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savetheearth
OOC Information:
Name: Anduin
Are you over 15? Yes.
Contact: My plurk at![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
Anduin or PM.
IC Information:
Name: Lightning (Claire Farron), AKA Kallie Raydan
Canon: Final Fantasy XIII series
Age: 21, both here and in canon... though it is worth noting that as of XIII-2, she's also been kicked out of time, glanced through all of history, and been in a never-ending loop for who knows how long.
Preincarnation Appearance: Yep.
Any differences: Rather than pink, her hair is - for now - dark brown. Other than that she's basically the same except without the muscling and calluses and such that would come from knowing how to swing a huge sword/gun combo around. She's very athletic but not a fighter.
Preincarnated History:
(This is a somewhat condensed version of events with many in-canon references left intact. Click here for her page on the FF Wikia if you need links to more info on anything.)
To its many millions of inhabitants, living in the world called 'Cocoon' was like living in a paradise. With their every need cared for, the humans who lived there existed in harmony alongside the various beings called fal'Cie who cared for them... in fact, there was only one thing that they would even considering fearing: Cocoon was an artificial, floating land, and the world below, Gran Pulse, was said to harbor countless horrors who wished nothing more than to harm Cocoon and its people. There was no real reason for any of Cocoon's inhabitants to doubt this... all one had to do was look to the huge rift made in the world's outer shell, the remains of a war between Cocoon and Pulse hundreds of years previous.
Lightning's life started as Claire Farron. Little is known about her early years, except that her father died when she was young, and when she was about fifteen years old, her mother also passed away of an unspecified illness, leaving her and her younger sister, Serah, as orphans. The young woman was deeply affected by her mother's death and onset of responsibility over her sister, and as a personal rite of passage, adopted a new name and identity to mark her sudden transition into adulthood.
While in a rougher situation than most, Lightning tried her best to take care of Serah, joining the Security Regiment of the Guardian Corps and eventually becoming a sergeant. However, over time the intensity in which she threw herself into her job eventually began to drive a wedge between the girls- something which came to a head on the older Farron's twenty-first birthday. When Serah revealed she'd somehow been marked as a Pulse l'Cie... and had promised to marry a man Lightning very much disapproved of, in a fit of furious disbelief, Lightning was quick to drive them away. Regardless, she then found herself in quite a predicament when the story turned out to be true. Because of a Pulse fal'Cie found outside of it, Bodhum was being evacuated and all of the residents relocated to Pulse- or so the government told them. When Lightning resigned her rank and immunity and inserted herself into the mess, determined to rescue Serah, it quickly became apparent the "Purge" was nothing more than an excuse to murder all of the civilians present. What's worse, when Lightning, Serah's fiance, Snow, and three others who'd followed them made their way to the fal'Cie's hold, they were marked as l'Cie as well.
The group was forced to flee the military, confused about what they should do. Emotionally destroyed at the apparent loss of her sister, Lightning's plan was to reach the capitol of Cocoon and bring her grievances at what she'd witnessed and endured straight to the Sanctum fal'Cie's door. She refused to stop even when Snow wanted to try and save Serah, when Sazh, Vanille, and Hope couldn't keep up with her pace. Regardless, it didn't take long for her to soften anyway- especially when her frustration summoned an Eidolon to her and nearly got Hope killed, and in particular as she and the vengeful teen journeyed together, coming to trust each other as partners and slowly working out more truths about their problems.
When the l'Cie all managed to regroup again, including a new woman named Fang who revealed herself and Vanille as originally from Gran Pulse in the first place, they decided they needed to rescue Vanille and Sazh from imminent execution. The issue was, although they'd already suspected a trap, it was there they ran into the head of the Cocoon government who actually wasn't a man at all, but a fal'Cie named Barthandelus with a bizarre conviction to help them destroy the floating world.
Forced to fly first to a hidden Pulsian armory, then to Gran Pulse itself, the l'Cie continued growing stronger in both their powers and their bonds to each other. There was nothing to find on the planet except ruins and monsters and Cie'th - failed former l'Cie. The goal was apparently also to demoralize them, and by the time they had reached the abandoned remnants of Fang and Vanille's town, Barthandelus was ready to manipulate them into going back to Cocoon, inciting a panic when they were revealed and as the capitol was flooded with monsters. The l'Cie made their way to Edenhall, but when faced with the fal'Cie whose death would cause Cocoon to fall, refused to do the deed 'correctly.' Fang was the only one to respond to the goading, but her transformation into the fated monster Ragnarok wasn't strong enough. Lightning and the others resisted and managed to recapture their cohesion as a tragedy-made family, and challenged the fal'Cie as they were, claiming they would make the impossible possible.
Cocoon still fell, though. Thankfully, even as Lightning and the other Cocoon-born l'Cie began to crystallize as a result of completing their Focus, Fang and Vanille took matters into their own hands, transforming into the complete version of Ragnarok together, creating a pillar in between Cocoon and Gran Pulse, and thus saving the tens of millions of people at risk from a fatal run-in with gravity.
Following this, there should have been a happy ending. The now former Pulse l'Cie were reunited with their loved ones, and the people of Cocoon were now free from secretly-malignant fal'Cie rule.
However, if this were true, there never would have been a second game. Abruptly, Lightning was seemingly attacked and dragged away by a mysterious force... and Serah became the only one who even remembered the woman being there after Cocoon was saved in the first place. Lightning was taken to Valhalla, at the end of time, where she learned that she and the other l'Cie being returned to normal had come at a price- the goddess Etro had shown mercy on them, but in that moment the gate between the realm of the living and dead had accidentally let through some of the unnamed chaos inside Valhalla out. Preventing the chaos from completely destroying reality had drained the goddess of most of her power, leaving her extremely vulnerable... and the timeline still warped.
Having witnessed what would serve as a rather dismal future for humanity following her own time, Lightning decided to stay in Valhalla and attempt to defend Etro- namely from a man named Caius who wanted to destroy her for his own reasons. She began to put her own plan in motion, including sending back a young man named Noel and a moogle named Mog to find Serah and bring her to Valhalla to help.
Other than relaying messages back into her friends' dreams to try and guide them, Lightning's further influence on events was indirect at best. It wasn't until the time travelers were deceived and separated, forced by Caius into being potentially trapped forever inside their own personal fantasies, that Lightning intervened, appearing to them in a wasted future version of Serah's hometown after they'd made their way out. She explained what she understood of Caius' motivations and gave them the key towards their next step in their journey, but then soon had to return to her endless battle with the man.
Unfortunately, Lightning's schemes failed rather epicly, because in her distraction she managed to miss that Serah had gained a power that would inevitably lead to the girl's death. Caius tricked her into witnessing it, and with her guard down, soundly defeated her. Because of this, she wasn't there to meet Serah, Noel, and Mog when they finally made it to Valhalla, and they fell into Caius' plan to have Noel kill him there, inadvertently finishing off the heart of the goddess inside of him as well. When the three made it out of Valhalla again, everything seemed solved and worthy of a happy ending card again... and then Serah was promptly struck by one last vision, killing her instantly and completing the paradoxical loop.
Because death actually had no meaning in Valhalla, Lightning had continued to exist, but distraught and failing to wrest control of her sister's fate from the forces claiming to hold her, her will began to break. Serah's spirit appeared to her then, insisting she didn't have a problem with surrendering her life in order to save the world-- but pleading with Lightning to not forget her. In agreeing, Lightning decided to essentially sacrifice herself as well, willingly transforming into crystal while seated on Etro's throne, knowing that she - and her devotion to preserving Serah's memory - would be indestructible in that form.
And that's the state of things as of the ending of XIII-2. Lightning was caught in eternal dreaming as she waited for an opportunity to act again, and the world transformed into a merged version of Gran Pulse and Valhalla, without natural death or birth... and waiting for a savior to lead the souls of those left to the new world beyond its inevitable destruction.
Reincarnated History
Like Lightning, the early life of 'Kallie' was relatively uneventful-- although arguably quite a bit luckier. Kallie's parents remain alive, fully prepared to call their only daughter up for regular status updates... even as she, like many young women her age, does her best to distance herself from them. Her father was a stormchaser in his earlier years, although upon falling in love and marrying an aircraft inspector just short of twice his age, settled into the noticeably less rainswept, more predictive and steadily-paying side of meteorology instead. By her fifteenth birthday, Kallie's mother had already retired; while not filthy rich, Kallie was allowed to live a perfectly suburban life as a fairly normal, albeit rather serious child.
By the time she'd reached the end of elementary school it was clear Kallie possessed a strong passion for running like the winds her parents had left behind, and it was only natural she was roped into participating in track and cross-country as soon as an organized group got ahold of her. By the time she was halfway through high school, she was regularly attending various sanctioned races and such things on the side as well... and yet remained somewhat lacking in the social credentials needed for teenaged politics. Not popular enough to be anywhere near prom royalty, yet too sports-centered and difficult to pick on to fall into the ranks of nerddom, she drifted through to graduation with average grades and tidal friendships.
As such, she only seemed to resist developing any solid ambitions for her future. Despite her general lack of focus, however, on her parents' insistence that she attend college somewhere instead of dropping immediately into the work force, after a year of break she applied and was accepted into Locke City University.
Despite still getting far, far more exercise than the average American though, Kallie was more or less burnt out by the experiences she had endured in high school, and the idea of participating in any organized sports herself no longer interested her. She turned down the chance to join any of the school's programs- even as she declared a major in athletic training.
And, as a young woman still reluctant to get pulled into the regular social antics of college freshmen, and unhappy with using what free time she had between class, study, and acting like she was the star in a training montage by simply surfing Facebook in her dorm, she also wrangled a part-time job counter-jockeying at the university's health center. If nothing else, it paid for the clothes and entry fees her scholarships and parents wouldn't, and into her sophomore year, she'd managed to hang onto it for over a year at least.
First Echo:
(Note: Kallie was in the first ten characters to be accepted into StE before the game kicked into gear, and back then requirements for Echoes were less stringent; were she apped more recently, this would need to be described as reflecting something from canon much more closely. v_v )
Ten minutes before the doors would have been locked down, a man that was neither student nor faculty but clearly high on something wandered into the university's health center, where Kallie had been readying to leave for the day. When he grew belligerent and threats to call security only made him angrier, the man thought it would be a fabulous idea to leap across the counter at her... whereas she promptly experienced her initial Echo. With a crackling POW, the delinquent went down in a surge of violet-colored electricity.
Stunned until campus police arrived a minute later, he was subdued and taken away. However, Kallie was baffled and totally unable to describe what exactly had happened-- or rather, what she'd done. Although she had no name for it, she'd gained the ability to use weak Thunder spells at will and the knowledge of a number she had no prior reference for... and although she didn't know it, a part of her soul had been changed into chaos.
Preincarnation Personality:
When Lightning's story began, she was for the most part withdrawn, bitter, and distrustful of almost everyone she came in contact with. She was a woman who had lost sight of what was truly important to her, and although once it was taken from her she displayed a very powerful desire to get it back, she also had very little idea how to properly do so. Instead, she just charged forward, taking life as it threw things at her; aside from her sister, she cared little for what most of those around her did with themselves... as long as they didn't get in her way. Her initial reactions were restricted to not much more than simply shrugging off or even attempting to leave behind anyone too slow or otherwise inconvenient in the pursuit of her goals. In addition, although she was clearly agitated towards the murder of innocent civilians during the Purge, in a way they were merely numbers to her, not quite as important as the loss of her sister. Needless to say, her view towards her civilization's way of life and government had turned very resentful immediately following Serah's transformation into a l'Cie.
Of course, this worsened when Serah was actually crystallized... when Lightning became convinced that her sister was gone, and that the only path left to her was one of revenge against the beings who had wronged her so gravely.
However, although Lightning may have tried her best to put up a tough façade, there was always that more fragile, insecure aspect to her as well - seen only briefly in flashbacks, and studiously hidden during the main storyline until moments of self-development. The truth is, Lightning's initial demeanor was in itself an amped-up version of the construct she'd created to protect herself and her sister after their parents' deaths, yet a good part of what makes her ultimately stronger is the change in outlook she undergoes over the first game's storyline: the release of that stiff front she'd built, the release of her grudges and anger and defensiveness, and then truly becoming what she needed to be, rather than what she thought she needed to be.
Over time, the tenseness that constantly colored most of her early interactions with others began to fade. She started to see parts of herself and her troubles in her companions, and as they spent more time together, her view of the world and her purpose finally began to clarify. Her leadership switched from an aloof, overly forceful and blunt manner that the others really only followed reluctantly, to one that was more based on compassion and a solid foundation of better understanding their ultimate goals and duty. This became especially clear in the change in her behavior towards Hope, her apology towards Snow, and finally later when Fang's Eidolon attacks the group inside the Ark. Rather than grow agitated like she might have earlier on, Lightning simply stood up for and calmly reached out to the rebellious woman, appealing that it was more beneficial to fight with them and towards their goal of freedom — for themselves and the citizens of Cocoon. By the end of the game, Lightning had accepted her responsibility in rescuing Cocoon's people from a dark fate no matter what it took, to defy the purpose of their Focus and accomplish the impossible. Her hope that they would find a solution to their time quickly running out, find a way to save Cocoon, would see Serah again was entirely unbreakable.
Of course, she continued to change following the Pulse l'Cie's success in simultaneously saving and "destroying" Cocoon as it was under the Sanctum fal'Cie rule; although she could still be quite blunt and taciturn at times, especially to those she didn't know well or flat-out disliked, Lightning's experiences following the fight of wills at the end of FFXIII ended up deeply affecting her. She experienced a brief flash of hope, a conundrum that still required solving... and then was whisked away from her moment of happiness by the repercussions of their altered fate, presented with an entirely new opportunity to carve out a purpose for herself and her new family.
As of XIII-2, she was still extremely passionate, although then overlaid by a quiet desperation and a determination to fix what she believed to be her responsibility in part to save: the future that was in immediate danger by the chaos held within Valhalla and Caius' plan to unleash it. Although made very powerful, she was also extremely restricted - despite seeing the timeline, she could barely do anything herself because she also couldn't leave Valhalla's realm for very long at all. Her only capability was to hold Caius off, attempting to guide those she once knew from the sidelines, unable to even directly speak to most of them. Of particular interest, when she finally did appear to Serah and Noel, she refused to answer Serah's wish to be together at the end of their journey with a solid answer, insisting instead on "one thing at a time." When she spoke to Serah indirectly mid-game, her words carried a strong note of sadness to them (...and perhaps even outright angst, given her surprise at finding out her old military buddies continued to honor her memory).
... And then her efforts turned out to be mostly in vain by the end of XIII-2, and in witnessing Serah's death her will wavered for the first time in a long while-- and then was promptly convinced to harden again, to the point where she was willing to sacrifice herself to preserve her sister's memory. Emotionally, she'd been through so much, and yet despite that, despite being jerked away from what she truly wanted, being what many would consider utterly defeated, she remained determined to not give in, up to and beyond everything - time and reality itself - being violently undone.
In any case, putting aside her ever-present, immense weakness for her little sister, and while she'd no doubt grown more understanding and more willing to embrace calmness and patience in general, she could still be easy to irritate and somewhat prone to lashing out if she's finally pushed that far. It had always taken a lot to change her opinion on something, and though that stubbornness in her certainly mellowed over time, she could still be rather intolerant of any conflicting views or actions. Unerringly honest, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind, and possessed a sharp intuition for seeing more than what was on the surface and/or putting together what she already knew into a larger picture. A woman who refused to take challenges idly, she had every intention of using that aspect of herself, her talents, and whatever power she possessed to carry out whatever cause she decided to apply herself to.
Any differences:
First and foremost, Kallie is not "Lightning."
Specifically, because she has living parents and is an only child on top of that, unlike the teenaged Claire mourning in the wake of her mother's death, desperate for a way to leave her childhood behind and make herself feel strong enough to cope, that persona was never purposefully developed in this case. This is an extensive difference. Lightning's mindset was irretrievably entwined with her experiences - being forced to grow up early, left alone in the world except for her younger sister who she needed to care for, and personally convinced that doing things alone was a requirement. In contrast, Kallie has never really tasted much tragedy. All things considered, aside from the little zany things that you'd expect out of any normal family in the first place, her life is almost painfully ordinary.
As a result, the sheer intensity of Kallie's personality is toned down in comparison, and her socialization is reasonably more... in-depth than what super serious soldier girl Lightning would have had. She has a job and hobbies and pretty much a guarantee she'll eventually earn a degree, but she remains a bit aimless regardless, a touch more self-serving and indifferent than Lightning ever was. She's a college girl, not someone in a position to be so blinded by guilt and the desire to rescue her doomed sister that she drops everything, literally gives up her entire life, and rushes off to do something without even a solid plan. She's not a trained fighter from a world where gravity seems more of a guideline than a law and monsters with magical powers are a part of her everyday life.
That said, that doesn't mean Kallie really has her life together, either. While she's naturally athletic and enjoys not just running, but exercise in general... it's pretty much for her own benefit alone- remarks on her fitness or appearance are generally shrugged off because she possesses very little to zero desire to impress. Her grades have always been good but just short of great because... why should she try harder for something if the end result is more or less the same? She differs from Lightning in this regard because her preincarnation always pushed herself to her full potential, yet aside from people asking her and expecting her to do this or that, Kallie has at best a lukewarm drive to do most things.
Kallie lives a kind of dichotomy where she wants to help people, but aside from small bouts of her innate passionate tendencies (see: her attendance in running events, which are often held as fundraisers for certain causes), she tends to hold herself apart from others. Her manner with those she goes to school and works with is matter-of-fact and efficient. Because she doesn't relate to others easily, she's known to just go along with the flow of whatever her "friends" want to do-- until withdrawing entirely the moment she becomes uncomfortable with something. She's stubborn and doesn't like to be pushed around.
Short version of all this is, while it's for different reasons, Kallie's likely to resemble that early-XIII personality the most when she first begins to experience Echoes- in other words, when things start falling out of her control. Early-Lightning was obstinate, aloof, and set on knocking down everything in her way; driven but ultimately 'meaningless' once she thought Serah was gone forever, she required moments of having things pointed out to her and connecting with other people before she finally settled into someone more useful than dangerous. Likewise, Kallie will probably be taciturn and blunt at the same time she's desperately wanting answers for why she's abruptly evolving weird powers. Over time, she'll probably develop to be calmer in the same way her XIII-2 incarnation is, but for now...
Abilities:
Due to her time as a l'Cie, triumphing over one of the Goddess Etro's messenger Eidolons, and eventually being part of the miracle/catastrophe that was Etro saving the crystallized l'Cie from stasis, Lightning's spirit was particularly in-tune with Etro, the deity responsible for (accidentally) creating humanity and ruling over the connection between the seen (affected by the timeline) and unseen (outside of or beyond the end of the timeline) realms. As a result of possessing Etro's specific blessing as her Champion, set to directly defend the sleeping deity, she was... absolutely ridiculous, overflowing with divine strength which enhanced her already existing talents and experience to a crazy degree-
Supernaturally strong and fast, she wielded a large scope of magical abilities, ranging through everything from spells that allowed her to attack with magical electricity and wind, enhance her own strength/protections, hit her enemies with various 'debuffing' ailments... to the capability of summoning her gunblade from nothing and controlling gravity and her personal inertia at will (her monster version's auto-ability of 'Immovable MAX' = good luck interrupting her attacks by knocking her down; in cutscenes she literally hangs in the air as she resists a blow). She also had command over any other being she defeated in Valhalla- including not just a veritable army of monsters and her own Eidolon summon, Odin, but several other versions of Odin and at least two other different Eidolons as well: Bahamut and Shiva. Her actual manifestation of power was her Eidolith, a pink-colored crystal in the shape of a rose's open bloom; like most instances in the Final Fantasy series, this means her magic ultimately arose from a crystal-based source (even if it wasn't always tangible).
Even without all the magical abilities, however, she was still a force to be reckoned with. As athletic and acrobatic as she was, her fighting style often included flips and somersaults both offensively and defensively. As a former soldier, she was a stellar swords- and marks-man, and her signature weapon, a 'gunblade,' which in Cocoon's military was only issued to the most skilled, reflected both of these. She was shown, amongst other things, using a rocket launcher, flying airships, operating complicated machinery, and utilizing a personal gravity-controlling device with expertise. Before resigning and then being marked as a Pulse l'Cie, she was a sergeant in line for a promotion and set to be trained for commissioning; likely the only reason why she wasn't already in some sort of position of prestige was because of her devotion to her sister and unwillingness to compromise it.
Because of all of this and her glimpse of her world's entire timeline... it's kind of safe to say there's a reason why Noel initially asked her if she was the Goddess of War when they first met-- and why, despite probably having a pretty good idea of who she was, her fated rival Caius specifically (if also tauntingly) addressed her in this manner as well. Regardless of her current power level, she repeatedly showed the ability to make important, split-second decisions to get herself and whoever she happens to be with out of danger. Or... if the situation calls for it, into danger, of course, in the pursuit of taking down whatever she deemed worthy of her wrath.
Roleplay Sample – Third Person:
Thread from damned. Mid-XIII canonpoint.
Roleplay Sample - Network:
Post from luceti. Mid-XIII canonpoint.
Post from exsilium. End of XIII-2 canonpoint.
Any Questions? How many heartbreaks does it take to get to the end of a Square-Enix money-making pop?
Name: Anduin
Are you over 15? Yes.
Contact: My plurk at
IC Information:
Name: Lightning (Claire Farron), AKA Kallie Raydan
Canon: Final Fantasy XIII series
Age: 21, both here and in canon... though it is worth noting that as of XIII-2, she's also been kicked out of time, glanced through all of history, and been in a never-ending loop for who knows how long.
Preincarnation Appearance: Yep.
Any differences: Rather than pink, her hair is - for now - dark brown. Other than that she's basically the same except without the muscling and calluses and such that would come from knowing how to swing a huge sword/gun combo around. She's very athletic but not a fighter.
Preincarnated History:
(This is a somewhat condensed version of events with many in-canon references left intact. Click here for her page on the FF Wikia if you need links to more info on anything.)
To its many millions of inhabitants, living in the world called 'Cocoon' was like living in a paradise. With their every need cared for, the humans who lived there existed in harmony alongside the various beings called fal'Cie who cared for them... in fact, there was only one thing that they would even considering fearing: Cocoon was an artificial, floating land, and the world below, Gran Pulse, was said to harbor countless horrors who wished nothing more than to harm Cocoon and its people. There was no real reason for any of Cocoon's inhabitants to doubt this... all one had to do was look to the huge rift made in the world's outer shell, the remains of a war between Cocoon and Pulse hundreds of years previous.
Lightning's life started as Claire Farron. Little is known about her early years, except that her father died when she was young, and when she was about fifteen years old, her mother also passed away of an unspecified illness, leaving her and her younger sister, Serah, as orphans. The young woman was deeply affected by her mother's death and onset of responsibility over her sister, and as a personal rite of passage, adopted a new name and identity to mark her sudden transition into adulthood.
While in a rougher situation than most, Lightning tried her best to take care of Serah, joining the Security Regiment of the Guardian Corps and eventually becoming a sergeant. However, over time the intensity in which she threw herself into her job eventually began to drive a wedge between the girls- something which came to a head on the older Farron's twenty-first birthday. When Serah revealed she'd somehow been marked as a Pulse l'Cie... and had promised to marry a man Lightning very much disapproved of, in a fit of furious disbelief, Lightning was quick to drive them away. Regardless, she then found herself in quite a predicament when the story turned out to be true. Because of a Pulse fal'Cie found outside of it, Bodhum was being evacuated and all of the residents relocated to Pulse- or so the government told them. When Lightning resigned her rank and immunity and inserted herself into the mess, determined to rescue Serah, it quickly became apparent the "Purge" was nothing more than an excuse to murder all of the civilians present. What's worse, when Lightning, Serah's fiance, Snow, and three others who'd followed them made their way to the fal'Cie's hold, they were marked as l'Cie as well.
The group was forced to flee the military, confused about what they should do. Emotionally destroyed at the apparent loss of her sister, Lightning's plan was to reach the capitol of Cocoon and bring her grievances at what she'd witnessed and endured straight to the Sanctum fal'Cie's door. She refused to stop even when Snow wanted to try and save Serah, when Sazh, Vanille, and Hope couldn't keep up with her pace. Regardless, it didn't take long for her to soften anyway- especially when her frustration summoned an Eidolon to her and nearly got Hope killed, and in particular as she and the vengeful teen journeyed together, coming to trust each other as partners and slowly working out more truths about their problems.
When the l'Cie all managed to regroup again, including a new woman named Fang who revealed herself and Vanille as originally from Gran Pulse in the first place, they decided they needed to rescue Vanille and Sazh from imminent execution. The issue was, although they'd already suspected a trap, it was there they ran into the head of the Cocoon government who actually wasn't a man at all, but a fal'Cie named Barthandelus with a bizarre conviction to help them destroy the floating world.
Forced to fly first to a hidden Pulsian armory, then to Gran Pulse itself, the l'Cie continued growing stronger in both their powers and their bonds to each other. There was nothing to find on the planet except ruins and monsters and Cie'th - failed former l'Cie. The goal was apparently also to demoralize them, and by the time they had reached the abandoned remnants of Fang and Vanille's town, Barthandelus was ready to manipulate them into going back to Cocoon, inciting a panic when they were revealed and as the capitol was flooded with monsters. The l'Cie made their way to Edenhall, but when faced with the fal'Cie whose death would cause Cocoon to fall, refused to do the deed 'correctly.' Fang was the only one to respond to the goading, but her transformation into the fated monster Ragnarok wasn't strong enough. Lightning and the others resisted and managed to recapture their cohesion as a tragedy-made family, and challenged the fal'Cie as they were, claiming they would make the impossible possible.
Cocoon still fell, though. Thankfully, even as Lightning and the other Cocoon-born l'Cie began to crystallize as a result of completing their Focus, Fang and Vanille took matters into their own hands, transforming into the complete version of Ragnarok together, creating a pillar in between Cocoon and Gran Pulse, and thus saving the tens of millions of people at risk from a fatal run-in with gravity.
Following this, there should have been a happy ending. The now former Pulse l'Cie were reunited with their loved ones, and the people of Cocoon were now free from secretly-malignant fal'Cie rule.
However, if this were true, there never would have been a second game. Abruptly, Lightning was seemingly attacked and dragged away by a mysterious force... and Serah became the only one who even remembered the woman being there after Cocoon was saved in the first place. Lightning was taken to Valhalla, at the end of time, where she learned that she and the other l'Cie being returned to normal had come at a price- the goddess Etro had shown mercy on them, but in that moment the gate between the realm of the living and dead had accidentally let through some of the unnamed chaos inside Valhalla out. Preventing the chaos from completely destroying reality had drained the goddess of most of her power, leaving her extremely vulnerable... and the timeline still warped.
Having witnessed what would serve as a rather dismal future for humanity following her own time, Lightning decided to stay in Valhalla and attempt to defend Etro- namely from a man named Caius who wanted to destroy her for his own reasons. She began to put her own plan in motion, including sending back a young man named Noel and a moogle named Mog to find Serah and bring her to Valhalla to help.
Other than relaying messages back into her friends' dreams to try and guide them, Lightning's further influence on events was indirect at best. It wasn't until the time travelers were deceived and separated, forced by Caius into being potentially trapped forever inside their own personal fantasies, that Lightning intervened, appearing to them in a wasted future version of Serah's hometown after they'd made their way out. She explained what she understood of Caius' motivations and gave them the key towards their next step in their journey, but then soon had to return to her endless battle with the man.
Unfortunately, Lightning's schemes failed rather epicly, because in her distraction she managed to miss that Serah had gained a power that would inevitably lead to the girl's death. Caius tricked her into witnessing it, and with her guard down, soundly defeated her. Because of this, she wasn't there to meet Serah, Noel, and Mog when they finally made it to Valhalla, and they fell into Caius' plan to have Noel kill him there, inadvertently finishing off the heart of the goddess inside of him as well. When the three made it out of Valhalla again, everything seemed solved and worthy of a happy ending card again... and then Serah was promptly struck by one last vision, killing her instantly and completing the paradoxical loop.
Because death actually had no meaning in Valhalla, Lightning had continued to exist, but distraught and failing to wrest control of her sister's fate from the forces claiming to hold her, her will began to break. Serah's spirit appeared to her then, insisting she didn't have a problem with surrendering her life in order to save the world-- but pleading with Lightning to not forget her. In agreeing, Lightning decided to essentially sacrifice herself as well, willingly transforming into crystal while seated on Etro's throne, knowing that she - and her devotion to preserving Serah's memory - would be indestructible in that form.
And that's the state of things as of the ending of XIII-2. Lightning was caught in eternal dreaming as she waited for an opportunity to act again, and the world transformed into a merged version of Gran Pulse and Valhalla, without natural death or birth... and waiting for a savior to lead the souls of those left to the new world beyond its inevitable destruction.
Reincarnated History
Like Lightning, the early life of 'Kallie' was relatively uneventful-- although arguably quite a bit luckier. Kallie's parents remain alive, fully prepared to call their only daughter up for regular status updates... even as she, like many young women her age, does her best to distance herself from them. Her father was a stormchaser in his earlier years, although upon falling in love and marrying an aircraft inspector just short of twice his age, settled into the noticeably less rainswept, more predictive and steadily-paying side of meteorology instead. By her fifteenth birthday, Kallie's mother had already retired; while not filthy rich, Kallie was allowed to live a perfectly suburban life as a fairly normal, albeit rather serious child.
By the time she'd reached the end of elementary school it was clear Kallie possessed a strong passion for running like the winds her parents had left behind, and it was only natural she was roped into participating in track and cross-country as soon as an organized group got ahold of her. By the time she was halfway through high school, she was regularly attending various sanctioned races and such things on the side as well... and yet remained somewhat lacking in the social credentials needed for teenaged politics. Not popular enough to be anywhere near prom royalty, yet too sports-centered and difficult to pick on to fall into the ranks of nerddom, she drifted through to graduation with average grades and tidal friendships.
As such, she only seemed to resist developing any solid ambitions for her future. Despite her general lack of focus, however, on her parents' insistence that she attend college somewhere instead of dropping immediately into the work force, after a year of break she applied and was accepted into Locke City University.
Despite still getting far, far more exercise than the average American though, Kallie was more or less burnt out by the experiences she had endured in high school, and the idea of participating in any organized sports herself no longer interested her. She turned down the chance to join any of the school's programs- even as she declared a major in athletic training.
And, as a young woman still reluctant to get pulled into the regular social antics of college freshmen, and unhappy with using what free time she had between class, study, and acting like she was the star in a training montage by simply surfing Facebook in her dorm, she also wrangled a part-time job counter-jockeying at the university's health center. If nothing else, it paid for the clothes and entry fees her scholarships and parents wouldn't, and into her sophomore year, she'd managed to hang onto it for over a year at least.
First Echo:
(Note: Kallie was in the first ten characters to be accepted into StE before the game kicked into gear, and back then requirements for Echoes were less stringent; were she apped more recently, this would need to be described as reflecting something from canon much more closely. v_v )
Ten minutes before the doors would have been locked down, a man that was neither student nor faculty but clearly high on something wandered into the university's health center, where Kallie had been readying to leave for the day. When he grew belligerent and threats to call security only made him angrier, the man thought it would be a fabulous idea to leap across the counter at her... whereas she promptly experienced her initial Echo. With a crackling POW, the delinquent went down in a surge of violet-colored electricity.
Stunned until campus police arrived a minute later, he was subdued and taken away. However, Kallie was baffled and totally unable to describe what exactly had happened-- or rather, what she'd done. Although she had no name for it, she'd gained the ability to use weak Thunder spells at will and the knowledge of a number she had no prior reference for... and although she didn't know it, a part of her soul had been changed into chaos.
Preincarnation Personality:
When Lightning's story began, she was for the most part withdrawn, bitter, and distrustful of almost everyone she came in contact with. She was a woman who had lost sight of what was truly important to her, and although once it was taken from her she displayed a very powerful desire to get it back, she also had very little idea how to properly do so. Instead, she just charged forward, taking life as it threw things at her; aside from her sister, she cared little for what most of those around her did with themselves... as long as they didn't get in her way. Her initial reactions were restricted to not much more than simply shrugging off or even attempting to leave behind anyone too slow or otherwise inconvenient in the pursuit of her goals. In addition, although she was clearly agitated towards the murder of innocent civilians during the Purge, in a way they were merely numbers to her, not quite as important as the loss of her sister. Needless to say, her view towards her civilization's way of life and government had turned very resentful immediately following Serah's transformation into a l'Cie.
Of course, this worsened when Serah was actually crystallized... when Lightning became convinced that her sister was gone, and that the only path left to her was one of revenge against the beings who had wronged her so gravely.
However, although Lightning may have tried her best to put up a tough façade, there was always that more fragile, insecure aspect to her as well - seen only briefly in flashbacks, and studiously hidden during the main storyline until moments of self-development. The truth is, Lightning's initial demeanor was in itself an amped-up version of the construct she'd created to protect herself and her sister after their parents' deaths, yet a good part of what makes her ultimately stronger is the change in outlook she undergoes over the first game's storyline: the release of that stiff front she'd built, the release of her grudges and anger and defensiveness, and then truly becoming what she needed to be, rather than what she thought she needed to be.
Over time, the tenseness that constantly colored most of her early interactions with others began to fade. She started to see parts of herself and her troubles in her companions, and as they spent more time together, her view of the world and her purpose finally began to clarify. Her leadership switched from an aloof, overly forceful and blunt manner that the others really only followed reluctantly, to one that was more based on compassion and a solid foundation of better understanding their ultimate goals and duty. This became especially clear in the change in her behavior towards Hope, her apology towards Snow, and finally later when Fang's Eidolon attacks the group inside the Ark. Rather than grow agitated like she might have earlier on, Lightning simply stood up for and calmly reached out to the rebellious woman, appealing that it was more beneficial to fight with them and towards their goal of freedom — for themselves and the citizens of Cocoon. By the end of the game, Lightning had accepted her responsibility in rescuing Cocoon's people from a dark fate no matter what it took, to defy the purpose of their Focus and accomplish the impossible. Her hope that they would find a solution to their time quickly running out, find a way to save Cocoon, would see Serah again was entirely unbreakable.
Of course, she continued to change following the Pulse l'Cie's success in simultaneously saving and "destroying" Cocoon as it was under the Sanctum fal'Cie rule; although she could still be quite blunt and taciturn at times, especially to those she didn't know well or flat-out disliked, Lightning's experiences following the fight of wills at the end of FFXIII ended up deeply affecting her. She experienced a brief flash of hope, a conundrum that still required solving... and then was whisked away from her moment of happiness by the repercussions of their altered fate, presented with an entirely new opportunity to carve out a purpose for herself and her new family.
As of XIII-2, she was still extremely passionate, although then overlaid by a quiet desperation and a determination to fix what she believed to be her responsibility in part to save: the future that was in immediate danger by the chaos held within Valhalla and Caius' plan to unleash it. Although made very powerful, she was also extremely restricted - despite seeing the timeline, she could barely do anything herself because she also couldn't leave Valhalla's realm for very long at all. Her only capability was to hold Caius off, attempting to guide those she once knew from the sidelines, unable to even directly speak to most of them. Of particular interest, when she finally did appear to Serah and Noel, she refused to answer Serah's wish to be together at the end of their journey with a solid answer, insisting instead on "one thing at a time." When she spoke to Serah indirectly mid-game, her words carried a strong note of sadness to them (...and perhaps even outright angst, given her surprise at finding out her old military buddies continued to honor her memory).
... And then her efforts turned out to be mostly in vain by the end of XIII-2, and in witnessing Serah's death her will wavered for the first time in a long while-- and then was promptly convinced to harden again, to the point where she was willing to sacrifice herself to preserve her sister's memory. Emotionally, she'd been through so much, and yet despite that, despite being jerked away from what she truly wanted, being what many would consider utterly defeated, she remained determined to not give in, up to and beyond everything - time and reality itself - being violently undone.
In any case, putting aside her ever-present, immense weakness for her little sister, and while she'd no doubt grown more understanding and more willing to embrace calmness and patience in general, she could still be easy to irritate and somewhat prone to lashing out if she's finally pushed that far. It had always taken a lot to change her opinion on something, and though that stubbornness in her certainly mellowed over time, she could still be rather intolerant of any conflicting views or actions. Unerringly honest, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind, and possessed a sharp intuition for seeing more than what was on the surface and/or putting together what she already knew into a larger picture. A woman who refused to take challenges idly, she had every intention of using that aspect of herself, her talents, and whatever power she possessed to carry out whatever cause she decided to apply herself to.
Any differences:
First and foremost, Kallie is not "Lightning."
Specifically, because she has living parents and is an only child on top of that, unlike the teenaged Claire mourning in the wake of her mother's death, desperate for a way to leave her childhood behind and make herself feel strong enough to cope, that persona was never purposefully developed in this case. This is an extensive difference. Lightning's mindset was irretrievably entwined with her experiences - being forced to grow up early, left alone in the world except for her younger sister who she needed to care for, and personally convinced that doing things alone was a requirement. In contrast, Kallie has never really tasted much tragedy. All things considered, aside from the little zany things that you'd expect out of any normal family in the first place, her life is almost painfully ordinary.
As a result, the sheer intensity of Kallie's personality is toned down in comparison, and her socialization is reasonably more... in-depth than what super serious soldier girl Lightning would have had. She has a job and hobbies and pretty much a guarantee she'll eventually earn a degree, but she remains a bit aimless regardless, a touch more self-serving and indifferent than Lightning ever was. She's a college girl, not someone in a position to be so blinded by guilt and the desire to rescue her doomed sister that she drops everything, literally gives up her entire life, and rushes off to do something without even a solid plan. She's not a trained fighter from a world where gravity seems more of a guideline than a law and monsters with magical powers are a part of her everyday life.
That said, that doesn't mean Kallie really has her life together, either. While she's naturally athletic and enjoys not just running, but exercise in general... it's pretty much for her own benefit alone- remarks on her fitness or appearance are generally shrugged off because she possesses very little to zero desire to impress. Her grades have always been good but just short of great because... why should she try harder for something if the end result is more or less the same? She differs from Lightning in this regard because her preincarnation always pushed herself to her full potential, yet aside from people asking her and expecting her to do this or that, Kallie has at best a lukewarm drive to do most things.
Kallie lives a kind of dichotomy where she wants to help people, but aside from small bouts of her innate passionate tendencies (see: her attendance in running events, which are often held as fundraisers for certain causes), she tends to hold herself apart from others. Her manner with those she goes to school and works with is matter-of-fact and efficient. Because she doesn't relate to others easily, she's known to just go along with the flow of whatever her "friends" want to do-- until withdrawing entirely the moment she becomes uncomfortable with something. She's stubborn and doesn't like to be pushed around.
Short version of all this is, while it's for different reasons, Kallie's likely to resemble that early-XIII personality the most when she first begins to experience Echoes- in other words, when things start falling out of her control. Early-Lightning was obstinate, aloof, and set on knocking down everything in her way; driven but ultimately 'meaningless' once she thought Serah was gone forever, she required moments of having things pointed out to her and connecting with other people before she finally settled into someone more useful than dangerous. Likewise, Kallie will probably be taciturn and blunt at the same time she's desperately wanting answers for why she's abruptly evolving weird powers. Over time, she'll probably develop to be calmer in the same way her XIII-2 incarnation is, but for now...
Abilities:
Due to her time as a l'Cie, triumphing over one of the Goddess Etro's messenger Eidolons, and eventually being part of the miracle/catastrophe that was Etro saving the crystallized l'Cie from stasis, Lightning's spirit was particularly in-tune with Etro, the deity responsible for (accidentally) creating humanity and ruling over the connection between the seen (affected by the timeline) and unseen (outside of or beyond the end of the timeline) realms. As a result of possessing Etro's specific blessing as her Champion, set to directly defend the sleeping deity, she was... absolutely ridiculous, overflowing with divine strength which enhanced her already existing talents and experience to a crazy degree-
Supernaturally strong and fast, she wielded a large scope of magical abilities, ranging through everything from spells that allowed her to attack with magical electricity and wind, enhance her own strength/protections, hit her enemies with various 'debuffing' ailments... to the capability of summoning her gunblade from nothing and controlling gravity and her personal inertia at will (her monster version's auto-ability of 'Immovable MAX' = good luck interrupting her attacks by knocking her down; in cutscenes she literally hangs in the air as she resists a blow). She also had command over any other being she defeated in Valhalla- including not just a veritable army of monsters and her own Eidolon summon, Odin, but several other versions of Odin and at least two other different Eidolons as well: Bahamut and Shiva. Her actual manifestation of power was her Eidolith, a pink-colored crystal in the shape of a rose's open bloom; like most instances in the Final Fantasy series, this means her magic ultimately arose from a crystal-based source (even if it wasn't always tangible).
Even without all the magical abilities, however, she was still a force to be reckoned with. As athletic and acrobatic as she was, her fighting style often included flips and somersaults both offensively and defensively. As a former soldier, she was a stellar swords- and marks-man, and her signature weapon, a 'gunblade,' which in Cocoon's military was only issued to the most skilled, reflected both of these. She was shown, amongst other things, using a rocket launcher, flying airships, operating complicated machinery, and utilizing a personal gravity-controlling device with expertise. Before resigning and then being marked as a Pulse l'Cie, she was a sergeant in line for a promotion and set to be trained for commissioning; likely the only reason why she wasn't already in some sort of position of prestige was because of her devotion to her sister and unwillingness to compromise it.
Because of all of this and her glimpse of her world's entire timeline... it's kind of safe to say there's a reason why Noel initially asked her if she was the Goddess of War when they first met-- and why, despite probably having a pretty good idea of who she was, her fated rival Caius specifically (if also tauntingly) addressed her in this manner as well. Regardless of her current power level, she repeatedly showed the ability to make important, split-second decisions to get herself and whoever she happens to be with out of danger. Or... if the situation calls for it, into danger, of course, in the pursuit of taking down whatever she deemed worthy of her wrath.
Roleplay Sample – Third Person:
Thread from damned. Mid-XIII canonpoint.
Roleplay Sample - Network:
Post from luceti. Mid-XIII canonpoint.
Post from exsilium. End of XIII-2 canonpoint.
Any Questions? How many heartbreaks does it take to get to the end of a Square-Enix money-making pop?