Dragon Ball: After the End

You purse your lips, thinking. A dozen possibilities suggest themselves. You shoot down most of them. One comes to the forefront. You look at the wishborn saiyan. 'You're sure?'

She shrugs. 'You're the closest thing to in charge that either of us are going to be,' she says.

You snicker. 'That's not really how it works, but...fine. How about Perika?'

She tilts her head, musing, looking up at the stars. '...it doesn't feel exactly right, but...I kinda like it.' She frowns. "Perika," she says aloud, slowly and deliberately, feeling the shape of its syllables.

'I thought it was pretty,' you say, shrugging. 'And it is a saiyan name.'

Her tail thrashes happily, and she smiles and nods. "Perika," she declares.

"Good to meet you, Perika," you say, lying back in the grass.

There's a momentary silence. Then you hear Perika ask, unsure, "...meet?"

You smirk, switch back to telepathy, and start working your way through another vocabulary lesson.

Bassoon is standing by his father's stove, watching a bowl of soup.

You have to wonder at that. Strictly speaking, why would the Namekians even have a preference for smells or tastes? They can survive on water, right? Why did they wind up even having a sense of smell at all, let alone taste? It doesn't make sense at all...but, then, you suppose that it doesn't really have to.

And it does smell good.

You turn your away from Bassoon's work and reach out with your psychic abilities, searching for the feeling you get from the Guru. Only a moment later, you find him and establish a link. "Hello," you say.

'Good evening,' he replies. 'Bassoon said that you wished to speak with me? What about?'

Without commenting, Bassoon turns slightly so that his father is in his peripheral vision. Out of focus for him, but you can look and see just fine.

"Thanks, Bassoon," you say.

'Don't mention it,' he replies, easily.

You then look at his father. "I wanted to introduce myself more formally than I did last time."

He chuckles. 'I can't fault you for being focused on more pressing matters at the time.' He pauses. 'Would you mind pushing me an image of you?'

"Right, sorry," you say, opening up a line of ki telepathy to do just that.

"Thank you," he says. "What did you wish to discuss?"

You straighten up. "Well, like I said, I wanted to make a proper introduction." You give him a bow appropriate from a Scion to a Lord not her own. "Scion Kakara of House Goku, ruling House of Clan Goku, at your service."

Guru's eyebrows shoot up. "You're an authority figure?" He blinks. "You have nobles?" He then blinks again and shakes himself. "Sorry, I...it is a pleasure to meet you, Scion. May I know more about what your position implies?"

You let out a quiet laugh, grinning. "It's a complicated story. We have our families, and our extended families are our House. Houses have Heads who have legal authority over members of their house. Every house belongs to a Clan, and there are two clans. One house out of each clan rules over all the others, and their Heads are called Lords or Ladies, depending. Their heirs are called Scions, and Scions become Lords or Ladies when they have a child who is a Scion, which is something that our Seers decide. The old Lord or Lady becomes a Patriarch or Matriarch and is expected to step aside."

You see him processing that for a moment. Then he nods. "I see. So, you are the someday leader of half of your people."

"That's the idea," you say. "I've been...kind of not dealing with that sort of stuff over the past few weeks. I can't keep doing that." You straighten. "Today, I'm here as my people's future Lady, talking to the ruler of Namek."

Guru...hesitates. Then he leans on the counter, fiddling with a spoon. "I wouldn't call myself so much a ruler. Namek never had a use for rulers, and neither do we. The first Guru was notable because he was the father of our race, in his time. After he died, we didn't even call our leaders the Guru. They were the Grand Elders. Technically, I still am that, but at some point..." He shrugs. "The name, 'Guru,' caught on. While we do hold a certain authority, I wouldn't call it terribly formal." He looks up at Bassoon again. "I, 'lead,' in the sense that I speak, and my people listen, but I have no authority to compel them if they disagree. It is a position of respect and experience, not rulership."

You tilt your head. "What do you do if somebody disagrees with you on something important?"

He sighs. "Then we disagree, and go our separate ways on the issue."

"But what if it's important?" you stress.

"The same thing," he says. "I understand your confusion...but this is how we do things."

You grimace. "Back before the Clans formed, we had a group of people who thought like that."

"And what happened to them?" says Guru.

You peer at him. "I'm pretty sure that you can guess."

Guru grimaces. "Well enough," he acknowledges.

"Why do you do it this way?" you ask.

He sighs. "My position has never been that of a ruler. I am a guide. The namekians have no rulers. It is not our way, and it works well enough for us. If someone wishes to go their own way...well, that is their decision. It is their own way, though. We are not incapable of presenting a united front." He frowns at you, more than a little defensive.

Your mind is shrieking at you about inefficiencies, labor lost, resources squandered into the outside galaxy and as well as lost forever because somebody could not value their home over themselves-

You cut yourself off. Not productive. Their ways, not mine. Instead, you nod. "Understood."

He relaxes slightly. "So, what exactly did you wish to discuss with me, Scion?"

"Well, the biggest thing I wanted to talk about is making it clear that if I say I'll do something, I will do it," you say. "It's only a matter of time before there's nobody but myself who can tell me what to do. If I make you a promise, you can be sure that I'll keep it."

Guru blinks. "...that is comforting, actually. Thus far you've dealt with us honestly. It's good to know that there is little that stands between you and a promise kept."

You nod. "And second...well, I told you a little about how I came here. I need you to understand that eventually, I'm going to leave and return home. I still have things to do there. I can't stay to help you with this war forever."

Guru lets out a heavy sigh. "Yes, I understand. To be honest, I wasn't expecting it. Whatever brought you to my son, I doubted that it would keep you forever even before you told me what has become of your home."

Bassoon shifts, inserting himself. "You are welcome to be here, of course."

"I appreciate that, Bassoon," you say, smiling. Then you turn back to Guru. "I'm going home some day, and I'm going to fix what Dandeer has done. But...some day, that'll be done. And when that happens, maybe my people can come back out again. Maybe some day, my people can visit New Namek again, and not just me."

Guru gives you a smile, the corners of his eyelids crinkling. "I would be honored to host them."

You smile back. "I'm glad. I did want to talk to you about who might be coming by, though."

"Very neighborly of you," remarks Guru, smirking. "Who did you have in mind?"

You have formally introduced yourself to Guru and done some cultural exchange regarding your respective rulership customs. In the process of your conversation, you established that while you can't promise much at this point, you do anticipate at least some saiyans coming out here once you resolve things at home. A vote on the topic is available below.

Your Sight is one of a few things you consider fundamental to who you are as a person. Ki came first, and you will always love and cherish it. But Sight has been a part of your life for longer than you realized, at first. It brought you into contact with Gohan. It gave you something that you could be truly talented at for the first time in your life.

You need hardly any coaxing, to dive back into it now.

Goku stands across from Freeza, scowling in rage.

An older version of yourself smiles down at a bundle in her arms.

Jaron flies across a desert, aura flickering as he dances in between blows from a crowd of figures you cannot make out.

Fennella, screaming in horror and pain as her sword shatters and the hilt tumbles down towards Sophie's outstretched hand.

An arcosian on a throne, gazing intently at something you cannot see.

A shadow that calls to mind a figure drenched in cultural animosity and fear -- Freeza -- idly strolling through a field of grass.

And a robe of blackest night, engulfing a world as the Enemy's cold laughter rings in your head.

You blink, clearing the spots from your eyes.

'Anything of note?' asks Dazarel.

"Nothing fun," you grumble. "Whole lot of stuff that looked like bad news, and I couldn't even tell what was present, what was past, and what was future! Some, yeah, but not all of them were clear!"

'Such is the curse of Sight,' says Dazarel, baring teeth in a smug grin. 'But that is what we hope to address.'

You scowl at him. "Got any suggestions, little guy?"

The grin drops off his face. He mantles his wings, sniffing. 'Since you asked. There are many avenues open to us. You have set aside a lot of time for this. But what do you want to do, Ape Princess? What do you want to achieve? Do you wish to expand the reach of your Sight-?'

"You know that I do," you say.

'-or is expanding on your mental gifts your goal?' he finishes, unperturbed. 'Or both, I suppose, if you wish to spread yourself thin.'

Psychic training continued. Options available for your focus.

---

You are in the midst of advising the Guru that he should expect Exile visitors at some point during the upcoming years. You're not making a firm decision on this at this time; you're simply advising him what he should actively prepare to receive, at minimum. Any option necessarily includes or obviates the need for the options above it in the list.

[ ][VISIT] Regular scouting trips. The Senzus, once all this is done, will still have their space ship, and Garenhuld will still have need of news from the wider galaxy. It would make trips far safer and quicker if they had a set port of call to visit.
[ ][VISIT] An official delegation. You will rule, some day, and having contacted the namekians, you find yourself disinclined to snub them. You will inform Guru to prepare to receive a diplomatic mission from you, to take residence on New Namek in secret and help you in maintaining relations.
[ ][VISIT] Merchants. The Exiles' economy grows on the back of its own internal markets and opportunists selectively uplifting the Garenhulders. Secrecy remains an issue with openly seeking out galactic markets, but New Namek could be a trustworthy go-between for traders seeking to export to or import from the wider galaxy.

Dazarel wants you to decide how you'd like to be trained.

[ ][PSI] All in on Sight.
[ ][PSI] All in on internal mental techniques.
[ ][PSI] Some of everything.

MANUAL MORATORIUM. APPROVAL VOTING.

And here we go!

Kakara gets a bit of culture shock, here. Her cultural mindset, as well as her position within her culture, does not prepare her to appreciate the merits of so loose a system. She thinks in very broad terms -- granted, that is a symptom of being among a people where one person getting careless with their power level means inevitable death for all. She does not think highly of those who cannot shut up and deal with the basic rules of society when the discord they introduce threatens the greater whole. It's not intended to be a conduit for my thoughts on the matter.

I hope you enjoyed the update! I had fun writing it. Let me know your thoughts, and I'll see you around the thread!