sinfluencers // app

[astraphilia]

PLAYER NAME: min
CONTACT: maehwa
OVER THE AGE OF 18?: 18+ indeed
TIMEZONE: pst
OTHER CHARACTERS: n/a!
TRIGGERS: n/a
LINK TO RESERVE: here!

CHARACTER NAME: Reno
CANON: Final Fantasy VII Compilation (original flavor, not Remake)
CANON POINT: Post-Advent Children Complete
AGE: 31
BACKGROUND: wiki here! Reno is also CRAU from The City.

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SUITABILITY: Among its many and varied attractions, the city of Midgar boasts a thriving black market underground where sex is a perfectly acceptable form of currency. The Wall Market slum is home to a number of brothels and strip clubs, including the infamous Honeybee Inn. These are places where sex work is allowed or even encouraged, and as a citizen of Midgar's underbelly Reno would have been introduced to this concept from likely as early as he began working with the Turks. Interestingly, there doesn't seem to be any kind of societal disapproval for this type of work, although that could also just be because the people in Wall Market are so used to seeing it that they don't perceive it any differently than any other type of day job. At any rate, the concept of sex work would not be strange to Reno. Reno himself is also very much not a straight-laced type, and while there's no on-screen sex in FF7 (let alone for the Turks), it seems reasonable to conclude based on his personality and attitudes that he would not have any objection to the idea of selling sex for money or to earn out your end of a contract.

As far as familiarity with social media, the original game came out in 1997, so obviously the tech landscape was very different than it is in 2024. However, the world of FF7 is supposed to be very technologically impressive, with advanced robotics and weaponry being commonplace, characters carrying cell phones and interacting with holograms, and evidence present of a well-connected society even after Meteorfall (so likely even moreso when the city of Midgar was still standing). I think it's reasonable to conclude that Reno would be familiar with social media and technology, although he probably wouldn't be much of a social media user himself (but I firmly believe that he would have a burner TikTok account he uses to scroll through memes lmao).
CHARACTER ARC PLANS: Reno's experience in a previous game actually sort of kickstarted his character arc, but he still has a long way to go! Historically, Reno has been an extremely jaded, passively suicidal, reckless livewire with little regard for his own life and barely any more for the lives of others. He has been made to participate in a lot of pretty atrocious things (e.g. the mass murder of tens of thousands of Midgar citizens under the Sector 7 plate), and has had very little time to reckon with the aftereffects of that trauma or to come to terms with his own culpability. In his previous game, his relationship with Thancred (onlythans, also apping this round) helped him at least come to terms with and confront his own will to live, but he has a long way to go in terms of atoning for his sins or maybe even beginning to forgive himself for his role in the almost-apocalypse. Besides that, I think a lot of his personal arc will focus around him figuring out how to make connections with people that aren't just predicated on his usefulness to them or their usefulness to him, as well as him figuring out what it really is he wants to live for and what his ultimate goal is.
COLLATERAL: Cognizant that he'd need to put something meaningful up as collateral or he won't be motivated to actually fulfill the letter of his contract, and yet also aware that there are very few things Reno actually thinks of as valuable, I think that Reno would put up his memories of Rude, who is one of his only actual friends in the world and someone he values deeply. In exchange, he would also ask for the secrets of multiversal travel (just like Thancred). He has no canon connection to the idea, but because he's CRAU and he knows some about it from his relationship with Thancred, he recognizes the importance of the idea and also that one of them having the answer is pretty much critical if their relationship is going to continue.
ADDITIONAL CONTRACT CLAUSES: CAN I ASK FOR TWO… I think Reno would like to try for two additional clauses, one long term and one short term! The short-term one would be the restoration of Thancred's aether. His aether got all fucked up when he died/took a dip in the Lifestream and Reno would like him to have it back. This would be a one-time, low-stakes ask that would grant Thancred some magical abilities, but nothing game-breaking! The longer-term clause would be for Reno to do some additional nonsense, whatever is appropriate, in exchange for Thancred not having to give up his memories of Minfilia in case he doesn't fulfill his contract. He knows how important she is to Thancred and would not want his memories of her to be on the line if he can help it. This would obviously be a much higher stakes ask and Reno would be aware he'd probably be made to work pretty hard for it.

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PERSONALITY: passionate, manic, loyal, livewire, professional, unhinged
INVENTORY: Reno did not negotiate for time at home before arrival, so he'll be arriving with just what's on his person (clothes, basically). He's gonna have to start his wardrobe all over!
SKILLS/ABILITIES: While Reno is capable of using magic the same way any FF7 character is capable of using magic (with the assistance of a materia), he doesn't have any materia on his person, so he won't be able to use any magic. He is fast as hell though if that counts.
GAMEBREAKING POWERS? Nope!

TDM SAMPLES: thancred, alhaitham, homelander
OTHER SAMPLES: the city 1, the city 2, the city 3