Previous Game History: I'll be bringing her from exitvoid, where she spent a good six months, OOCly. (Something like four months ICly.)
While her time on the island left her core personality unchanged, there are some definite changes to her more surface-level personality. For one, the island instilled in her a sense of 'bad things are happening to us and we're literally stuck here with no way to fix them', the way Kernos (Exitvoid's NPC team) toyed with various horror events. That being said, she's a bit more pent-up and tense than canon left her, and she's carrying a bit more helpless frustration. On top of that, she's come to be somewhat more accustomed to such horror concepts as the undead or various other bodily horrors. After the island, she's entirely too familiar with a situation with limited mobility and an omnipresent individual or group working to make their lives hell.
Meanwhile, to keep from going insane with inactivity, she took it upon herself and Hope to keep an eye on the island's farm, and she took the horses out on the beach pretty regularly. As such, she's a bit more animal-inclined than she was in canon, just by habit.
With the time she's spent away from home, she's not quite as accustomed to being around the whole group as she once was, nor is she as close to Snow, Sazh, Fang, and Vanille as they recall her being, though if they show up that's bound to change. Hope, however, was with her throughout her time on the island, and her primary goal ended up being to keep him safe. This didn't end nearly as well as she planned a lot of the time, but he didn't end up dead, and that's what's important.
A bit of new CR developed in Exitvoid, but only a couple of them were significant enough to mention here, those being:
LEON KENNEDY, from Resident Evil. They met by angsting all over one another in the barn, and proceeded to fight together for the next few months and occasionally almost talk. They really didn't technically know each other all that well, but if she'd needed someone to protect Hope for her, it would've been Leon that she would've asked, and that says something. He's one of the few people she doesn't see as somewhat (or entirely) incompetent, and he's reserved enough without being a solid brick wall that he's kind of refreshing to converse with. She'll be glad to see him here in Haven.
DRACO MALFOY, from Harry Potter. God, I don't even know how, but they ended up being fairly decent friends. She was even going to teach him to fight without having to rely on his wand, but then the island went all to hell and he disappeared before she had the chance.
Personality: (I am so sorry for this, Blue.)
Lightning Farron is conflict. Her interactions with others, her innermost thoughts and emotions, and even her personality traits. She's both silent and raging, gentle and harsh, proud and humble, depending entirely on who you are and how she's feeling at the time.
To a stranger, or even someone she knows but doesn't respect, she's off-puttingly independent. She doesn't need you, and doesn't put the slightest effort into pretending otherwise. (In the beginning of the game, she and Sazh are behind a rock surveying the enemy. He's voicing his concerns, saying they probably should hold off, but right in the middle of what he's saying she runs off to fight them. That's not even the first time she's done that to him, even so early.) You can travel with her for three game-chapters and she's still A-OK leaving you behind because you're tired and she doesn't want to stop. ('They'll catch up eventually,' were her exact words to Hope.) In conjunction with the above: In most aspects, she's very confident. For the most part, I'm referring to confidence in her abilities, her skills as a fighter and a tactician. This spans from monsters (the first monster she and Sazh have to fight, Sazh cowers, but Light says 'Watch and learn,' and kills it without batting an eyelash) to soldiers/other humans or l'Cie (they're surrounded and disarmed by PSICOM soldiers, and she's totally unconcerned. She backtalks them casually, then disarms one and takes out four or five more. Another example is in the flashback to when she volunteered for the Purge train. Sazh had asked why, because she didn't seem ready to go quiet. She said, "You want quiet? You'd better take the next train."). Adding to 'confident' and 'independent', she's also very, very determined. When she sets her mind on something, she does it. (To Hope: "It's not a question of 'can' or 'can't'. There are some things in life you just do.") Because of her determination, she goes for the biggest available target at all times, be it a massive beast or the capital city Eden's fal'Cie. Her determination is even strong enough to counteract her quick temper, a lot of the time. If she has a choice between sit there and be pissed and progress toward her goal, she'll drop it and progress.
As I just mentioned, that's another thing: Light has a very quick temper. It's funny, because she's normally so calm and collected that when she does rage, it's that much more powerful. For smaller things, she just gets aggravated (After Sazh messes up her anti-gravity boot things, activated by snapping apparently, she only snaps her fingers twice to try and turn them on before letting out an aggravated ‘Tch’ and turning away.), but for more controversial topics, she goes so far as physical violence in her rage. The touchiest subject is her sister, Serah. (I'll talk more about Serah later, but there'll be some bits and pieces here.) Most of it's directed toward Snow, who gets punched numerous times throughout the game in reference to Serah, but even Sazh is on the receiving end once or twice (Sazh was saying early on how there’s gonna be no way to save Serah even if they do find her, and he’s sounding even remotely sympathetic. But he says kinda that she should kill her for her own good. Light, shoving him, rages: "Just say it! Any l’Cie, anyone who might ever become a l’Cie should be wiped off the face of Cocoon! … It’s people like you that created the purge to begin with.")
Lightning's also a very proud individual. In the few scenes where the ground's shaking or the enemy's passing close overhead, and everyone else is cowering or on one knee, Lightning's always the one who's still standing and ready. Her pride almost hits a point of desperation, when she's telling the others about her choice to go against their focus and fight the Cocoon fal'Cie. It's summed up by her close-to-opening statement: "I will not die a fal'Cie slave!" (Even knowing refusing her focus means becoming a Cie'th, she argues, "Our focus doesn't matter! I don't. Take. Orders. From fal'Cie! How I live is up to me." But the tone of voice she has in that scene is a bit hard to describe... It's like she's fighting to be able to choose how she lives, not fighting to prove that she does choose. Like she's saying all that to make it true. If that even makes sense?)
Her sense of humor--yes, she has one, shut up--is very dry. (Example 1: They're facing an enemy, Sazh says, "They want to fight." Light replies, "Good for them." Example 2: They run into a Sanctum fal'Cie, one responsible for providing food. They consider killing it. Light says, "So… kill him and cut off the food supply. That'll make us popular." Final Example: Someone in later cutscenes says to her, "You're dead." Her reply? "You first." And she kills the dude.)
Lightning is very hard on others, even those she cares about. She's very good at telling someone what's wrong with someone in the bluntest words possible and leaving them at loss for what to say. She does this to Snow in canon, a speech that ends with, "Snow? You're all talk." Which is kinda the biggest insult she could give him at the time. (Pardon this for being an RP example rather than canon, but this thread is a slightly lesser example of that same tendency.) On the journey, she's hard on each of them at times. Take Sazh, for example. (They'd been walking for quite a while, and most of them were exhausted. Sazh and Vanille and Hope want to rest but Light's walking off. Sazh says, "What, no break?" Light: "They’re tracking us." Sazh: "I know that. I know that, but we aren’t soldiers. We don’t have your kind of stamina." Light sharply replies, "You’ve got enough to complain." And walks off.) Or Hope. (Sometime after she and Hope start to kinda bond, when it's just the two of them: She and Hope come upon soldiers on the ground. Hope wants to help them, and reaches for one. Light grabs his shoulder and launches him back on his ass. "Control your emotions! If you want to survive, you forget about sympathy." Hope was sufficiently silenced.) She's even hard on Serah, the sister she loves more than anyone in the world. (At Light's 21st birthday party thing, Serah admits that a: she's a l'Cie, and b: she's engaged to Snow. Light's furious. She says, "You became a l’Cie, so now you’re going to marry this idiot? And you think I’m going to buy that? Full points for originality. But don’t forget: If you really are a l’Cie, it’s my job to take care of you." She can tell Serah was affected by that but doesn’t seem to care. "This is ridiculous. Worst birthday ever." And turns away with her arms crossed. In her defense, it never occurred to her that the l'Cie thing could be true, but still.)
More than anyone else, though, Lightning's hard on herself. Especially over not believing Serah about being a l'Cie. She openly blames Snow for losing Serah, but inwardly really blames herself. He just becomes the punching bag to vent it on. Not that she doesn't blame him some, but I'll talk about that later. Either way, Light is absolutely a big bag of regret over how harshly she pushed Serah away at the birthday party. (Sazh asks early on if Light knew what Serah's focus was. Light said, softly and with her head bowed, "I didn't ask." Later, Vanille asks if Serah said anything about her focus. Light says, "Nothing." Vanille says, "Maybe she just… didn't want to worry you!" Light says, quietly again, "Or maybe she just didn’t trust me." And walks away.)
Lightning's got two different crises-responses: One for a crisis she can handle, and one for a crisis she can't.
For the ones she can handle, she's generally got a very level head. It may seem like she rushes right into battle, but you'll always see her wait at least a few seconds first (unlike Snow, who charges right in) in order to form some sort of a strategy. She'll observe the enemy, even if it's just briefly. No enemy is too large for Lightning, even if it is. She doesn't hesitate, doesn't falter, doesn't show fear. She's got it under control, and she knows it and makes it known. For this reason, actually, people seem to follow her. It's because she's a perfect mix of independent, determined, and confident, and people feel like they can look to her for leadership. How else would she have a party to travel with, despite how often she blatantly walks off on her own?
Then, there are the crises she can't handle. Being a l'Cie is one of them, quite possibly coupled with losing Serah to crystal. When the problem before her is one that even Lightning sees no way to climb over, she defaults to battle. She says so herself, in canon... After becoming a l'Cie and losing Serah, all purpose she'd had before had disappeared, and she threw herself into battle after battle because in battle she doesn't think. Not in the same way. Hope did it, too, he as well admitted it. She fought mindlessly because that was the only way she felt she accomplished something, even an empty something. So basically: When the odds are impossibly against her, expect her to just reject everyone and start fighting any enemy on sight.
I've listed quite a few traits of hers above. However, most of them also have exceptions, occasions where they falter. Her confidence, for example. It's shaken a couple of times in specific. For one, her Eidolon battle. (She basically feels like she's being torn apart with her brand at the center, like her body's out of her control. Afterward, while she's still in recovery, she tries to brush it off: "Magic and mumbo-jumbo... I must've hit my head on that Purge train.") Another instance in which she shows a surprising lack of confidence is in Palumpolum when she and Fang split off from Snow and Hope. ("Hey, Fang… The others are safe, right? If any of us got caught… they’d make an announcement.") If it were the whole group, she'd have just stated that things were alright, none of that hesitation. I think this is because Fang was a) clearly smarter than Snow, and b) had just as much confidence as Lightning, if not more. Fang and Lightning are a lot alike, as far as their confidence and their outlook on battle, but... They're a bit like yin and yang, I'd say. They're alike in the ways mentioned above, but Fang's the snarky, outgoing, positive version, whereas Lightning's the withdrawn, serious, and generally painfully blunt version. Anyway, so this was kind of a bunny trail, moving on...
lightning farron ‣ final fantasy xiii ‣ reserved ‣ part 1 of 2, i am so so sorry, blue
Contact Info: Amxire (aim) or I'm on plurk.
Other Characters Played: n/a
Preferred Apartment: Same as Leon Kennedy, please! :)
Character Name:
Claire FarronLightning FarronCanon: Final Fantasy XIII
Background/History: Wiki: Lightning | Wiki: Final Fantasy XIII
Previous Game History: I'll be bringing her from
While her time on the island left her core personality unchanged, there are some definite changes to her more surface-level personality. For one, the island instilled in her a sense of 'bad things are happening to us and we're literally stuck here with no way to fix them', the way Kernos (Exitvoid's NPC team) toyed with various horror events. That being said, she's a bit more pent-up and tense than canon left her, and she's carrying a bit more helpless frustration. On top of that, she's come to be somewhat more accustomed to such horror concepts as the undead or various other bodily horrors. After the island, she's entirely too familiar with a situation with limited mobility and an omnipresent individual or group working to make their lives hell.
Meanwhile, to keep from going insane with inactivity, she took it upon herself and Hope to keep an eye on the island's farm, and she took the horses out on the beach pretty regularly. As such, she's a bit more animal-inclined than she was in canon, just by habit.
With the time she's spent away from home, she's not quite as accustomed to being around the whole group as she once was, nor is she as close to Snow, Sazh, Fang, and Vanille as they recall her being, though if they show up that's bound to change. Hope, however, was with her throughout her time on the island, and her primary goal ended up being to keep him safe. This didn't end nearly as well as she planned a lot of the time, but he didn't end up dead, and that's what's important.
A bit of new CR developed in Exitvoid, but only a couple of them were significant enough to mention here, those being:
LEON KENNEDY, from Resident Evil. They met by angsting all over one another in the barn, and proceeded to fight together for the next few months and occasionally almost talk. They really didn't technically know each other all that well, but if she'd needed someone to protect Hope for her, it would've been Leon that she would've asked, and that says something. He's one of the few people she doesn't see as somewhat (or entirely) incompetent, and he's reserved enough without being a solid brick wall that he's kind of refreshing to converse with. She'll be glad to see him here in Haven.
DRACO MALFOY, from Harry Potter. God, I don't even know how, but they ended up being fairly decent friends. She was even going to teach him to fight without having to rely on his wand, but then the island went all to hell and he disappeared before she had the chance.
Personality: (I am so sorry for this, Blue.)
Lightning Farron is conflict. Her interactions with others, her innermost thoughts and emotions, and even her personality traits. She's both silent and raging, gentle and harsh, proud and humble, depending entirely on who you are and how she's feeling at the time.
To a stranger, or even someone she knows but doesn't respect, she's off-puttingly independent. She doesn't need you, and doesn't put the slightest effort into pretending otherwise. (In the beginning of the game, she and Sazh are behind a rock surveying the enemy. He's voicing his concerns, saying they probably should hold off, but right in the middle of what he's saying she runs off to fight them. That's not even the first time she's done that to him, even so early.) You can travel with her for three game-chapters and she's still A-OK leaving you behind because you're tired and she doesn't want to stop. ('They'll catch up eventually,' were her exact words to Hope.) In conjunction with the above: In most aspects, she's very confident. For the most part, I'm referring to confidence in her abilities, her skills as a fighter and a tactician. This spans from monsters (the first monster she and Sazh have to fight, Sazh cowers, but Light says 'Watch and learn,' and kills it without batting an eyelash) to soldiers/other humans or l'Cie (they're surrounded and disarmed by PSICOM soldiers, and she's totally unconcerned. She backtalks them casually, then disarms one and takes out four or five more. Another example is in the flashback to when she volunteered for the Purge train. Sazh had asked why, because she didn't seem ready to go quiet. She said, "You want quiet? You'd better take the next train."). Adding to 'confident' and 'independent', she's also very, very determined. When she sets her mind on something, she does it. (To Hope: "It's not a question of 'can' or 'can't'. There are some things in life you just do.") Because of her determination, she goes for the biggest available target at all times, be it a massive beast or the capital city Eden's fal'Cie. Her determination is even strong enough to counteract her quick temper, a lot of the time. If she has a choice between sit there and be pissed and progress toward her goal, she'll drop it and progress.
As I just mentioned, that's another thing: Light has a very quick temper. It's funny, because she's normally so calm and collected that when she does rage, it's that much more powerful. For smaller things, she just gets aggravated (After Sazh messes up her anti-gravity boot things, activated by snapping apparently, she only snaps her fingers twice to try and turn them on before letting out an aggravated ‘Tch’ and turning away.), but for more controversial topics, she goes so far as physical violence in her rage. The touchiest subject is her sister, Serah. (I'll talk more about Serah later, but there'll be some bits and pieces here.) Most of it's directed toward Snow, who gets punched numerous times throughout the game in reference to Serah, but even Sazh is on the receiving end once or twice (Sazh was saying early on how there’s gonna be no way to save Serah even if they do find her, and he’s sounding even remotely sympathetic. But he says kinda that she should kill her for her own good. Light, shoving him, rages: "Just say it! Any l’Cie, anyone who might ever become a l’Cie should be wiped off the face of Cocoon! … It’s people like you that created the purge to begin with.")
Lightning's also a very proud individual. In the few scenes where the ground's shaking or the enemy's passing close overhead, and everyone else is cowering or on one knee, Lightning's always the one who's still standing and ready. Her pride almost hits a point of desperation, when she's telling the others about her choice to go against their focus and fight the Cocoon fal'Cie. It's summed up by her close-to-opening statement: "I will not die a fal'Cie slave!" (Even knowing refusing her focus means becoming a Cie'th, she argues, "Our focus doesn't matter! I don't. Take. Orders. From fal'Cie! How I live is up to me." But the tone of voice she has in that scene is a bit hard to describe... It's like she's fighting to be able to choose how she lives, not fighting to prove that she does choose. Like she's saying all that to make it true. If that even makes sense?)
Her sense of humor--yes, she has one, shut up--is very dry. (Example 1: They're facing an enemy, Sazh says, "They want to fight." Light replies, "Good for them." Example 2: They run into a Sanctum fal'Cie, one responsible for providing food. They consider killing it. Light says, "So… kill him and cut off the food supply. That'll make us popular." Final Example: Someone in later cutscenes says to her, "You're dead." Her reply? "You first." And she kills the dude.)
Lightning is very hard on others, even those she cares about. She's very good at telling someone what's wrong with someone in the bluntest words possible and leaving them at loss for what to say. She does this to Snow in canon, a speech that ends with, "Snow? You're all talk." Which is kinda the biggest insult she could give him at the time. (Pardon this for being an RP example rather than canon, but this thread is a slightly lesser example of that same tendency.) On the journey, she's hard on each of them at times. Take Sazh, for example. (They'd been walking for quite a while, and most of them were exhausted. Sazh and Vanille and Hope want to rest but Light's walking off. Sazh says, "What, no break?" Light: "They’re tracking us." Sazh: "I know that. I know that, but we aren’t soldiers. We don’t have your kind of stamina." Light sharply replies, "You’ve got enough to complain." And walks off.) Or Hope. (Sometime after she and Hope start to kinda bond, when it's just the two of them: She and Hope come upon soldiers on the ground. Hope wants to help them, and reaches for one. Light grabs his shoulder and launches him back on his ass. "Control your emotions! If you want to survive, you forget about sympathy." Hope was sufficiently silenced.) She's even hard on Serah, the sister she loves more than anyone in the world. (At Light's 21st birthday party thing, Serah admits that a: she's a l'Cie, and b: she's engaged to Snow. Light's furious. She says, "You became a l’Cie, so now you’re going to marry this idiot? And you think I’m going to buy that? Full points for originality. But don’t forget: If you really are a l’Cie, it’s my job to take care of you." She can tell Serah was affected by that but doesn’t seem to care. "This is ridiculous. Worst birthday ever." And turns away with her arms crossed. In her defense, it never occurred to her that the l'Cie thing could be true, but still.)
More than anyone else, though, Lightning's hard on herself. Especially over not believing Serah about being a l'Cie. She openly blames Snow for losing Serah, but inwardly really blames herself. He just becomes the punching bag to vent it on. Not that she doesn't blame him some, but I'll talk about that later. Either way, Light is absolutely a big bag of regret over how harshly she pushed Serah away at the birthday party. (Sazh asks early on if Light knew what Serah's focus was. Light said, softly and with her head bowed, "I didn't ask." Later, Vanille asks if Serah said anything about her focus. Light says, "Nothing." Vanille says, "Maybe she just… didn't want to worry you!" Light says, quietly again, "Or maybe she just didn’t trust me." And walks away.)
Lightning's got two different crises-responses: One for a crisis she can handle, and one for a crisis she can't.
For the ones she can handle, she's generally got a very level head. It may seem like she rushes right into battle, but you'll always see her wait at least a few seconds first (unlike Snow, who charges right in) in order to form some sort of a strategy. She'll observe the enemy, even if it's just briefly. No enemy is too large for Lightning, even if it is. She doesn't hesitate, doesn't falter, doesn't show fear. She's got it under control, and she knows it and makes it known. For this reason, actually, people seem to follow her. It's because she's a perfect mix of independent, determined, and confident, and people feel like they can look to her for leadership. How else would she have a party to travel with, despite how often she blatantly walks off on her own?
Then, there are the crises she can't handle. Being a l'Cie is one of them, quite possibly coupled with losing Serah to crystal. When the problem before her is one that even Lightning sees no way to climb over, she defaults to battle. She says so herself, in canon... After becoming a l'Cie and losing Serah, all purpose she'd had before had disappeared, and she threw herself into battle after battle because in battle she doesn't think. Not in the same way. Hope did it, too, he as well admitted it. She fought mindlessly because that was the only way she felt she accomplished something, even an empty something. So basically: When the odds are impossibly against her, expect her to just reject everyone and start fighting any enemy on sight.
I've listed quite a few traits of hers above. However, most of them also have exceptions, occasions where they falter. Her confidence, for example. It's shaken a couple of times in specific. For one, her Eidolon battle. (She basically feels like she's being torn apart with her brand at the center, like her body's out of her control. Afterward, while she's still in recovery, she tries to brush it off: "Magic and mumbo-jumbo... I must've hit my head on that Purge train.") Another instance in which she shows a surprising lack of confidence is in Palumpolum when she and Fang split off from Snow and Hope. ("Hey, Fang… The others are safe, right? If any of us got caught… they’d make an announcement.") If it were the whole group, she'd have just stated that things were alright, none of that hesitation. I think this is because Fang was a) clearly smarter than Snow, and b) had just as much confidence as Lightning, if not more. Fang and Lightning are a lot alike, as far as their confidence and their outlook on battle, but... They're a bit like yin and yang, I'd say. They're alike in the ways mentioned above, but Fang's the snarky, outgoing, positive version, whereas Lightning's the withdrawn, serious, and generally painfully blunt version. Anyway, so this was kind of a bunny trail, moving on...