New Player Character: Cassandra Sugarbaker
Cassandra Sugarbaker, original character based on Highlander
Full Name: Cassandra Sugarbaker
Age: Mid-to-late 20s (apparently; in truth, almost 500--496 to be exact)
Hair: Dark brown, almost black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 150
Occupation: Varies; currently wandering thru time and space
Race/Special Abilities: Human, Highlander-type Immortal (nuff said for this crowd). Speaks a lot of languages, can blend into most cultures very easily. Very skilled with swords, knives, handguns, unarmed combat.
Not-So-Brief Biography: Cassandra was born in England nearly 500 years ago and lived an unremarkable life in a small village until she was killed by her husband, who believed (wrongly) that she was cuckolding him. She woke up in the middle of her own wake, which went about as well as one might expect given the times. She fled and wandered for a few months with no idea of her true situation until she ran into Xavier St. Cloud, who took her under his wing.
St. Cloud trained Cassandra to be a formidable player of the Game. His teaching techniques were brutal but effective and Cassandra adopted his approach to Immortality. She actively hunted other Immortals for a couple of centuries before she lost her taste for it. Xavier never did, of course. But he did change. Xavier had always drawn a tight circle. Those within it were his friends and could trust him with their lives; everyone else was fair game. But as the centuries passed that circle grew ever smaller.
Xavier's last visit to her home in Atlanta had revealed to her just how much he had changed. He'd lost his hand since Cassandra had last seen him a decade earlier, but that was only temporary. It had been almost like old times until he'd started telling her about the Watchers. Cassandra had been surprised, then angry, and finally amused to learn that a group of mortals had known about the immortals for centuries, if not millennia, and had been tracking and observing them for all that time. She found it hard to credit the idea that such an organization could have existed for so long without being discovered earlier. Then Xavier had explained that he was telling her about them because of the Hunters--renegade Watchers who killed immortals.
Cassandra had long heard rumors that Xavier used poison gas, killing indiscriminately in pursuit of his goals. She'd heard--but refused to believe them. That night Xavier had confirmed them. That shock was bad enough, but it was nothing compared to his revelation that he'd joined forces with the Hunters. The memory of her appalled silence as Xavier boasted of taking the heads of men and women gunned down by mortal killers still haunted her.
She could still see him standing by the fireplace in her parlor, while she sat on the sofa watching and listening. Eyes bright with hatred for Mcleod, drunk on the wine they'd shared that night, Xaver had spoken openly for the first time in years.
"It's something of an unholy alliance," Xavier had told her in that cultured voice of his, "and it can't last. Horton trusts me no more than I trust him, and no doubt intends to betray me the moment it becomes convenient. However, he will still be waiting for the right moment when he becomes expendable."
"How can you be so sure of that?" Cassandra had asked.
Xavier smiled rakishly. "Force of habit," he'd said.
Cassandra had accepted that answer as if it had satisfied her, though the question uppermost in her mind was how the honorable man who'd found and trained her had become the unprincipled killer she saw now. Had he truly changed so much? Or had the flaw in his soul been there all along and she'd simply been too blind to see it? Whatever the source of the change, it was irreparable. The man she'd known and loved like a father for centuries was already gone; this man was a stranger, and not one she really cared to know. Perhaps Xavier had seen that knowledge in her face. He'd retired to his room shortly thereafter and was gone the next morning.
Cassandra didn't hear from Xavier again. When Jonathan Higgins* phoned from Hawaii a few months later to tell her of Xavier's death she was saddened but not surprised...and though she grieved for Xavier, it was as much for the man he had been centuries ago as for his death. When she heard, later, that Morgan D'Estaing had died trying to kill Duncan MacLeod it left her even more puzzled. She'd never liked Morgan, fellow student of Xavier's and line-brother though he was. That he felt obligated to avenge their teacher had surprised her. That he would try to use poison, didn't. That sort of twisted loyalty was no less than she'd expect of someone Xavier had mentored toward the end of his life.
Xavier St. Cloud's end only confirmed for Cassandra that her decision to stop pursuing the Game was the right one. She didn't know exactly when or how Xavier had changed, but it horrified her to think that she could become the same sort of person. She had long since ceased actively hunting, but she needed something more to do. Some positive goal. She found it in the form of a student, a young woman named Molly desperately in need of a mentor.
Benny Carbasa was in no position to teach a new immortal. He was barely able to keep his own head, and did so mainly by knowing when to fast-talk someone and when to run away. Benny was cunning enough, however, to see that Cassandra was just who Molly needed, and that Molly was just the sort of project Cassandra needed. As the game starts, Cassandra is at loose ends, having just pushed Molly out of the nest after a ten year apprenticeship....
*Yes, Jonathan Higgins from Magnum, P.I.. Not that it matters for the game, but in my little corner of fandom, "Robin Masters, romance novelist" is actually Xavier St. Cloud. Why did Xavier St. Cloud write romance novels under a nome de plume? Because it amused him to do so.
Cassandra will be dropping into the game shortly, in the company of Chloe Sullivan and a couple of other faces you may recognize.
Full Name: Cassandra Sugarbaker
Age: Mid-to-late 20s (apparently; in truth, almost 500--496 to be exact)
Hair: Dark brown, almost black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 150
Occupation: Varies; currently wandering thru time and space
Race/Special Abilities: Human, Highlander-type Immortal (nuff said for this crowd). Speaks a lot of languages, can blend into most cultures very easily. Very skilled with swords, knives, handguns, unarmed combat.
Not-So-Brief Biography: Cassandra was born in England nearly 500 years ago and lived an unremarkable life in a small village until she was killed by her husband, who believed (wrongly) that she was cuckolding him. She woke up in the middle of her own wake, which went about as well as one might expect given the times. She fled and wandered for a few months with no idea of her true situation until she ran into Xavier St. Cloud, who took her under his wing.
St. Cloud trained Cassandra to be a formidable player of the Game. His teaching techniques were brutal but effective and Cassandra adopted his approach to Immortality. She actively hunted other Immortals for a couple of centuries before she lost her taste for it. Xavier never did, of course. But he did change. Xavier had always drawn a tight circle. Those within it were his friends and could trust him with their lives; everyone else was fair game. But as the centuries passed that circle grew ever smaller.
Xavier's last visit to her home in Atlanta had revealed to her just how much he had changed. He'd lost his hand since Cassandra had last seen him a decade earlier, but that was only temporary. It had been almost like old times until he'd started telling her about the Watchers. Cassandra had been surprised, then angry, and finally amused to learn that a group of mortals had known about the immortals for centuries, if not millennia, and had been tracking and observing them for all that time. She found it hard to credit the idea that such an organization could have existed for so long without being discovered earlier. Then Xavier had explained that he was telling her about them because of the Hunters--renegade Watchers who killed immortals.
Cassandra had long heard rumors that Xavier used poison gas, killing indiscriminately in pursuit of his goals. She'd heard--but refused to believe them. That night Xavier had confirmed them. That shock was bad enough, but it was nothing compared to his revelation that he'd joined forces with the Hunters. The memory of her appalled silence as Xavier boasted of taking the heads of men and women gunned down by mortal killers still haunted her.
She could still see him standing by the fireplace in her parlor, while she sat on the sofa watching and listening. Eyes bright with hatred for Mcleod, drunk on the wine they'd shared that night, Xaver had spoken openly for the first time in years.
"It's something of an unholy alliance," Xavier had told her in that cultured voice of his, "and it can't last. Horton trusts me no more than I trust him, and no doubt intends to betray me the moment it becomes convenient. However, he will still be waiting for the right moment when he becomes expendable."
"How can you be so sure of that?" Cassandra had asked.
Xavier smiled rakishly. "Force of habit," he'd said.
Cassandra had accepted that answer as if it had satisfied her, though the question uppermost in her mind was how the honorable man who'd found and trained her had become the unprincipled killer she saw now. Had he truly changed so much? Or had the flaw in his soul been there all along and she'd simply been too blind to see it? Whatever the source of the change, it was irreparable. The man she'd known and loved like a father for centuries was already gone; this man was a stranger, and not one she really cared to know. Perhaps Xavier had seen that knowledge in her face. He'd retired to his room shortly thereafter and was gone the next morning.
Cassandra didn't hear from Xavier again. When Jonathan Higgins* phoned from Hawaii a few months later to tell her of Xavier's death she was saddened but not surprised...and though she grieved for Xavier, it was as much for the man he had been centuries ago as for his death. When she heard, later, that Morgan D'Estaing had died trying to kill Duncan MacLeod it left her even more puzzled. She'd never liked Morgan, fellow student of Xavier's and line-brother though he was. That he felt obligated to avenge their teacher had surprised her. That he would try to use poison, didn't. That sort of twisted loyalty was no less than she'd expect of someone Xavier had mentored toward the end of his life.
Xavier St. Cloud's end only confirmed for Cassandra that her decision to stop pursuing the Game was the right one. She didn't know exactly when or how Xavier had changed, but it horrified her to think that she could become the same sort of person. She had long since ceased actively hunting, but she needed something more to do. Some positive goal. She found it in the form of a student, a young woman named Molly desperately in need of a mentor.
Benny Carbasa was in no position to teach a new immortal. He was barely able to keep his own head, and did so mainly by knowing when to fast-talk someone and when to run away. Benny was cunning enough, however, to see that Cassandra was just who Molly needed, and that Molly was just the sort of project Cassandra needed. As the game starts, Cassandra is at loose ends, having just pushed Molly out of the nest after a ten year apprenticeship....
*Yes, Jonathan Higgins from Magnum, P.I.. Not that it matters for the game, but in my little corner of fandom, "Robin Masters, romance novelist" is actually Xavier St. Cloud. Why did Xavier St. Cloud write romance novels under a nome de plume? Because it amused him to do so.
Cassandra will be dropping into the game shortly, in the company of Chloe Sullivan and a couple of other faces you may recognize.