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app for rekindle
OOC Information
Player Name: Raaj
Player Age: 25 oooold
Player Contact: kilraaj @ plurk, raaj @ dw, kokiaru @ aim
Player/Character HMD: http://pyritic.dreamwidth.org/1444.html
Other characters in game: nope
IC Information
Character Name: Cloud Strife
Character Canon: [OU] Final Fantasy VII
Character Age/Gender: 22/m
Canon Point: Case of Tifa- after bringing Denzel back to Seventh Heaven, but before his departure.
Character Canon History: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cloud_Strife
Character Personality: "You sure are messed up, Cloud!"
Cloud's undergone a lot of trauma in his life and it's left him broken in some ways, though he's greatly patched himself up with the help of friends. In fact at this point in life that he's taken from, it wouldn't be unfair to say he's hopeful about the future--but there are lurking issues that will worsen with canon's progression and send him into a temporary depressive state. A lot of bad things have happened in the last few years of his life, including two people dear to him dying, and Cloud tends to blame himself for having let those things happen, feeling he could have done something if he'd been stronger, better. Still, he's realized he can't do anything about the lives that have already been lost, and needs to focus on the lives that can still be saved. It's once his life is about to be cut short as well that he absolutely falls apart.
But he won't contract the fatal disease of Geostigma here, so let's talk about his traits in more ordinary times. He's shy. It seems ridiculous in a man who carts around a sword nearly as big as he is, who's led a small team to avert the apocalypse, but Cloud has been shy since his childhood, when he earnestly watched the girl next door for a chance to approach her but only got up the courage once--when he was able to brag about what he planned to do once he left town. It shows in his mannerisms, as it's not uncommon for him to duck his head away instead of looking the person he's talking to in the eye during personal talks. He also has a tendency to not show changes in emotion anywhere except around his eyes unless he's really relaxed. He can be defensive, and a person rubbing him wrong will soon find out that he can be a bit of a brat--he's not above a cheap shot on someone he feels deserves it, and lesser annoyances he'll probably set to "ignore" and simply walk away. He's not a stone wall, though. He responds easily to friendliness, and the warmest individuals can get him swapping jokes at first meeting. But he'll still clam up when awkward personal issues arise, as his first friend Zack discovered when asking about things between him and the neighbor girl.
But his shyness doesn't stop him from getting things done as he's capable of mostly setting it aside when addressing issues that aren't about him. He's forthright in getting information he needs, and when other friends are having personal crises he tries to offer help. This doesn't always succeed, as he's rather emotionally inexperienced between his shyness and the five years he lost to experimentation, but he does try. He's also not afraid to call a friend out if they're doing something that hurts the group or seems like it might hurt themselves.
And...sometimes he is perfectly willing to talk about personal issues. Between his mental trauma, shifts in writing him and his own plain contrariness, Cloud can be a contradictory character at times, summed up as "He always does A, except when he does B, which is the complete opposite." When he is plain in talking about his personal issues, he's very likely either apologizing for them, or feeling completely out of his depth to figure out a course of action with them on his own. (Sometimes he feels completely out of his depth but thinks he knows what to do, in which case he's probably due a lecture because this is exactly when he makes his dumbest decisions. Like the running off to die alone.) Or, he recognizes that something his friends are struggling is similar to something he's felt, and lays his feelings bare to try to make things clearer for them. If it's not obvious, there's a lot Cloud would do for his friends. He acts a bit differently around each of them and can be quite the dry sarcastic wag with some of them (Barret and Yuffie typically bear the brunt of his teasing), but he cares for each of them, having had so few friends in his life.
He also cares a lot about their opinions, especially Tifa's, the girl he used to live next to. In part this is because his self-esteem has always been feeble. Sephiroth was able to prey on his mind this way, effectively collapsing Cloud's sense of identity when he made Cloud see that Tifa doubted he was actually the boy she'd grown up with. Shaky in his own memories after years of horrible experimentation, Cloud had relied on her recognition of him to confirm that he was Cloud; with that reassurance gone, he first begged the scientist who'd supposedly created him--but whom he ordinarily hated--to recognize him as at least a successful specimen, and when denied even that, surrendered to Sephiroth's will, believing himself a worthless puppet. Yet at the end of the game, he's able to slash Sephiroth's will to shreds in a battle of spirits. The difference? His identity had been reestablished, first of all, but just as importantly his friends had accepted him as who he really was--not the strong SOLDIER he'd fooled himself into acting as, but the kid who never really made it but was determined to keep going until things were made right. But on his own, he just sinks into doubt about himself. He told Tifa after the end of the game that he'd always failed his attempts to start a new life, and that the reason he thought he'd be successful this time is because he has her. Not because anything's changed about him, even though he just defeated Sephiroth to settle things with himself; because he has her. One of the factors leading up to his depressive state is that upon contracting Geostigma he stops believing he can help anyone, whether friend or his makeshift family, and judges himself as not worthy of having them in what remains of his life. And then he realizes how much trouble they're in, pulls himself together, and saves the day.
Basically: As much as he wants to fight for himself, he doubts his worth too much to really do anything beyond knee-jerk flashes of temper without additional motivation to protect others. Once he's responsible for someone else, he will fix things. (Or just about kill himself trying and then beating himself up for the failure.)
You'd think we'd have covered Cloud's mental weaknesses enough with that alone, but there are a few others. He has mild claustrophobia, which very likely stems from being locked in a glass chamber that eroded his sense of self for four years. He has motion sickness that's purely psychosomatic: it doesn't bother him as much when he's driving, and in fact didn't bother him at all when he thought he was the tough SOLDIER, flippantly telling Yuffie (who suffers from it as well) that he didn't know what having motion sickness was like. That, too: he's completely mixed around his life experiences from trauma, Jenova's influence and overexposure to the Lifestream. While he's recovered significant points of it, it's not all. The man has had to learn most of his vegetables all over again, for heaven's sake.
But he'll learn them. While not a genius by any means, when Cloud wants to learn something he's serious about it, and will either track down the person he needs to ask or devour books on the topic. He gives all of the main gameplay tutorials ICly, tells Yuffie what he's read about motion sickness to help her, and has started reading medical books in an attempt to figure out what's causing the disease of geostigma and how to stop it--and he's certainly got no medical training. Just a pressing need to find a cure for Denzel, who has the fatal disease. He's very studious.
Though practical, serious, and just plain awkward, occasionally he'll show a sense of humor in teasing remarks, best seen with Barret ("hm…so you were worried about me!"), Aerith ("funny…I thought you were cut out to be in SOLDIER?") and Yuffie ("say something!" "………..something.") He's not so much witty (in fact, Case of Tifa says his naming ideas are all downright boring) as he is dryly sarcastic or willing to seize an obvious joke to have fun with a friend. He's from the country and though it's often hidden, his hick vocabulary and dorkiness stand out when they do pop up. Of course, part of the humor around him is just how dry or awkward he can be; he's definitely the straight man of the group. And he has such a terrible time saying "no" when surprised. Probably that whole wanting approval thing.
AU Information: n/a
Character Abilities: Enhanced Strength and Swordsmanship. Cloud wields a variety of huge swords that simply aren't possible to use as effective weapons for normal humans and not only uses them effectively, but cleaves through buildings with them.
Limit Breaks. Any Gaian is capable of using their spirit energy to perform extraordinary feats when pushed to their limit. And when you're already extraordinary—that's a lot of feating, okay. Cloud's limit breaks are for the most part using his spirit energy to make his sword strokes even more devastating.
Durability. A SOLDIER can survive falls up from much higher up than would be expected of a person. Cloud's a special case again for having defied expectations while unenhanced, too. A fall that left Tifa in a coma only gave him scraped knees, and when a sword was stabbed into his torso, he not only had the (questionably) brilliant idea to use it as a lever to counter, he could actually carry the action out. Yes, he lifted Sephiroth, his stronger and larger attacker, and whipped him off to the side using the sword that was still in him. Not to mention he has survived two instances of mako poisoning, both times noted as a case too severe to ever likely recover.
Adaptability. This applies to all AVALANCHE really, but in Cloud it's especially pronounced and goes hand-in-hand with his determination. Though he might need some initial encouragement, once he's sold on something being the only method that will work, even if it seems crazy or extreme to him, he goes in and makes it work. This ranges from things like going undercover as a woman to performing an unrehearsed drill routine in the parade of the company that wants him dead to the most extreme of case learning to pilot a submarine from off the manual in a time crunch and subsequently downing another submarine that had armed escorts…in spite of psychosomatic motion sickness and mild claustrophobia. Arguably this is the Power of Plot, given that he's not genius material, but supplementary material has even made a note of this tendency of his. He just seems to be able to temporarily set aside any personal issues, even the mental ones, for what needs to be done and the skill he needs for that. He can be an eerily good imitator and actor at times.
Materia Usage. Again, anyone who knows how to use materia and has the mental fortitude can cast spells, the nature of which depends on what they're carrying. Cloud will actually not be carrying any due to his decision to give all healing materia to Yuffie and keep the dangerous ones hidden away, but I'm noting it in case they ever do enter the setting.
Mechanics. Cloud has enough knowledge of vehicles to do maintenance and upgrades on his motorcycle. He also somehow came up with a design for a sword that's made up of six smaller swords, because goodness knows you can solve most problems if you have a sufficient number of swords to chuck at it.
Character Inventory: First Tsurugi, a fusion sword made up of six smaller blades (no, seriously); his cell phone (sadly no signal); some gil
Samples: Vegetable buyer. He'd talked to Barret about finding their "suspended realities", their normal lives, and he'd known his probably wouldn't be anything he could predict, but...
Vegetable buyer.
It was still a job title he was getting used to. Not least because he was trying to discreetly crack open his book as soon as the seller was distracted to make sure he'd gotten the right vegetable. Tifa had laughed that time he'd brought back radishes instead of carrots, but he was pretty sure it hadn't actually been funny, just--unbelievable. Someone his age should know the difference, and he'd caused trouble for the bar that day.
Now he saved time and brought an illustrated book with him to make sure the orders were correct, and he gave a nod of satisfaction to himself as he found the bookmark once again. Right vegetable. On time. Tifa's work would go smoothly today.
Maybe it was taking his job a little too seriously to doublecheck things like this, but he knew that soon the responsibility for supplies would be solely his. Tifa's job was preparing the food and drawing the customers in as the bartender, and Barret...
Barret was leaving soon. It brought a slight frown to Cloud's face as he settled his things back in the rented pick-up truck. He didn't want Barret to leave, because it meant his daughter would be left behind. Even Cloud could tell Marlene would miss him...and he was no good with children, so it would probably fall to Tifa to comfort her. But he couldn't begrudge Barret the chance to go and try settling things with himself. Besides, Barret was starting to get moody watching over the bar--he'd always been a man of action. Maybe he couldn't have a peaceful life yet. The thought made Cloud feel sorry for the other man rather than resentful. No, he didn't begrudge Barret for that. He'd just have to pick up any slack himself so Tifa didn't have to worry.
She seemed to worry a lot lately, and he missed her carefree smile. The bar and its customers were helping, gradually; if he focused on keeping that running smoothly, maybe it would be enough.
If it meant learning all these vegetables all over again, that was all right.
Sample thread: from Tu Shanshu.
Player Name: Raaj
Player Age: 25 oooold
Player Contact: kilraaj @ plurk, raaj @ dw, kokiaru @ aim
Player/Character HMD: http://pyritic.dreamwidth.org/1444.html
Other characters in game: nope
IC Information
Character Name: Cloud Strife
Character Canon: [OU] Final Fantasy VII
Character Age/Gender: 22/m
Canon Point: Case of Tifa- after bringing Denzel back to Seventh Heaven, but before his departure.
Character Canon History: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cloud_Strife
Character Personality: "You sure are messed up, Cloud!"
Cloud's undergone a lot of trauma in his life and it's left him broken in some ways, though he's greatly patched himself up with the help of friends. In fact at this point in life that he's taken from, it wouldn't be unfair to say he's hopeful about the future--but there are lurking issues that will worsen with canon's progression and send him into a temporary depressive state. A lot of bad things have happened in the last few years of his life, including two people dear to him dying, and Cloud tends to blame himself for having let those things happen, feeling he could have done something if he'd been stronger, better. Still, he's realized he can't do anything about the lives that have already been lost, and needs to focus on the lives that can still be saved. It's once his life is about to be cut short as well that he absolutely falls apart.
But he won't contract the fatal disease of Geostigma here, so let's talk about his traits in more ordinary times. He's shy. It seems ridiculous in a man who carts around a sword nearly as big as he is, who's led a small team to avert the apocalypse, but Cloud has been shy since his childhood, when he earnestly watched the girl next door for a chance to approach her but only got up the courage once--when he was able to brag about what he planned to do once he left town. It shows in his mannerisms, as it's not uncommon for him to duck his head away instead of looking the person he's talking to in the eye during personal talks. He also has a tendency to not show changes in emotion anywhere except around his eyes unless he's really relaxed. He can be defensive, and a person rubbing him wrong will soon find out that he can be a bit of a brat--he's not above a cheap shot on someone he feels deserves it, and lesser annoyances he'll probably set to "ignore" and simply walk away. He's not a stone wall, though. He responds easily to friendliness, and the warmest individuals can get him swapping jokes at first meeting. But he'll still clam up when awkward personal issues arise, as his first friend Zack discovered when asking about things between him and the neighbor girl.
But his shyness doesn't stop him from getting things done as he's capable of mostly setting it aside when addressing issues that aren't about him. He's forthright in getting information he needs, and when other friends are having personal crises he tries to offer help. This doesn't always succeed, as he's rather emotionally inexperienced between his shyness and the five years he lost to experimentation, but he does try. He's also not afraid to call a friend out if they're doing something that hurts the group or seems like it might hurt themselves.
And...sometimes he is perfectly willing to talk about personal issues. Between his mental trauma, shifts in writing him and his own plain contrariness, Cloud can be a contradictory character at times, summed up as "He always does A, except when he does B, which is the complete opposite." When he is plain in talking about his personal issues, he's very likely either apologizing for them, or feeling completely out of his depth to figure out a course of action with them on his own. (Sometimes he feels completely out of his depth but thinks he knows what to do, in which case he's probably due a lecture because this is exactly when he makes his dumbest decisions. Like the running off to die alone.) Or, he recognizes that something his friends are struggling is similar to something he's felt, and lays his feelings bare to try to make things clearer for them. If it's not obvious, there's a lot Cloud would do for his friends. He acts a bit differently around each of them and can be quite the dry sarcastic wag with some of them (Barret and Yuffie typically bear the brunt of his teasing), but he cares for each of them, having had so few friends in his life.
He also cares a lot about their opinions, especially Tifa's, the girl he used to live next to. In part this is because his self-esteem has always been feeble. Sephiroth was able to prey on his mind this way, effectively collapsing Cloud's sense of identity when he made Cloud see that Tifa doubted he was actually the boy she'd grown up with. Shaky in his own memories after years of horrible experimentation, Cloud had relied on her recognition of him to confirm that he was Cloud; with that reassurance gone, he first begged the scientist who'd supposedly created him--but whom he ordinarily hated--to recognize him as at least a successful specimen, and when denied even that, surrendered to Sephiroth's will, believing himself a worthless puppet. Yet at the end of the game, he's able to slash Sephiroth's will to shreds in a battle of spirits. The difference? His identity had been reestablished, first of all, but just as importantly his friends had accepted him as who he really was--not the strong SOLDIER he'd fooled himself into acting as, but the kid who never really made it but was determined to keep going until things were made right. But on his own, he just sinks into doubt about himself. He told Tifa after the end of the game that he'd always failed his attempts to start a new life, and that the reason he thought he'd be successful this time is because he has her. Not because anything's changed about him, even though he just defeated Sephiroth to settle things with himself; because he has her. One of the factors leading up to his depressive state is that upon contracting Geostigma he stops believing he can help anyone, whether friend or his makeshift family, and judges himself as not worthy of having them in what remains of his life. And then he realizes how much trouble they're in, pulls himself together, and saves the day.
Basically: As much as he wants to fight for himself, he doubts his worth too much to really do anything beyond knee-jerk flashes of temper without additional motivation to protect others. Once he's responsible for someone else, he will fix things. (Or just about kill himself trying and then beating himself up for the failure.)
You'd think we'd have covered Cloud's mental weaknesses enough with that alone, but there are a few others. He has mild claustrophobia, which very likely stems from being locked in a glass chamber that eroded his sense of self for four years. He has motion sickness that's purely psychosomatic: it doesn't bother him as much when he's driving, and in fact didn't bother him at all when he thought he was the tough SOLDIER, flippantly telling Yuffie (who suffers from it as well) that he didn't know what having motion sickness was like. That, too: he's completely mixed around his life experiences from trauma, Jenova's influence and overexposure to the Lifestream. While he's recovered significant points of it, it's not all. The man has had to learn most of his vegetables all over again, for heaven's sake.
But he'll learn them. While not a genius by any means, when Cloud wants to learn something he's serious about it, and will either track down the person he needs to ask or devour books on the topic. He gives all of the main gameplay tutorials ICly, tells Yuffie what he's read about motion sickness to help her, and has started reading medical books in an attempt to figure out what's causing the disease of geostigma and how to stop it--and he's certainly got no medical training. Just a pressing need to find a cure for Denzel, who has the fatal disease. He's very studious.
Though practical, serious, and just plain awkward, occasionally he'll show a sense of humor in teasing remarks, best seen with Barret ("hm…so you were worried about me!"), Aerith ("funny…I thought you were cut out to be in SOLDIER?") and Yuffie ("say something!" "………..something.") He's not so much witty (in fact, Case of Tifa says his naming ideas are all downright boring) as he is dryly sarcastic or willing to seize an obvious joke to have fun with a friend. He's from the country and though it's often hidden, his hick vocabulary and dorkiness stand out when they do pop up. Of course, part of the humor around him is just how dry or awkward he can be; he's definitely the straight man of the group. And he has such a terrible time saying "no" when surprised. Probably that whole wanting approval thing.
AU Information: n/a
Character Abilities: Enhanced Strength and Swordsmanship. Cloud wields a variety of huge swords that simply aren't possible to use as effective weapons for normal humans and not only uses them effectively, but cleaves through buildings with them.
Limit Breaks. Any Gaian is capable of using their spirit energy to perform extraordinary feats when pushed to their limit. And when you're already extraordinary—that's a lot of feating, okay. Cloud's limit breaks are for the most part using his spirit energy to make his sword strokes even more devastating.
Durability. A SOLDIER can survive falls up from much higher up than would be expected of a person. Cloud's a special case again for having defied expectations while unenhanced, too. A fall that left Tifa in a coma only gave him scraped knees, and when a sword was stabbed into his torso, he not only had the (questionably) brilliant idea to use it as a lever to counter, he could actually carry the action out. Yes, he lifted Sephiroth, his stronger and larger attacker, and whipped him off to the side using the sword that was still in him. Not to mention he has survived two instances of mako poisoning, both times noted as a case too severe to ever likely recover.
Adaptability. This applies to all AVALANCHE really, but in Cloud it's especially pronounced and goes hand-in-hand with his determination. Though he might need some initial encouragement, once he's sold on something being the only method that will work, even if it seems crazy or extreme to him, he goes in and makes it work. This ranges from things like going undercover as a woman to performing an unrehearsed drill routine in the parade of the company that wants him dead to the most extreme of case learning to pilot a submarine from off the manual in a time crunch and subsequently downing another submarine that had armed escorts…in spite of psychosomatic motion sickness and mild claustrophobia. Arguably this is the Power of Plot, given that he's not genius material, but supplementary material has even made a note of this tendency of his. He just seems to be able to temporarily set aside any personal issues, even the mental ones, for what needs to be done and the skill he needs for that. He can be an eerily good imitator and actor at times.
Materia Usage. Again, anyone who knows how to use materia and has the mental fortitude can cast spells, the nature of which depends on what they're carrying. Cloud will actually not be carrying any due to his decision to give all healing materia to Yuffie and keep the dangerous ones hidden away, but I'm noting it in case they ever do enter the setting.
Mechanics. Cloud has enough knowledge of vehicles to do maintenance and upgrades on his motorcycle. He also somehow came up with a design for a sword that's made up of six smaller swords, because goodness knows you can solve most problems if you have a sufficient number of swords to chuck at it.
Character Inventory: First Tsurugi, a fusion sword made up of six smaller blades (no, seriously); his cell phone (sadly no signal); some gil
Samples: Vegetable buyer. He'd talked to Barret about finding their "suspended realities", their normal lives, and he'd known his probably wouldn't be anything he could predict, but...
Vegetable buyer.
It was still a job title he was getting used to. Not least because he was trying to discreetly crack open his book as soon as the seller was distracted to make sure he'd gotten the right vegetable. Tifa had laughed that time he'd brought back radishes instead of carrots, but he was pretty sure it hadn't actually been funny, just--unbelievable. Someone his age should know the difference, and he'd caused trouble for the bar that day.
Now he saved time and brought an illustrated book with him to make sure the orders were correct, and he gave a nod of satisfaction to himself as he found the bookmark once again. Right vegetable. On time. Tifa's work would go smoothly today.
Maybe it was taking his job a little too seriously to doublecheck things like this, but he knew that soon the responsibility for supplies would be solely his. Tifa's job was preparing the food and drawing the customers in as the bartender, and Barret...
Barret was leaving soon. It brought a slight frown to Cloud's face as he settled his things back in the rented pick-up truck. He didn't want Barret to leave, because it meant his daughter would be left behind. Even Cloud could tell Marlene would miss him...and he was no good with children, so it would probably fall to Tifa to comfort her. But he couldn't begrudge Barret the chance to go and try settling things with himself. Besides, Barret was starting to get moody watching over the bar--he'd always been a man of action. Maybe he couldn't have a peaceful life yet. The thought made Cloud feel sorry for the other man rather than resentful. No, he didn't begrudge Barret for that. He'd just have to pick up any slack himself so Tifa didn't have to worry.
She seemed to worry a lot lately, and he missed her carefree smile. The bar and its customers were helping, gradually; if he focused on keeping that running smoothly, maybe it would be enough.
If it meant learning all these vegetables all over again, that was all right.
Sample thread: from Tu Shanshu.