The bruises you can't explain; a leather jacket worn through at the cuffs; the smell of cheap whisky and vapor; dirty dishes in the sink and no plans to wash them; the first leaf to fall in autumn; a skyscraper abandoned and left to rot; eyes full of barely contained rage and tight smiles
basic info
full name: luna cassidy nickname: loon, cassidy name meaning: moon affiliation: none age: thirty-seven date of birth: july 31 star sign: leo place of birth: cali, colombia current location: city of london gender: demi-femme pronouns: she/they sexual orientation: pansexual, demiromantic religion: reluctant and/or recovering catholic occupation: head coach of the arsenal wfc / underground fighter family: unknown father, marísa cortez (mother, deceased), john cassidy (adoptive father), gloria cassidy (adoptive mother), unnamed (adoptive sister), unnamed (adoptive brother) education level: a-levels finished barely, went to university on an athletic scholarship but no degree earned living arrangements: a small flat in bexley with a potential roommate financial status: middle-class spoken languages: english, spanish personality: (-) competitive, hedonistic, aggressive (+) athletic, independent, protean
inspiration
melinda may (agents of s.h.i.e.l.d.), aeryn sun (farscape), jessica jones (jessica jones/alias), helena bertinelli (batman), alex munday (charlie's angels), rosa diaz (brooklyn 99)
trigger warnings for beneath the cut: cults, cptsd, parental death, car accident, xenophobia, racism, depression, anxiety, violence, alcohol use
bio
luna's mom was a member of a commune in colombia that was a cult.
she has no idea how long she was there, if she was born there, or anything about it because her first few years are fuzzy, as they should be.
she had never really been allowed to leave the area and was often forced to fight others for entertainment purposes, even at such a young age of four. there was something incredibly wrong with her mother and the man in the cult she'd allowed to take them.
there was a sense of entrapment outside of the abuse that forged in luna some neuroses and doubts that have hung with her her entire life. her formative years were not great.
luna was only eight when her mom died in a car accident, finally having decided to leave the cult as if she'd woken up from a dream and taking her daughter with her. luna survived the crash but had nowhere to go. she'd never known her father and he didn't show up when the news broke and she ended up in the system in colombia.
it wasn't a fun time for her and she had to fight tooth and nail to keep her head above water. it's one of the places she originally learned to fight after her childish fights in the cult but she was so young.
her only escape was football in the yard when she could and that meant that she got really good at it. like really good... but also really keen on hurting others if they crossed her on the field and ended up in more than her share of fights.
it wasn't until she was ten that a nice couple was visiting down in cali and found her. they adopted her, taking her back to england with them and worked in teaching her english fully (as she only spoke spanish at the time)
entering school was rough as they weren't necessarily rich or well-off and so they had no clout to throw around to get her protected in any institution.
a lot of kids in her classes (from nine until she finished her a-levels) were extremely xenophobic, critical of her accent and, especially when she was younger and still learning english, extremely racist about her accent.
her english is fluent now but she still speaks spanish as often as she can to stick it to the (probably not even real) man.
she found some relief when she began to play football at her school, racking up accolades even though she would (again) get into fights. she managed to listen to her advisor and calmed down enough to get through school and attend university on a scholarship.
while playing football in university she found herself more prone to outbursts because of a sudden influx of drinking and partying. it meant that she went on suspension more than once but always (generally) managed to shape up.
during a game in which she was to be (likely) recruited to a national team she was reminded of her xenophobic and racist classmates from childhood when someone used a derogatory term after she clipped their ankle and luna went apeshit and beat them so badly that she was not only kicked off the team, she lost her scholarship and had to retreat from university.
it took her a while to get control of her alcoholism and even more time for her to even be able to think of what she'd lost that day (she really did love football) and devolved into a habit of frequenting london's underground fight clubs to get out her aggression.
after she felt that she could handle people being people, she started to put herself out again for a position with the arsenal wfc. her 'better behavior' was taken into consideration, and though she would never play for them given her previous attitude, she ended up making head coach and lives fairly comfortably because of this.
when she's working now luna takes her job very seriously and does the work, so much so that she's intent on continuing to lead her women to victory even if she spends her nights in the fight clubs or in a bottle.
she has never let go of that chip on her shoulder that the treatment she received as a child and teenager in school instilled and starts fights with people at the drop of a hat off the job.
she gets paid well enough to be comfortable within her means, the sort of middle-class life she grew up in where they weren't poor but she isn't throwing money around frivolously.
to that, her apartment is very nice and spacious but she (might have a roommate and) keeps most of the amenities sort of short. there's a doorman and an attendant for safety, but it's on the cheaper side for a reason.
headcanons
luna vapes. she'd do marijuana if it weren't for her job but right now it's just minor nicotine with weird flavors and scents. (it's gross to me glsndlgsd but hey)
luna is what one would consider 'hot tempered' and will honestly fuck someone up over the littlest thing.
luna has a chihuahua named nugget
luna has cptsd and shows very obvious signs of it.
luna has very bad coping mechanisms but a ton of ways to hide and excuse herself when it gets out of hand.
luna's gone down the alcohol route but she has never broached hard drugs. she doooesssss smoke weed tho.
luna will sleep with any person if she feels they're attractive and though she leans more heteroromantic she is demiromantic so if she forms a connection with someone there is the possibility that she'll fall for them romantically. it's rare that she falls for anyone because of the walls she's put up but y'all...
luna is completely doting in a relationship. she'll get awkward when it gets pointed out and double down on being a little shit but she absolutely goes moon eyed.
luna absolutely gets the irony of telling her players they'll be put on suspension for the very things she does/did/is doing and everything but she's learned to compartmentalize and so should they (lmao)
luna's adoptive parents were v good to her but they can't control racism and xenophobia or her past so she still got messed up unfortunately. she still keeps in contact with them.
she cannot be fixed by love but love can make her feel whole if it happens in her life. this isn't your life time movie trauma that will get absolutely obliterated with good love or friendship, but it's the real life interpretation of your demons being quieter when those people are in your life. just don't try to 'fix her'.
her emergency contact, right now, is the lobby of her building where the doorman and attendant have been informed to respond positively then let her handle her own shit. this can change down the line.
connections
former school bully — luna has a ton of bad memories from her school days, chief among them being bullied a lot by people because of her language barrier (at first) and the fact that she wasn't like her parents and wasn't from the country. kids can be cruel sometimes and this character was no exception. we're talking the head bully who used to make luna's life a living hell. whether they're still like this or not every time luna sees them it all comes RUSHING back and she feels immense rage and awkwardness and it'll be messy af.
bad influence — everyone has that friend that cares about you but sure as fuck will encourage the wrong thing. whether it's because they're messy too or they just honestly want to have a good time or they can't stand to see someone else get better is up to you but in general they love watching luna stumble through her life with them stumbling right along side her and encourage every bender she's ever been on. when photographed doing bad things your character is the blurry image right next to our drunken luna. luna loves and hates them in the same way that they do her because when you're that fucked up you don't like seeing your face reflected back in another's but you also feel for them.
good influence — they just want luna to get better. they love her in some capacity or another and encourage her to do the right thing. they plan outings that have nothing to do with drinking or partying or anything of the like to show luna that things can be fun without being destructive and it works... most of the time. luna's own love for them is probably the same level but she's a messy bench so she has a hard time showing it.
the one — love conquers all, right? well, it tries, anyway. luna and your character have dated more than once and it always ends poorly, generally because of luna. the last time your character said they couldn't keep watching her destroy herself and she had a fit about it, but in the end she's head over heels and will love your character forever. this can turn into something that eventually gets worked out (whether luna gets better or not we can discuss it) and they DO end up together because as far as the story goes, your character is the one.
the NOT one — then there's this asshole. the one she gets together with once every couple of months and goes on an absolute tear with, leaving a wake of destruction and bad decisions in her wake. the relationship itself is toxic as fuck, but the sex is good so they keep falling back in bed together. it might turn violent sometimes, given luna's penchant for fighting (and potentially your character's) but there is no denying there's a spark of chemistry, even if it is like absolute loathing and good sex.
that one awkward tinder hook-up — it doesn't matter how it happened or when it happened but it turns out that neither of you should have really been there. your character and luna are just... it was fine, sexually, but in the end it felt so awkward that neither of you knew how to approach it. that means that these can be awkward meetings until they figure out how to be friends or become enemies.
exes — just some exes that she tried with but didn't work. these can vary from ending on good terms, to bad, to being friends now, or being enemies, or anywhere in between. the world is your oyster.
friends — she makes them sometimes, honestly, but a lot of them can't handle her bullshit for long. she's a very good friend if someone sticks around long enough and even though she'll always butt heads with people sometimes, she's devoted and loyal as a friend, no doubt.
co-fighters — not sure how else to frame this but people she meets in the arena a lot when she goes to the underground fight clubs and fight rings to get messy. she doesn't always win but she never goes down without fucking people up. she will give anyone a run for their money and this can have gone to the point of them being rivals, being friendsly, frenemies, or anything!
roommate — toying with the idea of her having a nice place but also having a roommate to help pay for that. it'd have to be someone she at least gets on well enough to share a space with and trusts to not report her at some point when she shows up drunk and messy to try and get her fired or anything like that and be discreet. this does however open your character up to living in a nicer area for whatever that's worth if it means something to your character. they can 100% be friends if you want too or just slightly friendly.
