(Decided ta move this >>.)
Name: Laguna Loire
Nickname(optional): He needs one?
Age: Technically he's 53. Thanks to time compression, he hasn't actually aged a day since 44. Chronological stasis, woo!
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Position: [Ex-]President of Esthar
Oh and if we're doing alignment, Chaotic good
Powers: Just a verrah~cool limit break.
Desperado: Anything and everything he's got on him goes. Throw a grenade, grapple-hook something above, swing around, do whatever he can to
shoot it dead, and bail out in the nick of time as (remember that grenade?) explosion-ness happens. It's just his last-ditch effort limit that gives him the power and speed to go all out. This wears him out a lot faster and a lot more but it's a desperate last-ditch effort of an attack anyway.
Weapon: A BFG. That's right, peeps. He carries a machine gun. And hand (made) grenades, don't forget those.
Picture(optional): Appearance: Laguna is 5'9" with broad shoulders and long legs. He has dark brown hair dusted with strands of silver (it looks black at times) that falls to his shoulders and sweeps over along the right side of his face. His eyes are deepset and green, and yes, in fact,
are the inspiration for songs. A song.
This man does not look fifty, or even fourty. He's the type that just never seems to get older, and thanks to time compression, isn't anymore. Usually is seen wearing a blue vest, white undershirt and black pants. To top it off he has pierced ears.
Personality: If Squall's the patron saint of karma, Laguna's the god of charisma. There are times that that's all that keeps people from strangling him to DEATH.
Calling Laguna somewhat absent-minded is like calling an ocean damp. Sometimes there's a brain in there, sometimes it works. And sometimes if you shine a flashlight through one ear you'll get a concentrated beam out the other.
(Okay, so he's not quite that bad.)
His brain's not a seive. Common misconception there. It's more along the lines of a dry erase board. Yeah, it can hold things- quite a lot at once. But it gets swiped over and blanks now and then, or he can't read the handwriting on it, or he forgot where it was, which also happens. Laguna has his moments of brilliance and wisdom, and then he has his moments of 'brilliance' and mindflails. His logic, though, does often make sense on some deeper level. And he's actually smart, it just sometimes doesn't show at all. He's also got a very serious side when he needs to.
Plus, he's hilarious. And people love him and follow him to Hell and back.
How he always gets elected leader of something (squad, country) is anyone's guess, cause he's clueless, forgetful, has no sense of direction, comes up with THE worst/weirdest crackpot plans- but on the flip side his ideas work, he puts others' lives ahead of his own and will risk his life to save yours, he's good-natured, he's honest. It's not that hard to guess why after all. Besides, he oozes gentlemanly charm. Or just boyish charm. Or just charm. Or stupidity. But is it really stupidity, or is it just another form of Laguna's specific brand of brilliance?
(Exhibit A:
THE SCENE: Laguna, Kiros and Ward are being chased by another army. Laguna, Kiros and Ward get stuck between the end of a rock and a place filled with angry soldiers. Laguna's solution?
Laguna: *tosses his friends off that cliff and looks down after them* Man, you guys are brave.
But it was to save them, and I'm not saying it didn't work, because somehow it did. I'm just saying it was really, really counterintuitive.)
Laguna Loire likes people and loves life. He's just that kind of guy: a kid that didn't really quite grow up. He's sad, he cries (uh... yeah, about that) he's happy, he giggles or laughs. He's angry (And if you get him angry, I really would like to know how you managed it), he'll yell. He falls hard and falls fast in love or life, but never quite falls apart. He's too much himself, with ideals as vast as the sky and way too enthusiastic about anything he does, because everything he does he puts mind, body, heart and soul into. There's nothing he can't survive through if for no other reason than he's Laguna.
He was never really a fighter. He knows the army very well, and was no doubt glad for the experience and friends it gave him: even now he still wears his dog tags. But he's an idealist. A romantic who prefers using the pen and his words to fight his battles. Killing things doesn't make things right, right? While he's not exactly a pacifist, he, well, was never a fighter. A leader, yes. Warrior? Haha, no. He can fight, and he's very very good, but that's not really who he's cut out to be. Besides, his leg gives out when he's nervous or just when it shouldn't. (He got that injury early on in the army when a blast (shrapnel from blowing up what used to be a tank) shattered his leg from just above the knee all the way down, and a quick battle heal didn't really heal it properly. Still troubles him to this day.)
Basically, Laguna's a spazz with a big heart, and will do anything and go anywhere and give anything he can for those he loves, or those who need it. That's part of his problem. He's too giving and too open. It's cost him a lot. He's lost two loves, lost friends and allies- lost the whole world, but he keeps on living and moves on. Maybe he'll find some of them again, and that's part of what keeps him going now.
His flaws are many and transparent as glass. But so are his virtues. He's flawed and annoying and lax and dense, but he's a good guy. He's worth trusting, but you have to keep him from getting himself involved in something WAY too deep, or he'll never be able to get out of it again. He never means to break his promises. Life just gets in the way.
History/Background: Let's do the time warp again!! No, really.
Ooookay here goes.
Laguna was born on January 3. He was Galbadian, and grew up Galbadian, joined the army as a Galbadian, and fought as a young Galbadian soldier. His childhood wasn't much to note; he was the class clown, fighting boredom and bullies. Generally just your average kid gone off to try to make a difference in the world.
Just like wherever Laguna goes, he quickly found friends in the army: Kiros and Ward. When Laguna rose to the position of squad leader, they were never seen apart again. Where went Laguna, went Kiros and Ward, usually shaking their heads at his antics and the fact that Laguna Loire can't navigate his way out of a paper bag. But it worked out every time. Mostly. Hey, look on the bright side here: he still
has his leg, right?
Laguna'd fallen in love with a pianist at a bar in Galbadia, Julia Heartilly. Since Laguna never did get the courage up to go talk to her for a long while, she made the first move. That didn't go anywhere. Orders came (that same night actually) and so Laguna promised he'd return. Julia waited for him but he never did. (And so she wrote Eyes On Me about him and got married.)
Life got in the way and things don't always work out.
Referring back to Exhibit A here, Laguna and co. got cornered by Estharan soldiers after a scouting mission at Centra, not in the best of shape. So in true Laguna-brand problem-solving-skills fashion, he threw them off the cliff, tried to climb down himself, and fell. For about six months he was out of commission and being nursed back to health by Winhill's barkeep (seeing a pattern here about chicks in bars?) Raine.
Now Raine looked after a little girl named Ellone who adopted her and then adopted 'Uncle Laguna' as he stayed in Winhill to recover. This was his second job as monster hunter Laguna, reporting to Raine and Ellone after his rounds. It wasn't really a family, but it got to be close enough, and Ellone was really pushing for Laguna and Raine's marriage.
Kiros showed up after a while and gave him news of Ward. (Prison work, fun fun.) He knew about Laguna's huge ultimate goal of becoming a journalist and suggested that he might want to travel again and write for a magazine called Timber Maniacs, but Laguna didn't want to leave. "You've changed, Laguna." Funny how love does that.
Eventually, Laguna got the nerve up to propose, Raine accepted, they hugged, and it looked like there was a happily ever after after all.
Oh, it could have been, but it wasn't.
Ellone was kidnapped, so Laguna set off to search all of the world for her. He took up that travel journal at this point, which he'd always wanted to do anyway, always searching for that little girl with Kiros and Ward, makin' cash with odd jobs on the way. (By the way, Laguna can't act. It's painful to watch.)
And on the way he inspired villages, almost destroyed others, got captured, worked in the Lunatic Pandora laboratory where made friends with Moombas, and found out where Ellone was. In Odine's lab in Esthar, so! Off to Esthar went Laguna, off to Esthar went Kiros and Ward. The Moomba went somewhere.
Esthar had its own rebellion to fight against Adel and Laguna just couldn't say no to leading it. So there was a pact made that the rebellion would rescue Ellone, and Laguna would help defeat Adel. He became so key to that revolution (and came up with the idea to put Adel in stasis and in space) that he wasn't able to leave Esthar afterwards. His efforts landed himself a position as the President of Esthar.
Ellone was sent back to Winhill. What Laguna didn't know was that on his travels searching for Ellone, Raine had died in childbirth. So. Ellone got sent to an orphanage, and Laguna was trapped by his duties and couldn't visit. And then the days dragged to weeks and months and years.
Wars fought around them, and Laguna kept Esthar separate. He had too, they were too advanced and actually could take over the world. Seventeen years pretty much went by like that.
Then as Laguna was on Lunar, he was informed that a group of SeeDs showed up, with someone named Rinoa that Odine took a lot of interest in.
For Laguna, that trip to Lunar started off as a routine check on Adel's seals and ended up with a meeting with Elle (and then everything started going to hell, but we'll get to that). Laguna knew about Squall, sorta before that, but when they met back up Elle told him everything that had happened. Before that he knew a name. Ellone told him what she'd done and who Squall was now and what he'd been doing. And was going to do, including come up there.
Well well, look at that, a chance to meet his son. Not yet, though-Rinoa got possessed and freed Adel. Oh how more complex can we make this? So off to an emergency meeting with (take a wild guess) Kiros and Ward, Edea Ellone and Odin as well. This had to stop, another sorceress to top it off? This really called for some damage control. Basically:
Ultimecia is a sorceress from the future controlling ones from the past in order to compress time down so she could control a lot more. She had Edea after she had Adel. Both got freed. Now she has Rinoa and got Adel back. Adel's gone at this point, but we have Rinoa. Edea's still free.
The original plan was to seal away Rinoa, but Squall and co nixed that. So then they came up with The Plan.
Let time compression happen and unravel it
as it happened so that they could
get to Ultimecia, because she's still in the future. First kill off the awakening Adel once and for all while they can. Ultimecia'd go for Rinoa, let that happen so we have a possessed Rinoa. Rinoa/Ultimecia gets sent back through time through Edea so we can start Time Compression and drag
Ultimecia close enough to the past for us to get to her. WHILE THIS IS HAPPENING they send Squall and co
forward to Ultimecia when she's reachable. Kill Ultimecia. And somehow all of time would sort itself out and we'd have no more of this freaky people from the future messing with things business.
Sounds real simple, don't it? Yeah, Laguna didn't really get it either.
When Squall showed up Laguna really did intend to tell him, but that wasn't the time. But then time compression (insert a horrified and completely surprised gasp here) messed up things, darkness came, all was icky, and Laguna got trapped. Literally- he's not aging anymore and his own sense of time is screwy because he's in time-loop-limbo.
But more importantly he was completely alone. Lagunas don't do well being alone, they're social things. And he had made a promise he could keep and intended to. One, find Squall. He said they'd talk and they would, by Hyne. Two, find Ellone. Three, find Kiros, Ward, anyone. Someone?
He really can't tell you how long he was out there. He really can't, because Time Compression was interrupted and left his biological present and future the exact same thing.
TIMELINE OF LAGUNA: (should be)
A-------B-------C----D-->
A=Birth
B=Elected President Of Esthar/Raine Dies
C=Time Compression
D=Present Day
> = and it goes on!
TIMELINE OF LAGUNA (is)
A-------B-------X
X: CD--> = <--DC
Notice a little problem here?
Does that screw someone up? Oh yes. He's a lot more squirrelly now than he ever was before. There's the past until Time Compression but the nine+ years after that is all rolled into one. Or look at it this way, his body doesn't think that time's passed at all since T.C. but the rest of the world does. Hyne knows he tries to keep things sorted out, but it's not easy. He knows that time's passed and that timelines after are really woozy but not the extent. Yet another reason to keep a journal, because his today is over nine years long and counting, yesterday being Time Compression.
RP Sample: (Everyday is Groundhog's Day!)
Stupid time compression. But they couldn't have known it was gonna call down darkness and
things. It'd been a while (it had to be) and Laguna still had no idea what happened there (and had only some idea on how it was supposed to go in the first place which did not help one bit, because face it all this whole deal was confusion personified.) Was or is? Gah!
"Y'remember hearing that saying 'today's the first day of the rest of your life?' I thought they were kidding," he told the rock he was playing with and not really paying all that much attention to at the same time. It wasn't listening, but that was okay. It was a rock after all.
It was a nice sunshiney day out on a hill, the kind of day that makes families go out on spontaneous picnics and tell themselves that the seeds in the blackberry jam weren't actually moving. It was that kinda day that he missed on days like this. Just nice weather doesn't make a day like that. But he hadn't had a day like that in years
and years anyway. At least he remembered it.
"You have it easy," Laguna told that rock. "You're a rock. Well-" On second thought. "I guess bein' kicked around isn't a walk in the park, or thrown at people. An' people aren't used to build things or cut up or melted down to make other things. You know what, I take that back. Rocks have it rough. But I gotta hand it to ya, Rock. I've never heard you guys complain."
He put the rock down where he found it and stood up. "I'd better get goin'. Don't worry, alright?" The rock didn't exactly answer, but Laguna wasn't exactly talking to
it as he strapped his machine gun back on his back. With the things around, he kinda had to keep it on hand at all times. They might be freaky black things from Hell, but they were freaky black things from Hell that disintegrated under fire.
And so Laguna Loire set off again. It would all turn out okay. Things always did before.