Lucca Ashtear

Player Info:
Name: Io
Timezone: EST
Contact: Plurk: ionicOneirologist Skype: ioalbinaneko AIM: ionOneirologist

Character Info:
Name: Lucca Ashtear
Age: 19
CANON: Chrono Trigger

Summary:

• Was living in the village of Truce in 1000 AD as the local weird inventor girl and friend to the game's protagonist, Crono.



• Her invention inadvertantly triggers a TIIIIME PORTAAAAL (in conjunction with a shiny magical pendant, of course!), setting off the plot.



• Turns out the future sucks because a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere destroyed everything. Lucca and friends decide they must stop it!



• TIME TRAVEL. Lucca repairs and befriends a robot from 1300 years in the future, learns fire magic, assumes the leadership role when Crono tries to fight the big bad too early and temporarily dies (headcanon sort of; technically you can put whoever you want in the party at this point in the game, but I always put Lucca in the lead. It seems natural as she's the party member who's known Crono the longest.) and harnesses the power of a mystical legendary stone for use in a badass gun.



• At one point, she gets the opportunity to return to a point ten years ago, when her mother was caught in one of her father's inventions and lost the use of her legs. Lucca gets the chance to turn off the machine and change this part of her personal history, saving her mother.



• She doesn't talk about this with anyone onscreen, though. For all her boisterousness and enthusiasm, there's still a lot about herself that she hides away. World-destroying monsters are easier to face than our own insecurities, after all.



• Eventually they face and defeat the big life-harvesting space monster, thus saving the future and allowing everyone to return to their own timelines and live the rest of their lives happily!



• Except the robot, Lucca's new BFF, because he's from the future and the future has changed. He might fade from existence after going back to his time.



• And Lucca knows it. Because if you thought you were done with heartbreaking scenes in this game you were wrong, here's one last gutpunch before the credits roll. Hooray.

Around town, Lucca has a reputation for holing up inventing things that blow up, usually not on purpose. (Although, given that everything she invents or fixes in the actual course of the game works perfectly fine, that reputation may be the result of a single incident.) She's an only child and her father, Taban, is also an inventor, who heartily encourages and co-invents with her. They bring their latest big creation - a set of teleportation pods - to the kingdom's Milennial Fair to show off! What could go wrong?

Lucca's friend Crono meets a young girl and brings her to the display, where she agrees to try the telepods. Which then react to her pendant, go haywire, and suck her into a strange portal. That's what could go wrong.

Although it's Crono who first resolves to go after the girl, Lucca immediately stands beside that decision and helps power the machine back up to send him through. She studies the phenomenon, invents a device that can open the portal on demand, and eventually follows him through - proving her hypothesis that it is, in fact, a portal through time. Lucca is already enthused and fascinated by this, expositing away - her theory that the girl, Marle, is actually the kingdom's princess and they've arrived in the medieval past also turns out to be correct! The rescue mission goes smoothly enough, and when they return to their own time it's clear that Lucca is in I NEED TO STUDY THIS AS MUCH AND QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE mode, as she immediately babbles an excuse and runs off.

Problem is, Crono is suddenly accused of attempting to abduct the princess upon attempting to escort her home. There's clearly some corruption going on in the ranks, as he's given a death sentence under the table even when proven not guilty.

Before today, Crono was Lucca's only friend. She certainly catches wind of this, and oh boy, you do NOT mess with Lucca's friends because she promptly breaks into the goddamn castle and beats up every guard she comes across to bust him out of there.

They end up fleeing through another portal - and into the future. Here Lucca discovers and repairs a robot, who offers to help them find another way back to their own time. This is Robo, who becomes one of Lucca's closest friends, because he's a robot of COURSE he does.

"I think I can fix it."

"What? It might attack us!"

"I'll make sure it won't. Machines aren't capable of evil... humans make them that way."

"Lucca, you... pity them, don't you?"

"Let me get to work now, ok?"

When they locate a new portal, however, they also find records of what made the future into this dystopian wasteland - a gigantic monster that emerges from inside the planet and rains destruction down upon the earth. And, well, they're RPG heroes - they immediately decide that since they've discovered a method of time travel, they need to use it to investigate where "Lavos" came from and how to stop it from ruining the future. Plot get!

The ensuing adventure spans many eras, including a prehistory full of cavemen, dinosaurs, and intelligent dinosaur people; medieval kingdoms; and an ancient age of prosperity, magic, and advanced technology directly influenced by Lavos itself. At one point, the party even gains a time traveling craft, because you gotta have an airship, and I always like to think that Lucca immediately becomes its designated pilot.

Eventually, they're able to confront, face, and defeat Lavos. (One of many, many ways... this game has so many dang endings.) It turns out Lavos is a creature from outer space, which lands and burrows into a life-sustaining planet, remotely absorbing genetic information from its lifeforms until it has enough to reproduce. It then returns to the surface and enters its reproductive phase, almost entirely destroying the biosphere in the process. If you bring Lucca to the final fight, she's one of the few characters capable of sussing this out and informing the party.

Lucca's technological genius is her pride and joy, and she'll certainly flaunt it given the opportunity. Who else could've repaired a robot from 1300 years in the future, or used a computer system from that era like she does it every day? Her friends and family, however, are what's truly precious to her, even if she's hesitant to talk about it.

Lucca may be boisterous and fiery in the right company and with engaging topics at hand - you'll get the impression she can be a real go-getter, ready to face anything. But there's a hell of a lot she keeps quiet about, not troubling even her closest of friends with. It can appear to take a lot to get to her, but when it does, she often completely breaks down and lets those defenses drop, especially if surrounded by people she loves and trusts. Grief can easily turn into anger for her, and she may need to wrestle with her emotions in order to regain her cool.

In short, most people sort of expect her to be the logical one with the level head, but she's a lot more emotional than she lets on. There's a reason why her innate magic is Fire, after all!

Gem Considerations: Sunstone!



Not only was an enormous, magical Sunstone part of a sidequest central to Lucca in canon (she forges her ultimate weapon from the Sunstone's power after you obtain it), but it represents several of her strong points. Her inventions are definitely a form of creativity, and she has quite a bit of personal strength. Her ability to lead is also strong - but I don't believe she fully realizes that, and there's room there for her to grow and really come into it. Sunstone can also represent openness, and that's something she desperately needs to work on - she won't always have friends around who can read when something's troubling her, and she definitely does a bit too much of bottling things up and never talking about them.

Power considerations:

• Pyrokinesis


• Weapon Summon: Energy Handgun


• Hologram Projection

Given that Lucca began her own adventure as a normal human, she wouldn't be too tripped up by losing the strength she'd gained. Really, she'd be more disappointed by losing her Wondershot gun than her fire magic, considering the gun's a Cool Thing She Built Herself! She'd buck up quickly and set herself to learning how to use the new abilities she's been given - even if she starts with pyrokinesis, it'd work somewhat differently from her magic and take some getting used to. Getting thrown into a whole other world's mess just after barely figuring out the deal with her own world's will be nothing short of overwhelming, though - not that she'll let it show much through her usual enthusiasm and determination.

Sample:

Dear Player thread
Test Drive thread
Second test drive thread