 basics full name: Cassandra J. Clark nicknames: Cas DOB & Age: June 27, 1964 hometown: Stonington CT current location: Dobbs Ferry, New York occupation: SVU Detective AIM & JOURNAL: Cascatastrophe & ~casc random storylines Elias Joseph Strayer; is her 7 year old son, a creative and eccentric young fellow, who's favorite things include, glitter, lady gaga, buzz light year and dinosaurs, ninjas, and the movie "Night at the Museum" Elias is currently under joint custody between both his parents. He is spending most of his time with Cas, well, ~dabrowski the nanny, and is every so often usually without much of a heads up picked up by his Dad. ~strajo the still and apparently not exhusband. ~ranklin Cas' loving gay nephew who loves to pal around with her and Elias. ~dabrowski Andy is like her second son. They argue all the time, so it's really true. After having a fall out with his mother, he asked to crash with her for a weekend, and ended up living with her for a few months. They went through ups and downs moody teen moments, and moody mom moments, she's really grown attached to him, even when he's in a mood. It's good practice for when her son is a teenager. Andy has become Elias' nanny, so he's also playing the role of big brother to Elias, who couldn't be happier, and thinks Andy is a god on earth. ~dpt Delilah is a well minded young woman, who is close with Andy, and Elias is very close too, even claiming her as his girlfriend for a time. She's always offering really smart and collected cooking and fashion advice to Cas who needs it bad. Delilah may not know it but she is one a very few people who knows one of Cas' biggest and only secret ~billydonnelly The ex-boyfriend from before Elias and her quickie marriage. They were good together until she found out he had been taking money from drug busts, and the good cop standards in her made her end it after a pretty bad fight between the two, 7 years later, and they're friends again, and they both have kids. ~kaaaaate her political best friend and also one of the tassel siblings. She's smart, beautiful, and always has something interesting to say, and Cas loves to hear it, and just talk life and other things with her, in their secret world of custom posts. ~avivad Needless to say that Andy's mother and Cas do not get along. So much jealousy between the two, and a lot of arguments. They are not friends, Cas tries to be nice, but Aviva's sometimes abrasive demeanor really makes Cas react negatively. ~rushaian a good friend who loves to bring her food and she loves to bother, especially about his choice of a carer as a lawyer. ooc Reach me here |
On Cassandra's score card before even being able to talk or walk she was already down life:1 herself:0. This happened when an estimated 3-4 month old baby girl was abandoned at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Connecticut. This happened because as a young infant Cassandra (well at the time under a different name) had gotten infected with a really terrible case of pneumonia. She also, was the child of a young unwed mother, and her high school sweetheart, the two, had no money and no family support, the two were severely unprepared for parenthood, but they were not under any circumstances cruel or stupid, and they knew they had a very sick daughter on their hands. They could never pay a hospital bill, or for medication or a doctor's visit or anything, and with a rather brash act, her mother against all of her instincts made a really hard decision, and well she may not have handled it the right way, abandoning a baby in an ER hospital room, at three in the morning, with no name, information, or trace of anybody, doing that did save her life. Cassandra has never met or been able to locate her parents to this day, and is unaware of their attempts to locate her. Now, the hospital staff, from a relatively small town, where everybody knew everybody were completely baffled at the scene. Staring them in the face was a baby girl who seemed to be the child of a ghost, one nurse wanted to report the child to the police incase she had been kidnapped, which was probably a really smart idea, but it was the 60s, and somehow they managed to talk her out of it. One nurse, in particular, the first one who had seen the child in the room, Josephine Clark who had just turned 50 that year, had quite desperately wanted a child her entire life. Unfortunately, it was not a possibility for her, and she and her husband Edward Clark had spent much of their life disappointed. This had maybe been an act of fate or pure coincidence but once the baby girl was considered ready to leave the hospital, it was Josephine who came home and surprised her husband with a baby. To be quite honest, Edward Clark the banker was shocked, and very very very happy. Of course they didn't have a name for this child yet, and Elizabeth, Susan, Lisa, Catherine, Valerie, and Martha had all been heavily considered by her new 'adoptive' parents. It took them about four days to make a decision. Eventually the decision came to her mother, while she was at work one morning speaking to a little girl with a high fever, the little girl carried around a beautiful handmade doll and never let it out of her sight, when Josie asked her what the name of her doll was, she told her, "It wasn't a doll, it was a Grecian Goddess, and her name was Cassandra." The young girl told Josie the entire story of her doll how she had a magic power to see the future, and every time she would tell anybody what was going to happen nobody believed her, the girl paused "except me. I believe her." she clarified, Josie, being a great communicator with children smiled and responded "I believe her too." And she had suddenly become entirely fascinated with the doll, her name, and the story. When she came home that day, she announced excitedly that she knew what to name their daughter, Cassandra, Josephine after herself, and of course the surname of the family. The Clark household, was a dream come true, the best you could ask for, they weren't rich, but the weren't poor. Both her parents were loving, and really supportive. Josie was very progressive, taught her daughter that she was to always be treated equal to her male counter parts, even if she did attend a school that didn't let women wear pants. ETC, Jo, may have been ahead of her time, and Cassandra had mostly rolled her eyes at the lectures. It never really came to her until she was older. Both of her parents were really serious about health and fitness, they hardly ever let her have sugar, and especially not soda, it was for her own good as it is any child's. They also didn't let her wear make up, that was really her mom's rule, she'd always tell her, "you are so beautiful already" and other confidence boosting statements. Which really in her case had been true, Cassandra's biological parents may not have left her with much but they sure did give her a great set of genes. Cassandra's mom wasn't the only one who felt that way about her looks, boys she went to high school with, certainly did too. Even girls but the female reaction to someone who may seem threatening is to combat it with typical teenage girl cruelty. Some jealousy turned into a pretty negative hate streak, it had really been started by older girls who she didn't even know at time, but it stayed around for a few years threats, bullying, teasing, rumors etc. making things really quite difficult for her, until most of them finally graduated. She had a real on and off again relationship with a circle of female friends, they were really nice to her when they wanted her to talk to boys for them, but if she dared talked to them in class or try to sit with them at lunch it was like she was trying to cross the Berlin Wall or something. Luckily she had friends who were boys. One in particular, had been her best friend since the start of high school, admittedly he did have a crush on her but the feeling was mutual, it just never happened, you know how it goes. He was really sweet though he used to walk her home no matter the weather and he lived all the way on the other side of town and he would walk back alone. The two lost contact almost immediately after high school ended. (FUNNYS STORY THOUGH they reconnected a few months ago via facebook, turns out he is a cop too. What are the chances) During the last two years of high school for Cassandra her dad had become really ill with cancer, and her mom had been retired and trying to take care of him. It was a really depressing environment and because of this she kept most of the things that had been happening to her at school to herself. When she was a senior, full ready to get of high school for good, the you know cliche totally super popular handsome amazing football player jock guy that everyone loves totally rattled the grounds of their high school because beyond all belief he asked ~her (IKR? HER?). So of course she went with him, even if that meant totally breaking the heart of her best friend who asked her like a year ago. But they had always been each other's dates so it was something different. Going with Jockyjr was far from what it was cracked up to be, yeah something different alright, it may have gotten her the votes to win prom queen but that really means nothing to what happened after. You know the after part going home to meet the parents and take more pictures ETC, only his parents weren't home when they got there, and for some reason he wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, she didn't, actually she really wanted to go home, but when she asked, he just became violently angry and raped her, threatened her after. This had been her first sexual experience, in her lifetime, truly unfortunate, and not having any idea of what to do, and in no way in hell telling her parents what just happened or anybody ever for one she had been totally scared and completely humiliated all at once, and she wasn't sure but something must've been really wrong because she had never felt such persistent pain in her life. She couldn't go the hospital in town because her mom had worked there for 100 million years, so instead, she drove to one almost an hour out of town, which was a really big step for somebody, and once she was there she couldn't tell them who she was, she had to make it up, Emily Swenson was the name she used, the nurses there weren't dumb they could see there was a terrible problem, but they did believe her name was Emily, and Emily had been prodded by one nurse, practically pestered to 'fess up, and when she told her the whole story, everything, as much truth as she could get out, that nurse then went into the, well we have to call the cops-mode. Which in no way, was that going to happen, the cops would find out she lied about her name and then everything would be worse right? Would she be in trouble for that, maybe the would arrest her on the spot lying to nurses and doctors, and if she lied about her name, then she must've lied about all the other stuff, that's what they'd think, of course that's not true, but that was the exact thought that conjured up in her mind. But of course the nurse, made a judgement call and decided to call the cops anyway, seeing a battered, raped teenager really did change the mood of things. This scared Cassandra even more, and she pulled a move that many rape victims pull today, which putting on some clothes, any clothes they can find, and then bolting out the nearest exist. Which is exactly what she did, and she then hid in the back of her car all night, awake, concerned that she was in even more trouble for leaving the hospital like that. So that's when a pretty huge new chapter opened up in Cassandra's life. She didn't go back to school right away, in fact almost two weeks had passed before she had come together, she told her mom she was really sick, and her mom who was somewhat preoccupied with dying husband and never really took Cassandra for a liar, let her do her thing. When she did come back there had a full on choir of rumor after rumor, all of which were pretty bad and all contained something about sleeping with her prom date, which wasn't really true but since he got a 2 week head start she really couldn't see anyone believing the real story. Not that she had actually tried, which is something she still regrets. And at first, emotionally she thought she was okay, this thing must've happened all the time, it could have been normal, and she shouldn't have gone into his house, she could have called her mom to pick her up, etc, etc, excuses after excuses ran through her head. School ended before she hit a state of depression, and when her dad died in early June, she became so so so angry. Especially, when at her father's funeral he went up and hugged her mom and told her how sorry he was etc etc. Cassandra was so absolutely livid she didn't know what to do with herself. Frustrated she decided to leave CT, and enroll in summer classes at CUNY the basic general ed to get it over with, and get out of small town CT, even though her dad had just died and her mom had pretty strong objections to being left alone. But maybe in one of her most selfish acts ever decided she really actually committed and up and left. The next two years, were a scale of up and downs. Good times, bad times, okay times. Cassandra was in an environmental sorority. She crammed between 6 classes a semester once seven to get it over with, and worked at Macy's in their shoe department for a part time job. At first, she had no focus of study, but after taking a women in criminal justice elective, it distilled a pretty immense passion in her to look into criminal justice. It also really brought back her not so pleasant memories which then did cause her to become slightly obsessed with matters of sexual assault, she declared her major and then took the rest her classes at John Jay, graduated with her Associates degree, (only 2 years was what you need back then) she stayed through all her breaks, summer and winter, and her mom would drive up to see her, not really sure why she wouldn't ever come back home but she never mentioned it to her, just that she was really busy. Before she finished her two years, of college, Cassandra was pulled out of class to find out her mom had died. A mixture of pills and alcohol, which Cas had real objections to the findings since her mom did not drink nor have a problem with pills so clearly there was a mistake. But it was apparently the truth. Honestly she had debated even going back to her own mother's funeral but the ceremony was private and that was really the last time she ever went back. So no mom, and no dad, an associates degree, Cassandra didn't really know what to do with herself again, under the advisement of one of her very best friends and sorority sisters, she told her join the Peace Corp with me. So they did, of course they didn't end up in the same place, in fact Cassandra who could speak spanish, was sent to Costa Rica, and her best friend was in Indonesia, but it was okay, the Peace Corp was two years that really gave Cassandra time to reconnect with herself, life, what's going in the world, and how shocking it was to see such poverty and struggle it was really motivating to her. A great experience, and when she came home, back to New York City, full ready to take on the world, starting with the Police Academy of New York. Cassandra worked in Manhattan Patrol for 6 years, until she was promoted on merit, on something that really was a right place right time sort of situation. And being a woman didn't hurt but that implication she still highly resents. Her first place of detective recruitment, she picked, volunteered for very enthusiastically. The Special Victims Unit, the "do your two years and get out" unit, as it's nicknamed, maybe two years for them but she's been there for 16 years, had two partners, and two different bosses, and it's pretty well assumed she's going to be taking over the ranks when her captain retires. Cassandra has had very few boyfriends and full on relationships, she spent most of her life having a commitment to her job, and now to her son. But everything else takes a back seat, sometimes a few rows behind. She didn't have a boyfriend until she was 25 and seriously it lasted like 2 months. When she was 40 she started dating a man named Joseph Strayer, who was from a family of extraordinary wealth. Of course, go figure he would totally knock her up, and she would find out on their mini vacation to Hawaii. After much conversation and an argument about it, they thought the best decision for this was to just get married, there in Hawaii, no family no friends, in bathing suits just them in a Hawaiian ceremony they didn't understand. To be honest, it was the kind of situation she preferred she is not really a wedding person. So it seemed like it would be okay, but really, they didn't know each other that well, and Cassandra didn't tell anyone at work she was married of pregnant for a couple months after the fact. On the 29th of November in 2003, Elias Joseph Strayer was born, He was a few weeks early of course, but he did get his mom out of a court date so she knew right away everything was going to be perfect. At least with Elias they were. But things were not so great with her husband, Cassandra had problems with her in laws, she and Joe did not get along pretty much any of the time, and he was really persistent that she quit her job. Which she refused to do, which caused a really big fight where they wouldn't talk to each other, and then he got himself a 22 year old secret girlfriend, which of course Cassandra found out about, and then she filed for divorce but he didn't want to get divorced because 1. 'it wasn't even a serious relationship' and 2. his parents had been divorced and it's so hard for kids to grow up that way. Well he may have been right about the second part but she really didn't care at all. And after a really long divorce process and even having to suffer the custody arrangements of Elias every other weekend, she moved out of Manhattan for the first time in over 20 years, to a town just outside of the city. Dobbs Ferry. -The rest is TBA.
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