onepassingnight | [ Report I ] Hearts and Stars

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[ Report I ] Hearts and Stars

Tseng smiled thinly as he watched the surprisingly large group gathered in one of Shin-Ra's ballrooms, he'd never realized quite how many people considered him family whether they were actually related or not. There was a smattering of brothers and sisters along with their kids, people he couldn't remember seeing but were somehow actually related to him and had come to congratulate him. Turks were there, of course, new ones who were just beginning to learn how to tie their ties and old ones who'd retired before his time.

He'd given a speech; speaking of loyalty and camaraderie, that they'd only need to call and he'd put his tie back on and be out the door for them. Once a Turk, always a Turk and he'd never abandon them or the tiny group of relatives he'd recently been informed of still having.

He knew he should talk to them, approach them and say something but he didn't know a thing about any of them these days. Family had been the company for nearly twenty years now, and while blood was thicker than water he'd shed an awful lot of it alongside the Turks.

It was awkward.

[OOC: Tseng's dreaming of his retirement party, and there's newly discovered family in attendance.]

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Tseng held a glass for Rufus, a peace offering more than anything really. If the white clad man hadn't been his father's son he'd have been inducted as a Turk and after all these years he counted as one as far as they cared.

"I'm not abandoning you Rufus; I'll still be around to fetch coffee and prioritize paperwork." He said quietly. How could he explain that he was doing this so he'd stay alive? One more impending apocalypse would probably be his end if he stayed active, this way he could come in and help when the time came and not be on his last leg.

"Reno will do fine."

Rufus accepted the glass from the older man silently. He knew that the Turks liked to think themselves a separate entity from the company, but after the company had collapsed in upon itself, they had become something other than what they had been. They might try hiring others and training them to fight or spy under his name, but they would never be like their predecessors. They wouldn't be asked to do the dark and bloody things the Turks had become known for in the time before Meteorfall.

And he would never actually trust them as much as he did the four that he actually half-ass considered family, dysfunctional as it might be, it was a closer relationship than he'd ever held with his actual family. He'd offered them a chance to leave already once and they'd turned him down.

"I don't recall ever firing you." He committed a moment afterward, paraphrasing Reno's quip after he'd given them their chance to distance themselves from him and the company.

Tseng swallowed, "You didn't, but it's easier for you all than the alternative." He said, watching the crowd. "You won't have to worry about me being tortured to death or crushed under some rubble. I'd be... outdated if I kept on as Director. Reno's far more suited to the direction the Turks are headed, and I'm not sure I'd be able to keep up anymore."

He took a sip of his own drink, searching for words to explain something like this. "I've already outlived the Turk life expectancy."

It was tempting to throw something of a fit at the man, tell him that he was the one whom gave the orders and that if he didn't think Tseng fit for something, then it would be his decision not Tseng's that kept the man from getting involved in it. That Tseng was forgetting just whom actually gave the orders around here. If he'd still been younger, and sixteen, he might have even given into that temptation.

However, he was nearing twice that age now and such behavior wouldn't be seemly and it would likely get him no where.

"So you claim." The words were in response to the entire set of statements. It was obvious by his voice and body language that he was believing none of it. "You want to waste yourself on paperwork and live behind a desk now? I can arrange that, just don't expect me to refrain from asking you to travel on business for me when I have need of such."

Or in other words, doing exactly what he had been doing before they began trying to rebuild a now useless piece of the company. He had no need of such a section in the new model he had been working on. Admittedly he did need bodyguards, there were still people out there which would rather see him dead than accept any help from him, but he had the four he trusted and adding to that number would not make him any safer in his mind than he would be with just those four.

Not to mention, he was trying to rebuild his image and unfortunately the Turks were just as mired in bad PR as his company name was. The name and training was best left to die in the dark while he raised his company back up phoenix like from its ashes.

Tseng would have weathered the abuse like he had when Rufus' father and Heidigger had slung it at him. There was little that Rufus could say or do that he hadn't heard or felt before in at least two languages, and he didn't let it visibly bother him anymore.

"Actually, I was thinking of buying a house in Icicle and living there." He deadpanned, "Take up watercolors, wrestle the odd malboro, maybe learn to play an instrument, adopt a child or two."

He figured if Cloud could raise children he couldn't be too bad at doing it, Veld had been 'dad' to most of the Turks as well. It couldn't be harder than dealing with the old Shin-Ra Director's Board.

Rufus didn't even bother to deign answering that bullshit statement with anything other than an eyeroll to express his disbelief.

He set his full glass down on a nearby table as he finally spoke, "All I have to say is, enjoy tonight, because we have things to get busy on tomorrow."

Thinking about personal futures could wait, he had his eyes on the larger picture so to speak. The world's future, his company's future, fixing what had been destroyed and rebuilding it anew so they didn't repeat past mistakes. The world didn't need any more super-soldiers or power-plants which did as much harm as they did good for the people. Pity it losing nearly everything, including their lives to actually learn that.

"I'll be sure to inform Reno about them later, I plan on being asleep for once." Tseng bit back, a muscle in his jaw clenching as he grew increasingly frustrated. "I'm retired, like Veld and Valentine."

The world didn't need Old Turks who's morals had died decades ago. People willing to bathe in blood to get the job done didn't have a place here anymore, and Tseng knew enough to realize that.

"Just let me go Rufus, please." He breathed, eyes closing. He hadn't voiced a want for anything since he'd joined the company, maybe he'd made a mistake in not faking his own death.

It would be easier to let go of him if he had faked his own death, but after losing Dark Nation, then his city and his company as it previously stood, thus losing what power he'd previously held, he had been grateful when the Turks had remained. He was able to stand the loss of Midgar and the old company because they had been largely his father's. Edge and the new company he was slowly building were his own, they filled the what void the loss of power might have otherwise left.

However, those losses and the scathing view the world had of him had caused him to get closer to the four whom had remained with him throughout the disaster and had rescued him from perhaps death itself over the last couple years. Being asked to let go of one of them was tantamount to being asked to chop off one of his own hands.

Rufus bit back the accusation that Tseng was choosing to leave him now right when he most had need of him. Even if he supposedly would be around, would it be the same? He was too used to being able to give Tseng what he needed to be done and trusting that it would get done. Even if Reno took up that task perfectly, it wouldn't be the same for him, because there were other things that he could be asking Reno to be tending instead and this change would force him to either choose someone else to tend to them or for him to forgo them for the ones which took precedence. Tseng kept things moving smoothly whether he realized it or not, it would remain to be seen if things moved as fluidly and easily with the man gone from the picture? How could he state that he wasn't abandoning him and then ask to be let go, to state he wouldn't be there in the morning?

"I hope you enjoy your rest then." The words spoken were coolly civil, the sort which were given to people he dealt with, but showed no regard for. If Tseng wanted to be treated in such a fashion, then so be it. Though even with the decision made, it didn't stop him from wanting to keep the man with him. Where else would he go in this world, what else would he do, all jokes aside about wrestling monsters and raising kids.. surely enough he would grow bored with this notion of living a peaceful quiet life and eventually come back to them.

Tseng would come back, he knew he would when he decided to attempt this but he was still going to go through with things. He needed time to get through all the personal things he'd been shoving aside to deal with all the other problems the world was enjoying throwing at them.

It would be a good lesson to the four of them as well, which was what had been the deciding factor in why he was stepping away for a while. Prove to them all that they didn't need him as much as they all thought, and saying he was going on a vacation would have given them the knowledge that he would return for sure on a set date.

"I intend to." He replied with the same coolness, "I'll be sure to send a postcard."

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[ Report I ] Hearts and Stars

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