Cass

**Cassidy** is a member of the WDF, and the only one to actually be able to *defend*. She has a connection to the Absolute Solver for reasons still unknown to her. She can typically be found moving from outpost to outpost, checking in on the living conditions and wellbeing of her fellow worker drones. Semi-canonically married to Alyssa, and is old childhood friends with Dean.

## Personality

Cass is a calm individual, having a tendency to look at the bright side of anything. Silver lining is very important to her. She may not seem like it, but she takes her duty and job very seriously, unlike many of the other members of the WDF. She easily gets annoyed by them and likes to go on patrols by herself, knowing for a fact that they'll just slow her down and get on her nerves due to several years of prior experience.

She prefers to try and talk her way out of dangerous situations rather than fight. If push comes to shove however, she won't hesitate to unleash the ABS on anyone trying to hurt her or whoever she's trying to protect. As of yet, she hasn't killed any disassembly drones, but she's come very close. Most of the time she's able to scare them off without any issue.

Despite her slightly rough and somewhat intimidating exterior, she's extremely loyal and caring once you get to know her. The trick is approaching her.

## Backstory

Growing up, Cass was a very creative and ambitious kid, and spent most of her time drawing in the margins of her notebooks instead of paying attention in class, which drew the eye of a young Dean. After discovering they shared the same middle name, they basically bonded instantly and became close friends, often pretending they were siblings. They were inseperable. That is, until Cass's mother died unexpectedly due to a malware epidemic. Soon after her death, Cass and her father moved to a new colony. Despite their efforts to keep in touch, Dean and Cass eventually stopped communicating entirely.

A few years later, when Cass was around 15 or 16 years old, her colony underwent a brutal attack by a disassembly drone, and 15% of the outpost was wiped out. She only survived because her father sacrificed himself by driving the drone out of the colony. His death inspired her to follow in his footsteps, and she joined the WDF, vowing to protect not only her bunker, but any other worker drone she could. Her connection to the Solver first surfaced on her 7th journey to Outpost 19. She and the other five workers she was traveling with were attacked by another disassembly drone, and she lashed out unexpectedly after getting covered in oil. Startled, the unnamed drone left, and Cass was left to contemplate what just happened. She had seen this once before when she was much younger, from her mother, but aside from that she had no idea what it was.

After the outpost incident, she began to have the urge to consume oil, and despite her best efforts it was nearly impossible to resist. One night, she snuck out and found a recently killed worker husk and harvested what she could. She discovered that the strange ability that had appeared during the attack was fueled by it, and it scared her. Sure, this was helpful and *could* be a very useful defense against the murder drones, but it went against everything she and her father had stood for. What was she supposed to do? It was then she discovered the oil bugs. Small little machines built to break down old, discarded worker corpses and commonly seen as pests. No one would notice or care if she ate *them* instead. It of course still meant she was technically eating workers, but as long as she wasn't the one killing them, that was good enough for her. She began practicing her newfound abilities, honing her skills and testing her limits. Eventually, she became so attuned to the Solver that she felt confident enough to go on patrols by herself instead of relying on other WDF members to take the fall in the event of an attack.

Several years passed with nothing big happening, until one day when she came across a disassembly drone and worker drone wandering the wastes near her home colony. Approaching cautiously, she began telling the worker to move away and to let her handle this. Much to her surprise, he refused and instead moved *closer*. He said it was alright and everyone just needed to calm down, and reassured her that the disassembly drone (X) wasn't dangerous.

Cass scoffed at the idea, but lowered her weapons. She then realized that this new worker was Dean.

Wait, *Dean*? And a *murder drone*?

What the hell is going on here?

## Relationships

### Dean

Dean and Cass don't quite have the same dynamic as when they were kids, but they still get along just fine. Cass admires the fact that Dean was able to capture X in the first place, but was horrified to hear about what happened to Warren. They had both looked up to him as kids. Dean works alongside Cass, and now offers repairs to colonies they visit on occasion.

### Serial Designation X

Cass is generally distrusting of X, despite Dean's constant reassurance that he's basically harmless now. She doesn't like having a disassembly drone near any workers, no matter how passive they seem. Not that she has a problem with X himself, she thinks he's cool and a good fit for Dean, but she just does not like the fact he's literally capable of murdering an entire colony almost singlehandedly on a whim. Her suspicion is reasonable, but she kind of just wishes he was some normal guy. Sometimes. He's kind of helpful when it comes to learning how to defend against other disassembly drones better.

### Alyssa

Cass's semi-canon girlfriend/wife lmao- She tries her best to cheer Alyssa up when she can, be that with small gifts, random affection or just being nearby whenever Alyssa is having a bad day. Which, unfortunately, is rather often.

## Trivia

* Her middle name being Vincent was actually just a result of me forgetting that Dean's middle name was *also* Vincent, but I'm kind of glad I did as it provided a basis for them to have one of those silly kid friendships.
* Cass is deeply rooted in my theory on the Absolute Solver and its origins, and will likely change according to new lore updates as future episodes release.
* Originally, she was going to have a girlfriend, but then the Ulyssa divorce arc happened and I made a joke about her and Alyssa kissing and things got nuts lmao. Living for it tho, I love Calyssa absdiaysbhdjashdjbawhu
* In the Organic/Human AU, she owns 8 cats. She also likes dogs.
* Cass still enjoys drawing, she just doesn't have much time for it anymore.
* She can speak Spanish fluently as well as English.
* Her favorite song is *Americano* by Lady Gaga, and she also likes 40's music and Girl in Red.