app @ save the earth

[dayflash]

OOC Information:
Name: tegu
Are you over 15? Oh yeah.
Contact: teglet@plurk is best. PMs to magitek/toshinebrighter@DW.org will also reach me.

IC Information:
Name: The Preincarnation is "the Warrior of Light", while he did at one point have a name he was mindwiped from it and we as the audience don't know it. The Reincarnation's name is Perseus Owen.
Canon: Dissidia 012 [duodecim] Final Fantasy
Age: Preincarnation's age is unknown and possibly unknowable due to his status as a creation and the weird nature of time in his canon, but he seems to be a twentysomething. Reincarnation's age is 25, born on August 1st, 1987.
Preincarnation Appearance: Click here.
Any differences: His hair will no longer be silver-blue, instead he'll be a redhead. For now. As well, while he'll still be very tall (6'3"), he won't have as much muscle mass as he did in canon. Again, for now.
Preincarnated History: "What happened to your character in their canon? You don’t need to explain the entire series to us, just the relevant parts, and some context to make sure it makes sense. Head canon should be written in italics.

If you prefer you may write a bare-bones history and post a link to a resource that covers more details."

>make sure it makes sense
>apping from dissidia

loooooooooool. OKAY his canon actually makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER but I will do the barebones + link strategy and. and I'm sorry but SOME OF THIS SHIT IS JUST CRAY.

Long long ago and far far away, the gods Chaos and Cosmos warred with each other, and to do their battle they summoned soldiers from different worlds to fight for them. (Or, in other words, Square Enix inadvertently created a jamjar RP setting in an attempt to come up with a plot for their crossover fighting game for the Final Fantasy series). The battles were organized in cycles: there could never be an ultimate victor, there could never be an ultimate end, so upon victory for one side, the fallen would be resurrected and the cycle would continue anew. This was kept secret from the soldiers, especially the soldiers of Cosmos (i.e. The Good Guys), aided by the multiple mind wipes that occurred as part of the resurrection process; for each of them each cycle was new with barely any memories of previous participation, or even of their life beyond the cycle of war. The return of memories and their old life was the promised prize for winning the war, and they did not know the promise was false. The Warrior of Light was the leader of Cosmos' side, due to his steadfast personality and iron will, and, perhaps fittingly, he was the one with the least memories of any of them. He didn't even remember his own name. Cosmos, being a kind goddess, sorrowed over the endless nature of the war, and despaired over the suffering of her champions. She devised a plan to break the endless cycle of war, sacrificing herself in a complicated gambit that would allow the heroes to kill Chaos, which they did, and as the world where the gods had warred collapsed, Cosmos' power pulled them away, returning the heroes to their own worlds and happy endings.

ACTUALLY. WAIT NO. That's not how it went at all.

Long, long ago and far, far away, in a place we're going to call World A, the militaristic nation of Onrac was seeking new weapons to wage war with. They discovered crystals, and the interdimensional rift/void. To try and find a way to weaponize these things, they enlisted the help of the famed Lufenian scientist Cid. They made crystals and spare "souls" into warriors, but they were of a poor quality. Eventually, though, they made one that could become a proper superweapon, and named him Chaos, and he was raised by Cid and his wife, and together they were happy for a while. However, when Chaos was old enough, he was taken to be used in the fighting by the Onrac nation, and how he was treated horrified Cid and his wife, who protested and were subsequently thrown in prison for it. They escaped, and went to find Chaos--and when they found him, it was in the company of Cosmos, an artificial being like him, but made to look exactly like Cid's wife, in order to soothe and calm Chaos. The four of them made to escape, but Cid's wife was killed in the attempt, and in his rage over this Chaos wound up opening a portal to the interdimensional rift and sending them all to a different world, which we'll call World B. It so happened that a warrior named Garland was there through unknown means, and so was Shinryu, the God-Dragon, and they all entered into an agreement. To get back to world A, Cosmos and Chaos would enter a cycle of war, that would eventually empower him enough to be able to send everyone home. Shinryu would help in the summoning of warriors to fight, and in their resurrection, and would be "paid" by taking portions of their memories and strength when resurrected. Garland would goad Chaos to continue to fight his "mother", and Cid, in his hatred, relinquished a physical body in exchange for power and control during the cycles.

And so the wars began. In the first cycle, a curious Cid created a manikin in his own image, and attempted to infuse it with his own mind and memories--unfortunately, this infusion went wrong, and the failed experiment was dumped in the land of the conflict, where it was subsequently found and enlisted in the war on Cosmos's side. This manikin, this artificial being, went on to become the Warrior of Light, leading all of Cosmos' forces through the cycle of battles. Eventually, Cosmos grew saddened by all of the fighting, and devised her plan to sacrifice herself to stop it--and her sacrifice chastened Cid, who realized that the warriors in play were proper people who deserved better, and so he halted the fighting and resurrecting and used his power to send them all home...enraging Shinryu, who viewed this as Cid reneging on the deal. Shinryu whispered seditiously to Chaos that his "father" would rather see him dead, and a despairing Chaos agreed to join with Shinryu and capture Cid in a nightmare realm ruled by a maddened Chaos, Feral Chaos, where everyone and everything was dead and dying. Eventually, a group of warriors happened upon this nightmare realm, after the Warrior of Light was the last to stand and the last to die before Feral Chaos, and freed Cid from its bonds, whereupon Cid, mourning all he had wrought, disappeared to lands unknown.

OKAY I realize that was nuts. And now to corroborate the nutsiness of it all, I have links from the Final Fantasy wiki. I am sorry for the many links here, but apparently there's no one page on the FF wiki that has the entire Dissidia setting/story on it, so I'm doing my best here. I'm sorry his canon makes no sense ._.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
Dissidia 012 [duodecim] Final Fantasy
Scenario 000/Confessions of the Creator
Cid of the Lufaine
The Warrior of Light

Reincarnated History What happened to your character that got them to this point in their normal, human life?

On the first day of August in 1987, a couple welcomed Perseus Owen into their life--and then he immediately departed from it, put up into adoption because they were well aware they couldn't care for a child. He was not adopted--never would be, as it turned out--and wound up in the United States foster care system for his entire life as a minor.

He changed foster homes frequently, less for being problematic (Perseus was fairly quiet and mostly well-behaved) and more simply because that was how life was for him, unfortunately. Having to leave for an entirely different home life every couple of years did a number on his interpersonal skills, especially forming deep connections and friendships--because if he was just going to leave in a matter of months, why bother? It wasn't that Perseus hated people--far from it--he simply adopted self-defense measures to keep from having massive emotional disruptions every few years. Unfortunately, while this may have minimized the trauma from his unstable home life, it meant that when he became an adult on his own his ability to have adult relationships was somewhat stunted, leaving him often feeling like an observer of human relationships, never a full participant.

As a child, he was generally obedient and didn't cause many problems at home or at school--only when provoked. There were two general reasons he was ever involved in disciplinary action, the first being when he stuck up for those weaker than himself and those who were on watch for the anti-bullying were either rules sticklers or disliked him for some reason. The second was the unfortunate truth that no child named Perseus Owen was ever going to avoid bullying, though this diminished when the local crop of bullies figured out he made a bad target, and almost vanished in his teens, as he grew from a small child to a six-foot-plus obviously-athletic young man and became an even less appealing target. Perseus was never a model student, much to the frustration of his teachers--he was obviously an intelligent child, he simply lacked "book smarts"; any subject that was mostly book learning he just couldn't seem to do well in. He was also never a top athletic child--while he was obviously strong and fast, the perpetual disruption of his foster life prevented him from having consistent training or exposure to consistent programs. As well, he lacked good teamwork skills due to his interpersonal problems. When he did well in athletic programs, they were the more solitary ones, such as track and field or fencing.

He had been working and saving money for most of his teens, so he could manage to go to a state college with a minimum amount of hassle--for while his grades were not what they could be, he was a diligent and disciplined worker, so he went into the local state college and planned to graduate with a degree in...something practical, he wasn't sure yet, maybe accounting or business or education or the long shot of engineering...when he took Drawing I for an esoteric requirement in his freshman year and discovered that not only did he like this, but he was good at it.

Apparently, Perseus had some natural inclination towards art, which mixed well with his hardworking nature (since no matter how talented you are, you have to practice to become a good artist). He wound up being a studio major, with a computer science minor, and graduated...to, like most artists, a very limited work field. So now, three years post-graduation, Perseus does his art when he can find time and commissioners, while working night jobs to pay the rent for his little apartment. Currently, Perseus works as a night security guard to pay most of the bills while working hard on his art, living alone in Locke City and pretending that he isn't lonely.

First Echo: Shortly before the game started, he went to see some fantasy movie involving a very impressively CG'd Balrog demon monster, whereupon he gained a flash memory of a terrifying similar creature, one Chaos, whom he had faced in his previous life. Asides from providing spice to his dream life, he doesn't think much of it.
Preincarnation Personality:
Good ol' Captain Ironspine. Every story needs at least one character in it who always has their shit together, and in Dissidia, that character is the Warrior of Light. Essentially, he is an honorable, good, noble, brave and true knight in service to his lady goddess, Cosmos, a deity of light and harmony. But moving beyond the basics, there is nuance to his behavior which I will go into further now.

One of the first things one will note about the Warrior of Light (asides from "is that a skirt" and "how does that helmet even stay on") is his unfailing formality and politeness. He is, to everyone he meets, always respectful and polite, using somewhat-formal speech and a calm, even tone. It isn't just to his friends and allies that he speaks this way--even his enemies, even his nemesis Garland get civilized conversation. However, this politeness must not be confused with softness. While he will speak civilly to even monsters, he will not hesitate to attack threats to him, his comrades, or his cause, or to cut down monsters if it is the righteous thing to do. He feels his enemies deserve respect, for they are powerful and worthy adversaries, but he does not confuse it with unnecessary mercy.

This lack of softness carries over into other relationships. The Warrior is stern, even with his comrades; he will not hesitate to give them orders they might not want to follow (as when he tells a wounded Firion to flee and leave Sephiroth to him). He has even fought his allies to test them, and make certain they have not strayed from the path of the light. The Warrior is one of the few characters in the game who has never, ever smiled on-screen--even with his close friends and allies, even with Cosmos, he is serious and firm. If Serious Business had a club, WoL would be its president.

In his manner he is forthright and honest at almost all times, direct and quite unsubtle. He is capable of (some degree of subtlety), and of being less than honest--but only with cause; his default and preferred setting is to approach things plainly and directly, to reach the heart and truth of the matter, without namby-pambying about with rhetoric and philosophy. Related to this, bolstering his frank and blunt approach to things is conviction that is unwavering--the Warrior does not merely believe that light is good, harmony must triumph over disorder, and that Cosmos will know victory and peace, he knows it, he has a faith in her and her cause that is basically unshakeable. Yet he is not particularly evangelical about this--he is, mostly, content to let this center and guide him; he is completely secure with it, such that he doesn't need the sight of others sharing this faith to think that it is good and correct.

As hinted at when I mentioned his politeness even to his enemies, he is noble and honorable--he thinks nothing of giving his life if by it he can save Cosmos, vowing to defend her until the very last. More proof of this nature can be seen in his guilt and doubt over what had to be done to ensure the best possible outcome in the 12th cycle.

But now for lighter things--there aren't many about him, but they do exist. First is that he does, in fact, have emotions. Despite his calm nature, strong will and determination to be The Leader, he does care about his comrades, feel fear, sorrow, astonishment, and so forth. The brave face he puts up is very good (and as he is rarely an emotional person, isn't really just a "face"), so much so that even some of his allies wonder at times if he is really human (which he isn't, but that's beside the point). He cares, he will at times tell them what little he can remember and reveal his vulnerabilities.

Because he does have them. Due to the cycles of Dissidia repeatedly wiping and resetting and rearranging his memories, the Warrior's brain is, to put it politely, something of a clusterfuck. He doesn't remember his own name, even, only that he has one, which eats at him greatly. Vulnerabilities like these will generally only be shared with those he is very close with, at the right time and place...but he will share them, because he trusts and believes in his friends.

And speaking of friends and memories--the Warrior of Light has had his mind wiped, multiple times, but he does seem to retain some faint recollection of what happened before, as shown by his recollection that he did at one time have a name. He himself describes his lack of memories as "like writing, carefully erased": Nothing of what was written can be determined, only that there was writing. The most dramatic proof, though, that what has happened to him has affected him, changed him, even if the memory of the event was lost, is his relationship with Prishe. When she found him, he was a true blank slate--just created, barely cognizant and just short of catatonic. In their time together, before Prishe vanishes, we can see how her influence on him--the example she sets and the lectures she gives--molded him into the above-described man: Steadfast, loyal, determined, brave, and all in all a good and gallant man.

He also has no sense of humor whatsoever. But he can be a little funny sometimes anyways.

Any differences:
The biggest difference in personality between Perseus and the Warrior is that Perseus is not an amnesiac with no memory of his life or of how human relationships work. While Perseus' socialization was not what it could have been, and Perseus still does have significant difficulty dealing with people, he is still leaps and bounds ahead of the overformal and unknowing Warrior in this respect. As well, he has better background knowledge of the world, a better command of General Knowledge than the Warrior does, again because he's not an amnesiac. As such, with more knowledge to come to bear he is more flexible in dealing with situations.

He is also more flexible in general. The Warrior was fighting a losing battle in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, while Perseus has never been any kind of soldier. This situation made the Warrior very serious, very firm, very rigid and upright with a gigantic stick up his ass. Perseus is more fluid--he is still disciplined and serious and tends to be stubborn and unyielding, but since he doesn't have the weight of the world riding on his shoulders (or didn't), he's more likely to "know when to fold 'em" and do so. (I expect this will change and he will become more like his old personality as the threat to the Earth becomes much more intense, but that's only speculation at the moment).

Lastly, and in a sense most momentously, he actually has a sense of humor in his reincarnation. It's not much of one, and is not frequently employed, but it does exist, and he has smiled and even laughed in this world. His sense of humor mostly takes the form of dry, wry snark--essentially, the not!sense of humor he displayed in his preincarnation, only this time real and intentional.

Abilities:
Because Dissidia is a fighting game that runs on the Rule Of Awesome, he has many many awesome special abilities. A brief rundown:

• Great swordsmanship skills
  
• Quick on his feet
  
• Apparently can make shield work as a projectile weapon/boomerang
  
• Acrobatic, to an extent
  
• Knows how to use magical items that cast fairly weak fire/ice/lightning spells
  
• The big one: A variety of light-based special attacks
  
  • shield himself with light to repel attacks, then strike back
    
  • generate swords of light, either the size of his sword or much larger, to attack with
    
  • summon columns of light to burst through ground and hurt things

The items that casts the spells are not very good at making people fall down--they're fairly weak magic, mainly useful to surprise, disrupt, or distract. They come in the form of colored fangs--blue for ice, red for fire, white for lightning. They are consumed when used. A blue fang causes ice chunks to materialize around and fall on the target. A red fang fires a homing arrow of flame. A white fang calls down bolts of electricity in a line between the caster and the target. That's all.

As for specialized equipment, he had a sword and shield that he could summon at will, and a suit of heavy armor. As he is never shown sans armor, I assume it is not summonable but just an outfit.

Roleplay Sample – Third Person:

Perseus walked down a dark hallway, flashlight alight, and began, not for the first time, to wonder whether he liked this new job or hated it.

On the one hand, he was here in the Locke City Fine Arts Museum, and he was making connections, and making rent and coffee money. On the other hand, the irony of an artist working for an art museum as night security was simply painful. And not even the knowledge that having connections with "little people" was just as valuable as with the big personalities if you knew what you were doing was capable of getting rid of the sting.

And, a nagging voice pointed out, he did have a choice in the matter--he knew his way around computers and programming, and his last employers would surely take him on again for a new project, he'd more than proven he was a hard and effective worker...but they didn't have a new project right away, and the rent issue was pressing, and museums. He liked museums. They were stately and serious and quiet and strove for culture and understanding people...not that Perseus would admit it to himself precisely, but they were sort of him, in architecture.

But museums in this context...

He sighed, counting his steps for lack of anything better to do, and counting the minutes until shift end.

Roleplay Sample - Network:
[The movie he'd seen a few weeks ago was largely forgettable, in his estimation--all spectacle and razzle-dazzle, but little substance. And, yes, the demon bad guy there had...given him some kind of inspiration? though it felt more like a memory, weirdly enough... in any case, a four-armed demon was popping up recently in his sketchbooks, as frequently as a number was popping up in his head.]

[And no, it wasn't 867-5301. Before anyone asked.]

[It had started to bother him. The only thing he could think of was that the movie had tried some kind of subliminal advertising thing--but then, he thought he had read somewhere that subliminal advertising had been disproved as real. So--what could it be?]

[Eventually, he gave in to curiosity, and plugged that string of numbers into Google. And what followed...]

[It would be wondrous if it wasn't crazy.]

If this is some new facebook thing, or facebook knockoff using subliminal advertising, I still don't plan to do anything more than network with that site. No groups, no albums, for God's sake no farmville. Can someone tell me how to get this number out of my head?

Any Questions? None atm! I know I expressed in faq questioning a desire to app this character from the canon AU in Dissidia, but I have changed my mind on this, so. that's why there's no mention of canon AU-ness. ...I also changed my journal in between posting my reserve and writing this faq, so. FYI.