Celes "Bitches Don't Know 'Bout My Ribbons" Chère

Celes is a former general of the Gestahlian Empire. She is currently leading efforts to help rebuild the Imperial City of Vector.
==Appearance==
Celes has long blond hair and piercing blue eyes. Although her concept art shows her wearing yellow and purple armor, she prefers wearing the green leotard and cape worn by her in-game sprite. However, because she is usually working at the Jidoor Opera House, she has a tendency to wear her intricate Maria dress wherever she goes.
==Personality==
Despite having "a spirit as pure as snow", she tends to come across as a little cold from time to time. Despite this, she holds her friends very close to her heart and never takes a single person for granted.
When she is in what she refers to as "opera floozy mode", she can be a self-centered diva, but this does not detract from the care that she shows to her loved ones. In fact, whenever she is angry, sad, or upset, it is said that her singing contains a great depth of passion.
If someone that she loves is threatened in any way, she will instantly back them up without a question, even if they are in the wrong.
==Headcanon==
In Final Fantasy VI, there are only two definite things that players know about Celes's past. Firstly, she was created as a result of a Magitek experiment. Secondly, Cid doted on her like a daughter.
Celes's mother was a very pregnant beggar woman who was promised health care and monetary compensation in return for the use of her body for a scientific process. Her mother was given a Magitek infusion without anesthaesia. She died less than an hour later. It seemed at first thought that Celes would die just as the two hundred other fetuses and children to receive the Magitek infusion had all perished. At first, her body rejected the magic, but whether through fate or sheer luck, she began to thrive in the magicite tank.
The word "chere" in French means not only "precious" or "dear" but also "expensive." "Chere" was the first name that Celes was ever given, and this was because the scientists that created her went millions and millions of gil over their predicted budget to keep her alive. In fact, the only Magitek scientist that remotely cared for her as a person happened to be Cid, the man who raised her.
Gestahl, Leo, and all played important roles in her development as a person. Gestahl was never afraid to order her to strive for the best. He saw her as a necessary investment. Leo, who knew every detail of her past, took it upon himself to be a role model for both her and Terra. He judged neither of them, knowing full well that they could not control how they had been created. 
Celes's abuse was her first indication that what the Empire as a whole was not something that she agreed with. She began experiencing doubts about her role in Gestahl's world domination. She was a good soldier and followed every order given to her, but she couldn't find it in her to believe that her violation was something that she had to accept. She was eighteen years old when she first decided to rebel. After speaking out against Kefka's plan to poison Doma, she was beaten and tortured almost endlessly before Locke saved her from her impending execution.
==Final Fantasy VI==
Celes led the Imperial attack on the town of Maranda, which killed many innocent civilians and forced the surviving men to be drafted into the Imperial army. Soon after, she suddenly began speaking out against the Gestahlian Empire's imperialistic nature, strongly condemning Kefka's plans to poison the nation of Doma. She was arrested and sentenced to be executed. Locke Cole found her in a dungeon underneath South Figaro and rescued her.
After Terra transforms into an Esper and is located in Zozo, Celes offers to lead an attack on Vector's Magitek Research Facility. The problem is that the group needs an airship in order to get there. The party gets as far as Jidoor, which is where they discover that Celes greatly resembles an opera star named Maria. Locke devises a plan for Celes to impersonate Maria during the opera "Maria and Draco", hoping that the airship pilot Setzer will kidnap her.
Despite protesting that she is "a general, not some opera floozy", Celes takes place in the opera, which is one of the most pivotal and unforgettable moments of Final Fantasy VI. "Maria and Draco" tells the story of a warrior from the West, Draco, who is presumed dead in battle against the armies of the East. His love, Maria, is forced to marry the Eastern prince, Ralse. She sings an aria that expresses the feelings of love that she is hiding within her heart. Before the show, she and Locke share a personal moment. She asks him if he only likes her because she is a replacement for Rachel. He responds to this question by telling her that her ribbon looks nice on her, and that she should go over her lines once more. She then sings the "Aria di Mezzo Carattere", a song in which Maria expresses her true love for Draco despite being forced to marry Ralse. Celes sings it beautifully, and Setzer succeeds in his plan to kidnap her.
At the Magitek Research Facility, Kefka manages to convince Locke that Celes is, in fact, working as a double agent for the Gestahlian Empire. This is, of course, untrue, but Locke believes it nevertheless. Because the party does not think that she is faithful to the Returners, Celes goes back to work for the Empire as a general. She continues this until Kefka steals the powers of the Espers after they gather at Thamasa. When General Leo dies, Celes goes back to work for the Returners.
Kefka and Gestahl create the Floating Continent, which surrounds the Warring Triad (the source of the world's magic). The Returners send a team onto the continent to confront Gestahl and Kefka, and Celes attempts to reason with the emperor. Gestahl orders for Celes to "create progeny" (have children) with Kefka. Kefka hands Celes a sword and tells her to kill her allies, but Celes refuses and instead stabs Kefka. The sight of his own blood and Celes' attack sends Kefka into a rage. He kills Gestahl and then starts moving the Triad so that their magical energy flows through him. Celes and the rest of the party only barely escape on the airship, and the entire continent is turned to ruin.
Exactly one year later, Celes wakes up from a coma. Cid took care of her on a deserted island while she was unconscious, despite being in failing health himself. After a short while, he dies. Celes is devastated, since she believes that she is the only remaining person alive in the world. She goes to the north cliffs of the island, intending to commit suicide by jumping. She despairs that everyone is gone and makes special reference to Locke. She jumps, crying all the while, but survives her suicide attempt and washes up on the beach. A bird lands next to her, and it is wearing Locke's headband on its leg. This fills her with hope. She realizes that at least one of her friends must be alive. From then on, she devotes herself to finding her friends in the World of Ruin.
==FFTumblr==
When she first arrived in the middle of February 2011, she was a little shocked to find out that Locke had not only moved on but married Genesis Rhapsodos in her absence. Adding to that was the shock of seeing Kekfa alive and well. To keep herself comfortable in a new environment, she took up the position of the leading lady at the Jidoor Opera House.
After a disastrous attempt to seduce Kadaj the Remnant, she was taken into Jenova's family and was infected with Geostigma. She went without a cure for weeks, slowly becoming more withdrawn and bitter. After some time, she started lashing out at her best friends, expressing the cruelest thoughts in her mind. Her best friend Beatrix knocked her unconscious and brought her to Aerith's church, where she was healed. Jenova was at first furious and then extremely depressed, but Celes insisted to her "mother" that she would always be a part of her family.
Celes often took part in stopping her mother's insane rampages, including one on April 4, 2011, when Jenova killed an NPC and destroyed an entire seaside village. She sacrificed herself to save her "brothers", Kadaj and Yazoo, by having her entire body destroyed and sent to the Lifestream. While she was there, she heard the prayers of her friends calling her back. Aerith even spoke to her, telling her that it was not yet her time to die but that she could choose whether or not she wanted to stay. Celes chose to return to her friends that were alive.
It was then that she met Cecil Harvey. The two of them immediately hit it off and started to talk about anything and everything. Never before had she felt so connected with someone. He gave her the respect that she had been denied in her past, and she was there for him at all times, constantly faithful to him. They became pregnant very quickly, but she decided that she needed to discover more about who she was, especially since she knew little of her own childhood. She made a solo journey to Vector, where she entered the abandoned Gestahlian fortress and discovered a notebook filled completely with scientific accounts of her creation. The knowledge nearly destroyed her. A simple injury to her leg became a very grave danger to her health because of the emotional stress that had been placed on her. As a result, the baby died in the womb.
She was distraught, doing nothing but sitting in bed and eating Nutella for days on end because Cecil was frequently away doing his duties as the King of Baron. To cheer her up, Cecil suggested that they attend the fireworks festival at Bodhum. It was there that he renewed his vows of engagement and even had Braska suddenly marry them on the beach.
Sadly, their happy marriage was short-lived. Cecil spent more and more time working out a particular battle strategy, often taking time out of his meditations to be with his wife. Only a few weeks later, he left a note at the foot of her bed telling her that he needed to leave, in order to fight in a suicide mission to save Baron. Celes was heartbroken. She wished that she could have talked him out of it, or even seen him one last time before he died. She knew that even if he were to return one day, he may recognize his friends from his world (including Rosa, Kain, Edge, and Rydia), but he would most likely forget her. Vowing that she would never forget him and that she would attempt to move on with her life as he had told her to do, she left Baron and resumed her career as an opera singer at Jidoor.
Stress was never far from her, however, and many of her friends suggested that she take a vacation. On a journey to visit her friend Rufus at the ShinRa headquarters in Edge, Celes found herself lost. The two-year-old map that she had told her that the train would let her off in Midgar. Because the map was outdated and she had no idea where she was, Celes asked for help from a woman on the side of the street who happened to be Scarlet from Weapons Development. Scarlet had no idea where the young girl had come from and why she kept insisting that she was in Midgar when she clearly was not. The two of them nearly got into a bitch-slapping fight in the middle of the street before Celes mentioned that she was a famous opera star. Not wanting to hit someone who might be a celebrity, Scarlet backed down from the fight and decided to give Celes a tour of the new ShinRa headquarters. That night, they both shared one drink too many and ended up having sex on Scarlet's office desk. Celes woke up in Scarlet's apartment the next morning, where she has been living ever since.
Celes may have initially regretted beginning a relationship with Scarlet, and she tried to hide that fact by calling it "just a fling" when she was with her friends. She knew that many of them feared for her emotional safety and that they believed her to be rushing things after Cecil's death. Celes knew of Scarlet's bad habits and intended to eventually cut ties with the older woman, but then she found herself making a business proposition to Rufus. Once the Bureau of Entertainment was formed, Celes and Scarlet started spending a great deal more time together. It soon became clear that Scarlet was falling deeply in love with the young former general. Scarlet gave Celes the nickname "Angel", which indicated to them both that things were going steady. Celes tried to include Scarlet in her daily life by introducing her new girlfriend to her friends and family. Scarlet even accompanied Celes to a memorial service for Cecil, which was held at the kingdom of Baron. Scarlet soon proposed to Celes, who accepted. The two are currently struggling to spend more time together because of the demanding hours of their jobs, but they are nevertheless very happy to be engaged.
Celes left ShinRa Electric after she and Rufus got into a fight about many of his business decisions (including the takeover of the WRO). After sending him a very blunt resignation letter, she stayed at home for a few days before realizing that she wanted to do something. She made the plan to help rebuild Vector once she heard that Kefka had disappeared from his tower. The idea had been in her mind for a long time, but only now was she able to put her plans into action. Before she could do anything at her home city, though, she received news that Scarlet had not gone to work in several days. She had disappeared entirely. Celes knew at once that she had been kidnapped by the Cult of Kefka. Concocting an elaborate plan to save her fiancee, she dressed up similarly to Kefka and convinced the Cultists that she was insane in order to gain access to their tower. The plan worked, and she was able to single-handedly free Scarlet.
Celes is currently leading the reconstruction efforts for the Imperial City of Vector. This has led to a great deal of criticism, especially from Locke, who believes that the former capital of the Empire does not deserve to be rebuilt. She has, however, enlisted help from her family and friends and is determined to see things through.
==Relationships==
*Celes's adoptive mother is Jenova. Celes is not totally obsessed with Jenova like most of Jenova's other children, but she still loves her "mommy" and is always there to back her up, no matter what.
*Celes's brother is Edge Geraldine. She considers herself close to Edge, largely because he reminds her of her fallen friend and comrade, Leo Cristophe.
*Celes's best friends are Edgar Roni Figaro and Locke Cole. She loves them both to death and would do absolutely anything for them. Her occasionally rash behavior tends to upset them, especially when things go wrong for her, but she knows that they have her back no matter what.
*Celes is engaged to Scarlet from ShinRa, Inc. She hears on a day-to-day basis that her fiancee is nothing more than a slut, but she does not let that upset her. She loves Scarlet and has offered to give her the surname "del Norte Marquez", which had once belonged to her Grandpa Cid.
Category:Characters