Doomed Wombat
Let's go Darling!
- Location
- Dancing on wires!
OH OH I KNOW.
Because we can't always be there dumbass
Even with instant transmission we can't always be there to save them.
Dragon Ball: After the End
Because we can't always be there dumbass
Even with instant transmission we can't always be there to save them.
- Location
- Australia
We'd fight together as a team. I'm not sure why we wouldn't be there to save them.OH OH I KNOW.
Because we can't always be there dumbass
Even with instant transmission we can't always be there to save them.
Not advocating this plan at all, not in the slightest, just trying to work out some holes in the theory.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I want you to teach the misfits ki if you intend to form a superhero group.
Honestly, I didn't think people would take that as seriously as they did...
And yes, that's an option, presuming none of your friends ever leave your sight or immediate awareness. If you do manage to keep their overconfidence under control, that is.
OH OH I KNOW.
Because we can't always be there dumbass
Even with instant transmission we can't always be there to save them.
Also whoa how did I miss this?
@Alex pears, that's a bit much. Please tone it down.
Last edited:
Doomed Wombat
Let's go Darling!
- Location
- Dancing on wires!
Because you wouldn't be teaching em how to use KI as said here.
What if instead of that.
Not at all apparently.
Will do, but I do get irritated by things like that.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Irritation is fine, just remember the rules. The mods haven't payed a visit yet, and I'd like to keep that record.
- Location
- Scotland
Baseball when?
Yamcha being remembered for defeating a god of destruction at baseball when?
Baseball as the Saiyan national sport when?
Also I was thinking, if Hit is already thousands of years old by super, unless he dies in the next few arcs, which is entirely possible, couldn't he still be around, I know i mentioned it before but I really wonder how universe 6 is doing.
Yamcha being remembered for defeating a god of destruction at baseball when?
Baseball as the Saiyan national sport when?
Also I was thinking, if Hit is already thousands of years old by super, unless he dies in the next few arcs, which is entirely possible, couldn't he still be around, I know i mentioned it before but I really wonder how universe 6 is doing.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I HAVE AN ANSWER TO-
Actually, both of the latest questions directed towards me.
First, I've mentioned that while my depiction of Kakara's social isolation draws from my history, my depiction of Jaffur's home life is drawn from my relationship with my own parents.
They're in town.
Fortunately, they leave tomorrow, so I'll have time to get down to things then. That said, as a general announcement:
It's become clear that I get things eating up my time unexpectedly with alarming frequency over the weekends. My weekday afternoons tend to be much more open and thus I get more work on recreational writing done then. Thus as a general rule you all should not expect updates over the weekends. Not saying that they'll never happen, but treat them as a pleasant surprise rather than the expected result. In general, if you expect something to come up that burns through my time (my wife is a lot more social then me and often drags me along to occasions, which does not facilitate writing time), you'll likely not be wrong.
As for Aranfan's question, that is certainly a direction that Celeran's preaching has been taking lately.
Actually, both of the latest questions directed towards me.
First, I've mentioned that while my depiction of Kakara's social isolation draws from my history, my depiction of Jaffur's home life is drawn from my relationship with my own parents.
They're in town.
Fortunately, they leave tomorrow, so I'll have time to get down to things then. That said, as a general announcement:
It's become clear that I get things eating up my time unexpectedly with alarming frequency over the weekends. My weekday afternoons tend to be much more open and thus I get more work on recreational writing done then. Thus as a general rule you all should not expect updates over the weekends. Not saying that they'll never happen, but treat them as a pleasant surprise rather than the expected result. In general, if you expect something to come up that burns through my time (my wife is a lot more social then me and often drags me along to occasions, which does not facilitate writing time), you'll likely not be wrong.
As for Aranfan's question, that is certainly a direction that Celeran's preaching has been taking lately.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
...
Surprising Nobody, Dandelor Is Uncomfortable
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] What?
[X] Continue planning.
-[X] Is it possible to do some sort of "body double" switch? Or is it better to try and build up all the preparation possible for breaking the Seal and saving both Jaron and Jaffur, and then just grabbing Jaffur in a distracted moment, to then break the Seal?
[X] Continue vote in abeyance.
[X] Meeting point. Nothing is totally secure, but this is more secure than most. This way the Senzus will be able to judge if something is wrong before coming to get you.
[X] Winning plan + "Any chance that Jaron/Jaffur are still able to wield magic, and that that might be put to use by us?"
[X] Continue planning.
-[X] Is it possible to do some sort of "body double" switch? Or is it better to try and build up all the preparation possible for breaking the Seal and saving both Jaron and Jaffur, and then just grabbing Jaffur in a distracted moment, to then break the Seal?
[X] Continue vote in abeyance.
[X] Meeting point. Nothing is totally secure, but this is more secure than most. This way the Senzus will be able to judge if something is wrong before coming to get you.
[X] Winning plan + "Any chance that Jaron/Jaffur are still able to wield magic, and that that might be put to use by us?"
Surprising Nobody, Dandelor Is Uncomfortable
You and Raditz stare at his brother in stunned silence for a long moment.
You crack first. "What?"
The Sorcerer rubs at the back of his head. "It does seem a bit improbable that you'd be a Seer as well, but these things are possible. The way magical and Seer heritability works isn't well-understood, so for all we know there's a chance with every birth-"
"You didn't think this was relevant?" Raditz says, his jaw snapping shut.
You look over, suddenly wary. Raditz sounds truly, genuinely angry.
"It shouldn't have been!" says Dandelor. "The Seal took! Or at least it looked like it did. Transformed, any spell Jaffur cast should have blasted through any spell his mother put in its way. We call it supercharging for a reason! I thought he simply couldn't cast anything given that he DOESN'T KNOW HOW!"
Raditz throws his hands up, fuming.
"Even then, before the Scion came we didn't have any way of talking to him!" says Dandelor. "It really shouldn't have made any difference!"
"...does it now?" you ask.
The two men look over at you. "How do you mean?" asks Raditz.
"I can get in there," you say. "The Seal, I mean. And I know that something about my Sight can let me talk to him. Is there any way that Jaffur or Jaron could still use magic, and I could tell them how they can help? Can they help, somehow?" You hum, thinking. "I mean, my first guess would be something like a body double switch? Dad told me that he has one for me if I'm ever in a lot of trouble. Jaffur's has to be with Dandeer, but could you make one?" You look at Dandelor.
He blinks. "Um. Possibly? Did you father...tell you...what a body double is?"
You cock your head. "No. But he said a Sorcerer did it."
He sighs. "I guess that's as much as anybody would know. Technically, it's just somebody who looks like you. Sorcerers can do better, though. For us, a body double is a modified Masque; anybody can double for a Scion in a pinch. But that relies on having somebody you're willing to put there, and we couldn't do that. Dandeer is a Master Sorcerer. I am as well, but that just means she wouldn't notice my weave immediately. Eventually, she'd notice the magic weave sitting under her nose."
"So all we can do is wait until we're ready and then grab Jaron and break the Seal? Without killing him?" you ask.
"Not necessarily," says Raditz. "Just because the double wouldn't last forever doesn't mean it's useless. Ultimately, all we can do is wait until we're ready and then move, but if we manage to keep it a secret that we've replaced Jaffur until he's already here, we can avoid engaging Lord Berra until we have Jaffur unsealed and in tow. It lets us pick the terms of our engagement."
You nod, encouraged. "So, could Jaffur help with that?"
Dandelor tilts his hand back and forth as if weighing the possibility. "Possibly. Depends on what he's capable of, sorcery-wise. After all, just because you can get in there doesn't mean I can to teach him. I tried something like that shortly after the Sealing. I could have targeted it more precisely if I knew how and why the Seal failed, but even then, it still would have failed. Magic is best described as the art of literalizing concepts. Ki users can accomplish a lot of what we do, but for you it's a matter of knowing how, in the real world, that would work. You could hypnotize somebody by twisting their ki. You could level a mountain by firing your ki. You could probably make a Masque by moving the right way and changing how your signature outputs, in fact. It would just be incredibly uncomfortable, in that case. But magic requires me to express a figurative concept in a literal way. I tried to literalize my personal connection to Jaffur into a direct line of communication to what I thought was his sleeping consciousness." He looks aside, a mournful look on his face. "...it wasn't enough. I'm not close enough to him for that concept to work, and I don't have a better backup to work with. I don't have much of a teacher relationship, and I'm hardly invested with the rebel mindset beyond getting him out, so there's nothing deep enough to reach. Not even with him awake."
He looks like he really regrets that, in more ways than one.
You cock your head. "Well, maybe Jaffur has enough of a connection to you to try," you say. "He trusted you enough to get tested by you. If Lord Vegeta was my Dad, I wouldn't tell just anyone about my abilities."
Dandelor blinks. "Well...maybe. But even then he'd be up against the full force of the Seal. It's a prison, after all. It's meant to keep him in. Trapped in like that, he could hardly overcharge his spells like he did when he was free."
You slowly start to smile. "Oh. Oh! I didn't tell you! Jaffur's not just trapped in there; he's trapped and transformed! When I saw him he was still a Super Saiyan! He should be able to overcharge easy with that!"
Dandelor grins. "Really? ...oh, of course! That's genius! I was wondering what he did..." He trails off, muttering to himself about technical details.
Raditz turns away from his brother and towards you. "That changes things. If you can get in, and if Jaffur has a deep enough connection to my brother to get a line out, and if he's strong enough to punch through the Seal's wards in doing so, then Dandelor can teach Jaffur what he needs to know. To be honest, if we can manage that, then our job is done for us. Dandelor can teach Jaffur full-time. No downtime for either of them unless exhaustion demands. We go until Jaffur can recognize the Seal's weaves enough to target them. Then we do the switch, and Jaffur starts burning his prison down without his mother there to watch."
You frown. "But what about Jaron?"
Dandelor looks up from the chart he's scribbling on a sheet of paper he got from somewhere. "'...as I am,' then that would mean he- hm?" He blinks. "Oh, that would be my job. If Jaffur can recognize the weaves, then I can do what I need to to keep the...hm. What do we call Jaron? I'll call him the Face. If Jaffur can see his target, I can be on the outside keeping the Face safe from harm while Jaffur focuses on just destroying whatever he can reach. Nice and easy, and a lot faster. Less risk for whoever is doubling for Jaffur, although you'd still need to be ready to pull them out, Scion."
"Why me?" you ask.
Raditz takes up the thread. "Because we don't have anybody with Instant Transmission. Frankly, the math makes my head hurt. I can keep finances just fine, but the math you need for IT goes into calculus."
"Calculus isn't that hard!" you say, smiling brightly. It's really not, after all. You don't know why everybody whines about it.
Raditz rolls his eyes. "Well, good for you. But some of us don't get taught about it from the day we're born. It's hard for us if we're not taught how to find x as a bedtime story and what a cosine is for our fairy tales."
"...you mean that's not normal?"
He stares at you. "...no. No it is not. You mean that's what actually happens- no, never mind. Suffice it to say, it's hard for us. So I'm lost on the calculations. Now, it would be great if you could teach us the technique..."
Dandelor jumps in. "Oh come on. It'd never happen. If she spent that much time out here somebody would notice. Dropping off the face of Garenhuld at odd moments for long periods of time? Talk about suspicious."
"Regardless," says Raditz. "Scion, it's doubtful that you teaching us is feasible given the nature of our problem. And whoever we send in as a double -- which could be anybody, really, given the magic involved -- would either have to rely on you to pull them out, or get back manually while your father was chasing them. So you'd need to extract them unless we wanted to lose them. Given that all available candidates are my family, I'm going to say that yes, we'd appreciate you being the extraction." His eyes harden. You gulp and nod.
Dandelor pockets his notes, apparently giving up on getting to work on them for the moment. "So...recap?"
Raditz nods. "Recap."
You cock your head. "Recap-?"
"Plan Cuckoo's Nest!" says Dandelor.
"Plan Kakara," counters Raditz.
"Plan what now?" you say, leaning back.
"Mine is more thematically appropriate," says Dandelor.
"Mine is on-theme," says Raditz.
"Only because you decided how we'd name things last time! I mean, 'Plan Raditz?' Come on!"
"That's a perfectly acceptable name. And why are you whining? You got a 'Plan Dandelor.'"
"For the 'scorched earth' option that I didn't even want to see pass!"
"Oh, quit whining. I'm Head, and I say it's Plan Kakara."
"Ass."
"Crybaby."
You gape. "...grown-ups are weird."
The two blink, looking over at you as if remembering you're there.
"Well, it's more a 'brothers' thing," says Raditz, chuckling. "Anyway. So the plan counts on you getting in contact with Jaffur again. It sounds like the first time was an accident, so this one might be a long shot. But if you manage that, it then depends on Jaffur managing to get a line out to Dandelor. If that doesn't happen, we'll just go to our fallback. But if both of those things happen, then Dandelor teaches Jaffur whatever he needs to know, and then we proceed to the default."
"Namely, a grab-and-replace," says Dandelor. "You get Jaffur alone somehow. Doesn't matter how. You get him alone for a second, and then IT him out while getting our double in. Then you stay on hand to make sure things don't go wrong. We get in touch with Jaffur, and he starts burning everything he can find while I keep his Face safe. Then you get our double out, and we figure out where to go from there."
"Now, what can go wrong with this plan?" asks Raditz.
You scratch your hair. "Well, Jaffur using overcharged magic to contact you sounds loud," you say, looking at Dandelor. "Wouldn't Lady Vegeta notice?"
He nods, frowning. "I think so. It would be best if you could get in touch with him when he was isolated from her somehow. We can't feel magic, after all, except in very close proximity. Magic sense is an evolution of sight more than feeling, unlike ki sense. So if you can get through when he's away from her, we should be able to avoid that, and thereafter he'd be able to use his best judgment on when's a good time."
"That would mean you'd be on-call constantly, though," says Raditz. "It would be exhausting."
"I'll sleep when I'm able. It'll be fine."
"How long would the double stay hidden?" you ask.
"Minutes at most with Dandeer looking at it," says Dandelor. "The goal is not for it to hold up to close scrutiny by Dandeer, though. Ideally, you'd do the switch when you had a lot of time before seeing her in person."
"Ideally, we'll break the Seal before our double even has to stand up to close inspection," says Raditz. "Then you'd extract back to us without any problems at all. So that's the ideal." He leans back against the parapet, crossing his arms. "There's one more problem, though. Our endgame relies on Jaffur being able to burn the Seal down, but that relies on two big 'ifs.' If he can't it's up to you, brother. Can you do it?"
Dandelor grimaces. "Me up against the strongest magics even woven by the greatest Sorcerer of our day? Magics with the complications brought on by the strongest spell any Exile has ever wrought changing them in some unpredictable way?" He grins in anticipation, and it abruptly hits home that while they're not fighters, Sorcerers are still saiyans. "I relish the thought. It would take longer, though. Long enough that we'd probably have to pull the double out before we were done, and a search would start. We should be safe here, but you never know. It's something that could go wrong."
Raditz nods. "I believe in you. And hopefully it won't come to that, anyway. Anything else?"
You and Dandelor shake your heads. "Not right now," you say.
"Alright," says Raditz. "In that case, there's little left to discuss. See if you can contact us whenever you can, Scion, and start working on your end. Dandelor will be preparing on his part in things, and I'll get to work choosing who our double should be and keeping the House ready to move." He glances up at the sky. "You probably don't have much time left, so if you want to visit Betarel, you should go now. We'll start getting ready." He takes a step back and looks at you and his brother. "We have a plan. Two years later, we have a plan. My nephew has been locked away inside his own mind, forced to watch a world he's barred from interacting with, for two years. Enough is enough. We have a way forward now. We can do this. And we will see Jaffur freed."
[NPC Communication check: Passed]
The words stir you and put an ember in your belly. You stand a little straighter, and give Raditz a serious nod. It's not that you don't realize what he's doing; he's motivating you. It's obvious.
Doesn't mean it didn't work.
[Temporary Trait Gained: Spark of Motivation]
You glance down into the courtyard. "I'll make sure to do my best. But...yeah, I need to go soon. Can I talk to Betarel now?"
Raditz nods at you. "Go ahead. I'm sure you can feel him."
You nod and jump off the battlements, drifting towards Betarel's presence.
Behind you, you hear Dandelor ask his brother, "...so, 'find x as a bedtime story?'"
"Don't ask me. I thought I was joking."
You giggle, and zip forward.
You come across Betarel sitting cross-legged at his mother's feet, deep in meditation. She gives you a somewhat suspicious look, and then cocks her head as though listening to something.
Telepathy, you recognize. You...really...need to learn that.
She gives you a look and steps back, nudging Betarel with her toe before heading back inside without a word. Her son blinks, looking around. He stiffens when he sees you and scrambles to his feet.
"Um, hi!" you say, suddenly nervous. Setting the vision aside -- because you really don't know how you feel about that yet -- it's been two years. Things might have changed.
"...hi," he says, rocking back and forth on his heels.
The silence stretches.
You've found a Betarel, and have very little time left to chat with it before Dad starts wondering where you've gone, realistically. What will you do with it? Choose all that apply. You may choose up to two before you're pretty sure that Dad will start looking for you, but hey, you can go over if you like. He probably won't interrogate you too much if you come out quick after he starts looking. Maybe. For this update, please vote by plan.
[ ] Just chat. Pretend nothing is different from the last time you've spoken, and chat with your friend.
-[ ] Anything specific? Each specific topic counts as one action. No specific topics leads to me just generating conversation.
[ ] You feel like tormenting yourself. Blurt out that you had a vision about the two of you flirting as teenagers. Realize that you just revealed that you're a Seer in the worst way possible. Panic.
[ ] Offer to trade techniques (Kamehameha for Galick Gun). Realistically, you both already know how to do them in principle, but the point is socialization and physicality, not education. (TAKES TWO ACTIONS)
[ ] Write-in.
THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED.
Last update in the event chain! After the next one we leave Senzu Hall, I write the end-of-year interlude, and then it's onto Year Three! Enjoy, everybody!
Temporary Trait: Spark of Motivation. Head Raditz's words have encouraged you to push just a little bit harder in your quest to see Jaffur freed. Gain a major bonus, as if for a canon omake, towards your next action in pursuit of the course of action you've laid out with the Senzus.
NO VOTES UNTIL THE UPDATE HAS BEEN UP FOR TWO HOURS
Last edited:
Doomed Wombat
Let's go Darling!
- Location
- Dancing on wires!
Awwww.
Siblings.
Siblings.
[ ] Offer to trade techniques (Kamehameha for Galick Gun). Realistically, you both already know how to do them in principle, but the point is socialization and physicality, not education. (TAKES TWO ACTIONS)
This sounds awfully like Saiyan flirting, as close as it gets next to sparring anyway
This sounds awfully like Saiyan flirting, as close as it gets next to sparring anyway
He did it entirely by instinct, obviously.
In theory driving a car requires quite a lot of physics and math after all...
Lunaryon
Dual Aurora Wave
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I... Now I really want to do this...
But no votes for another hour and im already on the cusp of passing out.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Because Goku is bullshit. (Also, there are two ways; one, you learn it directly from the Yardrats and thereby get a workaround given their own cultural and racial teaching methods, perhaps involving telepathy but definitely involving some means that Goku was not equipped to replicate. This is my fanon for why Goku didn't immediately teach this stupefyingly useful technique to absolutely everybody the instant he came home and the reason why the substantially more pragmatic Exiles have not spread it far and wide.)
Also, I've edited the update with my explanation of what your new temporary trait actually does.
enigma1995
Gentleman Beholder
[X] "Tag!"
Cause... why not?
Cause... why not?
- Location
- Australia
"Scorched earth" was the plan of stopping Jaffur's heart to break him out of the Masque and then bringing him back with a Senzu bean before he died, but they rejected that plan because breaking the Masque requires the soul to leave and if that happens he couldn't be brought back.
Tag is a contest of speed as well as wits and agility. He is completely incapable of outrunning us.
Last edited: