[C A S S C A N T O S]
[24] | [FEMALE] | [5’5”] | [AB-]General Information
NAME: Cassandra “Cass” Cantos
ALIASES // TITLES: N/A
SEX: Female
AGE: 23
APPEARANCE: Standing at a rather diminutive 5’5”, Cass is a wispy character that carries herself with a certain light swagger in her step. It’s clear that she is sure of herself, shown through the flowing nature of her calm and collected movements. Though she might come off as weak, that delicacy and gentleness Cass acts with is firmly rooted in confidence. Her dark hair is kept in a slightly unkempt bob cut falling just far enough to brush along her shoulders at length. While Cass’s black locks contrast heavily with her light skin, her hair is even more accentuated with the lock of pink dye running just to the side of her forehead. Cass has eyes that almost shine with a bright amber color, constantly perked and analyzing her surroundings.
Cass is most often seen in muted colors, wearing only what would be practically applicable to her lifestyle and undertakings. As such, she swears by her dull grey jacket, lined with straps and pockets for utility while also maintaining a sleek streetwear design. A pair of tights or grey military pants complement her style well, and she tops it off with a set of combat boots. Cass usually carries a backpack with her and is not often seen without her weapon, as obvious as it is.
OCCUPATION:Cass has spent the past few years of her life in the employ of a private investigator located in South City. She was considered an assistant, but worked most of the cases with her employer. Cass has spent a lot of time moving about the streets gathering and exchanging information with the locals. A number of her cases also involved corporate clients and targets, forcing Cass and her partner to find themselves in a number of less than ideal situations involving clandestine operations. Her work as a private investigator essentially ended when he partner was killed in action.
CAMPAIGN TEAM POSITION: In Campbell’s employ, Cass’s role is rather diverse as she serves as a sort of ‘operator’ for the campaign. With her knowledge of street dealings, investigative skills, and time working the black market, Cass has acquired the necessary skills to work as a street informant and investigator for Campbell. While others may take more active roles in the campaign itself, Cass opts to work from behind the scenes, gathering information and heading investigative endeavors, be it espionage or just working with the masses on a clandestine level.
Just short of a sort of razor girl, Cass acts as a sort of overseer of the underground in the campaign. She is a watcher, gathering knowledge on the understanding of the collective populous of the Reclaim Zone. With her connections throughout the city and her experience in business, she acts on any needs that require a fixer or investigator. Campbell’s campaign is a tumultuous and ever-changing front. With Cass on the front-lines as a liason to the people and secretive dealings that may be influencing the campaign, bringing back information to Campbell and the team so that they may act accordingly. This can involve learning about the sway of other candidates or looking into the motives and actions of larger entities such as gangs and corporations involving the elections.
Psychological Profile
Melancholy | Discreet | Determined | Calm | Reckless | Cunning
PERSONAL GOAL: Aside from struggling just to survive, Cass pushes herself forward knowing that she still has unfinished business. With both of her livelihoods destroyed and neither culprit justly apprehended, Cass seeks to take matters into her own hands. In doing so, she intends to build herself into someone more capable and durable as a person. She knows that her problems were in part owed to her own ineptitudes. Finding out who attacked Primer Investigations and locating Felix’s killer is more important to her as a personal and retributive vendetta than an act of vengeance against someone who tried to kill her. Knowing that Felix was driving their office down a path above their pay grade, Cass knows that whatever her partner was onto was big, and finding his killer may help further reveal the plot he was uncovering so that she could continue in his stead.
Because of the consistently dangerous work that Cass has undertaken throughout her life, she seeks to adapt beyond the moment. While she has lived a mostly reactionary life, losing out and narrowly escape with her life on multiple endeavors, Cass is now more focused on cementing herself as a force of nature. This involves better outfitting herself to deal with her work, upgrading her equipment and cybernetics to ultimately reclaim the status she once held under the Mammoth. While it isn’t necessarily Cass’s goal to become a kingpin of the fixer game, she wants a greater grasp on her own influence be it through her own empire or through the employ of a powerful figure. That stands as her most dangerous trait— the desire to escape her ‘wayward soul’ mentality and attain something worth her devotion.
CAMPAIGN GOAL:Cass initially found Campbell through data of Felix’s past contacts. While she knows that Campbell may not lead her directly to her goal in pursuing the mystery of the downfall of Primer Investigations, Cass intends to utilize Campbell’s platform and his familiarity with Felix’s contacts to further her own investigation. In doing so, she knows that she would be assisting Campbell in return. In some strange way Cass has come to believe that assisting Campbell in his rise through the political ranks would be right in the eyes of Felix. It is almost a continuation of the penance she was paying by working to balance her negative past.
Cass intends to elevate Campbell as much as she can from her position of deflecting and informing on external forces acting on his campaign. To do so inevitably allows her to extend her own influence and work with Campbell to discover the greater plot behind Felix’s assassination while also maintaining a position of greater power. With her specific position, Cass sees herself happily employed as a determiner of fates as she is able to cripple or bring along other organizations in the wake of Campbell’s success with how she directs the flow of information.
PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY: Due to her upbringing, the presence of power has become a defining part of a person’s character in Cass’s mind. She finds that she has a lot to prove and intends to make her inherent sway and ability known. Willful and ready to stand her ground, Cass has grown tired of the untouchable input on the lives of the population. Above all else, she just wants to live free of the influence of others, be they corporations, government influences, or mob hierarchies. Because of this, Cass wrestles with a certain dissonant selfishness. Her morality revolves around her experiences alone. Of course, this doesn’t mean Cass is entirely selfish. Her greatest drives revolve around bringing that sense of freedom she strives for herself to the masses. That lack of individuality in the eyes of world’s powers eats at Cass more than anything.
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: Cass defines herself politically with a great influence from the gang philosophies that were all around her as she grew up. To her, there is a certain unbreakable bond that can be formed between allies that transcends law, loyalty, and death. Of course, just as easily as these bonds are made, one must expect to be lied to. In accepting this streetwise mentality, Cass doesn’t really align herself with any of the major political parties outright as she grew up believing that the government outweighed any positive impacts with negative ones. Holding her close allies above all else, Cass is also against major corporate entities as they tend to represent something beyond the common man to her.
Due to her wholly laissez-faire style of interacting with any superior entities and the fact that Cass intends to stand her ground against corporations and politicians most closely aligns her with the Pirate Party. Her beliefs, however, are much more diverse as she also accepts the general moral compass of the HyperHuman Party to be the most sound despite its small scale acceptance. Deep down somewhere inside her, Cass finds herself driven by the good message of the HyperHuman Party, but doesn’t allow herself to fully seek good when she finds so much personal struggle present in her life. Cass additionally supports a small number of similar NTP legislations due to the fact that she is heavily augmented and seeks only to upgrade her connection with the machines.
SECRETS:►Fugitive StatusBetween her time in the Mammoth’s mob and her time at Rockland, Cass has quite the negative resume. She keeps her past closely guarded for this reason. She fears what may come to her if it is discovered that she is still actively a wanted fugitive in the New York Seaboard and surrounding megaregions. Not only is there a fear of a once friend becoming a greed-driven bounty hunter, but Cass also holds a fear that all she has worked for in South City will be destroyed in a smear of her character. While she isn’t known as the most savory individual already, she could be burned entirely from Campbell’s campaign if any particularly powerful entity cared to publically go after her.
► The FixerDespite her newfound political work, Cass still retains quite a bit of the knowledge she accrued during her work as a fixer under her father. Many of the practices utilized in dealing illicit goods have transferred over to her information gathering practices as Campbell’s investigator. As much as she fronts as Campbell’s above-board detective and eyes on the street, Cass still maintains her connections to the seedy gangs, dealers, and underground characters throughout the Reclaim Zone. She keeps her work as clandestine as possible to the point where even her fellow campaign workers may not know the extent to which she goes to gather information. Cass has even been known for being a covert employee of Campbell’s in the sense that she doesn’t openly admit that she works for a political campaign in fear that she may lose some of her connections in doing so. Most of her underground connections believe her to be a sort of razor girl, fixer, or private investigator.
FEARS:► Solitude & IntimacyWhile Cass maintains a wholly fearless outward appearance, she cannot escape what’s in her own head. Having lost her family in the mob’s downfall and having lost Felix under strange circumstances, Cass is at a loss for connecting closely with people. She began to believe that she could have been the problem. Whether she acknowledges it or not, Cass fears any sort of deeper connection with allies, both for her sake and theirs.
► Ripper DocsHaving seen the more esoteric side of the Ripper Docs, Cass has been exposed to the mania that often comes with unlicensed medical personnel who take apart bodies for a living. While she can’t avoid Black Clinics altogether, Cass is weary every time she is around a Ripper Doc. It’s as though she senses beyond any good intentions and projects her own vile motivations onto the keepers of the Black Clinics.
REPUTATION:Cass has quite the mixed reputation and general opinion of her can vary on a national scale. While she is currently a wanted criminal in the New York Seaboard, her reputation in the Reclaim Zone is vastly different. Amongst the street dives and derelict clubs of her home district, Cass is seen to represent a sort of outlaw, though she maintains a well-liked status by the district’s inhabitants. Despite her shady and clandestine work and motives, Cass is seen as a friend to many, playing off of her time working as a private eye to garner a number of connections in the community. As such, Cass connects well with underground factions, bartenders, and other streetwise individuals, but may be view with an unsavory eye by high level corporations and politicians that may visit the Reclaim Zone. Overall, it is clear to most that Cass is a character full of secrets, but the benefits she brings often outweigh the caution that is initially felt upon working with her.
LIKES: ► Control► Excitement► Technology► Secrecy► Her WorkDISLIKES: (Same as above)
► The Law System► Corporate Entities► Inadaptability► Intimacy in AlliesQUIRKS:►Tends to stay silent in large groups
►Has a strange fascination with weaponry and often fidgets with her armaments
Background Information
”Every man and woman has their edge, but only those who expect to be cut and utilize their own will find themselves rising above.” The young Cass Cantos never was. In the beginning, there was only Cassie Venador. Born to a complex pair of unmarried parents in New York City, Cassie lost contact to her mother before she could form lasting memories. Her father, Anton “Mammoth” Venador ran a rather lucrative operation working as one of Rockland county’s big time Fixers. The Mammoth was known for his wide variety. The man could get you anything you needed. Guns, grafts, cyberware, information, tech, it all fell into his hands whether from illicit contacts or production at its base level. An operation as big as the Mammoth’s, however, required a lot of devotion to maintain a successful enterprise. As such, the Mammoth’s business was his life, and therefore Cassie’s life as well.
Cassie grew up with her father’s money, but she was also deeply entrenched in the family business. With any sense of a moral compass malformed, Cassie would assist her father in bookkeeping and warehouse operation until she finally grew old enough to work as a liason for the Mammoth. As much as Cassie wanted to be a fixer like her father, she was young and hungry to jump into the business in full swing even with her lacking knowledge of the business. Immediately, the young and sheltered girl started taking on more than she could handle. Trying not only to work the jobs her father gave to her but also find and work with new clients at the same time. It wasn’t long before Cassie was building her own unique team within her father’s business— protection, runners, and regular clients all found their way into Cassie’s circle. For the first time, she was finally able to connect with others outside of her father’s sheltering.
The most important of all her newfound connections was a client that Cassie had taken a particular liking to. “Irish”, as he was called, was buying guns— larger shipments than Cassie could handle alone— but he was much more to her than a client with a wallet larger than he should have had. Irish was a friend to Cassie, perhaps even the first real friend she could make outside of the Mammoth’s mob. They would meet weekly just to be together, and it wasn’t long before Cassie wanted them to work together. Irish couldn’t agree more. With the largest order he’d ever wanted to fill in motion, Cassie had no choice but to go to her father.
Only then would Cassie find that the most meaningful part of her life was the biggest lie she would ever come to realize. Upon the final meeting Cassie would have with her father, the Mammoth’s warehouse was stormed. A last attempt to fight back from the Mammoth’s mob and the failsafes buried in his warehouse left the building a firestorm of rigged explosives and rattling gunfire. Irish was revealed as a criminal informant, and everyone in the Mammoth’s highest circle was taken down. Few left uninjured. Cassie was no exception, waking up in a hospital having lost an arm and a leg to explosive shrapnel. Her father’s money staved off that problem, though. While the Mammoth was fighting the death penalty off, the still underage Cassie was fed into the system. Managing to avoid actual prison, Cassie was given to Rockland Psychiatric Hospital. The greatest surprise didn’t come until she was checked in, however, when she learned that Irish was admitted as well, double-crossed and spit out by the Enforcer task force that wanted Anton Venador.
As much as Cassie thought herself untouchable and vengeful, she couldn’t bring herself to kill Irish. She tried as a matter of fact, but his woeful explanations almost swayed her back to the side of her love. Nonetheless, Cassie’s anger prevailed even throughout the psychiatric help she received and as she learned who her father really was, what he’d done, and who it affected. Cassie was as combative as they came, and while her hopes of ever leaving Rockland were nonexistent, there was one man that dared to change that. His coordinated plan came in the middle of the night. Despite her indignation, Cassie couldn’t say no to Irish in the heat of the moment. He broke her out— just her.
Upon her escape, Cassie was just as much a fugitive as she was before her admission. Fearing she’d be found anywhere in the New York Seaboard or in any of the eastern megaregions with heavy Enforcer presences, she made for as far away as she could. To establish herself in South City was no easy task. Cassie had nothing in terms of experience that qualified her for above board work. Her cyberware was lackluster, and her skills on the street were nascent. Working as a razorgirl wouldn’t have gone well and she couldn’t set herself up as a fixer without connections, money, and time. Cassie did have one thing, however. She had her name, bearing proof that she worked with the Mammoth. She was experienced and knowledgeable in her own right, and that was all she needed to at least find work.
Cassie had a chance meeting with a private investigator by the name of Felix Primer. Her unique circumstances managed to draw pity from the down-on-his-luck PI. He took her in as an assistant and partner in training. With the New York Seaboard behind her, Cassie Venador had to die with her past, with her father, and with Rockland. Taking on the Name Cass Cantos, she worked with Felix for a number of years. Gathering information on the streets and easing her way into connecting with the Reclaim Zone, Cass made herself a name and a reputation in South City. Finally she had the money she’d needed to tune up her government cyberware. For the first time, Cass found herself as right with the world as she could be. Felix’s partnership didn’t last forever, though. Cass hadn’t changed a bit and Felix only fed into her ambition. They were notorious for taking on cases too big to handle. When an assassin finally came, tearing through their office, Felix was killed and Cass was back to square one.
With nowhere else to turn, Cass found herself going to a man listed in some of Felix’s contact books, Dexter Campbell. He needed a team. Cass needed work, and keeping the office running after it had been nearly destroyed wasn’t sustainable. She looked into Campbell as much as she would any other new client, and that was all the reassurance she needed. As crooked as Cass was throughout her life, Campbell’s campaign was quite a change of scenery. Nonetheless, Cass moved on the opportunity. Campbell knew Felix well and trusted Cass with business. That was all she needed
Operative Information
AUGMENTATIONS:►Vehemetech Cyberlimbs [Ronin Model]After the incident that caused the downfall of the Mammoth’s mob, Cass was horribly mutilated by the fires losing an arm and a leg. While her original cyberlimbs grafted to her in Rockland were poor quality industrial models, Cass found herself with the money to upgrade when she took on her work with Felix Primer. With functionality and performance being her top priorities, Cass opted for some of Furytech’s higher end models from the Ronin series. Her left arm and leg left are made of a lattice of carbon fiber and fiberglass mimicking muscle fibers and toughened flesh. The limbs offer Cass an increased agility and formula-based code that assists in battle. Due to the specific model of cyberlimbs, Cass also has access to a set of extendable blades protruding from the exterior of the wrist on her arm.
►Opti-Tactics Visual EnhancerOne of FuryTech’s newer products, the Opti-Tactics Visual Enhancer operates as a replacement for most of the biomass in the user’s eyes, leaving them with a uniquely bright, sleek, and aesthetically pleasing design. The implant as a whole provides the user with a tactical overlay atop their vision that provides calculations, estimations, and tactical input regarding the exact nature of the user’s surroundings. Cass finds the implant particularly useful in her line of work as it keeps her alert and supremely aware of her surroundings and how to interact with her environment in an advantageous way.
►Auto-Neural Verberation LinkThe Auto-Neural Verberation Link, or ANVL (Colloquialized as “Anvil”) is Cass’s most esoteric piece of cyberware, having been implanted in her skull illegally through one of the Reclaim Zone’s Black Clinics. Cass acquired the ANVL implant from a dead netrunner uncovered in one of her and Felix’s final investigations. After Felix’s death, Cass decided to look further into it on her own. When she arrived at the Black Clinic, the Ripper Doc revealed he’d only seen the sort of tech once before in a high level Amalgamation operative. The ANVL functions to allow its user to detect subtle shifts in reverberation and resonance in an area around the user. Offering something akin to a tremor-echolocation, the ANVL provides the user with acute and superhuman awareness.
EQUIPMENT:►Ōsuzumebachi Machine Pistols(大雀蜂)A weapon designed and manufactured for and by Tokyo’s more underground consumers. Known almost solely by its slang name, referring to a giant hornet endemic to the Japanese islands, this little machine packs the perfect punch and manages to remain concealable. The Ōsuzumebachi is known particularly for its use of plastic and ceramics. While it isn’t entirely devoid of metal— as its inner workings still require some vital pieces— it is still enough to fool some of the lower end metal detectors. Alongside each pistol, Cass has access to a laser sight and a silencer for extraneous purposes during particularly demanding missions.
►The Mandelbrot MonobladeA combination of the efforts of the Japanese and American underground, the Mandelbrot Monoblade is a type of katana-styled sabre specifically known for its sharpness. Named for the single carbon fiber strand that runs down the length of the blade in constant rotation through the blade’s mechanism. This allows for the blade to shred through even heavier materials than a normal metal blade if wielded right. Because of all the time Cass spent around street samurai and mercenaries, she picked up the weapon as a signature of hers, paying tribute to the model hitmen of the Mammoth’s mob.
SKILLS: ►The WatcherCass’s skills of surveillance, espionage, and observation have become unparalleled around the Reclaim Zone. With the connections she has made and the tactics she has learned working at Primer Investigations, Cass has become rather adept at conducting stealthy and inconspicuous information gathering. She is never not observing and she has never left the mindset of a private eye. When it comes to clandestine operations, Cass is one of the best.
►The FixerDue to her time in the Reclaim Zone, Cass has set herself up with a web of connections to keep her supplied at all time with whatever she might need. She has created a vast network of information and contacts, allowing her to work quickly and efficiently when looking for insight into any particular topic on the streets. This helps her with her work as she can quickly locate certain people, items, or points of interest.
►In Harm’s WayThroughout her life, Cass has found herself under harsh circumstances left and right. Whether struggling with the cutthroat thugs of the Mammoth’s mob or fighting the everyday dangers of Felix’s investigations, Cass has found herself in a plethora of dangerous situations and has prepared herself for catastrophe accordingly. Under pressure, she acts calm and collected, ready to take on her mission despite any circumstances.
FLAWS:►Neurosynth DependencyStarting in its minor stages after Cass received her cyberware at Rockland, she began to develop a need for Neurosynth to prevent the effects of SPECS from taking hold. While her consumption of Neurosynth was only minor and manageable with her augmented limbs, things only spiraled out of control when she began to further augment herself with other implants. Cass now requires Neurosynth regularly to prevent mental decay.
►AudaciousHaving lived a life of survival rather than of leisure or hard work, Cass has found herself endangered more regularly than the common man. Because of this, she has adapted herself to taking surprisingly bold risks without thinking of the consequences. While confidence and mettle can be necessary in certain situations, one can only go so far before being reckless. Cass finds herself crossing that line more often than not, and she’s sustained the injuries to prove it.
►Deadly FixationCass had come a long way in her life to work at Primer Investigations. Looking back on it as one of the happiest times in her life, Cass can only regret that she was unable to save Felix in his assassination. Ever since the shooting at the office, Cass has become fixated on the thought of retribution. She is not only willing to put her life on the line in the heat of the moment, but also the life of her career work with Campbell. In truth, there is little Cass wouldn’t do to uncover the plot behind the death of her friend.
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