beyondtherift } { application

[judgy]

About You - The Player
Name: L
Age: 28
Contact: scarletmatriarch [at] gmail [dot] com / Horsewoman Lana = AIM
Past Role Playing Experience: Ten years, give or take. Very few organized games. All the dressing rooms, museboxes and psls.

The Character
Name: Bonnie Bennett
Age/Birthdate: Presumably either seventeen or eighteen, though canon doesn’t specify. I’m going with eighteen on the simple fact that she would be the female to have her birthday during the summer and therefore perpetually off-screen. (My bitterness might be showing.)
Species: Wanderer.
*Type: Bonnie will be becoming a werewolf. Her other form is the ‘I’iwi, also known as the Scarlet Hawaiian Honeycreeper. It’s a little red bird, which is a reference to Damon’s nickname for her counterpart in the books.
Canon: The Vampire Diaries
*Pre-existing powers:

In The Vampire Diaries TV series, witches are born with the power to do many, many things. Here are the basics.

⌘ Spellcasting. Pretty self explanatory. Some spells require chanting and/or herbs and other ingredients, while others are cast simply by focusing on the task.
⌘ Witches can control and manipulate the elements. Bonnie favors fire.
⌘ In addition to control of the elements, witches can also draw power from them, as well as from celestial events, such as the full moon or a passing comet.
⌘ Most witches have the power of telekinesis, but Bonnie doesn’t use it much. Most likely it’s a power that gets stronger with time and Bonnie is just beginning to learn to use her magic.
⌘ Witches have a sort of sixth sense, though the specifics are vague. Bonnie doesn’t seem to be able to sense much more than the presence of another witch, or a vampire by way of touch.
⌘ A common spell used against vampires and werewolves causes an aneurysm. Bonnie has used this spell against both Damon and Stefan, and attempted unsuccessfully to use it against Katherine.

It’s not clear if all witches possess precognitive powers, but Bonnie has dreams and visions of this nature. Most of the time they just come to her, but she can sometimes do it on command. As she once told Damon, she gets what she gets.

Emotions can impact a witch’s abilities both positively and negatively, either fueling them or blocking them. Excessive use of magic can lead to nose bleeds, blackouts and even death.

Journal: judgy (mysticwolf for shapeshifting)
Played By: Katerina Graham
Icon: Here.

Appearance:

Compared to the others in her circle, Bonnie is a shrimp. But she’s a cute shrimp! Her eyes are a warm green and her skin a beautiful cocoa brown. (The Damon in my head insists I mention that he thinks she’s more mocha. But we don’t listen to him much around these parts.) Her long, dark hair varies from straight to wavy, but is almost always worn down. Her sense of style is feminine but laid back. Jeans are commonplace, as are casual but cute dresses. She wears both solid colors and prints, the former being mostly blues, purples and neutrals, the latter being mostly understated florals. Her jewelry tends to be understated as well.

Personality:

Bonnie Bennett is a witch—sometimes with a B, but always with a W. Initially, it was something that scared her, something she struggled against, but over time she’s come to embrace it. To her, being a witch means being the one to protect her town from supernatural threat and it’s a responsibility she takes to, even when she’d rather not be in the thick of things. Even though she knows that vampires are capable of controlling their urges, some wanting to build a life somewhere as much as humans do, she doesn’t allow herself to forget what they are. She cares about people and their safety too much to have that luxury. It also lends a lot more meaning and purpose to her life, which is something she can appreciate.

However, this witchy mindset doesn’t always bring out her noble side. Though she isn’t exactly power hungry, there is a thirst there inside her. She wants to be able to do more to help her friends and her town, but magic is still very intoxicating to her. She has used her magic to do some very wrong things to help save her friends, such as her treatment of Luka Martin, both nearly killing him when she channeled him without his permission, and forcing him to reveal information about Elijah by putting him in a trance. These things, especially in the case of Luka, qualify as abuse of power, which could very well escalate into something much worse.

Bonnie tends to hide her vulnerabilities behind snark and a brave face, and is more likely to lash out in anger at the nearest arrogant and glib vampire (usually Damon) than she is to deal directly with her pain, guilt. She wants to be seen as strong and fierce, even when she’s not. Again, she doesn’t feel she has the luxury to be anything else. There are very few people she trusts enough with the fragile side of her, even among her friends.

One might think this makes Bonnie a very stoic person, and that would be partly true. While she’s very serious when it comes to the supernatural, she does like to eat, drink and be merry. Dancing and karaoke are on her lists of interests, as is cheerleading, though she quit the squad not long after discovering her town was vampire central. If she thought she could go back to it, she probably would. Commitment-free fun, though? She’s there.

As a friend, Bonnie is loyal, supportive and trustworthy, although she is not afraid to speak her mind if there is a conflict of values, or lie in order to protect them. As an enemy—well, no one would want to be her enemy. She’s willing to kill if she has to, and will find a way to do it if there is one. Spoiler: there always is.

Events:

The event in her life that impacted Bonnie the most was the death of her grandmother, Sheila Bennett. Her mother left when she was very young, and her father is said to be rather anti-magic, so when Bonnie came into her powers, Sheila was her only source of support and knowledge. They became much closer and bonded over their shared magical heritage. When Sheila died, Bonnie became much less of the chatty cheerleader she had been. She was more serious and driven, especially when it came to her magic, and developed a strong intolerance for vampire shenanigans, especially Damon’s vampire shenanigans, due to the fact that he played a large part in the circumstances surrounding her grandmother’s death.

Which leads me into another thing to impact Bonnie Bennett: Damon’s gratitude when she helps him. This had happened a few times over the course of the series, but the first was when she had supposedly deactivated the device “invented” by the original Johnathan Gilbert, which was in reality spelled by her ancestor Emily to incapacitate vampires and werewolves for a short time. He went out of his way to thank her, even after she stated she didn’t do it for him. His level of sincerity was in striking contrast to the cocky, manipulative and destructive side that she was so accustomed to seeing. That one moment didn’t immediately transform the way she thought of him, but it was the beginning of a trend that would change not only their relationship for the better, but also influence the way she deals with vampires in general.

Writing Sample:

”You don’t need magic, Bonnie.”

That is Matt’s answer to her desperate pleas not to jump into the pool the night Klaus comes for Elena, sending her running through the school as fast as her legs will carry her. The panic is stronger than any she’s ever felt, even the panic of Jeremy’s death. Then she had magic on her side, a small chance that the witches who helped her fight Klaus would help her one last time. That support is gone now. She can’t revive the dead anymore.

He should know better. He should know she can’t do this, and part of her worries he does. Part of her wonders if what he really wants is to let go of this life of vampires and be with his sister. She pushes repeatedly and desperately at his chest begs him to come back. She can’t do this. She can’t do anything but this, can’t let him give up, and can’t lose another person she loves.

The relief is overwhelming as the water comes up and Matt takes another breath. He’s alive. She saved him, just like he said she would.

That, however, doesn’t make him any less reckless. As they walk out into the hallway, she has only one thing to say to him.

“As soon as you're feeling better, I'm going to kill you.”

Revisions: Another Event

In the episode Bloodlines, Bonnie discovered her powers were blocked. Although at that point she'd been reluctant to embrace witchcraft, it's clear from her reaction that she at least accepted it as a part of herself, saying that something was wrong with her. She panicked and searched for the answer until Sheila told her it was her fear that was blocking her power. She went to the tomb to face her fear, which turned out to be the fear that the vampires inside would somehow get out, and in my opinion, also the fear that she wouldn't be able to protect herself or anyone else from them. Bonnie is very a very proactive person and the feeling of powerlessness is the worst thing in the world. In this case, it was a kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy.