☁ cloud strife (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spikyheaded) wrote2023-02-10 01:13 pm
spikyheaded) wrote2023-02-10 01:13 pm
Entry tags:
application | songerein
Player: Mart
Age: 34
Contact: riyuji on Discord,![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
riyuji
Current Characters: Beat |stillarhino
Character: Cloud Strife
Canon: Final Fantasy VII Remake | Post-Final Fantasy VII Remake, as the party makes their way to Kalm
Age: 21
Background Information:
Cloud from the wiki
No CRAU to note.
Personality:
Upon first meeting Cloud, he presents himself as cocky and arrogant. Having been in SOLDIER and becoming a mercenary, he is battle-hardened and only seems to be putting in the work to get paid. That's why he took the job after all. This is shown in his first interactions with Barret's cell of AVALANCHE. Cloud and Barret butt heads at the start and he remains dismissive of the other three, reminding them that he isn't here to make friends, much to their dismay. Because of this, he also has a tendency to be snarky and rude when spoken to. He does keep his eye on the prize though, able to keep a cool head, focused on getting the job done.
But after some time, even those rough edges begin to soften once you get to know him. Despite doing his best to keep people at arm's length, one of Cloud's goals is to become a hero. That old side of Cloud sometimes slips through the facade and it shows considering the lengths that he is willing to go to protect the people around him, especially those that he cares about. The first instance this is seen is when Reactor 1 begins to fall apart and Jessie is separated from himself and Barret. Despite the danger, Cloud makes his way over to her, getting her out of the debris that has her pinned down and making sure she is able to get back to safety.
This shows once again when he learns that Tifa had gone off on her own to learn about why Don Corneo was snooping around Sector 7, making sure that she's safe by sneaking in with Aerith while cross-dressing. Despite his discomfort in doing so, he knows that it was needed to be done to ensure Tifa's safety. Even Aerith is saved by him time and time again, with the joke that he has to as her bodyguard. He protected her when Reno first came to the Sector 5 church in search of Aerith, and went to go after her with the rest of the party when she was taken by Shinra, even if it meant waltzing sneaking into the belly of the beast that was Shinra HQ. Besides striving to become a hero, his actions speak volumes of the loyalty he has to his friends. All Cloud really wants is to do whatever he needs to protect them, even going as far as putting himself in harm's way if necessary.
It is also worth noting that Cloud may sometimes resort to violence if he feels that it would solve the problem, but many of his friends have tried to stop him if there are other ways to go about it. His more violent streaks have a tendency to lean towards excessiveness, enough to even have Tifa comment about it, saying that he was scaring her.
He does have a softer spot when it comes to Tifa though (uwu), having grown up in the same village as neighbors to one another. Even if they weren't close at a young age, he's always looked out for her. After the death of Tifa's mother, she ventured off to Mt. Nibel, thinking that she could meet her mother there. Cloud was the only one among the kids who stayed with Tifa, even trying to save her when she began to fall off the bridge, though he was unable to do so in the end. Later, when the two were teens, Cloud confided with her when he had plans of becoming a SOLDIER. It was then that she made him promise her that he would come and save her "because that was what heroes do". Though hesitant at first, he agrees to the promise, and it is that same promise that he tries to keep over and over again. Even now that they're older, he still feels the need to keep that promise to her.
But for all the cockiness that Cloud puts up, he actually comes off as socially awkward at times. There are just some things he has trouble reacting to, such as Jessie's flirtatious advances on him or even Aerith's teasing and playfulness. Other times he finds it difficult to find the words he needs to carry a conversation, instead choosing to brush it off with a sigh or a grunt or even ending the conversation outright. Sometimes it do be that way, and he just can't come up with a response.
Over the course of four years since the Nibelheim incident, Hojo experimented on both him and Zack, injecting them with Jenova Cells and exposing them to mako which led to Cloud's enhanced abilities. But it was also because of this exposure to mako that Cloud's body succumbed to mako poisoning. This left him weak and unresponsive and needed Zack to carry and care for him for almost another year, leading up to Zack's death.
The Nibelheim incident, Hojo's Sephiroth Clone experiments, and the trauma of Zack's death all led to Cloud's unstable state of mind. The heavy exposure to mako disrupted his cognitive abilities, causing him to unknowingly fill in the blanks of his memories with a narrative that suited him and the new identity that he had created. In his mind, he had replaced Zack's existence completely with his own, believing that he had made it all the way to SOLDIER First Class and was present at Nibelhiem with Sephiroth in Zack's place five years prior.
The dissonance between this persona in his mind and reality is so strong, that Cloud is racked by constant headaches when something goes against what he believes he remembers. This happens time and time again throughout the Remake, like when he recalls Tifa at the Nibelheim reactor during the Sector 5 reactor bombing, or when Aerith merely mentions Zack's name. Though he constantly brushes it off and pretends to be all right, he merely alludes to the past that he believes before deflecting to take the attention away from him turning him into quite the unreliable narrator.
Veni veni venias, Sephiroth's a big jackass.
This brings us to Sephiroth. The man who once served as Cloud's hero constantly taunts him in his broken psyche, reminding him over and over again about the Nibelheim incident in all of his memory's distorted glory. While most of this hasn't been explored yet in the Remake, the Jenova cells within Cloud made it so Sephiroth could use manipulate him, using Cloud as a puppet to suit his needs though Cloud does try to fight back. More about this may be touched on should I choose to canon update him after the future releases of the game.
Abilities & Inventory:
Cloud's abilities from the wiki
Although Cloud never made it to the ranks of SOLDIER, he has always had always been good at handling a sword, even as an infantryman for Shinra. Due to the mako experimentation done on him, his abilities were enhanced even further, basically turning him into a supersoldier. He is now stronger than most—which would explain why he could carry a broadsword such as the Buster Sword with relative ease—while also gaining faster reflexes and agility.
Cloud is also quite acrobatic in his own right, able to backflip and dodge his way around attacks, and still look good doing so. After all, he can stick a three-point landing while holding out a broadsword with one hand. Like, are you kidding me?
Even prior to the enhancements, it's hinted that Cloud has decent endurance as he can keep up with Zack when it came to scaling mountains. He attributed it to being a country boy as well, having hailed from the mountain town of Nibelheim.
With the help of materia, Cloud can also cast spells. These can be offensive, defensive, buffs, debuffs, healing, or summoning depending on the materia type on his person.
To round out Cloud's list of many talents and abilities, he is also proficient in a number of vehicles, most especially with a motorcycle. While on one, he can do fancy maneuvers and perform attacks with his sword even with a passenger riding along with him. Though this part has not yet been explored in the Remake, Cloud could also ride a chocobo and snowboard with ease.
For his inventory, Cloud will be bringing in the Buster Sword (Kassie and I have discussed this), the clothes on his back, lightning materia, healing materia, ice materia, and Shiva materia.
Suitability & Plans:
I've joked with a number of people that I am mostly apping Cloud for the drama. While this is still the predominant driving force behind my decision, I think this drama could also lead toward Cloud learning more about himself. Due to the experimentation, the Jenova cells injected into him, and the trauma of the Nibelheim incident to Zack's death, Cloud is a fragment of his past self being held together by the glue that is this facade he's made up for himself. While he's able to figure that out with the help of Tifa much later on in the continuity of the original game, it would be interesting to explore how he would go about it in a different setting.
Add to the fact that one of the things that triggered his change in personality and trauma is alive and well in the form of Zack, it'll be like throwing kerosene in this already large dumpster fire. Did someone say noctaere speedrun, any %?
On a less depressing note, it would also be interesting to explore the side of Cloud as a mercenary. That was what he had originally been going for prior to joining AVALANCE and their ecoterrorism agenda after all. Even if this place may not have actual money, it would be interesting how willing he would be to put his skills to the test. Maybe it'll even show others glimpses of the less hardened Cloud as well in the process.
tl;dr: The bottom line is drama.
Test Drive Sample: Here, and here
Questions: How did this happen?
Age: 34
Contact: riyuji on Discord,
Current Characters: Beat |
stillarhinoCharacter: Cloud Strife
Canon: Final Fantasy VII Remake | Post-Final Fantasy VII Remake, as the party makes their way to Kalm
Age: 21
Background Information:
No CRAU to note.
Personality:
But after some time, even those rough edges begin to soften once you get to know him. Despite doing his best to keep people at arm's length, one of Cloud's goals is to become a hero. That old side of Cloud sometimes slips through the facade and it shows considering the lengths that he is willing to go to protect the people around him, especially those that he cares about. The first instance this is seen is when Reactor 1 begins to fall apart and Jessie is separated from himself and Barret. Despite the danger, Cloud makes his way over to her, getting her out of the debris that has her pinned down and making sure she is able to get back to safety.
This shows once again when he learns that Tifa had gone off on her own to learn about why Don Corneo was snooping around Sector 7, making sure that she's safe by sneaking in with Aerith while cross-dressing. Despite his discomfort in doing so, he knows that it was needed to be done to ensure Tifa's safety. Even Aerith is saved by him time and time again, with the joke that he has to as her bodyguard. He protected her when Reno first came to the Sector 5 church in search of Aerith, and went to go after her with the rest of the party when she was taken by Shinra, even if it meant waltzing sneaking into the belly of the beast that was Shinra HQ. Besides striving to become a hero, his actions speak volumes of the loyalty he has to his friends. All Cloud really wants is to do whatever he needs to protect them, even going as far as putting himself in harm's way if necessary.
It is also worth noting that Cloud may sometimes resort to violence if he feels that it would solve the problem, but many of his friends have tried to stop him if there are other ways to go about it. His more violent streaks have a tendency to lean towards excessiveness, enough to even have Tifa comment about it, saying that he was scaring her.
He does have a softer spot when it comes to Tifa though (uwu), having grown up in the same village as neighbors to one another. Even if they weren't close at a young age, he's always looked out for her. After the death of Tifa's mother, she ventured off to Mt. Nibel, thinking that she could meet her mother there. Cloud was the only one among the kids who stayed with Tifa, even trying to save her when she began to fall off the bridge, though he was unable to do so in the end. Later, when the two were teens, Cloud confided with her when he had plans of becoming a SOLDIER. It was then that she made him promise her that he would come and save her "because that was what heroes do". Though hesitant at first, he agrees to the promise, and it is that same promise that he tries to keep over and over again. Even now that they're older, he still feels the need to keep that promise to her.
But for all the cockiness that Cloud puts up, he actually comes off as socially awkward at times. There are just some things he has trouble reacting to, such as Jessie's flirtatious advances on him or even Aerith's teasing and playfulness. Other times he finds it difficult to find the words he needs to carry a conversation, instead choosing to brush it off with a sigh or a grunt or even ending the conversation outright. Sometimes it do be that way, and he just can't come up with a response.
Over the course of four years since the Nibelheim incident, Hojo experimented on both him and Zack, injecting them with Jenova Cells and exposing them to mako which led to Cloud's enhanced abilities. But it was also because of this exposure to mako that Cloud's body succumbed to mako poisoning. This left him weak and unresponsive and needed Zack to carry and care for him for almost another year, leading up to Zack's death.
The Nibelheim incident, Hojo's Sephiroth Clone experiments, and the trauma of Zack's death all led to Cloud's unstable state of mind. The heavy exposure to mako disrupted his cognitive abilities, causing him to unknowingly fill in the blanks of his memories with a narrative that suited him and the new identity that he had created. In his mind, he had replaced Zack's existence completely with his own, believing that he had made it all the way to SOLDIER First Class and was present at Nibelhiem with Sephiroth in Zack's place five years prior.
The dissonance between this persona in his mind and reality is so strong, that Cloud is racked by constant headaches when something goes against what he believes he remembers. This happens time and time again throughout the Remake, like when he recalls Tifa at the Nibelheim reactor during the Sector 5 reactor bombing, or when Aerith merely mentions Zack's name. Though he constantly brushes it off and pretends to be all right, he merely alludes to the past that he believes before deflecting to take the attention away from him turning him into quite the unreliable narrator.
This brings us to Sephiroth. The man who once served as Cloud's hero constantly taunts him in his broken psyche, reminding him over and over again about the Nibelheim incident in all of his memory's distorted glory. While most of this hasn't been explored yet in the Remake, the Jenova cells within Cloud made it so Sephiroth could use manipulate him, using Cloud as a puppet to suit his needs though Cloud does try to fight back. More about this may be touched on should I choose to canon update him after the future releases of the game.
Abilities & Inventory:
Although Cloud never made it to the ranks of SOLDIER, he has always had always been good at handling a sword, even as an infantryman for Shinra. Due to the mako experimentation done on him, his abilities were enhanced even further, basically turning him into a supersoldier. He is now stronger than most—which would explain why he could carry a broadsword such as the Buster Sword with relative ease—while also gaining faster reflexes and agility.
Cloud is also quite acrobatic in his own right, able to backflip and dodge his way around attacks, and still look good doing so. After all, he can stick a three-point landing while holding out a broadsword with one hand. Like, are you kidding me?
Even prior to the enhancements, it's hinted that Cloud has decent endurance as he can keep up with Zack when it came to scaling mountains. He attributed it to being a country boy as well, having hailed from the mountain town of Nibelheim.
With the help of materia, Cloud can also cast spells. These can be offensive, defensive, buffs, debuffs, healing, or summoning depending on the materia type on his person.
To round out Cloud's list of many talents and abilities, he is also proficient in a number of vehicles, most especially with a motorcycle. While on one, he can do fancy maneuvers and perform attacks with his sword even with a passenger riding along with him. Though this part has not yet been explored in the Remake, Cloud could also ride a chocobo and snowboard with ease.
For his inventory, Cloud will be bringing in the Buster Sword (Kassie and I have discussed this), the clothes on his back, lightning materia, healing materia, ice materia, and Shiva materia.
Suitability & Plans:
Add to the fact that one of the things that triggered his change in personality and trauma is alive and well in the form of Zack, it'll be like throwing kerosene in this already large dumpster fire. Did someone say noctaere speedrun, any %?
On a less depressing note, it would also be interesting to explore the side of Cloud as a mercenary. That was what he had originally been going for prior to joining AVALANCE and their ecoterrorism agenda after all. Even if this place may not have actual money, it would be interesting how willing he would be to put his skills to the test. Maybe it'll even show others glimpses of the less hardened Cloud as well in the process.
tl;dr: The bottom line is drama.
Test Drive Sample: Here, and here
Questions: How did this happen?