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Hua Cheng | San Lang ([personal profile] fafa) wrote2019-08-17 05:47 am

App @ [community profile] prismatica

PLAYER
HANDLE: Kiki
CONTACT: [plurk.com profile] kikibug13 or dm
OVER 18? yes.
CHARACTERS IN-GAME: Lan Sizhui

CHARACTER
NAME: Hua Cheng
CANON: Heaven Official's Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu
CANON POINT: Waiting for the Kiln to break / Early ch 199
AGE: 800+.
BACKGROUND: The wiki is here, though it doesn't have much.
* Child from an abusive household (frequently going around beaten up enough to need even his face to be bandaged). Possibly third son in the family.

* At the age of ten, during a very important, very public ceremony, falls from the city wall and causes the Crown Prince Xie Lian to fly out and catch him, saving his life but disrupting the ceremony. Later gets dragged behind the chariot of the Prince's cousin Qi Rong, causing Xie Lian to rescue him again and bring him to the mountain where he's studying. Where Hua Cheng promptly becomes the source of trouble almost causing the entire place to burn down.

* At the age of thirteen is one of the only visitors to a small, out of the way shrine of (now Ascended) Xie Lian, worshipping him in the ways that Xie Lian has requested. Alone after getting additionally mocked and abused, he says in a prayer that he couldn’t live on anymore. He asks for what he is alive, and what is the meaning of his life. Xie Lian, who happens to be there at that time, answers, "If you don’t know the meaning to your life, then make me that meaning, and use me as the reason to live." He does.

* A year or so later, he's hit enough of his growth spurt to be taken into the army as Xie Lian's country is at war. As much as possible, he tries to support His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, as much as a teenager can support an ascended god. Unfortunately, the war doesn't go well, and he dies on the battlefield.

* Except that is not the end of the story. Because his driving force to protect and care for Xie Lian is too strong, he returns as a small spirit / soul fire which Xie Lian frees at one point. He witnesses what the 33 (plus Mu Qing) heavenly officials/gods do to Xie Lian, leading to the effect, eventually, that is described in the wiki link. Following Xie Lian around, he witnesses one round of the Big Bad (™) torturing Xie Lian, and turns into a more human-shaped ghost on the spot. Later, wearing a mask (which Xie Lian is also doing at the time) he helps Xie Lian as he tries to cope with the Big Bad (™)'s bright ideas.

* The Big Bad (™) leaves him in a nearly dissipated state for his troubles (while Xie Lian ascends for the second time), though luckily for our young undead hero, an area opens that is sort of crucible for the undead, the winner gaining Supreme powers. He manages to get there in his nearly depleted state, and not get killed off immediately. Interestingly, a group of actually alive people wander into the area, and our hero takes up protecting them through the dangers of the place. At a very dangerous moment, he can keep going if he makes a blood sacrifice to forge a weapon. Despite everyone's expectations that he will slaughter the mortals to do so, instead he takes out his right eye and creates his scimitar E-ming. Around this time, he gets heavenly tribulations and ascends as a god, but promptly turns his back on that, too busy. And yes, he gets those powers eventually. It takes about 10 years.

* Knowing that Xie Lian can't die, Hua Cheng sets to becoming more and more powerful, so that when they are finally reunited, he can actually protect and help His Highness.

* 800 years later, Xie Lian ascends again and that lets Hua Cheng finally find him again. And so, their adventures together begin. There may also be kissing involved at some point.

PERSONALITY:
At the very beginning, Hua Cheng is a mean, vengeful, almost feral child. He very emphatically has decent strength and fighting abilities, and he doesn't hesitate to use them, even when it's far from reasonable to do so. Since we only encounter him after the rescue, his conduct towards Xie Lian is immediately different than that towards everyone else, shy and quiet and awed versus loud, brash, angry, and violent. It's less an attempt to mislead Xie Lian and more genuinely wanting to not disgust him and thus shutting down because he believes everything about him is disgusting.

As time and Xie Lian's influence on him grows, that meanness is ameliorated by basically a profound case of 'what would His Highness do?' - Hua Cheng's nature is not changed, but the drive to not disappoint His Highness, aka the meaning of his life, is an ever stronger motivation for his actions.

The third major aspect of Hua Cheng's personality is his love, more than bordering on obsession, for Xie Lian. He truly took His Highness's words to heart, making the prince the sole focus of his life. Anything he chooses to do boils down to 'will it benefit His Highness,' 'will it protect His Highness,' 'will it avenge His Highness,' and so on. While at times this obsession terrifies people who get to see some of it, knowing the full scope of it gives a different impression - he is entirely willing to give absolutely everything of himself up for His Highness, and there is not a shred of attempting to control Xie Lian - he can advice, but whatever Xie Lian decides is the course of action to be supported

With time - and being thrown into situations where others depend on him, rather than look down on him or on the Crown Prince - the combination of these factors leads him to making choices which, while still on the whole gray, also show a certain sense of nobility from within. Such are the protection of the mortals within Mount Tonglu, his treatment of He Xuan (whom he only once calls a portion of his debt against, and that when it was important to resist the Big Bad (™), otherwise possibly imposing on somewhat, but never demanding) or Yin Yu, and his care and protection of the Ghost City/Market that he has taken over. None of these would hold up when held against standards of 'good' - and none of the would be done by a lesser person than him. He somehow finds a way to satisfy his understanding of Xie Lian while not shying away from his own minness, in the end.

Considering that Hua Cheng died basically a teenager, some aspects of him never seem to be completely mature; on the other hand, in some ways he was someone who had to grow up too fast, he is at the same time calculating, definitely thoughtful about power and influence, always collecting more information as well as people indebted to him. He places all of that at Xie Lian's feet, but he's not even trying to hide that is what he's doing, which is its own demonstration of power and arrogance. In most ways, he considers himself the violent, feral dog which is at Xie Lian's beck and call.

For most of his time alive, Hua Cheng was mocked as a freak and ugly because of his mismatched-in-color eyes (one red, one black). Later on, he realizes he doesn't look actually ugly, but he is still somewhat shy about his appearance (and often enough doesn't quite wear it, whenever he feels like it). This adds to how absolutely hopeless he feels about his love for Xie Lian, to the point of asking him to not tell him how he feels back because the rejection would be too much for him to take.

Having been at the bottom of most food chains, and, worse than that, seeing Xie Lian hit rock bottom, Hua Cheng tends to be protective towards those in a heavily disadvantaged position (and also children), particularly those who did not cause that situation by their own stupidity. While pretending to be uncaring, he will make sure such children and defenseless adults do not reach danger and are not reached by it if he can help it. On the other hand, he tends to be at the very least wary (and usually outright antagonistic) of those who have power and are careless, stupid, or vicious about using it... until and unless they prove to be harmless or helpful of His Highness.

Overall, between his messy origin and his absolute dedication, Hua Cheng is a person who seemingly only listens to the beat of his own drum, quite confusing. It takes fully taking in his goals - to protect and serve Xie Lian, and to become powerful enough to be able to protect and serve Xie Lian, and everything else is up to him - that his actions begin to make any consistent sense.

POWERS/ABILITIES:
- Fighting - he's proficient at both armed and sword combat, favoring a saber/scimitar as his weapon.
- He is actually dead, so things like flesh wounds of any variety don't really bother him particularly. Or exhaustion.
- He has a Lot of spiritual powers. Enough to fill up a god to nearly overload, and that after he has been giving them and working through quite a lot of difficulties. (Granted, it takes him awhile of disappearing to recover after that, but he does have that much.)
- Shape-shifting. He can change his face, body, clothing at will.
- Wraith butterflies. They can do a variety of things, from carrying things and people, to spying - able to transmit both sight and sound to him - to attacking, to executing spells. (If needed, this can be curbed down to an extent.)
- Distance shortening arrays. With a pair of dice, he can go wherever he wants to go, take people with him, or transport others. (This will be curbed down to game-reasonable extent.)
- Incredible luck. He can also temporarily share this luck, though chances that he'll do that with anyone other than Xie Lian are extremely low.

INVENTORY:
> E-ming
> Listing this although they are part of the silver vambraces he is wearing: spirit silver butterflies
> Gold. He tends to be casually loaded.

MOONBLESSING: Cordis.

SAMPLES

link #1
link #2