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Role-Play Journal for Lazard Deusericus - Fandom: Final Fantasy VII (Crisis Core)

Character History

The slums were a dank, depressing place of social inequality and violence. Yet amongst the people who lived there, there were a few who brought beauty and light, a young flaxen-haired woman being one such person. It was not long before her loveliness caught the eye of a rich and powerful man, who was often found to be just “passing through” the area. They had an affair, and the girl fell pregnant.

A deliberate plan perhaps, for in carrying the man's unborn child their lives would surely be bound together, and she could finally escape the hell-hole in which she lived? Yet such a pitifully idealistic dream is easily quashed. Abandoned, she gave birth to a son, naming him not after his father, but instead after some fanciful notion of a great, romantic heritage.

She named him Lazard Deusericus. It would prove to be an apt, if not genealogically accurate, title.

The very young Lazard never questioned the fact that he found himself being tutored in one of the better private schools in San Francisco. He never questioned that every time he returned home from luxory to squalor, there was a new uncle hurriedly making an exit from the house. Uncle, after Uncle, after Uncle. Soon however, he came to realise that these men bore no familial bonds to him.

A bit older, when Lazard was able to reach the conclusion that his mother was whoring herself out to all and sundry, he did not recognise, or perhaps wish to recognise, that that woman's despicable behaviours were her sacrifices to him, her only child, so that he could be afforded the best education. It drove a wedge between mother and child that was never repaired, even when she died.

The fact he had no father to speak of, the proliferation of false uncles, and that he barely registered his mother as someone of merit meant that Lazard held little regard for the structures, or the terms of familial relationships. After her death he flung what little belongings she had kept out in the streets, bar a terse letter from one President ShinRa, in which was enclosed a picture of his mother together with a man whom he did not recognise.

Having graduated at this point with distinction, and some rather specific school-related successes (valedictorian, house-leader and decorated coach/mentor to many school activities), Lazard soon found employment within the ShinRa Corporation, un-convering very shortly thereafter that he was indeed, as he had suspected, the old President ShinRa's first-born son.

Many years passed, and Lazard's rise in the Corporation was exponential, receiving promotion after promotion. His strategic mind, attention to detail, and his ability to effectively manage individuals and situations with a cool, yet charming, personality soon led him to be appointed as Executive Manager of SOLDIER, ShinRa's military arm, despite no military field experience. It was still a position that, like his name, suited him. Suited him as much as his now rather well-known rich sense of fashion did.

At this point he confronted the old President with the letter and the photo in an effort to extort some recognition of his rightful situation in life. The conversation was witnessed by the President's much younger son, Rufus. It was a foolish, all too youthful, mistake. The President refused blankly to promote him to the position of Vice-Presidency.

Yet old ShinRa was shrewd enough to realise that Lazard directed SOLDIER with skill, that his unique talents benefitted the corporation. And so it was he kept his first-born on in the position. And Lazard.... bitterly watching as Rufus grew older and was promoted above him, vowed never to make such a blatant attempt at power again.

Such things needed to be approached strategically, cunning machinations to be held behind a smooth veneer of continued success for him.... and for ShinRa.

Lazard began to investigate a member of the Science & Research department, Hollander. He uncovered that the scientist's secret work was upon some of his very own SOLDIERS, most specifically Genesis and Angeal. However, Lazard also assessed that such work could possibly be of merit in his plans to obtain ShinRa presidency, and so he began to divert some of his own funds into the projects. Yet he did not have the luxury to ensure that his plans came to fruition.

It was at this time that SOLDIER was called upon by the American Government to provide PNC support in the Bosnian-Hersogovnian conflict. Lazard was dispatched as part of the defence contract to oversee SOLDIER functions from Central Government. His first class unit, which now included Zack, broke down in his capable absence. About the same time another of his SOLDIERS, Sephiroth, a product of a project he was not funding, turned from being the hero to an unstable addict, killing the old President.

Rufus became head of ShinRa and Lazard, over time, was effectively cut off from his duties at ShinRa, though technically he was still responsible for what was left of SOLDIER movements. His removed position irritated him however, for his direct.. power had been taken from him. It took many a year being excommunicado with ShinRa before things began to shift. Recently, with the rumours of returned SOLDIERS, Lazard has returned to Mishima and intends to strike up a rather congenial dialogue with his dearest brother and perhaps even obtain what is rightfully his.

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