Dragon Ball: After the End

PoptartProdigy · Dec 14, 2016

[X] "Tag!"

As You Were

The two of you shift in discomfort, not quite meeting each other's eyes.

You consider challenging him to a beam contest with each other's attacks. But that doesn't really sound like any fun to you. Of course, there's one thing you could always do.

Steeling yourself, you reach forward and smack him on the arm. "Tag!"

He blinks and gapes at you.

You grin at him. "Now you're it."

The moment stretches...but then, he smiles. "Yeah, 'cause you cheated again!" He lunges for you, and you skip back.

"Nuh uh! I didn't use Instant Transmission this time or anything!"

"But I wasn't ready!"

"That's not my fault."

"Get back here!"

You laugh and take to the skies as Betarel fires up his aura and starts chasing you. You don't have very long, and the two of you will probably want to talk a bit about the mess you're in, what with the Sealing, but for now you can still be friends.

But you don't have very long, and sure enough your fun is soon cut off by the feeling of Dad sending out an active ping. Your screech to a halt, looking up.

"Is that your Dad?" asks Betarel, sounding annoyed.

"Yeah," you say. "I have to go."

Dandelor calls out from down below, "Scion! You have to leave now. I'll open a way for you." He flies up past the two of you before stopping at what you assume is the edge of the wards and casting his opening spell.

You start to fly up to them, but then stop when Betarel's hand closes around your ankle.

"Tag," he says, grinning. He lets go and drifts back a bit.

You giggle. "I'll get you back!"

He crosses his arms, looking smug. "Sure you will."

You roll your eyes and float up towards his uncle. With a grunt, the Sorcerer parts the wards.

"Make sure to use Instant Transmission to get out before you stop suppressing," he says.

"Okay," you reply. "If I need to talk to you again, I'll hang around the mountains for a little bit and wait for you."

He nods. "Good enough. We hope to see you soon, Scion. Now go, quick!"

You nod, abruptly serious, and fly out through the hole. As it closes behind you, you put your fingers to your forehead and focus.

vip

Dad turns to look at you as you transmit in.

"Hi, Dad!" you say, pasting a smile on your face. "What did you want to-?"

* * *

Away

* * *

The room is dark. There's only a single light breaking the gloom, and it's sparking and flickering.

The room itself is in a state of considerable disrepair. It looks like there was a fight. The table is broken in half, the chairs are splinters, and the walls have holes in them. Snowflakes fall fitfully through the holes, and outside you can see only white, and hear only the low howl of a strong wind in an open space.

The people in the room only support your supposition that a fight happened. They're bruised and battered, and you doubt they won whatever fight took place.

But what people they are!

There are two of them in this room. One of them is as human as could be, although his clothing is outlandish and strange. He wears a near-destroyed suit of armor similar to your own, but far lower quality and with more focus on protection over flexibility. His companion wears the same armor, but they aren't human at all. They're an alien. Eight feel tall, thin as a rail, and with sallow grey skin, there is something distinctly ethereal about them. But there's nothing delicate about their power level; you sense a solid hundred thousand or so units from them.

You're not seeing anything on Garenhuld. You're getting a peek into the wider galaxy.

The alien says something in a language you don't understand. It sounds like birdsong, heard from underwater. The human grunts in response. "I don't know. Somewhere."

More song, with what you'd guess is a questioning lilt.

"Further east, maybe. Those monsters stick to the galactic south. Nobody rules the east."

Louder birdsong.

"Look, it didn't work out, alright? They wanted to band together, and we were in the way. We're just lucky they're giving us some time to get sorted before kicking us out. We can't go west or north, because that's even worse. If we head for the center we'll just be putting things off a bit. East is the only option that doesn't have somebody in charge. We go out there, there'll be a planet eventually ruled by some weaklings that can't keep us out."

Angry birdsong.

"Look, I know! We'll have to travel far out. I get it. Everybody has to be strong enough to hold what they've got out there, especially with the chaos further west. But the rim is still mostly unexplored. Back when Earth was still keeping things quiet a lot of colonies got built out there. They've dropped off the map since the King's such a dickless puppet, but there are still places out there. Heck, even when those colonies were being built people were running across colonies that were even older! There are planets out there that have been settled for so long they've forgotten they were colonies once. If we go out far enough, nobody will ever chase us and we'll find something we can take over."

He spreads out a map of the galaxy on the table and starts tracing out a route along the right side of it. "I say we head through here. Keeps us clear of the major trouble spots and sends us right out into the black. I want you to scout it out for us while I get the troops marshaled up and moving. Take your team with, just in case."

Inquisitive birdsong. Something like a smile appears on the alien's face.

"Depends on what you find," says the human. "At the very least establish an enclave and wait for reinforcements. But if you're lucky enough to find a planet of human primitives, or some other low-power race?" A sadistic smile stretches the man's lips. "Take over and ride herd until we arrive. Use whatever measures are necessary."

The birdsong in response to that sounds gleeful.

"Good question. Depends on where you eventually settle. Based on how quickly I can get us moving and the speed of our slowest ships -- plus being slowed down by moving off the grid -- you can expect us to take a year to reach this point." He stabs a finger down on the map. "That's about the edge of civilized space. We'll resupply there and then start heading out. It'll probably take another year before we reach this point." He points to a spot a little further out form the core from his last spot. "If all else fails and you have to head to the absolute edge of the galaxy, it'll take us a year after that to reach you. But what are the odds of that?" He slides his finger out almost carelessly. It lands, dead-center, on the sector of the galaxy where Garenhuld resides.

* * *

Back

* * *

You come to with your face in the dirt. Dad pulls you to your feet. "Kakara, are you okay? What kind of vision was that?! What did you see?"

You gulp, your heart pounding.

Things just got a lot more complicated.

I never said the interlude would be in its own update.

First Outside-Context Problem: Initiated

A deposed tyrant forced out of the wider galaxy by the apparent turmoil out there is heading your way. He and his main forces will arrive in three years' time, but a scouting force will be along much sooner than that -- possibly this year, but most certainly by the year after that. This was presentsight; you wouldn't have seen it if it wasn't going to be relevant to you. They're coming to Garenhuld. You have a year or two to prepare for the scouts, and three to prepare for the army.

What will you do about the vision? Choose all that apply; this vote is by plan.

[ ] Tell nobody. You can make preparations yourself, and tell people later if they need to know.
[ ] Tell Dad. This is his job; he can decide how to deal with it.
[ ] Tell your conspirators (Grandma, the Senzus, and anybody else you bring in on things). They need to know this in case it'll impact the plan.
[ ] Tell Sensei. He'll know what to do.
[ ] Make a public announcement. Everybody needs to know this.
[ ] Write-in.

After the Second Garenhuld Ancestral Council, you were forced to make a decision about the knowledge you gained regarding House Peat's probable treachery, and how. Did you tell your Dad about this evidence?

[ ] Yes.
[ ] No.

THESE VOTES ARE NOW CLOSED.

Due to the slight hiccup with the preference voting this time: new voting policy. By default, the voting policy of this quest is plurality absolute voting. This means that you pick the one option that you like most, and the option with the most votes at vote close wins. That means no preference voting, and no voting for multiple options. Now, I of course often have "choose all that apply" votes, and when I do you can pick multiple options. The assumed default is that you pick only one option, however.

Hope everybody enjoys the update! Have fun!

NO VOTES UNTIL THE UPDATE HAS BEEN UP FOR TWO HOURS.

PoptartProdigy · Dec 17, 2016

Miscounted the votes on telling about the Peats; the write-in vote threw my count off. I'd actually started writing the update as though the winning vote had been "no" before I realized what was up. You actually did decide to spill. The thoughts on why and how you should tell Dad have been incorporated into the vote; in the future, however, such reasons should be a sub-vote of the listed, "yes," option in order to avoid similar near-mishaps.

[X] Plan KISS
-[x] Tell Dad. This is his job; he can decide how to deal with it.
-[x] Tell Sensei. He'll know what to do.
--[x] Then Tell your conspirators (Grandma, the Senzus, and anybody else you bring in on things). They need to know this in case it'll impact the plan.
[X] Yes.

The price of perfection is the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people of varying innocence and helplessness in the most horrifying way possible, as they are turned into slurry and consumed in an unholy mockery of biology and life itself.

Or pushing it back a day to work out the kinks. Geez, Cell, get your shit together.

Year 3: Upshift

"Thank you for your time, ladies and gentlemen," Dad says, leaning over the conference table. "I'll consider the suggestions you've put forward regarding the field of engagement, and we'll reconvene next week for further discussion. For now, continue preparing your houses. Next on the agenda is Masquerade preparations. Before then, though, I suggest we break for a brief recess. This has been a long discussion already, and I'm sure we could all use the break."

A round of nods go around the table. The table itself is a colossal thing, dozens of feet long and wide. It has to be; seated around it are the assembled Heads of the saiyan race. Your father, Lady Vegeta, and every single one of their subordinates are in attendance today. And everybody brought aides or advisors.

As the crowd of hundreds begins to disperse, you allow yourself a discreet yawn. You've been at your Dad's side throughout the entire process. Of course, the first thing you did upon coming to after the vision was to tell Dad everything. This is his job, after all. And he hasn't disappointed. Since then he's been a whirlwind of activity, spreading the news far and wide and setting up this conference to discuss common defense. Even the furor in Clan Vegeta has died back a bit as the houses rally to address this threat. Based on your vision, this isn't going to be a significant physical threat, but it's still the first time Garenhuld has been threatened by the wider galaxy. Everybody is holding their breath.

In more ways than one. Your gaze crosses Head Peat as he slinks out of the room. He catches your eye for a moment before breaking eye contact with a jerk and leaving. Doubtlessly he's been wondering why he's still a free man. To be honest, you've been wondering that yourself.

* * *

Dad stares at you. "You're certain?"

You shift. "Well, not really? I mean, I know what I saw, but that's not really proof, is it?"

He leans back, a happy glint in his eye. "Oh, it's enough to investigate. Good work, Kakara. Excellent work. I'm proud of you."

You duck your head, smiling. "Thanks. But, um, you are gonna be careful, right? I mean, there was that whole thing with High Priest Celeran..."

His smile vanishes. "About that. Why did you give him a pardon, Kakara? What he did is treason. No two ways about it, no fudging. Ruling on such cases is one of the few examples of how I as Lord Goku have actual authority over our people. Every judgment reinforces my position, and conversely, every criminal who is known to have evaded the justice I am permitted to mete out weakens it. And you took that judgment from me in front of a crowd of thousands. Explain yourself."

Your mouth goes dry. You knew that you were going over his head, but you didn't know that it would be that bad. "I- he told me what he did. He admitted it. I thought...I didn't want to punish him for being honest. And I did say that it was your choice! I just...wanted to give him a way to not die. I know it's up to you, but I wanted to find a way for nobody to die. It's a stupid thing to die for, anyway." You look away.

He stares down at you for a moment and sighs. "As it happens I've already spoken to Celeran. I'm convinced that he's being honest about his repentance, although it doesn't escape my notice that he's still shielding his brother. I'll be looking into that; if Celeran is taking his directive from you seriously, he may be trying to convince his brother to stand down and behave." He shakes his head. "Regardless. At the end of the day, I think your judgment was sound, Kakara. I want you to understand that. I just needed to know that you made it for sound reasons."

You nod. A test, then. Of course. "Okay."

Dad sets his hand on your shoulder. "Thank you for trusting me with this, Kakara."

* * *

The Council was last summer. Dad has been sitting on this knowledge for half a year. And he still hasn't done anything with it. Nothing you've noticed, anyway. It's beginning to worry you. What could he be investigating after all this time?

You shake your head. This isn't the time to get absorbed in House Peat. This is a planning meeting.

Your role in things has been understandably limited. You're not qualified to get in the middle of this yet. This is all just a lesson for you in how to manage things.

And it's to make sure that when the aliens come, you're informed of things and ready to assist in the defense of Garenhuld. You're not sure what to think of that. You've avoided it thus far. You don't have to think about it yet.

You haven't just been sitting around. The Senzus were surprised to hear from you the day after you left, but got very serious when you told them about your vision. Grandma was as interested to hear about the details directly from you. And of course, you shared the news with Sensei, who...did nothing much. The old man pretty much shrugged, told you to meditate on the matter to see if you could get more visions, and told you he'd scry for the aliens and not to worry about it.

Kinda felt anticlimactic, really. You get the sense that he's doing things, but he hasn't really involved you.

Is this what most kids have to deal with around adults? It's infuriating!

Still, things are at least being done. That's the important part.

Given how quickly things are picking up, you're fairly certain that things happening is going to be the least of your worries.

* * *

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.

Sometimes I wonder if we're living in the end times. The Sealing, the Council, the turmoil in Clan Vegeta, and now aliens, coming at last our way. These past three years have been the most exciting and dangerous since the Death of Earth. I have a bad feeling about all of this, sometimes.

The Second Garenhuld Ancestral Council concluded in spectacular fashion, with the popular excommunication of Lady Dandeer Vegeta and the emergence of Scion Kakara Goku onto the public stage, taking control of the Council and earning the direct fealty of High Priest Celeran himself! Along with the reforms to the structure of the Ancestor Cult, the Council didn't disappoint those who expected something grand from it. With a more organized Cult, with a leader who for the first time has sworn their service and loyalty directly to one of our people's nobility, this promises to put a new tone entirely on the Cult's relations to wider society.

Kakara Goku's entrance onto the public stage was a spectacular showcase of her diplomatic skill. She single-handedly took control of the situation and maintained it no matter who spoke against her. Some are saying that in the absence of true saiyan royalty, the Scion of Goku is the best alternative we have. Everybody is watching to see what she'll do next.

But by far the greatest news of the year is the impending alien invasion. Three centuries later, we've been found. The galaxy is coming to us.

Lord Goku reminds everybody that this is not an organized invasion by the galaxy's big players. The reports from House Senzu's (now discontinued) scouting expeditions are of course classified, but Lord Goku assures us that the people coming our way are the army of an outcast dictator, not the army of some far-off empire. Nonetheless, this is the first true external threat to the Masquerade. and while many people are excited at the opportunity to go into battle once again after centuries without an external threat, most are terrified for what this could mean for the Masquerade.

We at Saiyan Radio remind you all to keep up with your training and prepare for the storm to come. We are saiyans, and we have a warrior heritage centuries in the making. Lord Goku will look to the Masquerade; for the rest of us, it's time to concern ourselves with the fight. I'm Papata Fren, and this has been the news of the year.

* * *

Actions Available! [13 (10 Base, 1 from Driven, 1 from A Cause, 1 from Multiform]

Opportunities Available!

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.

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.

[ ] Best Fit (1 action): Jaron has been brought into the Misfits, but as reclusive as he is he doesn't seem to know how to make the effort to really push into the group's dynamic. It's up to you and your friends to make him feel welcome, and this is your part in it. Effect: Do your part to make Jaron feel welcome in the group.

[ ] 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 non-saiyan person in particular, gaining a special trust and affection for and with them.

[ ] 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.

[ ] Loose Lips Lead To Ultimate Power (1 action): ...maybe you're crazy. Part of you thinks that it would be an utterly stupid idea. But there's a big part of you that wants to try and bring your friends in on the secret -- of ki, that is -- particularly with the aliens coming. Effects: Try and instruct your friends in the mysteries of ki.

[ ] Improve Masque Affinity (1 action): The human world of Garenhuld offers many intriguing possibilities. Now that you're comfortable in your Masque, you feel that you could explore them...but you also know that you could improve your Masque to increase the amount of power available to you in it. Effect: Grind your Masque Affinity, improving your transformation time and available power level while in human form. Success in this is guaranteed with any amount of time investment; the only thing in question is how much you'll improve by.
-[ ] By sparring practice.
-[ ] By other means (write-in).

[ ]Nosy Little Girl (1 action): You've noticed lately that Maya has been acting...strangely. She's been giving you strange looks, and only recently stopped, starting to act a lot more comfortable around you. Maybe you're being paranoid, but you want to know what's up. Effects: Poke Maya, asking her what's up.

While the Masquerade is important, you are nobility. You really do need to pay attention to this stuff. And now that you've reached the peak of your power, you have more time than ever.

...but then again...

[ ] Train Transformations (2 actions): It is absolutely, spectacularly illegal. It would make you the most hated villain in your people's history in a heartbeat. It would almost certainly shatter the Masquerade and send the word of your people's presence racing to the Enemy's ears...and put you on the path to regaining your old strength, and possibly defeating it. A small part of you wants to do it. Effects: Success not guaranteed. Starts doomsday timer to the Enemy's arrival on Garenhuld. Survival of immediate Exile reaction not guaranteed. REPRESENTS A PARADIGM SHIFT IN THE TONE AND PACE OF THE QUEST. In secret moments, try to break through your barriers yet again, and achieve the form of Super Saiyan 2.

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.
[ ] Research Project (1 action): You've been thinking lately, and there are some lost techniques that would be really useful to have. Come to think, you have some ideas for entirely new techniques. Maybe you could look into developing them? Effects: Start a long-term research project aimed at either reconstructing a lost technique or creating an entirely new one all your own. Success is not guaranteed or even possible for all ideas, but even failures will teach you something for later attempts.
[ ] 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.

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. Counts as a "Warrior's Path" action for the purposes of skill degradation.
[ ] 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.

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. More likely to succeed if taken with a successful, "Sound Out Sensei," action and you convince him that this skill is useful for the conspiracy. I'll tell you if what you want to learn is 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.

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; Betarel may be included, but all such interactions would involve an Intrigue check with a low chance of failure and therefore discovery by your father).
[ ] 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 is now stable, but your brother is getting more obnoxious by the day. It's starting to feel like you're constantly running around putting out fires in your family, but you should probably do something to keep Mato from starting to resent you more than he already does. Effects: Talk with your brother and address the issues between you.
[ ] A Scion's Duties III (1 action): You have a comprehensive knowledge of the way Clan Goku functions, a general overview of Clan Vegeta, and are an effective and renowned communicator. It's time to finish your theoretical education by completing your knowledge of Clan Vegeta and expanding your training in how to manipulate and mediate between others. Effect: Learn the art of diplomacy and Clan management at the feet of your father, improving your Communication and Intrigue skills 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, but may reveal potential supporters for the conspiracy.

You know some of the details of Jaffur's Seal, and have a group of allies. What else is there to do?
[ ] Get Organized (1 action): Presently your conspiracy is more like two separate plots running in tandem; you and the Senzus, and then whatever Grandma is doing. You need to get everybody in the same room together so that you all can unify your efforts and share all available information. Effects: Figure out just what Grandma has been up to and what assets she can lend to things. Share information and work out a unified plan of action. As this involves you, Grandma, and the Senzus in the same room at the very least even before including anybody you bring in this year, this is highly treasonous and will involve an event series. The possibility of discovery does exist, although with your current precautions is fairly unlikely.
[ ] Contacting Jaffur (1 action): Your plan with the Senzus calls for your to find a way to project yourself into Jaffur's mind yet again in order to communicate with him. The last time was purely by accident, so there are no guarantees, but you need to try. Effects: Flying blind, try to project your mind into Jaffur's Seal in order to move the plan forward. Low odds of success. Significantly more likely to succeed if taken with a successful, "Beg Sensei To Teach You [Mind Projection]," action.
[ ] 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 Seal. But you're...not exactly welcome over there, at the moment. Effect: In secret, 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: Openly and at no risk, poll your Clan to find out the specifics of any tensions regarding Jaffur's Sealing.
[ ] 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. From the Council you know he hates what's happened to his grandson. Effect: Sound out Yammar Vegeta, and if possible bring him in on the plot.
[ ] Teach the Senzus Instant Transmission (1 action, may be chosen up to three times): It is so useful. And given how much time you'd need to invest, so risky. Effects: Gamble big and take the time to teach the Senzus how to use Instant Transmission. Each time the action is taken allows you to teach more people in one go; you could probably teach an twentieth of them for every action invested. However, each additional action doubles the chance of discovery, which is already moderate.
[ ] 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 the Sealing. And given your misadventure inside of Jaffur's mind, and your plans to do it again in order to deliberately make contact, it would be useful to be able to honestly say why you want to learn this particular skill. But...depending on how aware he's being of the future, even deciding to talk to him will tip him off to your intentions, and you aren't sure where he stands. 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: Go with whatever you've accomplished by year's end, and try to break the Seal.

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 a new ki talent, 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.

[ ] Write-In (actions variable): You are Kakara Goku., and you have your own ideas on what to do.

THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED

Sorry about the delay, but as I implied above, I had some kinks to work out of this. Namely: it was way too late when I was finishing this and I knew I wouldn't be in great shape to make sure I had what needed to be here and that everything made sense. So I went to bed, woke up, came back to it to tidy things up, took a break for a few hours so I could come back to it with fresh eyes, and now I'm posting. Hooray for weekends! Featured this weekend: not having tons of stuff to do? That feels weird.

Enjoy!

AS WITH THE LAST YEAR POST, VOTING ON THIS IS FROZEN UNTIL THE UPDATE HAS BEEN UP FOR TWELVE HOURS, TO ENCOURAGE DISCUSSION

Aranfan · Dec 19, 2016

Yammar Vegeta comes to a halt opposite Dandeer on the stage, "Give me a single reason why I should not vaporize you where you stand for daring to imply that what you did to my grandson is my fault in any way."

"I have a reason" you say.

His eyes turn to you, "Really? Do share."

"Because you failed in your duty as Patriarch to reign in Vegeta." The lack of noise in the Hall is deafening as you say this. "Your son nearly killed your grandson, and you were nowhere to be found. You broke your son, and didn't do anything to prevent him from breaking your grandson in turn." Yammar's face is completely blank. "My father is only alive because Jaffur wasn't broken yet, but your negligence bears no credit for that."

The Patriarch Vegeta's face twists into a snarl as you sense him building up a ki attack, and you charge at him to hit him into the sky and away from the people. You succeed, but take his eyebeam full on in exchange.

As you reorient you note that the people at the meeting are running away, and Grandma is already engaging Yammar. You join her, hemming Yammar in, preventing him from opening the range he clearly wants to. He's good, way better than you, but with you and Grandma he's losing.

Then a green hand grabs your leg and whiplashes you into the wall of the training hall.

You dig yourself out of the rubble and are shocked to see a Namekian. The need to IT out of the way of his Special Beam Cannon fortunately breaks you out of it. Where the hell did this guy come from? You seek out with your mind, and find a distortion. Is that Sensei Carrick and his niece? Shit, they're in dang...

WHAM

Oh yeah, you're still in a fight. Ouch. You're lucky you don't really need that leg to fight. Probably not going to be kicking that Namekian any time soon.

You snap off a Kamehameha, and manage to get him in the chest. He staggers, and you follow up with a flurry of punches. Unfortunately for you, he's as tough as Namekians are supposed to be, because he gets his bearings while you're pounding on him. Soon enough he's parrying some, then most, then all of your blows.

You hear a bang as you sense Yammar closes a Hellzone Grenade on Grandma.

But now you're on the defensive. You're barely managing to parry all, most, some of his blows. It's all you can do to dodge him. Then you make a mistake. You leave yourself open just a smidge too much, and he has you dead to rights. His claw of a hand zooms towards your chest, his arm extending unnaturally.

Then Grandma's kienzan flashes in and you're able to open up space as the namekian retracts his stump. You barely have time to breathe before you see Yammar blow a whole through grandma's stomach with a galick gun.

It's suddenly hard to breathe. Which makes sense. You just saw your grandma die. No, wait, that's not grief, that's the hole the namekian put in your lung. You fall, and manage to angle to land next to grandma.

You blink as you hit the ground and suddenly daddy is there. "Mom, Kakara." He whispers as he holds you. Grandma says something, but you're having trouble hearing. You manage get a "dad..y" out through the bad lung before you start coughing.

He hugs you close, then suddenly looks up glaring at someone. You've never seen him so mad. "You!" he says, angrier than you've ever heard him. You're tired. "This is ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU'VE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM ME!"

Things are getting dark even as daddy's power spikes. Wait, no. Daddy... the enemy... will...

-

You snap awake. What the hell was that?

"Karen?" Maya asks, "You okay?"

You nod at her, "Yeah, just a bad dream."

It didn't feel like a dream, it felt like a vision. But you're losing it like a dream. Something about a fight? Yammar? Or was it Piccolo? You huff, unable to remember, and lay your head down to get some more sleep.

Andres · Dec 22, 2016

By Krekian

PoptartProdigy · Dec 29, 2016

[X] Plan Deathbybunnies
[X] Slack (1 action)
[X] Best Fit (1 action)
[X] The Nosy Girl (1 action)
[X] Train Ki Manipulation (2 actions)
[X] Command Training (1 action)
[X] Train Specific Skill (1 action, may be taken multiple times) Multiform (Still keeping it a secret)
[X] Beg Sensei To Teach You [Write-In Specific Technique] (1 action) Mind Projection
[X] Family First (1 action) Mato
[X] A Scion's Duties III (1 action)
[X] Get Organized (1 action)
[X] New Tricks (1 action) Telepathy
[X] The Examined Life (1 action) Driven
-[X] If we think it'll help, ask our family for their thoughts

And...

This is going to be a fun year.

In Which Things Are Off To a Surprisingly Easy Start

You sigh, flopping back in your chair and staring up into the sky. "Who cares, Gemma?"

"You're slacking again!"

You and your friend are at Sophie's eleventh birthday party. Sophie has a winter birthday, making her the oldest in the group and also meaning that it's one of the first things happening this year. You and all of the Misfits -- Jaron included -- are there, along with some of the other kids in your grade that Sophie knows. You're all at Sophie's house just having fun, and food is everywhere. Honestly, it's just like play dates usually are, but with more of everything. And, having cornered you away from the main bustle, Gemma is nagging you about your (to be honest) abysmal study habits.

"Still," you say, in the interest of accuracy. "I didn't really stop."

"That's worse!"

You groan.

"Isn't your mom a teacher?" asks the other blond, crossing her arms. "Why doesn't she make you do your homework?"

"Mom's rules are that you get the best grades you can," you say. "It's not like school's hard. Two plus two is four. Seventy-eight times forty-seven is three thousand, six hundred and sixty-six. The stuff they're teaching us is boring."

Gemma frowns, looking away. "I know you're good at math, Karen, you don't have to show off."

She looks a little bit hurt, actually. You sigh. She doesn't like being reminded of how far behind you she is on that subject, and that was kinda braggy. "I'm sorry," you say. "I'll stop."

"Thanks." Gemma fingers the book she brought with her and eventually thinks better of it. Instead she looks over at Jaron, who thus far has remained silent. "What do you think, Jaron?"

It's an obvious attempt to draw him in. He might as well not be there for as far as he's gotten into the conversation so far, and there's no smooth way to draw him in. But he sat by the two of you, so you have to do something to get him involved.

He shrugs, looking typically nervous at the prospect of having to speak to one of the girls who have dragged him into their orbit. "I mean...I don't really study either," he says, looking sheepish. "I get good enough grades without it, and Mom doesn't care too much. So...why bother?"

Gemma puffs herself up, looking indignant. "You could do better!" she says.

He just looks away, making a noncommittal noise.

"Well, I think he has a point," you say, trying to paper over the awkward moment.

It works, to a degree. Gemma swivels back towards you. "Of course you do!"

You grin back at her. "Relax, Gemma. Jaron and I are fine. Have you seen Maya?"

Subtle as a train crash, but the subject change works. Gemma shakes her head, distracted. "No, I think she went off somewhere with somebody else. Why?"

You shrug. "Wanted to ask her something. It's not too important, though."

That's a lie. Well, sort of. You've been meaning to talk to Maya about the weird looks she's been giving you -- and about why she stopped so suddenly. She's gotten a lot more comfortable around you, and you don't know why.

The timing makes you suspicious given the scouts' arrival soon, although you're trying to keep it under control. There are probably many perfectly innocent explanations. But you're still curious.

You feel Jaron's eyes on you and suppress a shiver as you meet his gaze. His eyes are piercing and cold as you lock gazes with him. Not old, just...really focused in a way that most kids your age never get. He does that a lot, sitting on the edge of conversations and staring at people. You still haven't ever seen him blink. It doesn't even look like he's interested in what's going on, most of the time. Just like he's trying to figure something out. It's creepy.

And, just like always, the moment you make eye contact that strange gleam vanishes and he looks away, suddenly unsure of himself. "She actually went off alone," he mutters. He points to the doors leading outside. "She told Sophie she just wanted to walk outside for a little while and then left. She just walked into the bushes at the edge of the yard." He becomes aware that the two of you are giving him very odd looks and shrinks in on himself. "What?"

"...were you eavesdropping on them?" asks Gemma, looking bewildered.

"No," he mumbles, looking down. "Sophie's loud. I just heard it. They're right over there."

You shake your head slowly. You didn't "just hear" it. When you focus, sure you can pick up what they're saying, but you're usually not focused that way. But...you get the feeling that he's being sincere.

He stands up abruptly. "I'm going to get a snack." He walks off, but stops before he can move more than two steps. "Excuse me," he blurts. He looks at the two of you as though searching for a reaction, and then blushes, hurrying off.

"...I don't really get him," says Gemma.

You watch a small flinch cross his shoulders as he reaches the snack table. "I think he heard you," you say. He flinches again, and your eyebrows go up. "I think he heard me."

Gemma winces. "Sorry, Jaron!"

He half-turns, face red, and gives her a tiny nod before going back to the food.

"He's got really good ears," you say, lowering your voice to a whisper.

"I know," she replies, following suit. "But wow, he's worse at this than we are."

You hum. "Sophie said that you went over to his house last week, right?"

She nods, brightening. "Yeah. His Mom was nice. She made pizza."

You conceal a grimace at the mention of Dandeer. "What about Jaron, though?"

"He got a little better," she says, chewing the inside of her cheek. "We watched some TV. He really started talking when I asked him what his favorite book series was." She smiles. "He picks good books. Other than that we played in his yard a bit. They have a big yard. He wasn't this bad."

"Maybe he doesn't like parties?" you say.

"I don't like parties, so I don't blame him," she says, lifting her nose into the air.

You look over him as he picks his way through the snack table. "I'm going to talk to him a little," you say, standing up.

"Again?" asks Gemma.

"He's our friend now, right?" you ask, dropping the whisper. You don't miss how Jaron tenses up and freezes all of a sudden. "We're supposed to help him out."

"Well, yeah," says Gemma, opening her book. "Duh." She looks down at the book as you walk off.

As you approach, Jaron becomes engrossed with something at the snack table. He slowly reaches out and picks a single chip out of a container. He eats it slowly and then turns away, a look of vague triumph on his face. Out of curiosity, you glance at the container. You can't pick out the brand, but there's a slogan that stands out: "Betcha can't eat just one!"

You give Jaron a look that says, Really?

He flushes, shrugging.

You decide to let it go. "Hi again."

"Hi." He eats a carrot, avoiding eye contact.

You sigh. Direct approach it is. "Wanna go outside?"

He blinks and actually looks at you for a moment before looking aside again. He glances around the crowded room, particularly at where Sophie is trying to keep Jenny from yelling at somebody. "...sure."

You smile, and the two of you step outside.

It's misty out today, in the light and happy way that happens when all the water near the ground is making a really fluffy cloud. Sunbeams poke through the mist here and there, and it doesn't restrict visibility too much. Jaron takes a deep breath the instant he's over the threshold and outside, a world of tension lifting off of his shoulders. A slight smile crosses his face. The moment stretches for a while as the two of you stroll out into the yard.

"So...you don't like parties?" you ask, breaking the silence.

He grimaces. "Too many people. I don't know what to do."

You shrug. "Talk to them?"

He gives you a disbelieving glance before looking away. He gazes off into the bushes at the edge of the yard. "...how?"

You frown at him. "Like I just did? You just say something. Ask something."

"I say the wrong thing."

"So just laugh about it and try again."

He shakes his head slowly. "No."

Yeah, he's not budging on that. You let the silence go for a minute. "You can always talk to one of us," you say.

He blinks. "'...us...?'"

You grin. "The Misfits! We're not going to laugh at you if you say something wrong." You giggle. "I bet Sophie wouldn't laugh at you."

He turns bright red. "Sophie's scary."

"Why? 'Cause she likes you?" You start laughing.

"Yes," he says, rubbing at the back of his head. "That's scary."

"She can't be worse than bullies," you say, cocking your head. "You fight them."

He frowns in honest confusion. "I can't fight Sophie, though."

It clicks. He just...doesn't get it. He's had so few friends that he just doesn't understand how socializing with people is supposed to work. He can fight a bully. He can read. He can get through school easily. He can't just talk to somebody, because that's not something he has the tools for. And when he tries, he winds up using tools from other things that don't work there. And he knows they don't, which is why he panics so easily. It's a lose-lose situation.

And yet his life is still better than Jaffur's was -- and is. You wince.

"Well, I hope you don't," you say. "But you can still talk to us. We'll listen, no matter what it is."

He looks at you, and then smiles slowly. "...thanks, Karen." Silence falls again. This time, it's comfortable.

Until...

"Hurk-"

You whirl at the choked sound coming from Jaron's mouth. He doubles over, eyes rolling back into their sockets. His power level -- a high-for-his-age three, normally -- spikes to seventeen. A breeze stirs the mist.

The faint, unsettling feeling of magic taints the air.

His hair lifts into spikes, the color flickering from blond to brown and nearly reaching black before oscillating back and forth. His eyes roll back down and he stares at you with a pair of hauntingly familiar black eyes.

"S...cion..." says Jaffur, his gaze drilling into your own.

Jaffur makes a Willpower check: [Well, duh...]

"Jaffur?" You say, breathless with shock at the sudden transition.

He grimaces with unbearable strain. "I...brother...don't..."

Your mind makes the connection. "I know, Jaffur! He's your brother, I know!"

The barest hint of a relieved smile flickers across his face and-

Jaron blinks, his hair falling back down into blond ringlets and his eyes fading to blue as his power level returns to normal and the stench of magic fades. "Ow. Ow. Headache..."

"...are you okay?" you ask, not sure if he knows what just happened.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just ow. What gave me a headache?"

"...don't know." You give him a cautious glance as he presses a hand to his head. "...do you ever think about dreams, Jaron?"

"Yeah, why?" he asks, his normal shyness buried under irritable snappishness from the pain.

"Ever wonder what would happen if people could share them?" you ask, trying to look straight through his eyes and hoping that Jaffur gets the message. "If somebody could step out of their own head and into somebody else's mind?"

You hope Jaffur gets the message that he should expect you. But Jaron just gives you a bewildered and irritated look. "...you're weird, Karen."

You laugh, playing it off. "Well, yeah! We all are. It's why we're the Misfits. Just like you."

He pauses for a moment and then turns away, still rubbing at his head.

You catch the edges of a big smile, though.

Acquaintance Improved (Jaron Somerlad [Positive-->Friendly])

He glances up and then back down. "Maya wants to talk to you."

You blink and look in the direction he glanced in. Sure enough, Maya's there. The little girl waves to you with a huge grin on her face from the bushes on the edge of the property, waving you over.

"I'm going to go inside," says Jaron, straightening. "I left my food in there."

[ ] Go to see Maya.

You were planning on talking with her anyway. Perfect opportunity, right? Jaron's probably had enough of being pushed for one day anyway, and given how untrained he is, Jaffur must be wiped after managing to push through the Seal, no matter how briefly. You don't want to think about how much power he had to throw into that. Better to give both of them a break, and go talk to your other friend.

[ ] Bring Jaron with.

You do need to talk to her, and Jaron is only going to grow and learn by pushing himself. Don't let him get away yet! Beyond that: okay, this is serious state secret time. Something is probably very seriously up with Maya, and your fellow Scion is watching, if at a distance. Jaffur should be on hand for this so he can learn whatever is up as well.

[ ] Everybody goes back inside.

You didn't want to have this talk today in particular anyway. You all can go back to the party and do whatever, you'll figure out what's up with Maya later. Plus, Jaron could probably use a couple of friends to hide behind in the party. Let's be honest, sending him in there alone is almost certainly expecting too much of him.

[ ] Ditch Maya.

...I admit, this is only here because it's the last remaining permutation of, "stay outside/go inside," and, "bring the person defaulting to inside or outside with/let them do their own thing." I can't actually think of any reason why you'd want to straight up ditch Maya as opposed to bringing her inside with you, as long as you're going anyway. But hey, I look forward to seeing if anybody votes for it.

[ ] Write-in

As per usual.

THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED.

Welcome back, folks! We start Year 3 out with a bunch of social! In this one, Kakara's human and saiyan lives finally begin the intersection that was promised from the moment Jaron became a factor and you all chose to involve yourselves with him.

And for Jaffur's first Willpower check since the Sealing, we have...a greater success. Of course. It's Jaffur, after all. It would seem that the bullshit remains strong with this one. This check allowed him to burn all available ki and magic for the privilege of making an untrained magic check against a Master Sorcerer's spell for three words of tortured communication, with the ki and magic to be consumed upon the conclusion of said magic check.

But he had Super Saiyan swag backing that check up, and thus passed it.

Deathbybunnies said:
Ah, sorry, on my phone so couldn't check. Though ki prodigy vs pacifism being almost equal limits the importance of grappling to my mind - we could still go for a ki-manipulation based build, especially given the possibly-temporary nature of the malus.

Also, UPDATE HYYYPE!

HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE

PoptartProdigy · Jan 3, 2017

[X] Go to See Maya.

Near-unanimously, at that.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! DOWN WITH 2016! Here's hoping the upcoming is less blatantly miserable.

Gazing Over the Horizon

You briefly consider asking Jaron to come with, but on balance you don't know if Maya even wants him there, and he's probably tired of chatting after all that. You nod and smile to him. "Okay. See you!" Then you turn and walk over to Maya as Jaron steps back into the house. "What's up?"

"I fo- found something cool," says Maya, tugging on your arm. You give her a sharp glance. She hasn't been stuttering around you, not lately. She flushes under the attention. "Come on!" With another tug, she turns away and leaves the Schultz's back yard, heading off into the bushes.

Sophie's house runs up against the edges of a forest preserve. Nature reserves in general are plentiful on Garenhuld; the people here don't spread out much. This one, you've always loved. You come here for meditation, sometimes. The ground is familiar to you.

But even as you step into the edges of the trees, Maya is already a ways ahead, ducking around behind a bend in the path. "Come on, Karen!"

"Slow down, Maya!" you say, frowning. "Bears live here!"

And indeed, they do. One tried to eat you once when you were really deep in meditation. Apparently the wildlife on Earth was a lot more timid around humans, but Garenhulders keep to their cities so much that even some animals in the reserves rarely see them, and aren't afraid.

To you, they're cute, but Maya is squishy. You light up your ki senses and fire off a ping. Nothing conspicuous, and a very low power level, but enough to get a solid return. You boost to fifty units and head off after her, hoping to get her within sight.

It actually takes a lot longer than you expected. Maya is moving. She must know these woods better than you do.

You frown, lifting off of the ground and kicking yourself off of a tree in order to make a faster turn. How often is she in here? How does she even expect me to keep-

You skid to a halt, snow spraying up from beneath your heels as you enter a clearing.

Maya is panting in the center, hands on her knees and steam rising from her lips. As you make your entrance, she looks up, grinning.

-up?

You slowly rise, reviewing how fast you were moving on your way in. The answer, of course, is fifty units of power level fast.

"Maya," you say, slowly, "how did you get here so fast?"

"I know the forest," she says. "I'm i- in here a lot. Not hard to beat somebody fa- faster than you if you know all the right turns!" She giggles around the nervous stuttering.

You purse your lips. "Maya, I know I said it already, but bears live here. You shouldn't be in here. They could eat you."

All of Maya's cheer vanishes beneath a sudden, angry scowl. "You sound like them. 'Maya, don't go into the woods! Maya, stop asking so many questions! Maya, be a good girl and come inside!'"

The outburst is all the more affecting for how unexpected it is. Maya doesn't really snap when she's angry or sad, she closes down. You take a step back in shock. "Maya, I just meant-"

"I know that bears live here, Karen!" she says, crossing her arms. "I'm not a dummy. They're as big as a car and they don't get sneaky. I didn't miss them."

You fall silent, nonplussed. You can't exactly tell Maya about how many stupid hikers you've had to save from bears on your own trips into the woods. Having to carry away a full-grown bear faster than human eyes can follow without turning the bear into paste, without anybody being the wiser, is a telling experience. Most of the hikers really don't notice the bears.

Maya tosses her hair. "I know that everybody else is afraid of the woods or going to space or thinking about people on the moon, but I know you're different. You never tell me to be quiet." She frowns at you.

Okay, whatever this is, you need to de-escalate. You put your hands up. "You're right, I'm sorry. But Maya, bears are as big as a car. What good is seeing one if they can still eat you?"

She grins. "You just gotta be faster!"

...riiiiiiiight.

You shake your head, walking up to your friend. "...okay. Maybe you could at least stay on the trails?"

"If I did that, I wouldn't have found what I want to show you," she says, smiling.

"Right, about that," you say. "What do you want to show me?"

Her smile then goes away. "Well, I didn't really find it, it was more, we- well, I- I-" She gulps, stopping herself for a moment to recover. "I-" She swallows the word and needs a second pause. She stares at you for a moment, mute.

Your suspicion evaporates under your sudden concern. Maya usually doesn't speak to people outside the Misfits. She usually can't. The stutter slows her down and makes her feel unbelievably embarrassed. She can't bring herself to keep it up, and just stops. You never see her get that bad with the group, though. Whatever this is is big.

So you step forward and give her a hug. Ignoring how tightly she hugs you back, you say, deliberately cheerful, "Hey, why don't you tell me a story, okay? Easy, right?"

You feel her swallow. "We- well- I- I think..." She pulls back. "Ma- -be in a-" She stops, trembling. "-wanna-" She swallows. "-sho-"

You take a half-step forward. "Maya, it's okay, just take a second to-"

tsew

whump

Your eyes widen in shock as Maya phases out of view and breaks the sound barrier, moving faster than your still-power-depleted eyes can track and humans don't move that fast-

Your power level spikes again to one-fifty and your aura lights up on reflex, giving you a single second to see Maya an inch away from you in a full-out charge before she-

thud

You take a single step backwards under the force of the blow to your stomach. It doesn't hurt, but you weren't prepared for this.

"When I was six, I got lost in the woods."

tsew

bang

Maya phases out again before you can even have a proper look at her and reappears at your back, kicking you into a slide.

"I didn't know where Mamma was and I was scared and little. And then a bear found me."

tsew

tump

tsew

You kip up to your feet out of the slide and catch Maya's next strike before it can land. Saiyan instincts, buried under your Masque and years of habit and thought, start to sing at the sudden impact.

The brown-haired girl vanishes again before you can even catch yourself.

"I don't remember it. I just remember teeth. Lots of them...just scraping off of my face like rock. It didn't hurt at all."

She reappears, launching into a flurry of blows that threatens to overwhelm your guard.

"Nobody believed me, and Mamma grounded me for a month for telling stories. I started to hide it. I acted like a normal girl. But I kept coming back to the woods to see if I could do more."

You spike your power level again, this time to three hundred, and as Maya abruptly fades back into view, catch her next strike.

The two of you strain against each other for a minute, and you get your first good look at her.

Maya has a focused look in her eyes that you recognize from any of a hundred sparring practices with kids your age. Her hair still whips around her face from the strike in that frozen moment between blows. And an aura, snow-white, flares brightly around her body, merging with your own, which in your Masque is as white as hers is.

Her eyes widen in surprise as you suddenly start to match her, and then she spins into a kick with a shout, her power level shooting up yet again to settle at four-fifty.

You barely dodge, backpedaling. Powering up at first was reflex, and honestly unavoidable. That first strike of hers would have sheared you in half if you hadn't powered up. It wasn't a murder attempt. Even if you could even start to believe that of Maya, there are better ways. It was a deliberate provocation. Maya knows about you.

The only question is which part she knows about.

And so, for now you refrain from powering up any further, even as Maya proceeds to hand you your ass.

"But then I met you," she says, phasing back into view for just long enough to sweep your legs. "Strong and smart and pretty, and good at fighting. And you wanted to fight. I thought I could show off a little. But even when I hit you as hard as I could without lighting up, you didn't even flinch. At least at first."

You wince. Okay, maybe in retrospect you were a little clumsy about hiding how tough you were when sparring first started. You can remember that in the first session you actually let Sophie kick you right in the stomach and let it bounce. But you got a lot better once you got used to the Masque!

"But then you started to act more normal," says Maya, appearing behind you just as you haul yourself to your feet and shoving you across the ground. "You started getting better at fighting, but you acted like it hurt when we hit you. You were getting used to being that strong. So, that's when I figured it out!"

You slam to a halt and catch Maya's next strike with a grunt, straining to hold your friend at bay. "Figured out what?" you say, trembling.

"You're like me," says Maya, her eyes hopeful and scared all at once. "You have superpowers too!"

And with the light from both of your auras casting shadows across the clearing, it's really impossible to deny that.

The only question is: how do you play this? For this vote, you may chose all of the following that apply. This vote will be by plan. Vote weighting is in effect; fractions of a vote will be subject to mathematical rounding (i.e., to the nearest integer, with .5's being rounded up). A given plan will be weighted according to the single most severe weight in effect on it (i.e., if it has one sub-vote with x0.7 weighting, and one with x0.5, the entire plan will be subject to x0.5 weighting). In no proposed plan will Kakara fight to disable, cripple, or kill Maya unless the plan writer explicitly specifies so. The default is non-lethal, non-harmful force.

[ ] (x0.5) First things first: power up to an even thousand and put a swift end to this. If Maya somehow has enough power to not lose to this, keep going up in increments of a thousand until she doesn't anymore.
[ ] Keep the fight going for a bit, drawing her out step by step; before you settle this down you want to see exactly how much power Maya has socked away.
-[ ] (x0.7) Then win.
-[ ] Then throw the fight.
-[ ] Then de-escalate.
[ ] (x0.1) BOW BEFORE KAKARA, PUNY HUMAN! HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST LIKENESS BETWEEN US?! Go saiyan. Put the fear of you into this upstart (my goodness is this out of character, but it amuses me to include it).
-[ ] (x0.01) In fact, go whole hog on this. Super Saiyan, now. Clearly this is a warranted and proportional response to the situation at hand.
[ ] Throw the fight. Maya seems to have concluded that you've recently unlocked your ki abilities, and thus should be weaker. Let her keep thinking that, rather than giving her reason to wonder when you learned so much.
[ ] Disengage and de-escalate. Clearly, Maya started the fight to distract herself from how scared she was sharing this secret, but she's done that now. You can stop fighting.
[ ] Hug Maya.
[ ] Talk about this with Maya.
-[ ] Write-in how exactly (write-ins should not be scripts, but should broadly cover what you want to ask and are prepared to share, along with general tone. Vote weighting will be assigned case-by-case).
[ ] Write-in.

THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED.

This kicked my ass! But I'm glad to have it up.

I've been waiting on this reveal for a while.

Maya has been a severely lonely girl for quite some time, on the same level as Jaron. You might recall Jenny remarking on the similarities when Jaron first met the girls. Maya, as a fiercely curious and adventurous young girl, has been out of place in Garenhulder society all her life. The stutter is both a symptom and a cause of this; it's the result of some severe anxiety, and being unable to get a sentence out makes it worse. A stutter -- a symptomatic one, that is -- isn't really the cute thing that fiction often depicts it as. People with stutters can often try a word three, four, five, six, seven times, swallowing the same vowel on each attempt, and after all that still not get it out. Or they won't even be that coherent, and be reduced to stuff that sounds frankly like gibberish. It's intensely embarrassing and frustrating for them, and many of them stop trying entirely after a while. I don't claim to be an expert on the matter of stutters, but I hope I've done a bit to show what it can look like in Maya's character. Fortunately, her stutter is psychological rather than the symptom of nerve damage, and thus she isn't irreversibly stuck with it.

And she also has superpowers, which tend to improve any situation.

Remember, everybody, while the above update does feature Kakara being placed on the back foot, it wouldn't have happened at all had you not chosen to go after Maya (in fact, every plan -- except the joke plan that had "raise grades" and then a thorough grounding in almost every field of human scholarship -- featured this option). She's only sharing this with you because she noticed your attempts to get her alone since the start of the year. Your agency remains intact.

It's just that Maya has some too, and held more informational cards here. But, ultimately, while she holds more informational cards, when it comes to cards of action, you are holding a royal flush.

Hey, Poptart, I was hoping to ask you a few- Dear LORD WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING TO THAT METAPHOR?!

As previously announced, I have decided what the reward will be for this piece of fanart, as drawn by @Krekian and posted by @Andres110 (thanks, you two!). Some people suggested a bonus to finding the androids on account of Kakara's strong resemblance to 18. No for that one; the picture really has nothing to do with that. It also has little to do with schoolwork and even I'm tired of that argument. I'm also not quite generous enough to just give you a power pole because it's winter festival season.

Re-rolls are outside the purview of rewards. The best suggestion I saw was to give a bonus towards the manual development of a trait given that it's a picture of Kakara, so I will go with that one. Given that you're taking "The Examined Life" for "Driven" later this year, you can expect this bonus to go to work real quick. Once again, thanks for the first bit of fanart the quest has! The bonus has been logged as a greater bonus and the picture is under the new "fanart" section in the Lore Screen.

That's all for now, folks! I hope you all enjoy the update. Please share what thoughts you have about it. Also, what do you all think this update's title is in reference to? It's not terribly clear, mind, but any ideas? Have fun!

...

As Maya's secret is revealed, Kakara is faced with the dilemma of responding to her friend's revelation! How will the young Scion react to the revelation of a human with ki abilities? As the alien invasion draws ever-nearer, what further shocks lie ahead? Will this be one threat too many for the Exiles' Masquerade? Find out next time, on Dragon Ball AE!

PoptartProdigy · Jan 4, 2017

[X] Plan Compromise
[x] Keep the fight going for a bit, drawing her out step by step; before you settle this down you want to see exactly how much power Maya has socked away.
-[x] But don't let her handle you your ass. Keep things more or less even, be it by power or skill.
-[x] Then de-escalate.
-[x] Hug her and tell her how much it means to you that she felt she could tell you about this.
[x] Talk about this with Maya.
-[x] Raw talent only takes you so far...
--[x] ...We should talk to my dad about this, he's the one who trained me!
---[x] Phone Dad

Proactivity Continues To Be a Group Sport

You grit your teeth against the pressure that Maya is putting on your hands. "Yes," you say. "I do."

WHUMP

With a flash, you power up to four-fifty as well. Snow blasts away from the two of you in a wave, and in the confusion of the moment you roll out from under your friend and flash away to a safe distance.

Maya stumbles at the sudden lack of pressure and whirls to face you. "You're strong!" she says, eyes wide.

You give her a grin and stand. "Yup! So are you!"

She smiles back. "Well, this isn't all I have! Ha!"

Maya powers up again, her aura swirling, this time to six hundred and fifty. And despite the shout, she's not straining all too much. You think she has more.

She charges, closing in a heartbeat and kicking up a wake of snow that swirls out in a great wave.

You smirk and match her power level exactly, rolling out of the way.

Maya lets out a nervous giggle as she stops herself cold. "Wow, Karen, is there anything you're not good at?" Her cheeks are flushed from the cold and the fight.

"Plenty," you say, settling into a stance. "How about you?" You beckon in invitation.

She charges again and engages you up close.

You stay on the defensive, keeping up a constant retreat before Maya's assault. What blows you can, you dodge; what you need to, you turn aside. It only encourages Maya further, and her power level continues to rise, putting you more and more on the back foot. Still, you're pretty sure that you can handle it...until she vanishes halfway through a strike.

You freeze, not having expected her to have improved that much.

And then she pounds through the tree you have your back to and sends you skidding across the ground.

You roll out of the slide without much trouble, though, and see Maya hasn't moved an inch. Instead, she clenches her fists, throws her head to the sky, and screams.

BANG

Her aura blasts away from her, clearing the trees for over a dozen yards in every direction. You weather the shock wave with ease, letting it blow over you. And when it finally settles, you finally get a glimpse of her true power level: nine hundred and twenty-seven.

"This is what I've got," she says, nerves forgotten in the rush of ki. She grins at you.

You slowly stand and walk over to her. Closing to within a foot of your friend, you look down at her.

And then you reach forward and pull her into a hug.

"...eep..."

"Thank you for showing me this, Maya," you say, resting your cheek on the top of her head. "It means a lot that you trust me so much."

"I- I- I- I- I-"

You squeeze her again, breaking the loop she's put herself into. "It really does. Thanks."

"...'course," she mumbles, squirming further into your arms. "Who else am I gonna tell?"

"Well, I have one idea," you say, smiling down at her.

She pulls back, frowning. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you're really strong, but that's not everything," you say, smirking. "You have to learn how to get better, too! I did."

Her frown deepens. "Well yeah, Karen. I told you that I've been practicing. I was a lot weaker when I started, I know about training."

You blink. Did what you said sound a bit condescending? Maybe. But that's not what you meant. "I know that! But there's more to this stuff! And that's why I have an idea about who to tell about this!"

If anything, she frowns even more. "What do you mean?"

"We're not the only ones who can do this!" you say, smiling. "My Dad can do it too. He's the one who taught me! So we should talk to him about it. He'll know what to do." You pull out your phone and pull up your Dad's contact.

"Wait, what? NO!"

You blink at Maya's sudden shout and look up at her. "I- what? Maya, I-"

"I don't wanna tell your Dad, Karen!" she says, looking miserable and nothing like the confident, cheerful girl from just moments before. "I wanted to tell YOU! I- I don't-" She turns away, hugging herself.

Your finger still hovers over the contact as you stare, bewildered.

Hm.

[ ] Call Dad anyway. This is ki, which means it impacts the Exiles. This is your secret and your people at stake, and you decide who gets in on it.
[ ] Convince Maya to let you call Dad. This really is for the best!
-[ ] Write-in how.
[ ] Ask Maya what's wrong.
-[ ] In fact, hug her again. Couldn't hurt.
[ ] Wait.
[ ] Write-in.

THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED.

She did not take that well.

She did not. As you all can tell, Maya objects to sharing the secret. What do?

This update is a lot shorter because less happened before we needed to break for a vote again. Given that the "talking" part of the vote was pretty much, "immediately transition towards calling Dad," there wasn't much time I needed to spend there. The next update will likely be similarly short, but surprises happen, I suppose.

VOTING WILL OPEN TWO HOURS AFTER THIS POST GOES UP.

PoptartProdigy · Jan 5, 2017

[X] Ask Maya what's wrong.
-[X] In fact, hug her again. Couldn't hurt.
--[X] We thought she was keeping it a secret because no-one else could do this, and told us because we can, so we figured she'd be happy to tell Dad since he can do it too.
---[X] But if she doesn't want to tell him, that's fine. It's completely up to her./---[X] If she insists, then we won't insist...
----[X] ...But now we've told her that Dad can do it too without him knowing, so she has to keep that a secret too! It's a secret to everyone!
-----[X] If everything is said, done, and resolved, tease her. "So...you think I'm pretty?"

I appear to have quietly passed a thousand posts in-thread a short time ago. Huh.

A Secret For Now

Snapping out of your shock, you pocket your phone again and step forward. "Hey, it's okay!" you say, wrapping your arms around Maya again. "I won't call him, promise."

She doesn't respond.

"I thought you wanted to tell me because I can do this too," you say, flaring your aura in demonstration. "Since my Dad can too, I thought you'd want to talk to him too."

Her breath hitches. "...could've asked."

You wince and tighten the hug a bit. "You're right. I should have. I'm sorry."

"Don't want to tell anybody else yet," she says, still not turning to face you.

"That's fine," you say. "Up to you." She doesn't respond for a moment, and you nudge her, smirking. "But now you know that my Dad can do it, so now you have another secret you have to keep. It's a secret to everybody!"

You catch the edges of a smile on her face, and she at last turns around and returns the hug, burying her face into your jacket. "Thank you, Karen. I promise I'll keep it secret."

"Thank you, Maya," you say, holding your friend close.

The moment stretches, and neither of the two of you move.

And then, nudging her again, you say, "So...you think I'm pretty?"

"...eep!" She goes stiff as a board and pulls back to stare at you, eyes wide. She flushes bright red, and when she opens her mouth to try to say something she just babbles wordlessly.

You laugh gaily and start tugging her back towards the house. "Oh Maya, do you have a crush on me?"

She finds her voice for just long enough to shriek, "Kareeeeeeeeeeeeen!"

All is well.

* * *

So, human mutant or hidden saiyan? you think, eyeing Maya as the two of you trek back towards Sophie's.

The case is surprisingly even, all things considered. On the one hand, human mutants are rare -- one in billions rare. On the other, her being a saiyan requires a very Byzantine plot involving lost or deliberately hidden saiyans who have access to children's' Masques. In fact, the very fact that her power level is as high as it is indicates that if she is under a child's Masque, it's broken and letting more power through than it should. Could be a normal Masque, though. But hasn't she met Lady Vegeta? She's friends with his son, wouldn't they have met at least once? Lady Vegeta wouldn't have missed a Masque...

Back on the first hand...billions to one odds.

In fact, her power level in and of itself is something problematic. At age ten, with poor training and without really knowing what she was doing, Maya is more powerful than your sister Fasha -- near a thousand units.

If human mutants are rare, ones on that scale are nearly unheard-of. Unless you miss your guess, Maya with even just wider-galaxy-quality training will someday be strong enough to beat the historic Recoome, easily, and he's the most powerful human ki mutant your people have records of.

With your people's training?

You have no idea. But towards the end of his life, Tenshinhan was easily a match for Buu's power level as it was when the entity was first released from his prison, and Tenshinhan was no mutant. That lets you know quite a bit about the true extent of your friend's potential.

But then, you can't be sure. Even the comparison to Recoome is more guesswork and ball-parking than anything substantive. The only thing that you're certain of is that if Maya is a human ki mutant, she will some day be a power in her own right -- the kind of power that redefines a galaxy. A power like a Super Saiyan, or Freeza. You are...uncertain of how to deal with that.

Because despite your promise to Maya, if you don't outright sabotage whatever training the two of you do, it won't be a year before Dad starts sensing her, and then he'll have some rather pointed questions for you. You can't help but feel as though you've backed yourself into a corner here. Hopefully you can convince Maya to let you talk to Dad later. You don't relish the thought of breaking your word to her, or of Dad realizing you've kept this from him.

But all of this presumes that Maya is in fact a human ki mutant, which you still don't know. Even if she's a saiyan, her power level has a potential of 15 million, and Dad will still notice a human ki signature with a power level of 15 million.

A part of you wonders if Lady Vegeta didn't miscarry her third child after all, and Jaffur's little sister is standing next to you. You give it a lot more consideration than you normally would.

Maya nudges you, dragging you out of your fugue. "Karen? Are you okay?"

You blink. "Oh! I'm fine, just thinking."

She nods, and silence falls for a moment. "So, um...you said your Dad taught you about your powers?"

You nod. "Yeah. Everything I know."

She hums, and says, "So...could you teach me? I mean, if you know more...maybe show me some things you can do?"

Your stride stutters for a moment. In hindsight, you might have seen this question coming.

Now that it's come up, what will you do with it? The following two votes will be counted separately. Please note that for this vote, write-ins are disallowed. Votes featuring write-ins will be discarded. If you have an idea, ask, but don't count on it being accepted.

Will you teach Maya the secrets of ki?

[ ] Yes ("Nosy Little Girl" action is re-purposed into "Training Maya" action for the remainder of the year. You will teach your friend in ki, likely causing her power level to skyrocket and inevitably bringing her to the attention of your father. You will be open with Maya about that, but as you have elected not to reveal saiyan society to her as of yet, will remain mum on the wider implications of such a discovery. If you want to convince her to let you tell your Dad, you have until her power grows too great to be missed to do so)
-[ ] (x0.5) But sabotage her training. The risk of discovery and the possible consequences are too great. It will likely hurt her a great deal to fail as comprehensively as you need her to, but Maya cannot come to your father's notice. (Vote weighting from "Ally" relationship)
[ ] No ("Nosy Little Girl" is abandoned entirely and Maya is not taught what you know. You don't want this to come to your father's attention, and have other plans in mind depending on which of the two following sub-options you pick. You will explain this to Maya, but she will likely feel hurt by your rejection nonetheless). Additionally, if you take this option you must select one of the following:
-[ ] And find something else to do with your time (pick a one-action option from the Year 3 options list to do. Be aware that different actions chosen will split the vote)
-[ ] And enjoy the feeling of your schedule opening up (action slot is closed entirely in exchange for a large mental health bonus from relaxation time. Bonus will persist past the scout's arrival, and any...unpleasantness...that may occur)

More short-term, will you give her a demonstration of your abilities? Low power, naturally, both out of consideration of collateral damage and to avoid notice.

[ ] Yes (Show off for your friend)
[ ] No (You should be getting back to the party)

THESE VOTES ARE NOW CLOSED.

* * *

You're making them choose between productivity, friendship, and anti-PTSD measures?

I never claimed to be a nice person.

Social crisis resolved, but now it's time to face up to the question of what you all want to do about this.

Kakara has learned Maya's secret, although many questions remain regarding the source of Maya's strange strength. Now Kakara faces the question of what to do with the knowledge. Will she train her friend in the arts of ki? Will she choose to focus on the upcoming invasion? Will she decide to put the problem off down the line and prepare herself for the scouts' arrival? Or will the pressures of the Masquerade drive her to betray her friend's trust, and sabotage Maya's development? Next time, on Dragon Ball AE!

VOTING WILL REMAIN CLOSED FOR TWO HOURS AFTER THE UPDATE GOES LIVE. I'LL MAKE A POST WHEN IT OPENS. VOTES SUBMITTED BEFORE THAT DEADLINE WILL BE IGNORED IN THE FINAL TALLY.

PoptartProdigy · Jan 7, 2017

[X] No (You should be getting back to the party)

[X] Yes ("Nosy Little Girl" action is re-purposed into "Training Maya" action for the remainder of the year. You will teach your friend in ki, likely causing her power level to skyrocket and inevitably bringing her to the attention of your father. You will be open with Maya about that, but as you have elected not to reveal saiyan society to her as of yet, will remain mum on the wider implications of such a discovery. If you want to convince her to let you tell your Dad, you have until her power grows too great to be missed to do so)

Linking Up

You debate with yourself for a moment. Should you lay out all of the -- to you -- obvious risks now, or as you start training? There's no doubt in your mind that you're willing to teach her. How would you even go about refusing? The only question is how you should make the risks clear.

Ultimately, though, your decision is clear. You think that she should be trained. Maya thinks that she's a superhero, and although the plan is to engage the scouts in space, ki blasts travel a long way. There's never a guarantee that something won't hit the ground. That someone won't hit the ground. You refuse to allow your friend to be in the middle of a true fight between ki users without sufficient training. And so you'll tell her later, once you've started. You'll make it clear that you think she should be training. It'll still be her choice...but your own thoughts should be clear.

You turn to her and smile. "Yes. I will. I'll teach you what I know."

Maya returns your grin and lunges at you, throwing her arms around your waist. "Yes! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Her voice trails off into a little squeal, and as she bounces back you see a happy flush in her cheeks. "Can you show me something cool? Can we make little animals? Can we walk on wate- oh!" She leans closer, eyes bright. "Can we fly?"

You stifle a grin, turning away. "Maybe..."

"What? Karen? What does that mean? Karen!"

You giggle, heading back towards the house. "We should go back to the party now, Maya."

"Karen! Come on, that's not nice. Karen? Come ooooooon!"

"We need to get inside now Maya," you say, stepping into the yard.

"But I wanna see!"

"Later," you sing, grinning. "But we have to get back, or everybody will want to know where we were, and then they might guess about the crush you have on me."

"Ka- Karen! It's not like- eep!"

You turn and oh kais it's Sophie's mom.

The human woman looks at the two of you with an amused smile. "What's that, girls?"

You flush crimson. "N- Nothing! I- it was a joke! Really!"

"Oh?" she says, leaning over the two of you. "Sounds like something to me."

Maya has her face buried in her hands, a quiet, high-pitched whine coming from behind them.

"Really, no!" you say, waving your hands. "It was just a joke! Promise!"

Sophie's mom rolls her eyes. "If you say so. But come on, girls, it's time to go inside. The forest is dangerous! You should already know that. Stay inside where it's safe." She starts ushering the two of you inside the house.

As she does, you feel Maya's hand slip into yours and give you a squeeze. You return the gesture, smiling.

This is going to turn out alright.
Nothing turns out alright, Scion.

Ally trait developed: Maya Webley [Dependable-->Strong]

* * *

The next day, you commit treason.

Again.

You're making a bad habit of that, for nobility.

You sit atop the mountain that the Senzus designated as you meeting point, meditating while you wait for one of them to make contact. It's a good cover -- you go out into the wilderness a lot to center yourself. A mountain is new, but then again so was the desert you visited last autumn, and nobody commented about that. You're always seeking out something new, so this is fine.

You imagine that the Senzus are surprised to find you here so soon after your last meeting, though. You wait for hours, steadily flaring your ki to keep the cold at bay, until...

We weren't expecting you until much later, Lady Scion, even after your last visit regarding the invasion, says Head Raditz in your mind. Roll your neck if you hear me, please.

A smile flickers across your face. I can do better than that.

There's a shocked silence. You know how to use telepathy?

New skill, you say. It's useful.

It's been a month!

And a half, you reply, cheerily.

How did you do this so quickly? asks Raditz, bewildered. I'm not even picking up any fraying in the connection.

You shrug. It's ki. And that, to you, is answer enough.

Ki talent learned: Telepathy [Competent]

You really are a prodigy, aren't you? says Raditz. As much as Jaffur is for fighting. Incredible. Regardless, what are you doing here so early, Scion?

You sober, your nascent smile dying. I have something to tell you. We need to get under the Veil.

* * *

"A meeting?"

Head Raditz sits back, holding his chin in his hand. "You didn't mention last time that your Grandmother was working with you."

"I forgot. Sorry." You give him a sheepish shrug. "With everything else, I just didn't remember it."

He nods. "I see. And I imagine you want to get us coordinated?"

"Yes," you say. "Grandma has been doing something, but I don't know what. It might make it easier for us. Either way, we should work together."

He nods immediately. "I agree. If the Matriarch is on our side, things will be much easier. We'll have to be careful about precautions, though. If your father were to catch us, the consequences would be catastrophic..."

No vote for this one, but the next update will be along soon with the next vote. Until then, I leave you with this. Enjoy, everybody!

PoptartProdigy · Jan 8, 2017

Happy Super-Finally-Came-Out-In-English Day!

That was yesterday. And @Aranfan already announced that.

Shut up and be happy. (Thanks, Aranfan!)

Off To a Roaring Start

You and Maya, the weekend after you set up the meeting between your Grandma, her conspirators, and the Senzus, head out away from town for your first bit of training. Ordinarily this would be difficult for two ten-year-olds to do without being stopped.

So you decide to make it a race, and the two of you zip off into the distance faster than you can be seen. You only come to a halt a long ways out from the town -- well out of sight of the houses at the edge, on the plains outside the town. Just like the forest on the other side of town, there's not much transition between the two; the town stops and the grassland immediately starts like somebody cut the edges off of civilization with a knife. About the only indication that you're about to leave the city is that there are fewer shops at the edges.

And for you and Maya, a three-minute run is all it takes to leave even those behind. You come to a halt in the middle of the grasslands, surrounded by miles of absolute nothingness.

"So what are we going to do?" asks Maya, shifting on her feet.

"Well, first things first," you say. "We need a good place to practice. And this way I can get some practice with my own abilities!"

Maya looks at you, excited at the prospect of seeing what you can do but confused as to what you're talking about.

You close your eyes. Dad?

There's a startled moment, and then you hear, Kakara? You learned telepathy?

You grin to yourself. Yup! It sounded interesting.

After a pause, you hear a chuckle. Oh, Kakara.

What?

Nothing, nothing. What are you calling about?

You pout, suspecting that you're being made fun of. I wanted to do some training away from the Hall. Max power of a thousand, but I wanted to test out my ki manipulation somewhere I could really cut loose on the terrain.

How do you mean?

If I start burning a hole through the planet in the Training Hall, I need to stop before I hit the apartments.

Kakara, no coring out Garenhuld because you're bored.

I won't! I'll only go down a quarter mile, I promise! Please, Dad?

"Karen, what are you doing?" asks Maya, nudging you.

"Talkin' to Dad," you say, smiling.

"...but you're just standing there- ooooooooooooooh!"

Yup! you say with a giggle, directing it to her exclusively.

Meanwhile, Dad says, Well, that's fine. No mushroom clouds, though, and no mass destruction. I don't want to have to explain those.

No problem! Thank you, Daddy!

No problem. Have fun, sweetie.

You grin, and close your connection to him in favor of Maya. Right! So, Dad knows that I'm practicing, so when he feels this he won't come checking. We're good to go!

Silence. You open your eyes to see Maya with her eyes closed and a strained look on her face.

"Sorry, Maya, I'll need to teach you that one," you say.

She jumps in surprise, her eyes flying open. "Really?"

"Yep."

She groans in annoyance. Then she pauses. "Wait, 'when he feels this?'"

You grin and turn your gaze to the ground. You thrust out a hand. "Hah!"

WHUMP

With a constant, basso thrum, a golden beam of ki jets out of your hands and bores down into the earth, creating a passage through the rock. Lighting up your aura to protect your clothes, you step into the still-glowing hole, keeping up the blast. "Follow me, Maya, but make sure to light up first!"

You walk down the molten sides of your tunnel into the depths of Garenhuld, blasting your way through. After a stunned moment, Maya follows, her own aura flaring.

You burn your way down until you get close to the quarter-mile depth your Dad specified, and then stop, letting the beam cut off.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" shrieks Maya, slamming into you from behind. "HowdidyoudothatteachmepleaseKarenplease?"

You laugh, turning around in your friend's grip. "Don't worry, I'm going to teach you. Just, uh...back up a little bit first, okay?"

"Why?" she asks.

"I'm going to make a training room," you say, grinning.

Her eyes widen, and she immediately turns and sprints away.

You chuckle and close your eyes, raising your power level to the 650 you used in your fight with Maya.

"HaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

BOOM

The air fills with ki, and you blast out a cavern underneath the surface of Garenhuld.

Ki Manipulation developed: Over half progress towards next skill level made; one-quarter total remaining.

* * *

It collapsed, of course. Obvious in hindsight. With a judicious application of telekinesis and ki blasts to raise, form, and fuse the ceiling and some pillars, though, you manage well enough. Once the chamber is stable, you call Maya in. "Okay!" you say, grinning at your friend. "Room's ready!"

"That was so cool," says Maya, looking around in awe. The air still shimmers with heat, but within your auras the two of you are fine. And more importantly, you're shielded. There's a reason beyond showing off for you to build this space. Like any other kind of energy, ki has a tough time getting through stone. At your current power levels, a quarter mile of rock is as good as the Hall's warding scheme. You'll need to dig deeper as Maya gets stronger, but that's no problem at all.

"And you can do that too," you say, grinning at her.

She lets out an excited, high-pitched squeal, beyond words.

After letting her be excited for a moment, you say, "So...I told you before that Dad would feel us."

She calms down and nods, frowning. "Yeah. What do you mean, Karen?"

"One of the things we can do is sense each other," you say, tapping your head. "It's...a little like hearing, a lot like feeling. A little bit of smell? Anyway, I'm really good at it, and my Dad can do it too." You give her a serious expression. "That's why we're all the way down here. The rock will keep him from feeling us. For a little while, anyway."

Maya shakes her head. "There's so much. But why only for a little bit?"

You give her a bright smile. "Maya, you're going to get a lot stronger doing this. So I'm going to have to dig deeper sooner or later. But that won't work forever. Some day you're going to be strong enough that Dad's going to sense you, no matter how deep we are. So..." you shrug. "I could get in trouble for teaching you without telling him. If you really don't want him to know, then we have to stop when we get that far."

Maya fidgets, looking around uncertainly. "We- well, I do-" She swallows. "I- I don't wa- wanna get you i- in trouble, Karen." She ducks her head. "So...I..." she looks very conflicted.

"You don't have to choose yet," you say. "You don't have to until we're a lot stronger. I'll tell you when. Just...think about it, okay?"

She nods, glad to get off the subject.

You give her a smile. "Okay! So, I guess the first thing is to tell you what our powers are." You call a sphere of light into your hand with ease, lighting the cavern up. "This is ki."

* * *

"It's more like a river, really."

"Why a river?"

"Because you can change where a river goes."

"What? No you can't. They're too big!"

"Not for us."

* * *

"It feels like a light."

"Warm?"

"Bright."

"People don't feel bright, they see it."

"I feel it."

"Heh. Then you're looking at the right thing."

* * *

"Now you grab it, and push."

"Like this?"

SREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

"Yes."

"...eep."

* * *

"Like last time, but you push down."

"Won't I blow up the ground?"

"Gentle push."

"And you think that'll work?"

"Probably!"

"...um."

* * *

"How did you get your head stuck in the ceiling?"

"Mmmphhmmmhhhphmph."

"You tried to fly again, didn't you?"

"Mmph."

"You look silly."

"Kmmhmm!"

* * *

"Karen! Karen, I did it! Look! Look at me! I'm flying!"

"That's amazing, Maya!"

* * *

It's midsummer. You've had to dig out your training room deeper into the crust six times to accommodate Maya's burgeoning power level. She's getting stronger so quickly you hardly know how to deal with it.

What you don't tell her is that you're using her training sessions as practice of your own.

Number One, this is number Two! you think. Hamstergirl just finished making the next training room all by herself!

Hamstergirl? asks your other self, sounding bemused.

I'm running out of cute code names.

Fair enough. So, Maya made a chamber alone?

Yeah! It was messy, and I had to finish it off myself, but she really did it!

This is number Three. I say that Two is lying.

Nuh uh! You're just jealous because we made you spend time with Mato today!

He's so annoying! I've been listening to him complain about not being Scion for THREE HOURS! Let me be the one to train Maya next time!

This is One. Three, you know we'll all just merge into one person tonight anyway. We clones just stop then. There is no "next time." There'll just be a new Number Three. Who will still be the one we throw at Mato.

Why do we even give ourselves numbers?

Because we all sound exactly the same and we can't tell who's talking if we don't. This is One, by the way, not that I know who just said that.

It was Two.

Tattletale!

Oh, who cares? One, how are the lessons going?

Depends. Do you want to hear about House Crean's main industry? I can tell you all about that.

No, I think I'm good, One.

Me too.

It's pudding. The whole family makes their living off of pudding.

What?!

HOW?

I DON'T KNOW!

Isolationists are so weird.

It makes no sense. But I'm looking at their ledgers right now, and the numbers work out. Pudding is 97% of their revenue somehow. Pudding.

This is Two. Do they sell to saiyans?

...right. Forgot about that, somehow.

Three here. Mato is starting to cry now. What do I do?

...cut the link and hug our brother, dummy!

IT'S WEIRD, OKAY?!

Three! Cut! Now!

Fine!

Three vanishes, leaving only you and One.

"Um, Karen?"

You open your eyes, turning from where you've been meditating. "Yes, Maya?"

One, I've gotta go. Maya has a question.

Yeah, fine, I'll just sit here and read some more about how weird Vegetans are.

Knew you could handle it!

You ignore her response.

"I was wondering something," says your friend, fiddling with her fingers. "I wa- was thinking about what you to- told me, about your Da- Da-" She swallows. "Dad. You said that he can se- sense ki?"

You cock your head and rise to your feet. "Yeah, that's why we need to do these underground. Why?"

She twines her fingers together. "Why haven't you been teaching me that? I mean, I thi- think being able to fe- feel where yo- you a- are would be usefu- useful." She ducks her head.

You let out a silent sigh. You knew this question was coming.
Not everything is always as it seems...but that doesn't mean it's bad.

So. It came up. What do?

[ ] Confess all. Tear aside the Masquerade, and give Maya whatever she wants to know.
-[ ] And then refuse to reach her.
-[ ] And then say you'll teach her.
[ ] Say you're saving it for later.
[ ] Fake a seizure.
[ ] Reveal some of the truth.
-[ ] Write-in how much.
[ ] Refuse to answer.
-[ ] Bluntly.
-[ ] Mysteriously.
-[ ] Ask her to trust your judgment.
[ ] Any and all write-ins.

THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED.

You can always tell when Poptart's in a joking mood.

Preposterous. I've never joked a day in my life.

Bullshi-

Character developments!

Victory Gained: Maya Webley's Apprenticeship.

Skill Developed: Multiform [Competent-->Talented]

Maya Webley's power level, as of midsummer, is 70,754. Her character sheet has been updated to match.
No, that's not normal. Not even with Exile-grade instruction.
Maya Webley's character sheet has received numerous updates such as developed or new skills and traits as a result of training under you. Please consult her character sheet for details.

The adventures of Numbers One and Two will be covered in the upcoming updates, as will any applicable rewards or skill increases from the same.

In addition! The spoiler policy has been updated. Here is the new text, with changes in red:

Some people have not seen Dragon Ball: Super yet. With the ongoing release of Super in English, that number is about to drop precipitously. Unless I specify otherwise either here or in a threadmarked update, with later threadmarks trumping earlier ones, all Super episodes with official English dubs are to be considered open for discussion, with yet-to-be-dubbed episodes remaining spoilers. As a general courtesy rule, please continue to use spoiler boxes for anything that is a spoiler according to the above rule. Anything else bearing the brand of Dragon Ball, however, is fair game and may be discussed freely, including anything about GT that you all wish to debate.

I hope that everybody enjoys this update! Let me know your thoughts, as usual!

NO VOTING UNTIL TWO HOURS AFTER THE UPDATE IS POSTED

Dragon Ball: After the End

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

PoptartProdigy

Lawful Evil

PoptartProdigy

Lawful Evil

Aranfan

Team Plasma Grunt

Andres

PoptartProdigy

Lawful Evil

PoptartProdigy

Lawful Evil

PoptartProdigy

Lawful Evil

PoptartProdigy

Lawful Evil

PoptartProdigy

Lawful Evil

PoptartProdigy

Lawful Evil

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks