Orion Sharkfin
Water Blast
Advanced Targeting Hud (Scanner Provided)
Enhanced sense of smell
From the Character Pilot: Orion Sharkfin, or Cassie, is pretty much an experiment of a character that I just ended up loving way too much and a test on what I could achieve attempting to create as close to a shark-anthro character as possible given the limitations of the game's character creator. The whole concept around this character is not too different from my other characters that are shark-themed--it is an attempt to adapt my shark anthro characters in this game, giving them basic backstories that involved some accident that caused a genetic and physical mutation, and from there they gained their various different powers. For this character in particular, she is not created because of her powers but rather her entire theme, identity, and mannerisms were formed before the powers became a consideration. She is portrayed as a minor online personality that obtained powers and uses them for good.
Borrowing a concept from a beloved Virtue player-character, Orion has her own elevator pitch--described as the presentation of an idea in a summarized fashion that could be shared in the amount of time it takes to ride an elevator. For Orion: imagine if a younger Aquaman hung out with Rick Sanchez and performed the same experiment that made Barry Allen become the Flash and she learned how to use her powers like a Waterbender from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Background
Background
Cassie Brennar was a quick-witted, bright student of Paragon University that earned her degree in Marine Biology with honors. She joined a global conservation effort protecting sharks in their natural habitat along with a few friends after college and once she got back home to Paragon City she began a short but largely lucrative career in internet streaming. As part of a side-hobby, she worked as an apprentice to a man many would consider to be considered a mad scientist who specialized in gene splicing. Despite knowing better, Cassie had taken one night to learn the intricacies of his experiments. Forgetting that she was also carrying a collection of shark skin samples for one of her research projects, when one of the experiments went haywire it caused a catastrophic explosion with her trapped inside. She wasn't found in the rescue efforts so it was largely assumed that she had perished in the accident.
A few months later, she reappeared in Paragon City completely changed, helping a group of heroes overcome a terrifying sea monster in Independence Port. It seemed that her whole appearance had physically mutated, and she had gained the power to harness and manipulate water as well as control over marine life. She had officially taken under her online moniker as her name.
The story of what actually happened that night of the accident is, naturally, far more complicated.
Cassie had always felt as though she were a stranger in her own body. She was born male, and when she gathered up the courage and became old enough to truly express how she felt, to her shock her parents supported her every step of the way. She underwent her transition at the age of 17 with their support, and became Cassie. This was just in time for her to leave home for college, and she had a great time learning things about the world and being around extraordinary beings. After she graduated she dedicated her life to marine biology and the conservation of sharks, but met an eccentric young man named Diego Kraz--who was studying meta biology at Paragon University. When Cassie had heard Diego was pursuing experimentation on gene splicing, she approached him with a request to join and help him as an unpaid intern.
She had an ulterior motive, however--she wanted to utilize Diego's research and findings to try and see if she could splice herself into something different. She wanted to become a meta-human, herself.
After spending enough time learning the intricacies of Diego's experiments, Cassie was finally alone one night for her to attempt to splice genes by herself, but a component failure with one of the machines caused the whole lab to explode with her still in it. With the skin samples she was already experimenting on, Cassie was caught in the blast and thrown into the bay next to the lab. Her body followed the flow of water and she eventually drifted out to sea.
During this time her body was undergoing extreme metabolic and genetic changes. By the time she woke up, she was alone and drifting in the middle of the ocean. She figured she had woken up in a nightmare scenario until she discovered her uncanny ability to swim and breathe underwater for long periods. Not much is known about her time out by herself, but she had received some form of training from some individual that took her in when she traveled to the depths to explore. This allowed her to master her ability to harness water as an element. The rest of her story was as described--she came back to Paragon after several months out at sea and took on her online persona as her superheroic identity.
Appearance
Appearance
While Cassie Brennar was formerly a Caucasian human, the accident seemed to have mutated her physical appearance by fusing her with the DNA within the shark samples she was carrying to an even greater degree than, say, Static Shark--a superhero who was a colleague and who also, coincidentally, was involved in an accident in which their body was mutated to a lesser degree to take on the partial appearance of a shark. Her skin was changed to be more gray and feel almost sandpaper-like to the touch. The biggest, noticeable change of her appearance was the presence of an elongated snout where her nose and mouth used to be, and curling her lips open reveals sharp, razor-like teeth. She also possesses a set of gills that are on both sides of her ribs, underneath her breasts, which enable her to breathe underwater for extraordinarily long periods of time. Otherwise, her body is humanoid--without there being any otherwise anthropomorphized characteristics, such as there being a lack of animalistic legs, a tail, or claws.
Personality
Personality
Some might assume that she would behave like a Coralax due to her appearance, but despite undergoing the physical changes as a result of her mutation Cassie is an otherwise upbeat, carefree, and easygoing person who's oddly sociable and outgoing. While her morality might be questionable when it comes to problem-solving, she does what she does out of compassion for other people. She does, however, tend to get carried away when dealing with people of ill repute--often being brash and upfront.
Powers
Powers
Orion has the ability to control and manipulate water through the relaxed but complex motions of Tai Chi; she is capable of utilizing the natural moisture in the air and in her body to generate streams of water that she can then use to defend herself against foes, and support and restore vitality in her allies. This ability is further amplified if she is near any source of water--be it streams, puddles, ponds, fountains, rivers, or an entire lake.
She has further telepathic control over sea creatures, but is not capable of bringing them on-land. She, instead, is able to manifest and project liquid forms of aquatic wildlife when she forms condensed pools of water. These aquatic projections completely emulate their real counterparts--a piranha bites just as hard, a shark can be just as voracious, and schools of big fish can cause blunt force trauma if directed properly.
She uses these powers defensively, using them to misdirect oncoming blows and to avoid being struck. A wall of liquid is capable of either slowing down or completely stopping bullets depending on how deep the wall's structure is formed. She is also able to use her formed streams to heal injuries--she is, however, unable to restore someone from near-death.
Costume
Costume
Cassie is a big fan of the classics--At its base, her costume is just a full spandex body sleeve with a leotard worn on top of it. The bodysleeve comes in two portions for her upper and lower body, separately. The rest of her costume is considered optional but picked mainly for aesthetic reasons; she wears gloves that have angled fins designed into them, a set of shoulderpads that offer some protection, and a pair of thigh-high boots with tall heels. She also wears a cape by choice. Variations include wearing just the leotard itself, while wearing the boots, and while wearing a cape.
As part of her costume she's always seen wearing a wide-band scanner across her face and what looks like a cybernetic jaw that is actually just an elaborate, cosmetic piece of her mask strapped just underneath her chin. The scanner does not serve much of a purpose beyond just giving her different levels of tech-enhanced vision--what is essentially a set of consumer-grade infrared, thermal, and night vision glasses allowing her to see across all spectrum. The scanner does not serve any practical purpose beyond this.
Affiliations
Affiliations
Allies
Cassie is close friends with the person behind Static Shark, a fellow shark conservationist named Jaden Osiris. They both took up mantles to help protect and defend the weak and partner up in many different missions across the city. While they are not the only individuals who each have had accidents that mutated them into walking sharks, the two share a common bond by working on the same research teams and working on the same projects since college. Cassie has also dated Jaden for a period of time but they have since split up while remaining friends.
Enemies
The People In Between
As described by Orion, a rather troublesome individual--a hellspawn that was summoned to perform a dark rite but ended up not doing so out of boredom. Jaadeni walks a very fine line between good and bad, usually finding herself in fights against heroes and vigilantes just for the simple fact that her idea of "helping" usually ends up putting people in hospitals, or worse. Orion has had to try to help put a stop to her antics quite a bit to the point that Jaadeni has leveled an unhealthy obsession towards her.
Orion isn't sure what to think of this one--whenever they meet, it seems the star-spangled Eagle does more harm than good. The vigilante named New Glory dealt personal justice to the mean streets of Paragon City in a way that Orion just couldn't abide by--by lethally fighting her foes and putting them in the ground with ruthless efficiency. They ran into a disagreement when Orion put herself in between New Glory and a group of incapacitated criminals that needed to be brought in for questioning.
Notes
Notes
Cassie was born male and transitioned at the age of 17 with parental support. She accepted very early on in her adolescence that she didn't feel comfortable in her own body, which made the decision all too easy to make after she had explained it to her parents. Several years of "getting comfortable" were spent being tormented by other kids for simply being different. After she had gone through with her transition she had finally felt as though she were home.
Cassie listened to a lot of music when growing up but resonated more with Trance, Hardstyle, and Power Metal in particular.
Even from an early age Cassie had always been fascinated with sharks and made it a life's goal to work around them.
Cassie will play anything and everything under the sun that she can get her hands on.
Stories
This section is intended to be filled out with Wiki articles of fiction surrounding Orion Sharkfin.
OOC Information
Orion Sharkfin is an online moniker, not necessarily a superhero name. This character was originally meant to be used for the sake of making a tutorial video on how to make Influence when starting out as a fresh level 1 in City of Heroes. "After some days of farming they quickly and eventually became my best and most favorite concept." -@or10nsharkfin2
Orion is the first-ever character the player has ever hit Veteran Levels and filled out Incarnate slots with, cementing their place as the main toon of the player's two accounts.