App for Battle Moon Wars Zero

Dec 14, 2011 22:39

Player Name: Nightlit/TK
Journal: earnedhername
AIM Contact: NightlitEquinox
Character Name: Lightning
Canon Name: Final Fantasy XIII
Comm Tag: lightning

Background: Lightning's sister Serah is taken by the fal'Cie (big mechanical crystalline things that have magic powers) and turned into a l'Cie (cursed humans who are forced to do work for the fal'Cie but given magic so they can accomplish their goal). A number of things happen and the town they are in ended up getting Purged (killed off really, though they were claiming deportations). Lightning was a soldier at the time, but decides to go with the purged citizens to find said sister. Along the way she meets a man named Sazh who tags along with her, much to her initial dismay.

She fights her way to the sanctum of the fal'Cie with Sazh “help” (though he really isn't amazingly helpful). There she runs into three more people. Snow, Serah's fiance (whom she thinks is a loser idiot, which is mostly true); Hope, a kid who followed Snow for various reasons and Vanille who is mostly just with Hope, for as far as I can tell no reason other than that she kind of likes him. They find Serah, who tells them to save Cocoon (an artificial world floating above another world which most of the characters are from) and then turns into a crystal. The eternal life promised to l'Cie who complete their foci. Needless to say this pisses Lightning off.

They charge the fal'Cie and fight it. Though they seem to be doing well, in the end the fal'Cie ethereally tentacles them and turns them into l'Cie. Then the entire sanctum including them falls into a lake below and it turns into crystal. This is the real start of their journey.

Chased by PSI-COM the group runs across the lake fighting the whole way there. They find the crystalline Serah there and Snow tried to dig her out. In the end the group left him there, because PSI-COM was closing in and really... everyone but Snow thought Serah was pretty much dead anyway.

Eventually they find an escape route in a broken temple like place, a flying machine. Unfortunately they crash it into a junkyard and the group gets separated. Lightning ends up with Hope for a while and Hope arguably annoys her more than Sazh. Hope is acting like a whiny brat and after a bit of this, Lightning simply left him (though to his credit, he is kind of justified acting that way since he lost his mother, became hated by the world and essentially thinks his life is over).

By the time they catch up with Lightning again, Sazh and Vanille are with them again and the group heads forward... until Sazh decides to give up and leave. Vanille agrees, and Lightning leaves them at that point. Hope goes with her. The two of them fight their way through a bunch of robots during this time they talk and Lightning keeps urging Hope forward. Hope for his part tries to keep up, but complains about it. Eventually Hope and Lightning have a falling out for a moment which leads to a fight where Lightning gets her Eidolan. After the fight, Hope and Lightning make up and Lightning agrees to help Hope get stronger as long as Hope agrees to keep going.

They then end up going through a forest which is used by the army to produce bio weapons. This isn't of particular importance really except that Hope and Lightning bond during this sequence. Lightning helping to get Hope manned up without breaking his spirit and Hope helping Lightning remember her softer side. Unfortunately Hope starts to harden, much to Lightning's dismay and while it's obvious she isn't thrilled by the idea, she chooses to support him in any case. I think largely because she knows she needs him strong in order to get through this.

This leads them to Palumpolum, Hope's hometown. Lightning and Hope sneak into town and eventually get caught, only to be saved by Snow and Fang. However they get separated again and Lightning finds herself with Fang. Sexual and non sexual tension aside, the two of them actually work well together . Unforunately the town is in a uproar do to the l'Cie presence and they need to fight their way through the army to get there. Fang and Lighting have a few spats but Lightning also learns a lot about l'Cie and cei'th and also figures out some things about herself, namely she starts to look on the bright side a lot more. At the end of this they find Snow and Hope, the former of whom is is highly injured.

The group reconvenes at Hope's house where they meet his father, who turns out to be an awesome guy. Unfortunately they get attacked by PSI-COM and have to flee, but they leave Hope's father there under the guise that they coerced him by force. Hope finds the reasons to go forward without his hatred however and Lightning is proud. They would have been captured actually if it weren't for a group of helpful allies who aren't really important enough to name, except Cid Raines, who is really just a guy who is helping them at this point.

They see the news about Sazh and Vanille's capture (which as far as this group is concerned happens off screen) and decide to save them. So they rush the Palamecia on a ship and raid it with the help of the previous allies. It's here that Lightning really shows her ability to see the good in every situation, she constantly finds reasons to move forward even in the most dire of situations. In the end Vanille and Sazh rescue themselves and then they move forward to face the Primarch, the leader of the group responsible for the purge.

What they find is a surprise, the Primarch is actually a fal'Cie named Barthandalus and (for no explainable reason) seems to be related to their focus. He explains their reason for becoming l'Cie (destroying something called Orphan and reviving “the Maker”) but they decide not to follow it and they fight him.

Following this they are sent to an area called the Fifth Arc where they fight and bond as a group more. The only really important things that happen here are Cid Raines tries to kill them to prevent them from completing their focus (and theoretically going against his focus by doing so) and Fang get's her Eidolan. At the end they board yet another flying machine, only to crash to the world below, the hated demon world of Gran Pulse.

There isn't much to say about what happens on Gran Pulse. The group bonds, fights, the remaining characters get their Eidolans (in what seems to be mostly “excuse to get this over with” kind of scenes) and they eventually end up at Oerba, Fang and Vanille's hometown.

Once there they fight Barthandalus again and he talks more about their focus and yadda yadda yadda it's pretty much the same scene again except he is more dickish about it, and you already know more or less what he is trying to say.

Thie starts the final stretch, the party flies back to Cocoon to go to Eden to stop the fal'Cie and save the day. While there are a few mishaps, such as the area being overrun by monsters, the group makes its way to the center of Eden (the capital of Cocoon) and through Orphan's Cradle (the pointlessly abstract annoying final area.) At the end of this they defeat Barthandalus, end up defeating Orphan again. And then somehow Vanille and Fang magically make everything better and turn into eternal Crystal holding hands (as far as I can tell there is absolutely no explanation in the game regarding the ending unfortunately). And the characters find they are no longer l'Cie (again for no reason) and it ends without really going into anything else after this.

Personality: Lightning is a determinater, she just doesn't give up, ever. She might step back and reassess her situation and choose a different path but if she sees even a sliver of possibility? She will go for it. As a result she often comes off as reckless, and while she is rash, she generally has thought what she is doing through more than it appears. She runs into problems when she can't do so, for example if she doesn't have an apparent goal or destination, and in these situations she tends to ignore this fact and move as if she did have one, quite often to her own detriment.

Aside of this fact, she is quite practical. She plans things well and accepts that not everyone is as determined as she is. She tries to support the people around her in her own ways, but she has a limited tolerance for stupidity, whininess or people giving up. When these things happen, she makes a few attempts to rectify the situation and if that doesn't work? She simply leaves. The fact that she has a cold somewhat passive aggressive temper only makes this worse. She isn't a very talkative person, she is a woman of action especially with people she doesn't know or trust. Once she has bonded with people she becomes a lot more open, but she doesn't ramble really, she is still very to the point.

One problem Lightning has is if she can't do anything about something she tries to ignore it. Not to say that she will attempt the literal impossible (though she WOULD if she thought she could MAKE it possible) but if she can't do anything about something she tries to not let it bother her. Unfortunately most of the time it still does and when this happens she gets moody and dark and less and less smart, more and more reckless. Though she is generally capable, and has the skills to go it alone? She sometimes has problems accepting when she can't do it on her own. Though this is generally only the case when she is in her angry reckless state.

And then comes the more hidden side of her, the side of her than isn't a soldier. Beneath all the seriousness she is a caring, compassionate, optimistic person who is willing to put her life on the line for what she believes in. She takes care of the people around her once she believes they are worth taking care of and will do everything in her power to keep them both alive and in good spirits. She also has a light sense of humor and loves to banter with people, though she probably would never admit to that. Her humor, like her anger, is subtle and passive aggressive.

In fact, in general Lightning is a person who doesn't wear her emotions too openly. She shows emotion in very little, often subtle ways. If Lightning is flipping out at all? Shit is going down. Above all else? Lightning tends to keep a cool head, it takes a lot to rattle her, and even once she is rattled? She takes it better than many other people would.

Combat Abilities: Lightning is a l'Cie. And with that comes the ability to use magic. Lightnings magic is not exceptionally powerful, it is about on part with her physical capabilities (which is to say, her spells do about the same damage, perhaps a little less really, as her attacks). However she has free access to them, without any MP requirements (this can be changed at your option of course).

As for the magic she has? It's typical FF spellcasting. She gets a strong repetoir of most spells, only lacking Firaga, Blizzaga and Aeroga from the elemental spells. She lacks upgraded healing magic, but eventually has Cure, Cura (area cure), Raise and Esuna (status healing). She gets every normal buff except the elemental defense buffs and the status defense buff. And she gets Deprotect, Deshell, Poison, and Imperil (elemental resistance down) as well as their area effect -ga versions. Mind you she only starts with Thunder and quickly learns Water and gets the rest of them overtime, and she doesn't get the buff and debuff spells until late in the story normally. If you want a complete list in the order she gets them I can get that for you, but I doubt that's necessary.

Her fighting style is very acrobatics oriented and she is an incredibly capable athlete and acrobat from the very beginning of the game capable of things that are highly cinematic, and after she becomes a l'Cie, are super human, though not to a reality bending extent.

She is adept at dual wielding (she does so while riding Odin in gestalt mode) but doesn’t do so in hand to hand combat during the game. Dextrous, acrobatic and strong, but with more supple movement oriented rather than power oriented strength. Not to say she doesn't have power (she canonically throws people fairly often) but it's not her specialty.

She also has this nifty techno jump thingy which canonically Sahz ruins in the early game basically for plot convenience. I would prefer her not lose this if at all possible, since its cool (it basically lets her super jump using an electro magnet... thing) and lets her more effectively fight flying or very large opponents.

Power Ups: As mentioned above, Lightning gets a number of abilities as she levels up.

Eidolan: Odin. Odin is her BIG mid season upgrade. Odin is a large (like 10 foot tall) robot which has a LARGE two bladed weapon. In it's normal form it can heal lightning, and has a number of lightning and physical attacks. It can revive her once, but it will go away after that. She can also enter gestalt mode, where it turns into a horse and gets a number of attacks. In the game gestalt mode is free attacks on a timer until the summon leaves, but I would prefer it to work like it does in cutscenes where she can freely switch between the two modes, but obviously the enemies can react and attack her while in gestalt mode. Her being downed (and being revived by Arise) or using Zantesuken should still remove it from the battle. It can only cast Arise in normal mode and can only use Zantetsuken in gestalt mode. Except for extrenuating circumstances, Odin is only available once each mission (this is largely true in the game, as it costs 3 out of 5TP and there really isn't a way to get TP back mid battle).

Zantetsuken is a powerful area attack which staggers enemies and kills weak enemies. It is essentially a blade whirlwind with rose petals.

Other Abilities: Lightning is a soldier, and has a lot of survival skills as a result. She can presumably take care of herself (cooking, cleaning, etc.) and she has moderate ability with computers, though no more than should be expected of the average soldier in the setting (which is to say, competence but not mastery). She can pilot things, though this is more Sahz' specialty. Her acrobatic capabilities also translate here as well.

Missions and Events:
Prologue: Defiers of Fate - Depending on whether or not we do the Cocoon events, this may be relegated to backstory. Basically it involves fighting Psi-com and then fighting a fal'Cie, who l'Cie-ifies Lightning and any other FFXIII cast members present. Probably best left to backstory.

Mission 1) Fields of War - Lightning (and any other FFXIII cast members aside of perhaps Fang) is found surrounded by Psi-com soldiers and is fighting them off, but are greatly outnumbered and will need help to survive. Can easily be combined with most things, as Psi-com could be working with any group from another canon. Groups with some hatred of magic using beings would work really well.

Mission 2) Casting the Net - Serah's crystalline l'Cie form is found! Snow if present probably tries to take it. Lightning insists otherwise. The group is attacked by psi-com and has to escape, Snow may or may not be captured, but in any case we do not get Serah's crystalline body. If Snow is in the group, his Eidolan battle would go here.

Event (log, though it could lead to a mission) 3) Thunderous Hooves - Lightning and some character she has CR with who is a child or otherwise not as capable as she is find themselves separated from the group. As they travel back Lightning becomes increasinly frustrated with this character's lack of ability. Eventually this comes to a head, and the Eidolan Odin appears, taking Lightning's anger out on her unfortunate companion! Lightning intervenes, and the two of them fight Odin until Lightning can quell it's anger, get it into gestalt mode, and claim it for herself!

There will be 2 or 3 more missions likely. But I will do them later as they aren't of immediate importance, and at least 1 of them really doesn't matter unless we get the rest of the cast.

Sample Post: Tesrunbox

Notes: Her real name is Claire... but good luck EVER getting her to say that. (There is a plot reveal of this minor thing).
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