Cassie Helm (Eccentriaverse)

Cassie Helm is the deuteragonist of the canceled 2008 Dozerfleet Studios short film Volkonir. Minding her own business one day in the February of 2008 in downtown Big Rapids while attending Ferris, Cassie stumbles upon Prince Volkonir as a toy in an alleyway. Adventure ensues.

Cassie was originally going to be portrayed by real-life college alumna Bethany Haase, who ducked out of the project later for personal reasons.

Character bio
Little is known or discussed about Cassie's backstory. What is known is that at some point, she decided to start attending Ferris.

One day, while walking through downtown, she discovers the toy form of Volkonir in an alleyway. She finds it puzzling that this toy can speak to her telepathically. At first she thinks she's hallucinating. But when Gwirdon Treaders show up looking for a fight, she grabs the toy and runs. The toy begins explaining to her about the fall of Cortascius - as well as who Cassie's new enemies are and what motivates them. He instructs her to run to the Granger Building, and to throw him at a purple-painted pipe on the ceiling. A portal will open up as soon as the toy gets close to it.

Cassie manages to do so right as the Treaders catch up to her inside the Granger Building. Within a minute or so, Volkonir returns in his prince outfit. Without using his mogriffer to access his Golden Lion Cortascian Knight powers, he summons Selshon and makes quick work of the Treaders. After getting some information from Cassie, Volkonir vanishes. He promises to send her a "reward."

Two weeks later, Dereck Tumbline knocks on the door to Cassie's dorm room, eager to meet her. She sees evidence in his hands that Volkonir sent him, and gladly accepts Dereck inside to talk. Her fate after this remains unknown. What is known, is that Dereck also helped Volkonir escape Big Rapids and assume an identity of "Vinny Mason." Where "Vinny" is going next, neither Dereck nor Cassie has any clue.

Personality
Cassie's personality was based highly on that of Bethany, who almost portrayed her. While dutiful when it proves necessary, she tends to avoid responsibility if she deems it less than critical. She has forced herself to quit smoking at one point. She likes to attend bars, and is fond of traveling places. Cassie can be understandably skeptical, such as when she first encountered Volkonir.

Development
Cassie was seen to be a sort of stand-in for the princess in what amounted to a re-telling of The Frog Prince - but with a tokusatsu twist. Instead of being a princess who gains a husband, Cassie was merely deemed virtuous for being willing to trust Volkonir and help him in spite having every reason to run away and abandon him. Volkonir became a stuffed toy rather than a frog, largely due to budget and time concerns. The means of changing him back involved tossing him at a pipe, similar to the initial Brothers Grimm version where the frog was thrown at a wall.

A version of Cassie in The Sims 2 was rendered for storyboards, though that has become lost. Since the 2008 short film was made for a class, minimal additional effort was put into Cassie's characterization and development.