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[advocacy]

User Name/Nick: Crystal
User DW: nerdangel
AIM/IM: kyotoshowgirl
E-mail: octoberrain08 [at] gmail [dot] com
Other Characters: Snow White (breathoflight), Elena Gilbert (forgetyourusedtobe), Polly Perks (pvtparts), James Stark (outofclothes) & Morgause (youmayregretthat)

Character Name: Daneca Wasserman
Series: The Curse Workers Series
Age: 17
From When?: Post-Black Heart

Inmate/Warden:

Daneca is perfect warden material because she is one of those people that believes in the good in people. She understands that people all have the capacity to do bad things and it varies from person to person, but she never looks at someone and sees them as entirely irredeemable or impossible to be helped. Daneca is also someone who is going to happily and readily act as an advocate for an inmate if they are the sort to find or get themselves in trouble. She will be patient and listen to their side before making any decisions. That doesn't mean she's going to be gullible though. Daneca will sniff and see straight through bullshit pretty well and it will be hard to yank her chain. Daneca will strive to be fair in any and all punishment necessary though she'd like to avoid it as much as possible. Zero isn't going to be something she's going to be readily interested in unless absolutely necessary just because she'd rather let people talk things out. Daneca is definitely going to be a talker. And a pusher. But a gentle one. She understands definitely that people have to want to do things for themselves before they'll make the changes necessary to get there and she will work hard to get them to realize their own reasons.

Item: Cell phone

Abilities/Powers:

Daneca is an emotion worker. What this means is that if she touches someone with her bare hands, she's able to completely alter their emotions to whatever she pleases. These changes are not permanent, however, and will fade away with time. But while under a "curse," they will not question their emotions. That's just the way it's always been for the person who's been worked. There's also the issue of blowback for Daneca in which her emotions will become extremely erratic and extreme temporarily. Daneca is not that good at working someone subtly though because she avoids doing it as much as possible.

Personality:

Daneca fits somewhat into the stereotypical role of an overachieving, straight-A student who cares a lot about other people. She's the girl that other kids feel like their parents want them to be more like because she studies hard, is involved in extra-curricular activities, is fairly popular/out-going, and keeps her nose clean. However that's not where Daneca's identity stops and she's more than just the stereotype.

It's true that when Daneca applies herself - which is often - she puts everything into it. Even when she's faced with doing something she's not all that great at - such as acting for Cassel on a number of occasions to either create a diversion or let him have something he was after - she does the absolute best that she can and won't shy away from it simply because it'll be difficult. If anything, Daneca is much more likely to approach a challenge head-on than she is to try and find a way around it. Daneca is also generally popular because of her views about people. While she recognizes that people have the capacity to be bad and do terrible things, she doesn't immediately jump to the conclusion that all there is to a person is this one bad thing they did - no matter how bad it is. She understands that sometimes people do bad things for the right reasons, but she also believes in any given person's ability to better themselves. This is why despite the way Cassel mentions and talks about Barron, she doesn't assume Barron is exactly who Cassel says he is. Instead, she points out that it's rather hypocritical of Cassel to say Barron is a bad person simply because he lies when Cassel lies all the time and she doesn't think any less of him. While Daneca is very much her own person, that perception of people is definitely something she's tried to emulate and fairly successfully adopted from her mother. Daneca's mother is heavily involved in workers' rights and therefore is aware of the many despicable things that many workers must do to survive due to their enforced status as criminals. But she still believes that it's more the circumstances that are bad, not the people who are forced into them.

Daneca is also not someone who is easily controlled by fear. She does many things throughout canon that she has a bad feeling about or feels nervous doing, but she manages to push through the fear and do what she believes is the right course of action. Cassel and his shenanigans often place Daneca and Sam right in the middle of situations that are way bigger than either of them, but she soldiers on at times better than Sam and Sam's often more eager than she is to get in the thick of it. Likewise, she has very little problem standing up to people. Although Daneca is never to the point of being exceptionally blunt and rude, she is someone who will always diplomatically speak her mind when she finds it to be important. She doesn't like to stand by when injustices are occurring around here which is why she headed up the HEX club at Wallingford. She felt it was important that students get involved with the politics that were discriminating against and dangerous for so many people and to not let their voices go unheard.

She is also an incredibly loyal friend. Although honestly 90% of the things Cassel asks her and Sam to do goes against her better judgment, she still does it because she wants to support her friend. Also when she breaks up with Barron, it's less to do with her personal feelings towards Barron himself and more of a sense of betrayal on Cassel's behalf because of what Barron did to Cassel that causes her to leave him and return to Sam. What's also really telling about Daneca's sense of loyalty and involvement with others is that when shit hits the fan with her relationship with Sam, her initial response is to blame herself more than Sam for what happens. She, more or less, agrees with Sam on a subconscious level that holding that secret from him was an act of betrayal and he's justified in being angry. She just wishes that she had the opportunity to explain what she was thinking and why she did what she did instead of having him cut her out of his life like that rather than becoming angry that he was unwilling to hear her out.

In short, most people perceive those parts of Daneca that are brave, loyal, and self-assured. She is someone who is always dependable and a future, if not current, leader. But really, Daneca is still trying to find herself and isn't quite as put together as people would assume. That's what really separates her from the stereotype to who she really is.

Daneca is an emotion worker, but Daneca doesn't tell anyone - not her friends, not even her boyfriend - for a very long time because of the stigma that she (and by extension, what people think/feel about her) can't be trusted. Daneca absolutely believes that workers have a right to not be discriminated against and she does belief that most of them would not be involved in crime if it weren't for the family mentalities that became such a necessity for survival. But she still feels ashamed of being a worker herself and experiences conflict between what she preaches and what she feels inside about herself. When Sam finds out about her being an emotion worker and rejects her, she confides in Cassel that his reaction was exactly what she was afraid of all along. Unlike Cassel, who spent most of his life wishing he was a worker, she'd honestly give most anything to just be normal because she thinks it would solve most of her problems. Likewise, Daneca may generally keep her nose clean, but it doesn't stop her from helping Cassel or getting involved with someone like Barron. It's not as simple as a good girl who wants to walk on the dark side. (Though there is some of that. She's not as seduced by the thrill as Sam is, but it's pretty obvious that despite her desire for as little risk as possible in her life, she does enjoy some of it.) Rather - and unfortunately - people like Cassel and Barron are fairly status quo for workers. By befriending and helping Cassel and by dating Barron, she's able to somewhat safely experiment with that other identity as a worker that exists outside of the political advocate.

Sam really only begins to display an interest in her again when she starts becoming increasingly unavailable for him rather than because he eventually came around and understood her situation and why she was afraid to confide in him. But, in a way, Sam's rejection of her was an important catalyst. Prior to their break-up, Daneca spent an exhaustive amount of time and energy in maintaining the facade of that overachieving, straight-A student who just cares a lot about people because not ever facet of her matched up entirely. But once Sam rejected her, she came to realize and understand that she doesn't want or need someone who can't accept her for who/what she is regardless of whether she's got it all figured out or if she's still trying to get there. Barron - for all his flaws and shortcomings - gives her that acceptance. In some ways, Barron provides a safer space than Sam so that she feels comfortable in doing things like dressing and carrying herself differently because the risk of rejection is so much lower. While she does eventually end up back together with Sam by the end of the last book, it's still not what she's looking for. There's still a sense of uneasiness because she still hasn't quite figured herself out yet and she's now with someone who not only rejected her once before, but someone she's not sure she can ultimately trust to accept her.

Barge Reactions:

Daneca is probably going to be one of the most open-minded individuals that has ever been on this ding dang Barge! No, really. She is one of those people who cares about other people deeply. So, she'll be fairly inquisitive about other worlds, cultures, abilities, etc. Possibly to the point of being a little nosy. Either way, she's going to want to know about everything and think it's pretty neat. She's not going to really discriminate against the inmates simply because they're inmates (which will probably drive some of the more cantankerous inmates nutty because why are you being so open and nice????) and she will definitely strive to get along with as many wardens as she can.

Floods and breaches? Well, there's mixed feelings there. On the one hand, having a completely different life may not be such an immediate bad thing for her. Daneca may actually somewhat enjoy those because again, she's still trying to figure herself out in some ways and that's a good, valuable learning experience. In other ways though, those are going to notably freak her right the fuck out because how? What?

Technology-wise, Daneca won't struggle. She's a teenager from a modern era, so the communicator ain't no thang. The CES and CTS will seem pretty out there though because that's some sci-fi bullshit. But she'll probably enjoy those from time to time as well because why not?

History: A Tale of a Dumbass

Sample Journal Entry: Here!
Sample RP:

When Daneca returns to her cabin, she almost immediately crawls right into her bed, only pausing to kick off her shoes. Pulling the covers up over her head, she sighs and tries to let go all of the tension she was carrying with her. Being around Cassel again is confusing and strange. She has so many questions for him about why he left, what's happened to him, and why he won't come back, but she knows she has to be patient. She also knows she doesn't have much of a right to ask for it.

It's okay though. That's only one small thing Daneca is having to get used to. Being in space definitely seems to moderately trump problems with friendships (or relationships or whatever the hell it is) and dealing with the notion that her whole life could be completely rewritten for a while all because of some poor steering. Daneca tugs off a glove and looks at her hand under the darkness of the covers. It should scare her more than it does to think something like that could happen, but it doesn't. It just excites her and tickles at her curiosity about what life would be like if she couldn't ever work anyone again. The possibilities seem entirely infinite.

But the more she ponders it, the more the guilt starts to settle in. She quickly tugs her glove back on and hides both of her hands underneath her pillow. Daneca knows she shouldn't want to get rid of it. She should be proud of who and what she is. She should be more open about it. But it's not the same thing as the others. The only thing that she thinks may come close is memory work. And maybe that was part of the attraction she had for Barron. He understood her better than Sam ever could because he knew what it was like to not be trusted because of something he could do. The only difference was that there was better reasons to not trust Barron when compared to Daneca because he would work someone with hardly a second thought. She doesn't know what Barron would say if he knew why she was here, the deal she was making.

Taking a deep breath, Daneca sets Barron aside and with him, any sense of guilt. Or rather, she pushes them both down away from the surface of her mind as best she can and closes her eyes. She just needs a nap to clear her head.