Cassiopeia

[Full HTML maybe coming eventually]

Name: Cassiopeia

Nicknames: Cassio, Io

Pronouns: He/She/They/Xe

Gender: Genderfluid

Species: Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius)

Powers: can see the future (expanded on later)

Personality: Cassiopeia can seem very strange and detached. She will say and do things that seem very unusual and don't make much sense, yet seems to know everything. He's very reserved and quiet, and most of what he says appears almost to be some kind of riddle. Xe often seem to be zoning out, focusing on the horizon rather than what's in front of xem. If you try to get too friendly with them, they won't reciprocate and will do their best to push you away. But at the same time xe is somewhat protective of everyone and will warn you if danger is near, even if most people don't believe xem at first. This detachment comes from their powers; they've seen the deaths of everyone they loved and were powerless to prevent it. He doesn't want to face that again, so he distances himself from anyone who he might start to love. She isn't usually fully aware of her powers; of course, she knows she has them, but she sort of forgets that not everyone can see the future, so she'll make random comments about what's going to happen that other people don't understand. 

Full powers: Cassiopia's future-seeing powers come in two different varients. One is the near or less important future. He doesn't get any visions or prophecies; he just kind of knows. Things that are going to happen within hours or days (sometimes a few weeks if it's a big enough event), he just kind of knows they're going to happen, and will act and speak accordingly, even if others don't understand (although if it's a potentially dangerous situation of someone he's near, he'll warn them). For the far future, events that are months or years ahead and will have a huge impact on their life or the world, they must look to the stars. At night, when it's clear and the stars are shining brightly, she can see the future woven into the tangled thread of constellations every night. These constellations are not the same ones we see; Cassio sees different ones, stars that reflect xir future. Sometimes they even change, if an event passes or a new one lurks on the horizon. This is where she's seen the death of her mate, her chicks, and everyone she loved. Except for himself. For whatever reason, xe has  yet to see xir own death in the night sky. 

Sometimes, when looking at the constellations, they can go into almost a dream-like state if they fly too close to the stars. This is when she shifts into her starry form, and where she can see the snake (yet to be named) either in the air or on the ground. He is usually rude and bitter towards Cassiopeia, and xe's not sure why. But he's the only companion that Cassio is fairly certain won't die (at least until she does), so she clings onto the thin thread of hope that the snake won't die and maybe is there to be her friend. Yet almost every time he enters this phase, the snake bites him, "waking" him up. [This part is still being worked on.]

History: Cassiopeia was born into a normal secretary bird family, a nest high in the boughs of an acacia tree. However, as Cassio grew older, their parents began to sense something was amiss. He knew things he shouldn't and would sometimes speak almost in riddle and say things that no one understood. She could anticipate when crocodiles lurked in the watering hole before ever seeing it, or where prey would be most abundant. Xe always stayed up late, eyeing the stars at night, and would zone out during the daytime. One time, she started freaking out for a few days, blabbering about how her brother wouldn't be safe and wouldn't get away, and that he needed to be wary of lions because the stars were falling and it was coming and why wasn't he listening to her? While he and their parents were spooked, they didn't heed this warning very seriously, assuming that Cassio was crazy or something. A few days later, Cassio's brother was killed by a young lion. Cassio's parents were scared of Cassio's powers, but they decided to continue raising xem, because xe was still young.

Eventually, he grew old enough to leave, the echo of his parents' deaths ringing in the back of his mind, knowing he would be too far away to do anything. She wandered the savanna for a while, but saw the possibilities in the stars. He saw one mate he would have, but decided he would prove the stars wrong and find his own mate. So he did. They found a new mate named Soleil, who was loving and kind and caring and who they loved with all of their heart. And she loved xem too. They were mates for life, and soon Cassio's constellations of the other mate faded away. But soon they were replaced with new constellations. Constellations of Soleil's death. Cassio was able to ignore them, at first. They focused on the several clutches of chicks he had with Soleil. She saw the happiness and bright futures of each one. But at the end of the day, all xe could focus on was the new glittering tapestries in the sky, proclaiming the deaths of her beloved chicks.

The years went by, and the constellation only grew brighter. Cassio knew it was only months away. And they couldn't stand it. His mate would die a slow, painful death to a disease neither of them could prevent, and Cassio would be powerless to do anything but watch. So Cassio left. She abandoned her mate to face her fate alone, hoping that if she let go of her feelings, it wouldn't hurt when Soleil died. But it did. It still hurt. It hurt more knowing that xe'd been a coward and now xir mate was slowly dying, alone and afraid without anyone there to comfort her in her final days. When Cassio watched the constellation slip away, they cried. 

The night after that, the snake appeared. He didn't give his name or anything about him to Cassio. She called him Ink, and he didn't seem to particularly care. The first night, xe was unsure who he was or why he was there. Xe tried to ask questions, but he refused to answer. All Cassio knew is when the stars vanished, Ink did as well. As the days went on, Ink started appearing more and more frequently as Cassio looked at the stars, until he appeared nearly every time. Once, she tried to get someone else to see him, but he vanished before she could. And as the nights went on, Ink started to get more resentful and bitter of Cassio as they pushed away any chance of companionship from anyone else. Cassio got the sense that Ink was trying to tell him something, but he wasn't sure what. And he desperately wanted Ink to be his friend, seeing the snake as the only chance for a companion who wasn't doomed in the stars. But Ink seemed unwilling to grow close, eventually biting Cassio every night before the dawn came.

Cassio still looks at the stars, even as Ink continues to sink his venemous fangs into their feathers. Cassio still thinks of Soleil, and her chicks, and her parents, and her brother. All fated to die. Cassio still reads the web of constellations, hoping to see xir own end woven in their vast expanses. But they have yet to see it.