rosarianoath | Clive Rosfield, former Shield of Rosaria

Contains vague spoilers for FFXVI.

OOC Permissions

♛ Player: Jenn
♛ Pronouns: She/Her
♛ Contact: victoryfanfare on plurk or PM this journal
♛ Backtagging: Yes
♛ Canonpuncture: Canonmates can tell him the future, but hard pass on discussions of being a fictional character.
♛ Threadjacking: I love it.
♛ Trigger warnings: None.

IC Permissions

♛ Name: Clive Rosfield
♛ Canon: Final Fantasy XVI
♛ Canonpoint: Late in the game.
♛ Age: 33, but can play him at 15 or 28 as well.

♛ Profession: Outlaw
♛ Elevator Pitch: Freed from a long enslavement, a disgraced prince takes up the cause of breaking the continent's dependence on magic at any cost, plunging both its politics and social stability into chaos.
♛ Physical Description: 6'2", ambiguously Anglo-European, very built and broad shouldered. Shaggy black hair, short and manicured facial hair, blue eyes. Military trained. His voice is very deep and rumbling, and though he tends to look taciturn and serious, he maintains good eye contact, attentive listening, and decent conversation.

His most defining feature is the large scar across his left cheek, which stretches all the way down his jaw and throat; the shape is irregular, and looks like a sizable portion of the flesh was deliberately carved out, rather than being the product of some injury. He has several other large (though far more accidental) scars from bladed weapons, including a long laceration across his collarbone that is occasionally visible from the neckline of his shirt, and a nick on his right cheek.

He favours tight-fitting leathers in black and red, lightweight leather armour, long capes and lots of laces. He is generally armed with a longsword, which he carries in a sling on his back, and a dagger at his hip.

click on any image to enlarge

♛ Demeanor:
Clive carries himself edges-first. His resting expression is anywhere between a frown and a scowl, and he stands straight-backed and defensive. He has a very tight economy of motion, never fidgeting or pacing, and he keeps to himself. He's used to being seen as intimidating or little more than part of the scenery, so when he gets someone's full attention, they have his, too. He never seems nervous, but he isn't exactly confident, either. He tends to give off the impression that he knows he's in the way, so he strives hard to prove himself useful. About the only place he seems truly at ease is the battlefield, and in situations where there are no monsters to slay, he struggles to find belonging; you're very likely to find him on the fringe of a party if he can't be alone. Even his long hair feels like an attempt to obscure himself and his scars, and an easy mark of how uncomfortable he can be in his own skin.

He is also composed at all costs; this is a man who has learned to withdraw in the face of interpersonal conflict and be agreeable whenever possible, tending towards people-pleasing to the point of running himself ragged. He is grateful for kindness but often doesn't think himself worthy of it, and he is notoriously biddable because of it. He will help anyone who asks for it, patient even with pushiness or outright rudeness. He is, however, trying hard to break that cycle –– expect some discomfort and embarrassing gestures towards self-defense.

Clive's Achilles heel is aggressive, type-A women; they can very easily put him on the defensive or prompt him to withdraw entirely, depending on approach. (Take it personally! Step on him! It's all fun.)

He tends to try to see the best in people, and sometimes this optimism can feel naïve to more grounded types. He's a terrible liar and can't bullshit to save his life. He will swear casually around other men, and tends to be more polite with women.

He will occasionally introduce himself as "Cid" or "Wyvern"; these are names he has gone by for long periods of his life.

♛ Abilities:
I don't like playing OP characters so I'm very, very sorry about this.

Firstly, he was trained since childhood for war, specifically to give his life for his younger brother, the future ruler of their nation. He is good at combat, specifically in the use of a longsword, and certainly well enough to survive thirteen years on the front lines. That said, he's far from untouchable. Sometimes you're too slow, sometimes you misjudge, sometimes the other guy is just better. He's got the scars to prove it.

Second, Clive is a Dominant. This is the in-universe term for a person who is the current host to one of the world's gods. (No, "Dominant" never stops being funny, thanks for asking.) Dominants can wield the god's power at will, often in a semi-transformed state, but they can also transform entirely into the god's natural form. Clive is specifically the Dominant of Ifrit, a hellfire demon, which he has tenuous control over. He does not really know how to transform himself into Ifrit outside of extremely niche, life-or-death scenarios. This is perhaps a good thing: mortal bodies were not made to channel a god's full power, so overuse will kill the host, and the god will simply manifest somewhere further down the host's genetic line.

If that isn't enough, Clive is special enough to also be able to absorb the power of other Dominants. He has at this point some control over fire, air, lightning and earth. This is strictly elemental magic, and aside from the odd party trick like lighting candles, he doesn't tend to use his magicks for anything outside of combat. Using magick comes at a physical cost to its user, as well as being ethically dubious, so he limits it where possible.

As a personal note, I don't believe in taking a literal approach to video game mechanics in RP, so I do not write Clive as though he can survive getting stabbed 40 times or crushed by a dragon by simply drinking a potion. I think it's much more exciting when a stab wound is a serious threat to life, and when use of magicks has physical consequences to its users, and all that sort of stuff! I am also generally very happy to handwave fights, and don't care for Superman vs Goku type discussions. If there's some cause to throw down with Clive, let's just figure out the most fun way for each character to take some licks and get some good emotional highs and lows out of it!

♛ Content Warnings: Clive grew up in an emotionally abusive household and was treated as a tool at best and scum at worst. Most of this abuse was at the hands of his mother, but the narrative tends to portray his father in a really positive light despite his enabling and allowing this. I interpret this as Clive looking at his father with rose coloured glasses –– he is largely unwilling to give up the illusion of having at least one loving parent –– but this kind of parent/child dynamic can be tough for some people and I won't bring it up without OOC discussion.

And in a much heavier vein, FFXVI's first arc is centered entirely on broad-scale, systematic slavery. In this universe, the entire continent has developed around the enslavement of magic users, and these magic users are facially branded upon discovery and considered subhuman. This world is extremely harsh and brutal: peasants complain about war making it too expensive for them to afford to keep their own slaves, slave owners regularly brutalize or kill slaves for petty reasons, and the enslaved people are so demoralized that resistance is extremely rare. Clive himself was enslaved as a teenager. He was freed almost entirely by chance circumstances after 13 years, and was promptly picked up by a liberation movement, which he now leads.

So fortunately for all of us, Clive is aggressively anti-slavery, considers himself nationless, and has no interest in taking up his father's throne. But considering the subject can be uncomfortable even in the best written pieces on slavery, I won't bring up slavery without OOC discussion. But if that is something you're cool with exploring, please know that I am completely open to characters being critical anything they hear, including being critical of Clive himself, what he might say, or how he might talk about his home nation.

If you've read all that and decided this character simply isn't for you even if those topics don't come up, that's perfectly fine! Just comment below or PM me with an opt-out request and I will happily accommodate whatever you'd like.

Interactions

♛ Magic: Sure, he's a magic user himself.
♛ Mental: Sure, please message me so I can help you get the best mileage out of it.
♛ Physical Contact: This guy has scarcely been touched affectionately in his life, but he welcomes it when it happens. Getting to do that weird forearm handshake thing guys do or hug someone is like the highlight of his week.
♛ Intimacy: He's monogamous and very slowburn about feelings. I love writing romantic, shippy and smutty stuff, slowburn or otherwise. Clive doesn't really take the initiative, so sexually forward characters are great partners for him if you want it to go faster than a snail's pace. (Tell this boy what to do! He'll blush so pretty.) There's also a kink list here.
♛ Violence: He's fluent, let's go.
♛ Other: Clive has a very large "frost wolf" named Torgal. Torgal is one part companion and one part weapon of war; if you don't like animal violence or injury then please let me know because that happens sometimes. (I'm a lifelong dog lover, but I'm really not sentimental about fictional animals, so if your character would go after Torgal to get to Clive or whatever, I'm fine with it.)

CODE BY TESSISAMESS