#w.i.t.c.h. cassidy

[krchar]

30 Days of Witchversary

Days 19 & 20: Friend & Enemy

Hello, another Witchversary thing :)

A short story about Yan Lin searching for the last bits of the Nerissa she knew as a friend.. about how difficult she was.. about how Cassidy might have been able to approach Nerissa in a way that the others could not.. including the reasons why Cassidy was chosen to keep the Heart

I made notes for this story 8 years ago - funny thing is I had no idea then that there was a Nerissa/Cassidy canon declared. I also had not watched the cartoon then, so this is generally based on the comics (Nerissa and Yan Lin being close, the theme of the flute..). Meaning - it was actually not meant as a ship, rather as a very special friendship thing, but if anyone wants to see that as ship, feel free... it is left open

I also kind of made up their age structure then, I don't know if it makes sense with canon, but whatever

Ehm, all right. It is still angst, but like, the idea, angsty in principle, happened a long time ago, I can do nothing about it now!

Much much thank you to any readers, I would give you my Heart without killing you <3

[doowlssleep]

[riyacrane]

[bellatrixobsessed1]

The Hemorrhaging Aether

Nerissa had never cared for crowds but she has never hated them either. On one hand they are too loud, they drive her mad with the overload of sights and sounds and smells. On the other hand, if a crowd is large enough, then she can get lost in it, slink to the back of it. Blend in and go unnoticed and that is precisely what she is looking to do. Especially today. 

Earthy tones had been a good choice. They keep her out of mind even if she is not out of sight. They keep her inconspicuous in a building full of people who seem to be doing their very best to stand out, to become the center of attention. 

She has heard that about America; the people value their freedom and by extension their individuality. And she supposes that that isn’t a terrible thing in moderation. America overall is terribly different from Greece; everything and everyone seems so…sensationalized. Everything is so forward driven—a rejection of tradition in favor of what might and very well could be. The fashion is daring and different, the hairstyles are showy. They do however seem to be as friendly and welcoming of strangers as she is used to. 

More than anything else though the school itself is strange; there are no split in their secondary schooling—no gymnasium and no lyceum. Instead there are freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior years. There is no 20 point grading system; they stick to letters past primary school. 

The layout of the school is different. Different and larger than her old school had been. The hallways are mostly empty now, save for the uncaring stragglers and several people looking frantically from the sheets in their hands to signs on doors. People like herself, who have no idea where to go. 

Truly, how hard can it be to follow signs to a classroom.

She finds that it is much easier than actually entering the classroom. Even if she enters at the very moment another student does. 

At least the teacher has two people to choose from now. 

“Charlie and Nerissa, I assume.”

“Yes mam!” Charlie declares. Nerissa simply nods.

“I do not know how educators handled tardiness at your last schools, but this one does not tolerate them.”

“It's our first day, cut us a break, man.”

“Does life ‘cut breaks’?”

“It should.”

“You seem very opinionated…”

“Charlie.” She fills in.

“You seem very opinionated, Charlie. Perhaps you would like to taketh class through the icebreakers. And Nerissa, you may introduce yourself next. I'm certain that the class will be intrigued to hear about Greece. You are the exchange student, yes?”

And so her inconspicuousness expires.

“I'm not an exchange student, I've moved to this country.”

“Well then, you should pay extra close attention to how tardiness and discipline work here.

Things are going splendidly already.

.oOo.

The new girl, she concludes, is shy. Shy and quiet to a point where Cassidy wonders if she only speaks Greek with a sprinkle of English phrases here and there. She touches her hair a lot, and she has an abundance of it. She runs her fingers through it or wraps strands of it around her pointer. And so far their conversation hasn’t gotten much further than.“You’re from Greece, right?” A lowering of a novel—just enough to peak over it and a nod. An “I’m Cassidy.” And one more nod.

But she has closed the book and put it to the side. 

“Do you want to come eat lunch with me and my friends?” She jabs her thumb in the direction of her usual lunch table, the one under the ash tree. 

The girl follows the direction of Cassidy’s finger with her eyes, seeming to study the rest of the group. She locks eyes with Yan Lin who flashes her a huge grin and waves. Hesitantly the new girl lifts her own hand and returns it. 

“See, they’re friendly. We’re basically this school’s welcome committee. Unofficial.” Cassidy declares. “It’s better than sitting all by yourself.” But maybe the girl likes it that way—Lisa Paige Allan prefers to be alone with her paintset. 

The new girl presses her lips together and stares at her book. As quietly as the rest of their conversation has gone, she gets to her feet and Cassidy is certain that she is going to pick up her book and skitty on out.

Instead she makes her way towards the ash tree. 

Kadma, Yan Lin, and Halinor are already quite deep into looking over each other’s class schedules. Something that Cassidy had been trying to get them to look at well before the school year actually started. If for no other reason than to open a discussion about the school's state of the art copy machine and how far journalism has come in such a short time. 

She slides her own class schedule onto the table skims over the papers. “Oh! Looks like we have literature and history together too, Yan Lin. And Halinor is with us for literature.” She peers at Kadma’s schedule. Aside from lunch, it would seem that she only has one class with them. And it is the only one that she doesn’t share with Halinor—math.” 

“Well I guess that lunch is the only class where all of us will be together.”  Kadma shrugs.

Yan Lin frowns at her own schedule. “None of you signed up for band!”

“That’s my favor to this whole school.” Kadma crosses her arms.

“Well I’ll be all alone. Bummer.”

The new girl reaches down and into her bag, fishes out a fair sized wooden case, and puts it onto the table. Cassidy watches her fumble with the latches for a few seconds before she turns the case around to reveal a flute. 

“Oh! You signed up for band?” Yan Lin asks. 

The new girl nods. 

“That’s a flute, right?” Kadma asks. 

“It is.” She replies, brushing her fingers over the metal as though it is some fragile thing. Cassidy watches her dig around lunchbox. Cassidy isn’t sure exactly what the dish is but it is wrapped in grape leaves, contains rice and some type of meat, and it smells rather amazing. 

Cassidy’s own lunch isn’t particularly impressive aside from the sandwich that her mother cut for her in the shape of a star. Other than that she has whatever packaged snacks that she had swiped from the pantry in her rush to get to school. 

“I’d love to learn to play an instrument. I don’t know which one I would be good at though.” Cassidy muses. 

“Would you even have time?” Halinor asks curtly. Cassidy doesn’t think that the girl means to be so cutting, it just sort of happens now and then. Sometimes she realizes it and softens it with something like, “I mean you said that you were interested in trying both journalism and an art extra-curricular.” Most of the time she just makes it worse in the end. “You have so many interests, it would probably be a good idea to just focus on one. Ya know, so you can master it.” 

“Maybe I don’t want to be a master. Maybe I want to be the journalist with the best painting skills.” 

At this Yan Lin laughs. And the conversation carries on like that. With each of them discussing their extra curricular goals. Each of them save for the new girl who seems more interested in her meal and the swishing of the tree canopy. If she has any goals of her own she doesn’t cut in to mention them and she has nothing to say of their choices.

Maybe she really hasn’t learned English yet; Η φόνισσα is scrawled on the cover of her book. But that can’t be it, she seemed to follow the conversation just fine. 

So maybe that is just how she is; a quiet woman who would rather be silent sitting next to someone or several someones than sit in perfect quietude by herself. 

Or maybe she is trying to learn the mechanics of their conversation and the dynamics of their group before deciding to part take. 

It could be simpler still; nobody had expressly asked the new girl for her opinion. It could be that the girl is just trying to be polite. 

Kadma takes one last bite of her apple and tosses it into the wastebin. “I suppose we should start heading in.”

“Oh yeah, I can’t be late for Mrs. Sharppa’s class again. “She said that I would lose a whole letter grade if I did.” Halinor grimaces. One glance at the watch on her wrist puts a haste into the gathering of her belongings. “Thank you for lunch, Yan Lin, you’re the best and your parents are amazing cooks.” She shrugs her bag over her shoulder and sprints towards the school with a “Peace, love, and granola!” from Yan Lin to send her off. 

“See you inside, Cassidy.” Kadma says. 

“For sure!” 

Yan Lin is the next to stand. She tucks her orange-tinted sunglasses back into their case and puts it in the breast pocket of her overalls. “After school?”

“Usual time.” Cassidy confirms. And with that it is just she and the new girl who has already tucked her flute case back into her bag and has taken to fidgeting with the charm on her necklace, watching it slide back and forth on the chain. 

“Well thank you for having lunch with us.”

The new girl parts her lips. 

Cassidy gives her a little nod. “Well I’m heading to class then.” 

“Can I sit here tomorrow?” 

Cassidy grins. “Of course!” 

And maybe tomorrow Cassidy can ask her what her name is. 

[gamerkir]

Can't catch me Now could be Cassidy singing to Nerissa.

Blood on the side of the mountain. There's writing all over the wall. Shadows of us start to dancing. That whole thing could be her Nerissa.

I'm in the trees I'm in the breeze my footsteps on the ground is her reassuring Halinor Kadma and Yan Lin she's still watching over them.

I do not take criticism

[krchar]

ok so im still thinking about this post (which i probably will be for the rest of my life) and i remembered one more thing - there is another point of view in the comics on this topic, actually, although it does seem that later it was cast aside... i dont really know if it is for better or worse, you tell me - but it is when Will meets Cassidy's ghost - and Cassidy tells her that when she was dying, she was angry with the Oracle, but later she found peace and she realized that there is some crazy insane chaos beyond the borders of the known universe - and that to protect the cosmos from it, it is sometimes necessary to make very difficult choices.. and that is the position of Kandrakar

I was considering this idea mentioned in the original post - it is necessary not to blindly listen to orders, and to keep the authority of your intuition and personal ethics - it is the guardians who break the rules and it is usually for the better - but i also thought, if only life was so easy - meaning we do not always know the consequences of our actions etc.. - in comics they keep bragging about keeping the balance - maybe that is one of the greatest difficulties, to keep balance between what feels right to you as a person and its broader contexts... in this sense it makes sense that the Oracle is repressed as a person, but maybe what happens is that at some points before arc 4 he lost this specific kind of balance and understanding..

maybe it is not so much about taking part or not, but about toning down your pride, and being too certain of your own decision - that's actually explicitly mentioned in arc 4 - and that's what he sort of lost before, i'd say, his not taking part may have become a personal decision, a point of authoritative repetition, and may not have been balanced with greater picture (i dont dare to comment on wheather this was the case with Cassidy's death really.. but it might have been with Ari) - and after arc 4 it was his stated intention to... tone down

or could it mean that after arc 4 he actually lost it for good, became too human, and couldn't be oracle anymore? Was it actually good that he started to take part so much? i really am not entirely sure what is good and what is bad in this discussion anymore.. im glad it's not my deal to be boss of a cosmic castle

Today's take of undefined temperature: The W.i.t.c.h. comics have an overarching narrative, and while it was obviously not planned out from the beginning, it is fairly coherent until the end of the Trial of the Oracle arc. Hear me out.

Here are the main arcs, summarised for your convenience with a focus on what I believe to be the narrative golden thread. (Disclaimer that I don't have the comics with me rn, they just got tattooed onto my brain tissue when I was 12. So feel free to correct me if I get anything Very Wrong.)

Twelve Portals arc. The girls are tossed into an ongoing intergalactic conflict and given immense magical powers with little to no guidance on how to deal with that. Since Kandrakar is not allowed to interfere with anything except through its guardians in matters that concern the general safety of the universe or its own interests, the girls have to make their own decisions.

Because they have a stake in the Meridian civil war, they join the side of the rebellion and help Elyon claim the throne. The barrier between worlds falls. While Kandrakar generally approves of this, it was highly unorthodox.

This comes back to bite them in the shape of Luba messing with the quasars to take the W.i.t.c.h. out. This leads to Nerissa's awakening.

Nerissa arc. Ho boi.

The W.i.t.c.h. uncover the disastrous story of the former guardians, which includes a straight-up murder within the group. Will struggles with the responsibility of carrying the heart, which got to Nerissa's head. The girls meet Kadma and find out that she and Halinor broke ties with Kandrakar completely over Cassidy's death, which the Oracle knew about and let happen due to the rule of non-interference.

Can we take a moment to appreciate how fucked up the Nerissa arc is? Thank you. Moving on.

There Are Three Arcs Happening At Once Things Just Keep Fucking Happening arc. In the wake of all of That [gestures at Nerissa], Taranee decides that Kandrakar messing with her bodily autonomy and "curing" her eyesight is the last straw. She doesn't want to be used without being able to make her own informed decisions anymore and quits.

She is replaced by Orube, Luba's mentee, who is less than thrilled about working with the girls she blames for Luba's death. Orube is incredibly loyal to Kandrakar and initially rejects anything that isn't straightforward compliance with its orders. The Oracle is however a pretty interesting character who appreciates some unorthodoxy, and thus sends her to Earth. I want to stress that Orube only goes along with that due to her sense of duty. She does not actually want it.

Arkhanta is fundamentally a filler plot, though Ari's grievances do add to the theme of Kandrakar being flawed, and Yua fits the autonomy theme. More importantly though, the Arkantha missions and life on Earth make Orube more open-minded. She comes to consider the W.i.t.c.h. her friends and mentors and learns that sometimes, listening to your enemies and helping them can make them your allies. (Orube Will Remember That.)

Taranee eventually re-joins the group, but makes it clear that she still isn't a fan of how Kandrakar treats them all like pawns.

Astral Drop sub-arc. HO BOI.

While all of that [gestures at the above] happens, the fully sentient clones the W.i.t.c.h. can produce to keep people from noticing they go on magic space missions decide that they would like to be more than mindless slaves, seeing that they are, again, fully sentient. They start messing with the W.i.t.c.h. and eventually run away.

This eventually results in Orube catching them, but intentionally letting them escape - because she has sympathy for their struggle for autonomy and is listening to her own sense of justice now instead of what others tell her is the right thing to do.

Kandrakar is in the end forced to let the Astral Drops live their own lives.

Simultaneous Sylla/Interpol Stuff sub-arc. HO. FUCKING. BOI.

This was set up in the first arc, with Interpol noticing how Elyon's family disappeared. Just wanna point that out.

Secret agents on Earth stalk a group of teenagers and get incredibly close to discovering that magic is a whole real thing and these teenagers are overpowered intergalactic guardians.

Will's Astral Drop ends up in a Gordian Knot of a situation where multiple people are pointing guns at each other and the people present are all about to discover Kandrakar's existence.

This scene is such a dead end that the Oracle himself autonomously decides he has to step in and interfere.

He does so by warping reality, gives a banger of a speech that directly references Euripides' Medea and comments on the trope of Deus Ex Machina, and deletes the secret agent people's memories. This is my favourite scene in the entire comic. They did not have to go that hard, but they sure did.

I think we're done with the Clusterfuck Arc now. Moving on.

Trial of the Oracle arc. The HO BOI levels are off the charts.

Turns out that becoming the Deus Ex Machina comes back to bite the Oracle, because he is not allowed to interfere and this can get him fired.

Phobos takes advantage of this and other inherent flaws of Kandrakar's system, plays the entire centre of the universe like a cheap kazoo, and manages instantly to get himself elected Oracle. This gives him near-absolute power over the entire universe. No one is able to say anything against it.

This entire arc is about Kandrakar being really fucked up and really easy to infiltrate. It's the culmination of the previous arcs, which already pointed out a lot of flaws of this place, criticised the non-interference rule, and showed how little Kandrakar cares about people's opinions and feelings, even of those who are loyal to it.

The day is saved by the W.i.t.c.h.'s explicit refusal to comply with Kandrakar's orders, even before they know that Endarno is really Phobos. Because mindlessly following orders that you don't agree with is not good. That's the moral of the story here.

This whole mess results in changes being made to the core of Kandrakar's system. For example, it's not just one person having all the power now. The relationship of the Oracle to the guardians is changed as well, since the Oracle now understands what it means to be a small person tossed around by the universe.

And it's a goddamn tragedy that we never get to see the actual consequences of this change, because the quality of the comic rapidly deteriorates after this arc and the common thread of the narrative is partially dropped entirely and partially continued in incredibly lackluster ways.

Anyways, it's about control, it's about doing the right thing although it's not what you're told to do, it's about messed up governments, it's about free will, it's about rebellion, it's about things being more complicated than they seem. It's about learning for yourself, forming your own opinions, and being brave enough to make your own decisions. (And it always was - that's the core of the first arc, as well. This theme makes a lot of sense for a comic that is directed at teenagers, and it's not all that uncommon in teen media either afaik.)

Now, this is all very positive (bc I love this comic) and didn't go into the inconsistencies the first arcs of the comic do have (mostly bc I think they really, truly don't matter; it's a long-running comic that wasn't fully planned out in advance, minor plot holes just come with the medium), so let me go off at the later arcs of the comic under the cut.

What drives me insane is that the Ludmoore arc had the perfect set-up to continue this narrative. A former villain on probation? Who hates Kandrakar's guts and whose image of Kandrakar very much includes the guardians? Whose bodily autonomy is, again, compromised and who does all the fucked up shit he does in this arc not for power, but because he's homesick? Who fits the theme of control so ridiculously well, because he is always a pawn in someone's plan and, after freeing himself from one tyrant, relapses hard and ties himself to the very next one that comes along? Who interacts with Orube, who is not only deeply loyal to Kandrakar but could also pretty much be his direct narrative foil because they both have issues with emotions and making nuanced decisions for themselves? This FUCKS SEVERELY.

It could've paralleled the theme of autonomy present in the Cedric-Ludmoore relationship to Kandrakar again. It could've been the arc to paint an even more nuanced picture of our villains and point out that even this guy right there [points at Cedric] is worthy of basic respect. It could've leaned into the Cedric-Orube parallels way more than it did. It could've shown us literally anything about what's happening in Kandrakar now that they are, presumably, implementing reforms.

Instead, we get... a bunch of useless MacGuffins? A narratively completely inane Redemption Equals Death for Cedric? The sad, sad end of Orube's presence in this comic, which I don't even want to refer to as part of her arc because it has nothing to do with who she is? Don't get me wrong, I love the Ludmoore arc a lot and it has its strengths - Cedric's characterisation and his entanglement with Ludmoore are really good, as is Matt being dragged into magic bullshit - but considering how many details of this arc's premise play into the themes W.i.t.c.h. has followed since its first arc, the execution falls tragically short.

And then... hm. Then we get the Ragorlang arc, which was still somewhat solid, but also has very little to do with the overarching narrative anymore. And then, with New Power, it's only a matter of time until the entire narrative structure falls apart, the tone of the comic changes significantly, plots are recycled, narratives become much simpler and more black-or-white, and the comic appears to deliberately court a much younger audience.

What I'm saying is, the overarching narrative was abandoned at some point during the Ludmoore arc. Maybe it died with Phobos, maybe it died with Cedric, maybe it left with Orube. But it was there in the beginning, and it was good, and I wish we could have at least seen the Ludmoore arc told with the same effort.

[violetwitchhh]

The Mage, C.H.Y.K.N. , Oracle and Congregation of Kandrakar

My work in the local w.i.t.c.h. fanzine! I'm really proud of it!

[nerissa-crossnic]

C.H.Y.K.N. by 张朔嘉 (Shuojia Zhang)

[kaiapanito]

Cassidy

An instagram follower asked if I could draw the old guardians... so I did! I wanted a more simple style without shading but I think I'll shade them for printing 🤔

[lylaseb]

[mewbyss]

Are you C.H.Y.K.N? /╲/\╭[☉﹏☉]╮/\╱\

[dailycanonlgbtq]

Day 41

Cassidy from W.I.T.C.H is canonically lesbian

[met-la]

[riyacrane]

[miamarypunkt]

Cassidy (C.H.Y.K.N)

[badly-drawn-pigeon]

Continuing with W.I.T.C.H. villains... Nerissa is an absolute definition of what could have been.

Like, when reading/watching her, I always have this feeling in the back of my head that she was totally supposed to be a sympathetic villain with a point, one to expose hidden darkness within Kandrakar. Only we sort of... never get any details on this. We know that it was the case that Kandrakar at some point decided that she'd steered too far onto the dark side, but we never learn what had exactly happened that made her like this. Killing Cassidy happened way past the point of no return.

And while Nerissa's efforts to corrupt Will might have been intended to mirror her own descent, this doesn't feel genuine, because of how many lies / literal mind magic she employs to make this happen. And it's especially frustrating because Will makes perfect material for corruption without that. She's so much drama by the sheer power of her own actual traumas and actual insecurities that she doesn't need to be straight up deceived (this is btw what I love about her as a character - the constant balancing on the edge of darkness). I imagine young Nerissa shared a lot of toxic personality traits with Will, but it would have been nice if we'd seen it unfold. Or at least if Nerissa tried to nudge Will into coming to the same conclusions as Nerissa had without bullshitting her about everyone secretly hating her.

The cartoon version of Nerissa makes a great narrative promise. Her intense reaction to a mention of Cassidy, "You don't know how much she meant to me" made me lose my shit for a bit and I almost melted on my couch (iirc it was also hinted at by one of the show creators that there was some romantic stuff going on between them, so, you know, it's not only me going shipping mode). And again, this plot point gets immediately axed never to be brought up again. Cassidy comes back and there is zero chemistry between the two. Cassidy is innocently oblivious to everything going on in the world of the living while Nerissa dispassionately treats her like a tool. What was that emotional display from before for? Show don't tell ffs. Also Nerissa eventually gets a Bleach villain treatment by having her actual intentions revealed in a few words during her defeat scene. And it's also not that deep, definitely not compelling enough for a villain with a point, even though I can actually see her point.

On the other hand, the final episode of the cartoon was so goddamn entertaining. One day I'll make a meme out of the backstabfest that happens there because it's so hilarious. In a good way, I love chaos.

Edit: I feel like I should also add that cartoon Nerissa is incredibly entertaining and quite charismatic. And her voice gives me goosebumps, I could use it as ASMR.