Theresa Cassidy - Phase 1
This page is about the Phase 1 incarnation of the character. For other uses, see Theresa Cassidy (disambiguation).
| Terry Cassidy | |
|---|---|
 Portrayed by Isla Fisher | |
| Codename: | Siryn |
| Affiliations: | X-Men, Red X |
| Birthdate: | August 8, 1988 |
| Journal: | Makes You Want To |
| Player: | |
Terry is a graduate of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and an X-Men who until recently has been on extended leave from both the team and the country. After graduating from Pace University with a degree in Criminal Justice, she returned to County Mayo to care for Cassidy Keep with her husband, Bobby Drake and to pursue a career with Interpol. Bobby's return to the X-Men and the distance it entailed has put a strain on their relationship, and she took an assignment seconding her to the FBI to bring her back to New York to see where things stood. Shortly after she returned, she and Bobby decided to separate while he moved to the West Coast Annex.
Contents
Details
Aliases: Siryn (X-Men codename)
First Appearance: May 12, 2003
Place of Birth: Cassidy Keep, County Mayo, Ireland
Citizenship: Republic of Ireland
Relatives: Sean Cassidy (father); "Black" Tom Cassidy - Phase 1|Tom Cassidy (uncle); Maeve Cassidy neé Rourke (mother, deceased); Bobby Drake (husband, separated)
Education: 2006 - Graduated Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters; 2009 – Graduated Pace University with a degree in Criminal Justice
Relationship Status: Married, but currently separated - Bobby Drake
Occupation: INTERPOL Dublin, International Liaison Section (ILE)
Team Affiliation: X-Men - on leave of absence
Biography
Childhood
An INTERPOL consultant, Sean Cassidy was out of the country on assignment at the time that an explosion (attributed to the Troubles) at an area pub killed his wife and their child. Or so he was told by investigators who assumed the child to be amid the wreckage. In truth, Terry had been rescued and secreted away by her uncle, Tom Cassidy, who had loved Maeve and was jealous she had chosen Sean over him.
"Black" Tom Cassidy was a professional criminal, given to con jobs and robbery. Tom raised Terry like his own daughter, poisoning her against her father with tales of abandonment and neglect while she grew up in a life spent on the move from job to job across Ireland. He taught her skills like picking locks and pockets, cracking safes, and how to manipulate and read people. From a young age, he found Terry a very good accessory, then accomplice in his schemes and cons, mostly on unsuspecting tourists. In all things, Terry was an apt pupil and asset. Tom’s reputation grew and attracted the attention of Ireland’s organized crime, in who's employee he masterminded more elaborate cons against larger targets and got involved in money laundering schemes.
When Terry was 10, she manifested while being used as a lookout for trouble while Tom met with one of his “associates.” It was not a good meeting. One of Tom’s schemes had recently backfired, attracting attention from the police, and he and Terry had spent a couple weeks hiding at various safehouses. During this meeting, things started to get rough. When a gun was pulled on Tom, Terry shouted, and the back wall caved in while everyone in the path of her scream hit the floor in stunned pain. A frightened Terry managed to gather Tom up and get them both out of the area just ahead of the police responding to the disturbance.
Tom and Terry went into deeper hiding, but Terry’s awakening powers made things even more difficult. Though he could see the advantages of her skills as a weapon, Tom was hard-pressed to teach her how to control it, and she spent several months all but mute. Four months after her manifestation, Tom was picked up trying to pull off a job when desperation made him sloppy. When it was evident he could not beat the rap and that Terry would disappear into the fosterage system, Tom made Interpol contact Sean.
A very (VERY) stunned Sean returned to Ireland immediately. Over her protests, he took custody of his very (VERY) unhappy and rebellious daughter, returning with her to County Mayo and trying to settle in Cassidy Keep. Terry stole, lied, and ran away weekly, always to be drug back to the Keep and placed under even more stringent restrictions than before. The girl who had been used to living life outside the strictures of the law found the new constraints stifling, and made even more odious by the man placing them. Sean was at a loss as to how to deal with her, and did not help matters by constantly bad-mouthing Tom in an attempt to reason with her. He wanted to love this new found daughter, in whom he saw so much of his wife, but she was having none of it.
Angry, hurt, confused, and feeling abandoned not just by Sean who should have known about her somehow, but also by Tom, Terry lashed out however she could. Her still precarious control made life doubly uncomfortable when every screaming match meant replacing windows at the least and walls at the worst. After about five months of this hell hole and nearing the end of his leave from Interpol, Sean, frustrated and unable to cope with his unruly daughter, contacted Charles Xavier and made arrangements for Terry to attend the school there. She was 11.
Life at Xavier's
Rebellious and undisciplined when she arrived, as well as deeply mistrustful of adults, Terry established herself as quite the hellion before the relentless acceptance and routine of the school began to crack her shell. She established close bonds with her peers, particularly her roommates, Kitty Pryde and Jubilation Lee. Bobby Drake served as an older brother figure to the whole group. She struggled with filling in the gaps in her education and to living in a house full of people -- noisy people who grated on her sensitive hearing. She more or less let her vocal training fall by the wayside after learning how not to blow people away every time she spoke.
By May of 2003, Terry was well established at the mansion. When Stryker attacked, Terry screamed at the soldier who broke into her room but lacked the training to do anything effective. She was shot with a tranquilizer dart but rescued by Piotr's timely appearance. She and other rescued students were taken to a local hotel, and Terry ended up with Sam's green John Deere shirt.
The incident made Terry very paranoid about her voice control and she began lessons with Alison Blaire in order to gain better vocal control. She also started seeing Bobby Drake in her senior year.
Though she was technically made a trainee after defeating Nanny and Orphan Maker, Terry officially joined the X-Men team post-graduation in 2006. The summer turned out to be a tumultuous one. Terry assisted in both the clean up following the tsunami in San Diego and the search for Scott shortly after. She also began working for tips as a singer at a jazz club in the City.
Marriage and University
The relationship between Bobby and Terry was almost as tumultous as her temper, very nearly ending after a pregnancy scare and awkward proposal and then after Bobby’s seduction by Jean Grey-Summer’s alter ego, Jane came to light. In the aftermath of that revelation, Terry went home. Her uncle had recently been released, and she felt obligated to see him, to come to terms with her previous life. Bobby followed her there, and upon their return, many were shocked to find that the pair had reconciled, but the surprises were just beginning.
In August 2007, Terry and Bobby went to Las Vegas for their one year anniversary. While there, they dared each other into a 'fake' wedding ceremony which somehow ended up with them actually married. Rather than annulling it though, they decided to make it real, if secret. They told only a few people, but did move into a suite together. Eventually, of course, the secret came out. Strangely, it was Sean’s amusement at the stunt that led to tentative overtures at reconciliation between them.
Shortly thereafter, the effects of the Infectia virus temporarily stole Terry's voice and hearing, ending her brief stint as a jazz singer and reaffirming her commitment to the team. She began flight lessons and more intensive strategy and leadership training with Scott.
The Drake-Cassidys spent Christmas at Cassidy Keep, where Sean gifted Terry with the bulk of her inheritance--including the Keep itself--and asked a favor of his daughter and her husband. Because Sean had a job offer from his former employer, he wanted Terry and Bobby to take over the day to day running of the estate. The two deciding that Bobby would quit his jobs with Elpis and the school, leave the X-Men, and take over administration at the Keep. Terry, who was enrolled at Pace University, would split her time between the two countries.
Their timeline was a bit derailed by the events involving the terrorist group The Preservers, but in April 2008, Bobby officially moved to Ireland with Terry to follow in May when school let out for the summer. On their second anniversary, Terry and Bobby got (re-)married in a Catholic ceremony at Cassidy Keep. As per usual standards, the lead up to the wedding was anything but smoothly done, but it was done nonetheless. Terry returned to the US and the mansion in September 2008 to continue school, maintaining her relationship through phonecalls and brief visits. Theresa still wears the ring Bobby bought her for the joke in Las Vegas as her wedding ring, along with a claddagh ring from the second ceremony.
In May 2009, Terry completed her degree and took a leave of absence from the X-Men to move back to Cassidy Keep in order to pursue her desired career in INTERPOL with her father's help, and to give married life in the same country a try. It did not last long, as in late 2009, Bobby returned to the X-Men.
Things have been understandably rocky between the pair, with confessions of near-infidelity on Bobby’s side (and consideration of the same on Terry’s) with the latest leaving Terry angry and uncommunicative with her husband for almost a year.
INTERPOL
Terry’s work with Interpol has been almost as rocky as her marriage. Rather than the investigative work and adrenaline-soaked interaction that she was used to with the X-Men, her father’s nepotism only gained her an administrative position. Her work consisted of liaising between police agencies and providing communications and database assistance, requiring her to travel across Europe and to America on occasion. The big picture work of Interpol was good for helping Terry develop tactical and strategic thinking, but rarely let her get hands on so she could feel as if she were making a concrete difference.
And then there were her co-workers. Terry’s quick tongue and personality ruffled feathers here and there, especially among those who thought she had used her father’s influence to get her position (which she had, to be fair). And while her mutant status was not generally known, it was known enough to block her advancement. Recently, a trusted co-worker and almost mentor has let it be known to Terry her prospects of ever advancing from inside the organization look bleak.
Return to New York
Disillusioned with her job and lonely, Terry requested reassignment, jumping on the chance to work a case that brought her back to New York and seconded her to the FBI. The reunion with her husband was difficult and awkward for both, and they both agreed to a separation when Bobby was reassigned to the West Coast Annex. And while greeing to it and wanting it are two different things, they subsequently formalised their divorce.
Following the events of Genosha, Terry was uncharacteristically quiet. Then in November 2012, she announced that Interpol had decided to take her back and she returned to Europe.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 120 lbs
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red, wavey, long.
Other Features: Terry speaks with a faint Irish accent that gets stronger when she's emotional or has spent a good deal of time in Ireland. Or around her father.
Powers
Siryn can manipulate her vocal chords beyond human limits, effectively mastering sound vibrations that allow her to shatter solid objects (reliable, high frequency) or cause resonate damage to large structures (unreliable, low frequency). In between these two extremes are less powerful sound wave frequencies that can cause humans to experience nausea or vertigo and stun them into unconsciousness.
Terry can cause her vocal cords to vibrate over a wide range of sonic frequencies and produce a volume of sound ranging up to at least 140 decibels. By focusing her sonic vibrations while screaming into an intense beam, Terry creates what she calls her “sonic lance”. This is a force which can shatter any known solid substance except adamantium and vibranium.
Terry’s bones are extremely dense to handle the vibrations of her screams. Her vocal cords and the interiors of her throat and mouth are tremendously strong, so that she can produce sonic effects through screaming constantly (with breaks for, you know, breathing!) for up to an hour without damaging her vocal apparatus, depending on how much force she pushes through her voice. She has the breathing control of a professional opera singer.
Terry's hearing is extremely sensitive. While she has learned how to “muffle” it for day to day living, and while extremely loud noises do not damage her hearing, loud noises are painful, and she can be overwhelmed by too much eternal (to herself) audio stimulus. She is immune to her father's powers and he to hers.
She can use her voice as a sonar device to map out her surroundings. As a side affect of her vocal control, she can also use her voice to create a hypnotic-like state in others (effect variable) wherein they are susceptible to suggestions, like mythical Sirens. Terry's experimentation with her powers as her control progresses had led her to develop a sort of flight capability. Well, it’s really more like bouncing with soundwaves. Not very dignified.
Equipment
Terry has no equipment as such but does own a full size harp and an acoustic guitar named Patience. For Christmas 06 and as an "I'm Sorry I Gave You a Communicable and Possibly Deadly Disease" gift, Marius gave Terry an electric guitar that she named Charity.
Trivia
- Crushes on and flirts with everyone. Previous crushes include but are not limited to: Alison, Sam, Jean, Bobby (that one turned out well) and most of her roommates.
- Has never met a music style she doesn't like.
- Speaks fluent Irish. Also speaks tourist-level romance languages such as French, Spanish, and Italian.
- (Vegas) Wedding ring is actually the promise ring given to her by Bobby the morning after graduation. She wears a "proper" (Claddagh) wedding ring as well on her right index finger, even after they separated.
- Despite occasionally referring to herself as Terry Drake-Cassidy or even Terry Drake, she has not legally changed her last name.
External Links
Phase 1 Comms
Plots
2004
2005
2006
- Not So Plain Jane
- X-Men Mission: The Perfect Nanny
- Broken Stone
- The Rictor Effect (as part of Red X)
- Search and Rescue
- Vitiation
- Voices Carry
- Living Pele (as part of Red X)
2007
- X-Men Mission: Leverage
- Red X Mission: Whiteout
- Size Does Matter
- Kaiten
- This Savage Land
- Remix
- Ahab (plot)
- Thirteen Days
2008
- The Shadow King (plot)
- Cornered
- Red X Mission: Reconstruction
- Shakespeare Syndrome
- X-Men Mission: Nicobar Reef
- X-Men Mission: Keep The Faith
- Red X Mission: Rising Waters
- Xbalanque
- First Do No Harm
- Day Zero
- New York Minute
2009
2011
2012
Meta
Player:
Player Icon Base: Isla Fisher
Meta Trivia
- Terry was originally played by another player and was adopted and played from June 2004 - 2009. She was picked up again in October 2011 by Stephanie, who left in November 2012 due to an attack of Life. In September 2018 a Phase 2 version was applied for by Cai.
- The song Terry recorded for her father for Christmas is Isle of Inisfree and was based on the version by Orla Fallon
