Dragon Ball: After the End

Bassoon hums. 'I could try to sneak past. If I caused a distraction...'

Your eyes widen. "No, wait, we don't need to risk it at all!" You cast your eyes around the image in the sky. "There! The back table in the restaurant, it's by a window! Sit down there and make sure you have a line of sight to Tariq!"

Bassoon's eyebrow twitches, but he ducks into the restaurant without argument. He orders something to drink and waits. 'You're pretty confident. What do you have in mind?'

"I can still read minds," you say, staring hard at Tariq. "Barely, but there's a little juice left. Come on..." You reach out once more in that odd manner as before and get the same flurry of sense impressions.

Tariq is bored and frustrated. He doesn't want to be here, and he really wants to be gone. He has an idea of where Bassoon will be -- not here, not Little Arcosa, somewhere else -- and he wants to go there. He's staying because...stubbornness?

You growl quietly to yourself and shake your head. "This is so vague."

Dazarel stirs himself. 'Focus. This mind is not your own. He will think differently. Stop targeting it quite so precisely and just focus on the flow of thoughts.'

You release an annoyed sigh, but that does make some sense. You widen your focus, looking less at the sense impressions and more at where they're going. The stubbornness flows into certainty -- Bassoon isn't likely to be here, but he might pass through here. That flows into patience -- it's due diligence to check, and they have other checkpoints all over the station. Finally, resolution -- they'll wait another ten minutes, and-

pop

You gasp as the connection breaks with the flare of a slight headache. "Ow."

'You would seem to have reached your limits,' remarks Dazarel. 'Shame. Did you get what we needed?'

"Yeah, I got it," you grouse, rubbing at your temple. "Bassoon, we have ten minutes before they move on!"

Bassoon sighs. 'Ten minutes is a long time in this situation, but...they're not going to search this hallway?'

"Tariq barely wants to be here," you reply. "They're just trying to limit our movement. He's going to move on soon."

Bassoon shakes his head as his drink arrives. 'Fantastic. Well, it's cutting things close, but I'll take it over the risk. All right, Kakara. We'll do it your way, this time.'

"Thank you, Bassoon," you reply, settling in to watch. "This'll turn out okay."

The following ten minutes are likely the most fruitlessly tense in your entire life. You've never had to sit so still for so long before, while under threat and helpless to do anything proactive about it.

Still, once those minutes have passed, the refugees do move on.

You watch as Tariq, increasingly agitated, snorts, tossing his head in annoyance. "THAT'S IT!" he bellows, making the whole hallway flinch. "HE'S NOT COMING THROUGH HERE! LET'S GO! WE'RE HEADING FOR HIS HIDEY-HOLE." With that, he stomps off, his soldiers falling in behind him. Bassoon slowly tenses and they pass by the restaurant, only relaxing once they're out of sight. He waits a few moments longer, then drops payment for his drink on the table and rises.

'Back to the ship, then,' he says.

"And time to get out of here," you agree.

'I don't know, I quite liked it here,' sniffs Dazarel.

'That's because you like watching other people squirm,' growls Bassoon.

'Naturally.'

"Later, please!" you say, as Bassoon passes into the eerie stillness of Little Arcosa. The silence grates on your nerves.

It doesn't help when that silence shatters under the sound of distant voices.

'Damn it,' says Bassoon. 'They've started searching the quarter. We need to move.' He breaks into a run, darting down the hallways on his way back to the hangar where you left your ship. The voices slowly fade into the distance, and as you round the final corner, you hope that you've lost them.

Bassoon pulls up at the sight of an open door and spits something in his own language that sounds absolutely vile.

"Oh, no," you say in a faint voice.

"...believe our luck?" you hear a woman saying from through the door. "He has a lot of balls, hiding this here, of all places."

"He doesn't have balls at all, Sheera," chuckles somebody else.

"Oh, shut up," says Sheera. "You know what I mean."

Bassoon stealthily draws up to the doorframe and peers around it. 'Five of them,' he says.

You narrow your eyes at them. "Seven hundred thousand...eight hundred thousand...one million, four hundred thousand...three million, nine hundred thousand...ten million. Kais on high, what have you outer-galaxy folk been eating since the Exile started?"

'Humility,' snorts Bassoon. 'Your ancestors were a great motivator.' He mumbles a spell under his breath. 'I'm not picking up on any mages.'

'And I sense no psychic potential from any of them,' says Dazarel.

"Your abilities are sealed," you snap, giving him a suspicious glare.

'I still have senses,' he replies, scowling at you. 'There's a feel to a psychic that one can get used to picking up. I'll teach you later.'

'Point is, I can take this group,' says Bassoon, shutting down the conversation. 'We're going to have to-' He ducks back behind the door frame as one of the refugees turns around.

"I'm going to call the boss," he says, getting closer to the door. "See if you can't crack that thing open!"

"What if he's inside?" says Sheera. "We can't take him without you!"

You feel out the approaching man's power level. "He's the ten million."

'Got it,' replies Bassoon.

The refugee sighs. "If he was here, he'd already have come out the ship. Or just lifted off. You'll be fine."

Bassoon tenses as the man approaches the door frame.

---

You have reached the ship, but refugees are here. What do you suggest Bassoon deal with them, board the ship, and escape? Worth emphasizing at this point is that you are suggesting, and that given the current time limits, if Bassoon for some reason disagrees he will simply go with what he thinks he should do instead. Kakara is fairly confident that Bassoon will probably accept one of the following suggestions:

[ ][PLAN] Attack the strong one coming your way and take him out of the fight before the others can react. Then it'll be an easy fight.
[ ][PLAN] Let this guy pass you, get past him, and take down the weaker ones. Then you can fight him without distraction.

Kakara has also considered the following, but is less confident that Bassoon will take it:

[ ][PLAN] Let this guy pass you and use magic to incapacitate the others. If you can do it quietly, you can get onto the ship and lift off before this guy notices anything out of place.

Finally, while there is the risk of uncertainty, you are as ever at full liberty to propose a

[ ][PLAN] Write-in.

MANUAL MORATORIUM; APPROVAL VOTING.

I'm writing so much over these past few days!

Hope you enjoyed the update, folks! We're clearing Zebul soon, and heading on our way to New Namek once more! There'll be at least one more stop along the way, though, even assuming that you have no more run-ins with Tariq.

Also, while we're here, I've a question. How are we liking the new format? I know the switch away from the yearly format was controversial at the time; I'd like to take the mood and see how we like what's come since. Do we prefer the new approach? Do we miss the old one? Or do you think I should do something new?

[ ][FORMAT] I miss the yearly format. AP plans were fun.
[ ][FORMAT] I enjoy the new format.
[ ][FORMAT] I have a different idea in mind, and of course am perfectly willing to also
-[ ] write in what that idea is.

Looking forward to seeing your thoughts, everybody. I'll see you around the thread!