[X] Sit patiently and wait.
-[X] Try to get Jaron to calm down.
Free At Last
You step forward towards Jaron, raising your hands slightly. "Hey. What's going on?"
"You know what's going on," he snarls, glaring at you. "Don't waste my time, Kakara!"
"What's going on in your head?" you clarify, trying to remain patient. "I know this has to be a real bad day for you."
To your surprise, though, he shakes his head, still scowling. "No. No, today is perfect. I remember. I remember, and I'm never forgetting again. I know what's right. I'm right."
You blink, taken aback by his vehemence. "I didn't think you'd be happy."
"Do I look happy to you?" he asks. "I'm not happy. I'm angry. But I remember. I remember, and in a few minutes my brother is going to be free. This is the best day of my life."
You take a half-step back, looking at him long and hard. "...I think I understand," you say. "I gotta say, though, Jaron, I wouldn't see it that way. If I was remembering what you are now, and all the times I forgot..."
"Again, I'm angry," he snaps. "But this is a good day. I don't need to be in a good mood for the day to be good. The day's not about me. But good things are happening. Do you get it? I figure you would, out of anybody."
"Why me?" you ask, frowning.
"You do things for other people," he says. "You help the Misfits, you help Jaffur, you help your people, you help the aliens -- I don't think you're even capable of seeing somebody who needs help and refusing to do something about it. I'm sure you do things just for you, but you spend so much time helping people. A day's good if you do something good with it. Whether or not you feel good doesn't really matter."
You blink. That's...not quite how you see it. You help people because you want to. You feel good when you help. You don't have the air of fatalistic, determined self-sacrifice about it that Jaron seems to. Honestly, if that's how he thinks about it, you worry for him.
More than you already did, anyway.
You cross your arms. "I get it, yeah, even if I don't think about it that way. But I'm trying to talk about you. Jaron, what's in your head right now?"
He presses his lips together, staring at you. "You want to know what's going through my head? I'm wondering if I can take you once the Seal drops and I can use my full power."
A chill bolts down your spine as you remember that memorable occasion when you witnessed Jaron take a swing at Jaffur, inside the Seal. "Jaron, I can't let you just run off and kill her," you whisper, trying to keep it below earshot for the Senzus.
"That's not your choice," he says. "It's ours."
"And I'd buy that, if Jaffur hadn't told me that he doesn't want you doing it," you reply.
"And that's between me and him," says Jaron, crossing his arms. "You shouldn't have anything to do with it. She's our problem. Not yours."
"She's everybody's problem," you say. "I have a say in what happens, too."
"Yeah, sure," he says, not backing down an inch. "But Jaffur and I get to do something about ours."
You stare at him for a moment, and then turn away. He's defused. That's what you wanted, even if you weren't anticipating an argument like this. Still, you don't have to stick around if this is the path this conversation will be taking. You walk away, past where Dandelor is busy prepping his spell, and sit down to wait.
* * *
As it turns out, you only have to wait five minutes. Dandelor finishes swiftly. "Alright, everybody!" he calls, standing. "It's ready to go."
"You're ready?" says Jaron, leaning forward.
"I am," he says. "You remember how this is going to work?"
"I just sit back while Jaffur burns it all down," says Jaron, nodding. "You're sure I don't need to do anything?"
"Nothing," says Dandelor. "In fact, the more nothing you do, the better. It'll make it easier on me, casting this. I don't need you thrashing."
Jaron nods, crossing his arms. His fingers dig into his arms. "I'm ready."
"Good," says Dandelor, setting himself. "Now, I'll warn you, given how you came to be, this might have some unpredictable effects. You'll be safe, but we're not exactly sure what form this will take." He sets his fingers on the ground in front of Jaron, spreading them wide. "Expect strangeness. Are you ready?"
"Yes," groans Jaron, rocking up and down on his toes. "Just go!"
Dandelor sighs and nods. "Very well." He looks up. "Everybody stand back." He looks down at the ground, staring at his fingers. Then he looks up, and locks eyes with Jaron. "Sanctuary."
The sickening feeling of magic roiling out from the sorcerer nearly makes you gag, and Jaron goes limp.
Then you hear it. Jaffur, now.
And then, in a great rush, you See-
* * *
Gone.
* * *
Jaffur stands in the center of his mind, staring at the sky. As his uncle's words finish fading into the endless plains, the Prince bows his head and takes a single, shaky breath.
Jaffur transforms, staining the white stone gold, and firms up his shoulders. He glances back up at the sky before turning to one of the rocks and stepping up to it. Setting himself, he forms a hand seal and sets his fingers against the stone. The feeling of sorcery, terrifyingly strong, washes out from his body.
He grits his teeth, and snarls, "Burn."
* * *
BACK!
* * *
You shake your head, growling as you clear the vision from your eyes. You hate the involuntary visions. You do a quick check, and then relax.
Still enough for a real vision today, if I need one.
Then, you hear a choked noise from Jaron, and look up.
Your friend, limp only a moment ago, has gone rigid. His fingers twitch at his sides; his neck cranes frantically as muscles strain underneath his skin; a grating, strangled snarl issues from between his lips.
As you watch, his skin starts bubbling, as if under intense pressure from the inside, or from heat. He gasps for air, staring at nothing. He tears in a ragged, hoarse gasp of air.
And then it goes smooth again. The bubbling ceases. He relaxes, trembling slightly, but clearly past the worst of it. He looks down at his hands. Then, he clenches them, flaring his aura.
Ordinarily, Jaron's aura is white, like most humans, and if you're honest, most saiyans. But today, it is not white. Today, it's a different color; the one you recognize from your own aura as a saiyan. An aura you recognize from a hard week, six and a half years ago.
Today, Jaron's ki burns blue.
He looks up, locking eyes with you, and you realize that the irises are black. He smirks.
Jaffur tilts his head at you and says, "Scion."
crack-BANG
With a sound like the shattering of glass, the facade of Jaron splinters into a thousand dissolving fragments before blasting outwards with a rush of wind and dust. You shield your eyes, squinting.
Within the cloud of dust, there's a quiet puff of ki, as an aura flares just once, only hard enough to disperse the cloud. But even that's not fast enough; in the same instant, you hear footsteps.
Jaffur steps forward, out of the cloud, on the far end of his growth spurt and over six feet tall. His hair tumbles down his back and over his shoulders, weighed down through sheer mass. He wears an up-sized replica of the clothing he wore that day.
You step forward to match him, and realize that even with your own growth spurt having packed literal feet onto your frame, you still have to tilt back your head to meet his eyes, at this distance. You smile, triumphant. "Jaffur."
Six and a half YEARS later, you have finally done it. The Seal is broken. Jaffur Vegeta walks free.
We are now at HAPCON 1.
Once Jaffur has re-met everybody here, you are go for the confrontation with your father. These are your last moments to take any measures not involving the plan. If you have no pressing urge to do anything:
[ ] Proceed directly to the plan as established. Confront your father with the truth of Jaffur's situation, and secure your father's cooperation in removing Dandeer. Following that, bring him to Dandeer and use your assembled might, along with the loss of your father's support, to coerce her into standing down and accepting her arrest. If your father cannot be convinced, the plan becomes a coup, with you taking advantage of the chance of getting your father alone to incapacitate and arrest him before proceeding to Dandeer and doing the same to her, skipping negotiations. If he can be convinced but Dandeer cannot, you put her down by whatever means prove necessary.
If you do have the pressing urge to do anything, form a plan of action using any combination of the below items (no use of Multiform is necessary; the plan doesn't go until you're ready, after all):
[ ] Take these last moments to do something before proceeding to the plan as established.
-[ ] Get a feel for Jaffur's present state of mind.
-[ ] "Wait, where's Jaron?"
-[ ] Start forming the Genki Dama. Don't make a planetary broadcast yet, but there are plenty of noncombatants in on the plan and within your telepathy range who could donate, and there's always passive drawing.
-[ ] Write-in.
MANUAL MORATORIUM; APPROVAL VOTING.
I have been waiting for this day for so long. I hope you all have enjoyed this. Next update, it all comes to a head.
[x] Take these last moments to do something before proceeding to the plan as established.
-[x] "Wait, where's Jaron?"
Turnabout
Around you, Senzus drop to their knees. Head Raditz takes a step forward before going down to a knee. "Scion Jaffur," he says, bowing his head. "I'm glad to see you free again."
Jaffur looks at his uncle, and the smirk flickers. "...Uncle Raditz." He steps forward. "...please, stand up." He looks around. "Everybody, stand up! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be free." He reaches out to his uncle. "Today, you don't have to bow."
Raditz looks up at his nephew, surprised. Then he nods, takes Jaffur's hand, and stands. The two embrace, and Raditz lets out a shaky sigh. "We've missed you, Jaffur." He steps back and waves. "Betarel!"
Betarel steps forward. Unlike Jaffur and you, the Senzu Heir hasn't yet hit his growth spurt. He's a little taller than he was on the day of the Sealing, but not by much. As such, as he approaches, his cousin towers over him.
It doesn't stop Jaffur, though. He steps forward and kneels down, giving Betarel a fierce hug. "I'm missed you, Betarel."
"Missed you too, Jaffur," says Betarel, smiling.
Standing back and away from this, you smile. You take a look around, tallying heads. All the Senzus are present, save the doubles, of course. Dandelor is slowly pushing himself up from his knees, looking exhausted. You step forward and help him stand.
"Thanks," he pants. "That was...quite a bit of work. Jaffur has a lot of strength to spare."
"I get it," you say, nodding. Then you blink, tallying heads one more time. "I...where's Jaron?" You look around again; sure enough, your friend's not there. The memory of his facade splintering apart springs back into your mind, and you panic. "What happened to him?"
"He's alright," says Dandelor, straightening. "But it turns out that simply breaking the Seal did nothing to give him a body of his own. He's in Jaffur's head now. We'll have to figure out how that works for sure later, but right now I suspect that they'll be able to switch back and forth in some way."
You let out a relieved sigh. "Okay. Okay, good. I was worried for a second."
"To be honest, so was I," admits Dandelor, leaning on you slightly out of exhaustion. "Jaffur is powerful. For a moment, I worried that it'd come to a clash."
You look up at him in confusion. "A clash? Wasn't that already happening?"
He shakes his head. "I wouldn't have dared. Remember what I've taught you: when it comes to direct confrontations, ki trumps. A spell supercharged trumps just a spell. It's all about finding the right leverage. In this case, my work was hiding Jaron; sealing him away from the space Jaffur was purging."
You frown. "But Jaron was the space Jaffur was purging."
"Not once I was through with him," says the sorcerer, smirking. "Not in that moment, anyway. Damn exhausting it was, too."
"Are you going to be in good shape for our confrontation with Dandeer?" you ask, eyeing him up and down. "That looks like it really took the wind out of you."
"My name is Dandelor Senzu, if you'd forgotten," he says, raising an eyebrow at you. "I'll have a quick meal and be right as rain for our confrontation with the faithless whore. And on that topic..." His fingers graze the back of your neck, and you feel a surge of magic. Breach detected.
Dandelor sags in place, fumbling a bean out of a pouch at his waist with numb fingers. Not resolved.
You stand, stiff and unmoving. You don't think you could make yourself move if your life depended on it. Breach detected. Dandeer, striding atop a carpet of bodies. Not resolved. Dandelor shrieking in an agony that is quite literally soul-deep. Breach detected. There are only two Vegetan sorcerers, and there used to be thousands. Something happened to them, and it was Dandeer. Not resolved.
"She will notice that, eventually," says Dandelor, slipping the bean into his mouth and crunching down. A moment later, he straightens, renewed. "We'll need to move quickly."
You grit your teeth as your memories come flooding back, held in their place by whatever it is that Dandelor's done. Breath hisses through your teeth. "Oh, yes," you say, stalking over to Jaffur. "That's the plan."
Jaffur glances up at you as you approach, then does a double-take at the look on your face. He immediately turns away from the Senzus and faces you. "What's going on?"
"I'll explain later, but right now, we really need to get this started," you say, reaching out to him.
He has misgivings about your sudden shift in mood, but he still takes your hand. He glances over his shoulder. "Is the House ready to go, Head Raditz?"
"Ready and eager," replies the older man. "We'll begin moving into position once the others get going-"
vip
You transmit the instant he finishes the word, bringing you and Jaffur to a point about a hundred feet away from your Grandma and Yammar, in the forest surrounding the Hall. You immediately release Jaffur's hand and stride towards the Matriarch and Patriarch, silently fuming to yourself.
Jaffur falls into step right away, lowering his voice. "Alright, Kakara, what's going on here? You look like you're going to kill somebody. You look like you're going to kill somebody."
"I can't explain it right now," you snarl, quietly enough that your elders won't hear. "Literally, I can't. I'll be able to tell you once this is all done, okay?"
Jaffur's smart; he figures it out quickly. All the little shifts that normally characterize people's passive body language drop straight off of him. "What did she do?"
"I literally can't tell you," you growl. "Just trust me, okay?!"
"Of course," he replies, instantly. He even looks a little offended.
You blink at that flash of emotion, feeling chagrined. "...thank you. I'm sorry, it's just frustrating-"
"It's fine," he says in a curt voice. "Just let it pass."
You duck your head and do just that.
It's then that you round a tree and come into view of your grandmother and his grandfather. Apra glances at the two of you, glances at Yammar, and steps off to the side. Yammar, meanwhile, freezes, staring at his grandson. His mouth opens. "...Jaffur."
At your side, Jaffur freezes. Then he stalks forward, and punches Yammar in the face.
You and Grandma both wince at the sound of the impact. Yammar just takes it.
Jaffur puts his finger right in Yammar's face. "If you hadn't done what you did, none of this would have happened."
Yammar's jaw works, his face mottling in reflexive fury and what looks interestingly like shame, for the man who's made a lifetime of justifying his decisions with measures up to and including ki blasts. He says nothing, simply meeting his grandson's eyes without flinching.
Jaffur lets out a snort of disgust and turns away, striding over to Grandma. "We'll finish this later," he says, glancing back over his shoulder. Then he turns his attention on your grandmother. "Matriarch Apra. In the name of my Clan, I thank you for your support and aid."
"And in the name of mine, I tell you that no thanks are necessary," she replies, crossing her arms. "Now, if you're finished with these little displays..."
Jaffur's cheeks pink slightly as she straightens. He nods stiffly.
"Then we should get going," you say, stepping forward. "Grandma, is everybody else ready?"
"Trickling into the Hall now," she replies. "Seer Balor tells me that his people are staying vigilant for any possible failure states. The Senzus will begin making their way in shortly. For now, it's time for the four of us to fulfill our part in things."
"Then let's go," you say, lifting your fingers to your forehead. "Jaffur..."
"I know," he says, folding his arms and stepping back. "I can wait. Get your father on our side. Just..." Something flickers in his eyes. He opens his mouth, pauses. The two of you stare at each other. Then he grimaces, and subsides. "...good luck."
You nod as Grandma and Yammar lay hands on your shoulders. "Thanks." You glance at the elders flanking you. "Suppress?"
They nod, and their power levels drop to near-zero in heartbeats.
vip
* * *
Sneaking is an interesting experience, for you. Your whole life, you've either been one of the strongest people on the planet, or known that you were due to be one. Thus, suppressing your ki down to nothing, tearing away that effortless edge, and having to resort to stealth, is a uniquely hair-raising endeavor.
That's not to say that it's difficult, mind.
The guards at the gate are attentive, but even suppressed as you are, you and the others have an unparalleled control over your bodies and ki. It's trivial to create a distraction before slipping through. The bustle inside the Hall is more difficult, but Grandma simply takes you by the hand, and melts into the press of saiyans with you in tow. Somehow, nobody looks at you twice.
Slipping into your family apartments is the hardest part, but even that is simply a matter of evading the notice of the warriors hanging around the place while Grandma and you open a hidden side entrance.
The three of you find seats in your deserted living room, and Grandma takes a deep breath before closing her eyes and contacting your father. You squeeze her hand in support. After a moment, her eyes open again. "He's coming," she says, visibly steeling herself.
"Are you alright, Grandma?" you ask.
"This is my son," she whispers, looking at the opposite wall. "This is going to break him."
"He'll survive it," says Yammar, uncharacteristically subdued. "And he wouldn't thank you for leaving him ignorant."
Grandma thins her lips, and doesn't respond.
After a few more moments of silent waiting, the door opens. "Hey, Mom, what did you need to-?"
You stand as the door clicks shut and turn to face your father. "Hey, Dad."
His eyes narrow, flicking from face to face. "...Mom, the scouts are in custody, but we're still on emergency laws. You, Kakara, and I can't all be in the same place."
"This is too important to worry about that now," says Yammar, rising to his feet. "There's something we urgently need to address today."
Your father ignores Yammar, completely. "Kakara, I'm going to need you to step out of the Hall for a few minutes."
"Berra, listen to me," says your grandmother. "This is more important than the emergency."
Dad frowns. "I'm not risking all of us being in one place. Things are tense, Mom. I know you've been sequestered most of the time, lately, but I-"
You start walking towards him. "We don't have time for this."
Grandma tries to catch your arm. "Kakara, I want to-"
You pull free without breaking step. "We do not have time. Both of you are wasting time. I have a better way." You feel your eyes burning, locked on your father's face. Six years. Six years of waiting and scheming and lying. Six years of knowing that Jaffur was trapped in his own head, screaming.
Dad takes a step back as you advance on him. "...Princess, what's going on?"
"You were wrong to Seal Jaffur," you say, nearing arm's reach.
His expression closes off. "We've had this out before. My decision was and remains final. If that's all-"
"You were wrong, and this time I'm going to prove it to you!" you shout, that same dismissal as always finally stoking the anger flaring in your chest up to a building roar. "You think I'm just whining because I lost? It's not that simple! It wasn't a cure!"
You snap your fingers up, digging into the sides of his skull, and push.
* * *
You snap your eyes open, and sure enough, there the other Scion is, transformed and raging.
"Jaffur!" you yell, stepping forward.
He doesn't react and Oh, right.
You settle down and watch the vision.
Jaffur has stopped swearing into the sky and is now simply screaming in fury, his aura raging around him. You take the time to look around, because where even are you?
Jaffur is Sealed. So...this must be...inside his mind?
* * *
"It wasn't a cure," you say, your fingers dropping away. "It was a prison."
Your father stumbles back, shaking his head. "I...that's not..."
You snarl, thrusting your hand forward. "It made a whole new person, just to cage Jaffur, and then made that person remember and forget, remember and forget, every! Kais-damned! Night!
* * *
flash
Your head snaps over as the feeling of Jaron's ki erupts onto your senses in time with a massive explosion from somewhere out in the distance. A moment later, the sound of an anguished and enraged scream echoes over to you on the heels of a rolling shockwave.
Jaffur halts in place and sighs. "Well, Jaron made it over."
"...is he like this every night?" you ask, wide-eyed at the sheer enormity of the rage and hurt you feel from Jaron's presence.
Jaffur gives you a flat look. "Imagine that every night you wake up, suddenly remembering everything that's happened to him and me. Every night it's fresh again. Every night there's more. Every night you can remember spending the last night furious because of what you've remembered, determined to hold onto something, anything, once you wake up, only to lose it all." He lifts off and starts flying in his brother's direction.
You follow. "Is he okay?"
Jaffur snorts. "Would you be?"
* * *
Your father slumps back against the wall. "...how did you...what...?"
You sneer, stepping back up into his space. "Oh, didn't you figure it out? I asked." You hiss, fists clenching as you lash out again with telepathy. "And he told me, because he's NOT SICK, AND JARON IS!"
* * *
Stepping inside, your eyes track right, to where you felt his ki signature. You open your mouth as you see him sitting on his bed, a pencil and a pad of paper next to him, and you get ready to tease him for laziness-
-knife-
-before you can even think about what you're doing, you lunge, your hand flashing up to hook the pommel of the weapon and tug it away from your friend's throat. His power level begins to spike, his eyes widen, and his aura flickers on the edge of sight.
You ignore him, focusing on twisting his arm around and bringing his hand down to the bed. As soon as it makes contact, your hand flickers up to your forehead-
vip
-and you reappear on an uncharted island in the ocean east of Aramaia. You wrench away the knife and lunge back as his power level finally spikes enough for him to flare.
Jaron doesn't say anything. He just darts towards you, reaching for the knife. You skip back and away, taking to the skies where you know he can't keep up.
You're shaking. You're hot. You're ice. You're numb, too. You point a hand at him -- fingers would take entirely too much dexterity, at the moment -- and try to scream, "What are you doing?!"
Try. In reality, it comes out more as a hoarse whisper.
He scowls up at you, his lips twisting. "...I wasn't gonna do it-"
"WHAT WERE YOU DOING, JARON?!"
He flinches as the sudden burst of noise echoes once around the island before fading away over the waves. The two of you stare at each other. You don't move -- frozen, one hand still held out. He stares back at you.
At length, he looks away. "...deciding."
...
Your fellow Scion is staring up into the sky, hands slack. You remain slumped on the ground, trembling and crying.
"...I never even guessed," he says. He's never sounded more lost.
You manage to push yourself up against a rock, finding the limited dignity of slumping against that far preferable to huddling on the floor. You try, and fail, to reign yourself in.
At length, Jaffur turns and drifts over to you, sliding down next to you. At some point it strikes you that tears are sliding down his face, too. First time you've ever seen him cry. He shudders. His face twists before smoothing back over. "...Kakara, what do we do?"
* * *
Your father slides down to the floor, staring at nothing with an expression of blank horror on his face.
You drag yourself back under control. "You know what?" you rasp. "All of that, I could be fine. All of that, I'd just tell you. We'd tear down the Seal tonight and fix this. But there's a reason I'm doing it like this. There's a reason I'm pelting you with these so that you can never tell me again that I'm wrong and you're right on this. There's a reason Jaffur is already free, and waiting for us to tell him that we've convinced you!"
Your Dad doesn't even twitch, for the longest time. Then he whispers, "What?"
You crouch down in front of him. "Because right from the start, she lied."
* * *
You see her take a deep breath, eyes fixed on a wall.
"I told him. He went crazy. He attacked me," she says. You can see the skin at her throat fluttering slightly in time with her pulse. She fires up her aura and curls her fingers into fists. Deliberately, she keeps up her power level.
Just as deliberately, you can feel the bits keeping her durable draining away.
"He broke my ribs."
She drives her fist into the left side of her chest.
* * *
Your father tears his way out of the memory with a hoarse scream, throwing himself to the side to get out of the path of your beam. "No...no, she wouldn't..."
"She did," you say, standing. "You just saw it, like I Saw it. She did it to herself, and then she pinned it on him."
"Dandeer is dangerously unstable, Berra," says Grandma, pulling you back a step. "We need to remove her from power, today."
"And let me just be clear, this is not a request," says Yammar, folding his arms. "I have evidence that she has unlawfully usurped control of the Clan and imprisoned my Grandson. She has subjected Jaron -- whatever he is to me -- to mental torture for years. I am removing her by my authority as Patriarch, today, with or without your support."
"And what room do you have to talk?" mumbles your father. "If you hadn't-"
Yammar powers up, his ki straining the wards on your apartment walls. "Don't," he snarls. "If Jaffur wants to call me to task for that, then that is his right. You have neither place nor right to criticize me. It was a Vegetan affair and I handled it, as a Lord of Clan Vegeta. As I will handle my insane daughter-in-law. The woman you put in power. The woman whose greatest offense you directly abetted. You do not have even a shred of ground to stand on here."
Your father tears his eyes away from Yammar, seeking you out. "Kakara!" he gasps. "Please tell me...she didn't really..."
You kneel down in front of him, and now you feel nothing but pity. You've never seen your father reduced to this before. You understand why, though. He's been trying to find a way to undo the Sundering ever since it happened. With the Sealing, he thought he had it, and now he learns that it was all a lie; that if anything, it was a step worse than the Sundering in every way.
Your mind flashes back. Your father, constantly staying in touch with Dandeer, more than their stations would require. Approving of your friendship with Jaron with little more than a flicker of half-suppressed pain. A horribly stilted, pained introduction to Valentine as your father remembers the man he once called his brother... Vote disallowed; course of action locked in by established personality.
With a quiet sigh of regret, you take hold of that lever and turn. "She lied to you. She lied to you, and made you help her imprison an innocent little boy. She Sealed Vegeta." You lean inwards. "And then, she tricked you into helping her get away with it."
Something breaks, in your father's eyes. He bends over, and for a moment you fear that you've pushed too far.
Then his ki burns gold and a croak of despairing fury begins to roll out across the space, and you nod to yourself, forming another strand of telepathy as you step back.
Your father lunges to his feet, his aura blasting out and vaporizing your apartments in a heartbeat. "HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
You let out a quiet sigh, transforming yourself along with Grandma and Yammar to avoid being swept away. In a flash, you dart to the doors. Open the first, close the first to keep leaks down, detransform, open the second, close the second, repeat eight more times, and-
Jaffur, it's done. My dad is on our side. Get in here.
On my way, he replies.
tsew
The guards, already flinching at your sudden presence, outright panic at Jaffur's. It's a moment of startled shouts and raised power levels before somebody pauses and looks again. "Is that...Prince Jaffur?"
Jaffur steps forward in his blue and white gi, coming to a halt just in front of the guard who spoke. "I am free. My Seal is broken. I am here to take control of our Clan back from my madwoman of a mother. Pick your side."
The man immediately drops to his knees. "My prince, I-" He stiffens, surging to his feet and whipping around to face you. He falls into a combat stance. "The Scion is here, my prince!"
You take a moment to marvel at his loyalty as Jaffur steps right around the guard. "I know she is," he says. "She called me here."
"We're all ready to go," you say as Jaffur approaches. "Dad's on-side. Your mom is alone."
His eyes spark with a vicious glee. "Good." He comes to a halt just in front of you, looking down. "Ready?"
You snort. "I've been ready. I just hope you're not too stiff to move, after being stuck that long."
He rolls his eyes. "You wish. Let's go."
The two of you head back down the passage, through all of the doors, and enter the Hall as one.
"DANDEER!"
Jaffur gets a look of faint envy on his face as he beholds your father, flaring bright and gold in the air above the crowd, holding Dandeer by the front of her robes.
Your father hurls her down to the floor. She yelps in pain as she lands, and shrieks in terror as he follows her.
He stalks after her. "You lied to me. You used me!"
"Berra, I don't understand, what's going on?!" cries Dandeer, scrambling backwards. "What are you talking about? What am I supposed to have done?"
And at this, with a fine sense of dramatic timing, Jaffur steps forward and transforms, clearing his throat. "That would be me."
Silence rings in the Hall, eventually, but just plain silence doesn't ring. A ringing silence follows a noise, and so does this. People's heads turn over towards the two of you a great wave. Gasps surge through the mass. A wave of whispers and shouts spread outwards. You transform as well, stepping up beside Jaffur, before the two of your release your auras in a display of mastery over your forms that is as effortless as it is terrifying to a crowd of people who understand how much control that takes. Finally, your father releases his own aura, the quiet hissing petering out as the last voices die.
And then, rich with the echo of the startled gasp of an entire civilization, the silence rings.
"Jaffur," whispers your father, his gaze haunted.
Just like his grandfather, Jaffur ignores your father completely, striding towards his mother. "Mother. You lied to me, too."
She stares back at her son, face white. "No-"
"You used me," he says, a bitter smile on his face. "I never was anything more than a path to a higher position for you, was I? I know. I've seen how you treat Jaron, through the Seal. Oh, didn't you realize? You didn't put me to sleep. You locked me away."
Dandeer freezes, eyes wide. "What?!"
"Your Seal made a whole new person," says Jaffur, coming to a halt at a point right between her and the crowd before starting to pace. "Jaron? He's real. My brother, a pure-blooded human, made as a lock on the cage holding me in. Gotta admit; that was pretty clever. What's the one thing I wouldn't break, to get out?"
Mid-step, he shifts, inches and feet melting off of him, and Jaron stands before the crowd. "And it's just like you, isn't it, Mom? It's just like you to make your family fight so that you can get something."
They shift back, and Jaffur flexes his fingers. "And the whole time, you were lying. I never hurt you. I never laid a finger on you. Father did, sure, but me? Never. I was your tool, and once I was no longer useful, you did whatever it took to throw me away." He comes to a halt. "Well, you didn't throw nearly hard enough." He straightens his shoulders. "My father is sleeping -- his Seal worked right -- and you and I both know that he's not fit to be Lord anyway. And you are a usurper. You are a liar. You are a traitor!"
The accusation rings in the Hall as Dandeer trembles on the floor. Yammar steps out of the crowd, hair in golden spikes, and advances on her. "And we have procedures for treason, in Clan Vegeta." The older saiyan steps right past Jaffur and lifts Dandeer from the floor. "Dandeer, co-Head of House Vegeta, Lady of Clan Vegeta, by my authority as the Patriarch of Clan Vegeta, you are arrested for high treason, against your Lord, against your Scion. You are charged with using sorcery to ensnare their minds and elevate yourself to power over our Clan. You will be tried under the eyes of your son for your crimes, and we shall see how much mercy he has to repay your utter lack of any shown for him!"
Dandeer chokes and scrabbles at Yammar's face as his hand closes around her throat and shoves her back against the wall. Her heels tap frantically on the stone behind her. He ignores her, her fingernails glancing right off of his skin.
"This is the end of your reign," he hisses, drawing his face in close to hers. "And I say that it was far too long."
Things then happen quickly. Her hand plants flat against his forehead. His eyes cross as he looks up at it. And Jaffur, eyes widening, lunges forward in a spray of gold, shouting, "NO!"
A pulse of magic rings out, and when you finish dragging your power level up to parity with Jaffur's, you see that Yammar has released Dandeer. Your eyes widen as he turns, eyes blank, and backhands Jaffur across the face. Time unfreezes as Jaffur hurtles back into the opposite wall, debris flying, and people scream.
"BUTCHER!" howls your father, powering up and charging. Beside him, your grandmother issues a wordless scream, flying for Dandeer. She makes it halfway there before a dark, familiar ki signature flares across your senses, and a golden blur tears her out of the sky. Lord Vegeta, his eyes as blank as his father's, kicks your grandmother into the ground with an earth-rattling bang.
Dandeer, sprawled on the floor where Yammar dropped her, gasps out, "Protect me!" Magic sings out one last time.
Your father, grappling with Yammar, stiffens and then disengages, his eyes blank as well.
Your grandmother lunges up out of the floor and charges Vegeta, only to be intercepted by Yammar. Vegeta and your father phase down into place in guard positions in front of Dandeer.
Then, with a roar of fury, Jaffur blasts his way clear of the wall, hovering in midair.
Exiles flee every which way as Dandeer drags herself to her feet. "Keep them off of me!" she croaks. "While I...I need to work!"
Your father and Vegeta nod in eerie unison. "Yes, Dandeer," they say in chorus.
tsew
Jaffur appears beside you, seething. "Damn it," he snarls. "Damn it, damn it, I thought we had the seers looking for failures!"
"We did," you say, eyeing the Lords. They watch you, apparently content not to interfere if you don't move. "I don't know how they could have possibly missed this!"
"Unless they're subverted too," says Jaffur in a grim tone of voice.
"How?!" you say, looking up at him. "How could she have possibly..." You trail off, realizing that it would be far from the first spectacular thing Dandeer has done. Except...How would the Seers have missed this? Also, Dandelor taught you that those kinds of workings take time, time and resources. Did she really blow all of that on subverting the Seers? When she had a people to run, and angry super saiyans as her political opponents? While helping to develop the ward the sorcerers used during your fight with Dazarel? If she's resorting to mass mind control, why not get the rest of the nobility instead?
"I don't know how she could have done it," says Jaffur. "It doesn't matter. Right now we need to stop her. She's trying to do something. We need to take her out before she can. That means getting past them."
You look between Jaffur and Dandeer's protectors, even as your grandmother and Yammar tear into each other up in the sky. "Jaffur, I'm not a fighter like you are, I can't take them one on one!"
"Well, we need to take them!" he snaps, looking down at you. "I'm open to ideas! Do you have any? We need something brilliant right now!"
You stare up at him, grasping at straws.
"Anything, Kakara!" he says.
Dandeer has subverted Yammar and Berra, and apparently had Vegeta ready to go in the event of a fight. Much is uncertain, and it doesn't seem like she can subvert people arbitrarily, but nevertheless, what was an ultimatum backed by overwhelming force has become a three-on-three fight, with a timer set to an unknown duration in the form of Dandeer, chanting in a corner.
The Unsealing has begun, and gone sideways in horrifying manner. The time to act is now.
What do you do?
[ ][FIGHT] You'll take Vegeta. Your flight abilities will let you evade his ki blasts and stay in the fight. Jaffur can take your father; both are incredible fighters, but your father specialized in splitting up multiple opponents, while Jaffur has trained his entire life to kill a super saiyan in single combat. Once your father is unconscious, Jaffur can help you take down Vegeta.
[ ][FIGHT] You'll take Berra. Your father must be in there, somewhere. If you can reach him, you can turn him against Dandeer again, and get the odds back in your favor. Jaffur can take his father; it is literally the opponent he's built himself up all his life to kill.
[ ][FIGHT] Kais on high you wish you'd fired up Spirit Saiyan in advance now. You need it, right now. Jaffur doesn't have to beat both Vegeta and Berra -- frankly, you doubt he can under these conditions. But he should hopefully be able to give you five minutes to charge.
[ ][FIGHT] Write-in.
Any other things in mind? From the following, form a plan comprising all items that apply. Just bear in mind that concentration and multitasking abilities are finite resources right now.
[ ][OTHER] Somehow, nothing really seems pressing enough to justify splitting your attention right now, thanks!
[ ][OTHER] This is a bad situation, but you need to handle something.
-[ ][OTHER] What happened with the Seers? Start contacting people and try to figure out what's going on.
-[ ][OTHER] You need to rally some of your people. You're in a numerically even fight, and need every advantage you can get. Get in contact with the Heads in on the conspiracy and direct them to provide massed fire support and counterspell work to the fight. Every little bit counts right now.
-[ ][OTHER] Find somebody who can get out a message and get Dandelor in here now! There's other sorcerer in the world who you'd bet even stands a chance against the woman who soloed fifty sorcerers at full power.
-[ ][OTHER] Write-in.
MANUAL MORATORIUM. APPROVAL VOTING.
I understand that this will be a controversial update. It always seems to end up that way, whenever we suffer a serious setback.
I still fully expect you all to remain calm and civil. We're all here to have fun; let's have fun with it.
And on that note, I hope you all enjoyed this update! I had a lot of fun writing it. We are now fully into the climax of this quest's first true narrative arc, and what happens here, one way or the other, will determine the course of events for the remainder of the quest! Tread carefully, and enjoy yourselves. I'll see you around the thread!
thread policyWhile debating the merits of respective questing philosophies is interesting, the author has asked that it be taken elsewhere. Further discussion will be treated as disruptive and potentially infracted under Rule 4. With that in mind, take care and be sure to enjoy the quest.
Edit: This post will be unstickied in a few hours.
The following contains a fairly detailed look into a profoundly unhealthy mind. Discretion is advised.
I took some time to test out some ways of handling voting after scrubbing the last vote. You get the following by way of compensation and we're re-doing the vote.
Another's Eyes
To be Jaffur Vegeta is to understand that the world exists through a red haze.
Jaffur understands that the reality of things is anger -- is rage, boiling over and barely suppressed. Fury is a fact of life. Other feelings come and go; the anger remains.
For going on seven years, he has lived and breathed hate with every moment of life. With that much time to marinate in an emotion, one starts picking up on a lot of nuances. Not every anger is the same. Jaffur has become something of a connoisseur. He has felt the searing heat of berserk fury, and to be honest, it's never far away. He has felt the leaden, heated ball in his stomach that comes with helpless rage. A million times, he has felt the thready ping of frustration that he's stuck in a prison, and can only see the things that make him feel some brighter emotion, second-hand, through Jaron's neutered senses. Of late, he's taken care to cultivate the chill of refined, focused malice, the better to remain in control once he escapes.
But rage, felt continually, can meld into happier things. Happy fury is a roaring, savage thing. The two emotions fuel each other and tear Jaffur's carefully cultivated self-control to flinders. He howls between laughter and screams of anger at the slightest provocation. It feels like riding a riptide. He can swim to either side, but he's going away from the stability of solid ground no matter his thoughts on the matter.
Then there's sad anger. There's anger to be found even in the blackest depths of depression. It's a dull fire trying to drag him out of the pit, but somehow always weighing him down more. It tears him in half, and even so he's almost grateful to it for letting him feel anything at all.
The worst of all of these is fearful anger, because Jaffur hates feeling afraid. He has been afraid all of his life, and familiarity has bred nothing but contempt. By now he is a master of dealing with it. Fear burns nicely, after all. When Jaffur begins to feel afraid, the result is a mounting blaze of insane fury that consumes everything in his surroundings. The more he burns, the more there is. There is no bottom on that rampage; only a physical limitation. Jaffur descends into a fit of shrieking madness, until he eventually blows up energetically enough to destroy the interior of his prison and force a reset.
(Nothing scares Jaffur more than himself, much as he hides it.)
At this point, he's almost stopped noticing his anger, in much the way that he long since stopped taking active note of the air he breathes. It's just there.
Most of the time.
* * *
Jaffur hated Kakara Goku at first sight. A precocious eight-year-old he may have been -- but eight, nevertheless. He'd lived his life understanding that she was to be his opponent. His opposite. And she didn't disappoint on that axis. She was a weak person in every way. Utterly opposed to the way he'd lived his life. And yet...
...happy. He could hardly believe it. The Scion so weak that even Clan Goku despised her, and she was happier than him! It was an insult. For all his strength, his skill, for all the endless praise from every instructor he'd ever had, for all he'd struggled to achieve, even this puling weakling was happier than him!
Worse still was the fact that she refused to make sense. Even with all the provocations he sent her way, she came to check on him when nobody else dared. She refused to fight him all-out even when he demanded it, insulting and belittling her with everything he had. And even so, she pushed him far enough that he could get over the edge.
(She made sense, briefly, cast in the light of a newly-ascended Super Saiyan. But he forgot, the following day.)
(He remembered it forever.)
A couple of days later, her father's blood on Jaffur's hands, he watched as she joined him on the heights. For a moment, watching her scream in fury, he felt a kinship with her. She looked like he felt, and for a moment, he thought somebody else might understand what it was to see the world through red.
She looked like a bonfire.
* * *
Jaffur felt a surge of that happy rage when he again saw Kakara Goku, standing in his mind. His equal was back -- and now, on his side. It felt like a circle closing.
Yet the more he spoke with her, the less she felt familiar to him. She was still alien. What she did the day of the Sealing was a fluke. She was the same as ever. Still weak. Neglectful of her responsibilities to her people. Disaster hearkened, and she wasted time.
Which infuriated him all the more, because how was that the weakling who stood and fought on the day of the Sealing?
It was as he struggled with the question of how to understand her that he noticed the way Kakara looked at him. Even as he and Jaron chastised her for her neglect, Jaffur finally put together what her looks meant.
She saw him. With a glance, she had laid bare everything about him. In that moment, Jaffur understood that before Kakara, he was an open book. He understood that this, then, was the strength he'd been looking for in her. An arena he'd always neglected as a coward's game was her strength, and the worst part was that he couldn't even begin to guess how many times he'd already lost there without realizing.
As she stormed out of his mind that first time, he understood what she was; a knife, bared and pointed at his chest.
* * *
Knife or not, when it's all you have other than an increasingly-depressed brother, you'll grab it all the same. Jaffur watched Kakara carefully, but he never told her to go away. She was his ticket out. His only company, other than Jaron. And Jaron could, quite frankly, get annoying. Better the Scion whose dangers Jaffur only now understood than brooding at the sky.
(He never wondered if perhaps he was starting to like the danger of being cut, if only for its variety.)
The Genki Dama, as Jaffur imagines many people would say, changed everything.
Jaffur had recontextualized Kakara as a threat. She was dangerous. And then...the light. Even through Jaron's eyes, he could see the light. Not well -- he was interpreting through a ki-blind human -- but well enough to see it. And then Kakara's voice, so silent Jaron couldn't hear it -- so loud that Jaffur could. In that moment, the preconceptions fell away, and he saw her. It was not the same as the way she saw him, but it was a glimpse. In that moment he knew he was safe, because even though he had a view through her armor, he couldn't have stabbed through that crack if he tried. For an instant, Jaffur felt no anger at all; merely a simply awe at recognizing something truly exceptional.
Indirect and shrouded as it was, in that moment it was like looking into the face of the Sun.
* * *
The ground shakes under the blows of the Matriarch and the Patriarch's fight, and the Exiles scream in terror as they try to flee. Jaffur stands, marinating in his rage.
To be Jaffur Vegeta in this moment is to be freer of the anger than he can remember in years. At the moment it's a distant thing. It's controlled. Still there, but managed. It needs to be, because the situation has turned truly desperate. More desperate for him than for anybody else. He has so much to lose today.
He feels the fear. This time, he welcomes it. The chill of it prickles across his skin, and he sucks in a breath, his eyes wide. His heart pounds.
Jaffur has not told Kakara what she means to him. He doesn't have words for it. Not love, he's fairly certain. What he feels bears little resemblance to what he knows of that emotion. It's a rough and contradictory mess, to be frank.
He wants to test her. He wants to power up and attack her, force her to pull out every scrap of might and cunning and skill she has to fend him off. He wants to show her what a real warrior looks like, just so that she knows how high she has yet to climb. He wants to shatter himself on her and demand her best in return. He wants to test her to destruction.
He wants her to overcome him. He wants her to rise from her own ashes with her fingers around his throat and the light of the world in her eyes. He wants to see that sun head-on. He wants to drive her so far into desperation that she comes out the other end stronger than ever. He wants to be the one to drive her to that breaking point.
He wants to see what she'll do. She has shown him something he still only half-comprehends, and he wants to watch her drive it down the world's throat. He knows that if she wished it, she could destroy him with nothing more than words. She could unmake him, and whatever emerged from her hands would be happy for her attention. A morbid part of him wants to see her do it to the entire universe, if only so he can see whatever insane glory comes of it.
He wants her to destroy him. He wants her to change him the way he knows she eventually will. He understands that much about her. There's a part of her always thinking, always calculating. He has seen the whirl of thoughts and plans behind her eyes, between seconds. On some level, to her, everything is a tool to be used in pursuit of her goals. What little he understands of those goals takes his breath away. He'd willingly offer himself on the altar of her ambitions, if it let him fit into that vision.
But most of all, he wants to pry into her head as she has pried into his. He despises imbalance, and so he wants to crack her open as easily as she has him. He wants to finally understand her, and know what on earth goes on inside her head, that produces such results. He wants to drive past the glimpses that have so stolen his breath and finally see the sun in all its glory. He wants to feel the anger drop away again.
In a word, he is obsessed. On some level, he recognizes it. He's past caring.
Jaffur continues sucking in the fear.
Always before, he's burned his fear. He's been so afraid, of being afraid. Today, though, he needs it. He needs the chill. He needs the sharp edge to his senses. He needs it, and more than that, he needs the fuel. Because fear does burn well. If he needs to drive himself as far as he can go, fear will make fine fuel for that.
Jaffur welcomes the fear, taking a half-step forward and to the right, placing himself just barely between Kakara and their fathers. He looks at her again, and sees the whirl of calculations, winding down to a conclusion.
Jaffur sucks in one last breath and starts weaving a spell. He will be ready for whatever she decides.
Jaffur is preparing something. Your fathers continue to maintain guard positions. Apra and Yammar are dueling overhead. The Senzus are seconds away. Dandeer is preparing a spell. What do you do?
[ ][ACTION] Figure out a gambit to neutralize the Lords without fighting them. They might be mind-controlled, but maybe they're on some really restrictive programming that you can exploit? Without knowing what that programming is?
-[ ] Write in the gambit. Up to one, please; you have limited time and concentration.
[ ][ACTION] You'll take Vegeta. Your flight abilities will let you evade his ki blasts and stay in the fight. Jaffur can take your father; both are incredible fighters, but your father specialized in splitting up multiple opponents, while Jaffur has trained his entire life to kill a super saiyan in single combat. Once your father is unconscious, Jaffur can help you take down Vegeta.
[ ][ACTION] You'll take Berra. Your father must be in there, somewhere. If you can reach him, you can turn him against Dandeer again, and get the odds back in your favor. Jaffur can take his father; it is literally the opponent he's built himself up all his life to kill.
[ ][ACTION] Kais on high you wish you'd fired up Spirit Saiyan in advance now. You need it, right now. Jaffur doesn't have to beat both Vegeta and Berra -- frankly, you doubt he can under these conditions. But he should hopefully be able to give you five minutes to charge.
[ ][ACTION] Stall for time. Dandeer's doing something, but you have backup incoming as well. She probably won't be expecting the Senzus just now.
[ ][ACTION] Write-in.
Time and concentration are limited, but there are a few other things of which you could take care right now, if you feel they warrant the risk of splitting your attention. No big plan votes; you have a very limited amount of attention and time going spare right now.
[ ][OTHER] Somehow, nothing really seems pressing enough to justify splitting your attention right now, thanks!
[ ][OTHER] This is a bad situation, but you need to handle something.
-[ ][OTHER] What happened with the Seers? Start contacting people and try to figure out what's going on.
-[ ][OTHER] You need to rally some of your people. You're in a numerically even fight, and need every advantage you can get. Get in contact with the Heads in on the conspiracy and direct them to provide massed fire support and counterspell work to the fight. Every little bit counts right now.
-[ ][OTHER] Find somebody who can get out a message and get Dandelor in here now! There's other sorcerer in the world who you'd bet even stands a chance against the woman who soloed fifty sorcerers at full power. He's already incoming, but if you can get somebody to tell him things have gone sideways, he might be able to speed up by abandoning any efforts at subtlety.
-[ ][OTHER] Write-in.
MANUAL MORATORIUM; APPROVAL VOTING.
See, write-ins are still here. Calm down. In fact, I'll be giving them additional support. I'm going to post the leading write-ins when I open the vote, to make it easier for people to keep up with what's going on.
The big issue with the essay votes on the last update is that Kakara would start auto-failing options for want of concentration. She has limited attention span. Thus, restrictions. She realistically can only handle one of any given thing, thus why the option not to take and [OTHER] option mentions splitting attention. That's because we're going to have frequent updates spanning very short time frames here. The action will be going very quickly, and I'll break for voting frequently. You are voting for what Kakara spends the next few seconds doing.
We're back in business, folks! Make sure to read the above options completely; I've edited a couple for clarity. Have fun chatting!
Also, I wouldn't advise multiforming. You're quite probably heading into combat momentarily.
[X][ACTION] Figure out a gambit to neutralize the Lords without fighting them. They might be mind-controlled, but maybe they're on some really restrictive programming that you can exploit? Without knowing what that programming is?
-[X] Write-in: Right now, fighting a mindless raging oozaru instead of a mindful raging sorceress sounds pretty good. Throw a power ball out there, in hopes of catching Dandeer off-guard and causing her to transform.
[X][OTHER] This is a bad situation, but you need to handle something.
-[X][OTHER] Find somebody who can get out a message and get Dandelor in here now! There's other sorcerer in the world who you'd bet even stands a chance against the woman who soloed fifty sorcerers at full power. He's already incoming, but if you can get somebody to tell him things have gone sideways, he might be able to speed up by abandoning any efforts at subtlety.
Workarounds
You take a quick breath, close your eyes for a moment of frenzied contemplation, and open them again. Jaffur, Grandma, Power Ball out.
Understood, says Jaffur in a distant tone of voice.
Yes, says Grandma, ducking under one of Yammar's swipes.
You raise your hand overhead and form a ki sphere. Then you throw it straight at Vegeta and your father. Deceit [Kakara vs. Berra and Vegeta]: 68 vs. 26 and 16. Success.
They both spring into action immediately, jumping in front of Dandeer and crossing their arms, tracking the sphere's flight path. You grin. "Burst open and mix!"
Their eyes have just enough time to widen in shock before the Power Ball bursts open and floods them with mutative light. They both howl in bestial tones and begin expanding.
Yourself, you turn your head to avoid it, and so does Jaffur. Grandma, overhead, doesn't have the space to take note of it.
Even as you feel triumph at having disabled them both, however, you frown. Dandeer closed her eyes in time. No, that's not right; Dandeer's eyes started closing before you threw the Power Ball.
Something is very wrong.
Jaffur half-starts forward to dash at his mother, only to flinch back with a muttered curse as your father starts carpet bombing the air between you and him with area-denial blasts. In the chaos, your Power Ball shatters, though the damage is already done. Your fellow Scion's eyes flicker at the bursts, calculating. He continues to mutter under his breath, the feeling of sorcery spilling off of him.
"I hope that spell's going to be worth the time," you say.
"Easily," he replies, absently.
You start trying to chart a path that doesn't involve you taking a full-power blast to the face, and feel outside of the Hall for Dandelor with a ping of ki. He's suppressing, but up against your skills, it's not enough, particularly when he's also trying to move fast.
Things have blown up. Dandeer subverted Yammar somehow ahead of time. Dad, Vegeta, and Yammar are fighting me, Grandma, and Jaffur, and Dandeer is unoccupied. Need you here now. Go loud.
Whatever his reaction to that is, you can't feel it through the wards, but a moment later, the Senzus' ki signatures pop onto your senses, rapidly accelerating for the Hall.
You turn towards Jaffur slightly, not taking your eyes off of the blasts. "I know that I can't see any openings, but I honestly thought you would have by now."
"Sorry," he says. "Distracted. Worth it."
"What's worth it?" you say, frowning.
"Cheating," he says, reaching out and laying a hand on your shoulder. "Hold still. Synchronicity."
You blink, and-
Your eyes widen.
From two perspectives, you watch the blasts-
No, no, that's not right. Your perspective, but also...
My fingers on my left hand are twitching.
You can't actually feel them, no, and they're out of your line of sight, but you know that they are.
They've stopped.
You know that Jaffur is shifting his weight forward, just a bit. A tiny correction in his stance. You can tell that Jaffur just inhaled, and that he's nowhere near short of breath. You can tell that he can tell these things about you, and that he can tell that you can tell that he can tell, and so on and so forth, except that it doesn't feedback loop you into oblivion, instead seeming to make the details sharper.
You barely have time to register your utter bafflement at what this is before you hear him explaining.
Uncle Dandelor made me invent a spell to prove that I was ready for the breakout. I figured that if there was fighting, teamwork would be our best strength. Didn't know that we'd be fighting them, but nobody we were planning on having on our side is very good at fighting together. Seemed an obvious weakness to patch.
It's not telepathy, because ordinary telepathy isn't this fast. This blazes through you brain in a single piece, the sentences' contents simply stamped onto your consciousness without needing to take any time on parsing. You just know.
Jaffur you couldn't possibly have done this with sealing. What did you do?
It's a marvel, to see it happening in reverse. Your auras haven't finished their current flickers, and you're already receiving his reply. It is sealing. I'm sealing our awarenesses together. It's temporary. Also very expensive. Sloppy. Burns power way too quick. It's only because I have so much ki that I can do it at- okay, look, we're obviously fast right now, but we're not-
-made of time, no, you're right. What do we do next?
Visions?
Only one a day.
Useless-
-it takes finesse-
-I can do this with years less education than you've had, what are you trying pull with, "it takes finesse-"
-tell the future and change it some time and you try and tell me what's more impressive, Jaffur.
You don't glare at him, but you feel him receiving your irritation nonetheless. Still, he possibly has a point. A vision wouldn't go entirely out of-
* * *
Gone- BACK, BACK, WHAT THE HELL?!
* * *
You blink, eyes wide. That hasn't happened in years, ever since-
* * *
G- NO-
* * *
JAFFUR WHAT DID YOU DO-
This isn't me, the spell couldn't possibly have done this! I don't have Sight, it couldn't-
* * *
Gone.
* * *
Sensei Carrick watches you carefully during your first vision-
* * *
BACK WHAT THE SHIT I HAVEN'T HAD THIS PROBLEM SINCE I WAS NINE-
* * *
It goes on like this. Vision after vision pummels at your mental barriers as you and Jaffur stand frozen. After a few seconds, you drag yourself back under control, reasserting your barriers. You take stock. Credit to Jaffur, he's right that this isn't him overcharging your visions or anything. You're very perfectly aware of everything he's doing right now, and nothing about his spell is affecting your Sight. However...
It takes a moment to dig into your joint internal monologue and find what's going on. Nothing either of you had consciously noted, but...
...something is blocking you, says Jaffur.
Something was blocking me, you say. You saw it-
-and I don't know anything about the Sight, so I just assumed it was normal-
-and I was distracted, so I didn't really dig into it, but when a vision came, I just went around the block without thinking about it.
It's not magic, says Jaffur.
I know it's not magic, I can see it now. It's Sight! Seers can't do this! Sensei would have warned me about-! You stop dead as a notion flickers through Jaffur's mind. ...you take that back.
With the mental equivalent of a resigned sigh, he says, He was supposed to warn us about something going wrong today.
Jaffur, shut up-
And I'm just now realizing that you've always said that the Seers deliver their predictions through him, which isn't really suspicious when you're trying to run a conspiracy and thus avoid big gatherings or implicating more people than necessary if you're caught, but taken with everything-
You hiss at him. Loudly.
But you don't disagree.
How many visions do you have in you right now? asks Jaffur in a muted tone.
You prod at the feeling of your Sight. Your stomach twists on itself. ...more than one.
He swallows. I'm not saying that it is what we're thinking...
...but she did something to him, you finish, staring at the cloud of blasts.
Both Lords are in the middle of going oozaru, and are effectively incapable of making snap reactions for the duration of this vote, after which they will be able to act as normal. Berra, recognizing this, has begun nuking the air between you and Dandeer to deny you passage. Vegeta is going merely normal oozaru, and is also going berserk.
Jaffur has cast his spell, "Synchronicity," on you and him. While the two of you remain within 15 feet of each other, you receive a +50 boost to all Team Fighting checks, resolve all combat exchanges as Team Fighting, and remain perfectly aware of each other's awareness and intentions at all times. This has had the side effect of Kakara becoming aware of (and effortlessly circumventing) a block on her Sight. This, along with other factors, has led both Kakara and Jaffur to conclude that Dandeer has done something to Sensei Carrick at some unknown point.
Your people, already busy fleeing, have not been affected by the Power Ball. They are almost done with filtering out of the Hall.
Over the course of the next few seconds, what do? Seconds, remember; plan accordingly. If you wish, make a plan from the following items instead of merely one, but remember -- seconds.
[ ] This cannot distract from what you're doing. Both Lords are effectively out the ability to make snap reactions, and Yammar is occupied. With both of you watching for an opening, and this coordinated, you'll find an opening. When you do, go straight for Dandeer and take her out of the fight. Whatever's happening, she is the linchpin.
[ ] Your Sight is clearer than it's ever been. Visions are coming incredibly easily, and you have far more than a paltry one a day. Vision, now.
-[ ] Specify what.
[ ] Is now the time for a Genki Dama?! Yes! yes it is! With this spell Jaffur will be better than ever at keeping them off of you, and you have a few seconds where they're unable to interrupt at all while the two of you get ready.
[ ] You don't know what's going on with Sensei Carrick, but you can't take any chances. Start contacting every Seer you can sense and order them to do anything they can to disrupt his visions since that's a thing Seers can apparently do.
[ ] Now that people are mostly out of the Hall and out from under the line of fire, you have an opportunity. Contact Head Raditz and have him start organizing people for a fight. He'll do more good preparing a tide of angry saiyan reinforcements than any direct action.
[ ] Write-in.
MANUAL MORATORIUM, WRITE-INS ALLOWED THROUGH THAT. APPROVAL VOTING.
All is not as it seems, ever. There is a lot going on to which no single party is privy. Nobody has the full picture, even if they all seem convinced that they do.
Hope you all enjoyed! We continue now with the Unsealing!
Lots of exciting things this update. Kakara and Jaffur have an absolutely broken skill right now, thanks to Jaffur's choice of training targets. Kakara, meanwhile, has far more facility with the Sight than she ever dreamed. To put this all in perspective: Kakara can now easily make multiple predictions -- how many, she doesn't know -- and then she and Jaffur can use their buffed TF stat to execute whatever she projects. What this means is: those who remember Berra's character sheet from before I deleted it may remember that he had an insane dueling stat, but negligible Crowd Fighting. Well, now he can't use Dueling against you.
In direct action, you and Jaffur are now terrifying. Have fun leveraging that.
I know. Kakara does not believe in killing. This is one of the only cases where a trait will flat-out cancel player votes; Kakara will never even think that somebody deserves death. The player base can make Kakara kill somebody, but they can't make her like it.
You can only make that happen by nixing the trait.
Ah, sorry. I should rephrase that. Mini-Omake: Contemplating Murder
"You look ready to kill someone. You look ready to kill someone."
You don't look at Jaffur.
...
For years, now, a part of you has felt sorry for Dandeer. Oh, you hate her - the thought of what she did to Jaffur still makes you feel like you're in Oozaru. But she's lost almost everything. It's hard not to sympathize.
But that part of you is quiet, now that you know what she did to all her colleagues. Now that you remember. It changes your perspective enormously, to think of her as someone so alien that she could even plan that, let alone go through with it.
You realize she's not so different from Dazarel. The only reason you sort of like the dragon is because he's personable. Dandeer isn't.
...(But, you rationalize treacherously,) Dandeer wasn't hunting strangers for food. She was murdering colleagues - her own family! - for no reason you can understand. Just so - what? Some people who loved her would die, because she wanted them to be her enemies? How does that make sense!?
You're distracted enough that when the vision comes, you don't block it in time.
***
Gone
***
You're standing over Dandeer's corpse. It's not pretty. Vegetan methods of execution never are, even dialed far back from what they were before Talt.
You're having a very hard time feeling bad about it.
***
Back
***
You shake your head. It was only a flash, and part of you is horrified. Another part of you - the part that's still tired, despite the rush of finally finishing this - wants to agree.
You keep walking.
A/N: I suggest this bonus be applied to any mental health check to come up regarding Dandeer's death, including how much of a relief it is if she survives. I think it's canon-compliant. By the way, why are Cookies still a thing? (Not that I'm complaining. At all.)
[X] Plan Attack Under Jamming
-[X] Write-in: Ask the incoming Senzu fighters to blanket Dandeer with sheer telepathic noise. If she's getting tactical advice from a subverted Seer, jamming her communications could take away that advantage. THEN...
-[X] Write-in: This cannot distract from what you're doing. Both Lords are effectively out the ability to make snap reactions, and Yammar is occupied. With both of you this coordinated, you don't need an opening. Use Instant Transmission together to get a clear shot at Dandeer and take her out of the fight. Whatever's happening, she is the linchpin.
Nothing's All Upside
You hiss in fury. You need to jam her from any communications -- the Senzus-
-best way to use them, apart from Uncle Dandelor, says Jaffur.
You nod, and broadcast. All Senzus, as soon as you enter the Hall, start screaming at Dandeer with telepathy! She's getting help from someone; drown them out!
You don't hear their acknowledgments -- they are, after all, still outside the Hall. But a moment later, they zip through the entrance, shoving aside the last people to make it out of the Hall, and you hear Dandeer yelp in distraction and pain. You react quickly, but Jaffur is faster. His hand hits your arm before your fingers hit your forehead, and-
vip
-he is, predictably, significantly quicker off the mark when you reappear next to his mother. He lashes out to take her down-
crack
-only for a shield to appear at the last moment. He blasts right through it, but the unexpected obstruction fouls his aim, and he misses by a hair. You hear him cursing in his mind, wondering how the hell she reacted in time-
-your eyes widen. Damn it, we waited for the Senzus! It has to be Sensei Carrick; it's the only way she'd have warning, and she did have warning, she must have if she blocked you! Not a lot of time, but we waited until they showed up, so at least a couple of seconds.
It doesn't matter, he states, straightening from his first strike. His mother hasn't even managed yet to blink at the destruction of her shield. She can't correct in time. Now we end this, and she dies.
You wrestle with yourself for a moment about whether or not to contest that; on the one hand, you do not, cannot agree with it, and on the other, now is not the time to be distracting Jaffur with these kinds of things. You haven't yet come to a conclusion on the topic when you belatedly realize that Synchronicity is still active, and Jaffur can hear everything you're thinking.
In the middle of winding up for his strike, Jaffur flinches, and hesitates. Just for a moment of frenzied calculation that you can feel, where he weighs his hatred for Dandeer against your disapproval against the threat Dandeer presents against the fact that this is his mother and he's only now realizing how hard it is to make himself do it. Then it all crystallizes into certainty, and he shifts his weight forward to attack.
And then a blast streaks in and slams into Jaffur's back, as your father, now fully transformed, finishes turning around.
You whirl and barely block a blast headed for you. It jars you more than anything since Dazarel has, the sheer power of a golden oozaru threatening to bear you off your feet. You feel Jaffur's consciousness flickering-
-and then he hurtles back out of range of you, and you feel the thread of Synchronicity snap.
You lurch in sudden disorientation, and that second is a second your father uses. His arm snaps out, and he vaporizes Vegeta's tail. The other Lord, still berserk, roars in agony even as he begins to shrink. Then your father dashes forward and lashes out with a titanic fist, forcing you to hop back and away from Dandeer to avoid being crushed.
Jaffur! you send. Jaffur, are you alright?!
No response comes, although you can still feel Jaffur's ki signature.
Then the rest of the world gets around to reacting.
"JAFFUR!" screams Raditz, coming to a dead halt in shock at the sight before him. Behind him, Dandelor snarls and starts weaving some magic. The other Senzus, eyes wide, start fanning out, still sending Dandeer mental interference. Above you, Grandma and Yammar continue to struggle, although Yammar seems to be having trouble pinning your Grandma down.
And Dad roars at you, hovering at the absolute limit of the power level the wards can support.
You hang in midair, eyes wide, and cast around for your next move.
Jaffur is down, as is his Synchronicity spell. The Senzus have arrived, and cut off Dandeer from her increasingly-probable seer support. Vegeta is incapacitated for the purposes of this vote, but returning to base form. Dandelor has arrived and is engaging Dandeer while her concentration is ruined. Apra is in control of the tempo of her fight, although it's not even remotely over yet. Berra has finished transforming and is devoting his focus to you exclusively.
The situation has turned, and things are now more delicate than ever. What do you do over the next few seconds? Please choose only one of the following; this is over the scale of seconds, with the next break for voting coming as soon as something significant happens. As always, feel free to write in specific tactics as sub-votes, if you feel it necessary.
[ ] Fight on. You can still win this.
-[ ] Try to get around your father and take down Vegeta before he returns to base form. If you can even the numbers, you can still salvage this.
-[ ] Your father is powerful right now, but also slow. Just try to keep ahead of him, and focus on giving your Grandma fire support. Hopefully your interference will let her take him down quickly, and get her back in the fight.
-[ ] Square off with your father directly. You have the speed advantage; if you just fight defensively, you should be able to get him eventually.
-[ ] Keep going after Dandeer, in conjunction with Dandelor. She is as distracted as she is ever going to get. It'll mean getting past your father to do it, but you have the edge in speed; it should be doable.
-[ ] The Senzus can't reach Jaffur right now without turning into collateral damage. Focus on getting him to them for healing.
[ ] The tide has turned. It's time to start trying to cut your losses. Tell everybody that you've lost this one, and it's time to leave.
-[ ] Get to Jaffur and transmit him to the Hall.
-[ ] Evacuate Grandma.
-[ ] Screen the Senzus while they withdraw.
-[ ] The Hall is a potent symbol of legitimacy, and Dandeer's already going to be short of that after today. Carpet-bomb it; it's not like it'll harm the wards. As a bonus, you recall she has a workshop in her apartments; take extra care to wreck those.
-[ ] Get yourself out. ENDS THE FIGHT WITH KAKARA WITHDRAWING.
MANUAL MORATORIUM; APPROVAL VOTING.
Let's talk about this.
I notice some people in this thread taking a somewhat casual approach to the topic of killing; "It's most optimal," for one, "Really, saying you're never going to kill somebody is a naive viewpoint," for another. In general, people seem to take it for granted that the use of lethal force is a function solely of deciding that it's a ethically sound course of action. The issue is that it's not that simple. We live our entire lives in a society that preaches that killing is wrong, is one of the greatest crimes imaginable. The vast majority of people will never kill. That's a lesson propped up by the full force of our ludicrously hyperactive pack-bonding instincts. Exile culture is different from ours, but not that different, and the pack-bonding remains.
The thing that went wrong here was an oversight. Of course, Jaffur made it to Dandeer first. Of course, the situation prompted him to reconsider his prior agreement not to kill her. And with Synchronicity up, Kakara felt that, and he felt Kakara's reaction to him, immediately. Given our insight on how obsessed with Kakara Jaffur is, it should not be surprising that he hesitated -- if only for a moment. And on top of that...it is his mother. He hates her, but it is his mother. Hate and love are not mutually exclusive, and he still loves her. It is difficult enough to kill a stranger, in the full awareness of what it means.
That moment is important. Combat only takes heartbeats to resolve, once somebody makes a mistake. This vote elected to wait to attack Dandeer until the Senzus entered the Hall and started jamming. It only took a couple of seconds, but that was -- I rolled; I roll for everything -- just barely enough to give Dandeer time to receive warning before she started hearing screaming and only screaming. Thus, shield; thus, the first heartbeat lost. And all of this after a couple extra seconds for Berra to finish transforming. And, finally, the moment where Jaffur, who is only barely fourteen years old, despite everything, had to stare the prospect of murdering his mother dead in the eye.
And then, Berra finished turning around.
The delay for the Senzus to arrive, I believe you all will understand, in retrospect; that giving Dandeer just enough warning to raise a shield, I'm sure you will accept. The problem I anticipate, from how the thread discusses the subject, is people arguing that Jaffur shouldn't have hesitated before putting his hand through his mother's chest. On this one, folks: do not. The circumstances were different, but I have faced down that moment of truth myself. I hesitated. That hesitation nearly killed me, and even after I dealt with that, I didn't go through with it. Do not argue to me that it is easy to kill.
* * *
All that being said, I hope you've enjoyed the update, folks. Consider your choices carefully. I'm going to exercise a modicum of foresight and absent myself from the thread for a bit, but I'll be back probably tomorrow. See you around!
Oh, and in case somebody's wondering, the cookies went to resisting Berra's attack completely without injury, and to the Senzus' mental screaming, which is now debuffing Dandeer in addition to simply jamming communications. You are still at full capacity, and she is, particularly given Dandelor's incipient attack, not going to be up to much of anything. The cookies did not go to the obvious; they wouldn't have helped.
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Official Compliant Omake: Dandeer Unsealing Negaverse
Agreed. This is ridiculous. We spent how many action points bracing for this, and the little brat is doing this well? We should have her mind-whammied already!
Oh great, the QM's Mary Sue gets to show off how awesome and special she is all over again. What was even the point of spending all that time dumping AP into magic training if super saiyans can still speedblitz us? Fuck this shit, I'm out. So disappointed with the way this quest has turned.
Oh great, the QM's Mary Sue gets to show off how awesome and special she is all over again. What was even the point of spending all that time dumping AP into magic training if super saiyans can still speedblitz us? Fuck this shit, I'm out. So disappointed with the way this quest has turned.
Wow, ki OP much, Pillsbury? Clearly she can just hard-counter everything we're doing without consequences. We haven't gotten off a SINGLE SPELL in the entire fight! It's just been line after line of super saiyans wrecking shit! Glad to see only NPCs have agency.
Calm down, everybody, we haven't lost. We were going into a 3v3 fight. We knew it wouldn't be instant (most of us did, anyway). We've got Jaffur out of the fight already. That's their best fighter gone. Now it's just Kakara and Apra. So, Apra. We've got this.
Seriously, can you imagine how pissed the Kakara!negaverse voters have to be? They went into this expecting a complete curbstomp!
Calm down, everybody, we haven't lost. We were going into a 3v3 fight. We knew it wouldn't be instant (most of us did, anyway). We've got Jaffur out of the fight already. That's their best fighter gone. Now it's just Kakara and Apra. So, Apra. We've got this.
Seriously, can you imagine how pissed the Kakara!negaverse voters have to be? They went into this expecting a complete curbstomp!
more like theyre busy cheering that the best sorcerer in the world cant even cast something on them and even when we win our pawn nearly kill our son. SHES TWELVE.
more like theyre busy cheering that the best sorcerer in the world cant even cast something on them and even when we win our pawn nearly kill our son. SHES TWELVE.
What the ****, QM? We finally had Mama Dearest in our hands, and we couldn't bear to kill her? **** this, I'm out. I'm. Just going to go somewhere else for a while. I can't even.
Everyone, calm down. *quotes the text of Murderous, with the potential mitigating factors highlighted*
This was always a possibility; if you didn't like it, you should have voted for the upgrade. As-is, I'm actually kind of relieved - it'll be a lot easier to get answers this way, and we haven't alienated our strongest ally. Kakara Best Girl.
Because he's adorable?
(Seriously, I'm sorry how that turned out. That was literally the worst time you could have critfailed. Also, I may need to go over Jaffur's combat traits again - I haven't had much time to test him under the new system.)
A drabble I put together 'cause I was bored and antsy and trying to get back into writing. It's a thematic mirror to Another's Eyes.
Her Eyes
Kakara was not an angry person.
She understood more than most what damage it could do, what lives it could tear apart.
Oh, sure, she had the things that set her off, as most people did, but she was working past those. She'd gotten better lately. (...Other than that mountain that blew up.) She had gentled her fury through long, measured effort, until it was writ instead in a quiet determination threading through her being. Every fiber in her spoke, not in a scream, but in steady assurance,
Never again.
She had lived as best she could by principles that had been wrought in her. She had fought, in every sense of the word, for herself, for her people, and, for the past seven years, for Jaffur.
---
He had been so grating at first, turning away her small kindnesses, snapping at her every time she tried to help him. Had she been anyone else, she might have snapped back. But there was something in the way he spoke, that made him seem so...
...sad. To her, the scion of the Vegeta clan seemed more alone than she had ever been in her life.
And so she refused to fight him as he'd like, to bare her fullest strength against his. Not because she was scared of him, but because she was scared for him: of what he'd become, of who he would be at the end of it all.
---
And then it was over, and he was sealed away. She raged, for the first time, outside the throes of the saiyan transformation. Her mind burned in indignation and outrage at what had been done to her friend.
It took years to repair her relationship with her dad, and sacrifices on her part.
All the while, she was planning treason.
---
He still looked just as sad, the first time that Kakara projected into Jaffur's mind.
And he was, she realized then, the most lonely person in the world -- trapped inside his own head with only a window to the world left to him.
Her anger didn't burn, like it had that day so long ago. It smoldered, steadied her determination, and pushed her on. She would not let it control her.
---
He looked surprisingly good, the first time she saw him in the real world in years. But the thing that she noticed most was a hint of something she had not ever seen in him.
Hope.
---
When they had transitioned to blow through Dandeer's barrier, his intentions had shown clear to her. In that brief moment, with no intent to do so, she had made him hesitate, just for a moment.
And that was enough for her father to knock him out. It was her fault. But she didn't have time to think about that right now.
