Squall Leonhart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pullthetrigger) wrote2012-05-02 07:47 am
pullthetrigger) wrote2012-05-02 07:47 am
Entry tags:
Application (Gargleblasted)
OOC:
Name: Zane
Are you over 16?: Yes.
Personal DW:getdunked
Email: zanerpr (at) live.com
Timezone: EST
Other contact: [AIM] Zane Gyfywise;![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
zanegyf
Characters already in the game: N/A
How did you find us?: A friend kept asking me to join, and the game looked pretty darn cool. So I decided to finally give it a shot.
IC:
Character name: Squall Leonhart
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Timeline: Disc 2; Just after the concert at Fisherman's Horizon.
Age: 17
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths: As a member of SeeD, Squall is trained in your typical mercenary procedures and combat. He is physically fit, and quite capable of making long jumps and dodging moves with relative ease. His accuracy is also off the charts, Squall never missing an attack in close-quarters combat. His particular choice of weapon is the Gunblade, which is a very difficult weapon to master and use exceptionally, which he has managed to accomplish.
Besides being a master of the Gunblade, Squall is trained in the usage of Guardian Forces (abbreviated as GFs) just like any other SeeD would be, and as such can use an array of special abilities due to whichever GF he currently has junctioned to himself. Examples of that would be Doom (which casts a countdown to death on one enemy), Mug (which steals and item from one enemy during an attack), and Card (which turns an enemy at low health into a Triple Triad card). Some of the most basic of those GF abilities that each one has are Draw (which uses the enemy's own magic for gathering or casting purposes), Magic (which is to cast magic gathered via Drawing from enemies or Draw Points), and summoning the GF itself to attack the enemy or assist the caster.
Squall is capable of using any form of Magic that he can stock from Draw Points/enemies with ease, as well as junction any GF he finds to himself with no issues besides compatibility issues on actually summoning certain GFs, and memory loss from junctioning any type of GF. Memory loss happens to be a side effect of using the GFs because of the part of your brain that the GFs burrow themselves into when junctioned. Besides that, he can also use any type of Gunblade he can get his hands on, and do it effectively.
His limit break, Renzokuken, is a series of attacks using the Gunblade's trigger to do critical damage with a varying number of slashes, along with a follow-up attack afterward; usually depending on the weapon he has. Considering that Squall is entering the S.S. Thor with only the Revolver equipped, he will only have Rough Divide available. It is an attack where Squall drags his blade across the ground before swinging upwards at an enemy for massive damage, somewhat like an uppercut with his Gunblade.
How would they use their abilities?: Squall would most likely use his abilities for self-defense, missions, and possibly only for the personal gain of himself and his comrades if they happen to arrive on the S.S. Thor. He's far too professional to do anything too reckless without valid reason.
Appearance: Dressed in essentially all black, Squall gives off the aura and look of a loner. He wears black pants, black shoes, black gloves, and a black bomber jacket with the collar rimmed in white fur. On his pants hangs three separate belts, with only the uppermost belt doing the job of keeping his pants up. Under his unzipped jacket is a white V-neck shirt, and a necklace hanging from his neck. The necklace is in the shape of Griever, a lion that he named and desires to be like. He has a ring with the same lion on it.
As for his actual appearance, Squall is 5'8" with blue eyes and has brown, unkempt hair. He has a scar across the bridge of his nose, given to him by Seifer during a sparring session. His face constantly switches between a detached and annoyed expression, rarely going into any other type of emotion except for on special circumstances.
Background:
Squall was born in Winhill, a simple natured town far off from most conflict except for the occasional monster attacks, to Raine Loire and Laguna Loire. However, when he was born, Laguna was off across the world in search of Ellone, a little girl whom Raine had essentially adopted when her parents were murdered by soldiers from Esthar. Esthar was one of the most powerful nations in the world at the time, and they were led by Sorceress Adel. Legend says that the Sorceress' powers come from Hyne, a god who created humanity, and before each Sorceress dies, they must pass on their powers to another. Adel was a particularly cruel Sorceress, and led Esthar with an iron fist. It was during a search for a child to become her successor that Ellone's parents were murdered. During a second search, Ellone was taken by soldiers and Laguna went out around the world searching for her.
It was during these chain of events that came from Ellone returning to Winhill after Laguna saved her and Laguna being nowhere near Winhill, that Raine died. Ellone and Squall were sent off to an orphanage run by a married couple after her death, and that couple was Cid and Edea Kramer. The children at the orphanage called Edea by the nickname Matron, and as Ellone was older than most of the children, she was their Sis. However, Ellone had developed a strange power. It was this power that was the reason she was kidnapped to Esthar in the first place, and that power was the ability to send people's consciousness to the past in order to view the past through people she has met. Because of it, Ellone was forced to take refuge away from the orphanage, on a ship with people whose sole duty was to protect her.
Squall took her disappearance the hardest. It hurt him, feeling like he had been abandoned and lost the person he cared for most in the world. He complained that he was always alone despite being surrounded by Matron and other children of his age, but he didn't care. He just wanted to see his Sis again, but he would never get to. On one particular day, Squall ran away from the orphanage to try and search for Ellone. He wouldn't get far, and when he returned, his Matron had absorbed the powers of a Sorceress who died there moments ago. Standing next to her was a strange man, who was in fact Squall from the far future.
It was this Squall's words of premonition that gave Edea the idea to create something called Garden, a facility used to train young minds in combat and knowledge for the purpose of becoming SeeD, and elite force designed to do missions for the Garden's finances, and ultimately defeat the Sorceress should the world need it. After the future Squall was sent back to his own time, the younger Squall stayed at the orphanage until the age of five.
At five years of age, he and Seifer, another child from the orphanage who was constantly at odds with the other children, would be transferred to Balamb Garden, where Cid Kramer would be the Headmaster. Squall chose the path of studying how to wield a Gunblade, similar to Seifer, and they would both continue to be at odds with each other as they grew up at Garden. They would eventually forget much of their childhood due to beginning to use Guardian Forces, monster-like entities used for combat that would burrow into the wielder's brain to augment abilities and even be called upon to fight. Using a Guardian Force (abbreviated as GF), had a side-effect of memory loss. It's that memory loss that caused Squall to forget the orphanage.
And soon enough, others from the orphanage would eventually turn up at Balamb Garden and they would all forget their bonds prior to Garden. Such people included Zell Dincht, Quistis Trepe, and Selphie Tilmitt, who transferred from another Garden on the Trabia continent.
Quistis would unconsciously become the replacement for Ellone, or try to, between Seifer and Squall but never accomplish this. However, she did end up becoming both of their instructors leading up to the events of the game's beginning. In a sparring session between Gunblade wielders, Seifer and Squall finally let the best of them and would do massive bodily harm to one another and give each other mirroring scars across the bridges of their noses. Squall then saw a strange woman in the window of the infirmary, and he would question who it was without really knowing why. It was after this that, once Squall was fetched from the infirmary by Quistis, that he would go out to obtain the GF known as Ifrit, a being of fire.
After that small test, Squall was set to take the SeeD exam to determine whether he would be graduated into becoming a SeeD, what all students of Garden strive to be. In his squad was Seifer and Zell, who Squall just considered a loudmouth. By all means, Zell was precisely that. Seifer, unfortunately, was decided to be the squad's captain, and they all set off to the exam. The exam, however, was not simply an exam, but a large-scale mission where life or death was inevitable. The squad was to take a boat to the town of Dollet, which was a part of its own nation. And that nation was being invaded by a very powerful nation known as Galbadia.
Dollet hired SeeD to expel Galbadian forces from the town, and that's what the squads were instructed to do. As soon as they arrived on shore, the battle was chaotic. Squall and his team stormed the town and were to stay in the town square and wait for further orders. Seifer wanted to go further into battle, and despite Zell's protests, Squall agreed with Seifer. He even went so far as to say that he would simply follow the Captain's orders, showing how complacent he is to simply following orders. However, he was still at odds with Seifer, and the group ended up leaving their post to follow a troop of soldiers as they traveled to Dollet's communication tower.
It was at this point that it is revealed that Squall doesn't have a dream or aspiration, and Seifer left the group to storm the tower before the rest of them. Selphie Tilmitt arrived on the scene to tell them that she had urgent orders for Seifer, and the group followed him into the tower. This led them up to the top of the tower, where Galbadian soldiers were doing some sort of maintenance to the tower. The tower eventually activated, and a fight broke out. Squall's team was victorious, and Selphie finally relayed the order to Seifer. They had thirty minutes to return to the shore or be left behind. They began their retreat, but not before a giant mechanical spider was sent after them to kill them all.
After escaping the spider, Squall barely returned to the shore in time, with Quistis mowing down the spider with a machine gun as the boat left, Squall landing in it with a well-timed jump. They would all return to Balamb Garden, and the results of the exam would be posted soon after. Only four students would be graduated to the rank of SeeD, and Squall was one of them. Seifer was then sent to the detention room for disobeying orders, since he was the squad's captain.
At the SeeD's inauguration ball, Squall tried to ignore everyone who came up to him at the party. Selphie and Zell were kind of shrugged off, but one girl came up to him and forced him to dance with her. He was very awkward about it and even tried to leave in the middle of the dance after tripping into her, but she forced him to stay. This was the first time he would meet Rinoa Heartilly, a girl who came to the Garden because of Seifer, who would introduce her to the headmaster so she could request the help of SeeD in liberating a town called Timber from Galbadian control.
After Rinoa left Squall at the dance, he was confronted by Quistis, who told him to meet her at the secret room in the Training Center of Garden. The Training Center was a place inhabited by real monsters, and was the only part of the entire facility open after curfew. There was a secret room in the back of the center where students went after curfew to hang out, and Squall eventually met up with her there. She revealed that she had been fired as an instructor, and that she was just a SeeD now. Among other things, she was looking for comfort from Squall, but he didn't even give her that and left.
In the front of the Training Center, a woman was being attacked by a monster. Squall and Quistis jumped in to help, and after defeating the monster, Squall realized that he recognized the woman from when he woke up in the infirmary. Little did he know, but that woman was Ellone. She soon left, and Squall was left standing there in confusion. Soon after, he went to sleep. In the morning, he was called out to the front gate for a SeeD mission.
He was designated as team leader, much to his disapproval, and his comrades were none other than Zell and Selphie, who were there with him during the SeeD exam. They were to go to Timber and assist a resistance group known as the Timber Owls in liberating the town from the Galbadian army. After a wish of luck from Headmaster Cid, they headed off to the town of Balamb, which was why the Garden was called by Balamb Garden, and took a train to Timber, which happened to be a town formerly surrounded by a vast forest and was now known as a sort of train town.
On the way there, the group passed out from an unknown reaction, and were thrust into the same kind of "dream world". In this dream world, the three of them were thrust into the bodies of three Galbadian soldiers known as Laguna (Squall's father), Kiros, and Ward. The three soldiers were lost in the jungle trying to go back to Deling City, the capital of Galbadia named after its life-long President. Soon enough, the three made it back to the city in time to go to the hotel's bar. It was there that Julia, a pianist, would play the piano. Laguna was hopelessly in love with her, and would try to approach her to talk to her at the teasing of his friends. Once he failed, she approached him, and they went to her hotel room. He rambled for a long time, and eventually, she said that she wanted to sing, but could never think of lyrics.
But because of him, she said she could make a song now. This was when Squall's group awoke, and arrived in Timber. After making the rendezvous with the Timber Owls on their private train, the resistance group was revealed to be led by Rinoa. After a small, rather distant and cold reunion, Squall questioned Rinoa's leadership a bit. But they agreed to go through with the operation, and they set out to do a complicated procedure or hooking and unhooking moving trains to abduct the Galbadian President Vinzer Deling. The President turned out to be a double, and they were lured into a trap. After defeating the double, who turned into a monster, they realized that it was a distraction for the real President to get to the television station in Timber.
There hadn't been a real televised broadcast in such a long time, that this would be the first in years. Rinoa decided that it should be the broadcast of Timber's independence instead of whatever Deling planned, so the group moved forward to invade the station to commandeer it. They failed to reach it in time, with the broadcast starting and the President announced a peace conference with the Sorceress being the representative for Galbadia, but not before Seifer assaulted the President and took him hostage. Quistis sent out a distress message over the broadcast for Squall's team to assist, and they charged into the station without Rinoa. At the station, Zell accidentally blurted out that they were from Balamb Garden, much to Squall's protests of keeping his mouth shut.
Seifer then tried to take Deling further into the station, but the Sorceress Edea arrived, the very same as Matron, and took Seifer away. Deling escaped, and Squall's group was left confused. Soon enough, the army was looking for any type of clues that could lead to finding SeeD, and Rinoa led them all to the train station. There, they decided to escape Timber and make way to Galbadia's Garden. The Gardens were supposed to neutral, so it was the next safe haven they could find. On the way there, three of them passed out in the forest and returned to the dream world, including Squall.
This time in the dream world, Laguna and company were at some excavation ruins on the continent of Centra. Here, they would run into soldiers of Esthar crawling throughout the entire complex. Fighting through them all, the group finally made it out only to corner themselves against a cliff, with soldiers running up at them. In the final battle against the soldiers, Ward and Kiros were badly injured, with Ward's throat collapsing and causing him to lose his voice. Laguna tried to stay optimistic, and eventually saw boats at the bottom of the cliff in the water. He pushed his two friends off, before trying to carefully climb down only to slip and fall in himself. After this, Squall and company awoke in the forest. Rather than discuss it, Squall decided they should push forward to the Garden.
After arriving, they discussed everything that happened along with news that Quistis had heard from the Headmaster of Galbadia Garden, Martine. They found out that Seifer was to be executed. Everyone started talking about him in the past tense, and mourning the loss of Seifer despite how unruly he was. It was at this that Squall suddenly had an outburst, realizing that this might be how people will talk about him when he dies. He didn't want that, ever. And he ran out of the room.
The SeeD were called to the front gates of Galbadia Garden, where Headmaster Martine would greet them with orders from Balamb Garden's Headmaster Cid. The two Garden would cooperate to assassinate Sorceress Edea in Deling City, during a parade celebrating her. They would do so with the help of Galbadia's best sharpshooter, Irvine Kinneas. Irvine happened to be from the orphanage as well, but no one remembered him. He approached the group, and the group instantly showed distrust of him. Mainly Zell. They set out together to take a train to Deling City, where they were instructed to meet with the Galbadia Army's General Caraway. He was in on the plot.
Once arriving at the city, Squall wondered if they would meet Laguna there. They set out to Caraway's mansion, and after a short test of resolve, the SeeD finally met him. It was revealed that the house also belonged to Rinoa and that she was Caraway's daughter, though the two did not get along. After Rinoa was sent to her room, Caraway discussed the methods of the plan and how it would work. Essentially, Squall's job was to infiltrate the main parade building and get into the city's clock tower, so that when the carousel rose up at the stroke of midnight, Squall could instruct Irvine to take the shot at Edea while she was trapped away from the bystanders.
Squall and Irvine set out to wait in the crowds as Edea gave her speech, and strangely enough, the crowds did not react much at all once Rinoa was mysteriously at her side during the speech. After the speech, Edea murdered President Deling and declared herself ruler of Galbadia, and ensured that there was no peace. Then caused gargoyle-like monsters to attack Rinoa. As soon as the parade started, she rode a float out into the streets and gave Squall and Irvine a chance to enter the building to save Rinoa, but not before Squall caught sight of Seifer atop Edea's float.
Once the duo saved Rinoa, she begged him to let her stay with him because she was so scared, and he relented after a moment of consideration, but used the excuse of their contract still being in effect. They climbed to the carousel, and had a conversation where Squall noted that he might have to kill Seifer if the sniper shot falls through. After a moment of contemplation, he approached Irvine, only to notice that the man was shaking. Irvine was have a nervous breakdown, and Squall convinced him to still take the shot and to think of it as a signal to attack rather than a bullet to kill Edea. Irvine slowly agreed, and took the shot, however it was blocked by a barrier near Edea. Squall then jumped off the carousel, stole a car, and assault the Sorceress' float.
On the float, he battled Seifer and easily defeated him. He went after Edea next, with Rinoa and Irvine jumping onto the float to assist him in fighting her. After a long and hard fought battle, Sorceress Edea summoned a cluster of icicles and shot them forward at the group. The attack missed all but Squall, who was pierced through the chest by the attack, and fell off the float before blacking out.
While Squall was unconscious, he was sent to the dream world as Laguna once again. This time, Laguna was in the town of Winhill after the events of falling off the cliff. He was injured and nursed back to health by the bar owner of the town, Raine. Raine was also looking after a child named Ellone, and Ellone looked up to the two of them as if they were meant to get married. She also called Laguna as Uncle Laguna, and the two would constantly act very childish together, which spurred scolding from Raine. Laguna would go on patrols each day, visiting people of the town to see how they were doing while keeping the monsters who attacked at bay so that the villagers would feel safe, as a way of repaying for helping him gain his health back. On this particular day, Kiros would arrive in the town to greet Laguna.
The two of them went off on a patrol, and once they returned to report to Raine and Ellone, Laguna ended up eavesdropping on a girl-to-girl conversation where Ellone asked if Raine was going to marry Laguna. Raine said she felt the same way as Ellone, but Laguna wasn't the type to stay in one place, which stemmed from Laguna's dream of being a journalist. Laguna moved up to state his report, and decided to take a nap before dinner back at the house he was staying at, which happened to be Ellone's old house.
Kiros remarked that Laguna had changed since being in Winhill, and Laguna just brushed it off. It was after this that Squall awoke in a small holding cell. His wounds were completely healed, and his cell was soon grabbed by a crane-like device and brought to the top floor of the D-District Prison of Galbadia. The prison was where political prisoners were brought who were against Galbadia, and Squall was grabbed by Seifer for torture. Seifer demanded to be told what SeeD was for, and that there must have been a secret told after becoming one, and Squall refused to talk despite not knowing anything. Seifer then mentioned that missiles were being fired at the Gardens and left. This made him question just what being a SeeD meant, at least until he finally passed out from pain.
When he awoke, Moombas surrounded him. Moombas are cat-like creatures who barely know much human speech, but are quite agile and capable of communication to a degree. They can also recognize a person by the smell of their blood, to which they continued to call Squall by the name Laguna, much to his confusion. Because of this, they let him go and continued to assist him until his friends reached the top floor of the prison after making their own escape from their own cell.
Squall, Selphie, and Quistis rode the crane to the bottom level, with Zell controlling it because of being sent to the dream world as Ward, who was a janitor at the very prison they were trapped in. After the group realized that the only exit on the bottom level was full of dirt, they tried to go back up only to find Zell attacked and about to be executed. Squall swiftly saved him, and then the entire group was pinned down by gunfire. Suddenly, Irvine arrived to save the day, being forced to come back to the prison after having Rinoa released because of her father's status. Rinoa scratched the hell out of his face when he refused to go back at first.
The group split into two, and Squall's group ran to the top of the prison. After moving out to the catwalks and defeating powerful enemies, the entire facility because to fall apart and drill downwards. Squall was caught on the catwalks as they were folding, and had to run before hanging on the edge of them. Shimmying across the edge as fast as possible to prevent being engulfed in dust, the entire group rode the prison down to ground level and escaped in two vehicles.
They discussed the whole deal with the missiles being fired at the Gardens, and Selphie led a group to go attack the Missile Base, where the warheads were being fired from. Squall's group stole a train to return to Balamb Garden to warn everyone of the oncoming danger. It was at this point that Squall was slowly becoming more and more stressed by the idea of having to make decisions on everyone's behalf and hating the idea of being the leader.
Once his group arrived at Garden, they found it in complete turmoil. The SeeD were fighting against another group of students fighting under the banner of a being named NORG, hunting down the Headmaster to execute him. The Garden's main faculty were all sided with NORG, with the other SeeD who stayed in Garden siding with Cid. Squall feigned allegiance with NORG for a short while, before giving up and fighting the monsters that NORG's followers were using to hunt down the students and other SeeD. After fighting his way through Garden and saving all he could, Squall found Xu, another SeeD who gave him orders for his initial SeeD exam. She led Squall to Cid, and Squall reported the crisis of the incoming missiles.
Cid gave Squall a card that would allow the elevator to go to the lower levels of Garden, where Cid had never been himself. Cid said that the facility used to be used a shelter, and that as a shelter, it should have some sort of defense mechanism in this sort of case. Nodding and following orders again, Squall set out to the lower levels of Garden. After a few faulty mistakes that led to him nearly falling to his own death, Squall activated some defense in panic of the incoming missiles, and the device caused Garden to take off and hover well above the ground. Balamb Garden began to fly, and the missiles missed thanks to the improved error ratio that Selphie's team did while infiltrating the Galbadian base.
After everyone calmed down from the crisis that was just averted, the two sides reconciled, and Squall's team was called down to level B1 of Garden, where NORG resided. They ran into Headmaster Cid, who was begging for NORG to help him, and lost his temper for the first time. Squall and his team confronted NORG, who wasn't even human. He was a black sheep from the Shumi Tribe, a group of humanoid creatures that resides on the Trabia continent by themselves. NORG was grossly exaggerated in size compared to other Shumi Tribe members, was he screamed almost all of the words he spouted. He was the being who funded Balamb Garden, and who came up with the idea of using SeeD for Garden's financial issues.
Because of his decisions, he controlled the faculty almost entirely, and he refused to let SeeD do what they were originally intended to do, which was defeat the Sorceress. NORG then revealed that Edea and Cid were married, much to the shock of Squall. He didn't know what to think about that revelation, especially considering the assassination mission. But it was then that NORG also revealed that the mission was an agreement between Martine and NORG, not Cid. And that Martine was supposed to carry out the mission by himself and his Garden, but Squall's team's arrival was convenient. And since they failed, it all fell upon Balamb Garden's fault.
NORG said that in order to appeal to the Sorceress, they would have to give the heads of the SeeD who attempted to assassinate her, and Cid's head. It was then that Squall refused, and a battle ensued. By the end of a the battle, NORG was defeated and turned into a giant egg, and Squall returned to the main levels of Garden.
After a discussion with Cid over everything that happened, Squall was left with more questions than answers, but saw that Cid knew that Edea was too dangerous to keep alive. Squall wondered how that felt, but at the same time, held himself in contempt for being stuck to think in his bed again. The Garden had fallen adrift in the ocean after the missile incident, and there was no sign of the missile team ever returning. After a while of just sailing, another ship appeared and asked to see Ellone. Squall, recognizing the name, ran off in search of her, finding her in the library. He recognized her as the little girl from the dream world, and as the girl from the infirmary and training center. He questioned her, and realized that she was the one sending him to the dream world, relying on him to find something she needed. Squall didn't want any of that, pleading with her to leave him alone and out of business that had nothing to do with him. Ellone then whispered to him, telling him, "You're my only hope."
She then left the Garden aboard the ship that arrived, the people on the ship claiming they were the White SeeD, otherwise known as the Sorceress' SeeD. Soon after, the Garden crashed into a town that settled itself in the middle of the ocean on an elevated railroad between Galbadia and Esthar. This town was called Fisherman's Horizon (abbreviated as FH).
The townspeople weren't very angry with the Garden's crash landing into their shores, and were actually a little excited to do maintenance on the Garden (since they had painted it all those years ago when it was founded), and to fix their own town. They were a town of mechanics and fishermen, mostly both. Squall was sent to discuss terms with the mayor of the town, Dobe. Dobe said that he wanted them to leave as soon as possible, not agreeing with the way they handled things with violence, being hired mercenaries. Squall thought that he was ignorant, but also agreed that discussing things over without violence would be great.
However, soon, the Galbadians attacked FH, and Dobe was convinced that he could talk them out of their attack, assuming they were there for Balamb Garden. The army was actually in the vicinity searching for Ellone, who was no longer anywhere close to Balamb Garden. They were searching for the White SeeD ship at any port town, and Squall realized this. The army said they would burn FH to the ground, and would start with the mayor, but Squall and his group intervened and attacked. A nearly destroyed machine attacked, and after Squall defeated it, the missile group emerged from the remains of the machine, fine and dandy.
The reunion was heartfelt, except for Squall, who was awfully awkward though somewhat honest about it. He was incredibly happy to see them alive, but he tried not to show it. Selphie, however, was incredibly sad that they managed to not save Trabia Garden from the missiles, and at the destruction within Balamb Garden itself. Irvine said he wanted to help her by planning something special in FH and building a little concert, and Squall allowed it.
Soon after, Cid called up Squall and promoted him to Commander of the SeeD forces in pursuing and defeating Sorceress Edea. Squall took this badly, and never asked to be leader. It disturbed him, and it was far too much responsibility for a guy who just wanted to follow orders and not have people rely on him. Lying in his bed, he eventually was dragged outside by Rinoa and brought to the concert that the others planned together. It was done in the name of Squall's promotion, and he was very introverted about the ordeal. Rinoa and Squall sat by the edge of the concert, discussing things that all eventually led up to Squall refusing to open her to his comrades.
She called him out on it, and he refused to acknowledge much of anything she said. He was as honest as he could get of his feelings on the matter, and showed that he didn't want to rely on others. It upset Rinoa, and Squall was left standing there.
That is where the S.S. Thor comes into Squall's life.
Personality:
At a first glance, Squall could easily come off as a distant, cold and easily annoyed young man. This is mostly true, as Squall has is indeed all of those three traits. Due to this nature, when spoken to, he normally gives the shortest and "to-the-point" answers that end the conversation quickly. He tends to avoid people and acting friendly towards them, and really only goes to converse when it's a part of his duty or when spoken to by a superior. There are times where people are casually interacting with others all around him, and Squall is perfectly content to staying off to the side, leaning against a wall or sitting with his head in his hands; ignoring the world around him and sitting in his own little world.
As he is 17, he is technically not an adult. In fact, he hates speaking to most adults. In general, he hates adults that talk about the past and their regrets, and the things they could have done with their lives. He doesn't want to be like that at all, and almost hates thinking about the past entirely. He hates how he lost his loved ones as a child, and doesn't want to think of things in the past. Squall wants to live in the now and tries not to think of things in the past, and he sure as hell doesn't want to be looked at as a distant past memory.
Due to the pain he was given when he lost Ellone, whom he idolized as a big sister, he began to push away all of the people who could be considered his friends, in an attempt to stay distant from people. He is terrified of relying on people, and hates the idea of it, because those people he relies on will disappear, and he will be left with nothing but loneliness. He's convinced that this is always the case, and that's why he hates to rely on others. This applies for others, as he dislikes watching weak people rely on others for everything. Especially if that other is himself.
And, above all else, he hates being alone. It gives him too much time to think, and he hates it when he thinks too much. He goes on different tangents, and ends up on thoughts at aggravate him or make his question what he is really doing. These thoughts make him hate the fact that he tends to think too much, and would rather follow orders and do his duty over being a leader and deciding for himself and others. As much as he hates being a leader, however, he is a natural born leaders due to his determination to do what he sets out to do, and his ability to get it done. His ability to make good choices for himself and those that follow him despite his disdain for it, and how professional he can be during an assignment. This ability has many of his fellow students looking up to him as a role model, though he doesn't realize it until it's said.
In fact, he tends to be oblivious to a lot of social things until it becomes blatantly obvious. At a part further in the game than his canon point, he even makes a reference to this fact by stating that his friends were so obvious that even he is noticing how much everyone is working to try and put Rinoa and himself together.
Worst of all, Squall thinks to himself too much when put on the spot. He almost expects others to hear his thoughts when he monologues to himself exclusively in them, which puts others at odds with him when he refuses to open up. And Squall is also very capable of harboring a massive dislike and grudge against someone, doing so with Seifer for a majority of his life.
All in all, Squall is cold and distant, pushing people away in order to avoid experiencing the loss of friendship and those he considers family again. As well as being socially awkward, he believes he isn't cut out to be a leader, when in reality, his sense of duty is what makes him such a great one. Not to mention how stubborn he can be at times. However, despite all of his efforts to avoid making friends and falling into a zone of comfort with others, he eventually begins to succumb to this, and grows bonds with the people he travels with, as in he actually cares for the people he tries to push away so unsuccessfully. He even continues to be the kind of person he abhors, relying on others and wanting someone to tell him what to do.
Have you read up on how the game works?: The Guide plug-in is called the FlamingFerret, and characters can earn money by doing missions, stealing from others, and mooching off someone else.
1st person sample:
[There's a long silence that starts Squall's recording, only broken by a small groan as he tries to figure out what to say. There's another, shorter groan as he takes a deep breath and begins to finally speak.]
(For some reason, this feels like a test. It's annoying.) This is Squall Leonhart. If any of you recognize my name or SeeD, please respond as soon as possible.
[The feed goes quiet again, but it isn't ended. Squall's breathing is quite apparent as he becomes lost in his own thought.] (I didn't ask to be leader. Why do I have to be the one dealing with this? Why did this even happen?
...
It's still on.) If someone could fill me in, that would be great too. [That should be concise and work well enough.]
3rd person sample:
Squall's expression hadn't changed in hours after his arrival on the S.S. Thor, not gathering too much information about his new "home" after a not-so-extensive attempt of figuring things out. As he laid himself out on his new bed, he took a moment to take in just how much worse his room looked compared to the somewhat spacious SeeD dorm he was allowed back at Garden. It didn't matter. A bed was a bed.
What mattered was that he hadn't heard from anyone he knew since his arrival. Irvine, Zell, Quistis, Selphie. None of them chimed in when he made a call for anyone who knew his name or was from SeeD. Not even Rinoa. Apparently his homeworld was destroyed, and that led to his arrival here.
Did that mean they didn't make it?
He didn't want to think about it, but there was no way of avoiding it. It was the only logical conclusion. Squall didn't want to delude himself if they weren't on the ship, thinking that they might show up after him. It was a strong possibility that they didn't make it, not that Squall didn't want to believe in their survival. He wanted to. But he had to be reasonable.
This is why he didn't want to rely on others. In just a moment's notice they could disappear forever and never be seen again. The thought of that happening to them made his stomach turn, and Squall restlessly tossed and turned in his bed. It happened again. He felt so lonely. It was this situation that he spent all those years mentally preparing himself for, trying to push people away just for this kind of situation, but... it felt like it didn't work. He felt as if he lost everything important to him again.
It wasn't just people that he lost this time. He lost everything. Garden, SeeD, his fight against the Sorceress. He felt like he lost his reasoning as well. What was he supposed to do here?
Whatever. He hated having time to think.
Questions?: None at all.
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: Yep!
Name: Zane
Are you over 16?: Yes.
Personal DW:
getdunkedEmail: zanerpr (at) live.com
Timezone: EST
Other contact: [AIM] Zane Gyfywise;
Characters already in the game: N/A
How did you find us?: A friend kept asking me to join, and the game looked pretty darn cool. So I decided to finally give it a shot.
IC:
Character name: Squall Leonhart
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Timeline: Disc 2; Just after the concert at Fisherman's Horizon.
Age: 17
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths: As a member of SeeD, Squall is trained in your typical mercenary procedures and combat. He is physically fit, and quite capable of making long jumps and dodging moves with relative ease. His accuracy is also off the charts, Squall never missing an attack in close-quarters combat. His particular choice of weapon is the Gunblade, which is a very difficult weapon to master and use exceptionally, which he has managed to accomplish.
Besides being a master of the Gunblade, Squall is trained in the usage of Guardian Forces (abbreviated as GFs) just like any other SeeD would be, and as such can use an array of special abilities due to whichever GF he currently has junctioned to himself. Examples of that would be Doom (which casts a countdown to death on one enemy), Mug (which steals and item from one enemy during an attack), and Card (which turns an enemy at low health into a Triple Triad card). Some of the most basic of those GF abilities that each one has are Draw (which uses the enemy's own magic for gathering or casting purposes), Magic (which is to cast magic gathered via Drawing from enemies or Draw Points), and summoning the GF itself to attack the enemy or assist the caster.
Squall is capable of using any form of Magic that he can stock from Draw Points/enemies with ease, as well as junction any GF he finds to himself with no issues besides compatibility issues on actually summoning certain GFs, and memory loss from junctioning any type of GF. Memory loss happens to be a side effect of using the GFs because of the part of your brain that the GFs burrow themselves into when junctioned. Besides that, he can also use any type of Gunblade he can get his hands on, and do it effectively.
His limit break, Renzokuken, is a series of attacks using the Gunblade's trigger to do critical damage with a varying number of slashes, along with a follow-up attack afterward; usually depending on the weapon he has. Considering that Squall is entering the S.S. Thor with only the Revolver equipped, he will only have Rough Divide available. It is an attack where Squall drags his blade across the ground before swinging upwards at an enemy for massive damage, somewhat like an uppercut with his Gunblade.
How would they use their abilities?: Squall would most likely use his abilities for self-defense, missions, and possibly only for the personal gain of himself and his comrades if they happen to arrive on the S.S. Thor. He's far too professional to do anything too reckless without valid reason.
Appearance: Dressed in essentially all black, Squall gives off the aura and look of a loner. He wears black pants, black shoes, black gloves, and a black bomber jacket with the collar rimmed in white fur. On his pants hangs three separate belts, with only the uppermost belt doing the job of keeping his pants up. Under his unzipped jacket is a white V-neck shirt, and a necklace hanging from his neck. The necklace is in the shape of Griever, a lion that he named and desires to be like. He has a ring with the same lion on it.
As for his actual appearance, Squall is 5'8" with blue eyes and has brown, unkempt hair. He has a scar across the bridge of his nose, given to him by Seifer during a sparring session. His face constantly switches between a detached and annoyed expression, rarely going into any other type of emotion except for on special circumstances.
Background:
Squall was born in Winhill, a simple natured town far off from most conflict except for the occasional monster attacks, to Raine Loire and Laguna Loire. However, when he was born, Laguna was off across the world in search of Ellone, a little girl whom Raine had essentially adopted when her parents were murdered by soldiers from Esthar. Esthar was one of the most powerful nations in the world at the time, and they were led by Sorceress Adel. Legend says that the Sorceress' powers come from Hyne, a god who created humanity, and before each Sorceress dies, they must pass on their powers to another. Adel was a particularly cruel Sorceress, and led Esthar with an iron fist. It was during a search for a child to become her successor that Ellone's parents were murdered. During a second search, Ellone was taken by soldiers and Laguna went out around the world searching for her.
It was during these chain of events that came from Ellone returning to Winhill after Laguna saved her and Laguna being nowhere near Winhill, that Raine died. Ellone and Squall were sent off to an orphanage run by a married couple after her death, and that couple was Cid and Edea Kramer. The children at the orphanage called Edea by the nickname Matron, and as Ellone was older than most of the children, she was their Sis. However, Ellone had developed a strange power. It was this power that was the reason she was kidnapped to Esthar in the first place, and that power was the ability to send people's consciousness to the past in order to view the past through people she has met. Because of it, Ellone was forced to take refuge away from the orphanage, on a ship with people whose sole duty was to protect her.
Squall took her disappearance the hardest. It hurt him, feeling like he had been abandoned and lost the person he cared for most in the world. He complained that he was always alone despite being surrounded by Matron and other children of his age, but he didn't care. He just wanted to see his Sis again, but he would never get to. On one particular day, Squall ran away from the orphanage to try and search for Ellone. He wouldn't get far, and when he returned, his Matron had absorbed the powers of a Sorceress who died there moments ago. Standing next to her was a strange man, who was in fact Squall from the far future.
It was this Squall's words of premonition that gave Edea the idea to create something called Garden, a facility used to train young minds in combat and knowledge for the purpose of becoming SeeD, and elite force designed to do missions for the Garden's finances, and ultimately defeat the Sorceress should the world need it. After the future Squall was sent back to his own time, the younger Squall stayed at the orphanage until the age of five.
At five years of age, he and Seifer, another child from the orphanage who was constantly at odds with the other children, would be transferred to Balamb Garden, where Cid Kramer would be the Headmaster. Squall chose the path of studying how to wield a Gunblade, similar to Seifer, and they would both continue to be at odds with each other as they grew up at Garden. They would eventually forget much of their childhood due to beginning to use Guardian Forces, monster-like entities used for combat that would burrow into the wielder's brain to augment abilities and even be called upon to fight. Using a Guardian Force (abbreviated as GF), had a side-effect of memory loss. It's that memory loss that caused Squall to forget the orphanage.
And soon enough, others from the orphanage would eventually turn up at Balamb Garden and they would all forget their bonds prior to Garden. Such people included Zell Dincht, Quistis Trepe, and Selphie Tilmitt, who transferred from another Garden on the Trabia continent.
Quistis would unconsciously become the replacement for Ellone, or try to, between Seifer and Squall but never accomplish this. However, she did end up becoming both of their instructors leading up to the events of the game's beginning. In a sparring session between Gunblade wielders, Seifer and Squall finally let the best of them and would do massive bodily harm to one another and give each other mirroring scars across the bridges of their noses. Squall then saw a strange woman in the window of the infirmary, and he would question who it was without really knowing why. It was after this that, once Squall was fetched from the infirmary by Quistis, that he would go out to obtain the GF known as Ifrit, a being of fire.
After that small test, Squall was set to take the SeeD exam to determine whether he would be graduated into becoming a SeeD, what all students of Garden strive to be. In his squad was Seifer and Zell, who Squall just considered a loudmouth. By all means, Zell was precisely that. Seifer, unfortunately, was decided to be the squad's captain, and they all set off to the exam. The exam, however, was not simply an exam, but a large-scale mission where life or death was inevitable. The squad was to take a boat to the town of Dollet, which was a part of its own nation. And that nation was being invaded by a very powerful nation known as Galbadia.
Dollet hired SeeD to expel Galbadian forces from the town, and that's what the squads were instructed to do. As soon as they arrived on shore, the battle was chaotic. Squall and his team stormed the town and were to stay in the town square and wait for further orders. Seifer wanted to go further into battle, and despite Zell's protests, Squall agreed with Seifer. He even went so far as to say that he would simply follow the Captain's orders, showing how complacent he is to simply following orders. However, he was still at odds with Seifer, and the group ended up leaving their post to follow a troop of soldiers as they traveled to Dollet's communication tower.
It was at this point that it is revealed that Squall doesn't have a dream or aspiration, and Seifer left the group to storm the tower before the rest of them. Selphie Tilmitt arrived on the scene to tell them that she had urgent orders for Seifer, and the group followed him into the tower. This led them up to the top of the tower, where Galbadian soldiers were doing some sort of maintenance to the tower. The tower eventually activated, and a fight broke out. Squall's team was victorious, and Selphie finally relayed the order to Seifer. They had thirty minutes to return to the shore or be left behind. They began their retreat, but not before a giant mechanical spider was sent after them to kill them all.
After escaping the spider, Squall barely returned to the shore in time, with Quistis mowing down the spider with a machine gun as the boat left, Squall landing in it with a well-timed jump. They would all return to Balamb Garden, and the results of the exam would be posted soon after. Only four students would be graduated to the rank of SeeD, and Squall was one of them. Seifer was then sent to the detention room for disobeying orders, since he was the squad's captain.
At the SeeD's inauguration ball, Squall tried to ignore everyone who came up to him at the party. Selphie and Zell were kind of shrugged off, but one girl came up to him and forced him to dance with her. He was very awkward about it and even tried to leave in the middle of the dance after tripping into her, but she forced him to stay. This was the first time he would meet Rinoa Heartilly, a girl who came to the Garden because of Seifer, who would introduce her to the headmaster so she could request the help of SeeD in liberating a town called Timber from Galbadian control.
After Rinoa left Squall at the dance, he was confronted by Quistis, who told him to meet her at the secret room in the Training Center of Garden. The Training Center was a place inhabited by real monsters, and was the only part of the entire facility open after curfew. There was a secret room in the back of the center where students went after curfew to hang out, and Squall eventually met up with her there. She revealed that she had been fired as an instructor, and that she was just a SeeD now. Among other things, she was looking for comfort from Squall, but he didn't even give her that and left.
In the front of the Training Center, a woman was being attacked by a monster. Squall and Quistis jumped in to help, and after defeating the monster, Squall realized that he recognized the woman from when he woke up in the infirmary. Little did he know, but that woman was Ellone. She soon left, and Squall was left standing there in confusion. Soon after, he went to sleep. In the morning, he was called out to the front gate for a SeeD mission.
He was designated as team leader, much to his disapproval, and his comrades were none other than Zell and Selphie, who were there with him during the SeeD exam. They were to go to Timber and assist a resistance group known as the Timber Owls in liberating the town from the Galbadian army. After a wish of luck from Headmaster Cid, they headed off to the town of Balamb, which was why the Garden was called by Balamb Garden, and took a train to Timber, which happened to be a town formerly surrounded by a vast forest and was now known as a sort of train town.
On the way there, the group passed out from an unknown reaction, and were thrust into the same kind of "dream world". In this dream world, the three of them were thrust into the bodies of three Galbadian soldiers known as Laguna (Squall's father), Kiros, and Ward. The three soldiers were lost in the jungle trying to go back to Deling City, the capital of Galbadia named after its life-long President. Soon enough, the three made it back to the city in time to go to the hotel's bar. It was there that Julia, a pianist, would play the piano. Laguna was hopelessly in love with her, and would try to approach her to talk to her at the teasing of his friends. Once he failed, she approached him, and they went to her hotel room. He rambled for a long time, and eventually, she said that she wanted to sing, but could never think of lyrics.
But because of him, she said she could make a song now. This was when Squall's group awoke, and arrived in Timber. After making the rendezvous with the Timber Owls on their private train, the resistance group was revealed to be led by Rinoa. After a small, rather distant and cold reunion, Squall questioned Rinoa's leadership a bit. But they agreed to go through with the operation, and they set out to do a complicated procedure or hooking and unhooking moving trains to abduct the Galbadian President Vinzer Deling. The President turned out to be a double, and they were lured into a trap. After defeating the double, who turned into a monster, they realized that it was a distraction for the real President to get to the television station in Timber.
There hadn't been a real televised broadcast in such a long time, that this would be the first in years. Rinoa decided that it should be the broadcast of Timber's independence instead of whatever Deling planned, so the group moved forward to invade the station to commandeer it. They failed to reach it in time, with the broadcast starting and the President announced a peace conference with the Sorceress being the representative for Galbadia, but not before Seifer assaulted the President and took him hostage. Quistis sent out a distress message over the broadcast for Squall's team to assist, and they charged into the station without Rinoa. At the station, Zell accidentally blurted out that they were from Balamb Garden, much to Squall's protests of keeping his mouth shut.
Seifer then tried to take Deling further into the station, but the Sorceress Edea arrived, the very same as Matron, and took Seifer away. Deling escaped, and Squall's group was left confused. Soon enough, the army was looking for any type of clues that could lead to finding SeeD, and Rinoa led them all to the train station. There, they decided to escape Timber and make way to Galbadia's Garden. The Gardens were supposed to neutral, so it was the next safe haven they could find. On the way there, three of them passed out in the forest and returned to the dream world, including Squall.
This time in the dream world, Laguna and company were at some excavation ruins on the continent of Centra. Here, they would run into soldiers of Esthar crawling throughout the entire complex. Fighting through them all, the group finally made it out only to corner themselves against a cliff, with soldiers running up at them. In the final battle against the soldiers, Ward and Kiros were badly injured, with Ward's throat collapsing and causing him to lose his voice. Laguna tried to stay optimistic, and eventually saw boats at the bottom of the cliff in the water. He pushed his two friends off, before trying to carefully climb down only to slip and fall in himself. After this, Squall and company awoke in the forest. Rather than discuss it, Squall decided they should push forward to the Garden.
After arriving, they discussed everything that happened along with news that Quistis had heard from the Headmaster of Galbadia Garden, Martine. They found out that Seifer was to be executed. Everyone started talking about him in the past tense, and mourning the loss of Seifer despite how unruly he was. It was at this that Squall suddenly had an outburst, realizing that this might be how people will talk about him when he dies. He didn't want that, ever. And he ran out of the room.
The SeeD were called to the front gates of Galbadia Garden, where Headmaster Martine would greet them with orders from Balamb Garden's Headmaster Cid. The two Garden would cooperate to assassinate Sorceress Edea in Deling City, during a parade celebrating her. They would do so with the help of Galbadia's best sharpshooter, Irvine Kinneas. Irvine happened to be from the orphanage as well, but no one remembered him. He approached the group, and the group instantly showed distrust of him. Mainly Zell. They set out together to take a train to Deling City, where they were instructed to meet with the Galbadia Army's General Caraway. He was in on the plot.
Once arriving at the city, Squall wondered if they would meet Laguna there. They set out to Caraway's mansion, and after a short test of resolve, the SeeD finally met him. It was revealed that the house also belonged to Rinoa and that she was Caraway's daughter, though the two did not get along. After Rinoa was sent to her room, Caraway discussed the methods of the plan and how it would work. Essentially, Squall's job was to infiltrate the main parade building and get into the city's clock tower, so that when the carousel rose up at the stroke of midnight, Squall could instruct Irvine to take the shot at Edea while she was trapped away from the bystanders.
Squall and Irvine set out to wait in the crowds as Edea gave her speech, and strangely enough, the crowds did not react much at all once Rinoa was mysteriously at her side during the speech. After the speech, Edea murdered President Deling and declared herself ruler of Galbadia, and ensured that there was no peace. Then caused gargoyle-like monsters to attack Rinoa. As soon as the parade started, she rode a float out into the streets and gave Squall and Irvine a chance to enter the building to save Rinoa, but not before Squall caught sight of Seifer atop Edea's float.
Once the duo saved Rinoa, she begged him to let her stay with him because she was so scared, and he relented after a moment of consideration, but used the excuse of their contract still being in effect. They climbed to the carousel, and had a conversation where Squall noted that he might have to kill Seifer if the sniper shot falls through. After a moment of contemplation, he approached Irvine, only to notice that the man was shaking. Irvine was have a nervous breakdown, and Squall convinced him to still take the shot and to think of it as a signal to attack rather than a bullet to kill Edea. Irvine slowly agreed, and took the shot, however it was blocked by a barrier near Edea. Squall then jumped off the carousel, stole a car, and assault the Sorceress' float.
On the float, he battled Seifer and easily defeated him. He went after Edea next, with Rinoa and Irvine jumping onto the float to assist him in fighting her. After a long and hard fought battle, Sorceress Edea summoned a cluster of icicles and shot them forward at the group. The attack missed all but Squall, who was pierced through the chest by the attack, and fell off the float before blacking out.
While Squall was unconscious, he was sent to the dream world as Laguna once again. This time, Laguna was in the town of Winhill after the events of falling off the cliff. He was injured and nursed back to health by the bar owner of the town, Raine. Raine was also looking after a child named Ellone, and Ellone looked up to the two of them as if they were meant to get married. She also called Laguna as Uncle Laguna, and the two would constantly act very childish together, which spurred scolding from Raine. Laguna would go on patrols each day, visiting people of the town to see how they were doing while keeping the monsters who attacked at bay so that the villagers would feel safe, as a way of repaying for helping him gain his health back. On this particular day, Kiros would arrive in the town to greet Laguna.
The two of them went off on a patrol, and once they returned to report to Raine and Ellone, Laguna ended up eavesdropping on a girl-to-girl conversation where Ellone asked if Raine was going to marry Laguna. Raine said she felt the same way as Ellone, but Laguna wasn't the type to stay in one place, which stemmed from Laguna's dream of being a journalist. Laguna moved up to state his report, and decided to take a nap before dinner back at the house he was staying at, which happened to be Ellone's old house.
Kiros remarked that Laguna had changed since being in Winhill, and Laguna just brushed it off. It was after this that Squall awoke in a small holding cell. His wounds were completely healed, and his cell was soon grabbed by a crane-like device and brought to the top floor of the D-District Prison of Galbadia. The prison was where political prisoners were brought who were against Galbadia, and Squall was grabbed by Seifer for torture. Seifer demanded to be told what SeeD was for, and that there must have been a secret told after becoming one, and Squall refused to talk despite not knowing anything. Seifer then mentioned that missiles were being fired at the Gardens and left. This made him question just what being a SeeD meant, at least until he finally passed out from pain.
When he awoke, Moombas surrounded him. Moombas are cat-like creatures who barely know much human speech, but are quite agile and capable of communication to a degree. They can also recognize a person by the smell of their blood, to which they continued to call Squall by the name Laguna, much to his confusion. Because of this, they let him go and continued to assist him until his friends reached the top floor of the prison after making their own escape from their own cell.
Squall, Selphie, and Quistis rode the crane to the bottom level, with Zell controlling it because of being sent to the dream world as Ward, who was a janitor at the very prison they were trapped in. After the group realized that the only exit on the bottom level was full of dirt, they tried to go back up only to find Zell attacked and about to be executed. Squall swiftly saved him, and then the entire group was pinned down by gunfire. Suddenly, Irvine arrived to save the day, being forced to come back to the prison after having Rinoa released because of her father's status. Rinoa scratched the hell out of his face when he refused to go back at first.
The group split into two, and Squall's group ran to the top of the prison. After moving out to the catwalks and defeating powerful enemies, the entire facility because to fall apart and drill downwards. Squall was caught on the catwalks as they were folding, and had to run before hanging on the edge of them. Shimmying across the edge as fast as possible to prevent being engulfed in dust, the entire group rode the prison down to ground level and escaped in two vehicles.
They discussed the whole deal with the missiles being fired at the Gardens, and Selphie led a group to go attack the Missile Base, where the warheads were being fired from. Squall's group stole a train to return to Balamb Garden to warn everyone of the oncoming danger. It was at this point that Squall was slowly becoming more and more stressed by the idea of having to make decisions on everyone's behalf and hating the idea of being the leader.
Once his group arrived at Garden, they found it in complete turmoil. The SeeD were fighting against another group of students fighting under the banner of a being named NORG, hunting down the Headmaster to execute him. The Garden's main faculty were all sided with NORG, with the other SeeD who stayed in Garden siding with Cid. Squall feigned allegiance with NORG for a short while, before giving up and fighting the monsters that NORG's followers were using to hunt down the students and other SeeD. After fighting his way through Garden and saving all he could, Squall found Xu, another SeeD who gave him orders for his initial SeeD exam. She led Squall to Cid, and Squall reported the crisis of the incoming missiles.
Cid gave Squall a card that would allow the elevator to go to the lower levels of Garden, where Cid had never been himself. Cid said that the facility used to be used a shelter, and that as a shelter, it should have some sort of defense mechanism in this sort of case. Nodding and following orders again, Squall set out to the lower levels of Garden. After a few faulty mistakes that led to him nearly falling to his own death, Squall activated some defense in panic of the incoming missiles, and the device caused Garden to take off and hover well above the ground. Balamb Garden began to fly, and the missiles missed thanks to the improved error ratio that Selphie's team did while infiltrating the Galbadian base.
After everyone calmed down from the crisis that was just averted, the two sides reconciled, and Squall's team was called down to level B1 of Garden, where NORG resided. They ran into Headmaster Cid, who was begging for NORG to help him, and lost his temper for the first time. Squall and his team confronted NORG, who wasn't even human. He was a black sheep from the Shumi Tribe, a group of humanoid creatures that resides on the Trabia continent by themselves. NORG was grossly exaggerated in size compared to other Shumi Tribe members, was he screamed almost all of the words he spouted. He was the being who funded Balamb Garden, and who came up with the idea of using SeeD for Garden's financial issues.
Because of his decisions, he controlled the faculty almost entirely, and he refused to let SeeD do what they were originally intended to do, which was defeat the Sorceress. NORG then revealed that Edea and Cid were married, much to the shock of Squall. He didn't know what to think about that revelation, especially considering the assassination mission. But it was then that NORG also revealed that the mission was an agreement between Martine and NORG, not Cid. And that Martine was supposed to carry out the mission by himself and his Garden, but Squall's team's arrival was convenient. And since they failed, it all fell upon Balamb Garden's fault.
NORG said that in order to appeal to the Sorceress, they would have to give the heads of the SeeD who attempted to assassinate her, and Cid's head. It was then that Squall refused, and a battle ensued. By the end of a the battle, NORG was defeated and turned into a giant egg, and Squall returned to the main levels of Garden.
After a discussion with Cid over everything that happened, Squall was left with more questions than answers, but saw that Cid knew that Edea was too dangerous to keep alive. Squall wondered how that felt, but at the same time, held himself in contempt for being stuck to think in his bed again. The Garden had fallen adrift in the ocean after the missile incident, and there was no sign of the missile team ever returning. After a while of just sailing, another ship appeared and asked to see Ellone. Squall, recognizing the name, ran off in search of her, finding her in the library. He recognized her as the little girl from the dream world, and as the girl from the infirmary and training center. He questioned her, and realized that she was the one sending him to the dream world, relying on him to find something she needed. Squall didn't want any of that, pleading with her to leave him alone and out of business that had nothing to do with him. Ellone then whispered to him, telling him, "You're my only hope."
She then left the Garden aboard the ship that arrived, the people on the ship claiming they were the White SeeD, otherwise known as the Sorceress' SeeD. Soon after, the Garden crashed into a town that settled itself in the middle of the ocean on an elevated railroad between Galbadia and Esthar. This town was called Fisherman's Horizon (abbreviated as FH).
The townspeople weren't very angry with the Garden's crash landing into their shores, and were actually a little excited to do maintenance on the Garden (since they had painted it all those years ago when it was founded), and to fix their own town. They were a town of mechanics and fishermen, mostly both. Squall was sent to discuss terms with the mayor of the town, Dobe. Dobe said that he wanted them to leave as soon as possible, not agreeing with the way they handled things with violence, being hired mercenaries. Squall thought that he was ignorant, but also agreed that discussing things over without violence would be great.
However, soon, the Galbadians attacked FH, and Dobe was convinced that he could talk them out of their attack, assuming they were there for Balamb Garden. The army was actually in the vicinity searching for Ellone, who was no longer anywhere close to Balamb Garden. They were searching for the White SeeD ship at any port town, and Squall realized this. The army said they would burn FH to the ground, and would start with the mayor, but Squall and his group intervened and attacked. A nearly destroyed machine attacked, and after Squall defeated it, the missile group emerged from the remains of the machine, fine and dandy.
The reunion was heartfelt, except for Squall, who was awfully awkward though somewhat honest about it. He was incredibly happy to see them alive, but he tried not to show it. Selphie, however, was incredibly sad that they managed to not save Trabia Garden from the missiles, and at the destruction within Balamb Garden itself. Irvine said he wanted to help her by planning something special in FH and building a little concert, and Squall allowed it.
Soon after, Cid called up Squall and promoted him to Commander of the SeeD forces in pursuing and defeating Sorceress Edea. Squall took this badly, and never asked to be leader. It disturbed him, and it was far too much responsibility for a guy who just wanted to follow orders and not have people rely on him. Lying in his bed, he eventually was dragged outside by Rinoa and brought to the concert that the others planned together. It was done in the name of Squall's promotion, and he was very introverted about the ordeal. Rinoa and Squall sat by the edge of the concert, discussing things that all eventually led up to Squall refusing to open her to his comrades.
She called him out on it, and he refused to acknowledge much of anything she said. He was as honest as he could get of his feelings on the matter, and showed that he didn't want to rely on others. It upset Rinoa, and Squall was left standing there.
That is where the S.S. Thor comes into Squall's life.
Personality:
At a first glance, Squall could easily come off as a distant, cold and easily annoyed young man. This is mostly true, as Squall has is indeed all of those three traits. Due to this nature, when spoken to, he normally gives the shortest and "to-the-point" answers that end the conversation quickly. He tends to avoid people and acting friendly towards them, and really only goes to converse when it's a part of his duty or when spoken to by a superior. There are times where people are casually interacting with others all around him, and Squall is perfectly content to staying off to the side, leaning against a wall or sitting with his head in his hands; ignoring the world around him and sitting in his own little world.
As he is 17, he is technically not an adult. In fact, he hates speaking to most adults. In general, he hates adults that talk about the past and their regrets, and the things they could have done with their lives. He doesn't want to be like that at all, and almost hates thinking about the past entirely. He hates how he lost his loved ones as a child, and doesn't want to think of things in the past. Squall wants to live in the now and tries not to think of things in the past, and he sure as hell doesn't want to be looked at as a distant past memory.
Due to the pain he was given when he lost Ellone, whom he idolized as a big sister, he began to push away all of the people who could be considered his friends, in an attempt to stay distant from people. He is terrified of relying on people, and hates the idea of it, because those people he relies on will disappear, and he will be left with nothing but loneliness. He's convinced that this is always the case, and that's why he hates to rely on others. This applies for others, as he dislikes watching weak people rely on others for everything. Especially if that other is himself.
And, above all else, he hates being alone. It gives him too much time to think, and he hates it when he thinks too much. He goes on different tangents, and ends up on thoughts at aggravate him or make his question what he is really doing. These thoughts make him hate the fact that he tends to think too much, and would rather follow orders and do his duty over being a leader and deciding for himself and others. As much as he hates being a leader, however, he is a natural born leaders due to his determination to do what he sets out to do, and his ability to get it done. His ability to make good choices for himself and those that follow him despite his disdain for it, and how professional he can be during an assignment. This ability has many of his fellow students looking up to him as a role model, though he doesn't realize it until it's said.
In fact, he tends to be oblivious to a lot of social things until it becomes blatantly obvious. At a part further in the game than his canon point, he even makes a reference to this fact by stating that his friends were so obvious that even he is noticing how much everyone is working to try and put Rinoa and himself together.
Worst of all, Squall thinks to himself too much when put on the spot. He almost expects others to hear his thoughts when he monologues to himself exclusively in them, which puts others at odds with him when he refuses to open up. And Squall is also very capable of harboring a massive dislike and grudge against someone, doing so with Seifer for a majority of his life.
All in all, Squall is cold and distant, pushing people away in order to avoid experiencing the loss of friendship and those he considers family again. As well as being socially awkward, he believes he isn't cut out to be a leader, when in reality, his sense of duty is what makes him such a great one. Not to mention how stubborn he can be at times. However, despite all of his efforts to avoid making friends and falling into a zone of comfort with others, he eventually begins to succumb to this, and grows bonds with the people he travels with, as in he actually cares for the people he tries to push away so unsuccessfully. He even continues to be the kind of person he abhors, relying on others and wanting someone to tell him what to do.
Have you read up on how the game works?: The Guide plug-in is called the FlamingFerret, and characters can earn money by doing missions, stealing from others, and mooching off someone else.
1st person sample:
[There's a long silence that starts Squall's recording, only broken by a small groan as he tries to figure out what to say. There's another, shorter groan as he takes a deep breath and begins to finally speak.]
(For some reason, this feels like a test. It's annoying.) This is Squall Leonhart. If any of you recognize my name or SeeD, please respond as soon as possible.
[The feed goes quiet again, but it isn't ended. Squall's breathing is quite apparent as he becomes lost in his own thought.] (I didn't ask to be leader. Why do I have to be the one dealing with this? Why did this even happen?
...
It's still on.) If someone could fill me in, that would be great too. [That should be concise and work well enough.]
3rd person sample:
Squall's expression hadn't changed in hours after his arrival on the S.S. Thor, not gathering too much information about his new "home" after a not-so-extensive attempt of figuring things out. As he laid himself out on his new bed, he took a moment to take in just how much worse his room looked compared to the somewhat spacious SeeD dorm he was allowed back at Garden. It didn't matter. A bed was a bed.
What mattered was that he hadn't heard from anyone he knew since his arrival. Irvine, Zell, Quistis, Selphie. None of them chimed in when he made a call for anyone who knew his name or was from SeeD. Not even Rinoa. Apparently his homeworld was destroyed, and that led to his arrival here.
Did that mean they didn't make it?
He didn't want to think about it, but there was no way of avoiding it. It was the only logical conclusion. Squall didn't want to delude himself if they weren't on the ship, thinking that they might show up after him. It was a strong possibility that they didn't make it, not that Squall didn't want to believe in their survival. He wanted to. But he had to be reasonable.
This is why he didn't want to rely on others. In just a moment's notice they could disappear forever and never be seen again. The thought of that happening to them made his stomach turn, and Squall restlessly tossed and turned in his bed. It happened again. He felt so lonely. It was this situation that he spent all those years mentally preparing himself for, trying to push people away just for this kind of situation, but... it felt like it didn't work. He felt as if he lost everything important to him again.
It wasn't just people that he lost this time. He lost everything. Garden, SeeD, his fight against the Sorceress. He felt like he lost his reasoning as well. What was he supposed to do here?
Whatever. He hated having time to think.
Questions?: None at all.
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: Yep!