sirenspull
Player Information
Name: Kal
Age: 22
AIM SN: walkthedawn
email: otherpromise@gmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Y
Currrently Played Characters: walkthedawn, proxysearch, and cruelwonder
Conditional: Activity Check Link: Here
Conditional: Official Reserve Link: Here
Character Information
General
Canon Source: DC Comics
Canon Format: Comics
Character's Name: Cassandra Cain (Also known as "Batgirl" and "Black Bat")
Character's Age: 19
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played.
What form will your character's NV take? This. Primarily, it will use text to voice translation to make it easier for her.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:
As a child, Cassandra was never taught to read or write. Instead, she grew up knowing only violence. She understood physical actions and, thus, learned how to read a person's body. She can see their thoughts through their actions and can tell exactly what someone is going to do based on their body language. With this ability, she can anticipate her opponents' moves and act accordingly, making her one of the greatest martial artists in the world. She's bested Lady Shiva, considered to be one of the top assassins in the world.
This ability, however, had its drawbacks. She couldn't read or write, nor could she speak. She couldn't understand vocabulary. It left her social skills to be extremely flawed until someone switched things around in her mind so she could think in words and thoughts instead of symbols and pictures. Her language comprehension skills are all over her brain instead of simply in one hemisphere or the other. This gives her a form of dyslexia and it's difficult for her to sometimes put full thoughts into words at once. She often mispronounces long words as well.
Other Abilities:
- Very skilled in martial arts
- Knows how to use nerve/pressure points to her advantage. (She can even stop someone's heart)
- Her strength, agility, and prowess border on metahuman abilities, but she has no actual powers.
- She can shatter glass and brick, and she's broken a sword once on her own.
- Acrobatic skills. She can also dodge bullets most of the time.
- If she IS hit by bullets, she's learned to push through anyway, regardless of the pain.
- She's a master of various weaponry, though she prefers not to use them.
- She's proficient at detective work, mostly because she can discern other people's disguises and identities from their body language.
- She can learn new moves and abilities simply by studying an opponent or engaging them in combat. (She's a visual learner)
She is resistent to most toxins and poisons but is not immune to mental suggestion.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them?
Cassandra's conditional ability will be to blend into crowds and shadows. She'll be able to simply go by unnoticed if she wants to. Looking directly at her, obviously, will let you see her, but if she moves away you may just lose her in the crowd. Eventually, she'll be able to just meld into the shadows and use them as a cloaking. (She will not be able to teleport via shadows, simply be cloaked by them.)
This will, of course, not work to hide her if someone can sense energies or smell her, etc.
Weapons: The usual weapons and equipment found in your standard Bat pouch: Batarangs, capsules, small explosives, tracking devices, etc. She also has a belt with her that allows her to be almost invisible for a time, which is what the Core will use to rub her Conditional off on her.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Wikipedia and DC Wiki entry
Point in Canon: Post-Batgirl vol.3 #1, after she gives Stephanie her costume. After removing her costume and saying how she won't help Batman's cause anymore, now that he's dead, she runs off and eventually goes to Hong Kong. Here she takes up her own mantle and continues exacting justice as Batman taught her.
Character Personality:
On the surface, Cassandra appears to be a very quiet and distanced sort of girl. She listens and watches before she speaks, content to wait and then respond. She's not very talkative because she learned to speak and write only much later in life and so while she is unsure of how to say and describe things, she still understands everything around her. Highly perceptive to the changing moods and movements of the people she engages, she can usually adapt herself to what they need without being told. She doesn't need to survey a scene before she moves in; with one look, she knows. It gives her an advantage in combat and on the field, but it also makes it difficult for her to interact with others in a social way. She knows what to say but not how to communicate it. If she does know, she will do her best to convey what she wants to say, but it often comes out in short bursts of conversation, things like "Not sure" instead of "I'm not sure." She tries to be to the point with everything she says, matching her desire to be precise and perfect in everything she does. To her, a mistake can cost anyone their lives.
Cassandra Cain was born to two of the greatest assassins in the world and separated from her mother at birth. Her father trained her from her infancy to be the greatest assassin who ever lived, one who could read the language of the body and one who would be incapable of being defeated. As a child, all she knew was this language. Her understanding of how people moved, how they thought and how they were going to respond in any situation. As this was her only language, it made her an unstoppable force but it didn't help her understand the world around her. She could see the world in her opponents' eyes but only as one might see a chess game: she only saw the next move. As such, she only understood life as a game. When she took her first life, she immediately saw death through his eyes. In that moment, Cass' childhood shattered and she recognized what it meant to destroy a life.
It is this moment that makes up the core of Cassandra's personality: she is entirely devoted to serving the people and protecting every single life there is. Her fixation towards this cause is what makes her a perfect candidate for Batgirl, for any position in the Batfamily, despite her upbringing. Her eagerness to prove herself worthy not only of Batman's recognition but for own sake made her an instant candidate for the Batgirl mantle. Cass' life was dedicated to proving to herself, and others, that no life should ever be wasted and that she wanted to pay the price for taking a life herself. This led to a death wish that ultimately ruled her very existence for quite some time. While she could see that no life should be wasted, she also knew that she had to pay the price for what she had done.
Cassandra is obsessed with becoming better, faster, and stronger because it will make her a better protector and fighter. It makes her come off as paranoid, especially when she already can do so much. In reality, it is her fear that she will fail and she will allow others to die that keeps her going. No matter what, she puts the lives of others first. In this way, she understands the duty of "Batman" better than anyone else, and she understands Bruce's goal and ideals better too. Of all of Bruce's "children", she makes it a point to say how she wants to be all he is. She tells Tim how dedicated she is to follow in his footsteps and to one day be Batman.
Batman serves as her guide, mentor, and father-figure during much of the Batgirl series and it because blatantly obvious that she'll do next to anything for him. In fact, the only time she ever directly disobeys an order is when she thinks she can protect a life. Barbara Gordon acts as a mother-figure to her, and because Barbara and Batman have two very different philosophies when it comes to justice, Cass often finds herself between a rock and a hard place and incapable of choosing. This is, in part, because of her lack of nurturing as a child. With no mother in her life and a father who taught her only violence, her wish for love and care of any kind, coupled with her moral compass and martyr-complex, often leaves her conflicted and uncertain when she isn't in the field.
Beyond her Batgirl and Black Bat cover, she is kind, devoted, and loyal. She wants to do what's right and she wants to take care of the people around her. When people are upset, when they are angry, she can feel it. She wants to get rid of those negative emotions and she genuinely wants to see people happy. She hates when people lie and she hates causing others pain. It bothers her when she brings someone disappointment or distress, even when she's taking the moral high ground or doing what's rational. She serves the people before she serves herself, and that sometimes extends into her friendships. This makes her rather difficult to befriend outright when she's "Batgirl" and "Black Bat"; as Cassandra Cain, a normal girl who lives in the house across the way, she is easier to get along with because she doesn't talk about her crime fighting or her beliefs.
Her loyalty extends far beyond the cowl and the bat symbol; she wants to protect human life around her. Her past may have been tragic, but she moves on from it with grace and dignity, rising above her father's torments to make herself into a better person for the good of humanity and for innocent lives. She never sees herself as abused. Instead, she's thankful for the training she's undergone. Now she can use it in her fight and she can ensure that no one suffers how she did.
Unfortunately, a run in with Deathstroke breaks this vow of "do no harm" and she becomes blacklisted by many as a murderer, even by her own "family". Cassandra often finds herself struggling with her inherent capabilities as a killer. More than once, she remarks how easy it is to let go and how freeing it feels. Several issues go into exploring this side of her and it's frequently remarked upon that she should be a killer. It's in her nature. In fact, in the remaining issues of the original run of Batgirl, Cassandra was unwittingly destroying more lives than saving them because she was too focused on keeping everyone alive. It's this problem - and her brainwashing from Deathstroke - that often comes back to haunt her in more ways than one. In some issues, people are appalled at her murderous skills. In others, people berate her for her restraint because she refuses to kill.
Because of this, she often seems on the outskirts of the Wayne family. Tim often has to assure her that she's still wanted and needed, both as a crime fighter and as a person, an addition to their home. Alfred remarks upon this once or twice to Bruce, too, trying to make it clear to him that Cassandra could feel left out. She never speaks up, though; because of Slade's brainwashing, she feels she deserves to be shunned. And even if she is demonized by those around her, she will still put her duty first and foremost before any of her feelings, for better or worse. This makes her more relative to Bruce than to the others, and it's sometimes painfully obvious how much people disagree with him when he gets like that. Her duty and determination come at a high cost for her, but she pushes through just the same.
Character Plans:
Besides the obvious "return to crime fighting", Cassandra will try to go back to school and take ESL lessons to help her reading and dyslexia. She'll also attempt to train others to protect themselves, probably becoming a teacher at a local gym. She'll be interested in taking down the companies somehow, but this may just end up happening in small attempts.
Appearance/PB: Cassandra Cain
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[Two weeks since she arrived in Siren's Port. Two weeks since she's been uprooted from her life. It's not a big deal to her, actually. Once, she was on the streets for over nine years on her own. Back then, she had nothing. She had no one. She's not afraid to do it again. But here... Here, she has an identity. Cassandra Cain needs to be normal. She needs to have a life so no one questions what she's doing on the side. The others have their jobs. She needs one too.
Money is a problem. She doesn't want to rely on her family.
When she speaks up today, her voice is concerned. It's an act, of course, but it's something she's using to make her approachable.]
I want to go to school. I want to take classes. [A pause.] ESL.
[That's admitting a little too much, but--]
I don't...have money, though. I need a job.
[This is how you get information, Cass.]
What can I do?
Third Person Sample
Vertigo was usually something Cass never thought about. It was a word that could have defined many instances in her life, but that didn't mean that she ever cared about it. She had jumped off of buildings, swung from helicopter cables, and done all sorts of stunts in her time as Batgirl. The idea that she could suffer from it was laughable, if she had truly given it thought. But now, as she lay in the finely dewed grass of the baseball diamond, it wasn't something she would laugh about. She felt like a fish out of water, floundering to right herself and to focus. As she sat up, she felt like she was going to be sick. The world rocked a little on its side and she almost dropped back down, feeling lightheaded.
Where was she? This wasn't Hong Kong or Gotham, was it? What had happened to her?
The pieces were jumbled, fragmented. She tried to recall the last thing she was doing and found nothing. No, no, she had to have been doing something--
Wait, that was it. Rooftop running, springing from the highest building she found. She had a grappling hook out, of course, as she fell... She was about to string it outwards when she suddenly found herself on the ground. Her hand still gripped the device and she squeezed it like a lifeline, almost hoping it would wake her up if this was a dream.
No such luck. She was firmly in place. This was as real as she was. She righted herself and sat up, pulling her leg to her chest. She set her head in her hand and winced. The world was still spinning a little.
"Hey, kid!"
Cassandra's hand went immediately to her belt while she let her vision clear. She focused, instead, on how he moved while she waited for him to draw closer. If this was an enemy, this was her only advantage. His footsteps told her that he was eager and uncoordinated. He wasn't threatening.
"Are you okay?"
(He's...concerned.)
Cass lifted her head to look up at him, blinking owlishly for a moment. He looked pretty young, probably about her age or a little older. To him, she probably looked frightened. She was anything but. "Are you okay?" he asked again. "You look a little green." He offered her his hand, which she took, and helped her up.
"Yeah," she murmured. His hand was soft. He didn't do a lot of manual labor. "Just...dizzy."
He gave her a light smile. "Why don't you come with me? The dugout's over here. You can sit while I explain everything." The idea of following him anywhere was less than appealing, but if he had information for her... It was behoove her to take it. She could tell he wasn't lying. He genuinely wanted to help her.
(He thinks I'm cute.)
She almost frowned, but he wasn't the hostile sort. For now, she could trust him. With a nod, Cass followed him. "Tell me everything you can."
Name: Kal
Age: 22
AIM SN: walkthedawn
email: otherpromise@gmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Y
Currrently Played Characters: walkthedawn, proxysearch, and cruelwonder
Conditional: Activity Check Link: Here
Conditional: Official Reserve Link: Here
Character Information
General
Canon Source: DC Comics
Canon Format: Comics
Character's Name: Cassandra Cain (Also known as "Batgirl" and "Black Bat")
Character's Age: 19
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played.
What form will your character's NV take? This. Primarily, it will use text to voice translation to make it easier for her.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:
As a child, Cassandra was never taught to read or write. Instead, she grew up knowing only violence. She understood physical actions and, thus, learned how to read a person's body. She can see their thoughts through their actions and can tell exactly what someone is going to do based on their body language. With this ability, she can anticipate her opponents' moves and act accordingly, making her one of the greatest martial artists in the world. She's bested Lady Shiva, considered to be one of the top assassins in the world.
This ability, however, had its drawbacks. She couldn't read or write, nor could she speak. She couldn't understand vocabulary. It left her social skills to be extremely flawed until someone switched things around in her mind so she could think in words and thoughts instead of symbols and pictures. Her language comprehension skills are all over her brain instead of simply in one hemisphere or the other. This gives her a form of dyslexia and it's difficult for her to sometimes put full thoughts into words at once. She often mispronounces long words as well.
Other Abilities:
- Very skilled in martial arts
- Knows how to use nerve/pressure points to her advantage. (She can even stop someone's heart)
- Her strength, agility, and prowess border on metahuman abilities, but she has no actual powers.
- She can shatter glass and brick, and she's broken a sword once on her own.
- Acrobatic skills. She can also dodge bullets most of the time.
- If she IS hit by bullets, she's learned to push through anyway, regardless of the pain.
- She's a master of various weaponry, though she prefers not to use them.
- She's proficient at detective work, mostly because she can discern other people's disguises and identities from their body language.
- She can learn new moves and abilities simply by studying an opponent or engaging them in combat. (She's a visual learner)
She is resistent to most toxins and poisons but is not immune to mental suggestion.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them?
Cassandra's conditional ability will be to blend into crowds and shadows. She'll be able to simply go by unnoticed if she wants to. Looking directly at her, obviously, will let you see her, but if she moves away you may just lose her in the crowd. Eventually, she'll be able to just meld into the shadows and use them as a cloaking. (She will not be able to teleport via shadows, simply be cloaked by them.)
This will, of course, not work to hide her if someone can sense energies or smell her, etc.
Weapons: The usual weapons and equipment found in your standard Bat pouch: Batarangs, capsules, small explosives, tracking devices, etc. She also has a belt with her that allows her to be almost invisible for a time, which is what the Core will use to rub her Conditional off on her.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Wikipedia and DC Wiki entry
Point in Canon: Post-Batgirl vol.3 #1, after she gives Stephanie her costume. After removing her costume and saying how she won't help Batman's cause anymore, now that he's dead, she runs off and eventually goes to Hong Kong. Here she takes up her own mantle and continues exacting justice as Batman taught her.
Character Personality:
On the surface, Cassandra appears to be a very quiet and distanced sort of girl. She listens and watches before she speaks, content to wait and then respond. She's not very talkative because she learned to speak and write only much later in life and so while she is unsure of how to say and describe things, she still understands everything around her. Highly perceptive to the changing moods and movements of the people she engages, she can usually adapt herself to what they need without being told. She doesn't need to survey a scene before she moves in; with one look, she knows. It gives her an advantage in combat and on the field, but it also makes it difficult for her to interact with others in a social way. She knows what to say but not how to communicate it. If she does know, she will do her best to convey what she wants to say, but it often comes out in short bursts of conversation, things like "Not sure" instead of "I'm not sure." She tries to be to the point with everything she says, matching her desire to be precise and perfect in everything she does. To her, a mistake can cost anyone their lives.
Cassandra Cain was born to two of the greatest assassins in the world and separated from her mother at birth. Her father trained her from her infancy to be the greatest assassin who ever lived, one who could read the language of the body and one who would be incapable of being defeated. As a child, all she knew was this language. Her understanding of how people moved, how they thought and how they were going to respond in any situation. As this was her only language, it made her an unstoppable force but it didn't help her understand the world around her. She could see the world in her opponents' eyes but only as one might see a chess game: she only saw the next move. As such, she only understood life as a game. When she took her first life, she immediately saw death through his eyes. In that moment, Cass' childhood shattered and she recognized what it meant to destroy a life.
It is this moment that makes up the core of Cassandra's personality: she is entirely devoted to serving the people and protecting every single life there is. Her fixation towards this cause is what makes her a perfect candidate for Batgirl, for any position in the Batfamily, despite her upbringing. Her eagerness to prove herself worthy not only of Batman's recognition but for own sake made her an instant candidate for the Batgirl mantle. Cass' life was dedicated to proving to herself, and others, that no life should ever be wasted and that she wanted to pay the price for taking a life herself. This led to a death wish that ultimately ruled her very existence for quite some time. While she could see that no life should be wasted, she also knew that she had to pay the price for what she had done.
Cassandra is obsessed with becoming better, faster, and stronger because it will make her a better protector and fighter. It makes her come off as paranoid, especially when she already can do so much. In reality, it is her fear that she will fail and she will allow others to die that keeps her going. No matter what, she puts the lives of others first. In this way, she understands the duty of "Batman" better than anyone else, and she understands Bruce's goal and ideals better too. Of all of Bruce's "children", she makes it a point to say how she wants to be all he is. She tells Tim how dedicated she is to follow in his footsteps and to one day be Batman.
Batman serves as her guide, mentor, and father-figure during much of the Batgirl series and it because blatantly obvious that she'll do next to anything for him. In fact, the only time she ever directly disobeys an order is when she thinks she can protect a life. Barbara Gordon acts as a mother-figure to her, and because Barbara and Batman have two very different philosophies when it comes to justice, Cass often finds herself between a rock and a hard place and incapable of choosing. This is, in part, because of her lack of nurturing as a child. With no mother in her life and a father who taught her only violence, her wish for love and care of any kind, coupled with her moral compass and martyr-complex, often leaves her conflicted and uncertain when she isn't in the field.
Beyond her Batgirl and Black Bat cover, she is kind, devoted, and loyal. She wants to do what's right and she wants to take care of the people around her. When people are upset, when they are angry, she can feel it. She wants to get rid of those negative emotions and she genuinely wants to see people happy. She hates when people lie and she hates causing others pain. It bothers her when she brings someone disappointment or distress, even when she's taking the moral high ground or doing what's rational. She serves the people before she serves herself, and that sometimes extends into her friendships. This makes her rather difficult to befriend outright when she's "Batgirl" and "Black Bat"; as Cassandra Cain, a normal girl who lives in the house across the way, she is easier to get along with because she doesn't talk about her crime fighting or her beliefs.
Her loyalty extends far beyond the cowl and the bat symbol; she wants to protect human life around her. Her past may have been tragic, but she moves on from it with grace and dignity, rising above her father's torments to make herself into a better person for the good of humanity and for innocent lives. She never sees herself as abused. Instead, she's thankful for the training she's undergone. Now she can use it in her fight and she can ensure that no one suffers how she did.
Unfortunately, a run in with Deathstroke breaks this vow of "do no harm" and she becomes blacklisted by many as a murderer, even by her own "family". Cassandra often finds herself struggling with her inherent capabilities as a killer. More than once, she remarks how easy it is to let go and how freeing it feels. Several issues go into exploring this side of her and it's frequently remarked upon that she should be a killer. It's in her nature. In fact, in the remaining issues of the original run of Batgirl, Cassandra was unwittingly destroying more lives than saving them because she was too focused on keeping everyone alive. It's this problem - and her brainwashing from Deathstroke - that often comes back to haunt her in more ways than one. In some issues, people are appalled at her murderous skills. In others, people berate her for her restraint because she refuses to kill.
Because of this, she often seems on the outskirts of the Wayne family. Tim often has to assure her that she's still wanted and needed, both as a crime fighter and as a person, an addition to their home. Alfred remarks upon this once or twice to Bruce, too, trying to make it clear to him that Cassandra could feel left out. She never speaks up, though; because of Slade's brainwashing, she feels she deserves to be shunned. And even if she is demonized by those around her, she will still put her duty first and foremost before any of her feelings, for better or worse. This makes her more relative to Bruce than to the others, and it's sometimes painfully obvious how much people disagree with him when he gets like that. Her duty and determination come at a high cost for her, but she pushes through just the same.
Character Plans:
Besides the obvious "return to crime fighting", Cassandra will try to go back to school and take ESL lessons to help her reading and dyslexia. She'll also attempt to train others to protect themselves, probably becoming a teacher at a local gym. She'll be interested in taking down the companies somehow, but this may just end up happening in small attempts.
Appearance/PB: Cassandra Cain
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[Two weeks since she arrived in Siren's Port. Two weeks since she's been uprooted from her life. It's not a big deal to her, actually. Once, she was on the streets for over nine years on her own. Back then, she had nothing. She had no one. She's not afraid to do it again. But here... Here, she has an identity. Cassandra Cain needs to be normal. She needs to have a life so no one questions what she's doing on the side. The others have their jobs. She needs one too.
Money is a problem. She doesn't want to rely on her family.
When she speaks up today, her voice is concerned. It's an act, of course, but it's something she's using to make her approachable.]
I want to go to school. I want to take classes. [A pause.] ESL.
[That's admitting a little too much, but--]
I don't...have money, though. I need a job.
[This is how you get information, Cass.]
What can I do?
Third Person Sample
Vertigo was usually something Cass never thought about. It was a word that could have defined many instances in her life, but that didn't mean that she ever cared about it. She had jumped off of buildings, swung from helicopter cables, and done all sorts of stunts in her time as Batgirl. The idea that she could suffer from it was laughable, if she had truly given it thought. But now, as she lay in the finely dewed grass of the baseball diamond, it wasn't something she would laugh about. She felt like a fish out of water, floundering to right herself and to focus. As she sat up, she felt like she was going to be sick. The world rocked a little on its side and she almost dropped back down, feeling lightheaded.
Where was she? This wasn't Hong Kong or Gotham, was it? What had happened to her?
The pieces were jumbled, fragmented. She tried to recall the last thing she was doing and found nothing. No, no, she had to have been doing something--
Wait, that was it. Rooftop running, springing from the highest building she found. She had a grappling hook out, of course, as she fell... She was about to string it outwards when she suddenly found herself on the ground. Her hand still gripped the device and she squeezed it like a lifeline, almost hoping it would wake her up if this was a dream.
No such luck. She was firmly in place. This was as real as she was. She righted herself and sat up, pulling her leg to her chest. She set her head in her hand and winced. The world was still spinning a little.
"Hey, kid!"
Cassandra's hand went immediately to her belt while she let her vision clear. She focused, instead, on how he moved while she waited for him to draw closer. If this was an enemy, this was her only advantage. His footsteps told her that he was eager and uncoordinated. He wasn't threatening.
"Are you okay?"
(He's...concerned.)
Cass lifted her head to look up at him, blinking owlishly for a moment. He looked pretty young, probably about her age or a little older. To him, she probably looked frightened. She was anything but. "Are you okay?" he asked again. "You look a little green." He offered her his hand, which she took, and helped her up.
"Yeah," she murmured. His hand was soft. He didn't do a lot of manual labor. "Just...dizzy."
He gave her a light smile. "Why don't you come with me? The dugout's over here. You can sit while I explain everything." The idea of following him anywhere was less than appealing, but if he had information for her... It was behoove her to take it. She could tell he wasn't lying. He genuinely wanted to help her.
(He thinks I'm cute.)
She almost frowned, but he wasn't the hostile sort. For now, she could trust him. With a nod, Cass followed him. "Tell me everything you can."