Dragon Ball: After the End

[PoptartProdigy]

Spoiler: Winning Vote

[X] No, they're not true
[X]--But there's not really anything we can do about it right now without playing into Lady Vegeta's hands. She pulled Father over a barrel by playing on how I got beat up while pushing Jaffur to Ascend--she lied to him, and he believed her enough that he was willing to hold me down while she did this. I will make this right somehow, I just need to figure out how to do it without destroying us as a people.
No. of votes: 14

Answers and Questions
​

You swallow. The choice is easy, of course. Grandma would probably throw you out if you lied and said yes.

"No, the rumors aren't true," you say. "I fought with Jaffur during the Sealing."

She relaxes in a very definite way, tension easing out of her body and making her less ready to spring in any given direction.

The realization that she was prepared for combat makes you abruptly realize that on a matter of this magnitude, questioning your father is a matter of talking treason. She's taking quite the risk, opening up to you. The realization spurs you onwards, afraid that she'll do something rash.

"But there's not really anything we can do about it right now," you say. "Not without playing into Lady Vegeta's hands."

Grandma raises an eyebrow. "Oh? And how is that?"

You take a breath and forge onwards. "She pulled Dad over a barrel by playing on how I got beat up while pushing Jaffur to ascend -- she lied to him, and he believed her enough that he was willing to hold me down while she did this." You take a breath -- they're coming shorter at the moment, for whatever reason. "I will make this right somehow, I just need to figure out how to do it without destroying us as a people."

"Oh, Kakara..." Grandma's voice is soft, and so are her eyes, and that funny feeling in your chest gets more pronounced. "You don't have to be so responsible about this. It's not your job. Situations like this are exactly why Lords don't reign for life -- there should always be somebody who's done it before to check them. This isn't your job, Kakara, it's mine."

"But I'm stronger," you say, looking at the floor. "I'm sorry. I am, at least a little bit."

"You are," she says. "Much, so much stronger than me, and I've been around enough fighters to have no illusions about our relative skill. You've trained so hard, and I know you don't like it. But this isn't your job. This is what grown-ups are for."

"But I need to h-help," you say, breathing hard. "I have to. Everything's going wrong, and I know I can fix it! I have to!"

And suddenly, hug. Grandma steps forward and brings you into her chest. "Maybe so," she says, tone neutral. "But we can argue about that later. For now, tell me everything that happened. You were there. You tell me."

It all comes spilling out. From the moment you met Jaffur to the moment he was Sealed. His mother's visit, his father's brutality, and his strange savagery and kindness.

But you don't stop there. Once the flow starts, it doesn't simply cease, and you find yourself sinking deeper and deeper into Grandma's arms as you start talking about the growing distance and bitterness between you and your father.

"...and then he told me he didn't have time, so he told Peapa to and that was okay, he's busy, b-but then I saw him training Mato even though he said he didn't have t-time, and now I'm so mad and he's mad, and Mato, and- and everybody's mad at me! And I don't know what to do!" At some point, you started crying.

Grandma smooths down your hair, making little whispery noises that make you feel better somehow, and slowly the tears subside. The two of you are sitting now -- her on a chair, and you in her lap. She rocks you back and forth, keeping up those soothing motions.

"I don't know what do," you whisper, feeling hollowed out. "I don't know why Dad's mad at me, and whenever we talk I just feel so mad that I can't say anything nice! And all I can think about is how everybody always says that Dad's so patient, and how he always listens and thinks, and why didn't he do that for Jaffur?!"

She sighs. "I know why he's angry," she says, and she sounds bitterly, crushingly disappointed to be saying it. "And I know why he didn't -- couldn't -- wait. He is my son, and I know him very well. Would you like to know why?"

You nod, silently. She shifts against you. "Okay. First things first: you know, from your eavesdropping, that your father and Lord Vegeta were once friends. They were the best of friends, nearly brothers. They never went anywhere separately, even when they should have. They got into a lot of trouble that way. Yammar and I were never personally friendly -- we were professionals at all times, and that was enough. But we knew how valuable a pair of Lords who were such close friends could be. Your father's dream of uniting the Clans? It was ours, first, or did you think we loosened the population controls thoughtlessly? Letting our people have as many children as they wanted was a very deliberate move. We meant for it to be the first step in a grand reunification, to be furthered by your parents and completed by you and Jaffur. And after that...our resurgence, our return to the stars that these visionless humans here on Garenhuld are content to let lay. Our old strength, returned, our might, ours again, until eventually we might surpass even the gods, and destroy the Enemy.

"But we were foolish. We two...we knew that we could not be the ones to do it, and we contented ourselves with the usual state of affairs -- opposing Lord and Lady, and nothing more. We never strove to surpass it. And so I taught my son, by my example, to fear and oppose the Lord Vegeta's might and cruelty. And in the destruction of House Talt, Yammar laid the seeds for Vegeta's descent into madness. Our actions shouted so loudly that our sons could barely hear us speak."

"So she did lie," you mutter. "Lady Vegeta. She lied. It wasn't the Saiyan that made Vegeta crazy, it was just his Dad."

She sighs. "No, I doubt she lied. I doubt she thought she lied at all, from what you've told me," says Grandma.

You blink. "But you just said-"

"So I did," she replies. "But child, remember that while sometimes people lie, more often they are simply wrong. Never assume malice where there is ample room for stupidity. I think Dandeer believes every word she said. I only dispute how correct she is."

You shrug, not entirely convinced.

"But I've come off-course," she says. "I was speaking of House Talt. It is easy and tempting to lay the blame for our sons' ruined friendship at Yammar's feet, and truthfully, I once did. But if I had not taught your father that he needed to embody the check to the boy who should have been his friend, perhaps he would not have reacted as he did.

"On the face of it, Berra was accepting of Vegeta's remorse for what happened. Did you know that Yammar killed the children of House Talt in front of their parents? He captured them all alive, and then set the youngest free, giving her the chance to fight for their freedom and life. And when she failed, he tortured the girl to death. She was six years old. And then he called for the next oldest. And throughout it all, Vegeta was made to watch.

"It broke him. He put a brave face on it, after the initial burst of grief, but the wound festered -- just as blame and horror festered in my son. And it all came to a head a decade later, when you were three years old."

She shudders. "Imagine waking to the skies turning red and the earth beneath you shaking as your son's aura roars out across the landscape in titanic rage. Imagine the feeling of him being opposed by a presence, more than an aura, a screaming thing shrieking of betrayal, rage, and madness. Imagine the feeling of realizing all at once that you have failed completely and utterly, and that in your failure you might have doomed the world to destruction -- not out of malice, but as a simple side effect of two titans going to war. It was terrifying, and I still have no idea how we convinced the humans that a simple meteor was to blame.

"I don't know what passed between them, that day. But I can guess; Berra slipped. He'd been holding in his disgust for ten years, and I suppose that on that day it all came out. And to Vegeta, that would have felt like base treachery. His friendship with Berra was all that was holding him in one piece. I almost feel sorry for Dandeer, saying that, but Vegeta was always closer to Berra than her. And then...all of it, poisoned at once."

"But what does this have to do with Jaffur?" you ask.

Grandma looks at you. "That comes back to Dandeer, as it seems everything to do with this mess does. She was a friend of theirs from youth, and an early crush of Vegeta's. They were married a few years after your parents were. And her suffering has always been plain, since the falling out. Vegeta is pitiable, make no mistake, but never think of him as anything less than a monster. Dandeer has suffered more than anybody. I never imagined what exactly she's been through, though, not until you told me. But even what was obvious was bad enough. And your father, the entire time, has been forced to stand back and watch that suffering."

"But why just believe her?" you burst out. "Daddy is patient! Everybody says so, I've never met a person who said anything else. It's the first thing they say about him! Why didn't he take the time to think about this?"

"Kakara, that's what I've been trying to tell you," says Grandma. "Your father has sat and watched and thought for years as his friends' marriage turned into a living hell and all his ambitions turned to ash. It all started because he couldn't stay quiet and keep from judging Vegeta. He has been living what nearly every grown-up would call their worst nightmare -- watching as everything they held dear and everything they had planned was destroyed while they could stop it, but didn't dare. And as far as he's concerned, it's all his fault."

You shoot her a betrayed look. "But you don't like it either! It doesn't matter why he messed up, it was still wrong!"

"No, I don't like it," she says. "But I understand why, when he'd seen his friend's son nearly murdered, when he'd seen his friend's wife beaten to a pulp, when she pointed that that yes, Jaffur plainly had a fixation on you, Kakara, Berra was in no mood to wait any longer. I can and will hold him responsible for his recklessness, but I still understand why he did what he did." Her voice darkens. "Besides, it's not him that I'm truly angry with."

You nod, subsiding a bit. "Lady Vegeta."

"Yes. I can understand Dandeer's desperation, but she if a member of the Faith. She had no excuse for what she did. She is a heretic. And if I have the slightest bit of say on the matter, she is going to burn for what she did."

You shift uncomfortably at the violent tone in Grandma's voice. No matter how she's let her strength go in recent years, she was once counted as the equal to Yammar Vegeta, and there's something profoundly terrifying for you, to see your sweet and caring Grandma ready to tear somebody apart.

She seems to realize this, and calms down. "I'm sorry. You don't need to hear about religious arguments. I'm not trying to scare you."

You nod, easing back into her grip. "What do we do now?" you ask. "How do we make this right?"

She sighs. "First, I go out and talk to some old acquaintances of mine. Berra is too invested in this result to willingly reverse it without it being made clear how unacceptable it is. We need to present a united front for that to work."

"What about the Senzus?" you ask.

She hums. "Maybe. It sits ill with me that they've managed such an effective rebellion. It's for the right cause, yes, but it sets a bad precedent."

"They were helping!" you say.

"They were trying to, yes," she replies. "But still, they've sat in open defiance of the sitting Lady of Clan Vegeta for over a year now. People can't be allowed to think that's acceptable, or everything comes crashing down." She shakes her head. "Thoughts for later. If you truly want to go find them, go ahead. It's not as though they could feasibly hurt you." She pulls away slightly. "But that's not what I want you to do, Kakara."

You look at her, curious.

"I need you to try and resolve things with your father, Kakara," she says, looking you in the eye. "I know you're angry with him, but staying like you are is only hurting both of you."

You look down. "How am I going to fix it?" you ask, somewhat resentfully.

"You two aren't going to get past your disagreement," she says. "That much is clear. But you need to be able to talk to each other. You are family. And family-"

"-is always there for you, even when nobody else is," you say, echoing Jiichan.

Grandma doesn't know that, of course, and simply gives you a hug. "That's right. Kakara, I don't think your father is trying to hurt you. He's as hurt and confused as you are, and he's handling it poorly, but he's not being mean. That bit with training Mato but not you...I won't make excuses for him. He messed up badly, and I don't doubt he's kicking himself over it. It was stupid. And it hurt you a lot."

You swallow and duck your head.

"But even though that's his fault, you both need to work to make it better. Kakara, all you're showing him is how angry you are. You haven't been doing your part to make this better, either. You shouldn't have to, you're only eight years old, but when both of you are this hurt, somebody needs to be the one to bend first. Reach out to him, Kakara. You don't have to agree with him in order to be his daughter."

"But this is so big!" you say.

"So was the Doom of Talt," says Grandma. "And holding onto that worked out so very well." You shrink back, eyes wide at the sudden vehemence in her tone. She shakes her head, weary. "Our people have seen enough grudges, Kakara. Understand that your father had reasons for what he did, and then forgive him for his mistake. We can still fix it, and you can have your Dad back. You just have to be willing to not let what happened color every word you speak to him. Without giving up, or deciding that you won't fix it, it is possible to just let it go. So...do that. Let it go, please. Don't give it the power to poison everything between you two."

Ally Gained: Apra Goku [Strong]

You get: Knowledge and Context of the issues working in the background of this whole mess. Grandma will work with you to stop it, although you don't have a unified plan of action yet and she's certain to pursue goals according to her religious agenda. Given that she's literally talking about burning the heretic, that might be an issue if you hope for restraint.

You've heard mention of the Ancestor Cult more than once, and while your parents haven't taught you about it, the contexts in which you've encountered mention of it have (conveniently) left you with a general idea of what the point of it is. What's your initial take on it?

[ ] Accepting. You have stood in the presence of Son Gohan in the very heart of the Otherworld and experienced the full might of his divine presence. You could do no less than feel at least a smidgen of worship.
[ ] Curious. You're not sure what you think yet, but you'd like to learn more.
[ ] Disinterested. You're not really into religion, overall. It doesn't really matter to you when the real world's right there. As Jiichan said, deal with what's in front of you first. Hokey religions can come later.
[ ] Skeptical. Worship...Jiichan? He's...he's Jiichan. That's just weird. Gods don't give hugs on-demand.

THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED.

* * *​

This kicked my ass hard. Putting it out just to have it done and off my screen while I write the rest; otherwise it'll be this huge block up on the top of the text box taking up my attention. That said, I'm fairly satisfied. The next update is on its way later today.

 

[PoptartProdigy]

Spoiler: The Previous Vote Is:

Still ongoing. Those who have already voted have had their users and votes noted so that Vote Tally doesn't eat them when you cast your votes for this next one.

This is the second update today. The previous one is the conclusion of the Grandma meeting and is a smidgen important. Threadmark before this one, "Answers and Questions."

Winter Has Come
​

The end of your visit to Grandma came a few minutes after her last, sobering piece of advice to you. The discussion had lightened a bit, and she took the opportunity to spoil you some with cookies. You had to go fairly soon, though. Your head felt stuffed, with all you'd talked about. You need time to think.

* * *
​

Reading counts, you think, leafing through yet another book. You think when you read!

The book said, "To best understand the applications of the Kienzan is to acknowledge all aspects of its use, be they practical, theoretical, consequential (to, naturally, manifold degrees), philosophical, or even sociological (when used to a properly excessive degree, naturally). One must not merely be content with throwing the disk, for as the example of the ancestor Krillin shows such an approach leads to abysmal accuracy. To find true effectiveness-"

And your patience runs out right there. You slam the book down and promptly start hacking and coughing as it raises a cloud of dust left over from all the incredibly-sensible people who, unlike you, had the good sense to take one look at the book, "A Holistic Analysis of the Interpretation of the Turtle School Style of Fighting As Practiced by the Ancestor Krillin: VOL. 14," and keep right on walking. You bury your head into your hands and scream.

"Lady Scion!" hisses the librarian, zipping up to you and whapping the back of your head with her tail. "I would ask for silence, if you please!"

You give her a mutinous scowl. She didn't actually hurt you at all, but that was still annoying. "Sorry! Just bored of research," you grumble.

"Well, I'm sure there are plenty of interesting books elsewhere," she says, narrowing her eyes at you. "Perhaps the children's section."

You make a furious noise and turn back to your studying materials.

Despite your irritation, you find it interesting that she called you, "Lady Scion." That's...really formal. Like, Vegetan levels of formal. Gokun only use it with Scions they hold a great deal of respect for. You're not used to hearing it.

You shake your head and pick up another book on Krillin. Despite how boring some of the older reference texts can get, there's plenty to be learned from the lessons they hold. This one looks interesting, for instance.

"And in the thirteenth year of Holy Goku's life, the Martyr Krillin did set forth on his quest for-"

Oh god, ancestor cultist. Skipping.

Not that there's anything wrong with the Cult, necessarily. Probably. You haven't decided. But you haven't decided to have anything against them, yet. It's just that their books are usually big on parable and light on theory. Not what you need.

You switch to the next book, hoping for something well-written.

"First step: make sure you're four feet tall. Second step: get rid of your nose."

"Why is this even in a library?!"

You have acquired, through intensive and frankly mind-numbing study, a comprehensive summation of all presently known styles in the art of ki combat. All in all, a complete and well-researched product of diligence and-

No, no, no!

You growl, pushing away from the desk and banishing the books to the return pile with a careful pulse of ki. All of this work, all these countless hours of study, and you still are no closer to your true goal.

A month of research later, and you still have no idea how Jaffur arrived at his signature style.

You stalk out of the library, ensconced a mile underground below the Training Hall, and fire up your aura, burning for the surface.

You go over what you know about his form again. Strange aura effects, check. Clearly, indicative of something. Enhanced power output, check. Stupid, but check. Enhanced efficiency -- because at that level of power output he should have passed out instantly, but instead managed to keep up with you until you beat the ki out of him, during your first fight. Concentration of power, check -- that Apocalypse Beam probably would have gutted you, had it hit.

But you're not sure what he did to accomplish all that. Tenshinhan's form teaches the burning of actual life force to enhance techniques for its most powerful attacks, but nothing in particular about concentrating energy -- the Dodonpa has the aesthetics, but not the density. Piccolo's Makankosappo has plenty about that density, but nothing else. The efficiency, though, you found very little about -- it really just seems to come down to skill more than anything.

You take a calming breath as you make it to the surface and fly up to the Hall's ward ceiling. You settle into a meditative pose and start clearing the frustration away. After a year of acclimation training to the Super Saiyan form, this is second nature.

After a moment, you shrug and flare your aura. You stare into the dancing blue light, trying to figure out how Jaffur managed to do what he did. Nothing. You close your eyes and snarl in frustration.

See, you can feel the flow of your ki, bursting out of your body through every pore. Jaffur managed to wrap it in close, but you have no idea how. Ki is like a bonfire, it just spreads! See, doing differently would require...you have no idea what. Which is the root of your frustration. The best metaphor you can come up with is that it'd be like trying to make your ki like napalm rather than flame -- brighter and hotter, and clinging. Actually, come to think, that might be an interesting thought for later.

You open your eyes, sighing in frustration and looking at nothing in particular.

You freeze.

Like napalm, indeed. You slowly raise your hand, and gaze at the flickering haze of blue ki clinging to your hand. Like napalm. And like napalm, so very hard to keep under control-

fiz

Your aura unbinds, flares free, and then snaps out, bringing with it a crushing feeling of exhaustion. You sag and breathe heavily, utterly worn out. You had it there, just by accident -- only to lose it completely. You didn't have the skill to hold onto it. You can imagine the level of control Jaffur must have had over his ki if he was able to do that, and you aren't there yet.

You drift over to the Gate, breathing heavily, and go home.

You're so tired you don't even notice Lady Dandeer, watching from a window of her apartments, her face absolutely white with shock and horror.

Ahem. You have gained a comprehensive list of styles, and discovered one of the requirements to learning Jaffur's Style. Focused study later will allow you to learn more. Also, you have gained the notice and full attention of Lady Vegeta. When an option says "Hidden Effect..."

In general, all styles grant increased facility with their involved techniques. The following descriptions are fluffy ways for me to describe what bonuses they confer, mechanically.

Spoiler: Traditional Styles

Goku Style: The iconic style of your House, this style relies on overwhelming physical assaults and is heavily offensive in nature, falling back on mobility to evade attacks only when severely outmatched. Ki blasts are used, but generally not as a primary feature of combat. They're finishing attacks, not the main show, and outside a special few, practitioners of this form will have little facility here. Given its progenitor, it is not remotely suited to fighting with anybody else, having been created in expectation and even anticipation of fighting all enemies alone. Involved techniques: Hand-to-Hand [Dueling], Kaio-Ken, Kamehameha, Instant Transmission, Spirit Bomb (Lost Technique). Penalized techniques: Hand-to-Hand [Team Fighting], Ki Projection [All Save Signature Techniques].

Vegeta Style: The iconic style of House Vegeta, this form tends towards a different approach. Created by a warrior who commonly fought entire armies unaided or with limited backup, this form shines when put against multiple foes. As is only sensible for those kinds of conditions, ranged combat proved to be most efficient, and thus while the practitioners of this style can certainly fight up close, they have a lot of talent at range. It is overwhelmingly aggressive and unrestrained, and has virtually no response to being put on the back foot. This style emphasizes absorbing punishment over avoiding it, and thus is not for the weak of body or spirit. Involved techniques: Hand-to-Hand [Crowd Fighting], Galick Gun, Big Bang Attack, Final Flash, Ki Projection [Basic Attacks]. Penalized techniques: Flight, Ki Control, Hand-to-Hand [Team Fighting].

Krillin Style: A balanced form that plays well with others, this style is near-unique in that it seems to have been built in the expectation of being outmatched. Emphasizing evasion and targeting of vulnerabilities, this form has virtually no defense to direct confrontation. Given its creator, that's sensible. Practitioners of the above two forms tend to study this at least a bit so that they're not so helpless should they be confronted with a superior opponent, and so they don't commit the grand idiocy of being so overwhelmingly offensive that they prefer to allow themselves to be punched in the face if it allows them to do the same to their opponent. Involved techniques: Ki Control, Solar Flare, Kienzan, Flight, Hand-to-Hand [Team Fighting], Kamehameha. Penalized techniques: Hand-to-Hand [Dueling], Hand-to-Hand [Crowd Fighting].

Piccolo Style/Demon Style: The form of Piccolo, this emphasizes precise and clever strikes with great concentration of power, and a balance of offense and defense. It possesses powerful techniques at any range, but lacks specialization. Practicing this style demands an ability to control the field of battle as is most expedient at any given moment. Involved techniques: Makankosappo, Explosive Wave, Evil Explosion, Masenko, Light Grenade, Hellzone Grenade. Penalized techniques: None, but bonuses elsewhere are smaller than other schools.

Turtle Style: Roshi's style is largely an anachronism that was designed before the full potential of ki was realized by the Z Fighters, and you should not use it in a real fight. It is meant to be used by a fighter locked to the ground, against a fighter locked to the ground, and treats any and all external use of ki as a flagrant and extravagant expense to be saved only for the direst of eventualities. That said, as a foundation for other styles, it's fantastic. Its reliance on hand-to-hand means that practitioners are very good at it in absolutely all of its forms. Involved techniques: Hand-to-Hand [All, Extreme], Kamehameha. Penalized techniques: All Ki Talents (save Ki Control) and Ki Projection skills, and cripplingly so.

Trunks Style: While Trunks of our timeline contributed little to fighting given that he never actually refined his technique beyond what he had at eight years of age, his future counterpart contributed a brutally pragmatic and survivalist style to the Z Fighters' understanding of combat. This style assumes constant unfavorable numbers against overwhelmingly powerful opponents, demanding insane agility and swift exploitation of exposed openings, with none of the acknowledged theatricality of other styles. In addition, it is the only form developed in conjunction with a weapon. It shines against multiple opponents and when outmatched, and its use of a sword tends to take opponents off-guard. Involved techniques: Sword Use, Hand-to-Hand [Crowd Fighting], Flight (to an extreme), Burning Attack, Masenko, Heat Dome Attack, Final Flash. Penalized techniques: Hand-to-Hand [Team Fighting, or all when without a sword], Ki Sense.

Yamcha Style: This is nearly extinct, but to be honest, it's undervalued. While he eventually retired and was constantly outmatched in strength, many forget that Yamcha was a talented martial artist, who even after years of retirement and with a total lack of Saiyan biology was able to defend against Golden Freeza's invasion of Earth right along with the rest of the Z Fighters. As a derivation of the Turtle School it contains all that you would expect, along with a focus on flurry strikes and esoteric ki techniques that overwhelm the opponent's ability to keep up -- very much the school of death by a thousand cuts. Involved techniques: Hand-to-Hand [Dueling], Spirit Ball, Kamehameha, Flight, Wolf Fang Fist. Penalized Techniques: Ki Sense, Ki Projection (all save involved techniques).

Tenshinhan Style: This form is rarely-practiced, but deceptive for all that. Tenshinhan's form is refined and balanced, offering few concrete advantages, but unlocking the potential to pour the user's life force into an attack. Practitioners have no stylistic weaknesses, and gain a risky but powerful last resort option, in addition to a variety of strange techniques. Involved techniques: Solar Flare, Multi-Form, Four Witches Technique, Kikoho, Shin Kikoho.

Gohan Style: A blend of the Demon and Goku Styles, this form is more heavily geared towards hand-to-hand than the Piccolo Style and loses on some of its versatility and most of its precision, but lacks the near-total weakness of the Goku Style outside of zero range. In addition, it is less useless on the defensive than the Goku Style in exchange for tending to be less effective on the attack, and is in fact capable of, when necessary, dodging. That said, it retains a preference for the offensive in a fight. This is an excellent form for fighters with a hand-to-hand focus who don't wish to risk the notorious overspecialization of the Goku Style. Involved techniques: Kamehameha, Masenko, Hand-to-Hand [Dueling]. Penalized techniques: Hand-to-Hand [Team Fighting], all Ki Projection talents that involve the dense concentration of power.

Satan Style: NO. Involved techniques: Losing. Penalized techniques: Self-awareness.

Spoiler: Jaffur's Style

Known Requirements

Ki Control [Exceptional].

Known Information

This form is, from all you've observed and deduced, highly demanding on another level from other forms. You are beginning to doubt that it has specific drawbacks, instead "merely" requiring an understanding of the use of ki that perhaps one in a thousand Saiyans ever achieve. Of course, you're well-aware that you've only scratched the surface, and are certain that there's more to be learned. There has to be another drawback somewhere, even if its just in the ludicrous requirements that learning it has...but where? Involved techniques: Focus Ray, Charon's Breath, Apocalypse Beam, Ki Control, ?. Penalized techniques: ?

* * *
​

The first snowfall dusts the ground outside your house, and inside, you sit across from your Dad.

The silence is stifling.

At length he sighs, tossing you a book. "This is a list of all the Houses in Clan Goku, along with brief histories on them all and an accounting of current living members. Read it. Memorize it. Tell me what your conclusions are about any five houses and the relations between them tomorrow." He gets up and starts to leave, looking very tired.

Your Grandma's words ring in your head, and you find yourself raising a hand. "Dad, wait."

He doesn't turn around, or speak. But he does halt instantly, and turn his head slightly.

You swallow. "I...I don't want to be stuck like this. I want to be able to talk."

His shoulders rise and fall, slightly, in a silent sigh. "What about, Kakara?"

"I...what? I just...I don't know, anything! All we do is fight anymore, and I'm sick of it. I don't want this to be what we do all the time." You pull your knees up and put your face down. "I just want my Dad back."

He's by your side in an instant, laying a hand on your shoulder. "Kakara, that's not what this is about. I'm still your Dad, I promise, that hasn't changed! Please, believe that! I'm here for you, I love you!"

A sob tears its way out of your throat, and all you can say is, "Then why?" The tears come loose in a great wave, and finally, finally, he pulls you in for a hug. You cling to him, crying helplessly.

"I made a mistake," he says, voice hoarse. "A terrible mistake, with you. And I'm so sorry, sweetheart. You're my world, and I didn't mean to hurt you. I just...I didn't know what to do, and I was stupid about it. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

You feel something wet trickling into your hair, and can't find it in you to respond. Instead, the two of you simply hold each other and let the tears come, soaking up the first physical contact you've had since he accidentally grabbed your tail a few months ago.

Eventually you both subside, your tears ending as you fall into silence. Your fingers are wound into his shirt, and your eyes are drooping, energy sapped by the catharsis of the moment. You and he sit together, just resting in the quiet.

"I'm sorry, too," you say, as your grip on consciousness fades and you start to slip away. You're so tired.

"Thank you, Kakara," he says, a hand running through your hair. "But this one's on me. I'm sorry, princess. This was all my fault."

You make a quiet noise of protest -- because even if you're little, your willingness to leave things be certainly didn't help.

He shakes his head, though. "No. This wasn't your responsibility. I should have been better for you, and I'm sorry." He picks you up and starts carrying you upstairs to your room, recognizing that you're about to go. "Love you, Kakara."

You're not sure if you say it or not, but your last thought before you pass out is, I love you too, Daddy.

* * *
​

A week later, you sit next to your Dad as he presides over a dispute between what seems to be half of Clan Goku and your uncle Butarega, paying close attention to the group dynamics at play. You watch your Dad, stern and calm, patient as the rocks and just as unmovable once his decision is made.

Occasionally, he smiles at you.

It's not the end of the matters between you -- not even close. There's been too much between the two of you for a few sentences, a couple of apologies, and a bit of tears to wipe it all away. But it's the start of the end -- and at least now, you're pretty sure that things will stop getting worse.

And sure, actually fixing it will require you to put in time and effort to do that -- but that's what family is all about. You think you can get in line with it.

Kakara can now be counted upon to know basic background information of any given House in Clan Goku, and a vague idea of who they do and don't tend to get along with. Progress has been made on grinding Diplomacy to "Talented," but remains at "Competent" for now. Relationship with Berra Goku will no longer degrade by a step per year. You have, once again, piled up yet another bonus to the next mental health check you'll be making.

* * *
​

As the year comes to a close, you find yourself withdrawing from those around you a bit more than usual. It's the nearly-invisible tension that keeps you back, more than anything.

Despite the easing in your own household, in Saiyan society at large it's nearly impossible to forget that Jaffur is still out there, Sealed. And for you, it's absolutely impossible to forget that your Grandma is planning on burning Lady Vegeta to death in retaliation.

You need distance.

So you transform one day when there aren't any humans around to see, and fly to the moon.

With your aura trapping oxygen in with you, breathing is no problem. The aura protects you otherwise, as well. You settle down in the silence of vacuum and begin to think.

You've been wondering why the situation with Jaffur escalated as quickly as it did, lately. Everybody was talking, if tense, and then in the next moment blasts were flying and the situation had deteriorated completely. And you were helpless, caught up in the flow of events. So you've wondered what made everything fall apart so quickly.

Of course, in retrospect it's fairly obvious. Everybody was going in expecting a fight. Lady Vegeta was still twitchy from the night before. Dad went in with the same expectation, ready to force Jaffur to accept the Sealing. You knew you were walking into a bad situation, and once everything started you too lost sight of non-violent solutions, when you thought Dad was dead.

You all, in one way or another, assumed.

You don't like that. For somebody who claims not to like fighting, you've been doing an awful lot of it lately, to the point where you nearly (literally) took Sophie's head off when you first met because she startled you. And no, you don't like it, not remotely.

At the same time, though, this past year has been like a wonderful breath of fresh air. For the first time, your people accept you, which you've missed. They respect your strength and what they think you did with it.

And your discomfort with violence is running right up against the concentrated power of social acceptance and finding serious trouble. You want people to like you. You want to have people to talk to. You want to be a part of them, not apart from them. But you don't want to have to hurt people, because it feels bad! It feels horrible and mean, and you feel sick, and when you realized what you were about to do to Jaffur after you calmed down from your first transformation you were terrified of yourself, and it...it...

[Staying the Course (Willpower, DC 60): Pass]

...it feels wrong. You felt like a bad person afterwards. You never want to feel that. You never want to see that again.

You never want it to happen again.

But your people love fighting, and they'll fight you on this. You'll need to defend your beliefs -- and how you'll do that without resorting to violence is a question all of its own. But you know that this won't be easy. After your life, you couldn't not know.

Well.

You'll just have to win, then.

You rise to your feet, looking at the planet drifting down below.

You transform.

Your ki burns brightly, painting the white landscape around you a pale gold, and in the atmosphere trapped by your aura, you scream out in defiance. You might think that fighting is wrong, but you are strong and capable, and anybody who wants to tell you that you're wrong to think that is going to have to enforce that. You'll figure it out later how you'll defend your beliefs.

For now, as you light a burning beacon of epiphany and defiance for every Saiyan on Garenhuld to feel, you are content in your realization.

Where once your viewpoint was that of an immature child, it is now the product of a thinking being's careful reasoning and thought. You are still a child, and the applications of this philosophy will take a lot of nothing more than simple time to develop, but now and forever, you no longer dislike fighting because it makes you feel bad.

You now hate fighting, because it's wrong.

Trait Lost: Gentle.

Trait Gained: Pacifist.

* * *
​

As the year closes, you turn to that part of things you dearly wanted to put off.

It's time to meet with Lady Vegeta.

Now that you and Dad are talking again, he felt comfortable reminding you that you'd promised to go to this meeting, and despite really not wanting to, you also didn't want to reignite the arguments, and went along with it. Besides, you did plan this out, so you'll go.

And that's how you and Lady Vegeta wind up seated in the apartments of House Vegeta in the Training Hall, staring each other down in profound discomfort.

Oddly enough, you think she's even less at ease than you, and you're waiting to Instant Transmit to the other side of the planet at the first sign of a hand seal.

Eventually, she settles her shoulders and sighs. "Well, this is awkward." She stares at you. "I...wanted to talk to you about what happened the summer before last, Kakara. I wanted to ease things between us, since you seemed so unhappy at the time.

"And then I saw you managing to use Jaffur's form, a month ago."

You freeze. You hadn't realized that she was there.

She leans forward. "I didn't think I'd ever see that again, Kakara. And I would really like to know where you learned it. Did Jaffur teach you? How? When?"

You don't reply, and after a moment she subsides, rearranging her robes. "It doesn't matter. It must have been before he was Sealed, because he couldn't have gotten out, and you know better than to let him out, of course." She looks you dead in the eye. "Right?"

Whatever Lady Vegeta had in mind for this talk, she's clearly off-balance, and it is now a confrontation. Tread carefully; anything you say may have long-lasting impacts on your relationship with her and what she thinks of you. Given your respective stations, the impacts would likely be political as well.

How do you answer her?

[ ] Write-In

THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED.

* * *
​

Figuring out the mechanical effects of all the styles was a pain. Worth it, though!

Pacifist [Foundational Trait]: After hard experiences and a great deal of thought, you have refined your earlier opinions on fighting and violence. Where once you avoided them out of simple distaste, you now do so out of moral obligation. They aren't unpleasant, they're wrong. You still need to learn how to live this way in a society filled with hot-blooded fighters, but you have your beliefs. You gain combat traits, abilities, and skills more slowly, and may encounter barriers to improvement that cannot be surpassed without exceptional pressure. You experience moderate vote weighting at all times against courses of action that result in violence. You gain a small bonus to any check that de-escalates a situation or peacefully resolves it. This may be developed further...

 

[PoptartProdigy]

Spoiler: Winning Votes

[X] To be blunt? I was trying to figure out what was involved in teaching Jaffur a style that I had never heard or seen of before--and apparently nobody else had either. I'm not entirely sure why you have such a serious problem with this, it's not as though reverse engineering someone's techniques is unheard of.

[X] Skeptical. Worship...Jiichan? He's...he's Jiichan. That's just weird. Gods don't give hugs on-demand.

Provocations
​

You straighten, feeling a flicker of annoyance at her demand. "To be blunt?" you say, tilting your head slightly back.

She bristles at your tone.

"I was trying to figure out what was involved in teaching Jaffur a style that I had never heard of or seen before -- and apparently, nobody else had either," you say, muttering the last almost to yourself. Those were frustrating hours of research. You shake your head and look at her again. "I'm not entirely sure why you have such a serious problem with this; it's not as though reverse-engineering someone's techniques is unheard of."

By the time you finish your speech, her face is red with pent-up fury. "Why you little, arrogant, self-important-" she takes a deep breath, calming down. "...impudent child." She gives you an unpleasant smirk. "I think you'll soon find out that children who speak to their elders and betters like that tend not to make many friends, Kakara."

You flush in anger, opening your mouth-

"But that's besides the point," she says, standing and crossing her arms. "You didn't learn it directly from my son? Good. I'd feared you'd found a way around the Seal, despite my efforts to make it indestructible. It is, but for a moment I was afraid I'd messed up." She sighs. "But no. You merely discovered how to perform my son's style. The style I never thought I'd have to see again..." She drifts off, and you're left choking on fury at the reminder of what she did.

She turns to you. "You don't like me very much, do you Kakara?" she asks, cocking her head. "You fought against the Sealing, no matter what rumor says. You don't understand, do you? You don't really know why I did it. You would have fought with me, instead, if you had."

You shake your head; she doesn't know you overheard her, and it's best to keep it that way.

"Well, it's not for young ears to hear," she says, fingers digging into her biceps, and you want to scream.

"How am I supposed to agree with you if you won't tell me why?" you ask through gritted teeth.

She gives you a pitying look, and again you feel a surge of anger, tightly controlled.

"Oh, Kakara," she says, "I'm an adult. I'm the Lady Vegeta. Just because I'm that and you're a child, you need to listen to me. I know better, and you do not. I am forty-two years old, and you are nine. I don't know what your parents have been teaching you, if you don't know this-"

["Hot-Blooded" triggered]

You leap to your feet. "Shut up!" you scream, red in the face. "You don't talk about them! You never talk about them! They're great!" You might be angry with them, but they're your parents, and she has no right.

She stiffens. "Sit down, girl," she says. "And don't you dare speak to an adult in that tone of voice ever again." She sighs, shaking her head. "You are a spoiled little brat. I'm disappointed. I thought you would be a worthy successor to the gods. I thought you might be the person the Clans needed, as turmoil grows in our society. I thought that maybe you could be Holy Goku come again, but clearly you are an undisciplined little girl whose parents have failed to teach her anything at all of respect or-"

"Shut UP!"

BOOM

Golden light flares around the room as you transform out of sheer fury.

"I'm not a baby!" you yell, getting in her face as she rears back in sudden fear. She topples over and crawls back as you continue to shout at her, chasing her into a corner. "I'm strong and smart, and what you did was wrong! And I don't need a stupid, fearful hag like you to tell me what to do! You Sealed away your own kid! And you're telling me that I should listen to you just because you're older? Maybe that's how it should be, but that's not how it is! Maybe I don't listen to you because I don't think you've earned it!"

Lady Vegeta curls up in her corner, hiding her face away from you. "Vegeta, please..."

You flinch, leaning away. What?

* * *
​

Thing is...I didn't mean for Kakara to explode like this. The write-in didn't include it in letter or in spirit, and I feel iffy taking the character beyond the bonds of the players' choices. But then I realized that no matter what the players voted for, Lady Vegeta is not the kind of person to take criticism from a child with any level of restraint or equanimity, nor to assign a child even the capacity to shoulder responsibility or blame save in the context of their parents. Children are to be seen and obedient, not heard and questioning, and she does not recognize Kakara's capacity to be right in a contradictory context to her. It simply does not compute. And so she interprets the write-in, which takes a very equal-to-equal tone and questions the sense of the very action of asking the question Lady Vegeta asked, as Kakara acting with appalling and unpardonable rudeness. And given that children are incapable of holding responsibility, it must be the direct fault of their parents. And of course, Kakara is a mere child and thus incapable of contradicting adults once put in her place, so may be freely told this without fear of the consequences.

And one of the triggers for "Hot-Blooded" that I've identified is that Kakara loves her parents very dearly, and takes perceived assaults on them very poorly. She transformed over it. She only just now pulled the situation with Dad out of an outright freefall, hasn't resolved it completely, and is still emotionally tender about it. I had to look at things and say, realistically, that one: if I broke for a vote right there I'd have an update that didn't even cover a full text box, and two: I'd have to assign so much weighting to the "explode" option that if (inevitably) one person did vote for it, it'd win anyway. We'd be right back here, and I'd be posting an update of two hundred words before breaking again for the (in the grand scheme of things) far more important vote of what to do now.

And finally...at some point I just have to run with the previously-established traits and write the character as you all have set her to think.

GENERALIZATIONS INBOUND. THE FOLLOWING TWO PARAGRAPHS CONTAIN AN ANALYSIS OF A VERY NUANCED TOPIC, REDUCED TO SLIGHTLY INACCURATE TERMINOLOGY FOR THE SAKE OF BREVITY. YOU MAY PRESUME THAT SOME SEMANTIC ACCURACY HAS BEEN LOST IN FAVOR OF THE GENERAL SENTIMENT.

Crazy thing is, Dandeer's viewpoint on the role of children isn't even that unusual. I mean, it hits hard because it's presently being directed at the avatar for an audience of teenagers and adults, but to be honest, how many of us haven't treated a child at least a little like this at least once in our lives? We might not believe in the ethos as a general rule, but at some point we all find ourselves falling back on, "because I'm an adult." Why? Because children aren't susceptible to logic. "Fair" is "I got what I want," and "Good" is "It makes me happy." A good part of this is cultural in nature and has only evolved over the last century, but it is the cultural mindset children are inculcated with -- even though they are, as we're all aware, capable of being rational, thinking beings to a limited extent once they stop being toddlers, they are encouraged not to be in the name of innocence. The whole Garden of Eden scenario, writ large -- a big part of the tragedy of Kakara's relationship with her parents is that, as I've noted on her character sheet, she is no longer capable of seeing them as her idols, having experienced the traumatizing sensation of disillusionment far earlier than, culturally, we're comfortable with. But generally, children may be safely assumed to have not experienced such awakenings, and be incapable of applying that kind of thought. So, "I'm right because I'm an adult," really means, "You're wrong because you're immersed in the cultural role of a child and thus not thinking rationally," and that is usually right. But children don't understand that, and instead need, "Because I said so."

But Dandeer takes the ethos a step further, and thus believes that when she is an adult addressing a child, she in literally incapable of being wrong. And she extends that to all cases of a greater authority addressing a lesser. And given that she is the Lady Vegeta, that is a whole lot of right.

That said...

Lady Vegeta is curled up in a corner, in what appears to be a sobbing ball of trauma that you've triggered. What do?

[ ] Paranoia. What is this?
[ ] Guilt. What did I do? (Trips "A Cause," requiring a DC 40 Willpower check)
[ ] Distance. Time to leave, this is helping nobody.
[ ] Reconciliation. Please let me help. (Trips "A Cause," requiring a DC 40 Willpower check)
[ ] Write-In.

 

[PoptartProdigy]

Spoiler: Winning Vote

[X] Worry. Vegeta Vegeta was a monster, we may have gone someplace wrong if we are reminding anyone of him, even the Lady Vegeta.

As I noted in the vote tallies, I've interpreted this as the "take a step back and self-examine" option.

Close of Business
​

You find yourself taking a step back.

This isn't right.

Oh, not yelling at her. A small part of you regrets that, but the greater part is yelling about how out of line she is in the first place and how justified you are in getting angry at her. She had no right.

Nor are you particularly worried about transforming. Sure, it might have been in the heat of the moment, and a product of your own hot temper, but you don't think anybody could have reasonably expected you to stay restrained while she was lecturing you like that. She is not your mother, and even if she was, speaking to somebody like that is just cruel. Or worse, thoughtlessly so. At least her husband hurt people on purpose.

No, you're simply concerned that she's linking your actions to him.

You don't hate Lord Vegeta. Once, you might have thought you did. You would have sung it from the stratosphere, lacing your lungs and throat with ki and letting the noise carry to the other side of Garenhuld and back. But you know better now. Hate is such a strong word. It means a lot of scary things. It means you're willing to do bad things, bad in the way that your new understanding of violence allows you to grasp. And so no; you don't hate him. Not since last summer.

You hate this woman, huddled here in front of you. The only reason you don't attack her on sight, let alone seize the opportunity presented by her sobbing, is because Jaffur has the first claim. It's not like you're having to fight against a constant tide of hate -- no, your hatred is a cold thing, hammered down by half a year of thinking over your reaction to the Sealing, and another year of constant reinforcement, as your home slowly tore itself apart over her actions. You're in no danger of snapping and going after her, simply because you've internalized, down to the bedrock, that you need to keep her alive for Jaffur to kill personally.

If he -- or rather, Jaron -- were to die tomorrow, without his ki to save him, you'd scorch the earth for miles around getting to her.

That probably isn't a healthy feeling for you to have.

You don't care.

And it also grants you perspective. You don't hate Vegeta. You dislike him, and you'll let Jaffur do whatever he wants with him once the boy is released, but against the seething spite you feel for Dandeer, that's nothing. He's an enemy. You'll deal with him, if necessary. But you don't hate him. He's simply...contemptible. Despicable.

And you've just been compared to him.

And even if you don't hate him, Vegeta is thoroughly despicable, and you hate being compared to him. If somebody is comparing you to him -- if anybody is, even her -- you may have gone very badly wrong somewhere.

You haven't reversed your transformation yet. In fact, it's still wholly uncontrolled -- little snaps of electricity occasionally leap out across the walls, and if it weren't for the fact that Lady Vegeta asked for one of the private, soundproofed, ki-shielded rooms for this little talk, you're sure Dad would be in here right now.

You ponder for a moment, and then very deliberately don't reverse it. You merely reign it in, reducing it to a restrained aura of pure, golden light as you bring it under your full control. No electricity involved; not for somebody with any measure of control over themselves for the first level. The second level is supposedly different, but...well, nobody's achieved that in centuries, quite by design.

You've gotten sidetracked. You tilt your head, scowling at Lady Vegeta. She lifts her tear-stained face to meet yours as the storm surrounding you subsides.

"'Vegeta?'" you say, raising your eyebrows. "I haven't touched you."

She shakes her head, eyes locked on yours. "N...no..."

You think for a moment. The situation flashes through your mind, and you consider the root of it: are you like him?

Finally, you come to an answer, and say, "He transformed, didn't he? Whenever he would hurt you."

She nods.

You let out a little hum, and lean in close, until your aura nearly brushes her face. You stare at her through the golden curtain enshrouding you. "Too bad."

Her eyes widen.

"I won't say I'm sorry for transforming," you say. "I won't wrap myself up in chains and keep this locked away for the rest of my life because it scares you to see it. I'm not sorry. This form is me. Like I'm me. It's me and it's mine, and I don't have to apologize to you for using it. You know, I was worried there for a moment. When you called me by his name, I thought I might really be as bad as him. Just for a second, you hurt me." And it did hurt. A stab right at your heart, because even if you don't hate him, you never want to be him. You've known your life included children since you were old enough to understand what a baby was. You've played with dolls all your life and pretended that they were your eventual little Scion. The thought of hurting them like Vegeta did his son makes you sick. And being compared to that hurt.

Lady Vegeta, however, simply looks terrified at the thought that the Super Saiyan in the room with her feels hurt.

You don't let her react. "But just for a second," you say. "I'm not him. I didn't transform to hurt you; I just did it because I was angry. And there's nothing wrong with that. Just because this form makes me stronger doesn't mean I need to hurt people with it. Just because you're afraid of it doesn't mean I have to be bad." You straighten, look her dead in the eye, and say, "Just because you're still scared and sad about what Vegeta did to you doesn't give you an excuse to act like we're all going to treat you like that."

You can see her making the connection to Jaffur a few seconds after you say that, and a flicker of anger appears in her eyes. But it's leavened with a lot of uncertainty.

Maybe she has something to say.

You don't know, because you're already out of the room.

These private rooms are all in sub-basements beneath the Hall. You walk up the stairs leading out with a measured stride, still shimmering gold.

As you step out through the wall and into the Hall proper, you can see all eyes being drawn to the sense of your ki like a magnet. In a great wave, everybody looks to you. You see some dropping to their knees and fervently muttering prayers, and you mark them as Ancestor Cultists.

"Kakara?"

You turn and see Dad standing there, hand outstretched.

"What happened?" he asks, looking somewhat scared.

Your expression is hard. "We talked."

His expression turns dumbfounded. "About what?"

"Her husband."

And now he looks wary. "...anything important?"

"From her?" You tilt your head and narrow your eyes. "Not a thing."

Fingers to forehead.

vip

You have successfully eroded a bit of Lady Vegeta's certainty regarding Jaffur's Sealing, and in the process gained a lot of wariness from her.

Your appearance at the end of the meeting has driven home to the Saiyan public that you are now a Figure of Importance, and added to your mystique given that they weren't privy to you and your Dad's brief discussion regarding what went down and thus only know that you came out of a meeting with a Sorceress flaring with enough power to turn the solar system into ash. Some think you argued with her. Some think she somehow unlocked some power within you. On average, no change in general opinion, but increased interest, made only the greater by your public silence of late.

Reputation Gained: "Mysterious."

Meanwhile, your own certainty is stronger than ever that you are on the right side. While you worried when she slipped and called you Vegeta, the very act of taking the time to reflect on that worry allowed you to solidify your conviction that you were in the right, and she was in the wrong. At the center of your mind, there is now a comforting whisper that you didn't know you were missing until you first heard it: "There is nothing wrong with me." You are in the right.

Trait Gained: "Convictions."

Convictions: A fearful whisper, let loose by Dandeer Vegeta, made you fear for your integrity and possible likeness to Lord Vegeta. Upon confronting this, you found...nothing. You aren't like him, and your behavior was not out of line. You were in the right, and the knowledge of this has strengthened your faith in yourself. Gain a small bonus to all actions taken in what you believe to be in the service of right.

​

Spoiler: Disclaimer

At this point I would like to point out that traits follow certain upgrade paths, and that those paths branch towards the end, leading to often radically different outcomes. More than that, what a trait manifests as in one character may indicate little or nothing about how it manifests in another. One man's greatest strength may be another woman's greatest weakness. Compassion, handled differently, can make one a saint or a fool, after all. Why, the desire to help people can lead to stifling tyrannies as much as it can to noted philanthropists.

So, just because you've just picked up the first version of your Dad's second foundational trait doesn't have to mean you'll become blind to the possibility of being wrong. That's solely a function of his own deeply-rooted trauma, and quite a few interacting traits.

* * *
​

Year 1 concluded!

As the year turns, your mind falls back on what sensei has told you of the Craft, in your few lessons with him thus far. At your current level of skill there's no controlling when the visions come, so he says, and you're simply lucky you aren't one of the ones bombarded with them every few hours. However, given that you know about the Sight, and aren't fighting it, there is a limited amount of direction possible in what you See.

You are morbidly unsurprised when the merest flicker of attention on your chosen path sends you careening into the arms of a vision, drenching you in vivid landscapes of those...

[ ] ...things that were.
[ ] ...things that are.
[ ] ...things that will be.

(i.e., pick your interlude; pick one, the biggest vote wins); THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED.

Read, review, and reply! And most of all, enjoy!

And now I tired slep naozzzzzzz...

*topplethunk*

Oh, dear me, not again. Bedtime, silly Poptart.

*dragging the body off*

Goodnight, all.

 

[PoptartProdigy]

Spoiler: Winning Vote

[X] ...things that are.

Those Without and Within
​

You drift on currents of motion.

The world is constantly changing, and thus to understand the world as it is, is to understand how it is changing. In knowing where it's going, you may learn where it is. And thus, to those who See, you learn not to aim for what is, but what will be, very soon. Not outright gazing into the future, but searching for the bow waves of events as they churn forward.

At least, that's what Sensei tells you. You're fairly certain that the present looks like an churning sea of really cloudy pee and vomit, and smells just as terrible. While you're submerged in it. Or maybe it's crude oil? Spoiled milk!

It's gross, and you're at a loss for words to describe it. So there.

You can sort of see how one could learn to pick out events as they're happening, but you haven't the faintest clue of how to start. What kind of stuff would even be important to you?

...big things? Maybe? Eeeeeeeeeeh...

...sure, why not.

You reach out and grab onto something cradled in the middle of a really big splash of whatever-the-ick-this-is, and it tugs you into its wake.

* * *
​

"GgggggoooooooooooooooodddddddddddDDDDAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTT!"

You sigh in recognition. Oh, hello, Jaffur WAITAMINUTE-

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?

...Jaffur's mind is boring.

It's a blank white expanse occasionally broken up by blank white rocks that look more like weird sculptures than anything else. Did he like the stories about the Hyperbolic Time Chamber or something? This is a little overboard.

Jaffur finally runs out of scream. "Stupid fool," he mutters, falling to his knees. "Stupid fool." He looks up at the sky, for some reason. "Told you better than that. You should have known..."

You find yourself stepping away at the mutterings. That doesn't sound right.

"Stupid fool, stupid fool..."

Your shoulder brushes against a rock-

Jaffur's eyes snap over-

"Who's there?"

"Jaffur?"

His hand comes up full of ki-

You clutch at the rock in sudden fear and-

* * *

Gone.

* * *
​

Jaffur.

It is a quiet name, drifting through your mind.

You do not remember when your mother first told you that you were once, in the womb, a twin. Apparently, it happens often -- an embryo splits, briefly becoming twins, and then reforms.

Ever since, you have played a game of imagining your little -- naturally, as you would obviously have come first -- brother.

You named him Jaffur, though you're not sure why.

* * *​

To be Jaffur Vegeta is to be many things.

Insane, indisputably so. And that is rather at the forefront of things at the moment.

You are more, however.

You are trapped, caged. Worse, you are aware. Typically, when the Masque is active, the Saiyan sleeps, and vice-versa. Not so here. It would have been easy, that way, and being Sealed is no easy thing.

* * *​

Jaffur would look exactly the same as you, of course. Twins do that. But he would do all the things you couldn't do, because then it would be like one person doing all of the things.

You are, of course, only eight -- almost nine! Such sentences still make sense, at your age.

But when you think of Jaffur, you think of a strong, brave boy who never has to worry about bullies or Dad being gone for hours on end.

You think you'd be quite lucky, to be Jaffur.

* * *​

This is, roughly, what it's like to be Jaffur Vegeta right now.

screamingragingcryingfrothingatthemouthillkillyouillkillthemillkillallofthemmotherwhyfatherwhywereyousoweakyouwereminetokillmineminemineandnowyouresealedtooillfindawayoutandburnyoualltoashyouredeaddeadDEAD

* * *​

Jaffur would, before anything else, be somebody who would always listen to you and had a kind ear ready.

Of course, he would also stand ready to carry out your orders at all times. You were, after all, the older brother.

You had not decided whether or not the two of you would share a room. On the one hand, companionship! On the other...eh.

Goodness knew that Delilah was obnoxious enough when she had a nightmare, what would somebody who lived in your room be like?

* * *​

Jaffur is, in all things, precise. Measured. He values speed and efficiency, because he likes it when things are tidy.

"I'LL RIP YOU APART AND PEE ON WHAT'S LEFT! I'LL SERVE YOU TO YOURSELF IN MAC AND CHEESE!"

And then, there is family.

* * *​

It is, in truth, little different from having an imaginary friend. Somebody to think up and talk to when you really needed some support.

Somebody nobody else saw, or heard.

Somebody who you occasionally dreamed of.

* * *​

Jaffur abruptly stops, looking at the person in his domain. "Who are you?"

The little human boy perks up. "Jaffur?"

Sanity returns, however briefly. "Seriously, who are you? How are you even in here?"

"I thought you didn't exist!"

Jaffur frowns. "Okay, are we talking past each other? I feel like we are."

The boy stands up from where he was sitting. "Whoa, you talk like you're crazy-smart. Y'know, we're eight. Nobody expects that from us." A smile spiders its way across the boy's face. "Then again, adults are terribly boring about things like vocabulary, aren't they?"

Jaffur slowly smirks back. "At their best," he says.

"Heh, I know, right?"

Jaffur shakes his head. "Seriously, though, who are you? I didn't think anybody could make it in here."

The boy's face falls. "Oh." Then he shakes his head. "I'm your older brother!" He holds out a hand. "Jaron."

Jaffur stiffens, everything focusing down to a few narrow points about how if he puts his foot on Jaron's chest and tugs he'll rip the boy's arm off and kill him and then be free free free-

-but if it were that easy, mother wouldn't deserve the title of Master Sorceress. No, this is just a dream. Just one of Jaron's dreams.

Jaffur sighs bitterly and turns away. "Go away, Jaron. This isn't a good time."

Jaron stares after his retreating brother for a moment and then darts forward, grabbing his arm. "Nah, it's a great time! C'mon, let's go play hide-and-seek!"

"I- wha- get off me!" splutters Jaffur, pulling free.

"Nah. Now, you've got to find me, okay! Count to twenty. No cheating!"

Jaffur stares at this madman who is apparently his Seal, aghast. Well, that's just lovely. He rolls his eyes. "You know what? Sure. Go ahead." He turns away. "One. Two. Three."

He can follow Jaron's scuffling with contemptuous ease. Not that he'll be bothering with this whole farce, but it's something.

And then, the scuffling stops. "O- oh. Hey, Thomas."

Jaffur glances over and- WHAT.

Jaron stands before a stereotypically-inflated boy their age with a leering smile that is literally wider than his face. Jaffur grunts in annoyance as the...thing...grunts something that presumably translates to language. Jaron stumbles back, caught in dream logic.

"N- no," he says, fetching up against a wall that rises behind his back. "Stay away, I don't have anything for you. Leave me alone." His breath comes faster and faster. "Please? Don't...Jaffur? Jaffur, HELP-!"

"Focus Ray."

A thin beam of golden light cores the sack of shit's skull, and Jaffur lowers his arm, scowling. He shakes his head as if trying to clear it. Then his eyes fall on Jaron and he growls, stalking over. "The hell was that?!" he demands, pulling the other boy around. "You brought a nightmare here? What's wrong with y- ack!"

Jaron flings his arms around Jaffur's neck. "Thank you!"

Jaffur shoves him away. "Get off me! What were you thinking, just standing there? Push back!"

"But he's bigger than me!" Jaron smiles. "Plus, I knew you'd come help me."

Jaffur gives him a bewildered glare. "That's no excuse! I live here, moron, I can't come with you back into the outside world! What are you going to do when the real version of that guy shows up?"

Jaron shrugs. "Run away?"

Jaffur seethes for a moment. "Never. Let me. Hear you say that again. What happens if he's faster? What if you're on ground that he knows and you don't? What happens when there's nowhere left to run?"

Jaron shrugs. "I...don't know."

Jaffur steps up close. "You. Fight. Back." He shakes his head, stepping away.

Jaron looks at him as he walks off. "I mean, you'll protect me when I'm here, right?"

"No!"

Jaron looks at the corpse, swiftly dissolving back into the substance of dreams. "Well...?"

"That was just reflex! Don't make anything of it."

Jaron watches, and shrugs. "Well, okay. I'm going to wake up now. Maybe I'll remember this when I do."

Jaffur snorts.

Jaron waves. "Well...bye! I'll see if I can remember about fighting back."

Jaffur doesn't answer.

Jaron shrugs and dissolves. Jaffur sighs, relaxing. Finally, some peace and-

You okay, sweetie?

His eyes snap open and he looks up at the sky.

As if projected on a great screen, Jaron's point of view is lit up on that sky. And he's looking up at his mother.

Jaffur hisses, his bones creaking where his fingers dig into them.

"I'm alright, Mom. Just had a dream."

What about?

"Something about Thomas. I had somebody there who helped save me! I was trapped and called out, and then there was this light like, 'WHOOOOOOOOSH!' and BANG! And Thomas was gone."

O- oh. That's a bit violent, don't you think?

"Maybe. I felt safe, though. It was nice."

Jaffur sits back as the conversation continues, thoroughly nonplussed. His grip loosens and his posture relaxes. His face even untwists from its usual scowl. With a certain amount of attention, one might observe the corners turning upward in a sad smile.

* * *​

This is how it feels to be Jaffur Vegeta right now.

Wistful.

He settles in, and watches his brother talk about the hero who saved him.

* * *

Back.

* * *
​

You do not gasp your way back into the waking world. You simply...open your eyes.

Jaffur. He's...alive? Buried. But...awake, somehow.

He knew you were there, for just a second, when you touched that rock -- and what was that, anyway?

And...Jaron.

Jaron Somerlad...is a real person.

You don't know what to think about this.

Downstairs, a bell tolls as the clock ticks over and the year turns.

You do not sleep that night.

* * *
​

Seers are weird.

I am crashing out, and the only reason I could write this much is because I wrote much of it shortly after the "Prelude" update and most of this was a matter of editing. The Year 2 turn options will be up tomorrow! Feel free to discuss among yourselves what you've learned just now and what in general you'd like to accomplish for the year. As a reminder, I'm still accepting ideas from write-ins, so if you really want something, bring it up in the discussion and I'll see about making it an option if it's not one already (if not, I'll tell you why).

I hope you enjoy this one!

 

[PoptartProdigy]

Year Two: Coming To Grips
​

You feel blindsided.

This past year...it's just been crisis after crisis. You don't know the terrain, you don't know the players in the game, you don't know where you need to point...you just don't know.

Still, a year later you think you've managed to get a grip on things. You at least know where to look now.

You're not quite sure what to feel about some of the revelations you've been through, though. In particular...Jaffur. You have no idea what to think about the strange vision of him that you had. First and foremost, you know that the whole situation just got a lot more complicated. Jaron is real. A part of you hates Lady Vegeta -- not any more, that wouldn't be possible, but it's certainly reaffirmed your feelings on her. Another part doubts that it was intentional on her part. After all, when they say "When the human sleeps, the Saiyan wakes," they don't actually mean that every Saiyan alive is constantly trading off between two personalities, they just mean your human physical form gets the benefits of as much sleep as the time you spend as a Saiyan. Something like Jaffur's scenario is probably just him being weird, again. Or him being Sealed as a Super Saiyan.

Again, you're not sure.

A part of you is wondering whether or not you should hold off on removing Jaffur's Seal. It seems like he's aware that Jaron thinks of him as his big brother, and he wants to live up to that, at least a little. Maybe it would do him good?

And then your brain spins off down a tangent about Oozaru, the god forms and maybe somehow combining them. All theoretical, of course. That kind of training is super forbidden.

In general, you don't know exactly what to do...but at least you now know where to start.

It's enough.

News of the year!

Hello, folks, and welcome to Saiyan Radio. I'm Papata Fren, your host, here to bring you the breakdown on what all went down last year. We've brought you the news all year long, and now it's time to break down the biggest events for all us lonely Exiles.

As a reminder to all you folks, this channel is encrypted, and the local humans don't even know that this frequency works, so please do clear your surroundings before tuning in. If you're hearing indecipherable static, that's good! On the other hand, it means you're trying to tune in from a non-networked radio, so you should feel very silly.

Folks, I'm afraid this year hasn't exactly seen much improvement from last. We've waited a year for things to settle, and unfortunately, it's all more turbulent than ever.

Clan Vegeta is seething under Lady Dandeer's reign, and the continued silence from Clan Goku's Lord and Scion on the subject hasn't helped. Everybody in the Clan hates the situation, but given the lack of any talking from the top, nobody can really do anything about it. Our Lord is Sealed, our Scion is Sealed, and the ex-Lord is nowhere to be found. All we have is the leadership of Clan Goku, and they're not stepping up.

Oh, I suppose you could say that we have Lady Vegeta, and of course she does have the power of Regent given that she- NOBODY CARES. She caused this problem, and nobody feels particularly great about letting her benefit from it. The order of law has broken down completely in Clan Vegeta. Heads fight each other or settle things between themselves rather than go to Lady Dandeer, and it's flying apart at the seams. Our unity as a Clan has always been based on the fact that we respect our Lords as royalty. They aren't just mediators like in Clan Goku; they are our Princes. Lady Dandeer has no claim to the Clan's leadership by our traditions.

...I'm sorry, that was unprofessional. I'm supposed to be impartial, ho hum. Okay.

Ex-Lord Yammar Vegeta has gone into seclusion, actively chasing away any visitors to his home. His stance on the Sealing remains unknown.

Ex-Lady Apra Goku has gone into similar seclusion. Her stance on the Sealing remains unknown.

Scion Kakara has been seen in public, but has kept a wide berth from any Saiyans, despite rumors that she's been stepping up her involvement in the human world. Combine that with her strange meeting with Lady Vegeta, and nobody is sure what's going on. Some believe she is having second thoughts and are doubting the official story of what happened at Jaffur's Sealing, but her stance on the Sealing remains unknown.

House Senzu remains hidden and unreachable, but some have claimed to have sensed Head Raditz a few times. Without evidence, the truth of these is unclear. Their current intentions are unknown.

Lord Goku continues to defend his choice in public. His own Clan makes no organized protest, but he has learned to avoid large groups of Vegetans for fear of public mockery.

The Ancestor Cult has risen into activity lately, with High Priest Celeran coming forth demanding that Dandeer Vegeta come to the Training Hall this summer to answer to the Cult for her actions. He has declared this as a part of his announcement of the Second Garenhuld Ancestral Council, drawing eyes from the secular world as well. For background, the First Garenhuld Ancestral Council took place during the reign of the first Lady, Lady Garla Vegeta. Her husband, the current High Priest's namesake Lord Celeran, was a member of the earliest, unorganized versions of the Ancestor Cult. He called the First Council to establish the formal structure of the Cult as it stands today, riding on his wife's successes in establishing the Clan system to set up a loose, if formal, hierarchy of authority. Given the groundbreaking nature of Garenhuld I, some wonder what on earth the current High Priest Celeran could have in mind.

Some speculate that the Cult intends to condemn her and cast her from the faith. To date, excommunication has not been a right given to the High Priests of the Ancestor Cult, but given the holy status of Lords and Scions in the eyes of the Cult, some wonder if the Sealing has provoked the High Priest to attempt to gain that right, and then use it. Celeran himself has remained adamantly silent to outside inquiries, insisting that it is a, "matter of the Faith."

Demands have been made of the Seers as of late to take a side in the matter of the Sealing. Carrick Balor, a noted Gokun Seer, issued this statement in response: "Get the hell off my lawn and quit bothering me. We're not a conspiracy. If you want a prediction, I do rates by the vision. Now buzz off!" To date, that is the most comment received from any Seer on the matter.

The Sorcerers are no better organized, and no statement has been received from them as a group.

In short?

Things are flying apart at the seams, and all of the big players are big question marks.

So yeah. That's the year. I'm Papata Fren, and this has been the news of the year. I'm going to drink myself into a stupor. Humans do that on the new year, right? Yeah. That's why.

* * *
​

Actions Available! [12 (10 Base, 1 from Driven, 1 from A Cause]

Opportunities Available!

Masquerade: Maintaining the appearance of being a human is exhausting, but in the event of somebody investigating Earth, potentially vital. This is your part in it.

[X]Attend School (Mandatory, choose one of the following): Time-consuming, tiring, and the part that you're most likely to be discovered doing. Unfortunately, you really have no choice. Current grades: trending A-. Effect: Attend school.
-[ ] Slack (1 action): You have better things to do! Slack off on schoolwork to focus on other pursuits. Effect: Possible grade loss. You're smart and this is primary school, you you have a decent chance of not dropping a grade.
-[ ] Maintain Grades (2 actions): You're good where you are. Let's just get the effort in to stick it out and then focus on other things. Effect: Maintain grades.
-[ ] Raise Grades (3 actions): These grades are good...but they could be better. Effect: Hit the books for a possible grade gain. You are very smart, and thus should almost certainly succeed.

[ ] Strange Peg For a Strange Hole (1 action): The Misfits are, oddly enough, the place you fit into the most. So you'll make sure to put in the time to really fit in with them. Friends are nice, and they demand the extra effort. Effect: Go above and beyond the effort needed to merely maintain your new friendships, and try to strengthen your new bonds. You will almost certainly succeed.

[ ] My Best Friend (1 action, may be taken more than once): In particular, there's one person you want to spend more time with this year. Effect: Take the time to improve your relationship with one person in particular, gaining a special trust and affection for and with them. Success is guaranteed.

[ ] Queen of the School (1 action): No better Masque than blending in! Effect: Socialize as a human and expand your current social circle. You'd do very well here, most likely.

[ ] The Power of Learning (1 action): Quite aside from school, the human world has always fascinated you. Maybe you can learn something from them? Effect: Become a bookworm in (insert field of study) or just read as widely as possible if nothing specific catches your eye. This is something you'd be good at.

[ ] Improve Masque Affinity (1 action): The human world of Garenhuld offers many intriguing possibilities, but when you're Masqued, you're well aware that you're always just a little bit...off. You've never made the rookie mistake of trying to grab a chair with your tail, but it's been close. If you wish to involve yourself deeper in the human world, you'll need to improve your comfort in your Masque first. Effect: Grind your Masque Affinity, reducing your "tells" in human form and unlocking more involved options. Success in this is guaranteed with any amount of time investment; the only thing in question is how much you'll improve by.
-[ ] For bonuses, write in how specifically you'll accomplish this. In general the answer will be, "endurance training," but more specifically it'll be things that let you get more used to the differences between your two bodies. Physical activity, in other words.

Saiyan: While the Masquerade is important, you are nobility. You really do need to pay attention to this stuff.

[X] Training (Mandatory, 1 action): You have mastered the transformation, and now all that's left is to finally reach your limits.
-[X] Train Base Strength: 375 million units...it was just last year that that felt like an unreachable pinnacle of strength. Now you look ready to hit it by the end of the year. Effect: Raise your base form's strength by conventional training. WILL COMPLETE THIS YEAR.

[ ] A Warrior's Path: being a warrior is about more than brute strength. Master the art of combat to gain your people's respect. Your mindset will hold you back in all aspects, though.
-[ ] Train Hand-To-Hand (2 actions): Jaffur showed you exactly how far you have to go. You've learned your lessons from him in dueling, and can't really improve it much farther besides, but you can improve other forms of combat as well. Effect: Train your skill in hand-to-hand combat, and thereby your facility in its involved talents.
-[ ] Train Ki Manipulation (2 actions): You already have something of a gift in this, although again Jaffur proved more skilled in the combat applications. Maybe you could close that gap. Effect: Train your skill in ki manipulation, and thereby your facility in its involved talents. You are enough of a prodigy that you would suffer no maluses to improvement here.
-[ ] Train Specific Skill (1 action, may be taken multiple times): As you train your skill in an overall field, your skill at individual techniques will rise to match it, but maybe you can focus on something in particular. Effect: Choose a specific Skill you wish to train or learn. Crowd fighting? Fighting in a team? Specific ki projection techniques like the Kikoho? Odder stuff, like the multiform? (ask your GM for an extended list of techniques if you're not sure) This would give a higher chance of success than simply training the whole related field.
-[ ] Command Training (1 action): You will be expected to lead your Clan if war comes. You may as well be good at it. Effect: Learn the art of battlefield command. Gain "Leadership" skill and set your starting skill level. Your mindset won't impact you as badly here.
-[ ] Train Oozaru (1 action): You failed to figure this out last year, despite the very good odds in your favor. Despite that, you are determined to continue, your odd hunch growing only stronger. And with lessons learned, you know you'll succeed this time. Effect: As the QM increasingly loses patience with the dice, automatically succeed in gaining control over the Oozaru form and gain a variable amount of strength in it.
-[ ] Maintain Your Skills (1 action): You're not really focused on training. Why is everybody so obsessed with strength, anyway? Effect: Focus only on maintaining your current standing in Combat and its component skills. Does not need to be taken if any of the above are successfully taken. If you take some of the above but fail all of them, you still risk skill atrophy. I'll cop to it, this is for game balance over realism.

[ ] Style Training: The mark of a true warrior is one who unifies their various skills and abilities into a cohesive whole. You're not really suited to fighting, but this could help you.
-[ ] Train Style [Variable] (1 action): You've gained a comprehensive library of styles, and can now choose to pick one to begin training in if you please.
-[ ] Study Jaffur's Form (1 action): You know the first step here, but more will take time. Effect: Spend more time trying to figure out further requirements for Jaffur's form. With your brain and having made a breakthrough, you know progress to be a near-certainty.
-[ ] Create Style (2 actions): Your path is your own. You will build a style for yourself. Effect: Invest immense time and energy into building a form from the ground up. It won't be easy, and given your mindset you may fail, but the rewards are potentially enormous. Work closely with your QM to determine the mechanics.

[ ] The Mysteries: You are a Seer, an heir to the legacy of Bardock. This alone has radically changed your path in life. Yet despite this, you cannot ignore the impact of Sorcery on your life.
-[ ] Train With Sensei (1 action): Nothing for it but time. Effect: Grind your talent in Seer abilities. Sensei tells you that this will be gruelingly hard, and take years to master no matter how much of a prodigy you are.
-[ ] Beg Sensei To Teach You [Write-In Specific Technique] (1 action): Waiting is boring. Effect: Make a hard Communication check to convince Sensei to deviate from his plan and then train the skill selected. I'll tell you if it's not a thing.
-[ ] Study Magic (1 action): You aren't a Sorcerer, and you're slightly relieved about that, to be honest. But it remains significant to you, and you want to study it. Effect: Begin scholarship into the ways of magic.

[ ] The Pulse of Life: You are a part of this society, and it's the people who make it tick.
-[ ] Socialize! (1 action, may be taken multiple times): These are the only people you can be truly honest with. You want to talk to them! But who...? Effect: Spend large amounts of time with existing friends or acquaintances to improve relationships (specify who at one person per action; presently restricted to your little brother Mato, your little sister Fasha, or your toddler brother Endivan).
-[ ] Making Friends (1 action): You kind of have a small social circle now. Let's fix that! Effect: Take advantage of social opportunities to meet new people and establish relationships.
-[ ] Family First (1 action): Your relationship with your Father has stopped actively collapsing, but the two of you are still distant from each other. You want to fix that, even though it'll never again be what it once was. Effect: Repair relationship with Dad.
-[ ] A Scion's Duties II (1 action): You've begun the first of your training and learned the basics of how your society works. Now it's time to really delve into it. Effect: Learn the art of diplomacy and Clan management at the feet of your father, improving your Communication Skill and learning about the practical side of managing hundreds upon thousands of Saiyans who all want a fight.
-[ ] Set the Record Straight (1 action): The official story is that you helped Seal Jaffur. It'll mean publicly opposing your Dad and making a definite enemy out of Lady Vegeta, but you could come forward and make your stance on the matter clear. Effect: Share the truth of the Sealing with your people. Increases societal unrest and earns you enemies.
-[ ] Garenhuld II (1 action): Society is buzzing with news of the news of the Cult demanding Lady Dandeer's presence at the Training Hall over the summer as part of a conference to address the status of the Cult in the modern world. You definitely haven't been invited, and your Dad tells you that High Priest Celeran already had the Hall booked for the day, so you doubt your presence is welcome. But this could be important. Effect: Sneak through all of the security surrounding the Training Hall on the night of the Council, and try to listen in on what's going on.

[ ] Breaking the Seal: You know some of the details of Jaffur's Seal, and have an ally in your Grandma Apra. What else is there to do?
-[ ] Investigate Clan Vegeta (1 action): You want to know what's going on over there, and that would be a step towards breaking Jaffur's Sealing. But you're...not exactly welcome over there, at the moment. Effect: At great risk, sneak around Clan and House Vegeta to find out more about the situation there, including specifics about its ruling House. If caught, enormous repercussions would ensue.
-[ ] Investigate Clan Goku (1 action): It would be rather easier to sound out your own Clan. Nobody would question that. Effect: At no risk, poll your Clan to find out the specifics of any tensions regarding Jaffur's Sealing.
-[ ] Contact House Senzu (1 action): House Senzu has withdrawn from society at large with all members, including their Sorcerer, and their Senzu Beans in tow, but when last you met you were allies. Perhaps if you find them...somehow...you can be again. Effect: Search for House Senzu, and if possible bring them in on the plot.
-[ ] Contact Yammar Vegeta (1 action): The Butcher of House Talt has a history dripping with blood, all in the defense of his House and Clan. You doubt he appreciates what's happened. Effect: Sound out Yammar Vegeta, and if possible bring him in on the plot.
-[ ] Sound Out Sensei (1 action): Your Sensei is a Seer, like you, and seems sensible. You think he should understand why you're working to reverse this. But...depending on how aware he's being of the future, even deciding to talk to him will tip him off to your intentions. Effect: Take a risk. Chance your Sensei blowing your newborn conspiracy wide open, and try to sound out his opinion. If possible, bring him in on the plot.
-[ ] Smash the Seal (1 action): You have waited long enough, and know all you need to, in your estimation. Go. Gather what you have, and go. Effect: War conference with present allies and assets to throw together a plan for the final destruction of Jaffur's Seal. Then, make the call on whether or not it's time to go.

[ ] Personal: Sometimes, you just want to do things on your own time.
-[ ] Ki (1 action, may be taken multiple times): Despite your disinterest in fighting, you really do like using your Ki, and you're good at it! Effect: In your spare time, improve Ki Talents (1 per action).
-[ ] New Tricks (1 action): You are a prodigy in ki use. Surely you should be able to figure out some new techniques. Effect: Discover new ki talents, if applicable.
-[ ] The Examined Life (1 action): You are made up of many small facets. After your revelation with your sense of pacifism, you want to reflect on another, and delve into its secrets. Effect: Select one trait to reflect on and develop, excluding Pacifist, which must be further developed through play.

* * *
​

The First and Second Vatican Ecumenical Councils were meetings called by the Pope in the Vatican City in 1869 and 1962 among leaders of the Catholic Church, each with the intention of determining the Church's direction amongst the changes occurring in the world of the time. They are informally referred to among Catholics as "Vatican I" and "Vatican II," and represented sea changes in the policies and doctrines of the church of the day. One illustrative example: Vatican I formally adopted the popular (within the Church of the time, across the whole of the world) concept of Papal Infallibility. It also laid out the guidelines of when the concept applied. Previous such councils had been held, but outside the Vatican. The rulings of these councils are famously controversial; Infallibility, while largely popular, had been the subject of flat-out denials from the entirety of the bishops of Ireland in the years before Vatican I and prompted further denials and a minor schism among some German, Austrian, and Swiss parishes once it was dogmatized. Rulings from Vatican II retain their controversy today, over fifty years later. While these controversies are ultimately insignificant in the face of the fact that the vast majority of Catholics accepted the rulings of the Councils immediately, they nonetheless are loud controversies.

This is the scope and impact I have chosen to borrow for the Second Garenhuld Ancestral Council.

Now, before everybody rushes to throw it into their votes, consider: you're not welcome there. What's the fallout going to be if you sneak in, and get caught, at something of such significance?

I'd like to freeze voting on this for a bit to encourage discussion; no votes within twelve hours of this update going up will be counted. Enjoy, and have fun figuring out what you'd like to do! I am still considering write-ins, so if you have an idea, feel free to mention it.

And, finally:

THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED.

 

[Aranfan]

Omake: Meanwhile, IN SPACE!

Brother and sister traded blows high in the air, lightning crackled around them from the sheer force of the blows they struck. Those on the ground could not see them, both because of distance and because of the sheer speed at which they moved. Finally a right hook to the face from the sister sent the brother falling to the ground.

"Damn sis, and here I thought I was supposed to be the stronger twin."

The blond woman floated down, before smirking, "Maybe if you took your training more seriously you would be."

The black haired man pouted for a moment before wincing and holding his jaw, "Think you actually knocked my jaw out of alignment there.

The woman shrugged, "Eh, I'll fix it later, we're due for some maintenance soon anyway."

"I didn't think Frozen wrecked us that badly? I mean, we did drive him off."

"If your jaw was knocked out of alignment from sparring practice, he definitely did."

The man snorted, and opened his mouth to retort further, but was interrupted by the approach of a large spider like creature.

"Champions, I bring important news!"

The two glanced at each other, before the woman answered, "What is it Rikal?"

"Coolant is dead."

"What?"/"How?" the twins asked, before looking at each other again and the woman continued, "He's stronger than the two of us put together, and the strongest of his brother Fridge's underlings."

"Yes. Apparently he was confronted by a fat pink creature and turned into chocolate by it and then eaten. We have no idea who this pink creature is or what it wants." It produced a dataslate with a picture.

This time the look between the twins was significantly longer. The man got up, "Well 18, looks like we should fix each other up right now. Want to be at our best when we meet up with your old friend Buu, yeah?"

 

[PoptartProdigy]

Spoiler: Winning Vote

[x] Plan Aranfan
[x]Attend School (Mandatory, choose one of the following): Time-consuming, tiring, and the part that you're most likely to be discovered doing. Unfortunately, you really have no choice. Current grades: trending A-. Effect: Attend school.
-[x] Slack (1 action): You have better things to do! Slack off on schoolwork to focus on other pursuits. Effect: Possible grade loss. You're smart and this is primary school, you you have a decent chance of not dropping a grade.
[x] Strange Peg For a Strange Hole (1 action): The Misfits are, oddly enough, the place you fit into the most. So you'll make sure to put in the time to really fit in with them. Friends are nice, and they demand the extra effort. Effect: Go above and beyond the effort needed to merely maintain your new friendships, and try to strengthen your new bonds. You will almost certainly succeed.
[x] Improve Masque Affinity (1 action): The human world of Garenhuld offers many intriguing possibilities, but when you're Masqued, you're well aware that you're always just a little bit...off. You've never made the rookie mistake of trying to grab a chair with your tail, but it's been close. If you wish to involve yourself deeper in the human world, you'll need to improve your comfort in your Masque first. Effect: Grind your Masque Affinity, reducing your tells in human form and unlocking more involved options. Success in this is guaranteed with any amount of time investment; the only thing in question is how much you'll improve by.
-[x] Train in 'normal human' martial arts (possibly with a Masqued Gokun-Saiyan teacher) and try to get our friends to join us.
[x] Training (Mandatory, 1 action): You have mastered the transformation, and now all that's left is to finally reach your limits.
-[x] Train Base Strength: 375 million units...it was just last year that that felt like an unreachable pinnacle of strength. Now you look ready to hit it by the end of the year. Effect: Raise your base form's strength by conventional training. WILL COMPLETE THIS YEAR.
[x] A Warrior's Path: being a warrior is about more than brute strength. Master the art of combat to gain your people's respect. Your mindset will hold you back in all aspects, though.
-[x] Train Specific Skill (1 action, may be taken multiple times): As you train your skill in an overall field, your skill at individual techniques will rise to match it, but maybe you can focus on something in particular. Effect: Choose a specific Skill you wish to train or learn. Crowd fighting? Fighting in a team? Specific ki projection techniques like the Kikoho? Odder stuff, like the multiform? (ask your GM for an extended list of techniques if you're not sure) This would give a higher chance of success than simply training the whole related field.
--[x] Multiform
-[x] Train Oozaru (1 action): You failed to figure this out last year, despite the very good odds in your favor. Despite that, you are determined to continue, your odd hunch growing only stronger. And with lessons learned, you knowyou'll succeed this time. Effect: As the QM increasingly loses patience with the dice, automatically succeed in gaining control over the Oozaru form and gain a variable amount of strength in it.
[x] The Mysteries: You are a Seer, an heir to the legacy of Bardock. This alone has radically changed your path in life. Yet despite this, you cannot ignore the impact of Sorcery on your life.
-[x] Train With Sensei (1 action): Nothing for it but time. Effect: Grind your talent in Seer abilities. Sensei tells you that this will be gruelingly hard, and take years to master no matter how much of a prodigy you are.
[x] The Pulse of Life: You are a part of this society, and it's the people who make it tick.
-[x] Family First (1 action): Your relationship with your Father has stopped actively collapsing, but the two of you are still distant from each other. You want to fix that, even though it'll never again be what it once was. Effect: Repair relationship with Dad.
-[x] A Scion's Duties II (1 action): You've begun the first of your training and learned the basics of how your society works. Now it's time to really delve into it. Effect: Learn the art of diplomacy and Clan management at the feet of your father, improving your Communication Skill and learning about the practical side of managing hundreds upon thousands of Saiyans who all want a fight.
[x] Breaking the Seal: You know some of the details of Jaffur's Seal, and have an ally in your Grandma Apra. What else is there to do?
-[x] Contact House Senzu (1 action): House Senzu has withdrawn from society at large with all members, including their Sorcerer, and their Senzu Beans in tow, but when last you met you were allies. Perhaps if you find them...somehow...you can be again. Effect: Search for House Senzu, and if possible bring them in on the plot.
[x] Attempt to openly attended The Ancestor Cult meeting. Ask the organizers to let you attended, given your position as Scion and how important this will be to Saiyan Politics.
[x] Personal Ki Control

Turn the Gears​

Due to your balance of positive to negative stressors being notably positive at year's start, you need make no mental health check this year.

* * *​

With a metaphorical clap of your hands, you get ready to attend to the year's work. You always get so excited at this time of year. The infinite possibilities, the burgeoning time ahead of you to do things. The glorious sight of a to-do list unrolling out the door!

You cackle madly, rubbing your hands together in glee. It's time. Time to get down to some real, serious-

* * *​

"Slacking, Karen?" asks Gemma, taking her nose out of her book just to frown at you. "That's bad."

You flinch at the sudden and unexpected direct attention. "It's not that bad!" you object, shaking your head. "I just have better things to do!"

And you do, to be fair. You're semi-running a planet-spanning conspiracy to free the royal heir to the Lordship over half of a race in exile from his sorcerous enslavement, under the nose of your own Lord Father, while in an uncertain position of authority over/under your ex-Lady Grandmother, and with countless unknown factors arising to try and spoil that. You're swamped.

But Gemma doesn't know that. "You're smart," she says, narrowing her eyes. "You could be getting top marks."

"I already almost am!" you say, crossing your arms. "It's not like my grades are going down." And that too is true, to again be fair. You're very sharp, and primary school is not an academically rigorous setting on the scale of later education. Your smarts are more than enough to carry you through, even with your lackluster performance on homework.

"You can't count on that!" says Gemma, getting genuinely irritated. "Jenny, tell her!"

The bluenette looks up from her own homework. "Eh? Yeah, sure, whatever. Hey Gemma, what's five times eight divided by two?"

"Twenty- hey!"

Jenny grins, evading Gemma's attempt at swatting her. "Sucker!"

"Cheater," grumbles the blonde girl, grabbing up her textbook again. "Not going to catch me again."

Sophie then walks in, Maya in tow. "Hi, everybody!" says the redhead. You all chorus a hello back at her.

"You're doing homework?" asks Maya, again giving you that weird sidelong glance.

"Not Karen," grumbles Gemma, hissing in irritation as she presses down too hard while making a note and snaps the tip off of her pencil. "She apparently doesn't need to study."

Sophie looks over. "I can get that. School's boring. But what are you working on, Karen?"

"Stuff," you say, serenely bending your head over your notebook. You cross out a line of text.

"What stuff?" asks Maya, cocking her head.

"Private stuff," you reply, turning away as Sophie makes an attempt to snatch it with a wide grin.

"Come on!" says Sophie. "What's the harm?"

"I would have to kill you," you reply, to laughter from your friends.

Your Holiness, you write, I respectfully request a place at the Second Garenhuld Ancestral Council. I believe that my involvement in recent events more than warrants my presence, and to be honest, you couldn't keep me out anyway.

You grimace and scratch that line out. Satisfying? Yes. But unwise.

"Well if you're not going to study, you're just going to have to come up with something else for us to- ow!" Sophie rubs at her scalp, glaring at Gemma. "Don't throw things at me!"

The other blonde simply keeps reading. "We're studying. You're not getting out of it this time."

"Gemma's right, Sophie," you say, grinning. "You need to pay attention in class."

"Oh, you're one to talk," says Jenny.

"I'm special," you reply, closing your notebook and again twitching it away from Sophie with ease. "Although, since we're on the topic-" You idly dodge another thrown pencil from Gemma. "I had an idea for something to try later…"

* * *​

"I feel weird," announces Maya, tugging at the sleeves of her training gi. "Why are these clothes so loose?"

"Makes it easier to move," you say, stretching and relishing the feeling of the familiar clothes. This will make it much easier to get used to your Masque! The more similarities, the better. If only to highlight the glaring differences between this and your normal form.

"Karen is right," announces your instructor, one of Sensei Carrick's nephews. "Training gis like this give your more freedom of movement than almost anything else. And trust me, flexibility is very important." He stretches. He, like you, is Masqued. But he is quite obviously used to it. "Now, I already know Karen's skill level. Have any of you had training before?"

To nobody's surprise, Sophie's hand shoots right up. To your surprise, Maya raises her hand as well.

Your teacher nods. "Alright, better than I was expecting. How much? Mousy, you first."

"Eep?"

* * *​

Eventually, your teacher sets Jenny and Gemma to doing forms off in a corner until he can get to them, and then tells Maya and Sophie to spar with you a while to show him what they have.

"That's not fair!" says Sophie.

"Don't worry," he says, taking a healthy step backwards. "She'll go easy on you."

Your friends blink and turn back to you.

You don't like fighting. But you love winning.

You flex your fists and give them an evil smile. "Scared?"

Sophie huffs and comes after you.

A moment later, as she tries to sort out which direction is up, you bound over to Maya and get right in her face.

She flinches back. "Waa!"

"Hit me," you say, grinning.

"W-What?"

"Hit me," you say. "Come on, you're not going to get far against me if you hold back."

"No, you're my friend!"

"You're not going to hurt me," you reply, in absolute honesty.

"No!"

You roll your eyes. "Hey, Sophie! You get a free shot!"

Your friend, just picking herself up, raises an eyebrow. "You sure?"

"Yes."

Without any further ado, she launches into an absolutely vicious spin kick. It's slow and obvious and you really hope she wouldn't use it against somebody who was going to fight back. But it hits like a truck.

Regrettably, you're more durable than most planets. As her heel crashes into your solar plexus, your smirk simply widens, and you grab her by the ankle. She has just enough time to gulp before you dump her on the ground again.

You turn back to Maya. "See?"

The smaller girl steels herself, eyes wide, and then comes after you. A moment later, she too makes the acquaintance of Mr. Ground.

Things continue in that vein for quite some time.

Ability Improved: Masque Affinity [Unpromising-->Competent], due to picking an incredibly effective means of getting comfortable with one's body even outside the context of being in a sorcerous guise.

Your role in the Misfits has consolidated. You are now the physical one who is really good at fighting and drags the group to martial arts lessons. All Misfit relationships improved to: Ally [Dependable], from: Acquaintance [Friendly].

* * *

That is, however, not the only training you do this year.

"HaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Your Dad stands opposite you, fully transformed in the Training Hall, as you power up to max. "Just a bit farther!" he says.

You double down, clench your fists, and howl, exploding with golden light as you transform as well.

Dad grins at you, takes an opening stance of the Goku Style, and waits.

You're not particularly learned in any given style, but you're quite good at this, and besides that, you know some stances just by paying attention. You take a defensive stance that you recall reading about from the Tenshinhan Style.

Dad lunges forward on the attack, as is the norm for his form, and you block him.

Your blows ring out across the Hall as you try to keep ahead of your father's overwhelming assault. You've studied all of the forms, and so you can recognize what he's doing. The Goku Style is almost entirely offensive and has little to no response to being put on the back foot. If momentum is kept, it's devastating, and given that your father is always the strongest man around, it's not hard to see why he chose that one, even setting aside his stance on the proper role of a Lord, in traditional opposition to Clan Vegeta.

But your Dad isn't facing just any other Saiyan at the moment. He's fighting you. And you've been practicing.

You phase out of the way of one of his strikes and twirl in a backflip, turning your momentum into a vicious kick that knocks the air out of him and completely steals his momentum. You wince at his pained expression, but keep up the attack, realizing that you need to keep him backpedaling if you're to have any hope of keeping ahead of him.

In between strikes, you can see Dad switching to Krillin Style, but it's too late for that; you've gained control of the fight. You sweep his feet – not necessarily a critical advantage while flying, but still profoundly disorienting. And then, as you see him start to tense for the expected strike, you instead place your fingers to your forehead and-

vip

You immediately cup your hands together and take a deep breath, focusing on your Dad's ki to the exclusion of all else. "Ka…me…"

He responds, instantly, regaining control and rocketing after you.

And focus…

vip

"HA…ME…"

He whirls, eyes wide, and puts his fingers to his forehead, flashing behind you-

But you were ready, and-

vip vip vip vip vip vip vip vip vip

-flashing around the Hall in a flurry, confusing him as to where the heck you even are, and behind him-!

vip

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

A colossal blue blast envelops him and strains at the wards surrounding the Hall, threatening to burst them. But they're well-made, and react perfectly, containing it in its entirety.

And when the light clears, Dad is picking himself off of the ground, laughing.

"Brilliant, Kakara!" he calls, zipping up to you and dragging you into a hug. You laugh in delight as he spins you around.

"That was spectacular," he says, flying you both back to the ground. "Obviously, not enough to put me down, but that would have turned the fight, kiddo." His eyes twinkle, and he warns you, "Won't work twice, though."

You grin back at him, happier than you can say at how…normal…this all feels.

He puts a hand on your shoulder, and the twinkle…shifts, becoming something far deeper. "More importantly…" he says. "Kakara, do you know how strong you were just then?"

You cock your head. "Hm? No."

His smile widens. "Well…give you a hint…"

BANG.

He flares his aura to full brightness, taking it to the absolute limit and bathing the Hall gold. The gust of wind from all the energy he's putting out blasts your hair back.

But it doesn't move you. In fact, you don't even twitch. Your eyes widen, and his smile gets even brighter, exploding into overwhelming pride. "You've done it, Kakara," he says. "Your training is at an end. And I am so proud of you."

You flush bright red in happiness, ducking your head. You feel accomplished and stunned, all at once. You hadn't even thought to check your power level today, but now that you are…one billion, one hundred and twenty-five million. There are two ki signatures of that strength in the Hall today.

You look up. "Dad…just because my training's over…"

He cocks his head. "Hm?"

You shrug, embarrassed. "Well, just because it's over doesn't mean we have to stop, right?"

The moment freezes, stretching out for an eternity as the two of you let the words echo in the Hall. In that moment, everything between the two of you over the past couple of years bounces in the space between your question and his response, choking the air.

And then he reaches forward and pulls you into a tight hug, and all of that falls away. "Of course not, Kakara," he says, voice soft. "We can keep training together as often as you like."

It's not what the two of you once had. You won't ever get that back, not until something about your relationship changes, again. He's not your superhero anymore, and won't be ever again.

But in this moment, and all the moments to come, you can feel safe in the knowledge that he'll always be your Dad.

Your tears soak into his gi, like they did on the day of the Sealing. But this time, they are profoundly happy.

Base Power Level is now 375 Million. You have reached your limits, and can go no further. By the laws of your people, even for you the second transformation is forbidden. But now you stand atop the heap – one of the two most powerful beings on Garenhuld. In the eyes of many, you are a Saint. You are Kakara Goku. And you are a Super Saiyan.

During your training, you have made the effort to get closer to your father, letting all that has passed between you fall aside from the simple fact of your relationship with each other. While you may disagree, and indeed still do, nothing can take away the fact that he is your father. Relationship improved: Berra Goku, Ally [Dependable-->Strong].

* * *​

You sit, meditating. Not all training is simple strength. Not all techniques are for fighting. You are nobility – in fact, should you care to claim it, you have every bit as much right to the title of Princess as Jaffur does to the title of Prince.

Not everything you do can be in service of fighting, even if you even remotely wanted it to be that way. And in particular light of the growing conspiracy to free Jaffur and your part in it, certain skills of…subterfuge…are required.

You concentrate on your ki. One thing you found over the course of your studies is that for learning anything to do with ki, a firm grasp of ki control is essential. And you have practiced with your own ki every day, raising and lowering it as quickly as you can, and at least once every day bringing it into the almost liquid haze of Jaffur's form. You can now do it with ease, although true understanding of his form still eludes you. When you do it, it is a pretty light show and nothing more; something else is still missing, something you will need to research yourself, or else ask Jaffur to teach you if you ever find yourself in his mind again.

But as a result, your talent in its use has improved. You possess skill in the control of your own ki beyond any on the planet save perhaps Jaffur or some few you don't know of. You know for a certainty that this, along with your ki senses, are a place in which you have surpassed your father. You move with constant poise and grace, every ounce of your own energy fully under your control.

And under the weight of that much expertise, it is a matter of simple seconds before you feel the body of your ki splitting down the middle, and one half flitting away to settle opposite you.

You open your eyes, and meet the gaze of your copy, sitting across from you.

You pick up the letter sitting between the two of you and glance through it.


Lady Scion,

I gladly grant your request to attend the Second Garenhuld Ancestral Council in the Training Hall this upcoming summer. It pleases my heart to see a Scion taking an interest in the Faith.

I of course understand that you are not interested in converting as of yet, although I urge you to keep your heart open. Please be assured, the Faith will welcome you with open arms and nothing but hope that you might find our beliefs worthy.

Your Lady Grandmother, I imagine, will be most pleased to sit with you on the day of the Council; when you arrive, please find her in order to find a place to sit.

I look forward to meeting you in person. May the Three watch over you and grant you wisdom and strength.

Yours,

Celeran Peat,
High Priest of the Church of the Ancestors, and
Leader of the Faithful of Garenhuld.


You look back up at your copy. "This'll be interesting."

"I wonder if we'll have to use me," she says.

"Maybe, if they go off and talk by themselves for a bit," you reply.

"I guess we'll see."

"Guess so."

The two of you grin at each other.

Ki Control [Talented-->Exceptional].

Multiform Skill Acquired [Competent].

You have secured permission to attend Garenhuld II, with a pair of cookies expended in the effort.

* * *​

You and the Misfits walk through the halls on your way to lunch, chattering with each other.

"Come on, Maya, talk about something else," says Jenny, laughing. "You've been talking about this every free minute since science class."

"But planets are interesting!" exclaims your smallest friend, unusually animated. "Come on, think of how many there are out there! What if there's one we could live on?"

You smother a snort in the cradle.

"Come on, that's not likely," says Jenny, rolling her eyes. "They're just rocks. Who cares about going there?"

"Because it's a mystery?" says Maya. "Who doesn't like mysteries?"

You notice people around you looking at her in shock, and grimace; the Exiles maintain the cultural traditions of Earth, but Garenhulders hate innovation; no wonder Maya only fits in with the Misfits.

"I like mysteries just fine if they stay mysteries," says Jenny, ruffling Maya's hair. "Why do I need to learn about other planets?"

"You should listen to your friend, pipsqueak," says one of the students passing by. "Nobody cares about anything out in space."

Maya shrinks back, flushing red, and mumbles to herself.

You scowl at him and pull her into a hug.

Sophie steps up into his face, making him take a step back.

He promptly runs into Jenny, who gives him a terrifying, broad grin when he whips around to look at her.

Gemma snaps her book shut, tucks her pencil away, and gives him a look that a teacher would be proud of.

"Hey, jerk," says Jenny, leaning in. "Shut up."

He takes a bewildered step back and runs straight in Sophie. He suddenly realizes that the two have him bracketed.

"Just because you can't understand it doesn't mean it's not interesting," says Gemma, her eyes sharp behind her glasses.

"I think you should go," says Sophie.

"Nobody really wants you here," you say, squeezing Maya reassuringly.

"...go away," She mutters, shooting a quick glance at the boy.

He looks around at each of you, flustered, pride stung by the speed with which you all closed ranks. He flushes bright red in fury and embarrassment, and glances back at a cluster of boys who must be his friends. Then he looks back at you all, scowling.

"I can say what I want to," he says, turning to Sophie. "You're the ones nobody cares about!"

And then he shoves her.

The boy is probably a year or two above you, and he's big. He's a real early-bloomer, too -- Dad tells you that no matter what your Masque does, your Saiyan self won't start growing until you're fourteen or so, but you know enough about human puberty to understand that he's started about as early as boys physically can, which makes him stand out as oddly unrealistic in the crowd of primary school students. But there he is, and his simple shove sends Sophie flying across the hall and to the floor.

You all freeze in a moment of shock, and he takes a step forward and away from Jenny -- maybe forgetting her, maybe assuming she won't do anything considering how big he is. He sneers down at Sophie, looming over her. He opens his mouth, and then his legs promptly go out from under him.

He crashes to the ground as the boy who tripped him recovers his poise from the leg sweep, standing and dropping his backpack. Your eyes widen in absolute shock as you stare into a pair of blue eyes that are hauntingly familiar.

Jaron Somerlad stares down at the boy he's just tripped, gulps, and says, "You shouldn't have done that."

Your mind stutters on the sheer fact of his presence.

He- but- how- WHEN- later. Okay, Kakara, okay, think, think, Jaron has bully problems, right? He's scared of them, and he's not Jaffur, so a boy who doesn't know how to fight just tripped somebody bigger and stronger than him and he's afraid into the bargain. Okay this is bad.

You unwind your arms from Maya and prepare to step in.

But it seems you were at least a little mistaken in your assessment of Jaron. The downed boy says something, and Jaron's face freezes. You start moving forward and then Jaron's face twists into a mask of fury. He kicks the older boy hard enough to draw out a pained howl and promptly turns away, walking over to Sophie.

He reaches out with a hand. "Here."

She grabs it and scrambles up. "Thanks."

"You okay?"

"F-Fine." She flushes and looks away.

The Misfits regroup around Jaron and Sophie, and the boy, struggling to his feet, freezes and reconsiders his anger upon seeing the group all together. He scowls and turns, walking away from you all. Tension bleeds out of the air.

You, however, remain on edge, and turn to face Jaffur's Seal. You look at him and flinch as you meet his gaze square-on.

"Do...I know you?" he asks, cocking his head. The other Misfits watch the interaction in confusion.

"N-No!" you say, prompting an offended look from him. "No," you say, calmer. "Sorry. No, I don't think we've met."

He nods, still looking confused. "Right. Um." He looks around the group as all of your eyes fall on him and turns bright red. "...hi?"

Sophie takes a step forward. "Hi. I'm Sophie. Sophie Schultz." She steels herself as if preparing to do something very daring and then sticks her hand out to shake.

He mirrors the gesture hesitantly. "Jaron Somerlad."

"It's nice to meet you!" she says, cheeks faintly red themselves, which is odd for her. "They're Maya, Jenny, Gemma, and Karen."

You all murmur your hellos as she counts you off.

"...nice to meet you, too," he says, looking away. His boldness earlier, it would seem, is completely gone.

Sophie hesitates -- and again, you note that as being distinctly unusual. "So...are you going to lunch, or...something...?" she asks.

He blinks. "Oh! Right, yes." He turns around and grabs his backpack. "I-I was just going there, but I saw...well..." He shrugs, ducking his head, and mutters, "He shouldn't have done that." There's an odd emphasis there.

You wonder if Jaffur is cheering because Jaron stood up for something or too busy staring intently at you through the sky in the Seal to even notice.

Sophie, for her part, brightens quite a bit. "Yeah, we're going there too!"

He actually meets her gaze for a moment, there. "Well...yeah...it's...kind of the lunch period sorry that was mean."

Jenny laughs, snapping some of the tension. "Wow, you're like me crossed with Maya! I think I like you."

He turns crimson.

And abruptly, even Jenny realizes that she just said something embarrassing, matching him for color. "I-I meant...not like..." she buries her face in her hands. Maya reaches up to pat her on the shoulder. Gemma smirks.

"I...it's fine," he says, looking like he desperately desires to be anywhere else.

Sophie clears her throat. "So, um...do you sit with anybody?"

He shakes his head, regaining his footing a bit. "No, I'm...I'm new. My family just moved into the neighborhood last week. We had to leave our old home for some reason...just a year after we left the last one. Sorry, I'm rambling."

Sophie grins, regaining her confidence. "Well, that's perfect! You can sit with us!"

He flushes again. "I...I...um...I..."

"I insist," she says, grabbing his arm and tugging him along. "We have to thank you for helping, right?"

She looks back at you all, giving you a "play along" look. Jaffur stutters, looking very close to panic.

* * *​

Well. Shit.

How do you react?

[ ] NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. How about some NOPE to go with all of that NOPE? This is a bad idea! Make an excuse! Something! Anything! Get him out of here! This is a terrible idea!
[ ] Okay, but seriously, he looks terrified, let the poor boy go.
[ ] ...roll with it. Okay, let's see how this turns out. When did this happen, and why were you not informed?
[ ] I smell a golden opportunity. What better way to analyze the Seal than this?
[ ] Write-In.

What's your attitude?

[ ] Business as usual. This is awkward. People are blushing. Sophie is obviously crushing. Ready the cannons, because you've got yourself some ammunition to spend. Tease everybody present! Tease them right this instant!
[ ] The world has ended. Act like it, and remain firmly distant while you figure out how this will impact things.
[ ] Write-In.

THESE VOTES ARE NOW CLOSED.

* * *
​

I occasionally find myself faced with the dilemma of how much social intelligence to credit Kakara with. I generally err on the side of generosity, given that while I'm a big fan of unreliable narrators, there's being unreliable due to limited IC information, and there's being unreliable due to forcing an audience of teens-upwards to work with the social intelligence of your average nine-year-old girl. And Kakara is, bear in mind, pretty damn near to being a genius.

You're at about an April-equivalent month in Garenhuld's year by this stage. I'm considering whether or not to bother with making a specific calendar, but for now I'll just say it's the middle of spring and leave it at that.

 

[Aranfan]

Excerpts from "A Military History of the Role of Champion Mutants in Galactic Warfare".


Although it would seem strange to modern ears, for the majority of Galactic History, Champions served a primarily defensive role. Current theories of course emphasize the offensive potential of Champions, but the primarily defensive use of Champions arose from a confluence of factors:

Firstly; the relative rarity of champions. When a principality has at most one or two champions to it's name then it makes sense to focus them on defensive roles. Champions are defined by their ability to take entire armies at once, and ensuring that the political center (usually a prince or elected official) was safe from other armies or assassins usually took precedence over their more offensive uses.

Secondly; the inability of champions to make effective use of ground. Unlike an army, a champion can only be in one place at a time and can only pay attention to a relatively small number of things at once. To ensure a conquered population doesn't rebel and keeps producing and paying taxes requires an army, which can be in many places at once and can pay attention to many things at once. Thus in eras where the capture of populations or economic infrastructure are the aims of war, rather than just looting existing riches, an offensive use of Champions are contraindicated. As most space faring populations are industrialized societies, this covered most interplanetary forms of warfare.

…

The status of the Galactic Patrol as the only large scale group of champions was for many millenia the core of the Galactic King's power and influence.

…

The arrival of the Saiyans to the galactic scene upended the previously prevailing conventional wisdom on the use of champions. While small in number compared to most space faring species, the Saiyans were unique in that all of them were on the level of champions from the perspective of other races.

When the Saiyans went to war as a society against another polity, as against the Histians, the offensive potential of champions was amply demonstrated for the galaxy to see. In this author's opinion, however, the more influential aspect of the Saiyan presence was their penchant for acting as mercenaries.

With the supply of Champions greatly increased, the ability to use them offensively likewise increased. While the defensive use of champions remained, and indeed many Saiyan mercenaries were hired to counter other Saiyan mercenaries, many times the Saiyans were hired in the first place to devastate enemy lines and allow armies to exploit the created openings.

…

The military theories of this era most resemble our modern ones, as in this era most polities sought to make use of territories they conquered. In our own time the self proclaimed Emperor Frigid is a warlord in this vein, which is very different from that of his ancestor King Cooler's brother Freeza, who I shall examine in a later chapter.

…

The high prices commanded by Saiyan mercenaries also enticed many champions to form their own mercenary groups. This would lay the groundwork for what came later.

…

The deathknell of the defensive use of Champions came with the rise of the Planetary Trade Organization. While entire books can and have been written on Lord Freeza's real estate scam, we are here interested in only it's military implications. I will however provide a simplified explanation of it's mode of operation for those who are not already familiar with it.

As Freeza had little interest in keeping the territory his underlings conquered, he was freely able to use champions to their fullest offensive potential: exterminating entire planetary populations. Instead of using the planet himself, he would sell it to the highest bidder, often at a massive profit.

At first the primary military might of the PTO lay in Freeza himself, for he was the most powerful Mutant Champion of his time, but he soon accumulated enough money to hire increasing numbers of mercenaries to exterminate ever more planets. The PTO only truly became the galactic superpower it is remembered as when Freeza managed to convince King Vegeta the Sixth to swear fealty to him, to the later reget of King Vegeta the Seventh and the Saiyans as a whole.


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In this era, dominated as it was by the PTO, armies themselves came to be seen as superfluous, even wasteful.

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The Era of the PTO came to an end following Freeza's defeat on Namek and then death on Earth, although the organization itself would survive for another decade or so as they attempted to maintain their holdings in the face of advancing military technology and increasing relevance of armies.

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[Andres]

The Life that Surrounds Us


Kakara gently landed on the grassy top of a plateau. Alone, far from civilisation, here she could unwind after a long day's training with Dad in peace and tranquillity. Sometimes she'd spend the time with her friends or sleeping after such a workout, but this time she decided to isolate herself and just feel.

Sitting at the centre of the plateau, Kakara closed her eyes and opened her mind, her body relaxed utterly. The first thing she sensed was the ki within herself - radiant, powerful, and not so much constrained as merely unsummoned. Then she sensed the life around her, the faint presence of the swaying grass, the steady hum of the single tree inhabiting the plateau, the millions of small life all around her for kilometres around. She sensed the animals, flitting about as they went about their daily lives, their children having smaller yet somehow more potential-filled presence.

Beyond, she could sense her home and the homes of so many others. Millions of people, insignificant in size compared to her own and yet no less unique or precious in what could only be described as a miracle of life. She could sense the positive and negative energies swirling in the same bodies of these creatures, complex like no others on the planet.

Finally, she could sense it all. The pure life energy of all the planet's inhabitants, radiating, moving, mixing in what was ultimately nothing more than a chaotic mess, but an awe-inspiring one nonetheless; a tapestry of infinite colours and complexities, if she was trying to sound fancy. When you looked a bit deeper, though, you find that it's still a mess, but perhaps not strictly speaking a chaotic one. Here, this ki signature came from that toad. There, that one can be followed to its origin, a human child. She could follow these origins easily and even multiple at once, but all of them? That was far beyond her. Maybe one day she could do it, but if so that day was a long way away.

Satisfied and her mind clear, Kakara woke from the deep meditation and started making her way back through the air. Ki was life energy. It wasn't just raw energy gained from a strong body, it was also composed of strength of will and a balanced mind. Today she reinforced the balance of her mind, the better to face whatever challenges lay ahead of her.