Application ♞ Terminal Tokyo

[knightfan]

OOC Information
NAME; Hojo
AGE; 22
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED; N/A

IC Information
CHARACTER NAME; Seifer Almasy
AGE; 18
CANON; Final Fantasy VIII
CANON POINT; Disc 3; Lunatic Pandora
FAMILY TYPES; Deep Savers, Metal Empire, Nightmare Soldiers

APPEARANCE; Seifer stands at about 6'2" with short blond hair that is slicked back and blue-green eyes with a masculine jaw. Across his face from the top left of his forehead and to the right of the bridge of his nose (his PoV) is a scar. His wardrobe consists of an incredibly long, gray trench coat with Santiago crosses on the forearms, a blue vest with a large white cross, standard military pants and boots along with black gloves. Around his neck, he wears something reminiscent of a chain with a blank tag on it. While tall, his body type isn't bulky.

PERSONALITY; Seifer is a visionary, someone rooted in archaic romanticism who always needs to be doing something, and not just anything: it has to be something big. In short, he wants to be the hero of the story and often refers to himself in such a way. For example, he compares a situation between him and his rival Squall to "the tale of the evil mercenary vs. the sorceress' knight," placing himself in the role of the hero.

And, of course, a knight is exactly who he wants to be. It is, according to Seifer, his secret childhood dream: to be a knight. Inspired in his youth by the movie The Sorceress' Knight (revealed in FF8's Ultimania), Seifer since then tried to do things that would make him a hero like the knight in the movie. He was so enamored by it than even his victory pose after battle is modeled after the knight in the movie.

Although he is a cadet renowned for his abilities on the battlefield, he simply doesn't have the temperament nor the ability to detach himself from situations to become an elite military soldier: SeeD. At the same time, many of the battles involving Seifer can be considered curbstomp battles in the party's favor, as Seifer is never equipped with GFs (which boost the party's power) while the party is.

Around Balamb Garden—the military academy in which Seifer is enrolled—the other students all know who he is and view him as a bully, which he is. Despite his tendency to bend or break rules and completely disregard orders, Seifer is ironically the head of the Disciplinary Committee. While technically the committee is supposed to exist for the sole purpose of punishing students who intentionally misbehave, Seifer abuses the power he's given to "arrest" other students for the most minor of infractions, such as walking too quickly.

However, Seifer can and will get things done, so regardless of his behavior problems he's often put in a leadership role, such as with the Disciplinary Committee or as the squad leader for the SeeD exam at the beginning of the game. That means the rules get kicked to the side if he feels they're holding him or his team back from finishing the mission: guard the Central Square from enemy attacks? No, lure them to the square and beat them down! Wait around without any more enemies to fight? No, follow the stragglers, find their base and see what's up! As Seifer's not one to stand about idly twiddling his thumbs, him taking charge and going off ahead tends to be the way of things. However, because he's part of a military academy that trains their soldiers to follow orders, getting things done in his own way earns him no credit and instead earns him multiple failures on his attempts to pass the SeeD exam.

It's not just his peers who find him to be a handful. Quistis, a SeeD and his current instructor, considers him to be a bad student who needs to be wished luck, something Seifer takes offense to. Xu, another SeeD in a similar position as Quistis, has seen Seifer fail the SeeD exam multiple times and seems to think the same thing will happen again. The Garden's faculty and staff in general seem to be ready to scold, discipline and berate Seifer, giving the impression that he's been causing problems for others and being generally disruptive for a number of years. Still, while few people may have nice things to say about him, they know he's a capable individual who is able to communicate his feelings to others well, something that may have helped him land his position as squad leader for his latest SeeD exam in addition to his existing battle experience.

As Seifer is good at what he does and is typically in a leader position, he tends to think others are beneath him in some way. He's very good at finding just the right nerve to strike in others, too, although he's just as easily irritated when it's done back to him. Sometimes he gets humor out of mocking short-tempered people he finds beneath him like Zell. While Seifer is both confident and arrogant, he is not so self-absorbed as to think no one can be on the same level as him. That's why he considers Fujin and Raijin, the two other members of the Disciplinary Committee, his posse—they're capable individuals and are loyal to him. At the same time, while he doesn't particularly like Squall, he does bear a certain level of respect for him as they're the only two gunblade specialists at their school and they're both incredibly skilled.

While his negative traits are fairly staggering, Seifer does have a kinder side, though sometimes you need a magnifying glass to see it. When he fails his SeeD exam at the beginning of the game, he applauds the rest of his squad, who passed. When that same squad was sent to Timber on a mission which could have drawn the attention of an entire country's military, Seifer broke out of the detention room (even the head of the Disciplinary Committee can be given detentions!) and marched straight over to Timber to handle things himself, feeling that the group of three (Squall, Zell and Selphie) were too untrained to handle the mission alone. A year prior to the game, he dated a girl named Rinoa who was trying to head a resistance faction. Seifer took it upon himself to directly introduce her to Cid, the school's headmaster, as the letters Rinoa had been writing were being ignored.

So, while there's a lot of nasty traits all wrapped up, there's some good in there, too. They're easier to see when one considers the overall mission as opposed to the mission of the individual. The best example in this case would be the SeeD mission in Dollet. The mission as a whole was to eliminate enemy Galbadian soldiers who had invaded Dollet and to liberate the town. The individual mission as SeeD candidates for this exam, however, was to follow orders exactly and Seifer's particular orders were to secure the Central Square of Dollet. So while Seifer disregarded his orders as a SeeD candidate, he made an effort to achieve the overall goal of liberating Dollet.

In a broader sense, Seifer isn't someone who spills his guts about what's eating him. He's layered like an onion and hides things well, such as his childhood dream. He can be easily taken advantage of, as when Sorceress Ultimecia seduces him under the guise of his Matron Edea into being her knight. As it was so short a time after his failure of his SeeD exam again, he was quick to take up her offer; he wanted to be needed by someone, to be someone's hero.

That need can be rather extreme. While it's unclear how much Ultimecia was brainwashing/manipulating/controlling Seifer, it's very likely he had some semblance of himself left. And he knew, as he betrayed Balamb Garden for her—even going so far as trying to assist in blowing the Gardens up with missiles while lamenting because it had been his home—that his actions wouldn't be held in a good light. Even when he comes to realize that he may very well be in the wrong, he feels that following Ultimecia's orders is all he has left; he's gone so far down this path that he can't turn back. He even throws away his dream of being a knight in exchange for being a young "revolutionary" as long as Ultimecia has a use for him.

Even his two closest friends, who stick with him despite his descent into what's more or less madness, back off when he abandons his dream. They don't leave him, just ask Squall to take him down since they can't bear to do it themselves. Despite the two of them telling Seifer he's not himself anymore, that he's just eating out of someone's hand like a dog, he continues to pursue Ultimecia's dream instead of his own.

Without Ultimecia hanging around, he'd be more like his mid-game self: still prideful and arrogant and ambitious; still eager to make a scene, draw attention to himself and be a hero. Without Ultimecia, he'd fall back into wanting to be a knight again, find someone else who needs him or some cause he can fight for with every fiber of his being.

HISTORY;

[ Link ]

SAMPLES

FIRST PERSON;

2.) What would you say is your greatest strength?
You want me to pick just one? The hell would you want someone who's extraordinary in just one skill for? It's better to be extraordinary in everything you do. I guess what you're expecting is somethin' along the lines of "plays well with others" or "good at logic puzzles." If I was a boring kinda guy, I'd say somethin' like "I'm a leader and I'm good at gettin' people to do what I say." Since I ain't a boring kinda guy, you can have the real answer: I don't have just one greatest strength. I'm a leader, a gunblade specialist, a knight and a cadet and I'm great at those things. Sure, I can't work a pair of nunchucks, but who needs 'em when you've got a gunblade like mine?

5.) You have one choice. That choice will result in either the end of the world or it will save it. Which way would you go?
Save it, of course. Do you know how much glory a guy like me could get if I single-handedly saved the world? If I saved the world, there wouldn't be a single person who didn't know my name. I'd be their hero. They'd look up to me and when they saw me, they'd point at me and say "That's the guy I wanna be like!" Bringing an end to the world ain't the same. Yeah, it's obviously a big deal, but who's gonna be around to care afterward? No one, that's who. You end the world, you're gone, too.

6.) What would make up your ideal friend?
Loyalty's gotta be the number one trait a friend should have. They stick by you no matter what, through both the good times and the bad times. What they say is true, about good friends being supportive of you when you need help, but best friends are right there suffering along with you. If you have loyalty, you don't need much else. They could be the most annoyin' person in the world, but if you have their loyalty that means they must see some good in you, right? And if they're loyal, they won't leave your side.

THIRD PERSON;

Seifer skimmed the message on the D-Terminal. Chosen Child, it read. While he could do without being called a child, it was the first word that held much more importance to him. Him—chosen—not just because he was there and willing, but legitimately chosen by someone. It was as if someone had put thought into selecting him.

He was happy... he supposed. Though to be honest, he would have been happier if he'd been the only chosen one. How many others were here? The more there were, the less special he was and the less impact he'd be able to make on the world. Sure, he could compete with five or ten others, but what if there were fifty? A hundred? He'd have his work cut out for him.

Accepting this mission meant putting his current one on hold and at the moment, he wasn't sure how willing he was to do that. Yet... the message claimed the gates that led to and from this world were closed and he had a feeling it had nothing to do with Ultimecia. After all, time was still flowing normally.

Well, if he was stuck here he wasn't just going to sit back and let boy scouts do the work. There were other chosen children here; he'd find them and size them up, see if they were actually cut out for the job. He wasn't about to "play" with anyone, but... he could save this world. And then he'd kick those gates right open, get back to his own world and finish what he started.

It didn't have to be one or the other. He'd find a way to do both and he'd be a hero twice over! Okay, maybe he wouldn't quite be a hero back home... but he could be one here. There had to be a way to fix whatever the hell was wrong with this place and compress time like Ultimecia wished.

No matter what, he'd make sure Seifer Almasy was a name that ended up in the history books someday, and he'd do it single-handedly, without the "partner" he was supposed to be paired up with.