Interstellar - Application

[off_the_edge]

?PLAYER

Name: Holly
Contact: deepfamilysfish
Other Characters:

?CHARACTER

Character Name: Cloud Strife
Age: 21
Species: Human (fused with alien cells)
Canon: Final Fantasy VII (OG)
Canon Point: After giving the Black Materia to Sephiroth, Disc 2 (but before his falling into and subsequent poisoning in the Lifestream).
Character Info: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cloud_Strife. Please note that I'm going exclusively off the original game's story here and ignoring later canon, so anything from Before Crisis and Crisis Core should be ignored.
Personality: Cloud is not without redeeming features - he's driven and capable with a love of justice, a teasing sense of humour, a methodical and dimplomatic intelligence, a desire to look after other people and even a healthy amount of awe for the wonders of the Planet. He likes impressing people and works hard to achieve it; he's practical and faces challenges readily, having an instinctive competence at anything new he tries; he's chivalrous and very protective towards people he feels connected to; he also has a striking natural charisma and star quality and tends to find himself becoming a driver of events. He has high standards for other people and higher standards for himself, and expects and encourages everyone to live up to them. Unfortunately he also has layers and layers of insecurity, imposter syndrome, fear of judgement, fear of intimacy, an inability to understand his own achievements, a basically nonexistent sense of self, a clueless obsession with appearing cool at all times, and medical torture induced insanity, meaning most of the time what you'll be seeing him do is a performance of some sort, with the real Cloud available only through the cracks. Generally speaking, he'll show more of his real self when he's happy, and retreat further into the performance the more confused and miserable he is. Considering his name is 'Cloud Strife' one may suspect that confusion and misery are not uncommon themes in his life and one would be right.

His default performance that he relies upon is that of a cool and ultracompetent individual who sees himself as above others and doesn't care about anything. What's more, it's convincing - the drama of his big shrugs and poses is clearly a cultivated cocky-funny persona, but it doesn't seem insincere. It's only after you've known him for a little while that you'll pick up on the way he carries himself a bit wrong, as if he's controlling someone else's body, or you'll notice the slightly mad glint in his eyes. Even people who like him tend to find themselves describing him as being a 'little odd' or like he's on the verge of a mental breakdown. He has various symptoms related to his illness, including hallucinations, hearing voices and having fits, which tend to occur when he notices discrepencies between his illusion and reality, or when he finds himself doing something he's ashamed of.

Rage is a huge feature of Cloud's inner world and, since he gets little pleasure out of his accomplishments and has a weak will on his own, his main motivator. He was unpopular as a child due in part to his bitterness and violence, which stemmed from his inability to deal with his anger at his feelings of rejection - his apathetic act is in part a way of preventing his rage from consuming him. Properly harnessed, he uses his grudges and bitterness to propel him forward and motivate him into doing things that ordinarily wouldn't seem possible. He's easily swept up into other people's goals - but when someone pisses him off enough that he's set on proving them wrong or getting revenge, he becomes almost possessed with drive, obsessing over plans night and day. If he's not got other things to focus on he ends up drowning in his angry fixations, turning them in on himself and soon becoming stressed out and overwhelmed.

While he's gracious towards the mistakes of others - perhaps too gracious when it comes to his friends, to whom he is exceedingly loyal - he's perfectionistic regarding his own self, and focuses on his tiny failures rather than his big successes, needing people he respects to praise him in order to feel like he's accomplished much. Cloud likes awards, ranks and other formal structures of appreciation. More generally, he likes to depend on the opinions and feelings of others, and despite his superficial independence and healthy level of intelligence his views can be very easily swayed by someone he trusts saying something.

Between his constant game of I-care-very-much-except-I-don't and his mental fragility, dealing with him can be hard work. Generally speaking, he makes an effort to be decent, even earnest company if it's made clear his asshole act isn't going to impress anyone, but if people buy the act, he will magnify it to the point of becoming unbearable. He has a jealous, competitive streak that causes him to pick fights (often even physical) with people he percieves as being a social threat to his status, but mellows out considerably if he's put in charge or generally made to feel like his role is important. He feels a need to be in control in all situations and becomes belligerent when he isn't, but when he is in control it tends to bring out the obsessive and self-flagellating side of his personality.

?INTERSTELLAR

Genre Preferences: Indie, Punk, Electronic
Choice Instrument: Computer/production, keys, rhythm guitar
Rockstar Persona: Cloud Strife (real name Clarence Strauss) wanted to be famous all his life, writing and recording music in his bedroom out in the country. He learned his skills by copying other artists he admired, before fleeing to the city in pursuit of his dreams. He was lucky enough to get a position as a backrow member in a band called S*O*L*D*I*E*R, gaining plenty of industry and touring experience but achieving no fame. After the band broke up in a haze of infighting he had a solo career, promoting himself as a 'Jack of all trades' multi-instrumentalist, producer, writer and video artist and winning a handful of admirers and music press awards for his significant technical ability, edgy style, and surly, unhinged behaviour in interviews - though he's still not as famous as he wants to be. His other band members know that he doesn't care about their ideas and as soon as he's increased his profile enough to relaunch his solo career, he's outta there.
Ideal CR: I love interpersonal conflict, and this is part of the reason I don't want him to be a lead - he will detest being in the background and it will bring out all of his most obnoxious traits. However, he'll need at least one person with him who sees his asshole behaviour as the performance it is or we're never going to see his good side at all. Cloud's mental health issues will likely begin to come out as he regains his memories and he'll need either a good support base or people to kick him when he's down, either's fun. The fact that he thinks he's a Sephiroth clone, has just helped his worst enemy cast an apocalyptic superspell and lives in a whole universe of denial will mean he will probably not want to become unbrainwashed even after given the opportunity, and I want some conflict surrounding that when the time comes. Mostly, though, I want the opportunity to be funny - Cloud works best when he's allowed to be a bit ridiculous and I have no intention of taking his issues deadly seriously.

Writing Sample:

TDM (8 comments)

Writing sample (recent fanfic chapter)