Name: Cain (Prefers Cassandra/Cass)
Age: 16
Gender: F
Race/Species: Human
Student/Teacher: Alpha Student
Inspiration: Cassandra Cain, DC. Nebula, Marvel.
Physical Description: The first thing someone might about Cass is her height. She stands at 6 feet, 2 inches, and unlike most girls her age doesn't show signs of slowing down. She is of Chinese Descent and has short black messy hair and dark brown eyes. She is muscular but lithe, giving her a powerful yet spindly frame. Her body is marked by scars in several places. Her limbs can bend unnaturally.
Personality: The only place Cassandra can blend into is the shadows.
Cass is a shy, gentle girl with low self-esteem. She wears her heart on her sleeve and is extremely overemotional. She is also the most compassionate and empathetic person in any room, caring deeply about strangers, let alone people she's actually forged a connection with. She is very slow to anger and quick to forgive. She dislikes bullying and abuse of any kind and will nervously go out of her way to stop it, if she can. She hates violence of any kind. It is extremely easy to hurt her feelings.
Cassandra despite all this, is not an introvert. She loves being around new people and making friends, and hates being alone. The problem comes in actually accomplishing this, as in her limited experience a vast majority of people are skeeved out by her. When she is around someone she trusts she becomes very intrusive of personal space, with lots of hugs and picking up and resting on.
Cassandra loves hiding and feeling safe in cozy places. She also enjoys movies and stories of all kinds, and she loves practicing her martial arts. Cass is a perfectionist, which is the source of a lot of her anxiety. If she can't do things perfectly right she grows frustrated, disappointed, and sad. On the flip-side she draws pleasure from executing things perfectly. She wants to cover up her face and dislikes the school uniforms bright colors as it makes it harder to blend in.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, Cassandra is illiterate and cannot speak any language at a functional level. She can read and write but not at a level that is considered literate, outpaced by small children. She can understand those around her quite well, but big words can go beyond her understanding. She mostly relies on body language for communication. Though she can speak small sentences, she stutters greatly and usually relies on mimicry and replication when she does speak. Instead she prefers to use her own body language to communicate, with which she is unusually effective.
Backstory: Cain was born to be molded and crafted into the perfect weapon. Her training literally began at birth. Her father, David Cain, better known as the international assassin the Orphan, wanted to experiment on his child with Lady Shiva. He wanted to craft her into the ultimate assassin to follow in his footsteps and take up his legacy, and wanted to play around with the human condition. Thus, he never spoke around her. He kept her secluded and isolated. Her only interaction with other human beings was training with them with fighting. She was raised at a shadowy ninja school, far away from society.
David also did various intrusive surgeries on her to increase her strength and grant her various other above-human abilities.
His plan worked. Cassandra's first language was not English or Chinese, but rather martial arts. While she could not read books, she could read other people as if they were books. Her entire life was dedicated to this single-minded pursuit of mastering the art of killing with swift effeciency. He gave her no name, only calling her by his own last name. He was an evil man, but he loved his daughter on his own twisted way. Every abuse towards her was for her own good, he thought. One day she would understand and live a fulfilling life of murder and infiltration, becoming the most lethal person in the world, surprassing all others. Even those born with extraordinary powers would fear her name.
However, his plan backfired. In being able to read body language perfectly, Cassandra was literally unable to close herself off from the emotions of others. Everything those around her felt, she could notice. Every lie her father ever told, she deducted. The invisible pity in the eyes of the adult ninjas she sparred with. All of it was plainly available to her and she couldn't ignore it. Her heart was corrupted by kindness in this pit of darkness.
This all came to a head when she was ordered to kill a man in order to complete her training. She did. And when she ran him through she could feel and truly understand death itself. That day she ran away from the organization and never turned back. It's not like they could stop her- at such a young age she had already outclassed all of them.
After spending a few months on her own, wracked by the guilt of murder, she decided to try and contribute something to society. She emerged from hiding was quickly offered a place White Wood academy. She agreed and applied, hoping to make something of herself and grow up to help others. It's a daunting task, remaking oneself from scratch. She is afraid of herself and one she can do to others. There are days when she feels like she should give up, but she has to push on in order to find meaning. At this new school she chose the name Cassandra. Adopted from the somewhat grim tale of the character from the cartoon she watched of the Trojan War.
Powers/Magic:
Full Body Control: Every subconscious routine of the human body, Cassandra can manually override. From adrenaline production to pain detection to even her own heartbeat.
Joint Hypermobility: Surgery has granted her the ability to manipulate her body in creepy but versatile and useful ways. Contortionism is already one of her natural talents but the re-alignment of her skeletal and muscle structure allows her to take it to the next level, with double jointed arms and legs.
Advanced Regeneration: Cass regenerates from wounds far quicker than most people.
Emotional Trigger: Cassandra has the ability to give off 'vibes' with her body. Her body language is expressive on a subconscious level that cannot be easily explained. The main application of this, however, is that Cassandra can trigger the fear reflex in people that look at her, should she so choose. Even brave, courageous, or hardened people will find their minds afflicted by fear should she undergo the invisible transformation.
Abilities:
Most Lethal Martial Artist: Cassandra has been prepared since the moment she was concieved to be a killing machine. She is fluent in too many styles of hand to hand combat to count. She has already surpassed some of the worlds most lethal assassins and her potential has yet to be even close to fully tapped. With further training, discipline, and focus, she could become the most dangerous fighter, ever.
Master of Stealth and Speed: Cassandra sticks to the shadows like a bat. She can be completely, 100% silent when she walks. In combat she can be hard to trace with one's eyes, like a mosquito in a dark room. She can hide in places where there should be no place to hide. One could mistake her for having the ability of short range teleportation, but this is just her talent for decieving the mind and eye.
Master Markswoman: Cassandra can aim ranged weapons of all kinds with impossible accuracy.
Above Her Weight Class: It may be tempting to think that one could overpower Cassandra with weight and sheer strength, but one would be wrong. While she is already very strong, her techniques allow her strikes and throws to hit with power that seem superhuman.
Like a Book: The keenest and most unique advantage Cassandra has, the one entirely exclusive to her. The ability to read body language in a fight. With this ability she can anticipate her opponents moves and intentions, their feints and their follow throughs. She can gauge their prowess in a matter of moments, and learn the strengths and weaknesses of their techniques. This skill is so keen she can be aware of her opponents next move before they are. The subtle, imperceptible give-aways of the human body. Even beyond the human body- the same skill applies to animals. Everyone and everything is communicating it's true intentions to her, especially when in the middle of combat. As a result she can accurately tell what other people are feeling. And she is a nearly infallible human lie detector. In this same way she is able to mask her own intentions and tells, making her immune to someone attempting to mimic her techniques, and making her all the more unpredictable, uncanny, and inhuman in a fight.
Potential Character Arcs:
1. Cassandra learns to read, write, and speak English at a useable level with the help of the staff and her new friends at White Wood.
2. Bad guys from her old school come to find her.
3. Cassandra finds a cause worth fighting for and discovered her passion for being a vigilante or other defender of justice. Something equivalent to her canon cause, being Batgirl and defending the people of Gotham City with a dedication that matches and (unhealthily) surpasses Batman himself. Cassandra should learn to use her skills for good.
And Cass needs a found family and emotional anchor of some kind in order to survive. But that will be up to the other characters!
