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andredemption's Journal

Created on 2006-10-16 21:54:15 (#11402731), last updated 2006-11-11

74 comments received, 72 comments posted

Basic Account [Gift]

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Basic Info

Name:	Cloud Strife

Bio

{S T R I F E}

name: Cloud Strife
age: 22
gender: Male
race/ethnicity: Northern European/Caucasian
sexuality: Bisexual - if sexualities were advertisements in job agencies, Cloud's would say "flexible, apply within". He is not entirely concerned with gender, since he doesn't particularly like most people who are the very epitome of their genders anyway - to even think of thinking of a person sexually, he has to know them first, and actually genuinely like them. With Cloud, this is often difficult.

appearance: Cloud is of Norwegian origin, although carrying no European accent - he has a mild British lilt to his voice, but that is all - and so is coloured in the Norwegian fashion; blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. His hair is usually spiked upwards, although it used to be far more severe than it is at the current time; he simply doesn't have as much time to deal with it now. He is of a shorter-than-average height for a male at around 5'7", this being made more than apparent by the fact that he wields the gigantic Buster Sword, which is at the moment swathed in heavy bandaging.

However, this certainly doesn't make him a weakling. He isn't hugely well-built, but is muscled in the more wiry, lithe sense; he can put a considerable amount of power behind his sword, and is also agile and athletic, built for movement.

Yet, there are certain aspects of Cloud's appearance that are somewhat less than normal. The first can be seen upon looking into his eyes; when looked at closely, there is a greenish sheen over the blue, particularly noticable under sudden light. His eyes are rather like an animal's eyes, flashing in the darkness against a flashlight; this is due to the curse placed upon him.

The other mark of the curse is the black demon's wing that extends from his left shoulder; this was granted to his as a mark of the darkness that comes with selling oneself to different battles for money, and is a mar on Cloud's appearance - something to remind him of his apparent immorality. He attempted to hide it for a significant while, even going to the extent of chopping it off himself, but it only grew back, and eventually he stopped bothering and just let it exist for the duration of his finding the man who cursed him. Those who stare at the wing get a particularly nasty glare from Cloud (one that is well-honed and well practiced, as after all the wing is fairly noticeable) - he deeply dislikes anyone drawing attention to it or commenting on it, although this of course is unavoidable to a large extent.

Cloud tends to dress in a practical way for someone of his profession, which had been and still is, to an extent, of a mercenary. He wears heavy boots, and simple clothing in dark violet; over which is placed a variety of belts for him to be able to buckle over armour on his left shoulder and also for him to be able to carry his sword on his back when he is not using it. Over this, he wears a short and red cape with covers the lower half of his face; given to him by a kind man who had met him when he had first been cursed and been kind, giving him the cape to cover himself. Cloud, never one to forget acts of kindness, still wears the cape even though it does nothing to hide the wing and is now somewhat ragged. The other notable part of his clothing ensemble is the metallic claw he wears over his left hand; this is there only so he can cause more damage in battle.

personality: Cloud used to be a mercenary, and many people who had dealt with Cloud probably could think of a variety of words that describe his personality well, but not all of them are particularly polite. Cloud can be taciturn, off-handed, impolite, and stoic; this isn't because he intends to be this way so much as he thinks that people should mind their own business, and that he doesn't really like them, and would rather they went away. This certainly doesn't mean that Cloud doesn't have emotions, or that there are no people that he enjoys the company of - in fact, it is rather the opposite, which is exactly what Cloud does not like about himself. He has difficulties expressing himself in a wide emotional range, and does not communicate much for fear of embarrassing himself or upsetting someone else. He is also not very good at dealing with other people when they are working outside of his emotional grasp; upset people, or people who are incredibly happy, are anathema to him, and he finds no feasible way of calming them down.

Cloud, in himself, is not an unpleasant person despite how he may seem on the exterior. Once he has decided that he likes a person, particularly when it comes to girls, he becomes somewhat adoring of them - preferring to protect them as best he can since he cannot offer much in terms of emotional range, rathering to be the distant bodyguard figure rather than the intimate confidant mainly due to his often-appearing inability to grasp the subtleties of both his own emotions and other people's. In reality, he is somewhat shy, and has been known to make a fool of himself.

When it comes to men, however, Cloud reacts differently to them; he can actually be seen as somewhat egotistical. He is perfectly prepared to get into 'contests' in terms of fighting prowess, and has actually been known to 'tough talk' upon occasion - particularly when the person he's talking with irritates him rather intensely.

Another word that describes Cloud well is "wary". Being brave and forthright granted him only a curse; now, he would far rather be quieter and think about everything he says before he says it; sometimes, he would rather not bother walking into a situation which he knows will not end well. This does not mean he isn't brave - to say he wasn't would be fallacy. He has just learned from experience that some things will go his way, and that it is not worth trying to complete tasks that he will never be able to perform appropriately again.

Cloud also likes to think of himself as 'independent'; he rubbishes the idea that 'no man is an island', and prefers to depend on only himself. He is very determined about this, refusing anyone who asks if he might need help with something; because of this, it is difficult for many people to get close to him, and so it might indeed be said that Cloud is, by determination of his very nature, an extremely lonely soul.

When it comes to his enemies, though, Cloud is a ferocious, determined and extremely skilled warrior, and will often let nothing stand in the way of any goal he had set at the time; whether it is travelling forward to his goal of finding the man who has cursed him, or running away from what follows behind.

abilities/weaponry: Cloud is an able, extremely talented swordsman; he carries with him the Buster Sword, a massive sword currently swathed in bandages, which was given to him by a close friend. Cloud knows nothing about the fate of this friend - it has been a very long time since he was given the sword, and it has been his constant companion ever since. It has also been a long time since he had called anyone 'close friend'.

The other weapon he utilises is a metallic claw which he wears on his left hand; the fingers extend to piercing talons, which he uses while he holds his sword in his right hand; double the ability extending to double the damage. It is also a protective measure for when he is using the sword with both hands; keeping the metal one over the other means that neither hand gets cut off.

Cloud has no prominent abilities other than his fighting abilities; he is not incredibly intelligent in a manner worth mentioning, nor a smooth talker, nor a great magician. This is why he originally became a mercenary, and now it is one of the few things which keeps him alive.

weaknesses: Cloud's primary weakness comes from the heart - he used to be quite a selfish creature, and now he tries to break the curse placed upon him by being as selfless as he can. Unfortunately, this often tends to lead him into serious amounts of danger; particularly when he is taking care of someone he truly believes to be worth protecting. He will do anything for the people he has actually known and understood that he loved, although those have numbered very few.

Another weakness is the wing; it is a consistent drain on Cloud both physically and emotionally. It is heavy, it can easily be damaged in battle, and due to not having two wings he cannot fly with it; thus, it has no practical purpose whatsoever. What it does do, and what it was intended for, is to remind Cloud of all of his faults as a person; his selfishness, his callousness, his inability to communicate emotionally.

A battle-related weakness, however, is his difficulty in dealing with opponents who primarily deal with magic. As he is a swordsman without magical ability, he has no particular way to respond in kind, and this sometimes means that fighting magical creatures/people can be challenging. He also has a distinct block about killing people such as druids, witch doctors, magicians and the like since it was through this that he became cursed in the first place.

history: Born in Norway in the duration of one of the Power Official Visits to the country, Cloud was concieved as the child of a Power official and a Norwegian whore working on the streets. The Power official wanted nothing to do with a child born so low, a whore's brat, and so despite Cloud's mother's attempts to get in touch with him she received nothing in return. Bitter, unhappy and unable to afford the upbringing of a child, eventually Cloud's mother gave him to an orphanage - asking that the boy did not take her second name, but that he be called 'Strife', for that was what she had felt in giving him away.

Cloud was left at the orphanage before he was a year old, and was left there until he was three; the people at the orphanage were kind and charitable toward him, and he was fortunate enough to be adopted by a young but impotent British couple who were travelling Europe at the time. Cloud moved back to Britain with them, living in a tiny town slipped between hills, enjoying a loving and peaceful upbringing up until the Power's greater hold on the country made his world a comparatively a far more dangerous place. Suddenly, the older kids Cloud had played with - or, at least, had wanted to, as many of them had been cooler or intimidating or just didn't notice him - were becoming rebels, or soldiers; the girls who had giggled were suddenly thin-lipped, capable ladies, doing their part in the effort to restrain the Power's hold on their area.

Cloud, at the age of 16, became a mercenary despite the best wishes of his adoptive mother, who had feared that Cloud would forget who he was if he engaged in the senseless violence all around him, and against the wishes of his father, who had wanted him to join the rebellion effort. Cloud had already seen that rebellion against the Power of such a small number was absolutely hopeless, and that there was a bigger problem - that of money. Without money, none of them would eat. So, much to the disgust of those who had raised him and those he had grown up with, Cloud decided to work for a fee instead of for ideals.

This was a turning point for him. From here, the fairly innocent child became a brutal warrior - fighting for money has no real passion or fire to it, and so Cloud became a machine, human life being the input, and death the only output. It didn't really bother him - he was keeping his parents fed, and that seemed to be the main issue.

This came to a head on the day when the Power approached him to offer him work in putting down an uprising. Cloud took the job after not a great deal of soul-searching - by now, he hadn't really cared who he worked for, so long as he got paid. He was approached by an old man of the town as he left, who told him that the Power were approaching the town, and he might be needed here.

Cloud ignored him, and left for the uprising; it was a non-violent protest against the Power made by various New Age types. Magicians, druids, that type of idiot - at least, according to Cloud. When he was ordered to murder them, he did so; then, finding himself alone on something that hadn't so much been a battleground as a killing field, he turned and saw a man, who reached out and pressed a finger against his forehead, informing Cloud that he had lost his way, and ever forth he would be cursed to be hunted and friendless until he found the strength to become a better man.

Cloud had passed out at the touch, and when he awakened, he headed shakily back to his village, already feeling different, somehow; when he returned home, he saw the whole place aflame, but no sign of soldiers. To this day, Cloud is still not sure who burned down his village - whether it was the Power, or the man who had cursed him ensuring that he would be friendless. His adoptive parents died in the fire, as perhaps did his few friends in the town, although Cloud has no idea about this.

Upon witnessing the deaths of the people he had lived among, his skin had painfully split on his left shoulder, a black demon wing extending out. This was a cause of both great physical and emotional pain to Cloud, and was something he desperately tried to hide; both trying to remove it and to hide it as he wandered aimlessly throughout Britain.

Eventually, he stopped bothering, and merely focused on running away from his own personal demon - a wolf, chasing him through forests and towns and cities; wherever he goes, it is not entirely far away. Cloud, refusing to let this curse win, has run from it for three years; now, at 22, he intends to board a ship in order to escape the creature and find the man who has cursed him in order to have whatever has been done to him, removed.

crew position: "Gunner".

(Journal created for