Base and Oozaru are mutually exclusive. They depend on which body you are in. Granted, we could multiform into two bodies and have one go Oozaru to get access to both pools at once (one body would have our full base ki, the other our full Oozaru ki) but they would split any SSJ pool they accessed.
Base and Oozaru are mutually exclusive. They depend on which body you are in. Granted, we could multiform into two bodies and have one go Oozaru to get access to both pools at once (one body would have our full base ki, the other our full Oozaru ki) but they would split any SSJ pool they accessed.
After all we have no idea if everyone ever tried to access both pools at the same time.
It might very well not be possible, but it's a possibility.
And Poptart never outright confirmed OR denied that ssj4 would be a thing, just that IF it was it would be handled very differently from GT.
A possible way for it to work would be by combining the separate pools. Or maybe by simply compressing the Ki from the Oozaru form in a smaller shape, using his base/boost but without the loss in speed.
I do agree we have better low hanging fruits to pursue for now though. Even if possible it would take quite a bit of research and meditation
Hm, typically I trade off updates between my two quests, but I'm doing something a bit fiddly with my other one and y'all have been waiting a while, so in the interest of getting back to writing, vote closed.
Vote Tally : Dragon Ball: After the End - Sci-Fi | Page 1375 | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 34356-34396] ##### NetTally 1.9.10
[X] Explain everything, no matter how trivial. Something of this gravity...unsettles...you. You want him to give you a full second opinion. Anything could be related. No. of Votes: 16
[X] Explain everything, no matter how trivial. Something of this gravity...unsettles...you. You want him to give you a full second opinion. Anything could be related.
Hm, typically I trade off updates between my two quests, but I'm doing something a bit fiddly with my other one and y'all have been waiting a while, so in the interest of getting back to writing, vote closed.
Vote Tally : Dragon Ball: After the End - Sci-Fi | Page 1375 | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 34356-34396] ##### NetTally 1.9.10
[X] Explain everything, no matter how trivial. Something of this gravity...unsettles...you. You want him to give you a full second opinion. Anything could be related. No. of Votes: 16
[X] Explain everything, no matter how trivial. Something of this gravity...unsettles...you. You want him to give you a full second opinion. Anything could be related.
I mean, that's not wrong, but I think this is one of the cases where a cynical approach misses the point and falls short of the proper conclusion. Rather, well...
Tit for tat, and especially tit for tat with forgiveness, is so good a strategy in almost all game theoretic situations that it beats out most forms of cheating. To say that someone you trust is manipulated into trusting you back isn't wrong, but (the subtext behind) manipulate misses the whole reason why we are manipulatable like that.
Besides, house Talt had something worth our time, they probably wouldn't have lost so decisively. It's not like they had a lot of time, either; I'm pretty sure Vegeta spent more time mastering those forms than they did, and was both more talented and experienced than they were, and he still ditched it the moment he had another option.
Counterpoint: Vegeta also ditched Oozaru. Talt is the only group I'm aware of that probably had both time and inclination to do Lots Of Weird Things with Ascended Super Saiyan.
Counterpoint: Vegeta also ditched Oozaru. Talt is the only group I'm aware of that probably had both time and inclination to do Lots Of Weird Things with Ascended Super Saiyan.
Vegeta ditched Oozaru because he lost his tail, not because he didn't consider it useful.
And, well, House talt didn't have the time you think they did. By all accounts, they considered USSJ enough, and simply went after the royals as soon as the clan had reached that peak. Even if the more talented members of the house had spent the time waiting for their family to catch up training, they still have to come up with something that neither trunks nor vegeta did with less natural talent. Honestly, if I wanted to try to use USSJ I would want us to work from scratch over going off house talt's work, but even that misses the point because honestly any non us-exclusive form r&d should really come after we ask our friends in the afterlife, for the same reason you go and get a style trainer so that you can improve your combat instead of making your own from first principles.
I mean, that's not wrong, but I think this is one of the cases where a cynical approach misses the point and falls short of the proper conclusion. Rather, well...
Tit for tat, and especially tit for tat with forgiveness, is so good a strategy in almost all game theoretic situations that it beats out most forms of cheating. To say that someone you trust is manipulated into trusting you back isn't wrong, but (the subtext behind) manipulate misses the whole reason why we are manipulatable like that.
[X] Explain everything, no matter how trivial. Something of this gravity...unsettles...you. You want him to give you a full second opinion. Anything could be related.
Into the Void
You have already trusted Bassoon with so much. Your name, your abilities, your heritage, your home, and your own story. To be perfectly honest, you've shared enough that you'll face charges for it, when you get home and it all comes out. You'll almost certainly be the effective Lady of Goku at the time, mind, so those charges would be farcical, but they'll exist, and the public backlash is likely to be intense, no matter how necessary your actions have been.
Hell, you're freaking out a fair amount yourself, in the privacy of your own head.
Still, if you've come this far...what's the point of further secrets? You've already shared the biggest, most important secrets you can imagine.
And so, you share this one, too.
Every word of it.
Bassoon falls silent, and comes to a dead halt in midair, in the outside world. His hands tremble, slightly, just for a moment.
Then he powers up and blasts towards his home on a perfectly flat trajectory. 'We're leaving. Whatever skills you have for helping me out in a fight, get them ready. I'm going to shoot my way through the blockade. I need to get back to Namek as soon as possible.'
You blink at his sudden vehemence. "What did I see? Do you know who's coming to Namek?"
'The New Cold Empire,' he replies, rocketing into his home through an open window and blurring from spot to spot as he packs. 'The reason why Arcosa is under siege in the first place.'
* * *
When Earth fell, the galaxy fell into chaos.
The Galactic King had, ever since Freeza's death, maintained his tenuous rule with the -- fictitious, always implied, and never actionably stated -- claim that he had Freeza's killer on a leash, and could deploy him to counter anybody threatening the King's reign. Given time and loose lips, word spread that Son Goku, saiyan from some backwater called Earth, was this legendary hero. As Goku continued to win glory in battle, his legend only grew, and the King grew ever more to rely on the fiction that Goku was a friend of the King.
Then, Goku died. Worse still, so did Vegeta. At the very least, though, Earth still stood, and was an ever-more active member of the galactic community as Briefs technology proliferated to the masses and took the nations of Earth to space. Goku and Vegeta's descendants were never really active in the way the King preferred, but they had their own adventures and made the occasional spectacular display of might to keep their legend bright. It drew the problematic elements to Earth to be disposed of, and the King was content.
And then came the Enemy, and a thousand horror stories spread by the fleeing refugees who would later become the Exiles. In a heartbeat, the polite fiction supporting the King's reign was gone. Things didn't collapse straight away, though. Institutions have a fair amount of inertia, and it had been a while since anybody had bothered to start a fight. If the King was actually powerful enough, he might have been able to hold onto his kingdom.
But he wasn't. That's why he needed Earth in the first place.
The rebellions started in the galactic, "west," as the King measured these things. Planets stopped paying taxes, local law enforcement stopped making reports, and local leaders stopped caring what happened in the rest of the galaxy. As the King struggled to direct the Galactic Patrol to suppress revolts, more planets elsewhere started to take their chance to break away, and the rest of the galaxy began to dissolve into chaos.
Into this chaos, Freeza reemerged. Despite a brief spate of empire-building in the wake of the Tournament of Power, the tyrant had subsequently disappeared without a trace in the wake of Goku and Vegeta's demises, leaving the rest of the galaxy to speculate as to where he had gone. Some thought he was merely toying with the galaxy on a grand scale. Others felt he was shaken by his old enemies' deaths, and retreated from the galaxy with the feeling that time had passed him by. A radical few suggested that perhaps, the old tyrant had actually changed by his exposure to Earth. But whatever the reason, he vanished.
Until Earth died.
Into the chaos of the Kingdom's collapse, Freeza entered, restoring order with a brutal hand. The Empire was back, albeit greatly reduced. Freeza held the galaxy in his grip.
Thus, it was a mystery to everybody when he declined to squeeze.
Freeza solidified his control over the West and stopped, biding his time. For several years, he left the Galactic King to regain control over what he could. An uneasy and strange peace settled over the galaxy as the Kingdom, hanging by a thread and united only in fear of Freeza, eyed the silent West.
Five years passed in this manner, and then the stalemate broke when the Enemy came for Freeza.
Nobody knows what transpired when those two demons spoke. All who witnessed it perished. Seventeen star systems were destroyed in the battle. And when the dust settled and people went to find out what had happened, neither fighter was anywhere to be found.
With its common enemy gone, seemingly having destroyed itself killing the thing that had become Creation's boogeyman, the Kingdom promptly exploded. The King and his Patrol couldn't even begin to control what they once claimed, and they retreated into the galactic core. The West, once more bereft of Freeza, collapsed into a thousand warlord states, even as the rest of the galaxy followed along.
Since then, nations have come and gone. Empires have risen and fractured in turn. In no small part, this was due to the efforts of the Galactic King, who in an act of grand spite made it his business to sabotage anybody getting too large. A century after his fight with Freeza, the Enemy returned, and immediately set to work hunting down the shattered remnants of the saiyan race, but he never paid any attention to the rest of the galaxy. Things continued, unchanged.
Roughly sixty years ago, however, a band of arcosian warlords laying claim to the legacy of Freeza's family arose in the West and began forging an empire. It was nothing special, at first -- many arcosians with a taste for adventure had tried something similar. But these fighters had the power to back it up. System after system fell, and when the King tried to stop it, his forces were wiped out. The warlords, naming themselves Cold's Children, proclaimed this to be an act of war. The New Cold Empire and the remnants of the Galactic Kingdom went to war, and the galaxy was caught between them.
For years, the Empire won countless victories. The West and North fell under their dominion, and they pressed in towards the Core seemingly with impunity. The Kingdom seemed set to finally fall.
However, at the last moment, just as the Empire prepared to launch an offensive to seize the Kingdom once and for all, a new player entered the game. Two humans naming themselves Lapis and Lazuli emerged in the still-disunified South, making their appearance with a devastating blow to the Empire's forces. Moving from system to system, they either coerced or removed leaders opposed to them, forging the Alliance of Independent Stars. The Alliance immediately declared war on the Empire, and the Kingdom received a stay of execution.
This, then, is the shape of the galaxy today: In the West and North, the Empire serves as the most powerful polity in the galaxy. The Kingdom prepares in the Core for its final stand, and the Alliance fights desperately in the South to gain the strength they need to push back the Empire. In the East, nobody has risen to true prominence. As of yet unthreatened by any of the major powers, the East is not united, and has joined no side in particular. They are a chaotic and fractious mess, a mess not helped by the overwhelming tide of refugees fleeing the wars to the west.
These refugees, embittered by the loss of their homes, found themselves directionless and unwelcome. They were strangers in a strange land, and seen as an eternal sign of impending strife and hardship. They found themselves cast adrift in a quadrant of the galaxy that gave not a single damn for their hardships, offered no support to them, and often felt free to blame them for their continuing misfortunes.
And, as the wave of refugees spread further east, they found themselves in the same region of space as the planet of Arcosa -- the seat of Cold's former empire, and a symbolic objective the New Empire had spent years saying they were going to reclaim. With nobody to stop them, the refugees stared at their ultimate tormentors' ancestral home.
It started with pirate raids. Undisciplined, untrained refugees turned to robbing shipments in the space around Arcosa. Many died in the inevitable responses, but what few survived were smart, strong, and clever -- and they were motivated. As time passed and more refugees arrived to an East increasingly angry with the tide of immigrants, these veteran pirate bands served as natural centers for the incoming refugees. Their ranks swelled, and eventually, somebody thought to ask why they should stop at mere pirate raids.
War came to the East even as it raged in the West, as the refugees' anger finally boiled over and they began to attack everything that came from Arcosa. Arcosa had the advantage of wealth and training, but they were one planet facing the exodus of a galaxy. Step by step, they were driven back, and eventually they were forced to retreat all the way to their home world, erecting a grand shield network to serve as their last line of defense. The refugees settled into a siege that eventually stretched for decades. The Blockade Fleet became the natural center for further refugees, and they finally found their place. Where before they had been an unwelcome imposition, they were now customers, facing a target about which nobody really cared, and in dire need of purchased supplies. Thus, the Siege of Arcosa began, and while the refugees have come close to breaching the shields more than once, the lines have held. Meanwhile, all around them the East continued to shift and swirl, alliances and nations rising and falling, all of them now defined by the siege at their center, and the Blockade Fleet's all-consuming hunger for more supplies.
The galaxy, in short, is a dumpster fire.
One which has finally spread, after centuries of isolation, to Namek.
* * *
Polaris trails behind Bassoon as your host rises towards the planetary shield. "I don't understand! You weren't in this much of a hurry before! Why now?"
"I got a message from home," growls Bassoon. "The Empire is shifting its forces north. I guess they decided that Namek being neutral wasn't good enough anymore."
Polaris snickers. "I mean, what with all of the namekian, 'adventurers,' travelling the galaxy and coincidentally tending to intersect and disrupt Imperial operations, you can hardly blame them."
Bassoon gives Polaris an unamused look. "It's all hands on deck for this one. I'm sorry, I know that your people need the help, but it's my home."
"I'm not mad that you're leaving," replies Polaris. "I mean, no offense, but you're one fighter. We have plenty. Your value is the stuff you bring us, so thanks, we got what we need. I was just wondering what changed."
"Well, now you know," replies Bassoon. "I'll try to make it back for another run soon, but no promises."
"Well, I can't say I like it, but...well, what else are you going to do?" sighs Polaris as the two draw up to the shields. "I mean, it's your home. I get it." He waves at the planet below. "Thanks for the supply run, Bassoon. That stuff is going to do a lot of good."
Bassoon manages a smirk, shaking Polaris's hand. "No problem. I raided only the best technical universities."
Polaris laughs, turning away. "Oh, good! We wouldn't want subpar goods, after all. Stay safe, Bassoon. We'll give you cover on the way out." He turns away and starts ordering a squad of arcosians into position.
Finally, you speak up, frowning. "Technical universities?"
Bassoon nods, rummaging in his pack. 'Yeah. Engineering schools, really.' He pulls out a capsule with a red stripe on it and produces the air mask you remember from his initial blockade run.
"Why technical schools?" you ask.
'Best place to get the latest in public domain technology,' replies Bassoon, pulling on the mask. 'Arcosa's been cut off for a while. They tend to fall behind the curve. Best thing I can do for them with my space budget is catch them up to date.'
You recall the pile of electronics and books he produced upon landing. "...I thought those were entertainment."
Bassoon blinks. '...you thought I ran the largest blockade in the galaxy to deliver entertainment products?' He shakes his head. "I...guess I'm flattered?"
You flush red. "I mean, there was the candy."
He snorts. 'Okay, fair. I mostly get that because they need the morale boost. The kids love those treats. You ever seen an arcosian child? Adorable.' He shakes his head. 'But no. All of that stuff is technology. Blueprints and schematics.'
You nod, telling yourself that it's really irrational to feel disappointed that somebody is being pragmatic about their suicidally self-sacrificing altruism. "I guess that makes sense."
'I certainly hope so,' he remarks. 'Now, get ready. They're going to lower the shield soon, and I'll need to move.'
"What's the plan?" you ask.
'I blast through at top speed. I left my ship back in the outer asteroid cloud. I'll need to shake our pursuit along the way before I can get into it; it's impossible to detect while powered down, but its startup sequence takes a few minutes, and it's not that well-armored. Whatever you can do to help, I'd appreciate. Maybe some of those seer abilities you mentioned. I don't know how well you can leverage them in the moment, though.'
You frown, remembering a few instances of intuition during Bassoon's first run, and your fight with Yammar. "...maybe. I'll see what I can do."
'All I can ask. Now: a moment, please. I need to be centered for this.' He then breaks off and starts chanting under his breath, erecting magical wards around his body.
You take a breath, turning away from the sky. You glance at Dazarel. "I don't suppose you know anything about the Sight?"
The dragon shifts on your shoulder. 'In a sense.'
You scowl. "Be more specific, Dazarel. Our host is going to get shot at."
'Yes, yes, I know,' snarls the dragon, rising to his feet and stretching. 'Honestly, it's a long conversation with a lot of ground to cover, and the irony in it is delicious. I won't be sacrificing my chance to mock you when I unveil it in full.'
You take a slow breath, eyebrow twitching. "You get one more."
'Therefore, I shall be sticking to practicalities,' he continues, unruffled. 'If you focus your gifts on your perception of the present, but do not trigger a full vision, you may receive impressions of incoming danger.'
"I've had those," you reply. "At least I think so. During my fight with Yammar, I sometimes knew where to dodge before I saw him moving, and I sensed danger coming for Bassoon."
'I did see that,' says Dazarel. 'It gave me hope. Only a heartbeat of it, but still.' He takes off and turns to hover before you, looking you in the eye. 'Personally, I'd focus my efforts on that, were I you. A single such warning could save the slug's life.'
You scowl at Dazarel. "Next time, I'm punching you."
He growls back and begins to circle you. 'Alternatively, you could focus on such prosaic affairs as using futuresight to divine our odds of escape or death along our current planned route. Up to you. You are the seer, after all.'
You sigh, holding out an arm and letting him land there. "You are so annoying. We need to have a longer chat about how you know about the Sight, later."
He chuckles, eyeing you. 'I look forward to you realizing how inane a statement that is.'
You spit on him with enough force to knock him off of your arm and embed him in the ground. "Shut up." You settle down to the ground, cross-legged, as he bellows in outrage. You let your eyes film over white, and start skimming the edges of your gift. "Bassoon? Ready."
Your host nods, finishing his chant, and turns to Polaris. "Ready."
Polaris nods, and says, "We're ready," into his earpiece. Then he raises his voice. "Squad, get ready!"
A moment later, a hole large enough for a single individual opens in the shield, and the squad fires blasts through. In between one volley and the next, Bassoon slips through. Then he fires up his aura and charges forward, towards the waiting blockade and away from Arcosa.
Bassoon has caught you up on the galaxy's history and current affairs on the grand scale. He has given you the missing context on the attack on Namek -- namely, they are neutral but tend to have a lot of their people in the galaxy and hostile to the New Cold Empire, and the Empire has tired of this and is preparing to attack them. Furthermore, Dazarel has, under the pressure of time, revealed that he knows something of the use of Sight, and has confirmed and revealed (on your character sheet) Kakara's possession of Combat Precognition [1/5], and its mechanics.
Bassoon also crushed, as collateral damage, a tiny bit of Kakara's wide-eyed idealism about Bassoon's sheer altruism, although that was probably bound to happen at some point.
Kakara is probably best-situated to assist Bassoon in the breakout by using her Sight, given that she lacks the ability to directly affect things. How should she use it?
[ ] Combat Precognition. While she's unpracticed in it, its very nature means that it is literally a matter of life or death, whenever it would come up.
[ ] Regular visions. Kakara is far more practiced in this use of her powers, and for something as linear and straightforward as this, even futuresight should be easier to interpret than usual.
[ ] No Sight, in fact. Kakara has a better idea, one leveraging her more mundane skills.
-[ ] Write in just what this idea is.
MANUAL MORATORIUM. APPROVAL VOTING.
I realized that the only way through my writer's block was to sit down and force myself to break it. I wrote all of this in a single sitting. I should have been asleep four hours ago. I am exhausted, and this is probably a technical mess. Please point out the typos, because I have not looked over this for them even once.
We're back, folks! I hope you enjoy this! We're back into the regular pace of things.
[ ] Combat Precognition. While she's unpracticed in it, its very nature means that it is literally a matter of life or death, whenever it would come up.
[ ] Regular visions. Kakara is far more practiced in this use of her powers, and for something as linear and straightforward as this, even futuresight should be easier to interpret than usual.
[ ] No Sight. In fact. Kakara has a better idea, one leveraging her more mundane skills.
So our options is possible re-roll of whole thing or pinpoint re-rolls of failures or something else, some odd Kakara-style move.
I say we use Combat Precognition this time. It's not every day that you have life or death situation for your ally. Chances of success are small but with right phrasing we can boost them with Kakara's traits Protector, Ambitious, Decisive and The Cause. More than enough. And after whole escape we can practice in Regular Sight to our leisure.
couldn't we also give him some of our ki for a boost? maybe even gather some more with a genkidama (even without asking it should still be a few hundred million.)
couldn't we also give him some of our ki for a boost? maybe even gather some more with a genkidama (even without asking it should still be a few hundred million.)
I am also interested, it would be nice if we can. But it would probably attract tooo much attention, so maybe only us ace in the hole?
On another note we can play "Soul Reaper", because we literally can rip souls. A shame that it's not in Kakara style.
couldn't we also give him some of our ki for a boost? maybe even gather some more with a genkidama (even without asking it should still be a few hundred million.)
Well, I don't think we can invite the blockade to a tea party, so my standard plan is out.
I think that combat precog is our best bet, because we can't communicate with the outside while we're having a vision, and we don't have time to have a full vision before trouble finds us.
Honestly, I doubt our host really *needs* our help - he's done this run before without much trouble, after all. But it'd be nice to help him however we can. It might get him to help us with shenanigans in the future.
I think that combat precog is our best bet, because we can't communicate with the outside while we're having a vision, and we don't have time to have a full vision before trouble finds us.
Well, nothing stops us from also trying to give him a few millions worth of ki before we Start concentrating on combat precog. We can even gather them for free with the genkidama
Well, nothing stops us from also trying to give him a few millions worth of ki before we Start concentrating on combat precog. We can even gather them for free with the genkidama
Well, I don't think we can invite the blockade to a tea party, so my standard plan is out.
I think that combat precog is our best bet, because we can't communicate with the outside while we're having a vision, and we don't have time to have a full vision before trouble finds us.
Honestly, I doubt our host really *needs* our help - he's done this run before without much trouble, after all. But it'd be nice to help him however we can. It might get him to help us with shenanigans in the future.
As well, the general issue seems to be time and information, not power. Bassoon could overpower any one person in the blockade, he just couldn't take the time to have a full-on fight. So he moved as quickly and quietly as possible.
I agree, I think the combat precog is our best bet. It's the small, instantaneous pieces of information that are crucial here, in my estimation.
[ ] Combat Precognition. While she's unpracticed in it, its very nature means that it is literally a matter of life or death, whenever it would come up.
definitely this. i want to use this as much as possible so we can get as good as we possibly can with it. this is too good to let languish.
I'm not saying giving him energy is a bad idea, but combat precognition is a better idea, and we need practice urgently now that we can use it deliberately.
