application: songerein

[inheritedearth]

Player: Christine
Age: 30+
Contact: necrofancy, PM or necrofancies @ discord
Current Characters: N/A

Character: Aerith Gainsborough
Canon: Final Fantasy VII; she will be coming from the end of Remake, as the party leaves Midgar.

Age: 22

Background Information: Aerith @ the Final Fantasy Wiki

Personality:

Aerith is the last known member of an ancient race known as the Cetra, a people who were known for their close connection with the planet and its life cycle. She was always considered to be a strange and precocious child, both by her adoptive mother and others who had the opportunity to get to know her, and having spent the first several years of her life in captivity, she found it difficult to connect with other children her age, on the rare occasion she had the chance to try. She has always been made to feel different from those around her, but despite being faced with countless challenges from an early age, Aerith is a perpetually cheerful sort of person. She is firmly of the belief that the best way to face your problems is with a smile— if you let your enemy, whoever they are, see that they’ve got you down, then you’re giving them the upper hand, and that simply won’t do. Having grown up in the slums as well as having been monitored (or at times relentlessly pursued) by Shinra for most of her life, she is used to all kinds of adversity, and is very much of the opinion that if you can’t keep your spirits up even at the worst of times, you’ve already lost.

Aerith strives to remain optimistic, even when the situation is difficult— not only for her own well-being, but for the people around her. She has more than once made great efforts to boost the party’s morale, though she is sometimes very blunt while doing so, which can occasionally be mistaken for insensitivity. Regardless, she is a nurturing soul, whether it comes to caring for people or for plants, and takes genuine pleasure in looking after people. There are few things more satisfying than watching someone enjoy a meal you cooked for them, or to see all of the long hours you’ve spent tending your garden bear fruit when the flowers grow and bloom. She is a healer at heart, and over the years has developed a pleasant bedside manner to go along with her ability to heal injuries.

Despite being the kind of girl who likes to spend her time doing quiet things like gardening, Aerith is anything but a wilting flower. She is afraid of neither conflict nor combat, though her physical prowess is somewhat lacking— one of the primary reasons she requested Cloud be her bodyguard when she was being sought by the Turks, who were set on acquiring her for Shinra's research division so that she could be experimented on. She then went on to allow herself to be taken hostage during the assault on Sector 7 in order to protect Marlene Wallace and guarantee her safety, putting a selfless twist on the “damsel in distress” trope.

Rather than being shy and demure, Aerith is incredibly bold and outspoken, having absolutely no inhibitions about telling people exactly how she feels at any given time. Does she like you? You’ll never have to guess. Does she disapprove of your actions? Get ready to hear about it at great length. She's not one to keep her feelings inside for very long, and on occasion, her particular brand of honesty can be brutal, though she does usually make an effort to remain tactful. On the same note, she is also very flirtatious by nature and does not shy away from doing so in easy company. She is also prone to affectionate teasing, and likes to take friendly shots at those around her. Cloud in a blonde wig or Barret in a sailor suit? Events like these are comedy gold that she feels can be mined for years before they lose their luster. She is, at times, a bit childish in that she doesn’t like being excluded and has been shown to get huffy if she thinks she’s being ignored or otherwise slighted.

Aerith is an incredibly determined and stubborn woman. Once she has put her mind to something, there is absolutely no convincing her otherwise— she’ll do what she wants and she’ll do it her way, and whether other people are with or against her is up to them entirely. If she wants something badly enough, she will barrel through any obstacle to achieve her goal, whatever it may be. What she lacks in brute strength, she makes up for in cleverness and diplomacy. She can be manipulative in a mostly harmless way— the way she sees it, women are naturally gifted with a very specific arsenal, and Aerith knows how to use every weapon in hers. She is excellent at coaxing people into giving her what she wants, a skill that she has displayed multiple times throughout the game, but most prominently in Wall Market.

At her core, Aerith is very fair and open-minded. She is willing to give just about anyone a chance to prove or redeem themselves, and feels that most people must have some good buried in them somewhere. In some cases, the person in question may just be too far gone to unearth it again, but nevertheless, the list of people she feels are truly irredeemable is remarkably short. She has a strong sense of justice and wastes no time in lending her support to whatever cause she feels is right, nor is she shy about voicing her opinions about what she feels is right or wrong. Beneath all of the cheer and the flirting and teasing, Aerith is very serious about what she considers to be her duty. As a child, she was reluctant to embrace her Cetra heritage— it frightened her, it made her different, and it meant she was constantly pursued by those who sought to abuse her power. As an adult, she has come to understand (as best she can, at least) that being the last surviving Cetra means she has been saddled with a certain amount of responsibility, and while she can’t help feeling alone at times, she is proud of her heritage and constantly seeking to learn more about her ancestors and the legacy she is expected to carry on.

Abilities & Inventory:

Abilities:
➤ Magic Proficiency - Aerith is quite skilled with magic, and has some inherent ability with it in addition to her being handy with materia use. Rather than striking things directly with her staff, she is able to use it to send magical projectiles towards her foes. Through use of materia, she has access to a number of offensive and restorative spells, but the corresponding materia has to be on her person for her to be able to use it.
➤ Arcane Ward - Aerith is able to create a ward on the ground beneath her, and any offensive magic she casts while standing in it hits twice.
➤ Soul Drain - An attack that absorbs some MP/magical energy from an enemy.
➤ Sorcerous Storm - Deals magical damage to nearby enemies.
➤ Fleeting Familiar - Summons a small fairy companion that attacks her enemies periodically in addition to when she casts a spell.
➤ Ray of Judgment - Fires a burst of magical energy that hits an enemy multiple times.
➤ Lustrous Shield - Creates a magical barrier that protects an ally from projectiles.
➤ Limit Breaks - Aerith's inherent abilities allow her to support and protect her companions, with Healing Wind restoring health to her allies and Planet's Protection temporarily shielding them from physical attacks for a very short period of time.
➤ Cetra Lineage - Being a descendant of the ancient Cetra race means that Aerith is especially in tune with nature and the planet's Lifestream. While she does not necessarily have the ability to speak to spirits directly, she is very sensitive to spiritual energy, such as being able to tell when someone has passed away because she can feel they have "returned to the planet. Her green thumb is the result of her heritage, as well; while people insist that flowers and plants can't thrive in Midgar, she's never had any trouble getting them to grow. She is deeply connected to life itself, even if that connection is often very confusing to her— she doesn't always know what it means or what she's capable of, but she feels things quite deeply and is both inquisitive and compassionate as a result.

Inventory:
➤ Reinforced Staff
➤ The white materia that she was given by her mother, tucked safely inside the ribbon in her hair.
➤ Her currently equipped materia, which includes Healing, Cleansing, Fire and Wind.

Suitability & Plans:

Aerith is a character who has the potential to flourish in a world of dreams. As a Cetra, she is sensitive to the energy of her home planet and bears a connection to the Lifestream, and while that same connection would not exist here, she remains quite intuitive and empathetic. Both dream and emotion energy would be of great interest to her; she would take to dreamotion in particular quite easily and look to find all sorts of creative uses for it. In addition, while she has every reason not to be, she is an optimistic and nurturing soul who would gladly put herself wholly into helping a growing and changing world like this one right along. The opportunity to live freely away from Shinra's gaze will be a novelty, one that will take some getting used to, but she will also be glad for the chance to live without being constantly monitored, which would allow for interesting character exploration as that's something she's never had before now.

Test Drive Sample: Aerith @ the TDM

Questions: None!