What do you think Cass would be like as a kid? I've been playing with Cass adopted early aus lately. I've been imagining her as like her 17 year old self but less serious.
The Cass fics I recently recced match what I think pretty well.
I'm not sure if I'd consider her less serious. Less aware, maybe?
The factor I've childhood I think is most important here is how kids think their experiences are normal. It takes a lot of observing the world and perspective taking to recognize how some of the fundamentals of our lives are actually really abnormal.
When we meet Cass, she's angry. Hates both herself and Cain. She's recognized what he did to her is wrong. The pain of watching someone die at her hands has festered for long enough to leave an abscess in her soul.
I think a younger Cass might not be as angry. The hurt is still hurt. She knows what happened was wrong, but hasn't really internalized that it was a unique wrong that few other people have had to experience. She probably wouldn't think that people getting turned into weapons was universal, but it would be a frustrating fact of life. Killing someone was probably something a lot of kids were asked to do, and maybe they were smart enough to do the right thing.
I think she'd be happier, because the self-blame hasn't burrowed as deep, yet. But, in some ways, I think she'd be even more serious. Training was her entire world for so long! She had to learn how to have fun, after. To take time for herself. Her sense of humour feels like it was built on top of the despair, a sign of her strength and recovery, rather than a bit of her previous self peeking through. (Not that she HAS a previous self.)
I think there would also be a LOT more fear. Her self-assurance is based on her experience of being able to handle anyone except Cain. As an eight year old, Cain was a lot bigger percentage of 'anyone' than he is at 16! (Ie. Cain was 25% of her spars when she was 8, and could drag her out of other spars at any time. At 16, she's built up another 8 years of non-Cain conflicts where she's been able to stop anything she doesn't like.) She also didn't know how few Cains there were when she was 8. Anyone might want to turn her into a weapon. Anyone might have his level of skill.
But she'd also have a much easier time learning to work with others. 8 years of taking care of yourself changes someone. 8 years of learning that no one can do the things you do, that everyone needs protecting. I don't think a preteen Cass would be the type to nerve strike Spoiler because she's too weak to help. She'd be more likely to assume Steph knew what she was getting into.
I think her smile would be similar. Her simple staright-forwardness. Her rigid beliefs about what is right (but maybe not her reaction to people disagreeing).
I don't think she's changed a lot since she left David Cain. But she has changed.
