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nimbusterUser Name/Nick: juli
User DW:thessjuli
E-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact: thessjuli on plurk & discord
Other Characters Currently In-Game: none
Character Name: Cloud Strife
Series: Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (original timeline)
Age: 23
From When?: Cloud does technically die near the end of the movie, but I'm taking him from closer to the beginning; there's a point where he suffers a bad geostigma attack at the church and passes out, and it takes him some time to recover. I'm headcanoning that this attack killed him instead for purposes of this game.
Inmate Justification: At this point in Cloud's story, he's already gone on his original journey and saved the world, but he's never processed any of the grief or guilt or self-loathing he carries with him. This includes guilt over awful things that he tried but failed to prevent and guilt over awful things that he himself contributed to while under Sephiroth's influence, which he views as having happened because he was too weak to resist it. That alone might have been enough, but in the two years since then, he's gradually descended into a depression spiral that's caused him to abandon his friends and found family, leaving them to fend for themselves in a post-apocalyptic world and keeping important secrets from them. He needs a warden's help to work through all of that and get himself onto a path that leads to recovery, reconnecting with those who care about him, and taking action to do his part in the rebuilding of their world.
Arrival: Cloud agreed to become an inmate, he wants a second chance to get his shit together and be there for the people who need him this time instead of wallowing in the past.
Abilities/Powers: Normally, despite never having actually been a SOLDIER himself, Cloud has all the same mako enhancements they do - he's essentially a supersoldier, infused with the energy of the planet itself (which is made of souls, fun!) and alien DNA from a psychic predator from space. So he's got enhanced strength, agility, speed, precision, stamina, reflexes, coordination, athleticism...pretty much all physical attributes, plus slightly enhanced senses and healing. He's also got materia that he can mount in a weapon or armor, and he knows how to draw power and knowledge from it to do things like enhance skills, cast magic spells, and perform special techniques.
He's also what the original game calls a "Sephiroth clone," which is not really a power so much as a thing inflicted on him, but it is relevant since Sephiroth is here on the barge. He's infused with a particular kind of alien DNA that mimics Sephiroth's own, making him susceptible to the Jenova Reunion effect. It's really more curse than ability, but it means Cloud can vaguely sense the presence of other clones, subconsciously track Sephiroth down without even realizing he's doing it, theoretically communicate telepathically through the Jenova hivemind, and even absorb memories from other clones/SOLDIERs - though he has no control over any of it, so it's mostly an avenue by which he can be manipulated.
As an inmate, he'd lose some of the mako enhancements, since SOLDIERs were made for nothing but battle - the strength, primarily, and probably some if not all of the stamina, speed, and athleticism. I think he could keep some or all of of the coordination, reflexes, healing, and senses, since that's not really stuff he could use against others for the most part without the rest of the enhancements, but I could see losing the reflexes too if need be. The materia takes care of itself since he doesn't have any of his equipment. As for the Jenova stuff, he can't control any of it, so I don't think any of that would need to change - though he could potentially gain some control over it in the future, if he earns it.
Inmate Information: (cw: gaslighting, human experimentation, terrorism, psychological trauma/torture, emotional abuse, delusions, mind control)
When Cloud was a kid, his friend Tifa climbed into the mountains near their village, and some other kids went with her. He followed them out of concern for Tifa. But when it got dangerous, the other kids left her there. Cloud followed her to try bring her back home, and he saved her life when a bridge collapsed, but while Cloud got away relatively unscathed, Tifa was seriously injured. Everyone believed Cloud goaded her into going up there, Tifa's father forbade her from being Cloud's friend, and the village hated him. He ended up developing an arrogant jackass persona to mask his loneliness and terrible self-esteem, and getting into frequent fights despite his small size.
As an army infantryman, Cloud idolized the hero SOLDIER Sephiroth, and pursued his dream of joining SOLDIER himself. He failed multiple times and his self-loathing only got worse. Things improved when he befriended Zack, but when the three of them went on a mission to Cloud's hometown, Sephiroth lost his mind and burned down the whole village. Cloud tried to save his mother, but passed out after texting Zack for help. By the time he came to, everyone was already dead (guilt source #1). He chased Sephiroth up the mountain, despite being a petite, unenhanced normal guy, and arrived at the reactor to find Sephiroth had defeated Zack. Cloud grabbed Zack's sword and stabbed Sephiroth in the back with it. Sephiroth survived and was pissed, smacked Cloud around a bit, and then impaled him. By making his own injuries worse and with his characteristic dogged tenacity, Cloud managed to turn the tables and fling Sephiroth into the reactor's core, killing him. Cloud and Zack would have bled out there if they hadn't been captured by an evil scientist and experimented on.
They were imprisoned for four years, so Cloud went from a 16-year-old teenager to a 20-year-old adult while he was mostly catatonic. His mind wasn't stable enough to handle the mako treatments and Jenova cell transfusions, so he suffered massive brain damage. He was still catatonic when Zack busted them out, and stayed that way for another year while Zack kept them both alive on the run. Cloud recovered very slowly, and only started somewhat functioning after Zack left him hidden to face down a whole damn army by himself (guilt source #2; he'd later see himself as a burden and the reason Zack died). Zack did take them all down and save Cloud, but it cost him his own life. His dying words were to pass on his sword and dreams to Cloud, saying he'd be Zack's living legacy. Which ended up being way too literal, because between the brain damage and the psychic alien fuckery and the trauma, Cloud's mind ended up absorbing Zack's memories, shuffling his own traumatic memories into a locked box, and rewriting his history so that Cloud thought he was the SOLDIER who did all the things Zack did. The experiments ended up giving him all the abilities of a SOLDIER, and his mind basically wrote a self-insert fanfic that mashed up his own life and Zack's, and made him forget Zack existed (guilt source #3).
As a mercenary, Cloud helped the ecoterrorist group Avalanche blow up a mako reactor in Midgar, causing tons of destruction and collateral deaths. Midgar is a two-tiered city split into eight sectors - the "haves" live on a huge steel plate suspended above the ground, and the "have-nots" live in the slums underneath that plate. Later, the evil corporation that ran everything dropped the entire Sector 7 plate onto the slums below it and blamed Avalanche, killing everyone above and below, including most of Avalanche - who Cloud was hired to protect (guilt sources #4 and 5).
Then Sephiroth returned to a) kill the company's president and steal Jenova's remains, and b) torment Cloud through their psychic connection. Cloud and his friends set off to hunt Sephiroth down. Cloud became increasingly unstable over the course of the journey thanks to Sephiroth screwing with his mind and influencing his behavior, until he finally succumbed to Sephiroth's will and brought him the Black Materia, with which Sephiroth summoned a meteor to destroy the planet (guilt source #6). Aerith, last of the Ancients, prayed to cast Holy, which would protect the planet and destroy the meteor. Sephiroth tried to force Cloud to kill her, but Cloud resisted, so instead he just dropped out of the sky to skewer her to death himself. Cloud, who cared deeply for her, was devastated and blamed himself for her loss (guilt source #7).
Eventually, his friends helped him unscramble his memories. They killed Sephiroth and Jenova, and then Cloud waged a battle of wills with the remnants of Sephiroth left in his head and won, which was the last thing required for Sephiroth to actually die. Meanwhile, the meteor fell and the Lifestream saved the planet, but Midgar was mostly destroyed and thousands of people died. Then Cloud spent two years running a delivery service and living with Tifa, their friend's kid Marlene, and a kid named Denzel that he rescued. During that time, an affliction called geostigma started killing people; Denzel had it when Cloud found him, and Cloud started leaving for longer and longer periods to secretly try to find a cure for Denzel...except then Cloud got geostigma, and at that point the weight of all his trauma and guilt and inability to save or help anyone (in his mind) crushed his spirits entirely. He left home and never went back, living out of Aerith's old church and basically giving up on everything and waiting to die (guilt source #8). He only realized that something worse was brewing when his former enemies hired him to deal with what turned out to be remnants of Sephiroth, who were plotting to bring Sephiroth back to life (again). Cloud returned too late to help Tifa fight them off or stop them from kidnapping the kids (guilt source #9), and then he died (guilt source #10, whoops).
By his canon point, Cloud is a deeply flawed hero who desperately wants to make things right but doesn't know how. At heart, he's shy, awkward, sentimental, compassionate, and loyal. He’s a lovable dork who just wants to feel like he fits in somewhere and be a part of something, but he's also very guarded and tends to get in his own way. He can be blunt and thoughtless, but having actual friends over the course of his story has softened him a bit. Nowadays, that bluntness more often expresses itself as quiet sass and sarcasm. He's a scrappy little brat with a heart of gold, wrapped in layers of trauma, self-loathing, and defense mechanisms. Despite his softer side, he has a certain edge and crassness to him that people wouldn't necessarily expect from his soft, boyish looks, awkward lack of social skills, tendency to sulk, and how easily he gets self-conscious.
He's much harder on himself than others. He often blames himself when bad things happen to others and suffers self-inflicted shame over his failures. What he wants most in the world is forgiveness, but from whom, he's not sure; he ultimately needs to forgive himself, but he'll never get there on his own. He doesn't trust easily, but once that trust is earned, he's a steadfast and protective companion, dutiful and devoted...when he isn't running away from his problems. He's never been afraid to get in over his head to accomplish something, routinely attempting things that aren’t – or shouldn't be – possible for him; he's the quintessential underdog, and having superhuman abilities didn't really change that. As a result, he tends to sympathize with other underdogs and help them out.
When he's at his best, he gives everything his all and keeps trying no matter what. With high stakes, it's determination and a need to redeem himself, an overpowering drive to be there for others. With low stakes, it's his competitive streak and need to impress people; he's a ridiculous show-off even now, though he plays it cool and makes it seem effortless, and when he's on his game, he tends to get cocky and smug. He can be stubborn, grumpy, and reluctant to do anything others want him to do, but he’s kind of a pushover with people he cares about, and once he commits, he really gets into it despite his complaints. He takes pride in his skills, and he's a problem solver with impeccable focus. He's not impatient generally, other than getting tetchy and dismissive with people he dislikes; but when he has a job to do, he wants to get it done, and done right.
Path to Redemption: Cloud needs to overcome his self-loathing, let go of his guilt, and move on from the past, so that he can be there for the people who need him. Milestones might include actually, fully opening up to someone and letting them in, getting truly vulnerable with his feelings and everything he hates about himself; having to make a choice he can't take back between the past and the present/future, and choosing the latter; building a close relationship with someone who knows him completely, inside and out, all his flaws and secrets and shames and dark sides, and still cares about him for who he is; and letting himself rely on others instead of trying to take everything on by himself.
He's already accepted being on the Barge and he's ready to do his time, but he's got too much stubborn pride and attitude to accept actually being wardened that easily. Any warden who tried to order him around or control him too much would only make him less likely to listen to them. A warden who's too hard on him would just drive him further into his self-loathing, but a warden who's too gentle or sympathetic would have a hard time getting through his walls. He'd respond best to a warden who treats him like an equal for the most part but doesn't hesitate to call him out when he needs it and can outstubborn him when they need to. Ideally, they'd have plenty of patience, but would also be good at keeping him busy and focused enough that he doesn't end up spending too much time alone with his thoughts. The most effective way to get through to him is to lean on his compassion, show him how his behavior is affecting others, which will motivate him to try to fix it for their sakes. For things with slightly less personal stakes, he can be motivated by healthy competition and/or rivalry, friendly or otherwise.
History: Here! Everything up through the end of the Original Continuity section.
Sample Network Entry: TDM thread!
Sample RP: TDM thread!
Special Notes: none that I can think of!
User DW:
thessjuliE-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact: thessjuli on plurk & discord
Other Characters Currently In-Game: none
Character Name: Cloud Strife
Series: Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (original timeline)
Age: 23
From When?: Cloud does technically die near the end of the movie, but I'm taking him from closer to the beginning; there's a point where he suffers a bad geostigma attack at the church and passes out, and it takes him some time to recover. I'm headcanoning that this attack killed him instead for purposes of this game.
Inmate Justification: At this point in Cloud's story, he's already gone on his original journey and saved the world, but he's never processed any of the grief or guilt or self-loathing he carries with him. This includes guilt over awful things that he tried but failed to prevent and guilt over awful things that he himself contributed to while under Sephiroth's influence, which he views as having happened because he was too weak to resist it. That alone might have been enough, but in the two years since then, he's gradually descended into a depression spiral that's caused him to abandon his friends and found family, leaving them to fend for themselves in a post-apocalyptic world and keeping important secrets from them. He needs a warden's help to work through all of that and get himself onto a path that leads to recovery, reconnecting with those who care about him, and taking action to do his part in the rebuilding of their world.
Arrival: Cloud agreed to become an inmate, he wants a second chance to get his shit together and be there for the people who need him this time instead of wallowing in the past.
Abilities/Powers: Normally, despite never having actually been a SOLDIER himself, Cloud has all the same mako enhancements they do - he's essentially a supersoldier, infused with the energy of the planet itself (which is made of souls, fun!) and alien DNA from a psychic predator from space. So he's got enhanced strength, agility, speed, precision, stamina, reflexes, coordination, athleticism...pretty much all physical attributes, plus slightly enhanced senses and healing. He's also got materia that he can mount in a weapon or armor, and he knows how to draw power and knowledge from it to do things like enhance skills, cast magic spells, and perform special techniques.
He's also what the original game calls a "Sephiroth clone," which is not really a power so much as a thing inflicted on him, but it is relevant since Sephiroth is here on the barge. He's infused with a particular kind of alien DNA that mimics Sephiroth's own, making him susceptible to the Jenova Reunion effect. It's really more curse than ability, but it means Cloud can vaguely sense the presence of other clones, subconsciously track Sephiroth down without even realizing he's doing it, theoretically communicate telepathically through the Jenova hivemind, and even absorb memories from other clones/SOLDIERs - though he has no control over any of it, so it's mostly an avenue by which he can be manipulated.
As an inmate, he'd lose some of the mako enhancements, since SOLDIERs were made for nothing but battle - the strength, primarily, and probably some if not all of the stamina, speed, and athleticism. I think he could keep some or all of of the coordination, reflexes, healing, and senses, since that's not really stuff he could use against others for the most part without the rest of the enhancements, but I could see losing the reflexes too if need be. The materia takes care of itself since he doesn't have any of his equipment. As for the Jenova stuff, he can't control any of it, so I don't think any of that would need to change - though he could potentially gain some control over it in the future, if he earns it.
Inmate Information: (cw: gaslighting, human experimentation, terrorism, psychological trauma/torture, emotional abuse, delusions, mind control)
When Cloud was a kid, his friend Tifa climbed into the mountains near their village, and some other kids went with her. He followed them out of concern for Tifa. But when it got dangerous, the other kids left her there. Cloud followed her to try bring her back home, and he saved her life when a bridge collapsed, but while Cloud got away relatively unscathed, Tifa was seriously injured. Everyone believed Cloud goaded her into going up there, Tifa's father forbade her from being Cloud's friend, and the village hated him. He ended up developing an arrogant jackass persona to mask his loneliness and terrible self-esteem, and getting into frequent fights despite his small size.
As an army infantryman, Cloud idolized the hero SOLDIER Sephiroth, and pursued his dream of joining SOLDIER himself. He failed multiple times and his self-loathing only got worse. Things improved when he befriended Zack, but when the three of them went on a mission to Cloud's hometown, Sephiroth lost his mind and burned down the whole village. Cloud tried to save his mother, but passed out after texting Zack for help. By the time he came to, everyone was already dead (guilt source #1). He chased Sephiroth up the mountain, despite being a petite, unenhanced normal guy, and arrived at the reactor to find Sephiroth had defeated Zack. Cloud grabbed Zack's sword and stabbed Sephiroth in the back with it. Sephiroth survived and was pissed, smacked Cloud around a bit, and then impaled him. By making his own injuries worse and with his characteristic dogged tenacity, Cloud managed to turn the tables and fling Sephiroth into the reactor's core, killing him. Cloud and Zack would have bled out there if they hadn't been captured by an evil scientist and experimented on.
They were imprisoned for four years, so Cloud went from a 16-year-old teenager to a 20-year-old adult while he was mostly catatonic. His mind wasn't stable enough to handle the mako treatments and Jenova cell transfusions, so he suffered massive brain damage. He was still catatonic when Zack busted them out, and stayed that way for another year while Zack kept them both alive on the run. Cloud recovered very slowly, and only started somewhat functioning after Zack left him hidden to face down a whole damn army by himself (guilt source #2; he'd later see himself as a burden and the reason Zack died). Zack did take them all down and save Cloud, but it cost him his own life. His dying words were to pass on his sword and dreams to Cloud, saying he'd be Zack's living legacy. Which ended up being way too literal, because between the brain damage and the psychic alien fuckery and the trauma, Cloud's mind ended up absorbing Zack's memories, shuffling his own traumatic memories into a locked box, and rewriting his history so that Cloud thought he was the SOLDIER who did all the things Zack did. The experiments ended up giving him all the abilities of a SOLDIER, and his mind basically wrote a self-insert fanfic that mashed up his own life and Zack's, and made him forget Zack existed (guilt source #3).
As a mercenary, Cloud helped the ecoterrorist group Avalanche blow up a mako reactor in Midgar, causing tons of destruction and collateral deaths. Midgar is a two-tiered city split into eight sectors - the "haves" live on a huge steel plate suspended above the ground, and the "have-nots" live in the slums underneath that plate. Later, the evil corporation that ran everything dropped the entire Sector 7 plate onto the slums below it and blamed Avalanche, killing everyone above and below, including most of Avalanche - who Cloud was hired to protect (guilt sources #4 and 5).
Then Sephiroth returned to a) kill the company's president and steal Jenova's remains, and b) torment Cloud through their psychic connection. Cloud and his friends set off to hunt Sephiroth down. Cloud became increasingly unstable over the course of the journey thanks to Sephiroth screwing with his mind and influencing his behavior, until he finally succumbed to Sephiroth's will and brought him the Black Materia, with which Sephiroth summoned a meteor to destroy the planet (guilt source #6). Aerith, last of the Ancients, prayed to cast Holy, which would protect the planet and destroy the meteor. Sephiroth tried to force Cloud to kill her, but Cloud resisted, so instead he just dropped out of the sky to skewer her to death himself. Cloud, who cared deeply for her, was devastated and blamed himself for her loss (guilt source #7).
Eventually, his friends helped him unscramble his memories. They killed Sephiroth and Jenova, and then Cloud waged a battle of wills with the remnants of Sephiroth left in his head and won, which was the last thing required for Sephiroth to actually die. Meanwhile, the meteor fell and the Lifestream saved the planet, but Midgar was mostly destroyed and thousands of people died. Then Cloud spent two years running a delivery service and living with Tifa, their friend's kid Marlene, and a kid named Denzel that he rescued. During that time, an affliction called geostigma started killing people; Denzel had it when Cloud found him, and Cloud started leaving for longer and longer periods to secretly try to find a cure for Denzel...except then Cloud got geostigma, and at that point the weight of all his trauma and guilt and inability to save or help anyone (in his mind) crushed his spirits entirely. He left home and never went back, living out of Aerith's old church and basically giving up on everything and waiting to die (guilt source #8). He only realized that something worse was brewing when his former enemies hired him to deal with what turned out to be remnants of Sephiroth, who were plotting to bring Sephiroth back to life (again). Cloud returned too late to help Tifa fight them off or stop them from kidnapping the kids (guilt source #9), and then he died (guilt source #10, whoops).
By his canon point, Cloud is a deeply flawed hero who desperately wants to make things right but doesn't know how. At heart, he's shy, awkward, sentimental, compassionate, and loyal. He’s a lovable dork who just wants to feel like he fits in somewhere and be a part of something, but he's also very guarded and tends to get in his own way. He can be blunt and thoughtless, but having actual friends over the course of his story has softened him a bit. Nowadays, that bluntness more often expresses itself as quiet sass and sarcasm. He's a scrappy little brat with a heart of gold, wrapped in layers of trauma, self-loathing, and defense mechanisms. Despite his softer side, he has a certain edge and crassness to him that people wouldn't necessarily expect from his soft, boyish looks, awkward lack of social skills, tendency to sulk, and how easily he gets self-conscious.
He's much harder on himself than others. He often blames himself when bad things happen to others and suffers self-inflicted shame over his failures. What he wants most in the world is forgiveness, but from whom, he's not sure; he ultimately needs to forgive himself, but he'll never get there on his own. He doesn't trust easily, but once that trust is earned, he's a steadfast and protective companion, dutiful and devoted...when he isn't running away from his problems. He's never been afraid to get in over his head to accomplish something, routinely attempting things that aren’t – or shouldn't be – possible for him; he's the quintessential underdog, and having superhuman abilities didn't really change that. As a result, he tends to sympathize with other underdogs and help them out.
When he's at his best, he gives everything his all and keeps trying no matter what. With high stakes, it's determination and a need to redeem himself, an overpowering drive to be there for others. With low stakes, it's his competitive streak and need to impress people; he's a ridiculous show-off even now, though he plays it cool and makes it seem effortless, and when he's on his game, he tends to get cocky and smug. He can be stubborn, grumpy, and reluctant to do anything others want him to do, but he’s kind of a pushover with people he cares about, and once he commits, he really gets into it despite his complaints. He takes pride in his skills, and he's a problem solver with impeccable focus. He's not impatient generally, other than getting tetchy and dismissive with people he dislikes; but when he has a job to do, he wants to get it done, and done right.
Path to Redemption: Cloud needs to overcome his self-loathing, let go of his guilt, and move on from the past, so that he can be there for the people who need him. Milestones might include actually, fully opening up to someone and letting them in, getting truly vulnerable with his feelings and everything he hates about himself; having to make a choice he can't take back between the past and the present/future, and choosing the latter; building a close relationship with someone who knows him completely, inside and out, all his flaws and secrets and shames and dark sides, and still cares about him for who he is; and letting himself rely on others instead of trying to take everything on by himself.
He's already accepted being on the Barge and he's ready to do his time, but he's got too much stubborn pride and attitude to accept actually being wardened that easily. Any warden who tried to order him around or control him too much would only make him less likely to listen to them. A warden who's too hard on him would just drive him further into his self-loathing, but a warden who's too gentle or sympathetic would have a hard time getting through his walls. He'd respond best to a warden who treats him like an equal for the most part but doesn't hesitate to call him out when he needs it and can outstubborn him when they need to. Ideally, they'd have plenty of patience, but would also be good at keeping him busy and focused enough that he doesn't end up spending too much time alone with his thoughts. The most effective way to get through to him is to lean on his compassion, show him how his behavior is affecting others, which will motivate him to try to fix it for their sakes. For things with slightly less personal stakes, he can be motivated by healthy competition and/or rivalry, friendly or otherwise.
History: Here! Everything up through the end of the Original Continuity section.
Sample Network Entry: TDM thread!
Sample RP: TDM thread!
Special Notes: none that I can think of!
