Final Fantasy VIII: Balamb Garden Official Application (FEMALES NEEDED)

[Fenrir]

Please note that this thread is for those wishing to look more into playing the small group game Final Fantasy VIII: Balamb Gardens- Idle chit chat about the actual game should be reserved for the OOC thread, unless questions are being asked by others looking to join.  Thank you!

The Premise:
It is thirty years after the events of Final Fantasy VIII and follows the lives of several students as they take SeeD exams, continue training as mercenaries, and complete missions.  The general idea is that Balamb Garden is an elite military academy. Many of its students are orphans, but not all of them. Students can enroll between the ages of 5-15, and graduate between the ages 15-19. If a student doesn't graduate by the age of 20, they are released from the Garden. Many graduates enlist in various armies around the world, as Garden trained soldiers are highly valued, and Garden is politically neutral. The best graduates, however, may join SeeD, an elite mercenary group that operates out of Balamb Garden.  SeeD utilize GFs, powerful beings which can be junctioned into a person's mind, which then allows them to junction paramagic, to not only cast spells, but to increase their own abilities. While there are three Gardens (Balamb, Trabia and Galbadia), only Balamb Garden accepts and houses SeeDs, though students from the other Gardens can transfer to Balamb for their final SeeD exam.

It is perfectly acceptable if you do not already know the Final Fantasy VIII world do not fret all the information you need to know is located below at the Main Information Thread (though it is still a work in progress).  If you've ever been a Final Fantasy lover now is your chance to jump in on your own epic story.

The Information:
Main Information Thread
Accepted Characters
OOC

The IC Threads:
Final Fantasy VIII- Balamb Garden: IC
Final Fantasy VIII- Balamb Town: IC
Final Fantasy VIII- Quick Posts

Character Sheet:
Please fill this sheet out and post here!

CS Sheet

Code Select Expand

[b][size=14pt]CHARACTER APPLICATION[/size][/b]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Enrollment Age:[/b] Between 5 and 15
[b]Gender:[/b]
[spoiler=Theme Song](Include, Youtube video Theme Song)[/spoiler]

[b]Weapon:[/b] Name [b]Weapon Description:[/b]
[b]Specialization:[/b]
[b]Personality:[/b]

[b]Backstory:[/b]

[b]Appearance:[/b]

[size=14pt][b]GF APPLICATION[/b][/size]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Element:[/b]
[b]Description:[/b]
[b]Bonus:[/b]
[b]Special Attack:[/b]

[slowmojoe]

CHARACTER APPLICATION
Name: Connor
Age: 19
Enrollment Age: 5

Weapon: Tonfa (pair)
Specialization: Sustained Combat Endurance.
Fighting Style: Takes a beating until the opponent is exhausted, then attempts to end the fight.

Personality: Cool, introverted demeanor, comes off as cold, and stand offish.
Backstory: Remembers little of his past. Recalls that he lived on the streets as an orphan, and that he was rescued from a wild dog by a SeeD operative who then brought him to Trabia Garden. He then transferred to Balamb to join SeeD, after deciding that it's mission was good as any he could come up with.  Not altogether a bad student, just not top of the class. Has his fair share of disciplinary reports. All of which seem to involve fights he did not start, but did attempt to finish.

Appearance: Brown hair, slightly longer than shoulder length, brown eyes as well
Average height and solid build. Hard features. Not seen without his favorite jacket.

GF APPLICATION
Name: Cú Chulainn (Queue-Hue-Lan)

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Element: Physical
Description:  A large wolf man in old celtic garb, wielding a menacing spear, the Gáe Bolg,
The spear of mortal pain and death.
Bonus: Berzerk status 
Special Attack:Gáe Bulg. (Ga-bool-ga)
Reality itself seems to warp as the hound warrior thrusts his barbed spear to the sky over his head. He remains motionless, face contorted in anger and rage, as the spear in his hands begins to glow ever brighter and brighter. Finally the light reaches its brightest point. At that moment, Cú Chulainn bellows a war cry and thrusts his spear into the heart of the enemy closest to center.  Once firmly embedded, the spikes extend, damaging nearby enemies as well. The resulting light tears through all enemies in its radius.

(Images from the Suikoden game series)

[Florence]

If he gets a passive berserk status, he wouldn't be able to summon :x

I like the character in general, but I need a little clearing up with how that works.

[slowmojoe]

I presumed to have Berserk status after the summon was called.  If it's supposed to be a passive bonus even while the GF is not involved, then I would say that Connor has more Vitality because of his GF. Would that be an acceptable change?

[Florence]

Ah, yes sorry if I wasn't clear enough. The bonus is sort of like... the abilities the GF gives you. So, its stuff you can do all the time.

And yeah, that change works just fine for me!

[Kineas]

CHARACTER APPLICATION
Name: Cella Riumy
Age: 16
Enrollment Age: 13
Gender: Female

Weapon: Dagger & Magic Pistol
Specialization: Mid to close range weakness exploitation / generalist. (Kind of going for the "Red Mage" effect here)

Personality: A bit overly cheerful, often in contrast to a more serious situation. Cella takes her work seriously and is a reliable person in tests and team based excersizes, but she doesn't open herself easily to others and is scarcely seen outside of class or duties. Prefers to take action rather than dwell on a situation, although she is more than willing to take the time to make a plan, if the situation calls for things like plans. She is relatively confident, but tries hard to be realistic about what she can and can not do. She has a liking for trying to co-ordinate what team mates should do during training and missions.



Backstory: Originating from Balamb town, Cella and her family (Both parents, one brother) had no notable connections with Balamb, and ending up as a mercenary wasn't exactly something she saw coming. Her father worked in the transportation of goods over long distances for the various shops around town. He didn't often have to leave himself, but occasionally they would take the opportunity to visit abroad.

On one such journey they were attacked by monsters at sea, three years ago. Cella was hurt and her parents were killed, although how and why she survived remains a mystery. With little else to resort to, she enrolled at Balamb Garden. She's made exceptional progress since joining, but that has mostly just served to catch her up to her age group rather than make her truly stand out.

As a footnote, her brother wasn't with the rest of their family on that trip, but no one seems to have tracked him down either.

Appearance:
Cella has black, boyishly short hair, bright green eyes, stands about 5'7", and is not particularly well endowed. She sticks to the school uniform when it's called for and doesn't get seen much on days off.

GF APPLICATION
Name: Fairy
Element: Light
Description:

Bonus: Scan
Special Attack: A healing wave which recovers allies within a respectable area of effect with moderate potency.

[Florence]

-puts stamp of approval on Cella-

[Fenrir]

CHARACTER APPLICATION
Name: Ballari Lisha
Age: 17
Enrollment Age: 13
Gender: Female

Theme Song

Brand New - Failure By Design

Weapon: Hand Claws Weapon Description: A glove that is attached to three six inch blades.  Two can be warn at any given point and though Ballari has many hand claws infused with almost every type of magic available to students she prefers to use two poisoned ones.  Of course, she keeps a healing one in her back pocket at all times, just in case.
Specialization: None.
Personality: Ballari is quiet, shy, and has a tendency to simply sit and watch those interacting around her.  Though she prefers to keep to herself she is efficient at organizing and getting things done, whether it is doing it herself or getting others into action.  She's incredibly loyal, nice, and sweet when she opens up and is almost incapable of saying no if someone asks her a favor.  She usually has too much on her plate at any give point and tries hard to be useful to all of those around her to make up for her physical shortcomings.

Backstory:
Her parents dropped her off at the age of thirteen in hopes that she would become one of the leading SeeDs but it was quickly discovered that Ballari had absolutely no aptitude as a fighter.  She excelled in neither combat nor magic, though she always gave more effort than everyone else.  Still, she picked a specialty in hand to hand fighting and continued in her studies but it always seemed as though she could never put on muscle to pack as much of a punch as all the other martial artist at the school.  So, she picked up a weapon- the hand claw.  It is more lethal with its long blades and infused with magic she gets just the push she needs to keep up with the other students, though she is still at the bottom of the pack.

One day she was practicing in the hallway and when turning around quickly into a dodging roll she literally rolled into the Head Master's legs, knocking everything from his hands.  Papers went flying and somehow she managed to reach a hand out to steady him before he fell all together.  After the encounter she somehow got roped into following the Head Master all day, organizing his papers, meetings, and taking care of the the objectives he gave her.  It was simple for her and at the end of the day she made him a list of all the things on his agenda for the next day. 

A few days later she there was an announcement for her to report to the Head Master's office and she discovered he had inquired much about her.  He then requested she be his official secretary and help him keep up with all of the things a Head Master needed to run the Garden.  Her immediate reaction was to refuse but she was not completely unaware of her lacking abilities as a SeeD and maybe it was a better way to contribute.  The next day she showed up at his office and reorganized the entire thing without officially accepting the position and though he had been surprised he never asked her to leave.  That was two years ago and she has some how learned to manage classes and running a lot of the Garden behind the scenes while being sure to keep the Head Master on track.

Her young Guardian Force, Erelah, was a gift from the Head Master and though GFs are usually meant for combat only, Ballair often uses hers to send messages back and forth between the Head Master and various Instructors or other Gardens.  Erelah is very young and brash finding herself using her special attack to get places and Ballair has gotten yelled at on several occasions when the blast of air knocks people over.

Appearance:

Ballori

Standing at five foot Ballair barely outstrips her Guardian Force in height and usually can be found in simple civilian clothes.  Though she keeps things around her organized her own dress and lavender hair is normally unkempt and messy.

GF APPLICATION
Name: Erelah
Element: Air/Wind
Description:

Erelah

Erelah appears in a small tornado of air and is instantly recognizable as having an eagle-like body on crane-like legs which leaves the bird of prey's height at four and a half feet tall though her wing span is almost seven feet.  She is smaller and younger than most of her Guardian Force counter parts but makes up for it in speed.
Bonus: Hit, Accuracy, and Speed
Special Attack:
Dash Draft Erelah darts forward in a great burst of speed towards the target and his wings produce a powerful whoosh of wind that knocks targets back.  This only does minor damage but the stronger she becomes the more devastating the attack will become, but who knows how many generations it takes Guardian Forces to reach their full potential.

[Florence]

Approved! -stamps-

[AribethAmkiir]

CHARACTER APPLICATION
Name: Roweena Drake
Age: 16
Enrollment Age: 7
Gender: Female

Weapon: Surujin
Specialization: Blue Mage

Personality: A kind, sweet and compassionate girl, Roweena, Ro to her friends, is fairly studious and devoted to being the best student possible.  Rather intense, Ro approaches hurdles, both in the classroom and on the field, with a fierce and fearless determination.  A gifted strategist, Roweena often comes across as a know-it-all to fellow students and has trouble making friends at times.  Those who get to know her understand that she has an characteristic habit of phrasing things poorly or chooses to voice her opinion at the worst possible time.  Ro seems to get along better with older students who possess the maturity or insight to understand what she’s attempting to say despite the blunt manner or delivery in which she says it.  Roweena feels much more comfortable providing counsel than actually issuing commands, mostly because of her social awkwardness, and her belief that no one would actually listen to her.  Long term residents of Balamb Garden know that Roweena has a much easier time getting along with creatures than people.

Backstory: Roweena Drake was born in the rebuilt portion of Esthar City.  She grew up with the constant threat of monsters in the city, often just on the other side of temporary barriers erected to protect the struggling city.  While both of her parents were killed by a roaming monster when she was only three, her uncle raised her for what little time she can remember before coming to Balamb Garden. 

A blue mage and SeeD permanently assigned to Esthar City, Roweena’s uncle began teaching her the tricks of a blue mage.  Despite her age, Ro was able to display proficiency with the basics and an empathy with certain creatures and monsters.  Her uncle treated Roweena well, as if she had been his own daughter, and she had as comfortable a life as anyone else in the city.

On her seventh birthday a barrier collapsed and several SeeD members were sent to help protect the gap in the city’s defenses until the barrier could be repaired.  Amongst the SeeD members was her uncle.  Of course, since Balamb Garden students are orphans, her uncle died on that day.  The Seed members who had survived shipped Roweena off to Balamb Garden.  Some claimed it was her uncle’s dying wish, while others simply thought it was the best and safest place for her.

For the first year Roweena attended Balamb she had many SeeD visitors that knew her uncle, but over time those people were seen less and less until none came at all.  Being the socially awkward person Roweena is, she was slow to make friends and often found companionship in stray animals she would find in Balamb or on the Garden’s grounds.  Her attempts to keep and care for strays earned her more reprimands and punishments than anything else and earned her the ire of the discipline committee.

In the last few years Roweena has seemed to adjust better.  She still has empathy for animals and goes out of her way to care for them.  She simply doesn’t attempt to keep them.  More importantly, Roweena has cultivated a reputation for being a top notch Blue Mage and has excelled in the classroom and in field exercises.  While not as potent as the students that focus primarily on melee combat, Roweena can hold her own against most opponents and is often quick to take advantage of her opponent’s weaknesses or adopt their own techniques to use against them.  In what spare time she has, Roweena volunteers in local animal shelters.


Appearance:

Roweena Drake

Blue bobbed hair frames Roweena’s gentle, feminine, facial features and oddly contrasts her orange colored eyes.  Thin and slender, Roweena is pretty in a young and innocent type of way.  When not in the Garden’s uniform, Roweena can be seen wearing a white tube top under a women’s red open vest, pleated skirt with criss-crossed, thigh high, open toed sandals.  She wears a turquoise colored shell pendant about her neck at all times and often has a pouch containing a pair of Surujin when she is expecting a fight.

GF APPLICATION
Name: Gryph
Element: Holy
Description:

Gryph

Bonus: Increased Health, Spirit, and Endurance
Special Attack:
If Outside during Daytime: Gryph dives, obscured by the sun, signals his presence at the last possible moment with a fierce roar and lands between Roweena and her opponent(s).  Feathers of healing quality gently fall upon the party cleansing them of any status ailments and restoring Roweena’s health.
If Outside at Night: Gryph swoops down from the darkened sky, signaling his presence at the last moment with a fierce roar and lands between Roweena and her opponent(s).  Feathers of healing quality gently fall upon the party cleansing them of any status ailments and restoring Roweena’s health.
Indoors: A fierce roar signals Gryphs entry as he flies low over the heads of Roweena’s opponents before imposing himself between them and her.  Feathers of healing quality gently fall upon Roweena’s party and cleanse them of any status ailments while also restoring Roweena’s health.

[Florence]

Approved!

[Lumasan]

I have to resist my temptation of throwing myself at my laptop's screen mainly because of my love for Final Fantasy VIII and it being my favorite FF game next to the X series. I will single-handedly argue til I'm blue in the face that VIII is better than VII, despite being shot down many times. I will work on my character and then get back to you about it. I'm taking a quick breather today after working on a previous character for like 7+ hours. But I would like to state that you have no idea how excited to make a character for this campaign. EEEEEE!

[CDark]

Feeling a bit embarrassed about the personality and history size, I can do way better, buuut I figure it'd be best to put it up now and embellish on those later, in-game!

CHARACTER APPLICATION
Name: Yue Jin
Age: 16
Enrollment Age: 15
Gender: Male

Theme Song

Will add one later!

Weapon: Peter
Weapon Description:

Weapon Appearance

Peter, as this beast is now known, is a highly intelligent, and extremely brutal killing machine, that may in fact be the dominant role of Yue and his relationship. He and his newfound master get along rather well, all things considered though he seems to decide on his own if he's going to follow Yue's orders or not, rarely following them to the letter at the very least. Yue may very well be the only person this thing isn't at least thought about chewing on, and Yue in turn seems to believe that his "Peter Puppy", as he refers to him at times, is honestly a kind creature, just misunderstood and abused by his previous owner.

He is wrong. He is very, very wrong. There's a reason Peter aims low, so to speak, and it's not because he's poor and misunderstood.
Specialization: Tearing people apart brutally
Personality: Yue is a kind and innocent soul, completely unlike his dog, who believes in the good of others and the world itself. Unable to turn away from those in need, the boy tends to risk his neck more often than naught to help others, which typically gets him in trouble, as one would expect. However, he luckily has Peter there to pull him out of it just long enough to secure his safety before jumping back to kill whatever he can. Yue is quite friendly and outgoing... though he's lacking in friends, which may or may not have something to do with how intimidating his companion is.

Backstory: A newcomer to the Garden, Yue comes from a military family, and as such, is expected to suck it up and carry on the legacy. However, considering how comfortably he was raised by his parents, who perhaps shielded him a bit too much from the evils that can exist in this world, his chances are slim to nil. Despite that, his parents decided to enroll him into the Garden, with the hopes of him one day making SeeD and making a difference, something he agrees with. He'd just prefer it if the differences were as bloodless as possible.

Appearance

GF APPLICATION
Name: Garm
Element:  Lightning

Description

Bonus: High bonus to Attack and magic attack
Special Attack: Lightning Assault- When Garm is summoned, it quickly assaults any and all enemies it sees, slashing, biting, and tackling into them, before pinning down the most formidable foe and rearing up to howl, summoning a massive lightning bolt down that channels through it, the enemy, and into the ground, where it disperses, causing damage throughout the area.

[Florence]

Given that I already reviewed this one, it's approved :P

[LtFox]

Definitely expressing interest here.

I will submit a character during the weekend when I get home.  This is especially fun since I've been poking and tweaking the FF8 story and mechanics lately to use in another game possibly, and I like the setting plenty.

_LF_

[Sylia]

CHARACTER APPLICATION
Name: Aya Yumemiya
Age: 16
Enrollment Age: 6
Gender: Female

Theme Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYgqijFC_U0

Weapon: Gunblade Weapon Description:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Shotgun type gunblade that basically works like a regular gunblade, only instead of having a pistol-like handle it has a shotgun type one to allow better holding with both hands.
Specialization: Breaking through enemy defenses. Aya is quite strong for someone her age and has made a habit of learning where to hit something where it hurts the most; a feat that's equally impressive when one realizes her weapon of choice is the Gunblade. She may not be as acrobatic like another Gunblade user she knows, but she makes up for it with a few tricks of her own.
Personality: Aya is a very loving, yet fairly cocky person once you get to know her. She's always one of the first into a battle and one of the last ones to leave during a retreat. Aya has a very strong set of ideals that she lives by, but never mentions why when asked and only smiles and shakes her head. It should be noted that Aya is very confident about her skills and has a very bad tendacy to taunt her enemies before confronting them. One of the reasons why she does this is to take heat off of comrades that may be in danger.. but she'll never admit to that. Aya also mentions that she likes to break the fourth wall, but no one ever knows what she's talking about.

Backstory: Aya was brought to Balamb Garden when she was six years old for reasons unknown to her at the time. All she knew was that her mother dropped her off there and never looked back once, no matter how much Aya called out to her. Because of that, Aya spent her first year trying to escape, but after much discipline she finally relented and stayed put. While she claims she doesn't remember much of the event, Aya by chance met Squall when he visited the Garden one day. One could say that something just.. clicked between the two of them as they spent a good while talking while he waited to hear from the Headmaster. Squall noted that she was similar to how he was in the past and gave her some encouragement and advice on what she should do from now on.

Before he left, Aya asked him what weapon did he use when he was a SeeD. He replied that he was a gunblade expert; a weapon that was notoriously hard to master. In a show of what could be either bravado or stupidity, Aya announced to him that she'd surpass him somehow. Squall laughed at this and replied that he'd like to see that and that it was a promise between gunblade users. Aya faltered for a second, then stood up straight and nodded in agreement. That was the last time she saw that man, but he left quite an impression on the little girl. From those years onward, Aya trained herself in the use of gunblades, even choosing a rather quirky model as her type.

Now in present day, Aya seems to always have a smile on her face and seems to fight while holding close to her ideals, which were to not do anything that'd bring shame to the promise she made.. even if she doesn't remember what exactly the promise is anymore due to use of the Guardian Force.

Appearance:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Note: I can use a better looking pic for her if you want me to show that she actually has boobs.. since it kinda isn't shown in this pic.

GF APPLICATION
Name: Cactuar
Element: Non-Elemental
Description:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Bonus: Strength, Agility
Special Attack: 1000 Needles attack on all enemies.

[Latooni Subota]

Yes plz, dat SAMURAI STRONG STYLE. :3

[Revenent]

How can you have shotgun style gunblades when gunblades don't shoot bullets in the FFVIII universe?

[Mossberg]

How can you have shotgun style gunblades when gunblades don't shoot bullets in the FFVIII universe?

They don't technically shoot but they do use ammunition. In the game when playing as Squall (and possibly Seifer too) if you hit R1 at the right time when they attacked it would pull the trigger and do more damage.

[Revenent]

I know that, but then how does a "shotgun" gunblade work differently from any other?

[Mossberg]

That I don't know.

[SinXAzgard21]

I'm unsure about playing, I am interested though.  As a note to the gunblades, they can be fired and since in this game I'm assuming you don't just stand around and take turns whacking one another this may help.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Gunblade

[Florence]

I'm unsure about playing, I am interested though.  As a note to the gunblades, they can be fired and since in this game I'm assuming you don't just stand around and take turns whacking one another this may help.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Gunblade

They can be fired, but the don't shoot bullets, they have vibration cells that send shockwaves through the blades, which increases their melee damage.

[Sylia]

Well, didn't expect this much commentary on my choice of weaponry! The general idea I had was that I'd be using the parasite eve 2 version of the gunblades (also listed in the FFwiki) and they work just a liiiittle differently than the usual ones. So I apologize for not mentioning this!

EDIT: Buuut no big deal over this as I've changed them to something a little more fitting!

[Snake]

I'm interested. Can a char be literally raised at the garden from 5 years old? Basically left there by parents or something