[WIP] Connla Creven

Connla Creven

Sometimes called C.C., in reference to his initials.

17

Male

SeeD

Human

Light

Archipelago

Celia Creven: Younger Sister (Alive)

Calandria Creven: Mother (Alive, Disowned)

Antonio Creven: Father (Status Unknown)

A Garden can easily be considered a rough environment to grow up in, due to their nature as places of military training. Due to this, every garden attempts to mold the personalities of those who pass through their halls into that of a professional soldier. But, not every soul who passes through the halls of a Garden can be so easily molded. Once in a while, these places become host to people like Connla. Rather than being the stoic ideal of a soldier that Gardens aim for, Connla is the diametric opposite. Bursting with cheer, he is often capable of bringing up the mood of nearly any room he walks into. Along with this, he is able to slip into conversations with ease, showing seemingly zero self doubt. Between his Cheer and Confidence, many people are often disarmed when speaking with him, becoming more willing to open up. 

Those that do open up are very unlikely to regret their decision, either. While most might initially assume that problems would be listened to, but otherwise brushed off, this is not the case with Connla. If he cannot directly assist someone with their problems, then he is known to at least offer up advice. Generally speaking, the advice given can be a bit of a mixed bag, but is always given genuinely. However, in spite of these positives, Connla can often be found being given some kind of reprimand, typically for minor things like breaking curfew to go off on some kind of exploration of whatever area he is stationed in. He is well known amongst his superiors for possessing an unbreakable spirit for adventure.

Not that any of them really attempt to break it. If there is anything that Connla is known for more than his cheerful positivity, it's how hard it is to get the young man to change course on things. He has been known to make sudden snap decisions, many of which can be considered rather reckless. But confronting him about his choices makes him seem to almost dig in his heels for some reason. When asked about it, many of Connla's superiors merely claim that this particular quirk of his is merely 'a shame'. This isn't to say that he cannot listen. In fact, Connla is more than willing to cooperate with others. However, if there is any one trait of his that has been universally praised by those who have worked to teach him, it is his work ethic. Connla all but throws himself into his work, be it studies or physical labor, it's not often that one might catch him slacking off. Something seems to light a fire beneath him when it's time to go to work. Yet, nobody is quite sure what that is. 

Regardless of the negatives, one thing is crystal clear about Connla. He is more than capable of handling himself and others.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Personality Trait List (AKA Tl;dr)}
Positive: Adventurous, Caring, Cheerful, Confident, Hardworking

Negative: Reckless, Impatient, Forgetful, Stubborn, Impulsive

When asked what made them apply to a Garden, many students have a hard time answering. Ask a SeeD, and it's almost impossible to get a proper answer. This is to be expected, to an extent. Many of these people applied to their Gardens at ages as young as five. The reason can vary from person to person, but it is eventually buried under years of study and training. However, there is the occasional person who can clearly remember their reasons. This is the story of one such man. 

Archipelago. A world of many countries, and few continents. Of all the countries one can be born in, it was long considered to be a curse to be born in Galbadia, a country characterized by military might and control. In truth, the country's military has not been the center of power for nearly three decades. The closest that the Galbadian Military came to reconsolidating power after their government crumbled was a heavily strained attempt to push back the soldiers of Esthar, preventing them from conquering the country. That happened twenty years ago, and in the two decades since, Galbadia has become a prosperous democracy, full of comfort...for those who have money.  Connla's story begins in the slums of Deling City with his sister Celia, and their mother Calandria.

For the first few years of his life, Connla had a relatively normal childhood, albeit one with very few luxuries. His family had very little money, and what money they did have went straight to the necessities. For a time, all seemed well, and the young boy enjoyed his life with his mother and sister. Unfortunately, his Mother couldn't be as happy as he was. Calandria had been part of one of the many families who had made immense profit through their affiliation with the old Galbadian Military. As such, she had been accustomed to all kinds of wealth and comfort for her entire life.

Living in the squalor that the new changes had brought to her had been something she had merely gritted her teeth and dealt with. After all, her husband--a man by the name of Antonio Creven who had once served as a member of the Galbadian Military--had turned to mercenary work, and had been sure to send them enough money that his wife had no need to "break her back" doing even the most sedentary of work. One day, however, the money stopped coming. At first, it was assumed that there was merely a delay in his pay. Then weeks passed, with nothing being sent their way.

As the weeks turned into months, Calandria's attitude towards her life began to slip. First, she merely complained to those who still affiliated with her about the fact that she had to work, rather than being a well paid army spouse. Soon, she got more and more aggressive with her children. At first, it was only verbally. But by the time Connla had turned six, it had escalated to the beginnings of physical violence. The bruises were minor, and always followed up by profuse apologies. But even at such a young age, Connla had noticed several things. For one, it had always been Celia, the younger sibling who was forced to bear the abuse. Never him. And he also was able to recognize that things weren't going to get better. He had heard many of her conversations with her friends.

They all were doing nothing but encouraging her to continue down the path she had chosen. It was clear that his sister wouldn't be safe here. But there was little that Connla could do. For a time, getting between his sister and his mother worked. She always hesitated to hit him. But that lasted for a very short time. Every time Connla kept his mother from smacking his  sister, she got a little angrier. Eventually, she lashed out at him, calling him by his father's name, spewing all sorts of obscenities. That would be the last day that the pair of siblings would see their mother. That night, Connla packed a bag for himself and his sister, and they ran away, their mother preoccupied by the few creature comforts she could afford for herself. Namely cheap wine and cheap, gaudy jewelry. 

For close to a year, they wandered the streets of Deling City, hiding where they could to prevent from being taken back. Over that time, Connla would hear more and more talk of a place called Garden. A place that took in children younger than him, taught them. But he never had heard any way to get there. Luckily for him, a group of members from that very place would one day park their vehicle out front of the very restaurant that he and his sister would scrounge from. Seeing the vehicle marked with the word Garden triggered many emotions swirling in the poor boy. It represented a way to get his sister someplace better than the streets.

Someplace where they wouldn't have to hide in fear of being taken back to their mother. But at the same time, he didn't know how he could convince anyone to take the two of them seriously. Somehow though, he managed to make a decision. By the time the students who had taken the vehicle into Deling City returned, Connla and Celia had hidden themselves away in the very back of the vehicle. It was a plan that was very much a product of some kind of childhood optimism. After all, Gardens might have sounded like orphanages, but they weren't.

The pair of siblings was able to get out of the parking lot with very little trouble. But they weren't able to find a place to hide from the sheer volume of people who lived and worked there. Within an hour of their arrival, Connla and Celia found themselves sitting outside of the headmaster's office in silence. They had been told that that the headmaster would deal with their trespassing when he was done with his other business. What was supposed to take mere minutes stretched into what felt like hours for the young man. Eventually, the doors opened. Rather than calling the siblings in together, however, he started with Celia. After a short time, she exited the headmaster's office and took her seat again. 

Walking into the office, Connla had little to no idea what to expect. His worst case scenario was being sent back. He didn't know what he would say to his mother, but he was certain that there wasn't much good that could come from it. Of all the things that his young mind had been able to come up with, what he hadn't expected was to have a meal offered to him. It wasn't much by most people's standards. A sandwich and a bowl of soup. But for someone who had been scrounging for their meals, it was all Connla could do to keep his composure as he ate. While he ate, the headmaster explained to Connla what exactly this place was about. It was odd to hear. He had been mostly right.

Garden did take in young children, and did teach them. But it taught them the skills of soldiers. Ultimately, Connla ended up with an offer. The pair would be taken in, emancipated from their mother. They would each take classes. However, they would be forced to live on campus until they were of age. For Galbadia, that meant that until they each were seventeen, they would be effectively tethered to Galbadia Garden. It was a rough offer..but what better option did they have? Celia had already agreed. So Connla did the same.

The years that were spent at Galbadia Garden were incredibly formative for Connla. He made many friends there, and eventually came to develop a more cheerful, and even wild personality. Within his group of friends, he was known for coming up with all kinds of plans that had the potential to break multiple rules. But he also took to the work that he was given as a student like no other. The only thing that was treated as even the slightest problem was a simple fact. Galbadia Garden did its best to ensure that their students were well versed in the use of firearms.

They had an occasional student that needed assistance, sure. But none had been so abhorrent at the use of firearms as Connla. His aim was always either undercompensating for recoil, or overcompensating. He couldn't hit a thing. Oddly enough, though, he was adept at the creation of other types of ammunition. Working with the tools seemed to come to him naturally. Often, other students would come to him with just the barest detail of what they wanted their bullets to do for them, and he would find some way to make them work.

Using a gun himself though seemed to be out of his league. The inverse was true when you put a melee weapon in his hands, though. In those classes, he truly shone. So, with some urging from his instructors, he tried out a base model of gunblade. Just like that, it was like everything clicked. Where most students took years to learn the gunblade, Connla managed to get the basics down within a year. The reason for it was simple. He had a good sense of timing, and the primary feature of the gunblade relied on a keen sense of timing.

By the time he had turned fifteen, Connla had moved on from the basic models of gunblade to making his own. The first weapon he had created was known as Heavy Trigger. It was a combination of an old Galbadian soldier's sword blade with the firing mechanism of a shotgun. While it was indeed powerful, it was also incredibly heavy. More often than not, Connla found himself taking on wounds when training. It took three more attempts before he would find a custom weapon that worked perfectly for him. Atop that, it took another six months of work to perfect his Trigger System, making his weapon just that extra step more fitted to his style of fighting. At this point, he very well could have applied to become a SeeD.

But his deal with the headmaster would have prevented him from transferring over to Balamb Garden, as was necessary to take the field exam. On top of that, he still was relatively unfamiliar with Para-Magic. So for the next two years, Connla's focus shifted, learning what he could in order to round out his skills. The two most basic offensive spells came to him with ease. But it wasn't the purely offensive magic that interested him. No, the offensive magic all sounded straightforward enough that he could have taught himself those things.

In truth, it was the Indirect Magic classes that intrigued him. The spells they discussed were far more difficult to conceptualize easily, but their effects intrigued him far more. Eventually, he managed to get a relatively solid handle on both Direct and Indirect magics, becoming widely known as a man who leaned into a more supportive role with para-magic due to his favoring of the spells double and triple over most others.

Eventually, Connla's seventeenth birthday rolled around. And with it, his deal with the Headmaster had come to an end. That very same day, Connla completed the written exam. However, there was a prerequisite that he had not been expecting. To take the field exam, he needed a Guardian Force. Thankfully, instead of requesting that Connla go to Balamb Garden, the staff were kind enough to send an instructor that not only knew plenty about Guardian Forces, but was adept with the use of the Scan Para-Magic, making it easier for them to find one. There were rumors that there were several Guardian Forces that had been scattered throughout Galbadia as a result of the collapse of the Military Government, after all. 

Unfortunately for the instructor, their lessons on Guardian Forces and how they worked were something that kept Connla in a room. Thus, they got to experience firsthand his impatience and recklessness, as he claimed that they could just go out and fight one, and that he could have all of this explained afterwards. As a result, the pair butted heads quite often, leading to the relatively simple lessons taking months, as the instructor wrote up tests out of spite, telling Connla that they wouldn't go out looking until he got at least a B on one of them. Luckily, he was a good student. It only took a handful of tests for Connla to prove his knowledge. 

Unfortunately, all they had were rumors. Luckily for them, it was still at least three months before the date of the field exam. The first rumor led them to the forests around Timber. But after a week of searching the forest, they concluded that the rumor was either a dead end, or someone had already taken the Guardian Force that had been rumored to be there. After that, they were to go to the ancient communications tower near Dollet.

Once again, they turned up nothing except an Elvoret. After that encounter, they made certain that nobody would have to deal with that again, destroying its nest. The last rumor that they had took them on a boat, making their way to a part of the Galbadian Continent that was well and truly isolated. No direct route via road or train. The only options were to make a trip by air or by sea. When they arrived at Winhill, they did the same thing they always did: Pop into the nearest pub or hotel and ask around. In doing this, they learned that there was a flower shop. One which was currently in too dangerous of an area for anyone to work. A few people who could do magic had stopped by the area once before, when a small group of monsters had appeared. It was easy enough for them to dispatch..most of them.

The real trouble had come with the largest monster in the group. The para-magic that they had used on it bounced their magic right back at them. Unfortunately, these people had all specialized in various types of Para-Magic. Of course, they had assumed that it was using its own magic. So when their attempts to Dispel the creature ended up not working, they abandoned the effort.


Monsters showing abnormal traits? That was a definite sign that it had managed to Junction a Guardian Force. So, the pair headed out to the fields. What they encountered there was..odd. Two stone looking hands moving throughout the fields, and a face, just barely sticking out of the ground. A simple scan revealed that each of these three things were indeed connected in some way, as the mage that had been travelling with Connla was able to tell that they were all under the effects of reflect. Thankfully, that didn't render them immune to Draw. The battle that they had to deal with was arduous, to say the least. If the pair hadn't been able to cover each other's weaknesses, it was unknown who would have walked out of that battle alive. Ultimately though, they got what they came for. Connla's first Guardian Force: Carbuncle. A fitting choice, given Connla's own natural lean towards indirect magic. 

The pair spent a few more weeks in Winhill, giving Connla time to learn the ins and outs of summoning his GF, as well as relearning both Para-Magic--which was now able to come to him far easier--as well as Junctioning. Once the pair were convinced that Connla had gotten the hang of things, they made their trip back to Galbadia Garden. He had one month left to prepare on his own. He used that time not to prepare, but to talk to his sister. While they had initially been thick as thieves when they had first been accepted, they had slowly begun to drift over time. Connla's restless nature had set him down the path of becoming a SeeD. But his sister had trouble adjusting to the idea of becoming a soldier. Where Connla had spread his specialization over a weapon and supportive magic, Celia had taken to medicine and restorative magic.

Normally, that kind of drift would lead to the pair butting heads. However, Connla always seemed to switch to an entirely different person on the few occasions that he visited his sister. He went from loud and rambunctious to a quiet and respectful young man, keen to listen. The amount of care he had for the little bit of family he had left was obvious. He knew that he would likely not see much of her if he did successfully become a SeeD. So in the month leading up to the Field Exam, he became a well known guest of the infirmary. For a short time, it felt like he and his sister had never drifted apart.  

Unfortunately, time passes all too quickly. The day eventually came for him to ship out to Balamb Garden. The only things he carried with him on that day were his gunblade and triggers in their massive carrying suitcase in one hand, his uniform in the other, and Carbuncle in his head. The Transcontinental trip via underwater train from Timber to Balamb was a long one. Plenty of time to think. Plenty of time to feel all of the eyes on him. It wasn't surprising, really. He had come from Galbadia Garden, a place that not all that long ago had refused to allow its students to become SeeD, as well as having been put under control of a tyrant sorceress. Odds were good that it would take a long time for people to trust in the reformed garden. 

When they arrived at Balamb, the year's field exam was revealed to everyone attending. Esthar was once again attempting to send their forces into Galbadia in an attempt to conquer it. This time, it was not by sea or air. They were attempting to sneak into the country via the Horizon Bridge. Fortunately, the state of the bridge prevented them from sending troop transports across, making it a trek. However, there was a village at the midpoint which worried that they might face Estharian occupation, much like they had when Galbadia had crossed. That was what had forced their hand, making them the client. Once it was revealed, each and every SeeD applicant were grouped up into teams. Connla had the odd fortune of sharing a team with members from each of the other gardens. One was a woman from Balamb who fought with her bare hands. The other was a man from the rebuilt Trabia Garden who fought with a kind of piercing weapon that Connla didn't recognize. 

Every group was stationed somewhere differently. Connla's group were stationed in the village themselves. It was believed that they had a few days to prepare. Of course, being as restless as ever, Connla split off from his group on the first night. He wanted to find a good spot for stargazing. The only place he found that really did the job well ended up being situated at the center of town: The Sun Panel. It was a dish of thousands of solar panels that helped keep the entire station running. It just also happened to be the single most open air spot in the entire place.

So, Connla found himself a spot in the middle of the dish, and laid back. He had been expecting to just stare into the void of space, alone with his thoughts. But what he saw instead that night was intriguing. A meteor shower. As his eyes traced across the sky to follow the darting lines however, Connla heard the cracking of glass behind him. He bolted up and spun around..only to find a crystal embedded in one of the panels. It seemed to be shaped like a star..but was missing a branch. Within that missing branch was a jolt of what looked to be electricity connecting the two, frozen in time. Something deep within Connla told him to pick it up, even though his common sense told him to leave it alone.

So, he gathered up the small crystal, shoving it into a pocket before going back. The next few days were a blur. Connla found himself rushing all over the city, preparing all sorts of defenses. A job which slowly transitioned over time to fighting with his group. Thankfully, his support magic kept them safe from the brunt of Eshtar's attacks, as the combined efforts of the spells Triple and Protect served to keep them safe from the onslaught of bullets that came from the soldiers. Eventually, the time came for them to return home, the forces of Eshtar having been repelled. 

Of the hundreds of applicants to become SeeD, only about thirty ended up passing the field exam. Connla and his team being the last ones announced. The applicants who had passed from Balamb were immediately sent out on various contracts. However, students who had originated from other Gardens were given a week to adjust to their new home. Thankfully, the Gardens had an intranet. So, the first opportunity he had, Connla fired up a messenger app, and caught up with his sister. As it turned out, their mother had finally found out where they had gone. Their escape had been smooth, and she had searched for quite a while.

Of course, she only managed to find out that they had been accepted into Galbadia Garden while Connla had been taking his field exam. She had tried to drag Celia back home. When she had refused, Calandria tried to smack her around, just like she had done when they were younger. This time though, Celia had magic, and was able to keep her mother from assaulting her. She had proven that she wasn't going to change. That she only wanted her children back home so that she would have someone to blame. 

Just like that, she left herself dead to her children, completely disowned and cut off. That same day, Connla went and got his first job. The assignment was simple, they were to arrive in Esthar City, and meet their client outside of it, in the Great Salt Lake. The travel to the country wasn't anything new. They rode by train to Galbadia, as the only way into the country was via the Horizon Bridge. Unfortunately, Connla would never make it to Esthar. The first night that fell, his group took up a campsite along the bridge. The odd star shaped gem Connla had picked up during his time in the field exam had started to pulsate that same night. When he pulled it out of his pocket, it was shining and pulsating. He had it in one hand, and Severance Trigger in the other. Then, out of nowhere, his hand clenched tightly onto it, as if it was no longer under his own control. The shard then began to glow with a brillant light, and Connla was yanked into the air at such speeds that he quickly was rendered unconcious. When he awoke..he was no longer on the bridge. He was no longer anywhere he recognized. That shard had taken him somewhere new..

MEKAKUCITY ACTORS, Shuya Kano is claimed by Connla Crevan

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