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Character's Name: Tifa Lockheart
Series: Final Fantasy VII
Timeline: mid-game. The last things Tifa remembers are Cloud handing the Black Materia over to Sephiroth and the blast from the resulting explosion as the various Weapons left their place in the Northern crater. It jarred the airship she was on, causing her to fall. She hit her head - and woke up… here.
Canon Resource Link: Loveless and Never Ever
Personality: At first glance, Tifa is an optimistic, outgoing, confident young woman. She's a natural caretaker and selfless when it comes to putting others before herself. She believes strongly in righting wrongs and is as comfortable using her fists on those she considers her enemies as she is an encouraging word for those she considers her friends. Trained in the martial arts by her planet's most prominent teacher, there is very little she will back down from.
Physically.
Behind the face she shows the world however, the young woman is much more fragile and unsure of herself than she would like anyone to realize. Tifa was born into what was, to her, a fairy tale setting. She had parents that adored her, a town that loved her, and very little that she could do wrong growing up. She had an unshakable faith in hard times passing, in fairy tale endings; and in a knight in shining armor that would come to save her one day and the power of a promise made under the stars.
Her fairy tale story went up in flames the night a madman burned her village to the ground and cut her open, leaving her for dead amidst the smoke. It changed her fundamentally and she would say that the fairy tale pages of her life are now so smudged with ash, they don't end the way they should anymore. She's now a survivor, a little girl who's grown up to realize she's not really a princess, not even for pretend. It's made her harder, more willing to fight for what she thinks deserves it but it's also left her less sure about her own personal 'happy ending'. It has also left her much more comfortable with the role of caretaker and protector than she is with being taken care of or protected. The vulnerability of the latter reminds her of the fact that promises aren't always kept and knights in shining armor sometimes come too late.
Currently, Tifa is at her lowest point. She feels she has failed everyone that relied on her. The first truly solid female friend she's ever had was murdered while she stood nearby, a madman that is supposed to be dead now has the magic to destroy her planet and, because of her silence, the man she cares about most has fallen apart mentally and been lost. It won't stop her determination to fight; but it has shaken her to the core and she wonders what she would be fighting for.
What your character can offer: Tifa is trained in the martial arts and is considered her teacher’s star pupil. She’s gotten very good over the years while living in the slums at dealing with monsters, both in human and other form. Her skills in the arena of fighting are entirely her own and include several powerful attacks that can decimate an enemy. She is also very capable of handling materia, the magic source of her planet and has several high level pieces on her. On the more mundane side, she was both a mountain guide for her small, backwater town as a teen and spent several years running her own bar in the slums of her planet’s largest city. Possibly even more importantly however, she has a knack for taking any food available and making it taste good, a very real desire to help people around her, and the ability to make almost anywhere feel like home if given enough time.
What items will they be bringing with them? I’m guessing that Tifa would have her travel pack at this point, which would include simple things like rations, a tarp, bedroll, change of clothes, needle and thread, toothbrush, etc. as well as her fighting gloves. Also, Mods permitting: a Restore (3rd level), All (linked to Restore and Mastered), Steal, Lightening (2nd), Neo Bahamut, and Time (2nd) materia.
Third-Person Sample: (set during the video game in Tifa's own world)
Tifa lay in bed curled on her side facing the window with her hands tucked up against her chest. It was raining with beautiful bursts of lightening outside her window and while she usually liked rain and stormy nights, the one outside was fake. Fake the same way the gravestones on the lawn were fake, fake the way the ‘ghosts’ that moved through the mirror on the wall were fake, fake the way…
fake the way her hopes were…
There had to be something wrong with her that she was letting herself get upset over Aeris taking Cloud out for a night of laughter and fun. They were at the Gold Saucer, weren’t they? Cloud should have fun, even if it was only for a night. Aeris was good at making people feel better. Tifa knew she should be glad someone could get through Cloud’s shell and maybe coax him into forgetting to frown and fixate on dire future events, at least for one night?
Would it be the whole night?
The whole night…?
She winced at the way it made her chest hurt and clenched her hands a little closer to her chest.
Usually Tifa couldn’t stand being alone for long. Right now though, she couldn’t bear the thought of being around anyone. And since the strange stuffed cat on the stranger stuffed white beast had said the rooms were free - well, after Aeris had left, Tifa had quietly repacked her backpack and snuck down to the front desk to ask for a private room.
It probably made her spoiled. She just couldn’t bear listening to anyone else right now.
Not Yuffie, wondering cheerfully about whether there was any materia in the claw arcade machine. And certainly not Aeris when she came back from her…
from her date with Cloud.
The other girl knew how she felt. The same way Tifa knew how Aeris felt. They’d reached a silent agreement though not to let it ruin the time they enjoyed together as friends. Aeris certainly wouldn’t brag about whatever she and Cloud did. It was just that Tifa didn’t think she could even bear seeing the other woman come back smiling.
If she came back tonight…
She wished she could get angry but she couldn’t. Aeris had decided to convince Cloud to go out and enjoy the amusement park with her. She was brave enough, sure enough of herself, that she could. Tifa didn’t consider herself a coward. She might have, eventually, thought of the idea herself. But Aeris had thought of it first and she’d spoken about it first, almost from the second they’d arrived.
Tifa understood. She really did.
She just… she just didn’t want to have to deal with it.
She didn’t want to deal with it so strongly that she’d asked the desk clerk that had given her the room to not tell anyone where she was. She couldn’t imagine that anyone would come looking for her this late anyway but it had made her feel better to ask. To know that she could, for tonight at least, drop her usual mask of being positive and just hurt for a little while. Not for long, of course. She’d be fine tomorrow and back to her old self. Just… just for tonight, she wanted to be allowed to admit her heart hurt.
And it did.
oh… it did…
Because she wanted what Aeris had. She wanted to be the reason blue eyes smiled the way she was sure they were right now somewhere beyond the fake rain and lightening. She wanted to be the reason he forgot to be serious and actually played, even if it was just for tonight in a fake world.
She wanted him to be happy. And she wanted, selfishly, to be the reason he was.
First-Person Sample:
“Hot water…”
The voice is wistful and feminine in the darkness. Sounds of movement, sounds of someone fiddling with the recorder.
“Clean water - “ the voice redefines options. The sound of static and then light flicks on in the darkness. It shows shades of brown that move like a curtain in the breeze. A pale finger flicks into view on the side.
“A stove that works. Somewhere dry to - “
The picture jumps to the side, revealing crumbling brick and a concrete floor. Faintly, something is roaring beyond the brick and the way it sounds indicates there’s more open space than wall in the way of that sound. The camera and the voice go still. The monster beyond doesn’t repeat its call. This time when the picture shifts it catches the bruised chin and pale lips of a woman and the fiddling sounds are more determined. The voice resumes its mantra with a steadiness that indicates it’s being used as a sanity placeholder.
“Clean sheets. Clean clothes. Vegetables.”
The picture rises past the lips to a pair of eyes that look brown until there’s a shift and the light catches red tones in them. The eyes are squinting at the recorder under a fall of dark brown bangs.
“A communicator whatsajiggit that works,” the narrow eyes add and the picture jiggles a little as the recorder is shaken. A sigh and the picture moves loosely down to rest in a lap most likely, leaving it focused on the contrast of a black suspender strap against the bare skin of the edge of a stomach. There’s dirt and dried blood there and what looks like the beginning of an ugly gash that seems to twist back to her waist and behind her. It looks as though, if it’s been taken care of at all, it’s only been quickly and without a great deal of attention. Fingers drum absently on the recorder somewhere above.
“…home…” the voice sounds younger and it’s lost its steady business nature. A hand drifts down toward the wound, revealing leather fingerless gloves the color of dried blood. “Except I don’t even have a - “
There’s a sudden crash. Glass breaking. The camera angle drops to show floor and the edge of a red boot. Something’s screaming and it doesn’t sound human. The boot disappears, reappears, disappears again and there’s the sound of something impacting, flesh to flesh. The screaming goes up a notch and there’s a short cry it almost drowns out that sounds very human. Something crunches, a blow of some sort and the screaming stops.
Except now there are more of those screams and if they’re not as close as the original one, they’re getting closer. A hand, fingers now the color of the gloves, closes over the camera and scoops it up.
The picture goes black. The sound cuts out.