application for lastvoyages

[demigoddess]

User Name/Nick: Ivy
User DW: whitediamonds
AIM/IM: AIM: hpfreakir; Plurk: milordivy
E-mail: dumbledored@gmail.com
Other Characters: None

Character Name: Cassandra "Cassie" Elizabeth Sandsmark
Series: DC Comics
Age: 18
From When?: Post Teen Titans #100, before the reboot.

Inmate/Warden: Warden. Cassie is a bona fide hero. Wonder Girl may not be a household name, but the blond has definitely left her mark on the world as part of one of the most high profile superhero teams in the world, the Teen TItans. She has proven herself to be a woman capable of taking charge and leading the team to victory. The ride has been by no means easy for the young demigoddess and she's made the wrong choice more than a few times, but she continues to strive on, learning from her mistakes and never conceding to defeat no matter how much the odds are stacked against her or her team.

She's a warrior with a huge heart, and is shown to be a good listener and compassionate friend. As the type of person who has always needed to talk about her worries, problems or doubts to feel better, Cassie would encourage her inmate to do the same and listen to them with open ears. For the most part she is someone people can come to rely on and trust fairly easily, in large part it's due to her ability to open up and be honest. Depending on her inmate, Cassie could have an easy or difficult time as a warden, but the last thing she would do in either situation is give up. If her inmate did something that deserved a punishment, she wouldn't be shy about stating her opinion or thinking of the most creative punishment possible to fit the crime. This is not to say that she will jump at every opportunity to punish her inmate, just that she will do her best to make sure they learn from their mistakes and not repeat them.

Even more than her ability to keep a hothead in line (most of the time) Cassie is genuinely eager to learn from her new job as warden. Not only would it most certainly help her become a better hero and leader, but hopefully provide her with a little insight to the criminal mind as well. Her own reasons for making the deal with the Admiral will still come second to helping her inmate graduate.

Item: The large, red star earrings she is almost always seen wearing

Abilities/Powers: Cassandra spent most of her career using borrowed power, first from Zeus then from Ares, it wasn't until recently that she awakened her own latent demigoddess power inherited from her dad, Zeus's genes. Being half Olympian, she is capable of withstanding extreme blunt force and long drops, and while she may have the endurance of at least twenty men, and heal rapidly, she is by no means invulnerable.

Cassie possesses super human strength and can lift well over a hundred tons without causing harm to herself. As of now the limit to her strength is unknown, but she seems to be growing stronger, and stronger. She also has the ability to travel at super sonic speed, she's no Kid Flash or Wonder Woman, but she only has room to grow stronger. Cassie has superhuman reflexes to boot and can easily deflect bullets with her bracelets or catch them. Last, but certainly not least, Cassie can also fly at will and is immune to the effects of changing elevation.

In addition to her superhuman abilities, Cassie is a warrior trained by the Amazons themselves and she is more than adept at hand to hand combat.

Personality: In her relatively short career as Wonder Girl, Cassie has seen more suffering and death than most see in a lifetime. As a hero she is continually forced to grow and change, and for the most part it hasn't been easy. She has struggled time and again with finding herself and figuring out who she wants to be, and there were plenty of times she felt like giving up all together, but for each hardship she has faced, there has been an opportunity to find and reclaim her lost purpose. Whether it was through her own resilience or with the help of her friends, there was scarcely a time Cassie didn't manage to eventually find that which she had lost. The horrors Cassie's witnessed are innumerable, immeasurable and enough to make the strongest of wills crumble, and even though she's almost been there a few times, her spirit remains unmovable. Ask Ares.

Spending most of her life in the presence of brilliant, independent, and strong women, Cassie has never been short on role models. The three women who have helped mold her into the woman today are her mother, Helena Sandsmark, and the superheroes Wonder Woman and Donna Troy (the original Wonder Girl). To this day they remain Cassie's closest confidants. It wouldn't be a stretch to say some of her mom's brains rubbed off on her; the young blond has never had trouble academically and has always done very well, but she would rather use her brain power on the job, where the world could benefit from it the most. Though a lack of experience was always held against her, it wasn't long before she foiled her first villainous plot, it was the first day she met Wonder Woman. Forget that she was the cause of that particular debacle, she figured out what Wonder Woman and her mom couldn't. It was far from being the first time Cassie proved herself more than capable of quick thinking in life threatening situations, she has done it time and again. Intelligence, cleverness, and quick thinking couldn't make a hero alone, not by a long shot, steadfast determination can go a long way, and luckily CAssie has plenty of that.

Stubborn as they come, this young demigoddess has never been the type to roll over or back down. She is an independent, opinionated young woman with a strong moral sense, and she will always fight for what she believes to be right no matter the circumstance. Her mom couldn't stop her from becoming Wonder Woman's sidekick anymore than Wonder Woman could stop her from joining the Teen Titans. In those instances, Cassie had no trouble deciding what was right for her. Even when she faced off with herself from the future, twice, she couldn't be convinced the life she was leading in the future was anything but evil and didn't hesitate fighting to prevent it. Unfortunately there have been times when Cassie thought what was right for her, wasn't actually right for her, in those instances her steadfast determination became a double edged sword. When the love of her life, Superboy was killed, Cassie began spiraling downwards and very nearly lost sight of who she was. At that time all she wanted was Superboy back; she allowed herself to be brainwashed by a cult believing they were the key to successfully resurrecting him. Not only did Cassie lower herself to committing petty crimes, she became the muscle for the cult's psychotic leader. When the truth became clear to her she felt ashamed, and angrier than ever. She set off on a brief, and erratically violent solo spree, tracking down the Brotherhood of Evil, as she had convinced herself she was better off alone. Crossing paths with the Teen Titans during her pursuit of the Brotherhood, it wasn't long before she remembered how much she needed them, and how much better she worked on a team. It takes a certain maturity for anyone, let alone a teenager, to admit and learn from their mistakes, but Cassie does, and has been for years. Long before she turned eighteen, she demonstrated a level of maturity not often seen in her peers.

For a long time the only person Cassie really had in the world was her mom, and even if she didn't always show it, she has the utmost respect for the woman. They don't always see eye to eye and butt heads regularly, but the fact of the matter is, Cassie wouldn't be such a free thinking, independent, opinionated woman if her mom wasn't. She also wouldn't be such a mature young woman. As a hard working career mom, Helena worked a lot of late nights and out of town, but the time she wasn't working was spent with her daughter, Cassie even developed an interest in archeology and Greek Mythology as a result of being immersed in her mom's work. As much influence as her mom has had over her, the young demigoddess has described much of what she has learned as a process of trial and error, and it's not an exaggeration. Whether it was learning how to cook or use her powers Cassie taught herself many things, always appreciating the trust and freedom her mother would give her. Staying home alone was nothing compared to the feat of getting her mom to accept her as a super hero, but after that first adventure with Wonder Woman left her with a new found purpose and sense of responsibility, Cassie wouldn't stop fighting for what she wanted. Her mom, Diana, and Donna have all been impressed with the sense of responsibility Cassie exhibits. Of course, the thrill and adventure of being a hero has always been a huge draw for Cassie, but it's not as important as her responsibility to the world, and it certainly wasn't the thing that kept her from ever truly retiring.

Cassie has led both Young Justice and the Teen Titans in her four years as Wonder Girl. She made earning her teammates trust and respect a priority, and definitely demonstrated the skills that proved she was a capable leader. She made studying her team and learning how they best worked together a priority during both tenures, she even moved into Titans Tower to familiarize herself with and befriend a new team of Titans made up of teens who were relative strangers. In the end Cassie convinced herself she couldn't lead a team she didn't feel comfortable leading, but her teammates showed confidence in their leader when the veteran Beast Boy took it upon himself to take the mantle of leader from Cassie. Initially she allowed Beast Boy to take control, but with the voices of her teammates backing her up, quickly stepped up to challenge his authority, for she had been leading and studying the team for months. When her boyfriend, "returned from the dead," rejoined the team it didn't take long for Cassie, or Conner for that matter, to realize she couldn't separate their personal and professional relationships while leading the team. Though it was made clear she had resolved to end the relationship at least while leading the team, Conner beat her to the punch. But that was neither here nor there. It just was. When the previous Titan's leader, Tim Drake aka Red Robin, rejoined the team, she decided to step down from her leadership position in order to focus on Cassie Sandsmark. Tired of feeling as if she was only defined by others, she hasn't sought out to rekindle the flame with Conner aka Superboy, which considering how torn up she was about his death, was a big step for her. As mature as she is, Cassie has realized she still has a lot of growing to do.

Though she will never believe her emotions are a bad thing, there is such a thing as letting them take over, and as much as she loathes herself for it, she is prone to doing that. After losing Conner, Cassie had an extremely hard time not becoming defensive when criticized, and to make matters worse, she tended to take things a little too personally. Cassie herself has been responsible for causing some of the strain in her relationship with her mother, Diana, Tim, Supergirl and Superboy. Whether it is out of a misguided attempt to "fix" herself, or simply an inability to listen, Cassie has done some very teenage girl like things that she is not proud of. Like succumbing to jealousy to the point that she attacked Supergirl for being a pretty blond with Conner. At least, Cassie has the maturity to confront her mistakes and get over them for the most part. Even when trying to learn from her mistakes, this young blond has been known to take things a little too far. Sometimes she's really hard on herself. She blamed herself in part for Conner's death, and continually stopped herself from moving on out of guilt, even convincing herself she couldn't be friends with Supergirl or date Tim Drake. In a way, she started punishing herself by cutting Conner out of her personal affairs, but after being so wishy-washy with him, she didn't want to feel guilty for burdening him with her problems.

Try as she might, Cassie can't fight her personality. As cold of a warrior as she wishes she could be sometimes, she really can't help but wear her heart on her sleeve. Hiding her emotions has never been easy for her, in fact, most of the time it's impossible. Still, in realizing that kind of behavior wasn't necessarily a bad thing, Cassie has learned to tone it down, and be more patient before letting her emotions get the better of her. The anger that the god Ares so hoped she would embrace began to lose its grip over Cassie as she grew. Time has made her a little chillier, a lot smarter, and a little less trusting, but her spirit remains indomitable. Clearly it takes a lot more to battle with her compassionate and warm nature, but after realizing it has given her strength, it may now be impossible.

Cassie's in a happier place now than she has been in a long time, having Conner, Bart, and Tim back on the team has certainly helped in a great way. It has made the suffering and death all the more bearable, and most importantly it has helped give her the hope that in this miserable, evil infested universe anything, even getting loved ones back from the dead is possible. The young demigoddess is at a place in her life that making a deal with the Admiral to be a Warden on the Barge would be something that would greatly interest her. There would be no getting around the fact that being far away from earth could be a refreshing escape, but Cassie's interests in being on the Barge aren't so shallow. She has hopes of strengthening her leadership skills and gaining a better understanding of the criminal mind, and human being.


History: Wonder Girl's history on the DC wiki.

I prefer how her history is written HERE on comicvine.com, so I wanted to leave it for you to read anyway. The important headers are Origin and Major Story Arcs.

Special Notes: Cassie wields a golden lariat which was given to her by her brother Ares. It has the power of Zeus' lightning and was once powered by anger, however after her demigoddess awakening the properties of the lariat seem to have changed. Cassie even claimed the weapon as her own when she wrapped her nephew Lycus in it and made him disappear into a literal cloud of dust. Her lariat is more powerful than ever, but Cassie still has not found a way to channel the power that allowed her to banish Lycus a second time.