Player Name: Trace Username: enables Current/former characters: none
Sleeper Character: Snow Villiers Username: herocycle Canon: Final Fantasy XIII Canon point: Just before the ending scene, when he and the rest of the party are crystallized. Age: 21 Appearance: right here Personality: [I am so sorry for how rambly and disorganized this might be, I want to get the app in on time, sob.]
First and foremost, Snow makes a strong first impression. As in, he’s either going to win you over pretty much right off the bat, or he’s going to piss you off in ways you didn’t think were possible.
On the win-you-over side of things, you’ll never find a guy less true to his heart. Or honestly, less true in general. Pretty much everything Snow has to offer, you’ll see out on the table from the start—He can keep secrets, but has none really of his own. He’s really genuine in everything he says and does, and from the first time you meet him you can see that, hear it in his voice. On top of that, he is probably one of the biggest damn heroes you'll ever meet. Not because he necessarily saves the most people, but his entire heart's in it. It's who he is--like Lightning's a soldier and Sazh is a dad, Snow is a hero. And god, nothing can knock this guy down for more than like... five seconds. Lightning knocks him on his ass twice in a ten second span, nope, he's back up and trying. A thirty-foot-tall fal'Cie knocks him fifteen feet in the air and against a wall three or four times throughout the game, and nope, he's back up. Hell, he dove off a god-knows-how-many-story building to save Hope (who got knocked off the roof by an explosion) and still got back up. (Okay, that one wasn't so easy for him, he couldn't really do much, but. Still.) He may have his downfalls, but he is definitely a good guy to have on your side.
On the piss-you-off side of things, he’s… a little over the top, not gonna lie. Like with his cockiness, which doubles up with his unfailing optimism to form a formidable pair against any who insist on being emo. That frustrates Lightning (dubbed "Serious Spice" by zeropunctuation) many a time, though. Why? Because through it he’s at best farfetched and at worst impossibly unrealistic. In a worst-case-scenario type of situation, he's pretty much desperate to find a bright side to look at, and it shows. (Note that this is most prominent when things look rough and everyone else is losing hope. If people are still pressing on, he’s got his feet more firmly on the ground, and will have a pretty genuine conversation.) As an example: Hope. Hope hated him throughout most of the game because Snow accidentally caused the death of Hope’s mom. Snow didn't realize that's why, but he did know without a shadow of a doubt that Hope kind of hated his guts. Yet Snow acted completely oblivious to like 95% of it if not more. Why does he do that? Why, when Hope obviously hates him, does Snow still treat him almost affectionately?
Well, that’s actually one of the more complicated aspects of Snow. Before the events of XIII, I don’t think anyone really got ‘deep’ with him. Just like he’s exactly what his first impression offers, people tend to be more straight with him, too. Even those he’s grown up with only ever really see gamefaced Snow, so to speak. They talk, but not about anything deeper than NORA’s next strategy. (NORA here being the group Snow leads in canon.) And then Serah came along, but I really think that even with her, things were still ‘surface-level’. They fell in love before they ever really knew each other, as young couples tend to do. Their love was strong, but when things got rough, they still hadn’t gotten out of the ‘new and exciting’ stage. That’s why, when Serah became a l’Cie, she felt like she had to break up with Snow rather than feeling like she could tell him and he’d help her/be there for her. I’m almost positive it’s because Snow didn’t let her any deeper than he let anyone else, and I’m also almost positive that’s because he didn’t know how to. Though they were in love, when things got ‘real’ for her, she felt like he wouldn’t be able to handle it. That started a change that slowly overtook him throughout the game (though, I note, did not change him entirely), one in which he built more depth in himself and his relationships with others, and one in which he proved his feelings for Serah were more than just infatuation.
Which, I’m going to add now, is definitely true. He’s infatuated with Serah, sure, but on top of that, he would go and has gone to the ends of the earth for her. When she said she was a l’Cie (in laymen's terms, pretty much a magical leper meets ticking time bomb), he not only told her that didn’t matter, but he proposed to her to prove it. Besides that, his entire journey in the game is to bring Serah back from her crystallized state, defying death and logic and everyone who told him he can’t. NORA is his cause, but Serah is his purpose. And she knows it, too, he tries to make sure of that at every possible occasion.
But back to the above topic, since I’m not sure I covered it right: When Snow doesn’t know how to handle a deep/complex/emotional situation, he acts like he’s got no idea it exists. He doesn’t bother acknowledging it if he can’t fix it. Doesn't see how it'll help. Like the above example with Hope’s mom. He knew he’d caused her death, but he didn’t think he could do anything to rectify it, so he was going to act like nothing was wrong until he found a way to make it up to him. The worse the situation is, the more dramatic this difference is, but in the worst case scenario, he’s got two modes: derp derp what problem, and utter breakdown. (this scene here, if you mods have time for a cutscene, basically shows what I’m referring to. After like 90 cutscenes of pretending nothing’s wrong between him and Hope, he breaks down.)
If it's a problem within himself rather than between him and someone else, though, he uses legitimate denial to cope (rather than fake ignorance, as detailed above). When Serah turns to crystal (supposedly, a l'Cie who completes their focus gains eternal life in crystal), he says, "Sweet dreams." As if she's just falling asleep. He then turns around and tells Lightning that he promised Serah he'd be hers and he'll wait as long as it takes... Even though as far as he knows, she'll be a crystal eternally. On top of that, he's determined to save everyone, and you really don't want to tell him that's impossible. He refuses to believe it. Downright refuses. (So each death that happens anyway weighs on him that much more.)
As a whole, Snow is very action-oriented. If there’s a problem, he’s gonna solve it himself, most likely rushing in without even an inkling of a plan in his head. ("Charge in, guns blazing," is the term used to describe his strategy multiple times in canon.) He can probably get away with this because he’s genuinely that much stronger physically than most people, plus he pretty much never stays down, so he’s never really been ‘defeated’ for being reckless. As can almost be expected from a self-proclaimed hero, even when he’s surrounded by people who’ve grown up thinking the government (the Sanctum) is all-powerful, he holds no such views. In fact, in his band of followers outright oppose the government, bearing the name ‘No Obligation, Rules, or Authority’, shortened to ‘NORA’. (Which somehow is Hope’s mom’s name, wtf? /shrug) That’s part of what’s refreshing about Snow, though. While others turn their eyes to the Sanctum and let people get carted off for the Purge, he’s like, “OH HELL NO, WE DON'T TAKE THAT SHIT.”… kind of. You get the picture. He’s a firm believer that people can make a difference, and has much more faith in them than in any authority figure.
Snow is deeply and intensely loyal. He’s loyal to Serah above all else, but as long as that doesn’t conflict, he’s also very loyal to each of his friends. In fact, they’re less ‘friends’ and more ‘family’. Snow didn’t grow up with a family, himself, so he’s learned his whole life to gather people around him and treat them like family. NORA is one example, but then even more so the other five who traveled with him throughout the game. Lightning, Hope, Fang, Vanille, and Sazh. They’re now firmly embedded into his heart, and he’d go through hell and high water to make sure they’re safe. Lightning especially so. She can take care of herself, he was forced to realize this as they traveled together, but she’s his future sister-in-law, and he’s obligated to Serah to keep an eye on her.
That’s another thing about Snow: He’s very black-and-white. (The loyalty, for one. If he’s your friend, he’ll go all-out for you, and if not... well, he probably still will, but not if his friends need saving. Not a chance. And the think-first-question-later attitude. That’s just… how he deals with things, no hesitation.) This applies strongly to his beliefs as much as anything else. For example, he sees himself as a hero. As such, he never runs, he always wins, and he never dies. Why? That’s what heroes do, in his eyes. No ‘in this situation, running’s okay’. No, it’s just, ‘Heroes never run’. Because of this, he’s often seen as ‘simple’ (which he kinda is) or ‘naïve’ (which he actually really isn’t). Heck, Sazh even lumps Snow in with the ‘kids’, in the start of the game, because of that supposed ‘naivety’. What people don’t take into account, though, is that even though his methods are unorthodox and seem downright foolish, how often does he actually fail? Next to never.
Not sure if I covered this yet or not, but Snow will always try to do too much in any given situation. Take all of the enemy’s attacks, save every single person ever (you think I'm kidding)… Snow absolutely hates seeing anyone get hurt. To the point where as long as it didn’t endanger his friends, he’d jump right in harm’s way for a total stranger. In fact, he was commanding NORA to do just that, when he didn’t approve of the Purge. He puts his entire self on the line, and god is he lucky it usually works (and hasn't gotten him killed). Hope tries to kill him, but then they get wounded and he carries the kid on his back anyway, despite that it puts the temporarily-homicidal kid with the knife on his back. He goes out, shirtless and unarmed, to try to negotiate with 30 armed hostiles who want nothing more than to shoot him and the rest of the party down. He dives off of buildings to save a life. He's just... an all-in kind of guy.
As for his interperson relations, he’s got two modes. ‘Hero’ and ‘friend’. They often overlap, but ‘hero’ has his eyes on the enemy, and ‘friend’ has his eyes on you. He’s actually a pretty warm, touchy-feely person (a big teddy bear, so the saying goes), but he’s not gonna act like it when he’s in hero mode. That’s because his attention’s on sticking himself firmly between you and the enemy. When there is no enemy, by default he lapses into ‘friend’, and he can sit back and have a comfortable conversation with just about anyone. On that note, he loves kids, and they tend to love him. In fact, only one of his five-member NORA squad was his age, and the youngest was about 12-14. Yet he could talk to any one of them one-on-one, bro to bro, and not look down on them in the slightest. The same thing ends up happening with Hope--he's only 14, but once he gets over hating Snow, he and Snow form this awesome bro bond where they both look out for each other instead of just 'protect the kid'.
All in all, Snow's a guy with relatively simple priorities and viewpoints, and despite his flaws, he and his selfless heroics manage to even win Lightning's full confidence by the end of the game.
History: Iiiiit's kind of complicated, so I'll link you so you can look up the vocab if you need to. His personal wiki right here.
Powers/skills: Alright, for powers I'm really not sure what's kosher to keep, but I'll detail his powers and you can let me know what goes and what stays, alright? :)
First, some vocab.
Snow's a l'Cie. There are six main specialties l'Cie can be proficient in. TL;DR summaries: -- COMMANDO: physical-offensive -- SENTINEL: physical-defensive -- RAVAGER: elemental-offensive (thundaga, firaga, blizzaga, shit like that) -- SABOTEUR: status-offensive (in pokemon terms, this would be like 'hypnosis' and 'stun spore' and 'leech seed') -- SYNERGIST: status-defensive (pokemon terms again, 'defense curl' and 'howl' and 'rock polish' and 'harden') -- MEDIC: HP-defensive (heals, removes status effects)
Up until endgame, the characters only have three of them--that leaves more to be developed after you beat the final boss, for a post-game experience. Since I'm taking him from before that point, we'll only worry about his primary three.
SENTINEL/COMMANDO -- [These two are both physical, so I'll combine them so it's simpler.] Of everything, Snow's role on the team is the designated tank. The one to distract the enemy and take all of the damage so nobody else has to. And he does it damn well, to--something the size of a semi truck can hit him at 40 miles per hour and he doesn't budge an inch. That's the Sentinel role right there. (It probably doesn't hurt that he's 6'7" and broad-shouldered.) Commando basically means you deal a lot of damage with physical attacks rather than elemental. And considering the fact that the battle everyone else fights with guns, gunblades, staffs, or giant fucktarded boomerangs, he fights with his fists (his equipped weapon is his coat, I shit you not), he is quite good at dealing that damage, it's fair to say. TL;DR can take a hit like you wouldn't believe, as long as he's braced for it, and is pretty damn strong to boot.
RAVAGER -- Unlike more proficient Ravagers, Snow is almost exclusively single-elemental--ice. (In canon, he can do basic water/watera and aero/aerora too, but I'm simplifying to his primary one so he doesn't have a fuckton of abilities.) That means blizzard/blizzara/blizzaga. Or, since the FAQ said to translate 'spells' into 'powers', elemental control over ice.
Now for the skills part: -- FIREARMS. He can shoot a gun pretty damn well, as shown in cutscenes, but he apparently prefers to just punch the fuck out of things when the big battles roll in. -- LEADERSHIP. Primarily of non-professional groups, like his rebel mini-militia, or of groups of civilians. He's pretty good with words when a speech needs made, and tends to inspire confidence in all but the most cynical (whom he later manages to win over anyway). -- STAMINA. He's like the energizer bunny, man. He just doesn't quit. You can knock him down a hundred times and he'll still find a way to drag himself back up. -- GOOD WITH KIDS. Kind of self-explanatory. He knows how to make them feel useful without being reckless with their lives, which is what too many kids/teens need these days.
SNOW VILLIERS + final fantasy xiii [one of two]
Name: Trace
Username:
Current/former characters: none
Sleeper
Character: Snow Villiers
Username:
Canon: Final Fantasy XIII
Canon point: Just before the ending scene, when he and the rest of the party are crystallized.
Age: 21
Appearance: right here
Personality:
[I am so sorry for how rambly and disorganized this might be, I want to get the app in on time, sob.]
First and foremost, Snow makes a strong first impression. As in, he’s either going to win you over pretty much right off the bat, or he’s going to piss you off in ways you didn’t think were possible.
On the win-you-over side of things, you’ll never find a guy less true to his heart. Or honestly, less true in general. Pretty much everything Snow has to offer, you’ll see out on the table from the start—He can keep secrets, but has none really of his own. He’s really genuine in everything he says and does, and from the first time you meet him you can see that, hear it in his voice. On top of that, he is probably one of the biggest damn heroes you'll ever meet. Not because he necessarily saves the most people, but his entire heart's in it. It's who he is--like Lightning's a soldier and Sazh is a dad, Snow is a hero. And god, nothing can knock this guy down for more than like... five seconds. Lightning knocks him on his ass twice in a ten second span, nope, he's back up and trying. A thirty-foot-tall fal'Cie knocks him fifteen feet in the air and against a wall three or four times throughout the game, and nope, he's back up. Hell, he dove off a god-knows-how-many-story building to save Hope (who got knocked off the roof by an explosion) and still got back up. (Okay, that one wasn't so easy for him, he couldn't really do much, but. Still.) He may have his downfalls, but he is definitely a good guy to have on your side.
On the piss-you-off side of things, he’s… a little over the top, not gonna lie. Like with his cockiness, which doubles up with his unfailing optimism to form a formidable pair against any who insist on being emo. That frustrates Lightning (dubbed "Serious Spice" by zeropunctuation) many a time, though. Why? Because through it he’s at best farfetched and at worst impossibly unrealistic. In a worst-case-scenario type of situation, he's pretty much desperate to find a bright side to look at, and it shows. (Note that this is most prominent when things look rough and everyone else is losing hope. If people are still pressing on, he’s got his feet more firmly on the ground, and will have a pretty genuine conversation.) As an example: Hope. Hope hated him throughout most of the game because Snow accidentally caused the death of Hope’s mom. Snow didn't realize that's why, but he did know without a shadow of a doubt that Hope kind of hated his guts. Yet Snow acted completely oblivious to like 95% of it if not more. Why does he do that? Why, when Hope obviously hates him, does Snow still treat him almost affectionately?
Well, that’s actually one of the more complicated aspects of Snow. Before the events of XIII, I don’t think anyone really got ‘deep’ with him. Just like he’s exactly what his first impression offers, people tend to be more straight with him, too. Even those he’s grown up with only ever really see gamefaced Snow, so to speak. They talk, but not about anything deeper than NORA’s next strategy. (NORA here being the group Snow leads in canon.) And then Serah came along, but I really think that even with her, things were still ‘surface-level’. They fell in love before they ever really knew each other, as young couples tend to do. Their love was strong, but when things got rough, they still hadn’t gotten out of the ‘new and exciting’ stage. That’s why, when Serah became a l’Cie, she felt like she had to break up with Snow rather than feeling like she could tell him and he’d help her/be there for her. I’m almost positive it’s because Snow didn’t let her any deeper than he let anyone else, and I’m also almost positive that’s because he didn’t know how to. Though they were in love, when things got ‘real’ for her, she felt like he wouldn’t be able to handle it. That started a change that slowly overtook him throughout the game (though, I note, did not change him entirely), one in which he built more depth in himself and his relationships with others, and one in which he proved his feelings for Serah were more than just infatuation.
Which, I’m going to add now, is definitely true. He’s infatuated with Serah, sure, but on top of that, he would go and has gone to the ends of the earth for her. When she said she was a l’Cie (in laymen's terms, pretty much a magical leper meets ticking time bomb), he not only told her that didn’t matter, but he proposed to her to prove it. Besides that, his entire journey in the game is to bring Serah back from her crystallized state, defying death and logic and everyone who told him he can’t. NORA is his cause, but Serah is his purpose. And she knows it, too, he tries to make sure of that at every possible occasion.
But back to the above topic, since I’m not sure I covered it right: When Snow doesn’t know how to handle a deep/complex/emotional situation, he acts like he’s got no idea it exists. He doesn’t bother acknowledging it if he can’t fix it. Doesn't see how it'll help. Like the above example with Hope’s mom. He knew he’d caused her death, but he didn’t think he could do anything to rectify it, so he was going to act like nothing was wrong until he found a way to make it up to him. The worse the situation is, the more dramatic this difference is, but in the worst case scenario, he’s got two modes: derp derp what problem, and utter breakdown. (this scene here, if you mods have time for a cutscene, basically shows what I’m referring to. After like 90 cutscenes of pretending nothing’s wrong between him and Hope, he breaks down.)
If it's a problem within himself rather than between him and someone else, though, he uses legitimate denial to cope (rather than fake ignorance, as detailed above). When Serah turns to crystal (supposedly, a l'Cie who completes their focus gains eternal life in crystal), he says, "Sweet dreams." As if she's just falling asleep. He then turns around and tells Lightning that he promised Serah he'd be hers and he'll wait as long as it takes... Even though as far as he knows, she'll be a crystal eternally. On top of that, he's determined to save everyone, and you really don't want to tell him that's impossible. He refuses to believe it. Downright refuses. (So each death that happens anyway weighs on him that much more.)
As a whole, Snow is very action-oriented. If there’s a problem, he’s gonna solve it himself, most likely rushing in without even an inkling of a plan in his head. ("Charge in, guns blazing," is the term used to describe his strategy multiple times in canon.) He can probably get away with this because he’s genuinely that much stronger physically than most people, plus he pretty much never stays down, so he’s never really been ‘defeated’ for being reckless. As can almost be expected from a self-proclaimed hero, even when he’s surrounded by people who’ve grown up thinking the government (the Sanctum) is all-powerful, he holds no such views. In fact, in his band of followers outright oppose the government, bearing the name ‘No Obligation, Rules, or Authority’, shortened to ‘NORA’. (Which somehow is Hope’s mom’s name, wtf? /shrug) That’s part of what’s refreshing about Snow, though. While others turn their eyes to the Sanctum and let people get carted off for the Purge, he’s like, “OH HELL NO, WE DON'T TAKE THAT SHIT.”… kind of. You get the picture. He’s a firm believer that people can make a difference, and has much more faith in them than in any authority figure.
Snow is deeply and intensely loyal. He’s loyal to Serah above all else, but as long as that doesn’t conflict, he’s also very loyal to each of his friends. In fact, they’re less ‘friends’ and more ‘family’. Snow didn’t grow up with a family, himself, so he’s learned his whole life to gather people around him and treat them like family. NORA is one example, but then even more so the other five who traveled with him throughout the game. Lightning, Hope, Fang, Vanille, and Sazh. They’re now firmly embedded into his heart, and he’d go through hell and high water to make sure they’re safe. Lightning especially so. She can take care of herself, he was forced to realize this as they traveled together, but she’s his future sister-in-law, and he’s obligated to Serah to keep an eye on her.
That’s another thing about Snow: He’s very black-and-white. (The loyalty, for one. If he’s your friend, he’ll go all-out for you, and if not... well, he probably still will, but not if his friends need saving. Not a chance. And the think-first-question-later attitude. That’s just… how he deals with things, no hesitation.) This applies strongly to his beliefs as much as anything else. For example, he sees himself as a hero. As such, he never runs, he always wins, and he never dies. Why? That’s what heroes do, in his eyes. No ‘in this situation, running’s okay’. No, it’s just, ‘Heroes never run’. Because of this, he’s often seen as ‘simple’ (which he kinda is) or ‘naïve’ (which he actually really isn’t). Heck, Sazh even lumps Snow in with the ‘kids’, in the start of the game, because of that supposed ‘naivety’. What people don’t take into account, though, is that even though his methods are unorthodox and seem downright foolish, how often does he actually fail? Next to never.
Not sure if I covered this yet or not, but Snow will always try to do too much in any given situation. Take all of the enemy’s attacks, save every single person ever (you think I'm kidding)… Snow absolutely hates seeing anyone get hurt. To the point where as long as it didn’t endanger his friends, he’d jump right in harm’s way for a total stranger. In fact, he was commanding NORA to do just that, when he didn’t approve of the Purge. He puts his entire self on the line, and god is he lucky it usually works (and hasn't gotten him killed). Hope tries to kill him, but then they get wounded and he carries the kid on his back anyway, despite that it puts the temporarily-homicidal kid with the knife on his back. He goes out, shirtless and unarmed, to try to negotiate with 30 armed hostiles who want nothing more than to shoot him and the rest of the party down. He dives off of buildings to save a life. He's just... an all-in kind of guy.
As for his interperson relations, he’s got two modes. ‘Hero’ and ‘friend’. They often overlap, but ‘hero’ has his eyes on the enemy, and ‘friend’ has his eyes on you. He’s actually a pretty warm, touchy-feely person (a big teddy bear, so the saying goes), but he’s not gonna act like it when he’s in hero mode. That’s because his attention’s on sticking himself firmly between you and the enemy. When there is no enemy, by default he lapses into ‘friend’, and he can sit back and have a comfortable conversation with just about anyone. On that note, he loves kids, and they tend to love him. In fact, only one of his five-member NORA squad was his age, and the youngest was about 12-14. Yet he could talk to any one of them one-on-one, bro to bro, and not look down on them in the slightest. The same thing ends up happening with Hope--he's only 14, but once he gets over hating Snow, he and Snow form this awesome bro bond where they both look out for each other instead of just 'protect the kid'.
All in all, Snow's a guy with relatively simple priorities and viewpoints, and despite his flaws, he and his selfless heroics manage to even win Lightning's full confidence by the end of the game.
History: Iiiiit's kind of complicated, so I'll link you so you can look up the vocab if you need to. His personal wiki right here.
Powers/skills:
Alright, for powers I'm really not sure what's kosher to keep, but I'll detail his powers and you can let me know what goes and what stays, alright? :)
First, some vocab.
Snow's a l'Cie. There are six main specialties l'Cie can be proficient in. TL;DR summaries:
-- COMMANDO: physical-offensive
-- SENTINEL: physical-defensive
-- RAVAGER: elemental-offensive (thundaga, firaga, blizzaga, shit like that)
-- SABOTEUR: status-offensive (in pokemon terms, this would be like 'hypnosis' and 'stun spore' and 'leech seed')
-- SYNERGIST: status-defensive (pokemon terms again, 'defense curl' and 'howl' and 'rock polish' and 'harden')
-- MEDIC: HP-defensive (heals, removes status effects)
Up until endgame, the characters only have three of them--that leaves more to be developed after you beat the final boss, for a post-game experience. Since I'm taking him from before that point, we'll only worry about his primary three.
SENTINEL/COMMANDO --
[These two are both physical, so I'll combine them so it's simpler.] Of everything, Snow's role on the team is the designated tank. The one to distract the enemy and take all of the damage so nobody else has to. And he does it damn well, to--something the size of a semi truck can hit him at 40 miles per hour and he doesn't budge an inch. That's the Sentinel role right there. (It probably doesn't hurt that he's 6'7" and broad-shouldered.) Commando basically means you deal a lot of damage with physical attacks rather than elemental. And considering the fact that the battle everyone else fights with guns, gunblades, staffs, or giant fucktarded boomerangs, he fights with his fists (his equipped weapon is his coat, I shit you not), he is quite good at dealing that damage, it's fair to say. TL;DR can take a hit like you wouldn't believe, as long as he's braced for it, and is pretty damn strong to boot.
RAVAGER --
Unlike more proficient Ravagers, Snow is almost exclusively single-elemental--ice. (In canon, he can do basic water/watera and aero/aerora too, but I'm simplifying to his primary one so he doesn't have a fuckton of abilities.) That means blizzard/blizzara/blizzaga. Or, since the FAQ said to translate 'spells' into 'powers', elemental control over ice.
Now for the skills part:
-- FIREARMS. He can shoot a gun pretty damn well, as shown in cutscenes, but he apparently prefers to just punch the fuck out of things when the big battles roll in.
-- LEADERSHIP. Primarily of non-professional groups, like his rebel mini-militia, or of groups of civilians. He's pretty good with words when a speech needs made, and tends to inspire confidence in all but the most cynical (whom he later manages to win over anyway).
-- STAMINA. He's like the energizer bunny, man. He just doesn't quit. You can knock him down a hundred times and he'll still find a way to drag himself back up.
-- GOOD WITH KIDS. Kind of self-explanatory. He knows how to make them feel useful without being reckless with their lives, which is what too many kids/teens need these days.