get to know him

Who he is:

Cassius, nicknamed Cas by those who care for him, is a human-shaped sack filled with wormy, wriggling bodies of all kinds. He comes from an alternate Earth that has old, old things bumping in the dark, and travels frequently across states to hunt them down with his pair of fellow monsters (whom he lovingly refers to as his Hunter and his Gardener). When not hunting down old terrors, or wrestling in the not-so-human impulses of the company he keeps, Cassius helps his Hunter deal with a different sort of monster entirely: human ones.

Cassius is a curious creature, and he wants to absorb as much as he can about people and the world they live in in hopes of it making him a little more human. What he does know is a slippery slope of accuracy, his primary source for years being a hot mess of a pre-teen's education and educated guesses. Expect him to be wrong about things often, and kind of stubborn about it!

You can also expect him to be unintentionally… off putting when interacting with others. Cassius hasn't had a lot of experience with people outside the ones he can count on his hand (his Hunter, his Gardener, the occasional waitress, and most recently, Ophira), and it's left him with little ability to understand the nuance of human tones, language, and expressions. He is honest to a fault, even when he probably shouldn't be, and especially when he shouldn't be (e.g, his diet and his anatomy).

But above all, Cassius is a loyal friend.

What he is:

Cassius is, as previously stated, millions of squirming worms packed inside of a human-shaped shell. Though he gives his best efforts at mimicking a person, he isn't quite knowledgeable enough to capture humanity's finer details, and it's pretty obvious from the get-go that there's something uncanny valley about him!

His shell, primarily made of insect parts mushed down and reformed into papery skin, is pale and constantly rippling with movement of some kind. The parts of it that run thin (fingers, toes, joints, and facial features) are blue-tinged, and when torn, his shell becomes a wilted, purplish brown that oozes instead of bleeds. His shell and his worms both run cool, so he's always looking for a warm body to encompass.

He hasn't quite figured out how eyes work yet, and leaves them hollowed for the most part. A thin film domes over each socket, the cavities filled with a dark murky, equally squirmy liquid to keep them from collapsing. Gotta make sure his eyelids have something to shape them; it's important in not scaring the locals, you know! Now, if only he'd remember how to blink.

His hair falls loosey goosey to his shoulders in flaxen, silken strands. He's not too great at textures, either, because it doesn't feel like human hair at all. Maybe more of a fine, room-temp spaghetti. Not too awful, but definitely off-putting if not expected.

But of course, this is all subject to change because -

What he can do:

His shell is customizable! With a little time, creative experimentation, and elbow grease, Cassius can construct himself new, exciting features for his shell, or, if he so desires, completely rebuild himself from scratch. He doesn't do it often, mind; Cas isn't naturally a creative thinker, and most, if not all, of his past endeavors have come from input or inquiries from his abysmally small friend circle.

(Before anyone asks, yes, he can make tentacles, and no, the texture is not. Great. At least if you're human.)

Cas doesn't stray too far from his base look, though! It's how his Hunter found him, what his family is most familiar with, and he's quite attached to it, often going back to it shortly after any drastic changes.

His carnivorous worms, however, have no attachment to their shape. While any worm that breaches his shell tends to keep to the species it emerges as, any beneath the surface still can be shaped into any reasonably sized wriggly friend Cassius needs it to be, even if he doesn't quite know it. They don't tend to stray too far from him - any worm that extends past his range of half a mile goes dormant.

Recently, due to a terrible experience with another being of his kind, he's even discovered he can make wasps out of his worms when he focuses! Trauma gives character development and bullshit metamorphosis, apparently, though it doesn't come to him as naturally as his worms do. It's more than likely he'll only use them when no other choice presents itself, because wasps are harder to restructure.

Worms aside, Cassius also has access to his Garden, a pocket dimension he's able to root into existence as long as the space is big enough and the layers between it and any source of earth aren't too thick. The inside of it - a giant, twisting rose hedge maze with a looming stretch of high ceiling - is made entirely of worms, save for the hedges and roses themselves and the structure that sits in the heart of his maze. The ceiling is also covered in worms. Big worms.

Other:

Cassius gardens! While his Garden can only grow roses and rejects most seeds and flora, he’s found that importing outside soil via planters allows him to add a lot more color to his sanctuary. He is very fond of his lilies and his hydrangea.

Cassius doesn't actually know how he came to be or why - or more accurately, he doesn't know to his current knowledge. It wouldn't be the first time someone's triggered a casual lore drop that's been lying dormant just waiting for the right question. All Cassius really knows is that his then-young Hunter had found him New in the heart of his Garden with the feeling of being Not Yet Finished, though what that means is, again, something he has yet to unlock. Unfortunately for those around him, this is just how Cassius works.