So sorry if I missed something vital here. When is the game slated to start? I doubt Corporal Lance and I were supposed to start posting already of course, but is there a window we're waiting for? Sorry if I sound impatient.
ORIGIN Cloud is from the world of Gaia, a technically advanced planet where the energy of life itself can be harvested for the user’s gain. Cloud’s game of origin is Final Fantasy VII, and the characterization I will be using is drawn primarily from this source. However, he has also appeared in a supporting roles in Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus (but we don’t like to talk about that one).
MEMORIA
Cloud is fundamentally defined by his desire to be a hero, and how his attempts have resulted in failure or success along the way. Though his game starts at a much later point in his life, his story starts under the starry night sky, sitting next to someone who would grow up to be a beautiful, powerful woman, and yet to the young child is merely a passing acquaintance, and yet also just a little bit more. It is under the starry sky that he tells her of his ultimate ambition, to join the ranks of SOLDIER first class, to gather fame and strength within his hands. He follows in the shadow of someone who he believes to be a great man. A hero with a peculiarly long sword.
However, despite his bravado, Cloud never makes it into the SOLDIER program. For all his ambition, and indeed notable skills, something holds him back from being with the true elite. Though he interacts with several of the men who hold his coveted position through his job as an infantryman, he is seen by most of them as nobody of importance. It could be said they don’t really see him at all. Except for one. A SOLDIER with black hair, and a sword of ridiculous size at least notices the boy, who he considers to be of similar origin to himself, and they become friends. But such is not to last as eventually Cloud’s idol, Sephiroth, breaks down under his own personal demons and descends from his pedestal high above, turning from an Angel to a Monster almost overnight.
It is notable that it is not any of the SOLDIERs, even Cloud’s friend Zack, who ultimately dispose of this menace at this time, but it is instead Cloud himself. (Of course he arguably got in some lucky, cheap shots).
This experience, the trauma and the introduction of magical Mako poisoning into his system which causes Cloud to become who he is at the start of his game. An arrogant, disillusioned “Ex-SOLDIER first class,” who believes himself to have achieved something like his life’s ambition at terrible cost to himself. The rest of the game is Cloud’s journey to learn the truth of his life’s ambition, and what being a hero truly, means. By the end of his game, he’s come to the realization that saving the world, as he and his companions must, is important not for the sake of his own compensation, whether the recognition he sought as a child or the money he sought at the start of the game, but is instead important for its own sake. (One could say this revelation really shouldn’t be that hard to grasp, but it does lead us through a good eighty hour RPG).
Post VII, during the events of Advent Children, Cloud has to deal with both a terminal illness and a large degree of survivor’s guilt. Though Cloud had become the Hero he was always meant to be over the course of his game, he still regrets those he couldn’t save along the way, especially Aerith, and grows distant from his living comrades as a result of his emotional trauma. However, by the end of the movie both of these issues are resolved, leaving Cloud in the state you imagined him in at the end of the original game before Advent Children pointed out he would still have issues. He reconciles with his friends (particularly Tifa it would seem), and vows that he won’t allow his past mistakes to hold him back any longer.
REPERTOIRE
Materia System: FFVII’s Materia System means that Cloud should in theory have access to nearly every ability in the game at any given time. For those curious, the Materia system is also part of the lore, in which it does pretty much exactly what it does in terms of gameplay. How much this is to be reflected in this story is pretty up in the air, but I felt it worth mentioning.
Fusion Swords: The swords Cloud wields in Advent Children, which have the unusual property of splitting into up to six different blades. These blades can be combined in various ways, or split in order to give dual wielding capabilities. When fully combined, they form a sword around the same size and with an appearance reminiscent of Cloud’s iconic Buster Sword, though with a more “industrial” looking design.
Super Strength: After recovering from the Mako Poisoning in his backstory, the process seems to have given Cloud the same strength augmentation an actual SOLDIER receives from Shinra. Notably, Cloud is shown in Advent Children to be capable of wielding his swords with one hand despite their apparent size and weight, though he still prefers to use two hands when the swords are fully assembled. Although this is perhaps less impressive than Cloud’s demonstrated ability to practically fly with his jumps, and basically perform any absurd feat of power you can imagine with a sword.
Limit Breaks: Cloud is capable of executing powerful attacks with his oversized sword, though the exact mechanism of these is unknown. These include:
Braver: A powerful overhead slash. In game this performs three times normal damage, so it could be construed as being a blow with three times Cloud’s usual force behind it.
Cross Slash: A quick series of three strikes that seems to have the ability to paralyze the foe in-game. This could be translated as being a maneuver designed to prevent the enemy from escaping Cloud’s reach.
Blade Beam: Cloud is able to charge his sword with some form of energy and release it with a single slash to attack with increased power at long range. The attack is able to split on impact to release a much diminished AoE effect. Seemingly one of his more inexplicable powers, in-game the attack counts as magical damage despite damage being calculated using physical stats, indicating that the attack may have something to do with Cloud’s Mako-infused body (maybe?).
Climhazard: A move in which Cloud stabs an opponent, and then uses his powerful jumping ability to pull the blade through an enemy’s body as he launches himself in the air. This maneuver demonstrates Cloud’s ability to practically fly through the air with his aerial maneuvers.
Meteorain: Cloud leaps into the air, and launches meteors at his opponents. Individually these attacks are weaker than other Limit Breaks (but still more powerful than his usual slashes), but the number of strikes and their ability to scatter over an area still leads to this being a most devastating attack. I have almost no idea how this attack actually works. The weird wind aura around Cloud before he uses it is reminiscent of a DBZ-style powering up sequence, and maybe implies that Cloud’s sheer power is causing the Earth around him to burst open (this is not seen in the game, so this is a huge stretch), and the leftover chunks of rock from this are what he tosses at his enemies? I’m going with that.
Finishing Touch: Cloud pulls back his sword, and slashes forward in an arc that creates an actual tornado to toss enemies far, far away. Against weaker enemies (in game terms, those not immune to instant death effects) this attack is powerful enough to toss them such a distance that the battle is essentially over. Against more powerful foes, they’re not tossed so far, but still might fall to the ground and receive damage.
Omnislash: Cloud attacks with a blindingly fast series of strike as an ultimate showcase of how well he can control his sword, despite its massive size. This attack executes fifteen strikes in a time period similar to attacking once or twice normally. Though easily his most powerful attack against single targets, the individual strikes actually trade power for speed and are less strong than a normal attack (in-game the attack does .75 times damage for each strike, though many players might not notice due to how late in the game you get this absurd ability).
Omnislash v6: The attack Cloud executes to ends his fight against Sephiroth in the updated re-release of Advent Children. It can be considered to be an upgrade in every way to the move demonstrated in the original version of the film (Omnislash v5). Through entirely unknown means (but hey, magic exists in this universe and again, Cloud’s body does contain a lot of Mako energy) Cloud is able to temporarily don a glowing blue aura that allows him to literally fly around the battlefield. Cloud’s Fusion Sword then splits into all its component pieces, and through the same blue aura float around the battlefield to surround a foe. Cloud then proceeds to fly towards each sword, grabbing it and leaving whatever sword is in his hand at the time behind, and slashing at his foe with his current weapon with each maneuver. The attack hits thirteen times, making it possibly actually weaker than the original Omnislash, but it has the advantage of a massive increase in maneuverability that allows Cloud to bypass enemy defenses by attacking from almost any direction in the blink of an eye. However, due to the means by which the ability to attack and move simultaneously is achieved (the floating swords), Cloud cannot execute this move without his Fusion Swords, unlike all his other Limits (which only require something vaguely sword like and preferably oversized).
Magical Power: Possibly due to his Mako infused body (seriously, it sometimes seems like we should all be so lucky as to contract “Mako Poisoning”), Cloud is actually the second strongest magic user out of all his companions, and the strongest period after Aerith dies. This is on top of his ridiculous physical strength. While his ability to cast spells still requires Materia just like anyone else in his universe, his ability to use their power to their full potential is nearly unrivaled amongst the heroes of his story.
NOTES
Phantoms: These are characters from Cloud’s past who represent his memories and pieces of his own feelings and desires. Interaction with these Phantoms are the primary way Cloud regains his memories over the course of the game, but they also will give him advice or try to lead him astray. They’re not real, in the sense that they aren’t the original characters from Gaia that are transported to Celestia the way Cloud is, but they do interact with the physical environment in many ways. In crossovers with the other players, they can see the Phantoms too, they’re not just in Cloud’s head. But they do originate from all the things locked up in there.
Surrealist Environments: One goal for me in this game is to communicate symbolism through the use of strange or downright surreal setting details. If I do my job right, there will be moments in the story where it isn’t entirely clear whether what Cloud is experiencing is even actually happening. The concrete answer to that question can be decided upon on a case by case basis between myself and others who want to interact with Cloud and the types of environments he interacts with. That is to say, we can decide together whether we’d rather be telling a story where Cloud looks like he’s just insane and you don’t see what he sees, or if you want to journey through a labyrinth with him.
Heroic Ambition: Our Cloud at the start of the game is a much more pure character than the one at the start of FFVII. He is the child who grew up to become a Hero, and met none of the difficulties Cloud actually encountered along the way. He is very idealistic in ways you might not expect of Cloud Strife, but these ideals will be marred by shadows of doubt as he begins to remember more of what his life was actually like. You could compare the Cloud at the start of our game to Zack Fair.
A Hero Who Damns: One of the driving questions in Cloud’s journey to discover his past is how responsible he is, exactly, for all the bad things that will be happening around him. A lot of the bad events will be caused by the Phantoms that follow him, in an effort to torment him. These combine with the doubts created by his recovering memories to ask a simple question to our hero. Is he to blame?
Exploits of Legends: Given all the effort I put into describing all of Cloud’s physical abilities, it would be a waste for none of them to actually be used in this game. Don’t worry, not everything will be moments of navel gazing and helplessness. I intend to include plenty of scenes where Cloud gets to whack people with a ridiculously heavy chunk of steel until they stop moving.
VISION
Well to be fair, my main drive with this game is to, um, have fun? Yes, that’s it. Fun. Of course, fun to me often means characters under my control suffer. So there will be suffering in the story I intend to weave.
I’m one of those people who works best by writing as I go. I don’t plan too far ahead, at least not this early into a game. So I couldn’t possibly give an arc by arc breakdown of what this game is going to include. But here’s some idea points: Introduction: Cloud wakes up with no idea what is happening. He takes things in stride, and goes to find civilization. He succeeds, but the people of this town need his help. He agrees. Memories Begin: While on this new Quest Cloud begins to wonder why he recognizes certain things in his environment. Phantoms Commence: Cloud meets his first Phantom. They speak in vague details and ominous portents, but Cloud is confident and doesn’t believe anything they predict could be a problem. The Burning of Beginnings: Cloud’s first sign of civilization is taken from him. Possibly by being burned to the ground, but I haven’t decided yet. Might be too soon for something so similar to Nibelheim. The Quest: Cloud’s first task leads him directly into a second task as a result of his “employer’s” sudden case of “not being here anymore”-itis. Perhaps a kidnapped child he was sent to rescue no longer has a home and Cloud has to escort him to a new town. (This kind of thing might be a repeating pattern in the game). Ominous Reunion: Cloud realizes something is off about this new village. Isn’t it remarkably similar to the last one? The one that burned to the ground? But his companions don’t understand why he’s unsettled. Deep beneath the Earth: We’re starting to take these out of order, we’ll be backfilling how we get to this one as we go. Cloud has to chase Phantom Sephiroth deep beneath the Earth. Hell imagery ensues. We’re going to explore this one in our sample writing below, though I’m not saying it will happen exactly that way in the game (my sample is designed to evoke as many of the Notes I gave above as possible). Conclusion: Cloud either overcomes his Phantoms from his past, or is consumed by them.
SAMPLES
“This is where your father is, right?”
“That’s where I saw the bad man go.”
Cloud continues his hike up the mountain at a steady, slow pace. He could have made it up the cliffs in half the time rather easily, but the boy at his side couldn’t, and the boy was the one leading Cloud. The man with a sword for giants took a moment to look down the side of the cliff to his left, down into the sheer drop off a narrow edge. The ground below seemed small from here, but the boy navigated the expanse, if not with superhuman speed, then with confidence that could only come from experience. This was the child’s mountain. And he had seen evil performed there.
“The bad man with silver hair, right?”
“He looked just like you described him,” the boy nodded his head vigorously, up and down and up more times than strictly necessary. He was nervous, so Cloud gave him a small little grin, and ruffled the kid’s dark hair.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get him back.”
“Maybe…”
They continued on, the two of them, the swordsman and his new companion up the mountain trail. The air was growing cold from the height they had scaled, but it was a summer month and Cloud did not expect a snowstorm. It wasn’t much longer before they came to the end of their path, and stumbled upon the entrance to a cave.
“This is it,” the kid said with hushed tones. His eyes refused to look within the darkness before him. “This is where the bad man took my father.”
“Well alright then!” Cloud shrugged his shoulders, loosening the assembled blade from its sheath. The smile on his face grew. Enter the dungeon, save the damsel (?) in distress, defeat the boss. These were the kinds of things heroes like him could do with their eyes closed. “You wait here. It’s dangerous for a kid.”
He took three steps forward, and only one step past the child, before the kid grabbed for his hand. Cloud’s foot was inches away from the inky blackness.
“Wait!”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t go.”
Cloud turned around to face the kid, dropping down into a squat so his eyes were on the boy’s level.
“Are you nervous?’ Cloud asked the child.
“…I’m afraid,” the child admitted.
“About walking back down the mountain alone? You can wait for me if you need to.”
“No,” he shook his head. The sky was darkening, and the false twilight cast its shadows on the terrified face. “No, I can make it on my own just fine.”
He might just be putting on a brave face, but still Cloud believed him. “Then come on bud, there’s no need to be scarred!” the SOLDIER gave the kid a light tap on the shoulder. Not enough to knock him off balance, for the ledge was still narrow and Cloud knew his own strength, but it was a friendly, brotherly gesture all the same. “…I’ll get him back for you, you know.”
“Please don’t go into the cave.”
“Hey now, come on. I’ll save him. You know I will, right?”
“My dad is already,” the child swallowed the emptiness in his mouth, “My dad is already dead. No one who goes into that cave ever comes out. Please Mr. Swordsman, don’t go out into the cave. Don’t step into the dark.”
Cloud looked over his shoulder. It certainly was dark; that was a fact. The light seemed to just end as soon as it came upon the entrance of stone. He took a moment to confirm which of the crystalline marbles were in which sword, and seeing the one he wanted he allowed crackling lightning to enter one hand. The dancing thunder cast flickering light into the cave, but it was light none the less.
“No problem. I won’t step into the dark. I can light my own way.”
With that, Cloud pulled his hand from the child’s grasp, and took one last step into the boundary. “I’ll be back soon!” he called out to the kid one last time. “You wait and see. I’ll be back, and your father will be with me.”
He turned a corner and the child disappeared behind a dark mass. A wall of stone, just a wall. Cloud’s light was a very short range, and seemed to make the darkness all the blacker with its pale light. The brave hero didn’t jump at the movement in the shadows, nor falter as he heard the sound of scraping stone and small, falling rocks. Something was moving in the darkness, but he was a SOLDIER first class, and he was not scared.
“Sephiroth!” he called into the abyss around him. “I know you’re in here! Isn’t kidnapping random civilians a little beneath you?”
The sound of metal on stone echoed in the distance, along with a spark of light.
“Thunder!” Cloud intoned, finishing his spell. The electrical light in his hand arced out towards the sparks of steel on stone, and were absorbed into the Earth. The light was gone, or so it should have been. But there was a light ahead, a faint glimmer. He felt himself drawn to it, by the curiosity of it. Light, in a cave? It had to be artificial, but it flickered like tongues of flame in the distance. A candle? He took his steps until he was closer, only to find a small crack in the wall. The light was leaking out from the other side. He tried to peak through, to see what it was, but it was too small a gap and all he could see was flickering light. He’d have to breakthrough
He unsheathed his behemoth of a sword, and brought it back behind him. A soft glow began to emerge from the blade as he prepared one of his more powerful attacks to break through the stone. He took a few steps back, and swung the blade down. A beam of searing light traveled down the path, illuminating the room for just a moment.
Out of the corner of his vision, Cloud could have sworn he saw watching eyes along the walls.
He turned about even as the stone crumbled before his attack, and the light of a thousand fires entered into the tunnel. A searing heat erupted along his back, but the light revealed nothing but smooth, pale stone. No eyes.
“You think you can mess with me?” Cloud muttered to himself, as he turned back around. He brought his arm up to shield his eyes from the intense heat. Had he stumbled into an active volcano? He felt like his very lungs were going to combust from the heat in each breath. His skin was dry, the sweat of his brow evaporating faster than he could replenish it. Such a fire as this, he had never seen the like.
He lowered his arm. It was a path ahead, a path of stone in a sea of burning fire. It led down.
“That is not a volcano,” Cloud admitted to himself, and to whoever was listening on the other sides of the walls of flame. But there was only one path forward, and he wasn’t going to back down now. He took his first step into the fire, and though the flames didn’t intrude upon his path, the heat of them was reflected in the stone which seemed as if it were waiting to melt beneath him as he walked on it. He continued forward, leaving footprints in the sold stone as it almost pooled around his feet.
“Do you remember the fire?”
His sword was instantly raised in a block, and he turned about on his heel, anticipating an attack from any direction. It was his voice. That man’s emotionless, mocking tone. But he couldn’t see him. There was smoke in the air above, and fire to either side. Cloud felt weak from the heat wearing at his body.
“Sephiroth!” he yelled out once again.
“Do you remember? The fire was your fault you know.”
“I don’t remember any fire! You know that. Stop paying games with me. Where are you?”
“I’m up ahead Cloud. Cloud. Do you remember what it feels like to burn?”
With a growl as his only answer, Cloud resolved to ignore the nonsense coming from that man’s mouth. Why did hearing it make him so angry? Why was that enough to make the fire seem cold compared to fire within? He stepped forward down the path, down the path leading deeper and deeper into the mountain below. Down, until he came upon a door in the cliff face.
“…What- no. Don’t ask questions,” Cloud muttered to himself. “He’s just playing ridiculous mind games.”
The handle on the door was red hot, so Cloud didn’t touch it. He simply kicked the door in, but it didn’t save him. A backdraft, green in contrast to the burning red of the current room, belched from the new opening, and all across his leg. He fell to his back, biting on his tongue to ease the pain as he tried to put out the fire with his hands. It wasn’t working. It burned.
“Just go,” he thought to himself, silently this time. “Ignore it. Just go. You can’t put out the flames until you escape this room.”
With a force of will, Cloud returned to his feet, his desperate lungs panting in smoking air as he tried to ignore the fact that his leg was still on fire. Ahead was a room filled with green frame, the same as the red flame of the first but this time, the path was narrower. He grit his teeth, and began to run as if he were a demon of the flame.
“Do you remember now?” the voice of that man asked, clam as ever. “Do you remember what it feels like to burn?” And for a moment, Cloud thought he could hear screams of pain, the screams of the dying.
“Not exactly hard to remember something that happened to you two seconds ago.”
It was only after his witty comeback that he realized the screams weren’t just in his head.
He looked back over his shoulder, and he could see the hand reaching out from the pit of green flamed. They were corpse fingers, burned black by the heat until there was nothing left but charred bone. And they were numerous as the burning bodies began to pull themselves up along the path behind him. And they were screaming in pain, protesting their terrible fate.
“It was your fault you know.”
“It wasn’t your fault!” the voice of a young girl, her voice again. “He did it. He was the one who burned them to their bones! Not you.”
“Oh, but he didn’t save them. And that makes it his fault. What kind of hero can’t even save people?”
He tried to ignore them as he ran upon a burning leg. Ran down deeper and deeper into the mountain. The angle of the mountain path seemed to be getting steeper. He was descending more quickly, and he could see a door ahead. Another door at the end of the path. He’d learnt his lesson last time, and even as he was running he held his sword back, and allowed a beam to charge there again. He slashed forward, and the burst of energy ran quicker along the path than he could. Yet even it was overwhelmed by the sheer explosive force of the blue flame within the next room, and down the next path. It burst into the entryway like the door were an overinflated balloon just waiting for the slightest prick to pop. And it stayed, enveloping the door relentlessly even as Cloud made it to the gap in the wall his attack had left behind. The burning men were inches behind him. Reaching for him.
Without hesitation he jumped through. He felt his body burning.
He landed on a path that was narrower still. The blue flames burned all the brighter, and he couldn’t see because he was inundated with painful, burning fire. He couldn’t even writhe, for if he were to roll even an inch on the ground he would surely fall into the hell below him. His body wouldn’t support him, he couldn’t stand up. So he grabbed at the ground in front of him, the path was so thin he could reach his entire hand around it. The angle of the path was growing ever steeper, he felt almost as if he were going to slide down into the pit deep within the mountain if were to get any worse. He pulled forward, and inched his way through the fire. He wasn’t going to die here. Not after all of this. Not with all those unanswered questions still burning in his mind.
“This is how they felt when you didn’t save them.”
A figure of shadow emerge from the smoke, the light of the blue fire absorbed by his countenance. He was upon Cloud in an instant, the fire licking at the bare skin of his exposed chest. It was like this man, this demon, didn’t even feel it. His thin, long sword swiped out like the blinking of an eye. Cloud’s sword was in front of his body just as quickly. He had to lay his other hand against the flat of his blade to counter the force of the blows. He didn’t have the strength, and the madman just kept. On. Attacking.
Sephiroth wasn’t even trying to bypass his guard. His ruthless slashes hammered against the blond swordsman’s guard with the ferocity of a monster tearing flesh from bone. Cloud could feel the stone beneath his back cracking apart from the forces Sephiroth was pushing against it. And unlike the one winged angel, he wouldn’t be able to fly to safety if he fell.
He couldn’t even spit the poison name through the smoke in his lungs.
“Do you remember now? This is what it felt like in Nibelheim.”
Cloud lowered his guard. The hand against the flat of the blade was glowing with a crackling light. He couldn’t name the spell, couldn’t speak. But he wanted this man to hurt. And that was enough. In the split instant between those attacks, it was enough. The thunder spell arced between them, and the specter was thrown back. Far away, up into the air, until he could no longer be seen. The only sign of his journey reaching a destination was a distant thud as he hit the ceiling that, though obscured by the smoke, was still there high above. And then a rumble. And then the falling stones.
Cloud grasped the next piece of the path. The cave was collapsing. A stalactite broke through the path where he had been seconds before, piercing straight through the weakened stone. And then the path began to collapse behind him, and Cloud continued to drag himself forward. Forward. Forward.
And then he began to slide down the pathway of smooth stone. The angle of his descent had grown too steep. Soon a slide turned into freefall. He was falling through the fire, and down to the bottom of the mountain, and there was a door.
His body broke upon the doorway out of this torture. And the doorway broke upon his body. There was a hiss as the fire across his flesh was instantly doused by the sheer chill of the room. Cloud found himself sliding against ice. He could barely feel it, so many of his nerves were burnt away. And yet it was cold. A cold that chilled the very bones of his body. They threatened to shatter in protests at such a sudden change in temperature.
And yet, though the burning had ceased across his physical form now, he could remember it. He remembered Nibelheim.
A trembling hand rose from the floor. It glowed with a pale blue light, and he tried to bring it to his leg. His chest. His eyes. He couldn’t see. The fire had robbed him of his eyes. But he just couldn’t make the hand move. Couldn’t bring the curative magic to the places he needed it to be. It was over. He was going to die in the fire, just as a different man who bore his name had wished those years ago. Back in Nibelheim. Back after everything…
He felt small hands wrapping around the hand he couldn’t seem to move. A flow of numb soothing traveled down his arm. He could feel it getting better. He could feel his body mending.
“It wasn’t your fault.” Her voice.
Once his arm could finally move, he raised it to his eyes. And then finally, as the Cure spell worked its way through him, he could see again. And he saw her. A little girl with long brown hair, and a soothing touch. Her hand was glowing with the same green magic his was, and she was now working on his leg. The skin beneath her fingers was mending. And as the sensation of touch returned to him, he felt a dampness upon his shirt. Tiny droplets of water. She was crying.
“It wasn’t,” she whispered.
And he remembered, “You were there. You were older, but it was you.”
Her muscles tensed. Her eyes snapped to him, and he could see the tears on the child’s face. “Do you remember my name?” she asked, her voice hopeful, but hesitant.
He thought about it. “No.”
Her features morphed into closed eyes and a small sigh. She rubbed away the tears. Her shoulders lost their tension. It wasn’t relief she was feeling, no. Even to him it was clear this was the all-consuming disappointment one can only feel when your hopes are built up, and then torn down too fast for you to realize it wasn’t possible. “But you remember his name?” she asks, but she already knew the answer.
“He is Sephiroth.”
“You shouldn’t fixate on him so much,” she finished wiping the tears away, and favored him with a small little smile. A smile filled with many things. Pity, but tempered by a deep respect. Disappointment, but tempered by hope. Love, even, and this tempered only by her childish eyes. “You always did focus on the bad things. Try to remember my name, will you? I want you to remember pleasant things.”
“Your name…”
Cloud rose to his feet, testing his newly mended muscles. His body seemed to be working near full capacity again, though he still felt like coughing smoke from his lungs. The fire. The heat. Where had it gone? He looked about the cavern he found himself in. It was frozen over by ice colder than the blackest heart. It felt like this was the place fires and warmth went to die. Where was the door? The door he had fallen through. He looked to the ceiling but he couldn’t see it. He looked left, and right. Then, then he looked behind him, and saw the pile of rubble, chilled now by the entropic frost. It bulged within the frame of a door. But he had fallen down through the door, hadn’t he? Or was that pit of flame to his side, as he saw with his own eyes? He didn’t think of it too much. He had other things to worry about.
“Your name…” he thought aloud to himself. She leaned in towards his words, in eager anticipation. “I… your name is…”
The sound of steel against ice drew his attention like a whip to the other side of the room. Towards the darkest corner. There a single black wing protruded out from the darkness, even as the rest of the body had yet to step into the light.
“Sephiroth…”
“I believe you were looking for this.”
The man with the silver hair tossed something at Cloud’s feet with a lazy, underhand throw. It impacted against the ice with a dull, wet thud, and rolled forward slightly until it touched against Cloud’s foot and laid to rest. It was something vaguely round, tangled in dark wisps, and stained a crimson red. Cloud knelt to brush the threads away from it, and saw the face beneath. The man he was sent to save, and it seemed as if he had been dead for a while.
He stared at in silence.
“Just another one you couldn’t save, right?”
“Cloud… Cloud no. You have to ignore him Cloud. If you don’t- oh please, Cloud!” the little girl whispered as she reached out to grab him by the sleeve.
“You…”
“Cloud!” she grabbed at him more insistently now.
“YOU!”
He threw her off his arm, and she went flying back into the rubble of the burning room. She lay limp upon the frozen floor, but he didn’t see her. He didn’t see anything. He was breathing heavily now, the lifeless chilled wind betraying the gusts of his breath around his lips. He grasped his sword in hand and rushed the man with the immeasurably long sword.
“You did this! It’s your fault! Everything was your fault! Everything!”
He didn’t even see the man he was fighting. He just brought down his sword, hammering blow after blow against him. One strike, two, three in the time it takes to blink. Four, five, six, and all blocked by that blade. And yet the blade was bending now. Ever so slightly, it was almost imperceptible, but the invincible sword was failing.
“Your fault. Your fault!”
Seven, eight, nine. The blows were raining faster than the sounds of them could reach their ears. Ten, eleven, twelve. The sword they struck against was bent into a mangled mess of steel. “No Cloud. I may have done those things, but that’s just what I do. Just what a villain does. It’s a hero’s fault when they aren’t saved. Because it’s a hero’s job to save them.”
Thirteen. The force of the blows were such that it shredded the snow beneath their feet, and cast it into the air. It was snowing. Fourteen. And the twisted, deformed metal shattered into pieces. It was snowing in a weather pattern of ice and steel.
Cloud leapt into the air, his sword was pointed towards the ground now. A feral scream tore through his throat as he plunged it down through the defenseless form in front of him. Fifteen. His breathing became calm again. And only then did he see.
It wasn’t Sephiroth that was pinned against his blade. He didn’t know her. A woman in a pink dress, with long brown hair. Her back was turned to him, and she hung limp on the blade. The massive sword was the only thing holding her in the air at all. Dead. She was dead.
It’s a hero’s fault when they aren’t saved.
Oh god, he thought to himself. What kind of hero can’t save anyone?
Cloud and Freya now get Chad's stamp of approval! You two can transfer your application to the Characters tab, but @A Common Hero you don't need to copy-paste your entire commentary about spoiler warnings into the CS too. XD
Joyous celebrations!
But also yes, I can get weird about things like that sometimes.
ORIGIN Cloud is from the world of Gaia, a technically advanced planet where the energy of life itself can be harvested for the user’s gain. Cloud’s game of origin is Final Fantasy VII, and the characterization I will be using is drawn primarily from this source. However, he has also appeared in a supporting roles in Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus (but we don’t like to talk about that one).
MEMORIA
I typed this after the spoiler warnings I gave for my own stuff below, because it made me realize, "Hey, Final Fantasy VII is way cooler than anything I can write, it deserves spoiler tags too!" So if you haven't played Final Fantasy VII, and you're reading about things in this RP, um... go play FF VII. Yes it is massively over rated, anything that is treated as a divine gift from heaven like this game is will invariably be over rated, but that doesn't stop it from being very, very good. Anyway, most of the spoilers are for backstory information and not the main plot of the game itself, but still. You have been warned.
Cloud is fundamentally defined by his desire to be a hero, and how his attempts have resulted in failure or success along the way. Though his game starts at a much later point in his life, his story starts under the starry night sky, sitting next to someone who would grow up to be a beautiful, powerful woman, and yet to the young child is merely a passing acquaintance, and yet also just a little bit more. It is under the starry sky that he tells her of his ultimate ambition, to join the ranks of SOLDIER first class, to gather fame and strength within his hands. He follows in the shadow of someone who he believes to be a great man. A hero with a peculiarly long sword.
However, despite his bravado, Cloud never makes it into the SOLDIER program. For all his ambition, and indeed notable skills, something holds him back from being with the true elite. Though he interacts with several of the men who hold his coveted position through his job as an infantryman, he is seen by most of them as nobody of importance. It could be said they don’t really see him at all. Except for one. A SOLDIER with black hair, and a sword of ridiculous size at least notices the boy, who he considers to be of similar origin to himself, and they become friends. But such is not to last as eventually Cloud’s idol, Sephiroth, breaks down under his own personal demons and descends from his pedestal high above, turning from an Angel to a Monster almost overnight.
It is notable that it is not any of the SOLDIERs, even Cloud’s friend Zack, who ultimately dispose of this menace at this time, but it is instead Cloud himself. (Of course he arguably got in some lucky, cheap shots).
This experience, the trauma and the introduction of magical Mako poisoning into his system which causes Cloud to become who he is at the start of his game. An arrogant, disillusioned “Ex-SOLDIER first class,” who believes himself to have achieved something like his life’s ambition at terrible cost to himself. The rest of the game is Cloud’s journey to learn the truth of his life’s ambition, and what being a hero truly, means. By the end of his game, he’s come to the realization that saving the world, as he and his companions must, is important not for the sake of his own compensation, whether the recognition he sought as a child or the money he sought at the start of the game, but is instead important for its own sake. (One could say this revelation really shouldn’t be that hard to grasp, but it does lead us through a good eighty hour RPG).
Post VII, during the events of Advent Children, Cloud has to deal with both a terminal illness and a large degree of survivor’s guilt. Though Cloud had become the Hero he was always meant to be over the course of his game, he still regrets those he couldn’t save along the way, especially Aerith, and grows distant from his living comrades as a result of his emotional trauma. However, by the end of the movie both of these issues are resolved, leaving Cloud in the state you imagined him in at the end of the original game before Advent Children pointed out he would still have issues. He reconciles with his friends (particularly Tifa it would seem), and vows that he won’t allow his past mistakes to hold him back any longer.
REPERTOIRE
Oh, I know you don't want stats information, but I do include a lot of talk of game mechanics in this section. I find the concept of "Gameplay and Story Integration" to be very interesting. The information is used is more or less there to try and find justifications for things from a story perspective, or to more accurately describe something.
Materia System: FFVII’s Materia System means that Cloud should in theory have access to nearly every ability in the game at any given time. For those curious, the Materia system is also part of the lore, in which it does pretty much exactly what it does in terms of gameplay. How much this is to be reflected in this story is pretty up in the air, but I felt it worth mentioning.
Fusion Swords: The swords Cloud wields in Advent Children, which have the unusual property of splitting into up to six different blades. These blades can be combined in various ways, or split in order to give dual wielding capabilities. When fully combined, they form a sword around the same size and with an appearance reminiscent of Cloud’s iconic Buster Sword, though with a more “industrial” looking design.
Super Strength: After recovering from the Mako Poisoning in his backstory, the process seems to have given Cloud the same strength augmentation an actual SOLDIER receives from Shinra. Notably, Cloud is shown in Advent Children to be capable of wielding his swords with one hand despite their apparent size and weight, though he still prefers to use two hands when the swords are fully assembled. Although this is perhaps less impressive than Cloud’s demonstrated ability to practically fly with his jumps, and basically perform any absurd feat of power you can imagine with a sword.
Limit Breaks: Cloud is capable of executing powerful attacks with his oversized sword, though the exact mechanism of these is unknown. These include:
Braver: A powerful overhead slash. In game this performs three times normal damage, so it could be construed as being a blow with three times Cloud’s usual force behind it.
Cross Slash: A quick series of three strikes that seems to have the ability to paralyze the foe in-game. This could be translated as being a maneuver designed to prevent the enemy from escaping Cloud’s reach.
Blade Beam: Cloud is able to charge his sword with some form of energy and release it with a single slash to attack with increased power at long range. The attack is able to split on impact to release a much diminished AoE effect. Seemingly one of his more inexplicable powers, in-game the attack counts as magical damage despite damage being calculated using physical stats, indicating that the attack may have something to do with Cloud’s Mako-infused body (maybe?).
Climhazard: A move in which Cloud stabs an opponent, and then uses his powerful jumping ability to pull the blade through an enemy’s body as he launches himself in the air. This maneuver demonstrates Cloud’s ability to practically fly through the air with his aerial maneuvers.
Meteorain: Cloud leaps into the air, and launches meteors at his opponents. Individually these attacks are weaker than other Limit Breaks (but still more powerful than his usual slashes), but the number of strikes and their ability to scatter over an area still leads to this being a most devastating attack. I have almost no idea how this attack actually works. The weird wind aura around Cloud before he uses it is reminiscent of a DBZ-style powering up sequence, and maybe implies that Cloud’s sheer power is causing the Earth around him to burst open (this is not seen in the game, so this is a huge stretch), and the leftover chunks of rock from this are what he tosses at his enemies? I’m going with that.
Finishing Touch: Cloud pulls back his sword, and slashes forward in an arc that creates an actual tornado to toss enemies far, far away. Against weaker enemies (in game terms, those not immune to instant death effects) this attack is powerful enough to toss them such a distance that the battle is essentially over. Against more powerful foes, they’re not tossed so far, but still might fall to the ground and receive damage.
Omnislash: Cloud attacks with a blindingly fast series of strike as an ultimate showcase of how well he can control his sword, despite its massive size. This attack executes fifteen strikes in a time period similar to attacking once or twice normally. Though easily his most powerful attack against single targets, the individual strikes actually trade power for speed and are less strong than a normal attack (in-game the attack does .75 times damage for each strike, though many players might not notice due to how late in the game you get this absurd ability).
Omnislash v6: The attack Cloud executes to ends his fight against Sephiroth in the updated re-release of Advent Children. It can be considered to be an upgrade in every way to the move demonstrated in the original version of the film (Omnislash v5). Through entirely unknown means (but hey, magic exists in this universe and again, Cloud’s body does contain a lot of Mako energy) Cloud is able to temporarily don a glowing blue aura that allows him to literally fly around the battlefield. Cloud’s Fusion Sword then splits into all its component pieces, and through the same blue aura float around the battlefield to surround a foe. Cloud then proceeds to fly towards each sword, grabbing it and leaving whatever sword is in his hand at the time behind, and slashing at his foe with his current weapon with each maneuver. The attack hits thirteen times, making it possibly actually weaker than the original Omnislash, but it has the advantage of a massive increase in maneuverability that allows Cloud to bypass enemy defenses by attacking from almost any direction in the blink of an eye. However, due to the means by which the ability to attack and move simultaneously is achieved (the floating swords), Cloud cannot execute this move without his Fusion Swords, unlike all his other Limits (which only require something vaguely sword like and preferably oversized).
Magical Power: Possibly due to his Mako infused body (seriously, it sometimes seems like we should all be so lucky as to contract “Mako Poisoning”), Cloud is actually the second strongest magic user out of all his companions, and the strongest period after Aerith dies. This is on top of his ridiculous physical strength. While his ability to cast spells still requires Materia just like anyone else in his universe, his ability to use their power to their full potential is nearly unrivaled amongst the heroes of his story.
NOTES
If you are the type who absolutely does not want spoilers for my part of this RP, you are warned. I guess.
Phantoms: These are characters from Cloud’s past who represent his memories and pieces of his own feelings and desires. Interaction with these Phantoms are the primary way Cloud regains his memories over the course of the game, but they also will give him advice or try to lead him astray. They’re not real, in the sense that they aren’t the original characters from Gaia that are transported to Celestia the way Cloud is, but they do interact with the physical environment in many ways. In crossovers with the other players, thy can see the Phantoms too, they’re not just in Cloud’s head. But they do originate from all the things locked up in there.
Surrealist Environments: One goal for me in this game is to communicate symbolism through the use of strange or downright surreal setting details. If I do my job right, there will be moments in the story where it isn’t entirely clear whether what Cloud is experiencing is even actually happening. The concrete answer to that question can be decided upon on a case by case basis between myself and others who want to interact with Cloud and the types of environments he interacts with. That is to say, we can decide together whether we’d rather be telling a story where Cloud looks like he’s just insane and you don’t see what he sees, or if you want to journey through a labyrinth with him.
Heroic Ambition: Our Cloud at the start of the game is a much more pure character than the one at the start of FFVII. He is the child who grew up to become a Hero, and met none of the difficulties Cloud actually encountered along the way. He is very idealistic in ways you might not expect of Cloud Strife, but these ideals will be marred by shadows of doubt as he begins to remember more of what his life was actually like. You could compare the Cloud at the start of our game to Zack Fair.
A Hero Who Damns: One of the driving questions in Cloud’s journey to discover his past is how responsible he is, exactly, for all the bad things that will be happening around him. A lot of the bad events will be caused by the Phantoms that follow him, in an effort to torment him. These combine with the doubts created by his recovering memories to ask a simple question to our hero. Is he to blame? Exploits of Legends: Given all the effort I put into describing all of Cloud’s physical abilities, it would be a waste for none of them to actually be used in this game. Don’t worry, not everything will be moments of navel gazing and helplessness. I intend to include plenty of scenes where Cloud gets to whack people with a ridiculously heavy chunk of steel until they stop moving.
VISION
This too! Talking about specific thoughts about the game can also lead to spoilers. Not that I believe anyone would be too torn up about spoiling my dumb fanfic of course.
Well to be fair, my main drive with this game is to, um, have fun? Yes, that’s it. Fun. Of course, fun to me often means characters under my control suffer. So there will be suffering in the story I intend to weave.
I’m one of those people who works best by writing as I go. I don’t plan too far ahead, at least not this early into a game. So I couldn’t possibly give an arc by arc breakdown of what this game is going to include. But here’s some idea points: Introduction: Cloud wakes up with no idea what is happening. He takes things in stride, and goes to find civilization. He succeeds, but the people of this town need his help. He agrees. Memories Begin: While on this new Quest Cloud begins to wonder why he recognizes certain things in his environment. Phantoms Commence: Cloud meets his first Phantom. They speak in vague details and ominous portents, but Cloud is confident and doesn’t believe anything they predict could be a problem. The Burning of Beginnings: Cloud’s first sign of civilization is taken from him. Possibly by being burned to the ground, but I haven’t decided yet. Might be too soon for something so similar to Nibelheim. The Quest: Cloud’s first task leads him directly into a second task as a result of his “employer’s” sudden case of “not being here anymore”-itis. Perhaps a kidnapped child he was sent to rescue no longer has a home and Cloud has to escort him to a new town. (This kind of thing might be a repeating pattern in the game). Ominous Reunion: Cloud realizes something is off about this new village. Isn’t it remarkably similar to the last one? The one that burned to the ground? But his companions don’t understand why he’s unsettled. Deep beneath the Earth: We’re starting to take these out of order, we’ll be backfilling how we get to this one as we go. Cloud has to chase Phantom Sephiroth deep beneath the Earth. Hell imagery ensues. We’re going to explore this one in our sample writing below, though I’m not saying it will happen exactly that way in the game (my sample is designed to evoke as many of the Notes I gave above as possible). Conclusion: Cloud either overcomes his Phantoms from his past, or is consumed by them.
SAMPLES
“This is where your father is, right?”
“That’s where I saw the bad man go.”
Cloud continues his hike up the mountain at a steady, slow pace. He could have made it up the cliffs in half the time rather easily, but the boy at his side couldn’t, and the boy was the one leading Cloud. The man with a sword for giants took a moment to look down the side of the cliff to his left, down into the sheer drop off a narrow edge. The ground below seemed small from here, but the boy navigated the expanse, if not with superhuman speed, then with confidence that could only come from experience. This was the child’s mountain. And he had seen evil performed there.
“The bad man with silver hair, right?”
“He looked just like you described him,” the boy nodded his head vigorously, up and down and up more times than strictly necessary. He was nervous, so Cloud gave him a small little grin, and ruffled the kid’s dark hair.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get him back.”
“Maybe…”
They continued on, the two of them, the swordsman and his new companion up the mountain trail. The air was growing cold from the height they had scaled, but it was a summer month and Cloud did not expect a snowstorm. It wasn’t much longer before they came to the end of their path, and stumbled upon the entrance to a cave.
“This is it,” the kid said with hushed tones. His eyes refused to look within the darkness before him. “This is where the bad man took my father.”
“Well alright then!” Cloud shrugged his shoulders, loosening the assembled blade from its sheath. The smile on his face grew. Enter the dungeon, save the damsel (?) in distress, defeat the boss. These were the kinds of things heroes like him could do with their eyes closed. “You wait here. It’s dangerous for a kid.”
He took three steps forward, and only one step past the child, before the kid grabbed for his hand. Cloud’s foot was inches away from the inky blackness.
“Wait!”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t go.”
Cloud turned around to face the kid, dropping down into a squat so his eyes were on the boy’s level.
“Are you nervous?’ Cloud asked the child.
“…I’m afraid,” the child admitted.
“About walking back down the mountain alone? You can wait for me if you need to.”
“No,” he shook his head. The sky was darkening, and the false twilight cast its shadows on the terrified face. “No, I can make it on my own just fine.”
He might just be putting on a brave face, but still Cloud believed him. “Then come on bud, there’s no need to be scarred!” the SOLDIER gave the kid a light tap on the shoulder. Not enough to knock him off balance, for the ledge was still narrow and Cloud knew his own strength, but it was a friendly, brotherly gesture all the same. “…I’ll get him back for you, you know.”
“Please don’t go into the cave.”
“Hey now, come on. I’ll save him. You know I will, right?”
“My dad is already,” the child swallowed the emptiness in his mouth, “My dad is already dead. No one who goes into that cave ever comes out. Please Mr. Swordsman, don’t go out into the cave. Don’t step into the dark.”
Cloud looked over his shoulder. It certainly was dark; that was a fact. The light seemed to just end as soon as it came upon the entrance of stone. He took a moment to confirm which of the crystalline marbles were in which sword, and seeing the one he wanted he allowed crackling lightning to enter one hand. The dancing thunder cast flickering light into the cave, but it was light none the less.
“No problem. I won’t step into the dark. I can light my own way.”
With that, Cloud pulled his hand from the child’s grasp, and took one last step into the boundary. “I’ll be back soon!” he called out to the kid one last time. “You wait and see. I’ll be back, and your father will be with me.”
He turned a corner and the child disappeared behind a dark mass. A wall of stone, just a wall. Cloud’s light was a very short range, and seemed to make the darkness all the blacker with its pale light. The brave hero didn’t jump at the movement in the shadows, nor falter as he heard the sound of scraping stone and small, falling rocks. Something was moving in the darkness, but he was a SOLDIER first class, and he was not scared.
“Sephiroth!” he called into the abyss around him. “I know you’re in here! Isn’t kidnapping random civilians a little beneath you?”
The sound of metal on stone echoed in the distance, along with a spark of light.
“Thunder!” Cloud intoned, finishing his spell. The electrical light in his hand arced out towards the sparks of steel on stone, and were absorbed into the Earth. The light was gone, or so it should have been. But there was a light ahead, a faint glimmer. He felt himself drawn to it, by the curiosity of it. Light, in a cave? It had to be artificial, but it flickered like tongues of flame in the distance. A candle? He took his steps until he was closer, only to find a small crack in the wall. The light was leaking out from the other side. He tried to peak through, to see what it was, but it was too small a gap and all he could see was flickering light. He’d have to breakthrough
He unsheathed his behemoth of a sword, and brought it back behind him. A soft glow began to emerge from the blade as he prepared one of his more powerful attacks to break through the stone. He took a few steps back, and swung the blade down. A beam of searing light traveled down the path, illuminating the room for just a moment.
Out of the corner of his vision, Cloud could have sworn he saw watching eyes along the walls.
He turned about even as the stone crumbled before his attack, and the light of a thousand fires entered into the tunnel. A searing heat erupted along his back, but the light revealed nothing but smooth, pale stone. No eyes.
“You think you can mess with me?” Cloud muttered to himself, as he turned back around. He brought his arm up to shield his eyes from the intense heat. Had he stumbled into an active volcano? He felt like his very lungs were going to combust from the heat in each breath. His skin was dry, the sweat of his brow evaporating faster than he could replenish it. Such a fire as this, he had never seen the like.
He lowered his arm. It was a path ahead, a path of stone in a sea of burning fire. It led down.
“That is not a volcano,” Cloud admitted to himself, and to whoever was listening on the other sides of the walls of flame. But there was only one path forward, and he wasn’t going to back down now. He took his first step into the fire, and though the flames didn’t intrude upon his path, the heat of them was reflected in the stone which seemed as if it were waiting to melt beneath him as he walked on it. He continued forward, leaving footprints in the sold stone as it almost pooled around his feet.
“Do you remember the fire?”
His sword was instantly raised in a block, and he turned about on his heel, anticipating an attack from any direction. It was his voice. That man’s emotionless, mocking tone. But he couldn’t see him. There was smoke in the air above, and fire to either side. Cloud felt weak from the heat wearing at his body.
“Sephiroth!” he yelled out once again.
“Do you remember? The fire was your fault you know.”
“I don’t remember any fire! You know that. Stop paying games with me. Where are you?”
“I’m up ahead Cloud. Cloud. Do you remember what it feels like to burn?”
With a growl as his only answer, Cloud resolved to ignore the nonsense coming from that man’s mouth. Why did hearing it make him so angry? Why was that enough to make the fire seem cold compared to fire within? He stepped forward down the path, down the path leading deeper and deeper into the mountain below. Down, until he came upon a door in the cliff face.
“…What- no. Don’t ask questions,” Cloud muttered to himself. “He’s just playing ridiculous mind games.”
The handle on the door was red hot, so Cloud didn’t touch it. He simply kicked the door in, but it didn’t save him. A backdraft, green in contrast to the burning red of the current room, belched from the new opening, and all across his leg. He fell to his back, biting on his tongue to ease the pain as he tried to put out the fire with his hands. It wasn’t working. It burned.
“Just go,” he thought to himself, silently this time. “Ignore it. Just go. You can’t put out the flames until you escape this room.”
With a force of will, Cloud returned to his feet, his desperate lungs panting in smoking air as he tried to ignore the fact that his leg was still on fire. Ahead was a room filled with green frame, the same as the red flame of the first but this time, the path was narrower. He grit his teeth, and began to run as if he were a demon of the flame.
“Do you remember now?” the voice of that man asked, calm as ever. “Do you remember what it feels like to burn?” And for a moment, Cloud thought he could hear screams of pain, the screams of the dying.
“Not exactly hard to remember something that happened to you two seconds ago.”
It was only after his witty comeback that he realized the screams weren’t just in his head.
He looked back over his shoulder, and he could see the hand reaching out from the pit of green flamed. They were corpse fingers, burned black by the heat until there was nothing left but charred bone. And they were numerous as the burning bodies began to pull themselves up along the path behind him. And they were screaming in pain, protesting their terrible fate.
“It was your fault you know.”
“It wasn’t your fault!” the voice of a young girl, her voice again. “He did it. He was the one who burned them to their bones! Not you.”
“Oh, but he didn’t save them. And that makes it his fault. What kind of hero can’t even save people?”
He tried to ignore them as he ran upon a burning leg. Ran down deeper and deeper into the mountain. The angle of the mountain path seemed to be getting steeper. He was descending more quickly, and he could see a door ahead. Another door at the end of the path. He’d learnt his lesson last time, and even as he was running he held his sword back, and allowed a beam to charge there again. He slashed forward, and the burst of energy ran quicker along the path than he could. Yet even it was overwhelmed by the sheer explosive force of the blue flame within the next room, and down the next path. It burst into the entryway like the door were an overinflated balloon just waiting for the slightest prick to pop. And it stayed, enveloping the door relentlessly even as Cloud made it to the gap in the wall his attack had left behind. The burning men were inches behind him. Reaching for him.
Without hesitation he jumped through. He felt his body burning.
He landed on a path that was narrower still. The blue flames burned all the brighter, and he couldn’t see because he was inundated with painful, burning fire. He couldn’t even writhe, for if he were to roll even an inch on the ground he would surely fall into the hell below him. His body wouldn’t support him, he couldn’t stand up. So he grabbed at the ground in front of him, the path was so thin he could reach his entire hand around it. The angle of the path was growing ever steeper, he felt almost as if he were going to slide down into the pit deep within the mountain if were to get any worse. He pulled forward, and inched his way through the fire. He wasn’t going to die here. Not after all of this. Not with all those unanswered questions still burning in his mind.
“This is how they felt when you didn’t save them.”
A figure of shadow emerge from the smoke, the light of the blue fire absorbed by his countenance. He was upon Cloud in an instant, the fire licking at the bare skin of his exposed chest. It was like this man, this demon, didn’t even feel it. His thin, long sword swiped out like the blinking of an eye. Cloud’s sword was in front of his body just as quickly. He had to lay his other hand against the flat of his blade to counter the force of the blows. He didn’t have the strength, and the madman just kept. On. Attacking.
Sephiroth wasn’t even trying to bypass his guard. His ruthless slashes hammered against the blond swordsman’s guard with the ferocity of a monster tearing flesh from bone. Cloud could feel the stone beneath his back cracking apart from the forces Sephiroth was pushing against it. And unlike the one winged angel, he wouldn’t be able to fly to safety if he fell.
He couldn’t even spit the poison name through the smoke in his lungs.
“Do you remember now? This is what it felt like in Nibelheim.”
Cloud lowered his guard. The hand against the flat of the blade was glowing with a crackling light. He couldn’t name the spell, couldn’t speak. But he wanted this man to hurt. And that was enough. In the split instant between those attacks, it was enough. The thunder spell arced between them, and the specter was thrown back. Far away, up into the air, until he could no longer be seen. The only sign of his journey reaching a destination was a distant thud as he hit the ceiling that, though obscured by the smoke, was still there high above. And then a rumble. And then the falling stones.
Cloud grasped the next piece of the path. The cave was collapsing. A stalactite broke through the path where he had been seconds before, piercing straight through the weakened stone. And then the path began to collapse behind him, and Cloud continued to drag himself forward. Forward. Forward.
And then he began to slide down the pathway of smooth stone. The angle of his descent had grown too steep. Soon a slide turned into freefall. He was falling through the fire, and down to the bottom of the mountain, and there was a door.
His body broke upon the doorway out of this torture. And the doorway broke upon his body. There was a hiss as the fire across his flesh was instantly doused by the sheer chill of the room. Cloud found himself sliding against ice. He could barely feel it, so many of his nerves were burnt away. And yet it was cold. A cold that chilled the very bones of his body. They threatened to shatter in protests at such a sudden change in temperature.
And yet, though the burning had ceased across his physical form now, he could remember it. He remembered Nibelheim.
A trembling hand rose from the floor. It glowed with a pale blue light, and he tried to bring it to his leg. His chest. His eyes. He couldn’t see. The fire had robbed him of his eyes. But he just couldn’t make the hand move. Couldn’t bring the curative magic to the places he needed it to be. It was over. He was going to die in the fire, just as a different man who bore his name had wished those years ago. Back in Nibelheim. Back after everything…
He felt small hands wrapping around the hand he couldn’t seem to move. A flow of numb soothing traveled down his arm. He could feel it getting better. He could feel his body mending.
“It wasn’t your fault.” Her voice.
Once his arm could finally move, he raised it to his eyes. And then finally, as the Cure spell worked its way through him, he could see again. And he saw her. A little girl with long brown hair, and a soothing touch. Her hand was glowing with the same green magic his was, and she was now working on his leg. The skin beneath her fingers was mending. And as the sensation of touch returned to him, he felt a dampness upon his shirt. Tiny droplets of water. She was crying.
“It wasn’t,” she whispered.
And he remembered, “You were there. You were older, but it was you.”
Her muscles tensed. Her eyes snapped to him, and he could see the tears on the child’s face. “Do you remember my name?” she asked, her voice hopeful, but hesitant.
He thought about it. “No.”
Her features morphed into closed eyes and a small sigh. She rubbed away the tears. Her shoulders lost their tension. It wasn’t relief she was feeling, no. Even to him it was clear this was the all-consuming disappointment one can only feel when your hopes are built up, and then torn down too fast for you to realize it wasn’t possible. “But you remember his name?” she asks, but she already knew the answer.
“He is Sephiroth.”
“You shouldn’t fixate on him so much,” she finished wiping the tears away, and favored him with a small little smile. A smile filled with many things. Pity, but tempered by a deep respect. Disappointment, but tempered by hope. Love, even, and this tempered only by her childish eyes. “You always did focus on the bad things. Try to remember my name, will you? I want you to remember pleasant things.”
“Your name…”
Cloud rose to his feet, testing his newly mended muscles. His body seemed to be working near full capacity again, though he still felt like coughing smoke from his lungs. The fire. The heat. Where had it gone? He looked about the cavern he found himself in. It was frozen over by ice colder than the blackest heart. It felt like this was the place fires and warmth went to die. Where was the door? The door he had fallen through. He looked to the ceiling but he couldn’t see it. He looked left, and right. Then, then he looked behind him, and saw the pile of rubble, chilled now by the entropic frost. It bulged within the frame of a door. But he had fallen down through the door, hadn’t he? Or was that pit of flame to his side, as he saw with his own eyes? He didn’t think of it too much. He had other things to worry about.
“Your name…” he thought aloud to himself. She leaned in towards his words, in eager anticipation. “I… your name is…”
The sound of steel against ice drew his attention like a whip to the other side of the room. Towards the darkest corner. There a single black wing protruded out from the darkness, even as the rest of the body had yet to step into the light.
“Sephiroth…”
“I believe you were looking for this.”
The man with the silver hair tossed something at Cloud’s feet with a lazy, underhand throw. It impacted against the ice with a dull, wet thud, and rolled forward slightly until it touched against Cloud’s foot and laid to rest. It was something vaguely round, tangled in dark wisps, and stained a crimson red. Cloud knelt to brush the threads away from it, and saw the face beneath. The man he was sent to save, and it seemed as if he had been dead for a while.
He stared at in silence.
“Just another one you couldn’t save, right?”
“Cloud… Cloud no. You have to ignore him Cloud. If you don’t- oh please, Cloud!” the little girl whispered as she reached out to grab him by the sleeve.
“You…”
“Cloud!” she grabbed at him more insistently now.
“YOU!”
He threw her off his arm, and she went flying back into the rubble of the burning room. She lay limp upon the frozen floor, but he didn’t see her. He didn’t see anything. He was breathing heavily now, the lifeless chilled wind betraying the gusts of his breath around his lips. He grasped his sword in hand and rushed the man with the immeasurably long sword.
“You did this! It’s your fault! Everything was your fault! Everything!”
He didn’t even see the man he was fighting. He just brought down his sword, hammering blow after blow against him. One strike, two, three in the time it takes to blink. Four, five, six, and all blocked by that blade. And yet the blade was bending now. Ever so slightly, it was almost imperceptible, but the invincible sword was failing.
“Your fault. Your fault!”
Seven, eight, nine. The blows were raining faster than the sounds of them could reach their ears. Ten, eleven, twelve. The sword they struck against was bent into a mangled mess of steel.
“No Cloud. I may have done those things, but that’s just what I do. Just what a villain does. It’s a hero’s fault when they aren’t saved. Because it’s a hero’s job to save them.”
Thirteen. The force of the blows were such that it shredded the snow beneath their feet, and cast it into the air. It was snowing. Fourteen. And the twisted, deformed metal shattered into pieces. It was snowing in a weather pattern of ice and steel.
Cloud leapt into the air, his sword was pointed towards the ground now. A feral scream tore through his throat as he plunged it down through the defenseless form in front of him. Fifteen. His breathing became calm again. And only then did he see.
It wasn’t Sephiroth that was pinned against his blade. He didn’t know her. A woman in a pink dress, with long brown hair. Her back was turned to him, and she hung limp on the blade. The massive sword was the only thing holding her in the air at all. Dead. She was dead.
It’s a hero’s fault when they aren’t saved.
Oh god, he thought to himself. What kind of hero can’t save anyone?
@tsukune Thanks for the detailed response! From what I get, we seem to have a lot of freedom in this game, so I suppose I will just take things in the direction I was imagining a bit. It seems to be within the parameters. If you want greater details, I will PM you about it, but I wouldn't want to say in this public chat. I know I look forward to reading what other people post, so under the assumption others feel the same way I wouldn't want to spoil what I will be writing.
While I understand that we're not "reserving" characters, here are the people I'd be most interested in playing:
1) Cloud Strife (yes, someone had to choose this as their number one pick right? lol)
2) Tidus
3) Auron
I might also be interested in some villain roles. It is rather interesting as you say, for the reasons you say. In fact, there's a very good reason why most modern examples of amnesia as a major character point have the character in question being a "former" villain. There's a lot of drama to be had there. But until a decision comes down on that, I am more than content expressing a desire for one of these three.
I'm a little worried about my knowledge of FF in some cases. For these characters in particular, I've only played their main games (FFVII and FFX), and not their prequels/sequels (Crisis Core, X-2). So any character arc I develop would be based on how they are presented in those games alone. Still, I think I can be entertaining regardless.
So I'm interested in playing for sure here, but I'm slightly confused about a few things and mostly I feel I need to ask about them before I can decide what character I want to play as (or characters, I would probably give a list of who I would like to play as in order of desire in case someone else wants to play as one of the people I selected instead of me).
Firstly, what is the nature of the world of Celestia? Is it a solid, real place where our plots are fully ground in a firm setting? Or is this meant to be something of a spiritual landscape where the world conforms (beyond the veil of our character's perception) to the needs of our character's journey, even if such contortions rely on elements of the surreal? Or maybe it is different things to different people? I understand that there is the possibility of crossover even despite the mostly insular nature of the stories as proposed, so I get that Celestia is a real place in the sense that not everyone in it is a mental projection of some sort. Then again, so was Silent Hill.
Secondly, how much Amnesiac Dissonance are we meant to be looking at? Are our characters meant to be mostly the way they were at the end of their games/stories, but don't remember specifics about what happened? Do our characters revert to some previous state, but again with just a blank slate of memories? Can they be dramatically different than they were in canon? Might they have some kind of past in their heads that just isn't accurate to what happened in the games? Such as Auron just believing that his Journey with Braska was the final pilgrimage that brought peace to Spira, and that none of his friends died in vain? Or is this strictly a hard and fast, no memories at all amnesia?
Regardless this is a very interesting idea, and I'll definitely want to join. I assume positions are still available?
