Player

Name: Moth
Contact: ephinea | Moth#0284 on Discord
18+? Indeed I am!
Other Character: N/A

Player

Name: Lloyd Irving
Canon: Tales of Symphonia
Canon point: Pre-DotNW, before the Palmacosta Blood Purge

As Tales of Symphonia has an affection system that can marginally — or dramatically for one route — affect the ending of the game, I will be taking Lloyd from one of the routes, specifically Colette's route (A.K.A. the default route).
Age: 19
Canon history: N/A
History: Tales of Symphonia | Lloyd | Write-up of Lloyd's history (since those two links don't give much)

Personality:
It says a lot when the first entry of the code of morals you follow is: "Let's all work together for a peaceful world". Having grown up with the Dwarven Vows, it's clear that the collection of anecdotes have made an impact on the teen, as he's been repeatedly called the idealist of the group. All Lloyd wishes for is absolute peace, a world where no one must fight because of their differences, and can live in absolute harmony. He's aware that such a goal will be difficult, if not impossible, to attain, but he still holds steadfast to the hopes that he will one day see a world where anyone and everyone can live side-by-side with no strife. This idealistic outlook also helps him to be more accepting of people's differences: he doesn't care about lineages, blood ties, social status, or any of that jargon. All he cares about is a person's actions and what made them to be what they are today-- and even if it's bad, he can still see the good in most people and will always give someone another chance.

While Lloyd may seem like a brash individual at first, many people quickly find that he is a very understanding person. Lloyd is never a person to seriously judge someone for their misgivings, and is usually quick to forgive a person even if it seemed like they had a reason, good or otherwise, for Lloyd to resent them-- even towards people that could be considered his enemies*. Seeing someone suffering in silence is something Lloyd cannot stand, and he will do all he can to figure out a way to alleviate someone's misery, even if it leaves him frustrated and scrambling for answers. While this applies to the entire party, the best example of this would be his relationship with Colette: someone who was perfectly okay with suffering in silence. There were many times where Lloyd tried to find ways to help his friend's suffering, and he even cried after confirming that she'd been hiding her pain — not because he was mad at her, but because he was mad at himself for not noticing that his close childhood friend was enduring so much pain for the sake of regenerating the world.

*Except for Kvar. That guy can burn in hell.

While character development's helped him get better with this, Lloyd is still very much a spontaneous and energetic person. This is not always a good thing. Oftentimes, Lloyd has a tendency to act before he thinks, lashing out angrily before considering the situation he's in and taking the time to decide on a course of action. While he's usually pulled back by someone far more level-headed than he is, and while he does quickly cool down once he's smacked in the face with logic, this has also landed him in hot water with his enemies on a number of occasions. It's pretty fair to say that, while he's much more traveled, he still has a tendency to start yelling at someone if they hit one of his berserk buttons or fall victim to a good ol' fashioned "open mouth; insert foot."

Lloyd is surprisingly skilled at creating some little white lies — it doesn't mean that he enjoys it if a lie goes beyond that. As stated before, Lloyd grew up learning the Dwarven Vows, with one of them — number eleven — warning against lying: "Lying is the first step down the path of thievery". If the situation calls for it, he will be completely honest and forthcoming about the truth and what he feels is right, making it seem like he wears his heart on his sleeve. If he's asked to keep a secret, he can do it… but not at the expense of someone's well-being, such as when Colette begged him to not tell anyone of her condition when they were undergoing the Journey of Regeneration. In addition, he will not hold back his feelings towards a person for the sake of appearances: if he likes you or dislikes you for any reason (which is usually a good one), he will absolutely make it known.

Lloyd is an idiot. Plain and simple. He's a kind person, but it doesn't excuse the fact that he's by far the dumbest character in the game. Oftentimes he's found at the butt of the joke because there's a concept that he completely misunderstood ("If one sword equals the power of 100, then two should equal the power of 200."), or there's something he doesn't understand and asks it with no shame whatsoever, despite the situation ("Professor, what's a 'philanderer'?"). He's also proven to be incredibly dense in some instances, completely missing the fact that at least two girls in his party are enamored by him.

Genis was once quoted as saying Lloyd is someone who relies on and learns from instinct and intuition. His teacher, Raine, also stated that Lloyd learns better with his hands than his brain. It's been shown multiple times throughout canon that, while Lloyd is not that bright academically, he's skilled at using his hands and very clearly possesses a craftman's touch. This makes him a very surprisingly resourceful character, as he's been shown to be able to pick even some of the most technologically advanced locks with ease and even disarm a bomb that not even its original creator didn't know how to disarm. This resourcefulness also feeds into his idealistic outlook, as he's able to concoct some simple but sound plans with whatever's at his disposal.

Always Keep In Mind: While Lloyd is the token idiot protagonist of the group with his simplistic vocabulary and naive outlook on the world, he's also someone who would rather judge a person for what they've done rather than who or what they are. He's brash, but kind, and treats everybody as his equal. When things get serious, he knows it's time to man up and leave the jokes at the door. He almost always takes the role of leader.

Samples

Log Sample: ► TDM ◄

Questions: Write an IC answer to the following questions:

What do you want to study at Diatu Magicademy?
"I only really knew about two or three different kinds of magic, I didn't know there were more! It'd be pretty cool to learn the kinds of things Genis can do, or what Zelos and my dad know. Isn't there also a way you could power weapons and other stuff with magic? Forging, right? I wanna learn that, too!"

If you knew you could go back to the moment you left, would you leave immediately or continue your studies for a while?
"Learning how to use magic is awesome and all, but I would definitely go right back home. I've got a mission I need to do, one that's going to take a while to finish, and I can't slack off just because I could learn a new way of fighting."

If your enemy was at Diatu Magicademy, how would you react?
"I… I dunno. I'd probably be mad. Not at them, but at the people who brought them here. They should all be allowed to rest."

When is it acceptable to resolve a dispute by force?
"If I had a say in it: probably never. But sometimes you get that one guy that just makes you have to fight even if you don't want to, and… you don't really have much of a choice."

What should the supreme goal of any wizard be?
"I think that's something the wizard should figure out on their own, just like everyone else. I mean, yeah you can cast magic, but it's what you do with it that matters, and you shouldn't have to follow anyone's ideas if it's not something you would be happy following.

"…I guess the ultimate goal should be to figure out your own path. Just don't be a jerk about it, either."

Special Considerations

Your Special Something: An Item of Power

Rank Your House Choice:
1. Eiather (for the irony)
2. Ka
3. Aet et Calculum

Powers: Lloyd is primarily an offensive fighter, using two swords and a collection of artes (or techs) to rain fast and heavy sword-based elemental/energy attacks on his enemies. There are technically two trees of attacks that Lloyd can use, but considering all the other titles he's in utilizes his attacks from specifically one of these trees, I will be playing him from the "canon" tree: the Technical Artes tree.

Besides that, while he hasn't explicitly shown any proof of learning these abilities, there is a little something that happened to him towards the end of the game that could lead to additional abilities: namely, the remnants of Mithos's Cruxis Crystal allowing Lloyd's own Exsphere (whose host was originally the subject used for the Angelus Project, Lloyd's mother) to mutate into a Cruxis Crystal and turn Lloyd into an angel. This potentially gives him additional abilities along with the obvious ability for him to sprout large, blue translucent wings, many of which are light/holy-based. As mentioned before, none of this is explicitly confirmed as canon, as in the sequel Dawn of the New World, he's not shown to use any abilities that could hint to his angelic transformation. Knowing his character, however, it's pretty safe to say that he could know at least how to summon his wings and potentially learn to cast the first angelic spell "Angel Feathers", he just simply chooses not to.

Items:

Kratos's locket - A simple, oval-shaped gold locket. It contains a picture of Kratos, Anna, and baby Lloyd.

Noblewear - A snazzy set of white and blue clothes well-suited for formal parties. They were tailored specifically to Lloyd's measurements.

Material Blades - A pair of magic-based swords — one red, and one blue. Lloyd received these from both of his fathers, the red one from Kratos and the blue one from Dirk.

Anything Else: I know living beings don't come along with the character upon arrival, but later on down the road, would there be opportunities for Lloyd to reunite with his protozoan canine companion Noishe? This isn't a make-or-break kind of thing, just something I was curious about.

In addition, I noticed the question you answered for Hope about keeping enhanced physical abilities; considering Lloyd also has something along this nature (enhanced physical prowess, enabling him to fight better and even jump off high cliffs) thanks to a physical object, his Exsphere which he kind of needs to survive now, would this also apply to him?