Name: Aerith Gainsborough
Nickname: The Flower Girl ~ Back on Gaia Aerith used to sell flowers in the top part of Midgar as way of providing herself some gil so that she wasn’t as much of a burden on her mother and her neighbors in the slums.
Organization XIII or Dark XII Nickname: Not Applicable
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Species: Human (Also, the last of the Cetra or Ancients but only half.)
Position: Neutral Good
Powers/Abilities/Techniques/Skills: Aerith is a better mage than a guns and glory type of fighter. She relies more heavily on her magics, but carries her staves and staffs just in case.
Physical Fighting Techniques Starting with her weaker fighting form, Aerith is efficient at fighting with her staff because she usually likes to play on the defense when her magic is low and ,therefore, only strikes when there is an open opportunity. Although bashing works like a charm, Aerith aims for arms and legs first as a way of debilitating the opponent because she knows full well she won't knock them out most likely.
Magic Fighting Techniques Aerith's more powerful form of fighting is her magics that she harnesses through materia as well as her limit breaks.
Limit Breaks [x] Healing Wind ~ This limit break allows Aerith to heal her and her allies to about half of their strength. She may only use this after being hit five consecutive times, or after being hit twice by two powerful hits. (Charge time varies on battle)
[x]Breath of the Earth ~ With this limit break, Aerith can cure up to two ill statuses on her or her allies like Poison, Confusion, Silence, etc. However, this can't be used on status effects such as Death or Stone. She can only perform this limit twice a battle because she will pass out from overexertion. (Charge time is five posts)
[x]Pulse of Life ~ When beaten to the point of unconsciousness or death, Aerith can muster all of her energy to pulse life back into her and recover fully. Of course, this is very consuming of her, and she must either fight physically for a while or cool down before reusing her magic. (Charge time is ten posts. Can only be used once per battle.)
Materia [x] Cura/Cure 2 ~ Aerith can heal a reasonable amount of damage when unoccupied by distractions like being hit or performing more complicated spell work. It cures about a third of her overall health or her allies'. Since this is more consuming then basic Cure, it also takes her longer to do the spell again. (Charge time is four posts)
[x]Revive/Life 1 ~ As a pretty powerful white mage, Aerith has the ability to bring someone back from being knocked out. She must be completely occupied with the said person, so she must either wait until the enemy is gone or preoccupied. Since it's such a powerful spell, Aerith can only choose one of her friends for this to work on at a time and only once per battle. (Charge time is until next battle)
[x] Fira/Blizzara/Thundara (Fire 2, Ice 2, Lighting 2)
As a white mage her black magic is only decently good at damaging. She can use these magics consecutively or interchangeably three times in a row, but then must wait at least a while to recast because the blackness of the magic counteracts her and doesn't bode well with the light inside of her. (Charge time is four posts after the last of the spells is cast)
[x]Holy
Aerith has only ever used this once and that was to counterbalance the black materia, Meteor. Of course, her summoning of Holy cost her her life and since she, the Lifestream, and Holy conquered Meteor, she has never needed it again but keeps it ,so it doesn't fall in the wrong hands.
(This materia will not be used because of it's heavy damage and such. However, it may be featured in a plot as a plot device, but will never be used in battle.)
Weapon/Items: [x]
Princess Guard ~ Aerith's favorite staff. This staff was found in the Ancient Temple right before her death and was laid to rest with her at the bottom of the lake. This staff allows for up to five different materia, minus holy which she uses to tie her bow around.
Picture: Appearance: Like a doe, Aerith is the poster child for what it means to encompass innocence in beauty. Her plaited ponytail ripples down to her mid back and is held together by a single pink bow in which she hides her most beloved possession, the Holy materia. Her face has heart shape to it, and her eyes an aqua blue like a serene lake.
Moving down, her shoulders are accentuated by a small dark red denim jacket that seems to have been cut to fit just around the top of her torso. As a charm, she wears little wood chimes as a necklace. Her dress of choice which holds her fragile figure is a pink, button-up, which reaches down to her ankles that she usually only fastens to her thighs allowing her to move with more ease and dexterity. Her choice of footwear usually encompasses some type of boot be it a more fashionable look on off days or combat boots when serious.
Depending on the day, Aerith likes to wear trinkets up and down her ivory arms. When fighting she is usually seen with metal rings around her wrists and beneath her shoulders, but when just casually moseying on by, she'll wear multiple silver bracelets reaching up to her elbow on her left arm.
Personality: (I bent her more towards her FFVII personality.)
Albeit appearing as innocent as a dove, this is the side only reserved for the new acquaintance or respected figure. This side of Aerith is usually quiet, reserved, and passive. If in this situation, she will most likely allow the other person to warm up to her before trying to warm up to them. Also, she is usually commenting in her head about the person she is meeting and whether or nor he or she is worth her time. This is more of the Aerith seen reading a book or trying to sell some flowers.
However, after being accepted by Aerith, there is a shift in her personality around that person. She is quirky and outspoken and usually pretty bold with her requests. She doesn't like the word "no" ,and is pretty headstrong and will charge into danger if she feels like it, and it needs to be done. A more open Aerith is also known for being relatively kindred too whomever she pleases, but ,of course, she'll be kind to just about anyone.
Being an orphan and raised in the dirt and grime of the Midgar slums, she believes that she is capable of taking care of herself even if others don't believe in her. As part of her Cetra heritage, she can sometimes be quite odd. For example, she used to be afraid of the sky and the voices in the wind because she hadn't fully realized that it was just the planet and lifestream speaking to her. Aerith also tends to isolate herself because she feels outcasted as the last Ancient and sometimes feels as though she is a danger to those around her.
Aerith isn't one to run away from adversity either. In fact she usually is the one conquering the odds and paving a path for those with less initiative or nerve.
Original World: Gaia
Current World: Radiant Garden
Movie/Video Game(s): Final Fantasy VII & Kingdom Hearts
History: (I looked at Tifa's history, and it included FFVII, so I did my best to incorporate it.)
Momma please stop crying; I can't stand the sound ~ Childhood
Aerith was born to her father Professor Gast and her Cetra mother Ifalana in the Icicle Inn near the Northern Crater in the then turmoiled world of Gaia. She didn't get the chance to become attached to her father or her mother in fact because only about three weeks after her birth, she and her mother were kidnapped by Professor Hojo for Cetra experimentation. Her father was shot in cold blood after trying to prevent their kidnappings. For the next seven years, Aerith and her mother were used in experiments for the Neo-Midgar and Jenova projects by Hojo and his associated in an insulated lab deep within the Shinra Corporation building.
However, one day Ifalana found a way to escape, and with her daughter in tow, she left the Shinra building but not without sustaining some serious injuries. The duo made it as far as the train station of Sector 7 in the slums before Ifalana succumbed to her wounds. Thankfully a unbeknownst widow was waiting for her husband to come home from the war at the tracks and found the orphan and her dying mother. The woman, Elmyra, took Aerith as the dying wish of Ifalana and promised to keep her safe with her in Sector 5.
Although she tried to the best of her ability, Elmyra couldn't protect Aerith from both her Cetra heritage, and the Shinra who wanted her back. Luckily for Aerith, the Wutai War was in full force, and ,therefore, the Neo-Midgar project was put on a back burner until after the war. In her spare time as a child, Aerith cultivated flowers in a dilapidated church in the slums of Sector 5, a rarity due to the life draining Mako reactors that powered the city. For eight years Aerith lived in relative peace.
Your eyes whispered, "Have we met? ~ Crisis Core/Before Crisis
Cultivating and taking care of her flowers, Aerith was surprised when a spiky black haired boy fell through the ceiling of her church out of the blue. After convincing him that she wasn't an angel, and that he hadn't died, Aerith showed the boy, Zack, around town in lieu of actually going on on a date with him. Even though they weren't on a date, Zack still bought her a pink ribbon, and tells her the truth of his involvement in SOLDIER. Aerith was quite frightened at first because she felt SOLDIERS were just heartless mercenaries, and after being captive, wasn't fond of anything Shinra related. The two almost shared a kiss, but she pulled away at the last second calling him a tease before he had to report back to headquarters. However, he promised that he would come back to see her.
After a few months of constant but brief phone conversations, Aerith was visited by the emotional distraught Zack after his mentor and friend went crazy, and he had to slay him. After comforting her good friend, the two of them set up a flower selling business which started off rocky but grew into a decent business up above the slums. The two exchanged wishes for each other to be fulfilled next time they met, but fate had other plans. Zack was drafted off to Nibelheim, and the two never saw each other again after that day.
During her time waiting on Zack, Aerith continued to write him letters believing that he was only too busy to actually come see her. She was also caught in the midst of the Turk/AVALANCHE fight and was help captive by the AVALANCHE members until ironically saved by the Turks who previously had been trying to capture her. Things were going fine, and Aerith's business was blooming when one day she felt it. Zack was dead. Her unrequited love was dead.
If I die young, bury me in satin. Lay me down in roses. Sink me in the river at dawn; send me away with the words of a love song. ~ Final Fantasy VII till Aerith's Death
Five years passed since that day, but Aerith still sold flowers all the same part in memory, part in habit, and part financial support for her mother. She was just closing up shop one night when spiky-blonde haired boy came traipsing by after Reactor #1 blew up and kindly enough bought a flower from her. He looked just like... A week later, Aerith was minding her garden when out of the blue the same crazy haired youth dropped in through her ceiling much like another young man.
After he awoke Aerith treated his wounds and before the two could do more than exchange names, Reno and the Turks came barging in looking for her. She enlisted Cloud as her bodyguard and promised a date if he agreed. He helped her get out of the situation and took her home. Aerith snuck out before Cloud had the chance to leave in the night and pestered him on trying to leave her. She then showed him the way back to Sector 7 where he was to meet some of his comrades, but instead they found his childhood friend being carted off to the brothel.
To save Cloud's friend Tifa, Aerith came up with the plan for Cloud to cross dress and sneak his way into the pimp's house. The plan went over a little too well when the pimp chose Cloud to be his "date" for the night. Before things got serious though, Aerith and Tifa bust in and saved him from getting involved. The man informed the trio that Shinra knew about AVALANCHE, the rebel faction that Tifa, Cloud, and now Aerith were in before dispatching them in a sewer through a trap door.
On the way to warn the leader Barett, Aerith was kidnapped by Tseng of Shinra and given back to Hojo to experiment on some more after all those years. Hojo's plans were thwarted though when Cloud and Tifa and Barett arrived and saved her from a lion like beast who was Hojo wanted her to mate with. Her secret of being a Cetra was finally leaked to the rest of the gang. Luckily, the beast, Red XIII, was sentient and wanted to bring down Hojo and his inhumane experiments and helped her escape. They might not have escaped if Sephiroth had not attacked the building allowing for them to make a get away while the company was in a state of panic because of the President death.
After their rendezvous with Shinra, a date with Cloud at the amusement park, and personal acceptance of her heritage, the motley crew made its way to the Cosmo Canyon where Red XIII's grandfather had some answers the group needed to know about Sephiroth. This eventually lead the group to the Ancient Temple where the Black Materia, Meteor was held. After Cat Saith got the materia for the group, Cloud gave it to Sephiroth and fell into a frenzied sleep. During this time, Aerith finally listened to the cries of the planet and figured out what she had to do to stop the deviant and made her way to the Forgotten Capital to pray for the white materia Holy hoping it would counteract Meteor as its polar opposite.
Aerith's friends made it just in time for her to finish praying for Holy. Possessed by Sephiroth, Cloud almost kills Aerith but snaps out of it. With the Holy on its way, the gang could have finally found found and destroyed Sephiroth, but no. From the sky, the One Winged Angel and stabbed Aerith through, her ribbon coming undone, and the materia dropping into the watery depths below, her eyes never to open again. Overcome with guilt, Cloud laid Aerith to rest in the lake, and her body slowly became one with the Lifestream.
"In my field of paper flowers and candy clouds of lullaby" ~ Aerith in the Lifestream till the end of FFVII
After her death, Aerith became part of the Lifestream of the planet, Gaia. However, unlike most souls that just bleed into the overall energy, as a Cetra, Aerith could interact within the Lifestream and even connect to those she had lost. Her first mission was to make sure that Holy had been cast. After doing that and finding that Sephiroth was holding it back by submerging himself as part of the Lifestream, Aerith had nothing to do but to hope Cloud and company could destroy Sephiroth. While she waited, Aerith met up with lost souls that she known in life. Her first encounter was with Zack, her lost love. She tried to help him cross over, but he said he wasn't going without her. After helping other souls cross into the being one with the Lifestream, Aerith found that some souls were doomed to recount the horrible deeds they had done in life as such was the case when she met up with Professor Hojo.
After an indefinite amount of time, Aerith felt Sephiroth's destruction in the North Crater by the hands of Cloud and her friends. She watched as Holy poured forth from the Forgotten City and tried to repel Meteor which was already destroying Midgar. However, it seemed too late. Holy was being suppressed by Meteor because it had already begun its work. Knowing that the Planet could try healing itself, she mustered all her might into casting the Lifestream into Holy. After all hope seemed lost, the Lifestream coupled with Holy was successful in destroying Meteor but not before Midgar had been destroyed. At last there was some peace on Gaia.
"The scars of your love remind me of us" ~ Advent Children
Two years passed since Holy and the Lifestream had destroyed Meteor and saved the planet. Although she tried to pass over, Aerith realized it was her duty to help other lost souls do that instead. After two years of peace though, something strange and sinister began to happen. Apparently Sephiroth had been destroyed within the Lifestream ,therefore, infusing it with Jenova cells, and all that came in contact with the tainted stream contracted Geostigma. This disease infected those who caught it with burn marks reminiscent of the Lifestream, and their immune systems tried to fight off the Jenova cells but failed miserably resulting in death or severe handicap.
Aerith sensed that there was a malignant force within the Lifestream and took the appropriate means to contact Cloud through his cellphone, in visions, and after she healed him and Tifa in the flowers at the church. Later she helped the pure Lifestream pour from the destroyed flowerbed which healed Cloud of his Geostigma but severely wounded Kadaj. She gave Cloud the strength to defeat the machine as well.
However, despite her efforts Sephiroth was reborn. As he tried to contaminate the whole world, Aerith tried to hold it back as long as she could. However, Cloud was able to defeat him and revert him back to Kadaj. After the defeat, Aerith sent the pure Lifestream to heal those inflicted with Geostigma as well as call Kadaj back into the stream even though he thought it was Jenova calling him. After reclaiming and cleansing the other remnants of Sephiroth, she had just enough strength to show up to tell Cloud that she forgave him and not to be sorry before vanishing back into the Lifestream with Zack.
"And we all lose our charms in the end ~ Gaia Consume/Kingdom Hearts
Peace never did seem befitting of Gaia. With the rise of a new powerhouse in the city of Edge, the darkness took this as the perfect opportunity to infiltrate through the Keyhole in the Northern Cavern. The world was wiped out with a few days.When a person dies on Gaia, their entire energy including their hearts become one with the Lifestream. Most souls in the Lifestream simply vanished or became one with the darkness and turned into the Heartless if they had not been sent on ,but a select few who either had not fully become one with the Lifestream and thus sent to Kingdom Hearts or too pure for the Darkness to devour them without a fight were departed from the void that Gaia became and placed in the Realm Between. Aerith, acting as a sender, had not passed her heart into Kingdom Hearts and was dropped into a strange new world: Radient Garden as a result.
This new world seemed like paradise compared to Gaia. Although it took her a few years, Aerith had to come to terms with being alive again ,but after she did she felt her new goal was to find a way of defeating the Heartless and seeing if any of her friends were still alive. Amazingly both Yuffie and Cid had wound up on this strange planet with her. Of course, the initial awkwardness and skepticism faded from the two after Aerith told them about their past lives on Gaia, and she made a new friend in the leader Leon. However, peace was hard to find even here the Heartless took over. Thankfully, Cid's knack for flying helped him procure a Gummi ship which brought the quartet to the home for the homeless, Traverse Town.
Having done her research in the libraries of Radient Garden, now Hollow Bastion, Aerith was more than ready when Sora, Donald, and Goofy stumbled into Traverse Town explaining the Keyblade and the Ansem Reports to the weary travelers. Aerith knew they were the answer she'd need to fight against the Darkness. Aerith also heard tales that Cloud had survived and was still struggling against Sephiroth, but she promised herself not to get involved. He had to fight his own demons. After Sora defeated Ansem at Hollow Bastion, Aerith returned and continued her research on the Heartless and even helped Sora learn some curative magic.
"I can be the queen you need me to be" ~ Kingdom Hearts II
Aerith spent the next two years continuing her research while also joining the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee to restore the damage done by the Heartless to Radient Garden. During the battle of the 1000 Heartless, Aerith acted as healer and mage making sure that all of her friends were in top condition. A few months later, she single handily found the delete for the MCP and protected the room from the Heartless pouring in much to the thanks of Sora who had been stuck in the computer deep within the Castle.
Now, Aerith believes it is time to leave Radient Garden to try to find out all she can about the Darkness and see if there is anything she can do to fight it. She also wants to someday be able to see Cloud again because she's been too afraid the whole time she has been resurrected to see him face to face.
Role Playing Sample: Cold. She had not felt like this in a lifetime. Aerith knew something was wrong, very wrong, and it didn't bode well with the pink clad woman. She lay flat against whatever it was she was on afraid to open her eyes and find herself passed on without her consent. The nurturing warmth of the Lifestream was gone like the wind smacking against her face making her cringe and scrunch into a ball too afraid to open up and face what lied ahead. This surely wasn't a cruel joke by the Planet, was it? She had helped so many cross into a tranquil paradise, and now she was doomed here. Or was she?
Her thoughts then trickled over to her friends. What had happened to them? Was this another Jenovian plot? Why wasn't the lifestream cascading about her? So many questions floated in and out of her head, one chasing the other out. Aerith had to figure out was going on for the sake of the Planet. For her sake.
The sound of moving water caused a stir in Aerith that made her push herself up into a sitting position. Curiosity conquering every sense of dread she had, Aerith opened her eyes and shielded them immediately to protect her aqua green eyes from the blinding brightness. Her eyelids fluttered up slowly until she took in her surroundings and gathered her bearings. Aerith found herself in a strange place that was for sure. The waterfall was rising instead of coming down. Realizing there wasn't any point of just sitting, Aerith got to her feet and walked over to the water and felt it.
The sudden realization made her stumble backwards and fall. She had felt something. All of the time in Lifestream, her sense had been deactivated ,but now she was actually sensing things, the cold, the water, the pain. Wide eyed in amazement, Aerith looked around at all the other things she could sense and began to touch the jagged rocks and scooped the earth in her hand. Wherever she was, she wasn't dead anymore. A single flower fluttered by a stairwell leading up to a mighty castle. She smiled up at the sturdy and slightly intimidating castle and began her first steps in her new "life" or whatever it was. Maybe some answer lay in wait in those hallowed halls.Aerith picked the single flower and placed it behind her ear. With her first step, he Flower Girl was back in business.
Questions/Comments/Suggestions? I hope everything works as far as history and personality go to incorporate both FF and KH!
