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[everblooms]

Player: agatha
Contact: hagclub / pm
Age: 30
Current Characters: n/a

Character Name: Aerith Gainsborough
Character Canon: Final Fantasy VII: Remake
Canon Point: post intermission, journeying onwards to kalm.
Age: 22

Crime: Simple and vague: Abandonment.

Background: Aerith's extensive background can be found on the Wiki, but you can ignore stuff from under "original continuity" for the time being.

Personality:

While traversing the rooftops with Cloud, Aerith quips that she doesn't need someone to coddle 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, and she's immediately reminded that sometimes, you do need help when the ladder she had been climbing collapses. Staunchly independent, she yearns to pull her own weight in the world, existing outside influence of another person every step of her life— though maybe that isn't the best time for her to assert that.

As a child, Aerith was raised in a lab, confined to one room with her mother. Every day, her mother was taken away and experiments, funded by Shinra, were performed on her, in an attempt to tap into her Cetra powers and use them. It wasn't until she was around seven years old that her mother found a way out— being locked up and then released into the world has shaped her values as a person. Freedom is a core value for her, to the point she views the slums itself as a form of it. Likely unsurprising, really: it's in the home of her adoptive mother that she finds the beginnings of her personhood, and Elmyra carefully takes care of her, treating her as an adult from the moment they met.

The slums are not, however, the best example of freedom she has, and she knows it. Familiar with the danger there, she arms herself and is a skilled magic user who barely bats an eye at any monsters that come her way. In fact, she banters quite easily about them. All this betrays her true nature: Adventurous and stubborn. Aerith willingly cruises along the streets of the slums without a care in the world. Shinra has henchmen out and about who know of her, the TURKs, but she handles them with more annoyance than actual upset. They're mostly non-threats to her, and they know she's aware.

When it comes to others, 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. It's strange to Tifa, who questions Aerith's motives and what she knows, believing there is more to the situation. Perhaps it's not incorrect to say that Aerith carries herself with that kind of air, as if she knows more than she lets on. She goads people into bantering, and knows what buttons to push, or at least eagerly tries to do so. Much of Aerith's character is simply that: A young woman doing her best to support other people. She's spent her life being pursued. Shouldn't she find stability?

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. Things that truly get to her, however, receive an interesting reaction from Aerith. Nothing. To be clear, it's obvious to anyone who knows her that something is wrong, as Aerith is cheerful, talkative and eager to join in on anything. In Hojo's lab, he details to Aerith what they've done with her mother's remains, and it's only when the mad scientist leaves the room that she looks away and shows any emotion on her face. Aerith, when confronted with something deeply uncomfortable, refuses to give it the satisfaction of a reaction. She steels herself, and protects herself.

Though not forthcoming, Aerith isn't afraid to speak her mind and let others know when she really needs help. This comes to a head in her old room at Shinra, where the Whispers show themselves again. She begs for the group to listen to her, and reveals how lost she feels in her attempts to move forward. Without directly saying it, she asks for help— finally, near the end, when it's undeniable that there is more happening.

Kindhearted, talkative, and not afraid to get dirty— her love for flowers is legendary, after all, and she adores growing them herself. These qualities make up Aerith and her complexities, as the world does away with the things she loves most. Her destiny is big, but she's even bigger. But what really defines her? Her resilience. There will always be, in her mind, a next time.

Abilities:

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 powerful magic user in the game, unsurprisingly.

That said, not only is Aerith a healer, she can give people concussions!

Finally, Aerith will be coming in with the Bladed Staff, which grants her the ability to use Lustrus Shield, which summons a flower made out of energy that acts as a shield, but also damages anyone who comes into contact with it.

Inventory:

The clothes on her back, including the White Materia (A pink sundress, a red biker jacket, sensible dark brown knee boots, and two ribbons in her hair.)

The Bladed Staff, a dual ended staff that grants her the ability Lustrous Shield.

Materia: Elemental (Ice), Healing, Command (Prayer). Prayer is an alternative to healing materia. All her magic marbles are at level 1.

Samples: December tdm toplevel, Feburary tdm toplevel!

Questions: n/a but have you guys seen