(no subject)
Personality: The unbreakable Highwind. Born to a town swelling with the endless promises of mundane. Farmers, housewives and sprawling fields of nothing. So many opportunities, all of which as barren as the land they formulated upon. Life in that town, was set on it's tracks. You lived that way because that was life. Lived and died on a plot of land, consuming the product of your labor and waking up at the ass-crack of dawn to maintain it. Tethered to the earth, dirt embedded in the creases of hands, anchored to a destiny decided by the generations who never cared enough look up from the ground.
But the sky... limitless and pristinely blue. Freedom. Boundless and clean. As a child, Cid would climb onto the roof of his home, staring into the sun until his eyes blistered with tears, cooled by the wind on his face. Home. Up, up and away. He even jumped off once, a makeshift parachute from his mother's best sheets resulting in a tumbling free-fall, broken forearm and a wooden-spoon sore ass.
A natural mechanic, Cid filled the invaluable roll of maintaining his father's farm equipment. Building new machines that cheated the system. Made work easier, faster. And he drafted up plans for an airship. Old man Highwind started ordering scrap metal and discarded parts from Midgar for his son to tool with-- once the chores of the daily grind were completed.
Ambition and pride are a strong driving force-- but they are just as fragile. It was that, his ambition and pride, that outcast him so violently. His refusal to live according to what had been set for him. And the wild ideas that boy had... It was to his benefit he was in good health, stocky and hearty. He needed it. Constantly brawling with the other boys, defending his refusal to conform. He could hold his own in a fist-fight for sure, but the chastising, the teasing and the isolation...
The more shit he took, the harder he became. He built walls to protect himself, abrasive and calloused. "Don't care what ya morons think!" became a personal credo. And somewhere, the boy who stood on his roof fingers outstretched to the infinite blue was lost to the folds of necessity.
When the Highwind was under construction and commandeered by the ShinRa with the "deal" they would finance the project allowing it to come to fruition-- and ultimately own it for their own purposes, he did what he needed to do. Fuck the politics of it, bite your tongue and play the game. Whatever it took. This was not without consequence though, and the resentment built.
The failure of the launch of the ShinRa No. 26 cemented his own self-inflicted trap. What was once a guise of protection became real. Cid was an angry, bitter, spiteful man.
Time and age has mellowed him considerably - though he's still quick to argue and quicker to fight. His relationship with Shera and his friends mean everything to him, but still, he can't break from the shell he created. And in the end, really doesn't care to.
Strengths: Cid is the deity of machines. The bigger and louder the better. His ambition is blinding and once determination sets in, he is unstoppable. He is also loyal, when presented with appealing circumstances to people he actually cares for. His personal drive is so strong that it's easy for him to steer clear of politics and bureaucratic red-tape. In his opinion, rules are for breaking and that gives him the advantage of out-of-the-box problem solving. His past ties to the ShinRa as well as AVALANCHE are beneficial to playing both sides of the coin, though he could care less outside of specific necessity.
Aside from chain-smoking, he keeps himself in a state of physical rigor which makes him a powerful ally in combat. Cid can-- and does-- pilot, drive and operate anything. Need an airship? A bike? A tank? He'll provide it... as long as he's behind the wheel.
Weaknesses: His ambition is... blinding. So much so that it has the habit of overshadowing what actually matters. Years of forcing a "fuck off" attitude have become an inherent fact of his persona. Empathy is a foreign concept and little regard is taken to care for his peers feelings. As a result, Cid is perpetually distant from even those he is closest to. Trust is not something that comes easily to him and insists on doing things he feels are of importance himself. He is vulgar to a fault and is grossly apathetic to it's ramifications.
A hot temper and a need to be right make him difficult to interact with in some situations, even though he means well.
But the sky... limitless and pristinely blue. Freedom. Boundless and clean. As a child, Cid would climb onto the roof of his home, staring into the sun until his eyes blistered with tears, cooled by the wind on his face. Home. Up, up and away. He even jumped off once, a makeshift parachute from his mother's best sheets resulting in a tumbling free-fall, broken forearm and a wooden-spoon sore ass.
A natural mechanic, Cid filled the invaluable roll of maintaining his father's farm equipment. Building new machines that cheated the system. Made work easier, faster. And he drafted up plans for an airship. Old man Highwind started ordering scrap metal and discarded parts from Midgar for his son to tool with-- once the chores of the daily grind were completed.
Ambition and pride are a strong driving force-- but they are just as fragile. It was that, his ambition and pride, that outcast him so violently. His refusal to live according to what had been set for him. And the wild ideas that boy had... It was to his benefit he was in good health, stocky and hearty. He needed it. Constantly brawling with the other boys, defending his refusal to conform. He could hold his own in a fist-fight for sure, but the chastising, the teasing and the isolation...
The more shit he took, the harder he became. He built walls to protect himself, abrasive and calloused. "Don't care what ya morons think!" became a personal credo. And somewhere, the boy who stood on his roof fingers outstretched to the infinite blue was lost to the folds of necessity.
When the Highwind was under construction and commandeered by the ShinRa with the "deal" they would finance the project allowing it to come to fruition-- and ultimately own it for their own purposes, he did what he needed to do. Fuck the politics of it, bite your tongue and play the game. Whatever it took. This was not without consequence though, and the resentment built.
The failure of the launch of the ShinRa No. 26 cemented his own self-inflicted trap. What was once a guise of protection became real. Cid was an angry, bitter, spiteful man.
Time and age has mellowed him considerably - though he's still quick to argue and quicker to fight. His relationship with Shera and his friends mean everything to him, but still, he can't break from the shell he created. And in the end, really doesn't care to.
Strengths: Cid is the deity of machines. The bigger and louder the better. His ambition is blinding and once determination sets in, he is unstoppable. He is also loyal, when presented with appealing circumstances to people he actually cares for. His personal drive is so strong that it's easy for him to steer clear of politics and bureaucratic red-tape. In his opinion, rules are for breaking and that gives him the advantage of out-of-the-box problem solving. His past ties to the ShinRa as well as AVALANCHE are beneficial to playing both sides of the coin, though he could care less outside of specific necessity.
Aside from chain-smoking, he keeps himself in a state of physical rigor which makes him a powerful ally in combat. Cid can-- and does-- pilot, drive and operate anything. Need an airship? A bike? A tank? He'll provide it... as long as he's behind the wheel.
Weaknesses: His ambition is... blinding. So much so that it has the habit of overshadowing what actually matters. Years of forcing a "fuck off" attitude have become an inherent fact of his persona. Empathy is a foreign concept and little regard is taken to care for his peers feelings. As a result, Cid is perpetually distant from even those he is closest to. Trust is not something that comes easily to him and insists on doing things he feels are of importance himself. He is vulgar to a fault and is grossly apathetic to it's ramifications.
A hot temper and a need to be right make him difficult to interact with in some situations, even though he means well.