A Cooler Broly Saga (DBZ)
[x] Lackluster proposal or no, you don't want Bulma getting hurt. You'll step in to support her while you try and talk the situation down. You're pretty sure she doesn't know just who she's picking a fight with -- you'll start by making that clear, and that the Supreme Kai is here to oversee your excursion to the mysteries in Penguin Village.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
I really don't like the garb her one and flex seems kinda like it might escalate given their arguing over Brolly so lets try talking first.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
I really don't like the garb her one and flex seems kinda like it might escalate given their arguing over Brolly so lets try talking first.
Great Greedy Guts
Ceterum censeo Vigilam esse delendam.
While understandable, I don't really see that remaining secret, do you? This seems like getting information at the cost of being unprepared to deal with the fact that she'll be able to move in the stopped time.
Also, I feel like removing Bulma from the situation rather than explaining things openly will come across more negatively -- it's still protective, but it's also kinda ignoring her agency in the situation some. Giving her the info we have already lets her react, we're on hand if she needs protection, and we read as more confident and less... panicky than grabbing her and running.
Aaand again, I'm not sure if we want to just let ourselves get blindsided mid-retreat by the fact that our solution is failing utterly. Also, even if it worked and the SKoT was frozen as Broly is supposed to expect, him talking with his breath held means he'll have to come out of the time stop, which in turn would mean leaving the Supreme Kai sent to chaperone him all alone. Possibly leading to them leaving, or otherwise being harder to work with -- which I imagine Broly's keenly aware of given his talks with Kami, how hard it was to set this up in the first place, and the blatantly capricious nature of the Kai that led to all this in the first place.
[X] Lackluster proposal or no, you don't want Bulma getting hurt. You'll step in to support her while you try and talk the situation down. You're pretty sure she doesn't know just who she's picking a fight with -- you'll start by making that clear, and that the Supreme Kai is here to oversee your excursion to the mysteries in Penguin Village.
-[X] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[X] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
This is a fairly nasty situation, and this is going to require nuance and talkification to resolve. Strikes a good balance between potential comedy, firmness in action, and not being a callous dick. I like it.
Hmm. This is a question. How genuine do you think the SKoT's liking of Broly is? Is it just superficial appreciation for MUSCLES?
Though, even if she does like him... I'm not sure that's good, per-say. Feels like she's capricious enough she'd just snatch him away if she really wanted him around, Cooler be damned.
-[X] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[X] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
This is a fairly nasty situation, and this is going to require nuance and talkification to resolve. Strikes a good balance between potential comedy, firmness in action, and not being a callous dick. I like it.
Hmm. This is a question. How genuine do you think the SKoT's liking of Broly is? Is it just superficial appreciation for MUSCLES?
Though, even if she does like him... I'm not sure that's good, per-say. Feels like she's capricious enough she'd just snatch him away if she really wanted him around, Cooler be damned.
Last edited:
LordOfMurder
Bhaal
- Location
- Australia
[X] Lackluster proposal or no, you don't want Bulma getting hurt. You'll step in to support her while you try and talk the situation down. You're pretty sure she doesn't know just who she's picking a fight with -- you'll start by making that clear, and that the Supreme Kai is here to oversee your excursion to the mysteries in Penguin Village.
-[X] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[X] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
Much better than just flexing and hoping for the best.
-[X] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[X] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
Much better than just flexing and hoping for the best.
Bob's Beard
I will punch you in the eyeballs with wooooooords!
Well, at least internet at work is working, so, y'know; there's that.
I can't do anything here except periodically peek at my phone, but still; it's something!
So anyway popping in because I realized something kind of important - while I do have tomorrow off work, I kind of forgot I already agreed to go on a one day roadtrip around the coasts for seafood, doing a terrible job at surfing and other such things. So... yeah; tomorrow's also going to be dicey for an update, as, again, I probably won't be back, with free time and on the internet until way late.
Not exactly the best news for peeps looking for prompt updates, but y'know; life happens.
Who knows; maybe I'll be able to pull through regardless, but just in case; assume you're probably not seeing that update until Saturday - so sad, I know!
I can't do anything here except periodically peek at my phone, but still; it's something!
So anyway popping in because I realized something kind of important - while I do have tomorrow off work, I kind of forgot I already agreed to go on a one day roadtrip around the coasts for seafood, doing a terrible job at surfing and other such things. So... yeah; tomorrow's also going to be dicey for an update, as, again, I probably won't be back, with free time and on the internet until way late.
Not exactly the best news for peeps looking for prompt updates, but y'know; life happens.
Who knows; maybe I'll be able to pull through regardless, but just in case; assume you're probably not seeing that update until Saturday - so sad, I know!
[X] Lackluster proposal or no, you don't want Bulma getting hurt. You'll step in to support her while you try and talk the situation down. You're pretty sure she doesn't know just who she's picking a fight with -- you'll start by making that clear, and that the Supreme Kai is here to oversee your excursion to the mysteries in Penguin Village.
-[X] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[X] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
-[X] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[X] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
It's not not caring that's preventing me from voting- far from it, as I'm enjoying the quest very much- it's that I literally have no idea on what action to take here, and I was throwing a joke at myself that not doing anything isn't, funnily enough, going to get anything done.
The Stormbringer
Worm Fanfic & Crack Connoisseur
- Location
- Spaaaaace~!
[x] Lackluster proposal or no, you don't want Bulma getting hurt. You'll step in to support her while you try and talk the situation down. You're pretty sure she doesn't know just who she's picking a fight with -- you'll start by making that clear, and that the Supreme Kai is here to oversee your excursion to the mysteries in Penguin Village.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
Changed my mind. This is a reasonable vote.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
Changed my mind. This is a reasonable vote.
Great Greedy Guts
Ceterum censeo Vigilam esse delendam.
Hrm. If it'd help, you can talk through any conflicting feelings you've got, or just note what you want to see come out of this beyond "not a fight" or whatever. Sometimes working through stuff like that can make it easier to see what path might be best for what you want to have happen.
[x] Lackluster proposal or no, you don't want Bulma getting hurt. You'll step in to support her while you try and talk the situation down. You're pretty sure she doesn't know just who she's picking a fight with -- you'll start by making that clear, and that the Supreme Kai is here to oversee your excursion to the mysteries in Penguin Village.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
Bob's Beard
I will punch you in the eyeballs with wooooooords!
Phone, don't fail me now!
So I can't say I think your reasoning is sound - but again, I say that from my biased 'the more people vote, the more implicit interest there is' perspective, which I will hardly claim as objective.
The thing is though, almost all of those methods require at least some more effort than 'just don't vote if you can't think of anything off the bat' - and I totally get the whole 'yeah, not really feeling like putting in the work' sensation that often plays into this.
That said, I still firmly stand by the belief that quests are a mutual pursuit, and if either side stops putting in work towards their recreational goals, things... often decay.
Hm; interesting that I could make this high-minded speechification on my phone across three different 'have a moment' instances, and that's still faster than it was at home last night/this morning on the computer, dealing with all my connection problems... really hope I can fix that before I go on tomorrow's road trip...
You say that, as if 'doing nothing' isn't, itself, a valid vote that would likely do things - or like the story doesn't progress nearly regardless of what you pick (sure, the way it advances changes, but generally speaking there's no 'doesn't get anything done' options.
So I can't say I think your reasoning is sound - but again, I say that from my biased 'the more people vote, the more implicit interest there is' perspective, which I will hardly claim as objective.
There's also that too - just because at first assessment/on your own you can't think of a thing you want to do, doesn't mean you can't think of something to do. Asking others for input, picking at plans that seem close to something you'd like to see if you could adapt them, proposing oddball write-ins just to see if any of the low-odds ideas you have might fly as a vote; there's many a thing one can do, when initially unable to concretely pick a vote.
The thing is though, almost all of those methods require at least some more effort than 'just don't vote if you can't think of anything off the bat' - and I totally get the whole 'yeah, not really feeling like putting in the work' sensation that often plays into this.
That said, I still firmly stand by the belief that quests are a mutual pursuit, and if either side stops putting in work towards their recreational goals, things... often decay.
Hm; interesting that I could make this high-minded speechification on my phone across three different 'have a moment' instances, and that's still faster than it was at home last night/this morning on the computer, dealing with all my connection problems... really hope I can fix that before I go on tomorrow's road trip...
[x] Lackluster proposal or no, you don't want Bulma getting hurt. You'll step in to support her while you try and talk the situation down. You're pretty sure she doesn't know just who she's picking a fight with -- you'll start by making that clear, and that the Supreme Kai is here to oversee your excursion to the mysteries in Penguin Village.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
Pretty sure her overall anger would be reduced when she finds out that there is an entire pantheon of divinity, and the bitch in front of her is amongst the very top.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
Pretty sure her overall anger would be reduced when she finds out that there is an entire pantheon of divinity, and the bitch in front of her is amongst the very top.
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
[x] Lackluster proposal or no, you don't want Bulma getting hurt. You'll step in to support her while you try and talk the situation down. You're pretty sure she doesn't know just who she's picking a fight with -- you'll start by making that clear, and that the Supreme Kai is here to oversee your excursion to the mysteries in Penguin Village.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
This is sensible.
But god damn it I want Broly to go full JoJo.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
This is sensible.
But god damn it I want Broly to go full JoJo.
Dimensionist
Grandmaster of Apologism, Keeper of the Faith
- Location
- Bangalore, India
[x] Lackluster proposal or no, you don't want Bulma getting hurt. You'll step in to support her while you try and talk the situation down. You're pretty sure she doesn't know just who she's picking a fight with -- you'll start by making that clear, and that the Supreme Kai is here to oversee your excursion to the mysteries in Penguin Village.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
Great Greedy Guts
Ceterum censeo Vigilam esse delendam.
Unable to download the SVVote thing and unsure if people have remembered to de-X their old votes. Anyone know where we stand at the moment?
hand count says your vore is ahead by 3 votes
Arkatekt
Harbinger of Shitluck
Vote Tally : A Cooler Broly Saga (DBZ) | Page 186 | Sufficient Velocity
##### NetTally 1.1.25
[x] Lackluster proposal or no, you don't want Bulma getting hurt. You'll step in to support her while you try and talk the situation down. You're pretty sure she doesn't know just who she's picking a fight with -- you'll start by making that clear, and that the Supreme Kai is here to oversee your excursion to the mysteries in Penguin Village.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
No. of Votes: 13
[X] - Pull a leaf from your recent outing; You know that you can distract humans with flex-based clothing destruction - maybe it'd work with this newcomer too!
No. of Votes: 12
[X] - Make a distraction; You know what will pull Bulma off whatever tangent she's on, and it might work on the newcomer too; time for flex-based intervention.
No. of Votes: 4
[X] - Grab the potential Kai; whether or not they are the being Kami referenced as inbound, what you know for sure is that Bulma will be safer if you are holding this potential deific bomb rather than her.
No. of Votes: 4
[x] Clearly, evacuating Bulma from an entity that could squash her like a bug is in the best interests of Lord Cooler, herself and yourself. Freeze time and take the opportunity to rush Bulma into the furthest restroom possible to discuss who she is dealing with.
No. of Votes: 4
Total No. of Voters: 37
##### NetTally 1.1.25
[x] Lackluster proposal or no, you don't want Bulma getting hurt. You'll step in to support her while you try and talk the situation down. You're pretty sure she doesn't know just who she's picking a fight with -- you'll start by making that clear, and that the Supreme Kai is here to oversee your excursion to the mysteries in Penguin Village.
-[x] - If words alone prove to be too slow or unable to pacify them, you'll flex your way out of your suit. That should distract at least one of them enough to make some more progress.
-[x] - Should Bulma seem put out if the Supreme Kai insists on taking you to Penguin Village alone, reassure her that you won't leave her alone too long. After all, this whole investigation is to make sure she's safe in the first place.
No. of Votes: 13
[X] - Pull a leaf from your recent outing; You know that you can distract humans with flex-based clothing destruction - maybe it'd work with this newcomer too!
No. of Votes: 12
[X] - Make a distraction; You know what will pull Bulma off whatever tangent she's on, and it might work on the newcomer too; time for flex-based intervention.
No. of Votes: 4
[X] - Grab the potential Kai; whether or not they are the being Kami referenced as inbound, what you know for sure is that Bulma will be safer if you are holding this potential deific bomb rather than her.
No. of Votes: 4
[x] Clearly, evacuating Bulma from an entity that could squash her like a bug is in the best interests of Lord Cooler, herself and yourself. Freeze time and take the opportunity to rush Bulma into the furthest restroom possible to discuss who she is dealing with.
No. of Votes: 4
Total No. of Voters: 37
Bob's Beard
I will punch you in the eyeballs with wooooooords!
Man, do I love some of those coast-faring places - and stopping by an amazing sandich place doesn't hurt, either!
Well, week's end day roadtrip's done, and I'm back!
...I'm obviously not updating tonight since I don't have nearly enough time, but hey!
So, I'll LOCK THE VOTE, and thanks @Arkatekt for the votecount - and I see your avatar's new mustache.
Let's see what tomorrow brings us, huh?
Well, week's end day roadtrip's done, and I'm back!
...I'm obviously not updating tonight since I don't have nearly enough time, but hey!
So, I'll LOCK THE VOTE, and thanks @Arkatekt for the votecount - and I see your avatar's new mustache.
Let's see what tomorrow brings us, huh?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Glad you had a good time Bob.
Bob's Beard
I will punch you in the eyeballs with wooooooords!
Hoo boy that was an adventure and a half, trying to preserve the brainwaves I had on the roadtrip for the update!
Well, it's pretty much all done, and now it's just going through beta reviews. Sadly, I'm missing my primary beta but I've got some pretty solid backups combing over it, I figure it'll be up in a few hours? Regardless, I'm not going to sleep today without slapping that sucker up, so gird your lines for a trip to a land most cartoonish and eldritch, when considered in the context of a (somewhat) more serious setting.
Also, that should say all any Dr.-Slump-ignorant individual should need to know about the setting; it seriously makes Dragonball, even at its most inane, look way serious.
EDIT: Holy shit I mean, I knew that a certain darker shade of numbered light was a ridiculously precise beta, but man - watching him edit something is like expecting to go watch a nuclear explosion, and then seeing a planet detonate.
Well, it's pretty much all done, and now it's just going through beta reviews. Sadly, I'm missing my primary beta but I've got some pretty solid backups combing over it, I figure it'll be up in a few hours? Regardless, I'm not going to sleep today without slapping that sucker up, so gird your lines for a trip to a land most cartoonish and eldritch, when considered in the context of a (somewhat) more serious setting.
Also, that should say all any Dr.-Slump-ignorant individual should need to know about the setting; it seriously makes Dragonball, even at its most inane, look way serious.
EDIT: Holy shit I mean, I knew that a certain darker shade of numbered light was a ridiculously precise beta, but man - watching him edit something is like expecting to go watch a nuclear explosion, and then seeing a planet detonate.
Last edited:
28: Broly, Bulma and SKoT go to a place beyond even Dragonball logic
Bob's Beard
I will punch you in the eyeballs with wooooooords!
Year 752
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
Okay, time to defuse this situation in general and Bulma in specific the only way you know how.
"A fine if lackluster proposal, Bulma," You say, your words practically force-whipping the human's head about as she stares at you with wide eyes, "But ultimately, that seems a thing to ply on its own rather than in the midst of another event."
"Wait," Bulma incredulously replies with a voice that sounds overwhelmed, "Are you saying you'd acce-"
"Currently," You continue with a blunt and unyielding tone, "It would be in our best interest for me to do what our visitor is here to allow me to do."
"...That was suspiciously vague, Broly," Bulma says while snapping right back to her normal attentiveness, "Especially with how much this little runt seems all over you."
"Says the black pot," The still-scruffed figure huffs before shaking herself free of Bulma's grasp to nimbly land with a click-clack of her white heels, "But yeah; totally unsurprised our living example of a darkly noble by-the-book guy wants us all to stay on track."
"Okay but no, seriously; who are you?"
At Bulma's query the small figure taps her chest with a mocking look of surprise.
Then she starts twirling around in place, practically flailing her arms as she gaily poses.
"Why, I'm the most important and connected and wise and beautiful and amazing… liege lady and owner of the ancient Toki, founder and master of the Time Nest, the Supreme Kai of Time!"
As the being that the West Kai effectively claimed would be ruining Cooler's life if he kept Bulma off-world introduces herself with waggling fingers, a stuck out tongue and a wink, Bulma just snorts.
"Yeah, okay, sure; whatever you wanna call yourself little-"
"There is a Supreme Kai scheduled to stop by right now to guide me to Penguin Village," You allow, "So her appearance and claim are… coincidentally well timed if they're false."
"Oh no," The probable-Kai says as she cups her cheeks and looks to the sky with mournful mirth, "The hotty's doubting me; what a terrible start to our date~"
For a moment, Bulma does nothing but glower, eschewing her normal propensity to leap into a spitfire retort; her sudden reservation makes you nervous.
"...You're bringing me wherever the heck you're thinking of going." Bulma says at last in a too-level tone that is most certainly not a question, raw 'or else' pouring from her eyes.
Yeah; that's about what you expected.
"Aw Bulma," The likely-Kai simpers while not even remotely looking at the human in question, "You know no one likes a third wheel!"
"Yeah, you'd think a self-proclaimed god would know when she's gonna be the odd one out in someone else's relationship," She says as she walks up beside you and latches onto your arm to stare viperishly at the smaller figure, "But here we are, with you being that thick."
"Wow; if I'm thick," The willowy little one says as she pats her general lack of curves, "How fat does that make you?"
It's at this point that you have to jerk your arm back so that Bulma doesn't rush around you in an attempt to, presumably, tackle the Supreme Kai of Time.
Yeah; you don't need anyone starting a fight with the gods just yet.
"It would seem that we're all going out," You say in what is your level best attempt to mediate, "So let's all prepare."
"Hmmph," The pink-skinned and pink-haired creature says as she skips a few steps closer while shooting a daring glance at Bulma, "Well, I am 100% ready, and I bet Broly is too, mister dark-and-mysterious-but-mostly-proper that he is… which just leaves the widdly little human, right?"
Credit where it's due; Bulma doesn't waste a moment glaring at the taunting Kai as she immediately starts dashing about and gathering capsules.
"...You know," The Kai of Time says in a light tone that's seesawed into a shocking level of subdued gravity and philosophical musing, "It's a pretty rare person that not only doesn't care who's what god, but has the talents necessary to back up such an arrogant stance against matters celestial; I'm happy I got to meet her in person."
What a perfect transition to a question you quite want to ask.
"I assume you're not happy to meet just any mortal; should I take your words as meaning-"
Before you can confirm if the West Kai's warning was on point Bulma's dashed back into the room, and after blowing a tuft of bangs out of her eyes she looks at you rather expectantly.
"Well; are we going or what?"
You suppose you are. You step forward and wrap your arms around the flight-incapable Bulma. Ignoring her blush far more easily than the softness pressing against you, you hoist her into the air as you hover off the ground. Snapping into place with a crisp hum, you forge an Energy Shield around yourself to protect Bulma's frail form from the rigors of rapid transit - and as you do you feel a bump on your back. In that tiny moment where your attention was devoted to retooling your oldest technique to better fit the scenario, it would seem the equally small Kai managed to leap onto your back - all fifty-odd pounds of her.
"That way!" The Kai calls out in a bubbly burst of cheer, and you silently follow her direction.
You fly, perhaps, a shade too quickly and erratically - and if that keeps Bulma occupied with her heart leaping into her throat rather than trading further barbs with your other passenger, well, that's just a happy coincidence.
You're ready to defend that interpretation to the death.
As Capsule Corp shrinks into the distance behind you, you can't help but smile; you think Bulma'd help you take on the heavens themselves without a second thought, and you can't help but be impressed by that level of adamant courage.
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
You follow the Kai's provided flight path, your concerns about how you don't seem to be headed directly towards the massive magical signature kept to yourself.
"Okay, so see that island there," She says while a pink finger reaches into your field of view to gesture at a ring-like mass within a nearby archipelago, "Go through that, and when you come out go through the cloud ring you'll see."
"That makes no sense," Bulma says, not for the first time, "The sky is not going to change just because we take a dip!"
"Ah-huh; anyway Broly, get to it, go go!"
With a grumbling Bulma insisting this is all stupid still clutched in your grasp you dive, the sea seeming to rush up to meet you.
Water sizzles as it meets your energy shield, and you force your bubble of hermetically sealed, Power-refreshed air into the water. You descend into the hollowed out island's core… and there is no bottom in sight. Instead, the island's watery hole just keeps going down, twisting and turning as the kelp growing out of its sides grows increasingly lurid the deeper you go. You're surrounded by neon plaid that seems to flash like a strobe light when the water starts brightening, and you keep going-
You breach the water's surface, and find that, somehow, you got turned around and just returned to the surface.
...A surface where the clouds are entirely different and you can't see a single familiar landmark.
"...Okay," Bulma allows with an incredulous tone, "What-"
"The cloud ring!" The Kai insists.
At her increasingly insistent gestures you head for the floating ring of white fluff, and as you pass through it the world, again, shifts.
"And there we go," The Supreme Kai says with a clap of her hands, "We're now on the right plane of existence! We just gotta go to Penguin Village's antipode, and we can fly straight towards the Magic to get there!"
"And this time the place won't fade?"
"Yup yup - now we're on the same wavelength, so we can actually perceive it!"
Every new bit of trivia you learn about your destination makes you feel more on guard against its strangeness; you gird yourself for whatever may come.
You've barely made it around the world to start the final leg of your journey when a tiny fist lightly pounds on your back for attention.
"Sooooo," The Kai drags out, her voice suspiciously similar to Bulma's in tone, "This is a nice little sky-trip aboard Air Broly."
"...It is," Bulma grumbles as she peers up and tries to look around you towards the one on your back and fails, "And you better be grateful you had an excuse to take part!"
"Oh sure sure; I'm so thankful I was asked to be here and am the reason anyone's allowed to go, since that let me tag along - totally unlike the human that insisted on coming-"
"While Broly's on Earth he's my responsibility," Bulma huffs with arguably the most flagrant reinterpretation of your mission here that you've yet heard, "So I get automatic dibs to go anywhere and do anything with him!"
"Oh okay, the guy who could pop your planet like a pimple and has been defanging some of the potential threats that could muck things up for you - that guy's under your aegis, not the other way around, huh? Planetary corporation lording over an intergalactic organization? Yeah, makes total sense."
"If you think that was a quality bit of passive-aggressive pushback, you need to go back to grammar school," Bulma haughtily sniffs, "I've heard worse offhand from my sister!"
"...That's really sad," The Kai says in a sudden switch to sincerity, and Bulma's left momentarily spluttering.
Naturally she quickly rallies… but that just means the back and forth between the two continues to pass right through you, like their words were destined to drill through your skull.
You privately wish for a sudden planetary invasion or something that you could use as an excuse to put them down and go violently vent on something.
Sadly, you are not so lucky, and the trip continues awash in bickering.
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
The moment you pass through the barrier your Kai passenger highlighted with surprisingly subtle magic, you see a world that at first seems little different than before.
Then you notice the madness.
The first thing that catches your eye isn't any structure, inhabitant, Scouter reading or geological feature. No, it's the fact the sun is idly yawning with white-gloved hands on the ends of burning noodle arms, and the village below contains people that seem thoroughly unsurprised by this. With such a blatant example of how this is a closed reality and no more a part of Earth than the farthest corner of space, you'd hope that'd be your only jarring moment. Sadly the hits keep coming and your Power-boosted senses seem to scrounge up every possible problem in sight. You were trained from birth to have an attentive eye, watchful and vigilant against any of Cooler's holdings becoming imperfect - and that well-honed trait seems utterly damning now.
In just this one sweeping glance, you not only see the fundamental forces of existence itself being flagrantly violated, but you see more sapient-looking species than you would from having visited a dozen hub worlds.
You see a race of torso-faced, skull-evacuating antenna-nosed aliens that are not only extinct, but can't breathe the oxygen/nitrogen mix of a world like earth, puttering around in a ground vehicle stylized like one of their planet-busting battleships. You see quasi-mechanical beetle men with glittering, gem-like eyes crawling up palm trees not an arm's reach away from townspeople going about their days, and neither party seems bothered by this. At least one in five animals you see are engaged in coherent conversation, often with the residents. An arguing couple gets particularly heated, and you see one of the two shout so loud her words become manifest and she starts beating her spouse with a giant exclamation point. As the husband retorts by using a power drill on her skull, which she seems to take as one might a forehead flick, the bickering continues unabated. You choose to focus on the promising combat implications of their hardiness and your mission objectives… rather than the frankly perturbing social implications of such otherwise lethal violence.
All of this you see in just the first glance about a town with such structures as giant safes, teapots, suspiciously familiar spaceships and more.
Not a bit of it can keep your attention for long though, in the face of the oppressive Magical reading that's causing the Scouter on your ear to get worryingly hot.
The fact that the Scouter's starting to overload, slowly or no is what concerns you more than any violation of the known norms of reality. The unknown is one thing - realizing you're flying beside a galactic disaster's worth of Magic, an entirely known level of extreme threat is another matter entirely. The fact you're actively carrying a being of hilariously inferior defensive capacity doesn't help; you can hardly do midair maneuvers on a relativistic scale while carrying a squishy human, after all.
A tap on your back by a tiny white boot's heel pulls you out of your furious internal quandaries about how to handle a surreal world enshrouding an all-too-real threat.
"Remember what I said, you big slab of uplifted-noble-savage-themed manmeat," She singsongs while waving her arms about as if she thinks she's a bird, "So long as you let things carry on as they are, it's nothing more than interesting scenery."
"The signature I'm reading-" You incredulously start, tense with concern about how easily that could paste the one under your care.
"So hey Bulma," The tiny being on your back that radiates an otherworldly air chirps, "You've heard of Dr. Norimaki, aka-"
"The legendary genius," She says with wide eyes, "Wait, he - he lives here!? Not has mail delivered here, or a terminal for intermittent remote correspondence - he's here for real!?"
"Yup!"
"The man that's invented more things than me, my dad and the next two best scientists on Earth combined!?"
"Heh-heh, he's done more than that!"
It's when Bulma doesn't immediately snap back in defense of her own prowess that you realize the depths of her current shock.
"The visionary that perfected fully sentient AI, redefined low-tech build methods for cutting edge machinery and blew past Dr. Omari in his specialty in the course of a weekend!?"
"...Okay but seriously," The Kai on your back asks with a pouty frown, "How do you know that much about him, he's been stuck inside a closed sub-dimension for-"
"Like dimensional barriers are going to stop a member of the Earth Superscience Club from touching base," Bulma snorts in nearly the same breath as resuming her gushing, "So you're really talking about-"
Little heels kick on your back, and not for the first time you're somewhat tempted to pitch off your squirming passenger.
"Are you gonna keep asking me questions until I say no? Because that's not happening~"
Bulma scrabbles in your grasp, slender arms flailing for purchase in the muscle-forged crooks of your embracing arms as she strives to look the petite Kai in the eye.
"...Which house is Dr. Norimaki in?"
"Well," The pinkette drawls as she looks to the heavens, smirks around a stuck out tongue and pokes her cheeks like she's trying to pose for a picture, "First off I'll tell you that honestly, if you call him that most people won't know what you mean, and the ones that do might need to be reminded a bit. Around here, he's just 'that wacky guy, Dr. Slump'!"
"Local moniker for a low-key life," Bulma says with a fervent nod, the fires of scientific passion burning in her eyes like furious embers, "Got it."
"...Right, let's call it that - so anyway, it's that house-"
"Broly," Bulma hisses like she did when a coal company tried to renege on a contract and she financially tore out their throat, "Put me down over there right now."
You could object to her abruptly commanding tone being a step too far - highlight how she has no right to command you, or means to enforce compliance.
...Well okay; Bulma can do things to enforce your compliance - you'd be lying if you said she didn't do things you quite enjoy.
You silently do what Bulma said, and she runs off to hammer on the door without a backward glance as you float back up into the sky.
As you shift to an upright position the Kai still rather cavalierly riding your back clambers forward to perch on your shoulder to stay upright.
A deceptively childish looking mauve face leans down to whisper in your ear, the smile on the Supreme Kai's face full of insidious innocence.
"So now that little miss 'I can't leave anything alone' is gone and gonna blow time trying to make sense of tech that's now way too tied up with local rules of reality and won't work at all in the universe without," She drawls with a flick of her finger towards a distant structure, "I'll just lay it out for you; see that house?"
Arguably the most conventional looking structure sits before her pointing digit, sorely standing out for its normalness - relative to urban Earth standards at least - amidst the surrounding insanity.
"Ye-"
"Just so long as you do not go there or do anything to make them come out," She says in what abruptly becomes an ancient, poisonous snarl full of promise for a few words before segueing back to her normal light tone, "Then everything's hunky dory!"
You refuse to be intimidated.
"And if I do go near, or attract attention from within?"
The little being on your shoulder smiles as if sin was a foreign concept.
"Then if the artificial personification of causality doesn't write you out of existence, I'll make it so you never came here at all," She lightly claims with a tone utterly at odds with her domineering words, "Since, sadly, I just can't value your redeemable bad boy points over the stability of reality itself. I hope you can understand that, and see that I'm not trying to be mean to you, fancypants; I'm just being pragmatic aaaaaaand also kind of obligated by job to do it, too. So there's that, and no amount of wounded soulness or soft chink in grim armor is gonna make me relent!"
Shockingly, despite having gotten so ominous in implication that a shiver silently went up your spine, the pastel-colored figure astride your rotator cuff looks a bit bashful before the end's inanity… though you can't tell if you're looking at earnest feelings or a masterful act.
A quasi-immortal godly being strikes you as very much the type to be a masterful actor, among a great many other things.
Suspicions about the veracity of her behavior or no, if you were in her shoes and her words are true-
"I can't say I'd choose differently," You allow in an attempt to preserve whatever good relations you somehow lucked into having with this particular celestial officer, "If it were a question of the greater PTO's health, or Bulma's own life."
Even as you know the statement you're making to be true, it hurts just a bit to admit it; the mere thought of never again having a chance to finally surpass her in mechanics, or to go on another-
"Riiiight~" The Kai exclaims while leaning on your head and giving your brow a pat, "Gotta give properly managed evil empires credit; they train their VIP beefcakes in the best of pragmatism!"
You choose to take that as a compliment.
"So… other than keeping clear of this particular structure-"
"Yeah; you saw how pretty much everything's a bit less serious here, joke-loving sun and all?"
"Yyyyyes," You say with a leery glance up to the now cigar-smoking celestial object above, "About th-"
"Well the long and short of it is, for those willing to never ever leave here again," She stresses with another switch to her discordantly grave, high voice, "Then… you become immortal, basically."
That, you can't let pass without comment.
"Excuse me - when you say-"
"It's not the kind any smart ruler'd want," She says, clearly all too aware why you'd be interested, "Sure, you can't die but… never leaving here? Being surrounded by things that don't follow logic? Forget about whether normies could take it, even the best of remote empire rulers would go nuts for sure, it's just a matter of time!"
That… does sound like a rather definitive reason to not go for it… but all the same you should probably make note of this in your next report.
"What about how they're using something that looks like, but does not Magically register as Materialization with… their words?"
"Ah yeah, that; that's all the personification of causality's doing, since his, ah… storyboard for reality is a cartoon, and so it's got speech bubbles aplenty. Just be thankful they're well past the point where his main characters would need to cut out pages of the manga - guh, that felt weird."
"Wha-"
"Don't worry about it - no really, seriously don't; Tori-bot's really easy to not rile up; Senbei did a good job on it."
"This… some sort of mechanical avatar for a higher power was crafted by-"
"By the unparalleled Earth scientist that figured out how to breach Penguin Village's barrier in the first place, yeah; that guy," The Kai affirms with a nod that manages to look sagely despite her prepubescent form and restless energy, "And in all fairness, it's probably a good thing in the long run he did that, since it has let us talk to something pretty darn potent when things got super duper bad. ...That said, the way it seems to have spawned a couple natural personifications of causality that come and 'help' Tori-bot write reality isn't… the best. They've thrown retcons everywhere, and even their sorta maker wasn't immune. Such a pain, dealing with a guy that was simultaneously born in two places and breached a barrier both ways because he built a kinda forgetful robot. But you know how it is; when dealing with absolutely crazy stuff, you're pretty much bound to get problems amidst your gains."
"Indeed," You admit as you think to your many personal examples of the same principle and surprisingly find a way to relate to this strange godly being, "And I think you've made your point clear; honestly, your simple promise of obligatory opposition made things quite clear enough."
Your words are rewarded with a rare instance of the per-title Supreme being seated on your shoulder looking aside with a conflicted expression.
She sallies quickly as tiny fingers roam over your neck, and wide eyes get wider in faux surprise.
"Holy me are you made of Katchin," She says as her fingers utterly fail to make a single bit of the muscle beneath your skin yield to their prodding, "You are just so deliciously contoured I could-"
"I'm going to patrol the town proper," You say as you channel your recently Bulma-honed ability to disregard flagrantly unprofessional behavior that you're forced to tolerate, "So if there's anything more you need to tell me, now would be the time."
"Well, besides that you shouldn't try to fight Arale unless you really want to see why cartoon physics are so unfair," She muses with a smirk as she looks at you sidelong, "I think that's it!"
You nod at the capricious god's admittedly vital provision of intel, and as you do so she runs her fingers through your hair, humming to herself in a tone that almost seems like a purr.
She seems distracted; you'll ask what a 'cartoon' is some other time.
You click a few buttons on the side of your Scouter, switching it to full spectrum recording and maximum sensitivity as you begin your town-consuming circuit, carefully not so much as glancing at a certain house.
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
Hours spent braving a mind bendingly wrong environ where all logical moorings are nowhere in sight finally end, and you throttle down your Scouter with a sense of relief.
The now familiar drum of heels against your chest is a physical preamble to your divine passenger making an observation with a playful tone.
"So~, Bulma's gonna be done with that scientist that delved too far into the farcical fibres of reality in five more minutes-"
Any day before today you'd demand an answer for that - after hours in Penguin Village you just shrug, the light figure on your shoulder giggling at the impromptu jostling.
"Hey, settle down! So anyway… If you ever absolutely gotta come back here? Don't forget to do the extra special tryhard Energy Shield; otherwise you'll pick up a right big dose of this place's weirdness… and that, not even gods can purge."
"...I'll keep that in mind."
She smiles at you, her head seesawing to the side as she leans down amidst a sudden jingle from her bulbous earrings.
"You know? Even if this place is really somewhere no one - Kais, mortals or anyone else should idly touch, I have to say I'm happy I had occasion to go like this. It was, honestly, fun!"
"I suppose so," You pensively muse as you end up frowning as if of your face's own accord, "Although…"
"Hm?"
"I feel like there's something I forgot." You admit even as a quick check of your Scouter shows no gaps.
"You know… I kinda feel that way too," The Supreme Kai says as she adopts what might be an attempt at a noble thinker's pose, but just looks like a pre-tantrum bundle of balled up child waiting to explode, "And I… I remember… some sorta thing with a long head like a Frost Demon's minimal suppression form? No, that wouldn't make sense unle… oh. Well, poop; it probably was one of those, huh."
It sounds like she has some idea what happened - obviously, you won't just let that pass unheard.
"What do you suspect?"
"I think one of the causality manifestations 'wrote' something about us, and then decided it wasn't useful and 'erased' it," She says as her previously cutesy face darkens with an ageless sense of merciless wrath and righteous fury tightens her eyes and lips alike, "...And if that did happen like I think, then they got to cut up time's flow without using any sort of Time magic. That… is really annoying."
She pokes out her tongue amidst an impish smile as her ire evaporates like a summer rain on space australian soil.
"Hey, maybe we even went on an extra fun data, huh? Hehehe," She giggles as she cups her face, "That makes perfect sense; no way you could resist my charms, and I coulda shown you around, brought you to places in Penguin to laugh at silly people like Sourman insisting he's a hero or a habitually bad luck burgler… yup, I've decided; that's what happened, and I'mma make sure of it!"
"Please be serious." You caution the being on your shoulder, and she promptly leans over your head to waggle a finger in front of your face.
"Aw, but I am Broly - 'serious' is way less serious here, get with it!"
With those oddly phrased words she closes her eyes, and through the little tuckus plopped atop you the familiar rattles of Telepathic communication radiate into your shoulder.
While the Kai clearly placing a call attends to… whatever, you see Bulma emerging from Dr. Norimaki's house with a dazed, dopey smile and an armful of schematics.
"Ohmygod this guy," Bulma gushes as she toddles over, carefully folded around her precious cargo, "You would not believe what he can make!"
"Yeah, it's pretty crazy," The Kai on your shoulder says with a far less enthused voice than she used with you, apparently done with her mental communique, "Too bad like, none of his good stuff works outside of here."
Bulma looks like someone started raining brimstone and ash upon her parade.
"...What?"
"He's built stuff that operates on and exploits the Penguin Village-localized rules of reality," The pink figure astride you says with a hint of smug bleeding into her tone, "So I mean, you might learn something studying it, but gooooood luck trying to replicate that stuff in a place where everything isn't governed by a comic-obsessed opinionated robot."
"What?"
"Nevermind - all that matters is that I bet you can't do anything with the Doc's tech!"
Your passenger says the magic words, as just like that the fires of determination light in Bulma's eyes.
"Like hell I can't! You just wait, once I get back and can start prototyping-"
Well, she's going to be on that tangent for a while if you leave her be; best interject now before she builds up too much steam.
"Do you feel like something happened, yet you can't remember what?"
The teal haired Capsule Corp heiress snaps her mouth shut with a speculative frown before shaking her head.
"Uh, no, why would you even ask-"
"Welp that settles it," The small godly creature by your ear sighs out as she cracks her knuckles and straightens her legs, "Guess I gotta go check on that."
Without any warning she turns towards you and wraps her arms around your head, furiously rubbing at your hair as she sighs - you can hear Bulma bristling.
"Well, thanks for the fun date~," She trills far louder than necessary, "But I gotta go, and you guys do too! If you're still here after I get back to the Nest, you'll be sooooorry~"
She pushes off your shoulder-
The Supreme Kai is simply gone - no burst of Power or Magic, no rapid flight, no nothing save her abrupt cessation of existence.
While you're impressed by her departure method, Bulma has other concerns.
"Pfft, good riddance to that little bitch," She grumbles as she petulantly refolds her armload of schematics, "Trying to act like I couldn't… or like she could just take… hmmph!"
She continues to grumble and whine even as you pluck her from the ground, shroud yourself in an Energy Shield and burst through the subtle membrane surrounding this warped land.
...You suspect she's going to be at it the entire flight back.
You distract yourself from the unending tirade not even aimed at you by wondering how you'd go about trying to contact the upper-level godly being you just met; eccentric or no they're clearly partial to you, and that's something to be exploited.
Your Lord would expect no less.
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
After a day spent watching people that seemed bred to lack common sense - or any sense at all - you find Goku's own brand of simple-mindedness immensely more tolerable.
Rebuffing a smashing fist the size of a house with a turned wrist and slapping aside a whipping tail fit to cleave a mountain with your own, you decide that it's getting late. Your eyes flash as you shove the Ozaru to the ground with a domineering Invisible Eye blast, his massive figure smashed into the rock underfoot. Throaty growls that make the nearby trees quiver rumble their way out of his gargantuan snout - but in the end it turns into a sigh.
"OKAY FINE," Goku says with a wheeze, "YOU GOT ME - GUH - CAN YOU LET ME UP?"
If you're being honest, you wait a bit longer than you should to cancel your technique.
It is possible that you're resentful of the fact that Vegeta and this galactic hick both can manage to talk as Ozaru just fine, while you-
With the moon sinking down in the horizon in the last, darkest hours of night, you watch Goku slowly revert to normal… and you find yourself awash with a curious sense of loneliness.
It takes you a minute to make sense of it. Obviously you're not alone - besides the boy right before you whose training is interesting if nothing else, by no metric could you claim to be alone at Capsule Corp. Bulma's constant presence, frequent meetings with her father to discuss this or that, the bevy of workers that are shockingly competent catch-all assistants to any possible project; the place is a veritable hive of activity. Sure, Bulma's recently withdrawn as she pours over the technical plans she got from Penguin Village but that's hardly impacted the overall frenetic energy of the place. No, what you're missing, what makes you feel lonely, is the familiar form of technological hustle and bustle. You miss the constant reports making your Scouter light up, the flying bodies of those bustling towards a deadline literal minutes away. You miss the empire your Lord's created and reared you in nearly as much as the vaunted being that made it, and the feeling persists well past you saying your monthly farewells to the smaller Saiyan.
In a fit of pique, you don't just send in your newest report, you directly call it in to Lord Cooler - were Bulma here, you're sure she'd say you were fishing for conversation.
You don't know that she'd be wrong, either.
Instead of a prompt connection, what you're met with… is an automated message. It's a short and simple 'Lord Cooler is actively directing military engagements in his sector, and is unavailable for direct remote contact' - but you can't help but be energized by it. This - this has to be followup to the problems the PTO's been having, right? The crushing of those that'd dare claim and pillage planets as if the Frost Demon lords hadn't space-patented it; the very definition of something near and dear to your heart. The sheer thought of being able to cut loose, rain destruction unbridled at the behest of your lord has you itching to fly off this planet right now-
It's right then that a second automated message kicks in, and a far less bored-sounding Lord Cooler speaks.
"Broly," Your lord's voice says with a tone you'd term distracted on anyone else, "You are to continue your current mission until otherwise instructed or the year ends, whichever happens first. As of now, there's no indication your presence would meaningfully, positively change how affairs play out here, and as such you're more valuable where you are."
...Well then.
Feeling just a bit grumpy despite the perfectly logical explanations you stop trying to phone your extraterrestrial home, and look for something to distract yourself from the stellar conflict you're missing.
...Now there's an idea; Bulma mentioned there being other Stellar Conflict movies that you haven't seen yet, and based on the one you saw they're treasure troves of useful information.
Looks like it's time to go to the movies.
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
With Penguin Village to counterbalance the rest of it, you have to admit that Earth is now unquestionably the most interesting planet you've ever encountered. Masses of Magic aplenty, technology fit to rock huge swathes of reality - reality warpage and divine attention on an unprecedented level… By any possible metric, this place is both a mighty treasure anyone would want to plunder, and a danger ready and waiting to be turned against you by the competition. It's clear, now, that Earth has to be either completely uninvolved in the universe or directly your Lord's - no other outcome is acceptable. It is equally clear that there has been some level of Kai intervention that's kept it uninvolved… and you think it could be bypassed.
You're sure your Lord will agree with you on the basis that the alternative is letting the brother he holds in poor regard have access to a place with things like mechanically personified causality.
You're pretty sure that'd be a bad thing.
On a more personal level, Earth is suited to you. You have a thus far completely reasonable and accomodating contact in the divine hierarchy around and essentially on call if you have a concern or question. You have a handful of locals worth your time that are aware of your talents and simply treat you as another person, and it is enjoyable to set aside rank and decorum as thoroughly as they do. Besides the Briefs, you have no shortage of admirers - trips to the beach and articles referencing your impact on Capsule Corp tech, both thanks to Bulma, have ensured that a great many people recognize you. You… don't dislike the naked awe you see directed your way, though you could do without having to be extra vigilant against your tail unwinding and waggling.
Even past that, should both the military value and the your local associations be set aside, you'd still value this planet.
The food - by all that's sacred, the food. You've made it a personal mission to sample and learn of new dishes at least three times a week, and you feel like you haven't even made a dent in the world's culinary realm. It's staggering the amount of consumable variety they have, with every last bit of it striving to be as tasty as possible; how could you not revere such practices? It's not just appetite they can satiate like no other - here you find a world that's slain the notion of boredom, if only one avails themselves of the developed methods. Simulated realities, modern contrivances, endless variations of sports both combative and not, their answer is a resounding yes to any sort of idle musing wondering if something exists. While thus far you've kept it secret, you've begun to sneak out certain nights, just to have more time to explore the options available.
Recently, you've found a certain game played with painted tiles particularly enjoyable, and there's no shortage of formidable veterans anywhere you go to play, particularly at night.
So what if they want to gamble; it's just Earth money - the Briefs literally have mounds of it lying around their sprawling home.
You're sure they won't miss it.
For all that you've rapidly grown comfortable on this planet, you're not sure you're truly fulfilling your duty. Yes, the mission Lord Cooler sent you here with is neatly wrapping up; the Ozaru threat's essentially extinguished, Bulma's remained safe, you've learned a great deal about Capsule technology, taken hopefully valuable Magical samples and even rounded out your ever growing sample set of Earth movie media. There's a bit more to do and you know precisely how to do it. There are even figures of note you could easily touch base with, to further enrich the PTO's understanding of this world.
But does that matter beside the greater state of the cosmos?
Out there, Lord Cooler, the Armored Squadron and the rest of those you've grown up beside are embroiled in battle. Oh, you've received no reports to the effect and PTO news channels have nothing to say, but you can read between the lines. Lord Cooler, Salza Neiz and Dore - all of them wouldn't have their Scouters set to universal ignore for this long unless the situation demanded their full and undivided attention. After months on a world of admitted fun, you miss the thrill of battle, the very thing everyone else back home seems to be getting.
...You really want to go back and do your part, and you feel like your job here is done enough you could afford to do it.
Even as you consider all the angles… you find you're still uncertain.
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
With your mission arguably done and an interstellar war hanging right in front of his nose, Broly chooses to:(Pick one)
[] - Follow the proper channels; You'll beam the 'Mission Accomplished' code back to Lord Cooler's Scouter, and trust that no matter what he's doing, he'll surely notice your message and decide to recall you...
[] - Head home directly; Any threat that Lord Cooler and co couldn't swiftly and decisively resolve is one you're immensely interested in, and you'll rush back for your slice before it's all gone!
[] - Investigate Godly matters; You've got an easy in with the one called Kami, and you still have questions about godly things. To ensure you're doing something worthwhile while your fellows are engaged in war, you'll______.
- - - [] - Ask about the Supreme Kai of Time.
- - - [] - Ask for answers about Penguin Village.
- - - [] - Ask about the beans you took.
- - - [] - Ask how about the Namekian Kami's story.
- - - [] - Write in one major question!
[] - Enlist Bulma's aid; While you wouldn't phrase it as such in front of her, the fact remains that Bulma's a better engineer than you. With her help you could almost certainly reestablish a connection with Cooler. While he may dislike the unexpected contact, the chance he's not had a chance toread the jaw dropping reports you've recently sent makes the attempt worth it.
[] - Become Goku's teacher; At this point Goku seems to fully understand that you know more than him about absolutely everything, and that he absolutely can't beat you. Despite this he's absolutely driven to do just that, and indulging him, given his interesting ability to make unexpected insights,could yield amazing results. Besides, you're sure your Lord would appreciate having another Saiyan underling when you get back, right?
[X] - Prepare a new level of Namekian subversion; Earth is far and away the undisputed king of recreation, and you can export that. You'll learn the ins and outs of everything fun you can, not just so you can Materialize them but so they can be easily replicated by others. More than them, the galaxy won't know what hit them.
[] - Write in! (needs QM approval to be a valid vote)
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
Okay, time to defuse this situation in general and Bulma in specific the only way you know how.
"A fine if lackluster proposal, Bulma," You say, your words practically force-whipping the human's head about as she stares at you with wide eyes, "But ultimately, that seems a thing to ply on its own rather than in the midst of another event."
"Wait," Bulma incredulously replies with a voice that sounds overwhelmed, "Are you saying you'd acce-"
"Currently," You continue with a blunt and unyielding tone, "It would be in our best interest for me to do what our visitor is here to allow me to do."
"...That was suspiciously vague, Broly," Bulma says while snapping right back to her normal attentiveness, "Especially with how much this little runt seems all over you."
"Says the black pot," The still-scruffed figure huffs before shaking herself free of Bulma's grasp to nimbly land with a click-clack of her white heels, "But yeah; totally unsurprised our living example of a darkly noble by-the-book guy wants us all to stay on track."
"Okay but no, seriously; who are you?"
At Bulma's query the small figure taps her chest with a mocking look of surprise.
Then she starts twirling around in place, practically flailing her arms as she gaily poses.
"Why, I'm the most important and connected and wise and beautiful and amazing… liege lady and owner of the ancient Toki, founder and master of the Time Nest, the Supreme Kai of Time!"
As the being that the West Kai effectively claimed would be ruining Cooler's life if he kept Bulma off-world introduces herself with waggling fingers, a stuck out tongue and a wink, Bulma just snorts.
"Yeah, okay, sure; whatever you wanna call yourself little-"
"There is a Supreme Kai scheduled to stop by right now to guide me to Penguin Village," You allow, "So her appearance and claim are… coincidentally well timed if they're false."
"Oh no," The probable-Kai says as she cups her cheeks and looks to the sky with mournful mirth, "The hotty's doubting me; what a terrible start to our date~"
For a moment, Bulma does nothing but glower, eschewing her normal propensity to leap into a spitfire retort; her sudden reservation makes you nervous.
"...You're bringing me wherever the heck you're thinking of going." Bulma says at last in a too-level tone that is most certainly not a question, raw 'or else' pouring from her eyes.
Yeah; that's about what you expected.
"Aw Bulma," The likely-Kai simpers while not even remotely looking at the human in question, "You know no one likes a third wheel!"
"Yeah, you'd think a self-proclaimed god would know when she's gonna be the odd one out in someone else's relationship," She says as she walks up beside you and latches onto your arm to stare viperishly at the smaller figure, "But here we are, with you being that thick."
"Wow; if I'm thick," The willowy little one says as she pats her general lack of curves, "How fat does that make you?"
It's at this point that you have to jerk your arm back so that Bulma doesn't rush around you in an attempt to, presumably, tackle the Supreme Kai of Time.
Yeah; you don't need anyone starting a fight with the gods just yet.
"It would seem that we're all going out," You say in what is your level best attempt to mediate, "So let's all prepare."
"Hmmph," The pink-skinned and pink-haired creature says as she skips a few steps closer while shooting a daring glance at Bulma, "Well, I am 100% ready, and I bet Broly is too, mister dark-and-mysterious-but-mostly-proper that he is… which just leaves the widdly little human, right?"
Credit where it's due; Bulma doesn't waste a moment glaring at the taunting Kai as she immediately starts dashing about and gathering capsules.
"...You know," The Kai of Time says in a light tone that's seesawed into a shocking level of subdued gravity and philosophical musing, "It's a pretty rare person that not only doesn't care who's what god, but has the talents necessary to back up such an arrogant stance against matters celestial; I'm happy I got to meet her in person."
What a perfect transition to a question you quite want to ask.
"I assume you're not happy to meet just any mortal; should I take your words as meaning-"
Before you can confirm if the West Kai's warning was on point Bulma's dashed back into the room, and after blowing a tuft of bangs out of her eyes she looks at you rather expectantly.
"Well; are we going or what?"
You suppose you are. You step forward and wrap your arms around the flight-incapable Bulma. Ignoring her blush far more easily than the softness pressing against you, you hoist her into the air as you hover off the ground. Snapping into place with a crisp hum, you forge an Energy Shield around yourself to protect Bulma's frail form from the rigors of rapid transit - and as you do you feel a bump on your back. In that tiny moment where your attention was devoted to retooling your oldest technique to better fit the scenario, it would seem the equally small Kai managed to leap onto your back - all fifty-odd pounds of her.
"That way!" The Kai calls out in a bubbly burst of cheer, and you silently follow her direction.
You fly, perhaps, a shade too quickly and erratically - and if that keeps Bulma occupied with her heart leaping into her throat rather than trading further barbs with your other passenger, well, that's just a happy coincidence.
You're ready to defend that interpretation to the death.
As Capsule Corp shrinks into the distance behind you, you can't help but smile; you think Bulma'd help you take on the heavens themselves without a second thought, and you can't help but be impressed by that level of adamant courage.
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
You follow the Kai's provided flight path, your concerns about how you don't seem to be headed directly towards the massive magical signature kept to yourself.
"Okay, so see that island there," She says while a pink finger reaches into your field of view to gesture at a ring-like mass within a nearby archipelago, "Go through that, and when you come out go through the cloud ring you'll see."
"That makes no sense," Bulma says, not for the first time, "The sky is not going to change just because we take a dip!"
"Ah-huh; anyway Broly, get to it, go go!"
With a grumbling Bulma insisting this is all stupid still clutched in your grasp you dive, the sea seeming to rush up to meet you.
Water sizzles as it meets your energy shield, and you force your bubble of hermetically sealed, Power-refreshed air into the water. You descend into the hollowed out island's core… and there is no bottom in sight. Instead, the island's watery hole just keeps going down, twisting and turning as the kelp growing out of its sides grows increasingly lurid the deeper you go. You're surrounded by neon plaid that seems to flash like a strobe light when the water starts brightening, and you keep going-
You breach the water's surface, and find that, somehow, you got turned around and just returned to the surface.
...A surface where the clouds are entirely different and you can't see a single familiar landmark.
"...Okay," Bulma allows with an incredulous tone, "What-"
"The cloud ring!" The Kai insists.
At her increasingly insistent gestures you head for the floating ring of white fluff, and as you pass through it the world, again, shifts.
"And there we go," The Supreme Kai says with a clap of her hands, "We're now on the right plane of existence! We just gotta go to Penguin Village's antipode, and we can fly straight towards the Magic to get there!"
"And this time the place won't fade?"
"Yup yup - now we're on the same wavelength, so we can actually perceive it!"
Every new bit of trivia you learn about your destination makes you feel more on guard against its strangeness; you gird yourself for whatever may come.
You've barely made it around the world to start the final leg of your journey when a tiny fist lightly pounds on your back for attention.
"Sooooo," The Kai drags out, her voice suspiciously similar to Bulma's in tone, "This is a nice little sky-trip aboard Air Broly."
"...It is," Bulma grumbles as she peers up and tries to look around you towards the one on your back and fails, "And you better be grateful you had an excuse to take part!"
"Oh sure sure; I'm so thankful I was asked to be here and am the reason anyone's allowed to go, since that let me tag along - totally unlike the human that insisted on coming-"
"While Broly's on Earth he's my responsibility," Bulma huffs with arguably the most flagrant reinterpretation of your mission here that you've yet heard, "So I get automatic dibs to go anywhere and do anything with him!"
"Oh okay, the guy who could pop your planet like a pimple and has been defanging some of the potential threats that could muck things up for you - that guy's under your aegis, not the other way around, huh? Planetary corporation lording over an intergalactic organization? Yeah, makes total sense."
"If you think that was a quality bit of passive-aggressive pushback, you need to go back to grammar school," Bulma haughtily sniffs, "I've heard worse offhand from my sister!"
"...That's really sad," The Kai says in a sudden switch to sincerity, and Bulma's left momentarily spluttering.
Naturally she quickly rallies… but that just means the back and forth between the two continues to pass right through you, like their words were destined to drill through your skull.
You privately wish for a sudden planetary invasion or something that you could use as an excuse to put them down and go violently vent on something.
Sadly, you are not so lucky, and the trip continues awash in bickering.
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
The moment you pass through the barrier your Kai passenger highlighted with surprisingly subtle magic, you see a world that at first seems little different than before.
Then you notice the madness.
The first thing that catches your eye isn't any structure, inhabitant, Scouter reading or geological feature. No, it's the fact the sun is idly yawning with white-gloved hands on the ends of burning noodle arms, and the village below contains people that seem thoroughly unsurprised by this. With such a blatant example of how this is a closed reality and no more a part of Earth than the farthest corner of space, you'd hope that'd be your only jarring moment. Sadly the hits keep coming and your Power-boosted senses seem to scrounge up every possible problem in sight. You were trained from birth to have an attentive eye, watchful and vigilant against any of Cooler's holdings becoming imperfect - and that well-honed trait seems utterly damning now.
In just this one sweeping glance, you not only see the fundamental forces of existence itself being flagrantly violated, but you see more sapient-looking species than you would from having visited a dozen hub worlds.
You see a race of torso-faced, skull-evacuating antenna-nosed aliens that are not only extinct, but can't breathe the oxygen/nitrogen mix of a world like earth, puttering around in a ground vehicle stylized like one of their planet-busting battleships. You see quasi-mechanical beetle men with glittering, gem-like eyes crawling up palm trees not an arm's reach away from townspeople going about their days, and neither party seems bothered by this. At least one in five animals you see are engaged in coherent conversation, often with the residents. An arguing couple gets particularly heated, and you see one of the two shout so loud her words become manifest and she starts beating her spouse with a giant exclamation point. As the husband retorts by using a power drill on her skull, which she seems to take as one might a forehead flick, the bickering continues unabated. You choose to focus on the promising combat implications of their hardiness and your mission objectives… rather than the frankly perturbing social implications of such otherwise lethal violence.
All of this you see in just the first glance about a town with such structures as giant safes, teapots, suspiciously familiar spaceships and more.
Not a bit of it can keep your attention for long though, in the face of the oppressive Magical reading that's causing the Scouter on your ear to get worryingly hot.
The fact that the Scouter's starting to overload, slowly or no is what concerns you more than any violation of the known norms of reality. The unknown is one thing - realizing you're flying beside a galactic disaster's worth of Magic, an entirely known level of extreme threat is another matter entirely. The fact you're actively carrying a being of hilariously inferior defensive capacity doesn't help; you can hardly do midair maneuvers on a relativistic scale while carrying a squishy human, after all.
A tap on your back by a tiny white boot's heel pulls you out of your furious internal quandaries about how to handle a surreal world enshrouding an all-too-real threat.
"Remember what I said, you big slab of uplifted-noble-savage-themed manmeat," She singsongs while waving her arms about as if she thinks she's a bird, "So long as you let things carry on as they are, it's nothing more than interesting scenery."
"The signature I'm reading-" You incredulously start, tense with concern about how easily that could paste the one under your care.
"So hey Bulma," The tiny being on your back that radiates an otherworldly air chirps, "You've heard of Dr. Norimaki, aka-"
"The legendary genius," She says with wide eyes, "Wait, he - he lives here!? Not has mail delivered here, or a terminal for intermittent remote correspondence - he's here for real!?"
"Yup!"
"The man that's invented more things than me, my dad and the next two best scientists on Earth combined!?"
"Heh-heh, he's done more than that!"
It's when Bulma doesn't immediately snap back in defense of her own prowess that you realize the depths of her current shock.
"The visionary that perfected fully sentient AI, redefined low-tech build methods for cutting edge machinery and blew past Dr. Omari in his specialty in the course of a weekend!?"
"...Okay but seriously," The Kai on your back asks with a pouty frown, "How do you know that much about him, he's been stuck inside a closed sub-dimension for-"
"Like dimensional barriers are going to stop a member of the Earth Superscience Club from touching base," Bulma snorts in nearly the same breath as resuming her gushing, "So you're really talking about-"
Little heels kick on your back, and not for the first time you're somewhat tempted to pitch off your squirming passenger.
"Are you gonna keep asking me questions until I say no? Because that's not happening~"
Bulma scrabbles in your grasp, slender arms flailing for purchase in the muscle-forged crooks of your embracing arms as she strives to look the petite Kai in the eye.
"...Which house is Dr. Norimaki in?"
"Well," The pinkette drawls as she looks to the heavens, smirks around a stuck out tongue and pokes her cheeks like she's trying to pose for a picture, "First off I'll tell you that honestly, if you call him that most people won't know what you mean, and the ones that do might need to be reminded a bit. Around here, he's just 'that wacky guy, Dr. Slump'!"
"Local moniker for a low-key life," Bulma says with a fervent nod, the fires of scientific passion burning in her eyes like furious embers, "Got it."
"...Right, let's call it that - so anyway, it's that house-"
"Broly," Bulma hisses like she did when a coal company tried to renege on a contract and she financially tore out their throat, "Put me down over there right now."
You could object to her abruptly commanding tone being a step too far - highlight how she has no right to command you, or means to enforce compliance.
...Well okay; Bulma can do things to enforce your compliance - you'd be lying if you said she didn't do things you quite enjoy.
You silently do what Bulma said, and she runs off to hammer on the door without a backward glance as you float back up into the sky.
As you shift to an upright position the Kai still rather cavalierly riding your back clambers forward to perch on your shoulder to stay upright.
A deceptively childish looking mauve face leans down to whisper in your ear, the smile on the Supreme Kai's face full of insidious innocence.
"So now that little miss 'I can't leave anything alone' is gone and gonna blow time trying to make sense of tech that's now way too tied up with local rules of reality and won't work at all in the universe without," She drawls with a flick of her finger towards a distant structure, "I'll just lay it out for you; see that house?"
Arguably the most conventional looking structure sits before her pointing digit, sorely standing out for its normalness - relative to urban Earth standards at least - amidst the surrounding insanity.
"Ye-"
"Just so long as you do not go there or do anything to make them come out," She says in what abruptly becomes an ancient, poisonous snarl full of promise for a few words before segueing back to her normal light tone, "Then everything's hunky dory!"
You refuse to be intimidated.
"And if I do go near, or attract attention from within?"
The little being on your shoulder smiles as if sin was a foreign concept.
"Then if the artificial personification of causality doesn't write you out of existence, I'll make it so you never came here at all," She lightly claims with a tone utterly at odds with her domineering words, "Since, sadly, I just can't value your redeemable bad boy points over the stability of reality itself. I hope you can understand that, and see that I'm not trying to be mean to you, fancypants; I'm just being pragmatic aaaaaaand also kind of obligated by job to do it, too. So there's that, and no amount of wounded soulness or soft chink in grim armor is gonna make me relent!"
Shockingly, despite having gotten so ominous in implication that a shiver silently went up your spine, the pastel-colored figure astride your rotator cuff looks a bit bashful before the end's inanity… though you can't tell if you're looking at earnest feelings or a masterful act.
A quasi-immortal godly being strikes you as very much the type to be a masterful actor, among a great many other things.
Suspicions about the veracity of her behavior or no, if you were in her shoes and her words are true-
"I can't say I'd choose differently," You allow in an attempt to preserve whatever good relations you somehow lucked into having with this particular celestial officer, "If it were a question of the greater PTO's health, or Bulma's own life."
Even as you know the statement you're making to be true, it hurts just a bit to admit it; the mere thought of never again having a chance to finally surpass her in mechanics, or to go on another-
"Riiiight~" The Kai exclaims while leaning on your head and giving your brow a pat, "Gotta give properly managed evil empires credit; they train their VIP beefcakes in the best of pragmatism!"
You choose to take that as a compliment.
"So… other than keeping clear of this particular structure-"
"Yeah; you saw how pretty much everything's a bit less serious here, joke-loving sun and all?"
"Yyyyyes," You say with a leery glance up to the now cigar-smoking celestial object above, "About th-"
"Well the long and short of it is, for those willing to never ever leave here again," She stresses with another switch to her discordantly grave, high voice, "Then… you become immortal, basically."
That, you can't let pass without comment.
"Excuse me - when you say-"
"It's not the kind any smart ruler'd want," She says, clearly all too aware why you'd be interested, "Sure, you can't die but… never leaving here? Being surrounded by things that don't follow logic? Forget about whether normies could take it, even the best of remote empire rulers would go nuts for sure, it's just a matter of time!"
That… does sound like a rather definitive reason to not go for it… but all the same you should probably make note of this in your next report.
"What about how they're using something that looks like, but does not Magically register as Materialization with… their words?"
"Ah yeah, that; that's all the personification of causality's doing, since his, ah… storyboard for reality is a cartoon, and so it's got speech bubbles aplenty. Just be thankful they're well past the point where his main characters would need to cut out pages of the manga - guh, that felt weird."
"Wha-"
"Don't worry about it - no really, seriously don't; Tori-bot's really easy to not rile up; Senbei did a good job on it."
"This… some sort of mechanical avatar for a higher power was crafted by-"
"By the unparalleled Earth scientist that figured out how to breach Penguin Village's barrier in the first place, yeah; that guy," The Kai affirms with a nod that manages to look sagely despite her prepubescent form and restless energy, "And in all fairness, it's probably a good thing in the long run he did that, since it has let us talk to something pretty darn potent when things got super duper bad. ...That said, the way it seems to have spawned a couple natural personifications of causality that come and 'help' Tori-bot write reality isn't… the best. They've thrown retcons everywhere, and even their sorta maker wasn't immune. Such a pain, dealing with a guy that was simultaneously born in two places and breached a barrier both ways because he built a kinda forgetful robot. But you know how it is; when dealing with absolutely crazy stuff, you're pretty much bound to get problems amidst your gains."
"Indeed," You admit as you think to your many personal examples of the same principle and surprisingly find a way to relate to this strange godly being, "And I think you've made your point clear; honestly, your simple promise of obligatory opposition made things quite clear enough."
Your words are rewarded with a rare instance of the per-title Supreme being seated on your shoulder looking aside with a conflicted expression.
She sallies quickly as tiny fingers roam over your neck, and wide eyes get wider in faux surprise.
"Holy me are you made of Katchin," She says as her fingers utterly fail to make a single bit of the muscle beneath your skin yield to their prodding, "You are just so deliciously contoured I could-"
"I'm going to patrol the town proper," You say as you channel your recently Bulma-honed ability to disregard flagrantly unprofessional behavior that you're forced to tolerate, "So if there's anything more you need to tell me, now would be the time."
"Well, besides that you shouldn't try to fight Arale unless you really want to see why cartoon physics are so unfair," She muses with a smirk as she looks at you sidelong, "I think that's it!"
You nod at the capricious god's admittedly vital provision of intel, and as you do so she runs her fingers through your hair, humming to herself in a tone that almost seems like a purr.
She seems distracted; you'll ask what a 'cartoon' is some other time.
You click a few buttons on the side of your Scouter, switching it to full spectrum recording and maximum sensitivity as you begin your town-consuming circuit, carefully not so much as glancing at a certain house.
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
Hours spent braving a mind bendingly wrong environ where all logical moorings are nowhere in sight finally end, and you throttle down your Scouter with a sense of relief.
The now familiar drum of heels against your chest is a physical preamble to your divine passenger making an observation with a playful tone.
"So~, Bulma's gonna be done with that scientist that delved too far into the farcical fibres of reality in five more minutes-"
Any day before today you'd demand an answer for that - after hours in Penguin Village you just shrug, the light figure on your shoulder giggling at the impromptu jostling.
"Hey, settle down! So anyway… If you ever absolutely gotta come back here? Don't forget to do the extra special tryhard Energy Shield; otherwise you'll pick up a right big dose of this place's weirdness… and that, not even gods can purge."
"...I'll keep that in mind."
She smiles at you, her head seesawing to the side as she leans down amidst a sudden jingle from her bulbous earrings.
"You know? Even if this place is really somewhere no one - Kais, mortals or anyone else should idly touch, I have to say I'm happy I had occasion to go like this. It was, honestly, fun!"
"I suppose so," You pensively muse as you end up frowning as if of your face's own accord, "Although…"
"Hm?"
"I feel like there's something I forgot." You admit even as a quick check of your Scouter shows no gaps.
"You know… I kinda feel that way too," The Supreme Kai says as she adopts what might be an attempt at a noble thinker's pose, but just looks like a pre-tantrum bundle of balled up child waiting to explode, "And I… I remember… some sorta thing with a long head like a Frost Demon's minimal suppression form? No, that wouldn't make sense unle… oh. Well, poop; it probably was one of those, huh."
It sounds like she has some idea what happened - obviously, you won't just let that pass unheard.
"What do you suspect?"
"I think one of the causality manifestations 'wrote' something about us, and then decided it wasn't useful and 'erased' it," She says as her previously cutesy face darkens with an ageless sense of merciless wrath and righteous fury tightens her eyes and lips alike, "...And if that did happen like I think, then they got to cut up time's flow without using any sort of Time magic. That… is really annoying."
She pokes out her tongue amidst an impish smile as her ire evaporates like a summer rain on space australian soil.
"Hey, maybe we even went on an extra fun data, huh? Hehehe," She giggles as she cups her face, "That makes perfect sense; no way you could resist my charms, and I coulda shown you around, brought you to places in Penguin to laugh at silly people like Sourman insisting he's a hero or a habitually bad luck burgler… yup, I've decided; that's what happened, and I'mma make sure of it!"
"Please be serious." You caution the being on your shoulder, and she promptly leans over your head to waggle a finger in front of your face.
"Aw, but I am Broly - 'serious' is way less serious here, get with it!"
With those oddly phrased words she closes her eyes, and through the little tuckus plopped atop you the familiar rattles of Telepathic communication radiate into your shoulder.
While the Kai clearly placing a call attends to… whatever, you see Bulma emerging from Dr. Norimaki's house with a dazed, dopey smile and an armful of schematics.
"Ohmygod this guy," Bulma gushes as she toddles over, carefully folded around her precious cargo, "You would not believe what he can make!"
"Yeah, it's pretty crazy," The Kai on your shoulder says with a far less enthused voice than she used with you, apparently done with her mental communique, "Too bad like, none of his good stuff works outside of here."
Bulma looks like someone started raining brimstone and ash upon her parade.
"...What?"
"He's built stuff that operates on and exploits the Penguin Village-localized rules of reality," The pink figure astride you says with a hint of smug bleeding into her tone, "So I mean, you might learn something studying it, but gooooood luck trying to replicate that stuff in a place where everything isn't governed by a comic-obsessed opinionated robot."
"What?"
"Nevermind - all that matters is that I bet you can't do anything with the Doc's tech!"
Your passenger says the magic words, as just like that the fires of determination light in Bulma's eyes.
"Like hell I can't! You just wait, once I get back and can start prototyping-"
Well, she's going to be on that tangent for a while if you leave her be; best interject now before she builds up too much steam.
"Do you feel like something happened, yet you can't remember what?"
The teal haired Capsule Corp heiress snaps her mouth shut with a speculative frown before shaking her head.
"Uh, no, why would you even ask-"
"Welp that settles it," The small godly creature by your ear sighs out as she cracks her knuckles and straightens her legs, "Guess I gotta go check on that."
Without any warning she turns towards you and wraps her arms around your head, furiously rubbing at your hair as she sighs - you can hear Bulma bristling.
"Well, thanks for the fun date~," She trills far louder than necessary, "But I gotta go, and you guys do too! If you're still here after I get back to the Nest, you'll be sooooorry~"
She pushes off your shoulder-
The Supreme Kai is simply gone - no burst of Power or Magic, no rapid flight, no nothing save her abrupt cessation of existence.
While you're impressed by her departure method, Bulma has other concerns.
"Pfft, good riddance to that little bitch," She grumbles as she petulantly refolds her armload of schematics, "Trying to act like I couldn't… or like she could just take… hmmph!"
She continues to grumble and whine even as you pluck her from the ground, shroud yourself in an Energy Shield and burst through the subtle membrane surrounding this warped land.
...You suspect she's going to be at it the entire flight back.
You distract yourself from the unending tirade not even aimed at you by wondering how you'd go about trying to contact the upper-level godly being you just met; eccentric or no they're clearly partial to you, and that's something to be exploited.
Your Lord would expect no less.
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
After a day spent watching people that seemed bred to lack common sense - or any sense at all - you find Goku's own brand of simple-mindedness immensely more tolerable.
Rebuffing a smashing fist the size of a house with a turned wrist and slapping aside a whipping tail fit to cleave a mountain with your own, you decide that it's getting late. Your eyes flash as you shove the Ozaru to the ground with a domineering Invisible Eye blast, his massive figure smashed into the rock underfoot. Throaty growls that make the nearby trees quiver rumble their way out of his gargantuan snout - but in the end it turns into a sigh.
"OKAY FINE," Goku says with a wheeze, "YOU GOT ME - GUH - CAN YOU LET ME UP?"
If you're being honest, you wait a bit longer than you should to cancel your technique.
It is possible that you're resentful of the fact that Vegeta and this galactic hick both can manage to talk as Ozaru just fine, while you-
With the moon sinking down in the horizon in the last, darkest hours of night, you watch Goku slowly revert to normal… and you find yourself awash with a curious sense of loneliness.
It takes you a minute to make sense of it. Obviously you're not alone - besides the boy right before you whose training is interesting if nothing else, by no metric could you claim to be alone at Capsule Corp. Bulma's constant presence, frequent meetings with her father to discuss this or that, the bevy of workers that are shockingly competent catch-all assistants to any possible project; the place is a veritable hive of activity. Sure, Bulma's recently withdrawn as she pours over the technical plans she got from Penguin Village but that's hardly impacted the overall frenetic energy of the place. No, what you're missing, what makes you feel lonely, is the familiar form of technological hustle and bustle. You miss the constant reports making your Scouter light up, the flying bodies of those bustling towards a deadline literal minutes away. You miss the empire your Lord's created and reared you in nearly as much as the vaunted being that made it, and the feeling persists well past you saying your monthly farewells to the smaller Saiyan.
In a fit of pique, you don't just send in your newest report, you directly call it in to Lord Cooler - were Bulma here, you're sure she'd say you were fishing for conversation.
You don't know that she'd be wrong, either.
Instead of a prompt connection, what you're met with… is an automated message. It's a short and simple 'Lord Cooler is actively directing military engagements in his sector, and is unavailable for direct remote contact' - but you can't help but be energized by it. This - this has to be followup to the problems the PTO's been having, right? The crushing of those that'd dare claim and pillage planets as if the Frost Demon lords hadn't space-patented it; the very definition of something near and dear to your heart. The sheer thought of being able to cut loose, rain destruction unbridled at the behest of your lord has you itching to fly off this planet right now-
It's right then that a second automated message kicks in, and a far less bored-sounding Lord Cooler speaks.
"Broly," Your lord's voice says with a tone you'd term distracted on anyone else, "You are to continue your current mission until otherwise instructed or the year ends, whichever happens first. As of now, there's no indication your presence would meaningfully, positively change how affairs play out here, and as such you're more valuable where you are."
...Well then.
Feeling just a bit grumpy despite the perfectly logical explanations you stop trying to phone your extraterrestrial home, and look for something to distract yourself from the stellar conflict you're missing.
...Now there's an idea; Bulma mentioned there being other Stellar Conflict movies that you haven't seen yet, and based on the one you saw they're treasure troves of useful information.
Looks like it's time to go to the movies.
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
With Penguin Village to counterbalance the rest of it, you have to admit that Earth is now unquestionably the most interesting planet you've ever encountered. Masses of Magic aplenty, technology fit to rock huge swathes of reality - reality warpage and divine attention on an unprecedented level… By any possible metric, this place is both a mighty treasure anyone would want to plunder, and a danger ready and waiting to be turned against you by the competition. It's clear, now, that Earth has to be either completely uninvolved in the universe or directly your Lord's - no other outcome is acceptable. It is equally clear that there has been some level of Kai intervention that's kept it uninvolved… and you think it could be bypassed.
You're sure your Lord will agree with you on the basis that the alternative is letting the brother he holds in poor regard have access to a place with things like mechanically personified causality.
You're pretty sure that'd be a bad thing.
On a more personal level, Earth is suited to you. You have a thus far completely reasonable and accomodating contact in the divine hierarchy around and essentially on call if you have a concern or question. You have a handful of locals worth your time that are aware of your talents and simply treat you as another person, and it is enjoyable to set aside rank and decorum as thoroughly as they do. Besides the Briefs, you have no shortage of admirers - trips to the beach and articles referencing your impact on Capsule Corp tech, both thanks to Bulma, have ensured that a great many people recognize you. You… don't dislike the naked awe you see directed your way, though you could do without having to be extra vigilant against your tail unwinding and waggling.
Even past that, should both the military value and the your local associations be set aside, you'd still value this planet.
The food - by all that's sacred, the food. You've made it a personal mission to sample and learn of new dishes at least three times a week, and you feel like you haven't even made a dent in the world's culinary realm. It's staggering the amount of consumable variety they have, with every last bit of it striving to be as tasty as possible; how could you not revere such practices? It's not just appetite they can satiate like no other - here you find a world that's slain the notion of boredom, if only one avails themselves of the developed methods. Simulated realities, modern contrivances, endless variations of sports both combative and not, their answer is a resounding yes to any sort of idle musing wondering if something exists. While thus far you've kept it secret, you've begun to sneak out certain nights, just to have more time to explore the options available.
Recently, you've found a certain game played with painted tiles particularly enjoyable, and there's no shortage of formidable veterans anywhere you go to play, particularly at night.
So what if they want to gamble; it's just Earth money - the Briefs literally have mounds of it lying around their sprawling home.
You're sure they won't miss it.
For all that you've rapidly grown comfortable on this planet, you're not sure you're truly fulfilling your duty. Yes, the mission Lord Cooler sent you here with is neatly wrapping up; the Ozaru threat's essentially extinguished, Bulma's remained safe, you've learned a great deal about Capsule technology, taken hopefully valuable Magical samples and even rounded out your ever growing sample set of Earth movie media. There's a bit more to do and you know precisely how to do it. There are even figures of note you could easily touch base with, to further enrich the PTO's understanding of this world.
But does that matter beside the greater state of the cosmos?
Out there, Lord Cooler, the Armored Squadron and the rest of those you've grown up beside are embroiled in battle. Oh, you've received no reports to the effect and PTO news channels have nothing to say, but you can read between the lines. Lord Cooler, Salza Neiz and Dore - all of them wouldn't have their Scouters set to universal ignore for this long unless the situation demanded their full and undivided attention. After months on a world of admitted fun, you miss the thrill of battle, the very thing everyone else back home seems to be getting.
...You really want to go back and do your part, and you feel like your job here is done enough you could afford to do it.
Even as you consider all the angles… you find you're still uncertain.
(1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7)
With your mission arguably done and an interstellar war hanging right in front of his nose, Broly chooses to:(Pick one)
[] - Head home directly; Any threat that Lord Cooler and co couldn't swiftly and decisively resolve is one you're immensely interested in, and you'll rush back for your slice before it's all gone!
[] - Investigate Godly matters; You've got an easy in with the one called Kami, and you still have questions about godly things. To ensure you're doing something worthwhile while your fellows are engaged in war, you'll______.
- - - [] - Ask about the Supreme Kai of Time.
- - - [] - Ask for answers about Penguin Village.
- - - [] - Ask about the beans you took.
- - - [] - Ask how about the Namekian Kami's story.
- - - [] - Write in one major question!
[] - Enlist Bulma's aid; While you wouldn't phrase it as such in front of her, the fact remains that Bulma's a better engineer than you. With her help you could almost certainly reestablish a connection with Cooler. While he may dislike the unexpected contact, the chance he's not had a chance to
[] - Become Goku's teacher; At this point Goku seems to fully understand that you know more than him about absolutely everything, and that he absolutely can't beat you. Despite this he's absolutely driven to do just that, and indulging him, given his interesting ability to make unexpected insights,
[X] - Prepare a new level of Namekian subversion; Earth is far and away the undisputed king of recreation, and you can export that. You'll learn the ins and outs of everything fun you can, not just so you can Materialize them but so they can be easily replicated by others. More than them, the galaxy won't know what hit them.
Last edited:
Okay, the orders are very clear; stay on site until time is up. I really can't see Broly ignoring that no matter how much he wants to go fight. So he should advance PTO's agenda so long as he's stuck on down time. Lord Cooler will surely appreciate the initiative in one of his chief minions.
The only question is what would be the most profitable option?
The only question is what would be the most profitable option?
Lealope
Not yet invincible
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] - Prepare a new level of Namekian subversion; Earth is far and away the undisputed king of recreation, and you can export that. You'll learn the ins and outs of everything fun you can, not just so you can Materialize them but so they can be easily replicated by others. More than them, the galaxy won't know what hit them.
Because by cherrypicking the media we spread, we can prepare a new level of propaganda.
Because by cherrypicking the media we spread, we can prepare a new level of propaganda.