Application for hellpointe
Application
Player Info
Player Name: Shamera
Player LJ: tsukishirou
Player Instant Messenger Type and Handle: Skype: shameraklotho, AIM: kl0tho
Player Email: klotho@gmail.com
Are you 18 years of age or older? ....yes. By a lot. ^^;;
Character Info
Character Name: Hope Estheim
Character’s Age: 14
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII
Timeline: Near the very end of the game after he's fulfilled his Focus and turned to crystal.
Appearance: He's very short (5'0), a little on the thin side, and extremely pale with silver-white hair and wide, pale blue-green eyes. His entire appearance pretty much screams 'weak!', which is not far from the truth. In-game, he has the lowest HP ever and very low strength as well, but he makes up for it in spades with his magical abilities. Hope wears bright colors (green capri pants which close under his knees, dark blue pouch on his belt, black t-shirt with an extremely bright yellow short sleeved jacket and a pretty bright orange capelet over that. He also has a sea-foam green scarf with strange designs tied around his neck, and black and white gloves that go up a little past his wrists. He wears white-khaki ankle high converse with straps, and a curious strip of yellow fabric tied around his left wrist). With his styled and tidy hair looking like a typical anime boy's (bangs slightly to the side, and hair in the back curled up slightly), he looks like a very typically fashionable teen. In the character history, Lightning's commented that Hope looks a lot like his mother. His only strange feature is the glowy blue tattoo, or what looks like a tattoo, on his left wrist mostly covered by his gloves and the yellow fabric. Oh, here, just have a picture.
History: Oh, geesus, I can actually skip this part without writing 15 pages on it? SCORE.
Personality: Hope's at the very edge of teenage moodiness a lot of times, but he's generally a very kind and thoughtful boy who's extremely sensitive to people's emotions and turmoils, and extremely non-confrontational (unless someone has as emo problem- then he might get in people's faces about it until they talk and rant and get it all out). Going through his history, he's always been a very kind and quiet child, despite being stupidly sheltered and somewhat spoilt. I mean, for a kid who's never stepped on dirt before he was eight years old, to also volunteer to walk into danger to find a lost camera so his friend's little brother could see the pictures that night instead of the next day? He's a stupidly kind kid. And that stupid translates a lot into naivety. He's been described as the one who actively plays the peace-keeper when his friends start yelling at each other, and the one who's sensible and patient, and didn't mind sharing his things despite being an only child to an upper class family. He was taught as a child that promises were extremely important, so he'll do just about anything to keep his promises, no matter how small those promises are.
Portrayed in-game, though, Hope is more than a little socially awkward and unsure of himself, and is extremely dependent on the people around him- he was extremely close to his mother before she died, and when she was gone, he turned to Lightning as a mentor in order to teach himself how to survive. He had a bit of teen angst with his dad for breaking promises, and went through a violent hatred phase with Snow because he blamed the man for his mother's death, but after getting through that, Hope proves to be extremely optimistic and charismatic. He's the one who gives most of the motivational speeches to the group before going into something big, and even though his words and tone are awkward since he's not used to speaking to groups of people and he still had issues with his own self-confidence, people who listen to him usually regain their determination and focus by the time he's done speaking.
This kid. He's awkward, but he makes you want to fight for the things that he believes in, even if it's only because he's so naively optimistic that you don't want to let him down. Hope draws his confidence from the people around him, though- there's a section in-game that's very telling of this: when Lightning asked him if he was scared before they were supposed to rescue two of their teammates, and he replies very honestly that he was terrified- but it was alright because she, and the rest of the team, were with him.
He's generally polite and has a good amount of respect for adults, and girls in particular, since he's been around some very strong characters. He's also quite meek, usually a little slouched and talks with his head down- he has a habit of lacing his fingers together in front of him and rocking on his heels when he's waiting for something to happen. He's quite good with animals, and will generally go out of the way to make people happy- but when he gets angry, he gets angry; it builds like a slow-burning flame, and when he finally snaps, he pretty much loses sight of everything else but his anger, to the point of murder (but, that will take something very, very extreme- the same way with most people, I think). Hope has a way with words- he may not use big words, he may be a awkward in speech and mannerisms, but he has a very blunt way of speaking that makes it near impossible to disagree with him- and if he's angry, and the person he's angry at has any sort of conscience at all, then those words cut extremely deep.
At this point in his life, Hope will probably oscillate between being very dependent on other people, to trying to do everything himself because he's growing up. He'll most likely be able to manage living on his own, although it wouldn't be a very good experience for him. He is a character that needs other people, I can't seem to emphasize that enough, even though he'd do fine by himself. He's just... at his best when he has someone to look after him, and someone he can worry about in return.
Powers/Abilities: DERP. He's kind of a stupidly powerful medic, able to throws cures and even revives like water. He's also the strongest ravager in the team- full of magical attacks and the only one able to attack with all the elements (aka, he can pretty much call up a mini tornado, to crashing lightning down on everything within a certain radius). He's very weak physically, but is handy with his futuristic boomerang- able to hit multiple targets at once- and while they don't take out the enemies, they at least stun them for a little while so he can gather and attack furiously with his magic. Hope's also a synergist- meaning that he buffs and can create shields and enhance people's strengths and speeds. His most hacks ability is probably being able to call on his Eidolon: Alexander, who is this giant fortress with area of effect attacks which are probably stronger than anything else (EVERYTHING ELSE, including all the other Eidolons) in-game. He's also the only person in-game who has this EMP style spontaneous burst of magic when he's super duper stressed / angry, like accidental magic or something. His final attack, Last Resort, looks like a bubble attack! ...I won't comment on it except that it looks funny and is stupidly powerful. The stupidly hacks thing about all of this is that he does all of this easily and without damage to himself, nor does he need anything to help him cast the spells, and he casts super fast.
OH HEI SOMETHING NON-ATTACK: it's also hinted that he's at least a decent strategist, since he likes to end battles with: "Just like I planned." and seems to be the only one in the party that says anything like that.
Limitations: His boomerang skills are pretty much his starter skills, so they should be okay since they're pretty weak, anyway... I'd like for him to keep his cures without any consequences, if that's alright? Totally taking away the stupidly hacks abilities like Renew or Revive. I just have plots in my head about making him help in the hospital eventually, and being picky about who he heals despite it not costing him anything- it's one thing that bugged me all through canon- he's very picky about who he heals. He could have just healed Snow in chapter 7, could have saved Rosch's life by healing him, but he never did. He's got to learn that he shouldn't be picky with that... or that, yes, he should be really picky with that. And no, he can't heal illnesses, just injuries.
I'd like for him to keep his shields... but have him feel it if something attacks the shields, almost like he's taking the damage himself. It's mostly just pain-oriented, but if he keeps the shields up for too long (more than a few minutes at a time), it will start inflicting physical damage.
Any ravager spells would leave him feeling weak and a little dizzy, and would need time to cast so that he can do it, it would just take a while and he wouldn't be feeling so good after that- if he attempts to call up anything like the AoE lightning spells(thunderga) or the tornado(aeroga), his vision would probably start going and he'd get a nosebleed. If he tries to cast them in succession, he'd probably lose his ability to stand, much less walk or run away.
UM. I KNOW IT'S PRETTY HACK, BUT... is it alright if he keeps Alexander? Not that the Eidolon could be called easily- it would probably have to be in a very, very dire situation and Hope would have to be hella terrified and desperate (and most likely trying to protect someone else or a group of people, because he wouldn't summon Alexander just for himself), and summoning Alexander would probably knock him out for a few hours, if not a day or two (and even after that, he might only be able to cast cures for the next day from, I don't know, magical exhaustion or something). Feel free to bring down the hammer with a NO >[, but I just really like how protective Alexander gets with Hope sometimes (there was this scene in chapter 12 where this giant robot goes to punch Hope and Alexander LAYS A SMACKDOWN. I love all the Eidolons).
Aaaand that's it. Probably just going to strip him of all his other skills. So, good medic (although he can't phoenix down someone with just a snap of his fingers anymore- it was stupid how many phoenix downs I collected and never used during the game because of him and Vanille, anyway), weak synergist, and weak-to-decent ravager, depending on just how desperate he is.
Thing is, Hope rarely uses his magic outside of active battle, anyway, so most of the time he's just an ordinary kid. Who can, but probably won't, heal random people.
Writing Samples
Log/Third Person Sample:
What was this place?
If Hope hadn't been creeped out enough by the pure tranquility of it all without the residents, he was certainly starting to get worried by the fact that he couldn't seem to leave. Waking up in this little town seemed pleasant enough- no angry mobs with pitchforks and baseball bats waiting for him about being l'Cie, and while he had despaired to keep the l'Cie mark on his wrist, it was a glowing bright blue halted thing that looked just like Fang's did- just like his mark while they had fought Orphan. He wondered if they could ever be rid of it- Fang and Vanille had woken up with their marks, too. At least he had been lucky enough to wake up at all- he already spent a good few hours searching the area for any sign at all that his friends had been there, whether in crystal stasis or awake.
But there was no one. The houses were old style (wood and concrete! It was strange and charming and looked far more fragile than even the houses in Oerba), but well kept to the point where he kept expecting to turn around and have to apologize for being in someone's yard.
He hadn't even been trying to leave, not really. His feet had just taken him far away from the town in search for his friends, and while he knew he had walked in a straight line, he could see the town in front of him once again. That wasn't possible. So he had turned and just headed in another direction away from the ocean. Again, after a few hours, he could see the town in front of him again.
By now, he couldn't shake the tingling sense telling him that something was wrong with this quiet little town, something that had only a little to do with the fact that he couldn't seem to leave from any direction. It was too quiet, too peaceful, too strange. He had never seen anywhere like it in Cocoon or Gran Pulse before, but had figured maybe he just woke some time really far in the future... but no, there was just something inherently wrong with the picture. Or maybe not something, but everything. Where were the people? There weren't even animals around, from what he could tell.
He sat down on the steps of what looked like the town's police department, resting his tired feet and wondering just what in the world he had gotten himself into this time. It was bad enough that he couldn't find his friends, but this... he just had a really, really bad feeling about this town.
Journal Entry/First Person Sample:
...This place must really be going for the old, rustic look. Where am I even supposed to keep this old, bulky thing?
[A moment of rustling static as he shoves the cellphone in his pouch, not knowing it was already on. And then footfalls: fast, slow, fast, slow. It takes a little while before the footsteps stop, and an irritated huff is heard, somewhat muffled through the pouch.]
Might as well give it a try. Creepy place.
[Another rustle, and this time the sound is more clear again as he takes the phone out of his bag and thumbs through it, not entirely sure how to operate technology so old. Eventually he gives up trying to find anyone and just hits the call button, making the phone beep loudly seeing as it was already calling.]
Okay. So. Um. Is anyone here in this town? Anyone at all? I'm sorry I intruded, but I can't seem to find a way out. Or figure out where I am. [He sounds a little irritated now, having been walking so long and not seeing anyone.] Is everyone just hiding? I don't eat people or anything. I'd just like someone to tell me how to leave this place.