everblooms | application for escordvi.

PLAYER INFO

Player: Agatha
Age: do you guys remember when the first episode of spongebob aired after the first ever kids choice awards event? im 30 anyway
Invited by: Lae
Contact: pm / discord: arcanescepter
Current Characters: 😧

CHARACTER INFO

Character: Aerith Gainsborough
Canon: Final Fantasy VII: R, post-remake.
Age: 22

Background Information: What's relevant here is everything before original continuity, and then everything under remake continuity. Assuming nothing crazy happens.

Personality:

1) Tell us about who your character is and what someone’s first impression would be upon meeting them.
Much of her time is spent encouraging others, supporting them with a light-hearted sincerity that occasionally bleeds self-assured. In many ways, this is something she has that others don't, making her an excellent sounding board for other party members. Though Cloud is the team leader, arguably, it's actually Aerith's abilities that lead the party and her speeches that give them purpose time and time again. The heart of Final Fantasy VII beats in her chest as she declares that the situation is beyond Shrina, as she defines Sephiroth as being too twisted now for help. It's even Aerith's declaration at the end of Part One that kicks off the chorus of agreement from the rest. "We can," she says, reminding Cloud it's possible to defeat Sephiroth. "We will."

All that said: while traversing the rooftops with Cloud, Aerith quips that she doesn't need someone to take care of her or watch over her. The statement is full of personality, and not merely some sarcastic remark— she animatedly pouts and denies him the knight in shining armor role he keeps trying to wear. In fact, it wouldn't be out of place to call her tone of voice bratty.

Dressed in a flowy, girly pink dress, it's unsurprising that much of Aerith is sometimes mistaken for a princess. In some respects, you could probably posture her as one; the last of the Cetra is a heavy crown to wear, after all. When leading Cloud through Sector 5 on the way to her house, she's recognized by everyone in town. They each call out to her, hammering in that she is, in fact, a pillar in her community. Even the children at the local orphanage, Leaf House, know her as a friend and confidant. The staff eagerly tell you how much the children adore Aerith. People rely on her for odd jobs, or simple tasks. They eagerly place orders for flower arrangements with her— she's good at it, and she knows it, too. Still, all this popularity doesn't hide that she's more or less just the girl next door. She is no monarch; she's a young woman making her name known and carving her own path.

2) What is a driving force your character has? What goals do they have, what motivates them, etc?
Freedom. Aerith has spent her life in captivity, under constant surveillance by a business company looking to exploit her and her people for their own capitalistic gain. After being forced to watch her mother wither away under their experimentations, she's now locked into a veritable birdcage in Sector 5, which has a special zone designated specifically to keep her safe. While she's notably opted to stay there, it wasn't without reasoning. Robbed of the ability to live for herself, Aerith is afraid of what's beyond the steel cage of the slums. She can't challenge herself no matter how much she yearns for autonomy for herself. But there's something else that keeps her inside that cage, too; her love for the passion that lives in the slums, for the people that are surviving and the lives they create for themselves. What's there is so much more to her than just the slums: It's abundant with life.

This love and respect for life eagerly translated into her relationships with people, and it part of what makes her a pillar in Sector 5. She wants to be helpful as possible. She throws herself into the mix for a woman who has never met her, deciding to aid her in any way she can, even if it means wandering into Wall Market.

3) What are their flaws as a character? What is something they've messed up, or have done that they regret?
While Aerith wears her heart on her sleeve, maliciousness comes to Aerith as easily as flying comes to a fish. While not actively unkind, her inability to yield when it comes to living her life and encouraging others has come to a head a few times in her journey. Arguably the most self-serving thing she has ever done is deepen Cloud's dissociative state by projecting the image of Zack onto him. There's a refusal to let go in her, something that is displayed best when when Aerith takes Cloud back to Sector 7, and refuses to end their day together. She insists they hang out in the children's park just outside the gates, not answering his question on how to get them open. This even comes to fruition during the Aerith Resolution scene in Chapter 14, when she reaches out to cup Cloud's cheek with her hand and instructs him not to fall in love with her. "It's not real," she reminds him.

But this stubborn behavior does not only manifest in the force of goading someone's mental distress for her own, regretful benefit. She may be more likely to sacrifice herself for another person (she easily offer herself up for Marlene's freedom, after all), but this comes from a desire to have some semblance of control, too. Aerith is just as likely to insert herself into others' business, even when it gets her (and others!) into trouble. After all, it's her idea to infiltrate Corneo's territory to save Tifa, and she's always right there in the thick of a fight when there's one.

Finally: a number of things roll off her back, but she takes to annoyances badly. Aerith actually rises to insults, taking comments about her appearance to completely reasonable conclusions. She looks to Cloud and requests permission to kill, understandably, or takes it a bit personally when Madame M notes her "plain jane make up." If Cloud says her clothes look "comfortable", she immediately clues into how he doesn't want to say they make an impression, and calls him a fashion critic while folding her arms. An audience member yells out about her doing a pole dance for them, and she actually turns to Cloud and comments that she's actually mad. Want to drag out pissing her off? Interrupt her multiple times while trying to sneak out of her house. She'll call Cloud a jerk the third time she catches him.

Abilities & Inventory:

Here is a reference for her general abilities as a cetra. Aerith is the last living descendent of the Ancients, a race of people who were migratory and attuned to the lifestream to an extreme extent. The lifestream, to be clear, is a supernatural concept in Final Fantasy VII that attempts to explain magic and convey the overarching theme of life and emotional connection, but the general idea is that everyone is attached to it in some way, and returns to it in death. The Cetra's strong tie to the lifestream is what allowed them to travel Gaia, healing it with their magic.

Aerith, as such, has several supernatural abilities that other characters within the FF7 party do not have: she has the ability to connect with others and detect changes in life forces across Gaia as a whole. This allowed her to know when her adoptive mother's husband passed, and her connection with the lifestream, where the deceased return to when they've passed, also helped her convey his dying wish to Elmyra. Within FF7's canon, Aerith is associated with flowers; her home and the church are the only place where flowers are capable of blooming in the slums. While the exact method is unknown, and Aerith herself notes that she isn't quite sure what flowers are saying to her when they talk to her, it is stated within FFVII supplemental material the the Cetra were capable of opening veins of Lifestream energy in Gaia, allowing for the land it threads through to become fertile. Aerith seems to retain this ability since the church and her home are the only places that flowers bloom in FF7. Her Cetral abilities are not explicitly lined out, but seem mostly marked by association with healing.

This line of association makes her limit breaks particularly unique. Healing Wind raises the party's health, and Planet's Protection shields them for a duration of time. She's a powerful spellcaster and overall most power magic user in the game, unsurprisingly.

That said, not only is Aerith a healer, she can give people concussions! A short list of her abilities is here, for reference, but to keep it short: Aerith is a support combat character who casts wards like ATB Ward and Arcane Ward to aid her party. ATB Ward helps party members regain ATB, allowing them to perform more actions, and Arcane Ward triggers spells to cast twice within the ward automatically. In addition to Planet's Protection, she has Lustrous Shield, which protects her. She is also capable of summoning a "familiar" with Fleeing Familiar, seen as a fairy that joins her in combat. Ray of Judgement and Sorcerous Storm deal damage. Additionally, there's also Soul Drain, which saps some MP out of enemies.

Outside the clothes on her back, Aerith would be coming with the Mythril Rod. Narrowing down her staves was an Exercise. She is also coming in with the following materia:
Healing: Curaga on tap (read; MP), baby.
Elemental: Allows Aerith to imbue her attacks with the element associated with the materia.
Ice: Related to Elemental. Lets Aerith use Ice magic.
Summon Bahamut: Allows her to summon Bahamut, so they can hang out.

ARMADA SELECTION

Palaldins, natch. Aerith values freedom, and might even have a bit of a problem with the way paladins runs. It is likely to remind her of how Shinra itself is run, as complex as that issue may be. Regardless, it doesn't dissuade from the fact that their core values align with her own interests. Namely, Aerith's goal is predominantly to leave the world in a better state that she found it in: She yearns for a world that is free and whole, vibrantly surviving. Additionally, much of her behavior is self-sacrificing, putting herself directly in harm's way to protect others. While at the beginning of FF7, she isn't able to even jump down from a rooftoop without being afraid, the same girl barrels right into a brawl with the powerful war hero Sephiroth, purely to protect the world.

SAMPLE

Test Drive Sample: toplevel here.

Questions: Any questions you might have.