Cassandra

"I've been listening to goth music all my life... It never said anything about apples!"

―Cassandra, Pico's School

Cassandra is the main antagonist and final boss of Pico's School. She is the leader of the Goth Punks and the main perpetrator of the school shooting. While she appears to be a rebellious goth kid fed up with the American education system, she is secretly a Penilian, an alien species from outer space, disguised as a human to prepare Earth for an intergalactic invasion.

General information

Physical appearance

Cassandra has short red hair with two points at the front, comparable to demon horns, white eyes and a red sweater. She wears a gray jacket and boots with red soles and bright yellow upside-down crosses. She also has short red nails and has red lipstick on her bottom lip. Cassandra carries a TEC-9 in her right hand and a small dark gray book in her left with a yellow pentagram imprinted on it. She is also sometimes shown with a pair of Penilian eyes, which have yellow sclerae and black irises. She never seems to smile and is constantly scowling. In MindChamber's redesign for a proposed Pico's School remake, she has a more pronounced feminine figure.

As a Penilian, Cassandra looks like every other member of her species. She has two horns protruding down with six horns on the side of her head, and her eyes are reptilian-like. She is also scowling, just like in her human form.

Personality

Superficially, Cassandra appears to be an aloof, angry goth kid who hates society and rules. In reality, Cassandra is a shapeshifting alien mastermind merely manipulating social outcasts to do her dirty work, and actively despises the goth culture she mimics. Cassandra is cunning and manipulative, but also crass, foul-mouthed, arrogant, and impatient. She views herself as superior to humans, much like the rest of her species. She shows no respect for human life, even killing her own henchmen for no other reason than frustration.

In Pico's School: Love Conquers All, despite her disdain for the human race and goth subculture, she genuinely enjoys goth and industrial music, declaring it "the best in all of time and space". She enjoys it so much that when Pico expresses a mutual interest in it, it stops her from shooting up the school. This also seems to suggest that beneath her intimidating and conniving exterior, Cassandra is also very lonely and will jump at any chance for a genuine connection with another person. She is also a furry.

Abilities

Since she is inherently a Penilian, Cassandra naturally possesses the ability to shapeshift between her human and alien forms, as well as shooting energy blasts from her eyes. She is a skilled manipulator, as by the time of her debut, she had already infiltrated human society and easily formed a conglomerate of troubled students by preying on their various vulnerabilities. She is also capable of using firearms, as she is seen wielding a TEC-9. Though she appears to carry a spellbook, it's unclear whether she is also experienced in using demonic magic.

Relationships

The following is based solely on canonical information.
Characters unrelated to the Pico franchise are not included.

Goth Punks

Cassandra is the leader of the Goth Punks. She convinced them to help her commit the school shooting in Pico's School. However, she is only using them as a means to an end, as she has no qualms about killing two of them with her own hands and, by her own words, "[doesn't] give a shit about any of this society crap".

Alucard

In Pico's School: Love Conquers All, Alucard reveals that he only joined Cassandra due to feeling isolated after the experiments he had to endure from his father. Pico theorizes he's been using Cassandra as a substitute for his equally demanding dad, and as he puts it, essentially "trading one self-obsessed jerk for another".

Cyclops

Cassandra's relationship with Cyclops is mostly unknown, but it's clear that she recruited him easily due to his insecurities. As shown in Pico's School: Love Conquers All, he's a genuinely nice person, and only acts out to cope with his self-doubt. His habit of trend-chasing may have also influenced his alliance with Cassandra.

Hanzo

In Pico's School: Love Conquers All, it is revealed that Hanzo didn't want to kill anyone, but took part in the school shooting anyway because he didn't want to disappoint Cassandra, who was the only person that had treated him well.

Pico

Most of Pico and Cassandra's interactions are generally antagonistic in Pico's School, although curiously, he was the only one left alive during Cassandra's massacre of his classroom for unspecified reasons. Cyclops speculates, though in a sarcastic tone, that she had developed a crush on him. Notably, Cassandra has no reaction when Cyclops makes this claim in front of her in Pico's School: Love Conquers All, implying it was a mere joke. However, it is still somewhat ambiguous, as Cassandra neither explicitly confirms nor denies it. Additionally, an official Newgrounds site skin made by PhantomArcade depicts Pico with a box of apples from Cassandra, with the tag attached having a heart on it.

In Pico's School: Love Conquers All, Pico manages to talk Cassandra down from her planned shooting and bonds with her, demonstrating the more positive aspect of humanity. After reflecting upon her original plans of world domination and legitimately feeling remorseful for her manipulative act, the two would become friends, and she is reformed to the side of good.

Nene

Nene and Cassandra were never shown interacting directly in Pico's School. Cassandra perpetrating the school shooting would put Nene through a great deal of distress, consequently triggering her suicidal anxiety. Despite this, according to a drawing uploaded to PhantomArcade's Twitter, Cassandra has supposedly formed an intimate relationship with Nene since then.^[1]

In Pico's School: Love Conquers All, Cassandra has a more pleasant interaction with Nene, who greets her and Pico in the hallways before heading to the bathroom.

History

Pico's School

In Pico's School, Cassandra is first seen at the beginning of the game in Pico's class. When the teacher asks the class who has ever eaten a banana, she angrily runs to the front of the class and states that she never heard about apples in the songs she listened to, and curses out the American education system as "bullshit". Immediately, she proceeds to shoot the teacher and the rest of the students but leaving Pico alive.

She is later seen in the neighboring classroom with Alucard, who he introduces to Pico. She then informs him of the goth's interesting telekinetic powers, chiding Pico about how he'd never heard of him because he was always "too busy being popular" before leaving the room in a hurry. Once Pico defeats Hanzo and enters the Teacher's Lounge, Cassandra is found alongside Spike and Pierre, two other goth punks. She has another conversation with Pico, where he proceeds to lambaste her for failing the test of life, choosing to kill her classmates rather than healthily express her feelings through her favorite art form: goth music.

After being called out for her hypocrisy, she confesses that she doesn't care about this "society crap", and kills the goths alongside her before she finally reveals her true form as a Penilian. The fight begins and Pico needs to shoot her penis to deal damage. Pico shoots the flammable barrel above her, causing it to explode and the wall behind her to collapse. After that, the police help Pico fight her, and she ends up castrated. In the end, this is the last time Cassandra is ever seen, and she is presumed dead.

Pico Roulette

In Pico Roulette, Cassandra appears as a playable character.

Pico's School: Love Conquers All

In Pico's School: Love Conquers All, the game begins as normal except, when Cassandra begins ranting to the class about listening to goth music, Pico reveals he has similar interests in the genre. She is taken aback by this, and it makes her pause long enough in her rampage to be reasoned with and be befriended by him. Pico then takes her along for a walk around the school as he redeems her gang of Goth Punks while showing her the beauty of the world.

After these pleasantries, Cassandra opens up by saying that she is afraid of living on Earth among the human race due to Penilians being naturally gay and fearing many humans are being homophobic. Pico reassures her that not all humans are anti-gay by introducing her to his boyfriend, and they offer to take her to a museum to teach her more about the Earth's culture. Satisfied with the revelation, Cassandra then inquires if there will be furry art in said museum, leaving Pico and Boyfriend in stunned silence.

Friday Night Funkin'

In a livestream, Cassandra was confirmed as an upcoming character in Friday Night Funkin' by one of the game's developers, PhantomArcade. However, he further explained that her inclusion may take a while, but her part in the story was mostly figured out.

The content below is not official to the Pico franchise.

Newgrounds Rumble

In Newgrounds Rumble, Cassandra, in her Penilian form, makes a cameo appearance in the background of the Pico's School stage.

Pico Blast

In Pico Blast, Cassandra makes a cameo appearance in the game's intro through an onscreen photograph, where The Commissioner briefly mentions her as a possible suspect for vandalizing an abandoned train-yard.

Indie Game Battle

In Indie Game Battle, Cassandra appears as one of Pico's alternate costumes.

Quotes

"Enough of this crap!"

―Cassandra, Pico's School

"The American education system is bullshit! Rip the system! End fascism! KEIN MEHRHEIT FÜR DIE MITLEID! BeRzErKeR!"

―Cassandra, Pico's School

"You sure are a nosey bastard, Pico. Have you ever met Alucard? You're always too busy being popular. He has interesting telekinetic powers. Observe!"

―Cassandra, Pico's School

"Not bad, Prico. You are already too late, however. The time of the punk rock/goth gestapo has come! Wish you were part of it? You could have been a nonconformist just like the rest of us! But no - you had to express your individuality in forms other than your clothing."

―Cassandra, Pico's School

"You think I need these fucks to help me kill you?! To be honest, I don't give a shit about any of this society crap. I have other plans for this world."

―Cassandra, Pico's School

"Weird, I didn't think any kids at this school listened to the same music as me."