― ❝ independent, private, selective & canon divergent
CLOUD STRIFE from final fantasy vii
written by CERO

• law.
• dossier.
• verses.
• blog.

CERO | SHE/HER | 26 | GMT+2

discord is available for mutuals!

* ABOUT ;

+EARLY LIFE;

Cloud was born in the mountain village of Nibelheim to Claudia Strife; his father died when Cloud was very young. Cloud lived next door to a girl a year younger than him, Tifa Lockhart, and was excluded from her friendship group. Bitter as a result, Cloud developed a superiority complex, believing her friends were stupid, and that he was more mature and different from them. He did not harbor any dislike for Tifa, but suspected she disliked him.Tifa's mother died when Cloud was nine. Not wanting to accept it, Tifa insisted she could meet her by crossing Mt. Nibel, taking her friends along. Unbeknownst to them, Cloud followed her, and when she took a misstep, he tried to catch her but they both fell. Though he was unharmed, Tifa was severely injured and in a coma for seven days. Her father, Brian Lockhart, blamed Cloud and forbade him from approaching her. He too blamed himself for failing to save her, harboring guilt in the form of increasing anger at himself, leading him to start fights for little to no reason.Cloud resolved to better himself, and upon learning of Sephiroth and his exploits, set out to join SOLDIER and become a hero, hoping Tifa would notice him. In December 0000, he called Tifa out to the water tower to tell her about his departure, hoping to impress her. Tifa encouraged Cloud that he could make the newspapers and asked him to promise to save her should she ever find herself in trouble. The following spring of 0001, Cloud left for Midgar to join the Shinra Electric Power Company.

+SHINRA MILITANT;

Despite his bravado, Cloud failed to make it into SOLDIER, enlisting as a mere Shinra infantryman instead. Out of embarrassment and shame, he lost contact with everyone from Nibelheim. Cloud was among those ordered to protect Professor Rayleigh in Midgar from the insurgency organization Avalanche. Though he is unsuccessful, their lives were saved by the Player Turk. During the incident Cloud displayed impressive sword skills for a regular infantryman.In autumn of that year, Cloud met Zack Fair, a SOLDIER First Class, on their way to Modeoheim. The two bonded upon learning they were both "country boys". When he and Zack infiltrated the Mako Excavation Facility, they encountered Genesis Rhapsodos and Dr. Hollander, former Shinra employees who since turned against the company. When Hollander attempted to escape, Cloud briefly captured him, though Hollander broke free. Cloud gave pursuit, but both he and Tseng—the leader of the Turks—were taken down by the rogue SOLDIER First Class, Angeal Hewley.In September 0002, a sixteen-year-old Cloud met Zack again while protecting the city of Junon from Genesis's attack. On September 22 of that year, Cloud returned to Nibelheim along with Zack and Sephiroth to investigate a damaged mako reactor on Mt. Nibel, and with Tifa as their guide through the mountains. Cloud hid his identity from the townspeople, ashamed of his failure to join SOLDIER, though he did visit his mother who asked about his new life with Shinra, after asking Zack to accompany him.When the expedition reached the reactor, Sephiroth discovered Professor Hojo's experiments with humans mutated into monsters dubbed makonoids, and Jenova, whom Sephiroth mistakenly believed to be his mother. Genesis knocked Cloud out and Tifa helped him back into town, though still did not discover his identity. When Cloud regained consciousness, he was depressed over his lack of strength. Sephiroth locked himself in the Shinra Manor's basement for several sleepless days, immersing in Professor Gast Faremis's writings, and discovered his dark past, as well the secrets regarding the Cetra and the promised land. On October 1, Sephiroth destroyed the village on a rampage, fueled by his newfound hatred for humanity.Cloud witnessed his mother's death in the ensuing fire, and rushed back to the reactor to confront Sephiroth, finding both a gravely wounded Tifa and a barely conscious Zack. Cloud picked up Zack's Buster Sword, caught Sephiroth offguard in the reactor core, and impaled him, also giving a speech demanding Sephiroth return Tifa, his mother, and Nibelheim while lamenting he used to respect him, before attending to Tifa. When a wounded Sephiroth emerged from the reactor core, Cloud attacked him, intent on avenging the deaths of his mother and all the townspeople Sephiroth had killed. Though impaled on Sephiroth's Masamune, Cloud summoned the strength to overpower him with sheer willpower. Using the katana as a lever, Cloud lifted Sephiroth up and hurled him into the mako pit below before collapsing.

+EXPERIMENTS & ESCAPING;

Cloud and Zack, as well as other survivors in the town (with the exception of Tifa who was rescued by Zangan before Shinra arrived), became Professor Hojo's test subjects. Injecting them with Jenova's cells and exposing them to mako, Hojo attempted to test his Jenova Reunion Theory on them, turning them into Sephiroth-clones, people whose wills can be over-ridden by Sephiroth's. Since Zack had gone through a similar process in SOLDIER, his body resisted the experiments, while Cloud succumbed and developed a severe case of mako poisoning. Hojo labeled the two failures, placed them in a cryogenic sleeping state, and left them in their pods in the Shinra Manor basement.Four years later, in December 19, 0006, Zack broke out of his confinement and helped a vegetative Cloud escape, giving him a SOLDIER uniform to wear as his old clothes were soaked with mako. Due to the experiments, Cloud was mentally broken, weak and delirious, but during their journey following the escape from Nibelheim, Zack told the unresponsive Cloud about his life and his plans for both of them to become mercenaries in Midgar. Though Cloud was unable to participate in the events, he was present when Zack defeated Genesis.After almost a year of running, the pair arrived outside Midgar in September 0007. The Shinra forces caught up and Zack fought to defend both Cloud and himself against overwhelming numbers. Zack was gunned down, but the Shinra forces ignored the catatonic Cloud. Cloud regained some awareness and crawled over to Zack, who entrusted the Buster Sword to him, telling his legacy will live on inside Cloud, before dying. Buster Sword in hand, Cloud trudged off towards Midgar.As a result of the trauma caused by the Nibelheim Incident, his mako poisoning (and subsequent infusion of Jenova cells), and Zack's death, Cloud impressed Zack's memories and fighting abilities into his own. This, along with Tifa's memory of him and his own ideal image of himself as a SOLDIER, created a new set of memories with an accompanying persona. As such, Cloud was led to believe he had joined SOLDIER and was Sephiroth's partner in place of Zack, and in his own memories, he took Zack's place; in his distorted memories, Zack never existed.

+AFTERMATH;

In late 0007, Tifa found Cloud mumbling deliriously at the Sector 7 slums train station. Though he became lucid upon recognizing her, his inconsistent memories and mental breakdowns concerned her. Tifa recruited him as a mercenary to her group, an Avalanche cell led by Barret Wallace, while concealing information about his past due to doubting her own memories, wishing to find the truth herself.An arrogant and proud swordsman at first, Cloud introduces himself to Avalanche as a former member of an elite warrior unit called SOLDIER who has turned mercenary, and uninterested in anything beyond his hired task at hand. Beneath his hardened outer persona though, is a softer, more caring individual who simply struggles to open up, but is striving to be a hero. Cloud later discovers more about his past and, with the help of his friends, learns there is more to being a hero than possessing physical strength and fame. He develops compassion for the planet and the people he fights to protect from the Shinra Electric Power Company and his nemesis, Sephiroth.

• back to top.

+MAIN; 21 y/o

follows cloud's canon verse from the remake trilogy. this verse is pretty much timeless and can be used for any interaction before or after specific events occur in game.
note: for my portrayal, i will stick to the first part of the remake until i finish rebirth.

+BEFORE CRISIS; 14-15 y/o

to keep it short and simple, this verse takes place before the nibelheim incident. this verse works two ways, either cloud still lives in nibelheim with his mother and hasn't yet left to join shinra or he has already left and became an infantryman where he meets zack.

+AFTER CRISIS; 23 y/o

short and simple description: this verse takes place two years after the events of the game ffvii and follows the events of the movie "advent children". cloud has become older and slowly but surely tries to overcome his trauma and guilt. he lives together with tifa and the two take care of marlene & denzel.

+FANDOMLESS; 25 y/o

cloud lived in a small village together with his mother claudia who raised him on her own after his father passed away under mysterious circumstances when he was still very young. years later, his mother dies too after being murdered. cloud grows up alongside his neighbor and childhood friend tifa after her family took him in. later he finds out about an organization which claims to aim for peace and economic development. cloud believes that they are somehow tied to the deaths of his parents and that the company hides something from the public, thus he makes it his goal to join them. once he follows through on his plan, he cuts ties with the people closest to him, not wanting to drag them into potential danger. he ends up working under zack, his superior who's two years older than him at the time, and the two quickly bond. fast forward a few years and they end up finding out the truth. the organization plans to get rid of them, they are caught and kept captive before the truth comes to light.cloud and zack suffer through four years of human experiments until they manage to escape a secret government facility. it was the scientist's goal to create enhanced humans, super humans if you will, which would then provide military power. it seems that cloud's father knew something and died because of it. later, claudia was murdered as well because they feared that she knew something too. after escaping, zack and cloud are on the run for at least a year before being surrounded by grunts of the organization. zack gives his life to protect cloud. the latter survives but has to live with the trauma of losing his friend and of undergoing human experiments. the people responsible for all this believe he died along with zack, unbeknowst to them however, cloud now works as mercenary. even though he knows the truth, he doesn't seem to plan to destroy the organization. on the contrary, it seems that he doesn't want anything to do with it anymore. he wants to forget, thus he avoids the reality of things, pretending it never happened. because remembering it and accepting it is too painful.

+HONKAI: STAR RAIL; 24 y/o

path: the hunt | element: physical | faction: IPCcloud was born on planet gaia and lived in the city midgar. the story is identitcal to the canon verse and the only noteable change would be that a meteor hits the planet which results in many casulties. that's when the ipc appears and acts as the planet's savior. with their help many residents of midgar manage to evacuate the planet, however amidst all the chaos cloud gets seperated from his childhood friend tifa and his other friends. shocked and confused about the new situation, he decides to join the organization that saved him, believing he'll learn more about the whereabouts of his friends. cloud is a skilled fighter and quickly manages to get into the talent motivation department. members of the department recruit, train, and transport employees of the IPC through the cosmos. cloud hopes to find his missing friends by travelling the vast galaxy while working as security and bodyguard for the IPC.

+WUTHERING WAVES; 24 y/o

attribute: aero | weapon: broadblade | affiliation: ghost houndssimiliar to kingdom hearts, cloud gets pretty much isekai'd into the world of wuthering waves. the story follows the canon verse to a certain point until a rift in time and space appears and literally sucks him in. he wakes up on a different planet, maybe even a different universe, wielding new powers that are nothing like materia. he doesn't know what's going on, all he knows is that he's at a place known as the new federation. he was surrounded by researchers, fanatics with a clouded judgement who seemingly worshipped technology. whatever their motives, they were quite facinated by cloud's sudden appearance. cloud on the other hand felt uneasy, not only was he surrounded by strangers in a foreign place but the location he found himself in reminded him of shinra's corporation. before they could even manage make him stay, cloud escaped. being a loner throughout most of his life, he knew that he couldn't trust anyone but himself. that is, until he crossed paths with a group of mercenaries. he still didn't know the truth of what happened or if there was a way for him to return to his home planet and friends. he eventually realized that he couldn't do much on his own without the help of others. he felt a mix of hesitation and determination when he decided to join the ghost hounds.

+BALDUR'S GATE; 25 y/o

alignment: chaotic good | class: fighter | background: soldieralmost identical to his canon story, just more fantasy-esque.
follows the plot of baldur's gate 3.born in midgar, cloud became a victim of human experiments for many years. he remains in a comatose state until an earthquake suddenly strikes the city, causing the capsule he's held captive in to break open. soon after, midgar gets dragged into an ongoing battle between mindflayers and githyanki. many citizens of midgar are kidnapped by the mindflayer, including cloud's family and friends. luckily he was safe during the incident, due to the fact that he was kept underground in a large basement. when he finally woke up, most of midgar was left in shambles and dead bodies were scattered all around. he couldn't remember much, his memories were too foggy. he didn't even know why he was kept in a laboratory or how much time had passed. he could gather some info about himself after viewing random notes in the basement. cloud strife, infused with mako; the liquid form of the planet's lifestream, or so it's said. on top of that his genetics were tampered with and he was turned into a simic hybrid. while technically human, he was now also half-fiend. the left side of his body had turned inhuman, he could grow a cambion-like wing from his back and his left hand was more like a monstrous claw, which he later decides to hide by wearing gloves. he found out that he was part of an science experiment to enhance the strength and general capablities of a human being to take on inhuman opponents and to defend the human race... or perhaps there was an even deeper, more malicious, reason behind it. after all it takes a monster to fight a monster.whatever the case, cloud would never find out the truth - not as long as he remained in midgar. so with nothing more but a name, a greatsword, and scattered pieces of his memories, he began his journey to baldur's gate. he joins the military since fighting was all he seemed to be good at; it's what he was made for, all the while hiding his inhuman features. years later, after losing a battle against fiends, cloud had to witness the death of one of his comrades. he quits soon after and falls into depression, shutting everyone out. as a soldier, he was mentally prepared to lose friends along the way. however, he had grown so close to the other, they were like brothers. after losing his home, his past, his family and friends; losing his best friend was just too much. cloud ends up living a rather solitary life afterwards and decides to earn his money by working as mercenary. thinking of himself as monster, and being afraid to lose someone again, he keeps a distance from others.

+KINGDOM HEARTS; 22-23 y/o

wiki page for now because i'm lazy