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( PLAYER ★ INFORMATION )

NAME: Susa
AGE: 24
CONTACT: mydogisabitch | pm
CURRENT CHARACTERS & LATEST AC: n/a

RESERVATION LINK: here!

( CHARACTER ★ INFORMATION )

DOES THIS CHARACTER MEET SKELETAL BASICS? Yes.
NAME & AGE: Cloud Strife, 23
CANON & CANON POINT: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII ; end of Advent Children Complete.
CANON INFORMATION: CLOUD STRIFE | FFVII WIKI | AC WIKI

PERSONALITY:

Cloud is a complex person, to put it simply. From a lonely childhood, to a fake personality created by trauma, to finally becoming his own person trying to cope with his past, Cloud has never been easy to figure out, and is a character of many facets and issues. It's important to see the arc of his character as the major events that they are, and how Cloud might be a vastly different in all stages of his life-- but also how he fights and lives through all these difficult and defining years of his life, all of which finally lead to the slowly healing man he has become in Advent Children Complete.

PRE-FFVII/CRISIS CORE

Chronologically, Cloud started off as a secluded child who suffered from both anger issues and shyness. Born in a mountain village named Nibelheim, Cloud grew up under the care of his mother, as his father had died when he was still a baby. Somewhat of a loner, Cloud didn’t have many friends in the village, nor did his shy personality lend to making any. His one valued (and somewhat one-sided) friendship was with the Mayor’s daughter, Tifa Lockhart, whom Cloud also had a crush on. His relationship with Tifa wasn’t enough to fend off seclusion though, which in turn made Cloud believe himself to be better than the other kids in town as a sort of coping mechanism. This became apparent in the way he didn't get along with Tifa’s other friends, and found them "immature" and "stupid"— "childish" even, despite how they were all very much children of the same age. All of this was done in an effort to make it seem like he didn't need their company or friendship in the first place.

Things didn’t get any easier as Cloud got older, as he was part of an incident where Tifa got seriously hurt. Tifa, having just lost her mother, believed she could find her mother if she crossed a dangerous bridge up on Mt. Nibel, and so Cloud decided to follow her on this quest. The bridge gave out, both of them falling from an incredible height— and as the result, Tifa got hurt while Cloud managed to escape with little damage. Upon returning to the village, the townspeople were convinced the whole thing had been Cloud’s idea and blamed him for Tifa getting hurt.

Thanks to the blame, Cloud started developing the beginnings of his guilt complex, and anger issues sprung up as well since the accusations were untrue and unfair. Due to this he began lashing out and started getting into trouble and fights.

Eventually, while still plagued by thoughts of failure when it came to Tifa, Cloud learned of Sephiroth and vowed to one day join SOLDIER and to become as capable as ShinRa’s finest warrior. Cloud told Tifa about this plan, after which she made him promise her that he would always come to her side if she was ever in trouble. Needless to say, no matter how Cloud felt about what had happened, Tifa never blamed Cloud for the accident in which she was hurt.

But that didn’t stop Cloud.

By the time Cloud had made it to Midgar, he’d grown up some. His personality had matured and shifted into something a little more controlled. As we see him befriend and interact with Zack Fair, we learn Cloud was a hopeful young man, though he still suffered from cases of shyness. Still, much like before, his stubbornness lingered around as well, making him a bit more well-rounded. He also idolized Zack in some sense, and even more so Sephiroth as they both embodied everything he wished to one day be as well. Unbeknownst to Cloud, he showed some promise of the traits he wished upon himself already: he was brave, and once saved Zack from a monster ambush during a mission. He also showed his bravery by not backing down during the mission to Modeoheim where he tried to subdue Dr. Hollander.

At the end of the day, Cloud has always wanted to be helpful, and bravery lends to that well.

His bravery was put to the test when Cloud was scooted off on a mission to his hometown, Nibelheim, a few years later. Accompanying him were Sephiroth and Zack. Upon arriving home, Cloud insisted that he remain anonymous, which we learn was because he didn’t want Tifa to know he was back in town. Ashamed that he hadn’t become the SOLDIER he said he would, he wanted to hide his identity. Along with wanting to be helpful, useful, Cloud wishes (to this day) to never let others down— least of all Tifa, whom he has always felt warm feelings for.

Cloud managed to keep his identity a secret until all hell broke loose, and Sephiroth burned down the village in a new fit of insanity. Here, Cloud was pushed into a role he was never ready for, as the one person he had idolized for a long time had turned into the enemy. After Zack failed to stop Sephiroth, Cloud stood against him instead, and let his anger over those Sephiroth had killed — the people of his town, his mother — guide him in an attack against Sephiroth. And while victorious, Cloud himself didn’t escape without serious wounds.

Collapsing, Cloud spent the next four years in a tube of Mako in one of Hojo’s laboratories in Nibelheim, and then a year in a Mako coma while Zack tried to flee with him from pursuing ShinRa SOLDIERS. However, just outside of Midgar, Zack was gunned down, leaving behind a recently awoken Cloud. With who was essentially his best friend and saviour bleeding out in front of him, Cloud held onto every last word his friend offered him as Zack made Cloud promise to be his living legacy. This trauma, mixed with the effects of the Mako coma and the newly injected Jenova cells within Cloud, triggered the biggest change in Cloud so far: he fabricated himself a new personality from Zack, and mixed it with the idealization of himself as the SOLDIER he had never managed to become.

Thus Cloud Strife, ex-SOLDIER 1st Class, was born.


FINAL FANTASY VII

"It's not my problem. The only thing I care about is finishin' this job before security and the Roboguards come."
- Cloud to AVALANCHE ( Final Fantasy VII )


From there on, Cloud had become an entirely different version of himself, and his personality had changed drastically. With the defining qualities of both Zack’s personality and those he’d imagined himself having (and Tifa caring for in order for her to find him interesting) as a SOLDIER, Cloud was very… cocky. Arrogant, even. But beyond all of that he was cool. Sarcastic, tough, and flippant— the country boy Cloud had once been, the kid who had been shy and then a hopeful candidate for SOLDIER, was seemingly gone. He put off an aura of nonchalance, and claimed to not care for AVALANCHE’s goals or desires, nor for the Planet which was in grave danger thanks to ShinRa overusing Mako.

But Cloud claimed to not care. He was a mercenary, a sword for hire and that was it. He’d do his job and get paid.

Or at least, that was what he wants the people around him to think— which is, in a way, a reflection of the same arrogance he’d once displayed as a child. Cloud was, despite his fake persona, still Cloud. Parts of his old self began to resurface, albeit incredibly slowly, though a lot of it was invisible to the other members of AVALANCHE (other than Tifa), seeing as they had never known the real Cloud to begin with.


Aerith; "I want to meet you."
Cloud; "But I'm right here."
Aerith; "I know, I know... what I mean is..."
Aerith; "I want to meet..... you."
( Final Fantasy VII )

Aerith Gainsborough, on the other hand, saw Zack in Cloud and would become one of the first people to question Cloud’s personality. At first, she said she’d been surprised, shocked, by their similarities, but over time she’d come to wonder if the Cloud leading them was the real Cloud at all. Aerith also expressed that she’d like to meet the real him some day, which in turn sparked questions of his own self in Cloud.

Slowly but surely, even Cloud began to understand, somewhat, that there was something wrong with him. He wasn’t able to figure it all out though, even when his fake personality started to crumble. This in turn lead to Cloud caring more about his friends, the Planet, and he grew a little softer. More like his old-self. And despite how long we spent with the fake Cloud, he wasn’t real— and it wasn’t until after his fall into the Lifestream that the real Cloud emerged once again with the aid of Tifa.

Once pulled from the Lifestream and with his memories back in place (though it is never made clear whether he remembers everything perfectly or if some blurry bits remained), Cloud was finally himself again. The term "himself" should be used loosely though, as Cloud had more or less spent the last five and some years either in a Mako coma, or while wearing his fake personality. So the person left behind was someone who hadn't seen the light of day, so to speak, in a long while. But with the driving, desperate need to save the world and to stop Sephiroth, Cloud wasn't given much time to ponder about him and his deeds. This would come later, once the threats had been dealt with. 

Still, he slipped into the leadership role here, too, even after his absence. Having led AVALANCHE on this quest across the globe, he did manage to make his feeling regarding his own twisted path of memories and experiences clear to his teammates, and asked for their forgiveness. After all, in a sense, Cloud's confusion and manipulation at the hands of Sephiroth had dragged the entire team through quite a dangerous, and sometimes sad, journey. Some of the most devastating events of this being that Cloud had given Sephiroth the Black Materia, despite the entire team trying to prevent that very thing from happening. And another was the case of Aerith's death, something which Cloud had been unable to stop due Sephiroth's will over him.

All of these events, all done by the help of Cloud's hands to aid the enemy, were something he attempted to apologize for. Before the final fight, Cloud gave everyone the chance to back out, only commenting how he knew he had to do this, that there was a score to settle with Sephiroth. He never intended to drag anyone unwilling into a fight that had a high chance of ending in death-- not anymore, not now that he had a clear choice without Sephiroth's influence or his own memories clouding his judgement.

That trait is there to this day, as Cloud will only ever lead those who willingly follow.

This Cloud served as a fairly stark comparison to the person he had been in the beginning. A frail but more caring person— someone who was willing to try his best despite all the chaos in his life, despite how facing Sephiroth could so easily spell out doom for not only himself and his friends, but the Planet as well. Cloud had a sense of responsibility to see things through though, which showcases his leadership skills, and the fact that he is incredibly strong despite how little faith he has in himself. He doesn’t crumble, as things are desperate (End of the World Desperate), and Cloud would never be one to abandon the Planet or his friends. He is a leader, even if he never chose the role for himself, willing to be the person to pull others through hardships, even at the cost of himself. Cloud encourages the rest of AVALANCHE on as well, when they face Sephiroth for the final time in the Core of the Planet— even as Sephiroth was literally attacking them with waves of power. Sephiroth was a terrifying force, but Cloud stood up to him much like he did in Nibelheim all those years ago, and in the end it was enough to pull AVALANCHE through to victory.

From there, we only got a brief glimpse of the person Cloud was at the end of the game. Though the Planet's fate was still uncertain before the credits rolled, Cloud did seem to have some kind of hope for the future, as he commented on the possibility of one day seeing Aerith again, in the Promised Land. This lends to an idea that he will try his best to live his life before his time comes, knowing that at the end of it all, he'll be reunited with her.

Naturally, things are often easier said than done.

"Cloud tried to lead his life positively after the end of FF7 but he cracked... The sin which Cloud thinks he owns is not anyone's fault in particular. It is something Cloud has to overcome by himself."
- Tetsuya Nomura ( Character designer and director of FFVII Advent Children Complete )

ADVENT CHILDREN COMPLETE

After Meteorfall, Cloud tried his best to live his life in a new light, but everything caught up with him. Guilt was a massive factor, and the very thing he sunk into after failing to save Aerith and Zack. Without the desperate drive of needing to save the Planet to move him forward, Cloud found himself needing to deal with "normal" life, which was easier said than done.

As there was time to reflect on everything that has happened, Cloud was bombed by his own failure. Why was he allowed to live when those who he considers much more deserving were dead? How could he live with himself after failing to save them? Needless to say, he blamed himself for his friends dying — for not being able to save everyone, for letting himself reach a point of weakness where he stole his friend’s personality — all of which slowly crawls up on him as life began to settle. He took the overwhelming guilt upon himself as punishment, and ends up not letting himself move on even with the Planet saved. To put words into fact, Cloud tackles his grief in a few, different ways. When it comes to Zack, he honors Zack's death by leaving behind the Buster Sword. It's instead placed onto the cliff where Zack died, just outside of Midgar, as a sort of grave for a man forgotten for too long. From there on, he visits the grave every now and then, and makes it a place where he lets his thoughts work to remind him of how he'd failed.

Zack isn't the only one who Cloud remembers, as Aerith had also died on the journey to stop Sephiroth. For her, he cleans up some of her old church, and keeps an eye on her flowers. It's up to debate what Cloud's "conversations" with Aerith actually are, but one of the more popular theories is the fact that her memory lives on in him and so he converses with that image of her that's forever in his mind. He tells her how sorry he is that he wasn't able to save her, to which Aerith tells him she never blamed him. This isn't enough to shake Cloud of his own guilt though. 

With both Zack and Aerith, what Cloud doesn't realize at first is that what happened in the past is no more his fault than anyone else's. It's life. It's tragedy. But no one blames him except for him. 

What’s more, sometime in the two years between the end of the game and the events of Advent Children Complete, the final straw snapped. What pushed him to isolating himself from Tifa, was him getting infected with Geostigma. He had failed his friends, and now he was sick. How could he protect anyone anymore? All of this spawned uncertainty in him and a sense of helplessness (a reflection of the few times he’d suffered from Mako poisoning, as the first time resulted in Zack’s death with Cloud being unable to prevent it. And his own loss of control at Sephiroth's hands), which is something Cloud deals with very poorly, just as he did during the events of FFVII.

"I'm not fit to help anyone. Not my family. Not my friends. Nobody."
- Cloud to Tifa ( Advent Children )

In a sense, he saw it as the final nail on the coffin: first he fails his friends, then he gets sick with a disease that has no cure.

The helplessness started to eat at him, and for a while all that was left of the leader who once led AVALANCHE against Sephiroth, was a somber, near-depressed person. It's a spiral, pure and simple, with Cloud unable to find his way out for a while. He withdraws further than just mentally, too, going as far as to move out of the city and back into the ruined church once tended to by Aerith. Isolation is punishment as well. Things are truly weighing down on him, enough so that Cloud was incapable of moving on with his life.

Cloud has always been, and still is quick to play the blame-game with himself, unwilling to listen to anyone saying otherwise. His self-worth and critique of himself are considerably harsher than those he pins on other people. It is dramatic, how he views himself and his flaws, going as far as to think that he is unworthy of help or rescue.

This is a largely hypocritical trait of his personality.

This is especially true seeing as, even with all of these issues eating away at him, Cloud still does his best to be there for the people he cares and loves, because at the end of the day, he is largely about everyone else except himself. Just as he did during the final fight against Sephiroth, he is still one to encourage those around himself to be true to themselves, and encourage them to move forward, to fight. Cloud wants his friends to be okay, no matter what, which is partly why he also hides his Geostigma as to not worry them. He is also driven by a need to protect them at any cost, be it by facing Sephiroth’s remnants despite his own body beginning to fail him thanks to the disease. These could be the marks of a hero, though Cloud's lack of caring for his own health can often be dangerous.




"I pity you. You just don't get it at all... there's not a thing I don't cherish!"
- Cloud to Sephiroth ( Advent Children )


Finally though, you get what you give and Cloud's friends have never been the type to leave anyone hanging. Cloud included, obviously. It’s through these actions, the constant need to protect, that he eventually starts to let his friends back into his emotional life as well when they insist on it, and through their help he begins to slowly overcome both the guilt of having failed Zack and Aerith, as well as his fight against Geostigma.

He begins healing, so to speak.

No matter how gloomy he gets, Cloud isn’t a pushover, and never one to give up despite sometimes really wanting to-- after all, it's not that he wants to die, but rather than he thinks he deserves to. That it would somehow atone for how he'd failed. But as Tifa points out to him, Cloud might be withdrawn from the rest of them, but he never leaves entirely. He never goes that extra step to take his own life or anything as radical as that. So while hard on himself, at the end of the day, this quality is also often the defining factor which pushes Cloud through to whatever victory he seeks. The more he wants to give up, the more he fights the feeling knowing it isn't the right way. He feeds his own desire to win with his self-doubt.

And he does finally win against his own self. Cloud begins to let people inside again, taking Tifa’s words of encouragement and finally accepting them ( ”I feel lighter. Maybe I lost some weight with all that dilly-dallying.” ) as the help she's been trying to offer all this time.

By the end of it all, Cloud's become a much more balanced person. The fight with Sephiroth at the end of Advent Children is his own goodbye to his past, to the sins he's carried with him this entire time. He's letting go of them, and closing that chapter of his life finally. And while it remains unclear how well he ends up doing on this new path, the start is there, at least.

He's still stubborn, and still hopeful as he was during his ShinRa days, but he's also grown up a lot, and has been shaped by his experiences quite literally. He won't ever be the same person he'd fabricated from a dying SOLDIER's personality, nor the young kid from Nibelheim, but that doesn't mean the experiences he'd had as those people haven't left behind their marks.

While he's not one for loud movements or over the top expressions, there's a lightness to him underneath all the moodiness, and he never lets himself sink quite so much into the darker thoughts of his mind like he might have once before. It also should be noted that despite the hardships, he still manages to have a sense of humor -- willing to cross-dress in order to save a friend, and making dry comments here and there -- which is perhaps something left behind from when he'd had his fake persona, or possibly a trait he would have had all along.

"Cloud is Cloud", is something Tifa says, meaning Cloud is always going to be a little off, a little odd, and a little difficult to understand. Undefinable. And while he might sometimes be incredibly hard on himself, what can be known for certain are the best qualities of him; he's goodhearted, strong, and has a desire to protect those that need protecting as well as those who don't.



COURT ALLIANCE & REASONING:

SEELIE

While it would be fairly straight cut that Cloud, back during his time with AVALANCHE and while still living with a fake personality (FFVII), would be a member of the Unseelie Court, the same can't be as easily said for the person Cloud has finally become by the end of his long journey which we see in Advent Children Complete. His character arc through the Compilation is a massive, complicated adventure, but one that eventually ends with Cloud having come to terms with the mistakes of his past, and being able to move forward. This, and the actions he has taken to right his wrongs, make him a much more fitting person for the Seelie Court.

Certainly, Cloud’s always been a man shrouded in mystery. As such, sometimes his motivations and actions might seem random or even harsh, but down to the root there is always a reason, a good reason, for everything he does. And while conflict has been a large part of his life for many years, Cloud himself has always fought for the right side of things, and to better himself and the world around him. He's gotten much better at separating what is necessary and what isn't, and has learned to try and make the best decisions with everyone in mind.

So, fundamentally, down to his core Cloud is a just person, and he is a person who seeks to protect and cherish the things he holds dear to himself, and even the very Planet.

This is all even more apparent in the two years following Meteorfall (end of the game), during his struggle with his Geostigma and the Sephiroth clones. Instead of letting the disease defeat him, Cloud faces up to his inner demons after some struggling, and is ready to once again do the right thing in order to make sure the Planet doesn't begin falling into the same troubles as before.

► LOVE CONQUERS ALL
Cloud fights to keep his friends and family safe. They are his biggest motivators in everything he does, and everything he cares for. When he loses people from around him, it breaks him in his very core, fractures pieces of him in a way that is near unfixable at times. So he fights for them, to avoid more loss in his life, so that he nor any of them have to ever feel the pain of loss. Through his caring for them in turn, he also fights for the Planet, for the bigger picture. If the Planet is safe, his friends are that much safer as well. In short, Cloud fights to protect the love he shares for those closest to him, even if he’d never call it that.

► BEAUTY IS LIFE
Cloud goes up and beyond all limits to protect life. Be it the life of his friends, family -- or just a stranger on the street, he's never one to dismiss someone's life as invaluable. He rises to fight Sephiroth again at the end of ACC, because he knows what a disaster it can be if he doesn't. This isn't the first time he's displayed such qualities either. Even before, in the beginning with AVALANCHE, Cloud had multiple options to not go out of his way for someone else's life, but still did. A great example of this is his first time blowing up a Mako Reactor in Midgar with AVALANCHE. Jessie, a team a fellow member, got stuck while they were all trying to escape the Reactor, and Cloud aided her.

The Planet itself, so in a sense the most ultimate life form around, falls into this category as well, as the threat of total annihilation loomed with Meteor in the sky. Cloud still chose to stand and face Sephiroth even with odds not looking good for him and his friends.

► NEVER FORGET A DEBT
Though he never made it to SOLDIER, Cloud holds a strong sense of honor and gratitude for the deeds done for him and to him by others. Zack's death is a massive point in Cloud's life, and the promise to honor his lost life is something Cloud holds incredibly important and dear to himself. He struggles with it, and openly admits as much when visiting Zack's grave, yes, but that doesn't mean Cloud ever gives up trying to make the most of what he'd promised Zack. The same can be said for him following Aerith's wishes, her sacrifice, despite all the difficulty in doing so. While he gets a little lost along the way for a while, Cloud still manages to find his way back to her original wish: that he live life for himself and without guilt of the past. This is the goal he reaches by the end of Advent Children when he faces Sephiroth once more. It takes a fight, it takes a new threat, but Cloud makes it there-- and most importantly, he makes it there without anyone losing their life.

That being said, Cloud isn't perfect. He doesn't fit all the points of a truly good or bad person, and has struggled with decisions of right and wrong, as well as chaos (his indifference at the start of FFVII) and peace (the person he is now, in ACC, one who cherishes life). He has qualities fitting both courts, but I still believe the Seelie side wins out, in the end. 

The one Unseelie code somewhat fitting Cloud is CHANGE IS GOOD, as it reflects his desire to take down ShinRa, and then Sephiroth. Both of these are figures in the world Cloud lives in that will, once gone, change things drastically. But both of these are threats as well, and both are, in their own ways, killing the Planet. That is something he has to stand up against, seeing as if he doesn't, there won't be a Planet to live on. Everyone will die, including his friends, the people he cherishes the most. Both ShinRa and Sephiroth have already taken too much from him in the past, which is why Cloud fights to change the course the Planet's fate is threatening to take. There is no gain for power in his desires, only to put a stop to the chaos threatening the Planet's (and thus by default his friends) life.

These events, of course, happened mainly two years ago, during the story of FFVII. And as said, he would have fit Unseelie back then without problem, but as it is now, these ideals that are expressed in Change is Good are more present in the Seelie code of BEAUTY IS LIFE.

Though he wouldn't even call himself such, Cloud is a hero. It's not a title or fact he'll ever throw around, or really acknowledge, as he wants for himself a simpler life now that the war against Jenova, ShinRa and Sephiroth are over. There has been enough chaos in his life thus far, and he's never been one to willingly create more unless absolutely necessary. Of course, if some chaotic force were to rise again, he would stand to challenge it. After all, Cloud is a person who fights for the better of the world, who has learned to value the things and people around him, and one who will always try to do the right thing at the end of the day while never putting himself before others. In simple, as he said himself: "There's not a thing I don't cherish!"

ABILITIES:

► MAKO INFUSION: Normally, SOLDIERS get infused with Mako as they progress up the ladder of ShinRa's fighting force. Cloud, never having become a SOLIDER officially, has the Mako infusions needed to become a SOLDIER thanks to falling into Hojo's hands in Nibelheim, and thus being tested on and injected with Mako for about four years. This has left him with the super human strength and stamina which is above a normal human's-- he can jump higher, run faster, punch harder and all that. He also heals quicker, though at the end of the day he is very far from invincible, and is just as likely to make human mistakes.

► FAKE-SOLDIER/SWORD SKILLS: Cloud has the full skill-set of a SOLDIER 1st Class. Cloud came out of his torment in Hojo's lab with the strength of a SOLDIER, but not the skills. However, after Zack's death, Cloud, who was still suffering somewhat from his Mako poisoning and with the influence of Jenova's cells in his body, deluded himself into thinking he was, in some parts, Zack. Thus as he remakes himself a personality based on Zack's, he also inherited and learned Zack's skills as a SOLDIER through his request that Cloud be his living legacy.

Thanks to this, Cloud has excellent swordsmanships skills and is deadly with a blade. He is a fierce warrior, one who refuses to give up even when the odds look grim. Even after Cloud regained his own personality, his skills inherited from Zack remained, though he has since then made them somewhat more his own.

► USE OF MATERIA: While Cloud won't have any materia on him upon his arrival, he still knows how to use it. Materia is crystallized Mako, and grants its user abilities to cast magical spells of various strength and type. The more a person uses a single materia, the stronger it becomes-- so while Cloud's materia back home is strong, any he might come across during his time in the Drabwurld would be at its earliest level.

► LIMIT BREAKS:

LEVEL 1: BRAVER AND CROSS-SLASH
Braver is a powerful downward slash of Cloud's sword. Cross-slash is as the name implies a cross-like slash of Cloud's sword. Both level one Limit Breaks are easily used by Cloud, and often seen in the midst of battle. Because of their Level One nature, the attack's are some of Cloud's weaker ones.

LEVEL 2: BLADE BEAM AND CLIMHAZZARD
Blade Beam is a shockwave attack that can hit multiple enemies. Climhazzard is a stab-like attack from which Cloud then draws up his sword in an upwards slash for more damage. Both of these attacks are stronger than Cloud's level one Limit Breaks.

LEVEL 3: METEORAIN AND FINISHING TOUCH
When using Meteorain Cloud leaps into the air and sends six meteor shots at his opponent, causing a lot of damage. Finishing Touch is a deadly attack that instant-kills any monsters. Cloud spins his weapon above his head to create a vacuum of air and then slams his sword into his opponent to send them flying. Using Level Three attacks takes a lot of power and energy, and can't thus be used often.

LEVEL 4: OMNISLASH
Cloud's strongest Limit Break. The Omnislash is an attack which is meant to slash the opponent over and over again, to an infinite amount. Cloud cuts his enemies down with multiple strikes before finishing them off with a downward blow. Being such a strong attack, Cloud can only achieve Omnislash when fighting at his best or during the more dire times.

LEVEL 5: OMNISLASH VERSIONS 5 & 6
Introduced two years after the event of Meteor, Cloud has honed and strengthened his Omnislash Limit Break-- thus creating two new versions of it. When fighting with the First Tsurugi, the sword splits into its six parts, all of which attack the enemy in quick turns before Cloud finishes the enemy off with the First Sword. The differences between version 5 and 6 is small, in that Cloud has two more strikes in version 6 compared to version 5.

( note: i expect these to get nerfed, which is totally fine! some could even get removed, and cloud could regain them through quests and learning new skills. )

INVENTORY:

► FIRST TSURUGI - A sword made up of six different swords/blades. Technically called a Fusion Sword, the name First Tsurugi is used when all six blades have come together to form a single, massive sword. All parts can be disassembled and used as individual blades, too, with different suitabilities for different situations. The First Sword is the core blade, where the rest of pieces are attached to. Cloud is capable of assembling and disassembling First Tsurugi quite effortlessly while in combat. Cloud is often seen using two separate pieces of his Fusion Sword at the same time, before then combining them to complete First Tsurugi as needed.

Other than being made up of six individual blades, there is essentially nothing magical about the First Tsurugi itself.

► RIBBON - A pink ribbon tied to his Geostigma infected arm. A symbol to represent Aerith Gainsborough.

► ADVENT CHILDREN OUTFIT - Dressed mostly in black, Cloud's outfit is fitted to make fighting easy; sleeveless turtleneck, black pants, gloves, and combat boots. He also wears an additional sleeve on his Geostigma infected arm to hide the disease, as well as a single pauldron over his shoulder fastened into place by belts looping over his chest. One recognizable feature about his appearance is the reappearing emblem of Fenrir.

( WRITING ★ SAMPLES )

NETWORK SAMPLE:

( video. )

[ cloud appears on the feed with a shock of spiky blonde hair and dark clothes, looking much the same as he had during the welcome feast hosted by the seelie court. he's not smiling -- when is he ever -- but by the look of things, he's at least trying to make himself appear somewhat more approachable than before, relaxed even. at least a little.

it's a different matter entirely whether it's believable or not. ]

In my world, I run a delivery service, but since I doubt those skills are needed here, I'm looking for something to pass the time with. [ he nudges the large blade strapped to his back. ] I'm decent with this. [ more than decent, but let's not start showing off. ]

So if anyone has any ideas, or know someone who might... Tell them Cloud Strife was asking. [ so you know, contact him. oh, and he seems to remember one other thing to add a second later; ]

Also, I need a ride. A chocobo-- or anything will do. [ beat. ] Thanks.

[ assuming this place even has any? hell, he misses his bike already. some seconds pass with cloud fidgeting as he tries to come up with a way to conclude this, but in the end he opts for simply giving you all a small nod before the transmission ends.

job well done, whew. ]

LOG SAMPLE: TDM thread.