Irvine Kinneas (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
reconjunction) wrote2015-07-30 09:32 pm
reconjunction) wrote2015-07-30 09:32 pm
Entry tags:
application for Tushan
Player Information:
NAME: Pur
AGE: 28
CONTACT: PM to journal
GAME CAST: Solomon Wreath, Anton Shudder
MOST RECENT AC LINK: Previous AC here!
Please note: headcanon will be marked in purple text.
Character Information:
NAME: Irvine Kinneas
CANON: Final Fantasy 8
CANONPOINT: Post-game
AGE: 17
REFERENCE: Wiki! Publicly changeable, take with a grain of salt and all that.
SETTING: FF8 is a magic-tech world with wild magicalpokémon monsters. The world isn’t a wasteland but leans toward it, with scattered populations. Most monsters are non-sentient, but the neutral forces are. Humans are the dominant sapient species but aren’t the only; shumi are a humanoid artisan race who permanently shapeshift as they age.
Game mechanics imply that nations encompass single cities, but I’m assuming there are other townships unseen on the world map. Otherwise the world seems to be inhabited by two major nations and a handful of duchies. The most relevant are Balamb Island (PCs’ hometown), Galbadia (militaristic and expansionist tyranny) and Esthar (reclusive and highly advanced democracy).
SeeD
SeeD is a special operations mercenary force. Cadets are trained in three academies called Gardens—Balamb, Galbadia and Trabia. Balamb is the first, established twelve years pre-canon, and the only one which administers the SeeD exam. SeeDs are deployed on contract to whomever needs them and can pay for their services.
The Gardens administer their curriculum differently. Balamb leans toward combat magic while Trabia apparently focusses on support; both encourage students to apply for SeeDship. Galbadia Garden focusses on technology and their graduates are more closely tied with the Galbadian Army.
Technology
Technology is post-industrial but quirkily. Galbadia has long-range homing missiles but no telephones. Esthar has achieved local space-flight and hovercraft. Trains are the main means of transport and guns are common weaponry. It’s notable that firearms don’t need reloading except with Irvine’s limit break, but ammo still exists; therefore it seems that advanced gun tech is self-loading, but not yet in widespread use save for military factions.
Magic and tech don’t rely on one another to coexist but aren’t opposing forces. Humans generally use magic in conjunction with technology due to their inherent limitations in using magic at all, and have thereby created ways of using magic as a utility through the technology of junctioning.
Magic
Magic takes the form of eight elements (Fire, Ice, Thunder, Earth, Wind, Water, Poison, Holy), with several non-elemental ‘disciplines’ (Gravity, Recovery, Support, Time, Status, Forbidden). Humans usually only use magic through the go-between of a Guardian Force, which requires junctioning, with two exceptions. Sorceresses are women who can use magic naturally the way monsters do, without junctioning. They’re made by being given the powers of a dying sorceress, and are something of a bogeyman. The other exception is the limit break—a low-HP, magically-buffed effort on the part of trained individuals, which can be used even without GFs.
Some magical skills allow the refining of mundane items from magic or other mundane items (ie refining screws from the playing cards of a specific monster who has an affiliation for mechanical parts), which implies magic permeates everything due to the power of collective perception.
Magic is a collectible item rather than being powered by mana. It’s drawn from opponents and stockpiled, during which time it can be used as a junction source. Many spells come in tiers—ie, ‘Cure’ is basic HP recovery, ‘Cura’ is intermediate recovery, ‘Curaga’ is powerful recovery.
Two notes on Recovery magic/items: Resurrection type magic/items exist, but the canon’s battle gameplay treats ‘unconsciousness’ and ‘death’ as the same thing (ie phoenix feathers resurrect a character, but so do tents). For simplicity I’m assuming that resurrection items handle unconsciousness while resurrection magic revives from death. Both have a reverse effect on undead enemies.
GFs
Guardian Forces are neutral forces of power who allow humans the use of magic. Many of them have elemental or status affiliations (eg Alexander is the Holy elemental). They’re all sapient and all presumably speak human languages, though we don’t see most of them do so (the sentient train speaks human, so I’m assuming the giant green bunny does too). Though intelligent, only a handful are shown interacting in any way other than as a battle tool, and those only very briefly.
GFs are formed to some degree by the power of perception and belief (Griever exists only as a metaphor in a PC’s mind until drawn), and therefore can be allied to multiple people at once (defeating and allying with Ifrit is apparently a standard SeeD test for Balamb’s students, implying that he’s junctioned to multiple SeeDs at once).
GFs can be drawn from opponents or found and defeated in the wild to gain their allegiance. They grow alongside their human allies and can develop additional special abilities, such as the refinement skills mentioned above, as well as special battle powers.
Junctioning
Junctioning is the technology through which humans use GFs and magic, and is used primarily by military forces. The technology is new enough that the drawbacks are considered exaggerations by naysayers.
Using a GF affects brain chemistry and causes memory loss. The longer a GF is used, the more heightened the loss—four of the six protagonists initially don’t remember their childhoods, and it’s regularly noted by NPCs that it’s ‘typical’ of the lead PC to forget classmates he’s known for years. The memory loss can be fought, however. The PCs remember their childhoods with impetus, and later successfully use GFs by reminding each other of their shared experiences.
On a mechanical level junctioning applies magic to various physical and mental assets. Junctioning a GF allows someone to both draw and use magic, as well a GF’s special abilities. Whatever device stockpiles spells can hold 32 individual spells at up to 100 each.
The most useful part of junctioning is junctioning spells to physical stats, defence and attack. The more of a spell stockpiled, and the more powerful the spell, the more powerful the boost. Spells are more effective depending on which stat they’re junctioned to and using spells from this stockpile decreases the effectiveness of their buff.
Junctioning specific elements or status spells to defence can aid defence (junctioning fire magic to defence makes the person resistant to/healed by fire, while a sleep spell renders the person immune to enforced sleep states). Similarly, junctioning to attack can increase damage depending on enemy weaknesses (thunder magic to attack while against robots does more damage; junctioning Sleep makes the target fall asleep on strike).
PERSONALITY: Irvine is intensely lonely, emotionally sensitive, averse to killing, deeply respectful of others and a little bit cowardly. He’s also prone to exaggeration and showing off, and is quite the ladies’ man. He has some issues with memory-loss due to having been literally forgotten by his most precious people.
Irvine was an orphan whose closest friends were his peers at the orphanage (four of them are PCs he meets up with later on). Though we don’t know anything about his childhood after that, we do know that the orphans who weren’t adopted were taken to Balamb with their guardian, who became headmaster. Since Irvine wound up in Galbadia Garden, he must have been adopted. First separated from his only friends and then put into an expansionist nation which emphasises military aptitude, it’s obvious from Irvine’s reactions later that he never made friends as a teen.
While Irvine covers for his loneliness by pretending to romanticise it as part of his specialty, most of his dramatic tendencies are a front for his emotional sensitivity. Galbadia is not a country which is kind to people who can’t obey orders, which makes it interesting that Irvine is so openly irreverent. It’s a way to pretend at a self-assurance Irvine just doesn’t have, while his womanising is a way to get ‘valid’ intimacies. Regardless, it’s not until Irvine is out of Galbadia’s reach that he starts openly displaying his sensitivity. When Selphie needs cheering up, it’s Irvine who gets Squall to do so as their leader; when Squall needs cheering up, it’s Irvine who arranges a music show and a date with Rinoa. When Irvine finds out Zell has a crush, he’s the one who encourages him, and he generally accepts Quistis’s fussing. When Rinoa expresses doubt about their course of action, it’s Irvine who reciprocates by revealing his innermost feelings.
Irvine’s strength is in people—he’s sympathetic to them and wants to help them, and is willing to bare himself to do it. Although Selphie presents as the one who’s most outgoing and people-oriented, it’s Irvine who holds the group together. He’s insightful about peoples’ emotional needs and insistent about their need to stick together. That doesn’t mean he’s always right—Irvine gets particularly frustrated with Squall’s tendency to act as if he doesn’t care about individuals, and although Irvine has frequently held the lives of others in his hands he’s not good with responsibility, has trouble understanding that burden and balks at ruthless action.
This is because Irvine doesn’t like killing or losing people. When Irvine is meant to assassinate Edea, he chokes; though it’s later revealed that he recognises her as the orphanage’s matron, he also states that he can’t perform under pressure, and that ‘this always happens’. Later instances of high-pressure events, such as the missile-silo infiltration, show him to perform well; it’s usually only in instances which require him to kill that he balks. Even though he must have been a successful assassin to be recommended for the mission to kill Edea, the fact that he persistently has trouble killing—especially from a distance—shows that he doesn’t like playing God in such a way, to the point where he will fail his mission if pressed.
For all that Irvine was raised in a tyranny, and for all that he pretends at being irreverent, he does respect people. He obeys General Caraway’s commands to the letter, he respects the hell out of Squall for being a good leader even though he doesn’t understand the burden, and in spite of his womanising tendencies he respects Rinoa, Selphie and Quistis as fighters and people—he doesn’t look down on Rinoa for being reticent to kill or for being emotional, for instance, and he’s usually the one to follow Selphie’s lead rather than trying to lead her. This isn’t just a trait extending to people he knows; a completely random conversation with a stranger leads to the stranger completely changing his philosophical outlook and later greeting Irvine as a friend where their initial conversation was antagonistic. Irvine doesn’t take many insults personally and is respectful of others’ insights, even when they’re not respectful of his and he’s prompted to call them out on it. Sometimes he does put his foot in his mouth, but it’s usually in an attempt to be sympathetic and missing the mark.
This respect for people in combination with his aversion to killing and his sniper skillset do make Irvine a bit of a coward. He’s used to targeting people from afar, used to being in a relatively safe zone. While he finds it easier to fight close-up, this is only true if he’s with others; when confronted alone he’s more likely to run. He also has a tendency to obey orders or look for someone else to give them, rather than taking the responsibility himself. He isn’t the sacrificial type. He’s honestly boggled by Squall’s willingness to rescue Rinoa when she gets caught outside the space-station, in spite of the risk—though Irvine respects the hell out of him for it, he admits he probably wouldn’t do the same. Irvine was brought up to believe that emotions are a weakness, equates that with an inability to shoulder responsibility, and sabotages himself by not even trying. This is especially evident because he uses go-betweens to make his own plans happen; he uses Squall to cheer up Selphie and Selphie as a pretext for the arrangements to cheer up Squall, because he doesn’t believe he can shoulder the responsibility.
While Irvine speaks dramatically about the loneliness of the sharpshooter, his words are real. He admits outright to having been alone before he met with the other PCs, and calls them his comrades. Though it’s revealed that they knew each other previously, the other orphans’ use of the GFs made them forget their shared childhood; Irvine, as the only one who never used GFs in his training, always remembered, and for him they were something for which he yearned. Initially he hides this with belligerence and exaggerated drama, since as far as he knows all of them remembered and knew each other, and he was the only one forgotten. While he does get over this and pursues their friendship—even without those shared experiences if he must—he doesn’t forget, since he’s the one who realises the GFs are responsible.
Though Irvine dislikes killing, he’s the one who initially insists on continuing the GFs’ use in their fight—because the purpose of the Gardens is to raise warriors to fight the sorceress. Though Irvine talks in terms of remaining true to the choices he made which brought him to his present, it’s clearly his way of holding on to the memories of his experiences, ensuring that he keeps them close, and maintaining the person that he is. Irvine, having been forgotten once by the people he loves the most, refuses to let that happen again, or allow himself to do the same to others. Other than his skill with a gun, this is the one thing about himself in which Irvine is most secure and the most driven, and it’s the one thing in which he consistently leads the others.
APPEARANCE: Erskine is no longer the prettiest in Keeliai. Full body shot. Irvine is 6’1” according to supplemental materials.
Galbadia was originally part of the Holy Dollet Empire, which is a Holy Roman Empire analogue, but Galbadia’s capital—Deling City—is inspired by Paris. For that reason, Irvine’s accent is a French/Italian combination.
ABILITIES: Although Irvine never achieves the rank of SeeD, Irvine was trained in Galbadia Garden, whose military training is the most rigorous of the three Gardens. Therefore it’s safe to assume he has hand-to-hand and other general combat training. He can drive—we see him driving an armoured truck—so he’s probably familiar with most Galbadian vehicles.
Irvine specialises in firearms, particularly sniper-rifles, though his default weapon is a shotgun. As a PC Irvine’s skillsets are somewhat customisable, so I’m bringing him in according to two constraints: one, according to personality; two, the fact that Irvine is a sharpshooter.
Snipers and long-range fighters seem to have a more supportive role in Galbadian-style warfare, so Irvine stockpiles and casts magic, and will have a number of powerful spells to junction. He also has less need for GFs.
Canon never acknowledges any kind of language barrier, but given the size of the world it’s almost certain each nation has its own languages and dialects. Since everyone can always understand each other—even the nation that hasn’t seen outsiders in 17 years—it’s obvious there’s some kind of international standard. Irvine will be fluent in that standard, as well as Galbadia’s national language and the dialect of the area where he grew up.
GFs
Since Irvine has the least experience with GFs and the most flail with memory shenanigans, he only has two of them and generally keeps them unjunctioned unless he knows he has to use them. He won’t be able to use any special abilities or magic until they’re junctioned, though he will still be able to sort his stockpiled magic. A full list of both his GFs’ abilities is available here.
Irvine’s two GFs are Carbuncle and Alexander. Summoning a GF gets quicker with more use, and in that time any damage done is done to the GF, not to the summoner. Irvine can summon Carbuncle nearly instantaneously, but Alexander takes ten seconds or so.
Carbuncle is a giant green bunny who inflicts no damage, but casts Reflect on Irvine and his allies; Reflect does what it sounds and reflects spells back on the enemy at half-strength. It has limitations—it’ll reflect friendly spells too, which means no magical healing unless Irvine wants to heal his enemy instead (except for Alexander’s Revive, which is an inherent ability, not a spell). Carbuncle has a passive ability which makes Reflect activate automatically, without summoning, but only on Irvine. Carbuncle also has Recovery Medicine Refinement, which refines mundane recovery items from other objectsusually bits and bobs from some monster’s corpse.
Alexander is a giant fortress-like robot. While summoned in battle Alexander does Holy damage, though Irvine uses him primarily for his Revive ability, which resurrects and fully heals. Alexander also has High Magic Refinement, which upgrades intermediate magic, and Medicine Level Up, which upgrades mundane medicine.
Junctions
Irvine’s GFs buff his health, vitality, magic and spirit. These represent his constitution, physical defence, magical offence/efficiency, and magical defence, respectively. Basically he won’t bleed out easily, he’ll be able to take damage like woah, his magic will be way efficient and magical defence really high.
They also let him junction magic to his attack and defence, both elemental and status-affiliated. Carbuncle allows for one spell to status attack and two to status defence, while Alexander allows for one spell to elemental attack and four to elemental defence. A strong elemental defence can render Irvine immune or even be healed by the element in question, so the strength of endgame spells means Irvine will generally be able to have full immunity or recovery from most elemental attacks. His status defence will be weaker, since he’ll need forewarning in order to junction any individual spell to defend against a status effect. He usually sticks with immunity to mentally-debilitating magic and death-magic.
That being said, he won’t be able to remove afflictions made before he junctions to status resistance or be immune to blunt-force damage done by magic to which he’s immune/healed.
Limit break
Irvine’s limit-break is Shot. It’s the only instance in-game of a limit break needing an outside object to work, and of firearms needing explicit ammo; therefore I’m assuming this means Irvine needs some conduit that stands up to the great stresses his inherent magic places on the ammunition, and that his weapon’s in-built ammo lacks the sturdiness necessary for this.
Shot has a higher crit-hit rate than usual and boosts the damage his bullets usually do, depending on the ammo he’s using/magic he’s channelling. There’s a list of ammo types here, with their specs. Irvine will have some of these in limited quantities.
SUITABILITY: Keeliai is a city in political turmoil, which is a situation Irvine is familiar with, however much he dislikes it. The part which will throw him off is the part where he doesn’t have to fight, and the lack of a solid hierarchy of superiors, but at the same time, it’s a situation which will appeal to him.
That being said, his canonpoint means it’s going to take a lot of convincing before he believes Keeliai is real and unrelated to the powerful being he just had to fight. The idea of bringing in a character who starts off with the belief that the whole of the setting is, literally, out to get him appeals to me.
Also, that memory thing. Playing with him in relation to memory shenanigans makes me glee.
SOUL GEM: Irvine’s necklace has a broad circular element in it. His soul-gem is an addition to the middle of the circle. Relevant mostly because his intro scene shows him seducing a butterfly, but also there’s five crystal settings on the butterfly’s body which represent his five most important people.
INVENTORY: Item-use in FF8’s gameplay is a bit weird. The game treats using items in battle as a junction, but the use of the menu inventory doesn’t require GFs to be equipped, unlike the magic stockpile. Also, the items which show up in the battle stockpile are limited in comparison to ones which show in the menu inventory (32 individual stacks vs 286 individual stacks).
SO what I’m running with is that the menu inventory is the stuff carried in bags (tents, magazines, magic-imbued bits and bobs), but the battle-item stockpile is items (potions, spellcasting magic stones) which have been junctioned into a device, like magic is stockpiled. They are physical items and can be unjunctioned into physical space again, but it does mean that while they’re inside the junction they can’t be used unless Irvine has a GF equipped, same as every other ability. It also means that Irvine can carry them on his person without taking up a shitton of space.
The below items are therefore things Irvine can carry on his belt and in his pockets, and never goes anywhere without. Anything else would have been in the larger backpack he presumably carries while on deployment, but would have lost thanks to IC events at endgame.
Clothes on his back
His necklace
Exeter, his upgraded shotgun
Leatherbound journal/scrapbook with a handful of photographs of his friends and an attached pen
Deck of about 50 Triple Triad playing cards of varying rarities (not including any character cards, because they get pretty meta, but including a couple of GFs)
Utility belt, including the following small items:
Junction tech, including:
Ammo pack with:
In-Character Samples:
THIRD PERSON:
“Is that it? Is it over?”
Irvine’s own voice reverberated in the whitespace for way longer than it should have. He could still hear it even after walking, like a tiny hum in the background. Like it was trying to remind him of what had just happened, or maybe that it might not be over.
Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.
It was over. It was totally over. They’d killed the sorceress—the real one, the one out to actually change everything. Why someone would want to destroy the world, Irvine didn’t understand. It’d get lonely as hell. Maybe she was one of those types who didn’t mind solitude.
Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.
Then again, it wasn’t really ‘world-destroying’, what she was doing. It was world domination on a scale not even Adel or Deling had dreamed of. Domination not just of her own time, but of every other—past and future. Which was why Irvine was walking through whitespace.
Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.
The darkness had been better. It hadn’t been so bright. But it had carried sound, too. He couldn’t hear the others talking, anymore. The whitespace didn’t exactly dull sound, but it didn’t try to help it along, either. It was just nothing. The foundation of everything. The foundation of everything was light instead of darkness, who would’ve thought.
Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.
Irvine hoped they were following him. He wasn’t sure this was the sort of thing they could lead each other from, but he was pretty sure they were following. He’d heard Quistis say something about time warps, and then Selphie pointing him out. He’d go back in, if he had to, he’d find them. But he thought maybe it’d be better if he showed them the way, first. He was the one who remembered the best. He was the one who knew where he was going, more than any of the others.
Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.
To the last place they’d been, all together. To Ragnarok.
NETWORK: [CONSOLE] audio, then video
Hey, how do I work this thing? I heard there was a video camera. Where’s the—oh.
[The video comes on to a teenager with a stupidly pretty face, wavy auburn bangs and a black cowboy hat. For a moment the camera is obscured by a fur-lined sleeve, but then Irvine pulls back to flop in his chair with a huff.]
It’s a fixed camera? That sucks. How am I meant to take video records if it’s fixed? Not that machines are my thing, but those radio transmitters seem a whole lot more convenient if you want to talk to somebody. I mean, fixed video cameras versus handheld radio? No contest.
[He leans back and thunks his boots up on the corner of the console, and yes, those are genuine hide chaps he’s wearing. He smiles and winks at the camera.]
So. Any lovely ladies around?
NAME: Pur
AGE: 28
CONTACT: PM to journal
GAME CAST: Solomon Wreath, Anton Shudder
MOST RECENT AC LINK: Previous AC here!
Please note: headcanon will be marked in purple text.
Character Information:
NAME: Irvine Kinneas
CANON: Final Fantasy 8
CANONPOINT: Post-game
AGE: 17
REFERENCE: Wiki! Publicly changeable, take with a grain of salt and all that.
SETTING: FF8 is a magic-tech world with wild magical
Game mechanics imply that nations encompass single cities, but I’m assuming there are other townships unseen on the world map. Otherwise the world seems to be inhabited by two major nations and a handful of duchies. The most relevant are Balamb Island (PCs’ hometown), Galbadia (militaristic and expansionist tyranny) and Esthar (reclusive and highly advanced democracy).
SeeD
SeeD is a special operations mercenary force. Cadets are trained in three academies called Gardens—Balamb, Galbadia and Trabia. Balamb is the first, established twelve years pre-canon, and the only one which administers the SeeD exam. SeeDs are deployed on contract to whomever needs them and can pay for their services.
The Gardens administer their curriculum differently. Balamb leans toward combat magic while Trabia apparently focusses on support; both encourage students to apply for SeeDship. Galbadia Garden focusses on technology and their graduates are more closely tied with the Galbadian Army.
Technology
Technology is post-industrial but quirkily. Galbadia has long-range homing missiles but no telephones. Esthar has achieved local space-flight and hovercraft. Trains are the main means of transport and guns are common weaponry. It’s notable that firearms don’t need reloading except with Irvine’s limit break, but ammo still exists; therefore it seems that advanced gun tech is self-loading, but not yet in widespread use save for military factions.
Magic and tech don’t rely on one another to coexist but aren’t opposing forces. Humans generally use magic in conjunction with technology due to their inherent limitations in using magic at all, and have thereby created ways of using magic as a utility through the technology of junctioning.
Magic
Magic takes the form of eight elements (Fire, Ice, Thunder, Earth, Wind, Water, Poison, Holy), with several non-elemental ‘disciplines’ (Gravity, Recovery, Support, Time, Status, Forbidden). Humans usually only use magic through the go-between of a Guardian Force, which requires junctioning, with two exceptions. Sorceresses are women who can use magic naturally the way monsters do, without junctioning. They’re made by being given the powers of a dying sorceress, and are something of a bogeyman. The other exception is the limit break—a low-HP, magically-buffed effort on the part of trained individuals, which can be used even without GFs.
Some magical skills allow the refining of mundane items from magic or other mundane items (ie refining screws from the playing cards of a specific monster who has an affiliation for mechanical parts), which implies magic permeates everything due to the power of collective perception.
Magic is a collectible item rather than being powered by mana. It’s drawn from opponents and stockpiled, during which time it can be used as a junction source. Many spells come in tiers—ie, ‘Cure’ is basic HP recovery, ‘Cura’ is intermediate recovery, ‘Curaga’ is powerful recovery.
Two notes on Recovery magic/items: Resurrection type magic/items exist, but the canon’s battle gameplay treats ‘unconsciousness’ and ‘death’ as the same thing (ie phoenix feathers resurrect a character, but so do tents). For simplicity I’m assuming that resurrection items handle unconsciousness while resurrection magic revives from death. Both have a reverse effect on undead enemies.
GFs
Guardian Forces are neutral forces of power who allow humans the use of magic. Many of them have elemental or status affiliations (eg Alexander is the Holy elemental). They’re all sapient and all presumably speak human languages, though we don’t see most of them do so (the sentient train speaks human, so I’m assuming the giant green bunny does too). Though intelligent, only a handful are shown interacting in any way other than as a battle tool, and those only very briefly.
GFs are formed to some degree by the power of perception and belief (Griever exists only as a metaphor in a PC’s mind until drawn), and therefore can be allied to multiple people at once (defeating and allying with Ifrit is apparently a standard SeeD test for Balamb’s students, implying that he’s junctioned to multiple SeeDs at once).
GFs can be drawn from opponents or found and defeated in the wild to gain their allegiance. They grow alongside their human allies and can develop additional special abilities, such as the refinement skills mentioned above, as well as special battle powers.
Junctioning
Junctioning is the technology through which humans use GFs and magic, and is used primarily by military forces. The technology is new enough that the drawbacks are considered exaggerations by naysayers.
Using a GF affects brain chemistry and causes memory loss. The longer a GF is used, the more heightened the loss—four of the six protagonists initially don’t remember their childhoods, and it’s regularly noted by NPCs that it’s ‘typical’ of the lead PC to forget classmates he’s known for years. The memory loss can be fought, however. The PCs remember their childhoods with impetus, and later successfully use GFs by reminding each other of their shared experiences.
On a mechanical level junctioning applies magic to various physical and mental assets. Junctioning a GF allows someone to both draw and use magic, as well a GF’s special abilities. Whatever device stockpiles spells can hold 32 individual spells at up to 100 each.
The most useful part of junctioning is junctioning spells to physical stats, defence and attack. The more of a spell stockpiled, and the more powerful the spell, the more powerful the boost. Spells are more effective depending on which stat they’re junctioned to and using spells from this stockpile decreases the effectiveness of their buff.
Junctioning specific elements or status spells to defence can aid defence (junctioning fire magic to defence makes the person resistant to/healed by fire, while a sleep spell renders the person immune to enforced sleep states). Similarly, junctioning to attack can increase damage depending on enemy weaknesses (thunder magic to attack while against robots does more damage; junctioning Sleep makes the target fall asleep on strike).
PERSONALITY: Irvine is intensely lonely, emotionally sensitive, averse to killing, deeply respectful of others and a little bit cowardly. He’s also prone to exaggeration and showing off, and is quite the ladies’ man. He has some issues with memory-loss due to having been literally forgotten by his most precious people.
Irvine was an orphan whose closest friends were his peers at the orphanage (four of them are PCs he meets up with later on). Though we don’t know anything about his childhood after that, we do know that the orphans who weren’t adopted were taken to Balamb with their guardian, who became headmaster. Since Irvine wound up in Galbadia Garden, he must have been adopted. First separated from his only friends and then put into an expansionist nation which emphasises military aptitude, it’s obvious from Irvine’s reactions later that he never made friends as a teen.
While Irvine covers for his loneliness by pretending to romanticise it as part of his specialty, most of his dramatic tendencies are a front for his emotional sensitivity. Galbadia is not a country which is kind to people who can’t obey orders, which makes it interesting that Irvine is so openly irreverent. It’s a way to pretend at a self-assurance Irvine just doesn’t have, while his womanising is a way to get ‘valid’ intimacies. Regardless, it’s not until Irvine is out of Galbadia’s reach that he starts openly displaying his sensitivity. When Selphie needs cheering up, it’s Irvine who gets Squall to do so as their leader; when Squall needs cheering up, it’s Irvine who arranges a music show and a date with Rinoa. When Irvine finds out Zell has a crush, he’s the one who encourages him, and he generally accepts Quistis’s fussing. When Rinoa expresses doubt about their course of action, it’s Irvine who reciprocates by revealing his innermost feelings.
Irvine’s strength is in people—he’s sympathetic to them and wants to help them, and is willing to bare himself to do it. Although Selphie presents as the one who’s most outgoing and people-oriented, it’s Irvine who holds the group together. He’s insightful about peoples’ emotional needs and insistent about their need to stick together. That doesn’t mean he’s always right—Irvine gets particularly frustrated with Squall’s tendency to act as if he doesn’t care about individuals, and although Irvine has frequently held the lives of others in his hands he’s not good with responsibility, has trouble understanding that burden and balks at ruthless action.
This is because Irvine doesn’t like killing or losing people. When Irvine is meant to assassinate Edea, he chokes; though it’s later revealed that he recognises her as the orphanage’s matron, he also states that he can’t perform under pressure, and that ‘this always happens’. Later instances of high-pressure events, such as the missile-silo infiltration, show him to perform well; it’s usually only in instances which require him to kill that he balks. Even though he must have been a successful assassin to be recommended for the mission to kill Edea, the fact that he persistently has trouble killing—especially from a distance—shows that he doesn’t like playing God in such a way, to the point where he will fail his mission if pressed.
For all that Irvine was raised in a tyranny, and for all that he pretends at being irreverent, he does respect people. He obeys General Caraway’s commands to the letter, he respects the hell out of Squall for being a good leader even though he doesn’t understand the burden, and in spite of his womanising tendencies he respects Rinoa, Selphie and Quistis as fighters and people—he doesn’t look down on Rinoa for being reticent to kill or for being emotional, for instance, and he’s usually the one to follow Selphie’s lead rather than trying to lead her. This isn’t just a trait extending to people he knows; a completely random conversation with a stranger leads to the stranger completely changing his philosophical outlook and later greeting Irvine as a friend where their initial conversation was antagonistic. Irvine doesn’t take many insults personally and is respectful of others’ insights, even when they’re not respectful of his and he’s prompted to call them out on it. Sometimes he does put his foot in his mouth, but it’s usually in an attempt to be sympathetic and missing the mark.
This respect for people in combination with his aversion to killing and his sniper skillset do make Irvine a bit of a coward. He’s used to targeting people from afar, used to being in a relatively safe zone. While he finds it easier to fight close-up, this is only true if he’s with others; when confronted alone he’s more likely to run. He also has a tendency to obey orders or look for someone else to give them, rather than taking the responsibility himself. He isn’t the sacrificial type. He’s honestly boggled by Squall’s willingness to rescue Rinoa when she gets caught outside the space-station, in spite of the risk—though Irvine respects the hell out of him for it, he admits he probably wouldn’t do the same. Irvine was brought up to believe that emotions are a weakness, equates that with an inability to shoulder responsibility, and sabotages himself by not even trying. This is especially evident because he uses go-betweens to make his own plans happen; he uses Squall to cheer up Selphie and Selphie as a pretext for the arrangements to cheer up Squall, because he doesn’t believe he can shoulder the responsibility.
While Irvine speaks dramatically about the loneliness of the sharpshooter, his words are real. He admits outright to having been alone before he met with the other PCs, and calls them his comrades. Though it’s revealed that they knew each other previously, the other orphans’ use of the GFs made them forget their shared childhood; Irvine, as the only one who never used GFs in his training, always remembered, and for him they were something for which he yearned. Initially he hides this with belligerence and exaggerated drama, since as far as he knows all of them remembered and knew each other, and he was the only one forgotten. While he does get over this and pursues their friendship—even without those shared experiences if he must—he doesn’t forget, since he’s the one who realises the GFs are responsible.
Though Irvine dislikes killing, he’s the one who initially insists on continuing the GFs’ use in their fight—because the purpose of the Gardens is to raise warriors to fight the sorceress. Though Irvine talks in terms of remaining true to the choices he made which brought him to his present, it’s clearly his way of holding on to the memories of his experiences, ensuring that he keeps them close, and maintaining the person that he is. Irvine, having been forgotten once by the people he loves the most, refuses to let that happen again, or allow himself to do the same to others. Other than his skill with a gun, this is the one thing about himself in which Irvine is most secure and the most driven, and it’s the one thing in which he consistently leads the others.
APPEARANCE: Erskine is no longer the prettiest in Keeliai. Full body shot. Irvine is 6’1” according to supplemental materials.
Galbadia was originally part of the Holy Dollet Empire, which is a Holy Roman Empire analogue, but Galbadia’s capital—Deling City—is inspired by Paris. For that reason, Irvine’s accent is a French/Italian combination.
ABILITIES: Although Irvine never achieves the rank of SeeD, Irvine was trained in Galbadia Garden, whose military training is the most rigorous of the three Gardens. Therefore it’s safe to assume he has hand-to-hand and other general combat training. He can drive—we see him driving an armoured truck—so he’s probably familiar with most Galbadian vehicles.
Irvine specialises in firearms, particularly sniper-rifles, though his default weapon is a shotgun. As a PC Irvine’s skillsets are somewhat customisable, so I’m bringing him in according to two constraints: one, according to personality; two, the fact that Irvine is a sharpshooter.
Snipers and long-range fighters seem to have a more supportive role in Galbadian-style warfare, so Irvine stockpiles and casts magic, and will have a number of powerful spells to junction. He also has less need for GFs.
Canon never acknowledges any kind of language barrier, but given the size of the world it’s almost certain each nation has its own languages and dialects. Since everyone can always understand each other—even the nation that hasn’t seen outsiders in 17 years—it’s obvious there’s some kind of international standard. Irvine will be fluent in that standard, as well as Galbadia’s national language and the dialect of the area where he grew up.
GFs
Since Irvine has the least experience with GFs and the most flail with memory shenanigans, he only has two of them and generally keeps them unjunctioned unless he knows he has to use them. He won’t be able to use any special abilities or magic until they’re junctioned, though he will still be able to sort his stockpiled magic. A full list of both his GFs’ abilities is available here.
Irvine’s two GFs are Carbuncle and Alexander. Summoning a GF gets quicker with more use, and in that time any damage done is done to the GF, not to the summoner. Irvine can summon Carbuncle nearly instantaneously, but Alexander takes ten seconds or so.
Carbuncle is a giant green bunny who inflicts no damage, but casts Reflect on Irvine and his allies; Reflect does what it sounds and reflects spells back on the enemy at half-strength. It has limitations—it’ll reflect friendly spells too, which means no magical healing unless Irvine wants to heal his enemy instead (except for Alexander’s Revive, which is an inherent ability, not a spell). Carbuncle has a passive ability which makes Reflect activate automatically, without summoning, but only on Irvine. Carbuncle also has Recovery Medicine Refinement, which refines mundane recovery items from other objects
Alexander is a giant fortress-like robot. While summoned in battle Alexander does Holy damage, though Irvine uses him primarily for his Revive ability, which resurrects and fully heals. Alexander also has High Magic Refinement, which upgrades intermediate magic, and Medicine Level Up, which upgrades mundane medicine.
Junctions
Irvine’s GFs buff his health, vitality, magic and spirit. These represent his constitution, physical defence, magical offence/efficiency, and magical defence, respectively. Basically he won’t bleed out easily, he’ll be able to take damage like woah, his magic will be way efficient and magical defence really high.
They also let him junction magic to his attack and defence, both elemental and status-affiliated. Carbuncle allows for one spell to status attack and two to status defence, while Alexander allows for one spell to elemental attack and four to elemental defence. A strong elemental defence can render Irvine immune or even be healed by the element in question, so the strength of endgame spells means Irvine will generally be able to have full immunity or recovery from most elemental attacks. His status defence will be weaker, since he’ll need forewarning in order to junction any individual spell to defend against a status effect. He usually sticks with immunity to mentally-debilitating magic and death-magic.
That being said, he won’t be able to remove afflictions made before he junctions to status resistance or be immune to blunt-force damage done by magic to which he’s immune/healed.
Limit break
Irvine’s limit-break is Shot. It’s the only instance in-game of a limit break needing an outside object to work, and of firearms needing explicit ammo; therefore I’m assuming this means Irvine needs some conduit that stands up to the great stresses his inherent magic places on the ammunition, and that his weapon’s in-built ammo lacks the sturdiness necessary for this.
Shot has a higher crit-hit rate than usual and boosts the damage his bullets usually do, depending on the ammo he’s using/magic he’s channelling. There’s a list of ammo types here, with their specs. Irvine will have some of these in limited quantities.
SUITABILITY: Keeliai is a city in political turmoil, which is a situation Irvine is familiar with, however much he dislikes it. The part which will throw him off is the part where he doesn’t have to fight, and the lack of a solid hierarchy of superiors, but at the same time, it’s a situation which will appeal to him.
That being said, his canonpoint means it’s going to take a lot of convincing before he believes Keeliai is real and unrelated to the powerful being he just had to fight. The idea of bringing in a character who starts off with the belief that the whole of the setting is, literally, out to get him appeals to me.
Also, that memory thing. Playing with him in relation to memory shenanigans makes me glee.
SOUL GEM: Irvine’s necklace has a broad circular element in it. His soul-gem is an addition to the middle of the circle. Relevant mostly because his intro scene shows him seducing a butterfly, but also there’s five crystal settings on the butterfly’s body which represent his five most important people.
INVENTORY: Item-use in FF8’s gameplay is a bit weird. The game treats using items in battle as a junction, but the use of the menu inventory doesn’t require GFs to be equipped, unlike the magic stockpile. Also, the items which show up in the battle stockpile are limited in comparison to ones which show in the menu inventory (32 individual stacks vs 286 individual stacks).
SO what I’m running with is that the menu inventory is the stuff carried in bags (tents, magazines, magic-imbued bits and bobs), but the battle-item stockpile is items (potions, spellcasting magic stones) which have been junctioned into a device, like magic is stockpiled. They are physical items and can be unjunctioned into physical space again, but it does mean that while they’re inside the junction they can’t be used unless Irvine has a GF equipped, same as every other ability. It also means that Irvine can carry them on his person without taking up a shitton of space.
The below items are therefore things Irvine can carry on his belt and in his pockets, and never goes anywhere without. Anything else would have been in the larger backpack he presumably carries while on deployment, but would have lost thanks to IC events at endgame.
Clothes on his back
His necklace
Exeter, his upgraded shotgun
Leatherbound journal/scrapbook with a handful of photographs of his friends and an attached pen
Deck of about 50 Triple Triad playing cards of varying rarities (not including any character cards, because they get pretty meta, but including a couple of GFs)
Utility belt, including the following small items:
- 3 vials of Healing Water (can be refined into Hi-Potions)
- 2 Energy Crystals (can be refined into various things, but Irvine won’t have the abilities for it; he has them because they refine into his strongest ammo)
- Assorted latent-magic chips and rocks (can be refined into magic; Irvine lacks this ability)
- A handful of vampire fangs (can be refined into magic; Irvine lacks this ability)
- A moonstone (can be refined into magic; Irvine lacks this ability).
Junction tech, including:
- Magic stockpile utility (Irvine will have 19 out of a possible 32 spells; list available here)
- Battle-item stockpile utility (also available here)
- GF status device (seeing health, abilities, etc)
- Non-battle ability utility (this is what enables the use of refinement abilities).
Ammo pack with:
- Fast rounds
- AP (Armour Piercing) rounds
- Pulse rounds.
In-Character Samples:
THIRD PERSON:
“Is that it? Is it over?”
Irvine’s own voice reverberated in the whitespace for way longer than it should have. He could still hear it even after walking, like a tiny hum in the background. Like it was trying to remind him of what had just happened, or maybe that it might not be over.
Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.
It was over. It was totally over. They’d killed the sorceress—the real one, the one out to actually change everything. Why someone would want to destroy the world, Irvine didn’t understand. It’d get lonely as hell. Maybe she was one of those types who didn’t mind solitude.
Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.
Then again, it wasn’t really ‘world-destroying’, what she was doing. It was world domination on a scale not even Adel or Deling had dreamed of. Domination not just of her own time, but of every other—past and future. Which was why Irvine was walking through whitespace.
Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.
The darkness had been better. It hadn’t been so bright. But it had carried sound, too. He couldn’t hear the others talking, anymore. The whitespace didn’t exactly dull sound, but it didn’t try to help it along, either. It was just nothing. The foundation of everything. The foundation of everything was light instead of darkness, who would’ve thought.
Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.
Irvine hoped they were following him. He wasn’t sure this was the sort of thing they could lead each other from, but he was pretty sure they were following. He’d heard Quistis say something about time warps, and then Selphie pointing him out. He’d go back in, if he had to, he’d find them. But he thought maybe it’d be better if he showed them the way, first. He was the one who remembered the best. He was the one who knew where he was going, more than any of the others.
Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.
To the last place they’d been, all together. To Ragnarok.
NETWORK: [CONSOLE] audio, then video
Hey, how do I work this thing? I heard there was a video camera. Where’s the—oh.
[The video comes on to a teenager with a stupidly pretty face, wavy auburn bangs and a black cowboy hat. For a moment the camera is obscured by a fur-lined sleeve, but then Irvine pulls back to flop in his chair with a huff.]
It’s a fixed camera? That sucks. How am I meant to take video records if it’s fixed? Not that machines are my thing, but those radio transmitters seem a whole lot more convenient if you want to talk to somebody. I mean, fixed video cameras versus handheld radio? No contest.
[He leans back and thunks his boots up on the corner of the console, and yes, those are genuine hide chaps he’s wearing. He smiles and winks at the camera.]
So. Any lovely ladies around?