Post by Lepa on Feb 10, 2021 23:30:20 GMT -8
Name: Catherine "Cassie" Cahill
Gender: Female
Age: 26
Race: Human
Home: Aster City
Alliance: John's "Family"
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Friends: Julia Herzfeld, Sean McGowan
Enemies: Whoever goes against John
Likes: Romance movies, quiet time to herself, Julia's makeovers,
Dislikes: The heat, darkness, clothes shopping, sometimes Julia's unpredictability
Relationship: Like many others, she is thankful for the therapeutic help provided to her by Johnathan O’Connor, and thus loyally serves him and his interests as an enforcer. She was uneasy about Julia at first, but Julia’s energetic insistence and support eventually swayed Cassie, making the two best friends. Cassie meanwhile views Sean as a more respectable, reasonable figure and friend. In the past, she found it easy to approach him about problems or simply talk, but after Julia onced teased her about having a crush on Sean, Cassie accidentally entertained the idea and ended up developing feelings for him.
Personality:
Cassie was originally a doormat in every sense of the word. Painfully shy and self conscious of her own existence, an abusive upbringing made her terribly quiet. She learned to shut her emotions away to avoid further abuse, and it became her primary defense mechanism for most of her early life. After being taken in and treated by John however, she’s since realized her own sense of self worth and learned to stand on her own.
Cassie's still a quiet and reserved sort, but she's become much more relaxed. She's willing to interact with others as knowing equals, though she has a little bit of difficulty empathizing, which can make her a bit blunt. She also emotes more frequently and normally, but her cues are often subtle. Her expressions and reactions are stronger with the more extreme ends of the emotion spectrum, but she does her best to stay composed as a point of pride.
Like most people under John, Cassie's developed a fierce sense of loyalty to him, though this extends to her friends as well. Because of this loyalty, Cassie can be terrifying in her determination to accomplish a task, no matter how ridiculous or inane it may be if it potentially benefits someone she cares about.
Powers:
Ice powers:
Cassie has the ability to materialize ice on any part of her body, though she usually prefers to use her hands. She can fire off two different sorts of attacks from her hands: one is an energy beam meant specifically for freezing over objects on contact, while the other is various forms of solid ice meant to inflict physical damage.
Freezing Beam
This materializes as an energy beam, which can be deflected by certain reflective objects. It's meant for creating ice on surfaces. Cassie uses it for utility purposes, such as freezing a door shut or trapping a person's foot in place. It takes several seconds for her to freeze over a target area, such as the example door, and she can be interrupted. Using the beam to freeze a single spot for a moment is much quicker (such as a person's foot), but the ice is more brittle and can be more easily broken.
She can also flash freeze things if she physically touches them; the ice will be just as solid as if she'd taken several moments to harden it from her beam. However, the downside is she must get close to the target and can only freeze a small area barely bigger than her hands. She can also unfreeze her handiwork by touching it; the ice will crumble and fall off.
Ice Barrage
Cassie materializes chunks of ice from her hands and launches them at her foe. Accompanied by a frosty wind, her main attack is made up of hail pellets that cover a wide area. It's more meant to act as cover or deter foes. By focusing her power, she can create larger chunks at the cost of taking longer to make her attack, leaving her wide open. She can also adjust the shapes of her ice, such as creating pointed icicles to do more damage. Typically, ice attacks covering a large area are weaker, while ice attacks focused on a smaller point are more powerful.
She's also capable of creating simple shaped objects out of ice and fighting up close with them, or using them as tools. This is mostly limited to icicles, however; she'd have to practice making anything complex.
Weaknesses:
Cassie has more difficulty using her powers in the heat or if she's dehydrated. Fire nullifies her ice abilities, though there might still be consequences to fire users for melting the ice. Her ice can also eventually be shattered or broken if struck enough times with physical force. Finally, she's more of a ranged fighter; she can create makeshift ice shields up close, but she has difficulty fighting back this way and can be brought down by conventional weapons and attacks.
History:
A quiet girl who was brought up in an abusive household to a single father, Cassie did everything she could to avoid home for as long as possible. She found the most relief at school, and even then, she struggled to find a moment's peace from some of her crueler peers. Though several teachers reached out to her, Cassie only managed to open up to one person: David "Taffy" Valentine, a school counselor and therapist. A gentle man with a cheerful (and sometimes goofy) disposition, David was able to earn Cassie's trust and slowly help her regain confidence in herself. She always looked forward to time with the counselor.
Unfortunately, Cassie's progress with him would eventually come to an end. One day confronted by her father, Cassie was scared into submission by his threats of harming not only her, but David's as well. She feared for David's safety and relapsed, forcing herself to shut down emotionally and ending communications with him. If her father saw that she had no interest in something, then he would leave it alone; at least, that's what worked for her growing up.
David himself was concerned; Cassie had stopped talking to him and eventually stopped showing up to school all together. The day she finally came back, she ran straight to him and confessed her fears and problems at home. He'd always had his suspicions, but with Cassie's final confirmation, David kept her safe at the school while he alerted the authorities about her father. He assured her she'd now be safe from him and promised to continue helping her.
Strapped for living space, David ended up approaching his brother, Jonathan O'Connor. He asked Johnathan if he could temporarily take in Cassie while her legal troubles were being sorted out. John agreed without much resistance or fanfare. Cassie herself was still wary, but she forced herself to trust David's decision. After all, he could trust his brother, then she could too.
While David did come back to check on her, the longer she waited, the more Cassie didn't mind staying under John's watch. Sure, the man was busy, but even he found time to speak with her; and when he did, she couldn't help but find herself gradually opening up to him. Once her legal troubles were settled, John offered Cassie to remain with him, to which she agreed. The man essentially picked up where his brother left off, helping Cassie become a stable person and a productive member of society.
Once all was said and done, Cassie felt nothing but an immense sense of gratitude towards Johnathan. She found herself willing to do anything for him without a second thought. In recent years, she's even developed ice powers, which Cassie believes she was gifted as a means of paying the man back. After all, it's been almost a decade since he took her in...
Anything else:
- Cassie developed a crush on Sean because of a joke Julia made about Sean being Jade's dad.
- While she's best friends with Julia, she and Cassie were originally planned to be rivals that vied for John's attention. Sean spent a good time making sure they didn't kill each other, and it was originally resolved because Cassie gave up competing once she developed feelings for Sean.
- Cassie joined John at 14 or 15.
- She's meant to parallel Casey Calhoun, another once troubled teen who worked under John. He's since left and gained fire powers parallel to Cassie's ice powers.
- Older sprite of her (wrong hair, correct clothes for the time being) along with John, Sean and Julia:
