Average Joe

[shadowwaker]

I missed the last prompt by 12 hours, so here it is now for 'past prompts 3'. (We could've had the trophy, Turks!)

And I just want to say respect to Yohjideraged for faithfully posting prompts even though there's is very little to no reply sometimes. d^_^b I wouldn't have been able to do that.


Title: Average Joe
Prompt: Heavenly virtues: humility / Past prompts 3
Character: Veld, Tseng
Series: OGC
Team: Turks
Rating: G
Word count: 100

Note: The name ‘Tseng’ is the Chinese equivalent of ‘John’ and its variants.


A man in a dark suit towered above him as he sat kneeling in the mud. A gun hovered before his eyes.

“What’s your name?”

From fading memories echoed the sound of his long name, followed by the endless list of titles, spoken with worship and respect. He recalled the giant halls the words had echoed through, and the voices of his family.

He remembered the singing of blades, the spill of blood and screams in the air. After, a blur of fire, sea and foreign voices.

Emperors were gods, but died like any average Joe.

He looked up. “Tseng.”

Comments

[zen_monk]

(And now I know the context of Tseng. It's my headcanon now).

This has all my feelings. Really. I kinda really like it. No, not kinda. A lot.

[shadowwaker]

:D Yay, headcanon! I'm glad you like it.

I have his entire history thought out complete with story, but I'm not sure if I'll ever write it down. His dynasty being overthrown by the Kisaragi clan, his family slaughtered and only he - the crown prince - survived as a young boy, although believed to be dead. And there'd be two cultures in Wutai, or at least two languages. One would be related to Chinese - the one Tseng speaks - and one related to Japanese - the one the majority of Wutai and the Kisaragi clan speaks. I image the Chinese-language Wutaians get terribly discriminated after the fall of the old dynasty, simply because they're associated with the old government that - quite literally - couldn't understand their subjects.

[zen_monk]

Dude, that's almost my headcanon!

I envisioned that, since it's called WUTAI, as in like Five Plateau's, there's going to be give clans and they are all FFVII's version of our world's Asia. Like, one would be Indian, One is Korean clans, One is Chinese, another Japanese, and the other is.... somewhere in Southeast Asia (I'm pretty horrible about how non-specific that is).

Now, I didn't go with the royalty card. I thought of Tseng as being some orphan who was taken in by monks but left Wutai because he believed more in the modern innovations that Shin-ra provided. I also thought that there are more Chinese and Korean-related nationalities, and my reasoning is based on the enemy characters in Crisis Core. But Kisaragi's clan, which is smaller than all of the 5 tribes, happened to be the ruling government because of rituals relating to Leviathan, and Gah! My god, I can go on forever about this! I planned an entire civilization in my head and it's commentary about current Asian-y affairs because Sci-fi/Fantasy has one of the awesome purposed like re-imagining society and its problems and choices in a different world as an allegory and allusions...

[shadowwaker]

Monks! That's an awesome version too. Another plausible explanation for the dot on his head. He must feel terribly out of place with the Turks then, I imagine.

I didn't initially go with the royalty card either. I have so many versions of Tseng in my head. One is the youngest son of a poor farmer who went looking for a brighter future. Another is Tseng as a student who during the early days of the war with Shinra teamed up with a bunch of fellow students to try to infiltrate and sabotage Shinra in an idealistic, but naive attempt. They are found out and Veld gives him the choice to join his comrades in the prison camp or join the Turks, because he has potential.

I like putting different kinds of Asian cultures in Wutai as well. I'm only a little worried sometimes that the island/continent is too small for so many different ones.

Scifi/Fantasy is perfect for that. :)

[zen_monk]

For me, I was thinking that Tseng would represent the dissatisfaction of the Wutai government and even its culture in his actions and origins. Like, he is born in a position where he doesn't have a voice, that there is growing tension between progress and traditionalism, especially if during a time when the Kisaragi reign/dynasty/period is seen as going on too long and has many people underrepresented.

I would see Tseng being someone who wants to make a fresh start away from his place of origins, but because of the Wutai Conflict with Shin-ra, he is still dogged by preconceptions of Wutai because of association and appearance.

So to me, he's the kind of guy who fervently believes in what Shin-ra Co. wants to do and provides for, but he won't ever be part of the "in" crowd until post-Meteor.

I did think that the island is too small, but then I remembered that in Rocket Town the inn there is called "Shanghai Inn" and from that I got, "WAIT, what if off the shores of Wutai proper, like on the land mass, that there are still settlements that are connected to Wutai culturally but because of the aftermath of the Shin-Ra/Wutai war eventually the whole alliance thing is strained as well as being overtaken by Shin-ra gentrification."

The Western Continent land mass of whose westernmost shores was once a part of Wutai, connected by a strip of water that is home to Leviathan thus tying in the Dragon mythology, but are now either splintered away or have been lost to Shin-ra! DUDE.

[shadowwaker]

:D I thought about that too! Wutai once having been bigger than just the island.
An alliance lost because of Shinra, that's a very interesting idea. <3

(I actually have something like that in my headcanon, lightly touched upon in one of my stories, but for countries in the Nibel mountains. Kind of like the Europe of FFVII, but different. Yes, in my headcanon there are a lot of people living in the Nibel mountains. :D )

[gnome]

Very nice. Tseng needs lots of love.

[shadowwaker]

He does. He's a very interesting character with many different options for backgrounds. :)

Maybe I should pick another prompt for him?

[yohjideranged]

Aw...thank you!

But you can't bribe the mod for more points. LOL!

[shadowwaker]

Hahah. Who said I was trying to bribe you! XD

Besides... 50 points for the Turks. Who needs extra points with that kind of overwhelming force? :D