Post by batgirl on Apr 7, 2008 0:38:21 GMT -5
The Character
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Cannon or your own: Canon
Copyright (Marvel/DC/ect): DC
Characters civilian name: Cassandra Cain
Code names/Aliases: Batgirl
Class [Superhero, Vigilante, Mercenary..ect]: Vigilante
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Gender: Female
Age: 17
Apparent Age: Between 14 and 18
Hair: Black
Eyes: Green
Height and weight: 5'7"/125lbs
Appearance:
Cassandra is a decent height, around five foot seven, with fairly even proportions though they are quote more womanly and curvous as opposed to her mothers. Her hair is jet black and has recently been re-cut to her mid-neck level to allow for the wearing of her batgirl mask once more. Her eyes are a darkish brown like a rich chocolate would be. Her skin is fair in complexion and has that 'sun kissed tan' that is almost automatic in those of such close asian descent.
As far as clothing goes, Cassandra goes for personal comfort more than style, unless she's on a specific mission that requires it. She likes capris and middriff-revealing shirts the best though the fitting of the clothing isn't needed, she prefers tighter or medium-fit clothing over loose. It is better for maneuvering and fighting, not to mention harder to grab hold of.
Her 'fighting' costume is her batgirl costume. Like the other bat suits, its black and tight fitting. Its comprised mostly of black with pointier ears than Batman's costume. What differs from the other batgirl costume is the fact that it is predominantly black. The only yellow is a black-filled outline of the bat symbol on the chest that covers most of that area. Her belt is yellow as well and it has pouches rather than the capsule-style that is more common. She has a couple alternate versions of the costume. One cape is yellow on the inside lining and she does have a capsule style belt as well as a costume with a filled in bat symbol, but out of them all, the main version fits her better.
Picture [if available]:
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Super Powers:
Learned Abilities:
Peak Human Conditioning: Through continuous intense training Cassandra represents the greatest fighting weapon ever conceived. Her strength, stamina, speed and agility exceed that of any human, non-meta, fighter thus far.
Martial Arts Master: Due to her life long training Cassandra has a master level knowledge of all fighting arts known and unknown and continues to learn with every new opponent she faces. She and her father (David Cain), along with several other members of the League of Assassins, including Bronze Tiger, and Merlyn the archer, and a series of instructors hired by Cain, including Alpha. Upon taking the mantle of Batgirl, she was trained further by Batman, Oracle, Black Canary, and then by Lady Shiva, and has received supplementary instruction from Onyx. She has also invented her own styles and techniques such as the 'Falling Leaf' technique. Her defensive abilities consist primarily of evasive moving due to her ability to read her opponents she has not needed to form advanced defensive techniques. However this has been rectified due to Batman's training. Has mastered Dragon Style Kung Fu. Has been trained under the Batman Cassandra has undergone the same training and teachings as the past Robins, Nightwing and Oracle.
Master Assassin: Cassandra is schooled in all known and unknown assassin techniques such as pressure points, killing techniques and stealth to name a few.
Body Reading Ability: Advanced ability to read body language enabling her to anticipate what a person is thinking. Similar to Lady Shiva's ability. However it has limitations due to familiarity with opponent's physiology and her capacity to translate data. It enables her to identify disguised/transformed persons, identify what they are thinking through their body movements.
Detective: She was also very briefly trained in detective methods by Tim Drake during their time in Blüdhaven.
Equipment:
Batgirl costume with utility belt containing various equipment. Interestingly enough, Cassandra avoids using tools unless she absolutely needs to.
Weaknesses (Must Have):
Mental Suggestion: She is vulnerable to mental suggestions through foreign narcotics, particularly psychotropics.
Illiterate: She also can't read.
Background:
The League of Assassins was made to be the blade that protected Ra's al Ghul. But he wasn't happy with the faint hearts that belonged to mercenaries. He wanted completely loyal minions... but his attempts at raising children like this failed with fatal results. It wasn't until David Cain proposed that the proper genes would help. So he sought out lady Shiva and created a child that was to be the "One Who Is All".
Trained by her father, assassin David Cain, to be the ultimate martial artist and assassin, Cassandra was not taught to speak. Instead, the parts of her brain normally used for speech were trained so she could read other people's movements and body language and predict, with uncanny accuracy, their next move. This ability lives up to her namesake; Cassandra in Greek mythology had the gift of seeing into the future, but was cursed so that nobody would ever believe her predictions. This closely relates to her capability of 'seeing' her opponents' next move at the cost of being (initially) unable to speak. This also caused her brain to develop learning functions different from most, a form of dyslexia that hampers her ability to read and write.
When she was 8 years old, Cain decided his experiment had progressed far enough for him to test Cassandra's abilities in the real world, and took her to kill a businessman. At the time Cassandra had no idea what she was doing and believed it was only a game (an interpretation in keeping with her own reaction to what happened, and matching the interpretation of Alfred Pennyworth, an expert on children who saw a tape of events). After striking a deathblow, she "read" the target as he died, and saw death as he saw it. "Terror and then... nothing". In addition to scarring her emotionally, she realized murder, like Cain's profession, is wrong, and she ran away from her father.
For ten years she wandered around homeless and mentally berating herself for what she'd done. It likely would have continued for longer if she hadn't wound up at the 'Oracle's' step.
By saving Commissioner Gordon's life, Cassandra was granted the rite of Batgirl and became Barbara's ward. Batman eventually learned about Cassandra's past when Cain transmitted a video he had made of the murder to the Batcave, but Batman nevertheless continued to accept Cassandra after she took several bullets to save the life of a hired assassin, proving her devotion to protecting human life.
A telepath "rewired" her brain to think with words and understand English (although speaking properly took longer, and she still could not read or write) at the cost of her ability to predict and read people. This left her unable to defend herself in a fight, as that part of her style relied completely on her ability to read moves, not the "strategies, patterns, and tricks" employed by Batman and most other martial artists. Fearing that she would meet a fate similar to former Robin Jason Todd, Batman refused to let Cassandra wear the Batgirl costume and patrol the city until she could learn adequate defensive skills, which he estimated would take at least a year of work. She soon discovered that assassin Lady Shiva could read people like she used to be able to, and asked her to reteach her. Lady Shiva accepted, on the condition that in a year they would have a duel to the death. Knowing that she would never kill again and would most assuredly lose, but preferring to be "perfect for a year" rather than "mediocre for a lifetime", Cassandra accepted and Lady Shiva retaught her in a night. One year later, Cassandra kept the appointment - and died within minutes. Then Shiva restarted her heart, having realized that Cassandra "wanted" to die (although not why), and wishing for a fight Cassandra would try to win. In the ensuing battle, Cassandra realized that Shiva had her own death wish, and defeated her, although she spared Shiva's life.
Batgirl moved to Bl�dhaven with Tim Drake (the third Robin) at Batman's suggestion and with his financial support (Nightwing had been injured during the crisis, and the Gotham City Police Department had declared all costumed heroes illegal). There, Deathstroke took on a contract from the Penguin to kill Batgirl and decided to let his daughter Rose (the current Ravager) do the job instead. Cassandra beat Rose by critically wounding her and giving Deathstroke no choice but to get her medical attention.
Personality :
Cassandra was born and raised as an assassin, so fighting is more than just natural for her. Fighting is enjoyable and if she spends too much time being 'normal' she does miss it. Thus she tends to take her position as a hero very seriously. She doesn't usually have her guard down when in her costume, which does tend to give her an edge over some of the people she battles. She fights strongly both physically and personality wise, only using as much of her physical abilities that she dictates the situation needs.
Like with Stephanie and Tim, she enjoys sparring even if her opponent cannot beat her. And just like with Stephanie, so long as their willing to put forth the effort she's willing to train people to fight or improve their fighting. Though this usually is accompanied with statements of 'faster' or 'harder'
She views Batman and Bruce Wayne as one and the same, but its less the person that she craves to be like. Its more of what the symbol stands for. She is generally determined to not take a life, but if anger gets the best of her she will kill with little qualms. She wants to be like batman but sometimes she thinks she's less worthy, and finds that others fit that bill better than she.
The entire bat 'crew' she views as her close family, though Samantha Brown was her first friend and more of a friend than a family member to her.
Outside of Batgirl Cassandra is still very strong and confident. She isn't ashamed of her body nor shy about it. She's walked around in her own apartment, even with a roommate, naked (which is preferred to her) or at least wearing a towel. She's not shy to take her clothes off in front of others to treat wounds or anything like that.
Cassie isn't someone who is beyond emotions with how she was raised. No, she feels them quite often and most of them she's starting to get used to. She understands pain due to the loss of her dear friend. Physical pain she's used to, and can refrain from flinching. But things like.... feelings towards boys in a romantic fashion are hard. Flirtation she can manage, but the feelings of love are strange to her and do cause her to become nervous or awkward in some way.
However, there is still a dark side to her. She can kill, though generally refuses to. Some heroes cannot accept the fact that she has killed at all and occasionally distrust or attack her for it. There Rhas Al Ghul she would not be able to be friends with, but the person who tends to cause the most 'grief' or troubles in her life is her father. David Cain was the one who raised, trained, and generally abused Cassandra to make her the tool she was, and he had all intentions to use her as just that. A tool to protect Rhas Al Ghul. He has lied, cheated, and spent most of their time together trying to turn her back into a killer. Needless to say, when she found out he was actually her father she was panicked. She has spent many days wondering if she will end up like him. She doesn't consider him much of a family.
Other:
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Brief Sample Roleplay
Cassandra didn't spend all of her time being batgirl.... no she needed time to be out of that costume and out of the weight that it seemed to carry now a-days. Now that Bruce was gone and the Batman suit was empty... it was up to those with the guts to stand up to Gotham's psychopaths.
She noticed a crowd around the Tv's.... Superman coverage. No real surprise. With the death of Batman people needed hope. They needed to know that there was someone out there who could take it and get back up. Not that Batman couldn't but.... Superman wasn't quite as mortal as the rest of the world.
It had crossed her mind to send for Superman... or even Superboy. But Gotham wasn't the only city with its super-powered psychopaths. She knew full well that they'd only be able to come for maybe an evening. Help out with one skirmish but what then?
They'd be alone again. It was better to save that calvary until it was necessary. Perhaps if she were truly dying she'd give conner a call and ask him over... but until then she would continue with her burden. Yes... hers. Robin held it close but he didn't wear the symbol like she did... like Babs had. He held his own sway but that symbol brought more anger or doubt nowadays than his.
She saw a young man... muscles tensing and the next moment his hand went flying through the window. His body ebbed with anger. Others ran... but her chest felt a little bit heavier and she rushed forward, grabbing hold of the hand he'd sent through the window to check the damage to him first.
"Angry?" She didn't need to ask.... but it was sort of a nice way of demanding an explanation.
