Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin
CASSIE HEATHER MCGREGOR-MARTIN |
she wasn't looking for a knight. she was looking for a sword... and maybe a whoopee cushion would be useful too.
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courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.
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a true friend is someone who thinks you're a good egg even though they know you're slightly cracked.
ROSELLA SOKOLOV A member of the International Student Squad and a close friend.
AYUMA KOBAYASHI
Cassie hasn't seen her in a while but still considers her a friend.
RAPHAEL AVELINE
Friend and fellow muggle sports fan, especially football.
SYLVIE EVERETT
A good friend, and just as bouncy as Cassie.
MAXIMILIEN DE FOSTONCY
Fairly good friends. Cassie's undecided whether 'Max' is a good nickname or not.
Lmk if you think your chara should be in the relationships bit! |
a storm was coming, but that's not what she felt. it was adventure on the wind and it shivered down her spine.
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Last edited by Lucia Fox on 12 Nov 2022, 09:49, edited 12 times in total.
│= | #00308F ency • cassie heather | =│ | breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out Part-Veela • Alluring • Perfectionist • Scream • Sta 9 • Eva 9 • Stre 4 • Wis 10 • Arc 8 • Acc 9 | │ |
Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin
TRUNK
ABILITIES
ReducioYear One | Sixth Sense | +2 awareness, 25% chance of detecting hidden entrants, charmer immunity
Cassie McGregor-Martin had always had a sort of sense for things.
This came in useful many times as a youngster - whether to run away when she heard an adult's soft footsteps about to catch her in some act of wrongdoing, or to realise at the last minute that a much-needed prop was absent from the stage during a play - and seemed to carry on into what she proudly named 'the years of double digits'.
Perhaps the most prominent, revealing, and - dare I say it - interesting of the times when Cassie seemed to notice something out of the ordinary was at school in Beauxbatons, at the age of twelve.
She was talking to one of her friends after both going home for the winter holidays - les vacances d’hiver, as it is in French - and the two had a perfectly normal conversation about what Cassie's holiday had been like. Cassie noticed that her friend did not share any details of her own weeks, but did not comment on it until she noticed that the other girl was not wearing a necklace which Cassie knew she never usually took off. It had been a family heirloom which the girl had been very proud of, and when Cassie questioned her over its absence her flash of insight was rewarded - her friend had fought with her parents over returning to school, and had been keeping it a secret. Without Cassie's sixth sense, it was unlikely the poor girl would ever have shared the burden of guilt she carried.
Cassie has never been particularly sure when it was that she started noticing things. An organiser by nature, she has been able to tell when something is missing ever since she was too young to remember - from the moment she cried for the teddy she didn't know had fallen out her cot at the tender age of one.
Though many might call the 'niggling feeling' in the back of Cassie's mind whenever she is sure something is wrong a 'nervous habit', or simply say that she is 'being overly anxious', Cassie is certain that she can trust the feeling to tell her when there is something out of place or even missing entirely.
She seems to be right as well - after all, her 'niggling feeling' - or, as some may call it, sixth sense - has never failed her yet.ReducioYear Two | Fearless | immunity to fear effects
Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin is, it may be said, fearless.
Of course, that is not really true - everyone has fears, and Cassie Heather would be the first to admit her own - but the young population of Paris seem to share a romantic streak, and bravery can often be mistranslated into fearlessness, whether as a result of jealousy, admiration, or even simple loyalty.
Cassie has always had those things she has been afraid of - desease, rejection and loneliness to name a few - but she also possesses the rare ability to contain these fears, and even face them head on if the need arises.
This courage is one of her biggest and most noticable personality traits, and enables her to do most of the things she enjoys, and a few that she does not. In fact, one of the first things you might notice upon meeting the only child of Pierre and Harriet is her outgoing personality: how she doesn't let the world stop her, no matter what. People can do what they like, Cassie often says, but so can I. This rather Gryffindor like world view mostly stems from her courage - and apparent fearlessness - which enables her to do just about anything and everything, from walking up to a random stranger and complimenting them on their new hat, to climbing on a broom and flying a course she has never seen before at a hundred miles an hour.
Perhaps the most notable of times when she swallowed fear and gained the lable of 'fearless' was the first time she ever tried broomracing.
Cassie Heather had seen from the moment she got onto a broom that she had a knack for flying, even on the rusty school brooms she had to deal with until her parents finally decided she could buy one, but when suddenly faced with obsticals the likes of which she had never seen before, she knew she had to try. The race that ensued was perhaps the most dangerous she has ever taken part in, to this day. All the first years were desperate to prove their worth as a broom racer, and it was a test of not just her sportsmanship but her courage as well. There were plenty of times during that race when she had the opertunity to give up, but Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin just couldn't. The blood was up, and she had gained a sense of adventure that would compell her to take the craziest risks, the strangest dares, the most impossible trials. This sense of adventure, and thrill of taking risks, she would never lose.ReducioYear Two | The Muggle Condition | +3 acc on non-magical actions
Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin was a muggle-born. Although it was hard to tell most people's blood statuses just from looking at them - unless they were haughty purebloods, it wasn't something people usually told others at first meeting - but it would only take a few conversations with Cassie for another to at least have the suspicion. Whether it was her constant grumbles about learning some 'stupid' spells ("When am I ever going to need to turn a flowerpot into a bird in real life?!"), her undisguised amazement whenever she encountered something magical she'd never seen before ("Hold up! You mean dragons actually exist?!"), or simply her confused expression when someone dropped a word she'd never heard before into a conversation ("Sorry, what? What's a 'bowtruckle'?"), everyone would understand sooner or later. Cassie didn't mind. In fact, Cassie Heather was quite proud of her heritage. She was proud of her parents, and she liked being different. It was annoying, sometimes, sure - like when she had to pay extra attention to some lessons because she was missing information that wizarding-born children would have - but she was proud.
Cassie Heather had only been at Beauxbatons for a few weeks when an older student laughed at her failed (and quite pathetic, really) attempt at a charm, calling her a 'mudblood'. This word was new to her, and when Cassie enquired as to its meaning (with flushed cheeks, as she was sure from the tone that it wasn't anything good), she was told mockingly that it was 'a word to describe people like you, who don't deserve what they've been given'. This explanation did not bode well for Cassie, so she next asked one of her friends what the word meant. Needless to say, she received a fuller and more sympathetic definition this time. The next day, she decided that revenge was necessary. She took a Muggle pen, poked a hole in it with the sharp end of her (also Muggle) compass, and dropped it into the older student's bag. The ink leaked everywhere and covered all of his school books, completely drenching them with black. Although the student could never prove it, he knew it was Cassie, and never called her a 'mudblood' again.
After that incident, Cassie decided two things.
Firstly, that the word 'mudblood' would no longer be an insult to her. She would take it just as she would take any other meaningless comment on her appearance or possessions - with indifference and the knowledge that whoever spoke it was not worth her time. There were just three things which Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin could not stand being insulted about, and her blood status would not be one of them. She would stand strong, just as he parents always told her to.
Secondly, Cassie made up her mind to be as 'obviously muggleborn' as she could be. Her 'skill' with just about any spell or charm other than counter-spells was essentially non-existant (or, at least, that was how Cassie viewed it: a 'spell' only ever seemed to work for her when she did it accidentally) and she vowed to rely on her magical power as little as she could. After all, she'd managed it for this long, hadn't she? She signed up for broomracing and then quidditch, both of which were games of physical and mental prowess rather than magical. She used a pen instead of a quill whenever she could get away with it. Once, she even asked her parents to send her an old travel CD player so that she and her friends could take it apart and she could show them what a 'battery' was.
All this, just to be different. Cassie Heather sure had a long journey ahead of her if she was going to make her idea of 'different' acceptable in everyone else's eyes.ReducioYear Four | Impartial | immunity to aesthetic effects
Whenever Cassie met people who went to a wizarding school other than Beauxbatons, she noticed that they all seemed to share the same misconceptions about her school. Beauxbatons was painted as a school for the elite, where every student was graceful, pretty, and polite. That wasn't true! Or was it? Because, as much as Cassie didn't want to admit it, there were a lot of pretty people at Beauxbatons. Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe it was because of the reputation the school had accidentally built up. Maybe it was because Beauxbatons students were encouraged to take pride in their appearance and none of the other schools really cared that much.
Either way, Cassie enjoyed subverting people's expectations. She herself was entirely average in the looks department, and - just as she was told to do - took pride in that. Makeup was itchy so she never wore it. Skirts were impractical so she never wore them. In fact, Cassie's fashion sense only went as far as finding the funniest thing written on a t-shirt and wearing the same pair of jeans multiple days in a row.
It was probably because of this lack of care over her own looks that Cassie found it difficult to categorise other people's. Of course, there were some people who fell squarely into the categories of either beautiful or ugly. A vague standard of prettiness was something that everyone learnt as a child - it was engraved into you as you grew up that some people were pretty, and some people were not. But most people, in Cassie's experience, lay in between. And even for those who fit into their boxes, that didn't mean anything to Cassie. Why should a person's appearance change your perception of them, when it's what's on the inside that matters?
Love was another thing that Cassie found confusing. She had friends who crushed on celebrities, or on people who they'd seen in the corridor but never spoken to. Cassie, though, didn't understand how you could just look at someone and decide that they were 'hot', and see them as a possible romantic partner. It was all a bit silly. How did facial symmetry and a particular type of hair make a person desirable? Sometimes, Cassie would find herself stuck on the outside while her friends had conversations about the people they crushed on, or how hot the new kid was. She didn't entirely mind this - after all, she was clearly correct in not judging people by appearances - but sometimes ended up wondering why it happened. Was crushing as much of a big deal as some people made it out to be? Did your appearance really matter? What-
But then she would force herself to stop. There was no point going down a rabbit hole of trying to work out the reasons behind her classmates' actions. Maybe people could be pretty, but they were never attractive to Cassie. She was just impartial to all that nonsense.ReducioYear Five | Obnoxiously Strong | +15% strength
In Cassie's very-almost-fifteen years on this Earth, she had gained a certain wisdom: people, it turns out, can be very strange. Raphael Aveline, aka the quiet kid on the broomracing team, was one of those people, and it surprised Cassie just how well they got along. Usually, the girl tended to surround herself with people like her: namely, people who talk a lot. But she'd started hanging out with Raphael what seemed like years ago, and somehow her own chatter combined with his lack of it produced a comfortable middle ground. And anyway, there wasn't much time to talk when you were racing 50 feet in the air, or listening to football commentary on the radio, or lining up to take the perfect shot.
Raphael and Cassie had initially bonded over a shared interest: sport. Cassie hadn't really expected them to have anything else in common, but as time went on she found herself doing more and more things with Raphael. They weren't best friends by any sense of the word, but they had a sort of camaraderie that came from spending unimportant moments together. Eating lunch. Class projects. And, in the last year or so, working out.
It had been Raphael's idea, of course. Cassie had always thought of working out as incredibly boring, but when Raphael brought a stupid amount of weight-training equipment with him to Beauxbatons and declared that he needed to be stronger to be a better broomracer, Cassie wasn't going to let him beat her. They may be friends, but that didn't mean that Cassie was okay with the boy thrashing her in every broom race just because he'd put the effort in to get some muscles. So, Cassie had joined him in his quest for strength, and it really wasn't as boring as she'd expected. Not only was it fun working out with a friend, but she and Raphael managed to find ways to mix it up beyond what you'd find at a regular Muggle gym.
Weight-lifting looked boring when Cassie saw it on the TV, but adding a sense of competition to it made Cassie far more excited to keep trying more, and more, and more. Whether Raphael was interested in beating Cassie was debatable, but Cassie was certainly interested in beating him, and even if she couldn't feel the benefits of such work straight away, over time she couldn't help but notice the muscles that were slowly making their appearance whenever she looked in the mirror.
And it wasn't just weights. Pull-ups were something that Cassie had always thought looked fun, but she had never really been sure how you were supposed to do them. They looked very serious when all the practise you had was monkey bars at primary school. Luckily for Cassie, Raphael didn't really know what he was doing either, which made it easier for her to just have a go and see what happened. Still, regular pullups were fun, but what was more exciting was pullups in unexpected places. Doorframes, her broom, even the quidditch hoops, all bars became equipment in Cassie's eyes. And the thrill of drangling so far up you'd break both your legs if you fell only added to Cassie's enjoyment (although she and Raphael did suspend a bedsheet beneath them between their brooms, so they didn't actually crash down to earth when they fell).
Raphael and Cassie tried out and practised plenty of other excerises too, and Cassie had to admit that she hadn't thought many of them were possible without access to the sort of sym equipment that required electricity. She was a sporty sort of girl, yes, but her sports had always been limited to football, broomracing, and quidditch. Working out was something new to her, and she'd always assumed that you needed a gym membership to get started. But that wasn't true at all. Thick elastic bands - the proper name for them was 'resistance bands', but whenever she used them Cassie had to fight the urge to just flick them at Raphael like an elastic band at school - could do pretty much everything that a machine could in Cassie's eyes, and even in the magical halls of Beauxbatons Cassie was able to get fitter, and stronger.
The change was more noticable to other people than to Cassie herself. Even when she went home for Christmas, her relatives were amazed at how different she looked, but Cassie passed it off as the normal sort of "haven't you grown?" that she faced every time she returned home. She doubted that her strength had increased as rapidly as her parents and grandparents thought it had, but it had definitely increased. The weights she lifted got heavier. She could do more and more reps. And, slowly but surely, her strength became obvious. And it was all thanks, surprisingly enough, to the quiet boy from the broomracing team.