(no subject)
Name: Dragon
Journal: dragonoflife
Contact: AIM: Dragon of Anger
OC or AU: Canon OC
Character Name: Maria Cyphert
Series: Final Fantasy VIII
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Requested Sponsor: Opal
Entry position (Cadet, SeeD, Instructor, other): Cadet
Appearance: Maria is a fairly tall girl (5'8") that runs a bit to the muscular side thanks to a bit of a mania for strength training in her formative years. She has dark hair which she keeps long but ties up whenever necessary, blue eyes, and not much sense of fashion. Her most immediately noticeable physical trait is her startlingly large forearms, thanks to her studies with heavy weapons (about which she has a mild complex, since they really are disproportionate).
She favors simple clothing that doesn't take a lot of effort to think about. Her weapons, paired gunblades, are worn in a holster on her back; rather than a traditional sheath, it grips the back of the blades with magnetic force, making it actually possible to draw the weapons. During any official time in the Garden, she'll be wearing a cadet uniform, being extremely convinced that doing so is correct and professional!
History: Maria was born in Dollet, six years before the Balamb Garden SeeD exam that kicked off the plot of FFVIII proper. Her parents owned a shop on the main street, which did brisk business selling to tourists and visitors to the local resorts. The oldest child, Maria got just that little bit of extra spoiling and attention that comes with the position, but not enough to ruin her horribly.
At the beginning of the Siege of Dollet, the family found themselves barricaded in the store -- not in immediate danger, but not free to move about the city or return home. For a few days, from this uncomfortable but not miserable position, the girl watched carefully through the windows at the comings and goings of the Dollet army and the Galbadian forces. Not understanding the gravity of the situation, Maria thought it was a heck of a show -- especially when, three days later, the first SeeDs poured off the boat, storming up the street to do... Well, she didn't know what they were doing, but in their cadet uniforms, and gunblades drawn and ready, they seemed like heroes to her. And when a short while later, they came crashing down the streets, followed by the X-ATM092, she thought this was the greatest thing she'd ever seen. At that moment, a desire to become a SeeD crystallized in her heart, and would never leave again.
Her parents certainly weren't gung-ho for the idea, but on the one hand their daughter was clearly destined for tomboyish roughhousing anyway, and on the other hand, a certain measure of self-defense clearly seemed wise, since the Galbadian soldiers could have caused a lot more personal harm and catastrophe had they been intent on doing so. So to placate their daughter, they arranged for her to study under a semi-retired captain in the Dollet infantry (such classes being offered as a way to supplement the extra taxes necessary to pay Balamb Garden's fees). Captain Kartany, in turn, had no particular love for SeeDs himself, but in time recognized that Maria's goal was not just a lark or a whim, and in respect of this fact steered her down the path of basic swordsmanship and physical development.
As the years passed, Maria trained with a fanatic glee -- not just because she wanted to be a SeeD, but because she honestly enjoyed the physical exertion and adrenaline rush of a duel or, not entirely to her credit, confrontation. During her approach to adolescence, she became something of a bossy girl, if not quite a bully; she took charge of her small group of friends with a sort of arrogant assumption that she, with her grand destiny, deserved it. The death of her mother to a heart condition, however, jolted Maria halfway out of her complacence. At fourteen, she matured more or less into the girl she is now.
Two years later, as Maria turned 16, time compression abruptly gripped Dollet in a brutal hand, as a group of hostile offworlders appeared and began to rampage through the city. As its effects gripped the city, her father managed to ship her to the relative safety of Balamb Garden. The two parted with the knowledge that they would almost certainly never see each other again, and the boat sailed... into a grim pocket of extremely dilated time. It emerged after a month inside, and ten years outside.
Maria had left everything and everyone she knew behind to follow her dream.
World History: Maria's world is FFVIII canon, with a disjunct in time of 10 years thanks to time compression.
Abilities & Physical Abnormalities: Maria is on the high end of the normal human strength bell curve, having trained diligently for years as she grew up. She has a familiarity with swords, but not so much her weapon of choice, gunblades, yet.
Maria's Limit Break (post-learning to use it in class!) is the traditional Renzokuken; however, her finishing moves are called 'totemic Renzokuken' and basically involve a momentary shapeshift into an oversized, damaging creature. The equivalent of Sqall's "Rough Divide", for example, is "Lion". As is traditional, she won't gain access to any higher level attacks until she upgrades her gunblades.
Personality: On the plus side, Maria is bright, friendly, and absolutely determined to succeed at becoming a SeeD. She's really a decent person at heart, she cares about other people, and she is a dedicated student. She has a strong tendency towards excitability and particularly strong moods; good things leave her grinning maniacally and all but bouncing, while frustrations and things that upset her provoke anger to the point of rage, though she'd never cause harm to someone who wasn't trying to harm her or someone she cared about. Oddly, she's much more reasonable simply talking with people; insult or denigrate her and she'll just brush it off and attempt to patiently explain why you're wrong or misunderstanding, at least the first few times you do it.
She is a total nerd about gunblades. She doesn't have the practice with them, but she's studied theory extensively.
On the other hand, she tends to be self-centered. Not selfish, but she sees herself as the hero and protagonist of her story, and with that view comes a tendency to view other people as supporting staff (or antagonists). She has a tendency to follow the letter of the laws a bit too closely; on a SeeD exam, she's the sort who won't just save a dog from a robot, but will actively go looking for a dog to save from the robot in order to get the boost to her Conduct score. She would cheerfully sit and eat attacks from Ifrit till there were just ten seconds left on that timer for the points.
Perhaps a little more alarmingly, she's a little bloodthirsty. Not that she runs around stabbing people with gunblades, but she very much feels that the purpose of training as a SeeD is to right wrongs and triumph over evil. After all, SeeDs saved not just Dollet, but the whole world! And they didn't do it by NOT beating the crap out of monsters and Sorceresses and whatnot with gunblades (and other, lesser weapons). In battle, she's something of a howling berserker -- gunblades whirling, explosions left and right... To be blunt, she has very little talent for subtlety, and while she CAN be diplomatic to people who are neutral or friendly but with diverging interests, she's not the person anyone would pick to lead a high-pressure delegation to secure peace with Galbadia or the like.
More neutrally, she is something of a perfectionist and an eager student; in the Garden, she will probably grab for as many classes as possible, then devote time to study and training during her free hours as well. She is prone to hero-worship for any SeeDs, any Instructors who teach classes she likes, and anyone who uses a gunblade more proficiently than she does.
The oldest child of her family, she knows what it is to be loved and cherished; those feelings have given her a foundation to build her strength on. She's never experienced romantic love, though, and bears a "not for me, I have other things to do" attitude that will likely smash into a million pieces if she meets the right person -- to her dismay, since she'd view it as a weakness or distraction, despite the fact that she would cheer romance on in her friends and even work to help them get it. Her siblings are very close to her in age, so she has no strong maternal instincts; instead, she has a drive to help other people improve themselves, and the strong urge to help people without doing the whole job for them. She won't fight the monster you need to beat for you, but she'll support you through it and help you be strong enough to stand against it. Her motives aren't entirely pure -- after all, the protagonist has to help the others she meets, especially if they're going to be people she counts on and trusts as a SeeD -- but she very much means well, and very much puts her all into that helping. Her heart's in the right place, even if her perceptions aren't always.
Anything else? Maria is... obsessed with Bahamut. She wants that GF.
Complete TWO out of the FOUR options.
i) IC Questionnaire (can be found on the application page)
(As this questionnaire is entirely IC, your character is free to lie.)
What do you prefer to be known as? Maria is fine.
How old are you? 16. I don't think time passed quite right somewhere along the line though.
Do you have any history in combat? I've gotten into a few fights in my time. I've never used my swords against anyone, though.
If so, have you ever killed? No, I haven't.
i) How do you feel when you get involved in some project that calls for immediate and rapid activity? Thrilled! I like to get involved in things like that!
ii) Do you organize and initiate leisure activities? Most of my time is pretty well taken up with all the stuff I already do.
iii) What role do you take when working in a group? Leader, of course.
iv) How talkative are you around other people? That depends on what we're doing. I like to talk to people but I don't do it at inappropriate times.
v) What three things would you want to have with you on a desert island? State your reasoning. Oh, uh, a knife or small hatchet, water, and... like a canopy, I guess, something I can duck under so I'm not sunburned to death.
vi) Is it important to be liked by a wide range of people? It's important to be respected by people you need to respect you and liked by the other people... and maybe the people who need to respect you, too, but the respect is more important.
vii) When the odds are against you, is it worth taking a chance? Isn't that when you're most likely to get a Limit Break?
viii) Do you consider yourself to be an impulsive person? In the short-term but not in the long-term. I never forget what I need to do, even if I spend my free time doing something that wasn't what I had planned.
ix) Would you agree that planning things ahead takes the fun out of life? Not at all. Plans are very important for success.
x) Do you like surprises? Only ones that are good or I can handle.
xi) Do you sometimes wonder if there is something wrong with you? I -- is this a real question? You're not trying to hint something, are you? I don't think it's so wrong to want to be a SeeD!
xii) Do you consider yourself to be smarter than your superiors, and disagree with their decisions? No, sir!
xiii) Lastly, how do you feel about cabbages? Oh, what... does this affect my score? I have no relevant opinion on cabbages.
iv) Thread link
Thank you, WR players and applicants, for your help!