladly indulge in the occasional “soft” vice like drinking, smoking, or gambling, but her sense of ethics, justice, and morality is ironclad, and she has no patience for those she deems to be of weak moral character. She is a firm believer in “K.I.S.S” - “Keep It Simple, Stupid” - and the “Seven Ps” - “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance”. She does her best to use the sum total of provided intelligence and her situational awareness to adapt and avoid being put in dumb situations whenever possible.
Castellano respects people who get things done, and is no fan of red tape. Titles and awards do not impress her. Neither does talking for the sake of talking. This doesn’t mean everyone needs to be a warrior. So long as you are someone who can produce results, you will be on her good side. Her first priority in any given situation will be to complete the mission, whatever that may be. She is adept at analyzing situations quickly and acting decisively and forcefully, using speed and violence of action to make up for any disadvantage in numbers.
Castellano has a classic alpha-type personality. Per her experience and role as a naval special warfare officer, she will make an effort to take charge and take on leadership roles whenever she perceives that her leadership skills are needed or could be of use. Nevertheless, should there be someone with more experience or more tactical proficiency, she will defer command to them. She will not throw herself haphazardly into hazardous situations, but neither will she shy from them if the mission so requires.
None of this is to say she is infallible. Her “singular focus” can quickly devolve into tunnel vision if she lets it, and she may be too quick to rush to judgment at times. In addition, spending much of her life in male-dominated spaces (home, the California National Guard base, the United States Navy and its special warfare community) has made it so that she is more comfortable working around males than females to a certain extent, and has grown accustomed to proving herself and asserting command in ways that may come off as rather rude and brash to those not accustomed to working with Castellano and her quirks. In addition, she has something of a hair-trigger temper that she’s learned to control out of necessity - officers can’t be constantly losing their shit at their subordinates, after all - but should someone provoke her, she can be remarkably quick to resort to physical violence.
As mentioned before, Castellano’s past as a former Olympic hopeful means that she has a competitive drive without equal and has precious little sense of moderation. She is always willing to try new things and break the mold, even if that may mean being put in dangerous situations, and much of what she does, she does to excess - particularly eating, drinking, and physical training. If she can make a competition out of something, odds are good that she will. “It’s not a race” comes off to her ears as the four biggest lies in the English language. Her work as a reconnaissance officer hasn’t quite made Castellano into a professional paranoiac, but operational security (OPSEC) and personal security (PERSEC) procedures have been so ingrained into her mindset that she may take a while to warm up to people. Once someone is on good terms with her, however, it’s quite likely they’ve made an ally for life out of her - Castellano is loyal to the bone, and it will take quite a bit to make her betray someone or something she’s taken up arms for.
Castellano prides herself on three things above all else: her work ethic, her tenacity, and her tattoos. To her, they are more than just body art - each tells a story, and each is tied up with a memory, either personal or professional. She sees them as an informal service record of sorts, but will likely be reticent to share the stories that brought them on if asked, as each memory is rather personal to her.
Overall, Castellano can best be described as a workaholic. She knows how to have fun, and how to kick back and relax, but the high tempo and unforgiving pacing of her work back home has made it so that she’s used to running herself ragged if left unchecked. She is constantly on the lookout for ways to push herself to and beyond her limits, which may not always be a good thing. In addition, this workaholic attitude has made it so that she may have some degree of difficulty empathizing with difficulties others are going through, particularly civilians. Occasionally, she may be willing to lend a listening ear and offer advice, but her profession has somewhat skewed her perspective on problem-solving - what someone else may consider a life-changing problem may register on her radar as nothing more than a passing annoyance.
| ABOUT
Born in Oceanside, California as the middle child (and only daughter) to a training officer in the California National Guard, Castellano quickly showed an aptitude for aquatic sports, and was an avid surfer and swimmer. She excelled in particular at the 200-meter backstroke, and trained often at a nearby Army base where her father worked. A midnight car crash in her junior year of high school shattered her right arm, dashed her dreams of competing in the Olympics, and put her in physical therapy for the next 18 months. She enlisted in the Navy after graduating and served for four years before getting out and attending college at UC San Diego on the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
Upon graduating summa cum laude with a B.S. in electrical engineering, Castellano went through Navy Officer Candidate School and commissioned as an intelligence officer. She volunteered for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, graduated, and made her way through the rest of the SEAL training pipeline to SEAL Team Three. A combat tour in Syria saw her fast-tracked to DEVGRU’s selection process, known as Green Team. Upon graduation, she was assigned to DEVGRU’s Black Squadron as a reconnaissance specialist and tasked with gathering intelligence to assist DEVGRU operations on the ground. Shortly thereafter, she was selected to be a part of Team RAINBOW, a counter-terrorism unit composed of the best operators from CTUs around the world.
At the time she is plucked from her canon to go to El Nysa, Castellano is about a week out from the “Article 5” mission, where White Mask terrorists conducted a bioterrorism attack on the Bartlett University campus.
APPEARANCE
Meghan stands at approximately 5' 7" and 150 pounds. She has blue eyes and sandy-blonde hair kept a little longer than shoulder-length, but you'll only see it go that long if she undoes the shemagh where she keeps it tucked back. Also of note is her eyeblack that she wears whenever on the job.
Her most obvious features are, of course, her tattoos - there are the Samoan tattoo sleeves running along both arms to at least her biceps and (presumably) her deltoids. Should someone be in a position to observe them, her other tattoos include: valkyrie wings running up her back on either side of her spine and terminating on her shoulder blades, Non Ducor, Duco in Old English font running just below her collarbone, an eagle with wings spread atop a naval anchor on her left thigh, and various Americana-styled pieces running down both legs to her calves.
Unless otherwise specified, players can safely assume that she's dressed in her tactical loadout. (Duckface not included.)
ABILITIES
Castellano possesses no superhuman or supernatural abilities. Her only special skills of note are those that would be expected of all naval special warfare reconnaissance officers.
Per her background as a naval intelligence officer, Castellano is fluent in Farsi and Urdu, and per her upbringing in Southern California, is passingly fluent in Spanish.
| BASICS
NAME: Meghan Jessica "Valkyrie" Castellano
CANON: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
CANON POINT: A week out from "Article 5"
AGE: 31
RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single
OCCUPATION: Naval special warfare officer
RESIDENCE: Credenhill, Herefordshire, England
PERMISSIONS
BACKTAGGING: Of course!
GAGTAGS: Much-loved!
4TH-WALLING: Only if you've cleared it with me first, please.
THREADJACKING: Talk it out with me first!
MIND READING: Sure!
FIGHTING: Yes, yes, yes! Just talk it out with me first!
ROMANCE: I'm open to discussion of it (something along the lines of you throwing yours at mine or me throwing mine at yours and seeing what happens) but in general, I'd like to let things like that develop organically.
INJURY: Yes, but talk it out with me first!
KILLING: If it comes at a suitably dramatic plot point, I may not be opposed! Talk it out with me first, though.
OOC
NAME: Jack
PLURK: ![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico) TheMightySpazz |
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