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
On April 14th, a desperate Volkonir was able to access the FLITE Library lab. By using the Macs in the back, he avoided detection. His return to the dark web led to him reaching out to a HanomCorp-connected individual named Dereck Tumbline. It didn't take long before Dereck figured out that this entity on the other end was, in fact, the missing Cortascian prince. The two met up the following morning, while Volkonir was hiding near a bug display in the taxidermy museum. Dereck set to work getting HanomCorp officials in touch with Volkonir, so that Hanom could get some resources soon to Big Rapids and help Volkonir out. Dereck has one wish from Volkonir though: to spy on Cassie - and learn her true feelings about him. The prince learns that Cassie does in fact have a crush, but that she's waiting for Dereck to make a move. Volkonir returns and informs Dereck of this. Dereck suggests, along with Hanom, that Volkonir should adopt an alias once he's human again: "Vincent Amadeus Mason" - "Vinny" for short. The world can't know that he's Volkonir just yet. Volkonir agrees to that alias - contingent upon becoming his old Cortascian self again.

On April 16th, however, Dereck's efforts to contact HanomCorp get intercepted. He soon discovers that there's a message to his e-mail from a "Hiktomoph" that states that he knows Dereck is housing Volkonir. The two decide that their best bet is to convince Cassie to help Volkonir, so as to keep Dereck and Hanom out of harm's way. They know that Hiktomoph now knows that Dereck and Volkonir are working together - if not also Hanom. However, Cassie isn't on Hiktomoph's radar yet.

On April 17th, Dereck leaves town for the day, on advice from Hanom. Volkonir is left to spy on Cassie - and to eventually recruit her to the cause. On the afternoon of April 18th, Volkonir catches up to Cassie in the alleyway by Big Rapids Cinema. Cassie is upset that her friends ditched her to go on a drinking party binge near Cadillac, and she had to see the movie by herself. She is startled at first by the plush toy talking to her, assuming it's a disguised government spy drone. However, as she picks up the toy and puts it in her backpack, she's confronted by Hiktomoph and several Treaders atop the roof of the hair salon across the street. She runs down the alleyway, while a Treader accidentally sets off a rocket launcher in the direction of the parking lot on the opposite side of Big Rapids Cinema. An angry Hiktomoph disappears with the rocket launcher, ordering the two clumsy Treaders next to him to give chase - and return Cassie and Volkonir to him when they're done.

Police show up to investigate the explosion outside the theater; but Cassie is already long gone. The Treaders give pursuit of her throughout town, as Volkonir continually insists she throw him at the vortex - which will become visible when he's near it. Cassie is finally able to gain enough headway on the Treaders to make a run for the Granger building. She launches Volkonir at the vortex, near the section of pipe that he indicated to her. As Volkonir sends himself into the Pool of Healing to undo Swivertik's spell, however, the Treaders catch up to an exhausted Cassie. Before Hiktomoph can arrive, a restored Volkonir returns through the vortex. He stuns the Treaders, giving himself and Cassie a chance to exit the building. Once they're outside, the Treaders put up their best effort to battle Volkonir and Cassie; but Volkonir summons his Golden Lion Knight armor. He quickly beats the Treaders into submission, then using Selshon to cripple them, freeze them, and finally blast them to bits. Hiktomoph realizes that the Golden Lion Knight has been successfully revived, and retreats with the remainder of his scouting party back to Chestnut Mountain. Volkonir and Cassie flee the area for the Rankin Center as best they can, in order to avoid suspicion when police arrive to investigate the disturbance reported near the Granger Building.

With the coast clear, Volkonir walks back to Cassie's dorm with her. He explains in more detail who he is, and what she's done. He also informs her that Dereck would be honored to date her, but hasn't yet struck up the nerve to pay her a visit. She states that a visit from him would be welcome. Volkonir promises to let him know, saying that Dereck will be Cassie's reward for helping him.

On April 19th of 2008, Dereck struck up the courage to visit Cassie outside her door. The two of them had a quick date in town, and then set to work to take Vinny to a safehouse in the nearby small town of Paris, run by Dereck's uncle. Brent Tumbline begins teaching Vinny how to ride a motorcycle, while Hanom helps with creating a fake identity for Volkonir's new alias, to give him further appearance of legitimacy.

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.

Trivia

 * Cassie was originally developed as a 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 originally going to be made for a class, minimal additional effort was put into Cassie's characterization and development.


 * In 2021, a Sims 4 render for Cassie was developed for the remake comic Volkonir 2008. Her general characterization remains the same as in the original, but with some details refined - mostly, made a little thinner and given a different haircut.  This was to differentiate the character slightly from Bethany's haircut of the time, to make clear that the character doesn't absolutely have to be interpreted as Bethany.


 * While both the original film pitch and the remake comic of Volkonir give Cassie and Dereck roles, the original film pitch downplayed Dereck's role in-story to the point that his would-have-been actor, Jacob, doesn't appear on the poster. Bethany as Cassie does, albeit in a clipped image.
 * Oddly enough, the Gwirdon Treaders don't appear in the poster either.
 * Hiktomoph wasn't included, since his character arc wasn't deduced until late 2015 at the earliest.

Cassie in video games
While custom skin overlays and the SimmyTheSim height slider are required with some other CC to download with everything intact (PC/Mac/Linux-only), Cassie Helm is available for download from the Sims 4 Gallery. The Volkonir Story Pack was also set up to feature her. On the Gallery, she ships with Dereck Tumbline as a combined household. The following information is about their Gallery upload: