Cindy Aurum

Cindy Aurum is the head mechanic of the Hammerhead garage in Final Fantasy XV. She services the player's car, the Regalia, and can customize and upgrade it. She is the granddaughter of Cid Sophiar, who owns the Hammerhead service station. Cid is a recurring name in the Final Fantasy series for an older man who often has an engineering background or something to do with airships. Cindy's Japanese name is "Cidney", reflecting the connection.

Appearance
Cindy is a slender woman with short, curly blond hair and olive green eyes. She wears a red cap with yellow outlines and a logo with the words "HAMMER HEAD" and "FULL SERVICE STATION" and black goggles which she hangs around her neck when not using them. Cindy wears a cropped yellow jacket that reveals her stomach zipped a few inches under her breasts, and an orange bikini top with deep décolletage. She wears jeans shorts with a brown belt loosely hanging around her hips, thigh-high black stockings, white high boots on heels, and brown gloves.

In the English localization, she speaks in Southern American English.

Personality
Cindy is upbeat, driven, and always enthusiastic about her work. She is passionate about cars and fascinated with technology that originates from the Crown City, which has been isolated from the rest of Lucis for thirty years. Despite having had a rough childhood, she is optimistic and friendly to everyone. Despite having many admirers, she is not interested in dating, and is noted to being "married to her work". She derives her work ethic from being raised by Cid, and from her long friendship with Holly Teulle, whom Cindy views as a role model. Holly and Cid inspired Cindy's "git-'er-done" attitude and are the two most important persons in her life.

Story
Cindy was raised by her grandfather after her parents died. Life on the outlands of Lucis has not been easy with the war with Niflheim going on, but she always remains in high spirits. She once witnessed daemons attack a car whose passengers were killed (possibly her parents), an event that greatly affected her. She wishes technology from the Crown City would be more widespread to help those who live on the outlands. When she was young she met Holly Teulle who regards Cindy as a baby sister.

Prince Noctis's party encounters Cindy when their car breaks down in Leide. Cindy is instantly taken with the Regalia, a custom made vehicle of Crown City-make. The car is left in her care for the repairs, and after the work is done Noctis continues to Galdin Quay, happy to deliver something for Cindy along the way as thanks. Noctis's friend Prompto has a crush on Cindy, and asks Noctis to help him take a picture of her from a hill overlooking Hammerhead. He vows to propose to her once the adventure is over.

Cindy's true passion is helping service the Regalia, however. She will tow the car for the party if they are in need, and finds various ways to upgrade it if Noctis comes up with the required materials.

After the party loses the Regalia at the Disc of Cauthess, Cindy tries to track it down. Days later, she calls Noctis to let them know the car has been taken to an imperial base. Noctis and his friends infiltrate it to reclaim their vehicle. Cindy has friends in Lestallum who work as engineers, and asks Noctis to retrieve mythril ore for them so Cindy and Cid can repair the Royal Vessel for Noctis's use. Her friend Holly, who befriends the party, helps treat the ore free of charge, saying that Cindy promised to take her out later.

Cindy comes to meet Holly during the Assassin's Festival in Lestallum, and bumps into Noctis's party. Holly is impressed Cindy knows her best hunters, and Cindy tells Holly Noctis's party are her best customers at Hammerhead. When the imperial general Loqi Tummelt comes to town however, he takes over the power plant and takes Holly captive. Cindy begs Noctis's party to save her, insisting to help despite them telling her it would be dangerous, as Noctis can't use his power of kings as long as the Wallbreaker Wave is in effect.

After Noctis collects enough key cards to gain access to the power plant, Cindy and one of Noctis's party members head inside. Cindy dismantles the Wallbreaker Wave generator, granting Noctis the power to drive Loqi and his infantry out of Lestallum. Cindy and Holly meet with Noctis, Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto in town, and Cindy is relieved everything worked out for the best.

As the long night fell Cindy was forced to leave Hammerhead and takes refuge in Lestallum. She keeps busy by moving precious cargo as missions demand. At some point Hammerhead is secured as an outpost for hunters, and Cindy still runs the garage ten years after the Starscourge plunged the world into darkness. Hammerhead became a pit stop for many hunters stopping by her garage, and Prompto still harbors a crush on her and tries to impress her, though she is too focused on her work to notice. Though she is tough enough to handle the road by herself, when needs a bit of extra muscle she gives a call to Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto for help.

Gameplay
If the player refuels the Regalia at Hammerhead, Cindy will fill up the tank and also wipe down the Regalia to clean it. If the player needs to have the car towed or have the car delivered to them while in the open world, Cindy will do it.

Talking to her at Hammerhead lets the player service or customize their car. The car can only be serviced if it is damaged. If the car is damaged when driven by Ignis (not supposed to happen, but still possible), the option to service it may not be available; the player can purposefully bump the car when driving manually and then return to Cindy to get it fixed.

The customize option lets the player choose a new color for the car exterior, interior, and wheels, apply decals, and to add modifications to the car to, for example, improve its fuel efficiency.

Quests
Cindy sends the party out to various quests for items that can be used on the Regalia.

Creation and development
Cindy was designed by Roberto Ferrari. Cindy's first version had her breasts jiggle so much director Hajime Tabata wanted to tone it down. A lot of feedback from Europe on the Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae demo was that Cindy was "too sexy." Director Hajime Tabata responded that Cindy was not meant to be an erotic character, but energetic and outgoing, and he didn't want to change the current concept. He talked about moderating the way she's presented, rather than covering her up.

Voice
Cindy is voiced by Yu Shimamura in the Japanese version.

She is voiced by Erin Matthews in the English version.

Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae
The scenario presented in the demo is not in the final game, but is loosely based on the Chapter 5 where the party has temporarily lost its car. Cindy is found at Coernix Station - Alstor where she will repair the Regalia that Prompto crashed. She requires 25,000 gil for the service, and the demo ends after the player returns to her with the money.

The interactions with the party and Cindy are depicted in a somewhat different tone than in the final game. Gladiolus and Prompto both act flirty toward her, but she deflects their advances. In the final game, only Prompto appears attracted to her, and never makes it overtly known to her, only desiring to help her. A lot of feedback from Europe on the Episode Duscae demo was that Cindy was "too sexy."

Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire
Cindy appears as a guide to the player.

Blue Reflection
Cindy's outfit is downloadable content for Raimu Shijo.

Tekken 7
Cindy is set to appear as part of the Noctis DLC package. She, along with Cid Sophiar, Prompto, Gladiolus, and Ignis, appears in the background of the Hammerhead Service Station stage.

Merchandise
Cindy's Play Arts -Kai- released August 2017. It comes with the Cindy figure and a toolbox. Figure includes display stand and interchangeable hand parts. Figure Size (inches): W 4.6" x D 2.3" x H 11"

Etymology
Cindy is a feminine given name, the shortened version of Cynthia.

Her Japanese name is Cidney.

Trivia

 * Cindy has a moogle toy in her yellow Hammerhead truck.
 * The game has a for the party's car.
 * If the player lodges at the caravan at Hammerhead, Cindy sometimes joins the party when they sit outside.
 * Cindy could be seen sitting in her towtruck in the Final Fantasy XV: Comrades beta.
 * There is a with Takka and Cid in Takka's diner. It was drawn by the Caricaturist.
 * The people whom Cindy witnessed being killed by daemons may have been her parents.
 * Cindy's yellow tow truck has via an out of bounds glitch.
 * Cindy gives Noctis and his retinue a map of Lucis when they meet her. However, if one observes the texture of the map as it appears in-game, it looks very little like the actual map of the world.